US08438660B2
The stress due to contact between a probe and a measurement sample is improved when using a microcontact prober having a conductive nanotube, nanowire, or nanopillar probe, the insulating layer at the contact interface is removed, thereby the contact resistance is reduced, and the performance of semiconductor device examination is improved. The microcontact prober comprises a cantilever probe in which each cantilever is provided with a nanowire, nanopillar, or a metal-coated carbon nanotube probe projecting by 50 to 100 nm from a holder provided at the fore end and a vibrating mechanism for vibrating the cantilever horizontally with respect to the subject. The fore end of the holder may project from the free end of the cantilever, and the fore end of the holder can be checked from above the cantilever.
US08438658B2
Mechanisms that provide a sealed storage in a data processing device are provided. Processors of the data processing device may operate in a hardware isolation mode which allows a process to execute in an isolated environment on a processor and associated memory thereby being protected from access by other elements of the data processing device. In addition, a hardware controlled authentication and decryption mechanism is provided that is based on a hardware core key. These two features are tied together such that authentication occurs every time the isolation mode is entered. Based on the core key, which is only accessible from the hardware when in isolation mode, a chain of trust is generated by providing authentication keys for authenticating a next piece of software in the chain, in each piece of software that must be loaded, starting with the core key.
US08438654B1
The present invention is related to associating a machine or virtual machine instance with an access control right in a cloud-based computing environment. In one aspect, the present invention relates to an apparatus for or a method of associating a machine or virtual machine instance with an access control right in a cloud-based computing environment. In various embodiments, the apparatus is capable of, and the method includes, the following: receiving, in a cloud-based computing environment, a request to perform an action; using an identifier for the machine or virtual machine instance to determine that the received request was sent by, or on behalf of, the machine or virtual machine instance; and identifying an access control right associated with the machine or virtual machine instance making the request, to determine whether to perform the action on behalf of, or grant access by, the machine or virtual machine instance.
US08438652B2
A data storage device in which access to user data is restricted. The data storage device includes a data memory having memory locations that store user data. The device also has a program memory. The program memory includes first program code that enables a user to create a first device security ID and thereby restrict access to the stored data. Second program code, also included in the program memory, is capable of receiving a security command and comparing a second device security ID associated with the received security command to a stored security key. If the second device security ID and the stored security key correspond, then authentication with the first device security ID is bypassed and access is provided to the stored data.
US08438645B2
A system of controlling playback of digital media. A system of controlling playback of digital media comprising a CE device having a secure clock and a license having a specified grace period disposed upon the CE device in which a digital media file governed by the license may be played for the grace period upon failure of the secure clock.
US08438643B2
Information system service-level security risk analysis systems, methods, and Graphical User Interfaces are disclosed. Assets of an information system that have relationships with a service provided by the information system are identified, and at least one security risk to the service is determined by analyzing security vulnerabilities associated with the identified assets. A consolidated representation of the service is provided, and includes an indication of the determined security risk(s) and an indication of a relationship between the service and at least one of the identified assets. The security risk indication may include indications of multiple security parameters. Security risks may be represented differently depending on whether they arise from a security vulnerability of an asset that has a relationship with the service or a security vulnerability of an asset that has a relationship with the service only through a relationship with an asset that has a relationship with the service.
US08438640B1
A computer implemented method comprising: identifying an API function call directed to a broker process, wherein a plurality of information requested by an originator is directly relevant to a sandbox process; trapping an API function call directed to a broker process using a computer, wherein the API function call references the broker process, wherein the broker process is a process that executes one or more operations on the behalf of a sandbox process, and wherein the sandbox process has an insufficient permission level to execute the one or more operations; passing the trapped API function call to the sandbox process using the computer; executing the trapped API function call within the sandbox process to generate a result in reference to the sandbox process using the computer; passing the result from the sandbox process to the broker process using the computer; and passing the result from the broker process to an originator using the computer.
US08438615B2
A system and method for setting up security of a controlled device by a control point in a home network are provided, in which authority to perform a function intended by a user is acquired through authentication between the control point and the controlled device, a security channel is created for performing the function, and a credential setting used by the user is synchronized among controlled devices in the home network.
US08438611B2
Queries regarding access permissions of users and rights to directories in a complex enterprise are executed in near real-time, using lookups to tables that form a condensed database maintained for each file server. User information is condensed by arranging users in user groups having common data access rights. Directory permissions storage is condensed by showing only distinctive permissions to a directory in a table entry, and referencing inherited permissions of parent directories. The tables indicate recursive and ancestral relationships among the user groups and directories. They are developed and updated in advance of any queries. A consolidated view of the query results is presented on a single display screen. Using the tables results can be obtained without exhaustive searches of large file system tables.
US08438610B2
In various embodiments, techniques for identity-based address normalization are provided. A principal attempts to access a resource via a principal-supplied address. A principal identity for the principal is used to acquire one or more address patterns. The principal-supplied address is compared against the one or more address patterns and when a match is detected, the principal-supplied address is normalized according to policy associated with the matched pattern. Additional access limitations and security restrictions are then enforced in response to the normalized address.
US08438607B2
Apparatus and methods for premises gateway functions that integrate or unify functions typically distributed across multiple devices within a content-based network. In one embodiment, the out-of-band (OOB) signaling functionality normally provided in each of a set-top-box (STB) and digital video recorder (DVR) are unified into a common OOB (e.g., DOCSIS) capable premises gateway device, thereby obviating OOB tuners and related components from each device. In another variant, the premises gateway is adapted for all-IP operation, such as for use with IP-based computers and IP set-top boxes, etc. Fully unified variants are also disclosed, wherein the DVR and/or STB functions are physically integrated within the premises gateway.
US08438604B2
A method of indicating quality of service includes determining values of a plurality of video quality parameters at a set-top box device. The method also includes selecting a color from a plurality of colors based on at least one of the values. The method also includes activating a video quality indicator, wherein the video quality indicator includes the selected color.
US08438602B2
Systems and methods are described for presenting a plurality of media clips to a viewer using a media player device. A first media clip is displayed on the media player, and an indicator corresponding to a second media clip is provided during playback of the first media clip. In response to the viewer selecting the indicator, playback of the first media clip is suspended, and information is stored about the first media clip on the media player device. The second media clip can then be subsequently displaying on the media player device. After displaying the second media clip, the stored information can be retrieved, and playback of the first media clip can resume from the point that playback was previously interrupted.
US08438601B2
A networked personal video recording (“PVR”) system couples a plurality of clients to one or more PVR media servers over a network. One or more PVR media servers include television tuners to tune television signals. A storage medium buffers the television signals to implement PVR functionality. For example, the PVR media server records television programs for clients. Clients are assigned to television tuners, and the clients display television programs received at the assigned tuner. The network transfers the buffered television signals to the clients.
US08438599B2
Guide information is provided relating to playing/viewing of content retrieved through various modalities such as television broadcasting and a computer network. A unified program list is created that comprehensively handles program content. For a self-recorded program, program metadata retrieved during a recording operation is additionally registered. For a network program, a network program list is periodically retrieved from a service site, modified and recorded. To play the content, a guide screen is created and supplied based on a unified program list. When a self-recorded program is selected, the program is read and played from an HDD. When a network program is selected, the program is played in a streaming manner via the Internet.
US08438596B2
According to one aspect, a DVR sends a user's contact information over a network to an interested party. The DVR prompts the user to enter contact information. After the user has supplied the requested contact information to the DVR, the DVR stores the contact information on the DVR's hard disk drive. Upon determining that a television program or advertisement contains a special tag that is associated with an interested party, the DVR displays, to the user, a prompt that invites the DVR user to allow the DVR to send the user's contact information to the interested party. If the user gives permission for the DVR to send the contact information to the interested party, then the DVR sends the contact information to the interested party (e.g., over the Internet).
US08438594B1
A method and system for 3-D enhanced advertising for TV broadcast of 2-D video is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method for providing enhanced advertising of a 2-D video broadcast, comprises receiving the 2-D video broadcast containing a 2-D advertisement having an image. The image is identified within the advertisement. A matching 3-D object in an image library is used; wherein the library comprises one or more 3-D objects. The matching 3-D object is used to generate an advertisement, wherein the advertisement has a 3-D highlighted rendering of the image.
US08438593B2
In a particular embodiment, a method of authorizing use of a set top box is disclosed. The set top box is operatively coupled to a network device that has an internet protocol (IP) address associated with an account of a subscriber. The method includes blocking a service to the set top box when capabilities of the set top box do not match a pending order associated with the account.
US08438591B2
Reporting data related to content processing devices, e.g., television devices, are processed to identify channel tunes and corresponding tune times of the content processing devices. Automatically generated channel tunes based on the corresponding tune times are identified. Content items that are aired during a time period defined by the corresponding tune times can be adjusted.
US08438584B2
A holding mechanism is operable to hold a top medium from a plurality of plate-shaped media accommodated in a stacker in a stacked manner. A transport arm supports the holding mechanism. The transport arm is provided with a separation mechanism operable to separate a second medium positioned just below the top medium which is held by the holding mechanism.
US08438578B2
Data processing on a network on chip (‘NOC’) that includes IP blocks, routers, memory communications controllers, and network interface controllers; each IP block adapted to a router through a memory communications controller and a network interface controller; each memory communications controller controlling communication between an IP block and memory; each network interface controller controlling inter-IP block communications through routers; each IP block adapted to the network by a low latency, high bandwidth application messaging interconnect comprising an inbox and an outbox; a computer software application segmented into stages, each stage comprising a flexibly configurable module of computer program instructions identified by a stage ID with each stage executing on a thread of execution on an IP block; and at least one of the IP blocks comprising an input/output (‘I/O’) accelerator that administers at least some data communications traffic to and from the at least one IP block.
US08438576B2
A computer implemented method and apparatus is provided for generating and using constraints that are associated with software programs or other software entities intended for use in a specified data processing system or environment. One embodiment is directed to a method that includes the step of extracting metadata pertaining to the one or more software programs from at least one database. The extracted metadata is selectively processed to generate a set of constraints that affect the use of the one or more programs in a specified environment, wherein such processing includes transforming the extracted metadata to provide the set of constraints in a prespecified constraint language. The method further comprises detecting a proposed action of a user that is associated with the one or more software programs, and determining whether the proposed action violates any constraint in the set.
US08438568B2
In an embodiment, if a self thread has more than one conflict, a transaction of the self thread is aborted and restarted. If the self thread has only one conflict and an enemy thread of the self thread has more than one conflict, the transaction of the self thread is committed. If the self thread only conflicts with the enemy thread and the enemy thread only conflicts with the self thread and the self thread has a key that has a higher priority than a key of the enemy thread, the transaction of the self thread is committed. If the self thread only conflicts with the enemy thread, the enemy thread only conflicts with the self thread, and the self thread has a key that has a lower priority than the key of the enemy thread, the transaction of the self thread is aborted.
US08438555B1
A system and method for opening a file in a virtualization workspace of a host computer system. The host computer system includes a virtualization workspace including a virtualization agent and virtual software layers. The virtualization agent detects a request to open a file in the virtualization workspace. In response to detecting the request, the virtualization agent determines that the file includes embedded metadata. The virtualization agent uses the embedded metadata to identify a virtual software layer in which to open the file, activates the virtual software layer, and opens the file using an application that is included in the identified virtual software layer. The virtual software layer includes one or more applications and the embedded metadata includes a signature corresponding to one of the applications with which to open the file. The identified virtual software layer is installed on the host computer system subsequent to being identified.
US08438554B1
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for removing a synchronization statement. In use, synchronization statements are identified. Additionally, the synchronization statements are analyzed. Furthermore, the synchronization statements are removed based on the analysis.
US08438548B2
In one embodiment, after translating a plurality of target instructions from a target memory location into a plurality of host instructions, a write operation to a target memory portion which includes said target memory location is detected. In response to the detecting, a copy of the target instructions is stored in a host memory. In response to an attempt to execute the host instructions, the copy is compared with a plurality of current target instructions presently stored in the target memory location. Further, in response to a mismatch based on the comparison, the host instructions are disabled.
US08438547B2
A data processing system and method generates debug messages by permitting an external debug tool to have real-time trace functionality. A data processor executes a plurality of data processing instructions and uses a memory for information storage. Debug module generates debug messages including address translation trace messages. A memory management unit has address translation logic for implementing address translation to translate addresses between virtual and physical forms. The debug module includes message generation module that is coupled to the memory management unit for receiving notice when one or more address translation mappings are modified. The message generation module generates an address translation trace message in response to a detection of a modification of an address translation mapping occurs and provides the address translation trace message external to the debug module.
US08438542B2
Technologies are described herein for generating a management pack at program build time. Data is received that defines one or more events generated by the application program. Data is also received that defines one or more management classes for the application program. When a request to build the program is received, the data defining the events generated by the program and the data defining the management classes is utilized to generate a management pack for the program in an automated fashion. Once the management pack has been generated, it may be provided to an operations manager application program for use in monitoring the operation of the application program.
US08438541B2
Software change management (SCM) systems can be extended to uniformly handle artifacts which lack constraints typically imposed on managed items. In the solution, a data type associated with a SCM system can enable management of unmanaged artifacts. Unmanaged artifacts can include, but is not limited to, artifacts which lack can traditional change management constraints, managed artifacts not directly associated with the SCM, artifacts with different constraints than the SCM imposed constraints, and the like. In one embodiment, an unmanaged artifact can have different lifecycles, policies, and the like which can make it unsuitable for traditional management approaches by the SCM. The SCM can utilize the data type to manage unmanaged artifacts without requiring significant change in functionality of the SCM by permitting change management processes to be applied to the unmanaged artifacts.
US08438538B2
A SimpleBinding extension in Window Presentation Foundation (WPF) is established using a compact binding syntax in which all binding components are specified in a string. The simple binding string is parsed to derive a native WPF binding class. A typecast may be used to determine how the binding result will be translated from one Common Language Runtime (CLR) type to another. The typecast may be provided with the binding components or derived from properties of the target WPF dependency property.
US08438521B1
Methods and apparatus are provided for efficiently implementing an application specific processor. An application specific processor includes a data path and a control path. A control path is implemented using processor components to increase resource efficiency. Both the data path and the control path can be implemented using function units that are selected, parameterized, and interconnected. A tool uses the selected function units and interconnection information to provide data for implementing the application specific processor. Missing function units or interconnections can be identified and corrected.
US08438509B2
A method of automated generation of oxide pillar (PX) slot shapes of a PX layer within silicon-on-insulator (SOI) structures that includes generating a placement grid on recess oxide (RX) shapes, creating PX placement markers on the placement grid along a perimeter of the RX shapes, filtering the PX placement markers, generating a PX slot shape corresponding to each filtered PX placement marker on the RX shapes, correcting location errors associated with the generated PX slot shapes, generating PX slot shapes on RX shapes of a predetermined size for which PX slot shapes were not generated, performing a verification operation of the PX slot shapes, and outputting the PX layer including the verified PX slot shapes.
US08438507B2
A system and methods are provide for modeling the behavior of a lithographic scanner and, more particularly, a system and methods are provide using thresholds of an image profile to characterize through-pitch printing behavior of a lithographic scanner. The method includes running a lithographic model for a target tool and running a lithographic model on the matching tool for a plurality of different settings using lens numerical aperture, numerical aperture of the illuminator and annular ratio of a pattern which is produced by an illuminator. The method then selects the setting that most closely matches the output of the target tool.
US08438506B2
Disclosed is a method, system, and computer program product for implementing controlled breaks using sub-resolution assist features. Sub-resolution bridging features are added to implement controlled breaks between features on the layout. The bridging features may also be used to facilitate or optimize multiple mask/exposure techniques that split a layout or features on a layout to address pitch problems.
US08438504B2
A method includes: displaying a first viewing area, the first viewing area including a first plurality of selectable objects; in response to detecting activation of an object in the first plurality of selectable objects, overlaying a second viewing area on a portion of the first viewing area while maintaining display of a remaining portion of the first viewing area. The second viewing area includes a second plurality of selectable objects. The method also includes, in response to detecting activation of an object in the second plurality of selectable objects, overlaying a third viewing area on a portion of the first viewing area. The third viewing area includes a third plurality of selectable objects. The method also includes displaying a portion of the second viewing area overlaid on a portion of the first viewing area; and maintaining display of a remaining portion of the first viewing area.
US08438503B2
A portable electronic device having an input device for receiving a gesture based input from a user is used to control a navigation operation of an appliance. The portable electronic device receives via the input device the gesture based input and uses one or more parameters stored in a memory of the portable electronic device and one or more characteristics associated with the gesture based input to cause the portable electronic device to transmit a navigation step command to thereby control the navigation operation of the appliance.
US08438496B1
Tailoring automatic document scrolling to content and properties of the content increases readability of the document for a user. Instead of a user being forced to adjust to variations in content of a document while automatic scrolling proceeds at a constant rate or being forced to interrupt the automatic scrolling, the automatic scrolling shifts scroll speed for content variations. An application that presents a document and allows for automatic scrolling through the document, computes various scroll values for different document content and/or different properties of the same document content.
US08438493B2
An activation arrangement may be included in one or more record selection interfaces of an enterprise computing system to activate a preset navigator interface pane for limited the quantity of records displayed in the record selection interface. The preset navigator interface pane may include filters to identify records satisfying predetermined criteria. The preset navigator interface pane may also include a tree structure depicting a hierarchical classification of the records based on certain field values in each record. The records displayed for subsequent selection in the record selection interface may be limited according to the activated filters and activated nodes in the structure.
US08438492B2
An apparatus and method are provided for providing a User Interface (UI) service in a multimedia system. The method includes receiving UI data from a UI server; abstracting UI data that is structuralized on an object-by-object basis, and corresponds to an input from a UI client; creating adaptive UI data by reflecting a UI environment of a device for displaying, in the abstracted UI data; and displaying the created adaptive UI data.
US08438490B2
A system for providing a local computer user with detailed activity information regarding remote users, in order to assist the local user in determining whether to initiate a communication session with a remote user. The system provides activity information describing the number of instant messaging sessions one or more remote users are currently involved in, the identities of participants in those sessions, activity levels, time period information, and other information. The system further provides detailed activity information describing recent instant messaging sessions of one or more remote users.
US08438472B2
Some embodiments provide a method that parses an unstructured document that includes a number of primitive elements. The method stores the primitive elements in a random order in a first storage. The method stores references to the primitive elements in a second storage in an order based on locations of the primitive elements in the unstructured document. The method receives instructions to perform a document reconstruction operation. The method performs the received instructions without storing any new references to the primitive elements.
US08438469B1
A method of embedding evaluations in a document is described. An identifier tag is embedded in the document in response to a first user action. The document may include a web page. The identifier tag includes a review and an identifier associated with an entity that is a subject of the review. A rating tag is embedded in the document in response to a second user action. The rating tag includes a rating value corresponding to a user-selected rating of the entity that is the subject of the review. The rating value may be selected from a set of pre-determined rating values.
US08438464B2
A digital television (DTV) transmitter/receiver and a method of processing data in the DTV transmitter/receiver are disclosed. In the DTV transmitter, a pre-processor pre-processes the enhanced data by coding the enhanced data for forward error correction (FEC) and expanding the FEC-coded enhanced data. A data formatter generates enhanced data packets including the pre-processed enhanced data and inserts known data to at least one of the enhanced data packets. A first multiplexer multiplexes the enhanced data packets with main data packets including the main data. And, an RS encoder RS-codes the multiplexed main and enhanced data packets, the RS encoder adding systematic parity data to each main data packet and adding RS parity place holders to each enhanced data packet. Herein, the RS encoder may insert non-systematic RS parity data or null data into the RS parity place holders included in each enhanced data packet.
US08438459B2
An encoding and decoding method and apparatus. is disclosed. The method and apparatus improves encoding and decoding performance without using a large memory capacity and also reduces the complexity of hardware for implementation. According to the method, an encoded signal is received from a transmitting side, and the received signal is decoded using the parity check matrix. The parity check matrix includes layers where nonzero elements of a specific number or layers do not overlap in column direction.
US08438454B2
According to an embodiment, a semiconductor memory device includes a nonvolatile memory; an input/output control unit to control input/output of data to/from the nonvolatile memory; an address translation table that associates first address information specifying a logical recording position of user data stored in the nonvolatile memory with second address information indicating a physical recording position in the nonvolatile memory; a translating unit to translate the first address information to the second address information according to the table; and a generating unit to generate redundant data for checking whether there is error in the user data and the first address information used as one data piece. The input/output control unit records, as data set, the user data, the first address information, and the redundant data, which are used as one data set, in the physical recording position in the nonvolatile memory indicated by the second address information.
US08438451B2
A DTV transmitting system includes a first pre-processor for coding first enhanced data having a high priority for forward error correction (FEC) at a first coding rate and expanding the first enhanced data at a first expansion rate, and a second pre-processor for coding second enhanced data having a low priority for FEC at a second coding rate and expanding the second enhanced data at a second expansion rate. The receiving system further includes a data formatter for generating enhanced data packets, a multiplexer for multiplexing the enhanced data packets with main data packets, an RS encoder for RS-coding the multiplexed data packets, and a data interleaver for interleaving the RS-coded data packets and outputting a group of interleaved data packets having a head, a body, and a tail.
US08438449B2
A transmitting system, a receiving system, and a method of processing broadcast signals are disclosed. The method for transmitting a broadcast signal includes encoding mobile data for forward error correction (FEC) to build Reed-Solomon (RS) frames, dividing the built RS frames into a number of RS frame portions, dividing one of the RS frame portions into Serially Concatenated Convolutional Code (SCCC) blocks, mapping the SCCC blocks including the convolution-coded data to mobile data blocks according to a SCCC block mode which identifies relationship between the mobile data blocks and the SCCC blocks, forming a data group including the mobile data blocks, forming mobile data packets including data in the data group and, multiplexing a specified number of the mobile data packets, a first scalable number of the mobile data packets, and a second scalable number of main data packets.
US08438446B2
A method for receiving a multimedia broadcast/multicast service (MBMS) is provided. The method for receiving a broadcast or multicast service includes: attempting receiving of data via a channel for the broadcast or multicast service; transmitting a negative acknowledgement to a base station if the data is not received via the channel; and receiving the data.
US08438444B2
A method of associating ARQ with HARQ is disclosed. The method includes constructing a plurality of coding blocks using an MPDU received from an ARQ entity of a transmitter, transmitting each of the coding blocks to a receiver according to an HARQ operation, discontinuing the coding block transmission, when transmission of a coding block is failed, transmitting an error message indicating a number of the failed coding block to the ARQ entity of the transmitter, receiving ARQ blocks corresponding to the failed coding block from the ARQ entity of the transmitter, constructing at least one coding block using the received ARQ blocks, and retransmitting the at least one coding block to the receiver according to the HARQ operation.
US08438442B2
A method of testing a processing includes performing a test of at least one logic block of a processor of a data processing system; receiving an interrupt; stopping the performing the test for the processor to respond to the interrupt, wherein the stopping the performing the test includes storing test data of the test to a memory prior to the processor responding to the interrupt; and after the processor responds to the interrupt, resuming performing the test, wherein the resuming performing the test includes retrieving the test data from the memory and using the retrieved test data for the resuming performing the test.
US08438439B2
An IC having a scan chain and a testing method for a chip, comprising a first interface group, a second interface group and a scan data selector. The first interface group and the second interface group each comprise at least two input/output (I/O) interfaces which can be packaged as external pins of the IC. The I/O interfaces of the first interface group are connected to input terminals of the scan data selector in one-to-one correspondence, and an output terminal of the scan data selector is connected to a scan data input terminal of the scan chain. A scan data output terminal of the scan chain is connected to the I/O interfaces of the second interface group.
US08438438B2
Chain or logic diagnosis resolution can be enhanced in the presence of limited failure cycles using embodiments of the various methods, systems, and apparatus described herein. For example, pattern sets can be ordered according to a diagnosis coverage figure, which can be used to measure chain or logic diagnosability of the pattern set. Per-pin based diagnosis techniques can also be used to analyze limited failure data.
US08438433B2
A scan test of a first latch and a second latch couples a given scan value to the input of the first latch, to switch the first latch to a state corresponding to the scan value, uncouples the scan value from the first latch to latch the first latch at that state, couples the output of the first latch while latched at that state to the input of the second latch to switch the second latch to that state, and uncoupling the output of the first latch from the input of the second latch to latch the second latch at that state.
US08438426B2
A method for diagnosing a control system for a stacked battery. The control system comprises a plurality of processors, a plurality of controllers, and a monitoring unit (control unit). The method comprises sending a diagnostic information from the central unit to a top processor of the plurality of processors, transmitting a return information from the top processor of the plurality of processors to the central unit, comparing the diagnostic information sent from the central unit with the return information received by the central unit, and indicating a communication problem if the diagnostic information sent from the central unit is different from the return information received by the central unit. The steps are repeated by eliminating the top processor from a previous cycle and assigning a new top processor if there is no problem with the reconfigurable communication system.
US08438420B1
A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for preserving changes made to data during a recovery process. In some embodiments, this includes recovering a backup data to a remote location, using an I/O intercept to access the recovered data, modifying the recovered data a first time, completing the modification of the recovered data, preserving the I/O intercept, and storing the modified data in the remote location.
US08438412B1
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for enabling an amount of multitasking for use by an operating system. In use, an amount of power being delivered to a device is identified. Additionally, it is determined whether the amount of power is sufficient to charge a power store of the device. Further, an amount of multitasking for use by an operating system of the device may be enabled based on the determination. Still yet, the amount of multitasking enabled for use by the operating system of the device is based on the determination such that a first amount of multitasking is enabled for use by the operating system of the device if it is determined that the amount of power is sufficient to charge the power store of the device, and a second amount of multitasking less than the first amount is enabled for use by the operating system of the device if it is determined that the amount of power is insufficient to charge the power store of the device.
US08438408B2
A portable computing device (PCD) can control the operating state of a component within an accessory. For example, an accessory can have some components (e.g., a video processor) that are used for some operations but not for others. A PCD can determine whether a particular component will be used and can instruct the accessory to set the component to a desired state, e.g., powered up when in use and powered down when not in use. In some embodiments, the PCD can use status information provided by the accessory in determining a desired state for the accessory component. For example, in the case of a video converter accessory, if no display device or other video receiver is connected to the accessory, a video processor within the accessory can be powered down.
US08438406B2
A semiconductor integrated circuit includes first and second external terminals receiving an external power supply voltage, an internal power supply line coupling to the first and second external terminals, a first transistor coupling between the first external terminal and the internal power supply line, a second transistor that is coupled between the second external terminal and the internal power supply line, a first monitor line coupling to a first node of the internal power supply line, a second monitor line coupling to a second node of the internal power supply line, the second node being different from the first node, and a controller coupling to the first and second monitor lines, the controller outputs a control signal corresponding to potentials of the first and second monitor lines to the first and second transistors.
US08438399B2
In a first aspect the invention provides a storage method for a gaming machine, including allocating program code to one of at least two program categories including a first category of program code that is expected to be modified more frequently than a second category of program code and storing program code from the first and second categories in logically separate storage areas.
US08438397B2
A technique to ensure watermarking a highest selected layer for decoding when receiving a scalable coded bitstream having a plurality of bitstream layers. In one technique, the watermark is associated only with the highest layer that is selected from the hierarchically arranged layers and not in any of the lower layers of the hierarchy. In another technique, the watermarks are present in all the layers, but each lower layer watermark is compensated in a next higher layer to remove effects of the presence of the lower layer watermark in the next higher layer.
US08438395B2
The present invention provides steganographically embedded auxiliary data in motor vehicle documentation. The auxiliary data is used to authenticate the documentation or provide additional or redundant information pertaining to the documentation. Examples of such documentation are license plates, vehicle titles, insurance cards, registration cards and emissions documentation. In one implementation of the invention, a title document is digitally watermarked for authentication. The digital watermark may include a digital signature related to a buyer and a digital signature related to a seller. In another implementation, the transfer of motor vehicles is facilitated via digital watermarking. In still another implementation, a document includes two or more digital watermarks. The digital watermarks are intertwined with each other and at least one of the watermarks is intertwined with the document.
US08438393B2
A method is provided for use in secure electronic communication. The method may include obtaining a password shared with an intended key exchange entity and sending a key exchange request including a first value to the intended key exchange entity. The method may also include receiving a key exchange reply including a permutation of a first quadratic residue of the first value, and calculating a second quadratic residue of the first value based on the key exchange reply. Further, the method may also include determining a second value shared with the key exchange entity based on the first quadratic residue and the second quadratic residue.
US08438388B2
A method and apparatus for distributing Certificate Revocation List (CRL) information in an ad hoc network are provided. Ad hoc nodes in an ad hoc network can each transmit one or more certificate revocation list advertisement message(s) (CRLAM(s)). Each CRLAM includes an issuer certification authority (CA) field that identifies a certification authority (CA) that issued a particular certificate revocation list (CRL), a certificate revocation list (CRL) sequence number field that specifies a number that specifies the version of the particular certificate revocation list (CRL) that was issued by the issuer certification authority (CA). Nodes that receive the CRLAMs can then use the CRL information provided in the CRLAM to determine whether to retrieve the particular certificate revocation list (CRL).
US08438385B2
A method for identity verification includes receiving a request for proof of identity from a service provider and receiving biometric information associated with a user of a communication device. The method also includes determining that the received biometric information matches a biometric profile that contains biometric information associated with a registered user of the communication device. The method also includes unlocking a private key associated with the registered user in response to determining that the received biometric information matches a biometric profile and sending a request for a digital certificate that is signed with the private key associated with the registered user. The method further includes receiving the digital certificate that includes a public key associated with the registered user and satisfies the request for proof of identity. The method also includes with forwarding the digital certificate to the service provider.
US08438382B2
A centralized credential management system includes website credentials that are stored at a vault. The website credentials are encrypted based upon a key not available to the vault and are for authenticating a user to a third party website. Through a client, a user authenticates to the vault and retrieves the encrypted website credentials and parameters and code for properly injecting the credentials into a website authentication form. The website credentials are decrypted at the client and injected into the authentication form using the parameters and code.
US08438381B2
A method of securing IP traffic sent from a first host to a second host attached respectively to first and second access points. The method comprises establishing a shared secret between said first and second hosts, and for each packet to be sent, using the next value in a pseudo-random number sequence as an interface identifier part of the source IP address.
US08438377B2
An information processing apparatus includes a main memory unit storing while on-power; an auxiliary storage unit functionable even off-power; a control unit performing hibernation of generating operating-state data indicating a state when the power is lost, storing the data in the auxiliary storage unit, and, when restored, reading the data from the auxiliary storage unit; and a security chip that including a configuration register, encrypts data, and storing the data in the auxiliary storage unit. The control unit includes: a first registration unit performing, when the data is generated, calculation based thereon to obtain a calculated value; a second registration unit performing, when the data is read from the auxiliary storage unit at the hibernation, calculation based on the data to obtain a calculated value to write it into the configuration register; and a verification unit performing verification at boot-up from the hibernation based on the value written.
US08438373B2
In some implementations, a computer-implemented method includes storing a plurality of acceleration profiles in a mobile device; receiving accelerometer data from an accelerometer in the mobile device; correlating the accelerometer data with one accelerometer profile in the plurality of accelerometer profiles; and activating a user application of the mobile device that is associated with the correlated accelerometer profile. Each acceleration profile can correspond to a sequence of acceleration forces a mobile device would be subjected to when carried with a user during an activity that corresponds to the correlated acceleration profile.
US08438372B2
Whenever a link address is written to the link stack, the prior value of the link stack entry is saved, and is restored to the link stack after a link stack push operation is speculatively executed following a mispredicted branch. This condition is detected by maintaining an incrementing tag register which is incremented by each link stack write instruction entering the pipeline, and a snapshot of the incrementing tag register, associated with each branch instruction. When a branch is evaluated and determined to have been mispredicted, the snapshot associated with it is compared to the incrementing tag register. A discrepancy indicates a link stack write instruction was speculatively issued into the pipeline after the mispredicted branch instruction, and pushed a link address onto the link stack, thus corrupting the link stack. The prior link address is restored to the link stack from the link stack restore buffer.
US08438369B2
A method and apparatus for providing fairness in a multi-processing element environment is herein described. Mask elements are utilized to associated portions of a reservation station with each processing element, while still allowing common access to another portion of reservation station entries. Additionally, bias logic biases selection of processing elements in a pipeline away from a processing element associated with a blocking stall to provide fair utilization of the pipeline.
US08438364B2
A distributed caching system for storing and serving information modeled as a graph that includes nodes and edges that define associations or relationships between nodes that the edges connect in the graph.
US08438361B2
In general, this disclosure relates to storage of logical blocks in a storage device. Aspects of this disclosure describe techniques to monitor the frequency of access of one or more logical blocks referenced by one or more logical block addresses. Based on the frequency of access, in non-limiting aspects of this disclosure, a controller may select one or more physical blocks of a common memory storage block. The storage device may store the logical blocks in the selected physical blocks.
US08438360B2
A volume manager I/O method and system. The method includes determining a storage extent mapping of storage functionality of a plurality of storage devices and generating a logical disk extent based on the storage extent mapping. The logical disk extent is exported to a volume device component that is communicatively coupled to implement I/O for an application. An I/O request from the application is received via the volume device component. The I/O request is executed in accordance with the logical disk extent.
US08438351B2
A method and computer-readable memory device that enable processing of a first memory image comprising a plurality of compressed sub-blocks and uncompressed sub-blocks to produce a second memory image comprising contents of the first memory image arranged as a plurality of memory blocks. The memory blocks of the second memory image may be independently decompressible, to enable more efficient updating of an electronic device.
US08438347B1
Techniques for proactive synchronization of backups on replication targets are disclosed. In one particular exemplary embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for proactive synchronization of a backup on a replication target comprising reading a stored replication request to obtain replication data address information, sending the replication data address information to a replication target, receiving the replication data address information at the replication target, and copying data associated with the received replication data address information to a backup.
US08438346B2
A virtual storage system includes a storage subsystem having virtual storage devices to emulate physical storage devices of an actual storage system. The virtual storage system has a controller to detect a status change of a particular physical storage device in the actual storage system. The status change includes at least one of loading of the particular physical storage device and ejecting of the particular physical storage device. In response to detecting the status change of the particular physical storage device, the controller performs synchronization between the virtual storage system and the actual storage system by updating a state of a corresponding virtual storage device in the virtual storage system.
US08438342B1
Described are techniques for automatically provisioning storage for an application. A request to provision object-based storage for the application in a data storage system is received The request identifies the application and is received from a user interface interacting with the data storage system at a specified one of a plurality of user levels, each of said plurality of user levels being associated with a different level of abstraction with respect to first processing performed in implementing the request. The first processing is performed to provision object-based storage for the request. The first processing is determined in accordance with the application and includes a level of automation varying in accordance with the specified user level at which the user interface interacts with the data storage system. The automation includes selecting one or more default options in accordance with best practices of the application.
US08438337B1
A system and method are provided for sharing data between a network including one or more network nodes. The network includes a number of individual network nodes and a home network node communicating with one another. The individual network nodes and the home network node include a plurality of processors and memory caches. The memory caches consist of private caches corresponding to individual processors, as well as shared caches which are shared among the plurality of processors of an individual node and accessible by the processors of the other network nodes. Each network node is capable of executing a hierarchy of data requests that originate in the private caches of an individual local network node. If no cache hits occur within the local network node, a conditional request is sent to the home network node to request data through the shared caches of the other network nodes.
US08438335B2
An apparatus to resolve cache coherency is presented. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a microprocessor comprising one or more processing cores. The apparatus also includes a probe speculative address file unit, coupled to a cache memory, comprising a plurality of entries. Each entry includes a timer and a tag associated with a memory line. The apparatus further includes control logic to determine whether to service an incoming probe based at least in part on a timer value.
US08438334B2
A storage subsystem combining solid state drive (SSD) and hard disk drive (HDD) technologies provides low access latency and low complexity. Separate free lists are maintained for the SSD and the HDD and blocks of file system data are stored uniquely on either the SSD or the HDD. When a read access is made to the subsystem, if the data is present on the SSD, the data is returned, but if the block is present on the HDD, it is migrated to the SSD and the block on the HDD is returned to the HDD free list. On a write access, if the block is present in the either the SSD or HDD, the block is overwritten, but if the block is not present in the subsystem, the block is written to the HDD.
US08438333B2
An information handling system includes a plurality of storage enclosures, a plurality of logical storage units located in each storage enclosure, a controller connected to each of the plurality of logical storage units. The controller is configured to receive data regarding the plurality of logical storage units, and automatically execute an algorithm based on the received logical storage unit data to generate a mirrored storage configuration to be implemented, the mirrored storage configuration defining mirrored pairs of the plurality of logical storage units.
US08438318B2
A television with at least one connection, either wired or wireless. Detection of an active device connected to the connection results in proper software and hardware configuration of the television to properly communicate with the device and provide, for example, proper user interface support and access to the device.
US08438305B2
Shortest-path spanning trees are created outward from each portal on a Rbridge network with nodes on the network being assigned to the spanning trees. For those nodes equidistant to two portals, an election process is used to determine which tree the node should join. To enable routes associated with nodes on the Rbridge network to be distinguished from routes external to the Rbridge network, messages may be transmitted between the portals. The messages enable portals to identify routing updates received from the external network as containing internal routes, so that traffic that is required to pass between nodes on different trees may pass over the Rbridge network rather than over the external network.
US08438302B2
A method, system, and computer program product for splitting and sharing routing information among several routers within a group of routers acting as a single border router in an Internet protocol (IP) network, each router comprising a routing table. The method, for use in a router of the group, comprises the steps of: selecting routes in the routing table of the router; requesting other routers of the group to replace, in their routing tables, each selected route with the router as next hop; associating at least part of-non selected routes, each one with another router of the group; and removing and replacing, in the routing table, each-non selected route associated with a router of the group by the associated router as next hop.
US08438294B2
An application framework including different application programming interfaces (APIs) is described which performs a variety of mobile device functions in response to API calls from applications. For example, in response to relatively simple API calls made by applications the application framework manages the complex tasks associated with invitations and matchmaking. By way of example, the details of complex transactions such as establishing peer-to-peer connections between mobile devices may be transparent to the application developer, thereby simplifying the application design process. The application framework may include an application daemon for communicating with a first set of services and an applications services module for communicating with a separate set of services. The application framework may also include a cache for caching data for each of the services based on different cache management policies driven by each of the services. The cache may be updated by push notification cache updates sent from each of the services.
US08438292B2
Equipment 1 includes a service provision functional unit 1f, an information processing unit 1e, a correspondence relation collecting functional unit 1c, a correspondence relation storage unit 1b, and a service request functional unit 1d. The information processing unit 1e has one or more objects, and provides control information to the service provision functional unit 1f by executing the object upon receiving a service request including a specific identifier. The correspondence relation collecting unit 1c collects a correspondence relation between the specific identifier of the object and address information of the equipment 1 from the equipment 1. The correspondence relation storage unit 1b stores the correspondence relation between the specific identifier and the address information, which is collected by the correspondence relation collecting unit 1c. While the address information corresponding to the specific identifier used for the service request is stored in the correspondence relation storage unit 1b, the service request functional unit 1d makes the service request on the basis of the address information. As a result, a resource necessary for communication by the use of association between the equipment 1 and the specific identifier can be reduced.
US08438285B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium operating in a mobile device server having computer instructions to execute a web server application in the mobile device server. The web server application can be operable to detect a resource control manager while roaming in a communication zone of the resource control manager, and to transmit a pairing key to the resource control manager. The web server application can also be operable to receive from the resource control manager authorization to pair with one or more resources selected by the resource control manager according to the pairing key, and to establish communications with the one or more resources selected by the resource control manager. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US08438284B2
A buffer manager allocates and logs network buffers for a non-uniform memory access (NUMA) machine is described. In one embodiment, the buffer manager receives information about an allocated network buffer. The buffer manager determines the allocation point of the buffer and logs information about the allocation point and a consumption profile information. This logged information is analyzed to determine a per-process buffer consumption profile. The NUMA machine is configured using the buffer consumption profile.
US08438281B2
Techniques for separately accounting for multiple transactions in the same data packets communicated over a network using Transport Control Protocol (TCP) include receiving an Internet Protocol (IP) data packet that includes Transport Control Protocol (TCP) payload data. The TCP payload is parsed to determine boundary data that indicates a byte location on a boundary between a first transaction and a second transaction. A byte count that indicates a number of bytes in the TCP payload associated with the first transaction is determined based on the boundary data. Accounting data for the first transaction is determined based at least in part on the byte count. These techniques allow a service gateway to bill separately for different requests and responses carried in TCP data packets, such as those for Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP).
US08438277B1
A computer-implemented method for preventing data inconsistency within computer clusters may include (1) identifying a computer cluster includes (a) a plurality of nodes located at a plurality of sites, (b) a plurality of storage devices that store mirrored data at the sites, (c) at least one network communication link that enables nodes located at different sites to communicate with one another, and (d) at least one storage communication link that enables nodes to communicate with storage devices located at different sites, (2) detecting a communication failure that prevents communication via the storage communication link without preventing communication via the network communication link, (3) identifying a preference order that ranks the sites within the computer cluster by preference, and then (4) satisfying detach requests initiated by nodes within the computer cluster in the order specified by the preference order. Various other systems, methods, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US08438276B1
A system and method for monitoring network and application performance. In one embodiment the method comprises logging information on network interface card (NIC) events involving a web page transaction, logging information on web server events involving the web page transaction, logging information on client browser events involving the web page transaction, collecting the information on NIC events, the information on web server events, and the information on client browser events on a collector server, and correlating the information on NIC events, the information on web server events, and the information on client browser events. In a further embodiment, correlating the information may comprise correlating the information on NIC events with the information on web server events by grouping the events by a client address and by a server address and then matching pairs of NIC events and web server events by time and data transfer size. Correlating the information may also comprise correlating the information on client browser events with the information on web server events by a color ID.
US08438275B1
In certain embodiments, a computer-implemented method includes accessing time series data that includes a number of values. The values of the time series data are transformed into multiple coefficient groups. Each coefficient group includes one or more coefficients. For each of the plurality of coefficient groups, quantized coefficient data for the coefficient group is determined. The quantized coefficient data for the plurality of coefficient groups is ordered according to one or more ordering policies to generate prioritized transfer data for communication over a communication network. The ordering polices may be determined according to a type of the time series data.
US08438272B2
The present disclosure involves systems, software, and computer implemented methods for calculating a quality of service associated with a network participant associated with a networked business process. One method comprises identifying a profile of a potential network participant associated with a networked business process, the networked business process comprising a set of interrelated business processes performed by at least two different network participants. The profile defines at least one technical capability of the potential network participant. A set of criteria associated with the networked business process is identified, the criteria defining at least one technical capability metric. The identified profile of the potential network participant is compared with the identified set of criteria, and a determination of whether the profile of the potential network participant meets or exceeds the identified set of criteria is made.
US08438268B2
A method and system for prioritizing alerts on end points include an aggregator agent that monitors a plurality of end point agents and receives a signal indicating an out of band operating tolerance from an end point. The aggregator agent locally determines the priority of the received signal based on a rules engine local to the aggregator agent. The aggregator agent transmits the priority of said signal and information associated with said signal to a remote host computer for appropriate handling.
US08438263B2
A system and method for content distribution are provided. A content provider generates a network topology having one or more subnetworks made up of content sources. The content provider segments content, such as applications, into segments for distribution. The content provider then distributes the content such that for each identified subnetwork, each content segment is distributed to a content source. Subsequent, client computing device requests for content can be serviced by selecting a content source in a particular subnetwork selected for delivering the requested content to the client computing device to minimize traffic flow of the requested content through the nodes of the distribution network.
US08438255B2
A management unit for managing a channel in a telecommunications network includes a registering section configured to define and register a visibility attribute associated with a first channel, belonging to a first session, for accessing a service in the telecommunications network. A receiving section is configured to receive a request to obtain information on the first channel from a second channel. The second channel belongs to the first session or a second session for accessing the service. A sending section is configured to determine and send a response to the request to obtain information on the first channel, taking into account the visibility attribute associated with the first channel, and further taking into account whether the second channel belongs to the first session or the second session.
US08438245B2
A server generates a unique URL corresponding to a data payload, provides that unique URL for exposure (via a machine-scannable code) to mobile devices of different types, and when the server receives a request for the unique URL from a mobile device, the server uses a payload-type to mobile-device-type mapping to generate a device-type-specific URI that includes the data payload, formatted for the device type. The server delivers the device-type-specific URI to the mobile device to invoke a non-web-browser application for handling the data payload.
US08438236B2
A device and a method for transmitting notification messages (165) and a corresponding device and method for receiving notification messages. A transmitting device (100) receives a filter definition (135) defining a filter type for use in filtering of the notification messages. The filter definition is transmitted to a terminal (160) via a broadcast installation (150). The terminal configures a filter based upon the filter definition. When a 5 notification is to be sent notification input data (145) is received and filter elements (175) are determined. The filter elements correspond to parameters derived from the filter definition. The value of the parameters correspond to the notification input data. The notification messages comprising the filter elements are generated and sent to the terminal. The terminal filters the notification messages using the filter, where the filtering is based upon the filter 10 elements.
US08438232B2
The present invention is intended to reduce operation load of a responsible person corresponding to external address for transmission of an e-mail to the external address. In order to accomplish this, an e-mail transmission device transmits an e-mail based on an operation made by a user, comprising: a storage part for storing therein a destination address registration information in which a destination address of the e-mail, an address type information in which either of internal address or external address is registered as type of the destination address, and an address responsible for external address registered if the address type registered in the address type information is external address are associated with each other; and a transmission part for transmitting the e-mail to the destination address designated by the user from a plurality of destination addresses included in the destination address registration information. When the address type registered in the address type information associated with the designated destination address is external address, the transmission part reads the address responsible for external address associated with the designated destination address, creates the e-mail in which the address responsible for external address is set for a source address field and a return address field, and transmits the e-mail thereby created to the designated destination address.
US08438228B1
Some of the embodiments described herein generally relate to broadcasting mobile messages received by a mobile device onto a surface that is easier to read. Mobile messages generally refer to SMS, MMS, e-mail, and voice-mail messages. The mobile device communicates the mobile messages to a computing device that is affixed with a projector and lens, which together broadcast the mobile message onto the surface. In some embodiments, the mobile message may alternatively be broadcast out of a lens affixed to the mobile device for display on the surface. Additionally, a user may compose mobile messages on the computing device and send the composed messages to the mobile device for communication across a telecommunications network.
US08438226B2
A real time communication session can be defined in which more than two participants communicate with each other using at least two different types of bidirectional communication. In one embodiment, the different types of bidirectional communication can include audio and video. During communication session, demoting one of the participants can be demoted so that the demoted participant is still a participant of communication session but communicates using at least one less than the two different types. Responsive to the demoting, one of the participants can be promoted so that the promoted participant is permitted to participate in the communication session using at least two different types of bidirectional communication. The promoting would not be permitted due to a system constraint on the real time communication session in absence of the demoting.
US08438225B2
Users are enabled to traverse seamlessly between electronic mail and real time communications such as text messaging, group chats, and similar forms. A context of communications such as a history of the email exchange, attached or related documents, links, trail of exchanged text messages, and comparable information is used to automatically determine addressees for the communication form after the traverse and to provide context information.
US08438223B2
Aggregation apparatus that comprises a computer, a display controlled by the computer, and networking hardware connecting the computer to a network. The computer is programmed so that the aggregation apparatus connects to a plurality of sites on the Internet, authenticates itself with each of the sites, and attempts to retrieve information from said sites. The information comprises different data types. If no error is detected or trapped, an aggregation of information is produced and rendered as output. If an error is detected or trapped, an attempt is made to associate the error with an error code. If the error code is associated with the error, then the aggregation apparatus communicates an instruction to a user interface to trigger presentation of a message to take an action. If the error does not match an error code, an instruction is communicated to the user interface that a particular action has occurred.
US08438210B2
A media server is hosted in a service provider's network so that media content can be stored from or rendered to a private network such as a Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) network. Media content may be stored directly by accessing the media server or by downloading the media content to the media server. A server platform may support a set of media servers, where each media server is connected to a corresponding DLNA network. A multicast group may be established among the set of media servers so that media content may be shared with members of the multicast group. Media content may be aggregated for media content for the multicast group based on content characteristics, where the content characteristics are indicative of media content that can be shared with members of the multicast group.
US08438208B2
A processor including instruction support for implementing large-operand multiplication may issue, for execution, programmer-selectable instructions from a defined instruction set architecture (ISA). The processor may include an instruction execution unit comprising a hardware multiplier datapath circuit, where the hardware multiplier datapath circuit is configured to multiply operands having a maximum number of bits M. In response to receiving a single instance of a large-operand multiplication instruction defined within the ISA, wherein at least one of the operands of the large-operand multiplication instruction includes more than the maximum number of bits M, the instruction execution unit is configured to multiply operands of the large-operand multiplication instruction within the hardware multiplier datapath circuit to determine a result of the large-operand multiplication instruction without execution of programmer-selected instructions within the ISA other than the large-operand multiplication instruction.
US08438205B2
In a computing device that calculates a square of an element in a finite field, a vector representation of the element in the finite field is accepted. The vector representation includes a plurality of elements. The computing device performs a multiplication operation on a base field using the accepted elements, and obtains a multiplication value. The multiplication operation is determined by a condition under which the element in the finite field is placed in an algebraic torus. The computing device performs an addition and subtraction operation using the obtained multiplication value and the accepted elements, and obtains a calculation result of the square of the element. The addition and subtraction operation is determined by the condition. The computing device then outputs the calculation result.
US08438204B2
Described embodiments provide an apparatus for calculating an N-point discrete Fourier transform of an input signal having multiple sample values. The apparatus includes at least one input configured to receive the sample values and a counter to count sample periods. Also included are at least two parallel multipliers to multiply each sample value, with each of the multipliers having a corresponding multiplication factor. There is at least one multiplexer to select one of the at least two parallel multipliers. An adder sums the scaled sample values and an accumulator accumulates the summed sample values. N is an integer and the at least two parallel multipliers are selectable based upon the value of N and the value of the sample period count.
US08438194B2
An information processing apparatus that enhances reliability for complete deletion while shortening response time required for the next process to become executable. A request for deletion of a data file stored in a nonvolatile storage medium is issued. Based on the issuance of the deletion request, data composition information is acquired from file management information in the data file requested to be deleted. The acquired data composition information is moved to a complete deletion data file. The file management information in the data file requested to be deleted is completely deleted by overwriting. After the file management information is completely deleted, a data portion corresponding to the data composition information moved to the complete deletion data file is completely deleted by overwriting. After the data portion is completely deleted, the data composition information moved to the complete deletion data file is completely deleted.
US08438191B1
The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or method that facilitates utilizing metadata appended to data related to an industrial automation environment with a controller that is associated with a hierarchically structured data model. An interface component can facilitate receipt of data associated with at least one of an instruction set, a configuration, and a collection. An append component can affix metadata to at least one of the instruction set, the configuration, and the collection, wherein the metadata conforms to a hierarchically structured data model.
US08438183B2
There is provided a method that includes (a) receiving an inquiry to initiate a search for data for a specific individual, (b) determining, based on the inquiry, a strategy and flexible predictiveness equations to search a reference database, (c) searching the reference database, in accordance with the strategy, for a match to the inquiry; and (d) outputting the match. The method may also output flexible feedback related to the match that reflects inferred quality of the match experience which can be used by an end-user to determine the degree to which the matched entity meets that end-user's quality-based criteria. There is also provided a system that performs the method, and a storage medium that contains instructions that control a processor to perform the method.
US08438179B2
A computer-readable portable storage medium storing a trouble handling program for causing a computer to execute a process for knowledgizing past trouble handling cases in information systems, and for recommending handling methods based on trouble handling knowledge obtained by knowledgizing and symptoms of troubles when they occur, including a searching process for obtaining candidates of handling methods for troubles requested to be handled by searching the trouble handling knowledge; a recording process for recording to a storing unit a history of handling methods executed for each symptom as handling history information; a priority assigning process for assigning priorities to the handling method candidates obtained by the searching process, with reference to the handling history information; and a process for returning to a handling request source the handling methods for the troubles requested to be handled after assigning priorities based on priority assignment information obtained by the priority assigning process.
US08438168B2
An exemplary method includes providing a music collection of a particular scale, determining a distance parameter for locality sensitive hashing based at least in part on the scale of the music collection and constructing an index for the music collection. Another exemplary method includes providing a song, extracting snippets from the song, analyzing time-varying timbre characteristics of the snippets and constructing one or more queries based on the analyzing. Such exemplary methods may be implemented by a portable device configured to maintain an index, to perform searches based on selected songs or portions of songs and to generate playlists from search results. Other exemplary methods, devices, systems, etc., are also disclosed.
US08438166B1
Disclosed are various embodiments for pre-computing search results. A series of characters is captured as the characters are entered by a user into a search query form. The series forms a successive plurality of input strings. As each character in the series is entered into the search query form, a successive plurality of search query strings is generated. Each search query string corresponds to one of the input strings. As each search query string is generated, a request is sent to retrieve a search results document corresponding to the search query string. As a response to each request is received, at least a portion of the search results document is displayed if the response indicates success.
US08438165B2
When a user enters an information retrieval query, topic feed is generated for publication or distribution to a set of followers or recipients who have elected to receive the topic feed from the user or based on the subject matter content of the query. The topic feed is distributed and includes the query. The user's interests are tracked based on text in the user's queries and other text in the topic feed that the user interacts with.
US08438162B2
A method for selecting clusterings to classify a predetermined data set of numerical data comprises five steps. First, a plurality of known clustering methods are applied, one at a time, to the data set to generate clusterings for each method. Second, a metric space of clusterings is generated using a metric that measures the similarity between two clusterings. Third, the metric space is projected to a lower dimensional representation useful for visualization. Fourth, a “local cluster ensemble” method generates a clustering for each point in the lower dimensional space. Fifth, an animated visualization method uses the output of the local cluster ensemble method to display the lower dimensional space and to allow a user to move around and explore the space of clustering.
US08438154B2
Online information (such as advertiser Web pages in conjunction with products lists, Web content, existing online ads, etc.), or an electronic version of offline advertisement information, is used to generate online advertising information, such as a landing page, targeting information, and/or ad creative information.
US08438147B2
A system and method for searching for media content. A user profile is received from a user. The user profile identifies preferred media sources. A search request is received from the user including at least one search criteria. The search for media content is based on the at least one search criteria and the user profile. Information regarding the media content found from the search is displayed to the user.
US08438143B2
A printing method and apparatus, a print control method, and a multimedia apparatus are provided. The printing method includes receiving a multimedia file or additional information of the multimedia file from a multimedia apparatus; interpreting the multimedia file or the additional information of the multimedia and obtaining at least one item included in the additional information; and printing the obtained at least one item.
US08438126B2
A method for obtaining an estimator for a distribution pertaining to a dataset is provided. In an illustrative embodiment, the method includes obtaining a dataset; determining a question pertaining to the data; determining an initial estimator descriptive of a distribution of the data; and selectively modifying the initial estimator based on the question, yielding a targeted estimator in response thereto. In a more specific embodiment, selectively modifying the initial estimator includes applying an additional equation and/or a fluctuation function to the initial estimator to yield the targeted estimator, wherein the additional equation or fluctuation function parameter (ε) causes the initial estimator to fluctuate or change as a function of the parameter. The fluctuation function is chosen so that when the parameter ε is set to zero, the initial estimator is not fluctuated. The targeted estimator and a fluctuation function may be employed in an accompanying targeted Bayesian method that involves mapping a prior distribution of a target feature to a posterior distribution of the target feature.
US08438114B2
A digital license includes an identification of a removal service that can authorize removing such license. A client selects the license to be removed and the service, constructs a challenge including therein a challenge license identification block (LIB) identifying the license to be removed, and sends the challenge to the service. The service receives the challenge, stores at least a portion of the challenge in a database, constructs a response corresponding to the challenge and including therein a response LIB identifying the license to be removed and an identification of the service, and sends the response to the client. The client receives the response, employs the response LIB from the response to identify the license to be removed, and removes the identified license upon confirming that the identification of the service in the identified license matches the identification of the service in the response.
US08438111B2
The present invention is an apparatus and method for the money transactions required in the selling of merchandise or media content on the Internet or other public or private network. It can then track and maintain digital rights to merchandise or media. Methods of access to digitally protected content are disclosed. License metadata and credentials from multiple types of digital rights management systems may be used to grant access through a home based or other end-user custodial digital rights “place-chaser” to content protected by different types of serial copy management systems. Content security using a non-audible or invisible code signal sequence(s) can provide traceability as well as absolute anonymity for the purchaser. This apparatus can be used to conduct transactions off the web so that business can be done on the web.
US08438110B2
Embodiments of the invention are directed to methods and apparatuses for conducting financial transactions based on identification of individuals in an augmented reality environment. The method includes capturing a video stream using a mobile computing device; analyzing, using a computing device processor, the video stream to distinguish between individuals and objects; identifying an individual in the video stream; authenticating the identity of the individual; and conducting the transaction after the individual is authenticated. The method may also include presenting indicators associated with the user, the identified individual, or the financial transaction.
US08438105B2
Share of Wallet (“SOW”) is a modeling approach that utilizes various data sources to provide outputs that describe a consumers spending capability, tradeline history including balance transfers, and balance information. These outputs can be appended to data profiles of customers and prospects and can be utilized to support decisions involving prospecting, new applicant evaluation, and customer management across the lifecycle. A SOW score focusing on a consumer's spending capability can be used in the same manner as a credit bureau score.
US08438102B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for processing binary options (also referred to as digital options) in existing clearing systems, such as futures clearing systems. The binary option is treated, or processed, similar to standard options on a non-tradeable cash-settled underlying futures contract. A hypothetical instrument, referred to as a book instrument is created to facilitate clearing of the binary option. The book instrument has an expiration date after the expiration of the binary option, such as the day after the expiration of the binary option. For each binary option that expires in the money, a transaction is created for the book instrument future. The underlying book future has an assigned price that is a fixed amount less that the final price for the underlying statistical or actual value of the binary option at expiration. Transactions are loaded in the clearing system and processed and all positions are liquidated.
US08438098B2
A method of charity funding, using prepaid cards. A winner of a charity lottery is provided with a prepaid card having, as an initial balance, the lottery winnings. As part of the card activation process, the winner is asked whether they would like to donate all or part of their winnings back to the charity. Systems and methods for providing same.
US08438084B1
Verification of an inventory of stored products may be achieved by obtaining an image of the stored products and using text, optical character, and other feature recognition techniques to determine product identification and storage location. A comparison between earlier and current images of the same storage location is used to identify which locations have changed, i.e., from which locations have products been moved, removed, or added. The earlier and current images of the changed locations may be displayed to a user to visually inspect the differences between the images and verify the changes in inventory represented by those differences.
US08438080B1
A learning module of an information retrieval system is configured to automatically learn distinctive characteristics used by different web sites when presenting data variables of interest. The learned information can then be used to identify data variables of interest on arbitrary web pages of the web sites. In one embodiment, the learning process is guided by feeds provided by the web sites that list values for data variables of interest, and by web pages also provided by the web sites. The values of the feeds enable the learning module to identify candidate portions of the web pages that may represent a data variable of interest. Weights are computed for different values of various properties of the candidate portions, aggregated over all the analyzed pages, and used to identify one of the candidate portions as being the best candidates.
US08438078B2
A system for providing supplementary product sales is provided in which a central controller receives a purchase from a card authorization terminal. The purchase includes at least one purchase parameter, such as a customer account identifier, product identifiers for specifying items purchased or product price. The central controller determines a supplementary product to offer that is based on the at least one purchase parameter. A product identifier for specifying the supplementary product is transmitted to the card authorization terminal, where the customer chooses whether to accept the offered supplementary product. The card authorization terminal generates and transmits to the central controller a selection signal indicative of whether the supplementary product is accepted. If the selection signal indicates that the supplementary product is accepted, the central controller adjusts a balance of a financial account in dependence on an adjustment value associated with the supplementary product.
US08438073B2
Devices, systems and methods are disclosed which relate to allowing a recipient of a closed-loop gift card to select one of a number of merchants toward which to apply the value. A consumer buys a variable gift card from a service provider for a set amount, pays the service provider that amount, and the service provider holds that amount in escrow. The consumer sends the gift card to a recipient with a predetermined merchant. The recipient receives the gift card and decides to switch the gift card from the predetermined merchant to a desired merchant. The recipient requests the service provider to change the merchant, and the service provider delivers the amount from escrow to the desired merchant. If the recipient does desire to use the predetermined merchant, the recipient contacts the service provider for activation and the service provider transfers the amount to the predetermined merchant.
US08438067B2
Locations of storage on a rack 70 for arranging and storing medical resources are partitioned by a partition member 75. A medical resource detecting member 73 and a retrieval guidance member 72 are provided in each partition on the rack. By configuring the partition member 75 to be removable from a depression 71 in the rack 70, and by providing an input for configuration in a control unit 30 to designate whether or not the partition member 75 is inserted, the control unit 30 is operable to collectively process medical resource detecting members 73 and retrieval guidance members 72. In this way, a large variety of large and small medical resources can be stored for automatic management.
US08438066B1
A method for authenticating a geo-fencing payment, including receiving based on a wireless protocol of the geo-fencing payment, a payment account number associated with a mobile device of a consumer, wherein the payment account number is sent automatically to a POS device without user intervention when the mobile device is within a pre-determined range of the POS device, receiving a security code and an identifier of a merchandise that are inputted into the POS device by the consumer, determining that the mobile device is within the pre-determined range when the security code and the identifier are received, submitting, to a computer server, a merchandise order comprising a payment amount, the payment account number, and the security code, and receiving an authorization from the computer server to release the merchandise to the consumer based on a consumer profile of the consumer stored in the computer server.
US08438064B2
A payment processing system and method comprising a POS module providing an interface to effect sales of FGS in a retail environment, a device module operatively connected to at least one retail device configured to supply FGS and comprising a card reader adapted to receive a first payment card data for payment for the FGS, wherein the device module is adapted to control operation of the at least one retail device, and a payment system module operatively connected to the POS module and the device module, the payment system module adapted to validate payment for the FGS. The payment system module and the device module are separated from the POS module in order to segment a portion of the payment processing system configured to handle payment card data from a portion of the system that does not handle payment card data.
US08438063B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for mobile payment using picture messaging to deliver an image with an encoded payment key. A mobile device equipped with at least a display and an input is used to connect to a server on the mobile network. Upon authentication of a user of the mobile device, the server generates the payment key, encodes the key in an image, such as a bar code, and transmits the image to the mobile device. The user holds the display of the mobile device up to an optical scanner at a POS terminal. Logic on the POS terminal extracts the payment key from the image, and uses the payment key to bill the user. The POS terminal transmits the bill with the payment key to the server on the network. The server ensures that the key is active, and debits an account for the user based on the amount presented in the bill. The key is de-activated after a specified time period or one use, whichever occurs first.
US08438060B2
An online experience of a user is dynamically configured at the micro-regional level based to achieve an objective associated with sales of a product. A catchment zone is determined, which identifies the geographic region associated with the objective and the product. The online user experience for users in the catchment zone is modified to achieve the objective.
US08438058B2
A method of operating an internet service system comprises receiving a service request, wherein the service request identifies a user and indicates a service requested by the user, selecting a first brand for display on a first section of a web page based on an identity of the user and the service requested by the user, selecting a second brand for display on a second section of the web page based on the identity of the user and the service requested by the user, generating the web page with the first brand and the second brand, and transferring the web page for display to the user with the first brand in the first section of the web page and the second brand in the second section of the web page.
US08438057B2
A client-server architecture allows consumer electronics (CE) devices to obtain advertisements, including TV and network content recommendations, via a unified application programming interface (API). A gateway server between online advertisement providers and CE devices prioritizes and personalizes the advertisements and recommendations for a requesting CE device. This architecture scales over time and evolves more functionality without requiring CE device software updates.
US08438049B2
A computer system for processing data related to a group benefit insurance policy issued to a group policyholder to extend coverage to individual insureds and having a critical illness benefit includes a data storage device storing data indicative of: a plurality of categories of medical diagnoses; a plurality of diagnoses associated with each of the categories; a first occurrence value; a second occurrence value; and prior claims under the critical illness benefit by the insured. The system is configured to provide instructions for payment of the first occurrence value for a first diagnosis of an insured in a category, and the second occurrence value, which is less than the first occurrence value, for a second diagnosis of the insured in the same category.
US08438048B1
A system implemented on one or more computer processors for integrated purchasing of vehicles and vehicle insurance may comprise at least one subsystem configured for electronically receiving vehicle searching criteria, at least one subsystem configured for electronically providing available vehicles based on searching criteria, at least one subsystem configured for electronically receiving a vehicle selection of the provided available vehicles, at least one subsystem configured for automatically providing a financing quote for purchase of the vehicle selected, and at least one subsystem configured for automatically providing an insurance quote for the vehicle selected.
US08438047B2
A system for providing a claims processing environment for facilitating claim adjudication includes a processor for generating an electronic interface configured to enable a user to edit claim data requiring one or more edits and for receiving the one or more edits, and a data storage component for storing the claim data and the received one or more edits, where the processor provides a scripting process based on the required one or more edits for facilitating user entry of the required one or more edits, said scripting process associated with the electronic interface. A method for facilitating claim adjudication includes identifying one or more claim edits required in a set of claim data for the claim data to adjudicate, providing a scripting process based on the required one or more claim edits, said scripting process facilitating entry of the required one or more claim edits, and receiving and validating the received claim edits.
US08438046B2
A method for providing retirement income using mutual fund longevity insurance is provided. A current or prospective retiree can purchase a mutual fund coupled with a longevity product. The longevity product insures against the early exhaustion or termination of the mutual fund, superannuation, or poor market performance of the mutual fund, and could be funded using a qualified annuity, a Roth Individual Retirement Annuity (IRA), or a non-qualified annuity to provide tax advantages. Retirement income is provided for the retiree beginning at retirement. During the life of the mutual fund, periodic withdrawals are taken from the mutual fund and invested in the longevity product. If the retiree reaches a threshold age, the retiree can choose to receive income from the longevity product. Optionally, if the retiree reaches the threshold age and sufficient income is available from the mutual fund, the retiree can continue to receive income from the mutual fund and delay receiving income from the longevity product until a later age. Income from the longevity product can be provided until the death of the retiree. A number of insurance options can be provided, including a pure insurance option, a partial insurance option, or a guaranteed payback option.
US08438045B2
A data processing system is disclosed that provides an efficient market for: (1) the provision of insurance and reinsurance between insurers and those seeking insurance and reinsurance, and (2) the sale of insurance between reinsurers. The data processing system provides an efficient market for the provisioning of insurance and reinsurance that not only invites insurers, insurance seekers, and reinsurers to patronize the system, but whose conventions induce them to patronize the system. An embodiment comprises: receiving at a data processing system an underwriting standard from each of a plurality of insurers; compiling a first set of statistics in the data processing system based on the underwriting standards from each of the plurality of insurers; and outputting from the data processing system the first set of statistics to a selected insurer at a price that is based on a measure of fees earned with respect to the selected insurer.
US08438030B2
A method of and system for automated distortion classification. The method includes steps of (a) receiving audio including a user speech signal and at least some distortion associated with the signal; (b) pre-processing the received audio to generate acoustic feature vectors; (c) decoding the generated acoustic feature vectors to produce a plurality of hypotheses for the distortion; and (d) post-processing the plurality of hypotheses to identify at least one distortion hypothesis of the plurality of hypotheses as the received distortion. The system can include one or more distortion models including distortion-related acoustic features representative of various types of distortion and used by a decoder to compare the acoustic feature vectors with the distortion-related acoustic features to produce the plurality of hypotheses for the distortion.
US08438026B2
The invention describes a method and a system for generating training data (DT) for an automatic speech recogniser (2) for operating at a particular first sampling frequency (fH), comprising steps of deriving spectral characteristics (SL) from audio data (DL) sampled at a second frequency (fL) lower than the first sampling frequency (fH), extending the bandwidth of the spectral characteristics (SL) by retrieving bandwidth extending informationOBE) from a codebook (6), and processing the bandwidth extended spectral characteristics (SLE) to give the required training data (DT). Moreover a method and a system (5) for generating a codebook (6) for extending the bandwidth of spectral characteristics (SL) for audio data (DL) sampled at a second sampling frequency (fL) to spectral characteristics (SH) for a first sampling frequency (fH) higher than the second sampling frequency (fL) are described.
US08438018B2
The present invention relates to speech coding in wireless and wireline communication systems. The present invention provides a method of saving bandwidth by a controlled dropping of speech frames at an encoder in a sending communication device. The dropping is controlled in a manner to minimize the effects on the speech quality after the decoding in the receiving communication device, by assuring that the state mismatch between the encoder and the decoder is removed or at least significantly reduced. This is achieved by letting the encoder run an ECU algorithm with a similar behavior as the one running in the decoder in the receiving communication device.
US08438016B2
A client for silence-based adaptive real-time voice and video (SAVV) transmission methods and systems, detects the activity of a voice stream of conversational speech and aggressively transmits the corresponding video frames if silence in the sending or receiving voice stream has been detected, and adaptively generates and transmits key frames of the video stream according to characteristics of the conversational speech. In one aspect, a coordination management module generates video frames, segmentation and transmission strategies according to feedback from a voice encoder of the SAVV client and the user's instructions. In another aspect, the coordination management module generates video frames, segmentation and transmission strategies according to feedback from a voice decoder of the SAVV client and the user's instructions. In one example, the coordination management module adaptively generates a key video frame when silence is detected in the receiving voice stream.
US08438014B2
According to one embodiment, in a speech processing device, an extractor windows a part of the speech signal and extracts a partial waveform. A calculator performs frequency analysis of the partial waveform to calculate a frequency spectrum. An estimator generates an artificial waveform that is a waveform according to an interval between the pitch marks for each harmonic component having a frequency that is a predetermined multiple of a fundamental frequency of the speech signal and estimates harmonic spectral features representing characteristics of the frequency spectrum of the harmonic component from each of the artificial waveforms. A separator separates the partial waveform into a periodic component produced from periodic vocal-fold vibration as an acoustic source and an aperiodic component produced from aperiodic acoustic sources other than the vocal-fold vibration by using the respective harmonic spectral features and the frequency spectrum of the partial waveform.
US08438008B2
The method of generating a transliteration font allows for the generation and display of a word in a transliteration font, the word including at least one character displayed in an alphabet of a first language, and the transliteration font including at least one embedded character representing a phonetic pronunciation of the word in an alphabet of a second language.
US08438007B1
Systems, methods and computer program products for use in creating a glossary database including user interface string sets extracted from at least one product and their corresponding set identifiers, wherein a set identifier contains context information about a previous use of a user interface string, and for generating a second human language user interface for a product having a first human language user interface, using the glossary database. Creating a glossary database includes extracting a plurality of user interface strings from at least one product, creating a set identifier for each user interface string, and grouping user interface strings having the same set identifier into string sets.
US08438004B2
An imaging device is configured to translate text in an imaging job (e.g., a print job) from one language to another. The imaging job is received from an input device and can be processed upon receipt or stored on the imaging device for later processing. A variable data language translation module distinguishes textual data from graphical data within the imaging job and performs language translation only on the textual data. Performing language translation at the imaging device rather than at the input device permits the shared use of the language translation module between multiple users who already share the imaging device and reduces the need for language translation imaging software on individual personal computers.
US08438003B2
A method of improved simulator processing is provided. The method according to the current invention includes grouping frequently accessed data into one set id to improve memory hierarchy performance. The method further includes simulating predication in a non-predicated architecture to improve CPU performance. The simulated predication includes pseudo-predicated implementation of read-operation vector element access pseudo-predicated implementation of write-operation vector element access, and predicated implementation of multi-way branches with assignment statements having a same left-hand-side (lhs). The method further includes determining a selection path in a multi-sensitive “always” block to reduce taken branches. The multi-sensitive “always” block selection path determination includes generating instance-specific code to save port allocation storage, and generating inlined instance-specific code to combine sensitive actions. The method further includes regenerating code affected by the assignment statement to implement value-change callback.
US08437992B2
A method and apparatus wherein complex physical interactions and collisions are modeled at a high level of detail while reducing the computational demands placed on the processing system. In one embodiment the method comprising the steps of defining a first object and a second object, each object adapted for colliding with the other object; assigning an interaction type for at least one of the first and second object in response to an object parameter; and selecting between a continuous simulation of a collision and a discrete simulation of the collision in response to the interaction type.
US08437990B2
A fluid-flow simulation over a computer-generated aircraft surface is generated using a diffusion technique. The surface is comprised of a surface mesh of polygons. A boundary-layer fluid property is obtained for a subset of the polygons of the surface mesh. A pressure-gradient vector is determined for a selected polygon, the selected polygon belonging to the surface mesh but not one of the subset of polygons. A maximum and minimum diffusion rate is determined along directions determined using a pressure gradient vector corresponding to the selected polygon. A diffusion-path vector is defined between a point in the selected polygon and a neighboring point in a neighboring polygon. An updated fluid property is determined for the selected polygon using a variable diffusion rate, the variable diffusion rate based on the minimum diffusion rate, maximum diffusion rate, and angular difference between the diffusion-path vector and the pressure-gradient vector.
US08437985B2
Implementations for estimating a resource usage of data-filtering program and dynamically installing the filtering programs in a sensor-based data filtering systems are generally disclosed.
US08437975B2
The invention relates to a monitoring system and method for accumulator banks including at least two pressure accumulators, the accumulator bank is coupled to a device and being adapted to provide a pressurized fluid into the device at pressure reductions in said device. The monitoring system comprises at least one sensor for detecting a chosen parameter in the accumulator bank at chosen intervals of time, and a recording unit for recording the sampled measured parameters, a storage device for storing predetermined characteristic information related to the pressure development in the accumulator bank during pressure reductions at the device and representing different numbers of active accumulators in the accumulator bank, and calculation means for comparing the recorded measured parameters with the stored characteristic information, and determining from this comparison the number of active accumulators in the accumulator bank.
US08437971B2
A game apparatus obtains data from an input device including at least a gyroscope and an acceleration sensor, and calculates an orientation of the input device. The game apparatus includes orientation calculation means and correction means. The orientation calculation means calculates a first orientation of the input device in accordance with an angular rate detected by the gyroscope. The correction means corrects the first orientation so as to approach a second orientation of the input device as the angular rate decreases, the second orientation being an orientation in which a direction of an acceleration represented by acceleration data detected by the acceleration sensor is a vertically downward direction.
US08437959B2
A computer-implemented system and method for generating a probabilistic forecast of photovoltaic fleet power generation is provided. A temporal distance between two locations is determined in proportion to cloud speed within a geographic region. Input clearness indexes are generated as a ratio of irradiance observations for one location, and clear sky irradiance. The clearness indexes are ordered into a time series. A clearness index correlation coefficient is determined as a function of temporal distance. The input clearness indexes are weighted by the clearness index correlation coefficient to form a time series of output clearness indexes. Means and standard deviations of both time series are respectively determined and combined into fleet irradiance statistics. Deterministic fleet power statistics are forecast as a function of the fleet irradiance statistics and photovoltaic fleet power rating. A time series of the forecast power statistics is generated by applying a time lag correlation coefficient.
US08437946B2
an intake system control device includes: an acquisition section that acquires an operation condition of an engine; a steady-state value determination section that determines input and output steady-state values for an intake system of the engine based on the acquired operation condition; a gain determination section that determines a gain for a state space model; and a first input calculation section that calculates the intake system input from the acquired operation condition, the input steady-state value, the output steady-state value, and an intake system output by using the state space model having the determined gain.
US08437944B2
A learning value for correcting a basic injection pulse such that an actual air-fuel ratio approximates to a target air-fuel ratio is calculated individually for each injection time number, which is decided according to an operation state of an engine. Thus, even if the number of occurrence(s) of invalid injection time changes with the injection time number and the invalid injection time changes with time, the appropriate learning value can be calculated for each injection time number. If injection from an injector is performed according to an injection pulse corrected with the learning value, the change of the invalid injection time can be absorbed and accuracy of a fuel injection quantity can be improved.
US08437942B2
A fuel injection characteristic sensing device obtains an injection characteristic of a target injector (an injector of each cylinder of a multi-cylinder engine) at each time. The device has a program for sequentially sensing fuel pressure at a sensing point corresponding to a fuel pressure sensor, which is provided at a fuel inlet of each injector, based on an output of the fuel pressure sensor. The device has a program for detecting predetermined timings (injection timings such as an injection start timing and an injection end timing) in a series of operations concerning fuel injection of the injector of each cylinder based on the sequentially sensed fuel pressure. Thus, the injection characteristic at each time including a temporal characteristic change can be obtained.
US08437940B2
In a method for determining, whether a crankshaft of a combustion engine rotating forward after a reverse rotation is oscillating or continues the forward movement, when noticing a reverse rotation of the crankshaft, the covered rotational angle during a reverse rotation is detected, an actual threshold is computed by adding the covered rotational angle and a predetermined safety distance. The rotational angle of the crankshaft rotating immediately forward after a reverse rotation is compared to the actual threshold.
US08437938B2
An axle torque control system includes an axle torque request module that receives an axle torque request and that selectively outputs the axle torque request. An axle torque conversion module receives the axle torque request and converts the axle torque request to an engine torque request. A rate limit module receives the engine torque request and a pedal engine torque request and selectively adjusts the engine torque request based on the pedal engine torque request.
US08437936B2
An Electronic Stability Control (ESC) system for a vehicle is disclosed. An electronic control unit (ECU) is programmed to reduce vehicle lateral skidding by reducing differences between an intended vehicle yaw rate and an actual vehicle yaw rate by applying modifications to operation of the vehicle brakes and/or throttle. The ESC system receives inputs from wheel speed sensors, a steering wheel position sensor, a yaw rate sensor and a lateral acceleration sensor. The ECS system also receives input that indicates at least a property of the road upon which the vehicle is located, wherein the road upon which the vehicle is located is determined from a positioning system that uses a map database and the property is determined from the map database. The ESC system incorporates the road property information in determining when and/or how to modify operation of the vehicle to reduce vehicle skidding.
US08437927B2
An engine control system includes a combustion torque determination module, a friction torque determination module, and a control module. The combustion torque determination module determines a combustion torque of an engine based on pressure inside a cylinder of the engine during an engine cycle. The friction torque determination module determines friction torque of the engine based on the combustion torque, acceleration of an engine crankshaft, effective inertia of the engine crankshaft, and a pumping loss in the cylinder during the engine cycle. The control module adjusts an operating parameter of the engine based on the friction torque.
US08437919B2
A vehicle includes at least one reconfigurable system having a plurality of selectively variable parameters, and a controller that is operatively connected to the at least one reconfigurable system to control the values of the plurality of selectively variable parameters. The controller is also configured to receive data indicative of physical characteristics of a person from at least one data storage medium, and configured to determine values of the selectively variable parameters according to a predetermined algorithm based on the data indicative of physical characteristics of a person. The controller is also configured to cause the selectively variable parameters to assume the determined values.
US08437914B2
A system and method are disclosed for controlling a vehicle during a turn in which a braking torque is applied to an inside wheel of the vehicle when understeer is detected and to an outside wheel when oversteer is detected. Electrical energy commanded to an electric motor coupled to a first axle of the vehicle is increased in response to application of the braking torque to compensate for the applied braking torque.
US08437909B2
A computer program product includes a storage medium that stores instructions for execution by a processing circuit for practicing a method for synchronous communication in a control system. Within a first time interval, a first source task is executed to broadcast a first destination task, within a second sequential time interval, the first destination task is communicated over a channel to a first destination, and within a third sequential time interval, the first destination task is consumed. Within the first time interval, a second source task may be executed to broadcast a second destination task, within the second sequential time interval, the second destination task may be communicated over the channel to a second destination, and within the third sequential time interval, the second destination task may be consumed. The first source task is allowed to be scheduled ahead of the second source task, and the second source task is allowed to be scheduled ahead of the first source task.
US08437908B2
A computer system that installs in the proximity of the vehicle's operator, attaches to the battery power source in the vehicle's wiring harness, gathers information relating to the operational state of the vehicle's battery, calculates the health of the battery from the gathered information, provides the health and operational state of the battery to the vehicle's operator and can include the means for supporting non-battery related functions.
US08437905B2
A method of calculating deflection of a rotating tire, through high speed data processing, based on measurement time series data of acceleration on a tire tread portion has the following steps. A step of acquiring measurement time series data of acceleration on a tire circumference in a radial direction of a rotating tire; a step of extracting acceleration data in a vicinity of a contact region from the acquired measurement data and subjecting the extracted acceleration data to least-square regression using a second-order differential function expression of a deflection function expression that represents a peak shape having a peak value and a curve gradually approaching to zero on both sides thereof, whereby a deflection function parameter values are determined; and a step of calculating a contact deflection from the deflection function expression determined by the deflection function parameter values.
US08437892B1
A method of establishing a formation of a plurality of directionally fixed satellites, such as primary formation of the satellites with in-track velocity disparity. The plurality of satellites includes an anchor satellite and at least one non-anchor satellite, each satellite of the plurality of satellites including at least one drag flap, each satellite of the plurality of satellites being free of one of a propulsion system and an expendable mass propellant. Control is applied to deploy the at least one drag flap of the at least one non-anchor satellite based on the current spacing and the current separation rate of the each non-anchor satellite, and the predicted final spacing of the plurality of satellites. The final spacing predicting and the drag flap control applying is repeated until the current separation rate has been nulled to within a threshold value.
US08437887B2
The invention relates to a method for optimizing the fuel consumption of an aircraft during flight. At a given point of the flight, a fuel excess (EXTRA) is determined relative to the statutory loads depending on the flight profile and weather conditions forecast for the rest of the flight. If the excess (EXTRA) is less than a given value (EXTRA-mini), for at least one of the forthcoming flight phases ({circle around (1)}, {circle around (2)}, {circle around (3)}), the speed of the aircraft is adjusted so as to increase the excess (EXTRA).
US08437886B1
A vehicle use control system and method are provided. The vehicle use control system includes a vehicle unlocking unit, a vehicle control unit, and at least one mobile communication unit. One mobile communication unit transmits a request to use a vehicle to the vehicle unlocking unit. The vehicle unlocking unit receives the request and generates a first prompt to a key holder which prompts whether to accept the request, and if an approval is received, the vehicle unlocking unit generates a first authentication information to the vehicle control unit and the mobile communication unit. The mobile communication unit acquires a second authentication information in response to user input to the vehicle control unit. If the second authentication information matches the first authentication information, the vehicle control unit unlocks the vehicle and allows the vehicle to be started up.
US08437885B1
A system and method of use is provided that includes: receiving configuration information from an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV); automatically configuring a launch control console (LCC) according to the configuration information; and providing a graphical interface for a user to command the UUV to perform at least one task. The automatic configuration includes formatting commands and the graphical interface to suit a vehicle type and components of the UUV. Other embodiments include: aligning a navigation system in the UUV; selecting a mission; activating components in the UUV corresponding to the mission; and launching the UUV on the mission. Further embodiments include: downloading at least one preset associated with the UUV; modifying the presets; and displaying a status of components and a log of messages on the graphical interface.
US08437878B2
The disclosure provides an HVAC data processing and communication network and a method of manufacturing the same. In one embodiment the network includes a system device and a user interface. The system device is configured to generate and locally store an alarm record in response to an alarm event. The system device is further configured to receive an alarm request message via a data bus. In response to receiving the alarm request message, the system device is configured to publish an alarm reporting message over the data bus. The user interface is configured to receive the alarm message and display an alert depending on a state of the flag.
US08437877B2
The disclosure provides a system and method of retrieving data for an active subnet controller of a subnet in an HVAC network. In an embodiment, a device on said subnet reports a loss of internal memory settings to said active subnet controller. The device is recognized by the active subnet controller. At least one list of parameters is requested from the device by the active subnet controller. An order of said at least one list of parameters is employed to convey corresponding stored values of these parameters from the active subnet controller to the coupled device.
US08437871B2
A method comprises steps of: providing body-outlining parameters; editing the body-outlining parameters; creating a body with the edited body-outlining parameters on a window for the digital clothing; and visualizing the created body on the window for the digital clothing. The step of providing the body-outlining parameters may comprise steps of providing: a stature; a crotch height; a head length; an arm length; a bust girth; a waist girth; a head girth; a upper arm girth; a lower arm girth; a knee girth; and a lower leg girth. The step of editing the body-outlining parameters may comprise steps of editing: providing a number for setting a parameter value; and sliding a visual bar on the window for the digital clothing.
US08437867B2
Devices and methods of use for introduction and implantation of an electrode as part of a minimally invasive technique. An implantable baroreflex activation system includes a control system having an implantable housing, an electrical lead, attachable to the control system, and an electrode structure. The electrode structure is near one end of the electrical lead, and includes a monopolar electrode, a backing material having an effective surface area larger than the electrode, and a releasable pivotable interface to mate with an implant tool. The electrode is configured for implantation on an outer surface of a blood vessel and the control system is programmed to deliver a baroreflex therapy via the monopolar electrode to a baroreceptor within a wall of the blood vessel.
US08437866B2
An internally connected interconnect for an electrode and method for forming same.
US08437865B2
A shielded component or network for an active medical device (AMD) implantable lead includes (1) an implantable lead having a length extending from a proximal end to a distal end, all external of an AMD housing, (2) a passive component or network disposed somewhere along the length of the implantable lead, the passive component or network including at least one inductive component having a first inductive value, and (3) an electromagnetic shield substantially surrounding the inductive component or the passive network. The first inductive value of the inductive component is adjusted to a account for a shift in its inductance to a second inductive value when shielded.
US08437859B1
A hearing prosthesis includes both a hearing aid adapted to sense and amplify low frequency acoustic sound signals and a cochlear implant system adapted to sense high frequency acoustic sound signals. The hearing aid has a first microphone adapted to sense the low frequency acoustic sound signals, amplify these sensed low frequency acoustic sound signals, and present the resulting amplified low frequency acoustic sound signals in the ear canal of a user, thereby enabling the user to better hear these amplified sounds using his or her normal hearing processes. The cochlear implant system includes a second microphone adapted to sense the high frequency acoustic sound signals and selectively stimulate the inner ear with electrical stimulation that will be perceived as high frequency acoustic sound signals. Both the cochlear implant system and the hearing aid system are coupled to operate on the same ear of the user. Feedback within the hearing aid portion of the system is eliminated by positioning the first microphone at a location that is acoustically remote from the ear canal where the amplified low frequency acoustic sound signals are presented. High frequency acoustic sound signals are better sensed by placing the second microphone at a location that is in or near the ear canal where the amplified low frequency acoustic sound signals are presented.
US08437857B2
A neurostimulation paddle lead, method of neurostimulation, and neurostimulation system are provided. The neurostimulation paddle lead carries a plurality of electrodes comprising at least four columns of electrodes having a spacing between two inner electrode columns less than a spacing between the inner electrode columns and adjacent outer electrode columns. The inner electrode columns may also be longitudinally offset from the outer electrode columns. The methods and neurostimulation systems steer current between the electrodes to modify a medial-lateral electrical field created adjacent spinal cord tissue.
US08437851B2
The disclosure describes techniques for diagnosing premature contractions of a patient's heart. This system may differentiate premature atrial contractions (PACs) and premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) from atrial fibrillation by identifying changes in R-wave intervals, i.e., R-R intervals, on a Lorenz plot, measuring a coupling interval between R-waves, and analyzing a morphology of the premature contractions, e.g., the QRS complex. These techniques may also identify when severe premature contractions, or bigeminy, are present. In response to the type of premature contractions detected, the system may alert a user of the premature contractions and/or deliver cardiac pacing at an increased pacing rate to eliminate the abnormal intrinsic contractions. The system may also adjust the pacing rate and pacing rate duration for persistent premature contractions.
US08437844B2
A new method, system and apparatus is provided that enables muscle signals that correspond to muscle contractions to be mapped to one or more functions of an electronic device such as a prosthetic device or gaming apparatus. Muscle signals are classified in real-time from self-selected intentional movements. A self-training protocol allows users to select and label their own muscle contractions, and is operable to automatically determine the discernible and repeatable muscle signals generated by the user. A visual display means is used to provide visual feedback to users illustrating the responsiveness of the system to muscle signals generated by the user.
US08437840B2
The present disclosure is directed to the classification of cardiac episodes using an algorithm. In various examples, an episode classification algorithm evaluates electrogram signal data collected by an implantable medical device. The episode classification algorithm may classify may include a sinus template and a comparison of the electrogram signal to the sinus template. Possible classifications of the cardiac episode may include, for example, unknown, inappropriate, appropriate, supraventricular tachycardia, ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation or ventricular over-sensing.
US08437839B2
Systems and methods are provided in the disclosure for estimating a risk of arrhythmia in a patient using electrocardiographic analysis. In certain aspects, a method of estimating a risk of arrhythmia in a patient is provided. The method comprises receiving electrocardiographic signals of the patient from a plurality of leads over a plurality of heart beats, averaging the electrocardiographic signals to produce an averaged electrocardiographic signal, and determining deflections in the averaged electrocardiographic signal, wherein each deflection has an amplitude and a duration. The method further comprises determining a significance of each deflection based on whether the amplitude of that deflection exceeds a threshold, and estimating a risk of arrhythmia in the patient based on at least one of a number, the amplitudes, and the durations of the significant deflections within a portion of the averaged electrocardiographic signal.
US08437831B2
A method is disclosed for operating a hybrid medical imaging unit including a first imaging device of relatively high spatial resolution and a second nuclear medicine imaging device of relatively high sensitivity that respectively acquire imaging measurement signals from a common examination volume. In at least one embodiment, the method includes determining the duration of the measurement signal acquisition of one imaging device as a function of the duration of the measurement signal acquisition of the other imaging device, which is defined by the occurrence of a specific truncation criterion.
US08437827B2
The present disclosure provides electrode structures and integrated electrode structures having one or more conductive materials coextruded with one or more dielectric materials. The disclosed electrode structures can be configured for use as analyte sensors. Also provided, are methods of making and using the electrode structures and integrated electrode structures described herein.
US08437812B2
An active-noise-reduction (ANR) headset includes at least one auxiliary connection to an output of at least one device, such as a personal communications, computing, and/or entertainment device. An exemplary headset also includes a primary connection to an aircraft two-way radio or public-address system and circuitry for automatically suppressing or muting the volume of an auxiliary input signal relative to that of a primary input signal. Other exemplary features include a headset power supply, a microphone, a microphone preamplifier, and a device-detection circuit. The device-detection circuit selectively couples the power supply to the microphone preamplifier, enabling it to provide audio signals to the microphone input of the auxiliary device.
US08437811B2
An input/output hall structure for a sound device in a portable terminal includes a main hole and a plurality of sub-holes. The main hole is provided in a case frame forming the exterior of the portable terminal to be exposed to the exterior, and inputs/outputs sound. The plurality of sub-holes is branched from the main hole and communicates with the main hole. The sub-hole and a corresponding sound device communicate sound. The structure reduces the number of holes for inputting/outputting sound of a sound device and provides a more elegant appearance with improved function. A plurality of sound devices can input/output through the main hole and branched configuration of sub-holes.
US08437809B2
A mobile communication terminal in accordance with the present invention includes a first wireless communication unit 102 corresponding to a first wireless communication system, an interface 107 detachably connecting an external apparatus 200, a determination unit 111 for determining whether or not the external apparatus 200 connected to the interface 107 corresponds to a second wireless communication system and is a second wireless communication unit 202 consuming less power than the first wireless communication unit 102, a battery voltage detection unit 104 for detecting battery voltage of a power supply unit 103 containing a battery and a control unit 111 for controlling the first wireless communication unit 102 to be in a disabled state when the first wireless communication unit 102 is communicating and the battery voltage detected by the battery voltage detection unit 104 is equal to or less than the predetermined value in the case where connection of the second wireless communication unit 202 is determined by the determination unit 111. Thus multimode communication depending on the battery voltage can be executed efficiently without causing unexpected circumstances to the user.
US08437807B2
An apparatus may include a device and an image projection system configured to form an image on a surface viewable by a user. The image projection circuit may be configured to receive signals from the device, generate a pattern representative of data, process the pattern into a mirror image of the image, and project the mirror image from the device. The image projection system may include an electro optic system for generating the pattern, and an optics system for projecting the mirror image onto the surface. A method for projecting data may include providing the device with the image, and providing the image to the surface with the image projection system. The method may also include manipulating the device and/or a body part to locate and focus the image, sensing an orientation of the device, and orienting the image based, at least in part, on the sensing step.
US08437804B2
A dialing method of a mobile phone having no physical keyboard is provided. The dialing method includes the following steps. Firstly, a dialing instruction is enabled. Then, a virtual keyboard and a voice recognition module are enabled according to the dialing instruction, so as to receive an input datum from a user. Further, the mobile phone performs a dialing function selected by the user.
US08437803B2
A base station and a mobile station, the base station includes common antennas configured to transmit signals to all mobile stations (UEs) served by the base station; a special antenna to transmit a signal to a UE which is served by the base station and supports the special antenna; a sub-frame selecting unit to select a sub-frame for transmitting a common pilot of the special antenna in the current frame; a resource block (RB) selecting unit to select a RB for transmitting the common pilot, in the sub-frame for transmitting the common pilot selected by the sub-frame selecting unit; a notifying unit to notify the sub-frame and RB for transmitting the common pilot antenna selected by the UE supporting the special antenna in a cell; and a transmitting unit to transmit a signal having the common pilot in the RB selected by the RB selecting unit.
US08437798B2
A method in a wireless communication terminal that supports aggregated carrier access including determining power headroom for a first carrier based on first carrier control information, determining power headroom for at least one additional carrier based on the first carrier control information, and transmitting a power headroom report based on the power headroom of the first carrier or the power headroom of the at least one additional carrier.
US08437791B2
A method and system for controlling a talk time for a PoC user is provided, capable of freely extending and using the talk time according to whether there is a floor requester or a priority when a talker obtains a floor during PoC communication. The method includes determining whether a talk limit time of a PoC client that is transferring a talk burst is close at hand; when the talk time limit is close at hand, determining whether or not a floor requester who makes a request for a floor is in a floor list for storing the floor requester; and when the floor requester is not in the floor list, extending the talk time and transferring the talk burst.
US08437787B2
A mobile communication device includes antennas, transmitting units, and receiving units. A baseband processing unit of the mobile communication device transmits data signals to a base station device through a receiving unit and an antenna that are selected based on an instruction received from the base station device. The baseband processing unit transmits reference signals to the base station device through the transmitting units and the antennas while preventing transmission frequencies of the reference signals from overlapping one another. A baseband processing unit of the base station device transmits, to the mobile communication device based on qualities of the received reference signals, a signal indicating information concerning which of the antennas and the transmitting units of the mobile communication device are used for transmitting the data signals, the signal also indicating information concerning whether or not to make the transmitting units and the antennas share transmission of the reference signals. Thus, interferences due to degradation of communication quality and to an increase in the number of reference signals can be prevented.
US08437782B2
The present invention relates to the field of paging terminals within a communication network. In order to contact a group of terminals, a common group identification is allocated to each of the terminals within said group. Thereafter, a paging message is created comprising said common group identification. The paging message is then transmitted to all terminals within said group by a single paging operation.
US08437775B2
Methods and arrangements in a first network node, a second radio network node and a mobile terminal for enabling estimation of a position of a mobile terminal are provided. The first network node receives a request for estimating the position of the mobile terminal. The first network node determines a first set of radio network nodes including the second radio network node and two additional radio network nodes. The first network node determines positioning signals for transmission from radio network nodes of the first set to the mobile terminal. The first network node instructs each of the radio network nodes of the first set to transmit the positioning signal, associated therewith, to the mobile terminal.
US08437766B2
Embodiments of the invention relate to wireless communications networks, and more specifically to an antenna apparatus for cellular wireless systems. Increasing data capacity of cellular wireless systems places increasing demands on the capacity of the two way connection, known as backhaul, between a cellular base station and a telecommunications network such as the PSTN backhaul, since this is the connection that has to convey the wireless-originating traffic to its destination, often in an entirely different network. Known backhaul links include leased lines, microwave links, optical fibre links or radio resources for relaying backhaul traffic between base stations. The fixed line solutions are expensive to implement and maintain, while the radio solutions antenna configurations that are not ideal for relaying data between base stations. In embodiments of the invention, communication between base stations occurs in a first timeslot by use of a first antenna system and communication between a given base station and a user equipment occurs in a second timeslot using a second antenna system. The benefit of this method is that the first antenna system can be optimised for use in communication between base stations, whereas the second antenna system can be optimised for communication with user equipment which preferably occurs within the area of cellular wireless coverage of the sector served by the second antenna system.
US08437762B2
A mobile station may include a standard transmit pulse-shaping filter, a standard receive pulse-shaping filter, a narrower transmit pulse-shaping filter, and a narrower receive pulse-shaping filter. A femtocell base station may include a narrower transmit pulse-shaping filter and a narrower receive pulse-shaping filter. The mobile station may utilize the narrower transmit pulse-shaping filter for transmitting uplink signals and the narrower receive pulse-shaping filter for receiving downlink signals when it is receiving service from the femtocell base station. The mobile station may utilize the standard transmit pulse-shaping filter for transmitting uplink signals and the standard receive pulse-shaping filter for receiving downlink signals when it is receiving service from a macrocell base station.
US08437748B2
A method for managing a voice call while simultaneously running a data application on a handset having a display includes determining whether the display on the handset is on or off; and if the display is off, then suspending data transfer supporting the data application. Other conditions for suspending data transfer include whether an application is in the foreground of the display; whether the handset is in proximity to a user's head, or if network reception quality exceeds a threshold.
US08437746B1
A system is provided for contact information rights management. The system includes a processor, a memory, and a management component stored in the memory. When executed by the processor, the management component provides contact information associated with a first communication device to a second communication device in response to a first input provided by one of an interface of the first communication device and an interface of a third communication device. The management component also deletes the contact information from the second communication device in response to a second input provided by one of the interface of the first communication device and the interface of the third communication device.
US08437738B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for implementing mobile device-based bandwidth throttling. In one aspect, a method includes receiving policy from a wireless carrier that specifies one or more data usage thresholds allotted by the wireless carrier for data transferred over a wireless carrier network during a predetermined period of time, determining an amount of data that has been transferred by the mobile device over the wireless carrier network during the predetermined period of time, determining that the amount exceeds one or more of the data usage thresholds, and throttling the bandwidth of a mobile device over the wireless carrier network based on determining that the amount exceeds one or more of the data usage thresholds.
US08437733B2
A mobile terminal for implementing monitoring management is disclosed in the present invention. The mobile terminal includes a user danger level monitoring platform configured to adapt to a monitored current situation of a user, enable a corresponding danger level and take a corresponding rescue measure. A method for implementing monitoring management is also disclosed in the present invention. The method includes adapting to a monitored current situation of a user, enabling a corresponding danger level and taking a corresponding rescue measure. With the mobile terminal and the method of the present invention, it is possible to monitor the user request for help in real time and to take the corresponding rescue measures in time according to the different needs faced by the user, and win the rescue time.
US08437730B2
The subject matter disclosed herein relates to adaptive quality of service for a wireless communication device.
US08437708B2
A mobile telephone performs communication by transmitting voice, which is inputted by a speaker into a communication apparatus having a floor, via a server, to one or more communication devices of one or more listener(s) having no floor. A transmitter transmits a request signal, which requests an acquisition of a floor, to the server (Step S104) when a predetermined operation is performed by a user (Step S103: YES). A receiver receives both a permission signal, which is transmitted from the server in response to the request signal for permitting the acquisition of a floor, and numerical information, which is transmitted from the server, indicating the number of communication apparatuses of the listener(s) (Step S101 and S106). An informing control subunit performs different informing controls in accordance with the number indicated by the numerical information when the receiver receives the permission signal (Step S107 to S109).
US08437706B2
Aspects of a method and system for transmission or reception of signals utilizing a DDFS clocked are provided. A first oscillator signal utilized for transmission and/or reception of signals of a first wireless communication protocol may be generated, and a direct digital frequency synthesizer (DDFS) may be clocked by the first oscillator signal to generate one or more second oscillator signals. The one or more second oscillator signals may be modulated to generate a signal adhering to a second wireless communication protocol. The one or more second oscillator signals may be utilized to demodulate signals of the second wireless communication protocol. A control word input to the DDFS may control a frequency of the one or more second oscillator signals generated by the DDFS. Simultaneous transmission and reception of signals of the second wireless communication protocol may be simulated by switching the control word input to the DDFS between two values.
US08437702B2
A wireless digital communication system includes a base station in communication with a plurality of user equipment mobile terminals (UEs). The system prioritizes the forwarding of blocks of downlink data to designated ones of the UEs. The system employs adaptive modulation and coding (AM&C) to achieve improved radio resource utilization and provides optimum data rates for user services. Blocks of downlink (DL) data are received by the base station which requests downlink (DL) channel quality measurements only from those mobile terminals (UEs) with pending downlink transmissions. The UEs respond to the request by measuring and reporting DL channel quality to the base station, which then allocates resources such that the UEs will make best use of radio resources. The base station notifies the UEs of the physical channel allocation indicating the modulation/coding rate and allocated slots followed by transmission of blocks of downlink data which are transmitted to the UEs.
US08437688B2
A system and method for generating a test and an answer key to identify correct answers is disclosed. A test can be created by entering a set of questions with answer choices and correct answers at the same time. The tests can be rendered via a rendering device that includes both the questions and the answer choices. A ticket can be generated that drives a CNC (computer numerically control) machine to create a punched answer key with holes that align over correct answers. The answer key can also be rendered on a transparency utilizing a solid color everywhere except an area where the correct answer should be marked. The test and the answer key can also be rendered and aligned side by side in order to identify correct answers.
US08437686B2
An image forming system includes: a decurl section which corrects a curl on a sheet on which an image has been formed; a sheet ejection section on which the sheet to be ejected is stacked; a finishing section which conducts post processing on the sheet on which the image has been formed and ejects the sheet on the sheet ejection section; and an operation and display section having a setting screen for setting a post-processing condition and a selection screen for selecting a decurl direction to be corrected by the decurl section. A selection section that selects the decurl direction given by the decurl section, and a decurl image that shows a decurl direction on the sheet ejection section for the sheet, are indicated on the selection screen, and the selection section and the decurl image are displayed on the same selection screen.
US08437682B2
An image forming apparatus that can detect a leading edge of a tabbed sheet after skew correction with high accuracy and without increasing a size of the apparatus. A transfer unit transfers a toner image to the sheet, the skew of which having been corrected based on a detection result of a first skew detection unit, while the toner image is controlled to be synchronized with the sheet based on the detection result of the first skew detection unit and a detection result of a second skew detection unit.
US08437680B2
A developer includes a waste toner container having a cleaning member to clean a photoconductive drum, and a waste toner transporting member to transport waste toner from the photoconductive drum to a waste toner storage area. The waste toner transporting member is moved up, down, forward, and backward by a rotation member having an eccentricity unit. As the rotation member rotates, the waste toner transporting member, which is connected to the eccentricity unit, moves up, down, forward, and backward.
US08437677B2
A protecting agent-supplying device which supplies, to an image bearing member, an image bearing member-protecting agent for protecting the image bearing member, wherein the image bearing member-protecting agent contains at least a fatty acid zinc salt and boron nitride, and wherein the protecting agent-supplying device supplies the image bearing member-protecting agent to the image bearing member so that the amount of zinc (Zn) present on a surface of the image bearing member satisfies the relation 0.4≦Zn≦2.5 (Atomic %) and the amount of boron (B) present on the surface of the image bearing member satisfies the relation 0.2≦B≦30.2 (Atomic %).
US08437674B2
A heating member includes a resistive heating layer disposed on an outermost layer of the heating member, where the resistive heating layer includes a conductive filler distributed in a base material and where the resistive heating layer emits heat when supplied with an electric current from an electrode, and a contacting unit which exposes the conductive filler of the resistive heating layer and contacts the electrode.
US08437670B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member for bearing a toner image; an endless rotatable intermediary transfer belt onto which the toner image is to be transferred from the image bearing member; a transfer device disposed at a position in which the transfer device opposes the image bearing member through the intermediary transfer belt, the transfer device including a sheet member surface-contacted to an inner surface of the intermediary transfer belt and including an urging member for urging the sheet member toward the intermediary transfer belt; and a primary transfer voltage source for applying a voltage to the sheet member.
US08437656B2
A charger includes: a discharge wire extending in a predetermined extension direction; an opposite electrode extending in the extension direction and facing to the discharge wire; a frame configured to support the discharge wire and the opposite electrode; and a cleaning member configured to move in the extension direction while slidably contacting with the opposite electrode so as to clean the opposite electrode. The cleaning member includes: a sheet-like member contacting with the opposite electrode; and a support member configured to support the sheet-like member. The sheet-like member has a distal end contacting with the opposite electrode, and a proximal end at an opposite end of the distal end. The support member supports the sheet-like member obliquely relative to the opposite electrode such that the distal end and the proximal end of the sheet-like member are arranged in different positions with respect to the extension direction.
US08437655B2
Provided is an imaging unit, including: a developing unit having a developing roller and a first abutting member; a photosensitive unit having a photosensitive drum and a second abutting member, a gap between the photosensitive drum and the developing roller being set constant by bringing the first abutting member into abutting contact with the second abutting member; a cleaner configured to be disposed in a space between the first and the second abutting members in a separate state where the first abutting member is spaced away from the second abutting member; and a displacement unit configured to displace the cleaner from the space as the first abutting member is brought close to the second abutting member. In the displacement, the displacement unit causes the cleaner to slide on an abutting surface of at least one of the first and the second abutting members.
US08437647B2
An image forming apparatus includes: an image forming unit; a toner bottle and a paper feed tray; sensors rendered operable immediately after the image forming apparatus is powered on, outputting detection signals that assume different values depending on whether remaining amount of toner or recording paper is lower than a prescribed value; a main control unit, rendered operable after a prescribed activating process after power-on of the image forming apparatus, for controlling the image forming unit; and an alarm device including an LED that is turned on to give an alarm if any consumable supply such as toner is in a near end state, in response to an output from the sensors.
US08437641B2
A system and method for regenerating a client clock signal for use in optical communications is disclosed. The system and method involves using a carrier clock signal and a client clock signal to calculate quantities of data that are received and transmitted at an edge node and then adjusting a clock source in response to the difference between the calculated quantities of received and transmitted data.
US08437638B2
An optical modulator and an optical transmission system convert continuous light of a multiple wavelength light source, which generates the continuous light with a fixed and complete phase but different frequencies, to a modulator driving signal so as to generate a light subcarrier with each frequency at the center and modulate the continuous light to the light subcarrier by using the modulator driving signal. In the case where an optical modulation is carried out by an optical IQ-modulator, transmitting data, for example, is converted to two parallel data A(t) and B(t), an I phase signal, in which the data A(t)+B(t) are modulated with a clock signal with a frequency ω, and a Q phase signal, in which the data A(t)−B(t) are modulated with a clock signal with a π/2 phase shifted, are generated, and the I phase signal and the Q phase signal are applied to electrodes of the optical IQ-modulator, respectively.
US08437634B2
In a wavelength selective optical switch device that disperses a WDM light beam according to their wavelengths. Dispersed light beams is applied to a wavelength selecting element. Incident light beams are separately reflected in different directions according to their wavelengths by use of the multi-level optical phased array. In the optical phased array, even when the number of multi levels is small, by setting the maximum phase shift amount of the phased array to be at least 1.5 π and less than 2.0 π, wavelength dependence is reduced, thereby reducing crosstalk. In this manner, the wavelength dependence, in turn, crosstalk can be reduced.
US08437630B2
A camera housing for underwater use comprising a turbulence-reducing design, a recess for mounting a camera, attachment means, and stabilizing outer shell and keel design.
US08437607B2
With this invention, at least one of a video file containing video information, a still picture file containing still picture information, and an audio file containing audio information and a management file having management information on a control method of reproducing the information in the file are recorded on an information storage medium. This realizes a data structure that causes the recording and deleting places on the information storage medium to correspond spuriously to places on a single tape, such as a VTR tape. Use of the data structure provides users with an easy-to-use interface.
US08437602B2
An information processing apparatus is provided that includes a control unit to execute an operating system and selectively output a first video signal or both the first video signal and a first audio signal, an external input unit to which an external content signal containing a second video signal and a second audio signal transmitted from an external apparatus is input, and a reproduction state switch control unit to selectively switch a first reproduction state for reproducing the first video signal or both the first video signal and the first audio signal, and a second reproduction state for reproducing the second video signal and the second audio signal, wherein, if input of the external content signal to the external input unit is detected during a reproduction standby state, the reproduction state switch control unit switches the reproduction standby state with the second reproduction state.
US08437594B2
A holey fiber includes a core portion located at a center of the holey fiber, and a cladding portion located around the core portion, the cladding portion having holes formed in layers around the core portion. The holes are arranged so as to form a triangular lattice while d/Λ is within a range of 0.33 to 0.43, Λ is within a range of 10.5 micrometers to 15 micrometers when a hole diameter is d in micrometer and a lattice constant of the triangular lattice is Λ in micrometer, and in a wavelength of 1550 nanometer, an effective core-area is equal to or greater than 130 μm2, a bending loss in a case of bending the holey fiber at a bend diameter of 20 millimeters is equal to or less than 200 dB/m, and the holey fiber demonstrates a single-mode operation.
US08437590B1
A device is disclosed. The device contains a first electro-optical waveguide comprising at least one first grating, a second electro-optical waveguide comprising at least one second grating, a plurality of electrodes disposed adjacent to the first grating and configured to impose an electric field through the first electro-optical waveguide to modify spectra of the first grating, a fiber amplifier configured to propagate a laser radiation between the first electro-optical waveguide and the second electro-optical waveguide, and at least two circulators associated with the fiber amplifier and the first electro-optical waveguide and the second electro-optical waveguide and configured to provide unidirectional propagation of the laser radiation along the fiber amplifier.
US08437588B2
Optical vector vortex beams may be generated from few-mode or multi-mode optical fiber by introducing linearly or circularly polarized light into the fiber. By adjusting at least one of the polarization of the light, the incident angle of the light coupled into the fiber, and the length of the fiber, one or more vector modes supported by the fiber may be selected. The resulting output from the fiber may be a vortex beam that can be collimated and used for precise manipulation of objects on order of a micrometer or a nanometer in diameter.
US08437587B2
A method of one aspect may include actuating a cantilevered optical fiber by mechanically deforming a piezoelectric actuator. An electrical signal generated as a result of mechanical deformation of the piezoelectric actuator may also be detected.
US08437576B2
An image forming method includes receiving an image, detecting a text area from the image, transforming the detected text area into a binary image and calculating an asymmetry parameter of the binary image, and detecting orientation of the image based on the calculated asymmetry parameter.
US08437574B2
An image processing apparatus includes: a receiving unit for receiving an additional image data to be overlaid on an output image, a modification unit for modifying the additional image data received by the receiving unit so as to shorten the processing time of converting the additional image into a binary image compared with before it modified, a storage unit for storing the additional image data modified by the modification unit, a converting unit for converting the modified additional image data stored in the storage unit into a binary image data when instruction of overlaying the additional image on the output image has been done, and a drawing unit for drawing the binarized additional image data converted by the converting unit on the output image.
US08437573B1
Methods and systems for mask generation for an image or video are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method for creating a mask associated with an image includes receiving a first input of pixels of the image to be included in the mask. The method further includes receiving a second input of pixels of the image to not be included in the mask. The method also includes creating a classifier to classify each pixel of the image as included in the mask, not included in the mask, or unsure. The method also includes training the classifier using the first input of pixels and the second input of pixels. The method further includes classifying each pixel of the image as included in the mask, not included in the mask, or unsure.
US08437570B2
A method of geodesic image and video processing is proposed. In an embodiment, the method uses a geodesic distance transform to construct an image filter. The filter can be used in a variety of image editing operations such as segmentation, denoising, texture smoothing, image stitching and cartooning. In one embodiment, the method may be made efficient by utilizing parallelism of the algorithm to carry out processing steps on at least two processing cores concurrently. This efficiency may enable high-resolution images and video to be processed at ‘real time’ rates without the need for specialist hardware.
US08437557B2
An image may be accepted from a vendor, and the image may be submitted to an image analysis system. The image analysis system may determine whether the image is a not found image or a true image. The determination may occur in a variety of ways by examining the color and intensity characteristics of an image. After the analysis, a determination is received from the image analysis system of whether the image is a not found image or a true image.
US08437556B1
Described is a system for identifying a concealed object of interest. The system is initialized by receiving an image in grayscale. The image is processed image to identify feature rich regions, which are identified as a binary mask describing edge pixels and non-edge pixels. A set of edge pixels are then randomly sampled. An object detector function is then used on the set of edge pixels to determine if an object of interest is present in the set of edge pixels.
US08437554B2
Disclosed herein is a method of extracting 3-dimension object information by a shadow analysis from a single image without meta information, and a technical problem to be solved is to extract three-dimension information of an object such as a height of the object and a footprint surface position of the object from a single image without meta information.
US08437553B2
The present invention provides an image detection device and an image detection method for efficiently detecting a specific image area existing within an image. The image detection device of the present invention first changes a size of an original image using an initial value of a scaling factor (enlargement/reduction ratio) against the original image and detects the specific image (e.g. number plate). Next, the image detection device carries out the change of the original image size and the detection of the specific image repeatedly by changing the scaling factor. Further, an embodiment of the present invention realizes a high speed by repeating the detection while using the enlarged or reduced images, and also realizes the high speed by determining an area where another specific image cannot exist and carrying out the detection efficiently using this information.
US08437535B2
Briefly described, one embodiment determines pose of an object of interest at a run time by capturing a first image of a first structured light pattern projected onto a first local surface of the object of interest; determining a first run-time data set from the captured first image, wherein the first run-time data set corresponds to information determined from the first structured light pattern projected onto the first local surface; comparing the determined first run-time data set and a corresponding first reference data set, the first reference data set corresponding to an ideal pose of the first local surface on an ideally posed reference object; and determining at least one first degree of constraint that defines a first partial pose of the first local surface, the at least one first degree of constraint based upon the comparison of the first run-time data set with the corresponding first reference data set.
US08437524B2
The invention relates to an imaging system for imaging a region of interest comprising a moving object, which moves less in small motion phases than in large motion phases. Detection values are provided and a small motion determination unit (15) determines the motion of the object in the region of interest in the small motion phases from the 5 detection values. A large motion determination unit (16) determines the motion of the object in the large motion phases from the determined motion of the object in the small motion phases. A reconstruction unit (17) reconstructs an image of the region of interest from the detection values, wherein the reconstruction unit (17) is adapted for performing a motion compensation using the determined motions in the small and large motion phases.
US08437520B2
A medical image processor includes: an extraction unit configured to extract a longitudinal line from three-dimensional volume data for a medical image, the longitudinal line representing how a tubular structure runs; a longitudinal cross-sectional image generator configured to generate multiple longitudinal cross-sectional images extending along the longitudinal line, the longitudinal cross-sectional images being cross-sectional images of the tubular structure; a short-axis cross-sectional image generator configured to generate multiple short-axis cross-sectional images intersecting the longitudinal line, the short-axis cross-sectional images being cross-sectional images of the tubular structure; a structure element detector configured to detect a specific structural element of the tubular structure from each of the plurality of short-axis cross-sectional images; and a correction unit configured to correct the specific structural element detected from each of the multiple short-axis cross-sectional images on a basis of the multiple longitudinal cross-sectional images.
US08437513B1
This specification describes technologies relating to biometric authentication based on images of the eye. In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include obtaining images of a subject including a view of an eye. The methods may further include determining a behavioral metric based on detected movement of the eye as the eye appears in a plurality of the images, determining a spatial metric based on a distance from a sensor to a landmark that appears in a plurality of the images each having a different respective focus distance, and determining a reflectance metric based on detected changes in surface glare or specular reflection patterns on a surface of the eye. The methods may further include determining a score based on the behavioral, spatial, and reflectance metrics and rejecting or accepting the one or more images based on the score.
US08437511B2
A 1:N identification system having high convenience and safety is to be provided. An authentication client includes at least one biometric information input sensor and a feature extraction function. A database includes an enrollee ID and registered templates of biometric information of at least one kind every enrollee and includes a score table. An authentication server includes a prior probability setting function, a 1:N fast matching function for successively matching the feature with the registered templates of the enrollees and discontinuing matching processing when the number of times of matching has exceeded a predetermined threshold, a delta score calculation function for calculating a delta score by using a score obtained by the 1:N fast matching and using the score table, a posterior probability calculation function for calculating posterior probabilities respectively of the enrollees on the basis of the score and the delta score, and an authentication object user identification function.
US08437509B1
Systems and methods for determining the speed of a vessel from an overhead image of the vessel's wake can include the initial step of defining a cusp line for the wake. A representative line segment from the defined cusp line that is suitable for building an image intensity profile for the image can be selected. Once the intensity profile is built along the line segment, the wake wavelength λcusp from the image intensity profile can be found by measuring the distance between successive points of intensity maxima (or successive intensity minima points) along the line segment. Once λcusp is found, the vessel speed can be determined from the images according to the formula νship=√{square root over (1.352*λcusp)}. The systems and methods can be practiced using any overhead imagery systems that display a vessel's wake, including synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and electro-optical (EO) overhead imagery systems.
US08437504B2
An imaging system comprises a whole image read out unit for reading out a whole image in a first resolution from an imaging device, a partial image region selecting unit for selecting a region of a partial image in a part of the whole image which is read out, a partial image read out unit for reading out the partial image in the selected region in a second resolution from the imaging device, a characteristic region setting unit for setting a characteristic region, in which a characteristic object exists, within the partial image, a characteristic region image read out unit for reading out an image of the characteristic region, which is set, in a third resolution from the imaging device, and a resolution setting unit for setting such that the first resolution
US08437498B2
The present disclosure is a mechanized irrigation system with an ability to provide the operator with the ability to remotely monitor actual crop growth and crop health, remotely determine the appropriate applicants, and remotely control the mechanized irrigation equipment to apply those applicants.
US08437497B2
Due to an accumulated error from the pair-wise registration, the stitched image may be blurred or have a gap when a loop is encountered. In order to remove the accumulated error, we identify a closed loop where a first image frame overlaps with a second image frame, the second image frame being captured earlier in a scanning sequence than the first image frame; register the first image frame with the second image frame; and apply a global optimization to adjust registration parameters for the plurality of pair-wise registrations of image frames within the closed loop using global constraints.
US08437486B2
An calibrated hearing-aid tuning appliance includes a hearing-aid interface for programming settings of a hearing aid worn by a user. The appliance also includes a calibrated audio output subsystem including an audio interface, an audio amplifier, and a calibrated speaker. The audio output subsystem can consistently propagate sound waves having frequency response, sound pressure level, and distortion characteristics within predetermined tolerances. A memory stores pre-recorded sound files and programming instructions for heuristically tuning the hearing-aid. When the programming instructions are communicated to a CPU for execution via a CPU interface, the appliance automatically selects at least one of the pre-recorded sound files; automatically reproduces the selected sound files via the calibrated audio output subsystem; collects feedback from the user based on the sound files thereby reproduced; and automatically adjusts one or more of the settings based on the user's feedback.
US08437483B2
Audio amplifiers, particularly those employed with headphones, use snubbers to suppress or snub signals within a particular frequency range. Conventional resistive and resistor-capacitor (RC) type snubbers have a number of drawbacks (i.e., require external components and high power consumption). Here, an active snubber is provided that allows for suppression in a desired frequency range without the need for external components and with relatively small footprint and a relatively small power increase.
US08437482B2
One or a combination of two or more specific loudness model functions selected from a group of two or more of such functions are employed in calculating the perceptual loudness of an audio signal. The function or functions may be selected, for example, by a measure of the degree to which the audio signal is narrowband or wideband. Alternatively or with such a selection from a group of functions, a gain value G[t] is calculated, which gain, when applied to the audio signal, results in a perceived loudness substantially the same as a reference loudness. The gain calculating employs an iterative processing loop that includes the perceptual loudness calculation.
US08437473B2
Embodiments disclosed allow authentication between two entities having agreed on the use of a common modulus N. The authentication includes generating a pseudorandom string value; generating a public key value based on the modulus N and the pseudorandom string value; generating a private key value corresponding to the public key value; receiving a verifier's public key value; generating a shared secret value based on the modulus N, the private key value and the verifier's public key value; calculating an authentication signature value using the shared secret value; and transmitting the authentication signature value for authentication. When the authentication signature is received, the public key value and the shared value are generated to calculate an authentication signature value. Thereafter, the authentication signature values are compared and authenticated.
US08437468B2
Methods, systems, and products are disclosed that describe a network interface to a data network. A modulator-demodulator receives a modulated carrier signal from an input connection. A power circuit connected to the input connection receives electrical power from a loop plant and provides the electrical power to the modulator-demodulator.
US08437463B2
An agent presence application for monitoring target agent resources and rendering agent states to subscribing applications is provided. The presence application has at least one first portion for collecting data regarding states of activity of the target agent resources, and at least one second portion for integrating the data and rendering the agent states to the subscribing applications.
US08437455B2
A server receives a customer service request and customer identification information associated with the customer service request. A home location of the customer is identified based, at least in part, on the customer identification information. An interactive voice response application is selected based, at least in part, on the home location. The selected interactive voice response application is provided to a voice portal, wherein the voice portal services the customer service request.
US08437437B2
The invention is related to an apparatus comprising: a receiver configured to receive a channel quality indication matrix; a processor configured to repeat, until the channel quality indication matrix is empty except for selected scheduling results, the following procedure: selecting a column of the channel quality indication matrix having the smallest number of non-zero channel quality indicators; searching for a largest channel quality indicator in the selected column of the channel quality indication matrix; selecting the searched largest channel quality indicator as a scheduling result, and emptying the column and row of the channel quality indication matrix corresponding to the selected scheduling result except for the selected scheduling result.
US08437436B2
An apparatus and method for channel estimation decrease overhead and hardware complexity while supporting both Wiener-type channel estimation and Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filtering/Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) filtering in a wireless communication system. The apparatus includes a storage unit for storing coefficient sets for a plurality of channel estimation types. A controller selects one of the plurality of channel estimation types according to at least one of a type of a pilot signal and a reliability value of a channel parameter. An N-tap filter, including N multipliers and (N−1) adders, determines channel estimation values of data tones by using the coefficient sets for the selected channel estimation type.
US08437426B2
Disclosed herein is a receiving apparatus including: first to third position determination sections configured to determine the start position of an FFT interval which serves as a signal interval targeted for FFT by an FFT section; a selection section configured to select one of those start positions of the FFT interval which are determined by the first through the third position determination section; and the FFT section configured to perform FFT on the OFDM time domain signal by regarding the start position selected by the selection section as the start position of the FFT interval in order to generate the first OFDM frequency domain signal.
US08437423B2
A transmission device including a pulse generating section configured to generate a plurality of pulses using a signal of data and a signal obtained by delaying the signal of data, and to adjust the pulse width such that each of the plurality of pulses has a pulse width conforming to a sequence of the data; a band-pass filter filtering the plurality of pulses; and a transmission amplifier amplifying the filtered plurality of pulses and outputting the filtered plurality of pulses as a transmission signal.
US08437422B2
A multi-user MIMO downlink beamforming system with limited feedback (200) is provided to enable precoding for multi-stream transmission, where a channel codeword (ui) and one or more channel quality indicator values (CQIA, CQIB) are computed at the user equipment (201.i) on the basis of maximizing a predetermined SINR performance metric (ρi) which estimates the receive signal-to-noise-ratio (SINR) at the user equipment (201.i). The computed codeword (ui) and CQI values (or differential values related thereto) are quantized and fed back to help the base station (210) which applies a correction to the appropriate CQI value in the course of designing the transmit beamforming vectors w and determining the appropriate modulation and coding level to be used for downlink data transmission.
US08437420B2
A transmitter includes a conversion module, a sample and hold module, and a discrete time bandpass filter module. The conversion module is operable to convert a first outbound baseband signal into a first outbound frequency domain pulse signal and to convert a second outbound baseband signal into a second outbound frequency domain pulse signal. The sample and hold module operable to sample and hold the first outbound frequency domain pulse signal and the second outbound frequency domain pulse signal to produce a frequency domain sample pulse train. The discrete time bandpass filter module is operable to filter the frequency domain sample pulse train to produce a first outbound wireless corresponding to the first baseband signal and to produce a second outbound wireless signal corresponding to the second inbound baseband signal.
US08437417B1
A system includes a channel estimator configured to receive a plurality of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols via a plurality of respective antennas, and generate estimates of a channel based on the plurality of OFDM symbols. A demodulator is configured to generate a plurality of demodulated symbols based on the plurality of OFDM symbols and the estimates of the channel. A decoder is configured to receive the estimates of the channel from the channel estimator, receive the plurality of demodulated symbols from the demodulator, and calculate decision metrics for the plurality of OFDM symbols using both the estimates of the channel and the plurality of demodulated symbols.
US08437411B2
A receiving apparatus includes: an electronic device; a connector provided to the electronic device; and a transmission cable connected to the connector. The electronic device includes a tuner unit that receives broadcast waves; and a differential signal processing unit that sends and receives data with the use of differential signals. The tuner unit and the differential signal processing unit are connected to the connector. The transmission cable includes at least two transmission lines that transmit differential signals, and the at least two transmission lines are capacitively coupled with each other at high frequency bands owing to capacitances among the at least two transmission lines. In addition, there is at least one common mode choke across two differential signal transmission lines inside the electronic device.
US08437395B2
There is provided a moving image encoding apparatus comprising: an encoding unit which encodes moving image data using inter-frame prediction, the moving image data being input by an image pickup unit which captures an object image, and generates an encoded bitstream; a setting unit which performs settings for an encoding process performed by the encoding unit; a transmitting unit which transmits setting information created by the setting unit to an external moving image encoding apparatus; a receiving unit which receives setting information for an encoding process transmitted by the external moving image encoding apparatus; and an encoding control unit which controls the encoding process performed by the encoding unit in accordance with a first setting made by the setting unit and a second setting based on the setting information received by the receiving unit.
US08437393B2
A method for estimating a boundary between a background and a user object in a video, in which the user object is segmented from the background is provided. The initial object contour is estimated in a first video frame for object segmentation, and color probability density functions are estimated for the user object and the background segmented from the first video frame. An edge strip with a predetermined width is generated in a current frame based on an object contour of a previous frame, and a coherence probability density function of the edge strip is estimated. The user object is segmented in the current frame by energy minimization.
US08437390B2
An imaging apparatus includes an image pickup unit, a recording aunit configured to record moving image data on a recording medium and record still image data on the recording medium, a conversion unit configured to convert the still image data recorded on the recording medium into moving image data to generate converted moving image data, a conversion instruction unit configured to instruct generation of the converted moving image data at an arbitrary timing, a management unit configured to manage at least one piece of still image data recorded on the recording medium as one group when the instruction is generated by the conversion instruction unit, and a control unit configured to control the conversion unit to generate a plurality of pieces of converted moving image data, and control the recording unit to finalize the recording medium after the plurality of pieces of converted moving image data are recorded.
US08437383B2
Systems and methods for digitally equalizing a signal in a distributed antenna system are provided. In one embodiment, a signal processing device within a distributed antenna system comprises a signal path within a signal processing board, the signal path having an uncompensated distortion function of G(ω) with a system response represented by y(n); and a compensator coupled to the signal path, the compensator having a finite impulse response (FIR) filter with an impulse response function represented by H(ω), the compensator having an FIR filter parameter vector {right arrow over (h)} determined from an estimated system response y(n) of the signal path to an input comb signal x(n), wherein y(n) is estimated from interpolated measured output responses of the signal path to a plurality of frequency sweep signal test inputs.
US08437365B2
A method, computer readable medium and apparatus for providing a virtual individual server service within a communications network are disclosed. For example, the method receives a request from a subscriber of the communications network to subscribe to the virtual individual server service, provides a virtual individual server to the subscriber in response to the request and executes at least one application via the virtual individual server using at least one piece of personal information associated with the subscriber.
US08437358B2
A method for controlling uplink IP packet filtering in a mobile terminal in a 3GPP Evolved Packet System (EPS) is provided, including an information receiving operation of receiving IP address information allocated to user equipment, and filtering information required for delivering an uplink IP packet received from the user equipment; and a filtering operation for determining which packet data network and a bearer the IP packet is delivered to, based on the IP address information and the filtering information. In a 3GPP evolved packet system supporting a default bearer function, a packet data network to which an uplink IP packet is delivered and a bearer identifier can be efficiently determined when the user equipment simultaneously accesses one or more packet data networks and is allocated several IP addresses, resulting in effective uplink packet filtering.
US08437354B2
The present invention discloses a method and apparatus for realizing unicast reverse path forwarding. In this method, an access equipment snoops into and obtains an announcement message from a router, wherein the announcement message contains address prefix information; the access equipment establishes a prefix table based on the obtained address prefix information, receives an access request message from a customer premises equipment, determines whether a source IP address of the access request message exists in the prefix table, and decides whether to forward the message to the router based on a result of determining. According to the technical solution provided by the present invention, the message from the customer premises equipment is processed through the obtained routing information of the router interface, thus a pseudo data packet can be filtered out, and address filter control is realized at the access equipment.
US08437335B2
A method for a user equipment (UE) to perform a random access to a network includes transmitting a random access preamble to the network; receiving control information via a downlink control channel from the network, wherein the control information includes downlink resource location information for a downlink shared channel and information for decoding the downlink shared channel; receiving a response to the random access preamble via the downlink shared channel from the network corresponding the control information, wherein the response has a variable size; and decoding the response based on the information for decoding the downlink shared channel.
US08437322B1
A mobile communication device encapsulates a fixed IP address based voice data packet (containing a fixed source IP address of the mobile communication device, a fixed destination IP address of a receiving device, and a voice data payload) into a sending network voice data packet (containing a sending network source IP address of the mobile communication device, a sending network destination IP address of an intermediate system, and the fixed IP address based voice data packet) and provides the sending network voice data packet over a first dynamic IP address based network to the intermediate system for decapsulating the fixed IP address based voice data packet from the sending network voice data packet, encapsulating the fixed IP address based voice data packet into a receiving network voice data packet and providing the receiving network voice data packet over a second dynamic IP address based network to the receiving device.
US08437316B2
A reception section receives a signal on which signals of channels are multiplexed in a same frequency band through an antenna. A separation section separates a part used for correlation value calculation in the reception signal. Correlation sections create delay profiles by calculating a correlation value using a first basic code and a second basic code for the signals after the separation, respectively. A comparison/channel estimation section cycles each delay profile so that the delay profiles match in a section in which the path of the channel to be detected appears when there is no propagation delay and detects a quasi-matching path in each delay profile after the cycling.
US08437315B2
A downlink channel receiver operable to implement fractional dedicated physical channel (F-DPCH) processing within a Rake receiver structure is provided. The downlink channel receiver includes a receiver, a baseband processing block, a WCDMA processing block, wherein F-DPCH processing is divided between a plurality of hardware processing blocks and a plurality of firmware (FW) processing blocks. The receiver is operable to convert a radio frequency (RF) signal to a baseband signal. The baseband processing block operable to processes and provides the baseband signal to the WCDMA processing block. F-DPCH processing is divided between the plurality of hardware processing blocks and plurality of firmware (FW) processing blocks.
US08437313B2
One illustrative method for reducing power consumption in a mobile communication device of a wireless local area network (WLAN) involves the steps of identifying a communication signal quality value between the mobile device and a wireless access point of the WLAN with which the mobile device is currently associated; determining an initial timer value based on a predefined relationship with the communication signal quality value where, as the communication signal quality value decreases, the initial timer value correspondingly decreases; initializing a scan trigger timer with the initial timer value and running the scarf trigger timer; and upon expiration of the scan trigger timer: causing a scanning operation to be performed for identifying one or more wireless access points in a coverage region; and repeating the acts of identifying, determining, initializing and running the scan trigger timer, and causing the scanning operation to be performed. Preferably, the mobile device operates to refrain from performing scanning operations altogether when the communication signal quality value is greater than a scan trigger threshold value. The scan trigger threshold value may be derived from or calculated based on a previously-received or last-sampled communication signal quality value of the wireless access point sampled at a time when the mobile device chose to reassociate with a different wireless access point of the WLAN.
US08437308B2
A cellular communication system has an air interface divided into frames, each consisting of sub-frames at least two of which are synchronization sub-frames. For each cell, different cell-related synchronization signals are transmitted to user equipments (UEs) in different synchronization signal sub-frames. The UE detects cell identities of first and second cells. Weights then control generation of weighted handover measurements made from the first cell's synchronization signals received during synchronization sub-frames, wherein each of the weights is a function of the cell identity of the first cell, the cell identity of the second cell, and which ones of the first and second cells' cell-related synchronization signals are transmitted in the respective one of the plurality of synchronization sub-frames during which the weight is applied. A filtered handover measurement, upon which a handover decision can be made, is generated from the weighted handover measurements.
US08437306B2
Techniques for sending data during handover with Layer 2 tunneling are described. In one design, a user equipment (UE) sends first Layer 2 packets to a source base station prior to handover to a target base station. The UE sends at least one second Layer 2 packet to the target base station, which identifies the second Layer 2 packet(s) as being intended for the source base station and thus forwards the second Layer 2 packet(s) to the source base station via a Layer 2 tunnel. The UE sends third Layer 2 packets to the target base station after the handover. The target base station processes the third Layer 2 packets to obtain IP packets and sends the IP packets to a serving gateway after a trigger condition, which may be defined to achieve in-order delivery of IP packets from the source and target base stations to the serving gateway.
US08437297B2
A base station, a mobile station and a communication method thereof are provided. The base station and the mobile station are adapted for use in a wireless network. The wireless network comprises the base station and the mobile station. The mobile station connects with the base station via a physical channel. The physical channel comprises a plurality of resource units. Each resource unit comprises a sub-block. The sub-block comprises a sequence. The mobile station communicates with the base station with the sequence during the sub-block bases on a mapping relation.
US08437296B2
A mobile terminal connects to a wireless access point (AP) connected to a web server to retrieve and display a list of uniform resource locators (URLs) corresponding to types of multimedia content stored in a multimedia server. Each URL includes a channel identifier allocated to a corresponding type of the multimedia content. After receiving a selection of one URL, the mobile terminal parses the selected URL to retrieve a channel identifier, and automatically switches to a channel corresponding to the channel identifier. The mobile terminal connects to a wireless AP on the channel to retrieve a corresponding type of the multimedia content from the multimedia server.
US08437290B2
A mobile wireless communication device has multiple 802.11 transceivers. A first transceiver maintains a first 802.11 communication link in accordance with the 802.11 communication specification. A second transceiver maintains, simultaneously to the first transceiver maintaining the first 802.11 communication link, a second 802.11 communication link in accordance with the 802.11 communication specification. The first transceiver comprises first physical layer electronics for executing the physical layer functions of the first 802.11 communication link. The second transceiver comprises second physical layer electronics for executing the physical layer functions of the second 802.11 communication link. The electronics are implemented such that no portion of the first physical layer electronics forms a portion of the second physical layer electronics when the links are being simultaneously maintained.
US08437289B2
A communication apparatus includes a controller configured to control transmission of a bandwidth request message, the transmission being triggered by a detection of connection establishment between the communication apparatus and a destination apparatus in a layer that is higher than a media-access control layer; and a transmitter configured to transmit the bandwidth request message in accordance with a control of the controller.
US08437287B2
Methods, apparatuses, and systems for interfacing between a broadband wireless communication system and a Local Area Network (LAN) system are disclosed herein. For instance, the method can include converting first wireless data formatted according to a broadband communication protocol to a LAN protocol to generate LAN-formatted data. The method can also include converting second wireless data formatted to the LAN protocol to the broadband communication protocol to generate broadband-formatted data. Further, the method can include transmitting the LAN-formatted data to one or more first devices and the broadband-formatted data to one or more second devices.
US08437281B2
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving data that indicates a maximum number of end nodes with which to set up real-time data sessions that is less than a conference number of nodes whose data is mixed in a single real-time data conference. Real-time data sessions are established with a connected set of a connected number of nodes not greater than the maximum number. A mix of the real-time data received from the connected set is presented to a user of the first node. Local real-time data is received from a user. The received real-time data is distributed by mixing and sending. This includes, for each individual node in the connected set, mixing received local real-time data with real-time data received from other nodes in the connected set different from the individual node to form individual mixed real-time data, and sending the individual mixed real-time data to the individual node.
US08437270B2
The present invention provides a method for transmitting reference signals comprising: during carrier aggregation, a user equipment sending physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) on one or more component carriers, and sending demodulation reference signals (DM RS) for the PUSCH on each section of bandwidth occupied by the PUSCH on each component carrier, wherein a DM RS sequence on a section of bandwidth is an independent sequence or part of an independent sequence and forms an independent sequence with DM RS sequences on multiple sections of bandwidth other than the section of bandwidth; the section of bandwidth is a section of continuous bandwidth occupied by the PUSCH on any component carrier, or is any of the multiple sections of bandwidth occupied by the PUSCH on any component carrier. The Present invention further provides a corresponding apparatus.
US08437269B2
In network-based uplink scheduling, users are scheduled by the network for uplink communication between a user side and a network side. In this context, the invention provides an efficient estimation of User Equipment (UE) buffer status on the network side such as at Node B (20), for each of a number of users (10), and determines an uplink scheduling priority order of the users based on the network-estimated buffer status information. The users (10) are allocated communication resources based on the determined uplink scheduling priority order. In this way, the UE buffer status may be considered in the uplink scheduling procedure without explicit UE buffer status reports (that would waste valuable uplink transmission resources) from the UE side. This means that efficient scheduling and optimal exploitation of the uplink transmission resources are ensured, with clearly improved system performance as a result.
US08437265B2
A method for sharing network resources includes: setting a sharing group based on service types in the process of setting up a bearer and determining a maximum network resource for the sharing group; and allocating a resource for the bearer in the range of the maximum network resource. The present invention also provides a system and an apparatus for sharing network resources. The embodiments of the present invention implement the sharing of a maximum transmission rate among multiple bearers in an evolved network, solve the problem of low network resource utilization caused by the fact that each bearer occupies a fixed bandwidth resource, and implement maximum utilization of network resources.
US08437256B2
Methods and apparatuses to provide communication connections for partners based on communication references assigned to entities maintained by the partners. In one embodiment, a method includes: receiving from a partner contact information of an entity; providing the partner with a real-time communication reference usable to at least initiate a request for a communication connection; and in response to receiving a request initiated via the real-time communication reference, providing a real-time communication connection between a requester and the entity using the contact information received from the partner.
US08437252B2
Apparatus and methods for intelligent congestion feedback are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a data interface configured to receive data packets from a source endpoint via an intermediate node. The data packets include a field indicating whether data congestion for data being sent to the destination endpoint is occurring. The example apparatus also includes a timer. The example apparatus further includes a feedback loop interface configured to selectively enable a feedback loop to the source endpoint and to transmit congestion notification (CN) messages to the source endpoint over the feedback loop. Upon receiving a data packet indicating that congestion has occurred due to the data packets from the source endpoint to the destination endpoint, the destination endpoint is configured to set the timer to a preset time value; start the timer reverse counting from the preset time value to zero, enable the feedback loop and transmit the CN messages.
US08437247B2
A method of packet element transmission for a mobile device of a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method includes detecting errors of a received protocol data unit, comprising a plurality of control elements and a plurality of service data units, according to order of the plurality of control elements and the plurality of service data units.
US08437236B2
An optical information recording/reproducing apparatus includes a spatial light modulator that converts an irradiation beam emitted from a light source to a single information beam that carries information; an optical system that causes the single information beam to be collected on an optical-information recording medium including an information recording layer capable of recording the information as hologram by using interference fringes produced due to interference between the single information beam and a plurality of reference beams, and causes each of the reference beams to be irradiated to the optical-information recording medium from mutually different directions so as to intersect with the single information beam in the information recording layer; and a controller that controls to cause the light source to emit the irradiation beam and performs angular multiplexing recording of the information in the information recording layer while controlling to drive either one of the optical-information recording medium and the optical system.
US08437235B2
An optical information recording medium (100) of the present invention includes an information layer (011) that allows information to be recorded thereon and reproduced therefrom by irradiation with a laser beam (040). The information layer (011) includes a reflective layer (002), a first dielectric layer (003), a recording layer (005) capable of undergoing a phase change by the irradiation with the laser beam (040) and a second dielectric layer (007) formed in this order from a side opposite to a laser beam incident side. The recording layer (005) contains Ge, Sb and Te. When Ge, Sb and Te contained in the recording layer (005) are represented by GexSbyTez in atomic number ratio, x, y, and z satisfy 0.39≦x≦0.48, 0.02≦y<0.11, 0.40≦z<0.56, and x+y+z=1. The recording layer (005) has a thickness of at least 10 nm but not more than 15 nm. In the case where a ratio of an amount of reflected light of the laser beam (040) from the information layer (011) to an amount of the laser beam (040) incident on the information layer (011) is denoted as R (%), the R when the recording layer (005) is in a crystalline state is denoted as Rc (%), and the R when the recording layer (005) is in an amorphous state is denoted as Ra (%), Rc and Ra satisfy 6.0≦Rc/Ra≦12.0 and 1.0≦Rc≦3.0.
US08437232B2
A high frequency modulator is described. It comprises: a first converter for receiving a constant current signal and transmitting a first converted signal; an adder coupled the first converter and operative for transmitting a summed signal in response to receiving the first converted signal and selectively receiving a triangular signal; a first oscillator coupled to the adder for receiving the summed signal, the first oscillator operative for transmitting a time varying current signal; a second converter coupled to the first oscillator for receiving the time varying current signal and operative for transmitting a second converted signal; and an output device selectively coupled to the second converter and operative for transmitting an output signal in response to receiving either the second converted signal or an offset signal.
US08437230B2
A heat-assisted magnetic write head includes a magnetic pole having an end surface exposed at an air bearing surface, a waveguide extending toward the air bearing surface to propagate light, and a plasmon generator provided between the magnetic pole and the waveguide, and generating near-field light from the air bearing surface, based on the light propagated through the waveguide. The plasmon generator has an end portion exposed at the air bearing surface or located in close proximity to the air bearing surface, the end portion having a minimum thickness in a region close to the waveguide.
US08437229B2
An apparatus having a transducer assembly that includes a waveguide having first and second cladding layers and a core layer between the first and second cladding layers, and a grating structured to couple electromagnetic radiation into the waveguide. The grating has a plurality of elongated slits that are substantially parallel to a longitudinal axis of the waveguide. The apparatus further has a light source mounted adjacent the waveguide to direct light onto the grating.
US08437225B2
The present invention can permit an electronic device to output contextual information about an event when an alarm stored within the electronic device goes off. In one embodiment, an electronic device can permit a user to select an alarm template from a plurality of alarm templates and associate the selected alarm template with an alarm. When the alarm goes off at a later date, the electronic device can output the contextual information of the user-selected alarm template, thereby providing the user with contextual information relevant to the event for which the alarm was created. In another embodiment of the present invention, a receiving electronic device can automatically match alarm templates with alarms transferred from a transmitting electronic device. The present invention also can permit a user to create an alarm template, and customize alarm templates pre-populated by the manufacturer of an electronic device.
US08437222B2
A system and method of range estimation are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises transmitting beams through a medium towards a surface, receiving reflected signals from the surface, and estimating range to the surfaced based on the reflected signals and an estimate of sidelobe coupling of the beams.
US08437221B2
A system and method of automatically controlling a terminal are disclosed. In one aspect, there is a method comprising: installing a sensing device in a terminal; and automatically controlling operations of the terminal when a certain object is detected by the sensing device within a predetermined range. According to certain aspects, a hard disk may be subjected to a full protection, power supplied to peripherals such as a keyboard or a mouse is saved. Furthermore, in other aspects, an automatic power-up/down operation to the terminal, automatic forward and backward operations of a browser and an automatic page-flipping operation of application software may be implemented. In another aspect, there is a control system for the terminal and the terminal equipped with such a control system.
US08437211B2
A system for controlling a refresh operation of a plurality of stacked semiconductor chips includes a first semiconductor configured to output a refresh signal for performing a refresh operation, and a semiconductor chip discrimination signal, and a plurality of second semiconductor chips configured to perform a refresh operation at different timings in response to the refresh signal, and the semiconductor chip discrimination signal.
US08437210B2
A circuit includes a first inverter including a first PMOS transistor and a first NMOS transistor, and a second inverter including a second PMOS transistor and a second NMOS transistor. A first node is connected to gates of the first PMOS transistor and the first NMOS transistor and drains of the second PMOS transistor and the second NMOS transistor. A second node is connected to gates of the second PMOS transistor and the second NMOS transistor and drains of the first PMOS transistor and the first NMOS transistor. The circuit further includes a first capacitor having a first capacitance connected to the first node; and a second capacitor having a second capacitance connected to the second node. The second capacitance is greater than the first capacitance.
US08437202B2
An apparatus includes a terminal, a first plurality of driver lines, and a first phase mixer. The driver lines drive the terminal to a first logic state responsive to a first enable signal. The first phase mixer is coupled to a first one of the first plurality of driver lines. The first phase mixer is operable to receive the first enable signal and a first delayed enable signal derived from the first enable signal and generate a first signal on the first driver line having a first configurable delay with respect to the first enable signal by mixing the first enable signal and the first delayed enable signal.
US08437200B1
Methods and circuits for zeroization verification of the memory in an integrated circuit (IC) are provided. One method includes sequentially reading frames from a block of the memory, and sequentially performing a logical operation between each of the frames and the content of a signature register. The result of the logical operation is stored back in the signature register. In another operation, a hardware logical comparison is made between a device hardwired signature block and the content of the signature register, after the logical operations for all the frames have been performed. The device hardwired signature block is a hardware implemented constant that is unavailable for loading in registers of the IC. The block of the memory is verified to hold a fixed value when the result of the hardware logical comparison indicates that the device hardwired signature block is equal to the content of the signature register.
US08437196B2
A sense-amplifier circuit includes: a comparison stage that compares a cell current that flows in a memory cell and through an associated bitline, with a reference current, for supplying an output signal indicating the state of the memory cell; and a precharging stage, which supplies, during a precharging step prior to the comparison step, a precharging current to the bitline so as to charge a capacitance thereof. The comparison stage includes a first comparison transistor and by a second comparison transistor, which are coupled in current-mirror configuration respectively to a first differential output and to a second differential output, through which a biasing current flows. The precharging stage diverts, during the precharging step, the biasing current towards the bitline as precharging current, and allows, during the comparison step, passage of part of the biasing current towards the first differential output, enabling operation of the current mirror.
US08437195B2
Some embodiments include apparatus, systems, and methods having a voltage generator to generate a voltage, a memory cell including a storage node associated with a storage node voltage, and a power controller to provide a signal to the voltage generator such that the voltage generated by the voltage generator rises from a voltage less than a reference voltage to a voltage less than the storage node voltage, and such that the voltage generated by the voltage generator is less than or equal to the storage node voltage, at least partially in response to the apparatus entering into a mode. Other embodiments are described.
US08437194B2
It is an object to reduce defects caused by reading wrong data by judging whether a storage state held in a non-volatile memory element is correct or not in the case where accumulation or discharge of electrons in/from a charge accumulation layer. A semiconductor memory circuit including a memory cell region and a test region and a control circuit are included in a semiconductor device of the present invention. In the control circuit, a first operation is performed for writing data to a memory cell, and writing a first storage state to a first region or writing a second storage state to a second region. Then, a second operation is performed for reading a first storage state or a second storage state from a first region and a second region. Further, a third operation is performed for reading data from the memory cell. Whether the third operation is correctly performed or not is judged in accordance with whether the first storage state is read from the first region or not or whether the second storage state is read from the second region or not in the second operation.
US08437186B2
Memory arrays and methods of operating such memory arrays are described as having a memory cell operated as a single level cell interposed between and coupled to a select gate and a memory cell operated as a multiple level memory cell. In some embodiments, a memory array is described as including a number of select gates coupled in series to a number of memory cells operated as single level memory cells and a number of memory cells operated as multiple level memory cells, where a first select gate is directly coupled to a first memory cell operated as a single level memory cell interposed between and coupled to the first select gate and a continuous number of memory cells operated as multiple level memory cells.
US08437179B2
The gate tunnel leakage current is increased in the up-to-date process, so that it is necessary to reduce the gate tunnel leakage current in the LSI which is driven by a battery for use in a cellular phone and which needs to be in a standby mode at a low leakage current. In a semiconductor integrated circuit device, the ground source electrode lines of logic and memory circuits are kept at a ground potential in an active mode, and are kept at a voltage higher than the ground potential in an unselected standby mode. The gate tunnel leakage current can be reduced without destroying data.
US08437175B2
In one embodiment, a bit-line interface is disclosed. The bit-line interface has a multiplexer having a plurality of bit-line outputs, and a write path coupled to a multiplexer signal input. The bit-line interface also has a read path coupled to the multiplexer signal input, wherein the read path and the write path share at least one component.
US08437172B2
A decoding structure employs a main terminal (130), a first memristive switch (112) connected between the main terminal (130) and a first addressable terminal (132), and a second memristive switch (114) connected between the main terminal (130) and a second addressable terminal (134). The second memristive switch (114) is oriented so that a voltage polarity on the main terminal (130) that tends to turn the first memristive switch (112) on tends to turn the second memristive switch (114) off.
US08437168B2
A Josephson quantum computing device and an integrated circuit using Josephson quantum computing devices which can realize a NOT gate operation controlled with 2 bits will be provided. The Josephson quantum computing device (1) comprises: a superconducting ring member (10) having a π-junction (6) and a 0-junction (7); and a quantum state detecting member (20) constituted by a superconducting quantum interference device arranged outside of the superconducting ring member, wherein a bonding and an antibonding state brought about by a tunneling effect between a |↑> and a |↓> state as two states degenerate in energy of the superconducting ring member (10) are regarded as quantum bits. The bonding and antibonding states as the quantum bits are read out by the quantum state detecting member (20). The two bit controlled NOT gate operation can be performed by the two quantum bits comprising said quantum bits.
US08437167B2
According to one embodiment, a shift register memory device includes a shift register, a program/read element, and a rotating force application unit. The shift register includes a plurality of rotors arranged along one direction and provided with a uniaxial anisotropy. Each of the plurality of rotors has a characteristic direction rotatable around a rotational axis extending in the one direction. The program/read element is configured to program data to the shift register by causing the characteristic direction of one of the rotors to match one selected from two directions conforming to the uniaxial anisotropy and configured to read the data by detecting the characteristic direction. The rotating force application unit is configured to apply a rotating force to the shift register to urge the characteristic direction to rotate. The plurality of rotors are organized into a plurality of pairs of every two mutually adjacent rotors. A first force acts to urge the characteristic directions to be opposingly parallel for two of the rotors belonging to the same pair. A second force acts to urge the characteristic directions to be opposingly parallel for two mutually adjacent rotors belonging to mutually adjacent pairs.
US08437164B1
A stacked memory device for a configurable bandwidth memory interface includes a first number of contact pads arranged in a pattern on a first surface of the memory device and a second number of contact pads arranged in the same pattern on a second surface. Each of the second contact pads may be electrically coupled to a corresponding contact pad on the first surface using a via. When the memory device is oriented in a first orientation and stacked in vertical alignment and electrical connection upon a second memory device having the same pattern of contact pads, each data signal of the memory bus is coupled to a corresponding data signal of both the memory devices. When the memory device is oriented in a second orientation, a given data signal of the memory bus is coupled to the corresponding data signal of only one of the memory devices.
US08437160B2
Provided is a multi-stack memory device that includes a storage unit group including a plurality of storage units that are vertically stacked and form a plurality of storage unit rows, and a plurality of transistors connected to the storage unit group, wherein the transistors that are connected to the storage units which are included in at least two rows of the plurality of the storage unit rows and are connected by a common wire. The common wire may be a gate line or a bit line.
US08437155B2
A device correcting a power factor caused by an input current delay of a three-phase inverter and a method of controlling the same are disclosed. In case of a product having a high-current power environment and a high-capacity inverter, a three-phase power factor correction (PFC) device detects any erroneous PFC operation of the three-phase inverter using a current sensor located at a common potential terminal. So, if the input current delay occurs, the three-phase PFC device delays an ON time of a switching element from a zero-crossing point of the input voltage, and performs an optimum switching operation caused by the input-current delay, resulting in the implementation of an increased power factor.
US08437147B2
An equipment cabinet (2) includes an equipment rack (3) for mounting equipment (20), and includes organizational elements for organizing cables within the cabinet. The cables may be organized to reduce impeding airflow to or from the equipment, and/or to reduce unwanted bending of the cables themselves. The organizational elements may include one or more of: a trunk cable (40) including a furcation plug (45) and universal clip (47); a furcation bracket—either vertical (60) or horizontal (80); a termination panel (100); a trunk cable manager (140, 200); and/or an accessory bracket (180). The organizational elements may be used in various combinations with one another, and may be provided in a kit.
US08437143B2
A method for controlling an electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes a housing, a keypad, a first conductive surface, and a second conductive surface. The keypad is rotatable and includes buttons. The first conductive surface is attached to the bottom of the keypad, rotatable with the keypad, and includes first contact portions. The second conductive surface is fixed in the housing, arranged below the first conductive surface, spaced apart from the first conductive surface, and includes second contact portions. The method includes determining which of the buttons is pressed. Determining whether an activation signal is received, wherein when the first contact portion contacts one of the second contact portions which shape is the same as the first contact portion, the activation signal is generated. Determining the pressed button is activated if the activation signal is received, and executing a function corresponding to the activated button.
US08437139B2
An expansion card has at least one connector electrically coupled with at least one expansion slot of a server, and includes a shell defining at least one through slot, a main body, and a transmission element received in the shell. The transmission element includes a locating element, a connecting pole, and a fixing shaft. The connecting pole includes a head portion and a tail portion. The head portion defines a notch sleeving on the locating element. The tail portion extends outwards from the shell and defines a first hole. The fixing shaft is fixed on the shell and extends through the first hole. When the tail portion is pushed, the connecting pole rotates around the fixing shaft, the head portion drives the at least one connector to extends outwards or inwards from the at least one through slot, to electrically connected or disconnected to the at least one expansion slot.
US08437137B2
A fixing mechanism for fixing a thermal module on a base includes a U-shaped buckling component disposed on a side of the base for buckling a thermal fin and a heat conducting block of the thermal module, and a fixing component disposed on the other side of the base and connected to the U-shaped buckling component for clipping the base with the U-shaped buckling component.
US08437134B2
A housing structure for a vehicle electronic control unit (“ECU”) includes an ECU case, a mounting bracket, and a seal ring. The ECU case is for housing a vehicle ECU and includes a ventilation opening. The mounting bracket connects with the ECU case and is configured to connect with an associated vehicle frame for mounting the ECU case to the associated vehicle frame. The seal ring surrounds the ventilation opening and seals against both the ECU case and the mounting bracket. A method for mounting an electronic control unit (“ECU”) case to a vehicle frame is also disclosed.
US08437123B2
A server cabinet includes a cabinet, a first slide rail, and a second slide rail. The cabinet includes a top surface, a bottom surface, a rear wall, two sidewalls, and two doors. The first slide rail is mounted on an inner surface of one of the sidewalls. The first slide rail has a first end and an opposite second end. The first slide rail defines a first slide groove. The first end is adjacent to the doors, and the second end is close to the rear wall. The second slide rail has a first and a second connection ends. The second slide rail defines a second slide groove. The first connection end is rotatably coupled to the first end so that the second slide rail is capable of rotating relative to the first slide rail to a position where the second slide rail aligns with the first slide rail.
US08437120B2
An image display device includes front and rear covers which surround a display panel and a plurality of connection members connected to the display panel and connected to each of the covers. Thereby, the display panel has a bezel part having a narrow width, and the front and rear covers are easily fixed to each other.
US08437119B2
To provide an electrical junction box that can maintain a stable assembly condition between a box main body and a cover member, even if locking mechanisms are not provided on a whole periphery of the electrical junction box. An electrical junction box includes a box main body and a cover member. One of the box main body and the cover member is provided on at least a single of side portions of the one peripheral wall with a locking mechanism. An elastic rib that protrudes from an inner peripheral surface of the one peripheral wall at one of the side portions is pressed onto a fitting projection piece. A side portion is provided with a support wall that is opposed to and spaced apart from the inner peripheral surface. The fitting projection piece is held in a space between the inner peripheral surface and the support wall.
US08437116B2
Carbon materials and methods of manufacturing carbon materials for use in high energy devices, such as electric double layer capacitors are described. High energy devices manufactured with carbon materials contemplated herein have high energy density. Methods of manufacturing carbon materials generally include providing a carbon precursor and an additive, mixing the additive with the carbon precursor prior to curing the carbon precursor, carbonizing the carbon precursor and removing the additive to form the carbon material. Such carbon materials can be used in electric double layer capacitors.
US08437107B2
A magnetic coupling type isolator includes: a magnetic field generator for generating an external magnetic field by an input signal; a magnetoresistive element for detecting the external magnetic field and converting the detected magnetic field into an electric signal, the magnetoresistive element being electrically insulated from the magnetic field generator and positioned in a location capable of being magnetically coupled so as to be overlapped with the magnetic field generator as seen in a top plan view; and first and second shield films overlapped with the magnetic field generator and the magnetoresistive element as seen in a top plan view, wherein a distance between the magnetoresistive element and the second shield film is set to 8 to 100 μm.
US08437102B2
Embodiments in accordance with the present invention provide a magnetic head having a narrow track width and excellent in productivity for the purpose of realizing a disk storage unit having a large capacity. In a magnetic head having a plurality of flairs on a main magnetic pole, a side shield is formed via a non-magnetic film on both sides of the flair disposed close to an air bearing surface in such a fashion as to be aligned with the flair.
US08437099B2
A hard disk drive includes a housing including a base member and a cover member, a spindle motor disposed in the housing, a data storage disk disposed on the spindle motor, an actuator disposed in the housing to move a read/write head to a position on the data storage disk, a clock signal providing unit disposed on the data storage disk to provide a clock signal of the data storage disk, a position signal providing unit disposed on the actuator to provide a position signal of the actuator, and first and second windows disposed in the housing to correspond to the clock signal providing unit and the position signal providing unit.
US08437076B2
The present invention, among other things, relates to a front-lens attachment (20) for an optical observation device (10), in particular for a microscope. The front-lens attachment (20) has a retaining element (38) that has a retaining element (32), on which at least one lens element (33, 34) is disposed. Further, it provides a positioning device (21) for positioning the retaining element (32) and the at least one lens element (33, 34) disposed thereon, relative to the optical observation device (10), whereby retaining device (32) is disposed on positioning device (21). Finally, a fastening means (35) for fastening the retaining device (38) to the front-lens attachment (20) is provided. In order to be able to provide such a front-lens attachment (20) in a structurally simple and cost-effective manner, it is provided, for example, that positioning device (21) has at least two positioning components (22, 28), which are joined together via a joint (31).
US08437073B2
A display device includes a display panel, a barrier layer, a protective layer, a first optical adhesive layer and a second optical adhesive layer. The barrier layer is disposed above the display panel. The protective layer is disposed above the barrier layer. The first optical adhesive layer with a first thickness is disposed between the display panel and the barrier layer. The second optical adhesive layer with a second thickness is disposed between the protective layer and the barrier layer. The first thickness is larger than the second thickness.
US08437064B2
An optical scanning apparatus includes a light source which emits an optical beam, a deflection scanning unit, and a control unit. The deflection scanning unit includes a rotating polygonal mirror which deflection-scans the optical beam emitted from the light source so that the optical beam will scan an object to be scanned, and a drive unit which rotationally drives the rotating polygonal mirror. The control unit controls the rotational speed of the rotating polygonal mirror by accelerating or decelerating the drive unit at a predetermined time during one rotation of the rotating polygonal mirror. The predetermined time is a time when a deviation in length of a scanning line formed by each reflecting surface of the rotating polygonal mirror becomes relatively small.
US08437059B2
A method for reconstructing a holographic projection including providing a single hologram, providing at least one cyclic shift of at least a portion of the single hologram in the space domain, and reconstructing a cyclically shifted hologram by applying said cyclic shift on said portion and providing at least one cyclic shift comprises computing the cyclic shift; wherein computing at least one cyclic shift includes creating an array of shifting points in a g-h plane of the single hologram and calculating a distance vector from an origin of the plane to the shifting point.
US08437054B2
Embodiments of the present invention comprise methods and systems for identifying uniformly colored regions in a digital image.
US08437042B2
According to aspects of the invention, there is provided an image forming system which is configured such that a user is allowed to set color adjustment parameters, and information image data representing the contents of the color adjustment parameters set by the user is generated. Then, the information image data is combined with main image data to generate combined image data. An image is printed based on the combined image data with the color being adjusted in accordance with the color adjustment parameters set by the setting unit.
US08437040B2
A method for controlling a tone reproduction curve of an image printing system includes generating an actual printed image tone reproduction curve using printed image data from a printed image sensor; determining a set of adjusted contone values by comparing the actual printed image tone reproduction curve with a target printed image tone reproduction curve, where the adjusted contone values being representative of the print contone values at which target color density data of the printed image is achieved in the image printing system; and determining adjusted image transfer surface reflectance data to update a target image transfer surface tone reproduction curve, where the adjusted image transfer surface reflectance data being obtained by interpolating the target image transfer surface tone reproduction curve at the adjusted contone values; and controlling subsequent toner image data to achieve the updated target image transfer surface tone reproduction curve.
US08437033B2
An optical scanning device is configured in such a manner that, of four light beams for colors corresponding to cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, the number of folding mirrors disposed in the optical path of a light beam corresponding to an mage in yellow having the highest brightness and the lowest visibility is the greatest number, and further, the number of the folding mirrors disposed in the optical path of a light beam corresponding to an image in black having the lowest brightness and the highest visibility is the least number. It is thus possible to reduce unevenness in color in the color image resulting from the folding of light beams by the folding mirrors.
US08437031B2
An image processor includes a reduced image forming unit, a first reflectance value calculating unit, a normalizing parameter determining unit, a second reflectance value calculating unit, a normalizing unit, a correcting unit, and a reducing information determining unit. The reduced image forming unit reduces an original image to form a reduced image. The first reflectance value calculating unit calculates a first reflectance value for each reduced pixel. The normalizing parameter determining unit determines a normalizing parameter based on a distribution of the first reflectance values. The second reflectance value calculating unit calculates a second reflectance value for each original pixel. The normalizing unit normalizes the second reflectance values based on the normalizing parameter to obtain normalized Retinex values. The correcting unit corrects the original pixel values based on the normalized Retinex values. The reducing information determining unit determines first information based on second information with respect to at least one of quality of the corrected original image to be formed, a type of a recording medium on which the corrected original image is formed, a size of a recording medium on which the corrected original image is formed, the reduced image size, and the original image size. The reduced image forming unit reduces the original image based on the first information.
US08437026B2
Communication network components can be synchronized for facsimile transmissions in the communication network. The synchronization may compensate for variations in transmission rates among the different network components or different paths taken by portions of the facsimile transmission. The synchronization may involve modulating an adaptive jitter buffer or an effective packet rate to compensate for clock skew that may occur between network components. The compensation to obtain synchronization can be achieved to avoid causing interruptions or distortions in the facsimile transmission data. By applying the compensation at specific points or intervals in a facsimile transmission, synchronization can be achieved to obtain an overall quality improvement in facsimile transmissions in a packet switched network.
US08437023B2
An image processing apparatus is provided and includes: a memory that stores discrimination information and a setting value group associated with the discrimination information, the setting value group including a plurality of first setting values for carrying out processing and; a setting unit that sets second setting values needed for image processing, in which a portion of the first setting values in the setting value group associated with the discrimination information is set as at least a portion of the second setting values; and a processing unit that carries out image processing according to the second setting values.
US08437009B2
A system and method reconstruct an anatomical impression. The system contains a light signal generating device for generating a light signal directed toward a synthetic test body having the anatomical impression. The light signal is directed toward the synthetic test body such that the light signal is attenuated upon passing through the synthetic test body. A sensor captures the attenuated light signal through the synthetic test body and converts the captured attenuated light signal into digitized image information. The system further includes a digital reconstruction device for reconstructing the digitized image information based on measurement of light attenuation to generate a three-dimensional volume of the anatomical impression.
US08437004B2
A detection apparatus which illuminates a sample and detects light reflected by the sample, comprises a light source, a columnar reflecting member having a columnar reflecting surface which reflects light having entered a first end of the columnar reflecting member by a plurality of number of times, and emits the light from a second end of the columnar reflecting member, a mirror which reflects light radiated by the light source so as to guide to the first end and a detector, wherein the sample is illuminated with the light emitted from the second end, and the detector is configured to detect the light which has been reflected by the sample and has passed through the columnar reflecting member, and a reflecting surface of the mirror is a concave surface, and a shape of a reflecting surface of the mirror on a section perpendicular to an axis of the columnar reflecting member is concave.
US08437002B2
The invention relates to an imaging optical inspection setup for inspecting a sample (5). Said inspection setup comprises a source of light (3) illuminating a specified portion of the sample surface by non-collimated light (4) in a plane of illumination, at least one pinhole (7) arranged in a path of reflected light (4′) reflected from said portion and/or in a path of transmitted light (4″) travelling through the entire thickness of the sample (5) in said sample portion, said pinhole (7) extending at least in the plane of illumination, and at least one screen and/or at least one position-sensitive detector system (8) arranged in the path of light (4′, 4″) passing through said pinhole (7) and adapted to intercept said light (4′, 4″), said detector system (8) being susceptible of sensing light intensity distribution along at least a line.
US08437000B2
An illustrative cavity ring down gas sensor includes an optical cavity for receiving a gas to be detected and at least two electromagnetic radiation sources. The first electromagnetic radiation source may emit a first beam of light having a wavelength corresponding to an absorption wavelength of the gas to be detected, and the second electromagnetic radiation source may emit a second beam of light having a second wavelength that is off of an absorption wavelength of the gas to be detected. The first beam of light may detect a cavity ring down time decay, which is related to the concentration of the gas to be detected. The second beam of light may be used to detect a baseline cavity ring down time decay, which may be used to help increase the accuracy of the sensor by, for example, helping to compensate the concentration of the gas detected by the first beam of light for sensor variations caused by, for example, sensor age, temperature or pressure changes, and/or other conditions.
US08436999B2
A detection system for separately detecting different wavelengths of emission light emitted from a sample. The system includes a detection assembly to receive the emission light emitted from the sample. The detection assembly includes a multi-band dichroic member and at least first and second detection cameras. The multi-band dichroic member has a transmission/reflection characteristic with at least two transmissive regions separated from each other along a wavelength spectrum and with at least one reflective region separated from the transmissive regions along the wavelength spectrum. The dichroic member transmits portions of the emission light that align with the at least two transmissive regions to the first detection camera. The dichroic member reflects a portion of the emission light that aligns with the reflective region to the second detection camera.
US08436998B2
A method of measuring focus of a lithographic projection apparatus includes exposure of a photoresist covered test substrate with a plurality of verification fields. Each of the verification fields includes a plurality of verification markers, and the verification fields are exposed using a predetermined focus offset. After developing, an alignment offset for each of the verification markers is measured and translated into defocus data using a transposed focal curve.
US08436996B2
The present invention is an apparatus and method for enhancing the electromagnetic signal of a sample for ellipsometry which uses at least one auxiliary layer and at least one substrate layer.
US08436995B2
A method of optimising the sensitivity of surface plasmon ellipsometry (SPE) apparatus used to analyse a surface comprising a conducting film is disclosed. The method includes calculating a sensitivity map of plasmon ellipsometry for the film. The sensitivity map comprises data defining variations in sensitivity of the plasmon ellipsometry apparatus with angle of incidence and polarization angle of polarized light incident on the conducting film for analysis by the apparatus. The method further comprises using the sensitivity map to configure the plasmon ellipsometry apparatus with a combination of the angle of incidence and polarization angle located in a region of substantially maximum sensitivity in the sensitivity map.
US08436994B2
A sample investigation system (ES) in functional combination with an alignment system (AS), and methodology of enabling calibration and very fast, (eg. seconds), sample height, angle-of-incidence and plane-of-incidence adjustments, with application in mapping ellipsometer or the like systems.
US08436993B2
A method of focusing particles is provided. The method includes transiting a fluid containing particles therein through a channel at a flow rate and adjusting the flow rate for a desired transit time through an interrogation zone through which a light from an excitation source passes. The method further includes optically exciting the particles with the excitation source, detecting an optical signal from the particles, and analyzing the optical signal. The particles may be droplets. Further, the particles may transit the interrogation zone in single file. A system of focusing particles is also provided. The system includes a channel having an inlet for accepting a fluid containing particles. The system further includes a flow adjuster configured to adjust the flow rate for a desired transit time through an interrogation zone, a light source configured to optically excite the particles, and a detector configured to detect optical signals from the particles.
US08436988B2
A clinical laboratory testing apparatus comprises a microchip for holding a sample liquid; a rotation body for rotating the microchip; a rotation drive mechanism; a lock mechanism for locking the microchip on the rotation body; a measurement room that holds the microchip and the rotation body; a protection cover; a light source that irradiates the measuring cell of the microchip; and a light receiving unit, wherein a centrifugal separation processing of a specimen in the sample liquid is performed in the microchip.
US08436987B2
A system and method for locating and identifying unknown samples. A targeting mode may be utilized to scan regions of interest for potential unknown materials. This targeting mode may interrogate regions of interest using SWIR and/or fluorescence spectroscopic and imaging techniques. Unknown samples detected in regions of interest may be further interrogated using a combination of Raman and LIBS techniques to identify the unknown samples. Structured illumination may be used to interrogate an unknown sample. Data sets generated during interrogation may be compared to a reference database comprising a plurality of reference data sets, each associated with a known material. The system and method may be used to identify a variety of materials including: biological, chemical, explosive, hazardous, concealment, and non-hazardous materials.
US08436977B2
A slit shaped area of a patterning device is illuminated to impart a radiation beam with a pattern in its cross-section. A projection system projects the patterned radiation beam onto a target portion of a substrate. As the radiation beam is scanned across the target portion of the substrate, a configuration of the projection system is adjusted and applies a pattern to the target portion. The adjusting may affect a magnitude of an image magnification component of the projection system, along the length of the slit shaped area, or an image distortion in a scan direction. The adjusting is arranged to compensate an effect on pattern overlay accuracy of a distortion of the patterning device.
US08436974B2
Provided is an illuminating device wherein generation of luminance nonuniformity is suppressed, while suppressing deterioration of light use efficiency. An illuminating device (10) is provided with an FPC (8), which has at least a part (8a) perpendicularly arranged to a light incoming surface (3a) of a light guide plate (3) and has an LED (7) mounted on the part (8a). The FPC (8) is also provided with a part (8b) positioned below a region between the LED (7) and the light incoming surface (3a), and the part (8b) is tilted in a diagonally downward direction toward the light incoming surface (3a).
US08436970B2
Provided is a liquid crystal display including: a first substrate and a second substrate facing each other; a pixel electrode disposed on the first substrate; an opposing electrode disposed on the second substrate; a liquid crystal layer in vertical alignment mode interposed between the first substrate and the second substrate and including a plurality of liquid crystal molecules; and a tilt direction determining member determining tilt directions of the liquid crystal molecules when an electric field is generated in the liquid crystal layer, wherein the liquid crystal layer includes a first area and a second area in each of the first area and the second area, the liquid crystal molecules being aligned to have a pretilt without the electric field in the liquid crystal layer, and a pretilt angle of the liquid crystal molecules in the first area is larger a pretilt angle that of the liquid crystal molecules in the second area.
US08436969B2
A photo alignment process and a liquid crystal display using the same are provided. The photo alignment process includes the following steps. A photo alignment material layer is formed on a substrate. The photo alignment material layer is irradiated by a linearly polarized light. A surface of the photo alignment material layer is a first plane. A wave vector of the linearly polarized light is a K vector. A second plane is constructed from a normal vector of the first plane and the K vector. A polarization direction of the linearly polarized light is neither perpendicular nor parallel to the second plane.
US08436968B2
A flat display device integrated with a photovoltaic cell is disclosed. The flat display device includes a first substrate, a second substrate, a display medium layer, a first photovoltaic cell, a connecting layer and a conductive structure. The display medium layer is sealed between the first and second substrates. The first photovoltaic cell is disposed on the first substrate. The connecting layer is disposed on the second substrate and is capable of electrically connecting the first photovoltaic cell to an external circuit. The conductive structure is disposed between the first and second substrates, and is electrically connected with the first photovoltaic cell and the connecting layer.
US08436965B2
External light is reflected due to a difference in refractive indices of a black matrix and a glass substrate. When the black matrix is a black resin, there is a difference in refractive indices of the black resin and a first substrate. Also, there is a difference in refractive indices of the colored layer and the first substrate. Therefore, external light is slightly reflected. There is a problem in that the reflected light reduces contrast. A structure in which one polarizing element having dichroism is interposed between a pair of substrates is employed, and a light interference layer is provided between a color filter and a glass substrate, whereby a difference in refractive indices is moderated to reduce light reflection.
US08436962B2
A backlight (illumination device; 2) of the present invention includes: multiple light sources (5); multiple light guide plates (7, 17, . . . ) for causing surface emission of light from the light sources (5); and a diffusing plate (8) for diffusing light from the light guide plates (7, 17, . . . ), the diffusing plate (8) being provided so as to be separate from and face the light guide plates (7, 17, . . . ). Each of the light guide plates (7, 17, . . . ) includes: a light-emitting section (7b) having a light-emitting surface (7a); and a light guide section (7c) for guiding, to the light-emitting section (7b), light from the light sources (5), a light-emitting section (17b) of the first light guide plate (17) being provided above a light guide section (7c) of the second light guide plate (7) adjacent to the first light guide plate (17). A light amount adjusting section (11) for reducing the amount of light incident on it is provided so as to be separate from the diffusing plate (8) and so that the orthogonal projection of the light amount adjusting section (11) onto the light-emitting region covers the boundary between any adjacent light guide plates (7, 17, . . . ). This allows for production of a tandem-type illumination device having further improved luminance uniformity.
US08436956B2
In a display apparatus, each pixel includes a gate line, a storage line spaced apart from the gate line, and a data line crossing the gate line. The pixel includes a switching device connected to the gate line and the data line, a protective layer provided with an opening formed therethrough in an area where the gate line and the storage line are arranged adjacent to each other, and a pixel electrode arranged on the protective layer to be connected to the switching device and overlapped with the storage line. The opening is overlapped either the gate line or the storage line. Thus, a direct-current electric field is formed between the gate line and the storage line corresponding to an area where the opening in the protective layer is formed, and impurity ions are trapped by the direct-current electric field.
US08436942B2
An image processing apparatus for controlling brightness of an image to be output to a display unit includes a separation unit which separates an input image into images in a plurality of areas, and an entropy calculation unit which calculates, for the image in each area, entropy information on at least one of distribution of luminosity, character quantity, and motion quantity. In addition, a brightness control unit controls brightness for the image in each area so that a first reduction rate of brightness in an area of which entropy is relatively small is greater than a second reduction rate of brightness in an area of which entropy is relatively large.
US08436939B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for non-invasive, “in-service” AV delay detection and correction. These systems and methods do not modify the audio signal or the video signal, nor do they rely on any metadata to be carried with the audio signal or the video signal via the distribution path. Instead, agents located at various points along the distribution path generate very small signature curves for the audio signal and the video signal and distribute them to a manager via a separate data path other than the distribution path. The manager calculates a measured AV delay caused by the distribution path based on these signature curves, and then optionally corrects the measured AV delay by adjusting an in-line delay in the distribution path.
US08436938B1
A device is described for receiving data transmitted using asynchronous data transmission technology, in particular audio and video data, which receives a clock signal, having a memory device (17), which stores the received data for the required period of time in order to compensate for transmission delays (Cell Delay Variation). The clock signal is sent to the memory device (17) for reading out the data. Furthermore, a method is described for receiving data signals using asynchronous data transfer technology, with the received data signals being temporarily stored and read out at the studio clock rate.
US08436937B2
A camera module includes a circuit board having a supporting surface, a socket fixed on the supporting surface of the circuit board and defining a receiving space, an image sensor received in the receiving space, and a lens group optically coupled with the image sensor. The receiving space of the socket has an entrance and an internal surface. A block protrusion is formed on the internal surface. The block protrusion includes a first ramp extending from the internal surface to a center portion of the receiving space. The lens group includes a plurality of optical components. A slope parallel to the first ramp is formed on one of the optical components. At least part of the lens group is received in the receiving space and blocked by the block protrusion, with the first ramp resisting against the slope. A method for assembling the camera module is also provided.
US08436936B2
Embodiments of the present invention include circuits and methods for calibrating position displacement in a voltage controlled actuator. In one embodiment, a calibration circuit comprises an actuator having a control terminal for receiving a programmable control voltage to set a displacement, a switch that selectively decouples said programmable voltage from said control terminal and couples a reference current to said control terminal when the control terminal is decoupled from said control voltage, a comparator that senses a voltage difference between said control voltage and said control terminal, and a timer coupled to an output of the comparator. The timer measures a time period required to increase the control terminal voltage. The capacitance of the actuator may be determined and used to calibrate the position of the actuator.
US08436933B2
The image pickup system is constituted by a lens apparatus including a focus lens and an image pickup apparatus performing image pickup through the lens apparatus. The system includes an operating part being operated to instruct a movement of the focus lens, a controller performing focus position control to move the focus lens to a position corresponding to an operation amount of the operating part, a ranging part detecting an object distance in each of plural ranging areas included in an image pickup region, and a determining part determining a distance range where the object distances detected in the plural ranging areas are distributed. The system further includes a changing part changing a relationship between the operation amount of the operating part and the position of the focus lens in the focus position control according to a determination result by the determining part.
US08436929B2
There is provided a display control apparatus including an external memory accommodating unit for accommodating a removable external memory; a database recognizing unit for recognizing a database stored in the external memory, the database being recorded with an image stored in the external memory and information related to the image in correspondence to each other; a display method setting unit for setting either display method of a stored first display method or a second display method of displaying the image stored in the external memory without using the database based on a recognition result of the database recognizing unit; and a display controlling unit for displaying the image stored in the external memory by the display method based on the set display method.
US08436924B2
When an external trigger is received as a predetermined signal after receiving a signal concerning a start of imaging, controls are carried out to stop driving of a CCD type solid-state image sensor (CCD) from receipt of the signal concerning a start of imaging until receipt of the external trigger, and to start the driving of the CCD synchronously with the receipt of the external trigger. Thus, the driving of the CCD is not started immediately upon receipt of the signal concerning a start of imaging, and the driving time of the CCD can be shortened by the time from receipt of the signal concerning a start of imaging until receipt of the external trigger, thereby suppressing heat generation of the CCD.
US08436923B2
At least one exemplary embodiment is directed to an imaging apparatus including an image sensor including a light-shielded pixel area, a comparison unit configured to compare a light-shielded pixel output value output from at least a part of the light-shielded pixel area with a plurality of preset determination values, a counting unit configured to count a result of comparison performed by the comparison unit with respect to each of the plurality of determination values, and a calculation unit configured to estimate an amount of dark current generated in the image sensor based on a result of counting performed by the counting unit.
US08436920B2
An embodiment of a camera apparatus includes transferring a compressed playback streaming signal output from a recording medium to a map defined in a memory circuit, decoding the transferred playback streaming signal by a decoder, converting the decoded signal to a YUV signal in an image processing unit, transferring the converted signal to the map as a YUV signal, generating a magnified or reduced image from the YUV signal in the image processing unit, and storing the image on the map, overlaying a magnified or reduced image prepared on the map according to a magnified playback request, and outputting the overlaid image for seeking an output position.
US08436900B2
A camera includes: an imaging unit that captures an image of a subject and obtains image data; a similarity level calculation unit that calculates a similarity level indicating a level of similarity of an image within a search frame to a template image in correspondence to each search frame position assumed as the search frame is shifted within a search target area set in each of frames input in time series from the imaging unit; a subject position determining unit that determines as a subject position a position assumed by the search frame, at which the similarity level is highest, in correspondence to each frame; a subject tracking unit that tracks the subject position from frame to frame; and a rangefinding unit that measures a distance (subject distance) from the camera to the subject, wherein: the similarity level calculation unit calculates the similarity level by factoring in rangefinding results.
US08436896B2
In one aspect, the present disclosure relates to a method for demodulating a modulated light signal in a light based positioning system. In some embodiments, the method includes receiving a modulated light signal at a device, the modulated light signal transmitting an arbitrary identifier of a light source, recording the modulated light signal using a rolling shutter image sensor to create a raw image having alternating spaced apart stripes, subtracting background information from the raw image to create an isolated image, taking a Fourier transform of an image representative of the isolated image to calculate a Fourier transformed signal, and determining the arbitrary identifier of the light source based on the Fourier transformed signal.
US08436879B2
A printhead mechanism and printing device capable of readily achieving adequate printing pressure are provided. The printhead mechanism includes a thermal printhead supported and pressed to a paper sheet or ink ribbon moving in a predetermined conveyance direction, a pressing mechanism pressing the thermal printhead in a direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction, a head supporting mechanism supporting the thermal printhead movably in head-pressing direction, wherein an acting point P2 of a pressing-force W, at which the thermal printhead is pressed, is disposed downstream of a supporting point p3 at which the thermal printhead is supported.
US08436870B1
A computer-implemented user interface and method for graphical processing analysis. More specifically, embodiments provide a convenient and effective mechanism for presenting GPU performance information such that one or more bottlenecking and/or underutilized graphics pipeline units may be identified. The presentation of the information enables quick comparison of all graphical operations within a frame for analysis with increased granularity. Additionally, the performance of graphical operations with common state attributes may be compared to more effectively and efficiently enhance GPU performance.
US08436866B2
Methods, apparatuses, and systems are presented for caching. A cache memory area may be used for storing data from memory locations in an original memory area. The cache memory area may be used in conjunction with a repeatedly updated record of storage associated with the cache memory area. The repeatedly updated record of storage can thus provide a history of data storage associated with the cache memory area. The cache memory area may be loaded with entries previously stored in the cache memory area, by utilizing the repeatedly updated record of storage. In this manner, the record may be used to “warm up” the cache memory area, loading it with data entries that were previously cached and may be likely to be accessed again if repetition of memory accesses exists in the span of history captured by the repeatedly updated record of storage.
US08436860B1
Techniques for determining a position of a component of an animated object relative to a surface represented by a depth map and updating the state of the animated object based upon the determination. Updating the state of an animated object may change one or more of the animated object's geometric and/or non-geometric properties, such as changing the position and/or orientation of a component(s) of the animated object, changing a color associated with the animated object, and the like.
US08436859B2
Techniques for displaying path-related information. Techniques are provided for generating and displaying graphical representations for a path. For example, radial histograms, radial vector plots, and other graphical representations may be rendered for multiple paths aggregated together.
US08436854B2
Techniques are described for processing graphics images with a graphics processing unit (GPU) using deferred vertex shading. An example method includes the following: generating, within a processing pipeline of a graphics processing unit (GPU), vertex coordinates for vertices of each primitive within an image geometry, wherein the vertex coordinates comprise a location and a perspective parameter for each one of the vertices, and wherein the image geometry represents a graphics image; identifying, within the processing pipeline of the GPU, visible primitives within the image geometry based upon the vertex coordinates; and, responsive to identifying the visible primitives, generating, within the processing pipeline of the GPU, vertex attributes only for the vertices of the visible primitives in order to determine surface properties of the graphics image.
US08436834B2
An optical touch device includes a light guide module including a first light guide component, a second light guide component, a third light guide component and a fourth light guide component, a light source module including a first light emitting component and a second light emitting component for emitting light alternately and an image detecting module disposed between two neighboring ends of the first light guide component and the second light guide component. The third light guide component and the fourth light guide component are mirror light guide components. A field of view of the image detecting module covers the third light guide component and the fourth light guide component. The optical touch device can avoid a blind zone and can be used as a dual-touch device or a multi-touch device. A locating method and a linear source module are also provided.
US08436821B1
Various embodiments of a system and methods for touch gesture recognition are described. A software developer may create a set of custom touch gestures by training a gesture development tool. A new touch gesture may be input to the tool by repeatedly executing the gesture on a touch-enabled device or by depicting parameters of the gesture in a graphical language. A developer may provide a software command associated with the gesture. A unique, software-recognizable gesture descriptor may be created to represent each gesture. The gesture descriptor, a unique identifier of the gesture descriptor and the command associated with the gesture may all be stored as an entry in a configuration file. The file may be embedded in a software application and may be used by a gesture classification module to translate user touch gestures applied to the software application into commands to be executed by the software application.
US08436817B2
Disclosed herein are a data input device and an input conversion method using the data input device. The data input device includes a detection unit provided in a predetermined input region, the detection unit processing first directional input that generates a first directional input signal through detection of lateral pressing in a predetermined radial direction by a finger placed at a reference location in the input region, second directional input that generates a second directional input signal through detection of vertical pressing in a predetermined direction in a state in which the finger is placed at the reference location, third directional input that generates a third directional input signal through detection of tilt pressing in a state in which the finger is placed at the reference location, and fourth directional input that generates a fourth directional input signal through detection of a tilt input in a state in which the finger is placed at the reference location; and a control unit configured to determine input locations of a lateral pressing direction, vertical pressing direction, tilt pressing direction and tilting direction of the finger, extract relevant data from memory, and input the extracted data; wherein the data is input through combination of two or more of the first to fourth directional inputs.
US08436816B2
An input device includes a deflection based capacitive sensing input. Deflection of a metal fame of the input device causes a change in capacitance that is used to control a function of an electrical device. The input appears selectively visible because it is made of the same material as the housing it is contained in and because it is selectively backlit through tiny holes.
US08436815B2
A control system is disclosed that is configurable (e.g., by a programmer) so as to enable input from multiple sources to capture to multiple controls. Also or alternatively, the system is configurable so as to enable input from multiple sources to capture to a single control. The system also provides a consistent and extendable scheme for filtering out conflicting events for individual controls. In one embodiment, this means that the system is configurable (e.g., based on the programmer's asserted preferences) so as to enable a selective determination as to whether additional inputs can be captured for a given control.
US08436813B2
A pointing apparatus and method and a pointer display apparatus and method using a virtual region which generate a virtual region corresponding to a detected display region, convert coordinates of a location, and display a pointer at the converted coordinates. The pointing device includes a region detector detecting a display region, which displays a pointer, using at least one received signal; a virtual region generator generating the virtual region corresponding to the display region and having an aspect ratio equal to that of the display region; a coordinate converter converting coordinates of a location, which is pointed at by the pointing device, in the virtual region into ratios of the coordinates of the location to a size of the virtual region; and a coordinate ratio transmitter transmitting the ratios.
US08436811B2
The present invention relates to a three-dimensional virtual input and simulation apparatus, and more particularly to an apparatus comprising a plurality of point light sources, a plurality of optical positioning devices with a visual axis tracking function, and a control analysis procedure. The invention is characterized in that the plurality of optical positioning devices with the visual axis tracking function are provided for measuring and analyzing 3D movements of the plurality of point light sources to achieve the effect of a virtual input and simulator.
US08436808B2
An apparatus is disclosed for supplying input signals to a computer. A sensor having the form of a sphere has a touch sensitive surface for generating position data for touch events. The sensor includes orientation sensors that determine rotation with respect to the earth's magnetic and gravitational fields. Orientation data may be combined with position data to interpret the orientation of touch events on the surface with respect to the computer's display. Cursor movement or text may be generated from touch events. Preferably the sphere has a roughened surface that generates sound when touched. Position data is generated by processing signals from microphones under the sphere's surface.
US08436805B2
Provided is an active matrix substrate configured such that: a retention capacitor line (18x) is provided so as to correspond to a space between adjacent pixel regions (5α, 5β); capacitor electrodes (27xa, 27xb) are provided so as to overlap the retention capacitor line (18x); a retention capacitor line (18y) is provided so as to correspond to a space between adjacent pixel region (5α, 5γ); capacitor electrodes (27ya, 27yb) are provided so as to overlap the retention capacitor line (18y); a first pixel electrode (17a) provided in the pixel region (5α) is electrically connected to the capacitor electrode (27xa) overlapping one (18x) of adjacent retention capacitor lines (18x, 18y) and a second pixel electrode (17b) provided in the pixel region (5α) is electrically connected to the capacitor electrode (27yb) overlapping the other one (18y) of the two adjacent retention capacitor lines (18x, 18y); and an interconnection line (27ia) for electrically connecting the first pixel electrode (17a) is provided. The arrangement allows an active matrix substrate employing a pixel dividing method in which a plurality of pixel electrodes are provided in a single pixel, to restrain the number of retention capacitor lines and to improve flexibility in shapes of individual pixel electrodes.
US08436803B2
An image display device adjusts display luminance in accordance with a surrounding illuminance. Since the display luminance considered to be appropriate differs depending on a user, the image display device includes a display unit operating according to a display luminance calculated based on the surrounding illuminance. For example, in the image display device, a user can set a range of the display luminance as a predetermined rule. The image display device provides a user interface enabling a user to easily input the predetermined rule or perform the setting input without being aware of it. That is, when the surrounding illuminance is above a predetermined illuminance, an input bar indicates only the range where the maximum value can be set as an input screen and when the surrounding illuminance is below the predetermined illuminance, the input bar indicates only the range where the minimum value can be set.
US08436795B2
An electro-optical device includes a scanning-line driving circuit disposed in a peripheral region around the pixel area, and supplies, through scanning lines, a plurality of scanning signals to a plurality of pixel portions in the pixel area. The data-line driving circuit is disposed in the peripheral region, and supplies a plurality of sampling signals to a sampling circuit, which samples image signals and supplies the sampled image signals to data lines. A light-shielding film covers only the scanning-line driving circuit and the data-line driving circuit of a peripheral circuit portion disposed in the peripheral region.
US08436793B2
A light emitting apparatus includes a pixel circuit and a driving circuit which drives the pixel circuit. The pixel circuit includes: a driving transistor which generates a driving current; a light emitting device that determines gradation depending on the driving current; a light emission control transistor; a discharge transistor; a capacitor device; and a first switching device interposed between a gate and a drain of the driving transistor.
US08436785B1
A method of delaying the onset of a backward wave mode in a frequency selective surface having a two dimensional array of conductive patches or elements and an RF ground plane, the two dimensional array of patches or elements being interconnected by variable capacitors, the method comprising separating grounds associated with the variable capacitors from the RF ground plane and providing a separate conductive mesh structure or arrangement as a bias voltage ground for the variable capacitors. A tunable impedance surface comprises a RF ground plane; a plurality of patches or elements disposed in an array a distance from the ground plane; a capacitor arrangement for controllably varying capacitance between at least selected ones of adjacent patches or elements in the array; and a grounding mesh associated with the capacitor arrangement for providing a control voltage ground to capacitors in the capacitor arrangement, the grounding mesh being spaced from the RF ground plane by dielectric material.
US08436782B2
A communication antenna device for use in radio communication between a moving body and an access point comprises an antenna main body for transmitting and receiving a signal, a base side member of the moving body for supporting the antenna main body, and a damping mechanism provided between the base side member and the antenna main body and suppressing high frequency vibration of the antenna main body that has an impact on the radio communication. The damping mechanism includes an elastic member for absorbing high frequency vibration that has an impact on the radio communication. The elastic member has such characteristics as absorbing high frequency vibration of the antenna main body that makes changes in amplitude or frequency of a transmission signal from the antenna main body to the extent of inducing a demodulation error when the transmission signal is received at an antenna of the other party.
US08436780B2
An inexpensive planar antenna fabricated as a plurality of parallel layers of multi turn spiral loops co-located with conductive material at the center of the loops, there being an exclusion zone free of conductive material between the innermost loop and the conductive material at the center. The conductive material may comprise circuit elements, for example batteries, amplifiers, antenna drivers or other functional elements as well as passive elements. In one embodiment, the loop traces may be staggered. In another embodiment, the loop traces are varied in width as a function of position within the loop cross section. In further embodiments, the planar form is integrated with additional orthogonal planar antennas substantially coplanar with the first planar antenna and having axes orthogonal to the first planar antenna and to one another. In further embodiments the exclusion zone is extended by design rules and confining routes in a circuit section. The antenna system may be configured as a three dimensional omnidirectional antenna and is well adapted for small form factor hand held and portable wireless applications.
US08436778B2
An antenna duplexer includes a transmission filter and a reception filter both coupled with an antenna terminal. A pass band of the transmission filter is lower than a pass band of the reception filter. The transmission filter includes a first series resonator coupled with a first terminal, a second series resonator connected to the first series resonator at a first node, a first parallel resonator connected to a first port of the first series resonator, a second parallel resonator connected to a first node and the first parallel resonator at a second node, a third parallel resonator connected to the first node, a fourth parallel resonator connected to the third parallel resonator at a third node, a first inductance element coupled with the second node and a ground, and a second inductance element coupled with the third node and the ground. The first and second parallel resonators and the first inductance element produce an attenuation pole at a frequency lower than a pass band of the transmission filter. The third and fourth parallel resonators and the second inductance element produce an attenuation pole at a frequency higher than a pass band of the transmission filter. The inductance of the second inductance element is lower than the inductance of the first inductance element. In this antenna duplexer, the transmission filter sufficiently suppresses a spurious caused by harmonics contained in a transmission signal.
US08436774B2
A mobile communication device includes a ground plane and an antenna. The antenna is disposed on a dielectric substrate and includes a radiating metal portion, a coupling metal portion, and an inductive shorting metal portion. The radiating metal portion provides a resonant path for the antenna to generate first and second operating bands. The coupling metal portion is coupled to the radiating metal portion to form a first coupling portion and is connected to a source through a connecting metal strip. One end of the inductive shorting metal portion is electrically connected to the radiating metal portion, and the other end is electrically connected to the ground plane. The inductive shorting metal portion includes a first fractional section coupled to the radiating metal portion to form a second coupling portion, and a second fractional section coupled to the coupling metal portion to form a third coupling portion.
US08436773B2
A method for enhanced location determination using temporal, spatial and/or frequency diversity. Multiple ranging signal measurements are obtained from each signal source using either temporal, spatial and/or frequency diversity. In one embodiment, the multiple ranging signal measurements are combined using a metric to obtain a single ranging signal measurement. The location determination solution is then calculated using the single ranging signal measurement. In a second embodiment, a location determination solution is calculated for each of the multiple ranging signal measurements to result in multiple location determination solutions. A metric is then used to combine the multiple location determination solutions to result in a single location determination solution.
US08436771B2
Enhancing search capacity of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers. A method for searching satellite signals in a receiver includes performing a plurality of searches sequentially. The method also includes storing a result from each search of the plurality of searches in a consecutive section of a memory. Further, the method includes detecting free sections in the memory. The method also includes concatenating the free sections in the memory to yield a concatenated free section. Moreover, the method includes allocating the concatenated free section for performing an additional search.
US08436767B1
A method executes inspections on equipment of a system. The method includes providing an equipment inspection location rule group for a piece of equipment in the system, the equipment rule group including one or more equipment inspection location rules about equipment inspection locations and expected values at said inspection locations, and actions to be commanded when sampled values match the expected values; selecting one or more of the equipment inspection location rules in a corresponding rule group, the selection being made according to a predetermined operating sequence of the equipment inspection location rules; determining if the selected one or more equipment inspection location rules has been satisfied; and executing one or more actions corresponding to the selected one or more equipment inspection location rules if the selected one or more equipment inspection location rules have been satisfied.
US08436764B2
In operating a radar sensor, a modulation sequence having a number n of successive linear frequency ramps having different slopes an is cyclically repeated. A received radar signal reflected from an object is mixed with the emitted radar signal to form an intermediate frequency signal, which is analyzed for each frequency ramp with respect to its frequency spectrum. Peaks occurring in the frequency spectra of the intermediate frequency signal correspond to ambiguity lines in a distance/velocity space. Possible objects are assumed at intersection points of the ambiguity lines. The expected position which the possible objects would have at the point in time of the repetition of the modulation sequence is precalculated. The slope an of at least one of the frequency ramps is established for a subsequent modulation sequence in such a way that none of the expected positions of a possible object in the distance/velocity space is at an intersection point of precalculated ambiguity lines of the other possible objects.
US08436759B2
This invention relates to Analog to Digital Converters (ADC) and, inter alia, to Time Interleaved ADCs and Successive Approximation Register (SAR) ADC's. In a conventional Time Interleaved ADC employing SAR ADC units, the input signal is processed through a track-and-hold circuit (T/H), and then through a buffer circuit, before the SAR ADC unit. There, by means of a comparator, the signal is compared with a Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) signal from the SAR logic. The buffer reduces the influence of capacitive loading and physical layout design on the SAR ADC input, but typically has a non-linear response and thus introduces distortion to the input signal. This can limit the ADC linearity, particularly for high-speed ADCs operating with low-supply voltages. An objective of the invention is to reduce or eliminate the effect of the buffer non-linearity. This is done in some embodiments by routing both the signals to the comparator through the same buffer circuit. In another embodiment the DAC signal is routed through a separate second buffer circuit. By use of a single buffer circuit, or where there is ideal matching of the buffer circuits in the latter embodiment, the distortion effects are completely eliminated; however, for practical imperfectly matched buffer circuits according to the latter embodiment, the gain and off-set mismatches can be accommodated through calibration of the buffers or, in suitable applications, through the DAC calibration.
US08436755B2
Methods and systems are described for combining sources in a data compression system. In a system in which a context model results in the production of multiple sources or symbols, each source being associated with a probability estimate, sources may be combined by defining another, reduced size, set of probabilities. The new set of probabilities may be a subset of the predefined set of probabilities provided by the context model. Minimizing relative entropy may be a basis upon which to define a mapping of predefined probabilities to the new set of probabilities. An input sequence that was modeled using the context model may then be entropy encoded and entropy decoded using the new set of probabilities based on a mapping between the new probabilities and the predefined probabilities.
US08436754B2
The present invention relates to information processing technologies and discloses an encoding and decoding method and device to solve the poor decoding quality problem. The technical solution of the present invention includes: encoding each sample of an input signal to generate an encoded signal of a core layer; comparing residuals of all or a part of the samples of the input signal with encoding thresholds, where the residuals are generated by core layer encoding, and performing encoding according to comparison results to generate an encoded signal of an enhancement layer; and writing the encoded signal of the core layer and the encoded signal of the enhancement layer into a bitstream to generate an encoded signal of the input signal.
US08436753B2
An apparatus and method are described for reading a file into a universal representation and translating from that universal representation into various file formats. For example, a method according to one embodiment comprises: reading compressed audio data from a first audio file, the first audio file comprising audio data compressed using a first compression algorithm and bookkeeping data having a first format, the bookkeeping data specifying a location of the compressed audio data within the first audio file; and generating a universal representation of the first audio file without decompressing and recompressing the audio data, the universal representation having bookkeeping data of a second format specifying the location of compressed audio data within the universal representation.
US08436746B2
Devices, systems, and methods are provided for alerting a driver that a potential hazard is in the vicinity of the driver's vehicle. In general, activation signals transmitted from a vehicle are received at a potential hazard, and hazard signals are, in response, transmitted from the potential hazard to the vehicle. The hazard signals provide an indication of the potential hazard to the driver so that he may be aware of the potential hazard and react accordingly. The indication may be provided to the driver visually, such as on a display of the vehicle, and/or audibly, such as in the form of an audible alert issued by a speaker. The hazard signals may also include one or more characteristics of the potential hazard to provide more information about the potential hazard to the driver, such as the type of potential hazard and/or the degree of danger associated with the potential hazard.
US08436737B1
A postural state attitude monitoring, caution, and warning system includes a multiple axis accelerometer carried by a node for generating output signals that are a function of positional orientation of the node along a path of attitude displacement of the node extending from a reference position of the node to a caution position of the node, and from the caution position of the node to a warning position of the node, and a signal device operatively coupled to the multiple axis accelerometer for issuing a caution signal in response to a caution positional state of the node at the caution position of the node and distally therebeyond to inside of the warning position of the node, and for issuing a warning signal different from the caution signal in response to a warning positional state of the node at the warning position of the node and distally therebeyond.
US08436729B2
A monitor provides a wireless signal with respective pulses, based on a heartbeat, repetitive physical movement, or other repetitive bodily action of a user. The pulses include longer duration pulses whose duration identifies the monitor, and distinguishes it from other monitors which may provide crosstalk interference. The longer duration pulses are interspersed among short duration pulses to reduce power consumption. The pulses are transmitted in successive cycles, where the number of the longer duration pulses is set adaptively in each cycle based on a detected rate, or rate of change, of respective instances of the bodily action. A receiver unit processes the signal to determine a rate of the bodily action and provide a corresponding output. The receiver unit can synchronize with two or more consecutive longer duration pulses. The pulse duration can be fixed or determined dynamically, e.g., non-deterministically.
US08436728B2
Using wireless features, a public service agency is enabled to provide alert information to first responders. An automatic call back from the first responder triggers a voice call launching a location fix on the current location of the first responder. Preferably delivery confirmation that the responder has received the message is received. Once the location fix has been completed, then driving directions with map images are sent to the first responder based on their current location and desired destination for response.
US08436725B2
System which is constituted by one or more positioning devices (2), one or more localizers (1), one or several communication networks and one or several control centers (3). The localizers (1) and the positioning devices (2) have two or more communication interfaces and two or more positioning systems. The positioning devices (2) can calculate the position through some of the positioning systems and send their position via one of the communication interfaces, avoiding inoperability if one of the positioning systems or one of the communication interfaces fails to work. The localizers can perform the function of nodes (4) and forward the data of the position of a positioning devices and make them reach the localizer which has requested that information. Both the positioning devices and the localizers are mobile units. The control centers can monitor the position of the positioning devices if necessary.
US08436724B2
An apparatus (10) determines a tire condition and location on a vehicle (12) including a tire-based sensing unit (14) including, a first tire rotation sensor (66) for providing a first tire rotation signal (80) each time the tire passes one of at least two predetermined rotational positions and an unique tire identification indicator, a transmitter (86) and a controller for controlling the transmitter so that the transmission occurs when the first tire rotation signal indicates the tire has reached one of the at least two predetermined rotational positions. The apparatus further includes a second tire rotation sensor (22) mounted external of the tire for sensing tire rotation and for providing a second tire rotation signal indicative of incremental angular position of the tire relative to a reference. A vehicle-based receiver (44) correlates reception with a particular tire location on the vehicle.
US08436716B2
A method of upgrading an operation program in an interrogator of a radio frequency identification (RFID) system including the interrogator and a transponder is provided. The method includes transmitting, from the interrogator to the transponder, a first message requesting an operation program upgrade based on information exchanged between the interrogator and the transponder; receiving, at the interrogator from the transponder, a second message that includes a new-version operation program in response to the first message; and installing, at the interrogator, the new-version operation program to upgrade the operation program in the interrogator.
US08436714B2
Specialized battery assisted command set design methods are disclosed that provide for interference rejection using highly sensitive but relatively broadband RFID tags. The command set design also supports RFID system RF power control for further interference control. The command set design also allows for convenient expansion to active transmitters and receivers in tags operating within the same system. Embodiments of the present invention provide RFID systems having battery-assisted, Semi-Passive RFID tags that operate with sensitive transistor based square law tag receivers utilizing a plurality of tag receiver dynamic range states. Additional enhancement attained via power leveling methods that optimize the amount of transmitted power and interference from a reader in relation to the sensitivity of the RFID tags, their ranges from the reader, and the unique physics of the backscatter RFID radio link.
US08436712B1
The card has a magnetic strip with pertinent information encoded by the issuer. The magnetic strip provides monetary transaction capability, facility access, security access, and privilege access so that the card can be encoded as desired by the issuer. The magnetic strip and CPU also include medical information of a user. The card also has a battery pack that is in communication with the internally housed transponder, CPU, and GPS capability. By way of the antenna, the transponder communicates with an existing GPS transponder. A distance limitation is encoded into the card. When the card exceeds the distance limitation, the existing transponder is alarmed. The existing GPS transponder receives location information from the card so that the card user can be recovered.
US08436704B1
A solenoid actuator includes a stator assembly with a stator core of formed powder metal received in a stator housing. A ferromagnetic protective sleeve is in contact with and covers a majority of an inner end face and a cylindrical wall of the stator core, while a flux ring is in contact with and covers an outer end face of the stator core. An armature assembly includes an armature attached to a stem that is movable in an air gap relative to the ferromagnetic protective sleeve. A spring is operably positioned in the ferromagnetic protective sleeve but electrically isolated from the stator housing. The stator core is encapsulated to protect against erosion and fragmentation. A magnetic flux line around a solenoid coil passes through the stator core, the ferromagnetic protective sleeve, the armature, the flux ring and back to the stator core.
US08436703B2
A method for winding a coil on an object, wherein the coil includes a plurality of first coils and a plurality of second coils, may have winding the first coils on an exterior circumferences of the second coils, wherein an outer circumferences of the respective second coil is enclosed and in contact with outer circumference of at least three first coils, and wherein cross-sectional area of the second coil is smaller than that of the first coil, and wherein the outer circumference of the at least three first coils are in contact each other.
US08436702B2
There is provided an electromagnetic contactor unit capable of firmly connecting electromagnetic contactors without influencing outer dimensions when the electromagnetic contactors are connected to each other. The electromagnetic contactor unit connected at least two juxtaposed electromagnetic contactors (2a, 2b) with a connection piece (42). The electromagnetic contactor includes an attachment hole (41a) formed in each corner of an attachment plate portion, a piece accommodation concave portion (43) fitting a half portion of the connection piece formed above the attachment hole and accommodating within an outer dimension, and is opened to a connection surface with the adjacent electromagnetic contactor, and a locking portion (44) locking the connection piece formed in the piece accommodation concave portion. The connection piece includes a pair of engagement protrusions (42b, 42c) which are individually engaged with the adjacent attachment holes of the juxtaposed electromagnetic contactors, and a locked portion (42k) locked by the locking portion.
US08436701B2
Electromechanical relays and semiconductor structures and microelectromechanical systems including at least part of an electromechanical relay are presented. For example, an electromechanical relay includes an electrically conductive terminal within a printed circuit board, one or more electrically conductive contacts, and one or more magnetic actuators. The one or more magnetic actuators are respectively associated with the one or more electrically conductive contacts and each magnetic actuator includes (i) a magnetic core within at least one via extending through one or more layers of the printed circuit board, and (ii) an electrical coil around at least a portion of the magnetic core and within one or more layers of the printed circuit board. Activation of the one or more actuators causes electrical contact between the terminal and an associated one of the one or more electrically conductive contacts.
US08436695B2
A circuit converts a single-ended signal to differential signals that are balanced to have the same amplitudes and opposite phases. The circuit includes a balance tunable balun, a detector, and a controller. The balance tunable balun has a primary winding, a secondary winding, a control input, and a switched resistor-capacitor (RC) network. The primary winding receives the single-ended signal and the secondary winding outputs the differential signals. The control input receives a control signal and the switched RC network tunes an output imbalance of the balun responsive to this control signal. The detector detects the output imbalance and the controller generates the control signal to control the switched RC network to reduce that output imbalance. The circuit produces well balanced differential signals over a wide range of signal frequencies, even when asymmetries, process variations, or parasitic capacitance in the balun would otherwise result in imbalance.
US08436691B2
A signal transmission apparatus includes two circuit layers. First and second ground sheets each has a rectangular area are arranged in the two circuit layers respectively. A third ground sheet is arranged between the two circuit layers. A differential pair includes a transmission line arranged between the first and third ground sheets and a transmission line arranged between the second and third ground sheets. The first to third ground sheets have same electric potential. Projections of the two rectangular areas on a surface where the third ground sheet in only have one common border with the third ground sheet. The third ground sheet is formed by extending the common border along a signal transmission direction. The differential pair includes a number of section pairs each composed of two sections arranged in the two transmission lines symmetrically. Every two adjacent section pairs are equivalent to a capacitor and an inductor.
US08436685B2
The oscillating circuit (100) includes a variable frequency oscillating circuit (10) for generating a clock signal (CK) whose frequency increases in response to an up-signal (UP) and decreases in response to a down-signal (DOWN), the frequency going up and down continuously between an upper-limit frequency and a lower-limit frequency. An up/down control circuit (20) outputs the down-signal when a duration of a low level of the clock signal drops below a first delay time and outputs the up-signal when the duration exceeds a second delay time longer than the first delay time.
US08436679B1
The low frequency notch filter integrated circuit is implemented in a relatively small silicon area and with high linearity, thereby promoting the utilization of very large-scale integration (VLSI) techniques in biomedical instrumentation. The filter circuit utilizes R-2R ladders providing area saving of approximately 120:1. R-2R ladders function as digitally programmable resistors in a biquad configured Operational Amplifier filter circuit. Integrator loop topologies are used in the filter circuit. The preferred topology utilizes a Tow-Thomas circuit, which can be designed for the prerequisite gain and Q independently selecting two resistors. In addition, the three op amps in the Tow-Thomas topology have their non-inverting input grounded, and therefore their inverting inputs will be held ideally at virtual ground. These feature permits the use of op amps with small common mode input range.
US08436676B2
Traditionally, charge pumps, which used flying capacitors, were limited to a maximum divide ratio of N+1 (where N is the number of flying capacitors). Here, however, a charge pump has been provided that allows for a dramatically increased divide ratio. Specifically, several switched capacitor circuits (which are controlled by a driver) allow for flying capacitors to be arranged to provide a maximum divide ratio of 3·2(N-1)−1.
US08436672B1
A configurable switched capacitor block includes a switched-capacitor (SC) sampling circuit, a fully differential amplifier, an SC feedback circuit, and a comparator. The SC sampling circuit is coupled to receive an input signal and to selectively generate a sampled signal to a differential input of the amplifier. The SC feedback circuit is coupled between the differential inputs and the differential outputs of the amplifier to selectively control a feedback of the amplifier. The comparator is coupled to the differential outputs of the amplifier to generate an output signal. The configurable switched capacitor block has multiple modes of operation which are selectable by programming the SC sampling circuit and the SC feedback circuit.
US08436670B2
Examples of circuits and methods for compensating for power supply induced signal jitter in path elements sensitive to power supply variation. An example includes a signal path coupling an input to an output, the signal path including a delay element having a first delay and a bias-controlled delay element having a second delay. The first delay of the delay element exhibits a first response to changes in power applied thereto and the second delay of the bias-controlled delay element exhibits a second response to changes in the power applied such that the second response compensates at least in part for the first response.
US08436667B2
A method for outputting an analog value at a PWM output of a driver for a power semiconductor. The method comprises converting the analog value to a PWM signal which has two signal levels and which is at a fixed PWM frequency. For an inactive state of a binary supplementary value the PWM signal is output at the PWM output. For an active value of the supplementary value the PWM signal is output together with a supplementary signal at the PWM output. The current signal level of the PWM signal and the respective other signal level are output alternately as a supplementary signal at a signal frequency greater than the PWM frequency.
US08436659B1
Embodiments of the present invention include an electronic circuit that reduces stress on a transistor. In one embodiment, the electronic circuit comprises a transistor and a reference generator circuit. The transistor may be a metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistor, for example. The MOS transistor has a gate terminal to receive an input voltage. The reference generator circuit selectively couples first and second reference voltages to a source terminal of the MOS transistor. The reference generator circuit senses the input voltage and provides the first reference voltage to the source terminal of the MOS transistor if the input voltage is greater than a threshold and the second reference voltage is coupled to the source terminal of the first MOS transistor if the input voltage is less than a threshold.
US08436644B2
A configuration method performs a configuration of a FPGA circuit by setting configuration data from a configuration circuit to the FPGA circuit. The method counts, within the FPGA circuit, a number of times a configuration of the FPGA circuit fails. The method adjusts, within the FPGA circuit, the configuration data at a time when the configuration failed if the counted number exceeds an upper limit value, and re-executes the configuration based on the adjusted configuration data. The method sets the configuration data in which the configuration is succeeded from the FPGA circuit to the configuration circuit when the configuration is successful.
US08436637B1
A nanomechanical device, operating as a reprogrammable logic gate, and performing fundamental logic functions such as AND/OR and NAND/NOR. The logic function can be programmed (e.g., from AND to OR) dynamically, by adjusting the operating parameters of the resonator. The device can access one of two stable steady states, according to a specific logic function; this operation is mediated by the noise floor which can be directly adjusted, or dynamically tuned via an adjustment of the underlying nonlinearity of the resonator, i.e., it is not necessary to have direct control over the noise floor. The demonstration of this reprogrammable nanomechanical logic gate affords a path to the practical realization of a new generation of mechanical computers.
US08436612B2
In a method and apparatus to generate MR images of an examination region containing tissue with a first T2 time and tissue with a second, significantly longer T2 time are contained, as series of pulse sequences is employed the following pulse sequences: an overview pulse sequence to generate MR overview images, a T1-weighted pulse sequence to generate T1-weighted MR images and a multiple contrast pulse sequence in which at least two groups of magnetic resonance signals are acquired. A first group of magnetic resonance signals is acquired after excitation of a magnetization in a first time period and at least one second group of magnetic resonance signals is acquired in a second time period after the first time period in which the tissue with the significantly longer T2 time delivers the significant signal contribution. An MR image is calculated based on a pixel-by-pixel difference of the absolute values from the magnetic resonance signals of the first group and the second group.
US08436611B2
A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus includes an imaging condition setting unit and an image data acquisition unit. The imaging condition setting unit sets an imaging condition applying first and second suppression pulses of which at least ones of types, center frequencies and frequency bands are different from each other. The first and the second suppression pulses frequency-selectively suppress at least one of fat and silicone. The image data acquisition unit acquires image data according to the imaging condition.
US08436602B2
A voltage compensation circuit is disclosed for proving an elevated output AC voltage upon an under voltage input AC voltage condition. The voltage compensation circuit comprises an autotransformer having a first and a second autotransformer winding. A first position of a switch connects the first autotransformer winding to the input AC voltage for providing an elevated output AC voltage at the second autotransformer winding. The second position of the switch shorting the first autotransformer winding for providing a non-elevated output AC voltage.
US08436599B2
A method of controlling an output voltage of a pulse width modulation (PWM) converter with a PWM signal driving a power switch of the converter may include using a comparator to compare a reference voltage with a scaled output voltage of the converter, incrementing or decrementing an up/down counter at each pulse of a clock signal applied to the counter depending on a state of the comparator, and controlling the comparator to generate the PWM signal with a control voltage selected from a look-up table using a value of the counter.
US08436594B2
In addition to an output voltage control loop, a dead-time optimization loop is provided for a digital synchronous switching converter to dynamically adjust the dead-time for the power switches of the converter. It is extracted a minimal feedback signal at a steady state while the output voltage remains under a specification, and a maximal efficiency of the digital synchronous switching converter is thus obtained.
US08436590B2
A discharge circuit for a DC power supply smoothing capacitor that is used in a power conversion device that supplies DC power via a switch to the DC power supply smoothing capacitor and an inverter, includes; a resistor that discharges charge in the capacitor; a switch connected in series with the resistor, that either passes or intercepts discharge current flowing from the capacitor to the resistor; a measurement circuit that measures a terminal voltage of the capacitor; and a control circuit that controls continuity and discontinuity of the switch; wherein the control circuit, after having made the switch continuous and starting discharge of the capacitor by the resistor, if a terminal voltage of the capacitor as measured by the measurement circuit exceeds a voltage decrease characteristic set in advance, makes the switch discontinuous and stops discharge by the resistor.
US08436586B2
A battery protection device for disconnecting a plurality of batteries from an inverter to avoid excessive discharge. The device comprises at least one battery connector for connecting to the plurality of batteries, at least one inverter cable for connecting to the inverter, and a plurality of wires for connecting to an AC input. The device gets activated when the AC input to the inverter cuts off and continuously monitors a voltage level of the batteries. Further, the device automatically disconnects the batteries from the inverter at a preset voltage level and shuts itself off to achieve a protection mode wherein the device does not draw any current to avoid further drainage of the batteries. A voltage level of the device is set above a preset voltage for recharging batteries and when the AC input is restored, the device reconnects the batteries to the inverter.
US08436585B2
When remaining capacity estimated by a calculator is higher than a control upper limit, a charge-disabled mode is selected in which charging operation is disabled. When remaining capacity is lower than a control lower limit, a discharge-disabled mode is selected in which discharging operation is disabled. When remaining capacity is higher than an upper limit of a given range having its center at a target value specified between the control upper and lower limits, an allowance mode is selected in which charging/discharging current limits are adjusted to allow a discharging amount to exceed a charging amount in a predetermined period. When remaining capacity is not higher than the upper limit of the range, a restriction mode is selected in which charging/discharging currents are restricted so that the remaining capacity is held within the range.
US08436573B2
A power conversion device includes a first inverter circuit and a second inverter circuit, a capacitor, and a microcomputer. The microcomputer switches a control operation, according to the steering state of a steering wheel, between a first state where a first duty center value is shifted to be lower than an output center value and a second duty center value is shifted to be higher than the output center value, and a second state where the first duty center value is shifted to be higher than the output center value and the second duty center value is shifted to be lower than the output center value. This can reduce a difference in heat loss between FETs while reducing the ripple current of the capacitor.
US08436558B2
An electrically driven mooring winch is provided. The mooring winch includes a winding drum, an AC motor configured to drive the winding drum, a frequency conversion unit connected to the AC motor, and a control unit configured to control the frequency conversion unit on the basis of an indicator for tension of the mooring rope. The control unit is configured to set a reference value of rotational speed of the AC motor to a predetermined value, drive the AC motor in one direction for a predetermined time interval, define a first value of a torque of the AC motor, drive the AC motor in an opposite direction for the predetermined interval, define a second value of the torque of the AC motor, and compute a torque estimate using the first and second values of the torque.
US08436557B2
The invention proposes a ballast control circuit and ballast control method for gas discharge lamp. The ballast control circuit and control method of the invention is advantageous by allowing the OFF time of the main switch of the ballast circuit to be fixed in order to prevent the transformer of the ballast circuit from being saturated when the gas discharge lamp is ignited and has a very low impedance, and allowing the OFF time of the main switch to be flexibly adapted when the gas discharge lamp is warmed up and its impedance has risen up to a certain value. The inventive ballast control circuit is configured to proceed with the switching of the main switch according to a lamp status signal indicative of the status of the lamp.
US08436551B2
An arc discharge detecting circuit includes; a voltage dividing part which divides a driving voltage provided to a light source, a detecting part which includes a loop-shaped wiring spaced apart from the voltage dividing part and which detects a current corresponding to an arc discharge flowing through the voltage dividing part using a coupling capacitance generated between the loop-shaped wiring of the detecting part and a wiring of the voltage dividing part, and an output part connected to the detecting part to output a detection voltage corresponding to the arc discharge. Accordingly, the arc discharge detecting circuit may improve a sensitivity of detecting an arc discharge as a current source type using the coupling capacitors, a design may be simplified, and manufacturing costs may be decreased.
US08436546B2
An electrodeless plasma lamp and method of generating light are described. The lamp may comprise a lamp body, a source of radio frequency (RF) power and a bulb. The lamp body may comprise a solid dielectric material and at least one conductive element within the solid dielectric material. The source of RF power is configured to provide RF power and an RF feed configured to radiate the RF power from the RF source into the lamp body. The bulb is positioned proximate the lamp body and contains a fill that forms a plasma when the RF power is coupled to the fill from the lamp body. The at least one conductive element is configured to concentrate an electric field proximate the bulb.
US08436540B2
A multi-lamp driving system includes a pulse width modulation (PWM) controller, transformers, a current difference detection circuit, a lighting detection circuit, a frequency scanning detection circuit, a frequency regulating circuit, and a duty cycle regulating circuit. The current difference detection circuit detects difference among current flowing through lamps to determine if the current fluctuates. The lighting detection circuit determines if the lamps are lit according to the current, and generates a lighting indication signal after the lamps are lit. The frequency scanning detection circuit determines if the multi-lamp driving system is in a frequency scanning process according to the lighting indication signal, and generates a frequency scanning indication signal if the multi-lamp driving system is in the frequency scanning process. The duty cycle regulating circuit regulates duty cycles of the PWM signals upon the condition that the current fluctuates and the multi-lamp driving system is in the frequency scanning process.
US08436514B2
Provided is a highly reliable acoustic wave device wherein deterioration of electrical characteristics due to deformation of a protective cover is suppressed. A method for manufacturing such acoustic wave device is also provided. The acoustic wave device has a piezoelectric substrate 1 propagating an acoustic wave; an excitation electrode arranged on a first main surface of the piezoelectric substrate 1; a columnar outside connection-use electrode 10 electrically connected to the excitation electrode; a protective cover 17 having a hollow accommodating space 8 in which the excitation electrode is accommodated on the first main surface; and a conductive layer 18 connected to the electrode 10 on the protective cover 17.
US08436510B2
A boundary acoustic wave device includes a piezoelectric substrate made of single-crystalline LiTaO3, a first medium layer disposed on the piezoelectric substrate and made of a dielectric, a second medium layer disposed on the first medium layer and made of a dielectric having a sound velocity different from that of the first medium layer, and at least one interdigital electrode disposed at the boundary between the piezoelectric substrate and the first medium layer. The sound velocity of the first medium layer is less than the sound velocity of LiTaO3. The sound velocity of the second medium layer is greater than the sound velocity of LiTaO3. The inequality (h/λ)×a≦0.05 is satisfied, where H is the thickness of the first medium layer, h is the thickness of the interdigital electrode, λ is the period of electrode fingers of the interdigital electrode, and a is the ratio of the density of a metal of the interdigital electrode to the density of Au.
US08436509B1
A Love wave sensor uses a single-phase unidirectional interdigital transducer (IDT) on a piezoelectric substrate for leaky surface acoustic wave generation. The IDT design minimizes propagation losses, bulk wave interferences, provides a highly linear phase response, and eliminates the need for impedance matching. As an example, a high frequency (˜300-400 MHz) surface acoustic wave (SAW) transducer enables efficient excitation of shear-horizontal waves on 36° Y-cut lithium tantalate (LTO) giving a highly linear phase response (2.8° P-P). The sensor has the ability to detect at the pg/mm2 level and can perform multi-analyte detection in real-time. The sensor can be used for rapid autonomous detection of pathogenic microorganisms and bioagents by field deployable platforms.
US08436506B2
A stator for an electric motor includes a stator coil including a wire pair with respective ends that are joined with a ring. The ring is positioned around the wire pair and joined to the wire pair by a metal joining process.
US08436502B2
A housing of an electric motor is fitted with an oil seal having the function of sealing an output shaft (rotary shaft) of the motor. The housing is provided with a hole for motor airtightness testing communicating with an internal space of the motor. A local or annular projection configured to close the hole for motor airtightness testing, thereby maintaining the airtightness of the internal space of the electric motor, is disposed on that surface of the oil seal which faces the housing.
US08436501B2
A bearing is positioned relative to a rotatable shaft by inserting the bearing over the rotatable shaft until the bearing contacts a flange of the rotatable shaft, which is cold-forged on the rotatable shaft. The bearing is fixed to the rotatable shaft such that a swaged portion is formed in an outer peripheral portion of the rotatable shaft on an opposite axial side of the bearing, which is axially opposite from the flange, by swaging a corresponding part of the outer peripheral portion of the rotatable shaft such that the corresponding part of the outer peripheral portion of the rotatable shaft is radially outwardly bulged to form the swaged portion, and the swaged portion is axially pressed against the bearing to axially securely clamp the bearing between the swaged portion and the flange.
US08436492B2
A non-contact power transmission apparatus accurately determines the kind of object that is placed on the charging deck of the non-contact power transmission apparatus, and, only when a non-contact power receiving apparatus is placed on the power transmission apparatus, allows power transmission and data communication to take place, thereby accurately determining the state of the receiver side and efficiently controlling the transmission of power. In the power transmission apparatus, the power supplied to the non-contact power receiving apparatus is measured, and the output power of the wireless power signal output from two different cores is controlled, thereby allowing the charging operation to be stably conducted even if the non-contact power receiving apparatus is moved anywhere on the power transmission apparatus. The power transmission apparatus improves both the reliability of operation of the non-contact charging system, and the competitiveness of related products, such as portable terminals, battery packs and the like.
US08436490B2
A wind mill apparatus for generating electric power to a grid point of an electric network. The apparatus includes a wind rotor, an electric generator operatively connected to the wind rotor, and an electric multiphase ac link operatively connecting the generator to the grid point. The ac link includes a first current path including a switchgear, a second current path including a dc link including a first converter operatively connected to the generator, a second converter operatively connected to the grid point, and a capacitor operatively connected between the conductors of the dc link. The ac link further includes a connectable multiphase dump load for blocking during a fault condition on the network the reactive power flow in the ac link, yet providing a reduced transfer of active power.
US08436488B2
A system for controlling a speed of each of N variable speed motors with a drive voltage is disclosed, where N is an integer equal to or greater than 1. The system includes (N+1) generators and a switching arrangement configured to directly couple, in a one-to-one relation, the N variable speed motors to the (N+1) generators so that any one of the N variable speed motors is capable of operating in at least a first mode and a second mode. In the first mode the any one of the N variable speed motors is driven with the drive voltage generated by a first generator of at least two of the (N+1) generators, and in the second mode the any one of the N variable speed motors is driven with the drive voltage generated by a second generator of the at least two of the (N+1) generators.
US08436487B2
A method for controlling and supplying power to at least one electrical consumer that is connectable in a wired, electrically conductive fashion to an energy source is provided. In the method, electrical energy is transferred by an alternating voltage and control information for activating the at least one electrical consumer is transmitted to the electrical consumer by an angle modulation of the alternating voltage used for the power supply. The control information is transmitted in binary form by a frequency modulation, wherein individual binary values are depicted and transmitted by an associated predetermined frequency of the alternating voltage used for the power supply. Each binary value is transmitted by a plurality of oscillations of the alternating voltage. A system for controlling and supplying power to at least one electrical consumer that is connectable in a wired, electrically conductive fashion to an energy source by a cable includes a device for generating an alternating voltage that is disposed between the energy source and the at least one electrical consumer and a device for the angle modulation of the alternating voltage, the electrical consumer comprising a decoder.
US08436481B2
The present invention is intended to solve the following problems with a method for fabricating a substrateless semiconductor package using an adhesive sheet as a temporary fixing supporter. A chip can be displaced from a specified position by pressure during resin encapsulation because the chip is not properly held by the adhesive sheet. If such displacement occurs, the relative positional relationship between the chip and an interconnect to be connected to a specified position in a subsequent wiring step also changes by the displacement of the chip from the specified position. Another problem is that if adhesive deposits occur during peeling of the adhesive sheet and the surface of a package is contaminated with the adhesive deposits, adhesive components left on the surface of the chip can inhibit connection between the interconnect and the chip in a subsequent wiring step. To solve these problems, the present invention provides an adhesive sheet for semiconductor device fabrication that is attached to a substrateless semiconductor chip when the chip is encapsulated with resin. The adhesive sheet includes a base material layer and an adhesive layer. The adhesive layer has a specific adhesion strength and peel strength.
US08436479B2
Provided is a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device capable of adhering semiconductor elements and a support member for mounting semiconductor elements, such as lead frames, organic substrates or the like, even in a relatively low temperature range without damaging adhesion property and workability and of suppressing the occurrence of voids. The method of manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the invention is a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprising a semiconductor element and a support member adhered to the semiconductor element through a cured material of an adhesive film, wherein the method comprises the steps (a) to (d) in this order; (a) preparing adhesive film-attached semiconductor elements; (b) thermocompression-bonding said adhesive film-attached semiconductor elements to said support member so as to obtain a semiconductor part made of said adhesive film-attached semiconductor elements and said support member; (c) heating and pressurizing said semiconductor part made of said adhesive film-attached semiconductor elements and said support member using a pressurized fluid so as to proceed with curing of adhesive film; and (d) electrically connecting said adhesive film-attached semiconductor elements and said support member.
US08436477B2
A microelectronic package can include a microelectronic element having a face and a plurality of element contacts thereon, a substrate having first and second surfaces, and terminals on the second surface configured for connecting the package with an external component. The microelectronic element can include a plurality of stacked electrically interconnected semiconductor chips. The substrate can have contacts facing the element contacts of the microelectronic element and joined thereto. The terminals can include first terminals arranged at positions within first and second parallel grids. The first terminals of each grid can be configured to carry address information usable by circuitry within the microelectronic package to determine an addressable memory location from among all the available addressable memory locations within the microelectronic element. The signal assignments of the first terminals in the first grid can be a mirror image of the signal assignments of the first terminals in the second grid.
US08436466B2
Methods and systems for configuring one or more electrical waveguides in an integrated circuit by adjusting a geometry of the one or more electrical waveguides, and communicating one or more electrical signals between components within the integrated circuit via the one or more electrical waveguides. The geometry of the one or more electrical waveguides may be configured by adjusting a length of the one or more electrical waveguides utilizing switches in the integrated circuit. The switches may include CMOS transistors. The one or more signals may include a microwave signal and a low frequency digital control signal that configures the microwave signal. The electrical waveguides may include metal and/or semiconductor layers deposited on and/or embedded within the integrated circuit.
US08436456B2
A wiring board (10) of the present invention includes: a through hole (11b), provided in a semiconductor chip mounted region (15), penetrating the wiring board (10); and a groove pattern (13), provided on a solder resist (9) formed on the semiconductor chip mounted region (15), leading to the through hole (11b). The foregoing configuration makes it possible to guide, via the groove pattern (13) to the through hole (11b), moisture that collects in the semiconductor chip mounted region (15) and therefore to effectively discharge the moisture from the semiconductor chip mounted region (15). Thus, a semiconductor device (30) that employs the wiring board (10) does not suffer from vaporization and expansion, inside of it, due to heat that is applied at the time of manufacturing the semiconductor device (30) and at the time of mounting the semiconductor device (30) on a mount substrate. It is therefore possible to reduce expansion of the semiconductor device.
US08436452B2
A carrier for holding a plurality of chip packages and a carrier assembly are provided, wherein the chip package has a central area without solder balls and a peripheral area with solder balls formed thereon. The carrier includes a tray component and a plurality of supports disposed on the tray component, wherein each support holds the central area of a respective chip package. The carrier assembly is formed by stacking a plurality of the carriers through a plurality of peripheral projections disposed at a periphery of each tray component, wherein each peripheral projection has a pin formed thereon and a hole formed thereunder.
US08436449B2
A method for fabricating chip package includes providing a semiconductor chip with a bonding pad, comprising an adhesion/barrier layer, connected to a pad through an opening in a passivation layer, next adhering the semiconductor chip to a substrate using a glue material, next bonding a wire to the bonding pad and to the substrate, forming a polymer material on the substrate, covering the semiconductor chip and the wire, next forming a lead-free solder ball on the substrate, and then cutting the substrate and polymer material to form a chip package.
US08436446B2
A method, structure, and design structure for a through-silicon-via Wilkinson power divider. A method includes: forming an input on a first side of a substrate; forming a first leg comprising a first through-silicon-via formed in the substrate, wherein the first leg electrically connects the input and a first output; forming a second leg comprising a second through-silicon-via formed in the substrate, wherein the second leg electrically connects the input and a second output, and forming a resistor electrically connected between the first output and the second output.
US08436444B2
A thin film photoelectric conversion device for performing photoelectric conversion of a wide range of light, from the visible range to the infrared range, is provided. A plasmon resonance phenomenon, which enhances a photo-induced electric field, is caused in a wide range of light, by a metal nanostructure which is formed by annealing a substrate on which a first metal thin film layer composed of a first metal and a second metal thin film layer composed of a second metal which is partially overlapped onto the first metal thin film layer are laminated, and in which a periodic structure, wherein a number of first convex parts successively lie with a pitch of from one-tenth of a wavelength of an incident light to a wavelength equal to or shorter than the wavelength of the incident light in a planar direction along the substrate, is formed on the surface of the substrate; and a random structure, wherein a distance between any pair of a number of second convex parts formed at random positions on the substrate, or a distance between a second convex part and a first convex part is shorter than 100 nm, is formed on the substrate in a position within a region of the periodic structure or in a position adjacent to the region of the periodic structure, and as a result, high sensitivity photo-induced current is generated.
US08436442B2
The present invention is to provide an electromagnetic wave detecting element that can prevent a decrease in light utilization efficiency at sensor portions. The sensor portions are provided so as to correspond to respective intersection portions of scan lines and signal lines, and have semiconductor layer that generate charges due to electromagnetic waves being irradiated, and at whose electromagnetic wave irradiation surface sides upper electrodes are formed, and at whose electromagnetic wave non-irradiation surface sides lower electrodes are formed. Bias voltage is supplied to the respective upper electrodes via respective contact holes by a common electrode line that is formed further toward an electromagnetic wave downstream side than the semiconductor layer.
US08436441B2
A photoelectric conversion device comprising a photoelectric conversion part including a first electrode layer, a second electrode layer and a photoelectric conversion layer provided between the first electrode layer and the second electrode layer, wherein light is made incident from an upper part of the second electrode layer into the photoelectric conversion layer; the photoelectric conversion layer generates a charge containing an electron and a hole corresponding to the incident light from the upper part of the second electrode layer; and the first electrode layer works as an electrode for extracting the hole.
US08436435B2
The present invention discloses an MEMS capacitive microphone including a rigid diaphragm arranged on an elastic element. When a sound wave acts on the rigid diaphragm, the rigid diaphragm is moved parallel to a normal of a back plate by elasticity of the elastic element. Thereby the variation of the capacitance is obtained between the rigid diaphragm and the back plate.
US08436428B2
An integrated power MOSFET device formed by a substrate); an epitaxial layer of N type; a sinker region of P type, extending through the epitaxial layer from the top surface and in electrical contact with the substrate; a body region, of P type, extending within the sinker region from the top surface; a source region, of N type, extending within the body region from the top surface, the source region delimiting a channel region; a gate region; a source contact, electrically connected to the body region and to the source region; a drain contact, electrically connected to the epitaxial layer; and a source metallization region, extending over the rear surface and electrically connected to the substrate and to the sinker region.
US08436426B2
The present disclosure is directed to a thin film resistor having a first resistor layer having a first temperature coefficient of resistance and a second resistor layer on the first resistor layer, the second resistor layer having a second temperature coefficient of resistance different from the first temperature coefficient of resistance. The first temperature coefficient of resistance may be positive while the second temperature coefficient of resistance is negative. The first resistor layer may have a thickness in the range of 50 and 150 angstroms and the second resistor layer may have a thickness in the range of 20 and 50 angstroms.
US08436417B2
According to one embodiment, in a semiconductor memory device, a source region and a drain region are disposed away from each other in the semiconductor layer. A tunnel insulating film is formed between the source region and the drain region on the semiconductor layer. A charge accumulating film includes an oxide cluster and is formed on the tunnel insulating film. A block insulating film is formed on the charge accumulating film. A gate electrode is formed on the block insulating film. The oxide cluster includes either Zr or Hf, and further contains at least one element selected from Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Nb, Mo, Tc, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag, Cd, Ta, W, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, Au and Hg.
US08436414B2
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes: a semiconductor substrate; a stacked body provided on the semiconductor substrate, the stacked body having electrode films and insulating films being alternately stacked; a first and second semiconductor pillars; and a first and second charge storage layers. The first and second semiconductor pillars are provided inside a through hole penetrating through the stacked body in a stacking direction of the stacked body. The through hole has a cross section of an oblate circle, when cutting in a direction perpendicular to the stacking direction. The first and second semiconductor pillars face each other in a major axis direction of the first oblate circle. The first and second semiconductor pillars extend in the stacking direction. The first and second charge storage layers are provided between the electrode film and the first and second semiconductor pillars, respectively.
US08436411B2
A non-volatile memory including a substrate, two first conductive layers, a second conductive layer, a first dielectric layer, a second dielectric layer and two heavily doped regions is provided. The substrate has at least two isolation structures therein and an active region between the isolation structures. The first conductive layers are respectively disposed on the isolation structures. The second conductive layer is disposed on the substrate and covering a portion of the active region and a portion of each first conductive layer. The first dielectric layer is disposed between each first conductive layer and the second conductive layer. The second dielectric layer is disposed between the second conductive layer in the active region and the substrate. The heavily doped regions are disposed in the substrate beside the second conductive layer in the active region.
US08436407B2
A photoelectric conversion device includes photoelectric conversion elements and element isolation regions, both of which are arranged on a semiconductor substrate. The photoelectric conversion device further includes a plurality of interlayer insulation layers including a first interlayer insulation layer arranged nearest to the semiconductor substrate, and a second interlayer insulation layer arranged to cover the first interlayer insulation layer. Gaps extending from at least the second interlayer insulation layer to the first interlayer insulation layer are arranged in first and second interlayer insulation layer regions corresponding to the element isolation regions.
US08436405B2
The present disclosure provides a read only memory (ROM) cell array. The ROM cell array includes a plurality of fin active regions oriented in a first direction and formed on a semiconductor substrate; a plurality of gates formed on the plurality of fin active regions and oriented in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction; and a plurality of ROM cells formed by the plurality of fin active regions and the plurality of gates, the plurality of ROM cells being coded such that each cell of a first subset of ROM cells has a source electrically connected to a power line, and each cell of a second subset of ROM cells has a source electrically isolated.
US08436394B2
A luminescence diode chip includes a semiconductor layer sequence having an active layer suitable for generating electromagnetic radiation, and a first electrical connection layer, which touches and makes electrically conductive contact with the semiconductor layer sequence. The first electrical connection layer touches and makes contact with the semiconductor layer sequence in particular with a plurality of contact areas. In the case of the luminescence diode chip, an inhomogeneous current density distribution or current distribution is set in a targeted manner in the semiconductor layer sequence by means of an inhomogeneous distribution of an area density of the contact areas along a main plane of extent of the semiconductor layer sequence.
US08436392B2
A light emitting diode package comprises a substrate with a first surface and a second surface opposite to each other, a circuit on the substrate, a support on the substrate for reinforcing strength of the substrate, a plurality of light emitting diodes on the substrate and electrically connected to the circuit, and a cover layer on the plurality of light emitting diodes. A method for manufacturing a light-emitting diode package is further provided.
US08436391B2
An LED leadframe package with surface tension function to enable the production of LED package with convex lens shape by using dispensing method is disclosed. The LED leadframe package of the invention is a PPA supported package house for LED packaging with metal base, four identical metal electrodes, and PPA plastic to fix the metal electrodes and the heat dissipation base together, four ring-alike structures with a sharp edge and with a tilted inner surface, and three ring-alike grooves formed between sharp edge ring-alike structures.
US08436383B2
Disclosed are a light emitting device and a light emitting device package. The light emitting device includes a first conductive type semiconductor layer including P-type dopants and having a plurality of holes, an electrode connected to the first conductive type semiconductor layer, an active layer under the first conductive type semiconductor layer, a second conductive type semiconductor layer under the active layer, and an electrode layer under the second conductive type semiconductor layer.
US08436374B2
A light-emitting element includes a blue light-emitting function layer provided between an anode and a cathode, a red light-emitting function layer provided between the anode and the blue light-emitting function layer, and a carrier selection layer provided between the blue light-emitting function layer and the red light-emitting function layer. The carrier selection layer includes a laminate of a hole transport layer and a first electron injection layer which are laminated in that order from the blue light-emitting function layer side.
US08436371B2
An optoelectronic device article comprises a substrate containing at least one electrically conductive microvia, at least one emitter diode and at least one ESD diode, optionally formed in situ, disposed in or on the substrate, and an electrically conductive path between the foregoing elements. A reflector cavity may be defined in the substrate for receiving the emitter diode(s), with retention elements on the substrate used to retain a lens material. High flux density and high emitter diode spatial density may be attained. Thermal sensors, radiation sensors, and integral heat spreaders comprising one or more protruding fins may be integrated into the article.
US08436368B2
A light emitting device includes a p-type semiconductor layer, an n-type semiconductor layer, and an active region between the n-type semiconductor layer and the p-type semiconductor layer. A non-transparent feature, such as a wire bond pad, is on the p-type semiconductor layer or on the n-type semiconductor layer opposite the p-type semiconductor layer, and a reduced conductivity region is in the p-type semiconductor layer or the n-type semiconductor layer and is aligned with the non-transparent feature. The reduced conductivity region may extend from a surface of the p-type semiconductor layer opposite the n-type semiconductor layer towards the active region and/or from a surface of the n-type semiconductor layer opposite the p-type semiconductor layer towards the active region.
US08436357B2
Making an OLED display, includes forming a first storage plate and a gate insulating layer covering the first storage plate on a substrate; sequentially forming a second storage plate covering the first storage plate and a capacitor intermediate in the gate insulating layer; forming a first doping region by injecting an impurity to a part that is not covered by the capacitor intermediate in the first storage plate; forming an interlayer insulating layer having a capacitor opening exposing the capacitor intermediate, and a plurality of erosion preventing layers on an edge of the capacitor intermediate toward the first doping region in the capacitor opening; removing the capacitor intermediate including the erosion preventing layer and a lower region of the erosion preventing layer, and injecting an impurity in the first storage plate through the second storage plate to form a second doping region contacting the first doping region.
US08436356B2
A thin film transistor substrate and a method for fabricating the same are disclosed. A thin film transistor substrate includes a substrate comprising a plurality of grooves having different depths, respectively, to have a multi-step structure; gate and data lines alternatively crossed in the grooves to form a plurality of pixel areas; thin film transistors formed in the grooves of the substrate to be formed in cross portion of the gate and data lines, wherein active layers of the thin transistors are formed along the gate lines and gate electrodes, the active layers separated from active layers of neighboring pixel areas with the data line located there between.
US08436355B2
Disclosed is a method that includes: forming a gate electrode on a substrate, then forming an insulation layer so as to completely cover the gate electrode, thereafter forming a semiconductor layer on the insulation layer, and then forming a crystallization-inducing metal layer on the semiconductor layer; removing the part of at least the crystallization-inducing metal layer that is over a channel region of the semiconductor layer; forming source and drain electrodes at a location which is over source and drain regions respectively located at opposite sides with respect to the channel region of the semiconductor layer and is above the crystallization-inducing metal layer; and heating the crystallization-inducing metal layer so as to form a silicide layer of a crystallization-inducing metal.
US08436354B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for forming a layer having functionality including a conductive layer and a colored layer and a flexible substrate having a layer having functionality with a high yield. Further, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device that is small-sized, thin, and lightweight. After coating a substrate having heat resistance with a silane coupling agent, a layer having functionality is formed. Then, after attaching an adhesive to the layer having functionality, the layer having functionality is peeled from the substrate. Further, after coating a substrate having heat resistance with a silane coupling agent, a layer having functionality is formed. Then, an adhesive is attached to the layer having functionality. Thereafter, the layer having functionality is peeled from the substrate, and a flexible substrate is attached to the layer having functionality.
US08436352B2
Whether there is a defect such as chipping of a die or separation of a resin in a wafer level package is electrically detected. A peripheral wiring is disposed along four peripheries of a semiconductor substrate outside a circuit region and pad electrodes P1-P8. The peripheral wiring is formed on the semiconductor substrate and is made of a metal layer that is the same layer as or an upper layer of a metal layer forming the pad electrodes P1-P8, or a polysilicon layer. A power supply electric potential Vcc is applied to a first end of the peripheral wiring, while a ground electric potential Vss is applied to a second end of the peripheral wiring through a resistor R2. A detection circuit is connected to a connecting node N1 between the peripheral wiring and the resistor R2, and is structured to generate an anomaly detection signal ERRFLG based on an electric potential at the connecting node N1.
US08436349B2
In a process for fabricating a thin-film transistor in which a gate electrode 4 is to be formed on a substrate 1, the process has the steps of forming the gate electrode 4 on the substrate 1, forming a metal oxide layer 7 in such a way as to cover the gate electrode 4, forming a source electrode 6 and a drain electrode 5, and carrying out annealing in an inert gas to change part of the metal oxide layer 7 into a channel region.
US08436332B2
An electron emission element has an electron emission layer that emits an electron from a surface emission portion, a focusing electrode layer that is film-formed on a surface of the electron emission layer via a first insulation layer and focuses the emitted electron, a gate electrode layer that is film-formed on a surface of the focusing electrode layer via a second insulation layer, an emission concave portion that penetrates the gate electrode layer, the second insulation layer, the focusing electrode layer and the first insulation layer and opens in a concave shape on a surface of the surface emission portion, a carbon layer that is film-formed from a surface of the gate electrode layer over an inner peripheral surface of the emission concave portion, and a partial insulation portion that insulates the focusing electrode layer from the carbon layer.
US08436330B2
An electrically actuated device includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and an active region disposed between the first and second electrodes. At least two dopants are present in a spatially varying region of the active region prior to device actuation. The at least two dopants have opposite conductivity types and different mobilities.
US08436326B2
A multipurpose ion implanter beam line configuration comprising a mass analyzer magnet followed by a magnetic scanner and magnetic collimator combination that introduce bends to the beam path, the beam line constructed for enabling implantation of common monatomic dopant ion species cluster ions, the beam line configuration having a mass analyzer magnet defining a pole gap of substantial width between ferromagnetic poles of the magnet and a mass selection aperture, the analyzer magnet sized to accept an ion beam from a slot-form ion source extraction aperture of at least about 80 mm height and at least about 7 mm width, and to produce dispersion at the mass selection aperture in a plane corresponding to the width of the beam, the mass selection aperture capable of being set to a mass-selection width sized to select a beam of the cluster ions of the same dopant species but incrementally differing molecular weights, the mass selection aperture also capable of being set to a substantially narrower mass-selection width and the analyzer magnet having a resolution at the selection aperture sufficient to enable selection of a beam of monatomic dopant ions of substantially a single atomic or molecular weight, the magnetic scanner and magnetic collimator being constructed to successively bend the ion beam in the same sense, which is in the opposite sense to that of the bend introduced by the analyzer magnet of the beam line.
US08436325B2
Disclosed herein are provided an arrangement of devices suitable to downsize a synchrotron, a synchrotron using such an arrangement, and a particle therapy system using the synchrotron. In the synchrotron, a plurality of deflection magnets and a single defocusing quadrupole magnet are arranged between a first extraction deflector and a second extraction deflector. The defocusing quadrupole magnet is arranged between deflection magnets among the plurality of deflection magnets, a focusing quadrupole magnet is arranged on the side of an inlet of the first extraction deflector, and a focusing quadrupole magnet is arranged on the side of an outlet of the second extraction deflector.
US08436324B2
A charged particle lithography system comprising a preparation unit. The preparation unit comprises a housing having a first load port for loading and/or unloading a substrate into or out of the housing, a substrate transfer unit for locating the substrate onto a substrate support structure within the housing, and a second load port for loading and/or unloading the substrate support structure supporting the substrate.
US08436322B2
A radiation image conversion panel which is excellent in luminance and sharpness is disclosed, comprising a phosphor layer formed on a support by a process of vapor growth, and the support comprising a resin and exhibiting a linear thermal expansion coefficient of 20 to 70 ppm/° C.
US08436320B2
A fluorescence detecting apparatus includes: an excitation light emitter for emitting excitation light exciting a fluorescent material onto a measurement object; an illumination light emitter for emitting illumination light onto the measurement object; an image pickup device for sensing light from the measurement object; and a controller for controlling the image pickup device, the excitation light emitter, and the illumination light emitter. The excitation light is emitted from the excitation light emitter onto the measurement object to define an image pickup condition of the image pickup device, based on an image pickup result to be obtained by sensing light from the measurement object by the image pickup device. A light amount of the illumination light to be emitted from the illumination light emitter is set depending on the image pickup condition. The excitation light, and the illumination light of the set light amount are simultaneously emitted from the excitation light emitter and the illumination light emitter, to cause the image pickup device to sense light from the measurement object.
US08436318B2
An RF ion source utilizing a heating/RF-shielding element for controlling the temperature of an RF window and to act as an RF shielding element for the RF ion source. When the heating/RF shielding element is in a heating mode, it suppresses formation of unwanted deposits on the RF window which negatively impacts the transfer of RF energy from an RF antenna to a plasma chamber. When the heating/RF-shielding element is in a shielding mode, it provides an electrostatic shielding for the RF ion source.
US08436313B2
Certain embodiments described herein are directed to devices and systems that can be used for direct and indirect detection of radiation such as X-rays. In certain examples, the device can include a modulator optically coupled to a sensor. In some examples, the modulator can be configured to switch between different states to provide an imaging signal in one state and a dosimetry signal in another state.
US08436306B2
A pyroelectric element includes a pyroelectric substrate being a substrate of lithium tantalate single crystal having an X-axis, a Y-axis, and a Z-axis as crystal axes; front-side electrodes disposed on a front side of the pyroelectric substrate; and back-side electrodes paired with the front-side electrodes, respectively. The pyroelectric substrate is a Y-offcut plate obtained by cutting the lithium tantalate single crystal at an angle turned by a cut angle θ from the Y-axis toward the Z-axis about the X-axis that coincides with a direction along the electrode plane, and the cut angle θ is 30° to 60° or 120° to 150°. The pyroelectric substrate is preferably 10 μm or less in thickness, and is more preferably 5 μm to 10 μm in thickness.
US08436303B2
A transmission electron microscope (TEM) micro-grid includes a grid and a heater including at least one carbon nanotube film structure located on the grid. The micro-grid with the at least one carbon nanotube film structure prevents a floating of the sample located on the micro-grid to increase the quality of TEM images.
US08436288B2
A photo-current mode of operation is disclosed for Full Frame CCDs, and Frame-Transfer CCDs, that is suitable for electrical power generation, when not in operation for image sensing, and for Interline-Transfer CCDs, that is suitable for image sensing, and also suitable electrical power generation, when not in operation for image sensing. Further, CMOS Image Sensors (CIS), including 1T Passive Pixels, or 1T Avalanche Photo-Diode Pixels, in which all pass transistors in the matrix are turned ON simultaneously thereby allowing the photo-current produced by each photo-diode in each pixel to flow towards the periphery where suitable circuitry will handle the photo-current for electrical power generation and/or storage. Also, CMOS Image Sensors (CIS), including any Active Pixel Sensor (APS) design, such as the 3T, or 3T Log, or 4T, or 5T, wherein each column-parallel VDD line connecting the Reset Transistors, or the Log Transistors, in a single column of pixels, to column-parallel circuitry at the edge of the pixel matrix, is connected through multiple pass transistors, to different column-parallel blocks of circuitry that are selected alternatively, and that include (1) a VDD voltage source for standard image sensing operation, (2) a block of circuitry suitable to handle photo-current signals for image sensing purposes, and (3) a block of circuitry that is suitable to handle photo-current for electrical power generation and/or storage purposes.
US08436275B2
A laser irradiation apparatus is disclosed. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes i) an X-axis location control board configured to move a plurality of drivers in an X-axis direction and ii) a plurality of output heads cooperatively arranged with the drivers and configured to move with movement of the drivers, wherein the output heads are configured to receive laser beams. The apparatus may further include a Z-axis location control board cooperatively arranged with the X-axis location control board and configured to move the X-axis location control board in an Z-axis direction, wherein the output heads alternatively protrude with different lengths along an Y-axis direction.
US08436272B2
Various method embodiments move web equipment from a first web processing station to a second web processing station. According to a method embodiment, the web equipment is raised away from the first web processing station, where raising includes rotating the web equipment about a rotary axis. The rotary axis is linearly moved along a linear axis. The web equipment is lowered toward the second web processing station, wherein lowering includes rotating the web equipment about the rotary axis. Various embodiments move a laser head from one web processing station into operational position at another web processing station.
US08436271B2
There is an improved fusion plasma torch apparatus-engines and method. Deuterium-Tritium or other fusion reaction reagents are injected in a fusion reaction channel where is a current of an arc upon which is imposed modulated current extinguishing whatever transversal plasma arc vibrations thereby eliminating a plasma arc bypassing to a wall and consequently decreasing the heat losses at the expense of dropping down convective and conductive heat exchange and locating the plasma arc column strictly in the center of arc's channel.
US08436270B2
An automated method for cutting a plurality of hole features using a plasma arc torch system can be implemented on a computer numerical controller. The automated method can include the steps of: a) cutting a lead-in for a hole feature using a lead-in command speed based on a diameter of that hole feature and b) cutting a perimeter for the hole feature using a perimeter command speed greater than the corresponding lead-in command speed for the hole feature. The automated method can also include the step c) of repeating steps a) and b) for each additional hole feature having a same diameter or a different diameter.
US08436269B2
Welding electrodes with a welding face for contact with a metal surface for electrical resistance welding are provided with concentric contoured rings formed into the face. The rings may, for example, be ridges upstanding in the face or grooves depressed into the face. The contoured rings may be radially spaced with relatively flat (depending on the curvature of the face) intervening rings. When the electrode is pressed into contact with the surface of the workpiece for delivery of a welding current, the features of the concentric rings penetrate surface oxides or other conductivity barriers. When ongoing welding operations have eroded the contoured rings they may be rapidly reformed in the weld face in a surface re-dressing operation.
US08436267B2
A switch assembly for a power tool including a switch member and a fixing part. The switch member including a finger grip part, a retaining part for retaining the switch member on a power tool, and an opening extending at least partially through the switch member, the retaining part arranged to project laterally with respect to an axis of the opening. The fixing part is arranged to be located in the opening. The switch assembly is arranged such that when the fixing part is at a first location in the opening, the retaining part adopts a retention configuration in which it projects laterally to a predetermined extent. When the fixing part is removed or at a second location in the opening, the retaining part adopts an insertion configuration in which it does not project laterally or projects less than the predetermined extent.
US08436264B2
Provided herein is a power transmission mechanism of a four poles circuit breaker in which the contact points of a neutral pole thereof are brought into contact earlier at the time of closing and separated later at the time of opening than those of the other poles thereof, and according to the present invention, there is disclosed a power transmission mechanism of a four poles circuit breaker comprising: a switching shaft configured to provide a driving force for switching to the movable contactors of the poles; an arm provided to correspond to the four poles to transfer the rotational torque of the switching shaft; and a link configured to transfer the rotational torque of the arm to the movable contactor as a switching force, and provided to correspond to the four poles, wherein the sum of the length of the arm and the link in a neutral pole is longer than the sum of the length of the arm and the link in the poles excluding the neutral pole.
US08436263B2
A switch capacitor unit for implementing a capacitive sensor includes a charging switch, a charge transfer switch, and a first switch. The charging switch is coupled between a first supply voltage and a circuit node to selectively couple a sensing capacitor to the first supply voltage through the circuit node. The charge transfer switch is coupled between the circuit node and a first terminal of a second capacitor to selectively couple the sensing capacitor through the circuit node to the second capacitor. The first switch is coupled between the circuit node and a second terminal of the second capacitor to selectively couple the second terminal to the sensing capacitor through the circuit node.
US08436255B2
A polymeric layer encompassing the solder elements of a ball grid array in an electronics package. The polymeric layer reinforces the solder bond at the solder ball-component interface by encasing the elements of the ball grid array in a rigid polymer layer that is adhered to the package structure. Stress applied to the package through the ball grid array is transmitted to the package structure through the polymeric layer, bypassing the solder joint and improving mechanical and electrical circuit reliability. In one embodiment of a method for making the polymeric layer, solder elements bonded to external pads on a structure of the package are submerged in a fluidic form of the polymeric layer. The fluidic form is solidified and then a portion of the resulting polymeric layer is removed to make the solder elements accessible for mounting the package to a printed circuit board or other external circuit.
US08436251B2
Articles and methods of manufacture are provided for using laser energy in an automated bonding machine to effect laser welding of ribbons to electronic components, particularly conductive ribbons comprising titanium for microelectronic circuits. Bonding and connection of microelectronic circuits with discrete heating avoids heat damage to peripheral microelectronic components. Bonding of flexible materials and low-resistance materials are possible, and are less dependant on substrate and terminal stability in comparison to other bonding methods. The ribbon-connections can forgo the use of blocks, bond pads, and bond pad arrays for attaching ribbon to a printed wiring board. Profile height of the ribbon-connection is decreased and the density of ribbons and bonding sites can be increased compared to ribbon-connections employing bonding pads.
US08436248B2
An electrical component that includes a substrate that includes at least one electrical circuit is described herein. The electrical component also includes a heat sink in an aperture through the substrate.
US08436242B2
Long-lived charge separation is attained with high efficiency by using a supramolecular complex utilizing pi-pi interaction. A supramolecular complex is formed by pi-pi interaction between extended viologen, the extended viologen having heteroaryls coupled together by a linking group with pi-electron conjugated system, and porphyrin. As a result of study of photoelectron transfer reaction, it has been found that within the supramolecular complex, efficient electron transfer occurs from the singlet excited state of porphyrin to the extended viologen, thereby obtaining a charge separation condition of extremely long lifetime exceeding 1 millisecond.
US08436232B1
A soybean cultivar designated 12133031 is disclosed. The invention relates to the seeds of soybean cultivar 12133031, to the plants of soybean cultivar 12133031, to the plant parts of soybean cultivar 12133031, and to methods for producing progeny of soybean cultivar 12133031. The invention also relates to methods for producing a soybean plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic soybean plants and plant parts produced by those methods. The invention also relates to soybean cultivars or breeding cultivars, and plant parts derived from soybean cultivar 12133031. The invention also relates to methods for producing other soybean cultivars, lines, or plant parts derived from soybean cultivar 12133031, and to the soybean plants, varieties, and their parts derived from use of those methods. The invention further relates to hybrid soybean seeds, plants, and plant parts produced by crossing cultivar 12133031 with another soybean cultivar.
