US08180980B2
A data processing apparatus 12 is provided with a memory management unit 24 which triggers memory aborts. When a memory abort occurs, data characterizing the memory abort is written to a fault status register 28 (memory-abort register). The data characterizing the memory abort includes data identifying a register number associated with the memory access which gave rise to the memory abort. This register identifying data is used to emulate the action of the memory access instruction without having to read the program instruction lead to the memory abort. This is useful in providing virtualization support for a virtual data processing apparatus 2.
US08180977B2
Methods and apparatus to provide transactional memory execution in out-of-order processors are described. In one embodiment, a stored value corresponds to the number of transactional memory access requests that are uncommitted. The stored value may be used to provide nested recovery in case of an error, fault, etc. in accordance with a described embodiment.
US08180966B2
A technique implements a novel high-speed high-density packet buffer utilizing a combination of high-speed and low-speed memory devices. The novel packet buffer is organized as a plurality of FIFO queues where each FIFO queue is associated with a particular input or output line. Each queue comprises a high-speed cache portion that resides in high-speed memory and a low-speed high-density portion that resides in low-speed high-density memory. The high-speed cache portion contains FIFO data that contains head and/or tail associated with the novel FIFO queue. The low-speed high-density portion contains FIFO data that is not contained in the high-speed cache portion.
US08180958B2
A method and a computer readable medium having executable instructions are provided. The method and instructions when executed generates a first look-up key from a group of look-up key units stored in a data storage, generation of the first look up key being completed prior to the completion of a key generation processing cycle. A next look-up key unit from the group of look-up key units stored in the data storage may be skipped over when the next look up key corresponds to a second look-up key that has a key length equal to or smaller than a predetermined key length. A third look-up key unit may be selected from the group of look-up key units, the third look-up key unit associated with a third look-up key having a key length greater than a second predetermined key length, the second predetermined key length being greater than the first predetermined key length. The first look-up key and a portion of the third look-up key sequentially may be output during the same output processing cycle.
US08180955B2
A computing system is provided. A flash memory device includes at least one mapping block, at least one modification block and at least one cache block. A processor is configured to perform: receiving a write command with a write logical address and predetermined data, loading content of a cache page from the cache block corresponding to the modification block according to the write logical address to a random access memory device in response to that a page of the mapping block corresponding to the write logical address has been used, the processor, reading orderly the content of the cache page stored in the random access memory device to obtain location information of an empty page of the modification block, and writing the predetermined data to the empty page according to the location information. Each cache page includes data fields to store location information corresponding to the data has been written in the pages of the modification block in order.
US08180943B1
A method and apparatus for providing latency based thread scheduling. A thread attribute, e.g., latency of a process, is used in effecting the scheduling of the thread.
US08180938B2
A method for automatic learning of software keyboard input characteristics includes the following steps. (a) An input is received. (b) Whether the input is a normal key input is determined. (c) The input value of the input is stored when the input is determined to be the normal key input. (d) Step (a)-(c) are repeated until (N+1) input values are stored, wherein N is a positive integer. (e) When there are (N+1) inputs stored, the input characteristics of the first input in the (N+1) inputs are determined according to the first stored input value in the stored (N+1) input values. A computer program product using the method and a system for automatic learning of software keyboard input characteristics are also disclosed herein.
US08180924B2
There is described information processing method and apparatus, which make it possible not only to suppress the maldistribution of the loads in the network system, but also to suppress the deterioration of the overall system performance. The apparatus that is capable of communicating with a client terminal device and other information processing apparatuses through a network, includes a communicating section to communicate with the client terminal device and the other information processing apparatuses; a control section to conduct processes of receiving apparatus information sent from the other information processing apparatuses, establishing at least a group of information processing apparatuses to be in charge of an information processing requested by the client terminal device, based on the apparatus information received, creating a list in which the information processing apparatuses included in the group are registered, and transmitting the list to at least the information processing apparatuses registered in the list.
US08180923B2
In a processor based system comprising a plurality of logical machines, selecting a logical machine of the system to serve as a host; the host communicating with a policy decision point (PDP) of a network to provision a data channel interconnecting the processor based system and the network and to provision a logical data channel interconnecting each logical machine of the system to the network.
US08180921B2
A method and apparatus is provided in which a multi-site load balancing system directs a client to a site best able to respond to the client's request based on a combination of balancing methods. Performance metric balancing is employed to select sites having the best performance metrics to participate in network latency balancing to determine the site best able to respond the request. The sites participating in the network latency balancing are selected based on having performance metrics within an allowable deviation of the best performance metric. Alternatively, network latency balancing is employed to select sites having the least network latency to participate in performance metric balancing to determine the site best able to respond to the request.
US08180907B1
Technologies are described herein for managing Intelligent Platform Management Interface (“IPMI”) sessions between an application module and a target IPMI device. A session abstraction layer module receives an IPMI request from the application module over a first communication link. The session abstraction layer module establishes an IPMI session with the target IPMI device over a second communication link and forwards the IPMI request to the target IPMI device via the established IPMI session. The session abstraction layer module then receives a response to the IPMI request from the target IPMI device via the established IPMI session, and forwards the response to the application module over the first communication link.
US08180905B2
Techniques are disclosed for a user-mode based remote desktop protocol (RDP) encoding architecture. A user mode desktop application and user mode virtual channel application run in user-mode session space. Virtual channel data from the virtual channel application is marshaled and sent to a RDP encoder process in user-mode system space. There it is converted to RDP protocol data units (PDU) and sent to a remote client across a communications network. Graphics data from the desktop application is sent to a display driver in kernel-mode session space and then to a graphics reflector that marshals the graphics data and sends it to the RDP encoder for a similar transformation.
US08180903B2
Exemplary embodiments of the invention relate to a method, system, and storage medium for validating users of communications services. The method includes generating records for communications service users by at least one service provider. The records store information relating to the communications service users including legal liability information, an originator type code, and a validation code assigned to selected originator type codes. The validation code facilitates validation of the communications service users. The method also includes storing the records in a subscriber classification database. The originator type code classifies the communications service users according to nature of use, communications type, business type, geography, and age.
US08180901B2
Layer 4 gateway for a converged datacenter fabric is described herein. According to one embodiment, a packet of a network transaction is received from a client over a first network for accessing a server of a datacenter having a plurality of servers over a second network. One or more network services are performed on the packet including terminating a TCP (transport control protocol) connection associated with the network transaction and generating a data stream. The data stream without TCP information is routed to the server via a converged I/O interface over the second network if the second network is a converged fabric network. The data stream with TCP information is routed via a TCP connection to the server if the second network is an Ethernet. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.
US08180896B2
The invention relates to systems and methods of global load balancing in a content delivery network having a plurality of edge servers which may be distributed across multiple geographic locations. According to one aspect of the invention, a global load balancing system includes a first load balancing server for receiving a packet requesting content to be delivered to a client, selecting one of the plurality of edge servers to deliver the requested content to the client, and forwarding the packet across a network connection to a second load balancing server, which forwards the packet to the selected edge server. The selected edge server, in response to receiving the packet, sends across a network connection the requested content with an address for direct delivery to the client, thereby allowing the requested content to be delivered to the client while bypassing a return path through the first load balancing server.
US08180893B1
Component-level sandboxing is implemented in the example context of an enterprise rights management system. A policy enforcement module monitors an application executing on a client to detect and evaluate data access requests in view of a rights policy. The policy enforcement module determines how to handle the request based on the whether the policy permits the request. If the request is permitted, the policy enforcement module allows the requests and sandboxes it using virtualization. The sandbox virtualizes the thread making the request and/or a data access component involved in the request. Other aspects of the application that do not implicate the rights policy are not sandboxed. In this way, sandboxing is used to enforce the rights policy in a manner that is transparent to the user and consumes relatively few resources of the client.
US08180882B2
A distributed messaging system and method allows servers in a network to share data, such as network status data associated with all of the servers in the network. In one embodiment, the distributed messaging system and method may be used in element management system (EMS) servers in a distributed network management system (NMS). The servers in the network share the data in a distributed manner by transmitting messages including the network status data, for example, using a star/broadcast method or a circular message queue (CMQ) method.
US08180877B2
A method of configuring a data processing system for facilitating network communications involves creating a primary logical partition (LPAR) in the data processing system, the LPAR configured to host a specified operating system. The method further includes creating a first virtual network adapter within the LPAR, associating the first virtual network adapter with a first network address, and binding the first virtual network adapter to the LPAR. The method additionally involves creating a first logical subpartition (LSPAR) within the LPAR, the first LSPAR configured to employ said specified operating system and no other. The method also includes creating a second virtual network adapter within the LPAR, associating the second virtual network adapter with a second network address, wherein the second network address is not an alias network address of the first network address, and binding the second virtual network adapter to the first LSPAR.
US08180876B2
A device manager and a computer readable medium storing a device management program are provided. The device manager includes a transmission unit that transmits, to devices connected to a network, a broadcast command which requests management information that is stored in and unique to each device for use in communication using a first communication protocol that enables communication using authenticated and encrypted data; a determination unit that determines whether the devices are devices to be managed, on the basis of the management information received in response to the broadcast command; and an information acquisition unit that transmits, using the first communication protocol, to the devices determined by the determination unit to be devices to be managed among the plurality of devices, read data for reading information about the device in order to acquire information about the device.
US08180865B2
The invention discloses a system and method for network application server/operating system management by packaging configuration function(s) into independently partitioned profiles (or “silos”) that can be dynamically invoked by an “administrative agent” server/program using a “proxy server”/program to distribute profile configuration changes to one or more administrative agents (each of which is assigned one or more application servers/systems).
US08180861B2
A system and a method (100, 500) for integrating an uncertified client (104) with a certified host device (102) are provided. The integration system (100) is configured to integrate the uncertified client (104), which has a plurality of client applications (106), with the certified host device (102), and has a client virtual machine (108), host applications (142), and an abstraction layer (138, 156). The client virtual machine (108) is coupled to the uncertified client (104) and is configured to execute the plurality of client applications (106). The host applications (142) are coupled to the certified host device (102) and are configured to control host dependent features on the certified host device (102). The abstraction layer (138, 156) are coupled to the host applications (142) and to the client virtual machine (108), and are configured to translate feature calls from the plurality of client applications (106) to function calls for the host applications (142).
US08180855B2
The present invention provides a novel coordinated shared storage architecture that permits the amortization of cost of the spares over any number of the storage systems and enables improvements to a number of storage system operations. The coordinated shared storage architecture comprises a plurality of storage systems disk shelves via a plurality of intermediate network devices, such as hubs. Each storage system includes a storage operating system having a target device driver module. The target device driver module permits the storage system to function as a SCSI target and thereby receive and process commands directed to it from other storage systems.
US08180844B1
A machine readable code (e.g., digital watermark or bar code) conveyed with objects is used in establishing links to associated electronic resources, such as web pages. The object can be physical (e.g., a magazine page) or electronic (e.g., music data). The associated electronic resource can be a web site from which goods or services (e.g., music) may be offered for sale. In some embodiments, when a code is sensed from one object, the system can foresee other object codes that may soon be sensed, and can anticipatorily provide address information for their respectively associated electronic resources. In another embodiment, the microphone of a cell phone is used to listen to ambient audio. A watermark in the audio is decoded and its payload is used to link to, or provide, related information. A variety of other concepts are also detailed, such as permitting the free distribution of low fidelity music as marketing agents for higher fidelity versions that are available for sale.
US08180835B1
Most unsolicited commercial email (UCE) countermeasures call for a message by message analysis. However, some UCE attacks occur when a single sender of UCE floods a mail transfer agent (MTA) with a number of copies of a UCE, in a mail flood attack. The attacks rarely rise to the level of denial of service attacks but are significant enough to place a strain on MTAs and anti-UCE countermeasures. The anti-mail flood methodology disclosed herein provides a system and method for protecting mail systems from such mail flood attacks enabling anti-UCE countermeasures to work more efficiently.
US08180834B2
The present invention provides systems, methods, computer program products, and combinations and subcombinations thereof for filtering received messages. The invention includes a client system having filtering logic, a statistical classifier module, and a classifier database. The classifier module is automatically trained, without manual intervention, when the score generated by the classifier for a received message is inconsistent with a user-defined authoritative status indication. In addition, the classifier module is initialized using user-identified messages in a ratio representative of the ratio of non-spam to spam messages received by the user.
US08180830B2
A computationally implemented method includes, but is not limited to: presenting to a user a hypothesis identifying at least a relationship between a first event type and a second event type; receiving from the user one or more modifications to modify the hypothesis; and executing one or more actions based, at least in part, on a modified hypothesis resulting, at least in part, from the reception of the one or more modifications. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure.
US08180827B2
A method and apparatus to associate a graphic icon representing a user in an Internet virtual world with the user's experience in the real world, the method including: logging data of an event occurring to the user in the real world; transmitting the logged data to a server; and updating the graphic icon in the virtual world according to the transmitted data. Accordingly, by associating the contents of the user's experience with a database (DB) and expressing the contents in the graphic icon, the user's experiences in the real world can be more realistically expressed in a virtual world.
US08180824B2
A building automation system (BAS) comprising a plurality of end devices, at least one communication network, and a server engine comprising a data harvester. The end devices are each associated with at least one of a space, a system, or a subsystem for at least a portion of a building or a campus. The communication network communicatively couples to at least a portion of the plurality of end devices to the server engine. In one embodiment, the server engine is adapted to dynamically implement the data harvesting capability to periodically establish communications with, to receive and store data about, end devices and to selectively control the utilization of the communication network in order to prevent overrun or data loss. Methods of handling log collection from end devices in a building automation system (BAS) based upon a distributed schedule provided by a user or a priority scheme are also disclosed.
US08180823B2
A method of routing messages to multiple consumers comprises determining a probability function defining message classification probabilities for each of a plurality of consumer sets, receiving a plurality of messages, classifying each message, storing each message in a queue, receiving notification of a consumer available to process a message, ascertaining the consumer set to which the available consumer belongs, accessing the probabilities for the ascertained consumer set, selecting a message classification according to the accessed probabilities, and transmitting a message, of the selected classification, to the available consumer.
US08180820B1
Generating a remainder from a division of a first polynomial by a second polynomial having a variable width. One or more embodiments include a first sub-circuit, a first adder, a second sub-circuit, and a second adder. The first sub-circuit is adapted to generate a first partial remainder, which has a fixed width greater than or equal to the width of the second polynomial, from the first polynomial excepting a least significant portion. The first adder is adapted to generate a sum of the least significant portion of the first polynomial and a most significant portion of the first partial remainder. The second sub-circuit is adapted to generate a second partial remainder from the sum. The second adder is adapted to generate the remainder from the second partial remainder and the first partial remainder excepting the most significant portion.
US08180816B2
A system having a pseudo random number generator, a control circuit being configured to increase a quality of a pseudo random number output signal of the pseudo random number generator by coupling the pseudo random number generator with a true random number output signal of a true random number generator and a consumer circuit being configured to use the pseudo random number output signal before and after the increase.
US08180810B2
Methods, systems and computer program products for interactive generation of integrated schemas. Exemplary embodiments include a method for schema integration, the method including recasting a first source schema into a first graph of concepts with HasA relationships, recasting a second source schema into a second graph of concepts with HasA relationships, identifying matching concepts in the first graph and the second graph based on correspondences between attributes of the concepts of the first and second graphs, producing an integrated schema, based on a fixed specification of matching concepts to merge, and generating a mapping from the first source schema to the integrated schema and from the second source schema to the integrated schema.
US08180783B1
Systems and methods are provided for ranking document data retrieved from a data source in response to a search request. A ranking system retrieves document data from documents in the data source that each includes at least one key term that matches a search term in the search request. For each document, a term frequency value is calculated based on a number of occurrences of the key term in the document. Prefix and suffix term rules are used to determine whether a particular occurrence of the key term in a particular document should be included in determining a term weight value for that particular occurrence of the key term. A relevancy ranking value is determined for each document based on the corresponding term frequency and term weight values. The document data is displayed according to each document's corresponding relevancy ranking value.
US08180780B2
A method, apparatus and program product facilitate the collaborative development of an algorithm by, in part, displaying an algorithm associated with a performance attribute, and receiving user input relating to the algorithm from a plurality of networked users. The performance attribute of the algorithm may be automatically modified based on the user input. The modified performance attribute may be displayed to the plurality of networked users. A query may be received from a user interested in the algorithm. In response to the user query, the algorithm may be located from among a plurality of algorithms. For instance, the algorithm may be located from among the plurality of algorithms by matching the performance attribute to a criterion of the user query. Alternatively or additionally, the algorithm may be located by matching the performance attribute to a profile of the user submitting the user query. Also in response to the user query, a second algorithm and/or performance attribute related to the algorithm, or another, may be displayed.
US08180776B2
A search engine provides personalized rankings of search results. A user interest profile identifies topics of interest to a user. Each topic is associated with one or more sites, and a boost value, which can be used to augment an information retrieval score of any document from the site. Search results from any search are provided to the user, with a variable control of the ranking of the results. The results can be ranked by their unboosted information retrieval score, thus reflecting no personalization, or by their fully or partially boosted information retrieval scores. This allows the user to selectively control how their interests affect the ranking of the documents.
US08180771B2
A system and method of data processing receives a query at a server computer system. The system and method utilizes the query to extract a search result from a data source. The system and method receives at least one search activity record and a user preference from a client computer system over a network at a server computer system. The server computer system stores at least one search activity record on the server computer system and deletes the at least one search activity record on the server computer system based on the user preference.
US08180764B2
A digital content transmission apparatus, method and medium, and a digital content reception apparatus, method and medium enable multimedia content, extracted according to the location and time of a transmitting mobile terminal, and alphanumeric text, to be combined into a single message sent to a receiving mobile terminal, thereby allowing a user of the transmitting mobile terminal to reflect the circumstances facing the user in the message. The digital content transmission apparatus includes an input module to receive an alphanumeric message, a state searching module to search for time information and location information of the message, a control module to extract a serial number of a first multimedia content corresponding to the time information and the location information, and a communication module to transmit data into which the message and the extracted serial number are combined.
US08180759B2
Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for spell checking URLs in a resource. Embodiments include identifying within a resource a URL, determining whether the URL is valid, and marking the URL as misspelled if the URL is invalid. In typical embodiments, determining whether the URL is valid is carried out by resolving a domain name contained in the URL. Typical embodiments also include suggesting an alternative spelling for the URL. In some embodiments, suggesting an alternative spelling for the URL is carried out by identifying a keyword in the resource, querying a search engine with the identified keyword, and selecting a URL in dependence upon search results returned by the search engine.
US08180756B1
Pairs of similar objects in a population of objects can be found using a process that includes identifying a comparison vector x in a set of vectors having non-zero features, determining an estimated similarity contribution of a subset of features of the comparison vector x to a similarity between the comparison vector x and each vector in the set of vectors, generating an index that includes features based on a comparison of the similarity contribution with a similarity threshold, and identifying another vector in the set that is similar to the vector x using the index.
US08180754B1
A system, method and computer program product for implementation of a Aggregate Neural Semantic Network, which stores the relationships and semantic connections between the key search words for each user. The Aggregate Neural Semantic Network processes the search results produced by a standard search engine such as, for example, Google or Yahoo!. The set of hits produced by the standard search engine is processed by the Aggregate Neural Semantic Network, which selects the hits that are relevant to a particular user based on the previous search queries made by the user. The Aggregate Neural Semantic Network can also use the connections between the terms (i.e., key words) that are most frequently used by all of the previous Aggregate Neural Semantic Network users. The Aggregate Neural Semantic Network is constantly updating and self-teaching. The more user queries are processed by the Aggregate Neural Semantic Network, the more comprehensive processing of search engine outputs is provided by the Aggregate Neural Semantic Network to the subsequent user queries.
US08180753B1
This description provides tools and techniques for automatically extracting data from semi-structured documents. A computer may receive a request for data representing an inferred structure of an input document. For the request, the computer may determine whether a repository containing mined information includes the requested data. If the repository contains the requested data, the computer may return the data representing the inferred structure of the input document in response to the request.
US08180752B2
Methods and apparatus include features for managing social media universes. In one embodiment, media content and community members that have been associated with a new concept for creating a new universe are searched on a plurality of media content servers. For each found new concept, an association is retained between the new universe for the new concept and any found media content and community members. When a requesting user requests to view the new universe, a representation of the media content and the community members that are associated with the new universe is displayed for the requesting user.
US08180749B1
The present invention provides systems and methods for presenting a quantity of information in a single tool. Such a tool includes a map of various objects, the objects having themes relating to a given overall concept, wherein at least one object contains information relating to other objects that have a relationship with that object.
US08180748B2
The subject disclosure pertains to databases as well as generation and utilization of keys. A desired or default number of values can be requested from a domain and allocated for use. These values can be utilized to generate surrogate keys. Subsequently or concurrently, the keys can be employed with respect to operations such as single pass loading of databases and/or data warehouses. Any unused keys can be returned and made available for use by other users or processes. Furthermore, the key generation functionality can be provided outside a database thereby relieving a database system of this burden.
US08180745B2
A system to create a first database object in the object-oriented database, the first database object associated with a primary key, a first group ID m, and a first delta ID m, associate a first pointer with the first database object, create a second database object in the object-oriented database, the second database object associated with the primary key, a second group ID n, and a second delta ID n, associate a second pointer with the second database object, and create a third database object in the object-oriented database, the third database object associated with the primary key, the first group ID m, and a third delta ID m+1. The third database object is associated with a change to the first database object.
US08180744B2
A particular data value is represented as a group of segments stored in corresponding entries of a data structure. Additional data values represented by corresponding groups of segments are written into the data structure. A probability of overwriting segments representing the particular data value increases as a number of the additional data values increase. A correct version of the particular data value is retrieved even though one or more segments representing the particular data value has been overwritten.
US08180732B2
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for distributing data in a data management system. The technique includes identifying one or more objects in a central data store for distribution, determining if a routing exists for at least one object of the one or more objects, and distributing the at least one object to one or more target systems specified by the routing. The one or more objects include master data objects for use by all systems in a data management system, and the one or more target systems are part of the data management system.
US08180714B2
An automated method for the generation of (i) human models comprehensive of shape and joint centers information and/or (ii) subject specific models from multiple video streams is provided. To achieve these objectives, a kinematic model is learnt space from a training data set. The training data set includes kinematic models associated with corresponding morphological models. A shape model is identified as well as one or more poses of the subject. The learnt kinematic model space and the identified shape model are combined to generate a full body model of the subject starting from as few as one-static pose. Further, to generate a full body model of an arbitrary human subject, the learnt kinematic model space and the identified shape model are combined using a parameter set. The invention is applicable for fully automatic markerless motion capture and generation of complete human models.
US08180710B2
A system, method, and computer program product are disclosed for determining a standard market pricing index for pricing user-defined business services and for comparing unique configurations of business services to the determined market pricing index and/or to other unique configurations of business services. Portions of the disclosed system, method, and/or computer program product describe a model and user interface for performing standard, objective, repeatable, and directly comparable benchmarking of business services. In general, the computerized model compiles a set of market price data and interprets specific configurations and characteristics from the market data set. The model performs a periodic analysis to determine which configurations and/or characteristics are the most common within the data set, yielding a common market configuration. The model further performs an iterative process in which all the data within the data set is normalized and adjusted to the common market configuration of similar business services. A user enters a user-defined services data set into the model, in the form of answers to questions through a user-interface, and upon running the model, receives a report indicating a likely market price for such services.
US08180709B2
A digital rights management method and device are provided. To implement the DRM method and device, there is provided a master device including a storage module which stores a plurality of rights objects (ROs) having an inheritance structure, a detection module which detects the storage module for an RO needed for playing back a predetermined content object, a message generation module which, if the detection module fails to discover the RO needed for playing back the predetermined content object from the storage module, generates an RO request message, a device interface module which transmits the RO request message to a slave device and receives the RO needed for playing back the predetermined content object from the slave device, and a playback module which plays back the predetermined content object using at least one of the RO detected from the storage module and the RO received from the slave device.
US08180704B2
A system and method for notifying one or more credit card companies of lost or stolen credit cards relatively automatically upon noticing that the one or more credit cards are missing. A user profile is created and stored on a server computer system, wherein the user profile has user verification information, credit card account information and credit card company contact information, typically for each credit card owned by a particular user. Using the user profile, the server computer system receives a request to cancel one or more of the owner's credit cards. The server computer system then communicates with each individual credit card company, relatively automatically, to notify of the loss. The communication may involve the request to cancel the credit card(s), as well as a request for a replacement credit card. Additionally, the owner may be notified by the server computer system that the request(s) have been made and/or by the credit card companies of the received request(s) and respective account status.
US08180698B2
A method and system for an electronic commodities trading marketplace along with ancillary tools provide an electronic trading center for world market commodity importers, exporters, and the intermediaries and processors between them. This trading center is offered through its website centered around a 24-hour exchange that provides trading markets for commodities such as coffee, sugar, cocoa and cotton. The scalable system provides aggregated third party services linked to both front and back office operations. These services can include items such as live futures quotes and real-time news, futures brokerage, banking and finance links and resources, and a suite of applications tailored to members' specific risk-management and end-to-end contract execution needs. The system also provides access to shipping related services such as freight brokerage, direct booking for liner transport, load and discharge supervision and laboratory testing.
US08180689B2
Various computer-implemented services are disclosed for assisting users in selecting items from an electronic catalog, and for selecting merchants with which to conduct transactions. One such service enables users to share information about their respective purchases with other users. Another service enables users to share information regarding the merchants with which they have conducted transactions.
US08180679B2
A method of performance testing for software applications can include storing, in a network accessible location, options corresponding to functions for use in performance test cases and sending to a computer system an electronic document specifying at least one of the plurality of options. The computer system can be remotely located from the network accessible location. The method further can include receiving, from the computer system, input selecting at least one option from the electronic document and automatically generating a performance test case using functions corresponding to the selected option(s). The options can be selected through a Web-based shopping cart and/or system interface thereby easing the process of test case generation.
US08180677B2
A computer readable medium is disclosed, containing instructions useful in performing a method for sending advertising data, the method comprising measuring user-to-user connectivity between users within a community of users; determining a plurality of highly connected users (HCUs) based on the user-to-user connectivity; and sending advertising data to selected HCUs based on a zone of influence (ZOI) for each HCU. A system useful in performing the method is disclosed.
US08180669B2
A system for determining customer identifiers (CIDs) associated with purchase of product items which are recalled includes a computer database management system (10, 20) and network (30). Consumers associated with the determined CIDs are notified of the recall of the products.
US08180662B2
Several of the embodiments disclosed herein relate to accessing and tracking real-time data concerning company representative performance, proficiency, training, scheduling, current work flow, and estimated work flow. Moreover, many of the improvements in contact handling systems disclosed herein automatically provide training, work, and incentives to company representatives to improve performance, proficiency, efficiency, effectiveness, automate scheduling, and automated work flow. More specifically, this application discloses a method for delivering training to company representatives. Also disclosed is an automated customer service and training management system. As a result of the teachings disclosed herein, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and revenue may be improved in the contact handling industry.
US08180659B2
An approach to identifying and measuring adherence to software development requirements is presented. A software agent provides a user with product and technical questions. In turn, the user provides product and technical answers, or attributes, which are stored in a repository. A globalization plan generator uses the product and technical attributes to generate a software development plan. In addition, a globalization verification test generator uses the globalization plan to generate a test plan and measure the success of the software product based upon the test plan.
US08180656B2
Disclosed is a novel life insurance product that provides an improved return to a purchaser. The life insurance product contains a benefit payment, and has a fixed benefit amount and a variable benefit amount. A policy protection benefit prevents a purchaser's life insurance product from lapsing, and a minimum death benefit ensures that the purchaser receives the greater of the face value of the product and a predetermined percentage of the account value.
US08180652B2
A remote healthcare method is applied to a healthcare server and includes the steps of receiving detected information from a physiological parameter detecting instrument, reading a patient identification code and a physiological parameter from the detected information, reading an identification datum and a medical history datum matched with the patient identification code from a history database according to the identification code, reading a disease matched with the disease classification code and a corresponding pathological symptom from the disease database according to at least one disease classification code in the medical history data, screening a corresponding matched pathological symptom from the pathological symptoms according to the read physiological parameter to create a self-perceived list, transmitting the self-perceived list to the physiological parameter detecting instrument, and waiting for a receipt of the selected option of the pathological symptom for determining an appropriate medical dosage or medical tool.
US08180638B2
Disclosed herein is a method for emotion recognition based on a minimum classification error. In the method, a speaker's neutral emotion is extracted using a Gaussian mixture model (GMM), other emotions except the neutral emotion are classified using the Gaussian Mixture Model to which a discriminative weight for minimizing the loss function of a classification error for the feature vector for emotion recognition is applied. In the emotion recognition, the emotion recognition is performed by applying a discriminative weight evaluated using the Gaussian Mixture Model based on minimum classification error to feature vectors of the emotion classified with difficult, thereby enhancing the performance of emotion recognition.
US08180633B2
A system and method for semantic extraction using a neural network architecture includes indexing each word in an input sentence into a dictionary and using these indices to map each word to a d-dimensional vector (the features of which are learned). Together with this, position information for a word of interest (the word to labeled) and a verb of interest (the verb that the semantic role is being predicted for) with respect to a given word are also used. These positions are integrated by employing a linear layer that is adapted to the input sentence. Several linear transformations and squashing functions are then applied to output class probabilities for semantic role labels. All the weights for the whole architecture are trained by backpropagation.
US08180630B2
A system and method for automated dictionary population is provided to facilitate the entry of textual material in dictionaries for enhancing word prediction. The automated dictionary population system is useful in association with a mobile device including at least one dictionary which includes entries. The device receives a communication which is parsed and textual data extracted. The text is compared to the entries of the dictionaries to identify new words. Statistical information for the parsed words, including word usage frequency, recency, or likelihood of use, is generated. Profanities may be processed by identifying profanities, modifying the profanities, and asking the user to provide feedback. Phrases are identified by phrase markers. Lastly, the new words are stored in a supplementary word list as single words or by linking the words of the identified phrases to preserve any phrase relationships. Likewise, the statistical information may be stored.
US08180626B2
Language detection techniques are described. In implementation, a method comprises determining which human writing system is associated with text characters in a string based on values representing the text characters. When the values are associated with more than one human language, the string is compared with a targeted dictionary to identify a corresponding human language associated with the string. Linguistic services are designated to be available based on service properties of the linguistic services and based on the corresponding human language associated with the string.
US08180615B2
A method and system for simulating, modeling and scheduling equipment preparation procedures in the biopharmaceutical production process is described herein. The use of process vessels in batch process manufacturing is optimized through the use of peak load scheduling frames. The system and method includes the steps of identifying soiled process components and their associated equipment preparation procedures. After the soiled process components are identified, a master list of soiled process components and their associated equipment preparation procedures is generated. After the soiled process components and the equipment preparation procedures are identified, the equipment preparation procedures are scheduled out based on preparation equipment protocols to generate a equipment preparation load summary table. Next, the size and capacity of the preparation equipment is determined based on the information in the load summary table. After the size and capacity of the preparation equipment is determined, an equipment preparation time line is generated.
US08180613B1
The present invention introduces a simulation software for displaying a human being comprising an arm. When the arm joint angle value, which indicates the angle created by the upper arm and the lower arm at the arm joint, indicates the first angle value, the fabric of a first wrinkle image is generated on or near the arm joint. When the arm joint angle value indicates the second angle value, the fabric of a second wrinkle image is generated on or near the arm joint.
US08180608B1
A method, system and apparatus for generating a variable transport delay for use in modeling a dynamic system. The variable transport delay of the present invention may be calculated using a variety of means, including the use of a lookup table generated at a variety of time steps such that an accurate variable transport delay can be calculated by interpolation.
US08180607B2
A cross-spectral correlation function of a structure may be determined by providing a finite element model of the structure having a plurality of elements each having a centroid. A plurality of composite centroids may be determined wherein each one of the composite centroids is based on at least one of the elements. The cross-spectral correlation function between at least one pair of the elements in the finite element model may be assigned to be the cross-spectral correlation function of the composite centroids that include the centroids of the elements. If the pair of elements is included in the same composite centroid, then the cross-spectral correlation function between the elements is assigned to be the autocorrelation function of the composite centroid that includes the pair of elements.
US08180593B2
A method and apparatus for determining a fluid level and/or output flow during operation of a centrifugal pump, are provided, which may be used for production of gas and/or oil from a well, and include a vector feedback model to derive values of torque and speed from signals indicative of instantaneous current and voltage drawn by the pump motor, a pump model which derives values of the fluid flow rate and the head pressure for the pump from torque and speed inputs, a pumping system model that derives, from the estimated values of the pump operating parameters, an estimated value of fluid level and other pumping system parameters. Controllers responsive to the estimated values of the pumping system parameters control the pump to maintain fluid level at the pump input, near an optimum level, or within a safe operating range and/or output flow from the pump.
US08180592B2
The present inventions, in one aspect, are directed to a portable monitoring device comprises (i) a housing having a physical size and shape that is adapted to couple to the user, (ii) a motion sensor, disposed in the housing, to detect motion of a user and, in response thereto, to generate motion data, (iii) an altitude sensor, disposed in the housing, to detect a change in altitude of the user and, in response thereto, to generate change in altitude data, and (iv) processing circuitry, disposed in the housing, to: (a) calculate a change in elevation of the user using the motion data and the change in altitude data, and (b) a state of an avatar (which is a graphical representation of the user) using the motion data and/or the change in altitude data, and (vi) a display to output state of avatar data.
US08180587B2
A method of brokering information in a manufacturing system which includes a broker coupled between a supplier of information and a consumer of information. The manufacturing system receives information from the supplier in a first format and sends information from the broker to the consumer in a second format.
US08180575B2
A process for on-line and in situ counting of cells in a biological culture medium, including a plurality of steps of measuring the capacitance of the medium or a plurality of steps of measuring the conductance of the medium, at distinct frequencies varying within a predetermined range of measurement frequencies. The process includes an extraction of information on the variation of permittivity due to the β-dispersion in the medium, from the capacitance measurements, and processing of the variation of this information on the variation of permittivity as a function of the frequency, in order to provide information regarding the counting of cells in the medium.
US08180574B2
A simplified peritoneal equilibration test (S-PET) is disclosed. Instead of a lengthy peritoneal equilibration test (PET), the simplified procedure requires no blood sample and may use data from as few as two or three samples to classify a peritoneal membrane of a user. Typically, a peritoneal membrane or peritoneum of a dialysis patient, or other person, is classed as a high transport membrane, high-average transport membrane, a low-average transport membrane or a low transporter membrane. The S-PET may be performed at home by a user without the need to submit a blood sample. Kits for analyzing the samples may be furnished for home use. The kits may use disposable strips, microfluidic analyzers or chemical reagents, or may alternatively include reusable analysis equipment, such as optical or conductivity analysis equipment.
US08180573B2
Disclosed is a sample processing apparatus, comprising: a sample processing unit for processing a sample with an auxiliary item used to process the sample; an output device for outputting a processing result by the sample processing unit; and a controller for determining whether or not the auxiliary item is appropriate for the sample processing by sample processing unit, and controlling, when determining that the auxiliary item is not appropriate for the sample processing by the sample processing unit, the output device so as to output the processing result and reliability information showing that the processing result has a low reliability. Also disclosed is a method for outputting the processing result by the sample processing apparatus and a computer program product.
US08180563B2
A method for modifying navigation information is provided in the present invention. The method comprises steps of detecting a status information with respect to a moving carrier guiding by a navigating route; comparing the status information with a characteristic information corresponding to a characteristic point on the navigating route; and finally, determining whether the moving carrier is passing the characteristic point according to the comparing result and modifying the coordinate position of the carrier. In another embodiment, the present invention further provides a navigating apparatus comprising a sensing module for detecting the status of the moving carrier, a signal processing unit, and a storage unit for storing a map information. The signal processing unit comparing the status information to the characteristic information with respect to the characteristic point on the navigating route, and modifying the deviation of the moving carrier to the modify location according to the comparing result.
US08180562B2
A method and apparatus for building, creating, or otherwise specifying an airport ground taxi navigation route for an aircraft from an input of the route is disclosed. The apparatus includes a keypad, voice recognition device, or other entry device, a processor, a display screen, and a navigation map database. A crewmember on the aircraft uses the entry device to enter all or part of the ground navigation taxi route. The entry device converts the received route information into an input text string, either with or without delimiters. The system parses the input text string by extracting characters or substrings from the input text string. A database lookup component searches the map database to find a route component that matches the character or substring. If the system finds a matching route component, it determines if the matching route component is continuous with the taxi route. The system adds the matching route component to the taxi route and displays any discontinuity. The system then repeats the process with subsequent substrings of the input text string until the entire input string has been processed. The system may automatically or manually handle input errors or ambiguities.
US08180548B2
A system, apparatus and method of controlling a brake system of a vehicle having a brake input device, such as a brake pedal, a plurality of rotating wheels and a plurality of brakes, each brake of the plurality of brakes corresponding to one wheel of the plurality of wheels, is provided. In controlling the brakes, data indicative of a deflection of the brake pedal is received, and the received data is used to derive a target deceleration rate. A braking command is provided to each of the plurality of brakes, wherein the braking command is varied for each brake to regulate a deceleration rate the vehicle in accordance with the target deceleration rate.
US08180546B2
A controller for electric trailer brakes that includes a three axis accelerometer for detecting deceleration of a towing vehicle and an interactive liquid crystal display controlled by a plurality of pushbuttons.
US08180539B2
A location range setting apparatus includes: a location information acquiring unit for acquiring location information indicating the location of a mobile object; a road information acquiring unit for acquiring road segment information indicating a specific segment of a road; a segment determining unit for associating the location information with corresponding road segment information; a storage unit for storing a plurality of pieces of location information and road segment information respectively as learned data; a clustering unit for clustering the plurality of pieces of road segment information included in the learned data into at least a first cluster or a second cluster; and a location range setting unit for determining first and second ranges for the location of the mobile object from the road segment information included in the first and second clusters, respectively.
US08180524B2
In diagnosis apparatus and method for diagnosing a vehicle antenna, the vehicle antenna performing transmission and reception of electric waves to and from a portable unit, the vehicle antenna is driven to perform communications with the portable unit when a first condition is satisfied and the vehicle antenna is driven to perform a diagnosis of a connection state of the vehicle antenna when a second condition is satisfied. The first condition is different from the second condition.
US08180523B2
Disclosed is a method for detection of a pressure loss in motor vehicle tires, which detects pressure loss on at least one vehicle tire based on several parameters, which are calculated from the rolling circumference of the tires. To this end, currently calculated parameters are compared with learnt values of the parameters.
US08180510B2
A hybrid control controller stores vehicle speed influence values that have been set according to vehicle speeds, a first threshold value of a sum value of the vehicle speed influence values, a second threshold value lower than the first threshold value, and an engine start reference vehicle speed, and during EV running, sums the vehicle speed influence values from moment to moment. The hybrid control controller starts the engine in a case where the sum value is no less than the first threshold value, and in a case where the sum value is no less than the second threshold value and the vehicle speed is no more than an engine start reference vehicle speed.
US08180509B2
A hybrid electric vehicle has a propulsion system including an internal combustion engine (ICE) and an electric motor each configured to operate in parallel and each configured to propel the vehicle individually. A rechargeable battery is configured to deliver power to the electric motor to enable the electric motor to propel the vehicle for a certain distance without operation of the ICE. The rechargeable battery is further configured to receive power from a household power outlet. A controller is configured to control the propulsion system to operate in either a normal emissions mode or a no-emissions mode wherein the ICE is disabled. The controller is further configured to direct the propulsion system to operate in the no-emissions mode in response to the broadcast of an external control signal.
US08180506B2
The flight management computer discloses and carried onboard an aircraft can be programmed with a newly apparent speed constraint while it ensures the guidance of the aircraft in the course of a landing runway approach. It then takes account of the speed constraint by using it as target speed, when it is greater than an instruction speed which depends on the number of extended flap settings and which corresponds to the addition of a further flap setting. If appropriate, the speed constraint may be bounded below, thus making it possible to remain within the limits of the flight domain of the aircraft in its configuration at the time.
US08180501B2
Some embodiments of the present invention provide a system that controls the temperature of a computer system. First, a performance parameter of the computer system is monitored. Next, a future temperature of the computer system is predicted based on the performance parameter. Then, exhaust air from the computer system is mixed with ambient air from outside the computer system based on the predicted future temperature, and the mixed exhaust air and ambient air are channeled through the computer system to control the temperature of the computer system.
US08180496B2
A pump control system includes a plurality of different variable speed pumps. Each of the pumps can be operated at a different speed to equalize pump loads. A system wide proportional integral differential control loop increases and decreases the speed of all pump motors to maintain a desired system output pressure. A second proportional integral differential control loop associated with each pump adjusts pump speed to equalize a load profile for each respective pump.
US08180493B1
Methods and apparatus provide for a demand limiting controller. The demand limiting controller obtains at least one temperature condition and at least one temperature modification rate associated with at least one respective zone from multiple zones of a confined area. The demand limiting controller determines when to modify a current temperature of the respective zone with respect to an upcoming event by processing the temperature condition according to the temperature modification rate while minimizing the opportunity for all zones to be energized simultaneously.
US08180492B2
The invention comprises systems and methods for detecting the use of networked consumer electronics devices as indications of occupancy of a structure for purposes of automatically adjusting the temperature setpoint on a thermostatic HVAC control. At least one thermostat is located inside a structure and is used to control an HVAC system in the structure. At least one networked electronic device is used to indicate the state of occupancy of the structure. The state of occupancy is used to alter the setpoint on the thermostatic HVAC control to reduce unneeded conditioning of unoccupied spaces.
US08180490B2
A video imager may be used to measure the natural and/or artificial light levels in a space. The lighting estimates may be passed to a controller via a communication network. The lighting estimates may be in the form of actual radiance values, brightness, or other forms. The controller may determine if and which areas of the space require more light or if and which areas of the space have more light than required. Based on the lighting estimates, the controller may issue commands to turn on/off or dim/brighten the light from various ones or combinations of light sources in or around the space via actuators. The controller may also directly interface with the light sources.
US08180476B2
The present invention provides a machining state checking apparatus and method for checking whether a workpiece mounted on a machine tool and a workpiece fixture are shifted. A machining state checking apparatus has an actual CCD camera for imaging a workpiece fixed on a machine tool and a workpiece fixture and generating actual two-dimensional image data thereof, a virtual image generating section for generating virtual two-dimensional image data of the workpiece and workpiece fixture based on data on three-dimensional models of the workpiece and workpiece fixture, a comparing section for comparing the actual two-dimensional image data and virtual two-dimensional image data generated by the actual CCD camera and the virtual image generating section, respectively, and determining whether they match each other by comparing the portions corresponding to the workpiece and workpiece fixture in the actual two-dimensional image and the virtual two-dimensional images of the workpiece and workpiece fixture.
US08180468B2
A computer program makes a computer perform: a measuring process of measuring a beat candidate value, which is the number of beats of content per unit time; a reference setting process of setting a beat reference value according to a user's input; and a determining process of determining a beat definite value set in the vicinity of the beat reference value, from among the measured beat candidate value.
US08180465B2
A system that facilitates managing resources (e.g., functionality, services) based at least in part upon an established context. More particularly, a context determination component can be employed to establish a context by processing sensor inputs or learning/inferring a user action/preference. Once the context is established via context determination component, a power/mode management component can be employed to activate and/or mask resources in accordance with the established context. The power and mode management of the device can extend life of a power source (e.g., battery) and mask functionality in accordance with a user and/or device state.
US08180462B2
A method, system, and apparatus are provided for using an electrode for delivering an electrical signal to a first tissue of a patient's body. An electrode system comprises a lead and an electrode coupled to the lead. The electrode includes a stimulation portion that couples to the first tissue to deliver an electrical signal to the first tissue. The electrode also includes a dissipation portion that does not interface with the first tissue. The dissipation portion is adapted to dissipate thermal energy from the electrode.
US08180458B2
A method and apparatus for calculating current lost through a patient during a treatment of a patient using an electromagnetic energy delivery system is disclosed. The system generates electromagnetic energy, contacts a skin surface of the patient, transfers the electromagnetic energy to tissue beneath the surface of the skin, detects a value of at least one characteristic of the electromagnetic energy utilizing synchronous undersampling, and calculates the current lost through the patient. The characteristic measured may be a value of current of the electromagnet energy. An adjustable matching network may be utilized to maximize power to the tissue of the patient. Values of the impedance of the matching network may be utilized to determine the electromagnetic energy delivered to the tissue of the patient. A current correction factor is determined from the impedance of the matching network and utilized to calculate the current lost through the patient.
US08180453B2
The present invention is an implantable visual prosthesis where the neural stimulator includes an electrode array body suitable to be placed in an epiretinal location with insulation covering the electrode array body and forming voids. Electrodes are recessed within those voids.
US08180445B1
A neurostimulation system comprises one or more electrical contacts, output stimulation circuitry capable of outputting a multiphasic waveform (e.g., a biphasic waveform) to the electrical contact(s), and control circuitry capable of varying an interphase of the multiphasic stimulation waveform. The control circuitry may also be capable of varying an amplitude of the multiphasic waveform. In this case, the control circuitry may be capable of discretely varying the amplitude of the multiphasic stimulation energy in a plurality of low-resolution steps, and may further be capable of varying the interphase of the multiphasic stimulation energy between the low-resolution steps; for example, by discretely varying the interphase in a plurality of high-resolution steps between each adjacent pair of low-resolution steps.
US08180444B2
A photodynamic therapy (PDT) method to treat primary sites of hyperproliferative tissue and induce long term, tumor specific immunity for regression and eradication of distant metastases is disclosed. The improved treatment regimen comprises the partial or fractional application of PDT with several applications, spaced in time, to permit a patient's immune system to react to dead tissue generated by each fractional application. Once activated, the immune system can help reduce or eliminate secondary stage tumors and metastasis stage tumors.
US08180437B2
A biological-information obtaining apparatus includes a light-emitting unit, an image sensor configured to capture images, in a time sequence, relating to a living body, and a lens. The apparatus also includes an extreme-occurrence-time obtaining unit configured to obtain times T1 and T2 at which extremes occur in time sequence with respect to brightness values of a first region and a second region, respectively, of each of the captured images. The apparatus further includes a pulse wave velocity (PWV) calculation unit configured to calculate a pulse wave velocity according to the equation, P=(Y×L/f)/(T2−T1), where Y represents a distance on the image sensor, the distance corresponding to a distance between the first region and the second region, f represents the focal length of the lens, and L represents a distance between the lens and the living body.
US08180433B2
A microwave system calibration apparatus including an antenna portion configured to deliver microwave energy to tissue, a transmission line portion configured to receive a microwave energy signal from a microwave source and to selectively deliver the microwave energy signal to the antenna portion and a switching mechanism connected between the antenna portion and the transmission line portion. The transmission line includes an inner conductor having a length, an outer conductor concentrically surrounding the inner conductor along the length and a dielectric material separating the inner and outer conductors. The inner conductor or the outer conductor of the transmission line portion is electrically connected to the antenna. The switching mechanism is configured to electrically disconnect the transmission line portion from the antenna portion in a first condition and further configured to connect the inner conductor to the outer conductor in a second condition.
US08180431B2
A medical probe includes a flexible insertion tube, having a distal end for insertion into a body cavity of a patient, and a distal tip, which is disposed at the distal end of the insertion tube and is configured to be brought into contact with tissue in the body cavity. A coupling member couples the distal tip to the distal end of the insertion tube and includes a tubular piece of an elastic material having a helical cut therethrough along a portion of a length of the piece.
US08180429B2
Instrumentation and methods are provided for mounting a surgical navigation reference frame to a patient. In one embodiment, a trocar is positioned within a cannula to form an insertion device adapted for percutaneous introduction into the patient. A bone anchor having a bone engaging portion is inserted through the cannula for anchoring to bone. The bone anchor cooperates with the cannula to form a mounting device adapted for coupling with the surgical navigation reference frame. In a further embodiment, an image-guided surgical procedure is performed at a location remote from the anchoring location. In a specific embodiment, a minimally invasive surgical procedure is performed adjacent the spinal column, with a reference frame anchored to the pelvic bone, and more specifically to the iliac region of the pelvic bone. In another specific embodiment, a minimally invasive surgical procedure is performed adjacent the hip joint, with a first reference frame anchored to the pelvic bone, and more specifically to the iliac region of the pelvic bone, and with a second reference frame anchored to the femur.
US08180425B2
An ECG lead set including an ECG electrode assembly and a lead set hub. ECG electrode includes at least one electrode configured to receive biopotential signals from a patient, a plug connector for connecting said ECG electrode assembly, a web, connected between the at least one electrode and the plug connector and configured to form an electrical connection therebetween. The lead set hub includes at least one receptacle configured to receive the plug connector of the ECG electrode assembly.
US08180424B2
A mapping and ablation catheter with contact force sensing capabilities at a distal end, includes a catheter body, a deflectable section, and a tip distal section which has a tip electrode and a contact force sensor for sensing a 3D contact force vector applied to the tip electrode. In contact with the tip electrode, the contact force sensor has a body and has at least one sensor with an electrical characteristic that is responsive to deformation of the body resulting from force vector. The sensor is adapted to receive an electrical current and to output an electrical signal indicative of a change in the electrical characteristic. In one embodiment, the sensor is a strain gage responsive to tension and compression of at least a portion of the body of the force sensor and the electrical characteristic of the strain gage that is monitored is electrical resistivity. In another embodiment, the sensor is responsive to strain and stress of at least a portion of the body, and the electrical characteristic being monitored is inductance or hysteresis loss.
US08180421B2
Disclosed herein are methods and devices for detection of hospital acquired infections. Disclosed methods may be utilized for continuous in vivo monitoring of a potential infection site or for periodic in vitro monitoring of tissue or fluid from a patient and may be utilized to alert patients and/or health care providers to the presence of a pathogen at an early stage of infection. Disclosed methods utilize fluorophore pairs that optically interact with one another according to Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) or bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) mechanism. One member of the pair or a cofactor that interacts with an enzyme to form a member of the pair may be tethered to a device by a substrate that is specific for an enzyme expressed by a targeted pathogen. Upon interaction of the enzyme with the substrate, an optically detectable signal may be altered or initiated, detection of which may then provide information as to the existence of the pathogen at the site.
US08180417B2
A mobile terminal has an opening and closing mechanism in which when an appropriate force is applied to the upper body to achieve a sliding movement with respect to the lower body, the upper body can be moved in a planar direction along the lower body and then in a non-planar direction to implement an open configuration.
US08180414B2
There is adopted an enclosure dipole antenna structure including antenna elements respectively provided in a lower enclosure and an upper enclosure. There is also adopted a structure in which the lower structure and the upper structure are rotatably joined together along two axes of hinges. The enclosures thereby become openable and closable in two directions including a vertical direction and a horizontal direction. There can be implemented high antenna performance without use of an external antenna even regardless of whether the enclosures are opened in the vertical direction or the horizontal direction. A feeding section and a connection section are separated from each other by a distance of 1/20 or more of a wavelength corresponding to an operating frequency. Power can well be fed to the antenna elements.
US08180410B2
The subject matter described herein includes a housing and clip assembly for a portable electronics device. According to one aspect of the subject matter described herein, a housing for a portable electronics device is provided. The housing includes a housing member for holding components of a portable electronics device. The components include a display. The housing further includes a lens coupled to the housing member for allowing viewing of the display. The lens includes a first position at rest and pivots to a second position for controlling a function of the portable electronics device.
US08180406B2
Mobile devices use a PBX and application servers associated with the PBX to access voice services. Some mobile devices can support simultaneous data and voice channels, with the PBX and application server respectively. Where a data channel is unavailable, a control and status updating mechanism is needed. One approach is to signal over the voice channel with DTMF tones. DTMF tones should be timed to cause the tones to arrive at the mobile device during a pause period of a ring cycle. However, it also is desirable to avoid unnaturally long silence periods or other pauses during system usage. Aspects relate to enhancing a user experience in these situations and successful transmission/reception of control and status information over a voice channel using DTMF tones.
US08180405B2
A method of controlling a mobile terminal, and which includes receiving an blow signal corresponding to a blowing action into a microphone of the mobile terminal, and generating at least one of a visual effect and a vibration effect based on characteristics of the blow signal.
US08180404B2
The claimed subject matter facilitates sharing antennas among carriers co-located at a base station such to increase throughput of the individual carriers. Thus, the carriers can effectively receive multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) from mobile devices though the individual antennas of the carrier alone are not sufficient to receive such signals. A co-sharing interface is provided that takes signals from antennas of one carrier and forwards the signals to a second co-located carrier. In this regard, a carrier can receive signals from a related set of antennas as well as the co-sharing interface component (from a set of antennas related to a disparate carrier) and process the signals in conjunction. Thus, the signals can be disparate portions of a MIMO signal. In addition, the co-sharing interface can modify the signals as defined by the carrier receiving the signals from the interface, such as by applying gain control, alarming, bypass circuitry, and/or amplification.
US08180400B2
A method for setting a service in a mobile communication terminal including at least first and second user identity cards. The method includes selecting the first identity card to be used for mobile communication, and requesting services directed to the second identity card be forwarded to the first identity card.
US08180394B2
A wireless terminal in a wireless communication field is provided, which not only includes a top layer body and a bottom layer body, but also includes at least one extending layer body to provide an extending function. The extending layer body is connected in a stacked way to the top layer body or the bottom layer body. The extending function of the wireless terminal is realized through the extending layer body, so that the wireless terminal has powerful capabilities of extending and combining the functions.
US08180387B2
A method, a terminal, and a system for establishing a Push to Talk Over Cellular (PoC) group session in a PoC network based on session initiation information, such as information regarding presence of clients to be invited or session start-up time. According to the method, Universal Resource Indicator (URI) information regarding invitation and Information Reservation Service (IRS) parameters are set up in a PoC eXtensible markup language Document Management Server (XDMS), and a PoC server is requested to provide an IRS so that a session is established.
US08180383B2
A system for transmitting short messages between mobile communication systems includes a first mobile communication system which is based on a first mobile communication standard, a first short message service center connected to the first mobile communication system, a second mobile communication system based on a second mobile communication standard, a second short message service center connected to the second mobile communication system, a borne location register connected to the second mobile communication system, a mobile services switching center connected to the second mobile communication system, and a gateway for communications with and between the first and second mobile communication system. In a method implementing this functionality a muting component sends to the gateway a routing data query addressed to a predetermined numerical space. The short message is transmitted to the gateway, based on the address received in response to the routing data query, for further transmission of the short message to the second mobile communication system.
US08180377B2
A method for capturing real-time video and audio data at a specific location is provided. A real-time video and audio data of people, objects and landscapes at a specific location may be obtained at any time and place. A user needing real-time video and audio data of objects, people and landscapes at a specific location access a specific website and then inputs his/her requests. By the website, these requests are transmitted to a mainframe platform of the telecommunication companies which have signed an agreement with a company of the website and telecommunication companies select and match video mobile phone users for providing the services to users.
US08180375B2
Mobile device user notifications of highly likely call drops or service losses are provided. A wireless network can determine from the location history of a mobile device if that mobile device is likely to lose connectivity to the wireless network or to a particular wireless service and issue an alert to the user. The form of the alert can be through one of various types of mobile device messages, or through an application on the mobile device. The mobile device's location can be determined using the global positioning system. Alternative directions can be provided to the user so that the user can travel without losing connectivity. The user may provide a destination before beginning travel, and receive a suggested course of travel that keeps the user within a higher quality coverage area.
US08180374B2
A method and a system for transmitting data on the location of a mobile radio terminal to a receiver by means of a mobile radio network. An area that lies within the service range of the mobile radio network is defined and is subdivided into several subareas. A plurality of different call numbers are assigned to the receiver, who can be called at each of the call numbers. One respective call number is injectively allocated to the subareas. The location of the mobile radio terminal is determined and is made available to the mobile radio system when a call request is addressed to the receiver by the mobile radio terminal. The determined location is associated with a subarea and thus with a call number of the receiver. A connection between the mobile radio terminal and the receiver is established based on said call number.
US08180370B2
A method of controlling a mobile terminal, and which includes displaying contents in a first region of a display on the mobile terminal, deriving position information from the contents displayed in the first region, and displaying a map including a position corresponding to the derived position information in a second region of the display on the mobile terminal.
US08180359B2
A data transmission method in a communication system including transmitting at least one capacity request message from a subscriber station, granting capacity subscriber station-specific by a base station, transmitting at least one capacity grant message from the base station, allocating granted capacity connection-specific by the subscriber station, transmitting from the subscriber station at least one message, which includes information on previous capacity requests, transmitting data from the subscriber station according to capacity allocation, monitoring by the base station request messages, capacity grant messages and received transmissions.
US08180351B2
An ad-hoc, peer-to-peer radio access system for cellular communications systems using time division duplex as a way of maximizing the bits/hz/km2 for cellular systems. The network architecture of the ad-hoc system allows the radio access to be integrated with the fixed components of a conventional cellular system, PSTN or ISP. The objective is to make the system of the invention transparent to the features and services provided by the external network. The advantages of such a system to a cellular operator are that significantly less infrastructure is required, and that the RF spectrum is more efficiently utilized resulting in much lower building and operating costs. The system architecture is comprised of remote terminals, routers, gateways, and at least one gateway controller that interfaces the ad-hoc system to a cellular network system. The ad-hoc system of the invention allows for both voice and data transmissions and receptions.
US08180344B2
A 2G controlling entity in a common 2G/3G network that includes a common Core Network is connected to dual mode mobile stations and to a 3G controlling entity also connected to dual mode mobile stations. The 2G controlling entity applies a 3G camping strategy and receives a service request, for a service at least supported by the 2G network, from a dual mode mobile station. The 2G controlling entity instructs the dual mode mobile station, when connected to the 2G network, to perform cell reselection evaluation of 3G network cells only when the 2G network signal strength is below a predetermined threshold.
US08180338B1
The present invention dynamically determines whether call control for a call from a user element should be anchored in a multimedia subsystem (MS) or in a circuit-switched subsystem (CS) based on the location of the user element. Calls may be anchored in the MS regardless of whether the user element is currently served by a cellular network of the CS or a WLAN of the MS. In particular, the anchoring decision is based on whether the user element is within an MS anchoring zone, which defines an area or areas where calls for the user element should be anchored in the MS. Accordingly, when the user element is outside of the MS anchoring zone, calls for the user element are not anchored in the MS. When the user element is within the MS anchoring zone, calls for the user element are anchored in the MS.
US08180337B2
A method of activating a device involves establishing communication between the device and another device and receiving, at the other device, a message including activation information from a third party facility. The activation information includes a header and a mobile dialing number. The method further includes using the header to identify the message as an activation message for the device and, via the device, retrieving the identified message from the other device. The mobile dialing number is stored in a memory associated with the device, where the mobile dialing number enables the third party facility to initiate communication with the device.
US08180336B2
A remote asset management system comprising a network of programmable wireless modules, each having an antenna and an identification module and configured to communicate via a radio communication protocol. The system further includes a plurality of assets each linked to one of the programmable wireless modules and configured to be managed by the linked programmable wireless module. A remote system server service platform is configured to receive remote asset data from at least one of the programmable wireless modules, pass the remote asset data to and from the wireless modules, send messages to at least one of the programmable wireless modules, monitor the programmable wireless modules by requesting and receiving current mode information, and remotely program the programmable wireless modules. A data processing module located within the at least one programmable wireless module and configured to process messages received by the programmable wireless module, authenticate said message, analyze authenticated messages, and carry out asset management instructions included in the message.
US08180333B1
Disclosed is an apparatus, system, and method for differentially routing communication-usage records based on an identity of the base station that served the underlying communication. For example, if the base station is a home carrier base station, then the communication-usage records may be routed to a particular usage-tracking system, whereas, if the base station is an affiliate carrier base station, then the communication-usage records may be routed to a different usage-tracking system. Further, depending on the base station identity, the routing of the communication-usage records may be delayed or may be more immediate.
US08180332B2
A system for targeting advertising content includes the steps of: (a) receiving respective requests for advertising content corresponding to a plurality of mobile communication facilities operated by a group of users, wherein the plurality includes first and second types of mobile communication facilities with different rendering capabilities; (b) receiving a datum corresponding to the group; (c) selecting from a first and second sponsor respective content based on a relevancy to the datum, wherein each content includes a first and second item requiring respective rendering capabilities; (d) receiving bids from the first and second sponsors; (e) attributing a priority to the content of the first sponsor based upon a determination that a yield associated with the first sponsor is greater than a yield associated with the second sponsor; and (f) transmitting the first and second items of the first sponsor to the first and second types of mobile communication facilities respectively.
US08180330B2
The invention relates to a method and an arrangement for collecting user behavior during run-time in a mobile 3GPP IP-based multimedia subsystem (IMS). According to the invention, a collection of statistical data in communications systems ensues, and the user behavior is evaluated during the run-time of the application.
US08180325B2
To provide the safety of preventing the illicit use of others by using a state as to whether or not the essential function of the device is not in use in locking the terminal to prohibit the use. A user terminal 10 makes a determination whether or not a device unit 20 is in a use state, the terminal unit 10 is locked after a predetermined second time from a last operation signal from the device unit 20, if the device unit 20 is not in use, irrespective of the network connection.
US08180315B2
A mobile terminal includes: a battery supplying electric power; a voltage detection portion which detects the voltage of the battery; a function activation control portion which activates a predetermined function at a preset time; and a warning portion which, in reference to a predicted battery voltage at the preset time calculated by subtracting a predicted value of reduced voltage based on a consumed current until the preset time from a detected voltage detected by the voltage detection portion, raises a warning if the predicted battery voltage is smaller than the minimum voltage that is necessary for activating the predetermined function by the function activation control portion.
US08180310B2
This disclosure relates to low noise amplifiers (LNAs) and more particularly to LNAs integrated on integrated circuit (IC) chips along with radio frequency (RF) amplifiers.
US08180309B2
A lock-in amplifier with an additional phase-sensitive detector is provided. A measurement signal is mixed in a multiplicative fashion with a reference signal, which is phase-shifted by 90 degrees, for a modulation frequency. In order to reliably filter out interference signal portions in a widest possible dynamic range and, at the same time, minimize unavoidable influence on the useful signal portion, a control device is connected downstream of the additional phase-sensitive detector. The control device determines a control variable corresponding to the strength of the interference signal from the measurement signal mixed with the reference signal phase shifted by 90 degrees and uses the control variable to change the integration duration of the integrator proportionally to the control variable, a corresponding cut-off frequency of an equivalent low pass being coordinated automatically.
US08180304B2
A technique for efficient power amplification includes providing multiple baseband signals to an amplifier. The signals may be converted to RF and combined through one or more impedance inverters.
US08180303B2
Implementations and examples of power amplifier devices, systems and techniques for amplifying RF signals, including power amplifier systems based on Composite Right and Left Handed (CRLH) metamaterial (MTM) structures.
US08180302B2
A polar modulator including a signal converter configured to provide a phase signal and an amplitude signal based on at least one received signal is disclosed. A digital-to-analog converter is coupled to the signal converter, the digital-to-analog converter configured to receive an augmented signal, wherein a polarity of the augmented signal is selected to minimize an absolute phase change for sequential signals. A signal mixer is coupled to the digital-to-analog converter to receive an analog signal generated from the augmented signal.
US08180300B2
A wireless communication apparatus includes a plurality of antenna branches through which radio signals are transmitted and received; a calibration factor acquiring unit that acquires a calibration factor for compensating an unbalance of phase and amplitude between the antenna branches for every predetermined frequency band; a factor memory storing the calibration factor acquired for every predetermined frequency band; a reliability determining unit that determines a reliability of the calibration factor acquired by the calibration factor acquiring unit; and a calibration factor multiplying unit that reads out the calibration factor from the factor memory to multiply a transmission signal or a reception signal to be calibrated by the readout calibration factor.
US08180285B2
A device includes a processing module, a millimeter wave (MMW) oscillation module, a MMW beamforming module, and a plurality of amplifiers. The processing module determines activation of the device and thereafter modulates data to produce modulated data, determines a beamforming setting, and establishes a transmit power setting. The MMW oscillation module generates a modulated MMW signal based on the modulated data. The MMW beamforming module converts the modulated MMW signal into a plurality of MMW beamformed signals based on the beamforming setting. The plurality of amplifiers amplifies the plurality of MMW beamformed signals in accordance with the transmit power setting to produce a MMW near field transmission.
US08180280B2
Systems and techniques for tracking destinations on a mobile computing device are described. A mobile computing device may comprise or implement hardware or software configured to determine arrival at a destination and what is situated at the destination. A vehicle based communication device may communicate with the mobile computing device by way of a short range wireless communication system. The mobile computing device or the vehicle based communication device may establish a location-based service (LBS) communications session and store a description of a location associated with the destination when the mobile computing device and the vehicle based communication device reach the destination.
US08180276B2
An electronic infrastructure consisting a plurality of client mobile devices, a distribution server and a media creator computer, wherein the client mobile devices present interactive media upon user request. The plurality of client mobile devices support dynamic screen display and, contain a plurality of soft keys. The distribution server that supports delivery of interactive media to the client mobile devices. The media creator is a personal computer that generates interactive media and sends them to the distribution server for distribution. A network such as combination of Internet and mobile network communicatively couple the plurality of client mobile devices, distribution server and personal computer (media creator). The personal computer sends interactive media to the distribution server, the distribution server processes and sends the interactive media to the client mobile device and the client mobile devices presents the interactive media in a series of screens to the user. The client mobile devices interactively send the user responses back to the distribution server.
US08180273B2
A meandering detection device capable of detecting meandering of a subject with high accuracy includes: a contact which has an open end making contact with and following a subject body and which is supported by a support part; a reflection part integrally provided to the contact and reflecting light; an emission part emitting light toward the reflection part; and a first and a second light receiving parts which are disposed in front of the reflection part, which receive the light reflected by the reflection part and then outputs signals in accordance with respective amounts of light received, and which detect meandering of the subject based on a difference in the amount of light received.
US08180271B2
A protective layer setting unit includes a protective agent, and an application unit for applying the protective agent on an image carrying member. An attenuated total reflection (ATR) method is used for detecting a surface condition of the image carrying member after applying the protective agent. A peak Pa at a given wavenumber, attributed to the image carrying member, has a peak area Sa in an infrared spectrum observed after applying the protective agent. A peak Pb at a given wavenumber, attributed to the protective agent, has a peak area Sb in the infrared spectrum observed after applying the protective agent. A peak area ratio of Sb/Sa is used for evaluating the protective layer setting unit. The protective layer setting unit is accepted when the Sb/Sa is set to a given range after applying the protective agent to the image carrying member for a given time period.
US08180268B2
A method and apparatus that automatically advances fuser web material in an image production unit is disclosed. The method may include receiving a signal to advance fuser web material, retrieving stored fuser web material position information, automatically advancing the fuser web material a predetermined amount to expose unused fuser web material, and storing updated fuser web material position information.
US08180265B2
An image forming apparatus includes a belt member, a toner image forming device, a stretching member for stretching the belt member, and a transfer member for transferring a toner image onto a recording material. The image forming apparatus also includes a fur brush for electrostatically cleaning the transfer member, a controller for controlling an electric field formed between the transfer member and the stretching member, and an executing portion for executing an ejecting operation for forming a second toner image in the form of a band which is not transferred onto the recording material. When the executing portion executes the ejecting operation, and the second toner image passes through the transfer portion, the controller forms an electric field having an absolute value which is smaller than an electric field for transferring the first toner image onto the recording material, and the fur brush electrostatically cleans said transfer member.
US08180264B2
An image forming unit and an image forming apparatus comprising the image forming unit are supplied capable of preventing toner in bottom part of toner accommodating room from accumulating so as to obtain toner image with good quality. In the image forming unit, a developer accommodating section that accommodates developer; a developing member that supplies developer to an electrostatic latent image on an image carrying body; a supplying member that faces to the developing member and supplies developer to the developing member; and a conveying mechanism that conveys developer in bottom part of the developer accommodating section to the upper part of the developer accommodating section.
US08180263B2
A developing apparatus is incorporated in an image forming apparatus. An electrostatic latent image is formed on an image bearing body. A developing member supplies a developer material to the electrostatic latent image. A supplying member supplies the developer material to the developing member. A developer material chamber holds the developer material therein. A layer forming member is provide in the proximity to the supplying member, and forms a layer of the developer material. The layer forming member is positioned such that a gap Δg is defined between the layer forming member and the supplying member. When the supplying member rotates, the surface of the layer forming member applies pressure to the toner on the supplying member to form the layer having a smooth surface not more than 0.5 mm.
US08180262B2
A process cartridge comprises an electrophotographic photosensitive drum and a developing roller for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the electrophotographic photosensitive drum with developer. The cartridge further comprises a receiving side developer accommodating portion, a developer receiving opening, a receiving side shutter portion, a receiving side rotatable portion, and a regulating member. When the regulating member takes a regulating position and a first receiving side operating portion takes an operating position, the regulating member engages with the first receiving side operating portion. When the regulating member takes the regulating position and a second receiving side operating portion takes the operating position, the regulating member engages with the second receiving side operating portion.
US08180261B2
An image forming apparatus of the present invention includes a developing unit for developing a latent image formed on an image carrier with a two-ingredient type developer, i.e., a toner and carrier mixture. A toner replenishing device replenishes toner stored in a toner storing portion to the developing unit. A carrier storing portion, storing a carrier therein, is constructed independently of the toner storing portion. The carrier is fed from the carrier storing portion to the developing unit by a toner conveying force available with the toner replenishing device.
US08180253B2
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus has an electrostatic latent image bearing members, developing devices each including developer and capable of developing corresponding electrostatic latent images on the electrostatic latent image bearing members into visualized developer images, a transfer device capable of transferring the developer images to a sheet, first collecting devices each capable of collecting untransferred developer from the electrostatic latent image bearing members, developer supply devices each capable of supplying the developer to the corresponding developing devices, accommodating sections each combined with the corresponding developer supply devices and capable of accommodating the untransferred developer, a collecting and distributing device capable of collecting the untransferred developer collected by the first collecting devices and distributing the collected untransferred developer to the accommodating sections, and a housing capable of retaining the developer supply devices so that each of the developer supply devices is releasable together with the corresponding accommodating section from the housing.
US08180245B2
This is a toner control system for use in a cleaning station of a xerographic marking apparatus. A sensor is located in the air conduits of the system to measure airflow throughout the system. The sensor is in contact with a controller that is configured to adjust the blower speed to normal conditions (i.e. sea level and clean filter conditions) as the flow rate is reduced due to normal apparatus use. The system has an air blower(s), a filter(s), air conduits, a sensor(s) and a controller(s) in communication with the sensor(s).
US08180243B2
There is provided an image forming system that are capable of preventing a user or operator from forgetting to carry out a maintenance operation based on required sub-maintenance items after execution of a maintenance operation based on an associated maintenance item, such as component replacement, cleaning, or adjustment. A table of maintenance items and sub-maintenance items associated with respective ones of the maintenance items is stored in a ROM. When a CPU determines that a maintenance operation based on a selected one of the maintenance items has been completed, the CPU determines whether or not there is any sub-maintenance item associated with the selected maintenance item, by referring to the table. When it is determined that there is one or more sub-maintenance items associated with the selected maintenance item, a CPU provides control to display the sub-maintenance item or items in an operating/display unit.
US08180237B2
An image forming apparatus and method charges and exposes a latent image carrier to form a latent image. Bias is applied to liquid developer on a developer carrier, and liquid developer collected by a developer carrier cleaning member is stored in a collected developer storing portion. The state of the collected liquid developer is determined based on a state of bias application or detected image data, and a stirring amount of a conveying member that stirs the collected liquid developer is controlled based on the determined state to improve a property of the collected liquid developer conveyed to a storing unit.
US08180236B2
An image forming apparatus includes a drum; a charging member; a charging bias applying device; an image forming device; a detecting device for detecting a current passing between the charging member and the drum; an executing device for selectively executing a first mode in which the charging bias of a first frequency is applied to form the image on the drum rotated at a first speed and a second mode in which the charging bias of a second frequency is applied to form the image on the drum rotated at a second speed; a calculating device for calculating information indicating a relationship between an output of the detecting device when the AC voltage of the first frequency is applied and an output of the detecting device when the AC voltage of the second frequency is applied; and an adjusting device for adjusting a peak-to-peak voltage to be applied to the charging member in the first mode based on the output of the detecting device obtained by applying the AC voltage of the first frequency to the charging member and for adjusting a peak-to-peak voltage to be applied to the charging member in the second mode based on the output of the detecting device obtained by applying the AC voltage of the first frequency to the charging member and the information calculated by the calculating device.
US08180235B2
An image forming apparatus has a control unit that outputs the state of a belt member on the basis of the result of detection by a toner image detecting unit, of a toner image formed by a developing unit in a charged region of an image bearing member charged by applying a voltage to a transfer unit without charging the image bearing member using a charging unit.
US08180234B2
An image forming apparatus has an informing portion that issues information; a storing portion that stores sheets; a sheet detecting portion that detects presence or absence of the sheets in the storing portion; a determination portion that determines a type of the sheets stored in the storing portion; and a control portion that causes the informing portion to issue a predetermined information in a case where the absence of the sheets is undetected by the sheet detecting portion and a change of the type of the sheets is determined by the determination portion.
US08180224B2
A method, apparatus and system for transmitting Ethernet signals in an OTN are provided. The method may include: mapping the Ethernet signals to timeslot units, where a VCG composed of multiple OPUs is divided into the timeslot units; mapping the Ethernet signals into the OPUs, and then mapped into OTUs and output to the OTN for transmitting. In this way, the Ethernet signals may be transmitted in the OTN transparently. The apparatus may further include: a first adaptation protocol frame mapping module, a first virtual concatenation module, and a first line terminal module, which convert the Ethernet signals to the OTUs. The system may include a first adaptation protocol frame mapping module, a second adaptation protocol frame mapping module, a first virtual concatenation module, a second virtual concatenation module, a first line terminal module, and a second line terminal module, which convert the Ethernet signals to the OTUs and vice versa.
US08180222B2
Transmitting and receiving data includes a process of transferring data over a coaxial network between an optical node and a plurality of cable modems of a hybrid fiber-coaxial cable network. A data transfer system which sends and receives data over a coaxial network located at an optical node of a hybrid fiber-coaxial cable network.
US08180218B2
In a PON system in which communication is performed at a plurality of types of transmission rate (L, M, and H) in an upstream direction from a plurality of terminals connected to a station apparatus through optical fibers, within a discovery period for allowing an unregistered terminal to be recognized by station apparatus, the terminal makes a discovery response at one type of transmission rate (L). With this configuration, station apparatus can wait for a discovery response with a receive function being allowed to support transmission rate (L).
US08180207B2
A heat exchanger comprises a substantially pillar sheathed heater, a substantially cylindrical case, and a spiral spring. The sheathed heater is accommodated in the case. The spring is provided so as to be wound around an outer peripheral surface of the sheathed heater. Thus, a spiral flow path is formed among an outer peripheral surface of the sheathed heater, an inner peripheral surface of the case, and the spring. The spring functions as a flow velocity conversion mechanism, a turbulent flow generation mechanism, a flow direction conversion mechanism, and an impurity removal mechanism. A water inlet and a water outlet are respectively arranged at positions eccentric from a central axis of the case on a side surface of the case.
US08180200B2
Trick modes are substantially prevented during DVR and NDVR content by obtaining an audiovisual asset that is digitally compressed in accordance with a compression technique employing at least a plurality of substantially complete frames and a plurality of substantially intermediate frames, substantially removing the plurality of substantially complete frames from a portion of the asset for which trick play is to be substantially prevented, and streaming the asset, with the plurality of substantially complete frames substantially removed from the portion thereof, to a user thereof.
US08180193B2
A video player is provided. The video player comprises a body; a sensor positioned in the body for sensing coded data printed on a substrate when the video player body is operatively positioned relative to the substrate; a processor coupled to the sensor for determining an identity from the sensed coded data; a memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing video data associated with the identity derived from the sensed coded data; and a display device positioned in the body for outputting a visual display based on the video data.
US08180192B2
A telecommunications assembly including a housing and a plurality of modules mounted within the housing. The modules includes a rear face in which is mounted at least one fiber optic connector. Within an interior of the housing are positioned at least one fiber optic adapters. Inserting the module through a front opening of the housing at a mounting location positions the connector of the module for insertion into and mating with the adapter of the housing. The adapters within the interior of the housing are integrally formed as part of a removable adapter assembly. A method of mounting a telecommunications module within a chassis.
US08180191B2
Multi-port optical connection terminals and mounting platforms and related methods designed to secure optical components inside an enclosure of the multi-port optical connection terminals are disclosed. In one embodiment, a multi-port optical connection terminal includes an enclosure comprising a base and a cover configured to attach to the base to define an interior cavity. A mounting platform defining a mounting surface for mounting at least one optical component comprised from the group consisting of at least one splice tray and at least one optical splitter to the at least one mounting surface is provided. A plurality of mounting tabs of the mounting platform are configured to extend into channels disposed in an interior wall of the base. In this manner, the mounting platform and any optical components secured thereto are secured inside the interior cavity, which may prevent damage to optical fibers and/or splices of the optical components.
US08180189B2
An optical module includes an optical waveguide including a plurality of waveguide cores through which light propagates, a clad configured to trap the light in the waveguide cores, a plurality of fiber guide grooves in which optical fibers are inserted, the fiber guide grooves being arranged in parallel, and an adhesive spread groove configured to connect the fiber guide grooves and provided at leading ends of the fiber guide grooves with which the optical fibers contact; and a fixing member fixed to the optical waveguide with an adhesive while covering the fiber guide grooves. The fiber guide grooves have side walls including support projections configured to support, align, and optical couple the optical fibers to the waveguide cores, and adhesive recesses configured to define gaps between outer peripheral surfaces of the optical fibers and the fiber guide grooves so that the adhesive spreads in the gaps.
US08180184B2
An absorption modulator is provided. The absorption modulator includes a substrate, an insulation layer disposed on the substrate, and a waveguide having a P-I-N diode structure on the insulation layer. Absorptance of an intrinsic region in the P-I-N diode structure is varied when modulating light inputted to the waveguide. The absorption modulator obtains the improved characteristics, such as high speed, low power consumption, and small size, because it greatly reduces the cross-sectional area of the P-I-N diode structure.
US08180182B2
A processing device performs a geometry process as preprocessing for rendering a three-dimensional object on a display by modeling the three-dimensional object using a polygon mesh. The geometry process includes a vertex process that is performed for each of the vertices of the polygon mesh by a different one of a plurality of processors, and processed vertex data obtained by the vertex process is notified among the processors so that a polygon process can be performed in each of the processors. Because each processor can continuously perform the polygon process immediately after the vertex process, it is possible to suppress the occurrence of the unbalance of timing in performing the vertex process and the polygon process, thereby efficiently performing computation while minimizing the wasteful idle time of the processors.
US08180179B2
An image processing apparatus including an area sensor unit reading image data items corresponding to frames from an original image, a correction unit correcting the inclinations of the image data items, a high-resolution conversion unit acquiring image data with a resolution higher than the pixel sensor's resolution through interpolation, a maximum frame number storage unit storing data of the maximum number of frames of the acquired image data items, a resolution setting unit setting a resolution for outputting the original image, a necessary frame number acquisition unit acquiring the number of frames necessary to perform the high resolution conversion based on the setting result, a read frequency calculation unit calculating the frequency of reading the original image through the necessary frame number acquisition unit and the maximum frame number storage unit, and a read frequency control unit reading the determined frequency and the original image is provided.
US08180173B2
A method and apparatus for providing defect correction in blurred images is disclosed. For one embodiment of the invention, a digital image is acquired. One or more candidate defect regions in the image are identified. The candidate defect regions are corrected and responsive to the image being blurred, the corrected regions of the image are blurred. For one embodiment of the invention, a digital image is acquired and one or more candidate eye defect regions in the image are identified. The candidate eye defect regions are corrected and if the image is blurred, the corrected regions of the image are blurred accordingly.
US08180171B2
A noise cancellation device for an image signal processing system includes a receiving end for receiving image signals, a 3D filtering unit for adjusting a filtering parameter according to a motion estimation value, and filtering the image signals and a former filtering result for generating a current filtering result, a motion detection unit for comparing the former filtering result and the image signals, so as to generate a current motion factor and the motion estimation value according to a former motion factor, a memory unit for receiving and storing the current filter result and the current motion factor as the former filtering result and the former motion factor, and an output end for outputting the current filtering result provided by the 3D filtering unit.
US08180170B2
An apparatus and a method of recognizing image feature pixels is related to the recognizing method including receiving an image having a plurality of pixels; subsequent filtering the pixels at least once by detecting the edge pixels of objects in the received image based on pixel values of the pixels, so as to obtain a plurality of candidate pixels; and performing multiple difference of Gaussian (DOG) blurring operations on the candidate pixels to find the candidate pixels having a relative extreme value as a plurality of feature pixels. Therefore, the processing time of recognizing image feature pixels may be reduced.
US08180169B2
A first sigma filtering circuit sigma filters an image to produce a filtered image. An analysis circuit processes the sigma filtered image to produce an approximation part and a detail part. A second sigma filter circuit filters the approximation part to produce a sigma filtered approximation part. Another analysis circuit process the sigma filtered approximation part to produce a second approximation part and a second detail part. A third sigma filter circuit sigma filters the second approximation part to produce a sigma filtered second filtered approximation part. A first synthesizer synthesizes the sigma filtered second filtered approximation part and the second detailed part to produce a first reconstructed image, and a second synthesizer synthesizes the first reconstructed image and the first detail part to produce a final filtered image.
US08180163B2
The present disclosure describes encoding sequence information into a sequence of display frames for display on a display device. An example of encoding sequence information includes generating the sequence of display frames, inserting monitor flags within each display frame, each monitor flag being capable of moving between a first state and a second state, setting the state of monitor flags within each display frame to a predetermined configuration, and encoding sequence information in the sequence of display frames such that neighboring display frames in the sequence have different predetermined configurations.
US08180160B2
The present invention generally describes a method for classifying a line segment of a handwritten line into a reference feature set, wherein said handwritten line comprises one or several curves representing a plurality of symbols. First, sample data representing said handwritten line is received. Next, a sample line segment in said received sample data is identified by detecting a sample line segment start point (SLSSP) and a sample line segment end point (SLSEP). Then, a sample feature set of said identified sample line segment is determined. Finally, the determined sample feature set is matched to a reference feature set among a plurality of reference feature sets.
US08180149B2
This invention reduces the image data capacity by using PQR (spectral auxiliary coefficients) in addition to CIELAB (fundamental stimulus values). To accomplish this, there is provided an image processing apparatus which inputs image data representing an image, and performs an image process. The image data has a fundamental stimulus value and spectral auxiliary coefficient. The data amount of the fundamental stimulus value is constant regardless of the image area, and that of the spectral auxiliary coefficient changes in accordance with the image area.
US08180146B2
Method and apparatus for recognizing landmark buildings in an image and then locating the recognized landmark buildings onto a map together with related information wherein a first database is employed to store models formed by mathematical set descriptions of landmark buildings which are learned from a set of training images of a model-learning module captured by an imaging device for each building, and a second database is employed to store the related information of each landmark building. The model of each landmark building is represented as a set of features and the geometric relationship between them by clustering the salient features extracted from a set of training images of the landmark building.
US08180145B2
A method for producing an image with depth by using 2D image includes obtaining a set of internal parameters of a camera. The camera takes at least a first and a second 2D images with a small shift. The first 2D image has N depths, and N≧2. Several sets of external parameters of the camera corresponding to the 2D images are estimated. A 3D information respectively corresponding to the N depths of the first 2D image at each pixel or block is calculated. A proper depth of each pixel or image block is determined. Through the internal parameters, the external parameters, and the N depths, each pixel or image block of the first 2D image is projected onto N positions of the second 2D image, so as to perform a matching comparison analysis with the second 2D image, thereby determining the proper depth from the N depths.
US08180130B2
A method and system of determining a radial distance (R), an angular position (φ), and an axial position (Z) of a marker identified in a sequence of projection images. A marker three-dimensional localization module (executable by the electronic processing unit) obtains a sequence of images based on image data generated by a scanner. Each image in the sequence of images represents an angle of rotation by the scanner and includes a marker point position. The behavior of first values and second values of the marker point positions are analyzed through the sequence of images to determine the radial distance of the marker, the angular position of the marker, and the axial position of the marker allowing for rapidly detecting and localizing external markers placed on a patient in projection images.
US08180128B2
A method is disclosed for recording measured data of a patient while taking account of movement operations by way of a medical device that is designed both for recording movement-related measured data, in particular measured data of high temporal resolution and/or measured data that can be interpolated with regard to movement operations, with the aid of an imaging method and/or by means of at least one sensor element, and also for recording nuclear medicine measured data, in particular of lower temporal resolution. In at least one embodiment, the method includes recording nuclear medicine measured data with the aid of the medical device; simultaneously recording movement-related measured data with the aid of the medical device; determining at least one item of movement information relating to at least one movement operation of the patient and/or in the body of the patient by evaluating at least a portion of the recorded measured data of high temporal resolution on the part of a computing device of the medical device; and adapting at least one item of attenuation correction information available for the computing device and serving for reconstructing the nuclear medicine measured data, doing so as a function of the at least one determined item of movement information.
US08180125B2
A data processing technique is provided. In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method includes accessing patient image and non-image deviation scores derived through respective comparisons of patient image and non-image data to standardized image and non-image data. The method may also include processing the image and non-image deviation scores to generate a visual output indicative of differences between the patient image and non-image data, and the standardized image and non-image data, respectively. Further, the method may include displaying the visual output. Additional methods, systems, and manufactures are also disclosed.
US08180121B2
A system and method for processing fingerprints includes representing each minutiae in a fingerprint by determining quantized Gabor coefficients to represent texture content of the minutiae. A distance is computed between represented minutiae and stored minutiae. The minutiae matches are ranked based on the distance to identify the fingerprint.
US08180107B2
A method and system for coordinated tracking of objects is disclosed. A plurality of images is received from a plurality of nodes, each node comprising at least one image capturing device. At least one target in the plurality of images is identified to produce at least one local track corresponding to each of the plurality of nodes having the at least one target in its field of view. The at least one local track corresponding to each of the plurality of nodes is fused according to a multi-hypothesis tracking method to produce at least one fused track corresponding to the at least one target. At least one of the plurality of nodes is assigned to track the at least one target based on minimizing at least one cost function comprising a cost matrix using the k-best algorithm for tracking at least one target for each of the plurality of nodes. The at least one fused track is sent to the at least one of the plurality of nodes assigned to track the at least one target based on the at least one fused track.
US08180103B2
In an image determining apparatus, a subject-shape presuming unit extracts a shape of a specified subject to be determined based on subject-area position information and structure/surface-height map information, a subject-feature-point extracting unit extracts a feature point based on the shape of the subject to be determined. Further, an otherobject-influence determining unit generates number information based on camera data, the feature point, and the height of a group of surrounding objects, an other-object-influence index calculator calculates an other-object-influence index based on the number information, and a display processor displays video picture data based on the other-object-influence index on a display device.
US08180099B2
A rain detection apparatus and method, comprising a camera adapted to view a surface and a processor adapted to capture at least one image from the camera, in which the processor is further adapted to generate at least one signal indicative of the presence of rain on the surface from information contained in the at least one captured image and to, optionally drive surface cleaning apparatus in response thereto, in which the apparatus is adapted to capture images focused at a plurality of distances; in which the processor includes edge detection means adapted to detect edges visible in the at least one captured image and difference means adapted to calculate the difference between the number of edges visible between differing images; and in which the edge detection means is further adapted to disregard edges close to areas of light larger than the largest raindrop that is desired or expected to be detected. The apparatus and method optionally includes a backlight, which the difference in numbers of edges between frames with and without the backlight illuminated being used to distinguish between background features and rain on the surface. The surface may be a vehicle windscreen, windshield or the cover or lens of a vehicle lamp, in which case the cleaning apparatus may be one or more wipers or washers.
US08180097B2
There is thus provided a dynamic electro-acoustic transducer having a moving coil (100) with a coil exit location (110) and a first and a second feed line (200, 300). The first and second feed lines (200, 300) have first ends (210, 310) for coupling to the coil exit location (110), an intermediate portion (250, 350) and second ends (220, 320). The intermediate portions (250, 350) of the first and second feed lines (200, 300) are substantially parallel to a tangent at the moving coil (100).
US08180088B2
An elevatable microphone support for an audio or videoconferencing system, including: a hoisting mechanism, which includes a base section and a top/crown section, wherein the base section includes a first circular member and a second circular member, the first circular member and the second circular member are concentric with each other, and the first circular member is freely rotatable with respect to the second circular member or the second circular member is freely rotatable with respect to the first circular member, the top/crown section includes a third circular member, and the base and the top/crown section are joined by two or more pairs of links, a first half of said two or more pairs of links are connected to said first circular member, and a second half of said two or more pairs of said links are connected to said second circular member, and all said two or more pairs of links are connected to said third circular member, by revolving joints.
US08180083B2
The present invention relates to a novel protective cover for over-the-ear or behind-the-ear hearing aid devices, wherein the protective cover is resistant to infiltration of moisture, corrosive elements, and/or dirt or debris. Furthermore, in at least one embodiment, the protective cover comprises a flexible material that offers a formed fit over the hearing aid device, and includes at least one slit within the flexible material such that the protective cover may be readily flipped up to allow access to portions of the over-the-ear or behind-the-ear hearing aid device upon which it is placed without significant effort by the user.
US08180082B2
A microphone unit includes: a housing which has an inner space; a partition member which is provided in the housing and divides the inner space into a first space and a second space, the partition member being at least partially formed of a diaphragm; and an electrical signal output circuit which outputs an electrical signal based on vibrations of the diaphragm. In the housing, a first through-hole through which the first space communicates with an outer space of the housing and a second through-hole through which the second space communicates with the outer space are formed.
US08180078B2
Multiple individual wireless earbuds provide audio from a common audio source. A user may thereby enjoy audio in both ears while also benefiting from an entirely wireless configuration. The individual wireless earbuds may each receive the audio signal from the common audio source and then produce audio accordingly. Each earbud may have a channel setting to define whether a given earbud will produce left channel or right channel audio for a multi-channel audio signal. The individual wireless earbuds may alternatively have a master-slave configuration where a master earbud receives a wireless audio signal from the common source, plays audio based on the audio signal, and transmits a wireless signal based on the wireless audio signal to the slave earbud. The slave earbud then plays audio based on the wireless signal from the master earbud.
US08180059B2
A management apparatus reduces the number of pieces of unique information each not generated from another piece of unique information, among unique information being bases of keys assigned to managed apparatuses.The management apparatus calculates, for nodes in layers other than tree structure leaves, subsets of apparatus identifiers subordinate to the nodes, searches for a subset wholly containing another subset in the lowermost layer other than a leaf layer from an immediately-upper layer and mutually associates these subsets, searches for another subset wholly containing the containing subset from a same or an immediately-upper layer and mutually associates these subsets, controls this processing to repeat up to the uppermost layer, controls these processings to repeat on all subsets in the lowermost layer, makes unique information correspond to subsets in the lowermost layer, and makes information derivatively obtained from the unique information correspond to subsets connected due to the associating.
US08180054B2
An authenticating system is provided including a client and a receiver. The client creates a first hash value using a first hash algorithm, and creates a second hash value from the first hash value. The receiver receives a first hash algorithm identifier from a server, transmits the second hash value, and receives an authentication result. The server stores a third hash value created using a second hash algorithm identifier, transmits the first hash algorithm identifier to a PC, receives the second hash value, determines if the second hash algorithm identifier coincides with the first hash algorithm identifier, creates a fourth hash value from the third hash value using the first hash algorithm where it coincides, determines whether the second hash value coincides with the fourth hash value, transmits that the authentication is successful where it coincides, and transmits that the authentication is unsuccessful where it does not coincide.
US08180052B2
A data communication apparatus wherein stealthiness is enhanced by significantly increasing the time required for a wiretapper to decrypt an encrypted text. The data communication apparatus is constituted by connecting a data transmitting apparatus and a data receiving apparatus via a transmission path. The data transmitting apparatus receives a first predetermined initial value (key information) and information data, generates a multi-valued signal, the level of which varies substantially in a random number manner, and converts the multi-valued signal to a modulated signal of a predetermined modulation format for transmission. The data receiving apparatus demodulates the modulated signal to output the multi-valued signal, and then reproduces the information data from the multi-valued signal and a received second predetermined initial value (key information).
US08180030B2
A telecommunication and multimedia management apparatus and method that supports voice and other media communications and that enables users to: (i) participate in multiple conversation modes, including live phone calls, conference calls, instant voice messaging or tactical communications; (ii) review the messages of conversations in either a live mode or a time-shifted mode and to seamlessly transition back and forth between the two modes; (iii) participate in multiple conversations either concurrently or simultaneously; (iv) archive the messages of conversations for later review or processing; and (v) persistently store media either created or received on the communication devices of users. The latter feature enables users to generate or review media when either disconnected from the network or network conditions are poor and to optimize the delivery of media over the network based on network conditions and the intention of the users participating in conversations.
US08180029B2
A telecommunication and multimedia management apparatus and method that supports voice and other media communications and that enables users to: (i) participate in multiple conversation modes, including live phone calls, conference calls, instant voice messaging or tactical communications; (ii) review the messages of conversations in either a live mode or a time-shifted mode and to seamlessly transition back and forth between the two modes; (iii) participate in multiple conversations either concurrently or simultaneously; (iv) archive the messages of conversations for later review or processing; and (v) persistently store media either created or received on the communication devices of users. The latter feature enables users to generate or review media when either disconnected from the network or network conditions are poor and to optimize the delivery of media over the network based on network conditions and the intention of the users participating in conversations.
US08180022B2
An X-ray line-scan camera utilizes an image transferring means to alter the optical path and thus eliminates the X-ray radiation damage on the electrical components of the camera system. The camera comprises a layer of scintillating material, a fiber optic face plate (FOFP) block, and an array of image sensors. One face of the FOFP block is bonded to the surface of the image sensors. The layer of scintillating material is placed on other face of the FOFP block and used to convert an impinging X-ray beam into visible light. The FOFP block is used to transfer the visible light from the scintillating layer onto the image sensor array, which in turn converts the visible light into electrical video signals. The FOFP block has a rotation angle of 32 to 40 degree relative to the impinging X-ray beam to prevent direct impingement of the X-ray beam onto the image sensors.
US08180017B2
A computed tomography apparatus (10) includes spaced radiation sources (82, 84), such as anodes, which each propagate a cone-beam of radiation (40, 50) into an examination region (14). A detector (22) detects radiation which has passed through the examination region. An attenuation system (55) interposed between the radiation sources and the examination region for cone-angle dependent filtering of the cone beams. The attenuation system allows rays which contribute little to a reconstructed image to be attenuated more than rays which contribute more.
US08180013B2
A method of absolute nuclear material assay of an unknown source comprising counting neutrons from the unknown source and providing an absolute nuclear material assay utilizing a model to optimally compare to the measured count distributions. In one embodiment, the step of providing an absolute nuclear material assay comprises utilizing a random sampling of analytically computed fission chain distributions to generate a continuous time-evolving sequence of event-counts by spreading the fission chain distribution in time.
US08180009B2
A technique for operating a wireless communication device includes assigning a reference signal bandwidth to a reference signal. Cyclic shift control bits (associated with the reference signal) are then allocated based on the assigned reference signal bandwidth. The allocated cyclic shift control bits specify a cyclic shift associated with the reference signal.
US08180008B2
The present invention discloses a method for single-wire transmission without clock synchronization, comprising: providing three states; defining a spacing bit by a first state of the three states; and defining data signals, a start signal and an end signal by combinations of the second and third states of the three states.
US08180005B2
Apparatus and method for selecting optimal signal using auxiliary equalization in diversity receiver
Provided are an apparatus and method for selecting an optimal signal using auxiliary equalization in a diversity receiver. The optimal signal selecting apparatus includes: a plurality of sync recovery units for extracting sync information from baseband signals, which are candidate signals, except a baseband signal selected as a current optimal signal a plurality of auxiliary equalizers for channel-equalizing the candidate signals based on the extracted sync information; a plurality of SNR measuring units for measuring signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of the candidate signals inputted to the auxiliary equalizers and the candidates signals equalized in the auxiliary equalizers; and an optimal signal selector for selecting an optimal candidate signal from the candidate signals by using the extracted sync information and the measured SNRs, and replacing the optimal signal with the optimal candidate signal when reception quality of the current optimal signal is poor.
US08180001B2
A method and apparatus is disclosed to compensate for interference and/or distortion impressed onto a transmitted communication signal in the presence of one or more time-varying noise and/or interference conditions. A communications receiver includes a noise analyzer to characterize the composition of the interference and/or the distortion impressed onto a transmitted communication signal in the presence of one or more time-varying noise and/or interference conditions. In an exemplary embodiment, the communications receiver selects at least one set of equalization coefficients and/or updates at least one parameter of a least-squares algorithm or the suitable equivalent algorithm to compensate for a particular interference and/or the distortion impressed onto the transmitted communication signal. In another exemplary embodiment, the communications receiver selects a corresponding adaptive equalizer from an adaptive equalizer bank to compensate for a particular interference and/or the distortion impressed onto the transmitted communication signal.
US08179998B2
A communication signal receiver includes a feed-forward filter and a coefficient adjusting circuit. The feed-forward filter generates an estimated imaginary-part component signal according to a real-part component of a complex data signal by using tap coefficients of the feed-forward filter. The coefficient adjusting circuit adjusts the tap coefficients of the feed-forward filter according to a control information, wherein the control information comprises a phase error information. The phase error information changes as a phase of the complex data signal changes, wherein the phase is adjusted or not adjusted by the coefficient adjusting circuit.
US08179996B2
A method and a circuit for determining the frame header of a signal that can be applied to standard DVBS2.
US08179988B2
Method, communication system, receiver, baseband processor and computer program for recovering data from a received OFDM-signal containing recurrent redundant information where part of the recurrent redundant information is used to maximize the SINR (Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio) of the received OFDM-signal.
US08179980B2
Electromagnetic signals for transmitting television and other information more robustly have amplitudes modulated in accordance with a digital signal generated by convolutional interleaving and trellis coding of segments of successive data fields, each of which segments contains a prescribed number of bytes. In improvements of these signals, respective fractional portions of a Reed-Solomon forward-error-correction codeword are transmitted in respective ones of a plurality of the segments of the successive data fields. The respective ones of the plurality of segments are separated from each other within the successive data fields, such that their individual bytes do not interleave with each other after the convolutional interleaving and trellis coding are completed.
US08179979B2
In one embodiment of the invention, a method includes receiving a video stream that includes a temporal discontinuity. Checkpoints are distributed in a non-linear fashion with unequal spacing between the checkpoints. The temporal discontinuity is then detected at one of the checkpoints.
US08179969B2
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for encoding a multi-view video and a method and apparatus for decoding a multi-view video, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for encoding a multi-view video and a method and apparatus for decoding a multi-view video that can perform encoding and decoding in consideration of global disparity between pictures captured at two different viewpoints to remove spatial redundancy. An embodiment of the invention provides an encoder for compressing data for pictures captured at different viewpoints using global disparity in a multi-view video. The encoder includes: an input unit that receives pictures captured at two or more viewpoints; a reference picture generating unit that generates a new reference picture on the basis of the global disparity between a target picture and a reference picture; and a motion predicting unit that calculates motion vectors of the target picture on the basis of the reference picture.
US08179963B2
The invention provides an apparatus enabling a selection of an appropriate coding mod. This apparatus determines one of a plurality of candidate coding modes of an image block. A full-pel prediction step derives a coding cost of each coding mode, based on motion estimation with integer pixel accuracy for small blocks, which are obtained with division methods of each coding mode. A candidate division method selecting step selects a subset of candidate division methods of a plurality of coding modes, based on the coding costs derived by the full-pel prediction). A sub-pel prediction step derives a coding cost of each candidate division method, based on motion estimation with non-integer pixel accuracy for the small blocks obtained with a subset of the subset of candidate division methods. A division method determining step determines a division method of the image block, based on the coding costs derived by the sub-pel prediction.
US08179961B2
The frame following a scene cut is usually coded as an I picture. In CBR encoding, the encoder will try to keep the bit rate constant, which will often cause serious picture quality degradation at scene changes. In VBR encoding, more bits will be allocated to the first frame of the new scene and the bit rate will increase significantly for a short time. Therefore subsequent frames must be coded in ‘skipped’ mode, which will often cause jerk artifacts. According to the invention, in each frame belonging to a scene change period, areas are determined that have different human attention levels. In the frames (n−1, n−2, n−3) located prior to the first new scene frame, to the areas having a lower attention level less bits are assigned than in the default encoding, and in the frames (n, n+1, n+2) located at and after the scene cut the thus saved bits are additionally assigned to the areas having a higher attention level.
US08179955B2
A data processing apparatus communicates data bits on a predetermined number of sub-carrier signals of an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (OFDM) symbol. The data processing apparatus comprises a parity interleaver operable to perform parity interleaving on Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoded data bits obtained by performing LDPC encoding according to a parity check matrix of an LDPC code including a parity matrix corresponding to parity bits of the LDPC code, the parity matrix having a stepwise structure, so that a parity bit of the LDPC encoded data bits is interleaved to a different parity bit position. A mapping unit maps the parity interleaved bits onto data symbols corresponding to modulation symbols of a modulation scheme of the OFDM sub-carrier signals.
US08179951B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide a multicarrier transmission system for enabling degradation of a transmission speed in an adjacent line adjacent to a communication line, to be avoided. For this purpose, a multicarrier transmission system in the present invention is a multicarrier transmission system configured so that a first communication device and a second communication device are connected via a communication line, wherein the first communication device controls a transmission output of a signal to be outputted to the above described communication line, based on a difference between a transmission distance of the above described communication line and a transmission distance of an adjacent line adjacent to the above described communication line.
US08179946B2
A controller for advanced receivers configures a plurality of advanced receiver modules based on figures of merit computed on the input signal. The controller also selects the appropriate output signal based on figures of merit of either the input or the output signals. The controller decisions can also be made in a bursty manner, where only a subset of the decisions to be made are made at a given time, thereby limiting the processing load of the control processor.
US08179940B2
A semiconductor laser is embodied as a surface emitting thin-film semiconductor laser (2) with a semiconductor body (4). The semiconductor body (4) comprises a first and a second planar surface (12, 14). The semiconductor body (4) comprises between the planar surfaces at least one active layer (10) for generating radiation. The semiconductor body (4) has, for coupling out the radiation from the active layer (10) toward the first planar surface (12), at least one first mirror area (26) inclined with respect to the active layer (10).
US08179939B2
A two terminal semiconductor device for producing light emission in response to electrical signals, includes: a terminal-less semiconductor base region disposed between a semiconductor emitter region and a semiconductor collector region having a tunnel junction adjacent the base region; the base region having a region therein exhibiting quantum size effects; an emitter terminal and a collector terminal respectively coupled with the emitter region and the collector region; whereby application of the electrical signals with respect to the emitter and collector terminals, causes light emission from the base region. Application of the electrical signals is operative to reverse bias the tunnel junction. Holes generated at the tunnel junction recombine in the base region with electrons flowing into the base region, resulting in the light emission. The region exhibiting quantum size effects is operative to aid recombination.
US08179937B2
A method for producing a high frequency optical signal component representative of a high frequency electrical input signal component, includes the following steps: providing a semiconductor transistor structure that includes a base region of a first semiconductor type between semiconductor emitter and collector regions of a second semiconductor type; providing, in the base region, at least one region exhibiting quantum size effects; providing emitter, base, and collector electrodes respectively coupled with the emitter, base, and collector regions; applying electrical signals, including the high frequency electrical signal component, with respect to the emitter, base, and collector electrodes to produce output spontaneous light emission from the base region, aided by the quantum size region, the output spontaneous light emission including the high frequency optical signal component representative of the high frequency electrical signal component; providing an optical cavity for the light emission in the region between the base and emitter electrodes; and scaling the lateral dimensions of the optical cavity to control the speed of light emission response to the high frequency electrical signal component.
US08179935B2
An optical apparatus includes a substrate comprising a layer of thermally insulating material disposed thereon; an optical resonator disposed on the layer of thermally insulating material; and a trench in the thermally insulating material disposed around at least a portion of the optical resonator. The optical resonator is substantially thermally isolated from the substrate.
US08179929B2
A laser system for effective injection seeding is configured with a master oscillator lasing a narrowband seed radiation which is characterized by a single longitudinal master mode injected into a slave oscillator so that the latter generates a broadband slave radiation with a dominant slave mode and side slave modes. The slave radiation is coupled into an input of a SM fiber laser amplifier operative to output an amplified radiation with the spectra which is substantially as narrow as the spectra of the slave radiation.
US08179922B2
A method and system for monitoring the health of a wireless telecommunication network. Network health is monitored without placing an administrative burden on the carrier network itself, instead, this burden is placed on components that lie outside the carrier network and pass communications through it. The data service provider infrastructure sends a request to a mobile device, asking that it return data regarding its location. The carrier networks handling the request insert location information into the packet that is sent to the mobile device, but this information is not sent to the data service provider infrastructure itself. The mobile device harvests this location information from the packets it receives and inserts it in a response packet that finds its way back to the data service provider infrastructure. The data service provider infrastructure is able to collate this location data and to analyze it, determining the carrier network's health.
US08179921B2
A method and system for processing buffer status reports (BSRs) such that when BSR triggering is performed, the size(s) of the necessary sub-header(s) are also to be considered together in addition to the BSR size. The steps of checking whether any padding region is available in a MAC PDU that was constructed, comparing the number of padding bits with the size of the BSR plus its sub-header, and if the number of padding bits is larger than the size of the BSR plus its sub-header, triggering BSR are performed. Doing so allows the sub-header(s) to be inserted or included into the MAC PDU or transport block (TB) or other type of data unit.
US08179920B2
A method includes appending a preamble to a data packet and transmitting the preamble and data packet over a communication channel in the network. The preamble may be a Beacon, Admission, Broadcast, or High-Throughput Preamble. The Beacon Preamble includes the following symbols SS, SS, SS, SS, SS, SS, SS, SS, SS, SS, SS, SS, LS1, LS1, LS1, LS1, LS1, LS1, LS1, LS1, CP0, CEBeacon, CEBeacon. The Admission Preamble includes the following symbols SS, SS, SS, SS, SS, SS, SS, SS, SS, SS, SS, SS, LS1, LS1, LS1, LS1, LS1, LS1, LS1, LS1, CP0, CE, CE. The Broadcast Preamble includes the following symbols LS1, LS1, LS1, LS1, CP0, CE, CE. The high-throughput preamble includes the following symbols CP0, CE. The SS symbol includes 64 bits, the LS1, LS2, and CP0 symbols include 192 bits, the CE symbol includes 512 bits, and the CEBeacon symbol is a subset of CE.
US08179913B2
A method of handling a variable of a Radio Link Control reset procedure during receiver-side-only re-establishment in a wireless communications system includes resetting a reset state variable, used for counting the number of times a RESET protocol data unit is scheduled to be transmitted, during receiver-side-only re-establishment.
US08179909B2
Packet in a multimedia stream has and associated standard priority level specified by standard protocols. The standard priority level in input packets received by a home gateway is converted to a harmonized priority level. Then, the input packets are processed in the home gateway according to the harmonized priority level, and converted from the harmonized priority level to the standard priority level in corresponding output packets after the processing.
US08179903B2
Local breakout is provided by one or more nodes (e.g., a local access point and/or a local gateway) in a wireless network to facilitate access to one or more local services. In conjunction with local breakout, multiple IP points of presence relating to different levels of service may be provided for an access point. For example, one point of presence may relate to a local service while another point of presence may relate to a core network service. IP point of presence may be identified for an over-the-air packet to indicate a termination point for the packet. Also, different mobility management functionality may be provided at different nodes in a system whereby mobility management for a given node may be provided by a different node for different types of traffic. Thus, an access terminal may support multiple NAS instances. In addition, different types of paging may be provided for different types of traffic. Furthermore, messages associated with one protocol may be carried over another protocol to reduce complexity in the system.
US08179902B2
A method and system for automatically generating a route distinguisher for a virtual private network are disclosed. The method includes receiving a virtual private network name and rejecting the virtual private network name if the name comprises a number of bytes greater than a predefined limit. If the virtual private network name is less than the predefined limit, an algorithm is applied to automatically convert the virtual private network name to a route distinguisher for the virtual private network.
US08179893B2
A method for formatting a signal in a mobile communication system by appending a plurality of medium access control headers to a plurality of medium access control-service data units for data transfer between a mobile station and network in the mobile communication system. If the service data units have the same characteristics, a medium access control-protocol data unit is formed by successively coupling the service data units to any one of the medium access control headers. If the service data units have different characteristics, the protocol data unit is formed by sequentially coupling each of the service data units and each of the medium access control headers. The formed protocol data unit is then transformed into a transport block with a predetermined size. A medium access control sublayer formats medium access control-protocol data units according to transport channel characteristics in peer-to-peer communication in such a manner that the protocol data units can have different formats with respect to different transport channels. This makes it possible to provide more efficient functions.
US08179888B2
A telecommunications system for communicating internet packet data in accordance with a first internet protocol (IPV6) via a packet radio network operable in accordance a second internet protocol (IPV4). The system comprises a user equipment operable to request a bearer for communicating internet protocol data according to the second internet protocol (IPV4) to and from a gateway support node of the packet radio network. The gateway support node is operable to establish a tunnelling protocol bearer for communicating the internet packet data to and from the user equipment across the packet radio network. The user equipment is operable in combination with the gateway support node to form an address which is compatible with the first internet protocol (IPv6). The address includes an interface identifier having a tunnel endpoint identifier of the tunnelling protocol bearer which ends at the gateway support node of the packet radio network. The internet packet data is communicated to and from a correspondent node via the gateway support node and the established bearer using internet protocol address which is compatible with the first internet protocol (Ipv6). Systems according to the present invention are arranged to generate an address, which is compatible with a first internet protocol which can be used to communicate internet packet data via a packet radio network which has been arranged to support internet packets data according to a second internet protocol. The first internet protocol may be the IPv6 and the second internet protocol may be IPv4.
US08179875B2
A method is described for the provisioning of latency-tolerant services in an access network. The method comprises the steps of: setting a demand to provide a service to a user; determining the network resources required to provide this service; establishing based upon the resources required to provide that service, the available network resources and/or the network's service provisioning policy, whether the provisioning of this service shall be immediately effected or be postponed to a later stage. If it has been established that the service will be provided at a later stage, it will be provided at a time when the available resources and/or the network's service provisioning policy match that of the resources required for the provisioning of the service.
US08179870B2
An access point receives a notification (or advertisement) from a device, which lacks a service. The access point adds the service to the notification, and forwards the notification to other devices on the network. Upon receiving from a control point a request to use the added service, the access point provides the service on behalf of the device.
US08179858B2
A method of controlling the cell re-selection of a mobile station (4) between cells (1) of a cellular-based radio access network (6). The method comprises the steps of determining when a cell re-selection for the mobile station (4) is appropriate, determining whether or not the mobile station (4) is involved in a push to talk service comprising a series of talk bursts, and if the mobile station is involved in a push to talk service, delaying the cell re-selection until such time as a period of silence between talk bursts occurs.
US08179851B2
A mobile station-side acquirer acquires the MTU value notified by a base station-side notifier and stores the acquired MTU value in a mobile station-side memory. A mobile station-side transmitter transmits data to a destination with the data size set to be smaller than or equal to the MTU value stored in the mobile station-side memory. A base station-side acquirer acquires the MTU value of the transmission path and stores the acquired MTU value in a base station-side memory. The base station-side notifier notifies the mobile station of the MTU value stored in the base station-side memory.
US08179849B2
An apparatus for communication using a wireless communication network includes an interleaver and a transceiver. The interleaver co-exists with a localized transmission arrangement if the localized transmission arrangement is present and interleaves data packets for a distributed transmission arrangement by mapping a set of logical indices to a set of physical resource blocks. The set of logical indices include sequential logical indices that are separated by a maximum spacing within the set. The transceiver is in electrical communication with the interleaver. The transceiver is operable to transmit and receive data packets through the wireless communication network.
US08179842B2
Methods and systems are provided for encapsulating upper layers of CDMA signaling messages between a multi-mode device and a signaling gateway. In an exemplary embodiment, a multi-mode device has a CDMA mode and a Wi-Fi mode. In Wi-Fi mode, the device generates an upper-layer portion of a CDMA signaling message. The device then encapsulates the first upper-layer portion in at least one packet-switched-protocol, such as SIP. The device then transmits the encapsulated upper-layer portion of the CDMA signaling message via a Wi-Fi network and a packet-switched network to a signaling gateway, which then translates the upper-layer portion into an SS7 message, and transmits the SS7 message over an SS7 network.
US08179838B2
A method and apparatus is provided for forwarding data traffic to a broadband network. The method includes receiving at a local broadband wireless router data traffic to be forwarded to a broadband network and acquiring over a wireless communications link current bandwidth utilization rates for one or more neighboring broadband wireless routers. Based at least in part on the current bandwidth utilization rate of the local router and the current bandwidth utilization rate acquired from the one or more neighboring wireless routers, the data traffic is forwarded to the broadband network over a broadband interface of the local router or to a selected one of the neighboring routers over a wireless interface of the local router.
US08179831B2
A transmission method for use in a multi-hop wireless communication system is provided. The system includes a source apparatus, a destination apparatus and two or more intermediate apparatuses. The system has access to a time-frequency format for use in assigning available transmission frequency bandwidth during a discrete transmission interval, said format defining a plurality of transmission windows within such an interval. Each window occupies a different part of that interval and has a frequency bandwidth profile within said available transmission frequency bandwidth over its part of that interval. Each said window is assignable for such a transmission interval to one of said apparatuses for use in transmission. The method for use in this system includes employing said format for one or more such transmission intervals to transmit information along at least three consecutive said links as a set of successive transmission signals, link by link, each said signal being transmitted in an available transmission window of said interval(s) and at least two of said signals being transmitted during the same said transmission interval such that said information is transmitted along said consecutive links in fewer transmission intervals than said number of consecutive links.
US08179820B2
An architecture is described for providing IP push-to-talk (IPP2T) service using a wireless local area network (WLAN) serving a plurality of subscriber terminals (STs), having at least one broadband access network terminal (BANT), the BANT coupled to and interacting with at least one of a plurality of Access Points (APs) via a local area network (LAN), the plurality of APs in communication with the plurality of subscriber terminals; a multicast-enabled network, the multicast-enabled network coupled to and interacting with at least one BANT via a broadband access network; an IP network coupled to, and interacting with, the multicast-enabled network via an edge router; and a WLAN mobile radio service (WLMRS) controller (WLMRSC) coupled to and interacting with the IP network via a multicast-enabled router (MR).
US08179815B2
A device for wireless communication with at least one node in a wireless network is configured to obtain statistical data regarding one or more selected communication channels over which the device is adapted to communicate. The, device is further configured to report to at least one other device at least one metric related to an availability of each of the one or more selected communications channels for communications.
US08179813B2
Methods and apparatus for indicating a base station's amount of ranging traffic to a mobile station (MS) and for selecting a base station (BS) for performing ranging based on the ranging traffic indication are provided. This notification may occur via a ranging loading parameter, such as a ranging loading factor (RLF) indicating the ratio of used ranging slots to available ranging slots, transmitted as a new TLV (Type-Length-Value) within the Uplink Channel Descriptor (UCD) of a (potential) serving BS or in the UCD of a Neighbor Advertisement (MOB_NBR-ADV) message for a neighbor BS. By selecting a BS with a certain level of unused ranging slots, the MS may exponentially decrease the ranging overhead (i.e., the average waiting time for the ranging procedures) when compared to a conventional MS that does not consider a BS's ranging overload when trying to perform ranging with the BS.
US08179809B1
An approach for allocating resources to an apparatus based on suspendable resource requirements generally involves a resource allocator determining that a particular resource requirement for an apparatus is to no longer be satisfied, such as for a suspendable resource requirement. The resource allocator de-allocates the one or more resources that satisfy the particular resource requirement from the apparatus. The resource allocator obtains and stores state information for a de-allocated resource so that another resource, which may or may not be the same as the resource that was de-allocated, can be allocated to the apparatus based on the stored state information with an acceptable loss of state.
US08179800B1
Routers in a communications network mark packets of a multi-priority stream to establish a drop precedence of the packets during network congestion. For each packet received, a router employs one of two types of packet-marking mechanisms to associate low drop precedence with a high-priority, out-of-profile packet. One type, called “token bucket with loan bucket,” uses a token bucket to determine whether a packet is in conformance, i.e., in-profile, with a traffic profile and at least one loan bucket to determine whether a high priority, out-of-profile packet may borrow bandwidth. Another mechanism type, called “token bucket with color-exchange queue,” uses a color-exchange queue to delay packet forwarding for a fixed period. During this delay, a high-drop-precedence marking of an out-of-profile, high-priority packet may be exchanged with a low-drop-precedence marking of an in-profile, low-priority packet. The packet-marking mechanisms are useful in improving the quality of video viewing.
US08179797B2
Channel discovery and disconnection in networks over white spaces and other portions of the spectrum
Functionality is described for discovering a channel within an environment in which non-privileged entities have subordinate access rights to spectrum compared to privileged entities. The functionality operates by investigating spectrum units within the spectrum for the presence of the channel. In one case, the functionality operates by investigating the spectrum units in linear succession; in another case, the functionality advances in a staggered fashion over the available spectrum. Functionality is also described for handling disconnection by a node from a channel. The functionality allows the node to convey its disconnection status to other communication participants. In one case, various aspects of the functionality are implemented by performing analysis in the time domain.
US08179796B2
A method, a network node and a program unit for controlling the establishment or modification of a connection in a communication network are disclosed. The connection is to be established or modified between nodes that are adapted to employ a coding scheme selected from a plurality of supported coding schemes having a different demand on a utilization of a network resource. In accordance with the invention an expected demand on a utilization of a network resource associated with employing the at least one of the supported coding schemes is determined, and a node controlling the connection selects the coding scheme to be employed such that the associated expected demand on the network resource utilization is minimized.
US08179789B2
Within a computer system, a system and method of providing timestamps for media stream input data is provided. A first clock count register is responsive to a first timebase, and a second clock count register is responsive to a second timebase. The first and second time bases can be correlated. When a frame of media stream input data is captured, the value of the first clock count register can be preserved. This value is a timestamp expressed in terms of the first timebase. The timestamp value in terms of the second timebase is computed and associated with the captured frame of media stream input data.
US08179788B2
A protection switching method and apparatus for use in a ring network are provided. At least two switching request signals are received from a network device neighboring a link in which a failure occurs. A switching operation is performed in response to a first received signal of the at least two received switching request signals. When a network failure occurs, fast protection switching can be performed.
US08179779B2
A construction is provided for uplink pilot signals in a cellular network. Three sets of pilot signals are defined, having orthogonality properties that lead to reduced inter-cell interference. In example embodiments, the network has a reuse factor of 3 for pilot signals, with sets U, V, and W of pilot signals assigned to cells in respective reuse classes. The pilots of each set form an orthogonal basis. Some pilots of each class, i.e. those which will generally be assigned to mobile stations near the cell edges, will also form an orthogonal basis with some pilots of each of the other classes.
US08179771B2
A method for automatically tuning an analog filter includes the steps of making an analog filter filter an input signal to output a filtered signal according to a filtering characteristic, sampling the filtered signal to generate sampled data, computing a sector data number of the sampled data that does not complying with a specified data format, and tuning the filtering characteristic of the analog filter according to the sector data number.
US08179765B2
According to one embodiment, an optical recording medium is provided in which interlayer crosstalk is low and in which stable and high-quality recording characteristics can be obtained. To this end, an optical recording medium comprises a first recording part which includes a first recording layer and a first light reflecting layer and which is disposed on a side closer to a light receiving surface, and a second recording part which includes a second recording layer and a second light reflecting layer and which is disposed on a side farther from the light receiving surface, the first recording part and the second recording part being stacked, wherein the thickness of the second light reflecting layer is larger than the thickness of the first light reflecting layer.
US08179750B2
An optical pickup device includes a plurality of laser light sources emitting laser beams of different oscillation wavelengths, and a plurality of objective lenses on which the laser beams in the form of diverging beams emitted by the plurality of laser light sources are incident, and which directly focus the laser beams onto a recording surface of an optical disc. A rising mirror reflects a laser beam in the form of a diverging beam emitted by a laser light source of a predetermined oscillation wavelength among the plurality of laser light sources so as to lead the laser beam to one of the plurality of objective lenses, and transmits the laser beam in the form of a diverging beam emitted by the other laser light source. As the rising mirror transmits the laser beam in the form of the diverging beam emitted by said other laser light source, astigmatism is generated so as to correct existing astigmatism of the laser beam emitted by said other laser light source.
US08179745B2
A head gimbal assembly including a gimbal provided with a tongue comprising a stage; a sub-mount comprising a laser diode, wherein the laser diode is disposed internally in the sub-mount, and wherein the sub-mount is mounted on said stage; a head slider for thermally assisted recording, wherein the head slider is disposed on the sub-mount; a first piezoelectric element; a second piezoelectric element; and a plurality of lead wires.
US08179744B2
The timepiece display device includes a rotating analogue indicator member (21), a first counter wheel set (38) and a second counter wheel set (44), whose positions are respectively representative of two magnitudes to be displayed by said indicator member (21), and a switch mechanism (40) with manual control (23) for selectively displaying the first or second magnitude via the indicator member. The display device is characterized in that the switch mechanism includes a rotating arbour (73) kinematically connected to the indicator member (21) and a sliding wheel set (71) secured to the arbour in rotation and provided for sliding, via the action of the manual control device (23), so as to selectively occupy on the arbour (73) a first axial position, in which the sliding wheel set (71) is coupled with the first counter wheel set (38), and a second axial position, in which the sliding wheel set (71) is coupled with the second counter wheel set (44).
US08179735B2
In some embodiments related to reading data in a memory cell, the data is driven to a local bit line, which drives a local sense amplifier. Depending on the logic level of the data in the memory cell and thus the local bit line, the local sense amplifier transfers the data on the local bit line to a global bit line. A neighbor global bit line is used as a reference for a global sense amplifier to read the differential data on the global bit line and the neighbor global bit line.
US08179731B2
A storage device includes a storage array having a group of storage elements. Each storage element can written to a discrete set of physical states. A read circuit selects one or more storage elements and generates, for each selected storage element, an analog signal representative of the physical state of the selected storage element. A signal processing circuit processes the analog signal to generate a plurality of outputs, with each output representing a degree of an association of the selected storage element with a different subset of one or more of the discrete set of physical states.
US08179730B2
A semiconductor device, a semiconductor memory tester, and a multi-chip package are provided. The semiconductor device includes a plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memories; a boosting circuit which generates a boosted voltage for operating the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memories; and a boosting circuit controller which controls the operation of the boosting circuit to generate the boosted voltage on the basis of an operation sequence of the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memories.
US08179722B2
A page buffer circuit comprises a sense amplification unit configured to compare a reference voltage and a bit line voltage of a bit line of a selected memory block and to increase a voltage level of a sense node by a difference between the reference voltage and the bit line voltage, wherein the bit line voltage is subject to being changed according to a program state of a selected memory, and a number of latch circuits configured to latch program verification data according to the voltage level of the sense node.
US08179721B2
A non-volatile memory array with both single level cells and multilevel cells. The single level and multilevel cells, in one embodiment, are alternated either along each bit line. An alternate embodiment alternates the single and multilevel cells along both the bit lines and the word lines so that no single level cell is adjacent to another single level cell in either the word line or the bit line directions.
US08179717B2
A non-volatile memory chip package is prepared for surface mounting to a substrate in a solder reflow process by programming erased blocks to higher threshold voltage levels, to improve data retention for blocks which are preloaded with content, such as by an electronic device manufacturer. Following the surface mounting, the previously-erased blocks are returned to the erased state. The threshold voltage of storage elements of the preloaded blocks can change during the surface mounting process due to a global charge effect phenomenon. The effect is most prominent for higher state storage elements which are surrounded by erased blocks, in a chip for which the wafer backside was thinned and polished. The erased blocks can be programmed using a single program pulse without performing a verify operation, as a wide threshold voltage distribution is acceptable.
US08179715B2
An integrated circuit containing SRAM cells with auxiliary load transistors on each data node. The integrated circuit also contains circuitry so that auxiliary load transistors in addressed SRAM cells may be biased independently of half-addressed cells. A process of operating an integrated circuit containing SRAM cells with auxiliary load transistors on each data node. The process includes biasing the auxiliary load transistors in addressed SRAM cells independently of half-addressed cells.
US08179711B2
In a semiconductor memory device and method, resistive-change memory cells are provided, each including a plurality of control transistors formed on different layers and variable resistance devices comprising a resistive-change memory. Each resistive-change memory cell includes a plurality of control transistors formed on different layers, and a variable resistance device formed of a resistive-change memory. In one example, the number of the control transistors is two. The semiconductor memory device includes a global bit line; a plurality of local bit lines connected to or disconnected from the global bit line via local bit line selection circuits which correspond to the local bit lines, respectively; and a plurality of resistive-change memory cell groups storing data while being connected to the local bit lines, respectively. Each of the resistive-change memory cells of each of the resistive-change memory cell groups comprises a plurality of control transistors formed on different layers, and a variable resistance device formed of a resistive-change memory. In addition, the semiconductor memory device has a hierarchical bit line structure that uses a global bit line and local bit lines. Accordingly, it is possible to increase both the integration density of the semiconductor memory device and the amount of current flowing through each of the resistive-change memory cells.
US08179701B2
A variable frequency drive comprises a diode rectifier receiving multiphase AC power and converting the AC power to DC power. An inverter receives DC power and converts the DC power to AC power to drive a load. A link circuit is connected between the diode rectifier and the inverter and comprises a DC bus to provide a relatively fixed DC voltage for the inverter. A link capacitor is across the bus. A soft charge circuit limits in rush current to the link capacitor. The soft charge circuit comprises an inductor in the bus and a resistor assist circuit across the inductor along with an anti-parallel clamping thyristor reverse connected also across the inductor.
US08179700B2
A control circuit includes a switch coupled to a transformer of a power converter for switching the transformer. A sampling circuit is coupled to the transformer to sample a reflected voltage of the transformer to generate a voltage signal. A switching circuit generates a switching signal to control the switch in response to the voltage signal. The minimum on time of the switching signal is changed in response to the change of an input voltage of the power converter. Because the pulse width of the reflected voltage is narrower at light load, the minimum on time of the switching signal helps the reflected voltage detection.
US08179698B2
A power converter system supplies power to one or more loads. The power converter system comprises at least one power converter operating at a desired efficiency; and a power storage system coupled to the at least one power converter for receiving power supplied from the at least one power converter and storing power therein when the at least one power converter operates at an efficiency that is below the desired efficiency.
US08179696B2
A mounting assembly is provided for an electrical switching apparatus, such as a circuit breaker. The circuit breaker includes a housing having an exterior and an interior, separable contacts disposed in the interior, and an operating mechanism structured to open and closed the separable contacts. The exterior of the housing includes a recess. The mounting assembly includes a bracket assembly having at least one bracket, an expansion member coupled to a corresponding one of the at least one bracket and being disposed within the recess on the exterior of the housing, and an actuator movably coupled to the expansion member. The actuator is movable between an actuated position corresponding to the expansion member expanding outwardly within the recess to secure the mounting assembly to the circuit breaker, and an unactuated position corresponding to the expansion member not being expanded and the mounting assembly being removable from the circuit breaker.
US08179694B2
A system for protecting an electronic device from cosmic rays includes a frame in which the circuit is disposed, a cosmic ray detection circuit and a protection circuit. The cosmic ray detection circuit is supported by the frame and is spaced apart from the circuit. The cosmic ray detection circuit is configured to assert an incoming cosmic ray signal when a cosmic ray interacts with the cosmic ray detection device. The protection circuit is coupled to the incoming cosmic ray signal and is configured to cause the electronic device to enter a protected state when the cosmic ray signal is asserted.
US08179679B2
An electronic device includes a printed circuit board having a wall deposited directly on a board serving as a base for a printed circuit. As the board is constructed, the wall is deposited on the board for controlling airflow. The wall controls airflow across the board and around components mounted to the board. The wall may be utilized for controlling airflow in combination with a second printed circuit board positioned adjacent to the first printed circuit board. The wall may be utilized for controlling various types of airflow, including airflow from sources including fans and convection, and from geometries including horizontal and vertical mounting geometries. The silicon wall may be utilized for preventing heat airflow generated by heat radiated from one component from impinging upon another component.
US08179676B2
Fluid-cooling technology developed for printed circuit boards (PCBs) and electronics assemblies is combined with optical-based interconnect technology, thereby enabling efficient fabrication of PCBs with free-space optical bearers. Since cooling components such as fans and heat sinks are no longer required on the PCB, the PCB is thinner and makes better use of a cooling substrate by also using it to carry optical signals. A card or a backplane supporting a plurality of active components can combine optical signals and cooling aspects in support of those components.
US08179673B2
Portable computer structures are provided. The portable computer structures may include hard drive mounting structures. The hard drive mounting structures may include elastomeric support members. Each elastomeric support member may have a relatively rigid inner portion. The inner portion may include a hole that receives a hard drive mounting pin. Each elastomeric support member may also have a relatively flexible outer portion. The relatively flexible outer portion may be mounted within an opening in a plastic support member. The rigid inner portion may have a square outline and may be mounted within a square opening in the flexible outer portion.
US08179666B2
A multilayer electrolytic capacitor has a laminated body in which anode foils and cathode foils are alternately laminated with separators in between, and a lead member connected to corresponding electrode foils among the anode foils and cathode foils. Each of the anode foils and each of the cathode foils have their respective main electrode portions opposed to each other through the separator and their respective lead portions led from the associated main electrode portions. Each lead portion includes an end face intersecting with a direction in which the lead portions are led, and a side face intersecting with the end face and extending in a lamination direction in the laminated body. The lead member has a first portion extending in the direction in which the lead portions are led, and a second portion intersecting with the first portion and extending in the lamination direction. The second portion of the lead member is connected to the side faces of the lead portions.
US08179664B2
A solid electrolytic capacitor comprises an insulating substrate in which an anode terminal and a cathode terminal are formed. A first anode section and a first cathode section are formed on a first surface of the insulating substrate, so as to be spaced from each other in a first predetermined direction. A second anode section and a second cathode section are formed on a second surface of the insulating substrate, so as to be spaced from each other in a second direction generally perpendicular to the first direction. The anode terminal comprises the first and second anode sections, which are electrically connected to each other. The cathode terminal comprises the first and second cathode sections, which are electrically connected to each other. A capacitor element is arranged on the first surface of the insulating substrate with an anode section thereof being oriented in the first direction.
US08179662B2
A monolithic ceramic capacitor includes dielectric ceramic layers having a thickness of less than 1 μm. When this thickness is t and the crystal grains of a dielectric ceramic of the layers have a mean diameter of r, a mean number N of grain boundaries satisfies 0
US08179659B2
A placement configuration of MIM type capacitance elements comprises a group of first capacitance elements in which the first capacitance elements as the MIM type capacitance elements are placed in tandem and a group of second capacitance elements in which the second capacitance elements as the MIM type capacitance elements are placed in tandem, wherein the group of first capacitance elements and the group of second capacitance elements are alternately placed in parallel with each other with an equal interval therebetween.
US08179658B2
A discoidal feedthrough capacitor has its active electrode plates disposed within a dielectric body so that an edge of the active electrode plates is exposed at a surface of a through-hole for a conductive lead. The conductive lead is conductively coupled to the exposed edge of the electrode plates without an intervening conductive termination surface. Similarly, a ground electrode plate set of the feedthrough capacitor may have an edge exposed at the outer periphery of the capacitor for conductively coupling the exposed edge of the ground electrode plate to a conductive ferrule without an intervening conductive termination surface.
US08179653B2
A component of an electrical system capable of operation at any of two or more different nominal normal operating voltages is protected from a transient overvoltage condition by an apparatus having at least one phase-to-ground array of surge protection devices (SPDs) connected in series with one another to define a series of tap points on opposite sides of the SPDs and having at least two sets of electrical conductors for coupling the electrical system to a user-selectable one of the tap points which corresponds to a desired one of the nominal operating voltages. An array of capacitors connected electrically in series with one another is connected between each of the tap points and a monitoring circuit to provide impedance for dropping each nominal operating voltage to a suitable voltage for powering the monitoring circuit with low energy loss.
US08179651B2
In an embodiment, a drive circuit for a transistor includes an output for providing a drive signal to the transistor. The drive circuit monitors the transistor for an occurrence of an overload, changes into an overload protection state in which the drive circuit drives the transistor in an ON state upon detection of the overload of the transistor. The drive circuit further changes into a voltage limiting state in which a voltage of the transistor is limited.
US08179650B2
A power supply apparatus includes: a plurality of batteries; a changeover portion switching the connection between the plurality of batteries; a short-circuit battery detection portion, if an internal short-circuit is produced in any of the plurality of batteries, detecting this internal short-circuit battery; and a changeover control portion, if the short-circuit battery detection portion detects the internal short-circuit battery, allowing the changeover portion to switch the connection between the plurality of batteries in such a way that this internal short-circuit battery and at least one of the other batteries are connected in series to thereby form a closed circuit.
US08179645B2
The invention discloses a network communication processing apparatus capable of processing the cable discharge event. The network communication processing apparatus comprises an electrostatic protection circuit coupled between two signal pins used for transmitting/receiving the network signal on a cable. When the cable discharge event occurred on the cable, the electrostatic protection circuit will be turned on so that the two signal pins are short together to discharge back the electrostatic signal to the cable.
US08179633B2
A perpendicular magnetic recording system has a write head having a main coil (the write coil) and main pole (the write pole) that directs write flux in a direction perpendicular to the recording layer in the magnetic recording medium, and a transverse auxiliary pole (TAP) that injects auxiliary magnetic flux into the write pole at an angle to the primary or perpendicular axis of the write pole. The additional flux from the TAP, which is injected non-parallel to the primary magnetization of the write pole, exerts a torque on the magnetization of the write pole, thereby facilitating magnetization reversal of the write pole. The TAP is coupled to the main coil but not electrically connected to it. A separate passive coil, not electrically connected to the main coil, may be wrapped as a loop around the main pole and the TAP. Alternatively, the TAP may be located near one of the electrically conductive turns of the main coil.
US08179629B2
Systems and methods for flexure based shock and vibration sensor for head suspensions in hard disk drives. Specifically, this invention deals with operational shock and vibration management within a hard disk drive. In one implementation, the assembly includes a circuit embedded optical waveguide sensor that includes a flexible electrical circuit board with a configuration of either a single or multi layers of conductor traces, a thin flexure gimbal for carrying and flying a HDD slider, a consecutive sensing layer constructed by an optical core and by clad construction with a configuration of either a single core array or a plural core array, an optical loop formed by light input and an output core, optical grating disposed on the consecutive sensing layer forming an optical grating waveguide sensor, a light emitter for injecting light into the optical core, and a receiver receiving the output light from the optical core.
US08179611B2
An object of the present invention is to provide: a zoom lens system that has a high resolution, high capability of compensating curvature of field, a high zoom ratio of, for example, 3 or greater, a reduced weight, and a reduced overall optical length at the time of non-use; and an imaging device and a camera that employ this zoom lens system so as to have a reduced thickness and excellent portability as well as high performance. The zoom lens system forms an optical image of an object with variable magnification and, in order from the object side to the image side, comprises: a first lens unit having negative optical power; a second lens unit that has positive optical power and that contains a bi-convex lens element composed of a resin material and serving as the most image side lens element; and a third lens unit having positive optical power. Then, the lens units move respectively along the optical axis in such a manner that intervals between the individual lens units should vary so that the variable magnification is achieved. Further, the condition |(R2mi1+R2mi2)/(R2mi1−R2mi2)|≦1.0 (R2mi1 is a radius of curvature on the object side of the most image side lens element of the second lens unit, while R2mi2 is a radius of curvature on the image side of the most image side lens element of the second lens unit) is satisfied. The imaging device and the camera employ this zoom lens system.
US08179609B2
Provided is a zoom lens including, in order from an object side to an image side: a positive first lens unit without moving for zooming; a negative second lens unit moving during zooming; a negative third lens unit moving during zooming; a positive fourth lens unit moving during zooming; and a positive fifth lens unit without moving for zooming, in which the second lens unit moves to the image side during zooming from a wide angle end to a telephoto end, while the third lens unit moves along a locus convex toward the object side, and, when fw denotes a focal length of the entire system at the wide angle end, Z a zoom ratio, and fz a focal length of the entire system at a zoom position where the third lens unit is in the position closest to the object side, the following conditional expression is satisfied: fw×Z0.07
US08179605B2
An optical element includes: an optically functional part having a first convex surface and a second convex surface intersecting with an optical axis and facing opposite to each other; and an outer peripheral part provided around the optically functional part, the outer peripheral part having a first outer peripheral surface extending from a periphery of the first convex surface and a second outer peripheral surface extending from a periphery of the second convex surface. The first outer peripheral surface and the second outer peripheral surface each are formed to be tapered. A thickness of the outer peripheral part in an optical axis direction is reduced toward a direction moving away from the optical axis.
US08179600B2
A screen includes: a plurality of three-dimensional shape units disposed two-dimensionally on a front side of a screen substrate; a reflecting film formed at least on an area corresponding to projection light entering a surface of the plurality of the three-dimensional shape units of the screen substrate; and a light absorbing film formed on an area corresponding to outside light entering the surface of the plurality of the three-dimensional shape units, wherein at least a part of the light absorbing film is formed so as to overlap a part of the reflecting film on the front side of the reflecting film.
US08179598B1
A telescope comprises a folding reflector comprising a plurality of sections configured to fold at a plurality of substantially parallel hinges, a support structure configured to support at least two of the plurality of sections of the folding reflector and further configured to fold at one of the plurality of substantially parallel hinges, a corrector assembly configured to deploy from a stowed position in which an optical axis of the corrector assembly is substantially parallel to the parallel hinges to a deployed position in which the optical axis is substantially perpendicular to the folding reflector when the folding reflector is deployed. The telescope further comprises a hexapod configured to stow and deploy the corrector assembly.
US08179596B2
A microscope system comprises an objective, an image pickup device, a diameter-variable field stop disposed in a conjugate position with the focal plane of the objective, a magnification modifying device disposed in an optical path between the objective and the image pickup device, for modifying the magnification of the image pickup device and a control unit for controlling in such a way as to maintain a state where a field stop diameter is always larger than a field diameter.
US08179589B2
The invention is directed to novel methods and compositions useful for improving the performance of electrophoretic displays. The methods comprise adding a high absorbance dye or pigment, or conductive particles, or a conductive filler in the form of nanoparticles and having a volume resistivity of less than about 104 ohm cm, or a charge transport material into an electrode protecting layer of the display.
US08179588B2
A switchable mirror element includes a switchable layer having a chromic property enabling the switchable layer to be reversibly changed from a transparent state by hydrogenation and a mirror state by dehydrogenation, and a catalytic layer disposed on the switchable layer and configured to promote hydrogenation or dehydrogenation in the switchable layer. The switchable layer includes an alloy of one or more metals from calcium, strontium, and barium, and magnesium.
US08179587B2
An electrode that includes a transparent substrate having a first and second surface; a conductive layer disposed on the second surface of the substrate; and an electrode layer disposed on the conductive layer, wherein the electrode layer includes doped tin oxide nanoparticles and an organic binder, and wherein the electrode layer is transparent. Also disclosed is a method of making such an electrode and electrochromic articles including such an electrode.
US08179582B2
A micro electro mechanical device includes an inner frame provided with a movable part and an outer frame provided in a circumference of the inner frame. The outer frame has a fixing part fixed by a joining material. A first torsion bar is provided between the outer frame and the inner frame so as to swingably support the inner frame on the outer frame. A first opening is formed in the outer frame in a vicinity of the first torsion bar. The first opening is positioned between the fixing part of the outer frame and the first torsion bar.
US08179581B1
The present invention provides an improved electrostatic micro actuator array system comprising a plurality of electrostatic micro actuators, each of the micro actuators further comprising at least one hold-down electrode and at least two pull-down electrodes positioned to actuate the micro actuator. A hold-down signal line is then coupled to each of the hold-down electrodes of each of the plurality of micro actuators and a plurality of first pull-down signal lines coupled to one of the at least two pull-down electrodes of each micro actuator and a plurality of second pull-down signal lines coupled to another of the at least two pull-down electrodes of each micro actuator, the first pull-down signal lines and the second pull-down signal lines configured in a cross-point matrix such that a unique pair of first pull-down signal lines and second pull-down signal lines is associated with each of the plurality of micro actuators. The system and method of the present invention reduces the number of driving lines required for the micro actuator array. In a particular embodiment, a reconfigurable microelectromechanical (MEMS) micromirror array system capable of deflecting incident light onto or away from a detector is described.
US08179577B2
A method and system for preparing and using three dimensional optical ring traps. The method and system includes applying a single phase hologram to be able to independently control shape and force profile of an optical trap but without employing orbital angular momentum for the control parameter of an optical ring trap to manipulate an object.
US08179575B2
Systems and techniques for chromatic distortion reduction. Relative chromatic distortion information for an imaging system may be obtained, where the relative chromatic distortion information indicates relative displacement of a first color signal and a second color signal from a reference color signal in an image. The relative chromatic distortion information may be used to modify image data.
US08179565B2
Methods, apparatus, software, and systems of the present invention allow for optimization of color and shades of gray documents prior to their conversion to a monochrome format. If color/gray elements are identified in the document, the distance between them and their intensity is determined. If there are elements with the same or similar intensity in close proximity to each other, colors of some of the elements may be replaced with solid monochrome colors, and/or dithered surfaces, and/or monochrome patterns. Further, the elements may be outlined. These improvements make elements in the document more distinguishable after its conversion to a monochrome format. The described color optimization and outlining may have wide applicability in the Internet Fax technology.
US08179557B2
Image forming apparatus for reading information from and writing information to a non-contact medium
An image forming apparatus includes: an image forming unit; a controller that controls the image forming unit to form, on a recording medium, an image based on image data in accordance with a first print setting; and a data recording unit that records original data of the image data and the first print setting on a non-contact tag attached to the recording medium.
US08179552B2
A mail terminal senses insertion of a document into the terminal, scans the document in response to the sensed document insertion, and transmits the scanned document electronically over a telephone network. A host server receives the document over the telephone network, determines the name of the addressee from the received document, looks up document delivery instructions stored in a memory in association with the name of the addressee, and delivers the document to the addressee according to the delivery instructions. The mail terminal also prints documents that it receives from the host server.
US08179551B2
A print control apparatus comprising a storage unit configured to store restriction information which restricts print functions, a determination unit configured to refer to the data storage location specified by the restriction information, compare the attributes of the electronic data stored in the data storage location and the attributes of the print data, and determine whether or not a condition specified in the restriction information is met, and a control unit configured to restrict printing of the print data when it is determined that the condition is met, and configured not to restrict printing of the print data when it is determined that the condition is not met.
US08179546B2
In a print system for causing a printer to print an image on the basis of image data supplied from a portable communication apparatus by direct communication between the portable communication apparatus and the printer, the print function of the printer is obtained. When print conditions input by using the UI of the portable communication apparatus cannot be implemented by the print function of the printer, the portable communication apparatus requests a server to execute corresponding processing. A result processed by the server is received, and the printer is caused to print the image.
US08179541B2
In continuous printing of plural sheets of recording paper, a controlling section of an image forming apparatus corrects a writing position for a first sheet of recording paper in accordance with an off-center amount detected by a carrying position sensor with respect to the first sheet of recording paper. As for an nth sheet of recording paper, the controlling section corrects the writing position for the nth sheet of recording paper in accordance with an off-center amount α(n−1) detected by the carrying position sensor with respect to an (n−1)th sheet of recording paper. In a case where an absolute value of a difference between an off-center amount αn detected by the carrying position sensor with respect to the nth sheet of recording paper and the off-center amount α(n−1) exceeds a threshold, the controlling section corrects the writing position in accordance with the off-center amount αn and causes an exposure unit to write again the electrostatic latent image at the writing position corrected in accordance with the off-center amount αn, instead of writing an electrostatic latent image at the writing position corrected in accordance with the off-center amount α(n−1). This makes it possible to minimize a decrease in printing speed and improve accuracy of a position with which an image is formed on a sheet of recording paper.
US08179540B2
An image forming apparatus is provided that holds counter information obtained by integrating a consumption of a consumable that depends on usage of service provided by the image forming apparatus. A log corresponding to the usage of the service is set in job log information with a synchronization flag set off. The log in the job log information, for which the synchronization flag is set off, is set on. The counter information and the job log information are output after the synchronization flag for the log having the synchronization flag set off has been set on.
US08179539B2
When a print pattern setting mode is set and a printing apparatus receives print data including object print data from an external device, all arrangement patterns where the object print data is located in each printing areas defined in template data are produced. A setting capability checking process is executed for each arrangement pattern. Preview data is produced for the arrangement patterns where all the object print data can be printed and displayed on a liquid crystal display. When preview data displayed on the liquid crystal display is selected, the arrangement pattern corresponding to the preview data is set to the template data.
US08179535B2
An acoustic field in a body of water is monitored using a coherent light field emitter applying a distributed light field across the surface of the water to be reflected, and a sensor is used to sense reflected components of the light field above the surface and to provide a signal representing information in the reflected light and related to movements in the water and caused by the acoustic field. The signal is provided from an interferometry technique and useable to derive information on the underwater acoustic field in a useful form.
US08179530B2
Methods and systems for monitoring semiconductor fabrication processes are provided. A system may include a stage configured to support a specimen and coupled to a measurement device. The measurement device may include an illumination system and a detection system. The illumination system and the detection system may be configured such that the system may be configured to determine multiple properties of the specimen. For example, the system may be configured to determine multiple properties of a specimen including: but not limited to, critical dimension and overlay misregistration; defects and thin film characteristics; critical dimension and defects; critical dimension and thin film characteristics; critical dimension, thin film characteristics and defects; macro defects and micro defects; flatness, thin film characteristics and defects; overlay misregistration and flatness; an implant characteristic and defects; and adhesion and thickness. In this manner, a measurement device may perform multiple optical and/or non-optical metrology and/or inspection techniques.
US08179526B2
In a Raman spectroscopy apparatus, exciting light is focussed on a sample (26) as a line focus 38. Spectra from points in the line focus are dispersed in rows 46 on a CCD detector 34, having a two-dimensional array of pixels. The line focus moves longitudinally in a direction Y (arrow 48) relative to the sample. Simultaneously and synchronously, charge is shifted in a parallel direction Y′ (arrow 50) within the CCD, so that data from a given point in the sample continues to accumulate. This ensures that the data from each sample point arises from illumination which is integrated along the line focus, and makes it easier to stitch the data together subsequently to form an image of the sample. In order to provide averaging in the X direction during fast, low resolution scanning, the line focus is swept across the sample in a zig-zag fashion, between boundary lines 60.
US08179525B2
The present invention relates to spectroscopy, more particularly relates to a mirror made of glass plate and is coated with dielectric material, which is mounted inside filter block of fluorescence microscope to perform Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy [SERS].
US08179522B2
A distance measuring device measures a distance from a phase difference of beaten down processing signals even when fluctuations occur in a frequency of an oscillator. The distance measuring device includes a laser unit, a dividing device, a reference light receiving unit, and a measuring light receiving unit. The distance measuring device further includes an oscillator, a first mixer, a second mixer, a fourth filter, a fifth filter, a third mixer, a sixth filter, a second filter, a phase difference measuring unit, and a distance measuring unit. The phase difference measuring unit measures a phase difference of the two beat signals extracted by the sixth filter and the second filter. The distance measuring unit measures a distance based on the phase difference measured by the phase difference measuring unit.
US08179521B2
A process for measuring speed or vibration characteristics using a LIDAR device allows the separation of a useful contribution and an interfering contribution in a backscattered signal. To this purpose, a phase characteristic of an optical wave emitted in the direction of a target volume is modulated. The interfering contribution, which originates from a source at a distance from the target volume, appears with variable shifts of said phase characteristic in a heterodyne detection signal. An accumulation then isolates the useful contribution, from which a result is obtained for the speed or vibration measurement. The process can be implemented with a frequency modulation or phase modulation of the optical wave.
US08179519B2
An adjusting device used to align two components of a microlithography projection exposure installation relative to each other. The adjusting device has an autocollimating device with a light source and a reflector. The light source and the reflector are each rigidly connected to one of the optical components. In one embodiment, the adjusting device has a laser light source which is different from the radiation source. A beam-splitter is downstream from the laser light source and carries useful adjustment light along a first optical path. A reflector can be rigidly connected to a reference component of an illuminating optics system or to a radiation source so that when an actual position of the reference component relative to the radiation source coincides with a desired position, the useful adjustment light is reflected back on itself. A bundle-sensitive component is sensitive to the direction and position of useful adjustment light in the optical path between bundle-sensitive component and reflector. The bundle-sensitive component can be rigidly mounted relative to the radiation source or the reflector. A light sensor is downstream from the beam-splitter in a second optical path for the useful adjustment light which is reflected back by the reflector. This results in an adjusting device which makes it possible to achieve high adjustment accuracy with relatively low construction expense.
US08179515B2
In a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel, a sealant having a cut-out formed at least on the other end side of a display region is provided on one film substrate. A liquid crystal material is supplied to one end side of the display region in the one film substrate or the other film substrate. An apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel includes a bonding unit arranged to bond the pair of film substrates and to each other through the sealant and the liquid crystal material by pressing respective surfaces of the film substrates and so that a pressure in a middle of the film substrates and becomes higher than that at both ends thereof, and a sealing unit arranged to seal the cut-out of the sealant to the pair of film substrates and bonded in the bonding unit.
US08179511B2
A liquid crystal panel and a fabrication method thereof are provided. The liquid crystal panel includes: a gate line and a data line crossing each other to define a pixel; a thin film transistor including: a gate electrode connected to the gate line; a semiconductor layer formed on the gate electrode; a source electrode connected to the data line; a drain electrode; a gate insulating layer between the gate electrode and the drain electrode and between the gate line and the drain electrode; and a compensating parasitic capacitor between the gate line and the drain electrode for compensating a parasitic capacitance between the gate electrode and the drain electrode; and a pixel electrode connected to the drain electrode.
US08179508B2
The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device comprising: a first polarizer; a second polarizer; a liquid crystal cell; a first birefringent layer; and a second birefringent layer, the second polarizer having an absorption axis orthogonal to an absorption axis of the first polarizer, the liquid crystal cell being disposed between the first polarizer and the second polarizer, the first birefringent layer being disposed between the first polarizer and the liquid crystal cell, satisfying 0.6≦Nz(550)≦6, and having an in-plane slow axis orthogonal to the absorption axis of the first polarizer, the second birefringent layer being disposed between the liquid crystal cell and the second polarizer, satisfying −5≦Nz(550)≦0.4, and having an in-plane slow axis parallel to the absorption axis of the second polarizer, and at least one of the first and second birefringent layers satisfying |Rxy(450)|≦|Rxy(550)|≦|Rxy(650)|.
US08179503B2
A pixel structure, a 3D image/multiple view liquid crystal display device and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. The pixel structure comprises a first substrate, a second substrate being parallel with the first substrate, a liquid crystal layer disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate, a reflecting structure, and a light angle control structure. The reflecting structure is disposed on the first substrate, and the light angle control structure is disposed on the second substrate. The light angle control structure is configured to reflect a light entering from the first substrate to the reflecting structure, and the reflecting structure is configured to reflect the light again such that the light exits from the pixel structure in a predetermined direction.
US08179493B2
Disclosed is a LCD device having a structure capable of improving the quality of images is disclosed. The LCD device includes, an image display portion composed of pixels, the image display portion defined by the crossing of gate wires and data wires; a common wire located on the outside of the image display portion; a test wire located adjacent to a part of the common wire; and a wire connection electrode for connecting the common wire with the test wire.
US08179490B2
This invention in one aspect relates to a pixel structure. In one embodiment, the pixel structure includes a scan line formed on a substrate and a data line formed over the substrate defining a pixel area, a switch formed inside the pixel area on the substrate, a shielding electrode having a first portion and a second portion extending from the first portion, and formed over the scan line, the data line and the switch, where the first portion is overlapped with the switch and the second portion is overlapped with the data line, and a pixel electrode having a first portion and a second portion extending from the first portion, and formed over the shielding electrode in the pixel area, where the first portion is overlapped with the first portion of the shielding electrode so as to define a storage capacitor therebetween and the second portion has no overlapping with the second portion of the shielding electrode.
US08179489B2
A display device includes a pixel electrode that includes a first sub-pixel electrode and a second sub-pixel electrode, a first thin film transistor connected to the first sub-pixel electrode, a second thin film transistor connected to the second sub-pixel electrode, an assistance capacitor connected to the first sub-pixel electrode, and a third thin film transistor connected to the assistance capacitor and the second sub-pixel electrode. The third thin film transistor includes a gate electrode, a source electrode overlapping the gate electrode and connected to the second sub-pixel electrode, and a drain electrode connected to the assistance capacitor, and a parasitic capacitance between the gate electrode and the drain electrode is equal to or less than a parasitic capacitance between the gate electrode and the source electrode.
US08179484B2
The present invention provides a display medium which prevents a decrease in reflectance during storage at high temperatures, and a writing apparatus using the display medium. A photoconductive layer 24, a selective light transmission layer 22, and a liquid crystal layer 20 are laminated between substrates 12 and 14, which have electrodes 16 and 18, respectively, to form a display medium 10. The selective light transmission layer 22 as a color layer is composed of a deionized material. The ion concentration of the selective light transmission layer 22 is controlled to be within a predetermined range.
US08179472B2
An image pickup apparatus includes an image pickup unit selectively performing an image capturing operation in a normal image capturing mode where an exposure image signal is output in a unit period and a combined image capturing mode where long- and short-exposure image signals are output in the unit period; a signal processing unit generating a combined image signal with a dynamic range wider than that of the long-exposure image signal or the short-exposure image signal by combining the long-exposure image signal and the short-exposure image signal; a detection unit generating a luminance integrated value of the combined image signal; and a control unit performing exposure correction control using the luminance integrated value. The control unit initializes a correction value used in the exposure correction control when the mode is switched from the normal image capturing mode to the combined image capturing mode.
US08179471B2
A focusing device includes a distance information acquisition section acquiring information on a distance to a subject based on a plurality of image data acquired by taking images of the subject at a plurality of different viewpoint positions. A subject detection section detects a first area and a second area based on the distance information and threshold information for the distance range within which a subject of interest that obstructs a main subject in the subject is present. In the first area, the subject of interest is present in each of the plurality of image data. In the second area, the subject of interest is not present. A focusing estimation section estimates the focusing of the main subject based on the distance information on the second area in each of the plurality of image data.
US08179469B2
In order to provide a photoelectric conversion apparatus, which is an apparatus excellent in reading speed, high S/N, high tone level, and low cost, the photoelectric conversion apparatus has a photoelectric conversion circuit section comprising a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements, switching elements, matrix signal wires, and gate drive wires arranged on a same substrate in order to output parallel signals, a driving circuit section for applying a driving signal to the gate drive wire, and a reading circuit section for converting the parallel signals transferred through the matrix signal wires to serial signals to output them, wherein the reading circuit section comprises at least one analog operational amplifier connected with each of the matrix signal wires, transfer switches for transferring output signals from the respective matrix signal wires, output through each amplifier, reading capacitors, and reading switches for successively reading the signals out of the reading capacitors in the form of serial signals.
US08179458B2
A system and method for improving image processing. In one aspect of the invention the method includes receiving data indicating an intensity of light incident on a first pixel of a pixel array and determining from the received data if the intensity of incident light on the first pixel satisfies a first condition. A processing operation is performed on data received from a second, third and fourth pixel of the pixel array but skipped on the data received from the first pixel if the first condition is satisfied. The first condition includes whether the first pixel is substantially saturated in response to an intensity of light incident on the first pixel.
US08179451B2
The present invention relates to an image sensing apparatus that photographs a moving image and records moving image data, and the image sensing apparatus has an image sensing unit and a recording unit which records moving image data obtained by the image sensing unit on a storage medium; the image sensing device extracts frames of a portion of the moving image data in accordance with a predetermined condition during recording of the moving image data by the recording unit, and stores the extracted frames in a memory as image data for RecReview. Here, the number of frames of the image data for RecReview is set, and a review unit reads out image data of frames of the set number in accordance with termination of recording of moving image data, outputs the image data of frames to a display device, and displays the RecReview images.
US08179448B2
The invention presents a system and method for obtaining object depth through digital signal processing. The auto depth-field capturing method for a camera includes the steps of a) taking plural images; b) estimating plural epipolar data of the plural images for obtaining a matrix describing motion and directional vectors; c) estimating a location data in response to the plural epipolar data and the matrix; d) rectifying the plural images corresponding to the plural epipolar data for obtaining plural rectified images; e) calculating the location data for obtaining disparity vectors of the rectified images; f) obtaining a depth map in response to the disparity vectors and the location data; and g) painting a 3D image in correspondence with the depth map. The depth estimation method of the present invention is fully automatic without change of the camera itself.
US08179434B2
A system for capturing a composite image of an object with a curved surface includes a conveyor configured to transport the object to be imaged to a predetermined imaging position. A sensor is configured to produce a signal when the object to be imaged is at the predetermined position, and several cameras are arranged to photograph the object at the predetermined position from a plurality of different angles. A tracking module is used to receive the signal from the sensor, and output an actuating signal to the several cameras, such that each camera captures an image when the actuating signal is received. A processing device receives a captured image from each of the several cameras, manipulates the received images, and generates a composite image based on the manipulated images.
US08179432B2
A method of autofocusing includes capturing first, second and third images of a sample, at respective first, second and third sample distances and respective first, second and third lateral positions determined with respect to an objective; determining a quantitative characteristic for the first, second and third images; determining a primary sample distance based upon at least the quantitative characteristics for the first, second, and third images; and capturing a primary image of the sample at the primary sample distance and at a primary lateral position that is offset from the first, second and third lateral positions.
US08179426B2
An autostereoscopic display apparatus comprises a spatial light modulator comprising an array of pixels arranged in rows and columns in a pixel plane, and a spatially multiplexing parallax element capable of directing light from successive columns of pixels towards successive ones of two or more viewing windows in a nominal window plane. The pixels comprise pixel apertures having gaps therebetween with the gaps between the columns of pixels extending substantially parallel to the columns of pixels. The arrangement of the pixels is designed taking account of the intensity profile of an image of a nominal human pupil in the nominal window plane formed in the pixel plane by the spatially multiplexing parallax element to reduce the amount of spatially derived flicker observed by a viewer moving in the window plane. In one arrangement, the pixel apertures repeat at a pitch equal to a representative width of said intensity profile. In another arrangement, the total height of the pixel apertures parallel to the columns of pixels has a profile which increases towards the edges of the pixel apertures relative to the centre of the pixel apertures.
US08179423B2
An image display system, an image display method, a coding method, and a printed matter for stereoscopic viewing are disclosed. The image display system includes a real image presentation unit for showing a first view image of the stereoscopic image as a real image, and a virtual image presentation unit for showing a second view image of the stereoscopic image as a virtual image, the second view image being based on the first view image. When the first view image is viewed by one eye of a viewing person, and the second view image is viewed by the other eye of the viewing person, the first view image and second view image together form the stereoscopic image.
US08179416B2
An image forming apparatus includes a line head that performs exposure on a latent image carrier to form a latent image. The line head includes first and second light-emitting elements arranged in a first direction; and an optical system that images light emitted from the first and second light-emitting elements. When a difference between the maximum and minimum values of a longitudinal aberration of the optical system is G, a distance in the first direction between centers of geometry of the first and second light-emitting elements is Pel, and an optical magnification of the optical system is β, a relation of G>|β|·Pel is satisfied.
US08179405B2
A compact flat panel color calibration system includes a lens prism optic able to pass a narrow, perpendicular, and uniform cone angle of incoming light to a spectrally non-selective photodetector. The calibration system also includes a microprocessor operable to determine the luminance of the display based upon the information gathered by the photodetector. A software module included in the calibration system is then operable to process the luminance information in order to adjust the flat panel display.
US08179403B2
When composite image data including parts that were respectively in different data formats before combining, is conventionally edited, the whole composite image data is edited by using a same algorithm. The algorithm may not be an optimum algorithm for a certain part of the composite image data. In an improved structure, the format conversion unit 142 converts the format of the combining target image data, attaches, to each piece of pixel data, a flag indicating the data format before the conversion, and outputs the pixel data with the flag. The combining engine 143 combines together the image data output from the format conversion unit 142.
US08179388B2
A display refresh system, method and computer program product are provided. In use, a refresh rate is adjusted for power saving purposes, and/or any other purpose(s) for that matter. Further, various embodiments are provided for reducing visual manifestations associated with a transition between a first refresh rate and a second refresh rate.
US08179386B2
The present invention provides an optical sensor at least some part of which is formed monolithically in an active matrix substrate of a display device. In order to detect ambient light with high accuracy by eliminating the influences of stray light and of property variations between photodetecting elements, the optical sensor includes a detection photodiode (11) and a reference photodiode (12) covered with a shielding film (15). The optical sensor further includes a differential amplifier (16) one input terminal of which is connected to the cathode of the detection photodiode (11) and the other input terminal is connected to the cathode of the reference photodiode (12), an integration capacitor (19) and a reset switch (22). The optical sensor further includes a comparator (21) and a low-pass filter (20) for making the electric potentials of the anodes of the reference photodiode (12) and detection photodiode (11) larger than the electric potential of the cathode of the reference photodiode (12) by the open-circuit voltage VOC.
US08179384B2
Image display device and method for displaying an image on the basis of a plurality of image signals
Image signals input via input terminals are selected by a selector. The selected image signals are combined and displayed on the same screen of a display device. The display screen includes one main screen and a plurality of sub screens. In the case where a moving image is displayed on the main screen, images displayed on the sub screens are updated when the moving image displayed on the main screen are in a still state. The modes of the image signals are detected only when they are input for the first time, the process performed upon the image signals input after that is controlled in accordance with information stored in a memory.
US08179381B2
A touch screen sensor includes a visible light transparent substrate and an electrically conductive micropattern disposed on or in the visible light transparent substrate. The micropattern includes a first region micropattern within a touch sensing area and a second region micropattern. The first region micropattern has a first sheet resistance value in a first direction, is visible light transparent, and has at least 90% open area. The second region micropattern has a second sheet resistance value in the first direction. The first sheet resistance value is different from the second sheet resistance value.
US08179379B2
A flat display device unified with a touch panel which is adaptive to improve its reliability is disclosed. The flat display device unified with touch panel includes: a liquid crystal display panel having a color filter substrate and a thin film transistor substrate; and the touch panel disposed on the liquid crystal display panel. The touch panel includes: an upper sheet extended to oppose to a driver area of the liquid crystal display panel; a first transparent conduction film formed on the upper sheet; a second transparent conduction film formed on the color filter substrate of the liquid crystal display panel; and a connector connected to the upper sheet.
US08179370B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for resolving keystrokes. One of the methods includes receiving a first keystroke and a second keystroke input by a user on a keyboard. The first keystroke corresponds to a first key on the keyboard and the second keystroke corresponds to a second key on the keyboard that is different from the first key. The first keystroke and the second keystroke are determined to have been input at substantially the same time and the first key is determined to be adjacent the second key on the keyboard. In response to the determinations, a suggestion is generated that only one of the two keystrokes was intended to be input.
US08179368B2
A manual operation device of the present disclosure allows a user to intuitively recognize a force pattern by providing a graphical representation of the force pattern on a display unit. The force pattern or a relationship between an operation position an operation unit of the manual operation device and a control value is visually represented as, for example, a two-dimensional line graph. In this manner, the reaction force is suitably adjusted to an operation force of the user to reduce an false operation of the manual operation device, because the user can easily controls the reaction force for achieving an improved operability.
US08179365B2
An electrophoretic display device has a first substrate that defines a plurality of sub-pixel areas; with shaped pixel electrodes formed in the sub-pixel areas. A second substrate is attached in facing relation to the first substrate during mass production. The second substrate has color filters of different colors (e.g., R, G, B). The areas of the color filters are less than the areas of their corresponding sub-pixel electrodes so as to thereby avoid or reduce a color mixture effect that may arise from mass production misalignment between the first and second substrates. In one class of embodiments, area consumed by the color filters is less than about 75% but more than about 45% of area consumed by respective pixel areas. Each pixel area comprises a white (W) sub-pixel area in addition to the differently colored sub-pixel areas (e.g., R, G, B).
US08179358B2
A display device includes an integrated circuit device and a display panel. The display panel includes a panel test terminal that is used to test the display panel, and a driver output terminal that is electrically connected with a data driver pad of the integrated circuit device and is electrically connected with the panel test terminal. The integrated circuit device includes a data driver block and a high-speed I/F circuit block including a physical layer circuit. The physical layer circuit is disposed in the integrated circuit device so that the physical layer circuit non-overlaps a predetermined test terminal region, the predetermined test terminal region being a region in which the panel test terminal is predetermined to locate under the integrated circuit device when the integrated circuit device is mounted on the display panel.
US08179357B2
In a semiconductor circuit a floating node is set to any voltage by utilizing a control signal applied to a refresh terminal and has a period shorter than that of a clock signal. The circuit includes first and second transistors connected between a first clock terminal and first power supply terminal, third and fourth transistors connected between the refresh terminal and the first power supply terminal, and fifth and sixth transistors connected between a second power supply terminal and the first power supply. Gates of the fourth and fifth transistors are connected to an input terminal, a gate of the third transistor is connected to a second clock terminal, a gate of the first transistor is connected to a node between the fifth and sixth transistors, gates of the second and sixth transistors are connected, and a node between the first and second transistors is connected to an output terminal.
US08179356B2
An exemplary method for driving a liquid crystal display includes: dividing a frame into a first sub-frame period and a second sub-frame period; displaying a normal image in the first sub-frame period; and displaying a gray image in the second sub-frame period. The gray image includes a plurality of pixels, and some of the pixels are black, and each of the pixels is black at least one time in a predefined minimum period, the minimum period being at least two consecutive frames.
US08179352B2
A gate driving apparatus for a liquid crystal display panel with liquid crystal cells, thin film transistors, gate lines, and data lines includes a plurality of shift registers on the liquid crystal display panel to apply scanning signals to the gate lines, and a gate driving integrated circuit connected to the liquid crystal display panel to generate a plurality of control signals for controlling the shift registers.
US08179351B2
A liquid crystal display and a method of driving the same are disclosed. A timing controller of the liquid crystal display controls a polarity control signal to have a different phase in each frame and allows liquid crystal cells to be divided into a first liquid crystal cell group charged to a data voltage of a same polarity during two frame periods and a second liquid crystal cell group charged during a current frame period to the data voltage with a polarity opposite a polarity of the data voltage charged during a previous frame period. The liquid crystal cells belonging to the first liquid crystal cell group are successively charged to the data voltage of the same polarity during three or more frame periods at intervals of a predetermined time equal to or longer than two frame periods.
US08179347B2
An apparatus and a method of driving a liquid crystal display device include receiving gamma-treated data, performing a reverse gamma correction of the data, the reverse-gamma-corrected data having a first linear characteristic, performing a signal processing of the reverse-gamma-corrected data having the first linear characteristic, performing a gamma correction of the processed data, and generating data signals based on the gamma-corrected data using analog voltage values, the data signals having a second linear characteristic.
US08179345B2
Methods of driving source lines and/or circuits/systems for driving source lines are provided. Source lines of a display device are driven by comparing first data for driving a first buffer associated with a first source line of the display device and second data for driving a second buffer associated with a second source line of the display device and selectively disabling the second buffer and driving the second source line of the display device with the first buffer based on the comparison of the first and second data.
US08179341B2
An image signal processing circuit of a plasma display device includes an image data replacement circuit for replacing image data for a predetermined subfield with image data having less power consumption in a data electrode drive circuit; a power calculating circuit for calculating power consumption in the data electrode drive circuit and outputting power consumption for each field as field power; a power predicting circuit for predicting the field power when the number of predetermined subfields is decreased and outputting it as predicted field power; and an SF determination circuit. The SF determination circuit increases the number of predetermined subfields when the field power is not less than a predetermined power threshold, and decreases the number of predetermined subfields when the field power is less than the predetermined power threshold and the predicted field power is less than the predetermined power threshold.
US08179338B2
A display and a method of displaying information are disclosed. The display includes a first display screen including a first plurality of pixels controllable to display a visual indicator. A second display screen includes a second plurality of pixels, wherein the first and second display screens overlap, and wherein each of the first and second display screens is partially transparent. The first and second display screens are controllable to move the visual indicator from a first plane to a second plane responsive to a first user interaction with a user interface component.
US08179336B2
A tiled display comprising: a plurality of display tiles aligned so that they provide the emissive image area; each display tile including: a plurality of light-emitting pixels arranged in groups of pixels; a plurality of sequentially arranged pixel drive circuits and each pixel drive circuit being electrically connected to a particular group of pixels for controlling the light emission of such pixels; one or more signal communication line(s) for providing data for controlling the operation of each pixel drive circuit; and each pixel drive circuit controlling the light emission of its corresponding group of pixels and providing information to the next sequential pixel drive circuit to cause such next sequential pixel drive circuit to respond to its corresponding data to control the operation of its group of light-emitting pixels and repeating this operation until a predetermined number of pixel drive circuits have caused the desired light emission.
US08179335B2
The invention may be embodied as a radome having an exterior-facing surface. The exterior-facing surface has a step. The step facilitates the movement of water toward an outer edge of the radome. The radome may be incorporated into an antenna.
US08179331B1
A method of changing phase of a microwave electromagnetic beam in free space is provided wherein a cascade of device layers is located transverse to a path of the microwave beam. Each of the device layers have one or more columns. Each column has a device combination series-coupled to an adjacent device combination in the column. Each device combination has a first device having inductive characteristics at microwave frequencies and a second device series-coupled to the first device. The second device has at microwave frequencies characteristics of a fixed capacitance in parallel with a variable capacitance. The capacitance of one or more of the second devices is variable to establish a desired phase shift and a desired frequency band edge within a desired frequency pass band.
US08179319B1
A parameter of interest of a signal, such as the angle of arrival of a target signal received by an antenna system having an array of antenna elements, is estimated by (a) obtaining disparate observations of the target signal received by the antenna system; (b) with a computer, processing the disparate observations of the target signal to determine a subset of a set of possible further obtained disparate observations of the target signal for processing to enable an optimal estimation of the angle of arrival of the target signal; (c) obtaining the subset of further disparate observations of the signal; and (d) processing the obtained subset of further obtained disparate observations to obtain the optimal estimate of the parameter of interest.
US08179316B2
The present invention addresses the resolving of the problems associated with the passive location of targets in TOA (Time of Arrival) or TDOA (Time Difference of Arrivals) mode. The method of passively locating a target in TOA or TDOA mode implements a meshing (subdivision) into blocks of the space in which the location area is situated. The set of the blocks that form this mesh is analyzed iteratively. On each iteration, each block of interest is subdivided into smaller identical subblocks. A block of interest is, according to the invention, a block including at least one point belonging to the location area being sought for which the shape is to be determined. The iterative process is stopped when the size of the subblocks obtained on the current iteration corresponds to the desired resolution. The invention applies in particular to the 2D or 3D location systems that include TOA and TDOA modes or mixed modes.
US08179310B2
A method employed for threat analysis based on the passive-radar principle, using the transmitter in navigation satellites, a plurality of receiving stations, which are operated distributed over wide regions, and at least one evaluation center. The receiving stations act as wake-up sensors, transmit their received signals to at least one evaluation center for comparison with expected signals from each navigation satellite and sensing of a threat. Depending on the result, radar systems are operated on a stationary or mobile basis, can then be used with their higher-quality antenna systems on a three-dimensional basis to obtain more precise details relating to a conspicuous entity and the threat which may possibly originate from it in a possible target region or to a mobile or stationary threatened object, and then to make it possible to decide on any currently required protective or defensive measures.
US08179308B2
In a method for optimizing the accuracy of position determination, and/or for reducing the integrity risk, of a receiver in a global satellite navigation system having a plurality of satellites, for at least one satellite that is visible to the receiver (E), a deviation error (AF) is determined which is a function of the geometric orientation of the satellite relative to the receiver, and of at least one system parameter. The deviation error is determined based on an additional deviation error generated by an error projection into a coordinate system of the receiver. A first or a second value, whichever is smaller of the two, is used as the deviation error. The first value for the at least one system parameter is determined using a respective specified parameter value. The second value is determined for the at least one system parameter, using a modified parameter value which is modified with respect to the specified parameter value in such a way that a lower error in the modified parameter value of the at least one system parameter is accepted as true.
US08179306B2
The invention relates to a high-frequency circuit board that can efficiently radiate heat generated in a mounted electronic component without reducing the degree of freedom in design, a high-frequency circuit module including the high-frequency circuit board, and a radar apparatus including the high-frequency circuit module. A dielectric substrate (3) includes a mounting portion (4) that is disposed on one surface (3a) of the dielectric substrate (3) and on which an electronic component (2) is to be mounted, and a waveguide (5) that is formed in the dielectric substrate (3). The mounting portion (4) and the waveguide (5) are connected with each other through a heat conductor (6) having a thermal conductivity higher than that of the dielectric substrate (3).
US08179300B2
A method surpresses clutter in a space-time adaptive processing system. The method achieves low-complexity computation via two steps. First, the method utilizes an improved fast approximated power iteration method to compress the data into a much smaller subspace. To further reduce the computational complexity, a progressive singular value decomposition (SVD) approach is employed to update the inverse of the covariance matrix of the compressed data. As a result, the proposed low-complexity STAP procedure can achieve near-optimal performance with order-of-magnitude computational complexity reduction as compared to the conventional STAP procedure.
US08179294B2
The application relates to a calibration apparatus and calibration method for a tuneable resonator of a delta-sigma modulator of the continuous time, band pass type. The calibration apparatus comprises: a resonator driver capable of causing an oscillating behavior in a resonator output signal, a reference signal source that provides a reference signal, a frequency detector that provides a frequency relation signal corresponding to the frequency relation between the resonator output signal and the reference signal, and a controller that controls the tuneable resonator in dependence from the frequency relation signal so as to reduce frequency deviation.
US08179291B2
There is provided a compression system configured to compress logical data objects into one or more accommodation blocks with a predefined size, and a method of operating thereof. The compression system includes a compression engine capable of compressing input data with the help of sequential encoding one or more input strings and a counter operatively coupled to the compression engine. The counter is configured to keep its ongoing value indicative of a number of input bytes in one or more strings successfully encoded into a given accommodation block; and, responsive to unsuccessful compression of a string into the given accommodation block, to provide the compression engine with information indicative of starting point in the input stream for encoding into the next accommodation block, thus giving rise to a “start indication”.
US08179284B2
The present invention relates to an alarm management system intended to be carried onboard an aircraft. More precisely, the invention is aimed at improving the certainty level relating to the integrity of the announcements of faults or information intended for the pilot and based on voice syntheses. For this purpose, the present invention proposes a device and a method for detecting the digital origin of an analog signal providing a validity signal (VAL) enabling the voice announcements made to the pilot to be rendered secure.
US08179276B2
A battery alarm for use with a battery assembly is provided, the battery alarm including a first activation component, a signaling component, and an output component. The first activation component is configured to activate the alarm upon disengagement of the battery assembly from a battery-operated device and is further configured to deactivate the alarm upon engagement of the battery pack with the battery-operated device. The signaling component is coupled to the first activation component and is configured to transmit a signal when the alarm is activated. The output component is adapted to receive the signal from the signaling component and is configured to produce a visual, audible, and/or tactile output upon receipt of the signal from the signaling component.
US08179271B2
The object of the invention is to provide a vehicle key capable of preventing the drunken driving. The vehicle key comprises a key portion with the forward end portion thereof insertable into the key hole of the vehicle such as a train, a motor bike and an automobile, a holder portion arranged at the base end portion of the key portion, a projection member projected from the holder portion along the key portion, a spring for urging the projection member in the direction of projection, a breath component detection means for detecting the alcohol contained in the breath of the user, and a lock mechanism for locking the projection member in a projected state in accordance with the detection result of the breath component detection means.
US08179264B2
A radio frequency identification tag device includes an antenna unit including a dielectric substrate that has two through holes extending from a first surface to a second surface opposite to the first surface, a first conductive layer disposed over the first surface of the dielectric substrate, a second conductive layer unit disposed over the second surface of the dielectric substrate and having opposite second conductive layers spaced apart from each other such that a spacer is formed between the second conductive layers, and two connecting conductors each disposed in a corresponding through hole in the dielectric substrate and interconnecting electrically a corresponding second conductive layer and the first conductive layer. A radio frequency identification module is disposed to span the spacer and is attached to the second conductive layer unit.
US08179262B2
An article management system includes a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) circuit elements respectively handled in association with articles to be managed; and an apparatus for communicating with an RFID tag, each of the RFID tag circuit elements having an IC circuit part storing tag identification information, own target information, and management position information, and the apparatus having a communicating device; a position-information obtainment portion configured to obtain the management position information; and a position-information display output portion configured to output a signal for displaying the management position information.
US08179259B2
A radio frequency identification system includes: supplying a radio frequency identification tag including providing a radio frequency identification transponder and writing transponder content to the radio frequency identification transponder; and feeding the radio frequency identification tag for an assembly line.
US08179258B1
In a method for reading a tag, the tag is interrogated with a reader device having an antenna. A waveform of the signal received from the tag in response to the interrogation is analyzed through application of a numerical analysis technique. The signal is analyzed to estimate a bit pattern in the waveform.
US08179247B2
The RF system for preventing hunting accidents comprising RF interrogator mounted on the firearm and RF transponder attached to hunter's coat, wherein sharp-diagram K-band RF channel of the interrogator, which is directed along the sightline of hunter's rifle, provides alert information about “friendly targets” that could be under fire, such as other hunters or persons and animals equipped with said transponder; and if they are, the system develops alert signal: “Do not shoot”. Also, the system is optionally equipped with a trigger lock automatically preventing friendly fire.
US08179241B2
A camera of a ground-based information dispatch apparatus captures a blind-spot image, showing a region that is a blind spot with respect to a vehicle driver. A vehicle-mounted camera captures a forward-view image corresponding to the viewpoint of the driver, and the forward-view image is transmitted to the information dispatch apparatus together with vehicle position and direction information and camera parameters. Based on the received information, the blind-spot image is converted to a corresponding image having the viewpoint of the vehicle driver, and the forward-view image and viewpoint-converted blind-spot image are combined to form a synthesized image, which is transmitted to the vehicle.
US08179237B2
A vehicle control apparatus that suppresses consumption of a battery of a mobile device. A transmitting and receiving circuit transmits to a smart key a drop detection code request signal for checking whether the smart key is located within a specified range from a motorcycle at specified intervals. The transmitting and receiving circuit receives a drop detection code signal transmitted from the smart key having received the drop detection code request signal. A control section stops the transmitting and receiving circuit from making transmission of the drop detection code request signal at specified intervals when the motorcycle is substantially in a stop state.
US08179231B1
A chipless RFID tag system having a transmitter sending an input signal and a tag substrate. The tag substrate has at least one microstrip and the microstrip has a first portion with a first impedance and a second portion with a second impedance different from the first impedance. The system further includes a receiver detecting at least two reflections from an interface of the first and second impedances and identifying relative time domain positions of the reflections to one another.
US08179221B2
A method of making a semiconductor device and devices thereof are provided. The semiconductor device (100) includes a semiconductor substrate (102) having opposing first and second surfaces (102a, 102b). The device further includes a planar inductor element (104) disposed on said first surface. The planar inductive element (103) comprises a freestanding electrical conductor extending along a meandering path and defining a plurality of windings (104), where the electrical conductor has a width and a height, and where a height-to-width (HW) ratio is substantially greater than 1.
US08179206B2
In a transmission/reception selection switch, a first diode is arranged in series with a transmission signal line and a second diode is arranged in shunt with a reception signal line. A first current route where a direct current passes through the first diode is connected in parallel to a second current route where a direct current passes through the second diode. When a predetermined positive voltage is applied to a control terminal, the diodes are turned ON and a direct current flows through, in order, the control terminal, a resistor, an inductor, the diode, a strip line, and an inductor), and a direct current flows through, in order, the control terminal, the resistor, the second diode, and the inductor.
US08179203B2
A wireless electrical device includes an electrically unconnected electrical conductor and at least one electrically unconnected electrode spaced apart from the electrical conductor. The electrical conductor is shaped for storage of an electric field and a magnetic field. In the presence of a time-varying magnetic field, the electrical conductor so-shaped resonates to generate harmonic electric and magnetic field responses. Each electrode is at a location lying within the magnetic field response so-generated and is constructed such that a linear movement of electric charges is generated in each electrode due to the magnetic field response so-generated.
US08179198B2
A variable gain amplifier may include a master amplifier that may be configured to generate a first current and a diode coupled with the master amplifier so that the first current passes through the diode which, when the first current is passing through the diode, generates a diode voltage signal. According to embodiments, an error amplifier may include a first input configured to receive a gain control voltage signal and a second input configured to receive the diode voltage signal. The output of the error amplifier may provide a feedback signal. The amplifier may include a circuit configured to generate at least one voltage control signal based on the feedback signal and a slave amplifier configured to adjust a gain amount based on the at least one voltage control signal.
US08179197B2
Electronic circuits and methods are provided for various applications including signal amplification. An exemplary electronic circuit comprises a MOSFET and a dual-gate JFET in a cascode configuration. The dual-gate JFET includes top and bottom gates disposed above and below the channel. The top gate of the JFET is controlled by a signal that is dependent upon the signal controlling the gate of the MOSFET. The control of the bottom gate of the JFET can be dependent or independent of the control of the top gate. The MOSFET and JFET can be implemented as separate components on the same substrate with different dimensions such as gate widths.
US08179195B1
Current-feedback instrumentation amplifiers that include dynamic element matching for the input transconductance amplifiers by periodically swapping the transconductance amplifiers between the instrumentation amplifier input and the feedback input. The instrumentation amplifiers may include a gain error reduction loop, which loop corrects differences in the gains of the input transconductance amplifiers and eliminates the ripple in the instrumentation amplifier output caused by the dynamic element matching. If chopper stabilization is used, the amplifiers may also include an offset reduction loop. Various embodiments are disclosed.
US08179193B1
A voltage regulator includes a programming interface via which programming instructions may be applied to a processor of the voltage regulator. The voltage regulator operates the processor according to the programming instructions to select one of multiple active internally-generated analog voltage levels to determine an output voltage level of the voltage regulator.
US08179184B2
An arrangement for charge integration comprises an input (1) for the provision of a charge-dependent signal and an integrator (30) to integrate a signal present at its input. In addition, a coupling circuit (20) that can adopt at least two operating states is provided to couple the input (1) to the integrator (30) which has a temperature-dependent coupling characteristic. A correction circuit (10) that can be operated by a clock signal is coupled to the input (1) in order to transfer a quantity of charge, and has a temperature characteristic that is derived from the coupling characteristic of the coupling circuit (20).
US08179164B2
A pulse signal generating device includes: an encoder that outputs a pulse with a period corresponding to the speed of an object to be detected; a measurement unit that measures a period of the pulse; a storage unit that stores the measured period; an operation unit that calculates a reasonable period, which is estimated to be statistically reasonable, on the basis of a result of period measurement of a plurality of pulses; a detection unit that detects period abnormalities when the measured period of the measurement unit satisfies a period abnormality condition specified from the reasonable period; and a pulse generating unit that generates a pulse on the basis of the measured period when the period abnormalities are not detected and generates a pulse on the basis of the reasonable period when the period abnormalities are detected.
US08179148B2
Proposed is a highly reliable information detecting apparatus and method. In an information detecting apparatus and method for detecting transmission information a transmission signal in which a burst period of transmitting a burst signal and a space period as a no-signal period are repeated in a pattern according to the subject matter of the transmission information, whether the absolute value of a signal amplitude level of the transmission signal is not less than a first threshold is detected, whether the absolute value of a signal amplitude level of the transmission signal is not less than a second threshold is detected, and whether the amplitude level displacement of the transmission signal is based on noise or the reception of the transmission information is determined based on the detection results.
US08179143B2
An apparatus comprises a sensor, a power supply and a measurer. The sensor is placed over the electronic component. The power supply can supply electric power to the printed circuit; thereby the printed circuit is powered on. The measurer can measure a sensing signal through the sensor when the printed circuit is powered on.
US08179131B2
A method for influencing and/or detecting magnetic particles in a region of action includes generating a magnetic selection field having a pattern in space of its magnetic field strength such that a first sub-zone having a low magnetic field strength and a second sub-zone having a higher magnetic field strength are formed in the region of action. The method further includes changing the position in space of the two sub-zones in the region of action by means of a magnetic drive field so that the magnetization of the magnetic particles change locally, and acquiring signals that depend on the magnetization in the region of action. The magnetization is influenced by the change in the position in space of the first and second sub-zone. The magnetic drive vector of the magnetic drive field is rotated in at least one rotation plane.
US08179129B2
Position/displacement measuring system, comprising a sensor head and an encoded scale body, the scale body extending in a first direction and in a second direction lying transversely to the first direction, and the scale body having a region for incremental position determination with an encoding in the first direction and a region for absolute position determination with an encoding in the second direction, the sensor head having a first sensor device with a sensor resolution parallel to the first direction, which is associated with the region for incremental position determination, and the sensor head having a second sensor device with a sensor resolution in a second direction, which is associated with the region for absolute position determination.
US08179119B2
The invention relates to the sampling of temporally changing amounts of charge (102) by receiving varying amounts of charge (102) varying as a function of time, transforming the varying amounts of charge received into a linear distribution pattern, sampling the linear distribution pattern at a plurality of discretely spaced sampling locations (104), and collecting the amounts of charge (102) located between two adjacent scanning locations, and further detecting the collected amounts of charges (102). A temporal sampling device for time-varying analog signals encompasses a transducer (100) in which the analog signals are converted into a corresponding electrical current, a time conversion element (103) in which the electronic charge packets (102) composing the current signal are transported in an electric field along a one-dimensional path, a fast charge-storing and accumulation mechanism with which the charge packets (102) on the one-dimensional path of the time conversion element (103) can all be stored simultaneously, so that their spatial relationship is retained, and a charge detection circuit (109) with which the stored charge packets (102) can be accessed individually and read out with an electronic circuit. In a preferred embodiment, all elements of the sampling device are monolithically integrated using a semiconductor process such as a commercially available CMOS process based on silicon. This makes it possible to provide one- and two-dimensional arrays of such sampling devices, forming line and image sensors.
US08179118B2
A system and method for performing wide-band spectral analysis of transient signals using a real-time spectrum analyzer (RTSA). A frequency window is selected for RTSA acquisition, the frequency window being narrower in bandwidth than the frequency spectrum of interest. An RTSA is successively tuned to a plurality of different frequencies within the frequency spectrum of interest, where such successive tuning is controlled based on a characteristic of the signal. The RF signal is received, and, for each of the plurality of different frequencies, power data is acquired for the signal in a band centered on the frequency and having a bandwidth equal to that of the frequency window. A representation of the frequency spectrum of interest is then constructed from the power data acquired during the successive tunings of the RTSA.
US08179113B2
A method for DC/DC conversion comprises operating in a Boost mode of operation or in a Buck-Boost mode of operation. Furthermore, the method comprises switching from the Boost mode of operation to the Buck-Boost mode of operation, if a desired value (VOUTR) of an output voltage (VOUT) which is generated from a supply voltage (VIN) by the DC/DC conversion is smaller than a first reference voltage (VR1). The method also comprises switching from the Buck-Boost mode of operation to the Boost mode of operation, if the desired value (VOUTR) is larger than a second reference voltage (VR2).
US08179104B2
An apparatus (14/18) for controlling a voltage on a transmission line (10). The apparatus (14/18) comprises a first voltage sourced converter controller (18) connected to a first node (22) of the transmission line (10); a second voltage sourced converter controller (14) connected to a second node (20) of the transmission line (10), the second node (20) spaced apart from the first node (22) wherein the first voltage sourced converter controller (18) supplies capacitive reactive current and the second voltage sourced converter controller (14) absorbs inductive reactive current to control the voltage.
US08179103B2
Electrical apparatuses, systems and methods involving battery boost circuitry configured to charge a supercapacitor to a regulated voltage different from the battery voltage and apply a series combination of the regulated voltage and the battery voltage to a load such as a starter motor for an internal combustion engine or a component of a handheld device. The circuitry also includes a contactor connected to the supercapacitor and operable to bypass the capacitor when fully discharged to avoid reverse charging of the supercapacitor.
US08179101B2
A charging apparatus includes a power supply circuit converting AC input into DC output, a secondary battery, having a plurality of batteries connected in series, which is charged by an output voltage of the power supply circuit, a charging control circuit that controls charging in a constant-current mode for charging the secondary battery with a constant current and, when a terminal voltage of the secondary battery reaches a predetermined voltage, switches the charging in the constant-current mode to a constant-voltage mode for charging the secondary battery to a constant voltage, and a plurality of voltage control circuits, each of which adjusts the voltage of each of the plurality of batteries to a set voltage. The plurality of voltage control circuits respectively detect voltage rises of the plurality of batteries, and one of the voltage control circuits, first detecting attainment of the set voltage, performs subsequent voltage control.
US08179097B2
A protection circuit for a battery pack is provided in which a positive temperature coefficient device is electrically connected in a current path of the battery pack to control current flowing through the current path in response to an internal temperature of the battery pack. The protection circuit for a battery pack includes a charging and discharging control unit located on a current path of the battery pack. A first protection circuit controls the charging and discharging control unit in response to a charged state of the battery pack. A second protection circuit prevents overcurrent from flowing through the current path of the battery pack. A positive temperature coefficient is electrically connected in the current path of the battery pack. The battery pack may include a bare cell or battery group including one or more secondary batteries.
US08179091B2
Disclosed is a method and apparatus for charging electrically powered devices. In accordance with the invention, the device is powered by two storage or charge receiving devices. One of these devices is capable of receiving a substantial charge very rapidly while the other device requires a longer time to receive a charge. The advantage is that the powered device can be used almost instantly and continually while at the same time rebuilding electrical charge. The present invention further relates to a system for protecting the charging device from being damaged from an electrical surge, such as from a lightening strike.
US08179086B2
To properly resume charging when insertion and removal of a charging cable connector are repeated, a control apparatus includes a power control unit that turns on a charging mode signal when a signal state changes from a state with no change for a certain period of time to a changed state, to activate a charging control unit, and turns off the charging mode signal when detecting a charging completion signal turned on by the charging control unit and outputted from a signal generating unit included in the charging cable which connects an external power source to the vehicle; and the charging control unit turns on the charging completion signal when the charging has been completed, and thereafter turns off the charging completion signal when detecting that the charging mode signal has been turned off by the power control unit.
US08179085B2
The invention relates to a method and an apparatus (1) for charging an energy storage (2) via a current generating device (3), comprising at least one control device (6), a burner (7) connected to a tank (11) for fuel supply, a charging device (4) connected to the energy storage (2), and a thermal element (8) whose one side is connected to the current generating device (3). To create such a method and such an apparatus (1), by means of which the capacity of an energy storage (2) of a vehicle (5) can be maintained for a longer period of time, it is provided for the second side of the thermal element (8) to be connected to a heat dissipating element (9) of a vehicle (5), and a monitoring unit (19) for the temperature of the heat dissipating element (9) is provided and connected to the control device (6) so that the current generating device (3) will be controllable to charge the energy storage (2) as a function of the temperature of the heat dissipating element (9).
US08179083B2
Starting device for electric motors provides a circuit including: a first branch connected at one end to a common point and at the opposite end to the start winding of the motor, whereon a starting capacitor, a resistor and fixed contacts of a relay are inserted in series respectively; a second branch in parallel with the first branch, connected at one end to the common point and at the opposite end to the main or run winding of the motors whereon the coil of the relay is inserted; a third branch in parallel with the branches and, connected at one end to the common point and at the opposite end to the start winding of the motor, whereon a run capacitor is installed, this common point being connected to the common connector of the motor via the power supply line.
US08179076B2
The present invention discloses a chip structure capable of smoothing slope of signal during conversion. And the chip structure is suitable for a DC motor which is embedded in a portable electronic device. The DC motor is for adjusting the focal distance of a digital camera which is installed within the portable electronic device. The chip structure comprises an input terminal, a first converter, a control unit, a second converter, an amplifier circuit and an output terminal. The input terminal is for receiving a first digital signal. The first converter is for converting the first digital signal into an analog signal. The control unit is for elongating the transform time of the analog signal. The amplifier circuit is for amplifying the elongated analog signal. The second converter is for converting the elongated analog signal into a second digital signal. And the output terminal outputs the second digital signal.
US08179071B2
A system includes two counter-rotating electric fans. A cooling controller is configured to run the fans at first and second operating points responsive to a measured value of a parameter. The first and second operating points correspond to first and second different required volumes per unit time of air flow. Rotational speeds of the fans at the first and second operating points define first and second different rotational speed offsets.
US08179068B2
A variable-flux motor drive system including a permanent-magnet motor including a permanent magnet, an inverter to drive the permanent-magnet motor, and a magnetize device to pass a magnetizing current for controlling flux of the permanent magnet. The permanent magnet is a variable magnet whose flux density is variable depending on a magnetizing current from the inverter. The magnetize device passes a magnetizing current that is over a magnetization saturation zone of magnetic material of the variable magnet. This system improves a flux repeatability of the variable magnet and a torque accuracy.
US08179066B2
Method for controlling a load with a predominantly inductive character, whereby in order to feed a phase of the above-mentioned load (3), use is made of at least two connected output voltages, derived from one or several power electronic inverters (11,12;34,35,36), with a given period for switching, modulation or sampling, characterized in that the waveforms of the output voltages concerned are different or have been shifted in time, and in that they are supplied to the load (3) via a differential-mode device (6), whereby during every complete above-mentioned period, at least one of the above-mentioned output voltages is maintained constant and thus is not connected.
US08179065B2
Systems and methods of controlling a permanent magnet motor without a mechanical position sensor are provided. In accordance with one embodiment, a motor control system includes an inverter configured to receive direct current (DC) power and output a power waveform to a permanent magnet motor, driver circuitry configured to receive control signals and drive the inverter based upon the control signals, a current sensor configured to determine a sampled current value associated with the power waveform, and control circuitry configured to generate the control signals based at least in part upon a comparison of a flux-producing component of the sampled current value and a flux-producing component of a command reference current value.
US08179064B2
An electric motor protection system for protecting an electric motor of a household appliance includes a temperature sensor for sensing a temperature of the electric motor, a motor speed sensor for sensing a speed of the electric motor, a current sensing circuit for sensing an electric current supplied to the electric motor, a power control device for controlling the electrical power supplied to the electric motor, and a signal processing unit electrically connected to the temperature sensor, the motor speed sensor, the current sensing circuit, and the power control device. The signal processing unit is configured to make calculations and judgments based on the measurements of the temperature sensor, the motor speed sensor and the current sensing circuit, and a plurality of predetermined values, and to control the power control device accordingly so as to protect the motor from overheating, being overloaded, or driven by excessive current.
US08179063B2
The invention relates to a traction drive for the driving and generative braking of a rail vehicle or a combination of rail vehicles, a permanent-field synchronous motor and a traction current converter being respectively associated with at least two axles of the rail vehicle or combination of rail vehicles. The traction current converter includes at least one pulse current converter on the engine side, and the clamps of the permanent-field synchronous motor are connected to a change-over switch such that the permanent-field synchronous motor can be connected to a load circuit containing at least one load element, in order to drive the pulse current converter or for generative braking. According to the invention, the load circuits connected to the permanent-field synchronous motors for generative braking are designed such that the brake characteristic lines of the permanent-field synchronous motors differ in terms of characteristic features such as the position of the maximum of the brake torque according to the rotational speed.
US08179052B2
An electronic ballast is disclosed, in particular for operation of gas-discharge lamps, in which a further power semiconductor is provided in addition to the conventional power semiconductor, and provides the power required for steady-state operation. This avoids the high-power MOSFET transistors, whose power losses are high, also being used for steady-state operation.
US08179042B2
A plasma display panel has a first plate and a second plate facing each other via a discharge space. A plurality of first electrodes and a plurality of second electrodes extending in a first direction, and a plurality of address electrodes extending in a second direction intersecting with the first direction are provided at the first plate. Also, a plurality of first barrier ribs extending in the second direction are integrally formed with the second plate at the first plate side of the second plate. Further, the plasma display panel has, for example, an antireflective film formed on a surface of the second plate at an opposite side of a surface facing the first plate. As a result, a contrast of an image can be improved.
US08179029B2
The present invention relates to a light emitting device (30) having at least a first (10) and a second light emitting element (20), with the first light emitting element (10) emitting a first light (1) and the second light emitting element (20) emitting a second light (2), each light emitting element (10,20) being an OLED (10,20), the OLED (10,20) comprising a sandwich structure with a substrate (14,24), a first (11,21) and a second electrode (12,22) and an organic layer (13,23) being provided between the first (11,21) and the second electrode (12,22), a light (3) leaving the light emitting device (30), wherein at least a part of said light (3) is provided by a superposition of the first (1) and the second light (2).
US08179027B2
A method includes applying a lip, comprised of a first material, along at least a portion of an actuator of an electronic device, and applying a coating, comprised of an elastic material, to cover a part of the actuator, the coating disposed to facilitate actuation of the actuator.
US08179024B2
The present invention relates to a transducer device (10), comprising: an acoustic membrane (14); a piezoelectric element (12) mounted to the acoustic membrane; two oppositely arranged elastic damping elements (16a, 16b) between which a peripheral portion (22) of the acoustic membrane is sandwichably supported; and a clamp (28) having two surfaces (30a, 30b) between which the two elastic damping elements are clamped so that the two elastic damping elements are pressed together, whereby the peripheral portion of the acoustic membrane is secured between the two elastic damping elements. The present invention also relates to a method of assembling such a transducer device.
US08179019B2
Positioning apparatus comprises: a first surface; a tubular body and a first end surface at a first end of the tubular body and arranged in contact with the first surface; and surface wave generation means arranged to generate a first travelling surface wave on the first end surface, the first travelling surface wave travelling along a first portion of the first end surface in a first direction, and, while the first travelling surface wave is travelling along the first end surface, to generate a second travelling surface wave on the first end surface, the second travelling surface wave travelling along a second portion of the first end surface in a second direction, the second direction being opposite to the first direction. Interaction between the first surface and the first and second travelling surface waves effects relative movement between the first surface and the tubular body.
US08179013B2
A stator for a dynamoelectric machine includes a stator core and a stator coil. The stator coil is made up of wave-shaped electric wires mounted on the stator core. Each of the electric wires has in-slot portions, each of which is received in one of slots of the stator core, and connecting portions each of which is located outside of the slots to connect one adjacent pair of the in-slot portions. Each of the connecting portions includes an apex part that is located axially furthest in the connecting portion from the stator core and includes an oblique section extending obliquely with respect to the radial direction of the stator core. Further, the oblique sections of the electric wires on one side of the stator core in the axial direction of the stator core are oblique in the same direction as those on the other side of the stator core.
US08179009B2
A rotor for an electrical machine includes a rotor hub and a plurality of permanent magnet segments affixed around a perimeter of the rotor hub. A first plurality of the permanent magnet segments have a substantially uniform arcuate span and are formed of a single unitary piece of material. A multi-piece permanent magnet segment includes at least two pieces, each having a smaller arcuate span than the first plurality of segments. The magnetization direction vector of one piece different than the magnetization direction vector of at least one other piece in each multi-piece segment.
US08179008B2
An axial gap rotary electric machine includes a rotor, an armature and a stator. The rotor is capable of rotating in a circumferential direction about a rotation axis. The rotor includes permanent magnets and magnetic plates which cover those from the armature side. The armature includes an armature coil opposed to the rotor from one side in a rotation axis direction parallel to the rotation axis. The stator is opposed to the rotor from the other side in the rotation axis direction.
US08179004B2
A new motor assembly uses a switch module to facilitate the assembly of an electric motor. The switch module can be prefabricated, and is connected to a terminal block on the motor by plug and socket connectors on the terminal block and on a terminal end of the module. The switch module is pre-wired with a power inlet and a switch, eliminating the need for a worker on the motor assembly line to make difficult electrical connections to a traditional terminal block. The switch is arranged in a switch housing that fits within an extension on the motor housing. An interior support wall on the housing fits within a channel between the switch housing and the rest of the switch module, helping to hold the assembly in position. The power inlet is positioned laterally outward from the terminal end and laterally inward of the switch.
US08179003B2
A motor with a wire fixing plate, has a stator core, a stator winding, a lead wire, and a wire fixing plate including multiple fixed portions. The wire fixing plate is made of insulating plastics, and the lead wire is fixed on the wire fixing plate via the fixed portions. The motor features firm fixation and good insulating property of a lead wire and a simple production process.
US08179001B2
A linear motor armature includes a plurality of armature core blocks that are linearly connected to each other, each armature core block being formed of a stack of a plurality of armature cores that are substantially I-shaped, each armature core block including teeth portions around which armature coils are wound, the teeth portions being provided in two end portions of the armature core block in a longitudinal direction of the armature core block, and a step portion extending in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the armature core block, the step portion being provided at a center of the armature core block and having a width larger than a width of the teeth portions, wherein an attachment hole for fixing each of the plurality of armature core blocks to an external armature attachment plate is formed in each of two side portions of the step portion.
US08179000B2
A method for operating a photovoltaic system with a plurality of photovoltaic modules and with a DC motor connected to the photovoltaic modules is proposed. The motor shaft of the DC motor is coupled to a generator shaft of a three-phase generator, wherein the three-phase generator can be connected to a power grid. The motor shaft of a second DC motor can also be connected with the generator shaft, and the electric energy produced by the photovoltaic modules is initially only used for driving a single DC motor and is during the subsequent operation divided between those DC motors. A battery is provided which can be connected with the second DC motor instead of the PV system by changing the excitation of the second DC motor such that it's motor voltage corresponds to the open-circuit voltage of the battery.
US08178994B2
Disclosed is an apparatus and method for communicating over an electrically conductive line having a plurality of power line phases between a first device having a single receiver and plurality of distal devices. The power line phases are adapted to deliver an alternating electrical current. Each of the distal devices are adapted to communicate with the first device over a single phase through a modulated carrier signal at a communication frequency. The apparatus comprises a plurality of unique coupling phases for coupling to a corresponding power line phase adapted to receive a frequency band having the modulated carrier signal from each of the plurality of power line phases and a selective coupling circuit between each of the plurality of coupling phases. The method comprises receiving the modulated carrier signal from each of the plurality of power line phases, attenuating the frequency band from being received by another of said unique coupling phases.
US08178991B2
The inventive technology described herein generally relates to the field of renewable energy production and/or more particularly wind power generation. More specifically, methods and apparatus for wind power generation utilizing perhaps multiple generators coupled through a radius adjustable coupler to at least one rotational movement element such that said coupled connection is dynamically movable across the surface the rotational movement element so as to maintain an electrical output at a constant generator rotation(s) per minute (RPM) according to the varying rotational velocity along the radius of a rotational movement element. In some embodiments such coupled generators may be sequentially loaded and disengaged to such rotational movement element to maintain an electrical output at a constant generator RPM. The inventive technology may be particularly suited to accomplishing such wind power generation across a broad range of wind and turbine rotational velocities.
US08178986B2
A method of operating a wind turbine comprises obtaining current wind speed, forecasting wind speeds by creating probability density functions of wind speeds at a series of time points in the future based on the obtained current wind speed and past wind speeds, determining operating parameters of the wind turbine for the forecasted wind speeds, and controlling the wind turbine based on the determined operating parameters.
US08178977B2
When a through-hole electrode and a rear-surface wire are formed on a rear surface of a chip, a convex portion is formed on the rear surface of the chip due to a rear-surface wiring pad which is a part of the through-hole electrode and the rear-surface wire. This causes the air leakage when the chip is sucked, and therefore, the reduction of the sucking force of the chip occurs. A concave portion is formed in advance in a region where a rear-surface wiring pad and a rear-surface wire are formed. The rear-surface wiring pad and the rear-surface wire are provided inside the concave portion. Thus, a flatness of the rear surface of the chip is ensured by a convex portion caused by thicknesses of the rear-surface wiring pad and the rear-surface wire, so that the reduction of the sucking force does not occur when the chip is handled.
US08178976B2
A semiconductor device includes an integrated circuit (IC) die including a substrate, and at least one through substrate via (TSV) that extends through the substrate to a protruding integral tip that includes sidewalls and a distal end. The protruding integral tip has a tip height between 1 and 50 μm. A metal layer is on the bottom surface of the IC die, and the sidewalls and the distal end of the protruding integral tips. A semiconductor device can include an IC die that includes TSVs and a package substrate such as a lead-frame, where the IC die includes a metal layer and an electrically conductive die attach adhesive layer, such as a solder filled polymer wherein the solder is arranged in an electrically interconnected network, between the metal layer and the die pad of the lead-frame.
US08178972B2
A semiconductor device is obtained, in which excellent characteristics are achieved, the reliability is improved, and an SiC wafer can also be used for the fabrication. A plurality of Schottky-barrier-diode units 10 is formed on an SiC chip 9, and each of the units 10 has an external output electrode 4 independently of each other. Bumps 11 (the diameter is from several tens to several hundreds of μm) are formed only on the external output electrodes 4 of non-defective units among the units 10 formed on the SiC chip 9, meanwhile bumps are not formed on the external output electrodes 4 of defective units in which the withstand voltage is too low, or the leakage current is too much. Because the bumps are not formed on the defective units, Schottky-barrier-side electrodes 3 are connected in parallel to the exterior of the device through the bumps 11, and a wiring layer 13 and an external lead 13a of a wiring substrate 12; thus, only the external output electrodes 4 of the non-defective units 10 are connected in parallel with each other.
US08178971B2
A ball grid array semiconductor device has a wiring substrate (2), a semiconductor chip (6) disposed on one surface side of the wiring substrate, and a bump arrangement (5) as external terminals disposed on a surface side, opposite to the one surface side, of the wiring substrate. The semiconductor chip is mounted so that the center of the semiconductor chip is shifted from the center of the semiconductor device by one pitch or more of the bump arrangement, and the bump arrangement has a reinforcing structure (5-2) for a bump array located at a position farthest from the center of the semiconductor device in a shift direction of the semiconductor chip.
US08178970B2
A flip-chip packaging assembly and integrated circuit device are disclosed. An exemplary flip-chip packaging assembly includes a first substrate; a second substrate; and joint structures disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate. Each joint structure comprises an interconnect post between the first substrate and the second substrate and a joint solder between the interconnect post and the second substrate, wherein the interconnect post exhibits a width and a first height. A pitch defines a distance between each joint structure. The first height is less than half the pitch.
US08178962B1
A semiconductor device package and methods of manufacturing the same are described. In some examples, a semiconductor device includes an IC die including a ring of die pads around a periphery thereof, lands disposed within the ring of die pads, bond terminals coupled to the lands, the bond terminals being wire-bonded to respective ones of the die pads, and at least one capacitor having respective terminals mounted to respective ones of the lands.
US08178950B2
A method for forming a through substrate via (TSV) comprises forming an opening within a substrate. An adhesion layer of titanium is formed within the via opening, a nucleation layer of titanium nitride is formed over the adhesion layer, and a tungsten layer is deposited over the nucleation layer, the tungsten layer having a thickness less than or equal to a critical film thickness sufficient to provide for film integrity and adhesion stability. A stress relief layer of titanium nitride is formed over the tungsten layer and a subsequent tungsten layer is deposited over the stress relief layer. The subsequent tungsten layer has a thickness less than or equal to the critical film thickness. The method further includes planarizing to expose the interlevel dielectric layer and a top of the TSV and backgrinding a bottom surface of the substrate sufficient to expose a bottom portion of the TSV.
US08178940B2
An intermediate metal film is formed between a Schottky electrode and a pad electrode. A Schottky barrier height between the intermediate metal film and a silicon carbide epitaxial film is equivalent to or higher than a Schottky barrier height between the Schottky electrode and the silicon carbide epitaxial film. By this configuration, an excess current and a leak current through a pin-hole can be suppressed even in the case in which a Schottky barrier height between the pad electrode and the silicon carbide epitaxial film is less than the Schottky barrier height between the Schottky electrode and the silicon carbide epitaxial film.
US08178934B2
The present invention provides a method of manufacturing a dielectric film having a high permittivity. An embodiment of the present invention is a method of manufacturing, on a substrate, a dielectric film including a metallic oxynitride containing an element A made of Hf or a mixture of Hf and Zr, an element B made of Al, and N and O. The manufacturing method includes: a step of forming a metallic oxynitride whose mole fractions of the element A, the element B, and N expressed as B/(A+B+N) has a range of 0.015≦(B/(A+B+N))≦0.095 and N/(A+B+N) has a range of 0.045≦(N/(A+B+N)) and a mole fraction O/A of the element A and O has a range expressed as 1.0<(O/A)<2.0, and having a noncrystalline structure; and a step of performing an annealing treatment at 700° C. or higher on the metallic oxynitride having a noncrystalline structure to form a metallic oxynitride including a crystalline phase with a cubical crystal incorporation percentage of 80% or higher.
US08178932B2
A semiconductor device includes a first transistor having a threshold voltage (Vth) adjusted to a first Vth by a first dopant having a first peak of concentration at a first depth; and a second transistor having the same channel-type as that of the first transistor and having a Vth adjusted to a second Vth by a second dopant having a second peak of concentration at a second depth equal to the first depth and higher concentration than the first dopant; wherein the first dopant and the second dopant are dopants comprising the same constituent element.
US08178930B2
A novel MOS transistor structure and methods of making the same are provided. The structure includes a MOS transistor formed on a semiconductor substrate of a first conductivity type with a plug region of first conductivity type formed in the drain extension region of second conductivity type (in the case of a high voltage MOS transistor) or in the lightly doped drain (LDD) region of second conductivity type (in the case of a low voltage MOS transistor). Such structure leads to higher on-breakdown voltage. The inventive principle applies to MOS transistors formed on bulky semiconductor substrate and MOS transistors formed in silicon-on-insulator configuration.
US08178923B2
A power semiconductor device having low gate input resistance and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. The power semiconductor device includes a substrate, at least a trench transistor, a conductive layer, a metal contact plug, an insulating layer, an interlayer dielectric, a gate metal layer, and a source metal layer. The metal contact plug can serve as a buried gate metal bus line, and the metal contact plug can pass under the source metal layer and keeps the area of the source metal layer complete. Accordingly, the present invention can provide a lower gate input resistance without dividing the source metal layer, so the source metal layer can have a larger and complete area for the following packaging and bonding process.
US08178916B2
A semiconductor memory device includes: a semiconductor substrate; a plurality of device isolation regions being disposed in an upper-layer portion of the semiconductor substrate, and dividing the upper-layer portion into a plurality of semiconductor portions extending in a first direction; a plurality of charge storage films which are disposed on one of the plurality of the semiconductor portions and spaced apart from one another in the first direction; a block insulating film disposed covering the plurality of charge storage films; and a word electrode disposed on the block insulating film for each of rows of the plurality of charge storage films arranged in a second direction intersecting the first direction, wherein the block insulating film is disposed continuously in the first direction and in the second direction.
US08178907B2
Electrical devices comprised of nanoscopic wires are described, along with methods of their manufacture and use. The nanoscopic wires can be nanotubes, preferably single-walled carbon nanotubes. They can be arranged in crossbar arrays using chemically patterned surfaces for direction, via chemical vapor deposition. Chemical vapor deposition also can be used to form nanotubes in arrays in the presence of directing electric fields, optionally in combination with self-assembled monolayer patterns. Bistable devices are described.
US08178906B2
A laser activated phase change device for use in an integrated circuit comprises a chalcogenide fuse configured to connect a first patterned metal line and a second patterned metal line and positioned between an inter layer dielectric and an over fuse dielectric. The fuse interconnects active semiconductor elements manufactured on a substrate. A method for activating the laser activated phase change device includes selecting a laser condition of a laser based on characteristics of the fuse and programming a phase-change of the fuse with the laser by direct photon absorption until a threshold transition temperature is met.
US08178900B2
A semiconductor device includes a GaN-based semiconductor layer formed on a substrate, and an insulating film composed of any one of silicon nitride in which the composition ratio of silicon to nitrogen is 0.85 to 3.0, silicon oxide in which the composition ratio of silicon to oxygen is 0.6 to 3.0, or silicon oxide nitride in which the composition ratio of silicon to nitrogen and oxygen is 0.6 to 3.0 that is formed on a surface of the GaN-based semiconductor layer, a gate electrode formed on the GaN-based semiconductor layer, and a source electrode and a drain electrode formed with the gate electrode therebetween.
US08178894B2
A light emitting device package and a method of manufacturing the light emitting device package are provided. A base is first provided and a hole is formed on the base. After a light emitting portion is formed on the base, a mold die is placed on the light emitting portion and a molding material is injected through the hole. The mold die is removed to complete the package.
US08178893B2
The invention provides a semiconductor element mounting substrate that, by virtue of an improvement in thermal conduction efficiency between the substrate and another member, can reliably prevent, for example, a light emitting element such as a semiconductor laser from causing a defective operation by heat generation of itself, by taking full advantage of high thermal conductivity of a diamond composite material. In the semiconductor element mounting substrate, a connecting surface to be connected with the light emitting element or the like is finished such that the number, per unit area, of at least either recesses or protrusions having a depth or height of 10 μm to 40 μm and a surface-direction diametrical size of 10 μm to 3 mm is 50/cm2 or less, and on the connecting surface, a coating layer, which is formed of a solder or a brazing material, has a thickness of 1 μm to 30 μm, an arithmetic mean roughness Ra of a roughness curve showing a surface roughness of Ra≦2 μm, and a maximum height roughness Rz of Rz≦15 μm, and fills and covers the recesses or protrusions, is formed.
US08178886B2
A method for manufacturing a semiconductor light emitting device includes: (a) providing a temporary substrate; (b) forming a multi-layered LED epitaxial structure, having at least one light emitting unit, on the temporary substrate, wherein a first surface of the light emitting unit contacts the temporary substrate, and the light emitting unit includes a n-type layer, an active region, and a p-type layer; (c) forming a n-electrode on the n-type layer; (d) forming a p-electrode on the p-type layer; (e) bonding a permanent substrate on the light emitting unit, the n-electrode and the p-electrode; (f) removing the temporary substrate to expose the first surface of the light emitting unit; and (g) removing a portion of the light emitting unit from the first surface, to expose at least one of the n-electrode and the p-electrode.
US08178862B2
A junctionless metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor is described. In one aspect, a transistor device comprises a semiconductor material. The semiconductor material comprises first, second, and third portions. The second portion is located between the first and third portions. The first, second, and third portions are doped with dopants of the same polarity and the same concentration. The transistor device further comprises an electrode connected to the second portion. A current flows between the first and third portions when a voltage is applied to the electrode.
US08178858B2
The invention relates to a device and a method for altering the characteristics of a three-dimensional article by means of electrons, including at least one electron accelerator for generating accelerated electrons and two electron exit windows, wherein the two electron exit windows are arranged opposite one another, wherein the two electron exit windows and at least one reflector delimit a process chamber in which the surface or surface layer of the article are bombarded with electrons, wherein an energy density distribution inside the process chamber can be detected at least over one spatial dimension by means of a sensor system.
US08178856B2
A charged particle beam writing apparatus includes a charge amount distribution calculation unit configured to calculate a charge amount distribution which is charged by irradiation of a charged particle beam onto a writing region of a target workpiece, by using a charge decay amount and a charge decay time constant both of which depend on a pattern area density, a position displacement amount distribution calculation unit configured to calculate a position displacement amount of each writing position due to charge amounts of the charge amount distribution by performing convolution of each charge amount of the charge amount distribution with a response function, and a writing unit configured to write a pattern on the each writing position where the position displacement amount has been corrected, using a charged particle beam.
US08178838B2
A method and an apparatus are for three-dimensional tomographic image generation in a scanning electron microscope system. At least two longitudinal marks are provided on the top surface of the sample which include an angle therebetween. In consecutive image recordings, the positions of these marks are determined and are used to quantify the slice thickness removed between consecutive image recordings.
US08178833B2
An improved ion sampling tube designed to increase the amount of current delivered into the vacuum system of a mass spectrometer or other gas-phase ion or particle detectors or collectors. A device and method is disclosed that utilizes a tube with a high flow of ion entrained gas passing through the said tube. Said ions are directed from the tubular gas flow through an ion selective aperture and into an adjacent region and subsequently directed into a lower pressure region for detection or collection. The method is useful for enhancing the detection of analytes in solutions that are either nebulized or electrosprayed, and analytes present in gases. The method is also useful for isolating ionic species from the ion source from neutral gases and particles that may interfere or interact with analyte species. The method also decouples the high flow of the atmospheric pressure ion source from the low flow ion transmission into vacuum.
US08178829B2
The presence of a workpiece on an end effector of a vacuum robotic handler is detecting using any of a number of non-contact techniques in which some or all of the detection hardware is positioned outside a vacuum chamber that encloses the vacuum robotic handler. Various deployments include laser beam breaking, analysis of radar reflection signals, or analysis of radio frequency identification tag signatures. By providing non-physical couplings between hardware inside and outside of a vacuum environment, integrity of the vacuum is improved. These non-contact techniques are further adapted as described herein to multi-wafer and multi-end effector environments so that independent detection of multiple wafers (e.g., for each end effector) can be performed.
US08178828B2
A photo-sensing device is disclosed, comprising a photoelectric conversion semiconductor thin film, thin films for ohmic contacts to be provided to form an incident light window on one face of the photoelectric conversion semiconductor thin film, first and second ohmic electrodes installed on the thin films for the ohmic contacts, a connection wiring for short-circuiting the first and the second ohmic electrodes, an insulating film provided on the other face of the photoelectric conversion semiconductor thin film, and a first electrode provided on the face of the insulating film that does not contact the photoelectric conversion semiconductor thin film.
US08178827B2
Apparatus for optically testing LEDs or other light-emitting components in a wide variety of test environments and to the degree necessary pertinent to the type(s) of faults encountered. In one embodiment, the present invention includes one or more fiber optic probes coupled to a multi-mode sensor unit, incorporating a photo-sensor coupled to a processor which may be programmed to provide a variety of test modes including simple on/off testing, color determination, color matching, wavelength and relative intensity among others. An extremely high sensitivity test mode is also provided for testing LEDs which emit very low intensity light in the microcandela range in products such as automobile/aircraft cockpit control panel lighted push-buttons for night-time viewing. The multi-mode sensor unit operates over a wide dynamic range and is capable of accurately testing LEDs that may be very dim to very bright without adjustment. In another embodiment, a voltage protection circuit is provided which enables the multi-mode sensor unit to safely operate from a supply voltage in the range of approximately 5 volts DC to approximately 40 volts DC while protecting the multi-mode sensor unit from a potentially damaging overvoltage condition. The voltage protection circuit also protects the multi-mode sensor unit against potential damage caused by reverse polarity voltage spikes, or accidental steady-state reverse polarity voltages.
US08178826B2
A light source device including a semiconductor light emitting element and a control section for controlling the semiconductor light emitting element in accordance with an input value. The control section includes a supply section that supplies the semiconductor light emitting element with a drive current based on the input value and an estimated threshold current of the semiconductor light emitting element, and an estimation section that obtains the estimation of the threshold current using the drive current and the amount of light detected to be emitted from the semiconductor light emitting element.
US08178825B2
The present invention provides apparatus and methods for accurate guidance of small munitions to a target. The guidance for the small munition is mainly provided by a device external to the small munition, such as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The UAV may provide external guidance commands by use of a command transmitter to the small munition. The small munition is equipped to receive the guidance commands and consequently use a maneuvering mechanism to react to the guidance commands. The UAV may determine a successful release point of the small munition and track a flight path from a release point toward the target of the small munition using a passive sensor mounted in a gimbaled mount, which is controlled by use of a closed-loop control system. The UAV may be controlled by a ground control device, such as an operator control unit (OCU), to release small munitions.
US08178804B2
A movable contactor for an air circuit breaker with a contact spring protecting mechanism is provided, the movable contactor comprising a shielding plate configured to shield exposed surfaces of the contact springs for protection so as to prevent a deterioration or performance degradation in the contact springs due to arcs.
US08178800B2
A rotary switch for activating selected functions in a hand held device. One embodiment of the invention provides a rotary switch having a rotatable switch selector. Whenever the switch selector is rotated, it reduces the diameter of a torsion spring causing the torsion spring to contact a switch contact and signal a microprocessor to selectably power a particular circuit or a step in a routine.
US08178796B2
A mail processing system having a transport that reduces the amount of oscillation of the scale to allow for faster weighing of mail pieces is provided. A mailing machine includes a plurality of different modules through which mail pieces are fed by a transport system. A guide piece is provided in the transport path between the weighing module and the subsequent module, e.g., a printing module. The guide piece is structured such that forces imparted on the weighing platform of the weighing module by the trail edge of a mail piece being transported off of the weighing platform are reduced. Because of the reduction in this significant external force on the weighing platform, a faster weighing algorithm can be used on more mail pieces, thereby increasing the throughput of the mailing machine.
US08178785B2
An electrical line for the connection of non-stationary electrical loads to a power source is specified which has a line core surrounded by a jacket (8) of insulating material. Four wires (1), stranded together to form one star quad (S), for the transmission of data, and also two wires (2) stranded together to form a pair of wires (A) and used for supplying power are placed in the line core. The star quad (S) and the pair of wires (A) are stranded together as stranding elements for forming the line core and, over the same, a layer (5) of insulating material is placed, over which a braid or a stranded cover layer of copper wires is arranged in a first layer (6) as part of an electrical screen. At least one layer of a fleece material consisting of synthetic material and made electrically conductive is placed over the first layer (6) as second layer (7) of the electrical screen and the fleece material is surrounded by the jacket (8) of insulating material.
US08178781B2
An enclosure apparatus for protecting cable trays, electrical cables, pipes and/or includes other control equipment. The enclosure apparatus includes one or more linear sections and/or elbow or corner sections. The sections are configured to be joined together to form longer sections or transition sections. Each of the sections includes a protective outer layer that is fire resistant and/or blast resistant. According to an embodiment, one or more the sections includes a panel or re-enterable section that can be removed for accessing the interior of the enclosure, for example, the cables, pipes or control equipment, or for assembling the sections around an existing cable installation.
US08178777B2
A solar cell attaining high efficiency in photoelectric conversion is provided. A method of manufacturing a solar cell having a grid electrode and a main electrode for external output of electric power from the grid electrode includes the steps of forming a small-width grid electrode on a light-receiving surface of a substrate having a pn junction by sintering a metal paste material, and forming a bar-shaped main electrode electrically connected to the grid electrode.
US08178776B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a photovoltaic module that achieves a reduction in adverse influence of damage accumulated in a collector electrode provided on the light receiving surface side, and a method for manufacturing the photovoltaic module. To this end, in a photovoltaic module of the present invention, the degree of cross-linkage of the second region of the sealing material that is in contact with the back surface of the solar cell is smaller than that of the first region of the sealing material that is in contact with the light receiving surface of the solar cell.
US08178761B1
A novel maize variety designated PH13GH and seed, plants and plant parts thereof. Methods for producing a maize plant that comprise crossing maize variety PH13GH with another maize plant. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into PH13GH through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. Hybrid maize seed, plant or plant part produced by crossing the variety PH13GH or a locus conversion of PH13GH with another maize variety.
US08178758B2
The invention provides seed and plants of tomato hybrid PS02431185 and the parent lines thereof. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of tomato hybrid PS02431185 and the parent lines thereof, and to methods for producing a tomato plant produced by crossing such plants with themselves or with another tomato plant, such as a plant of another genotype. The invention further relates to seeds and plants produced by such crossing. The invention further relates to parts of such plants, including the fruit and gametes of such plants.
US08178757B2
The invention provides seed and plants of tomato hybrid PS02431185 and the parent lines thereof. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of tomato hybrid PS02431185 and the parent lines thereof, and to methods for producing a tomato plant produced by crossing such plants with themselves or with another tomato plant, such as a plant of another genotype. The invention further relates to seeds and plants produced by such crossing. The invention further relates to parts of such plants, including the fruit and gametes of such plants.
US08178752B1
A peanut cultivar designated UFT113 is disclosed. The invention relates to the seeds, the plants, and the plant parts of peanut cultivar UFT113, and to methods for producing a peanut plant by crossing peanut cultivar UFT113 with itself or with another peanut variety. The invention also relates to methods for producing a peanut plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic peanut plants and plant parts produced by those methods. This invention also relates to peanut cultivars, or breeding cultivars, and plant parts derived from peanut cultivar UFT113, to methods for producing other peanut cultivars, lines or plant parts derived from peanut cultivar UFT113, and to the peanut plants, varieties, and their parts derived from use of those methods. The invention further relates to hybrid peanut seeds, plants, and plant parts produced by crossing cultivar UFT113 with another peanut cultivar.
US08178749B2
The present application relates to the provision of process for producing at least one protein, comprising the cultivation of a carnivorous plant, characterized in that said plant has been genetically modified to express said protein or proteins, and said protein or proteins are collected from the digestive secretions of said carnivorous plant traps, in particular glue, pitcher, trumpet or bladder traps. The proteins of interest are functional, despite the existence of digestive enzymes.
US08178732B2
The present invention relates to the field of perfumery. More particularly, it concerns specific derivatives of 1-alkenyl cyclopentanol, or 1-alkenyl cyclohexanol, wherein the alkenyle group is branched. These compounds are useful perfuming ingredients capable of imparting sap and/or earthy notes.
US08178731B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a process for producing high-purity hydroxytriphenylenes in which not only inexpensive raw materials can be used but also no complicated steps of deprotection such as dealkylation, and reduction and the like are necessary, and which is thereby advantageous in industrial production. Also there is provided a novel crystal of 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexahydroxytriphenylene monohydrate, which has satisfactory thermal stability. The process for producing a compound represented by the general formula (2) is characterized by reacting a compound represented by the general formula (1) in the presence of a metal oxide comprising a metal selected from trivalent iron, pentavalent vanadium and hexavalent molybdenum and of a nonvolatile strong acid: wherein, Rs are each independently a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, an alkyl group having 1 to 3 carbon atoms or an alkoxy group having 1 to 3 carbon atoms.
US08178730B2
Mixed butene streams containing butene-1 and isobutylene and optionally butene-2 are hydroformylated under conditions that hydroformylates all the monomers to yield a mixture of valeraldehydes.
US08178729B2
Disclosed is a process for hydroformylation of α-olefin wherein said α-olefin is reached with carbon monoxide or carbon monoxide and hydrogen and/or a reducing agent in presence of a catalyst complex based on a rhodium precursor and a ligand mixture comprising at least 1% by weight of trphenylphosphine and at least 5% by weight of diphenylcyclohexylphosphine, tris-(o-tolyl)phosphine, tris-(p-tolyl)phosphine or (2-methyl-phenyl)diphenylphospine.
US08178728B2
In a process for producing cyclohexylbenzene, benzene and hydrogen are contacted under hydroalkylation conditions with a catalyst system comprising a MCM-22 family molecular sieve and at least one hydrogenation metal. The conditions comprise a temperature of about 140° C. to about 175° C., a pressure of about 135 psig to about 175 psig (931 kPag to 1207 kPag), a hydrogen to benzene molar ratio of about 0.30 to about 0.65 and a weight hourly space velocity of benzene of about 0.26 to about 1.05 hr−1.
US08178724B2
The present invention discloses compounds of formula (I), their optical isomers or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, their preparation and uses thereof, wherein the definitions of R1, R2, R3 and R4 are shown in the description. These compounds are optical isomers or racemic mixtures. After these compounds are uptaken, they are metabolically transformated in vivo into 1-[2-dimethylamino-1-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-ethyl]-cyclohexanol that has neuropharmacological activity, by interrupting reuptake of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and/or norepinephrine (NA), which is used for treating diseases associated with central nerve system, such as depression, etc.
US08178723B2
The present invention provides a process for preparing amides, by reacting a primary amine and a primary alcohol in the presence of a Ruthenium catalyst, to generate the amide and molecular hydrogen. According to the process of the invention, primary amines are directly acylated by equimolar amounts of alcohols to produce amides and molecular hydrogen (the only byproduct) in high yields and high turnover numbers. This reaction is catalyzed by a Ruthenium complex, which is preferably based on a dearomatized PNN-type ligand of formula A1 or precursors thereof of formulae A2 or A3. Use of diamines in the reaction leads to bis-amides, whereas with a mixed primary/secondary amine substrate, chemoselective acylation of the primary amine group occurs.
US08178717B2
A process for production of (meth)acrylic acid is disclosed. The process includes synthesizing and distillatively working-up a crude (meth)acrylic acid phase to obtain a (meth)acrylic acid phase and a dimer phase including (meth)acrylic acid dimers and/or (meth)acrylic acid oligomers. At least a part of the (meth)acrylic acid dimers and/or of the (meth)acrylic acid oligomers from the dimer phase is split to obtain a (meth)acrylic acid including a low-boiling phase and a high-boiling phase including less (meth)acrylic acid than the low-boiling phase. At least a part of the (meth)acrylic acid from the low-boiling phase is separated by forming of one or more crystals to obtain a pure (meth)acrylic acid and a residue. Also disclosed is a device for production of (meth)acrylic acid, a process for production of a polymer as well as chemical products based on or including (meth)acrylic acid or a polymer as well as the use of (meth)acrylic acid or polymers in chemical products.
US08178714B2
A method to produce polyethylene glycol ester comprises the step of reacting polyethylene glycols with polyhydroxy carboxylic acids or estolides polyhydroxy fatty acids at a temperature of 120° C. to 200° C. in the absence of any catalysts.
US08178709B2
New iron preparations comprising stable, unpolymerized iron(III) citrate complex compositions and methods for their preparation are provided. Further, the invention involves the use stable, unpolymerized iron(III) citrate complex compositions of the invention as a food additive, nutritional supplement, dietary supplement, medical food, nutrient, iron fortificant, and source of iron in the fields of nutrition for humans, animals, fish, and birds and of diagnostics. The invention further involves the use of stable, unpolymerized iron(III) citrate complex compositions of the invention as a pharmaceutical and pharmacologically active ingredient for human clinical and veterinary applications.
US08178699B2
Provided are compounds that are modulators of CCR9 receptor activity, compositions containing the compounds and methods of use of the compounds and compositions. In certain embodiments, provided are methods for treating or ameliorating diseases associated with modulation of CCR9 receptor activity.
US08178696B2
Processes are provided for combining nonsubstituted hydrazine (N2H4), a strong acid, alcohol, and tetraalkoxypropane to produce N-alkylpyrazole.
US08178683B2
The present invention provides certain ortho-fluorophenyl oxazolidinones of the following formula I: or pharmaceutically acceptable salts or prodrugs thereof that are antibacterial agents, pharmaceutical compositions containing them, methods for their use, and methods for preparing these compounds.
US08178682B2
An organic compound of formula E is made from a process comprising: reacting a compound of formula A and a compound of formula B to form a compound of formula C; and reacting one of the compound of formula C and the compound of formula D with a first boron esterification reagent to generate a boronic acid or a boronic ester to react with another of the compound of formula C and the compound of formula D to form a compound of formula E; wherein R1, R2, and R3 are, independently at each occurrence, a C1-C20 aliphatic radical, a C3-C20 aromatic radical, or a C3-C20 cycloaliphatic radical.
US08178678B2
Provided are bis-quaternary ammonium compounds which are modulators of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Also provided are methods of using the compounds for modulating the function of a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, and for the prevention and/or treatment of central nervous system disorders, substance use and/or abuse, and or gastrointestinal tract disorders.
US08178668B2
2-Aminopyridine compounds having the structure of Formula I, and pharmaceutically acceptable salts of these compounds. Compounds of Formula I inhibit the activity of tyrosine kinase enzymes in animals, including humans, and are useful in the treatment and/or prevention of various diseases and conditions. In particular, compounds disclosed herein are inhibitors of kinases, in particular, but not limited to, KDR, Tie-2, Flt3, FGFR3, Ab1, Aurora A, c-Src, IGF-1R, ALK, c-MET, RON, PAK1, PAK2, and TAK1, and can be used in the treatment of proliferative diseases, such as, but not limited to, cancer. The present invention is also directed to a pharmaceutical composition comprising a therapeutically effective amount of a compound of Formula I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. The present invention is further directed to a method of treating a patient having a condition which is mediated by protein kinase activity by administering to the patient a therapeutically effective amount of the above-mentioned pharmaceutical composition.
US08178666B2
A method for forming an optionally substituted 2-aminobenzoxazole compound includes: contacting an optionally substituted 2-aminophenol compound with (1) an amine of the formula NHR2R3, wherein R2 and R3 are each independently selected from H, an optionally substituted alkyl group or an optionally substituted aryl group, or R2 and R3, taken together with the nitrogen atom to which they are attached, form an optionally substituted heterocyclic ring; and (2) a reactant selected from the group consisting of: (a) C(OR)4, wherein R represents an alkyl group; (b) C(OAr)4, wherein Ar represents an aryl group; and (c) CCl2(OAr)2, wherein Ar represents an aryl group, in combination with a base; thereby forming the optionally substituted 2-aminobenzoxazole compound.
US08178657B2
The present invention relates to a polypeptide having a sequence of 7 to 20 amino acid residues, which is capable of modulating the immunosuppressive properties of a viral protein or a fragment thereof, against the host in which it is expressed (immunosuppression-modulatory sequence) when it substitutes the homologous sequence of the viral protein or fragment, the polypeptide including the minimum following consensus amino acid sequence: X1Y9Y10Y11CY12X2 wherein, X1 and X2 are selected to impact on the immunosuppressive properties, and Y9 to Y12 represent variable amino acid residues.
US08178653B2
The present invention relates to fusion molecules of antigens, the nucleic acids coding therefor and the use of such fusion molecules and nucleic acids. In particular, said invention relates to fusion molecules, comprising an antigen and the transmembrane region and cytoplasmic region of a MHC molecule and/or the cytoplasmic region of a MHC or a SNARE molecule.
US08178649B2
The present invention provides novel immuno-stimulatory polypeptides, and methods for their use and identification.
US08178646B2
The present invention provides a method for producing a liquid-crystalline polyester powder, the method comprising: carrying out melt polycondensation of monomers and/or its acylated monomers to obtain a corresponding polyester having a flow initiation temperature of 240 to 300° C.; spreading and solidifying the polyester so as to be a layer thereof with a thickness of 1 cm or more: crushing the solidified substance to obtain a powder having a volume average particle diameter of 3 to 30 μm; and subjecting the powder to a heat treatment to obtain a powder having a flow initiation temperature higher than the flow initiation temperature of the liquid-crystalline polyester after the melt polycondensation.
US08178641B2
A method for producing an amino group-containing conjugated diene polymer includes polymerizing a conjugated diene compound in the presence of a reaction product of 1,3-bis(diphenylethenyl)benzene or a derivative thereof and an organolithium compound to obtain a conjugated diene polymer, and reacting the conjugated diene polymer with a modifier.
US08178639B2
A polymer for forming an organic anti-reflective coating layer, which is soluble in alkali solutions so that an additional etching process of anti-reflective coating layer is not required, and a composition including the same are disclosed. The polymer for forming an organic anti-reflective coating layer has the following formula. Wherein, R1 is a hydrogen atom (H) or a methyl group (—CH3), R2 is a sulfur atom (S) or an oxygen atom (O), R3 is a group containing 1 to 20 carbon atoms and a terminal hydroxyl group, R4 is an alkylene group or a cycloalkylene group, and if necessary, a hetero atom is contained therein, and a, b and c independently represent weight % of repeating units constituting the polymer, and are 1 to 98 weight %, 1 to 98 weight %, and 1 to 98 weight %, respectively.
US08178638B2
A composition comprising a copolymer having repeating units in any sequence of Formula I wherein Rf is a straight or branched perfluoroalkyl group which is optionally interrupted by at least one oxygen atom, X3 is oxygen or X1, each X1 is independently an organic divalent linking group, G is F or CF3, A is an amide, X2 is an organic linking group, Y is O, N or S, Z is H, a straight or branched alkyl group or halide, B is H or wherein Rf, X1, X3, G, and A are as defined above, and each W is independently various copolymer units.
US08178637B2
The present invention discloses an emulsion polymerization process that comprises: (1) preparing an aqueous polymerization medium which is comprised of (a) at least one monomer, (b) a polymerization control agent, and an emulsifier, wherein the emulsifier is prepared in-situ within the aqueous polymerization medium; and (2) initiating polymerization of said monomer within the aqueous polymerization medium. The subject invention more specifically reveals an emulsion polymerization process that comprises: (1) preparing a monomer solution which is comprised of (a) at least one monomer, (b) a conjugate acid of a surfactant with a pKa of less than 14, and (c) a controlled free radical polymerization agent; (2) preparing an aqueous medium which is comprised of (a) water, and (b) a conjugate base of a weak acid wherein the pKb of the base is less than 14; and (3) mixing the monomer solution with the aqueous medium under conditions that result in the in-situ formation of an emulsifier, and (4) initiating free radical polymerization.
US08178628B2
The present invention relates to an aliphatic polyester resin composition having excellent hydrolysis resistance, added to an aliphatic polyester resin (A), a reactive monomer (B) (e.g. a monocarbodiimide compound) and a reactive polymer (C) (e.g. a polycarbodiimide compound).
US08178614B2
A laminate includes a backing material coated with a solvent resistant adhesive composition. The adhesive composition includes a hydroxyl or urea or hydrocarbon terminated unsaturated polyurethane or polyurethane-urea polymer and a peroxide or a silicone hydride.
US08178606B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure present electrically conductive, thermosetting compositions for use in surfacing films and adhesives. The surfacing films possess enhanced electrical conductivity, comparable to metals, without the use of embedded metal screens or foils. Such surfacing films may be incorporated into composite structures (e.g., prepregs, tapes, and fabrics), for example, by co-curing, as an outermost surface layer. In particular, compositions formed using silver flakes as conductive fillers are found to exhibit very high electrical conductivity. For example, compositions including greater than 45 wt. % silver flake exhibit resistivities less than about 55 mΩ/sq. In this manner, the surfacing films as an outermost conductive layer may provide lighting strike protection (LSP) and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding when used in applications such as aircraft components.
US08178603B2
The present disclosure relates to an impact-modified polycarbonate composition which comprise a first graft polymer containing silicone/acrylate composite rubber as the graft base, wherein the content of silicone rubber is 65-95 wt. % (based on the graft base), a second graft polymer containing a diene rubber, and phosphorus-containing flameproofing agent, the use of the polycarbonate compositions for the production of shaped articles and the shaped articles themselves. The compositions and molding compositions according to the disclosure have an optimum combination of good flameproofing at thin wall thicknesses, good resistance to chemicals and hydrolysis and low melt viscosity.
US08178602B2
Compositions and methods of preparing functional thin films or surface coatings with low non-specific binding are described. The thin films contain specified functional groups and non-specific binding repellant components. The thin films are either covalently bound to or passively adsorbed to various solid substrates. The specified functional group provides specified activity for the thin film modified solid surfaces and non-specific binding repellant components significantly reduce the non-specific binding to the thin film modified solid surfaces. Non-specific binding repellant components do not affect specified functional group's activity in the thin films. In these methods, specified functional groups are anchored to the solid substrates through a spacer. Surface coatings are also described having both non-specific protein binding properties combined with functional groups for specific binding activity thereby providing surface coating that specifically recognize target proteins but limit binding to non-specific protein.
US08178589B2
An exemplary method for producing a catalyst is provided where the catalyst includes a catalyst support on which a metallic compound is loaded. An impurity content of the catalyst can be in a range of approximately 0.01 mass % to 0.15 mass %. In particular, the exemplary method can include pre-treating the catalyst support to lower an impurity concentration of the catalyst support, and loading the metallic compound on the catalyst support after the pretreatment procedure.
US08178583B2
The invention is concerned with compounds of formula I: wherein R, R2, and Q are as defined in the description and in the claims, as well as physiologically acceptable salts thereof. These compounds are useful as inhibitors of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP).
US08178574B2
The present invention is directed to the tosylate salt of trans-N-isobutyl-3-fluoro-3-[3-fluoro-4-(pyrrolidin-1-ylmethyl)-phenyl]-cyclobutanecarboxamide Formula (I): to solvates (e.g., hydrates) thereof, to polymorphs thereof, to pharmaceutical compositions thereof and to a method of treating depression, mood disorders, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, cognitive disorders, Alzheimer's disease, attention-deficit disorder (ADD), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), psychotic disorders, sleep disorders, obesity, dizziness, epilepsy, motion sickness, respiratory diseases, allergy, allergy-induced airway responses, allergic rhinitis, nasal congestion, allergic congestion, congestion, hypotension, cardiovascular disease, diseases of the GI tract, hyper- and hypo-motility and acidic secretion of the gastro-intestinal tract comprising administering a therapeutically effective amount thereof.
US08178570B2
The present invention provides compounds for modulating protein kinase enzymatic activity for modulating cellular activities such as proliferation, differentiation, programmed cell death, migration and chemoinvasion. Compounds of the invention inhibit, regulate and/or modulate kinases, particularly Tie-2. Methods of using the compounds and pharmaceutical compositions thereof to treat kinase-dependent diseases and conditions are also an aspect of the invention.
US08178566B2
The invention relates to new crystal forms of epothilone B.
US08178543B2
The present invention relates to a compound represented by the formula: wherein W is C(R1) or N, each A is an optionally substituted aryl group or a heteroaryl group, X1 is —NR3—Y1—, —O—, —S—, —SO—, —SO2— or —CHR3— wherein R3 is a hydrogen atom or an optionally substituted aliphatic hydrocarbon group, or R3 is optionally bonded to A to form an optionally substituted ring structure, R1 is a hydrogen atom or an optionally substituted group bonded via a carbon atom, a nitrogen atom or an oxygen atom, R2 is a hydrogen atom or optionally substituted group bonded via a carbon atom or a sulfur atom, or R1 and R2, or R2 and R3 are optionally bonded to form an optionally substituted ring structure, or a salt thereof, and a tyrosine kinase inhibitor or an agent for the prophylaxis or treatment of cancer, which contains this compound or a prodrug thereof.
US08178540B2
The present invention relates to novel pyrimidylmethyl-sulfonamide compounds and to their N-oxides, their agriculturally acceptable salts and their veterinarily acceptable salts and also to agricultural compositions comprising at least one such compound as active component, and also to their use for controlling harmful fungi. The present invention also relates to a method for controlling arthropod pests.
US08178538B2
The present invention is concerned with novel pyridazinones of formula (I) wherein R1, R2, R3 and R4 are as defined in the description and in the claims, as well as physiologically acceptable salts and esters thereof. These compounds inhibit PDE10A and can be used for the treatment of CNS disorders.
US08178532B2
The present invention provides compounds for modulating protein kinase enzymatic activity for modulating cellular activities such as proliferation, differentiation, programmed cell death, migration and chemoinvasion. More specifically, the invention provides quinazolines and quinolines which inhibit, regulate, and/or modulate kinase receptor, particularly c-Met, KDF, c-Kit, flt-3 and flt-4, signal transduction pathways related to the changes in cellular activities as mentioned above, compositions which contain these compounds, and methods of using them to treat kinase-dependent diseases and conditions. The present invention also provides methods for making compounds as mentioned above, and compositions which contain these compounds.
US08178514B2
The present invention comprises compounds, compositions thereof, and methods capable of delivering modified inositol hexaphosphate (IHP) comprising an internal pyrophosphate ring to the cytoplasm of mammalian cells. In certain embodiments, the present invention relates to compounds, compositions thereof, and methods that enhance the ability of mammalian red blood cells to deliver oxygen, by delivering IHP to the cytoplasm of the red blood cells.
US08178505B2
A signature for breast cancer tissue derived from a patient is established that is indicative of the virulence and risk of lung metastasis by determining the expression levels to define a sample signature, and comparing this sample signature to a reference signature. The reference signature defines a standard expression level for each gene and a significant change direction, i.e., either overexpressed or underexpressed. A sample signature that differs from the reference signature in the significant change direction for a predetermined number of the genes tested is indicative of a significant risk of lung metastasis. This determination is used to define appropriate treatment and monitoring options for the patient. Risk of metastasis to the lung can be reduced by treatment with a therapeutic combination that either (1) contains a first agent effective to inhibit epiregulin activity and a second agent effective to inhibit activity of a protein selected from the group consisting of MMP1, MMP2 and PTGS2, or (2) contains a therapeutic agent or combination of agents effective to inhibit activity MMP1, MMP2 and PTGS2. Agents that inhibit the CXCL1 pathway also can be used individually or in combination with these combinations.
US08178503B2
In one aspect of the invention, a method for regulating the expression of a transcript comprises using at least one interfering RNA molecule that binds to an area of transcript containing a region that corresponds to at least one sequence having SEQ ID NO: 1, the interfering RNA molecule regulating the expression of the transcript through post-transcriptional silencing. In another aspect, a method for regulating the expression of a transcript comprises at least one of the provided sequences having SEQ ID NO: 1 being used to design an interfering RNA molecule that contains a region that corresponds to the reverse complement of one or more sequences having SEQ ID NO: 1, the interfering molecule regulating, through post-transcriptional silencing, transcripts that contain the sequence having SEQ ID NO: 1.
US08178498B1
A medicinal composition includes an active medicinal substance in therapeutic dose and a potentiated medicinal preparation produced from the substance by homeopathis methods.
US08178495B2
The present invention provides therapeutic agents and compositions comprising elastin-like peptides (ELPs) and therapeutic proteins. In some embodiments, the therapeutic protein is a GLP-1 receptor agonist, insulin, or Factor VII/VIIa, including functional analogs. The present invention further provides encoding polynucleotides, as well as methods of making and using the therapeutic agents. The therapeutic agents have improvements in relation to their use as therapeutics, including, inter alia, one or more of half-life, clearance and/or persistance in the body, solubility, and bioavailability.
US08178494B2
Formulations of modified growth hormone polypeptides are provided, including human growth hormone polypeptides with one or more non-naturally encoded amino acids with an increased half-life.
US08178478B2
An internal combustion engine crankcase lubricating oil composition is disclosed. The crankcase lubricating oil composition has a TBN no greater than 6 and contains the following additives: (B1) a metal detergent system having a metal ratio no greater than 3, as the sole detergent system; (B2) an organic ashless friction modifier; (B3) an oil-soluble molybdenum friction modifier; and (B4) a metal dihydrocarbyl dithiophosphate.
US08178460B2
An exhaust treatment method is provided. Method of increasing activation of NOx reduction catalyst using two or more reductant is discussed. The NOx catalyst is disposed to receive both the exhaust stream and reductant stream. The sensor is disposed to sense a system parameter related to carbon loading of the catalyst and produce a signal corresponding to the system parameter. The controller is disposed to receive the signal and to control dosing of the reductant stream based at least in part on the signal. The method includes sensing a system parameter related to carbon loading of a catalyst, producing a signal corresponding to the system parameter and sending the signal to a controller; and controlling a dosing of a reductant stream based at least in part on the signal.
US08178459B2
A corrosion-resistant member includes a ceramic member containing yttrium oxide as a main component, containing cerium element, and obtained by firing under a nonoxidizing atmosphere. The corrosion-resistant member that has high corrosion-resistant characteristics and includes a ceramic member having a low volume resistivity can be provided.
US08178436B2
Interconnect structures having improved adhesion and electromigration performance and methods to fabricate thereof are described. A tensile capping layer is formed on a first conductive layer on a substrate. A compressive capping layer is formed on the tensile capping layer. Next, an interlayer dielectric layer is formed on the compressive capping layer. Further, a first opening is formed in the ILD layer using a first chemistry. A second opening is formed in the tensile capping layer and the compressive capping layer using a second chemistry. Next, a second conductive layer is formed in the first opening and the second opening.
US08178434B2
An apparatus comprises a first layer within a semiconductor chip having active structures electrically connected to other active structures and having electrically isolated first inactive structures. A second layer within the semiconductor chip is physically connected to the first layer. The second layer comprises an insulator and has second inactive structures. The first inactive structures are physically aligned with the second inactive structures.
US08178426B2
A method for manufacturing an insulated semiconductor layer, including: forming a porous silicon layer on a single-crystal silicon surface; depositing an insulating material so that it penetrates into the pores of the porous silicon layer; eliminating the insulating material to expose the upper surface of the porous silicon; and growing by epitaxy a semiconductor layer.
