US08292740B2
Voice communication between players using one or more multiplayer game console is selectively controlled. A player may selectively block voice communications with another player during a current and any future games. In addition, an authorized party (e.g., a parent) can selectively preclude voice communication by a minor child by setting an option that is uploaded to an online game service service; the minor child is then precluded from voice communication on any voice console via the online game service. Also, a player may be temporarily or permanently banned from voice communication during games played through an online game service in response to complaints made by other players concerning the player's behavior in voice communication while playing games, e.g., excessive use of profanity. When a player signs on to the online game service, data are downloaded to the game console that indicate any applicable restraints on voice communication.
US08292736B2
A game device allowing a player to enjoy the process of acquiring information on an input procedure of operation data corresponding to a predetermined event is provided. A game device including a controller allowing input of operation data comprises judgment means for judging whether or not an operation data sequence input with the controller matches a predetermined operation data sequence, event triggering means for triggering a predetermined event (special technique or the like) corresponding to the predetermined operation data sequence in accordance with a result of judgment by the judgment means, operation guidance means for displaying on a guidance screen (FIG. 5) operation data identification images (52), (56), (64) each identifying operation data in accordance with the predetermined operation data sequence, restriction means for restricting display of all or part of the operation data identification images (56), (64), and restriction lifting means for partially or completely lifting the restriction in accordance with contents of a play.
US08292731B2
A community game having a “winner-takes-all” feature in which at least one eligible proxy winning player of a round of the community game, which is initiated by a triggering event and is played by multiple players at linked gaming terminals, accrues the highest award among the awards accrued by other proxy players of the community game. The winning proxy player must satisfy an eligibility criterion to participate in the community game and to be eligible to receive the winner-takes-all award, which includes all of the awards accrued by the winning eligible proxy player during one or more rounds and at least the other respective awards accrued by the other proxy players during the round(s). These awards can include those accrued by non-eligible proxy players as well, who are awarded nothing at the end of the round(s). Non-winning eligible proxy players of the community game are awarded whatever awards they accrued during the round(s).
US08292726B2
Gaming devices and methods of operating gaming devices are provided that include indicator or designator symbols. When an indicator or designator symbol is generated and displayed, the indicator or designator symbol indicates at least one symbol display area as a modification symbol display area. Upon at least one subsequent generation of symbols displayed in the symbol display areas, awards associated with symbols displayed in the modification symbol display areas are modified.
US08292723B2
A gaming system where in one embodiment, as players play the primary games of the gaming devices, players are enabled to join one of a plurality of teams associated with a secondary team game. Each of the teams includes a plurality of players. The gaming system periodically monitors at least one factor or parameter of each player's gaming activity to determine a score for that player. In one embodiment, the scores for each of the players on each team are accumulated to determine that team's cumulative score. If a team's cumulative score reaches a winning value, the gaming system provides a prize to one or more of the players on that team. The gaming system enables players to switch from one team to another in attempt to be on a particular team when that team's cumulative score reaches a winning value.
US08292721B1
A game machine includes: a game board provided with a playfield on which playing balls cascade downward; a ball receiving hole detection part which detects whether or not a playing ball enters a ball receiving hole provided in the playfield; a special movable bonus game gate device which is able to switch between an open state and a closed state; a lottery part which holds a lottery in which one result of the lottery is obtained from a plurality of results at least including a bonus game; and a game value providing part configured to provide a first game value based on the special movable bonus game gate device being open when the result of the lottery by the lottery part is win; and a special lottery part which holds a special lottery to determine whether or not to provide a second game value different from the first game value.
US08292719B2
A method for conducting a community wagering game on a plurality of gaming terminals includes conducting base wagering games on the plurality of gaming terminals and triggering a community event in which at least one randomly selected outcome is shared by all participating gaming terminals. Upon triggering the community event, the first gaming terminal is entered in the community event if wagering criteria is met by the first gaming terminal, and a first enhancement is received at the first gaming terminal in accordance with additional wagering criteria being met by the first gaming terminal. Upon triggering the community event, the second gaming terminal is entered in the community event if wagering criteria is met by the second gaming terminal, and a second enhancement is received at the second gaming terminal in accordance with additional wagering criteria being met by the second gaming terminal.
US08292716B1
A system and method are described for providing a game of chance over messaging services. In one embodiment a method is disclosed for receiving a mobile message from a first user to participate in a game of chance. The mobile message may include an identifier of a second user. A mobile message may be sent to the second user to invite the second user to participate in the game of chance by providing an identifier of another user. A winning identifier is identified from a set of identifiers. A mobile message is sent to the first user and the second user if the amount by which the identifier of the second user matches the winning identifier satisfies a winning threshold. The mobile message may include an indication that the first user and the second user won a prize.
US08292703B2
The invention relates to a system for processing a carcass part of slaughtered poultry, which carcass part comprises at least a part of the breast, the breast comprising at least a part of the breastbone and a part of the breast fillet.The system according to the invention comprises a fillet harvesting device for harvesting the breast fillet present on the carcass part, and a detaching device for harvesting residual meat still present on the breastbone after harvesting of the breast fillet, and a conveyor with product carriers for conveying the carcass parts along a path, the fillet harvesting device and the detaching device being disposed along the path of the conveyor, and the detaching device being placed downstream of the fillet harvesting device, and comprising a collection means for collecting harvested residual meat.
US08292696B2
A method of manufacturing a microneedle including the steps of forming a plurality of first linear grooves on a substrate in parallel to one another along a first direction using grinding, and forming a plurality of second linear grooves on the substrate in parallel to one another in a second direction intersecting the first direction using grinding.
US08292695B2
The invention relates to a machine for creating non-cylindrical bore surfaces having a machine spindle (5), to which a machining tool (2-06, 3-04) can be connected, onto which a feed movement is transferred via a feed means (1-10). A direct axially parallel acting linear drive (1-06) is provided in the tool fitting unit (1) associated with the machine spindle (5) for fine feeding, the feed movement of which overlaps the first mentioned feed movement, and the actuating means (1-05) of which acts upon a feed (1-03) that is disposed together with the machining tool (2-05, 3-04) and the means for deflection (1-031, 1-032) of the feed movement in a tool unit (2, 3) that can be exchanged on the tool fitting unit (1).
US08292691B2
A method and apparatus for temperature control for a chemical mechanical polishing process is provided. In one embodiment, the method comprises polishing the substrate with a surface of a polishing pad assembly, measuring a real-time temperature of the surface of the polishing pad assembly, determining whether the real-time temperature of the surface of the polishing pad assembly is within a predetermined processing temperature range, and contacting the surface of the polishing pad assembly with a pad conditioner to adjust the temperature of the surface of the polishing pad assembly to fall within the predetermined temperature range.
US08292681B2
A water recreation device and method of use is contemplated having advantages such as improved stability, maneuverability and ease of use. Embodiments of the contemplated water recreation device include a riding board, handles and a tow hook assembly that are configured to allow a rider to more easily transition to a standing forward-facing position while riding the device. The contemplated device may also include foot bindings or foot grips for added ride stability. The device may alternately include rails disposed on the bottom surface of the riding board. Such rails are adapted to channel water toward the rear bottom section of the riding board to cause the device to achieve an approximately planar orientation relative to the surface of a body of water. This planar orientation provides positioning and stability that further improves the ease of transitioning to a standing position.
US08292676B2
A system connector includes a first housing half, and a second housing half matching the first housing half. The two housing halves are snappable and lockable to each other via a locking device, and there is at least one contact module arranged in each of the housing halves. The contact module includes socket-like and/or pin-like electrical contact elements. An adapter module that is mountable on the contact module has a first connection side and a second connection side, each of which includes cylindrical adapter elements arranged in a row, in which socket contacts or pin contacts are arranged. The adapter module on its first connection side is connectable to one of the contact modules arranged within one of the housing halves. The socket contacts or pin contacts of the adapter element of the second connection side are suitable for electrical contacting of the contact modules of the matching housing halves.
US08292674B1
An electrical connector includes a dielectric body, a plurality of terminals molded in the dielectric body and an insulating housing. The dielectric body has a base portion, and a tongue portion. A rear end of the tongue portion defines a ring-shaped cavity for receiving a ring-shaped waterproof ring therein. The insulating housing has a top wall, two side walls and a bottom wall interconnected with one another to form an accommodating space thereamong. A ring-shaped blocking wall with an insertion groove formed therein is connected with inner sides of the top wall, the two side walls and the bottom wall. The tongue portion is inserted into a front of the accommodating space through the insertion groove with an outer periphery of the waterproof ring resisting against an inner sidewall of the insertion groove, and a front of the base portion abutting against a rear of the blocking wall.
US08292669B2
An electrical connector (100) adapted for being mounted on a mother board (900) includes a housing and a number of contact modules (21, 22) each having a wafer (210, 220) and a number of terminals insert molded with the wafer. The terminals include an upper terminal (211, 221) having an upper contact portion (2111, 2211), and a lower contact terminal (212, 222) having a lower contact portion (2121, 2221). The upper contact portion and the lower contact portion are separated from each other along a vertical direction to define a slot (214, 224) therebetween. The upper terminal and the lower contact terminal are secured in the wafer at two positions remote from each other along a mating direction perpendicular to the vertical direction, with the upper contact portion and the lower contact portion approaching close to each other along the mating direction.
US08292654B2
According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes a battery connector. The battery connector includes a plurality of signal terminals separated from each other by a first distance, a positive terminal separated from the plurality of signal terminals by a second distance greater than the first distance, an insulative positioning pin between the plurality of signal terminals and the positive terminal, protruding farther than the positive terminal, and a negative terminal separated from the plurality of signal terminals by a third distance greater than the first distance and protruding farther than the positive terminal, the plurality of signal terminals being between the positioning pin and the negative terminal.
US08292653B2
A connector includes a plug, a socket corresponding to the plug, and a protection assembly rotatably connected to one of the plug and the socket. The protection assembly is configured for encompassing the other one of the plug and the socket to firmly fixed the plug and the socket together when the plug is inserted into the socket.
US08292651B1
An output connector for a high voltage, high current power unit, including a plug assembly including a dielectric plug body having two conductive biplates arranged generally parallel to each other. The two conductive biplates abut a dielectric biplate backer and the two conductive biplates are separated by the dielectric biplate backer. A header assembly includes a dielectric header body presenting two substantially parallel, inwardly facing, vertical support walls on opposing sides of the receptacle recess. A bus bar assembly includes two contactors coupled to a flexible bus bar and abutting the vertical support walls. The two contactors are arranged such that a space exists between the contactors. A ring assembly is couplable to the plug assembly and structured to force the plug assembly axially inward to the header assembly whereby the biplates and the biplate backer are forced between the contactors.
US08292643B1
A card connector includes an insulating housing defining a receiving chamber, a sliding recess and a guiding slot opened in a bottom of the sliding recess and having a front spread towards the receiving chamber to define a guiding slope. An ejecting device includes a slider slidably disposed in the sliding recess, an elastic element clipped between the slider and the sliding recess and a connecting bar having one end fastened in the insulating housing and the other end slidably located in the slider. A front of the slider protrudes sideward to form a holding projection. A block is protruded on a bottom of the slider and received in the guiding slot for cooperating with the guiding slope to guide the movement of the slider so as to make the holding projection tightly buckled in a gap of a card for securing the card in the receiving chamber.
US08292641B2
Disclosed is a contact terminal closing device for a portable storage device. The disclosed contact terminal closing device includes: a contact terminal received in a housing; a guide frame; a push sliding knob coupled to the guide frame in such a manner that depending on whether the push sliding knob is manually pushed or not, the push sliding knob locks the contact terminal or releases the contact terminal from the locked state, the push sliding knob being moved in the longitudinal direction of the guide frame to manually retract the contact terminal into the housing or to manually extract the contact terminal from the housing; and one or more shielding members provided on the guide frame to be cooperatively moved depending on the movement of the push sliding knob, the shielding members being adapted to completely shield the contact terminal from the outside.
US08292638B1
A two-in-one connector includes an insulating housing, a plurality of first and second terminals, and a shielding shell. The insulating housing has a first base body and a second base body. Each first terminal has a first soldering portion projecting under the first base body to be mounted on a printed circuit board, and a first contact portion projecting beyond a top of the first base body. Each second terminal has a second soldering portion projecting under the second base body to be mounted on the printed circuit board, and a second contact portion projecting beyond a front of the second base body. The shielding shell is mounted on the first base body to define an insertion space therebetween for receiving a SIM card therein to contact with the first contact portions. A battery can be mounted on the shielding shell to contact with the second contact portions.
US08292637B2
An electrical connector assembly (100), comprises: a housing (1) having therein a receiving room (11) communicating with an exterior along a longitudinal direction, and the housing comprising a first shield part (15) and second shield part (16) assembled with each other; two paralleled printed circuit boards (2) received into the receiving room and positioned in the housing; a strain relief (5) disposed between the first shield part and the second shield part along a vertical direction; a metallic holder (8) enclosing and engaged with the first shield part, the second shield part and the strain relief; and a latch mechanism assembled to an exterior surface of the housing and having a portion shielded by the metallic holder.
US08292635B2
A connector assembly (1000) includes a first connector (100) having a first insulative housing (11), a plurality of first terminals (12) supported by the first insulative housing and at least one latching member (13) combined with the first insulative housing, the latching member (13) having two locking arms (132) spaced apart from each other along a longitudinal direction; a second connector (200) having a second insulative housing (21), a plurality of second terminals (22) supported by the second insulative housing and at least one clasping member (23) combined with the second insulative housing, the clasping member (23) having a rigid longitudinal bar (232) with two free ends protruding at opposite directions; and wherein the rigid longitudinal bar is sandwiched between the two locking arms and the two free ends engaged with the two locking arms when the first connector mates with the second connector.
US08292634B2
A socket connector includes a socket body having a recess adapted to receive therein a connection object such as a semiconductor module, contact members disposed at a bottom surface portion of the recess, and a spring member disposed on one side of the recess. The spring member has an engaging portion adapted to engage the connection object in a detaching direction for provisionally holding it in a first stage of an attaching operation of the connection object and a pressing portion adapted to press the connection object parallel to the bottom surface portion and inward of the recess for positioning the connection object at a predetermined position of the recess.
US08292631B2
An electrical connector includes an insulative housing and a number of electrical contacts secured to the insulative housing. The insulative housing has a pair of opposite top surface and bottom surfaces. Each electrical contact includes a retaining section received in the insulative housing, a flat offset section bending from a top end of the retaining section and extending along the top surface of the insulative housing, a soldering section bending from a bottom end of the retaining section, and a cantilevered contact arm bending downwardly from the offset section and projecting into the insulative housing.
US08292625B2
A radically curable polyurethane composite for dental restorations, including provisional restorations, includes polyurethane dimethacrylate prepolymers that have at least one flexible unit within a polyurethane dimethacrylate backbone, and one or more dimethacrylate monomers. Composite materials made with polyurethane dimethacrylate prepolymers of the invention exhibit superior and optimal properties of flexural strength and deflection-at-break relative to conventional dental resin composites. Composite materials of the invention also provide improved melt-resistance in response to the heat of grinding or finishing, thereby improving the fit of restorations made from the composite and preserving the finishing instruments. Methods of treating a tooth using the radically curable polyurethane composite and methods of making the polyurethane dimethacrylate prepolymers with flexible units is also provided. A kit including the radically curable polyurethane composite is also described.
US08292624B2
An oral appliance with opposite channels for receiving the upper and lower dental arches is made from an edible material, in particular a gel. The appliance is integrally molded with protrusions that act as brush bristles to clean the teeth and stimulate the gums when manipulated in a chewing motion. The gel composition is water soluble and degrades in saliva. After chewing on the appliance for a time to clean the teeth, the product becomes masticated, broken up and ingested. The appliance can incorporate a breath freshener or an active dental composition, or can be flavored or can incorporate a food supplement or pharmaceutical, in which case the appliance is intended to be chewed up and eaten after serving its tooth cleaning function. Dentifrice reservoirs, air passageways and lateral braces for manipulation by the tongue can be provided.
US08292620B2
An intra-oral device includes a tongue shield aspirator, a bite member, a bite grip, and an evacuation tube. The tongue shield aspirator may include a tongue retractor portion and a cheek retractor portion, and may be an open, unitary, and/or flexible component made of position-memory material. The bite member includes a conduit which receives the tongue shield aspirator through one end and the evacuation tube through the opposite end. The free end of the evacuation tube is connectable directly to a HVE valve to aspirate fluid/debris from the mouth. The device may be positioned in the mouth by bending the distal (free) end of the tongue shield aspirator, inserting the bite member into the mouth first, followed by the tongue shield aspirator as the device is moved towards the patient's cheek, releasing the free end of the tongue shield aspirator, and having the patient bite down on the bite member.
US08292611B2
The cooling assembly comprising several cooling pins (1) that are connected to the same fluid inlet. Each cooling pin (1) is adapted to cool a molded hollow plastic piece (P), and comprises a hollow blowing pipe (2) having a fluid inlet (20a) at one end and at least one fluid outlet (21a) at the opposite end, and fluid boosting means (3) for boosting by Venturi effect the cooling fluid flow at the inlet (20a) of the blowing pipe (2). The cooling assembly can be mounted on a molding machine, and in particular an injection molding machine.
US08292609B2
A machine for shaping dough pieces from a batch of risen dough placed in a holding pan includes a set of tools that can move between a number of positions for activating different tools for sequentially applying them to the dough, the pan and the set of tools being placed in a relative motion whereby respectively approaching or moving away from one another. The set of tools includes a tool for controlled spreading of the dough inside the pan for rendering its thickness uniform while essentially preserving its initial volume; a tool for shaping/dividing the dough into distinct dough pieces, equipped with partition walls that, between them, define receptacles for the shaping of dough pieces the shape of these partition walls in each receptacle being provided for progressively drawing an upper surface layer of the dough and pushing back the remainder of the dough into said layer.
US08292605B2
A method for controlling a rotary fluid device includes providing a rotary fluid device having a fluid displacement assembly and a plurality of control valves. The fluid displacement assembly includes a first member and a second member. The first and second members have relative movement and define a plurality of volume chambers. The plurality of control valves is in fluid communication with the plurality of volume chambers. A desired displacement is received. A relative position of the first and second members is determined. An optimal displacement family is selected from a plurality of displacement families that is based on peak displacements of a plurality of displacement curves. A phase shift angle for the optimal displacement family is selected so that an actual displacement of the fluid displacement assembly approaches the desired displacement. The control valves of the rotary fluid device are actuated in accordance with the phase shift angle.
US08292597B2
A gear pump comprises a casing having an inlet, an interior, and an outlet. An inlet gear is positioned at the inlet and pressurizes fluid received at the inlet. A drive gear is positioned at the outlet of the casing, the drive gear receiving fluid pressurized by the inlet gear to output pressurized fluid at the outlet. A speed-reduction gear is meshed to the drive gear and connected to the at least one inlet gear, the speed-reduction gear having a greater number of teeth than the drive gear to reduce a rotational speed from the drive gear to the inlet gear, such that the inlet gear has a lower speed that the drive gear. An input shaft is coupled to the drive gear and receives a rotational input to actuate the drive gear.
US08292595B2
A method of constant airflow control includes various controls to accomplish a substantially constant airflow rate over a significant change of the static pressure in a ventilation duct. One control is a constant I·RPM control, which is primarily used in a low static pressure range. Another control is a constant RPM control, which is primarily used in a high static pressure range. These controls requires neither a static pressure sensor nor an airflow rate sensor to accomplish substantially constant airflow rate while static pressure changes. Also, the method improves the accuracy of the control by correcting certain deviations that are caused by the motor's current—RPM characteristics. To compensate the deviation, the method adopts a test operation in a minimum static pressure condition. Also disclosed is an apparatus for conducting these control methods.
US08292593B2
A system and method of spread-spectrum fan control for an air-cooled system is provided for reducing the vibrational and acoustical noise associated with the air-cooled system. The method includes generating a first control signal that controls a blade-passing frequency of a first cooling fan and a second control signal that controls a blade-passing frequency of a second cooling fan, wherein the first and second control signals may be pulse width modulated (“PWM”) signals. One or more noise generators independently vary duty cycles for the first and second PWM signals within a range around respective first and second blade-passing frequency set points. As a result, the blade-passing frequencies for the first and second cooling fans are independently and randomly modulated within a range around the respective first and second blade-passing frequency set points.
US08292581B2
An air-cooled turbine blade and methods of manufacturing the blade are provided. The blade includes a suction side flow circuit formed within its interior and defined at least by an interior surface of a convex suction side wall, a pressure side flow circuit formed within the blade interior and defined at least by an interior surface of a concave pressure side wall, and a center flow circuit including a first section and a second section, the first section disposed between the suction side flow circuit and the pressure side flow circuit, and the second section in flow communication with the first section and a plurality of openings of a leading edge wall and defined at least partially by an interior surface of the leading edge wall.
US08292575B2
A fan apparatus and an air conditioner employing such a fan apparatus are provided to reduce noise and enhance efficiency. The fan apparatus may be driven by a BLDC motor that stably drives the fan and increases an air flow rate. Heat exchange efficiency of an outdoor unit of a front suction/discharge type air conditioner may be improved by such a fan apparatus driven by such a BLDC motor.
US08292565B1
A lightweight ramp locking assembly for use with a vehicle having a hitch receiver, a bed with sides and a tailgate. The assembly is connectable with the hitch receiver and positionable in a vertical locking position and a diagonal loading position. The assembly is firmly secured with the vehicle to be incapable of rotating movement.
US08292564B2
The present invention provides a pharmaceutical container transferring system suitable for taking containers stored in a storage rack in closely-spaced relation into and out of the storage rack. The system has a storage rack mounting plate for holding the storage rack, a thrust-up member provided underneath of the plate to thrust up a target container through an insertion hole of the storage rack while abutting the bottom of the container, a picking member provided above the mounting plate and having compressible jaw members having a spacing smaller than the upper part of the thrust-up container which are compressed to pinch the incoming container by extending their spacing, an upper thrust-down member disposed vertically above the lower thrust-up member for thrusting down the container pinched by the picking member and a picking carriage provided with the lower thrust-up member, the upper picking member and the upper thrust-down member that sandwich the mounting plate as the carriage moves.
US08292563B2
A sorter for handling and sorting semiconductor wafers is provided. The sorter has a housing, a handling and transport device and at least one nonproduction wafer buffer module. The housing has at least one holding area for interfacing one or more semiconductor wafer carriers to the housing. The housing defines an access path along which semiconductor wafers are transported between the housing and the one or more semiconductor wafer carriers. The handling and transport device is connected to the housing for transporting semiconductor wafers along the access path. The at least one nonproduction wafer buffer module is connected to the housing. The at least one nonproduction wafer buffer module buffers nonproduction wafers sorted by the sorter to one or more semiconductor wafer carriers. The at least one nonproduction wafer buffer module is located so that nonproduction wafers are transported by the handling and transport device, when being sorted to one or more of the semiconductor wafer carriers, along a different path than the access path.
US08292561B2
An improved cage nut assembly is comprised of a cage, a pair of slots, a nut, a flange and a strip. The cage has four walls which form a four sided enclosure. Each of a pair of opposing walls contains a slot. The flange extends from the nut such that its planar surface is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the nut. The flange and the nut have a common opening for receiving a bolt. The strip is attached to the nut and the flange. The strip is inserted into the slots to suspend the nut within the cage. The walls and the flange are shaped to limit rotation of the flange. The nut floats in two dimensions. The nut and the flange may be removed through the bottom of the cage.
US08292553B2
An insert for a deburring tool is used to machine openings of bores that are formed in metal work pieces. In an exemplary embodiment, the insert has an inward portion, a central portion connected to the inward portion, and an outward portion connected to the central portion. The central portion has a dovetail-shaped retaining feature that attaches the insert to the deburring tool.
US08292538B2
A vehicle barrier control device for limiting vehicular access to an area. The vehicle barrier control device includes a barrier system having an active position and a passive position and a control system adapted to move the barrier system between the active position and the passive position. In the active position, the barrier system prevents vehicles from passing through. In the passive position, vehicles are permitted to pass through. The barrier system includes a buttress, movable barrier plate, traffic control arm and a traffic indicating light. The control system comprises a traffic arm motor, programmable logic controller, variable frequency drive, and actuator. The barrier system is temporarily bolted to a sub-frame set in concrete. An actuator motor mounted to an actuator reduces the need for typical hydraulic components. Using a variable speed and reversible actuator motor the present invention provides high-speed movements of the barrier plate for emergency conditions.
US08292531B2
The cosmetics unit comprises a storage container for receiving a cosmetic substance therein, an applicator that can be immersed into the cosmetic substance, and an adjustable wiper part unit disposed on a container opening of the storage container, for wiping off cosmetic substance from the applicator. The wiper part unit comprises a deformable wiper, a neck part, and an adjustment sleeve accessible from the outside. The wiper is disposed between the container opening and the neck part. The adjustment sleeve encloses the container opening, the wiper and, partially, the neck part. The adjustment sleeve is rotatably mounted on the neck part as well as on the storage container, so that an axial distance between the container opening and the neck part, an axial dimension of the wiper, and a surface area of a wiper opening of the wiper can be altered by a rotational movement of the adjustment sleeve.
US08292518B2
One embodiment includes communications module having a release slide and a boot. The release slide includes a main body, a plurality of arms, and a plurality of coupling structures. The arms extend from a first end of the main body. The coupling structures extend from a second end of the main body opposite the first end. The boot is disposed over the coupling structures of the release slide and defines a cavity configured to slidably receive a communications cable.
US08292512B2
A ball bearing has an inner ring fitted on a rotational shaft and including an inner ring raceway on an outer circumferential surface thereof, an outer ring including an outer ring raceway on an inner circumferential surface thereof, a plurality of balls rotatably provided between the inner ring raceway and the outer ring raceway and a crown resin cage for retaining the balls at equal intervals in a circumferential direction. A bore diameter of the inner ring is 100 mm or more, and a radial clearance resulting in a state that the inner ring is assembled to the rotational shaft is 20 μn or more.
US08292511B2
A rolling-element bearing 1 comprising an inner race 3, an outer race 2 and an array of rolling elements 4 arranged within a bearing cage 5 situated between the two races 2, 3, the inner surface of the bearing cage 5 being piloted on the inner race 3 for limiting eccentric movement of the cage 5 within the bearing 1 and further having a reservoir 9 formed between a pair of circumferential weirs 6a, 7b on the cage 5, the outer surface of the inner race 3 comprising a raised land portion 3d for contacting oil 9a in the reservoir 9 thereby to control the relative speed of the cage 5 and the inner race 3, wherein the radial depth of each weir 6b, 7b is greater than the maximum radial clearance between the land portion 3d and the cage 5 for maintaining said controlling contact between the land portion 3d and the oil 9a during said eccentric movement of the cage 5.
US08292507B2
The bearing device has a bearing housing which is supported by a bearing base mounted on a body of a rotary machine equipped with a rotating shaft and through which the rotating shaft penetrates at the center and a plurality of pads which are arranged inside the bearing housing so as to circumferentially surround the rotating shaft and rotatably support the rotating shaft. A contact surface between an outer circumference of the bearing housing and an inner circumference of the bearing base extends along the axial direction of the rotating shaft and forms a convex curved surface protruding outward, and the bearing housing is slidably supported by the bearing base via the contact surface of the convex curved surface. At least either the inner circumference of the bearing housing or the outer circumference of the pad forms a curved surface extending along the axial direction, and a distance between the inner circumference of the bearing housing and the outer circumference of the pad gradually increases from the center towards the ends along the axial direction.
US08292495B2
A zero-heat-flux DTT measurement device is constituted of a flexible substrate supporting an electrical circuit including a heater trace defining a heater, thermal sensors, and a thermal sensor calibration circuit.
US08292493B2
A method for manufacturing an interchangeable movement includes assembling parts into a movement subassembly, such that the subassembly is a complete working mechanism; enclosing the subassembly in a body; integrating a glass with the body, wherein the body comprises a single shell with only an opening that receives the glass, sealing the glass and the single shell to enclose the body, thereby creating a water resistant modular movement; and wherein the modular movement is insertable into a case of a portable device having a receptacle for removably receiving the modular movement without tools and in a manner where the glass of the modular movement is visible through the case when the modular movement is inserted.
US08292488B2
A backlight unit is provided that, for a case where on a mounting board on which a plurality of point light sources are mounted, an electronic component other than those point light sources is mounted, can reduce the occurrence of uneven luminance, with no increase in the size of the backlight unit. This backlight unit (10) is provided with a PWB (6) having at least an LED mounting region (6a) extending along a side surface (3a) of a light guide plate (3). The LED mounting region (6a) of the PWB (6) is, at an end portion thereof on one side, provided with an FPC mounting region (6b) and is, at an end portion thereof on the other side opposite to the one side, provided with a capacitor mounting region (6c) extending along a side surface (3b) perpendicular to the side surface (3a) of the light guide plate (3).
US08292485B2
A light pen includes a case, a light source, a pen-nib structure, a first lens device, an elastic piece, a hollow knob, and a linkage pipe. The pen-nib structure is disposed through the case. The first lens device is disposed between the light source and the pen-nib structure. The elastic piece is connected to the first lens device. The hollow knob rotatably sheathes the first lens device. The linkage pipe sheathes the first lens device and is connected to the hollow knob for driving the elastic piece to move away from the pen-nib structure when the hollow knob rotates to a first position, so that the pen-nib structure can move relative to the case. The linkage pipe is further used for being separate from the elastic piece when the hollow knob rotates to a second position, so that the elastic piece can be engaged with the pen-nib structure.
US08292484B2
An illumination poi is provided, comprising light emitters and light waveguides optically coupled to the light emitters. In some embodiments, the light waveguides are optical fibers. A microchip light controller, associated with the light emitters, varies the light entering the optical fibers, and facilitates spectacular light pattern upon rotation of the illumination poi in the dark.
US08292483B2
An optical waveguide system with an electrodeless plasma lamp as the electromagnetic radiation source. The system includes an optic source coupling element that receives the electromagnetic radiation that is emitted from at least one electrodeless plasma lamp. The optic source coupling element is coupled to at least one optical waveguide element. The optical waveguide element includes at least one fiber optic cable that is capable of transmitting the emitted electromagnetic radiation. The fiber optic cable can be positioned such that the electromagnetic radiation is transmitted at a desired position away from the electrodeless plasma lamp source.
US08292477B2
A lamp structure includes a transparent cap, a lamp housing, a ring section, a separating pad, and a lamp board. The lamp housing has heat dissipating fins annularly arranged around the lamp housing. An end of each of the heat dissipating fins adjacent to the transparent cap has a groove, and the transparent cap covers the top of the groove. The ring section connects the end of each of the heat dissipating fins adjacent to the transparent cap. The separating pad is disposed on the bottom of the groove and extends along a sidewall of the groove to a region below the transparent cap to form a separating wall. The lamp board having light emitting diode devices is disposed in a containing space between the transparent cap and the separating pad to preclude damages caused by electrostatic discharge.
US08292474B2
An optic lens assembly includes a platform, and an optic lens including an incident surface and a projection surface on two opposite sides is arranged to an outer side of the platform. The incident surface consists of a plurality of oval-shaped surfaces. A first oval-shaped incident surface and a second oval-shaped incident surface are formed side by side to the incident surface. The two adjacent oval-shaped incident surfaces are concave for receiving an illuminating component. The projection surface also consists of a plurality of oval-shaped surfaces. A first oval-shaped projection surface and a second oval-shaped projection surface are formed side by side to a center area of the projection surface. Two symmetric outer connecting surfaces are formed to two lateral sides of the projection surface. The two adjacent oval-shaped projection surfaces are convex and larger than the incident surface.
US08292470B2
A focusing mechanism for LED spot lamp includes a lamp seat and a lens barrel being extendably assembled to the lamp seat. The lamp seat has an LED chip mounted thereon. The lens barrel includes a barrel body having a bottom portion and an opposing top portion, and a lens mounted to the top portion. The bottom portion of the lens barrel is assembled to the lamp seat via an extension coupling structure, such that the lens is located above the LED chip to cover the same. With the extension coupling structure, the lens barrel can be adjusted in position to project from the top of the lamp seat by different distances, so that the focal length between the lens and the LED chip can be regulated to accordingly regulate the focusing and diffusing effects of light emitted from the LED chip.
US08292466B2
A lens includes a first transparent member and a second transparent member. The first transparent member includes a bottom surface, a Fresnel lens surface and a first sidewall. An LED is received in the bottom surface. The Fresnel lens surface is configured for aligning the light from the LED. The first sidewall is configured for refracting the light from the LED. The second transparent member includes a second bottom surface, an upper surface and a second sidewall. A second receiving portion is defined in the second bottom surface for receiving the first transparent member. The upper surface is configured for reflecting the light through the Fresnel lens surface so that the light is redirected to radiate laterally. The laterally radiated light transmits out of the lens through the second sidewall.
US08292463B2
The present invention provides an illumination module comprising one or more light-emitting elements which are thermally coupled to one or more heat extraction elements. The one or more heat extraction elements are configured to transfer heat in substantially a first direction. One or more optical elements are further integrated into the illumination module, wherein the one or more optical elements are optically coupled to the one or more light-emitting elements and configured to redirect the light emitted by the one or more light-emitting elements in substantially the first direction.
US08292460B2
A hybrid light source system is disclosed. The hybrid light source system adapted to be used in a projection apparatus comprises a dichroic component, a first light source, a second light source and a light processing component. The dichroic component defines a light path, with the first light source capable of generating a first light which is projected towards to the dichroic component along the light path and the second light source capable of generating a second light which is projected towards the dichroic component along the light path and opposite to the first light. The first light comprises a first sort of light beams and a second sort of light beams, in which the first sort of light beams and the second light are guided by the dichroic component to form a hybrid light and travel into the light processing component along the light path.
US08292456B2
A lighting fixture includes a reflector reflecting light from a fluorescent lamp to a desired direction, and one or more lamp connectors connecting the reflector to rotatably and detachably coupling with the fluorescent lamp, wherein the reflector is adapted to selectively rotate with respect to an axis of the fluorescent lamp for reflecting light from the fluorescent lamp so as to change a light pattern of the fluorescent lamp towards an opening of the foldable housing. The foldable housing includes two side frames and a retention frame extended between the two side frames to retain a distance therebetween, wherein the side frames are pivotally coupled with the retention frame to fold between an unfolded position to retain the fluorescent lamp in longitudinal position and a folded position to form a compact size for storage and transportation.
US08292449B2
A modular light unit for illuminating a hazardous underwater environment includes a housing having a front portion with a light transmissive window and a back shell portion which enclose a layered lighting assembly. The layered lighting assembly includes a PCB with an array of LEDs mounted thereon with the LEDs in thermal communication with a bottom surface of the PCB. A thermal bridge abuts the bottom surface of the PCB on one side and a heat sink on the other. A thermally conductive potting material fills spaces between the heat sink and the back shell portion. An underwater connector provides releasable connection to an electrical cable for providing power to drive the plurality of LEDs. A quick-release mechanical fastener is attached to the housing for releasably attaching the modular light unit to a support structure installed within the hazardous underwater environment.
US08292439B2
An image projection system is disclosed. The system comprises a projector, a user input device and a computing device. The micro-mirror based projector projects an image including a cursor on a display plane. The present invention discloses various embodiments for the system and method of adjusting the brightness of the cursor to improve effects of a presentation. According to one embodiment, the brightness of the cursor is adjusted by modifying the on/off time ratio of the mirrors by which the cursor is formed. According to another embodiment, the projector comprises a first and a second micro-mirror array. The second array is dedicated for projecting the cursor image. The brightness of the cursor may be adjusted by changing the number of micro-mirrors by which the cursor is formed from the second array.
US08292435B2
An optometric apparatus for a subjective binocular visual performance test includes right and left test units including right and left housings, a plurality of optical elements disposed in the right and left housings, right and left test windows provided to the housings, in which desired optical elements selected from the optical elements are to be placed and through the selected optical elements, an optotype is presented to examinee's right and left eyes by an optotype presenting apparatus, right and left polarization plates having polarization axes perpendicular to each other and arranged to be placed in the test windows, and right and left protective covers arranged to be placed in the test windows at a side facing the optotype presenting apparatus and having polarization optical characteristics of changing circularly polarized light that passes through the right and left protective covers into linearly polarized light having polarization axes perpendicular to each other.
US08292424B2
A liquid ejecting head is adapted to eject liquid toward a target medium. A transporter is adapted to transport a tray on which the target medium is mounted toward a region facing the liquid ejecting head via a transporting path. A tray guide is disposed in a front side of the liquid ejecting apparatus, and having a supporting face adapted to support the tray thereon. The tray guide is movable between a first position connecting the supporting face with the transporting path to allow the transporter to transport the tray to the transporting path and a second position escaping the supporting face from the transporting path. The supporting face is kept being parallel to the transporting path when the tray guide is moved between the first position and the second position.
US08292420B2
The invention describes an inkjet printer (1) for printing different media (2), with a print head arrangement (3) comprising at least one print head (4) for printing the medium (2) and with a printing table (11) forming a support plane (12) for supporting the printing medium (2), and orifices (13) of a suction system (14) are provided in at least certain regions in the support plane (12) for retaining the printing medium (2) during the printing operation, as well as a forward feed mechanism (6) for the printing medium (2). In the region of the printing table (11), the printing medium (2) is provided with at least one pressing mechanism (16), at least in the region of a side edge oriented in the forward feed direction (7), with a pressing force which acts in the direction perpendicular to the support plane (12).
US08292417B2
An ink cartridge includes a case, and the case includes an ink chamber configured to store ink therein, and a particular face facing an exterior of the case and having a first opening formed therethrough. The case also includes an engaging portion positioned at the particular face, and a particular wall extending from a particular portion of the particular face. The particular portion surrounds the first opening, and the particular wall has a tube shape. The particular wall includes an end defining a second opening opposite the first opening. The ink cartridge also includes an elastic member positioned at the end of the particular wall, and a cap. The cap includes an end wall having an third opening formed therethrough, a peripheral wall surrounding each of the elastic member and a portion of the particular wall, and an engaging member extending from the peripheral wall and engaging the engaging portion.
US08292415B2
A liquid column member of a liquid tank is adapted to be coupled to a tank body of the liquid tank and to face a photosensor that detects a liquid level in the tank body. The liquid column member includes a pipe body and a liquid guide portion. The pipe body is made of light transmissive material. The pipe body has a liquid repellent internal surface. The liquid guide portion is configured and arranged to guide a droplet that slips down along the internal surface of the pipe body away from a sensing position of the photosensor.
US08292405B2
A pagewidth printhead for an inkjet printer includes an elongate support; a plurality of printhead modules supported by the support, each printhead module comprising rows of unit cells, each unit cell comprising a nozzle through which ink is ejected and an actuator for ejecting ink from the nozzle; and an engagement mechanism having complementary formations defined on opposite edges of each printhead module to engage the printhead modules together in series along the support. The engagement mechanism includes a biasing means configured to press the serially arranged printhead modules together, the biasing means including at least one compression spring. A gap is defined between the unit cells of adjacent printhead modules, the gap extending obliquely with respect to the support.
US08292402B2
The present disclosure relates to photoresist compositions suitable for thin layer photoimageable nozzle plates for micro-fluid ejection devices and methods of making and using such thin layer nozzle plates. The photoresist compositions may comprise a high-molecular weight phenoxy resin, a di-functional epoxy resin, and a multi-functional epoxy resin.
US08292397B2
In the ejection process in which the ink is ejected by using the ejection driving pulse, the ink is heated by a heating mechanism. On the other hand, in the maintenance process in which the ejection ability of the printing head is recovered by repeatedly applying the maintenance driving pulse to the piezoelectric oscillator, the ink is cooled by a cooling mechanism.
US08292392B2
An inkjet printer operates to produce a print with at least one component operating at less than a normal operating parameter. The printer identifies an image density for an image to be printed and operates the printer with operational parameters different than normal operational parameters to enable printing operations before all of the components in the printer reach their operational parameters.
US08292387B2
A control unit sets a head drive shortest cycle depending on a print mode, measures an encoder signal cycle, determines whether or not a measured encoder signal cycle is shorter than a head drive shortest cycle set in advance, switches a record synchronization signal to the head drive shortest cycle when it is determined that the measured encoder signal cycle is shorter (in YES), in No, corrects the position of superposed color dots and aligns record dots by a downstream recording unit to a dot position shift by an upstream recording unit when it is determined that the measured encoder signal cycle is longer (in NO), calculates and stores an amount of shift from an equal interval reference position by shifts of the head record synchronization signal and the measured encoder signal, and records an image in synchronization with a corrected record synchronization signal.
US08292381B2
A consumer appliance with a soft open door mechanism includes a cabinet having top and a bottom and defining an opening along a front side. A door has a top and a bottom and is attached by a hinge to the front side of the cabinet. The hinge is at a bottom of the door so that the door is movable between an upright position closing the opening and a substantially horizontal position opening the opening. A spring is mounted in the cabinet so as to oppose movement of the door toward the horizontal position. A damping device is mounted within the cabinet activatable by an opening movement of the door toward the horizontal position to slow the door motion. The damping device is not active until the door has moved a distance from the upright position toward the horizontal position. Again, various options and modifications are possible.
US08292378B2
A washing container for a dishwashing machine simplified by attaching at least one cover piece with sidepieces connected at angles to a base frame. The washing container can be assembled in a simpler, less expensive manner.
US08292373B2
A novel spindle nut assembly is presented comprising the following three components: a washer, a locking snap ring, and a nut. Each of these three components function together, and in conjunction with the spindle of a vehicle axle, to affix a wheel hub assembly onto the spindle of an axle. The three components comprising the spindle nut assembly incorporate design features allowing the components to interlock and resist loss of preload compression on the hub assembly.
US08292372B2
In one aspect of the present invention, a degradation assembly has a holder comprising a first end and a second end and a shank with a longitudinal central bore having an opening at an end proximate the second end. The shank portion of the holder has an inside diameter of the bore and an outside diameter wherein either the inner diameter or the outer diameter comprise at least one recess disposed therein which comprises a depth of less than the distance between the inner diameter and the outer diameters.
US08292363B2
A clutch mechanism for selectively transmitting a force applied thereto may include an operation bracket that is rotatably connected to the vehicle seat via a first pivot shaft and is connected to a force output cable, a rotatable arm that is rotatably connected to the operation bracket via the first pivot shaft and is connected to a force input cable, and a swing arm that is rotatably connected to the operation bracket via a second pivot shaft. The operation bracket includes a curved slot formed therein. The rotatable arm includes an elongated slot that has a toothed portion. The swing arm includes an engagement portion that movably engages both of the curved slot of the operation bracket and the elongated slot of the rotatable arm.
US08292358B2
A vehicle sunshade device is provided with guide rails arranged on both sides of an opening section provided on a vehicle roof and having guide grooves extending in a front-rear direction, a plurality of sunshade panels having sliders slidable along the guide grooves, and guide mechanisms for guiding the sliders of at least a rearmost sunshade panel of the sunshade panels upward or downward from the guide grooves in a transition from a spread-out state to a stored state. An elastic member is further provided on the vehicle roof and presses the rearmost sunshade panel on a front side sunshade panel, which is ahead of the rearmost sunshade panel, when the sliders of the rearmost sunshade panel enter the guide mechanisms.
US08292349B1
A longitudinal-slide door controlling mechanism is provided to improve door controlling for large vehicles, such as buses. The door controlling mechanism is designed to longitudinal-slide to save space-occupied by the door and enhance safety. The mechanism includes a track, a slider group, a flexible transmission group, and a drive element. The flexible transmission group is used to drive the slider group to move along the track. And the track is attached to the bus body. Therefore the bus door is driven to longitudinal-slide along the bus body. The space-occupied caused by the conventional rotary door is saved. Also, the passerby struck by the door during opening would be eliminated.
US08292341B1
A fallen game animal can be dragged with a rig having a right and a left tether, both secured to the animal. The right and the left tether run alongside each other away from the fallen game animal in a direction of travel. Two or more persons, flanked by the right and the left tether, are positioned in a single file facing away from the fallen game animal. The persons use their right hands and their left hands to grip the handholds on the right tether and the left tether, respectively. Walking in single file in the direction of travel, the two persons pull the pair of tethers to drag the fallen animal. The rig can be extended to accommodate additional persons.
US08292340B2
Methods and apparatus are provided that automatically determine whether or not eggs designated for removal from an egg carrier have been removed by an egg removal apparatus. Light is emitted along a path above and across an egg carrier as an egg picker moves to pick up an egg. The length of time that the light path is blocked when the egg picker is moved is measured and used to determine whether or not the egg has been removed from the carrier. Another apparatus and method is provided for detecting a malfunctioning egg picker. A detection device detects a number of eggs in the egg carrier. A control device monitors the egg picker and the detection device. The control device calculates the number of eggs in the egg carrier for determining when the number of eggs varies a predetermined amount from an egg count number for the egg carrier.
US08292335B1
A balloon-tying device for assisting in tying a balloon is provided, the balloon having a filling end. The balloon-tying device comprises a base having a top surface and a bottom surface substantially opposite the top surface. A pair of spaced tying prongs is provided with each having a base end and a top end and the base ends of the tying prongs secured to the top surface of the base. A ridge extends from the top end of each of the tying prongs wherein the filling end of the balloon is wrappable around the tying prongs and fed between the tying prongs and wherein the ridges maintain the filling end of the balloon from inadvertently slipping from the tying prongs during the tying process.
US08292327B2
The invention relates to a device for the optional guiding of at least one self-steering wheel of a trolley. According to the invention, the wheel is of the type that is mounted on a support that pivots around a vertical axis. The device comprises: a push bar which forms a dual-articulated steering member that can be accessed by the user; means for rotating a first clutch part about the vertical axis in response to steering member movements; and means which can be used at will to couple and uncouple the first clutch part in relation to a second clutch part which is solidly connected to the aforementioned support of the wheel, in response to other steering member movements. In addition, a coin-operated locking device for preventing the movement of the trolley is built into a casing which houses a transmission element of the guiding device and which is fixed to the push bar of the trolley.
US08292319B2
A high-strength skateboard deck includes an elongated body having opposite ends, opposite sides, an upper side and a lower side, the lower side including a plurality of embossments therein, improving the strength in the skateboard deck, reducing fatigue in the skateboard deck, and reducing the coefficient of friction of the lower side of the skateboard deck.
US08292318B2
The invention relates to a drawbar support assembly. There is a need for a drawbar support assembly which can adapt to different types of drawbars. An adaptable drawbar support assembly includes a generally U-shaped front support member for coupling to and supporting the front end of the drawbar. A front spacer member mounts in the front support member above or below the front end of the drawbar. A generally U-shaped rear support member couples to and supports the drawbar. A rear spacer member mounts in the rear support member below the drawbar. The rear spacer member is removable from the rear support member when the front spacer member is mounted above the front end of the drawbar. A ball coupler is attached to the rear end of the drawbar when the front spacer member is mounted above the front end of the drawbar. A clevis coupler is attached to the rear end of the drawbar when the front spacer member is mounted below the front end of the drawbar.
US08292309B2
A supporting device includes a tray, a plurality of wheel assemblies, a handle, and a handgrip. The tray is configured for supporting a payload. The wheel assemblies are secured to the tray, and each wheel assembly includes a wheel. Each wheel is capable of rotating about a first axis. The wheel assemblies are rotatable between a first position and a second position, and a distance between each wheel and the tray in the first position is smaller than a distance between each wheel and the tray in the second position. The handle is attached to the tray and configured to urge the wheel assemblies to rotate from the first position to the second position. The handgrip is attached to the tray and configured to urge the wheel assemblies to rotate from the second position to the first position.
US08292305B2
An adjusting magnetism shelter of a cutter holder has a stationary collar, a sliding assembly and a cap. The stationary collar has a disk and multiple sliding recesses. A first hole is defined in the disk. The sliding recesses are defined in the disk. The sliding assembly has multiple sliding bars. Each sliding bar is mounted in a sliding recess and has a magnetism bar and a moving shaft. The magnetism bar has a reflection surface. The moving shaft protrudes from each sliding bar. The cap covers the stationary collar and has a top board. The top board has multiple arc grooves. Each arc groove has an inner end and an outer end. The inner end of the arc groove is near the first hole. The outer end of the arc groove is far away from the first hole and is inserted into one of the moving shafts.
US08292304B2
A tool-bit holder (10) for varying tool-bit shank profiles comprising a hub (12) having a longitudinal bore (28) adapted for receiving a tool-bit shank (66, 70, 80). The hub (12) has a plurality of radial slots (38) communicating with the first section (30) of the longitudinal bore (28). The tool-bit holder (10) has a collar (14) fixedly attached to the hub (12) adjacent the open (29) and disposed annularly about the hub (12). A sleeve (16) is axially slidably mounted and disposed annularly about the hub (12). The sleeve (16) has a plurality of radial bores (48), each being in communication with a respective radial slot (38) of the hub (12) with a detent ball (18) disposed within each. A spring (20) is provided for biasing the sleeve (16) towards the open end (29) wherein the detent ball (18) engages an inner ramp face (46) of the collar (14).
US08292287B2
According to one embodiment, a decolorizing device includes a first stacker to stack sheets to be decolorized images on the sheets, a second stacker arranged adjacent to the first stacker, wherein the sheets stacked on the first stacker is kept waiting on the second stacker in order to be decolorized the images, a pressing unit to urge the sheets stacked on the second stacker downward and keep the sheets stacked on the second stacker flat, an image decolorizing unit to decolorize the images on the sheets, and a sheet feed unit positioned on an upper surface of the pressing unit to convey the sheets pressed on the pressing unit from the second stacker to the image decolorizing unit.
US08292277B2
In the course of a method for handling a workpiece having at least one through-opening, at least one suction element and the workpiece are placed against each other to form a suction chamber. A vacuum is generated in the suction chamber in order to fix the workpiece and the suction element to each other with a holding force for subsequent manipulation of the workpiece. The workpiece and the suction element are fixed to each other with a holding force by at least partially providing at least one through-opening of the workpiece opening into the suction chamber with a covering in order to reduce the flow of air through the through-opening to the suction chamber after the vacuum has been generated. A workpiece handling system is used to carry out the above-mentioned method.
US08292273B2
A fluid filled type vibration damping device having a pressure-receiving chamber and an equilibrium chamber disposed on either side of a partition member. A movable cover member juxtaposed against the partition member from the pressure receiving chamber side to cover a communicating hole of the partition member. An outside peripheral edge of the movable cover member is held in intimate contact against the partition member through urging force of an elastic retainer portion. Pressure of both chambers will acts on both faces of a movable rubber film, thereby constituting a pressure fluctuation absorbing mechanism. The outside peripheral edge of the movable cover member is separated from the partition member in opposition to the urging force by negative pressure in the pressure receiving chamber for providing a shunting mechanism for preventing excessive negative pressure in the pressure receiving chamber.
US08292271B2
An aeration unit, an aeration apparatus and a method of aeration are provided that can quickly realize water quality with gas dissolution balance appropriate for living creatures in water, and that can be utilized for treating polluted water at sewage treatment facilities and used in a gas-liquid contact step at chemical plants or others. A multiple stage aeration apparatus constituted with an air diffuser for producing bubbles in water, a liquid foam generating channel part for changing bubbles in water into liquid foam bodies (soap-bubble-like liquid foam aggregate), a gas retention chamber having a space capable of retaining gas in water and a bubble accumulating part for collecting bubbles newly released from below the gas retention chamber and feeding the bubbles to the liquid foam generating channel part connected to the upper part thereof is disclosed.
US08292270B2
A humidifier for adding humidity to an air stream of an HVAC system includes a housing configured to be mounted to a surface of an HVAC duct. The housing may be configured to hold a humidifier pad in an operating position. The housing may direct air through the humidifier pad from a first major surface to a second major surface of the pad. In the operating position, the first and second major surfaces of the humidifier pad may be substantially non-parallel with the surface of the HVAC duct when the housing is mounted to the surface of the HVAC duct. In some cases, this may provide a more compact design. In some cases, a centrifugal fan, rather than an axial fan, may be used to draw air into the humidifier from the HVAC duct. The use of a centrifugal fan may reduce the noise associated with the operation of the humidifier.
US08292260B1
An impulse tolerant valve body is longitudinally deformable, acting through its convex valve seat interface and a concave valve seat to beneficially reduce closing energy impulse amplitude, increase impulse duration, damp induced resonance vibrations, and narrow the characteristic vibration spectrum. Elastic longitudinal valve body deformability results from elasticity in valve body construction materials and, in certain embodiments, from at least one fluid-filled internal elastic space in fluid communication with at least one internal surge chamber via at least one fluid flow restrictor. Fluid flow from elastic space to surge chamber allows substantially central longitudinal valve body compression, followed by elastic valve body rebound with reverse fluid flow. Beneficial effects are achieved through dissipation of impulse energy as heat lost through fluid flow friction and valve body hysteresis. The valve body's tendency to deform centrally causes slight rotation of its convex valve seat interface on the correspondingly-curved concave valve seat.
US08292258B2
An automatic flush actuation apparatus, which is incorporated with a flushing system having a water inlet, a water outlet, and a water chamber communicating therebetween, that includes a valve member being moved by a flush lever for releasing the water pressure within the water chamber to allow the water passing from the water inlet to the water outlet, and a sensor-operated powering assembly including a relief valve provided at the valve member for controlling the water flowing to the water outlet and an actuator arranged in such a manner that while sensing a presence of a user of the flushing system, the actuator is driven to move the relief valve to an opened position for releasing the water pressure within the water chamber to allow the water passing to said water outlet.
US08292254B2
The present inventions relate to a balloon and streamer hub assembly that allows for the efficient hanging of balloons and streamers in a variety of different environments, as well as kits and methods related thereto. In one aspect, the balloon and streamer hub assembly includes a mounting block, and adhesive member a bowl shaped cover, and a securing mechanism for attachment of the bowl-shaped cover to the mounting block. The bowl-shaped has a depth that substantially corresponds to the width of the mounting block, and further includes a plurality of holes disposed around edges thereof in predetermined positions, which are adapted for attachment thereto different ones of the balloons and streamers.
US08292246B2
An apparatus for an inclinable support of a speaker on a rod includes a sleeve for receiving an end portion of the rod provided with a closed head section, a mounting device adapted to be attached to the speaker having an elongated opening formed as a guidance for the sleeve and a bearing spaced apart from the opening, in which the sleeve with the head section is supported pivotally, and at least one locking device for the sleeve provided in the region of the opening.
US08292244B2
A flat panel display device includes a stand and a cabinet. The stand has a pair of hook portions. The hook portions are symmetrically formed relative to a plane of symmetry. The cabinet has a bottom plate with a pair of attachment holes. The attachment holes are symmetrically formed relative to the plane of symmetry. Each of the attachment holes includes a first portion and a second portion that is wider than the first portion in a transverse direction of the cabinet. The first and second portions of each of the attachment holes have inner side faces, respectively. The inner side face of the first portion and the inner side face of the second portion are offset in the transverse direction of the cabinet and connected with a slanted guide face that is slanted relative to both of the inner side faces of the first and second portions.
US08292243B2
A compound differentially threaded element engages two or more longitudinally severed segments of a mating threaded element to provide differential linear motion. Different thread types may include pitch, thread starts, handedness or thread-form. Combinations of differential threads may be selected to enable fine or coarse linear motion without correspondingly fine or coarse thread pitches.
US08292241B2
An apparatus to store a child's potty seat with A design open at the top and front, incorporating multiple means for attaching the device for concealing, and A means to secure a boy deflector shield, and A pedestal to stand the device on.
US08292237B1
A method and an apparatus are provided to allow expanded control capability of digital locomotives on model railroad layouts, and to permit compatible speed and direction operation simultaneously for non-digital or conventional locomotives alongside. The improvements employ mixed-mode control encoding and decoding algorithms and methods that are expanded beyond other known structures for control mode changes used on model railroad layouts. The method and the apparatus also provide a capability for occupancy detection, transponding or data feedback detection and intelligent power management in the same apparatus.
US08292236B2
A seal for sealing a gap between a first (252) and a second (207) component of an aircraft flight surface which has a first seal body (222) having a first sealing portion (246) arranged to seal against the first component, wherein the first seal body is movably mounted to the second component so as to seal at least part of the gap during relative movement of the first and second components. A seal is also provided with components movable relative to each other.
US08292232B1
A satellite recovery apparatus having a base configured to be attached to a satellite and having a pressurized gas chamber and a valve assembly. A plurality of walls are hingedly attached to the base and movable between a closed position, wherein the walls define a volume above the base, and an open position, wherein the walls are disposed spaced away from the base. A heat shield is attached to the base. A deployable decelerator is attached to the heat shield and has an outer perimeter with an expandable torus that is operably connected to the valve assembly such that the expandable torus can be pressurized from the chamber. Pressurization of the expandable torus deploys the decelerator assembly from a non-deployed position within the volume to a deployed high-drag position.
US08292230B2
A device for detecting and eliminating a layer of ice formed on the surface of an aircraft structure or a liquid that has infiltrated inside of a structure and/or into the material of the structure. The device includes at least one pair of subnetworks of conductive elements, each subnetwork including at least one series of conductive elements, the aforementioned subnetworks being arranged in such a way that the interfitting between the conductive elements of the first subnetwork and the conductive elements of the second subnetwork forms a network of capacitive sensors, said the aforementioned conductive elements being embedded in an insulating material, each subnetwork of conductive elements being incorporated into a flexible substrate so that the entire assembly forms a flexible covering.
US08292221B2
A support for an aircraft seat, table or other piece of equipment has a lower support link that sweeps out a lateral arc. The lower support link cooperates with a conventional linear track to support the piece of equipment. The linear track provides fore/aft movement substantially orthogonal to a line tangent to the center of the lateral arc. A pilot link is operatively attached to the piece of equipment to form a four-bar linkage that maintains the equipment in a predetermined rotational attitude as the lower support link sweeps out its lateral arc.
US08292212B2
A method, a mandrel and a device for removing coreless rolls of a plastic film. The mandrel comprises a tubular body having a plurality of radial holes, conformed with a chamber for distributing pressurized air, in which a piston suitable for being magnetically coupled with an external drive member slides. When a roll must be removed, pressurized air is supplied to the fore end of the mandrel, and escapes from all the holes to expand the internal turns of the roll which can be taken off without friction. As the roll advances along the mandrel, the magnetically driven piston progressively reduces the volume of the air chamber preventing at the same time the air to escape from the holes that progressively come to lie on the rear side of the mandrel, with consequent saving of compressed air.
US08292205B2
A device for crushing one or more tablets and method for using the same are disclosed. The device preferably contains a lower body portion and upper body portion which assemble to define a cavity between the two portions. The cavity has a floor which may define an anvil. At least one opening is placed within the cavity to accept a tablet. A platen body may be adapted to travel along a substantially vertical axis between a closed and open position and may be guided along a rear vertical wall of the cavity. A pinion is preferably placed on an elongate member and operatively engages with a rack placed on the platen body such that movement of the elongate member is translated to the platen body. A crushing surface may be placed on the platen body and is preferably parallel to the anvil. The crushing surface and anvil may be placed at an oblique angle relative to the vertical axis of travel for the platen body. The platen body may contain a top surface which contacts a corresponding surface on the elongate member when the platen body is in the closed position so as to apply a hammering force to the tablet.
US08292203B2
To provide a method for producing ETFE granules having a low content of an ethylene/tetrafluoroethylene copolymer oligomer and being excellent in handling efficiency. A method for granulating an ethylene/tetrafluoroethylene copolymer, which is characterized by stirring and granulating a slurry of an ethylene/tetrafluoroethylene copolymer together with water in the presence of both ethylene and tetrafluoroethylene at a granulation temperature of from 10 to 130° C. for a granulation time of from 30 to 240 minutes.
US08292189B2
Upon recognizing a loss of a first connection to a computing apparatus, such as a personal computer, a smart card reader may maintain an open session with a smart card and may associate an identity of the computing apparatus of the first connection with the open session. Some time later, the smart card reader may establish a second connection with a computing apparatus. The smart card reader may compare an identity of the computing apparatus of the second connection with the identity of the computing apparatus of the first connection. Responsive to determining that the identities do not match, the smart card reader may close the open session with the smart card. Responsive to determining that the identities do match, the smart card reader may maintain the open session with the smart card.
US08292180B2
There is described a device having a two dimensional imager. The device having a two dimensional image sensor can be a hand held device. Imaging optics can be provided for focusing light reflected from a target onto the two dimensional imager. An image including imaging data can be obtained utilizing the hand held device.
US08292167B2
A method for personalizing a presentation instrument for an account holder while the account holder is present is described. The method includes transmitting to a server computer a request to personalize a presentation instrument for an account holder who has a financial account with a financial institution. The request includes the account holder's name and background information indicating a background to be placed onto the presentation instrument. The method further includes receiving, at the server computer from the financial institution, presentation instrument data to be included on the presentation instrument. The presentation instrument data comprises an account number and an expiration date. Further, the method includes transmitting from the server computer through a financial institution network, personalization information usable by a printer to place printed personalization information onto a blank presentation instrument, and to electronically store account information onto the blank presentation instrument while the account holder is present.
US08292160B2
In a first bonding step of bonding an initial ball to a pad surface, the initial ball is applied by ultrasonic vibration while in pressure contact with the pad surface and a capillary undergoes a scrubbing motion to be rotated spirally. This allows a deformation area of the initial ball to be reduced, whereby the accuracy of bonding can be improved. In a second bonding step of bonding a bonding wire to a lead surface, the capillary and the bonding wire are applied by ultrasonic vibration while in pressure contact with the lead surface and the capillary undergoes a scrubbing motion to be rotated spirally. This allows the bonding wire bonded to the lead surface to be cut reliably.
US08292152B2
A surgical stapling device particularly suited for endoscopic procedures is described. The device includes a handle assembly and an elongated body extending distally from the handle assembly. The distal end of the elongated body is adapted to engage a disposable loading unit. A control rod having a proximal end operatively connected to the handle assembly includes a distal end extending through the elongated body. A control rod locking member is provided to prevent movement of the control rod until the disposable loading unit is fully secured to the elongated body of the stapling device.
US08292150B2
An adapter assembly for selectively interconnecting a surgical end effector including at least one axially translatable drive member and a powered actuator device including at least one rotatable drive shaft is provided. The adapter assembly includes an actuation shaft configured to convert rotation of a first drive shaft of the powered actuator device into an axial translation of a first drive member of the surgical end effector. The adapter assembly further includes an elongate tube configured to convert rotation of a second drive shaft of the powered actuator device into an axial translation of a second drive member of the surgical end effector. The actuation shaft is disposed within the elongate tube, and the actuation shaft and the elongate tube translate axially independent of each other.
US08292149B2
A surgical fastener applying apparatus including an anvil half-section having a distal end and a longitudinal axis; a cartridge receiving half-section having a distal end and operatively couplable with the anvil half-section such that the distal ends of the half-sections are in juxtaposed relation; and a deflection control system operatively engaged with and reinforcing the distal end of the anvil half-section when a force is applied to the distal end of the anvil half-section in a direction transverse to the longitudinal axis.
US08292132B2
A fluid dispenser comprising: a fluid reservoir (1) having a neck (11) defining an opening (10) and an axis X, the neck (11) projecting axially from a shoulder (13); and a dispenser unit (D) comprising a dispenser member (4), such as a pump or a valve, and a fastener system (2, 31) for fastening the dispenser member (4) on the neck (11) of the reservoir (1), the fastener system comprising a fastener ring (2) that is engaged with the neck (11) and a blocking hoop (31) that is engaged axially around the ring (2) for blocking the ring on the neck in the final assembled position; disassembly means (14, 34) for axially moving the hoop (31) relative to the ring (2), from the final assembled position to a disassembled position in which the hoop does not block the ring on the neck, such that the unit (D) can be removed from the neck (11), the disassembly means comprising two elements (14, 34) capable of turning mutually relative to each other about the axis X, the dispenser being characterized in that one element (14) of the disassembly means is secured to the reservoir, while an other element (34) is secured to the dispenser unit (D).
US08292131B2
A fluid dispenser pump has a fluid reservoir, and a pump that has a pump chamber with a piston that moves within the pump chamber to pump fluids out a dispensing orifice. The pump has a priming air channel that fluidly connects the reservoir to the pump chamber and is separate from the fluid channel that connects the reservoir to the pump chamber. With non-sterile fluids, such as medicine, the air channel cannot displace the air to the exterior of the dispenser, but must displace it to the reservoir where it assists in priming the fluid channel.
US08292126B2
A replaceable flow assembly for use in a water cooler or similar bottled liquid dispenser includes a liquid reservoir 7 and a manifold 48 incorporating a bottle connector 5, 49 for releasable sealing engagement with a neck formed on an inverted bottle. The manifold is mounted on the reservoir and incorporates a first pathway for conducting liquid from a feed tube 5 to the reservoir 7, and a second pathway for conducting liquid from the reservoir to a discharge outlet 53. A third pathway within the manifold conducts atmospheric air through an air filter 28 and into the interior of the bottle through the feed tube 5 without passing through the reservoir 7. The manifold preferably also incorporates a dispense valve between the reservoir 7 and the discharge outlet 53 (e.g. in arm 52), which co-operates with a fixed valve-operating member within the dispenser.
US08292119B2
The disclosure describes an airtight cooler box having a base panel, a collapsible unitary side panel, and a top panel. The base panel extends orthogonally from the base to form an opening defined by side panel top edges. A top panel having pouches on an inside surface is sized fit the top opening. A rigid base plate rests on a base panel inside surface. A top plate with vent openings is located inside the container under the top panel. Zippered closures on three top edges of the side panel and corresponding top panel three edges close the box. Box inner and outer surfaces include a poly-vinyl chloride material bonded to an aluminum laminate with multiple layers of foam interposed between panel inner and outer surfaces.
US08292113B2
A push-up device for a fuel lid includes a holder adapted to be attached to a panel under the fuel lid, a cylindrical sleeve disposed in the holder and having a plurality of elongated grooves and a plurality of short grooves alternately arranged in a vertical direction at equal intervals in an inner surface thereof, a spring member disposed in the holder, a push rod disposed in the holder to protrude outwardly from the holder and engaging the spring member, and a cam disposed between the push rod and the cylindrical sleeve. When a depressing force is applied to the push rod in a fuel lid closing state, the cam located in the shoot grooves is moved to the elongated grooves, and when the depressing force is applied to the push rod, the cam located in the elongated grooves is moved to the short grooves.
US08292112B2
An aluminum container for dispensing beverage, includes a can having a cylindrical side wall, and transverse top and bottom walls. A pull tab mechanism is provided on the top wall to effect opening of the container. The transverse top wall has an upstanding peripheral rim, with one or two interrupted wall portions, one of said portions forming a spout for pouring the contents, or drinking from the container directly. The other of the interrupted wall portions provides a clearance space for facilitating the insertion of the user's finger beneath the pull tab in readiness for opening the container. The bottom wall of the container is provided with a removable appliqué, which may contain printed text/pictorial information, or information in the nature of a store or manufacturer's product coupon.
US08292109B2
The invention relates to a pressure compensation device for compensating pressure between an inner chamber of a housing, in particular an electric motor, gearbox, container or the like and an outer side. The device includes a pressure compensation membrane mounted on an annular end face of a cylindrical structure that extends toward the outer side. The cylindrical structure is provided with a ventilation channel that extends therethrough. The cylindrical structure extends towards the outer side in order to form a projection from the wall of the housing, which projection is delimited by the end face on which the membrane is applied in a curved, dome-shaped form. A protective cover extends towards the outer side at a spaced apart distance in relation to the membrane over the cylindrical structure.
US08292105B1
A recessed low voltage mounting bracket including: a) generally rectangular body having opposing sides, a top and a bottom, an open front and a rear wall including a rear wall opening that is smaller than the open front; b) an orthogonal peripheral flange about the rear wall opening having top and bottom portions; and c) at least one removable snap-in knockout that engages at least one of the top or bottom portions. The mounting bracket may include rotating flags attached to bolts that are rotatably located in apertures in the peripheries of the open front and the face plate such that rotation of the bolts causes the flags to rotate from a position parallel to the orthogonal peripheral flange to a position generally orthogonal thereto to engage a wall into which the mounting bracket is mounted.
US08292103B2
The container closure (1) includes a flange (2) having an inlet opening (2p) and an outlet tube (2a) having a thread (2b) arranged after the inlet opening (2p) in the outflow direction and includes a rotary closure (3) with an outlet opening (3p) and with a thread (3i), wherein the two threads (2b, 3i) engage into one another and are aligned such that the rotary closure (3) is rotatable with respect to the flange (2) about an axis of rotation (D) and is displaceably mounted in the direction of the rotary axis (D), wherein the flange (2) includes a sealing lip (2i) projecting towards the axis of rotation (D) which forms the inlet opening (2p) extending concentric to the axis of rotation (D), wherein the rotary closure (3) has a spigot (3a) arranged concentric to the axis of rotation (D) which is arranged in the outflow direction after the inlet opening (2p) and wherein the spigot (3a) and the sealing lip (2i) are designed mutually matched so that the spigot (3a) which can be displaced in the direction of the axis of rotation (D) can adopt at least two positions, a closed position (SS) in which the spigot (3a) contacts the sealing lip (2i) so that the inlet opening (2p) is closed and an open position (OS), in which the spigot (3a) is spaced from the sealing lip (2i) so that the inlet opening (2p) is opened.
US08292100B2
A highly portable solar UV disinfection and water storage container with a uniquely traceable security seal that passively indicates by means of a permanent photochromic color change the efficacy of the UV disinfection process performed upon the drinking water within the sealed container.
US08292097B2
A display for displaying a plurality of rings with a display having a number of pockets in each of which a ring can be nested. Each pocket has an aperture in the bottom with a tether extending through the aperture for attachment to a ring with the other end being attached to a retractor secured to the display. The tether permits a person to examine the ring but not to remove it from the display. The retractor is preferably a spring loaded reel. Each pocket has a ramp on each side placed diagonally across for each other with a ramp stop for turning the ring into alignment with the pocket as the retractor pulls the ring into the pocket.
US08292096B2
A spice rack is provided for mini spice containers. The rack includes a spindle with a rotatable carriage having multiple rows of container compartments. Each compartment is adapted to hold a single spice container. In one embodiment the rows are offset with respect to one another, so that a person can easily grasp the top and bottom of a container for removal from the compartments, with the upper edges of each row of compartments supporting the containers in the next vertically adjacent row of compartments. In a second embodiment, the compartment is shorter than the container so that a person can grip the upper end of the container for removal from the compartment. The containers snap fit into the opening between the resilient side walls of the compartments.
US08292095B2
Described herein are embodiments of an expandable display system that have an expanded position for retail display and a collapsed position for efficient shipping. The expandable display system includes a product tray and an associated easel support, with the easel support being configured to expand and lock into the expanded position to support the product tray at an inclined angle relative to a surface on which the easel support rests. In some embodiments, the product tray and the associated easel support are integral.
US08292092B2
A macrocyclic pore-apertured carbon nanotube apparatus is disclosed. The carbon nanotube apparatus can be used to filter or exclude ions, solutes in solution, as well as particles suspended in a colloidal mixture. The nanotube apparatus includes a carbon nanotube having a carboxylated portion at least one pore entrance and at least one molecular aperture adapted to be bonded to the carboxylated portion of the carbon nanotube. The molecular aperture is further adapted to prevent dissolved ions in a solution from entering the pore entrance. Methods for preparing and using the apparatus are also disclosed. The apparatus can also be incorporated into to filtration media for conducting reverse osmosis filtration.
US08292090B2
The present invention provides for a method of producing an integral multilayered porous membrane by simultaneously co-casting a plurality of polymer solutions onto a support to form a multilayered liquid sheet and immersing the sheet into a liquid coagulation bath to effect phase separation and form a porous membrane. The support can be a temporary support or form an integrated support for the membrane. The plurality of layers may be of the same polymer or different, same concentration or viscosity or different and may be subjected to the same processing conditions or different ones to form unique structures.
US08292084B2
There are provided devices, systems and processes to treat slurries that include magnetic and nonmagnetic particles suspended in water in such a fashion as to separate certain valuable elements and/or minerals from less valuable minerals or elements. A high intensity magnetic separator includes at least one large rotatable turntable that defines at least one circular channel therethrough in which a matrix material is positioned. The turntable is configured to rotate in a generally horizontal plane about a generally vertical virtual axis, causing the at least one circular channel to rotate through a plurality of intermittent magnetic and nonmagnetic zones generated by a plurality of permanent magnet members. A treatment slurry is directed into the channel or channels in one or more of the magnetic zones as the turntable rotates. A tailings fraction passes through the channel or channels in a generally downward direction in the magnetic zones and is collected in tailings launders. Magnetic particles are attracted to the matrix material in the magnetic zones and remain in the channel until it passes into an adjacent nonmagnetic zone, where the magnetic particles are washed form the channel into concentrate launders.
US08292083B2
A method and apparatus for continuously separating or concentrating particles that includes flowing two fluids in laminar flow through a magnetic field gradient which causes target particles to migrate to a waste fluid stream, and collecting each fluid stream after being flowed through the magnetic field gradient.
US08292077B2
A substrate container is generally comprised of a cover, a base, a latching mechanism, and a substrate retention system. Substrate container has corners with flanges disposed at the corners. Each flange has a hole there through to enhance shock absorption capability by the container, and thus provide greater protection to the substrate.
US08292067B2
Various embodiments of suture packages are disclosed to provide a surgical needle, having an associated length of suture material, to a surgical suturing instrument. The disclosed suture packages generally include a body portion having a needle supplying loading unit mounted thereon. Various methods of affixing the loading unit to the body portion are disclosed. The body portion defines a suture tray and a cover is provided to secure a suture within the suture tray. A securing ring is provided to secure the cover to the body portion.
US08292064B2
There is disclosed a conveyor drive roller of the type which may be used for example for supporting and driving a conveyor medium. The conveyor drive roller has a hollow drum which defines a cylindrically shaped rotatable supporting surface, and an internal surface. The hollow drum is rotatably connected to a first and a second support structure. An internal gear assembly is disposed inside of the hollow drum and operably connected to the internal surface of the hollow drum. The second support structure is adapted to permit a rotor of a motor located outside of the hollow drum to releasably couple to the internal gear assembly through the second support structure, so that when the rotor is coupled to the internal gear assembly, through the second support structure, rotation of the rotor is transmitted by the internal gear assembly to the hollow drum to cause rotation of the hollow drum about the first and second support structures.
US08292060B2
A method for forming a pack sequence, particularly packs of one or a plurality of articles, particularly beverage articles, including a sequence forming device, with a pack storing device for storing packs being connected to the sequence forming device via at least one transport path, the method including: transporting a pack along the at least one transport path from the pack storing device to the sequence forming device, wherein the transport of the pack is controlled such that the pack is introduced into the sequence forming device at a predetermined time.
US08292059B2
An escalator includes a plurality of steps or panels, a chain for driving the steps or panels, at least one chain wheel around which the chain is deflected and wherein the chain, starting from the chain wheel, forms an upper strand and a lower strand. There is also provided a device for the polygonal compensation of the movement of the at least one chain wheel. The effective lever arm of the chain on the at least one chain wheel in the upper strand is substantially equal to the effective lever arm of the chain on the at least one chain wheel in the lower strand.
US08292057B2
A step band guard for use of a passenger conveyor includes a first panel comprising a first piece of material. A second panel comprises a second piece of material that is distinct and separate from the first piece of material. A securing connection allows for selectively securing the panels together. The first panel can be strategically left in place for blocking access to at least a portion of a step band near a turnaround. The second panel can be selectively put in place when blocking access to the entire step band at the turnaround is desired. The first panel allows for some access to the step band and allows an individual to move the step band without having to have the entire step band guard in place.
US08292056B2
This invention provides a roller assembly including a rotary member including a driving shaft portion and a convey roller portion provided with the driving shaft portion, a driving wheel including a hole portion and attached to the driving shaft portion, the driving wheel being driven to rotate, a transmission receiving portion radially extending outward from the driving shaft portion and rotated together with the driving shaft portion, a friction transmission member clamped between the transmission receiving portion and a side surface of the driving wheel and frictionally transmitting a rotational force of the driving wheel to a rotary member, and a biasing portion applying a clamping force between the transmission receiving portion and the side surface of the driving wheel.
US08292048B2
An energy absorbing device, in particular a device for single-use occupant protection in vehicles, has a container with a magneto-rheological medium which is forced on impact through a restriction with at least one outlet channel. The flow resistance of the outlet channel may be influenced by a device for generation of a magnetic field.
US08292040B2
A double screw elevator consists of two screws whose helical threads extend in opposite helical directions, and each of the screws is provided with a nut, so that a suspension unit and a carrying unit on the nuts can be driven to move close to or away from each other, thus achieving the function of lifting or lowering the elevator car. The double screw elevator is simply structured, easy to assemble, and the length of a single screw of the elevator is shortened, making it easier to manufacture the screw. Furthermore, the screw driving elevator reduces the occurrence of accident whiling improving the rate of utilization.
US08292023B2
An apparatus comprises an agglomeration of adsorbing members, each of the adsorbing members comprising a porous outer layer configured to enclose an amount of adsorbent material, the agglomeration being configured such that every cross-section through the agglomeration comprises at least one gap between adjacent adsorbing members.
US08292019B2
A shock absorbing member is supported on a shock absorbing member support bracket fixed onto a floor tunnel sandwiched between left and right front seats. Therefore, it is possible to allow the front seats to interfere with the shock absorbing member so that the member can absorb collision energy at a time of a side collision of a vehicle. Because a lower portion of a front wall connected to an inverted-U-shaped inner face of the shock absorbing member is connected to an upper portion of a front wall of the shock absorbing member support bracket, the front wall of the shock absorbing member support bracket receives a load of the side collision in a shearing direction. Accordingly, it is possible to increase strength of the front wall of the shock absorbing member support bracket against the side collision, prevent the shock absorbing member from falling down sideways, and enhance the shock absorbing effect.
US08292018B2
An integrated wheel and an electric scooter using the wheel are disclosed. The electric scooter comprises an operation level and a footrest. The operation lever is provided with a front wheel at a lower end thereof. The footrest is provided with a rear wheel at a rear end thereof. At least one of the front and rear wheels is an integrated wheel. The integrated wheel comprises a wheel rim and a rubber tire. The external periphery of the wheel rim is provided with a plurality of positioning grooves. The rubber tire is integratedly formed on the external periphery of the wheel rim and has an internal periphery provided with a plurality of blocks each of which is correspondingly engaged into one of the positioning grooves. Thereby, the wheel rim can be firmly fixed with the rubber tire so as to prolong the lifetime of the wheel and ensure the driving safety.
US08292010B2
A wheelchair includes a frame, a chair, a pair of drive wheels, a pair of rear wheels, and a pair of front wheels. Each front wheel is part of a front arm assembly that is rigidly coupled to a drive via a mounting plate. The mounting plate is connected to the wheelchair frame by a pivot. The drives are transversely mounted. The batteries are disposed rearward of the drives. The wheelchair seat can be moved forward to provide access to the batteries without fully removing the wheelchair from the frame.
US08292007B2
A wheeled platform 100 is disclosed, which is characterized by high mobility and reliability, and which can be used in a wide range of applications including transport and robotic devices. The wheeled platform 100 has fore and aft body portions 130, 132, each body portion 130, 132 having first and second sides 106, 108. Overlapping wheels 112, 114, 116, 118 are rotatably attached to the first side 106 and overlapping wheels 120, 122, 124, 126 are rotatably attached to the second side 108. The fore body portion 130 can be connected to the aft body portion 132 via an articulation element 133.
US08291998B1
A furrow closing wheel assembly includes a closed loop that has an inner surface, an outer surface, a first lateral surface and a second lateral surface. Each of the first and second lateral surfaces has a channel therein. Flanges positioned on a hub are extendable into the channels to couple the hub to the loop. A plurality of teeth extends upwardly from the outer surface. Each of the teeth has a front face, a rear face, a first side, a second side and an apex positioned distal to the loop. Each the front faces is faceted such that the front faces are absent of a substantial planar surface lying in a plane that is orientated parallel to an axis of rotation of the loop. The front face of each of the teeth is a leading face of the teeth extending into soil when the loop is positioned on the hub.
US08291995B1
The root wacker tool is a manually operated hand tool that includes a shaft of which mounted thereon is a hammer cap for imparting a force into a blade located about an opposite end of the shaft, which is useful in the cutting of roots or stumps located within compacted soil. The slide hammer has a mushroom shape to form a finger guard, and can be disengaged from the shaft to connect to a handle accessory to form a sledge hammer. The handle accessory can be connected to the shaft for use as a root whacker tool or attached to the blade to form an ax. An accessory saw can be stored within the shaft when not in use, and can be attached to the handle accessory for use as a saw. The shaft is aligned above the desired cutting surface via a slide hammer that slides vertically about the shaft, and a footplate, which secures the blade with respect to the shaft.
US08291991B1
A walk-behind soil aerator includes an engine, a differential, and left and right tine assemblies driven by the first and second output shafts of the differential, and a variable speed drive means between the engine and the differential, as well as a control means accessible by an operator walking behind the aerator which allows the operator to make tight turns by gradually reducing the speed of the drive means to a desired slow speed in order for the driven tines to drive the aerator through the turn and then gradually increasing the speed of the drive means without having to change the engine speed.
US08291978B2
A method of heterogeneous proppant placement in a subterranean fracture is disclosed. The method comprises injecting well treatment fluid including proppant and a channelant through a wellbore into the fracture, heterogeneously placing the proppant in the fracture in a plurality of proppant clusters or islands spaced apart by the channelant, and removing the channelant filler material to form open channels around the pillars for fluid flow from the formation through the fracture toward the wellbore. The proppant and channelant can be segregated within the well treatment fluid, or segregated during placement in the fracture. The channelant can be dissolvable particles, initially acting as a filler material during placement of the proppant, and later dissolving to leave the flow channels between the proppant pillars. The well treatment fluid can include fibers to provide reinforcement and consolidation of the proppant and/or to inhibit settling of the proppant in the treatment fluid.
US08291946B2
Provided is an apparatus for sensing a fuel level in a fuel tank for sensing an amount of fuel remaining in the fuel tank mounted in a vehicle. The apparatus for sensing a fuel level according to the present invention senses a residual amount of fuel in a fuel tank by contacting a resistance substrate with a wiper, the apparatus including: a case that forms a sealable filling solution filling space and has a filling solution inlet formed on a top thereof; a stopper that blocks the filling solution inlet formed in the case to seal the filling solution filling space; and a filling solution that is filled in the filling solution filling space to perform an anti-rusting and lubricating function, wherein the resistance substrate and the wiper are disposed in the filling solution filling space.
US08291942B2
A hose which automatically expands longitudinally and automatically expands laterally upon the application of a fluid pressure is disclosed. The hose can automatically expand longitudinally up to six times its unexpanded or contracted length. Upon release of the fluid pressure within the hose, the hose will automatically contract to a contracted condition. The hose includes an inner tube made from an elastic material and an outer tube made from a non-elastic material. The inner tube is positioned concentrically within the outer tube in both a contracted condition and an expanded condition. The outer tube is secured to the inner tube only at a first end of the inner and outer tubes and at a second end of the inner and outer tubes. The outer tube moves laterally and longitudinally with respect to the inner tube when the tubes are transitioning between a contracted condition and an expanded condition.
US08291938B2
A pressure-compensated accumulator bottle is provided. In one embodiment, the accumulator bottle includes a housing and an interior wall that generally define first, second, and third chambers within the housing. In this embodiment, a spring is disposed in the second chamber and configured to apply a biasing force on a first piston disposed within the first chamber. Further, in this embodiment, an additional piston is disposed within the third chamber and is configured to facilitate balancing of the pressure of a fluid disposed in the second chamber with the pressure of the external environment such that the magnitude of a second biasing force applied on the first piston by the pressure of the fluid depends at least in part on the pressure of the external environment. Hydraulic circuits and systems including a pressure-compensated accumulator bottle are also disclosed.
US08291936B2
A nonreturn valve includes a first tube connection housing and a second tube connection housing and a diaphragm disk between the first and second tube connection housings. The disk can be lifted from an annular valve seat upon an overpressure in an inlet channel and can be pressed onto the valve seat upon an overpressure in an outlet channel. The diaphragm disk has an annular bead received in mutually opposite annular grooves of the tube connection housings. The diaphragm disk is provided, radially outside the valve seat, with openings leading to an outlet chamber. The second tube connection housing lying opposite the openings is provided with recesses which communicate with the outlet channel and are separated from each other by supporting surfaces for the diaphragm disc. The recesses are connected to the outlet channel by narrow deep grooves.
US08291928B2
A vacuum-actuated shear valve coupled between piping from a storage tank and piping internal to a fuel dispenser that automatically opens and closes in response to a vacuum level. A vacuum actuator is provided to control a fuel flow valve inside the shear valve. When a sufficient vacuum level is generated to the vacuum actuator, the actuator keeps the flow path valve inside the shear valve open. When the vacuum is lost, the vacuum actuator releases the flow path valve inside the shear valve, which closes it. The vacuum actuator is coupled to a secondary containment space of a fuel-handling component that is drawn under a vacuum level by a vacuum-generating source to monitor for leaks. Thus, if a leak occurs in the monitored secondarily contained space, the shear valve is automatically closed to prevent the flow of fuel from continuing to be supplied to the source of the leak.
US08291917B2
An attachable lighter tool has a clip slideably engaging the body of the lighter. The clip slides along the major axis of the lighter. An implement such as a poker or tamper extends from the clip along the major axis of the lighter. When not in use, the tool conforms substantially against the body of the lighter and is out of the way. In use, a smoker slides the clip along the major axis of the lighter exposing the implement for the servicing of the smoker's pipe.
US08291913B2
Tissue is treated by irradiating it with a sequence of optical pulses that are directed in sequence to various sites on the tissue. During the irradiation sequence, one or more tissue properties are measured at a site(s) that has already been irradiated. These measurements are used to adjust the parameters of subsequent optical pulses in the sequence.
US08291912B2
Systems for manufacturing oral-based hearing aid appliances utilizing various manufacturing methods and apparatus are described herein. The oral appliance may have an electronic and/or transducer assembly for receiving incoming sounds and transmitting processed sounds via a vibrating transducer element coupled to a tooth or teeth. The oral appliance may be formed or fabricated via three-dimensional digital scanning systems or via impression molding to create a housing for the electronics and/or transducer assembly as well as to securely conform the appliance to the user's dentition.
US08291905B2
A surgical mask for administering and/or scavenging medical gases includes a nasal mask and an oral mask that envelops the nasal mask. The nasal mask is secured to the oral mask and may be removable from it.
US08291899B2
A snorkel is provided on an upper end section of a conduit with an opening for breathing and a valve adapted to open and to close the opening. The valve is pivotally mounted on an upper end section of the conduit via arms integral with the valve. Below the valve, there are provided two or more floats. The respective floats are housed inside an annular housing defined outside the upper end section of the conduit in a manner that these floats may move up- and downward. When any one of these two or more floats is given buoyancy and moves upward, the arms are reliably actuated upward and thereby the valve reliably closes the opening.
US08291890B2
The invention is directed to the improvement of starting performance in an engine rotational speed region that exceeds an idle rotation region without affecting normal traveling performance. At the time when a vehicle starts moving, when in an electronic control unit, the rotational speed of an engine is in a predetermined range that exceeds an idle rotation region and the engine rotational speed decreases, the electronic control unit adds a corrected fuel injection amount corresponding to the rate of decrease to a target fuel injection amount to create a new target fuel injection amount. When the rotational speed of the engine increases, the electronic control unit subtracts a corrected fuel injection amount corresponding to the rate of increase of the engine rotational speed from a target fuel injection amount to create a new target fuel injection amount. Control of the output of the engine is performed by the electronic control unit.
US08291885B2
A housing having at least one valve seat for at least one flap, which is supported so it can rotate on a drive shaft. The drive shaft is guided on at least one side through the housing, a sleeve, through which the drive shaft is rotatably guided, being disposed fixed in place on the inside of the housing in this area. The sleeve has a first area, which faces the flap and encloses the drive shaft with a first slight play. Furthermore, the sleeve has a second area, which faces away from said flap and has a diameter expansion in comparison to the first area and which, on the front side thereof facing away from the flap encloses the drive shaft with a second slight play. Furthermore, the valve is a gas recirculation valve of a motor vehicle.
US08291882B2
A cooling system of an internal combustion engine is provided that can improve flexibility of arrangement of peripheral machinery included in the engine. A cooling system of an internal combustion engine includes a crankcase; a cylinder block disposed on an upper portion of the crankcase and having a plurality of cylinder bores; a cylinder head disposed on an upper portion of the cylinder block; and an oil passage formed in a rear surface portion of the cylinder block so as to extend along a cylinder-arrangement direction. The oil temperature sensor is attached to the oil passage from the axial direction of the oil passage.
US08291877B2
In a valve drive arrangement for an internal combustion engine including a camshaft carrying axially movable cam elements provided with cams for operating gas exchange valves of the internal combustion engine and an actuation device having at least one shift element which is provided to shift cam element by means of a shifting gate between opposite axial positions, the valve drive arrangement has a change-over device for changing the axial shift direction of the shift element from one to the opposite axial position.
US08291866B2
The invention is a heating and cooling system for portable pet living space and is able to efficiently heat and cool the pet because it heats and cools both the air surrounding the pet and the surfaces upon which the pet lays.
US08291863B2
A transportable device for colonizing and harvesting invertebrate animals in proximity to a floor of a body of water includes at least two quadrangular frames, each of which include a trapping surface. A central hinge is disposed between opposing, inner traverse sides of the at least two quadrangular frames and has a first one-way folding direction. Two secondary hinges are disposed on opposite sides of the central hinge, each of the secondary hinges having a second one-way folding direction that is opposite to the first one-way folding direction such that the at least two quadrangular frames have an opening angle with respect to each other that is adaptable to a structure of the floor of the body of water.
US08291861B2
An animal feeder includes a feed reservoir having a cavity for holding a feed material, and a feed dispensing assembly coupled to the feed reservoir. The feed dispensing assembly includes a check valve to allow selective access to the feed material. The check valve inhibits feed leakage from the feed reservoir during pressure fluctuations within the feed reservoir.
US08291858B2
A movable jig for a silicon-based thin film solar cell comprises parallel electrode plates (203,208), a supporting frame and a signal feed-in assembly (201). The supporting frame is a movable frame and its side frame (216) is grounded. A shield device is set on the jig or among jig arrays themselves for preventing from being disturbed. The signal feed-in assembly is a conductor and its middle portion and head portion form a ladder cylinder, and one end surface (201-1) of the signal feed-in assembly is triangular and can surface contact and connect with a sunken triangular feed-in port (203-1) in the center area of the back surface of the cathode plate (203) of the electrode plates, so the radio frequency/the very high frequency power supply signal can be fed in. Through the way of the surface feed-in in the center of the electrode plate, the consumption caused by the feeder distance in the way of one point feed-in or multipoint feed-in can be reduced, the large area stable discharge of the uniform electric field can be obtained, the production efficiency can be increased and the cost can be decreased.
US08291854B2
A device for applying active substances onto surfaces of medical implants, in particular stents, consists of a base station, and of an exchangeable cartridge which can be mounted on the latter. Provided on the cartridge there is a holder for the stents, and a nozzle for spraying the active substance onto the surface of the stent. Provided on the base station there is a drive unit via which the holder and the nozzle are moved relative to one another.
US08291852B1
A device for selectively stowing a flag in a coiled condition and displaying the flag in an unfurled condition. The flag may be affixed to a pole. The device comprises a hollow cylindrical member which encloses the flag and pole. The pole may be captively retained to the hollow cylinder. An illuminable light source may be formed as part of the device. The device may visually simulate sports equipment such as a baseball bat, hockey stick, golf club, and others. The device may have a symbolic object such as a ball, hockey puck, or object symbolic of automobile racing such as an engine fluid dipstick removably affixed thereto. The device may be a toy or souvenir in some embodiments.
US08291851B2
A removable console for a boat and a boat including such a removable console are disclosed. The removable console is adapted to be positioned before a passenger seating position in the boat to shield the passenger position from wind. The connection between the deck of the boat and the removable console is fastenerless, so as to facilitate easy installation and replacement. The console itself may be enclosed, with both upper and lower surfaces.
US08291844B2
Aspects of the present invention involve an extension adapted to extend from a planter, such as the seed tube portion of the planter, into a seed furrow in order to engage seeds being deposited therein, where such engagement may involve deflecting the seeds toward the vertex region of the furrow and/or firming the seeds in the furrow. The extension includes or supports a fluid distribution arrangement such as a hose or the like, which may be separate or integral with the liquid supply hose of a planter. The fluid distribution arrangement is adapted to supply fluid, such as liquid fertilizer, insecticide, water, etc., to the furrow. A valve is provided in the fluid flow path in the region of the fluid distribution arrangement to control the distribution of fluid to the furrow. The valve may be a check valve that allows fluid flow therethrough when fluid pressure exceeds a value such that the valve opens, and prevents fluid flow when the pressure decreases below the valve activation pressure.
US08291837B2
A pallet for the stable transport of goods; the pallet comprising at least one surface element, and a plurality of side elements arranged, in use, to maintain the at least one surface element under compression. Preferably the at least one surface element comprises a planar body, which is generally parallelepiped in shape, and having a periphery defined by peripheral edges. Preferably a portion of each side element is shaped and dimensioned to accommodate a respective peripheral edge of the at least one surface element whereby the at least one surface element is retained within the side elements. Preferably the perimeter length of the at least one surface element exceeds the perimeter length defined by the assembled side elements whereby the at least one surface element is held under compression within the frame assembly of the side elements.
US08291829B1
A motorized transport cart and a system and method employing one or more of such carts. The carts may be used to transport assembly parts or other items of interest within a desired area. Each cart includes its own drive system, including a drive motor and drive wheel assembly that propels the cart along a guide rail assembly affixed to the transport area floor. Power for the drive motor is transferred from a conductor rail of the guide rail assembly through a contactor assembly of the cart. The drive system includes a sensor that is used to signal a drive controller of the cart drive system to de-energize the drive motor and halt motion of the cart when a trailing cart gets within a certain distance of a leading cart in a row of carts. Carts may be automatically arranged into properly spaced rows with little user interaction, and the carts of a given row will automatically move forward when a lead cart of the row is removed.
US08291826B2
A detonator assembly is provided. The detonator assembly comprises a deflagration to detonation transition body, a first thermally stable secondary explosive contained by the body, and a bulkhead coupled to the deflagration to detonation transition body. The bulkhead contains pressure within the body associated with firing the detonator assembly at least until a transition from a deflagration operation mode of the detonator assembly to a detonation operation mode of the detonator assembly has occurred. A second thermally stable secondary explosive may alternatively be included in the deflagration to detonation transition body, either separated from the first thermally stable secondary explosive or mixed with the first thermally stable secondary explosive. The detonator assembly comprises effectively no primary explosive.
US08291820B2
An intaglio printing plate includes a substrate and a photosensitive resin film provided on the substrate. The photosensitive resin film includes a plurality of concave patterns whose depths increase as aperture widths increase.
US08291810B2
A hydraulic cylinder contamination prevention system for preventing large and small contaminants from entering into a hydraulic cylinder, including a hydraulic cylinder rod cover for underwater use with at least one automatic valve for preventing water circulation between the outside environment and the enclosed environment of the cylinder rod cover when the cylinder is stationary, egress of water from the cylinder rod cover when the cylinder is retracted, and ingress of water into the cylinder rod cover when cylinder is extended, and an external and abrasive cylinder rod scrubber.
US08291806B2
An ammunition magazine and gun/magazine system in which the magazine comprises an outer housing having a substantially cylindrical inner wall surface. An inner support member is mounted within the housing and has a substantially cylindrical outer wall surface which is concentric and opposing said inner wall surface of said housing. The outer wall surface and the inner wall surface form a gap between them. A helical ramp is disposed within the gap and has a concentric axis to the inner wall surface and said outer wall surface. The helical ramp forms a helical gap within the gap, which is configured to receive a plurality of cartridges such that a longitudinal axis of each cartridge is oriented radially of the inner wall surface within the helical gap. The magazine also includes a drive mechanism for advancing the cartridges along the helical ramp.
US08291802B2
A sheet hole-punching device includes a plurality of punch members, a base frame for slidably supporting the punch members in a hole-punching direction and rotationally supporting the punch members, and a drive member having a plurality of cam portions. Each punch member has a leading end with a hole-punching blade. Each cam portion engages each punch member to move the punch member in the hole-punching direction. A plurality of cam devices is also formed in the sheet hole-punching device. Each cam device is disposed between the base frame and each punch member for converting a hole-punching direction movement of the punch member into a rotational movement so as to rotate the punch member while moving in the hole-punching direction.
US08291801B2
A table saw in one embodiment includes a work-piece support surface, a swing arm assembly movable along a swing path between a first swing arm position whereat a portion of a shaping device supported by the swing arm assembly extends above the work-piece support surface and a second swing arm position whereat the portion of the shaping device does not extend above the work-piece support surface, a first ratchet member operatively connected to the swing arm assembly, and a second ratchet member movable between a first ratchet position whereat rotation of the first ratchet member in a first and a second direction is allowed, and a second ratchet position whereat the second ratchet member is engaged with the first ratchet member such that rotation in only the first direction is allowed.
US08291788B2
A rotary actuator assembly is provided for actuation of an upper arm assembly for a dexterous humanoid robot. The upper arm assembly for the humanoid robot includes a plurality of arm support frames each defining an axis. A plurality of rotary actuator assemblies are each mounted to one of the plurality of arm support frames about the respective axes. Each rotary actuator assembly includes a motor mounted about the respective axis, a gear drive rotatably connected to the motor, and a torsion spring. The torsion spring has a spring input that is rotatably connected to an output of the gear drive and a spring output that is connected to an output for the joint.
US08291780B2
An inspection sensor module for an in-line pipe inspection tool has a support for mounting the module on the tool, a finger pivotally attached at one end to the support and pivotally attached at the other end to a sensor block carrying one or more inspection sensors. A first leaf spring extends from the support to the finger to bias the finger outwardly, and a second leaf spring extends from the support to the carrier to bias the sensor block. Biasing sensors are mounted on the leading and trailing edges of the first leaf spring to detect movement of the first leaf spring corresponding to movement of the inspection sensors towards or away from the support.
US08291776B1
A force sensor includes a magnetostrictive material and a magnetic field generator positioned in proximity thereto. A magnetic field is induced in and surrounding the magnetostrictive material such that lines of magnetic flux pass through the magnetostrictive material. A sensor positioned in the vicinity of the magnetostrictive material measures changes in one of flux angle and flux density when the magnetostrictive material experiences an applied force that is aligned with the lines of magnetic flux.
US08291775B2
Provided is a torque sensor including a first rotating body, a second rotating body, a strain body, and a detection element. The first rotating body is rotatable around an input shaft. The second rotating body is rotatable around an output shaft. The strain body includes a first engaging portion. The first engaging portion is separated from at least one of the rotating bodies in a first direction parallel to the input shaft, a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, and a third direction around the input shaft and is capable of engaging to the at least one of the rotating bodies in the third direction. The strain body transmits a rotational torque to the third direction between the first rotating body and the second rotating body. The detection element is provided to the strain body to measure a strain of the strain body due to the rotational torque.
US08291774B2
A stress test apparatus used for testing torque between a top portion and a bottom portion of an electronic device. The stress test apparatus includes a console, a rotary table, a lifting pole, a traversing arm, a securing fixture and torque sensor. The rotary table is located on the console for retaining the bottom portion. The lifting pole extends from the console. The traversing arm is gearingly engaged to the lifting pole to adjust a height of the traversing arm relative to the console. The securing fixture clasps the top portion of the electronic device. The torque sensor is fixed between the traversing arm and the securing fixture. The bottom portion is rotated relative to the top portion with rotation of the rotary table, and the torque sensor is capable of detecting needed for rotating the top portion relative to the bottom portion.
US08291769B2
A multipurpose transducer for an appliance using water, like a washing machine, a dishwasher or a hot-water tank converts physical parameters like water temperature, cleanness and pressure in said appliance into electric signals. It is provided with a temperature transducer (TT), a turbidity transducer (TurbT) and a pressure transducer (PT), all of them being fixed on an electrically insulating mounting support (MS). The pressure transducer (PT) is made as an uncompensated strain gauge in a thick film technology. The temperature transducer (TT) made as a termistor is also manufactured in the thick film technology. The multipurpose transducer (MPT) of the invention requires less work steps to be manufactured, mounted and connected in the appliance of said type than earlier transducers.
US08291767B2
A vibration testing device to test vibration strength and frequency generated by an electronic device, includes a base, a vibration contact member, a transmission member, and a resilient member attached to the transmission member. The base includes a receiving space to receive the electronic device and a receiving hole in communication with the receiving space. The transmission member extends through the receiving hole and is rigidly attached to the vibration contact member. During testing, the electronic device directly abuts an end portion of the transmission member so that the vibration strength and frequency generated by the electronic device are directly transmitted to the vibration contact member.
US08291760B2
A container system (10) for collecting and storing liquids comprises a receptacle (12) with an opening (11) at a top (13) thereof. The container system (10) further includes a lid (40) covering the opening (11) of the receptacle (12) and includes a central aperture (50) and a plurality of radial channels (60) in an upper and outer surface (41) spoking out from the aperture (50) to permit liquids impinging upon the outer surface (41) to flow through the channels (60) into the aperture (50). The lid (40) includes a screen (80) disposed and held within the aperture (50) with a plurality of interstices (82) therein.
US08291759B2
In order to provide a robust, weather resistant, portable, low-noise, relatively inexpensive, wind direction detection device, disclosed herein is a method and device for detecting fluid flow direction based on sensing a temperature variation transmitted from a temperature variation source to one or more temperature sensors. One or more indicators are utilized to communicate the measured fluid flow direction to a user. An implementation of the fluid flow direction detection device utilizes a resistance heater as the temperature variation source, thermistors as the temperature sensors, and light emitting diodes (LEDs) corresponding to each thermistor as the indicators. The thermistors and LEDs are arranged in a circular fashion around the resistance heater to accurately detect the direction of a thermal plume generated by the resistance heater.
US08291737B2
An automatic extrusion device includes a main body, a driving unit, a first transmission unit, a second transmission unit and an extrusion unit. The second transmission unit has a clutch slip function for the automatic extrusion device to extrude the front of the pipe to be in the form of a bell for a fast connection of pipes. Through the slip function of the second transmission unit, it not only prevents the extrusion unit from over extrusion but also makes the front end of the pipe round so as to beautify the interface of the pipe.
US08291736B2
Disclosed is a rolling mill comprising a roll stand with working rolls, a roll train located at the feeding end of the roll stand, and a control device. The working rolls form a roll gap. The control device triggers the roll stand such that the working rolls rotate at a certain peripheral speed while triggering the roll train located at the feeding end of the roll stand in such a way that the leading edge of the strip-shaped rolling stock reaches the roll gap at a feeding speed that is greater than the peripheral speed. The control device adjusts the peripheral speed and the feeding speed to each other in such a way that a potential angled position of the leading edge relative to the roll gap is at least reduced as a result of said adjustment.
US08291734B2
A stowable vehicle seat, which is stowed by folding a seat back toward the side of a seat cushion, releasing a floor lock while the seat back is in a superposed state on the seat cushion, and lifting the vehicle seat up toward the vehicle body side. The vehicle seat is fixed by connecting a striker disposed on the back face of the seat back with a dragger unit disposed on the vehicle body side. After an operation to release locking of the dragger unit, separation of the striker from the dragger unit is estimated, and a dragger motor is driven so that a latch of the dragger unit is moved to the initial position.
US08291730B2
A novel spinner, for fiberizing hollow, irregularly-shaped insulating fibers is the subject matter of the present invention. The spinner is unique in a sense that its hole/slot pattern can be done by some standard drilling/milling techniques, which lower the cost of manufacturing. The invention uses two molten glasses (A and B) of different coefficients of thermal expansion, which are moved outwardly around the corresponding gas orifices by centrifugal force in a spinner pot. A stream of pressurized combustion gases is thrust through these central gas orifices to produce a hollow, non collapsible fiber of irregular shape. Molten glass A is introduced from the bottom of the spinner, and molten glass B is introduced above an uppermost flange and by means of centrifugal force, the two glasses A and B are forced upwardly and downwardly, respectively, into fiberizing centers. The improvement of the present invention is that by using both horizontal baffles and vertical compartments, a greater number of fiberizing orifices can be created on the spinner outside peripheral side wall.
US08291726B2
The invention is a folding locket which can take the form of an oblong or cylindrical locket, and can be folded into a generally heart shaped locket. In either of these configurations, oblong or heart, the locket can be opened by rotating the two halves of the locket apart. When the two halves of the locket are rotated apart, a picture, hidden on each side of the locket becomes visible; thus, opening the locket makes visible two pictures which can be selected by the user. The pictures displayed in the mounting are mounted in the position which spans the fold line of the locket.
US08291725B2
The invention describes a method for cooling at least one super-conducting magnet. According to the invention, the cooling of the super-conducting magnet(s) takes place exclusively by means of one or more helium flows which are at at least two temperature levels.
US08291724B2
A heat exchanger has multiple laminated fins 30. Each fin 30 has multiple tops 34 and multiple bottoms 36 arranged to have a preset acute angle γ (for example, 30 degrees) to an air flow line at an air inlet and to make an air flow in a cavity region behind each of multiple heat transfer tubes 22a to 22c in an air flow direction at an air outlet. This design of the fins 30 produces effective secondary flows of the air to improve the heat transfer efficiency and makes an additional contribution to heat exchange, due to the air flow in the cavity region behind each of the heat transfer tubes 22a to 22c in the air flow direction. This arrangement effectively prevents separation of the air flow and a local speed increase of the air flow, while improving the overall heat exchange efficiency by production of the effective secondary flows of the air.
US08291715B2
A bi-modal turbine assembly is provided for use in conjunction with a gas turbine engine. In one embodiment, the bi-modal turbine assembly includes a housing assembly having a flow passage therethrough, a turbine wheel rotatably mounted in the housing assembly and positioned so as to be driven by pressurized air flowing through the flow passage, an output shaft rotatably mounted in the housing assembly, and first and second gear trains disposed in the housing assembly. A switching device is also disposed in the housing assembly and configured to mechanically couple: (i) the first gear train between the turbine wheel and the output shaft in a first operational mode, and (ii) the second gear train between the turbine wheel and the output shaft in a second operational mode.
US08291710B2
A composite article includes a composite member, a flexible member and at least one shape memory material member. The composite member has longitudinally extending fibers in a matrix material. The at least one shape memory material member extends substantially parallel to the composite member and the flexible member is positioned between the composite member and the at least one shape memory material member to bond the at least one shape memory material member to the composite member. The composite article is particularly suitable for use as a tab for an exhaust nozzle of a turbofan gas turbine engine.
US08291697B2
An internal combustion engine control device includes a NOx adsorber catalyst disposed in an exhaust passage, an EGR passage, a reducing agent adding device, a torque fluctuation reducing device, and a fuel injection device. The EGR passage draws a portion of exhaust gas from the exhaust passage downstream of the NOx adsorber catalyst and recirculates the exhaust gas into the intake passage. The reducing agent adding device adds a reducing agent to exhaust gas upstream of the NOx adsorber catalyst to reduce substances adsorbed by the NOx adsorber catalyst. When or after the reducing agent adding device adds the reducing agent, the torque fluctuation reducing device advances the timing of the fuel injection device or carries out a pilot injection to reduce a fluctuation in engine torque. The reducing agent adding device adds less reducing agent while the torque fluctuation reducing device is operating.
US08291695B2
Exhaust emissions from a spark-ignition direct-injection engine connected to an oxidation catalytic device and a selective catalyst reduction device having a capacity to store ammonia reductant are controlled. The engine operates in a first combustion mode to generate ammonia reductant, stored on the second aftertreatment device. The engine operates lean of stoichiometry and nitrides of oxygen in the exhaust gas feedstream are reduced on the second aftertreatment device.
US08291692B2
In a method for the control of the supplied air/fuel ratio of an internal combustion engine (1) with a catalytic converter (5) which is located in the exhaust gas line (2) with an integrated oxygen reservoir (6), it is proposed that the air/fuel ratio be controlled as a function of at least one parameter of the internal combustion engine (1), at least one parameter of the catalytic converter (5), and/or as a function of the type and amount of the exhaust gas emissions which are currently occurring, in order to optimize the relative degree of filling of the oxygen reservoir (6) which is contained in the catalytic converter (5) for favorable conversion of the exhaust gas emissions. According to the proposal, matching to the current conversion demand and the current conversion performance is enabled and thus overall improved exhaust gas conversion is implemented.
US08291689B2
An example core nacelle for a gas turbine engine includes a core cowl positioned adjacent to an inner duct boundary of a fan bypass passage having an associated cross-sectional area. The core cowl includes at least one groove that is selectively exposed to change the cross-sectional area.
US08291660B2
The present invention comprises an effective manufactured insulation and ventilating assembly that can insulate a structure, usually in roofing or exterior wall applications, from conductive, convective and radiant heat. The radiant insulating and venting assembly is comprised of an upper layer of a synthetic roof underlayment style partially flexible material that is moisture resistant. The bottom layer of the assembly is made up of a radiant reflective surface. Between the upper moisture resistant layer and the radiant reflective layer are air spacer columns, approximately ⅝ths to 1 inch in length, that create the needed air space for effective radiant heat reflection and air and moisture venting.
US08291658B1
An electrical conduit flashing system for efficiently replacing existing flashing for an electrical conduit without disconnection of electrical services. The electrical conduit flashing system generally includes a lower cover having a first base, a second base and a third base movably attached to one another, and an upper cover having a pair of mating portions positioned above the lower cover. A grommet may be attached to an upper opening formed within the upper cover to seal the same against the conduit.
US08291655B2
A brace for securing roof decking adjacent a roof ridge vent takes the form of an elongated channel, preferably a metal J-shaped channel, with the brace being wrapped around the upper edge portion of the roof decking at the roof ridge. The brace stiffens and carries the weight of the roof decking between the roof trusses or rafters, allowing an unobstructed flow of ventilation air under the decking and preventing bowing of the roof decking. The brace is at least partially covered by a line of shingles and then mounting flange portions of a ridge vent extend over each of the brace, decking edge and shingles.
US08291649B2
A lifting mechanism for a concrete structure is provided through means of a void former and anchor assembly which it cast in place to provide an accurate recess in the structure having two or more spaced divergent anchors therein. The anchors define annularly aligned apertures within the recess. A lifting shackle of an arcuate configuration complimental with that of the recess is received within the recess and carries an arcuate locking bolt extendable through the aligned apertures.
US08291645B2
In a method and a device for adjusting a frameless window pane of a motor vehicle by means of a motorized window lifter activated by a control device, for adjusting the window pane between an open position and a closed position, in which the window pane upper edge is arranged in a window pane seal associated therewith and connected to the motor vehicle roof, the closed position of the window pane and/or the closing force with which the window pane bears against the window pane seal, is altered depending on the relative position of the window pane seal to the window pane upper edge. As a result, a connection of the window pane upper edge to the window pane seal which remains the same irrespective of the driving speed of the motor vehicle, is guaranteed and ensures that even at higher driving speeds there is no occurrence of leakages or increased wind noise.
US08291642B2
A first movable barrier operator is actuated in order to move a first movable barrier to a first predetermined position via a first movement and according to a first operating characteristic. A second operating characteristic is selected for moving a second movable barrier to a second predetermined position via a second movement. The second operating characteristic is chosen so that the second movement of the second movable barrier to the second predetermined position does not interfere with the first movement of the first movable barrier to the first predetermined position. A second movable barrier operator is actuated to move the second movable barrier to the second predetermined position via the second movement according to the second operating characteristic.
US08291632B2
A method of making a gun barrel having a breech end and a muzzle end and a bore extending between the two ends comprises applying to the outer surface of the bore a plurality of swaging dies (5), each of which carries an upstanding helical land (10). The dies are pressed simultaneously against the external surface of the gun barrel such that each land forms a helical recess (14) in the external surface and crystalline deformation to the material of the barrel wall immediately below the external helical recess. The distortion of the external surface results simultaneously in the creation of a plurality of smooth helical ridges (16) on the surface of the bore.
US08291624B2
An alternative blade assembly for an excavating apparatus comprising a front face, side walls, a centre forward edge portion, side forward edge portions on either side of the centre forward edge and end forward edges at each distal side of the side forward edges, wherein the end forward edges have bottom edges which are lower than the bottom edge of the centre forward edge.
US08291607B2
A system for positioning an object includes a base and a platform for detachably retaining the object. A first linear actuator is pivotably coupled to a first pivot axis of the platform and a first pivot axis of the base. A second and a third linear actuator are pivotably coupled to a second pivot axis of the base and the first pivot axis of the platform. A fourth linear actuator is pivotably coupled to the second pivot axis of the base and a second pivot axis of the platform. The first, second, third and fourth linear actuators being selectably adjustable in length to position the platform at a select position about a predetermined arc of travel.
US08291602B2
A composite utility knife blade and method of making such a blade involves butt joining a tool steel wire to a front edge of an alloy steel backing strip. The wire is electron beam welded to the backing strip to form a composite strip defining a first metal portion formed by the alloy steel backing strip, a second metal portion formed by the tool steel wire, and a weld region joining the first and second metal portions. The composite strip is annealed and hardened such that the first metal portion defines a surface hardness within the range of approximately 38 Rc to approximately 52 Rc, and the second metal portion defines a surface hardness within the range of approximately 60 Rc to approximately 75 Rc. The hardened strip is then tempered, quenched, surface treated to form a sharpened cutting edge, scored, and separated into a plurality of blades.
US08291601B2
The present invention relates to a reusable metal blade handle. More particularly, the present invention relates to a reusable metal blade scalpel handle with safety features provided therein which are also usable across a wide range of blades. In particular, the present invention has application for reusable metal surgical scalpels, providing the facility of a uniform handle type across a variety of blade types.
US08291579B2
A apparatus for mounting an interposer PCA into a chassis is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a bracket attached to the PCA. A geared handle is rotatably attached to one end of the bracket. The geared handle is configured to rotate between an open position and a closed position. Two geared segments are rotatably attached to the opposite end of the bracket and are meshed with the geared handle. A slot is formed in each geared segment and two slots are formed in the geared handle. The slots engage with insertion/ejection flanges on the chassis. The engaged slots force the PCA down into mating connectors in the chassis when the handle is rotated from the open position to the closed position.
US08291578B2
In a shielded cable braid-cutting apparatus 10, a pair of braid-spreading claws 32 and 33 beat an outer periphery of a braid 44 to spread the braid 44 into a larger diameter, and then the braid 44 is cut. In the shielded cable braid-cutting apparatus 10, each of the pair of braid-spreading claws 32 and 33 has a recess portion 74 of a generally recumbent V-shape, and the braid-spreading claws 32 and 33 are slid radially of the braid 44 so as to cause the recess portions 74 of the braid-spreading claws 32 and 33 to beat four portions 44A of the outer periphery of the braid 44, thereby spreading the braid 44 into a larger diameter.
US08291570B2
A stent crimping and coating apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus includes a plurality of crimping blades positioned in a radial array and collectively forming a central crimping lumen, wherein the plurality of crimping blades radially movable to alter the diameter of the central crimping lumen. Each of the crimping blades includes a first surface configured to at least in part define the central crimping lumen. One or more of the crimping blades includes a fluid channel extending therein and a plurality of openings in fluid communication with the fluid channel. The plurality of openings are located at the first surface of the one or more crimping blades and adapted to discharge a fluid into the central crimping lumen.
US08291568B2
A method in the installation of an elevator includes arranging a movable platform structure in the bottom end of the elevator hoistway with a temporary hoisting appliance in the elevator hoistway. The movable platform structure is lifted in the elevator hoistway with the temporary hoisting appliance. The final hoisting machine of the final elevator is installed from the platform structure and the final hoisting roping of the elevator is installed. The movable platform structure can be the final elevator car or at least a part of the final elevator car.
US08291566B2
According to a work mounting method by the work transfer apparatus of the prior art, a glass plate or a work may fail to abut against a window frame homogeneously at its peripheral edge portion, and the adhesion strength or the sealing property between the glass plate and the window frame may not be retained all over the periphery of the adhered portion. Provided is a work transfer apparatus, which grips a rear glass by its gripping member and mounts the rear glass while pushing the gripped rear glass onto the window frame of a car body by the action of a supporting arm. The work transfer apparatus comprises a control device, and each of absorption pads of the gripping member includes a force detecting sensor for detecting the force to be applied to the absorption pads. The control device controls, when it uses the work transfer apparatus to mount the rear glass on the window frame, the actions of the supporting arm on the basis of the magnitude of the detected value of the force detecting sensor of each absorption pad.
US08291565B2
A bipolar electrostatic chuck refurbishing process in accordance with an aspect of the present invention does not require physical separation of the two electrodes of the electrostatic chuck. One aspect of the present invention is drawn to method of treating a bipolar electrostatic chuck having a front surface and a back surface and comprising a first electrode disposed at the front surface, a second electrode at the front surface and an anodized layer disposed on the front surface, the first electrode and the second electrode. The method comprises measuring a first parameter of the electrostatic chuck, discarding the electrostatic chuck if the first measured parameter is not within a first predetermined range, cleaning the electrostatic chuck if the first measured parameter is within the first predetermined range, sealing gaps between the first electrode and the second electrode at the front surface with a sealant, without displacing the first electrode relative to the second electrode, eliminating the anodized layer, and disposing a new anodized layer onto the front surface, the first electrode and the second electrode.
US08291561B2
The thermostat installing structure is provided, according to which a thermostat can be installed stably in the circulation path of cooling medium, and the circulation path of cooling medium can be also fastened to the body of an internal combustion engine without causing any damage to the function of the thermostat. The thermostat (5) comprises a frame (12) formed integrally with an annular supporting substrate (6) having the inner circumferential edge portion serving as a valve seat (6a) and regulating a projecting head portion (7a) of an extendable rod (7), whereby the thermostat is installed between the circulation path of cooling medium and the cooling medium channel of the internal combustion engine in a manner that the circulation path of cooling medium and the internal combustion engine body are integrally fastened by fixing the thermostat at a predetermined position in the circulation path of cooling medium with the fixing means and thereafter fitting a gasket.
US08291554B2
The invention relates to a fastening element for two-dimensional fiber material comprising a basic element and pin-shaped profile elements, which protrude from the basic element in order to penetrate the fiber material. Provision is made for the profile elements to be deformable in order to form retaining heads for the fiber material. The invention further relates to a method for fastening two-dimensional fiber material which can be carried out with a fastening element of such type. By the method in accordance with the invention a cold micro-riveting can be achieved.
US08291551B2
A clamp assembly is provided for clamping tubular parts to a vehicle frame. The clamp assembly includes a first housing attached to a vehicle frame member and a second housing for attaching to the first housing. A first clamp member is received by the first housing. The first clamp member has recesses formed in an outer surface thereof for receiving tubular parts, and has grooves spaced apart from the outer surface for receiving other tubular part. The first clamp member includes a guide member which is received by a slot formed in the first housing. The first clamp member also includes a post which projects therefrom. A second clamp member is compressed between the second housing and the first clamp member, and the second tubular parts are held between the first clamp member and the second clamp member. The second clamp member includes a bore which receives the post. The first and second housings enclose the clamp members and the tubular parts.
US08291550B2
A hinge used in a display apparatus is provided. The display apparatus includes a display unit, and a seat. The hinge is used for connected the display unit to the seat. The hinge includes a pivot rod, a first connection member, a second connection member, and a support member. The first connection member is fixed to the display unit and further connected to the pivot rod. The second connection member is connected to the support member. The second connection member is fixed to the support member and further pivotally connected to the pivot rod. The support member is fix to the seat and further pivotally connected to the pivot rod.
US08291543B2
An adapter apparatus to be installed on a pail to allow debris to be swept into the pail when the pail is resting on its side on a surface to be swept. A mounting section is included which is configured to be positioned over at least part of a lip of the pail and secured in place on the pail. A debris collector guide is attached to the mounting section, with the debris collector guide including a pair of sidewalls and a bottom section disposed intermediate the side walls, with the sidewalls and bottom section forming a debris collection region which permits debris to be swept into the debris section and into a pail on which the adapter apparatus is installed.
US08291512B2
A face shield includes a brim having a front portion, a rear portion, an upper portion, and a lower portion. A channel is formed in the lower portion adjacent the rear portion of the brim. The front portion includes a plurality of spaced apart catch members disposed thereon. A head band is unitary with one side of the brim and configured to surround a head of a wearer. The head band has a free end that is adjustably insertable into the channel of the brim to select a size of the head band for the head of the wearer. The face shield may include a removable transparent shield having a plurality of holes formed therein. Each of the holes is configured to cooperate with one of the catch members of the brim to releasably hold the transparent shield on the front portion of the brim.
US08296860B2
An atomic force microscopy (AFM) method includes a scanning probe that scans a surface of a structure to produce a first structure image. The structure is then rotated by 90° with respect to the scanning probe. The scanning probe scans the surface of the structure again to produce a second structure image. The first and second structure images are combined to produce best fit image of the surface area of the structure. The same method is used to produce the best fit image of a flat standard. The best fit image of the flat standard is subtracted from the best fit image of the structure to obtain a true topographical image in which Z direction run out error is substantially reduced or eliminated.
US08296857B2
The piezo-electric actuator (1) to oscillate the probe of a scanning probe microscope is arranged in the feedback branch (3) of an analog amplifier (4). A current source (10) is provided for feeding a defined alternating current to the input of the amplifier (4). The amplifier (4) strives to adjust the voltage over the actuator (1) such that the current from the current source (10) flows through the actuator (1). As the current through the actuator (1) is proportional to its deflection, this design allows to run the actuator at constant amplitude without the need of complex feedback loops.
US08296845B2
An active shield can be configured to receive a test signal, and configured to output a plurality of shield signals, derived from the test signal, via a plurality of signal paths. A compare logic can be configured to compare the test signal with each of the plurality of shield signals to provide at least two comparison signals indicating comparison results and can be configured to output the at least two comparison signals. A detection and decision logic can be configured to determine whether the active shield is subject to attack based on patterns of the at least two comparison signals.
US08296834B2
A computer-implemented portal system facilitates access to secure data and multiple secure-access internet sites. The system authenticates a user based on a single-sign-on identifier (ID) and password. The system stores user authentication information for the secure-access internet sites so that once the user is authenticated, the system can automatically authenticate the user to the sites, thus allowing the user to access multiple secure sites after a single manual authentication.
US08296829B2
A system and method for searching and retrieving certificates, which may be used in the processing of encoded messages. In one broad aspect, certificate identification data that uniquely identifies a certificate associated with a message is generated. The certificate identification data can then be used to determine whether the certificate is stored on a computing device. Only the certificate identification data is needed to facilitate the determination alleviating the need for a user to download the entire message to the computing device in order to make the determination.
US08296822B2
An authorization system includes an authorization node, a storage device and a reference monitor. The authorization node executes an authorization policy, and the storage device stores an authorization state associated with the authorization policy. Requests for access to a secured resource are received at the reference monitor, and the reference monitor queries the authorization node, which uses the authorization policy to determine whether to grant access to the secured resource based on a rule having at least one access condition. The rule, executed as part of the authorization policy on the authorization node, is configured to update all the entries in the authorization state for which an update condition is met.
US08296820B2
Techniques are disclosed for attaching security policies to secured computing systems. A security policy is attached to a parent domain. The parent domain includes a first secured computing system. The security policy is a natural language description for controlling access to the secured computing system. Upon determining that the parent domain propagates the security policy, a first generation child domain is identified. The first generation child domain includes a second secured computing system. The first generation child domain is associated with the parent domain in a hierarchical relationship. It is determined that the first generation child domain inherits the security policy based on an inheritance rule. The security policy is attached to the first generation child domain.
US08296814B2
A video quality monitoring method includes a distribution server measuring first video quality index values according to a full-reference method by comparing a video, distributed from the distribution server to a client through a network, with a degraded video, generated by causing multiple scenarios of quality degradation due to the network in the video in a pseudo manner, creating characteristic data of first quality degradation values, obtained by causing the quality degradation to vary with the scenarios at regular intervals, and the first video quality index values corresponding to the respective scenarios, and transmitting the characteristic data to the client; and the client measuring a second quality degradation value in the video distributed through the network, and calculating a second video quality index value, equivalent to a value according to the full-reference method, of the distributed video from the measured second quality degradation value and the characteristic data.
US08296811B1
The invention relates to a method and system for automatically identifying video content within source video and transmitting the video content to an electronic mail client. The transmitted video content can be streaming video, video files, and/or other medium derived from the source video. An enhanced electronic mail client is also disclosed.
US08296805B2
The present invention provides a method and system for dynamically updating descriptions of AV content, such as MPEG-7 content descriptions. One embodiment provides for a method in which first a server issues a command indicating the type of update to make to the description on a client computer. Specifically, the update may be to add, delete, or change a node in a tree or graph structure describing the AV content. For example, the command may specify an update to an instance document or its associated schema. The server also specifies the location in the description to perform the update, which may be at an absolute or relative address. Next, the server sends the data, if any, to be added or used for the change. Embodiments also provide for steps to check that the update is authorized.
US08296804B2
In certain embodiments, a digital television receiving method that receives non-real time (NRT) content involves receiving a transport stream containing an Internet Protocol (IP) stream of packets containing non-real time content, NRT service metadata and NRT content metadata; at a demultiplexer, demultiplexing the IP stream of packets to produce: NRT content that is stored in the electronic storage medium, NRT service metadata, and NRT content metadata; parsing the NRT metadata to produce NRT service metadata, and NRT content metadata; and where the NRT content metadata contains a signal that indicates that an update is available indicating whether or not a referenced content item will be updated periodically. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.
US08296803B2
An object of the invention is to eliminate a program having a high general preference, and recommend a program customized to a preference of a specific user. A reserved information receiver (230) in a program recommendation server (3) receives reserved information transmitted by a program viewing terminal. A reserved information DB (235) stores the reserved information with respect to each of the users. A community reserved information statistics section (236) defines the users as a first group, based on the received reserved information, and the reserved information stored with respect to each of the users. A total user reserved information statistics section (237) defines the users as a second group including the first group. A recommended program creator (239) generates recommended information customized to the first group, based on an aggregate calculation result of the reserved information of the users belonging to the first group, and an aggregate calculation result of the reserved information of the users belonging to the second group. A recommendation transmitter (240) transmits the recommended information to the program viewing terminal. The program viewing terminal reproduces a program based on the recommended information.
US08296802B2
Interactive program guide systems and related processes are provided which can automatically tune a television, or program a VCR, based on program selections made from program schedule information displayed on a television or other suitable video monitor. The interactive program guide is preferably implemented using a microprocessor-controlled set-top box that is coupled to the viewer's television set. The set-top box receives program schedule information and software from a headend telecasting center. Preferably, program schedule information for the current day and at least six subsequent days is stored in a memory within the set-top box. The interactive program guide provides a display mode for allowing the viewer to apply a restrictive search selection criterion and a nonrestrictive sort attribute to the program schedule information.
US08296797B2
In a method for displaying video data within result presentations in information access or search systems, compressed thumbnails are computed for videos in a result page and applied to the result page. An end user is enabled to select a video in the result page and activate streaming of a video summary within the context of the associated result page.
US08296796B2
A digital broadcasting system and a data processing method are disclosed. A data processing method of a digital broadcasting receiver comprises receiving a mobile/handheld (MH) broadcasting signal including mobile service data and main service data; generating RS(Reed-Solomon) frames from the received MH broadcasting signal; extracting ESG (electronic service guide) data from the generated RS frame; extracting SDP (session description protocol) data from the extracted ESG data; checking a port number corresponding to subtitle having reference information, among the extracted SDP data; and controlling the subtitle having reference information using the checked port number so that the subtitle having reference information is displayed.
US08296793B2
A system for broadcasting inter-programme and/or intra-programme advertisements to a viewing or listening audience is disclosed. A given advertisement's target audience profile is matched to an obtained real audience profile to dictate not only that certain advertisements shall be broadcast only between and/or during certain programmes but also that certain individual members of, or groups of members within, the programme-receiving audience may receive one advertisement, during and/or between certain programmes, whilst other audience members or member groups receive a different advertisement, in one or more of the same respective advert ‘slots’, whilst watching or listening to the same broadcast.
US08296788B2
A printed circuit board (PCB) is attached on a surface of a tray that is opposed to a chassis main or a bottom plate of a housing. On the tray and in a vicinity of a position where the PCB is disposed, a first protruding portion is formed to protrude toward the chassis main, on which a second protruding portion is formed at a position to be opposed to the first protruding portion. Between the first protruding portion and the second protruding portion is a clearance while the tray is accommodated in the housing. When the tray deforms, the second protruding portion supports the first protruding portion to prevent further deformation of the tray.
US08296770B2
The allocation of hardware resources to distribution applications is enabled without using effective task priority available only in field devices. A distribution system makes a plurality of field devices connected with each other through a network (N) operate a plurality of distribution applications (distribution AP) in parallel. The distribution system is provided with an importance adjustment unit (3) that calculates relative values indicative of the task priority in the field devices in accordance with the importance of the distribution AP designated for every distribution AP and a resource allocation unit (13) that allocates the hardware resources of each field device to each of the tasks of which the distribution AP are composed in accordance with the relative values in the field devices calculated by importance adjustment unit (3).
US08296767B1
Management of contexts that execute on a computer system is described. More specifically, context scheduling in a virtual machine environment is described. Times at which a context transitions from a scheduled state to a descheduled state and times at which the context transitions from a descheduled state to a scheduled state are recorded for each context. Skew is detected using the recorded times. The amount of skew can be quantified, and a corrective action is triggered if the amount of skew fails to satisfy a threshold value.
US08296764B2
The disclosure describes internal synchronization in adaptive integrated circuitry which utilizes a data flow model for data processing. Task initiation and execution are controlled based upon data consumption measured in data buffer units, with initiation of and transitions between tasks based on a determined boundary condition within the data stream. When a data processing task is selected for synchronization, a boundary condition in a data stream is determined for commencement of the selected data processing task. Then, a timing marker for the commencement of the selected data processing task is determined relative to the data stream. The timing marker is dual-valued, providing a designated buffer unit and a designated byte or bit location within the designated buffer. The timing marker is communicated to the selected data processing task, which then commences data processing at a location in the data stream designated by the timing marker.
US08296760B2
A command is received to place a first physical machine into a lower power mode. The first physical machine has a virtual machine. In response to the received command, a procedure is performed to migrate the virtual machine from the first physical machine to a second physical machine.
US08296752B2
Methods and apparatus for efficiently enabling firmware associated with a flash memory card to be updated are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a method for updating firmware associated with a memory storage device includes providing new firmware to a host and sending the new firmware from the host to a reader which communicates with the host. The reader interfaces with the memory storage device which includes installed firmware. The method also includes sending the new firmware from the reader to the memory storage device, and incorporating the new firmware into the memory storage device such that the new firmware at least partially replaces the installed firmware. In one embodiment, the method further includes embedding the new firmware into a first command. In such an embodiment, sending the new firmware from the host to the reader includes sending the first command from the host to the reader.
US08296750B2
A method and apparatus for optimizing a target program including a pattern of instructions to be replaced. The method is performed by execution of program code by a processor of an information processing apparatus that includes an output device and a computer readable storage medium storing the program code. At least one transformation is performed on the target program to generate a transformed target subprogram in which dependencies among the instructions included in the target subprogram are matched with dependencies in the pattern to be replaced. The transformed target subprogram is replaced, with a post-replacement instruction stream determined to correspond to the pattern to be replaced, to generate a replaced target subprogram. An optimized target program that includes the replaced target subprogram is outputted to the output device. The at least one transformation includes a first transformation, a loop transformation, or both the first transformation and the loop transformation.
US08296749B2
Disclosed are methods, machine readable medium and systems that dynamically translate binary programs. The dynamic binary translation may include identifying a hot code trace of a program. The translation may further include determining a completion ratio for the hot code trace. The translation may also include packaging the hot code trace into a transactional memory region in response to the completion ratio having a predetermined relationship to a threshold ratio.
US08296747B2
A system acquires an output program for sequentially executing a plurality of character string output instructions, and thereby for outputting a text in which a plurality of output character strings are combined. The system converts the character code set of the character string constants, which is outputted by at least one of the character string output instructions, from a first code set for internal processing to a second code set for output, before the output program is executed. In addition, the system buffers the values of two or more character string variables to be outputted by two or more of the character string output instructions without converting the character code set from the first code set, during the execution of the output program.
US08296742B2
Various technologies and techniques are disclosed for automatically generating native images for a virtual machine environment. A virtual machine environment is provided where application libraries are distributed in an intermediate language format and then compiled at a later point in time. An automatic native generation service is provided that monitors the application libraries and generates a native image for a particular one or more of the application libraries when the service determines that native generation is appropriate. Invalid native images are automatically detected and re-generated. If a load attempt for a particular native image is unsuccessful, then the native image is determined to be invalid. The particular native image is then re-generated automatically.
US08296740B2
The signal state that a signal of interest within a system under test has during each of a plurality of cycles of operation of the system under test is stored in a trace file. In association with the signal state, information regarding a requested access to the signal state by a control program during a particular cycle among the plurality of cycles is also stored. From the trace files a presentation is generated that presents, for at least a signal of interest within the system under test, a plurality of signal state indications, each indicating a respective state that the signal had during a one of a plurality of cycles of operation of the system under test. The presentation also indicates, in a graphically distinctive manner, at least one cycle of operation during which a control program requested access to a state of the signal, so that the influence of the control program on the state of the system under test is visually apparent.
US08296736B2
A system and method for automated software testing includes defining a data model of an automated software test for a feature or business process being tested and then identifying an address for a function library at a local or remote location for executing the data model of the automated software test based upon the platform of the application. This identified function library is accessed at the address at the local or remote location so that an execution of a function within the function library may be invoked to obtain results therefrom.
US08296729B2
A system features a back-end computing system that includes a library that contains objects for use with a computer programming language, and a front-end computing system that executes a development environment. The development environment includes a plug-in that supports the computer programming language, and the plug-in enables access to the library. The plug-in includes a first component to perform syntax checking for the computer programming language in the integrated development environment, and a second component to provide access to the library from the integrated development environment.
US08296726B2
A plurality of functional steps corresponding to a functional module of a software application may be determined. Data fields associated with each of the functional steps may be determined. A cardinality associated with each functional step and corresponding to the data fields of the functional step may be determined. A logical sequence of the functional steps including data fields may be determined. A visual representation of the functional module based on the logical sequence may be generated including the functional steps, data fields and cardinality.
US08296721B2
A computer-implemented method for software development includes selecting a pre-defined software pattern, the pre-defined software pattern having one or more pre-defined elements, identifying one or more of the pre-defined elements to be modified, obtaining one or more behavioral models, each of the behavioral models specifying a functional behavior for at least one of the identified elements, ascertaining a modification required for each of the identified elements to provide the specified functional behavior, and incorporating the modification into an instance of the software pattern.
US08296719B2
A computer-implemented method, system, and computer-readable medium for determining if a software factory is ready to take on a software project is presented. In a preferred embodiment, the computer-implemented method includes the steps of: receiving a software project proposal including a custom software description describing a specific project type of the software project; determining, by a computer processor, that the software project proposal is qualified for acceptance by a software factory, utilizing a scorecard for the specific project type, wherein the scorecard provides a maturity assessment of resources required and identifies any potential choke-points for the specific project type; and in response to a determination that the software project proposal is qualified for acceptance by the software factory, the software factory undertaking the software project proposal.
US08296717B1
Disclosed are improved methods, systems, and computer program products for implementing inherited connections for electronic designs. Scoped default connection or global nets are used in inherited connections for default expressions, where the default connection/global net that is applied to a particular portion of the design is scoped by being limited in its application only to certain hierarchical portions of the design.
US08296715B2
A wiring design assisting apparatus includes an input part that has attribute information of a wiring pattern input thereto; a degradation degree process part that obtains a degradation degree in signal characteristics of a wiring pattern corresponding to attribute information that is input to the input part, based on position information of the wiring pattern corresponding to the attribute information input to the input part, position information and size information of a pattern removed area, and the degradation degree information; and an extracting process part that extracts, for re-wiring, wiring patterns that have degradation degrees equal to or more than a predetermined degree, from wiring patterns for which degradation degrees have been obtained by the degradation degree process part.
US08296707B2
A method, system and computer program product are provided for implementing spare latch placement quality (SLPQ) determination in a floor plan design of an integrated circuit chip. A spare latch placement quality (SLPQ) metric data function is defined and compared to a spare latch placement input with a series of calculations performed. The spare latch placement quality (SLPQ) determination is made based upon the compared SLPQ metric data function and the spare latch placement input. Then associated reports including textual and visual reports are generated responsive to the SLPQ determination. In addition, a new spare latch placement can be constructed with an algorithm responsive to the SLPQ determination.
US08296706B2
A computer-implemented method for handling a plurality of constraints in layout optimization for an integrated circuit (IC) layout is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes building a graph representing the plurality of constraints; marking two-dimensional constraints in the plurality of constraints; generating two-dimensional clusters including groups of the two-dimensional constraints; handling at least one of the two-dimensional clusters, the handling including finding a solution for the two-dimensional constraints in the at least one two-dimensional cluster; repeating the handling for any unprocessed two-dimensional clusters until all of the two-dimensional clusters are handled; and adopting the solution for each of the two-dimensional clusters to solve at least a portion of the plurality of constraints including the two-dimensional clusters.
US08296701B2
A method of designing a semiconductor device includes preparing a first design for a semiconductor device and estimating leakage current for the first design. The method also includes determining a leakage current cumulative distribution function (CDF) for the first design. The method further includes preparing a second design for the semiconductor device based on determination of the leakage current CDF for the first design. Further, the method includes estimating leakage current for the second design. The method also includes determining a leakage current CDF for the second design in accordance to the determination of the leakage current CDF for the first design. Moreover, the method includes selecting one of the first design and the second design based on a comparison of the leakage current CDF for the first design and the leakage CDF for the second design.
US08296698B2
A method includes a) receiving a design for a static random access memory (SRAM) array including an SRAM cell having a read port cell, the read port cell including first and second MOS transistors each having an initial threshold voltage (Vth); b) adjusting one of a gate channel width (Wg) or a gate channel length (Lg) of one of the first and second MOS transistors to modify the Vth of at least one of the first and second MOS transistors; c) simulating a response of the SRAM array, the simulation providing response data for the SRAM array including the Vth for the first and second MOS transistors; and d) iteratively repeating steps b) and c) until a desired Vth is achieved.
US08296694B1
Various embodiments of the present invention provide for automated synthesizing of a circuit wrapper for an integrated circuit element. Specifically, some embodiments of the invention provide computer-aided design (CAD) support for automated circuit wrapper generation, especially circuit test wrappers. Additionally, various embodiments of the invention result in optimally designed and segmented circuit wrappers that are configured for both parallel instruction mode and serial instruction mode.
US08296689B1
Method, apparatus, and computer readable medium for designing an integrated circuit (IC) are described. In some examples, layout data describing conductive layers of the integrated circuit is obtained. The layout data is analyzed to identify through die via (TDV) areas. A metal fill pattern is created for each of the TDV areas having a maximum metal density within design rules for the integrated circuit. The metal fill pattern for each of the TDV areas is merged with the layout data.
US08296686B1
An aid for developmentally disabled individuals takes the form of a mobile terminal having software capable of creating graphical schedules, graphical countdown timers, and graphical choice selections. A caregiver may dynamically program and save schedules which present a graphical sequence of events to the disabled individual to assist the disabled individual in adjusting the changing events of the day. Likewise, the countdown timer may assist the individual in preparing for an upcoming transition in environment or activity. Still further, the graphical choice selections may help a nonverbal individual express themselves to a caregiver.
US08296673B2
A tab-based collapsible user interface includes selectable user interface tabs, a ribbon area, and an editing surface. When a browse tab is selected, the ribbon area displays information and does not include any user interface controls for performing commands. When the browse tab is selected, a vertical scroll bar is displayed adjacent to the ribbon area and the editing surface. When the vertical scroll bar is used, the ribbon area and the editing surface are both scrolled. When a page tab or a contextual tab is selected, the ribbon area displays user interface controls for performing commands. When a page tab or a contextual tab is selected, a vertical scroll bar is displayed adjacent to the editing surface but not adjacent to the ribbon area. When the vertical scroll bar is used, the contents of the editing surface are scrolled but the ribbon area is not scrolled.
US08296672B2
Disclosed is a system and method for visualizing a visitor's activity in a community such as a cafe, homepage, blog, miniroom, or mini-homepage, and the like, which are established in web sites on the Internet. The method includes the steps of: a) by a visitor, accessing the community and selecting a community activity visualizing item prepared in the community; b) by the visitor, selecting one of a plurality of blocks forming an image of the community activity visualizing item; c) by the visitor, leaving a visitor log in a text input window corresponding to the selected block; and d) storing data in which the visit log is recorded and updating the community activity visualizing item. According to the present invention, by visually providing community activity visualizing items, which are contents allowing community visitors to dynamically participate in the community, a plurality of visitors can be attracted to participate in the community, the extent of participation of the visitors in the community increases, and re-visit of the visitors to the community can be promoted.
US08296671B2
Systems and methods for enabling access to data, including data represented using a variety of “richer” data formats, are disclosed. Such systems and methods may be useful, among a variety of cases, with applications or entities that may not typically be able to access such richer data. In at least some implementations, data copied to a clipboard and formatted using a variety of formats may be provided or accessed by a destination application as part of a paste operation even when the destination application may not natively provide the ability to access all of the data formats that might exist on a clipboard. In at least some implementations, such access may be provided without modifying or augmenting the data placed on the clipboard.
US08296665B2
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing techniques for developing user interface applications using configurable patterns and for executing such pattern-based applications. The techniques include receiving an identification of a pattern, generating configuration data for the pattern, and storing the configuration data separately from the pattern. The pattern includes a predefined arrangement of user interface elements and specifies predefined actions that can be performed using the user interface elements. The configuration data specifies associations between one or more of the user interface elements and one or more entities in a back-end system, and further specifies customization data for the user interface elements.
US08296659B1
A computer-implemented method is presented for distinguishing a live actor from an automation. The method includes receiving, from a user, a request to access a service, and, in response presenting to the user a minority set of N objects and a majority set of >N objects that share at least one common attribute expected to be apparent to a human observer absent among objects associated with the minority set. The method also includes requesting, from the user, to identify at least one object, from among the objects associated with the minority or majority set, that satisfies a predetermined criterion and receiving, from the user, an indication of a selection of at least one object. The method further includes determining whether the user-selected object satisfies the predetermined criterion and determining that the user is a human upon determining that the user-selected object satisfies the predetermined criterion.
US08296658B2
A graphical user interface includes a primary color palette including a first plurality of colors and a secondary color palette including a second plurality of colors. A first color is defined as a primary color and a second color is defined as a secondary color. The secondary color is different from the primary color. The graphical user interface also includes a plurality of styles, with a style defined as an initial style. The graphical user interface further includes an intensity scale ranging from a minimum intensity value to a maximum intensity value. An indicator is positioned in association with an initial intensity value. Moreover, the graphical user interface includes a display tile including an initial pattern that is displayed based on the primary color, the secondary color, and the initial style and a subsequent pattern that is modified from the initial pattern based on the initial intensity value.
US08296649B2
A method, graphical interface and computer-readable medium for generating a preview of a reformatted preview segment of a selected input file. A preview pane is displayed in a single window and includes preview controls including a file timeline indicator configured to graphically depict a length of a selected input file. Preview in and out markers are displayed and configured to define a preview segment of the selected input file. The preview segment is reformatted into a reformatted preview segment according to the reformatting process associated with the selected input file. The reformatted preview segment is displayed in the preview pane.
US08296648B2
A computerized system, method, and computer-readable media implementing a method for defining a variable shaped document for web viewing is presented. Markup language descriptions are defined for cutlines defining a shape of an item to be produced, and for content to be displayed on the item within the boundaries of the cutlines. Markup language rules area defined that prevent display of content in areas on a display screen outside the defined shape of the item to be produced.
US08296647B1
Methods and systems, including computer program products, implementing techniques for reviewing and editing word processing documents. The techniques include receiving from a reviewer one or more comments about a word processing document, receiving from an editor one or more changes to the word processing document, and classifying each change under one of the comments. The techniques can further include selecting a subset of the comments and presenting the word processing document so that the changes that are classified under the selected comments are distinguishable from the changes that are not classified under the selected comments.
US08296645B2
A jump destination site determination method and system determine a site which is a jump destination of a hyperlink selected in a terminal apparatus. The system and method include receiving a jump destination distribution ratio representing a ratio of jumping to each of a plurality of sites storing same contents, which varies over time, and contents including a hyperlink to which the jump destination distribution ratio is correlated, judging whether a time period elapsing from a time the contents are received until a time the hyperlink included in the contents is selected is equal to or longer than a predetermined time period, and acquiring a jump destination distribution ratio effective at a point in time at which the hyperlink is selected from the server responsive to determining that the time period elapsed is equal to or longer than the predetermined time period.
US08296642B2
A signal judgement circuit making a judgement on a signal includes: an error signal generation circuit receiving signals via at least four signal lines and outputting an error signal when, of all the received signals, the number of signals taking on a same value does not exceed half of the number of the received signals; and an output selection circuit selecting any one of the received signals and outputting the selected signal.
US08296639B2
A semiconductor memory includes multi-mode reporting signals, a state register, and parity detectors. The parity detector determines whether signals received on a communication bus contain a desired parity. The multi-mode reporting signals enable reporting of communication faults without adding additional signals to the semiconductor memory by being configured in a normal operating mode or a parity fault mode for reporting communication faults to an external memory controller. The state register enables storing of received values from the communication bus. With the state register, a memory controller may determine correctly received signal patterns and failing signal patterns. Parity may be defined as even or odd and may be generated based on various signal configurations. The invention may be configured as a computing system comprising a processor, an input device, an output device, the memory controller, and at least one semiconductor memory.
US08296631B2
Apparatus, and an associated method, for recovering the informational content of an encoded data block. Data bursts are delivered to a receiver. A series of data bursts together include all of the informational content of the encoded data block. A detector detects delivery to the receiver of the data bursts. A determiner determines indicia associated with the communicated data. And, responsive thereto, the data is decoded, selectably utilizing fewer than all of the data bursts that form the encoded data block.
US08296629B2
An RDS compatible receiver has a demodulator which demodulates RDS data, a register which converts the demodulated RDS data to block data and outputs the block data, an offset generating unit which predicts and outputs an offset word of the block data based on values of a pattern match flag signal and a synchronization flag signal, an error correction processing unit which performs error correction of the block data using the predicted offset word, compares the number of error corrections with a predetermined correction threshold, determines whether the predicted offset word is right or not based on the comparison result, and outputs the pattern match flag signal based on the determination result, and a synchronization determining unit which detects whether or not the predicted offset word determined to be right matches a predetermined offset sequence pattern, determines whether RDS block synchronization is established or not, and outputs the synchronization flag signal based on the determination result.
US08296623B2
Error correction is tailored for the use of an ECC for correcting asymmetric errors with low magnitude in a data device, with minimal modifications to the conventional data device architecture. The technique permits error correction and data recovery to be performed with reduced-size error correcting code alphabets. For particular cases, the technique can reduce the problem of constructing codes for correcting limited magnitude asymmetric errors to the problem of constructing codes for symmetric errors over small alphabets. Also described are speed up techniques for reaching target data levels more quickly, using more aggressive memory programming operations.
US08296622B2
A programmable LDPC (Low-Density Parity-Check) code decoder and decoding method thereof is disclosed. By combining at least one programmable switch and at least one memory unit to decode any quasi-cyclic-based parity check matrix, one can set the switch state of the programmable switch to dynamically adjust the size of the decoding matrix and determine the locations of 1's and 0's in the decoding matrix. The mechanism helps improving the usability and flexibility of the decoding matrix.
US08296619B2
A method and an apparatus for indicating a temporary block flow (TBF) to which a piggybacked acknowledgement/non-acknowledgement (PAN) field is addressed. A method and apparatus of performing receive processing to reduce the probability of false acceptance of erroneous PANs are also disclosed. A transmit station generates a PAN check sequence (PCS) and performs a channel coding on a PAN field and the PCS. The transmit station scrambles the encoded bits of the PAN field and the PCS with a TBF-specific scrambling code. Because of the scrambling, the PCS decoding at a receive station will pass if the data block is received by an intended receive station, while the PCS decoding will fail if received by a non-intended receive station. Alternatively, the scrambling may be performed before the channel coding. Alternatively, the transmit station may combine the PAN field and a temporary flow identity (TFI) to generate a PCS.
US08296618B2
A method is disclosed that allows the easy generation of low-density parity-check codes that can realize superior error-correcting characteristics. A processor of a transmission line encoder constructs parity check matrix H from partial matrix H1 of m rows and k columns on the left side and partial matrix H2 of m rows and m columns on the right side. The processor generates partial matrix H2 as a unit matrix. The processor generates partial matrix H1 to satisfy the conditions that, when any two rows contained in partial matrix H1 are selected, the two rows have periods that are relatively prime, or when the periods are identical, the two rows have different phases. The processor then joins partial matrix H1 and partial matrix H2 to generate parity check matrix H.
US08296614B2
Functional circuits and cores of circuits are tested on integrated circuits using scan paths. Using parallel scan distributor and collector circuits for these scan paths improves test access of circuits and cores embedded within ICs and reduces the IC's power consumption during scan testing. A controller for the distributor and collector circuits includes a test control register, a test control state machine and a multiplexer. These test circuits can be connected in a hierarchy or in parallel. A conventional test access port or TAP can be modified to work with the disclosed test circuits.
US08296610B2
A semiconductor memory device includes an alignment unit configured to align data received from the outside, a plurality of data input/output lines corresponding to the aligned data, respectively and a realignment unit configured to change correspondence between the data and the data input/output lines in response to one or more change signals in a test mode. A method for testing the semiconductor memory device includes inputting data in series using a testing apparatus, aligning the serial data in parallel, and realigning the parallel data in response to one or more change signals.
US08296605B2
Systems and methods consistent with the invention may include receiving an indication that a software error was detected during operation of the application program, generating an error message based on the software error, the error message including an error signature, comparing the error signature with information stored in a patch library database to identify a corresponding correction patch, and correcting, when the corresponding correction patch is identified, the software error by applying the corresponding correction patch.
US08296602B2
A processor includes a plurality of processing sections, each of which executes a predetermined process. A plurality of fault detecting circuits are respectively provided for the plurality of processing sections, to detect a fault in one of the plurality of processing sections as a fault processing section to generate a fault detection signal. A fault monitoring and control section controls a normal processing section as at least one of the plurality of processing sections other than the fault processing section to execute a relieving process in response to the fault detection signal. The relieving process is determined based on a process load of the fault processing section, a process load of the normal processing section, and priority levels of processes to be executed by the fault processing section and the normal processing section.
US08296600B2
Methods, systems, and computer programs are provided for failover responses to configuration node failures in SVC clusters. An SVC cluster manages a plurality of storage devices and includes a plurality of SVCs interconnected via a network, each SVC acting as a separate node. A new configuration node is activated in response to configuration node failures. The new configuration node retrieves client subscription information about events occurring in storage devices managed by the SVC cluster from the storage devices. In response to events occurring in the storage device managed by the SVC cluster, the new configuration node obtains storage device event information from a storage device event monitoring unit. The new configuration node sends storage device events to clients who have subscribed to this information according to subscription information obtained. The storage device is not installed in the original configuration node. This method allows complete transparency of the configuration node failover process to clients.
US08296593B2
In an information processing system, a host apparatus and a device are communicatively connected such that the host apparatus serves as a master and the device serves as a slave. The device is configured to establish a power-saving mode, when any command is not received from the host apparatus for a prescribed time period. A device driver is provided in the host apparatus. The device driver is configured to transit from a normal state to a suspended state when an operation command for operating the device is not received from an application running in the host apparatus for a prescribed time period, and to transmit a dummy response to the application, when an inquiry command is received from the application while the device driver is placed in the suspended state, without notifying the inquiry command to the device.
US08296589B2
A power supply circuit includes a PWM controller capable of providing pulse signals to a CPU, and an I/O controller electrically coupled to the PWM controller and the CPU respectively. The I/O controller is capable of receiving voltage selection signals from the CPU and outputting a control signal to the PWM controller. The PWM controller is capable of adjusting pulse signals provided to the CPU according to the control signal.
US08296587B2
A legacy adapter for use with devices to be powered by a power adapter is described. The legacy adapter includes a multi-purpose power connector configured to couple to a power adapter external to the electrical device, a connector configured to connect the electrical device, and a microprocessor configured to communicate digitally with the power adapter. The microprocessor communicates power requirements of the electrical device to the power adapter through the multi-purpose power connector. A related method of receiving power from a power adapter external to an electrical device through a legacy adapter is also described.
US08296584B2
Techniques are disclosed for in-line storage of message authentication codes with respective encrypted data blocks. In one aspect, a given data block is encrypted and a message authentication code is generated for the encrypted data block. A target address is determined for storage of the encrypted data block in a memory. The target address is then modified to permit in-line storage of the message authentication code with the encrypted data block in the memory, and the encrypted data block and the message authentication code are transferred to the memory for storage at the modified address. Illustrative embodiments of the techniques advantageously facilitate secure off-chip storage of data in a processing system.
US08296579B2
There is provided a system and method for updating a basic input output system (BIOS). An exemplary method comprises obtaining a BIOS update package comprising a BIOS image update, a BIOS Signature, and a plurality of Public Key regions, wherein each Public Key region comprises a Public Key area and a signature area. The exemplary method also comprises updating a current Public Key with a new Public Key if the new Public Key is identified in one of the Public Key regions. The exemplary method additionally comprises validating the BIOS Signature using the current Public Key.
US08296578B1
Method and apparatus for communicating data between vertically stacked integrated circuits is described. In some examples, a method of configuring an integrated circuit which is a first die includes obtaining configuration data at configuration resources of the integrated circuit from a non-volatile memory on a second die through an integration tile of the integrated circuit, the second die being vertically stacked on the first die; storing the configuration data in at least one register as the configuration data is obtained by the configuration resources; and loading the configuration data from the at least one register to a configuration memory of the integrated circuit to configure programmable resources of the integrated circuit.
US08296572B2
A projector system includes an information processing apparatus and a projector. The projector includes a device connection unit which enables communication between the information processing apparatus and the projector, a password generating unit which generates a password, and an encryption unit which encrypts the password and outputs the encrypted password to the information processing apparatus through the device connection unit. The information processing apparatus includes a device connection unit which enables communication between the projector and the information processing apparatus, a decryption unit which decrypts the encrypted password input through the device connection unit of the information processing apparatus using a decryption key, and a password determining unit which has functions of determining whether the decrypted decryption password is correct and outputting a signal directing to start the process for projection to be performed by the information processing apparatus in a case where the decrypted password is correct.
US08296571B2
Embodiments of the present invention recite a method and system for implementing export control for a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver. In one embodiment, a GNSS receiver is used to determine the geographic position of an electronic device. It is then determined that the geographic region corresponds to an exclusion zone. In response to determining that the geographic region corresponds to the exclusion zone, accessing data from the electronic device is prevented.
US08296569B2
Interoperability of protected content items between computing devices is facilitated by providing content items having a standard representation, and media players having support for the content item representations. The representation of the content item may be limited by a profile as to the elements it contains. The elements allowed in the content item may also be limited.
US08296566B2
A key session derivation is provided during a mutual authentication between a master IC card storing a master key, and a user IC card storing a key-seed. The master IC card and the user IC card are connected through a communication interface for a communication session. A first random number associated to the user IC card is generated. First and second sub keys are derived from the key-seed. First and second session sub keys are respectively derived through the first sub key in combination with the first random number, and through the second sub key in combination with the first random number. The first and second session sub keys are joined in at least a session key for the communication session.
US08296560B2
Techniques for restricting Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) table updates to updates originating from authorized subsystems is disclosed. According to an embodiment, an instruction to update an ARP table is received. It is determined whether a command interface from which the instruction originated is authorized. If the command interface is authorized, then the ARP table is updated based on the instruction. According to an embodiment, a DHCP Server may be configured to send an instruction to update an ARP table upon receiving a DHCP message indicating a network layer address that is not bound with a data link layer address. The DHCP Server may send the instruction over an authorized command interface, or be in other ways authorized to update the ARP table.
US08296557B1
Within a system comprising a programmable integrated circuit (IC), a method can include storing a first configuration within the system in a read-only memory that is independent of the programmable IC. The programmable IC, being loaded with the first configuration, comprises a circuit that accesses a data source external to the system over a communication link. A second configuration can be downloaded by the programmable IC from the data source. The second configuration can be stored within a random access memory within the system that is independent of the programmable IC. Responsive to a reconfiguration event, the programmable IC can be loaded with the second configuration from the random access memory.
US08296554B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods, apparatuses, articles, and removable storage devices for pre-boot recovery of a locked computer system. In one instance, the method includes determining on pre-boot whether a removable storage device is attached to a computer system, determining whether the computer system is in a locked state and, if the removable storage device is detected, transferring control to a pre-boot authentication module (PBA) stored on the removable storage device to interact with a manageability engine to restore the computer system from the locked state to an unlocked state. If the removable storage device is not detected, the computer system shuts down if the system is determined to be in the locked state and no other PBA is detected. The computer system comprises a host operating environment and a manageability engine that operates independent of the host operating environment. Other embodiments may also be described and claimed.
US08296546B2
A processor including logic to execute an instruction to synchronize a mapping from a physical address of a guest of a virtualization based system (guest physical address) to a physical address of the host of the virtualization based system (host physical address), and stored in a translation lookaside buffer (TLB), with a corresponding mapping stored in an extended paging table (EPT) of the virtualization based system.
US08296544B2
Provided is a capacity monitoring method used for a computer system including one or more application computers, one or more storage systems, and a management computer. The storage system includes a physical disk and a disk controller. In the capacity monitoring method, a storage area of the physical disk belongs to a storage pool, the storage system provides a volume, and the management computer monitors a used capacity of the storage pool, judges whether or not a storage capacity required for operating the application computer for a predetermined time period is present in the storage pool based upon an increasing speed of the used capacity of the storage pool to be monitored, and executes a predetermined process operation when the storage capacity required for operating the application computer for the predetermined time period is not present in the storage pool. Accordingly, the storage pool is properly operated and managed.
US08296540B2
A method and apparatus for adjusting the performance of a memory system is provided. A memory system comprises a master device and a slave device. A memory channel couples the master device to the slave device such that the slave device receives the system operating information from the master device via the memory channel. The slave device further includes tuning circuitry within the slave device such that the performance of the memory system is improved.
US08296539B2
A method for performing wear leveling in a memory, and an apparatus corresponding to the method, is provided. The method includes: dividing the lifecycle of the memory which includes more than one physical blocks into at least one sampling interval; for each sampling interval, getting the first physical block by taking statistics of the degree of the wear leveling of each physical block in the memory in the current sampling interval; getting the second physical block by taking statistics of the updating times of each logical address in the current sampling interval; exchanging the logical addresses and data of the first physical block and the second physical block.
US08296534B1
Described are techniques for performing recovery processing in a data storage system. A providing a flash-based memory is provided with includes cached write data that has not been destaged to a data storage device. It is determined whether said flash-based memory has a threshold amount of storage available thereon. If the flash-based memory does not have the threshold amount of storage available thereon, portions of the cache write data are destaged until said flash-based memory has a threshold amount of storage available thereon. Received data requests are processed in accordance with a first policy different from a second policy used in connection with processing received data requests if said flash-based memory has a threshold amount of storage available thereon.
US08296533B2
In the environment of a virtual server, there is a problem in that the contents in a disk area released correspondingly with the deletion of the virtual server may be read. According to the present invention, in a virtual computer system controlling a disk volume and a virtual server which is connected to the disk volume, to which the area of the disk volume is allocated as a virtual disk and which executes a process using the allocated virtual disk, the virtual computer system erases information stored in the virtual disk allocated to the virtual server to be deleted correspondingly with the deletion of the virtual server. According to another embodiment of the present invention, an administrative serve is provided to select a server system which is low in load from among plural server systems controlling virtual servers as a server system for erasing information stored in the virtual disk allocated to the virtual server to be deleted.
US08296526B2
An apparatus includes a first processor that accesses memory according to a first clock frequency, a second processor that accesses memory according to a second clock frequency, and a memory device is configurable to selectively operate according to the first clock frequency or the second clock frequency. A memory controller enables dynamic configuration of organization of the memory device to allow a first portion of the memory device to be accessed by the first processor according to the first clock frequency and a second portion of the memory device to be accessed by the second processor according to the second clock frequency.
US08296518B2
An apparatus includes a TLB storing a part of a TSB area included in a memory accessed by the apparatus. The TSB area stores an address translation pair for translating a virtual address into a physical address. The apparatus further includes a cache memory that temporarily stores the pair; a storing unit that stores a starting physical address of the pair stored in the memory unit; a calculating unit that calculates, based on the starting physical address and a virtual address to be converted, a TSB pointer used in obtaining from the TSB area a corresponding address translation pair corresponding to the virtual address to be converted; and an obtaining unit that obtains the corresponding pair from the TSB area using the TSB pointer calculated and stores the corresponding pair in the cache memory, if the corresponding pair is not retrieved from the TLB or the cache memory.
US08296517B2
A method, device, and computer readable medium for striping rows of data across logical units of storage with an affinity for columns is provided. Alternately, a method, device, and computer readable medium for striping columns of data across logical units of storage with an affinity for rows is provided. When data of a logical slice is requested, a mapping may provide information for determining which logical unit is likely to store the logical slice. In one embodiment, data is retrieved from logical units that are predicted to store the logical slice. In another embodiment, data is retrieved from several logical units, and the data not mapped to the logical unit is removed from the retrieved data.
US08296516B2
A first controller has a first CM area having a plurality of first sub-areas, and a second controller has a second CM area having a plurality of second sub-areas. The first controller stores first data in any of the first sub-areas, and in addition, stores a mirror of the first data (first mirror data) in any of the second sub-areas. The first controller manages a pair (an association relationship) of the storage-destination first sub-area of the first data and the storage-destination second sub-area of the first mirror data. Similarly, the second controller stores second data in any of the second sub-areas, and in addition, stores a mirror of the second data (second mirror data) in any of the first sub-areas. The second controller manages a pair (an association relationship) of the storage-destination second sub-area of the second data and the storage-destination first sub-area of the second mirror data.
US08296510B2
Methods and apparatus for managing data storage in hybrid memory devices utilizing single level and multi level memory cells. Logical addresses can be distributed between single level and multilevel memory cells based on a frequency of write operations performed. Initial storage of data corresponding to a logical address in memory can be determined by various methods including initially writing all data to single level memory or initially writing all data to multilevel memory. Other methods permit a host to direct logical address writes to single level or multilevel memory cells based on anticipated usage.
US08296507B2
A memory management and writing method for managing a plurality of physical units of a memory chip is provided. The present method includes grouping the physical units into a first physical unit group and a second physical unit group, recording and calculating a first erase count of the first physical unit group and a second erase count of the second physical unit group, and calculating an erase count difference between the first erase count and the second erase count. The present method also includes determining whether the erase count difference is larger than an erase count difference threshold when a write command is received. The method further includes executing a switched writing procedure to write data corresponding to the write command into the memory chip when the erase count difference is larger than the erase count difference threshold. Thereby, the lifespan of the memory chip is effectively prolonged.
US08296503B2
Methods for updating and recovering user data of a non-volatile memory array such as a flash memory are disclosed. An indication for indicating a mapping relationship for a logical address is established when original user data of the logical addresses is updated into new user data. The indication records new pointers, which record the mapping relationships between logical addresses and physical addresses storing the new user data of the logical addresses. Alternatively, the indication records memory positions of the non-volatile memory array which are defined as designated memory positions and a sequence for using these designated memory positions.
US08296498B2
A method of writing data to a non-volatile memory with minimum units of erase of a block, a page being a unit of programming of a block, may read a page of stored data addressable in a first increment of address from the memory into a page buffer, the page of stored data comprising an allocated data space addressable in a second increment of address, pointed to by an address pointer, and comprising obsolete data. The first increment of address is greater than the second increment of address. A portion of stored data in the page buffer may be updated with the data to form an updated page of data. Storage space for the updated page of data may be allocated. The updated page of data may be written to the allocated storage space. The address pointer may be updated with a location of the allocated storage space.
US08296497B2
A system and method of making a firmware self updatable depending on option information stored in a configuration module. The configuration module can either be in a memory device or a memory controller. The self-updation flexibility can be achieved by customizing the options as per the customer's requirements and can be done either through an USB interface or by pre-programming the configuration module or any other communication or programming options. The option information is provided by using a configurable module inside either the memory or the memory controller. After the basic initialization operations, the firmware reads the option information from the controller itself or any other non-volatile memory and performs the tasks to enhance the overall performance.
US08296495B2
A storage device with a memory, a controller, a storage device interface and a host interface, and a method of data transfer to and from a storage device are provided. The storage device is operative to connect with a host device and the storage device interface is operative to couple with an add-on memory. When the host interface is connected to a host device, the controller is configured to receive a data transfer command specifying a memory address from the host interface; and if the memory address is beyond the address space of the memory, to route the data transfer command to the storage device interface for access to the add-on memory. The address space of the memory and an address space of the add-on memory are addressed as one integral address space transparently to the host.
US08296487B1
A first storage controller includes a first memory controller, a first interface controller, and a second interface controller. The first memory controller is configured to control a connection between the first storage controller and a first storage device. The first interface controller is configured as a device, and is configured to control a connection between the first storage controller and a first host. The second interface controller is configurable to function as a host or a device. The second interface controller is configured to control a connection between the first storage controller and a secondary device, function as a host when the secondary device is a second storage controller, and function as a device when the secondary device is a second host.
US08296480B2
Described embodiments provide a media controller for processing one or more data transfer requests received from at least one host device. The media controller includes a buffer to receive data of a data transfer request from a communication link and a command parser to generate one or more contexts corresponding to the data transfer request. The one or more contexts are stored in the buffer. At least one queue of the media controller includes a regular context queue for queuing regular-priority contexts, and a high-priority context queue for queuing high-priority contexts. A context manager coordinates processing of regular-priority contexts and high-priority contexts of the at least one queue based on context boundaries, wherein, when a context is processed at a context boundary, data corresponding to the processed context is data is transferred between the communication link and at least one of the buffer and the at least one storage media.
US08296477B1
User data is securely transferred from a client device to a mobile device. Data transfer activities at the client are monitored to detect a request to transfer data via a displayed code (e.g., QR code). The data being transfer are verified as being legitimate (e.g., not compromised by malware or otherwise malicious) before the transfer. Responsive to verifying that the transfer data are legitimate, a code encoding the transfer data is displayed on a display device of the client. A user of the mobile device captures the code using a digital camera or other data scanning device and decodes the code to obtain the transfer data. The mobile device may then perform an action using the transfer data, such as connecting to a website or composing an email to an address included in the transfer data.
US08296476B2
A storage method, a storage system, and a controller are disclosed. The method is applicable to a system that includes at least one controller, at least two Peripheral Component Interconnection Express (PCIE) Input/Output (IO) modules, and at least two storage devices. The at least two storage devices are connected through a PCIE switch chip of the at least one controller, and the at least two PCIE IO modules are connected through a PCIE switch chip of the at least one controller. The method includes: receiving a request message from a server through the at least two PCIE IO modules; and accessing the at least two storage devices according to the request message. The at least two PCIE IO modules are shared between controllers, thereby saving resources; and the storage devices access the controllers without the need of a hard disk controller or a hard disk extension chip, thereby saving costs.
US08296475B2
Systems and methods for allocating transmission resources within a computer network are provided. In some embodiments of the invention, communication links may be assigned based on predefined preferences or system configuration to facilitate the transfer of data from one point in the network to another. In other embodiments, system operation may be monitored and communication paths be assigned dynamically based on this information to improve system operation and provide improved failover response, load balancing and to promote robust data access via alternative routes.
US08296462B2
A method and apparatus for communicating with entities outside of a secure network by intercepting and modifying messages is provided. Techniques for accomplishing the communication include inserting, retrieving, and deleting information from messages. The entities involved in the communication include, but are not limited to, users, content providers, and access providers. Furthermore, the types of information used in modifying messages include billing, location, demographic information, profile data, multimedia data, and code.
US08296460B2
A server assigns one of a plurality of clients as a representative client to each of a plurality of block data in a round-robin manner, for example. The server transmits the block data and information indicating the representative client assigned to the block data to the plurality of clients by multicast communication. The representative client transmits a response acknowledgement to the server. When the server receives the response acknowledgement, the server transmits block data following the block data and information indicating a new representative client assigned to the following block data to the plurality of clients by multicast communication.
US08296458B2
A system includes a plurality of cache servers and a domain name server. Each of the cache servers is configured to respond to a content request. The plurality of cache servers is divided into a plurality of subsets and configured to respond to an anycast address for each subset to which the cache server belongs. The domain name server is configured to receive a request from a requester for a cache server address, identify an anycast address for a largest available subset, and provide the anycast address of the largest available subset to the requester.
US08296455B2
A personal computer's (PC) microprocessor is used to provide both the physical layer (PHY) and media access control (MAC) processing functions required to implement a wireless local area network (WLAN) adapter. This technique uses the polling mechanism associated with the power save (PS) functionality of WLAN protocol to relieve networking stress on the host processing system. It does this while maintaining networking integrity and packet delivery. The WLAN protocol polling mechanism is used to briefly inhibit the transfer of packets from the WLAN access point (AP) during peak periods of network traffic and/or host processor loading. Because the modulation, demodulation, and MAC functions, typically implemented in dedicated hardware on existing adapters are implemented in software running on the host PC microprocessor, other host system processes and applications can interfere with these time critical functions. Conversely, latency introduced by WLAN specific processing tasks during peak periods of network traffic may cause unacceptable delays to the other processes and applications requiring microprocessor attention. In addition to its primary stated purpose of allowing WLAN mobile stations to save power, this technique will use power save polling as a method for controlling delivery of network packets when the host is heavily loaded or when peak interrupt latencies make reliable packet delivery difficult or impossible.
US08296450B2
A method for providing a management function requested by a user that uses a managed device includes establishing a session on a managed device in response to a user logging into an account on the managed device, establishing a delegated management session on a management device, the delegated management session corresponding to the session on the managed device, receiving a management message on the management device, the management message being related to a management function requested by the user, and in response to the received management message, performing the management function using the management device.
US08296447B2
The method is executed by a call control server that establishes a media session for sending and receiving media data between a calling terminal and a called terminal. The method includes exchanging messages with calling terminal and called terminal for establishing the media session, generating a session information necessary for establishing the media session based on the messages exchanged with the calling terminal and/or the called terminal, monitoring a media information included in the messages, the media information containing a definition specifying a way of exchanging the media data, determining, based on the monitoring result, whether the media session has been established, and transferring the session information to at least one other call control server different from the call control server if the media session has been established.
US08296442B2
A communication server implements a method that minimizes bandwidth usage between a media device and the communication server in a communication system where separate session and floor control protocols are used. Where multiple clients have established separate sessions to access a media source at a media device and upon determining that the multiple clients are attempting to access the same media source, the communication server implements floor control logic to tie multiple floor arbiters together across the separate sessions to cause a single media stream to be sent from the media source and received at the communication server for distribution to the clients, thereby minimizing the bandwidth on the uplink between the media device and the communication server.
US08296437B2
A method and apparatus for facilitating communication between client computers is provided. The method provides for the use of ping probing by a server to determine the types of NAT devices and/or firewalls protecting the client computers. Once these are determined, the server can predict the response to communications from the client computers and instruct the client computers to contact each other. Once a session or tunnel is established it can be maintained through the use of a flag, even if contact with the server is lost.
US08296431B2
A communications network including: n service managers (AS1, AS2, . . . , ASn), each adapted to execute an associated service; routing means (MR) adapted to receive protocol messages sent by a service manager, and to forward them to a terminal. The network also includes a conflict manager including: a set of packets, each packet containing rules for sorting protocol messages liable to be sent by at least two service managers; selection means for selecting a packet as a function of an indicator of the services that the terminal can access; sorting means for sorting protocol messages sent by at least two service managers upon execution of the associated services as a function of the content of a selected packet and forwarding the sorted protocol messages to the routing means (MR). Also disclosed are a conflict management method and a method of adding an additional service to a communications network.
US08296426B2
A system and method for capacity planning for enterprise networks, such as identifying bottlenecks and removing or replacing the bottleneck device are provided. The device utilization for one or more network devices are measured or read from measured data. A relative load is calculated from the device utilization data and device utilization is compared to a device threshold to determine the bottleneck device. A method is also provided for determining network utilizations, network populations and a relative response times based on only limited measurable device usage data.
US08296423B2
Routing of content, including: receiving a request to access a content item from a device; determining at least one of status, location, and format of the content item; and planning a procedure to fulfill the request to access the content item, wherein the procedure includes a method and a route.
US08296420B2
A DHT-based global namespace (GNS) is constructed for a network system that includes network attached storage (NAS) devices, including at least one DHT-NAS device (a NAS device having DHT Functionalities) and at least one Existing-NAS device (a NAS device lacking DHT Functionalities). In a DHT Overlay Construction Phase, the DHT-NAS devices construct a DHT overlay. In an Initial Phase, the GNS is created above share folders in the Existing-NAS devices, with mapping of the share folders in the Existing-NAS devices to GNS paths distributed to a key lookup table in the DHT-NAS devices. Each mapping in the key lookup table includes a key, a GNS path, NAS type, IP address of the NAS, and the path within the NAS Share. There is no central GNS mapping table. In a Discovery Phase, the DHT-NAS devices discover the Existing-NAS devices to construct the GNS under the share folders. In a Working Phase, the DHT-NAS devices service GNS requests.
US08296418B2
A method, program product, and data processing system are provided for modifying a cluster in a data processing system, the cluster comprising a plurality of nodes. A monitoring unit monitors resource usage over at least one cycle of a periodic timeframe to obtain monitored resource usage data. A forecasting component forecasts resource usage over a future cycle of the periodic timeframe using the monitored resource usage data to obtain forecast resource usage data. An analysis component analyzes the forecast resource usage data using at least a first rule to determine whether a modification of the cluster is necessary and at least a second rule to determine a time window for the modification of the cluster. A modification component modifies the cluster by adding or removing a node to the plurality of nodes in the time window.
US08296415B2
A solution is proposed for implementing a self-adapting reconciliation process. Multiple user accounts are defined on different endpoints for accessing protected resources thereof; a server centralizes the definition of the user accounts on a single point of control which is then synchronized with user account definitions on the endpoints. A dynamic reconciliator, interposed between the server and the endpoints, receives any request from the server for a reconciliation process to be completed in a predefined time-frame. The reconciliator collects the required information from the endpoints and determines an optimal time pattern for the processing of the information by the server over the time-frame according to an estimated amount of information expected to be received and an estimated workload distribution of the server in the time-frame. The reconciliator transmits the information to the server according to this time pattern.
US08296413B2
Monitor services deployable on device networks may be implemented using a modular approach, in which a core monitor service is mapped to one or more devices included in, or associated with, the device networks. Additional monitoring-related functionality may be provided to such devices using plug-ins, add-on services or service components, or other service modules, which interact with the core monitor service. The core monitor service(s) and any monitor service modules may be mapped, to specific ones of the devices, based on, for example, requirements of other services and/or relevant device metadata (e.g., capabilities) of the devices. In additional or alternative implementations, various protocols may be used to register new devices and deployed monitor service(s) with the distributed monitoring service(s) in a fast, secure, energy-efficient, and reliable manner, even as devices join or leave the device network(s).
US08296410B1
A method of managing bandwidth usage among a plurality of client devices is provided. A request is received at a first device from a second device. The request is to transfer a file between the first device and the second device and includes an identifier of the second device. A client group associated with the second device is determined based on the identifier and used to select a bandwidth usage policy. A data transfer rate for transferring the file between the first device and the second device is determined based on the selected bandwidth usage policy and a bandwidth usage at the first device associated with a plurality of devices. A number of bytes to transfer is determined based on the determined data transfer rate and a time period. A response, which includes the determined number of bytes and the time period, is sent to the second device.
US08296403B2
Apparatus, systems, and methods assign a permanent network address to a user identity, detect access to a network by a node associated with the user identity, generate an identifier associated with the user identity, and send the identifier to the node to enable the node to obtain replacement of a temporary network address allocated to the node, with the permanent network address. Activities may include receiving a release request from a node to release a temporary network address allocated to the node (associated with the user identity), receiving an allocation request (including the identifier) from the node to allocate a permanent network address previously assigned to the user identity, and allocating the permanent network address to the node as a replacement for the temporary network address. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.
US08296395B2
An Obje network device service control method and system, the method including: discovering Obje components by an Obje proxy, and generating component proxies by an Obje proxy, the component proxies respectively corresponding to the Obje components; discovering the component proxies by a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) control point, and requesting by the UPnP control point a component proxy of the component proxies, which is selected by a UPnP control point, for a presentation page; generating and providing by the selected component proxy the presentation page to the UPnP control point; and controlling by the UPnP control point a transfer session between the Obje components based on the presentation page.
US08296393B2
Advertising on P2P networks can include a three-step system in one embodiment of the disclosure. The first step can include the review of search requests, followed by a response linking to a media file containing an advertisement. The second step can be a delivery process. The advertising cannot be considered spam as the user can be redirected towards information that can directly correlate to the users search. The advertising can be done with the full cooperation and volition of the media company or companies involved. The advertisers' contract with the media companies can allow for payment and the media companies can then expose their product to potential buyers. The third step can be contacting an advertising server any time that media file is played. In this third step it can be determined what the optimal advertisement for this media file is.
US08296391B2
In a relay communication system in which remote LANs communicate with one another beyond a WAN, a method and apparatus prevent crossover among a plurality of call controls in each of a plurality of sections and crossover among a plurality of communication routes in each of the plurality of sections. Relay servers relay communication between client terminals. A relay server creates information described below, and allows a whole of a relay communication system to share the information: relay group information indicating that the relay servers constitute a relay group; and relay server information indicating a client terminal capable of communicating with the relay server. The relay servers and the client terminals collate identification information of call control, which is transmitted when the call control is executed for a destination for communication in each section, and identification information of call control, which is received from the destination for communication in each section when a communication route is established, with each other, and allows the call controls and the communication routes to correspond to each other.
US08296376B2
A method of increasing email correspondence responsiveness may include detecting a first set of email messages transmitted by a first correspondent to a second correspondent, creating a tracking record based on the responsiveness of the second correspondent to each email message of the first set of email messages, performing a first statistical analysis of the tracking record, generating a set of responsiveness metrics based on the first statistical analysis, detecting new outgoing email messages addressed to the second correspondent, and providing a user-configurable email message format for each detected outgoing message, the user-configurable email message format. According to the example embodiment, the user-configurable email message format is configured to increase effective email response time from the second correspondent and the user-configurable email message format is based on the set of responsiveness metrics.
US08296373B2
A system and method for curtailing objectionable behavior in a web-based social network is disclosed. The method includes monitoring various actions of users of a web-based social network for objectionable behavior. The monitored actions are those that affect other users of the social network. A policy is determined based on behaviors of users. The policy may be violated by a user if the user exceeds a policy threshold. Some monitored actions include the poking, friend requesting, and wall posting. A policy may be violated by multiple occurrences of a single type of action or by a combination of different types of actions. Upon a policy violation, a warning may be issued to the user or the user's account may be suspended.
US08296371B2
A communication platform deployed on servers is disclosed. The communication platform enables users to receive electronic messages from corporations and others comprising a message processing platform. The message processing platform comprising logic for receiving a first electronic message addressed to the platform. The first electronic message is for an activity having an activity status, wherein the activity is categorized into events. Further the logic includes organizing the first electronic message in an information folio based on the activity; receiving a second electronic message for an event in the activity; parsing the second electronic message to determine whether the second electronic message comprises a definition to update the activity status; and if the second electronic message comprises a definition to update the activity status, then updating the activity status for the activity.
US08296364B2
A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to support canceling audio streams leaked from a speaker to a microphone so that a clean audio stream of a presenter or viewer speaking at a conference call is transmitted. Here, the audio streams being canceled includes the computer audio stream of an application being run or a material being presented online during a web conference and/or the audio stream received from the rest of the group of participants at the conference call. The computer audio stream is then transmitted in addition to the presenter or viewer audio stream, and separate from any other audio stream captured by the hosting device during the conference call.
US08296361B1
A method for managing conference resources includes hosting a conference between a plurality of participants using a first amount of resources. The plurality of participants use a plurality of endpoints to communicate on the conference. The method includes reserving a sufficient amount of the first amount of resources to allow a first participant of the plurality of participants to rejoin the conference when the first participant disconnects from the conference. The method also includes reclaiming the sufficient amount of resources upon one of the following: receiving an indication that the first participant will not rejoin the conference or expiration of a predetermined amount of time after the first participant disconnects from the conference.
US08296351B2
A system for pushing information to a mobile device includes a information source, a wireless network, and a proxy content server. The information source stores information. The wireless network sends and receives transmissions to and from the mobile device. The proxy content server is coupled to information source and the wireless network and receives information from the information source. In addition, the proxy content server stores information received from the information source to one of a plurality of channels based on pre-defined information categories, and automatically transmits information from a selected channel over the wireless network to the mobile device.
US08296344B2
Time delay and frequency offset calculation systems and related methods. System implementations include modules coupled together configured to calculate a time delay and a corresponding frequency offset of a second signal delayed in time relative to a first signal with the maximum value of a magnitude of a delay optimization function. Implementations of a method for calculating a time delay and frequency offset calculate the maximum value of the delay optimization function by generating the cross-correlation of one or more adjacent discrete Fourier transformed blocks corresponding to the first signal and second signal, respectively, of two or more discrete Fourier transformed blocks. The maximum value of the delay optimization function is then identified. Implementations of the method may compare the identified maximum value of the magnitude of the delay optimization function with a threshold to determine whether to continue processing for additional adjacent discrete Fourier transformed blocks.
US08296343B2
Disclosed is a system and program for processing temporal data. A spatial query is received specifying a mapping function that identifies a set of temporal values for one or more objects. Geographic positions are automatically extracted from each set of temporal values for each of the one or more objects. Point objects are generated from the geographic positions. One or more spatial objects are generated from the point objects.
US08296341B2
Personal information of users is used to customize the browsing experiences of the users on a World-Wide-Web site. To ensure privacy of the users' personal information, each user is assigned a unique Universal Anonymous Identifier (UAI). The UAI is generated by a trusted third party and provided to the Web site operator. The Web site operator then indexes the users' personal information by UAI. Only the user has the ability to correlate his/her true identity with his/her personal information.
US08296330B2
The hierarchical approach may start at the bottom of the hierarchy. As it moves up the hierarchy, knowledge from children and cousins is used to classify items at the parent. In addition, knowledge of improper classifications at a low level are raised to a higher level to create new rules to better identify mistaken classifications at a higher level. Once the top of the hierarchy is reached, a top down approach is used to further refine the classification of items.
US08296325B2
A host website, method and system for digitally labelling websites or subscribers with digital labels which represent characteristics or qualities of the website is disclosed. Digital labels are stored on host websites, each of which is directed to a specific subject or activity. The host website can also provide digital labels for storage in other host websites. The host website is provided with artificial intelligence capabilities. Methods and systems for asymmetric access in a host website database are disclosed.
US08296319B2
The present invention provides an information retrieving apparatus and the like which replies a search result accurately to a question from the user.In the present invention, sentence information of a sentence in collected documents is stored, information of a questioning sentence from the user is received from a terminal 2, the questioning sentence from the user is decomposed into segments (S10), documents having common arc segments are extracted from segments in the questioning sentence from the user, the documents are compared with the questioning sentence, and a leaf segment missing in the questioning sentence is retrieved (S12 to S16), and the search result is transmitted to the terminal 2 (S19).
US08296312B1
Example embodiments provide various techniques for fast and efficient search of attributes stored in data structures. The attributes are organized following a hierarchical structure of the file system and, in an example, the attributes are stored in a data structure where the hierarchical structure is maintained. As a result, a search within such data structure may follow one or more paths along the hierarchical structure of the file system. Attributes associated with directories and files outside of the path can be excluded from the search. Example embodiments also provide various techniques for updating signatures associated with the attributes. In an example, updates to the signatures can be made incrementally. For example, signatures can be updated when the attributes change.
US08296308B2
Methods and apparatus for facilitating detection of a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility within a dig area. Source data representing one or more input images of a geographic area including the dig area is electronically received at a first user location, which may be remote from the dig area. The source data is processed so as to display at least a portion of the input image(s) on a display device. One or more indicators are added to the displayed input image(s), via a user input device associated with the display device, to provide at least one indication of the dig area and thereby generate a marked-up digital image. The marked-up digital image may be electronically bundled with information from a corresponding ticket. A descriptor file may be used to identify one or more marked-up images corresponding to a ticket.
US08296307B2
System and method for querying of contact information are disclosed. An aspect of the invention includes a method for querying contact information. The method includes receiving a query language including relationship information of a plurality of contacts with unknown contact information. The method further includes acquiring a query request, wherein acquiring the query request includes parsing the query language according to a query language syntax. The method further includes querying contact information of the plurality of contacts with unknown contact information in at least one directory to obtain the contact information of the plurality of contacts with unknown contact information requested in the query request. The method further includes returning the contact information of the plurality of contacts with unknown contact information requested in the query request.
US08296291B1
Identification and Surfacing of related pieces of content, such as user-provided content, enables users of a merchant website to more easily find related items. A server associated with the website may receive, from a user, an image that illustrates items offered for sale on the site. The site may then enable this and other users to annotate the image by, for example, associating the illustrated items with hyperlinks to respective item detail pages. When a user views this page, the site may surface the most related other user-uploaded images that also illustrate items. To determine the most related images, the website may analyze, for each of the other images, the similarity between the items illustrated in the image and the items illustrated in the currently-displayed image. The website may also analyze the tags applied to the items and the images themselves, as well as multiple other types of criteria.
US08296287B1
Dynamic sourcing, in which a data request that is associated with a query is received and a parameter of data needed for satisfaction of the query is identified. Parameter information defining data available in at least one cube stored in a cache is accessed and the parameter is compared with the parameter information. Based on comparison results, it is determined whether one or more cubes in the cache include sufficient data to satisfy the query. In response to a determination that one or more cubes include sufficient data to satisfy the query, a response to the data request is generated by executing the query against the one or more cubes. In response to a determination that the cubes do not include sufficient data to satisfy the query, a response to the data request is generated by executing at least a portion of the query against a database system.
US08296283B2
Content items in a distributed system are defined by a respective key, and each such content item is copied to R1 computer systems of the distributed system which have unique identifiers closest to a value of the respective key, where R1 is less than R2 which is less than R3, at least R2 number of the computer systems have copies of any respective one of the content items for all of the content items, and none of the computer systems farther than R3 in an address space of the distributed system have a copy of the subject content item. Modifications of individual content items are synchronized across all instances thereof responsive to a put operation and/or at periodic intervals.
US08296270B2
An adaptive logging apparatus and method are provided. Using the adaptive logging apparatus and method, it is possible to accumulatively store the size of log records generated according to a data update request, and selectively perform algorithms for Recovery and Isolation Exploiting Semantics (ARIES) logging and shadow paging logging, according to the size of the stored log records.
US08296269B2
A computer readable storage medium includes executable instructions to receive a specification for requested data in a log based replication system where data changes are retrieved from both a transaction log and a database. It is determined that the requested data is compromised. A search for a data image containing the requested data is initiated. The data image is accessed to secure the requested data. The requested data is returned.
US08296268B2
The present disclosure relates generally to a system and method for change logging in a firmware over the air (FOTA) development environment. In one example, the method may include creating a cumulative change log for an intermediate binary file that contains an extractable binary image. The cumulative change log may record changes between the intermediate binary file and earlier iterations of the intermediate binary file. The cumulative change log may be stored in the intermediate binary file and later retrieved. The cumulative change log may be analyzed to identify statistics about changes that occurred between the intermediate binary file and earlier iterations of the intermediate binary file.
US08296257B1
Methods, systems and computer program products for evaluating performance of generative models are disclosed. One method includes providing a base model and a candidate model having observed variables and first and second conceptually related variables related to the observed variables, respectively, receiving observations assigned to a subset of the observed variables, and for each observation, evaluating the observation by the base model to produce a base assessment of the observation, evaluating the observation by the candidate model to produce a second assessment of the observation, determining a similarity measure of the assessment of the observation based on the base and second assessments, and selecting a subset of observations having low similarity measures for use in evaluating performance of the candidate model.
US08296248B2
A method clusters samples using a mean shift procedure. A kernel matrix is determined from the samples in a first dimension. A constraint matrix and a scaling matrix are determined from a constraint set. The kernel matrix is projected to a feature space having a second dimension using the constraint matrix, wherein the second dimension is higher than the first dimension. Then, the samples are clustered according to the kernel matrix.
US08296236B2
Centralized check image storage system. The present invention provides for sharing check images stored in a substantially centralized storage system between and/or among banks in support of the check collection process. In some embodiments, check images are received from the capture bank via a landing zone at the centralized storage facility. These images and information supporting the check collection process can be in the form of load file. A cross-reference file including information supporting the check clearing process such as unique handles identifying the check images is received from a paying bank, possibly also via a landing zone. Check images can be identified based on these unique handles, so that the check images can be made accessible to both the capture bank and the paying bank from the substantially centralized storage system.
US08296235B2
In an example embodiment, a system is provided for a cashback funding of an account. The system comprises a transaction receiving module to receive a request to process a transaction amount, wherein the transaction amount is funded by a debit card. The system further comprises a transaction authorization module to make a pre-authorization request to the debit card, wherein the pre-authorization request exceeds the transaction amount by a predetermined value and is to receive an approval for the pre-authorization request. The system further comprises a cashback funding module to offer a cashback amount in excess of the transaction amount but less than the predetermined value. In response to an acceptance of the cashback offer by a user, the cashback funding module is to make an authorization request for the total amount, and in response to an approval of the authorization, is to fund the account with the funds in excess of the transaction.
US08296227B2
Systems, computer programs encoded on non-transitory memory, and computer-implemented methods to make available new credit or additional credit to demand deposit accounts, prepaid cards, and existing lines of credit of a customer based on expected tax refund amounts. The new or additional credit being, for example, based on a computerized estimate of the tax refund of the customer. The existing line of credit, for example, is adjusted based on the expected refund and/or actual tax refund determined to be available, which can serve as an additional source of repayment for the line of credit. One or more of several adjustments may then be made to an existing line of credit: the line of credit may be increased; fees reduced; or the terms of payment adjusted.
US08296221B1
At least one exemplary aspect comprises a method comprising: (a) receiving electronic data describing a trading order for a market-traded security; (b) checking the data describing the trading order against one or more sets of conditions, and identifying one or more of the one or more sets of conditions that is satisfied; (c) based on the identified one or more of the one or more sets of conditions that is satisfied, identifying a class of trading algorithms appropriate for execution of the trading order; (d) selecting with a processing system one or more trading algorithms from the identified class of trading algorithms, for execution of the trading order; and (e) commencing with the processing system execution of the trading order via the selected one or more trading algorithms; wherein the processing system comprises one or more processors. Other aspects and embodiments comprise related computer systems and software.
US08296220B2
A graphical user interface centralizes Level I quote information in the center of a circular display while Level II (or regional) data appears in peripheral bands layered on the outside of the Level I information. The interface is also split into two main sections, a “bid” quote information section and an “ask” quote information section. The bid quote information appears on the left of the interface while the ask quote information appears on the right side of the interface. Through clicking in any one of the peripheral bands, an order can be placed at that price point.
US08296216B2
An electronic market for trading of securities includes a plurality of client stations for entering quotes for securities and a server process that receives quotes from the clients, aggregates the quotes and causes a total of all aggregated quotes to be displayed for a plurality of price levels on the client systems. The market uses a graphical user that depicts aggregated quotes in an aggregate window a plurality of price levels of a product traded in the market. The market also includes processes to handle lock/cross market conditions, match-off of order flow and provides a central quote/order collector that interfaces to disparate order delivery systems to minimize dual liability of market makers.
US08296215B1
Price setting for a security occurs by automatically engaging in a price discovery procedure before responding to a request for a current buy or sell price of the security to provide an automatically discovered price that is better than a book price. The book price is the best price in an order book including orders to buy or sell specified quantities of the security at respective prices, the lowest sell order price of the booked orders being the book sell price, the highest buy order price of the booked orders being the book buy order price. The price discovery procedure includes providing the book buy or sell price to at least one entity registered to participate in the price discovery procedure. The entity automatically provides an improved price relative to the book price based on a predetermined strategy that is determined independently of the strategies for other entities. The temporal duration of the price discovery procedure can be predetermined or based on an amount of activity occurring during the price discovery procedure.
US08296210B2
Systems and methods are provided for determining the volatility of weather derivative option contracts. Volatility levels are initially determined with conventional methods. Unreliable volatility levels are then replaced with futures contracts volatility levels. If the futures contracts volatility levels are not available or appear unreliable, meteorological volatility levels are utilized. The data may be reduced to a three dimensional surface and used when determining margin account requirements.
US08296208B2
Disclosed is a novel insurance product that provides an accelerated death benefit to the insured individual. The insurance product contains a lifeaccess accelerated benefit feature that allows the insured individual to file a claim and receive benefits under a life insurance product if the insured individual becomes chronically or terminally ill.
US08296200B2
Mechanisms and approaches for a collaborative financial close portal are provided. A client receives display data, which when rendered by the client, depicts a collaborative financial close portal that supports one or more workspaces. Each of the one or more workspaces may be used by a different set of users to perform activities related to a financial close process. The one or more workspaces are arranged in a hierarchical relationship. In response to receiving identification data that identifies a user of the client, additional display data is sent to the client, which when rendered, depicts a particular workspace for which the user is granted access. The depiction of the particular workspace includes depicting status information about financial close activities associated with one or more workspaces lower in the hierarchal relationship than the particular workspace.
US08296197B2
Turnkey maintenance of a customer's aircraft fleet is managed by a single management service provider (MSP) controlling integrated maintenance and materials services from a central operations site. The MSP converts data received directly from on-board aircraft systems into information it uses to manage maintenance service providers and parts suppliers. The MSP contracts with and manages maintenance, repair and overhaul organizations (MROs) who perform the maintenance on the customers' aircraft at line and base stations. The MSP either remotely manages part inventories at the customer's site, or manages suppliers who deliver the parts to the MROs. Maintenance planning, scheduling and execution information is exchanged between the MSP, MROs, part suppliers and the customers through a shared data communication network controlled by the MSP. The MSP charges the customer for the maintenance services based on a flat rate per unit of aircraft flying time.
US08296193B2
Systems and methods for a supplier dynamic reference are provided. Some embodiments include a processor and a memory coupled to the processor for storing instructions. In various embodiments, the memory stores instructions causing the processor to provide product information to a consumer, process data to determine that the consumer wants to make a purchase, process data to enable a supplier to dynamically select a reseller of their products based on a predetermined criteria, and cause the processor to transmit data related to the selected reseller to the consumer. Some embodiments may include a database with product information and product reseller information, including an indication of which resellers sell each product and a selection system configured to select a reseller to provide to the consumer based on the consumer wanting to purchase the product and a reseller selection criteria, wherein the transmitter transmits reseller information to the consumer.
US08296181B1
A system and method for offsetting printing costs. Specifically, the method includes collecting user information about a user and generating a user profile based on the user information. The user profile is stored such that the user profile is used to achieve delivery of data that is targeted to the user based on the user profile without requiring a release of user information in the user profile. At least one offer for the delivery of data is presented to the user. The data is targeted to the user based on the user profile. Thereafter, the method determines that an item of the data presented to the user has been printed. An incentive is received for printing the item.
US08296180B1
A system for improving shape-based targeting by using interest level data is disclosed. According to one embodiment, a computer-implemented method comprises creating one or more trade zones, wherein creating a trade zone comprises grouping a set of parameters to deliver custom shapes, clustering the custom shapes according to offline data and geographic distribution of IP addresses, and mapping clusters of the custom shapes to IP addresses. Data indicating consumption of a content source is received, the content source having a plurality of tokens. The plurality of tokens is organized according to the one or more trade zones, wherein the one or more trade zones consume the tokens at a calculated rate and the calculated rate is analyzed to determine an interest associated with each trade zone. Targeting is based on a selected trade zone, wherein the selected trade zone is selected based upon a desired interest representative of a desired audience. A targeting request is transmitted including instructions or information associated with the target action, and the target action is performed.
US08296178B2
Secure content management is enabled as a cloud-based service through which security protection and policy enforcement may be implemented for both on-premise network users and roaming users. The global SCM service integrates the security functionalities—such as anti-virus, spyware, and phishing protection, firewall, intrusion detection, centralized management, and the like—that are typically provided by enterprise network SCM appliance hardware or servers into a cloud-based service that users reach via Internet-based points-of-presence (“POPs”). The POPs are configured with forward proxy servers, and in some implementations, caching and network acceleration components, and coupled to hubs which provide configuration management and identity management services such as active directory services.
US08296176B1
In one embodiment, a method includes accessing information regarding a visitor to a website; accessing a plurality of filters that are each associated with one of a plurality of lead buyers and being defined by a set of lead criteria specified by the associated lead buyer; and, for each of the filters, determining whether the information regarding the visitor satisfies the set of lead criteria defining the filter and, if the information regarding the visitor satisfies the set of lead criteria defining the filter, selecting the filter as a filter for which the visitor qualifies as a lead. The method includes, for each of the filters for which the visitor qualifies as a lead, accessing information indicating a potential revenue to be obtained by a lead matcher from the lead buyer associated with the filter.
US08296174B2
A method and apparatus for network-based sales force automation are provided that meet objectives of increasing sales and marketing efficiency and efficiency of technical and customer support by providing multi-dimensional displays of transactional information to users. Transactional information of deals, contacts, accounts, and leads is provided over the Internet using a Web browser. The information of related transactions is electronically linked, and the transactional information is electronically searchable using custom profiles. The transactional information is accessed and shared among host organization members according to a hierarchy and predefined territories. A Radar Screen Opportunity Display (RSOD) may be selected on which deal objects are displayed that represent the stages in a sales pipeline of corresponding deals. New business information may be selected, wherein automatic notification is provided of new information and changed information relating to transactions, wherein the new business information comprises information on at least one monitored customer Web site. A communication capability is provided that comprises electronic mail, facsimile, telephones, and paging devices, wherein communication is automatically established using transactional information.
US08296155B2
An apparatus for decoding a signal and method thereof are disclosed, by which the audio signal can be controlled in a manner of changing/giving spatial characteristics (e.g., listener's virtual position, virtual position of a specific source) of the audio signal. The present invention includes receiving an object parameter; extracting object information by parsing the received object parameter; generating a control parameter using the extracted object information and control information including at least one of user control information, default control information, device control information, and device information; and, generating a rendering parameter determining a position and level of an object in an output signal using the object parameter and the control parameter.
US08296149B2
A system (20) for inputting graphical data into a graphical input field includes a graphical input device (22) for inputting the graphical data into the graphical input field, and a processor-executable voice-form module (28) responsive to an initial presentation of graphical data to the graphical input device. The voice-form module (28) causes a determination of whether the inputting of the graphical data into the graphical input field is complete. A method for inputting graphical data into a graphical input field includes initiating an input of graphical data via a graphical input device into the graphical input field, and actuating a voice-form module in response to initiating the input of graphical data into the graphical input field.
US08296147B2
A method for facilitating project management includes identifying a user, identifying a project management access level for the user, dynamically generating a voice dialog based on the identified project management access level, dynamically generating grammars associated with the voice dialog based on the identified project management access level, and serving the voice dialog to the user. The method further includes receiving a voice request from the user corresponding to a generated grammar; retrieving project management information associated with the received voice request; dynamically generating a responsive voice dialog including the retrieved project management information; dynamically generating responsive grammars associated with the responsive voice dialog; and serving the responsive voice dialog to the user.
US08296139B2
The present invention can include a speech processing method for providing dictation capabilities to a voice server. The method can include a step of establishing a real-time voice communication session involving a voice interface. Speech for the communication session can be streamed to a remotely located voice server. A real-time stream of text can be received from the voice server. The stream of text can include text that has been speech-to-text converted by the voice server from the streamed speech. The voice server can use a MRCP based non-halting interface to receive the real-time stream of speech and a delivery interface to deliver real-time text to a designated endpoint.
US08296127B2
A translation training device which extracts from two nonparallel Corpora a set of parallel sentences. The system finds parameters between different sentences or phrases, in order to find parallel sentences. The parallel sentences are then used for training a data-driven machine translation system. The process can be applied repetitively until sufficient data is collected or until the performance of the translation system stops improving.
US08296117B2
A system and method for optimizing enterprise applications driven by business processes is provided. The method for optimizing business processes comprises the steps of obtaining process data, optimizing the process data using algorithms, simulating execution of one of the process data and the optimized process data, publishing the optimized process data, and deploying the published data for execution using a run time engine. In one embodiment, the simulator simulates using both process data and optimized process data. Modifications to process data can be input, and this modified data can be simulated, and also can be optimized.
US08296116B2
The invention develops models of functional proteomics. Simulation scenarios of protein pathway vectors and protein-protein interactions are modeled from limited information in protein databases. The system focuses on three integrated subsystems, including (1) a system to model protein-protein interactions using an evolvable Global Proteomic Model (GPM) of functional proteomics to ascertain healthy pathway operations, (2) a system to identify haplotypes customized for specific pathology using dysfunctional protein pathway simulations of the function of combinations of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) so as to ascertain pathology mutation sources and (3) a pharmacoproteomic modeling system to develop, test and refine proposed drug solutions based on the molecular structure and topology of mutant protein(s) in order to manage individual pathologies. The system focuses on simulating the degenerative genetic disease categories of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, immunodegenerative diseases and aging. The system reveals approaches to reverse engineer and test personalized medicines based upon dysfunctional proteomic pathology simulations.
US08296096B2
A method and system for determining the location and attitude (roll, pitch, and yaw) of a moving object relative to an external reference frame by tracking unique two-dimensional patterns in the external reference frame from the moving object with displacement sensors. The displacement sensors lock onto the unique two-dimensional patterns by means of a steering mechanism which steers an optical path element capable of deviating the optical path using the displacement information from the relative movement of the two-dimensional patterns. The system is able to detect position and attitude to sub-millimeter accuracy without a physical connect between the moving object and the external reference frame and without a physical connection between the moving object and the external reference frame.
US08296093B2
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor chip including an active area. A temperature sensor arrangement provides a measurement signal dependent on the temperature in or close to the active area. An evaluation circuit is configured to compare the measurement signal with a first threshold and to signal an over-temperature when the measurement signal exceeds the first threshold. The evaluation circuit is also configured to count the number of exceedances of the first threshold and to signal when a maximum number of exceedances is reached.
US08296092B2
A platform specific test for computing hardware and method using same, wherein the method supplies a plurality of test procedures, and provides a computing device to be evaluated, where the computing device comprises (M) physical objects. The method identifies, for each value of (i), an (i)th physical object disposed in the computing device. The method then determines, for each value of (i), if the plurality of test procedures comprises one or more test procedures associated with the (i)th physical object. If, for each value of (i), the plurality of test procedures comprises one or more (i)th test procedures associated with the (i)th physical object, then the method adds, as one or more (i)th test procedures, the one or more test procedures associated with the (i)th physical object to a test algorithm, and saves that test algorithm.
US08296090B2
A gas analyzer using a quadrupole mass spectrometric method etc. is provided with an ionizer to ionize a sample gas, a first ion detector and a second ion detector each configured to detect a respective ion from ionizer, and each being disposed a respective distance from the ionizer on an opposite side of the ionizer, the respective distances being different from each other, a filter interposed between the ionizer and the first ion detector to selectively allow ions from the ionizer to pass therethrough, and an arithmetic device to correct a partial pressure of a specific component obtained from the first ion detector and selected by the filter by using a first total pressure of the sample gas obtained from the first ion detector and a second total pressure of the sample gas obtained from the second ion detector.
US08296083B2
A vibratory pipeline diagnostic system (100) is provided. The system (100) comprises at least one vibration generator (104) adapted to be affixed to a pipeline, at least one vibration sensor (107) adapted to be affixed to the pipeline, and a processing device (111) in communication with the at least one vibration generator (104) and the at least one vibration sensor (107). The processing device (111) is configured to vibrate a portion of the pipeline using the at least one vibration generator (104), receive a vibrational response to the vibration from the at least one vibration sensor (107), compare the vibrational response to one or more previous vibrational responses of the pipeline, and indicate a fault condition if the vibrational response differs from the one or more previous vibrational responses by more than a predetermined tolerance.
US08296075B2
The present invention relates to a computer system and methods of computer-facilitated data analysis for providing reliable DNA alignments. More specifically, the invention relates to the automation of alignment and naming of mitochondrial DNA sequences for use in forensic analysis. The methods of the present invention provide consistency of sequence nomenclature by minimizing alignment ambiguities, thus providing a common functional system within and among laboratories.
US08296074B2
A method for clustering melting profiles of a plurality of nucleic acid samples, comprising measuring the fluorescence of each nucleic acid sample as a function of temperature to produce a respective raw melting curve for each respective nucleic acid sample, and clustering genotypes of the plurality of nucleic acid samples to form a plurality of clusters of melting curves. A system for analyzing a plurality of nucleic acid samples comprising an instrument for sequentially heating fluorescently detectable complexes while monitoring their fluorescence, a central processing unit (CPU) for performing computer executable instructions, and a memory storage device for storing computer executable instructions that when executed by the CPU cause the CPU to cluster genotypes of a plurality of nucleic acid samples.
US08296043B2
In a method for monitoring the functional capacity of an engine controller having a plurality of execution units, a comparison operating mode is provided, in which a torque monitoring program is executed on a plurality of execution units of the system, and signals outputted during the execution of the monitoring program by the execution units are compared with one another in order to recognize an error.
US08296038B2
A method and system for controlling an engine function includes a deflection determination module generating a clutch deflection signal. The system further includes an engine function module controlling an engine function in response to the clutch deflection signal. The clutch deflection signal may be generated by sensors associated with the transmission shaft such as within the clutch housing or the friction disk.
US08296026B2
In a control apparatus for a powertrain that includes an automatic transmission, occurrence of slip in a one-way clutch is determined when one gear is formed if a first rotation member and a second rotation member of the one-way clutch rotate relatively. If slip in the one-way clutch is detected, it is determined whether the rotational speed difference between the first rotation member and the second rotation member has increased. If the rotational speed difference between the first rotation member and the second rotation member has increased when slip is detected in the one-way clutch, a control is executed to engage a predetermined frictional engagement element.
US08296023B2
An ECU executes a program including the steps of: learning a differential pressure of a lock-up clutch; determining whether or not learning has been completed when a vehicle is in a coasting state and a brake is applied; lowering the lock-up differential pressure such that the lock-up clutch can be disengaged immediately and prohibiting or suppressing control for increasing transmission gain when learning has been completed; and increasing a lower limit guard value for the lock-up differential pressure and performing control for increasing the transmission gain when learning has not been completed.
US08296020B2
A powertrain includes a plurality of torque generative devices and a transmission having an output shaft, a plurality of planetary gear sets connecting the torque generative devices to the output shaft, and a selectable one-way clutch connected to a first of the planetary gear sets. A method to control the powertrain includes monitoring a desired transmission setting selection comprising one of a low range continuously variable gear mode, a high range continuously variable gear mode, and a fixed gear mode, determining a desired state for the selectable one-way clutch based upon the desired transmission setting selection, and actuating the selectable one-way clutch to effect the desired state for the selectable one-way clutch.
US08296012B2
A vehicle communication system and communication steering wheel is provided. The communication steering wheel includes a display, a wireless transceiver configured to operably connect to a wireless device, a sensor, configured to obtain directional steering information and a controller, configured to receive input from the wireless transceiver and the sensor and output a signal to the display based on the received input.
US08296009B2
A suspension controller for controlling, based on a value detected by at least one sensor which is provided in a vehicle and which is configured to detect a detected portion, a suspension provided for a wheel of the vehicle which is located on a rear side of the detected portion and which is distant from the detected portion by a longitudinal distance in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle, such that the suspension works in accordance with a control command value that is prepared based on the value detected by the at least one sensor. The suspension controller includes a gain determiner configured to determine a gain, for controlling the suspension based on the determined gain. The gain determiner is configured to determine the gain such that the determined gain is smaller when a previewable time is shorter than a threshold length of time, than when the previewable time is not shorter than the threshold length of time.
US08295999B2
A dual-process system for the automatic generation of railway route-solution candidates and their concomitant movement authorities includes a central authority server that accepts dispatcher-provided start and end point data and time information and executes two different independent routing processes to provide two independently determined route-solution candidates. The two solutions are compared for consistency and, when consistent, the route with the minimum authority grants is selected as the solution for use by the locomotive or train.
US08295997B2
The present invention relates to a pilot assistance method for giving assistance in piloting a rotary wing aircraft, the method consisting in using a scale with collective pitch graduations that is movable on a display screen to indicate the position of the collective pitch, in determining the desynchronization pitch, in using a maximum limit value and a minimum limit value for the speed of rotation of the rotor, in transforming the maximum limit value and the minimum limit value in real time and as a function of physical flight parameters respectively into a bottom limit position and a top limit position for the collective pitch, and when a determined difference appears between the real value and the reference value Nr0 for the speed of rotation of the rotor, in displaying at least one item of corrective information about the adjustment of the collective pitch.
US08295996B2
The invention describes a method and device for preventing useless alarms generated by an anticollision system on board an airplane and according to which the duration (dcap) of a phase of capture of a setpoint altitude (Zc) by the airplane is between a predetermined minimum execution deadline (dmin) and a predetermined maximum execution deadline (dmax).
US08295986B2
An electrical power generation unit including a power source, an energy storage system and a net metering control apparatus capable of controlling power delivered to an electrical utility grid so that that a total amount of electrical power from the power source and the energy storage system does not exceed a prescribed power limit. A process of controlling electrical power flow in an electrical power generation unit connected to an electrical utility grid so that that a total amount of electrical power from the power source and the energy storage system does not exceed a prescribed power limit.
US08295985B2
An irrigation device including an actuator configured to control water flow to at least one water delivery device, a first stored energy source configured to power the actuator to effect irrigation via the at least one water delivery device, and a second stored energy source which is separate from the first stored energy source, wherein the second stored energy source is configured to power the actuator to terminate the irrigation via the at least one water delivery device. The irrigation devices further includes a controller configured to cause the first stored energy source to power the actuator to effect the irrigation, responsive to an instruction to provide irrigation, and to cause the second stored energy source to power the actuator to terminate the irrigation responsive to a termination condition.
US08295984B2
A method and a device are provided for detecting the position of a closure element of a movement reversal device in a dishwasher. The device determines the position of a closure element via a comparison of a value corresponding to a predefined reference position of the closure element with a signal value of a circulation pump of the dishwasher.
US08295983B2
Dynamic systems with moving parts, such as printers and image forming apparatuses, for example, can shake as a result of reaction forces related to carriage movement. The characteristics of the shake are related to the particular usage environment and, therefore, can be different for the same dynamic system used in different environments. When the shake of a dynamic system is characterized while the dynamic system is in its particular usage environment, the shake can be reduced, for example, based on a degree of control specified by an operator, for every use in that same environment through adjustments based on the characterization.
US08295981B2
The disclosure provides various systems and methods for conveying information between a communicating first device and a second coupled device of a HVAC network. In various embodiments, a checking of a subnet of the HVAC network for both communicating device and a non-communicating device by the communicating first device occurs. It is determined whether the second coupled device in a non-communicating device. An installer is allowed to set parameters of the non-communicating device through employment of a manifest list of features used by the non-communicating device that is accessible by the communicating device.
US08295978B2
The present invention relates to a system for cooperation of multiple mobile robots and a method thereof that allow the multiple mobile robots to cooperatively execute one complicated task. The system and method can use centralized control architecture, create robot cooperation application codes on the basis of conceptual behavior units without depending on actual physical robots, and dynamically bind behavior units used to create the robot cooperation application at the time of executing the robot cooperation application to actual functions of the robots, thereby actively adjusting to changes in a dynamical environment, such as a change in the types, the number, and the functions of robots for cooperation.
US08295968B2
A setup method of a substrate processing apparatus includes: connecting a test terminal, which includes a pseudo comprehensive control unit and a second operation unit, to a plurality of process chamber control units, with the process chamber control units being separated from the comprehensive control unit and a first operation unit; transmitting a process chamber test operation command from the second operation unit to the plurality of process chamber control units through the pseudo comprehensive control unit; testing operations of a plurality of process chambers in parallel by the plurality of process chamber control units receiving the process chamber test operation command; and transmitting a process chamber test operation report from the plurality of process chamber control units to the second operation unit through the pseudo comprehensive control unit.
US08295966B2
A method for predicting etch rate uniformity for qualifying health status of a processing chamber during substrate processing of substrates is provided. The method includes executing a recipe and receiving processing data from a first set of sensors. The method further includes analyzing the processing data utilizing a subsystem health check predictive model to determine calculated data, which includes at least one of etch rate data and uniformity data. The subsystem health check predictive model is constructed by correlating measurement data from a set of film substrates with processing data collected during analogous processing of a set of non-film substrates. The method yet also includes performing a comparison of the calculated data against a set of control limits as defined by the subsystem health check predictive model. The method yet further includes generating a warning if the calculated data is outside of the set of control limits.
US08295962B2
A method of making an article of footwear is disclosed. The method includes the steps of designing an article of footwear via a website, converting a footwear representation into a set of two-dimensional portions, printing the two dimensional portions onto a sheet material, cutting and assembling the two dimensional portions into a finalized article of footwear. The method further includes a step of shipping the article of footwear to a pre-designated shipping address. Systems for receiving an order for a customized article of footwear are also disclosed.
US08295955B2
The invention is generally related to the estimation of position and orientation of an object with respect to a local or a global coordinate system using reflected light sources. A typical application of the method and apparatus includes estimation and tracking of the position of a mobile autonomous robot. Other applications include estimation and tracking of an object for position-aware, ubiquitous devices. Additional applications include tracking of the positions of people or pets in an indoor environment. The methods and apparatus comprise one or more optical emitters, one or more optical sensors, signal processing circuitry, and signal processing methods to determine the position and orientation of at least one of the optical sensors based at least in part on the detection of the signal of one or more emitted light sources reflected from a surface.
US08295952B2
An apparatus, method, and computer program are provided for automated closed-loop identification of an industrial process in a process control system. Multiple models (such as multiple model structure-model order combinations) can be identified, where the models are associated with a process to be controlled. One or more metrics (such as a prediction metric or rank) can be determined for each of the models. At least one of the models can be selected based on the one or more metrics. A final model for controlling the process can be provided (such as to a controller), where the final model is based on the at least one selected model. A band pass filter could be designed using some of the identified models. The band pass filter could be used to identify at least one other of the models or to determine at least one of the one or more metrics.
US08295951B2
Techniques, systems and methods for designing, implementing, and operating model predictive controllers that can deliver perfect tracking of set points and that can reject the effect of disturbances when steady-state operation is reached are disclosed. High performance is achieved through the incorporation of set-point tracking costs, integral costs, and velocity costs, as well as the adoption of incremental model systems for prediction purposes. Embodiments can deliver offset-free performance for tracking set points with constant final values, set points of a ramp type, and set points of a parabolic form, while rejecting disturbances that have a constant final value. The approach reduces the complexity of model predictive control design, delivers improved performance, and requires modest computational power. An Incremental Model State Estimator (IMES) is disclosed that reduces the computation load required for producing estimated values for the unmeasured star vector of a model under the presence of unmeasured disturbances.
US08295938B2
An apparatus including a processor configured to selectively load a first operating system that controls general purpose computer functionality of the apparatus; and a second operating system different from the first operating system. The second operating system controls medical device programming functionality of the apparatus, enabling the apparatus to program a medical device including at least one implantable component.
US08295929B2
A feedthrough assembly of an implantable medical device includes a glass insulator containing at least approximately 20 mol % of calcium oxide (CaO), preferably of a CABAL-12 type composition. The assembly is either manufactured so that the glass insulator includes a surface layer including calcium phosphate, preferably of relatively low solubility, or is assembled in the implantable device so that the glass insulator is exposed to phosphate-containing body fluid, when the device is implanted, for the formation of a surface layer including calcium phosphate.
US08295925B2
Certain embodiments described herein are directed to methods for treating loss of protective sensation. In certain embodiments, loss of protective sensation may be restored by application of an effective amount of a pulsed current at, for example, an effective pulse frequency. Devices and systems designed to treat loss of protective sensation are also described.
US08295922B2
An iontophoresis device may be capable of preventing or reducing the generation of gas, or the production of undesirable ions, due to an electrode reaction occurring in an electrode assembly; or the alteration of an active agent due to a chemical reaction upon energization. A doping layer made of a substance such as a conductive polymer that effects an electrochemical reaction due to the doping or de-doping of an ion, may be formed in an electrode in an active electrode assembly or counter electrode assembly of an iontophoresis device.
US08295920B2
A sensor device for detecting a change fluid level within body tissue comprising a housing with bridge segments connecting at intersections arranged to circumscribe an opening. Further, antenna elements are partially seated within the housing at intersections of bridge segments, comprise a generally planar antenna mounted to a substrate material at a base of the planar antenna, and an electrical shield surrounding the substrate. Also, an outer surface of the planar antenna faces away from the substrate. The antenna elements comprise at least first and second antenna element pairs having transmitting and receiving antenna elements and a bridging segment. A high sensitivity zone is formed between the transmitting antenna and receiving antenna. The antenna element pairs are spaced to create an area of reduced sensitivity between the high sensitivity zones, and the space is set so that the sensor is insensitive to fluid changes of a predetermined volume.
US08295915B2
A method and a computational unit are disclosed for measuring the flow rate of a contrast agent in a vessel of a patient by way of a computed tomography examination. The patient is scanned by x-rays emitted in a fan-shape from two planes and the absorption from a multiplicity of rotational angles is determined while the contrast agent propagates through the at least one vessel. According to at least one embodiment of the invention, a three-dimensional data record of local absorption data with the vessel which can be filled by a contrast agent is reconstructed; a set of x-rays which pass through this vessel is determined for a multiplicity of temporally subsequent rotational angles of the x-rays. By determining the changing absorption values along this vessel from the temporally subsequent vessel/ray-sets, the propagation velocity of the contrast agent in this vessel can be determined from the spatial and temporal change in the absorption values in this vessel.
US08295914B2
A method of controlling an injector system for delivering a contrast enhancing fluid to a patient. The method includes the step of determining at least one patient transfer function for the patient based upon data specific to the patient, with the at least one patient transfer function providing a time enhancement output for a given input. The data specific to the patent may include at least one of an estimate of physiologic parameters of the patient, an estimate of anatomic parameters of the patient and an enhancement caused by an injection of the contrast enhancing fluid into the patient. Other steps involve: determining a desired time enhancement output; using the at least one patient transfer function to determine an injection procedure input; and controlling the injector system at least in part on the basis of the determined injection procedure input.
US08295913B2
In a method as well as a device for planning and/or monitoring an interventional high-frequency thermoablation, 3D image data of a region (1) of interest of a body are acquired with a tomographical imaging apparatus and are presented on an image display device. In the method, a database is provided in which, for at least one interventional instrument available for high-frequency thermoablation, a volume region for at least one high-frequency power generable with the instrument is established in which a thermoablation is achieved in a tissue with the instrument at this high-frequency power. Upon marking at least one ablation position in the image representations, a 3D object representing the volume region or a volume region derived from this is then mixed in at least semi-transparently at this ablation position. The method and the associated device enable a better planning and monitoring of an interventional high-frequency thermoablation by the user.
US08295912B2
In some embodiments, sympathetic nerves surrounding arteries or leading to organs are targeted with energy sources to correct or modulate physiologic processes. In some embodiments, different types of energy sources are utilized singly or combined with one another. In some embodiments, bioactive agents or devices activated by the energy sources are delivered to the region of interest and the energy is enhanced by such agents.
US08295909B2
A medical tracking and appliance control system includes a medical tracking system having a camera array and an infrared light source, and at least one medical appliance controllable via infrared signals or operative to exchange data via infrared signals. The infrared light source of the medical tracking system is operable to provide wireless control and/or data exchange with the medical appliance.
US08295902B2
A tissue electrode assembly includes a membrane configured to form an expandable, conformable body that is deployable in a patient. The assembly further includes a flexible circuit positioned on a surface of the membrane and comprising at least one base substrate layer, at least one insulating layer and at least one planar conducting layer. An electrically-conductive electrode covers at least a portion of the flexible circuit and a portion of the surface of the membrane not covered by the flexible circuit, wherein the electrically-conductive electrode is foldable upon itself with the membrane to a delivery conformation having a diameter suitable for minimally-invasive delivery of the assembly to the patient.
US08295900B2
A terminal apparatus for a superconducting cable system connects an overhead transmission cable or power appliance such as a breaker in an ambient temperature state to a superconducting cable through which power is transmitted at a cryogenic temperature. The terminal apparatus has: a refrigerant tub which is connected to the end of a superconducting cable and is filled with a refrigerant; a vacuum heat insulating container that surrounds the exterior of the refrigerant tub; a current lead having one end connected to the end portion of the superconducting cable and the other end connected to the overhead transmission cable or power appliance through the refrigerant tub and the vacuum heat insulating container; and a superconducting fault current limiter installed at a center portion of the current lead in the interior of the refrigerant tub to limit fault current. As the superconducting fault current limiter is built in the terminal apparatus, the terminal apparatus itself can play the role of a fault current limiter too. Hence, the terminal apparatus can protect a superconducting cable from a fault current directly by limiting the fault current flowed into the superconducting cable when a power transmission fault occurs.
US08295898B2
Systems, methods, and software for implementing location-based authentication of both online and mobile web-based transactions. This implementation may involve verifying whether a mobile device (such as a cellular telephone) is proximate to a computer from which the transaction is being performed. Depending upon the location of the mobile device, further transactions may be approved or rejected. In further implementations, the transactions may be made from the mobile device itself. In this case, the location of the mobile device compared with one or more pre-stored locations may affect whether further transactions from the mobile device are approved or rejected.
US08295896B2
A waterproof cover for a mobile phone including: a cover body having the same outward appearance as a mobile phone to accommodate the mobile phone therein, the cover body being made of polyurethane in such a way that the cover body is in a close contact with the mobile phone to be accommodated therein, the cover body having a receiving hole formed on a front face of the cover body for allowing the mobile phone to be inserted into and removed from the cover body; and an adhesive member being continuously releasably-adhered on the front face of the cover body to seal and open the receiving hole.
US08295889B2
There is provided an assembly for a sound reproduction apparatus included with a communications apparatus. The assembly includes an ear bud earphone that anchors to an ear of a user; a cable of the ear bud earphone, a portion of the cable being attached to a reel axle onto which the cable is windable, the reel axle being connected to a revolution counter which tracks a number of revolutions of the reel axle in a first direction, the revolution counter being reset to zero when the cable is fully wound onto the reel axle; with a first end of the cable being functionally connected to the communications apparatus to enable sound signals to be reproduced in the ear bud earphone. The functional connection to the communications apparatus may be either via a solder joint or a detachable connector.
US08295880B1
The communication device comprising a voice communication implementer, an auto time adjusting implementer, a calculation implementer, a word processing implementer, a stereo audio data output implementer, a digital camera implementer, a multiple language implementer, a caller's information displaying implementer, an icon software implementer, and a simultaneous implementer.
US08295874B2
Disclosed is a method for providing power control using idle-mode user equipment attached to a cell in a wireless communication system. First and second higher power level thresholds for signal transmissions of a cell are defined, wherein the first power level has a defined offset higher than a minimum required power level, and wherein the first and second power level thresholds define an operating power band therebetween. The user equipment measures a signal transmission power level. If the idle-mode user equipment determines that the signal transmission power level falls outside of the operating power band, then a message is sent to affect a change in signal transmission power level.
US08295863B1
Techniques for providing information to users implemented through personal mobile devices such as cell phones, PDAs, electronic book readers, and other such devices are described herein. The described techniques and systems allow users to request searches, perform information seeking, purchasing, or other types of transactions with a provider via a mobile or wireless network using the messaging service capabilities of the users' mobile devices. Messages may be compiled in a manner customized to a user request and may be provided without the user authenticating to the provider in some instances.
US08295861B2
An apparatus, and an associated methodology, for facilitating paging of a mobile station pursuant to a two-step paging procedure. A unique identifier of the mobile station that is to be paged is hashed into a first group of hashed values and at least a second group of hashed values. The first group of hashed values are used by page message generator to generate a page on a first paging channel. And, the second group of values are used by a page message generator to generate a page on a second paging channel. All of the bits of the unique identifier are sent to page the mobile station. The mobile station determines therefrom whether the mobile station has been paged.
US08295860B2
An access gateway comprises a processor. The processor is operable to determine a message type of a received packet. The processor is further operable to apply a paging rule. The paging rule is related at least in part to the message type of the received packet. The processor is further operable to determine whether to send a request to transition the mobile device to an active state based on the paging rule. The processor is further operable to send a request, when appropriate, to transition the mobile device to an active state.
US08295847B2
The present invention relates to a stationary user detecting system and method and a call admission control method using the same in a wireless communication system. A plurality of base stations located in the wireless Internet system detect a stationary user at regular time intervals and maintain it by a predetermined number of cases for each terminal. Information on the maintained stationary user is recalculated with a stationary probability for each base station so as to be used for call admission control. Therefore, the terminal of the stationary user detected in the wireless Internet system is calculated with the stationary probability value, which is applied to the call admission control, thereby minimizing reservation of undesired resources.
US08295829B2
A Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) is operated in conjunction with a wired Local Area Network (wired LAN) to service a premises, e.g., a campus setting. The wired LAN services the wired communication needs of the premises and serves as the wired backbone of the WLAN. A plurality of Wireless Access Points (WAPs) of the WLAN couple to the wired backbone and are serviced by the LAN. With this shared structure, wired network components, e.g., multi-layer switches, manage the operation of WLAN components, i.e., WAPs. Such management includes ensuring that the WAPs provide sufficient bandwidth to support wireless packetized voice communications. Additional management operations include WAP access, wireless terminal registration, and channel resource allocation, among others.
US08295827B2
A system and method for establishing a signal parameter threshold for switching between communications protocols by a multimode handset may include providing cordless telephones of different models. A dropout point at which a communications signal of each of the cordless telephones deteriorates below a predetermined level may be determined. At least one signal parameter of the communications signal at the determined dropout point of each of the cordless telephones may be measured and collected. The signal parameter(s) associated with the cordless telephone having the shortest range at which the associated dropout point may be determined so that a multimode handset may be established with the signal parameter(s) to cause the multimode handset to switch communications protocols in response to the multimode handset crossing a signal parameter threshold level defined by the predetermined signal parameter(s) when communicating with a base unit of a cordless telephone.
US08295821B2
A system and method for switching a voice call from an Instant Messaging (IM) based voice network to a cellular voice network. A telephone adapted to switch a voice call from an Instant Messaging (IM) based voice network to a cellular voice network.
US08295819B1
A communication system is provided that enables automated retrieval of caller ID picture information and association with contact information, while still allowing security control over information or images that are sent to the requesting device. The communication system has a wireless device communicating with a picture server. The wireless device receives an incoming call with caller ID information, and determines if a picture is locally stored for the caller. If no picture is locally stored for the caller, then a request is made to retrieve a picture from the picture server. If the picture server has the requested picture, and the wireless device is authorized to receive the picture, then the picture is downloaded to the wireless device, where the picture is associated with contact information for the caller. The picture of the caller will then be automatically displayed when the caller places future calls.
US08295810B2
A network element (130, 330), for providing access control to a core network (120) of a cellular communication network (100) for a wireless communication unit (150) operating within a communication cell supported by the network element (130, 330), comprises a receiver for receiving a message (425) from the wireless communication unit (150) comprising identity information. The network element further comprises logic (160), operably coupled to the receiver, for determining whether to permit the mobile communication unit (150) access to the core network (120), based at least in part on the received identity information.
US08295804B2
A computer implemented method for monitoring message usage on a communication device. An audible message may be outputted on the communication device in replacement of a pre-determined telephone tone. A duration parameter of outputting the audible message in replacement of the pre-determined telephone tone may be determined, and provided to a billing system for determining a compensation parameter.
US08295801B2
A system and method for capturing emergency data messages in a network environment includes receiving, at a first network node, an emergency data message communicated from a wireless communications device. The emergency data message may be accompanied by an origination address and destination address indicative of an emergency network address. A determination may be made at the first network node to determine whether the origination address matches a monitored address established by a law enforcement agency to capture data messages to or from the origination address. If it is determined that the origination address matches the monitored address, then a copy of the emergency data message may be routed to a second network node for collection of the emergency data message and the emergency data message may be routed to the destination address. Otherwise, the emergency data message may be routed to the destination address.
US08295799B2
Aspects of a method and system for identifying a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag location using a switchable coil are presented. Aspects of the systems may include one or more processors that enable selection of an inductor coil from a plurality of inductor coils. The selection of the inductor coil may be based on a change in an electromagnetic field, with respect to an initial electromagnetic field, as detected by the selected inductor coil. The processors may enable transmission of a signal, having a transmitter frequency in the UHF frequency band, via the selected inductor coil.
US08295796B2
A high frequency circuit includes an amplifier part that includes a plurality of amplifier circuits amplifying a high frequency signal and connected in parallel, that synthesizes outputs of the amplifier circuit and that supplies the outputs to an antenna; a controller that outputs a low power signal during a low power mode in which the amplifier part operates at low power; and an operation suppressing circuit that disables one of the plurality of amplifier circuits based on the low power signal.
US08295792B2
Various embodiments described herein relate to a power management block and an amplification block used in the transmitter of a communication subsystem. The power management block provides improved control for the gain control signal provided to a pre-amplifier and the supply voltage provided to a power amplifier which are both in the amplification block. The power expended by the power amplifier is optimized by employing a continuous control method in which one or more feedback loops are employed to take into account various characteristics of the transmitter components and control values.
US08295787B2
A method for transmitting/receiving an additional control signal without any loss of bandwidth and power in an original Tx signal is disclosed. If the additional control signal is transmitted via the Tx signal composed of at least one of data and control signals, at least one of the amplitude and phase of the Tx signal of the time- and frequency-resource domain is modulated according to the additional control signal to be transmitted. The modulated Tx signal is transmitted to the receiver, so that the additional control signal can be transmitted irrespective of the original Tx signal. According to a modulation status of at least one of an amplitude and a phase of the Rx signal contained in the time- and frequency-resource domain, the additional control signal can be acquired.
US08295786B2
The present invention provides a magnetic sheet with improved resistance to folding while maintaining good magnetic characteristics and reliability; a method for producing the magnetic sheet; an antenna; and a portable communication device.A magnetic sheet of the present invention includes a flat magnetic powder, and a resin binder capable of dissolving in a solvent, wherein the magnetic sheet has a gradient of the content ratio of the magnetic powder to the resin binder in a thickness direction thereof, wherein, in use, the magnetic sheet is folded so that, of the front and back surfaces thereof, one surface whose magnetic powder content is lower than that of the other is folded inward, and wherein the difference in glossiness measured at a light-incident angle of 60° between the front and back surfaces is 9.4 or more.
US08295785B2
A transmission and/or reception process with high channel capacity uses a multiple transmitter and/or receiver system, and signal processing undergoes phases of temporary switching-off. Also disclosed arm corresponding transmitters and/or receivers, as well as a mobile terminal. In order to provide a process, a device and a mobile terminal of the above-mentioned type which improve communication reliability with high spectral efficiency using multipath propagation, it is proposed that the mixer units (5) be initialized when signal processing is turned on.
US08295783B2
A wireless device comprising a plurality of chips may be operable to dynamically configure wireless communication between the plurality of chips. Each of the chips may include one or more transceivers and one or more integrated directional antennas communicatively coupled to the one or more transceivers. The communications link between chips in the wireless device may be dynamically configured via control of the transceivers and/or the integrated directional antennas. The antennas may include patch antennas and/or dipole antennas. The transceivers may be configured by controlling output power of power amplifiers or by controlling gain of low noise amplifiers. The communications link may be dynamically configured by controlling a characteristic impedance of the antennas for impedance matching to transceivers. A frequency of the communication link may be controlled by configuring the antennas. A bandwidth of the communications link may be configured based on activity of processors in the wireless device.
US08295781B2
A transceiver having a multistage channel filter for a wireless communication system is disclosed. The transceiver is composed of a transmitter unit including a multistage channel filter module to perform channel filtering on an input signal having a sampling rate corresponding to a channel bandwidth of the wireless communication system by means of sampling-rate conversion through multiple stages, and a receiver unit corresponding to the transmitter unit.
US08295778B2
Embodiments of a system and methodology are disclosed for aperiodic (i.e., non-periodic) feedback of channel-side information, such as channel rank information, to a base station by having the receiver/UE initiate the feedback instead of using a scheduled feedback approach. The autonomous feedback of channel-side information may use one of several different types of physical channel structures for uplink scheduling requests, such as those being discussed for inclusion in the emerging LTE platform standard.
US08295764B2
A bi-directional asymmetric system is provided with a first node and a second node. The first node has a first transmitter that produces a modulated magnetic flux and a first exciter receiver that acts to receive data at the first node. The second node is coupled to the first node with a direct inductive communications downlink and a mutually inductive uplink. The second node includes a receiver that produces a signal induced by the first transmitter at the first node. The second node has a mutually inductive data transmitter that modules an exciter signal produced at the first node by the exciter receiver.
US08295763B2
A system and method of applying a known modification to a signal to enable a determination of a signal received by a first node is received directly from a second node or indirectly through a repeater. The repeater receives a primary signal and creates a secondary signal as a function of the primary signal and a known modification, wherein the known modification identifies the repeater. The primary signal is transmitted and injected with the secondary signal as the first signal to the primary receiver.
US08295759B2
An image forming system comprises a selection unit for selecting a post-processing apparatus that executes post-processing to a recording medium on which an image is formed from among a plurality of post-processing apparatuses, and a selection limitation unit for determining an insertion apparatus whose supply of the insertion medium to be limited for a selected post-processing apparatus and limiting selection of the insertion apparatus.
US08295751B2
There is provided a thermal fixing unit that fixes a toner image on a printing medium, the fixing unit including a heat member, a pressure pad, a movable supporting assembly, and an urging member. The heat member is in contact with the printing medium, being positionally fixed and defining an axis. The pressure pad is disposed in opposition to the heat member for nipping the printing medium in cooperation with the heat member. The supporting assembly pivotably movably supports the pressure pad. The urging member biases the supporting assembly to urge the pressure pad toward the heat member for providing pressure contact between the heat member and the pressure pad.
US08295743B2
An image forming apparatus is described. The image forming apparatus may include an image carrier on which an electrostatic latent image is formed; a developing agent carrier that transforms the electrostatic latent image into a visible image by supplying a developing agent to the image carrier; and a developing agent cartridge that accommodates a developing agent to be supplied to the developing agent carrier, arranged so as to be opposed to the developing agent carrier in a longitudinal direction of the developing agent carrier, and formed with an opening for horizontally passing the developing agent in a position horizontally opposed to the developing agent carrier.
US08295742B2
A powder container that has a hollow interior for containing powder includes a tubular member that is equipped with an information storage unit that stores therein at least information related to a container body, and attached to the container body such that the container body is located within an inner hole of the tubular member. The powder container also includes a movement restricting unit that restricts movement of the tubular member in an axial direction of the tubular member.
US08295740B2
A developing device includes a developer tank for housing a two-component developer containing toner and magnetic carrier; a first conveying portion having a first rotary shaft rotatable about its axis and a first screw blade which surrounds the first rotary shaft and rotates together with the first rotary shaft and contains a ferromagnetic substance; a second conveying portion having a second rotary shaft rotatable about its axis and a second screw blade which surrounds the second rotary shaft and rotates together with the second rotary shaft and contains a ferromagnetic substance; a first electromagnet for magnetizing the first screw blade; and a second electromagnet for magnetizing the second screw blade.
US08295737B2
A developing device capable of preventing scattered developer from being discharged and of stably supplying a developer to a latent image carrier by preventing the developer from being discharged despite that the amount of developer within the developing device is not increased, and an image forming apparatus including the developing device. When the bulk of the developer existing in the vicinity of the downstream end in the conveyance direction of the supply conveyance path exceeds the height level of the developer discharge port, the developer that has reached the height level of the developer discharge port is discharged to the outside of the developing device by the developer discharge port and developer conveyance path serving as the developer discharge device.
US08295732B2
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic photosensitive member including a photosensitive layer formed on an outer circumferential surface of a cylindrical body. The cylindrical body includes a plurality of chamfers formed between an end surface and the outer circumferential surface. A chamfer arranged nearest an inner circumferential surface of the cylindrical body has a crossing angle of not less than 3° and not more than 25° relative to the end surface. The cylindrical body may include a recess formed between the end surface and the outer surface. The end surface may be formed to have pearskin. The present invention also relates to a method of manufacturing the electrophotographic photosensitive member. In the manufacturing method, a plurality of cylindrical bodies is supported by a supporting body in a manner that the end surfaces are positioned at contacting portions of adjacent cylindrical bodies.
US08295728B2
An image forming apparatus includes a fuser that fuses a paper medium and a fuser control device that controls an AC power supplied to the fuser. The fuser control device includes a phase detecting device that receives an AC voltage, detects zero-crossing points of the AC voltage, outputs a phase detecting signal when the zero-crossing points are detected, and selectively cuts off a flow of AC power into the phase detecting device in response to a mode control signal, a signal generator that generates a phase control signal to control a phase of the AC power supplied to the fuser based on the phase detecting signal, and a temperature controller that controls a temperature of the fuser by controlling the phase of the AC power supplied to the fuser according to the phase control signal.
US08295723B2
An image forming method and apparatus in which a protective agent is supplied to an image carrier, and the image carrier is charged by a plurality of charging units. Degrees of discharge deterioration of the surface of the image carrier in the plurality of charging units are different, and the amount of protective agent supplied to a charging portion of a charging unit, in which a degree of discharge deterioration of the surface of the image carrier is high, is large.
US08295708B2
An underwater data transmission system including arrays of nano-meter scaled photon emitters and sensors on an outer surface of an underwater platform. For the emitters, a laser is pulsed to correlate with data packets, providing a beam of photons at a prescribed frequency. Nano-scaled collecting lenses channel the incoming photons to photo-receptors located at a focal plane for the frequency at the base of each lens. A coating on the lenses absorbs photons at the frequency that are not aligned with the longitudinal axes of the lenses or tubes. Nano-wires connect the photo-receptors to a light intensity integrator. The integrator integrates the intensity over a surface area. The output of the integrator is fed to a signal processor to track and process the arriving digital packets.
US08295702B2
An optical media converter system is divided into an outdoor installed optical media converter and an indoor installed unit, which are connected to each other through an electrical Ethernet cable. The indoor installed unit includes two electrical Ethernet terminations and a power source section for supplying an electrical power from indoor to outdoor. The outdoor installed optical media converter includes an optical-electric converter, optical Ethernet termination, electrical Ethernet termination, and a power source section for generating a power source by an electrical power supplied from the indoor. With the above configuration, there can be provided an optical media converter system in which the need to draw the fiber-optic cable into a home can be eliminated, cost involved in a wiring work can be reduced, and a circuit design thereof is advantageous in cost reduction.
US08295701B2
Techniques and a control architecture (apparatus and logic) are provided for an adaptive hybrid DWDM-aware computation scheme. The architecture is one that is a hybrid of a centralized control scheme and a distributed control scheme that performs adaptive physical impairment computations for an optical network. A central control server is connected to multiple client control devices each of which resides in a node in a dense wavelength division multiplexed (DWDM) optical network, wherein each client control device is part of an optical control plane associated with the optical network. The control server obtains data for path route analysis from the client control devices. The control server then determines optical feasibility of at least one path route from a source node to a destination node from optical parametric information based on the data obtained from multiple client control devices and without real-time communication between the central control server and the multiple client control devices while performing the optical feasibility computations.
US08295700B2
A distributed packet switch to control data packet flows in a network is described. The distributed packet switch includes a means for operating over an asynchronous burst optical closed fiber medium. The distributed packet switch also includes at least one control system provided at a node to control data packet flow characteristics, such that the switch is configured to operate dependent on at least one efficiency parameter.
US08295698B2
A network of global coverage, scalable to hundreds of petabits per second, comprises bufferless switch units each of dimension n×n, n>1, arranged in a matrix of ν columns and ν rows, ν>1, interconnecting a maximum of ν×n edge nodes. Each edge node has ν upstream channels to ν switch units in ν different columns and ν downstream channels from ν switch units in ν different rows. All upstream channels to a switch unit are time-locked to the switch unit, thus enabling coherent switching at the switch unit.The switch units are preferably fast-switching optical nodes. Alternatively, the switch units may comprise fast-switching optical nodes each of dimension m×m, arranged in a first μ×μ matrix, and latent space switches each of dimension n×n, n>1, arranged in a second ν×ν matrix, ν>1, where μ×m=ν×n. An edge node time locks to each optical node and each latent space switch to which it connects.
US08295692B2
A feed gas conditioner includes a passageway with a plurality of heating elements positioned within the passageway. A plurality of baffle assemblies can cause a fluid flowing through the feed gas conditioner to flow in a serpentine flow pattern so that the fluid flows transverse to at least a portion of the heating elements. The baffle assemblies can each include two or more baffle elements, the baffle elements being positioned at an angle relative to each other. The heating elements can pass through passages within one or more of the baffle elements.
US08295685B2
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for content reproduction, a recording medium, and a program that make it possible to edit taken images easily and automatically in accordance with an intention of an editor. Each time a reproduction is performed, a reproduction start point and a reproduction end point of VOBU units of images reproduced by a disk camcorder are recorded in Play Data 81. The recorded reproduction start point and reproduction end point are read, and edit points representing a reproduced section of a longest, a shortest, or an average length are obtained. The obtained edit points are registered in a UD_PGCIT 94. Scenes are reproduced in order on the basis of the edit point data in the UD_PGCIT 94, and thus automatic edit reproduction is performed. The present invention is applicable to disk camcorders.
US08295684B2
Adjusting the duration of first content having a plurality of segments including: identifying at least one segment of the first content; deleting the at least one identified segment from the first content to form modified content; and inserting transition periods between segments remaining in the modified content, wherein the transition periods are inserted to adjust the duration of the modified content to a desired duration.
US08295681B2
A method and system for manipulation of audio or video signals.
US08295679B2
A method of presenting auxiliary data for an interactive recording medium is disclosed. In an interactive recording medium reproducing apparatus that reproduces A/V data and contents data recorded on an interactive recording medium and contents data provided by a contents providing server, the contents data provided by the contents providing server is presented appropriately according to the attributes of the contents data by using attribute information for the contents data.
US08295676B2
A video reproducing apparatus performs continued reproduction of a video title in association with continued reproduction of applications. When a Power-OFF or Reproduction-Stop of the video reproducing apparatus event occurs at a time point when the video title is reproduced to a midpoint of a chapter, continued reproduction information of an HD DVD disk is identified, such as a title and a chapter being reproduced, and is stored in a memory at that point in time. When the power is turned ON without replacing the HD DVD disk, the application displays a chapter menu of the title, and a script including a command for starting reproduction of the chapter is activated by the application according to an operation of a button of the chapter menu.
US08295671B2
Coated optical fibers and related apparatuses, links, and methods for optically attenuating light directed to or from optical fibers are disclosed. In one embodiment, an optical fiber includes an optical fiber end. The optical fiber end may be a source end and/or a detector end, and may be angle-cleaved. A coating material is disposed on at least a portion of the optical fiber end and configured to optically attenuate a portion of light directed to the optical fiber end. The material type of the coating material and/or the thickness of the coating material may be selectively controlled to control the amount of optical attenuation. The thickness of the coating material may also be controlled to provide the desired thickness of coating material onto at least a portion of the optical fiber end. The coating material may also be selectively patterned to improve the bandwidth of a multi-mode optical link.
US08295669B2
An optical fiber splice holder device for connecting jacketed optical fiber cables includes a cover and a main body that houses a splice device therein. The splice device is configured to splice a first fiber end to a second fiber end. The main body also includes first and second fiber jacket clamping portions disposed at first and second ends of the main body to clamp a respective fiber's jacket portion that surrounds a portion of the respective fiber upon actuation. The optical fiber splice device also includes first and second fiber jacket boots that are attachable to the main body at the first and second ends of the main body. The boots each actuate the respective fiber jacket clamping regions of the optical fiber cables upon attachment to the main body.
US08295668B2
The specification describes an improved optical fiber produced by a hybrid VAD/MCVD process. The core of the fiber is produced using VAD and the inner cladding layer has a depressed index and is produced using MCVD. In preferred embodiments, the optical power envelope is essentially entirely contained in VAD produced core material and the MCVD produced depressed index cladding material. Optical loss is minimized by confining most of the optical power to the VAD core where OH presence is low, as well as by maximizing the optical power in the un-doped silica region. The MCVD substrate tube material is essentially devoid of optical power.
US08295658B2
An exemplary optical fiber connector includes a housing, and two lenses. The housing defines two first blind holes each configured for receiving an optical fiber. The two lenses are formed on the housing and each of the lenses is aligned with a corresponding first blind hole. The two second blind holes are defined on the housing and each of the second blind hole run through the housing to the bottom of a corresponding first blind hole allowing glue to accumulate on the bottom of the first blind hole.
US08295648B2
A computer of an information processing apparatus sets an α value of each pixel in accordance with a depth value (Z value) of the pixel of a reference image. The α value is set such that a synthesizing ratio of the reference image is higher for a pixel having a depth value closer to a predetermined reference value. Next, the computer increases the α value which is set for a pixel having a smaller α value among two adjacent pixels which have an α value difference of a predetermined value or greater. Then, the computer synthesizes the reference image and a blurred image corresponding to the reference image based on the α value which is set for each pixel after being processed by the increasing processing.
US08295647B2
The present invention provides a method for retargeting an image, comprising determining a total block structure energy of an input image content. A compressibility rate of the input image content is determined based on the total block structure energy. An optimal scaling factor of the input image content is obtained. The input image content is warped by using a new coordinate matrices and uniformly scaling the input image content to a target image resolution.
US08295637B2
Disclosed are methods, devices, and computer program products for red-eye detection in an image. In one example embodiment, a method for detecting red-eye objects in an image includes several acts. First, a set of candidate red-eye objects identified in the image is received. Then, features are extracted from the candidate red-eye objects and, with a plurality of classifiers, a false red-eye object is eliminated from the set of candidate red-eye objects based on the extracted features. First and second ones of the plurality of classifiers are optimized for classifying objects in a first range of sizes using first and second ones of the extracted features, respectively. Furthermore, third and fourth ones of the plurality of classifiers are also optimized for classifying objects using the first and second ones of the extracted features, respectively, but for objects in a second range of sizes.
US08295622B2
Methods and systems for spatial data encoding and decoding are described. A tile may be designated within a source frame. The tile may be divided into at least one bit area. A particular message bit value of a message may be accessed. A statistical property calculation may be performed on a pixel variable value of available pixels within the tile. A pixel variable value of pixels in the particular bit area of a target frame may be shifted to encode a particular message bit. A particular pixel variable value of a particular pixel of the plurality of pixels may be shifted by a shift value. The shift value may be in accordance with the statistical property calculation, the particular message bit value, and a particular modulation pattern value of the plurality of modulation pattern values for the particular pixel within the particular bit area.
US08295621B1
A system and method uses the capabilities of a geometry shader unit within the multi-threaded graphics processor to offload data compression computations from a central processing unit (CPU), reduce the memory needed to store image data, and reduce the bandwidth needed to transfer image data between graphics processors and between a graphics processor and a system memory. The multi-threaded graphics processor is also configured to perform decompression of the variable length compressed data using the geometry shader unit.
US08295619B2
An image processing apparatus includes a storage device, an image detection circuit, a compression circuit, a decompression circuit, and an overdrive processing circuit. The image detection circuit generates a compression mode control signal according to a first frame. The compression circuit compresses an image data of a second frame according to the compression mode control signal, thereby generating a compressed image data of the second frame to the storage device. The first frame precedes the second frame. The decompression circuit decompresses the compressed image data of the second frame read from the storage device according to the compression mode control signal, thereby generating a recovered image data of the second frame. The overdrive processing circuit determines overdrive voltages of a third frame according to an image data of the third frame and the recovered image data of the second frame, where the second frame precedes the third frame.
US08295612B2
Change image detecting devices and methods are disclosed. In one example, a determination unit partially compares a first image and a reference image and determines whether there is a change therebetween. If the determination unit determines no change between the first image and the reference image, the change image detecting unit selects a second image, which is temporally later than the first image and stored in a first storing unit, as a new image to be processed and the determination unit partially compares the second image and the reference image at a different position than previously compared and determines whether there is a change between the second image and the reference image. If the determination unit determines change between the first image and the reference image, a change image detecting unit detects the first image stored in the first storing unit as the change image, and stores the first image in the second storing unit.
US08295610B1
A feature used in face detection can be applied to an image portion and can be scaled to fit differently sized image areas. If a feature is positioned with respect to an image area such that a vertex of the feature is aligned with a non-integer pixel location, at least one dimension of the filter can be rounded. A dimension to be rounded further can correspond to a directional component of the feature. For instance, contrast regions within the feature can be arranged horizontally, such that the vertical dimension represents a directional component. A rounding rule associated with the feature can be used in rounding a dimension corresponding to a directional component, such that a size ratio between the contrast regions is maintained. In some instances, the rounding rule can specify a factor that is a positive integer determined based on the number of contrast regions in the feature.
US08295609B2
There is provided an image processing apparatus. The image processing apparatus includes: an obtaining unit configured to capture an image; a specifying unit configured to specify at least one pixel on an edge of the image; a tracking unit configured to track pixels that are similar to the at least one pixel, among peripheral pixels around the at least one pixel; and an estimating unit configured to estimate, as a region of interest, a region other than a region consisting of the pixels tracked by the tracking unit.
US08295605B2
The present invention relates to a method for identifying dimensions of shot subject, implemented on an identification system including a photo shooting unit capable of adjusting focal lengths. The method includes steps of using the photo shooting unit to focus on plural positions respectively having different field depths on a shot subject and respectively capture a image thereof, determining whether resolutions of the captured images are same, and if so, the shot subject is a two dimensional object, otherwise, the shot subject is a three dimensional object.
US08295602B2
An image processing apparatus performs character recognition processing on a character image in a character area to obtain character code data, and performs vectorization processing on the character image in the character area to obtain vector data. Based on the rule set for each of a plurality of color information definitions and the character color of the character image, the image processing apparatus generates a plurality of color information definitions that define colors to be used in rendering the character code data and the vector data, so that an electronic document is generated that contains the character code data, the vector data, and the plurality of color information definitions.
US08295599B2
An object extraction section of an image output apparatus determines as an extraction region either (a) a quadrangular region enclosed by a quadrangle in which all internal angles are less than 180° and sides are constituted by 4 edge pixel groups each in the form of a line segment, the 4 edge pixel groups being indicated by edge information, or (b) a polygonal region enclosed by a polygon in which all internal angles are less than 180° and sides are constituted by at least one edge pixel group in the form of a line segment, which edge pixel group is indicated by the edge information, and at least one line segment located on an end portion of the captured image, and then (ii) cuts out, as output target image data, image data of the extraction region from the captured image data. This makes it possible to accurately and easily extract, from a captured image, a region including a rectangular image capture object that a user desires.
US08295592B2
An apparatus and method provide logic for processing images. In one implementation, an image processing apparatus includes an edge extraction section, a judgment section, and an edge processing section. The edge extraction section extracts an edge of an object of a character or a line drawing included in an image. The judgment section judges a possibility that the object is an image including a plurality of colors, or that the object is a black object having a pixel value of an image of each color being not less than a certain value. The edge processing section adjusts the pixel value of the extracted edge of the object according to a result obtained by the judgment section.
US08295591B2
A sequence layer in a machine-learning engine configured to learn from the observations of a computer vision engine. In one embodiment, the machine-learning engine uses the voting experts to segment adaptive resonance theory (ART) network label sequences for different objects observed in a scene. The sequence layer may be configured to observe the ART label sequences and incrementally build, update, and trim, and reorganize an ngram trie for those label sequences. The sequence layer computes the entropies for the nodes in the ngram trie and determines a sliding window length and vote count parameters. Once determined, the sequence layer may segment newly observed sequences to estimate the primitive events observed in the scene as well as issue alerts for inter-sequence and intra-sequence anomalies.
US08295586B2
A position detection method and a position detection device for detecting with sufficient accuracy the position or the attitude of an object by using an image of the object captured by a single camera. The position detection method detects the position or the attitude of the object by using a measurement pixel position in images of multiple points on the object, which images are captured by the single camera and have a known positional relationship. The method has a step of acquiring, without consideration of non-pinhole camera properties of the camera and based on the positional relationship between the multiple points and on the measurement pixel position, a position matrix representing rotation and translation of the object, a step of obtaining, with consideration of the non-pinhole camera properties of the camera, a correction pixel position corresponding to the measurement pixel position, a step of adjusting the position matrix so that a difference between the correction pixel position and the measurement pixel position is within a permissible range, and a step of defining, as the estimated position of the object, the position corresponding to the adjusted position matrix.
US08295562B2
A system of compensating a medical image to make it look like it came from either a different camera or from using a different dye or stain. The medical image is obtained and then processed using characteristics of the non-image related parts of the image. These non-image related parts can include the dye that was used to dye the image or the camera that was used to obtain the image. Then, the raw or partially raw image can be reprocessed using characteristics of the different non-image related part. For example, in one embodiment, the image is deconvolved to remove the influence of the camera that actually obtained the image, then reconvolved with information indicative of a different camera. In this way, the image is processed to make it look like it came from a different camera than the one that actually did in fact form it.
US08295561B2
This invention relates to a novel technology of fingerprint verifications and identifications based on the accumulated knowledge base.
