US08117580B1

Memory devices and data structures including multiple configuration bitstreams for programming integrated circuits (ICs) such as programmable logic devices (PLDs), thereby enabling the utilization of partially defective ICs. A user design is implemented two or more times, preferably utilizing different programmable resources as much as possible in each configuration bitstream. The resulting configuration bitstreams are stored in a memory device. Test bitstreams associated with the user bitstreams are optionally also included in the memory device. Under the control of a configuration control circuit, the various bitstreams are sequentially loaded into a partially defective IC and tested using an automated testing procedure. When a bitstream is found that enables the design to function correctly in the programmed IC, i.e., that avoids the defective programmable resources in the IC, the configuration procedure terminates. When separate test bitstreams are used, the configuration procedure programs the IC with an associated user bitstream before terminating.
US08117579B2

A method, system and program are provided for generating level sensitive scan design (LSSD) clock signals from a general scan design (GSD) clock buffer using an intermediate clock signal and one or more first mode control signals to generate a plurality of LSSD clock signals from an output section of the GSD clock buffer that receives the intermediate clock signal and the first mode control signal(s), where the GSD clock buffer is also configured to generate a plurality of GSD clock signals in response to receiving a GSD mode, generating an intermediate clock signal from the input section of the GSD clock buffer in response receiving a GSD mode signal.
US08117572B2

A behavioral synthesis unit generates an intermediate level description that describes a plurality of processes indicated by a behavioral level description and data passed over during the plurality of processes based oil a behavioral level description describing the behavior of an electronic circuit and synthesis constraint information constituting constraints to be satisfied while generating a register transfer level description based on the behavioral level description and the number and type of circuit configuration elements that can be described in the register transfer level description. The data flow path information analyzing unit acquires path information indicating a data path and at least one process executed on the path based on the intermediate level description. A synthesis constraint generating unit then generates new synthesis constraint information that improves prescribed circuit performance of the electronic circuit based on library information and path information.
US08117560B1

In one embodiment, the methods and apparatuses include: selectively sharing desktop content with an attendee device wherein the desktop content includes a shared window and a sliding type of window; displaying the desktop content including the sliding type of window on the presenter device; detecting a modification to the desktop content that is beneath the sliding type of window wherein the modification is performed by the attendee device; and excluding the sliding type of window from the desktop content for display on the attendee device.
US08117557B2

Methods, systems, and techniques for presenting a series of values of statistical data using numeric data and interpretive information are provided. Example embodiments provide a stat viewer control that allows a user to toggle seamlessly between a numeric view of the data and an interpreted view, the interpreted view presenting value judgments associated with the data. In one embodiment, the interpreted view is based at least in part upon one or more rules for interpreting the numeric data as belonging to one or more zones, each zone corresponding to a background emanating from a ring of an archery target representation. This abstract is provided to comply with rules requiring an abstract, and it is submitted with the intention that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
US08117555B2

Methods and apparatuses enable interaction with an end-user application to perform functional operations with selected elements of the end-user application or an operating environment of the end-user application. An application runtime receives an indication of a selection of an item of the end-user application, and a command to have the selected item interact with a target. The interaction of the item with the target initiates an action that is based on functionality associated with the selected item and a type of the target. The target type may be a widget, a folder, the desktop, etc. The interaction may result in creation of a standalone widget, execution of the functionality, creation of a relationship, etc. An item from the desktop may also be selected and caused to interact with the end-user application to provide additional functionality to the end-user application.
US08117551B2

Computer method and apparatus represent users by respective avatars in a subject virtual environment. The invention system displays the avatars in the virtual environment, and for each avatar, displays in proximity to the avatar, a respective trail of virtual contact objects. The respective trail of virtual contact objects is associated with the user represented by the avatar and serves as a visual indication of presence and activeness (level of activity) of the user in the subject virtual environment. Each virtual contact object in the respective trail stores and provides user contact data of the user and is persistable upon end-user command.
US08117550B1

Computer implemented methods and systems are provided for real to virtual communications. A request from a mobile device associated with a first participant of a virtual environment is received to communicate with an avatar associated with the virtual environment. A data store is referenced to identify a second participant of the virtual environment that is associated with the avatar. Whether the second participant is participating in the virtual environment is determined. A computer is communicated with in response to determining that the second participant is participating in the virtual environment, wherein the computer is associated with the second participant at least for participating in the virtual environment.
US08117549B2

The invention provides an electronic workflow method and system that includes a client workstation having a high-resolution image displaying device and an input device, that captures actions that are performed on the image displaying device. The performed actions may include actions that are performed in an interpretation process of medical images displayed by the displaying device. An extensible markup language (XML) schema may be employed to capture and represent the tasks or subtasks. The XML schema records the condensed audit trail of the user actions that are performed during the image review and interpretation process. The invention stores the instructions or actions of the electronic workflow system, although the actions may be stored as an entire “movie” of the electronic workflow system. Thus, the invention dramatically reduces storage, transmission, and time requirements for play back, among providing other benefits.
US08117547B2

Location-aware methods and systems are described. In one embodiment, a portable computing device determines its location by accessing one or more hierarchical tree structures each of which comprising multiple nodes that represent physical or logical locations, and traversing at least one node on the one or more hierarchical tree structures to ascertain the location. The device then acquires digital data associated with the determined location and that can permit the device to interact with a location environment. The device then enables interaction with the location environment based, at least in part, on the acquired digital data.
US08117543B2

A method of providing a graphical user interface (GUI) and a multimedia apparatus using the same are provided, the method including: dividing a list display area into a plurality of sub-areas; and displaying a plurality of related lists regarding the multimedia content on the plurality of sub-areas, respectively. Accordingly, a plurality of related lists are displayed on a plurality of divided areas, and the scroll directions of the lists are independently decided according to each area. Therefore, a user can find desired content with greater convenience.
US08117535B2

A dynamic foldering system automatically manages the creation and deletion of run-time dynamic folders and selection of documents, items, or object graphs found in the run-time dynamic folders. The system comprises a query/predicate for a design-time folder group based on which dynamic folders are automatically managed, a variable binding mechanism, automatic identifications of dynamic folders containing a particular object, parallel navigation, and customized combination of foldering results. The dynamic folder hierarchy is defined by a hierarchy of design-time folder groups defined by a query/predicate on a document comprising structured or semi-structured data. Modifiable criteria for creating the dynamic folder hierarchy are provided by the user. Variable binding provides powerful query/predicate definitions on hierarchical data or graph-structured data. Given a document, the system automatically identifies which dynamic folders contain the document.
US08117524B2

A data recovery circuit for recovering data from a parity error without entirely rewriting the data. A write circuit is connected to memory regions including an actual data region and a copy region. A first parity generation circuit writes actual data with even parity to the actual data region. A second parity generation circuit writes backup data of the actual data with odd parity to the copy region. A read circuit reads data from the actual data region and the copy region. An even parity checker detects a parity error in the actual data based on the data read from the actual data region. An odd parity checker checks whether the data read from the copy region is backup data.
US08117513B2

In a combinational portion, when there is one or more unspecified bits in pseudo external input lines and there is no unspecified bit in pseudo external output lines, an assigning operation is carried out. In the combinational portion, when there is one or more unspecified bits in the pseudo external output lines and there is no unspecified bit in the pseudo external input lines, first and second justifying operations are carried out, and a necessary logic value is determined for an unspecified bit of the test cube. In the combinational portion, when there are one more unspecified bits not only in the pseudo external input lines but also the pseudo external output lines, an assigning operation, a justifying operation or first and second assigning/justifying operations are performed upon a focused bit pair.
US08117509B2

A memory control circuit includes a conversion circuit performing a conversion processing for parallel readout bit data formed from individual bits read out from memory cells of a nonvolatile memory, by setting the individual bit that is once again read out from the memory cell, which is previously determined to be successfully storing an expectation value, to a corresponding expectation value expected to be stored in the memory cell, and a determination circuit determining a result of a write processing to write parallel expectation value data to the nonvolatile memory, based on the parallel readout bit data converted by the conversion circuit and the parallel expectation value data.
US08117508B2

A non-volatile memory device including: a memory cell array storing an electrically rewritable resistance value as data in a non-volatile manner; a first cache circuit configured to hold program data to be programmed in the cell array; a second cache circuit configured to hold preprogrammed data read from an area of the cell array; and a judging circuit configured to compare and check the program data with the preprogrammed data, and judge whether there are one or more disagreement bits therebetween or not.
US08117507B2

Decompressing a matrix having a plurality of redundant matrix rows by reading selected matrix rows including at least all non-redundant matrix rows of the matrix from a memory and computing remaining matrix rows of the matrix from the read matrix rows, wherein several matrix rows are computed simultaneously. The read and the computed remaining matrix rows are provided as the decompressed matrix to an output matrix register.
US08117504B2

An automatic keyboard testing system includes a computer, an automatic testing program and a testing frame. A keyboard circuit board to be tested in placed on the testing frame. The automatic testing program is installed in the computer for generating a testing signal and has a predetermined time period. The testing frame generates a simulating signal according to the testing signal and conducts a key intersection point corresponding to the simulating signal, so that the keyboard circuit board output a key scanning code corresponding to the conducted key intersection point to the computer. The automatic testing program discriminates whether the key scanning code is transmitted to the computer within the predetermined time period.
US08117492B1

Techniques for backup error management are disclosed. In one particular exemplary embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for backup error management comprising receiving a backup job error from a backup job, providing an error indicator and at least one user selectable option, receiving a user input corresponding to the at least one user selectable option, and modifying a backup policy to address the error based at least in part on the received user input.
US08117484B2

A method for the generation of binary signals (So1, So2, So3) which are out-of-phase with a control phase angle (?) which is continuously variable in relation to at least one synchronisation binary signal from a set of synchronisation binary signals (Si1, Si2, Si3) which have the same variable period, such as those creating rising and falling fronts of the out-of-phase signals (So1, So2, So3) by calculating at least one level switching time at least from rising or falling synchronisation fronts of the synchronisation binary signal (Si1, Si2, Si3) at least according to the control phase angle (?). According to the invention, at least one reference front is selected from the synchronisation fronts such that the time is as short as possible.
US08117482B2

First and second counter circuits output a signal based on a trigger signal and a clock signal respectively. A selection circuit selects first to fourth signals as the trigger signal, the clock signal, the trigger signal and the clock signal. In a first output mode, an output circuit outputs signals exhibiting normal-phase and reversed-phase PWM waveforms based on both of the signals of the first and second counter circuits. In a second output mode, the output circuit outputs signals that are each based only on either of the signals of the first and second counter circuits.
US08117481B2

An electronic device (12) for processing information wirelessly received from another electronic device (14) or to be wirelessly sent to the another electronic device (14) may include a first processor (20) that controls only wireless communications with the another electronic device (14) and excluding operations associated only with the electronic device (12), a second processor (16) that controls the operations associated only with the electronic device (12) and excluding the wireless communications with the another device (14), and a clock circuit (24, 190) that is separate and independent from the first and second processors (20, 16) and that produces at least one timing signal that regulates synchronous exchange of the information between the first and second processors (20, 16).
US08117480B2

A method of controlling a temperature of a subject test slot in a cluster of test slots includes evaluating a request for a temperature change for the subject test slot to determine if sufficient power is available to achieve the requested temperature change, and inhibiting the requested temperature change unless or until sufficient power is determined to be available to achieve the requested temperature change.
US08117466B2

A data processing device including a power supply terminal having a first power supply voltage applied thereto; a regulator that generates a second power supply voltage based on the first power supply voltage; an internal circuit having an operation clock, wherein the second power supply voltage is supplied to the internal circuit through a power supply; and a power supply voltage variation suppressor connected between the power supply terminal and the power supply line. In this device, the power supply voltage variation suppressor sets an auxiliary period and supplies auxiliary current to the power supply line during the auxiliary period, and wherein the auxiliary period is synchronized with the operation clock of the internal circuit.
US08117458B2

Systems and methods for providing authentication using an arrangement of dynamic graphical images, which may display a popup element while a pointing device indicator is over a graphical image. The graphical images can be arranged as a grid or matrix for presentation on a device display for authentication of a user. The kinds of graphical images can be derived from a designated authentication category and non-authenticating categories. A series of password elements corresponding to the graphical images can be displayed with the graphical images. The user may enter the series of one or more password elements corresponding to graphical images from the authentication category which combine to form a password entry. An authentication server can compare the password entry to an authentication password corresponding to the particular arrangement of dynamic graphical images. The selection of graphical images, their arrangement and their corresponding password elements, may dynamically change in between authentication processes.
US08117456B2

A method, apparatus and system to ensure the security in the information exchange and to provide list matching with higher efficiency and practicality. In a particular embodiment, each of lists to be subject to list matching is represented as a polynomial having roots equivalent to the items of the list. Then, polynomials generated for the lists to be subject to list matching are added according to a distributed secret computation. A list containing an item equivalent to a root of a polynomial resulting from the addition is created and output as the list of a common item.
US08117445B2

An architecture is presented that facilitates integrating memory, security functionalities and near field communication (NFC) capabilities in a mobile device. A memory module is provided that comprises non-volatile memory that stores security software, sensitive data, and keys and a security processor that accesses the security software from the nonvolatile memory and performs security functions based on the security software stored. A NFC radio frequency transmitter and receiver (RF) is directly integrated into the security processor to facilitate NFC capabilities within the secure environment of the memory module. Further, the non-volatile memory directly interfaces to an NFC antenna positioned outside of the memory module via the integrated NFC RF. The integration of the security processor, memory, and NFC RF into the memory module provides a trusted environment for the manipulation and decryption of data received through the NFC antenna.
US08117442B2

A data processor is connected to and communicating with an external device having at least one predetermined communication/authentication method. A first assigning unit assigns a first level of priority to each combination having a plurality of first type methods including a communication and authentication method. A first selecting unit selects a combination in order from the highest grade to the lowest grade of the first level. A second determining unit determines whether at least one of the plurality of the first type methods corresponds to a prescribed method. A canceling unit cancels the selection of the combination selected by the first selecting unit when the second determining unit determines that at least one of the plurality of the first type methods corresponds to the prescribed method.
US08117428B2

According to various illustrative embodiments, an apparatus, system, and method for automatically saving and restoring pad configuration registers implemented in a core power domain are described. In one aspect, the apparatus comprises a save and restore logic component implemented in the core power domain and coupled to the pad configuration registers. The apparatus also comprises a memory instantiated in an always-on power domain and coupled to the save and restore logic component, the save and restore logic component implemented in the core power domain to automatically save the pad configuration registers in the memory in a pad configuration save process before a power supply to the core power domain is switched off and to automatically restore the pad configuration registers from the memory in a pad configuration restore process after the power supply to the core power domain is switched on.
US08117427B2

A motherboard, a storage device and a controller thereof and a booting method are provided. In the present invention, when powered on, an unfetch signal is transmitted to a central processor unit (CPU) by a controller such that an operation of the CPU is suspended. Next, a system firmware in the storage device is loaded by the controller. After the system firmware is loaded, a fetch-done signal is transmitted to the CPU by the controller such that the CPU starts executing a booting procedure.
US08117426B2

Systems and apparatuses are presented relating a programmable processor comprising an execution unit that is operable to decode and execute instructions received from an instruction path and partition data stored in registers in the register file into multiple data elements, the execution unit capable of executing group data handling operations that re-arrange data elements in different ways in response to data handling instructions, the execution unit further capable of executing a plurality of different group floating-point and group integer arithmetic operations that each arithmetically operates on the multiple data elements stored in registers in the register file to produce a catenated result that is returned to a register in the register file, wherein the catenated result comprises a plurality of individual results.
US08117417B2

What is provided is an enhanced dynamic address translation facility. In one embodiment, a virtual address to be translated and an initial origin address of a translation table of the hierarchy of translation tables are obtained. A segment table entry obtained from a segment table contains a format control field. If the format control field is enabled, a segment-frame absolute address of a large block of data in main storage is obtained from the segment table entry. Each 4K byte block of data within the large block has an associated storage key. Store operations associated with the virtual address are performed to the desired block of data. If the change recording override field is disabled, the change bit of the storage key associated with the desired 4K byte block is set to 1. An indication is then provided that the desired 4K byte block has been modified.
US08117414B2

A method for prioritized erasure of a non-volatile storage device, the method including the steps of: providing at least one flash unit of the storage device, wherein each flash unit has a plurality of blocks; writing data into the plurality of blocks; assigning an erasure-priority to each block, wherein the erasure-priority correlates with an erasure-priority of the data; and erasing the data in each block according to the erasure-priority of each block upon receiving an emergency-erase command. Preferably, the step of writing data into the plurality of blocks is performed in an arbitrary order in a first flash unit, and the step of writing into subsequent flash units is performed in correlation with the order in the first flash unit. Preferably, the step of erasing includes aborting erasure, before completing the erasure, for at least some of the plurality of blocks.
US08117398B2

A prefetch scheme in a shared memory multiprocessor disables the prefetch when an address falls within a powered down memory bank. A register stores a bit corresponding to each independently powered memory bank to determine whether that memory bank is prefetchable. When a memory bank is powered down, all bits corresponding to the pages in this row are masked so that they appear as non-prefetchable pages to the prefetch access generation engine preventing an access to any page in this memory bank. A powered down status bit corresponding to the memory bank is used for masking the output of the prefetch enable register. The prefetch enable register is unmodified. This also seamlessly restores the prefetch property of the memory banks when the corresponding memory row is powered up.
US08117392B2

A physically distributed cache memory system includes an interconnection network, first level cache memory slices, and second level cache memory slices. The first level cache memory slices are coupled to the interconnection network to generate tagged ordered store requests. Each tagged ordered store requests has a tag including requester identification and a store sequence token. The second level cache memory slices are coupled to the interconnection network to execute ordered store requests in-order across the physically distributed cache memory system in response to each tag of the tagged ordered store requests.
US08117390B2

A processing unit for a data processing system includes a processor core having one or more execution units for processing instructions and a register file for storing data accessed in processing of the instructions. The processing unit also includes a multi-level cache hierarchy coupled to and supporting the processor core. The multi-level cache hierarchy includes at least one upper level of cache memory having a lower access latency and at least one lower level of cache memory having a higher access latency. The lower level of cache memory, responsive to receipt of a memory access request that hits only a partial cache line in the lower level cache memory, sources the partial cache line to the at least one upper level cache memory to service the memory access request. The at least one upper level cache memory services the memory access request without caching the partial cache line.
US08117389B2

A design structure for performing cacheline polling utilizing store and reserve and load when reservation lost instructions is disclosed. In one embodiment a method is provided which comprises storing a buffer flag busy indicator data value within a first cacheable memory location and setting a load/store operation reservation on said first cacheable memory location via a store and reserve instruction. In the described embodiment, a data value stored within the first cacheable memory location is accessed via a conditional load instruction in response to a determination that the load/store operation reservation on the first cacheable memory location has been reset. Conversely, execution of the conditional load instruction is stalled in response to a determination that the load/store operation reservation on the first cacheable memory location has not been reset.
US08117376B2

Proposed are a storage system and its control method capable of dealing with the unique problems that arise when using a nonvolatile memory as the memory device while effectively preventing performance deterioration. This storage system is provided with a plurality of memory modules having one or more nonvolatile memory chips, and a controller for controlling the reading and writing of data from and in each memory module. The memory module decides the nonvolatile memory chip to become a copy destination of data stored in the nonvolatile memory when a failure occurs in the nonvolatile memory chip of a self memory module, and copies the data stored in the failed nonvolatile memory chip to the nonvolatile memory chip decided as the copy destination.
US08117374B2

There is provided an apparatus for controlling a flash memory, which includes a memory for storing a plurality of flash translation layers; and a control block for, when an access is requested from outside, determining a pattern of the access, selecting one of the flash translation layers stored in the memory based on the determination result, and managing mapping data of the flash memory based on the selected flash translation layer.
US08117367B2

A processor system with an application and a maintenance function that would interfere with the application if concurrently executed. The processor system comprises a set of processor cores operable in different security and context-related modes, said processors having at least one interrupt input and at least one wait for interrupt output. The processor system also comprises a wait for interrupt expansion circuit responsive to the at least one wait for interrupt output to provide an interrupt signal, at least one of said processor cores operable in response to the interrupt signal to schedule a maintenance function separated in time from execution of the application.
US08117366B2

In order to register the order of bus subscribers (12) when starting a system without the use of a token line to be specifically laid for his purpose along the two-wire bus (11), the bus master (13) temporarily activates a reflective discontinuity, preferably a bus short circuit, in a respective selectively addressed one of the subscribers (12) after stochastically determining all subscriber addresses (Ki). The echo signal (19) of a voltage jump (18), which is then output onto the bus (11) by the master (13), is superimposed in the master (13) to form a square-wave-like differential signal (20) whose pulse duration which is proportional to the distance between the master (13) and that subscriber (12) along the bus (11) is measured following pulse shaping by analog pulse area integration (25).
US08117362B2

The present invention provides a programmable multi-function adapter for a wireless network that includes a wireless communications module, a control module, a data communications interface and a programmable non-volatile memory. The data communications interface is coupled to the control module, while the programmable non-volatile memory is coupled to the control module and the wireless communications module. The programmable non-volatile memory stores information accessible by the control module and the wireless communications module.
US08117360B2

An on-vehicle electronic control device 100A serially transmits A/D conversion data of plural channels from a second control circuit unit 300A including a multichannel A/D converter 204A to a microprocessor 110A disposed in a first control circuit unit 200A. The A/D conversion data are organized into a communication packet and transmitted via first and second buffer memories 204b and 204d, and when there is an abnormality in the A/D conversion data, transfer between the first and second buffer memories 204b and 204d is prohibited and an abnormality report is performed with respect to the microprocessor 110A. As a result, erroneous data are not transmitted, and communication congestion and the burden of the microprocessor 110A are alleviated.
US08117358B2

A real-time customer relation management system is disclosed. The system can provide increased availability, reduced internal latencies, and reduced data processing and transfer. The system can provide real time processing and batch processing. The system architecture can have an in-memory write-through cache. The cache can store data that would have otherwise been sent to a database. The system can have a backup in-memory write-through cache. The system can use a warm standby, for example, to enhance data backup efficiency.
US08117355B2

A data processing apparatus includes an operating system that performs a mounting and an unmounting of a removable external storage device; a plurality of application programs each configured to independently access the external storage device; and an external-storage-device monitoring unit that instructs the operating system, based on a request for mounting or unmounting the external storage device, which is output from each of the application programs, to perform the mounting and the unmounting of the external storage device.
US08117354B2

A system and method operable to automatically disable input/output signal processing based on the required data format is provided. The need for an input/output module, such as an encoder, required to process input signal having a first data format (i.e. multimedia format) and produce an output signal having a second format (i.e. multimedia format) is determined. When the input/output module is not required to produce the output signal in the second format, the input/output module is disabled.
US08117353B2

An image processing apparatus is capable of communicating data with a plurality of external apparatuses attached to the image processing apparatus. Each of the external apparatuses includes an advisor that advises a user of access to the external apparatus. A display section displays information on the external apparatuses attached to the image processing apparatus. A selecting section selects a desired one external apparatus from among the plurality of external apparatuses displayed on said display section. A transmitter transmits an access command to the desired one external apparatus. When the selected external apparatus receives the access command, the advisor advises the user of the access to the selected external apparatus, emitting flashing light.
US08117348B2

Provided is a user interface apparatus including a plurality of regions and method for operating the same. The user interface apparatus may be configured to respond to a digital apparatus being disposed in a region, by sending information associated with the region. The information indicative of a command for the digital apparatus to execute to interact with a host apparatus. The digital apparatus may include an information recognizing unit configured to recognize the command indicated by the information provided by the information providing units; and a control unit configured to transmit data or receive data based on the command. Thus, a user can input a user control signal to a digital apparatus in a user friendly manner.
US08117342B2

A media exchange description language (MX-DL) is disclosed. The media exchange description language (MX-DL) may be used to facilitate media exchange within a media exchange network, such as a home network. Methods of determining an operability of a media item within a media exchange network are also disclosed. The methods may utilize the media exchange description language (MX-DL) to convert a media format of the media item into a compatible media format usable within a media exchange network. Devices and device components for performing the disclosed methods are also disclosed.
US08117340B2

Systems and methods are provided that facilitate automated network address determinations and communications between roaming peers. In one aspect, a network communications system is provided. The system includes methods for updating a resolution provider with a current host transport address and for determining a roaming hosts service address and port information. Other processes include opening and mapping ports through a traversal component which can include Network Address Translators and Firewalls and opening/mapping ports in conjunction with cascaded Network Address Translators.
US08117337B2

Methods and devices for implementing Link Pass Through in a point-to-multipoint network in respect of the network reliability field are provided. Embodiments of the present invention are applicable to a network having an access gate, an access device, an aggregation device and a router. When a failure occurs in an active link between the access device and the aggregation device or between the aggregation device and the router, the access device breaks the connection between the access device and the access gate enables a standby link to conduct communication. Advantageously, when a failure occurs in the active link between the access device and the aggregation device or between the aggregation device and the router, the access device may break the connection between the access device and the access gate and the access gate may enable a standby link to conduct communication. Therefore, no matter what type of failure occurs, the embodiments of the present invention may enable a standby link to conduct communication, ensuring thereby communication reliability.
US08117330B2

According to one embodiment, a method is described for relaying streaming data from a first external device and to transmit streaming data to a second external device. The method comprises (i) receiving a first delay time to be needed by the second external device from the second external device, (ii) calculating a third delay time by adding the first delay time to a second delay time to be needed in the information processing device, and (iii) transmitting the third delay time to the first external device.
US08117328B2

Automatically recovering from broken network connections in streaming media scenarios. Server software executing on the server communicates with client software executing on the client during the streaming media session. If the streaming media session is interrupted, the server software and the client software exchange messages to associate the client with a client state stored by the server and to re-synchronize playback of the content.
US08117321B2

Connections for sources to connect to a network are managed by storing connection profiles identifying network attributes for the connections. Each connection profile includes a status of available or subscribed. Requests for connections are received. If a stored connection profile is available that matches the request, the connection for the matching connection profile is assigned to the source.
US08117320B2

A number of caching agents are interconnected by a ring. A number of trackers of a home agent are pre-allocated to each of the number of caching agents. A tracker provides a permit for a caching agent to issue a request to the home agent. In case a caching agent needs to issue more requests to the home agent, the caching agent may borrow a tracker from another caching agent by sending a message via the ring to other caching agents. A caching agent receiving the borrowing message may either respond the borrowing message by lending a tracker pre-allocated to the corresponding caching agent, or deny the borrowing request by forwarding the borrowing message to another caching agent.
US08117317B2

In one embodiment the present invention includes systems and methods for integrating local systems with cloud computing resources. In one embodiment, shared security information is stored on a local system and on a cloud computer system to allow secure communications between software applications on the two systems. In another embodiment, a tunnel agent client on a local system and a tunnel agent server on a cloud computer system are used to establish a secure connection point between the two systems.
US08117314B2

A method for providing remote access to a computer environment provided by a virtual machine includes the step of receiving authentication information associated with a user of a client machine. Based on the received authentication information, a computer environment provided by a virtualized operating system and already associated with the user is identified. A connection is established between the client machine and the identified computing environment.
US08117301B2

Techniques are described for testing connectivity to unnumbered interfaces of a target device. For example, a software utility and protocol are described that allows an administrator to specify a logical offset that may be internally resolved by the target device to one of a plurality of unnumbered interfaces during the test. Similarly, the administrator may specify an offset that may be internally resolved by the source device to one of a plurality of unnumbered interfaces from which the connectivity test is to originate. The source device may send enhanced request packets and receive enhanced reply packets specifying the source unnumbered interface and the destination unnumbered interface between which connectivity is to be tested. In this manner, an administrator may test for connectivity of particular interfaces even where internet protocol (IP) addresses or other identifiers for the interfaces are not externally known.
US08117299B2

To conserve energy, components in mobile devices normally have to transition less frequently between “active” and “sleep” modes, and to sleep for longer intervals. In accordance with at least one presently preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is broadly contemplated herein an approach to reduce energy consumption by using HTTP proxies to shape incoming WLAN traffic. Proxies contemplated herein use techniques specific to the HTTP payload to compensate for any negative impact that shaping may have. Thus, there is described herein the architecture of a “PowerAware Streaming Proxy” (PASP), built on a PowerAware x-Proxy (PAxP) framework. PASP preferably uses RTSP/RTP semantics to effectively schedule media streams across the WLAN. Herein, PASP is compared with PAWP, which is a PAxP extension for web traffic, and problem areas are identified.
US08117290B2

A network management system is provided for managing a computer network. The management system is configured to represent the computer network as having one of a plurality of defined network states. Once the state of the network has been identified, the management system can assist the user in making modifications to the computer network and in making recommendations to the user for possible modifications to the computer network. These modifications can include, for example, configuring network devices, removing network devices, replacing network devices, and adding new network devices.
US08117287B2

The interactive messaging system of the present invention provides for an interactive communication process between users, both senders and recipients. The sender composes a message by filling in a template stored in data services. Once completed, the sender pushes the message to a recipient's wireless device if the wireless device contains a WAP browser, which is capable of receiving pushed messages. Typically the message includes a question along with answers for the recipient to choose from. Each answer corresponds with a pre-assigned response key and the recipient answers the question by selecting one of the pre-assigned response keys. The recipient's response is available to the sender in the form of an e-mail, WAP Push, on-line access or interactive message that is shown to the sender on an on-line status screen.
US08117275B2

The present invention is a system that receives data in different formats from different devices/applications in the format native to the devices/applications and fuses the data into a common shared audio/video collaborative environment including a composite display showing the data from the different sources in different areas of the display and composite audio. The common environment is presented to users who can be at remote locations. The users are allowed to supply a control input for the different device data sources and the control input is mapped back to the source, thereby controlling the source. The location of the control input on the remote display is mapped to the storage area for that portion of the display and the control data is transmitted to the corresponding device/application. The fusion system converts the data from the different sources/applications into a common format and stores the converted data from the different sources in a shared memory with each source allocated a different area in the memory. A combined window like composite representation of the data is produced and also stored in the memory. The combined representation is transmitted to and can be controlled by the users.
US08117270B1

A method and apparatus for creating a catalog for use with at least one computer system that manages a plurality of email messages. The catalog provides an index into the plurality of email messages, and comprises a plurality of identifiers that each identifies an entity. The catalog also correlates at least some of the plurality of identifiers to corresponding email addresses. The method for creating a catalog comprises creating the catalog to include information defining a temporal interval during which at least one email address corresponds to a first entity.
US08117257B2

In related art, the terminal can receive a particular task from a server, and perform the received particular task, only after the terminal reports to the server that a particular event has occurred. But, according to the present invention, the server provides the particular task in advance of the occurrence of the particular event. Therefore, the particular task can be performed by the terminal as soon as a particular event is occurred, so a waste of the network resources can be reduced. Meanwhile, according to the present invention, a routing service is provided between elements within the terminal, so that the elements within the terminal can be separated. In addition, according to the present invention, a source number and a registration number are used for the routing service, so that the routing service can be accurately operated. Moreover, malfunction of a processing unit can be prevented through the source number and the registration number, and performing of a task by a malicious user can be prevented.
US08117249B1

Systems and methods provide analog delay elements, which may be utilized in isolation or in a cascade, such as for use within equalizers or other types of applications. For example, a delay element may include a broadband amplifier and a passive, programmable filter, which may provide a desired magnitude and group delay response over a wide frequency range while being tolerant of process variations. An equalizer, for example, may include the delay element within its feed forward filter and/or within its other circuits, such as within its adaptive coefficient generator or slicer input time-align circuit.
US08117246B2

A technique and associated mechanism is described for registering event metadata at a first site, transferring the event metadata to a second site using a portable module, and processing the event metadata at the second site. A user can register the event metadata at the first site in the course of consuming broadcast content. Namely, when the user encounters an interesting portion of the broadcast content, the user activates an input mechanism, resulting in the storage of event metadata associated with the interesting portion on the portable module. The second site can upload the event metadata from the portable module and, in response, provide content associated with the event metadata, including recommended content associated with the event metadata.
US08117245B2

A method and system is provided to demographically represent and implement one or more projects associated with an entity such as a corporation in a database so that the views into the database reflect a defined hierarchy of the demographics of the project or entity. The views may be created to reflect various aspects such as technological components, physical attributes of the entity, processes, or other attributes. The processes reflected by the views may also provide action based data elements for supporting the activities necessary to accomplish the processes over time. The project and associate views may also be organized by language or geographic requirements. In use, the invention may provide for management and control for large scale projects such as a migration from one organizational state to another.
US08117244B2

A non-distruptive migration of a native volume from a source server to a destination server performed by a file switch involves converting the source native volume to a native with metadata volume. The native with metadata volume is converted to a mirrored native with metadata volume including the source server and the destination server. The destination server includes a mirror copy of the native with metadata volume. The source server is removed from the mirrored native with metadata volume. The mirror copy of the native with metadata volume on the destination server is converted to a destination native volume on the destination server.
US08117242B1

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for performing a search in conjunction with use of an online application. In operation, a document editing interface is displayed for editing a document. Additionally, at least one term of the document is identified. Further, a search interface is displayed. Still yet, a search is performed utilizing the search interface, based on the at least one term.
US08117241B2

A method of generating multimedia data is provided. The method includes generating a scene tree by allocating at least one piece of object information to each of a plurality of nodes and then linking the nodes based on the relationship between a plurality of pieces of object information allocated to the nodes, adding a null node to which the object information of an exchangeable media object is allocated, and thereafter recording the null node in a scene descriptor area in a scene description language.
US08117227B2

A method for analyzing data from the web that determine the importance that a chosen subject has in society, e.g., subject matter relating a concert, a scientific discovery, a football match, a person, a corporation, a brand, or a car, and analyze such data that can represent the entire society better than the known techniques. The method according to the invention can avoid malicious alterations and is able to measure and detect the temporal relations among all the web resources that talk about a particular topic or subject matter.
US08117222B2

A method and apparatus assigns a quantitative variable to each object (or set of objects) in a collection available to a user. The quantitative variable is referred to as the Interest Priority Value (IPV). The IPV defines a range of states of the object, between ‘accessed’ and ‘unaccessed’, and is calculated based on one or more attributes of the object. A object with the highest IPV is the most ‘unaccessed,’ and the object with the lowest IPV is the least ‘unaccessed.’ The IPV may be used in a visual representation of the collection of objects, thereby permitting a user to readily identify and obtain those objects of greatest interest to the particular user.
US08117219B2

A mechanism is described for the computer-aided generation of anonymized data records for developing and testing application programs that are intended for use in a productive network (12). A method according to the invention comprises the provision of at least one productive database (14) containing data records that contain productive data elements to be anonymized, provision of at least one non-productive database (22) containing data records that likewise contain data elements, the generation of an assignment between data records of the non-productive database (22) and data records of the productive database (14), and also the generation of an anonymized data record by replacing the data elements to be anonymized in a data record from the productive database (14) with the data elements of an assigned data record from the non-productive database (22). The assignment is maintained during a later generation of new anonymized data records and/or during an updating of already generated anonymized data records in order to be able to maintain the test data and in order to make simpler error analysis possible.
US08117217B2

There is provided an information processing apparatus for providing encoding technology that enables data size reductions and analysis processing speed improvements even for data including elements having complex attribute values. The apparatus includes a file input unit that inputs a file including elements having a data stream of a predetermined format as an attribute value, a hierarchy information setting unit that sets hierarchy information indicating hierarchical positions for each of one or more delimiters included in the data stream, a structure information generating unit that generates structure information that defines mutual relations between hierarchy information, a designating unit that designates a region of a data stream of a predetermined format from the input file, and an encoding unit that detects delimiters from the designated region and, based on detected delimiters and structure information, encodes a data stream of the designated region based on a preset structured description language.
US08117215B2

A query-centric system and process for distributing reverse indices for a distributed content system. Relevance ranking techniques in organizing distributed system indices. Query-centric configuration subprocesses (1) analyze query data, partitioning terms for reverse index server(s) (RIS), (2) distribute each partitioned data set by generally localizing search terms for the RIS that have some query-centric correlation, and (3) generate and maintain a map for the partitioned reverse index system terms by mapping the terms for the reverse index to a plurality of different index server nodes. Indexing subprocess element builds distributed reverse indices from content host indices. Routines of the query execution use the map derived in the configuration to more efficiently return more relevant search results to the searcher.
US08117204B2

A computer-based method is provided for enabling navigation of video using a keyframe-based video browser on a display device with a limited screen size, for a video segmented into video shots. The video shots are clustered by similarity, while temporal order of the video shots is maintained. A hierarchically organized navigation tree is produced for the clusters of video shots, while the path lengths of the tree are minimized.
US08117198B2

Methods for using task-related information to enhance digital searching are provided. A task-oriented user activity system maintains task-related information about resources accessed by a user and current user task. This task-related information is used to include task-related metadata in search engine index, e.g., by storing the metadata in the index or by storing it in resources which are subsequently indexed. Task-related information can also be used to enhance search results by filtering and ranking results to increase relevance with respect to a user's current task and/or to enhance search queries to include task-related search criteria.
US08117197B1

A method and apparatus for dynamically adjusting the user interface of a search engine in order to effectively communicate the improved relevancy achieved through real-time implicit re-ranking of search results is described. Real-time implicit re-ranking occurs without delay after every user action as the search is being conducted, so finding methods of immediately altering the search page without disrupting the user experience is important. Graphical icons next to search results are employed to enable generating and removing re-ranked results, referred to as “recommended” search results. Clusters based on the real-time user model are also displayed to facilitate query reformulations. Sponsored links are selected using the real-time user model along with a combination of RPC and CTR information and are displayed in a manner similar to the organic results, or used to replace the initial sponsored links altogether.
US08117196B2

A method and system providing optional use of human search guides to allow a user to select between a human guide assisted search and an automated search. The user is provided with an option of submitting a query requesting assistance of one or more human guides, initiating a search without requesting assistance from human guide(s) using automated results, or a combination of both.
US08117191B2

The present invention concerns an XML data base management system (XDBMS, 10) for an XML database (20) comprising XML documents (30), each XML document (30) comprising one or more structural elements (35) and adhering to an XML schema (40), wherein at least one of the structural elements (35) is protected against access of a user (60), the XDBMS (10) comprising: a. an optimizer (300) adapted to process an XQuery (50) of the user (60) comprising one or more XQuery expressions (55) and further adapted to generate an optimized XQuery execution plan (70); b. an execution engine (400) adapted to execute the optimized XQuery execution plan (70) to retrieve XML data (80) from the XML database (20), characterized in that c. the optimizer (300) is adapted to generate the optimized XQuery execution plan (70), so that all XQuery expressions (55) relating to one or more of the structural elements (35) which are protected against access of the user (60) are ignored by the optimizer (300).
US08117186B2

A database processing apparatus generates a first processing instruction for acquiring an element included in the processing-target structured document, a second processing instruction for performing a natural join by using result data including the acquired element, a third processing instruction for performing a cross join by using the result data, and a fourth processing instruction for updating a correspondence relation between a result of the execution of the natural join and a result of the execution of the cross join by using these result of executions, and joins these processing instructions to generate the process plan. At this time, the database processing apparatus converts the first processing instruction into a fifth processing instruction for transmitting an acquisition request for the element to the database servers, and receiving the result data including the acquired element from the plural database servers.
US08117177B2

An information searching apparatus stores, in a character-string accumulating unit, first character strings in correspondence with second character strings while classifying each of the second character strings according to an attribute thereof. The information searching apparatus further stores, in a storage unit, the attributes in correspondence with specified information each of which is specified based on at least one of the corresponding first character string and the containing document. The information searching apparatus obtains specified information based on at least one of a first character string and a document that contains the first character string and extracts, from the storage unit, the attributes. The information searching apparatus then extracts, from the character-string accumulating unit, one of the second character strings.
US08117174B2

A database system providing high performance database versioning is described. In a database system employing a transaction log, a method for restoring databases to a consistent version including creating a cache view of a shared cache and performing undo or redo operations on the cache view only when a log sequence number falls within a certain range.
US08117172B2

A method for compact encoding including providing a first value field allocated in a first portion of a memory, wherein a portion of the first value field is utilized to store a fixed-size variable. A most significant zero bit (MSZB) is located in the first value field, and it is determined if the fixed-size variable can be written in a first area without performing an erase operation. The first area includes the N bits following the MSZB in the first value field. The fixed-size variable is written into the first area if the fixed-size variable can be written without performing the erase operation.
US08117166B2

A data management method in a storage device system having a control device connected to a computer, and a storage device connected to the control device. The control device saves data stored in an area corresponding to a write request, and then writes the data to the area specified in the write request in accordance with the write request, if a file corresponding to the write request is a file meeting the conditions included in the request. Alternatively, the control device writes the data to the area corresponding to the write request in accordance with the write request, if a file corresponding to the write request is not a file meeting the conditions.
US08117152B2

The present invention provides a system and method of synchronizing a cache that substantially eliminates or reduces disadvantages associated with previously developed systems and methods of synchronizing caches. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method for bi-directional synchronization of a cache. One embodiment of the system of this invention includes a software program stored on a computer readable medium. The software program can be executed by a computer processor to run in user space and perform steps comprising: receiving a database asset from a database; storing the database asset as a cached file in a cache; determining if the cached file has been modified; and if the cached file has been modified, communicate the cached file directly to the database. In one embodiment of the present invention, the software program can determine if the cached file has been modified through automatic notification from a file management system. Alternatively, the software program can poll a cached file to determine if the cached file has changed. In another embodiment of the present invention, the software program can be further executable to perform the step of prompting an operating system to open the cached file in an application associated with the cached file's file type. In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the software program can be further executable to receive notifications from a database of when contention for a database asset occurs. Thus, bi-directional synchronization can occur.
US08117140B2

Disclosed are methods, systems, and/or processor program products that include generating a population of genotypes, the genotypes based on at least one stimulus to a system, measuring at least one response of the system upon providing the population of genotypes to at least one model of the system, and, based on the measured at least one response of the system, performing at least one of: (a) applying at least one genetic operator to at least some of the population of genotypes, and iteratively returning to generating a population of genotypes, and (b) associating a condition of the system with at least one of the population of genotypes.
US08117131B2

An online, and therefore distributed, technology transfer department accessible by multiple inventive entities is provided. The systems and methods of the invention provide a comprehensive interface to a remote application that collects information related to inventions, ranks the inventions, solicits approval for pursuing intellectual property protection, funding, financing, commercializing or otherwise exploiting the invention, solicits bids from a stable of service providers, manages the award of contracts to provide services, facilitates collaboration between users internal and external to the inventive entities and between different entities, implements security protocols, and reports government funded inventions to the appropriate regulatory agencies, and manages intellectual property portfolios. Each inventive entity may specify the level of control to be retained to utilize the distributed technology office application as a supplement for or as a substitute for full time technology transfer personnel.
US08117121B2

A system and method for dynamically creating and presenting a network based application for any number of a plurality of products. The method and system upon receiving a request to apply for one or more of a plurality of products, dynamically creates an application pages that includes fields to input the specific information required to apply for the selected products. The application page is provided to the applicant through the network and the application data is received by the system. The method and system causes the application data to be processed and provides the results to the applicant. The applicant is provided the results of multiple specific applications in with minimal data input and in real time.
US08117113B2

Various methods and systems for auctioning items such as golf tee times, restaurant reservations, concert tickets or hotel reservations are disclosed. Users can effectively bid on a large number of items but receive at most one item at the end of the auction. This has the favorable effects for the users of: (1) increasing the probability of successfully bidding for at least one item; (2) making the auction process more convenient by greatly reducing the need for actively monitoring the auction; and, (3) decreasing the possibility a user will be out bid at the last moment and receive no item. This also has the favorable effects for the seller of increasing the probability their listed items will sell and increasing the expected average sales price.
US08117110B2

Systems, processes and methods are described for converting over-the-counter derivative products such as interest rate swaps (IRSs) to standardized forward swaps, such as centrally cleared interest rate swaps. The value of each leg of the over-the counter swap may be determined and compared to a value of a corresponding leg of the forward swap. A mark-to-market value may be determined as the difference between the values.
US08117109B2

A trading system transitions from a first state to a second state and may award a participant, when one or more criteria and/or a status of trading rights are met, with trading priority in the second state to trade on an incoming contra order. The participant may also have an associated order modified as a result of an incoming contra order and/or be caused to automatically trade on an incoming contra order.
US08117107B2

The present invention provides a novel simulation based method for analyzing new auction formats and rules, from limited and partially observable bidder characteristics. A simulation platform under this method is general enough to be easily modified to a specific design of auctions. This method will utilize the known results, if any, on some aspects of the auction rules under consideration, and simultaneously recover an extended set of bidder characteristics from limited and partially observed, existing bidder data, and will predict bidder behavior under the new auction rules. Advantageously, this method applies known results on some aspects of an auction format to the new learning of this format.
US08117106B2

The reputation scoring and reporting system for accounts associated with telephone numbers and maintained in an electronic database includes processing a request for a reputation report corresponding to an account in the database. The request is authenticated via the telephone number associated with the account. A reputation report is then sent to a subscriber in response to an authenticated request. In return, transaction information between the subscriber and entity is associated with the account in the electronic database. The reputation score for the account is calculated in real-time based on the transaction information stored in the electronic database.
US08117103B2

Method and systems for operationalizing process excellence. An execution methodology of the invention can meld process excellence with various tools and incorporate activity-based financial modeling, and an operating efficiency model. The overall process can be divided into sessions which can include pre-work, as well as characterizing “as-is” and “to-be” processes. The goal of the sessions is to create a continuous improvement productivity loop. The processes of the invention can be aided by apparatus including an instruction execution platform operable to store and execute computer program code instructions for implementing a plurality of the tools for use in characterizing the as-is and a to-be processes. One or more of these tools can be implemented in the form of a spreadsheet. A data store can be operatively connected to the instruction execution platform by a network to supply historical data and store results.
US08117099B1

A computer implemented method for converting a business account from a source billing system to a target billing system is provided. The method includes designing a conversion engine, testing the conversion engine, and executing the conversion engine to convert the business account from the source billing system to the target billing system. The conversion engine includes back-out points at which the conversion engine may return the business account to the source billing system.
US08117093B2

A system, application and product in data processing is disclosed for processing expedited orders, the method comprising. An existing availability of an order is determined. Expedited processing to the order is allowed above other orders or in advance of the standard manufacturing lead time associated with a material of the order by performing at least one of the following: changing a delivery plant; changing a requested delivery date; changing a delivery priority; and changing a quantity.
US08117091B2

A method for providing a certified photograph in a network environment is offered that includes interfacing with one or more end users and managing information related to one or more of the end users. The method further includes displaying one or more photos of the end users and providing a label on the photos that certifies the photos as being substantially accurate.
US08117082B1

The environmental impact of various transactions can be reduced or offset by determining the impact of various shipping and packaging options, and providing these options to customers. Customers then have the ability to select options that reduce the environmental impact of each transaction. A customer also can purchase environmental offsets to offset the determined impact. Customers can be provided with environmental impact information determined or tracked for each item viewed by the customer, such that each customer can be informed of the additional impact of each individual when making a selection. The selections and/or actions of a customer can be tracked such that environmentally friendly options and suggestions can be provided for subsequent transactions.
US08117080B1

This invention relates to a pooling method for an auction existing in a social network system wherein bidding back-up friends who provided the best bidder or raffle winner with bidding money, bidding ticket, or raffle ticket are compensated. The compensation is proportional to the amount of bidding money provided, and the order of the winner and the bidding back-up friend. The pooling method for an auction bid in a social network system comprises the steps of: providing users with bidding money, building a bidding back-up friendship among the users, providing the users with bidding tickets, providing one user's bidding money or bidding ticket to his bidding back-up friend who participates in an auction, and best bidder wins the auction and his bidding back-up friends are compensated.
US08117078B2

An event management method, program product and system for monitoring the status of a purchase order involves receiving purchase order information from a user, obtaining timeline information corresponding to the purchase order, receiving information from one or more sources on the status of the purchase order, using the received information to monitor progress of the purchase order against the timeline information, and providing a notification to the user upon identification of a missed date in the timeline information. Remedial measures are suggested or taken by the event management system.
US08117074B2

This invention describes the use of a Chip Conversion Factor (CCF) to scale offers for EBRs. The CCFs are a multiplier that will be applied to offers received for the EBRs. In general, the CCF can be computed based on any number of factors such as the cost of the EBRs, the worth of an EBR to a potential buyer (e.g., at a particular time), a customer status (e.g., preferred customer) of a potential buyer, etc. The invention helps to take into account any differences between EBRs that meet a potential buyer's requirements but that may affect the value of the EBRs relative to one another.
US08117073B1

A method and system for delegation of service procurement by a temporary agent. In one embodiment, in response to an event, a first entity is automatically identified to adjust travel or meeting plans pre-established for one or more group members. The identified first entity adjusts the pre-established travel or meeting plans for one or more members, and notifies one or more group members of the adjustment to the pre-established travel or meeting plans. In one embodiment, the identified first entity is at least one of the one or more group members, not one of the one or more group members, or a software agent. In one embodiment, in response to an unavailability of the first entity, a predetermined alternative first entity is identified to adjust the pre-established travel or meeting plans. In one embodiment, in response to receiving a decline from one or more group members, the one or more group members are presented with one or more second travel or meeting adjustments. In one embodiment, the adjusting of the pre-established travel or meeting plans is based at least in part on a profile of one or more group members.
US08117071B1

A method for matching an unknown product to an offered product profile at a point of sale involves obtaining a first sensory input from the unknown product, where the first sensory input comprises at least a portion of an image, assigning a value to one or more characteristics of the first sensory input, searching a first product repository for a matching product profile using a pre-defined range based on the value of the one or more characteristics of the first sensory input, identifying the matching product profile on the first product repository when the offered product profile is within the pre-defined range, wherein the matching product profile includes a plurality of product information data, and conducting a transaction at the point of sale using the plurality of product information data.
US08117068B2

A method and apparatus for providing audio advertisements in a computer network enables Web sites to deliver audio advertisements that cannot be bypassed by a visitor. More particularly, an advertising or sponsoring Web site receives a request from at least one user for delivery of a user-selected Web page associated with the Web site. The Web site selects at least one audio advertisement from a plurality of audio advertisements for delivery to the user in conjunction with the user-selected Web page. The Web site then delivers the audio advertisement to the user via the network in a format that precludes the user from controlling the manner of playback of the audio advertisement.
US08117059B1

In an embodiment, a method for on-demand repair planning includes modeling for a repair location: a good parts buffer; a first buffer for unserviceable parts determined to be serviceable without repair; and a second buffer for unserviceable parts determined to be repairable. A forecasted demand, for a specified quantity of serviceable parts, is accessed. Parts available in the first buffer to help satisfy the forecasted demand is estimated. If a part is available, an operation plan is generated for a use-as-is operation. If the forecasted demand is not fully satisfied, a quantity of parts available in the second buffer to help satisfy the forecasted demand is estimated and, if one or more parts are available: the latest time at which a repair operation can begin is estimated; a repair order is planned; and an operation plan is generated for the repair operation.
US08117057B2

A computer-assisted method of determining and producing quantities of perishable, store-prepared food items that should be displayed for consumer selection and purchase on a daily basis is provided. The method includes collecting daily sales data for the perishable, store-prepared food items and saving the daily sales data in memory. For a current specific day of the week, the daily sales data is processed for prior occurrences of the specific day to determine, for each of the perishable, store-prepared food items, a quantity to be placed on display. A total preparation quantity is reported for each of the perishable, store-prepared food items.
US08117050B2

Embodiments of the claimed subject matter provide a method and system for modeling advertiser monetization. The claimed subject matter provides a method and system from which an advertisement may be evaluated according to various metrics to determine a quality relative to other advertisements. The relative quality considers the content of the advertisement, the performance of the advertisement and the history of the advertiser's bidding behavior.One embodiment of the claimed subject matter is implemented as a method for advertiser monetization modeling. One or more advertisements are received from one or more advertisers. The quality of the advertisement(s) is defined according to certain metrics, such as the quality of the content of the advertisement, the quality of the past and estimated future performance of the advertisement and the history of bidding behavior of the advertiser. After the respective quality of the advertisement(s) is determined, the advertisement(s) is ranked with other advertisements according to the determined quality.
US08117049B2

Provided are methods, systems, and apparatuses for determining driver behavior based on vehicle operating parameters, adjusting insurance premiums accordingly, and preventing fraudulent manipulation of the methods, systems, and apparatuses.
US08117047B1

A business model for a healthcare provider organization (10) (HPO) which comprises a preferred provider network (PPO) or other membership agreement that allows individuals or groups to join via a membership contract. The contract allows the HPO (10) to provide a technical component of a medical evaluation or service (16). Additionally, the HPO (10) employs or retains the services of healthcare professionals (18) who participate in and monitor an evaluation of a patient (20) who can be at a remote location from the healthcare professional. The HPO (10) provides a medical diagnostic unit (24), which is known as an EFA-2, that allows the healthcare professional to receive data that pertains to the patient (20) via a real-time communication protocol (28), or the patient data is collected and stored on an electronic storage device (30). The healthcare professional then analyzes the patient data and issues recommended treatment.
US08117043B2

A computer system includes a data storage device. The data storage module receives, stores, and provides access to historical claim data. A categorical aggregation component comprising program instructions stored in a program memory provides categorized and aggregated historical claim data by identifying claim categories based on the historical claim data, each of the one or more claim categories associated with a respective set of claim characteristics, identifying claims of the historical claim data associated with one of the claim categories, assigning each identified claim to one of a plurality of total severity ranges based on the total severity of the identified claim, and determining an average cost per claim year for claims of each total severity range when executed by a computer processor.
US08117038B2

Storing audio data encoded in any of a plurality of different audio encoding formats is enabled by parametrically defining the underlying format in which the audio data is encoded, in audio format and packet table chunks. A flag can be used to manage storage of the size of the audio data portion of the file, such that premature termination of an audio recording session does not result in an unreadable corrupted file. This capability can be enabled by initially setting the flag to a value that does not correspond to a valid audio data size and that indicates that the last chunk in the file contains the audio data. State information for the audio data, to effectively denote a version of the file, and a dependency indicator for dependent metadata, may be maintained, where the dependency indicator indicates the state of the audio data on which the metadata is dependent.
US08117036B2

Information is exchanged between a user of a communications device and an application during an ongoing conversation between the user using the communications device and a party, without disrupting the conversation. An application associated with the communications device is accessed via the communications device in response to a command and keyword spoken by the user during the communications session. Information is retrieved from the application according to the keyword spoken by the user. When the information is retrieved from the application, the user is prompted in a manner transparent to the party, after which a response is sent to the user.
US08117024B2

Systems and methods for automatically processing candidate resumes and job specifications expressed in natural language into a normalized form using frequency analysis. A database of elements is provided in which each element is expressed in natural language and at least some of which are associated with a corresponding set of synonymous words or phrases. Candidate resumes and job specifications are received in electronic form and expressed in natural language. The candidate resumes and job specifications are analyzed to extract elements expressed in candidate resumes and job specifications. The extracted elements are compared to the database. For each extracted element, the most frequent element or synonym is identified an used as a common form for the extracted element. A set of candidate resumes is matched with a corresponding job specification by comparing the set of elements expressed in common form for the resumes with the set of elements expressed in common form for the job specification.
US08117023B2

This language understanding apparatus includes a storage section, a phrase interpreter, and a bidding section. The bidding section reads information on a slot of a semantic frame corresponding to a concept indicated by an information read by the phrase interpreter and information on a concept corresponding to the slot by referring to the storage section, specifies, for each semantic frame read, from the concept representation detected by the phrase interpreter, a concept representation corresponding to a concept corresponding to each slot of the semantic frame or a subordinate concept of that concept, and a concept representation whose slot of another semantic frame is not bidden, and repeats bidding the slot for the specified concept representation, thereby generating slot allocation table data indicating a bidding result.
US08117020B2

Systems and methods for determining a stability of a blood glucose concentration of a patient are provided. The system comprises a processor that may be programmed to receive blood glucose concentration test results each taken from the patient at a different time over a time period and to compute a time-averaged glucose parameter indicative of blood glucose concentration control over the time period. In addition, the processor may be programmed to compute a virtual blood hemoglobin parameter through a simulated measurement of a blood hemoglobin, the virtual blood hemoglobin parameter being indicative of blood glucose concentration control over an extended time period encompassing the time period. Further, the processor may be programmed to compute a lability factor parameter indicative of a variability in blood glucose concentration over the time period.
US08117012B2

A computer-implemented method is used for determining cooling requirements of a computer system enclosure, where the enclosure includes a number of installed modules, the modules including fan modules. The method includes the steps of determining an individual impedance curve of each installed module; determining fan curves for the installed fan modules; based on the individual impedance curves, determining an overall system impedance curve for the computer system; determining desired performance requirements for the computer system; based on the desired performance requirements, determining corresponding fan curves; and choosing a fan curve that intersects the system impedance curve.
US08117011B2

A computer-aided design apparatus generates a tree structure of coordinate systems defining the topology of a three-dimensional object to be fabricated. The coordinate systems are positioned and orientated in accordance with mathematical functions. The mathematical function positioning child coordinate systems has the identity of the parent coordinate systems as a variable so that the positions of the child coordinate systems relative to their parent coordinate systems vary in accordance with the identity of the parent coordinate systems. Data defining the coordinate systems and connections therebetween is stored in a graph. Bases having a defined relationship are identified and three-dimensional content objects are added thereto. The content objects are added using the same mathematical function to generate a three-dimensional content object in each of a plurality of coordinate systems. The mathematical function for generating the content objects has the identity of the coordinate systems as a variable thereof to generate the content object in each coordinate system with a different shape.
US08117006B2

Provided is a method of measuring the position of a portable terminal, comprising detecting indoor illuminating light, and outputting an electric signal corresponding to the detected indoor illuminating light, obtaining a plurality of data frames from the output electrical signal, and calculating a position of the portable terminal based on information regarding the position of a corresponding reference light source included in each data frame and an identifier corresponding to the reference light source included in said each frame and a reception time of said each data frame.
US08117001B2

A measurement system and a measurement method, which can obtain a measurement value close to a true value considering an overlay measurement error according to a higher order regression analysis model. The measurement system and the measurement method provide a technique for determining optimal positions of shots to be measured using an optimal experimental design. When the regression analysis model and the number of shots to be measured are determined in advance, a method is used for determining an optimal number of shots to be measured according to the regression analysis model and process dispersion using a confidence interval estimating method. A dynamic sampling method is used for dynamically changing the number and positions of shots to be measured according to a change in process features by combining the above two methods. And, when erroneous data is detected, or when measured data is missing, a robust regression analysis method and a technique for filtering the erroneous data and the missing data are used.
US08117000B2

A method for measuring the quantum state of a resonator includes, exciting an input port of a circuit with signal, measuring a phase shift of the signal at an output port of the circuit, wherein the resonator is coupled to the input and the output ports, and calculating a quantum state of the resonator as a function of the measured phase shift of the signal.
US08116999B2

Method to identify a current drawn by a fluorescent lamp in a circuit. Methods include receiving a voltage supplied to a fluorescent lamp drawing a current in response to the voltage, digitally sampling the voltage at a sampling frequency and associating a first time stamp with a voltage value representing one of a maximum or minimum value in observed voltage, receiving the current after receiving the voltage, digitally sampling the current at the sampling frequency and associating multiple second time stamps with a corresponding multiple current values, identifying a second time stamp, a difference between the first time stamp and the second time stamp being within a threshold, and identifying a current value associated with the second time stamp as the current drawn by the fluorescent lamp.
US08116993B2

The present technology relates to a volumetric measurement device and various methods for operation of the device. The device comprises at least one accelerometer for detecting the angle of tilt/tip of a container. The device also comprises at least one fluid property processor capable of providing at least one fluidic property value of a fluid, a flow-rate processor capable of continuously calculating the present flow rate of the fluid when poured from the container, and a volume processor capable of continuously calculating the present volume of the fluid within the container. The flow-rate processor calculates the rate of flow of the fluid poured from the container based on the angle of tilt/tip of the apparatus, the at least one fluid property value, and the present volume of fluid within the container.
US08116989B2

A device and associated method for determining an airport runway state includes a device that determines a runway state and is placed on board an aircraft. The device collects measured deceleration data of the aircraft during taxiing of the aircraft on the runway. Then at least one runway state is estimated from the collected data, and the estimate is transmitted to another aircraft or to a broadcasting center during the other aircraft's runway approach.
US08116988B2

The present invention relates to a method for indexing nucleic acid sequences to aid computer based searching of nucleic acid sequences by indexing a nucleotide sequence by the presence of unique Kmers in the sequence. The method of the present invention comprises utilizing an algorithm to automatically index a nucleic acid sequence.
US08116980B2

Testing process for testing hydrocarbon wells at zero emissions in order to obtain general information on a reservoir. The process includes injecting into the reservoir a suitable liquid or gaseous fluid, compatible with the hydrocarbons of the reservoir and with the formation rock, at a constant flow-rate or with constant flow rate steps, and substantially measuring, in continuous, the flow-rate and injection pressure at the well bottom. Then, the well is closed and the pressure is measured during the fall-off period (pressure fall-off). The measured fall-off data is interpreted in order to evaluate the average static pressure of the fluids (Pav) and the reservoir properties including actual permeability (k), transmissivity (kh), areal heterogeneity or permeability barriers and real Skin factor (S). Then, well productivity is calculated.
US08116972B2

A method for generating a fueling strategy that generally minimizes fueling costs for a specified route to be traveled by a vehicle during a multi-day time period may include, based on current and forecasted fuel prices for the multi-day time period, (i) selecting at least one day during the multi-day time period on which to purchase fuel, (ii) selecting at least one fueling station along the route at which to purchase fuel for each selected day, and (iii) determining an amount of fuel to purchase at each selected fueling station.
US08116969B2

A method is disclosed in which traffic flows are equalized. In at least one embodiment, this is achieved by virtue of road users receiving individual route recommendations from a traffic control computer in such a manner that the traffic control computer uses reports from road users and route segment parameters to determine, for each route branch point, a new respective distribution ration for the statistical frequency of the respective route recommendations at a respective route branch point at particular intervals of time, a route being allocated a higher frequency in the case of more favourable traffic conditions, and in such a manner that a respective road user receives, before a respective route branch point, a random route recommendation from the set of alternatively possible routes in accordance with the statistical frequency of the respective route recommendations.
US08116963B2

According to various embodiments of the invention, a map of injection pin profiles is experimentally determined at various locations spanning an engine operating plane. Injector pin profiles at points within the continuum spanned by the experimentally determined profiles are determined by interpolating between surrounding experimentally determined injector pin profiles. Various methods are used to adjust the interpolation procedure in cases where one injector pin profile has more or fewer points than the other injector pin profile.
US08116962B2

A method of operating an internal combustion engine. With reference to FIG. 1, fuel is supplied to charge air using an injector (116) which in each operation delivers a set amount of fuel. The amount of fuel supplied to the charge air in each engine cycle is controlled by how many times the injector (116) operates in each cycle. A desired fuel demand is calculated as a number of operations of the injector per cycle, calculated to at least one decimal place. The desired fuel demand is rounded to a near integer to provide an output fuel demand for the injector as a number of operations of the injector for the next operating cycle in varying operating conditions of the engine. The controller calculates an aggregate number of operations for a plurality of engine cycles which is closer to an aggregated desired fuel demand for the plurality of cycles than if for each cycle of the plurality of output cycles the output fuel demand is calculated independently.
US08116961B2

Controlling a vehicle responsive to reductant conditions is provided. The method for controlling a vehicle having an engine with an exhaust, the exhaust having a reductant injection system including a reductant storage vessel, the engine further having a fuel system including a fuel storage vessel, may include under degraded reductant conditions, restricting vehicle motion in response to a fuel refill of the fuel storage vessel.
US08116955B2

A method of controlling brake power flow for a vehicle with an electrically variable transmission is provided. When the brake power exceeds a power absorption capability of the energy storage system, then vehicle conditions are evaluated to determine if control of an engine fan is allowable. When conditions allow for fan control then the remaining brake power is provided for operation of the engine fan. Any excess brake power is dissipated through the exhaust brake or used by other vehicle accessories.
US08116942B2

A steering angle control apparatus for a vehicle includes a first calculating means calculating a longitudinal force, a second calculating device calculating a longitudinal force difference between at least one of right side wheels and at least one of left side wheels based on the longitudinal force, a third calculating device calculating a contribution rate of front wheels at a steering angle control and a contribution rate of rear wheels at the steering angle control, a fourth calculating device calculating a front wheel correction steering angle and a rear wheel correction steering angle based on the contribution rate of the front wheel, the contribution rate of the rear wheel, and a state quantity including the longitudinal force difference, and a driving device outputting a control command value based on the front wheel correction steering angle and the rear wheel correction steering angle.
US08116939B2

A suspension system for a vehicle, including (a) four displacement force generators (152) each configured to generate a displacement force forcing sprung and unsprung portions of the vehicle toward or away from each other; and (b) a control unit (200) configured to control the displacement force that is to be generated by each displacement force generator. The control unit is capable of executing a plurality of vibration damping controls concurrently with each other, by controlling the displacement force, so as to damp a composite vibration containing a plurality of different vehicle-body vibrations which are to be damped by the respective vibration damping controls. The control unit is configured to refrain from executing at least one of the vibration damping controls for damping one of the vehicle-body vibrations that is not required to be damped, in a low vibration intensity situation in which intensities of sprung-portion resonance-frequency vibration components in respective four sprung portions of the vehicle are lower than a threshold intensity degree.
US08116938B2

A first observer gain of an actual damping force estimating observer 21 calculates a dynamic characteristic compensating signal, and a second observer gain of an actual vehicle model state amount estimating observer 23 calculates a vehicle model compensating signal, from an output deviation corresponding to a difference between a sprung speed (observation output) provided from a vehicle 2 and an estimated sprung speed (estimated observation output) provided from a vehicle approximation model of the actual vehicle model state amount estimating observer 23. The dynamic characteristic compensating signal is input into a dynamic characteristic providing unit of the actual vehicle model state amount estimating observer 23, and is used for adjustment of the setting of the dynamic characteristic providing unit. Therefore, it is possible to curb time lag occurrence in a control, and thereby perform a vibration control with improved accuracy.
US08116934B2

A vehicle failure analysis system for a vehicle equipped with a plurality of control systems, each of which includes one or more components, includes: a faulty system identification unit that identifies a faulty control system from among the plurality of control systems; and a faulty component identification unit that identifies a faulty component from among the one or more components which are constituents of the identified control system.
US08116933B2

A reverse failure analyzer determines a group of diagnostic test procedures related to a particular vehicle component from a pool of diagnostic procedures, and then identifies the specific failure modes of each of the diagnostic test procedures. The reverse failure analyzer further associates the specific failure modes with the respective vehicle component associated with each of the diagnostic test procedures, and the symptoms associated with each of the diagnostic test procedures to the correlated vehicle components and failure modes. In addition, the reverse failure analyzer can cross-reference various vehicle components that can be the root cause of a particular symptom or a vehicle operational problem. Furthermore, the reverse failure analyzer can receive observed symptoms regarding a particular test subject vehicle and correlate the observed symptoms to the vehicle components that can cause the symptoms based on the results of reverse failure analyses.
US08116931B2

A control system for diagnosing a fuel system of a vehicle is provided. The system generally includes a correction term module that estimates a fuel correction term based on a first fuel correction value and a second fuel correction value, wherein the first fuel correction value is based on a first period and the second fuel correction value is based on a second period, and wherein the first period is longer than the second period. A diagnostic module diagnoses the fuel system of the vehicle based on the fuel correction term.
US08116914B2

A pitch controller, uninterruptible power supply, and rotational speed detector are disposed in the rotor in a wind turbine. When a slip ring failure or wire breakage occurs, the pitch controller internally creates a pitch angle command so as to control the pitch angle.
US08116913B2

Use of compressed air for indoor ambient temperature conditioning. Thermal energy is imparted to or extracted from compressed air, and the compressed air is released inside a structure enclosing a space. The compressed air may be used as a direct heat conduction/extraction medium. A flow of external air is created over a heat exchanger mass, so that thermal energy of the compressed air flowing inside the heat exchanger mass is transferred to the external flow of air flowing outside the heat exchanger mass. In addition to being a direct heat conduction/extraction medium, the compressed air is used as heat transfer medium, that ultimately gets mixed with the flow of external air. Fresh external air may be used. A local feedback loop may be used to route back a portion of temperature-conditioned air to regulate a flow of external air over a heat exchanger mass.
US08116904B2

An object search apparatus acquires, from each IC tag of IC tags corresponding to objects respectively, an object information item including an identifier of an object, a hierarchical level, a detection method for detection of the object, and a manipulation method for the object, to obtain a plurality of object information items including a target object information item of a target object, selects, from the object information items, an object information item higher in the hierarchical level than the target object, detects an object corresponding to selected object information item by using the detection method in the selected object information item, manipulates detected object in accordance with the manipulation method in the selected object information item, selects target object information item from the object information items, and detects the target object from the detected object by using the detection method in the target object information item.
US08116900B2

A method for fabricating a prosthetic limb socket component includes the following steps: (a) obtaining measurements of an individual's residual limb; (b) generating electronic data representing outer dimensions of the individual's residual limb utilizing (at least in part) the obtained measurements; (c) storing the electronic data representing outer dimensions of the individual's residual limb in an electronic record, where the electronic record includes cross-reference information; (d) manufacturing a first prosthetic limb socket component utilizing, at least in part, the electronic data representing outer dimensions of the individual's residual limb; (e) placing a permanent unique indicia on the prosthetic limb socket component, where the unique indicia includes data corresponding to the cross-reference information; and (f) utilizing the unique indicia data to access, with the assistance of a computer, the electronic record via the cross-reference information.
US08116892B2

A sound effect sensing turntable for a digital music broadcaster includes a capacitive charge sensing plate able to independently detect the variation of charge. A signal transmission unit is disposed between the sensing plate and a control plate for transmitting signals and thus, on receiving a signal, the control plate will produce relative sound effect to be output. In operating, when a DJ's fingers slightly touch the turntable, the sensing plate will sense charge variation on the turntable and actuate the control plate to control corresponding sound effect. By detecting the variation of charge on the turntable for controlling sound effect, the mode of touching the turntable of this invention for producing sound effect is like that of conventionally controlling a vinyl record for controlling sound effect, getting rid of conventional defect of producing wrong sound effect due to assembly errors.
US08116889B2

A control server, or similar central processor, manages the distribution of data (including audio and video), voice, and control signals among a plurality of devices connected via a wired and/or wireless communications network. The devices include audio/visual devices (such as, televisions, monitors, PDAs, notepads, notebooks, MP3, portable stereo, etc.) as well as household appliances (such as, lighting, ovens, alarm clocks, etc.). The control server supports video/audio serving, telephony, messaging, file sharing, internetworking, and security. A portable controller allows a user to access and control the network devices from any location within a controlled residential and/or non-residential environment, including its surrounding areas. The controllers are enhanced to support location-awareness and user-awareness functionality.
US08116880B2

A medical lead for electrical stimulation or sensing. The medical lead has a generally flat paddle on the distal end of the lead body. An electrode array is provided on the paddle, with the electrode array displaced along the length of the paddle toward the distal end. Advantages include allowing the electrode array may be advanced into position for electrical stimulation or sensing with the flat paddle extending through connective tissue, such as the ligamentum flavum, thus facilitating repositioning, withdrawal or explanting the medical lead, as well as using the flat features of the paddle to anchor the lead to the connective tissue.
US08116878B1

In accordance with an aspect of the present systems and methods, there is provided a multi-channel stimulator having a common supply voltage, the stimulator having an electrical circuit with a dual-range compliance voltage supply such that each channel of the multi-channel stimulator is configured to be selectable among two compliance voltages. Channels which can operate at half or less than half compliance voltage can operate in the lower voltage range and thereby achieve energy savings. The stimulator can be switched between a high and low compliance voltage in a bipolar or a monopolar electrode configuration.
US08116871B2

Cardiac monitoring and/or stimulation methods and systems that provide one or more of monitoring, diagnosing, defibrillation, and pacing. Cardiac signal separation is employed for automatic capture verification using cardiac activation sequence information. Devices and methods sense composite cardiac signals using implantable electrodes. A source separation is performed using the composite signals. One or more signal vectors are produced that are associated with all or a portion of one or more cardiac activation sequences based on the source separation. A cardiac response to the pacing pulses is classified using characteristics associated with cardiac signal vectors and the signals associated with the vectors. Further embodiments may involve classifying the cardiac response as capture or non-capture, fusion or intrinsic cardiac activity. The characteristics may include an angle or an angle change of the cardiac signal vectors, such as a predetermined range of angles of the one or more cardiac signal vectors.
US08116869B2

An implantable cardiac device is configured and programmed to assess a patient's cardiopulmonary function by evaluating the patient's minute ventilation response. Such evaluation may be performed by computing a minute ventilation response slope, defined as the ratio of an incremental change in minute ventilation to an incremental change in measured activity level. The minute ventilation response slope may then be compared with a normal range to assess the patient's functional status.
US08116868B2

Cardiac monitoring and stimulation methods and systems provide audio playback of cardiac events and transthoracic monitoring and therapy. A medical system includes a housing and electrodes configured for sensing cardiac electrical activity. Another sensor may be configured to sense heart movement and produce a signal in response, such as an audio signal. Memory stores the audio signal and the cardiac electrical signal. A controller and communications circuitry telemeter the cardiac electrical signal and the audio signal to a patient-external device. Energy delivery circuitry may deliver cardiac therapy. The device may further include a patient actuatable trigger configured to communicate to the controller via the communications circuitry. The controller may initiate storing of the cardiac electrical signal and the audio signal in response to the trigger. The patient-external device may further include a storage media.
US08116865B2

This document discusses, among other things, techniques for generating and delivering a high voltage defibrillation shock using an implantable cardiac rhythm management device. An output energy delivery bridge can be programmed to provide desired shock vectors or polarities. A bootstrapped fully solid-state switch control voltage generation circuit is described. Automatic polarity or vector reconfiguration embodiments are described, such as in response to an unsuccessful attempt to convert the heart to a normal rhythm.
US08116853B2

The attenuation and other optical properties of a medium are exploited to measure a thickness of the medium between a sensor and a target surface. Disclosed herein are various mediums, arrangements of hardware, and processing techniques that can be used to capture these thickness measurements and obtain three-dimensional images of the target surface in a variety of imaging contexts. This includes general techniques for imaging interior/concave surfaces as well as exterior/convex surfaces, as well as specific adaptations of these techniques to imaging ear canals, human dentition, and so forth.
US08116852B2

A system configured to provide feedback regarding fluid parameters in the skin and/or compartments of an individual to facilitate early diagnosis of skin wounds and compartment syndromes.
US08116851B2

Disclosed is a living body measurement apparatus including: a first light source placed on the surface of the skin in a living body and radiating a first light in a visible light wavelength range onto the surface of the skin; a second light source placed on the surface of the skin and radiating a second light in a near-infrared wavelength range onto the surface of the skin; an optical detector placed on the surface of the skin at a predetermined distance from the first and second light sources to detect, as an electric signal, first or second detection light penetrating up through the skin and inputted thereto among the radiated first or second light; and a controller for sequentially driving the first and second light sources.
US08116843B2

In a method for automatically selecting a region of interest covering a heated area, in the context of high intensity focused ultrasonic technology during acquisition of magnetic resonance data, phase data of a scanned area are acquired, and a heated area is identified in the scanned area according to the phase data acquired. An image is reconstructed and displayed, and in the displayed image a region of interest covering the heated area is automatically demarcated according to a predetermined size of said region of interest that covers and is larger than the heated area. The method causes the heated area to be automatically and completely included in the region of interest; and eliminates the instability of a manual selection of the region of interest.
US08116834B2

A slide type mobile terminal having a first body and a second body is provided. The first body includes a display and a first slide member. The second body includes a key pad and is slidably coupled to the first body. The second body includes a second slide member to slidably engage the corresponding first slide member of the first body to allow movement of the first body and the second body to enable one of closed or tilted configurations. One of the first and second slide members has a curvature along at least one end such that when the first body is extended from the second body, the first body is tilted at a predetermined angle with respect to the second body. The first body receives a portion of the second body and the second body receives a portion of the first body in the closed position.
US08116833B2

A grounding apparatus (200) for a portable electronic device (100) includes a conductive member (20), at least one connecting member (30) and a grounded sliding mechanism (40). The connecting member is electronically connected to the conductive member. The sliding mechanism is electrically connected to the conductive member via the connecting member.
US08116829B2

A first radio station (100) monitors, either continuously or intermittently, a channel for an indication of a transmitted data packet and measures the quality of the channel. The first radio station (100) transmits indications of the measured quality and when the measured quality falls below a quality threshold, it reduces the proportion of time spent monitoring the channel by introducing or increasing time periods when no monitoring takes place, and subsequently increases the time spent monitoring when the quality recovers. A second radio station (200) transmits data packets to the first radio station (100) and receives the indications of measured channel quality. When the measured quality falls below the quality threshold, the second station reduces the proportion of time spent transmitting the data packets to the first radio station (100) by introducing or increasing time periods between transmitted the data packets.
US08116825B1

A mobile device (1) for electronic commerce. The device includes a mobile housing (2) and a microprocessor-based unit (6) coupled to a memory storage device (5) in the housing. The device has a power supply (3) that is coupled to the microprocessor unit while supplying power to all of the components. The device has one or more input controls (4) coupled to the microprocessor unit. The device also includes a wireless receiver (or transceiver) (7) and additional wireless transceiver (8) coupled to the microprocessor based unit, to the memory storage and to one or more antennas (9). The wireless receiver is adapted to receive information comprising text, graphics and sound from a wireless network. The wireless transceiver is adapted to send and receive text, graphics and sound from a wireless network. The device also has a display (11) and speaker (10) coupled to the housing and coupled to the microprocessor-based unit. An advertisement comprising the text, graphics and sound derived from the information can also be included. The information is outputted on the display.
US08116824B2

A mobile terminal, method and computer program product for transferring a currently displayed first display from a first touchscreen of a first display unit on an outer surface of a first body of a device to a second display unit on an inner surface of the first body or on an inner surface of a second body of the device when the device is opened, and subsequently executing a predetermined function upon receiving a first touch input to the first touchscreen.
US08116821B2

An active antenna with an IP address including a first set of modules (Mi) and a second set of modules (M′j), both sets using a same hardware platform and each set integrating radiofrequency sub-modules. Further including at least an Ethernet connection to the core network for providing the active antenna with capability of operation from an anchor site, and a digital platform integrating a set of modules for base-band processing, operating in one or more of 2G, 3G and LTE technologies. The active antenna includes processing apparatus for control plane of 2G and 3G radio access networks, routing apparatus for lu, Gb or S1 data relay from/to the core network to provide the active antenna with capability of operation from a relay site. Further included is at least two optical ports for connection in chain with a pair of active antennas in the same relay site and a power supply connection.
US08116815B2

Systems and methods for maintaining base stations are provided. In this regard, a representative system, among others, includes a base station that is electrically connected to a first power source. The base station is configured to receive electric power from the first power source. The base station includes a wireless transmitter and a distress module that is configured to determine whether the base station lost the electrical connection to the first power source. The distress module is further configured to instruct the wireless transmitter to transmit a distress signal that includes information associated with the status of the base station responsive to determining that the electrical connection was lost between the first power source and the base station.
US08116812B2

A wireless communications system that provides communication for a plurality of communication devices. The wireless communications system includes an interface including a local exchange carrier (LEC) connection port, a subscriber connection port and a wireless connection port. The wireless communications system includes a wireless terminal connected to the interface that provides wireless data and voice connectivity over a wireless network.
US08116798B2

A method for indicating the status of communication channels assigned to a talkgroup includes: determining the channels in various sites in a conventional communication system that service a talkgroup for media transmissions between subscribers of the talkgroup; receiving notification of the status of transmission activity on the channels; and based on the notification, providing an indication of the status of the channels assigned to the talkgroup so that the talkgroup or subscribers of the talkgroup can choose to proceed with a talkgroup communication. The notification may be received by an infrastructure device in an RF site or a central controlling entity. The indication may be that the channel is free for transmissions or is busy.
US08116791B2

A method for sending a text message over a telephone network from a sending device to a receiving device. A set of images (or font) is selected by a user of the sending device. The text message is displayed using the set of images on the sending device as a presented rich content message. The sending device uploads the text message and one or more codes indicative of the set of images to a server operatively connected to the telephone network. A message is transmitted from the server to the receiving device, the message including information of the text message and of the set of images. The message presented on the receiving device is the same rich content message previously presented on the sending device. The rich content message presented at the sending and receiving devices preferably includes sounds associated with the set of images.
US08116789B2

A technique of estimating the location of a mobile terminal in a mobile communications network having a plurality of base stations, including: determining at least one signal parameter measurement for the mobile terminal in relation to each of the plurality of base stations; using the determined signal parameter measurements to obtain a first distance estimation of the location of the mobile terminal from each of the plurality of base stations; and using at least one estimator to obtain a positional estimation of the mobile terminal. The estimators are statistical estimators that can be applied to a distance estimation of the mobile terminal from each of the base stations and/or applied to a triangulation estimation of the actual position of the mobile terminal, based upon estimated distances of the mobile terminal from the plurality of base stations. Preferably the signal parameter measured is the Received Signal Strength.
US08116787B1

Coverage-based quality-of-service (QoS) in wireless networks. A premium QoS service is provided by the network to users who qualify to receive QoS signals by moving handsets into a bounded premium service geographical coverage area. A mobile handset periodically transmits handset lat-long data to the wireless network via a control channel. The network includes data that defines the bounded geographical coverage area. The wireless network receives the handset lat-long data and maps the data to coverage area data. If the handset lat-long data maps into the coverage area data, the user handset is authorized to receive and use the premium QoS signals over a 3G network; otherwise, the user falls back to default service on a 2G network. Alternatively, the network utilizes a trained neural network to process the lat-long data to qualify the handset for premium services.
US08116786B2

A SET-initiated area event triggered positioning method in a session-based service system is disclosed. The method is variously performed according to a proxy mode or a non-proxy mode, and further according to which SLP (SUPL location platform) has a positioning procedure.
US08116780B2

Provided are a dynamic resource allocation method based on frequency reuse partitioning for an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) system, and a frame transmission method therefor. The dynamic resource allocation method includes: a) dividing a coverage into cells based on frequency reuse partitioning; b) selecting a candidate user to receive a channel allocated thereto based on the ratio; c) acquiring distance information for the candidate user; and d) checking whether the candidate user is in an inner or outer cell area based on the distance information. If the candidate user is in the inner cell area, a subchannel group among subchannel groups having a Frequency Reuse Factor (FRF) lower than a threshold value is selected and subcarriers of the selected subchannel group is allocated. If the candidate user is in the outer cell area, a subchannel group among subchannel groups having a FRF higher than the threshold value is selected.
US08116775B2

The present invention relates to the field of mobility in heterogeneous wireless networks. In particular, the invention proposes a system and method of providing User Equipment (UE) initiated and assisted backward handover in the heterogeneous wireless networks. Depending on certain criteria, the UE may decide that if it needs a handover from a serving network to a target network. The UE initiates the backward handover by sending handover request message to the target network through the serving network. The serving network checks for the capabilities of the UE and authorizes the backward handover. The target network prepares for the backward handover and informs the UE when the target network is ready. The UE then starts the handover procedure.
US08116772B2

An indoor base transceiver system (BTS) provides economical coverage by having a network-coupled base station that monitors a plurality of remote transceiver units (RTUs), or RF nodes, communicating by base-band conduits at symbol data rate. The BTS can reduce cost by interconnecting coverage nodes at the bit rate and can reduce cost by interconnecting coverage nodes at the symbol rate. The BTS can implement the modulation/demodulation function in a split fashion, with part of this accomplished in the RF Node and part accomplished in an Aggregator of the base station. System capacity can be retained by using selection combining and by using maximal ratio combining. Multiple carriers can be supported by messaging on the signal link and performing the frequency selection/generation at the remote Node. Deployment can be simplified by allowing coverage overlap of Nodes.
US08116771B2

A wireless communications network includes a base station and a number of mobile relay stations. Each mobile relay station within an area of coverage for the base station has associated with it a unique paging group identification value as well as the paging group identification value of the base station.
US08116762B2

Aeronautical communication services is disclosed. For example, an aeronautical vehicle for use in a first aeronautical communication system to allow communication to and from a land-based station is disclosed, wherein the land-based station transmits communications using a first low frequency band and receives communications using a second low frequency band in accordance with a second aeronautical communication system. In the first aeronautical communication system, the aeronautical vehicle transmits communications using the first low frequency band and receives communications using the second low frequency band.
US08116760B2

The invention discloses a method for implementing dual-homing, including: setting each one of any two core control equipment as a standby for each other, connecting a network entity belonging to one of the core control equipment with the two core control equipment through a primary link and a standby link respectively; setting the primary link connected with the core control equipment as activated, and setting the standby link connected with the core control equipment inactive; determining whether the core control equipment corresponding to the primary link is out of service, if the core control equipment corresponding to the primary link is out of service, activating the standby link; otherwise, continuously determining whether the core control equipment corresponding to the primary link is out of service. The invention also discloses another method for implementing dual-homing, by which the reliability of the network can be improved.
US08116757B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure describe methods and system configurations to activate a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). A method includes wirelessly broadcasting a virtual Network Service Provider (NSP) to provide wireless activation of one or more Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) associated with a NSP, directing a mobile station (MS) connected to the virtual NSP to a subscription portal that presents to a user of the MS the one or more MVNOs for selection, and provisioning the MS with configuration parameters for a selected MVNO to allow connection of the MS with the selected MVNO. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
US08116754B2

A method of providing a service menu and a service in a network environment and a service providing apparatus thereof are provided. The method includes evaluating a context on a current situation of an electronic, and creating and displaying a user menu on which information on external service providing apparatuses associated with the evaluated context is enumerated. The list of the service functions required according to the condition of the user and the context is provided, and the service function desired by the user is automatically executed, thereby improving the user convenience.
US08116735B2

A foreign wireless communication system is operated in a local communication network as if the foreign wireless communication system were a local wireless communication system. A data communication link is established between the wireless communication system and a service provider in a local wireless communication network. An outgoing request for authentication information is communicated from the wireless communication system to a remote administration system over the data communication link. The authentication information is received over the data communication link from the administration system and is transmitted over a signal link from the wireless communication system to the service provider. A requested wireless communication service is received at the wireless communication system based on authentication of the wireless communication system by the service provider using the authentication information.
US08116733B2

A wireless mobile device (104) provides challenge/response based authentication by receiving a first portion of a challenge (132) from an external authentication unit (102), such as a network unit, and utilizes an internal partial challenge generator (114) that internally provides a second portion of the challenge (138) and provides the internally generated second portion of the challenge (138) back to the authentication unit (102). The wireless mobile device (104) also includes combiner logic (116) that combines the externally received first portion of the challenge (132) with the internally produced second portion of the challenge (138) to produce a complete challenge (144). The wireless mobile device (104) then utilizes a response generators (118) that takes the complete challenge (144) that was produced and generates a response (146) based on the complete challenge (144), and other secret information (110) if desired using a suitable cryptographic operation. The response (146) is sent back to the authentication unit (102) for verification.
US08116723B2

A Means and Methods for providing a PSAP with means for tracking the real time location of a wireless telephone that connects to an Internet server upon detection of predefined events or reception of a command from a person to do so and transmits location information and event data to said server for viewing by authorized users. The server also displays a telephone number for a PSAP having jurisdiction over the location of the wireless telephone. Said PSAP telephone numbers being stored in a server data base and providing a means whereby a person logged-onto the server can call this PSAP telephone number, explain the reason for the call, provide the call taker with log-on information allowing access to the server and the data transmitted from the wireless telephone so that he can access mapped location information showing the location of the wireless telephone and then take appropriate action. Methods for delivering vehicle Automatic Crash Notifications to a PSAP, for establishing VoIP communications with crash victims and for providing crash data and video information to emergency responders showing the injury level of crash victims is disclosed as well as a video security system with multiparty command dialed PSAP notification voice calls and audio, video and location data transmission to the server. Satellite security telephones, offender monitoring devices, child safety telephones and medical alert notification embodiments of the invention are also disclosed.
US08116720B2

A method is provided for routing an emergency call. The method comprises receiving an emergency call and identifying an end node associated with the call. The end node may be a communications device involved in establishing the emergency call that is geographically near the originator of the emergency call. A look-up table is then accessed to identify the appropriate public safety answering point (PSAP) associated with the end node, and the emergency call is routed to the identified PSAP.
US08116719B2

Techniques for communicating with a user on a network include receiving acceleration data that indicates acceleration of a mobile network node associated with a user of a network. A communication state for the user is determined based at least in part on the acceleration data. The communication state indicates a type of network communication suitable for communicating with the user. Network communications with the user are based on the communication state. Among other uses, such techniques allow a network communicating with a human through a mobile node carried by the human to infer from stopped or unusual motions when the human's ability to receive or act on communications is impaired or otherwise affected.
US08116711B2

A receiver system and method for detecting and attenuating noise in a predetermined frequency range. The system includes at least one antenna, at least one filter, at least one automatic gain control device, and at least one processor. The at least one antenna receives at least one signal that includes at least one AM signal. The signal passes through the at least one filter. The at least one automatic gain control device adjusts the gain of the at least one signal to attenuate noise in the at least one signal. The at least one processor performs the steps including detecting when said noise is within a predetermined frequency range, and commanding the at least one automatic gain control device when the detected noise is within the predetermined frequency range, such that the automatic gain control device attenuates the noise that is within the predetermined frequency range.
US08116707B2

Disclosed is a broadcasting receiver. The broadcasting receiver comprises a low noise block down converter outputting a signal by amplifying a received signal, a tuner tuning a plurality of broadcasting channels based on the signals output from the low noise block down converter, and a frequency drift detector detecting frequency drifts of the broadcasting channels tuned by the tuner, and correcting oscillation frequencies of at least one of the low noise block down converter and the tuner.
US08116705B2

A disclosed method tunes a signal from a channelized spectrum having a predetermined channel spacing. A signal of interest having a predetermined maximum bandwidth is mixed with a local oscillator signal, which has a frequency that is an integer multiple of the channel spacing or one-half of a channel spacing displaced from an integer multiple of the channel spacing. The local oscillator signal is selected to frequency translate the signal of interest to within a near-baseband passband whose lower edge is spaced from DC by at least about the maximum bandwidth of the signal of interest. Problems associated with 1/f noise, DC offsets, and self-mixing products are avoided or substantially diminished. Other methods and systems are also disclosed.
US08116702B2

A Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) communication system 1 has a transmitter for transmitting signals over a MIMO Broadcast Channel (MIMO-BC) 6. Data for communication to respective receivers 41, 4K-1, 4K is encoded by encoding stages 101, . . . , 10K-1, 10K in a selected order by selecting codewords c1, . . . cK-1, cK from codebooks C1, . . . CK-1, CK of a nested lattice code. Dither adders 111, . . . , 11K-1, 11K are arranged to add a respective dither d1 . . . , dK-1, dk to the selected codewords c1, . . . cK-1, cK. Quantising stages 121, . . . , 12K-1, 12K each perform respective quantising operations mod ΛS,1, . . . , mod ΛS, K-1, mod ΛS, K using the shaping lattice ΛS of the nested lattice code. Quantised signals u1, . . . , uK-1, uK of data encoded earlier in the selected order are output to feedbackward filter stages 141, . . . , 14K-1 for filtering the codewords c1, . . . cK-1, cK of data encoded later in the selected order before they are quantised by the quantising stages 121, . . . , 12K-1 using a feedbackward filter Fb. At the receivers 41, 4K-1, 4K feedforward filter stages 151, . . . , 15K-1, 15K filter received signals y1, . . . , yK-1, yK by applying a feedforward filter Ff. A combination of the feedbackward and feedforward filters Fb, Ff is substantially equivalent to a single filter for extracting the signals representing the data intended to be communicated to the receivers 41, 4K-1, 4K with a minimum mean squared error, but the feedforward filter Ff can be applied by each of the receivers 41, . . . , 4K-1, 4K without knowledge of signals y1, . . . , yK-1, yK received by the other receivers 41, . . . , 4K-1, 4K.
US08116689B2

Antenna noise temperature is determined for a handheld wireless communication device which typically includes a radio, e.g. having a wireless transceiver and associated circuitry connected thereto, and an antenna connected to the radio. The method includes measuring an antenna thermal noise component, measuring a radio noise component, measuring an environmental background noise component, and determining the antenna noise temperature based upon the measured antenna thermal noise, radio noise, and environmental background noise components. The method may include measuring antenna efficiency, and determining further includes weighting at least one of the measured antenna thermal noise, radio noise and environmental background noise components based upon the measured antenna efficiency.
US08116688B2

A wireless apparatus which can realize a DFS function that avoidance of interference with radar is considered in an Ad-Hoc mode under a multihop circumstance is provided. A Beacon frame is transmitted at a shorter interval than a previously set interval when radar is detected by wireless apparatuses N1 to N6 which have a DFS function which perform avoidance of interference with radar.
US08116681B2

An adaptive inductive ballast is provided with the capability to communicate with a remote device powered by the ballast. To improve the operation of the ballast, the ballast changes its operating characteristics based upon information received from the remote device. Further, the ballast may provide a path for the remote device to communicate with device other than the adaptive inductive ballast.
US08116664B2

An image forming apparatus forming a color image on a recording material mounts black and non-black process cartridges including a photosensitive drum and a developing roller and includes a driving source; first and second clutches connecting and disconnecting the driving source and the developing roller of the black and non-black cartridges, respectively; first and second members actable on the first and second clutches, respectively, each for switching between operation and non-operation states for respectively transmitting and not transmitting a driving force to the developing rollers; and a switching member, movable by the driving force of the driving source and actable on the first and second members for switching among first, second, and third modes, for respectively transmitting the driving force to the developing rollers of all of the process cartridges, to any one of the developing rollers, and only to the developing roller of the black process cartridge.
US08116662B2

A development device includes a plurality of development units and a waste substance container or containers storing the waste substance removed by the cleaning member. Each of the plural development units includes an image carrier carrying a developer image formed by developer and a cleaning member cleaning the image carrier by removing a waste substance. A number of the waste substance containers disposed is smaller than a number of development units disposed, and the number of the waste substance containers is greater than or equal to one.
US08116661B2

A process cartridge is provided that is detachably mountable to a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus. The cartridge includes a photosensitive drum and a developing roller. A coupling member is provided adjacent to one axial end of the developing roller, with the coupling member including a driven portion, an intermediary portion, and a driving portion. A retaining portion is also provided, with the retaining portion configured and positioned to retain an axis of the driving portion of the coupling member in a position that is deviated from the axis of the developing roller in a direction crossing the axis of the developing roller so as to enable engagement of the driving portion with a driving member of the image forming apparatus when the process cartridge is inserted into the main assembly of the apparatus with the developing roller being in contact with the photosensitive drum.
US08116654B2

An image heating apparatus includes a heating rotor which heats a toner image while nipping and conveying a recording material on which the toner image is borne, a fan which cools the heating rotor, a blowing port which is arranged facing the heating rotor and through which blowing air passes from the fan toward the heating rotor, and a shutter which is movable in the longitudinal direction of the heating rotor so as to change opening area of the blowing port, wherein the shutter is moved in the longitudinal direction while rotating the fan after heating operation of the heating rotor to the toner image is completed.
US08116648B2

An image forming apparatus is provided. When a user inputs a print request, life count values stored in a life management section are read out. A table of correlation between the life count values and a rotating speed of a driving roller is looked up, a rotating speed of the driving roller corresponding to the life count values read out is determined at which the driving roller is set to rotate. With the driving roller rotating at the set rotating speed, a printing process is performed so that a transfer belt turns at a constant running speed. Following the printing process, the life count values are updated based on the latest total number of printed copies and the latest revolving speed of the transfer belt.
US08116644B2

An image forming apparatus includes: an image forming section that forms an image on a recording medium; a storage container that is detachably and attachably provided and that stores waste powder having been discarded and transported from the image forming section; a first transporting section that transports, from the image forming section, the waste powder having been discarded in the image forming section; a transport path through which the waste powder having been transported by the first transporting section is caused to fall down and is transported; a second transporting section that transports, to the storage container, the waste powder having been transported through the transport path; and a controller that stops driving of the second transporting section if an operation set in advance is executed when the storage container is removed.
US08116638B2

A signal receiver, such as an RF-matched filter receiver, includes an optical source (e.g. a mode-locked laser) providing an optical signal, and a first optical modulator to modulate the optical signal with a received RF signal and provide a modulated optical signal. A second optical modulator modulates the modulated optical signal with a reference signal and provides a twice modulated optical signal. The modulators may be Mach-Zehnder Modulators (MZM) and/or Indium Phosphide (InP) modulators. An optical detector receives the twice modulated optical signal and provides a detected signal, and a processing unit receives the detected signal and extracts or measures cross-correlation between the received RF signal and the reference signal.
US08116634B2

An apparatus comprising an optical power splitter, an optical delay line coupled to the optical power splitter, an optical amplifier (OA) coupled to the optical delay line, and an adaptive injection current (AIC) controller coupled to the optical power splitter and the OA. Also disclosed is an apparatus comprising at least one component configured to implement a method comprising converting an optical signal into a voltage signal, calculating an amplitude correction value for the voltage signal, inverting an amplitude of the voltage signal, adjusting the amplitude of the inverted voltage signal according to the amplitude correction value, and converting the adjusted voltage signal into a current signal. Included is a network comprising an optical line terminal (OLT) comprising an optical receiver and an AIC controlled OA coupled to the optical receiver, wherein the AIC controlled OA provides optical power equalization for any upstream optical signals.
US08116617B2

A disk unit-integrated display capable of being downsized while inhibiting the number of components from increase is obtained. This disk unit-integrated display includes a disk unit, a cover member arranged on an upper surface of the disk unit and including a mounting portion, a first circuit board mounted on the mounting portion of the cover member, a second circuit board arranged below the disk unit, and a relay board so mounted as to extend in a direction substantially perpendicular to a surface of the second circuit board and supported by the first circuit board, wherein the first circuit board includes a first terminal portion, and the relay board includes a first terminal receiving hole receiving the first terminal portion.
US08116614B2

An information recording medium wherein a stream which is recorded in a constrained format allowing format conversion from a first format (MPEG-TS) to a second format (MPEG-PS) and is seamlessly connected, can be converted into a second stream, and an apparatus and method for recording information in the information recording medium. The constrained format is provided for enabling conversion from a first format (for example, MPEG transport stream) to a second format (for example, MPEG program stream). Seamless playback is performed by using a third system stream (Bridge-VOB), which is composed of each of the parts the two seamlessly connected system streams. A video information presentation time by data management unit (Capsule) at the beginning of the third system stream is greater than or equal to 0.4 and less than or equal to 1 second, according to the constrained format.
US08116609B2

A method for traversing a multiplexed data packet stream including choosing a starting location in a multiplexed data packet stream; making a bi-directional search from the starting location to locate a nearest system stream object; and traversing the system stream as a doubly-linked list of objects. Traversing the system stream preferably includes traversing object links of the doubly-linked list of objects. The objects are further preferably cached with an LRU process. Multiple disjoint locations in the system stream can be accessed with a virtual linked list. The virtual linked list can be used to search forwardly; backwardly, or both forwardly and backwardly.
US08116607B2

A rare-earth doped optical fiber that includes a core and one or more clad layers surrounding the core, in which the core has a rare earth dopant, and a relationship of Equation (1) is satisfied: 0 < ∫ r 0 r c ⁢ D ⁡ ( r ) · P p 2 ⁡ ( r ) · P s 2 ⁡ ( r ) ⁢ r ⁢ ⁢ ⅆ r ∫ r 0 r c ⁢ D ⁡ ( r ) · P p 2 ⁡ ( r ) ⁢ r ⁢ ⁢ ⅆ r ≤ 0.35 ( 1 ) where Pp(r) represents an electric field distribution in an exciting wavelength, Ps(r) represents an electric field distribution in wavelengths of spontaneous emission and/or stimulated emission carried in the core, D(r) (mass %) represents a rare-earth dopant distribution, ro represents a core center, and rc represents a core radius.
US08116598B2

A photograph repository system includes data storage for storing photographs in the form of digital data files and a search feature that provides for searching for photographs by location and optionally by other search criteria. In one embodiment, a photograph repository service is accessible to users over a common data network, such as the Internet. In the photograph repository service, each stored photograph is associated with a location, i.e., where the photograph was taken and/or the location of an object in the photograph. Users can search for and obtain copies of their own photographs that they had stored previously with the photograph repository service. In addition, users can search for and obtain copies of photographs that had been taken by other users and stored with the photograph repository service. The photograph repository system can also be implemented as a standalone system, a hybrid system, or a peer-to-peer system.
US08116597B2

In order to prevent interception of information through leakage electromagnetic waves when transmitting the information using an image display unit, an image converter generates plural converted images, stores the generated converted images in an image storage, an image output unit reads out the converted images from the image storage and transmits the converted images to a screen control unit successively. The screen control unit displays a reception image on an image display unit. The image output unit outputs the converted image group at a high speed, thereby performing a switching display on the image display unit, and shows an image visually equivalent to the input image.
US08116594B2

An image processing apparatus includes: a detecting unit configured to detect a motion vector from an input image signal acting as the image signal for each of chronologically input pixels; a determining unit configured to determine whether the input image signal in terms of a level meets a predetermined condition; and an interpolating unit configured such that if the input image signal is not found to meet the predetermined condition, then the interpolating unit interpolates and outputs an input image signal intermediate signal interposed at a predetermined point in time between the input image signal and a preceding input image signal that precedes the input image signal, in accordance with the motion vector, and if the input image signal is found to meet the predetermined condition, then the interpolating unit allows the input image signal to be output unchanged as the input image signal intermediate signal.
US08116593B2

An image processing apparatus includes display means for displaying a zoom image resulting from enlargement of a certain area in an original image to a zoom area; important object determining means for determining whether the absolute value of the difference in pixel value between a pixel on a boundary line, which is the outermost circumference of the zoom area, and the pixel that adjoins the pixel on the boundary line in the direction perpendicular to the boundary line and outward from the zoom area is lower than or equal to a predetermined threshold value to determine whether any important object is across the boundary line; and resetting means for resetting a zoom parameter used for determining the zoom area if the important object determining means determines that any important object is across the boundary line.
US08116592B2

A method for generation and presentation of medical examination results of at least one imaging device includes the steps of definition and input of measurement parameters via an input device, generation of spatially resolved image information with the at least one imaging device,) and storage of the image information as a respective image file on a storage medium, and selection of presentation parameters to show at least one of the image files depending on the selected presentation parameters. Selection and presentation of medical data acquired with imaging methods are optimized by the presentation parameters being automatically combined into multiple hierarchically organized groups. Each group of unselected presentation parameters is presented as a series of nested rectangles, wherein each presentation parameter corresponds to a rectangle, and each group of selected presentation parameters is presented as a step pyramid, wherein each presentation parameter corresponds to one pyramid level.
US08116585B2

A method of detecting background noise in a rendered electronic image derived from an electronic image includes capturing a rendered image to generate captured image data. From the captured image data, a subset of the image data corresponding to a region of interest in the electronic image comprising only blank pixels is identified. For the subset of image data, any background noise in the rendered image not present in the electronic image is detected from the image data.
US08116584B2

The present invention discloses an adaptively de-blocking circuit and associated method. A mean is derived according to the neighboring pixels surrounding a central pixel of an image. A blending factor is determined according to a flatness of the image. An updated pixel value of the central pixel is determined by blending the original pixel value of the central pixel and the mean according to the blending factor. Finally, alternatively output the updated pixel value and the original pixel value of the central pixel in response to a block border signal.
US08116582B2

Techniques for positioning images in an electronic document. The images may encode information that can be decoded by devices configured to read the images. An area within the electronic document for positioning the image and a set of one or more colors to be used for the image are determined. The determined area and set of colors are such that the image when positioned in the electronic document blends in with the contents of the electronic document while still being clearly visible for reading by reader devices that are configured read and decode the information encoded by the image.
US08116581B2

An exemplary method for encoding an image includes receiving image data, detecting edges in the image data, selecting at least some of the detected edges, encoding the selected edges as selected edge information, down-sampling the image data, encoding the down-sampled image as down-sampled image information and multiplexing the selected edges information and the down-sampled image information. In such a method, the selected edges information and the down-sampled image information can be stored as an encoded image file. Other exemplary methods, devices, systems are also disclosed.
US08116580B2

A system, method, and process for embedding low frequency image details and high frequency image details into a final digital image file. A digital image file is stored with embedded low and high frequency image details that are accessible with a compatible digital image decoder and a non-compatible digital image decoder. Non-compatible digital image decoders access only a compressed low frequency image of the original digital image contained in the final digital image file. Compatible digital image decoders use the embedded high frequency image details contained in the final digital image file to render a high resolution image.
US08116577B2

The present invention is applicable to video cameras, for example. The present invention encodes input image data D1 on the basis of a true predicted code quantity TRUE PRED(n) calculated by correcting a roughly calculated predicted code quantity ROUGH PRED(n), predicted from the input image data D1, with a correction coefficient ADJUST(n) and sets the correction coefficient ADJUST(n) of a corresponding picture type on the basis of an actual generated code quantity BIT(n).
US08116574B2

A method is disclosed for automatically classifying and graphically visualizing image objects that are segmented and, given undershooting of a prescribed distance and compliance with a similarity criterion, are combined to form clusters. In at least one embodiment, for object classification, the method includes preselecting result data, using a prescribable selection criterion, from a result set of an application, executed in the background on an image data record of an imaging system, for feature extraction and automatic pattern recognition of segmented and clustered image objects, and/or rendered image data of an image rendering application, executed in the background, for two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional graphic visualization of these image objects; and/or marking the data in a graphically visible fashion as preselected on a screen of a screen terminal.
US08116572B2

A method for detecting an image edge is provided. Pixel data of neighbor lines of an image are read to generate a first and a second inclined edge areas between two neighbor lines. The incline edge areas are determined by detecting whether a difference of two corresponding pixel data exceeds a preset edge threshold. Then, whether there is an overlapped or nearby portion between the inclined edge areas is determined, so as to find an incline edge.
US08116570B2

In embodiments consistent with the subject matter of this disclosure, a user may input one or more strokes as digital ink to a processing device. The processing device may produce and present a recognition result, which may include a misrecognized portion. A user may indicate a desire to correct the misrecognized portion and may further select one or more strokes of the misrecognized portion. The processing device may then present the one or more recognition alternates corresponding to the selected one or more strokes of the misrecognized portion. In some embodiments, the processing device may permit a user to rewrite the selected one or more strokes of the misrecognized portion with newly entered digital ink. Features, such as, rewriting and correction of the input digital ink may be discoverable in some embodiments.
US08116564B2

This document discusses, among other things, methods and systems for determining the number of members in a group as well as changes over a period of time. Using an image of the scene, an overlap area is calculated by projecting portions of the image onto spaced apart and parallel planes. A filter correlates the overlap area to the number of members.
US08116562B2

Color is edited using a color representation including digital values B (brightness), e and f such that B=√{square root over (D2+E2+F2)}, e=E/B, f=F/B, where DEF is a linear color coordinate system. Alternatively, color is represented using digital values B, C (chroma) and H (hue), where cos C=D/B and tan H=E/F. Brightness can be changed without a color shift by changing the B coordinate and leaving unchanged the other coordinates e and f or C and H. Other features are also provided. Brightness coding methods are provided to reduced the size of image data for storage and/or network transmission. The coding methods include logarithmic coding. Some embodiments use logarithmic or linear coding depending on the brightness at a particular pixel.
US08116557B2

Provided are an image processing apparatus and method which can adjust the disparity of an input three-dimensional (3D) image and stably display the 3D image. The image processing apparatus includes: an image dividing unit receiving a 3D image and dividing the 3D image into a left-eye image and a right-eye image; a histogram generation unit estimating disparities between the left-eye image and the right-eye image, measuring a frequency with which the estimated disparities occur, and generating a histogram of the disparities and the frequency; a horizontal movement value determination unit determining a horizontal movement value for the left-eye image and the right-eye image using the generated histogram; and a horizontal movement unit moving the left-eye image and the right-eye image horizontally based on the determined horizontal movement value. The image processing apparatus can control convergence of an image to enhance 3D effects and reduce eye fatigue.
US08116552B2

A method of capturing data for gemstone analysis is provided. The method includes capturing images of the gemstone under differing lighting conditions, and comparing the captured images.
US08116549B2

A clinical and training apparatus that collects and processes physical space data while performing an image-guided procedure on an anatomical area of interest includes a calibration probe, a tracked ultrasonic probe, a wireless tracking device that tracks the ultrasonic probe in space and an image data processor. The physical space data provides three-dimensional coordinates for each of the physical points. The image data processor includes a memory holding instructions. The instructions include determining registrations used to indicate position in image space and physical space; using the registrations to map into image space, image data describing the physical space of the tracked ultrasonic probe and the anatomical area of interest; and constructing a three-dimensional (3D) volume based on ultrasonic image data. The apparatus includes a storage medium that stores a plurality of 3D volumes acquired by the image data processor for later retrieval.
US08116548B2

A method and apparatus for detecting 3D anatomical objects in medical images using constrained marginal space learning (MSL) is disclosed. A constrained search range is determined for an input medical image volume based on training data. A first trained classifier is used to detect position candidates in the constrained search range. Position-orientation hypotheses are generated from the position candidates using orientation examples in the training data. A second trained classifier is used to detect position-orientation candidates from the position-orientation hypotheses. Similarity transformation hypotheses are generated from the position-orientation candidates based on scale examples in the training data. A third trained classifier is used to detect similarity transformation candidates from the similarity transformation hypotheses, and the similarity transformation candidates define the position, translation, and scale of the 3D anatomic object in the medical image volume.
US08116547B2

A digital slide analysis system comprises an algorithm server that maintains or has access to a plurality of image processing and analysis routines. The algorithm server additionally has access to a plurality of digital slide images. The algorithm server executes a selected routine on an identified digital slide and provides the resulting data. Prior to the application of selected routine, the system employs a digital pre-processing module to create a metadata mask that reduces undesirable image data such that the image data processed by the selected routine has an improved signal to noise ratio. The pre-processing module uses a classifier that may be implemented as a pattern recognition module, for example. Undesirable image data is therefore excluded from the image data that is processed by the digital pathology image processing and analysis routine, which significantly improves the digital pathology image analysis.
US08116542B2

Systems, methods and apparatus are provided through which in some implementations changes in an aneurysm in a patient over time are identified by determining temporal differences between segmented aneurysms in a plurality of longitudinal exams and visually presenting the temporal differences.
US08116540B2

An apparatus for reducing noise in fingerprint sensing circuits is disclosed in one embodiment of the invention as including a fingerprint sensing area onto which a user can apply a fingerprint. An analog front end is coupled to the fingerprint sensing area and is configured to generate an analog response signal. An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) samples the analog response signal and converts the sample to a digital value, which may be received by a digital device such as a processor or CPU. To reduce the amount of the noise that is present in the analog response signal and therefore reflected in the digital value, the digital device may be shut down while the ADC is sampling the analog response signal.
US08116528B2

An image based occupant classification system includes a supplemental restraint system, an image sensor, and an illumination source. The image sensor is in communication with the supplemental restraint system and is configured to monitor vehicular conditions. The illumination source is in communication with the supplemental restraint system and is configured to selectively actuate in response to the collision indicator. Vehicles are also provided.
US08116514B2

A watermarking key consisting of a sequence of elements is embedded into a data sequence. Each element may take on two or more values. In order to embed a watermarking key, first a reference sequence is divided into blocks. Each element of the watermarking key is associated with a respective block of the reference sequence. A watermarked sequence is then generated by shifting the associated blocks by a degree determined by the value of the respective associated element of the watermarking key.
US08116510B2

A magnetic circuit part of a loudspeaker is formed of a plate, a magnet, and a yoke. A step is disposed in the plate that comes into contact with a disc-like magnet and forms a magnetic gap. A loudspeaker is provided where the step moves a voice coil away from the leakage magnetic field of the yoke, the influence of the leakage magnetic field is eliminated even when the output is large, the distortion is small, and the sound quality is high.
US08116505B2

A speaker apparatus arranged in a predetermined casing includes a speaker unit disposed at a predetermined position in the casing, a speaker grill section whereto sound output holes are provided, and the speaker grill section being disposed on the front of a sound output surface locating at the position of the speaker unit in the casing, while a predetermined distance is kept from the speaker unit, a first front air chamber which is disposed between the speaker unit and the speaker grill section in the casing, and separated from other sections in the casing, and a second front air chamber extending from the first front air chamber on the front of the speaker unit.
US08116503B2

This is directed to a bend switch constructed from two substantially co-linear elongated bodies having opposing contact surfaces. In an open switch position, the contact surfaces remain apart, preventing electrical coupling. To close the switch, a user can bend the elongated bodies relative to each other to cause the contact surfaces to meet, thus creating an electrical coupling. Each elongated body can have several independent conductive portions. The bend switch can include a movable space member placed between the elongated bodies to maintain the contact surfaces a predetermined distance apart in the open switch position. The movable space member can include preferred or non-preferred bending orientations, equilibrium positions, and/or a potentiometer for closing the switch. The bend switch can control one or more functions (e.g., microphone, volume, or playback controls) of an electronic device (e.g., portable media device or cellular telephone) coupled to the bend switch.
US08116501B2

A headset comprising a body portion including a microphone section, a receiver section, a battery section and a wireless communication section, all provided in a case having a substantially flat surface, and a projecting portion projecting from the substantially flat surface, is arranged such that the ear pad of the receiver section attached to the tip of the projecting portion is inserted into the external auditory meatus. A portion coming into resilient contact with the inner wall of the cavity of the concha on the inside of a tragus and an antitragus is provided at the projecting portion closer to the body portion side than the ear pad, wherein the ear pad is of an earplug type deformable elastically to ensure a close contact with the inner wall of the external auditory meatus.
US08116495B2

Various earbud embodiments comprise a sleeve portion, a base portion, a bell portion, and reinforcement members. The sleeve portion defines a central void extending from a proximal end to a distal end of the earbud. The base portion encircles the sleeve portion. The bell portion connects the sleeve portion to the base portion. The bell portion defines at least one aperture, and includes at least one web portion connected to the base portion at a connection point. At least one reinforcement member at each connection point extends from the base portion to the web portion to strengthen the structure at the connection point.
US08116494B2

Changing batteries in hearing apparatuses worn in the auditory canal is to be designed in a more user-friendly manner. To this end, a hearing apparatus is provided with a first component which can be worn in the auditory canal, said component comprising a receiver unit for the wireless reception of signals. The hearing apparatus also exhibits a second component which is separated from the first component in terms of design, said second component likewise being able to be worn in the auditory canal and a transmitter unit for the wireless transmission of signals and/or energy to the receiver unit of the first component. The first component can be designed to be battery-less. The second component, which is positioned further outside in the auditory canal, can be easily removed from the auditory canal in order to change the battery.
US08116487B2

Provided is a piezoelectric speaker (40) including: a piezoelectric element (42) that deforms in response to an input signal; a diaphragm (43) that is set in bending motion by the piezoelectric element (42) to generate sound; and a resilient portion (44) that holds at least a part of an outer edge of the diaphragm (43). The piezoelectric speaker further includes a lock portion (46) arranged to block extension of the diaphragm (43) by coming into contact with a part of a vibration plane of the diaphragm (43) when an input signal is not input to obtain a lock state and to release the lock state immediately after the input signal is input. Consequently, bending motion of the diaphragm (43) can be started quickly and movement of the diaphragm is not obstructed after starting of the bending motion.
US08116484B2

To provide a sound output device capable of preferably outputting, while utilizing control data created based on an assumption that sound data will be output via a certain number of speakers, the sound data via a number of speakers that is larger or smaller than the certain number. The main control data storage unit stores main control data. The first sound output control unit outputs sound data from the one or more main speakers based on the main control data. The sub-control data storage unit stores sub-control data. The second sound output control unit outputs the sound data from the one or more sub-speakers based on the main control data and the sub-control data.
US08116470B2

An impulse response processing apparatus is composed of a waveform divider, a time adjuster, an interpolation processor and a waveform synthesizer. The waveform divider divides an impulse response into a plurality of base blocks on a time axis. The time adjuster increases a time difference between two adjacent ones of the plurality of the base blocks. The interpolation processor generates an interpolation block. The waveform synthesizer generates a new impulse response by arranging the interpolation block between the two adjacent base blocks generated through adjustment of the time adjuster.
US08116466B2

An apparatus and a method for testing a sound card are applicable for detecting whether a sound leakage problem occurs to a sounding interface of the sound card. The testing apparatus includes a switching circuit and a switching unit. The switching circuit is electrically connected to the sounding interface and a sound-receiving interface of the sound card respectively, and has a plurality of transfer paths. The switching circuit is used to receive a first and a second sound channel, and to connect the first and the second sound channel to corresponding transfer paths, so as to transmit the audio signal back to the sound-receiving interface. The switching unit is electrically connected to the sounding interface and the switching circuit, for receiving the first and the second sound channel. The switching unit alters the transfer paths in the switching circuit according to a first and/or a second switching audio signal.
US08116465B2

A sound measuring apparatus includes an impulse response obtaining section obtaining an impulse response, a positive transform section performing a positive transform on the impulse response obtained by the impulse response obtaining section, a filter low-pass filtering the response waveform on which the positive transform was performed by the positive transform section, a frequency characteristic obtaining section obtaining a frequency characteristic of the impulse response obtained by the impulse response obtaining section, a filter characteristic setting section setting a filter characteristic of the low-pass filter so as to be variable depending upon the frequency characteristic obtained by the frequency characteristic obtaining section, and a measurement result obtaining section obtaining a measurement result about a predetermined measurement item, based on the waveform obtained by the low-pass filter.
US08116457B2

Methods, systems, apparatuses and products are disclosed for providing security circuits. Exemplary embodiments including semiconductor chips on circuit boards are shown, together with application in a movie stick/movie player pair.Such systems provide for and improve on the means for clocked logic security support beyond what is available in current security products while being capable of embodiment in low cost technologies such as programmable gate arrays.
US08116447B2

Some embodiments provide a telephone comprising an interface port to receive a computer network interface device.
US08116445B2

An apparatus and method for monitoring an interaction between a caller and an automated voice response (AVR) system is provided. An audio communication from a caller is processed by executing an AVR script, which includes a plurality of instructions. A visual representation of the audio communication is presented substantially simultaneously with the audio communication to an agent based on the AVR script. The visual representation includes at least one field to be populated with information obtained from the caller and the information populated in the field can be updated by the agent.
US08116442B2

Method and apparatus for providing an audio conference bridge initiated remote device muting are disclosed. In a preferred embodiment, a conference bridge is configured to detect a remote mute request from a remote Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) device, such as a VoIP telephone. Responsive to this request, the conference bridge sends an indication to the remote VoIP device to cease transmitting audio traffic while still transmitting out-of-band DTMF data.
US08116441B2

A system may include a locator device to track a location of a user, store information identifying locations of a group of telephone devices, and identify one telephone device of the group of telephone devices based on the location of the one telephone device and the location of the user in response to an incoming telephone call request for the user.
US08116439B1

A computational system is provided that includes: (a) a boundary analyzer 164, 168, and 216 operable to identify a next boundary in a predetermined activity; and (b) an interrupt handler 160 operable to (i) determine that a notification is to be provided to a user, (ii) determine that the user is currently engaged in the predetermined activity on a computational device, and (iii) provide the notification to the user in temporal proximity to the identified next boundary.
US08116434B2

A telecommunications patching system includes a patch panel comprising a plurality of connector ports and a plurality of patch cords configured to selectively interconnect pairs of the connector ports. Each patch cord has opposite ends and a respective connector secured to each end that is configured to be removably secured within a connector port. The connectors of a respective patch cord have the same unique identifier associated therewith. A first sensor is located at each connector port and detects when a patch cord connector is inserted within, and removed from, a respective connector port. A second sensor is located at each connector port and reads the identifier of a patch cord connector inserted within a respective connector port. The first and second sensors are in communication with a controller that monitors and logs patch cord interconnections with the connector ports.
US08116433B2

Systems and methods for calls per second network testing are disclosed. The methods may be performed by a network testing system or other computing device. The method may include receiving user selection to create a network test. A user specification of a bulk network calls test type and the call transmission criteria for the network test are received. The call transmission criteria may include a number of calls per second and one of either a talk time or a number of channels. When the talk time is specified, the number of channels is calculated. Similarly, when the number of channels is specified, the talk time is calculated. User selection to begin the network test is received, and packets are transmitted for the network test according to the call transmission criteria. During transmission, the call transmission criteria are recalculated at a system defined interval to avoid bursts.
US08116430B1

A multi-mode cone beam computed tomography radiotherapy simulator and treatment machine is disclosed. The radiotherapy simulator and treatment machine both include a rotatable gantry on which is positioned a cone-beam radiation source and a flat panel imager. The flat panel imager captures x-ray image data to generate cone-beam CT volumetric images used to generate a therapy patient position setup and a treatment plan.
US08116428B2

A method to perform security screening at an airport on hand-carried baggage. The method includes requesting passengers with hand carried baggage to remove from the baggage a container that holds a liquid and perform an x-ray inspection on the hand carried baggage and on the container while the container remains outside the baggage. According to the method, the results of the x-ray inspection are used to determine if the baggage contains illegal objects and if the liquid is a security threat.
US08116427B2

A radiological imaging apparatus of the present invention comprises an image pickup device and a medical examinee holding device that is provided with a bed. The image pickup device includes a large number of radiation detectors and radiation detector support plates. A large number of radiation detectors are mounted around the circumference of a through-hole and arranged in the axial direction of the through-hole. The radiation detectors are arranged in three layers formed radially with respect to the center of the through-hole and mounted on the lateral surfaces of the radiation detector support plates. Since the radiation detectors are not only arranged in the axial direction and circumferential direction of the through-hole but also arrayed in the radial direction, it is possible to obtain accurate information about a γ-ray arrival position in the radial direction of the through-hole (the positional information about a radiation detector from which a γ-ray image pickup signal is output). The use of accurate information about γ-ray arrival increases the tomogram accuracy. As a result, the present invention enhances the, tomogram accuracy, that is, the PET examination accuracy.
US08116421B2

An apparatus for inspecting and testing a startup range neutron monitoring system for a nuclear reactor. The apparatus includes: a neutron-flux detector; a preamplifier that amplifies an electric signal output from the neutron-flux detector; a pulse measurement unit that counts times when electric signal output from the preamplifier exceeds a discrimination voltage; a discrimination-voltage setting unit that applies the discrimination voltage to the pulse measurement unit; a voltage-setting unit that applies a voltage to the neutron-flux detector; an arithmetic processing unit that calculates an output power of the reactor based upon an output signal of the pulse measurement unit; an output unit that outputs data representing the output power of the reactor, calculated by the arithmetic processing unit; and an inspecting/testing unit that sets the discrimination voltage and the voltage to be applied by the voltage-setting unit.
US08116418B2

A clock data recovery comprises a phase detector, a phase interpolator, an initial phase detector, and an initial phase decoder. The phase detector receives an incoming data stream and an interpolated clock signal and output an early/late value indicating timing relationship between the incoming data stream and the interpolated clock signal. The phase interpolator receives the early/late signal and at least one reference clock signal and generate an interpolated clock signal considering the early/late value and the at least one reference clock signal. The initial phase detector receives the incoming data stream and output a first data indicating a phase of the incoming data stream. The initial phase decoder receives data indicating a phase of the incoming data stream and select the at least one reference clock signal from a plurality of clock signals considering the data indicating a phase of the incoming data stream.
US08116416B2

A method for determining the synchronization code under a standard mobile imaging architecture is provided. This method is essentially to solve any possible error occurring as transferring the images among the mobile devices. If any error is occurred to the transferred bit stream, it will cause fault in the image data. Consequently, the present invention provides an approach to compare every input data with iterative comparison operation, so as to obtain the position of synchronization codes under SMIA. Therefore, the correct synchronization code will solve the possible error translation.
US08116414B2

An orthogonal signal from a modulated signal of the digital terrestrial broadcast is produced. Then, an adder carrier-combines the orthogonal signal and an interpolated signal into an interpolated orthogonal signal, which is in turn demodulated by a DQPSK demodulation section. A demodulated signal is produced from a modulated signal of the digital satellite broadcast. A transmission path coding section produces transport stream data. A DQPSK mapping section re-demodulates the transport stream data to produce an orthogonal signal. A sync detection section asynchronously detects a demodulated signal demodulated by the DQPSK demodulation section and a demodulated signal produced by a time deinterleave section in the transmission path coding section. The detected time difference is set as a delay time of a delay circuit so as to delay the orthogonal signal, thereby producing the interpolated signal to be carrier-combined by the adder in order to provide improved reception quality.
US08116413B2

A signal level adjusting device (AD), for RF communication equipment arranged to received primary RF signals, comprises i) a tuner (TU) comprising a gain control means (SI,R), arranged to define a first or second digital command signal respectively each time it receives a first or second digital control signal respectively, and a gain adjusting means (VGA) arranged to decrease or increase respectively its gain by a fixed value when the command signal defined by the gain control means (SI,R) is a first or second command signal respectively, in order to adjust the level of the received primary RF signals, and ii) a demodulator (DEM) comprising a level control means (LCM1) arranged to generate a first or second digital control signal respectively each time it detects an increase or decrease respectively of the level of secondary signals representative of the adjusted signals output by the tuner (TU).
US08116408B2

A method and apparatus is disclosed to recover at least one information payload from a frame and/or to configure one or more reception parameters to receive a future frame to support RIFS. A physical layer device (PHY) receives at least a training sequence embedded in the frame of a transmitted communication signal using a receiver filter bandwidth corresponding to a variable filter training sequence bandwidth. The PHY determines an amount of gain necessary to recover an information payload embedded in the frame based on the recovery of the training sequence. The PHY determines an amount of gain necessary to recover an information payload embedded in the frame based on the recovery of the preamble. A previous communications receiver gain is adjusted by the difference between the amount of gain necessary to recover the information payload and the previous communications receiver gain. The PHY adjusts the receiver filter bandwidth from the variable filter training sequence bandwidth to a variable filter information payload bandwidth. The PHY recovers the at least one information payload embedded in frame using the variable filter information payload bandwidth. The PHY adjusts the receiver filter bandwidth from the information payload bandwidth to the variable filter training sequence bandwidth to receive the future frame.
US08116404B2

The present disclosure provides a diversity receiver. The diversity receiver includes a plurality of tuners, a plurality of demodulators operatively coupled to the plurality of tuners and a controller operatively coupled to the plurality of demodulators and the plurality of tuners. Each tuner is capable of receiving a modulated signal from a path of a plurality of distinct paths. The controller determines information for each path and computes a ratio of signal strength to an additive noise for each path based on determined information. Further, the controller adjusts power of signal in each path based on comparison of computed ratio of signal strength to additive noise with a predetermined threshold. The diversity receiver also includes a MRC circuitry operatively coupled to the plurality of demodulators and configured to combine the signal of each path for obtaining a resultant combined signal having an improved ratio of signal strength to additive noise.
US08116398B2

A transmitter includes first generator to generate pilot source signal by modulating pilot sequence, second generator to generate data source signal with time length longer than that of pilot source signal by modulating data sequence, first cyclic shifter to perform cyclic shift of first shift amount to pilot source signal to generate first pilot signal, second cyclic shifter to performs cyclic shift of second shift amount to data source signal to generate first data signal, third cyclic shifter to perform cyclic shift of third shift amount to pilot source signal to generate second pilot signal, fourth cyclic shifter to perform cyclic shift of fourth shift amount to data source signal to generate second data signal, first transmit antenna to transmit first pilot signal and first data signal, and second transmit antenna to transmit second pilot signal and second data signal.
US08116395B2

An exemplary aspect of an embodiment of the present invention is a receiver comprises a subcarrier unit combination section that performs weighting corresponding to quality of each subcarrier with respect to each subcarrier relating to a received symbol, a symbol unit combination section that performs common weighting based on quality of the symbol with respect to each subcarrier, and a combination system switching unit that switches between use of the symbol unit combination section and the subcarrier unit combination section.
US08116392B2

A method for transmitting/receiving signals in a mobile communication system, a pilot configuration of a mobile communication system capable of transmitting much more data using a conventional pilot signal, a channel estimation method, and a receiving method are disclosed. A method for transmitting a signal equipped with a training symbol in a mobile communication system which includes a transmission end capable of transmitting an output signal equipped with a training symbol for channel estimation of a reception end, includes the steps of: a) adding training symbols having the same amplitude to data symbols transmitted via subcarriers, and calculating the output signal transmitted via the subcarriers; and b) transmitting the calculated output signal via the subcarriers.
US08116384B2

A moving picture coding apparatus includes an inter-pixel filter having filters for filtering decoded image data so as to remove block distortion which is high frequency noise around block boundaries. The inter-pixel filter includes filters having different filtering strengths. The coding apparatus also includes a filter processing control unit for determining a filtering strength of the inter-pixel filter.
US08116381B2

A receiving system and a data processing method for receiving and processing mobile service data are disclosed. The receiving system comprises a demodulating unit, a block decoder, a controller, and an RS frame decoder. The demodulating unit receives a broadcast signal including mobile service data and main service data and converts the received broadcast signal to a baseband broadcast signal. The mobile service data configure at least one of a primary RS frame and a secondary RS frame. The block decoder performs turbo decoding of a SCCC block unit for mobile service data within the baseband broadcast signal based on SCCC-related information. The controller generates a control signal for RS frame decoding with reference to at least one of SCCC block mode information, RS frame mode information, and user's input. The RS frame decoder configures at least one of a primary RS frame and a secondary RS frame using the mobile service data output from the block decoder in accordance with the control signal and performs error correction decoding for corresponding RS frame with reference to reliability information of each mobile service data byte within the configured RS frame.
US08116376B2

A video decoder, a video decoding method, a video encoder and a video encoding method are disclosed. A video decoder for decoding a video bitstream for an image block includes a motion vector resolution reducer and a motion compensator. The motion vector resolution reducer is for receiving decoded high resolution motion vectors included in the video bitstream and for reducing an accuracy of the high resolution motion vectors to correspond to a low resolution. The motion compensator, in signal communication with the motion vector resolution reducer, is for forming a motion compensated high resolution prediction using the reduced accuracy motion vectors. The video encoder for encoding scalable video comprises a motion compensator for forming a motion compensated full resolution prediction and combining combining the motion compensated full resolution prediction from an image block to form a prediction residual. The prediction residual is downsampled to form a low resolution downsampled prediction residual and then coded.
US08116372B1

A data structure and method of use thereof for encoding video information are described. Macroblock parameters are initialized, and it is determined whether an operating point is selected. If the operating point is selected, then the following occurs: each quad of nodes of a first node level are obtained and a check for merger is done on them; each quad of nodes of a second node level is obtained and a check for merger is done on them; nodes of a third node level are obtained and check for merger is done on them; nodes of a fourth node level are obtained and a check for merger is done on them; and modes are assigned responsive to cost of combinations of encoding modes associated with possible mergers.
US08116368B2

In a full digital amplifier for an audio amplifier or the like, it is possible to suppress the concentration of an electromagnetic noise emission spectrum at a specific frequency. A sampling period variation type digital filter is realized by varying the coefficient of a noise shaping filter for the delta-sigma modulator of the full digital amplifier depending on a sampling period. This allows the variation in the carrier frequency of the pulse width modulation.
US08116364B2

An equalizer. The equalizer, either operated in a blind mode or a decision directed mode, comprises a feed-forward filter, a feedback filter, a decision device, a control circuit, and a multiplexer. The feed-forward filter receives an input signal. The feedback filter filters an equalized signal. The combiner combines the feed-forward filtered signal and the feedback filtered signal. The decision device maps the combined signal to one symbol of a symbol set. The control circuit receives the combined output and generates a slice control signal. The multiplexer selects the combined signal or the mapped signal as the equalized according to the slice control signal when operated in the blind mode.
US08116356B2

A signal for relay is received from a first node. From a local memory that stores K transform matrices (K being an integer greater than one) is selected a transform matrix that is associated with a relay rank order. The matrices define an optimal tradeoff of diversity gain versus spatial multiplexing. The received signal is transformed using the selected transform matrix, and the transformed signal is relayed over a wireless channel to a second node. In a particular embodiment the received signal is an input symbol vector of N consecutive symbols (N being an integer at least equal to two) and the transform linearly combines the N symbols of the input vector according to the relay rank order. In various embodiments the first node may give the rank order, it may be mutually agreed via signaling among the various relay nodes, or it may be based on an intrinsically generated random number.
US08116353B2

A spread spectrum modulator converts input sequences composed of digital symbols into n≧2 spread-spectrum sequences. The spread spectrum modulator can generate spreading code and can combine the spreading code with the input sequences to produce the n spread spectrum sequences for transmission from n respective antennas of a radio transmitter. Each spread spectrum sequence corresponds to a sum of at least two contributions mutually shifted by a time substantially less than the duration of a symbol, each contribution being the product of a version of one of the n input sequences times the spreading code.
US08116351B2

An apparatus and method is provided for dynamic range power control of a wireless downlink communication signal, such that target signal quality adjustments are held temporarily when it is apparent that transmit power control commands will not produce the desired response at the transmitting station. Comparisons of measured received signals to thresholds are performed to determine whether the transmitting station has either reached the maximum or minimum transmit power, in which case the target signal quality adjustment is controlled accordingly. When normal transmit power is detected, the target signal quality adjustments are allowed to resume as usual.
US08116338B2

A system, method and computer program produce for handling and minimizing miscommunication and transformation of tokens that are processed by humans, either verbally or in writing, during some part of a usage scenario. This is accomplished by filtering out confusing tokens, as determined by calculating a distance metric for each token. A distance metric may be calculated along a print modality, a visual modality or a verbal modality.
US08116336B2

An apparatus and method for a multi-tier wireless home mesh network is described. The method may include formation of a wireless home networking environment comprising a collection of nodes that operate as a decentralized, wireless network with multiple sub-networks or tiers that are responsible for different functions within the network. Each node of the multi-tier network is configured to forward data to other nodes and is assigned to a particular tier based on the node's performance capabilities. The method may include the automatic establishment of a unique Internet protocol (IP) address within a multi-hop wireless home mesh network with the ability to do automatic collision detection and correction. Once established as either a mobile node or a stationary node of the wireless home mesh network, a new node (the home electronics device) may wirelessly communicate with one or more existing nodes of the wireless home mesh network. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08116327B2

A method, information processing system, and network that expands safety network coverage for first responder safety within a building environment. Activity of at least one independent network (106) is monitored. The independent network (106) includes at least a safety network. An emergency signal is received from the at least one independent network (106). Communication between at least the safety network (106) and a First responder network (110) is automatically bridged in response to receiving the emergency signal so as to manage data control and bandwidth allocation between the safety network and the first responder network. Other networks that may also be bridged with the first responder network so as to manage data control and bandwidth allocation among the various networks include IT networks and building automation networks in order to expand first responder network coverage.
US08116325B2

An active node of a communications network includes a forwarding component for forwarding a packet of an active application, a processor for processing the packet, and a forwarding control component for modifying path data associated with the packet, based on the processing. The forwarding component can forward said packet directly to the network or via the processor. The processing can include executing code contained within the packet, and/or executing code to process application data in the packet. The path data can include the MPLS label stack of the packet and/or MPLS tables of the forwarding component. To allow processing based on multiple labels of a packet, the forwarding component can include a loopback connection between its input and output ports.
US08116323B1

Methods are provided that include recursively negotiating a boundary between a first virtual space controlled by a first peer and a second virtual space controlled by a second peer in a distributed virtual environment responsive to profile data of the first peer and the second peer. Related systems and computer program products are also discussed.
US08116322B2

The present invention discloses a method for controlling the reporting of an event timestamp. The method includes the following steps: a timestamp control parameter is set; the MG determines whether to report the timestamp of the event according to the timestamp control parameter. Further, the present invention discloses an MG and an MGC. The technical solution provided by the present invention controls the MG to report the timestamp of an event; enables the MGC or other applications that require the timestamp of the event to determine the actual time when the event appears according to the obtained timestamp; and controls the reported event not to include the timestamp if the MGC or other applications do not need the timestamp of the event, thus saving the bandwidth resources and other system resources.
US08116320B2

A program product comprising program instructions, embodied on a storage medium that are operable to cause a processor to switch input data packets for ingress to at least one internal-device port of an internal device from all external ports using virtual local area network identifiers and port virtual local area network tags and to switch output data packets for egress from the internal-device ports of the internal device using the virtual local area network identifiers and the port virtual local area network tags. There are more external ports than internal-device ports and applications in the internal device have visibility to all external ports.
US08116312B2

Roughly described, incoming data packets are delivered by the NIC directly to at least two user level endpoints. In an aspect, only filters that cannot be ambiguous are created in the NIC. In another aspect, the NIC maintains a filter table supporting direct delivery of incoming unicast and multicast data packets to one user level endpoint. Additional requests to join the same multicast group cause replacement of the NIC filter with one in the kernel. In another aspect, a NIC has limited capacity to maintain multicast group memberships. In response to a new multicast filter request, the kernel establishes it in the NIC only if the NIC still has sufficient capacity; otherwise it is established in the kernel.
US08116308B2

A method and apparatus is described which enables location information associated with a client to easily be obtained by a service provider in a packet-based network. The location information may be the location of the client itself, or may be location information associated with devices in a communication facility established by the client. Location information associated with the client may be provided to services such as emergency services to facilitate fast dispatch of resources to assist the client. Location information associated with facilities of the client may be used to facilitate lawful interception of client communications. In one embodiment, the location information is obtained using information included in one of a Provider Backbone Bridge (PBB) or Provider Backbone Transport (PBT) packet.
US08116304B2

Aspects of a method and system for duty cycling a network port based on duty cycling of a link communicatively coupled to the port are provided. In this regard, in a network node communicatively coupled to a network link which operates at a plurality of data rates, one or more components of said network node may be cycled through a series of configurations, where a processing capacity and/or a duration of each configuration may be based on the plurality of data rates on the network link. Exemplary components of the node may comprise one or more hybrids, transmitters, receivers, processors, and/or memory elements. The components may be cycled through the series of configurations during each of a series of time intervals. The series of configurations may be based on one or more of a type of data communicated over said network link and an application running on said network node.
US08116297B2

A system, method, and router for routing data packets from a moving network to an associated home network. A data packet originating from a mobile network node in the moving network is routed over any of a number of external accesses accessible from different mobile routers, which advertise different address prefixes to mobile network nodes. A first mobile router advertising a first address prefix receives a data packet with a source address with the first address prefix, and selects an external access for routing that is accessible from a second mobile router advertising a second address prefix. The first mobile router detects that the source address of the packet is different from the second address prefix and provides the packet with a different source address with the second address prefix. The first mobile router then transmits the packet to the second mobile router for transmission to the home network.
US08116291B2

A wireless connection between a mobile device and an IP-based wireless telecommunications network is established when the mobile device registers with a network controller (NC) through an access point (AP). When a geographical position is needed for the mobile device (e.g., a 911 call), messages are exchanged between the NC and a serving mobile location center (SMLC), where the SMLC retrieves information from a database that is used to identify the geographic position of the mobile device. The database can store a variety of information related to mobile devices such as: last known position, IP address, MAC address, a mobile or subscriber identifier (such as an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI)), last CGI, etc. The geographical position is communicated back to the NC, which can then forward the position information to a switch for processing such as for 911 calls.
US08116282B2

A Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) media independent handover (MIH) service access point (SAP) is configured to provide MIH event services, (e.g., IEEE 802.21 event services), by mapping service primitives to the MIH event services. The service primitives may be 3GPP service primitives which originate from at least one of a radio resources (RR) layer, a logical link control (LLC) layer, a general packet radio service (GPRS) mobility management (GMM) layer, a session management (SM) layer, a non-access stratum (NAS), an access stratum (AS) and an evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA)/evolved core network (E-CORE) system. The event services may include a link parameter change event service, a link up event service, a link going down event service, a link down event service, a handover complete event service and a link detected event service.
US08116281B2

A method for relocating network gateways comprises the steps of obtaining a moving average of drop ratios and setting the duration of the next detection interval based on the moving average of drop ratios, and requesting at least one mobile station to perform a CSN mobility management procedure when the moving average of drop ratios exceeds a high drop ratio.
US08116279B2

A method of providing a handover service to a mobile communication terminal supporting multi-modal communications, and a mobile communication terminal for performing the method are provided. More particularly, a method of eliminating an interruption of a data transmission service occurring during a handover between different communication networks, and a terminal for performing the method are provided. A method of providing a handover service of a mobile communication terminal supporting multi-modal communications can include: transmitting and receiving data to/from a corresponding node via a first access network and a second access network while simultaneously maintaining an association with the first access network and the second access network, determining a point in time of completing a handover registration, and releasing an association with the first access network after the point in time of completing the handover registration.
US08116278B2

A signal is generated in the time domain (e.g., GSM, CDMA waveform), digitally sampled at a rate N per symbol interval T over an observation window of length JT to achieve a vector of JN samples. The JN samples are transformed via a DFT of size JN to the frequency domain, where they are mapped using the DFT coefficients to subcarriers of an OFDM or SC-FDMA waveform. Then an IDFT is executed to convert the samples back to the time domain, which are then transmitted on the mapped subcarriers. For the case of a portable device cognitive radio, subcarriers other than the JN subcarriers may be used for pilots or zero weights may be applied to them. For the case of a network node, pilots or samples for other users may be mapped to the other subcarriers, in which case the IDFT is size M>JN for transforming all the user signals.
US08116272B2

A method for dealing with the packet domain gateway support node errors, including: a Radio Network Controller (4) sends a notification message to a Serving GPRS Support Node (2) according to an error indication message; in the case of a direct tunnel, the Serving GPRS Support Node initiates a process of deactivating a packet data protocol context to a user equipment (1) according to the received notification message, so as to make the states of the packet data protocol contexts in the user equipment, the Serving GPRS Support Node and a Gateway GPRS Support Node (3) consistent.
US08116254B2

An over the air repeater for enhancing wireless communication is provided. The repeater employs a system and method by which strong signals can be prevented from exceeding the repeater's uplink output limits while still providing full operational gain to any concurrently amplified weak signals, while adapting to time slot variations and optionally to frequency hopping variations. Power measurements are performed on each channel with resultant gain changes being performed on delayed versions of those same signals. Digital delay buffers are used to provide adequate processing time to make an accurate determination of the uplink signal levels of each RF carrier. The repeater alternatively monitors the downlink path from the donor base station to determine the frequencies to be processed on the uplink communication.
US08116247B2

In a wireless mesh network of network nodes, there is identified a first subset of the nodes that have a direct connection to at least one end user, and a second subset of nodes that are necessary to maintain connections among the end users. The first subset is exclusive of the second subset. Nodes that are not within either the first subset or the second subset enter a power savings mode, which may include shutting down completely for a predetermined period. This enables power savings in that only the minimum number of nodes that are necessary to maintain connectivity of the end users may remain powered. A centralized node may make the decisions and inform individual nodes to shut down, or each node may run the same algorithm using the same input information and determine its own shutdown decision.
US08116242B2

A receiver and methods of operation wherein Log-Likelihood-Ratio calculation are performed for arbitrary channel estimators with linear Minimum-Mean-Square-Error (MMSE) combining, successive cancellation combining, or joint detection. In some embodiments, the use of linear MMSE or successive cancellation combining may be employed to greatly lower the computational complexity over joint detection.In (401) a channel estimation MSE as a function of frequency, the transmitter modulation type, and a noise power are provided to the LLR component (313). A signal from a transmitter is received at one of the various antennas (301), (303) and respective receiver component (305), (307) in block (403). The channel estimation component (309) computes a channel estimate for the signal from the transmitter, or computes multiple channel estimates for multiple transmitter sources, in block (405). In block (407), decoder inputs are determined as a function of the channel estimates, the received signal, noise power, and channel estimation MSE.
US08116241B2

The present invention relates to a wireless communication system to properly switch over a transmission method of radio signals corresponding to a configuration of a receiver. The wireless communication system according to the present invention includes a transmitting device having a plurality of antennas and capable of transmitting radio signals different from each other from these antennas, and a receiving device having at least one antenna and receiving the radio signals transmitted from the transmitting device. The receiving device comprises an information transmitting unit transmitting, to the transmitting device, configuration information about a configuration of the receiving device, and the transmitting device includes a transmitting unit transmitting the radio signals by a transmission method corresponding to the configuration information received from the receiving device.
US08116239B2

A repeater environment is provided operative to deploy a feedback cancellation loop that is adaptively coupled with an antenna array such that a selected metric can be derived by deploying a selected filter bank operative to process the signal on a bin by bin basis and the derived metric can be applied to the antenna array and feedback cancellation loop combination to improve signal integrity and amplification. In an illustrative implementation, an exemplary repeater environment comprises, a transmitter, a receiver, an equalized feedback cancellation loop circuitry comprising a filter bank, the cancellation loop being operatively coupled to an antenna array. In the illustrative implementation, the feedback cancellation loop can receive signals as input from a cooperating antenna array and provide output signals such as a feedback leakage signal to a cooperating antenna array.
US08116238B2

A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) communicates in a system which includes plural network protocols. The WTRU includes a circuit configured to make an initial communication request. A communication circuit establishes a communication link in response to the initial communication request in a first direction of communication and a second direction of communication. Circuitry determines a protocol preference for the first direction of communication and to establish communication in the first direction according to the protocol preference separately from communication in the second direction of communication. Circuitry determines a protocol preference for the second direction of communication and to establish communication in the second direction according to the protocol preference separately from communication in the first direction of communication. A circuit determines the availability of communication services optimal for communicating the user data in a different protocol from the protocol used as the communication link.
US08116237B2

A distributed contact center and method of managing data transfers between the distributed parts of the contact center is provided. Distributed parts of the contact center are joined together through a known communications initiation protocol, then one or both of status information and control signals are transferred between the distributed parts using lossless communication protocols. The status information and/or control signals may be published to a large number of interested entities through the use of conference call facilities.
US08116231B2

A wireless device (A) in a first antenna sector (40) is discovered using a directional antenna (322), which sends and receives signals in multiple antenna sectors. Multiple primary beacons are transmitted in corresponding primary beacon time slots (1P-4P), which correspond to the antenna sectors (10-40) and have associated secondary beacon time slots (1s-4s). A secondary beacon is received from the wireless device in a first secondary beacon time slot (4sA) associated with a first primary beacon time slot (4P) corresponding to the first sector, the secondary beacon being responsive to a first primary beacon included in the first primary beacon time slot. An additional first secondary beacon time slot (4s) is added in association with the first primary beacon time slot. The additional first secondary beacon time slot enables an additional wireless device in the first sector to send an additional secondary beacon in response to a subsequent first primary beacon included in the first primary beacon time slot.
US08116222B1

Methods and systems for creating a back channel between two network nodes using a packet trailer. The sending node establishes a communication channel between itself and the destination node. A packet is prepared having a header and a payload. Data associated with the tasks of the back channel from a lower data link layer is written into a trailer on the header. The packet is received at the second node and the data in the trailer is read. The trailer is stripped out prior to sending the packet to a higher layer of the destination node.
US08116211B2

A test method according to the present invention includes: a first step of determining whether or not the mobile station detects the problem in a radio link state, when a radio quality is changed from a first state where the radio quality is equal to or more than a first threshold value to a second state where the radio quality is equal to or less than the first threshold value; and a second step of determining whether or not the mobile station does not detect the problem in a radio link state, when the radio quality is changed to a third state where the radio quality is equal to more than a second threshold value, after a lapse of a first time interval from a time point at which the radio quality is changed from the first state to the second state.
US08116210B2

Epoch numbers are maintained in a pair wise fashion at a plurality of communication endpoints to provide communication consistency and recovery from a range of failure conditions including total or partial node failure and subsequent recovery. Once an epoch state inconsistency is recognized, negotiation procedures provide an effective mechanism to reestablish valid communication links without the need to employ global variables which inherently possess greater transmission and overhead requirements needed to maintain communications. Renegotiation of recognizably valid epoch numbers occurs on a pair wise basis.
US08116197B2

A method of finding a primary communication path in a mesh network, which would be at once a protected path having a fully guaranteed segmented node or node-link protection. The method comprises defining a required protection type and further selecting each specific path segment of the desired communication path based on initial user's requirements and topology information of the network. Each specific node path segment N for the communication path is selected upon ensuring that it can be protected in the network by a node backup path satisfying the initial user's requirements. Each specific link path segment L for the communication path is chosen if it can be protected in the network by a link backup path satisfying the initial user's requirements and if the node path segment N to which segment L leads cannot be protected by a suitable node backup path.
US08116196B2

In a mesh network, a network element for providing protection switching in a 1:N shared mesh protection scheme having a first protection path associated with a pair of working paths selected from the N working paths is disclosed. The network element comprising: (a) a link for connecting the network element to a first working path of the pair of working paths in a path layer of the network, the path layer including a plurality of interconnected network elements; (b) a routing table accessible by the network element, the routing table for having local protection channel information associated with a local protection segment separate from the first protection path, the local protection segment connecting the network element and one of the interconnected network elements adjacent to the network element; and (c) an identification module for using the local protection channel information to identify an available protection channel on the local protection segment in the event of failure of a local working segment of the first working path, the local working segment connecting the network element and said one of the adjacent interconnected network elements; wherein the available local protection channel on the local protection segment is used to switch local network bandwidth from the failed local working segment to the local protection segment after the failure has been detected. Selection functions are also disclosed.
US08116195B2

Techniques for generating preamble sequences for OFDM and OFDMA communication systems based on CAZAC sequences with desired properties of constant amplitudes (CA) and zero autocorrelation (ZAC). Such preamble sequences may be used for synchronization and identification of individual transmitters. For example, the OFDMA symbol is constructed using a CAZAC sequence in the frequency-domain and the resulting time-domain waveform is a near-CAZAC sequence.
US08116165B2

An integrated circuit is provided including at least one array of memory cells having a plurality of rows of memory cells and a plurality of columns of bit cells. Each column of the memory cells is coupled to one of a plurality of bit lines. Each row of the memory cells is coupled to one of a plurality of word lines, to control coupling of that row of memory cells to the plurality of bit lines in dependence on a respective word line signal. Word line driver circuitry is configured to group together the word lines of at least three rows of memory calls, such that the word lines of the at least three rows of memory cells share a common word line signal. Thus in a write operation a written data value written into the array of memory cells is written to at least three memory cells having a shared bit line. Read circuitry is coupled to the plurality of bit lines, configured such that in a read operation, in which the at least three memory cells are all coupled to the shared bit line by means of the common word line signal, a read data value is determined in dependence on a voltage of the shared bit line, dependent on data values stored in the at least three memory cells.
US08116157B2

An integrated circuit is disclosed. One embodiment provides a sense amplifier; a first bit line; a second bit line. A first switch is configured to connect/disconnect the first bit line to/from the sense amplifier. A second switch is configured to connect/disconnect the second bit line to/from the sense amplifier independently from the first switch.
US08116149B2

Circuits and methods for transmitting and receiving small swing differential voltage data to and from a memory are described. A plurality of memory cells is formed in arrays within a plurality of memory banks. Each memory bank is coupled to a pair of small swing differential voltage global bit lines that extend across the memory. A small signal write driver circuit is coupled to the global bit lines and configured to output a small signal differential voltage on the global bit lines during write cycles. A global sense amplifier is coupled to the global bit line pairs and configured to output a full swing voltage on a data line during a read cycle. Methods for providing small swing global bit line signals to memory cells are disclosed. The use of small swing differential voltage signals across the memory reduces power consumption and shortens memory cycle time.
US08116142B2

The present invention is a method, circuit and system for erasing a non-volatile memory cell. A shunting element (e.g. transistor) may be introduced and/or activated between bit-lines to which one or more NVM cells being erased are connected. The shunting element may be located and/or activated across two bit-lines defining a given column of cells, where one or a subset of cells from the column may be undergoing an erase operation or procedure. The shunting element may be located, and/or activated, at some distance from the two bit-lines defining the given column of cells, and the shunting element may be electrically connected to the bit-lines defining the column through select transistors and/or through global bit-lines.
US08116138B2

A memory device distributed controller circuit distributes memory control functions amongst a plurality of memory controllers. A master controller receives an interpreted command and activates the appropriate slave controllers depending on the command. The slave controllers can include a data cache controller that is coupled to and controls the data cache and an analog controller that is coupled to and controls the analog voltage generation circuit. The respective controllers have appropriate software/firmware instructions that determine the response the respective controllers take in response to the received command.
US08116128B2

For example, one memory cell is configured using two memory cell transistors and one phase change element by disposing a plurality of diffusion layers in parallel to a bit-line, disposing gates between the diffusion layers so as to cross the bit-line, disposing bit-line contacts and source contacts alternately to the plurality of diffusion layers arranged in a bit-line direction for each diffusion layer, and providing a phase change element on the source contact. Also, the phase change element can be provided on the bit-line contact instead of the source contact. By this means, for example, increase in drivability of the memory cell transistors and reduction in area can be realized.
US08116123B2

A spin-transfer torque memory apparatus and non-destructive self-reference read schemes are described. One method of self-reference reading a spin-transfer torque memory unit includes applying a first read current through a magnetic tunnel junction data cell and forming a first bit line read voltage and storing the first bit line read voltage in a first voltage storage device. The magnetic tunnel junction data cell has a first resistance state. Then the method includes applying a second read current thorough the magnetic tunnel junction data cell having the first resistance state and forming a second bit line read voltage and storing the second bit line read voltage in a second voltage storage device. The first read current is less than the second read current. Then the stored first bit line read voltage is compared with the stored second bit line read voltage to determine whether the first resistance state of the magnetic tunnel junction data cell was a high resistance state or low resistance state.
US08116118B2

The invention concerns a random access memory cell comprising: at least one first plurality of symmetrical dual-gate transistors (TL1T, TL1F, TD1T, TD1F, TL2T, TL2F) forming a flip-flop, at least a first asymmetric dual-gate access transistor (TA1T, TAW1T) and at least a second asymmetric dual-gate access transistor (TA1F, TAW1F) disposed respectively between a first bit line (BLT, WBLT) and a first storage node (T), and between a second bit line (BLF, WBLF) and a second storage node (F), a first gate of the first access transistor (TA1T, TAW1T) and a first gate of the second access transistor (TA1F, TAW1F) being connected to a first word line (WL, WWL) able to route a biasing signal, a second gate (TA1F, TAW1F) of the first access transistor connected to the second storage node (F) and a second gate of the second access transistor connected to the first storage node (T).
US08116114B2

A pair of access control circuits having bit line pairs wired corresponds to a same data terminal and is assigned different addresses. During a test mode, a data swap circuit prohibits swapping of connections between a pair of data terminals and a pair of data lines when one of the access control circuits is used, and swaps the connections between a pair of data terminals and a pair of data lines when the other one of the access control circuits is used. Accordingly, it is possible to give a data signal at the same logic level to bit lines with different logics from each other. Stress can be given between a contact arranged between a pair of the access control circuits and bit lines adjacent to both sides of the contact. Consequently, designing of a test pattern can be simplified, and test efficiency can be improved.
US08116112B2

A semiconductor memory apparatus includes: a bit line; a word line; a local bit line; a first switch unit provided between the local bit line and the bit; a memory cell connected to the bit line and the word line; a memory cell array including the memory cell; a first sense circuit connected to the bit line and configured to amplify a signal read out from the memory cell; and a second sense circuit connected to the local bit lines and configured to amplify a signal amplified by the first sense circuit, wherein the first switch unit disconnects the local bit line from the bit line when the first sense circuit amplifies the signal, and connects the local bit line to the bit line when the second sense circuit amplifies the signal amplified by the first sense circuit.
US08116111B2

Provided are a semiconductor device and a method of fabricating the same. The semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate including a cell array region, memory cell transistors disposed at the cell array region, bitlines disposed on the memory cell transistors, and a source plate disposed between the memory cell transistors and the bitlines to veil the memory cell transistors thereunder.
US08116108B2

A method for operating a line-side fundamental-frequency-clocked converter is disclosed. The converters has a bridge circuit with, for example three, upper and, for example three, lower semiconductor switches, which are connected to respective positive and negative terminals of a DC link circuit. Center taps of connected pairs of the upper and lower semiconductor switches are connected to the line voltage phases. Two upper or two lower semiconductor switches are simultaneously activated during fundamental frequency operation for a predetermined time period before or after a natural trigger instant of the semiconductor switches caused by a line voltage angle. An estimated line voltage angle for clocking the semiconductor switches is tracked based on two phase currents measured while the two upper or two lower semiconductor switches are simultaneously active.
US08116107B2

A synchronous rectification control circuit assembly includes a first transformer, a reference voltage generator, a first PWM control signal generating circuit, a second PWM control signal generating circuit, a first synchronous rectification circuit, and a second synchronous rectification circuit. When the output voltage rises, the conduction time of the first synchronous rectification circuit and the second synchronous rectification circuit are relatively regulated to lower the output voltage, maintaining stability of the output voltage.
US08116106B2

Techniques are disclosed to select functional parameters and/or operating modes of a circuit based on a measurement during an initialization period. In one aspect an integrated circuit includes a threshold detection circuit coupled to measure during an initialization period of the integrated circuit a signal from a first external circuit comprising one or more components coupled to a first external terminal of the integrated circuit. A selection circuit is coupled to the threshold detection circuit to select a parameter/mode of the integrated circuit in response to the signal from the first external circuit during the initialization period of the integrated circuit. The first external terminal is further coupled to one or more additional external circuits, each of which comprising one or more components. The one or more additional external circuits are coupled to provide one or more signals at the first external terminal to be used by the integrated circuit during normal operation at times other than the initialization period to provide at least one additional function for the integrated circuit after the initialization period of the integrated circuit is complete.
US08116104B2

A power supply to improve an EMI characteristic and an electronic device having the power supply. The power supply includes a power converter to convert an alternating current (AC) power applied from outside to a direct current (DC) power, a ground portion to supply a ground power to the power converter and a noise attenuator to reduce noise by blocking a harmonic current generated by a driving of the power converter from passing through the ground portion. Accordingly, the stable ground power can be supplied to the internal elements by avoiding the potential change of the ground power and the noise caused by the flow of the harmonic current can be reduced by shortening the harmonic current path. Therefore, the EMI characteristic can be improved.
US08116102B2

An electronic device which comprises a lead frame comprising at least one clip, a capacitor comprising at least one terminal, the at least one terminal being received in the at least one clip, and a semiconductor chip attached to the lead frame.
US08116092B2

A circuit board includes a substrate, a conductive pattern arranged on the substrate that includes an interconnecting circuit. The circuit board also includes a plurality of land pads having a pair of first land pads on which no electronic components are mounted and electrically connected to each other through the interconnecting circuit. The circuit board further includes an insulating layer on the substrate. The insulating layer has first openings that allow the pair of the first land pads to be exposed through the insulating layer.
US08116084B2

A method for manufacturing a power module substrate, includes: preparing a ceramics substrate and a metal plate made of pure aluminum; a fusion step in which the ceramics substrate and the metal plate are stacked in layers with a brazing filler metal interposed therebetween, and a fused aluminum layer is formed at an interface between the ceramics substrate and the metal plate by fusing the brazing filler metal which is caused by heating; and a solidifying step in which the fused aluminum layer is solidified by cooling, and a crystal is grown so as to be arranged in a crystal orientation of the metal plate when the fused aluminum layer is solidified.
US08116079B2

A storage device transporter includes a transporter body having first and second body portions. The first body portion is configured to be engaged by automated machinery for manipulation of the storage device transporter. The second body portion is configured to receive and support a storage device. The first body portion is configured to receive and direct an air flow over one or more surfaces of a storage device supported in the second body portion.
US08116078B2

A server auxiliary operating system is disclosed, which includes a case, a plurality of swappable GPUs and a printed circuit back plane. The case includes a bottom board and a first mounting bay located at the front portion of the case. The swappable GPUs are disposed in the first mounting bay. The printed circuit back plane is disposed on the bottom board and has a plurality of first interfaces and a plurality of second interfaces electrically corresponding to the first interfaces, wherein the swappable GPUs are respectively coupled to the first interfaces, and the servers are respectively electrically connected to the corresponding swappable GPUs through the second interfaces respectively connected to the servers so as to expand the server operation capability.
US08116075B2

A system and method for an improved multiple hard-disk-drive data-storage enclosure. Some embodiments position drives in counter-rotating pairs, each simultaneously accessing half the data, such that seek-caused actuator rotational-acceleration vibration cause simultaneous canceling rotational torque. Some embodiments position the edge of a first drive (or drive pair) at an angle to the actuator midpoint of a nearby second drive (or drive pair), such that rotational-acceleration vibration from a seek-caused actuator rotation in the first drive does not cause a rotational movement into the second drive that affects the tracking or seek operation. Some further embodiments position drives in a herringbone pattern to redirect air flow in addition to reducing rotational-acceleration vibration interaction. Other embodiments include a printed wire circuit board mounted to reduce the rotational-acceleration vibration interaction.
US08116072B2

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, an electrical power meter, is disclosed. The electrical power meter includes a housing for containing electrical circuitry therein, the housing including at least one of voltage and current inputs, the housing including passages extending entirely therethrough, wherein the passages are configured to receive a CT lead therethrough, and wherein the CT leads are not electrically connected to the electrical circuitry therein; and a face plate operatively supported on a surface of the housing, wherein the face plate includes at least one of displays, indicators and buttons. It is envisioned that the through passages are located along a side of the housing.
US08116070B2

The disclosure relates to a control and switchgear for a medium or high-voltage substation. In order to improve a generic control and switchgear by means of a given number of prefabricated wiring elements, the function-related wiring is combined in a uniform control device which is incorporated into a segment of the switchgear door and is provided with the operator panel on the outside and a series of interfaces on the inside.
US08116067B2

A nanoporous insulating oxide composite electrode and ultracapacitor device, method of manufacture and method of use thereof. The composite electrode being constructed from a conductive backing electrode and an composite layer. Preferably, the ultracapacitor device is configured in a stacked, coiled or button cell configurations and includes composite electrodes. The composite layer being substantially free of mixed oxidation states and nanoporous and having a median pore diameter of 0.5-500 nanometers and average surface area of 300-600 m2/g. The composite layer made from a stable sol-gel suspension containing particles of the insulating oxide, the median primary particle diameter being 1-50 nanometers. Preferably, the insulating oxide is Al2O3, MgAl2O4, SiO2 or TiO2. Preferably, the backing electrode is carbon paper sputter-coated with a film of Au.
US08116055B2

In an opto-isolator, a common mode pulse compensation circuit is provided that senses when a common mode pulse event occurs and that adds current to the LED drive current to compensate for a decrease in the LED drive current caused by the occurrence of the event. The common mode pulse compensation circuit is capable of operating effectively over a very wide range of common mode pulse slopes by automatically adjusting the amount of current that is added to the LED drive current based at least in part on the slope of the sensed common mode pulse. In addition, the common mode pulse compensation circuit is capable of being implemented with LEDs that operate at very low drive currents, which allows the power consumption requirements of the opto-isolator to be reduced.
US08116053B2

An isolating device for a power semiconductor comprising n power terminals for a power grid comprises n module terminals, n grid terminals, n connecting lines which connect the module terminals and grid terminals and have overcurrent fuses, and a tripping controller. The tripping controller includes a detector for detecting the rupture of an overcurrent fuse and a tripping unit for tripping an overcurrent fuse. A power module contains a power semiconductor and an isolating device. A system installation contains at least two power modules connected in parallel. In a method for operating an isolating device, at least one of the overcurrent fuses is tripped upon a predetermined tripping criterion being met.
US08116047B2

Methods and devices of the invention include an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit. This circuit includes rise time dependent activation circuitry capable of detecting a slew rate of an input signal and capable of determining whether the slew rate of the input signal is greater than a threshold value. For an ESD event said activation circuitry generates a trigger signal. Additionally, the activation circuitry is coupled with the ESD dissipation duration control circuitry which is further coupled with an ESD dissipation circuit. This arrangement enabling the duration control circuit to be activated by the trigger signal which responds by producing an activation signal that activates the ESD dissipation circuitry and that controls the length of time the dissipation circuit remains active. The ESD dissipation circuitry includes a shunt that redirects the ESD energy away from the protected internal circuit. The ESD dissipation duration circuitry further configured to maintain shunting of the energy for a period of time sufficient to discharge of the ESD energy without damaging the protected circuitry.
US08116045B2

Protection circuitry protects a boost converter coupled between input and output nodes for driving a load coupled to the output node. The protection circuitry may comprise a first circuit configured for monitoring a voltage at the output node, the voltage being caused by a signal having a voltage proximate to, or lower than, an input voltage of the boost converter. The protection circuitry may also include a second circuit configured for coupling together the input node with respect to the output node and enabling the boost converter only if the monitored voltage exceeds a reference voltage.
US08116043B2

A method and system for providing a magnetic structure in magnetic transducer is described. The method and system include providing a pinning layer, a synthetic antiferromagnetic (SAF) adjacent to the pinning layer, a nonmagnetic layer, and a sensor layer. The SAF resides between the nonmagnetic and pinning layers. The nonmagnetic layer is between the SAF and the sensor layer. The SAF includes a pinned layer, a reference layer, and a nonmagnetic spacer layer between the pinned and reference layers. The pinned layer is magnetically coupled with the reference layer and includes sublayers. A first sublayer has a first blocking temperature distribution (TBD) and a first exchange energy. A second sublayer has a second TBD and a second exchange energy. The first sublayer is between the pinning layer and second sublayer. The first TBD is greater than the second TBD. The first exchange energy is less than the second exchange energy.
US08116040B2

A soft or passive latch to control a position of a head relative to a data storage media is disclosed. In illustrated embodiments, the latch provides a dwell point or region along the flex circuit assembly. In illustrated embodiments, the dwell point or region corresponds to alignment of the head in a middle region of the media. In illustrated embodiment, the latch is formed of a lower or reduced bending stiffness region, which in illustrated embodiment is formed via a cut-out, contoured, or reduced width portion of a constraint layer damper or other layer(s) along the flex circuit assembly.
US08116036B2

Recording heads for a data storage system include a first side having at least a portion of a metal component. A carbon overcoat is on the first side and covers the at least a portion of a metal component. A corrosion inhibitor is incorporated in the carbon overcoat. The corrosion inhibitor is illustratively located between the carbon overcoat and the at least a portion of a metal component, on top of the carbon overcoat, or within the carbon overcoat. In an embodiment, the carbon overcoat includes diamond-like carbon.
US08116035B2

The invention provides a magnetic recording medium, and a magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus. The magnetic recording medium includes a substrate 11, an under layer 12 formed on the substrate 11, a magnetic recording layer 13 formed on the under layer 12, and a protective layer 14 formed on the magnetic recording layer 13. The magnetic recording layer 13 is composed of a primary recording layer 14 and a secondary recording layer 15 which are mutually exchange-coupled. The primary recording layer 14 has magnetic grains and a nonmagnetic material that surrounds the magnetic grains, and has a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. The secondary recording layer 15 is made of a material having a negative crystal magnetic anisotropy and its easy plane of the magnetization is a plane of the medium.
US08116029B2

A filter material for use in an electronic enclosure. The filter material includes a mixture of carbon and calcium chloride. In some embodiments, the filter material further includes a polyolefin binder, and optionally other ingredients. In one embodiment, the filter material includes 5 to 15 percent calcium chloride, and in another embodiment, the filter material includes 10 percent calcium chloride.
US08116026B2

A track follow controller includes a burst selector selecting at least one burst pair based on burst pair selection data. A linear position calculator calculates a primary head position and a secondary head position based on the at least one burst pair, and calculates a head linear position based on the primary head position and the secondary head position.
US08116017B2

An optical system with precision positioning of optical devices is disclosed generally comprising an optical device and a carrier for the optical device, where the carrier has substantially parallel first and second pivot axes and a third pivot axis that is substantially orthogonal to the first and second pivot axes that allows the optical device to be moved in three substantially orthogonal directions. In certain embodiments, the pivot axes are formed from hinges, which may be spring loaded or biased by a tensioning element running approximately forty five degrees to all three pivot axes. In some embodiments, the carrier is supported at least partly independently from an outer housing in order to insulate it from vibrations caused by vibrating devices mounted to the housing.
US08116011B2

An optical device including: at least one deformable membrane; a first support; and actuating unit for loading the membrane to deform it, the membrane being provided with a anchoring zone for anchoring to the support which surrounds a part of the membrane including a substantially central zone that is reversibly deformable, the support and the membrane contributing to imprison a constant volume of a first fluid in contact with a face of part of the membrane, wherein the actuating unit includes control-activated main actuating unit for loading the membrane in a peripheral zone and control-activated supplementary actuating unit anchored at least to the membrane for loading the membrane in the central zone.
US08115996B2

A screen fabric includes a stack of a plurality of layers. The plurality of layers include: a first layer that forms a surface layer on which a three-dimensional portion is to be formed; and a second layer that is different from the first layer. The first layer is made of a vinyl chloride resin, and the second layer has a lower hardness than the first layer.
US08115992B2

In accordance with the invention, there are imaging interferometric microscopes and methods for imaging interferometric microscopy using structural illumination and evanescent coupling for the extension of imaging interferometric microscopy. Furthermore, there are coherent anti-Stokes Raman (CARS) microscopes and methods for coherent anti-Stokes Raman (CARS) microscopy, wherein imaging interferometric microscopy techniques are applied to get material dependent spectroscopic information.
US08115991B2

A switchable infrared filter, consisting of a diamond carrier material (1), whereon a filter material (6), which is made of a thermochromic material, is disposed on one side and which can be connected to a heating device (2, 3).
US08115983B2

A MEMS-based display device is described, wherein an array of interferometric modulators are configured to reflect light through a transparent substrate. The transparent substrate is sealed to a backplate and the backplate can contain electronic circuitry for controlling the array of interferometric modulators. The backplate can provide physical support for device components, such as electronic components which can be used to control the state of the display. The backplate can also be utilized as a primary structural support for the device.
US08115981B2

A scanning optical apparatus includes a light source, a deflecting element for deflecting a beam of light emitted from the light source, an optical device for causing the beam of light emitted from the light source to be imaged into a linear shape long in the main scanning direction on the deflecting surface of the deflecting element. The optical device is comprised of a first optical element and a second optical element, and a third optical element for causing the beam of light deflected by the deflecting element to be imaged into a spot-like shape on a surface to be scanned. The third optical element includes a single lens, the opposite lens surfaces of which both include a toric surface of an aspherical surface shape in the main scanning plane, the curvatures of the opposite lens surfaces in the sub scanning plane being continuously varied from the on-axis toward the off-axis in the effective portion of the lens.
US08115976B2

A disclosed image formation apparatus includes: a manual paper feed unit supplying a recording material; an image formation unit receiving the recording material from the manual paper feed unit; an image removal device removing an image recorded on the recording material; an installation unit detachably installing the image removal device on the image formation apparatus; and a switching unit switching whether the recording material fed from the manual paper feed unit is supplied to the image removal device installed using the installation unit or to the image formation unit.
US08115973B2

An imaging apparatus for fully automatic screen printer including two stacked light sources, two stacked beamsplitters, two stacked optical reflectors, two stacked imaging lens and two stacked image sensors, wherein the two stacked optical reflectors and the two stacked light sources are correspondingly disposed on two different sides of the two beamsplitters, the two stacked imaging lens are disposed on another side of the beamsplitters different from that of the optical reflectors and the light sources, the two stacked image sensors are disposed behind the imaging lens; the optical reflectors are provided with an upward reflection plane and a downward reflection plane, the optical axes of the imaging lenses are orthogonal to that of the light sources. The imaging apparatus is of two independent optical paths which capture the image of the printed circuit board and that of the screen respectively. Furthermore, the imaging apparatus is of compact structure, high acquiring speed and optical paths easy to be adjusted.
US08115972B2

Among various embodiments of the present disclosure, image scanning can be performed by scanning an object in a forward direction and capturing a first image of the object, scanning the object in a reverse direction and capturing a second image of the object, and combining the first image and the second image to produce a single image.
US08115967B2

A system and method for reducing the noise induced in a particular section or level of a signal bandwidth. The section is isolated from the rest of the signal data, by rescaling this data to produce a buffer section adjacent the section with little or no data in it. The signal is then transmitted to the output device where all data is the buffer section is considered to be the result of noise, and is mapped back to the predetermined level. The signal data is inversely rescaled to move data back into the buffer section. In this way, more of the data that was input at the predetermined level, will also be at the predetermined level afterwards, thereby correcting noise induced in that level by noise inducing transmission techniques such as JPEG compression.
US08115965B2

An image processing apparatus which makes it possible to change the manner of authentication between cases where restriction of a specific process is performed on an image of an original, as an original document, and where the restriction of the specific process is performed on an image of an original, as a copy of the original document. A scanner reads an image on an original. An embedded information-extracting section extracts specific information contained in the read image. A determining section determines based on the extracted information whether or not the original is an original document. An authenticating section performs authentication using respective difference pieces of authentication information in cases where the original is determined to be an original document and where the original is not. A copy operation control section restricts the specific process based on the image, according to a result of the authentication.
US08115963B2

An image processing apparatus includes a receiving unit that receives a display request for displaying a preview image of gradation-processed image data, and a preview magnification indicative of a display magnification of the preview image. An image processing unit performs a first magnification-altering process on the gradation-processed image data performs the gradation process based on the image quality mode if the preview magnification is lower than a present magnification and the gradation process based on the image quality mode is such that the gradation-processed image data does not express halftone, as well as if the preview magnification is higher than the present magnification thereby obtaining processed image data. A display unit creates and displays the preview image based on the processed image data.
US08115962B2

A method of displaying hyperlinked information using a handheld display device having a touch-sensitive screen and a transceiver for sending and receiving digital information. The method comprises the steps of: imaging an area of a printed substrate and generating image data using an optical sensor, the printed substrate containing a printed hyperlink; determining interaction data using the image data, the interaction data identifying a substrate identity; retrieving display data corresponding to the substrate; displaying display information based on said display data; interacting with the displayed hyperlink via the touch-sensitive display screen; retrieving hyperlinked information corresponding to the hyperlink; and displaying the hyperlinked information on the screen.
US08115957B2

In a data transmission apparatus, each dot data element is one of a predetermined number of kinds. The data transmitting apparatus includes a template-data generating portion generating template data from the image data by initially determining one of the kinds of dot data element that most frequently occurs in each of one of the rows and the columns and then sequencing the most frequently occurring kinds of dot data elements determined in a direction of the other of the rows and the columns, a data-block generating portion generating a data block by sequencing in the direction of the other of the rows and the columns codes each indicative of a difference between one of the dot data elements of a kind in the image data as stored in the storing portion and one of the dot data elements of a kind in the template data.
US08115951B2

An approach is provided for implementing locked printing on a printing device with unlock via a keypad attached to the printing device via an interface. A user may specify for printing print jobs stored at a printing device using a keypad device to enter a job ID associated with a particular print job or a general ID associated with users to release all print jobs associated with a particular user, all print jobs not yet printed, or all print jobs. Print jobs may alternatively be identified by date. The approach may also include a user viewing a list of available locked print jobs on a user interface of the printing device, along with the associated job IDs. The approach may further include the use of a Web server on the printing device to generate and provide a Web page that lists stored print jobs and their associated job IDs.
US08115949B2

An image processing apparatus inputs print data from an external device, and analyzes the input print data. The image processing apparatus rasterizes the print data into first image data on the basis of the analysis result. The image processing apparatus receives status information representing the status of a printing apparatus, temporarily saves the first image data in a holding unit on the basis of the received status information and the analysis result, interrupts a transfer process for the first image data to the printing apparatus, starts the transfer process for second image data to the printing apparatus, and transfers, to the printing apparatus, setting information of the print data that corresponds to the first image data. The printing apparatus determines whether corresponding image data has been received within a predetermined period after reception of the setting information of the print data from the image processing apparatus. The printing apparatus manages a print job based on the setting information as a reservation job on the basis of the determination result. Upon reception of image data of the managed reservation job, the printing apparatus starts a printing process for the image data.
US08115948B2

A printer, scanner device and methods for using same are described herein. A printer device may include a dedicated input that, when actuated, generates and sends a request to a computer for known data or a predetermined print job, e.g., schedule information from a personal information management (PIM) application. A scanner device may include another dedicated input that, when actuated, automatically scans a document fed to the device by the user and sends the scanned image to IM (or other) software on a computer, bypassing the need to manipulate the scanned image using scanner software. The device may be used with printed metapaper, which includes a barcode or other indicia identifying the metapaper and corresponds to a stored template image of the metapaper. When the metapaper is rescanned, the scan can be compared to the stored template information to identify changes and synchronize the changes with the IM software.
US08115944B2

Aspects of the present invention relate to systems, methods and devices for receiving job configuration data, deriving detailed job parameters and calculating job costs in relation to an imaging device job. Some aspects relate to the receiving display content for use as a prompt to obtain job configuration data. Some aspects relate to display of display content for prompting a user to input the job configuration data.
US08115941B2

An image forming apparatus includes: a combining unit configured to combine a document image and a coded image; a setting determining unit configured to determine whether a setting for combining a document image including a previously combined coded image and an other coded image is made when a reproduction of the document image is instructed; and a prohibiting unit configured to prohibit the combining unit from combining the document image including the previously combined coded image and the other coded image according to the setting when the result of the determination indicates that the setting is made.
US08115928B2

A box inspector for detecting at an inspection station an unacceptable skew in, an item missing from, and/or an unacceptable gap in a box. The box inspector has pairs of aligned emitters and receivers generating a signal when an unacceptable skew is detected, at least two item present sensors corresponding to the number of items adapted to be located in a single row within the box and generating an item absent signal when an item is missing from the box, a gap detect sensor generating an unacceptable gap signal when the gap is larger than a predetermined gap size, and a box present sensor generating a box present signal when a box arrives at the inspection station. A controller receives signals from these components and generates indications when the box is unacceptably skewed, an item is missing from the box, and/or an unacceptable gap exists in the box.
US08115924B2

An optical characteristic measuring apparatus of the invention includes a sequentially-readable charge storage sensor array having a plurality of light receiving elements. Irradiation of first illumination light and second illumination light is controlled in such a manner that a period for irradiating the second illumination light onto a sample containing a fluorescent material is included in an integration period of each of the light receiving elements for receiving a wavelength component of fluoresced light from the sample in measuring an optical characteristic of the sample. The optical characteristic measuring apparatus having the above arrangement enables to accurately measure the optical characteristics of samples containing a fluorescent material in a short time by scanning the samples.
US08115921B2

A probe for near-field light scattering, has, on the tip thereof, at least fine particles containing silver or silver oxide, a titanium oxide layer, and a silver layer at least in the named order from the surface thereof. A process for producing the probe for near-field light scattering comprises at least steps of forming a silver layer, a titanium oxide layer, and fine particles containing silver or silver oxide in the named order on the body of the probe. A near-field optical microscope or a Raman spectroscope, comprises the probe for the near-field light scattering; a control function for bringing the probe into contact with a surface of a test sample; an optical excitation system for producing an exciting light to or vicinity of the tip of the probe; and detecting optical system for detecting detection light emitted form the tip of the probe.
US08115919B2

Exemplary embodiments of methods, arrangements and systems for obtaining information about a sample can be provided. For example, in one exemplary embodiment, it is possible to receive a first electro-magnetic radiation from a sample which is based on a second electro-magnetic radiation forwarded to the sample. The first electro-magnetic radiation may have a first frequency and the second electro-magnetic radiation may have a second frequency which is different from the first frequency. The difference between the first and second frequencies can be based on an acoustic wave inside the sample related to at least one characteristic of the sample. Further, it is possible to receive at least a portion of the first electromagnetic radiation and separate it into a particular finite number (N) of frequency component radiations. In addition, it is possible to receive a particular energy of more than 1/N of energy of the third electro-magnetic radiation, and generate information associated with the sample. Certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention are capable of obtaining information associated with a sample, particularly its mechanical properties, non-contact using electromagnetic radiation.
US08115911B2

In one example embodiment, an authentication apparatus determines whether to emit an imaging light to a target of authentication based on a detected position of the target of authentication. In one example embodiment, when the imaging light is emitted, the imaging light permeates a display plane. In one example embodiment, the authentication apparatus authenticates based on data obtained from the emitted imaging light.
US08115908B2

While position measurement of an edge position of a thermal shield takes place in a short time with high working efficiency, the edge position can be measured accurately without variation. First determination takes place while a distance is measured with a first scanning interval. When a change in a measured distance which can be determined as the edge position is determined as a result, an optical scanning position is returned by a predetermined amount reversely to the scanning direction (or reversely to the scanning direction), and while laser beam is scanned again from the returned optical scanning position, second determination takes place while measuring the distance with a second scanning interval shorter than the first scanning interval. If a change in the measured distance which can be determined as the edge position is determined as a result, the laser beam is determined finally to be reflected at an edge of a rim of the thermal shield at the optical scanning position at a time point when the change is determined.
US08115906B2

A movable body system is equipped with a stage having a stage main section which moves along an XY plane and a stage which is finely movable in a direction (a Z-axis direction) orthogonal to the XY plane and a tilt direction with respect to the XY plane, and a measurement device which measures positional information of the stage within the XY plane. The measurement device has a plurality of encoder heads arranged on the table, and optical fibers whose end sections are arranged facing each head at the stage main section and the optical axes at the end sections are substantially parallel to the Z-axis direction, and the device measures positional information of the stage, based on an output of a head facing a grating section placed substantially parallel to the XY plane. And, air transmission of a signal is performed between each of the heads and the end section of the optical fibers.
US08115905B2

A lithographic apparatus for immersion lithography is disclosed in which a seal between different parts of the substrate table may be arranged to reduce the transmission of forces between the different parts.
US08115903B2

An immersion lithographic apparatus has adaptations to prevent or reduce bubble formation in one or more gaps in the substrate table by preventing bubbles escaping from the gap into the beam path and/or extracting bubbles that may form in the gap.
US08115902B2

An exposure apparatus can prevent disadvantages of supplying liquid of reduced cleanliness and formation of watermarks. The exposure apparatus exposes a substrate by irradiating exposure light onto the substrate via a projection optical system and a liquid, and includes a liquid supply mechanism for supplying the liquid, and a measuring device which measures a time during which the supply of the liquid from the liquid supply mechanism is stopped.
US08115901B2

An exposure apparatus is configured to expose a pattern formed on an original onto a substrate using extreme ultraviolet light. The exposure apparatus includes a stage configured to move at the time of exposure, an electrostatic chuck which is provided on the stage and is configured to hold the original, an electrode which is provided outside the electrostatic chuck on the stage via an insulator, and an electric field forming member which is provided so that an absolute value of an electric potential difference with respect to the electrode is greater than an absolute value of an electric potential difference with respect to the original at a position facing the electrode. The particle adherence to the original can be effectively avoided.
US08115898B2

A liquid crystal display (LCD) which can be driven at a low voltage and has a fast response time. The LCD includes a liquid crystal composition interposed between a first substrate and a second substrate, wherein the liquid crystal composition includes a first polar liquid crystal compound and a second polar liquid crystal compound, each in an amount of 20% or less by weight based on a weight of the liquid crystal composition, wherein the first polar liquid crystal compound is represented by and the second polar liquid crystal compound is represented by at least one of where each of R1, R2, and R3, and R4 independently is an alkyl group, an alkoxy group, or an alkenyl group having about 2 to about 15 carbon atoms.
US08115897B2

A liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal panel including short sides and long sides, a plurality of gate lines disposed on the liquid crystal panel and extending substantially in parallel with the short sides of the liquid crystal panel, a plurality of data lines insulated from the gate lines, intersecting the gate lines and extending substantially in parallel with the long sides of the liquid crystal panel, a printed circuit board disposed near one of the short sides of the liquid crystal panel and providing an image signal to the liquid crystal panel, a light guide plate overlapping the liquid crystal panel, a light source module providing light to the light guide plate and a circuit board on which the light source module is mounted.
US08115896B2

A liquid crystal display including an active device array substrate, an opposite substrate disposed above the active device array substrate and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the active device array substrate and the opposite substrate is provided. The active device array substrate has a plurality of signal lines, a plurality of active devices electrically connected with corresponding signal lines, a plurality of pixel electrodes electrically connected with corresponding active devices, and an auxiliary electrode. The auxiliary electrode is disposed between the pixel electrodes. Besides, the opposite substrate has a common electrode. The voltage difference applied between the common electrode and the pixel electrode is smaller than that applied between the auxiliary electrode and the pixel electrode. Additionally, a driving method for the above-mentioned liquid crystal display is also provided.
US08115893B2

A liquid crystal display device includes a first substrate, a second substrate and a liquid crystal layer between the first and second substrates. The liquid crystal display device further includes a gate line on the first substrate, a first insulation film on the gate line, a data line crossing the gate line such that the data line and the gate line define a pixel region with a transmission area and a reflection area, a thin film transistor connected to the gate line and the data line, a storage capacitor including a storage line crossing the data line and an upper storage electrode connected to the thin film transistor, a second insulation film on the thin film transistor with a transmission hole defined through the second insulation film, a reflection electrode disposed on the second insulation film in the reflection area and connected to a portion of the upper storage electrode through the transmission hole, and a pixel electrode disposed in the pixel region and connected to the reflection electrode.
US08115892B2

One embodiment of the present invention provides a display that emits circularly-polarized light. This display includes a display mechanism that emits linearly-polarized light and a layer placed in the path of the linearly-polarized light. The layer receives the linearly-polarized light on one surface, converts the linearly-polarized light to circularly-polarized light, and then emits the circularly-polarized light from another surface. By emitting circularly-polarized light, the display reduces the perceived distortion found at some angles when the display is viewed through a linearly-polarizing filter.
US08115876B2

Disclosed is an apparatus and a method for receiving digital broadcasting. The method includes receiving and outputting digital broadcasting data through a selected channel based on a user request, storing channel information about the selected channel, re-selecting a channel using the stored channel information if synchronization of the received digital broadcasting data is not achieved and receiving digital broadcasting data through the re-selected channel. Accordingly, it is possible to reduce unnecessary power consumption of the apparatus for receiving digital broadcasting and prevent the apparatus for receiving digital broadcasting from being down or inoperative in a weak electric field and other specific environments.
US08115875B2

An image display device may have a display portion, a signal-processing portion, a power supply portion that supplies power to the display portion and the signal-processing portion, a user interface portion, and a control portion that controls the display portion, the signal-processing portion, and the power supply portion. An operation mode may include a waiting mode in which power supply to the display portion and the signal-processing portion stops, an image-display-waiting mode in which power is supplied to the signal-processing portion but power supply to the display portion stops, and an image display mode in which power is supplied to the display portion and the signal-processing portion. The control portion may switch the operation mode, based on the operation signal, from the waiting mode or the image-display-waiting mode to the image display mode or from the image display mode to the image-display-waiting mode.
US08115867B2

The present invention provides an image processing device that converts an interlace image signal into a progressive signal so as not to cause degradation of image quality in edge parts of letters or the like, when performing an IP conversion with respect to an image that is mixed with an OSD such as a caption and a telop. The image processing device includes: an OSD mix part that mixes an on-screen display with an input interlace image signal; a motion detecting part that detects a motion by comparing pixel data between different fields; and an interpolation pixel generating part that generates a new pixel between lines of the interlace image signal by interpolating calculation with an interpolation method that depends on an OSD mix ratio of the OSD mix part and a result of the motion detection by the motion detecting part.
US08115864B2

The present invention relates to the field of video data de-interlacing, and in particular to a method for reconstructing full-resolution frames from a line-skipped-sequence of fields and a corresponding apparatus. It is the particular approach of the present invention to substitute missing lines of a block of a reconstructed full-resolution frame by lines from another field, e.g. the preceding field, and translating the substitute lines vertically and horizontally so as to optimized a smoothness measure computed for the thus reconstructed block. In this manner, an error-prone a priori determination of motion vectors based an interpolation of the interlaced images in the vertical direction can be avoided. The present invention may also be applied to sequences generated from a full-resolution sequence by a line-skipping operation that keeps only every Kth line and discards the other K−1 lines.
US08115863B2

A method of de-interlacing interlaced video information including determining functional equations which estimate trajectories of corresponding pixel locations based on statistical information, updating each functional equation with sampled pixel values from the interlaced video information of corresponding pixel locations, and evaluating the functional equations at a time point of a progressive frame and providing corresponding progressive pixel values. A video de-interlace system including a trajectory estimator and a component estimator. The trajectory estimator provides functional equations estimating trajectories of tracked pixel locations based on statistical information. The component estimator receives the functional equations and the interlaced video information and provides progressive pixel values. The component estimator updates each functional equation with sampled pixel values from the interlaced video information, and evaluates the updated functional equations at selected time points to provide progressive frames.
US08115860B2

An image recording apparatus with a solid state light emitting device is provided that controls one or more exposure settings for an image recording in low light conditions in response to a level of light reflected from a scene illuminated with the solid state light emitting device.
US08115855B2

Digital photographing devices traditionally comprise an assist light that illuminates the object being photographed in low light conditions The solution concerns a method comprising exposing an image frame comprising a window of interest; performing an autofocus for the window of interest; and controlling an assist light for the autofocus according to an exposure of the window of interest. The solutions is also targeted to an apparatus and a computer-readable storage means.
US08115854B2

An image sensor and a method of forming an image sensor. The image sensor includes an array of pixel cells at a surface of a substrate. Each pixel cell has a photo-conversion device. At least one a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) element including a photonic crystal structure is provided over at least one of the pixel cells. The MEMS-based photonic crystal element is supported by a support structure and configured to selectively permit electromagnetic wavelengths to reach the photo-conversion device upon application of a voltage. As such, the MEMS-based photonic crystal element of the invention can replace or compliment conventional filters, e.g., color filter arrays.
US08115852B2

An image display apparatus includes a display which displays an image based on an image signal. An ambient light measuring unit measures the intensity of ambient light around the display. A brightness distribution measuring unit measures a brightness distribution in a scene when the image signal is obtained. A parameter calculator calculates a correction parameter for correcting a partial contrast of the image based on the ambient light intensity and brightness distribution in the scene. A contrast correction unit corrects a partial contrast of the image by correcting the image signal by using the calculated correction parameter.
US08115851B2

A solid-state image capturing apparatus according to the present invention includes: a plurality of photoelectric conversion sections; a charge accumulation section; and a charge readout section, the apparatus further includes: a semiconductor substrate including a plurality of diffusion layers formed thereabove, the diffusion layers constituting the photoelectric conversion sections, the charge accumulation section and the charge readout section; a readout gate electrode formed above the semiconductor substrate and constituting the charge readout section; an insulation sidewall formed on a side surface of the readout gate electrode; and a surface diffusion layer constituting the photoelectric conversion sections, which is positioned in a self-aligning manner with respect to the readout gate electrode by the insulation sidewall.
US08115849B2

The present invention provides a photo-sensor with a stable current limiting function and pixel reset function. When the incident light quantity of the phototransistor is equal to or less than a predetermined quantity and the base potential of the phototransistor is in a first potential of an operation point in a stationary state, an MOSFET for discharging an electric charge is controlled so as to be turned OFF. In addition, when the incident light quantity of the phototransistor is equal to or more than the predetermined quantity, a MOSFET for detecting an electric current is controlled so as to operate in a saturation region. When the base potential of the phototransistor has changed to a second potential from the first potential, the MOSFET for discharging an electric charge is controlled so as to be turned ON.
US08115848B2

A solid-state imaging apparatus comprises a pixel portion including a plurality of pixels, wherein each pixel including a photoelectric conversion portion, an accumulation portion for accumulating the charge, a first transfer portion connecting the photoelectric conversion portion to the accumulation portion, a second transfer portion connecting the accumulation portion to a floating diffusion portion, and a third transfer portion connecting the photoelectric conversion portion to a power source, and wherein, from a state where no potential barrier is formed in the second transfer portion, a potential barrier is formed in the second transfer portion under a condition that a potential barrier is formed in the first transfer portion and no potential barrier is formed in the third transfer portion, and then a potential barrier is formed in the third transfer portion, thereby the operation of accumulating charges in the pixels is started.
US08115843B2

A photographing apparatus includes: a synchronizing signal generation portion (6); an imaging portion (1) that is operated based on a synchronizing signal to pick up an image and generate image data; a trigger input portion (18) operable to input a trigger signal for commanding a start of a photographing operation; and a control portion (5) that controls the operation of the imaging portion based on the synchronizing signal and the trigger signal. The control portion controls synchronous processing that is performed in synchronization with the synchronizing signal to pickup a moving image. When the trigger signal is input, the control portion immediately stops the generation of the synchronizing signal by the synchronizing signal generation portion when the synchronous processing is not being performed, while the control portion initializes the synchronous processing and then stops the generation of the synchronizing signal when the synchronous processing is being performed. Thereafter, the control portion resumes the generation of the synchronizing signal, and starts imaging for recording by the imaging portion. A time period between the generation of the trigger signal and the start of imaging is reduced, and a large variation therein is suppressed regardless of the state of the synchronous processing.
US08115828B2

An image processing apparatus includes: an integrating unit integrating an input image signal over a time interval equal to one horizontal period or longer; a normalizing unit normalizing an integrated value obtained by the integrating unit, or a difference value in the integrated value between adjacent fields or frames; an extracting unit extracting a spectrum of the normalized integrated value or difference value; an estimating unit estimating a flicker component on a field-by-field basis or frame-by-frame basis from the extracted spectrum; a detecting unit detecting a deviation of the latest flicker component, from the estimated latest flicker component and one or more flicker components estimated in the past; a correcting unit correcting the latest flicker component on the basis of the detected deviation of the flicker component; and a computing unit computing a corrected flicker component and the input image signal so as to cancel out the corrected flicker component.
US08115827B2

A color processing apparatus for evaluating the gradation characteristic of a color conversion table that is used to convert signal values in input color space into signal values in output color space and has a plurality of grid points includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire signal values in the output color space corresponding to four adjacent grid points in the input color space through the color conversion table, a calculation unit configured to calculate a property of a tetrahedron formed by the signal values in the output color space, and an evaluation unit configured to evaluate a gradation characteristic of the color conversion table based on the property of the tetrahedron. The property of the tetrahedron may be the volume of the tetrahedron or the surface area of the tetrahedron.
US08115826B2

An image processing apparatus includes a tone conversion section configured to execute luminance tone compression on an entered image by use of a predetermined conversion curve; a linear matrix processing block configured to execute correction based on matrix operation on an image entered via the tone conversion section; and a hue and saturation adjustment block configured to execute hue and saturation conversion processing based on a set parameter on an image entered via the linear matrix processing block. The apparatus further includes a brightness decision block configured to determine whether brightness of the image to be processed is lower than a certain brightness level; and a control block configured to control a combination of the operations to be processed by the processing section and blocks on the basis of setting of a tone conversion function of the tone conversion section and a decision result obtained by the brightness decision block.
US08115823B2

An image processing system includes a first image processing unit and a second image processing unit. The first image processing unit is utilized for receiving a plurality of images, and the first image processing unit divides a (K+N)th image into a plurality of regions according to a Kth image and a (K+M)th image, where K, M and N are positive integers and N is greater than M. The first image processing unit further transmits image data corresponding to a first region of the plurality of regions to the second image processing unit.
US08115822B2

An image capturing apparatus includes an image capturing unit configured to capture an image of a subject and generate a captured image of the subject, a feature value extracting unit configured to extract a feature value of the captured image, a scene candidate determining unit configured to determine a scene candidate of a subject scene included in the captured image on the basis of the extracted feature value, and a scene determining unit configured to determine that the scene candidate is the subject scene included in the captured image when the scene candidate determining unit continuously determines scene candidates of an identical kind for a scene determining period taken for determining the subject scene included in the captured image.
US08115816B2

An image capturing apparatus includes an image capturing unit that captures an image of a subject and generates a captured image; a determination-information storage unit that stores items of determination information, each item of determination information being used to determine whether the captured image includes a corresponding one of target objects; an operation accepting unit that accepts a specifying operation of specifying at least one of the target objects for which the items of determination information are stored; a target-object detecting unit that selects determination information regarding the specified target object from among the items of determination information stored in the determination-information storage means and detects the specified target object in the captured image using the selected determination information; and a recording control unit that causes the captured image generated at the time the specified target object is detected to be recorded.
US08115809B2

A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus which includes: an imaging device that captures a surroundings of a vehicle; a temperature measuring device that measures a temperature of the imaging device; and an OFF signal output device that outputs a command signal to set a power supply of the imaging device to the OFF state in accordance with the temperature of the imaging device measured by the temperature measuring device.
US08115802B2

An image processing system for stereoscopic view using a parallax barrier method includes an image information generating unit that generates image information of a lower resolution than an actual resolution for each of a first to an nth viewpoints. A receiving unit reconfigures the image information, which is stored in a buffer. A combining/transmitting unit generates an image signal for displaying as one stereoscopic image by combining the image information transferred to a unique area of a screen buffer and transmits the image signal to a liquid crystal panel. A transmission speed of the generated signal transmitting unit is set to be at least n times faster than that of the combining/transmitting unit.
US08115801B2

A method of automatic photographs stitching in a photograph capturing electronic apparatus by capturing a photograph; on a viewfinder or display screen of said photograph capturing electronic apparatus, displaying at least one four-way guiding arrow for advising user the direction to move the photograph capturing electronic apparatus for capturing the next photograph which is suitable for stitching, the next suitable photograph having at a predetermined region, an area overlapped and aligned to the captured photograph with the overlapped and aligned area reaching a predetermined proportion; capturing the next suitable photograph; and stitching the consecutively captured photographs into a panoramic photograph.
US08115800B2

An example server apparatus includes a video stream receiver configured to receive a first video stream encoded by a first coding scheme from a video providing apparatus via a network and a video stream generator configured to generate a second video stream obtained by converting a coding scheme of the first video stream from the first coding scheme to a second coding scheme. A client capability information acquirer is configured to acquire decoding capability information representing whether a client apparatus can decode a video image encoded by the first coding scheme and a video stream processing determiner is configured to transmit the first video stream to the client apparatus when the client apparatus can decode the video image encoded by the first coding scheme, and to transmit the second video stream to the client apparatus when the client apparatus cannot decode the video image encoded by the first coding scheme.
US08115784B2

Systems, methods and computer instructions for displaying multi-energy data are provided. Certain methods include: receiving multi-energy data from an operably connected data source; displaying the multi-energy data as an image via a graphical user interface; selecting a region of interest in the displayed image; and displaying information regarding the region of interest via the graphical user interface. Certain methods include: (1) displaying a graph that includes an attenuation line depicting radiodensity versus energy level; (2) displaying a material density graph of a region of interest and/or of results of segmenting a region of interest; and/or (3) displaying information in a window configured to be movable about an interface. Certain methods include: receiving multi-energy data from an operably connected data source; and displaying the multi-energy data as a fused image via a graphical user interface.
US08115776B2

A mechanism for mitigating undesired color image breakup artifacts arising in display systems that exploit the principle of field sequential color generation. By suitably reducing the time interval during which image information strikes the moving retina, such that the differential position for the respective red, green, and blue components of the image falling upon the moving retina does not exceed the diameter of a retinal cone or rod, the cause of the breakup is negated and the image becomes unitary as expected: the eye sees the image as if all the components arrived at the same time. The truncation of light emission into shorter time frames necessitates a compensatory increase in imaging light intensity, such that the net amount of photonic flux striking the retina, averaged over time, remains unchanged. The mechanism can be applied to systems with discrete red, green, and blue sources as well as to color-wheel-based systems.
US08115771B2

A system for multilevel simulation of an animation cloth is provided. The system includes a multilevel area generation module, a curvature calculation module, a curvature comparison module, and a dynamic simulation module. The multilevel area generation module divides a plurality of grid units of the animation cloth into a plurality of level sub-areas based on a multilevel technique, wherein each of the level sub-areas is generated by dividing an upper level sub-area. The curvature calculation module calculates the curvatures of the level sub-areas according to the plane vectors of the grid units in a frame. The curvature comparison module compares the curvatures of the level sub-areas with a flatness threshold. The dynamic simulation module calculates the plane vector of each grid unit in a next frame through different method according to the comparison result of the curvature comparison module.
US08115766B2

A system and method for rendering flows and volumes includes the steps of generating a preintegrated table, the preintegrated table having a plurality of entries, each of the plurality of entries having color information and opacity information, generating illustrative effects based on the plurality of entries of the preintegrated table and displaying the illustrative effects.
US08115761B1

Embodiments relate to locking geometric and camera parameters in image-based three-dimensional modeling. In a first embodiment, a computer-implemented method modifies a three-dimensional model using a set of two-dimensional photographic images. In the method, at least one constraint, input by a user, for a two-dimensional photographic image from the set of two-dimensional photographic images are received. Each constraint indicates that a position on the two-dimensional photographic image corresponds to a position on the three-dimensional model. When the number of constraints received for the two-dimensional photographic image is less than or equal to a first threshold value, camera parameters representing a camera that took the constrained photographic image. Finally, a photogrammetry algorithm is applied to at least the set of parameters to determine at least one unlocked parameter in the set of parameters and to modify the three-dimensional model based on the constraints.
US08115758B2

Power consumption required for charging and discharging a source signal line is reduced in an active matrix EL display device. A bipolar transistor (Bi1) has a base terminal B connected to an output terminal c1 of an operational amplifier (OP1), a collector terminal C connected to a low power potential (GND), and an emitter terminal E connected to a resistor R2. A high power potential (VBH) is a potential in synchronization with a high power potential of a light emitting element. A potential of the output terminal c1 of the operational amplifier (OP1) is outputted as a buffer low power potential (VBL). The low power potential (VBL) corresponds to a potential difference between the high power potential (VBH) and a high power potential (V1). Accordingly, the low power potential (VBL) can follow the high power potential (VBH), that is a high power potential of the light emitting element.
US08115751B2

A capacitive touch sensing assembly is a plate body assembled by a first and second substrate glued by a gluing layer. The first and second substrates are insulated transparent thin plates, and the gluing layer is an insulated transparent adhesive. On an upper surface of the first substrate, a capacitive sensing layer including a plurality of transparent first and second axis traces intersecting to each other. Induction-spots formed on each first axis trace are connected one by one, and induction-spots formed on each second axis trace are formed separately with gaps. An inducting layer has a plurality of conducting wires formed along the direction of the second axis traces. Electrical joints formed on two ends of the conducting wires contact the two adjacent induction-spots of the second axis traces respectively so as to electrically connect all induction-spots on each second axis trace.
US08115746B2

A display panel with multi-touch function includes a display area and a non-display area. The display area includes a data line, a gate line, a first sensing line, a second sensing line, and a sensing unit. The sensing unit electrically connects the first and second sensing lines according to a touch signal or electrically isolates the first sensing line from the second sensing line. The non-display area includes a gate driver, a first switch and a second switch. The first switch provides a path for charging the second sensing line according to a scan signal, and the second switch provides a path for discharging the second sensing line according to a reset signal.
US08115737B2

An information processing apparatus includes: a key operation section that has one or more operation keys arranged planarly, and outputs a key operation output corresponding to an operation of an operation key; a sensor that outputs a detection output corresponding to a distance of a detection target, spatially separated from a layout surface of the operation key, from the layout surface; a detection section that detects the distance of the detection target from the layout surface from the detection output from the sensor; and a control section that validates only the key operation output corresponding to the operation of the operation key and invalidates the detection output of the sensor when the detected distance is less than a predetermined distance, and executes a control function according to the distance detected by the detection section when the detected distance is equal to or greater than the predetermined distance.
US08115733B2

There is disclosed an interactive display system comprising an interactive surface for displaying an image and for receiving inputs from remote devices, the system being adapted to detect the presence of at least two remote devices proximate the interactive surface.
US08115727B2

Systems for displaying images are provided. A representative system incorporates a digital data sampling circuit with N stage data inputs. The first stage flip-flop outputs a first output signal. The second stage flip-flop outputs a second output signal. The first stage sample latch circuit receives digital data according to a first control signal. The first stage logic circuit comprises a first converter for inverting the second output signal and generating a first inverse logic signal, and generates the first control signal according to the first output signal and the first inverse logic signal.
US08115721B2

A display data receiving circuit of the present invention includes a PLL circuit 25 which generates internal clock signal ICLK having an integral multiple of the frequency of differential clock signals CLK and /CLK in response to differential clock signals CLK and /CLK, and a serial/parallel conversion circuit 23 which receives serial data signal transmitting display data in synchronization with the internal clock signal ICLK, and generates parallel data signal by executing serial/parallel conversion for the serial data signal. The serial/parallel conversion circuit 23 is configured to be able to execute either a single edge operation, which receives serial data signals in response to one of a rising edge and a falling edge of the internal clock signal ICLK, or a double edge operation, which receives serial data signals in response to both of a rising edge and a falling edge of the internal clock signal ICLK. Further, the PLL circuit 25 is configured to be able to change the frequency of the internal clock signal ICLK.
US08115718B2

This invention provides a color passive matrix bistable liquid crystal display system, in which one respective scan line corresponds to sub-pixels of same color and neighboring scan lines correspond to sub-pixels of different colors. The scan lines are grouped in accordance with the colors of the sub-pixels corresponding thereto such that different scan driving voltages can be provided to the sub-pixels of different colors when the scan lines are scanned. By way of the arrangement of the sub-pixels, different scan driving voltages are switched to the respective scan lines in accordance with the colors of the sub-pixels corresponding thereto. As a result, a demand that the sub-pixels of different colors require different scan driving voltages is satisfied. The image quality is improved.
US08115708B2

A system and method for the prevention of display burn-in in Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and non-MPEG environments. In one environment, a system may include an image sampler to sample images from a decoded video stream; a static area detector to successively compare the sampled images using a pixel-wise XOR operation, where the static area detector marks an area in the compared images that appear as zero brightness; and a burn-in prevention module to apply a burn-in preventative technique for a period of time to the marked area.
US08115706B2

The present invention represents an object with high-quality texture. A texture image display apparatus includes: a panel display device (20) having a plurality of pixels (21); a lens array (30) having a plurality of lenses for controlling outgoing directions of light outputted from the pixels (21); a pixel data generation part (14) for generating pixel data for each pixel; and a panel driving circuit 15 for driving the panel display device (20) on the basis of the pixel data. One lens (31) is provided for a plurality of adjacent pixels (21), and directs light outputted from these adjacent pixels (21) in directions different from one another. For each pixel (21), the pixel data generation part (14) generates pixel data of different image brightness levels depending on outgoing direction of light, for the same image point in displayed content.
US08115703B2

A method for driving a plasma display panel is provided in which wasteful power consumption is reduced and light emission efficiency is improved when the number of cells to be lighted is relatively small. The method includes classifying a display ratio into plural group ranges, selecting a suitable display pulse waveform for each group range, detecting the display ratio of an object to be displayed in a real display, and plural types of display pulses having different waveforms are used differently in accordance with the result of the detection. The display ratio means a ratio of the number of cells to be lighted to the number of cells of the screen.
US08115702B2

A plasma display device and a method of driving the same, capable of reducing or preventing the deterioration of components such as a switching device, due to an overcurrent. In a reset period, in order to cause the voltage of a scan electrode to ramp down from a first voltage to a second voltage, a panel driver includes a falling ramp switch that repeats turn-on/turn-off operations, alternately coupling and de-coupling a low-level power supply to the scan electrode, resulting in a gradually falling ramp waveform. A switch controller generates a switching pulse to control the falling ramp switch. Each turn-on time of the switching pulse for the initial falling ramp waveform following a power-on of the plasma display device is controlled to be shorter than each turn-on time of the switching pulse for other falling ramp waveform.
US08115701B2

The present invention concerns a device for generating a rectangular sustain voltage between the line scanning electrodes and the line common electrodes of luminous cells in a plasma panel. The device includes a first sustain amplifier connected to the line scanning electrode of the cells to produce the transitions of the first sustain voltage signal, and a second sustain amplifier connected to the line common electrode of the cells to produce the transitions of the second sustain voltage signal. It also includes an insulated voltage supply circuit which is connected directly to the line scanning electrodes and to the line common electrodes of the cells in order to hold the end-of-transition voltage on said line scanning electrodes and said line common electrodes.
US08115697B2

An antenna for directional electronic communication and a directional communication system are provided. In one embodiment, the antenna includes: (1) a conductive shield having an opening at an end thereof and a radio frequency absorptive material located on an inner surface thereof, (2) a Luneberg lens located within said conductive shield and (3) a radio frequency signal conveyor located proximate a portion of said Luneberg lens that is distal from said opening.
US08115695B2

The present invention discloses a print dipole antenna and manufacturing method thereof. The print dipole antenna has a plurality of resonance frequencies, which comprises a substrate, a ring microstrip line and a ground plane. The ring microstrip line is disposed on one side of the substrate, and the interior of the ring microstrip line is symmetrically disposed with a plurality of parasitic metals. The ground plane is disposed on the other side of the substrate, and has a hollow portion corresponding to the central area of the ring microstrip line. The ring microstrip line has a plurality of end ports including input end ports and output end ports, which may further comprise an open circuit end. The plurality of parasitic metals may be of linear shape or bended in arbitrarily windings. A normal mode signal is fed from the end points of the plurality of parasitic metals.
US08115692B2

According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus is provided with a housing and a communication module mounted in the housing. The communication module includes an element section and a ground section, and is arranged so that the element section is opposed to an inner surface of the housing to enable the communication module to communicate with another communication module opposed thereto from outside the housing. The housing is provided with a holder section which contains the communication module. The holder section includes a conductive section which surrounds a periphery of the communication module in all directions except a direction from the element section toward the inner surface of the housing.
US08115691B2

According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes a housing, a first board contained in the housing, a second board contained in the housing on the inner side of the first board, a first antenna part, and a second antenna part. The first antenna part includes a loop antenna provided on the first board, and configured to communicate with a communication module opposed to the loop antenna. The second antenna part includes an element part provided in an area surrounded by the loop antenna, and positioned in the same plane as the loop antenna, and a ground part provided on the second board, and configured to communicate with a communication module opposed to the element part.
US08115689B2

According to one embodiment, an electronic device is provided with the following an antenna, a first radio module configured to perform wireless communications by use of the antenna, a second radio module configured to perform wireless communications by use of the antenna, a first printed circuit board with reference to which the second radio module is attachable or detachable, a first cable which connects the antenna and the second radio module together, a second cable which connects the second radio module and the first radio module together, and a connection mechanism which connects the first and second cables together in a state where the second radio module is detached from the first printed circuit board.
US08115685B2

The invention relates to a flat antenna structure. The flat antenna structure includes a first metal plate, an intermediate layer, a metal ring, and a second metal plate. The intermediate layer has a first hole, and the intermediate layer is installed above and connected to the first metal plate. The metal ring is connected to the first metal plate through the first hole. The second metal plate has a second hole. The second metal plate is connected to the metal ring and the first metal plate. The intermediate layer and the metal ring are wrapped by the first metal plate and the second metal plate. The second metal plate can be electrically connected to the first metal plate via the metal ring, and a resonator is formed between the first metal plate and the second metal plate. A characteristic of the flat antenna can be adjusted by changing the diameters of the first hole and the metal ring.
US08115683B1

A rectenna is a combination of an antenna and a rectifier (diode). Because of limitations in nanotechnology fabrication, it has not been possible to develop rectennas that can operate in the visible frequency range. Current work has gone to producing rectennas that operate in the far infrared (thermal emission) frequency range. To harvest solar energy with rectennas to produce electric power and since rectennas cannot operate at such high frequencies, the present invention provides rectenna configurations to overcome this problem.
US08115680B2

A system for indicating the relative direction of a target object or location as determined from the current position of a wireless communication device. The system employs Direction of Arrival determination using an antenna array for indicating the direction of a target device and includes facilities to activate a location-indicating transmission in a target device, the ability to request that a location-indicating transmission be activated in a remote target device, relevant information reception from a target device and the display of all potential target devices within effective transmission range of the wireless communication device.
US08115678B1

According to one embodiment, generating an array correlation matrix includes interfacing with an antenna system that has antenna elements. The antenna elements receive incoming signals, and each antenna generates a response signal in response to receiving the signals. The following is performed for a number of iterations to yield summed signals: controlling weights of the antenna elements to weight the response signals; and receiving a summed signal comprising a sum of the weighted signals. An array correlation matrix is generated from the summed signals.
US08115676B2

A communications system and method thereof are provided, wherein the system includes a first receiver. The first receiver includes at least one antenna element configured to receive the first signal having a first polarization, and a combiner in communication with the at least one antenna element, wherein the combiner enhances the first signal and minimizes a second signal having a second polarization that is different than the first polarization of the first signal, such that an output is emitted by the first receiver based upon the received first signal. The first receiver further includes a beam steerer in communication with the combiner, wherein the beam steerer is configured to steer an antenna beam of the at least one antenna element in order to minimize reflection of the second signal, such that the second polarization of the second signal remains different than the first polarization of the first signal.
US08115674B2

This disclosure provides a target object detection device for detecting different areas by different pulse-shaped signals detecting an area from an antenna position to a given distance. The device includes a transmission module for transmitting different pulse-shaped transmission signals at predetermined timings, a reception module for receiving their reflection signals to generate a reception signal, a saturation detection module for comparing a level of each of the reception signals with a predetermined threshold to detect saturation of the reception signal, and an image forming module for forming a detection image based on the reception signals. The transmission module generates an alternative pulse-shaped signal that is different from the transmitted pulse-shaped transmission signal when the saturation detection module detects the saturation of the reception signal. The image forming module replaces the saturated reception signal with a reception signal obtained by using the alternative pulse-shaped signal to form the detection image.
US08115671B2

A system and method for correlating first pulsed signals with second pulsed signals includes a first receiving unit, a second receiving unit and a correlation device. The first receiving unit is disposed to receive from a first device one or more first pulsed signals. The first device may include a plurality of pulsed radio frequency source under test signal sources. The second receiving unit is disposed to receive from a second device one or more second pulsed signals. The second device may include a local oscillator pulsed signal source. The correlation device can correlate the first pulsed signals with the second pulsed signals to align a timing characteristic of the first pulsed signals to the equivalent timing characteristic of the second pulsed signals.
US08115668B2

An object candidate position detecting apparatus which detects a position of an object candidate includes a unifying mechanism which unifies a plurality of object candidates detected within a predetermined unified range into a single group. Where the relative positions of the object candidates stored in a unified information storage device changes such that the single group splits into a plurality of groups, a tracking mechanism judges whether any object candidate forming the group before the split continuously remains to be detected in a running lane in which a subject vehicle runs and which is estimated by a running lane estimator. Where any object candidate forming the group before the split is determined as continuously remaining to be detected in the running lane, the tracking mechanism determines that there is continuity between a group after the split including the thus-determined object candidate and the group before the split.
US08115654B2

A small vehicle detector for determining a size of a vehicle entering a particular area and assigning a rate of charge based on the determined size of vehicle including an entrance for a vehicle to enter the area. The small vehicle detector further includes a vehicle size detector system for determining size of the vehicle. The small vehicle detector also includes a ticket dispenser for dispensing a ticket with the assigned rate of charge based on the size determined by the vehicle size detector.
US08115649B2

An apparatus comprises a sensor system, a flexible line, and a sensor. The sensor system is capable of detecting skew in at least some of a plurality of control surfaces for a vehicle. The flexible line extends across a number of interfaces for a portion of the plurality of control surfaces. The sensor is connected to the flexible line and is capable of detecting the skew in the portion of the plurality of control surfaces in response to a selected amount of movement of the flexible line.
US08115648B2

The invention relates to a seat occupancy sensor (10) comprising at least two switch elements (12, 14) which can be activated by pressure. Said elements can be associated with the surface of a seat and are arranged at a certain distance from each other in such a manner that a first switch element (12) is associated with a first area of the seat and a second switch element (14) is associated with a second area of the seat. According to the invention, the first and second switch elements (12, 14) are connected to each other in such a manner that a logical AND-linkage is produced. The first and second switch elements are, for example, serially connected in a particularly simple embodiment of the invention.
US08115646B2

In one embodiment, a system to detect one or more environmental conditions in proximity to a surface comprises a first metamaterial environmental sensor module proximate the surface. The environmental sensor comprises a metamaterial-based electrically resonant structure having a resonance frequency which varies in response to changes in at least one of a humidity proximate the sensor module, a temperature proximate the sensor module, or the presence of a chemical or biological agent proximate the sensor module. The system further comprises a remote receiver to receive an electromagnetic signal comprising the signal generated by the electrically resonant structure and a signal analysis module to determine an environmental condition such as humidity, temperature, pre-ice conditions, ice, chemicals or biological species from the at least one environmental condition signal. Other embodiments may be described.
US08115639B2

A laundry tag is described comprising a first male portion (1) having at least one projecting member (3), and a second female portion (2) defining a recessed region (4) to receive the projecting member and fixedly engage thereupon to hold the two portions together, wherein one of the said portions comprises a passive RFID transponder (7). A laundry tagging kit and laundry management system and a method of tagging laundry to operate such a system are also described.
US08115627B2

The invention relates to a detection device, particularly for realizing a protection system via which, for example, motor-driven injury-relevant systems can be operated in a controlled manner. The aim of the invention is to provide solutions via which advantages result with regard to the detection of injury-relevant situations, particularly the presence of limbs in danger-relevant areas. To this end, according to a first aspect of the invention, a detection system is provided, particularly for realizing a protection system via which, for example, motor-driven injury-relevant systems can be operated in a protected manner, comprising a receiving device for detecting the presence of an object, particularly of a living thing, in an observation area. This detection device comprises a detection element for recording a received event caused by the action of a modulated electrical field. This system is characterized by a launching device that has an emitting element for emitting the modulated electrical field, the receiving device and the transmitting device being configured in such a manner that, based on the transmission behavior of the observation area located, at least in sections, between the receiving element and the emitting element, the presence of the object, particularly the living thing, is detected in the observation area.
US08115626B2

An occupancy sensing system includes a driver to emit energy in a space, and a sensor to detect energy reflected within the space. An electrical load for the space is controlled in response to an occupancy condition determined in response to the detected energy. The driver may be selectively de-energized. In some embodiments, the driver may be de-energized during all or a portion of an unoccupied period. In other embodiments, the driver may be de-energized during all or a portion of an occupied period. In some further embodiments, the driver may be de-energized in response to detecting other sources of the type of energy emitted by the driver.
US08115623B1

A method for using electronic product identification devices to track the location and movement of plastic hand baskets in a food store or other retail store, to sound an audible alarm, to activate an alarm condition in a video surveillance system, alert store security, and send tag information (basket ID and contents thereof) and video clip to store security, and law enforcement if desired this method and system is designed to promote a major deterrence to theft of store items in a portable hand carried basket, and in the case of theft, to provide notification and video clip to security personnel and to any law enforcement office.
US08115616B2

Methods and systems are provided for alerting a vehicle driver that an automatic garage door has been left open. The system includes an onboard transmitter for activating the automatic garage door; a GPS receiver; an alert device; and an onboard processor. The onboard processor is coupled to the onboard transmitter, the GPS receiver, and to the alert device. The onboard processor is configured to monitor a distance between the vehicle and the predetermined location. The onboard processor activates the alert device if the distance exceeds a predetermined distance.
US08115615B2

A status indicator and reminder system for use with a vehicle having a tire sealant-containing temporary mobility kit is provided. The system includes a signal provided for viewing by the operator which indicates that the temporary mobility kit requires servicing. The need for servicing can be based on certain variables, including the passage of a pre-determined period of time or on changes in temperature which may impact the effective life of the sealing compound. In addition, the need for servicing can be based on a sensed of the temporary mobility kit from the vehicle.
US08115603B2

Disclosed is a method for identifying a plurality of moving tags by using a plurality of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) readers. The technology of the present invention efficiently identifies multiple moving tags to thereby improve the identification rate and reading speed of an RFID system and increase the throughput of the RFID system. The method for identifying a plurality of moving tags by using a plurality of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) readers includes the steps of: a) grouping the multiple tags into a predetermined number of tag groups; b) allocating the tag groups to the RFID readers respectively; and c) identifying tags of each allocated tag group in each RFID reader.
US08115600B2

A system is provided for identifying implanted medical devices, leads and systems, as well as objects in close proximity to a patient having an implanted active medical device, using a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag having retrievable information relating to the AIMD, lead system and/or patient. An RFID tag communicator includes a circuit for limiting the total continuous transmit time of an interrogation signal, and a time-out circuit for delaying a second and any subsequent interrogation of the RFID tag.
US08115598B2

A near field communication front-end includes an up conversion module, a plurality of coils, and a down conversion module. The up conversion module is coupled to convert an outbound symbol stream into a plurality of outbound signals based on a frequency-space encoding scheme. The plurality of coils is coupled to electromagnetically transmit the plurality of outbound signals and to electromagnetically receive a plurality of inbound signals in accordance with the frequency-space encoding scheme. The down conversion module is coupled to convert the plurality of inbound signals into an inbound symbol stream in accordance with the frequency-space encoding scheme.
US08115591B2

An electrical control system includes one or more battery-powered RF switches capable of acting as a master or slave or both within the electrical control system. The battery-powered RF switch includes a top housing and a bottom housing. The battery-powered RF switch also includes a printed circuit boar assembly that includes switch sensors, a dimmer button, and an LED indicator. The battery-powered RF switch also includes a manually-operated on/off switch, battery receptacles within the housing, batteries positioned within the battery receptacles and a battery retaining bracket for removably holding the batteries in place within the battery receptacles. The battery-powered RF switch is capable of being mounted to a vertical surface by applying double-sided adhesive to the back side of the housing and pressing the housing against the vertical surface.
US08115584B2

An induction device for association with high voltage electric transmission systems having at least one core frame and at least one winding arranged around said core frame. The induction device has at least one magnetic core leg arranged in said core frame. The core frame includes a stack of core segments of a magnetic material being cooled by cooling medium, arranged in compression in the core frame, core gaps being arranged to separate the core segments, and a plurality of spacers, arranged in the core gaps between the core segments, with a cross section of hexagonal shape, having an upper and a lower end-face being in contact with the core segments. The spacers in at least one of the core gaps are arranged densely packed so as to form a compact filling in the core gap.
US08115576B2

MEMS structures employing movable conductive member and a number of current-carrying stationary contact terminals which advantageously permit higher current carrying capability that prior art devices in which currents flowed through movable conductive members. Current carrying capability in excess of 1.0 amp without the need for additional current limiting devices is realized thereby lowering overall system manufacturing costs for systems employing our structures.
US08115569B2

Disclosed herein is a monoblock dielectric multiplexer capable of processing multi-band signals. The monoblock dielectric multiplexer includes a dielectric block implemented as a hexahedral dielectric forming a body of the monoblock dielectric multiplexer. An external electrode is applied to an external surface of the dielectric block except for to a top surface. Resonant holes are each formed in a cylindrical shape and formed through the top surface and a bottom surface of the dielectric block. Internal electrodes are respectively formed on inner walls of the resonant holes. A plurality of capacitance patterns is formed on the top surface of the dielectric block and is configured to surround corresponding resonant holes. Input/output electrode units are formed and spaced apart from the capacitance patterns and configured to form capacitance coupling to the capacitance patterns. A common antenna stage is formed in a center portion of the dielectric block.
US08115567B2

Methods and systems for matching networks embedded in an integrated circuit package are disclosed and may include controlling impedance within an integrated circuit via one or more impedance matching networks. The impedance matching networks may be embedded within a multi-layer package bonded to the integrated circuit. The impedance of one or more devices within the integrated circuit may be configured utilizing the impedance matching networks. The multi-layer package may include one or more impedance matching networks. The impedance matching networks may provide impedance matching between devices internal to the integrated circuit and external devices. The impedance matching networks may be embedded within the multi-layer package, and may include transmission lines, inductors, capacitors, transformers and/or surface mount devices. The impedance matching networks may be deposited on top of and/or on bottom of the multi-layer package. The integrated circuit may be flip-chip bonded to the multi-layer package.
US08115566B2

A passive equalizer circuit incorporated at a front-end of an integrated receiver circuit uses passive components that are distributed between inside and outside of an integrated circuit package. The passive equalizer circuit has off-chip components that are placed on a printed circuit board and on-chip components that are fabricated on a common integrated circuit die as a receiver chip. The on-chip components include one or more variable resistors for adjusting a degree of equalization. The off-chip components include one or more resistors for fine tuning input impedance matching of the integrated receiver circuit.
US08115562B2

Disclosed is an oscillator in which current consumption relating to oscillation is reduced. The oscillator comprises: an amplifier to an input and output of which a piezoelectric oscillator and a feedback resistor are connected in parallel, and which is constituted by a CMOS logic inverter circuit; and a control circuit, which is constituted by a CMOS logic circuit, for clamping input/output levels of the amplifier and halting oscillation before oscillation start-up, unclamping the input/output levels at beginning of oscillation start-up and supplying a pulse signal to an output terminal of the amplifier a prescribed period of time after the beginning of oscillation start-up.
US08115561B2

A Lamb-wave resonator includes: a piezoelectric substrate; an IDT electrode disposed on one principal surface of the piezoelectric substrate, having bus bar electrodes each connecting one ends of a plurality of electrode finger elements, the other ends of the plurality of electrode finger elements being interdigitated with each other to form an apposition area; and a pair of reflectors disposed on the one principal surface of the piezoelectric substrate, and respectively arranged on both sides of the IDT electrode in a propagation direction of a Lamb wave, wherein denoting a thickness of the piezoelectric substrate in the apposition area of the electrode finger elements as ti, a thickness of the piezoelectric substrate in areas between respective ends of the apposition area in a direction perpendicular to the propagation direction of the Lamb wave and the bus bar electrodes as tg, and a wavelength of the Lamb wave as λ, the thickness ti exists in a range represented by 0
US08115558B2

A digital PLL circuit includes: an oscillation circuit, wherein an oscillation frequency is controlled by changing the number of capacitance elements to be connected in parallel to an inductance element; and a phase comparator part configured to perform a digital phase comparison of a reference clock and a delayed clock thereof, with an oscillation circuit output; and based on the comparison result, to control the number of the capacitance elements so as to bring the phase of the oscillation circuit output closer to the reference clock phase, wherein the capacitance element includes: a coarse adjustment capacitor configured to have a predetermined capacitance; and fine adjustment capacitors configured to have a capacitance of 1/n of that of the coarse adjustment capacitor, wherein a predetermined number of the fine adjustment capacitors function as one coarse adjustment capacitor at the time of coarse adjustment.
US08115557B2

An electronic device is made from a first substrate with device circuitry including an inductor and a second substrate with inductance adjustment circuitry including a number of other inductors. The substrates are assembled together to be opposite one another. The other inductors are arranged to provide a selection of different mutual inductance relationships relative to the inductor. These relationships are selectable during operation of the device to provide a variable inductance in the device circuitry.
US08115551B2

An amplifying device comprises a first amplifying unit (91-97) capable of changing its gain in a stepwise manner, a second amplifying unit 99 cascade-connected to the first amplifying unit (91-97), the second amplifying unit being capable of changing its gain in a stepwise manner, and a gain controller 100 controls the gain setting of the first amplifying 91-97 unit and the second amplifying unit 99. The first amplifying unit has a gain variable range necessary to amplifying the input signal to the prescribed desired level. The second amplifying unit has a gain variable range narrower than that of the first amplifying unit. When the gain controller changes the gain setting, the gain controller uses the second amplifying unit preferentially over the first amplifying unit.
US08115547B2

A reconfigurable power amplifier includes at least one amplification circuit (E1, E2), and a circuit (6) for controlling the amplification circuit so as to adapt its operation according to an applied input signal (RFin). The circuit for controlling includes a circuit (4, 5) for modifying the compression point of the amplification circuit and for adapting the gain of the amplification circuit in such a manner as to increase the power added efficiency of the circuit for the modified compression point.
US08115544B2

An amplifier circuit on a single die comprises a low voltage amplifier with a first common mode voltage and having an input and an output. A power amplifier has a second common mode voltage whose input is operably coupled to an output of the low voltage amplifier. The first common mode voltage and second common mode voltage are unequal. A compensation circuit is operably coupled to an input of the power amplifier and arranged to inject a DC-current or apply a common mode voltage into the power amplifier that is representative of a difference between the first common mode voltage and the second common mode voltage.
US08115539B2

Provided is an operational amplifier capable of correcting an offset voltage of an element to be connected to an input terminal. The operational amplifier includes a main amplifier and an offset correction amplifier, which include input terminals connected in common. The main amplifier includes: a first transconductance amplifier for measurement; a second transconductance amplifier for offset correction; and a first capacitor connected to an input terminal of the second transconductance amplifier. The offset correction amplifier includes: a third transconductance amplifier for measurement; a fourth transconductance amplifier for offset correction; and a second capacitor connected to one input terminal of the fourth transconductance amplifier. An offset voltage adjustment circuit is provided to another input terminal of the fourth transconductance amplifier included in the offset correction amplifier.
US08115532B2

A method and circuit for generating an adjustable delay signal is presented, wherein the delay can be linear and monotonic with high resolution delay steps. The circuit utilizes one or more serially coupled delay cells and a load cell. Each delay cell comprises an inverter, a nor-multiplexer, and a programmable capacitor, wherein a first control signal is used to control the operation of the nor-multiplexer and a second control signal is used to control capacitance of the programmable capacitor. Values of the first and the second control signals are selected based on any desired range of total delay time and any desired delay time for a specific application of the circuit.
US08115521B2

A frequency error detecting circuit includes: an oscillator; a frequency converting unit for a received signal on the basis of the oscillation output and output the received signal; a time-to-frequency converting unit configured to convert the output of the frequency converting unit into a frequency domain signal; a frequency shift determining unit configured to determine presence or absence of a frequency shift between an output frequency of the frequency converting unit and a predetermined carrier frequency; and a control unit configured to repeat frequency conversion processing and time-to-frequency conversion processing while controlling an oscillation frequency of the oscillator on the basis of a determination result of the frequency shift determining unit and cause the output frequency of the frequency converting unit to converge on a predetermined value to thereby detect a frequency error between the frequency of the received signal and the predetermined carrier frequency.
US08115512B1

A method and apparatus for dynamically aligning high-speed signals in an integrated circuit are disclosed. For example, an integrated circuit according to one embodiment includes a logic fabric and at least one input/output interface coupled to the logic fabric. The input/output interface includes a plurality of input/output sites and an edge detector coupled to the plurality of input/output sites for detecting an edge in an input signal received by the integrated circuit. A plurality of delay lines are used to determine whether the input signal arrives too early or too late compared to a clock signal in the integrated circuit, and delays in the delay lines are adjusted to align the input signal with the clock signal in the integrated circuit.
US08115508B2

A design structure and more particularly to a design structure to minimize driver output slew rate variation. The design structure is embodied in a machine readable medium for designing, manufacturing, or testing an integrated circuit. The design structure includes a driver circuit having an input signal and an output signal, where the driver circuit is structured and arranged to control the slew rate of the output signal. A delay circuit is coupled to an output of the driver circuit, where the delay circuit has a delay proportional to a desired target slew rate of the driver output signal. A first comparator for detecting when the driver output signal rises through a specified level, and a second comparator for detecting when the driver output falls through a second specified level are included. A phase detector is coupled to outputs of the first and second comparators and an output of the delay circuit for aligning the phases (voltage-time relationships) of the comparator outputs and the delayed comparator outputs by adjusting the driver output slew rate.
US08115504B2

Embodiments of microspring arrays and methods for fabricating and using same are provided herein. In some embodiments, a microspring array may include at least two lithographically formed resilient contact elements, each resilient contact element having a beam and a tip for contacting a device to be tested, wherein the beams extend in substantially the same direction relative to a first end of the beams, and wherein the ends of the at least two beams are separated by a distance defining a central region and wherein the respective tips of the at least two beams extend away from the beams in a non-zero, non-perpendicular direction into the central region.
US08115499B2

The electrical equivalent of a relatively large area proximity detection capability is provided in a space limited electronic device (20, 30) with many individual input electrodes (24, 34, 44) by dynamically coupling parallel groups of the individual electrodes (24, 34, 44) and applying a proximity and/or contact test thereto. The parallel grouped electrodes act like a single large electrode and permit proximity detection at greater distances and with greater sensitivity. A multiplexer (74) automatically couples individual input electrodes (23, 24, 44) and then parallel grouped electrodes to the proximity (or contact) sensor(s) (46, 66), so that they are scanned and sensed individually and collectively in a time less than human reaction time, whereby the proximity sense function appears as if provided by a separate large area electrode. Proximity spatial detection accuracy is increased by using some of the electrodes (24, 34, 44) as driven shields to remove positional ambiguity.
US08115498B1

A device for determining a position of a proximity sensor with respect to a target mechanism is described. The device includes a frequency generator, a processing device, and an RC circuit. An output of the frequency generator is operable for application to a proximity sensor whose position relative to a target is to be verified. The RC circuit is chargeable via voltage applied to the proximity sensor by the frequency generator. The processing device is programmed to turn off the output of the frequency generator after a prescribed amount of time, and further programmed to measure a discharge time of the RC circuit after turning off the output of the frequency generator. The discharge time of the RC circuit is directly proportional to a perceived gap between a face of the proximity sensor and the target mechanism.
US08115496B2

In an insulation coated conductor inspection method for inspecting an electrical insulation characteristic of an insulation coated conductor in a coil formed by winding the insulation coated conductor, the coil is disposed in a test container, an internal pressure of the test container is reduced, an electrodes are provided so as to face the coil with a gap therebetween, an alternating-current voltage is applied between the electrodes and the coil, a generation frequency of a discharge that is generated between the coil and the electrodes upon application of the alternating-current voltage is measured, and the coil is determined to be a non-defective product having a superior electrical insulation property when the generation frequency of the discharge is higher than a reference generation frequency and determined to be a defective product having a defective electrical insulation property when the generation frequency of the discharge is lower than the reference generation frequency. A predetermined range is preferably set as a range in which a discharge charge amount is no greater than 100,000 (pc).
US08115486B2

An MRI apparatus comprises a waveform controlling means for calculating a radio frequency pulse and applying the pulse to an irradiating means, and the waveform controlling means reads out a radio frequency pulse waveform vector from a first memory means which memorizes multiple radio frequency pulse waveform vectors, calculates a simulated irradiation pattern, and calculates a radio frequency pulse waveform which gives the minimum value of weighted sum of squares of differences of absolute values and squares of differences of phases for an ideal irradiation pattern and the simulated irradiation pattern. An RF pulse waveform showing superior ideal irradiation pattern reproducibility and providing reduced power of the RF waveform is formed, and safety of MRI subject is improved by performing imaging using such an RF pulse.
US08115477B2

A 2-wire, loop-powered shaft rotational speed sensor device that outputs a 4-20 mA current in response to the shaft rotational speed. The device is comprised of a sensor (e.g., magnetic, optical) that senses an output from a sensor disk (e.g., magnetic, optical) and outputs a series of voltage pulses whose frequency varies with the shaft rotational speed. A microcontroller measures this pulse frequency and generates a digital code representative of that frequency. A digital-to-analog converter generates an analog waveform in response to the digital code. A loop-powered, voltage-to-current circuit generates the output current in response to the analog waveform.
US08115475B2

An apparatus for online partial discharge testing includes a split-core radio-frequency current transformer sensor, an actuation subassembly, and a biasing member. The current transformer sensor has a first portion, a second portion, and a sensor hinge operably engaged between the first portion and the second portion. The actuation subassembly includes an elongate first member secured to the first portion of the current transformer sensor, a second member secured to the second portion of the current transformer sensor and configured to be movable relative to the first member, and a third member engaged with the second member and configured to be movable relative to the first member. The biasing member is configured to pivotally bias the first portion and the second portion of the current transformer sensor toward each other relative to the sensor hinge, with the biasing member secured relative to the first member.
US08115474B2

An electrical current measurement system. A first low-range current gauge receives a current to be measured and provides a first intermediate value indicative of the amplitude of the current up to a first maximum current. A second low-range current gauge receives any portion of the current having a magnitude that exceeds the first maximum current and provides a second preliminary value indicative of the amplitude of the portion of the current having a magnitude that exceeds the first maximum current up to a second maximum current. An arithmetic unit or a digital processor receives the first intermediate value and the second preliminary value and provides a second intermediate value indicative of the amplitude of the current. A full-range current gauge may also be provided. A selector or the digital processor selects one of the values for display or other output.
US08115472B2

A system and method for space control and remote monitoring is disclosed. According to one embodiment, a frequency modulated signal is emitted from a radioscopic device having an antenna. The frequency of the reflected signal from a target is compared with the emitted frequency modulated signal to obtain a low-frequency signal. The low-frequency signal is processed to form signal pulsations spectrum using a fast Fourier transform. Each spectrum frequency represents a distance to the target.
US08115466B2

A converter is disclosed for using at least one switch to convert an input signal to a square wave signal, and using the square wave signal to generate an output voltage. The converter converts the square wave signal by a switching operation of a switch and generates the output voltage, and includes a switch controller for controlling the switching operation. The switch controller generates a first signal VCT having a first period that varies according to an output voltage, controls the switching operation of the switch by using the first signal, detects the output voltage, a first current Ids2 flowing through the switch, and a level of the first signal, and controls a burst mode according to the detection results.
US08115465B2

A power converter is disclosed. An example power converter includes an energy transfer element coupled between a power converter input and a power converter output. A power switch is coupled to the energy transfer element. A control circuit is coupled to receive a feedback signal representative of the power converter output during a feedback portion of an off time of the power switch. The control circuit is coupled to generate an output signal in response to the feedback signal. The output signal is coupled to be received by the power switch to control switching of the power switch to control a fraction of the feedback portion of the off time of the power switch that the feedback signal is above a threshold and another fraction of the feedback portion of the off time of the power switch that the feedback signal is below the threshold.
US08115462B2

A voltage regulator is disclosed. The voltage regulator includes a comparator for providing a gated output signal; and a state machine for receiving the gated output signal. The voltage regulator further includes at least one switch cell controlled by the state machine, for delivering charge to a load. Accordingly, a voltage regulator in accordance with the present invention yields N times (where N is an integer greater than one) the linear efficiency over typical linear regulators without requiring any external components. Therefore improved regulator efficiency is provided for low power devices.
US08115459B2

One embodiment of the present invention is a digitally controlled DC-DC converter comprising of a power stage including at least one switch and an output capacitor. A digital controller can control the switching of the at least one switch. The digital controller can include logic to produce an indication related to a zero resulting from the equivalent series resistance (ESR) of the output capacitor and to update the control of the switching of the switch in the power stage based on the estimate.
US08115457B2

A circuit to discharge a capacitance between input terminals of a power system is disclosed. An example circuit includes a control circuit coupled to an input of a power system. The control circuit is coupled to detect whether an electrical energy source is coupled to an input of the power system. A switch is also included and is coupled to the control circuit and to the input of the power system. The control circuit is coupled to drive the switch in a first operating mode when the electrical energy source is coupled to the input of the power system. The control circuit is coupled to drive the switch in a second operating mode when the electrical energy source is uncoupled from the input of the power system. A capacitance coupled between input terminals of the input of the power system is discharged through the switch to a threshold voltage in less than a maximum period of time from when the electrical power source is uncoupled from the input terminals of the power system.
US08115452B2

A bicycle battery connection system includes a battery data determination circuit, a battery data processing circuit and an adapter. The battery data determination circuit is electrically connected to one of the first-type battery having an MCU and a second-type battery without an MCU through the adapter for enabling battery data of the connected battery to be processed by the battery data processing circuit and outputted as battery status for display on a display device in front of the user and for further battery output control. Thus, either a first-type battery or a second-type battery can be used and detected for automatic matching, and therefore the battery connection system allows a bicycle to use any of different types of batteries.
US08115450B2

A thermally managed enclosure for batteries in a motor vehicle or other machinery includes a cradle of thermally conductive material for containing a battery. The cradle having a bottom wall and side walls closely fitted to and in contact with the battery, to maintain the battery in a stable position. The bottom wall of the cradle has a passageway trough containing a tube for flowing heating or cooling fluid therethrough, to control the optimal operating temperature of the battery. The passageway trough is preferably filled with a thermally conductive fill surrounding said tube. When two or more batteries are required, an array of adjacent cradles are provided in a monocoque tray formed by bonding or welding the multiple cradles at their adjacent sides. These cradles are optionally connected by linearly extending rods in the cradles.
US08115449B2

A non-contact power charging system includes a wireless power transmission apparatus 10 for transmitting a power signal from a primary core 14 via a resonant converter 13 by the control of a transmission control unit 12; and a wireless power receiving apparatus 20 for receiving the power signal transmitted from the primary core 14 of the wireless power transmission apparatus 10 via a secondary core 24 and charging a battery cell 21 by the control of a receiving control unit 22. The wireless power receiving apparatus 20 includes a receiving shield panel 25 and an eddy current reducing member 26 in the side of the secondary core 24 to shield an electromagnetic field generated from the secondary core 24, to thereby protect the charging system and the battery pack from the electromagnetic field.
US08115437B2

The invention includes a motor controller and technique for controlling a permanent magnet motor. In accordance with one aspect of the present technique, a permanent magnet motor is controlled by receiving a torque command, determining a physical torque limit based on a stator frequency, determining a theoretical torque limit based on a maximum available voltage and motor inductance ratio, and limiting the torque command to the smaller of the physical torque limit and the theoretical torque limit. Receiving the torque command may include normalizing the torque command to obtain a normalized torque command, determining the physical torque limit may include determining a normalized physical torque limit, determining a theoretical torque limit may include determining a normalized theoretical torque limit, and limiting the torque command may include limiting the normalized torque command to the smaller of the normalized physical torque limit and the normalized theoretical torque limit.
US08115434B2

An electric machine is disclosed comprising a first energy source, a second energy source, and a stator which comprises a first set of windings and a second set of windings. The electric machine has a rotor and a controller, the controller configured to control the first energy source to supply a first current to the first set of windings and control the second energy source to supply a second current to the second set of windings. The controller also detects an angular position of the rotor, detects the first current, detects the second current, and determines an optimum phase shift angle of the first current based on the angular position of the rotor, the first current, and the second current. The controller controls the first energy source based on the optimum phase shift angle to modify the first current supplied to the first set of windings.
US08115433B2

Systems and methods are provided for pulse-width modulated control of power inverter using phase-shifted carrier signals. An electrical system comprises an energy source and a motor. The motor has a first set of windings and a second set of windings, which are electrically isolated from each other. An inverter module is coupled between the energy source and the motor and comprises a first set of phase legs coupled to the first set of windings and a second set of phase legs coupled to the second set of windings. A controller is coupled to the inverter module and is configured to achieve a desired power flow between the energy source and the motor by modulating the first set of phase legs using a first carrier signal and modulating the second set of phase legs using a second carrier signal. The second carrier signal is phase-shifted relative to the first carrier signal.
US08115428B2

A control system for an electric motor is arranged to determine the position of the motor from at least one electrical parameter by means of a position determining algorithm. It is further arranged to monitor at least one algorithm parameter defined by the algorithm and if the monitored parameter meets a predetermined fault condition to generate a fault indication.
US08115425B2

A driving apparatus electrically drives first and second components built in an industrial instrument. The first component drives a first element, and the second component drives a second element at a velocity higher than that of the first component. The driving apparatus includes a housing including a supply inlet and an exhaust outlet. A fan forms an air current so that air is taken into the housing through the supply inlet and is exhausted from inside the housing through the exhaust outlet. A driving circuit block is accommodated in the housing so as to be cooled by the air current, and includes a first driving circuit to electrically drive the first component, and a second driving circuit to electrically drive the second component. The second driving circuit is inserted upstream of the first driving circuit along the air current in the housing. A cooling unit regulates a temperature of the air exhausted from inside the housing through the exhaust outlet so as to decrease a temperature difference between the air taken into the housing through the supply inlet and the air exhausted from inside the housing through the exhaust outlet.
US08115423B2

A plurality of current sensors are provided to correspond to a plurality of inverter circuits for driving a plurality of motor generators, respectively. Zero point adjustment of each current sensor is executed in a non-energized state recognized based on a stop of operation of the corresponding inverter circuit and when noise influence is determined to be small based on stops of operations of the other inverter circuits in the same casing. As a result, it is possible to avoid a risk of performing the zero point adjustment in a state in which an output of the current sensor is not exactly a value corresponding to zero current due to the noise influence from the other inverter circuits. In this way, it is possible to highly accurately execute the zero point adjustment of the current sensor for measuring motor driving current.
US08115420B2

In a filament power supply circuit of a vacuum fluorescent display, an integration circuit is connected to a signal input terminal which receives a pulse signal having a magnitude corresponding to a DC power supply voltage. A comparison circuit compares an output voltage from the integration circuit with a reference voltage, and outputs a result. A first filament cathode connection terminal is connected to one terminal of the filament cathode of a vacuum fluorescent display and applies the DC power supply voltage to the one terminal. A second filament cathode connection terminal is connected to the other terminal of the filament cathode to ground the other terminal via a capacitive element. A three-terminal element includes first, second, and third terminals. The first terminal is connected to the first filament cathode connection terminal. The second terminal is grounded. The third terminal receives the output from the comparison circuit so that the path between the first terminal and the second terminal is switched in accordance with it.
US08115410B2

In an illumination system (10), comprising: a lamp assembly (14) with a plurality of lamps (12A, 12B, 12C) and associated lamp drivers (13A, 13B, 13C); a common controller (15) for generating control signals (ξ1, ξ2, ξ3) for the lamp drivers (13A, 13B, 13C); a memory (18) containing a color table with color points; the color points of the color table are located in a two-dimensional plane corresponding to a ceiling of a color space. Perimeter color points (PC) are located on the borderline of said plane, in groups of equidistant color points, as measured in a perceptual uniform second color space. Equidistant spoke color points (SC) are located on constant hue lines (42) in said plane, constant hue line connecting one of said perimeter color points (PC) to a white point (W).
US08115409B2

A driving circuit includes a signal generator, a resonant circuit, a control circuit and an adjusting circuit. The signal generator is utilized for generating an alternating current (AC) signal having a fixed frequency. The resonant circuit is coupled to the signal generator, and is utilized for generating an oscillation signal to drive a backlight source according to the alternating current signal. The control circuit is utilized for providing a control signal. The adjusting circuit is coupled to the control circuit, the resonant circuit and the backlight source, and is utilized for providing an impedance according to the control signal to thereby adjust a current value of the backlight source.
US08115408B2

A light source apparatus and a light source adjusting module are provided. The light source apparatus includes a power supply, a phase modulator, an electrical transformer, a light source adjusting module and a light-emitting device. The power supply provides a first AC voltage signal. The phase modulator receives the first AC voltage signal and adjusts a conducting phase of the first AC voltage signal to generate a modulated AC voltage signal. The electrical transformer transforms the modulated AC voltage signal to generate a second AC voltage signal. The light adjusting module generates a luminance adjusting signal according to a state of the second AC voltage signal. The light-emitting device receives the luminance adjusting signal to generate a corresponding light source.
US08115402B2

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for driving multiple parallel discharge lamps, which increases the switching frequency once the open lamp condition is detected to provide an output voltage that is high enough to ignite the lamp again.
US08115401B2

A safety starter circuit for a gas discharge lamp includes a series arrangement of a glow switch starter, a resistive element, and a thermally controlled switching element. The thermally controlled switching element is in a heat transfer relationship with the resistive element so that the thermally controlled switching element is effectively heated by heat generated in the resistive element. The thermally controlled switching element is designed to make a transition from a conductive state to a non-conductive state when its temperature exceeds a predetermined cut-off temperature. The thermally controlled switching element is arranged in a gas-tight casing.
US08115399B2

Organic light emitting diode (OLED) light source includes a plurality of stacked organic light emitting diode units comprised of a removable topmost organic light emitting diode unit and one or more removable underlying organic light emitting diode units. A power source is in electrical communication with the anode and the cathode of the topmost organic light emitting diode unit, wherein the underlying organic light emitting diode units are free from contact with the power source. As such, each OLED is sequentially operated upon removal of the topmost OLED unit, thereby providing redundancy as well as extending the operating lifetime of the OLED light source. Also disclosed are processes for operating the OLED light source.
US08115389B2

To provide a high pressure discharge lamp in which no fusing of the metal foil occurs even if the high pressure discharge lamp is switched on for a certain time a high pressure discharge lamp is provided having a discharge vessel comprised of a light emission part and sealing parts made of glass connected to opposite ends of said light emission part; metal foils buried in a respective one of said sealing parts; a pair of electrodes comprised of core rods and tip end parts, said tip end parts being arranged oppositely to each other in the light emission part; and said core rods being melted and fused together with a respective one of the metals foils; wherein cavities are formed which reach from a surface of a respective one of the metal foils to an interior of the core rod, and the glass constituting said sealing part has entered into said cavities.
US08115382B2

It is an object of the present invention to provide a light-emitting element with high light emission efficiency and with a long lifetime. A light-emitting device comprises a first electrode, a second electrode, a light-emitting layer, a first layer, and a second layer, wherein the first layer is provided between the light-emitting layer and the first electrode, the second layer is provided between the light-emitting layer and the second electrode, the first layer is a layer for controlling the hole transport, the second layer is a layer for controlling the electron transport, and light emission from the light-emitting layer is obtained when voltage is applied to the first electrode and the second electrode so that potential of the first electrode is higher than potential of the second electrode.
US08115376B2

A light-emitting display capable of maintaining low power consumption and improving display quality irrespective of the configuration of an auxiliary wiring is provided. A second electrode 20 and an auxiliary wiring 18B are electrically connected to each other through a conductive contact section 15B. Moreover, only a part of the auxiliary wiring 18B is connected to the contact section 15B. Even if the surface of the auxiliary wiring 18B is oxidized, an increase in connection resistance is prevented. Moreover, a restriction on layout is not imposed at the time of forming the contact section 15B.
US08115361B2

The torque characteristic is improved using a magnetic flux efficiently, and an eddy-current loss generated in a coil is reduced. Moreover, a loss is suppressed even if a metal member having a high thermal conductivity is closely disposed or closely contacted to a coil surface exposed by a variable magnetic field to improve the heat transfer property, thereby improving the cooling capability. A coil assembly for a rotational electric apparatus has first and second coil plates having wiring patterns formed in such a way that conductive coil segments adjoin with each other via slits, magnetic-flux-transfer-member slots formed in the slits and having a wider width than such slits, a coil constituted by the stacked coil plates so that the magnetic-flux-transfer-member slots overlap with each other, and a magnetic flux transfer member inserted into the magnetic-flux-transfer-member slots of the coil.
US08115356B2

The invention relates to a fluid dynamic bearing system having a first conical bearing and a second conical bearing working in opposition to the first conical bearing, the conical bearings being disposed along a stationary shaft. The first conical bearing has a first bearing cone disposed on the shaft having bearing surfaces extending at an angle α to the rotational axis, and a first bearing bush having a tapered bearing bore and bearing surfaces that are separated by a first bearing gap filled with bearing fluid from the bearing surfaces of the first bearing cone. The second conical bearing has a second bearing cone disposed on the shaft having bearing surfaces extending at an angle β to the rotational axis, and a second bearing bush having a tapered bearing bore and bearing surfaces that are separated by a second bearing gap filled with bearing fluid from the bearing surfaces of the second bearing cone. According to the invention, the bearing surfaces of the first conical bearing are smaller in surface area than the bearing surfaces of the second conical bearing and the angle α is greater than the angle β.
US08115355B2

The rotor of this polygon mirror scanner motor is composed of a rotor magnet provided in the inner wall of a rotor frame, a rotor boss having a circular tube part and provided in the rotor frame, and a polygon mirror mounted on the rotor boss. The stator is composed of a stator core formed by laminating magnetic members and disposed oppositely to the rotor magnet, a stator coil wound in the stator core, and an iron plate circuit board having a through-hole. A dynamic pressure bearing is composed by forming a dynamic pressure groove in either one of the shaft fixed in the through-hole by laser welding, and the circular tube part of the rotor boss, and the circular tube part of the rotor boss is supported by the shaft.
US08115346B2

An electronic device and an external power supply device control method applicable to the electronic device are disclosed. The electronic device is electrically connected to an external power supply device that is able to switch between an ON state and an OFF state. The electronic device includes a switch module and an internal power module. The switch module, when being triggered, generates a switch signal. The internal power module receives the switch signal and accordingly generates a trigger signal to the external power supply device, so that the external power supply device is triggered to switch from the OFF state to the ON state and accordingly supplies electric power to the electronic device.
US08115343B2

This invention relates to a pulse generator circuit for delivering a short high current pulse to a load. This pulse generator comprises a junction recovery diode, a switch, a first resonant circuit and a second resonant circuit. The diode may be configured to store charges in its depletion layer when there is a forward flow of a current and to rapidly switch open after the depletion layer is discharged by a reverse flow of a current. After the diode rapidly switch opens, the pulse generator may provide a reverse current to the load. This pulse generator may be configured to generate at least one pulse that is having a length of no more than 100 nanoseconds at the full-width-at-half-maximum and an amplitude of at least 1 kilovolt. Electrodes may be connected to the pulse generator to deliver one pulse or plurality of pulses to biological cells such as tumor cells.
US08115341B2

A power converter having an aircraft power source detector configured to limit the amount of power that can be drawn by the power converter when utilized in an aircraft. The power converter may detect an artifact of the aircraft power source, such as the 400 Hz ripple noise on an aircraft power line, or existing in the aircraft cabin, such EMI or aircraft lighting.
US08115340B2

A system for maximizing power output from a photovoltaic array includes a configurable photovoltaic panel having a series-parallel selector and a bypass selector electrically controlled by a node controller. Some embodiments further include a plurality of configurable photovoltaic modules. A configurable photovoltaic panel may selectively be electrically connected to other configurable photovoltaic panels in a series circuit, a parallel circuit, or a combination of series and parallel circuits according to switching states set by the node controller for the bypass selector and series-parallel selector. A number of configurable photovoltaic panels connected in series and a number connected in parallel may optionally be selected in response to a change in an output voltage from a photovoltaic array, for example a voltage change resulting from a change in illumination, thereby causing the output voltage from the photovoltaic array to be greater than or equal to a minimum input voltage for an inverter.
US08115338B2

The present invention relates to an emergency power unit for apparatuses, in particular domestic apparatuses, which unit comprises a battery charging device (61) having an input connected to a connector (12, 14, 15) and comprising accumulator means (63a), arranged to accumulate electric power coming from the connector (12, 14, 15), and conversion means (65, 65a) arranged to convert the electric power accumulated into a power supply that can be used by the apparatuses and to output said power supply to the apparatuses. The unit further comprises a power supply delivery device (71) comprising: first connection means (12, 14) connectable to first power supply means by means of first connection cables for being supplied with power; second connection means (22, 24) connectable to at least one of the apparatuses to supply it with power; and switching means (72) arranged to switch the connection from the first connection means (12, 14) to the conversion means (65) and vice versa to provide the power supply. The invention also relates to a method of supplying apparatuses by means of an emergency power unit in case of blackout in an electric mains.
US08115328B2

A system and method are provided for controlling an internal combustion engine driving a generator/welder or a stand-alone generator. The engine and/or the generator is controlled based upon settings for welding. Controlling the engine may include altering the engine speed based upon a detected demand on the generator and/or operating parameters of a welder.
US08115313B2

A plurality of electrodes are electrically coupled to each other by conductive interconnects formed from selectively sintered nanoparticles.
US08115310B2

A semiconductor device assembly can include a semiconductor chip, a receiving substrate, and a spacer structure interposed between the semiconductor chip and the receiving substrate. The spacer provides an unoccupied space between a pillar and a bond finger for excess conductive material, which can otherwise flow from between the pillar and bond finger and result in a conductive short. The spacer can also provide an offset between the pillar and bond finger.
US08115304B1

A method of implementing a discrete component in an integrated circuit package is described. The method includes steps of coupling the discrete component to a surface of a substrate of the integrated circuit package, coupling an integrated circuit die to the surface of the substrate, applying a first epoxy material, and applying a second epoxy material to the discrete component, where the first epoxy material is different from the second epoxy material.
US08115296B2

Various embodiments for molding tools for moisture-resistant image sensor packaging structures and methods of assembly are disclosed. Image sensor packages of the present invention include an interposer, a housing structure formed on the interposer for surrounding an image sensor chip, and a transparent cover. The housing structure may cover substantially all of the interposer chip surface. In another embodiment, the housing structure also covers substantially all of the interposer edge surfaces. The housing structure may also cover substantially all of the interposer attachment surface. An image sensor chip is electrically connected to the interposer with sealed wire bond connections or with sealed flip-chip connections. The housing structure may include runners that enable simultaneous sealing of the interior of the image sensor package and of the transparent cover.
US08115294B2

A power semiconductor device has a first chip carrier part (11) and a second chip carrier part (12), the first chip carrier part (11) and the second chip carrier part (12) being spaced apart from one another and being electrically conductive in each case. A first chip with a power transistor is arranged on the first chip carrier part (11) and a second chip (14) is arranged on the second chip carrier part (12). The terminal for a first potential (DC−) of a supply voltage is electrically connected to the first chip (13) via the first chip carrier part and the terminal for the second potential of a supply voltage (DC+) is electrically connected to the second chip (14) via the second chip carrier part.
US08115293B2

A method of manufacture of an integrated circuit packaging system includes: providing a first substrate; mounting a component over the first substrate; mounting a stack substrate over the component, the stack substrate having an inner pad and an outer pad connected to the first substrate; mounting a first exposed interconnect on the outer pad; forming a first encapsulation over the stack substrate, the first exposed interconnect partially exposed and the inner pad partially exposed in a recess of the first encapsulation; and mounting a second exposed interconnect on the inner pad.
US08115287B2

A method of manufacture of an integrated circuit packaging system includes: forming outer leads having outer terminal sections, the outer terminal sections having an upper terminal and a bottom terminal; forming inner leads having inner terminal sections wider than a distance between the outer terminal sections of the outer leads, and the inner terminal sections have an upper terminal and a bottom terminal; connecting an integrated circuit to the inner leads and the outer leads; and encapsulating the integrated circuit, the inner leads, and the outer leads with an encapsulation while leaving the upper terminals and the bottom terminals of the outer terminal sections and the upper terminals and bottom terminals of the inner terminal sections exposed from the encapsulation.
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