US08083513B2
Apparatus for manufacturing a three-dimensional object (3) by solidifying a powdery constituent material layer by layer at the positions corresponding to the profile of the object (3) to be manufactured in the corresponding layer, by the action of a laser or another energy source comprises a support (2) on which the object (3) is formed and an applicator (6, 7) for applying a layer of the constituent material onto the support or a layer at least partially solidified in advance. The applicator (6, 7) has a receiving device (40) for receiving a applying module such as a blade module (30). The receiving device (40) is formed in a way so that the applying module (30) can be exchangeably inserted into and removed from the receiving device (40) in a way that a predetermined position of the applying module (30) in the receiving device (40) is reproducibly determined.
US08083508B2
A new type of progressive cavity compressor is intended primarily for 3 to 10 ton vapor-cycle air conditioning systems. Major working section elements include a rotor, a stator, inlet ports, an outlet endplate, and outlet check valves. The helical rotor is driven in an eccentric orbital path inside the helical stator. In the preferred embodiment, the rotor and stator helices have varying (non-uniform) pitch in the working section. Rotor-stator running clearances are tight, to minimize leakage. Two outlet check valves regulate refrigerant discharge flow and pressure. Efficient compression is provided over a wide range of compression ratios, corresponding to a wide range of ambient temperatures in an air conditioning application. The invention can improve the energy efficiency of air conditioning systems, especially at off-design conditions.
US08083506B2
Embodiments of the invention provide a double action simplex pump including a pump body with a first half and a second half joined together to form an enclosed cavity. The first half includes a first pipe member and the second half includes a second pipe member. A first end of the first pipe member is a fluid inlet port and a second end of the second pipe member is a fluid outlet port. The enclosed cavity defines a first pocket and a second pocket each in fluid communication with a first lumen of the first pipe member and a second lumen of the second pipe member. A first valve assembly is positioned in the first pocket and a second valve assembly is positioned in the second pocket. Each of the first valve assembly and the second valve assembly includes a valve casing supporting an inlet poppet valve, an outlet poppet valve, and a central opening located between the inlet poppet valve and the outlet poppet valve. The central opening is aligned with one of a plunger and a diaphragm.
US08083504B2
A quintuplex mud pump has a crankshaft supported in the pump by external main bearings. The crankshaft has five eccentric sheaves, two internal main bearing sheaves, and two bull gears. Each of the main bearing sheaves supports the crankshaft by a main bearing. One main bearing sheave is disposed between second and third eccentric sheaves, while the other main bearing sheave is disposed between third and fourth eccentric sheaves. One bull gear is disposed between the first and second eccentric sheaves, while the second bull gear is disposed between fourth and fifth eccentric sheaves. A pinion shaft has pinion gears interfacing with the crankshaft's bull gears. Connecting rods on the eccentric sheaves use roller bearings and transfer rotational movement of the crankshaft to pistons of the pump's fluid assembly.
US08083502B2
A submersible pump for removing liquids from an enclosure having at least one outlet socket for discharging liquid from the enclosure, an electric actuator with a rotary output shaft, a bladed wheel within the enclosure and driven by the actuator and rotating about an axis of the output shaft and wherein a wall of the enclosure is defined by a base having at least one inlet orifice for drawing liquids into the enclosure, and a plate mounted in a reversible manner within the enclosure and close to the base in two distinct configurations, and wherein in one mounting configuration a first cavity of a first dimension is created adjacent the base for the passage of a liquid laden with solid particles and in the other mounting configuration a second cavity of a second dimension is created adjacent the base for the passage of a clear liquid.
US08083496B2
The present invention is directed to an air compressor enclosed in a shroud with plastic tab isolators. In an exemplary aspect of the present invention, an air compressor may include an air tank for containing air at an elevated pressure, and a shroud for enclosing the air tank. The shroud may include a ribbing and a plurality of support members. The ribbing and the plurality of support members may be in contact with the air tank to assist in holding the air tank inside the shroud.
US08083493B2
For water-jet surgery pump devices are known by means of which a sterile fluid is transported through a reservoir to the surgical instrument by means of piston pumps or similar volumetrically transporting pumps. In accordance with the present invention it is proposed either to construct drive means for the pumps in such a way that their suction cycle is shorter than the output cycle, or to provide a pump with at least three pump chambers and to construct the drive means in such a way that the suction and output cycles of the pump chambers overlap one another.
US08083487B2
A method of fabricating an airfoil is provided. The method includes fabricating at least one airfoil including a suction side and a pressure side coupled together at a leading edge and a trailing edge, wherein the airfoil includes a plurality of first and second chord sections each extending between the trailing and leading edges, wherein at least one of the first chord sections extends outward from the pressure side of the airfoil at the trailing edge, and at least one of the second chord sections extends outward from the suction side of the airfoil at the trailing edge.
US08083485B2
A turbine airfoil comprises a wall portion, a cooling channel, an impingement rib, impingement rib nozzles, turbulators and leading edge cooling holes. The wall portion comprises a leading edge, a trailing edge, an outer diameter end, and an inner diameter end. The cooling channel receives cooling air and extends through an interior of the wall portion between the inner diameter end and the outer diameter end. The impingement rib is positioned within the wall portion forward of the cooling channel and between the outer diameter end and the inner diameter end to define a peanut cavity. The impingement rib nozzles extend through the impingement rib for receiving cooling air from the cooling channel. The turbulators are positioned within the peanut cavity to locally influence the flow of the cooling air. The leading edge cooling holes discharge the cooling air from the peanut cavity to an exterior of the wall portion.
US08083472B2
A gas turbine engine (10) comprising a first turbine (19) and a first compressor (13) mounted on a first shaft (26) and a bearing arrangement (52, 34) supporting the shaft (26), the bearing arrangement is subject to a total end load and comprises a fixed bearing (34), a load share bearing (52) and a bearing end load management system (50) that is capable of applying a variable load to the load share bearing to manage total end load between the bearings. The bearing end load management system comprises a static diaphragm (54) that defines part of a chamber (56) and that is coupled to the load share bearing whereby increased pressurization of the chamber loads the diaphragm which in turn increases the proportion of the total end load on the load share bearing.
US08083459B2
A clamping apparatus includes a frame and a pair of opposing clamping arms mounted on the frame for movement towards and away from each other to grasp or release a load. In one embodiment, each clamping arm is guided for movement with respect to the frame by an adjustable bushing which can be rotated to adjust the position of the bushing with respect to the clamping arm. In another embodiment, each clamping arm defines a four-bar linkage which controls the angle with respect to the vertical of a contact portion of the clamping arm. The clamping apparatus may be mounted on a lift truck or other support member by a connector which permits the angle of the clamping apparatus with respect to the horizontal to be adjusted and which enables the clamping apparatus to pivot about an axis between a position in which it is disposed outboard of the axis and a position in which is it disposed forward of the axis.
US08083458B2
A hoist system hoists a flat screen television or a heavy object in a room for attachment to a wall mounted attachment fixture. The hoist system has a wheel-supported base, and a central pillar with a raising and lowering element. The central pillar has a counter weight projection arm with a plurality of notches for carrying a counterbalance weight. A projection arm extends from the movable element in the direction opposite to the counterbalance weight arm with a downward pointing extension that carries a plurality of adjustable L-shaped brackets. The hoist system is brought close to a television or heavy weight at ground level and the L-shaped brackets are inserted therebelow. Weight balance is checked and a counterweight is placed on an appropriate notch in the counterbalance weight arm. The flat screen television or heavy object is then lifted to the correct height for wall attachment. Even though the load produced by the flat screen television or heavy weight being carried overhangs, delivery thereof to a point closely proximate a wall of a room can be reliably and safely accomplished by a single person.
US08083450B1
An anchor facilitates blind engagement by a first fastener in order to connect an object to a wall. The anchor may be inserted into a cavity accessible through a hole defined in a hollow substrate to connect the object to the wall. The anchor includes a base plate and a pair of laterally offset arms extending from the base plate, such that each arm includes an engagement structure disposed at a distal end of each arm. The engagement structure of each arm cooperatively supports the anchor and complementarily engages the first fastener. The first fastener may be a bolt, a screw, or any suitable fastener such as a threaded fastener. The engagement structure includes a collar extending outwardly from each arm for engaging the hollow substrate upon insertion of the anchor into the cavity. Additionally, the engagement structure includes a tang extending inwardly from each arm, generally defining a portion of a first aperture for engaging the first fastener.
US08083449B1
A tailgate protector (1) having a structural frame (3) combined with a plurality of spaced protrusions (2). The structural frame (3) is sized and shaped to mount to the upper edge of a closed vehicle tailgate, such that the protrusions (2) perpendicularly extend above the upper edge of the tailgate. Material being transported by the vehicle and supported by the tailgate upper edge is placed on the structural frame (3) within the spacings between the protrusions (2). The structural frame (3) acts to protect the surface of the tailgate edge, while the protrusions (2) restrict the side to side movement of the transported material. Thus, the tailgate protector (1) effectively provides a quick and convenient means for securing the transported material while protecting the tailgate edge.
US08083448B2
Shipping and storage containers, racks, and pallets including interlocking mechanisms are provided. An embodiment of the pallet includes openings, interface fittings aligned with the openings, respectively, and sized to fit into openings of identical sizes and configurations as the first and second openings, respectively, locking components operatively connected to one another, and an actuator for moving concomitantly the locking components into and out of the openings, respectively.
US08083443B1
A jig for cutting plugs for pocket holes from a workpiece has a base leg, from which transversely extend guide and clamp legs. One or more guide channels extend through the guide leg at an angle to an interior face of the guide leg to guide the sleeve of a rotating cutter bit that has a cutting edge at its end and a removed section forming a cutting blade. A clamp extends from the clamp leg to engage one face of a workpiece whose end is mounted on a raised ledge on the base leg and holds the workpiece opposing face against the guide leg interior surface as the sleeve end cutting edge and blade advances into and cuts entirely through the workpiece to cut the plug. A collar on the cutting bit shaft engages the guide leg to prevent the sleeve end cutting edge from contacting the base leg. The jig also can be used for making pocket holes by using the appropriate drill bit.
US08083440B2
An apparatus to restrain a riser tensioner of an offshore drilling rig includes a restraint cone configured to fit within hydraulic cylinders of the riser tensioner, a hoist configured to extend and retract the restraint cone, and a tension member extending from a lower end of the restraint cone, the tension member configured to engage a lower end of the riser tensioner and maintain a wedging action between the restraint cone and the hydraulic cylinders.
US08083436B2
Disclosed herein are methods, devices and systems to maintain the accessibility and integrity of equipment contained in underground housings. The methods, devices and systems and methods of the present invention maintain the accessibility and integrity of equipment contained in underground housings by providing at least one barrier that prevents burrowing animals from off-loading displaced ground dirt or other debris into the space created by the underground housing.
US08083433B2
An example of a vehicle barrier system for arresting an impacting vehicle of substantial mass within a selected distance of the fence includes a pair of terminal posts positioned in and secured to the ground in a spaced apart relationship; at least three cables, each cable having opposing terminal ends hingedly connected respectively to each of the terminal posts, the at least three cables held in tension a distance above a grade of the ground and vertically spaced apart from one another in relation to the grade; and a line post secured in the ground and positioned between the pair of terminal posts, the line post holding a portion of each of the cables.
US08083416B2
A hybrid fiber/copper connector assembly which permits repair of damaged fibers or copper conductors carried by a hybrid fiber/copper cable without requiring replacement of the entire connector assembly or the cable is disclosed. The hybrid fiber/copper connector assembly disclosed also allows individual hybrid fiber/copper connectors of the assembly to be converted from one gender to a different gender. The hybrid fiber/copper connectors of the assembly include removable keying members mountable to housings of the connectors. The removable keying members allow gender conversion and proper mating and orientation. The hybrid fiber/copper connector assembly also allows the individual connectors of the assembly to be converted from being hybrid fiber/copper connectors to being only fiber connectors or only copper connectors.
US08083408B2
A device 10 for aligning a patient for delivering a plurality of radiation beams comprising a patient support surface 12, a coarse alignment subsystem 14 connected to the patient support surface, and a fine alignment subsystem connected to the patient support surface 16. A method of aligning a patient for delivering a plurality of radiation beams from a plurality of device positions comprising compensating for flexion of a radiation beam delivery device within a gantry during movement of the radiation beam delivery device from a first device position to a second device position by using a set of predetermined data describing the flexion behavior of the radiation beam delivery device so that the target tissue within the patient is placed at the beamline center for the radiation beam delivery device at the second device position.
US08083403B2
A radiator cover includes a base seat with a mounting portion. A thermometer includes a temperature-indicating portion disposed within the mounting portion, an externally threaded portion extending downwardly from the temperature-indicating portion and having a bottom surface, and a sensor portion extending downwardly from the bottom surface. A threaded seat includes an internally threaded portion engaging the externally threaded portion, and an annular inner surface disposed below the internally threaded portion and confronting the bottom surface. An annular water seal is disposed between the bottom surface and the annular inner surface of the threaded seat to establish a water-tight seal therebetween.
US08083401B2
A connector holder unit that is formed separately from a carriage capable of housing an ink cartridge and can be attached to the inside of the carriage includes a connector holder, a connector having a plurality of contact arms that is installed to the connector holder, and a circuit substrate having a plurality of conductive connection portions that is installed to the connector holder, wherein contact terminals of the plurality of contact arms of the connector are configured to elastically contact the conductive connection portions of the circuit substrate and conductive connection portions of the ink cartridge so as to electrically conduct between the circuit substrate and the ink cartridge when the connector holder unit is attached to the carriage.
US08083397B2
A mixer for mixing at least first and second fluids comprises a conduit configured to receive a stream of the first and second fluids. A first series of mixing elements are disposed within the conduit and configured to divide the stream in a first direction. A second series of mixing elements are disposed within the conduit and configured to divide the stream in a second direction different from the first direction. The mixing elements of the first series each comprises a first planar member oriented in the first direction and defining a leading edge, a second planar member oriented in the second direction and defining a trailing edge, a first deflecting surface extending outwardly from a first side of the first planar member and configured to direct fluid flow to a space adjacent a first side of the second planar member, and a second deflecting surface extending outwardly from a second side of the first planar member and configured to direct fluid flow to a space adjacent a second side of the second planar member.
US08083396B2
A mixing machine for agitating and mingling materials is disclosed. The mixing machine comprises a base and a driving device disposed on the base, and the driving device is connected to a rotary bracket and has a fixing portion with a container for receiving a mixture of materials mounted thereon, such that the mixture of materials may be agitated and mingled while the driving device drives the rotary bracket. A transmission device is disposed between the driving device and the rotary bracket, and the transmission device comprises a first spur gear, a second spur gear, and a bevel gear intermeshed which are successively intermeshed, wherein the first spur gear and the second spur gear are meshed together and fitted to parallel axles, the second spur gear and the bevel gear are meshed together, and the bevel gear connects to the fixing portion.
US08083395B2
A device for admixing a liquid into flowable dry materials has a housing with a mixing chamber having an inner wall with an impact area and an exit opening at a bottom end of the mixing chamber. Dry material is supplied from above into the mixing chamber and falls downwardly toward the impact area in front of the inner wall of the mixing chamber and exits through the exit opening. A nozzle generates a pressurized high-speed jet of a liquid impacting on the inner wall of the mixing chamber in the impact area and wetting the dry material with the liquid as the jet passes through the dry material and impacts against the inner wall. An opening inside the housing is provided for supplying liquid and pasty additives, wherein the opening is directed toward an area of the mixing chamber between the nozzle and the impact area.
US08083394B2
A system for recovering concrete wash product includes a support frame mounted pivotally to a chassis of a transit concrete mixing vehicle, and a container mounted to the frame for arcuate movement with the frame, between a collecting position with the container disposed below a discharge chute of the vehicle, and a dispensing position with the container disposed adjacent an opening of a mixing drum of the vehicle. The container initially is placed in the collecting position to receive concrete wash product from the discharge chute by gravity as the chute is cleaned with water. After cleaning, the frame is pivoted to raise the container to the dispensing position, and a valve is opened to allow the concrete wash product to flow from the container into the mixing drum by gravity. In vehicles equipped with booster axle systems, the booster axle frame supports and positions the container, and also supports and positions the booster wheel/axle assembly.
US08083390B2
The present invention relates to a lighting device (10). The device comprises a light guide plate (12), and at least one array (14) of light emitting diodes (LEDs) (16), which LEDs are accommodated in holes (20) arranged in the light guide plate. The device is characterized by an array (24) of lenses (26) arranged such that light emitted by the LEDs passing the lens array is at least partly directed towards areas (28) of the light guide plate free from holes.
US08083387B2
A deformable subassembly (1) for mounting of headlight in the region of a recess (5) in a wing (4) of a motor vehicle has a sealing channel body (6) connected to the wing (4) in the region of a joint with a motor vehicle bonnet. A headlight cup (3) for mounting the headlight is connected on one side to the sealing channel body (6) spaced from the wing (4). A lower side of the headlight cup (3) is connected to a bracket body (7) that is connected to a supporting structure (8) of the motor vehicle. The sealing channel body (6), headlight cup (3) and/or the bracket body (7) are configured to deform in the event of an impact with a pedestrian so that the risk of injury to the pedestrian is reduced.
US08083379B2
A reflector emitter includes a combination reflector having at least one elliptical concave mirror shaped as an ellipsoid of revolution section having first and second focal points disposed outside and inside of the ellipsoid of revolution section, respectively. The reflector emitter includes at least one light source at the second focal point. The ellipsoid of revolution section is formed as an ellipsoid of revolution that is cut between its center and the first focal point in a longitudinal section plane and in a cross-sectional plane. An aperture is provided above an other concave mirror having at least one focal point that coincides with the first focal point of the ellipsoid of revolution section. The other concave mirror is formed as a hollow body cut in a sectional plane through its focal point. This sectional plane and the longitudinal section plane of the ellipsoid of revolution section share a common plane of reference and the concave mirrors have opposing faces.
US08083376B2
An LED power failure light device has first LED element(s) powered by a power source to serve as a night light and second LED element(s) powered by non-rechargeable batteries to serve as an emergency light, which may incorporate a multiple selection switch to change the numbers, power consumption, blinking, on/off duration percentage of each blinking cycle, colors of the night light, LED sequences, and other extra functions. The power source for the first LED elements may be supplied through prongs inserted into an electrical outlet or through a USB adapter. The LED power failure light device may further including various additional power and cost saving features.
US08083374B2
An LED lamp includes a heat sink including a supporting plate, a plurality of LEDs mounted on the supporting plate and a plurality of protruding blocks extending upwardly from a top face of the supporting plate. The protruding blocks have inclined faces oriented upwardly and outwardly away from the top face of the supporting plate. The LEDs includes a plurality of first LEDs disposed on a bottom face of the supporting plate and a plurality of second LEDs disposed on the inclined faces of the protruding blocks, whereby at least a portion of light generated from the second LEDs projects towards a lateral side of the LED lamp.
US08083365B2
A helmet lighting system includes a housing configured for attachment to a helmet wherein a lighting module includes a power source, plurality of light sources, signal receiving means configured to receive operational signals from one or more associated vehicles and a controller configured to selectively control the plurality of light sources responsive to said signal receiving means receiving said operational signals. In this manner, the lighting module may mimic brake lights and strobe lights associated with a motorcycle for example thereby rendering the motorcycle and rider more visible. Flexible ends of the housing allow the housing to attach securely to different helmet styles. Alternatively the lighting module may be integrated with the helmet. An emergency mode allows the helmet to be used as a warning device.
US08083364B2
An illuminator is disclosed, in which an LED module emits short-wavelength light toward a phosphor module, which absorbs it and emits wavelength-conditioned light. The emission is generally longitudinal, with a generally Lambertian distribution about the longitudinal direction. The phosphor module includes a transparent layer, closest to the LED module, and a phosphor layer directly adjacent to the transparent layer. Both layers are oriented generally perpendicular to the longitudinal direction. The illuminator includes a reflector, circumferentially surrounding the emission plane in the LED module and extending longitudinally between the emission plane and the transparent layer. Virtually all the light emitted from the LED module either enters the phosphor module directly, or enters after a reflection off the reflector. The transverse side or sides of the transparent layer support total internal reflection, so that virtually all the light that enters the transparent layer, from the LED module, is transmitted to the phosphor layer. In some applications, the phosphor layer is located at the focus of a concave mirror, which can narrow and/or collimate the light emitted by the phosphor. Adjacent to the phosphor layer and opposite the transparent layer, the phosphor module can include a transparent dome, a heat sink, or nothing.
US08083363B2
Daylighting systems and methods with auxiliary lighting fixtures are disclosed. Some embodiments disclosed herein provide a daylighting apparatus including a tube having a sidewall with a reflective interior surface and an auxiliary light fixture. The tube can be disposed between a transparent cover positioned to receive daylight and a diffuser positioned inside a target area of a building. In certain embodiments, the tube is configured to direct the daylight transmitted through the transparent cover towards the diffuser. The auxiliary light fixture can include a lamp disposed within the tube and a light control surface configured to reflect light exiting the lamp towards the diffuser and to transmit daylight propagating through the tube from the direction of the transparent cover. The lamp can be disposed on the sidewall of the tube.
US08083355B2
A projector, includes: a light source device; an optical device that modulates a light beam irradiated from the light source device in accordance with image information; and a projection optical device that projects the light beam modulated by the optical device. The optical device includes: an optical element optically converting the light beam incident thereon and emitting the converted light beam; and a heat-conducting member that is connected with the optical element in a heat transferable manner to cool the optical element. The heat-conducting member includes a heat pipe having: a tube; a capillary structure provided in the tube; and a coolant housed in the tube, the coolant circulating in the tube to transfer heat in the heat-conducting member. An optical-element-side connecting portion of the optical element to be connected with the heat-conducting member and a heat-conducting-member-side connecting portion of the heat-conducting member to be connected with the optical-element-side connecting portion are configured to be in a surface-contact when the connecting portions are connected to each other.
US08083353B2
Animated image vision tests take advantage of the ability of our eyes to detect both distance and motion. Moving images, such as rotating segmented circles, let the eyes detect motion as to the size, distance, and rotation direction of that moving image. That motion detection is much more precise than the interpretation of multiple static letters or static images. Using rotating images for vision testing rather than static images creates an acuity test more accurate than current tests, a test that is faster to use, and a test that doesn't require the ability to read.
US08083349B2
An edge coated glass polarized lens includes a lens body and an edge coating made from a UV curable material having a composition including: an aliphatic polyesterpolyol based urethane methacrylate formed by reaction of reactants including an aliphatic polyesterpolyol, a hydroxyalkyl methacrylate, and a diisocyanate, and having a number average molecular weight ranging from 800 to 4500; a reactive diluent including a methacrylate monomer; an adhesion enhancer including a silane material selected from methacrylate-functional silane, amino methacrylate-functional silane, vinyl-functional silane, and combinations thereof; and a photo initiator.
US08083336B2
An ink jam detection and recovery system for use in a phase change ink imaging device includes an ink stick conveyance configured move ink sticks in a forward direction toward a melt plate at a melt end of an ink stick feed path and a reverse direction away from the melt plate. A sensor system is configured to generate a first signal indicative of whether an ink stick is present at the melt plate. A controller is configured to receive the signal and to actuate the ink stick conveyance to move in at least one of the forward direction and the reverse direction in response to the first signal indicating that no ink stick is present at the melt plate.
US08083335B2
A second sealing film is thermally bonded onto a leading end portion of an ink lead-out member of an ink pack and an annular projecting portion provided on an ink casing. Thereby, a gap produced between the ink lead-out member and the ink casing can be closed from outside the ink casing. Accordingly, the air tightness of a space in the ink casing is kept, thus making it possible to raise the pressure in the space and generate such a force as to crush the ink pack.
US08083318B2
A print head that ejects ink supplied through an ink supply port can prevent the size of satellites from being reduced while inhibiting an increase in resistance to an ink flow. In the print head, ink supply ports are arranged on both sides of a plurality of channels. A predetermined number of ink supply ports are arranged at least at one side of the ink channel all over the range of the arrangement of the channels. One side of each of the plurality of channels is connected via the common liquid chamber to the liquid supply port located so as to extend in a direction in which the channels are arranged.
US08083315B2
The invention provides for a printhead assembly configured to purge printheads of a printer. The assembly includes duplex printheads arranged opposite each other to define a print media feed gap between them, and two purging members each defining a purging chamber arranged in fluid communication with a suction pump. The assembly also includes actuating mechanisms configured to move the printheads to a purging position where the printheads are located adjacent the chambers so that the suction pump is able to remove material purged from said printheads.
US08083310B2
A liquid droplet ejecting apparatus includes an ejecting head configured to eject liquid droplets onto an ejected target element to form a of dots arranged at predetermined dot intervals in dot columns. The liquid droplet ejecting head has a flow passage unit including individual flow passages including a first individual flow passage and a second individual flow passage, at least one common liquid chamber in fluid communication with each individual flow passage; and a plurality of nozzles, including a first nozzle fluidly communicating with the first individual flow passage and a second nozzle fluidly communicating with the second flow passage. A control unit causes a liquid droplet to be ejected from the first nozzle, then moves the ejecting head less than the dot interval, then subsequently suspends the first nozzle from ejecting, and ejects a liquid droplet from the second nozzle.
US08083308B2
A liquid cartridge is detachably mounted in a liquid ejecting device, and supplies liquid to the liquid ejecting device when mounted. The liquid cartridge includes a liquid accommodating chamber, a float member movably disposed in the liquid accommodating chamber, and a detection member moving in conjunction with the float member and being subject to be detected by an external light detector for determining remaining amounts of liquid in the liquid accommodating chamber. A part of the detection member is located at a detection position located above an uppermost liquid surface reached when a predetermined maximum amount of liquid is accommodated in the liquid accommodating chamber. At least a part of the liquid accommodating chamber has light transmissive characteristics so that light from the light detector can reach the detection position. The detection member passes the detection position in conjunction with the float member.
US08083306B2
A housing for a refrigeration device with an interior compartment that is surrounded by an insulation layer and external skin that surrounds the insulation layer. The external skin may include at least one wall which has at least two zones with different thermal conductivities.
US08083303B2
A built-in sliding rotating element for modular corner cabinets, which is capable of supporting a stack of storage elements; the said built-in element slides on a parallel pair of telescopic guides fixed to the two opposite sides of an intermediate support hinge, which is fixed in turn to the base of the column around which the said built-in sliding element rotates.
US08083301B2
A rack system for electronic and/or electrical equipment including a frame, a front door mounted to the front of the frame, a back door or panel, two side panels mounted to the back and two sides of the frame, and a top panel mounted to the top of the frame. The doors can be single doors or dual doors. The frame includes a rectangular base frame constructed by four horizontal edge members, and a top frame having the same structure as the base frame, and four vertical members each extending between two associate corners of the base frame and the top frame, and joining the base frame and top frame together. The horizontal members and vertical members are contoured with step-like structures, so that the rack has a high stiffness and strength. The door includes a hinge and a latch attached to two vertical members. The panels are provided with tabs and latches for securing the panels to the frame.
US08083298B2
A rail system for supporting one or more information handling systems in both a four-post rack and a two-post rack includes a bracket support member, first and second toolless connection brackets coupled to the bracket support member, and first and second tooled connection brackets coupled to the bracket support member. The toolless connection brackets are configured to couple to first and second posts, respectively, of a four-post rack in a four-post toolless configuration. The tooled connection brackets are configured to couple to opposite sides of a post of a two-post rack in either a two-post flush-mounted or two-post center-mounted configuration.
US08083297B2
The present invention relates to a coreless rubber crawler traveling device in which spring characteristics are achieved by reducing a contact area of a wheel-rolling contact surface on an inner peripheral surface of a rubber elastic body with an outer surface of a tracker roller.A coreless rubber crawler comprises an endless rubber elastic body, main cord rows embedded in the rubber elastic body in a longitudinal direction of the rubber elastic body, rubber projections formed on the inner peripheral surface of the rubber elastic body at uniform pitches, and rubber lugs formed on the outer peripheral surface of the rubber elastic body. In the coreless rubber crawler traveling device, a tracker roller, which is provided at the side of a vehicle body and which straddles the right and left sides of each of the rubber projections in the widthwise direction, rolls in such a manner that an outer surface of the tracker roller comes into contact with the inner peripheral surface of the rubber elastic body. A contact area of the inner periphery rolling contact surface of the rubber elastic body with the outer surface of the tracker roller is set in the range of 30% to 70% with respect to the area of the outer surface of the tracker roller.
US08083288B1
A chair with a coupling companion stool base includes a frame that has: a claw extending downward from a second portion of a lower portion of the frame; a latch extending downward from and movably connected with a first portion of the lower portion; two legs adapted to support the frame upon a supporting surface extending downward from the lower portion; and a receptacle defined between the claw and the latch. The base supports the frame above a supporting surface and has a saddle with opposite back and front edges and a top surface that faces away from the supporting surface. The top surface may also define at least one of a work surface, a writing surface, and a sitting surface. The base releasably couples with the frame, having the saddle seated in the receptacle, the front edge seated in the claw, and the back edge captured by the latch. When decoupled, the chair portion may be used as casual floor rocker seating.
US08083286B2
A sleeper cab assembly for a vehicle includes a frame configured to provide a support structure for at least a portion of the sleeper cab assembly. The frame includes a plurality of frame members coupled together. Each of the frame members are formed of a reinforced polymeric material.
US08083284B1
The tractor and trailer fairing apparatus providing a fairing of sorts that is fitted between the tractor and trailer. The apparatus side sections are automatically adjustable in length and can also be locked in a desired length. The second panel of the side sections and trailer towed by the tractor are fitted with a tracking assembly that sees the side panels follow the trailer during driving, whether straight or in turns, and ensuring that no wind enters the sides of the tractor/trailer union. Further, the optional telescopic spoiler prevents air entry from above. The apparatus not only prevents buffeting but also serves to increase fuel mileage.
US08083276B2
A small plastic tool is configured with a socket that may be screwed onto the end of a conventional broomstick, mop handle, paint roller extension pole, or other long pole to allow the tool to be raised to an elevated height while the user remains standing on the ground surface. The tool has a distal end formed with cruciform arms. A hook receiving slot is defined into the structure of a first mutually opposing pair of the cruciform arms, while a wider channel is defined through the other pair of cruciform arms. The hook receiving slot is configured to snugly receive the hook portion of a cup hook, which allows the cup hook to be raised to overhead, elevated, horizontal surfaces. The pole can then be rotated to screw the threaded shank of the cup hook into the overhead structure. The same tool can be used to cradle the twisted pair of wires of a string of lights in the channel defined in the distal end of the other pair of cruciform arms in the tool. The string of lights can thereby be lifted, supported within the channel and deposited in the crook of the hook portion of the cup hook.
US08083275B2
A device for transporting an urn vault is provided comprising a pair of spaced, parallel A-shaped frames, each having a pair of frame members pivotally joined at their upper end. The apex of each frame is joined to the apex of the other frame by an upper connecting member, and the lower ends of each frame member are connected to the lower end of one of the frame members of the other frame by a lower connecting member. A notch engaging member is located on the lower end of each frame member to engage and be received in notches defined in the edges of opposed vertical surfaces of the urn vault. A tension spring is connected between the frame member of each frame intermediate their upper and lower ends to draw the lower ends of each frame member together.
US08083273B2
A lock with a swing bolt, comprises: a housing having an opening for a bolt; a cover which is complementary to the housing; a bolt movable between a locked position and an un-locked position through the opening; a controllable locking means to prevent the movement of the bolt to the un-locked position; wherein the locking means including: a block member, which is placed in a first sliding chute formed in the housing with a slidable fit between the block member and the first sliding chute; an actuator assembly having a follower which is placed in a second sliding chute formed in the housing with a slidable fit between the follower and the second sliding chute; one end of the block member being engaged with the bolt in a surface contact, the other end of the block member is engaged with the follower in a surface contact.
US08083272B1
A mechanically actuated airtight device for wafer carrier comprises a cover, at least one sealing gasket, at least one linked plate, and a driving wheel. The cover has a first face and a second face, and being formed with at least one hole therethrough. The sealing gasket is positioned above the hole of said cover, and has a base in a form of wedged ramp, where the base is further formed with a through opening. The linked plate has a first face and a second face, where the second face is at one side provided with a protuberance, and the first face is provided with at least one wedged ramp, and where the wedged ramp has a slope equal to that of the wedged ramp of the base, such that at least one of the wedged ramp of the first face of the linked plate mates with the wedged ramp of the second face of the linked plate. The driving wheel has a first face and a second face, where the first face is provided with a first guiding groove to allow the protuberance of the linked plate move along the first guiding groove. The invention is used as a chassis for a wafer carrier. Thus, when the wafer carrier is closed, it ensures a better airtight effect, and when the wafer carrier is opened so as to break the airtight, a pressure equalizing effect between the inside and outside of the wafer carrier is achieved enhancing removal of the casing of the wafer carrier quickly. Further, the level of the airtight can be adjusted as required.
US08083267B2
Each of ridges 7 on respective opposite side surfaces of a gasket 4 has a trapezoidal cross sectional shape defined by an outer tapered face 7a providing an outer peripheral surface, an inner tapered face 7b providing an inner peripheral surface and a flat face 7c providing a top end surface. The hardness of the gasket 4, the angle between the tapered faces 7a, 7b of the ridge 7, the height of the ridge 7 and the area of the flat top end face 7c of the ridge are so determined that the value of thrust for tightening up the coupling is between a predetermined minimum value and a predetermined maximum value.
US08083262B2
A seat belt retractor includes a cylindrical member, a torsionally deformable shaft arranged inside the cylindrical member and having one end side connected to the cylindrical member, a plate mounting member arranged in the cylindrical member and disposed on an outer periphery of the shaft, a locking mechanism for preventing a rotation of the plate mounting member, and a plate member having one end portion fixed to the plate mounting member and the other end portion engaging an inner periphery of the cylindrical member. The plate member is plastically deformable so that the plate member is wound onto the plate mounting member. The plate mounting member includes a first reducing radius portion having a radius gradually decreasing toward a downstream in a winding direction, and a second reducing radius portion located on the downstream side and having a radius reducing rate greater than that of the first reducing radius portion.
US08083260B2
A trunk lid cover in combination with a car spoiler. The trunk lid cover is of flexible material and is disposed for covering the trunk lid only of an automobile. The trunk lid cover is held tightly against the surface of said trunk lid. A car spoiler attached to the trunk lid cover. A message display is mounted to the trunk lid cover or to the car spoiler.
US08083257B2
A closure assembly for an inflator comprises a housing and an outlet plate disposed within the housing. The outlet plate has an outlet opening configured to receive a burst disk. The outlet plate is joined to the housing by a deformation resistance weld. The deformation resistance weld is formed by contacting the outlet plate with a first electrode, contacting an exterior portion of the housing with a second electrode, and applying a voltage through the first and second electrodes to adhere a portion of the housing to a portion of the outlet plate.
US08083256B2
An apparatus provided with an igniter assembly includes, an igniter main body having an ignition portion, provided with an ignition agent, and an electoroconductive pin, a resin portion surrounding at least part of the igniter main body and a substantially cylindrical igniter collar fixed to an outer surface of the resin portion. The igniter assembly is disposed in an opening formed in a bottom portion of a housing, the igniter collar of the igniter assembly is fixed fixed to the housing, and the igniter collar is fixed to the resin portion by deforming the igniter collar so as to engage the igniter collar with a concave portion in the resin portion.
US08083248B1
An extension bracket, comprising a front side and a top side, the front side at approximately ninety degrees from the top side; at least two openings on the front side, the two openings at different level from each other, one opening higher or elevated than the other; and, a pivot connector allowing one part to pivot relative to the extension bracket.
US08083243B2
A drive unit vibration damping support for use in an electric motor-driven vehicle combines the following structural features. A subframe construction in which a drive unit is supported in vibration damping fashion on a subframe through a first vibration damping device, and the subframe is supported in vibration damping fashion on a vehicle through a second vibration damping device. A total spring constant of the first vibration damping device in a direction of input of torque reaction force of the drive unit is larger than a total spring constant of the second vibration damping device. An average value of a distance between a torque roll axis of the drive unit and the second vibration damping device is greater than an average value of a distance between the torque roll axis and the first vibration damping device.
US08083236B2
An improved staggered seal assembly uses a static element and a rotating element to create a seal. The static element surrounds the rotating element and has at least one fin. The rotating element has at least one long fin and a set of shorter fins. A third component has a staggered fin. The fins create a leakage flow path which throttles the leakage across the seal from a high pressure zone into a low pressure zone.
US08083234B2
Seal assembly for sealing a clearance gap between a boundary of an aperture formed in a housing and a member extending through the aperture. The seal assembly comprises a seal member and a seal member mounting means disposed around the sealing member and is configured to engage with the aperture boundary. The seal member mounting means is configured to seal an alignment interspace provided in the clearance gap between the seal member and aperture boundary. The seal member mounting means is configurable to permit the seal member to be located at a position relative to the aperture boundary in dependence upon the relative positions of the member and aperture boundary to thereby accommodate misalignment between the member and aperture boundary. The seal member mounting means is configurable to lock the seal member relative to the aperture boundary in said position.
US08083231B2
The present invention provides a sheet conveying apparatus and an image forming apparatus having the same, in which a jammed sheet can be easily viewed and easily removed.A sheet conveying apparatus of the present invention comprises a fixation guide portion fixed on an apparatus body; a first guide portion disposed to face the fixation guide portion; a second guide portion disposed to face the fixation guide portion, wherein the first guide portion and the second guide portion are arranged in a line along a sheet conveying direction and each of the first guide portion and the second guide portion is independently movable; a sheet conveying path formed by the fixation guide, the first guide portion and the second guide portion, and a movement mechanism that moves the second guide portion away from the fixation guide portion, when the first guide portion is moved to open the sheet conveying path.
US08083226B2
A sheet guiding apparatus, including: a supporting member having a supporting surface which supports a sheet; a first electrode provided in the supporting member; an electric field generating portion configured to generate an electric field between the supporting surface and the first electrode; a guide member which is distant from the supporting surface by a predetermined distance in a direction perpendicular to the supporting surface; a moving portion configured to move the sheet supported by the supporting surface by moving at least one of the supporting member and the guide member relatively to each other in a direction parallel to the supporting surface; and an electric field inverting portion configured to invert a direction of the electric field generated by the electric field generating portion, when a leading end portion of the sheet in a direction in which the sheet is moved has reached a vicinity of the guide member.
US08083224B2
A tray assembly for a print production resource may include a tray and a guide assembly. The guide assembly may include a first width guide configured to contact a first side of a media stack at a first location below a top sheet of the media stack such that a first distance exists between the top sheet and the first width guide. The guide assembly may include a second width guide configured to contact a second side of the media stack at a second location below the top sheet of the media stack such that a second distance exists between the top sheet of the media stack and the second width guide. The first side may be opposite the second side, and the tray assembly may be configured to be utilized with a top sheet feeder mechanism.
US08083221B2
A sheet post-process apparatus according to one example of the present invention includes a movable stack tray for stacking a sheet that is elevated in a vertical direction; a movable tray position detection unit that detects a vertical position of the movable stack tray while a request command for post-processing of the sheet is not received; an upper surface sensor that senses either an upper surface of the movable stack tray or an upper surface of the sheet stacked on the movable stack tray when a first position of the movable stack tray detected by the movable tray position detection unit is lower than or equal to a predetermined first height; and a movable tray moving unit that moves the movable stack tray upward when either the upper surface of the movable stack tray or the upper surface of the sheet stacked on the movable stack tray is not sensed by the upper surface sensor.
US08083215B2
The invention relates to an air spring damper module including a shock absorber (1) and a roll-off piston (5) which is pushed over the upper end of the shock absorber with an opening in the piston base with the piston base being supported on the outer tube (16) of the shock absorber via an annular flange (2). A pipe (15) is centrally fixed to the inner surface of the piston cover (6) and engages around the shock absorber (1) in the mounted state and also is supported on the annular flange (2) of the shock absorber (1). The inner surface of the piston cover and the upper closure of the shock absorber are spaced apart by a gap.
US08083213B2
A portable winch and method of use is shown. One advantage of winches shown includes an ability to lower a boom or boom sections into limited access exit pit for winching operations such as pipe bursting. Sectional boom designs shown provide the ability to easily raise and lower a boom large distances without the need for a single long boom. Selected winch designs shown include flexible inserts between the boom and the winch frame that help resist damage from unforeseen shifting of the device during operation. Designs and methods shown also include multiple pulleys on a boom end unit. Fasteners are shown that reduce build up of debris.
US08083212B2
The present invention provides a wind-turbine rotor-blade hoisting apparatus that enables attachment and removal of wind-turbine rotor blades without using a plurality of heavy machines and that enables attachment and removal of wind-turbine rotor blades on a site having a complex land shape with little flat land, a method for attaching a wind-turbine rotor blade, and a method for constructing a wind power generator. The present invention is characterized in that it includes a sheave (14) that guides a hoisting wire (17) from a rotor head (4), to which a wind-turbine rotor blade (6) is to be attached, toward the wind-turbine rotor blade (6) and that is arranged so as to be movable in a direction along the rotation axis of the rotor head (4); a retaining portion (15) that retains an attaching end of the wind-turbine rotor blade (6) such that a line connecting the center of gravity of the wind-turbine rotor blade (6) and a connecting portion, to which the hoisting wire (17) is connected, crosses the longitudinal axis of the wind-turbine rotor blade (6); and a winch (12) that is disposed on the ground and that draws the hoisting wire (17) to wind up or let out the retaining portion (15).
US08083211B2
A staple remover device having first and second opposed, elongated jaws extending from a lower end of the remover toward an upper end of the remover. The jaws are pivoted to the remover at the upper end. With the remover in a substantially perpendicular orientation above a horizontal work surface, the first jaw moves toward the second jaw, actuated by a user's finger pressure. A handle extends along the remover device, the handle being normally operationally fixed to a jaw by a link including a latch, and at a pre-determined position of the first jaw to the second jaw, a release rib of at least one jaw causes the latch to suddenly de-link the handle from the jaw, wherein the de-linked handle moves in relation to the jaw and moving the handle in relation to the jaw causes the other jaw to rise, lifting out the staple.
US08083205B2
Apparatus and method for fail-safe high-speed-pneumatic valve is disclosed. Fail-safe dependability is provided by a spring-loaded normally-closed pneumatic actuator. When the spring-loaded actuator is pressurized, the normally closed mechanism is actuated to the valve active position. Concurrently, the pressure is directly applied to deflect a diaphragm or a bellow-assembly back to sealing position. Ultra high purity embodiments with standard dome shaped diaphragms are disclosed. Additional high conductance diaphragms and bellows embodiments are employed for higher conductance valves. Novel flow path layouts are disclosed. The valves are applicable for fast gas and fluid switching and are particularly suitable for high productivity Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) applications. Additional embodiments cover improved diaphragm and seal reliability, externally adjustable valve conductance, improved valve safety and high temperature valve seals.
US08083198B2
The present teachings relate to a device configured to secure an instrument and to be removably mounted to a platform. The device can comprise a mounting base platform, a guide rod plate, and a securing means. The guide rod plate can be slidably secured to the mounting base platform, and the securing means can be configured to slidably move the guide rod plate with respect to the mounting base platform. The device can secure an instrument within, for example a firearm or a scope. The device can be mounted to a platform, for example, a camera tripod.
US08083196B2
A support mechanism for operation auxiliary tools includes a fixing unit, a support lever movably mounted on the fixing unit, a first bar movably connecting with an end of the support lever, a limiting unit engaging with another end of the first bar, and a second bar connecting with the limiting unit. The fixing unit engages with the operation bed, and operation auxiliary tools are placed on the second bar. The support lever, the first bar and the second bar are adjusted freely and positioned by the limiting unit. The limiting unit maintains the first bar and the second bar at desired freedom. The support mechanism is placed firmly with a predetermined angle and position, making operations more stable.
US08083192B2
A pole mounting system for attaching auxiliary equipment to street poles is provided. The system comprises a pair of substantially part cylindrical clamps and tightening means to advance the clamps towards each other and thereby grasp an elongate pole about a substantially transverse cross-section thereof. Each of the clamps includes a multiplicity of spaced apart locator sites extending therearound and wherein each of the auxiliary equipment includes a substantially L-shaped portion having a foot which engages with at least some of the locator sites and a stem which depends from the foot whereby the attachment can be temporarily supported by inter-engagement of the foot and clamp(s). The radial positioning of the auxiliary equipment verified before the auxiliary equipment is secured to the clamp(s).
US08083191B2
A stabilizing apparatus for preventing a server cabinet from moving, includes two mounting members oppositely mounted to the server cabinet, two support members slidably mounted to the mounting members respectively, an operating member, and two locating assemblies. Each locating assembly is mounted to a corresponding support member, the operating member, and a corresponding mounting member respectively. The operating member moves down to drive the corresponding locating assemblies respectively to move the corresponding support members down, until the support members stand on a supporting plane.
US08083182B2
A composite panel having a first skin forming the outer wall of the panel, known as the lower face (1), and a second skin forming part of the inner wall of the panel. The second skin is formed hollow such as to produce an inner reinforcing frame (2) in the form of a half-box structure (3) which, together with the first skin, forms box parts. The aforementioned frame is equipped with a rim (4a, 4b) for fixing to the first skin, a face known as the upper face (5) and connecting side walls (6, 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d, 6e, 7) between the rim (4a, 4b) and the upper face (5) the first and second skins forming a monolithic self-stiffened panel. The half-box frame (2) has perforated sections (8) which are defined by hollow beam sections forming the half-box frame (2).
US08083178B2
In conformance with the invention, based on the incident conditions and velocity, the steering of the ailerons is weakly negative (b0) or corresponds either to the maximum sharpness of the aircraft (b1), or the optimal lift of the latter (b2).
US08083174B2
Apparatus and method for a continuous replenishing of the lift gas and maintaining the proper pressure and lift of a tethered medium altitude aerostat utilizing a novel feed tube running the entire length of the tether. A first end of the feed tube is connected to the aerostat while a second end is connected through a novel slip ring means to a pressure controlled helium ballast chamber and scrubber on the ground to maintain pressure and lift by a reversible compressing pump. A plurality of pressure and temperature sensors and tension gauges strategically placed inside and around the airship continuously monitor the temperature and pressure changes in the aerostat. A data retrieval and communication unit mounted on the aerostat collects measurement data from the pressure, temperature and tension sensors which is relayed to the ground station and the data is used to regulate lifting gas pressure inside the aerostat.
US08083173B2
A rotary wing vehicle includes a body structure having an elongated tubular backbone or core and a counter-rotating coaxial rotor system having rotors. The rotor system is used to move the rotary wing vehicle in directional flight.
US08083144B2
A device for identifying a gas cartridge connectable to a gas-powered fastening apparatus via a valve includes a solenoid for both opening/closing the valve and for defining an antenna for wireless communication with an electronic label that is located on the cartridge and identifies the cartridge.
US08083139B2
A voice device for use in an automatic vending machine is disclosed to include a card reader for reading a voice file from an inserted electronic card, an input/output module for receiving a control signal from the automatic vending machine, a voice module, and a microprocessor for converting the voice file into a voice signal for output through a voice output device of the voice module subject to the control signal from the automatic vending machine.
US08083134B2
A system and method for execution of financial and data transactions includes a point-of-sale device configured to execute a transaction in which at least one good or service is sold to an individual having a card with a storage medium encoding a card number. The transaction is completed after said point-of-sale device receives a data transmission authorizing said transaction. The point-of-sale device is configured to communicate via the Internet with a first computing system. The first computing system stores a set of instructions that cause the first computing system to evaluate the transaction to determine whether the transaction is to be authorized, and to send a transmission authorizing the transaction via the open network to said point-of-sale device.
US08083127B2
A counter mechanism useable with a dry powder inhaler is disclosed. The mechanism features first and second indicator members rotatable about a central axis. The indicator members have counting indicia visible to indicate inhaler doses remaining or dispensed. A coupling transmits rotary motion from the inhaler to the second indicator member when the inhaler is charged with a dose. A slave wheel, rotatable about an axis offset from the central axis, has a drive transfer wheel on one face and a gear on an opposite face. The gear engages the second indicator member, the drive transfer wheel intermittently engages and rotates the first indicator member in response to rotary motion of the second indicator member.
US08083121B2
In the soldering method, metal-powder-contained flux is disposed between bumps and circuit electrodes when electronic parts are mounted by soldering, the metal powder comprising a core metal formed of metal such as tin and zinc and a surface metal covering surfaces of the core metal formed of noble metal such as gold and silver. Accordingly, metal powder will not remain as residue that is liable to cause migration after the reflow process, and it is possible to assure both soldering effect and insulation effect.
US08083120B2
An end effector for a surgical cutting and stapling instrument. In various embodiments, the end effector may include an elongate channel that is configured to support a staple cartridge therein and which is also operably coupled to a surgical cutting and stapling instrument. An anvil may be movably supported relative to the elongate channel for selective movement between an open position and a closed position wherein tissue is clamped between the anvil and a staple cartridge supported within the elongate channel in response to a closing motion applied thereto from the surgical cutting and stapling instrument. At least one light source may be provided on at least one of the staple cartridge and the elongate channel. The light sources may interface with the anvil to provide a visual indication viewable through a portion of the anvil to indicate a position of tissue clamped between the anvil and the staple cartridge.
US08083118B2
A surgical stapling device particularly suited for endoscopic procedures is described. The device includes a handle assembly and an elongated body extending distally from the handle assembly. The distal end of the elongated body is adapted to engage a disposable loading unit. A control rod having a proximal end operatively connected to the handle assembly includes a distal end extending through the elongated body. A control rod locking member is provided to prevent movement of the control rod until the disposable loading unit is fully secured to the elongated body of the stapling device.
US08083116B2
A braking and driving mechanism includes a guide plate, a driving rod, a magazine, and a pressing rod. The pressing rod consists of a bar shaped arm with its two opposite ends extending to respectively form a tongue portion and a pushing portion. A pivot portion is formed between the tongue portion and the pushing portion. The pressing rod is pivotably disposed in the magazine via the pivot portion. An elastic member for driving the arm to transversely press a main body of each of the nails is disposed on the pushing portion. If the number of remaining nails in the magazine is equal to a default number the elastic member drives the tongue portion to move to a position where the tongue portion can block the stopping portion such that the movement of the driving rod is braked.
US08083114B1
A tape dispenser of the type having a cutting blade mounted on the upper end of a cutting bar with a cutting bar face below and generally parallel to the blade and a blade guard slidably mounted on the cutting bar face for movement between blade-covering and blade-exposing positions. A spring tension element is positioned on the blade guard so that it tends to push a lower end of the blade guard away from the cutting bar face and to push an upper blade-covering end of the blade guard toward the cutting bar face when the blade guard is in the blade covering position.
US08083113B2
A portable security enclosure assembly is provided for use with a vehicle of the type having a surface. The enclosure includes a base and means for fixing the base to the vehicle surface. Means are provided for detachably mounting the enclosure to the base. The mounting means includes first and second rings pivotally mounted on the base surface for movement between an upright position and a non-upright position. The rings are spaced apart. The enclosure has first and second openings adapted to align with the rings, respectively, when the enclosure is situated on the base, such that the rings extend through the openings in the enclosure when the rings are in the upright position. A locking bar, longer than the distance between the rings, is adapted to be simultaneously received through the rings, so as to secure the enclosure to the base.
US08083110B2
An aid for pulling on stockings, especially compression stockings, comprising two parallel first struts, which are spaced mutually apart and each have a free upper end, and two parallel second struts, which are spaced mutually apart and whose upper ends are connected by an arcuate hoop, characterized in that the second struts are mounted such as to be pivotable about a pivot axis together with the hoop connected to them, said pivot axis running transversely to a longitudinal direction of said second strut, said second struts being movable into a first position, in which they are disposed adjacent to said first struts, and a second position, in which they are disposed at a V-shaped angle (α) to said first struts.
US08083108B2
A dispensing cap for a beverage container constitutes a one-piece moulding of plastic material including a first circular section tubular portion for connection to the mouth of a liquid container and a second circular section tubular portion carrying a radially projecting circumferential flange, one end of the first tubular portion being connected to one end of the second tubular portion by a resilient, annular, integral web in which one or more flow openings are formed, the first and second tubular portions being coaxial and relatively movable in the axial direction between an open and closed position. The moulding further including two half shells of semi-cylindrical shape, the upper edge of each is integral with and sealed to the circumferential flange, the lower edge forms a sliding seal with the first tubular portion, whereby within the two half shells, there is a liquid flow space.
US08083104B2
A variable temperature dispensing system and method for dispensing a variable temperature controlled fluid in an appliance includes a first fluid storage tank for holding the fluid at one temperature and a second fluid storage tank for holding the fluid at another temperature that is elevated relative to the one temperature of the first fluid storage tank. A dispenser outlet is fluidly connected to the first and second fluid storage tanks by at least one fluid line. A proportioning device is disposed along the at least one fluid line between the dispenser outlet and the first and second fluid storage tanks to proportion the fluid delivered from the first and second fluid storage tanks to the dispenser outlet. The proportioning device allows for the selection of a specific temperature for the fluid to be dispensed through the dispenser outlet and delivers the fluid at the selected specific temperature.
US08083103B2
A fluid dispenser is provided that includes a multiple chamber fluid storage region, each having a dispensing pump of its own such that the dispenser can dispense the fluids from within the multiple fluid storage regions. Further, the multiple fluid storage regions may each contain the same or different liquids. The dispensing pumps include a metering housing, which when depressed, generate a one-way flow from the interior fluid storage region of the container that serves to fill the predetermined volume of the chamber within the metering housing. When the metering housing is depressed a second time a substantially equal volume of each of the fluids is dispensed from the container, while upon release, the metering housings are refilled by drawing fluids from their respective fluid storage regions. The fluids are mixed in the exit port as they are dispensed from the metering pumps.
US08083097B2
A stack of interleaved towels is provided wherein each towel is configured from a sheet of material having a first fold offset from a centerline of the sheet to generate a first panel folded toward a first surface of the sheet and extending between the first fold and a first end of the sheet. A second fold in the sheet is made substantially parallel to the first fold to create a second panel extending between the first and second folds and a third panel extending between the second fold and a second end of the sheet such that the first end of the sheet is positioned between the second and third panels. In the stack, the third panel of each towel is disposed adjacent the first panel of an adjacent towel such that the towels are interleaved.
US08083092B2
The invention relates to a container for receiving a liquid cosmetic product, in particular a colored cosmetic product for the lips, eyelids, fingernails or the like. A transparent or translucent material is provided as container material. The container is of a two-piece design comprising a first container element and a second container element, wherein the first and the second container element are securely joined together in a liquid-tight manner. The first container element has an inner wall with a profile.
US08083084B2
A container (10) with lower and upper parts of formed plastic sheeting, is constructed of two identical elements (12, 14) that can close and latch to each other to form a closed container by turning a second of the elements upside down to make it the upper element, and pressing it down against the lower first element. The lower element includes a base wall (20) which is the bottommost wall and which has a vertical axis (22), upstanding side walls (24), and a flange (30) extending radially away from the top of the side walls. Along a left half (34) of the lower element, the flange forms an upward projection(s) (42), and along the right half (36) of the lower element the flange forms an upwardly-opening groove (44). Each projection and groove extends in a zig-zag line along the flange.
US08083082B2
A large container made of synthetic resin, and comprising a neck and a body; the body having a substantially rectangular cross section, and including an upper body and a lower body; the upper body containing a center of gravity of the container when filled with liquid; the upper body having a waist section containing the center of gravity; the waist section having a grip, the grip being not adapted to absorb a negative pressure in the container; and at least one surface of the lower body including a vacuum panel.
US08083081B2
A bottle includes a top portion and a bottom portion. The top portion includes a shoulder that extends away from a neck of the bottle, and a grip portion. The grip portion is recessed within the top portion of the bottle. The top portion of the bottle includes at least one strengthening element, preferably in the form of a rib or column that may be provided between the upper and lower bell portions, or between the upper bell or shoulder portion and the grip portion. The bottle can be used for hot or cold fill applications.
US08083079B2
The present disclosure relates to a wire rack for mounting an iron on a wall and method of use thereof, and more specifically, to a wire rack for mounting an iron on a wall, the wire rack having a retractable rail for adjusting to different sizes of irons and equipped with an ironing board holder and a product holder. The iron holder holds the iron by the iron's base and can be adjusted to accommodate different sizes of irons. The frame is also made of heat-resistant, coated, welded wire that allows for the manufacture of a light, cost-effective device. The device is also equipped with large hooks to hold most types of ironing boards and arms designed to hold extra products used during ironing.
US08083077B2
A display device for displaying a number of samples. The display device may include a vertical member, a number of display cells with samples thereon positioned on the vertical member, and a number of hanging displays with samples thereon positioned on the vertical member.
US08083075B2
A density current baffle for use in a clarifier tank has a first baffle portion having a lower end, an upper end and an intermediate central portion. The lower end of the baffle portion is coupled to a side wall of the clarifier tank, the upper end of the baffle portion is disposed, at a predefined angle, away from the side wall of the clarifier tank such that the first baffle portion slopes upwardly and away from the side wall. The upper end is configured to receive a mounting bracket having a first end coupled to the end flange and a second end coupled to the side wall of the tank wall. The mounting bracket is a downwardly sloping panel member which together with the first baffle portion form a substantially closed baffle, so that solid materials may be prevented from building up behind the upwardly sloping central baffle portion.
US08083074B2
A filter assembly where the filter cartridge is secured to the nutplate and a seal is provided between the filter cartridge and the nutplate. The sealing relationship between the filter cartridge and the nutplate is maintained during use of the filter assembly without using a spring engaged with the filter cartridge that biases the filter cartridge into engagement with the nutplate.
US08083072B2
A mobile vibrating screen with a readily stowable and pivoting drive system comprising a motor with an attached drive sheave, a belt, a driven sheave and plurality of universal joints which are configured to maintain a connection between the motor and an eccentric weight shaft when said drive system is switched from an operational configuration to a stowed configuration. In an alternate embodiment, some small d parts, e.g. drive shaft, need to be removed and stowed elsewhere on the plant when drive is converted from operation to transport.
US08083070B2
In a screening device for sorting granular material with at least one rotatable rod basket and a downstream fine material separator a cyclone-type eddy separator is attached with the smaller diameter of its housing cone in order to draw off the screening gas flow charged with fine material and flowing out due to twisting energy in such a way that the rod basket screening device and the separator form a compact unit. A submerged pipe is located in the center of the cyclone-type eddy separator for drawing off the screening gas flow freed of fine material. At least one opening is provided for discharging the fine material at the periphery of the eddy separator housing.
US08083068B2
An apparatus for separating particles from a medium includes a capillary defining a flow path therein that is in fluid communication with a medium source. The medium source includes engineered acoustic contrast capture particle having a predetermined acoustic contrast. The apparatus includes a vibration generator that is operable to produce at least one acoustic field within the flow path. The acoustic field produces a force potential minima for positive acoustic contrast particles and a force potential minima for negative acoustic contrast particles in the flow path and drives the engineered acoustic contrast capture particles to either the force potential minima for positive acoustic contrast particles or the force potential minima for negative acoustic contrast particles.
US08083066B2
This invention has as its object an automatic process and machine for inspecting and sorting non-metallic objects. Process characterized in that it consists essentially in temporarily subjecting a surface or outside layer (4) of objects (1) passing in a single-layer stream to the caloric radiation of at least one remote heating means (5), so as to deliver to each of these passing objects (1) a non-altering heat pulse that is identical for all of the objects in terms of heat energy applied per unit of surface area in the conveying plane (2), then to acquire at least one thermal image of each of said objects by means of at least one linear or matrix thermal sensor (6), for example a thermal camera, this after a determined length of time has elapsed following the application of the heat pulse, then to classify or to categorize each passing object (1) based on data contained in its thermal image or images and to deliver a control or actuation signal for each object and, finally, to separate the passing objects (1) based on their class or category and/or the corresponding control or actuation signal that is delivered.
US08083064B2
Disclosed herein is a sustainable article substantially free of virgin petroleum-based compounds that includes a container, a cap, and a label, each made from renewable and/or recycled materials. The article has a shelf life of at least two years, and is itself entirely recyclable. The container can include polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, or polypropylene. The cap can include polypropylene or polyethylene. The label can include polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, or paper.
US08083053B2
A conveyor belt for following a conveyance path with straight and curved conveyance path sections is constructed of module rows of a module (10) or a plurality of modules situated side by side in the transverse direction of the conveyor belt. Adjacent module rows are connected to each other by means of connecting pins (42). Each module comprises a set (15) of first aligned spaced fingers (16) with transverse aperture (40), and also a set (19) of second aligned spaced fingers (20) with transverse aperture (44), which in general are disposed in a staggered position relative to the first fingers (16). The mutual distance between at least the three outermost fingers of a set situated side by side and having the same width in a set is greater than the mutual distance between fingers situated side by side at a distance from the abovementioned at least three outermost fingers. A shorter run-in length and run-out length of a curved conveyance section of the conveyance path is achieved in this way.
US08083049B2
A backstop for stopping the movement of a product as it comes off a conveyor of a manufacturing line includes a motor connected by a linkage to a longitudinally moveable strike plate. The motor applies force to the strike plate in accordance with a predetermined curve to bring the product to a soft stop.
US08083043B2
A wet type multiple disc clutch transmits torque from an engine a transmission and a clutch engaging portion, a piston, a first oil passage, a second oil passage, and an operating oil supply unit. The clutch engaging portion includes a plurality of plate members. The first oil passage has one end on the piston side. The second oil passage has one end on the clutch engaging portion side. The operating oil supply unit switches a clutch engaged state, in which operating oil is supplied to the first oil passage from the outside and the operating oil in the second oil passage is drained to the outside, to a clutch disengaged state.
US08083039B2
A disc valve assembly for a shock absorber opens due to axial movement of a valve disc. The valve disc is biased against a valve body by a valve spring. The valve spring is designed to provide a circumferentially asymmetrical load biasing the valve disc against the valve body. The disc valve assembly can be used as a piston rebound valve assembly, a piston compression valve assembly, a base valve compression valve assembly or a base valve rebound valve assembly.
US08083037B2
The invention relates to a brake disk lock having an actuable housing shell, a support section, an engagement hoop and a securing section, with the support section and the engagement hoop bounding a receiving gap for the receiving of a brake disk, with the housing shell being arranged on the same side as the support section with respect to the receiving gap and being movably supported at the support section and with the housing shell, the support section and the securing section cooperating with one another such that the housing shell is movable from a release position into a securing position by a movement of the housing shell relative to the support section in the direction of the receiving gap in order to close the receiving gap by means of the securing section.
US08083031B2
The apparatus and method of the present invention provide a crewmember with the ability to lubricate the sheaves at the head of a mast of a contemporary sailing vessel from the deck. A cylinder that may be secured to existing halyards is filled with a lubrication fluid. The cylinder is raised in the usual manner and, once at the top of the mast, a plunger deploys the lubricant through a bifurcated stem to each side of the sheave.
US08083027B2
A method for manufacturing a sandwich panel includes, but is not limited to the steps of providing at least one air-permeable core layer and at least one porous cover layer, applying an adhesive onto a first area of the core layer, pressing the cover layer onto the first area of the core layer to connect the cover layer to the core layer, and applying an airstream that from the outside is directed onto the cover layer and that moves through the cover layer and the core layer. By means of such an airstream it is possible to prevent excessive accumulation of adhesive on the cover layer, which otherwise would result in partial blocking of the cover layer. By varying the intensity of the airstream the flow resistance of the arrangement including, but not limited to, the cover layer and the core layer may be determined and set during the bonding process. In this way a sandwich panel with precise sound-absorption behavior can be manufactured.
US08083025B2
A silencer includes an inner cylinder that is connected to an exhaust pipe and a partition cylinder that is accommodated in a housing and that sections an expansion chamber in the housing. A group of partition-cylinder small holes is formed in the partition cylinder, and a group of inner-cylinder small holes is formed in the inner cylinder. The group of partition-cylinder small holes and the group of inner-cylinder small holes do not overlap each other in an axial direction, and are separated from each other by a predetermined distance in the axial direction.
US08083015B2
A hybrid vehicle which can determine slope ascending and slope descending without using GPS radio waves. The hybrid vehicle includes a control unit determines a slope ascending state or a slope descending state of the vehicle by making use of an inclination sensor which detects an inclination with respect to a horizontal surface in the running direction of the vehicle or a vehicle drive sensor. Alternatively, the control unit obtains slope ascending information or slope descending information of the road by making use of a driver operation panel or a bus location system. The control unit sets a charge rate target value of an energy storage device based on these slope ascending state, slope ascending information, slope descending state, and slope descending information and controls charging to the energy storage device.
US08083008B2
The present invention provides for an assembly for creating a pressure pulse in a liquid-filled cavity within a fracturable material such as a boulder wherein the primary energy storage element is disposed in a transducer at the boulder to improve the coupling of energy between the energy storage unit and the fluid in the boulder.
US08083002B1
Methods and systems of fire protection of an attic space having a sloped roof above a ceiling deck so as to define a concealed space defining a protection area. The method includes disposing at least one upright sprinkler having a deflector disposed beneath the roof and coupled to either a wet or a dry pipe system and defining a hydraulic demand of the at least one sprinkler as being equivalent to a hydraulic demand for the protection area so as to eliminate any increase in the hydraulic design area for the sloped roof.
US08082997B2
A method and apparatus are provided for installing control lines and pipe into a well. The pipe-holding spider that is normally mounted on the rig floor is adapted for easy disassembly and reassembly when the pipe slips within the spider are not engaged with the outer surface of the pipe string so that upon disassembly, a control line guide becomes vertically movable. The control line guide is adapted for being controllably elevated to a distance above the rig floor, thereby providing personnel access to a portion of the length of the pipe string below the elevated control line guide and above the rig floor for securing control line to the pipe string using a fastener.
US08082991B2
A monitoring and control system for a dewatering pump configured to dewater a gas well is provided. A dewatering pump is driven at a first speed to pump fluid out of a well annulus. A fluid level detection device is configured to identify a change of fluid level in the well annulus occurring between a first time and a second, later time. A controller is configured to change the speed of the dewatering pump from the first speed to a second speed based upon the identified change in fluid level. Several embodiments of the fluid level detection devices are provided.
US08082985B2
Embodiments of the invention generally relate to methods and apparatuses for anchoring progressing cavity (PC) pumps. In one embodiment, a method of anchoring a PC pump to a string of tubulars disposed in a wellbore which includes acts of inserting the PC pump and anchor assembly into the tubular. Running the PC pump and anchor assembly through the tubular to any first longitudinal location along the tubular string. Longitudinally and rotationally coupling the PC pump and the anchor assembly to the tubular and forming a seal between the PC pump and the tubular string at the first location and performing a downhole operation in the tubular.
US08082961B2
A retractable stud pin assembly is described for use in a conventional tire. The stud pin assembly includes a housing having an elastomer compartment and a spring in cooperation with the elastomer. A stud pin is mounted to the spring. The assembly may further optionally include a fluid compartment in cooperation with the elastomer compartment and the spring. The assembly may further include a second compression spring, which cooperates with the first spring and stud pin. An optional adjustment nut may be used to manually raise and lower the pin height as desired. An optional adjustment pin may also be used to extend into an optional fluid compartment to fine tune the pin height.
US08082959B2
A method of manufacturing a panel (2) is described, wherein the panel (2) comprises a core of a fiber material, preferably an MDF or HDF board. In order to improve the quality and precision as well as the water resistance of coverings made from the panel, it is suggested that at least one cut (6, 6a, 9) on the panel (1) is cut with a laser.
US08082956B2
A system for charging and/or recharging containers with fluid is provided. The system includes a bottle assembly having a body portion defining a cavity therein, and a valve assembly configured and adapted to open and close a fluid path into the cavity of the body portion; a fluid supply valve assembly for supplying fluid to the valve assembly of the bottle assembly to deliver fluid to the cavity of the body portion; and a fluid supply assembly fluidly connected to the fluid supply valve assembly for delivering fluid thereto. Accordingly, when the bottle assembly is operatively connected to the fluid supply valve assembly, the valve assembly of the bottle assembly actuates the fluid supply valve assembly to the open condition to permit fluid flow into the cavity of the body portion of the bottle assembly.
US08082954B2
A flexible pipe for transporting a fluid in a marine environment. The pipe comprises a liner for confining the fluid, an armoring layer surrounding the liner, and an outer protective sheath surrounding the armoring layer and allowing radial expansion and contraction of the armoring layers. The outer protective sheath comprises at least two protective layers of helically wound composite wires with essentially opposite winding angles and locally held together, providing a relatively flexible yet fixed structure of the outer sheath. The outer sheath is held together in an array of discrete spots or along linear or curved paths. Flexibility is maintained because the stiffness in shear in the wires of adjacent protective layers may be made much larger in areas being locally held together than outside these areas. This allows a change of angles between the wires of two adjacent layers of the outer protective sheath during elongation or shortening of the pipe.
US08082952B2
A valve assembly includes a valve housing. A valve body is movable within the housing. The valve body has a land to selectively block or communicate a supply port to an outlet. A piezoelectric bending element actuator moves the valve body to selectively communicate the supply port to the outlet port.
US08082946B2
Fluid control apparatus including a proportional flow valve having a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet; a pneumatic proportional control valve in communication with the proportional flow valve for modulating the proportional flow valve; a frictional flow element having a frictional flow element fluid inlet in fluid communication with the fluid outlet of the proportional flow valve and having a frictional flow element fluid outlet spaced from the frictional flow element fluid inlet, an upstream pressure sensor; a downstream pressure sensor; and a controller in communication with the upstream pressure sensor, the downstream pressure sensor and the pneumatic proportional control valve.
US08082944B2
A base assembly, including wheels, is attachable to the bottom of a hose reel enclosure. This assembly enables the hose reel enclosure to pivot about a vertical axis. This pivotal movement of the hose reel enclosure permits a hose to be withdrawn from and wound back onto the hose reel in the enclosure while remaining substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the hose reel. This also enables a hose to be taken up evenly onto the hose reel and played out from the hose reel without tipping over the hose reel enclosure. In one embodiment, the base assembly is attached to the bottom of a hose reel enclosure. Two wheels are mounted at one end portion of the assembly and a stake is positioned in a member mounted between the end portions of the base assembly. The stake is driven into the ground below the hose reel enclosure. The wheels enable the hose reel enclosure to be pivoted along the ground about the stake to enable a hose to be evenly taken up onto the hose reel and played out from the hose reel without tipping the hose reel enclosure over. In another embodiment, the wheels and stake are mounted directly onto the hose reel enclosure.
US08082943B2
A valve means (1) comprises a valve support (2) with internal valve support ducts (15). Several component mounting sites (12) are located on the valve support (2) to be individually fitted with control units (3), at least one special purpose control unit (3b) being present, which with an intermediate plate (24) simultaneously covers over several adjacently placed component mounting sites (12). At least one control valve (4) of the special purpose control unit (3b) is connected with the valve support ducts (15) opening at the covered component mounting sites (12) via an intermediate plate duct arrangement (28) running in the intermediate plate (24).
US08082938B2
Collapsible portable self-supporting shelter structures having from at least two component quad sections to seven or more component quad sections, which joined end to end form the width of the structure; and, said entire component sections optionally being joined side to side form a desired depth of the portable shelter. The resulting structure is a collapsible self-supporting prefabricated deployable shelter having a clear span interior without supporting columns.Some versions of the collapsible portable self-supporting shelter structure due to its configuration may optionally contain a floating hub which is a top element extending above the structure's standard exterior matrix frame. The floating hub forms a high pitch atop the shelter, which high pitch causes the fabric, which covers the matrix frame, to be maintained in a taut downward-sloping condition over the shelter top surface so no rain or snow collects in the fabric at the top of the shelter.
US08082934B1
Disclosed herein is an anchoring device that includes a top plate and a bottom plate. The anchoring device includes a plurality of spacers extending between and connecting the top plate and the bottom plate. Finally, the anchoring device includes an attachment mechanism located on an opposite surface of the top plate as the plurality of spacers, the attachment mechanism configured for removably attaching a pole extending from the anchoring device and connected to an umbrella.
US08082922B2
A head-up display unit 10 comprises a microprocessor 30 which controls four light-emitting diodes (LEDs) which constitute the head-up display 20. The microprocessor 30 and LEDs 20 are powered by a battery 40 and a switch 50 is in series with the battery. A temporary store 60 in the form of a capacitor is in parallel with the battery 40 after the switch 50. A data receiver 32 is connected to the microprocessor 30 and communicates received data 34 to the microprocessor 30. The head-up display unit 10 is located in the face-mask 100 of a self contained breathing apparatus unit. The LEDs 20 are located in the periphery of the viewable region of the face-mask 100 so that they can be seen by the user when the face-mask is worn. The switch 50 comprises two conductive rubber strips which conduct current between them when sufficient pressure is applied. The switch 50 is located on a portion of the face-mask seal 102 such that when the face-mask 100 is worn i.e. held against the face of the wearer, the rubber strips conduct current between them and when the face-mask is not being worn the rubber strips do not conduct. The switch 50 is embedded in the face-mask seal 102 in such a way that a tight seal between the user and the face-mask 100 is still achieved when the face-mask is worn.
US08082921B2
Methods, systems and devices are described for temporarily or permanently evacuating stagnating air from a diseased lung area, typically for the purpose of treating COPD. Evacuation is accomplished by displacing the stagnant CO2-rich air with a readily diffusible gas using a transluminal indwelling catheter specially configured to remain anchored in the targeted area for long term treatment without supervision. Appropriate elevated positive gas pressure in the targeted area is then regulated via the catheter and a pneumatic control unit to force under positive pressure effusion of the diffusible gas out of the area into neighboring areas while inhibiting infusion of other gases thus effecting a gradual gas volume decrease and deflation of the targeted area.
US08082920B2
An active respiratory therapeutic device for clearing breathing passages, loosening and breaking up mucus plugs and phlegm in a patient's sinuses, trachea, bronchial passages and lungs while a patient is breathing normally through the device is disclosed. The apparatus preferably includes a C shaped curved hollow housing having a closed end portion and an open threaded end portion. The open end portion forms at least part of an acoustic coupling chamber. A generally funnel shaped tapered mouthpiece tapers to a small end portion sized to be inserted into a patient's mouth. The mouthpiece forms another part of the acoustic coupling chamber. An acoustic signal generator housed within the hollow housing generates and directs acoustic vibrations into and through the coupling chamber. The mouthpiece preferably includes a valve permitting a patient breathing through the mouthpiece to inhale through a valve opening and exhale through a bypass passage around the valve while at the same time coupling the acoustic coupling chamber into the patient's airways.
US08082908B2
An ignition-engine system for internal combustion engines having two-valves per cylinder (100) with a larger intake valve (103) and a smaller exhaust valve (104) in a longitudinal layout with a single camshaft (118) operating bucketed valve stems 103a and 104a that are vertical, with the valves making up essentially the roof of the combustion chamber and having a volume essentially under the intake valve of approximately 35% of the combustion chamber and a volume under the exhaust valve of approximately 65%, and two spark plugs per cylinder with plugs (102a) and (102b) located at the edge of two opposite squish-zones (105) of a compact combustion chamber, wherein the air-flow near TC is channeled between the two large squish-lands (101a) and (101b) wherein the cross-section of the channel is approximately constant of average width “W’, resulting in a relatively more compact combustion chamber having squish-lands take up approximately ⅓ of the projected bore area of the cylinder and the more compact channel to be approximately ⅔ of the bore area, wherein as the piston approaches ignition it provides an approximately orthogonal-to-the-main-flow (109) through the action of the squish walls which have a clearance of only about 0.06 inches with the piston at top center for improving knocking by moving the spark-flame kernel toward the hotter exhaust valve.
US08082903B2
A method is for operating an injector, in particular a fuel injector of an internal combustion engine in a motor vehicle, the injector having a piezoelectric actuator for driving a valve needle coupled, preferably hydraulically, to the actuator. Starting from a starting voltage corresponding to a first operating state of the injector, the actuator is recharged, i.e., charged or discharged, by a predefinable voltage swing to a target voltage corresponding to a second operating state of the injector.
US08082899B2
A double-layer lubrication coating composition is made up of an upper-layer coating composition and a lower-layer coating composition. The upper-layer coating composition is made up of 50 to 70 wt % of an epoxy resin or a polyamide-imide resin, 5 to 20 wt % of boron nitride, and 15 to 30 wt % of silicone nitride or alumina. The lower-layer coating composition is made up of 50 to 70 wt % of an epoxy resin or a polyamide-imide resin, 15 to 30 wt % of polytetrafluoroethylene and 5 to 20 wt % of molybdenum disulfide and may include graphite as required.
US08082891B2
The invention relates to a conversion mechanism for an internal combustion (11) engine. The conversion mechanism is operable to convert pivotally reciprocating motion of an output member (30) about a prime pivot axis (30.1) into rotational motion of an output shaft (40) about a rotational output axis (40.1). The conversion mechanism includes a cam housing (74) which is fast with the output member (30) for movement about the prime pivot axis (30.1) and which is pivotally displaceable relative to the output member (30) about a cam axis (74.1) which is transverse to the prime pivot axis (30.1), the cam axis (74.1) being movable with the output member (30) about the prime pivot axis (30.1), the cam housing (74) defining at least one cam member (86); and a cam follower (80) on the output shaft (40), the cam follower (80) having a wobble axis (80.1) which is titled or inclined relative to the rotational output axis (40.1).
US08082885B2
Provided are animal containment systems and components, including single-use animal containment cages and modular rack units. Also provided are methods for assembling and using components of the animal containment systems.
US08082878B2
Thermal evaporation apparatus for depositing of a material on a substrate, comprising material storage means; heating means to generate a vapor of the material in the material storage means; vapor outlet means comprising a vapor receiving pipe having vapor outlet passages, and emission reducing means arranged such that an external surface of the vapor outlet means directed to said substrate exhibits low emission, and wherein the apparatus further comprises pipe heating means in the interior of said vapor outlet means, wherein at least the surfaces of the material storage means, heating means, and emission reducing means and pipe heating means arranged to come into contact with the material vapor are of a corrosion-resistant material. Further a thermal evaporation apparatus for depositing a material on a substrate comprising a vapor outlet means arranged to receive in its interior the vapor of the material heated in a material storage means and having vapor outlet passages, wherein said vapor outlet means basically consist of a corrosion-resistant material and are gastight to such an extent that sufficient dynamic pressure of said material vapor is achievable for homogenous deposition of said material on said substrate. Also the use of the apparatus, and a method of depositing a material onto a substrate by thermal evaporation.
US08082876B2
A manufacturing method of an active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) display and an apparatus for manufacturing the AMOLED display, where the display has improved surface flatness and thickness uniformity as well as an improved image quality at edge regions of a pattern. According to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, an anode electrode is formed on a lower structure of a substrate, an organic layer is formed on the anode electrode by imaging a complex laser beam on a donor film disposed on the substrate having light emitting materials, the complex laser beam having energy distribution inclination over 2%/μm at a threshold energy. The donor film is removed, and a cathode electrode is formed on the organic layer.
US08082872B2
An apparatus, system, and method provides blind and vision impaired (B/VI) persons with improved Detectible Guidance Markers (DGMs) for navigation in a wide variety of environments, providing information regarding the presence, type, direction, and proximity of various navigational obstacles. A representative but non-exclusive example of an invented unitary DGM includes a plurality of tactually-detectable informational members, including a base member and one or more integral directional members configured to be disposed at a surface of a navigational substrate. A discrete number of directional members conveys an obstacle identity, while different lengths of directional members, and characteristics of other informational members, convey a direction and/or a proximity to an obstacle. Additionally, numerous structural alterations to a surrounding substrate surface cooperatively supplement the detectability and information-conveying benefits of a DGM.
US08082870B2
Designs and techniques for fluid thrusters and vehicles that are powered by propelling fluids with fluid thrusters. Multiplex-thruster (MT) systems are disclosed that include a single thruster and a flow multiplexer with multiple channels to deliver thrusting flow in various directions.
US08082864B2
A sewing thread spool having thread locking and cutting functions is disclosed. The sewing thread spool comprises a winding core having an outer rim at one end and a bobbin at one end of the core, with a thread cutting plate arranged on an end plane of the bobbin. The bobbin comprises a thread-passing notch arranged at the end with the thread cutting plate. The thread cutting plate comprises a first and a second bayonet sockets separated from each other, the first bayonet socket cooperating with the thread-passing notch to produce a tension in a thread, and the second bayonet socket being used for cutting the thread and fixing the thread end. The thread spool is beneficial in that it cuts the thread and locks it to the spool.
US08082863B2
In a presser foot and a sewing machine according to the present invention, a guide hole is formed in a presser leg to which a fixed knife is attached, so as to passing through the presser leg up and down, and a knife holder is fitted and held to the guide hole. The fixed knife is inserted to a retention groove provided in a peripheral surface of the knife holder through a window hole provided in the presser leg, and is fixed by fastening a stop screw. A position of the fixed knife is adjusted in a vertical direction by moving the knife holder in the vertical direction along the guide hole and fastening the stop screw at an appropriate position, thereby changing a cut position of ends of fabrics and changing an overlapped width of the fabrics at a time of seaming.
US08082862B2
A gripper (3) for a tufting machine comprises a gripper body (9) having a cutout (22) for a cutting insert (10), said cutting insert preferably consisting of a hard metal. Connecting means acting in a form-closed manner are provided for the connection of the cutting insert (10) with the gripper body (9). In their simplest embodiment, said connecting means are formed by the deformation regions (37, 38) that are provided on the gripper body (9) and that reach around matching cutouts (33, 34) of the cutting insert (10).
US08082860B2
An orifice plate for improving particle distribution within a coal piping system includes a plate body defining a central orifice therethrough bounded by an inner periphery of the plate body. The plate body is configured and adapted to be affixed between end flanges of adjacent pipes in a coal piping system so as to generally align the central orifice with an internal flow passage through the coal piping system. Flow disruption features are defined in the inner periphery of the plate body. The flow disruption features are configured and adapted to disrupt a flow of air and particles flowing through the central orifice to provide a more uniform distribution of particles downstream of the plate body than upstream.
US08082847B1
A cavity-enhancing feature and method are disclosed for a projectile that is capable of operating underwater in a cavity-running mode.
US08082846B2
A munitions casing including an annulus of a shape memory alloy disposed around said casing where the shape memory alloy has been subjected to a combination of mechanical and thermal treatments so as to impart a memory, and a cutter located between the annulus and the casing wherein heating of the shape memory alloy to a predetermined temperature causes said annulus to contract radially inwardly and rupture the said munitions casing.
US08082842B2
An offset printing apparatus for transferring a phase change ink onto a print medium, which includes a) a phase change ink component for applying a phase change ink in a phase change ink image; b) an imaging member for accepting the phase change ink image from the phase change ink component, and transferring the phase change ink image from the imaging member to the print medium, the imaging member having i) an imaging substrate, and thereover ii) an optional outer layer; and iii) iii) a release agent material coating, wherein the release agent material coating includes a perfluorinated polyether having a skeleton selected from the group consisting of Formulas I and II and mixtures thereof: CF3—(CF2CF2)m—O—(R1R2O)—(R3R3O)n—(R3O)p—(CF2)q—CF3 Formula I and R1—(CF2CF2)m—O—(R2R2O)n—(R2O)p—(CF2)q—CF3—R1 Formula II.
US08082841B2
A squeezing machine whose actual squeezing element is formed mainly of a cone or rotating head which, apart from the rotating movement, has upward or downward movement depending on the point in the squeezing operation, on which there is a set of blades in the form of fins in such a way that the fruit is deposited on said blades and when these are pushed by the rotating cone in its upward path exert pressure on the fruit, slicing this vertically and guiding it towards the cone for crushing the pulp, as the fruit cannot escape through being trapped in the recess inside a dome that may consist of two parts, one of them moving, in such a way that as it moves it leaves open a hole communicating the squeezing element with a bin containing the fruit to be squeezed, allowing in a fruit previously aligned with said hollow by means of a pulling system.
US08082837B2
A control system for a reciprocating device includes a switching valve, a toggle for operating the valve, a trigger associated with the reciprocating device to actuate the toggle, and biasing means disposed on the trigger for applying a biasing force to the toggle. The valve includes a first drive line, a second drive line, a fluid supply inlet and a fluid exhaust outlet. The valve switches between the first and second drive lines upon actuation of the toggle by the trigger, to switch direction of the reciprocating device.
US08082835B2
An electronic shield provides protection against rocket propelled grenades. The electronic shield has a mounting frame having opposite first and second mounting surfaces. Grids of electrodes are mounted in spaced-apart relation one behind the other on the first and second mounting surfaces of the mounting frame to form an impact surface configured to be impacted by a rocket propelled grenade. Each grid of electrodes has first connecting end portions connected directly to the first mounting surface of the mounting frame and second connecting end portions connected to the second mounting surface of the mounting frame via respective elastic members. During impact of a grenade on the impact surface, at least one electronic operation device instantaneously directs high power modulated electronic pulses to the impact surface to instantaneously deactivate the grenade.
US08082831B2
An auto-centering apparatus and method of auto-centering and dividing a cheese loaf into equal cheese portions is disclosed wherein the cheese loaf is loaded on to a bottom conveyor that centers the cheese along the cutting harp centerline and equally divides the cheese loaf to provide substantially equally sized cheese portions.
US08082828B2
A hands-free dispenser has a body and a cover connected to the body. A sensor element is attached to the body. The cover has an opening that enables the sensor to protrude through the cover and extend beyond a plane of the cover when the cover is closed.
US08082827B2
A hybrid towel dispenser is provided that can be operated in an automatic dispensing mode and a manual dispensing mode. The dispenser includes a drum having a retractable knife that extends out of the drum when the drum rotates past a selected position and severs a towel segment from a towel sheet. The dispenser also includes a motor, a manual advance assembly, and a one-way rotational coupling that couples the motor to the drum such that the motor rotates the drum in the automatic dispensing mode and a user can rotate the drum in the manual dispensing mode separately from the motor, using the manual advance assembly.
US08082816B2
A gear-shifting structure is provided for a vehicle. The vehicle includes a transmission box that contains therein a gear train, a clutch, a switching fork, a gear-shifting hub, and a motor. The motor cooperates with a worm shaft to actuate the clutching operation of the clutch and to cause movement of the gear-shifting hub in order to carry out the gear shifting operation. The motor has a rotary member that drives the worm shaft on which a worm and a cam are mounted. To effect gear shifting, the motor drives the worm shaft to have the cam abut and displace the clutch and at the same time, the worm drives the gear-shifting hub to thus realize the operation of gear shifting.
US08082813B2
A lead screw actuator for displacing holder with a collimator lens in an optical scanning device has a home-position for accurately determining the position of the collimator lens. An anti-seize construction is provided to avoid the holder to get stuck against the home-position due to the friction between both surfaces.
US08082808B2
The system includes at least one sampler including a body having a hollow interior accessed through holes in the body and optionally a slide which can selectively cover and expose the holes in the body. A stand is provided made of a base and a floor. The base includes at least one recess therein. The recess is configured to support the sampler therein so that the sampler can be held by the stand while sampling an airspace at a particular location. The floor can be separated at least partially from the base in a removably attachable fashion to provide selective access to a hollow inside. A sampler can be placed within this hollow inside space and resealed so that the stand doubles as a shipping container for the sampler after collection of an air sample.
US08082800B2
A contactless SAW based torque and temperature sensor comprising a first (2) and second (3) SAW resonator provided on a substrate made of Y+34° cut of quartz. The first SAW resonator (2) has its principle axis inclined at +45° to the X-axis of the substrate, which, in use is either aligned with the longitudinal axis of the device who torque is to be measured or is perpendicular thereto, and the second SAW (3) has its principle axis inclined at −45° to the X-axis of the substrate. A third SAW (4) has its principle axis inclined at an angle of 30 degrees to the X-axis of the substrate. Each said SAW resonator (2,3,4) is formed by laying a film of aluminum on the substrate having a thickness (h) and the SAW resonators have an average operating wavelength λ where the ratio h/λ is in the range 0.021 to 0.032.
US08082790B2
Monolithic solid-state inertial sensor. The sensor detects rotation rate about three orthogonal axes and includes a micromachined monolithic piezoelectric crystalline structure including an equal number of vibratory drive and detection tines on each side of an axis of symmetry of the sensor, the tines being synchronized to have alternate actuation movements inward and outward.
US08082784B2
An assembly for use in a rotary positive displacement fluid meter having an inner body wall surface that includes a first impeller having an outer surface located within the rotary positive displacement fluid meter and adapted to be directly driven by a fluid flow. The assembly also includes a flexible edge member situated at a distal end of the impeller such that there is a clearance between the flexible edge member and the inner body wall of the rotary positive displacement fluid meter. The impeller defines a longitudinal axis and the flexible edge member has a length along the longitudinal axis and a width in a direction that is orthogonal to the longitudinal axis.
US08082778B2
The present invention relates to a turbofan propulsion simulator means, in particular for a turbofan of an aircraft or spacecraft, wherein the turbofan propulsion simulator means comprises a modular configuration, wherein the turbofan propulsion simulator means comprises a module, wherein the module is a turbine means to drive the turbofan of the turbofan propulsion simulator means, wherein the turbine means can be coupled with at least two fan means, characterized in that, the at least two fan means to be connected with the turbofan propulsion simulator means comprises almost or essentially the same mass and/or almost or essentially the same barycentre.
US08082774B2
A multi-functional, composite fuel display for displaying both fuel level information and fuel economy information is provided. The fuel level is displayed using a plurality of bar segments, each corresponding to a single unit of fuel. Once a single unit of fuel is consumed, the corresponding bar segment changes size to indicate an average fuel economy for that unit of fuel. The bar segment corresponding to the current unit of fuel being consumed changes size in real time to indicate instantaneous fuel economy. An indicator is provided over the bar segments corresponding to single unit of consumed fuel to indicate average fuel economy for the current tank of fuel.
US08082759B2
A method for producing a drawn glass member includes a step of thermally softening and drawing a first end of a first glass base material, and a step of thermally bonding together a second end of the first glass base material, having the first end thermally softened and drawn, with one end of a second glass base material to form a thermally bonded portion. The step of thermally bonding together the second end of the first glass base material with the one end of the second glass base material is executed, while pressing, along a direction of the drawing, a side plane of at least one of the first and second glass base materials including the thermally bonding portion so as to keep a cross-sectional shape of at least one of the first and second glass base materials.
US08082757B2
A fluid-cooled mold for the production of a quartz crucible provided in its interior with a space for flowing of cooling fluid comprises an outer mold section made from a heat-conductive metal or alloy material and an inner mold section closely arranged to an inner surface of the outer mold section and made from a heat-resistant material.
US08082755B2
A method of manufacturing monolithic glass reflectors for concentrating sunlight in a solar energy system is disclosed. The method of manufacturing allows large monolithic glass reflectors to be made from float glass in order to realize significant cost savings on the total system cost for a solar energy system. The method of manufacture includes steps of heating a sheet of float glass positioned over a concave mold until the sheet of glass sags and stretches to conform to the shape of the mold. The edges of the dish-shaped glass are rolled for structural stiffening around the periphery. The dish-shaped glass is then silvered to create a dish-shaped mirror that reflects solar radiation to a focus. The surface of the mold that contacts the float glass preferably has a grooved surface profile comprising a plurality of cusps and concave valleys. This grooved profile minimizes the contact area and marring of the specular glass surface, reduces parasitic heat transfer into the mold and increases mold lifetime. The disclosed method of manufacture is capable of high production rates sufficiently fast to accommodate the output of a conventional float glass production line so that monolithic glass reflectors can be produced as quickly as a float glass production can make sheets of float glass to be used in the process.
US08082747B2
A refrigerant compressor assembly for a refrigeration circuit controls the temperature within a temperature controlled space. The refrigerant compressor assembly includes a first unloading valve, a first valve actuator, and a first valve control system that adjusts the first valve actuator via a pulse-width-modulated signal, a second unloading valve, a second valve actuator, and a second valve control system that adjusts the second valve actuator via a pulse-width-modulated signal. The refrigerant compressor assembly also includes a third unloading valve. The first valve actuator is coupled to the first and third unloading valves and controlled by the first valve control system. The unloading valves selectively allow or resist fluid flow from higher to lower pressure areas within the refrigerant compressor assembly.
US08082746B2
In a refrigeration cycle device for a vehicle, a weak-inflammability refrigerant that does not ignite at a high-temperature heat source mounted in an engine compartment of the vehicle in a refrigerant single state is circulated in a refrigerant cycle. The refrigerant cycle includes a compressor for compressing and discharging the refrigerant. The compressor includes an oil separator that is located at a refrigerant discharge side of the compressor to separate a lubrication oil from the refrigerant and to return the separated lubrication oil to an interior of the compressor, a shutting portion configured to shut a reverse flow of the refrigerant at a refrigerant suction side of the compressor, and a driving portion located to drive the shutting portion. Furthermore, the driving portion causes the shutting portion to shut the reverse flow of the refrigerant when the refrigerant cycle is damaged.
US08082741B2
A cluster tool has a transfer chamber, and a load lock chamber. An adaptor is configured to be coupled between the transfer chamber and the load lock chamber. The adaptor has an adaptor housing with an interior space including an entrance with a first valve and an exit with a second valve. The adaptor housing forms a substrate path through the interior space. The first valve connects the interior space and the load lock chamber. The second valve connects the interior space and the transfer chamber. A cryogenic surface is associated with the adaptor. Other pumps can be associated with the adaptor, such as, for example, a turbo pump, or water vapor pump. The cryogenic surface is configured to selectively evacuate the interior space. A wafer is adapted to be moved through the first valve and through the adaptor housing along the path. The wafer is moved through the exit and into the transfer chamber once the second valve is opened. This adaptor can be applied to the process chamber as well as the load lock.
US08082739B2
A gas turbine combustor includes a combustion chamber defined by a combustor liner, the combustor liner having an upstream end cover supporting one or more nozzles arranged to supply fuel to the combustion chamber where the fuel mixes with air supplied from a compressor. A transition duct is connected between an aft end of the combustion chamber liner and a first stage turbine casing, the transition duct supplying gaseous products of combustion to the first stage turbine nozzle. One or more additional fuel injection nozzles are arranged at an aft end of the transition duct for introducing additional fuel into the transition duct upstream of the first stage turbine nozzle.
US08082736B2
One embodiment of the present invention is an internal combustion engine system that includes an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger with a compressor and a turbine and a gas flow pathway defined therebetween, one or more pressure sensors to detect pressure along the gas flow pathway, an emission control device structured to receive exhaust from the turbocharger, and a controller responsive to input from the one or more pressure sensors. The controller determines a control signal indicative of turbine outlet temperature as a function of such input, and selectively generates an output signal to adjust temperature of the exhaust provided to the emission control device from the turbocharger in response to the control signal.
US08082734B2
A drive assembly for a reciprocating pump includes a support structure with a linear actuator mounted on the support structure. The linear actuator has a stationary portion and a movable ram portion. At least one direction altering cable guide is mounted to the movable ram portion of the linear actuator. At least one cable is provided having a first end and a second end. The first end is anchored to one of the support structure or the stationary portion of the linear actuator. The second end is adapted for attachment to a polish rod of a reciprocating pump. As the movable ram portion moves, the cable and cable guide configuration provide a mechanical advantage which results in the polish rod reciprocally moving a multiple of the distance travelled by the movable ram portion of the linear actuator.
US08082733B2
The present invention is a turbocharger (18) and control system based strategy to control exhaust gas filters (30) for aftertreatment regeneration. The air handling system (10) uses the variable turbine geometry (VTG) of the turbine (20) and a compressor (22) flow control bleed valve (24) to drive pressurized intake air into the exhaust. The oxygen rich exhaust gas can then be mixed with fuel and combusted. Increasing the temperature of the exhaust gas will combust the excess exhaust gas emissions and reduce the pressure drop across the filter (30). This system (10) can be used under any operating conditions so as to be available to combust the excess exhaust gas emissions when needed.
US08082731B2
An internal combustion engine has a NOX storage catalyst. A storage capacity (NOX_STC) of the NOX storage catalyst is determined for the purpose of operating the internal combustion engine. The temperature (TEMP) of the NOX storage catalyst is increased if the storage capacity (NOX_STC) is less than a predefined threshold value.
US08082730B2
An internal combustion engine system includes an engine having an engine housing. The engine system further includes an exhaust system, and a turbine disposed within the exhaust system. A particulate reduction device is disposed in the exhaust system upstream of the turbine. The particulate reduction device includes an exhaust retarder having a flow property which is based at least in part on a residence requirement for combustion of particulates in exhaust gases passing therethrough. The flow property may be a flow restriction property, and the exhaust retarder may include a flow restricting trapping element configured to trap particulates in the exhaust gases. The flow restricting trapping element defines a combustion efficacy to exhaust mass flow and temperature coefficient for the particulate reduction device which is based at least in part on a combustion initiating residence requirement for particulates passing through the particulate reduction device.
US08082724B2
The present invention improves the reliability of a combusting system including multiple combustors and improves an environmental performance thereof. The invention includes a device that delays the start time of fuel injection from a fuel nozzle of a combustor including a ignitor from the start time of fuel injection from a fuel nozzle of the combustor not including the ignitor.
US08082720B2
In a conventional tablet packing device, a tablet discharged from a tablet case is supplied to a medicine packing unit through a common path such as a hopper. Thus, in the conventional tablet packing device, a large number of types of tablets are collected through the common path, so that a problem of cross contamination (the chipped pieces of the tablet of the type different from that of the tablet to be packed are mixed) occurs. The present invention provides a tablet packing device from which common path is eliminated. The present invention is characterized by including a conveyance unit for conveying a tablet case to a case arrangement section so that a tablet can directly be discharged from the tablet case to a tablet packing unit.
US08082718B2
A construction method to form a building structure in a post frame bookshelf style.
US08082717B2
The invention relates to a panel having means for the detachable connection of adjacent panels by means of pivoting, the means provided comprising, on a first edge, a projecting tongue (3) with a lower and upper tongue surface (4, 5) which divides the edge into an upper and a lower edge section (7, 6), the second edge situated opposite the first edge having a groove (8) which corresponds to the tongue of an adjacent panel and which is enclosed by an upper-side and a lower-side panel section, the upper tongue surface having a projection (13) with a contact surface (14) which is directed rearwardly in the direction S of the upper edge section, and the upper-side panel section having on its lower side a recess which at least partially accommodates the projection and which has a complementary surface (16) interacting with the contact surface, the complementary surface interacting with the contact surface of an adjacent panel in the pivoted-in state.
US08082714B2
A rotatable wedge tile spacer to be removably positioned in a gap between adjacent upper and lower tiles that are being bonded one above the other to a vertical surface (i.e., a wall). The tile spacer includes a curved (i.e., circular) body having a thin tip at one end and a thick tail at the opposite end. The height of the circular body increases along a tile-supporting top surface thereof that runs from the thin tip to the thick tail. With the tile spacer seated upon the lower tile, the circular body is rotated continuously around its longitudinal axis until the tile-supporting top surface engages the upper tile. Accordingly, the circular body of the rotatable wedge tile spacer will fill the gap and thereby prevent the upper tile from moving through the gap towards the lower tile during the bonding process.
US08082708B2
Synthetic doors composed a rectangular frame with of skins of compression molded sheets secured to opposite sides of the frame and a core of foamed plastics with a window light therein are improved with a novel glazing cleat for securing a window light in an aperture in such a door that includes plate that rests against edges the skins about the aperture, the plate having an upright rim engaging a face of a window light and downwardly directed flanges which, with tangs on a retainer member having a upright tab engaging the opposite face the window light when nesting with the plate sandwiches the skins between the flanges and tangs to take advantage of the mechanical strength of the skins. Further if a fire resistant plate is married to internal face of each skin, the cleat will take advantage of the mechanical strength of such plates in supporting the window light in the case of fires, even if the outer or exterior skin or skins are turned to ash by a fire. For increased fire resistance the core is formed of a fire resistant foam, such a phenolic foam.
US08082707B1
An improved vibration damping apparatus is provided for use with window structures, including windows used in vehicles, aircraft, and spacecraft. The vibration damping system includes at least two separate layers of solid material that are typically substantially clear at visible wavelengths, in which the two layers are spaced-apart by a predetermined distance to form a space or gap therebetween. This gap will be of a size and shape to enhance vibration damping when it is filled with a gaseous compound, such as air. The air-film vibration damping system created by the above structure can be applied to an external pane of a window structure, or to the interior pane of a window structure, or perhaps to both an exterior pane and an interior pane of the same window structure, if desired.
US08082701B1
A formed metal piece is U-shaped to be fit to an outer edge of a framing stud, with a pair of side walls, at least one formed with a guide hole for accurately locating drilled holes for routing cables, etc. The front wall is sufficiently strong to provide nail shielding for protection of cables or pipes passed through the hole drilled in the stud. A series of pieces are installed in alignment prior to drilling the stud holes to speed the process. A cut out portion can be removed to optionally form a slot for installation as a nail shield reinforcement after the cables or piping is installed.
US08082700B2
A building structure with a tubular frame structure in a hut shape may be provided with cladding in the form of curved panels to provide a temporary or emergency shelter. These panels may consist of two spaced-apart plastic sheets fused together by parallel ribs serving as webs to provide parallel channels therein, e.g., Coroplast™-like sheeting. Such sheeting is preferably stiffening with one or more battens that are inserted through the hollow channels of the panel allowing them to be used as semi-rigid cladding over the entire building structure. The outer tubular members of the frame are all curved to improve rigidity. The frame includes channels for seating the panels as well as contribute to the structural integrity of the shelter.
US08082696B2
A temperature compensating outdoor wall padding apparatus in one embodiment incorporates a stretch fabric into the edges of a vinyl cover to provide a tension on the vinyl cover minimizing the possibility of wrinkling of the vinyl cover due to a change in temperature. In another embodiment, the temperature compensating outdoor wall padding apparatus may employ a resilient cover, stretchable in 4 directions and pre-tensioned to provide tension on the resilient cover minimizing the possibility of wrinkling of the resilient cover due to a change in temperature. Methods for forming the same are also disclosed.
US08082695B2
A mullion assembly (10) includes a top mounting block (92) having a positioning rod (102) and attached to a top beam (24) of a door frame (22). A bottom mounting block (112) is mounted on a floor (20) spaced from the top beam (24) in a vertical direction. A post (40) is detachably mounted between top and bottom mounting blocks (92, 112). A brace (50) is mounted to an upper end (42) of the post (40). A mounting bracket (122) is mounted to the brace (50). A pivotal plate (172) is pivotably mounted to the mounting bracket (122) and detachably engaged with the positioning rod (102). A retaining member (138) is mounted to the mounting bracket (122) to lock the post (40) between the top and bottom mounting blocks (92, 112). The mounting bracket (122) moves upwardly and is coupled with the positioning rod (102), allowing further locking of the post (40) when the mullion assembly (10) is exposed to a fire.
US08082693B2
An arch shutter having a frame with an arch frame portion, and often with a linear lower frame portion, and louvres extending from side to side of the arch portion, parallel to the linear lower frame portion, and having a frame section of predetermined width, and bevel portions formed at each end of each louvre, the bevel portions removing a portion at each end of each louvre for providing clearance for rotation of each louvre without interfering with arch frame portion, and pivot pins inserted through drillings in the frame from the exterior.
US08082689B2
A decoy is comprised of a pair of planar members, one being a body member to be vertically orientated and the other being a wing member to be horizontally orientated. The two members are interconnected by corresponding openings in the body portion and tabs in the wing portion, respectively, to thereby facilitate ease of assembly and disassembly. The members are comprised of a light-weight, semi-rigid material which are adorned with artistic depictions of the represented species. A rotatable support member and the light-weight material allows for the assembled decoy to rotate with the wind to thereby present a life like appearance. A support stake, separate from the decoy structure, includes a socket at its top so that the stake can be inserted into the ground and then the downwardly extending decoy pin can be rotatably inserted into the socket.
US08082685B2
A insole (1) having puncture-resistant properties for safety footwear, comprising an anterior portion (2) extending from a toe region (3) to a metatarsal region (4) of the insole and a posterior portion (5) extending from the metatarsal region to a heel region (6) longitudinally opposite the toe region. The posterior portion (5) comprises at least one substantially rigid layer (8) made of composite material formed from a fibre-reinforced polymer matrix and the anterior portion (2) is formed of a substantially flexible material comprising at least one layer (7) formed of polymer fibres having enhanced puncture-resistant properties.
US08082670B2
A shaving head for an electric shaving apparatus, having an under cutter comprising at least one blade which is drivable in at least one direction of movement relative to an outer cutter. To achieve a good shaving result while at the same time protecting the skin to be best possible effect, it is proposed providing the blade with an outer boundary section which is raised in relation to the cutting edge, faces in the direction of the outer cutter and inclines upwardly from the cutting edge toward the outer cutter.
US08082665B2
An apparatus for securely connecting mating ends of two power cords to prevent the mating ends of the two power cords from inadvertently or accidentally detaching from each other. The apparatus includes a flexible connector having a center segment, a first end and a second end. A preferred form of the flexible connector can readily accommodate varying configurations of mating ends of power cords. Preferably, the flexible connector is substantially symmetrical to facilitate installation. The first end has a first opening and the second end has a second opening. The center segment, the first end and the second end are manipulable to form a first retaining member and a second retaining member for securing a first end of a first power cord to a first end of a second power cord. Preferably, the flexible connector is configured such that it may not be inadvertently or accidentally dislodged from the first power cord or the second power cord. The first retaining member is adapted to receive the first end of the first power cord. The second retaining member is adapted to receive the first end of the second power cord. Preferably, the first retaining member and the second retaining member are adjustable.
US08082663B1
A method of providing a hermetic, electrical connection between two electrical components by mating at least one metal pin in a glass-ceramic to metal seal connector to two electrical components, wherein the glass-ceramic to metal seal connector incorporates at least one metal pin encased (sealed) in a glass-ceramic material inside of a metal housing, with the glass-ceramic material made from 65-80% SiO2, 8-16% Li2O, 2-8% Al2O3, 1-5% P2O5, 1-8% K2O, 0.5-7% B2O3, and 0-5% ZnO. The connector retains hermeticity at temperatures as high as 700° C. and pressures as high as 500 psi.
US08082658B2
Methods of lapping rows of recording heads are described after an air bearing surface (ABS) damascene process is performed. The ABS damascene process uses a selective etching process to form voids in the row of recording heads where conductive material forms a feature in the recording head, such as a wrap around shield. The conductive material is then deposited on the ABS of the row to fill the voids, and the row is lapped. According to methods provided herein, the resistance of one or more lapping guides in the row of recording heads is monitored to determine when the conductive material is removed by the lapping process. When the monitored resistance indicates that the conductive material is removed, the lapping process is stopped. The resistance across one or more lapping guides may also be used to control the lapping process to uniformly lap the conductive material from the ABS.
US08082653B2
A method of producing a coil which comprises steps of bending each of straight coil wires into a rectangular wave shape including in-slot portions to be disposed in slots of a stator core and turned portions connecting between the in-slot portions, turning a coil bend-forming portion that is one of the in-slot portions of each coil wire which becomes a folded bend of a phase winding by 180° around an axis thereof, twisting the turned portions of the coil wires together to weave the coil wires into a wire bundle, and folding the wire bundle at the coil bend-forming portions of the coil wires to place sides of the wire bundle to overlap each other to make the coil, thereby eliminating the 180° twisting of the coil bend-forming portions to produce the coil without any undesirable deformation of the phase windings.
US08082650B2
An apparatus for the sealing of roof assemblies for a building structure, wherein the apparatus includes a vertically configured roller and a plurality of horizontally configured rollers to simultaneously produce a hook in the female panel edge and seal the male and female edge together is provided. Such an apparatus thus permits the utilization of any type of metal paneling to create the desired roof assembly, with the capability of providing a secure seal to increase the waterproofing and uplift protection potential thereof. The versatility permitted with such an apparatus allows for ease in placement of the targeted metal panels prior to sealing with the aforementioned increase in reliability of the ultimate roof assembly in terms of shear force protection. The method of sealing with such an apparatus is also encompassed within this invention.
US08082640B2
A method for manufacturing a ferroelectric member element structure having a ferroelectric member film, and lower and upper electrodes between which the ferroelectric member film is sandwiched, includes the steps of: forming a buffer layer having pattern-shaped oriented growth on a monocrystal substrate; performing oriented growth of the lower electrode layer on the buffer layer; performing oriented growth of the ferroelectric member film to cover the buffer layer and the lower electrode layer; and removing a portion of the ferroelectric member film other than the portion having the oriented growth achieved along the pattern of the buffer layer, by means of an etching treatment.
US08082639B2
A method is proposed for producing a tampon (T) packaged in a protective sleeve made from a preform (V) which is preferably formed by winding a strip of fibrous non-woven material. The preform (V) is shaped to form the tampon in separate pressing stages by pressure forces acting on it from outside, and is individually packaged by providing it with a film sleeve (10) tightly enclosing the tampon (T) serving as a protective sleeve.In order to reduce the complexity involved in producing a tampon, and in particular a non-round tampon, to the point at which its is individually packaged in the protective sleeve, the substantially cylindrical preform (V) is already paced in the film sleeve (10) surrounding at least the external surface of the preform (V) before the final forming stage (15). The preform (V) including the film sleeve (10) surrounding it is then fed to the final stage (15), where it is formed between at least two pressing jaws (20a, 20b) which can be displaced relative to on another until it has assumed its final non-cylindrical shape.
US08082637B2
A releasable touch fastener includes a loop component and a hook component, with a particularly small overall engaged thickness in combination with a high fastening strength, both in peel and shear. The loop component is a woven material, while the hook component may be woven or molded. The molded hook component includes a scrim reinforcement for tear resistance and sewability. The fastener is useful for high cycle applications, such as on non-disposable garments, footwear and luggage.
US08082626B2
A hinge provides swiveling of a display relative to one side of a host body including a first fastening seat, a pintle, a second fastening seat, a main torsion anchor member, a torsion rotary member, an ancillary torsion anchor member, a compressed elastic reed assembly and a nut. The main torsion anchor member and the torsion rotary member are compressed by a returning force of the compressed elastic reed assembly. When the pintle pivots to a selected angle, the protrusion rapidly slides in a retaining latch trough of the main torsion anchor member through a steep sloped surface so that the display automatically and fully folds over the host body. The torsion rotary member pivots concurrently so that the bulged edge slides on a gradual sloped surface of different gradients so that adequate friction resistance is generated due to compression of the returning force of the compressed elastic reed assembly.
US08082621B2
A steam mop having a main body having a boiler with a water inlet and a steam outlet positioned therein, a pump having an inlet and an outlet with the pump outlet connected to the boiler inlet, a water container for storing water connected to the pump inlet, and a steam pocket frame connected to the steam outlet, where the activation of the pump pumps water from the water container to the boiler for generation of steam. In an embodiment of the invention, a steam mop having a main body with a boiler, a water container, a mechanical water pump between the boiler and container and at least one side arm connecting the boiler steam outlet to a fabric steam pocket frame. The water pump is actuated by movement of the mop when cleaning to send water to the boiler. The steam pad frame is substantially rectangular with a plurality of baffles in a square grid formation extending outwardly to distribute steam to distribute steam between the baffles. A replaceable fabric pad fits snugly on the frame to distribute cleaning steam to the surface to be cleaned.
US08082612B2
A detachable absorbent/waterproof pad is held in place by any convenient fastening mechanism on top of a sheet. The detachable absorbent/waterproof pad can be easily changed even with a bedridden person on the bed. The detachable absorbent/waterproof pad should have a design similar to the bed sheet so as to make it inconspicuous.
US08082611B1
A portable washing device that combines a base unit, an attached reservoir unit, and a volume of water to create a mobile and easily transportable washing device. The reservoir unit is located above the base unit and includes an attached faucet assembly that allows water to flow from the reservoir unit to the base unit through a faucet after a knob on the faucet is activated. A receiving container located within the base unit catches water after it is utilized in a sink that is located atop the base unit. The receiving container can be drained at a time and place convenient for an individual.
US08082608B2
An example bathing surround includes a surround wall, a tub basin having a top tub bottom and a plurality of tub sides, and a tub ledge extending from the tub basin transverse to the tub sides. A tub flange extends from the tub ledge away from the tub bottom. The tub ledge and the surround wall defines a groove for receiving a tongue extending the other of the tub ledge and the surround wall. The surround wall is biased toward the tub flange when the tub tongue is received within the groove.
US08082606B2
A waste receiving device for disposing of fecal waste from an incontinent person being bathed. The waste receiving device includes a receiver and a waste processing mechanism that discharges processed waste to a waste water drain. The waste processing mechanism includes a strainer and/or a masticator for processing the fecal waste such that the processed waste has a maximum solids size that is suitable for passing through the waste water drain. The strainer is a filter with one or more openings that are sized to pass only waste that is not larger than the maximum solids size. The strainer, in one embodiment, is incorporated in a removable basket. The masticator, in various embodiments, is a manually operated mechanical reducer or a powered reducer, such as one operated by pressurized water.
US08082601B2
The cushion pad according to the present invention contains a ciliated member and a base member, both made of a flexible plastic material and having a same planar shape. The ciliated member has a large number of hollow protrusions on a front side. The base member is attached to a back side of the ciliated member by high-frequency fusing their circumferences together to form a rim belt with two openings. A pressure release valve is plugged in one opening, and a one-way valve and a pumping device is plugged in the other opening. When air is pumped into a closed space among the ciliated member, the base member, and the rim belt by the pumping device, the cushion pad could offer significantly superior shock absorption.
US08087085B2
A wireless intrusion prevention system and method to prevent, detect, and stop malware attacks is presented. The wireless intrusion prevention system monitors network communications for events characteristic of a malware attack, correlates a plurality of events to detect a malware attack, and performs mitigating actions to stop the malware attack.
US08087080B1
A web page available for download from a web server computer may include a reference to a web widget. When the web page is received in a client computer, the reference executes and retrieves the web widget from a security server computer. The web widget may be configured to detect when a cursor in the client computer is pointed to a link displayed on the web page. The web widget may communicate with a remotely located computer to determine if the link points to a downloadable file that contains malicious code. The web widget may display a warning message to alert a user of the client computer when the downloadable file contains malicious code.
US08087077B2
According to one embodiment, an information processing apparatus includes an input module to input a password, a biological authentication device including a storage unit for storing biological information and identification information, and an authentication control module which sets and holds identification information to be stored in the storage unit of the biological authentication device, and permits a password input using the input module to be substituted by authentication using the biological authentication device when the identification information held by itself and the identification information stored in the storage unit of the biological authentication device match. The authentication control module includes a setting module to perform a setting for the identification information stored in the storage unit of the biological identification device and held by itself, on both conditions of authentication establishment with a registered password entry using the input module and authentication establishment using the biological authentication device.
US08087076B2
A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for managing operating systems. A request from an operating system is received in the multi-partitioned data processing system to register for access to hardware in the multi-partitioned data processing system. The request includes a key code for the operating system. A determination is made as to whether the operating system is an authorized operating system using the key code in response to receiving the request. The operating system is registered if the operating system is the authorized operating system. Otherwise, the operating system is terminated.
US08087070B2
A method and system for strengthening authentication credentials for accessing any number of applications across multiple access interfaces and across multiple remote access sites is disclosed. The applications can be accessed by a set of authorized users by using multiple instances of a predictive scheme for generating and synchronizing the authentication credentials and by leveraging pre-existing infrastructure associated with the applications.
US08087069B2
In one exemplary and non-limiting aspect thereof this invention provides a method to execute a bootstrapping procedure between a node, such as a MN, and a wireless network (WN). The method includes sending the WN a first message that contains a list of authentication mechanisms supported by the MN; determining in the WN an authentication mechanism to be used for bootstrapping, based at least on the list received from the MN, and including in a first response message to the MN information pertaining to the determined authentication mechanism; and sending a second message to the WN that is at least partially integrity, the second message containing the list of authentication mechanisms that the MN supports in an integrity protected form. If authentication is successful, and if the list received in the second message matches the list received in the first message, the method further includes responding to the MN with a second response message that is at least partially integrity protected, where the second response message contains an indication of the selected authentication mechanism in an integrity protected form; and receiving the successful response message and verifying that the authentication mechanism used by the MN matches the authentication mechanism selected by the WN.
US08087065B2
A method is provided for implementing a mandatory access control model in operating systems which natively use a discretionary access control scheme. A method for implementing mandatory access control in a system comprising a plurality of computers, the system comprising a plurality of information assets, stored as files on the plurality of computers, and a network communicatively connecting the plurality of computers, wherein each of the plurality of computers includes an operating system that uses a discretionary access control policy, and wherein each of a subset of the plurality of computers includes a software agent component operable to perform the steps of intercepting a request for a file operation on a file from a user of one of the plurality of computers including the software agent, determining whether the file is protected, if the file is protected, altering ownership of the file from the user to another owner, and providing access to the file based on a mandatory access control policy.
US08087063B2
A method for digitally preserving an electronic record includes defining a preservation and service plan for the electronic record in a model, the preservation and service plan including access requirements and authenticity requirements for a digital adaptation of the electronic record, and characteristics of the electronic record to be preserved in the digital adaptation of the electronic record, the model assigning a numeric value to each requirement and characteristic and to the relative importance of each requirement and characteristic; for each data type included in the electronic record, assigning a capability score to each digital adaptation processor that supports the data type, the capability score being indicative of the ability of the digital adaptation processor to meet the access and authenticity requirements and preserve the characteristics as valued in the model; and comparing the capability scores to determine the digital adaptation processor that most closely matches the model. An electronic record archive includes a preservation and service plan management package; a digital adaptation package; and a preservation processing package.
US08087059B2
Various embodiments of the disclosed subject matter provide methods and systems to record broadcast programming for at least one television channel for a period of time, wherein the recording is performed upstream from subscribers in a television distribution system, and further including after the period of time, keeping recorded programming by request from at least one subscriber. And further wherein the request is for at least one television program contained in the recorded programming or for a time window for a particular channel. According to another embodiment a subscriber requests that broadcast programming be saved for the subscriber upstream from the subscriber in a television distribution system, and wherein the subscriber may request the programming be saved for later viewing by the subscriber between the time the programming was broadcast and a later point in time.
US08087055B2
Apparatus, and an associated method, for facilitating formation of content streams formed of content for distribution to content consumers. A request detector detects indications of demand for content. Selection of what content to be included in a content stream is based, in part, upon the demand for the content indicated by the request detector. Once selection of the content is made, the content streams are generated by retrieving the selected content. And, the content streams, once formed, are made available for distribution to the content consumers.
US08087046B2
Screen (10) for a user interface of a television schedule system and process consists of an array (24) of irregular cells (26), which vary in length, corresponding to different television program lengths of one half hour to one-and-one half hours or more. The array is arranged as three columns (28) of one-half hour in duration, and twelve rows (30) of program listings. Some of the program listings overlap two or more of the columns (28) because of their length. Because of the widely varying length of the cells (26), if a conventional cursor used to select a cell location were to simply step from one cell to another, the result would be abrupt changes in the screen (10) as the cursor moved from a cell (26) of several hours length to an adjacent cell in the same row. An effective way of taming the motion is to assume that behind every array (24) is an underlying array of regular cells. By restricting cursor movements to the regular cells, abrupt screen changes will be avoided. With the cursor (32), the entire cell (26) is 3-D highlighted, using a conventional offset shadow (34). The offset shadow (34) is a black bar that underlines the entire cell and wraps around the right edge of the cell. To tag the underlying position—which defines where the cursor (32) is and thus, where it will move next—portions (36) of the black bar outside the current underlying position are segmented, while the current position is painted solid.
US08087037B2
An optical-pickup apparatus includes first and second objective lenses that focus first and second laser light on information-recording layers of first and second optical discs, the second optical disc having an information-recording format different from that of the first optical disc; and a lens holder that integrally holds the first and second objective lenses in an adjacent manner, a disc surface of the first optical disc and of the second optical disc being substantially parallel to confronting faces of the first and second objective lenses, that confront the disc surface, a minimum distance between the disc surface and the confronting faces in a direction of an optical axis of the turntable being greater than a thickness of the turntable in a direction of a rotation axis of the turntable, either one or both of the first and second objective lenses configured to focus bluish-violet laser light on an optical disc.
US08087035B2
A system and method for integrating a diverse set of web/remote user interface technologies into one runtime architecture using a Web container extension is described. This integration simplifies execution, cross-usage, and technology integration between different user interface technologies and other application server offerings.
US08087032B2
A Common Information Model (CIM) agent notifies a CIM consumer that the CIM agent is able to receive notifications from the CIM consumer relating to errors within data relating to a CIM managed component and sent by the CIM agent to the CIM consumer. The CIM consumer receives the data relating to the CIM managed component from the CIM agent. The CIM managed component is a hardware component or a component. In response to the CIM consumer detecting that the data relating to the CIM managed component contains errors, the CIM consumer notifies the CIM agent. In response, the CIM agent initiates an automated recovery process in relation to the CIM managed component, without manual user interaction. The CIM agent may then continue to send data relating to the CIM managed component to the CIM consumer.
US08087028B2
Systems and methods for scheduling computing device resources include a scheduler that maintains multiple queues. Requests are placed in one of the multiple queues depending on how much resource time the requests are to receive and when they are to receive it. The queue that a request is placed into depends on a pool bandwidth defined for a pool that includes the request and a bandwidth request. A request has an importance associated therewith that is taken into account in the scheduling process. The scheduler proceeds through the queues in a sequential and circular fashion, taking a work item from a queue for processing when that queue is accessed.
US08087015B2
A distributed application deployment engine uses declarative deployment data that describes deployment characteristics for application modules, and potential target environments. The engine uses the deployment data to potentially match a module to a deployment target. At some point, the modules may then be actually deployed on the identified deployment target. This may be performed for multiple modules in the distributed application, thereby deploying the distributed application in a distributed environment.
US08087009B1
An Extensible Markup Language (XML) Application Server for storing, processing, communicating, and displaying dynamic semi-structured information. It comprises a declarative specification language, a transactional indexed XML data store, and an XML application server engine. An integrated architecture (a) provides for optimization, indexing, and backtracking search in a business logic layer, (b) provides for general-purpose programming idioms including recursive function definitions, iteration, and dynamic dispatch in data layer queries and updates, and (c) eliminates processing overhead and maintenance issues caused by transforming between relational, object-oriented, and semi-structured data paradigms.
US08086998B2
A meta object facility file is parsed into a plurality of schema elements. For each schema element, it is determined that the definition of the schema element is complete. A computing artifact usable in a database description language database table or a JAVA class is created from the schema element. When the schema element is a meta object facility class, a modeling entity is created to store the computing artifacts derived from the meta object facility file wherein the modeling entity is a JAVA class. The meta object facility class is transformed into a JAVA class, and upon determining that an attribute of the meta object facility class has an array of values, an array table is created and identified in the modeling entity, and an array attribute is added to JAVABEAN information in the modeling entity.
US08086996B2
A computer-implementable method, system, and computer-readable medium for binding an image descriptor of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) widget to a text field are presented. The method includes associating an image descriptor, of the GUI widget, with a content of an active field in the text field, wherein the image descriptor of the GUI widget and the content of the active field in the text field are substantially similar. In response to the image descriptor of the GUI widget changing, the content of the active field in the text field is modified to represent the changed image descriptor of the GUI widget.
US08086986B1
In one embodiment of the invention, a programmable logic device (PLD) includes logic blocks, registers corresponding to the logic blocks, and configuration memory adapted to store configuration data for configuring the PLD. Also included in the PLD is a general routing network having a plurality of routing wires and a clock distribution network having a plurality of routing wires. At least one clock signal path is provided within the PLD from a clock source to one of the registers via a routing wire of the clock distribution network and a routing wire of the general routing network.
US08086984B2
A power noise cycle is obtained from a dynamic IR drop analysis and a delay of a delay pass is a multiple of the noise cycle. Thereby, a delay increment and a delay decrement of a power noise amount (delay time×power noise amplitude) received when an internal signal of the semiconductor integrated circuit passes through a delay pass circuit are approximately the same.
US08086973B2
A pattern management method includes extracting patterns having process margins equal to or below a predetermined value from a chip layout of an integrated circuit, screening a plurality of types of representative patterns from the extracted pattern, extracting patterns closest to the most outer periphery of the chip from the representative patterns, and representatively managing the extracted patterns which is closest to the most outer periphery of the chip.
US08086957B2
A method and system to selectively secure the display of advertisements on web browsers. A method in accordance with an embodiment includes: defining a particular displayed area of the interpreted markup file; obtaining the DOM tree of the interpreted markup file, the DOM tree comprising parent and child nodes, each node being associated with displayable elements; identifying in the DOM tree a set of child nodes whose displayable elements comprise the particular displayed area; identifying in the DOM tree a first parent node comprising the set of child nodes; converting displayable elements associated with the identified first parent node to an image; generating a second parent node comprising the image; and modifying the DOM tree into a modified DOM tree by deleting the identified set of child nodes and by replacing the identified first parent node by the second parent node.
US08086955B2
Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture for modifying process control data involve obtaining the process control data in an extensible markup language format, converting the process control data in the extensible markup language format to a second data format, and storing the process control data in a database. The process control data is subsequently edited by retrieving the process control data from the database, modifying the process control data, storing the modified process control data in the second data format in the database, converting the modified process control data from the second data format to the extensible markup language format, and storing the modified process control data in the extensible markup language format.
US08086953B1
Systems, methods and computer readable media for identifying transient content in web pages. Transient content can be identified, for example, by parsing different versions of the same web page into tokens, and inserting fingerprints associated with the tokens into data structures. The data structures can be compared to each other to identify differences between the web pages, thereby identifying transient content associated with the web pages.
US08086945B1
Systems and methods are provided for encoding a stream of datawords based on a tensor product code to provide a stream of codewords, and detecting and decoding a stream of received data based on a tensor product code to provide a decoded stream of data. In one aspect, the tensor product code is based on two codes including an inner code and an outer parity hiding code, where the outer parity hiding code is an iterative code. In certain embodiments, the outer parity hiding code is a Turbo code or a low density parity check (LDPC) code.
US08086943B2
Serial concatenated trellis coded modulation (SCTCM) includes an outer coder, an interleaver, a recursive inner coder and a mapping element. The outer coder receives data to be coded and produces outer coded data. The interleaver permutes the outer coded data to produce interleaved data. The recursive inner coder codes the interleaved data to produce inner coded data. The mapping element maps the inner coded data to a symbol. The recursive inner coder has a structure which facilitates iterative decoding of the symbols at a decoder system. The recursive inner coder and the mapping element are selected to maximize the effective free Euclidean distance of a trellis coded modulator formed from the recursive inner coder and the mapping element. The decoder system includes a demodulation unit, an inner SISO (soft-input soft-output) decoder, a deinterleaver, an outer SISO decoder, and an interleaver.
US08086939B2
An XOR circuit, a RAID device which can recover several failures and method thereof are provided. A Galois field data recovery circuit having two or more sets of Galois Field engine circuits which are used in the XOR circuit, is one which can generate high efficient parity engine and high efficient flow data route and which at the same time correct the three or more failures during operation of the RAID device.
US08086936B2
A memory system is provided that performs error correction at a memory device level that is transparent to a memory channel. The memory system comprises a memory hub device integrated in the memory module and a set of memory devices coupled to the memory hub device. The memory hub device comprises first error correction logic provided in write logic integrated in the memory hub device. The memory hub device comprises second error correction logic provided in read logic integrated in the memory hub device. The first error correction logic and the second error correction logic performs error correction operations on data transferred between a link interface and the set of memory devices. The memory hub device transmits and receives data via a memory channel between the external memory controller and the link interface without any error correction code.
US08086928B2
The invention provides methods and systems for terminating an iterative decoding process of a Forward Error Correction block (FEC). The iterative decoding process of the FEC block is terminated upon determining that the FEC block cannot be decoded successfully. A method comprises calculating a metric based on one or more Log Likelihood Ratios (LLRs) corresponding to a first number of iterations of the iterative decoding process of the FEC block. The method further comprises, formulating one or more stopping criteria for the iterative decoding process based on a variation pattern of the metric over a second predetermined number of iterations of the iterative decoding process. The second predetermined number of iterations is a subset of the first number of iterations. Moreover, the method comprises terminating the iterative decoding process of the FEC block based on the one or more stopping criteria.
US08086923B2
X-masking registers are added in front of a compactor in test data compression environment to remove unknown values. The X-masking registers block out some chains due to unknown values and select other chains to feed the compactor. This X-masking capability is used to select one scan cell to observe at a time after a failure is observed at the compactor output.
US08086922B1
Programmable logic device integrated circuits with differential communications circuitry are provided in which the differential communications circuitry is used to support programming, testing, and user mode operations. Programming operations may be performed on a programmable logic device integrated circuit by receiving configuration data with the differential communications circuitry and storing the received configuration data in nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile memory may be located in an external integrated circuit such as a configuration device or may be part of the programmable logic device integrated circuit. The stored configuration data may be loaded into configuration memory in the programmable logic device to program the device to perform a desired custom logic function. The differential communications circuitry may be used to handle boundary scan tests and programmable scan chain tests. During user mode operations the differential communications circuitry carries user data traffic.
US08086915B2
In one embodiment, an apparatus comprises an interconnect; at least one processor coupled to the interconnect; and at least one memory controller coupled to the interconnect. The memory controller is programmable by the processor into a loopback test mode of operation and, in the loopback test mode, the memory controller is configured to receive a first write operation from the processor over the interconnect. The memory controller is configured to route write data from the first write operation through a plurality of drivers and receivers connected to a plurality of data pins that are capable of connection to one or more memory modules. The memory controller is further configured to return the write data as read data on the interconnect for a first read operation received from the processor on the interconnect.
US08086914B2
Described herein are method and apparatus for storing data to a low-latency random read memory (LLRRM) device using non-aligned data striping, the LLRRM device being implemented on a storage system. The LLRRM device may comprise a bank comprising a plurality of memory chips, each chip being simultaneously accessible for storing data on a plurality of erase-units (EUs). A storage operating system may maintain, for each chip, a reserve data structure listing reserve EUs and a remapping data structure for tracking remappings between defective EUs to reserve EUs in the chip. A defective EU in a chip may be mapped to a reserve EU from the reserve data structure. Upon receiving a data block to be stored to the LLRRM device at the defective EU, the storage operating system may stripe the received data block across a plurality of chips in a non-aligned manner using the remapped reserve EU.
US08086911B1
Embodiments of the present invention provide techniques for distributing the reconstruction process of a failed storage device in an array of storage devices to storage systems in a storage system cluster (cluster). The inventive technique includes a storage system securing the array, decomposing the reconstruction process into a number of tasks, distributing each task to other storage system in the cluster, and reconstructing data using results of the tasks performed by the other storage systems.
US08086907B1
A network device may include logic configured to receive a problem report from a second network device, store and analyze data included in the problem report, filter data in the problem report to determine when the problem report is to be transmitted to a third network device, and transmit the problem report to the third network device when the filtering determines that the problem report is to be transmitted.
US08086905B2
To quickly establish an inferring result when a problem is detected in an operation management system equipped with a rule-based inference processing function, there is provided a method of collecting information for managing a computer system equipped with a plurality of devices. The computer system holds rule for associating a plurality of events with a conclusion output when all of the plurality of events have been detected. The method includes: executing, at a first interval, polling to obtain information indicating whether each of the plurality of events has been detected; judging whether the plurality of events have been detected; and executing, upon judgment that at least one of the plurality of events has been detected and none of the remaining events have been detected, before execution of next polling at the first interval, polling to obtain information indicating whether at least one of the undetected remaining events has been detected.
US08086903B2
A method, apparatus, and computer program product are disclosed in a shared processor data processing system for coordinating error reporting for and resetting of a physical I/O adapter that supports virtualization. The physical I/O adapter is virtualized by generating virtual I/O adapters that each represent a portion of the physical I/O adapter. Each one of the virtual I/O adapters is assigned to a different one of client logical partitions. A determination is made regarding whether the physical I/O adapter may have experienced an error. If the physical I/O adapter has experienced an error, all of the client logical partitions are notified about the error and a recovery of the physical I/O adapter is coordinated among all of the client logical partitions by waiting for each client logical partition to acknowledge the error notification before the physical I/O adapter is reset.
US08086897B2
A method to perform a diagnostic test in an integrated support platform having a plurality of services is disclosed. The method includes a process of building at least one or more knowledge model for each of the plurality of services in the integrated support platform. The process of building the knowledge model includes determining one or more failure(s) of each component and at least one associated symptom to identify the one or more failures and constructing a framework for the diagnostic test associated to the one or more failures. The framework comprising the diagnostic test may be created by at least one of an execution plan based on the most efficient path for determining the failure. The method further includes performing the diagnostic test for resolving one or more failures of each component by using the framework based on the built knowledge model for the plurality of services.
US08086896B2
In virtualized environments, storage may be managed dynamically due to the changing data storage requirements. In such environments, logical storage unit identifiers (LUN IDs) may be modified as a result of deleting an existing mapping between physical storage and a virtualization server and recreating the mapping. This can result in I/O request failure. Techniques for resolving errors resulting from LUN ID modifications can be time-intensive and labor-intensive and can disrupt a communication path between a host device and the physical storage. Functionality can be implemented to dynamically identify the LUN ID modifications, determine valid LUN IDs, and retransmit failed I/O requests. This can help minimize I/O request failures due to LUN ID modifications without disrupting the communication path between the host device and the physical storage.
US08086891B2
A method and system for managing power consumption of a component that employs a clock processing circuit to produce a processed clock signal used by the component from a clock signal supplied to the clock processing circuit. A frequency of a clock signal supplied to the clock processing circuit is changed based on operating characteristics of a voltage regulator module (VRM) or power supply unit so as to maintain acceptable operating parameters of the power supply unit during a change in frequency of a clock signal. Data pertaining to operating characteristics of the VRM or power supply may be one or both of two forms. In one form, this data is determined a priori from simulations or experiments made on a particular VRM or power supply unit and used to generate and store parameters that are known to optimally (quickly and without degradation of VRM or power supply performance) change the frequency of the clock processing circuit. In another form, the operation conditions of the VRM or power supply unit are monitored in real-time as a frequency transition is occurring. In addition, control signals to a VRM or power supply may be monitored to control how changes are made to the frequency of a clock signal. Further still, the power available from a VRM or power supply is monitored and a clock signal frequency to one or more system components is controlled to balance the load to the power available from the VRM or power supply.
US08086889B2
A scan chain group structure in which a group of scan chains formed for each clock tree system in an LSI is subjected to a reconnection process so that the scan chain group is not present across a plurality of clock distribution regions obtained by dividing the clock-supplied region of the clock tree of one system and that the connection distance thereof in the distribution region becomes short, a test clock input mechanism in which test clocks to be input to the distribution regions are independent sub-clock phases, and an on/off mechanism of the clocks to be input to the distribution regions are realized. Further, the scan-in/out and scan test performed at the same time are limited in one region or between single regions, and tests in all regions and between all regions are carried out by a plurality of times of test steps.
US08086888B2
A storage management server collects, stores and displays positions, temperatures and temperature threshold values of physical storage devices from a storage apparatus. It collects, stores and displays positions and power consumptions of variable factor generation sources which are factors that cause the physical storage devices to vary in operation environments, and also calculates the influenceability by variable factor generation sources against the physical storage devices and affected temperatures thereof. It compares the temperature of a given physical storage device to a temperature threshold value of this physical storage device or compares it to an affected temperature thereof due to the variable factor generation sources, thereby moving, for data transfer, an operation position of physical storage device based on a comparison result at such time.
US08086884B2
An integrated circuit having a dynamically variable power limit is provided. The integrated circuit comprises power management logic operable to receive notification of a dynamically set power limit value and operable to dynamically regulate the integrated circuit's power consumption to comply with the dynamically set power limit value.
US08086879B2
Methods and apparatus relating to powering on devices via an intermediate computing device are described. In an embodiment, a request for data by a first device may be detected at a second device. The second device may determine a third device that stores the requested data and cause it to be turned on if the third device is in a reduced power consumption state. Other embodiments are also disclosed.
US08086878B2
An apparatus provisions power from a power budget to remote devices configured to obtain phantom power. The apparatus includes, among other things, a controller which is configured to identify a power demand for a remote device (e.g., a power demand based on an actual cable loss), and generate a comparison between the power demand for the remote device and the power budget of the apparatus. The controller is further configured to allocate power from the power budget provided by the power supply to the remote device when the comparison indicates that the power budget supports the power demand for the remote device, and reject allocation of power from the power budget to the remote device when the comparison indicates that the power budget does not support the power demand for the remote device.
US08086866B2
Techniques are disclosed for efficient computation of consecutive values of one-way chains and other one-way graphs in cryptographic applications. The one-way chain or graph may be a chain of length s having positions i=1, 2, . . . s each having a corresponding value νi associated therewith, wherein the value νi is given by νi=h(νi+1), for a given hash function or other one-way function h. An initial distribution of helper values may be stored for the one-way chain of length s, e.g., at positions given by i=2j for 0≦j≦log2 s. A given one of the output values νi at a current position in the one-way chain may be computed utilizing a first helper value previously stored for another position in the one-way chain between the current position and an endpoint of the chain. After computation of the given output value, the positions of the helper values are adjusted so as to facilitate computation of subsequent output values. Advantageously, a storage-computation product associated with generation of the output values of the one-way chain has a complexity O((log s)2).
US08086865B2
The present invention provides for authenticating a message, A security function is performed upon the message, The message is sent to a target. The output of the security function is sent to the target. At least one publicly known constant is sent to the target. The received message is authenticated as a function of at least a shared key, the received publicly known constants, the security function, the received message, and the output of the security function. If the output of the security function received by the target is the same as the output generated as a function of at least the received message, the received publicly known constants, the security function, and the shared key, neither the message nor the constants have been altered.
US08086863B2
Secure message transfer of at least one message from a sender to a receiver within a network system may be provided. For example, a message structure information regarding the at least one message may be computed on a sender-side and according to a pre-given scheme. The computed message structure information may be added as message account information into the at least one message to be sent. The message account information may be protected by a signature. The at least one message may be transferred through the network system to the receiver. On a receiver-side, the message account information may be validated after reception of the at least one message and according to the pre-given scheme.
US08086854B2
A computer based method and apparatus to tie content protection information to recipient devices via a family of deterministic permutations of quadratic multivariate polynomial maps used for computing an HMAC (Hash Message Authentication Code) or a signed digest. This allows digital rights management (DRM) systems to customize the protection information (such as an HMAC or signed digest) for audio and video content, whereby such protection information for a piece of content differs for different recipient devices or for types of recipient devices.
US08086853B2
A centralized challenge response verification server such as a RADIUS server is used to generate challenge responses as well as to verify challenge responses. In this way, the requirement for all machines to maintain a set of shared secrets corresponding to all potential peers is eliminated. In an embodiment of the invention, an authentication plug-in extends the RADIUS server to accept a challenge from an authenticatee and to generate a response to that challenge. The RADIUS server also acts to accept a challenge response and to verify that response. In an embodiment of the invention, a name service server maintains information regarding the network, and may also maintain an identification of network zones and storage profiles within which devices may intercommunicate or other network information.
US08086845B2
Many secure tunnels require protocols that require special handling, authorization or security certificates, such as L2TP and PPTP. This often eliminates them for use between a corporate or agency network and outside, public networks. A secure socket tunnel protocol (SSTP) adds drivers in both the kernel and user mode to route standard protocol traffic, such as PPP, over a common HTTPS port. In the event of network interruptions, an exchange of a session cookie allows fast reconnection of the underlying HTTPS connection without affecting higher level applications.
US08086842B2
A system may publish authenticated contact information in a publicly available index store, retrieve the contact information, and validate it. The claimed method and system may provide a client-based, server optional approach to publishing. The publicly available index store may be a distributed hash table used in a peer-to-peer network. The system may be used in other secure directory service applications where a server may not be available or where server trust may be minimal.
US08086840B2
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for remotely booting a client from a storage area network (“SAN”). A connection module enables a client, such as a diskless client, to connect to two or more storage area networks (“SANs”), the SANs belonging to a group of redundant SANs, each SAN in the group redundantly storing at least a portion of substantially identical operating system data for the client. The boot module enables the client to remotely boot an operating system from the two or more redundant SANs. The boot module makes at least one read request to each of the two or more connected SANs, each read request configured to retrieve a disparate portion of the operating system data for loading the operating system onto the client. The boot module loads the operating system onto the client using a combination of data retrieved from the two or more connected SANs.
US08086838B2
Methods and systems are described for managing manufacturing modes in a unified extensible firmware interface (UEFI) basic input output system (BIOS). The UEFI BIOS can include a PEI (pre-EFI) manufacturing mode driver, a PEI interface, PEI drivers, a DXE (driver execution environment) manufacturing mode driver, a DXE interface, DXE drivers, a SMM (system management mode) manufacturing mode driver, a SMM interface, and SMM drivers. Manufacturing mode data is stored and accessed through a PEI manufacturing mode driver, a DXE manufacturing mode driver, or a SMM manufacturing mode driver, and/or any combination thereof. The PEI interface is used to communicate manufacturing mode data between PEI drivers and the PEI manufacturing mode driver. The DXE interface is used to communicate manufacturing mode data between DXE drivers and the DXE manufacturing mode driver. And the SMM interface is used to communicate manufacturing mode data between SMM drivers and the SMM manufacturing mode driver.
US08086831B2
In at least one embodiment, an indexed table circuit includes a plurality of banks for storing data to be accessed and a split index array. The indexed table circuit is organized in a plurality of entries each corresponding to a respective one of a plurality of different entry indices, where each entry includes a storage location in the plurality of banks and the split index array. The indexed table circuit further includes selection logic that, responsive to read access of an entry among the plurality of entries utilizing an entry index of a bit string, utilizes a split index read from the split index array to select a set of one or more bits of a tag of the bit string, utilizes the selected set of one or more bits to select data read from one of the plurality of banks, and outputs the selected data.
US08086829B2
A method of processing data comprising: processing a function using a processor operable to perform a plurality of functions, the processor having interrupts enabled; receiving an interrupt at the processor; suspending processing of the function; accessing at least one control parameter, the at least one control parameter indicating whether processing of the function should be resumed from the point where it was interrupted or whether the function should be repeated following the interrupt; following completion of the interrupt continuing processing of the function either at a start of the function or at a point at which it was interrupted dependent upon the control parameter. A function being an application, a thread, a system software routine, or multiple processing steps defined by software.
US08086821B2
An input-output memory management unit (IOMMU) and method for tracking memory pages during virtual-machine migration are generally described herein. The IOMMU includes an IOMMU manager to service address translation requests associated with memory pages received from a plurality of I/O devices, and a translation request filter to identify translations previously requested from a translation manager. The IOMMU also includes a device context table to identify whether virtual-machine migration is enabled for memory pages associated with virtual addresses identified in received address translation requests. Based on information in the device context table, the IOMMU manager may send a virtual page identifier to the translation manager identifying a virtual page when virtual-machine migration is enabled to indicate that the virtual page has been accessed. The IOMMU manager refrains from sending the virtual page identifier to the translation manager when the virtual page is listed in the translation request filter.
US08086814B2
A semiconductor integrated circuit apparatus includes a main clock generation circuit that generates a main clock signal, a plurality of function blocks, a clock generation circuit in the plurality of function blocks, and a phase locked loop circuit in the clock generation circuit. The phase locked loop circuit generates a clock signal in the plurality of function blocks, using the main clock signal from the main clock generation circuit.
US08086813B2
A method of snap-shot data training to determine the optimum timing of the DQS enable signal in a single read operation is provided. This is accomplished by first writing a Gray code count sequence into the memory and then reading it back in a single burst. The controller samples the read burst at a fixed interval from the time the command was issued to determine the loop-around delay. A simple truth table lookup determines the optimum DQS enable timing for normal reads. Advantageously, during normal read operations, the first positive edge of the enabled DQS signal is used to sample a counter that is enabled every time a command is issued. If the counter sample changes, indicating timing drift has occurred, the DQS enable signal can be adjusted to compensate for the drift and maintain a position centered in the DQS preamble. This technique can also be applied to a system that uses the iterative approach to determining DQS enable timing on power up. Another embodiment of the invention is a simple, low latency clock domain crossing circuit based on the DQS latched sample of the counter.
US08086811B2
Optimizations are provided for frame management operations, including a clear operation and/or a set storage key operation, requested by pageable guests. The operations are performed, absent host intervention, on frames not resident in host memory. The operations may be specified in an instruction issued by the pageable guests.
US08086808B2
A method of migrating a computer system between a virtualized environment and a non-virtualized environment comprises configuring one or more storage volumes for a migration destination in a destination environment based on a migration request containing a backup requirement specifying one or more copy groups, each copy group including storage volumes that store data for at least one of a virtualized device and a non-virtualized device; converting and migrating data from a migration source in a source environment to the one or more configured storage volumes of the migration destination based on copy group information of the one or more copy groups, one of the source environment and the destination environment being a virtualized environment, and another of the source environment and the destination environment being a non-virtualized environment; and migrating backup unit/group information by replacing copy group information in the source environment with copy group information in the destination environment.
US08086806B2
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for efficiently and flexibly performing coalesced memory accesses for a thread group. For each read application request that services a thread group, the core interface generates one pending request table (PRT) entry and one or more memory access requests. The core interface determines the number of memory access requests and the size of each memory access request based on the spread of the memory access addresses in the application request. Each memory access request specifies the particular threads that the memory access request services. The PRT entry tracks the number of pending memory access requests. As the memory interface completes each memory access request, the core interface uses information in the memory access request and the corresponding PRT entry to route the returned data. When all the memory access requests associated with a particular PRT entry are complete, the core interface satisfies the corresponding application request and frees the PRT entry.
US08086801B2
A load instruction that accesses data cache may be off natural alignment, which causes a cache line crossing to complete the access. The illustrative embodiments provide a mechanism for loading data across multiple cache lines without the need for an accumulation register or collection point for partial data access from a first cache line while waiting for a second cache line to be accessed. Because the accesses to separate cache lines are concatenated within the vector rename register without the need for an accumulator, an off-alignment load instruction is completely pipeline-able and flushable with no cleanup consequences.
US08086798B2
The present invention discloses a multimedia storage device comprising a cartridge and a loader. The cartridge connects to media devices of different formats, and the loader comprises a loading/ejecting device and connects to an external application device. The cartridge is loaded into and ejected out of the loader by the loading/ejecting device. When the cartridge is loaded into the loader, the external application device can play and access the files stored in media device.
US08086797B2
Embodiments of systems and methods for routing commands to a distributed RAID system are disclosed. Specifically, embodiments may route a command to an appropriate data bank in a distributed RAID system, where each data bank has a set of associated storage media and executes a similar distributed RAID application. The distributed RAID applications on each of the data banks coordinate among themselves to distribute and control data flow associated with implementing a level of RAID in conjunction with data stored on the associated storage media of the data banks.
US08086792B2
Provided are a method, system, and program for destaging a track from cache to a storage device. The destaged track is retained in the cache. Verification is made of whether the storage device successfully completed writing data. Indication is made of destaged tracks eligible for removal from the cache that were destaged before the storage device is verified in response to verifying that the storage device is successfully completing the writing of data.
US08086789B2
A purpose of the invention is to immediately return the operation in a flash memory module from low power consumption mode to regular mode. A flash memory controller having memory that stores an address translation table for translating between a logical page address and a physical page address in the flash memory chip controls regular mode and low power consumption mode of operating at lower power consumption than in regular mode by halting operation, or decreasing power supply voltage or lowering operating frequency. A flash memory module having the flash memory controller verifies data in the address translation table while low power consumption mode is set.
US08086775B2
A first free port present in a controller or a switch device is physically connected to a second free port present in a switch device (switch device in another storage device unit) other than the controller or switch device comprising the first free port. The possibility of logical connection via a physical path connecting the first free port and second free port is controlled.
US08086773B2
This disk array subsystem includes a data input/output unit for inputting and outputting data in and from the network, a connecting unit for connecting the data input/output unit and a plurality of storage apparatuses, and a control unit for controlling the input and output of data in and from the network. The control unit includes a logical link setting unit for zoning at least one or more physical links among a plurality of physical links for inputting and outputting data between the data input/output unit and the connecting unit, or between the connecting unit and the connecting unit into at least one or more logical links, and setting a plurality of logical links to one physical link; and a link unit for simultaneously multiplexing the data to a plurality of the logical links set with the logical link setting unit, and linking the data to the physical link.
US08086769B2
A computer implemented method, data processing system, and computer program product for detecting circular buffer overflow. When an entry in the circular buffer is read, a valid mark bit in the entry is set to an inactive state and the location of the entry is stored as an entry previously processed. A valid mark bit of a next entry and the valid mark bit in the entry previously processed are read. Responsive to determining that the valid mark bit in the entry previously processed is in the inactive state and the valid mark bit in the next entry is in an active state, the next entry is read, the valid mark bit in the next entry is set to an incactive state, and the location of the next entry is stored as the entry previously processed. Responsive to determining that the valid mark bit in the entry previously processed is in the active state, a determination is made that a circular buffer overflow has occurred.
US08086764B2
In one embodiment of a remote USB device usage system, when there is a request to connect to a remote USB device from any one of a plurality of applications, a check is performed of whether or not another application is using the remote USB device. When no application is using the remote USB device, connection to the remote USB device is performed. When there is a request to disconnect from a remote USB device from any one of a plurality of applications, a check is performed of whether or not another application is using the remote USB device, if no application is using the remote USB device, disconnection from the remote USB device is performed.
US08086757B2
A solution for home automation management includes, at a network device configured to support multiple home automation technologies, receiving a message from a first home automation control device (HACD) managed by the network device, towards a second HACD managed by the network device. The network device translates the message to a form recognizable by the second HACD, and then sends the translated message towards the second HACD in accordance with home automation technology supported by the second HACD. According to one aspect, the solution may be extended to a network of multiple network devices configured to support multiple home automation technologies.
US08086752B2
In a system for distributing data, distribution device is configured to distribute timestamp, offset and source location information for a digital data stream to an execution device, and the execution device is configured to seek digital data corresponding to the received information. The execution device is further configured to execute the digital data relative to a clock rate maintained by the distribution device. Related methods include receiving timestamp, offset and source location information for the digital data stream and seeking digital data corresponding to the received offset and source location information.
US08086745B2
System and method for graphical user authentication using compact collages of regions of images. Image corpus is constructed by selecting similar quality images and filtering to further homogenize image quality. Regions are detected within the images and scored according to similarity and neighborhood information. Regions with lower scores provide less information about other regions and are more secure secrets. During enrollment, user selects secret images; decoy images are chosen by the system accordingly. Regions from secret images are selected as secrets according to the scoring of regions and regions from decoy images are selected as decoys. A collage is formed with secrets and decoys. Compact rendering enhances security and is suitable for small displays of mobile devices. Several rounds of challenge, requiring identification of secrets, are presented to the user. User is authenticated if a certain number of correct identifications of secrets within a number of rounds are achieved.
US08086744B2
A tangible computer readable medium may include a program of instructions which when executed by one or more processors, may implement a method of managing protocols. Instructions may include agreeing upon one or more protocol specifications. Instructions may include identifying one or more components required to implement one or more protocol specifications. Instructions may include communicating among parties one or more components when one or more components is a missing component. Instructions may include communicating among parties one or more protocol specifications. Instructions may include generating one or more executable codes using one or more protocol specifications. Instructions may include generating one or more executable codes using one or more components.
US08086743B2
In one example, a client and a server may communicate with each other using a control channel and a data channel. The control channel carries requests from the client to the server, and the data channel carries the server's response to these requests. Some requests submitted on the control channel may be assigned identifiers, so as to be addressable. A client may submit, over the control channel, a request to cancel previously-made requests. A cancelation request uses the identifiers associated with the previously-made requests to identify the request(s) to be canceled. The client may open the control and data channels by issuing POST and GET requests, respectively, to the server. Control channel communications may then be sent as part of the POST message, and data channel communications may be sent as responses to the GET request.
US08086737B2
A system for detecting and correcting an error in session between a client and a host over a network. When the system receives an indication of an error in a session, the system determines an error correction modification to the configuration of the session to correct the error. The system then implements the error correction modification to the configuration of the session and continues the session.
US08086733B2
In order to limit host computers permitted to control a storage area from host computers, provided is a storage management computer coupled to one or more host computers for providing services and one or more storage systems, in which the storage management computer judges whether the host computer is permitted to control the storage area based on data indicating the configuration information of the storage system and service management information for managing the services provided by the host computers, and in case of which it is judged that the host computer is permitted to control the storage area, the storage management computer sets access control data to permit the host computer to control the storage area.
US08086721B2
A method, apparatus, and system for managing network devices is disclosed. The method preferably includes the steps of monitoring for a change to the value of one or more local resource properties associated with the managed network device; generating a learning event report comprising the value of at least one of the one or more local resource properties; and transmitting the learning event report to a central data store. At the central data store, the value of the one or more local resource properties are recorded and made available to the network management system for asynchronous processing. The central data store is preferably a directory server. The apparatus preferably includes a local resource manager for monitoring the value of one or more local resource properties; detecting the changes to one or more local resource properties; generating one or more learning event reports including the changes to the local resource properties; and transmitting the one or more learning event reports to the central data store. The invention reduces the burden on the network management system to regularly poll the numerous devices under management while improving accuracy.
US08086717B2
When starting subscribe for acquiring presence information, there is no need of acquiring an identifier of the presentity or an identifier of the group, which have been conventionally indispensable. There is provided a state information management system including a management server for managing state information on a plurality of terminals. Instead of specifying a presentity, a condition of the presentity, such as a value of presence, is specified for subscribing. For example, when subscribe is established by specifying the identical current position as a condition, subscribe for the user matched with the condition is automatically started and the presence can be acquired. When the presence of a partner or user himself/herself is changed to a different value, the presentity is automatically changed.
US08086714B2
In a hierarchical load balancing system with each layer including one or more nodes, the load balancing information for all the nodes included in the hierarchical structure is collectively managed by any of the nodes. The load balancing information is defined as the information indicating any one of the number of the processes accepted and the number of the processes executed in the node to which the processing request is distributed, the connection status and the load condition of the node to which the processing request is distributed, and the load balancing manner carried out by the load balancing nodes.
US08086713B2
In general, techniques are described for automatically releasing network resources reserved for use by network devices within a network. In particular, a network device, such as a router, may include an interface card that receives a first and a second message from respective first and second client devices requesting reservation of network resources. The first message may include a first identifier, while the second message may include a second identifier. Both messages however may also include the same additional context information that identifies the same context in which the first client device operates. The router may include a control unit that determines whether the additional context information included within the first and second messages is the same. Based on a determination that this information is the same, the control unit may automatically release resources reserved for use by the first client device within the network.
US08086712B2
The present invention is a method for changing a device identification name of an information processing apparatus to which the device identification name is added for identification by a user. First, a device identification name of other information processing apparatus connected to a same network is obtained. Next, the device identification name of the other information processing apparatus and the device identification name of the information processing apparatus are compared. Further, when the device identification name of the other information processing apparatus and the device identification name of the information processing apparatus are the same, it is judged, according to a predetermined rule set beforehand, whether or not to change the device identification name of the information processing apparatus. Then, when it is judged to change the device identification name of the information processing apparatus, the device identification name of the information processing apparatus is changed.
US08086711B2
In one embodiment, a method comprises, using at least one processor, controlling communication between Service Level Agreement (SLA) processes of an SLA services module and at least one I/O performance gateway; and using a thread pair associated with each of the at least one processors, processing inbound signals from the at least one I/O erformance atewa being sent to the SLA services module via an inbound thread, and processing outbound signals to the at least one I/O performance gateway received from the SLA services module via an outbound thread, wherein the inbound thread and the outbound thread operate asynchronously to provide non-blocking messaging.
US08086708B2
A method for managing a computer system includes monitoring first violations of a service level objective (SLO) of a service running on the computer system so as to determine a first statistical behavior of the first violations. Second violations of a component performance threshold of a component of the computer system are monitored so as to determine a second statistical behavior of the second violations. A model that predicts the second statistical behavior based on the first statistical behavior is produced. The component performance threshold is automatically adjusted responsively to the model, so as to improve a prediction of the first violations by the second violations.
US08086706B2
The invention is a system and method for reconfigurable computers. The invention involves a plurality of reconfigurable component clusters (RCCs), each of which can change their respective configuration upon receiving a configuration command. The invention uses a reconfiguration network for distributing the configuration command to the RCCs, wherein the reconfiguration network comprises a plurality of cells, wherein each RCC is connected to a cell.
US08086705B2
A method for peer-to-peer management module configuration redundancy and recovery can be provided. The method can include fragmenting configuration data for a specified management module configured to manage systems components in a blade environment. The method also can include identifying peer management modules communicatively connected to the specified management module. The method yet further can include transmitting different ones of the fragmented configuration data to different ones of the peer management modules. In response to a reset condition in the specified management module, the method can provide for the retrieval of the fragmented configuration data from the peer management modules. Thereafter, the method can provide for the re-assembly of the retrieved fragmented configuration data and the application of the re-assembled fragmented configuration data to the specified management module.
US08086700B2
A method for providing a portion of a media object to a user is provided. The method includes receiving a URI associated with a media object. The URI indicates a portion of the media object. The method further includes determining the portion of the media object indicated by the URI. The method also includes providing the portion of the media object to a user. Furthermore, a system for providing a portion of a media object to a user is provided. The system includes a memory, logic for receiving a URI associated with a media object, and a processor. The processor is for determining the portion of the media object indicated by the URI, and providing the portion of the media object to a user.
US08086696B2
A method and system for the online promotion of intellectual property includes providing an Internet host station with at least one database that is connectable via the Internet to consumer stations and industry stations. The database includes a plurality of intellectual property items and a description of each intellectual property item. At least one of the intellectual property items is selected by a consumer station and the description associated with the selected intellectual property item is viewed at the consumer station. Portions of the description may be confidential and therefore not normally viewed at the consumer station. Feedback data is sent from the consumer station to the host station. The feedback data includes consumer opinion information of the selected intellectual property item based at least in part on the description of the selected intellectual property item. The feedback data is then accessed from an industry station to thereby determine the interest in the selected intellectual property item based on the consumer opinion.
US08086692B2
Real-time delivery of multimedia content puts extreme demand on both computational and network resources. Many a times, the requirement is to handle multiple such delivery requirements and as a consequence, the overall delivery efficiency gets affected. Another dimension of complexity is that (a) the multimedia content to be delivered may not always be highly reliable, and (b) the network may also be not highly reliable. In such a situation, it becomes even more difficult to satisfy the quality of service requirements. When content to be delivered to multiple destinations is available at multiple sources, there is an opportunity to overcome the above mentioned complexity. The system and method for efficient delivery in a multi-source multi-destination network involves pulling of data from the multiple sources by measuring quality of service and reliability parameters, and efficiently loading the systems and the network in a cooperative manner.
US08086689B2
A method and apparatus for managing shared data at a portable electronic device of a first entity is provided. A message is received advising that data associated with a second entity is being shared. A request is transmitted to a server for a list of shared folders associated with the second entity, in response to an option to view shared folders associated with the second entity being selected. The list is received. An initialize command is transmitted to the server, the initialize command identifying at least one folder in the list. The data associated with the second entity is received, responsive to the transmitting the initialize command. The data is stored in association with a second entity identifier.
US08086688B1
A system and method for securely storing, retrieving and sharing data using PCs and mobile devices and for controlling and tracking the movement of data to and from a variety of computing and storage devices.
US08086687B2
A workflow executing apparatus that executes processing in accordance with a workflow, the apparatus comprising: a workflow information storage section that stores workflow information describing the workflow; a transmission control section that transmits an e-mail during the process of the workflow to a user that requested that workflow, in accordance with the stored workflow information; and a workflow execution section that adds identification information of e-mails transmitted prior to the e-mail transmitted by the transmission control section to the stated e-mail and sends the e-mail.
US08086679B2
An information processing unit which acquires content data from a content providing server and is capable of reproducing the acquired content data, including: a content information acquiring portion for acquiring content information including content data and meta data of the content data; a display control portion which carries out display control for reproducing the content data on a display portion; and a bidirectional communication portion which carries out bidirectional communication with other information processing unit connected to the content providing server, in which, when the content data is reproduced, the bidirectional communication portion selects a communication message to be received from communication messages sent from the other information processing unit corresponding to an execution state of the bidirectional communication.
US08086670B1
The present invention relates to a system and methodology facilitating network communications between an industrial control system and a client application that interacts with a plurality of data items on the control system. The client application initiates a request or query to the industrial control system for an identification of selected data items of interest. Based on information received in the request, an aggregation component can be constructed by the client, wherein names and buffer allocations relating to the data items of interest are provided. The aggregation component is then installed by the client and updated in the industrial control system, thus providing information access to the client application when fresh or updated information is desired. Information is accessed via a communications packet that is generated from the data items identified in the aggregation component. Information transmitted to the control system can also be optimized by identifying the information via handle identifiers that are employed in place of explicit reference or tag names.
US08086665B1
A technique for enabling a plurality of software components to communicate in a software component matrix environment is disclosed. In one particular exemplary embodiment, the technique may be realized by a method for enabling a plurality of software components to communicate in a software component matrix environment comprising the steps of encoding a request at a client side; communicating the request to a server at a server side via a communication interface; comparing the request to a plurality of operations supported at the server side; determining whether a function match exists at the server side; and returning a response comprising the function match to the client side in response to the request via the communication interface wherein the response is mapped to a data model of a client.
US08086657B2
A digital adder circuit comprising a plurality of logical stages in the carry logic of said adder circuit, for generating and propagating predetermined groups of operand bits, each stage implementing a predetermined logic function and processing input variables from a preceding stage and outputting result values to a succeeding stage static and dynamic logic in the carry network of a 4-bit adder, and with output from the first stage fed directly as an input (60, 62) to the third stage of the carry network. Preferably, stages having normally relatively high switching activities are implemented in static logic. Preferably, the first stage of its carry network is implemented in a static logic, and the rest of the stages in dynamic logic.
US08086649B1
The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or method that facilitates utilizing metadata appended to data related to an industrial automation environment with a controller that is associated with a hierarchically structured data model. An interface component can facilitate receipt of data associated with at least one of an instruction set, a configuration, and a collection. An append component can affix metadata to at least one of the instruction set, the configuration, and the collection, wherein the metadata conforms to a hierarchically structured data model.
US08086643B1
A schema translation tool (36) includes a mapping module (37) that receives information regarding a source schema (70) and a target schema (80). The source and target schemas (70, 80) each include a taxonomy that includes a hierarchy of classes (72, 82) into which products may be categorized. At least the source schema (70) further includes a product ontology, including one or more product attributes, that is associated with one or more of the classes (72). The mapping module (37) associates one or more source classes (72) of the source schema (70) with one or more target classes (82) of the target schema (80). The schema translation tool (36) further includes an ontology generation module (38) that generates a product ontology for each of the target classes (82) based on the product ontologies of the associated source classes (72).
US08086636B2
A data storage system requires no special operation by owner users (who make data available) and provides guest users (who view the data) with ease of management of information required to access the data. For example, a URL providing access to data is issued in association with the combination of an owner user and a guest user. This provides ease of information management since only a single URL is required for a guest user to access a plurality of data made available by one owner user.
US08086634B2
Embodiments of the invention provide methods and apparatus for improving the performance of file transfer to a client from a distributed storage system which provides single name space to clients. In one embodiment, a system for providing access to files in a distributed storage system comprises a plurality of storage nodes and at least one computer device connected via a network. Each storage node is configured, upon receiving a file access request for a file from one of the at least one computer device as a receiver storage node, to determine whether or not to inform the computer device making the file access request to redirect the file access request to an owner storage node of the file according to a preset policy. The preset policy defines conditions for whether to redirect the file access request based on at least one of file type or file size of the file.
US08086629B2
In a content delivery method in a P2P network 20, a content publishing node divides a publish content according to a situation of each downstream node adjacent thereto, and causes each downstream node to hold a divided content, and a content downloading node simultaneously downloads in parallel the divided contents from the plurality of downstream nodes. When a plurality of pieces of tag information on a plurality of divided contents of a same content is received form a downstream node, the plurality of pieces of tag information are merged to be distributed in upstream nodes.
US08086628B2
Systems and methods for delivering Web content are provided. The systems and methods include a mechanism for providing interest data that may be applied to filter Web content at the provider side. A hierarchical data set of user-identified interests in received from the user's Web client. The hierarchical data set is parsed, and responsive thereto, one or more keyword attribute values are extracted from the hierarchical data set. The extracted keyword values are applied to filter content for delivery to a requesting Web client.
US08086622B2
A search operation can implement a two step approach to provide geographically restricted and verified information to a user. First, high relevance search results are obtained by searching only in a specifically defined region. Second, the quality of the search results can be improved by performing contact address correlation. If the search server finds a reliable reference address in the search results these search results can be presented to the user after removing-search results not correlating well with legitimate and registered addresses. Therefore, the region-restricted presents only presents legitimate web pages or search results to a user. Thus, the region-restricted search operation improves quality and may minimize search time and reduce a huge volume of non-valued Internet traffic, which is likely to impair the overall performance and experience on the Internet.
US08086616B1
Systems and methods for selecting interest point descriptors for object recognition. In an embodiment, the present invention estimates performance of local descriptors by (1) receiving a local descriptor relating to an object in a first image; (2) identifying one or more nearest neighbor descriptors relating to one or more images different from the first image, the nearest neighbor descriptors comprising nearest neighbors of the local descriptor; (3) calculating a quality score for the local descriptor based on the number of nearest neighbor descriptors that relate to images showing the object; and (4) determining, on the basis of the quality score, if the local descriptor is effective in identifying the object.
US08086610B2
Methods, systems, and computer programs for executing a query having a first and second query value; in a database having at least two composite indexes, where the first index covers a first and second column and the second index covers the second column and a third column. Methods can include executing a query over the first and third columns, by using the first query values to probe the first index to obtain all related second column values, and using the obtained column values to probe the second index for all third column values which satisfy the second query value. A temporary composite index over the first and third columns for the query values can be created. A temporary composite index can be created for a query which was unexpected.
US08086605B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for ranking a result set. The method according to one embodiment comprises selecting an item from the result set, selecting a user profile from one or more user profiles and selecting one or more items of personalized information from the selected user profile. A rank is calculated for the item on the basis of the selected one or more items of personalized information and the selected item in the result set is ranked in accordance with the calculated rank.
US08086593B2
Systems and methods that eliminate non-qualifying data for queries against data warehouses and improve execution time, via a dynamic filter component(s). In general, such dynamic filter components are derived from data during processing of the query and without being explicitly defined by the users within a query forwarded to the data warehouse. Moreover, an evaluation component can monitor efficiency of filter components (e.g., number of rows that can be eliminated), and dynamically change and/or update the evaluation order of such filters.
US08086582B1
A system, method and computer program product are provided for scanning and indexing data for different purposes. Included is a universal engine operable to scan and index data stored in at least one device, for a plurality of different purposes. Further provided is at least one application for controlling the universal engine to perform the scanning and indexing for at least one of the different purposes.
US08086574B2
The present invention generally provides systems, methods, and articles of manufacture for maintaining a data warehouse having a plurality of fields updated with data from one or more data sources. Rather than automatically update every field of data available in the warehouse, a limited subset of fields identified through their involvement in queries issued against the warehouse are updated. By limiting the fields that are updated, the network bandwidth required to transmit the updates to the data warehouse may be reduced. Further, by removing fields from the data warehouse that are not in use, the size of the data warehouse may be reduced.
US08086570B2
The document management server includes an identification information providing unit that receives a request to obtain identification information required for accessing a document from a client, generates the identification information for the received request, and sends the generated identification information to the client; a relation information management unit that manages relation information of the requested document and the identification information generated for the request; and a history information management unit that manages information on the client who has sent the request, associating with the identification information.
US08086569B2
A storage system executes a delta set asynchronous remote replication protocol, wherein writes to a local copy are aggregated into delta sets during successive delta cycles. The delta sets are sent to a remote storage system to be written to a remote copy. Independent of the delta cycles, the local storage system receives a signal representing an external event. In response to receiving the signal, all writes just prior to and in accordance with the external event are posted to the local copy, the current delta set is ended, and a marker delta set is inserted in the delta set stream. The delta sets received at the remote storage system are monitored for the marker delta set. When the marker delta set is received, it is indicated that the remote copy is consistent with the local copy just prior to the external event at the local storage system.
US08086566B2
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to methodologies, computer program products and systems for the support of content replication, wherein transaction-level data replication consistency is guaranteed. Further, the exemplary methodologies of the present invention can be implemented while incurring little or no additional I/O overhead.
US08086557B2
A system and method for providing a factuality assessment of a retrieved information source's statement are disclosed. The method includes receiving a user's query which identifies an information source whose statements are to be retrieved, retrieving documents which refer to the information source, mapping statements in the retrieved documents to their authors, identifying as information source statements, the mapped statements that are mapped to an author which is compatible with the information source, and for at least one of the information source's statements, assessing a factuality of the information source's statement according to the information source.
US08086556B2
A process for evaluating and geocoding of GIS data elements utilizes a plurality of “locate” tests and a weighting scheme to express the match results as a multidimensional vector. Multiple inputs and data sources, as well as ambiguous and partial input data, are used to generate an output with improved precision by applying a weighting function to each input element and generating a set of test vectors (i.e., in the input data element weighted by the known accuracy of the element/source). A sum of a plurality of tests is then generated as the “characteristic vector” of the test set. By using two (or more) different sets of tests, two (or more) characteristic vectors are formed. Various well-known algebraic techniques can then be used to evaluate the results of each set of tests and select the “best match” result.
US08086553B2
Embodiments of the present invention can comprise systems and methods for managing filesystems and can provide a programmable filesystem with active rules and policies, an n-tier network filesystem, stack mounting, a union filesystem with write-through semantics, a filesystem middleware with selective delegation, a filesystem with a statistical warehouse and/or other management functionality.
US08086550B2
Uncertain data is classified by constructing an error adjusted probability density estimate for the data, and applying a subspace exploration process to the probability density estimate to classify the data.
US08086543B2
Methods, systems, and apparatuses for performing a fundraising campaign are provided. A charity is determined to receive contributions from a plurality of entities. With regard to the charity, contribution constraints are received from each entity of the plurality of entities. The contribution constraints for an entity may include a contribution budget and at least one conditional contribution conditioned on a contribution amount of at least one other entity contributing to the charity. Contribution amounts are calculated for the plurality of entities based on the contribution constraints. Each entity is informed of a corresponding contribution amount of the calculated contribution amounts, so that the entities can provide their respective contribution amounts to the charity.
US08086541B2
A method for displaying targeted advertisements to users of workflow software, based on information corresponding to the workflow, the related industry, and the user of the workflow software includes: receiving, from an identified user, a request to display a step in a workflow, the workflow corresponding to a given industry; determining, based on (i) the identified user, (ii) the step in the workflow, and (iii) the corresponding industry, an advertisement to be displayed in conjunction with the step in the workflow; and transmitting, to the identified user, the requested workflow step and the determined advertisement. Corresponding systems are also described.
US08086534B2
A cardholder-initiated financial transaction using a cardholder controlled input device in communication with a payment card network and a database is disclosed. The cardholder uses a payment card issued to the cardholder by an issuer bank. An exemplary method includes the steps of storing merchant data within the database including data identifying the merchants registered to utilize the card network and receiving from the input device transaction data relating to the financial transaction. The transaction data includes an authorization request and merchant identifying data that identifies the merchant involved in the transaction. The method further includes determining that the identified merchant is registered to utilize the card network by comparing the transaction data with the merchant data stored in the database, forwarding the authorization request to the issuer bank, receiving a response to the request from the issuer bank, and automatically forwarding the response to the input device.
US08086520B2
A set of solutions satisfying a constraint for an auction winner-determination problem are computed by generating a graph of paths, wherein each path represents a solution to the auction winner-determination problem that satisfies the constraint.
US08086514B2
A computer based portfolio manager system enables a user to create and manage a portfolio of investments. Users can create multiple sub-portfolios, termed folios, within their overall investment portfolio. Each of these folios can be created by the user or selected from multiple preset folios. One of the possible preset folios includes a manager's recommended folio. This folio is regularly updated, thereby indicating buy and sell recommendations of the manager. A user can balance his or her folio in accordance with the manager's revisions by investing additional capital in some securities and selling others. To prevent undesirable tax effects, a user can move securities from the manager's folio to a holding folio established by the user rather than selling the securities. This enables a user to maintain a folio in the proportions recommended by the manager. The system also enables the folio to be continually rebalanced, while avoiding undesirable tax effects.
US08086503B1
A method of offering a user a plurality of scenarios under which to conduct at least one primary transaction involving at least one specific item, the specific item being one of goods and services, with each one of these scenarios entailing a corresponding cost to the user. The method can include at least the following. Communication is established via a communications device between the user and a system to facilitate the primary transaction. Primary transaction data is obtained relating to the primary transaction, with the primary transaction data including data representing an identity of the user and representing the at least one specific item. The user is offered a choice between at least two scenarios under which to conduct the primary transaction, determining costs of the transaction based on allowance of receiving offers of upsell transactions.
US08086502B2
In a method and system for mobile publication, a captured image is accessed. A bar code is decoded from the captured image. An item associated with the bar code is identified. An item listing of the item is generated in accordance with the identifying of the item. The item listing is utilized for posting with a listing manager. One or more item listings for the item are identified. At least one item listing of the one or more item listings is provided for presentation in accordance with the searching of the one or more item listings.
US08086497B1
Price searching and customer self-checkout on a mobile device is provided. A system for purchasing products comprises at least one subsystem that receives from a mobile device at least price and seller identification data of a product, (at least the price of said product having been electronically read by the mobile device), and at least one subsystem that charges a user for the product based upon the received price and identification data.
US08086489B2
In a data communication system a SMS data communication client operates in known fashion. An additional communication channel is established and data being entered into the client is transmitted to a central server. At the server end the user is identified in a customer database which also stored a profile of the user. Information from an ad database is selected for transmission back to the client in dependence upon the data and profile. Where the information takes the form of advertising, it may be displayed by the client as a truncated indicator during message entry and a fuller composition with active links after sending is completed.
US08086484B1
A method and system of assessing the quality of a work through a quality review engine. The quality review system efficiently builds a ranked list of works. Competing and collaborating creators review each other's works through a variable, relative-measurement technique. Subject matter creators rate the quality of individual pieces of material, while concurrently being reviewed themselves to assess the level of expertise of each reviewer, and thus, the degree of weight that should be given to the commentary of each reviewer. Each review may itself be reviewed to assess a usefulness of the review to determine the weight the review should be given in the ranking process. Assigned reviews, monitored control works, and other fraud detection devices assure accurate rankings at a low cost.
US08086481B2
A method for performing a market analysis may include collecting survey data, which may include evaluation data for desired outcomes, the desired outcomes consisting of attributes of one or more products or services. The desired outcome evaluation data may include importance and satisfaction data. Further, the survey data may include evaluation data for potential features. The potential features evaluation data may include desirability data indicative of the affinity survey participants have for potential features. The method may further include processing the collected survey data using a computer processor. The processing may include calculating, based on the importance and satisfaction data, opportunity scores for the individual desired outcomes. The processing may also include correlating potential features with desired outcomes. In addition, the processing may include ranking the potential features based on the collected desirability data and the calculated opportunity score.
US08086480B2
Embodiments of computer-implemented methods and systems for activity-based recommendations are described. One example embodiment includes receiving data indicating historical activities of a user community, the historical activities including historical activities of the target user, selecting a reference group of users from the user community based on analysis of the historical activities of the target user, receiving generally current time activities of the reference group of users, the generally current time activities including those activities that have occurred within a defined time window, and recommending items to the target user based on the generally current time activities of the reference group of users.
US08086478B2
The present invention enables a user to schedule meetings and detect scheduling conflicts. A system user such as an employee schedules a meeting. The time and date of the meeting is stored in an account for that user. When the same user schedules another meeting, that meeting is detected and compared with any previously and scheduled and stored meetings for that user. If there is a conflict between the presently scheduled meeting and any previously scheduled meeting, then the present invention alerts the user and gives the user the opportunity to select the new meeting for that time or to retain the currently scheduled meeting. The present invention can also store and track the unscheduled meetings. In the event the scheduled meeting is postponed or canceled, the user can be notified and given the opportunity to schedule and attend a previously declined meeting that was scheduled for that same time.
US08086476B2
Method for directed advertising and information distribution using a wireless communications network
A method of and system for directing targeted advertising or transmitting information to end users, using wireless or mobile media, including cellular media, is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method and system interconnects (a) advertisers or sponsors, (b) wireless device users (“system users”), and (c) wireless telecommunications companies (“telecoms”), via (d) an intermediary or “hub entity.” The hub entity maintains and controls computer operated software and data bases to direct specific advertising or information to targeted system users; collects subscription fees and distributes advertising fees; and determines the effectiveness of various advertising or information transmitted to specific system users. The method can further be customized for application as an information provider, alert notice or security warning system. In other embodiments the method and system may be applied to work with the membership of an organization, such as credit card companies' cardholders, an insurance companies' policy holders, employees, tenants, or other local, national, or world-wide groups or organizations.
US08086472B2
A system and method are disclosed for managing prescription benefits. Case records containing information regarding patients and prescription coverage activities for the patients are stored in the system. Users are allowed access to the system via an appropriate electronic communication network. The user can subsequently perform various tasks in order to maintain and review coverage activities. The user can also enter additional prescription coverage activities into the case records, as well as verify that information entered into the case records has been updated.
US08086459B2
Systems and methods for providing synthesized speech in a manner that takes into account the environment where the speech is presented. A method embodiment includes, based on a listening environment and at least one other parameter associated with at least one other parameter, selecting an approach from the plurality of approaches for presenting synthesized speech in a listening environment, presenting synthesized speech according to the selected approach and based on natural language input received from a user indicating that an inability to understand the presented synthesized speech, selecting a second approach from the plurality of approaches and presenting subsequent synthesized speech using the second approach.
US08086456B2
A speech synthesis system can select recorded speech fragments, or acoustic units, from a very large database of acoustic units to produce artificial speech. The selected acoustic units are chosen to minimize a combination of target and concatenation costs for a given sentence. However, as concatenation costs, which are measures of the mismatch between sequential pairs of acoustic units, are expensive to compute, processing can be greatly reduced by pre-computing and caching the concatenation costs. Unfortunately, the number of possible sequential pairs of acoustic units makes such caching prohibitive. A method for constructing an efficient concatenation cost database is provided by synthesizing a large body of speech, identifying the acoustic unit sequential pairs generated and their respective concatenation costs. By constructing a concatenation cost database in this fashion, the processing power required at run-time is greatly reduced with negligible effect on speech quality.
US08086455B2
A recognition (e.g., speech, handwriting, etc.) model build process that is declarative and data-dependence-based. Process steps are defined in a declarative language as individual processors having input/output data relationships and data dependencies of predecessors and subsequent process steps. A compiler is utilized to generate the model building sequence. The compiler uses the input data and output data files of each model build processor to determine the sequence of model building and automatically orders the processing steps based on the declared input/output relationship (the user does not need to determine the order of execution). The compiler also automatically detects ill-defined processes, including cyclic definition and data being produced by more than one action. The user can add, change and/or modify a process by editing a declaration file, and rerunning the compiler, thereby a new process is automatically generated.
US08086452B2
A scalable coding apparatus is provided to suppress deterioration of a quality of a coded signal in a normal frame next to a frame compensated for the occurrence of a data loss. The scalable coding apparatus is provided with a core-layer coding section (11) to carry out core-layer coding for the n-th frame input audio signal, an ordinary coding section (121) to generate expanding-layer ordinary-coding layer L2(n) by carrying out ordinary-coding of an expanding layer for the input audio signal, a deterioration-compensation coding section (123) to generate an expanding-layer-deterioration coding data L2′(n) by carrying out compensation for quality deterioration of coded audio in a current frame due to a past frame loss, a judging section (125) to determine whether either the expanding-layer ordinary-coding data L2(n) or the expanding-layer deterioration-coding data L2′(n) should be output from the expanding-layer coding section (12) as expanding-layer coding data of the current frame.
US08086448B1
Processing an audio signal associated with a sound recording made available to be rendered to an end user is disclosed. The audio signal is received. A high-order perceptual attribute of the audio signal as rendered is changed by modifying the audio signal. The modification may be based on real-time analysis of the audio signal.
US08086444B2
The method and system for modifications of grammars presented in this invention applies to automatic speech recognition systems which take a spoken utterance as input and use a grammar to assign word sequence(s) and, possibly, one or more semantic interpretations to that utterance. One type of modification may take a form of reducing the importance of select grammar components based on the analysis of the occurrence of these components in the original grammar. Another type of modification may take form of adding new grammar components to the grammar of some semantic interpretations based on the analysis of the occurrence of these components in the select set of other semantic interpretations. Both modifications can be carried out either automatically or offered for validation. Some benefits of the presented method and system are: reduced effort for building grammars, improvement of recognition accuracy, automatic adaptation of dynamic grammars to the context.
US08086437B2
Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to modeling and simulating software contention. In aspects, a model declares properties of a scarce software object and models software components that need the scarce software object to execute. A simulator uses the model to set up data structures that track locking activity related to the software object. The simulator simulates the interaction between software components and hardware including seizing and releasing locks on the software object. The simulator may use a function or other similar mechanism to distribute seize and release operations with respect to a lock across multiple instances of the software object. The simulator may use data generated by a simulation to provide an indication of lock objects and hardware utilization, transaction latencies, and other statistics.
US08086429B2
A system for performing verification includes a means for: importing a design netlist containing component(s), computing output function(s) for the component(s), generating output equivalent state set(s) from the output function(s), identifying next-state function(s) for the component(s), means for producing image equivalent state set(s) for the next-state function(s), means for classifying output-and-image equivalent state set(s) for the image equivalent state set(s) and the output equivalent state set(s), getting a preimage from the next-state function(s) and the output-and-image equivalent state(s) to generate a preimage of the output-and-image equivalent state(s), partitioning over original state(s) of the component(s), and equivalent class input set(s) of the component(s). Moreover, the system includes a means for: selecting input representative(s) of the equivalent input set(s), forming an input map from the input representative(s), synthesizing the input map, and injecting the input map back into the netlist to generate a modified netlist.
US08086428B2
An initial layout of one pitch unit of a tire tread pattern is decided. A finite element model of a tire is created by developing the one pitch unit of the initial layout into a plurality of pitches in the circumferential direction of the tire to carry out a structural analysis. Evaluation indices calculated through the analysis are integrated into one pitch unit for each element associated with the indices. The elements are classified according to the magnitudes of the integrated evaluation indices to determine a plurality of classes to which elements subject to removal belong, and elements to be removed are selected from each of classes thus determined. Elements to be added are selected from among the elements which have been removed to decide a layout of the current generation. A finite element model of a tire is created by developing the layout of the current generation into a plurality of pitches to carry out a structural analysis, and convergence of an objective function is determined.
US08086420B2
A method and apparatus for predicting junction device temperature of at least a first switching device in a power conversion module that includes a plurality of switching devices, the method comprising the steps of, during switching activity, identifying at least one operating characteristic of the first switching device and solving an equation that uses the identified operating characteristic to predict the temperature of the first switching device where the equation solved is a function of the location of the first switching device with respect to the other switching devices in the plurality.
US08086419B2
The invention is related to methods and apparatus that use a visual sensor and dead reckoning sensors to process Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). These techniques can be used in robot navigation. Such visual techniques can be used to autonomously generate and update a map. Unlike with laser rangefinders, the visual techniques are practical in a wide range of applications and can be used in relatively dynamic environments, such as environments in which people move. One embodiment further uses multiple particles to maintain multiple hypotheses with respect to localization and mapping. One embodiment maintains the particles, thereby permitting the SLAM processes to be performed in software using microprocessor-based computer systems.
US08086410B1
A method for detecting DNA variation. First, by aligning trace data of a sample DNA sequence to trace data of a reference DNA sequence to produce an aligned sample DNA sequence. Then, inputting the trace data of the bases of both the reference DNA sequence and the aligned sample DNA sequence for a particular frame number into a non-linear mathematical function of an anti-correlation calculation scheme for all the frame numbers. Minimal values will be produced at the particular frame number for DNA base trace data of the aligned sample DNA sequence which are not a variation as compared to the reference DNA sequence. Values above the minimal values will be produced at the particular frame number for DNA base trace data of the aligned sample DNA sequence which are a variation as compared to the reference DNA sequence.
US08086407B2
The present invention is related to an environmental monitoring and analyzing device. The device contains a plurality of sensors, a control unit and a display unit. The different types of sensors obtain values of different environmental parameters. The control unit receives the obtained values of the environmental parameters and compares the obtained values against predetermined standards and criteria which define parameter ranges of the different environmental parameters. A display unit displays a real-time air quality report including a user-friendly interpretation of the obtained values and recommendations in response to the obtained values. By implementing this invention into an embodiment, the environmental monitoring analyzing is carried out instantly by considering the interrelationship of the obtained values of the different environmental parameters. A real-time comprehensive and easily understood by non-technical user air quality report is provided.
US08086406B2
In order to enhance a safety system, in particular an accident avoidance system for a means of transportation, in particular a motor vehicle, having at least one steering system and at least one brake system in such a way that an avoidance maneuver initiated by the operator of the means of transportation when approaching an obstacle is supported with respect to both the device and the method, thus preventing an accident through collision, the evaluation unit determines at least one driving variation, in particular at least one avoidance trajectory and/or at least one automatic emergency braking action from the data and information and when or after the operator of the means of transportation initiates a driving maneuver, in particular an avoidance maneuver or an emergency braking maneuver, the safety system, in particular the evaluation unit specifies, supports and/or suggests this driving maneuver in an optimized form, in particular in the form of an optimal avoidance trajectory or in the form of an automatic emergency braking.
US08086403B2
Systems, methods, and programs store predicted distance range data, in which distance ranges where a vehicle will be within a specified time are predicted for individual zones and individual time periods, and store traffic data that is created based on traffic circumstances in individual links and individual time periods. The systems, methods, and programs define, based on the predicted distance range data and using the current time as a reference, a temporal sequence of predicted distance ranges centered at the current host vehicle position. The systems, methods, and programs search for a recommended route from the current host vehicle position to the destination among links within each of the defined predicted distance ranges, the recommended route determined by using the traffic data for the time periods that correspond to the predicted distance ranges.
US08086398B2
A method in a wireless communications device for transmitting current location information representing a current location of the wireless communications device. The method entails, from within a communication application executing on a processor of the wireless communications device, causing the wireless communications device to obtain the current location information representing the current location of the wireless communications device, including the current location information in a communication generated from within the communication application, and transmitting the communication that includes the current location information. The method optionally entails a further step of performing a reverse look-up of GPS coordinates representing the current location to determine address information for including in the communication. Location information, such as maps or URLs to maps can be sent directly from an e-mail application or instant messenger without having to separately launch a mapping application.
US08086386B2
A method for use in generating power in an internal combustion engine from combustion of a fuel admixed with an oxidizing gas and operating cyclically with intentional ignition of a first fuel or with self-ignition of a second fuel which includes changing a volume of a combustion chamber from a fixed minimum volume to a fixed maximum volume wherein the maximum volume is greater than a critical volume. The critical volume includes a volume of the chamber filled with an oxidizing gas at an initial temperature and an initial pressure such that when the temperature is compressed from the critical volume to the minimum volume the gas reaches a maximum temperature and a maximum pressure causing detonation of a first fuel, or the gas exceeds a maximum temperature and a maximum pressure predetermined for self-ignition of a second fuel. A flow of the gas is controlled into the chamber so as to provide an upper limit on the amount of the gas which fills the chamber in each chamber-filling intake part of an engine cycle. The upper limit includes a mass less than an amount of a mass of the oxidizing mass in the critical volume.
US08086382B2
A method for enhancing stability of a three wheel vehicle having a pair of front wheels and a single rear wheel, each of the wheels having a tire with a tire grip threshold. The method including deploying an electronic stability system (ESS) on the vehicle, providing the ESS with input from various vehicle sensors related to the longitudinal and lateral acceleration of the vehicle, causing the ESS to determine whether (i) a precursory condition indicative of a wheel lift exists and (ii) the tire grip threshold of any of the tires has been exceeded; and when a precursory condition indicative of a wheel lift exists and the tire grip threshold of none of the tires has been exceeded, causing the ESS to reduce the longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle by a first amount less than that which would cause the tire grip threshold of any of the tires to be exceeded.
US08086372B2
The present invention aims at providing a steering assistance apparatus which can accurately detect a curve exit of a running path and perform steering assistance control with an excellent running path following capability. The steering assistance apparatus of the present invention is a steering assistance apparatus 1 for providing a steering mechanism with a steering torque such that a vehicle runs along a running path according to an image capturing the running path in front of the vehicle, which estimates a curve direction of the running path by processing the image, estimates a steering direction of a driver of the vehicle according to a steering operation of the driver, and determines that the vehicle is running through a curve exit according to a fact that the estimated curve direction and steering direction do not coincide with each other. This makes it possible to determine the curve exit of the running path accurately and perform appropriate steering assistance control.
US08086368B2
A vehicle communication gateway configured to be located within an overland vehicle. In one embodiment, the vehicle communication gateway includes a controller; a memory connected to the controller; a short-range wireless communication interface connected to the controller; a long-range wireless communication interface connected to the controller; and an input-output module configured to connect to a CAN bus, an in-vehicle entertainment system, and a user interface. The controller is configured to receive information from the CAN bus, the in-vehicle entertainment system, and the user interface. The controller generates diagnostic messages regarding vehicle systems based on information received through the CAN bus. The controller also synchronizes files between the in-vehicle entertainment system and extra-vehicular devices, and communicates with in-building systems through the short-range wireless communication interface. Messages are sent to one or more destinations such as a vehicle manufacturer, a vehicle repair shop, and a mobile phone of a vehicle occupant through the long-range wireless communication interface.
US08086365B2
The prioritization method according to the present invention permits the selection of information providers independently of the selection and functioning manner of the requesting systems, for flexibilization. In a linear prioritization method according to the present invention, a list sorted by rising priority having information providers is sequentially polled, and the first information provider having a request command is selected, this request command is routed on, and the polling is ended. In an additional prioritization method according to the present invention, from a list that is not sorted, having information providers, the information provider having the maximum (minimum) request command is selected or the average request command of the requesters is ascertained. Preferably, the prioritization method according to the present invention is able to be executed using a computer system having a modular system construction.
US08086363B2
A vehicle is mounted with a drive device provided with a plurality of rotating electrical machines, and a drive unit driving the plurality of rotating electrical machines. A drive control device for the vehicle includes an electrical leak detector detecting electrical leak in the drive device, and a control device. The control device identifies an electrical leak location by receiving a result of the detection made by the electrical leak detector, and determines which rotating electrical machine out of the plurality of rotating electrical machines is allowed to operate when the vehicle is driven next time, in accordance with the electrical leak location, while the vehicle is stopped.
US08086361B2
Systems and methods for outputting instructions when a vehicle is not responding to a roll-angle alert. An example system includes one or more altitude sensors that determine one of altitude above ground level or barometric altitude, one or more roll-angle sensors that determine the roll-angle of the vehicle, and a processor. The processor receives the altitude and roll-angle information, determines if an excessive roll-angle condition exists based on the received altitude and roll-angle information, and generates a roll-angle alert signal if a roll-angle alert condition exists. The processor generates a roll-direction signal based upon vehicle position relative to the horizon and outputs the determined roll-direction signal via the one or more output devices, if one of the condition still exists after the time delay, the vehicle roll-angle has deteriorated away from the desired threshold, or the roll-angle rate is greater than a roll-angle rate threshold.
US08086359B2
A method for improving thermal efficiency in one or more data centers includes measuring a temperature at one or more computing devices having allocated thereto one or more computing workloads and determining whether the measured temperature exceeds a predetermined temperature threshold. If the predetermined temperature threshold is exceeded, sufficient computing workloads are migrated to one or more alternate computing devices to reduce the temperature at one or more of the computing devices to less than or equal to said predetermined temperature threshold. In accomplishing the method, there is provided a data orchestrator configured at least for receiving data concerning the measured temperature, determining whether the measured temperature exceeds the predetermined temperature threshold, and migrating one or more of the computing workloads to one or more alternate computing devices. Computer systems and computer programs available as a download or on a computer-readable medium for installation according to the invention are provided.
US08086352B1
A HVAC controls system for zone controls that is comprised of one or more Wall Sensor Units (WSU) and zero or more Damper/Register Units (DRUs). The invention is a low networked cost solution for residential and light commercial that is easy to install in new and existing building. The WSUs detect, log and use occupancy data to predict where in a building HVAC conditioning is needed and to save energy where it is not needed. The DRU use shape memory alloy wires to control the opening and closing of a damper plate with very little power allowing batter operation.
US08086350B2
Dispenser and method for dispensing individual goods, in particular packages containing a medicament
Dispenser for dispensing individual goods, the dispenser comprising a containing space for holding an array of goods, a transport device for consecutively feeding a good from the array to a delivery member for dispensing one or more goods to a consumer, a reading device for reading data from a first good, a control unit connected to the reading unit for receiving data from the reading unit, the control unit being connected to a functional member and being adapted for changing the state of the functional member on the basis of the data received from the first good, characterised in that the data received from the first good includes information pertaining to one or more goods that are to be dispensed consecutively to the first good.
US08086337B1
A computerized system and method for generating a delivery bill of materials (BOM) for use at a production facility. Input includes parts data identifying the parts used in the production process, delivery/process location data identifying areas on the production line where parts are delivered, and packaging data related to containers in which parts are delivered. Each delivery BOM has a code for an associated product and data that defines a relationship between a trailer loaded with case packs of parts, a delivery process code, and a tugger for delivering the packs to line locations. Each trailer holds multiple packs assigned to different delivery process codes. The delivery process code ties the case packs on the trailer to the tuggers and is associated with one or more assembly processes. Each delivery process code is assigned to an associate that coordinates case pack and tugger staging according to supported production processes.
US08086336B2
Systems and methods are provided for designing and producing a custom-fit prosthesis. According to one embodiment, a mold is produced from which a custom-fit implant may be directly or indirectly manufactured. Medical image data representing surrounding portions of a patient's anatomy to be repaired by surgical implantation of the custom-fit implant are received. Then, three-dimensional surface reconstruction is performed based on the medical image data. Next, the custom-fit implant is designed based on the three-dimensional surface reconstruction and a positive or negative representation of a two-part mold is created with a void in the shape of the custom-fit implant by subtracting a representation of the custom-fit implant from a representation of a mold. Finally, the two-part mold is output from which the custom-fit implant may be directly manufactured; or an implant is directly output. Alternatively, an intermediate mold is created from which a two-part mold may be directly manufactured.
US08086334B2
A digital signal processing system and method transforms pairs of channels selected from a multichannel signal into the frequency domain. Vector operations are performed upon the frequency-domain data by which signal components unique to one of the input channels are routed to one of the output channels, signal components unique to the other of the input channels are routed to another of the output channels, and signal components common to both channels are routed to a third and optionally to a fourth output channel. The frequency-domain output channels are then transformed back into the time-domain, forming a plurality of time-domain output channels. The vector operations are performed in a manner that preserves the overall information content of the input data.
US08086330B1
Systems and processes for accessing acceleration data may include an accelerometer coupled to a nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile memory may be coupled to a processor. Acceleration data may be obtained from the accelerometer via a bus coupling the nonvolatile memory to the accelerometer. Acceleration data may be sent from the nonvolatile memory to a processor. One or more operations may be performed based on the acceleration data.
US08086328B2
Systems and methods for vibration rectification error reduction in closed-loop accelerometer systems
Systems and methods for controlling a closed-loop accelerometer system. A system includes an accelerometer with a driver that responds in a nonlinear manner and a rebalancing controller in signal communication with the driver. The rebalancing controller includes a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control portion having at least one variable gain component. A method includes sensing a movement of a proof mass, determining a static g field based on the sensed movement, setting at least one variable gain component of a PID controller based on the determined static g field, and rebalancing the proof mass using the PID controller.
US08086323B2
A system and method of sensing multiple parameters. The method may include implanting an implantable sensor in a patient and reading an output from at least one of the implantable sensing elements. The implantable sensor may have a housing within which are disposed a plurality of implantable sensing elements. At least one of the implantable sensing elements may respond to lactate. In addition, a medical professional may administer to the patient for myocardial ischemia, myocardial infarction angina, sepsis based on the output read. A medical professional may also administer to the patient having an implantable cardiovascular defibrillator or who is receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. The method may be used in a surgical or intensive care environment.
US08086317B2
In one embodiment, a method electrically stimulates an area in a spinal disc. The method comprises: implanting at least one steerable lead at a placement site for stimulating a spinal disc such that the lead is disposed exterior and immediately adjacent to and circumferentially along an annulus of the spinal disc, the at least one lead including a plurality of electrodes distributed along a majority of a circumference of the annulus; connecting the lead to a signal generator; and generating electrical stimulation pulses using the generator to stimulate targeted portions of the spinal disc, wherein the stimulation of the targeted portion of the spinal disc sufficiently stimulates nerve tissue within the spinal disc to prevent communication of pain signals originating in the spinal disc without damaging tissue of the spinal disc.
US08086316B2
An apparatus is disclosed for controlled neuromodulation. The apparatus includes a plurality of neural sensors, wherein each of the neural sensors is electrically connected to a separate signal conditioner. Each of the signal conditioners produces a neural sensor signal, which is analyzed by a separate threshold detector to produces a neural event signal when the neural sensor signal exceeds a threshold level associated with the threshold detector. Each of the threshold detectors is connected to a wireless transceiver and the wireless transceivers transmit the neural event signals to a processor. The processor analyzes the neural event signals and determines the presence or absence of a clinical brain state. The apparatus can be used to detect and control epileptic seizures.
US08086305B2
An implantable microvolt-level signal amplifying circuit may be used for resolving electrical signals generated by nerves in the presence of larger amplitude signals generated by muscles, the heart, or external noise sources. The circuit has a low-noise, high Common Mode Rejection Ratio (CMRR) preamplifier, followed by a cascade of stages, which provide filtering and further amplification of the neural signal. The band-pass amplifying circuit can also present high Power Supply Rejection Ratio (PSRR). The output is offset-compensated by a DC restoration stage. Nerve protection circuitry minimizes or blocks DC current flow through the input terminals in the event of semiconductor failure in the preamplifier. The circuit may be incorporated onto a common monolithic circuit with follow-up circuitry for controlling Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) devices.
US08086301B2
A method of cufflessly and non-invasively measuring blood pressure in a wrist region of a patient in association with a communication device that relays the information being measured includes: detecting a magnitude difference between a plurality of pulse wave signals detected from a wrist of a user; detecting feature points from an electrocardiogram (ECG) and pulse wave signals detected from the user; extracting variables needed to calculate the highest blood pressure and the lowest blood pressure using the detected feature points; and calculating the highest blood pressure and the lowest blood pressure of the user by deducing a scatter diagram using the extracted variables.
US08086300B2
A system and method are provided for generating output signals indicative of contact quality of a plurality of electrodes coupled to a patient. A signal generator coupled to a reference electrode injects an alternating signal into the patient. A plurality of differential amplifiers, each coupled to a respective one of the plurality of electrodes to detect an input signal from the patient, are operable to output a respective output signal in response to a respective input signal. The output signal generated by the respective differential amplifier is indicative of contact quality for the respective electrode.
US08086288B2
A battery-powered miniature wireless headset is worn as a single earring or as a pair of earrings. The headset communicates with a phone or other host over a bidirectional wireless communication link allowing hands-free operation. The wireless earring headset is comprised of an electronics module (18), a speaker assembly (17), a microphone assembly (16), an antenna (68), a battery (62), user interface devices such as a switch (28) and LED (30), and an attachment means employing either a clamp or a pierced earring post (24) with clutch (26). The electronics module, which may be a single chip, comprises a wireless transceiver, a processor with associated memory, an audio codec, power supply electronics, and other components. In use the device is attached to the pinna of the wearer's ear (99) using either a clamp or a post inserted through a pinna piercing and secured by a clutch or nut. The clamp or post may be permanently attached to the device or removably attached using a magnetic or mechanical attachment means. The user positions the speaker inside of, or at the entrance to, the ear canal. The microphone is mounted in such a way that it points toward the user's mouth and may be positioned on a boom (22) to move it closer to the mouth.
US08086283B2
A wireless child phone that includes means for making calls to only a preset set of individuals and/or means for receiving calls from only a preset set of individuals.
US08086278B2
The invention discloses a holding apparatus, which includes a fixed body, a carrying stand and a signal cable. The fixed body includes a ball joint, extending portion and a cable tunnel. The cable tunnel, disposed within the fixed body, is connected to a first opening of the ball joint. The carrying stand includes a casing, a pivot component and a transmitting interface. The ball joint is pivotally connected to the pivot component through a second opening of the casing. The signal cable, disposed through the cable tunnel of the ball joint, is electrically connected to the transmitting interface within the carrying stand. When the carrying stand rotates relative to the fixed body, a limiting portion of the pivot component is used for stopping the extending portion, so as to limit a rotating angle of the carrying stand.
US08086276B1
The wireless communication device, which implements voice communication, which further implements a first function and a second function, wherein when the first function is implemented, the video image generator generates a plurality of two-dimensional text images and the plurality of two-dimensional text images are displayed on the display, and when the second function is implemented, the video image generator generates a plurality of three-dimensional graphic images and the plurality of three-dimensional graphic images are displayed on the display, and the voice communication is initiated by the voice data input via the microphone.
US08086271B2
A mobile communication network includes an antenna site shared by two or more telecommunications service providers. The antenna site includes a shared resource, such as an antenna, telecommunications equipment, or bandwidth, used by multiple service providers and connects to multiple signal processing centers, each of which belongs to one of the service providers. The signal processing centers may provide modulating signals to the antenna site to use in modulating a carrier. The antenna site may also direct received signals from mobile terminals to the signal processing center for the appropriate service provider. A billing module at the antenna site maintains an accounting of resources used by each service provider.
US08086270B2
A classifying-synthesizing transmission method of multi-user feedback information at a base station. At the base station, a classifier (554) classifies users into a plurality of kinds on the basis of different efficiencies at the time when the base station transmits information to the users. On the basis of the characteristics of synthetic data, a compressor (555) compresses the information synthesized, to reduce the quantity of information to be transmitted. A synthesizer (556) again synthesizes the compressed data of different user kinds. An encoder (557) adds redundant information to the feedback information to be transmitted. A transmitter (524) transmits the encoded feedback information to all users. As a result, the quantity of communication of a downward feedback channel can be drastically reduced to spare the use of radio resources.
US08086269B2
The present invention relates to a new improved modular structure to expand and enhance SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card functionality, in which an expansion and enhancement module is fitted to a predetermined mobile communication device, and the predetermined mobile communication device comprises a subscriber identity module. The subscriber identity module is configured with an electrical connection module, and the electrical connection module is electrically connected with a controller, which can be an NFC (Near Field Communication) module. The controller is electrically connected with a subscriber identity chip and a Dual-interface card (Combi card), and the Dual-interface card is electrically connected with an antenna. Hence, according to the structure described above, the present invention is able to achieve contactless type transactions without the need to replace the SIM card or system operator.
US08086257B2
In a method of detecting a signal, a control channel associated with a physical channel may be decoded to produce at least one decoding metric. A control channel signal on the control channel may then be detected based on the decoding metric.
US08086245B2
A process of determining locations of and services offered by wireless hotspots is disclosed. Locations of and services offered by wireless hotspots, for wireless portable devices to wirelessly connect to a larger network, are requested from a selected one of a wireless telephone service provider and a nearby hotspot and a response is awaited from the selected one. Information regarding locations of and services offered by wireless hotspots is received from the selected one and data is provided to a user related to the received information.
US08086241B2
A handoff method. A mobile station calculates and records the strength of a pilot signal from a cell as reference strength if a handoff occurs in a first system. The mobile station further adjusts the reference strength according to the effect caused by forward and reverse links between a base station and the mobile station, and performs a handoff between the first and a second system if the strength of the pilot signal reaches the reference strength.
US08086239B2
A wireless network including a plurality of base stations operating at a public spectrum frequency, each base station capable of generating an adjustable size coverage area. Each base station utilizes dedicating channels for each user to permit avoidance of one or more sources of interference. A server supplies data to the base stations, and managing billing and access to the wireless network. A plurality of base stations employs transmissions in the unlicensed spectrum (i.e. 3.6 and 5.7 GHz in the US) for permitting flexibility in transmission power and additional subchannel/subcarrier interleaving capability for mitigating interference.
US08086230B2
A mobile communication method includes the steps of: transmitting, from a radio base station (eNB) to a mobile station (UE), a measurement rule designation command which designates addition or deletion of a measurement rule; transmitting, from the radio base station (eNB) to the mobile station (UE), a measurement object designation command, which designates addition or deletion of a measurement object, independently from the measurement rule designation command; and transmitting, from the radio base station (eNB) to the mobile station (UE), a mapping designation command which designates associating of the measurement object with the measurement rule.
US08086229B2
A user equipment (UE) in a mobile communications system is operated in a manner that alleviates or avoids an overload condition in the UE. This involves operating a receiver of the UE to receive one or more data blocks via a channel. In response to a user equipment overload condition being detected, a channel quality indicator (CQI) value is reported to a serving base station, wherein the reported CQI value represents a channel quality that is lower than an actual quality of the channel. The UE is then operated in a manner that is consistent with the reported CQI value. UE overload conditions include overheating, and an inability to process received data blocks at the rate at which they are being received.
US08086226B2
A hosted mobile management service is provided for enabling a user to access a centralized account through a web browser on a terminal in order to manage the user's media information, such as digital music and photos. Any modifications made by user through the web browser are transparently sent to the user's mobile device where a thin client application receives such modification information and interacts with the mobile device's file system to reconcile such modifications.
US08086225B2
Methods and apparatus for controlling events, timing and operational characteristics of wireless communications devices. An exemplary wireless communications apparatus comprises a baseband processor, radio frequency (RF) generating circuitry, a programmable event controller, and a memory device. The RF generating circuitry and programmable event controller are integrated in the same integrated circuit. The memory device, which may also be embedded in the same integrated circuit as the event controller and RF generating circuitry, is configured to store a sequence of instructions the event controller executes in response to a baseband command. The memory device is also configured to store control parameter data, which the event controller retrieves and uses to enable, disable, select and deselect various devices on the integrated circuit and to set, adjust or modify the operational characteristics of the RF generating circuitry (e.g., band selection and tuning) and other circuitry (e.g., power control circuitry) of the communications apparatus.
US08086223B2
The present invention discloses a solution for delivering customized greeting messages to callers. In the solution, a call can be received from a remote device. A greeting message that is to be conveyed to the remote device due to a failure of a receiving party to answer the call can be determined. A set of devices proximate to a call receiving device can be identified. One of many different greeting messages can be determined based upon the identified set of proximate devices. The determined greeting message can be conveyed to the remote device.
US08086220B2
In a communication of audio signals between first and second portable-telephone devices through a first portable-telephone base station, a second portable-telephone base station and a portable-telephone line network has been connected, IP addresses are exchanged. The IP addresses are required for communicating image data by first and second terminal adapters associated with the first and second portable-telephone devices respectively through an OCN. Image data is then transmitted to the IP addresses received in the communication through the OCN.
US08086219B2
Multiple access internet portal billing systems are provided. A representative system, among others, includes a communication facility, a wireless internet server, and a transaction billing system. The communication facility includes a billing platform, and is operable to connect to a plurality of wireless device platforms through a mobile network, and to connect to the wireless internet server. The wireless internet server provides internet access to the wireless devices and communicate at least one billing information record including a usage time to a transaction billing system. The transaction billing system receives the billing information record from the wireless internet server, formats the billing information record, and communicates the formatted record to the communication facility billing platform. Methods and other systems for multiple access internet portals are also provided.
US08086218B2
A system and method of distributing incentives for wireless hotspots is provided. The method includes providing an access point to a wireless hotspot for wireless devices to wirelessly connect to a larger network in a publicly accessible location, evaluating use statistics of the access point of the wireless hotspot by portable devices, and providing an inducement to a user of the wireless hotspot based on the evaluated use statistics. The system includes a first provider for providing an access point to a wireless hotspot for wireless devices to wirelessly connect to a larger network in a publicly accessible location, an evaluator for evaluating use statistics of the access point of the wireless hotspot by portables devices, and a second provider for providing an inducement to a user of the wireless hotspot based on the evaluated use statistics.
US08086217B1
The invention provides a system and method for providing a temporary wireless service connection to one or more users within a wireless local area network. In-building services and Internet related services are provided to the users over their respective temporary wireless service connections. Each user is charged for their specific usage amounts which may be based on the number of packets transferred, the number of bytes transferred, the number of distinct transactions and/or the time period each user's temporary wireless service connection was active.
US08086215B2
A method of expanding the activation and tracking capability of a limited number of stolen vehicle recovery dedicated radio-frequency networks activated from a control center upon notification of the theft of the vehicle includes supplementarily using more numerous widely geographically provided cellular-telephone frequency band networks to respond to the control center to indicate rough location of the stolen vehicle, while the recovery networks provide fine tracking of the vehicle for recovery.
US08086213B1
Circuits, architectures, systems, methods, algorithms, and software and/or firmware for arbitrating media access requests from multiple wireless communication protocol components. Exemplary circuits include a request processing circuit configured to set a positive media access grant output for a first one of the wireless component before entering a power saving mode of operation, determine a waking media access state of the first wireless component while exiting the power saving mode of operation, and process media access requests from the wireless components the waking media access state of the first wireless component. Embodiments of present invention advantageously provide for more reliable arbitration of media access requests from multiple wireless communication protocol components during and after power saving modes of operation.
US08086206B1
A quadratic amplitude matching system and associated method with an associated tuning control system is provided for continuously and automatically tuning a quadratic amplitude matching filter (QAMF) to a band center of an interfering signal to provide improved rejection of an interfering signal coupled from a transmission antenna into a local receive antenna in the presence of local multi-path, thereby providing improved interference cancellation system performance. The matching control system is provided as an element of an interference cancellation system.
US08086195B2
A communication unit for a radio communication system comprises a receiver for receiving data over an air interface. The receiver can operate in a first diversity mode and a second diversity mode. The first diversity mode may specifically correspond to no receive diversity being employed and the second diversity mode may correspond to signals from two or more fully or partially de-correlated antennas being combined. The communication unit comprises a data unit which determines a first data characteristic for a section of data to be received over the air interface. A switching unit is arranged to switch between the first diversity mode and the second diversity mode in response to the first data characteristic. The invention may allow improved performance and e.g. reduced power consumption by allowing an improved adaptation of diversity operation. In particular, an improved trade-off between power consumption and performance may be achieved in many embodiments.
US08086184B2
A method and system for wirelessly providing venue-based data to one or more hand held devices. Venue-based data can be acquired from one or more venues. The venue-based data can be authenticated and wirelessly transmitted to one or more hand held devices through one or more wireless telecommunications networks, in response to authenticating the venue-based data and/or the hand held device(s) and/or a user of the hand held device(s), in order to permit the venue-based data to be accessible via one or more hand held devices at locations remote from the venue(s).
US08086181B2
A method and system for interference reduction for telecommunication systems are disclosed. The system comprises a base station control device (BCD) for configuring one or more parameters for operating one or more base stations (BSs), a first BS covering a first cell having one or more mobile terminals therein, a second BS covering a second cell neighboring to the first cell and sharing a predetermined frequency band with the first cell, wherein one or more radio frames constructed for communications between the first BS and any mobile terminal of the first cell and one or more radio frames constructed for communications between the second BS and any mobile terminal of the second cell are distinguishable by defining different channel configuration sets having one or more operation parameters, wherein the parameters includes a training sequence, a spreading code, and a channel observation window position.
US08086177B2
A communications system for land vehicles usable in the field of radio communications with any electronic data processing equipment connected to a mobile telecommunications network. The communications system enables the connection of a communication terminal (TP_i) to a mobile communications network (2) from a vehicle (1) of the kind including a local network (PAN) linked to the vehicle, and a server for connecting said local network to the communications network (GPRS, UMTS). The local network (3) provides a resource (Cext) for connecting a requesting communications terminal (TP_k) and the mobile communications network (2), and resources (Cint) for setting up a connection between two mobile terminals (TP_i, TP_j) connected to the local network (PAN) linked to the vehicle.
US08086168B2
Devices, methods and computer-readable code for simultaneously monitoring the content of at least two streaming audio content channels are disclosed. In some embodiments, the monitored content is analyzed, and one or more features of the monitored content channels are computed, including but not limited to music classification features, content genre features, and spoken content features. These computed features may be used, for example, to compute a rating or score for each monitored audio channel, for example, a rating computed relative to user listening preferences, expressed, for example, in preference rules. In some embodiments, the presently disclosed device includes a channel selector for automatically tuning, for example, to a channel assigned a higher rating at a given time. Alternatively or additionally, content rating scores may be displayed to a user who manually selects and tunes to an audio content channel.
US08086165B2
A bookbinding system includes an image forming apparatus and a bookbinding apparatus connected to the image forming apparatus. The bookbinding system includes an image forming unit to form an image on a recording sheet; a loading unit to load, as a bookblock stack, plural recording sheets on which images are formed; a bonding unit to form a booklet by bonding a cover with the bookblock stack; a setting unit to set a bookblock size, a cover size, and a finishing size; a cutting unit to cut the booklet bonded together with the cover into the finishing size; a stack thickness detection unit to detect a thickness of the bookblock stack; and a bookbinding permission/inhibition determination unit to determine permission/inhibition of a bookbinding operation based on a stack thickness detection result as well as the bookblock size, the cover size, and the finishing size set by the setting unit.
US08086163B2
One embodiment of a sheet transport apparatus is provided with a sheet transport path for transporting a sheet in a predetermined transport direction, a reflective type optical sensor in which light irradiated from a light-emitting portion to a transported sheet is reflected and reflected light from the sheet is received by a light-receiving portion to detect a presence/absence of the sheet, an irradiated light adjustment portion that adjusts a light amount of the light-emitting portion, a non-image region locating portion that detects an image state on a sheet to locate a non-image region of the sheet, and a control portion that adjusts the light amount of the light-emitting portion by controlling the irradiated light adjustment portion based on a measured value on the non-image region located by the non-image region locating portion.
US08086162B2
A cleaning blade is disposed in an abutting relation with an image bearing body and configured to remove residual developer material from the image bearing body. The cleaning blade has a tan δ peak temperature equal to or higher than 8.6° C. and lower than 45° C., and any one of a Young's modulus equal to or higher than 13 Mpa and lower than 140 Mpa, a tensile strength equal to or higher than 37.3 Mpa and lower than 76 Mpa, a hardness equal to or higher than 83° and lower than 97°, and a tearing strength equal to or higher than 59 kgf/cm and lower than 118 kgf/cm.
US08086160B2
A fixing roller has a base layer, a rubber layer formed on the base layer and a surface layer formed of a fluororesin tube, and a heater disposed inside the roller. The surface layer of the roller is formed by covering the fluororesin tube on the rubber layer in a condition where the fluororesin tube is pulled in a radial direction of the fluororesin tube, the fluororesin tube has an internal diameter less than an outer diameter of the roller and a thickness of 20 microns or smaller and a crystallization degree of the fluororesin tube being 50% or smaller. The roller is made by expanding the fluororesin tube is in a radial direction and drawing the fluororesin tube in a generatrix direction thereof, wherein a drawing ratio of the fluororesin tube in the drawing the fluororesin tube in the generatrix direction is 5% or smaller.
US08086158B2
An enhanced sheet stripping method and apparatus for stripping toner image carrying copy sheets from a surface of a moving heated fusing member forming a fusing nip. The apparatus includes (a) a moving assembly for moving a cut sheet towards the fusing nip; (b) a sheet curling device positioned upstream of the fusing nip relative to movement of the cut sheet for inducing a desired pre-curl in the cut sheet before the cut sheet enters the fusing nip; and (c) a sheet stripping device positioned downstream of the fusing nip for stripping the cut sheet from contact with the surface of the moving heated fusing member as the cut sheet exits the fusing nip. The method includes inducing a desired curl in the cut sheet before the cut sheet enters the fusing nip and enhanced stripping the cut sheet from contact with the surface of the fuser roll as the cut sheet exits the fusing nip.
US08086156B2
An endless belt member is suspended in a tensioned manner by a plurality of roller members including a drive roller and a drive motor drives the drive roller member so as to move the belt member in a predetermined direction of travel. A detecting unit detects an amount of displacement of the belt member in a widthwise direction of the belt member, and a correction unit that corrects displacement of the belt member in the widthwise direction. The correction unit corrects the displacement of the belt member in a widthwise direction based on data sampled by the detecting unit every time a drive signal is input to the drive motor a prescribed number of times.
US08086153B2
A developing apparatus usable with an image forming apparatus includes a developer carrier includes a plurality of magnetic poles and a case to rotatably support the developer carrier, the case storing developer is supplied to the developer carrier, and a magnetic pole changing apparatus disposed at an end of the developer carrier to change a position of the plurality of magnetic poles with respect to the case.
US08086150B2
A developing device includes a toner particle-bearing roller that bears toner particles on its surface and develops a latent image borne by an image-bearing member with those toner particles, the toner particle-bearing roller has a projection portion disposed on its surface, the projection portion having a top surface having a flat portion, and a width of the top surface being equal to or more than a volume average particle diameter of the toner particles.
US08086149B2
A toner supply apparatus 6 is configured to be able to supply a charged toner T to a latent image forming surface LS of a photoconductor drum 3. The toner supply apparatus 6 houses a toner electric field transport body 62. The toner electric field transport body 62 has first portions and second portions which differ in toner T transport force. The first portions and the second portions differ in structural feature, such as relative dielectric constant or thickness. By means of such a structural difference, the state of transport of the toner T on the toner transport surface TTS is appropriately set.
US08086145B2
A developing device includes: a housing that stores a developing agent including toner and a carrier and that is replenished with the toner and the carrier; an agitation conveyance member that rotates the developing agent to thus agitate and convey the developing agent; a developing agent supply member that supplies to a developing area the conveyed developing agent; a first outlet that discharges a superfluous developing agent, which is in excess of first set storage capacity, of the stored developing agent and that is connected to a recovery device for transferring and collecting the superfluous developing agent; a second outlet that discharges an excessive developing agent, which is in excess of second set storage capacity that is larger in amount than the first set storage capacity, of the stored developing agent; a container that stores the excessive developing agent; and a detection unit that detects the stored excessive developing agent.
US08086142B2
Disclosed are bias charge rollers having an overcoat layer. The overcoat layer comprises a phenolic resin and a conductive agent. The resulting bias charge rollers have reduced streaking and increased service lifetimes.
US08086131B2
An image forming apparatus has: a rotary member which conveys a sheet; a blowing device which blows a cooling air to cool the rotary member; and a blow-off member which blows the cooling air from the blowing device toward the rotary member. The cooling air is blown toward the portion of the rotary member serving as a downstream side of the rotary member and a blow-off direction of the cooling air is opposite to a rotating direction of the rotary member.
US08086129B2
An image forming apparatus has a movable member including a first shaft, a second shaft, a main assembly electrical contact, and a second contact portion for being contacted by the first contact portion when a cartridge is mounted to the apparatus. There is also a first guide portion, for guiding the first shaft such that the movable member is rendered movable in the inserting direction by the second contact portion being pushed by the first contact portion when the cartridge is mounted to the main assembly of the apparatus, and a second guide portion for guiding the second shaft by the second contact portion being pushed by the first contact portion when the cartridge is mounted to the main assembly of the apparatus, such that the movable member is rotated about the first shaft in a direction of electrically connecting the main assembly electrical contact to the cartridge electrical contact.
US08086127B2
An adaptive approach is described that maximizes xerographic transfer efficiency, i.e. minimizes post toner image transfer residual mass, in response to changes in operational conditions, variations in material, and/or changes in other factors that may otherwise adversely affect xerographic transfer efficiency. The described approach may be used during a set up phase, or startup phase, of a xerographic system to determine an initial transfer field that provides a desired level of toner image transfer efficiency. The described approach may also be used in real time to dynamically adjust a transfer field to maintain a desired level of transfer efficiency. The described approach allows optimal toner image transfer efficiency to be achieved despite changes in the operational environments, and/or changes in the materials, e.g., paper, toner, etc., being processed.
US08086121B2
A fixing device comprise an endless fixing belt; a first heater that heats a first predetermined section of the fixing belt, a second heater that heats a second predetermined section of the fixing belt, a switch that determines whether or not the second predetermined section of the fixing belt is heated by the second heater, a controller controls a switching operation of the switch according to a size of a medium on which an image is fixed by the fixing belt, and a temperature controller that reduces a heating temperature of the first heater when the second predetermined section of the fixing belt is heated by the second heater.
US08086111B2
A semi-open feedback loop optical output power control apparatus and method are provided for use in an optical TX. The apparatus and method enable input data signals having content frequencies that are below the cutoff frequency of the optical output power monitoring and control feedback loop to be utilized. This is accomplished at least in part by opening and closing (i.e., is disabling and enabling) the feedback loop based on whether or not one or more transitions in the input data signal to the optical TX from a logic 0 to a logic 1, or vice versa, are detected within a predetermined timing interval. In addition, the apparatus and method provide these and other advantages without causing the optical TX to have an increased link startup settling time period. The feedback loop has a low pass filter (LPF) that has a selectable bandwidth. The bandwidth of the LPF is set to a high bandwidth at startup to enable shorter link startup settling time periods to be achieved by the TX and is set to a low bandwidth at a later time to enable the feedback loop to cause more accurate adjustments to the optical output power of the laser to achieve a better bit error rate (BER).
US08086099B2
Systems and methods to achieve an auto-focus camera module having a precise bearing with low friction have been disclosed. Ball bearings are guiding a lens barrel. The balls of the ball bearings are running in guide slots and are held together by ball cages. Creeping of the balls is prevented by a positioning pin being deployed between a fixed part of a carrier of the camera module and a movable part of the lens barrel.
US08086097B2
An image stabilizer includes: an optical system movable in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis (“orthogonal plane”) and correcting image blur; a movable member holding the optical system and movable relative to a fixed member in an orthogonal plane; a guide guiding the movable member while preventing from rotating in an orthogonal plane; three first balls rollably interposed between the fixed and guide members; two second balls rollably interposed between the guide and movable members; one third ball rollably interposed between the fixed and movable members; a biasing unit biasing the movable member toward the fixed member; and a drive unit driving the movable member relative to the fixed member in two directions perpendicular to the optical axis, wherein in an orthogonal plane, two of the first balls are rollable only in first direction; the second balls are rollable only in second direction different from the first direction.
US08086096B2
A shake correction device includes: a first driving means for driving an imaging component, which is related with either an imaging optical system or an imaging device, in a first direction; a second driving means for driving the imaging component in a second direction which is different from the first direction; and a control means for correcting shake of the imaging apparatus by driving the imaging component on the basis of a detection result of the shake of the imaging apparatus, which is obtained by a shake detection means, using the first and second driving means, wherein the control means sequentially executes first return processing in the first direction using the first driving means and second return processing in the second direction using the second driving means when returning the imaging component to a reference position at a predetermined timing.
US08086091B2
A data recording system includes a data acquiring apparatus that acquires data externally and a data recording apparatus that is communicably connected to the data acquiring apparatus via a network, and records data transmitted from the data acquiring apparatus. The data acquiring apparatus includes a data acquiring unit, a temporary storage unit, a transmitting-receiving unit, a communication-band management unit, and a control unit. The data recording apparatus includes a transmitting-receiving unit, a recording unit, and a control unit.
US08086090B2
A multimedia optical disc for recording main video data which is composed of sets of frame data that is processed beforehand to allow compatibility with displays of a plurality of aspect ratios. The disc has a stream area storing streams made up of the main video data and a plurality of sets of sub-picture data, with each set of sub-picture data including a set of tel-op data and a set of coordinate information showing a display position of the set of tel-op data. The disc also includes a control area storing a plurality of pairings of a set of display mode information and a set of sub-picture indicating information. Each set of display mode information shows a species of display method according to which the frame data is to be processed for a case when the frame data decoded from the main video data is displayed at one of the plurality of aspect ratios. Each set of sub-picture indicating information shows a set of sub-picture data, out of the plurality of sets of sub-picture data in a same stream as the main video data, which includes a set of coordinate information which coincides with the species of display method shown by the display mode information.
US08086086B2
The present invention is intended to provide an apparatus and a method for realizing the presentation of a content list and the reproduction of content in accordance with proper user preference on the basis of date and time at which content is viewed. Content preference values that change with time are computed. On the basis of the computed content preference values, a content list is generated for presentation to the user. For example, preference values are computed on the basis of daily time zone, holiday, weekday, and day-of-the-week and a content list in accordance with the computed preference values is generated for presentation to the user. The novel configuration allows the presentation of an optimum content list on the basis of date and time at which content is viewed, thereby realizing the selection and viewing of content that properly reflects user preference.
US08086082B2
Mounting an electro-optical component (1) on a carrier substrate (2) in an accurate position with respect to an optical element (6), the carrier substrate and the electro-optical component each being provided with at least one solder pad (3, 4). The solder pads are arranged such that, when said electro-optical component is soldered onto the pads, a force is generated that acts on the electro-optical component in a direction (x) towards the optical element, and the structure is designed to allow said electro-optical component to move laterally during soldering, such that it is brought into abutment with said optical element, thereby ensuring an accurate relative positioning between the electro-optical component and the optical element.
US08086069B2
A data-generating apparatus comprising a bitmap data-generating unit to generate binary bitmap data indicating an image-formed area and an image-excluding area based on the figure information in response to the figure-describing data being inputted, a judging unit to judge whether modifying information is included in the figure-describing data, a modifying unit to modify the bitmap data based on the modifying information, and an image-forming data-generating unit to generate the image-forming data based on the bitmap data modified by the modifying unit and the pattern information in response to the judging unit determining that the modifying information is comprised in the figure-describing data and generates the image forming data based on the bitmap data generated by the bitmap data-generating unit and the pattern information in response to the judging unit determining that no modifying information is comprised in the figure-describing data, is provided.
US08086064B2
A system for generating an image enhanced output product and method for operating the same are provided. An image enhanceable product is identified having a tangible surface and a printing map is defined that defines a plurality of window areas in which images are to be printed on the tangible surface. A desired visual impact characteristic is determined based upon the appearance of the image enhanceable product and the printing map and a selection of a plurality of digital images are received. An image processing method is selected method based upon the determined visual impact characteristic and at least one of the digital images is automatically processed in accordance with the selected image processing method. At least some of the digital images, including the automatically processed image, are provided on the tangible surface according to the printing map.
US08086062B2
Selection of a filter for filtering an image to achieve fast noise reduction while retaining picture details and edge sharpness begins by first determining the detail throughout the image. Detection of the image edges then occurs. Using the image detail and edge information, the filter properties are selected, including the number of filter taps and the filter strength.
US08086051B2
By determining a center physical grid dot at intersects of virtual grid lines of a fetched scene on an encoded dotmap, and by defining a blank dot closest to the determined center physical grid dot on the fetched scene, the orientation of encoded blocks on the encoded dotmap may be determined. And therefore, a plurality of data dots on the fetched scene may also be decoded easily.
US08086040B2
A text-like data representation technique and a text-like data representation apparatus are disclosed that may: acquire image data from a scanned image; segment text regions from the image data; further extract each connected component in the text regions; form clusters based on the connected components; group each connected component in the text regions into one of the clusters with similar or identical characters; generate a high-resolution representative for each cluster; generate a vector representation for each high-resolution representative; and code the text as text data by associating each connected component with its vectorized high-resolution representative, and location in the document.
US08086031B2
Disclosed herein are systems methods and devices related to region detection of an image. Detected regions include pixels of a particular one or more colors without requiring faces within the image to be previously detected. Region detection may include receiving information that a flash was used to capture the image or that return light was detected in the image.
US08086030B2
Method for presenting an image, exhibiting a dynamic range, the method including the procedures of determining the dynamic range of the image, determining a color space configuration including more than one cycle of a color space, applying the color space configuration to the dynamic range, and displaying the image to a user, according to the color space configuration.
US08086026B2
A method or a system embodiment determines positional information about a moveable object to which is affixed a pattern of stripes having reference lines. A method determines image lines of stripe images of each stripe within at least two video frames, uses the image lines to prescribe planes having lines of intersection, and determines a transformation mapping reference lines to lines of intersection. Position information about the object may be derived from the transformation. A system embodiment comprises a pattern of stripes in a known fixed relationship to an object, reference lines characterizing the stripes, two or more cameras at known locations, a digital computer adapted to receive video frames from the pixel arrays of the cameras, and a program stored in the computer's memory. The program performs some or all of the method. When there are two or more moveable objects, an embodiment may further determine the position information about a first object to be transformed to a local coordinate system fixed with respect to a second object.
US08086022B2
An inspection system uses a scanning electron microscope that detects a high-precision electron beam image, and at the same time removes restrictions for a low sampling rate. A sampled signal is obtained by sampling an analog brightness signal generated by a secondary electron detector at a predetermined sampling rate, and contiguous digital values contained in the sampled signal are added on an N by N digital value basis to generate a digital brightness signal whose frequency is equal to 1/N of the sampling frequency. Each, digital value contained in the digital brightness signal is divided by N to generate a digital signal made of digital values having a number of bits equal to that of the sampled signal and to generate an image signal in which each digital value of the digital signal forms one pixel data.
US08086017B2
A method of creating a classifier for media validation is described. Information from all of a set of training images from genuine media items is used to form a segmentation map which is then used to segment each of the training set images. Features are extracted from the segments and used to form a classifier which is preferably a one-class statistical classifier. Classifiers can be quickly and simply formed, for example when the media is a banknote for different currencies and denominations in this way and without the need for examples of counterfeit banknotes. A media validator using such a classifier is described as well as a method of validating a banknote using such a classifier. In a preferred embodiment a plurality of segmentation maps are formed, having different numbers of segments. If higher quality counterfeit media items come into the population of media items, the media validator is able to react immediately by switching to using a segmentation map having a higher number of segments without the need for re-training.
US08086008B2
The invention relates to a device for superimposing known patterns, characteristic of a region, on (real) images of said region. The device comprises, a memory in which patterns are stored, which are representative of a selected region, of known position and orientation with relation to a common reference and processing means, for determining a pattern representative of the selected portion in the memory, on receipt of the designation of at least one portion of an observed image of the selected region, taken at a selected angle and at least one representative attribute of said region, taking account of the attribute selected, then superimposing the determined pattern on the selected portion of the image taking account of the selected angle.
US08086006B2
A method and system for evaluating image segmentation is disclosed. In order to quantitatively evaluate an image segmentation technique, synthetic image data is generated and the synthetic image data is segmented to extract an object using the segmentation technique. This segmentation results in a foreground containing the extracted object and a background. The visibility of the extracted object is quantitatively measured based on the intensity distributions of the segmented foreground and background. The visibility is quantitatively measured by calculating the Jeffries-Matusita distance between the foreground and background intensity distributions. This method can be used to evaluate segmentation of vessels in fluoroscopic image sequences by coronary digital subtraction angiography (DSA).
US08085988B2
An apparatus for recognizing and determining the position of at least one teat of a milking animal includes a scanning head comprising a light source and a camera. The light source emits light into a region which is expected to contain a teat or teats and the camera captures images formed by the light. In a first scanning mode, the scanning head is moved from a low initial position upwards in a circular coil until the position of at least a first teat has been established. Thereafter, in a second scanning mode, the scanning head is moved upwards in a to circular coil until the positions of all teats have been established, or a predetermined time limit has elapsed during the scanning procedure. The coil traversed during the first scanning mode is wider than the coil traversed during the second scanning mode.
US08085982B1
Embodiments of the present invention relate to object tracking in video. In an embodiment, a computer-implemented method tracks an object in a frame of a video. An adaptive term value is determined based on an adaptive model and at least a portion of the frame. A pose constraint value is determined based on a pose model and at least a portion the frame. An alignment confidence score is determined based on an alignment model and at least a portion the frame. Based on the adaptive term value, the pose constraint value, and the alignment confidence score, an energy value is determined. Based on the energy value, a resultant tracking state is determined. The resultant tracking state defines a likely position of the object in the frame given the object's likely position in a set of previous frames in the video.
US08085979B2
The picture information of video can be used in various ways to identify the video or its topical subject matter. This enables numerous novel arrangements in which particular video of interest to a particular consumer can be discerned. Preference data for the consumer, by which video of interest is identified, can be shared with third parties, e.g., in exchange for a fee. A variety of other embodiments and features are also detailed.
US08085974B2
A method for estimating at least one elastic-wave-related property of a porous material from a sample thereof includes making a three dimensional tomographic image of the sample of the material. The image is segmented into pixels each representing pore space or rock grain. Bulk modulus and shear modulus of the porous material are determined from the segmented image at a frequency corresponding to mobile fluid. Bulk modulus and shear modulus of the porous material are determined from the segmented image at a frequency corresponding to immobile fluid. The at least one elastic-wave-related property is determined from the mobile fluid and immobile fluid moduli. The method includes at least one of storing and displaying the at least one elastic-wave-related property so determined.
US08085964B2
Actuator apparatus for generating a physical effect, at least one attribute of which corresponds to at least one characteristic of a digital input signal sampled periodically in accordance with a clock, the apparatus comprising at least one array of moving elements each constrained to travel alternately back and forth along a respective axis in response to an alternating electromagnetic force applied to the array of moving elements, at least one latch operative to selectively latch at least one subset of said moving elements in at least on latching position there by to prevent the individual moving elements from responding to the electromagnetic force, an electromagnetic field control system operative to receive the clock and, accordingly, to control application of the electromagnetic force to the array of moving elements and a latch controller operative to receive the digital input signal and to control the latch accordingly.
US08085962B2
An audio system includes an enclosure having a transducer. The transducer creates a vibration in the enclosure in response to being driven by an audio signal having a frequency range. A cradle assembly mechanically couples a portable device to the enclosure through an isolator. A portion of the vibration is coupled into the cradle assembly. The isolator reduces an amplitude of the coupled vibration so that an operation of the portable device within a portion of the frequency range is uninterrupted when the portable device is coupled to the cradle assembly.
US08085953B2
An audio-signal time-axis expansion/compression method for subjecting an audio signal to time-axis expansion/compression at a time domain includes the steps of: cross-fade-signal generating wherein a first period and a second period which are similar within the audio signal are employed to generate the cross-fade signal of the first period signal and the second period signal; correction-signal generating wherein the difference signal between the first period signal and the second period signal is subjected to time-axis reversal, and is multiplied with a window function to generate a correction signal; and connection-waveform generating wherein the cross-fade signal and the correction signal are added to generate a connection waveform for subjecting the audio signal to time-axis expansion/compression at the time domain.
US08085950B2
A sound signal processing apparatus and a sound signal processing method divide an input signal into a low frequency signal output (11) and a high frequency signal output (10), and delay only the high frequency signal output (10), thereby reducing the temporal shift between the high frequency signal and the low frequency signal. Furthermore, correcting the phase of the low frequency signal output (11) in accordance with a change in phase due to the delay of the high frequency signal output (10) allows to prevent variation in frequency characteristics due to interference at the time of addition of the low frequency signal output (11) and the high frequency signal output (10).
US08085947B2
A system reduces echoes in an audio system by de-correlating audio signals. Adaptive filters provide compensation based on the de-correlated signals. A controller controls the de-correlation based upon the adaptation state of the adaptive filters.
US08085944B2
The invention relates to an active noise cancellation device. The invention proposes a device and a method used to cancel the noise in an exhaust gas channel of a vehicle A noise signal is received form the exhaust gas channel, using a sound sensor, a frequency signal which has same amplitude as of noise signal but opposite phase, is generated, the generated frequency signal is acoustically mixed with the noise signal in the exhaust gas channel, using a sound converter, there by reducing the noise in the exhaust gas channel. The device also takes into account the reflection of the sound caused by an obstacle near the exhaust gas channel. A distance measuring device which is external to the active noise cancellation device provides the information about the distance between the obstacle and the exhaust gas channel. Based on the distance, the frequency signal is suitably modified to reduce the effect of sound reflections caused by the obstacle.
US08085943B2
A noise extraction method in which an environmental input which includes a noise indicia is selectively modified in accordance with an algorithm that includes one or more factors representing time response, amplitude of response, and error correction. The algorithm may also include thresholding, delay or convergence, among other techniques.
US08085941B2
A dynamic range manipulation system, for use for example in an audio playback system such as a two-way communication system, mobile telephone, MP3 player, and the like, obtains a measure of ambient noise at the playback location and adjusts the gain of the drive signal provided to the loudspeaker based on this measure and based on the audio signal to be played back.
US08085939B2
A stereophonic sound reproduction system for compensating a low frequency signal and a method thereof, wherein a mono component signal for compensating low frequency signals which are attenuated when removing a crosstalk of inputted left and right signals inputted is calculated using an average value between the left and right signals, left and right compensation gains which are inversely proportional to an absolute value of a power difference value between the first left and right signals, an amplitude of the calculated mono component signal is controlled according to the left and right compensation gains, and thereafter the mono component signal with the controlled amplitude is added to the left and right signals when removing the crosstalk, whereby the left and right signals from which the crosstalk is removed and to which the mono component signal is added are outputted through left and right speakers to thus prevent distortion of the low frequency signals of original stereophonic sound with maintaining a stereophonic sound effect.
US08085938B2
In a secret information management system for managing a secret information of a user, the secret information is divided into a plurality of divided data by using a secret sharing scheme, such that the secret information can be recovered from a prescribed number of the divided data, and a part of the plurality of divided data is stored into a terminal of the user as user's divided data while a rest of the plurality of divided data are stored into one or more of deposit servers. Then, a plurality of re-divided data different from the plurality of divided data are generated, from a combination of the prescribed number of the divided data among the divided data stored in the deposit servers by using the secret sharing scheme, and a part of the plurality of re-divided data is stored into the terminal as newly generated user's divided data while a rest of the plurality of re-divided data are stored into the deposit servers as newly generated divided data.
US08085935B2
Apparatus and methods are provided for embedding or embedding digital data into an analog host or cover signal. A distributed signal feature of the cover signal in a particular domain (time, frequency or space) is calculated and compared with a set of predefined quantization values corresponding to an information symbol to be encoded. The amount of change required to modify the signal feature to the determined target quantization value is calculated and the cover signal is modified accordingly to so change the feature value over a predefined interval. Information symbols are extracted by the opposite process. In one embodiment, the predefined value is a short term autocorrelation value of the cover signal.
US08085934B1
Apparatus having corresponding methods and computer programs comprise: a key input module to receive a first cryptographic key; and a reverse key expansion module to generate a second cryptographic key based on the first cryptographic key, wherein each of the first cryptographic key and the second cryptographic key comprises a plurality of words, and wherein the reverse key expansion module comprises a first word module to generate the first word of the second cryptographic key based on the first word of the first cryptographic key and the last two words of the first cryptographic key, and a remaining word module to generate the remaining words of the second cryptographic key, the remaining word module comprising at least one word module to generate a word of the second cryptographic key based on the corresponding word, and the immediately previous word, of the first cryptographic key.
US08085932B2
A computer enabled method and apparatus for encrypting and decrypting data using a keyless transformation cryptographic technique. Data is protected using a keyless (unkeyed) complex mathematical transformation, in contrast to a traditional cryptographic algorithm using a secret key. This approach is resistant to both static analysis (hacking) performed on executable encryption/decryption code, as well as dynamic analysis performed during execution (runtime) of ciphering or deciphering. The method uses a family of asymmetric data transformations based on Galois field polynomials.
US08085930B2
A method for removing an echo component in a first signal received at an audio input device, said method comprising the steps of outputting a second signal from an audio output device, receiving at the audio input device the first signal wherein the echo component in the first signal is the result of the second signal traversing an echo path having a frequency response which defines the relationship between the echo component and the second signal; determining an echo path model indicating an estimate of the frequency response of the echo path; removing an estimate of the echo component from the first signal using the echo path model; detecting if the first signal is overloaded; and wherein if it is detected that the first signal is overloaded the step of determining an echo path model comprises determining an overload echo path model such that the estimate of the frequency response indicated by the overload echo path model is only allowed to increase over time regardless of whether the frequency response of the echo path is decreasing over time.
US08085926B2
A call flow staffing estimation tool that includes: generating a staffing impact chart that indicates, in a visually indicated display, an expected difference between call volume and available agents for a plurality of time intervals in a future period of time based on a plurality of inputs, the plurality of inputs including: historical call volume data to a call center, a prospective schedule of agents servicing the call center, and an average handing time of calls to the call center by the agents, wherein historical call volume data which is skewed data is ignored and predetermined representative data is substituted for the skewed data; providing a variable table having a plurality of variables, each variable including a scaling value that modifies at least one of the plurality of inputs used in generating the staffing impact chart; selectively changing, by a user, at least one of the variables in the variable table; and immediately updating the staffing impact chart to reflect modified expected differences for each of the plurality of time intervals based on application of the change to the plurality of inputs.
US08085923B2
A communication assistance system includes a first database having a plurality of listings, each listings has at least one contact name and a corresponding contact number. A means is provided for receiving communications from a user among a plurality of users desiring to access the listings. An operator terminal displays a search screen among a plurality of search screens, each of which maintain at least a partially different arrangement of content and search windows for receiving search terms to search for listings contained in the first database, where the displayed search screen is determined based on criteria contained in a search request from the user. The operator terminal is further configured to receive the communication from the user and retrieve a listing from the first database using the displayed search screen.
US08085912B1
A method and system are disclosed where a call center operator having multiple locations, including a call center is able to utilize existing network infrastructure to route telephone communications to the call center to the location where the lowest toll rate is applicable. The telephone communications are converted into data packets and routed to the call center using VoIP technology. No toll would apply to the transmission of the data to the call center.
US08085911B2
A system and a method for processing an incoming telephone call to an alarm system central monitoring station using call source identification data such as caller ID. The alarm system central monitoring station can use the caller ID information transmitted by the telephone company to make decisions as to how to process a call prior to the central monitoring station receiver answering the call. The central monitoring station will process the call by checking if the caller ID information matches caller ID information stored in memory and it will check status information associated with the caller ID information to determine if the call should be disconnected, transferred, or connected. In order to accomplish this the central monitoring station comprises receiving circuits for detecting an incoming telephone call on the telephone line and reading caller ID information associated with the call, switching circuits coupled to the receiving circuitry for transferring the call if necessary, memory for storing status information comprising the caller ID information, and processing circuitry for determining if caller ID information has been stored in the memory, and if it has, then accessing the status information and processing the call as a function of the status information. The central monitoring station may process the call by 1) transferring the call to an invalid alarm call station, 2) connecting the call to a central monitoring station receiver, a second central monitoring station receiver, or a second line of a central monitoring station receiver, or 3) disconnecting the call.
US08085905B2
A system and method for remotely controlling one or more monitoring devices in a user's household in the event of emergency so as to more productively monitor the emergency situation on a real-time basis. The monitoring devices may include a number of multimedia instruments such as a telephone with an answering machine, a computer with a built-in digital camera, a video recording device, a cellular phone with an integrated digital camera, etc. An emergency service provider may remotely activate the monitoring devices in the user's vicinity upon receiving an emergency help request from the user, and receive the information sent by the monitoring devices to enable the service personnel to plan appropriate response to the emergency at hand. Such an arrangement allows for better monitoring of the user's vicinity in an emergency situation without the need for prolonged user participation in narrating or describing the emergency situation.
US08085887B2
In a method for generating a compensation signal for the compensation of at least one RFI interference signal that, in a DMT transmission, is permanently superposed on a received DMT reception signal being divided into a multiplicity of channels at least one reference channel from the multiplicity of channels is provided. The multiplicity of channels comprise a first portion provided as data channels for the data transmission and a second portion which is an observation region unused for the data transmission. Channel-specific coefficients for at least one of the data channels to be compensated are provided. The channel-specific coefficients specify a correlation of the RFI interference signal being superposed on the respective data channel in respect of the reference channel. A compensation signal is generated by weighting and summing the received DMT reception signals with the channel-specific coefficients per DMT frame and for each data channel to be compensated.
US08085882B1
A multi-sensor signal fusion apparatus is provided for automatic modulation classification of weak unknown signals in non-cooperative communication environment with a more accurate description of the signal. The multi-sensor non-cooperative demodulation device combines a group of sensors, a signal fusion sensor, a means for signal demodulation, and a means for automatic modulation classification. An output of the signal fusion sensor is sent to a means for modulation scheme classification to select the appropriate demodulation technique for demodulating the unknown signal and provide the necessary intelligence about the monitored signals to the user and allow the user to simulate the unknown non-cooperative signal. The present invention also contemplates a multi-sensor signal fusion article of manufacture with a storage medium encoded with machine-readable computer program code for more accurate descriptions of monitored signals and methods for achieving higher accuracy descriptions of monitored signals in a non-cooperative environment with multi-sensor non-cooperative demodulation.
US08085881B2
The demodulation process of a wireless data transmission system using multi-level symbols makes use of templates corresponding to each of the possible symbol transitions, so that knowledge of previously decoded symbols can be used to decode the next one. An estimation and correction loop provides for initial estimation of the values of a plurality of consecutive symbols, and error estimates are made for the estimated initial values of the symbols and for one or more alternative values, a final estimate being determined to minimize the total estimated error.
US08085868B2
A transmitter includes a modulating and combining circuit to which signals are supplied and modulated into in-phase and quadrature-phase signals. The in-phase and quadrature-phase signals are combined in a closed-loop voltage summing circuit. The voltage summing circuit is an amplifier using capacitors as negative feedback elements. The negative feedback improves the linearity of the modulator. An LC tank circuit at the output of the voltage summing circuit bandpass filters the output before being applied to a power amplifier and eventually transmitted by an antenna. A multi-summing amplifier with different frequency tuning can be used for a multi-band transmitter design.
US08085862B2
The present invention is method and system for transmitting a signal in a wireless communication system. The present invention includes differentiating a data stream into at least a first layer data stream and a second layer data stream. At least the first layer data stream and the second layer data stream are then channel coded. Afterward, at least one of the channel coded first layer data stream and the channel coded second layer data stream is spread.
US08085858B2
Power saving techniques for a device including an active mode of operation for transmitting a first data stream of at least two data types over wires, and a low power partial functionality mode of operation for transmitting a second data stream over a subset of the wires used for transmitting the first data stream. The power saving techniques may utilize different modulation schemes, different throughputs, different symbol rates, or other techniques.
US08085852B2
A method performs inverse tone mapping of an image in a decoder. For each block of each color channel of the image the following steps are performed. A scaling factor is determined for a current block of the image by adding a predicted scaling factor for the current block to a difference between the predicted scaling factor and the scaling factor of an adjacent block. An offset value for the current block is determined by adding a predicted offset for the current block to a difference between the predicted offset value and the offset value of the adjacent block. The scaling factor and the offset value are applied to pixel intensity values of the current block to produce a mapped block in which a bit-depth of the mapped block is greater than the bit-depth of the current block.
US08085851B2
A moving image encoding method of encoding a moving image while switching between variable-length encoding schemes. In this method, a continuous unit to be continuously reproduced is determined (S5201), a stream is generated by encoding the moving image without switching between variable-length encoding schemes in the continuous unit (S5202), and management information is generated that includes a first flag information indicating that a variable-length encoding scheme is fixed in the continuous unit (S5204, and S5205).
US08085841B2
A decision feedback equalizer (DFE) and method including a branch coupled to an input and including a sample-and-hold element configured to receive and sample a received input signal from the input and a current-integrating summer. The current-integrating summer is coupled to an output of the sample-and-hold element. The summer is configured to receive and sum currents representing at least one previous decision and an input sample. The at least one previous decision and the input sample are integrated onto a node, wherein the input sample is held constant during an integration period, thereby mitigating the effects of input transitions on an output of the summer.
US08085840B2
An apparatus for reducing interference of a signal over a plurality of stages includes a processor configured to determine at least two equalizer taps based on at least one of a covariance and a channel impulse response of the signal. The processor is further configured to estimate at least one additional equalizer tap based on the at least two equalizer taps. In addition, the processor is configured to reduce, for each of the plurality of stages, the interference of the signal for that stage using an equalizer tap from either the at least two equalizer taps or the at least one additional equalizer tap, so that the signal for the next stage in the plurality of stages has the reduced interference. A method is also provided for reducing interference of a signal over a plurality of stages.
US08085825B2
A semiconductor laser diode apparatus capable of suppressing difficulty in handling of the semiconductor laser diode also when the width of a semiconductor laser diode portion is small is obtained. This method of fabricating a semiconductor laser diode apparatus includes steps of forming a plurality of first semiconductor laser diode portions on a first substrate at a prescribed interval in a second direction intersecting with a first direction in which cavities extend, bonding one or some of the plurality of first semiconductor laser diode portions to a second substrate, separating the one or some of the plurality of first semiconductor laser diode portions bonded to the second substrate from the first substrate; and dividing the second substrate along the second direction.
US08085823B2
A laser source device includes: a light emission unit which emits laser beam having first wavelength; a first mirror which selectively reflects S-polarized light contained in the first wavelength laser beam emitted from the light emission unit in a direction different from the direction toward the light emission unit and transmits second wavelength laser beam; a second mirror which receives laser beam reflected by the first mirror and reflects laser beam having first wavelength and contained in the received laser beam toward the first mirror; and a wavelength conversion element disposed between the first mirror and the second mirror and converts at least a part of S-polarized light contained in the received first wavelength laser beam into laser beam having second wavelength.
US08085810B2
Methods for pipelining, piggybacking, and transporting cross layer parameters through a network to reduce round-trip times are disclosed. Application activation, such as accessing a web-site through the internet, currently uses several protocols, including DNS Name resolution, establishing a TCP connection, sending HTTP Request and getting HTTP-Response that contains the web-page data, before the data from the web-site can be displayed to the user. Such operations take several round-trips through the transit network and are of the order of 100 to 200 milliseconds in the wireless access network in the best case. A method of generating a multi-part message to reduce these round trip is disclosed, as well as a proxy device which minimizes client side round trips while utilizing standard messaging in the wireline network. The invention includes client side user parameter gathering when specifying the application first (pre-fix), or specifying the application last (post-fix).
US08085802B1
A BCN network with BCN modems that communicate using predefined messages to establish, optimize and facilitate data communication.
US08085798B2
A host device interfacing with a point of deployment (POD) and a method of processing broadcast data are disclosed. Herein, an Internet Protocol (IP) physical interface unit receives an Ethernet frame including broadcast data; and a routing engine transforms the Ethernet frame to an IP packet when a destination address included in the Ethernet frame matches with an address of a pod and routs the transformed IP packet to an extended channel connected to the POD. Accordingly, it is possible to protect contents using a conditional access provided by the existing cable card and process broadcast data received on all types of transmission protocols including an IP protocol over a wired/wireless network using a channel provided for connection between the existing cable card and the host device.
US08085796B2
Methods, systems, and apparatuses are disclosed for enabling a virtual personalized network. Communications are established with a personal digital gateway to control access, sharing, security, and/or management of up-to-date personalized data exchanged between or among a plurality of associated communications devices and/or communications networks. The associated communications devices are owned, operated, and/or accessed by a common user.
US08085784B2
With time intervals and transmission times of packets of real time streams, transmission end times thereof are calculated. The transmission order of packets of the real time streams is decided in the order of the earlier transmission end times thereof. Transmission end times of packets of a non-real time stream are compared with the scheduling times of packets of the plurality of real time streams. When the transmission end times of packets of the non-real time stream are earlier than any one of the scheduling times of packets of the plurality of real time streams, the packets of the non-real time streams are transmitted.
US08085775B1
A mechanism is disclosed for identifying, classifying, and controlling flows in a network. In one implementation, a separate set of behavioral statistics is maintained for each flow. These behavioral statistics are updated as packets belonging to a flow are processed. Whenever a packet belonging to a flow is processed, a set of policies that the flow's behavioral statistics satisfy is determined. For each policy that the flow's behavioral statistics satisfy, actions that are associated with that policy are applied relative to the packet. The actions may be designed to cause a router to handle, in a user-specified manner, packets that are likely to represent a particular kind of traffic. Thus, different flows, such as VOIP, gaming, streaming, and P2P flows, which are associated with different behavioral statistics, may be handled in ways applicable for the specific application traffic type.
US08085772B2
A method includes inserting a vector in a packet that identifies a first device in a stack of packet forwarding devices to receive the packet.
US08085758B2
A session controller configured to be coupled to a database and configured to receive an indication associated with an ingress call is disclosed. The session controller is further configured to query the database for an ingress-call peer associated with the ingress call, and to query the database for a dynamic-peer-definition template associated with the ingress call when the ingress-call peer is not identified upon query of the database. The session controller is further configured to reject the ingress call when the dynamic-peer-definition template is not identified upon query of the database.
US08085752B2
A method of handling mobile entities in a firewall, wherein a first mobile entity table comprising identifiers of mobile entities, which are active in a firewall, and a second mobile entity table comprising identifiers of mobile entities, which are active in a predefined set of other firewalls and identifiers of corresponding other firewalls, are maintained in the firewall. A new mobile entity, which is not currently active in the firewall, is detected, after which it is found on the basis of the second mobile entity table, if the new mobile entity is currently active in another firewall. If the mobile entity is currently active in another firewall, state information related to the new mobile entity is queried from the another firewall, and stored in the firewall to be used for processing data packets from/to the new mobile entity.
US08085750B2
The streaming of video data to mobile devices (101 to 103) is shown in which a support server (106) and an asset server (107, 108) are provided. The support server receives a first request (303) from a mobile device for a selected video asset. The support server relays (304, 305) the first request to the asset server. The asset server serves (306) the selected video stream to the requesting mobile device from the start of the asset. The support server is halted (307) from streaming video and the asset server provides an indication (308) of the halt position to the support server. The support server records an indication of the mobile device and the halt position of the asset. The support server receives a second request (311) from the mobile device for the selected asset. The support server relays (310 to 313) the selected request to the asset server and the asset server serves (314) the selected asset as a video stream to the requesting mobile device from the previous halt position.
US08085744B2
A wireless communication network that forms an ad-hoc network without the arrangement of a controlling station sets a period that a communication apparatus can utilize with priority and performs isochronous communication in the period as required. When isochronous communication has not been performed or after isochronous communication has finished in the priority utilization period, other communication apparatuses perform arbitrary communication. When another communication is performed in a communication apparatus's own priority utilization period, the start of isochronous communication is temporarily delayed. In an ad-hoc communication environment, data having a real-time characteristic, such as AV content, can be efficiently transmitted through the isochronous communication.
US08085739B2
A data channel to transmit data from a transmitter to one or more of a plurality of receivers, each of which intermittently reports to the transmitter its reception quality of signals transmitted by the transmitter. The transmitter transmits the data in frames which include at least one block. Each block includes the same predefined number of traffic symbols, and includes a header portion and a payload portion. The header portion of each block is packaged for transmission in a robust manner, enhancing the probability that each receiver will be able to recover it and the header portion includes information required to recover the payload portion. The payload portion is, in accordance with the reception quality reported by the intended receiver, packaged to make efficient use of the transmission resources while ensuring a reasonable probability that the intended receiver will be able to recover the payload. The header portion can include indications of the modulation, forward error correction and repetition utilized to package the payload and can indicate the length of the payload.
US08085736B2
A CDMA receiving device is provided which can prevent erroneous determination of an SFN detection. The CDMA receiving device (1) performs detection of a slot boundary in a slot timing detection unit (14), and performs detection of frame timing and code group in a code group identification unit (15), with regard to each slot timing detected in this way. The CDMA receiving device (1) uses a P-CPICH to detect scrambling code in a scrambling code identification unit (16) from the detected frame timing and code group. The CDMA receiving device (1) performs detection of SFN in a broadcast channel decoding unit (17) from the frame timing and the scrambling code. A P-CCPCH is used in the detection of the SFN. The SFN is included in the P-CCPCH and it is possible to detect SFN timing of a base station by decoding a BCH.
US08085734B2
A system and method for dynamic receive diversity allocation. A communications device comprises a first physical layer (PHY) unit, a second PHY unit, a first signal path coupled to a first antenna and to the first PHY unit, a switchable signal path coupled to a second antenna and switchably coupled to the first PHY unit and the second PHY unit, and a switch control unit coupled to the second antenna. The switch control unit dynamically generates a control signal used to switchably couple the second antenna to either the first PHY unit or the second PHY unit. The second antenna may be used to provided a needed transmit or receive antenna or an extra antenna for use in increasing diversity. Switching antennas reduces the total number of antennas and support hardware, such as digital processing hardware, for wireless communications standards having a high ratio of idle to busy time.
US08085723B2
A method of allocating channel resources in a wireless network is disclosed. The method of allocating instant channel resources in a wireless network includes receiving channel resource scheduling information of a specific superframe from a coordinator of the wireless network, requesting the coordinator to allocate instant channel resources for an unreserved duration of the specific superframe, and receiving an announcement message from the coordinator, the announcement message announcing allocation of the instant channel resources within the unreserved duration of the specific superframe.
US08085714B2
A method, apparatus, and computer program product are provided for preserving a signaling connection after a network has indicated that the signaling connection can be closed, such as by selection of a no follow on proceed mode during routing area updates or attach procedures. By preserving the signaling connection, subsequent communications between the network and the user equipment can be completed without closing and then subsequently reopening the signaling connection.
US08085712B2
A method for implementing the media gateway function is disclosed by the embodiment of the present invention, including: receiving a first signaling message; determining to perform a processing of a base station application layer or a processing of a media gateway control application layer according to a Simple Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) link, wherein the SCTP link is indicated by the first signaling message; if determine to perform the processing of the media gateway control application layer, routing traffic data to a destination device. A radio access control device and a radio access system according to the above mentioned method are further disclosed. According to the embodiment of the present invention, the exchange number of an IP packet is reduced, and the bearer is separated from the control.
US08085711B2
A method and system is disclosed for managing resource within a predetermined soft handoff group in an OFDM based telecommunications system. Logical radio resources are separated into at least one set to support the soft handoff group and at least one set for supporting normal communication traffic. At least one physical radio resource is identified for each logical radio resource in the set for supporting the SHOG according to a predetermined mapping function so as to minimize resource collision.
US08085709B2
A method for managing radio resources in a mobile communications network having a plurality of cells, wherein the radio resources are managed by a plurality of radio resources management procedures arranged for having available at least one maximum downlink total load value representative of the maximum total load level of each cell of the network; and for measuring at least one uplink load value and at least one current downlink total load value of each cell of the network. The method includes the steps of defining at least two status parameters including a first status parameter or load status parameter adapted to reach a first set of status ranges, depending on the measured uplink load value and the current downlink total load value; a second status parameter or packet congestion flag adapted to reach a second set of status ranges, depending upon reaching of a congestion status in a packet management procedure; and adopting different sets of managing strategies associated with the radio resources management procedures of the network as a function of the at least two status parameters being in the respective sets of status ranges. Preferred application is in UMTS mobile networks.
US08085707B2
A nodal division multiple access technique for multiple access to a communications channel such as a satellite transponder. The present invention provides multiple access into a communications channel where each accessing site utilizes one signal from a composite amplitude/phase digital signal constellation, such that demodulators receive the composite signal without changes in the system design related to the multiple access operation.
US08085706B2
A wireless communication method and apparatus for the same performs access control in the following manner, where an acquisition of a right to transmit is performed by CSMA access control method, and a collision of transmitted data packets among different communication apparatuses is prevented for facilitating a stable transmission of data packets from each of the apparatuses in a predetermined interval. The transmission of a data packet having a predetermined data length under a cyclical access control sets an access control start time at a time that is after a lapse of predetermined amount of time from the previous acquisition of the right to transmit. As a result, the competition of the right to transmit is resolved due to a different access control start time set for the next transmission.
US08085703B2
Methods and apparatus for ranging with one or more neighboring sectors during normal operation of a mobile station (MS) with its serving sector are provided. The ranging results may be frequently updated in an effort to accelerate the handover process to another base station (BS) providing coverage for one of the neighboring sectors.
US08085700B2
A multi-node communications system is provided with communications protocol using both static (11, 12, 13, 18) (pre-determined) and dynamic (51, 52, 53 . . . ) (run-time determined) consecutive communication slots is used. The system has a number of distributed communication nodes, each node being arranged for communicating frames of data with the other nodes during both the static (11, 12, 13 . . . ) and the dynamic (51, 52, 53 . . . ) communication slots. Each node includes a synchronized time base 5 made up of consecutive timeslots (11, 12, 13 . . . , 51, 52, 53 . . . ). The timebase 5 has substantially the same error tolerance in each node. For static communication (10), a predetermined number of timeslots (20) are utilized for each static communication slot. For dynamic communication a dynamically allocated number of timeslots (60) are utilized for each dynamic communication slot. In this way both static and dynamic media arbitration is provided within a periodically recurring communication pattern. Communication jitter is well defined and dealt with, and large oscillator drifts are compensated for.
