US08296859B2
A localized nanostructure growth apparatus that has a partitioned chamber is provided, where a first partition includes a scanning probe microscope (SPM) and a second partition includes an atomic layer deposition (ALD) chamber, where the first partition is hermetically isolated from the second partition, and at least one SPM probe tip of the SPM is disposed proximal to a sample in the ALD chamber. According to the invention, the hermetic isolation between the chambers prevents precursor vapor from damaging critical microscope components and ensuring that contaminants in the ALD chamber can be minimized.
US08296858B2
A coupling device for an atomic force microscope with acoustic sample excitation includes a sound generator, in particular an ultrasonic test head, and designed for coupling of sound waves generated using the sound generator into a sample body for the acoustic excitation of the sample body, where the coupling device has a liquid reservoir fillable and/or filled with a liquid in its inner space; the lower side of the sample body can be arranged and/or is arranged laterally displaceably on the liquid reservoir; the end of the sound generator formed for coupling the sound waves into the sample body is arranged in the inner space of the liquid reservoir and/or that sound waves can be coupled into the inner space with this end; and the spatial section of the inner space of the liquid reservoir disposed between this end and the lower side of the sample body is completely fillable and/or filled with the liquid.
US08296855B2
Content processing is disclosed. An indication that a sender desires to send encrypted content to a destination is received. An agreement is obtained from the sender to provide an access key to a node other than the destination and to encrypt content sent to the destination using an encryption key selected such that the access key is usable to decrypt the content.
US08296853B2
Method of authenticating a user in a heterogeneous computer environment. The method may include defining a set of unique prefixes, each prefix identifying a type of user repository; defining a set of abstract repository names, each abstract repository name identifying an address of a user repository; and authenticating the user in the heterogeneous computer environment by assigning a sequence comprising a unique prefix, a reference to an abstract repository name and a unique identifier for the user within the user repository indicated by the reference to the abstract repository name.
US08296852B2
A transponder is provided, in particular a passive and/or backscatter-based transponder, for an RFID system, wherein at least one first piece of information can be stored in a first memory area on the transponder that is accessible in clear text only by a read access internal to the transponder, and a second piece of information can be stored in a second memory area that is accessible in clear text through an air interface for read access, and the second piece of information is generated from the first piece of information using an asymmetric encryption method. The invention further relates to an RFID system for wireless data exchange comprising a transponder and a base station, and a method for requesting write and/or read access to a transponder, in particular a passive and/or backscatter-based transponder.
US08296850B2
Systems and methods of detecting distributed attacks that pose a threat affecting more than one node in the network. The distributed attacks include events that appear normal or innocuous when viewed locally at any node. The systems and methods include reference global profiles and detection global profiles corresponding to activities or events of interest on the network.
US08296848B1
A security module detects attempted exploitations of vulnerabilities of applications executing on a computer. The security module hooks an application on the computer. The hook transfers control flow to the security module if execution reaches a hooked location. When a hook is followed, the security module saves the state of the computer and activates an analysis environment. A virtual machine within the analysis environment executes signatures that programmatically analyze the state of the computer to determine whether a vulnerability in the application is being exploited. If a signature detects an exploit, the security module blocks the exploit by skipping over the one or more instructions that constitute the exploit, terminating the application, or performing a different action. The security module reports the detected exploit attempt to the user of the client. The security module returns control flow back to the application if it does not detect an exploit.
US08296844B2
A computing method includes running on a user computer a first operating environment for performing general-purpose operations and a second operating environment, which is configured expressly for interacting with a server in a protected communication session and is isolated from the first operating environment. A program running in the second operating environment detects an attempt to imitate the protected communication session made by an illegitimate communication session that interacts with the first operating environment. The detected attempt is inhibited automatically.
US08296841B2
A Trusted Platform Module (TPM) can be utilized to implement One Time Password (OTP) mechanisms. One or more delegation blobs can be created by the TPM and the delegation authentication values of the delegation blobs can be based on the version number of the delegation blobs. A data blob with a protected secret can comprise a pointer to the delegation table of the TPM. The version number can be provided to an authority from which an OTP (a delegation authentication value) can be received. The OTP can be utilized to gain access to the secret and an authentication value of the key blob, which can be utilized to increase the version number of all associated delegation blobs. Policy limitations can be associated with the delegation blobs and can be enforced by policy enforcement mechanisms that can reference the TPM tick counter to enforce temporal policy restrictions.
US08296836B2
An apparatus in one example, where the apparatus comprises a communication device component that performs an authentication key agreement protocol by receiving a first random nonce (RAND) and an authentication token, wherein the communication device component is configured with a shared secret key. The communication device component generates a derivation key by applying a pseudo random function to the RAND and the shared secret key. The communication device component generates a first set of session keys based on a second random nonce (RANDC) and the derivation key where the first set of session keys are used in encrypting communications.
US08296815B2
A method of generating a stream comprising synchronized interactive content is described. The method comprises the steps of: transmitting a first stream from a studio to a terminal or a terminal system of a first user and to a buffer; transmitting in response to the first stream a second stream to a mixer connected to the buffer, the second stream comprising content generated in reaction to the content of the first stream; providing the mixer with a temporal relation between the packets in the first and second stream; generating a first output stream comprising a substantially synchronized content by mixing packets in second stream with packets of the buffered first stream on the basis of the temporal relation.
US08296810B1
A wireless video uplink system comprises wireless access systems and a reservation system. The reservation system receives a video uplink request that indicates a user, a geographic location, and a time period. The reservation system processes the video uplink request to select one of the wireless access systems that serves the geographic location. The reservation system determines if the selected wireless access system has available video uplink capacity during the time period, and if so, the system directs the selected wireless access system to provide the wireless video uplink to a wireless video device associated with the user during the time period. The selected wireless access system wirelessly receives video data over the video uplink from the wireless video device during the time period. The selected wireless access system also inhibits another video uplink attempt from another wireless video device during the time period.
US08296799B2
Received by a program display apparatus are: programs for each of which a receiving time has been determined; digest views corresponding to the programs; and receiving-time information for the programs. The received digest views and receiving-time information are stored in a memory. A moving picture is displayed on a main screen zone of a monitor screen, with the digest views that have been stored in the memory on a sub screen zone of the monitor screen, as being superposed on the moving picture, according to the user's operation. Each digest view is allowed to be displayed on the sub screen zone when a remaining time of the program corresponding the digest view, obtained based on the receiving-time information, is longer than the reference time. The digest view is, however, inhibited from being displayed on the sub screen zone when the remaining time is equal to or shorter than the reference time.
US08296786B2
A function call can be received at a remote execution module in a host environment. The call can instruct the remote execution module to remotely execute a specified function in a remote environment. The call can be received while an agent is executing in the remote environment. The function can be sent to the agent in the remote environment in response to receiving the call. The agent can be employed to perform acts, which can include receiving the function at the remote environment, executing the function in the remote environment in response to receiving the function, and sending results of executing the function to the execution module. Additionally, the execution module can be employed to receive the results from the agent and return the results as a response to the call.
US08296778B2
Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for computer data communications in a high speed, low latency data communications environment that include: brokering, by a stream administration server, establishment of a message stream from a contributing client device to a feed adapter, including authenticating the contributing client device, authorizing the contributing client device to send messages to the feed adapter on the message stream, and establishing in messaging middleware of the contributing client device a set of constraints on messages to be transmitted from the contributing client device to the feed adapter; receiving, in the messaging middleware of the contributing client device from an application of the contributing client device, a message for transmission to the feed adapter on the message stream; determining, by the messaging middleware, whether contents of the message satisfy the constraints; and administering the message, by the messaging middleware, in dependence upon whether the message satisfies the constraints.
US08296777B2
A system and method providing a personal electronic communication incorporates the use of image tags which designate a desired dynamic imaging server and a corresponding image chain to dynamically create a customized image that is associated with the personal electronic communication. Upon receipt of the personal electronic communication, the personal electronic communication is parsed to identify an embedded image tag. A dynamic imaging server designated by the image tag is then used to dynamically create, manipulate and transfer customized images back to the recipient of the personal electronic communication based on the image chain corresponding to the image tag. The image chain may be included within the image tag or the image tag may include reference information designating the image chain.
US08296775B2
Various operations are disclosed for improving the operational efficiency of register handling in a virtualized environment. Some infrequently accessed software managed registers are managed lazily when switching contexts between virtual processors. The states of those registers are not saved on exit from a guest or restored on entry to the guest. Rather, guest accesses to those registers are intercepted. For some frequently accessed registers, register states are saved or restored only upon exit from a hypervisor to a different guest that that from which the hypervisor was entered. For enable-flag-gated registers, updates to a physical register value are not made unless the register is enabled. A shadow register cache may be used to speed accesses to some registers. When a shadowed register is modified, the new value is cached as a shadow copy in RAM and subsequent reads of the register are taken from the shadow copy.
US08296774B2
A server farm includes a plurality of server devices. The plurality of server devices includes a plurality of topology service endpoints and a plurality of target service endpoints. A client computing system sends a topology service request to one of the topology service endpoints. In response, the topology service endpoint sends target service endpoint Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) to the client computing system. When a client application at the client computing system needs to send a target service request to one of the target service endpoints, the client computing system applies a load balancing algorithm to select one of the target service endpoint URIs. The client computing system then sends a target service request to the target service endpoint identified by the selected one of the target service endpoint URIs. In this way, the client computing system may use a load balancing algorithm appropriate for the client application.
US08296766B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide an Instant Messenger (IM) and a method for dispatching tasks by the IM. The method includes: presetting task information in a start-up program configuration table, and dispatching, by the IM, tasks in batches according to the task information in the start-up program configuration table. Preferably, the task information includes the execution delay information and priority information of the tasks. The IM includes a logging-on flow management module and a task dispatching management module. The logging-on flow management module is adapted to store the start-up program configuration table, which is configured with the task information. The task dispatching management module is adapted to dispatch the tasks in batches according to the task information in the start-up program configuration table. With embodiments of the invention, the start-up delay of the IM may be reduced.
US08296759B1
A method and system for offloading a software application intended to be run on a first virtual machine onto a second virtual machine. An original virtual machine is created. A periodic and/or computing resource-intensive application is supposed to be run on the original virtual machine. However, doing so may detrimentally impact the operation of the original virtual machine by consuming valuable computing resources. A replicated virtual machine which is basically a copy of the original virtual machine is created and ported over to a different host computer system. The periodic and/or computing-intensive application is now run on the replicated virtual machine instead of the original virtual machine. This leaves the original virtual machine free to continue its normal operations unaffected.
US08296758B2
A method and system to deploy a software archive on a runtime environment. The method extracts metadata from the archive and verifies the components can be deployed and further deploys them on the runtime environment.
US08296757B2
Autorun functionality is incorporated into a portable device such as a flash drive, a wireless adapter, a communication adapter, or any USB peripheral device. The portable device is connectable to a computing device (e.g. USB). The portable device may act as a security key to protect software or data running on the computing device from unauthorized use. At least part of the protected software or data may be stored in a protected memory component of the portable device which is not accessible by the user. Upon connecting the integrated circuit memory device to the computing device, the at least part of the protected software or data may run automatically on the computing device to enable the function of the protected software or data; whereby the user may run the protected software or data on the computing device while the portable integrated circuit memory device remains connected to the computing device.
US08296745B2
Method and apparatus for automatically generating intermediate-level interfaces between program methods written in a platform-independent language and program methods written in a native language. A portable stub generator generates stubs in an intermediate, tokenized internal representation. The stub generator is portable across platforms as the stubs it generates are not platform-specific. In addition, the generated stubs are available to the compiler at intermediate compilation stages rather than at the backend compilation stage, and thus may be optimized together with the rest of the platform-independent code, and also may be inlined. The portable stub generator may be directed at virtual machine environments. An exemplary virtual machine environment in which the stub generator may be implemented is the Java™ Virtual Machine (JVM). In JVMs, Java™ is the platform-independent language, and Java™ bytecode the tokenized internal representation. In a JVM, the stubs may be generated in accordance with Java™ Native Interface (JNI).
US08296733B2
Certain exemplary embodiments can provide a system, which can comprise a block processor. The block processor can be adapted to automatically render a list of automatically described modifications to a first version of a block of a software program adapted to control a programmable logic controller (PLC). The first version can differ from an original version of the block.
US08296730B2
When objects are called by a program written in a strongly-typed language using an interface written in a loosely-typed manner, incompatibilities between the programming languages can cause problems. Extension methods can simplify the interface between objects in an object model and a program written in a strongly-typed programming language by providing method overloads that accept strongly-typed parameters. Extension methods are provided that use method overloads that accept strongly-typed parameters, improving type safety by allowing the compiler to enforce type safety rather than relying on type checking at runtime. Nullable types and object initialization may be used to provide strongly-typed optional parameters. Extension methods can be used to support parameterized properties and to support class indexers, enabling query of collections of in-memory objects.
US08296728B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for mobile device interaction using a shared user interface.
US08296725B2
Methods, including service methods, articles of manufacture, systems, articles and programmable devices are provided for performing variation oriented analysis across aspects of service oriented architecture modeling. A commonality or variance of a first process to a second process of an initial model plurality of processes is captured, each having an initial model process format, and also of a third process relative to a fourth process of another model plurality of processes having a different format, wherein the commonalities and variances are stored in a common repository memory device in a repository format different from the model process formats. Processes of a model plurality are then refined as a function of the stored commonalities and variances, wherein refining comprises considering any of the stored commonalities and variances.
US08296723B2
Illustrative embodiments provide a computer-implemented method for configurable Unified Modeling Language building blocks. The computer-implemented method obtains a Unified Modeling Language specification and generates a set of logical units from the Unified Modeling Language specification to form a set of building blocks. The computer-implemented method further fetches desired blocks from the set of building blocks according to predefined criteria to form a set of desired blocks, and presents the set of desired building blocks to a requestor for execution of functions provided by the set of desired building blocks to complete a defined task.
US08296716B2
A method implemented by a computer layout software for setting the width of the printed circuit board trace is disclosed. The method selects one from several traces set on the printed circuit board traces, obtains the corresponding trace name of the selected trace, obtains the device pin connected to the selected trace, acquires the pad corresponding to the device pin, reads the width of the pad, and adjusts the width of the pad.
US08296714B2
Aspects of the present invention provide a system and method for checking a portion of an analog circuit using a digital checker. The method includes establishing a target in the analog circuit, creating an analog target dummy for the target, creating a digital target dummy, binding the digital target dummy to the analog target dummy, and checking a value of the digital target dummy with a digital checker.
US08296710B2
A method for implementing soft constraints in scheduling comprises receiving a description of circuit behavior. The description is un-timed. A scheduling solution is generated for use in scheduling the description. The scheduling solution includes scheduling variables and an objective function. The scheduling variables schedule the time of at least one operation. The objective function includes a penalty term and constraints comprising at least one hard constraint and at least one soft constraint. The constraints are created on the scheduling variables. The penalty term comprises a slack variable representing violations of the constraints. The penalty term measures the design cost of violating the soft constraint. Following generation of the scheduling solution, the description is scheduled by applying the scheduling solution to the description. Timing information of the description is provided as an output of the scheduling.
US08296697B2
Method and apparatus for performing static analysis optimization in a design verification system is described. In one example, a description of a verification environment having constrained objects is obtained. The constrained objects are analyzed incrementally to create a data structure of nodes. Each node includes a description of variables transitively connected by constraints. At least one of the nodes reuses a description from at least one other node. The data structure is then used during logic design verification.
US08296692B2
A controller circuit is coupled to a memory device over a data/IO bus and a control bus. The controller circuit generates a read enable signal that is transmitted to the memory device to instruct the memory device to drive data onto the data/IO bus. The read enable signal is fed back to the controller circuit that then uses the fed back signal to read the data from the data/IO bus.
US08296682B2
An interface allows navigation of a hierarchy of related content organized into a node tree. Each node may be associated with media content and navigation input may be received to navigate between the nodes. The interface includes a mechanism for viewing graphical data representing related content within the node tree. A user may provide input to navigate between nodes in the same hierarchy level or different hierarchy levels while graphical data for the selected node is provided in the interface.
US08296681B2
An apparatus, comprising: a user output device configured to display a first plurality of items from a list of items, each item having data portions in fields; a user input device configured to enable a user to select at least one character from a plurality of selectable characters and to associate the selected at least one character with a field; and processing circuitry configured to control the user output device to display a second plurality of items, the second plurality of items being selected from the list of items and ordered, wherein the selection and ordering is in dependence upon a comparison between the selected at least one character and the data portion that each item has in the associated field.
US08296680B2
A handheld electronic device includes a keypad having a plurality of keys and a selection member; a display component; and a processor cooperating with the keypad and the display component to provide a display at the display component. The display includes a first representation of a plurality of the keys, and at least one of: (a) a second representation of an activated one of the input members, (b) a third representation including a plurality of diacritics disposed about an activated one of the input members, and (c) a fourth representation including a plurality of diacritics disposed about an activated one of the input members, and a direction of selection between the activated one of the input members and one of the diacritics. The processor cooperates with the selection member to adjust the direction of selection, and select one of the diacritics for display by the display component.
US08296679B2
An improved method of learning character segments from received text enables facilitated text input on an improved handheld electronic device. In receiving text on the handheld electronic device, the characters of the text are converted into the inputs with which the characters correspond. Then, segments and other objects are analyzed to generate a proposed character interpretation of the series of inputs. Responsive to detecting that at least a portion of the character interpretation differs from a corresponding portion of the received text, a character learning string comprising the differing characters of the received text are stored as a candidate. In response to receiving additional text on the handheld electronic device, the characters of the additional text are converted into the inputs with which the characters correspond. Then, segments and other objects are analyzed to generate another proposed character interpretation of the series of additional inputs. Responsive to detecting that at least a portion of the another character interpretation differs from a corresponding portion of the additional received text, another character learning string comprising the differing characters of the additional received text are compared with the candidate. If a set of characters in the another character learning string match characters in the candidate, the set of characters are stored as a segment.
US08296669B2
In one embodiment, a technique for controlling one or more devices within a physical room of a structure is provided. One or more devices in the structure are coupled, either directly or indirectly, to a programmable multimedia controller configured to issue control commands which, when implemented, change the state of the devices. A virtual room-based user interface is displayed on a display screen. The virtual room-based user interface may include one or more virtual rooms, each virtual room including a substantially photo-realistic depiction of a portion of the structure, including substantially photo-realistic depictions of one or more devices located within the portion of the structure. In response to the selection of a particular substantially photo-realistic visual depiction, the programmable multimedia controller may issue control commands which, when implemented, change the state of a particular device. The appearance of the particular virtual room may be updated to reflect the changed state.
US08296656B2
Methods and systems that improve the way media is played, sorted, modified, stored and cataloged are disclosed. One aspect relates to a browse window that allows a user to navigate through and select images that are related to media items. Another aspect relates to a graphical user interface of a media management program that utilizes multiple browse windows. Another aspect relates to simultaneously displayed media browse windows whose operations are integrated together so that the content shown therein is automatically synched when selections are made. Another aspect relates to resetting browsed content to the currently playing media.
US08296635B2
Systems and methods are provided for implementing various aspects of a Reed-Solomon (RS) error-correction system. A detector can provide a decision-codeword from a channel and can also provide soft-information for the decision-codeword. If the decision-codeword corresponds to an inner code and an RS code is the outer code, a soft-information map can process the soft-information for the decision-codeword to produce soft-information for a RS decision-codeword. A RS decoder can employ the Berlekamp-Massey algorithm (BMA), list decoding, and a Chien search, and can include a pipelined architecture. A threshold-based control circuit can be used to predict whether list decoding will be needed and can suspend the list decoding operation if it predicts that list decoding is not needed.
US08296625B2
A storage subsystem monitors one or more conditions related to the probability of a data error occurring. Based on the monitored condition or conditions, the storage subsystem adjusts an error correction setting, and thus the quantity of ECC data used to protect data received from a host system. To enable blocks of data to be properly checked when read from memory, the storage subsystem stores ECC metadata indicating the particular error correction setting used to store particular blocks of data. The storage subsystem may be in the form of a solid-state non-volatile memory card or drive that attaches to the host system.
US08296620B2
A method of utilizing at least one block of data, wherein the at least one block of data includes a plurality of cells for storing data and at least one error flag bit, the method including: scanning the block of data for errors; determining the error rate of the block of data; and applying an error correction code to data being read from or written to a cell within the at least one block of data, wherein the error correction code is applied based on the error rate, wherein a weak error correction code is applied when the error rate is below an error threshold, and a strong error correction code is applied when the error rate is at or above the error threshold.
US08296617B2
A method for implementation of HARQ between a transmitting node and a receiving node in a communication network is provided. HARQ processes may be selected from a list for instantiation according to a policy that may deviate from strict first-in, first-out processing of packets. The greater flexibility that this affords may lead to improved efficiency in the use of transmission resources.
US08296613B2
A system and method for remotely performing boundary scans on a circuit board, device and/or system across a network. A first computing component, connected to the network, includes a computer readable media including computer executable instructions. The instructions cause the computing component to maintain or access a library of test scan procedures for a plurality of subject circuit boards. At least one of the test scan procedure is downloaded to a second computing component proximate the circuit board, device and/or system. The second computing component and the test scan procedure are monitored and controlled remotely via the network.
US08296612B2
An Analog/mixed signal automatic test system includes a software architecture that creates a virtual composite instruments through novel software dynamic allocation of low level resources. These virtual composite instruments provide backwards and forwards compatibility to a variety of automatic test equipment, known or available on the market. The virtual composite instruments are free from the normal constraints imposed by hardware implementations. Creation of the virtual composite instruments allows a single piece of automatic test equipment system to emulate many implementations of automatic test equipment, providing higher utilization, and therefore a lower cost test solution for device manufacturers. The test instruments are preferably object controls and are preferably instantiated and controlled by the test system server. This allows multiple users to control the tester simultaneously across, for example, the Internet.
US08296611B2
The invention provides a test circuit for n input/output arrays. Each of the n input/output arrays has M pairs of input/output. The test circuit includes M write drivers and M comparing circuits. The ith write driver provides an ith test signal to the ith inputs of all of the n input/output arrays, and 1≦i≦M. The jth comparing circuit determines if jth output signals of all of the n input/output arrays are the same, and outputs a jth comparing result correspondingly, and 1≦j≦M. The invention also provides a method of testing n input/output arrays. The invention also provides a storage device.
US08296598B2
A synchronization circuit for re-synchronizing data from an input clock to an output clock is presented. The first transparent latch receives data synchronized to an input clock. A second transparent latch receives data from the first transparent latch and outputs data dependent on a delayed output clock which is the output clock delayed by an insertion delay. An output latch receives data from the second transparent latch and synchronizes data to the output clock.
US08296580B2
Methods and systems are disclosed for protecting data on a mobile device. A data protection module on the mobile device receives a transmission including a secret key. The secret key is used in encrypting data on the device and is then deleted. Subsequent to an event detectable to the mobile device, the data protection module receives another transmission including said secret key. The secret key is then used to decrypt the encrypted data.
US08296576B2
A method for scrambling current consumption of an integrated circuit, at least during execution of a confidential operation by the integrated circuit that includes reading confidential data stored therein and/or the calculation of an encryption code is provided. The charge pump is activated to generate current consumption fluctuations on the electrical power supply line of the integrated circuit, at an intensity great enough to mask the current consumption variations associated with the execution of the confidential operation.
US08296563B2
In a certification request, a user device includes an object identifier. When a certification authority generates an identity certificate responsive to receiving the certification request, the certification authority includes the object identifier, thereby allowing improved management of the identity certificate at the user device and elsewhere.
US08296555B2
This disclosure describes techniques and/or apparatuses for reducing the total time used to boot up a computer and load applications onto the computer.
US08296550B2
A hierarchical register file included in a hierarchical microprocessor that includes a plurality of execution clusters. An embodiment of the a hierarchical register file includes a first-level register file including a plurality of mappable registers. where the first level register filed is configured to allocate the mappable registers to store execution results of instructions executed by the execution clusters and provide secondary register storage for each of the execution clusters. The hierarchical register file also includes a plurality of second-level register files operatively coupled with the first-level register file, where the plurality of second-level register files are configured to store instruction operands and provide the instruction operands to respective execution units of the execution clusters for use in executing associated instructions. The hierarchical register file further includes a plurality of third-level register files operatively coupled with the first register file and respective second-level register files, where the third-level register files are configured to provide operands to execution units and capture immediate literal values.
US08296549B2
The invention discloses an overlapping command committing method of dynamic cycle pipeline, for a chip having pipeline structure, the method comprising the following steps: reading the command from command buffer, decoding the command, judging whether operator is reasonable or not, if a illegal command, then deleting, otherwise preprocessing the operator of command, preparing the initial operator of each pipeline, and observing the status of pipeline, waiting for pipeline command exiting signal, and judging whether there is command relevance or not, if not, then committing a new command to pipeline when the command exiting a last cycle of pipeline. Overlapping command committing method of the invention can avoid appearing of bubble, improve parallelism of pipeline performing unit, and thus shorten the processing period of command in chip, let the chip process more command in unit time.
US08296537B2
The storage system includes a first storage device, configured to be installed in a first site and providing a primary logical volume in which data received from a host computer is written; a second storage device, configured to be installed in a second site and providing a virtual logical volume, which has no structure for storing data received from the first storage system; and a third storage device, configured to be installed in a third site and providing a secondary logical volume in which data received from the second storage system is written. Data written in the primary logical volume of the first storage device are remote-copied to the secondary logical volume of the third storage device via the virtual logical volume of the second storage device.
US08296529B2
A write-once optical disc and a method and apparatus for recording management information on the disc are provided. The method includes recording an opened SRR information on a recording medium, and removing an identification of a certain SRR from the opened SRR information once the certain SRR is closed. The opened SRR information carries an identification of any opened SRR, and the number of opened SRRs allowed is at most a predetermined number.
US08296525B1
A system and method of tracking multiple non-identification tagged requests in a system with multiple responders using one or more tracking queues. In some embodiments, the system and method may be implemented in a snoop filter covering multiple caches. In some embodiments, a data-less bus query may be used to update the status of a requested line.
US08296519B2
A processing unit includes a store-in lower level cache having reservation logic that determines presence or absence of a reservation and a processor core including a store-through upper level cache, an instruction execution unit, a load unit that, responsive to a hit in the upper level cache on a load-reserve operation generated through execution of a load-reserve instruction by the instruction execution unit, temporarily buffers a load target address of the load-reserve operation, and a flag indicating that the load-reserve operation bound to a value in the upper level cache. If a storage-modifying operation is received that conflicts with the load target address of the load-reserve operation, the processor core sets the flag to a particular state, and, responsive to execution of a store-conditional instruction, transmits an associated store-conditional operation to the lower level cache with a fail indication if the flag is set to the particular state.
US08296511B1
Managing data on a federated CAS system includes determining a group of objects to be stored on a single CAS system of the federated CAS system, obtaining a cookie corresponding a particular one of the CAS systems of the federated CAS system in response to initially writing at least one object of the group of objects, where the at least one object is written to the particular one of the CAS systems, and providing the cookie in connection with writing objects of the group of objects following initially writing at least one object of the group of objects. The cookie causes the objects to be written to the particular one of the CAS systems. The cookie may be provided by at least one router that maintains the federated CAS system, which may be separate from both a processing device and the particular one of the CAS systems.
US08296506B2
A method for managing a non-volatile memory is provided. The non-volatile memory has a number of blocks, and each block has a number of sub-blocks. The method includes a number of steps. First, a last physical address is obtained. The last physical address corresponds to a sub-block which is close to another sub-block where data is newly stored. Next, it is determined, for each sub-block of at least one block, the validity of data being stored. The at least one block is at least one neighboring block of a block containing the corresponding sub-block of the last physical address. Then, a mapping table is produced according to the step of determining the validity of data.
US08296501B2
A memory management method for a non-volatile memory and a controller using the same are provided. The non-volatile memory is substantially divided into a plurality of blocks. First, non-erasing information of a plurality of memory units comprising at least one block is recoded and used as a reference to establish an evaluation value. Then, whether to move data of at least one block on the memory units to another memory unit according to the evaluation value is determined. Accordingly, problems of read disturb and data retention due to excessive reading times can be resolved.
US08296488B2
A method and system for addressing nodes in a multi-drop wired network are disclosed. In an embodiment nodes communicate via a two-way communication bus. Upon receipt of an address command, a first node assigns itself a first address, closes a switch to activate an output port of the first node to enable a second node to receive communications from the first node, and sends a second address onto the two-way communication bus. The second address is received by all previously addressed nodes, including a controller if used, as well as the second node, which is as yet unaddressed. Upon receipt of the second address, the second node repeats the process. If a node does not receive an acknowledgement that a subsequent node has addressed itself, that node deactivates its output port and terminates the network.
US08296486B2
An apparatus comprising a single memory device providing data storage, a controller for controlling data transfer to and from the data storage, and first and second bus connector plugs, wherein each plug has contacts for connecting with the power, ground, and data contacts of a port of a host system. The power and ground contacts of the first and second plugs are coupled together to provide power to the apparatus through either or both plugs. Data from either or both plugs is communicated with the controller depending upon which plugs are coupled to a port. The controller is responsible for controlling the read and write operations of the data storage. The apparatus may be any type of external memory device, such as a flash drive, or a peripheral device having a high data transfer rate, such as a digital video camera.
US08296485B2
The disclosure provides a system and a method of processing keystrokes entered on an electronic device. The method comprises: monitoring for activation of two or more keys on the keyboard; evaluating whether the activation of those keys occurs within a set window of time; evaluating locations of those keys. After these evaluations, if the keystroke conflict is determined to not have been produced then characters for those keys are generated in order of their activations. If the keystroke conflict is determined to have been produced, then the method arbitrates between those keys to select a key utilizing a dictionary to automatically determine the key to be selected. In the dictionary, its entries are related to each of those keys combined with any previously entered keystrokes. The method then processes the selected key to generate on a display one character, which is associated with the selected key.
US08296483B2
Provided is a storage device of a serial attached small computer system interface/serial advanced technology attachment (SAS/SATA) type, which provides data storage/reading services through an SAS/SATA interface. The SAS/SATA type storage device includes: a memory disk unit which includes a plurality of memory disks provided with a plurality of volatile semiconductor memories; an SAS/SATA host interface unit which interfaces between the memory disk unit and a host; and a controller unit which adjusts synchronization of a data signal transmitted/received between the SAS/SATA host interface unit and the memory disk unit to control a data transmission/reception speed between the SAS/SATA host interface unit and the memory disk unit. The storage device can support a low-speed data processing speed for the host and simultaneously support a high-speed data processing speed for the memory disk unit, so that there are advantages in that the performance of the memory disk can be fully utilized to enable high-speed data processing in an existing interface environment.
US08296481B2
A data transfer device includes a data buffer, an odd number flag, and a control unit. The data buffer holds an even number of data blocks from a data transfer controller. The odd number flag is set when the number of data blocks to be transferred to a receiving device is odd. The control unit transfers an even number of data blocks to the receiving device for each data transfer cycle with respect to the receiving device, and transfers one data block to the receiving device in a last transfer cycle when the odd number flag is set. Thus, also when the data transfer controller which transfers data in a unit of an even number of data blocks is used, not only an even number of data blocks but an odd number of data blocks may be transferred to the receiving device.
US08296470B2
A network device with a triggering element. In a first embodiment where a triggering element is embedded in a network socket, a user is allowed to trigger it to control a processor on the network device to set network parameters. In a second embodiment, the invention can trigger the triggering element to control the processor on the network device. In a third embodiment, the invention sends a triggering signal to the triggering element for controlling electronic elements other than the network device. Therefore, the invention can achieve the effects of network settings of the network device, processor controls, and convenience in controlling other electronic elements.
US08296457B2
Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for providing nearest neighbor point-to-point communications among compute nodes of an operational group in a global combining network of a parallel computer, each compute node connected to each adjacent compute node in the global combining network through a link, that include: identifying each link in the global combining network for each compute node of the operational group; designating one of a plurality of point-to-point class routing identifiers for each link such that no compute node in the operational group is connected to two adjacent compute nodes in the operational group with links designated for the same class routing identifiers; and configuring each compute node of the operational group for point-to-point communications with each adjacent compute node in the global combining network through the link between that compute node and that adjacent compute node using that link's designated class routing identifier.
US08296454B2
The present invention relates to a prediction-based dynamic thread pool management method and an agent platform using the same. An prediction-based dynamic thread pool management method according to the present invention includes: (a) calculating a thread variation to a variation of the number of threads at a time t1, (b) calculating the number of expected threads expected at a time t2 on the basis of the thread variation, (c) determining a change of the thread variation according to the time elapsed, and (d) decreasing an executing frequency of said steps (a) and (b) when it is determined that the change of the thread variation at said step (c) is small and increasing the executing frequency of said steps (a) and (b) when it is determined that the change of the thread variation is large.
US08296452B2
Disclosed is a method and apparatus for checking link layer protocol frames such as Ethernet frames. The method can be implemented on a processor executing software instructions stored in memory. In one embodiment of the invention, the method includes receiving an Ethernet frame, and counting data bytes of the Ethernet frame to generate a total number of counted bytes. The total number of counted bytes can be used to calculate a data length of a datagram of the Ethernet frame. Once calculated, the datagram data length can be compared to a predetermined value. If the datagram length does not fall within an acceptable range of the predetermined value, the Ethernet frame may be dropped so that the Ethernet frame does not reach its final destination.
US08296449B2
Systems and methods are provided for calculating a distribution of a quantity over receiver objects. In one implementation, a data processing system is provided that comprises application programs adapted to generate a distribution request, storage means for storing rules adapted for distribution of the quantity and storing an assignment of a sub-set of the rules to each application program, each rule having an assigned priority of execution and each sub-set of rules having an assigned identifier. The system may also comprise means for receiving the request comprising the identifier of the sub-set of rules assigned to the one of the application programs, the quantity to be distributed, and the identifiers of receiver objects, the distribution calculation means adapted to access the storage means for execution of the sub-set of rules assigned to the one of the application programs.
US08296436B2
This invention relates to a method, a computer program, a computer program product, a system, a sender, a receiver and a session description protocol for transmitting common data from one sender (902) to a plurality of receivers (901) within a transmission session, comprising communicating (802) at least one session parameter, which is related to said transmission of said common data within said transmission session, to said plurality of receivers (901) via a communication protocol; and transmitting said common data from said sender (902) to said plurality of receivers (901) within said transmission session. The invention particularly relates to broadcast/multicast transmission of common data in a wire-bound and/or wireless network, wherein a File Delivery over Unidirectional Transport FLUTE protocol is used.
US08296435B2
A method and system and computer program product implementing same can be used to automatically manage a digital asset, from development to deployment, to control change within a network environment in a comprehensive and efficient manner. Digital assets can be tracked for progress and inaccuracies, mistakes, and incompatibilities can be addressed prior to deployment. Stages can be used to formalize and automate the flow of digital assets along the process. Further, metadata regarding the digital asset can be captured at any time to provide an audit trail for the digital asset from development all the way through deployment. The metadata can include not only the change records for the digital asset but may also include other information, such as results from staging and where the digital asset has been deployed. Any stage may have access to any or all metadata captured for the digital asset.
US08296427B2
A system and method to detect and prevent non-human interaction between a client and a web server invokes an effect to change the event generation behavior at the client. Subsequent event streams from the client to the server are analyzed to determine whether the event streams contain events corresponding to expected reactions of a human operator at the client to the effect. Indications of non-human behavior may invoke more direct human testing, for example using a dynamic CAPTCHA application, or may cause a termination of the client/URL interaction.
US08296422B2
A method and system for providing content data to a user that includes providing a sample that is previewed by the user. The content data includes e-books, albums, games, videos and other electronic data. The user can then decide whether to accept the content based on the sample. If the sample is rejected, the user profile is updated to reflect the rejection. If the sample is accepted, the entire content is provided to the user. The amount of the content viewed or listened to by the user is tracked to determine how much of the content was actually listened to or viewed.
US08296411B2
A request dispatcher can automatically switch between processing request dispatches (e.g., include( )) in a synchronous mode and an asynchronous mode. Each dispatch can be associated with a unique identification value such as a process ID or Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), historic metrics, and a ruleset. With each execution of the request dispatch, historic metrics can be collected. Metrics can include, but is not limited to, execution duration and/or execution frequency, processor load, memory usage, network input/output, number of dependent dispatches, and the like. Utilizing historic metrics, rules can be constructed for determining which mode to execute the subsequent execution of the dispatch. As such, runtime optimization of Web applications can be further improved.
US08296402B2
Determining and downloading portions of a software application in a computer system. The software application may include a plurality of portions. Which of those plurality of portions are currently present on the computer system and which of those plurality of portions are not currently present on the computer system may be determined. The portions of the software application which are not currently present on the computer system may be downloaded to the computer system. The portions of the software application which are currently present on the computer system may not be downloaded to the computer system.
US08296399B2
Application gallery connections to dynamic server-hosted content may be provided. An application may be instantiated on a client device. Upon loading, the application may connect to an available content server and download a content manifest. An application setting, such as a privacy setting or an administrative restriction may prevent connections to the content server; otherwise the application may determine whether the content manifest lists any new content for download. New content may be downloaded and made available to users of the application. The application may also determine whether any previously downloaded content is out of date according to the content manifest and remove unused content.
US08296394B1
A system and method for storing data representing a multidimensional entity using corresponding dimensions for the data, storing a further dimension for the data, the further dimension being a modification timestamp indicating a time when the data was modified, receiving a request for the data representing the multi-dimensional entity, the request including a request timestamp indicating a further time when a previous request for the data representing the multi-dimensional entity was received and transmitting the data only when the modification timestamp is later than the request timestamp.
US08296387B2
A method and apparatus for managing shared data at a portable electronic device of a first entity is provided. A message is received advising that data associated with a second entity is being shared. A request is transmitted to a server for a list of shared folders associated with the second entity, in response to an option to view shared folders associated with the second entity being selected. The list is received. An initialize command is transmitted to the server, the initialize command identifying at least one folder in the list. The data associated with the second entity is received, responsive to the transmitting the initialize command. The data is stored in association with a second entity identifier.
US08296370B2
A system and method routes messages based on an intended recipient's availability to receive messages. Each network user's current status is determined by tracking when the user activates and deactivates an auto-reply feature. The user's current status, return date and alternate contact(s) are specified in the auto-reply and stored and updated on a user status server which periodically communicates to each user the current status information for each contact listed in that user's address book. When the current status information indicates that the intended recipient is unavailable, message routing options are presented to the sender. These options include sending the message to the user regardless of the intended recipient's current unavailability, not sending the message at all, routing the message to at least one specified alternate contact, sending the message to the intended recipient while sending a copy of the message to the alternate contact.
US08296368B2
A method of and a program for providing coherence between instances of data objects residing on distributed nodes of a non-memory-coupled network. To provide a method of and a program for providing coherence in accordance with the features set forth in the opening part of this specification, which allows coherence between, in principle, any data objects or instances of data objects, in that respect is substantially freely scalable and also does not require a central memory or server for the data objects. In accordance with embodiments of the invention, for each instance of a data object that is processed by a node, platform-independent unique metadata are generated and by means of the metadata and a coherence protocol which operates on that metadata, the metadata and thus the data objects are kept coherent.
US08296365B2
The communication system comprises a first access processing, which accesses a server via a network, receives program information files transmitted from said server, and records them on hard disk, a program production and output that outputs on a monitor a program that it produces by information of received program information files and information recorded on, for example, an optical disk, a system for contributed text editing, which edits, as contributed text, messages input through a controller, a second access processing, which accesses the server at least through the network and transmits contributed texts to said server and an image display, which outputs to the monitor the image data drawn to image memory and displays said image on the screen of said monitor.
US08296357B2
Described are methods and systems for remotely providing calls issued to a multimedia plugin. A proxy plugin executing on a server can intercept calls issued by a container application on the server, to a multimedia plugin. The proxy plugin can then transmit the intercepted call to a plugin executing on a client. The multimedia plugin on the client can receive the call issued by container application and responsively generate graphical or multimedia content. Upon generating the multimedia or graphical content, the multimedia plugin can display the generated content within a plugin window on the client. In some instances, the proxy plugin responds to the call issued by the container application rather than forward the call to the multimedia plugin. In those instances, the proxy plugin retrieves content from cache and responds to the container application call with the retrieved content.
US08296346B2
A channel-select decimation filter capable of operating in multiple bandwidth modes includes a first low pass filter stage, a variable gain stage, a subtraction module a second low pass filter stage and a down-sampling module. The first low pass filter stage includes a first programmable delay module for filtering input signals to produce first low pass filtered signals. The variable gain stage applies a programmable gain to the input signals to produce gained input signals. The subtraction module subtracts the first low pass filtered signals from the gain input signals to produce first stage signals. The second low pass filter stage includes a second programmable delay module for filtering the first stage signals to produce channel-selected signals. The first programmable delay module, second programmable delay module and programmable gain are programmed to implement one of the multiple bandwidth modes.
US08296339B2
Incremental optimizations and modifications to a disk image can be made after the initial generation of the disk image. In the case of video games, publishers who have access only to a final game image can use the invention to make small improvements to the game disc image without the original game assets and without incurring the cost of generating an entirely new disc image. A mapping data structure represents physical locations of data on disk. The mapping data structure is modified with an editor, and the resulting modified layout is tested using an emulator that emulates interaction between a computer readable medium with the modified layout and computer hardware.
US08296326B1
An improved graphical user interface (GUI) for accessing an Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) has defined Device Management (DM) state of a mobile device is provided via a technique for transforming an OMA DM hierarchical data structure, such as a tree structure having a number of nodes, into a grid-based user interface element.
US08296323B2
Methods and systems for facilitating the propagation of personal data include a Personal Data Propagation Environment (“PDP environment”) that facilitates the propagation of personal data items between secure personal data stores and various consumers of the personal data items. One PDP environment includes a personal data manager and a personal data subscriber. The personal data manager manages personal data items on a secure data store associated with a user computing device. The personal data manager provides access to personal data items stored on the secure data store in accordance with a personal data subscription associated with the personal data subscriber.
US08296316B2
A new continuous query to a data stream management system (DSMS) may use several operators that are equivalent to operators currently being used by continuous queries that have been previously registered in the DSMS. To determine equivalence of operators, the DSMS checks at least the function and the data input to the operators. On finding equivalence, the DSMS modifies a global plan being executed, to use at least an existing subtree of operators during execution of the new continuous query, to generate a modified plan. The DSMS is also programmed to cause each relation source operator (which outputs a relation) to propagate a current state of the relation to each operator newly coupled to the relational operator. After propagation of current state to newly-coupled operators, each operator in the modified plan processes any new data and supplies the result to all operators coupled thereto, including newly-coupled operators and existing operators.
US08296313B2
A method for controlling a relational database system, with a query statement comprised of keywords being analyzed, with the RTN being formed of independent RTN building blocks. Each RTN building block has an inner, directed decision graph which is defined independently from the inner, directed decision graphs of the other RTN building blocks with at least one decision position along at least one decision path. The inner decision graphs of all RTN building blocks are run by means of the keywords in a selection step and all possible paths of this decision graph are followed until either no match with the respectively selected path is determined by the decision graph and the process is interrupted, or the respectively chosen path is run until the end.
US08296311B2
A search middleware may be used to receive search requests regarding a software incident associated with a software application. The search requests may be populated with attribute values determined based on context data associated with the software application and collected in association with the software incident. The search requests may be dispatched to a subset of a plurality of solution repositories, even if the solution repositories have different interfaces and/or search technologies. The resulting solution documents retrieved from the solution repositories may be compiled for presentation on a solution search interface.
US08296310B1
Unified management of time related information presents a user with a single interface by which the data in different ERP systems can be browsed and modified. Each of the ERP systems can contain data specific to a data group such as the address data group in a human resources ERP system, sales data in a sales ERP system, and project data in a project planning ERP system. A view management module obtains records from the ERP systems. The view manager also obtains journaling information that can be kept in the ERP systems or kept separately. The view manager creates a history view and data group views that can be presented to a user. The user interacts with the presentation to sort, browse, analyze, and edit the view and data. Data changed in a data group view can be forwarded to produce changes in the ERP and journaling systems.
US08296306B1
The present invention relates to an algorithm that retrieves only k data elements having the largest (or smallest) key values from a dataset (i.e., top-k results) in a time linearly proportional to the size of the dataset. The proposed method using the algorithm finds the top-k results using a k-sized min (or max) heap structure that maintains candidate elements of the top-k results by scanning all data elements in the dataset only once. In other words, the present invention provides a linear-time top-k sort method that finds top-k results in a time linearly proportional to the size of the dataset (i.e., O(n) time complexity), while conventional sort algorithms for finding top-k results cannot find the top-k results in a time linearly proportional to the size of the dataset (i.e., at least O(n log n) time complexity).
US08296304B2
Disclosed is a method, system, and program for handling redirects in documents. At least one equivalence class that includes documents that are connected through a redirect. Cycles for each equivalence class are detected, wherein documents in a cycle are marked so that they are not indexed. Incomplete chains for each equivalence class are detected, wherein documents in an incomplete chain are marked so that they are not indexed. A representative for each equivalence class is selected.
US08296298B1
A performance facilitation and tracking system includes a server configured with an interface module having a plurality of submodules for a plurality of user types and a database module having cross-linked databases of entities requesting performance, entities performing and entities benefiting from performance, and cross-linked databases of incidents related to performance.
US08296294B2
A user-interface system and method for searching among multiple documents and searching for subsections within individual documents using a single search interface on an input-constrained user device having a screen and a keypad.
US08296288B2
A computer-implemented method for processing user entered query data to improve results of a search of pages using a database, when searching the internet, is disclosed. The method includes receiving the user entered query data and parsing each word of the query data and segmenting words using probability to determine a likelihood that the word is for a particular name. And, associating the particular names with a name tag to create one or more tagged name terms. Then, normalizing each of the tagged name terms and the normalizing including boosting information if found in the database and determining proximity between selected ones of the tagged name terms. The method then generates an optimized search query that incorporates normalized terms and operators. The optimized search query being applied to the internet to enable search results to be produced and displayed to the user in response to the entered query data.
US08296282B2
In order to facilitate creation of a community without member-specific registration, one or more sibling identifiers with corresponding units to be distributed to other persons are allocated to a subscriber and the one or more sibling identifiers is associated with the subscriber's identifier. The subscriber may then give a unit to his/her friend and when the friend uses the unit, or more precisely a sibling identifier the unit relates to, the system will recognize that the subscriber and the friend belong to the same community on the basis of the association formed when sibling identifiers were allocated.
US08296278B2
Product issues are identified through an analysis of forum data stored in a forum database. Forum threads are identified within the forum data and clustered together by grouping related forum threads. Once the forum threads have been clustered, the clustered forum threads can be analyzed to identify product issues. Once the product issues have been identified, steps may be taken in an attempt to resolve the identified issues.
US08296277B2
A method and apparatus to automatically receive and/or transmit contents in which desired contents are automatically downloaded and streamed by using a rich site summary (RSS) function. The method includes receiving sample contents corresponding to previously set search conditions by connecting to a content server that has been previously linked with the content player when a web network is connected; notifying that the contents are updated when the sample contents are completely received; and receiving original contents corresponding to the sample contents in accordance with the selection of a user when the contents are completely updated.
US08296276B2
Methods and systems provide a tool for prioritizing the ordering of outstanding indexing work in order to bring a particular portion of an indexing source up to date quickly and to reduce the likelihood of inconsistencies between an index-backed view and a direct view of a source. In accordance with the described embodiments, indexing of items can be prioritized based upon a user's view or metadata contained within a query. Further, in at least some embodiments, the tool can decide the order to index items based upon multiple prioritization requests.
US08296272B2
An information processing apparatus which may include basic-file management means for managing a file stored in a storage medium by utilizing basic-file management information stored in the same storage medium, specific-file management means for managing a specific type file in files which are adapted to share predetermined management-use information items out of management-use information items set to each file owned by the basic-file management means, and which are managed by the basic-file management means by utilizing specific-file management information stored in the storage medium, comparing means for comparing, when performing an index display in which the specific type file to be stored in the storage medium is displayed in an index style, a content of the management-use information item, about the specific type file to be displayed in the index display, shared by the basic-file management information and the specific-file management information, and display controlling means for executing the index display such that a comparison result by the comparing means is reflected.
US08296266B2
A system and method to integrate a service in a calendar application. A service integration module and a calendar application may be installed on a client computing device. The service integration module may have read and write access to the calendar application of the client computing device and may submit a service request to a remote service. The service request may be a call of a first web service interface of the service and may initiate the execution of the service which may generate a result. The service integration module may receive the result. The service integration module may process the result, which may include extracting data required for specifying an event in an electronic calendar of the calendar application. The service integration module may create, delete, or modify an event in the electronic calendar of the calendar application.
US08296261B2
A file synchronization system that includes a non-volatile memory for storing at least one bookmark respective to a file; a telecommunication mechanism for receiving a new bookmark value respective to this file; and a controller operative to update the respective bookmark according to the new bookmark value; and to control presentation of the file in accordance with the updated bookmark value. A plurality of bookmarks that associate to a single file are stored in the file synchronization system, each such bookmark respective to a different user.
US08296260B2
A system and method for managing data deduplication of a storage system utilizing persistent consistency point images (PCPIs). Once a target PCPI of a data transfer is generated, a backup management module of the storage system alerts a data deduplication module to begin deduplication of the data contained within the target PCPI. Once the deduplication procedure has been completed, the active file system of the storage system has been deduplicated, however, the target PCPI remains un-deduplicated. In response, the backup management module generates and exports a revised target PCPI. The previous target PCPI may then be deleted, thereby transitioning the exported PCPI's image of the state of the file system to a deduplicated state.
US08296256B2
Clock gating circuit is determined by transforming a clock gating opportunity function to a non-Boolean function and constraining inputs of the non-Boolean function. The non-Boolean function may be a ternary function. Constraining the inputs may be achieved by introducing control variables and a cardinality constraint associated with their values. The non-Boolean function may be utilized to approximate universal quantification of an input assigned with a non-Boolean value, such as “don't care” value. The non-Boolean function may be utilized to provide an ALL SAT solution of a Boolean function using a SAT solver.
US08296253B2
A historical popularity value is determined for a user-selectable online content from historical data describing user accesses to the user-selectable online content over a selected period. A predicted popularity value describing future popularity of the user-selectable online content at a future time after the selected period is ascertained from the historically popularity value. A web site from which user-selectable online content is accessible is managed based on the predicted popularity value.
US08296250B2
A system and method for protecting identity fraud are disclosed. A system includes a detection subsystem to identify applications and/or accounts at risk of identity fraud, and a disposition subsystem to process data provided by the detection system and to determine whether identity fraud exists in the applications and/or accounts. According to an implementation, one or more neural network models are defined, each neural network model being configured to handle a class of cases related to the subject and a specific data configuration describing a case of the class. The one or more neural network models are run to generate data requests about the subject's identity, and the data requests are passed to a detection system that monitor transactions associated with the subject. Additional data associated with the transactions is requested until a threshold certainty is achieved or until available data or models are exhausted.
US08296245B2
A method and system for providing an online reputation of a client participating in one or more online forums. The method includes providing a unique client identifier associated with the client. In addition, a plurality of forum identifiers is provided for a plurality of online forums within which the client is participating, wherein each online forum is associated with a corresponding user profile. A plurality of unique verification codes is provided that is based on the plurality of forum identifiers and the client identifier. A plurality of verification sequences is provided for purposes of verifying a plurality of user profiles of the client associated with the plurality of online forums, wherein each of the plurality of verification sequences includes a corresponding verification code. Verification of a plurality of credentials associated with the plurality of user profiles is performed. A request is received that includes a corresponding verification sequence from a verifying entity for an online reputation of the client. The request is made in association with a first online forum within which the client is participating. A verified credential of a user profile that is associated with a second online forum is provided without revealing a user identity of the client that is associated with the second online forum.
US08296242B1
A method for validating and securing transactions involving multiple agents separated by physical space or scheduling constraints is presented. In the invention messages (informational tokens) are communicated at key junctures during a transaction (a transfer of goods or provision of services) to provide confirmation of the transaction to parties that are not present during the transaction. The transfer of informational tokens may occur by attachment to products or service related packages, through telephone, Internet or other inter-party communications channels.
US08296240B2
A dongle for digital rights management protection, in accordance with one embodiment of the present technology, includes a digital right management engine and an encryption/decryption engine. The digital rights management engine is adapted to port digital rights management rules of a source of content to digital rights management rules enforced by the digital rights management engine. The encryption/decryption engine is adapted to re-encrypting the source of content into a managed copy of the content, wherein the managed copy of the content is locked to the dongle.
US08296239B2
A data distribution system and method suitably performing various processing such as suitable distribution of data, control of copying, conversion of signals, charging, and distribution of profits, comprising a reproducing apparatus for reproducing content data to be distributed from a mounted recording medium, a recording apparatus for recording reproduced content data on a mounted recording medium, an examining means for examining types of content data recorded on the recording medium, the recording medium mounted in the reproducing apparatus, the reproducing apparatus, a recording medium mounted in the recording apparatus and the recording apparatus, and a controlling means for controlling a transfer of the content data from the recording medium mounted in the reproducing apparatus to the recording medium mounted in the recording apparatus based on results of the examination.
US08296234B2
The present invention relates to a method of and system for managing financial liability in a telecommunications network wherein a service requester (1) receives post paid services provided by a service provider (2) and wherein financial liability of said service requester for payment of said services is certified by a liability provider (3). At least one liability token data signal is received by said service provider via said telecommunications network (8), which at least one liability token data signal is issued e by said liability provider. Said liability token data signal comprises time dependent validity data for said liability token data signal and data regarding an amount for which said service requester is liable. The invention is also related to a liability server for use in a method and system according to the invention.
US08296219B2
A transaction management device can executed, with a simple procedure, a plurality of if-done orders in parallel and can reduce the risk of the client. In the transaction management device, an order receiving unit receives buy and sell order application information from client terminals. An order information generation unit generates a plurality of order information groups for each of the items of the buy and sell order application information received by the order receiving unit, the order information groups each including: a first order for placing one of a buy order or a sell order at a first order price; a second order for placing the other one of the buy or the sell order at a second order price; and a stop order for placing the other one of the buy order or the sell order at the stop order price. The first order price, the second order price, and the stop order price are set to different values for each of the order information groups. A storage unit stores the order information groups generated in the order information generation unit. An execution information generation unit, when starting transaction processing corresponding to each of the order information groups, sets the first order to be valid, the second order to be invalid, and the stop order to be invalid.
US08296213B2
Commercial size of spending wallet (“CSoSW”) is the total business spend of a business including cash but excluding bartered items. Commercial share of wallet (“CSoW”) is the portion of the spending wallet that is captured by a particular financial company. A modeling approach utilizes various data sources to provide outputs that describe a company's spend capacity. A mutual fund rating company can use this CSoW/CSoSW modeling approach to predict the performance of funds that invest in a particular industry or sector. In addition, since mutual funds often provide guidelines for selecting stocks, rating companies can use this modeling approach to predict the performance of companies in a fund's portfolio.
US08296211B2
A process for the analysis and selection of financial investments based on a comparative analysis of performance and diversification. Large data sets can be manipulated in a manner that is simple to understand and convenient to use. Historical performance data for investments can be analyzed in respect of every possible investment period using any pre-existing or personally defined quantitative measurement algorithm. The user can apply his or her personal weightings to the various performance measurements based on a combination of attribute and time period to construct a customized scoring process, based on which a comparative ranking of the investments can be created. Further, a complete universe of investments can be segmented into peer groups based on one of a number of similarity/dissimilarity criteria from which the user may choose.
US08296204B2
A system and method for verifying a financial instrument or a user's authorization to use a financial instrument. The system initiates one or more verifying transactions involving the instrument, with details that may vary from one transaction to another, such as the type of transaction (e.g., deposit, credit, debit), amount of the transaction, number of transactions, the merchant or vendor name or account for the transaction, and so on. Selected details, particularly variable ones are saved in the system. The user accesses information regarding the transaction, by accessing it on-line, via telephone, in a monthly statement, etc. The user then submits the requested details to the system, which compares them to the stored details. If they correspond, then the user may be allowed to use the instrument (e.g., for a purchase, a fund transfer).
US08296201B2
A non-internet accessible, lightweight, compact expenditure recording electronic device comprising a housing having a front face and an opposing rear face, a processor located within the housing for processing data associated with a single financial account, a memory for storing data associated with the single financial account with the memory in electronic communication with the processor, a screen attached to the housing at the front face with the screen coupled to be operable by the processor to display data of the single financial account to a user of the device, a plurality of input keys disposed on the front face of the housing for inputting data to the memory and track changes to the data for the single financial account, and a communication port disposed on the housing and configured to connect to the memory.
US08296196B2
A method for browsing in a virtual environment includes generating a plurality of tag data collections from multiple tag data sources. A plurality of virtual online browsing modes are presented using a computer having data storage. A browsing mode is selected by a user, wherein the browsing mode specified includes tag data and preference data. The tag data collection is analyzed for tag data associated with the browsing mode data. At least one specified tag collection from the plurality of tag collections is generated using the selected browsing mode. Associated tag data is determined from the specified tag collection and a user's tag data. A tag data group is generated from the tag data collection analysis using the tag sets, and a three-dimensional virtual environment is generated and presented on the computer using the tag data group, which may present the user with a plurality of goods and/or services.
US08296190B1
Embodiments of the invention are directed toward a content marketplace where digital content can be offered for use by licensees in exchange for a license from a licensor. In some embodiments the content marketplace can provide this licensing forum without hosting the digital content. Instead, the content market place can provide links to the digital content at a digital content host (e.g. third party website). For instance, the content marketplace can embed the digital content into the content market place by embedding an Internet address that points to the digital content at the digital content host. In some embodiments the content marketplace can also provide, among other things, searchable index of digital content available for license, license attributes for license agreements, descriptions of the digital content, and/or standard licenses that can be agreed upon.
US08296187B2
A system and method for storage and retrieval of information subject to authorization by a data controller that allows information for purchasing and other information exchange to occur only for authorized parties. A data subject place information abbot the data subject into a data repository controlled by a data controller. The data controller authorizes a data recipient to obtain that data subject data when authorized by a data subject. Such transactions as purchases of goods and services and applying for college admission are the types of transactions contemplated. The data repository places client software on the computer of the data recipient thereby signifying that the data recipient is authorized. Thereafter, the data recipient can receive information about the data subject when the data subject accepts and offer from the data recipient.
US08296185B2
A method for information delivery is disclosed. The method includes directing the display of a multimedia presentation in a first screen segment. The multimedia presentation is associated with a reference tag descriptive of an aspect thereof. An information link corresponding to the reference tag in a second screen segment is generated. The information link is contextually related to the multimedia presentation in accordance with the reference tag. Thereafter, a selection input of the information link is received from one of the viewers while mitigating obstruction of the displaying of the multimedia presentation. The selected information link and the identity of the viewer are associated as a marker.
US08296182B2
Computer-implemented systems and methods are provided for determining an action item from a global set of action items for a plurality of customers based on an objective function, a plurality of individual constraints, and a plurality of aggregate constraints. A plurality of offer sets is generated for each customer. An approximate highest reduced adjusted objective for each of the offer sets for each customer is calculated, and the customers are bucketed based on the highest adjusted objective value associated with each customer. The buckets are collapsed into a single bucket record containing a plurality of aggregate offer set columns, and an aggregate offer set column is selected from each bucket record for each bucket. Each bucket associated with a selected offer set is disaggregated, and the action item included in the selected offer set is stored in a computer-readable memory.
US08296175B2
A comparison method and system including retrieving by a computer, first data associated with first interactions between users associated with social networks. The computing system generates a first graph illustrating the first interactions. The computing system identifies targeted users associated with a marketing plan for the users. The computing system enables the marketing plan and retrieves second data associated with second interactions between the users. The computing system generates a second graph illustrating the second interactions, compares the second graph to the first graph, and generates a third graph illustrating first order differences between the first interactions and the second interactions.
US08296169B2
Computer method and apparatus managing engineering product revisions. A repository holds one or more assets. For each asset, the repository holds respective revisions of the asset. A revision manager tracks changes of state of assets of the repository. Each change of state of a given asset results in a respective revision of the given asset. The revision manager provides a project view illustrating changes of state of assets and including performance indicators corresponding to respective changes of state of assets held in the repository. The performance indicators may be color coded and may be based on a changeable metric. The revision manager provides in the project view an indication of each change in metric. Plural performance indicators for a set of assets may be presented in the project view as a graphical series.
US08296162B1
Certain exemplary embodiments can comprise a method that can comprise, for a predetermined user, automatically determining a score for each resource from a plurality of predetermined resources based on the user's weighting of predetermined factors associated with the resources and an objective score for each factor for each resource, ranking the scored resources, and/or providing an identity of a best matched resource for the user.
US08296161B2
In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for wealth management. These mechanisms and methods for wealth management can enable embodiments to provide a multi-tenant database that stores information about clients of the tenants. In a multi-tenant database, a system for managing financial accounts is established, which may be useful for a tenant that is a financial analyst or that employs financial analysts. The multi-tenant database may include a calendar application that automatically includes the team members associated with the event being scheduled in a list of invitees, and the multi-tenant database may also includes relationship groups, such that information about related individuals (whom may have separate accounts) are automatically associated with one another. The ability of embodiments that provide relationship groups and teams can enable efficiently gathering information about related parties and efficiently inviting that interested parties to an event.
US08296154B2
A sound processor including a microphone (1), a pre-amplifier (2), a bank of N parallel filters (3), means for detecting short-duration transitions in the envelope signal of each filter channel, and means for applying gain to the outputs of these filter channels in which the gain is related to a function of the second-order derivative of the slow-varying envelope signal in each filter channel, to assist in perception of low-intensity sort-duration speech features in said signal.
US08296150B2
A system and method for communicating one or more audio files through a network. One or more original files of an original web site are converted into one or more audio files. An indication is provided to a user that the one or more original files are available as the one or more audio files in response to the user navigating the one or more original files. The one or more audio files are delivered to a computing device of the user through the network in response to a request to access the one or more audio files.
US08296142B2
Methods, systems, and apparatuses, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for performing speech recognition using dock context. In one aspect, a method includes accessing audio data that includes encoded speech. Information that indicates a docking context of a client device is accessed, the docking context being associated with the audio data. A plurality of language models is identified. At least one of the plurality of language models is selected based on the docking context. Speech recognition is performed on the audio data using the selected language model to identify a transcription for a portion of the audio data.
US08296136B2
A system improves the speech intelligibility and the speech quality of a speech segment. The system includes a dynamic controller that detects a background noise from an input by modeling a signal. A variable gain amplifier adjusts the variable gain of the amplifier in response to an output of dynamic controller. A shaping filter adjusts a speech signal by tilting portions of the speech signal of the dynamic controller.
US08296134B2
A spectrum modifying method and the like wherein the efficiencies of the signal estimation and prediction can be improved and the spectrum can be more efficiently encoded. According to this method, the pitch period is calculated from an original signal, which serves as a reference signal, and then a basic pitch frequency (f0) is calculated. Thereafter, the spectrum of a target signal, which is a target of spectrum modification, is divided into a plurality of partitions. It is specified here that the width of each partition be the basic pitch frequency. Then, the spectra of bands are interleaved such that a plurality of peaks having similar amplitudes are unified into a group. The basic pitch frequency is used as an interleave pitch.
US08296122B2
An external connection interface emulation method and apparatus of a mobile terminal for exploiting the mobile terminal as a network adaptor of another terminal are provided. The external connection interface emulation apparatus includes a network modem for supporting communication through the mobile communication system; and a controller, which configures the network modem for operating the mobile terminal as an external network adaptor of another terminal or a communication device as it is, according to an input signal. The external connection interface emulation apparatus and method establish a communication link between a WiBro modem and a USB port at the software level making it possible to use the mobile phone as an external modem regardless of whether the WiBro modem and the USB port are compatible or not.
US08296108B2
A time series data analyzer includes a segment condition input section, an analysis condition input section, and an optimum condition deriving section for analyzing all segments based on the segment conditions and analysis conditions inputted in the respective input sections, under all analysis conditions by a maximum entropy method and a nonlinear least squares method. The time series data analyzer derives the optimum segment length and the optimum lag value in correspondence to selected results, and an analysis execution section executes analysis by the maximum entropy method by setting the optimum analysis conditions derived as described above. The trending of the spectrum of electroencephalogram data is used as an indicator of the state of the subject based on the findings that the spectrum of electroencephalogram data is an exponential spectrum and the gradient changes depending on the state of the subject.
US08296104B2
An infrastructure is provided for gathering diagnostic data that is relevant to an error or other conditions detected in a monitored system. A diagnosability framework is provided that automates the gathering of relevant diagnostic data upon occurrence of the condition in the monitored system. In one embodiment, context data is determined for the condition detected in the monitored system. A rule-based engine is provided that is configured to automatically determine one or more actions to be performed for the condition detected in the monitored system based on the determined context data. The actions may include performing tasks that gather diagnostic data that is relevant to the detected condition, store the gathered diagnostic data in a repository, recommend one or more diagnostic actions to a user, and other diagnostic related actions.
US08296103B2
A noise and vibration diagnosis device and control method thereof may include a measuring sensor configured to be attached at a predetermined position of a vehicle to measure noise and vibration thereof, a signal input portion to which the noise and vibration signal that is generated from the measuring sensor is inputted, and a control portion configured to receive the signal that is transferred from the signal input portion and compare it with a predetermined reference value to output a replacement signal by which it is determined whether the component on which the measuring device is attached is to be replaced or not in accordance with the comparison result.
US08296102B2
A system and method for testing derating performance of a component obtains a component list, a pin list, and a standard derating list of the electronic device from a storage. The system and method further receives parameters of each component, the parameters of each component comprising voltages of two pins of the component and a working temperature of the component, calculates a working voltage and a derating ratio of the component according to the parameters. The system and method also analyzes the working voltage and the derating ratio of the component to get analysis result, generates a test report comprising the derating ratio, the working temperature, the analysis results of each component in the component list, and storing the test report in the storage.
US08296099B2
A vehicle tilt detecting apparatus includes a load sensor provided for detecting a load acts on a supporting portion, a load detecting portion detecting a partial load value of the load placed on the seat on the basis of an output from the load sensor and outputting a detected load value, first interrelating portion indicates a relation between a detected load value of no-load and a front-rear tilt angle of the vehicle, unoccupied seat determining portion determining an unoccupied state, where no-load is placed on the seat, when the detected load value outputted from the load detecting portion is less than an unoccupied seat determining value and front-rear tilt angle calculating portion calculating the front-rear tilt angle corresponding to the detected load value outputted from the load detecting portion, on the basis of the first interrelating portion, when the unoccupied seat determining portion determines the unoccupied state.
US08296097B2
An unmoldability determination apparatus includes: a normal line calculation unit that calculates a normal line extending from a point on the surfaces of a three-dimensional shape of a molded product; an opposite direction component determination unit that determines whether the normal line calculated on each surface has a directional component opposite to a mold release direction of a mold of the molded product; a reach determination unit that determines whether there is another surface on the molded product which either a line extending from a projection surface in the mold release direction or a line opposite to the mold release direction reaches; and an unmoldability determination unit that, when there is another surface which both lines extending from the projection surface reach, determines the projection surface to be unreleasable from the mold by moving the mold in the mold release direction, thus determining the projection surface to be unmoldable.
US08296086B2
A new measurement system, with two receiver channels per measurement port, has been developed that provides absolute magnitude and absolute phase relationship measurements over wide bandwidths. Gain ranging is used at RF to provide optimum noise performance and a swept YIG preselector filter is used to avoid spurious signals. A new absolute vector error correction method is used to calibrate the measurement system in order to allow for absolute vector measurements, and it also removes the time-varying responses caused by the swept YIG preselector filters. A quasi-reciprocal mixer with a characterized non-reciprocal ratio is used to provide the absolute calibration standard. The two receiver channels can be adapted to a wide variety of applications, including wide bandwidth vector signal analyzer measurements, mixer measurements, and harmonic measurements. The two-channels can also be used as an absolute calibrated transmitter/reflectometer.
US08296081B2
The present invention provides a method for obtaining material information regarding steel sheet for shipping over the entire length of the steel sheet for shipping without spending too much time and effort, providing detailed material information in large volumes to a user through a computer and network, and having the user utilize the same. Specifically, it estimates the mechanical properties of temper rolled steel sheet based on the actual rolling data in a skinpass mill installed at the exit side of the continuous annealing line or galvanization facility and provides the estimated mechanical properties through the host computer and network to the user of the steel sheet. The user can use the estimated material information so as to remove the parts defective in mechanical properties or change the press forming conditions of the steel sheet. Further, the user can feed back information to the steel sheet manufacturer.
US08296080B2
A method of determining at least one parameter representative of at least one interaction along a longitudinal direction between a tyre and the ground, includes identifying a first parameter representative of a radial deformation of the tyre; determining a first and a second value of the first parameter in respective neighbourhoods of a first and a second longitudinal end of a footprint area defined between the tyre and ground; calculating a linear combination of the values thereby obtaining a second parameter; determining a third parameter representative of an angular velocity of the tyre; calculating a ratio between the second and third parameters; and calculating a main parameter, starting from the ratio, according to an algorithm, which main parameter is representative of a longitudinal interaction between the tyre and the ground.
US08296079B2
Method for the humanization of the VH and VL variable regions of an animal antibody of known sequence, humanized animal antibody obtainable according to the method, in particular anti-NGF and anti-TrkA humanized animal antibodies.
US08296077B2
Systems and methods for a handheld food additive detector are described. In one aspect, the food additive detector includes a test strip treated with or comprising chemical(s) reactive to at least one target characteristic (e.g., additive(s), compound(s) created as a result of stale/old food, etc.). Responsive to a food sample being placed on the strip, a sensor operatively coupled to the handheld device measures one or more of the strip characteristics (e.g., color, contrast, etc.) resulting from placement of the sample on the strip. The device analyzes the sensor measurement value(s) to determine presence, quantity, concentration, percentage, relative amount, and/or so on, of the target food additive(s), or other characteristics of the food that pertain, for example, to freshness or staleness. Results of the analysis are presented to a user.
US08296076B2
Disclosed is a method to achieve digital quantification of DNA (i.e., counting differences between identical sequences) using direct shotgun sequencing followed by mapping to the chromosome of origin and enumeration of fragments per chromosome. The preferred method uses massively parallel sequencing, which can produce tens of millions of short sequence tags in a single run and enabling a sampling that can be statistically evaluated. By counting the number of sequence tags mapped to a predefined window in each chromosome, the over- or under-representation of any chromosome in maternal plasma DNA contributed by an aneuploid fetus can be detected. This method does not require the differentiation of fetal versus maternal DNA. The median count of autosomal values is used as a normalization constant to account for differences in total number of sequence tags is used for comparison between samples and between chromosomes.
US08296063B1
Systems and methods for collecting and recording video data and inertial motion unit (IMU) data associated with the video data representative of a path of traversal, transmitting the video data and IMU data associated with the video data to a rescue device that includes a display, and subsequently replaying the video data on the display of the rescue device along with viewable indicia, based on the IMU data associated with the video data, that is indicative of the motion of a user when the video data was collected and recorded.
US08296062B2
There is provided a method for displaying traffic information, a navigation system, and a program for displaying the traffic information. A data processing unit receives a specified time 1203, which is a future or current time, through an operation input unit, specifies an area of a map to be displayed, and then obtains map data of the specified area from a map data storage unit. The data processing unit obtains traffic information 1201 of the specified time from a traffic information storage unit, and then makes the display unit show links in association with the traffic information 1201. It is, therefore, possible to display the traffic information of an arrival time at each point on a route in a user-friendly manner.
US08296056B2
A method of generating an image of a volume ahead of an aerial vehicle is provided. The method comprises determining a position of the aerial vehicle and generating a terrain image corresponding to ground features correlated to the position of the aerial vehicle. Obstacle data pertaining to a set of obstacles ahead of the aerial vehicle is determined with a forward looking sensor. An obstacle overlay image is generated and overlain onto the terrain image to generate a composite image.
US08296049B2
In a vehicle control device capable of sufficiently exhibiting the effect of vehicle control, a selection section selects a value greater than an intermediate value of a vehicle weight in a range restricted by a range restriction unit as the value of the vehicle weight and selects a value greater than an intermediate value of the height of the center of gravity in the range as the value of the height of the center of gravity. For stability, the greater the height of the center of gravity of the vehicle is, the stricter the conditions that are imposed. For fuel consumption, the greater the vehicle weight is, the stricter the conditions that are imposed. The selection section selects the values which become conditions stricter than at least an intermediate value in the range restricted by the range restriction section, and the range restriction section restricts the range.
US08296048B2
A vehicle information system operating method performs operations comprising determining an operational period, determining a movement period, determining a modification factor, determining a fuel economy value and determining an adjusted fuel economy value. The determining of the operational period determines the operational period during which a vehicle is running. The determining of the movement period determines the movement period during which the vehicle is in motion. The determining of the modification factor determines the modification factor based on respective durations of the operational period and the movement period. The determining of the fuel economy value determines the fuel economy value associated with the operational period. The determining of the adjusted fuel economy value determines the adjusted fuel economy value based on the fuel economy value and the modification factor.
US08296047B2
Provided is an apparatus and the like for improving the communication efficiency of travel information and the like by taking account of the degree of necessity of collecting the travel information of a vehicle in view of an operating state or attribute of the vehicle. A traffic information processing apparatus (10) mounted in the vehicle (1) determines the travel information thereof and transmits the travel information intermittently to a traffic information management server (20). A transmission interval (T) for transmitting the travel information is set according to a velocity (V) indicating the operating state of the vehicle (1) and a rule designated by the traffic information management server (20).
US08296045B2
The present invention provides a traffic information processing apparatus and method, the apparatus comprises a format unifying device which unifies input traffic information with different formats to traffic information with unified format; and a traffic information integrating device which corrects and/or complements the traffic information with unified format based on a knowledge base to obtain traffic information which is consistent with each other, so as to integrate the traffic information, wherein the knowledge base is external to the apparatus or internal to the apparatus. The traffic information processing apparatus and method according to the present invention can process traffic information with spatial inconsistence, temporal inconsistence and semantic inconsistence so as to integrate effectively the traffic information from a variety of heterogeneous information sources and ensure the accuracy, completeness and reliability of traffic data.
US08296041B2
A vehicle control apparatus is provided which is operative in an automatic engine stop mode to stop an engine automatically and in an engine restart mode to restart the engine automatically after the engine is stopped in the automatic engine stop mode so as to output a predetermined reference engine torque immediately after the engine is started. The vehicle control apparatus works to determine the travel performance of the vehicle required immediately after the engine has been restarted in the engine restart mode and control the torque outputted by the engine based on the determined travel performance so as to ensure the drivability of the vehicle after the engine is restarted automatically.
US08296040B2
In a method for controlling an internal combustion engine with direct fuel injection, an injection parameter is determined in dependence on a temperature of the internal combustion engine. The method is characterized in that a first value of the internal combustion engine temperature is determined which, in the event of changes in the operating point of the internal combustion engine, changes comparatively quickly to a value which is characteristic of the new operating point. A second value of the internal combustion engine temperature is formed which, in the event of changes in the operating point, changes comparatively slowly, and in that the injection parameter is defined in dependence on the first value and the second value.
US08296032B2
A hybrid vehicle and method of control. The method includes determining an engine torque command based on a request for vehicle acceleration or deceleration, a target power level of the secondary power source, and a current engine power command, determining an engine speed command based on the target power level of the secondary power source, a total engine power command, and vehicle speed, and operating the engine based on the engine torque and engine speed commands.
US08296028B2
If the a rotational speed difference (Ne−Nt) between an engine speed (Ne) and a turbine speed (Nt) when it is determined that a lock-up ON condition (OFF→ON) is satisfied is large, the lock-up clutch is not engaged but torque reduction control is executed to reduce the engine speed (Ne), thus reducing the rotational speed difference (Ne−Nt) (steps ST13 and ST14). Then, once the rotational speed difference (Ne−Nt) has been reduced to the target rotational speed difference (Nslp), the lock-up clutch is engaged (steps ST15 and ST16). In this manner, excessive heating of the friction material of the lock-up clutch is suppressed which increases the longevity of the friction material.
US08296021B2
A hybrid transmission includes torque machines and an energy storage device connected thereto. Thee hybrid transmission is operative to transfer power between an input member and an output member and the torque machines. A method for controlling the hybrid transmission includes monitoring operating parameters of the hybrid transmission, monitoring an operator demand for power, determining an output torque range to the output member based upon states of the operating parameters of the hybrid transmission, constraining the output torque range to the output member based upon the operator demand for power, and determining input torque constraints to the input member based upon the constrained output torque range to the output member.
US08296013B2
The method and system evaluate driving conditions of a vehicle whereby drivability of the vehicle can be evaluated accurately and objectively. To evaluate drivability of the vehicle under different driving conditions, a plural pieces of driving load information including biological information on a driver and movement information of the vehicle being driven are measured. Then, a group of weighting coefficients as many as or fewer than pieces of the driving load information is selected from groups of weighting coefficients that are set according to representative values of the driving load information in order to use a weighted linear sum of the representative values of the driving load information as an index of an integrated evaluation of the drivability of the vehicle. Subsequently, a weighted linear sum is obtained using the selected group of weighting coefficients and used to perform the integrated evaluation of the drivability under various driving conditions.
US08296001B1
A marine electronic device such as a chartplotter which includes a display; a location determining component; and a processing system for receiving location data from the location determining component and for causing information to be displayed by display. The processing system causes the display to display information which assists an operator in navigating and ascertaining characteristics of bodies of water, objects on nearby shores, and other vessels.
US08295994B2
A vehicle, vehicle control apparatus and method of a telematics terminal are disclosed to allow a user to quickly determine and cope with a vehicle event. The vehicle control method includes: when an event informing about a vehicle event occurs, transmitting notification information corresponding to the event and/or control information previously determined for processing the event to a mobile communication terminal via a wireless communication network; and when user request information with respect to the control information is received from the mobile communication terminal, controlling a vehicle according to the received user request information.
US08295979B2
A method for scheduling mowing tasks by a robotic mower is provided. An estimated height of grass cut by the robotic mower is determined for a predetermined number of past mowing tasks. The estimated height of grass cut is compared with a predicted height of grass in an operating environment for the robotic mower. Then, a mowing schedule for the robotic mower is adjusted by decreasing a time between mowing tasks in response to the estimated height of grass cut being greater than the predicted height of grass. Alternatively, the mowing schedule for the robotic mower is adjusted by increasing the time between mowing tasks in response to the estimated height of grass cut being less than the predicted height of grass.
US08295975B2
An object picking device, which is inexpensive and capable of speedily and accurately picking one object at a time from a random pile state. A target detecting part of an image processing part processes an image captured by a camera and detects objects. A target selecting part selects an object among the detected objects based on a certain rule. A view line direction calculating part calculates the direction of a view line extending to the selected object. A target position estimating part estimates the position including the height of the selected object based on size information of the object in the image. Then, a grip correction calculating part calculates an amount of correction of the movement of a robot so as to grip the object by using the robot.
US08295970B2
Customers obtain customized textile materials by selecting style, shape, size, pattern and color for an undyed textile product. Based on a selection made by the customer, the textile product is transformed by a dyeing operation performed on a single item (or multiple items selected to be dyed the same) to yield a product, such as a shirt, pants, or jacket, which has a color and pattern of his or her own choosing, in the size and style he or she desires. The process can be performed in a retail setting using a dye apparatus which allows the process to be viewed by the customer. To enhance the educational and entertainment experience of the customer, the dyeing operation can be performed in a transparent tank or water kettle in the retail outlet so that the customer can view, for example, the garment as it is being dyed to the customer's specifications.
US08295959B2
There is provided in a substantially rectangular sound-recording apparatus including: two first audio acquirers to which audio is stereophonically inputted; a second audio acquirer to which audio is monophonically inputted; and a supporter for holding the sound-recording apparatus in a predetermined attitude, in which the first and second audio acquirers are placed on different surfaces, and the two first audio acquirers are placed at both ends of a longer side of the main body, a sound-recording apparatus including an opening and closing sensor for sensing an opened and closed state of the supporter, and an attitude sensor for sensing an attitude of the sound-recording-apparatus main body, in which based on a sensing result of the opening and closing sensor and a sensing result of the attitude sensor, a stem sound-recording and a monophonic sound-recording are switched.
US08295940B2
A system for recharging medical instruments comprises a medical instrument tray defining a plurality of recesses therein for receiving and storing a corresponding plurality of medical instruments. At least one of the medical instruments includes a secondary coil coupled to a rechargeable voltage source. The medical instrument tray includes a primary coil positioned at least partially about one or more of the recesses configured to receive and store one of the medical instruments. The primary coil couples to the secondary coil to charge the rechargeable voltage source when the corresponding medical instrument is received in the recess. A storage container is provided for receiving and storing one or more such medical instrument trays. The storage container includes an electrical routing system for routing voltage from an external voltage source to the primary coils.
US08295923B2
A wearable iontophoresis device for the prolonged delivery of a positively charged pharmaceutical species from a salt formulation is disclosed that includes a readily oxidizable metal-based sacrificial anode in the form of a generally planar layer having a connecting area that has a width that is sufficient to insure complete consumption of the oxidizable metal wherein the anode is configured to have a minimum operating life of at least 6 hours under skin-safe conditions, and a drug delivery gel pad in electrical contact with said anode for accommodating a gel containing a positively charged pharmaceutical species in salt form formulated for transdermal delivery.
US08295919B2
Electrocardiographic (ECG) signals, such as the standard 12-lead, are synthesized from a novel reduced electrode set. Signals are received from a group of electrodes connected to predetermined locations on a human body and deriving at least one further ECG signal using predetermined transformation(s) on a set of ECG signals. This forms a desired set of signals. The group of electrodes may comprise the standard 12 lead electrode sites V2 and V5 plus one electrode positioned substantially level with V5 on the right anterior auxiliary line and a further electrode on each of the right hand side and left hand side of the body. In an alternative arrangement, the electrode position V2 is replaced by an electrode position Vc on the sternum directly between the standard electrode sites V1 and V2. Also disclosed is a method of improving accuracy of synthesized signals by detecting body posture and modifying the transformations.
US08295907B2
A computational model which integrates a complex circulatory model and a finite element to determine the dynamics of a left ventricle continuously over consecutive cardiac cycles. The model includes determining a LV pressure (plv) using a circulatory model, using a finite element model plv as input and determining a LV volume (vlv), computing a LV elastance according to: elv=plv/vlv, driving the circulatory model with the elv; and returning to determining a LV pressure and starting the next iteration, wherein the steps continue at a sufficient time resolution for a desired number of entire cardiac cycles. The dynamic Young's modulus functions are assigned to individual finite elements, resulting in a time-varying left ventricular elastance that drives the circulatory model.
US08295903B2
A device and method of detecting and analyzing a vital field places an avalanche diode in the path of vital waves in the vital field. The vital waves interfere with the electron avalanche process in the avalanche diode. Control circuitry and an avalanche initiator cause electron avalanches at a known sampling frequency. The interference from the vital waves produces a beat frequency that is output from the avalanche diode. By adjusting the sampling rate by a known amount, a second beat frequency is produced and the beat frequency shift is used to determine the input frequency of the vital waves. The vital waves are very weak and produce frequencies into the terahertz range, so that the input frequency is undersampled by the device. Further, high sensitivity is required and a circuit design is implemented to maximize sensitivity while minimizing noise and other interference that is common to avalanche diode operation.
US08295891B2
A method and apparatus for optimization of a modem for high data rate applications comprise a plurality of hardware accelerators which are configured to perform data processing functions, wherein the hardware accelerators are parameterized, a processor is configured to selectively activate accelerators according to the desired function to conserve power requirements and a shared memory configured for communication between the plurality of hardware accelerators.
US08295886B2
An apparatus, method and computer program product for actively controlling the luminance (brightness) of illumination of a backlight of a mobile terminal according to the surrounding environment and a mobile terminal implementing such apparatus are disclosed. The mobile terminal includes: an illuminance sensor that detects ambient illuminance; a backlight controller that controls a brightness of backlight illumination by regulating the power outputted to the backlight according to a change in the ambient illuminance detected by the illuminance sensor; and a controller that monitors an operation state of the backlight controller or changes a set value of a particular register or component by cooperating with the backlight controller.
US08295882B2
Systems, methods, and computer program products are for managing access to a femtocell coverage area. An exemplary method includes storing in a memory component a first identifier corresponding to a subscribed service of a communication device and a second identifier corresponding to a user of the communication device, and granting access to the femtocell coverage area using the second identifier.
US08295879B2
Disclosed are devices and methods of an electronic device configured to adaptably process arbitrary conditions to provide a user options for initiating or activating a non-display electronic function of the device. A user is free to determine how to position or orient the device. To determine in real-time, arbitrary conditions of the device, the disclosed devices and methods of an electronic device include determining that the electronic device is at rest and then acquiring a reference in response to determining that the electronic device is at rest. In this way, the device may assume any position or orientation to acquire a reference. Subsequently, subtle movement of the electronic device relative to the acquired reference may be detected to initiate a non-display electronic function of the electronic device. The user therefore may make choices inconspicuously and privately as to which non-display electronic function to initiate.
US08295877B2
Base stations with coordinated multiple air-interface operations are provided. In some embodiments, multi-mode base station (BTS) systems operate with different air-interfaces, functionality, or configurations in a coordinated manner. For example, typical applications of such systems can include Macrocell BTS, Picocell BTS, Femtocell BTS, or Access Point (AP), Set Top Box (STB), or Home Gateway, Hot Spot Devices, User Terminal with the capability to perform required base station operations. In some embodiments, various techniques are provided for system improvements and optimizations via radio resource management, including user and system throughput optimization, QoS improvement, interference management, and various other improvements and optimizations. In some embodiments, a system (e.g., a multi-mode device, such as a base station, a repeater, and/or a terminal) includes a multi-mode communication unit, in which the multi-mode communication unit allocates access for communication using at least two modes; and a processor configured to implement at least in part the multi-mode communications unit. In some embodiments, the at least two modes include one or more of the following: frequency band, protocol standard, duplexing format, broadcast mode (e.g., television broadcast and/or a radio broadcast), and one-way communication mode.
US08295876B1
The mobile phone comprising a CPU which updates battery controller, CCD unit controller, microphone controller, speaker controller, or vibrator controller by utilizing the mobile phone updating data received via antenna.
US08295875B2
A mobile communication apparatus configured to communicate with an opposite communication device is provided. The mobile communication apparatus includes a transceiver configured to receive an incoming signal sent from the opposite communication device. The transceiver is configured to produce an interrupt signal upon receiving the incoming signal. The mobile communication apparatus includes a first memory device and a non-volatile second memory device. The mobile communication apparatus includes a controller connected to the transceiver, the first memory device and the second memory device. The controller is configured to perform garbage collection of the second memory device, to load data stored in one of the first memory device and the second memory device into another of the first memory device and the second memory device, to access the first memory device if the transceiver produces the interrupt signal.
US08295869B2
A method and apparatus of improving the performance of a mobile radio system (100) comprising at least one radio device (105, 120) having at least two transmission equipments (114) adapted to transmit radio signals within a frequency band is disclosed. The method comprises deriving (220) a relative time delay of the at least two transmission equipments based on at least two sub-band transmit weight vectors, wherein a sub-band transmit weight vector comprises weight vectors applicable to the at least two transmission equipments, respectively, in a sub-band of the frequency band.
US08295866B2
A mobile user terminal includes a receiver which receives a signal, and a processor which measures downlink channel quality based on the signal and does not transmit downlink channel quality information and an uplink pilot signal simultaneously at a period which the mobile user terminal is a state of transmission off in an intermittent fashion.
US08295864B2
A method for sending and receiving text-based messages using a proxy mobile phone is disclosed. Sending includes receiving via a global communication network, at a server, an outgoing text-based message and sending the message and a directive for a proxy mobile phone to receive the message and forward the message via a wireless telephonic network to a destination device specified by a destination identifier. Receiving includes receiving, at the server, an incoming text-based message and an origin identifier indicating the message has been received by the proxy mobile phone via the wireless telephonic network and forwarded by the proxy mobile phone to the server via the global communication network. The incoming text message is provided by the server for access via the global communication network. Further, a system is disclosed having a server and a client equipped mobile phone, the system being configured to use the method.
US08295862B2
The present invention provides a method and system to provide network aware applications on a mobile device that can communicate using existing SMS communication channels without resorting to other IP based communication channels that are costlier and are not available on many of the networks.
US08295855B2
An architecture, system and method of use sends location based multimedia to participants of a geo-tour or other application using geo-boundaries and/or other location information. The method includes detecting when a user has crossed within a geo-boundary. The method further includes determining a content type to be sent to a mobile device based on preferences provided by the user. Additionally, the method includes sending user location specific content of the determined content type to the mobile device when the user has crossed within the geo-boundary.
US08295853B2
A method and system for accurately determining the location of the mobile device (10) is disclosed. In the mapping phase collected reference positioning data and collected cell data are used to map a covered area estimation and in the actual location determination phase the covered area estimation is calculated from actual environment data received through wireless cellular communication network (11, 12) and possibly but not necessarily from external databases (17, 19). The covered area estimation comprises at least some of the following calculations: (i) estimation of base station location, (ii) estimation of transmission range, (iii) estimation of signal map and (iv) estimation of area type. The actual location of the mobile device (10) is determined from the covered area estimation based on relative comparison between the actual environment data and estimations (i)-(iv) and weight numbers resulted from the comparison. During the both phases a database is stored in the server (14) and updated whenever new environment data is received.
US08295846B2
A CE device can incorporate a GPS receiver and can be moved around a building with wireless access point (AP) signal strengths recorded at various locations. The optimum AP location is selected on the basis of the location-to-signal strength correlations.
US08295834B2
A communication system includes a development sector for registering a plurality of wireless devices, a business sector for controlling utilization of an application program and for receiving application data, a service sector for deploying the application program and for providing the application data to the business sector in accordance with communication with at least one wireless device of the plurality; and a mobile sector comprising the plurality of wireless devices, each device for receiving the application program deployed by the service sector, executing the application program in response to the business sector, and communicating with the service sector to support provision of the application data to the business sector. The business sector or service sector may monitor or limit utilization of the auxiliary device. Deployment of application programs may be controlled by the business sector or the development sector by rendering an application program or auxiliary device available for use only after a particular time or after receipt of a message.
US08295833B2
A terminal and method are provided. The terminal includes an Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number (ARFCN) table including at least one ARFCN information, and a controller for controlling a frequency scanning based on the ARFCN table to detect one or more ARFCNs from the ARFCN table and for controlling a camping on at least one of the detected one or more ARFCNs, such that the camping can be performed based on International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) information. The camping can be attempted without a scanning procedure for finding an available cell to reduce an amount of time for camping.
US08295828B2
A first mobile terminal forming a mobile communication system connects to a base station by using a first wireless communication method (for example, GSM method). Further, a second mobile terminal acquires unique information of the base station (for example, cell information) from the first mobile terminal by communication with the first mobile terminal by using a second wireless communication method (for example, wireless LAN method), and searches a transmission frequency of the base station included in the unique information.
US08295826B2
Monitoring system includes a set of peripheral monitoring agents including processing functionalities housed in SIMS. Such processing functionalities, depending at least on operating conditions of each terminal and its respective SIMS, are able to adaptively establish a distribution of measuring functionalities included in the peripheral monitoring agents between the terminal itself (for example storing them in the related memory or multimedia card) and its respective SIM.
US08295824B2
A management unit allocates network resources multiservice communication devices capable of communicating via a plurality of networks. The management unit includes a communication device interface for facilitating a bidirectional data communication with the multiservice communication devices via a wireless control channel, the bidirectional data communication including outbound control data sent to multiservice communication devices and inbound control data received from at multiservice communication devices. The wireless control channel is separate from the communication between multiservice communication devices and the networks. A network interface receives network resource data from the networks. A management processing unit generates the outbound control data in response. The management processing unit facilities the handoff of a real-time service accessed by the multiservice communication devices via a first network to a second network.
US08295822B2
A method and system for automatically triggering call redirecting in response to a mobile device detecting its connection to a host such as a personal computer, is provided. In one embodiment, the mobile device detects connection by sensing application of a charging voltage via a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connection, and signaling the mobile device processor of the event. In response, the mobile device processor automatically decides to which alternative endpoint communications should be forwarded, and either instructs its transmitter to transmit a forwarding command to a network operations center or instructs the host to transmit the command through the Internet. The network operations center switch is operable to receive a call redirecting command respecting the mobile device from either the mobile device or the host to which the mobile device is connected, and adjusting its settings to effect call redirecting for subsequent communications for the mobile device.
US08295820B2
A method to implement CID enhancement performed by mobile phone software, running on a user/subscriber's mobile phone, in communication with a response server of a Website during an incoming call. The method includes alerting the Website by transmission of an initiation command from the mobile phone upon receipt of the incoming call, extracting the caller number from the phone ringing feature of the mobile phone, connecting the mobile phone over the Internet to the response server and responding to the initiation command, such that the caller's ID is displayed with said relevant caller information and said other caller data in real time, and is provided within the few seconds elapsed before the user/subscriber answers the phone call.
US08295812B1
Methods and products for facilitating a method of reducing mobile-phone fraud are provided. One method includes receiving a request to activate a mobile device, determining that it is identified as lost or stolen, communicating to the mobile device activation data that enables the mobile device to communicate via a wireless-telecommunications network despite the fact that the mobile device was determined to be identified as lost or stolen, and communicating to the mobile device functionality-impairment instructions that deliberately disable a set of functional aspects of the mobile device, thereby transforming it from a first state to a second state that is functionally impaired compared to the first state.
US08295798B2
An apparatus includes first and second filters and a bandwidth control circuit. The first filter operates as part of a first oscillator in a first mode and filters a first input signal and provides a first output signal in a second mode. The second filter operates as part of a second oscillator in the first mode and filters a second input signal and provides a second output signal in the second mode. The bandwidth control circuit adjusts the bandwidth of the first and second filters in the first mode, e.g., adjusts the oscillation frequency of each oscillator to obtain a target bandwidth for an associated filter. The apparatus may further include first and second gain control circuits. Each gain control circuit may vary the amplitude of an oscillator signal from an associated oscillator and/or set a gain of an associated filter in the first mode.
US08295795B2
A method is provided for obtaining a calibration frequency for calibrating a transmission chain that can transmit information signals on a frequency band comprising a plurality of channels. The chain includes an amplifier that can be configured according to at least one gain configuration. The method includes: obtaining an output power value of the amplifier; obtaining a frequency dispersion, based on the power value; detecting whether a constraint linked to said frequency dispersion is satisfied; and if the constraint is not satisfied, then obtaining a current frequency subband and a calibration frequency for said current frequency subband.
US08295794B2
A power control system includes a transmitter having a plurality of gain-adjustable elements, a switchable attenuator located at an output of the transmitter, a gain-adjustable power amplifier coupled to the attenuator, and a power control element responsive to a power target signal, the power control element configured to calculate and apply a gain control signal to the plurality of gain-adjustable elements in the transmitter, to the switchable attenuator, and to the gain-adjustable power amplifier so that a signal to noise ratio (SNR) at the output of the transmitter remains substantially constant over a range of output power.
US08295784B2
A semiconductor switching device includes, on one semiconductor substrate: a switching circuit configured to switch connection states between a plurality of terminals; a negative voltage generating circuit; and a control circuit connected to the switching circuit and the negative voltage generating circuit and configured to supply a control signal to the switching circuit, the control circuit including: a level shift circuit with a low-potential power supply terminal connected to the negative voltage generating circuit and an output node connected to the switching circuit, the level shift circuit being configured to supply a negative potential signal as a control signal at a low level to the switching circuit; a diode with its anode connected to the output node of the level shift circuit; and a transistor with its drain-source path connected between the cathode of the diode and ground, the drain-source path switching from a blocking state to a conducting state before the potential of the output node of the level shift circuit switches from a high level to the low level.
US08295773B2
Remote control data is securely transmitted to a device under control. A remote control device transmits an acknowledge request for A ch to the device under control (S21). When the device under control has assigned A ch as the reception channel, acknowledge ACK is received. A ch is assigned as the transmission channel (S23), and a command frame is transmitted through A ch (S24). When acknowledge ACK has not been received, an acknowledge request for B ch is transmitted to the device under control (S25). When the device under control has assigned B ch as the reception channel, acknowledge ACK is received. B ch is assigned as the transmission channel (S27), and a command frame is transmitted through B ch (S28). The remote control device can transmits a command through a channel through which the device under control can receive the command, so that secure remote control can be accomplished.
US08295755B2
When a gloss application sheet is conveyed through a nip formed between a first nip formation member and a second nip formation member pressing against each other, the gloss application sheet is sandwiched between the first nip formation member and a recording medium simultaneously conveyed through the nip. The gloss application sheet includes a first contact surface contacting the first nip formation member and a second contact surface disposed opposite the first contact surface for contacting the recording medium. The first contact surface has a reduced adhesive force compared to the second contact surface.
US08295749B2
A method of controlling the inverter dwell time of the first print engine in order to print any sheet size within a pitch mode without the need for a belt sync dead-cycle. The method uses a small nominal inverter dwell time based on the maximum sheet size for a given pitch mode. For any sheet size within the pitch mode that is smaller than the maximum sheet size, the inverter dwell time will increase proportionally.
US08295748B2
A typical belt conveying apparatus and a typical image forming apparatus according to the present invention includes: an endless belt; a supporting member that rotatably supports the belt; a sensor that detects a predetermined breakage at one end of the belt in a belt width direction; and a detecting mechanism that detects a predetermined breakage at the other end of the belt in the belt width direction by the use of the sensor.
US08295747B2
An intermediate transfer member is provided which enables to maintain superior secondary transferability and enhanced cleaning capability and is also capable of continuing to obtain toner images of superior text reproduction and high quality without causing lack of text images even when making prints of a large number of sheets (e.g., 160,000 sheets). The intermediate transfer member for use in an image forming apparatus having a device capable of transferring a toner image carried on the surface of an electrophotographic photoreceptor primarily to an intermediate transfer member, and secondarily transferring the toner image from the intermediate transfer member to a transfer material, wherein the intermediate transfer member is provided with an elastic layer on the circumference of a resin substrate and further thereon a surface layer, the surface layer exhibits a layer thickness of 10 to 500 nm, the Young's modulus of the surface of the intermediate transfer member which is determined by a nanoindentation method is 0.1 to 5.0 GPa and is 0.0 to 2.0 GPa greater than the Young's modulus of the elastic layer which is determined by a nanoindentation method.
US08295736B2
In an image forming apparatus, a rotation detector detects an angular velocity or an angular displacement of a shared drive motor, or an angular velocity or an angular displacement of a photosensitive element. A drive control unit executes a process for controlling a drive speed of a drive source of the photosensitive element based on a result of detection by the rotation detector.
US08295734B2
A rotating force transmitting part is provided for an electrophotographic photosensitive drum for a main assembly of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus. The main assembly includes a motor-driven shaft having a rotating force applier. The drum is dismountable from the main assembly in a direction substantial perpendicular with an axial direction of the shaft. The part includes a coupler engageable with the force applier to receive a rotational force for rotating the drum when mounted to the main assembly. The coupler moves between a position for transmitting the rotational force for rotating the drum to the drum and a disengaged position inclined away from the axis of the drum. When the cartridge is dismounted from the main assembly substantially perpendicular to the axis of the drum, the coupler moves from the transmitting position to the disengaging position.
US08295730B2
An image forming apparatus includes: an image forming apparatus main body; plural developer image forming parts provided in the image forming apparatus main body that form a developer image; and a discharged developer recovery container that recovers developer discharged from at least two of the plural developer image forming parts. At least one of the plural developer image forming parts has an image forming structure having an image holder that holds the developer image, and the image forming structure in the at least one developer image forming part and the discharged developer recovery container are attached/removed, integrally with each other, in/from the image forming apparatus main body.
US08295725B2
An image forming apparatus includes a fixing device. The fixing device includes a heating member and a pressing member that form a fixing nip, an approach guide positioned an upstream in a recording-medium conveyance direction of a fixing nip, a fixing-pressure-changing mechanism designed to change the fixing device between a high-pressure mode and a low-pressure mode, and an approach-guide-changing mechanism designed to change an angle of the approach guide in conjunction with the changing by the fixing-pressure-changing mechanism.
US08295717B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, a toner-image forming unit, a photosensor, an information obtaining unit, and a toner-amount calculating unit. The toner-image forming unit forms a toner image on the image carrier with toner. The photosensor detects a toner area where the toner is sticking to the image carrier. The information obtaining unit obtains particle-size-change information about how particle size distribution of the toner changes over time. The toner-amount calculating unit calculates a toner amount of the toner image based on the toner area and the particle-size-change information.
US08295713B2
A system and method implementing dual stage carrier phase estimation (CPE) in a coherent receiver for an optical fiber communication system. In the first stage, a feed-forward CPE is implemented to make an initial carrier phase estimation of a training sequence. The initial carrier phase estimation is coupled to the second stage which implements a decision-feedback CPE. After a training period, accurate bit decision for system traffic can be achieved using the decision-feedback CPE.
US08295711B2
An infrared receiver is provided that may include an infrared sensor, a band-pass filter, and a processor. The processor may be configured to transmit a confirmation signal to the band-pass filter if the signal is distinguishable from noise.
US08295710B2
The invention describes a modulator for the quadrature modulation of an optical carrier signal with an I- and a Q-portion, where a first optical multimode interferometer (MMI) splits the optical carrier signal into four branches and that in pairs of branches the I-portion and the Q-portion respectively is modulated with a Mach-Zehnder-Structure and a second optical multimode interferometer (MMI) combines the modulated I-portion and Q-portion again to one quadrature modulated optical output signal (OS).
US08295709B2
A dispersion compensation device includes a variable dispersion compensator configured to subject an input optical signal to dispersion compensation, an optical receiver configured to convert an optical signal subjected to dispersion compensation into an electrical signal, recover a clock signal and a received data signal from the electrical signal, and output clock lock information indicating whether the clock signal is locked to the electrical signal, a signal processor configured to output bit error rate information on the received data signal, and a controller configured to variably control a dispersion compensation value of the variable dispersion compensator based on the bit error rate information and the clock lock information.
US08295705B2
A time-sharing Visible Light Communication (VLC) system is provided. Two or more light sources transmit data received from one or more VLC terminals located in its service area to a communication control device, and transmits data received from the communication control device to the one or more VLC terminals. The communication control device determines and groups at least one of the two or more light sources to be included in a cell according to a generated user service, maps the grouped at least one light source to the cell, allocates a time slot used to provide the user service to the cell, transmits data associated with the user service to at least one of the one or more VLC terminals through the at least one light source mapped to the cell using the allocated time slot, detects a location of the at least one VLC terminal located in a service area of the cell on a real-time basis, and remaps the cell according to the detected location.
US08295703B2
Where add optical signals have k different bit rates, an add controller is connected to k (
US08295697B2
A camera comprises: a photographing unit converting an image formed by a shooting lens into an electric signal; a subject brightness obtaining unit; an exposure computing unit computing a shutter speed and an aperture value; a shutter controlling a time period in which the photographing unit accumulates the electric signal; and an aperture control unit controlling an aperture value of an aperture unit that limits a quantity of light incident from the shooting lens, wherein the exposure computing unit calculates a deviation between a previous exposure amount and a proper exposure amount on the basis of brightness information relating to a previous exposure and output by the subject brightness obtaining unit, the aperture value of the aperture unit, and the shutter speed of the shutter, and computes an aperture value of the aperture unit for a subsequent exposure on the basis of the deviation.
US08295696B2
A camera module includes a barrel, a movable lens movable in the barrel in an optical axis direction, an imaging device that captures an image of a subject viewed through the movable lens and an actuator that changes the distance between the movable lens and the imaging device. The actuator has a first power feed terminal at one end thereof and a second power feed terminal at the other end thereof. The first terminal is attached on the side where the movable lens is present. The second terminal is attached on the side where the barrel is present. The actuator bends when electric power is fed to each of the first and second terminals and changes the distance between the movable lens and the imaging device.
US08295693B2
In a minimally invasive surgical system, a camera includes a prismatic element having a lens within the prismatic element. The lens corrects the resulting image focus for the non-visible light to make it substantially the same as the focus for the visible light. Alternatively, the lens corrects the resulting image focus for the visible light to make it substantially the same as the focus for the non-visible light.
US08295691B2
In a heat treatment apparatus, a substrate held by a holding part is irradiated with light emitted from halogen lamps to perform preheating thereon and irradiated with a flash of light emitted from flash lamps to perform flash heating thereon. Part of light which is emitted from the halogen lamps and goes toward the flash lamps passes through a window hole formed in a peripheral-light shielding member and enters the substrate held by the holding part, and its energy is used for the preheating on the substrate. On the other hand, the remaining light is blocked out by the peripheral-light shielding member.
US08295690B2
The ECOWAVE 1.2 is an infrared heater that can produce heat in a more efficient manner than other infrared heaters on the market today. We have utilized specific short wave infrared bulbs and specifically manufactured and oriented heat dissipation material, and housing, to capture the maximum amount of infrared waves emitted from the heat source thus providing an optimum ambient temperature rise for a minimal amount of electricity consumed. We have also designed a heater core, in two separate configurations, that can be used in a multitude of capacities depending on the size of the heating case desired, heat required and space available.
US08295689B2
For providing a mechanism of contents reproducing equipment, for operating a communicating device and a decoding device, which are provided in each of equipments connected therewith through a network, in cooperation with each other, so as to enable to change from a reproducing process, which is relatively low in processing capacity required, to a reproducing process, which is relatively high, reproduction is conducted of the contents, which is low in the processing capacity required for reproduction, with using the communicating means and the decoding means, which are lower in the processing capacity. In parallel therewith, reproduction is conducted of contents, which is high in the processing capacity required for reproduction, with using the communicating means and the decoding means, which are higher in the processing capacity thereof. Also, measurement is done on a processing time necessary for receiving and decoding of encoded contents for a unit of time, or a processing volume of the receiving process and the decoding process of the encoded contents, which can be processed during the unit of time, and thereby managing it as the processing capacity.
US08295688B2
A method of reproducing data from a recording medium, each of the data including reference time information indicating a reference time and including packet data, the method including: reproducing the data from the recording medium; obtaining a difference between respective reference times indicated by the reference time information of the reproduced adjacent data; rearranging the data on a time axis such that a time interval between adjacent data is equal to the obtained reference time difference; and outputting the rearranged data.
US08295677B2
This invention provides a method of managing the navigation data for a rewritable recording medium which are referred to for control of recording, editing, and reproduction. It enables to access to each information table in the navigation data directly by referring to the start address, which is kept in the first information table in the navigation data. When data are recorded to the rewritable recording medium, the management data which are relevant to the data to be recorded are created and written to the relevant information tables, which are accessed directly based on the start addresses. When data on the recording medium are reproduced, the information tables which contain management data required for reproduction of the requested data are located directly by the start addresses. Then, the data are read out from the rewritable recording medium and reproduced in reference to the management data. Compared to the prior navigation data structure, where the information tables are accessed through calculation of the end addresses, the present invention allows to reduce the access time to each information table, contributing to the real-time operation for writing and reproduction.
US08295673B2
An information processing apparatus includes an encoding and decoding unit for performing a data conversion process by decoding encoded still image data acquired from an information recording medium and generating moving image encoded data based on the decoded still image data, a medium control unit for performing a data re-recording process by recording the moving image encoded data, generated by the encoding and decoding unit, on the information recording medium in a predetermined data recording format, and a controller for controlling the data conversion process of the encoding and decoding unit and the data re-recording process of the medium control unit. The controller controls the data conversion process and the data re-recording process in response to user input information as to whether to execute the data conversion process.
US08295666B2
A coated optical fiber of the present invention comprises a glass fiber coated by at least two coating layers (a soft layer and a hard layer), wherein the glass surface of the glass fiber, where the at least two coating layers of the optical fiber are removed, has a peak intensity ratio of 0.6 or more in C3H7O+ (m/z 59) or C4H9O+ (m/z 73) with respect to Si+ (m/z 28) peak in cation analysis of TOF-SIMS. The optical fiber suppresses increase in its transmission loss even when it is exposed to a high-humidity environment or immersed in water.
US08295663B2
To provide a super luminescent light emitting diode comprising an optical waveguide structure which supplies particularly-high optical output. The super-luminescent light emitting diode includes: a first optical waveguide, of which one end is optically connected to one end of a multimode interference optical waveguide, and of which the other end forms a first light emitting edge; and a second optical waveguide, of which one end is optically connected to the other end of the multimode interference optical waveguide, and of which the other end forms a second light emitting edge. Each of the first and second optical waveguides has a width smaller than the width of the multimode interference optical waveguide.
US08295661B2
An optical system is disclosed. The optical system includes first and second waveguides, a first dispersive element, and a coupler. The first waveguide is configured to support a first mode and a second mode of an optical input signal. The second mode being of a higher order than the first mode. The second waveguide has an input and an output and is configured to receive a portion of the optical input signal. The first dispersive element is disposed along a length of one of the first or second waveguides. The first dispersive element including a waveguide segment configured to induce a frequency-dependent phase shift in one of the portions of the optical input signal. The coupler is configured to couple the portion of the optical input signal in the second waveguide and the portion optical input signal in the first waveguide into the first waveguide. The coupling excites the second mode of the first waveguide to create a multimode optical signal.
US08295655B2
An optical modulator includes a ring resonator with a waveguide adjacent to and optically coupled to the micro-ring resonator. A p-i-n junction is formed about the ring resonator. An optional additional doped region may be formed opposite the waveguide from the ring resonator and when combined with the p-i-n junction forms a nearly closed p-i-n junction about the ring resonator. The ring resonator may be a silicon micro-ring resonator. Multiple different resonant frequency resonators may be coupled to the waveguide along with different detectors to multiplex light on the waveguide. The spectrum of the resonator may be controlled by an applied voltage. A prepulsing device may be used to enhance electrical transitions to enhance the speed of the modulator.
US08295644B2
A live image and a previously acquired or generated image are superimposed or composited to represented a virtual vantage point for flying, driving or navigating a plane, vehicle or vessel.
US08295636B2
A gradation converting device that converts gradation of an image includes: a dither unit that applies dither to the image by adding random noise to a pixel value forming the image; and a one-dimensional ΔΣ modulation unit that applies one-dimensional ΔΣ modulation to the image applied with the dither.
US08295634B2
A method and apparatus for compensating for illumination of a reference block and a method and apparatus for encoding an image, using the illumination compensation method and apparatus, are provided. The method of compensating for illumination of a reference block includes: predicting the mean values of pixels of a current block and a reference block, based on restored values of pixels neighboring the current block, and restored values of pixels neighboring the reference block; and based on the predicted mean value of the pixels of the current block, the predicted mean value of the pixels of the reference block, and the values of the pixels of the current block and the reference block, determining an illumination compensation parameter.
US08295632B2
Systems, methods, and techniques are provided for performing any one or more of edge-preserving image sharpening, edge-preserving image smoothing, edge-preserving image dynamic range compression, and edge-aware data interpolation on digital images, wherein a pixel prediction module is adapted for coupling to a memory storing pixel data representative of a digital image and extracts from the image predicted pixel values using robust smoothing. The predicted pixels are stored in a memory and respective detail values equal to the difference between respective original and predicted values are computed. A pixel update module computes approximation values by averaging the respective detail values with original pixel values using robust smoothing, and stores the approximation values for subsequent rendering. The prediction and update modules run recursively and a manipulation module increases or decreases the detail values and the approximation values depending on their magnitude and depending on the kind of edge enhancement required.
US08295629B2
Provided are a method and system for processing a low-illuminance image. The system includes an image acquisition unit to acquire two images having different levels of illuminance and sensitivity as first and second images; a motion vector estimation unit to extract a motion vector of the second image based on the first image; an image correction unit to correct the second image using the extracted motion vector; a synthesis coefficient calculation unit to calculate a synthesis coefficient used to synthesize the first image and the corrected second image; and an image synthesis unit to synthesize the first image and the corrected second image using the calculated synthesis coefficient.
US08295628B2
An inventive method obtaining film grains from a picture and processing the obtained film grains using a statistical distribution to determine new film grains. Preferably, a histogram of obtained film grain is subjected to the statistical distribution, which can be a normal distribution. Parameters of the normal distribution are controlled to determine the new film grains.
US08295624B2
Several quality-aware transcoding systems and methods are described, in which the impact of both quality factor (QF) and scaling parameter choices on the quality of transcoded images are considered in combination. A basic transcoding system is enhanced by the addition of a quality prediction look-up table, and a method of generating such a table is also shown.
US08295623B2
A method is provided for encoding an image or a sequence of images generating a data flow comprising data representing a group of pixels in one of said images, said method including: calculating a predetermined number of predictors in relation to said group of pixels, and selecting an optimal predictor in accordance with a predetermined selection criterion. Between the calculation and selection steps, a step of eliminating at least one predictor with a calculated predetermined number is performed, which comprises, for at least two ith (Pi) and jth (Pj) predictors, of: calculating the difference between said jth and ith predictors, applying a transform to said calculated difference, performing a quantification operation on the result of the applied transform, comparing the result of said quantification operation with a predetermined value, eliminating the jth predictor if the result of said quantification operation is less than or equal to said predetermined value.
US08295620B2
Methods for electronically compressing data from a multidimensional medical data set for long-term storage includes: (a) generating a first medical image from a patient multi-dimensional medical image data set in a short-term storage format; and (b) compressing the patient medical image data set into a long-term storage format using at least one viewing parameter.
US08295617B2
An encoder executing on a first computing machine can receive image data generated by applications executing on the first computing machine. This encoder can divide at least a first image into at least two overlapping image sections according to a grid size and an overlap margin. The encoder computes an index for one overlapping image section, and compares the index with indexes associated with stored image blocks. The results of the comparison can then be used by the encoder to identify at least one stored image that has an index which is substantially the same as the index computed for the at least one overlapping image section. The location of that stored image is associated with a pointer that is further associated with the overlapping image section. The resultant pointer is then transferred to a second computing machine in lieu of the overlapping image section.
US08295607B1
A method for detecting edges includes calculating a gradient level value for each pixel of a digital image and assigning each pixel to one of a plurality of gradient bins based on the calculated gradient level value for each pixel, the gradient bins being defined by threshold levels. One or more of the gradient bins are assigned as edge bins, and one or more of the gradient bins are assigned as non-edge bins according to the number of pixels assigned to each gradient bin. Pixels in the one or more edge bins are identified as edge pixels, and pixels in the one or more non-edge bins are identified as non-edge pixels in an edge map. The one or more gradient bins are assigned such that a minimum number of pixels are identified as edge pixels and no more than a maximum number of pixels are identified as edge pixels.
US08295582B2
The invention is directed to a prescription imaging system for capturing, storing and displaying images of prescription bottles during the prescription fulfillment process to monitor the quality of the fulfillment process. The system includes one or more pill cameras for capturing images of pills dispensed into one or more prescription bottles and one or more label cameras for capturing images of the bottle labels. The images are stored on a storage device in a database record. The images can be used to verify that the pills in each bottle correspond with the associated prescription.
US08295577B2
An apparatus and method for detecting, tracking and registering a device (218) within a tubular organ (210) of a subject. The devices include guide wire (216) tip or therapeutic devices, and the detection and tracking uses fluoroscopic images taken prior to or during a catheterization operation. The devices are fused with images or projections of models depicting tile tubular organs. Tile method and apparatus are used for treating chronic total occlusion or near total occlusion situations, by navigating a driller along the tubular organ (210) proximally to the occlusion point, in areas which are-not viewable in an angiogram, and optionally enabling the penetration of the occlusion in a preferred area.
US08295576B2
Automated medical diagnostic interpretation and report generation for a non-invasive medical diagnostic test, such as an echo cardiogram, is provided. Various dimension measurements and physiological measurements from an echo cardiogram machine are transferred automatically to a computer over an echo cardiogram machine interface. The dimensions and physiological measurements are automatically interpreted by an intelligent interpretation engine running on a computer, generating various machine evaluations. The physician can approve the machine evaluations, overrule them, or make appropriate adjustments. Upon completion of the physician's review, the physician approved interpretations become diagnostic conclusions, and the report containing the results of the physician's review is generated by the report generation engine.
US08295575B2
This invention relates to computer-assisted diagnostics and classification of prostate cancer. Specifically, the invention relates to segmentation of the prostate boundary on MRI images, cancer detection using multimodal multi-protocol MR data; and their integration for a computer-aided diagnosis and classification system for prostate cancer.
US08295556B2
An information processing apparatus includes a face detecting unit that detects a face area included in image data, a face-component detecting unit that detects a face component from the face area detected by the face detecting unit, and a line-of-sight discriminating unit that executes line-of-sight discrimination processing for a face image from which the face component is detected by the face-component detecting unit. The line-of-sight discriminating unit executes processing for discriminating whether a line of sight of the face image data from which the face component is detected is in a positive state in which a line of sight is directed in a camera direction or a negative state in which a line of sight is not directed in a camera direction according to collation processing for a line-of-sight discrimination dictionary in which learning data including classification data corresponding to the respective states are stored and input face image data.
US08295551B2
A system and method which determines an adaptive vertical search range used to provide motion estimation in digital video content are disclosed. In some embodiments, a fixed-size vertical search range for the motion estimation is defined and utilized. A reference frame and target frame are stored in memory, and a block in the reference frame is selected for consideration. An offset value is determined which is indicative of a directional shift of the fixed-size vertical search range and the vertical search range is shifted based on the offset value. A motion vector is then estimated using the shifted vertical search range.
US08295540B2
A method of processing uniform mailpieces referred to as a “run” of mailpieces, during which method OCR is performed for recognizing certain information in a zone of interest of an image of each mailpiece, and during which method the following steps are performed: a) initializing a matrix accumulator associated with said run and including unitary accumulation elements that correspond to the pixels of the image; b) consolidating said matrix accumulator by incrementing certain unitary accumulation elements by deriving an indication of the spatial position of a block of pixels in which said certain information has been recognized unambiguously, or by using construction and local graphical correlation of blocks of image pixels to derive an optical flow map indicating local graphical movements; and c) defining, in the OCR processing, said zone of interest on the basis of the unitary accumulation elements of the consolidated matrix accumulator that present extreme accumulation values.
US08295538B2
A loudspeaker spider comprises rubber type material having a central opening defining an inner rim, a periphery outer rim, and a spring effect portion provided at a portion located between the inner rim and the outer rim to enable the inner rim to be moved axially up and down with respect to the outer rim when a driving force is applied to the inner rim and be retained to an original equilibrium position after the driving force is released. The spider also includes an integral conductor arrangement which comprises at least one conductor where at least a portion of the at least one conductor extends from the inner rim to the outer rim of the loudspeaker spider.
US08295536B2
A loudspeaker including a moving magnet motor. The moving magnet motor includes an armature comprising a magnet carrier, and a lever arm, coupling the armature and a pivot. The lever arm further couples the armature and an acoustic diaphragm to transmit motion of the armature to the acoustic diaphragm to cause the acoustic diaphragm to move. The loudspeaker described may be torque balance and moment balanced.
US08295532B2
Methods and systems for wireless headset instant on capability during battery charging are disclosed and may include powering a wireless headset so that it may be operable to transmit/receive wireless signals during charging. The headset may be powered via an external charger and may be coupled to the headset via a USB link. The headset may be powered via one or more internal batteries, and may be independent of a power level of the batteries within the headset. RF and baseband circuitry may be powered for transmitting/receiving wireless signals during charging. The headset may utilize USB power management, and may manage discharge of power from a plurality of internal batteries. The batteries may be decoupled from circuits that enable transmitting/receiving wireless signals during charging. The headset may be powered via the charging device so that the headset may be operable to generate output audio signals during charging.
US08295523B2
A hearing aid device for placement in an ear of a user includes an elongate support and a transducer. The elongate support has a proximal portion and a distal end, and the transducer is attached to the elongate support near the distal end. The support is adapted to position the transducer near an eardrum while the proximal portion is placed at the location near an ear canal opening. The elongate support is sized to minimize contact with the ear between the proximal portion and distal end. The elongate support permits sound waves to travel along the ear canal. In some embodiments, a microphone is positioned in the ear canal along the support, for example inside the support, to provide directionally dependent sound localization cues, and the transducer on the distal end of the elongate support comprises a coil assembly coupled to a magnet positioned on the tympanic membrane.
US08295509B2
In a user terminal, a reproducing unit reads out from a music file memory unit a music file selected and input by a user and reproduces the music file. In a normal reproduction, an output unit outputs the reproduced sound as an audio. When a notification information reception unit receives information that needs to be noticed such as an e-mail or a phone call, a notification information analysis unit analyzes the setting of the information or notification sound and determines the degree of importance. A frequency band allocation unit selects from allocation patterns of frequency bands stored in an allocation information memory unit a pattern for the music and for the notification sound according to the degree of importance and the frequency band of the notification sound. An audio processing unit extracts and synthesizes the components of the frequency bands allocated to music and the notification sound, and the output unit outputs accordingly.
US08295498B2
An audio processing circuit includes a crosstalk cancellation circuit that is advantageously simplified for use in audio devices that have closely-spaced speakers. In particular, crosstalk filtering as implemented in the circuit assumes that the external head-related contralateral filters are time-delayed and attenuated versions of the external, head-related ipsilateral filters. With this assumption, the circuit's crosstalk filtering is configurable for varying audio characteristics, according to a small number of settable parameters. These parameters include configurable first and second attenuation parameters for cross-path signal attenuation, and configurable first and second delay parameters for cross-path delay. Optional sound normalization, if included, uses similar simplified parameterization. Further, in one or more embodiments, the audio processing circuit and method include or are associated with a defined table of parameters that are least-squares optimized solutions. The optimized parameter values provide wider listening sweet spots for a greater variety of listeners.
US08295493B2
An exemplary embodiment of the invention can generate multiple output audio signals from multiple input audio signals, in which the number of output signals is equal to or higher than the number of input signals. The embodiment includes computing one or more independent sound subbands representing signal components which are independent between the input subbands; computing one or more localized direct sound subbands representing signal components which are contained in more than one of the input subbands and direction factors representing the ratios with which these signal components are contained in two or more input subbands; generating the output subband signals, where each output subband signal is a linear combination of the independent sound subbands and the localized direct sound subbands; and converting the output subband signals to time domain audio signals.
US08295488B2
A communication network manages key material. A method generates and provides session keys from a security node to an access node for further propagation during handoff procedures, without requiring the security node to take part in the handoff procedures.
US08295481B2
A cryptographic key is virtualized to provide a virtual cryptographic key. To virtualize the key, an operation, such as an exclusive OR operation, is used with the key and a mask. The virtual key is usable by a guest of a virtual environment in cryptographic operations.
US08295473B2
A technology for converting a source or destination telephone number according to usage purposes of a telephone apparatus user. A number converter (115) is provided to convert the source telephone number based on the destination telephone number to which a call is made from an IP voice terminal (130) or a voice terminal (140), using information stored in a called number conversion database (112). The number converter (115) also converts the destination telephone number based on the source telephone number from which a call is made from the IP voice terminal (130) or the voice terminal (140), using information stored in a calling number conversion database (113).
US08295467B2
A system for and method of re-using telephone number is presented. The system and method may include receiving, via an input/output module, a public call invite request message to establish a communication session between a calling party and a called party, establishing, via the input/output module, a first communication session with the calling party based at least in part on the public call invite request message, transmitting, via a telephone number re-use module, a plurality of private call invite request messages to a plurality of communication devices associated with the called party, establishing, via the telephone number re-use module, a second communication session with the called party based at least in part on the plurality of private call invite request messages, and coupling, via a processing module, the first communication session and the second communication session to establish the communication session between the calling party and the called party.
US08295462B2
A method, system and computer program product for alerting a participant when a topic of interest is being discussed and/or a speaker of interest is speaking during a conference call. A participant to a conference call identifies the topics and/or speakers of interest which is stored for future use along with the participant's contact information. When a participant's identified topic of interest is being discussed and/or a participant's identified speaker of interest is speaking during a conference call, the participant will be alerted to that fact, such as via the means specified in the participant's contact information.
US08295455B2
A computer system including telephone functionality. The computer system includes a first keyboard and a first display. The computer system also includes a processor having at least a first functional unit and a second functional unit, and further includes a phone portion. The computer system may operate in a first mode, a second mode, or a third mode. In the first mode, only the phone portion is activated. In the second mode, the phone portion and first functional unit of the processor are activated. In the third mode, each of the phone portion, the first functional unit, and the second functional unit are activated.
US08295445B2
Automatic notification is provided to pre-designated emergency contacts for a given wireless subscriber upon the occurrence of an emergency call from the subscriber. Triggering for the automatic notification may take place at an appropriate time in the emergency call, e.g., at a time the emergency call is received, at a time during the emergency call after a current location of the emergency caller is obtained by the emergency network, once the emergency call terminates, after a set amount of time after the emergency call is received, terminates, etc. The automatic notification is preferably made using voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), but may instead be pre-designated by the subscriber to be in an alternative mode, e.g., by SMS, switched telephone, etc. An option is included for the emergency caller to cancel the automatic notification. The location of the emergency caller may be configurably provided to a notified emergency contact.
US08295444B2
Systems and methods for performing loop analysis are described. Some embodiments are directed to determining loop characteristics such as loop gauge, loop termination, and straight-loop departure. One embodiment includes a method for performing loop length estimation which comprises receiving an un-calibrated echo signal for a loop under test using frequency domain reflectometry single-ended line testing (FDR-SELT), a region associated with the loop under test, and a platform type. The method comprises classifying the loop under test and outputting a loop length estimate based on the classification of the loop under test and based on one of a ripple-period approach and a template-matching approach.
US08295442B2
An apparatus and method for an electron beam manipulation coil for an x-ray generation system includes the use of a control circuit. The control circuit includes a first low voltage source, a second low voltage source, and a first switching device coupled in series with the first low voltage source and configured to create a first current path with the first low voltage source when in a closed position. The control circuit also includes a second switching device coupled in series with the second low voltage source and configured to create a second current path with the second low voltage source when in a closed position and a capacitor coupled in parallel with an electron beam manipulation coil and positioned along the first and second current paths.
US08295440B2
A super miniature X-ray tube using the nano material field emitter includes a tip-tip-type cathode electrode having the nano material field emitter formed on one end with a planar section thereof to generate an electron beam, a gate electrode formed in a hollow cylindrical shape and surrounding an outer circumference of the cathode electrode, the gate electrode having a tapered portion formed on one end and inclined from inside to outside, the gate electrode receiving a voltage for generating the electron beam, a high voltage insulating portion formed in a hollow cylindrical shape and surrounding an outer circumference of the gate electrode, a anode electrode formed at a predetermined distance from one end of the high voltage insulating portion and receiving an acceleration voltage to accelerate an electron beam generated at the cathode electrode, and an electric field adjusting electrode formed between the high voltage insulating portion and the anode electrode to vary a pattern of an acceleration electric field, wherein the cathode electrode includes an open portion formed on one side to receive therein the electric field adjusting electrode, and an X-ray generating portion formed on the other side to generate an X-ray by a collision of an accelerated electron beam.
US08295433B2
An apparatus for X-ray scanning of vehicles includes a pulsed X-ray source generating X-rays. A collimator forms a fan-shaped beam from the X-rays. A detector detects the fan-shaped beam after it passes through a vehicle. A speed sensor measures a speed of the vehicle passing through the apparatus and providing an electrical output corresponding to the speed. An image formation module converts an output of the detector into an image of the vehicle, based on the measured speed of the vehicle. A cross-section of the fan-shaped beam is substantially similar to a width of the detector. The X-rays comprise primarily photons with energy between 2.5 and 9 MeV. A filter is adjacent to the collimator for filtering out low energy X-ray photons. A vehicle presence sensor can be used, whose output is used to turn the X-ray source on and off. An alignment platform can be used for aligning the fan-shaped beam with the detector. A frequency of the pulses is adjusted based on the speed of the vehicle. The X-ray source is turned off if the speed of the vehicle is below a predetermined threshold.
US08295429B2
A CCD color image sensor which prevents unnecessary charge from overflowing in a photoelectric conversion element. An image input apparatus having the CCD color image sensor comprises transferring unit which transfers effective charge accumulated in the photoelectric conversion element provided for each of the colors (R, G and B), extracted as an output signal, to a shift register by opening a shift gate; and discarding unit which discards unnecessary charge accumulated in the photoelectric conversion element by opening the shift gate at different timing from one color to another immediately before the photoelectric conversion element starts accumulating effective charge again. The discarding unit discards unnecessary charge immediately before effective charge accumulates, and discards unnecessary charge by opening the shift gate before unnecessary charge overflows in the photoelectric conversion element.
US08295427B1
A control rod for a pressurized-water nuclear reactor contains an absorber rod which is arranged in a casing tube. At least in a lower section, the absorber rod is provided with at least one recess which takes up at most a portion of the circumferential surface of this section. This reduces problems associated with an expansion in the volume of the absorber rod.
US08295416B2
Methods and apparatuses for reducing noise in frequency to digital converters (FDCs). An FDC apparatus includes a first FDC, a second FDC and a combiner. The first and second FDCs are configured to independently sample an input signal according to a sample clock to generate first and second digital signals, each representing the instantaneous frequency of the input signal. The combiner is configured to form a resultant digital signal from the first and second digital signals. The first and second FDCs are designed and combined in the noise-canceling FDC apparatus so that the first and second signals they generate have correlated noise profiles in a frequency range of interest. When combined by the combiner to form the resultant digital signal, the resultant digital signal has a signal power to noise power ratio greater than the signal power to noise power ratios characterizing the first and second digital signals of the individual first and second FDCs.
US08295414B2
The present invention relates to a device for gain control and a method for receiving a signal. The device for gain control according to the present invention includes a map interpreter that detects beamforming symbol periods in wireless signals, a power calculator that calculate the average power of the beamforming symbol periods in response to outputs of the map interpreter, a gain calculator that calculates gain control signals on the basis of the output signals of the power calculator, and a switch that outputs gains from the gain control signals, in which the wireless signals are corrected on the basis of the gains.
US08295405B2
There is provided an apparatus and method for In-phase/Quadrature-phase (I/Q) mismatch calibration. The apparatus includes: a symmetrical point extracting part receiving continuous wave signals and extracting an I/Q channel average locus of the continuous wave signals; an error extracting part extracting a degree of distortion of the continuous wave signals from the extracted I/Q channel average locus; and a calibrating part calibrating a mismatch between I-channel signals and Q-channel signals of the continuous wave signals using the degree of distortion of the continuous wave signals.
US08295403B2
A communications subsystem for a wireless device for correcting errors in a reference frequency signal. The communications subsystem comprises a frequency generator for generating the reference frequency signal and a closed loop reference frequency correction module that generates a reference frequency adjustment signal for correcting the reference frequency signal when the communications subsystem operates in closed loop mode. The subsystem further includes an open loop frequency correction means that that samples values of the reference frequency adjustment signal during the closed loop mode and generates a frequency correction signal for correcting the reference frequency signal when the communications subsystem operates in a mode other than closed loop mode.
US08295402B2
An apparatus and method are described that provide an optimal blind channel estimation approach for a differential quadrature phase shift keying (DQPSK) modulation communication receiving system. The described blind channel estimation technique takes advantage of the characteristics of DQPSK constellations and the fact that estimates of relative channel phase distortion, and not absolute channel phase distortion, are sufficient for a DQPSK demodulation scheme. The described channel estimation approach provides low complexity, offers improved demodulation performance, and is theoretically optimal. It is particularly useful in existing DQPSK-based communications protocols that do not provide sufficient reference symbols for channel estimation.
US08295401B2
A method and apparatus for implementing spatial processing with unequal modulation and coding schemes (MCSs) or stream-dependent MCSs are disclosed. Input data may be parsed into a plurality of data streams, and spatial processing is performed on the data streams to generate a plurality of spatial streams. An MCS for each data stream is selected independently. The spatial streams are transmitted via multiple transmit antennas. At least one of the techniques of space time block coding (STBC), space frequency block coding (SFBC), quasi-orthogonal Alamouti coding, time reversed space time block coding, linear spatial processing and cyclic delay diversity (CDD) may be performed on the data/spatial streams. An antennal mapping matrix may then be applied to the spatial streams. The spatial streams are transmitted via multiple transmit antennas. The MCS for each data stream may be determined based on a signal-to-noise ratio of each spatial stream associated with the data stream.
US08295393B2
A pulse signal transmitting/receiving device is provided. The device includes a signal generating module for generating a transmitting signal including an amplitude-modulated chirp signal, and a reference signal including a chirp signal having a frequency that changes similarly to that of the transmitting signal, a transmitting module for transmitting a pulse having approximately the same waveform as that of the transmitting signal, a receiving module for receiving an echo signal that is the transmitting pulse reflected from a detection target object, a compensating module for extending a dynamic range of the echo signal received by the receiving module, and a pulse compressing module for outputting a pulse-compressed echo signal, wherein the pulse compression is performed by a correlation calculation between the echo signal having the dynamic range extended by the compensating module, and the reference signal.
US08295392B2
A digital communication system, an indoor unit, and an outdoor unit in which characteristic variation due to temperature is small are provided. The digital communication system comprises an IDU 1 and an ODU 6 connected through a cable 8, in which the IDU 1 includes a slope equalizer 2 which applies a given frequency characteristic to a baseband signal, a DAC 3 which converts the baseband signal from digital form into analog form, and an AGC circuit 5 which amplifies the baseband signal converted from digital form into analog form with a given amplification factor and outputs the signal to the ODU 6, and the ODU 6 includes a power detection circuit 7 which detects a length of the cable 8, determines a frequency characteristic to be applied to the baseband signal and an amplification factor according to the detected length of the cable 8 and notifies the determined frequency characteristic and amplification factor to the slope equalizer 2 and the AGC circuit 5 respectively.
US08295388B1
Techniques for efficient upconversion can process complex input data, such as for example data in an inphase and quadrature form. Half sample interpolation filtering and delay can be performed, and the results can be combined in a quarter-rate upconverter. The quarter rate upconversion can allow one of the half-sample interpolating filtering and the delay to be performed on one of either the inphase and quadrature samples.
US08295387B2
The invention relates to an improved encoding and decoding method with at least two pairs of orthogonal sequences for improving the time necessary for calculating the coefficients of the filter for the purpose of reducing the data overload in communication systems by half by means of the emission of both sequences simultaneously and the emission of the result by means of quadrature modulation to a transmission medium.
US08295380B2
An automatic gain control (AGC) circuit and method for performing AGC for an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) receiver measures signal power of input digital signals that are derived from incoming data frames with preambles to produce gain change signals when the signal power differs from a reference target power level. The gain of an amplifier of the OFDM receiver is changed in response to the gain change signals until a preamble of the data frames is detected for the first time. The gain of the amplifier of the OFDM receiver is further changed in response to the gain change signals, after the preamble is detected, only during periods when the preambles of the data frames are being processed by the OFDM receiver such that the gain of the amplifier is not changed during periods when other portions of the data frames are being processed by the OFDM receiver.
US08295374B2
A signal detecting method and a receiver using the same are provided. The method includes the following steps. A receiving signal vector y is received through a number of channels, wherein the receiving signal vector y corresponds to a transmitting signal vector x transmitted by at least one of the channels. A channel matrix H is determined, wherein the channel matrix H represents at least one of the channels. A factorization matrix D is chosen, wherein D is invertible to make the channel matrix H expressed as H={tilde over (H)}D, and {tilde over (H)} is a corresponding channel matrix. The factorization matrix D is determined to make an expected value of the signal estimate error become smaller. The receiving signal vector y is detected to estimate the transmitting signal vector x according to the corresponding channel matrix {tilde over (H)} and the factorization matrix D.
US08295369B2
A method for remote crosstalk cancellation, includes: filtering, at a first transmitting end which is connected to a first receiving end over a first line, crosstalk source signals according to values of filtering parameters; synthesizing, at the first transmitting end, a first signal to be transmitted over the first line and the filtered crosstalk source signals; transmitting the synthesized signal from the first transmitting end to the first receiving end over the first line; receiving, at the first transmitting end, a noise statistic related value fed back from the first receiving end; and adjusting, at the transmitting end, the values of the filtering parameters according to the noise statistic related value. A corresponding device and a signal processing system for remote crosstalk cancellation are provided.
US08295364B2
Just-in-time up-conversion utilizes frame tagging, and optionally pixel tagging, to minimize the data bandwidth required to drive a display. According to this approach video is maintained in its native frame rate until needed in the display device, such as for pixel control at the row/column drivers. By way of example, a frame tag comprises a repeat count and direction information upon which display refresh is based. In addition, pixel tagging can be utilized to dynamically configure the up-converter to generate pixel displacements within synthesized intermediate frames, such as based on different pixel layer representations. The data stream can utilize traditional fixed pixel lengths or variable pixel lengths to conserve additional bandwidth.
US08295359B2
Provided herein are processes, systems and devices for reducing differentials in visual media. Undesired differentials include undesired contrasts in brightness and/or color. Also described herein are signals, video frames and video streams that have been limited to produce a desired differential. Further described are methods for reducing triggers that can lead to migraines, nausea and neuronal paroxysms in viewers of visual media.
US08295358B1
A video encoder encodes the video stream frame by frame. An encoding process generally includes receiving a video frame, subdividing the video frame into uniform pixel blocks, comparing a selected pixel block with the corresponding pixel block in a previous decoded video frame to determine which blocks have changed, copying changed pixel blocks into a contiguous memory block, and adding a preamble block, compressing the blocks. This process may be repeated for each frame using a different size pixel block to determine and select a pixel block size that results in the smallest encoded frame.
US08295356B2
A method and system are disclosed for selecting a mode to encode video data. The method comprises the steps of (a) transforming a source video frame into a set of coefficients, (b) partitioning said set of coefficients into a plurality of subsets of the coefficients on the basis of probability statistics corresponding to a plurality of encoding modes, wherein each of said subsets is identified for encoding by one of the plurality of encoding modes. The method comprises the further steps of (c) for each of the plurality of subsets of coefficients, computing defined parameters of an associated probability distribution for said subset, and (d) repeating steps (b) and (c) until a predetermined termination condition is satisfied. When this predetermined termination condition is satisfied, the subsets of coefficients, as they exist at that time, are output to a video encoder, which preferably is a Wyner-Ziv encoder.
US08295339B2
An inter-carrier interference (ICI) mitigating equalizer includes a channel estimator, a channel calculator, an ICI estimator, a subtracter, and an equalizer. The channel estimator estimates a channel response from a received signal, and the channel calculator calculates a basic component of a channel response and fluctuating components of the channel response from the estimated channel response. The ICI estimator multiplies the fluctuating components of the channel response by a received signal in a frequency domain, filters the multiplication results according to filter coefficients, and estimates an ICI component included in the received signal based on the filtering results. The subtracter subtracts the ICI component from the received signal in the frequency domain. The equalizer equalizes an output signal of the subtracter based on the basic component of the channel response.
US08295334B2
A digital audio signal, a channel clock, and a bit clock are transmitted to the receiving apparatus via a pair of signal lines. The digital audio signal is input to a D/A converter via a first comparator. The channel clock and the bit clock are received, separated with first and second separation circuits, and input to the D/A converter via the second and third comparators. A reference electrical potential of the second comparator is corrected such that it becomes half or approximately half of an amplitude of the channel clock depending on an electrical potential change of the output of a second differential signal receiving circuit. A system clock is generated based on the bit clock. The digital audio signal is converted into the analog audio signal based on the channel clock, the bit clock, and the system clock, and then the converted analog audio signal is output.
US08295331B2
A method, apparatus, and radio receiver system for canceling multi-user interference in a single-carrier radio communication system. A front-end receiver such as a RAKE receiver receives a radio signal formatted in a sequence of frames, and outputs a plurality of user signals. An ordering unit determines for a current frame, an order in which to decode and remove the interference contributions of the plurality of user signals. The order may be based on a list of user signals sorted in the order of descending signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), modified by the success or failure of attempts to decode each user signal. A frame calculator determines a coherence time, which is used to calculate the number of subsequent frames in which the user signals are decoded in the determined order.
US08295329B2
A symbol detector converts initial symbol estimates of received symbols to soft estimates for decoding. The symbol detector computes spreading waveform correlations between a spreading waveform for a symbol of interest and spreading waveforms for one or more interfering symbols. Interference rejection terms are computed by scaling the spreading waveform correlations by corresponding signal powers and compensating for noise. A soft scaling factor for the symbol of interest is computed from the interference rejection terms. The soft scaling factors are then applied to the initial symbol estimates to generate the soft estimates.
US08295326B1
Provided is a system and method of digitally encoding and decoding digital data during the transmission process using a combination of Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) and turbo coding. A DSSS de-spreading process is used in place of the outer decoder functional block of a turbo decoder, which removes the need for a dedicated outer ECC code. Removal of the dedicated outer ECC code allows for an increase in the actual data rate transmitted through the channel (compared with a system which uses a discrete DSSS stage after Turbo coding or some other ECC code) because the number of bits to be transmitted for a given data rate has been reduced.
US08295316B2
A laser light source experiencing an EOL condition, which might otherwise cause an unscheduled shutdown, is instead operated in a diminished capacity in one or more predetermined or calculated increments. Operating in such diminished capacity continues until the laser system can undergo appropriate maintenance either during a regularly scheduled shutdown or a newly scheduled shutdown. In the meantime, the diminished capacity of the laser system is accommodated by the utilization tool, as appropriate.
US08295308B2
A resource pool aggregator is disclosed. The resource pool aggregator facilitates a faster data communication between resource pools. The resource pool aggregator includes a plurality of network interfaces to receive and send data packets. A packet collector module couple of the plurality of network interfaces is included to process and route the data packets. A data store coupled to the packet collector module is provided to store IP addresses of computers in the resource pools.
US08295304B1
When a signal-to-noise ratio affecting radio communication becomes sufficiently low, then the data transmission rate is responsively decreased in compensation. The signal-to-noise ratio of the communication link is thereby increased. Data for multiple different services is transmitted in data packets between two radios. By allocating one part, or time slot, of the data packet's payload to one service, and allocating another part, or time slot, of the data packet's payload to another service, communications sessions for multiple services can be maintained concurrently. Services are prioritized relative to each other. In case the signal-to-noise ratio becomes too low, data packet portions that are related to lower-priority services can be omitted from some data packets before those data packets are transmitted. Data remaining in the packet can be sent at a reduced data transmission rate without causing the quality of service for the remaining packets to fall below the minimum required level.
US08295292B2
In one embodiment, a reassign command is received for reassigning a first node identified by a first global identifier (GID) from a first context identified by a first context ID (CID) to a second context identified by a second CID, the first and second contexts representing first and second linked lists, respectively. A walk-the-chain (WTC) command having the first GID and the first CID is issued to a first linked list processor. The first linked list processor is configured to access one or more nodes of the first context in an attempt to dequeue the first node from the first context. An enqueue command having the first GID and the second CID is issued to a second linked list processor. The second linked list processor is configured to insert the first node to the second context. The first and second linked list processors are cascaded to form a pipeline.
US08295288B2
Disclosed herein are various aspects of a Fibre Channel (Fibre Channel) fabric having switches that employ Registered State Change Notifications (RSCNs) with enhanced payloads. Two types of RSCN message formats are provided, both including status information about the affected device(s). In one embodiment, a RSCN message format for inter-switch communication provides various information about the affected devices according to one of a plurality of predetermined formats. In another embodiment, a node device RSCN message format provides information about a port state, the identification of the affected port, along with the port and node world wide names and the FC-4 types supported by the node.
US08295278B2
The present invention provides systems and methods which create an infrastructure/transport Pseudowire (PW) a priori between two Provider Edge (PE) devices. Accordingly, other PWs can be mapped to this transport PW. In an exemplary application, the transport PW (which is a MS-PW by itself) can start and end between two Switching Provider Edge (S-PE) devices and span across multiple S-PEs in between. In another exemplary application, the transport PW terminates between two Terminating Provider Edge (T-PE) devices spanning across all S-PEs in between. In a further exemplary application, the transport PW can start at a S-PE or T-PE and terminate at a T-PE or S-PE, respectively. The placement of the endpoints of the transport PW (on two PEs) determines the number of intervening S-PEs that benefit from this application.
US08295261B2
The invention and method provides a concise model for signaling over control channel of cognitive radio. The model is analyzed and simulated for optimum parameters of wireless network. The optimized network parameters facilitate improvement of channel usage for cognitive wireless network leading to bandwidth efficiency.
US08295253B2
A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for wireless communication are provided in which an uplink semi-persistent scheduling release is received an HARQ ACK is determined whether to be transmitted in response to the received uplink semi-persistent scheduling release.
US08295247B2
A multi-mode mobile communication device includes a processing device, a memory sub-system, a communication sub-system operable to communicate with wireless access networks, and a protocol stack stored in the memory sub-system and executed by the processing device. The protocol stack includes a first access stratum, a second access stratum, a non-access stratum and an access stratum manager. The first access stratum communicates with a first wireless access network via the communication sub-system. The second access stratum communicates with a second wireless access network via the communication sub-system. The non-access stratum communicates with a core network. The access stratum manager interfaces the non-access stratum with the first and second access strata, and is operable to activate the first access stratum to establish a communication link with the core network over the first wireless access network.
US08295243B2
Techniques for accessing a wireless communication system are described. A user equipment (UE) sends a random access preamble for system access. The random access preamble may include a random identifier (ID), a channel quality indicator (CQI), etc. The UE may randomly select the random ID or may be assigned this random ID. The UE receives a random access response from a base station. The random access response may include control channel resources (e.g., CQI and PC resources), uplink resources, and/or control information (e.g., timing advance and PC correction) for the UE. The random access response may be sent in two parts using two messages. A first message may be sent on a control channel and may include identification information and possibly other information. A second message may be sent on a shared data channel and may include remaining information for the random access response.
US08295230B2
Operating a mobile wireless network to ensure proper function of protocol entities during the transmission of data units between two wireless stations of the mobile wireless network. User data is assembled by a first convergence protocol layer of the first wireless station into at least one first data unit, particularly a packet data unit, before transmission to a second convergence protocol layer of a second wireless station, particularly on the same protocol level, with the user data being supplied to the first convergence protocol layer by at least one user in a network layer. At least one protocol entity of the first convergence protocol layer is configured as a function of a configuration request received by the second wireless station and transmits the at least one first data unit through a carrier to a link control layer.
US08295229B2
A method of selecting signatures for a random access in a wireless communication system is presented. The method includes receiving information comprising at least one root sequence index, a cyclic shift parameter, and a configuration parameter that corresponds to different power metric threshold values, providing at least one root sequence table for random access transmission according to the configuration parameter, and accessing the at least one root sequence table is accessed to generate a predetermined number of signatures for accessing the base station, the at least one root sequence table accessed according to the at least one root sequence index and the cyclic shift parameters, wherein the root sequence table comprises a plurality of root sequences arranged in first and second root sequence groups.
US08295226B2
A disclosed radio communication apparatus includes an intermediate band detecting unit detecting an intermediate band which is a band between a first frequency band and a second frequency band which are allocated to a same mobile communication system or different mobile communication systems, a use status detecting unit detecting an uplink/downlink multiplexing method used in each of the first frequency band and the second frequency band, and a determination unit determining, based on the intermediate band and the uplink/downlink multiplexing method, the uplink/downlink multiplexing method usable in the intermediate band and a guard band in which use of frequencies are prevented, the guard band being included in the intermediate band.
US08295221B2
There are provided a wireless transmitting apparatus and a wireless transmission method that enable reduction of transmission delay of a system by enhancing receiving performance achieved during transmission of network-coded data. A decoding section 18 subjects a demodulated signal to error correction decoding and outputs the decoded signal to a buffer 17. The buffer 17 holds a data packet for a given period of time and outputs the packet to an encoding section 12. An encoding control section 11 controls an encoding rate for transmission data and outputs control information to the encoding section 12. In accordance with control information from the encoding control section 11, the encoding section 12 subjects a data packet to error correction encoding and outputs the coded data packet to a coding section 13. The coding section 13 subjects data sequences that pair up with each other to XOR processing and outputs a processing result to a modulation section 14. A wireless transmission section 15 subjects a modulated signal to transmission processing, such as digital-to-analogue conversion, up-conversion, and amplification, and transmits the signal subjected to transmission processing from an antenna 16 through wireless communication.
US08295217B2
A method is provided for a device in a wireless communication network including a base station. The method includes sending a sleep mode request to the base station; and receiving a sleep mode response including negotiating parameters from the base station. The method also includes entering a sleep mode determined by a single power saving class applicable to all traffic conditions between the device and the base station; and communicating with the base station based on the sleep mode. Further, the single power saving class is used to define a frame structure for configuring frames to form alternating listening windows and sleep windows, to define an initial sleep window, and to define a default listening window.
US08295207B2
A system and method for handling multimedia conference calls in a telecommunication network. To determine the capabilities of the other terminals in a group, a first terminal sends a query message to a group server. The group server sends further query messages to the other terminals and collects their responses containing their capabilities. The group server analyzes the capabilities to determine a common set of capabilities. The group server then sends the common set of capabilities in a response to the first terminal.
US08295206B2
Techniques are disclosed for determining, for each candidate communication medium, the availability of one or more telecommunications endpoint users for participating in a communication session of interest (i.e., either new or existing) via the evaluated medium. In accordance with the illustrative embodiment of the present invention, an availability manager determines the availability based on (i) one or more discrete rules, or (ii) one or more continuous functions, or both. The continuous functions are specified with respect to the time that has elapsed since a previous session, the time remaining in an active session, and the expected duration of a new session. Once it has determined the availability of one or more participants in the communication session, the availability manager of the illustrative embodiment transmits one or more signals to a call-processing server, which then sets up the participants on the session via the appropriate communication medium such as voice, instant messaging, and so forth.
US08295200B2
Whether an access network supports multicast-based IPTV services from an IPTV service provider is determined. A tone signal encoded with information for the IPTV service provider is used by a terminal to determine whether an access network supports multicast-based IPTV services. The tone signal is also used to determine whether collisions with other IPTV service providers on the access network is probable. Alternatively, a registration request including information for the access network is sent from the terminal to the IPTV service provider. The IPTV service provider uses information in the registration request to determine whether the access network supports multicast-based IPTV services.
US08295199B2
Diversity among telecommunications circuits is maintained by analyzing factors including whether synchronization leads are shared by diverse circuits, whether violations of diversity are brought about by new orders that have been placed, and whether improper personnel have been assigned to monitor diverse circuits. Diversity is further maintained by reporting within a graphical user interface those circuits that are subject to diversity and reporting violations of diversity that exist for those circuits. The graphical user interface may provide various controls for dictating which violations are displayed for which circuits. Additionally, diversity is maintained by providing search options that allow the circuits subject to diversity to be narrowed depending upon user-specified criteria.
US08295185B2
An addressable outlet for use as part of local area network based on wiring installed in a building, such as telephone, electrical, cable television, dedicated wiring, and the like. The use of such wiring for data communications networks in addition to the wiring's primary usage creates a need for ways of determining the condition of the network and monitoring this information remotely. Network condition includes such factors as continuity of wiring, connector status, connected devices, topology, signal delays, latencies, and routing patterns. Providing basic processing and addressing capabilities within the outlet permits messaging to and from specific individual outlets, thereby allowing inquiries and reports of the condition of the immediate environment of each outlet. In addition, outlets can be configured with sensors to report on voltage, temperature, and other measurable quantities.
US08295180B2
The invention is directed to energy-efficient network processing of delay tolerant data packet traffic. Embodiments of the invention determine if an aggregate of time critical traffic flow rates and minimum rates for meeting QoS requirements of delay tolerant traffic flows exceeds a combined optimal rate of packet processing engines of a network processor. In the affirmative case, embodiments set the processing rate of individual packet processing engines to a minimum rate, such that the cumulative rate of the packet processing engines meets the aggregate rate, and schedule the delay tolerant flows to meet their respective minimum rates. Advantageously, by throttling the processing rate of only delay tolerant traffic, energy consumption of network processors can be reduced while at the same time QoS requirements of the delay tolerant traffic and time critical traffic can be met.
US08295177B1
Flows are grouped into flow classes, each of which is assigned flow class treatment rules, which might combine application of both firewall and QoS treatments. When a flow is identified as a member of a flow class, traffic for that flow can be treated according to treatment rules collectively with other flows assigned to that flow class. New flows not already members of an already-defined flow class are examined according to a set of flow class assignment rules, which have the effect of either identifying the proper flow class for that flow, or creating a new flow class for that new flow. For each flow, a first packet determines flow assignment, after which succeeding packets are treated according that flow. For each flow class, a first flow determines flow class assignment, after which succeeding flows are collectively treated according to that flow class.
US08295171B2
A method in a communications system for handling responses to messages includes a step of sending a message from a first party to a second party. A response to the message is sent, with the response including at least one parameter in breach of a policy for a communication between the first party and the second party. A network controller detects that the response includes at least one parameter breaching the policy. The at least one parameter is modified to be consistent with the policy.
US08295170B2
Various embodiments relate to a system and related method for charging an actual subscriber using a single subscriber profile. A Policy and Charging Rules Node (PCRN) may receive a message including a service request and may refer to a subscriber profile to add at least one subscriber identifier (ID) to the message. An Online Charging System (OCS) may thereafter receive a translated message originating from the PCRN and use the at least one subscriber ID included in the translated message to find charging information for the actual subscriber. The OCS may include the charging information in a charged message. A device providing service may then use the charged information to charge the actual subscriber for the requested service.
US08295169B2
A system comprises a plurality of processing modules, one of which is designated to be the primary processing module and the others are designated to be secondary processing modules. During operation, state is maintained in the primary processing module and at least one of the secondary processing modules. A switchover controller causes outputs from the secondary modules to be discarded. When the switchover controller receives an indication that the primary processing module has failed, it designates one of the secondary processing modules to be the primary processing module. Because the newly designated primary processing module already has current state information at switchover, the module is able to operate with minimal delay.
US08295157B1
In an exemplary embodiment, an out-of-band management stack that is located on a managed node receives at least one management command from an out-of-band management application that is located on an administrative system. A monitoring agent on the managed node obtains the at least one management command. For example, the out-of-band management stack may forward the at least one management command to the monitoring agent. Alternatively, the out-of-band management stack may write the at least one management command to a designated location on the managed node, and the monitoring agent may read the at least one management command from the designated location. In response to obtaining the at least one management command, the monitoring agent processes and carries out the at least one management command.
US08295156B2
Provided is a technology for extending a guard interval for individual user equipment in an OFDMA system. The transmitting apparatus includes: a guard interval extension processor for generating symbols with a guard interval extended by copying a part of a current symbol and pasting the copied part to a last part of a previous symbol; a Fourier Transform (FT) processor for receiving the processed symbols from the guard interval extension processor and performing an FT process on the received processed symbols; an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) processor for performing an IFFT process on the FT processed symbols from the FT processor; a mapping processor for mapping outputs of the FT processor to input points of the IFFT processor to load the FT processed frequency-domain data on corresponding sub-carriers; and a cyclic prefix inserter for inserting a cyclic prefix code to output of the IFFT processor.
US08295147B2
An optical pickup apparatus includes: a circuit board; a laser diode mounted on one face of the circuit board; and a high-frequency superimposition integrated circuit arranged on the other face of the circuit board, the high-frequency superimposition integrated circuit including a high-frequency signal generation circuit, the circuit board having an area greater than or equal to an area occupied by a lead pin of the laser diode and a region smaller than or equal to twice a region where the laser diode is mounted, a high-frequency signal generated from the high-frequency signal generation circuit being superimposed on a driving signal to be supplied to the laser diode, in order to take a measure against noise caused by return light of the laser diode.
US08295146B2
An extraction optical system for use in an optical pick-up device receiving a reflected light from an optical disc having a plurality of recording layers is provided. The extraction optical system extracts from a light in which a signal light component from an access target recording layer of the plurality of recording layers and a stray light component from a recording layer other than the access target recording layer of the plurality of recording layers are mixed, the signal light component from the access target recording layer of the plurality of recording layers. The extraction optical system includes a condensing optical element arranged in an optical path of the light and condensing the light, and a selective optical system to which the light condensed by the condensing optical element is incident and reflecting a light primarily containing the signal light component.
US08295143B2
The present invention relates to an aberration correcting device comprising: an aberration correcting element which modulates the phase of incident light; and a position adjusting section which can move the aberration correcting element in a direction perpendicular to an optical axis of the incident light, wherein the aberration correcting element includes first and second aberration correction plates, each of which is disposed such that the phase of transmitted light beam differs with transmission position of the incident light beam with the same phase, and the aberration correcting element has a reference arrangement which is an arrangement of the first and second aberration correction plates in which the light beams transmitted through the aberration correcting element have the same phase, and assuming that a point on the first aberration correction plate crossing the optical axis is a point Oa and a point on the second aberration correction plate crossing the optical axis is a point Ob in the reference arrangement, the position adjusting section includes a mechanism which can move the first and second aberration correction plates in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis and the points Oa and Ob in opposite directions from the reference arrangement and/or a mechanism which can rotate and move the first and second aberration correction plates by the same angle in different directions from the reference arrangement with the points Oa and Ob as the center.
US08295140B2
A recording and reproducing apparatus includes: an optical head unit irradiating a laser beam on an optical recording medium and performing writing and readout of information represented by marks and spaces on the medium; a laser-driving-pulse generating unit generating and supplying a laser driving pulse to the head unit, and causing the head unit to execute laser beam irradiation; an evaluation-value measuring unit measuring an evaluation value representing an error of an edge position of the mark; and a control and calculating unit causing the apparatus to separately execute, concerning mark lengths to be adjusted among mark lengths of the laser driving pulse, for each set of mark lengths grouped in advance, trial writing with shift amounts of edge positions of a laser driving pulse concerning the lengths belonging to the set changed, causing the apparatus to execute readout of a signal recorded by the execution of the trial writing, causing the measuring unit to measure an evaluation value under setting of the respective shift amounts, and obtaining an optimum edge shift amount of the laser driving pulse for each of the lengths to be adjusted.
US08295125B2
Detecting an object using sound waves includes outputting a sound wave from a transducer, receiving an echo after outputting the sound wave, obtaining a threshold value based on the echo and plural other echoes that are within a predetermined range of the echo, and determining if the echo is a result of the sound wave based on the threshold value.
US08295121B2
A clock buffer includes a reference enable signal generator configured to generate a reference enable signal enabled in synchronization with a rising edge of a first period of a second clock after a clock enable signal is enabled, a delay enable signal generator configured to generate a delayed enable signal enabled in synchronization with a rising edge of a second period of a first clock after the reference enable signal is enabled, a first output unit configured to receive the reference enable signal and the first clock to generate a first internal clock, and a second output unit configured to receive the delayed enable signal and the second clock to generate a second internal clock.
US08295118B2
A method is disclosed comprising detecting an edge-transition of a strobe signal using hysteresis, the strobe signal originating in a first clock domain. A count is controlled in a first direction in response to the detected edge-transition. The count is controlled in a second direction in response to an edge-transition of a clock signal, the clock signal originating in a second clock domain. Data is interfaced between the first and second clock domains in response to the count.
US08295111B2
A semiconductor memory device comprises a substrate comprising a first cell array region, a first sense circuit region, a second sense circuit region, and a second cell array region that are arranged in order from a first side to a second side. First and second bit lines are coupled to a plurality of memory cells in the first cell array region, and first and second complementary bit lines are coupled to a plurality of memory cells in the second cell array region. A first column selector is formed in the first sense circuit region and is coupled to the first bit line and the first complementary bit line. A second column selector is formed in the second sense circuit region and is coupled to the second bit line and the second complementary bit line. The first column selector and the second column selector are formed directly adjacent to each other.
US08295099B1
A data value is read from one port of a dual-port memory cell during a clock cycle. A WRITE assist pulse having a delay from an end-of-read signal is generated. The delay and duration of the WRITE assist pulse are optionally user-selectable. A high voltage (e.g., Vdd) is coupled to the bitlines (e.g., BL-A, BLc-A) of the first port during the WRITE assist pulse, and a low voltage value (e.g., zero) is written to the memory cell through the second port (e.g., BL-B, BLc-B) during the clock cycle.
US08295081B2
Non-volatile memory devices with two stacked layers of chalcogenide materials comprising the active memory device have been investigated for their potential as phase-change memories. The devices tested included GeTe/SnTe, Ge2Se3/SnTe, and Ge2Se3/SnSe stacks. All devices exhibited resistance switching behavior. The polarity of the applied voltage with respect to the SnTe or SnSe layer was critical to the memory switching properties, due to the electric field induced movement of either Sn or Te into the Ge-chalcogenide layer. One embodiment of the invention is a device comprising a stack of chalcogenide-containing layers which exhibit phase-change switching only after a reverse polarity voltage potential is applied across the stack causing ion movement into an adjacent layer and thus “activating” the device to act as a phase-change random access memory device or a reconfigurable electronics device when the applied voltage potential is returned to the normal polarity. Another embodiment of the invention is a device that is capable of exhibiting more than two data states.
US08295079B2
The present invention is a memory circuit that includes a bistable circuit that stores data; and a ferromagnetic tunnel junction device that nonvolatilely stores the data stored in the bistable circuit according to a magnetization direction of a ferromagnetic electrode free layer, the data nonvolatilely stored in the ferromagnetic tunnel junction device being able to be restored in the bistable circuit. According to the present invention, writing data to and reading data from the bistable circuit can be performed at high speed. In addition, even though a power source is shut down, it is possible to restore data nonvolatilely stored in the ferromagnetic tunnel junction devices to the bistable circuit.
US08295077B2
A semiconductor memory device comprises a plurality of first row lines arranged in parallel; a plurality of column lines intersecting the first row lines; a plurality of storage elements arranged at intersections of the first row lines and the column lines; a plurality of second row lines arranged in parallel with the first row lines, from positions opposite to the first row lines via the column lines to a certain portion of the column line, and capacitively coupled with the column lines; and a sense amplifier including a field effect transistor having a lower layer control electrode composed of the certain portion of the column line, and an upper layer control electrode composed of the second row line capacitively coupled in the upper layer with the certain portion of the column line.
US08295076B2
Memory devices include a row decoder, a first variable resistance memory cell connected to a first bit line and connected to the row decoder by a word line and a second variable resistance memory cell connected to a second bit line and connected to the row decoder by the word line. The memory devices further include a bit line select circuit coupled to the first and second bit lines and configured to compensate for a difference in word line resistance between the row decoder and the respective first and second memory cells. In some embodiments, the bit line select circuit includes first and second transistors configured to selective respective ones of the first and second bit lines and the first and second transistors have different resistances that compensate for the difference in word line resistance.
US08295068B2
A phase shift full bridge power converting system and a control method has the phase shift full bridge power converting system with a power converter, a controller, a load state detecting module, a switching controller, a switch module, a command generating module, a comparator, and a modulator module. The load state detecting module interfaces with the power converter and the switching controller. The load state detects module detects load parameter data of the power converter and switches a state at an output by using the switching controller. The controller obtains an error value between an output voltage of the comparator and a command voltage and calculates a duty cycle parameter by using the error value. According to the duty cycle parameter, a pulse control signal is generated to be outputted to a drive module for controlling the driving of the power converter.
US08295055B2
A locking assembly for locking at least one electronics card to a rack, the assembly comprising: at least one electronics card; a rack having a bottom plate with at least one housing; and a locking system for locking the card on the rack; the locking system including at least one resilient prestress element for prestressing the electronics card when it is fastened to the rack.
US08295052B2
A flat panel display apparatus includes a display panel, a chassis configured to support a backside of the display panel, and a flexible circuit board on which a driving circuit for driving the display panel is mounted. The chassis includes a first flat plate bonded to the display panel on a surface side, and a second flat plate bonded to a front cover arranged on the surface side of the display panel. The flexible circuit board has one end connected to the display panel, and another end arranged between the first and second flat plates. The second flat plate includes a plurality of flange portions formed to be bonded to the front cover.
US08295046B2
A heat sink includes a blower located in the heat sink and a plurality of fins extending from a periphery of the blower toward a perimeter of the heat sink. The plurality of fins define a plurality of channels each having a channel inlet located at the blower and a channel exit located at the perimeter of the heat sink. The plurality of channels vary in length around the perimeter of the heat sink A velocity of an air flow from the blower at each channel inlet is substantially equal for each channel of the plurality of channels, and a total pressure drop from the channel inlet to the channel exit is substantially equal for each channel of the plurality of channels.
US08295045B2
A case includes a box, a top cover, a first airflow guide member, and a second airflow guide member. The box has an opening sealed by the top cover. The first airflow guide member and the second airflow guide member are fixed on at least one of the top cover and a side plate of the box. The first airflow guide member and the second airflow guide member are spaced from each other, and cooperatively define a guide channel. The box defines an inlet and an outlet communicating with the guide channel.
US08295041B2
An exemplary data center includes two server systems arranged back to back. Each server system includes a server cabinet, a rail system, at least two servers and a fan module. The servers are accommodated in the server cabinet. The fan module is located at a rear side of the two servers and perpendicular to the servers to provide a horizontal airflow to cool the servers. The fan module is capable of rolling on the rail system between a rear side and a front side of the server cabinet to interchange between a vertical state and a horizontal state. Assembly or disassembly of the fan module is performed from the front side of the server cabinet where there is a greater amount of workspace.
US08295040B2
A small form factor desktop computing device having a suitable internal cooling arrangement is disclosed. The device can be formed of a single piece seamless housing machined from a single billet of aluminum. The single piece seamless housing includes an aesthetically pleasing foot support having at least a portion formed of RF transparent material that provides easy user access to selected internal components as well as offers electromagnetic shielding. The device can also include a removable foot, a heat producing element, a fan, an air processing manifold having a plurality of angled fins, and a heat exchanger.
US08295035B2
The subject invention is directed to an improved modular multilevel raised floor electro-mechanical distribution system for installation in building structures including, but not limited to, data centers and similar rooms having high heat loads requiring usually dedicated cooling systems and usually having extensive data cabling and wiring. In addition to a walking and equipment support surface, the invention provides dedicated levels, isolated from one another and positioned under the walking surface, for distribution of electrical services, including data, on the one hand, and conditioned air, on the other.
US08295029B1
A multi-segment capacitor fabricated on a semiconductor substrate includes MxN capacitor segments arranged in a matrix of M rows and N columns. Each capacitor segment includes two groups of conductive fingers preferably made of metal wires. The metal wire fingers are distributed within multiple metal layers in such a manner that two neighboring parallel metal wire fingers within a particular metal layer are electrically insulated and connected to different terminals of the capacitor. Further, at least the longitudinal axes of the parallel metal wire fingers within two different metal layers are not parallel to each other within the same capacitor segment.
US08295026B2
In an electrostatic chuck provided inside a processing chamber of a substrate processing apparatus and including a high voltage electrode plate for electrostatically attracting a target substrate, a heater includes a plate-shaped resistor and two electrode plates respectively brought into surface-contact with a front surface and a rear surface of the resistor, and one of the two electrode plates of the heater serves as the high voltage electrode plate for electrostatically attracting the target substrate.
US08295018B2
An ESD protection circuit includes a signal pad, a short circuited shunt stub on-chip with and coupled to the signal pad, an open circuited shunt stub on-chip and coupled to the signal pad.
US08295006B2
A magnetic sensor reduces thermal fluctuation and realizes high-sensitive signal detection using a spin Hall device of a simple structure configured with only one magnetic layer. The magnetic sensor includes a stacked film in which a nonmagnetic spin Hall layer, a nonmagnetic insulator layer, and a magnetic layer are stacked, an electrode nonmagnetic terminal pair connected to a side surface of the nonmagnetic spin Hall layer, and a unit applying a current in a film thickness direction of the stacked film. A thickness of the nonmagnetic spin Hall layer is thinner than twice a spin diffusion length of a material constituting the nonmagnetic spin Hall layer. A magnetization direction of the magnetic layer magnetized by an external magnetic field is detected due to the polarity of a voltage across both ends of the electrode nonmagnetic terminal pair.
US08295005B2
A method is provided to handle portable cassettes removeably disposed in a data storage library, wherein the method supplies a data storage library comprising a plurality of storage slots, and a plurality of portable cassettes removeably disposed a designated storage slot in a first alignment order, and a pass-through accessor comprising a moveable fixturing apparatus to store portable cassettes, wherein the pass-through accessor is moveably disposed in the data storage library. The method positions the pass-through accessor adjacent an open end of a designated storage slot, and sequentially removes and attaches to the fixturing apparatus a plurality of portable cassettes from the designated storage slot. The method then transports the plurality of portable cassettes to a designated location within the data storage library.
US08294993B2
A variable reflectivity notch filter (100), suitable for use with a laser image projection source (1001) is provided. The variable reflectivity notch filter (100) defines a transmission curve (101) having a plurality of reflective peaks (102,103,104) each centered about a predetermined wavelength (105,106,107), which can correspond to output wavelengths from laser sources. Reflective peaks (204) corresponding to wavelengths that change with temperature are configured with wider widths (223) and lesser reflectivities (210) than are other reflective peaks (202,203). To provide enhanced color balance, lasers (821) corresponding to these reflective peaks (204) can be driven at higher output power. Variable reflectivity notch filters (100) are suitable for use in head-up displays as well as other applications.
US08294992B2
This invention presents a projection-receiving surface that has a surface having an undulating contour. The undulating contour comprises a plurality of alternating convex cylindrical surface segments and concave cylindrical surface segments. The convex cylindrical surface segments and concave cylindrical surface segments of the undulating contour of the surface arranged with cylindrical axes in a direction. The surface can further have an additional surface feature comprising striations, cusps, and/or nanoflaked reflector leaves. The striations are arranged crosswise to the undulating contour. The surface can be a reflection surface of a front projection-receiving surface.
US08294990B2
An apparatus includes an optical filter having first and second passbands that are different, the optical filter including selectively operable first passband adjusting structure that varies a characteristic of the first passband without influencing the second passband. According to a different aspect, a method includes filtering radiation with an optical filter having first and second passbands that are different, and selectively varying a characteristic of the first passband without influencing the second passband.
US08294985B2
Observation is performed using bright, clear multiphoton fluorescence images produced by efficiently generating a multiphoton excitation effect, without the need for a complex interference film structure. The invention employs a laser microscope apparatus including a first dichroic mirror that reflects visible laser light guided via a first light path and that transmits IR pulsed laser light guided via a second light path to combine the first light path and the second light path; an XY galvanometer mirror that scans the laser light from the first dichroic mirror on a specimen; an objective lens that irradiates the specimen with the scanned laser light and that collects fluorescence produced in the specimen; a second dichroic mirror that reflects the visible laser light and transmits the fluorescence from the specimen; and a detection unit that detects the fluorescence transmitted through the second dichroic mirror.
US08294983B2
In an optical amplifier including a metal layer having an incident/reflective surface adapted to receive incident light and output its reflective light, and a dielectric layer formed on an opposite surface of the metal layer opposing the incident/reflective surface, the incident light excites surface plasmon resonance light in the metal layer while the dielectric layer is excited, so that an extinction coefficient of the dielectric layer is made negative.
US08294975B2
An automotive rearview mirror assembly includes an electrochromic reflective element having a transparent electrical conductor disposed at a second surface of a first substrate and a mirror reflector disposed at a third surface of a second substrate. The mirror assembly includes electrochromic mirror dimming circuitry for controlling dimming of the electrochromic medium. The mirror assembly may include one or more features and at least one of the features may share a component with the electrochromic mirror dimming circuitry and/or share circuitry with the electrochromic mirror dimming circuitry. The mirror assembly may include a video camera and/or an on-demand display viewable through the mirror reflector by the driver of the equipped vehicle when displaying information and substantially non-viewable by the driver of the equipped vehicle when not displaying information.
US08294971B2
An optical path delay scanner, comprising a rotatable mount, a first prism and a second prism disposed on the mount, and a radiation source aligned to project light through the first prism and the second prism. The radiation source may be arranged to project the light on a surface of the first prism at an incidence angle corresponding to the prism's minimum deviation angle. The scanner may be disposed in a reference arm of a Michaelson interferometer.
US08294961B2
A scanning apparatus to indicate a scanning progress status includes a main body having a platen on which a document is set, a scanning module to move inside the main body and to scan the document, and an indicating light disposed integrally with the scanning module to indicate a current location of the scanning module.
US08294959B2
An automated system and method for recognizing handwritten edits contained on a hard-copy document, the hand-written edits being made in one of two colors, and creating an electronic version of the hard-copy document with the edits applied, the edits being applied according to the highlighted color of the edit.
US08294957B2
In a data processing apparatus of the present invention, a disk unit storing a disk is mounted on the apparatus such that the surface of the disk is parallel to the direction of a shock or an impact. This protects the disk unit and therefore the disk from the influence of shocks and impacts as far as possible.
US08294952B2
A halftoning process includes: receiving CMYK input pixel data in terms of continuous tone input data values for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black colors converting the CMYK input pixel data to modified CMYKRGB* pixel data that define the input pixel in terms of error-adjusted continuous tone data values quantizing the modified CMYKRGB* pixel data to derive intermediate output CMYKRGB pixel data in which the cyan, magenta, yellow, black, red, green, and blue colors are each defined by either a first quantized value that represents no color or a second quantized pixel value that represents full color converting the intermediate output CMYKRGB pixel data to CMYK output data.
US08294951B2
A method of reducing the amount of black in an image is disclosed. The method is using a computer to reduce the amount of or eliminate the black in an original digital image. The major procedure is to increase the pixels of the original digital image (by four or nine times) and then change the color information of the pixels.
US08294949B2
For sharing, as a second profile for a second output device, a known first profile for converting input device-dependent image data into first output device-dependent image data by performing a pre-gradation converting process, a color converting process, and a post-gradation converting process on the input device-dependent image data, a differential between a one-dimensional gradation conversion curve of a first color image output device and an inverse conversion curve of a one-dimensional gradation conversion curve of a second color image output device is determined by a differential generator, and then the first profile and a differential table are used as the second profile for the second color image output device.
US08294939B2
A method for managing a plurality of print jobs is implemented in a print job management apparatus connected to printers. The method includes receiving print job, and visually presenting a display screen to a user, the display screen including first, second and third panels for classifying the received print jobs according to processing phase thereof, the first panel being provided for listing print jobs that are awaiting assignment of printers thereto for processing the print jobs, the second panel being provided for listing print jobs that have been assigned to printers and that have not been completed by the assigned printers, the third panel being provided for listing at least one of first and second categories of print jobs, the first category including print jobs that have been completed, the second category including print jobs that have been cancelled.
US08294932B2
In an image forming apparatus that receives print data from an external device and prints out the print data in response to a print command, a searching unit that searches, when new print data is received from the external device, a storage unit storing therein the print data that includes user information for previous print data that includes user information same as that of the new print data; and a notifying unit that sends, when the searching unit finds the previous print data, a notice to the external device saying that the previous print data is still present in the storage unit.
US08294930B2
A printing system includes a portable unit terminal, a server connected through a network to the portable unit terminal, and a printer capable of printing print data, which are received from the portable unit terminal. The portable unit terminal includes an image-acquiring device; an input device; a text-data-transmitting device that transmits text data to the server; a layout-data-receiving device that receives layout data sent from the server; a print-data-producing device that places image data acquired by the image-acquiring device in accordance with layout data received by the layout-data-receiving device; and a print-data-transmitting device that sends print data to the printer. The server includes a template-storage device that stores a template used for printing image data and text data by the printer; a text-data-receiving device; a layout-data-producing device that inserts the text data received by the text-data-receiving device into a stored template to produce layout data; and a layout-data-transmitting device.
US08294926B2
An image forming apparatus with increased convenience of setting an operation panel includes a touch panel LCD, an LCD controller, a video RAM, a control RAM, a panel CPU performing an operation for realizing the image forming apparatus based on data input from outside, a nonvolatile RAM a backup power supply, a flash ROM, a communication unit, a printer CPU performing communications for realizing image formation processing with the panel CPU through the communication unit, an input/output unit, a control RAM, an image RAM, a flash ROM, and an external I/F controller.
US08294922B2
An image forming apparatus is provided, in which the image forming apparatus includes a user database in which user identification information for identifying an user of the image forming apparatus is registered, an operation panel for receiving a key operation input, a secure program used for determining whether a user service can be provided on the basis of the user identification information in the user database and another user identification information input by the user.
US08294921B2
When data is output from an archive-function incompatible driver to an archive-function incompatible device, that data is omitted from those to be archived. To this end, an image outputting apparatus of this invention determines whether or not received data has already been archived. When it is determined that the received data has already been archived, an image is outputted based on that received data. When it is determined that the received data has not been archived yet, image outputting of the received data is inhibited. Furthermore, the image outputting apparatus instructs a PC that transmitted the data to install an archive-function compatible driver.
US08294920B2
In a job processing system, usage restriction information is managed for restricting user usage of functions of a job processing apparatus. An information processing apparatus acquires usage restriction information corresponding to a first operator instructing generation of job data, and writes the usage restriction information into job data to be transmitted to the job processing apparatus. The job processing apparatus checks whether or not the usage restriction information is written in the job data received from the information processing apparatus, and when the usage restriction information is confirmed, processes the job data in accordance with the usage restriction information, and when the usage restriction information is not confirmed, processes the job data in accordance with usage restriction information of a second operator instructing execution of a job in the job processing apparatus.
US08294919B2
A document processor receives a document to be processed and captures data from the document. The document processor includes a plurality of processing devices and conveys documents past the plurality of processing devices to allow the processing devices to perform operations on the documents. A programmable endorser prints an endorsement on a document as the document is processed. The programmable endorser includes a plurality of character segments in the form of various shapes such that the endorsement is printed by building characters from the character segments.
US08294917B2
An image forming apparatus is supplied capable of lowering cost of exchange part. In the image forming apparatus, the exchange part is furnished being attachable and removable, an identification information obtaining process section to obtain identification information of the exchange part from the exchange part, and an operation allowing process section to allow image formation in the case that the identification information obtaining process section can not obtain the identification information, are comprised, so that it is unnecessary to provide an identification information storing portion for storing the identification information to the exchange part of shipment stage.
US08294912B2
Conventionally, pixel data are converted into the tile sequence. According to this invention, span information or run-length information during conversion into pixel data from vector data such as a display list converted from a page description language is converted into the tile sequence before rendering into pixel data. This can greatly reduce the amount of data temporarily stored for conversion into the tile sequence.
US08294906B2
A measuring head system for a coordinate measuring machine, having a scanning element for contacting a measured object as a contacting part, which can be moved such that an object to be measured can be mechanically scanned using the scanning element. An optical sensor is fixed on the measuring head base. Means are provided to generate a projection on the sensor line using at least one radiation source. The means have at least one first mask element to generate a first partial projection on the sensor line such that said partial projection is optimized to determine an x displacement and a y displacement of the contacting part in relation to the measuring head base in the x direction or y direction. An analysis unit is configured to determine the x displacement and the y displacement from signals only generated by the one sensor line.
US08294905B2
This invention provides an optical measurement device enabling a highly accurate measurement with respect to a measuring target object in which an inclined surface or a curved surface exists at one part of the surface or a tilted measuring target object. The light shielding portion is configured to define an incident angle range with respect to a light receiving center axis of a diffuse reflected light. In other words, a maximum angle formed by the advancing direction of the diffuse reflected light and the light receiving center axis when the diffuse reflected light passes through the opening of the light shielding portion is defined by the diameter of the opening. The light projecting portion projects a light projection beam so that a converging position on the light receiving center axis is included within a range of the light shielding portion on the light receiving center axis for the component converged by the lens portion of the light projection beam (i.e., reflected light beam) specular reflected at the surface of the measuring target object.
US08294900B2
Systems and methods for improved resonator fiber optic gyroscope intensity modulation control are provided. In one embodiment, a resonant fiber optic gyroscope (RFOG) having a residual intensity modulation (RIM) controller comprises: an intensity modulator optically coupled to receive a light beam from a laser source modulated at a resonance detection modulation frequency; an optical tap device optically coupled to the intensity modulator; and a feedback servo coupled to the optical tap device and the intensity modulator, the demodulating feedback servo generating a sinusoidal feedback signal to the intensity modulator. The feedback servo adjusts an amplitude and phase of the sinusoidal feedback signal provided to intensity modulator based on a residual intensity modulation detected by the demodulating feedback servo.
US08294878B2
Positional information of each of wafer stages during exposure and during alignment is measured directly under a projection optical system and directly under a primary alignment system, respectively, by a plurality of encoder heads, Z heads and the like, which a measurement bar placed below surface plates has, using gratings placed on the lower surfaces of fine movement stages. Since a main frame that supports the projection optical system and the measurement bar are separated, deformation of the measurement bar caused by inner stress (including thermal stress) and transmission of vibration or the like from the main frame to the measurement bar, and the like do not occur, which is different from the case where the main frame and the measurement bar are integrated. Consequently, high-precision measurement of the positional information of the wafer stages can be performed.
US08294867B2
At least one side of a sealing member is formed on an outer edge of a first substrate, and a common transfer terminal portion is formed along at least a part of the sealing member formed on the outer edge of the first substrate.
US08294866B2
Disclosed are a liquid crystal display device and a method of manufacturing the liquid crystal display device. The liquid crystal display device includes a first insulating substrate, a gate line and a data line formed on the first insulating substrate and crossing each other, a first pixel electrode formed on the first insulating substrate and including a first part and a second part which are physically separated, a second pixel electrode formed on the first insulating substrate and forming an electric field with the first pixel electrode, a connection bridge including at least one conductive layer and electrically connecting the first part with the second part through a contact hole, and at least one insulating layer positioned between the first pixel electrode and the connection bridge, wherein the contact hole is formed in the at least one insulating layer.
US08294859B2
A transflective liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal film and a polarizing plate on a backlight source side. A transflective liquid crystal display device includes an uniaxially anisotropic film (a quarter wave plate) and a polarizing plate on a visual confirmation side. The liquid crystal film has the nematic hybrid orientation, in which a polymeric liquid crystal substance formed in a liquid state is fixed. The optical axis of the anisotropic film is disposed to be orthogonal or substantially orthogonal to that of the liquid crystal film.
US08294856B2
A display substrate includes a base substrate, a gate line, a first insulation layer, a semiconductor layer, a data line, a switching element, a light-blocking member, a reflective electrode, a second insulation layer and a transmissive electrode. The switching element is defined by a gate electrode, a source electrode and a drain electrode spaced apart from a source electrode. The light-blocking member includes a first light-blocking part disposed in correspondence with an area where the gate line and the data line are disposed, and a second light-blocking part is disposed in a reflective area to include an embossing pattern. The reflective electrode is disposed on the second light-blocking part. The second insulation layer is disposed in a pixel area of the reflective electrode. The transmissive electrode is disposed on the second insulation layer in correspondence with a transmissive area of the pixel area.
US08294845B2
The present invention relates to a cabinet structure for a display apparatus such as a liquid crystal television. The cabinet structure of a display apparatus 1 is provided with: a liquid crystal module 3 provided with a liquid crystal panel 31; a front cabinet 2 that has an open window portion through which a display screen of the liquid crystal panel is exposed; and a rear cabinet that is joined to the front cabinet to form a cabinet main body in which the liquid crystal module is accommodated, and the liquid crystal module 3 is fitted to the front cabinet 2, in a state in which a convex-curved press rib 4 that is curved along a length direction thereof to be convex is pressed against a bezel 32 of the liquid crystal module 3. Thus, a simpler cabinet structure for a display apparatus is achieved that is capable of realizing a preferable appearance of the display screen of the liquid crystal panel and the cabinet when they are assembled together, and that is capable of preventing the occurrence of vibration noise.
US08294839B2
A method for manufacturing a thin film transistor array panel is disclosed. A gate wiring pattern is formed on an insulating substrate. A gate insulating layer is formed on the gate wiring pattern. A semiconductor pattern is formed on the gate insulating layer. A transparent conductive layer is formed on the gate insulating layer. The transparent conductive layer is patterned to form a pixel electrode. An opening is formed at a circumference of the pixel electrode. The opening minimizes misalignment during the manufacturing process and prevents shorts between a data line and the pixel electrode.
US08294833B2
An image projection method comprises the steps of a) obtaining an image pixel array for the image to be projected; b) obtaining a plurality of pixel allocation arrays for the image pixel array, whereby each pixel allocation array comprises occupied elements and vacant elements; c) generating a trigger pulse train for a laser light source according to a pixel allocation array, whereby a trigger pulse is generated for each occupied element; d) generating a modulation signal for the laser light source; e) switching the laser light source with the trigger pulse train and modulating the laser light source with the modulation signal to generate a laser light pulse sequence for a sub-frame image; f) and scanning the laser light pulse sequence to traverse the display; thereby, the steps c) to f) are carried out for each pixel allocation array so that the image appears on the display.
US08294832B2
A remote control for an electronic device includes a plurality of keys, a power supply, a power control unit, a code modulating unit, and a transmitter. The plurality of keys generates different first electrical signals when actuated. The power supply is operable to power the remote control. The power control unit detects a voltage of the power supply, and generates a second electrical signal when the voltage of the power supply falls below a predetermined value. The code modulating unit generates different key code signals according to the different first electrical signals, and a switch code signal according to the second electrical signal. The transmitter converts the different key code signals and the switch code signal into different wireless signals, and transmits the different wireless signals to the electronic device.
US08294827B2
A method for correcting the white balance of a display by: setting a target color coordinates of a target white point of a target white point plane at a predetermined color temperature and a group of gray levels as the input gray levels in response to a user input command; constructing a white color image according to the group of the gray levels; measuring luminance and color coordinates of a measured white point of the white color image; estimating luminance of the R, G, B based on the standard color coordinates defined in a standard color space, the measured luminance and color coordinates of the measured white point; estimating gray levels of the R, G, B based on the estimated luminance of the R, G, B; and reconstructing the Gamma table based on the estimated adjusted gray levels of the two adjustable colors.
US08294821B1
A software or hardware agent running on a personal computing device provides allows application programs to interact with consumer electronic devices using standardized controls. The consumer electronic devices appear to be directly connected to the personal computing device rather than being connected over a high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) network. This enables a user to control the consumer electronic devices using a single interface rather than a separate interface for each consumer electronic device. The agent enumerates a universal serial bus (USB) human interface device (HID) for each consumer electronic device reported on the HDMI network. The USB HIDs represent the specific capabilities of the each one of the consumer electronic devices.
US08294820B2
A video signal synchronization signal generating apparatus for making a display reference synchronization signal Vb that serves as a reference of video display and has a first frequency and an input synchronization signal Vi that constitutes images and has a second frequency synchronized with each other, the apparatus including: a frequency ratio generating section configured to divide a frequency that is double the first frequency by the second frequency to calculate a frequency ratio n; a Vx generation comparator circuit section configured to generate coincidence signal Vx′ having pulses that are inserted by equally dividing one period of the input synchronization signal Vi by the frequency ratio n; and a Vx generation circuit section configured to remove the alternate pulses of the coincidence signal Vx′ to generate synchronization signal Vx of a same phase as the phase of the input synchronization signal Vi.
US08294812B2
A super-resolution processing portion has a high-resolution image generation portion that fuses a plurality of first input images together to generate a high-resolution image. The first input images are shot at a shutter speed equal to or faster than the super-resolution limit shutter speed, which is the lower-limit shutter speed that enables super-resolution processing to make the resolution of the output image equal to or higher than that of the input images. According to the amount of exposure, one of the following different methods for super-resolution processing is selected: a first method that yields as the output image the high-resolution image; a second method that yields as the output image a weighted added image resulting from weighted addition of the high-resolution image and an image based on an averaged image; and a third method that yields as the output image a weighted added image resulting from weighted addition of the high-resolution image and an image based on a second input image.
US08294806B2
A photographic lens system including multiple lens units where at least a part of one of the multiple lens units is movable in a direction, which includes a vector component orthogonal to an optical axis, and where the photographic lens system can have a normal and image stabilizing mode.
US08294805B2
An image capturing apparatus includes: an imaging unit configured to capture an image of a subject and outputs image data containing the image; a display unit configured to display a live preview image of the subject based on the image data output from the imaging unit; a processor configured to set an image size of the image to be recorded and perform image processing on the live preview image to control a display range of the live preview image to be displayed on the display unit based on the image size to be recorded.
US08294802B2
A charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor includes a layer of a semiconductor material having a first conductivity type. A horizontal CCD channel region of a second conductivity type is disposed in the layer of the semiconductor material. The horizontal CCD channel region includes multiple phases that are used to shift photo-generated charge through the horizontal CCD channel region. Distinct overflow drain regions are disposed in the layer of semiconducting material, with an overflow drain region electrically connected to only one particular phase of the horizontal CCD channel region.
US08294801B2
A solid-state imaging device includes: a pixel array unit having arranged unit pixels, each having a charge generator generating signal charges, and a signal output unit having a charge transfer unit, and generating and outputting a processing-target signal corresponding to the signal charges; a driving controller driving the unit pixels, the driving controller sequentially driving the charge transfer unit; and a transfer driving voltage setting unit setting, on the basis of a pixel signal based on a saturated charge amount of the charge generator and a pixel signal based on an intermediate voltage retained charge amount retained in the charge generator after intermediate transfer in which charge transfer is performed at a level between a complete transfer level and an off level, the level of the intermediate voltage such that an actual intermediate voltage retained charge amount becomes the expectation value of the intermediate voltage retained charge amount.
US08294799B2
A solid-state imaging apparatus including: a pixel section having two-dimensionally arranged pixels each containing a photoelectric conversion device for converting a light signal into a signal electric charge and accumulating the signal electric charge, an amplification means for amplifying and outputting as a pixel signal the signal electric charges accumulated at the photoelectric conversion device, a transfer means for transferring the accumulated signal electric charges to the amplification means, and a reset means for resetting the signal electric charges; a vertical scanning section for outputting a vertical scanning signal to drive/control the pixel section row by row; and a vertical selecting section for generating a row transfer signal in accordance with the vertical scanning signal to drive the transfer means and for generating a row reset signal having a falling edge delayed by a predetermined amount from the row transfer signal to drive the reset means.
US08294798B2
A solid-state imaging apparatus including a pixel section having pixels arranged into rows and columns each pixel containing at least a photoelectric conversion device for converting an incident light into signal electric charges, a transfer device for transferring the signal electric charges generated at the photoelectric conversion device, and an amplification device for amplifying the transferred signal electric charges; constant current supplies each connected to respective one of the vertical signal lines; an amplification section for amplifying an image signal; a clip section for clipping the vertical signal line so that it does not fall below a predetermined voltage in a read period for outputting the signal electric charges generated at the photoelectric conversion device onto the vertical signal line; and a control section for changing a clip level of the clip section in accordance with setting of an amplification factor at the amplification section.
US08294797B2
An image generating apparatus including a filtering unit to filter a plurality of light signals including a first filter region and a second filter region. The first filter region may allow a complementary color wavelength band of an incident light signal to pass through and the second filter region may allow a whole wavelength band of the incident light signal to pass through. At least one of the first filter region and the second filter region includes two sub-regions configured to pass filtered light signals with two different sensitivities. In addition, an image sensing unit may sense at least one of the filtered light signals of different sensitivities in the complementary color wavelength band and the filtered light signals of different sensitivities in the whole wavelength band from the filtering unit and an image processing unit may generate an image based on the sensed light signals.
US08294793B2
The present invention relates to a solid-state imaging device, etc., which makes it possible to obtain an image with higher resolution by properly correcting pixel data even when any one of row selecting wirings is disconnected. A solid-state imaging device (1) comprises a photodetecting section (10), a signal reading-out section (20), a controlling section (30), and a correction processing section (40). In the photodetecting section (10), M×N pixel portions P1,1 to PM,N are two-dimensionally arrayed in a matrix of M rows and N columns, and each of the pixel portions P1,1 to PM,N includes a photodiode and a reading-out switch. Charges generated in each pixel portion Pm,n are inputted into an integrating circuit Sn through a reading-out wiring LO,n, and a voltage value corresponding to the amount of charges is outputted from the integrating circuit Sn. The voltage value from the integrating circuit Sn is outputted to an output wiring Lout through a holding circuit Hn. In the correction processing section (40), correction processing is applied to frame data repeatedly outputted from the signal reading-out section (20), and the frame data after correction is outputted.
US08294790B2
A video recording device adapted to be resistive to thermal and mechanical shocks experienced in a catastrophic event, the device including a plurality of interchangeable components, the device comprising: a housing; a video component releasably mounted in the housing and having a lens for capturing images from an external environment of the device and a digital processor for producing digital data from the captured images; a memory component releasably mounted in the housing and releasably coupled to the video component adapted for storing the digital data received from the video component, the memory component including a non-volatile memory unit and an enclosure adapted for inhibiting the transfer of thermal and mechanical shocks from the external environment to the non-volatile memory unit, the non-volatile memory unit enclosed in the enclosure; and an interface component releasably mounted in the housing and releasably coupled to the video component and the memory component, the interface component adapted for providing power and data communication from the external environment to the video component and the memory component.
US08294787B2
Disclosed is a digital camera 2 including: a communication control unit 24 that receives album information A transmitted from a display control device and formed of a plurality of JPEG image files and a play list indicating a linkage among the files; a recording medium 25 that records the album information; an image display unit 222 that displays images of the plurality of recorded JPEG image files; and a CPU 261 that performs processing for displaying, on the image display unit, images of JPEG image files associated with one another by image linkage information of the play list among the plurality of JPEG image files based on an input of an image switching instruction from the operation input unit 231.
US08294780B2
An exemplary portable electronic device includes a main body, camera modules, a storage unit for storing images, and an image processing unit. The camera modules are accommodated in the main body and exposed the ambient environment. The camera modules have different focal lengths from each other, and are configured for simultaneously picking up images of an object. The image processing unit is electrically connected with the camera modules. The image processing unit is configured for comparing the modulation transfer function (MTF) values of the images, and transmitting data of the image having the greatest MTF value to the storage unit.
US08294779B2
An image sensing apparatus according to this invention includes an image sensing unit which sequentially generates still image data, a holding unit which holds a plurality of still image data, a display unit which displays the still image data, a setting unit which sets a predetermined state as the start timing of shooting by the image sensing unit, a determination unit which determines whether the predetermined state has been obtained, a shooting control unit which causes the image sensing unit to start shooting when the determination unit determines that the predetermined state has been obtained, a display control unit which causes the display unit to sequentially display, at a display speed lower than an actual time, the still image data, a selection unit which selects one of a plurality of image data displayed on the display unit, and a recording unit which records the selected image data.
US08294778B2
An image processor includes a frequency transformation unit configured to perform frequency transformation processing with respect to a multiple image, and an inter-superimposed-image displacement acquisition unit that calculates a displacement amount between images forming superimposed images included in the multiple image by using a frequency-transformed image subjected to the frequency transformation processing by the frequency transformation unit.
US08294777B2
A proposition is to perform a high accurate chromatic coordinate conversion of a chromaticity value generated by a color sensor into a chromaticity value of a predetermined chromaticity coordinate system, and to perform an accurate color-reproduction. A chromatic coordinate converting apparatus includes a recording unit recording information representing a chromaticity coordinate system unique to the color sensor in advance, and a converting unit performing a chromatic coordinate conversion of a first chromaticity value being a chromaticity value generated by the color sensor into a second chromaticity value of the predetermined chromatic coordinate system based on the information recorded by the recording unit.
US08294774B2
An imager is provided having an imaging sensor and a focusing detector. The imaging sensor reads stored charges in a positive or negative direction and outputs image data created from the read charges. The comparator calculates a differential between first image data output by said imaging sensor and second image data output by the imaging sensor immediately after the first image data is output, and determines whether the differential is larger than a first threshold value. The composer creates composite image data from the data of two images output by the imaging sensor. When the comparator determines that the differential is larger than the first threshold value, the composer creates composite image data from the second image data and negatively scanned image data that is obtained by scanning the second image in a direction that is opposite to the scanning direction of the second image data.
US08294771B2
An image correction device includes an image capturing module, a first calculating module, a second calculating module, a third calculating module, and a correction module. The image capturing module includes an image sensor having a center (Xo, Yo). The image capturing module takes an image of a test chart. A center of the group of black stripes is coincident with a center of the image. The first calculating module is for calculating coordinates of a center of each black stripe of the group of black stripes. The second calculating module is for calculating coordinates (Xc, Yc) of the center of the image. The third calculating module is for calculating a coordinate deviation (ΔX, ΔY)=(Xc−Xo, Yc−Yo). The correction module is for inputting the coordinate deviation (ΔX, ΔY) into the image sensor so that the image sensor corrects the image according to the coordinate deviation (ΔX, ΔY).
US08294769B2
A surveying device, comprising a first image pickup unit for projecting a laser beam and for receiving a reflection light from a target, a second image pickup unit for acquiring an image including the target, drive units for shifting collimating directions of the image pickup units, an image processing unit for processing images taken by the image pickup units, and a control arithmetic unit for controlling the drive units so that the image pickup units are directed toward the target is disclosed. The image processing of the image by the first image pickup unit is a light spot detection processing. The image processing of the image by the second image pickup unit is an image matching with a template image. The control arithmetic unit controls the drive units so that the target is tracked based on the result of the light spot detection processing or the image matching.
US08294765B2
This is a video image monitoring system which can effectively detect a mobile object appearing in a captured video image even if a background image and other camera condition change continuously. The video image monitoring system comprises: a video-image-capturing section 100 for putting out image data based on a video image signal obtained by using a camera 10; a mobile-object-candidate-area-detecting section 101 for extracting a candidate area of a mobile object from the image data; and a mobile-object-detecting section 102 for determining whether the candidate area is the mobile object. The mobile-object-candidate-area-detecting section 101 quantizes a brightness gradient direction of the image data, and calculates a spatio-temporal histogram which represents the frequency of a direction code appearing in a predetermined spatio-temporal space. After that, the mobile-object-candidate-area-detecting section 101 calculates a statistical spatio-temporal space evaluation value of the spatio-temporal histogram. The mobile-object-detecting section 102 uses the spatio-temporal space richness to determine whether the candidate area is the mobile object.
US08294764B2
An extended depth-of-field (EDOF) surveillance imaging system (8) that has a lens system (10) with a total lens power φT and an amount of spherical aberration SA where 0.2λ≦SA≦2λ. The lens system includes first lens group (G1) and a second lens group (G2). The first lens group has first and second confronting meniscus lens elements (L1, L2) that have an overall optical power φ1 such that |φ1/φT|≦0.05. The second lens group has a doublet (D1) and a most imagewise positive lens element (L5). An aperture stop (AS) is arranged either between the first and second lens groups or within the second lens group. An image sensor (30) is arranged to receive the image and form therefrom a digitized electronic raw image. An image processor receives and digitally filters the digitized electronic raw image to form a digitized contrast-enhanced image.
US08294753B2
An image display device and a method of driving the same are provided. The image display device includes a lenticular lens array, a first backlit display element that is positioned on the lenticular lens array and is driven at a frame frequency of N×60 Hz, where N is an integer equal to or greater than 1, and a light source module under the lenticular lens array. The first backlit display element displays a video signal of a 2D format in a 2D mode and displays a video signal of an N-view 3D format in a 3D mode. The light source module irradiates light in the form of a surface light source onto the lenticular lens array in the 2D mode and irradiates light in the form of a plurality of line light sources onto the lenticular lens array in the 3D mode.
US08294751B2
An electronic endoscope system comprises an electronic endoscope and a processor. The electronic endoscope includes a parallel/serial converter which encodes a vertical synchronizing signal and a horizontal synchronizing signal to synchronization codes representing ON/OFF states thereof expressed by several maximum and minimum signal levels for representing the digital image signals, and uses a maximum and a minimum signal levels except the signal levels representing the synchronization codes to express the digital image signals which would normally be represented by the signal levels representing the synchronization codes, while the image signals whose levels are not in the signal levels representing the synchronization codes are not subject to change. The processor includes a synchronizing signal decoder for decoding the vertical synchronizing signal and the horizontal synchronizing signal based on the synchronization codes.
US08294749B2
The invention relates to method, computer program code and signal processing/image display systems for displaying one or more images using holographic techniques. We describe a method of generating data for displaying an image defined by displayed image data using a plurality of holographically generated temporal subframes, the temporal subframes being displayed sequentially in time such that they are perceived as a single noise-reduced image. The method includes generating from the displayed image data holographic data for each subframe of said set of subframes such that successive replay of holograms defined by said holographic data for said subframes gives the appearance of said image, and wherein the method further includes, when generating said holographic data for a said subframe, compensating for noise in said displayed image arising from one or more previous subframes of said sequence of holographically generated subframes.
US08294744B2
An optical writing device includes: a light source including arrays arranged in a main scanning direction, each array including light-emitting elements arranged in the main scanning direction; a correction-value holding unit to hold, correspondingly with a light-emitting element, a correction value for changing timing to read out pixel data stored in an image storage unit; and a light-source drive unit to drive the light source by reading out the stored pixel data stored, according to the correction value. The correction-value holding unit includes a first area for holding a first correction value corresponding to a first light-emitting element located at an end of an array and a second area for holding a second correction value corresponding to a second light-emitting element other than the first light-emitting element, the first holding area being larger than the second holding area.
US08294737B2
Disclosed herein is a driving method for driving a, display apparatus, the display apparatus including: N×M light emitting units; M scan lines; N data lines; a driving circuit provided for each of the light emitting units to serve as a circuit having a signal writing transistor, a device driving transistor, a capacitor and a first switch circuit; and a light emitting device.
US08294732B2
A computer method and apparatus control virtual environment cameras based on context. Current context is detected in a subject virtual environment. As a function of detected context, a set of predefined camera views is provided and displayed for user selection. Upon user selection of a camera view from the provided and displayed set of predefined camera views, a camera of the subject virtual environment is updated. The camera view is changed to the user selected camera view. There is ongoing detection of context and indicating of candidate camera views based on context, for user selection and update of the camera view.
US08294717B2
Three or more materials are advantageously separated from dual energy data by using a material separation technique. To effectively separate material clusters, a density plot is introduced to automatically render cluster separations. Initially, the projection data optionally undergo data-domain dual energy decomposition. Then, the image data is plotted in a vector plot whose axes are the low HU values and the high HU values. For a given data point in the vector plot, a number of data points is counted within in a region of interest surrounding the given data point to generate a density plot where each point now represents a density level surrounding the data point. Thus, clustering of a certain material is visualized by a predetermined color assignment scheme. Furthermore, special image processing methods such as Gaussian decomposition are used to improve the accuracy of material separation. In addition, the HSL color model may be used for better visualization and to bring a new dimension in material separation display.
US08294706B2
A system and methods for volume rendering using n-pass sampling are disclosed. A plurality of first rays in a first density is sampled through a volume. Each of the first rays is in a separate section. A value of at least one first ray is compared to a first threshold. A plurality of second rays in a second density is sampled based on the comparison of the at least one first ray. The second rays are in a first section of the separate sections. The first section being for the at least one first ray. A value of at least one second ray is compared to a second threshold. A plurality of third rays is sampled in a second section spatially different than the first section based on the comparison of the at least one second ray. An image rendered from the sampling of at least the first rays is displayed.
US08294704B1
A method implemented by one or more computers may include receiving data for graphical rendering and distributing a first portion of the data to a first computation process. The method may further include distributing a second portion of the data to a second computation process, where the second computation process is different than the first computation process, creating a first object subtree via the first computation process based on the first portion of the data, and creating a second object subtree via the second computation process based on the second portion of the data. The method may further also include assembling an object tree via a third computation process based on the first object subtree and the second object subtree and rendering a graphical scene based on the assembled object tree.
US08294700B2
Noise on a current to be measured is removed. Horizontal power supply lines (PVDD) are arranged in a horizontal direction and supply a current to pixels in respective corresponding horizontal lines. A switch (8) connects a group of the horizontal power supply lines (PVDD) to a first power supply line (PVDDa) or a second power supply line (PVDDb) disposed outside a pixel region in a switchable manner. Only the horizontal power supply lines (PVDD) in a group to which a pixel to be measured belongs are supplied with power from the second power supply line (PVDDb) so as to measure a current of each pixel in the group, and a current flowing into a power source (PVDDa) connected to a group to which other pixels than the pixel to be measured belong is measured, to thereby calculate a pixel current based on a difference between the two measured currents.
US08294694B2
A three-dimensional image display device is provided which allows a reduction in redundant calculation and high-speed obtainment of an optimum control image to be recorded on an optical wavefront control unit This invention relates to a three-dimensional image display device for displaying a three-dimensional image by irradiating illuminating light at an optical wavefront control unit which records a control image. The three-dimensional image display device of this invention includes a control image optimizing unit which calculates three-dimensional images corresponding to a group of control images based on constraints inherent to the optical wavefront control unit, selects a control image corresponding to a three-dimensional image satisfying a predetermined condition from the group of control images and records the selected control image on the optical wavefront control device.
US08294693B2
Provided are a portable input device for inputting coordinates, a method of calibrating the device, and a computer readable recording medium storing a computer program for making a computer perform the method. The portable input device includes two digital cameras, a calibration tool, a storage section, and a controller for calculating coordinates of an object on an input surface based on images taken by the two digital cameras based on images taken by the two digital cameras so as to include the calibration tool. The controller also calibrates positions and widths of a detection band which corresponds to a detection zone defined in a vicinity of the input surface. The positions and the widths of the detection band are stored in the storage section in relationship to positions on the input surface.
US08294689B2
A device and method for detecting connections of a 4- or 5-terminal resistive touch panel are disclosed. The device includes five terminals and a detecting unit. When the five terminals are connected to the touch panel, the detecting unit provides a high potential and a low potential to first and last of the five terminals, respectively, thereby determining whether the touch panel is a 4- or 5-terminal resistive touch panel by determining if there is a closed circuit between the two terminals.
US08294688B2
An apparatus including: a first resistive screen extending in a first direction and a second direction; a second resistive screen extending in the first direction and the second direction and separated from the first resistive screen; a first reference resistor; a voltage source configured to apply a voltage across a series combination of the first reference resistor and the first resistive screen; and a voltage detector configured to measure a first voltage across the reference resistor.
US08294686B2
A method for rejecting an unintentional palm touch is disclosed. In at least some embodiments, a touch is detected by a touch-sensitive surface associated with a display. Characteristics of the touch may be used to generate a set of parameters related to the touch. In an embodiment, firmware is used to determine a reliability value for the touch. The reliability value and the location of the touch is provided to a software module. The software module uses the reliability value and an activity context to determine a confidence level of the touch. In an embodiment, the confidence level may include an evaluation of changes in the reliability value over time. If the confidence level for the touch is too low, it may be rejected.
US08294682B2
A displaying system includes a touch screen for displaying images and/or icons thereon and providing a communicating interface; a detecting module for detecting operations on the touch screen; a setting module for setting a zoom area and/or a zoom mode in response to user inputs; a characteristic computing module for computing the location and the trace of a drawing on the touch screen and comparing the computing result with the predetermined information and thereby determining a matching zoom mode and a selection mode; a controlling module for controlling the touch screen to zooming in/out the selected object(s) corresponding to a matched zoom mode and zoom area selection mode; and a storage module for storing predetermined information corresponding to the zoom modes, the detecting result of the detecting module, the computing result of the computing module, and providing memory space for the displaying system.
US08294676B2
A method of operating a touch control electronic device includes the steps of: (a) activating a program; (b) detecting a touch signal forming a curve, which includes a first sensing point and a second sensing point; and (c) calculating a distance variation between the first sensing point and the second sensing point with a reference point so as to change an attribute value of the program, wherein the reference point is set according to the curve.
US08294670B2
Handheld electronic communication device is presented and includes a body with a display screen and an optically based user input device. The optically based user input device is a light-transmissive tubular member. The light-transmissive tubular member has an exposed surface and an image sensor. The handheld electronic communication device further includes a microprocessor which is connected between the image sensor and the display screen. The microprocessor is capable of executing a microprocessor-run program, which receives input data representative of cursor guidance instructions from the image sensor and processes the data for output on the display screen.
US08294663B2
A method of driving an electrophoresis display device having a displaying portion which includes an lectrophoresis element containing electrophoresis particles and disposed between a first electrode and a second electrode opposing to one another and which consists of a plurality of pixels, the driving method including a step of performing an image writing step in which an image is written into the displaying portion by applying a first potential or a second potential to the first electrode separately provided for the pixel and applying a reference pulse in which the first potential and the second potential repeatedly alternate at a predetermined interval to the second electrode which is a common electrode shared by all the pixels, and a step of performing at least one contrast maintaining step including a short term interval step in which the second electrode and all the first electrodes fall in a high impedance state for five or less seconds and an auxiliary pulse inputting step in which at least one cycle of the reference pulse is applied to the second electrode and a potential which is equivalent to the potential applied during the image writing step is applied to the first electrode while the reference pulse is applied.
US08294653B2
A driving voltage output circuit for a matrix display panel includes high-side voltage followers and low-side voltage followers. Each voltage follower includes a differential input stage, a control stage, and an output stage. The differential input stage receives non-inverting and inverting inputs and produces first and second potentials. The control stage generates third and fourth potentials from the first and second potentials. The output stage includes three transistors connected respectively to the high-side power supply, the low-side power supply, and an intermediate reference potential, and connected in common to an output terminal. Two of the three transistors are of identical channel type and are controlled by the first and fourth potentials. The third transistor is of the opposite conductive type and is controlled by the third potential.
US08294652B2
A driving method for driving an LCD panel having a counter electrode and a source line. In a first period, the counter electrode is driven to a potential VCOMH. In a second period, the counter electrode and the source line are short-circuited to a power supply interconnection having a power supply potential VCI. In a third period, the counter electrode is connected to a ground interconnection while the source line is kept to be short-circuited to the power supply interconnection. In a fourth period, the counter electrode is pulled down to a potential VCOML lower than a ground potential In a fifth period, the source line is driven to a potential corresponding to an image data while the counter electrode is kept to the potential VCOML. The electric power consumed in pulling down the counter electrode from a positive potential to a negative potential can be effectively reduced.
US08294650B2
In one embodiment, a display panel driving apparatus which generates, based on an input gray scale, a gray scale of a first sub-frame and a gray scale of a second sub-frame so as to display the input gray scale as a result of a summation of respective display corresponding to the first sub-frame and the second sub-frame into which one frame is divided, and the gray scale of the second sub-frame being greater than the gray scale of the first sub-frame, for a response in which the input gray scale of a subsequent frame is greater than an input gray scale of a previous frame and the input gray scale of the subsequent frame is not less than a first threshold gray scale, a gray scale of the first sub-frame in the subsequent frame is set not more than a second threshold gray scale, regardless of input gray scale of the subsequent frame. Thus, it is possible to reduce jaggy in an edge of a moving image in time-division driving.
US08294643B2
A pixel of display is used in an Organic light emitted diode (OLED) display. Driving Circuit of the OLED display outputs a data current and a scanning signal. The pixel of display includes a switch circuit, a first transistor, a second transistor, a capacitor, a switch and a lighting emitting element. The switch circuit, which is controlled by the scanning signal, includes an input end for receiving the data current. When the scanning signal is enabled, a first and a second ends of the switch circuit respectively output a first and a second currents. The second current charges the capacitor. The voltage between the gate and the source of the first transistor is stored in the capacitor. When the scanning signal is disabled, the switch is turned on. The first and the second transistors respectively output currents corresponding to the cross-voltage of the capacitor to the lighting emitting element.
US08294642B2
There is provided a display device including a display unit having pixels, each of which includes a luminescence element that individually becomes luminous depending on a current amount and a pixel circuit for controlling a current applied to the luminescence element according to a voltage signal, where the pixels are arranged in a matrix pattern. The display device includes a luminescence amount regulator for setting a reference duty for regulating a luminescence amount for each one frame, according to the input picture signal, and an adjuster for adjusting an effective duty that regulates, for each one frame, a luminous time for which the luminescence element is luminous, and a gain of the picture signal, based on the reference duty and the input picture signal, so that the luminescence amount is constant before and after adjustment.
US08294641B2
The invention relates to an active matrix display device comprising a display with a plurality of display pixels, each having a current driven emissive element, a data input for receiving an analogue data signal, at least one drive element connected to a power supply and arranged to drive the current emissive element in accordance with the data signal and selecting means arranged to provide, in response to a select signal, the data signal to the at least one drive element to generate an overall brightness level during a frame period in accordance with the data signal. The device is adapted to divide the frame period in at least a first sub-period during which the emissive element carries a first non-zero current and a second sub-period during which the emissive element carries a second non-zero current, the at least first and second non-zero current yielding the overall brightness level.
US08294640B2
Dispersion occurs in the characteristics of the transistors. The invention is a signal line driving circuit having a first and a second current source circuits corresponding to each of a plurality of signal lines, a shift register, and a constant current source for video signal, in which the first current source circuit is disposed in a first latch and the second current source circuit is disposed in a second latch. The first current source circuit includes capacitive means for converting the current supplied from the constant current source for video signal into a voltage, according to a sampling pulse supplied from the shift register, and supplying means for supplying the current corresponding to the converted voltage. The second current source circuit includes capacitive means for converting the current supplied from the first latch into a voltage, according to a latch pulse, and supplying means for supplying the current corresponding to the converted voltage.
US08294638B2
An improved organic electroluminescent display includes a plurality of normal mode colors and a plurality of user-selected power saving mode colors. The display is switchable between a normal display mode and a power saving display mode. In the normal display mode, the normal mode colors are displayed by the display. Conversely, in the power saving display mode, the power saving mode colors are displayed by the display.
US08294637B2
An active matrix substrate is provided which does not cause reductions in the brightness of electroluminescence elements, and which comprises appropriate peripheral circuitry occupying a small area. The active matrix substrate comprises peripheral circuits to supply current to EL elements provided for each pixel, and corresponding to EL elements, and further comprises a holding element (C) which holds a control voltage, a first active element (T1) connected to the holding element (C) and which supplies current to a light-emitting portion (OLED) based on a control voltage, and a second active element (T2) connected to the holding element (C) and which controls the charging and discharging of the holding element. In particular, the second active element (T2) is configured as a multiple-control-terminal type active element. As a result, there are no fluctuations in the programmed current.
US08294636B2
A scan electrode driving circuit applies a rising ramp waveform voltage to scan electrodes (SCN1 to SCNn) to generate a first setup discharge in a first period within a setup period, applies a dropping ramp waveform voltage to the scan electrodes (SCN1 to SCNn) to generate a second setup discharge in a second period following the first period within the setup period, and applies a positive rectangular waveform voltage (Va) and a negative rectangular waveform voltage (Va) to the scan electrodes (SCN1 to SCNn) in a third period following the second period within the setup period. A data electrode driving circuit applies a positive rectangular waveform voltage (Vd) to data electrodes (D1 to Dm) in a period after application of the positive rectangular waveform voltage (Vs) to the scan electrodes (SCN to SCNn) and before application of the negative rectangular waveform voltage (Va) to the scan electrodes (SCN1 to SCNn) in the third period.
US08294635B2
A stable address discharge is generated and number of unlit cells is decreased without heightening the voltage necessary for generating an address discharge. For this purpose, the device includes a plasma display panel and a driving circuit for driving the plasma display panel, in which the driving circuit drives the plasma display panel having a sub-field group formed of two or more continuous sub-fields for controlling addressing provided in one field period, so as not to generate sustain discharge in the discharge cell not causing sustain discharge and also in the subsequent sub-fields, the discharge cell is initialized by applying a ramp waveform voltage descending gently to the scan electrode, the lowest voltage of the ramp waveform voltage of the sub-field included in the sub-field group is made different from the lowest voltage of the ramp waveform voltage of the sub-field not included in the sub-field group.
US08294634B2
Overheating while enabling a full flexibility in the display usage should be avoided. This object is solved by a method for avoiding the overheating of a driver circuit in a plasma display panel wherein the driver circuit receives serially display data in form of a sequence of sub-field data bits and forwards parallelly the display data in the form of data blocks each consisting of a predefined number of sub-field data bits, the method comprising the steps of counting sub-field data bits the value of which differs from that of a neighboring or preceding sub-field data bit and providing a respective counting signal indicative of heat contributions of sub-field data bits and, if said counting signal is above a pregiven threshold, taking countermeasures for reducing said temperature.
US08294627B2
A microwave alignment apparatus is operable to align an electromagnetic wave in the microwave range. The microwave alignment apparatus includes a focusing device operable to focus the electromagnetic wave. The microwave alignment apparatus also includes a mounting device operable to mount and/or hold the focusing device. The microwave alignment apparatus is formed as a single integral body.
US08294621B2
A wideband antenna, for use in portable computers incorporating at least one wireless communication device, with improved radiated antenna efficiency across a broad range of operating frequency bands with minimal additional physical size or cost, is described. In an exemplary embodiment, the wideband antenna is defined by at least a first and second housing, where a first metal structure in at least a first one of the at least a first and second housings is commonly connected to at least two antenna RF feed ports at a boundary of the at least a first and second housing. In a further exemplary embodiment, the device is a portable computer, and the first housing is an upper display housing, the second housing includes a wireless communication device with at least two RF signal paths to at least two antenna RF feed ports, and the second housing further includes a second metal structure commonly connected to at least two antenna RF feed ports of the wideband antenna.
US08294620B2
Dual-band antennas that are embedded within portable devices such as laptop computers. In one aspect, a dual-band antenna for a portable device (e.g., laptop computer) includes a first element having a resonant frequency in a first frequency band and a second element having a resonant frequency in a second frequency band, wherein the first element is connected to a signal feed, wherein the second element is grounded, and wherein the first and second elements are integrated within a portable device.
US08294612B2
A global navigation satellite system (GNSS) enabled mobile device may be operable to assert one of autoblank signals when RF interference is detected in received GNSS signals for one of consecutive first time windows. The asserted autoblank signals are monitored by the GNSS enabled mobile device over time intervals corresponding to consecutive second time windows and a rate at which the autoblank signals are asserted for each of the consecutive second time windows is determined by the GNSS enabled mobile device based on the monitoring. The GNSS enabled mobile device may be operable to determine whether to blank processing of the received GNSS signals based on the determined rate. The autoblank signals may be asserted by the GNSS enabled mobile device based on a number of the received GNSS signals whose absolute signal levels exceed a signal level threshold for the first time window.
US08294604B2
Test system and method for analog-to-digital converter (ADC) based on a loopback architecture are provided to test an M-bit ADC. In the invention, an N-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC) converts a digital input to a basic test signal, a segmentation circuit scales the basic test signal and superposes it with segmentation DC levels for providing corresponding segmented test signals, such that the ADC converts the segmented test signals to reflect result of testing. With the invention, practical loopback architecture of low-cost can be adopted for testing.
US08294600B2
Various embodiments provide a keyboard that adaptively provides haptic feedback to a user. In at least some embodiments, an actuation of a key or keyboard element of the keyboard is detected. This can be accomplished by detecting the closure of an associated switch caused by a user depressing the key or keyboard element. In response to detecting the actuation, an electrically-deformable material is utilized as an actuating mechanism to impart single or multi-vectored movement to the key or keyboard element according to drive parameters. This movement produces a perceived acceleration of the key or keyboard element, thus providing haptic feedback which simulates a “snapover” effect.
US08294587B2
A smoke detector has a housing, a smoke sensor in the housing capable of detecting smoke therein, and an alarm connected to the sensor signaling when the smoke sensor detects smoke. A partition subdivides the housing into separate first and second chambers, and the housing is formed with first and second smoke holes allowing air from the exterior into the first and second chambers. The partition has a sensor port provided with a sensor for detecting air flow through the sensor port and a fan port having a fan for drawing air from one of the chambers and forcing it into the other chamber. A controller connected to the fan and to the air-flow sensor operates the fan means to move air from the one chamber through the fan port into the other chamber and generates an output when air flow through the sensor port exceeds a predetermined limit.
US08294585B2
A complete hand hygiene station and method of monitoring a complete hand hygiene station are provided. The complete hand hygiene station may include at least an automated wash cylinder or chamber, a sanitizer dispenser and a lotion dispenser. The wash chamber and/or the sanitizer dispenser may be used to provide a user with a hand washing. The lotion dispenser may be used to moisturize a user's hands after the usage of the sanitizer dispenser. The complete hand hygiene station may be monitored to ensure compliance with one or more hygiene protocols. A particular hygiene protocol may specify hygiene requirements such as daily hygiene station usage, lotion usage subsequent to sanitizer usage, and/or mandatory wash chamber use subsequent to a predetermined number of lotion usages.
US08294580B2
A multi-level equipment configuration monitoring system can include a plurality of RFID tags associated with respective user protective elements such as respirators, eye protectors, gloves boots, helmets and hearing protectors. A user communication unit can activate the tags and determine which elements are present. The determined elements can be compared to a pre-stored, approved list of elements to establish the state of a user's complement of protective equipment. Missing equipment can be immediately identified and brought to the user's attention. Information can be collected as to duration of use of the elements as well as duration of exposure of those elements to one or more predetermined hazardous conditions to schedule maintenance and replacement.
US08294569B2
A method includes detecting one or more physical contacts between the device and another device and determining whether the one or more physical contacts correspond to one or more taps. The method further includes initiating a discovery request to the other device, when it is determined that the physical contact corresponds to the one or more taps, and communicating to the other device when a communication link is established between the device and the other device based on the discovery request.
US08294564B1
An acceleration communication system may communicate acceleration information about a vehicle to person not in the vehicle. A lighting system may be configured to be attached to the outside of the vehicle. An acceleration detector may be configured to detect acceleration of the vehicle. A light controller may be configured to cause the lighting system to illuminate when acceleration of the vehicle is detected by the acceleration detector.A deceleration detector may be configured to detect deceleration of the vehicle. The light controller may be configured to cause the lighting system to illuminate when deceleration of the vehicle is detected by the deceleration detector in a manner that is different than when acceleration of the vehicle is detected by the acceleration detector.
US08294563B2
A vehicle-surrounding image display apparatus and a vehicle-surrounding image display method permits a user to intuitively recognize in which direction a vehicle side image is displayed along with a vehicle top image. When a vehicle side image, such as a forward side view image, and a rearward mirror view image is displayed along with a top view image, distinction images indicative of a correspondence relation between the vehicle side image and the direction in which the vehicle side image is shot in the top view image, are superimposed on both the vehicle side image and the top view image, which enables a user to intuitively recognize in which direction the vehicle side image displayed along with the top view image is shot by looking at both the vehicle side image and the top view image showing the distinction images.
US08294562B2
A display device for a motor vehicle having an internal combustion engine for at least temporarily driving the motor vehicle, and for displaying operating-time-related data of the internal combustion engine. The display device is characterized in that the operating-time-related data are provided as portions of the operation of the motor vehicle with a switched-off internal combustion engine at entities (E, E′, E″, . . . ) occurring earlier on the route of the motor vehicle. The display device is configured to display these data in the manner of a histogram.
US08294561B2
The present invention relates to a dashboard indicator module comprising, in a casing, a rotary motor, an output shaft, mechanical reduction device associated with the motor, at least one electrical supply coil, electrical connection tabs linked to the coils leaving the casing and electrical contact elements, characterized in that the electrical contact elements can be fitted on the connection tabs in order to produce solderless connectors on the printed circuit or even removed from the connection tabs in order to allow the connection tabs of the motor to be soldered directly to the printed circuit.
US08294559B2
A vehicle control device simplifies input work of a password that puts a vehicle in a usable state, on an emergency occasion, in which a portable equipment (smart key) cannot be used. A system display unit flashes on an emergency occasion when a password is input without the use of the smart key. A hazard switch is operated to enter a character of the password corresponding to a number of times that the system display unit flashes.
US08294556B2
Circuits and methods for transmission of digital data between two or more devices via powerline particularly suited for use in high attenuation, high noise commercial/industrial powerline environments, including transmission of pulses generated by a capacitor charged in the positive half cycle of the sine wave and discharged during the negative half-cycle, placing the pulse at one of two predetermined signal timing positions related to zero voltage crossing points or to previously transmitted pulses so that the pulses are substantially in the powerline temporal quiet zone near zero crossing and so that the powerline voltage at the time of the pulse is additive to the capacitor voltage.
US08294552B2
The present invention discloses a system and methods for biometric security using hand geometry recognition biometrics in a transponder-reader system. The biometric security system also includes a hand geometry scan sensor that detects biometric samples and a device for verifying biometric samples. In one embodiment, the biometric security system includes a transponder configured with a hand geometry scan sensor. In another embodiment, the system includes a reader configured with a hand geometry scan sensor. In yet another embodiment, the present invention discloses methods for proffering and processing hand geometry scan samples to facilitate authorization of transactions.
US08294550B2
An authentication system is provided with a room-security device, and an information processing apparatus installed in a controlled area controlled by the room-security device, in which the room-security device and the information processing apparatus are connected in a network. The room-security device obtains, from a user, identification information, and transmits the identification information to the information processing apparatus, if the user is permitted to enter a room based on the obtained identification information. The information processing apparatus receives the identification information. If it is detected that the user is alone in the controlled area based on the received identification information, the information processing apparatus performs authentication based on the received identification information instead of asking the user to enter authentication information to obtain the authentication information.
US08294537B2
A variable resonator includes a ring-shaped conductor line (2) which is provided on a dielectric substrate (5) and has a circumferential length of a wavelength at a resonance frequency or an integral multiple of the wavelength, and at least two circuit switches (31, 32), wherein the circuit switches (31, 32) have one ends (31) electrically connected to the ring-shaped conductor line (2) and the other ends (32) electrically connected to a ground conductor (4) formed on the dielectric substrate (5), electrical connection/disconnection between the ground conductor (4) and ring-shaped conductor line (2) can be switched, and the one ends (31) of the circuit switches (31, 32) are connected to the ring-shaped conductor line (2) on different portions.
US08294533B2
Techniques, apparatus and systems that use composite left and right handed (CRLH) metamaterial structures to combine and divide electromagnetic signals at multiple frequencies. The metamaterial properties permit significant size reduction over a conventional N-way radial power combiner or divider. Dual-band serial power combiners and dividers and single-band and dual-band radial power combiners and dividers are described.
US08294532B2
A duplex filter includes a core of dielectric material with top, bottom, and side surfaces, and first and second spaced-apart sets of through-holes extending therethrough. A wall extends outwardly from the top surface to define a peripheral rim and cavity. A pattern of metallized and unmetallized areas are defined on selected core surfaces including strips of metallization on the top surface that extend onto the wall and the peripheral rim thereof to define respective transmit, receive, and antenna connection posts. In one embodiment, the core is made from two separate blocks which have been coupled together to define an interior metallized layer which separates the first and second sets of through-holes and an exterior wall on the top surface separates the respective transmit and receive conductive patterns thereon.
US08294531B2
A microstrip line is constituted by including a grounding conductor and a strip conductor with a dielectric substrate being sandwiched between the grounding conductor and the strip conductor. The microstrip line includes a conductor section having at least one groove formed to sterically intersect the strip conductor, thereby exhibiting a substantially more uniform passing characteristic as compared with a prior art microstrip line.
US08294529B2
A printed circuit board having a micro strip line, a printed circuit board having a strip line and a method of manufacturing thereof are disclosed. The printed circuit board having a micro strip line in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention includes a first insulation layer, a signal line buried in one surface of the first insulation layer, a plurality of conductors penetrating through the first insulation layer and being disposed on both sides of the signal line in parallel with the signal line, and a ground layer formed to be electrically connected to the conductor on the other surface of the first insulation layer.
US08294528B2
A VCO includes a transformer-based resonator that has a first LC tank and a second LC tank. The resonator has an even resonant mode and an odd resonant mode. The VCO further includes an active transconductance network that is coupled to a two-terminal port of the first tank and is also coupled to a two-terminal port of the second tank. A first terminal of the port of the first tank is capacitively coupled to a first terminal of the port of the second tank. A second terminal of the port of the first tank is capacitively coupled to a second terminal of the port of the second tank. The active transconductance network causes the resonator to resonate in a selectable one of the even and odd resonant modes depending on a digital control signal. The VCO is fine tuned by changing the capacitances of capacitors of the tanks.
US08294526B2
An oscillator assembly includes a substrate having a top surface, a bottom surface, and a plurality of side surfaces. At least one of the side surfaces has at least one castellation which is covered with conductive material and includes a lower end spaced from the bottom surface of the substrate. The space is defined by an elongate groove in the side surface which is devoid of conductive material and extends between the lower end of the castellation and the bottom surface of the substrate to eliminate the risk of a short circuit with any of the connection pads on a customer's motherboard. The oscillator assembly further incorporates an oscillator circuit in which a current limiting resistor is located in series between the power supply and the heater control circuit.
US08294525B2
Apparatuses and methods are provided relating to a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) based on current starved inverting delay stages; wherein in each stage a PMOS transistor as header and an NMOS transistor as footer are used with their gate-to-source voltages always equal to analog control voltage. The analog control voltage is also used as the supply voltage of the oscillator. An exemplary apparatus includes a VCO of n stages, where n is an odd number and where each stage includes a current starved inverter where the analog control voltage is also used as the supply voltage of each delay stage.
US08294522B2
This is disclosed an amplification stage including a first amplifier stage, a second amplifier stage, and a power supply unit, in which the output of the first stage provides the input to the second stage, and the power supply unit provides a power supply for both amplifier stages, wherein the voltage of the power supply is continuously varied in dependence of the amplitude of the signal being amplified.
US08294515B1
A configurable low noise amplifier circuit which is configurable between a first topology in which the low noise amplifier circuit comprises a degeneration inductance stage whereby the low noise amplifier circuit operates as an inductively degenerated low noise amplifier, and a second topology in which the low noise amplifier circuit comprises a common-gate low noise amplifier stage whereby the low noise amplifier circuit operates as a common-gate low noise amplifier. The second topology comprises one or more internal input impedance matching components and the first topology does not comprise the one or more internal input impedance matching components.
US08294513B2
A demodulator according to the present invention is the demodulator that demodulates a plurality of received symbols having different amplitude of carrier wave. The demodulator includes an amplitude value calculation unit that calculates a received symbol amplitude value by adding an absolute value of in-phase component and an absolute value of quadrature component determined from the amplitude of the carrier wave in the received symbol. Further, the demodulator includes a demodulation unit that detects a change of the received symbol amplitude value calculated by the amplitude value calculation unit, and demodulates the received symbol based on the detection result.
US08294512B2
A track-and-hold circuit includes a bootstrapped clock generator and a track-and-hold unit. The bootstrapped clock generator receives an input voltage signal and generates a sampling control signal having a voltage level lower than or equal to a level of a power supply voltage by maintaining an initial level of a boost capacitor voltage at a level lower than the level of the power supply voltage. The boost capacitor voltage is a voltage that is charged across a boost capacitor included in the bootstrapped clock generator and the sampling control signal is generated based on a clock signal. The track-and-hold unit samples and holds the input voltage signal in response to the sampling control signal to generate a sampled signal.
US08294511B2
A semiconductor device is disclosed having vertically stacked (also referred to as vertically offset) transistors in a semiconductor fin. The semiconductor fin may include lower transistors separated by a first trench and having a source and drain in a first doped region of the fin. The semiconductor fin also includes upper transistors vertically offset from the first transistors and separated by a second trench and having a source and drain in a second doped region of the fin. Upper and lower stacked gates may be disposed on the sidewalls of the fin, such that the lower transistors are activated by biasing the lower gates and upper transistors are activated by biasing the upper gates. Methods of manufacturing and operating the device are also disclosed.
US08294510B2
There is provided an output stage circuit including such MOSTs (M) that when their gates and sources are respectively set to an equal voltage, subthreshold leakage currents substantially flow between their drains and sources, wherein upon its deactivation, a voltage is applied to the gate of each of the MOSTs (M) in such a manner than a reverse bias is applied between the gate and source of the MOST (M). That is, when the MOST (M) is of a p channel type, a voltage higher than that of a p type source is applied to its gate. When the MOST (M) is of an n channel type, a voltage lower than that of an n type source is applied to its gate. Upon activation of the circuit, the MOST is held in a reverse bias state or controlled to a forward bias state according to an input voltage. A CMOS circuit and a semiconductor device can be realized each of which is small in leakage current even though its threshold voltage is low and which is operated at high speed and with a small voltage amplitude.
US08294508B2
An electronic device may include a controlled generator configured to generate an adjustable frequency clock signal at at least one part of an integrated circuit coupled to the output of the controller generator and including at least one transistor having a gate of less than forty-five nanometers in length. The electronic device may include determination circuitry configured to determine the temperature of the at least one part of the integrated circuit, and drive circuitry coupled to the determination circuitry and configured to control the generator to increase the frequency of the clock signal when the temperature increases.
US08294505B2
A programmable passive device comprising a first node and a second node. A plurality of passive device elements electrically coupled to the first node. A plurality of switches are electrically coupled to at least the second node and selectively coupled to a number of the plurality of passive device elements to provide the programmable passive device with a pre-determined value.
US08294491B2
A high speed flip-flop circuit and a configuration method thereof are provided. A small number of transistors may be used to configure a flip-flop circuit, so that the flip-flop circuit may be operated at a high-speed. Additionally, an area occupied by the flip-flop circuit may be reduced, and power consumption may be reduced. Accordingly, the flip-flop circuit may be integrated together with a microwave frequency integrated circuit using a Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) compound semiconductor process.
US08294480B2
An inspection apparatus includes a mounting table movable in X and Y directions and an alignment mechanism which performs an alignment of a target object placed on the mounting table. Further, the alignment mechanism includes an image pickup device which is movable in either one of the X and Y directions and is capable of being stopped at a desired position and a controller for performing a preliminary alignment of the target object by moving the image pickup device and the mounting table in respectively movable directions.
US08294469B2
A distance to PIM measurement circuit is made using a device such as an AWS transceiver that has separate transmit and receive bands. With a typical AWS transceiver placed in close proximity to a PCS transceiver, the AWS device will include a band reject filter to eliminate interference from the PCS signals. The PIM measurement circuit includes two frequency sources F1 and F2 that are provided through a combiner for characterization of the PIM circuit. To enable distance determination, an FM measurement is created by using an offset sweep generator attached to one of the two frequency sources. To avoid frequencies blocked by the band reject filter, a desired harmonic of a test PIM harmonic signal is selected outside the band of the band reject filter.
US08294462B2
In a method and magnetic resonance (MR) for reduction and correction of image distortions that occur in the generation of MR images of an examination subject that is arranged on a table that is continuously driven through the MR system during the generation of the MR images and whose cause is the acquisition of MR data of an image at varying positions within the MR system, raw MR data are acquired in multiple segments with radial filling of k-space with the raw data, an intersection region in the k-space center is determined that is covered by multiple segments given the radial filling of the raw data in k-space, and the distortions are automatically calculated based on the intersection region of at least two different segments.
US08294461B2
A method for detecting coupled RF current magnetic resonance (MR) objects in a body and determining MR risk is provided. The body is scanned with reverse circularly polarized RF. MR signals generated by coupling of the reverse circularly polarized RF with the RF current MR objects are detected. The detected MR signals are used to determine a risk value.
US08294457B2
A rotary magnetic encoder assembly that has a freewheeling rotatable exciter magnet onboard that excites a magnetic field sensor region of an encoder chip when magnetic interaction between the exciter magnet and rotating encoder shaft causes the exciter magnet to rotate. In one embodiment, a drive magnet carried by the shaft magnetically couples with the exciter magnet because the medium therebetween has low magnetic permeability enabling rotation substantially in unison with the shaft. The exciter magnet is disposed in an onboard retainer pocket that accurately locates the magnet relative to the sensor region of the encoder chip. In one preferred embodiment, the exciter magnet retainer pocket is disposed onboard the encoder chip, such as by being formed as part of the package body of the chip that can be integrally formed or as part of a module that is mountable on the chip.
US08294455B2
There is described an arrangement for detecting a change in a position between two parts which can be displaced in relation to one another. The arrangement has at least one electromechanical registering device having a monitoring chamber, which is shielded from manipulations taking effect from the outside, a number of monitoring bodies in the monitoring chamber, the number comprising at least two components and these components differing from one another in terms of a physical parameter, motion transfer means, which, in the event of the change in the positioning being returned to an initial state, cause the monitoring bodies to be moved from a first monitoring arrangement into a second monitoring arrangement. A sensor device has sensors which generate a sensor signal corresponding to the physical parameter of a monitoring body associated with each sensor in the first and second monitoring arrangement, and each sensor signal is fed to an evaluation unit.
US08294452B2
An arrangement for measuring a current flowing in an electrical conductor includes a magnetic circuit, for coupling to the electrical conductor, the magnetic circuit has an air gap. A magnetic field-sensitive component that serves for measuring the magnetic field generated by the electrical conductor is situated between the arms of the magnetic circuit. Two control cores are arranged in the air gap of the magnetic circuit. The control cores each include a control winding for magnetically saturating the respective control core and are arranged on both sides of the electrical conductor.
US08294448B2
A semiconductor device is provides which includes: a first boost circuit that generates a first boost voltage by boosting an external voltage and supplies the first boost voltage to an internal circuit; and a first circuit that supplies the external voltage to an output of the first boost circuit when power is turned on and supplies the first boost voltage to the output of the first boost circuit when the external voltage reaches a given voltage.
US08294442B2
A low dropout regulator (LDO) circuit without external capacitors rapidly responding to load change includes a slow pathway and a fast pathway for controlling voltage, wherein the slow pathway for providing precise output voltage includes an operational amplifier I0, a driving transistor MPR, a resistor RF1 and a resistor RF2 forming an operational amplifier loop, and the fast pathway for responding to rapid load change includes a comparator I1, a comparator I2, a field effect transistor MN1, a field effect transistor MN2, a driving transistor MPR, a resistor RF1 and a resistor RF2 forming a comparator loop. The circuit is capable of controlling the output voltage by the slow operational amplifier loop and fast comparator loop, so that the load response speed of the LDO is greatly improved without the increase of the system power consumption and external big capacitors.
US08294438B2
In some embodiments, a regulator with a reverse coupled inductor is provided. It can operate in both a multi-phase and a phase shed mode. When in the phase shed mode, it has circuitry to provide a low resistance path for induced current.
US08294430B2
The invention relates to a double-fed asynchronous generator, which is provided with a slipring rotor (1b), and to a method for its operation. In the normal manner, the asynchronous generator has a machine-side converter (5) and a network-side converter (6). According to the invention, the asynchronous generator is designed to supply short-circuit power in that at least one machine-side rotor current (iRM) is maintained in the event of a short circuit, in order to allow the formation of a stator-side short-circuit current. In order that inherent short-circuit currents in sensitive components of the converters (5, 6) are nevertheless avoided, at least the machine-side rotor current (iRM) is maintained in such a way that the actual rotor current (iRMact) in the event of a short circuit is used as the new nominal value in a control apparatus for the asynchronous generator.
US08294422B2
A protection circuit device for a battery having secondary batteries connected in series. A reference voltage circuit generates a reference voltage and a voltage detection circuit for detecting a voltage of one of the secondary batteries and comparing the detected voltage with the reference voltage generated by the reference voltage circuit to thereby detect an over-charge state and an over-discharge state of the one of the secondary batteries. Each of the reference voltage circuit and the voltage detection circuit has a power supply terminal connected to a positive electrode of the one of the secondary batteries and has a ground terminal connected to a negative electrode of the one of the secondary batteries. A withstand voltage of elements forming the reference voltage circuit and the voltage detection circuit is set to be lower than an overall voltage of the secondary batteries.
US08294414B2
A recharging device with voltage detection for an alkaline primary cell includes an oscillating unit that generates a pulse signal from an input power to charge the alkaline primary cell. The recharging device also includes a detecting unit configured to be electrically coupled to the alkaline primary cell. The detecting unit is also configured to detect a voltage of the alkaline primary cell and output a corresponding detection signal. The recharging device further includes a control unit electrically coupled to the oscillating unit and the detecting unit. The control unit controls the oscillating unit to operate in one of a first charge mode and a waiting mode based on the detection signal output by the detecting unit. The oscillating unit outputs the pulse signal when operated in the first charge mode and discontinues output of the pulse signal when operated in the waiting mode.
US08294400B2
A voice coil motor (VCM) is controlled by applying a bipolar square wave actuator current to the VCM and calibrating a back electromotive force (back-EMF) measurement on the VCM in response to the square wave actuator current. Back-EMF on the VCM is measured while an actuator arm coupled to the VCM is in motion, and the VCM is controlled to move the actuator arm in response to the measured back-EMF voltage.
US08294395B2
A storage section stores three-phase detection currents and outputs them as three-phase storage detection currents and also stores three-phase voltage commands and outputs them as three-phase storage voltage commands. A second voltage command calculating section outputs three-phase voltage commands on the basis of the three-phase storage detection currents and the three-phase storage voltage commands, which are acquired from the storage section, and the three-phase detection currents acquired from a current detecting means. A voltage command output means outputs, to a voltage application means, three-phase voltage commands acquired on the basis of the three-phase voltage commands from the storage section and the three-phase voltage commands from the second voltage command calculating section. The voltage application means applies a voltage to an AC rotary machine on the basis of the three-phase voltage commands from the voltage command output means.
US08294393B2
A method for determining proper rotation direction of a reversible motor comprises the steps of: operating the motor to rotate a fan in a first direction, monitoring an operating parameter of the motor while the fan is rotated in the first direction, determining if the monitored operating parameter is within an acceptable range, determining that the first direction of rotation is not the proper rotation direction where the monitored operating parameter is not within the acceptable range, and operating the motor to rotate the fan in a second direction if the monitored operating parameter is not within the acceptable range.
US08294388B2
A method includes receiving a control signal associated with a load, where the control signal is to cause a load change from a perspective of a switching-mode power supply. The method also includes causing the power supply to adjust a current through an inductor of the power supply in response to the control signal. The method further includes delaying delivery of the control signal in order to delay a time of the load change, where the current through the inductor increases during the delay. The control signal could include a request to turn on one or more LEDs. The load could include a current regulator. The method could further include providing the request to the current regulator after the delay, such as after the current through the inductor reaches a specified level. Voltage spikes and audible noise in a capacitor coupled to an output of the power supply can be minimized.
US08294384B2
An electronic ballast is capable of realizing high frequency lighting of a discharge lamp and switching between at least two lighting modes with different light outputs. The ballast includes a preheating circuit having a winding component connected in parallel with a main resonant circuit with a lamp current flowing therein for the discharge lamp. A constant preheating current for the lamp filaments is supplied from a secondary winding of the winding component during lighting of the discharge lamp and a path of a current flowing on a primary winding side of the winding component is switched by a switch according to the lighting mode.
US08294379B2
A dimmable light-emitting diode (LED) lamp and a dimmable LED lighting apparatus thereof are provided. The dimmable LED lamp includes a bridge rectifier, a toggle detector, a sustain voltage supply circuit, a counter, an LED light source, and an LED lighting driver. The bridge rectifier receives a source alternating current (AC) voltage through a wall switch and provides a rectified direct current (DC) voltage. The toggle detector monitors a toggle action of the wall switch. The sustain voltage supply circuit provides a sustain voltage. The counter receives the sustain voltage for operation. Moreover, the counter stores and provides an counting value that changes when the toggle detector detects the toggle action. The LED lighting driver converts the rectified DC voltage to a constant current to drive the LED light source. The LED lighting driver also provides multi-level dimming to the LED light source according to the counting value.
US08294378B2
A process for controlling a brightness of a lamp includes, in at least one aspect, detecting input to control a brightness of a fluorescent lamp operated by a driving signal, and in response to detecting the input, modifying the driving signal to control the brightness of the fluorescent lamp, wherein modifying the driving signal comprises alternately applying a first duty cycle and a second duty cycle to the driving signal, wherein the first duty cycle and the second duty cycle are substantially complementary to each other.
US08294375B2
A multi channel LED driver comprises a plurality of LED strings. Each of the plurality of LED strings are associated with a separate channel. A voltage regulator generates an output voltage to the plurality of LED strings responsive to an input voltage and a PWM control signal. First control logic generates the PWM control signal responsive to a voltage at a bottom of each of the plurality of LED strings. A plurality of dimming circuitries, each connected to one of the bottoms of the plurality of LED strings, control a light intensity in each of the plurality of LED strings responsive to dimming control signals. Second control logic generates the dimming control signals responsive to forward currents monitored through each of the plurality of LED strings and dimming data.
US08294334B2
In an ultrasonic motor, an elliptical vibration is generated by combining a longitudinal primary resonance vibration resulting from an expansion and a contraction of a vibrator in a direction of a central axis and a torsional secondary resonance vibration or a torsional tertiary resonance vibration resulting from twisting around the central axis. A dimension ratio of a rectangle of the vibrator is chosen such that a resonance frequency of the longitudinal primary resonance vibration and a resonance frequency of the torsional secondary resonance vibration or the torsional tertiary resonance vibration match. The vibrator includes a plurality of regions in a surface orthogonal to the central axis, and deformations of the regions adjacent to each other along the direction of the central axis are mutually different. The vibrator expands and contracts in a direction orthogonal to a polarization direction thereof.
US08294325B2
A claw-pole type dynamo-electric machine, from which an improvement in productivity of stator winding can be expected, has such as a structure that the whole stator wiring is covered with a magnetic body, and thereby the inductance increases to pose the problem of decreasing a power factor. Disclosed is a stator core of a dynamo-electric machine in which a plurality of stator cores of respective phases are arranged independently in the direction of the rotating shaft of a rotor, the magnetic poles of the stator cores are arranged in the shape of a wave in the circumferential direction of the rotating shaft of a rotor, slots extending in the direction of the rotating shaft are formed between respective magnetic poles, and the stator winding can be arranged in a slot formed on the side of the inner end face of the magnetic pole arranged in the shape of a wave and in the axial direction of the rotating shaft.
US08294317B2
A unidirectionally-energized brushless DC motor includes a disk attached to a frame, a plurality of plate-like permanent magnets disposed on the disk at equal intervals around the disk, magnetic cores fixed to the frame according to the plurality of permanent magnets, windings each of which is wound around the magnetic core and to which DC power is supplied, a predetermined number of magnetic cores fixed to the frame, and windings each of which is wound around the magnetic core and connected to a power consumption device. The permanent magnets are located such that an angle formed by a straight line passing through the center of the disk and the center of the permanent magnet and a normal line in the center of a magnetic pole plane of the permanent magnet ranges from 0° to 60°.
US08294314B2
The invention relates to a magnetic bearing control device and the use of a three-phase converter for controlling a magnetic bearing. According to the invention, a three-phase converter (70) is used for controlling a magnetic bearing (10, 66, 68), all three phase currents (40, 42, 44) of the converter (70) being used for controlling the magnetic bearing (10, 66, 68). A first solenoid of a couple of solenoids (10) of the magnetic bearing (10, 66, 68) is connected to a first (U) and a third (W) phase current output of the converter (70) while a second solenoid of the couple of solenoids (10) is connected to the first (U) and a second (V) phase current output of the converter such that the couple of solenoids (10) can be differently controlled by means of said one converter (70). The converter (70) can also be connected to magnetic bearings that already have a bias winding, which is advantageous for retrofitting such existing magnetic bearings, for example.
US08294313B2
An electric machine contains a rotor which contains a first longitudinal section at the ambient air temperature and a second longitudinal section cooled at least partially to cryogenic temperature, a coolant inlet pipe extending into the second longitudinal section, wherein the inlet pipe is set at a distance from the rotor by a radial gap, wherein the inlet pipe in the first longitudinal section is mounted by at least two bearings, wherein the bearings are distributed on axial positions in such a way that upon action of a maximum radial force on the inlet pipe the pipe has a maximum deflection which is smaller than the radial gap. In a method for determining the axial positions, various batches of potential locations are chosen for the axial positions of the bearings, according to potential locations which has a minimum gap greater than zero.
US08294311B2
An electric motor having a rotation shaft includes a motor housing into which the electric motor is accommodated, at least one pair of rolling bearings positioned in the motor housing and rotatably supporting both ends of the rotation shaft, and a displacement restriction member provided inside the motor housing and restricting a displacement of the rolling bearing in an axial direction of the rolling bearing. Each rolling bearing includes an inner race, an outer race, and rolling elements rotatably supported between the inner race and the outer race. The inner race is press fitted without any gaps onto an outer peripheral surface of the rotation shaft, and the outer race is press fitted without any gaps into a bearing attachment portion provided inside the motor housing.
US08294309B2
A direction in which cooling air generated by a cooling fan flows to be discharged is perpendicular or nearly perpendicular to a direction in which diffusers are inclined. Thus, airflow resistance is increased by the diffusers, and the cooling air cannot be efficiently discharged from discharge ports provided circumferentially in an outer peripheral portion of a housing. Further, a stator coil cannot be sufficiently cooled. An electrical rotating machine includes: a rotor having a cooling fan on an end face of the rotor; a stator that is arranged opposite the rotor and has a stator coil with a rotation clearance provided between the stator and the rotor; a housing that holds the rotor and the stator; a plurality of intake ports that are provided in a side wall portion of the housing; a plurality of discharge ports that are provided circumferentially in an outer peripheral portion of the housing; and a plurality of diffusers that are provided circumferentially on an inner wall surface of a corner portion of the housing, the diffusers inclining toward the side opposite to a rotational direction of the rotor.
US08294303B2
Embodiments disclosed include photovoltaic power systems and methods for manufacturing the same. A photovoltaic power system can include a photovoltaic array, a DC to AC inverter, a positive conductor electrically connecting a positive inverter terminal of the DC to AC inverter to the positive array terminal and a negative conductor electrically connecting a negative inverter terminal of the DC to AC inverter to the negative array terminal, a positive-conductor ground electrically connected by a switch to the positive conductor, and a negative-conductor ground electrically connected by a switch to the negative conductor.
US08294296B2
System, methods and apparatus for coupling photovoltaic arrays are disclosed. The apparatus may include a first input adapted to couple to a neutral line of a first photovoltaic array; a second input adapted to couple to a neutral line of a second photovoltaic array; a contactor configured to switchably couple the neutral line of a first photovoltaic array to the a neutral line of a second photovoltaic array, the contactor being remotely controllable.
US08294295B2
A power supply method with parallel-connected batteries employs at least two parallel-connected power supply branches, each of which includes a battery, a step-up circuit, and a step-down circuit, and each of which is installed with an individual control unit. The battery offers a low voltage transformed into a high voltage via the stepping-up. The high voltage thence acquires a needed power-supply voltage through the transformation executed by the step-down circuit. An anode of an output of the power supply branch serially connected with a diode prevents the other power supply branch from a reverse current. A cathode of the output serially connected with a current limiting resistance balances the currents on each power supply branch. Accordingly, the present invention diminishes the workload of the device maintenance, lessens users' investment pressure, and provides electricity systems of the power plant and the substation with a consistent direct current power source.
US08294294B2
A snap-mounting type remote control switch possesses dual function of wired remote control and wireless remote control, which structure at least comprising an electric cable having three sets of leads, and a PC board having a MCU, a RF receiver and a power control circuit; wherein the MCU is for executing control of the power control circuit under wireless remote control mode according to RF control signal(s) received by the RF receiver to enable the power supplied from an electric power source to appear as an output through one or more sets of leads of the electric cable in the form of positive voltage or negative voltage; particularly the snap-mounting type remote control switch being mounted on a control panel of a vehicle is provided for a driver of the vehicle in application of wired or wireless remotely controlling a rotatable lamp fastened on the vehicle to adjust illumination angle in both vertical and horizontal direction.
US08294291B2
There is provided a turbine for a hydroelectric power installation. The turbine has a rotor with a plurality of blades, with the rotor being arranged in front of a guide apparatus (in the flow direction). The pitch angle of the blades of the rotor is adapted to be variable. As the rotor is arranged in front of the guide apparatus (in the flow direction) the flow meets the rotor first and only thereafter meets the guide apparatus, thus affording optimum flow conditions for the rotor.
US08294286B2
A network of energy generating modules includes a plurality of energy generating modules positioned over a geographic area and a network monitoring station. The energy generating modules may include enclosures and energy-transfer receptacles. The enclosures are configured to maintain an energy generating device capable of generating an energy output, and the energy-transfer receptacles are configured to be coupled to the energy generating device and to transfer the energy outputs to energy consuming devices. The energy generating modules are communicably linked to a communications network. In other embodiments, the network of energy generating modules further includes a network monitoring station configured to communicate with the energy generating modules over the communications network to monitor one or more conditions of the energy generating modules.
US08294285B2
An energy generating module includes an enclosure, a modular cage, a fuel chamber, and a railcar chassis. The energy generating module is transportable on rails via the railcar chassis. The modular cage comprises a peripheral cage secured to an interior of the enclosure and one or more multi-directional extensions extending from the peripheral cage to support an energy generating device within the enclosure. The multi-directional extensions are movable in multiple directions as the peripheral cage sways during transportation of the energy generating module so as to permit the energy generating device to track its inertial position more closely than the sway of the peripheral cage during transportation of the energy generating module. The fuel chamber is configured to be in fluid communication with the energy generating device.
US08294284B2
A packaged microelectronic element includes a package element that further includes a dielectric element having a bottom face and a top face, first and second bond windows extending between the top and bottom faces, a plurality of chip contacts disposed at the top face adjacent to the first and second bond windows, and first and second sets of package contacts exposed at diagonally opposite corner regions of the top face, wherein the first and second sets conductively connected to the chip contacts. There is also a microelectronic element adjacent to the bottom face of the dielectric element, as well as bond wires extending through the first and second bond windows to conductively connect the microelectronic element to the chip contacts.
US08294279B2
A method of assembling chips. A first chip and a second chip are provided. At least one conductive pillar is formed on the first chip, and a conductive connecting material is formed on the conductive pillar. The second chip also comprises at least one conductive pillar. The first chip is connected to the second chip via the conductive pillars and the conductive connecting material.
US08294270B2
Improved mechanical and adhesive strength and resistance to breakage of copper integrated circuit interconnections is obtained by forming a copper alloy in a copper via/wiring connection in an integrated circuit while minimizing adverse electrical effects of the alloy by confining the alloy to an interfacial region of said via/wiring connection and not elsewhere by a barrier which reduces or substantially eliminates the thickness of alloy in the conduction path. The alloy location and composition are further stabilized by reaction of all available alloying material with copper, copper alloys or other metals and their alloys.
US08294265B1
A semiconductor device has a semiconductor die having a first surface and a second surface wherein at least one bond pad is formed on the first surface. A passivation layer is formed on the first surface of the semiconductor device, wherein a central area of the at least one bond is exposed. A seed layer is formed on exposed portions of the bond pad and the passivation layer. A conductive pillar is formed on the seed layer. The conductive pillar has a base portion wherein the base portion has a diameter smaller than the seed layer and a stress relief portion extending from a lateral surface of a lower section of the base portion toward distal ends of the seed layer. A solder layer is formed on the conductive pillar.
US08294258B2
In a power semiconductor module, a semiconductor device including electrode surfaces for connection on its front side and back side is connected on its back side to a first extraction electrode through soldering; a metal surface of one side of a laminated conductor having a laminated structure in which at least two types of metals are laminated is directly, intermetallically connected to the front side of the semiconductor device; a second extraction electrode is connected to a metal surface of another side of the laminated conductor through soldering; and the laminated conductor includes a plurality of arch-like protrusions and a straight section connecting the arch-like protrusions, the straight section is connected with the front side of the semiconductor device, and the protrusions are connected with the second extraction electrode.
