US08267510B2
A inkjet recording method is provided in which occurrence of curling at the time of double-sided recording is prevented. In the method, an inkjet recording medium is used which includes resin coated paper having a resin layer A of thickness “a” at one side of base paper, and a resin layer B thinner than the thickness “a” by a thickness of 3 μm to 20 μm at the other side of the base paper, and ink receiving layers each of which includes an inorganic pigment and a binder and are provided at both sides of the resin coated paper; and an image is recorded on the ink receiving layer at the resin layer B side of the resin coated paper, and subsequently an image is recorded on the ink receiving layer at the resin layer A side of the resin coated paper.
US08267506B2
An inkjet printer device includes: an ejection portion that ejects an ink droplet onto a recording medium; a humidification portion that is provided upstream of the ejection portion in a transportation direction of the recording medium and ejects a wetting liquid droplet onto the recording medium; and a control portion that makes the ink droplet be ejected onto the recording medium from the ejection portion and the wetting liquid droplet be ejected onto the recording medium from the humidification portion, wherein the ejection portion is humidified during printing by letting the wetting liquid droplet ejected onto the recording medium evaporate from the recording medium.
US08267505B2
There is disclosed an ink set and method for printing an inkjet ink image on a nonporous substrate. The inkset and method comprise one or more inkjet inks comprising at least one first pigment-based inkjet ink having a first colorant load of a pigment and a polymeric latex binder; and at least one second pigment-based inkjet ink having a second colorant load of the pigment and a polymeric latex binder, the second colorant load being less than the first colorant load, and the second pigment-based inkjet ink applied to a substrate in an amount to provide a total ink loading of from about 10 g/m2 to about 30 g/m2.
US08267498B1
Example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to control gloss quality in printed images are disclosed. A disclosed example apparatus includes a print engine to print a plurality of images for respective ones of a plurality of colors, each image representing a plurality of different print parameter combinations, a scan module to measure a first plurality of light reflectances for respective ones of the plurality of images and the print parameter combinations, and a calibrator to calibrate an operation of the print engine for respective ones of the plurality of colors based on the first plurality of measured light reflectances, the operations of the print engine including at least one of an order of ink application, a rate of ink application, a density of ink application, or an applied amount of gloss enhancer.
US08267495B2
A liquid container includes a container body that accommodates a liquid containing portion containing a liquid. A residual liquid quantity detecting unit can be connected to the container body so as to detect a residual amount of liquid remaining in the liquid containing portion. A fitting mechanism, which allows the container body and the residual liquid quantity detecting unit to relatively rotate so as to be detachably attached to each other, may also be formed in a region where the container body and the residual liquid quantity detecting unit are connected to each other.
US08267494B2
A method of printing comprising the steps of: providing a print media having a printing surface; measuring at least one parameter of the print media; calculating an optimal configuration for a radio frequency identification (RFID) transponder circuit for obtaining a desired RFID transponder resonant frequency; configuring the RFID transponder circuit and printing the RFID transponder circuit onto the print media.
US08267489B2
An industrial machine assembly includes an industrial machine and a handle. The industrial machine includes an upper wall and a side wall. The side wall and upper wall cooperate to define a corner. The handle includes a grasping portion, a first flange, and a second flange. The handle is configured for attachment to the industrial machine in one of a first position and a second position. When the handle is in the first position, the first and second flanges straddle the corner such that the first flange is adjacent to the upper wall and the second flange is adjacent to the side wall. When the handle is in the second position, the first and second flanges straddle the corner such that the first flange is adjacent to the side wall and the second flange is adjacent to the upper wall.
US08267484B2
An axle arrangement (1) for two-wheelers, particularly for bicycles, includes a quick-release axle (2) having an axle (6) as the supporting part for a hub (7). The axle (6) can be inserted in receiving or dropout ends (3, 4) of a fork (5), a linkage, a rear end or similar mount. The axle (6) has a threaded end (16) and a quick-release fastener (9) with a tensioning lever (10) on the other end. One of the dropout ends (3, 4), or an intermediate supporting part that can be connected to the dropout ends (3, 4), has a screw-in thread (15) for screwing in the one threaded axle end (16) of the axle (6). In addition, an adjustable stop may be provided for the purpose of limiting the screw-in depth of the threaded axle end (16) in the screw-in thread (15) of the dropout ends or in the screw-in thread (15) of the intermediate supporting part connected to the dropout ends (3, 4).
US08267483B2
A shank bit, in particular a road milling bit, having a carrier part (10) that comprises a shank (11), the shank (11) carrying a bit tip (18) made of hard material, the carrier part comprising, in the region between the shank and the bit tip, a receiving portion (14) on which a head part is held (30), and the head part comprising a circumferential chip discharge surface (34.1) tapering in a direction toward the bit tip. In order to enable a shank bit of this kind to be designed in wear-optimized fashion, the head part is held rotatably with respect to the carrier part.
US08267469B1
A folding chair device having a seat that is mounted atop a seat support, wherein the bars of the seat support interconnect to form a border around the edges of the seat, with pivot mechanisms disposed in the support bars that engage the seat support, wherein the pivot mechanisms pivotally connect the support bars, having hinges disposed in the support bars allow the bottom portion to be folded upwardly, having sleeves on the support bars adapted to slide along the support bars and temporarily cover the hinges to prevent the hinges from folding, and a second frame with braces joining the sides, with pivot mechanisms in the braces which engage the side bars to pivotally connect the side braces respectively to the seat support, having hinges which allows the bottom portion to be folded upwardly or inwardly and sleeves adapted to slide and temporarily cover the hinges to prevent folding.
US08267467B2
A cab in a construction machine, the cab including frame members including a hollow first frame member connected to a second frame member in order to form a corner portion, the first frame member including a pass-through portion formed at a first side surface portion of the first frame member; a reinforcing member that is installed at the corner portion, wherein at least one of two sides of the reinforcing member passes through the pass-through portion and abuts against an inner surface of a second side surface portion of the first frame member that is at an opposite side of the first side surface portion; and a reinforcing plate that abuts against an outer surface of the second side surface portion, wherein the at least one of two sides of the reinforcing member is supported and reinforced by the reinforcing plate.
US08267466B1
An improved truck bed design for automotive and equipment delivery preferably includes at least one front section, a rear section and a front pan. A front of the rear section is preferably pivotally retained on a rear of the front section. The front pan is attached to a front of the front section. The front section includes a plurality of front lengthwise support members, at least one cross member and two front deck plates. The rear section includes two first rear deck plates, a second rear deck plate, a plurality of rear lengthwise support members and at least two improved air bag retention systems. Each improved air bag retention system includes an air bag, an air bag bracket and a base bracket. The front pan is formed from a single piece of material, which includes a base member, a first side member and a second side member.
US08267456B2
A compact seating arrangement for a vehicle, the seating arrangement comprising three seats: a front driver's seat arranged centrally and, at least to some extent, forward of two transversely aligned rear passenger seats, wherein the driver's seat extends transversely so as to be positioned in front of part of each of the rear passengers' seats, the extent of the overlap in the transverse position of the driver's seat and the rear passenger seats being such that each side of the driver's seat is required to be shaped so as to be able to accommodate at least part of a leg of a passenger seated in a forward facing position in a respective one of the passenger seats.
US08267455B1
An expandable trailer having a lower body portion having a first floor, a front wall, a back wall and a pair of opposite side walls. The trailer also has an upper body portion that is disposed over the lower body portion. The body portion has an upper segment and a lower segment that is connected to the lower body portion. The upper segment has a front wall, a back wall, a pair of opposite side walls, and a roof. The upper segment is movable relative to the lower segment such that the upper segment has a raised and lowered position relative to the lower body portion. The trailer may contain multiple floors defining separate living areas. The trailer may also have expandable rooms in the lower body portion which are slidingly retained within the lower body portion and provide additional room within the lower body portion.
US08267447B2
In an example embodiment, a lifting hook assembly comprises an elongated body, an adjustable arm, a joint assembly, and a lifting arm. The elongated body acts as a frame and skeleton for the lifting hook assembly. The adjustable arm is in communication with a first end of the elongated body, and is engageable to the lifting apparatus. The joint assembly is adapted to fix the adjustable arm at two or more predetermined angles with respect to the elongated body. The adjustability of the joint assembly can enable the adjustable arm to engage the lifting apparatus directly above the center of mass of the wheel weight, thereby balancing the wheel weight. The lifting arm extends from a second end of the elongated body, and is engageable to the wheel weight.
US08267446B2
This assembly includes a plastics material structural frame (2) including at least a lower cross member (8) and vertical struts (10, 12), each of said struts (10, 12) forming, over at least a portion of its height, a deformable energy absorption component (14), the module further including a plastics material shield (4) formed so as to match the shape of a shield skin (56) and arranged against the structural frame (2), said shield (4) including an upper cross member (34) and a lower cross member (36) interconnected via vertical connecting beams (38). The upper (34) and lower (36) cross members and the connecting beams (38) include a plurality of ribs (48) which form cells (50) in the cross members (34, 36) and the beams (38), at least some of said cells (50) passing through the shield (4).
US08267445B1
An energy-absorbing front end structure for a motor vehicle includes a pair of frame rails, struts (crushable members) made movable relative to the frame rails along a longitudinal axis, a bumper beam supported by the struts, and a spring resisting rearward movement of each strut relative to the frame rail. An inertia-activated locking device inhibits rearward movement of the strut when the vehicle undergoes a longitudinal deceleration above a threshold level so that the strut may absorb crash energy in a high-speed collision. If the vehicle is involved in a lower energy collision, such as with a pedestrian, the deceleration experienced by the vehicle is below the threshold level and the strut remains in an unlocked condition in which it is able to move rearward against the spring to lessen the crash energy transmitted to the pedestrian.
US08267429B2
A positioning pin and a bolt hole positioned near this pin are provided at a plate-shaped rear-portion attachment face portion of a suspension cross member. A positioning hole having the positioning pin inserted thereinto and a bolt hole positioned near this positioning hole are provided at a tunnel frame on the side of a vehicle. The rear-portion attachment face portion and the tunnel frame are fastened by a bolt inserting into the bolt holes together with a nut. Accordingly, the support rigidity of the suspension cross member during the normal vehicle traveling can be secured and the smooth retreat of the power unit to restrain the collision load from having bad influence on passengers in the vehicle frontal collision can be achieved.
US08267427B2
At the time of a frontal collision of a vehicle, even in a case in which knee regions of an occupant are in a state of being close to a housing of a knee airbag, the knee regions can be appropriately restrained with the knee airbag. When knee airbag 14 receives a supply of gas and expands and deploys towards the occupant side in the front passenger seat, expansion and deployment of a central region 14A of knee airbag 14 is suppressed by a flap 16 (a deployment control cloth), and end portion regions 14B expand and deploy before central portion 14A. Since these end portion regions 14B respectively expand and deploy from between the knee regions of an occupant and glove box door 24 towards the outer sides of the knee regions, a reaction force of knee airbag 14 with respect to the knee regions can be weakened.
US08267425B2
An air bag system for a vehicle including an air bag in a folded state and installed in a vehicle. The air bag is inflated and expanded by gas from an inflator, which introduces gas into the air bag. A vent hole is formed in at least one base fabric piece of the air bag so as to establish a communication path between an inside and an outside of the air bag through which gas may be discharged from the inside toward the outside of the air bag. A blocking member is supported on the base fabric piece to block up the vent hole. A guide portion is provided to slidably support the blocking member and to restrict the position of the blocking member relative to the vent hole. A sliding resistance increasing portion is provided on at least either one of the guide portion and the blocking member, so as to increase a sliding resistance between the guide portion and the blocking member when the blocking member slides.
US08267423B2
A side airbag extends along a side of an interior roof of a vehicle and is configured to restrain a head of a vehicle occupant when the airbag is deployed. The airbag includes an inboard panel, an outboard panel, and one or more seams configured to join the inboard panel and the outboard panel. The at least one or more seams include first seam portions and second seam portions. The first seam portions are subject to higher stress than the second seam portions when the airbag inflates. The first seam portions are reinforced by sewing or by at least one bead of energy absorbent sealant or adhesive.
US08267420B2
A hitch system includes a handle portion including a handle loop, a pin portion extending from the handle portion, a pair of opposite retainers and a trigger. The retainers are movable between a retracted position relative to the pin portion and an extended position relative to the pin portion. The trigger is coupled to the retainers to actuate the retainers between the retracted position and the extended position.
US08267415B2
A suspension arm may include first and second metal housings, a metal connecting portion including first and second panels, wherein the metal connecting portion connects the first and second metal housings at distal ends thereof respectively, and wherein a burred first panel connecting portion and a burred second panel connecting portion are formed respectively to the first and second panels, and a reinforcement member wrapping the first and second metal housings and the metal connecting portion, wherein the first panel and the second panel are connected by inserting the burred second panel connecting portion into the burred first panel connecting portion.
US08267414B2
A suspension assembly structured to facilitate a selective variance in a height of a vehicle including at least one suspension arm having a suspension joint structured to vary the height of the vehicle dependent on the operative orientation of the suspension arm and suspension joint when connected to the vehicle. The suspension joint includes two bushing members each formed of a resilient material and two retaining assemblies, wherein each retaining assembly is disposed in retaining relation to a different one of the two bushing members on opposite sides of one end of the suspension arm. Either each of the bushing members or each of the two retaining assemblies includes a first section and a second section being of different, predetermined thicknesses. While the suspension arm and suspension joint may be produced as equipment of original manufacture, a conventional suspension arm may be repaired or retrofit by replacing its original suspension joint with a modified suspension joint.
US08267398B2
To provide a medium storing and advancing apparatus which orderly piles up bills even when not flat. The medium storing and advancing apparatus includes a tongue piece roller having tongue pieces having the length thereof predetermined. While the tongue piece roller is rotated to slap the rear end of a bill with the tongue pieces to orient the latter downward, the front end of a following bill is superimposed on the downward-oriented rear end of the preceding bill.
US08267393B1
A removable media input tray assembly comprising a housing for receiving a removable media input tray. One or more housing assemblies stackable beneath an image forming device. The assembly having a substantially continuous media reference surface extending the height of a media feed path formed by two vertically aligned plates, one plate mounted on the removable media input tray and the other mounted on the housing and extending into the removable media input tray when installed in the housing, the arrangement of plates minimizing any gaps in the media reference surface within the assembly and adjacent assemblies and the image forming device.
US08267386B2
A pneumatically actuated area vacuum gripper for gripping and, if necessary, separating workpieces is provided by the present disclosure. In particular, the vacuum gripper is used with thin, flexible workpieces, and has a suction chamber, which has a suction wall with perforations, to be placed on the workpiece. An ejector nozzle has a connection and an outlet, the ejection nozzle being connected to the suction chamber via its connection, and the outlet of the ejector nozzle opening to the outside or into an exhaust air duct, and the suction inlet of the ejector nozzle empties into the suction chamber, whereby the direction of the air stream in the connection coming from the suction chamber corresponds to the direction of the main air conveyance in the ejector nozzle.
US08267384B2
An annular seal device includes a mandrel, at least one cone axially moveable on the mandrel, at least one sealing element having a frustoconical outer surface and a frustoconical inner surface, at least one contact feature at the at least one cone and operably engageable with the at least one sealing element, and at least one of a blocking element and a resilient member at the mandrel, the at least one of a blocking element and a resilient member supporting a blocking surface in opposition to the at least one contact feature. The resilient member itself includes a tubular body having spring rings at axial ends thereof, and a plurality of beams extending spirally from one axial end to the other axial end.
US08267371B1
An impulse tolerant valve body has at least one internal variable-volume space capable of elastic longitudinal compression and rebound. Each such space is filled with incompressible fluid and has fluid communication with at least one internal surge chamber. A closing energy impulse due to valve closing causes elastic longitudinal compression of at least one variable-volume space, with consequent flow of incompressible fluid to at least one surge chamber via at least one fluid flow restrictor. During subsequent elastic rebound, incompressible fluid flows from at least one surge chamber to at least one variable-volume space, again via at least one fluid flow restrictor. A portion of valve closing impulse energy is thus redistributed as heat generated due to fluid friction losses and valve body hysteresis loss. Valve closing energy impulse amplitude is thereby reduced, impulse duration is increased, vibration spectrum is narrowed and induced resonance vibrations are damped.
US08267365B2
An apparatus for securing a measuring or display unit on an object. Included is elongated guide element, on which an orientation aid and a holder for the measuring unit or for the display unit are arranged shiftably in the longitudinal direction of the guide element, wherein the orientation aid and the holder are so positionable relative to one another, that the object is held clamped between the orientation aid and the holder or a mounted sensor, and wherein a resilient tensioning apparatus is provided, with which the measuring or display unit is pressable with a defined clamping force onto the object.
US08267364B2
A clamp, detachably attachable to the upper edge of a vehicular window, supports one end of a swiveling arm. The other end of the arm rotatably supports a conventional platform for a spotting telescope, a telescope, or camera or other device. A handle extends from the platform for selective rotation of the supported device about the vertical and the horizontal axis. Thereby, the supported devise may be repositioned into or out of a vehicle and rotated about the vertical and horizontal axis to be aligned with the subject of interest.
US08267359B2
An adjustable tilt solar panel support system including a support post, a pivot bracket attached to the support post in a generally upright orientation and having a pivot pin hole for accommodating a pivot pin, and further having at least one adjustment opening; a rotational support cradle having a pivot pin hole in alignment with the pivot pin hole of the pivot bracket, such that the support cradle is pivotally attached to the pivot bracket, the support cradle further including at least one adjustment opening which aligns with the adjustment opening of the pivot bracket. An adjustment pin is selectively inserted into and through the adjustment openings of the support cradle and pivot bracket to secure the support cradle at a selected angle, and wherein the removal of the adjustment pin permits the rotational support cradle to pivot on the pivot bracket about the pivot pin. Beam holders for securing support beams are disposed atop the rotational support cradle.
US08267351B2
The present invention provides an aircraft landing bay door mechanism that includes the use of a roller slot mechanism for opening and closing the landing bay door.
US08267340B2
The airflow pulverization and classification device includes a pulverizer and a classifier. The pulverizer includes a pulverization chamber including a collision member; a jet nozzle directing jet flow toward the pulverization chamber; a feeder feeding a particulate material; a supply nozzle having an acceleration tube connected with the jet nozzle and the pulverization chamber, and a supply tube connected with the feeder and the acceleration tube to supply the particulate material the acceleration tube so that the particulate material is collided with the collision member; and a pressure gauge measuring a static pressure in the feeder and/or the supply tube, and/or a static pressure at the junction of the acceleration tube and the supply tube to control the supply conditions of the particulate material supplied to the acceleration tube on the basis of the measured static pressure.
US08267338B2
Safety inlet apparatus for a shredder paper feed opening includes upper cover, safety cover, paper feed passage block, and elastic member. A safety cover end section covers the shredder paper feed opening, and rotatably couples to the upper cover. Paper feed passage block is positioned between shredder paper feed opening and elastic member, and the safety cover pivots to the upper cover. Paper feed passage block is slidably arranged on the upper cover near shredder paper feed opening, connecting to the safety cover second end section. Elastic member ends respectively connect to the upper cover inner wall and the paper feed passage block. Paper feed passage block may be fixed to, or integrated with, the second end section, or may limit a stud on the second end section.
US08267336B2
In a method and a system for sorting shredder residues of metal-containing wastes, in particular from vehicle body shells, shredder residues are separated into a shredder light fraction and a non-ferromagnetic fraction. The method and system provide for a raw-granulate fraction being produced during the sorting of the shredder light fraction and the shredder heavy fraction in preliminary processes and a main process, by separating out at least one ferromagnetic fraction, a nonferrous-metal fraction, a fiber fraction, and a sand fraction, and the raw-granulate fraction being split up in a refining process.
US08267323B2
A printer having a head and a handle are disclosed. In one embodiment, the handle has a convex side and a concave side. In another embodiment, the head is pivotable relative to the handle.
US08267318B2
The inventive concept relates to a product authentication and identification device using a liquid barcode formed by liquid bars stored in liquid chambers. For example, according to the inventive concept liquid barcodes and a liquid barcode reader for reading liquid barcodes used for product authentication and identification of thin-film chemical analyzers such as a lab-on-a-disc and a bio disc in which bio chips such as a lab-on-a-chip, a protein chip, and a DNA chip for diagnosing and detecting a small amount of material in a fluid are integrated, a credit card, or other products can be provided.
US08267317B1
A fuel management system for use by operators of temporary and/or permanent inventories of vehicles such as vehicle dealerships. Fuel vouchers are issued by authorized issuing personnel to authorized recipients if a validation procedure is passed using a database incorporating employee and vehicle inventory information. At the time of delivery, the fueling station will verify the vehicle and individual presenting the voucher. If verification occurs, the authorized quantity of fuel is dispensed. The voucher and sales receipt are returned to the dealership for future auditing and report generation. The system stores information to enable reports to be generated concerning fuel voucher issuance, actual fuel usage and to detect fraud or misuse, allowing more effective fuel expense management. In the event a report generates a fraud alert, appropriate management personnel are immediately notified by email, text messaging or other means.
US08267315B1
In one embodiment, credits earned by an end-user from previous interactions between the end-user and an entity can be stored. The storing of credits can alter one or more records of a credit account. The credit account is owned or controlled by the entity. A quantity of the credits of the credit account is identified. This quantity is applied to a purchase in accordance with a credit to funds ratio. Applying the quantity of the credits reduces a number of credits in the credit account as indicated by the records. Funds are transferred to a funds account based on the quantity of stored credits applied to the purchase and the credit to funds ratio. The fund account is not owned or controlled by the entity.
US08267310B2
In a method and apparatus for handling a package in an automated dispensary, a package is positioned in an inspection station of the dispensary. Images are captured of the package and are read to identify data on labels or on the package itself. The data is encoded as source data in an identifying label which is applied to the package and is used subsequently in handling the package for dispensing and other inventory management procedures.
US08267306B2
The present invention relates generally to a system and method to guarantee that a personal choice corresponds with an electronic encoding of this choice and, more particularly, to a system and method for its production, and allows the verification to a human that his or her choice has been taken into account which is easily auditable.
US08267305B2
A carrier handle for insertion into a plant tray or pot includes highly flexible locking tabs at opposite ends. Each of the opposed ends includes a generally triangular tab which deflects for ease of insertion into an aperture in a tray or pot. The handle includes a center section with inwardly projecting concave indentations for defining a handhold centered for balancing the item being carried.
US08267285B2
Various pump features are provided. In a first aspect, a pump is provided having an actuator with a nozzle and a releasable cap having a first shield located to entrap a fixed volume of air about the nozzle. In a second aspect, a valve seat is located along a pump's internal fluid passage with deflectable spring arms extending therefrom that are-deflectable in response to movement of a check valve element. In a third aspect, a compliant shut-off valve feature is provided, wherein, a first end of a tubular piston is deflectable in response to interferingly engaging the head of the poppet. In a fourth aspect, a pump includes a pump inlet, and a reservoir having a first portion and a second well portion in open fluid communication. Fluid may be trapped within the well portion at various angular orientations of the pump.
US08267284B2
A two-stroke foam pump includes a piston housing and a piston assembly retained therein, the interaction of the piston housing and piston assembly defining a compressible mixing chamber. Movement of the piston assembly within the piston housing in one direction increases the volume of the compressible mixing chamber to draw liquid and air therein, and movement of the piston assembly within the piston housing in a direct opposite thereto decreases the volume of the compressible mixing chamber to expel liquid and air from the compressible mixing chamber as a foam product.
US08267283B2
In one embodiment, a personal hydration system includes a fluid reservoir having first and second spaced apart apertures. A first port is coupled to the first aperture, and a second port is coupled to the second aperture. A flexible tube has a first end that is coupled to the second port for communication with an interior of the fluid reservoir. The personal hydration system further includes a handle having a first end coupled to the first port, and a second end coupled to the second port. A channel near the second end of the handle extends over at least a portion of the first end of the tube and thereby captures the first end of the tube between the channel and the fluid reservoir.
US08267268B2
In a high-pressure gas tank for motor vehicles and a method for filling a high-pressure gas tank which has an interior space for holding gas and a filling region with an inflow opening which leads to the interior space, the filling region is formed so as to direct a gas jet which enters through the inflow opening at an angle φ upwardly with respect to a central horizontal longitudinal axis of the interior space toward a top wall of the tank where the gas jet is deflected toward the end of the tank opposite the filling region.
US08267259B2
A cup-shaped receptacle designed to engage the neck of a bottle and rigidly support it in a near horizontal position. The receptacle can be incorporated into many common building materials, so an array of the receptacles permits an attractive display of bottles. Bottles are held in place through the force of gravity and by resilient rings or gaskets disposed in the interior of the receptacle that limit vertical and horizontal migration of bottles. The rings also protect foil caps from damage.
US08267257B2
A rack for an appliance is provided. The rack includes a main support platform having a first support frame, an auxiliary support platform having a second support frame, and a plurality of elongated support members attached to the second support frame to form an auxiliary support surface. The auxiliary support platform is rotatable relative to the main support platform. In one example, the auxiliary support platform is rotatably connected to the main support platform. In addition or alternatively, a rotational drive member is operatively attached to the main support platform and operatively attached to the auxiliary support platform for causing rotational movement of the auxiliary support platform relative to the main support platform. Further, an appliance is provided including a main body having an interior cavity bounded by at least one wall section, and the main support platform is configured to be supported within the interior cavity.
US08267256B2
A device (1) for sorting a harvested stream of fruit in bunches is mounted in a harvesting machine. The sorting device includes at least two transverse sorter bars (3) driven with a cyclic relative movement, the cyclic relative movement enabling longitudinal displacement of the stream over the bars, while opening passages (4) between them. The passages allow detached berries to drop under the sorting device.
US08267250B2
The present invention refers to a multi-layered package, and particularly to a container including a container opening and a container bottom. Preferably, at least one outer wall includes a predetermined removable wall section, revealing an information. The feature of the package according to the present invention is that the package is formed with at least one inner wall and one outer wall. The outer wall includes a removable card that is part of the outer wall.
US08267246B2
A system for organizing, protecting, sterilizing, storing and delivery of surgical instruments, implants and related devices. Post and button fasteners are removably mounted to a tray and hold rigid and flexible bracketry for securing devices within the assembly. Silicone holders are mounted to upstanding pegs secured to the tray wall by nuts limiting movement of the holders relative to the tray wall.
US08267243B2
A postal sorting machine comprising an automatic feed station (8) with an unstacker device (2), a manual feed station (9), and a sorting conveyor adapted to move mailpieces in series one behind another in a conveying direction (31), the automatic feed station being designed to feed the conveyor automatically with mailpieces from a stack of mailpieces, the manual feed station (9) being adapted to receive mailpieces inserted individually and to place them in the conveyor. The manual feed station (9) comprises a protective cover forming a sort of tunnel over the conveyor, and an insertion slot (26) provided in the protective cover and through which a mailpiece can be inserted into the tunnel, said slot being in vertical alignment with a mailpiece receiving and handling space (34) for receiving and handling a mailpiece in the conveyor, which space is funnel-shaped.
US08267242B2
Disclosed is a large seamless belt which is prevented from being curled in a width direction of the belt.
US08267239B2
A conveyor belt cleaner scraper blade for cleaning the surface of a conveyor belt and a method of manufacture of the scraper blade. The scraper blade includes a body having a base member adapted to be attached to a cross shaft of a conveyor belt cleaner and a scraping member which extends outwardly from the base member to a scraping tip. The scraper blade includes one or more electrical sensors that are embedded in an insert member. The insert member and the sensors are molded and embedded within the body of the scraper blade. Each of the sensors is adapted to provide an electrical output signal representing a physical condition of the scraper blade sensed by the sensor. A variety of sensor embodiments are described, as well as two embodiments of control and monitoring systems for use in conjunction with the various blade and sensor combinations.
US08267237B2
An electromagnetic clutch includes an electromagnetic coil positioned within a coil housing. A pulley rotates relative to the housing and the coil. A shaft is rotatably supported by the housing. A hub plate is fixed for rotation with the shaft. A floating element is positioned between the pulley and the hub plate. An elastomeric ring is mounted between the pulley and the floating element and provides a driving connection therebetween. The elastomeric ring is sized to urge the floating element into frictional driving engagement with the hub plate and is compressible during energization of the coil to decouple the floating element from the hub plate.
US08267236B2
An electromagnetic clutch comprises a rotor rotatable with respect to the center of rotation, an armature facing the rotor with a clearance, a device for generating a magnetic attracting force between the rotor and the armature, a rotating member transmitting a driving force from the armature, and a plate spring for mounting the armature on the rotating member. The plate spring extends in a direction opposite to the center of rotation and has a first end separated from the center of rotation. The first end or a portion in the vicinity of the first end contacts an armature surface facing the rotor, and the plate spring is fixed to the rotating member at a portion other than the portion contacting the armature surface. The armature is supported such that the armature is urged to be separated in a direction opposite to the rotor by an elasticity of the plate spring.
US08267232B2
A clutch arrangement (10) for a motor vehicle transmission (80) is proposed for connecting a shaft (12) to a rotational element (14), in particular to a freely moving wheel (14), which is mounted thereon, wherein the clutch arrangement (10) has: a sliding sleeve (22) which is connected in a rotationally fixed fashion to the shaft (12) and is mounted in an axially displaceable fashion on the shaft (12) between a closed position and an open position and has a first sliding toothing (24); a clutch element (26) which is connected in a rotationally fixed fashion to the rotational element (14) and has a second sliding toothing (28) into which the first sliding toothing (24) can be inserted axially in the closing direction (30) in order to connect the rotational element (14) to the shaft (12) in the closed position; and an actuator arrangement (40) for axially sliding the sliding sleeve (22). In this context, the actuator arrangement (40) has an electromagnet arrangement (46) which can be actuated in order to slide the sliding sleeve (22) axially (FIG. 1).
US08267229B2
A brake shoe without a metal backing has a metal insert comprising two spaced apart bodies, a connecting portion having a back face adjacent to the back surface of the brake shoe, and two generally parallel radially extending flanges integral with the connecting portion. The parallel extensions define a keyway, wherein when the brake shoe is emplaced on the brake head, the keyway extends through an opening provided in the brake head.
US08267226B2
A method and apparatus for retarding rotation of at least one wheel, the apparatus including at least one braking member, a latch member secured to the braking member and movable between a first position and a second position, and a latch actuating member arranged to determine the position in which the latch member is positioned. The braking member is movable into a braking position in which rotation of the at least one wheel is retarded when the latch member is in the second position.
US08267224B2
The elevator car is arranged movably along guideways and in the special operating mode is decelerated to a standstill and kept at a standstill by a braking device, by a braking force brought about by the braking device together with a brakeway. A required deceleration to bring the elevator car to a standstill within a next-possible exit zone in the special operating mode is calculated, furthermore a stopping of the elevator car is detected if a sudden change in the braking force or the acceleration is established and the braking force of the braking device is set to a holding force when the stopping is established. The special operating mode results in the elevator car coming to a stop directly in the region of an exit zone in a special operating mode and passengers in the car being able to leave the elevator car independently.
US08267216B2
A cam lift and reset assembly includes a cam mounted on a rotatable shaft having a cam profile effective to provide a lifting force to a contacted part thereon upon rotation of the shaft and movement of the cam profile of the cam relative to the contacted part from a rest position to a lift position. The assembly also includes an active material in operative communication with the shaft, the active material being operative to change at least one property of the active material in response to an activation signal so as to effect rotation of the shaft. The assembly further includes a reset device in operative communication with the shaft to provide a reset force to the contacted part and counter-rotation of the shaft and movement of the cam profile of the cam relative to the contacted part from the lift position to the rest position.
US08267211B2
Disclosed is a tractor-trailer including a tractor having a lower tractor duct that receives first air from a front of the tractor and channels the first air through a center area of the tractor and down between a set of rear wheels, a trailer having a lower trailer duct positioned below a cargo space and that channels the first air in the lower trailer duct between each set of trailer rear wheels and a lower articulation duct positioned near the set of rear wheels in the tractor that receives air from the lower tractor duct and communicates air to the lower trailer duct. An upper duct is also provided with an articulation duct that channels air through a ductwork at the top of the trailer and tractor. A louver system at the rear of the trailer enables the air in each duct to be channeled and pulled out of the respective duct in such a manner as to reduce drag and eddy currents using the vacuum at the rear of the trailer.
US08267205B2
A riding work vehicle includes right and left wheels, at least one caster wheel, and a working machine. The lawnmower vehicle further includes traveling motor, steering motor, a traveling system clutch, and a steering system clutch. The traveling system clutch is configured to disable transmission of the rotational force from an axle of the caster wheel to the traveling motor in a state where the traveling motor is deactivated. The steering system clutch is configured to disable transmission of the rotational force from a steering shaft for the caster wheel to the steering motor in a state where the steering motor is deactivated.
US08267203B2
Earth-boring drill bits include a bit body, an erosion-resistant extension, and a shank. The erosion-resistant extension includes a generally tubular body, and an erosion-resistant material lining the generally tubular body within a fluid passageway. The erosion-resistant material lining the generally tubular body within the fluid passageway exhibits an erosion resistance greater than an erosion resistance exhibited by a material of the generally tubular body. Methods of forming an erosion-resistant extension include lining at least a portion of a wall of a generally tubular body within a fluid passageway extending through the generally tubular body with an erosion-resistant material.
US08267194B2
A rotation device (12) for rotation of equipment (13) fastened at the region of a distal end of a boom (9,11), which has a general longitudinal axis, and which is part of a boom device (3) which is fastenable to a carrier (2) for a mining or constructions work rig, wherein the rotation device includes a first rotation unit (R1) arranged to rotate the equipment around an axis (A1) which is essentially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the boom and a second rotation unit (R2) which is arranged to rotate the equipment around an axis (A2), which forms an angle with the longitudinal axis of the boom. The rotation units (R1, R2) are fastened to an angle unit (12′), which is included in the rotation device (12) and has rotational axes (A1, 21; A2,22) extending at an angle with respect to each other, and are connectable to the boom (9,11) as well as to said equipment (13). The invention also concerns a mining or constructions work rig and a boom.
US08267191B2
In an upper surface of a crank housing is provided an inlet for grease which is configured to be openable and closable by a cap. A vibration damping mechanism, which includes a counterweight provided with a connecting pin loosely fitted in a connecting hole of an eccentric pin when the cap is attached, is mounted in the cap, whereby the vibration damping mechanism is allowed to be taken in and out of the crank housing through the inlet by attachment and detachment of the cap to and from the inlet.
US08267187B2
A simplified spike tooth harrow includes an apertured bracket pivotally connected to the fore-and-aft connecting strap extending between the tine bars. The bracket adjustably supports a tine bar from the strap. A pin selectively secured in one of the apertures contacts the strap to set the working angle of the tines on the bar when the harrow is operated in the field. A chain or link connected to the bracket at a location offset from the bracket pivot suspends the harrow from an upper drawbar assembly which is movable vertically between field-working and transport positions. When the drawbar assembly is raised to the transport position so the harrow is out of ground contact, the bracket pivots so the pin is offset from the strap and can be easily and quickly removed from the aperture and reinserted in a different aperture to change the tine angle.
US08267186B2
A folding tool bar apparatus for an implement such as a rake, the toolbar having a frame with ground engaging wheels. The folding tool bar apparatus is adapted to be operatively attached to a prime mover for towing from place to place. First and second tool bars are pivotally attached to linkage members. A tongue member that sides along its longitudinal axis with respect to the frame pulls front ends of the tool bars toward the tongue member during movement to the transport position thereof and away from the tongue member during movement towards the working position thereof. The rear end of the tongue member is behind the frame in the working position thereof, making the folding tool bar apparatus shorter than conventional folding tool bars in the working position thereof.
US08267184B2
A method of radially expanding a tubular element extending into a wellbore formed in an earth formation comprises inducing the wall of the tubular element to bend radially outward and in an axially reverse direction so as to form an expanded tubular section extending around a remaining tubular section of the tubular element, wherein the bending occurs in a bending zone of the tubular element. The bending zone is induced to move in an axial direction relative to the remaining tubular section to increase the length of the expanded tubular section. An annular space is formed between the expanded tubular section and the remaining tubular section, wherein the method further comprises arranging a seal element in the annular space to define an upper portion and a lower portion of the annular space, the upper and lower portions being sealed from each other by the seal element.
US08267183B1
The current invention relates to an improved gripper for use within a coiled tubing injector unit. The improved gripper comprises a carrier for securing the gripper to the chain drive mechanism of the coiled tubing injector unit and a gripping shoe carried by the carrier. The improved gripper provides a carrier and a gripping shoe designed to permit quick and easy removal and replacement of the gripping shoe in the field during operation of the coiled tubing injector unit.
US08267182B2
A method and apparatus are provided for installing control lines and pipe into a well. The pipe-holding spider that is normally mounted on the rig floor is adapted for easy disassembly and reassembly when the pipe slips within the spider are not engaged with the outer surface of the pipe string so that upon disassembly, a control line guide becomes vertically movable. The control line guide is adapted for being controllably elevated to a distance above the rig floor, thereby providing personnel access to a portion of the length of the pipe string below the elevated control line guide and above the rig floor for securing control line to the pipe string using a fastener.
US08267181B2
Apparatus and methods for performing downhole operations. The apparatus can include a sealing mechanism having an inner bore formed therethrough; a check valve adjacent the sealing mechanism; a circulation device adjacent the check valve; and a rotatable nozzle adjacent the circulation device. The circulation device can include a first tubular member having a radial hole formed therethrough, and a second tubular member disposed about at least a portion of the first tubular member. The second tubular member can also have a radial hole formed therethrough, and the second tubular member can be adapted to longitudinally move about the first tubular member from a first position to a second position.
US08267178B1
A valve for use in fracing through cement casing in a well allows for flow of cement down the well during the cementing process and in the open position allows for fracing fluid to be directed through the cement casing for fracturing the formation adjacent the valve. The valve is constructed so as to reduce the likelihood of the valve to jam as a result of cement or other foreign material.
US08267171B2
An apparatus and method are provided for monitoring and controlling a power system of an electrical submersible pump assembly. A sensor monitors an alternating current component of a downhole electrical imbalance voltage at a neutral point of a motor of the electrical submersible pump assembly. The sensor measurement is transmitted to a controller at the surface. The controller analyzes the alternating current component of the downhole electrical imbalance voltage and then adjusting an operation of the electrical submersible pump assembly, or scheduling maintenance, accordingly. Also, a model of a power system of an electrical submersible pump assembly is created to predict an alternating current component of a downhole electrical imbalance voltage. The model is modified as necessary responsive to measurements from the sensor. A controller adjusts surface currents according to the model of the power system to match downhole motor drive currents to thereby optimize the power system.
US08267164B2
A system and method for energy recovery and humidity control comprises an enclosure (12) with a plurality of ports (86,90,92,94,86) connected to a plurality of ducts (14,16,18,20,22) The system has an enthalpy exchange core (136) exchanging heat and humidity between first air stream (35) and a second air stream (37), and a heat exchange sub-core (134) exchanging heat between the first air stream (35) and a third air stream (39), and fans (34,38,36) for circulating the first air stream (35), the second air stream (37) and the third air stream (39) respectively, and a controller (40) for controlling the fans (34,36,38) and regulating the flows of the first air stream (35), the second air stream (37) and the third air stream (39).
US08267163B2
A tube for a heat exchanger is disclosed, the tube including a plurality of protuberances formed on an inner surface of the tube. The protuberances are arranged in a pattern that maintains a substantially constant cross sectional hydraulic area along a length of the tube.
US08267154B2
The invention concerns a roller and a roller arrangement for a continuous casting installation comprising two bearing blocks and the roller carried by the bearing blocks, wherein the roller has a rotationally symmetrical roller casing and wherein the roller bearing is arranged within the roller casing.
US08267152B2
In a twin-roll continuous caster configured to cast molten steel supplied to a molten metal pool between cooling rolls into a cast piece by, for example, cooling and solidifying the molten steel on the surfaces of the cooling rolls, the pair of cooling rolls each have ridges on the surface thereof, and cast-piece edges and a cast-piece central portion are generated. Specifically, the cast-piece edges are generated by pressing and bonding lateral edges of one of solidified shells to lateral edges of the other solidified shells, the lateral edges of the solidified shells being produced by cooling and solidifying the molten metal on surfaces of collars provided at lateral end portions of the cooling rolls. The cast-piece central portion contains the unsolidified molten steel between the solidified shells and is generated by cooling and solidifying the molten steel on the surfaces of the laterally central portions of the cooling rolls.
US08267145B2
A tilter system for a window blind permits the slats of the blind to be tilted open or closed in a number of different configurations, including a double pitch configuration, depending on the routing of tilt cables or actuator cords.
US08267133B2
Lateral grooves 6 are disposed in a land portion 4 between main grooves 2 at prescribed intervals in a circumferential direction TC of the tire, the lateral grooves 6 extending from the main grooves 6 to a circumferential groove 5. Blocks 7 are defined by the main grooves 2, circumferential groove 5 and lateral grooves 6. At least two sub-grooves 8 are disposed in each block 7 at a prescribed interval in the tire circumferential direction TC, the sub-grooves 8 extending from a main groove 2 adjacent thereto in a width direction of the tire. At least three block portions 7A, 7B and 7C are formed. The width of the main groove 2 adjacent to the block 7 is varied by making the block widths Wa, Wb and Wc of the block portions 7A, 7B and 7C different from each other. A groove wall surface, facing the main groove, of a block portion less in width has a greater inclination angle with respect to a tread normal direction. This allows for provision of a pneumatic tire capable of improving steering stability on a dry road surface and on a snow road surface.
US08267130B1
A fashion forward organizing handbag includes a first set of padded pockets, a center pocket and a second set of padded pockets. The center pocket includes a first and second center walls. A plurality of credit card slits are formed in one of the first and second center walls to retain a plurality of cards. A plurality of lengthwise pockets are formed in the other one of said first and second center walls. Each set of padded pockets preferably includes a first padded wall and a second padded wall. The first padded wall has a shorter height than the second padded wall. The second padded wall is attached to one of a first inner padded wall or a second inner padded wall to form a plurality of second padded pockets. The first padded wall is attached to the second padded wall to form a plurality of second padded pockets.
US08267129B2
Some methods and related apparatus for manipulating a fluid conduit for insertion into a substantially re-sealable membrane include determining an orientation and position of a fluid conduit relative to the membrane. In an illustrative example, a syringe needle having a beveled leading edge may be manipulated by an automated device to be oriented and aligned with an aperture made upon a previous insertion of a needle into a membrane. In some examples, a predetermined number of insertions may be made in the same aperture by aligning and orienting one or more needles with the aperture. In some examples, multiple needle insertions may be controlled to produce apertures that are substantially spaced apart. Such procedures may, for example, advantageously extend the integrity of the membrane against leakage and/or contamination.
US08267125B2
A papermaking forming fabric includes a series of repeat units, wherein each repeat units includes: a set of top machine direction (MD) yarns; a set of top cross-machine direction (CMD) yarns interwoven with the top MD yarns to form a top fabric layer; a set of bottom MD yarns; a set of bottom CMD yarns interwoven with the bottom MD yarns to form a bottom fabric layer; and a set of stitching yarns interwoven with the top and bottom fabric layers. The bottom MD yarns and bottom CMD are woven such that floats formed by the bottom CMD yarns under the bottom MD yarns are at least 1.8 mm in length. A first ratio of top MD yarn coverage area to bottom MD yarn coverage area is less than 0.5, and a second ratio of bottom CMD yarn cross-sectional area to bottom MD yarn cross-sectional area is greater than 2.0.
US08267124B2
A pipeline isolation plug for location in a section of pipe has two seal modules coupled together by a ball joint. The first module has a mandrel defining a pressure head which, in use, is exposed to the pipeline pressure. A seal element is mounted behind the pressure head and is radially extendable to engage a pipe inner wall. The second module has a mandrel defining a pressure head which, in use, is exposed to the fluid pressure between the first and second modules. Two axially spaced seal elements are mounted on the mandrel behind the pressure head and are radially extendable to engage the pipe inner wall.
US08267120B2
A control valve assembly is provided for a load carrying vehicle that includes a storage space and a dumping mechanism. The control valve assembly includes a housing and a sliding valve positioned within the housing and movable between a first position, and a second position. The sliding valve includes a first piston that defines a first piston first surface and a first piston second surface, and a second piston that defines a second piston first surface and a second piston second surface. The first piston second surface faces the second piston first surface. A pilot system includes a first pilot passage in fluid communication with the first piston second surface to selectively actuate the sliding valve toward the first position, and a second pilot passage in fluid communication with the second piston first surface to selectively actuate the sliding valve toward the second position.
US08267119B2
The invention relates to a valve for controlling volumetric flows in a heating and/or cooling system of a motor vehicle, comprising a valve housing (10), from which at least one inlet channel (18) and at least one outlet channel (20, 22) branch, in addition to at least one disc-type valve body (28) for controlling the flow, said body being located in the valve housing so that it can rotate about the axis (31) of a driven shaft (30). According to the invention, the valve body (28) is operatively connected to an electromotive drive (24) by means of a gear system (64). The invention also relates to a heating and/or cooling system (110) of a motor vehicle, comprising a valve (131) of this type.
US08267116B2
A backflow and strainer device is presented. The device is a unitary unit that prevents backflow of fluid gas in a compressor and prevents dirt particles and debris from entering the compressor, thereby damaging the components. A valve mechanism moves between an open position and a closed position to either allow or prevent fluid gas from flowing into the compressor. A mesh portion is disposed in the device to trap all dirt particles and debris to prevent them from entering the compressor. The valve mechanism responds to the higher and lower pressures associated with the operation and shutdown of compressors.
US08267113B2
Safety valve for the venting circuit of a liquid tank Safety valve for the venting circuit of a liquid tank, comprising: a) a chamber (1) provided with a cover (2), which extends at least partly into the tank and is connected via an aperture (4) to the venting circuit; b) a float (7), which can slide vertically inside the chamber (1) and close off the venting aperture (4) in a high position; and c) a moveable wall (3), which divides the chamber (1) into a lower portion (1′) in which the float (7) slides and an upper portion (1″) which connects with the venting circuit, this wall (3) being a moveable wall and having the venting aperture (4), said valve further including an aperture stop (13) integral either with the moveable wall (3) or with the cover (2).
US08267110B2
A gas pressure regulator comprises a main body having a first, gas inlet pipe and a second, gas outlet pipe, a calibrated gas passage through which gas flows from the first pipe to the second pipe, a shutter housed at least partially in the main body and mobile lengthwise along a first defined line to adjust the opening of the calibrated passage, a device for actuating the shutter and a regulator spring unit opposing the movement of the shutter.
US08267108B2
A liquid metering device that dispenses liquid into an adjacent reservoir at a precise ratio relative to the total volume of the adjacent reservoir as the reservoir is filled with liquid. The hydrostatic dispensing system includes an additive reservoir, a calibrated dispensing vessel, a hydrostatic pressure chamber, and a three-way valve that passively arms and dis-arms the system. The precise dispensing of liquid by a calibrated dispensing vessel into the adjacent reservoir is accomplished entirely through the management and arrangement of hydrostatic pressure creating a liquid piston generated by the addition of liquid to the adjacent reservoir and its subsequent application to the liquid in the calibrated vertical column that displaces the calibrated volume of liquid into the reservoir at the same rate that liquid is added to the reservoir.
US08267106B2
A shelter for a motor vehicle or other movable object is moved from a fully retracted position to a fully deployed position by a combination of linear and pivotal movement. The shelter includes a frame assembly including parallel rails with pole holding subassemblies mounted on and movable along the rails. Arched poles with a collapsible canopy covering the poles are mounted on the pole holders, and linear movement of one pole holder on each rail will pull or push the poles into position because the poles are connected by the canopy. Poles on parallel rails will be moved simultaneously. Front and rear pole holders are pivoted to enclose both the front and rear of the shelter, and the entire assembly can be retracted to a generally horizontal storage position by movement of swing arms from a position aligned with the rails to a position in which the swing arms extend upright relative to the rails.
US08267100B2
Low profile wash pads, usable alone or with other like pads in a module array, are disclosed whereby one or more motor driven or motorless vehicles may be wheeled onto or across (or other object placed upon) a full drainage impervious washing platform such that substantially all spent wash liquid and removed debris are caused to flow off from the washing platform to an edge collector or gutter. Debris accumulation at the washing platform is avoided and processing of gutter-contained spent wash liquid and removed debris can occur in offset relation to and without interfering with ongoing washing on the washing platform. Several modes for processing the drainage comprising spent wash liquid and removed debris contained in the gutter are disclosed, one mode comprising automated processing using a screw conveyor.
US08267099B2
An eyelash groomer having multiple functions on a function head portion of the groomer. The number of functions depend upon the number of function head pieces. Each function head pieces is recommended to have a plurality of small bridges protruding perpendicularly from its respective bases to cage a heating element accessible to each function head piece of the function head of the eyelash groomer. The bridges also prevent the skin from directly contacting the heating element but allow the eyelashes direct contact for optimum curling. The bridges also serve as a guide for the eyelashes because the eyelashes enter at the intervals or spaces between the bridges. The heating element run horizontally beneath each function head piece. A heating mechanism heats the heating element and a protection case houses the components of the heating mechanism and serves as a handle for the eyelash groomer.
US08267095B2
A colored smoke module is disclosed that is mountable to at least a portion of a cigarette or other smoking device. The colored smoke module produces colored smoke when burned. Further, the colored smoke module is user mountable to a cigarette or other smoking device.
US08267093B2
An orthodontic assembly articulation device for causing a mandible to move relative to a maxilla includes a lower splint fitted with a lower reinforcement and an upper splint fitted with an upper reinforcement. The reinforcements are connected by a system of rods mounted with sliding capability. A ball joint couples each system of rods with a part of the reinforcements. The ball joint is interdependent with an extension oriented perpendicularly and screwed into a support element interdependent with a corresponding part of the reinforcements. The ball joint engages with the hemispherical cage of an end piece secured to each system of rods. The cage is in communication with an opening of the end piece to allow articulation of the system of rods of about 90° in a vertical plane and about 360° in a horizontal plane, while preventing any swinging of the end piece.
US08267083B1
The invention concerns a combination control for use in nasal cannula therapy, and includes a high flow, nasal cannula respiratory assistance ducted system, and a pressure relief valve having indicator structure, which typically includes a tubular body, a carrier slidable in the body, a plunger-indicator carried by the carrier, and a spring resisting carrier movement toward a cap on the body that defines an indicator window.
US08267075B2
An ignition device includes: an axially extending chamber with an opening portion to be open to a cylinder and a bottom surface facing the opening portion; an outer electrode provided around the opening portion; and a center electrode that forms the bottom surface. When a voltage is applied between the center electrode and the outer electrode, a plasma is produced in the chamber and a plasma jet is injected through the opening portion. The ignition device includes: a metal housing formed integrally with or separately from the outer electrode; an insulating member that supports the center electrode while insulating the center electrode from the housing and the outer electrode; and a screw thread formed on a periphery of the housing by which the ignition device is screwed into a cylinder head of the internal combustion engine. A gasket is disposed in a side closer to the inside of the cylinder. A peripheral wall of the chamber is formed by the insulating member.
US08267074B2
A fuel system for an engine of a vehicle and a method of operating the fuel system are described. As a non-limiting example, the fuel system is controlled in response to engine operating conditions.
US08267070B2
High pressure regions (31H to 35H) and low pressure regions (31L to 34L) are created based on the exhaust gas flow at curves in an EGR pipe (30), thereby enabling the exhaust gas pressure at inlets (21b to 26b) of gas introduction passages (21a to 26a) to be adjusted. Accordingly, regardless of the number of cylinders or whether the lengths of the flow paths of the EGR pipe (30) are the same, the exhaust pressure at the inlets (21b to 26b) of the gas introduction passages (21a to 26a) can be appropriately adjusted so any difference in pressure of exhaust gas introduced into branch pipes (21 to 26) can be reduced. In this way, the EGR rates of the cylinders can be made closer or the same such that stable combustion can be achieved, thus enabling stable engine operation to be maintained. The EGR pipe (30) is arranged weaving closely between the branch pipes (21 to 26) so space efficiency can be improved and a sufficient amount of exhaust gas can be introduced evenly into the cylinders.
US08267065B2
A method for adjusting fuel injection of an engine is disclosed. In one example, fuel injection timing is adjusted to account for fuels having different cetane numbers. Operation of the engine may be improved especially during conditions where combustion phase may vary.
US08267062B2
In an engine, blow-by is substantially eliminated and friction is significantly reduced using one or more combinations of non-metallic rings. By substantially eliminating blow-by and by reducing friction, certain engine parameters may be changed. In addition, by substantially eliminating blow-by and by reducing friction, pollution may be reduced, fuel economy may be increased and power may be increased.
US08267058B2
A valve opening/closing timing control apparatus includes a phase displacing mechanism for displacing relative phase between a drive-side rotational member and a driven-side rotational member rotatable in unison with a cam shaft, a first pump driven by an internal combustion engine, a second pump driven by a drive source different from the internal combustion engine, a locking mechanism capable of locking the relative phase to an initial phase suitable for starting the internal combustion engine, and an urging mechanism 3 for urging the phase displacing mechanism in the advancing direction between the most retarding phase and the initial phase, a minimal urging force of the urging mechanism being set so as to override the displacing force toward the retarding phase side at the minimal pressure.
US08267055B2
An eccentric ring is interposed between the big end bearing of the connecting rod and the crankpin.The eccentric ring is secured at one end of a secondary connecting rod, the other end of the secondary connecting rod being rotatably mounted on a crankpin of a secondary crankshaft.The angular displacement of the rotation axis of the secondary crankshaft about the rotation axis of the crankshaft controls the compression ratio.The secondary crankshaft and the secondary connecting rod carry a tiny part of the loads of the engine, some 1/20, enabling compact, true lightweight and robust structure.The kinematics of the piston remains unchanged.The balance of the engine remains unchanged.The application on V engines is more economical: a small secondary connecting rod per pair of cylinders, a single and slight secondary crankshaft and a single control frame is all it takes.
US08267050B1
An adjustable leash with automatic slack take-up assembly comprising a pulley buckle and cam buckle. The lead end of the leash strap is affixed to a top opening of the pulley buckle, and the leash body is movably threaded in operative order through a first opening of the cam buckle, a bottom opening of the pulley buckle, and a second opening of the cam buckle. In operation, a user maintains a grip at all times on the lead handle. The user depresses the spring loaded tab with the user's other hand. While depressing the spring loaded tab, the user pulls a pull tab on the cam buckle with the second hand to either lengthen or shorten the device. Once a desired length has been formed, with automatic slack take-up as the leash length is adjusted, the user releases the spring loaded tab to lock the device into position.
US08267047B2
In order to generate waves in a volume of water of an aquarium, it is proposed that a storage container which extends beyond the surface of the volume of water should be provided in the aquarium. Using a pump, water is periodically pumped from the water container into the storage container and returned from the storage container into the aquarium. The energy delivered to the water during this leads to fluctuations in the position of the free surface of the volume of water and in-phase operation of the pump provides stronger surface displacements in the aquarium, which are comparable with a wave in open water and which expose the plants and living beings in the aquarium to an alternating mechanical load.
US08267046B2
The invention relates to a method for producing viable tetraploid bivalve mollusks, by fertilisation of diploid female ovocytes with diploid male sperm, followed by the induction of the retention of the first polar body of the fertilised eggs, isolation from the obtained larvae of a larval sub-population enriched in tetraploids and selective raising of said sub-population.
US08267043B1
A canine cooling assembly includes a base that has a top side, a bottom side and a peripheral edge. A housing is attached to and covers the top side of the base. The housing includes a bottom wall, a top wall and a perimeter wall that is attached to and extends between the top and bottom walls. The top wall has a plurality of apertures extending therethrough. A blower is in fluid communication with the housing and injects air into the housing to force air outwardly through the apertures. An animal is positionable on the housing to be cooled by air ejected from the apertures.
US08267038B2
A droplet discharge apparatus is configured to move a droplet discharge head and a weight measurement unit relative to each other so that the droplet discharge head is placed in a position that faces the weight measurement unit by controlling a weight measurement unit movement part and a weight measurement unit secondary movement. The droplet discharge apparatus is also configured to control the droplet discharge head to perform a weight measurement discharge for measuring a weight of the liquid material discharged from the droplet discharge head during the feed/removal period, which includes a period for feeding and removing the substrate from the stage, and a period in which the stage is moved in relative fashion by the stage movement unit for performing feeding and removal operations.
US08267017B1
A folding workbench includes a work surface pivotally mounted to a wall for movement between a raised, horizontal use position and a lowered, vertical storage position. The workbench includes a pair of legs which are pivotally mounted at opposite ends to the wall and to the work surface. Each leg includes a knee joint. The legs are straight when the work surface is up and bent when the work surface is down. A lock prevents the legs from accidentally folding when the work surface is in the raised, use position.
US08267013B2
The present invention is a flexible, fillable and/or inflatable breach bag (aqua ram) with a planar body and at least one fillable water chamber for use in breaching locked or barricaded doors or penetrating surfaces with explosive charges. The breach bag may conform to a variety of shapes, depending on the application. The bag generally includes a generally planar panel of flexible material and at least one water chamber disposed on the material layer with a fluid inlet for the selective introduction of fill material, generally in the field. Additionally, the bags include means to suspend the breach bag against structures to be breached.
US08267009B2
A nutcracker utilizes a cone with a textured exterior surface rotatably mounted and centered inside a vertical cylinder with a textured interior surface. The textured exterior surface and the textured interior surface are non-parallel and form a cracking zone that becomes smaller in the downward direction. As the conical member rotates, gravity rolls nuts down in a spiraling path, between and along the preferred elongated and slanted protrusions forming the texture. This path takes the nuts into an increasingly smaller cracking zone until the pressure on the nuts from the conical and cylindrical members causes the nut-shells to crack and the nuts typically to break into halves and thirds. The nutcracker may include an adjustable barrel that rolls up and down inside a housing, for changing the minimum width of the cracking zone.
US08267008B2
The centrifugal fan for circulating a steam in the cook chamber of a steam oven is rotated in the reverse direction only for a certain time of a set cooking time, whereby a steam circulating flow generated in the cook chamber is changed, and consequently, the foods on the casseroles placed in the cook chamber are uniformly heated.
US08266992B2
A steady rest for clamping of rod-shaped workpieces, the steady rest including three holding elements, including two outer holding elements adapted to be swivelled about a pin mounted in a housing and a middle holding element adapted to be adjusted axially, and in which coolant or lubricant can be carried to a workpiece by means of ducts in the housing and the middle holding element. The ducts provided in the housing and in the middle holding element, being connected to a cavity and the ducts being connected together by a deformable flexible high-pressure hose. The ducts being connected together by means of the elastically deformable element.
US08266986B2
A hydraulic control system for a transmission includes a motor, a sump for storing a hydraulic fluid, and a dual element pump connected to the motor. The dual element pump has at least one input port connected to the sump, a first outlet port, and a second outlet port. The dual element pump provides a first volume of hydraulic fluid to the first outlet port and provides a second volume of hydraulic fluid to the second outlet port. The first volume is greater than the second volume. The first outlet port is connected to a diversion valve. The second outlet port is connected to a high pressure hydraulic circuit. The diversion valve is operable to transmit the hydraulic fluid from the first outlet port to a low pressure hydraulic circuit and the high pressure hydraulic circuit.
US08266978B2
A gear train assembly includes a first gear, a second gear, a first lubricant receiver, and a second lubricant receiver. The first gear meshes with the second gear at an engagement portion. The first lubricant receiver is configured to catch lubricant from the first gear before the engagement portion. The second lubricant receiver is configured to catch lubricant from the first gear after the engagement portion. A minimum distance between the second lubricant receiver and the first gear is less than a minimum distance between the first lubricant receiver and the first gear. An image forming apparatus for forming an image includes the gear train assembly.
US08266965B2
A method and a device for the contactless detection of laminated, flat objects, particularly sheet-like recording media. There is a galvanic separation and mechanical decoupling between the transmitter and receiver to improve detection. These measures can be further improved with correction characteristic methods.
US08266964B2
An ultrasonic flaw detection is performed to a welded portion 2 of a pipe body 1, a defect detection threshold value is determined based on the signal intensity difference between the total area of the defects existing in the region of an ultrasonic beam on a welded surface and an artificial defect, and a quality control of the pipe body is performed based on the defect detection threshold value. An equivalent defect diameter is determined from the defect density on the welded surface of the welded portion of the pipe body in a pipe axis direction and the area of the ultrasonic beam on the welded surface based on the total area of the defects existing in the region of the ultrasonic beam, and the defect detection threshold value is determined based on the equivalent defect diameter and the signal intensity difference of the artificial defect.
US08266960B2
Systems and methods for potted shock isolation are provided. In once embodiment a shock isolation system comprises an isolator comprising an outer ring for mounting to an external housing, and an inner ring connected to the outer ring via an isolating element; and an inertial sensing assembly comprising: at least one circuit board secured to the inner ring of the isolator, the at least one circuit board further comprising a triad of gyroscopes and a triad of accelerometers; and a low durometer highly dampened supporting material encapsulating a first surface of the at least one circuit board.
US08266951B2
The present invention is a method and apparatus for acoustically manipulating one or more particles. Acoustically manipulated particles may be separated by size. The particles may be flowed in a flow stream and acoustic radiation pressure, which may be radial, may be applied to the flow stream. This application of acoustic radiation pressure may separate the particles. In one embodiment, the particles may be separated by size, and as a further example, the larger particles may be transported to a central axis.
US08266942B2
A bending machine includes an operating platform, a lower die clamp received on the operating platform, an upper die holder, and an upper die clamp. The upper die holder includes a main body, a positioning pin, a spring, and an operating rod. The main body includes a lower surface and two opposite side surfaces, the lower surface defines a sliding groove having a bottom surface with a positioning hole defined thereon. One of the two opposite side surfaces defines a sliding slot communicating with the positioning hole. The spring and the positioning pin are received in the positioning hole in sequence. The operating rod is received in the sliding slot with one end received in the latching hole and the other end extending out of the sliding slot. The upper die clamp is slidable in the sliding groove and defines a pinhole corresponding to the positioning pin.
US08266940B2
An apparatus and method for bending or shaping orthodontic archwires or other medical devices into a complex, patient individual shape is described. The apparatus comprises of two moveable, compact, manipulators with, in total, at least three revolute joints defining three rotation axes and at least three prismatic joints defining at least three translation axes. Gripping tools are provided on the manipulators. The two manipulators are arranged to allow a relative movement in six degrees of freedom. A reduced complexity embodiment is also described having only one or two revolute joints.
US08266925B2
An apparatus for manufacturing a float glass, including a float bath for storing a molten metal on which a molten glass flows, wherein the molten metal flows in the float bath, comprises an discharge opening formed through a wall of a downstream end of the float bath at the center of the wall to discharge a molten metal crashing against the wall and dross floating on the molten metal; and a pair of side channels formed inside of the wall and communicated with the discharge opening and both sides of the float bath.
US08266915B2
A thermodynamic energy conversion device (14) based on the effect of differential evaporation generated by a convex liquid surface and by a temperature gradient is constructed for the use either as a heat or hydraulic pump. In one arrangement the device (14) comprises two heat conductive containers (1) and (2); a working liquid (5) disposed in said containers with open surfaces (6) and (6′); a vapor (7) of the working liquid; a porous device (8) for creating at least one convex meniscus (9) on the open surface (6), of the working liquid (5) in one of the containers said convex meniscus having higher mean curvature than that of the open surface (6′); means (10) for connecting containers (1) and (2) to an external hydraulic circuit (11). An efficient external combustion engine using such a device (14) is disclosed.
US08266913B2
A power plant arrangement and method of operation are provided. The power plant arrangement comprises at lease one main air compressor and one or more gas turbine assemblies. Each assembly comprises a turbine combustor for mixing a portion of a compressed ambient gas flow with a portion of a recirculated low oxygen content gas flow and a fuel stream, and burning the combustible mixture to form the recirculated low oxygen content flow. The assembly further comprises a turbine compressor, fluidly connected to the turbine combustor, and connected to a turbine shaft that is arranged to be driven by rotation of a turbine. The assembly also comprises a recirculation loop for recirculating at least a portion of the recirculated low oxygen content gas flow from the turbine to the turbine compressor.
US08266906B2
A turbine housing for a turbocharger for use in a reciprocating internal combustion engine includes a housing having a housing axis and configured to house a rotatable shaft having a turbine wheel disposed thereon. The housing includes a volute having a volute chamber disposed around the housing axis for receiving the turbine wheel. The volute has a first volute inlet providing a first flow path in fluid communication with the volute chamber and second volute inlet providing a second flow path in fluid communication with the volute chamber. The first volute inlet is circumferentially spaced about the housing axis from the second volute inlet by a phase angle α. The first volute inlet is also radially spaced about the housing axis from the second volute inlet, and may also be axially spaced from the second volute inlet along the housing axis.
US08266900B2
A plurality of flat tubes formed as a tube having notches by linearly cutting upper and lower parts from a hollow flat circular doughnut shape are stacked to structure a tube laminate. It is attached to a case so that a notch aligns with the notch and faces upward by an exhaust inflow end plate and that a notch aligns with the notch and faces downward by an exhaust outflow end plate. A cutoff valve is provided at an exhaust outflow end of an exhaust communication tube passing through the center of the tube laminate by heat insulation. While an internal combustion engine is warming up, the cutoff valve is closed to cause the exhaust to flow in gaps of the respective flat tubes from upward to downward as a whole and also a heat exchange medium is caused to flow in the respective flat tubes from downward to upward as a whole to have heat exchanged between the exhaust and the heat exchange medium to recover the exhaust heat.
US08266891B2
Method and system for emission control of a compression ignition locomotive engine. The method includes measuring an actual power level of the engine, comparing a desired power level with the actual power level of the engine; implementing a combustion strategy based on the comparing of the desired and the actual power levels; and implementing an emission strategy based on the combustion strategy. The emission strategy is intended to attain a predetermined emission level in the exhaust from the engine.
US08266886B2
Systems and methods involving multiple torque paths of gas turbine engines are provided. In this regard, a representative spool assembly for a gas turbine engine, which incorporates a compressor, a turbine and a gear assembly, includes: a shaft operative to be driven by the turbine; a first spool segment operative to couple the shaft to the compressor; and a second spool segment operative to couple the shaft to the gear assembly. The first spool segment and the second spool segment are not coupled to each other.
US08266882B2
A cable guide (10), having articulated links (12), capable of angling in two directions, and open on an face end, and arranged one behind the other in a longitudinal direction and forming a guide channel (16) by means of external guide elements; joints absorbing tensile forces are located between two connected links, and the links (12) each display corresponding connecting elements (18) with two connecting components (20, 22). The first component (20) of the connecting element (18) is fork-shaped, where the second connecting component displays a first seat (32) with a spherical boundary, in which a joint element (34), having an opening (36) and a spherical outer boundary (35) adapted to the first seat, is moveable, and the second component with a joint element (34) can be positioned between the two legs of the first component in a way that the opening (36) in the joint element with a spherical outer boundary is aligned with an opening (27, 28) provided in each of the two legs (24, 26).
US08266881B2
A motor support system including a motor having a shaft rotatably secured to and maintained in a substantially axial alignment with a second shaft configured to change angular orientation along at least one plane of travel perpendicular to the axial alignment. The second shaft has a first pivot point with respect to a frame, the motor being secured to the frame by a cantilevered flexible member to maintain the motor shaft in substantial axial alignment with the second shaft.
US08266880B2
A harvesting machine includes a harvesting header with a header frame, a cutterbar assembly attached to the header frame along the length thereof and configured to cut a crop, and a draper assembly positioned behind the cutterbar assembly and operable to receive severed crop material from the cutterbar assembly. The draper assembly includes a center draper that delivers crop material to a feeder house of the harvesting machine and oppositely spaced side drapers that deliver crop material to the center draper. The harvesting header is operable to flex and thereby follow an uneven terrain.
US08266877B2
A packing method and unit for folding a sheet of packing material about a parallelepiped-shaped article, the packing unit having: a conveyor for feeding the article along a path; a feed device for feeding the sheet of packing material perpendicularly to the path and in front of the article, so the article, as it moves forward, intercepts and gradually folds the sheet of packing material into a “U”; two lead-in devices mounted to move parallel to the path and positioned on opposite sides of the article, so the article is enclosed between the two lead-in devices; and an actuating device for feeding the two lead-in devices parallel to the path and together with the article, so the sheet of packing material is also intercepted by the lead-in devices.
US08266875B2
A hot water shrink tunnel includes a heat chamber that has no flue or vent into the heat chamber, an inlet opening and spaced therefrom an outlet opening. Each opening is closed by an end closing device, such as a curtain. A conveyor carries a product through the heat chamber from the inlet opening to the outlet opening. A duct is mounted adjacent each end opening, where the duct includes a shroud of a size and design to capture hot water vapor that issues from the heat chamber when a product passes through the end closing device of the non-flued/unvented tunnel.
US08266872B2
The invention relates to a packaging tube for a pre-determined volume of a biological substance to be stored at a low temperature and to a system including same. The inventive packaging tube comprises a portion (2) for receiving the volume and an annular end portion (3) designed to be more easily crushed by pinching than the receiving portion (2) and to adopt a flattened position in which two lips (30) are in contact with one another. In addition, the annular end portion (3) is designed such that the lips (30) are secured to one another in order to form a seal (31) on the tube. The system includes at least one such tube and a jaw welding device designed to move the annular portion (3) into the flattened position and to weld the lips (30) to one another in order to form the seal (31).
US08266871B1
Waste disposal device adapted to receive a waste-containing member includes a container defining a waste-receiving compartment having an opening, a lid connected to the container and having a first, closed position covering the opening of the container and a second, open position in which the opening is exposed, and a rotation mechanism arranged in the container to rotate the waste-containing member when present in the container. The rotation mechanism is arranged to rotate the waste-containing member upon closure of the lid. A switch mechanism enables opening movement of the lid to cause the rotation mechanism to rotate the waste-containing member or prevent the rotation mechanism from rotating the waste-containing member depending on a setting of the switch mechanism.
US08266863B2
The system relates to a system for joining flat, relatively thin members that adjoin one another along their narrow face, the members having grooves incorporated into the narrow faces that are parallel to the surface and have groove walls that are parallel to each other, and the joining element being inserted into the grooves of two adjacent members and bridging the partition gap between the members in the manner of an external tongue. In this context the joining element (11) has, on its part (12) that can be inserted in the manner of an external tongue in the longitudinal center on its side that faces away from the visible surface of the members, one continuous web or a plurality of aligned webs (13) that preferably protrude at a right angle, from which detent webs (14, 15) protrude on both sides, each of which has a detent projection (16, 17) that projects toward the external-tongue-like part (12), and on the bottom of the member (1, 2), which faces away from its visible surface, detent grooves (7, 8) being provided that run parallel to the adjacent edge at a distance corresponding to the width of the detent webs (14, 15).
US08266862B2
A prefabricated wall or floor panel includes a rectangular concrete section comprising a projection along one side, a recess along the other side, the recessing being complementary to the projection, a protrusion along one end, a trough along the other end, the trough being complementary to the protrusion, channels each having one end terminated at one end and the other end terminated at the other end, a first groove on each of one end and the other end extending from one side to the other side by passing the mouths of the channels, and a second groove on either side extending from one end to the other end; a rectangular surface board formed integrally with an outer surface of the concrete section; and an interconnection comprising a transverse part of and spaced longitudinal tubes each adapted to fit into the channel to connect two adjacent prefabricated components together.
US08266851B2
A mullion system includes a universal reinforcement key, that joins window frame members and when anchored in a window frame opening or against other window frame joining members, contributes to bearing the load on the window frame unit. The system also includes a mull strip member with end caps designed to weep moisture away from and out of the window frame unit.
US08266849B2
A platform panel or module is provided to construct a surface for a deck, floor, wall, ceiling, or roof. The panel or module comprises a decorative top layer integral with or joined to a structural, composite molded platform. Each platform panel or module has two complementary module-coupling sides that take advantage of the full width of each joist that supports the platform. Also, male and female connecting members are disposed along the module-coupling sides that enable one platform panel or module to be efficiently and positively interlocked with an adjacent panel or module. Each panel or module can be fastened on one side to a single joist while being secured on its opposite side to an adjoining panel or module. The panels or modules are also designed to cover over an entire joist substructure, including the beginning-of-sequence and end-of-sequence joists.
US08266834B2
The instant disclosure provides a photo-frame-type display and a support unit thereof. The display has a display frame unit having a bottom portion disposable on a working surface. The support unit comprises a connecting base unit fixedly disposed to the back of the display frame unit, an inclining module pivotally coupled to the connecting base unit, and a rebounding module on the back of the display frame unit in elastic connection with the inclining module. The photo-frame-type display may be disposed on a tabletop in a fashion resembling a traditional photo frame, and the support unit is capable of steadily sustaining the display frame unit in a steep inclining configuration suitable for touch-screen/handwriting operations.
US08266833B2
A vehicle showcase display badge is provided which includes a bezel, a substantially transparent front lens, and a rear lens comprising a light transparent front surface and a colored reflective rear surface. The badge also includes a graphic assembly disposed between the front lens and the rear lens, wherein the rear lens provides a three-dimensional appearance of the graphic assembly. The badge further includes an attachment for attaching the badge to a vehicle such that the graphic assembly is viewable. One or more curved surfaces may be employed on the rear lens to provide a shadow effect. One or more of the lenses may be overmolded.
US08266832B2
A label system including a label having a first portion which has a protective coating thereon and a second portion on a same side thereof which does not have the protective coating. The label further includes a generally transparent window, wherein the window is configured to overlie the second portion when the label is wrapped around a body.
US08266830B2
An ironing board for multifunctional use comprising a base (1), a body (5) with a work surface (6), which body has a first longitudinal axis (I-I) and is connected to the base. A column (7) extends between the body and the base, the column having a second longitudinal axis (II-II) and a tilting means. The tilting means is arranged for tilting the body about a tilting axis (T-T) extending substantially perpendicularly to both the first axis and the second axis. A system comprises such an ironing board and an iron for cooperation with the ironing board. The invention further relates to a method for refreshing an article and a method for pressing an article.
US08266822B2
An improvement for drying crushed cane or other bagasse for briquetting or other processes includes a drying unit (1) with a humid bagasse dosing hopper (2) having a screw conveyor feeding inclined screw conveyor (5) and a latter rotary dosing valve (6) discharging into hot air funnel (7) into drying tank (8), bagasse being lifted and exposed to the hot air in front chamber (9) and in final drying chamber (17) by tumbling blades (10) through the action of geared motor (15), almost-dry bagasse in suspension being sucked out by pair of centrifugal blowers (18) dropping it into separator filter (19) and falling into hopper (20), being cooled in open-trough screw conveyors (21) and (22), screw conveyor (22) including screen (23) for separation of powder to be conveyed by screw conveyor (25) to inclined screw conveyor (26) for discharge into feeder hoppers (28) to the burners (32).
US08266817B2
An electric wood kiln has a containment space sealed by at least one door. A tray is disposed on a bottom base of the electric wood kiln in the containment space. A diversion device is disposed on a top side of the electric wood kiln having a fan set, a plurality of diversion fins, at least one counterflow space and at least one intake aperture. The fan set has fan blades fluidly connected to the counterflow space, and the counterflow space is fluidly connected to the cycling channel on the door and the rear sidewall. An outer region of each fan blade fluidly couples with radial diversion fins; the diversion fins and the counterflow space form fluidly separated spaces coupled via the fan blades, and the intake aperture is connected externally to the electric wood kiln and the counterflow space. A heating device is disposed on a top side of the electric wood kiln adjacent to an outer side of the diversion fins and fluidly connected to the fan set. An adjustable knob is respectively disposed on at least two facing sidewalls of the electric wood kiln. A controller is disposed external to the electric wood kiln and electrically connected to the tray, the fan set, the heating device and the adjustable knob.
US08266814B2
A household appliance for cleaning laundry includes a rinsing container that collects rinsing liquid generated during a cleaning process, a controller that stores a connection type of a rinsing liquid device during an initial commissioning of the rinsing liquid device, and one of a collection container that collects rinsing liquid after cleaning a heat exchanger of a heat pump and a connection to an external waste water system that disposes of the rinsing liquid after cleaning the heat exchanger based upon the connection type stored by the controller.
US08266811B2
An adjustable alignment apparatus for a gage that fits to a vehicle body includes a base having first, second, and third abutment faces and an adjusting plate having first, second, and third walls respectively spaced from the first, second, and third abutment faces. An adjusting bolt acts between the base and the adjusting plate to move the walls of the adjusting plate respectively toward and away from the walls of the base. A first mounting bracket engages with the vehicle body and is attached to one of the base and the adjusting plate. A second mounting bracket engages with the gage and is attached to the other of the base and the adjusting plate. A plurality of shims can be removeably installed and uninstalled between the abutment faces of the base and the walls of the adjusting plate to adjust the position of the gage relative the vehicle body.
US08266806B2
A collapsible saw including a saw blade with teeth and a saw frame. The frame is made of four parts; a handle, a front piece, a support body and a lever piece. The four frame units fold flat and enclose both sides of the blade and fold out to form a generally U shaped saw frame, with the saw blade stretched between the two ends of the U shaped frame. The frame parts are connected to each other, and the saw has a sawing and a transport mode.
US08266788B2
A system for joining tubular members comprising: a U-shaped joining member, with a first leg, a bottom of the U in communication with the first leg, and a second leg in communication with the bottom of the U, and wherein the first leg and second legs have a taper such that the cross-sectional surface area of the first leg is at a minimum at generally the far end of the first and second legs, and the cross-sectional surface is at a maximum at generally the beginning end of the first and second legs; an anchor member configured to fit generally in the bottom of the U; a first tubular member configured to fit abutting the anchor member, and between the first and second legs; a wire made of anisotropic material configured to be wound about the first leg, second leg, and a portion of the first tubular member located between the first leg and second leg; a second tubular member configured to structurally attach to the first tubular member, U-shaped joining member, anchor member, and anisotropic material; a plurality of windings configured to attach the second tubular member to an anchored member. A method of making two joining members. A method of joining tubular members.
US08266785B2
A method for manufacturing a magnetoresistive sensor having improved pinned layer stability at small track widths. The method includes providing a substrate, and depositing a plurality of sensor layers. A layer of material that is resistant to removal by chemical mechanical polishing (CMP stop layer) and an antireflective coating layer are deposited. A photoresist mask is formed on the antireflective layer, and a reactive ion etch (RIE) is performed to remove portions of the ion mill resistant mask that are not covered by the photoresist mask, the RIE being performed in a plasma chamber having a platen, the performing the RIE further comprising applying a platen power of at least 70 W. An ion milling is performed to remove a portion of the sensor layers, the ion milling being terminating before all of the sensor materials have been removed.
US08266782B2
A joining method for joining a second member to a first which is a tubular member having a plurality of hollow portions partitioned by a partition wall portion is provided. The first member 1 is inserted into an insertion hole 6 formed in the second member 5. A die segment 11a of a die 11 and a wedge portion segment 19a of a mandrel 18 are disposed in each hollow portion 3 of the first member 1. Next, in a state in which the partition wall portion 4 is held by and between both wedge portion segments 19a and 19a, each wedge portion segment 18a is inserted into the corresponding wedge hole portion segment 14a of the die segment 11a to thereby move each die segment 11 of the die 11 radially outward of the first member 1. With this, the inserted portion 2a of the first member 1 inserted in the insertion hole 6 and both portions 2b and 2b axially adjacent to the inserted portion are expanded to thereby join the first member 1 and the second member 5.
US08266779B2
A unique self-drilling anchor screw is configured so that it can be set and used to secure a first object to a second object using only one tool to save time and effort. A nut of the screw engages a nut stop when turning in reverse, thereby driving rotation of the screw in reverse. The screw has a drill bit tip adapted for drilling a hole while turning in reverse. A hole is drilled using the drill bit tip while turning the nut in reverse with a socket wrench of the one tool. After drilling the hole, the nut is turned in the forward direction with the socket wrench to engage a sleeve member of the screw, which sets the screw in the second object. Then, the nut is further turned forward using the socket wrench to tighten the nut against the first object located between the nut and the second object.
US08266776B2
A device and method of use for aligning structural elements to be connected is presented. In particular, the present invention relates to providing an end of a first structural element and an end of a second structural element; providing an aligning device including a head configured to be removably secured proximate the end of the first structural element, the aligning device further including an alignment element attached to the head, the alignment element having a rotatably secured plunging body extendable from the head; extending the plunging body from the head to non-rotatably engage the second structural element; and moving the non-rotatably engaged second structural element via extension of the plunging body to align the end of the second structural element with the end of the first structural element.
US08266762B2
In a blower, an engine is carried on the back, and a blower portion having a fan is held through a holding member by hand. One end of a flexible shaft, is connected to an output shaft of the engine and the other end of which is connected to a rotary shaft of the fan. The flexible shaft has a flexible outer tube for connecting a casing of the engine with a housing of the fan, and a rotary shaft formed of a helical coil rounded helically around the axial line of the outer tube and extending axially in the outer tube, one end of the rotary shaft being connected to the output shaft of the engine and the other end of the rotary shaft of the flexible shaft being connected to the rotary shaft of the fan. The rotary shaft of the flexible shaft is connected to the rotary shaft of the fan through a power transmitting direction varying device.
US08266750B2
An aircraft boarding apparatus has a passenger bridge that has a confinement structure coupled to the second passenger bridge. The confinement structure exerts a ground-anchoring effect on the second passenger bridge to offset the ultralight configuration of the passenger bridge.
US08266746B2
A self-adjusting mattress includes a support member, top and bottom foam layers, a movement mechanism and balancing bars. The support member includes a frame of longitudinal and cross bars and mesh panels between the bars. The support member has a middle section that is pivotally connected to upper and lower sections. The upper, middle and lower sections are coplanar in the flat configuration of the mattress. The movement mechanism includes multiple electric motors that move the mattress into an inclined configuration by rotating the upper and lower sections relative to the middle section. The bottom foam layer is molded around the support member. The molded foam flows above, below and through the holes in the mesh panels. The top foam layer is then glued or molded to the top of the bottom foam layer. The balancing bars extend less than half way under the upper section of the support member.
US08266738B2
An assembly of an aromatherapy system and tub comprises a tub for bathing. A reservoir portion contains an aromatic liquid, the reservoir portion being mounted to a wall of the tub. A pressure source is actuatable to provide pressurized gas, the pressure source being concealed under the tub. A fluid-conveying line is concealed under the tub and connecting the pressure source to the reservoir portion to diffuse the pressurized gas from the pressure source into the aromatic liquid in the reservoir portion so as to create a mist of the aromatic liquid in the environment of the tub.
US08266736B2
An oxidizer generating apparatus comprising a cylindrical housing and an electrode assembly attached at one end of the housing comprising at least three vertically disposed electrodes, the electrodes being spaced apart so as to define a water flow path between them, the electrodes comprising titanium outer electrodes and at least one inner diamond electrode.
US08266720B2
A glove closure system having an opening dividing the glove into a lateral side (thumb) and a medial side (pinky). The opening allows for easy access of the user's hand. The system consists of a rectangular or oval flap attached to the lateral portion and pulled over the access opening. A primary fit is caused by the user pulling the flap over to the back of the lateral side of the glove and fastening with a hook and loop attachment method.
US08266719B2
A glove made from narrow strap material. Glove advantages when used with a striking tool: improved control, improved striking force, improved tool head acceleration, improved energy transfer, reduced hand fatigue, improved grip, and reduced vibration shock. It can be configured for 1, 2, 3 or 4 fingers plus the thumb. The glove forms a web between the thumb and fingers. The width of the web and the tightness of fit on the thumb and fingers is controlled by a single pull-tab type of adjustment. The adjustment is secured by a contact friction loop which increases in friction during impact force use. The glove can be worn on a bare hand or over the top of a more conventional type of glove while still providing the same advantages.
US08272062B2
A content control system capable of controlling delivery destinations of user contents in respective groups, identifying each group through which each content is delivered, and delivering information/advertisements according to the attribution information of the content. In a content control server, group identifying information is set in each user content to be uploaded to or downloaded from a group memory area corresponding to a gateway ID from a terminal through a gateway having a plurality of its subordinate terminals. The information identifies each gateway through which each object content is delivered according to the gateway ID. The control system controls the delivery destination of each content according to the combination of the content delivery route and a table prepared in the content control server.
US08272057B1
A method and apparatus for identifying data patterns of a file are described herein. In one embodiment, an exemplary process includes, but is not limited to, receiving a data packet of a data stream containing a file segment of a file originated from an external host and destined to a protected host of a local area network (LAN), the file being transmitted via multiple file segments contained in multiple data packets of the data stream, and performing a data pattern analysis on the received data packet to determine whether the received data packet contains a predetermined data pattern, without waiting for a remainder of the data stream to arrive. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.
US08272056B2
A method to compress an unoptimized Aho-Corasick automaton is provided that can be used in network intrusion detection systems. Embodiments of the subject method use bitmaps with multiple levels of summaries as well as aggressive path compaction. By using multiple levels of summaries, a popcount can be determined with as few as 1 addition.
US08272055B2
A method performed in a processor of an intrusion detection/prevention system (IDS/IPS) checks for valid packets in an SMB named pipe in a communication network. In a processor configured as an IDS/IPS, a packet in a transmission is received and a kind of application of a target of the packet is determined. Also, the data in the packet is inspected by the IDS/IPS as part of the SMB named pipe on only one of a condition that: (a) the FID in an SMB command header of the packet is valid (i) for segments/fragments in the SMB named pipe and (ii) for the determined kind of application of the target of the packet, as indicated by a reassembly table, and (b) the determined kind of application of the target of the packet does not check the FID, as indicated by the reassembly table.
US08272039B2
A hijack avoidance technique avoids presenting an access to more than one of a chain of authentication objects, such as a chain of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) authenticators. A pre-filter determines whether an authentication object should be presented with the access by comparing either all or a portion of a domain suffix, an IP address, or other identification other than the user ID with predetermined values. If the filter criterion is met, the associated authentication object accepts or rejects the access. Otherwise, the access is passed to the next authentication object in the chain. The first authentication object may be associated with a hosting entity and successive authentication objects each associated with different customers of the hosting entity. By virtue of the filtering, each authentication object is presented only with a particular subset of all of the possible access identifiers, which avoids presenting all of the previously unauthenticated accesses to each authentication object in the chain.
US08272035B2
A projector system of the present invention includes a projector 10 and a personal computer PC as an information terminal, which communicate with each other via a network connection. The projector 10 generates a password required for establishment of the network connection and projects the password on a screen SC. A user of the personal computer PC inputs the password projected on the screen SC. The password is used for authentication of the network connection between the projector 10 and the personal computer PC and cipher communication therebetween. This arrangement of the present invention enhances the convenience of the projector that is capable of establishing a network connection with the information terminal, while ensuring secrecy of communicating data.
US08272029B2
A boundary interface element for communications networks is disclosed. The boundary interface element is adapted for enabling a network administrator for a first network coupled to a first network interface of the boundary interface element to configure a policy for the first network interface independently of the other administrators of the other interfaces, while restricting access to a second network interface of the boundary interface element. Similarly, the boundary interface element enables a network administrator for a second network coupled to the second network interface of the boundary interface element to configure a policy for the second network interface while restricting access to the first network interface. The network administrator for the first network is permitted to view the policy configured for the second network interface, and the network administrator for the second network is permitted to view the policy configured for the first network interface. The boundary interface element may be employed in a variety of network deployment scenarios.
US08272024B2
A method is disclosed for distributed recording of content in a client system having a home network connecting a content broker and a plurality of set-top boxes (STBs) with digital video recording capability. In a requesting STB, a command is received from a user to begin recording a content item. A query is sent from the requesting STB to the content broker to determine whether the content item is being recorded by any other STB of the plurality of STBs. A response is received from the content broker. If the response indicates that none of the plurality of STBs is then currently recording the content item, the content item is recorded in the requesting STB. If the response identifies a recording STB that is then currently recording the requested content, an internal content list is updated in the requesting STB to identify the recording STB.
US08272021B2
The present invention discloses a method for transmitting Near Video on Demand (NVoD) using Catch and Rest (CAR) and sub-channels which includes: dividing an L-sized content into N segments using the CAR broadcasting scheme, allocating the segments to K channels including a replicate channel, and broadcasting the segments; dividing a first segment S1R (SiR represents an i-th segment of a regular channel) into Nsb sub-segments again at given bandwidth using the harmonic broadcasting scheme, and dividing an i-th sub-segment Sisb into i segments again; broadcasting the sub-segments {Si.1sb, . . . , Si.isb} in n sub-channels; and adding the segments {S2R, . . . , SNR} to a sub-layer and broadcasting the segments, the first segment broadcast in the first channel being divided and allocated to a few sub-channels, the succeeding segments broadcast in the other channels being just shifted and broadcast.
US08272012B2
A video control system transfers a video signal to display a data/video integration menu and receives user instructions indicating user-selected data and display positioning for the user-selected data. The video control system transfers a data request and receives the user-selected data. The video control system receives video content. The video control system integrates the user-selected data and the video content into a video signal that positions the user-selected data relative to the video content according to the display positioning in the user instructions. The video control system transfers the video signal to display the integrated video content and user-selected data.
US08272007B2
A broadcast receiving apparatus includes a generating unit generating a first encryption key specific to the broadcast receiving apparatus including identification information; a recording unit recording a broadcast stream that is included in a certain channel of broadcast signals and that includes an individual information stream and a content stream requiring a second encryption key for decryption, the individual information stream periodically including first individual information items and second individual information items; a searching unit searching for the earliest first individual information item and the earliest second individual information item from the individual information stream included in the broadcast stream; and an overwriting unit overwriting the found second individual information item at a position that is earlier than the position of the found second individual information item and that is later than the position of the found first individual information item in the individual information stream.
US08272006B2
Disclosed is an information signal processing apparatus. The information signal processing apparatus includes an adjustment unit by which users each adjust an inputted information signal so that an output of the information signal has a predetermined quality, and a storage unit that stores operation information having a final adjustment value of a series of adjustments carried out by the adjustment unit, and history information relating to a sequence of changes to an adjustment value up to the final adjustment value in a storage medium in association with preference information of the user during the series of adjustments.
US08272004B2
An optical disc clamping device is provided. A driving bar is moved away from a center hole to synchronously drive a first linking bar and a second linking bar. A first pivotal rod and a second pivotal rod are respectively driven by the first slider and the second slider to move towards the center hole to drive a carrier which carries a chucking disk disposed thereon to contact a spindle motor. A suppresser is fixed at the rim of the center hole to press on the chucking disk to clamp the disc stably.
US08272003B2
A disc apparatus includes: a playback unit 1 provided with a conveying roller 5 and a disc guide 3 to be vertically movable with respect to an apparatus main body; a moving means for moving downward the conveying roller and the disc guide in amounts of travel which are different from each other to avoid contact of the roller and the guide with a disc 14 with interlocking an operation that the loaded disc 14 is moved downward to be mounted on a turntable 6; and a disc-guide-cum-position-regulating member 102 attached to the apparatus main body corresponding to a disc loading port such that the playback unit is restrained from moving to the disc loading port side.
US08271995B1
Some embodiments provide a system that facilitates the execution of a native code module. During operation, the system obtains a service registry comprising a set of service modules and determines a set of system services required by the native code module. Next, the system selects one or more of the service modules providing the system services. Finally, the system enables the system services for the native code module by providing an inter-module communication (IMC) runtime that facilitates communication between the native code module and the one or more service modules.
US08271994B2
Data transfer during processor context switching is reduced, particularly in relation to a time-sharing microtasking programming model. Prior to switching context of a processor having local memory from a first to a second process, a portion of the local memory that does not require transfer to system memory for proper saving of data associated with the first process is determined. The context of the processor is then switched from the first to the second process, including transferring all of the local memory as the data associated with the first process, to system memory—except for the portion of the local memory that has been determined as not requiring saving to the system memory for proper saving of the data associated with the first process. Therefore, switching the context from the first to the second process results in a reduction of data transferred from the local memory to the system memory.
US08271992B2
A method for balancing loads among a plurality of data storage devices, includes: receiving a request from a user device to download a data file; identifying a first set of storage devices containing the requested data file, wherein the first set comprises one or more storage devices; identifying a first storage device from the set that is currently least busy among the storage devices in the first set, and directing the first storage device to serve the request; determining if the first storage device is too busy; and if the first storage device is too busy copying the requested data file to a second storage device which did not previously store the data file, thereby adding the second storage device to the first set of storage devices containing the requested data file.
US08271991B2
A method of balancing a load in a computer system having at least one storage system, and a management computer, each of the storage systems having physical disks and a disk controller, the load balancing method including the steps of: setting at least one of the physical disks as a parity group; providing a storage area of the set parity group as at least one logical volumes to the host computer; calculating a logical volume migration time when a utilization ratio of the parity group becomes equal to or larger than a threshold; and choosing, as a data migration source volume, one of the logical volumes included in the parity group that has the utilization ratio equal to or larger than the threshold, by referring to the calculated logical volume migration time, the data migration source volume being the logical volume from which data migrates.
US08271986B2
Active and/or proactive semaphore mechanisms and thread synchronization techniques can be applied to various visual and graphical processing techniques.
US08271976B2
The present invention is a system for and method of initializing multiple virtual processors in a virtual machine (VM) environment. The method of initializing multiple virtual processors includes the steps of the host creating a multiple processor VM and activating a “starter virtual processor,” the “starter virtual processor” issuing a startup command to a next virtual processor, the virtual machine monitor (VMM) giving the target virtual processor the highest priority for accessing the hardware resources, the VMM forcing the “starter virtual processor” to relinquish control of the hardware resources, the VMM handing control of the hardware resources to the target virtual processor, the target virtual processor executing and completing its startup routine, the VMM forcing the target virtual processor to relinquish control of the hardware resources, and the VMM handing control of the hardware resources back to the “starter virtual processor” for activating subsequent virtual processors.
US08271975B2
The present invention provides a unified provisioning environment, which comprehensively manages the tasks related to software provisioning. In particular, the present invention manages software provisioning using a hierarchy of commands. The lowest level in the hierarchy comprises distribution commands, which primarily handle base operating system specific tasks of provisioning. The second level comprises profile commands, which associate a configuration file, such as a Linux kickstart file, with a distribution and optionally allow for customization. The third level comprises system commands, which associate remote systems that are involved with the provisioning of the software. The fourth level comprises repository commands, which address configurations and tasks related to updating the software, remote installation procedures, and optionally customizing the software.
US08271972B2
An update/upgrade concept which regards a convenient procedure for making updates or upgrades of control software and/or configuration data available to microcontroller-based hardware of machine units in the field without requirement of special tools and experience. In particular, by use of a standard memory device as known in the field of digital cameras, mp3-players whatsoever, together with a procedure which detects an available update/upgrade stored on such memory device and performs a respective download of the update/upgrade data to the respective microcontroller-based hardware, if applicable. An additional or optional aspect relates to collecting of operational data during operation of a machine unit in the field, which operational data can be transferred/carried back to the manufacturer of the machine unit for research and development purposes as well as for quality control, also a tracking of machine units through their lifetime is made possible thereby.
US08271970B2
A method for software distribution is provided. The method is for software distribution from a central provider server of a software provider to a customer system with at least one technical device, on which at least one application program managed by the software provider is installed. The method includes storing information about a customer version of the application program used by the customer system and a current version in a database on the central provider server, and making a program packet, which corresponds to the current version of the application program, available to the customer system by way of a data line when the present customer version does not correspond to the current version.
US08271964B2
Described herein are methods and systems for providing software development services in a networked software development environment. For instance, instead of performing compilation on a stand-alone desktop computer, software development activities including, compilation are performed by a service provider in response to a general query from a client requester. Such a network desirably has a global view of the source files being processed by various software development tools associated therewith. This global view enables many interesting approaches including the ability to perform analysis and optimizations to the input files not specified by the client requester. Such anticipatory processing may be based on the history and pattern of previous requests and availability of software development tools that the client requester is not aware of, for instance. The service request is submitted to a software development service provider to get back a specified result and non-specified anticipatory results as one of many “hits” in a ranked order.
US08271948B2
A method and system for testing subscriber identity module application toolkit (SAT) functionality. The method of the present invention includes loading a first computer program into a SIM card and loading a second computer program comprising a software tool for designing test, measurement, and control systems into a computer. The second computer program is executed to trigger an event which causes the first computer program to send a proactive command. The proactive command data is then sent to the SIM card through a terminal response command.
US08271947B2
To realize an autonomic system and method of improving the quality of a piece of software and solving problems with respect to operations in stages of a software life cycle. There are provided a pattern catalog 20 in which information on execution environments 11 to 14 in the stages of the software life cycle and information on patterns of design applicable in respective the stages of the software life cycle are stored, a pattern combination search engine 30 which searches the patterns with respect to each of the stages in the pattern catalog 20 on the basis of predetermined conditions including a design objective, and a pattern application agent 40 which applies some of the patterns found by searching performed by the pattern combination search engine 30 and controls the operation in the execution environments 11 to 14. Patterns which accord with the design objective are automatically selected to autonomically improve the quality of the piece of software. If a problem is found, an application of patterns obtained by searching performed by the pattern combination search engine 30 is again tried to autonomically solve the problem.
US08271942B2
The present invention defines a single Java annotation model. A method in accordance with an embodiment includes: receiving a Java annotation declaration in a Java annotation model; receiving a Java annotation definition in the Java annotation model; receiving domain specific context rules in the Java annotation model; and providing access to combined meta-data information derived from the Java annotation declaration, the Java annotation definition, and the domain specific context rules through the Java annotation model.
US08271939B1
An application development tool can support sampling of data from one or more providers of data that will be queried by the application under development at runtime. The sampling results can be used to provide hints or suggestions at development time so that a developer defining code segments that make reference to data resulting from such queries can produce code segments having the proper context to reference the data of interest. The sampling results can comprise a plurality of parameters and the application development tool can provide a user interface whereby a user can indicate custom type declarations for the returned parameters and/or identify a subset of the parameters returned by a query as being of interest. The custom type declarations and/or identified subset can be used to facilitate more meaningful hinting or suggestion by the application development tool.
US08271934B2
A solution is proposed for developing software applications on a data processing system. A corresponding method starts with the step of providing an analysis model of a software application (such as based on a use case diagram); the analysis model represents the software application with stereotypes (i.e., use cases) each one representing a requirement of the software application. The method continues by estimating an optimum number of features of the software application (each one representing a function of the software application); the optimum number of features is estimated according to the analysis model. The stereotypes are then organized in packages; each package includes a set of logically correlated stereotypes, which expose a corresponding feature. A number of the packages are determined according to the optimum number of features and used to implement the software application.
US08271933B1
A printed circuit board (PCB) block diagram tool for block diagram level editing of a PCB design abstracted from a PCB physical layout tool is disclosed. The PCB block diagram tool includes a plurality of interface objects, a plurality of block objects and interconnect lines. The plurality of interface objects represents interfaces between components. Each of the plurality of interface objects include a plurality of signal, power and ground signal lines without defined physical assignment to pin or pad. The plurality of block objects represents a plurality of physical objects in the PCB physical layout tool. The plurality of blocks are configured to accept the plurality of interface objects. Interconnect lines connect the plurality of interface objects between the plurality of block objects.
US08271930B2
A method co-optimizes a design and a library in such a way to choose the best set of cells to implement the design. The method takes into account the idea of limiting the number of new cells while reducing target costs and respecting design constraints. The method chooses a minimum nearly optimum set of cells to optimize a design. This involves the simultaneous optimization of a cell-based design and a cell library used to implement it. The invention can produce only an optimized library for a specific application, when the circuit is disregarded. The method takes into account a set of new cells described as finalized cells or as virtual cells, possibly having different transistor topologies, different sizes, different logic functions, and/or different cell template than the original library.
US08271923B2
A method, system and computer program product are provided for implementing forward tracing to reduce pessimism in static timing of logic blocks laid out in parallel structures on an integrated circuit chip. A common path pessimism removal algorithm is enhanced by a forward tracing parallel clock tree proximity credit algorithm that uses forward tracing, and computes a proximity credit that is applied to reduce pessimism in the static timing.
US08271920B2
Exemplary embodiments include a computer implemented method for large block and structured synthesis, the method including determining initial design data from starting points for a synthesis flow, receiving user-directed structuring is incorporated into the synthesis flow, applying logical synthesis on the initial design data, applying a physical design on the initial design data, determining whether circuit design parameters have been met and in response to circuit design parameters not being met, adjusting the circuit design parameters.
US08271916B2
The present invention provides in one aspect a method of defining a logic cell library composed of complex functions and simple functions, with some of the complex functions obtained from identifying logic function patterns. In another aspect the present invention provides a method of designing a representation of an integrated circuit that uses complex functions and simple functions, with the complex functions including a plurality of non-standard complex Boolean logic functions that are determined to collectively provide for logic pattern minimization.
US08271914B2
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that simulates behavioral constructs of a register transfer level design using indeterminate values. The system may receive hardware description language code which includes a construct that behaves differently depending on the value of an expression, e.g., the construct may execute different portions of code based on the value of a control expression, or it may store data in different storage locations based on the value of an index expression, etc. In response to determining that the expression's value is indeterminate, the system can execute two or more alternatives that are controlled by the expression, and then merge the results in some prescribed way. An embodiment of the present invention can enable a user to reduce the discrepancy between the results generated by a register transfer level simulation and the results generated by the associated gate level simulation.
US08271911B1
Approaches for reporting hardware events from circuitry implemented in an integrated circuit (IC). The IC is configured with a circuit to be analyzed and an event monitor circuit. A process invokes an application programming interface (API) function that references an operating system managed object. The API function includes a parameter value that references the object. The process is operated in a first manner when the object is in a first state. An interrupt signal is generated by the event monitor circuit to the processor in response to an input signal from the circuit under analysis, which initiates execution of an interrupt handler. The object is placed in a second state by the interrupt handler. The process is operated in a second manner different from the first manner in response to the object transitioning to the second state.
US08271906B1
Some embodiments of the present invention provide a system that facilitates interaction with a user of a computing device. During operation, the system obtains user input from the user through a user interface of the computing device. Next, the system updates, based on the user input, a dynamic cursor area proximate to a cursor in the user interface to provide functionality-based feedback to the user at a location where the user is likely to be looking.
US08271893B1
Among other disclosures, a method may include receiving a request to modify graphical data using a graphical tool, wherein the graphical data is associated with representation information, and the request indicates a visually depicted aspect of the graphical data, deriving an alteration of the representation information, based, at least in part, on the visually depicted aspect, and transforming the representation information based on the derived alteration.
US08271890B2
An image processing apparatus which makes it possible to realize easy accessing of registered information of any function and provide a user interface having high operability. The image processing apparatus stores setting information configured via an operating section and access information for use in accessing the setting information in association with each other. Further, the image processing apparatus stores the setting information and button information in association with each other. The button information is displayed on a touch panel in a user selectable form. When an item of the button information displayed on the touch panel is selected by a user, a portal application detects the access information associated with the selected button information item. The setting information is acquired based on the detected access information. The image processing apparatus performs image processing based on the acquired setting information.
US08271887B2
A method for conducting a collaborative web-based whiteboard session, including receiving one or more whiteboard annotations in first units in a first client application component, converting the one or more whiteboard annotations from the first units into second units by utilizing a software component associated with the first client application component, sending the one or more whiteboard annotations, in the second units, to a second client application component, converting the one or more whiteboard annotations received from the first client application component from the second units into coordinates specific to the second client application component, and presenting the one or more whiteboard annotations using the coordinates specific to the second client application component to a user through the second client application component.
US08271880B2
A system and method for managing the utilization of user interface resources. Various aspects of the present invention comprise establishing a wireless communication link between a first system and a second system. The second system may be communicatively coupled to one or more user interface resources. The second system may, for example, determine whether at least a portion of a user interface resource is available for use with the first system. The second system may, for example, communicate the availability of various user interface resources for use with the first system. Various aspects may comprise requesting allocation of at least a portion of a user interface resource for use with the first system. The second system may allocate at least a portion of a requested user interface resource for use with the first system. Various aspects of the present invention also comprise system components that perform the above-mentioned operations.
US08271879B2
Disclosed are various embodiments for a workstation management application. An identification of a user is obtained in a user interface. A listing of workstations that the user has accessed is rendered in the user interface. A selection of one of the workstations is obtained in the user interface. A listing of management tasks configured for the workstation is rendered in the user interface. One of a plurality of management tools is launched to perform a selected one of the management tasks for the workstation.
US08271870B2
A document analysis, commenting, and reporting system provides tools that automate quality assurance analysis tailored to specific document types. As one example, the specific document type may be a requirements specification and the system may tag different parts of requirements, including actors, entities, modes, and a remainder. The system also includes tools for visualizing the relationships between entities in a requirements specification and for identifying whether the requirements specification provides for attributes specified by a non-functional attribute glossary. The system facilitates the visualization of interactions of individual entities, of a system of entities, or entities identified for a specific use. The different types of visualizations distinguish between interacting and non-interacting entities, and highlight where a set of requirements may be deficient with respect to the non-interacting entities. However, the flexibility of the system permits analysis of any other document type, such as instruction manuals and best practices guides.
US08271869B2
Technology is described for identifying language translations for source documents. The method includes finding source documents containing links to target documents and the link anchors of the links have language indicating text. A first tuple set can be generated for paired source documents and target documents with an expected target language for a target document. The first tuple set can be annotated with primary languages for the source documents and target documents to form a second tuple set where primary languages of the source documents and target documents are different. Further, a third tuple set can be generated using the second tuple set using a count of the number of times source documents and target documents occur in the first tuple set. Tuples can be removed from the third tuple set where a count ratio between source document count and target document count is less than a reference ratio.
US08271866B2
The invention that meets the needs identified above is a web browser plug-in or feature comprising a modification program (MP), a configuration program (CP), a table reduction program (TRP), algorithms and rules, that interacts with a web browser to analyze a web page for tables. The analysis consists of interrogating incoming hypertext markup language (HTML) for table structure
| and | tags, and incoming text for delimiters. The configuration program introduces controls into the text for each column and row delimeter that met a criteria for being hideable. In addition, the configuration program introduces controls into the HTML for each column and row tag that met a criteria for being hideable. The configuration program links the controls to a hiding algorithm so that when activated, the appropriate hiding algorithm will act on the row or column associated with the control. The controls are injected before the web browser renders the web page. When the web browser renders the web page, the web browser recognizes and interprets the injected HTML code so that the table may be reduced by the table reduction program.
US08271860B2
A retransmission method based on Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) and devices thereof are provided in embodiment of this present invention, so as to increase the system throughput. In the present invention, when retransmission is needed, the partial bits in the information sequence to be retransmitted are replaced by the prior information that the transmitter and the receiver both have know, with the replaced information sequence is LDPC coded, LDPC check sequence is obtained and is sent to the receiver. After receiving the LDPC check sequence, the receiver decodes the information sequence including the prior information with the LDPC check sequence. If the decoding is successful, after removing the prior information from the decoded information sequence, the receiver refills the decoded bits in a previous received information sequence, and performs decoding again with an LDPC check sequence corresponding to the previous received information sequence and obtains a complete information sequence. US08271854B2
An embedded electronic device is provided. The embedded electronic device comprises a flash memory and a processor. The flash memory comprises a plurality of data storage blocks. The processor performs a parity check process to determine parity data of operation system (OS) data, wherein the parity data serves as a backup for the operation system (OS) data. The processor stores the operation system (OS) data and corresponding parity data into the data storage block of the flash memory. US08271852B2
A method of recovering data in a line signal which is predicted to be subjected to repetitive noise impulses, the line signal comprising a series of data frames, the method comprising the steps of: predicting a group comprising one or more frames in said line signal which are expected to be corrupted by a noise signal; blanking said group of one or more frames which are predicted to be corrupted; determining the preceding and succeeding frames adjacent to said group; and including in each said group of one or more frames one or more parity blocks wherein if said noise signal deviates from its predicted timing interval or duration and corrupts the data carried in one or more of said frames adjacent to said group, the corrupted data is recovered using one or more of said parity blocks of said group of blanked frames and the other one of said adjacent frames. US08271850B2
Methods, apparatus, and systems are provided to encode a low-density parity-check codeword for transmission in a communications channel. In an embodiment, the encoding may include partially computing parity-check bits in response to receiving a block of message bits before obtaining all the message bits for the low-density parity-check codeword, including updating previously partially computed parity-check bits that depend on the received block. US08271838B2
A method for detecting security intrusions and soft faults in a software system includes receiving a multi-dimensional performance signature built from operating system metrics sampled by a software system monitoring infrastructure, associating a plurality of buckets with each component of the performance signature, comparing a component of the sampled performance signature to an expected value for the performance signature component, where a bucket for the performance signature component is incremented if the sampled performance signature component exceeds the corresponding expected value, and the bucket for the performance signature component is decremented if the sampled performance signature component is less than the corresponding expected value, executing a security alert notification when the bucket for the performance signature component exceeds a first threshold, and executing a soft-fault notification when the bucket for the performance signature component exceeds a second threshold, where the first threshold is less than the second threshold. US08271828B2
A method of restarting a network (1) consisting of network modules (2), the method comprising the steps of: * recording error data associated with errors occurring in the network, the error data including sets of network variables applying when the errors occurred, * upon detection of a start-up error, deriving a new set of network variables from the recorded error data, for example by changing the order of two network variables, and * restarting the network while using the new set of network variables. The network modules (2) may be wireless modules, while the network variables may comprise communication channel numbers or network addresses. The method may be carried out using a network control device (4) coupled to a central network unit (3). US08271823B2
A system and method are disclosed to generate and terminate clock shift modes during initialization of a synchronous circuit (e.g., a delay-locked loop or DLL). Upon initialization, the DLL is entered into a ForceSL (Force Shift Left) mode and an On1x mode (i.e., left shifting on each clock cycle). The feedback clock that tracks the phase of the reference clock (which, in turn, is derived from the system clock) is initially delayed in a coarse phase detector prior to applying it to the coarse phase detection window. Two delayed versions of the feedback clock are sampled by the reference clock to generate a pair of phase information signals, which are then used to establish an advanced phase equal (APHEQ) signal. The APHEQ signal advances onset of the PHEQ (phase equalization) phase and is used to terminate the ForceSL and On1x modes, thereby preventing wrong ForceSL exit due to clock jitter or feedback path overshooting during On1x exit. The avoidance of wrong ForceSL exit and On1x overshooting problems further results in faster DLL locking time. US08271807B2
A system, method and computer readable medium are disclosed for reducing power consumption in clusters, grids, on-demand centers, and so forth. The principles disclosed herein can reduce both direct and indirect power consumption while maintaining either full cluster performance or adequate SLA based cluster performance. The method includes receiving at least one state data point regarding power consumption or temperature of at least one resource within the compute environment. Using intelligent policies to control power consumption, the method implements and interfaces with power managements facilities within the cluster, grid or on-demand center to either implement policies, make dynamic changes, make predictions or actions, and so forth to reduce one or more of the direct or indirect power consumption associated with a compute environment. The method can analyze current workload, future workload or both in taking energy saving actions in the environment. An aspect can also involve reporting state information and updating algorithms based on historical experience or outside sources of information such as the news or weather. US08271806B1
We describe an example system and method of power sharing that includes communicating a power status of each of a plurality of devices on a network to a rest of the plurality of devices connected to the network and sharing power between the plurality of devices responsive to the communicating. US08271804B2
An information processing device creates a hash value from an event log every time the event occurs. The information processing device generates a digital signature by encrypting the hash value with its own private key. The device transmits the signature-bound event log obtained by binding the digital signature with the event log to a log management apparatus. The log management apparatus decrypts the hash value from the event log of the received signature-bound log information using a device public key. The apparatus also generates a new hash value from the event log verifies the coincidence of the decrypted hash value and the new hash value, and authenticates signature-bound event logs for which this coincidence has been verified. The apparatus stores signature-bound event logs that have been authenticated. Every time an event occurs, the device transmits an event log bound with a digital signature that is created using its private key. US08271798B2
Limiting access to publicly exposed object-oriented interfaces is disclosed. A system includes inter-related first objects that share a predetermined password. First object-oriented interfaces define methods supported by the first objects. The first objects publicly expose the first interfaces, which are queryable by the first objects and second objects. Each first interface includes a password argument to limit access to the first objects. The system may also include second object-oriented interfaces that define methods supported by the first objects that publicly expose the second interfaces, which are queryable by the first and the second objects. The second interfaces are required by specification, such as that for the Common Information Model (CIM), and correspond to the first interfaces. The second interfaces lack password arguments to limit access, and the methods defined thereby return “not implemented” messages when invoked. Each second interface is a non-implemented and password-free version of a first interface. US08271797B2
A user sets an apparatus name easily identified by the user to a terminal, transmits the apparatus name together with user identification information to a terminal management server for managing a terminal, and the terminal management server registers the apparatus name as associated with the user identification information, thereby allowing the terminal management server to uniquely identify each terminal based on the apparatus name associated with the user identification information. Furthermore, a user can easily identify an apparatus name, thereby realizing a service utilizing system capable of reducing the laborious procedure of operating the terminal management server, and easily identifying each terminal. US08271796B2
We present an apparatus which can be used so that one party learns the value of a string distance metric applied to a pair of strings, each of which is held by a different party, in such a way that none of the parties can learn anything else significant about the strings. This apparatus can be applied to the problem of linking records from different databases, where privacy and confidentiality concerns prohibit the sharing of records. The apparatus can compute two different string similarity metrics, including the bigram based Dice coefficient and the Jaro-Winkler string comparator. The apparatus can implement a three party protocol for the secure computation of the bigram based Dice coefficient and a two party protocols for the Jaro-Winkler string comparator which are secure against collusion and cheating. The apparatus implements a three party Jaro-Winkler string comparator computation which is secure in the case of semi-honest participants. US08271791B2
A method for digitally signing of electronic documents which are to be kept secure for a very long time, thereby taking into account future cryptographic developments which could render currently cryptographic key-lengths insufficient. A double signature is issued for each document. A first digital signature ensures the long term security, while a second digital signature ensures the involvement of an individual user. Thereby, the second digital signature is less computationally intensive in its generation than the first digital signature. US08271789B2
Disclosed is a system managing usage authorizations, comprising a central computer system, field devices and smart cards, wherein the system maintains databases containing all information relating to the users, user accounts, user smart cards, field devices and products, establishes and maintains at least at times communication with the field devices, issues instructions based on the available information and transmits to a plurality of field devices, with the field devices maintaining information relating to the smart cards and products so that communication between a field device and a smart card allows at least a portion of the smart card-related instructions to be processed from the instruction list and stored on the field device and to be transmitted to the computer system during the next communication, and wherein the smart cards carry to allow exchange of information with a field device and store instructions. US08271786B1
A method and system for providing secure communications between a first and second peer device is disclosed. The invention includes allowing the first and second peer devices to verify the authenticity of each other only while each peer device is within an established zone of privacy wherein the established zone of privacy is an area close (for example, almost touching) to the peer device. Because the authenticity of the other device is verified only while each peer device is within the established zone of privacy, users can visually confirm that there are no potential interlopers within the zone. As a result, the two peer devices can discover each other in a more secure fashion The method and system include creating a zone of privacy with the first peer device, allowing the first and second peer devices to verify the authenticity of each other only while the second peer device is within the zone of privacy, and allowing encrypted data to transfer between the first and second peer device once the authenticity of each peer device has been verified. US08271773B2
A configurable field device for automation technology with a partially dynamically reconfigurable logic chip FPGA, in which function modules are dynamically configured during runtime, and to a method for operating the configurable field device. US08271770B2
A computer motherboard with automatically adjusted hardware parameter values restarts automatically and proceeds with overclocking or power-saving operation in case the computer motherboard hangs due to preceding overclocking or power-saving operation. The computer motherboard includes: a watchdog unit connected to a frequency generator and adapted to notify the frequency generator and generate a restart signal after predetermined duration; the frequency generator for generating and outputting a frequency, and automatically decreasing or increasing, according to notice from the watchdog unit, a current frequency generated by the frequency generator so as to generate and output a new frequency to substitute for the current frequency; and a hardware parameter value setting unit for setting the frequency generator for a start frequency and an operation mode and starting the watchdog unit; wherein the computer motherboard receives the restart signal and automatically restarts at the new frequency when unbooted after predetermined duration. US08271767B2
An HW arithmetic unit executes a predetermined arithmetic operation. An arithmetic-mode determining unit determines, based on an attribute or a content of data relating to processing that has requested the arithmetic operation, either a synchronous mode that executes the processing after waiting for completion of the arithmetic operation by an arithmetic circuit or an asynchronous mode that executes the processing without waiting for completion of the arithmetic operation by the arithmetic circuit, as an execution mode of the arithmetic operation. An arithmetic-process control unit controls the arithmetic operation by the arithmetic circuit according to the determined execution mode. US08271763B2
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for unifying the addressing of multiple distinct parallel memory spaces into a single address space for a thread. A unified memory space address is converted into an address that accesses one of the parallel memory spaces for that thread. A single type of load or store instruction may be used that specifies the unified memory space address for a thread instead of using a different type of load or store instruction to access each of the distinct parallel memory spaces. US08271762B2
Mapping management methods and systems are provided. First, a sub-read command comprising mapping directory number, block offset and page offset is obtained. Then, a specific block mapping table is located from a plurality of block mapping tables according to the mapping directory number, and a first specific entry is located from the specific block mapping table according to the block offset, wherein the first specific entry comprises a mapping mode setting and block information. When the mapping mode setting is a page mapping mode, a second specific entry is located from a page mapped block table according to the block information, and a page mapping table is located corresponding to a specific page mapped block. Thereafter, a third specific entry is located from the page mapping table according to the page offset, and a page of data is located from a storage unit according to the third specific entry. US08271755B1
A method for enhancing computer data backup includes storing identifications and corresponding functionalities for a plurality of storage devices in a database. A storage device that is in data communication with a computer that is to be backed up is selected. An identification of the storage device selected for use in the backup is determined. If functionalities for the selected storage device are contained in the database, then at least one of the functionalities for the selected storage device is used to enhance a data backup to the selected storage device. If functionalities for the selected storage device are not contained in the database, then the selected storage device can be queried in an attempt to match it to one of the storage devices contained in the database, so that functionalities for the storage device contained within the database can be used to enhance data backup. US08271742B2
A device and a method to efficiently process the symbols coded in OFDM according to the various protocols available. This is achieved through a device to process OFDM-based symbols comprising a base band input data and a base band output data, and comprising at least two programmable execution units connected to at least one working memory, this device being characterized in that, the programmable execution units (EU) are connected to the memory (M-1, M-2, M3, . . . M-N) through a memory management unit (PL_MMU), said programmable execution units (EU) having an input memory range and an output memory range, the device further comprising a state scheduler (SCH) connected to the execution units (EU) and to the memory management unit (PL_MMU), said scheduler (SCH) having means to: load the related program into the execution units (EU) thus defining the function and the input and output memory ranges of said programmable execution units (EU), assign the input and output memory range of said working memory relative to the programmable execution unit (EU) with the programmable execution unit (EU) input and output memory ranges through the memory management unit (PL_MMU) at each pipeline period, define the processing data flow of the symbols by defining the number of programmable execution units (EU) and the order in which the programmable execution units (EU) are involved. US08271741B2
A “request scheduler” provides techniques for batching and scheduling buffered thread requests for access to shared memory in a general-purpose computer system. Thread-fairness is provided while preventing short- and long-term thread starvation by using “request batching.” Batching periodically groups outstanding requests from a memory request buffer into larger units termed “batches” that have higher priority than all other buffered requests. Each “batch” may include some maximum number of requests for each bank of the shared memory and for some or all concurrent threads. Further, average thread stall times are reduced by using computed thread rankings in scheduling request servicing from the shared memory. In various embodiments, requests from higher ranked threads are prioritized over requests from lower ranked threads. In various embodiments, a parallelism-aware memory access scheduling policy improves intra-thread bank-level parallelism. Further, rank-based request scheduling may be performed with or without batching. US08271738B2
In a multiprocessor environment, by executing cache-inhibited reads or writes to registers, a scan communication is used to rapidly access registers inside and outside a chip originating the command. Cumbersome locking of the memory location may be thus avoided. Setting of busy latches at the outset virtually eliminates the chance of collisions, and status bits are set to inform the requesting core processor that a command is done and free of error, if that is the case. US08271734B1
A system and method for converting data from one format to another in a processing pipeline architecture. Data is stored in a shared cache that is coupled between one or more clients and an external memory. The shared cache provides storage that is used by multiple clients rather than being dedicated to separately convert the data format for each client. Each client may interface with the memory using a different format, such as a compressed data format. Data is converted to the format expected by the particular client as it is read from the cache and output to the client during a read operation. Bytes of a cache line may be remapped to bytes of an unpack register for output to a naïve client, which may be configured to perform texture mapping operations. Data is converted from the client format to the memory format as it is stored into the cache during a write operation. US08271731B2
An apparatus and a method operating on data at a server node of a data grid system with distributed cache is described. A coordinator receives a request to change a topology of a cache cluster from a first group of cache nodes to a second group of cache nodes. The request includes a cache node joining or leaving the first group. A key for the second group is rehashed without blocking access to the first group while rehashing. US08271730B2
A plurality of processing units for performing data processing operations require access to data in shared memory. Each has an associated cache storing a subset of the data for access by that processing unit. A cache coherency protocol ensures data accessed by each unit is up-to-date. Each unit issues a write access request when outputting a data value for storing in shared memory. When the write access request requires both the associated cache and the shared memory to be updated, a coherency operation is initiated within the cache coherency logic. The coherency operation is performed for all of the caches including the cache associated with the processing unit that issued the write access request in order to ensure that the data in those caches is kept coherent. US08271727B2
Embodiments of systems and methods for routing commands to a distributed RAID system are disclosed. Specifically, embodiments may route a command to an appropriate data bank in a distributed RAID system, where each data bank has a set of associated storage media and executes a similar distributed RAID application. The distributed RAID applications on each of the data banks coordinate among themselves to distribute and control data flow associated with implementing a level of RAID in conjunction with data stored on the associated storage media of the data banks. US08271722B2
A method for flash memory management comprises providing a head pointer configured to define a first location in a flash memory, and a tail pointer configured to define a second location in a flash memory. The head pointer and tail pointer define a payload data area. Payload data is received from a host, and written to the flash memory in the order it was received. The head pointer and tail pointer are updated such that the payload data area moves in a circular manner within the flash memory. US08271715B2
In some embodiments a functional PCI Express port includes first buffers and an idle PCI Express port includes second buffers. One or more of the second buffers are accessed by the functional PCI Express port. Other embodiments are described and claimed. US08271714B2
An interface for serial data communication, comprising: a power signal contact having an associated impedance; at least one data signal contact; and sensing means for automatically sensing a discrete change in the impedance associated with the power signal contact. A method of checking a serial data connection between a host and a peripheral that are not involved in a data communication session, the method comprising: sensing a discrete change in an impedance associated with a contact that is used, during a session, for transferring power from the host to the peripheral. US08271713B2
A docking assembly serves as an interface between (1) a portable digital media storage and playback (PDMSP) device, and (2) a media reproduction system. A remote controller preferably controls the docking assembly and PDMSP device, which may receive electric charge from the assembly. Media reproduction systems may reproduce audio and video signals in user-perceptible form. Telephonic relay capability is further provided between a telephonic PDMSP playback device and a telephonic remote controller by way of a telephone rebroadcast receiver associated with the docking assembly. Methods for downloading digital media files, and for creating or modifying playlists with a remotely controllable docking assembly adapted to provide a television-compatible video output signal, are further provided. US08271710B2
In an embodiment, a command is received that requests movement of ownership of a target device from an origin compute element to a destination compute element. From the origin compute element, a translation of a virtual bridge identifier to a first secondary bus identifier, a first subordinate bus identifier, and a first MMIO bus address range is removed. To the destination compute element, a translation of the target virtual bridge identifier to a second secondary bus identifier, a second subordinate bus identifier, and a second MMIO bus address range is added. From a south chip that comprises the target virtual bridge, a translation of the target virtual bridge identifier to an identifier of the origin compute element is removed. To the south chip, a translation of the target virtual bridge identifier to an identifier of the destination compute element is added. US08271709B2
A method for operating a communications bus between a first computer and a second computer is provided. The method comprising monitoring a receiver bus coupled to the first computer for activity and confirming that the communications are determinant. The communications are confirmed by receiving a control label on the receiver bus and acknowledging to the second computer through a transmitter bus coupled to the first computer that communications are determinant. The method also comprises enabling the second computer to access data accessible by the first computer when the reliability of communications is confirmed. US08271706B2
The present invention provides a computer implemented method and apparatus to revising logical unit ownership in a host. A host receives an error message from a storage subsystem having at least two storage controllers and at least one logical unit coupled to at least one of the storage controllers. The host suspends I/O from the host to the storage subsystem. The host transmits a verification of logical unit ownership query to the storage subsystem. The host determines that ownership between a host and a logical unit on the at least one of the storage controllers has changed from a mapping table of the host. Responsive to a determination that ownership has changed, the host updates ownership in a mapping table of the host to reflect the ownership between the host and the logical unit. The host resumes I/O from the host to the storage subsystem, wherein the host routinely exchanges I/O with the storage subsystem. US08271702B2
A memory allocation method and terminal for supporting Direct Memory Access (DMA) are provided. The terminal includes a memory for storing data used for operations of the terminal, a plurality of devices for executing applications for specific functions, a control unit for defining, when the terminal boots up, a virtual zone dedicated for the DMA in the memory, and a DMA unit for controlling the DMA of the devices. US08271701B1
A FIFO memory has integrated error management to react to different errors according to the current state of operation of the input and output as well as internal conditions such as buffer memory status. The FIFO memory completes or aborts current operations according to state and leaves the FIFO memory in known condition following error handling. Thus, data sent to a host avoids data gaps or data overlaps because the FIFO memory leaves operations in a known state before reporting the error to a controller. US08271700B1
A DMA engine is provided that is suitable for higher performance System On a Chip (SOC) devices that have multiple concurrent on-chip/off-chip memory spaces. The DMA engine operates either on logical addressing method or physical addressing method and provides random and sequential mapping function from logical address to physical address while supporting frequent context switching among a large number of logical address spaces. Embodiments of the present invention utilize per direction (source-destination) queuing and an internal switch to support non-blocking concurrent transfer of data on multiple directions. A caching technique can be incorporated to reduce the overhead of address translation. US08271694B2
A flexible arrangement allows a single arrangement of Ethernet channel adapter (ECA) hardware functions to appear as needed to conform to various operating system deployment models. A PCI interface presents a logical model of virtual devices appropriate to the relevant operating system. Mapping parameters and values are associated with the packet streams to allow the packet streams to be properly processed according to the presented logical model and needed operations. Mapping occurs at both the host side and at the network side to allow the multiple operations of the ECA to be performed while still allowing proper delivery at each interface. US08271691B2
There is provided a method of coupling a telephone switched circuit network to an internet protocol network, wherein the telephone switched circuit network and the internet protocol network are interconnected by a gateway. The gateway comprises a non-routing key rule and the method comprises the step of generating a control method for a service by use of the non-routing key rule, wherein the service is located on the telephone switched circuit network and wherein the service is implemented by at least one application server, wherein the at least one application server is located on the internet protocol network and wherein the at least one application server is specified by an application server status. The method further comprises the step of sending the control message to a node, which is located on the telephone switched circuit network. US08271685B1
Ways of allocating an identifier to a mobile device are disclosed. One method includes receiving a request that requests an address be assigned to the mobile device, considering factors in connection with determining a mobile IP (MIP) address to be assigned to the mobile device, determining the MIP address based on the factors, and conveying the MIP address to the mobile device. US08271672B1
Output logic generates read requests using a programmable schedule that controls read bandwidth for multiple data streams and stores the read requests in a queuing device. The output logic also dequeues the read requests based on a similar programmable schedule, forwards the read requests to the memory, and reads data units from the memory based on the read requests. US08271670B2
Methods and apparatuses for processing media data transmitted in a data communication medium. A digital processing system is provided with a time related sequence of media data provided to the digital processing system based on a set of data, wherein the set of data indicates a method to transmit the time related sequence of media data according to a transmission protocol. The set of data, itself, is a time related sequence of data associated with the time related sequence of media data. The time related sequence of media data may be presented and/or stored by the digital processing system. US08271660B2
A network appliance (100) is provided having a network controller subsystem (110) for coupling the appliance (100) to a data network for providing and receiving data packets to and from a packet data network. A digital signal processing subsystem (120) is coupled to the network controller subsystem (110). A signal conversion subsystem (130) is coupled to the digital signal processing subsystem (120) and a user interface subsystem (160) is coupled to both the signal conversion subsystem (130) and the digital signal processing subsystem (120). The digital signal processing subsystem (120) operates under the control of a computer program which is capable of detecting incoming calls, initiating call sessions, and preferably, implementing advanced telephony features. US08271658B1
A method and apparatus for a connection manager have been disclosed. By providing for persistent connections with clients, the connection manager allows for servers to communicate with clients, which would otherwise be inaccessible. US08271657B2
A publisher node in a network determines how many subscriber nodes in the network have subscribed to receive notification messages about data that is maintained by the publisher node. The publisher node also determines how many available connections the publisher node is configured to support. If the number of available connections exceeds the number of subscribers, the publisher node sends the notification messages to the subscriber nodes via a connection-based protocol. If the number of subscriber nodes exceeds the number of available connections, the publisher node sends the notification messages to the subscriber nodes via multicast. If the publisher node sends the notification messages to the subscriber nodes via multicast, the publisher node may receive one or more connection requests from subscribers that may be depending on reliably receiving the notification messages from the publisher. US08271651B1
Methods and systems for regulating resource usage of an application are disclosed. A method of regulating usage of an application is disclosed that comprises receiving an operating parameter of a client device, assigning a value to a usage variable associated with the operating parameter of the client device, and correlating by an application a resource usage level of the application with the usage variable. US08271642B1
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for isolating a device associated with at least potential data leakage activity, based on user input. In operation, at least potential data leakage activity associated with a device is identified. Furthermore, at least one action is performed to isolate the device, based on user input received utilizing a user interface. US08271641B2
A database system includes servers configured to receive requests from user systems. Each server includes a local and a global store. Each local store stores the number of requests received by its server. The system includes a processor configured to receive the number of requests from servers. The processor is configured to determine the number of requests received by all of the servers, and send this number of requests to each server. The global store stores the number of requests received from the processor. A given server is configured to compare the number of requests received by the servers with a threshold number. If this number is greater than the threshold number, then the given server is configured to send a message to the user systems that the number of threshold requests has been exceeded and/or the given server will discontinue accepting requests. US08271636B2
A networking system, device, and method are provided. The networking device typically includes a user-defined ruleset including HTTP request rules and HTTP response rules. The networking device may further include a request processor configured to receive an incoming HTTP request from the client, apply HTTP request rules to the incoming HTTP request, to thereby produce a modified HTTP request, and send the modified HTTP request to the server. The networking device may further include a response processor configured to receive an HTTP response to the modified HTTP request from the server, apply the HTTP response rules to the HTTP response, to thereby produce a modified HTTP response, and send the modified HTTP response to the client. US08271634B2
The present invention relates to a buffer system for managing a plurality of service measurement (SM) requests. In one embodiment, the buffer system includes a count buffer configured to store the SM requests. Each SM request includes a key set and a name-value pair. The name-value pair includes a name field and a value field. The buffer system further includes a send buffer configured to consolidate indices of the count buffer according to a destination address of each of the SM requests and a transport buffer configured to create at least one outgoing message based on data contents of the count buffer than correspond to the indices that have been consolidated. US08271632B2
A computer system for providing a remote access service includes a unit for acquiring information on a relation between a terminal and a user using the terminal, a unit for acquiring network information about the terminal, a unit for acquiring network information about a blade that the terminal will access, a unit for acquiring information on a relation between the blade and a storage area, and a management server for extracting information on the user and its usage information and providing these information in real time. The management server also has a unit for permitting an administrator of the management server, persons other than the user and a management program to use the blade. US08271622B2
A system management tool framework for a system management tool for extending system management commands related to software installation units such as software component, feature or product. The tool is constructed in accordance with an interface and framework that allows polymorphism and dynamic binding at run-time. When the system management software tool is constructed in accordance to the framework of the present invention, the software tool can be made scalable, flexible and adaptable to a heterogeneous distributed system. US08271618B1
A system for zero-footprint screen capture, comprising a communication server, a screen capture server, a web server, and a media upload server, wherein the web server, on receiving a request for a specific web page from a client application whose screen is to be captured, uploads a persistent screen capture application to the client. Upon receiving a connection request from the screen capture application uploaded to the client, the screen capture server establishes a persistent connection to the uploaded screen capture application and, on receiving a notification from the communication server pertaining to an interaction involving a user of the client application, sends instructions via the persistent connection to the screen capture application. The media upload server receives one or more data packets containing screen capture graphics data. US08271615B2
An apparatus, system, method and program providing a multi-tenant software as a service (SaaS) application that manages and monitors the use of other SaaS applications via a common connection and database framework. An Internet-based interface is provided as a single portal for monitoring and managing the use of SaaS applications. Objects and the state of these objects including all associated attributes related to the SaaS applications are stored in databases associated with the Internet-based interface. The Internet-based interface also provides a social networking infrastructure and an application exchange infrastructure that allows sharing of information related to the SaaS applications. US08271597B2
A method comprises receiving, by a processor, a query comprising at least one name of a target individual. The method further comprises determining, by the processor, a plurality of email addresses. Each of the determined email addresses has a respective prefix based at least in part upon the at least one name of the target individual, and the determination is based at least in part upon statistical data regarding common syntaxes for email addresses. The method further comprises determining email traffic based at least in part upon the determined email addresses. The method further comprises determining, by the processor, one or more relationships of the target individual based at least in part upon the determined email traffic. US08271594B2
Systems, methods, and computer program products for facilitating synchronized, two-way communications between a server application and one or more client applications. In one embodiment, the server application and client applications are provided with instant messaging (IM) clients that are supported by an IM server in a networked computing environment. A method disclosed includes registering at least one client application IM client in an IM registry, generating an event in the server application, and converting the event into an operation command that is independent of the states of the server or client applications. The method can also include transmitting the command to each client application IM client. The method can also include, at the client application, receiving the command, reconstituting an event from the command, and processing the event. The method can additionally include transmitting from the client application to the server application a completion notification upon completion of the processing of the event by the client application. US08271593B2
A method and computer program product for defining one or more authorized users capable of granting do-not-disturb circumvention privileges, and receiving an indicator of a grant of do-not-disturb circumvention privileges to a circumventing user by the one or more authorized users. A do-not-disturb status of an instant messaging user is circumvented based upon, at least in part, the grant of do-not-disturb circumvention privileges. US08271591B2
Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for managing communications of a user. Identity information relating to the user is received, and a notification of a communication from a communicating partner is received. The user's preference for withholding the communication is obtained. An entry in a message log is created for the withheld communication. The message log is displayed to the user, such that the user is not notified of receipt of the withheld communication, yet receipt of the withheld communication is logged in the message log. US08271564B2
A system and methods of managing entries in a cuckoo hash table that is subject to manipulation by a plurality of concurrent processors are provided. The cuckoo hash table is used to maintain a plurality of keys, along with their data items, in a plurality of entries. In accordance with an operating method, a first command for the cuckoo hash table is processed, and the first command is associated with a first processor of the plurality of concurrent processors. In addition, invalid conditions associated with concurrent processing of a second command for the cuckoo hash table are prevented or minimized. The second command is associated with a second processor of the plurality of concurrent processors. As one example, the operating method manages the situation where concurrent push commands create a race condition. As another example, the operating method manages the situation where a lookup or delete command from one processor competes with a push command from another processor. US08271560B2
A system, method, software arrangement and computer-accessible medium are provided that permit improved access to web pages within a web site via a standardized interface that can be displayed as hierarchal menus. Such menus may be provided by receiving a request to browse a web site, obtaining the link structure and/or content of the web site, and generating menu data reflecting the link structure and/or other properties of the web site. The data may optionally be filtered or truncated to limit the size of the navigational menus. US08271556B1
Method and system for managing a storage environment having a cluster based storage system and a non-cluster based storage system is provided. A management application collects information regarding components of both the cluster based storage system and the non-cluster based storage system. A layout having a plurality of data structures is generated and maintained by the management application. The data structures include information regarding the components and their relationships with each other, if any. The layout is used for responding to user requests and presenting an integrated view of the storage environment on a display device with selectable options for selecting the cluster based storage system components and the non-cluster based storage system components. US08271545B2
A database may be virtually partitioned into virtual partitions. The virtual partitions are mapped to physical databases of a database. Data records added to the database are each assigned to a virtual partition and stored in the physical database mapped to the assigned virtual partition. The identifier generated for a data record includes an identifier of the assigned virtual partition. When additional databases are created, virtual partitions are remapped to the larger space of physical databases. US08271544B2
A data file having more than one modes of operation. The data file comprises an image component for storing an image as a representation of the data file and one or more data components appended to the image component. The image component comprises metadata associated with the one or more data components. In a first mode of operation, the image component of the data file is readable for viewing the image by an image viewer while the image component is part of the data file. The one or more appended data components are unreadable by the image viewer in the first mode of operation. In a second mode of operation, the image component and the one or more appended data components are readable by a file reader. US08271536B2
Embodiments described herein are directed to implementing a multi-tenancy service component configured to provide multi-tenancy capabilities for submitted services. In one embodiment, a computer system instantiates a hosting service that includes a multi-tenancy component configured to provide resource access to multiple users through a single multi-tenant resource instance. The computer system receives a submitted service submitted to be hosted by the hosting service. The submitted service includes a portion of use information usable to configure parameters of the multi-tenancy component. The computer system configures the multi-tenancy component to provide resource access for multiple users through a single multi-tenant resource instance, where each user provides a resource instance claim indicating a resource instance level authorization for the user. The computer system also provides resource access to each of the users through the single multi-tenant resource instance, based on the resource instance level authorization included in the resource instance claim. US08271535B2
Ways for synchronizing folders between one or more layers of folders are described. It includes selecting layers to link together, comparing folders in the selected layers using an immutable identifier, parsing the folders of each of the selected layers into fields, comparing the fields of parsed folders of the selected layers, and determining whether to synchronize the folders of the selected layers based on conflict rules triggered in response to the comparison of the fields of the parsed folders. Also disclosed are ways of merging two or more folders in a network into a single folder. It includes comparing entries between folders to identify duplicate entries, grouping the identified duplicate entries in each folder, generating a matrix from the duplicates grouping and assigning each matrix entry a value, and matching the matrix entries based on the assigned values to determine an extent to merge an identified duplicate entry. US08271534B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, an apparatus having a processor adapted to receive a message from a portable communication device communicatively coupled to a set-top box presenting a media program and to retrieve from the message a media descriptor associated with the media program. The processor is further adapted to identify according to the media descriptor one or more images of one or more performers commonly presented in the media program, to monitor one or more frames of a live media feed including the media program, and compare the one or more human figures to the one or more images of performers. The processor can also be adapted to recognize a performer from the comparison, to retrieve information associated with the performer, and to transmit the information to the portable communication device. Other embodiments are disclosed. US08271533B2
A computer database having adaptive storage space architecture is provided. The database has a storage space architecture which has a grid having grid lines, intersections of the grid lines forming nodes which provide space for storing data, each node being assembled from a plurality of cells arranged in at least one group of cells forming a storage space structure of the node, each cell being suitable for storing simple data. Additionally, selected groups of cells within the nodes may be designated as replicable, i.e. being able to replicate itself in response to an external signal. A corresponding database processing unit for processing data stored in the database, a graphical user interface for input and output of the data, and method of forming the database are also provided. US08271504B2
Systems and programs for improving the efficiency of a sorting process in a computer system are disclosed. Data is provided in an input file external to the central processing unit of the computer system. In one embodiment, the implemented process involves investigating the contents of the input file in order to identify presorted portions thereof; incorporating the identified presorted portions of the input file into a second file external to the central processing unit, performing this step by rearranging directory information, without physically transferring the presorted portions from the input file. In sort processes involving both a string generation phase and a merge phase, the techniques described may be used in either or both phases, as well as in any output phase. Rearrange directory information rather than physically transferring data provides for greater efficiency in disk I/O. US08271498B2
Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture for searching documents for ranges of numeric values. Document identifiers for documents are accessed, wherein the documents include at least one value that is a member of a set of values. A number of posting lists are generated. Each posting list is associated with a range of consecutive values within the set of values and includes document identifiers for documents including at least one value within the range of consecutive values associated with the posting list, and wherein each document identifier is associated with one value in the set of values included in the document identified by the document identifier. The generated posting lists are stored, wherein the posting lists are used to process a query on a range of values within the set of values. US08271490B2
A system and method for generating a unique link (i.e., map permalink) of mash-up map data including various information are provided. The system receives a request for generation of the map permalink of specific mash-up map data, and generates a map URL including map information in response to the request for generation of the map permalink. Also, the system generates at least one of an advertisement layer identifier, an additional service data identifier, and a user-generated data identifier, combines the generated identifier with the map URL, and stores the combined identifier together with related data. US08271489B2
A photo book system and method with associated multimedia is disclosed. One embodiment of the present invention provides a photo book including an image and an electronically readable code associated with the image. The electronically readable code is used for retrieving a multimedia file that corresponds to the image. US08271482B2
The information processing device includes an access history acquiring unit which acquires and stores access history information showing access history for the contents accessed by a user terminal, and a relevancy setting unit which relates the accessed contents. As the access history information, the access history acquiring unit acquires content identification information, access date and time information, and application identification information for identifying a content access application making access to the content, which is different for each of the content access applications operated on the user terminal. The relevancy setting unit generates and stores the relevance information by mutually relating the content identification information based on the access date and time information and the application identification information contained in each of the different contents. US08271473B2
A method of managing career opportunities is provided. In some embodiments, a method for providing career and job listing websites and optimizing the career and job listing websites for search engine optimization is provided. In various embodiments, the method comprises creating a career website that mirrors a company's website, extracting job information from the company, and optimizing the job information for maximum search engine placement. US08271469B2
A method and system for tracing components in computer applications is provided in which trace data from components can be logged in real time. A hierarchical control interface 209 is used in which leaf nodes 306-311 represent components 204 being traced. The hierarchical control interface 209 includes means for setting trace levels for components 204 being traced. A non-hierarchical trace system 210 is used for carrying out the trace processing and includes means 320 for storing trace level settings received from the hierarchical control interface 209. The trace system 210 also includes means 322 for receiving a call from a component 204 with trace data; means for checking the trace level settings 321 for the component 204; and means for storing or discarding the trace data accordingly. US08271467B2
A World Wide Web registration processing system is disclosed for assisting World Wide Web users in registering at World Wide Web web sites. For each such user, the registration processing system includes a long term repository for the user's web site registration information so that this information can be automatically transferred to a plurality of web sites to which the user may at time to time request to be registered. Further, the registration processing system provides the user with the capability to have a common user identification that may be used for accessing services at a plurality of web sites. US08271459B2
A computer-implemented method for providing hypertext content to a mobile device may include obtaining a network-accessible electronic document that has content and an image, advertising material, or a plurality of similarly formatted hyperlinks. The network-accessible electronic document may be reformatted by collapsing the image, the advertising material, or the plurality of similarly formatted hyperlinks into a first expandable display element. The first expandable display element and at least a portion of the content may be provided for display in a first page on the mobile device. The method may further include receiving input that selects the first expandable display element. The first expandable display element may be reformatted into an image, advertising material, or a plurality of hyperlinks. The image, the advertising material or the plurality of hyperlinks may be provided, along with at least a portion of the content, for display in a second page on the mobile device. US08271458B2
A markup language document representing computing elements of a computing architecture, such as data storage elements of a data storage architecture, is constructed and analyzed. A first computing element contained by a second computing element is represented; a first tag of the document corresponding to the first computing element is nested within a second tag of the markup language document corresponding to the second computing element. A non-containing/contained relationship from the first computing element to a third computing element is also represented; a pointer tag of the document corresponding to the data access path is nested within the first tag, and references a third tag of the document corresponding to the third computing element. Get-pointer-node and get-child-node application programming interfaces for the markup language are called to traverse among containing/contained relationships. Pointer tags are followed to traverse among non-containing/contained relationships. Redundant attributes among the relationships can thus be detected. US08271450B2
A method for monitoring a data structure maintained by guest software within a virtual machine is disclosed. Changes to the contents of the data structure are determined, such as by placing write traces on the memory pages containing the data structure. Also, the method involves determining when memory pages containing the data structure are swapped into and/or out of guest physical memory by the guest software, such as by placing write traces on the memory pages containing the guest page table and detecting changes to the present bit of page table entries involved in mapping virtual addresses for the data structure. Information about the contents of the data structure is retained while memory pages containing the data structure are swapped out of guest physical memory. US08271443B1
A system and method for backing up data from a client computer system are described. The system may include the client computer system, a primary backup server computer system, and an alternate backup server computer system. The primary backup server computer system may be privately accessible to the client computer system via a virtual private network (VPN). The alternate backup server computer system may be accessible to the client computer system via a public or open network such as the Internet. The client computer system may be configured to backup a first set of data to the alternate backup server computer system at a particular time via the Internet in response to determining that the client computer system is not connected to the VPN at the particular time. US08271427B1
A computer database system for storing, processing, displaying, and analyzing single molecule data is capable of managing and processing variously formatted, different kinds of single molecule data and displaying subsets thereof upon instructions by a user. A component-based architecture is implemented where the processing and the displaying are separately performed. The data is dynamically loaded for processing as needed. Embodiments of computer database systems can be utilized in managing single molecule data, particularly image data derived from single molecule images. Such single molecule images may be generated by a variety of technologies, e.g., optical mapping, atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), and flow cytometry. Systems may be deployed over a computer network. One or more additional databases may be included which are interconnected through a network. US08271425B2
In an image processing system including a plurality of image processing devices, each image processing device includes an authenticating unit, a function implementing unit and a function specifying unit. The authenticating unit performs user authentication. The function specifying unit specifies a specific image processing function in another image processing device for each of the users. The function implementing unit implements the specific image processing function for the user already logging in the authenticating unit. US08271408B2
The present invention provides methods and systems for binary classification of items. Methods and systems are provided for constructing a machine learning-based and pairwise ranking method-based classification model for binary classification of items as positive or negative with regard to a single class, based on training using a training set of examples including positive examples and unlabelled examples. The model includes only one hyperparameter and only one threshold parameter, which are selected to optimize the model with regard to constraining positive items to be classified as positive while minimizing a number of unlabelled items classified as positive. US08271407B2
The present invention concerns a method for the rule-based monitoring of a component (C1) added to a service-oriented architecture (SOA), the SOA comprising a plurality of components (C2, . . . , Cn) being monitored by a plurality of monitoring components (M2, . . . , Mn), the method comprising the following steps: a. selecting a component (C2) from the plurality of components (C2, . . . , Cn) of the SOA which is similar to the added component (C1) based on a similarity-metric; b. selecting at least one rule (R2) from the monitoring component (M2) of the selected component (C2), wherein the at least one rule (R2) has already been validated during the operation of the SOA; and c. adding the at least one rule (R2) to a new monitoring component (M1) of the added component (C1). US08271398B2
A method and system for anticipatory package shipping are disclosed. According to one embodiment, a method may include packaging one or more items as a package for eventual shipment to a delivery address, selecting a destination geographical area to which to ship the package, shipping the package to the destination geographical area without completely specifying the delivery address at time of shipment, and while the package is in transit, completely specifying the delivery address for the package. US08271397B2
According to one aspect, the invention provides a system for authenticating identities of a plurality of users. In one embodiment, the system includes a first handheld device including a wireless transceiver which is configured to transmit authentication information, a second device including a wireless receiver, where the second device is configured to receive the authentication information. US08271396B2
An electronic commerce system managing sale and distribution of products over the Internet or other type of network. In order to prevent attempts by users to fraudulently obtain the products, system analyzes the information submitted by the users in connection with stored and associated information in an order to determine that likelihood that the order is an attempt at fraud. Based upon the determination, system accepts or declines the order. The system also saves the user-entered information for use in determining whether to accept to decline future orders. US08271393B2
The present invention provides a system and method for facilitating a transaction between two or more parties. One or more electronic documents are received at a server computer from a client communications device of a first party to the transaction. All of the one or more electronic documents are locked against future changes. The identity validation of the first party indicates that the first party has agreed to the one or more electronic documents. Registration information is received from the client communications device of a second party to the transaction. The registration information includes the identity validation of the second party. The second party is provided with access to the received electronic documents. Whenever an acceptance of the electronic documents is received from the client communications devices of the second party, the identity validation from the first party and the second party to the agreed to electronic document. US08271386B2
A system for managing and processing exceptions to shared global treasury limits across multiple different platforms can be utilized by an organization to eliminate inconsistent client experiences and increase overall operating efficiency. A management and processing system can decision transactions of clients (e.g., customers, users, members, account-holders, clients, and the like) through a combination of straight-through and manual processes that are utilized according to select qualifying criteria. The system provides for auto-decisioning of low-risk, low-amount transactions while enabling authorized users to manually decision and otherwise manage transactions through various workflow-driven graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The GUIs can be configured to allow transaction approvers to standardize workflow for manual processing and approval of transactions that cannot be entirely decisioned by, or are exempt from, automated straight-through processing and can further be configured to provide users with numerous viewing, reporting, routing, tracking and decision override capabilities. US08271381B2
The Greenlist tool provides payors desiring to pay a merchant a means to locate, validate and effect the transfer of assets to another party by routing transaction requests to a third party that functions as the transaction enabler. This task is performed without divulging confidential information about transactors while assigning liability for certain risk consequences to the lowest cost risk bearers: banks. Greenlist verifies identities before making financial transactions or before obtaining access to restricted information. The Greenlist can be completely trusted by risk-bearers. Liability for risk can be transferred to the registrars of the information contained within the registry. This liability transfer substantially reduces the payor's cost of bearing risks. Banks or third parties responsible for certifying that someone or some entity claiming to be an authorized party is not an impostor can now offer new levels of service at a substantially lower cost for a variety of transactions. US08271373B2
A system and method for risk analysis of a portfolio of derivative products is disclosed which is conducted based on a set of flexible rules. The system and method allow creating predefined sets of products for the purpose of future risk offsets. If a futures trade as a subset of that set of products that met a threshold level, then the subset is assigned the offset value (or a pro rata or other portion of the offset value) of the predefined set. For example, assume that the predefined set consists of one S&P 500 futures, one NASDAQ futures, one S&P Midcap 400 futures and one Russell 1000 futures and the threshold is three. If the futures trader holds any three of those four futures, the three futures can be grouped, assigned an offset value, and this group can be used as one asset for purpose of further risk offsets. US08271367B1
Embodiments provide computerized stress testing for evaluating the effect of changes in the financial position of one or more borrowers. A stressed financial parameter (e.g., a risk rating or financial ratio) is generated for a borrower based on a selection of a borrower account type, a stress amount for applying to the account type, and additional financial inputs corresponding to the borrower. In some cases the stressed financial parameter is generated as a function of an unstressed financial parameter for the borrower, the stress amount, a numerator factor corresponding to the selected account type, and a denominator factor corresponding to the selected account type. Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are provided with the stress testing functionality. US08271366B2
The present invention relates to a compliance system that allows users to verify that trading rules and regulations are being followed throughout the intraday trading activity. In particular, the systems and methods of the present invention allow a user to verify compliance with trading rules locally at a trading terminal. US08271358B2
A method is described for user customized single screen order taking. The method saves users time to submit subsequent orders by storing their selection of items and having the system use that stored information to avoid selecting the desired items for each subsequent order. In practice, upon initial logon, a menu of items is presented to the user in response to the users inputted identification and password. The user can then select a subset of items from the displayed menu for the present and subsequent logons. The system eliminates duplicates and prioritizes presentation attribute from the selected items. A single data entry screen presenting the specific data entry needs for the selected items then is displayed on the present and subsequent logins. This ordering method also permits the user to save all data entered on a data entry screen in modified or unmodified format for submission at a subsequent time for fulfillment. Additional time is saved by the user in the placement of orders by positioning all required data fields in different regions that the non-required data fields in the data entry screen. US08271356B1
An information system environment is described that, among other things, facilitates integration of electronic commerce and physical store front retailer selling channels. In some realizations, the system includes a shopper accessible kiosk co-located with a physical store front retailer and an electronic commerce information service accessible from locations external to the physical store front retailer. Both access inventory information supplied from a suitable information service. The shopper accessible kiosk allows a user thereof to access inventory information particular to the physical store front retailer, while the electronic commerce information service allows a user thereof to order items from out of stock of the physical store front retailer. US08271355B2
A sales force automation system and method of facilitating a sales process which integrates computerized intelligent automated salesperson support for multiple phases of the sales process. Various subsystems may be provided to facilitate the sales process which may include pre-sales lead generation, maximize time spent with the customer, effectively manage an order, ensure customer satisfaction and retain the customer for future sales. Also provided to support the phases of the sales process are additional tools, integrated in the system. The additional tools may include self management subsystems, sales management subsystems and training subsystems. US08271353B2
A method and system for automatically generating a self-updating naturally-reading narrative product summary including assertions about a selected product. In one embodiment, the system and method includes evaluating an existing narrative product summary, comparing an existing attribute name, attribute value, attribute unit, and assertion model, respectively, to a current attribute name, attribute value, attribute unit, and assertion model to determine if one of the comparisons shows a change. The system and method further determines a new attribute associated with the selected product, selects an alternative product, retrieves a new assertion model with assertions that describe the selected product and identify an alternative product in a natural manner. The system and method then generates a naturally-reading narrative product summary by combining the new attribute with the new retrieved assertion model, and by combining the selected alternative product with another retrieved assertion model to recommend the selected alternative product in the narrative. US08271343B2
Disclosed herein are systems and methods for electronic gifting. In an exemplary gift purchasing method, a control system receives from a purchasing system a gift purchase request that includes a mobile telephone number (or other unique telephonic identifier) associated with a wireless gift recipient system, sends to a payment authorization system a payment authorization request, receives a payment authorization, and notifies the wireless gift recipient system of an electronic gift certificate. In an exemplary gift redemption method, the control system receives a gift redemption request for goods/services from a point-of-sale (POS) system, sends an authentication request addressed to the wireless gift recipient system by way of text message or other format, receives an authentication confirmation originating from the wireless gift recipient, and sends a redemption authorization to the vendor POS system. The control system has modules for conducting a targeted marketing campaign utilizing purchase and/or redemption information. US08271338B2
According to an embodiment of the invention, an approach is provided for estimating how a particular user would rate a particular item from a plurality of items. The approach is applicable to any type of items, including rental items such as movies, music and games, and the invention is not limited to any particular type of item. One or more items from the plurality of items that have ratings similar to the particular item are identified. One or more other users are identified that have given ratings to the one or more items that are substantially similar to ratings given by the particular user to the one or more items. An estimation is made of how the particular user would rate the particular item based upon ratings for the particular item given by the one or more other users. US08271336B2
A system, method and article of manufacture are provided for a first business entity to provide a network-based supply chain framework for collaborative order management between at least a second and a third independent business entity, such as a service provider, vendor, reseller, manufacturer and the like. A request for an order is received over a network with an automated system, from at least a second business entity. The order is transmitted over a network, with an automated system, to at least the third business entity. Information is received from the third business entity relating to a status of completion of the order by the third business entity using a network. The progress in completing the order is tracked based on the information received from the third business entity. Progress reports from the tracking are generated periodically; and transmitted to the second business entity using the network. US08271333B1
A media player provides on-screen desktop imagery such as background wallpaper and/or interactive features, related to music or other content being played. The presentation of the content-related imagery and/or features is not limited to the area of the screen associated with the media player, but can extend to other areas of the screen as well. The content-related imagery and/or features may be displayed, for example, as desktop wallpaper, so that it appears as a background to other user interface elements such as icons and windows. US08271330B2
A system and method for researching virtual markets and using the research to optimize product placements and displays. The system includes a monitoring engine configured to monitor information about user reactions and/or at least one product. The system also includes a recommendation engine configured to recommend a location within a virtual universe to display the at least one product based on the information monitored by the monitoring engine and a display engine configured to display the at least one product at a recommended location. US08271318B2
Computer-implemented systems and methods generate a near-optimum product markdown plan for a plurality of uniform pricing levels having a required inventory sell-through target over all of the plurality of uniform pricing levels. A plurality of feasible markdown schedules are generated for the uniform pricing level, where each of the plurality of feasible markdown schedules meets all individual constraints for the uniform pricing level. All dominated feasible markdown schedules are removed for the uniform pricing level to generate one or more candidate markdown schedules for the uniform pricing level. A near-optimum product markdown plan is generated, where generating the near-optimum product markdown plans includes executing a limited exact algorithm solver for a plurality of iterations, and executing a dynamic programming solver if no product markdown plan generated by the limited exact algorithm solver is within the threshold percentage of the revenue upper bound. US08271317B2
A computer implemented method of providing feedback to a sales representative for a sales opportunity to a customer, comprising: determining, in dependence on information received from the sales representative, a probability that the sales opportunity will result in a sale by the sales representative; determining, in dependence on information received from the sales representative, a location on a sales cycle time line for the sales opportunity; assigning a priority to the sales opportunity in dependence on the location on the sales cycle time line and the probability that the sales opportunity will result in a sale; and rendering on a display a visual representation of the probability and the priority. US08271315B2
The object of the present invention is to improve quality of service for customers by sharing and utilizing personal information on customers among variety of industries. In order to achieve the objective, the present invention comprises a personal information storage means (12), a communication means (8) to an external device and an information processing means (14) for controlling operation of each means thereof; wherein said personal information storage means (12) stores not only personal information on an information disclosing person, but also commodity provision information, etc. on commodity service which is provided for the information disclosing person for each information disclosing person of the personal information. And, the processing means (14) comprising: receiving personal information on an information disclosing person from an information search side terminal via the communication means (8), checking the received personal information with personal information stored in the personal information storage means (12), identifying an information disclosing person of the received personal information if the received personal information coincides with the personal information stored in the personal information storage means (12), as a result of the checking, reading out commodity provision information, etc. on the identified information disclosing person from the personal information storage means (12), transmitting said read out commodity provision information, etc. to the information search side terminal. US08271309B2
Method and system for providing and administering online rental vehicle reservation booking services
A system and method is disclosed herein for customizing pages of a rental vehicle reservation booking website with deep-links for specialized rental vehicle reservations. The specialized rental vehicle reservations may comprise reservations for a division of a customer entity and/or promotional offer reservations. Multi-division and multi-offer pages can also be defined for the website through an administrative tool. US08271308B2
An electronic product code information service (EPCIS) interface is provided that allows accessing applications residing on a variety of systems to receive EPC-related data. In setting up an insurance policy, the EPC-related data may be used to determine objects covered by the insurance policy and to valuate the covered objects. An insurance premium may be generated for the insurance policy based on this valuation. In addition, changes to the covered objects may be detected based on the EPC-related data and may be used to automatically adjust the insured value and/or insurance premium. US08271305B2
An account management system has been developed that enables customer or client-related information to be stored, viewed and manipulated in a manner that reflects the relationship among different customers. The account management system includes an account data structure that defines accounts and relates customers to accounts so that the accounts include a group of related customers. In addition, a method of managing an underwriting account for an insurance policy has been developed. In particular, a method comprises the steps of establishing a plurality of participants; assigning each participant of the plurality of participants to an account; establishing business rules at an account level; and providing an underwriting decision for an account based upon the business rules. US08271298B2
Grouping, categorizing, and profiling pharmaceutical claims data to assist health care managers is described. In aspects, a method is described including receiving pharmacy claims data records, validating each of the claims data records for a valid drug code, establishing a number of validated pharmacy claims data records received for each drug identified, grouping the validated pharmacy claims data records to one or more pharmacy episodes, categorizing each pharmacy episode, and storing the validated pharmacy claims data records and associated pharmacy episodes for monitoring usage of prescription drugs. In various embodiments, a pharmacy episode group is a pharmacologically homogenous grouping of drugs with the same therapeutic ingredients used by a patient once or over an extended period of time, and pharmacy episodes are categorized based on algorithms linking the pattern of a physician's recommended use and the patient's pattern of compliance. US08271296B2
This invention provides a method of improving operational effectiveness in a clinical trial, the method comprises the steps of: obtaining historical clinical trial operation data for a disease condition; normalizing data from different clinical trials; grouping different clinical trials into groups; and calculating Site Effectiveness Index (SEI), wherein the SEI is useful for improving operational effectiveness in a clinical trial. In one embodiment, using the method disclosed herein would result in reducing the cost for the clinical trial. US08271290B2
An audio system comprises an encoder (209) which encodes audio objects in an encoding unit (403) that generates a down-mix audio signal and parametric data representing the plurality of audio objects. The down-mix audio signal and parametric data is transmitted to a decoder (215) which comprises a decoding unit (301) which generates approximate replicas of the audio objects and a rendering unit (303) which generates an output signal from the audio objects. The decoder (215) furthermore contains a processor (501) for generating encoding modification data which is sent to the encoder (209). The encoder (209) then modifies the encoding of the audio objects, and in particular modifies the parametric data, in response to the encoding modification data. The approach allows manipulation of the audio objects to be controlled by the decoder (215) but performed fully or partly by the encoder (209). Thus, the manipulation may be performed on the actual independent audio objects rather than on approximate replicas thereby providing improved performance. US08271289B2
An audio decoding method and apparatus and an audio encoding method and apparatus which can efficiently process object-based audio signals are provided. The audio decoding method includes receiving first and second audio signals, which are object-encoded; generating third object energy information based on first object energy information included in the first audio signal and second object energy information included in the second audio signal; and generating a third audio signal by combining the first and second object signals and the third object energy information. US08271286B2
A method, apparatus, and system are directed towards employing machine representations of phonemes to generate and manage domain names, and/or messaging addresses. A voice input signal is received using at least one computing device. The voice input signal is converted into a text representation of the voice input signal. It is then determined if the voice input signal is to be employed for use as at least one of: a domain name and a messaging address. In response to determining the voice input signal is to be employed for use in a domain name, a uniform resource identifier (URI) is generated by appending to the text representation of the voice input signal at least a top-level domain identifier. A registration status of the URI is then determined, the registration status comprising one of: registered and unregistered. US08271282B2
A voice recognition apparatus includes an extraction unit extracting a feature amount from a voice signal, a word dictionary storing a plurality of recognition words; a reject word generation unit storing reject words in the word dictionary in association with the recognition words and a collation unit calculating a degree of similarity between the voice signal and each of the recognition words and reject words stored in the word dictionary by using the feature amount extracted by the extraction unit, determining whether or not a word having a high calculated degree of similarity corresponds to a reject word, when the word is determined as the reject word, excluding the recognition word stored in the word dictionary in association with the reject word from a result of recognition, and outputting a recognition word having a high calculated degree of similarity as a result of recognition. US08271279B2
A speech enhancement system improves the perceptual quality of a processed voice signal. The system improves the perceptual quality of a voice signal by removing unwanted noise components from a voice signal. The system removes undesirable signals that may result in the loss of information. The system receives and analyzes signals to determine whether an undesired random or persistent signal corresponds to one or more modeled noises. When one or more noise components are detected, the noise components are substantially removed or dampened from the signal to provide a less noisy voice signal. US08271275B2
A scalable encoding device capable of reducing an encoding rate to reduce a circuit scale while preventing sound quality deterioration of a decoded signal. An extension layer is coarsely divided into a system for processing a first channel and a system for processing a second channel. A sound source predictor for processing the first channel predicts a drive sound source signal of the first channel from a drive sound source signal of a monaural signal, and outputs the predicted drive sound source signal through a multiplier to a first CELP encoder. A sound source predictor for processing the second channel predicts the drive sound source signal of the second channel from the drive sound source signal of the monaural signal and the output from the first CELP encoder, and outputs the predicted drive sound source signal through a multiplier to a second CELP encoder. The first and second CELP encoders perform CELP encoding operations of the individual channels using individual predicted drive sound source signals. US08271274B2
The invention aims at constructing improved dictionaries of CELP excitation vectors for coding/decoding digital audio signals. Usually, each vector of dimension N comprises pulses capable of occupying N valid positions. The invention concerns the construction of dictionaries with particular structure by: providing a common sequence of pulses forming a base pattern; and assigning the base pattern to each excitation vector of the dictionary, based on one or more occurrences at one or more respective positions among said N valid positions. The invention also concerns a combination of dictionaries thus constructed with optionally standard multipulse dictionaries, by union or summation or cascading. US08271263B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide methods and apparatus for transcoding received text fragments and documents. A featurization configuration is produced to create token components for evaluating the content of the text fragment. Other embodiments may be described and claimed. US08271262B1
The invention comprises a lip reading device having a capacitive array for enhanced portable speech recognition.The capacitive array of the invention produces a sequence of signal frames or signal data sets (i.e., digitized output) representative of the proximity and motion of a user's lips at a predetermined sample rate and resolution.The sequence of signal data sets is stored in a first electronic memory and are compared against a reference data set representative of a predetermined acoustic signal stored in a second electronic memory.The attributes of signal data set are compared against the reference data set for likely data matches based on predetermined criteria. US08271259B2
The virtual supercomputer is an apparatus, system and method for generating information processing solutions to complex and/or high-demand/high-performance computing problems, without the need for costly, dedicated hardware supercomputers, and in a manner far more efficient than simple grid or multiprocessor network approaches. The virtual supercomputer consists of a reconfigurable virtual hardware processor, an associated operating system, and a set of operations and procedures that allow the architecture of the system to be easily tailored and adapted to specific problems or classes of problems in a way that such tailored solutions will perform on a variety of hardware architectures, while retaining the benefits of a tailored solution that is designed to exploit the specific and often changing information processing features and demands of the problem at hand. US08271251B2
There is provided a high throughput automated single molecule image collection and processing system that requires minimal initial user input. The unique features embodied in the present disclosure allow automated collection and initial processing of optical images of single molecules and their assemblies. Correct focus may be automatically maintained while images are collected. Uneven illumination in fluorescence microscopy is accounted for, and an overall robust imaging operation is provided yielding individual images prepared for further processing in external systems. Embodiments described herein are useful in studies of any macromolecules such as DNA, RNA, peptides and proteins. The automated image collection and processing system and method of same may be implemented and deployed over a computer network, and may be ergonomically optimized to facilitate user interaction. US08271244B2
A sequence in the earth, defined by an upper sequence boundary and a lower sequence boundary, where at least one of the boundaries includes an unconformity, is modeled by creating a restored space corresponding to the sequence by reconstructing a portion of the sequence missing because of the unconformity. The sequence in restored space has a restored top boundary having a position and a restored base boundary having a position. Stratigraphic layering is performed within the restored space sequence, using as guides the positions of the restored top boundary and the restored base boundary of the sequence in restored space. US08271241B2
A metamaterial includes a dielectric substrate and an array of discrete resonators at the dielectric substrate, wherein each of the discrete resonators has a shape that is independently selected from: an F-type shape; an E-type shape; or a y-type shape. A parameter of a chiral metamaterial is determined and a chiral metamaterial having such a parameter is prepared by the use of a model of the chiral metamaterial. The metamaterial model includes an array of discrete resonators. In one embodiment, each of the discrete resonators has a shape that is independently selected from the group consisting of: an F-type shape; an E-type shape; and a y-type shape. To the metamaterial model, electromagnetic (EM) radiation, preferably plane-polarized EM radiation in a visible, ultraviolet or near-infrared region, having at least one wavelength that is larger than the largest dimension of at least resonator of the metamaterial model, is applied. Varying at least one characteristic of the metamaterial model and/or at least one wavelength of the applied EM radiation modulates EM interaction of the applied EM radiation with the metamaterial model, thereby determining a parameter of the chiral metamaterial. By the use of a model of the chiral metamaterial, a number of discrete resonators of a chiral metamaterial that are arrayed in a direction perpendicular to a propagation axis of EM radiation is also determined. US08271234B1
A system for implementing a situational awareness includes a plurality of data gathering devices for observing the physical environment and transforming observations of physical phenomena into digital information; a plurality of field monitoring units with each of the plurality of units communicating with a corresponding plurality of data gathering devices to obtain data therefrom; and an aggregate monitoring unit communicating with each of the plurality of field monitoring units to monitor and control each of the plurality of field monitoring units and collect and store data from the plurality of data gathering devices. US08271230B2
Disclosed herein are methods for monitoring a thermoelectric heating and cooling device (103, 203, 303) of a system (100, 200, 300) for cycling liquid reaction mixtures through a series of temperature excursions, and such systems adapted to perform these methods. A first quantity being either an electric current or an electric voltage is applied to the heating and cooling device (103, 203) or a portion (314) thereof (303), and a second quantity being either the non-selected first quantity or temperature is measured to obtain a first test value. The selected first quantity is applied to another thermoelectric heating and cooling device (104, 204) or another portion (315) of the first device (303), and the second quantity is measured to obtain a second test value. Comparison of the first and second test values yields a monitoring value which is compared with a pre-defined threshold value to obtain a monitoring result. US08271223B2
The present invention is related to multi-dimensional error definition, error measurement, error analysis, error function generation, error information optimization, and error correction for communication systems. Novel techniques are provided that can be applied to a myriad of applications for which an input to output transfer characteristic must be corrected or linearized. According to embodiments of the present invention, error can be described, processed, and geometrically interpreted. Compact formulations of error correction and calibration functions can be generated according to the present invention, which reduce memory requirements as well as computational time. US08271221B2
Provided is a phase detection device which can detect a phase by using a simple configuration. The phase detection device 5 has the section specifying part 27 specifying which of the eight sections obtained by dividing a range from 0 to 2π for each π/4 from 0 contains the phase θ based on the sign of the sine wave signal Ssa, the sign of the cosine wave signal Sca, and the magnitude relationship between the absolute value of the sine wave signal Ssa and the absolute value of the cosine wave signal Sca, and the arctangent calculation part 37 adjusting the signs of the sine wave signal Ssa and the cosine wave signal Sca and making one of the sine wave signal Ssa and the cosine wave signal Sca a sine wave and making the other a cosine wave so that the sign of the sine wave, the sign of the cosine wave, and the magnitude relationship between the absolute value of the sine wave and the absolute value of the cosine wave coincide regardless of which of the eight sections contains the phase θ, thereby calculating the arctangent of the tangent based on the sine wave and the cosine wave according to a procedure common to the eight parts. US08271218B2
A reader device (104) for a contactless remote measurement system by inductive coupling provided with at least one RLC passive sensor (102) having a resistance and a capacitance or inductance provided for varying depending on one or more physical parameters, the measurement of which is desired, the reader including an inductive antenna (105), and means for iterative identification of at least the resistance and the capacitance or inductance of said sensor, provided for carrying out an iterative identification method comprising steps consisting of: emitting a test signal at the input of said antenna, achieving an estimation ŷk of the time response of the sensor to said test signal with means forming a discrete filter (112) provided with coefficients which may be modulated, adapting the coefficients of the discrete filter, depending on a criterion J depending on said estimation and on a discrete signal sk formed from a real signal taken at the terminals of the antenna in response to the emission of said test signal. US08271217B2
An electrical device is powered by a battery. The device includes transition phase determining circuitry operatively connected to the battery to determine that the battery has entered a transition phase based on the occurrence of a change in direction of current flowing through the battery. Battery capacity determining circuitry is operatively connected to the transition phase determining circuitry and configured to determine, in response the transition phase determining circuitry determining that the battery is in the transition phase, a capacity of the battery based on a transition phase battery capacity model of capacity-vs.-voltage. The transition phase determining circuitry is further configured to determine an end of the transition phase based on the transition phase battery capacity model and a non-transition battery capacity model of capacity-vs.-voltage yielding the same capacity value for a given measured voltage of the battery. US08271211B2
An in-situ gas flow measurement controller measures the temperature and rate of pressure drop upstream from a flow control device (FCD). The controller samples the pressure and temperature data and applies the equivalent of a decimating filter to the data to produce filtered data at a slower sampling rate. The controller derives timestamps by counting ticks from the sampling clock of the A/D converter that is sampling the pressure at regular intervals to ensure the timestamps associated with the pressure samples are accurate and do not contain jitter that is associated with software clocks. The controller additionally normalizes the temperature reading to account for power supply fluctuations, filters out noise from the pressure and temperature readings, and excludes data during periods of instability. It calculates the gas flow rate accounting for possible non-linearities in the pressure measurements, and provides the computed gas flow measurement via one of many possible interfaces. US08271208B1
A method for calibrating a flame ionization detector (FID). The method includes receiving a request to schedule a calibration. After scheduling the calibration, a flow request command is sent to a gas distribution system at a scheduled calibration. The flow request command instructs the gas distribution system to provide a gas at a gas concentration level to the FID. After the gas distribution system provides the gas at the gas concentration level to the FID, the method includes receiving a raw count from the FID and correlating the raw count with the gas and the gas concentration level provided to the FID. The method then stores the results of the correlation in a calibration log. US08271203B2
Computer-implementable methods consistent with the present teachings can be used in the design of selective- and multiple-reaction monitoring experiments for the identification of proteins and peptides of interest. By determining candidate parent-daughter ion transition pairs and scoring the pairs based on their ability to be detected experimental design time can be reduced and with a more focused list of transition pairs more experiments can be run successfully in a given period of time. US08271194B2
A method for locating GNSS-defined points, distances, directional attitudes and closed geometric shapes includes the steps of providing a base with a base GNSS antenna and providing a rover with a rover GNSS antenna and receiver. The receiver is connected to the rover GNSS antenna and is connected to the base GNSS antenna by an RF cable. The receiver thereby simultaneously processes signals received at the antennas. The method includes determining a vector directional arrow from the differential positions of the antennas and calculating a distance between the antennas, which can be sequentially chained together for determining a cumulative distance in a “digital tape measure” mode of operation. A localized RTK surveying method uses the rover antenna for determining relative or absolute point locations. A system includes a base with an antenna, a rover with an antenna and a receiver, with the receiver being connected to the antennas. A processor is provided for computing positions, directional vectors, areas and other related tasks. US08271193B2
A navigation apparatus for displaying maps includes a current position detection section configured to detect the current position of the navigation apparatus; a touch-sensitive panel configured to be installed on a display screen of the display section; and a control section configured to control changes in what is displayed on the display section in response to operations performed by a user on the touch-sensitive panel. The control section displays either the current position or route directions in text form in a strip-shaped area along one edge of the display screen, and a map in all or part of the remaining area of the display screen, and according to an instruction given from the user, the control section changes the display of the strip-shaped area to the display of at least a menu for accepting input of operations regarding the map. US08271189B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for estimating position location of a mobile device. US08271183B2
A method of operating a vehicle including an engine is provided The engine may include at least one cylinder, a boosting device to boost intake air to the at least one cylinder, a fuel tank, a fuel vapor canister to store fuel vapors vented from the fuel tank, and an emission control device to treat exhaust gas from the engine. The boosting device includes a compressor at least partially driven by an electric motor. The method includes during an engine cold start condition, operating the electric motor of the boost device to boost intake air, directing the boosted intake air through the fuel vapor canister to release a fuel vapor stored in the fuel vapor canister, directing the fuel vapor from the fuel vapor canister to the engine, and performing combustion in the at least one cylinder using the fuel vapor during the engine starting. US08271179B2
A system and method for aiding airdrop computations is described. The system includes a ground system, a data link, and an airborne system. The ground system accumulates substantially real time drop zone GPS and meteorological data, which is transferred to the airborne system via the data link. The airborne system makes adjustments to a release point of the airdrop based on the data received from the ground system. Additionally, the airborne system provides airdrop status to the ground system via the data link. US08271170B2
In a clutch control system for a vehicle having a hydraulic type clutch in the course of power transmission between an engine and a drive wheel the operational response of the clutch is enhanced and the influence of a hysteresis present in oil pressure-stroke characteristic is suppressed. When the clutch is disconnected, a control oil pressure thereof is maintained at a predetermined stand-by oil pressure (allowance compensating oil pressure) P1. At the time of connecting the clutch, the control oil pressure is increased to a predetermined connection oil pressure P2. In bringing the clutch from the connected state into the disconnected state, the control oil pressure is lowered to an oil pressure P3 being below the stand-by oil pressure P1 and being near 0, and is thereafter increased again to the stand-by oil pressure P1. US08271166B2
A device and a method for control of an automatic transmission (1) in a vehicle having one control unit (2), which can receive signals produced by a transmission gearshift lever (7), and/or a first transmission control (8). The signals of the first transmission control are bridgeable so that the automatic transmission can be manually operated. In order to make it possible to efficiently operate the vehicle with low fuel consumption and great flexibility of the driver at the moment, manual operation of the automatic transmission is possible only when the vehicle is at speed (v) lower than a predetermined speed limit. US08271162B2
A management system using Global Positioning System receivers for tracking remote units from a central office and quickly and conveniently determining if those remote units have varied from a set of predetermined parameters of operation. The system also includes provisions that allows information to be sent from the remote units to the central office and vice versa. The system also has safety features that promote the rapid dispatch of law enforcement personnel when requests for emergency assistance have been made from the remote units. US08271156B2
When determined that a driver's accelerator operation is rough during the turn-on condition of an ECO switch 88 while a hybrid vehicle 20 is driven without an operation of an engine 22 (Step S120), a threshold value Pref with respect to a power demand P* is set to a value P2 that is larger than a value P1 of the turn-off condition of the ECO switch 88 so as to give priority to fuel consumption of the engine 22 (Step S140). Then, the engine 22, motors MG1 and MG2 are controlled with a start of the engine 22 as necessary so as to ensure torque equivalent to a torque demand Tr* (Steps S150-S230). US08271150B2
Methods and systems for a position indicating display system for an aircraft are provided. The system includes a moving map display representative of an area being traversed by the aircraft such that a current relative position of the aircraft is maintained proximate a center of the display, a first overlay on the moving map display that is indicative of a predetermined track of travel, and a second overlay on the moving map display indicative of a distance range from a suitable alternate airport. The second overlay also displays equal time points to assist flight crews in determining closest suitable alternate airport in the event of a required diversion. Constraints regarding the intended flight route on the organized track system are available for display to the flight crew. US08271148B2
Provided are a novel distribution automation system and its voltage control method, which can supply a stable voltage to a user by properly adjusting the settings of a control device so as to compensate for reactive power at each load terminal. The voltage control method includes: a first step of modeling a distribution system in the form of a distribution load based on constants of four terminals according to the connection type of each node and a distribution line, which constitute the distribution system; a second step of determining a formula for estimating the magnitude of a voltage at a node from a current value of an adjacent node; a third step of determining an objective function including the magnitude of the voltage, calculated through the formula determined in the second step, and a control variable for controlling the magnitude of the voltage; and a fourth step of calculating a value of the control variable to allow the determined objective function to have a minimum value and applying the calculated value to each voltage control device provided in the distribution system. US08271147B2
Methods, apparatuses and systems for managing energy demand of one or more appliances. In one example, an appliance controller apparatus is provided, comprising a user interface configured to receive a user input indicative of a demand flexibility associated with an appliance, a communication interface configured to receive a control input indicative of a request to modify a power demand of the appliance, and a processor programmed to determine whether the power demand of the appliance is to be modified based on the user input and the control input. In a further aspect, a meter controller apparatus is provided, comprising a communication interface configured to receive a message from an appliance controller apparatus coupled to an appliance, the message comprising information regarding a power demand of the appliance and a demand category associated with the appliance. The meter controller apparatus may further comprise a processor programmed to compute an updated meter controller model based on the message received from the appliance controller apparatus and a present meter controller model. US08271145B2
A handy terminal for a wind turbine generator, includes a connecting portion connectable to a connector provided in the wind turbine generator, an operating ends group including an operating button to generate an operating signal which selectively validates a control logic within a control circuit provided in the wind turbine generator, and a display portion for displaying the operating state of the operating ends group. The operating ends group includes a mode selecting button for selectively validates one of a maintenance mode and an operating mode of the wind turbine generator; and a rotor turning button for switching to the blades pitch control state in which blades of the wind turbine generator side are driven in the predetermined low speed with adjusting the pitch angle of the blades according to the rotational speed. US08271139B2
An accurate blending system for blending a feed liquid and first and second adjusting liquids includes a first feed means adapted to communicate with a supply of feed liquid, a second feed means adapted to communicate with a supply of the first adjusting liquid and a third feed means adapted to communicate with a supply of the second adjusting liquid. The first, second and third feed means may be pumps, valves or combinations thereof. A mixing device is in communication with the first, second and third feed means. First and second sensors are in communication with the mixing device. A controller communicates with the first and second sensors so that first and second characteristics of the solution in the mixing device can be detected. The controller also communicates with the first and second feed means so that delivery of first and second adjusting liquid to the mixing device can be controlled based upon the detected first and second characteristics of the solution in the mixing device. US08271122B2
A method for monitoring a manufacturing tool features acquiring metrology data (“Step a”). Data is acquired for process variables for a first process step performed by the manufacturing tool (“Step b”). A mathematical model of the first process step based on the metrology data and the acquired data is created (“Step c”). Steps b and c are repeated for at least a second process step (“Step d”). An nth mathematical model is created based on the metrology data and the data for the process variables for each of the n process steps (“Step e”). A top level mathematical model is created based on the metrology data and the models created by steps c, d and e (“Step f”). A multivariate metric is calculated based on the top level model of step f and data from subsequent runs of the manufacturing tool. Service is performed if the metric satisfies a condition. US08271108B2
There is provided an audio playback device that prevents a user from losing an opportunity to use a content that is not playable on an AOP mode. In the case where the playback device functions on the AOP mode, when a DVD-Audio disk 1 being a subject of playback contains an ATT_GR that is not playable in the AOP mode, a navigation manager 11 of a DVD-Audio playback device displays such situation on a display device 15 via a display control unit. On the other hand, in the case where the playback device functions in a VCAP mode, when the DVD-Audio disk 1 being the subject of playback contains an ATT_GR that is playable only in the VCAP mode, the navigation manager 11 displays the ATT_GRN of the ATT_GR on the display device 15 via the display control unit to urge the user to use the ATT_GR. US08271107B2
Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for controlling audio operation for data management and data rendering. Embodiments include selecting one of a plurality of predetermined audio configurations in dependence upon context information and setting audio operation of a data management and data rendering module to the selected predetermined audio configuration. A predetermined audio configuration typically identifies an audio output device and an audio input device. Some embodiments of the present invention also include creating audio configuration selection rules including receiving from a user audio configurations and associating the audio configurations with predetermined context parameters. US08271096B2
An implantable medical system for anchoring a medical lead implanted in a patient includes a medical lead, an anchoring device received coaxially over the medical lead, and at least one fastener secured circumferentially about the anchoring device to cause compression of the anchoring device on the medical lead. The anchoring device includes an elastomeric sleeve having a substantially elongate, hollow, and tubular body and a compression governor coaxially secured about the elastomeric sleeve. The compression governor is adapted to limit compressive forces exerted on the lead by the anchoring device at a predetermined limit and provides a visual indicator that the predetermined limit has been reached. US08271092B2
A swallowing stimulation system has a swallowing stimulator for use in triggering an act of swallowing in a patient. The swallowing system has an operating unit including operating elements for receiving user inputs, whereby the operating elements are allocated to different possible physical properties of a food, such that a user can allocate a particular food by means of the operating elements to at least one of at least two categories. The operating unit is designed to generate a control signal corresponding to a user input for the swallowing stimulator, and the swallowing stimulator is designed so that a stimulus for triggering an act of swallowing is formed in response to the control signal. US08271084B2
An earlier intrinsic activation and a later intrinsic activation of a right ventricle and a left ventricle are determined. This information is used for computing a biventricular pacing interval as a function of an interval from a pacing energy delivered to a ventricle corresponding to the later intrinsic activation and a depolarization sensed in a ventricle having earlier intrinsic activation, the depolarization evoked in response to the pacing energy. US08271083B2
A method and system for managing refractory periods in a cardiac rhythm management device configured for biventricular or biatrial sensing. Refractory periods for each channel of the pacemaker are provided by interval timers that are triggered by sensed or paced events in order to prevent misinterpretation of sensing signals. US08271081B2
Techniques are described for discriminating ventricular tachycardia (VT) from supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) in circumstances when the ventricular rate exceeds the atrial rate (i.e. V>A). In one example, an initial atrial rate is detected while employing adjustable atrial channel detection parameters that can affect the detection of the true atrial rate—such as a post-ventricular atrial blanking (PVAB) interval or an atrial channel sensitivity level. If the ventricular rate exceeds a VT rate zone threshold with V>A, the device does not immediately deliver high voltage shock therapy as done in other devices. Rather, the device instead selectively adjusts the atrial channel detection parameter(s) to determine if the true atrial rate is equal to the ventricular rate. If so, then such is an indication that the arrhythmia might be SVT rather than VT and various discrimination procedures are employed to distinguish SVT from VT before therapy is delivered. US08271080B2
Assessing decongestive therapy delivered to a heart failure patient involves use of an implantable sensor configured to sense a physiologic parameter indicative of the patient's diuresis status and a processor coupled to the implantable sensor. The sensor may comprise a thoracic fluid sensor, a heart sounds sensor, a cardiac chamber or arterial pressure sensor, a respiration sensor, or a blood chemistry sensor, for example. The processor is configured to determine if a target level of patient diuresis has been achieved based on a relationship between the sensed physiologic parameter and a threshold developed for the patient, and to produce an output in response to determining that the target level of patient diuresis has been achieved. The processor may be disposed in an implantable housing, in a patient-external housing, or in a network server system. US08271078B2
An apparatus for use in connection with biosignal measurement from the skin of a living object, comprising means for applying a test input impedance to the biosignal measurement, means for determining a response of a biosignal characteristics to the test input impedance, and means for setting a usage input impedance on the basis of the response. US08271071B2
Described is an apparatus for sensing and processing electrical cardiac signals in a user's body, the apparatus comprising a contact surface having a plurality of electrical signal sensing electrodes associated with an electronic processing circuit and communication unit. The apparatus is configured for sensing electrical signals and is arranged within a single housing. It is configured to perform complete ECG bipolar, unipolar and unipolar precordial leads by at least four associations of the apparatus with the subject's skin. Also described is a method of remote sensing and processing of electrical cardiac signals which, via the apparatus, enables a lay user, or even the patient, to obtain the patient's heart signals. US08271068B2
A method of determining a three-dimensional (3D) position of a catheter tip includes: compensating a 2D position of the tip of the catheter for respiratory motion to generate a compensated 2D catheter position, generating weighted sample points around the compensated 2D catheter position, determining correspondent points of the weighted sample points in a 3D image, computing a weighted mean and a weighted covariance of each correspondent point, and determining the 3D position of the catheter tip in the 3D image from a fusion of the weighted means and weighted covariances. US08271066B2
The invention includes a method of determining a surgical patient's pelvic position and inputting that position into a computer via a tracking system, suitable for use in navigating partial or total hip replacement surgery. The patient is first aligned with anatomical reference points in relation to corresponding locating features on a patient positioner. The positions of index features on the patient positioner are then acquired via a tracking system. Based on the positions of the index features and their known relationship to the locating features, the locations of the anatomical reference features are calculated and a pelvic plane is defined therefrom. The invention also includes a surgical tool for mounting a trackable target to a human bone, suitable for fixation to a human femur. This tool includes a removable bone clamp and a releasable coupling member, integrated with said removable bone clamp. US08271060B2
An antenna device for a portable wireless terminal is provided. The antenna device includes a main antenna for mobile communication for transmitting and receiving signal in a first frequency band, a Transmit (Tx) sub-antenna for transmitting signals in a second frequency band, a Receive (Rx) sub-antenna for receiving signals in a third frequency band, and a controller for selectively using one of the Tx sub-antenna and the Rx sub-antenna if the second frequency band overlaps with the third frequency band, and for providing control such that the Tx sub-antenna and the Rx sub-antenna are simultaneously used if the second frequency band does not overlap with the third frequency band. Accordingly, without increasing the volume of the portable wireless terminal, an antenna space can be ensured and radiation performance can be improved. US08271053B2
A mobile terminal and power source controlling method thereof are disclosed, by which inter-power source power forwarding operations among a plurality of power sources can be efficiently performed to correspond to a power forwarding command operation inputted by a user. The present invention includes a power supply unit including a first power source and a second power source, an output unit displaying first power source state information of the first power source and second power source state information of the second power source, a user input unit receiving an input of a power forwarding command action for forwarding a power from one of the first and second power sources to the other, and a control unit controlling the power supply unit to forward the power from one of the first and second power sources to the other to correspond to the inputted power forwarding command action, the control unit controlling the output unit to display the first and second power source state informations according to the power forwarding. US08271047B2
A mobile terminal equipped with a flexible first display module and a second display module capable of receiving a touch input and a method of controlling the mobile terminal are provided. The method includes displaying an operating screen on the first display module and displaying an operation control menu on the second display module; determining whether the first display module is bent or folded; and choosing one of a plurality of menu items of the operation control menu corresponding to a bent or folded portion of the first display module. Therefore, it is possible to control various operations performed by the mobile terminal according to whether the first display module is bent or folded. US08271040B2
A network element (230) for communicating with a wireless communication unit (214) in a communication cell (200) of a communication system (200) comprises a receiver arranged to perform a frequency sweep across a plurality of operational frequencies. Signal processing logic (255), operably coupled to the receiver, processes the received signals from the frequency sweep and providing an estimate of a level of interference at a number of frequency carriers of the swept frequencies. The signal processing logic (255) is capable of determining whether a transmit power level at a frequency selected from the processed frequency sweep satisfies at least one predetermined quality criterion of the communication system (200). A transmitter (270) is arranged, upon initial activation of the network element (230), to transmit to a wireless communication unit at the determined transmit power level. US08271038B2
A media player system is disclosed. One aspect of the media player system pertains to a docking station that allows a media player to communicate with other media devices. Another aspect of the media player system pertains to a wireless media player system that includes a hand held media player capable of transmitting information over a wireless connection and one or more media devices capable of receiving information over the wireless connection. Another aspect of the media player system pertains to a method of wirelessly connecting the hand held media player to another device. The method includes selecting a media item on the hand held media player; selecting one or more remote recipients on the hand held media player; and transmitting the media item locally to the hand held media player, and wirelessly to the selected remote recipients. US08271037B2
A method (500) and system (100) of sensing the position of an audio accessory (102) having at least a microphone (103) can include a sensor (104 and/or 106) for detecting one among a plurality of positions of the audio accessory and a processor (118) programmed to equalize an audio input from the microphone based on which one among the plurality of positions was detected. The sensor can be a thermal sensor, an optical sensor, or a proximity sensor. The audio accessory can be a remote speaker/microphone accessory. Among the plurality of positions that can be detected can include a Mouth Reference Point (MRP) or a Shoulder position. The processor can be further programmed to automatically equalize (508) a microphone input audio based on one of the plurality of positions detected. The system can also be programmed to automatically equalize (512) when a push-to-talk activation occurs at the audio accessory. US08271027B2
A mobile terminal device equipped with radio communicating portions capable of holding a radio communication in accordance with a predetermined communication standard, and a standard signal outputting portion for outputting a signal in a format based on a predetermined signaling system to any display device prepared on an outside, includes a communication standard detecting means for detecting a type of the communication standard selected based on operating conditions of radio communicating portions, when one of the radio communicating portions conforms to plural types of communication standards or when a plurality of radio communicating portions conform to plural types of communication standards respectively, and a signaling system selecting means for selecting automatically a signaling system of the signal that the standard signal outputting portion outputs, in response to the type of the communication standard that the communication standard detecting means detects. US08271007B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for managing Short Messaging Service (SMS) spoofing using Short Messaging Peer-to-Peer (SMPP) protocol. An SMPP protocol communication includes an SMPP transmitter and an SMPP transceiver. The SMPP transmitter identifies or receives an SMS message for transmission to a destination. The SMPP transmitter identifies a source address for the SMS message, and determines whether the source address is authentic. If the source address is not authentic, then the SMPP transmitter inserts a validity indicator in an SMPP Packet Data Unit (PDU), along with the SMS message, that the source address is not authentic before transmitting the SMPP PDU to the SMPP transceiver. Upon receiving the SMPP PDU from the SMPP transmitter, the SMPP transceiver may determine whether or not to deliver the SMS message to the destination based on the validity indicator provided by the SMPP transmitter. US08271004B2
A method of operating a mobile service comprising the steps of receiving a first request via the World Wide Web or WAP to create said mobile service, said first request comprising instructions to modify a mobile service template, creating said mobile service from said instructions and said template, receiving a second request to execute said mobile service, said second request comprising an access number and delivered via a text message communication device having an MSISDN, determining said mobile service from a reference table comprising said MSISDN and said access number, and executing said mobile service. US08270995B1
A reservation is made over a wireless network for a group-based activity, such as golf, using a network-independent composite application. The composite application registers with a geo-fencing application, and receives notifications from the geo-fencing application when certain triggering criteria have been satisfied. In certain embodiments, the triggering criteria relate to the presence of target subscriber within a predetermined area. The availability of certain target subscribers is also determined and, if available, such target subscribers are provided with the opportunity to opt-in to the group-based activity. A reservation may be automatically made for the group-based activity using an online reservation application for target subscribers who chose to participate. US08270988B1
A method is disclosed for implementing an overlay carrier frequency in a wireless coverage area in response to low load in the coverage area. Normally, an carrier frequency may be added in response to high load. However, the disclosed method involves adding a carrier frequency in response to low load, as the addition of a carrier may advantageously increase the likelihood of soft handoff in certain situations, and as low load may facilitate operation on the added carrier without the need to add expensive supporting infrastructure that would typically be added to support full operation on an added carrier frequency. US08270986B1
A method for content transmission in a cellular network having a collection of cellular zones. The method includes obtaining a statistical trace associated with the cellular network, comprising attributes of historical content chunks received from prior users of the cellular network and trajectories of the prior users moving within the cellular zones, analyzing the statistical trace to identify a portion of the cellular zones as drop zones, allocating drop zone transmission bandwidth to the drop zones based on a pre-determined criterion, receiving, subsequent to the allocating, a transmission request for a content chunk from a mobile device of a user outside the drop zones, delaying transmission of the content chunk while the mobile device remains outside of the drop zones, and transmitting the content chunk in response to detecting the mobile device within the drop zones. US08270985B2
A wireless communication apparatus 10 having a plurality of frequency channels and being capable of wireless communication with a plurality of different terminals includes a channel allocation control unit 15 for allocating a different frequency channel to a terminal in a different rank based on a rank indicating a priority of communication quality of the terminal. US08270984B2
A wireless communication system based on a Cognitive Radio (CR) is provided. A method includes checking channels unused by a licensed system through a spectrum sensing; selecting one of the channels unused by the licensed system as a control channel based on a channel quality per channel; and transmitting control information to terminals within a cell over the control channel. US08270977B2
System and method for temporarily reconfiguring a communications system to provide selected services
A method for temporarily providing selected services by a base station cell of a communications system includes changing an operating mode of the cell in response to receiving a first command. The operating mode is indicated to a first selected device and a first non-selected device. The cell operating in the operating mode serves the first selected device based on the first command. The first non-selected device was a selected device and was capable of accessing the cell before the cell changed the operating mode. The first non-selected device is not capable of accessing the cell after the cell changed the operating mode. US08270973B2
A wireless device (e.g., a wireless smart phone) uses Global Positioning System (GPS) data, or other position-indicating data, to accurately determine its location in relation to multi-layered wireless networks that the device may see concurrently. If location information is available, the device employs a user-defined priority table to select the order of user-contracted networks available at that location in which the device will register. If location information is unavailable, the device employs a technology priority table to select Common Air Interface (CAI) options for the invention device radio parameters (e.g., GSM, cdma2000, IS-136, IEEE 802.11x, etc.) to search for an available network to access. Information is gathered and stored in databases within the invention device allowing it to be registered in multiple wireless networks. The inventive device provides unique access codes to each wireless network with which a user has contracted, without the intervention of any “anchor” (home) network. The invention facilitates equivalent “home”, or personalized, service in any network by using these features for automatic technology adaptation. This allows the invention device to receive service as if it is in a “home” network no matter what network it is traveling through. The invention provides a ubiquitous experience allowing the user to traverse multiple wireless networks with seamless access to multiple systems and services provided by those networks. It also provides a platform to facilitate the customization of wireless services for business customers. US08270965B2
Techniques for increasing the battery life on a mobile device by decreasing the energy consumption of the mobile device's wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) interface are described. In one embodiment, the mobile device's Wi-Fi interface is automatically disabled when the device is not engaged in a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) call via the Wi-Fi interface. When a VoIP call is initiated on the device, or when the device receives a wake up call from a server via its Cellular interface, the Wi-Fi interface is automatically enabled. Using its Wi-Fi interface, the mobile device then connects to an IP-based network via a Wi-Fi access point. The server then initiates a direct call, wherein VoIP technology is used by the mobile device, between the mobile device and a VoIP calling device. US08270960B2
A method performed by a mobile terminal may include receiving sensor data from a plurality of sensors on a mobile terminal, determining when the received sensor data satisfies a rule, transmitting information from the mobile terminal to a network device, where the information includes at least one of an application identifier, a rule or some of the received sensor data, and connecting the mobile terminal to another mobile terminal, where the another mobile terminal is selected by the network device based on the transmitted information from the mobile terminal. US08270959B2
A call forwarding user interface for a mobile communication device provides selective access to pre-stored identifying data (e.g., an address book) for a user to define one or more call forwarding destinations for predetermined call forwarding conditions. Call forwarding profiles of such identifying data may also be defined and stored for subsequent selective actuation. Such interface features facilitate user-defined call forwarding functions with reduced requirements for memorization and/or reference to written or printed records. US08270941B2
A method of processing a user interface component is provided and includes receiving one or more user interface components that can be communicated to a wireless device. A component risk level for each of the one or more user interface components is determined and assigned to each of the one or more user interface components. Each of the one or more user interface components can be digitally signed using an embedded risk code that indicates the assigned risk level. Further, the component risk level can be selected from a plurality of component risk levels. In a particular embodiment, the component risk level can be determined based on the type of the user interface component. Further, the component risk level can be determined based on a developer of the user interface component. US08270931B1
Methods and apparatus are provided for a wireless communication device (WCD) to adjust a respective search-window size for one or more search windows. In an embodiment, the WCD monitors a battery power level of a WCD. The WCD then adjusts a respective search-window size of one or more search windows of a WCD based on at least the battery power level. In another embodiment, the WCD monitors a WCD's battery power level and the strength of one or more signals in an active set. The WCD 102 then adjusts a respective search-window size of one or more search windows based on at least the battery power level and the strength of one or more active-set signals. US08270928B2
A radio receiver may determine whether a received frequency modulated radio signal includes interference from an adjacent channel. The receiver may compare a frequency deviation above the center frequency of the received signal to a frequency deviation below the center frequency of the received signal. The receiver determines that the radio signal is affected by adjacent channel noise when the frequency deviation below the center frequency is substantially different from the frequency deviation above the center frequency. Alternatively, the presence of noise from an adjacent channel may be detected by comparing a positive amplitude and a negative amplitude of a demodulated version of the frequency modulated radio signal. In this alternative, the receiver determines that the radio signal is affected by adjacent channel noise when the extent of the positive amplitude is substantially different from the extent of the negative amplitude. US08270923B2
To mitigate interference between multiple peer-to-peer devices, transmitter yielding and/or receiver yielding may be performed among devices operating in a peer-to-peer network. Generally, a transmitter device will yield communications on a time slot to a higher priority transmitter device if it will cause unacceptable interference to a higher priority receiver device. Likewise, a receiver device may yield use of the time slot if interference is unacceptably high. Both transmitter and receiver yielding may be improved by use of beamforming at a receiver device. By utilizing beamforming information to make the transmitter and/or receiver yielding decisions, better interference mitigation may be achieved. US08270920B2
Devices and methods for receiving, processing and formatting digital video. The devices may include a single semiconductor chip on which is imprinted a radio frequency signal tuner module and a display interface module. The display interface module may be configured to receive programming information from the radio frequency signal tuner module. The display interface module may be configured to communicate the programming information to a digital video recorder. The radio frequency tuner module may include a first radio frequency input channel and a second radio frequency input channel. The radio frequency signal tuner module may include a system oscillator and a phase-locked loop (“PLL”) circuit configured to generate a clock signal. The phase-locked loop circuit may be configured to transmit the signal to the display interface module and to any other suitable modules on the chip. US08270906B2
The invention comprises a method and a corresponding apparatus (53). A candidate set of sensors that are available to participate in an occasion of cooperative spectrum sensing is obtained. For each sensor in the candidate set, its radial distance to a central coordinating node in a communication system is also obtained (73). A sequence of minimum radii is produced (75,79). For each minimum radius in the sequence, an accommodation number is determined (75,87). The accommodation number associated with a minimum radius is the greatest number of sensors that can be placed on circle having this radius without a probability that all these sensors are mutually uncorrelated falling below a design probability threshold. Sensors from the candidate set are then selectively added (91,95) to an active set of sensors based on the minimum radii, the corresponding accommodation numbers and the obtained radial distances. US08270899B2
Methods, systems and apparatus for ground-based beamforming of a satellite communications payload (200) within a satellite communications network (100). An embodiment of the invention comprises a satellite (11) communicatively coupled to at least one gateway (12) via a feeder link (13) and a plurality of user terminals (16), each communicatively coupled with the satellite by a user link (17) where a ground based beam forming system (400) receives, via feeder link (13), return path signals (452) traveling from the user terminals (16) via the satellite (11) to the at least one gateway (12) and forward path signals (457) traveling from the at least one gateway (12) via the satellite (11) to the user terminals (16), and measures and corrects amplitude and phase errors of the return path signals (452) and the forward path signals (457). US08270889B2
Various embodiments provide low adhesion coatings that can be used for an image-side member in an image fixing system of an electrophotographic printer or an ink jet printer, wherein the low adhesion coatings can exhibit a low sliding angle ranging from about 1° to about 30° with a solid ink, a toner, hexadecane and/or water. US08270875B2
An image forming apparatus includes a toner image carrying member, an image transfer device, a fixing device, a registration unit, a guide member, an upstream-side transportation unit, and a downstream-side transportation unit. The image transfer device transfers a toner image from the toner image carrying member to a recording medium. The fixing device fixes the toner image. The registration unit transports the recording medium. The guide member guides the recording medium. The upstream-side transportation unit includes an upstream-side transportation member, disposed at an upstream side in the transport direction of the recording medium. The downstream-side transportation unit includes the downstream-side transportation member, disposed at a downstream side in the transport direction of the recording medium. The upstream-side transportation unit includes an upstream-side positioning member to position the guide member to the upstream-side transportation member. The downstream-side transportation unit includes a downstream-side positioning member to position the guide member to the downstream-side transportation member. US08270870B2
An image forming apparatus includes an endless belt, a plurality of processing units, a cleaning unit, a waste toner retainer, and a waste toner conveying unit. The plurality of processing units is juxtaposed above the endless belt. The cleaning unit is disposed above the endless belt to collect a waste toner deposited on the endless belt. The waste toner retainer is provided in one processing unit in the plurality of processing units. At least one of the other processing units in the plurality of processing units is interposed between the cleaning unit and the one processing unit. The waste toner conveying unit conveys the waste toner collected by the cleaning unit to the waste toner retainer, and extends from the cleaning unit to the waste toner retainer. US08270860B2
An image forming apparatus which makes it possible to resolve correction error of potential unevenness caused by insufficient mounting accuracy of an image carrier, in a relatively short time period without performing a conventional operation for removing the image carrier. The image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive drum, an exposure unit, an electrical potential sensor, a shading data ROM, and a CPU. Electrical potential data items associated with respective positions on the surface of the photosensitive drum are stored in the shading data ROM. The CPU corrects an exposure amount onto the photosensitive drum by the exposure unit, based on the electrical potential data read from the ROM, and based on the result of correction, adjusts timing for reading out the data. US08270852B2
A reclaimed material container includes a container body that is removably mounted to a mounting portion of an image forming apparatus, and that accommodates a reclaimed material existing after forming an image, a receiving portion that is provided at a bottom portion of the container body, and that is supported by a support of the mounting portion from therebelow, and a mounting member that mounts the container body to the mounting portion as a result of rotation of the container body with the receiving portion as a fulcrum while the receiving portion is supported by the support from therebelow. In the container, the container body has a first recess that provides a field of view for the support when the receiving portion is supported by the support from therebelow. US08270850B2
A demodulator includes: a splitter that branches a differential phase shift keying optical signal into a first branched optical signal passing through a first optical path and a second branched optical signal passing through a second optical path; a multiplexer that multiplexes the first branched optical signal having passed through the first optical path and the second branched optical signal having passed through the second optical path and makes interference between the first branched optical signal and the second branched optical signal; and a double refraction medium that reduces difference between phase differences between each polarized wave between the first branched optical signal and the second branched optical signal multiplexed by the multiplexer. US08270831B2
Various example embodiments are disclosed. According to an example embodiment, a method may include receiving a resource request for optical resources within a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) optical network; comparing one or more parameters of the resource request to a list of pre-validated paths for the WDM optical network, each pre-validated path identifying an optically feasible label switched path between a source node and a destination node; determining that there is a pre-validated path on the list that matches the one or more parameters of the optical resource request; and sending a message to request a reservation of resources along the matching pre-validated path. US08270830B2
Leaf switches and spine switches in a Clos network are interconnected by optical fibers. The network enables large numbers of servers or other apparatus to communicate with each other with minimal delay and minimal power consumption. US08270828B2
An optical line monitoring apparatus, including: a group information recording portion which records group information about to which splitter respective terminators are connected; a normal information recording portion which records intensities of reflected lights from a plurality of terminators in a state in which a failure is not occurring in optical lines; a monitored information recording portion which records intensities of reflected lights from the plurality of terminators in failure monitoring time; an attenuation amount determination portion which determines a terminator the reflected light intensity of which is attenuated compared with the corresponding reflected light intensity in normal information; and a control portion which determines, if the intensities of the reflected lights of all the terminators connected to the same splitter are attenuated by the same value, that a failure has occurred between the test apparatus and the splitter to which all the terminators are connected. US08270808B2
The present invention provides a content data recording/reproducing device, comprising a communication unit that engages in communication with an external device, a storage unit that stores content data and additional data related to the content data, a content data extraction unit that selectively extracts the content data from the storage unit based upon condition data received at the communication unit from the external device and the additional data stored in the storage unit and a contents list generation unit that generates a contents list based upon the condition data and additional data corresponding to the content data extracted by the content data extraction unit. US08270801B2
A method for capturing videos applied in a video device is provided. The video device includes a video capturing unit having a field of view and a timer. The video device includes a position sensing unit capable of sensing first position information, and an orientation sensing unit. The video device rotatingly receives second position information and personal information periodically. The method included is first to clear the timer and begin the timer again. Then, obtaining the second position information, the personal information, the first position information, and the orientation. Next, forming a coordinate system and converting the first position information and the second position information to a set of coordinates. Then, determining which person correspond to which of the portable communication devices, and associating the personal information with each person. Next, generating a composite image and a composite video comprising the composite images. US08270796B2
An adapter block constructed to mount to more than one mounting configuration of a telecommunications panel. The adapter block including a housing constructed to slide mount to a panel, and pivot mount to a panel from either a front or a rear of the panel. The housing including flexible levers that provide a snap-fit connection to secure the adapter block relative to the panel in each of the mounting configurations. The adapter block providing access to cable terminations of the block in each of the mounting configurations. US08270766B1
A system and method for expansion and reduction of images uses a hybrid resizing technique combining seam carving and image scaling techniques to reduce or expand an input image. Seam carving techniques may be used to remove or add seams of the image to perform a portion of an overall resizing operation, according to a configurable seam carving tolerance. For example, the technique may only remove and/or replicate a predetermined number or percentage of the lowest-cost seams of the image, or may only remove or replicate the number of low-cost seams needed to achieve a specified percentage of the target resizing operation. The hybrid technique may apply scaling techniques to further resize the image to achieve a target size and/or ratio for the resized image. The hybrid technique may be implemented by program instructions of an image editing application, and the seam carving tolerance may be configurable by a user. US08270765B1
A system and method for expansion and reduction of images uses a hybrid resizing technique that combines seam carving and image scaling techniques to reduce or expand an image. Seam carving techniques may be used to remove or add seams having an average or total energy cost below a configurable threshold, where the cost of each seam is dependent on the energy values of the pixels of the seam. If a target size and/or ratio for the resized version of the image is not reached by removing or adding these seams, the hybrid resizing technique may apply standard or custom image scaling techniques to further reduce or expand the image to achieve the target size and/or ratio. The hybrid technique may be implemented by program instructions of an image editing application, and the cost threshold may be configurable by a user through a user interface of the image editing application. US08270757B2
A magnification chromatic aberration included in image data in a color filter array captured by an imaging device is corrected by performing a coordinate transformation with respect to each pixel in the image data. A defective pixel due to the color filter array is compensated with respect to magnification-chromatic-aberration-corrected image data. US08270755B2
An image contrast evaluation method is disclosed. First, focusing is performed based on the contrast value of an image rendered by a lens on optical sensors, wherein the calculation of the contrast value comprises: selecting an area of the image, calculating the absolute value of brightness difference between each neighboring pixel, and selecting a specific value there from as the contrast value of the image based on a distribution of the calculated absolute values of the brightness differences. US08270751B2
A digital image acquisition system includes a portable apparatus for capturing digital images and a digital processing component for detecting, analyzing and informing the photographer regarding motion blur, and for reducing camera motion blur in an image captured by the apparatus. The digital processing component operates by comparing the image with at least one other image, for example a preview image, of nominally the same scene taken outside the exposure period of the main image. In one embodiment the digital processing component determines the degree of artefacts and whether to inform the user that the image is blurred by identifying at least one feature in a single preview image which is relatively less blurred than the corresponding feature in the main image. In another embodiment, the digital processing component calculates a trajectory of at least one feature in a plurality of preview images, extrapolates such feature on to the main image, calculates a PSF in respect of the feature, and informs the user based on the calculated PSF. In another embodiment the digital processing unit after determining the degree of blur notifies the photographer of the existing blur or automatically invokes consecutive captures. In another embodiment, the digital processing unit determines whether the image quality is acceptable from real time analysis of the captured image and provides this information to the user. Such real time analysis may use the auto focusing mechanism to qualitatively determine the PSF. US08270742B1
A method of compressing data can include forming at least one container by grouping calls of data according to at least one data element of each call. The method can include arranging, via the processor, calls of the at least one container into a plurality of segments according to a minimal coordinate set and extracting common coordinates corresponding to a first coordinate type from the plurality of segments. Coordinates of a second coordinate type of each segment of the at least one container can be replaced with a segment start coordinate and first distance information specifying the coordinates of the second coordinate type. The common coordinates of the at least one container can be replaced with a common start coordinate and second distance information. US08270740B2
On the first hierarchical layer, the input image adjuster selects an overlap processing area from a frequency-unconverted image. On the first hierarchical layer, the overlap processor performs overlap processing on the overlap processing area, and holds the image data of the remaining processing areas, which cannot be frequency-converted. The remaining processing area, which is a linear area, can have an image width reduced down to the displacement between the overlap processing area and the block areas. The processes on the second hierarchical layer are identical to those on the first hierarchical layer. As a result, the encoder maximizes the advantage of the high performance achieved by hardware implementation. US08270732B2
Techniques are disclosed for discovering object type clusters using pixel-level micro-features extracted from image data. A self-organizing map and adaptive resonance theory (SOM-ART) network is used to classify objects depicted in the image data based on the pixel-level micro-features. Importantly, the discovery of the object type clusters is unsupervised, i.e., performed independent of any training data that defines particular objects, allowing a behavior-recognition system to forgo a training phase and for object classification to proceed without being constrained by specific object definitions. The SOM-ART network is adaptive and able to learn while discovering the object type clusters and classifying objects. US08270726B2
An authentication apparatus is provided. A forgery determination threshold is determined on the basis of two types of parameters, a forgery similarity and a forgery difficulty. If a calculated value for an object under test is lower than or equal to the forgery determination threshold, then, it is determined that the object is a biologic object. Thus, easiness in impersonation with a fake of a biologic object that is easy to forge may be reduced, and a false rejection due to a determination in which a biologic object is erroneously determined as a fake may be reduced. US08270725B2
A method for creating a page template corresponding to a form for use in a mark recognition system includes identifying at least one path of traversal across a form, detecting edge transitions along each such path, and creating page template using the detected edge transitions. US08270724B2
An image signature to be used for matching is generated by the following generation method. First, region features are extracted from respective sub-regions of a plurality of pairs of sub-regions in an image, and for each of the pairs of sub-regions, a difference value between the region features of two sub-regions forming a pair is quantized. When performing the quantization, the difference value is quantized to a particular quantization value if an absolute value of the difference value is smaller than a predetermined value. Then, a collection of elements which are quantization values calculated for the respective pairs of sub-regions is used as an image signature to be used for discriminating the image. An image signature matching device matches an image signature of a first image and an image signature of a second image, generated by the above-described generation method, in such a manner that a weight of an element having the particular quantization value is reduced. US08270718B2
A method for manipulating an image, the method includes: capturing image information representative of an image that includes images of textual characters; recognizing the textual characters by applying Optical Character Recognition; identifying the layout of the image; and applying at least one de-identification process on textual characters of interest to provide de-identification process results. US08270715B2
A method for correcting red-eye is described. Through facial features, at least one facial region is obtained in an image, a nose position in each facial region is obtained by using a nose feature, and at least one eye position is obtained based on a relative position relation between the nose and the eyes. After a color gamut of the image is converted, a red region is obtained from the eye position, and a plurality of edges is formed by using a luminance of the color gamut on the image with the converted color gamut according to the eye feature, so as to exclude the red region out of the plurality of edges, thereby improving accuracy of the red region on the eye position. Then, the red region is covered by an iris color, so as to correct the red-eye. US08270714B2
A visual summary of the image sequences is generated, displaying at least one image from a plurality of the image sequences. Color correction is applied to a feature in one of the displayed images and images comprising at least one feature being close to the color corrected feature according to a distance criterion are selected, displayed, and color correction, based on the color correction to the feature, is applied to the features in the selected images. An apparatus is also provided. US08270707B2
A learning device includes a feature-point extracting section extracting feature points from a generation image, a feature-point feature-quantity extracting section extracting feature-point feature-quantities representing features of the feature points, a total-feature-quantity generating section generating a total feature quantity represented by a multi-dimensional vector, and an identifier generating section generating an identifier using the total feature quantity and a true label indicating whether or not the generation image is a positive image or a negative image. US08270702B2
A device is provided having a robotic arm for handling a wafer, the robotic arm including one or more encoders that provide encoder data identifying a position of one or more components of the robotic arm. The device also having a processor adapted to apply an extended Kalman Filter to the encoder data to estimate a position of the wafer. US08270697B2
The conventional display of a medical 3-dimensional image fails to display both the left and right sides of the patient simultaneously and symmetrically. The medical 3-dimensional image information cannot be therefore utilized efficiently for a comparative evaluation on the symmetrical left and right sides when making a diagnosis or a plan for surgery or treatment. According to a display control program, by displaying medical 3-dimensional images to be displayed on the display screen in a pair on the left and right sides, and by rotating a pair of the displays on the left and right sides in opposite directions with respect to the vertical axis (Z axis) to form and display an image on the opposite side corresponding to one viewpoint direction, both the left and right sides of the patent can be displayed simultaneously and symmetrically. Further, according to this program, when a slice plane is specified in one of the 3-dimensional images on the left and right sides, a slice plane at the symmetrical position is automatically formed in the other image. It is thus possible to display the cross sections on both the left and right sides of the patient simultaneously and symmetrically. US08270687B2
A medical image diagnosing support apparatus comprises: a first extraction means which extracts a body region of a subject from a tomographic image of the subject acquired by a medical tomographic apparatus; a second extraction means which extracts a non-adipose region from the body region; a third extraction means which extracts a total body adipose region from the body region; a separation means which separates the total body adipose region into a visceral adipose region and a subcutaneous adipose region based on positional information of the non-adipose region; and a display control means which controls of displaying the tomographic image on an image display device with clear indication of the visceral adipose region and the subcutaneous adipose region. US08270679B2
A biometrics authentication system includes: a light source applying light to a living organism; a microlens array section condensing light from the living organism, and including a plurality of microlenses each having a different refractive power; an image pickup device obtaining image pickup data of the living organism on the basis of the light condensed by the microlens array section; a rotation angle determining section determining the rotation angle of the living organism on the basis of the image pickup data of the living organism; a three-dimensional information producing section producing three-dimensional information of the living organism on the basis of the image pickup data of the living organism; and an authentication section performing authentication on the basis of the rotation angle determined by the rotation angle determining section and the three-dimensional information produced in the three-dimensional information producing section. US08270677B2
A method of detecting a click event for sensing a motion of a finger corresponding to a click on a sensing area of an optical pointing device, the method including: obtaining an image of the finger from the sensing area; sensing a change in the image of the finger; analyzing a horizontal movement of the finger based on the change in the image of the finger; and generating a click signal when the horizontal movement of the finger is within a predetermined range is provided. US08270663B2
The watermarked information embedding apparatus which inputs an image and embeds watermarked information in the input image, comprises: picture element determining means which determines whether it is a picture element constituting a background image for each of picture elements which constitute the input image; background picture element removing means which removes all of background picture elements determined as picture elements constituting the background image by the picture element determining means; and watermarked information embedding means which embeds the watermarked information in an image constituted by a picture element from which the background picture element constituting the input image is removed by the background picture element removing means. US08270661B2
The present invention relates to a miniature electro-acoustic transducer including a magnetic circuit, a diaphragm and a voice coil operatively connected to the diaphragm. The magnetic circuit includes first and second air gap portions adapted to receive first and second voice coil segments, respectively. The magnetic flux acting on the first voice coil segment is provided by inner magnetic means and first outer magnetic means in combination and the magnetic flux acting on the second voice coil segment is essentially provided by the inner magnetic means only. US08270650B2
A hearing aid, wherein a front sound opening and a front microphone are acoustically connected via a front sound guide path, and the front sound guide path includes a first space formed between the front microphone and the electrical connection part inside the main body case, and a second space formed between the electrical connection part and the inner wall face of the main body case. US08270647B2
A cochlear implant system includes: an electrode array implanted within a cochlea; an internal processor in communication with the electrode array; an implanted antenna which is electrically coupled to the internal processor; and a modular external headpiece which is removably positioned over the implanted antenna, the modular external headpiece including a core containing a sound processor for processing sound and providing a corresponding signal to the implanted antenna; and a modular component configured to releasably engage the core and supply electrical power to the core. A modular speech processor headpiece includes a core comprising a microphone and sound processor for producing a signal representing ambient sound to be transmitted to a cochlear implant, the core further comprising a number of electrical contacts; and a modular component containing a number of electrical contacts corresponding to the electrical contacts of the core; wherein the core is configured to engage with the modular component such that electrical communication is made between the core and the modular component. US08270645B2
A hearing aid includes a main body and a battery holder that can be opened and closed with respect to the main body by revolving around a revolving shaft. The main body has a lock bar provided so as to traverse the space in which the battery holder is installed, and a protruding portion that protrudes toward this installation space. The battery holder has a first concave portion and a second concave portion that latch the lock bar and the protruding portion. US08270644B2
A binaural hearing instrument set is described in which algorithms are split into a server part and a thin-client part. The respective server part of the algorithm is located in a first hearing instrument unit, while the thin-client part is located in a second unit in the binaural hearing instrument set. This is advantageous in that it enables optimization of the usage of combined processing resources in the two units. US08270638B2
A communication apparatus includes a bone conduction communication apparatus with a housing having a shape which is conformable to at least a portion of at least one tooth of a user; a transceiver mounted in the housing; and a transducer disposed within or upon the housing and in vibratory communication with a surface of the at least one tooth to transmit sound through the at least one tooth. A positioning system is provided to transmit positional information to the transceiver to be delivered to the transducer; and a communication device links the transceiver with a second person. The electronic and transducer assembly may receive incoming sounds either directly or through a receiver to process and amplify the signals and transmit the processed sounds via a vibrating transducer element coupled to a tooth or other bone structure, such as the maxillary, mandibular, or palatine bone structure. US08270637B2
A wireless headset is adapted to communicate with a sound source such as a music player or a cell phone or a suitable audio or sound communicated through a one-way or two-way communication device. The headset includes a mouth wearable communicator; and a linking unit coupled to the mouth wearable communicator, the linking unit adapted to communicate with the sound source. US08270634B2
A microphone system has a primary microphone for producing a primary signal, a secondary microphone for producing a secondary signal, and a selector operatively coupled with both the primary microphone and the secondary microphone. The system also has an output for delivering an output audible signal principally produced by one of the to microphones. The selector selectively permits either 1) at least a portion of the primary signal and/or 2) at least a portion of the secondary signal to be forwarded to the output as a function of the noise in the primary signal. US08270627B2
An adaptive noise control system is deployed in a box-like structure positioned within the transfer path along which the noise is being transmitted from the source of the generated noise to the receiver of the noise in the passenger compartment of an automobile. The adaptive noise control system is can be deployed in the dual bulkhead of the vehicle dashboard to provide a constrained volume within which engine noise can be controlled. The adaptive control system generates a mathematical model of the noise to be controlled in response to the acoustic environment identified by sensors placed within the engine compartment. Sensors in the passenger compartment define the effectiveness of the noise control system. The controller is operable to update the mathematical model in response to the changes in the acoustic environment, thus providing the appropriate acoustic response within the dual bulkhead plenum for control of noise along the transfer path. US08270618B2
In processing a multi-channel audio signal having at least three original channels, a first downmix channel and a second downmix channel are provided, which are derived from the original channels. For a selected original channel of the original channels, channel side information are calculated such that a downmix channel or a combined downmix channel including the first and the second downmix channels, when weighted using the channel side information, results in an approximation of the selected original channel. The channel side information and the first and second downmix channels form output data to be transmitted to a decoder, which, in case of a low level decoder only decodes the first and second downmix channels or, in case of a high level decoder provides a full multi-channel audio signal based on the downmix channels and the channel side information. Since the channel side information only occupy a low number of bits, and since the decoder does not use dematrixing, an efficient and high quality multi-channel extension for stereo players and enhanced multi-channel players is obtained. US08270614B2
A group key update method and a group key update apparatus for updating a key of members in a group are provided. The group key update method includes selecting a sub-root node among nodes on the binary tree; performing a node change with respect to the group according to a type of the sub-root node, and generating a changed binary tree; and performing a node key update with respect to the changed binary tree. US08270611B2
An encryption key interface system (200) includes a universal asynchronous receiver transmitter (UART) peripheral (209) that communicates with a key variable loader (KVL) (201) through a communications link (205, 207). A driver application (211) associated with the UART peripheral (209) is used to both receive and transmit commands to the KVL (201). The invention operates to allow the driver application (211) to communicate key command information to the KVL (201) without the use of a timer peripheral enabling the system to interface with a much broader range of devices utilizing encryption keys without requiring the use of timer system resources. US08270610B2
A wireless communication system includes first and second communication apparatuses transmitting/receiving encrypted communication data by radio. The first includes: a first encrypting/decrypting unit encrypting communication data and decrypting encrypted communication data; a first interface unit electrically connectable with a portable nonvolatile memory (NVRAM), to which the NVRAM can be physically removably inserted; and a first cryptography key processing unit generating a temporary cryptography key used for encrypting/decrypting the communication data and a master cryptography key for generating the temporary cryptography key. The second communication apparatus includes: a second encrypting/decrypting unit encrypting the communication data and decrypting the encrypted communication data; a second interface unit electrically connectable with the NVRAM, to which the NVRAM storing the master cryptography key is physically removably inserted; and a second cryptography key processing unit generating the temporary cryptography key based on the master cryptography key read from the NVRAM connected with the second interface unit. US08270607B2
A method of protecting a broadcast frame, the method comprising broadcasting a beacon and a maintenance beacon frame (MBF) from an access point (AP) to a plurality of terminals during a maintenance beacon waiting period (MBWP); and broadcasting broadcast management frames (BMFs) from the AP to the plurality of terminals during a broadcast management frame waiting period (BMFWP), wherein the MBF comprises a BMFs message integrity code (MIC) field including a BMFs MIC calculated from concatenated BMFs to be sent in a current beacon interval. US08270602B1
Examples of methods for generating data based on a communications channel are described. In one such example, a processing unit may generate a first vector representation based in part on at least two characteristics of a communications channel. A constellation having at least two dimensions may be addressed with the first vector representation to identify a first symbol associated with the first vector representation. The constellation represents a plurality of regions, each region associated with a respective symbol. The symbol may be used to generate data, which may stored in an electronic storage medium and used as a cryptographic key or a spreading code or hopping sequence in a modulation technique. US08270601B2
A method of generating a public key in a secure digital communication system, having at least one trusted entity CA and subscriber entities A. For each entity A, the trusted entity selects a unique identity distinguishing the entity A. The trusted entity then generates a public key reconstruction public data of the entity A by mathematically combining public values obtained from respective private values of the trusted entity and the entity A. The unique identity and public key reconstruction public data of the entity A serve as A's implicit certificate. The trusted entity combines the implicit certificate information with a mathematical function to derive an entity information ƒ and generates a value kA by binding with ƒ with private values of the trusted entity. The trusted entity transmits the value kA to the entity to permit A to generate a private key from kA, A's private value and A's implicit certificate. The entity A's public key information may be reconstructed from public information, and A's implicit certificate. US08270596B2
An incoming call prompting method is provided. The method includes the step of: providing a data storage for storing a note table, a melodic companion table, and an audio clip database; receiving an incoming call and sending the incoming call to a decoder to phone number of the incoming call; storing the phone number in the data storage; obtaining a predetermined digit set from the incoming call phone number stored in the data storage; obtaining the assigned note of each digit of the digit set, and piecing together a melodious sequence of note based upon a pre-determined algorithm guiding selection and sequencing of a combination of the primary notes and/or companion notes of the melodic companion table to edit a melody; and obtaining and outputting audio clip of each note of the edited melody in turn to generate a music. US08270591B2
A channel and agent state control system and method is used in a contact center having a plurality of multi-media contact channels and a plurality of agents for handling communications over the contact channels. The agents are allocated to one or more contact channel tasks corresponding to the contact channels. The system and method reallocates the agents between the contact channels based upon real-time contact channel state data and the agent states. The system and method can be configured by a user to determine when reallocation is needed within a contact channel and to determine how the agents are reallocated. US08270587B2
Method of and arrangement for associating voice clips with a document, the document being reviewed by at least one participant during a telephone conference set up between a convener communication set (T5, C5) and one or more participant communication sets (T1-T4, C1-C4), where the voice clips contain spoken comments by the participants. The voice clips associated with locations in a section of the document synchronized in time such that each voice clip is associated with a certain location in the section and contains speech that was spoken by the participant at the 10 time that the image of the section was shown to the participant. US08270583B2
A method for enabling group communications includes: establishing a group identity for a communication group comprising a first set of communication devices, and storing an identity for each of the communication devices in the first set; establishing a session to associate a second set of communication devices with the group identity, wherein the communication devices in the second set are different from the communication devices in the first set, wherein the session with the second set of communication devices is set up irrespective of a call being initiated for the communication group; detecting a first event associated with the initiation of a call for the communication group; and in response to detecting the first event, using the stored identities to join at least one of the communication devices in the first set to the session. US08270581B2
A telephone subscriber registers with a digital telephone service provider (DTSP) to obtain telephone service. The telephone subscriber also registers with an instant messaging service provider (IMSP) and receives a screen name. The telephone subscriber registers the screen name with the DTSP to receive caller identifying information (CID) via instant messaging (IM) (sometimes referred to herein as “CID IM service”). When a call to the telephone number of the telephone subscriber is received at a switch operated by the DTSP, the DTSP confirms that the telephone subscriber has registered a screen name with the DTSP and then sends the caller identification information to the IMSP. The IMSP then sends an instant message containing the caller identification information to the telephone subscriber's instant message client. US08270578B2
An apparatus for engaging in wireless commercial transactions includes a mobile phone equipped with a dedicated actuator for initiating a commercial transaction, and an optical input for receiving information concerning prices of goods; a network hub for wireless exchange information between a commercial establishment and said mobile phone within the boundaries of the establishment; and a financial/authorization institution for associating a PIN number with said mobile phone and for authorizing transactions initiated by said mobile phone. US08270575B2
A campaign strategy manager (CSM) component for a hosted communications campaign system allows users to define more granular and specific campaign strategies, including pass escalation for alternative channels (e.g., text and email) and/or based upon attempt results, contact attributes and response group data. The campaign strategy manager allows users to define pass strategies statically and dynamically, to manage lists across multiple campaigns, and to view results in real-time. A defined strategy is a static strategy created by a user for a particular campaign that, once created, typically is not modified. A dynamic strategy is one where, during the course of a day (e.g., as a sub-campaign is running), a user may alter the defined strategy, preferably just for that day (or portion thereof). In particular, the campaign strategy manager enables the user to make changes to the current strategy as a sub-campaign is running through a particular list. US08270574B2
A device receives an emergency call invite generated by a user device associated with an Internet protocol (IP) multimedia subsystem (IMS) media gateway, and forwards the emergency call invite to a location resource function/route determination function (LRF/RDF) device for determining public safety answering point (PSAP) routing information. The device receives, from the LRF/RDF device, the PSAP routing information based on the emergency call invite, and routes the emergency call invite to a particular PSAP based on the PSAP routing information. If the emergency call invite is routed to a legacy PSAP, the emergency call is routed to the legacy PSAP via legacy mobile switching center (MSC) direct trunks. If the emergency call invite is routed to an IP PSAP, the emergency call is routed to the IP PSAP via an IP connection. US08270567B2
An X-ray imaging device includes an X-ray detection section, a cold electron source, and a light-shielding coating layer. The X-ray detection section includes an X-ray conversion layer made of an X-ray converter material which generates electric charges upon incidence of an X-ray, a first charge injection blocking layer formed on an incidence surface of the X-ray conversion layer, and a second charge injection blocking layer formed on a rear surface of the X-ray conversion layer. The cold electron source has a plurality of electron emission sections arranged in a matrix form, each of the electronic emission sections being capable of emitting electrons toward the second charge injection blocking layer of the X-ray detection section. The light-shielding coating layer blocks incidence of the visible light into the X-ray detection section. US08270554B2
Methods of producing cesium-131. The method comprises dissolving at least one non-irradiated barium source in water or a nitric acid solution to produce a barium target solution. The barium target solution is irradiated with neutron radiation to produce cesium-131, which is removed from the barium target solution. The cesium-131 is complexed with a calixarene compound to separate the cesium-131 from the barium target solution. A liquid:liquid extraction device or extraction column is used to separate the cesium-131 from the barium target solution. US08270552B1
An apparatus for transferring data in a non-spread domain to a spread domain. The apparatus comprises a first-in-first-out (FIFO) memory; a write pointer generator adapted to generate a write pointer for writing data into the FIFO memory in response to a non-spread clock signal; a spread-clock generator adapted to generate a spread clock signal based on the non-spread clock signal; a read pointer generator adapted to generate a read pointer for reading data from the FIFO memory in response to the spread clock signal; and a controller adapted to control the spread-clock generator in response to the read and write pointers indicating predetermined potential data overflow or underflow of the FIFO memory. US08270551B2
The disclosure relates to a method of synchronising a device for receiving scrambled data, using at least one periodic scrambling sequence which is divided into K time intervals, each interval comprising N bit periods known as symbols. In particular, one such method includes calculating a synchronisation value of at least one polynomial that generates the aforementioned scrambling sequence within a pre-determined synchronisation time interval and synchronisation bit period. During the calculation step, the sequence is progressed through at increments of at least one time interval and at least one bit period, using a matrix calculation of the synchronisation value. US08270546B2
In a transmission diversity control method in which a request to start or stop transmission diversity is issued by a reception station to a transmission station having a transmission diversity function, the reception station is provided with an equalizer to reduce multipath interference on the basis of a signal correlation, a transmission diversity start request is issued from the reception station to the transmission station when an effect generated by the equalizer is small, and a transmission diversity stop request is issued from the reception station to the transmission station when the effect generated by the equalizer is large. US08270544B2
According to one aspect of the present invention, an apparatus is provided to enable weather band radio signals to be received and processed using a digital signal processor (DSP). The DSP can include functionality to implement both frequency modulation (FM) demodulation and weather band data demodulation, i.e., specific area encoding (SAME) demodulation. In one such embodiment, soft decision samples of a SAME message can be combined, and based on a combined result, a hard decision unit can generate a bit value of weather band data. US08270530B2
A distortion compensating apparatus includes a processing circuit that calculates each of a plurality of series operation coefficient pairs based on a transmission signal and a feedback signal of an output from an amplifying circuit performing power amplification of the transmission signal, executes a series operation process with respect to the transmission signal based on the plurality of the series operation coefficient pairs as a distortion compensation of the transmission signal, and inputs a result of the series operation process to the amplifying circuit performing the power amplification, and a selecting unit that, on the basis of power of the transmission signal, selects the series operation process to be executed corresponding to one of the plurality of series operation coefficient pairs, or selects one of the plurality of series operation coefficient pairs to be used in the series operation process to be executed. US08270524B2
In a communication system, a postcoder is coupled between first and second portions of each of a plurality of receivers. The postcoder is configured to receive an adaptive index representation of a scaled signal associated with the first portion of a first one of the receivers, and to process the adaptive index representation using an adjusted postcoder coefficient to generate a postcompensation signal. The postcompensation signal is supplied by the postcoder to the second portion of a second one of the receivers for use in postcompensation of at least one signal received by the second receiver. US08270519B2
A method for selecting a pre-coding matrix, and a device and a telecommunication system for implementing the method are provided. The method includes calculating an effective signal noise ratio (SNR) at each layer for each pre-coding matrix, comparing the lowest SNR at each layer for each pre-coding matrix against the threshold SNR, selecting a proper pre-coding matrix, and considering high and low SNRs of a system during selection of a pre-coding matrix to achieve good pre-coding effects and improve the system performance. US08270513B2
The present invention provides a method and system for transmitting a multi-frequency signal composed of discrete tones of constant envelope parts that are amplified by a bank of fully saturated transmitters operating in their most power efficient mode. After amplification and transmission, the signals are multiplexed in the air as opposed to multiplexing before amplification that allows for more efficient amplification as well. In a preferred embodiment, the system has two or more transmitting antennas, and the method comprises: (a) generating a first signal of a first carrier frequency and a second signal of a second carrier frequency; (b) transmitting the first signal of a first carrier frequency on a first antenna and the first signal of a second carrier signal on a second antenna for a predetermined time period; and (c) transmitting a second signal of the second carrier frequency on said first antenna and a second signal of the first carrier frequency on the second antenna for the predetermined time period. Preferably, the signals are transmitted using an amplifier that is essentially fully saturated. US08270505B2
A method for transmitting a signal from a transmitter over a channel to a receiver on a Power Line Network, wherein said signal is OFDM-modulated on a set of sub-carriers, is proposed, wherein an OFDM tonemap and an eigenbeamforming encoding matrix are determined based on a channel estimation for each sub-carrier, a tonemap feedback signal and an eigenbeamforming feedback signal are generated, which are descriptive of said OFDM tonemap and said eigenbeamforming encoding matrix, respectively, and transmitted to the transmitter. A corresponding receiver, a transmitter, a power line communication and a power line communication system are described as well. US08270504B2
A method for configurating a basic signal allocation unit and a method of transmitting signals using the configurated basic signal allocation unit are disclosed. In particular, a basic frequency domain signal allocation unit is configurated by considering at least one selected from the group consisting of a signaling overhead, a size of a coherent bandwidth and a number of divisors among specific numbers and an OFDM symbol number corresponding to a multiple of a subframe unit, each of the specific numbers multiplied to a predetermined subcarrier spacing to enable a result value of the multiplication to have a difference smaller than a prescribed threshold from a divisor of a system bandwidth. And, a time domain unit is configurated by 1-subframe unit. Accordingly, signaling overhead can be efficiently reduced. US08270502B2
In one embodiment, a demodulator demodulates a multi-carrier modulated signal having two pilot tones. The demodulator calculates a first phase angle for the first pilot tone and a second phase angle for the second pilot tone based on the time-domain multi-carrier modulated signal. A timing-frequency offset estimate is calculated using the first and second phase angles. Further, a fine carrier-frequency offset estimate is calculated for each pilot tone based on the corresponding phase angle and the timing-frequency offset estimate. Each fine carrier-frequency offset estimate is combined with a coarse estimate and weighted. The weighted estimates are then combined. In further embodiments, the timing-frequency offset estimate is weighted and combined with a weighted timing-frequency offset estimate generated using a cyclic prefix. In yet further embodiments, the weighted carrier-frequency offset estimates are combined with a weighted carrier-frequency offset estimate generated using a cyclic prefix. US08270495B2
Techniques are provided herein to produce encoded video bitstreams and to similarly decode encoded video bitstreams according to a coding standard not supported by an on-chip encoder/decoder. For purposes of encoding, a video sequence is received at a first device. A first bitstream is generated at the first device by encoding the video sequence according to a first coding standard and information associated with the video sequence is generated at the first device according to a second coding standard. The first bitstream and the information are then transmitted to a second device. At the second device the first bitstream is decoded to produce a second bitstream. The second bitstream and the information are combined by removing syntax elements associated with the first coding standard from the second bitstream and adding the information to produce a third bitstream according to the second coding standard. Similar techniques are provided for decoding an encoded bitstream to recover a video sequence. US08270494B2
A method for concatenating MPEG-4 or H.263 segments is provided. The method includes extracting and comparing the VOL or picture header information of each segment. If the two segments have the same VOL or picture header information, the method merges the two segments directly by appending one segment to another to form a new bit stream. If the two segments have the different resolution, the method completely decodes and re-encodes the segments and then merges the segments. Otherwise the method takes the VOL or picture header information of one segment as reference to produce the new bit stream. The method parses the other segment frame at a time, re-encapsulates it according to the reference VOL or picture header information, and appends it to the one segment. During the process, the method only uses VLD to parse the other segment without using the tools of DCT, IDCT, ME, and MC. US08270485B2
The invention relates to a method of watermarking a binary stream resulting from the encoding of a set of coefficients comprising at least one coefficient encoded by predictive coding, called predictively coded coefficient. The method comprises the steps of: a) identifying, in the binary stream, a first binary word representing the predictively coded coefficient; b) computing a modified coefficient from the predictively coded coefficient on the basis of at least one watermarking bit; c) encoding the modified coefficient into a second binary word; and d) replacing in the binary stream the first binary word with the second binary word. US08270480B2
There are provided video encoders and corresponding methods for encoding video data for an image that is divisible into super-macroblocks (super-MBs). A video encoder includes an encoder for classifying a super-MB in the image with respect to one of a frame mode or a field mode using a band-pass/high-pass filter applied vertically to the image. US08270472B2
There are provided methods and apparatus for adaptive reference filtering of bi-predictive pictures in multi-view coded video. An apparatus includes an encoder (100) for encoding a current picture as a bi-predictive picture. The encoder (100) performs adaptive filtering of at least one reference picture to respectively obtain at least one filtered reference picture, and bi-predictively codes the current picture using the at least one filtered reference picture. The at least one reference picture is a picture wherein at least one sample thereof is used for inter-prediction either of subsequent to the least one sample being applied to an in-loop filter or in an absence of the at least one sample being applied to an in-loop filter. Reference filter coefficients for the adaptive filtering are determined responsive to at least one of luma values and chroma values of pixels grouped based on at least one of depth and disparity and motion. US08270468B2
A scalable video bitstream may have an H.264/AVC compatible base layer (BL) and a scalable enhancement layer (EL), where scalability refers to color bit depth. The H.264/AVC scalability extension SVC provides also other types of scalability, e.g. spatial scalability where the number of pixels in BL and EL are different. According to the invention, BL information is upsampled (TUp,BDUp) in two logical steps in adaptive order, one being texture upsampling and the other being bit depth upsampling. Texture upsampling is a process that increases the number of pixels, and bit depth upsampling is a process that increases the number of values that each pixel can have, corresponding to the pixels color intensity. The upsampled BL data are used to predict the collocated EL. A prediction order indication is transferred so that the decoder can upsample BL information in the same manner as the encoder, wherein the upsampling refers to spatial and bit depth characteristics. US08270465B1
A system and method for a radio controlled clock receiver adapted to extract timing and time information from a phase modulated signal. The official time signal is broadcast from a central location using a modulation scheme that adds phase modulation to legacy pulse width modulated/amplitude modulation that allows for greatly improved performance. The information modulated onto the phase contains a known synchronization sequence having good autocorrelation properties, error-correcting coding for the time information and notifications of daylight-saving-time (DST) transitions that are provided months in advance. The modulation scheme is based on a form of phase modulation, such as binary-phase-shift-keying (BPSK) or phase reversal keying (PRK). A superframe comprising multiple frames with repeated information allows for the accumulation of received energy over multiple frames to provide for a corresponding gain in the receiver. US08270464B2
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving an input signal from a receiver, receiving a data clock (DCLK) signal, and receiving a boundary clock (BCLK) signal. The method includes, based on the input signal and the DCLK signal, recovering data from the input signal to produce a first output signal. The method includes, based on the input signal and the BCLK signal, recovering boundaries between bits in the input signal to produce a second output signal. The method includes, based on the first and second output signals, producing the DCLK and BCLK signals, with the DCLK signal being delayed with respect to the BCLK signal less than approximately 0.5 unit intervals (UIs) and greater than or equal to approximately zero UIs. US08270462B2
An adaptive equalizer circuit includes an equalizer circuit configured to produce an output data signal in response to an equalizing factor, a data detecting circuit configured to detect a signal level of the output data signal in a given unit time at predetermined timing, a boundary detecting circuit configured to detect a signal level of the output data signal at a timing that is ½ unit time away from the predetermined timing, and a control unit configured to detect, multiple times, a pattern having consecutive data items of a first value followed by a data item of a second value, and to adjust the equalizing factor such that a data detection value and a boundary detection value obtained for the data item of the second value are equal to each other a certain percentage of times, and are different from each other substantially the same percentage of times. US08270459B1
A system and/or integrated circuit are disclosed that may include a receiver, a harmonic signal generator and a signal injector. The receiver may use at least one signal line to create a baseband signal to further create a quality measure used to improve the quality of reception and based upon the receiver response to the baseband signal. The harmonic signal generator may generate harmonic signal(s) including at least one harmonic component within the receiver's reception range. The signal injector may receive the harmonic signal and a control signal to generate the signal line from the harmonic signal in response to the control signal. The receiver may implement WLAN, Bluetooth, GPS, AM, mobile TV, FM, and/or Television. A transmitter compatible with the receiver may or may not be included, and may be configured to couple at least one of its outputs to the receiver to create a second quality measure. US08270458B2
Apparatus arranged to analyse a signal comprising a series of symbols, the apparatus comprising means for calculating a metric of said signal, filter means for filtering said signal, means for calculating a metric of said filtered signal and means for comparing said metrics, wherein the filtering means is arranged to track a spectral feature of the signal and maintain that feature within the pass band of the filtering means. US08270451B2
An edge emitting semiconductor laser includes a semiconductor body, which has a waveguide region. The waveguide region has an active layer for generating laser radiation. The active layer is arranged between a first waveguide layer and a second waveguide layer. The waveguide region is arranged between a first cladding layer and a second cladding layer. The semiconductor body has a main region and at least one phase structure region in which is formed a phase structure for the selection of lateral modes of the laser radiation emitted by the active layer. The phase structure region is arranged outside the waveguide region or formed by a region in which a dopant is introduced or an intermixing structure is produced. US08270450B2
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor laser having an end surface window structure includes the steps of forming a groove near at least the formation position of the end surface window structure of a substrate, and growing a nitride-based group III-V compound semiconductor layer including an active layer formed of a nitride-based group III-V compound semiconductor including at least In and Ga on the substrate. US08270448B2
A surface emitting semiconductor laser includes: a substrate; a first semiconductor multilayer reflector of a first conduction type that is formed on the substrate and is composed of stacked pairs of relatively high refractive index layers and relatively low refractive index layers; a cavity region that is formed on the first semiconductor multilayer reflector and includes an active region; and a second semiconductor multilayer reflector of a second conduction type that is formed on the cavity region and is composed of stacked pairs of relatively high refractive index layers and relatively low refractive index layers. A cavity length of a cavity that includes the cavity region and the active region between the first semiconductor multilayer reflector and the second semiconductor multilayer reflector is greater than an oscillation wavelength. US08270445B2
A light-emitting device is provided which includes a gain medium having an optically-active phosphosilicate glass, wherein the phosphosilicate glass includes at least one active ion dopant and from about 1 to 30 mol % of phosphorus oxide. The phosphorous oxide may be present in an effective amount for reducing any photodarkening effect and increasing the saturation energy of the system. The active ion dopant may be a rare earth dopant. The light-emitting device may include an optical waveguide, the optical waveguide including the gain medium. The optical waveguide may have a core and at least one cladding, and the gain medium having the phosphosilicate glass may be found in the core and/or in one of the cladding. US08270437B2
Embodiments of a wireless network and method for communicating aggregated packets are generally described herein. In some embodiments, an aggregation header frame that identifies the originator is included in an aggregation of media-access control (MAC) frames to allow the originator to be easily identified when none of the MAC frames are properly received. US08270431B2
System(s) and method(s) are provided to determine a home macro sector linked to a femto access point and adjust inter-carrier scanning in a mobile device that operates in the home macro sector. A femto access point (AP) can determine a home macro sector through cell or sector identifier that is extracted via scan(s) of macro wireless environment of the femto AP. Femto AP can rank extracted sector identifier(s) and establish home macro sector (HMS) identifier(s), and also can generate scanning requirements for idle-mode scan(s) by mobile device(s) that operates in a HMS. Scanning requirement(s) can force periodic inter-carrier measurements of a HMS wireless environment, and establish HMS-specific radio link quality threshold(s). Wireless network can receive at least one of HMS identifier(s) and scanning requirement(s) and deliver same to mobile device(s) authorized to exploit wireless coverage through femto AP associated with the HMS ID(s) and the scanning requirement(s). US08270424B2
Disclosed is a method of signaling hopping locations selected by a scheduling entity using a frequency hopping pattern indicator for indicating hopping locations for at least two re-transmissions. The frequency hopping pattern is selected by the scheduling entity which may have knowledge of all or at least a plurality of scheduled reverse link transmissions or restrictions upon reverse link transmissions, thereby allowing reverse link re-transmissions to be scheduled in a manner compatible with other reverse link transmissions and restrictions. Overall signaling overhead associated with scheduling re-transmissions is reduced through the signaling of a single message which indicates hopping locations for at least two re-transmissions instead of two or more separate messages, wherein each of the two or more separate message indicates a hopping location for an individual re-transmission. US08270418B2
A method of controlling access to services of an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) by a user based upon the user's location. In response to a user requesting access to a service, information identifying the user's location is provided to the IMS. Within the IMS, the provided information is compared with authorization information stored in a database. The authorization information includes information identifying prohibited and/or allowed access locations. Dependent upon the result of the comparison, access to the IMS services is allowed or denied. US08270414B2
An embodiment of the present invention provides a method of dynamically handing over master functionality from a wireless station configured as a master station to another peer station in a wireless network, comprising, discovering the peer station's Master/AP capability, which may be, but is not required to be, via a (Re)Association request, selecting the peer station to be a new master station based on predetermined parameters, passing the basic service set (BSS) context from the master station to the new master station in a master station Role Request message before transitioning, notifying the new master station to activate its master station role via the master station Role Request message, and switching by the client station to the role of new master station upon receipt of an AP Role Activation message and starting to send Beacons with a BSSID that is the same as used in Beacons of the previous master station. US08270410B2
Embodiments of sampling techniques for server farms are described herein. In an implementation, the sampling techniques may be performed to find a range of values, in which, a quality of service measurement belongs. Each range is thought of as a “bucket” and may include a corresponding counter that is incremented for each quality of service measurement that falls within the bucket. The countes may then be converted into measurement curves which are published at periodic intervals for examination. US08270407B2
A method for managing a data stream in a communication system. One or more user stations and switching and management infrastructure are configured with a function that maps packet data protocol addresses of data transmissions to defined service access point identifiers. A packet data context for data transmissions of a packet data service is created by associating a packet data protocol address with a service access point identifier used in an interface between one or more user stations and the switching and management structure. A function is used for determining independently in the one or more user stations or the switching and management infrastructure the service access point identifiers for data transmissions of the packet data service. US08270405B2
Devices and method with hardware configured to support phantom register programming. Where phantom register programming allows a device driver for an endpoint device to program multicast registers in the device without support of the operating system. US08270398B2
A plurality of systems for routing signals are described. The system includes a cross point switch that can couple any one of a plurality of input terminals to a plurality of output processor terminals. Signals received at the input terminals are coupled to corresponding output terminals and are processed by output modules. The resulting processed signals are provided at output terminals. In some embodiments, one or more input modules are provided to process input signal prior to routing through the cross-point switch. US08270397B2
The Fibre Channel standard was created by the American National Standard for Information Systems (ANSI) X3T11 task group to define a serial I/O channel for interconnecting a number of heterogeneous peripheral devices to computer systems as well as interconnecting the computer systems themselves through optical fiber and copper media at gigabit speeds (i.e., one billion bits per second). Multiple protocols such as SCSI (Small Computer Serial Interface), IP (Internet Protocol), HIPPI, ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) among others can concurrently utilize the same media when mapped over Fibre Channel. A Fibre Channel Fabric is an entity which transmits Fibre Channel frames between connected Node Ports. The Fibre Channel fabric routes the frames based on the destination address as well as other information embedded in the Fibre Channel frame header. Node Ports are attached to the Fibre Channel Fabric through links. US08270391B2
The present invention relates to a method and a receiver (135) for determining the status of a real-time transfer protocol (RTP) packet stream. The method includes the steps of determining (220) a time period elapsed since reception of the last RTP packet, determining (250) the content of the last received RTP packet and categorizing the status of the RTP packet stream based on the elapsed time period and the content of the last received RTP packet. The present invention is preferably implemented in a processor or processing means (180) of the receiver and is advantageous in that the risk of false detection of dead RTP packet streams is reduced. US08270389B2
A method of synchronizing a first transceiver with a second transceiver during a low power idle mode is disclosed for use in network communication devices. A LDPC counter, which initiates a count operation upon transition to PAM16 mode, serves as a master counter to determined when, based on predetermined count values, each channel reactivates from low power idle mode to active mode to generate and send a refresh signal. The transmitter and associated remote receiver both reactivate at the predetermined refresh period to process the refresh signal. Each transmitter/receiver pair has predetermined refresh periods during low power idle mode. The refresh signal is processed for maintain clock synchronization and for filter and equalizer adaptation. US08270387B2
Systems and methods for improved digital RF transport in a DAS are provided. In one embodiment, a transceiver comprises: a receive path circuit including an RF reception interface coupled to an ADC, the ADC receiving a down-converted analog RF spectrum from the RF reception interface and producing a digitized RF spectrum at an input sampling rate; a logic device receiving the digitized RF spectrum and producing a first set of baseband data samples at a first sampling rate, corresponding to a first spectral region of the analog RF spectrum and a second set of baseband data samples at a second sampling rate, corresponding to a second spectral region of the analog RF spectrum. The logic device maps the first set and second sets of baseband data samples to a respective first set and second set of timeslots of a serial data stream transport frame. US08270386B2
It is an object of the present invention to make it possible to obtain an appropriate receiving environment in a communication system using a slot connecting transfer system. A mobile communication system (1) includes a transmitting part (13) sequentially transmitting time slots containing communication signals, an S/N ratio acquiring part (24) acquiring receiving environment information that indicates the receiving environment in mobile station apparatuses (20) of the respective transmitted time slots, a request generating part (26) determining whether or not at least some of the control bit sequences for a continuous plurality of time slots are to be represented by the control bit sequence of a single time slot on the basis of the amount of variation in the receiving environment indicated by the acquired receiving environment information, and a time slot control part (18) that operates so that at least some of the control bit sequences for a continuous plurality of time slots are represented by the control bit sequence of a single time slot when a base station apparatus (10) transmits time slots, in accordance with the determination results. US08270377B1
What is disclosed is a method of operating a communication system. The method includes receiving a first request to initiate a first communication session with a wireless communication device, determining a first spreading code for the first communication session, and transferring the first spreading code for delivery to the wireless communication device. The method also includes receiving a second request to initiate a second communication session with the wireless communication device, determining a second spreading code for the second communication session, where the second spreading code is determined based upon the first spreading code, and transferring the second spreading code for delivery to the wireless communication device. US08270376B2
Methods for improving uplink communications in a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) communication system, wherein mobile terminals can transmit at various transmission power levels. In a mobile terminal, the method includes the steps of receiving a configuration message having at least one of a power offset parameter and a maximum number of retransmission attempts parameter; when the mobile terminal performs a non-scheduled transmission, it transmits according to the parameters contained in the configuration message. In a network node, the method includes the steps of transmitting to at least one mobile terminal the configuration message having at least one of a power offset parameter and a maximum number of retransmission attempts parameter; and, adjusting a power setting for the transmission of acknowledgement or negative-acknowledgement messages from the wireless network to one or more of mobile terminals. US08270372B2
The techniques introduced herein provide a system and method for determining whether an inter-RAT handover is an SRVCC handover, and for performing the subsequent SRVCC handover. The techniques include receiving a handover command message that does not include SRVCC related information elements, for example “RAB info to replace,” but continuing with an SRVCC handover using a circuit-switched RAB provided in the information for setup. The techniques also include receiving a handover command message that does include SRVCC related information elements and performing the SRVCC handover by an alternative method. US08270361B2
A method and apparatus of managing a radio bearer is disclosed. A relay node (RN) sets up at least one UuRB for a Uu interface between a user equipment (UE) and the RN and a UnRB for a Un interface between the RN and a base station (BS). The at least one UuRB is mapped to the UnRB according to quality of service (QoS) guaranteed by the at least one UuRB to setup a RB between the UE and the BS. US08270346B2
A system for dynamically anchoring a call initiated by a mobile unit can include call anchor logic programmed with anchoring criteria to determine if a new outbound call being initiated from the mobile unit should be anchored at an anchor point located outside of a service provider network for the mobile unit based on application of the anchoring criteria to input data. The call anchor logic provides an anchor control signal to cause the outbound call to be one of (i) anchored at the anchor point and (ii) connected to a called party without anchoring at the anchor point. Memory that stores the input data, the memory being accessible by the call anchor logic. US08270343B2
A wireless communication system comprises a broadcast transmitter broadcasting textual and multimedia information to a remote receiver unit. The broadcast transmitter is operably coupled to a signal manipulation function and arranged to receive and process a broadcast signal that comprises both a textual portion and multimedia information. The signal manipulation function separates the textual and multimedia information into multiple bursts of data sub-blocks, wherein substantially each sub block comprises the textual data and a sub-block of multimedia information for transmitting to the remote receiver unit.By implementing the aforementioned inventive concepts, faster access to the most important (i.e. semantic) part of the transmitted information can be obtained. US08270333B2
A data relaying apparatus for relaying data bidirectionally transmitted between a first communication apparatus and a second communication apparatus includes a first symbol string generator configured to generate, in accordance with a first modulation method, a first symbol string from first data transmitted from the second communication apparatus; a second symbol string generator configured to generate, in accordance with a second modulation method, a second symbol string from second data transmitted from the first communication apparatus; and a combining unit configured to combine a first symbol of the first symbol string and a second symbol of the second symbol string by calculating an exclusive OR on the first symbol and the second symbol to generate a third symbol string to be multicasted to the first communication apparatus and the second communication apparatus. US08270325B2
Systems and methods for establishing IT services in edge environments are described. In some examples, the system comprises a transportable housing capable of being carried by personnel, a plurality of commercial off-the-shelf components contained in the housing and coupled together and configured to provide the broadband communications network, a management subsystem operatively coupled to the plurality of components, a network connection subsystem defined by at least a first portion of the plurality of components and configured to establish access to the broadband communications network, and a connection subsystem defined by at least a second portion of the plurality of components and that provides a user with a connection to the broadband communications network via the network connection subsystem. US08270317B2
A method and an apparatus for advertising border connection information of autonomous system are disclosed. Moreover, the method includes: establishing and maintaining, by a border node of the autonomous system, the border connection information of the autonomous system; flooding the border connection information within the autonomous system; and receiving, by nodes of the autonomous system, the border connection information. The method and the apparatus for advertising border connection information of autonomous system of embodiments of the present invention may adapt to dynamic change of network topology, and dynamically advertise the border connection information of the autonomous system within the system in time, so as to optimize networks and improve quality of service of the networks. |
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