US07996914B2
A semiconductor memory card comprising a control IC 302, a flash memory 303, and a ROM 304. The ROM 304 holds information such as a medium ID 341 unique to the semiconductor memory card. The flash memory 303 includes an authentication memory 332 and a non-authentication memory 331. The authentication memory 332 can be accessed only by external devices which have been affirmatively authenticated. The non-authentication memory 331 can be accessed by external devices whether or not the external devices have been affirmatively authenticated or not. The control IC 302 includes control units 325 and 326, an authentication unit 321 and the like. The control units 325 and 326 control accesses to the authentication memory 332 and the non-authentication memory 331, respectively. The authentication unit 321 executes a mutual authentication with an external device.
US07996907B2
Data recorded in a recording medium is encrypted with an encryption/decryption key, and the encryption/decryption key is encrypted with an encryption-only key. The encrypted encryption/decryption key is embedded in encrypted data. A decryption-only key the encryption/decryption key is embedded in a program for reading. The data and the program for reading are recorded in the recording medium. The data cannot be read without the program for reading. The program for reading cannot be used for recording other data even if it is copied.
US07996906B2
A system and method for automatically altering device functionality based on the occurrence of certain predetermined conditions. A link may be established between a device and a trusted server to provide an association between various conditions that may be detected at the device and actions that are to be taken on the device. In particular, software traps can be set up and linked to device functionality such that execution of the trap may automatically disable or enable certain device capabilities. Some aspects of the invention are directed to a system and method for remotely setting software traps for detecting software viruses and, upon execution of the traps, several methods for establishing a quarantine on infected devices.
US07996905B2
A method and system for the automatic determination of the behavioral profile of a program suspected of having worm-like characteristics includes analyzing data processing system resources required by the program and, if the required resources are not indicative of the program having worm-like characteristics, running the program in a controlled non-network environment while monitoring and logging accesses to system resources to determine the behavior of the program in the non-network environment. A logged record of the observed behavior is analyzed to determine if the behavior is indicative of the program having worm-like characteristics. The non-network environment may simulate the appearance of a network to the program, without emulating the operation of the network.
US07996904B1
The packing manager provides an automated method that allows existing AV scanning technology to be applied to detect known malware samples packed by one or more packers that are potentially proprietary. The packing manager tracks the memory areas to which an executable binary writes and executes, and so can unpack programs packed by multiple arbitrary packers without requiring reverse-engineering of the packers or any human intervention. By tracking page modification and execution of an executable binary at run time, the packing control module can detect the instant at which the program's control is first transferred to a page whose content is dynamically generated, so AV scanning can then be invoked. Thus, code cannot be executed under the packing control manager without being scanned by an AV scanner first.
US07996900B2
Systems and methods for reviewing email messages after delivery to an inbox. An inbox filter maintains a suspect list identifying of the email messages including unwanted content and identifies unread email messages in the inbox of the user. The inbox filter moves each identified unread email message to a suspect folder when the determined source of the identified unread email message is contained in the suspect list of sources.
US07996898B2
A system and method for reducing false positive indications of pestware on a protected computer is disclosed. In one variation, the method includes tracking activities of a user at the protected computer, monitoring events at the protected computer, identifying events that are potentially indicative of pestware, comparing at least one of the events with at least one of the activities of the user and initiating, in response to the comparing indicating the activities of the user are unconnected with the events, a user prompt that informs the user about the events to enable the user to make a decision relative to managing the events.
US07996892B2
A method, apparatus, and computer usable code for managing confidential data. A request is received to access an application from a user, wherein the application includes logic to process the confidential data. One of a first interface or a second interface is selected based on an identification whether the user is permitted to see the confidential data to form a selected interface in response to receiving the request. A selected interface is presented to the user. The first interface presents the confidential information and second interface presents non-confidential information without presenting the confidential information. The second interface allows access to the logic in the application without accessing the confidential data.
US07996887B2
In a first aspect, a first method of improving security of a network system is provided. The first method includes the steps of (1) providing a plurality of devices coupled via a network, wherein one or more of the devices are adapted to execute at least one client and one or more of the devices are adapted to execute at least one server in a client-server relationship; and (2) employing software, functionality of which is based on client-specific criteria or operational condition criteria of the system, to reduce a number of times a user of a client of the system must provide first authentication data to access data from one or more servers of the system. Numerous other aspects are provided.
US07996882B2
Digital asset distribution systems and methods are provided. The method may include receiving a digital asset and associated permissions from each of a plurality of publishers, and hosting the digital assets received from each publisher on a digital asset server system. The method may further include receiving a request from a user to access a requested digital asset via the digital asset server system, determining whether the user is authorized to access the requested digital asset according to the permissions for the digital asset. If the user is not authorized, the method may include displaying a substitute to the user. The substitute may include a link to the digital asset server system by which the user may obtain authorization to download the digital asset.
US07996875B2
An adaptive timeshift service is described. In embodiment(s), television content can be distributed from a live content server to television client devices, and the television content that is distributed from the live content server can be recorded at a timeshift server. Recorded television content can then be distributed from the timeshift server when requested by a television client device. An additional timeshift server can be allocated, and both the television content from the live content server and the recorded television content from the timeshift server can be written to a buffer of the additional timeshift server.
US07996873B1
System for remote management of at least one audiovisual information reproduction device comprising a host server (10) connected to each audiovisual information reproduction device (100.1 to 100.n), the host server (10) comprising a database (11) containing management information for each audiovisual information reproduction device (100.1 to 100.n, FIG. 1), characterized in that the host server (10) also comprises an “Internet” site manager (12) communicating with the database (11), and comprising a number of screens (200 to 1010), at least one first screen (200) comprising a popup menu displaying the list of audiovisual information reproduction systems (100.1 to 100.n), validating the choice of each audiovisual information reproduction device (100.1 to 100.n, FIG. 1) causing the display of a first series of screens (900, 1010) that the operator can use to modify the operating parameters of at least one selected audiovisual information reproduction device (100.1 to 100.n, FIG. 1) and/or a second series of screens (500 to 800) that the operator can use to order at least one song for downloading onto the audiovisual information reproduction systems (100.1 to 100.n, FIG. 1) from a chosen list of devices (100.1 to 100.n, FIG. 1) or to delete at least one song, and/or a third series of screens displaying information about the use of an audiovisual information reproduction device (100.1 to 100.n, FIG. 1).
US07996872B2
Various embodiments for switching programs streams using a variable speed program stream buffer coupled to a variable speed decoder are described. In one or more embodiments, the variable speed program stream buffer may be arranged to receive multiple program streams, such as video program streams, and to buffer historical frames comprising at least one anchor frame. The variable speed program stream buffer may be arranged to always comprise at least one anchor frame and may be implemented by running and/or elastic buffers corresponding to an active channel program stream and one or more alternate channel program streams. Upon detecting a channel switch point, the historical frames comprising the anchor frame up to the channel switch point may be provided to the variable speed decoder in an accelerated manner. The historical frames may be provided to the variable speed decoder in a very short time instant or burst, such as within a time interval of one frame count or less, to enable the variable speed decoder to catch up to the notion of real time. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US07996857B2
The invention makes it possible to carry out an emergency eject motion without attaching and detaching teeth between gears in a transmission system of a driving force of a loading motor, in an optical disc apparatus. At least one of gear units in a gear train constructing a transmission system between a loading motor and a disc moving mechanism is structured such that a driving gear is coupled in an inner diameter side of a large diameter driven gear in such a manner as to be movable in an axial direction and be rotatable integrally with the driven gear, and the driving gear moves and displaces in an axial direction with respect to the driven gear, thereby being canceled the coupling with the driven gear while keeping an engagement with a gear in the next stage, canceling the coupling by an external force by a manual operation so as to set the transmission system to a disconnection state at a time of an emergency eject, making the disc moving mechanism carry out a disc discharge motion by the external force, and discharging an optical disc out of the apparatus.
US07996855B2
A personal messaging application programming interface can be utilized by a developer in order to add groupware functionality to an application. The interface can include various schemas and providers that allow the schemas to connect to a collaboration server which provides the groupware functionality. The schemas can further include item and container classes and can extend other schemas so as to provide functionality that is more specific to the collaboration server. The items and containers can represent various entities on the collaboration server. The providers can use stubs in order to create connections to the collaboration server and can implement the schema hierarchy so as to map the functionality defined by the schema into various core calls on the collaboration server.
US07996841B2
A containment mechanism provides for the grouping and isolation of multiple processes running on a single computer using a single instance of the operating system. A system is divided into one or more side-by-side and/or nested spaces enabling the partitioning and controlled sharing of resources by creating different views of hierarchical name spaces by creating a new branch of an existing global system name space or by linking the sub-root level nodes of a new hierarchy to a subset of nodes in an existing global system name space.
US07996835B2
System, method and program product for managing a plurality of configurations of a first virtual machine. A command is received to set the configuration of the first virtual machine for processing a next incoming interaction and subsequent incoming interactions of at least one protocol from one or more other virtual machines to a configuration exhibited by the first virtual machine which first subsequently prepares to receive the next incoming interaction. The configuration exhibited by the first virtual machine which first prepared to receive the next incoming interaction is determined. The first virtual machine configuration which first prepared to receive the next incoming interaction processes the next incoming interaction.
US07996833B2
Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to efficient methods by which virtual-machine monitors can introduce instructions into guest-operating-system code. In one embodiment of the present invention, the virtual-machine monitor builds instructions dynamically, at insertion time, using specified values for fields within the instruction. In one embodiment of the present invention, the instructions and instruction field values are stored in an instruction-block-representing data structure.
US07996817B1
A method, apparatus and computer program product for providing automatic validation of test results using componentized software object reflection, is presented. An application is run and at least one resultant data structure is generated from the running of the application. The at least one resultant data structure is converted in to at least one componentized software object. Results are obtained from the at least one componentized software object and the results from the at least one componentized software object are verified.
US07996786B2
Computerized methods and systems for dynamically rendering visual representations of data sets are provided. Upon receiving a request for a particular data set (for instance, in response to receiving a search request), a data set is identified and a minimum portion thereof is retrieved that is necessary to render a visual representation of the data set. In this regard, items sharing a common characteristic may be grouped with one another so that only a single visual identifier of a group of data items may be displayed. In this way, a larger portion of the entire data set may be represented in a single view.
US07996785B2
The present invention includes systems for and methods of visually integrating application windows in a virtual machine environment. Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a system for and method of visually integrating application windows of host and guest operating system in a virtual machine environment in order to reduce difficulties that the users of computers experience in navigating between applications in a virtual machine environment. The present invention accomplishes this by using a composite window list in the virtual machine monitor (VMM) to manage the configuration, the focus, the geometry, the Z-order of the windows across guest and host operating systems, and the arrangement of doppelgangers (virtual application windows, in this case) in a way that allows host and guest application windows to appear integrated in a single display window.
US07996783B2
A task framework and a semantic reasoning engine are combined to provide a scalable mechanism for dealing with extremely large numbers of widgets, allowing users to both find a widget and automatically fill-in whatever functionality is available on the widget. Calling applications are employed to obtain task information from each widget. The calling application also receives user queries that can be resolved by a widget. A task reasoning process based on an adaptive semantic reasoning engine utilizes the task information to select a widget best suited to respond to a user's query. The task reasoning process can also be employed to determine “best-guess” slot filling of the selected widget. The calling application can then invoke the selected widget and, if available, fill appropriate slots with information to facilitate user interaction with the selected widget. Instances can be client- and/or server-side based.
US07996768B2
Methods, apparatuses, systems, and media to perform operations on filtered components of documents are disclosed. Embodiments comprise a method of performing an operation on selected components of an electronic document using at least one criterion to filter selected parts from other parts of the electronic document. In some embodiments, the method includes analyzing the electronic document to generate the filtering criteria. One embodiment includes presenting a list of filtering criteria to a user, whereupon the user may choose one or more criteria. Other variations of embodiments generally include apparatuses, systems and media that allow a user to choose specific text fonts, text styles, text entry dates, and text entry authors as filtering criteria, for such operations as spell checking, grammar checking, printing, and copying the document components, or text.
US07996752B2
In a decoder for decoding a low density parity check (LDPC) code suitable for decoding multi-rated LDPC codes, a method is provided. The method comprises the steps of: providing a memory for the decoding with the memory dependent on a parity check matrix H with maximum number of “1”s; using a number of column updating units, updating columns parallely and simultaneously producing messages; and using a number of row updating units, updating rows parallely and simultaneously producing messages. Whereby an improved architecture in a logic and the memory is provided such that an improved throughput, power consumption, and memory area is achieved.
US07996751B2
A digital broadcasting transmission system processes dual transport stream (TS) including multi turbo streams. The digital broadcasting transmission system includes a turbo processor to detect a turbo stream from a dual transport stream (TS) which includes a multiplexed normal stream and a turbo stream, encoding the detected turbo stream and stuffing the encoded turbo stream into the dual TS; and a transmitter to trellis-encode the processed dual TS, and to output the resultant stream, wherein the turbo processor encodes the turbo stream using a plurality of turbo processors. Accordingly, a plurality of turbo streams may be processed in parallel.
US07996748B2
An error correction device is provided. Such error correction device may make use of an error-correction code defined by a parity matrix specialized for the application to multilevel memories. For example, the parity matrix is characterized by having a Maximum Row Weight equal to 22.
US07996728B2
This invention provides a system including a computer and a storage-subsystem comprising at least either a first storage area for storing data sent from the computer or a second storage area to be associated with the first storage area, for storing replicated data of data stored in the first storage area. This system includes a replication processing status referral unit for referring to a replication processing status of data of the first storage area and the second storage area to be associated, and an output unit for outputting first performance information concerning data I/O stored in the first storage area, and outputting second performance information concerning data I/O stored in the second storage area together with the first performance information when the replicated data is being subject to replication processing from the first storage area to the second storage area as a result of referring to the replication processing status.
US07996725B2
A method for monitoring the status of a memory device is disclosed. The method includes, during operation of the memory device, exercising a first portion of the memory device more than at least one other portion of the memory device in order to induce an accelerated rate of aging of the first portion. The first portion is monitored to detect at least a potential for a failure in the first portion. According to the method, in response to monitoring the first portion, at least one corrective action is performed. Apparatus and computer readable media are also disclosed.
US07996712B2
A data transfer controller of the present invention can determine whether or not data has been correctly stored in a cache memory even when the data is not transferred to the cache memory in sequential order. Data inputted from a host is transferred to and stored in a prescribed area of the cache memory. First check data is created and stored for each block. A data consistency determination module reads out the data from the cache memory subsequent to the end of a data write, and creates second check data anew. By comparing the second check data against the first check data, it can be determined whether or not the data has been stored normally in the cache memory. The data consistency determination module can also determine the consistency of the data on the basis of the data address written to the cache memory.
US07996710B2
A method is provided for managing defects in a semiconductor memory system having a plurality of addressable locations. In the method, a first plurality of the addressable locations is allocated as in-use locations, and a second plurality of the addressable locations is allocated as spare locations. A plurality of sets of the in-use locations, wherein each of the sets is associated with a memory defect, is determined. At least one of the sets includes a different number of in-use locations than another of the sets. Each of the sets of the in-use locations is associated with at least one corresponding set of the spare locations. Each of a plurality of data requests that is associated with one of the sets of the in-use locations is directed to the at least one corresponding set of the spare locations.
US07996709B2
A method for data protection includes accepting data for storage from one or more data sources (24). The data is sent for storage in a primary storage device (28) and in a secondary storage device (32). While awaiting an indication of successful storage of the data in the secondary storage device, a record associated with the data is temporarily stored in a disaster-proof storage unit (48) adjacent to the primary storage device. When an event damaging at least some of the data in the primary storage device occurs, the data is reconstructed using the record stored in the disaster-proof storage unit and at least part of the data stored in the secondary storage device.
US07996708B1
Techniques for file system resource restoration are disclosed. In one particular exemplary embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for file system resource restoration comprising modeling source configuration information of one or more file system resources associated with a first storage management system, modeling target configuration information of one or more file system resources associated with a second storage management system, mapping one or more portions of the source configuration information to the target configuration information, generating computer executable restoration instructions based at least in part on the mapping; and executing the computer executable restoration instructions to restore one or more file system resources of the source configuration information to a target computing platform identified by the target configuration information.
US07996698B2
According to one embodiment of the invention, an apparatus comprises an input port, a measuring circuit and a processor. The measuring circuit is adapted to measure a power parameter associated with power supplied over a communication media to the input port. The processor includes a plurality of logic units. Each logic unit is configured to be activated in series to control power usage of the apparatus.
US07996685B2
A system, method, and computer program product for preventing a malicious user from analyzing and modifying software content. The one-way functions used in prior art systems using dynamically evolving audit logs or self-modifying applications are replaced with a one-way function based on group theory. With this modification, untampered key evolution will occur inside a defined mathematical group such that all valid key values form a subgroup. However, if the program is altered, the key will evolve incorrectly and will no longer be a member of the subgroup. Once the key value is outside of the subgroup, it is not possible to return it to the subgroup. The present invention provides a limited total number of valid keys. The key evolution points are not restricted to locations along the deterministic path, so the key can be used in various novel ways to regulate the program's behavior, including in non-deterministic execution paths.
US07996683B2
A system for authentication, encryption and/or signing, as well as corresponding devices and methods, that use temporary but repeatable encryption keys uniquely connected to the user and generated from a unique set of input parameters. The system comprises an input device (105) designed to extract predetermined characteristic values from value input by the user, which value is specific to the user, by means of a given algorithm, which algorithm is designed to remove the natural variation in the characteristic values in order to yield an identical set of characteristic values upon input of the same value, and a device (106) designed to generate at least one user specific encryption key comprising said characteristic values.
US07996681B1
A method for performing electronic signature verification for an entity is provided. The method includes creating a signature card for the entity by analyzing color change frequency of an initial electronic signature image. The method also includes comparing a second electronic signature image for the entity and the signature card to perform electronic signature verification.
US07996678B2
A video watermarking scheme is disclosed, which is designed for the digital cinema format, as it will be used on large projector screens in theaters. The watermark is designed in such a way that it has minimal impact on the video quality, but is still detectable after capture with a handheld camera and conversion to, for instance, VHS, CD-Video or DVD format. The proposed watermarking system only exploits the temporal axis. This makes it invulnerable to geometrical distortions generally caused by such a way of capturing. The watermark is embedded by modulating a global property of the frames (e.g. the mean luminance) in accordance with the samples of the watermark. The embedding depth is preferably locally adapted within each frame to local statistics of the respective image. Watermark detection is performed by correlating the watermark sequence with extracted mean luminance values of a sequence of frames.
US07996677B2
Systems and methods for digitally certified stationery are described. In one aspect, a stationery granting authority (SGA) receives a request from a user to generate a document. If the user is authorized for the requested document, the SGA generates a certificate with credentialing information from data in the request. The SGA generates a first digital signature from some of the credentialing information. The SGA communicates the certificate to the user for editing and distribution as the document. A recipient of the document determines whether the document is “official” by contacting a specified service to provide certain information from the document. The verification service computes a second digital signature from the provided information for comparison to the first digital signature. If there is a match, the service notifies the recipient that the document is valid/official. Otherwise, the recipient is notified that the document is not valid.
US07996674B2
A computer implemented method and data processing system for authenticating a user. A control module receives a user authentication request. The control module retrieves a server's parameters, and uses the server's parameters to form a customized user authentication request. The control module sends the customized user authentication request to the server, and receives an authentication response from the server.
US07996672B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including medium-encoded computer program products, for protecting a document with multiple digital rights management systems are presented. One or more aspects of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in one or more methods of protecting a document with multiple digital rights management systems, the one or more methods including: obtaining a document, wherein the document includes encrypted content and a first header, wherein the encrypted content has been encrypted in accordance with a first digital rights management scheme using a key and an encryption scheme, wherein the first header was generated in accordance with the first digital rights management scheme in association with the encrypted content; producing a second header associated with the encrypted content in accordance with a second digital rights management scheme; and creating a protected document including the first header, the second header, and the encrypted content.
US07996670B1
Provided is an architecture for a cryptography accelerator chip that allows significant performance improvements over previous prior art designs. In various embodiments, the architecture enables parallel processing of packets through a plurality of cryptography engines and includes a classification engine configured to efficiently process encryption/decryption of data packets. Cryptography acceleration chips in accordance may be incorporated on network line cards or service modules and used in applications as diverse as connecting a single computer to a WAN, to large corporate networks, to networks servicing wide geographic areas (e.g., cities). The present invention provides improved performance over the prior art designs, with much reduced local memory requirements, in some cases requiring no additional external memory. In some embodiments, the present invention enables sustained full duplex Gigabit rate security processing of IPSec protocol data packets.
US07996664B2
Aspects of a method and system for improved communication network setup may comprise receiving authentication enablement information from a configurator station comprising indication of a current state of a configurator timing window. In response to input at a client station to communicate authentication response information to the configurator station, receiving at the client station, configuration information and/or status information resulting from input at the client station. Other aspects of the invention may comprise responding to input at a configurator station to transmit authentication enablement information comprising indication of a current state of a configurator timing window, receiving authentication response information from the client station based on the transmitted authentication enablement information, and transmitting to the client station configuration information and/or status information from the configurator station based on the received authentication response information.
US07996662B2
In one embodiment, a processor comprises a plurality of storage locations, a decode circuit, and a status/control register (SCR). Each storage location is addressable as a speculative register and is configured to store result data generated during execution of an instruction operation and a value representing an update for the SCR. The value includes at least a first encoding that represents an update to a plurality of bits in the SCR, and a first number of bits in the plurality of bits is greater than a second number of bits in the first encoding. The decode circuit is coupled to receive the first encoding from a first storage location responsive to retirement of a first instruction operation assigned to use the first storage location as a destination, and is configured to decode the first encoding and generate the plurality of bits. The decode circuit is configured to update the SCR.
US07996652B2
A processor architecture includes a plurality of elements arranged in an array of rows and columns and a plurality of first and second bus pairs with the first pair being located between different adjacent rows of the array and having first and second buses running in opposite directions and the second bus pair being located between different adjacent columns of the array and having third and fourth buses running in opposite directions and intersecting the first and second buses. A plurality of switch matrices located at an intersection of one of the first bus pairs and one of the second bus pairs includes inputs and outputs for first, second, third and fourth buses and switch elements for switchably connecting the inputs and outputs.
US07996646B2
In one embodiment, an apparatus comprises a queue comprising a plurality of entries and a control unit coupled to the queue. The control unit is configured to allocate a first queue entry to a store memory operation, and is configured to write a first even offset, a first even mask, a first odd offset, and a first odd mask corresponding to the store memory operation to the first entry. A group of contiguous memory locations are logically divided into alternately-addressed even and odd byte ranges. A given store memory operation writes at most one even byte range and one adjacent odd byte range. The first even offset identifies a first even byte range that is potentially written by the store memory operation, and the first odd offset identifies a first odd byte range that is potentially written by the store memory operation. The first even mask identifies bytes within the first even byte range that are written by the store memory operation, and wherein the first odd mask identifies bytes within the first odd byte range that are written by the store memory operation.
US07996642B1
A method and system for performing memory optimization. The method includes receiving from a processor a plurality of read/write requests, wherein at least a portion of the read/write requests are assigned respective identifiers for associating related ones of the read/write requests; measuring arrival times of the read/write requests assigned to each of the identifiers; determining a periodicity and a phase of the read/write requests based on the identifiers in order to determine predicted arrival times of future read/write requests assigned to each of the identifiers; creating a real-time schedule of memory requests using the arrival times of the read/write requests and the predicted arrival times of the future read/write requests; using the real-time schedule to determine idle periods where none of the read/write requests will be received; and performing opportunistic functions during the idle periods, including performing at least one of garbage collection and translation cache pre-fetch.
US07996640B2
This storage system modifies the migration plan in accordance with the state of the migration destination when a plurality of volumes are migrated all at once. Migration-source volumes are migrated collectively to volumes inside the migration-destination storage apparatus. The user can make settings related to migration-source volumes and migration-destination volumes in a migration plan, and can establish a mid-process control plan for modifying the migration plan in the middle of processing. If a failure occurs in the migration-destination storage apparatus subsequent to the commencement of data migration processing, a processing method controller either cancels or temporarily halts the data migration processing, or changes the migration destination, on the basis of the mid-process control plan. When changing the migration destination, a previously selected alternate storage apparatus is selected as the new migration-destination storage apparatus. When a failure occurs in the alternate storage apparatus, yet another alternate storage apparatus is selected.
US07996638B2
A system for enforcing a storage allocation usage right(s) for an application may include a controllable storage and a storage manager to control the access of the application to the storage according to an associated storage allocation usage right. A SIM card for enforcing a storage allocation usage right for an application may include an application register to store an access rule of the storage allocation usage right(s) and an APREC module to identify the application and thereby an access rule to enable controlling of the access of the application to storage according to the storage allocation usage right. A high-capacity SIM card for enforcing a storage allocation usage right for an application may include a storage; a storage manager to control the access of an application to the storage according to an associated access rule of the storage allocation usage right; and an APREC module.
US07996635B2
A method for archiving data from a first disk-based storage device to a second disk-based storage device includes moving an emulated tape from a first element to a second element simulatively without actually moving data associated with the emulated tape. The data associated with the emulated tape is transmitted from the first disk-based storage device to the second disk-based storage device via a communication link. The data associated with the emulated tape is removed from the first disk-based storage device.
US07996631B1
A system and method for accessing storage devices attached to a stateless client. In one embodiment, the system may include a server configured to execute an application and a stateless client coupled to the server, whereby a user interacts with the application. The system may further include a storage device locally coupled to the stateless client, where the storage device is accessible by the user via the server. In various specific implementations of the system, the storage device may be a solid-state mass storage device or a mass storage device employing magnetic or optical media. In another specific implementation of the system, the storage device may be locally coupled to the stateless client via an interface such as Universal Serial Bus (USB) or IEEE 1394 (e.g. FireWire).
US07996629B2
Disclosed are a method and apparatus for protecting memory consistency in a multiprocessor computing system, relating to program code conversion such as dynamic binary translation. The exemplary multiprocessor computing system provides memory and multiple processors, and a set of controller/translator units TX1, TX2, TX3 arranged to convert respective application programs into program threads T1, T2, etc., which are executed by the processors. Each controller/translator unit sets a first mode where a single thread T1 executes on a single processor P1, orders a second mode for two or more threads T1, T2 that are forced to execute one at a time on a single processor P2 such as by setting affinity with that processor, and orders a third mode to selectively apply active memory consistency protection in relation to accesses to explicit or implicit shared memory while allowing the multiple threads T1, T2, T3, T4 to execute on the multiple processors.
US07996628B2
A method, computer program product and computer system for allocating shared address translation tables for memory regions of multiple I/O adaptors, which includes allocating an address translation table to be shared between the memory regions, creating a hardware context for each memory region, and sharing the address translation table across multiple adaptors.
US07996617B2
A multithreaded clustered microarchitecture with dynamic back-end assignment is presented. A processing system may include a plurality of instruction caches and front-end units each to process an individual thread from a corresponding one of the instruction caches, a plurality of back-end units, and an interconnect network to couple the front-end and back-end units. A method may include measuring a performance metric of a back-end unit, comparing the measurement to a first value, and reassigning, or not, the back-end unit according to the comparison. Computer systems according to embodiments of the invention may include: a random access memory; a system bus; and a processor having a plurality of instruction caches, a plurality of front-end units each to process an individual thread from a corresponding one of the instruction caches; a plurality of back-end units; and an interconnect network coupled to the plurality of front-end units and the plurality of back-end units.
US07996612B2
Computer system for reducing power consumption of storage system and method for controlling the same
To optimize performance and power consumption of a storage system having many disk drives, the storage system contains a plurality of volumes. A first number of the volumes belong to a first volume set. The first number of the remaining volumes belong to a second volume set. The volumes that belong to the first volume set are allocated dispersedly to a second number of disk drives. The volumes that belong to the second volume set are allocated dispersedly to a third number of disk drives, the third number being larger than the second number. A computer selects one of the first volume set and the second volume set based on a predetermined condition to store data dispersedly in the volumes belonging to the selected volume set. The computer stops spinning of disks in the disk drives to which none of the volumes belonging to the selected volume set are allocated.
US07996611B2
Provided are a backup data management system and a backup data management method capable of facilitating the management of backup data that is multiplexed between different storage apparatuses. The backup data management system includes a storage apparatus having a volume to be used by a host computer, at least one storage apparatus having volumes, and a management computer. The management computer creates a copy pair so that a snapshot of the volume included in a backup group is stored in all the volumes included in the backup group, and sets all copy pairs included in the designated backup group to a PAIR status when there is a creation request of the snapshot of the volume.
US07996607B1
The present invention provides a mechanism for storing and accessing attributes of a data container (e.g., characteristics such as a name of a data container used to perform a lookup operation against the data container) in cache memory within storage systems in a cluster of storage systems. Further, a mechanism is provided so that an attribute of a data container is inserted into a cache memory of preferably one storage system (in the cluster) that caches metadata of the data container (e.g., information describing the data container). As a result, a lookup operation for a data container is directed to and served by the storage system that caches the metadata and the attribute of the data container.
US07996604B1
A shared memory switch is provided for storing and retrieving data from BlockRAM (BRAM) memory of a PLD. A set of class queues maintain a group of pointers that show the location of the incoming “cells” or “packets” stored in the memory in the switch based on the time of storage in the BRAM. A non-blocking memory architecture is implemented that allows for a scalable N×N memory structure to be created (N=number of input and output ports). A write controller stripes the data across this N×N memory to prevent data collisions on read in or read out of data. The data is scheduled for read out of this N×N shared memory buffer based on priorities or classes in the class queues, with priorities being set by a user, and then data is read out from the BRAM.
US07996602B1
A translator of an apparatus in an example selects one or more ranks of parallel memory devices from a plurality of available ranks of parallel memory devices in a plurality of double data rate registered and/or unbuffered dual in-line memory modules (DDR registered and/or unbuffered DIMMs) through employment of a native fully buffered dual in-line memory module protocol (native FB-DIMM protocol).
US07996599B2
Systems and processes may include a memory coupled to a memory controller. Command signals for performing memory access operations may be received. Attributes of the command signals, such as type, time lapsed since receipt, and relatedness to other command signals, may be determined. Command signals may be sequenced in a sequence of execution based on the attributes. Command signals may be executed in the sequence of execution.
US07996577B2
A method and system for configuring a network device is provided. In one implementation the method and system may include directing, via a multiplexer, a group of signals defined by a serial communication format from a primary serial configuration interface to a communication port in a CPU. A universal-serial-bus-to-serial (USB) signal may be detected at a USB interface and converted by a USB-to-serial converter circuit to the serial communication format and directed, via the same multiplexer, to the universal-asynchronous-receiver-transmitter instead of the serial signals from the primary serial configuration interface. A detection signal may be communicated from the USB-to-serial converter circuit to the multiplexer. Alternatively, the detection signal may be directed to the CPU, which may then communicate a selection signal to the multiplexer.
US07996552B2
A software distribution architecture having a television broadcast system as its infrastructure. Software from a software repository (1600) is mixed into a television broadcast system and transmitted into one or more selected channels at prescribed dates and times. An at-home subscriber, capable of receiving with a receiver (1608) the one or more select channels, switches to the one or more channels carrying the software distribution with a channel selector (1611). The subscriber, having programmed a controller (1616) with a programmer (1620) for the date, time, software ID, and channel of the software broadcast, then downloads the software package to a storage device (1622) for ultimate transfer to a PC (1624). A validation and accounting system (1628) then records the software download transaction and transmits this information over a PSTN (1632) to a provider accounting system (1630) such that the subscriber is billed for the software package which was downloaded.
US07996550B2
An embodiment relates generally to a method for playing for a file. The method includes initiating a playback for a selected file on a reserved server, where the selected file is also distributed in segments across a peer-to-peer network. The method also includes initiating a retrieval of the selected file from the peer-to-peer network or reserved server and ordering the retrieved segments of the selected file for playback. The method further includes switching playback of the selected file between the peer-to-peer network and reserved server according to the real-time performance and availability of the peer-to-peer network and reserved server.
US07996545B2
The present invention is a computer system for delivering digital information over a network. A request receiving process receives a request for transmitting digital information after a start time and before an end time. The digital information has a number of packets. A transmit time process determines the time required to transmit the digital information based on the number of packets and a network speed. A scheduler schedules a transmit time for the digital information and an acceptance process accepts the digital information for transmission only if the time required to transmit is less than or equal to the difference between the transmit time and the end time.
US07996542B2
Systems and media for sharing session data on a network are disclosed. More particularly, hardware and/or software for sharing user session data between different servers on a network are disclosed. Embodiments include a data processing system for sharing session data on a network, where the network includes an application server and an enterprise server, each providing at least part of an application to a user on the network. In some embodiments, the application server includes a session transport component for recording changes to user session data with the application server and the enterprise server includes a session transport component for requesting updated user session data from the application server. In further embodiments, the enterprise server may establish a user session based on the updated user session data received from the application server.
US07996540B2
A method and a system for replacing media stream in a communication process of a terminal are disclosed. The method includes: a terminal issuing a request for replacing media stream to a communication server in a communication process; the communication server obtaining a corresponding replacing media source from a multimedia server according to a replacing media source identification carried in the request for replacing media stream, and replacing media stream sent by the terminal with the replacing media source. The system includes a multimedia server and a communication server. According to the embodiments of the present invention, a terminal participating in a communication process may replace its own voice and/or pictures with stored audio and/or video and/or data, so as to provide a new value-added service and bring new service revenue for operators.
US07996524B2
An embedded device communicates with another device via an external proxy server acting for the embedded device to control communication. The embedded device includes a communication device capable of communicating with the proxy server, a storage unit storing a state of communication with the other device, an updating unit, a response unit responding to the task with a result of the updating of the communication state that has been performed in accordance with the control request, and a control instruction unit transmitting, to the proxy server by means of the communication device, an instruction for changing a state of communication with the other device in the proxy server to the communication state stored in the storage.
US07996520B2
A method includes measuring behavioral characteristics of a plurality of communication sessions in a communication network. A subset of the sessions is identified using the behavioral characteristics, such that the sessions in the subset are suspected of using a target communication protocol. A candidate session is selected from the subset. A trial communication session is initiated with a node of the communication network, which participates in the candidate session, using the target communication protocol. Responsively to receiving a positive response from the node to initiation of the trial communication session, it is determined that one or more further sessions in the plurality are using the target communication protocol. The one or more further sessions are controlled responsively to a predetermined control criterion that is applicable to the target communication protocol.
US07996514B2
A method and system are provided for facilitating interaction between a device and a device environment. The system may include a detection module for automatically detecting proximity of a participant within the device environment. The system may additionally include a user-configurable authorization module for authorizing the device to adjust a device user interface in a pre-determined manner in response to the detection of the participant. The system may also provide for sharing resources among multiple participating devices, wherein each of the multiple participating devices has a device specific set of application resources. The system may additionally include a configurable resource regulation mechanism for making the device specific application resources from the second participating device available to the first participating device.
US07996513B2
Provided are methods, apparatus and computer programs for monitoring operational data relating to a sequence of data processing operations in a network of data processing units. In response to specified boundaries for data gathering, operational data is selectively gathered into discrete data partitions for a desired time period, a desired set of processing nodes, and/or a desired set of process executions. A set of event listeners invoke operations of a data gatherer in response to events within a processing sequence and the data gatherer allocates operational data to different ones of a set of discrete logical data containers in response to notifications from the event listeners. The data collection is responsive to system events such as a collection interval expiry to end data collection for a first partition and start data collection for a second partition.
US07996512B2
Systems and processes of the present invention allow for digital identity registration. In an example embodiment, a Registrant may access a website to enter a requested digital identity and registration information. The requested digital identity may comprise a piece of client software, a digital certificate, or a URL comprising any combination of characters—perhaps including a domain name that may be owned by the Registrant. A Digital Identity Database may then be searched to determine the availability of the requested digital identity. If the requested digital identity includes a domain name, WHOIS records may be searched to determine whether the Registrant owns and/or controls the domain name. The Registrant's registration information also may be validated. The requested digital identity may then be registered to the Registrant, possibly by adding the requested digital identity to the Digital Identity Database and/or adding the registration information to a Records database.
US07996507B2
Disclosed is a robust intelligent system control agent configured to receive user job requests, submit the user job requests to selected qualified clients for servicing, and monitor the progress of the requests. The system is also configured with the capability of relocating a system control agent from one location within a network to another location within the network and for relocating a job request from one client to another. This ability to relocate agents and jobs provides robustness and reliability to the system, allowing the agent to move to a different machine when, for example, its current host system requires maintenance or other downtime. In order to facilitate the relocation of a job request, the state of the request is temporarily stored by the agent or by other means while the job request is relocated to another client.
US07996494B2
A producer can make available pages and books containing multiple applications. As used herein, the term “book” refers to a group of pages bound together by a navigational menu. The producer presents the pages and books to the consumer in a service description message. An administrator of the consumer can select the pages and books, thus generating proxy versions on the consumer. The proxy versions can then be presented on the consumer.
US07996493B2
A multi-phase synchronization framework allows developers to develop smart client applications that can operate efficiently in offline and online modes. For example, a client application receives user input, and generates an object that includes the user input data, as well as some associated logic for one or more phases in the synchronization framework. The object can then be passed to the synchronization framework, which communicates a service request based on the object to a target application service only when the target application service is effectively online, generally as defined by the associated logic. Whether the target application service is effectively online can also be based on default settings. The synchronization framework handles state for the object, and communicates failure and/or success to the client application. As such, the functionality for treating failed or successful communication is handled generally by the synchronization framework, rather than necessarily the client application.
US07996490B2
A method and system for managing documents, where the system includes a document manager server connected to image processing devices and to applications via a network. The document manager server receives identification information from the image processing devices and transmits information relating to network applications to the image processing devices. This information is then used to change the functionality of the image processing device.
US07996486B2
A digital rights management (DRM) “bureau” server can be used in many different ways. In one example, a system distributes the storage of rights and/or the rights management decision making process between a DRM client and a DRM server, in order to overcome the shortcomings inherent in exclusively client-side or exclusively server-side DRM systems. In another example, a system manages rights to content on behalf of plural publishers.
US07996463B2
A client for a text-based messaging application for a dual-mode mobile communication device may initiate an audio conference based on a text-based message. Contents of fields of the text-based message may be extracted and utilized to construct an audio conference request message that is subsequently transmitted to an audio conference gateway. Where the text-based messaging application is an instant messaging (IM) client application, it may be configured to recognize a voice connection as being related to an ongoing Data Mode IM conversation. As a consequence of the recognition, the IM client application may maintain the user interface for facilitating participation in the Voice Mode IM conversation. Updates related to the status of the Voice Mode IM conversation may be received at the dual-mode mobile communication device over the voice connection and reflected in changes to the user interface.
US07996453B1
FFT butterfly data sets may be stored in memory in a predetermined order. Such an order may allow a butterfly data set to be read from a single memory address location. The memory addressed may be computed by an address rotary function depending on the butterfly and stage of the FFT. Addressing the memory in such a manner may allow each butterfly data set of a subsequent FFT stage to be stored to a single memory location. Shuffle registers may delay the writing of FFT butterfly results to the memory until most of the data corresponding to a particular butterfly operation has been computed. The shuffle registers may rearrange and combine the results of one or more butterfly operations in a different manner from which they have been computed. Combining the results in this manner may allow a subsequent FFT stage to access data by addressing a single memory location.
US07996451B2
System, method, and multi-level object data structure thereof for browsing a multi-media data, the method for browsing a multimedia data using a multilevel object data structure including the steps of (1) receiving multimedia information and multiple supplementary information on each object in the multimedia information on the same time, (2) separating the multimedia information and the multiple supplementary information, (3) displaying the multimedia information, and (4) browsing/searching supplementary information related to a particular object from the multiple supplementary information, and displaying the supplementary information when a user requests for browsing/searching the supplementary information related to the particular object.
US07996447B2
An automated system for determining an optimal file system on which to store data files is provided. The system includes a data storage device having multiple virtual partitions operable to receive, store, and retrieve a data file. The system additionally includes a plurality of file systems associated with the virtual partitions. One or more of the different file systems have different data storage performance characteristics. A sub-system tracks file characteristics and user requirements for the data file and uses the file characteristics and the user requirements to automatically determine an optimal file system for the data file. The systems and methods provided may be implemented with an information handling system.
US07996427B1
A method and system for accessing media metadata from metadata stored in different native formats is disclosed. A repository contains a plurality of containers for storing media metadata, wherein a first container in the repository stores metadata in the first native format, and a second container in the repository stores metadata in the second native format. A set of routines is used to access all media metadata stored in the repository without regard to the native format in which the media metadata is stored. Each routine in the set of routines identifies a metadata item stored in a container through information passed in a set of parameters. The set of parameters comprises a reference to the repository, an identifier of a container in the repository, an identifier of a structure for a key for the identified native format, and a key.
US07996425B1
A method, computer program, and database system are disclosed for storing element-based descriptions of documents in a database. The database system includes one or more nodes. Each of the one or more nodes provides access to one or more of a plurality of CPUs. Each of the one or more CPUs provides access to one or more of a plurality of virtual processes. Each virtual process is configured to manage data stored in one of a plurality of data-storage facilities. The data stored in the plurality of data-storage facilities includes data representing a database table. A row of the table corresponds to an element of the element-based document description and includes: data describing the element, an order identifier corresponding to the element, and a range identifier corresponding to the element.
US07996424B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to systems and methods for optimizing and reducing the memory requirements of state machine algorithms in pattern matching applications. Memory requirements of an Aho-Corasick algorithm are reduced in an intrusion detection system by representing the state table as three separate data structures. Memory requirements of an Aho-Corasick algorithm are also reduced by applying a banded-row sparse matrix technique to the state transition table of the state table. The pattern matching performance of the intrusion detection system is improved by performing a case insensitive search, where the characters of the test sequence are converted to uppercase as the characters are read. Testing reveals that state transition tables with sixteen bit elements outperform state transition tables with thirty-two bit elements and do not reduce the functionality of intrusion detection system using the Aho-Corasick algorithm.
US07996423B2
In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a method of data drilling is presented. A network database is deployed in a network, such as the Internet, for broad-based user access. Network information is stored in the network database and is organized in layers. A graphical user interface with data objects is presented to an end user. Selecting a data object generates a query performed by a server. Each query produces more details on an initially selected data object.
US07996419B2
A system determines whether a received search query includes an entity name, determines whether to rewrite the received search query based on information relating to prior searches involving the entity name, and rewrites the received search query when it is determined that the received search query should be rewritten. The system further determines whether to provide a suggestion of rewriting the received search query, as a rewriting suggestion, based on information relating to prior searches involving the entity name when it is determined that the received search query should not be rewritten. The system also generates the rewriting suggestion when it is determined that the rewriting suggestion should be provided. The system performs a search based on one of the received search query and the rewritten search query to obtain search results, presents the search results, and presents the rewriting suggestion when it is determined that the rewriting suggestion should be provided.
US07996418B2
Technologies are described herein for suggesting long-tail tags. A first group of tags and a second group of tags are identified from a plurality of tags. The first group of tags includes frequently-assigned tags having a higher frequency of being assigned to an asset. The second group of tags includes long-tail tags having a lower frequency of being assigned to the asset than the frequently-assigned tags. The frequently-assigned tags and a sample of the long-tail tags are suggested to a user upon receiving a request from the user to tag the asset.
US07996414B2
A method for performing software operations on virtual machine images, includes: receiving a virtual machine image that includes data; reclassifying the data into a plurality of parts; and performing a software operation on one of the parts, wherein the software operation is performed without running a virtual machine.
US07996410B2
Techniques for determining when and how to transform words in a query to its plural or non-plural form in order to provide the most relevant search results while minimizing computational overhead are provided. A dictionary is generated based upon the words used in a specified number of previous most frequent search queries and comprises lists of transformations from plural to singular and singular to plural. Unnecessary transformations are removed from the dictionary based upon language modeling. The word to transform is determined by finding the last non-stop re-writable word of the query. The context of the transformed word is confirmed in the search documents and a version of the query is executed using both the original form of the word and the transformation of the word.
US07996404B2
In its broad aspect, the invention provides a method for analyzing relationships among patterns within a data set having a set of samples and associated attribute values defining each attribute of each said sample. The method comprises receiving at an input at least two patterns; defining a data cluster within the data set for each of said at least two patterns, each defined data cluster having samples with attribute values associated with a corresponding pattern of said at least two patterns; grouping at least some of the samples of each defined data cluster with one another to generate a resultant data cluster; and calculating a variation between the attribute values of a first set of samples and the attribute values of a second set of samples within said resultant data cluster, the attribute values of the first set of samples and the second set of samples corresponding to the same attribute.
US07996402B1
A system performs cross-language query translations. The system receives a search query that includes terms in a first language and determines possible translations of the terms of the search query into a second language. The system also locates documents for use as parallel corpora to aid in the translation by: (1) locating documents in the first language that contain references that match the terms of the search query and identify documents in the second language; (2) locating documents in the first language that contain references that match the terms of the query and refer to other documents in the first language and identify documents in the second language that contain references to the other documents; or (3) locating documents in the first language that match the terms of the query and identify documents in the second language that contain references to the documents in the first language. The system may use the second language documents as parallel corpora to disambiguate among the possible translations of the terms of the search query and identify one of the possible translations as a likely translation of the search query into the second language.
US07996399B2
Systems and methods for presenting search results based on relevancy in an interactive media guidance application are disclosed. After performing a user-initiated or automatic search for media content, the interactive media guidance application determines which of the hits are most relevant to the user. The guidance application then displays, or visually identifies, the relevant items. Some embodiments employ using different display arrangements based on the number of relevant items. Some embodiments display the relevant items in recommendation lists or hot lists.
US07996398B2
A system is disclosed that identifies related search terms by performing a term co-occurrence analysis of search query submissions of users. The system may give different amounts of weight to different search query submissions based, for example, on whether subsequent user actions reveal that particular searches were successful. The system may use the identified related search terms to correct spelling errors in search queries received from users.
US07996392B2
Search term ranking algorithms can be generated and updated based on customer settings, such as where a ranking algorithm is modeled as a combination function of different ranking factors. An end user of a search system provides personalized preferences for weighted attributes, generally or for a single instance of the query. The user also can indicate the relative importance of one or more ranking factors by specifying different weights to the factors. Ranking factors can specify document attributes, such as document title, document body, document page rank, etc. Based on the attribute weights and the received user query, a ranking algorithm function will produce the relevant value for each document corresponding to the user preferences and personalization configurations.
US07996388B2
A new continuous query to a data stream management system (DSMS) may use a stream or a relation which may or may not be used by continuous queries previously registered in the DSMS. The DSMS is programmed to modify an execution plan to accommodate execution of the new query while continuing to execute the previously registered continuous queries. The modified execution plan may include new operators and/or share existing operators. The DSMS is programmed to cause operators which output a relation to propagate a current state of the relation to each newly-coupled operator that uses the relation. The current state is propagated only to operators that have been newly coupled and have thus not yet received any state information previously. After propagation of current state to newly-coupled operators, results of processing any new data for the relation are supplied to all operators coupled thereto, including newly-coupled operators and existing operators.
US07996387B2
In one embodiment, a database server registers one or more functions included in a user-defined index that includes one or more auxiliary properties. The one or more functions are operable to generate index entries of the user-defined index for the one or more auxiliary properties. The one or more auxiliary properties are different than, and in addition to, a primary property of the user-defined index that provides for evaluating a query operator. The database server receives a first statement that defines the user-defined index, where the first statement includes one or more parameters that define the one or more auxiliary properties. The database server invokes the one or more functions in response to the first statement, where the one or more functions when invoked generate and store the index entries of the user-defined index according to the one or more parameters that define the one or more auxiliary properties.
US07996354B2
A method for evaluating a behavior of an entity, the method includes: converting a state machine representation of a behavior of an entity to a complex event processing (CEP) representation of the behavior of the entity; wherein the converting comprises defining a transition between multiple states of the state machine representation as a situation; and evaluating the behavior of the entity in response to the CEP representation.
US07996350B2
An intelligent distributed computing fabric system may comprise a cognitive element, a computing element, a security element, and a network element. The cognitive element may receive inputs from the computing element, the security element, and the network element, and may further receive external information from a sensor interface. The cognitive element may process the inputs from the computing element, the security element, and the network element, and may additionally process the external information from the sensor interface. The cognitive element may make decisions based on the inputs from the computing element, the security element, and the network element, and based on the external information from the sensor interface, to adapt for dynamically varying situations in a fabric infrastructure. The cognitive element may outputs instructions for actions, based on the dynamic decisions, to the computing element, the security element, and the network element in order to virtually interconnect the computing element, the security element, and the network element. The computing element may transmit inputs to the cognitive element. The computing element may receive the dynamic output instructions from the cognitive element. The computing element may follow the dynamic output instructions as commands from the cognitive element. The security element may receive inputs from the computing element and the network element. The security element may transmit current security policy inputs to the cognitive element. The network element may transmit inputs to the security element and to the cognitive element.
US07996349B2
This disclosure describes systems and methods for identifying and correcting anomalies in web graphs. A web graph is transformed into a sequence of tokens via a walk algorithm. The sequence is fingerprinted to form a set of shingles. The singles are compared to shingles for other web graphs in order to determine similarity between web graphs. Actions are then carried out to remove anomalous web graphs and modify parameters governing web mapping in order to decrease the likelihood of future anomalous web graphs being built.
US07996344B1
Systems and methods of obtaining a set of better converged and diversified Pareto optimal solutions in an engineering design optimization of a product (e.g., automobile, cellular phone, etc.) are disclosed. According to one aspect, a plurality of MOEA based engineering optimizations of a product is conducted independently. Each of the independently conducted optimizations differs from others with parameters such as initial generation and/or evolutionary algorithm. For example, populations (design alternatives) of initial generation can be created randomly from different seed of a random or pseudo-random number generator. In another, each optimization employs a particular revolutionary algorithm including, but not limited to, Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II), strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm (SPEA), etc. Furthermore, each independently conducted optimization's Pareto optimal solutions are combined to create a set of better converged and diversified solutions. Combinations can be performed at one or more predefined checkpoints during evolution process of the optimization.
US07996335B2
Usage rights information indicating a license which is usage rights corresponding to contents is stored in a license storage device, and at the time of using the contents, the rights information is output from the license storage device to a contents using device and further transmitted to a contents distribution server, and legitimacy verification of the rights information is executed at the contents distribution server, such that contents corresponding to the rights information are transmitted to the contents using device. Thus, a device and method is realized whereby distribution of contents over a network and use thereof is enabled without detracting from safety and user convenience.
US07996332B1
The present invention provides at least a method and system for forecasting usage costs and computer capacity. With respect to the present invention, performance data and information related to transactions collected from computing devices are used to calculate correlations. A cost-allocation factor is calculated to determine the computer's usage costs without a long manual analysis of large volumes of data and extensive testing. Performance data and transaction data are used to forecast computer capacity.
US07996326B2
Disclosed herein is a financial card system. The system includes a communications device on which a non-contact integrated circuit chip is installed; and an authentication terminal having a reader/writer allowing reading/writing information on the communications device and capable of transmission and reception of information with the communications device through the reader/writer. The communications device has a storage block, a common area information transmission block, and an individual area information transmission block. The reader/writer of the authentication terminal has a storage block, a common area information reception block, and an individual area information reception block.
US07996317B1
Embodiments of the invention describe an electronic method for processing stranded payments and lockbox payments at the same designated payment location. The method includes receiving a stranded payment at a non-designated payment location, and electronically scanning the stranded payment at the non-designated payment location. The scanned information is transmitted, in a secure manner, to a designated payment location remote from the non-designated payment location. The stranded payment and a lockbox payment are cleared, in the same electronic workflow, the transmitted information is used in the clearing process. Embodiments of the invention also include updating, for each stranded and lockbox payment, the accounts receivable system of the customer receiving the stranded or lockbox payment, and transmitting a response indicating the final status of the clearing of the stranded payment to the non-designated payment location.
US07996311B2
Systems and methods of remittance processing where a merchant database is provided that includes one or more alteration rules that are associated with a particular payee. A consumer account number associated with a payor is received and altered into a modified consumer account number, where the alteration is performed in accordance with one or more of the stored alteration rules. The modified consumer account number may then be transmitted to the particular payee to be utilized, for example, when processing a payment.
US07996308B1
A method and system for minimizing fund transfers to and/or from a plurality of government-backed, interest-bearing aggregated deposit accounts.
US07996296B2
Methods and systems for conducting demand-based trading are described. In one embodiment, states are established, each state corresponding to at least one possible outcome of an event of economic significance. An investment amount may be determined as a function of a selected outcome, a desired payout, and a total amount invested in the states. In another embodiment, an investment amount may be determined as a function of parameters of a financial product. In another embodiment, a payout may be determined as a function of an investment amount, a selected outcome, a total amount invested in the states, and an identification of a state corresponding to an observed outcome of the event.
US07996291B2
A data processing method administers an annuity product for an annuitant. The annuity product has a guaranteed minimum interest rate. Administration is such that the annuity product provides periodic interest rate adjustments. The adjustments are a function of changes in the prevailing market interest rates, based on reliable economic metrics such as the Consumer Price Index and short and long term Treasury rates.
US07996290B2
Systems and methods are provided to model financial transactions. According to some embodiments, simple events, branch events, composite events, and/or contingent events associated with a financial transaction are defined. The events may then be used to automatically manage the transaction during the transaction's lifecycle. In one embodiment, at least one simple event associated with an asset transfer is defined, including a transfer amount and a transfer date. At least one branch event associated with a set of simple events is also defined, including a branch date and a branch selector. In addition, at least one composite event associated with a plurality of the simple events or branch events is defined. The transaction may then be automatically managed during the transaction's lifecycle based at least in part on the simple events, the branch events, and the composite events.
US07996285B2
Methods of allowing a customer to access information related to an order of a commodity include gathering inspection information from a commodity lot, collecting grower, field, and packing information associated with the commodity lot, recording purchase orders associated with the commodity lot, assigning a trace code to each of the purchase orders, entering the inspection information; the grower, field, and packing information; the purchase orders; and the trace codes into a central database. Once entered into the central database, the content of a web-based application may be updated with the inspection information, the grower, field, and packing information, the purchase orders, and the trace codes within the central database, thereby allowing the customer to access the inspection information, and the grower, field, and packing information, by entering one of the trace codes into the web-based application.
US07996283B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide a mechanism for efficiently performing inventory management, including storage places, of expendable supplies to be used in devices. Storage place information in which held storage places and classifications of expendable supplies are associated with each other is updated based upon an association of a designated storage place and a specified classification of expendable supplies.
US07996281B2
A location-based service includes detecting the relative motion of an on-site resource, detecting the absolute position of the on-site resource, and tracking the position of the on-site resource. The position is tracked by deriving a deduced position based on the detected relative motion and adjusting the deduced position as a function of and in response to the detected absolute position. According to one embodiment, the on-site resource can be a shopping cart and the tracking includes recording a travel pattern of the shopping cart as it moves through a site floor plan such that the travel pattern is reproducible. Preferably, the recorded travel pattern includes travel patterns within an aisle in the site floor plan such that the recorded patterns include travel along the length of the aisle and travel having components which are perpendicular to the length of the aisle.
US07996272B2
A system for designing and ordering a stent graft is described. The system includes a user interface for designing and ordering the stent graft, and a centralised data processor remote from and in communication with the user interface for processing and storing entered information. The user interface further includes a selection portion for selecting a stent graft design and a design portion for entering a plurality of design parameters related to the stent graft design. A verification portion is also provided to verify details of a completed stent graft design with an ordering portion to order the completed stent graft design. In one embodiment the verification portion includes the capability to display a 3-dimensional view of the completed stent graft design.
US07996270B2
A system receives item data corresponding to an item list from a user. The item list may include one or more items. The system communicates the item list to a community group associated with the user and the system then receives member data from one or more members of the community group, wherein the member data is associated with the one or more items on the item list.
US07996269B2
Use of wireless technology to enable Point of Sale (POS) vending for Multi-Function Devices (MFDs) is disclosed. A user can enable the MFD through the Internet by calling or accessing a centralized server. The user can access a previously existing account or establish a new account. Also, one time use of the MFD can be enabled by entering credit or debit card information. Previously existing accounts can be recognized by the caller's phone number or other mechanism. Individual MFDs can be recognized by Global Positioning System (GPS), an access number, or by entering the MFD identification number. The server can transfer billing information, MFD or account restrictions, and available balance to the user. The MFD prevents users from overdrawing their account or from running prohibited jobs. Charges incurred are transmitted back to the server for account maintenance.
US07996249B2
Information technology (IT) spending by a subject entity is assessed against an industry-wide optimal value of an IT benchmark and a result of that assessment displayed. Importantly, the IT benchmark developed by the present inventor accounts for the subject entity's IT spending as a percentage of the entity's revenue and the entity's IT spending as a percentage of the entity's operating expenses. For the industry as a whole, the optimal value of the IT benchmark is determined on the basis of profitability measures for individual companies within the industry. This process may be performed as part of a larger analysis concerning the subject entity's operations to provide an overall assessment of the entity's financial performance, health, etc.
US07996248B2
A system and method for planning trips and for processing trip requests that utilizes a centralized network for facilitating travel reservations and/or services. The system includes multi-purpose point of service terminals that provide a plurality of modules for various travel related applications such as an integrated e-mail booking module, a computer telephony integration module, a super passenger name record database, a customer database, a trip planning module, a customer relationship management module, a workflow module, and a low fare search module.
US07996246B2
Methods, systems, and devices are described for determining resource allocation in a resident care facility, like a nursing home facility. Embodiments of the invention provide assessment questions to an assessor via a computer interface. The assessment questions may be based on a base assessment model having questions relating to a number of resident care areas. Responses to the assessment questions may be received, some relating to answers provided to the assessor by respondents (e.g., residents or staff of the resident care facility). The responses may be processed to generate an assessment dataset, which may then be used to generate quality scores for the various resident care areas. The quality scores may indicate likelihoods of citation in the resident care areas as a function of data derived from the base assessment model. The quality scores and/or assessment results may then be graphically displayed and used to formulate a resource allocation determination.
US07996244B1
Various embodiments of a method and apparatus for a portable medical alert mechanism stores health information on a portable electronic device and provides the health information to a health professional. In some embodiments, the health information may include information about a health condition, a health history, current medications, current medication dosages, allergies, or instructions. The health information may be on the portable electronic device and/or downloaded from a web-based application. In some embodiments, the health information may be selected and transferred to the portable electronic device by the system user from an external computer system. The health information stored on the portable electronic device may be periodically updated. The system user (or the portable electronic device) may have an indication of the presence of the health information on the portable electronic device (e.g., on a bracelet).
US07996236B2
A communication system with a plurality of access points (AP1, AP2, AP3) and at least one network station (5, 6), the network station (5, 6) being arranged to communicate with one of said the plurality of access points (AP1, AP2, AP3) through a wireless communication protocol, each access point (AP1, AP2, AP3) is able to monitor its access point traffic load and transmit an access point traffic load parameter (ATT) to the network station (5, 6), and the network station (5, 6) is able to monitor its network station traffic load; store a network station traffic load parameter (AUTT); receive access point traffic load parameters (ATT) from the access points (AP1, AP2, AP3); and select a communication connection with one of the access points (AP1, AP2, AP3) using a predetermined cost function taking the access point traffic load parameters (ATT) and the network station traffic load parameters (AUTT) into account.
US07996225B2
The present invention provides a method and apparatus that utilize a context-free grammar written in a markup language format. The markup language format provides a hierarchical format in which grammar structures are delimited within and defined by a set of tags. The markup language format also provides grammar switch tags that indicate a transitions from the context-free grammar to a dictation grammar or a text buffer grammar. In addition, the markup language format provides for the designation of code to be executed when particular grammar structures are recognized from a speech signal.
US07996218B2
A user adaptive speech recognition method and apparatus is disclosed that controls user confirmation of a recognition candidate using a new threshold value adapted to a user. The user adaptive speech recognition method includes calculating a confidence score of a recognition candidate according to the result of speech recognition, setting a new threshold value adapted to the user based on a result of user confirmation of the recognition candidate and the confidence score of the recognition candidate, and outputting a corresponding recognition candidate as a result of the speech recognition if the calculated confidence score is higher than the new threshold value. Thus, the need for user confirmation of the result of speech recognition is reduced and the probability of speech recognition success is increased.
US07996193B2
A method for reducing the order of system models exploiting sparsity is disclosed. According to one embodiment, a computer-implemented method receives a system model having a first system order. The system model contains a plurality of system nodes, a plurality of system matrices. The system nodes are reordered and a reduced order system is constructed by a matrix decomposition (e.g., Cholesky or LU decomposition) on an expansion frequency without calculating a projection matrix. The reduced order system model has a lower system order than the original system model.
US07996191B2
A method of design for creating a habitable structure containing architectural elements that collectively cause the habitable structure to resemble a fanciful structure portrayed in a motion picture or television show. The fantasy of the motion picture or television show is made more real by determining the dimensions of the architectural elements of a movie studio backlot facade and an interior stage set that were used during the filming of the motion picture or television show. Mismatches between architectural elements are resolved by establishing priorities to select between the conflicting architectural elements, or by using an architectural facade to incorporate both of the conflicting elements.
US07996170B2
A method and apparatus that enables a user to sort data from one or more sample lots, which may be obtained via a network, such as the Internet, into a composite parameter structure. The composite parameter structure is a function of one or more parameters corresponding to one or more characteristics associated with one or more sample lots. The composite parameter structure representation may be printed, stored, or transmitted to another location. A server device that is coupled and working in conjunction with a client device may implement the present invention.
US07996168B2
Disclosed is a method and apparatus for calibrating a time vernier in an automatic test equipment (ATE) system, the method including generating a data signal and a reference signal whose periods differ by a small amount (dt), using precession of the data signal and reference signal to create accurate delay increments, and creating a trigger signal for Bit Error Rate Test (BERT) counting, the trigger signal having a select frequency such than an integer number (N) of triggers are generated with a precession period (TPREC). Upon occurrence of each trigger, a BERT is initiated for measuring data to determine strobe positions with respect to the data signal.
US07996162B1
The rates of change and difference between signals sensed at adjacent electronic module output ports are determined and compared to criteria to determine whether the output ports are shorted.
US07996155B2
The present invention provides improved ANOVA methods for analyzing measured data and transformed data. The improved ANOVA method takes two data types as its input, one is the measurements, the other is a predetermined error associated with the measurements. The latter can come from a technology/platform-specific error model. Because of the additional input information, the statistical power is increased. The methods of the invention is particularly useful for analyzing gene or protein expression data.
US07996149B2
A method and a device for automatic route registration. A destination is entered into a data input device. A route is determined as a function of a starting location and the entered destination. The first route is transmitted to a route analysis device and divided into at least one route section therewith. The route section is registered in an evaluation device. Upon the detection of a first condition, a second route is determined to the destination. The second route is automatically transmitted to the route analysis device. The route analysis device compares the second route to the first route. Unused route sections of the first route are cancelled and added route sections of the second route are registered.
US07996147B2
A method, in certain embodiments, includes controlling a first parameter set (e.g., fuel injection timing, engine speed, etc.) of an engine to reduce specific fuel consumption to account for a plurality of different fuels alone or in combination with one another. The method also may include controlling a second parameter set (e.g., engine duration, engine speed, manifold air pressure, fuel supply temperature, fuel supply pressure, etc.) of the engine to reduce the possibility of exceeding design limits associated with the engine to account for the plurality of different fuels alone or in combination with one another.
US07996142B2
A combustion control system includes a magnetic torque sensor disposed between an engine and a load. The magnetic torque sensor is configured to directly measure engine torque and output a torque signal indicative of the engine torque. A control unit is communicatively coupled to the magnetic torque sensor. The control unit is configured to receive the torque signal and determine one or more combustion parameters based on the torque signal. The control unit is also configured to control one or more manipulating parameters of the engine based on the one or more combustion parameters so as to control combustion in the engine.
US07996141B2
In a method for operating an internal combustion engine with a crankcase breather venting into an intake tract, operating parameters of the internal combustion engine are measured 102. A mass flow of fuel from the crankcase into the intake tract is determined as a function of the operating parameters measured 103. The internal combustion engine is controlled 111 or monitored 108 as a function of the mass flow of fuel from the crankcase into the intake tract.
US07996136B2
A system and method for monitoring brake performance, in particular, in motor vehicles, are provided. The braking distances specific to each vehicle wheel are determined and compared using an electronic control unit. If a wheel exhibits a longer than average braking distance, insufficient braking is identified and is displayed by means of a display device.
US07996131B2
A tilt angle detecting apparatus removes an unnecessary component included in an angular velocity detecting signal (an input ω) inputted from an angular velocity sensor 1 with the deadband (−ωo to +ωo) of an unnecessary component removing means 2, performs integration processing on the angular velocity detecting signal (an output ω) which is allowed to pass through the passband (input ω>ωo or input ω<−ωo) of the unnecessary component removing means 2 and which is outputted from the unnecessary component removing means by using an arithmetic processing means 3, performs a process of resetting the integral value to zero using a fixed integral value resetting value which is determined in such a way as to be suited to the above-mentioned deadband by using an integral value resetting means 4 after the integration processing, and outputs a signal showing the roll angle θv of a vehicle.
US07996124B2
In one aspect a method for controlling a fuel cell vehicle is provided, comprising generating a torque (TACCEL) calculated based or an accelerator pedal depression value upon completion of start-up of a fuel cell and entering a fuel cell only mode; performing a torque limit control for the torque (TACCEL) calculated based on the accelerator pedal depression value; performing charging from the fuel cell to a power storage means while the vehicle moves slowly by the torque limit control under the fuel cell only mode; and directly connecting the fuel cell to the power storage means by a main relay to enter a hybrid mode, when a voltage difference between the fuel cell and the power storage means is within a predetermined range. Preferred methods can protect the fuel cell, reduce the time for vehicle start-up and improve driving performance.
US07996120B2
The device for flying an aircraft includes a first unit for determining a control value corresponding to an instruction value representing the actuation of a control member by a pilot, a second unit for determining an effective control value corresponding to the instruction value which is actually applied to the aircraft, a third unit for automatically controlling the aircraft, a fourth unit for computing an auxiliary control value, which is closer to the effective controlled value, and a fifth unit for monitoring the control value and for detecting a pilot induced oscillation, where the automatic control is carried out with the aid of the controlled effective value and the auxiliary control value in the case of the detection of the pilot induced oscillation.
US07996118B2
An aircraft device includes a rudder, a control unit that applies a deflection instruction to the rudder, a measuring section that measures a recovery characteristic of aircraft movement in response to the rudder deflection instruction, a recorder that records an applied deflection instruction and a corresponding recovery characteristic, and a servo-control that maintains the recovery characteristic. The control unit receives a recovery instruction for a recovery characteristic, which is identifiable for an aerodynamic effect, and generates the rudder deflection instruction induced by the recovery instruction.
US07996117B2
There is provided an MRI system in which magnetostatic field can be stably generated by keeping the cooling capacity of a cryocooler in a proper range. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus using a superconducting magnet (101) is equipped with a superconducting coil (201, 202), a container (203, 204) for accommodating the superconducting coil and refrigerant, a cooling unit (208) for liquefying vaporized gas of the refrigerant in the container again, a pressure detector (215) for detecting the pressure in the container, a heating unit (216) for heating in at least one of the cooling unit and the container, a controller (127) and a computer (114). The controller (127) controls the heat value of the heating unit (216) in accordance with the pressure detected by the pressure detector (215). The computer (114) judges by using the heat value of the heating unit (216) whether maintenance of the cooling unit should be performed or not.
US07996115B2
Described herein are several embodiments relating to modular irrigation controllers. In many implementations, the irrigation controllers are modular in that various functional components of the irrigation controller are implemented in removable modules that when inserted into position within the controller, expand the capabilities of the controller. Also described are various different types of expansion modules that may be coupled to the modular controller, having as variety of functions and features, as well as related methods of use and configuration of these modules in the controller. In one implementation, an expansion module is provided that includes a microcontroller capable of sending and receiving data communications to and from a main microcontroller of the controller that executed irrigation programs, the data communications relating to an irrigation program.
US07996103B2
An embroidery data generating apparatus for embroidering image data configured by multiplicity of pixels including a color difference calculator calculating a color difference between sewing thread color of the target segment and an underpass segment underlying the target segment; an angular difference sum calculator calculating an angular difference between the underpass segment and the target segment, the angular difference being measured at an intersecting pixel where the target segment and the underpass segment intersect; a third determiner determining whether or not to append the target segment to the sequence information based on the angular difference when the sum of the color difference is determined to be equal to or less than the first predetermined value; and a second segment appender that appends the target segment between the focus segment and the subsequent segment when determined by the third determiner to append the target segment to the sequence information.
US07996100B2
A system and method for the modeling of biopharmaceutical batch process manufacturing facilities uses process time lines. The system employs an eleven-field delimited string code which specifies the unit identifier code and the iteration value for each of the ten levels of nested scheduling cycles of the biopharmaceutical drug production process being modeled. The method includes generating a process time line using operational parameters, a block flow diagram, and a set of scheduling cycles for each of a sequence of unit operations. The process time line is used as a tool for batch processing and facility design.
US07996096B2
A method of determining a segment-specific estimate of a parameter associated with a process control loop includes receiving signal data corresponding to a signal from a process control loop, storing the signal data, partitioning the stored signal data into a plurality of data segments and performing a statistical analysis on a first one of the plurality of data segments selected from the plurality of data segments to generate a first segment-specific parameter estimate.
US07996095B2
In a method, system, and a computer-readable medium being a data structure for remote control of an MR scanner for execution of a corresponding measurement, all method steps for controlling or for preparation of the MR scanner are executed on a controller that is independent of the real scanner. A virtual apparatus that simulates the real scanner is implemented on the controller. Control parameters that are relayed to the scanner from the controller in order to prepare the scanner for a measurement are generated from the automatically-registered parameters.
US07996090B2
Implantable medical leads and methods of making. The method includes providing first and second tubes, and arranging a segment of the first tube side-by-side with a segment of the second tube along a region of interface. The tubes are forced to a non-linear shape along at least a portion of the region of interface. An adhesive is applied to the portion of the region of interface and cured. Upon curing, the adhesive bonds the tubes to one another and elastically maintains the non-linear shape in the absence of an external force. A conductive element is disposed within at least one of the tubes. In some embodiments, the non-linear shape is a sigmoid shape, and the method includes arranging the tube segments in a fixture having a structure defining the sigmoid shape.
US07996081B2
A resuscitation device for automatic compression of victim's chest using a compression belt which exerts force evenly over the entire thoracic cavity. The belt is constricted and relaxed through a motorized spool assembly which repeatedly tightens the belt and relaxes the belt to provide repeated and rapid chest compression. An assembly includes various resuscitation devices including chest compression devices, defibrillation devices, and airway management devices, along with communications devices and senses with initiate communications with emergency medical personnel automatically upon use of the device.
US07996075B2
Systems and techniques relating to monitoring physiological activity using partial state space reconstruction. In general, in one aspect, a partial state space is produced using an orthogonal, frequency-independent transform, such as Hilbert transform. The partial state space can then be analyzed using state space techniques to identify physiological information for the biological system. The described techniques can be implemented in a distributed cardiac activity monitoring system, including a cardiac monitoring apparatus, and a QRS detector thereof.
US07996064B2
Images taken before a surgical procedure by an imager are displayed by a computer and overlaid with graphical representations of instruments and/or surgical implants. The graphical representations can be used to determined appropriate sizes of the surgical implants and trajectories for placement. Also, the images can be used in the operating room. The graphical representations can be updated in real-time to correspond to movement of the instruments in the operating room.
US07996062B2
Methods for confirming location of a catheter tip relative to a targeted location in a blood vessel of a subject and improving visualization of the blood vessels downstream of the catheter tip are provided. The methods comprise acquiring and displaying a first modified MR image of the subject's blood vessels between an insertion site for the catheter and the targeted location; acquiring and displaying a sequence of modified MR images of the blood vessels to monitor advancement of an inserted catheter from the insertion site to an intraluminal stop site at or near the targeted location; delivering a bolus of a magnetic resonance contrast agent through the tip of the catheter and to the intraluminal stop site, wherein the magnetic contrast agent alters the first modified MR image of the subject's blood vessels; acquiring and displaying an updated second MR modified image of the blood vessels at and downstream of the tip of the catheter. Systems and computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions operable to perform computer executable aspects of the present methods are also provided.
US07996055B2
A cardiac navigation system including a mapping catheter, a control system coupled to the mapping catheter, an electrode array, and means for driving an electrical current across the electrode array. The mapping catheter includes means for sensing an electrical field. The control system includes means for receiving sensed signals from the mapping catheter. The cardiac navigation system includes at least one electrode array including means for providing an electrical field across three axes. The three axes are approximately orthogonal with respect to one another. The means for driving an electrical current across the three axes includes means for providing a plurality of individual current sources to the electrode array. As such, the cardiac navigation system presented provides a more uniform sheet of current across an area of interest, the mapping catheter senses the electrical field across the area of interest, and the control system determines a three-dimensional location of the mapping catheter based on the sensed electrical field.
US07996038B1
A communication device which implements a voice communicating function, a OS updating function, a navigation system, a remote controlling system, an auto emergency calling system, a cellular TV function, a GPS search engine function, a mobile ignition key function, a voice print authentication system, an auto time adjusting function, a video/photo function, a taxi calling function, a calculating function, a word processing function, a start up software function, and a stereo audio data output function.
US07996033B2
A radio communication system includes a grouping unit for grouping a plurality of base stations into a plurality of groups (Soft Handoff Groups) and a determining unit for selecting base stations belonging to one and the same group selected from the groups produced by the grouping unit and for determining the base stations as base stations to send communication packets to an access terminal.
US07996023B2
An enhanced services platform has an interface for receiving a communication from a user requesting a desired data. An automated response module parses the communication and retrieves the desired data. The enhanced services platform arranges the desired data into a response message that is sent to the user, where the response message includes an embedded code corresponding to a link allowing the user to re-contact the enhanced services platform. An operator assistance module receives communications from the user initiated via the link to provide further assistance regarding the user's request.
US07996019B2
A method (500) for dynamically providing location-based services based, at least in part, on time (114), current detected information (116, 118), historical information (124, 126), contextual information (128), user preferences (120, 130) and/or a user input (122).
US07996013B2
A method, call setup device (10) and computer program product for controlling telephone call setup for an associated user and having access to different communication networks are provided. The call setup device (10) comprising a data receiving unit (52) receiving a first data message (DM1) from the user comprising callee identifying information and user identifying information and a control unit (48) having access to call placing units (12, 14, 58), each connected to corresponding network (24,32) and providing telephone call set up via these networks, wherein the control unit analyses the callee and user identifying information, orders a call placing unit to set up a first telephone call to a user terminal, orders a call placing unit to set up a second telephone call to a callee terminal and orders an interconnection of the first and the second call.
US07996010B2
A mobile telecommunications system comprises a network of a plurality of cells and at least one user equipment device operable to communicate in the system and to operate in a first RAT and a second RAT. The method comprises, in the user equipment device, determining whether the validity of data stored on the user equipment device will expire within an expiry period, the stored data being for use in handover of operation of the user equipment device from the first RAT to the second RAT.
US07996002B2
A communications system transmits messages via a wireless network to multiple users nearly simultaneously in real-time. Each user has a terminal that receives a message and plays the message for the user. The terminal may also wait for the user to verbally acknowledge the arrival of the message before continuing with its normally executing application. The sender of the message may track, for each intended recipient, the delivery of the message, the accessing of the message by the user, and the acknowledgement by the user that the message was understood.
US07995966B2
A communication semiconductor chip performs wireless communication with another communication semiconductor chip. The semiconductor chip includes a communication module and a control unit. The communication module performs the wireless communication with another communication semiconductor chip and has a receiving circuit for receiving data. The control unit supplies a reference voltage to the receiving circuit and performs a calibration operation on the reference voltage.
US07995964B2
Where a plurality of personal portable devices communicating with each other through a personal wireless network are to cooperate to perform a task made up of a plurality of task portions, the task portions are automatically distributed among the personal portable devices at least partially in response to comparisons between the capabilities required to perform each task portion and the capabilities of each of the personal portable devices. In making such comparisons, the capabilities of each of the personal portable devices that are actually available for the performance of one or more of the task portions at the time such comparisons are made may be taken into account, and further, such comparisons may be repeated as the capabilities of each of the personal portable devices that are actually available change over time.
US07995957B2
According to an embodiment of the invention, a heat uniforming member, which has an outer diameter smaller than an inner diameter of a hollow member and in which thermal deformation generated by thermal expansion remains, is set in the inside of the hollow member having a center axis, support members are set to both ends of the hollow member to enable supporting of ends of the heat uniforming member, and an endless body having a uniform thermal distribution is formed by heating the hollow member, the heat uniforming member and the support member at a specified temperature for a specific time and causing the heat uniforming member to adhere closely to an inner wall of the hollow member.
US07995952B2
In accordance with the invention, there are electron emitters, charging devices, and methods of forming them. An electron emitter array can include a plurality of nanostructures, each of the plurality of nanostructures can include a first end and a second end, wherein the first end can be connected to a first electrode and the second end can be positioned to emit electrons, and wherein each of the plurality of nanostructures can be formed of one or more of oxidation resistant metals, doped metals, metal alloys, metal oxides, doped metal oxides, and ceramics. The electron emitter array can also include a second electrode in close proximity to the first electrode, wherein one or more of the plurality of nanostructures can emit electrons in a gas upon application of an electric field between the first electrode and the second electrode.
US07995951B2
The image forming apparatus is provided with: plural rotating members that are arranged rotatably; plural rotation side coupling members that are provided corresponding to the respective rotating members and transmit drive force to the respective rotating members; plural drive side coupling members that are connected to the respective rotation side coupling members and rotate and drive the respective rotating members via the rotation side coupling members; and an interconnecting unit that connects a predetermined number of the drive side coupling members among the plural drive side coupling members to the corresponding rotation side coupling members.
US07995934B2
An information attaching unit attaches either one of carrier density information of initial developer and loose apparent density information of toner in the initial developer to a housing of a developing device. A density-information storage unit stores therein either one of the carrier density information and the loose apparent density information as electronic data. At least one of the information attaching unit and the density-information storage unit is provided before shipment of the developing device.
US07995933B2
In an image forming apparatus employing a process cartridge for image forming apparatus which is equipped with a chip including a rewritable non-volatile memory, the non-volatile memory at least includes a read-only region and an arbitrarily rewritable region, a control program for writing data to the read-only region is installed in the arbitrarily rewritable region, and the use of the control program is limited after the completion of the writing of data to the read-only region.
US07995930B2
The present invention relates to an optical receiver, in which the transmittance of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer can be locked at a normal operation point in a simple structure and control. A transmittance detecting circuit and a minute modulation signal detecting circuit are provided in parallel after a balanced optical receiver, and a switch is selectively connectable either a minute modulation signal detecting circuit and a transmittance detecting circuit. In the initial stage of frequency pull-in, the switch is set to connect the transmittance detecting circuit to the synchronous detection circuit. If the transmittance detecting circuit detects that the transmittance of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer at the carrier frequency becomes a desired transmittance, the connection of the switch is switched from the transmittance detecting circuit to the minute modulation signal detecting circuit.
US07995927B2
A transceiver module having integrated eye diagram opening functionality for reducing jitter is described. The transceiver module may include a transmitter eye opener and a receiver eye opener integrated in a single circuit. The transceiver module may also include serial control and various other integrated components. Other functionalities that may be integrated on the transceiver module include loopback modes, bypass features, bit error rate testing, and power down modes.
US07995918B2
A method and apparatus for a monitoring technique for the rate of change of polarization state and of the polarization mode dispersion is proposed. This technique is used for performance monitoring and fault correlation as well as for the verification of commitments to customers with respect to the transmission system's tolerance to polarization mode dispersion.
US07995916B2
To verify the integrity of optical paths through and among optical switches, optical signals are provided with co-propagating supplemental signals. The supplemental signals preferably have at least one characteristic which allows distinguishing one supplemental signal from another. Associated with a port of a switch, means are provided for detecting a supplemental signal and determining if the supplemental signal indicates that a desired optical signal is passing through the port as expected and desired. Means for imparting or changing the distinguishing characteristic of a supplemental signal may also be employed to facilitate verifying the passage of optical signals.
US07995914B2
An approach is provided for performing fault recovery using composite transport groups (CTGs). A first logical channel is established within a composite transport group, wherein the first logical channel is established over a first link associated with a first service provider to a customer premise equipment (CPE) node configured to transport packets. A second logical channel is established within the composite transport group, wherein the second logical channel is established over a second link associated with a second service provider to an optical node. Packets are received over the first logical channel. Packets are received over the second logical channel if the first logical channel experiences a fault condition, wherein switching to the second logical channel is transparent to the CPE node.
US07995907B2
A camera having a shutter button, a photo sensor array, an anti-shake module controlled by an anti-shake enable signal, and a mechanical shutter. By pressing the shutter button, a first operation and a second operation are provided to trigger an auto-focus enable signal and an image exposure control signal, respectively. The anti-shake enable signal is enabled when the auto-focus enable signal has been triggered and the image exposure control signal is disabled or has just been triggered. The photo sensor array performs image exposure according to the image exposure control signal. The mechanical shutter is disabled and closed after the image exposure control signal is triggered for exposure period.
US07995903B2
A recording and reproducing module records a signal (broadcast program) based on a first compression method to a recording medium, and during a period of time during which recording is not performed, reproduces the signal based on the first compression method, which has been recorded to the recording medium. Then, a transcoding module transcodes the signal based on the first compression method to a signal based on a second compression method. The signal based on the second compression method, whose transcoding has been completed, is recorded to the recording medium; and the signal based on the first compression method is erased from the recording medium. The controller refers to recording history information and sets a schedule including a target broadcast program to be transcoded and a time zone in which the target broadcast program is transcoded.
US07995902B2
An apparatus and method for simultaneously providing a plurality of time shifting functions is disclosed. An apparatus for simultaneously providing a plurality of time shifting functions comprises a first memory for storing a first broadcast program for performing a first time-shifting function; a second memory for storing a second broadcast program for performing a second time-shifting function; and a controller for selecting and displaying at least one of the first and the second stored broadcast programs. Also, a method for simultaneously providing a plurality of time shifting functions comprises determining if a first time shifting function is used; storing a first broadcast program in a first memory for time shifting function if the first time shifting function is not used; determining if a second time shifting function is used; and storing a second broadcast program for time shifting function in the second memory if the second time shifting function is not used.
US07995893B2
A magneto-optical structure is provided. The magneto-optical structure includes a substrate. A waveguide layer is formed on the substrate for guiding electromagnetic radiation received by the magneto-optical structure. The waveguide layer includes magnetic oxide material that comprises ABO3 perovskite doped with transition metal ions on the B site, or transition metal ions doped SnO2, or transition metal ions doped CeO2.
US07995890B2
An optical waveguide is provided which comprises a non-solid core layer surrounded by a solid-state material, and two light sources capable of introducing light into said non-solid core at opposite ends along a Z-axis of said non-solid core to form two propagating light beams applying force in opposing directions. An integrated optical particle trap device for controlling the placement of small sample particles incorporates the optical waveguide.
US07995887B2
The viewing angle dependence of the γ characteristic in a CPA mode liquid crystal display device is reduced in a desired direction. The liquid crystal display device is usable for a use in which a viewing angle characteristic in direction D1 parallel to a display plane needs to be higher than a viewing angle characteristic in another direction D2 parallel to the display plane. An electrode of the liquid crystal display device includes a solid area formed of a conductive film and a non-solid area with no conductive film. The solid area of the electrode includes a plurality of unit solid areas, above each of which a liquid crystal domain exhibiting a radially inclined orientation state is formed.
US07995884B2
An optical assembly comprises at least one optical element movable in at least two degrees of freedom and at least one actuator for adjusting the least one optical element; at least one sensor for sensing the position of the at least one element in at least two degrees of freedom and is characterised in that the at least one sensor is located at least substantially diagonally opposite to the least one actuator.
US07995876B2
Two AWG circuits are integrated while preventing degradation in quality of a multiplexing/demultiplexing function. An arrayed waveguide grating circuit includes: a first slab waveguide (52) connected to a first input waveguide (51a) and second output waveguides (55b); a second slab waveguide (54) connected to first output waveguides (55a) and a second input waveguide (51b); and an array waveguide (53) connecting the first slab waveguide (52) and the second slab waveguide (54), wherein the input waveguides (51a, 51b) are connected to the slab waveguides (52, 54) at an interval of 1.5× from the outermost second output waveguide out of the second output waveguides (55a, 55b) connected at an interval x depending on a wavelength.
US07995873B2
A fiber optic sensor apparatus includes an optical fiber, a fiber bend holder, and a sensing element. The optical fiber can be configured to form a transmit fiber path and a return fiber path by adhering the fiber bend holder to the center of the optical fiber in order to form a straight section between the transmit fiber path and the return fiber path. The optic fiber can be physically bent and adhered to tabs associated with the fiber bend holder. A cut can be precisely made in the center of the adhered straight section and the sensing element can be inserted into an optical path associated with the optical fiber.
US07995872B2
An optical modulator component 2 has a substrate 4 for modulation made of an electro-optical material and having a joining face 4b; an optical waveguide 6 provided in or on the substrate 4 and having at least one pair of branched portions 6c; and a radio-frequency interaction portion 11 applying a voltage on the respective branched portions 6c to modulate light propagating through the branched portions. The optical waveguide 6 has end faces 15A, 15B, 15C and 15D present on the joining face 4b of the substrate 4 for modulation.
US07995869B2
An information processing apparatus configured to generate object information from image information, the information processing apparatus includes: an image reference information generation part configured to generate image reference information based on the image information; wherein the object information includes the image reference information.
US07995867B2
A method of rotating a digital image includes performing a first pass to process a selected image tile of a source image. The first pass includes copying a set of pixels of the selected image tile from a first memory to a processor memory, where the set of pixels comprises a portion of the selected image tile. The first pass further includes grouping the set of pixels into blocks of pixels and writing each of the blocks of pixels to a memory location. The method further includes repeating the first pass until each of the pixels of the selected image tile is processed, performing a second pass to process the blocks of pixels, and repeating the second pass until each of the blocks of pixels is processed. The second pass includes copying blocks of pixels, regrouping the blocks of pixels, and writing the regrouped pixels to a destination image location.
US07995866B2
A rotation angle detection apparatus which detects a rotation angle with respect to a reference disposition position of an object included in a detection subject image, includes: a plurality of kinds of pixel extraction pattern for extracting a plurality of pixels which detect an image feature amount from pixels configuring the detection subject image; a feature amount detector which detects, for each pixel extraction pattern, an image feature amount of the extracted plurality of pixels; a likelihood memory which stores a likelihood of the rotation angle, correlated in advance to the image feature amount, for each pixel extraction pattern; and a rotation angle determiner which determines a rotation angle which has a greatest likelihood, based on the image feature amount corresponding to each pixel extraction pattern and on the likelihood, as the rotation angle of the object.
US07995865B2
Images can be laid out easily without a template. Reference areas are set in a background area, and the images are laid out by being inscribed therein. In the case where the image laid out in one of the reference areas has high priority, a similar area is generated from the reference areas, and the image is enlarged to be inscribed in the similar area.
US07995863B2
Methods and systems for creating three-dimensional models from two-dimensional images are provided. According to one embodiment, a method of creating an inflatable icon involves a vectorizing module polygonizing an input image to produce an inflatable image by representing a set of pixels making up the input image as polygons. The inflatable image is then extruded by an extrusion module by generating appropriate z-coordinate values for a reference point associated with each polygon of the inflatable image based upon a biased diffusion process. End-user controlled pressure modulation is supported by an interface module by (i) adjusting one or more modulation functions employed by the biased diffusion process based upon end-user input regarding relative modulation bias for a selected set of one or more pixels associated with the inflatable image or (ii) applying the biased diffusion process to only the selected set of one or more pixels.
US07995860B2
A spread spectrum signal demodulating method whereby spread-code synchronous acquisition and carrier synchronous acquisition are performed using FFT at high speed, wherein a received signal, of which the carrier wave is modulated with a signal obtained by spectrum- spreading data with a spread code, is subjected to the FFT and the result of the FFT is stored in a first memory. The FFT result of the received signal stored in the first memory and the result of FFT of the spread code stored in a second memory are read out and multiplied to detect the correlation between the received signal and the spread code. A readout address of either the FFT result of the received signal or the FFT result of the spread code is shifted by an amount corresponding to a carrier frequency of the received signal.
US07995857B2
An apparatus for image processing includes: an edge detection module, for performing an image edge detection for each pixel in an original image data and generating at least one edge detection result for a target pixel in the original image data; a step-wise gain controlling module, coupled to the edge detection module, for determining at least one gain coefficient of the target pixel according to the edge detection result; and a calculation module, coupled to the step-wise gain controlling module, for adjusting an original gray value of the target pixel to generate an output gray value of the target pixel according to the gain coefficient.
US07995854B2
In a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention, an automated, computerized method is provided for processing an image. According to a feature of the present invention, the method comprises the step of performing a filter response technique to identify patches of uniform reflectance within the image. In a further exemplary embodiment, the method comprises the additional step of utilizing the identified patches of uniform material reflectance to generate single material token regions for use in processing material and illumination aspects of the image.
US07995848B2
A method and apparatus for encoding and decoding image data. The method of encoding image data includes spatially predicting pixel values of a one-dimensional block of an image using blocks spatially adjacent to the one-dimensional block or temporally predicting the pixel values of the one-dimensional block using a temporally previous frame; transforming and quantizing the pixel values of the one-dimensional block; and generating bit streams for a one-dimensional conversion block when the transformed and quantized one-dimensional block is defined as the one-dimensional conversion block. Therefore, since the method and apparatus encode and decode image data in one-dimensional block units, real-time encoding and decoding can be achieved. In addition, compression efficiency can be enhanced while minimizing visual degradation of image quality.
US07995846B2
A form display method which enhances convenience for an operator who corrects a result of form recognition on electronic image data obtained from documents of unknown type, so that the operator can properly perform correction. Electronic images are acquired, and form types of the electronic images are recognized. It is determined whether the recognized electronic images are corresponding ones of forms registered in advance or unrecognizable forms. A method of displaying the unrecognizable forms is set in advance. The determined forms are displayed in accordance with the set display method.
US07995839B2
The image processing device according to an aspect of the invention comprises an image input device for inputting image data representing a color image, a distance calculation device for calculating a distance on a color space between a noticed pixel of the inputted color image and each of peripheral pixels including the noticed pixel, a factor calculation device for calculating a weighting factor for each peripheral pixel in accordance with the calculated distance, and a weighted average processing device for calculating image data of the noticed pixel by obtaining a weighted average of image data of the peripheral pixels using the weighting factor calculated for each peripheral pixel.
US07995836B2
An optoelectronic sensor and method for detecting an object in a three-dimensional monitored region uses a plurality of video sensors. Each sensor has a multiplicity of light-receiving elements that are configured to take a pixel picture of the monitored space, and a control unit identifies an object in the monitored space from video data of the pixel picture. Each video sensor has at least one pixel line that is formed by light-receiving elements. The video sensors are spaced from each other so that each sensor monitors an associated plane of the monitored space.
US07995831B2
The invention is directed to a prescription imaging system for capturing, storing and displaying images of prescription bottles during the prescription fulfillment process to monitor the quality of the fulfillment process. The system includes one or more pill cameras for capturing images of pills dispensed into one or more prescription bottles and one or more label cameras for capturing images of the bottle labels. The images are stored on a storage device in a database record. The images can be used to verify that the pills in each bottle correspond with the associated prescription.
US07995822B2
The present invention relates to methods and devices for analyzing x-ray images. In particular, devices, methods and algorithms are provided that allow for the accurate and reliable evaluation of bone structure and macro-anatomical parameters from x-ray images.
US07995815B2
The invention provides a system and method for processing an image including means for receiving image information, means for queuing the image information, and means for receiving profile information for a plurality of image analysts. The system can further include means for selecting an image analyst from the plurality of image analysts by comparing the image information from the profile information. The invention also provides a machine readable program including a first input routine for receiving image information, a second input routine for receiving profile information for a plurality of image analysts, and a first run routine for queuing the image information. The machine readable program can also include a second run routine for selecting an image analyst from the plurality of image analysts by comparing the image information to the profile information.
US07995806B2
A digital image processing apparatus for easily obtaining information regarding a face, a method of controlling the same, and a recording medium for storing a program for executing the method. The digital image processing apparatus includes a face recognition unit recognizing a face from an image, a face index assignment unit assigning a face index to the recognized face if the face recognized from the image is not a previously recognized face, and a relation index update unit that, if the image includes a second face, updates a relation index corresponding to the number of times the first face and second face appear together in a plurality of images.
US07995804B2
An image is acquired including a red eye defect and non red eye defect regions having a red color. An initial segmentation of candidate redeye regions is performed. A location and orientation of one or more faces within the image are determined. The candidate redeye regions are analyzed based on the determined location and orientation of the one or more faces to determine a probability that each redeye region appears at a position of an eye. Any confirmed redeye regions having at least a certain threshold probability of being a false positive are removed as candidate redeye defect regions. The remaining redeye defect regions are corrected and a red eye corrected image is generated.
US07995803B2
The invention aims at providing personal identification in environments where non-contact is required, with high accuracy even though using a finger vein pattern images unclear and susceptible to positional deviations, wherein it has: a means for acquiring finger vein patterns without contact; a means for carrying out rotational correction using the outline of a finger as a method of taking out a vein pattern contained in the acquired image; a means for normalizing the position of the finger image with reference to the fingertip; a means for acquiring an overall vein pattern statistically by repetitively tracking regions of dark luminance intensities for a desired length from a desired position in the image; a matching means for comparing regions where vein patterns manifest vivid features; and a means for independent matching of subregions and evaluating positional deviations where matching is recognized.
US07995800B2
A system and method for motion detection and the use thereof in video coding are disclosed. In one aspect, a method of defining a region of motion within a video frame in a sequence of video frames comprises loading a current video frame and at least one reference video frame from the sequence, the reference video frame being different from the current video frame. The method further comprises applying filtering operations on the current and the reference video frame in order to obtain at least two scales of representation of the current and the reference video frame. The method further comprises determining for each of the scale representations a video-frame like representation of the structural changes between the current and the reference video frame. The method further comprises combining the video-frame like representations of different scales. The method further comprises determining one or more regions of motion from the combination.
US07995796B2
A system for classifying different types of sheeting materials of road signs depicted in a videostream compares estimated retroreflectivity values against known minimum retroreflectivity values for each of a plurality of colors. Once a road sign has been identified in the videostream, the frames associated with that road sign are analyzed to determine each of a plurality of colors present on the road sign. An estimated retroreflectivity for each of the plurality of colors present on the road sign is then determined. By comparing the estimated retroreflectivity for each of the plurality of colors against known minimum retroreflectivity values for the corresponding color for different types of sheeting materials, an accurate determination of the classification of the sheeting material of the road sign is established. Preferably, certain conditions of gross failure of the sheeting material are filtered out before classification of the sheeting material is determined.
US07995784B2
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved speaker device equipped with an attachment member having formed thereon a reinforcing portion capable of inhibiting a deterioration of a sound characteristic. Another object of the invention is to provide an improved speaker device capable of efficiently disposing in a limited space close to the speaker an electronic element for controlling a signal being supplied to the speaker. The speaker device comprises a speaker unit, an attachment member for attaching the speaker unit to an attachment base. The attachment member comprises an attachment portion for attaching the attachment member to the attachment base, an attachment hole for attaching the speaker unit, a convex reinforcing portion formed along an entire or partial circumference of the attachment hole of the attachment member. The reinforcing portion has an inclined surface formed on the inner side thereof facing the side wall of the speaker unit.
US07995779B2
A method for processing the signals from two or more microphones in a listening device, and a listening device for conducting the method which has a casing holding the microphones, a signal processing unit which provides an output signal corresponding to the microphone signals and suited to the user's hearing, and a receiver unit for delivering the output signal to the user whereby the signals from the microphones are analyzed in order to detect when the casing of the listening device is being touched, whereby further the signal processing of the signal processing unit changes whenever touching of the casing is detected.
US07995771B1
A system and method for generating a beamforming signal is disclosed. A beam forming signal is generated by disposing a first microphone and a second microphone in horizontal coplanar alignment. The first and second microphones are used to detect a known signal to generate a first response and a second response. The first response is processed along a first signal path communicatively linked to the first microphone, and the second response is processed along a second signal path communicatively linked to the second microphone. The first and second responses are matched, and the matched responses are combined to generate the beamforming signal on a combined signal path.
US07995770B1
A receiver and method is for receiving wireless transmissions including program data and locating data, and for determining its location from the locating data, and optionally from a stored representation of a venue and/or sound reproducing transducers therein. The receiver and method may also determine the actual speed of sound from current local atmospheric data, and determine a delay time to its location therefrom for delaying the received program data to be substantially in time alignment with natural sound, and to be so reproduced and/or recorded. A binaural microphone may pick up ambient sound which is mixed or combined with the delayed program data for producing a combined stereo audio signal.
US07995769B2
A sound control apparatus of image forming apparatus includes a sound-transmitting channel in which the sound in the image forming apparatus can be transmitted to the outside of the image forming apparatus, a sound-collecting portion which is provided at the sound-transmitting channel and collects sounds, and a speaker which is provided at the outside of the apparatus to the sound-collecting portion in the sound-transmitting channel and outputs sounds corresponding to the sounds collected by the sound-collecting portion, where a channel length between the sound-collecting portion and the speaker in the sound-transmitting channel is longer than a linear distance between the sound-collecting portion and the speaker.
US07995750B2
A system for contributing to a concatenation of a first string and a second string may include a communication unit to receive an encrypted representation of a second share of the second string, the second string being identical to the second share of the second string combined with a first share of the second string and to send a rearranged representation of the encrypted representation of the second share of the second string to a second system. The system may further include a processing unit to rearrange a representation of the encrypted representation of the second share of the second string using a length value of a first share of the first string, the first string being identical to the first share of the first string combined with a second share of the first string.
US07995748B2
A method encrypting data including selecting a pair of sequences based on a seed, performing a transposition of the data utilizing elements of a first one of the pair of sequences to produce a first transposition result, and performing a transposition of the first transposition result utilizing elements of a second one of the pair of sequences to produce the encrypted data. The pair of sequences may be selected from a pool of constrained sequences. The pool of constrained sequences may be generated utilizing a Knights Tour sequence generating system. The pool of constrained sequences may be transferred to a decrypting device for decryption of the encrypted data. The pair of sequences may be randomly generated utilizing a random integer sequence generator and the seed. The constrained indication may be constrained to a number of sequences present in the pool of sequences.
US07995746B2
Communication unit comprising a housing (1) in which at least one transducer is placed, and on which a microphone arm (2) is suspended. The housing also has an ear hook (6) for fastening the communication unit to the head of a user. The microphone arm (2) is pivotally connected to the housing (1) by a hinge link (3, 4, 5) at an outer area of the housing, and so that the microphone arm (2) can be moved between a position in which it lies up against the housing (1), and a position in which it extends away from the housing. The microphone arm has a length, which in the main is less than or of the same order as the greatest extent of the housing, so that in the folded-in state the microphone arm does not project out over the circumference of the housing. The communication unit can be used on both the right and the left side of the head, in that the ear hook (6) can be suspended in two different positions.
US07995739B1
The present invention enables retailers who use toll free services provided by a VoIP network service provider to obtain peering arrangements with international and domestic VoIP carriers to originate, terminate, and bridge multiple call legs among global locations across peering partner carriers.
US07995730B1
A method and apparatus for masquerading the identity of a first communication device returning a missed call placed by a second communication device to a third communication device. The first communication device receives a missed call notification indicating the second communication device placed a first call to the third communication device. Thereafter, the first communication device initiates a second call to the second communication device and directs a network to deliver to the second communication device caller identification information that indicates the second call originates from the third communication device. Moreover, the first communication device may include a missed call log that includes missed call notifications for missed calls placed directly to the first communication device as well as missed call notifications for missed calls originally placed to another communication device. The first communication device can present to a user missed call notifications stored in the missed call log.
US07995713B2
The audio signals associated with different co-located groups of talkers in a teleconference are detected (e.g., by comparing the voiceprint for the current talker group with stored voiceprints corresponding to all of the co-located teleconference participants) and processed using different and appropriate automatic gain control (AGC) levels, where each group has a corresponding stored AGC level. Depending on the embodiment, each group may have one or more participants.
US07995710B2
A call center system used for receiving incoming calls in accordance with the present information has a plurality of terminals, an incoming-call control apparatus and an exchange. Each of the terminals is accommodated by the exchange and includes a display unit as well as a telephone unit; an audio recording & playback unit for recording voices of a conversation between an operator operating the terminal and a caller making an call in a conversation-voice recording file and for playing back voices from the conversation-voice recording file and a response-information-creating unit for creating a response to an incoming call. Further each of the terminals includes a halfway-saving & saving unit for saving a halfway response being created in a halfway-response recording file and for saving a completed response in a response recording file; a saved-halfway-response-reading unit for reading out the halfway response from the halfway-response recording file; a saved-halfway-response-display unit for displaying a halfway response stored in the halfway-response recording file read out by the saved-halfway-response-reading unit on the display unit; and a status-notifying unit for reporting status of being able or unable to receive an incoming call to the incoming-call control apparatus.
US07995704B2
Disclosed herein is a panoramic X-ray photographing apparatus and a method for photographing using the same. The present invention relates to the panoramic X-ray photographing apparatus capable of conducting a panoramic photographing without generating X-ray in neck cervical vertebrae part employing a rotary arm driven in 3-axis direction. In case of scanning the neck cervical vertebrae part, a photographing can be conduct without X-ray. As a result, it is possible to prevent an image acquired by the neck cervical vertebrae part from being unclear. Also, an angle of incidence of X-ray at a photographing point can be controlled to be vertical, so that an image distortion phenomenon can be prevented. Furthermore, tempromandibular joint can be photographed at optimum enlargement ratio, thereby acquiring clear image.
US07995702B2
A CT system includes a rotatable gantry having an opening for receiving an object to be scanned, an x-ray source coupled to the gantry and configured to project x-rays through the opening, a generator configured to energize the x-ray source to a first kVp and to a second kVp to generate the x-rays, and a detector having pixels therein, the detector attached to the gantry and positioned to receive the x-rays. The system includes a computer programmed to acquire a first view dataset and a second view dataset with the x-ray source energized to the first kVp, interpolate the first and second view datasets to generate interpolated pixels in an interpolated view dataset at the first kVp, using at least two pixels from each of the first and second view datasets to generate each interpolated pixel in the interpolated view dataset, and generate an image of the object using the interpolated view dataset.
US07995701B2
A plate mounted fuel assembly hold-down system that provides a defined channel for both the insertion and removal of reactor head mounted, fixed in-core detector instrumentation, provides a guided path for the fixed in-core detector during insertion, and shields the instrument shroud against coolant cross flow. The hold-down assembly includes a base plate that seats on the adapter plate of the fuel assembly and has openings that align with the control rod guide thimbles. A hollow sleeve extends through and below a central opening in the base plate to mate with the fuel assembly instrument thimble. The sleeve extends above the base plate and through and above an upper core plate of the reactor. A hold-down bar is slidably mounted on the sleeve and is restrained below the top of the sleeve. A spring is positioned around the sleeve and is captured between the hold-down bar and the base plate.
US07995692B2
A frame synchronization method and device. The method determines the frame start position D. That position D is the same as a position of a window H sliding along the received frame Tr. For various possible positions of the window H and for various blocks Bi of the window H, the method computes a syndrome Sd(i), and the start position D of the received frame Ti is that for which the number of null elements of a syndrome Sd(i) is highest.
US07995689B2
An apparatus and a method can improve the performance of a smart antenna system for signal processing in the frequency domain. The method includes: performing Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) on a plurality of incoming signals received through antennas according to a predetermined FFT window; detecting a boundary of an OFDM symbol and setting the FFT window with a margin as large as a predetermined FFT window offset with reference to the detected symbol boundary; receiving the FFT window offset and generating an FFT window calibration signal; and multiplying the FFT-processed incoming signals by the FFT window calibration signal. The method can improve the reception performance of a base station by compensating for the multi-path channel by using an RX FEQ coefficient obtained by a receiver of a terminal as an FEQ weight of a transmitter of the terminal. Further, the method can generate a uniform non-directional beam by generating a variable omni-directional beam pattern in a smart antenna system.
US07995687B2
Aspects of a method and system for fast and reliable channel classification in Bluetooth networks to detect and avoid channel interferers may include one or more processors that may enable performance of signal strength measurements on received Bluetooth signals at a current selected frequency. At least one data packet received via the Bluetooth signals may be processed to determine the presence of bit errors. The processor(s) may enable characterization of the Bluetooth signals at the current selected frequency based on the signal strength measurements and/or the processing of the data packets. The current selected frequency may be selected during adaptive frequency hopping based on the characterization.
US07995672B2
An embodiment of the present invention includes a transceiver for use in a multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) Orthogonal Frequency Domain Multiplexing (OFDM) wireless communication system. The transceiver decodes and remodulates certain signal fields and uses the same to update the coefficients of a frequency equalizer thereby improving channel estimation and extending training.
US07995664B2
A method of transmitting pilot symbols is disclosed. In a communication system performing communications using a plurality of antennas and multiple carriers, the present invention includes the steps of generating a plurality of pilot symbol sequences based on a basic code sequence, data-processing a plurality of the pilot symbol sequences by allocating each of a plurality of the pilot symbol sequences to the multiple carriers, and transmitting each of a plurality of the data-processed pilot symbol sequences via a corresponding one of a plurality of the antennas.
US07995660B2
A method for matching receiver and transmitter common-mode voltages for a high-speed direct current (DC) serial connection between the receiver and the transmitter includes measuring, at the receiver, a common-mode voltage of the transmitter. The common-mode voltage of the transmitter is an average of a voltage signal transmitted by the transmitter and received by the receiver. The method further includes comparing the common-mode voltage of the transmitter with a common-mode voltage of the receiver. The method further includes maintaining the common-mode voltage of the receiver at a first level at which the common-mode voltage of the receiver substantially matches the common-mode voltage of the transmitter.
US07995654B2
When dividing inputted image data to be coded into image data of a plurality of small regions which are adjacent to each other and coding the image data of an objective small region to be processed among the image data of the plurality of divided small regions which are adjacent to each other, reconstructed image data of a reproduction small region adjacent to the image data of the objective small region to be processed is used as image data of an intra-frame prediction small region of the objective small region to be processed, the image data of the intra-frame prediction small region is used as image data of an optimum prediction small region and image data of a difference small region which are differences between the image data of the objective small region to be processed and the image data of the optimum prediction small region is generated. Then, the generated image data of the difference small region is coded and outputted, and then the coded image data of the difference small region is decoded, so that the reconstructed image data of the reproduction small region is generated by adding the decoded image data of the difference small region to the image data of the optimum prediction small region.
US07995652B2
Systems and methods for the processing of images over bandwidth-limited transmission interfaces, such as processing of high resolution video images over standard analog video interfaces, using multi-stream and/or multi-resolution analog methodology. The disclosed systems and methods may also be implemented to provide video resolutions across standard analog video interfaces in a manner that supports digital capture and imaging techniques obtain useful information from digitally zoomed and enhanced video.
US07995651B2
A moving picture coding method for coding a picture when switching between frame coding and field coding adaptively on a block-by-block basis. The method including determining the maximum number of reference indices for field coding for specifying fields which are to be referred to at the time of field coding, using the maximum number of reference indices for frame coding for specifying frames which are to be referred to at the time of frame coding, and assigning to fields the reference indices for field coding for specifying fields which are to be referred to at the time of field coding, within a range of the determined maximum number thereof, using the reference indices for frame coding for specifying frames which are to be referred to at the time of frame coding.
US07995650B2
The picture coding method according to the present invention is a picture coding method for coding a picture on a block-by-block basis through orthogonal transformation and quantization, and coding a quantization matrix that is used to derive quantization steps for frequencies of orthogonal transformation coefficients, the method comprising: calculating a difference value between each of frequency components included in the quantization matrix and a predetermined value corresponding to said each of the frequency components; and coding the difference value into a variable length code, wherein a code length of the variable length code is shorter as the difference value is smaller, or equal to a code length of a neighboring difference value of said difference value.
US07995648B2
A digital receiver for processing a signal received from a channel includes a digital demodulator and an equalizer coupled to the digital demodulator. The equalizer includes a feedforward filter and a decision feedback equalizer (DFE), wherein the feedforward filter includes a plurality of feedforward filter taps. Coefficients are associated with the plurality of feedforward filter taps and the values of all of the coefficients associated with the plurality of feedforward filter taps are dynamically determined.
US07995636B2
A semiconductor laser apparatus has a Zener diode containing a first semiconductor region of a first conduction type and a second semiconductor region of a second conduction type joined with the first semiconductor region, and a vertical-cavity surface-emitting semiconductor laser diode stacked above the Zener diode and containing at least a first mirror layer of a first conduction type, a second mirror layer of a second conduction type and an active region sandwiched between the first and second mirror layers. The first semiconductor region and the second mirror layer are electrically connected and the second semiconductor region and the first mirror layer are electrically connected.
US07995625B2
Provided is a resonator of a hybrid laser diode. The resonator includes: a substrate including a semiconductor layer where a hybrid waveguide, a multi-mode waveguide, and a single mode waveguide are connected in series; a compound semiconductor waveguide, provided on the hybrid waveguide of the semiconductor layer, having a tapered coupling structure at one end of the compound semiconductor waveguide, the tapered coupling structure overlapping the multi-mode waveguide partially; and a reflection part provided on one end of the single mode waveguide. The multi-mode waveguide has a narrower width than the hybrid waveguide and the single mode waveguide has a narrower width than the multi-mode waveguide.
US07995618B1
A system and a method of transmitting data from a first device to a second device, both devices receiving a clock signal, the first device acting on a first flank of the clock signal and the second device acting on a second flank of the clock signal. A chain of this type of devices may be used, where every second device acts on the first flank and the others on the second flank. In this manner, the data transport may be provided at the clock frequency while allowing backpressure.
US07995603B2
A system and a method for secure distribution of digital media content through a packet-based network such as the Internet. The security of the present invention does not require one-to-one key exchange, but rather enables keys, and/or information required in order to build the key, to be broadcast through the packet-based network. The digital media content is then also preferably broadcast, but cannot be accessed without the proper key. However, preferably only authorized end-user devices are able to access the digital media content, by receiving and/or being able to access the proper key. Thus, the present invention is useful for other types of networks in which digital media content is more easily broadcast rather than unicast, in addition to packet-based networks.
US07995591B2
A system and method for using an IP client attached to the Public Internet, acting as a virtual mobile terminal such as a cell phone, to have full access to mobile telephony services offered by a mobile operator using a SIP2 Mobile gateway. The services include a mobile telephone number, capabilities of sending and receiving short messages and mobile intelligent services such as prepaid billing, number translation, and ring back tones.
US07995586B2
A network device for processing data packets includes input logic, a register, route lookup logic and output processing logic. The input logic receives a data packet having at least one multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) tag, stores the packet and forwards a portion of the packet including the MPLS tag. The route lookup logic receives the portion of the packet, generates next hop information based on the MPLS tag and determines whether at least one MPLS tag is to be removed from the packet before the packet is to be output by the network device. The route lookup logic also modifies a start offset value in the register for each MPLS tag that is to be removed and forwards the start offset. The output processing logic receives the start offset and begins processing the data packet for output at a location identified by the start offset.
US07995582B2
Disclosed is the retransmission control method used in a mobile communication system including mobile terminals (MTs), base stations (BSs) and the radio network controller (RNC) which controls the BSs. When an MT detects data error, it sends the 1st negative acknowledgement (NACK) to the BS. This first NACK includes a cell ID which indicates the cell where the reception data is transmitted. When cell ID in this 1st NACK includes cell ID of a cell besides the cell which the BS itself manages, the BS sends the 2nd NACK to the RNC. This 2nd NACK includes the cell ID and the data number to specify the data in which the mobile terminal detected the data error. The RNC decides the BS where data is to be retransmitted based on the cell IDs in the 2nd NACK and sends data retransmission request to the decided BS.
US07995576B2
Methods, systems and apparatus for reducing apparent latency in content-delivery networks are provided. Sources multicast certain ‘preview multicast streams’ to multiple subscribers. These preview multicast streams provide pre-recorded content of multicast streams. When a subscriber switches to a desired multicast stream, pre-recorded content of the desired multicast stream is reconstructed from a preview multicast stream. Thereafter, the pre-recorded content is played during the setup of the new multicast distribution tree to minimize latency. Once the distribution tree is setup, live content of the desired multicast stream is made available to the subscriber.
US07995572B2
Information that is not dependent on how a GMPLS switch or an MPLS router is set up (information independent of the type of GMPLS switch or MPLS router) is used to obtain attribute values of communication paths and manage communication path configurations in a communication network. Provided is a communication path management system for managing a communication network system in which a communication path is established by transferring communication path establishment control information between data switching apparatuses, including: an information collecting module which collects the communication path establishment control information; an information accumulating module which accumulates the communication path establishment control information collected by the information collecting module; and an information searching module which searches the communication path establishment control information accumulated by the information accumulating module, wherein which communication path is established is derived from the communication path establishment control information searched by the information searching module.
US07995571B2
A system providing a tunnel service capable of data communication between different types of networks. A method of setting an address of a tunnel router in a user node includes: transmitting a message requesting at least one tunnel router address to a tunnel service support server; receiving a message including at least one tunnel router address from the tunnel service support server; and storing the tunnel router address included in the received message. According to the system and method, the address of a tunnel router providing a tunnel service to a user node can be more easily set, and even when the address of the tunnel router changes or a new tunnel router is added, the address of the tunnel router can be easily set without the user manually changing the address of the tunnel router.
US07995566B2
A system and method for implementing telephony devices in a distributed network environment is disclosed. The present invention provides for checking data packets to ensure that non-voice data packets are properly tagged to be transmitted on a native virtual local area network (“VLAN”). Voice data packets transmitted on a separate VLAN with a higher priority.
US07995559B2
In one embodiment of the present invention, a method is provided for redirecting a session established between two endpoints. In such an embodiment, the method comprises receiving a SIP request to redirect the session to a third endpoint; dissociating the two endpoints; suspending a media session between the endpoints; connecting a signaling session between one endpoint and a third endpoint; and connecting the media session. In an alternative embodiment, a method is provided for referring a first endpoint to a second endpoint outside of an established dialog. In such an embodiment, the method comprises receiving a SIP REFER request specifying a uniform resource indicator associated with the second endpoint as a target; identifying a protocol associated with each endpoint; initiating a session with the first endpoint using an appropriate protocol; receiving media control information from the first endpoint; and connecting the session to the second endpoint using an appropriate protocol.
US07995548B2
An autonomously dispersed type wireless network is suitably formed with communication stations avoiding collision of beacons transmitted one to another. In the event that the range of reach of airwaves change and a receivable state is created and beacons collide, a communication station changes the beacon transmission position of itself in response to receiving a beacon from another station at a timing immediately prior to transmission to its own beacon. Also, in the event that beacon collision is exposed due to emergence of a new communication which can perform reception from two systems out of airwave range of each other, the newly-participating station requests one of the communication stations of which the beacons are colliding to change the beacon transmission timing.
US07995547B1
A system and method are described for repeatedly and efficiently performing a wireless communication channel survey to determine whether comparable communications devices exist, which frequencies are in use, and the identities of the comparable communications devices. A beacon data table stores received beacon data which is used to predict beacon arrival times, thereby allowing a receiver to be tuned away from an active data communications channel for a shorter dwell time than a beacon period. A further efficiency can be gained if beacon generators cooperatively stagger their beacon times according to one or more measurable characteristics of the beacon generator, e.g. the operating channel number and the SSID.
US07995542B1
To improve the operating convenience—e.g. versatile, universal application and use—and location-independence (mobility) of the telecommunication of useful data, particularly packet data and/or voice data, using communication devices, a data adapter (DA1, DA2) is allocated both a fixed-part-specific air interface architecture (DÜM, STM, PKM2) for implementing the prescribed air interface protocol, and the air interface architectures associated with the data adapter (DA1, DA2) are activated according to the application instance, i.e., which scenario is to be produced for the telecommunication of useful data and, in particular, which communication device (KE1, KE2) is connected to the data adapter (DA1, DA2).
US07995539B2
A method of scheduling cell search activity in a mobile communication user terminal (28) during transmission gap sequencing in burst mode, the method comprising the steps of: maintaining (404) a table (62) of regular periodic patterns of discreet cell search commands for execution during the transmission gap sequences, wherein the commands are ordered by the desired execution times; and sequentially executing commands (408-414) in the table at the desired execution time.
US07995537B2
Aspects of a method and system for channel estimation in a SM MIMO communication system may comprise receiving a plurality of spatially multiplexed communication signals from a plurality of transmit antennas. A plurality of baseband combined channel estimates based on phase rotation may be generated in response to the received plurality of spatially multiplexed communication signals. An estimate of the channel matrix may be determined based on the baseband combined channel estimates. A plurality of amplitude and phase correction signals may be generated in response to receiving the estimate of the channel matrix. An amplitude and a phase of at least a portion of the received plurality of spatially multiplexed communication signals may be adjusted based on the generated plurality of amplitude and phase correction signals, respectively.
US07995532B2
To allocate a terminal apparatus to a time slot to which a plurality of subcarriers are assigned, a base station apparatus first acquires the strength of signals between the base station apparatus and the terminal apparatus. Then the base station apparatus specifies a group, containing the acquired strength, among a plurality of groups. The plurality of groups are predefined in a manner such that the ranges of values of the acquired strengths differs respectively. Time slots to be allocated are predefined respectively for the plurality of groups. A time slot corresponding to the specified group is selected, and a subcarrier to be assigned to the terminal apparatus is selected from among a plurality of subcarriers contained in the selected time slot.
US07995529B2
A cellular network having a plurality of mobile stations and a plurality of cells. Each cell is configured to provide communication services to the plurality of mobile stations using at least two overlapping channels. Each cell includes a base station configured to provide communication services using at least four channels, which include the overlapping channels, within a service area divided into three or four sectors. The service area may be hexagonal or square shaped. A first pair of the four channels has an overlapping portion. A second pair of the four channels, the channels of the second pair being different channels than those of the first pair, may also have an overlapping portion. The four channels may each comprise a portion of an Educational Broadband Service/Broadcast Radio Services band. The first and second pairs of channels may be nonadjacent to one another.
US07995528B1
A cellular system utilizes different codebooks of precoding vectors for different receivers within a particular cell. A set of different codebooks is designed and then used by a base station as a basis to allocate to various receivers in a dynamic fashion. In at least some embodiments, the codebooks are designed to be non-overlapping in angular space. For example, codebooks can be designed to be generally orthogonal to one another thereby increasing the separation between receivers that use the different codebooks. In at least some embodiments, codebooks can be allocated responsive to a determination that two or more receivers are geographically proximate one another in a manner which would permit an undesirable amount of interference. In yet other embodiments, codebooks can be allocated in a more random fashion.
US07995527B2
Power control methods and apparatus for use in a sectorized cell of an OFDM communications system are described. Each sector of a cell uses the same frequencies and transmission times and is synchronized with the other sectors in the cell in terms of tone frequencies used at any given time and symbol transmission times. Tones are allocated to channels in each cell in the same manner so that each channel in a sector has a corresponding channel in another sector. Power differences between channels in different sectors are maintained to be within a pre-selected power difference. Different channels in a cell are assigned different power levels. Wireless terminals are assigned to channels based on channel feedback information. Wireless terminals with poor channel conditions are allocated to higher power channels than wireless terminals with good channel conditions. Lower power channels often include more tones per symbol time than high power channels.
US07995526B2
A method includes identifying a white space at a first wireless node and selecting a channel in the identified white space. The white space includes at least one frequency or frequency band not in use (like a licensed frequency or frequency band). The method also includes identifying at the first wireless node a channel access factor for each of multiple wireless nodes including the first wireless node. The method further includes determining if the first wireless node has a specified channel access factor. In addition, the method includes transmitting data from the first wireless node on the channel when the first wireless node has the specified channel access factor. The channel access factors can be identified and the determination whether the first wireless node has the specified channel access factor can be performed without using control signals transmitted between the wireless nodes. The channel access factor could represent a hash function value.
US07995519B2
The invention relates to a method for centralised management of a set of network nodes. The method includes supporting, in a centralised management entity, operations of at least one predefined management interface, wherein said predefined management interface is specific to said centralised management entity, implementing, at least partially, at least one of said predefined management interfaces in the network nodes of said set, and controlling, via said centralised management entity, a network node of said set by means of a management interface implementation relating to said node.
US07995518B2
A method of exchanging information by the Internet protocol in the form of datagrams each including a TOS field normally dedicated to receiving routing parameters. The method includes configuring network equipment to define an identification zone in the TOS field and associating equipment of a first type with identifiers that can be encoded in said identification zone. When a piece of equipment of the first type sends a datagram to a piece of equipment of the second type, the identifier of the piece of equipment of the first type in question is encoded in the identification zone. When the datagram is received by the equipment of the second type, it is first checked that the identifier appears in a table of authorized identifiers prior to accepting the datagram.
US07995516B2
A mobile wireless bridge (MWB) (110) is able to bridge traffic in either direction between a wireless LAN (140) and a wireless WAN (130), and support roaming of LAN clients (141-143, 151-153) and of the MWB (110) itself. Through the MWB (110), wired (150) and wireless LAN (140) clients (141-143, 151-153) and users are provided Internet (190) connectivity even if the LAN client (141-143, 151-153) is not otherwise able to access the wireless WAN (120). Preferred MWBs (110) will utilize mobile cellular communication networks 100 as part of a WAN (120, 130) used to obtain access to Internet (190) resources. LAN clients (141-143, 151-153) and users can also access each other through the MWB (110) with the MWB (110) functioning as a hub, switch, gateway, and/or access point. Some MWBs (110) will be adapted to access multiple types of LANs (140, 150) and multiple types of WANs (120, 130).
US07995498B2
A method and system provides dynamic configuration of network elements using hierarchical inheritance. The method includes monitoring a data network, detecting a change associated with a configuration of the data network, identifying one or more member groups affected by the detected change, and modifying the network configuration for the one or more member groups in the data network.
US07995487B2
Routing packets in a wireless security system. The system includes a network hub that wirelessly sends and receives packets, at least one sensor that wirelessly sends and receives packets to and from the network hub, and a packet router that monitors the packet communications between the network hub and the at least one sensor. The packet router determines when a communication failure occurs, and the packet router is configured to send a first message packet to the network hub if a first type of communication failure occurs and a second message packet to the at least one sensor if a second type of communication failure occurs.
US07995484B2
A communication apparatus including a network controller configured to control communication connection to a different apparatus; and a main controller configured to control state detection of the network controller and data communication with the different apparatus connected to the communication apparatus through the network controller, wherein the main controller controlling the network controller to execute the state detection at predetermined intervals and repetitively transmit a state notification request to the different apparatus at the predetermined intervals and detect a communication disabled state with the different apparatus in response to a response to the state notification request from the different apparatus.
US07995483B1
In general, techniques are described for simultaneously testing connectivity to same or different remote maintenance endpoints of the same maintenance association. Specifically, a network device may include a control unit that simultaneously executes both a first and a second maintenance session. The control unit maintains first and second session identifiers that uniquely identifies the first and second maintenance sessions. The control unit receives via the first maintenance session input that specifies parameters for a maintenance message and generates the maintenance message in accordance with the parameters such that the maintenance message includes the first session identifier. The network device also includes an interface card that forwards the maintenance message to another network device in order to determine connectivity between these two network devices. By generating the maintenance message to include the first session identifier, the control unit may upon receiving a response to the maintenance message resolve to which of the maintenance session the response corresponds.
US07995482B2
Femto base stations and methods described herein suppress the need for an external GPS antenna and cable, while still providing a network service provider with the ability to obtain the desired GPS location coordinates and the user with the flexibility of placing the femto cell at the location of their choice within a home regardless of GPS signal strength.
US07995480B2
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to reconfiguring communication routing architecture. A determination may be made that loading on one or more routing entities require adjustment. Adjustment may be required in situations where, for example, the amount of data to convey or the number of clients to service overcome the abilities of the router. In reconfiguring the communication routing architecture, some of the routing responsibility for the heavily loaded routers may be offloaded to neighboring routers and/or clients.
US07995478B2
A method for network communication and an apparatus for discovery of a maximum transmission unit (MTU) size in a path between two nodes of a network are disclosed. A plurality of test packets of varying transmission unit (TU) size may be sent from the first host to the second host. A “do not fragment” (DF) flag for the test packets is not set. It is determined whether one or more of the test packets were received by the second host. An estimated path MTU for a network path between the first and second hosts size may then be calculated based on one or more patterns of receipt of the test packets by the second host. Once the estimated Path MTU size has been determined, message packets of a size less than or equal to the Path MTU size may be sent over the network path.
US07995443B2
A method to store information in a holographic data storage medium, wherein the method supplies a holographic data storage medium comprising an encoded focusing hologram and one or more encoded data holograms. The method disposes the holographic data storage medium in a holographic data storage system, and disposes a rotatable imaging lens at an (i)th orientation. The method illuminates the encoded focusing hologram to generate an (i)th reconstructed focusing image, projects that (i)th reconstructed focusing image through the rotatable imaging lens, and onto at optical detector array. The method then calculates an (i)th measured focusing metric, and determines if the (i)th measured focusing metric is greater than or equal to the threshold focusing metric. If the (i)th measured focusing metric is greater than or equal to the threshold focusing metric, then the method decodes the one or more encoded data holograms.
US07995441B2
The invention discloses an optical recording drive for recording data on an optical carrier such as an optical disk of the DVD or BD format. A radiation source is arranged to emit a write pulse train (80) for writing an optically detectable effect (90) i.e. a pit or mark. Photo detection means (10) detects a first reflected radiation beam pulse (R1) from a start time portion of the write pulse train (80) and generates a corresponding first signal (PS1) indicative of the power in the first pulse, the photo detection means (10) further detects a second reflected radiation pulse (R2) from an end time portion of the write pulse train (80) and generates a corresponding second signal (PS2) indicative of the power in the second pulse. By comparing (e.g. the heights of) the first signal (PS1) and the second signal (PS2), it is possible to get an indication of the received power in the optically detectable effect (90) as delivered by a power level (81; 82) in the write pulse train (80) continuously during writing and for a broad range of carrier rotation speeds.
US07995438B2
Upon scanning with an optical spot from a first address on the first recording layer as a start point for a second address on the second recording layer which is a target address for reproducing in order to detect a reproduction position, a scanning path for reaching the second address by scanning an already recorded zone of at least one of the first recording layer and the second recording layer is selected from a first scanning path to carry out seeking after a focus jump and a second scanning path to carry out seeking before the focus jump, based on a positional relationship between a known boundary position between a not-yet-recorded zone and an already-recorded zone of the first recording layer or the second recording layer and the first address.
US07995436B2
A recording device for performing recording supporting an optical disk-shaped recording medium having a laminated structure includes a first recording layer and a second recording layer. The recording device includes: a recording section configured to record data in the first recording layer and the second recording layer by irradiating the optical disk-shaped recording medium with laser light; a recording control section configured to control the recording section so as to perform recording in the first recording layer first and next perform recording in the second recording layer when the recording is performed sequentially on the optical disk-shaped recording medium; a pseudo defect area setting section configured to set a pseudo defect area in the second recording layer; and a defect registering section configured to register the real defect area and the pseudo defect area as a defect area.
US07995433B2
In an optical head apparatus and an optical disc apparatus which can reduce influence of interlayer stray light on a differential push-pull signal without making the configuration complicated, Uy=Ty×N1 is satisfied, where Ty denotes a length in the y-direction of one period of an interference fringe which is formed on the photodetector 9 by reflected light of the zero-order diffracted light by an information recording surface other than the access-target information recording surface, reflected light of the positive-first-order diffracted light by the information recording surface other than the access-target information recording surface, and reflected light of the negative-first-order diffracted light by the information recording surface other than the access-target information recording surface, N1 denotes a positive integer, and Uy denotes each length in the y-direction of the divisional light-receiving elements 9e, 9f, 9g, and 9h. Furthermore, Vy=(Ty/2)×{N2−(½)} is satisfied, where N2 denotes a positive integer and Vy denotes a distance to a division line of the divisional light-receiving elements 9g and 9h and a distance to a division line of the divisional light-receiving elements 9e and 9f, from a center of a main-beam light-receiving unit 9M.
US07995431B2
The optical disc device has a circuit 4 which forms a focus error signal FER for focus servo control based on reflection light from an optical disc exposed to laser light. A data processing unit 2 can control by feedback a position to which an objective lens is moved by a focusing actuator 30 based on the focus error signal. In label printing, the data processing unit controls, by feedforward, a position to which the objective lens is moved by the focusing actuator based on control data for label printing. The operation resolution of the focusing actuator in feedforward control is made higher than that in feedback control. Thus, an intended position control accuracy is achieved in feedforward control. For instance, in feedforward control, the gain of the driver circuit 40 for the focusing actuator is switched to a smaller one in comparison to that in feedback control.
US07995428B2
An optical disc apparatus of the present invention includes an optical head (103) including a lens disposed at a position shifted from a traverse axis in a tangential direction, a traverse motor (104) as a second moving unit that moves the optical head (103) in a direction traversing tracks of the optical disc (101), a number-of-tracks calculating part (123) that calculates, as the number of tracks to be sought, the number of tracks that the optical head will traverse when moving from a first address to a second address of the optical disc (101), a tracking-drive-signal-at-seek generating part (112) and a traverse-drive-signal-at-seek generating part (119) as seek controlling units that move a convergent point of an optical beam from the first address to the second address, and a number-of-tracks correcting part (124) that corrects the number of tracks to be sought according to a shift amount of the lens from the traverse axis.
US07995417B2
The present invention provides a semiconductor memory circuit capable of reducing current consumption at non-operation in a system equipped with a plurality of chips that share the use of a power supply, address signals and a data bus. The semiconductor memory circuit has an internal circuit which is capable of selectively performing the supply and stop of an operating voltage via switch means and includes a memory array. An input circuit, which receives a predetermined control signal therein, controls the supply and stop of the operating voltage by the switch means to reduce a DC current and a leak current when no memory operation is done, whereby low power consumption can be realized.
US07995416B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a clock synchronizing unit for receiving a first power voltage through a first power voltage terminal, and an additional power voltage providing unit for additionally providing a second power voltage to the first power voltage terminal for a predetermined period after leaving a power down mode.
US07995413B2
A memory device is a provided that includes memory cells situated at the intersection of lines and columns, and a dummy path including a first dummy column having two bit lines to which there are connected dummy memory cells, and a circuit adapted to select at least one of the dummy memory cells to discharge one of the dummy bit lines. The dummy path also includes at least one second dummy column adapted to generate a dummy leakage current (representing a leakage current of a column of the memory device selected in read mode), and a circuit adapted to copy the dummy leakage current to the one dummy bit line, so that the discharge of the one dummy bit line also depends on the dummy leakage current.
US07995395B2
A selected memory cell on a selected word line is programmed through a plurality of programming pulses that are incremented by a step voltage. After a successful program verify operation, programming of the selected memory cell is inhibited while other memory cells of the selected word line are being programmed. Another program verify operation is performed on the selected memory cell. If the program verify operation fails, a bit line coupled to the selected cell is biased at the step voltage and a final programming pulse is issued to the selected word line. The selected memory cell is then locked from further programming without evaluating the final program verify operation.
US07995388B1
A method for data storage includes storing data in a target analog memory cell, which is one of a group of analog memory cells that are connected in series with one another, by writing an input storage value into the target memory cell. A first read operation, which reads a first output storage value from the target memory cell while biasing the other memory cells with respective first pass voltages, is applied to the target memory cell. A second read operation, which reads a second output storage value from the target memory cell while biasing the other memory cells with respective second pass voltages, is applied to the target memory cell. At least one of the second pass voltages is different from a respective first pass voltage. The data is reconstructed responsively to the first and second output storage values.
US07995378B2
In a particular embodiment, a memory device includes a first memory cell and a second memory cell. The memory device also includes a first bit line associated with the first memory cell and a second bit line associated with the second memory cell. The memory device also includes a source line coupled to the first memory cell and coupled to the second memory cell.
US07995353B2
A circuit board includes four positioning pads placed on a surface of the circuit board, four positioning holes corresponding to the positioning pads, respectively, and a solder mask placed on the surface around the periphery of the positioning pads. An arc-shaped recess is defined at a side of each positioning pad near the corresponding positioning hole and the space between the edges of the positioning pad and the positioning hole ranges from 0.2 mm to 0.5 mm.
US07995350B2
A component retention mechanism facilitates improved installation, retention and removal of hardware components (e.g., PCI cards) on a personal computer. The retention mechanism includes a locking component, support member, and release mechanism coupled to each other. The locking component can be a steel bar or other stiff item positioned proximate to multiple socket connectors on a circuit board. The locking component moves between unlocked and locked positions that mechanically and simultaneously unlock or lock in place multiple add-in cards inserted into the socket connectors. The support member moves and thereby facilitates movement of the locking component between locked and unlocked positions. The release mechanism facilitates movement of the support member and is actuated when a force is exerted by a user thereto. An associated slider housing coupled to the release mechanism and support member includes a fan, support shelves and a door that provides additional support to oversized PCI cards.
US07995349B2
A storage device transporter is provided for transporting a storage device and for mounting a storage device within a test slot. The storage device transporter includes a frame that is configured to receive and support a storage device, and a clamping mechanism associated with the frame. The clamping mechanism is operable to apply a clamping force to a storage device supported by the frame The storage device transporter also includes a temperature sensor (e.g., a thermocouple). The clamping mechanism is operable to move the temperature sensor into contact with a storage device supported by the frame for measuring a temperature of the storage device.
US07995345B2
A chassis may include a front section that contains a first electronic circuit board oriented in a first plane, a rear section that contains a second electronic circuit board oriented in a second plane, where the first plane and the second plane are substantially orthogonal, a midplane dividing the front and the rear sections, and a fan tray assembly including a plurality of fans to cool both the first electronic circuit board of the front section and the second electronic circuit board of the rear section.
US07995339B2
In a method of controlling vent tiles, the vent tiles are initially correlated with at least one rack. A vent tile family (VTF) of the at least one rack is determined, where the VTF includes vent tiles that have at least a predefined level of influence over the at least one rack as determined by the correlation between the vent tiles and the at least one rack. In addition, a vent control family (VCF) from the vent tiles in the VTF is identified, where the VCF includes vent tiles having an associated at least one rack whose inlet condition is outside of a predefined threshold. Moreover, the vent tiles in the VCF are controlled on a weighted basis determined by the correlation between the vent tiles and the at least one rack.
US07995337B2
The present invention relates to a shock-absorbing structure for a storage apparatus, which includes a first arm and a second arm. The first and the second arms are secured on both sides of a storage apparatus. One or more first penetrating troughs and one or more second penetrating troughs are adapted on the first and the second arms, respectively. A plurality of first buffer members is adapted on the first and the second penetrating troughs. By securing the storage apparatus using the present invention, shocks imposed on the storage apparatus can be eased, and thereby the lifetime can be increased.
US07995335B2
A system for housing storage devices in an electronic device includes a first drive bracket, a second drive bracket; and a chassis having the first or the second drive bracket installed therein. The first drive bracket defines a plurality of first rooms for accommodating first disk drives therein. The second drive bracket defines a plurality of second rooms for accommodating second disk drives therein. The first disk drives are sized different from the second disk drives.
US07995321B2
An ionization device with increased rigidity of a coupling portion is provided. The ionization device includes a casing member for applying high voltage to each needle electrode; a coupling member for mechanically coupling a plurality of casing members in a longitudinal direction and electrically connecting high voltage plates of the respective casing members; and a elongated main body casing for housing a casing body constituted by coupling the plurality of casing members with the coupling member and the electrical circuit unit, the main body casing having the needle electrodes with a space from each other in the longitudinal direction and protruding outside. The main body casing integrally forms a space for arranging the casing body therein so as to be separated from a space for arranging the electrical circuit unit. With this configuration, the casing body to be applied with the high voltage is separated from the electrical circuit unit including a portion having low voltage, thereby avoiding unnecessary discharge.
US07995318B1
Power at a selected frequency in the high frequency region of the spectrum is supplied by a power converter having a wide range of input voltages. The power converter uses a source oscillator and a NOR gate. The source oscillator generates a rectangular wave at the selected frequency and supplies that signal to one of the NOR gate inputs. The rectangular wave is differentiated and the differentiated signal is supplied to the second NOR input along with a feedback signal from an amplifier controlled by the NOR gate's output.
US07995314B2
Certain exemplary embodiments can provide a fault detection system, which can comprise a circuit breaker that is adapted to protect an electrical circuit. The circuit breaker can comprise a screen adapted to render a user interface. The user interface can comprise an arc fault detection circuit status indicator indicative of an automatic detection of an electrical circuit arc fault by the circuit breaker.
US07995313B2
An arc discharge in a plasma process is detected using a method that includes detecting arc discharges by monitoring one or more characteristic values of the plasma process, and comparing at least a first characteristic value with a predefinable first threshold value (SW1). When it is determined that the at least first characteristic value reaches the first threshold value, a potential arc discharge is recognized and a first countermeasure is triggered to suppress the arc discharge. The method includes comparing at least a second characteristic value with a pre-definable second threshold value (SW2) that differs from the first threshold value, and when it is determined that the second characteristic value reaches the second threshold value, triggering a second countermeasure for suppressing the arc discharge. After the second countermeasure has been triggered, a renewed triggering of the second countermeasure is prevented during a blocking time (Tt).
US07995312B2
Electric fault current limiter has superconducting elements inside a cryogenic vessel and bushings for connecting an external circuit. The electric fault current limiter (1) includes a cryogenic vessel (2) and superconducting assemblies (5) including high temperature type superconducting elements (HTSC) immersed in a liquid coolant (6) such as liquefied nitrogen. Bushings (25, 28) with conductors (17, 18) are associated with a main body (3) of the vessel (2) such that the conductors (17, 18) extend horizontally from a surrounding space into an ullage space (8) situated between a level (7) of the liquid coolant (6) inside the vessel (2) and a cover (4). The arrangement of the bushings (25, 28) according to the invention allows for removing the cover (4) without dismantling electrical connections between the current limiter (1) and a circuit to be protected as is necessary with prior art limiters.
US07995311B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a magnetic shield composed of size-controlled small crystal grains and provide a more after-write read noise free thin film magnetic head. According to one embodiment of the present invention, an upper magnetic shield uses a multi-layered magnetic film formed by alternately stacking a face-centered cubic (fcc) crystalline magnetic thin layer and a body-centered cubic (bcc) crystalline magnetic thin layer by plating. The plating bath is such that the temperature is 30±1° C., pH is about 2.0−1.0 to 2.0+0.5, metal ion concentrations are about 5 to 25 (g/l) for Ni2+ and 5 to 15 (g/l) for Fe2+, saccharin sodium concentration is about 1.5±1.0 (g/l), sodium chloride concentration is about 25±5 (g/l), and boric acid concentration is about 25±5 (g/l). Each layer's crystal structure is different from that of its upper and lower layers, which results in size-controlled small crystal grains since the epitaxial growth is broken. Since crystal grains are reduced in size, it is possible to suppress the after-write read noise and therefore attain a read head which allows recording at higher frequencies.
US07995305B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, are described for calibrating voice coil motors. In one aspect, a method is provided that includes seeking toward an outer diameter of a machine readable medium from a target servo track to a blank portion of the machine readable medium. A radial velocity of an actuator is determined after accelerating the actuator to a target radial velocity. The radial velocity is compared to the target radial velocity, and a current, that is used to controllably modify the radial velocity of the actuator if the radial velocity is different from the target radial velocity, is calibrated.
US07995293B2
An image pickup lens includes: a first lens block with a positive power and a second lens block. The first lens block includes a first lens substrate, a lens portion 1a with a positive power, formed on an object-side surface of the first lens substrate, and a lens portion 1b with a negative power, formed on an image-side surface of the first lens substrate. The object-side surface of the lens portion 1a is a convex surface, and an image-side surface of the lens portion 1b is a concave surface. The second lens block includes a second lens substrate, and a lens portion 2a with a negative power, formed on an object-side surface of the second lens substrate. The object-side surface of the lens portion 2a is a concave surface. The image pickup lens satisfies the predetermined conditional expressions.
US07995290B2
An objective lens for converging light emitted from a light source on an optical recording medium to record and reproduce information consists of a single lens having at least one aspheric surface. The following conditional expressions (1) to (3) are satisfied: N≦1.75 (1) 0.5
US07995287B2
A lens barrel includes: a lens holding frame holding a lens; a barrel body housing the lens holding frame; motion conversion means for converting rotary motion of the lens holding frame into reciprocating motion along the optical axis of the lens; a manual ring provided on the outer side of the barrel body and rotating around the optical axis; a coreless stepper motor provided on the outer side of the barrel body and rotating around the optical axis; rollers provided between the manual ring and the stepper motor, and rotating in synchronization with the rotation of the manual ring and the stepper motor; motor rotation preventing means for preventing the stepper motor from rotating when the rollers transfer the rotation of the manual ring; an intermediate ring rotating around the optical axis; and a transfer unit transferring the rotary motion of the intermediate ring to the lens holding frame.
US07995282B2
A pair of optical prisms arranged in a complementary relationship provides for anamorphic magnification and cooperates with a refractive or diffractive cylindrical lens element, the later of which generates an aberration that at least partially compensates an aberration generated by the pair of optical prisms. The refractive or diffractive cylindrical lens element is rotated out of normal with respect to the optic axis of the system so as to provide for reflecting stray light away from the optic axis.
US07995276B2
A first and a second wave plates using quartz crystal having birefringence are laminated together in such a manner that their optical axes intersect to form a laminated wave plate functioning as a half-wave plate as a whole. Phase differences of the first and the second wave plates relative to an ordinary ray and an extraordinary ray with respect to a predetermined wavelength λ are set to be Γ1 and Γ2, an order of a high-mode order is set to be a natural number n, whereby the high-order mode laminated half-wave plate is formed so as to satisfy: Γ1=180°+360°×n; and Γ2=180°+360°×n.
US07995266B2
Particles for display media are constructed as spherical resin fine particles, in which functional groups indicating positively-charging properties are existent on their surfaces, which are obtained by polymerizing monomer by utilizing initiator having functional groups indicating positively-charging properties produced by reacting organic alkyl sulfonates and both terminal ends of azo initiator having cationic functional group including nitrogen-containing heterocycle or nitrogen-containing fatty series, or, are constructed as spherical resin fine particles, in which functional group indicating charging properties or ionic properties are existent on their surfaces, which are obtained by polymerizing monomer by utilizing initiator having functional groups indicating charging properties or ionic properties at its both terminal ends.
US07995257B2
A holographic storage medium includes a hologram including data recorded in a plurality of pages in a superimposed fashion by interference of a signal beam and a reference beam, and an additional page recorded between two adjacent pages in the plurality of pages, wherein a portion of the data is recorded to a region of the additional page having a relatively small selectivity compared to other regions of the additional page without recording on the other regions.
US07995256B2
A main object of the present invention is to provide a transparent card with a hologram having the excellent design property and a high security property. The present invention achieves the object by providing a transparent card with a hologram, characterized by comprising a configuration with a transparent card substrate made of a resin transparent with respect to a visible light, and a hologram layer having a computer generated hologram part to function as a transmission type Fourier transform lens laminated.
US07995245B2
Methods of the present invention allow for optimization of color and shades of gray documents prior to their conversion to a monochrome format. If color/gray elements are identified in the document, the distance between them and their intensity is determined. If there are elements with the same or similar intensity in close proximity to each other, colors of some of the elements may be replaced with solid monochrome colors, and/or dithered surfaces, and/or monochrome patterns. Further, the elements may be outlined. These improvements make elements in the document more distinguishable after its conversion to a monochrome format. The described color optimization and outlining may have wide applicability in the Internet Fax technology.
US07995243B2
The invention distinguishes not only character areas and halftone dot areas in an image, but also makes highly accurate decisions concerning characters present in halftone dot areas. A decision signal generating unit generates a decision signal having luminance as a main component from a signal indicating inputted image data, and supplies the decision signal to a character decision unit, a halftone dot decision unit, and a character-in-halftone dot decision unit. The character decision unit generates data indicating whether a pixel of interest is inside a character image area. The halftone dot decision unit generates data indicating whether a pixel of interest is inside a halftone dot area. The character-in-halftone dot decision unit generates data indicating whether there is a character image inside the halftone dot area. Based on these three signals, an attribute flag generating unit generates attribute data of the pixel of interest.
US07995239B2
Correction processing is performed on a region that requires correction processing, in a photographed image obtained by taking a photograph of a subject, and a corrected image is obtained. The degree of effect is calculated in the corrected image. Then, judgment is made, based on the magnitude of the degree of effect, as to whether it is required to check the effect of correction processing performed on the photographed image. If it is judged that it is required to check the effect of correction processing, at least one of the photographed image and the corrected image is displayed to check the effect. Then, the corrected image is printed.
US07995232B2
Image data for printing corresponding to document data of all pages of each stored document file is produced in a vector form. Image data for printing corresponding to document data of a representative page of each stored document file is produced in a bitmap form. Moreover, each produced bitmap-form image data for printing is displayed while successively switched every document unit. Furthermore, each of the produced bitmap-form and vector-form image data for printing is displayed while successively switched every page unit.
US07995231B2
A document managing apparatus includes a determining unit which determines whether a document print image can be generated or not when the document is entered in file managing information in which a data file is entered, the data file constituting the document which is a managing target, a print image generating unit which generates the document print image when the determining unit determines that the document print image can be generated, the document print image being entered as the file in the file managing information, an application start-up unit which starts up an application program according to the document when the determining unit determines that the document print image cannot be generated, and a screen dump generating unit which generates a screen dump of the document entered as the file in the information based on the document displayed on a display unit by the application program started.
US07995228B2
A web publishing method using J2EE based controller. User submits an image from a workstation and chooses “Print to Website” option as the media type. The image is converted into an image format (e.g. JPEG) that can be display in a browser. These images can then be transmitted through a new output channel that would package them into a J2EE EAR file. The J2EE EAR file would abide by all J2EE conventions for specifying the URL and user interfaces via Struts MVC (Model View Controller). The EAR file can then be dropped in the JBoss deployment directory where it would be made available to the user. The user can receive a prompt at the driver or client tool interface letting them know that printing was successful, presenting them with the new URL, and optionally asking them to password the new web site if so desired.
US07995220B2
An image forming apparatus that forms an image on a recording paper fed from a paper cassette, the apparatus comprises: a housing that accommodates the paper cassette to be drawn toward the front side of the housing and has an opening in the side surface of the housing; and a lid body including a covering part and a sliding part that slidably supports the covering part, the covering part having a member that covers the opening of the side surface of the housing and projects toward the inner side than the opening, the covering part and the sliding part integrally separating from the opening, and the covering part sliding in parallel to the opening.
US07995214B2
An apparatus for recording a shape of a section of the human ear is provided. The apparatus has a recording device for recording a spatial shape of a first and a second subsection of the section and for recording a position or a variable representing the position of the first and the second subsection relative to a predetermined optical feature of the section. The apparatus has an evaluation device for obtaining shape information about the section by combination of the shapes of the subsections based on the recorded positions or the variables representing the respective position. This enables a number of individual images to be joined together into a three-dimensional map based on natural features in the auditory canal, such as skin flecks or veins for example.
US07995200B2
An analyzer in which optical measurement is performed with respect to a sample placed in optically transparent cells of an analysis tool includes a light source unit, a light-receiving unit, a tray on which the tool is placed, and a drive mechanism for driving the tray. The tray includes a holding section that holds the tool in a predetermined position. The drive mechanism reciprocates the tray between a first position where the tool placed on the tray is exposed to the outside of the analyzer and a second position where the tool is accommodated inside the analyzer. The light source unit is disposed so that emitted light is incident on a cell of the tool when the tray is located in the second position. The light-receiving unit is disposed so as to receive light transmitted through the cell when the tray is located in the second position.
US07995187B2
A lithographic apparatus includes a substrate table which holds a substrate, a projection system which projects a patterned beam of radiation onto the substrate, the projection system having a final optical element adjacent the substrate, a liquid supply system which provides a liquid to a space between the projection system and the substrate table, and a cleaning system which cleans the substrate table.
US07995183B2
A pixel TFT formed in a pixel region is formed on a first substrate by a channel etch type reverse stagger type TFT, and patterning of a source region and a drain region, and patterning of a pixel electrode are performed by the same photomask. A driver circuit formed by using TFTs having a crystalline semiconductor layer, and an input-output terminal dependent on the driver circuit, are taken as one unit. A plurality of units are formed on a third substrate, and afterward the third substrate is partitioned into individual units, and the obtained stick drivers are mounted on the first substrate.
US07995177B2
A liquid crystal display device includes: a vertical alignment liquid crystal layer; first and second substrates facing each other with the liquid crystal layer interposed; first and second electrodes arranged on the first and second substrates to face the liquid crystal layer; and at least one alignment film in contact with the liquid crystal layer. A pixel region includes a first liquid crystal domain in which liquid crystal molecules are tilted in a first direction around the center of a plane, and approximately at the middle of the thickness, of the liquid crystal layer responsive to a voltage applied. The first liquid crystal domain is close to at least a part of an edge of the first electrode. The part includes a first edge portion in which an azimuthal direction, perpendicular to the part and pointing toward the inside of the first electrode, defines an angle greater than 90 degrees to the first direction. The first or second substrate has an opaque member including a first opaque portion for selectively shielding at least a part of the first edge portion from incoming light.
US07995170B2
In a liquid crystal display apparatus in which a liquid crystal domain having radially tilted orientation is formed in a pixel, high-quality reflection display with occurrence of an afterimage being suppressed is attained. The liquid crystal display apparatus of this invention includes a first substrate 110a, a second substrate 110b and a vertically aligned liquid crystal layer 120 placed therebetween, and has pixels each including a first electrode 111, a second electrode 131 and a liquid crystal layer located therebetween. The first substrate includes a reflection layer 116 having a concave/convex surface and an insulating layer 117 formed to cover the reflection layer. The first electrode 111 is placed on the insulating layer 117 and has a shape defined to exert alignment regulating force with which at least one liquid crystal domain having radially tilted orientation is formed in the liquid crystal layer in a voltage applied state. The second substrate 110b has a protrusion 125 protruding toward the liquid crystal layer in a region corresponding to the liquid crystal domain.
US07995166B2
A display panel, a display device, and a terminal device, which can achieve a high image quality by decreasing deterioration of the image quality that may be caused due to combining a reflection plate including an uneven structure with an image distributing device, are provided. The display panel includes a lenticular lens for distributing light emitted from each of pixels towards different directions from each other along an arranging direction (a first direction) of a pixel for displaying an image for a first viewpoint and a pixel for displaying an image for a second viewpoint within a pixel unit, wherein a reflection plate including an uneven structure is formed in each of the pixels, and a layout pattern of the uneven structure on the reflection plate is different to the lenticular lens.
US07995159B2
A liquid crystal display apparatus, includes a liquid crystal panel including a first substrate, a second substrate disposed in an opposing relationship to the first substrate with a space left, and a liquid crystal layer provided in the space between the first and second substrates, the liquid crystal panel including a pixel region in which a plurality of pixels are provided on the faces of the first and second substrates which oppose to each other such that illuminating light irradiated from the first substrate side upon the second substrate side is transmitted through the pixel region to display an image, and the liquid crystal panel further including a light scattering layer provided on the face of the first substrate on which the illuminating light is illuminated and configured to scatter and transmit the light.
US07995153B2
An image processing system includes a display device, a liquid crystal module, and a control device. The display device is used for outputting a first set of images and a second set of images. The first set of images and the second set of images have different visual angles. The liquid crystal module is disposed at a side of the display device. The control device is electrically coupled to the display device and the liquid crystal module. The control device includes a power source and a control unit. The control unit is electrically coupled to the power source for controlling whether the power source should input an electric field to a twisted nematic liquid layer of the liquid crystal module or not.
US07995151B2
A method and system for airing broadcast signals is disclosed. Preferably, the system includes a production truck interface panel receiving a broadcast signal. A transmission relay circuit relays the signal from the interface panel to a broadcast network, and preferably including a broadcast signal detection circuit, and a signal processing circuit. The detection circuit determines a signal type of the broadcast signal, and the signal processing circuit processes the determined signal type. The system preferably further includes an operations control station displaying the determined type of broadcast signal. The method for airing broadcast signals over the broadcast network preferably includes the steps of providing the broadcast signal to the transmission relay circuit, detecting the broadcast signal type with the broadcast signal sensing and discerning circuit; and reconfiguring the signal processing circuit when the configuration of the signal processing circuit does not support transmission of the determined broadcast signal type.
US07995147B2
An apparatus such as a television signal receiver is capable of removing adjacent channel energy for extremely different desired channel bandwidths and varying adjacent channel conditions. According to an exemplary embodiment, the apparatus includes a digital signal source for providing a digital signal having a symbol rate, and a plurality of symbol shaping filters. A selected one of the symbol shaping filters is used to filter the digital signal and generate a filtered digital signal based on the symbol rate.
US07995146B2
According to one embodiment, an image processing apparatus includes a scaling converter, a luminance histogram detector, a determination module, and a super resolution processor. The scaling converter converts a first image signal to a second image signal having more pixels. The luminance histogram detector detects a luminance histogram. The determination module determines whether the second image signal includes a graphics image based on the luminance histogram. The super resolution processor converts the second image signal to a third image signal with a higher resolution than that of the second image signal, and performs sharpening based on the reference gain. When the second image signal includes a graphics image, the super resolution processor sets the gain of sharpening below the reference gain.
US07995137B2
An exposure compensation method automatically generates an accurate exposure value to clearly show the profiles of objects in front of a black background or a white background. First, initial edge energy is derived from luminance values for pixels in a digital image having an initial exposure value. Maximum edge energy is obtained by varying an exposure compensation value for the digital image, and an optimal exposure compensation value according to the maximum edge energy is also obtained. If a difference between the maximum edge energy and initial edge energy is larger than a threshold value, a current exposure value is set to the initial exposure value compensated by the optimal exposure compensation value. Otherwise, the initial exposure value is directly designated as a current exposure value.
US07995126B2
An imaging apparatus includes a pixel, a current source, and a signal processing circuit. The pixel outputs signal charge, obtained by imaging, as a pixel signal. The current source is connected to a transmission path for the pixel signal and has a variable current. The signal processing circuit performs signal processing on a signal depending on an output signal to the transmission path and performs control so that a current of the current source is changed in accordance with the result of signal processing.
US07995124B2
An image sensor apparatus comprises an image sensor for generating digital images having a high dynamic range. The image sensor apparatus includes an image sensor for generating a first and a second set of digital image samples at a first bit depth, with each set of digital image samples generated by a different column readout circuit path. A processor combines the first and second set of digital image samples to generate a digital image at a second bit depth, the second bit depth higher than the first bit depth.
US07995122B2
In a solid-state image capturing device including a pixel array arranged in a row direction and a column direction orthogonal thereto, and a vertical register having a plurality of transfer electrodes which serves to read signal charges Qa, Qb, . . . generated by light receipt of each of pixels A, B, . . . and to sequentially transfer the signal charge in the column direction upon receipt of a transfer pulse, an electric potential well for a smear charge is generated and an unnecessary charge q in the vertical register is collected into the electric potential well for a smear charge before the signal charge is read from the pixels A, B, . . . onto the vertical register (a timing t707), an electric potential well for signal charge transfer is then generated and the signal charges Qa, Qb, . . . are read from the pixels A, B, . . . onto the electric potential well for signal charge transfer, and the electric potential well for a smear charge and the electric potential well for signal charge transfer are transferred in the direction of a horizontal register without mixing an unnecessary charge 3q with a signal charge Q.
US07995121B2
The present invention provides an imaging unit, a portable terminal device, and a portable terminal system capable of performing a satisfactory key synthesizing process. An imaging unit mainly includes an imaging section, a conversion section, and a key signal generating section. The conversion section converts the format of the imaged image data output from the imaging section from YUV format to RGB format. The key signal generating section generates a key signal based on each pixel data configuring the imaged image data and the reference data for the imaged image data input from the imaging section. The key signal generating section also outputs foreground image data having the generated key signal and the corresponding pixel data of RGB format as minimum configuring unit. An image synthesizing section of a main unit generates synthesized image data by overlapping the foreground image data from the imaging unit and the background image data stored in a RAM based on the key signal contained in the foreground image data.
US07995103B2
An imaging apparatus which can capture a still image while capturing a moving image, can capture images in consideration of the aspect ratio settings of the moving image and the still image. For example, in the case where a user instructs to capture the still image while capturing a moving image, the still image is captured in an aspect ratio of recording the moving image. The captured still image can be used to complement a missing frame of the moving image.
US07995102B2
An imaging apparatus includes: an imaging section configured to output a first set of digital images; a section generating a plurality of sets of one-dimensional data from each of digital images respectively based on an object movement direction representing a movement direction of a moving object; a section configured to detect object regions for each of the digital images respectively based on the respective sets of the one-dimensional data; a section configured to select a second set of digital images from among the first set based on the object regions; a section configured to generate a background image from the second set of digital images; and a section configured to generate a stroboscopic image by combining the background image and a plurality of object images corresponding to the object regions of the second set of digital images.
US07995100B2
An apparatus controlling a specific function is provided. The specific function controlling apparatus includes a signal generator and a recognizer. The signal generator transmits and receives a first signal of a specific frequency. The recognizer is installed in a specific function module having a specific function device for executing a specific function. The specific function module is installed in an electronic equipment. The recognizer includes an antenna part and a control part. The antenna part is responsive to the specific frequency of the signal generator. The control part is electrically connected to the specific function device and the antenna part to control the specific function according to the first signal.
US07995099B2
A blur correction mechanism includes: a first guide shaft extending in a first direction, the direction being a predetermined direction orthogonal to the optical axis of the lens groups; a base frame supporting the first guide shaft; a first correcting moving frame supported by the base frame so as to be movable in the first direction via the first guide shaft; a second guide shaft extending in a second direction orthogonal to both the optical axis and the first direction, and being supported by the first correcting moving frame; and a second correcting moving frame supported by the first correcting moving frame so as to be movable in the second direction via the second guide shaft, and holding the lens groups therein. The first guide shaft and the second guide shaft are positioned so as to be substantially coplanar in a plane orthogonal to the optical axis.
US07995096B1
A security alarm monitor is disclosed that uses a combination of three dimensional (3D) and two dimensional (2D) visualization to display the status of security devices and allow the operator to respond to alarms. The alarm monitor console includes 3D and 2D display areas, either in a split screen on a single monitor or on dual monitors. The 3D display area uses a photo-realistic representation of a facility and overlays iconic or 3D representations of the security devices showing their locations, coverage areas, and alarm status. The 2D display area shows a map, architectural drawing, image-based overhead view, or combination or the three for a facility and security device icons. The alarm representations in the 2D and 3D display areas are synchronized. The 3D display gives a dynamic view of the facility or compound. When an alarm occurs, the 3D display flies to preprogrammed view of the alarm location, issues a preprogrammed audio alert, and animates the alarm icon to indicate its status.
US07995093B2
In an endoscope apparatus in which a scope is connected to a processor unit in a freely attachable and detachable way, the endoscope apparatus wherein matrix calculation is conducted for RGB signals formed by using CCD, a color space conversion processing circuit is provided for forming spectral images of the arbitrarily selected wavelength range. CCD characteristics identification information including types of color filters of the CCD and spectral characteristics or scope characteristics information is stored in the ROM of the scope, a plurality of matrix data corresponding to characteristics identification information is stored in the memory of the processor unit, and matrix data corresponding to the obtained characteristics information is read from the memory, thereby forming an excellent spectral image by using data suitable for characteristics of the CCD or the scope.
US07995090B2
A method for exchanging information in a shared interactive environment, comprising selecting a first physical device in a first live video image wherein the first physical device has information associated with it, causing the information to be transferred to a second physical device in a second live video image wherein the transfer is brought about by manipulating a visual representation of the information, wherein the manipulation includes interacting with the first live video image and the second live video image, wherein the first physical device and the second physical device are part of the shared interactive environment, and wherein the first physical device and the second physical device are not the same.
US07995088B2
A optical scanning apparatus includes a surface emitting type laser diode, a collimator lens which converts the emitted laser beam into an substantially parallel laser beam, a stop member which shapes the substantially parallel laser beam into a desired shape, a polygon mirror which deflects and scans the shaped laser beam, an electro-optical crystal member which is provided in the optical path between the stop member and the polygon mirror, and deflects the shaped laser beam by an applied voltage, a light amount sensor which detects the amount of laser beam deflected by the electro-optical crystal member, and a light amount control unit which controls the amount of laser beam emitted from the laser diode while repeatedly comparing the detected light amount obtained from the light amount sensor with a light amount corresponding to a reference voltage for control light amount.
US07995080B2
A drive circuit of an image display apparatus has a correction circuit for outputting driving data that is corrected on the basis of a correction value. The correction value corrects variation of brightness of a plurality of pixels. The correction is such that the number of pixels to be darkened by the correction when the driving data inputted for the plurality of pixels have a common first value is fewer than the number of pixels to be darkened by the correction when the driving data inputted for the plurality of pixels have a common second value larger than the first value.
US07995075B2
A device of capturing display data is implemented in an electronic device. A first request for capture of display data associated with the display of the electronic device is received. The display is a composite image generated by a program from one or more raw data objects in the electronic device. When the first request is received, a backup of the display data, comprising the one or more raw data objects, is stored by the electronic device in form of a data structure in response to the first request.
US07995074B2
External data acquired via an input device during display of presentation information on a display device is recorded, and feature amounts are calculated from the external data. An importance level is calculated by integrating the feature amounts for each section during the display period of the presentation information. First headline information of a part of the presentation information corresponding to a section having an importance level which exceeds a predetermined threshold is generated, and is presented to be aligned along the time axis. Previous display contents of the presentation information are searched for in response to a selection operation of the first headline information, and are displayed on the display device. Second headline information of a part of the presentation information corresponding to the section when the selection operation was made is generated, and is presented on the display device.
US07995066B2
The present invention relates to a method for image reproduction, in particular for single or serial medical exposures, whereby one or more main images are reproduced on a display device. The method is characterized in that additional or interim images are generated using image interpolation prior to image reproduction from the one or more main images and in that additional image noise which varies from image to image is applied to the one or more main images and the additional or interim images, said image noise being generated by a noise generator, and image reproduction taking place by displaying in chronological order the one or more main images and additional or interim images to which the additional image noise has been applied. The method in particular improves the visual image impression in the case of fluoroscopic X-ray image exposures, without having to increase the applied X-ray dose.
US07995064B2
A computer-implemented chat system having dual channel communications and self-defining product structures is disclosed. The system and method includes providing a first logical communication channel between a first chat client and a second chat client, the first logical channel conveying text chat messages between the first chat client and the second chat client; providing a second logical communication channel between the first chat client and the second chat client, the second logical channel conveying text chat command/control information between the first chat client and the second chat client; and using the chat command/control information to modify a 3D chat scene displayed on each of the first chat client and the second chat client systems.
US07995060B2
A computer system comprises a memory configured to store a geometric description of an object, wherein the memory is configured to store a first set of parameters associated with a first artistic look, and wherein the memory is configured to store a second set of parameters associated with a second artistic look, and a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor is configured to determine a first set of rendered data in response to the first set of parameters and to the geometric description of the object, wherein the processor is configured to determine a second set of rendered data in response to the second set of parameters and to the geometric description of the object, and wherein the processor is configured to determine a visual representation for the object in response to the first set of rendered data and in response to the second set of rendered data.
US07995055B1
In some implementations, a computer-implemented method of classifying image data includes receiving a plurality of data points corresponding to three-dimensional image data; creating from the plurality of data points a first subset of data points that are above a ground plane in a scene represented by the plurality of data points; identifying a second subset of data points associated with an object in the scene, from the first subset of data points; identifying a plurality of features associated with the second subset of data points and determining a signature for the identified plurality of features; and classifying the second set of data points according to a correspondence between the calculated signature and a reference signature.
US07995052B2
A driving circuit includes a plurality of scanning lines, a plurality of data lines, a plurality of common electrodes, pixels, a scanning line driving circuit, a common electrode driving circuit, and a data line driving circuit. When a predetermined number of scanning lines away from the one of the odd (or even)-numbered scanning lines is selected, the common electrode driving circuit applies one (the other) of a low level voltage and a high level voltage to the common electrode, and, after the selection of the one of the odd (or even)-numbered scanning lines is completed or after the selection of the scanning line located a predetermined number of scanning lines away from the one of the odd (or even)-numbered scanning lines is completed, the common electrode driving circuit maintains the common electrode at the one of the low level voltage and the high level voltage.
US07995044B2
A display device with reduced power consumption has pixels coupled with data lines and arranged in a matrix, a signal controller processing input image signals and outputting output image signals, and a data driver applying data voltages, corresponding to output image signals, to the data lines. When all the input image signals have either a first or second value, the output image signals have the first value. The signal controller generates a polarity signal for determining data voltage polarity, and when all the input image signals have either a first or second value, data voltages corresponding to the input image signals have a polarity equivalent to a polarity of previously applied data voltages. The signal controller generates a control signal for controlling the data driver's clock synchronization circuit, and the control signal halts the clock synchronization circuit when an operating frequency is lower than a predetermined value.
US07995039B2
Radiation guided by Total Internal Reflection inside a solid element from a point of engagement of a reflecting/emitting/scattering object and toward a detector reaches an area of the solid element on which the surface has areas preventing reflection of the radiation back into the element. This provides a spatial modulation of the radiation reaching the detector through one of the surfaces of the solid element. From this spatial modulation, the position of engagement may be determined.
US07995035B2
A mouse with adjustable button activating pressure includes a body, two circuit boards, two switch sets and at least one adjusting means. The body is provided with two adjacent buttons. The two switch sets are provided in the body and electrically connected to the corresponding circuit board to correspond to the buttons of the body respectively. Each switch set includes a plurality of switches of different activating pressures. The adjusting means is adjustably assembled with the body and coupled to the switch set, thereby allowing the switch set to move with respect to the button of the body. Via the above arrangement of the present invention, the button activating pressure can be adjusted.
US07995033B2
A power saving device includes a first power connector adapted for connecting to a power source, a second power connector adapted for connecting to a power wire of a display, an infrared sensor, an infrared coupling circuit, a wave shaping circuit, and a switch circuit connected between the first and second power connectors. The infrared sensor senses user status and initiates a user status signal. The wave shaping circuit receives the user status signal via the infrared coupling circuit and converts the user status signal to a voltage signal. The switch circuit receives the voltage signal and converts the voltage signal to a control signal to control the connection between the first power connector and the second power connector.
US07995031B2
A method and apparatus for tongue-operated control of an electronic system is presented. The apparatus includes a sensor-mounting device secured in the mouth, a sensor that interfaces to the tongue and a sensor interface device that converts sensor outputs to sensor signals proportional to a measure of the interface of the tongue to the sensor, computes control signals from a vector sum of sensor signals, and couples either control signals or sensor signals to the electronic system by cable, radio frequency or infrared transmission.
US07995029B2
A display apparatus including a matrix display device with pixels wherein particles move in a fluid between electrodes. An optical state of the pixels is defined by a value of a drive voltage and a duration of a drive period during which the drive voltage is present across the pixel. A DC-balancing circuit controls the amplitudes of the drive voltages and/or durations of drive periods to obtain a substantially zero time-average value across each pixel or across each sub-group of pixels. This control of the amplitude of the drive voltages and/or the duration of the drive periods allows minimizing the image retention, without requiring reset pulses causing all pixels to become temporarily white or black.
US07995021B2
Methods and systems to optimize the adaptation of gamma curve and phase table data to a color LCD STN display anytime by storing these data in a same memory are disclosed. The gamma curve and phase table data are stored in a same read/write memory element; hence allowing the adaptation any time.
US07995013B2
In a display apparatus, as shown in FIG. 1, by using a reference signal, a shift register and a logical operation circuit generate a driving signal in periods for correcting a threshold voltage based on a rectangular wave signal. Also by using the reference signal, a write signal in a mobility correcting period is generated by an inverter, a NAND circuit, a level conversion circuit, a buffer circuit, a driving power generating unit, and a low-pass filter including a resistor and a capacitor. The signals are separately generated and are selectively output. Thus, excessive or insufficient mobility correction based on emission brightness can be prevented.
US07995009B2
A first capacitor obtains a gate-source voltage of a first transistor in accordance with a programming current flowing through the first transistor, and a second capacitor obtains a threshold voltage of a second transistor. Then, the electric charges held in the first capacitor and the second capacitor are capacitively coupled. By using the voltage obtained with the capacitively coupling as a gate-source voltage of the first transistor, constant current in accordance with the programming current can be supplied to a light emitting element.
US07995004B2
A display device for displaying an image on a light emitting display, includes addition means for adding a rim to an icon, superimpose means for superimposing the rimmed icon on the image, change means for changing a ratio of superimpose between the icon and the image, and display control means for controlling displaying the image superimposed with the rimmed icon on the display, wherein the icon is superimposed on the image in a semi-transparent manner.
US07994997B2
In one embodiment, a wide bandwidth, reduced depth transmit/receive antenna array includes unit cells having continuous slots, a transceiver, unbalanced feeds, impedance transformers, and exciters. The continuous slots are formed in a conductive antenna plane, and the transceiver generates and/or receives electrical signals. The unbalanced feeds may be electrically connected between the transceiver and impedance transformers which match the impedance between feed lines and the exciter. They may be located in a plane perpendicular to the direction of propagation of the radiation, and also may be arranged between the conductive antenna plane and a backplane. The exciter spans a continuous slot, and emits and/or receives radiation from the slot. The antenna array is capable of operating without a radome or balun.
US07994995B2
Tuning an antenna circuit that includes an inductance of a resonance circuit, and a component having a component impedance. The antenna circuit includes multiple connection areas for connecting the component to the antenna circuit At least two of the multiple of connection areas are part of the resonance circuit. The tuning can be performed by selecting at least one connection area for the component among the at least two of the multiple connection areas
US07994990B2
Systems and methods are described for simulating an internal antenna within a telemetry device. The simulator device includes a housing having at least one opening, wherein the housing is configured to accommodate close proximity placement of the telemetry device. The simulator device also includes a simulator or test antenna within the housing that corresponds to an internal antenna within a housing of the telemetry device. The simulator device further includes a radio frequency (RF) connector coupled to the simulator housing, for connection to a communication device. The simulator device also includes a fastening mechanism to secure the simulator device over the telemetry device so that the simulator antenna is adjacent to the internal antenna. The proximity of the simulator antenna to the internal antenna provides simulator device RF characteristics that simulate internal antenna RF characteristics.
US07994984B2
There is provided with an antenna apparatus, including: a finite ground plane; planar elements arranged along and on both sides of a first gap line or a second gap line that is orthogonal to the first gap line; first linear elements connecting the ground plane with the planar elements; an antenna element including a second linear element placed in the first or second gap line and a third linear element placed such that one end of it is connected to one end of the second linear element and an other end of it faces the ground plane; and a feeding point supplying electric power to the other end of the third linear element, wherein a connection point between the second and third linear elements is positioned in an intersection area of the first and second gap lines, and the feeding point is provided in a vicinity of an edge of the ground plane.
US07994983B2
An RFID tag that has a tag antenna and a tag LSI comprising: a power-supply element in which the tag LSI is mounted on a power-supply section; a plurality of patch antennas that function as tag antennas and sizes differs; and a high-frequency coupling section that couples the power-supply element with each of the patch antennas by high-frequency coupling.
US07994982B2
A method and apparatus for estimating the position of a mobile device in a multi-path environment. In one example, the method includes receiving a plurality of reference signals from a corresponding plurality of reference devices, for each reference signal, calculating expected time delay boundaries, for each reference signal, estimating a range between the device and the corresponding reference device based on a measured time delay of the reference signal falling within calculated time delay boundaries to produce a plurality of range estimates, and filtering the plurality of range estimates to generate a composite estimate of the position of the device.
US07994980B2
Provided are an apparatus for correcting a phase of a phased array antenna and a method thereof. The apparatus for correcting a phase of a phased array antenna for receiving a radio signal, includes a phased array antenna for receiving radio signals from a reference antenna and combining power of the received radio signals, a power dividing unit for dividing the combined power of the received radio signals, a voltage detecting unit for detecting voltage values of the divided radio signals, and a phase controlling unit for estimating a phase error that makes the detected voltage value maximum and controlling a phase of each radiation element of the phased array antenna using the estimated phase error.
US07994978B2
A satellite information operation method of a GPS device includes following steps. An antenna module is provided, so as to receive a satellite signal. A signal processing circuit is provided, so as to perform an analog-to-digital conversion on the satellite signal and obtain a plurality of first digital data. A memory with a comparison table stored therein is provided, and the comparison table records corresponding relations between a plurality of second digital data and a plurality of return values. A CPU is provided, which groups the first digital data in sequence by using a bit number of any second digital data in the comparison table, obtains each of the second digital data consistent with each group of first digital data through comparison, and looks up a corresponding return value according to each of the second digital data obtained through comparison to continue the operation according to the obtained return value.
US07994975B2
A global navigation satellite system (GNSS) enabled mobile device may be operable to monitor and determine counts at which autoblank signals are asserted over time intervals corresponding to consecutive time windows during the RF interference mitigation process using autoblanking. The GNSS enabled mobile device may be operable to disable the generation of a blank signal when the count may be greater than a particular count threshold at the end of the time window. The GNSS enabled mobile device may be operable to enable the generation of a blank signal when the count may be less than or equal to a particular count threshold at the end of the time window. The blank signals may be used to blank the processing of the received GNSS signals.
US07994967B2
A method of imaging a moving object, including the steps of acquiring radar data reflected by the moving object, determining a motion state of the moving object; and generating a three-dimensional representation of the moving object based on the determined motion state, is disclosed. The motion state may be a complete solution of translational and rotational motion determined based on at least one of the inertia tensor components of the moving object, or solutions of Euler's torque-free equations of motions. The three-dimensional representation may be generated by reconstructing static patterns of the moving object based on estimated initial translational and rotational conditions of the object. A system for imaging the moving object according to this method is also disclosed.
US07994964B2
The present invention relates to a method for determining the position notably the elevation of a target flying at very low altitude. An electromagnetic detection system extracts the measurement of the elevation on the basis of the amplitude of the interference signal produced by a signal emitted directly by the target and by a signal emitted by the target towards the ground then reflected by the ground towards the radar. Embodiments of the invention can notably be used within the framework of the guidance of drones in the final landing phase.
US07994953B2
A method and module with analog-to-digital converter. One embodiment provides for testing an analog-to-digital converter, including generating a voltage ramp. The voltage ramp is converted to a digital signal using the ADC at a rate of a clock signal. A first parameter is calculated according to the clock signal and the digital signal on the chip. The first parameter is indicative of conversion characteristics of the ADC.
US07994949B2
A character data set is compressed with a compression algorithm module of a computer system to generate one or more streams of encoded values. The compression module is configured to compress the character data set with an entropy encoder to generate one or more streams of encoded values with UTF-8 or UTF-16. A code points mapper assigns the encoded values to code points in a Unicode format. A UTF encoder encodes the streams of assigned encoded values.
US07994946B2
Systems and methods for scalably encoding and decoding coded data are presented. One exemplary method for scalably coding data includes classifying, based upon at least one predetermined criteria, each of the plurality of data received as either (i) perceptually relevant data or (ii) perceptually irrelevant data. The perceptually relevant data is scalably coded, and the perceptually irrelevant data is non-scalably coded. Subsequently, the scalably coded perceptually relevant data and the non-scalably coded perceptually irrelevant are combined into a coded data stream for transmission.
US07994945B2
The invention relates to the encoding/decoding of digital signals, especially using permutation codes involving a calculation of combinatorial expressions. According to the invention, the combinatorial expressions are represented by prime factor power decompositions, and determined by a preliminary reading of pre-recorded representations of decompositions of selected integers.
US07994931B2
A wind gauge display apparatus comprising a control device and a reconfigurable display for displaying a first visual representation of a wind gauge if a wind angle is within a first range and displaying a second visual representation of the wind gauge if the wind angle is within a second range. The angles displayed on the reconfigurable display may be determined by input from a user. On the reconfigurable display, a location of a visual indicator of wind speed may be different in the first visual representation of the wind gauge than in the second visual representation of the wind gauge. The wind gauge display apparatus may also comprise a sensor for determining wind angle and wind speed.
US07994924B2
An RF based state indicator for indicating the state of a control device is provided. The RF-based state indicator indicates the position of a control mechanism by using the position of the control mechanism to enable or disable an RF tag. An RF reader acquires RF transmitted data from enabled RF tags and uses the data to indicate or control an operation aspect of a device.
US07994923B2
A contactless electronic device comprises a semiconductor integrated circuit device, a plurality of antennas (or antenna coils) for receiving high-frequency signals supplied by radio waves or electromagnetic waves having different frequencies. An interface judgment circuit judges which antenna the high-frequency signals are inputted through, and according to a result of the judgment, the operation of the semiconductor integrated circuit device is changed. In this manner, the contactless electronic device becomes possible to respond to a plurality of communication protocols using high-frequency signals having different frequencies, while contactless electronic devices have been impossible to respond to communication protocols using various high-frequency signals.
US07994915B2
An information processing apparatus includes an equipment means equipped on a predetermined portion of a living body and has a storage means which a first biological identification data associated with the predetermined portion of the living body, and a communication means which is held by the equipment means and transmits the first biological identification data to a communication target to which the predetermined position equipped with the equipment means is brought close. A biological authentication means which performs biological authentication, based on the first biological identification data and on a second biological identification data, said second biological identification data being extracted from biological information detected by a biological sensor.
US07994914B2
A system and method for automatically advertising items put on display, as well as protecting those items against theft. The system and method include an event sensor associated with the item and connected to a monitoring and alarm transmitter for initiating an advertising experience on an associated and local graphic display whenever the item is manipulated or approached by a patron. Should the item be removed or taken from its display stand, a wireless alarm is automatically transmitted to a receiver of an authorized person. The system and method also perform a logging function when a patron approaches the item or removes it without taking it away. The system and method also include the ability to provide power to electronic items that are on display.
US07994913B2
A system includes several functional modules to alert a user that an accessory has not been placed back into a bay of an electronic device after a predetermined time period. A sensor is configured for determining if the accessory has been received in the bay after the time period has expired. The sensor is further configured for generating a notification if the accessory has not been received in the bay after the time period has expired. An audio module is configured for receiving the notification, and transmitting an audio alarm via a speaker indicating that the accessory has not been received in the bay after the time period has expired. A display module is configured for receiving the notification, and displaying a graphic alarm on a display panel of the electronic device.
US07994903B2
A vehicle has a display device which widens the field of view (visible area) reflected by a side mirror or a back mirror mounted on the vehicle. To enable a driver driving the vehicle to confirm safety even when it is difficult for the driver to visually recognize some of objects surrounding the vehicle, a liquid crystal display device or an EL display device is provided in the side mirror (door mirror), the back mirror (room mirror) or in an interior portion of the vehicle. A camera is mounted on the vehicle and an image from the camera is displayed on the display device. Further, information read from a sensor (distance measuring sensor) having the function of measuring the distance to another vehicle, and a sensor (impact sensor) having the function of sensing an externally applied impact force larger than a predetermined value is displayed on the display device.
US07994899B2
In an information access system, a first reader/writer device cyclically transmits an information request signal at a first frequency in a first period and goes into an inactive state in a second period, and a second reader/writer device cyclically transmits an information request signal at the first frequency in the second period and goes into an inactive state in the first period. An active contactless information storage device senses a carrier of an RF signal at the first frequency in predetermined periods occurring in a predetermined cycle shorter than each of the first and second periods.
US07994895B2
A resistor with heat sink is provided. The heat sink includes a conductive path having metal or other thermal conductor having a high thermal conductivity. To avoid shorting the electrical resistor to ground with the thermal conductor, a thin layer of high thermal conductivity electrical insulator is interposed between the thermal conductor and the body of the resistor. Accordingly, a resistor can carry large amounts of current because the high conductivity thermal conductor will conduct heat away from the resistor to a heat sink. Various configurations of thermal conductors and heat sinks are provided offering good thermal conductive properties in addition to reduced parasitic capacitances and other parasitic electrical effects, which would reduce the high frequency response of the electrical resistor.
US07994892B2
Embodiments of the invention are related to oxidative opening switches and related methods, amongst other things. In an embodiment, the invention includes a switch assembly including a first terminal, a second terminal, and an oxidative switch element in electrical communication with the first terminal and the second terminal, the switch element comprising a conductive material and an oxidizer, the switch element configured to interrupt electrical communication between the first terminal and the second terminal as a result of an oxidation reaction between the conductive material and the oxidizer. In an embodiment, the invention includes a fast opening switch for pulse power applications. Other aspects and embodiments are provided herein.
US07994887B2
An outdoor dry transformer having a shield made of a high functional fiber. The transformer includes a transformer body having a core and first and second coils wound on the core; a shield surrounding the transformer body, the shield comprising a high functional fiber material which is capable of blocking moisture penetration from outside and has breathability; and a transformer housing having at least one vent in side and bottom faces thereof, the transformer housing configured to house the transformer body and the shield therein. The transformer does not use the insulating oil, thereby preventing any fire induced from the insulating oil. It is also possible to prevent environmental pollution caused by polychlorinated biphenyl as well as save resources.
US07994885B2
A switch module consists of a build-up multi-layer structure and some passive devices. The build-up multi-layer structure has multitudes of conductive layers and dielectric layers laminated upon each another. At least one dielectric layer is interfered between any two conductive layers. Any one passive device is a portion of at least one conductive layer and electrically connects multitudes of conductive pads on the surface of the build-up multi-layer structure.
US07994877B1
An integrated Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) filter includes an insulating substrate bonded to a base substrate such that at least a portion of the insulating substrate is separated from the base substrate by a gap, the insulating substrate having a first side and a second side, an inductive element having a coil, wherein the coil of the inductive element is on the insulating substrate, and a capacitive element having two conductive plates, wherein one of the two conductive plates is on the insulating substrate.
US07994869B2
The disclosed current-controlled hysteretic oscillator operates by controlled currents opposing each other in differential pairs to set a controlled hysteresis for improved relaxation oscillations with immunity to phase or frequency error.
US07994861B2
A system for pre-charging a current mirror includes a controller configured to provide a first current and an additional current to a current mirror to rapidly charge a capacitance associated with the current mirror based on a reference voltage or control signals. A power amplifier module includes at least one current mirror and a controller. A capacitor is coupled to the current mirror. The controller provides a bias current in an amount proportional to an input to a voltage-to-current converter. The controller receives a control signal that directs the controller to apply one of a pre-charge voltage and a nominal voltage to the voltage-to-current converter.
US07994860B2
An electronic component for high frequency power amplification realizes an improvement in switching spectrum characteristics. The gain of an amplifying NMOS transistor is controlled by a bias voltage on which a bias control voltage is reflected. Further, a threshold voltage compensator compensates for a variation in threshold voltage with variations in the manufacture of the amplifying NMOS transistor. The threshold voltage compensator includes an NMOS transistor formed in the same process specification as the amplifying NMOS transistor and converts a variation in current flowing through the NMOS transistor depending on the variation in the threshold voltage of the amplifying NMOS transistor to its corresponding voltage by a resistor to compensate for the bias voltage. It is thus possible to reduce variations in so-called precharge level brought to fixed output power in a region (0 dBm or less, for example) low in output power.
US07994858B2
An operational trans-conductance amplifier circuit having a voltage clamp circuit. The clamp circuit utilizes low area and power overhead, has a sharp clamp characteristic, and little degradation in the small-signal DC gain at the “knee” of the clamp characteristic. The clamp circuit includes a comparator circuit and a current control circuit. The amplifier and clamp circuits may further include a clamp voltage generator circuit.
US07994851B2
A PSK demodulator using a time-to-digital converter includes: a filter unit that performs band pass filtering on a PSK signal; an amplitude limiting unit that limits the amplitude of an output signal of the filter unit; a clock signal generating unit that generates a clock signal; and a time-to-digital converter that samples the phase of an output signal of the amplitude limiting unit according to the clock signal and outputs a digital signal having a value corresponding to the phase of the PSK signal. Power consumption can be reduced and a circuit implementation can be simplified.
US07994848B2
An embodiment of the present invention is directed to a low power voltage reference circuit. The circuit includes a first circuit for generating a PTAT voltage without using an operational amplifier. The circuit also includes a second circuit for generating the reference voltage. The first and the second circuit do not utilize a resistor.
US07994845B2
A switched-capacitor charge pump comprises a two-phase charging circuit, cross-coupled transistors connected to output nodes of the switched capacitors, and a pump output connected to source terminals of the cross-coupled transistors. The charge pump has side transistors for boosting charge transfer, and gating logic of the side transistors includes level shifters which control connections to the pump output or a reference voltage. Negative and positive charge pump embodiments are provided. The charging circuit utilizes non-overlapping wide and narrow clock signals to generate multiple gating signals. The pump clock circuit preferably provides independent, programmable adjustment of the widths of the wide and narrow clock signals. An override mode can be provided using clamping circuits which shunt the pump output to the second nodes of the switched capacitors.
US07994841B2
A dual temperature control circuit detects a first temperature of a first location and a second temperature of a second location. The dual temperature control circuit transforms the first temperature to a first voltage signal, and transforms the second temperature to a second voltage signal, and compares the first voltage signal and the second voltage signal to output a third voltage signal, where a controlled circuit is controlled according to the third voltage signal.
US07994837B1
A phase interpolator circuit can include first and second transistors coupled to form a differential pair, first and second load circuits, a first switch circuit coupled between the first transistor and the first load circuit, a second switch circuit coupled between the second transistor and the second load circuit, a current source circuit, and a third switch circuit coupled between the differential pair and the current source circuit. A phase interpolator circuit can include three differential pairs of transistors. Six periodic input signals having six different phases are concurrently provided to control inputs of transistors in the three differential pairs of transistors. The phase interpolator circuit generates a selected phase in an output signal in response to four of the periodic input signals.
US07994832B2
A multiplying delay-locked loop (MDLL) is described. In the MDLL, a phase interpolator (PI) provides a correction signal to selection control logic by phase mixing two internal signals (which have different phases) from a sequence of delay elements in the MDLL. This correction signal compensates for a delay associated with the selection control logic, thereby ensuring that a selection pulse or signal output by the selection control logic to a selection circuit (such as a multiplexer) is appropriately timed so that the selection circuit can selectively injection lock the sequence of delay elements using edges in a reference signal.
US07994829B2
An apparatus and a method for achieving lock-in of a phase-locked loop (PLL) are disclosed. The PLL receives a reference clock and generates an output clock according to the reference clock. The method comprises: adjusting an oscillation frequency of a controlled oscillator of the PLL close to a desired frequency by counting the number of rising edges of a first clock in a number of a second clock cycles; aligning a rising edge of a third clock and a rising edge of a fourth clock by temporarily changing the oscillation frequency of the digitally controlled oscillator; and locking the phases of the third and fourth clocks by a phase detector of the PLL, wherein the first and the third clocks correspond to the output clock and the second and fourth clocks correspond to the reference clock.
US07994828B2
A frequency divider reduces jitter and power consumption, and includes a phase selector for receiving a plurality of clock signals and outputting an intermediate signal corresponding to phase characteristic of at least one of the clock signals, and an adjustable delay circuit for receiving the intermediate signal and generating an output signal by delaying the received intermediate signal.
US07994814B1
Some embodiments of the present invention provide a programmable transmitter which includes a set of drivers and one or more chains of configuration registers. Each driver is capable of being configured to perform a transmission function from a predetermined set of transmission functions. Each configuration register can correspond to a driver, and can store configuration data which is used to configure the corresponding driver. The programmable transmitter can include configuration circuitry which serially shifts configuration data into the one or more chains of configuration registers. The programmable transmitter can also include programming circuitry which can determine configuration data for each driver based partly or solely on a desired transmitter behavior.
US07994811B2
Test devices and integrated circuits with improved productivity are provided. In accordance with example embodiments, a test device may include a first test region with a first test element and a second test region with a second test element defined on a semiconductor substrate. The first test element may include a pair of first secondary test regions in the semiconductor substrate and a pair of first test gate lines. One of the first test gate lines may overlap one of the first secondary test regions and the other first test gate line may overlap the other first secondary test region. The second test element may include structures corresponding to the first test element except the second test element does not include structures corresponding to the pair of first secondary test regions and the pair of first test gate lines.
US07994810B2
An electro-optical device includes a substrate, a plurality of unit circuits that includes a plurality of scanning lines, a plurality of data lines and electro-optical elements provided corresponding to intersecting regions of the scanning lines and the data lines and is formed in a display region of the substrate, a plurality of pixel circuits that includes electro-optical elements and is formed in the display region and a sealing member that seals the electro-optical elements of the plurality of pixel circuits formed in the display region and is attached to the substrate, wherein a test circuit is formed between an attaching region at which the sealing member is attach to the substrate and the display region.
US07994804B2
The electronic component tester includes: a socket configured to supply power to connection terminals for operating an electronic component; an electronic component mount member on which the electronic component is to be mounted; and a temperature adjusting member which is configured to come into contact with the electronic component mount member to keep the electronic component at a predetermined temperature. The electronic component mount member includes a heat transfer plate on which the electronic component is to be mounted and which is configured to come into contact with the temperature adjusting member, and an electronic component cover for covering the electronic component. The heat transfer plate includes through holes.
US07994801B2
A new methodology for the measurement of the S-parameters of a high impedance probe allows obtaining a full two port S-parameter set for the high impedance probe. The measured probe S-parameters are then used for characterization of probes. An alternative method characterizes half of the fixture and termination as a one-port network and expanding it into a two-port error box. The two-port error box is then cascaded with the probe input.
US07994789B1
A new dual field search coil for pulse induction metal detectors has multiple coplanar wire coils of different diameters connected in series with the output of a pulse source, overcoming the loss of target size resolution associated with a single coil search loop. Small objects are sensed by an internal small coil and larger objects are sensed by the larger outside coil, and the overall depth of target sensing remains similar to that of a single coil construction. The smaller coil is isolated from the pulse source by the inductance of the larger coil and will ring at a frequency determined by its own parameters. To prevent the smaller coil from ringing, a second damping resistor is connected across the terminals of the smaller coil at the junction of the large and small coils making up the modified search loop.
US07994776B2
A failure detection apparatus for a resolver outputting a sine signal indicative of sin θ and a cosine signal indicative of cos θ according to a rotational angle θ of a rotator, includes an inspection value calculating section configured to calculate an inspection value based on at least one of the sine signal and the cosine signal; a failure detecting section configured to judge whether the resolver is in a failure state or not on the basis of the inspection value; a counting section configured to gradually increase a count value with a lapse of time when the failure detecting section is determining that the resolver is in the failure state, and configured to gradually decrease the count value with a lapse of time when the failure detecting section is determining that the resolver is not in the failure state; and a failure deciding section configured to finally decide that the resolver has caused the failure on the basis of the count value.
US07994773B2
A magnetic field verifier apparatus includes a magnetic field detection element configured to produce a voltage signal in response to an applied magnetic field wherein the voltage signal corresponds to the strength of the applied magnetic field. A current source coupled to the magnetic field detection element provides a stimulating current for the magnetic field detection element that builds in a ramp-like progression. A microcontroller is in communication with the voltage signal wherein the microcontroller is configured to detect and control the ramping time of the magnetic field detection element and to sense after the ramping time the voltage signal from the magnetic field detection element. The magnetic field verifier apparatus is configurable to sense particular field strengths at various frequencies and store the readings to provide the user with a reliable verification that a particular magnetic field strength has been produced in a particular environment.
US07994771B2
A current measurement circuit includes: a constant-voltage loop circuit including an operational amplifier, and a first resistor for current detection connected to an output of the operational amplifier, the output of the operational amplifier being fed back to an inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier via the first resistor; a differential amplifier for current detection with an input of a voltage between both ends of the first resistor; and a saturation prevention and recovery circuit connected to the both ends of the first resistor for preventing saturation of the operational amplifier and/or accelerating recovery from the saturation thereof.
US07994764B2
A low dropout voltage regulator includes an error amplifier, a voltage divider, and a voltage reference/amplifier circuit. The error amplifier has first and second input terminals, a power supply terminal for receiving an input voltage, and an output terminal for providing a regulated output voltage. The voltage divider provides a feedback voltage as a predetermined fraction of said regulated output voltage. The voltage reference/amplifier circuit provides a first voltage to said first input terminal of said error amplifier that varies inversely with variations of said feedback voltage, and provides a second voltage to said second input terminal of said error amplifier that varies by substantially the same amount over temperature as variations in said first voltage.
US07994755B2
A system, a method, and an article of manufacture for determining an estimated battery cell module state indicative of a state of a battery cell module of a battery pack are provided. The method includes measuring at least one of a battery cell module voltage, a battery cell module current, and a battery cell module temperature. The method further includes determining the estimated battery cell module state of the battery cell module at a predetermined time based on an estimated battery pack state and at least one of the battery cell module voltage, the battery cell module current, and the battery cell module temperature. The method further includes storing a vector corresponding to the estimated battery cell module state in a memory.
US07994749B2
A multiple-rotation absolute-value encoder of a geared motor, wherein the geared motor (10) reduces the rotational speed of a motor shaft (12) and takes it out from a gear shaft (14) to drive a machine device (15) in an operating range corresponding to two rotations of the gear shaft (14). The multiple-rotation absolute-value encoder (20) fitted to the geared motor (10) is made up of a gear shaft absolute value encoder (30) for detecting the absolute position of the gear shaft (14) and a load side absolute value encoder (50) having a two-pole magnet (51) and a magnetic sensor (52) rotating at a rotational speed reduced to half the rotational speed of the gear shaft (14) through the magnetic gear (40).
US07994736B2
A cold cathode fluorescent lamp inverter apparatus includes a series circuit connected to a DC power source and including first and second switching elements, a series circuit connected between a connection point of the first and second switching elements and the DC power source and including a primary winding of a transformer, a reactor, and a capacitor, a cold cathode fluorescent lamp connected to a secondary winding of the transformer, a current detector connected to the cold cathode fluorescent lamp and to the secondary winding, to detect a value of a current passed through the cold cathode fluorescent lamp, and a controller to turn on/off the first and second switching elements alternately with each other according to the detected current value. The current detector detects a ripple component in the DC power source, and corrects the current of the cold cathode fluorescent lamp according to the detected ripple component.
US07994729B2
An optical element driving circuit flexibly configures energy sources to cause illumination with an optical output element, such as a flash lamp. The energy sources include an illumination capacitor and a capacitive voltage divider circuit coupled with the optical output element. The illumination capacitor may be charged to a first voltage and a boost capacitor of the capacitive voltage divider circuit may be charged to a second voltage that is a fraction of the first voltage. The optical element driving circuit also includes a triggering circuit coupled with the capacitive voltage divider circuit. The triggering circuit is configured to place a sum of the first voltage and the second voltage across the optical output element.
US07994728B2
The present invention discloses a boost driver circuit which converts an input voltage to an output voltage and supplies it to a load, the boost driver circuit comprising: a power transistor electrically connected with a node between the input voltage and the output voltage; a pulse width modulation driver circuit for controlling the operation of the power transistor; an output node electrically connected with the output voltage; a feedback node electrically connected with the load; a low voltage transistor electrically connected with the feedback node; and a clamp and fast discharge circuit electrically connected with the feedback node for discharging the feedback node when the voltage at the feedback node is higher than a predetermined voltage.
US07994726B2
The present invention, according to a preferred embodiment, is directed to portable electronic devices which operate on exhaustible power sources, for example, batteries. The electronic devices of the present invention comprise at least one signal switch and a microchip in communication with the switch wherein the switch is only capable of transmitting a signal to the microchip that the switch has been activated or deactivated. The microchip is in communication with the exhaustible power source of the electronic device and controls (i) the power on/off function of the device, (ii) at least one other function of the device in response to activation and deactivation signals from the switch, and (iii) an automatic shut off function in response to the receipt of an activation signal from the switch.
US07994721B2
A plasma lamp for an electrodeless plasma lamp having a dielectric waveguide body and a bulb positioned, at least in part, in the waveguide body and having at least one end protruding from the waveguide body. A probe is used to couple power into the waveguide body. The power resonates in the waveguide body and ignites a plasma in the bulb. By having one or both ends of the bulb extend beyond the surface of the waveguide body, the ends of the bulb are exposed to reduced electric field intensity, resulting in longer bulb lifetime due to reduced plasma impingement on the interior surfaces of the bulb.
US07994719B2
A back face panel in a plasma display panel is provided with barrier-rib portions, fluorescent barrier-rib portions including a mixed material of a barrier-rib material and a phosphor material and formed on side faces thereof, and a phosphor portion including the phosphor material and formed in a manner so as to cover the fluorescent barrier-rib portions, and each of barrier ribs is formed by each barrier-rib portion and each fluorescent barrier-rib portion, while a phosphor layer is formed by each phosphor portion and each fluorescent barrier-rib portion.
US07994714B2
A light-emitting diode display device includes a transparent substrate; a plurality of chiplets located over the substrate between a transparent electrode and the substrate, each chiplet including drive circuitry for driving pixels to emit light and including a storage capacitor for storing charge and wherein light illumination of at least a portion of the drive circuit causes the capacitor to leak charge; a connection pad forming a first light shield separate from the drive circuitry located on the surface of each chiplet disposed over the drive circuitry and substantially shielding at least a portion of the drive circuitry from illumination, the connection pad electrically connected to the drive circuitry, and a second light shield disposed under the drive circuitry between the drive circuitry and the substrate to shield at least a portion of the drive circuitry from illumination.
US07994704B2
A light-emitting device includes: a substrate; a light reflection layer that is formed on the substrate and reflects light; a first electrode that is formed on the light reflection layer and transmits light; a light-emitting layer that is formed on the first electrode and emits light; a second electrode that is formed on the light-emitting layer and transmits a part of light from the light-emitting layer and reflects the rest of the light from the light-emitting layer; and a conductive transflective layer that is formed on the second electrode and that transmits a part of light from the second electrode and reflects the rest of the light from the second electrode. A work function of the second electrode is 4 eV (electron volts) or less. The conductive transflective layer is formed of a metal material having a higher optical reflectance than the second electrode.
US07994699B2
An image display apparatus includes at least one electron-emitting device, at least one wiring arranged to apply a voltage to the electron-emitting device, a getter disposed on the wiring, and an insulating layer interposed between the getter and wiring. The getter has penetrating portions formed in a part thereof corresponding to a region where an image is displayed in the image display apparatus. The penetrating portions are at least one opening, and an area of an inner wall surface of the getter facing the opening is substantially the same as or larger than an area of the opening.
US07994694B2
A spark plug (1) for an internal combustion engine includes: a cylindrical insulator (2) having an axial hole (4) penetrating in a direction of an axis (C1); a center electrode (5) partially inserted in the axial hole (4); a metal shell (3) surrounding an outer periphery of the insulator (2) and which is fixed to the insulator (2) by means of a crimped portion (20) provided at a rear end portion of the metal shell (3); and a ground electrode (27) joined to the metal shell (3) such that a portion of the ground electrode (27) opposes a leading end portion of the center electrode (5) via a spark discharge gap (33), wherein the insulator (2) has an annular groove portion (23) which opposes an inner edge of the crimped portion (20).
US07994689B2
An ultrasonic transducer arraying at even intervals ultrasonic transducers for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves and layering a plurality of acoustic matching layers on them, comprising an transducer shape forming member made of a fiber-reinforced thermosetting PPE for filling a gap formed on the side face of the ultrasonic transducer with the same material as that of the acoustic matching layer, mixing a colorant in a division member adjacent to a predefined ultrasonic transducer from among a plurality of ultrasonic transducers, and arraying the plurality thereof.
US07994688B2
An enhanced mechanical design for laminar weak-link mechanisms with centimeter-level travel range and sub-nanometer positioning resolution is provided. A multiple parallelogram weak-link structure includes a predefined pattern of a plurality of perpendicularly arranged groups of connecting links, each link having at least one pair of weak-link connections. Each of the plurality of perpendicularly arranged groups includes a terminal for mounting to a fixed base. The multiple parallelogram weak-link structure includes a moving part for mounting on a carriage, providing precisely controlled movement with stability in one direction. A two-dimensional (2D) ultra-precision scanning stages assembly for x-ray nanoprobe applications includes multiple redundantly constrained weak-link structures, a vertical ultra-precision positioning stage, and a horizontal ultra-precision positioning stage.
US07994675B2
A rotor having a substantially cylindrical configuration for use in a brushless direct current electric motor having a high torque to size ratio. The rotor has an outer peripheral surface. The rotor also has a central rotor shaft and a first and second retaining ends mounted on the central rotor shaft and spaced from one another. The rotor also has a plurality of magnets configured to provide a magnetic flux with a stator disposed around the central rotor shaft. The magnets are radially disposed on the shaft and the rotor also has a sheath. The sheath is crimped around the radially disposed permanent magnets, and holds the magnets around the shaft. The sheath is lightweight and minimizes a gap between the permanent magnets and the stator to provide for an electromagnetic flux between the magnets and the stator windings, and for rotation of the central rotor shaft.
US07994670B2
In certain exemplary embodiments, an apparatus for rotating one or more vehicle lamps can include a case body, a motor, a printed circuit board, and/or a gear reducing mechanism. The motor can be mounted on the outside of the case body and/or can include a case shell and/or an end cover. The revolving shaft of the motor can be supported on the case shell and/or the end cover of the motor by a first bearing and/or a second bearing respectively. The end of the revolving shaft of the motor can enter into the case body and/or be fixed with a driving gear which can engage with the gear reducing mechanism. The output shaft of the gear reducing mechanism can actuate the vehicle lamp, so as to change the direction of irradiation of the vehicle lamp.
US07994665B2
A rotor for an electrical generator is disclosed, including a rotor body having a circular portion and a cylindrical portion coaxial with the circular portion. A generally cylindrical recess is defined by the cylindrical portion and the first side of the circular portion for receiving a stator. At least one first wall is at least partially spaced apart from the first side of the circular portion, defining at least one chamber therebetween. The chamber has an inlet. An aperture in the at least one first wall defines an outlet of the at least one chamber. At least one second wall extends outwardly from the first side of the circular portion. The at least one second wall has an end portion adjacent to the inlet of the at least one chamber. An internal combustion engine with an electrical generator and a method of cooling an electrical generator are also disclosed.
US07994664B2
A system for cooling a superconducting rotary machine includes a plurality of sealed siphon tubes disposed in balanced locations around a rotor adjacent to a superconducting coil. Each of the sealed siphon tubes includes a tubular body and a heat transfer medium disposed in the tubular body that undergoes a phase change during operation of the machine to extract heat from the superconducting coil. A siphon heat exchanger is thermally coupled to the siphon tubes for extracting heat from the siphon tubes during operation of the machine.
US07994656B2
A power supply system includes a power supply, a daughterboard, and a motherboard. Output currents of power connectors of the motherboard and impedances of copper foils between every two adjacent power connectors of the motherboard are obtained via simulation. A voltage of one power connector of the motherboard is predetermined. Therefore, desired impedances of copper foils between VRM connectors and corresponding power connectors on the daughter board are determined via calculations, to make currents passing through the power connectors of the motherboard equal to each other.
US07994650B2
A rotor blade for a wind energy installation, in which the rotor blade (22) is formed in a plurality of parts, preferably in two parts, with respect to the rotor blade longitudinal direction, in particular in order to temporarily reduce the longitudinal extent of the rotor blade (22) during rotor blade transportation, such that the individual rotor blade segments (24, 26) can be fitted to one another, one behind the other in the longitudinal direction, for assembly of the rotor blade (22), such that in each case at least two rotor blade segments (24, 26) can be connected to one another such that they cannot rotate or such that they can rotate with respect to one another, with the individual rotor blade segments (24, 26) each having one or more suitable contact surfaces (28, 30) which rest directly or indirectly on one another in the assembled state of the rotor blade (22), and such that at least one of the individual rotor blade segments (24, 26) can be tensioned by means of a tensioning apparatus, which can preferably be controlled and/or regulated, in the direction of the rotor center of a wind energy installation (10), and/or can be attached indirectly or directly in a stressed manner to another rotor blade segment (24, 26) and/or to the blade connection and/or to the hub (20) and/or to some other component of a wind energy installation (10).
US07994648B1
One embodiment attached to a vehicle suspension strut or vehicle suspension shock-spring assembly or a vehicle shock absorber includes a set of cylinders (64,66,68,70) containing a number of magnets (72,74,76,78,80,82,84,86,88) and a second set of cylinders (42,44,46,48,50) containing a number of electrically conducting coils (54,56,58,60,62). The set of cylinders containing the magnets is attached to one end of the suspension strut or shock-spring or shock absorber assembly and the set of cylinders containing the conducting coils is attached to the opposite end of the suspension strut or shock-spring or shock absorber assembly such that the magnets move past the conducting coils when the suspension assembly is compressed or extended during displacement of the vehicle wheel. The conducting coils are connected to an electrical charging system used to store electrical charge or generate electrical power.
US07994643B2
A chip stack package may include a substrate, semiconductor chips, a molding member and a controller. The substrate may have a wiring pattern. The semiconductor chips may be stacked on a first surface of the substrate. Further, the semiconductor chips may be electrically connected to the wiring pattern. The molding member may be formed on the first substrate covering the semiconductor chips. The controller may be arranged on a second surface of the substrate. The controller may be electrically connected to the wiring pattern. The controller may have a selection function for selecting operable semiconductor chip(s) among the semiconductor chips.
US07994641B2
A semiconductor device according to one embodiment includes: a substrate having an element region where a semiconductor element is formed; a via hole formed in a portion of the substrate adjacent to the element region; a conducting portion provided in the via hole via an insulating layer; and a buffer layer provided between the substrate and the insulating layer, wherein the buffer layer is made of a material in which a difference in thermal expansion coefficient between the substrate and the buffer layer is smaller than that between the substrate and the insulating layer.
US07994639B2
A microelectronic structure, and in particular a semiconductor structure, includes a substrate and a dielectric layer located over the substrate. In addition at least one alignment mark is located interposed between the dielectric layer and the substrate. The at least one alignment mark comprises, or preferably consists essentially of, at least one substantially present element having an atomic number at least 5 greater than a highest atomic number substantially present element within materials surrounding the alignment mark Also included within the microelectronic structure is a dual damascene aperture located within the dielectric layer. The dual damascene aperture may be fabricated using, among other methods, a hybrid lithography method that uses direct write lithography and optical lithography, in conjunction with the at least one alignment mark and an electron beam as an alignment beam.
US07994636B2
A flip chip interconnection structure is formed by mechanically interlocking joining surfaces of a first and second element. The first element, which may be a bump on an integrated circuit chip, includes a soft, deformable material with a low yield strength and high elongation to failure. The surface of the second element, which may for example be a substrate pad, is provided with asperities into which the first element deforms plastically under pressure to form the mechanical interlock.
US07994635B2
To suppress warpage of a ceramic substrate, and to prevent a reduction in radiation efficiency.A power semiconductor module includes a module casing fitted with a radiator, and a common unit retained by the module casing. The common unit has: a ceramic substrate having a circuit surface disposed with a semiconductor element, and a radiation surface brought into abutting contact with the radiator; and a package formed by exposing the radiation surface and sealing the circuit surface with heat resistant resin. The circuit surface and the radiation surface are respectively formed of metal layers 51 formed on the ceramic substrate, and the metal layer 51 forming the radiation surface has: by forming a buffer pattern 512 including a groove part extending along a circumferential part thereof, a radiation pattern 510 formed on an inner side of the buffer pattern 512; and an outer peripheral pattern 511 formed on an outer side of the buffer pattern 512. Such a configuration enables warpage of the ceramic substrate to be suppressed, and a reduction in radiation efficiency to be prevented.
US07994633B2
Substrate for electrical devices is disclosed. An embodiment for the substrate comprised of an insulator, a conductive element(s) and a conductive material(s), wherein the conductive element embedded in the insulator, and two surfaces of the conductive element exposed to two surfaces of the insulator for electrical connection respectively, wherein the upper surface of conductive element is below the upper surface of insulator and is plated by the conductive material, meanwhile the conductive element include a protruding portion which is protruded the insulator, in this manner, solder balls are not needed, moreover the conductive element can further include an extending portion; the present invention may be capable of affording a thinner electrical device thickness and enhanced reliability.
US07994632B2
A GaN die having a plurality of parallel alternating and closely spaced source and drain strips is contacted by parallel coplanar comb-shaped fingers of source and drain pads. A plurality of enlarged area coplanar spaced gate pads having respective fingers contacting the gate contact of the die. The pads may be elements of a lead frame, or conductive areas on an insulation substrate. Other semiconductor die can be mounted on the pads and connected in predetermined circuit arrangements with the GaN die.
US07994625B2
A method of manufacture of an integrated circuit packaging system includes: providing an internal structure substrate having an internal structure substrate cavity; mounting an internal structure die above the internal structure substrate; encapsulating the internal structure die with an internal structure encapsulation to form an internal structure package; forming an internal structure protrusion in the internal structure encapsulation below the internal structure substrate cavity; mounting the internal structure package above a substrate; and encapsulating the internal structure package above the substrate with an encapsulation.
US07994616B2
A lead frame (100) for a semiconductor device is formed by applying nickel plating (102), palladium plating (103), and gold flash plating (104) substantially entirely to lead frame body (101) such as copper thin plate in this order, and further applying silver plating (105) selectively to part of an inner part that is to be enclosed with a package of the semiconductor device. The lead frame (100) may also include a base of the package. The silver plating contributes to an excellent light reflectance and wire bonding efficiency of the inner part, whereas the gold flash plating contributes to an excellent resistance to corrosion and soldering efficiency of an outer part that is outside the package.
US07994615B2
Some exemplary embodiments of a direct contact leadless package and related structure and method, especially suitable for packaging high current semiconductor devices, have been disclosed. One exemplary structure comprises a first contact lead frame portion, a paddle portion, and an extended contact lead frame portion held together by a mold compound. A first semiconductor device is attached to a top side of the paddle portion and is enclosed by said mold compound, while a second semiconductor device is attached to a bottom side of said paddle portion and is in electrical contact with said the first semiconductor device. The extended contact lead frame portion is in direct electrical contact with the second semiconductor device without using a bond wire. Alternative exemplary embodiments may include additional extended lead frame portions, paddle portions, and semiconductor devices in various configurations.
US07994614B2
Provided is a semiconductor wafer with a scribe line region and a plurality of element forming regions partitioned by the scribe line region, the semiconductor wafer including: conductive patterns formed in the scribe line region; and an island-shaped passivation film formed above at least a conductive pattern, which is or may be exposed to a side surface of a semiconductor chip obtained by dicing the semiconductor wafer along the scribe line region, among the conductive patterns, so that the island-shaped passivation film is opposed to the conductive pattern.
US07994606B2
A de-coupling capacitor module using dummy conductive elements in an integrated circuit is disclosed. The de-coupling module comprises at least one circuit module having one or more active nodes, and at least one dummy conductive element unconnected to any active node, and separated from a high voltage conductor or a low voltage conductor by an insulation region to provide a de-coupling capacitance.
US07994605B2
Isolation regions for semiconductor substrates include dielectric-filled trenches and field oxide regions. Protective caps of dielectric materials dissimilar from the dielectric materials in the main portions of the trenches and field oxide regions may be used to protect the structures from erosion during later process steps. The top surfaces of the isolation structures are coplanar with the surface of the substrate. Field doping regions may be formed beneath the field oxide regions. To meet the demands of different devices, the isolation structures may have varying widths and depths.
US07994604B2
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates reducing the power needed for proximity communication. This system includes an integrated circuit with an array of transmission pads that transmit a signal using proximity communication. A layer of fill metal is located in proximity to this array of transmission pads, wherein the layer of fill metal is “floating” (e.g., not connected to any signal). Leaving this layer of fill metal floating reduces the parasitic capacitance for the array of transmission pads, which can reduce the amount of power needed to transmit the signal.
US07994602B2
A thin-film metal-oxide compound includes a titanium dioxide layer having a thickness of about 100 to 1000 nanometers. The titanium dioxide layer has a single-phase anatase structure. The titanium dioxide layer is directly disposed on a substrate comprised of glass, sapphire, or silicon. A solar cell includes a backing layer, a p-n junction layer, a metal-oxide layer, a top electrical layer and a contact layer. The backing layer includes a p-type semiconductor material. The p-n junction layer has a first side disposed on a front side of the backing layer. The metal-oxide layer includes an n-type titanium dioxide film having a thickness in the range of about 100 to about 1000 nanometers. The metal-oxide layer is disposed on a second side of the p-n junction layer. The top electrical layer is disposed on the metal-oxide layer, and the contact layer is disposed on a back side of the backing layer.
US07994597B2
The free layer in a magneto-resistive memory element is stabilized through being pinned by an antiferromagnetic layer. A control valve layer provides exchange coupling between this antiferromagnetic layer and the free layer. When writing data into the free layer, the control valve layer is heated above its curie point thereby temporarily uncoupling the free layer from said antiferromagnetic layer. Once the control valve cools, the free layer magnetization is once again pinned by the antiferromagnetic layer.
US07994579B2
The present invention provides a thin film field-effect transistor comprising a substrate having thereon at least a gate electrode, a gate insulating film, an active layer, a source electrode, and a drain electrode, wherein the active layer is an oxide semiconductor layer, a resistance layer having an electric conductivity that is lower than an electric conductivity of the active layer is provided between the active layer and at least one of the source electrode or the drain electrode, and an intermediate layer comprising an oxide comprising an element having a stronger bonding force with respect to oxygen than that of the oxide semiconductor in the active layer is provided between the active layer and the resistance layer.
US07994570B2
A semiconductor device in which current flows in a vertical direction includes a structure that decreases resistance between a source electrode and a drain electrode along with a current path at a position different from a position having highest electric field intensity between the source electrode and the drain electrode.
US07994562B2
The memory apparatus includes a memory device including a gate insulating layer formed on a silicon substrate by sequentially stacking a tunnel oxide layer, a charge trap layer, and a block oxide layer in this order, on the silicon substrate. In addition, a gate electrode is formed on the gate insulating layer. The block oxide layer is formed by stacking a first block oxide layer and a second block oxide layer, wherein the first block oxide layer is adjacent to the charge trap layer and the second block oxide layer is adjacent to the gate electrode. The second block oxide layer is formed of a dielectric material having higher permittivity than that of the first block oxide layer and having higher electron affinity than that of the first block oxide layer.
US07994555B2
A spin transistor useful for device miniaturization and high-density integration is provided. The spin transistor includes: a semiconductor substrate including a channel layer; ferromagnetic source and drain disposed on the semiconductor substrate to be separated from each other and to be magnetized in a direction perpendicular to a surface of the channel layer; a gate formed on the semiconductor substrate between the source and the drain to adjust spins of electrons passing through the channel layer, wherein spin-polarized electrons are injected from the source to the channel layer, and the electrons injected into the channel layer pass though the channel layer and are injected into the drain, and wherein the spins of the electrons passing through the channel layer undergo precession due to a spin-orbit coupling induced magnetic field according to a voltage of the gate.
US07994545B2
Methods, structures and designs for self-aligned local interconnects are provided. The method includes designing diffusion regions to be in a substrate. Some of a plurality of gates are designed to be active gates and some of the plurality of gates are designed to be formed over isolation regions. The method includes designing the plurality of gates in a regular and repeating alignment along a same direction, and each of the plurality of gates are designed to have dielectric spacers. The method also includes designing a local interconnect layer between or adjacent to the plurality of gates. The local interconnect layer is conductive and disposed over the substrate to allow electrical contact and interconnection with or to some of the diffusion regions of the active gates. The local interconnect layer is self-aligned by the dielectric spacers of the plurality of gates.
US07994542B2
A semiconductor device of the present invention comprises a logic circuit to which a power supply voltage, a sub-power supply voltage, a ground voltage and a sub-ground voltage are supplied; a driver for generating the sub-power supply voltage and the sub-ground voltage based on the power supply voltage and the ground voltage; a first wiring layer including a sub-power supply line for supplying the sub-power supply voltage and a sub-ground line for supplying the sub-ground voltage; a second wiring layer including source/drain lines for MOS transistors; a third wiring layer including a main power supply line for supplying the power supply voltage and a main ground line for supplying the ground voltage and arranged opposite to the first wiring layer to sandwich the second wiring layer; via structures for connecting the source/drain lines of the second wiring layer to the other layers.
US07994538B2
A semiconductor device to which a stress technique is applied and in which a leakage current caused by silicidation can be suppressed. A gate electrode is formed over an element region defined by an isolation region formed in a semiconductor substrate with a gate insulating film between. Extension regions and source/drain regions are formed in the element region on both sides of the gate electrode. In addition, a semiconductor layer which differs from the semiconductor substrate in lattice constant is formed apart from at least part of the isolation region. By doing so, the formation of a spike near the isolation region is suppressed even if a silicide layer is formed. Accordingly, a leakage current caused by such a spike can be suppressed.
US07994533B2
An LED lamp includes a first heat sink, a second heat sink thermally contacting the first heat sink, and an LED module mounted on the first heat sink. The first heat sink comprises a plate and a plurality of first fins extending from the plate. The plate has a bare area on a top surface thereof. The LED module is mounted on the bare area and surrounded by the first fins of the first heat sink. The second heat sink comprises a base thermally contacting a bottom surface of the plate of the first heat sink and a plurality of second fins arranged at a bottom surface of the base of the second heat sink. Heat pipes are sandwiched between the plate and base of the first and second heat sinks.
US07994531B2
A white-light LED chip and a fabrication method thereof are provided. The white-light LED chip comprises a blue-light LED chip and a phosphor layer directly disposed on a top surface of the blue-light LED chip. The method comprises providing a plurality of blue-light LED chips attached to a substrate, wherein at least one contact pad is formed on the top surface of each blue-light LED chip. A protective layer is formed on the contact pad. A phosphor layer is formed on the top surface of the blue-light LED chip by a molding process, exposing the contact pad. Finally, the protective layer and the substrate are removed from the blue-light LED chip to form a white-light LED chip.
US07994530B2
The present invention relates to a light emitting diode (LED) module (10), comprising at least one LED chip (12) having a surface (13) for emitting light, and a ceramic conversion plate (14). The LED module is characterized in that the ceramic conversion plate includes a first segment (18) covering a first portion of the light emitting surface of the LED chip(s) and a second segment (20) provided alongside the first segment covering a second portion of the light emitting surface of the LED chip(s), wherein at least one of the segments comprises a wavelength-converting material for converting light emitted from the LED chip(s) to a certain wavelength. The present invention also relates to a method for the manufacturing of such an LED module, and a ceramic conversion plate for use in an LED module.
US07994528B2
A light-emitting chip includes a base, a transparent material layer and a light-emitting chip. The base has an upper surface including a conductive pattern. The transparent material layer is disposed on the upper surface of the base and has an opening part which is located on region at least part of the conductive pattern. The light-emitting chip is mounted on the conductive pattern and located in the opening part of the transparent material layer.
US07994527B2
An (Al, Ga, In)N and ZnO direct wafer bonded light emitting diode (LED) combined with a shaped plastic optical element, in which the directional light from the ZnO cone, or from any high refractive index material in contact with the LED surface, entering the shaped plastic optical element is extracted to air.
US07994525B2
A nitride-based semiconductor LED includes a substrate; an n-type nitride semiconductor layer formed on the substrate; an active layer and a p-type nitride semiconductor layer that are sequentially formed on a predetermined region of the n-type nitride semiconductor layer; a transparent electrode formed on the p-type nitride semiconductor layer; a p-electrode pad formed on the transparent electrode, the p-electrode pad being spaced from the outer edge line of the p-type nitride semiconductor layer by 50 to 200 μm; and an n-electrode pad formed on the n-type nitride semiconductor layer.
US07994519B2
A semiconductor chip (1) comprises a semiconductor body (2) having a semiconductor layer sequence having an active region (23) provided for generating radiation. A contact (4) is arranged on the semiconductor body (2). An injection barrier (5) is formed between the contact (4) and the active region (23). A method for producing a semiconductor chip is also disclosed.
US07994517B2
An organic light emitting display device includes a substrate, a thin film transistor having a gate insulating layer and an inter-insulating layer, an organic light emitting diode electrically connected with the thin film transistor, and a photo sensor, wherein the gate insulating layer includes a relief structure positioned above the photo sensor.
US07994516B2
The present invention discloses an LED module comprising: a waterproof enclosure; an LED accommodated in the waterproof enclosure; a wire for coupling the LED module with other LED modules and a driver; and a radiating unit set in the bottom of the waterproof enclosure and exposed to the external environment. The invention further provides an LED chain comprising the above said LED module and a driver coupled with the LED module. The LED chain according to the invention may have a high waterproof level, for example, IP65. The heat generated during the operation of the high power LED module may be transmitted to the external environment in time via a heat sink set on the LED module, thereby effective thermal management for the LED module and a long service life of the LED module may be obtained. Moreover, the finish surface of the driver may be made handsome by encapsulating the driver through the low pressure molding.
US07994499B2
A semiconductor probe having a wedge shape resistive tip and a method of fabricating the semiconductor probe is provided. The semiconductor probe includes a resistive tip that is doped with a first impurity, has a resistance region doped with a low concentration of a second impurity having an opposite polarity to the first impurity, and has first and second semiconductor electrode regions doped with a high concentration of the second impurity on both side slopes of the resistive tip. The probe also includes a cantilever having the resistive tip on an edge portion thereof, and an end portion of the resistive tip has a wedge shape.
US07994496B2
A light-emitting element has a layer including an organic material between a first electrode and a second electrode, and further has a layer including a metal oxide between the second electrode and the layer including the organic material, where these electrodes and layers are laminated so that the second electrode is formed later than the first electrode. The light-emitting element is suppressed damage caused to a layer including an organic material during deposition by sputtering and a phenomenon such as short circuit between electrodes.
US07994495B2
An organic thin film transistor has a gate dielectric layer which is formed from a block copolymer. The block copolymer comprises a polar block and a nonpolar block. The resulting dielectric layer has good adhesion to the gate electrode and good compatibility with the semiconducting layer.
US07994492B2
Disclosed may be a phase change material alloy, a phase change memory device including the same, and methods of manufacturing and operating the phase change memory device. The phase change material alloy may include Si and Sb. The alloy may be a Si—O—Sb alloy further including O. The Si—O—Sb alloy may be SixOySbz, wherein, when x/(x+z) may be x1, 0.05≦x1≦0.30, 0.00≦y≦0.50, and x+y+z may be 1. The Si—O—Sb alloy may further comprise an element other than Si, O, and Sb.
US07994484B2
The present invention provides a stage apparatus wherein an object is disposed in an atmosphere with a gas pressure lower than atmospheric pressure, and the object can be driven with high accuracy. The stage apparatus that drives a reticle comprises: a vacuum chamber, which forms a space and has an opening; an integrated coarse and fine motion table, which has an electrostatic chuck that holds the object, that, when driven, moves the electrostatic chuck inside the space; a counter mass, which is disposed so that it covers the opening, that is capable of moving because of the reaction force produced when the integrated coarse and fine motion table is driven; and a vacuum cover, which forms a space that houses the counter mass; wherein the space and the space are set to prescribed gas pressures.
US07994483B2
To attain objects to reduce the spread of electrons as compared with a conventional one without degrading the multiplication factor of electrons; to provide a large electron multiplication factor; and to improve positional resolution, there is provided a gas electron multiplier using interaction between radiation and gas through photoelectric effects including: a chamber filled with gas and a single gas electron multiplication foil arranged in the chamber wherein the gas electron multiplication foil is made of a plate-like multilayer body composed by having a plate-like insulation layer made of a macromolecular polymer material having a thickness of around 100 μm to 300 μm and flat metal layers overlaid on both surfaces of the insulation layer, and the plate-like multilayer body is provided with a through-hole structure.
US07994475B2
An ion mobility spectrometer has two drift chambers and a common, doped reaction region. Each drift chamber includes an ion modifier, such as one that fragments the doped ions by a high electrical field. One of the drift chambers is doped and the other is undoped. In this way, the dopant adducts are removed by the modification process but then recombine with dopant only in the doped chamber so that different outputs are produced by the two drift chambers.
US07994473B2
In a mass spectrometer with an electrostatic ion trap, the electrostatic ion trap has an outer electrode with an ion-repelling electric potential applied to it and a plurality of inner electrodes with ion-attracting potentials applied to each inner electrode. The outer electrode and the inner electrodes are shaped and arranged in such a way that a harmonic electric potential is formed in one spatial direction and, perpendicular to this spatial direction, an electric potential is formed in which ions move in stable, radial trajectories.
US07994449B2
The present invention provides a square-wave laser seal pattern made by first directing a laser beam onto an shaft while the shaft is moving in a horizontal direction relative to a laser device so as to create a horizontal laser seal bond segment. Next, with the shaft rotating about a shaft longitudinal axis, the laser beam is directed onto the shaft so as to create a vertical laser seal bond segment. By alternately creating and coupling together a plurality of horizontal and vertical laser seal bond segments, a square-wave laser seal is formed around a circumference of the shaft. The shaft's movement in a horizontal direction relative to a laser beam may be either at a constant speed or a variable speed so as to control the amount of laser energy heat impacting the shaft material.
US07994448B2
Methods and systems are provided for controlling an automatic separator apparatus of a Materials Recovery Facility. A separator for separating a stream of recyclable paper and containers into a paper stream including primarily paper and a container stream including primarily containers is provided. The separator has at least one adjustable operating parameter. A first detector detects an amount of container contaminants in the paper stream. A second detector detects an amount of paper contaminants in the container stream. A control system operably connected to the separator and the first and second detectors adjust the adjustable operating parameter so as to reduce a combined measure of contaminants in the paper stream and in the container stream.
US07994445B2
A sheet switch module including a sheet switch (21) having a central contact (32) disposed on a circuit board (33), a circumferential contact (20) disposed circumferentially of the central contact (32), a spring (22) disposed above the central contact (32), and a transparent sheet member (23) configured to cover the spring (22), the sheet switch (21) forming a switching circuit such that the spring (22) provides electrical conduction between the central contact (32) and the circumferential contact (20) when the sheet member is pressed, the sheet member (23) being formed by a light guiding sheet (30) configured to guide light emitted from an LED (34) along an upper surface of the spring (22).
US07994439B2
Disclosed are various embodiments of a weight scale with differential display. A first weight is determined for a user from a weight sensor. The first weight is stored in a memory. A second weight is determined for the user from the weight sensor. A difference is determined between the first weight and the second weight. The difference is communicated to the user through an output device.
US07994433B2
A multilayer printed circuit board including a substrate board and a built-up structure formed over the substrate board. The built-up structure includes conductor circuits and resin insulating layers. The built-up structure has via holes interconnecting the conductor circuits through one or more resin insulating layers. The via holes are filled up with plating, and the resin insulating layers is formed of a cycloolefin resin.
US07994431B2
A substrate with built-in electronic components includes a substrate on which a first conductive pattern is formed; an electronic component mounted on the substrate; an insulting layer which is formed by stacking a plurality of resin layers including indifferent additive ratios an additive material for adjusting hardness; a second conductive pattern formed on the insulating layer; and a conductive post for connecting the first conductive pattern to the second conductive pattern.
US07994428B2
An electronic carrier board for a chip to be mounted thereon is provided, which includes a body and a plurality of solder pads. The solder pads have carrying surfaces for carrying the chip thereon through conductive bumps. The carrying surfaces of at least two solder pads are oppositely inclined with respect to each other, thereby preventing the conductive bumps mounted on the carrying surfaces from displacement and thereby further preventing two adjacent conductive bumps subject to displacement from coming into short-circuit contact.
US07994424B2
A high voltage system including a HVDC valve, a liquid fluid cooling system for cooling the valve, and a high voltage bushing for transferring high voltage and high current from the fluid cooled HVDC valve. The high voltage bushing includes an insulating body surrounding an electrical conductor electrically connectable to a connector of the HVDC valve. The electrical conductor of the high voltage bushing includes a cooling duct arranged for cooling the bushing utilizing a circulating gaseous fluid. A heat exchanger is connected to the cooling duct and adapted to cool the circulating gaseous fluid, wherein the heat exchanger is connected to the cooling system of the HVDC valve and adapted to receive cooling water from and to return heated cooling water to the cooling system of the HVDC valve.
US07994405B1
A novel maize variety designated PHVP4 and seed, plants and plant parts thereof. Methods for producing a maize plant that comprise crossing maize variety PHVP4 with another maize plant. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into PHVP4 through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. Hybrid maize seed, plant or plant part produced by crossing the variety PHVP4 or a locus conversion of PHVP4 with another maize variety.
US07994395B2
The present invention is in the field of plant breeding and genetics, particularly as it pertains to the genus, Glycine. More specifically, the invention relates to a method for screening soybean plants containing one or more quantitative trait loci for disease resistance, species of Glycine having such loci and methods for breeding for and screening of Glycine with such loci. The invention further relates to the use of exotic germplasm in a breeding program.
US07994382B2
The present invention relates to an application system for an active ingredient release system, comprising a film-form application strip, which is in each case bonded detachably to an active ingredient-containing plaster and a separate active ingredient release regulator separate there from.
US07994365B2
Use of the substance characterized by general structural formula (I) for the preparation of an agent inhibiting the enzymatic activity of NO-synthase, R1, R2, R3, R4 and/or R5 being hydrogen, an alkyl group, an aryl group or a heterocyclic group and n equals 2 or 3.
US07994360B2
The present invention relates to benzofuran derivatives for use in antiviral compositions. More specifically, the present invention relates to compositions and methods for the treatment of hepatitis C virus by administering the benzofuran derivatives in a therapeutically effective amount.
US07994354B2
Methods to convert biobased oils, oil derivatives, and modified oils to highly functionalized esters, ester polyols, amides, and amide polyols. The products can be used to make polyurethane and polyester films and foams.
US07994346B2
This invention is directed to compounds useful as intermediates in the synthesis of lipoxin A4 analogs of the following formulas (I) and (II): wherein R1, R2, R3, R4 and R5 are described herein. These analogs are useful in treating inflammatory and autoimmune disorders in humans. These analogs are also useful in treating pulmonary or respiratory tract inflammation in humans.
US07994336B2
The invention relates to novel azetidine compounds of formula (I), wherein R1, R2, and X are as described in the description and their use as orexin receptor antagonists.
US07994329B2
Compounds that are ligands for the growth hormone secretagogue receptor type 1A (GHS-R 1A), as well as pharmaceutically acceptable salts of such compounds, are useful for the manufacture of medicaments for the regulation of food intake.
US07994325B2
Compounds of Formula I: (where variables R1, A, B, W, X, Y and Z are as defined herein) useful as antagonists of CGRP receptors and useful in the treatment or prevention of diseases in which the CGRP is involved, such as headache, migraine and cluster headache. The invention is also directed to pharmaceutical compositions comprising these compounds and the use of these compounds and compositions in the prevention or treatment of such diseases in which CGRP is involved.
US07994323B2
This invention relates to novel chromen-2-one derivatives useful as starting material for synthesis of pharmaceuticals. On other aspects the invention relates to a method of preparing the chromen-2-one derivatives of the invention.
US07994318B2
Novel compounds composition capable of inhibiting TNFα and having antiimmunionflammatory and autoimmune properties useful in a pharmaceutical composition, such as for a drug containing this as an active ingredient; and a therapeutic method with the use of these novel compounds.
US07994316B2
Since the conventional electron transporters have low thermal stability, the organic electroluminescent devices using them are not sufficient in terms of the compatibility of their luminance and luminous efficiency with device lifetime.A 1,3,5-triazine derivative of formula (1) is obtained by a metal catalyst-aided coupling reaction of a compound of formula (2) with a compound of formula (3), and this is used as a composing component of an organic electroluminescent device. [In the formulae, Ar1 and Ar2 represent phenyl group or the like, R1 and R2 represent hydrogen atom or the like, R3 represents methyl or the like, m is an integer of 0 to 2, X represents 2,4-pyridylene or the like, p is 1 or 2, a and b are 1 or 2, a+b is 3, q is 0 or an integer of p or less, M represents —MgR4 group or the like, R4 represents chlorine atom or the like, r is p-q, and Y represents a leaving group.]
US07994312B2
A method of making a metalloporphyrin is carried out by reacting (i) a linear tetrapyrrole, said linear tetrapyrrole having a 19-acyl group and a 1-protecting group, with (ii) a metal salt under basic conditions to produce the metalloporphyrin. Products produced by such methods and intermediates useful for carrying out such methods are also described.
US07994303B2
The present invention relates to new penaeidin gene promoters found in tiger shrimps and applications thereof. The promoters of the invention are useful for the development of transgenic shrimps and valuable for the shrimp culture industry.
US07994301B2
Modulators of weight, including, for example, two isoforms of murine and human ob polypeptides, are provided, as well as diagnostic and therapeutic uses and methods comprising such. Also provided are nucleotide sequences, degenerate variations thereof, and proteins expressed by such.
US07994297B2
Provided is a method of spotting a probe densely and efficiently on a surface of a solid support. A liquid containing a probe is attached to a solid support as droplets to form spots containing the probe on the solid support by an ink jet method.
US07994296B2
The invention provides computer systems, computer program products and methods for in silico array-based methods for determining the relative amount of biological molecules (e.g., nucleic acid sequences) in two or more samples. The invention also provides novel arrays comprising immobilized calibration molecules (e.g., nucleic acids) for normalizing the results of array-based binding assays (e.g., hybridization reactions).
US07994291B2
The present invention relates to a novel polypeptide encoding a protein which is the full length human ortholog of E3α ubiquitin ligase. The invention also relates to vector, host cells, antibodies and recombinant methods for producing the polypeptide. In addition, the invention discloses therapeutic, diagnostic and research utilities for these and related products.
US07994288B2
This invention relates to allergenic proteins of natural rubber latex in substantially purified form, their production and their use, together with monoclonal antibodies developed against those allergenic proteins, in assays for the qualitative and quantitative determination of the levels of the allergenic proteins in natural rubber latex or in products made from latex. Assays for identifying and/or quantitating antibodies in blood or blood products that mediate the occurrence of an allergic reaction induced by natural rubber latex are also provided, together with in vivo and in vitro diagnostic tests for detecting hypersensitivity to natural rubber latex and which involve use of the aforesaid allergenic proteins. The invention also provides for the use of the aforesaid allergens as de-sensitising agents in the treatment of latex protein allergy. There is still further provided a method for removing allergenic proteins from latex products.
US07994275B1
The disclosure defined by this invention provides a method for extruding thermoplastic polymers which includes the step of creating high pressure steam in the extruding apparatus so as to prevent scorching and to solubilize contaminants. The method can be used in a neutralization step of ionomers in an extrusion process to obtain an extrudate having good light transmission and improved impact resistance.
US07994273B2
Diamine compounds, which in particular are useful as precursors for the production of liquid crystal alignment layers, are represented by the general formula I: wherein A1 represents an organic group of 1 to 40 carbon atoms; A2 represents a hydrogen atom or an organic group of 1 to 40 carbon atoms.
US07994271B2
Disclosed is a phenolic resin having flame retardance, fast curing property and low melt viscosity, which is useful for a curing agent for epoxy resin-based semiconductor sealing materials. Also disclosed are a method for producing such a phenolic resin and use of such a phenolic resin. Specifically disclosed is a phenolic resin obtained by reacting a phenol, a bismethylbiphenyl compound and an aromatic aldehyde at such a ratio that the molar ratio of the total of the bismethylbiphenyl compound and the aromatic aldehyde relative to the phenol is 0.10-0.60, and the aromatic aldehyde/the bismethylbiphenyl compound (molar ratio) is from 5/95 to 50/50. Also specifically disclosed is an epoxy resin composition composed of such a phenolic resin and an epoxy resin.
US07994269B2
Golf equipment including compositions including castable formulations that have low material hardness and increased shear resistance. The compositions may be used in any layer of a golf ball including cores, intermediate layers, and covers and result in high spin rates.
US07994267B2
The present invention provides a novel catalyst composition comprising a metallocene complex, and a novel producing method for various polymer compounds. Preferably, the invention provides a novel polymer compound, and a producing method thereof. Specifically, the invention provides a polymerization catalyst composition, comprising: (1) a metallocene complex represented by the general formula (I), including: a central metal M which is a group III metal atom or a lanthanoid metal atom; a ligand Cp* bound to the central metal and including a substituted or unsubstituted cyclopentadienyl derivative; monoanionic ligands Q1 and Q2; and w neutral Lewis base L; and (2) an ionic compound composed of a non-ligand anion and a cation: where w represents an integer of 0 to 3.
US07994265B2
In a method of preparing an aqueous dispersion selected from drilling fluids, hydraulic cement compositions, mineral pigment containing coatings, and papermaking furnishes or in a method of preparing a melt extrudate, the improvement comprising: a) producing a copolymer of vinyl alcohol (VOH) and 2-acrylamido-2-methyl propane sulfonic acid or a salt of such acid (AMPS) by steps including continuously feeding with agitation, vinyl acetate (VAM) and AMPS as comonomers, a free radical yielding polymerization initiator, and a solvent for said comonomers, initiator, and copolymer resulting from the copolymerization of said comonomers, maintaining the resulting reaction mass in said first reaction zone under polymerization conditions for a residence time sufficient for a major proportion of AMPS fed to said first reaction zone to polymerize, continuously feeding reaction mass from said first reaction zone with an additional supply of AMPS to a second reaction zone, maintaining the reaction mass in the second reaction zone for a residence time sufficient to polymerize a major proportion of the AMPS added to the second reaction zone, continuously withdrawing reaction mass from the second reaction zone, separating copolymer of VAM and AMPS from the latter reaction mass, and saponifying by hydrolysis and/or alcoholysis a major proportion of the acetate groups in said copolymer to form a copolymer of VOH and AMPS; and b) incorporating the saponified copolymer into the aqueous dispersion or melt extrudate.
US07994261B2
Highly elastomeric, curable, paintable silicone compositions are provided. The paintable silicone compositions comprise an organopolysiloxane, a silicone functional crosslinker, and an organic polymer. The highly elastomeric, curable, paintable silicone compositions have an elongation of at least 150% and are useful as paintable sealants and caulks.
US07994258B2
There is provided a hyperbranched polymer having a nitroxyl group. A hyperbranched polymer comprising at least one organic radical structure (nitroxyl group) of Formula (1), Formula (2) or Formula (3): and having a weight average molecular weight measured by gel permeation chromatography in a converted molecular weight as polystyrene of 500 to 5,000,000.
US07994255B2
The present invention relates to a flame retardant which is a graft copolymer. The graft copolymer is obtained by polymerizing a vinyl monomer containing at least two polymerizable groups, and at least one other vinyl monomer, in the presence of polyorganosiloxane particles in a latex state. The polyorganosiloxane particles contain grafting agents that are unevenly distributed on the surface thereof. The present invention also relates to thermoplastic resins containing this flame retardant.
US07994253B2
A composition is described in one aspect as comprising one or more propylene-α-olefin terpolymers; wherein the propylene-α-olefin terpolymer(s) possess a melting temperature (Tm) within the range of from less than 105° C., and a heat of fusion (Hf) within the range of from less than 75 J/g; one or more polyolefin(s); and oil; wherein fillers are present, if at all, at a level that maintains a Haze value of 65% or less for the composition. The terpolymer in one embodiment is a polymer comprising at least 65 wt %, by weight of the terpolymer, of propylene-derived units, within the range of from 5 to 35 wt % of ethylene or other α-olefin and a diene such as ethylidiene norbornene, and in certain embodiments having a Mooney Viscosity (ML(1+4)@125° C.) within the range of from 10 to 50 (ASTM D1646). The compositions can be cured to form transparent or translucent articles such as sheets that are also flexible.
US07994249B2
A method of treating a substrate, such as a metal surface, by application of a silane coating composition containing at least one water-soluble or dispersible silane and a polymeric resin, which may be provided as a water-based dispersion of polymeric resin, the polymeric resin being present in an amount less than 10% by weight of the composition to slow the rate of corrosion of the metal surface and/or to promote adhesion of rubber thereto. The at least one silane can include a bis-amino silane, a vinyl silane, a bis-sulfur silane, or mixtures thereof and the polymeric resin may include an epoxy resin, acrylate resin, polyurethane resin, novolac resin, or mixtures thereof. The silane coating compositions may be either water or solvent based.
US07994246B2
A curable silicone composition comprising at least the following components: (A) an epoxy-containing organopolysiloxane; (B) a curing agent for epoxy resin; and (C) an epoxy compound represented by the specific general formula; is characterized by excellent handleability and reduced oil-bleeding, and, when cured, forms a cured body of excellent flexibility and adhesion.
US07994245B2
The invention relates to compounds of the structure of formula I and II: where X is selected from the group consisting of O, S and NH; Y, A and B are independently selected from the group consisting of N and CH; D, E and F are independently selected from the group consisting of CH, N, O and S; the symbol — represents a single or a double bond; and R1, R2 and R3 are independently selected from the group consisting of H, electron withdrawing groups and electron releasing groups. In other embodiments, the compounds are used as oxygen scavengers and in barrier compositions and articles.
US07994241B2
A crystalline polyamide 6 in a compounding extrusion process to make wood flour-polyolefin composite. The wood plastic composite pellet and can be post-blended with reinforced polyolefin pellets in an injection molding step to produce hybrid fibrous composites. The resulting compatibilization in the hybrid fibrous composites gives molded parts having enhanced mechanical properties at greatly reduced temperatures. There is wide variety of molded parts that can be made by varying the blend ratio of the wood plastic compounded product with or without and glass fiber reinforced pellets in the injection molding step.
US07994238B2
An article includes a reaction product of a filler having binding sites, a coupling agent composition including an aromatic amine and a first cycloolefin substituted with at least one epoxy group, a polymer precursor including a second cycloolefin, and a metathesis catalyst capable of catalyzing a ring-opening metathesis polymerization reaction when contacted to the first cycloolefin or the second cycloolefin. The coupling agent composition is capable of bonding to the filler and the coupling agent composition is compatible with a metathesis catalyst. An associated method is also provided.
US07994235B2
A method of a seamless model free of bond lines. The method includes the sequential steps of providing a substructure having an exposed outer surface, applying a modelling paste to a structure support in the form of a continuous layer, curing the applied modelling paste, and machining the cured layer of modelling paste to the desired contour. The modelling paste a low density curable composition prepared from thixotropic epoxy or polyurethane containing microballoons.
US07994229B2
The present invention provides a process for producing thermo-expansive microspheres comprising a thermoplastic resinous shell and a blowing agent being encapsulated in the shell, the blowing agent which is a fluorine-containing C2-10 compound having ether linkage, being free of chlorine and bromine atoms and gasifying at a temperature not higher than the softening point of the thermoplastic resin. The thermo-expansive microspheres have preferably an average particle size ranging from 1 to 100 μm and a CV, or coefficient of variation, of particle size distribution being 30% or less, and a retaining ratio of blowing agent encapsulated being 90% or more.
US07994225B2
Efflux pump inhibitors are co-administered with antimicrobial agents for the treatment of ophthalmic or otic infections. The agents may be co-administered directly to the site of infection (e.g., the eye or ear).
US07994221B2
Compounds, methods and pharmaceutical compositions for treating viral infections, by administering certain novel sulfonyl semicarbazides, carbonyl semicarbazides, semicarbazides, ureas and related compounds in therapeutically effective amounts are disclosed. Methods for preparing the compounds and methods of using the compounds and pharmaceutical compositions thereof are also disclosed. In particular, the treatment and prophylaxis of viral infections such as caused by hemorrhagic fever viruses is disclosed, i.e., including but not limited to, Arenaviridae (Junin, Machupo, Guanarito, Sabia, Lassa, Tacaribe, Pinchinde, and VSV), Filoviridae (ebola and Marburg viruses), Flaviviridae (yellow fever, omsk hemorrhagic fever and Kyasanur Forest disease viruses), and Bunyaviridae (Rift Valley fever).
US07994220B2
The present invention is directed to methods for providing long-term treatment of fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) by administering a dual re-uptake inhibitor to a patient with FMS. More particularly, the present invention is directed to the long-term treatment of FMS by administering a norepinephrine-serotonin reuptake inhibitor (NSRI) to a patient with FMS.
US07994213B2
Disclosed are a coating agent for drug releasing stents, a method for preparing the same and a drug releasing stent coated therewith. The coating agent for drug releasing stents comprises nanoparticles with a biologically active material entrapped therein, wherein the particles are formed of a polyethyleneimine (PEI)-deoxycholic acid (DOCA) polymer (PDo) in which 1˜8 moles of DOCA are grafted per mole of PEI.
US07994211B2
Compounds of formula (I) have muscarinic M3 receptor modulating activity; Formula (I) wherein A is an oxygen atom or group —N(R12)—; (i) R1 is C1-C6-alkyl or a hydrogen atom; and R2 is a hydrogen atom or a group —R5, —Z—Y—R5—Z—NR9R10; —Z—CO—NR9R10; —Z—NR9—CO—R5; or —Z—CO2H; and R3 is a lone pair, or C1-C6-alkyl in which case the nitrogen atom to which it is attached is a quaternary nitrogen and carries a positive charge; or (ii) R1 and R3 together with the nitrogen to which they are attached form a heterocycloalkyl ring, and R2 is a hydrogen atom; or a group —R5, —Z—Y—R5, —Z—NR9R10, —Z—CO—NR9R10, —Z—NR9—CO—R5, or —Z—CO2H, in which cases the nitrogen atom to which it is attached is a quaternary nitrogen and carries a positive charge; or (iii) R1 and R2 together with the nitrogen to which they are attached form a heterocycloalkyl ring, said ring being substituted by a group —Y—R5, —Z—Y—R5, —Z—NR9R10; —Z—CO—NR9R10; —Z—NR9—CO—R5; or —Z—CO2H and R3 is a lone pair, or C1-C6-alkyl in which case the nitrogen atom to which it is attached is a quaternary nitrogen and carries a positive charge; R4 is a group of formula (a), (b), (c) or (d); is an C1-C6-alkyl, aryl, aryl-fused-cycloalkyl, aryl-fused-heterocycloalkyl, heteroaryl, aryl(C1-C8-alkyl)-, heteroaryl(C1-C8-alkyl)-, cycloalkyl or heterocycloalkyl group, and the remaining variables are as defined in the specification.
