US08453230B2
A communicating apparatus that is able to perform IP-FAX communication without making the user aware of the attack and without any difficulty, even if the device recognizes a DoS attack or the like. communication that uses a SIP server on a network is performed by a communicating unit. Unauthorized communication from the communication performed by the communicating unit is detected. A port number of a receiving port of the communicating unit is changed when the unauthorized communication is detected. it is determined whether or not the detected unauthorized communication has passed through the SIP server. The communicating apparatus is controlled to request the SIP server to delete the port number of the receiving port that has not been changed yet if it is determined that the unauthorized communication has passed through the SIP server and to re-register on the SIP server a port number of a receiving port that has been changed if it is determined that the unauthorized communication has bypassed the SIP server.
US08453227B2
An application provisioning device may be used to manage a profile of a host and provide data corresponding to a selected application for installation at a host. A reverse firewall may use the profile of the host to determine whether to allow or block particular network communication from an application running on the host. An indication of a selected application may be received at the application provisioning device. Configuration information may also be received at the application provisioning device. The application provisioning server may request an update to the profile of a host and transmit such a request. The profile may be updated to reflect the configuration information and/or information of the selected application. Data corresponding to the selected application may be updated and transmitted to a host computer, where it may be installed. Therefore, the installed application running on the host may operate without being prematurely blocked by the reverse firewall.
US08453224B2
Apparatus, systems, and methods may operate to receive a request from a node to provide access to a web site, to provide site authenticity information associated with the web site to the node, and to receive single sign-on (SSO) information from the node in response to validation of the site authenticity information by the node, the SSO information enabling the node to automatically log in to the web site. Additional activities include receiving site authenticity information from a node associated with a web site, and automatically transmitting SSO information to the node responsive to validating the site authenticity information. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.
US08453221B2
In a method for improving client's login and sign-on security in accessing services offered by service providers over shared network resources such as Internet and particularly working within the framework of the www, a password is created for the client at a first attempt to access the service provider. The client's password is generated either at an authentication authority in trust relationship with the service provider and transmitted to the client, or the client is allowed to create his or her password on the basis of random character sequences transmitted from the authentication authority. For subsequent access to the service provider the authentication authority presents a client for characters in ordered sequences or in a diagram containing in an appropriate order a single occurrence of each password character. The client performs a selection of the password for validation and transmits the validation back to the authentication authority, which verifies the password and informs the service provider of the verification. In a most preferred embodiment the password characters are never transmitted between the authentication authority and the client in a validation and verification procedure, and the former is wholly disconnected from either the client's credentials or any transactions subsequently to be undertaken between the service provider and the client.
US08453217B2
Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for securing resource stores with claims-based security. From policy information, a resource store populates a security table of permissions. The permissions authorize resource access based on received claims. Sessions submit claims to the resource store. The resource store accumulates claims for a session into a claims list. From the claims list and the security table, the resource store filters out a subset of metadata including resource IDs for resources the session is authorized to access. Since the metadata corresponds to the session, any application using the session is given similar access to resources at the resource store.
US08453205B1
A system receives a request from a requestor for a service performed by a network device, establishes an encrypted session with the requestor, and utilizes a temporary process to determine whether the requestor is authorized for the service. If the requestor is authorized, the system redirects the service request to the service, and provides the service to the requestor.
US08453204B2
A recommendation engine coupled to a server computer in communication with a plurality of hosts is described. The recommendation engine includes computer readable intrusion-protection instructions stored in a memory device, which cause a processor of said server computer to determine a current host-protection configuration for a target host; detect discrepancy between said current host-protection configuration and a prior host-protection configuration; install said current host-protection configuration in said target host upon detecting said discrepancy; record successive host-reconfiguration periods, a host reconfiguration period being a difference between successive instants of time at which a current host-protection configuration differs from a prior host-protection configuration; determine a monitoring period according to a value of at least one of said successive host-reconfiguration periods; and a scheduler for activating said intrusion-protection instructions according to said monitoring period.
US08453200B2
A facility for receiving an embedded policy is provided. The facility checks an application program image for the presence of an embedded policy. If an embedded policy is detected, the facility extracts the policy from within the application program image. The facility may then apply the extracted policy to the application program image before the application program image is loaded and/or executed. Moreover, the facility may check the application program image's integrity prior to extracting the embedded policy.
US08453199B2
There is provided a computer-implemented method, computer-program product, system and security index structure for a security enforcement strategy for a composite application. The method comprises providing a workflow for the composite application, wherein the composite application is constructed from a set of sub-applications and wherein at least a plurality of the sub-applications has a policy. A consolidated workflow policy is generated for the workflow by combining the policies of the sub-applications and by taking into account a control flow of the workflow, wherein the control flow provides an order in which the set of sub-applications are performed. The consolidated workflow policy is enforced by providing a security index structure for the consolidated workflow policy adapted for checking authorization in the workflow.
US08453194B2
A method is provided for downloading software to first and second devices. A request is received for a service that is to be implemented on the first and second devices and which is to be interoperable between the first and second devices. An identification of the first and second devices is received. Based in part on the identifications that are received, a first software image is identified for implementing the service on the first device and at least a second software image is identified for implementing the service on the second device such that the first and second images implement the services on their respective devices in a manner that is interoperable with one another. The first software image is provided to a first download server configured to download software images to the first device over a first communications network. The second software image is provided to a second download server configured to download software images to the second device over a second communications network distinct from the first communications network.
US08453187B2
A system and method that provide reduced latency in a video signal processing system. Various aspects of the present invention may comprise transmitting a first video information stream representative of a unit of video information. For example, the transmitted first video information stream may correspond to a video channel. A second video information stream representative of the unit of video information may be transmitted simultaneously with the first video information stream. The second video information stream may also, for example, correspond to the video channel. Various aspects of the present invention may comprise receiving a plurality of simultaneously transmitted video information streams. A video information stream of the plurality of received video information streams may be identified that, when processed, is expected to result in the lowest latency in presenting the unit of video information to the user. The identified video information stream may then be so processed.
US08453172B2
A method of content substitution involves receiving an ordered stream of packets containing content marked by a first packet identifier (PID) and one or more substitute content portions marked by one or more secondary PIDs, where the number and placement of packets marked by secondary PIDs ahead of packets marked by the first PID in the stream is retained during transmission of the ordered stream of packets; the ordered stream of packets have an odd or even number of packets with the PIDs after a packet with a first PID; initiating processing for display or storage of content contained in packets having the first PID; initiating processing for display or storage of content contained in packets having a selected secondary PID that meets a substitution criterion; and either deleting or processing the content having the first PID depending upon a number of received intervening packets having secondary PIDs that reside between the packets having the first PID and the packets having the selected secondary PID that meets the substitution criterion, where deleting or processing is determined by whether the number of packets is an odd or an even number. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.
US08453163B2
The example embodiments disclosed herein relate to application integration techniques and, more particularly, to application integration techniques built around the publish-and-subscribe model (or one of its variants). In certain example embodiments, a publishing application, and first and second broker clusters are provided. Each broker cluster comprises a plurality of brokers, and each broker is configured to relay messages from the publishing application to at least one subscribing application. A composite cluster connection is associated with the publishing application, and cluster connections are associated with the composite cluster connection. The message generated by the publishing application is sent to the broker cluster in accordance with a user-defined composite policy. The message is routed from the composite cluster connection to at least one cluster connection based on a first policy layer. The messaging is routed from the at least one cluster to at least one broker based on a second policy layer.
US08453156B2
A method and system to balance the load of a task-based multi-threaded application on a platform. When the work required by the multi-threaded application is represented as a task with a computational requirement that is proportional to the amount of the work, embodiments of the invention control the recursive binary task division of the task using auxiliary partitions to create subtasks of balanced loads to enhance resource utilization and to improve application performance. The task is binary partitioned recursively into a plurality of subtasks until the plurality of subtasks is equal to the plurality of resources available on the platform to execute the subtasks.
US08453150B2
A device may include a memory controller that identifies a multithread application, and adjusts a memory scheduling scheme for the multithread application based on the identification of the multithread application.
US08453149B2
A computer implemented method for handling events in a multi-core processing environment is provided. The method comprises handling an event by a second application running on a second core, in response to determining that the event is initiated by a first application running on a first core; and running a third application on the first core, while the first application is waiting for the event to be handled by the second application.
US08453148B1
A method for communicating, from a host computer to a plurality of remote computers, a plurality of asynchronous image sequences generated by a plurality of independent entities, comprising independently monitoring updates of the plurality of image sequences to determine a plurality of image portions ready for communication to the remote computers, wherein the updates are at least one of spatially or temporally erratic; determining an availability of at least one transfer resource for transferring at least two of the plurality of image portions and sharable by at least two of the plurality of image sequences; selecting a first image portion from the plurality of image portions based on the availability, the monitoring, determining, and selecting done at the host computer; and transferring the first image portion, from the host computer to a remote computer within the plurality of remote computers, utilizing the at least one transfer resource.
US08453140B2
Methods and systems enable computers to be equipped and provisioned to access any cellular network without the need for carrier-specific inventory or point-of sale provisioning of the cellular network transceiver. Multiple digitally signed provisioning data images for multiple carriers are stored on the computer's hard disk memory prior to sale. Upon initialization, provisioning data for a selected carrier are downloaded to random access memory of the cellular network data transceiver from the hard disk. A version number within the provisioning data is compared to a version number of provisioning information stored in the transceiver's nonvolatile memory. If the downloaded provisioning data is newer than that stored in nonvolatile memory, the downloaded provisioning data is stored in the nonvolatile memory. The random access memory is cleared of the downloaded provisioning data and initialization of the transceiver is begun. Updated provisioning information can be received and stored to the hard disk.
US08453138B2
Method and apparatus for generating an update package. The update package is capable of in-place updating an old version to a new version wherein the old and new versions are stored in a storage device. The method includes inserting update commands into the update package, wherein the update commands allow updating the old version to the new version. The method further includes checking the update commands for determining whether they create at least one conflict, and if so, selecting one conflict out of the at least one conflict, wherein content overridden in said one conflict requires protection. A protection command allowing protection of the content before it is being overridden and a restoration command allowing restoration of the content with the protected content after it was overridden are also inserted into the update package.
US08453134B2
Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture improving data locality and parallelism by code replication and array contraction. Source code including an array of elements referenced using at least two indices is processed. The array is nested within multiple loops, wherein at least two of the loops perform iterations with respect to the indices of the array, wherein the index incremented in at least one innermost loop of the loops does not comprise a leftmost index in the array. The source code is transformed to object code by performing operations including fusing at least two innermost loops of the loops in object code generated by compiling the source code by replicating statements from at least one of the innermost loops into a fused innermost loop and performing loop interchange in the object code to have the fused innermost loop provide iterations with respect to the leftmost index in the array.
US08453133B2
A method for arithmetic expression optimization comprises validating at least one input stack associated with a first instruction operable on at least one operand of a first type and optimizing the first instruction to a second instruction operable on at least one operand of a second type that is smaller than the first type based at least in part on the relative size of the first type and the second type. The method also comprises matching the second type with an operand type of at least one operand in the at least one input stack associated with the second instruction. The matching comprises changing the type of instructions in a chain of instructions to equal the second type if the operand type is less than the second type. The chain is bounded by the second instruction and a third instruction that is the source of the at least one operand.
US08453129B2
A method, computer system, and computer program product for using one or more hardware interrupts to drive dynamic binary code recompilation. The execution of a plurality of instructions is monitored to detect a problematic instruction. In response to detecting the problematic instruction, a hardware interrupt is thrown to a dynamic interrupt handler. A determination is made whether a threshold for dynamic binary code recompilation is satisfied. If the threshold for dynamic code recompilation is satisfied, the dynamic interrupt handler optimizes at least one of the plurality of instructions.
US08453128B2
A method for implementing a just-in-time compiler involves obtaining high-level code templates in a high-level programming language, where the high-level programming language is designed for compilation to an intermediate language capable of execution by a virtual machine, and where each high-level code template represents an instruction in the intermediate language. The method further involves compiling the high-level code templates to native code to obtain optimized native code templates, where compiling the high-level code templates is performed, prior to runtime, using an optimizing static compiler designed for runtime use with the virtual machine. The method further involves implementing the just-in-time compiler using the optimized native code templates, where the just-in-time compiler is configured to substitute an optimized native code template when a corresponding instruction in the intermediate language is encountered at runtime.
US08453110B2
Methods, systems and computer program products are disclosed for automatically generating hardware description language code from a model. The hardware description language code may be generated from a graphical program/model, such as a block diagram model. The hardware description language code may also be generated from a text-based program/model, such as a model created using MATLAB® tools. In particular, the present invention provides for the automatic code generation of an interface between components in the model. The present invention may provide options for selecting at least one of multiple types or styles of the component interfaces in the model. The selection of the interface types or styles may be controlled by the user or inferred by other parameters, such as implementation parameters.
US08453109B2
Embodiments of the invention provide a dictionary, which may be modified by a developer, that provides a mapping of the generation routine to be performed and a pointer or identifier of the generator employed for the specified generation routine. As will be appreciated, embodiments of the invention may employ a dictionary which comprises a plurality of generation routine-code generator identity data pairs. A generator routine may be, for example, associated with the generation of source code associated with a particular object class, fields, methods, method bodies, procedures, comments, subroutines and the like. By modifying a generation routine-code generator identity data pair in a generator dictionary, a developer or user is able to modify the source code (e.g., the structure and/or content of the source) which is ultimately generated by the generator.
US08453101B1
Disclosed are embodiments of a method, system and program storage device for generating accurate performance targets for active semiconductor devices during technology node development in order to reduce the number of iterations required for model extraction and/or to improve model quality. In these embodiments, initial sets of performance targets for related semiconductor devices are generated, e.g., by making assumptions based on hardware measurements taken from semiconductor devices in prior technology nodes. Additional processes are then performed on the initial sets of performance targets prior to the modeling stage in order to detect and resolve any inconsistencies between the data in the sets. Specifically, plotting techniques are performed with respect to the performance targets. The results are analyzed to detect any inconsistencies indicating that the performance targets are inaccurate and adjustments are made to the performance targets in order to resolve those inconsistencies.
US08453095B2
A method includes creating a technology file including data for an integrated circuit including at least one die coupled to an interposer and a routing between the at least one die and the interposer, b) creating a netlist including data approximating at least one of capacitive or inductive couplings between conductors in the at least one die and in the interposer based on the technology file, c) simulating a performance of the integrated circuit based on the netlist, d) adjusting the routing between the at least one die and the interposer based on the simulation to reduce the at least one of the capacitive or the inductive couplings, and e) repeating steps c) and d) to optimize the at least one of the capacitive or inductive couplings.
US08453084B2
Methods and apparatuses for approximate functional matching are described including identifying functionally similar subsets of an integrated circuit design or software program, distinguishing control inputs of the subsets from data inputs, and assigning combinations of logic values to the input control signals to capture co-factors for functional matching.
US08453082B2
Soft error detection is performed by computation of states based on formal methods and by simulating a synthesized target identification logic together with the design. Soft errors may be simulated in response to detecting that a simulated state of the design is comprised by the states. A BDD representation of the design may be utilized to determine the states. A Boolean satisfiability problem may be defined and solved using an all-SAT solver in order to determine the states.
US08453080B2
One or more hardware description language (HDL) files describe a plurality of hierarchically arranged design entities defining a digital design to be simulated and a plurality of configuration entities not belonging to the digital design that logically control settings of a plurality of configuration latches in the digital design. The HDL file(s) are compiled to obtain a simulation executable model of the digital design and an associated configuration database. The compiling includes parsing a configuration statement that specifies an association between an instance of a configuration entity and a specified configuration latch, determining whether or not the specified configuration latch is described in the HDL file(s), and if not, creating an indication in the configuration database that the instance of the configuration latch had a specified association to a configuration latch to which it failed to bind.
US08453075B2
A method for proactively preventing lithographic problems is disclosed, which employs information generated from layout patterns including hot spots in a first technology node to identify hot spots in a second technology node employing a scaled down minimum dimension. In this proactive approach, problematic patterns or complex product geometries are identified in a chip design layout of the second technology node based on detection, in the chip design layout, of topological features that are similar to topological features of known hot spots in the first technology node. The identified patterns are potential hot spots in the chip design layout for the second technology node. Known hot spots in layout patterns in the first technology node are topologically categorized to provide a database for performing the fault detection and diagnosis on the chip design layout.
US08453070B2
An interactive user interface is disclosed. According to various embodiments, the interface includes a first field and at least one additional field. The first field lists a focal item and the at least one additional field contains a listing of items related to the focal item. Certain of the related items in the at least one additional field include a hyperlink which, when activated by the user, causes the item corresponding to the activated hyperlink to become a new focal item listed in the first field, such that the at least one additional field transitions to list items related to the new focal item. The focal item may be, for example, an identifier corresponding to a company, and the at least one additional field may contain a listing of identifiers corresponding to companies that are customers, suppliers or competitors of the focal item company.
US08453067B1
A computer-implemented method of displaying a pane in a user interface includes two display modes. In the first display mode, the pane is displayed in the user interface, wherein display of the pane persists regardless of a position of a pointer icon in the user interface, and display of the pane ceases in response to selection of an indicator. In the second display mode, the pane is displayed in the user interface, wherein display of the pane persists while the pointer icon is positioned over the indicator or within the perimeter of the pane, and display of the pane ceases in response to detecting that the pointer icon is no longer positioned over the indicator or within the perimeter of the pane.
US08453066B2
Systems, methods, and data structures for augmenting data placed on the clipboard with additional data are disclosed. Where the data placed on the clipboard may include one or more references to other information, such systems, methods, or data structures may retrieve data referred to by a reference and place such data, or data associated with the retrieved data, on the clipboard.
US08453065B2
Methods, apparatus, and computer program products are provided including a method for displaying a user interface element in a display environment. The method includes receiving a selection of a user interface element to be displayed in a display environment, and selectively displaying the user interface element in a preview environment prior to installing the user interface element and prior to displaying the interface element in the display environment. Selectively displaying the user interface element includes determining if a preview is required; instantiating the user interface element in a preview environment including displaying the user interface element in a presentation window and supporting interaction of the user interface element with a user; and selectively installing the user interface element in the display environment.
US08453062B2
A method for managing and operating one or more virtual world viewers in a virtual world may include generating a virtual world viewer feature on a computer system in response to a predetermined action by the user. The method may also include generating an option in the virtual world viewer feature for the user to either enter or select a different virtual world location from a current virtual world location of a user's avatar for locating a virtual world viewer for viewing the different virtual world location. The virtual world viewer may be generated on the computer system for the user to view the different virtual world location without the user's avatar leaving the current virtual world location.
US08453060B2
A computer-readable medium and user interface for displaying media objects on a geographic map to a user are described. Indications from the user are received specifying a target location and a view direction on the geographic map. A database is accessed to retrieve media objects, either individually or in a panoramic view, that were captured in a geographic location in the proximity of the target location. The retrieved media objects are displayed on the map according to their geographic location from the target location. Enlarged versions of any of the retrieved media objects captured in the view direction from the target location are then presented to the user.
US08453043B2
System and method for testing jitter tolerance by using a built-in jitter modulation circuit is disclosed. An embodiment comprises a jitter modulation circuit, a transmitter, a receiver and a data comparison unit. The jitter modulation circuit includes a plurality of data latches, a phase-select block and a multi-phase clock generator. The multi-phase clock generator is capable of generating a plurality of signals having different phase shifts wherein one signal having a phase shift from the system clock signal is selected by the phase-select block. The selected signal alters the data by injecting jitter through a plurality of data latches. The jitter-contaminated data is transmitted to a data comparison unit through a transmitter and a receiver. The on-chip test circuit compares the jitter-contaminated data with the original data and calculates the bit error rate so as to determine whether the jitter tolerance of this semiconductor device satisfies the specification.
US08453033B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor memory device includes semiconductor memory chips having writable storage regions in which data is written. The data has one or more pieces of first data, and one or more pieces of the first data includes second data. The device includes a determining unit that determines a prescribed number or fewer of semiconductor memory chips to which the first data is written; a write controller that writes the the first data and redundant information calculated from the second data and used for correcting an error in the second data into the writable storage regions in the determined semiconductor memory chips; and a storage unit that stores identification information and region specifying information associated with each other. The identification information associates the second data and the redundant information, and the region specifying information specifies the storage regions in the semiconductor memory chips to which the first data included in the second data and the redundant information are written.
US08453024B2
A test controller applies test stimulus signals to the input pads of plural die on a wafer in parallel. The test controller also applies encoded test response signals to the output pads of the plural die in parallel. The encoded test response signals are decoded on the die and compared to core test response signals produced from applying the test stimulus signals to core circuits on the die. The comparison produces pass/fail signals that are loaded in to scan cells of an IEEE 1149.1 scan path. The pass/fail signals then may be scanned out of the die to determine the results of the test.
US08453023B2
Logic value determination method and program for identifying unspecified bits and determining logic values shortly. The method enables to control the total number of logic value differences between corresponding input and output lines of combinational circuit. The method includes the first step for determining, when output has a logic value and input has an unspecified value, that the unspecified bit has the logic value of output, the second step for determining, when output has an unspecified value and input has a logic value, the logic value of the unspecified bit by justification, and the third step for calculating, when input and output both have unspecified values, probabilities of output to have 0 and 1, and determining the logic value of the unspecified bit based on the difference between the probabilities. The third step is repeated until the total number reaches a target value.
US08453013B1
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for resolving a hang condition in a distributed environment including a client computer and server computer(s). A network thread is provided, which passes requests from the client computer to the one or more server computers and responses from the server computers to the client computer. Worker thread(s) are provided on the server computers. The worker threads receive requests from the network thread, execute the requests, and pass responses to the requests back to the network thread. A request is sent from the client computer to a server computer through the network thread. A timer associated with the request is started on the client computer. The timer specifies a pre-defined time period for receiving a response to the request. When no response has been received within the pre-defined time period, a reset request is sent to the server computer.
US08453006B2
A decoding circuit for decoding a command is provided. The received command is transmitted during at least two clock periods of a clock signal, and the received command is divided to a former encoded data and a latter encoded data. The decoding circuit includes a pre-trigger signal generating unit, a comparing unit, and a starting signal generating unit. The pre-trigger signal generating unit receives the former encoded data and generates a pre-trigger signal when the former encoded data of the received command matches the corresponding former encoded data of a predetermined command. The comparing unit generates a match signal when the latter encoded data of the received command is the same with the latter encoded data of the predetermined command. The starting signal generating unit outputs a starting signal according to the pre-trigger signal and the match signal. The starting signal starts a corresponding operation of the predetermined command.
US08452985B2
The present invention provides an apparatus for securely acquiring a circuit configuration information set corresponding to a new cryptosystem without increasing the number of reconfigurable circuits. A content playback apparatus includes an FPGA that is reconfigurable. The content playback apparatus stores a decryption circuit program that shows the structure of a decryption circuit that executes decryption in accordance with a prescribed cryptosystem. The FPGA is reconfigured in accordance with the program to configure the decryption circuit. The playback apparatus acquires, from outside, an encrypted file that has been generated by encrypting a file including a decryption circuit program corresponding to the new cryptosystem in accordance with the prescribed cryptosystem, and decrypts the encrypted file by the decryption circuit.
US08452979B2
Portable telecommunications apparatus having one or more functionalities including providing user access to a telecommunications network, the portable telecommunications apparatus comprising integrated circuit card (ICC) reader circuitry, storage circuitry and processing circuitry, wherein the ICC reader circuitry is configured to communicate with one or more network-access ICCs; the storage circuitry is arranged to comprise a list of at least one network-access ICC authorised for use with the apparatus; and wherein the processing circuitry is arranged to undertake an authentication process on removable storage circuitry in communication with the apparatus to determine whether or not the security circuitry is authenticated for use with the apparatus; to allow the authorisation of network-access ICCs in the storage circuitry according to whether authenticated security circuitry is in communication with the apparatus; and to permit a user access to the one or more functionalities of the apparatus according to whether an authorised network-access ICC is in communication with the ICC reader circuitry.
US08452977B2
A method is provided for generating a first key to encode and/or decode data and a first pointer, with said data stored and/or storable on a first data processing system in a memory area identified by said first pointer, comprising the following steps: recursive generating of said first key from a second key, recursive generating of said first pointer from a second pointer, with the number of recursions for implementing the recursive generating of said first key and said first pointer determined by an index value.
US08452974B2
An image processing apparatus includes a first partial information providing unit that provides first partial information to another device holding a first signing key KS corresponding to a first verification key KV, the first partial information constituting a part of a second verification key KV′ (KV′≠KV) that is capable of verifying an electronic signature σ generated using the first signing key KS and being unable to identify the second verification key KV′; a second partial information acquisition unit that acquires second partial information which is generated by the another device using the first partial information and the first signing key KS, and which is unable to identify the first signing key KS and used for generating the remaining part of the second verification key KV′; and a second verification key generation unit that generates the second verification key KV′ based on the first and second partial information.
US08452971B2
A video watermarking scheme is disclosed, which is designed for the digital cinema format, as it will be used on large projector screens in theaters. The watermark is designed in such a way that it has minimal impact on the video quality, but is still detectable after capture with a handheld camera and conversion to, for instance, VHS, CD-Video or DVD format. The proposed watermarking system only exploits the temporal axis. This makes it invulnerable to geometrical distortions generally caused by such a way of capturing. The watermark is embedded by modulating a global property of the frames (e.g. the mean luminance) in accordance with the samples of the watermark. The embedding depth is preferably locally adapted within each frame to local statistics of the respective image. Watermark detection is performed by correlating the watermark sequence with extracted mean luminance values of a sequence of frames.
US08452967B2
A flash storage device and a method for using the flash storage device to prevent unauthorized use of a software application are provided. An identifier may be encoded within specific sectors of the flash storage device. One bits of the identifier may be encoded as unusable ones of the specific sectors and zero bits of the identifier may be encoded as usable one of the specific sectors. Alternatively, the zero bits of the identifier may be encoded as the unusable ones of the specific sectors and the one bits of the identifier may be encoded as the usable ones of the specific sectors. The software application may be permitted to execute on a processing device connected to the flash storage device only when the identifier is encoded within the flash storage device.
US08452963B2
A computer-implemented process comprises receiving, at a first computer, a base cryptographic seed through a secure connection to a second computer; generating one or more protected access credential parameters; combining said base cryptographic seed with at least a portion of said generated protected access credential parameters using a hashed message authentication code function to generate a master key; encrypting at least a portion of said generated protected access credential parameters using at least a portion of said generated master key; incorporating said encrypted protected access credential parameters and at least a portion of said generated protected access credential parameters into a protected access credential. In an embodiment, a master server securely distributes the seed and the process is performed by a plurality of access servers to separately generate the same master key for use in subsequent authentication communications using an authentication protocol such as EAP-FAST.
US08452958B2
A method is disclosed for obtaining certificate revocation information from a server, obtaining from a client a request for a revocation status of a certificate and notifying the client when the certificate identified in the client request has been revoked. The method may be performed by a networking device that is separate from the server and the client.
US08452957B2
A mobile node, a gateway node and methods are provided for securely storing a content into a remote node. The mobile node, or a gateway node of a network providing access to the mobile node, applies a content key to the content prior to sending the content for storage in the remote node. The content key is generated at the mobile node, based on a random value obtained from an authentication server, or directly at the authentication server if applied by the gateway node. The content key is not preserved in the mobile node or in the gateway node, for security purposes. When the mobile node or the gateway node fetches again the content from the remote node, the same content key is generated again for decrypting the content. The remote node does not have access to the content key and can therefore no read or modify the content.
US08452951B2
Computing device deployment and configuration using a mass storage device is provided. A generic computing device is provided to a customer or end user. A mass storage device is used to distribute configuration information to the generic computing device. The configuration information includes customer-specified or ordered software applications or other features. The configuration information can also include updates to the computing device system software. The customer or end user couples the mass storage device to the generic computing device in order to load the configuration information into the computing device. After the configuration information is loaded, the computing device is configured for the customer's use. Further features, such as creating customized images, are also provided.
US08452947B2
A hardware wake-and-go mechanism is provided for a data processing system. The wake-and-go mechanism looks ahead in the instruction stream of a thread for programming idioms that indicates that the thread is waiting for an event. The wake-and-go mechanism updates a wake-and-go array with a target address associated with the event for each recognized programming idiom. When the thread reaches a programming idiom, the thread goes to sleep until the event occurs. The wake-and-go array may be a content addressable memory (CAM). When a transaction appears on the symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) fabric that modifies the value at a target address in the CAM, the CAM returns a list of storage addresses at which the target address is stored. The wake-and-go mechanism associates these storage addresses with the threads waiting for an event at the target addresses, and may wake the one or more threads waiting for the event.
US08452945B2
A data processor includes an instruction decoder, an execution unit, a general-purpose register file, and an index-register file. The instruction set for the data processor includes indirect-indexing instructions to facilitate table lookups. When executing such an instruction, the execution unit reads an index stored at an index-register location specified by the instruction. The index refers to a general-purpose register location, which is then read and copied to a general-purpose register location as specified by the instruction. The disclosed execution unit includes four functional units, each with two read ports and a write port so that eight table lookups can be performed in parallel.
US08452939B2
The present invention provides a method for estimating a capacity usage status of a storage unit, where the storage unit includes a plurality of sectors. The method includes: estimating capacity usage statuses of a portion of sectors; and utilizing a controller to estimate the capacity usage status of the storage unit according to the estimated capacity usage statuses of the portion of sectors in a situation of not estimating capacity usage statuses of all of the sectors of the storage unit.
US08452938B1
Memory management includes identifying a region of virtual memory to be reclaimed, the region including at an object that is currently located at an original virtual memory location, and the region being supported by at least a portion of a memory resource; relocating the object from the original virtual memory location to a target virtual memory location; remapping one or more references to the object to the target virtual memory location; and releasing the portion of the memory resource prior to or contemporaneously with remapping the one or more references to the target location.
US08452935B2
The present invention provides a memory device and a method for accessing the memory device thereof. The memory device comprises an address encoding selector for selecting one of plurality of encoding circuits which encodes a first address into a second address, and a data decoding selector for selecting one of plurality of decoding circuits which decodes a first data corresponding to the second address into a second data and a non-volatile memory, coupled to address encoding selector and the data decoding selector, for storing the first data. The method for accessing the memory device comprises encoding a first address into a second address by an address encoding selector, and decoding a first data corresponding to the second address into a second data by a data decoding selector, wherein the first data being stored in the non-volatile memory.
US08452930B2
Methods and apparatuses for backing up virtual volumes effectively by eliminating transfer and preservation of parts of virtual volumes, which contain no data. By representing virtual volumes as virtual files in a virtual file system, it is thereby possible to avoid needlessly backing up empty data space in the virtual volume. In one implementation, a storage system includes multiple virtual volumes and a virtual file system as well as a storage system control module. Each virtual volume in the multiple virtual volumes is represented as a virtual file within the virtual file system with each virtual file representing data actually stored within the virtual volume; and the storage system control module facilitates backing up a selected virtual volume, the operations involving accessing the virtual file system on the storage system; and reading the virtual file corresponding to the selected virtual volume.
US08452928B1
Described are a storage network and method of migrating data from a source virtual array to a destination virtual array transparently with respect to a storage application executing on a host. The storage application provides particular storage functionality at a source storage array while using metadata during its execution. The metadata used by the storage application are associated with the source virtual array and forwarded, during a data migration event in which data resident in logical units of storage (LUNs) of the source virtual array are copied to LUNs of the destination virtual array, to a destination storage array where the metadata is associated with the destination virtual array.
US08452925B2
Systems and methods for managing cached content are disclosed. More particularly, embodiments disclosed herein may allow cached content to be updated (e.g. regenerated or replaced) in response to a notification. Specifically, embodiments disclosed herein may process a notification pertaining to content stored in a cache. Processing the notification may include locating cached content associated with the notification. After the cached content which corresponds to the notification is found, an appropriate action may be taken. For example, the cached content may be flushed from the cache or a request may be regenerated. As a result of the action, new content is generated. This new content is then used to replace or update the cached content.
US08452924B1
A method, computer program product, and cache management system for receiving an indication of a data portion update within an electromechanical storage system. Information concerning the data portion update is provided to at least one proprietary, solid-state, non-volatile, cache memory system. The proprietary, solid-state, non-volatile, cache memory system is associated with at least a first of a plurality of computing devices and is not associated with at least a second of the plurality of computing devices.
US08452923B2
A storage system including a first storage apparatus having at least one volume to be provided to a host computer, a second storage apparatus connected to the first storage apparatus and having a second volume having a pair relationship with a first volume, and a management apparatus. The management apparatus includes a user interface for setting an attribute of functions related to at least one volume of the first storage apparatus and at least one volume of the second storage apparatus. The management apparatus compares an attribute of a first function related to the first volume and an attribute of a second function related to the second volume, and sets the attribute of the second function to be consistent with the attribute of the first function. The management apparatus there commands restoration of the first volume or the second volume to a state before the set the attribute operation.
US08452920B1
A method of controlling a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and a DRAM memory controller is provided. An example DRAM memory controller includes a content addressable memory (CAM) based decision control module. The CAM based decision control module includes a CAM access storage module, a next access table module, and a decision logic module. Further, the DRAM memory controller includes a DRAM access control interface. The method includes detecting a request for a read-modify-write operation. The method also includes creating a read access request and a write access request based on the detecting. Further, the method includes prioritizing the read access request and the write access request. Moreover, the method includes executing the read access request and the write access request based on the prioritizing.
US08452915B2
Without corresponding to different address spaces between an access device and a nonvolatile memory device, the access device designates a file ID to manage a data storing state only in a physical address space in the nonvolatile memory device. The access device sends the nonvolatile memory device a transfer rate through a transfer rate transmitting unit. A filling-up rate calculating unit calculates a filling-up rate of a physical block corresponding to an assurance speed required by the access device. A remaining amount corresponding to the transfer rate is sought by using the calculated filling-up rate and is transmitted to a remaining amount receiving unit of the access device.
US08452914B2
An electronic device with improved flash memory compatibility and a method corresponding thereto are disclosed. The electronic device has a NAND flash, a processing unit and a program memory. The program memory stores application software and codes of an operating system, to be retrieved and executed by the processing unit. The application software requests for NAND flash access in accordance with a specific page size. The operating system acts as an intermediary between the application software and the NAND flash and provides a device driver which allocates a number of physical pages of the NAND flash to each virtual page of the specific page size for responding to NAND flash access requests from the application software by referring to the virtual pages.
US08452913B2
A semiconductor memory device including a plurality of memory blocks, and an erase flag storage block storing erase flag information to indicate erase states of the plurality of memory blocks. The erase flag information can be used to monitor completion of erase operations of the memory blocks and to update erase count information of the memory blocks.
US08452912B2
A flash memory solid-state-drive (SSD) has a smart storage switch that reduces write acceleration that occurs when more data is written to flash memory than is received from the host. Page mapping rather than block mapping reduces write acceleration. Host commands are loaded into a Logical-Block-Address (LBA) range FIFO. Entries are sub-divided and portions invalidated when a new command overlaps an older command in the FIFO. Host data is aligned to page boundaries with pre- and post-fetched data filling in to the boundaries. Repeated data patterns are detected and encoded by compressed meta-data codes that are stored in meta-pattern entries in a meta-pattern cache of a meta-pattern flash block. The sector data is not written to flash. The meta-pattern entries are located using a meta-data mapping table. Storing host CRC's for comparison to incoming host data can detect identical data writes that can be skipped, avoiding a write to flash.
US08452910B1
Split capture of USB protocol streams is disclosed. A first set of packets associated with a first USB protocol and a second set of packets associated with a second USB protocol are received at a hardware protocol analyzer via a monitored bus. The first set of packets and the second set of packets are maintained as separate streams at the hardware protocol analyzer. The first set of packets and the second set of packets are transferred from the hardware protocol analyzer to an analysis computer via a first logical connection configured to transfer packets comprising the first set of packets and a second logical connection configured to transfer packets comprising the second set of packets.
US08452900B2
In one aspect, a method of compressing data includes splitting an I/O into smaller I/Os based on a throughput of I/Os in a queue, a smaller I/O is equal or smaller than a block size. The method also includes storing the smaller I/Os in the queue. The method further includes asynchronously compressing the smaller I/Os.
US08452897B1
In one set of embodiments, a power management system comprises two or more devices, such as POL devices, configured to transmit and receive data over a shared bus, such as an I2C bus, according to the bus protocol of the shared bus. Each device may be configured with at least one respective address register, which may be programmed with an address uniquely identifying the device, and a mask register that may be configured to mask select bits of the respective address register, thereby enabling the device to identify device groups. In one embodiment, one of the devices identifying itself as a master device may distribute information to any of the other devices by transmitting the information, which may include commands and/or data, to itself, in effect targeting the address programmed into its own address register. The devices on the shared bus may be configured to monitor the bus for events, and respond to each event according to the requirements inherent within a transmitted command, thereby performing the necessary tasks to enable power management functions without the need for interconnecting analog signal lines.
US08452890B2
The present invention relates to a point code emulation apparatus and method for dividing a Common Channel Signaling System No. 7 (or SS 7) signaling network into two or more networks. The point code emulator is adapted to receive TCAP messages from two or more subnets and converts, for the messages crossing over the subnets, the information of the TCAP messages, including originating point code, destination point code, and transaction identifier, (and optionally, calling party number and called party number), and forwards to the other one of the two or more subnets. Correspondence among the two or more subnets may be provisioned by an authorized user of the system, may be learned automatically by the system based on ISUP message correspondences or previous TCAP transactions, or may be automatically discovered by the system broadcasting messages to nodes in the destined one of the two or more subnets.
US08452886B2
Techniques for streaming media packets in a peer-to-peer network are disclosed.
US08452872B2
A server configured to provide a policy decision point for a packet-based communication network. The server comprises a user account manager for maintaining and/or determining, for each of a plurality of users, an available total usage quota and a set of registered, linked connection identifiers. A request handler is provided for receiving from a policy enforcement point, a request for allocation of a quota in respect of a packet session associated with a specified connection identifier. A quota determiner responds to receipt of a quota request by determining a quota for said packet session taking into account the total usage quota for the associated user and any currently ongoing sessions associated with other connection identifiers belonging to the same set as said specified connection identifier. A responder is provided for sending the determined quota to said policy enforcement point.
US08452871B2
A technique for monitoring performance in a network uses passively monitored traffic data at the server access routers. The technique aggregates performance metrics into clusters according to a spatial hierarchy in the network, and then aggregates performance metrics within spatial clusters to form time series of temporal bins. Representative values from the temporal bins are then analyzed using an enhanced Holt-Winters exponential smoothing algorithm.
US08452869B2
A system for managing customized SLA monitoring for providing a customized SLA monitoring service is linked with an external system to receive an external index order for a customer line subscribed in the service. The system reflects demands of the customer included in the external index order on SLA management data to update the SLA management data. Further, the system uses the updated SLA management data to determine whether to monitor with the external system and the customer line according to the result of the determination.
US08452867B2
The present disclosure includes a system and method for managing network and server power. In an example of managing network and server power according to the present disclosure, routing network traffic is routed onto a number of core networks based on core network statistics, capacity requirements are determined based on core network statistics for the number of core networks and for a number of servers operating a number of virtual machines on the number of core networks, wherein the number of core networks include a number of core switches and a number of edge switches, and the capacity is set for the number of core switches based on the capacity requirements for the number of core networks and for the number of servers based on the capacity requirements for the number of servers.
US08452860B2
The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates configuring at least one radio frequency identification (RFID) device. An RFID network can include at least one device associated with a device group, wherein the device group corresponds to a characteristic. An organizational manager can uniformly configure the at least one device based at least in part upon membership of the device group.
US08452839B2
A computer program or method provides away messages from a first user to other users of a communications system, where the first user has grouped the other users into two or more groups. An interface is provided to the first user that displays representations of the other users in a manner that identifies how the first user has grouped the other users into the groups. The first user is able to select a selected group from the groups using the interface. The first user also is able to set a group away message for the selected group using the interface. The group away message is sent to a second user that has been grouped in the selected group when the second user attempts to communicate with the first user using the communications system and the first user is offline.
US08452834B2
An information processing apparatus that includes a communication unit for performing communication with one or more external devices and a storage unit for storing device information containing first authentication information used for authentication to selectively perform a process related to transmission of content data on the external device. The information processing apparatus also includes an authenticating unit for authenticating the external device that has transmitted a processing request based on second authentication information contained in the processing request transmitted from the external device and the device information. Furthermore, a processing unit is used for selectively performing a process corresponding to the processing request based on an authentication result in the authenticating unit; and a data transmitting unit for selectively transmitting content data to the external device.
US08452833B2
A method for distributing cached messages in a load-balanced publish/subscribe messaging network using an HTTP redirect in response to an HTTP client message request is disclosed. The redirect response including a URI at which a next message in a list of sequential messages slated for the HTTP client per the request is located, wherein the HTTP client uses the URI to automatically iterate through and receive the entire list of sequential messages. The method includes that a) the HTTP client initiating a request for a next message in a sequence of messages, b) the HTTP server receiving the request and creating and inserting a client cursor in a message cache for the HTTP a cache location of the requested next message, and returning an HTTP redirect response to the HTTP client including the current client cursor cache location for the requested next message in a location field in the redirect response enabling the HTTP client to automatically access each next message in the sequence and c) the HTTP client receiving the redirect response, opens (sends) a new request to the client cursor location in accordance with the URI location field in the redirect response to secure the next message, Steps b) and c) are repeated until the HTTP server returns a response other than a redirect response, or until the HTTP client fails to respond to a redirect response. The method, system and computer program product supports point-to-point messaging.
US08452831B2
A floating-point circuit may include a floating-point operand normalization circuit configured to receive input floating-point operands of a given floating-point divide operation, the operands comprising a dividend and a divisor, as well as a divide engine coupled to the normalization circuit. In response to determining that one or more of the input floating-point operands is a denormal number, the operand normalization circuit may be further configured to normalize the one or more of the input floating-point operands and output a normalized dividend and normalized divisor to the divide engine, and dependent upon respective numbers of leading zeros of the dividend and divisor prior to normalization, generate a value indicative of a maximum possible number of digits of a quotient (NDQ). The divide engine may be configured to iteratively generate NDQ digits of a floating-point quotient from the normalized dividend and the normalized divisor provided by the floating-point operand normalization circuit.
US08452823B2
Two objects are identified. A relationship between the two objects is determined. A contract object is used to represent the relationship between the objects. The contract is useful in many applications: for example, file systems, relational databases, and spreadsheets. The contract can also have rules for processing events occurring to either of the objects related by the contract.
US08452809B2
Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture for automated creation and delivery for generating output material. A customer record is generated in a customer database to include fields specifying at least one product, customer preferences, and a selected output method to deliver generated output material on the product specified in the customer record. At least one customer record in the customer database is received to process. A template including at least one query of a content database is processed. The at least one query included in the template using at least one value from the customer record is executed against the content database to access at least one content file. The content of each accessed content file is generated into the output material. A determination is made of a selected one of a plurality of delivery options from the customer record. The output material is transmitted via the determined delivery option to the customer specified in the customer record.
US08452808B2
A data consumer is provided with a system that enables automatic generation of a virtual database schema in order to support a customized pattern of data consumption across one or more source databases. In one embodiment, a metadata manager component is configured to facilitate creation of a first data tag and a second data tag. A schema definition manager component is configured to facilitate creation of a data entity that groups the first data tag with the second data tag. A virtual schema generation service component generates the virtual database schema by analyzing the data entity and, based on the grouping of the first data tag with the second data tag, automatically generating and storing a database query statement that, when executed, causes a retrieval of data consistent with data location indicators included in the first and second data tags.
US08452800B2
Described is a new framework that combines the best of both exploratory search and social search: Collaborative exploratory search. This system allows a small group of focused information seekers to search through a collection of information in concert. The system provides exploratory feedback not only based on the individual's search behavior, but on the current, active search behavior of one's fellow search allies. The assumption is that the users who have gotten together to search collaboratively have the same information need, but differing perspectives and insights as to how to best express the queries to meet that need. The collaborative exploratory search system will therefore provide tools and algorithmic support to focus, enhance, and augment searcher activities. Searchers can, by interacting with each other through system-mediated information displays, help each other find all relevant information more efficiently and effectively.
US08452789B2
A method of searching a database is disclosed, in which the database comprises a plurality of components and respective descriptions, such as a UDDI database of web services and associated descriptions. The method includes transmitting a query to the database, receiving a response from the database, the response comprising a plurality of components, accessing one or more service requirements relating to the transmitted query, matching the service requirements to the respective descriptions of the plurality of components of the response, and ranking the components in the response according to an output associated with the matching.
US08452787B2
A method and system for processing data into and in a database and for retrieving the processed data is disclosed. The data comprises identifiers of a plurality of entities. The method and system comprises: (a) processing data into and in a database, (b) enhancing received data prior to storage in a database, (c) determining and matching records based upon relationships between the records in the received data and existing data without any loss of data, (d) enabling alerts based upon user-defined alert rules and relationships, (e) automatically stopping additional matches and separating previously matched records when identifiers used to match records are later determined to be common across entities and not generally distinctive of an entity, (f) receiving data queries for retrieving the processed data stored in the database, (g) utilizing the same algorithm to process the queries and (h) transferring the processed data to another database that uses the same algorithm.
US08452783B2
A switching information acquiring unit 110 acquires information of switching from a screen displayed by a first application program to a screen displayed by a second application program. A character string extracting unit 104 detects character strings from a document file displayed on a screen by the first application program by using a filter serving as a rule to detect a character string matched with a predetermined condition supposed to be used in a second application program and matched with a predetermined condition from a document file. A display control unit 106 presents a character string actually used in the second application from the character strings detected by a character string extracting unit in response to detection of the switching by a switching detecting unit in a display mode in which a user can select the character string.
US08452776B2
A system and method linking one or more disparate datasets with one or more spatial layers to create linked datasets. One or more data attributes common to the dataset and the spatial layer are identified, and the linkage is defined between the dataset and the spatial layer. The spatial layer and the linked data set then may be queried using a single input query. Features from the spatial layer and features from the linked dataset that match the query are generated for display.
US08452775B2
A computer-implemented method, a computer program product and a computer system assist a user to access a content item in a network such as a home network, the method comprises gathering capability information from a device, such as a digital music player in the network, wherein the device includes a directory of content items, wherein the directory includes a first container and a second container, wherein at least one of the plurality of content items is organized in the first container, and wherein at least one of the plurality of content items is organized in the second container; providing an index referring to the content items, the first container, and the second container; determining whether the directory has been modified; performing a content item search if the directory has been modified; and updating the index based on the results of the content item search.
US08452768B2
Targeting parameters are generated for a media buy plan for advertisements to be displayed in conjunction with presenting web pages, based on a history of search events. Key phrases are received relative to a subject of the advertisements to be displayed. The received key phrases are provided as proposed key phrases to determine, from search events indicative of historical data of uses of a search service, a first subportion of search events for queries of the search service with the proposed key phrases and a second subportion of search events for queries of the search service not with the proposed key phrases. Classification processing is applied to determine potential targeting parameters associated with the first subportion and with the second subportion to identify potential targeting parameters that, statistically, contribute to membership in the first sub-population and in the second sub-population, respectively. Statistics are associated with the potential targeting parameters, based on the historical data, indicative of factors usable to determine whether to use the potential targeting parameters as actual targeting parameters of the media buy plan.
US08452762B2
The present invention provides a method and system for generating search results including receiving a search request and accessing a corpus of data to determine relevant content for inclusion in a search result set on the basis of the search request. The method and system includes determining at least one pivot data point, the at least one pivot data point being contextually related to the search result set on the basis of a review of the search result set and generating an active data link for refinement of the search result set on the basis of the data pivot point. The method and system further includes generating a search result output display for the presentation of at least a portion of the search result set and the active data links and toggling the search result output display to present refinement of the search results set.
US08452761B2
A novel and useful method for enabling system logs to be effectively and efficiently monitored by ranking the system log messages by their estimated value to administrators and generating a log view that displays the most important messages. The ranking process uses a dataset of system logs from many computer systems to score messages. For better scoring, unsupervised clustering is used to identify sets of systems that behave similarly. The expected distribution of messages in a given system is estimated using the resulting clusters, and log messages are scored using this estimation.
US08452749B2
A method for visiting a results page of a time-varying result set of a search query. The method includes displaying to a user a list of results belonging to the visited page, each result comprising a hyperlink to a document, a result being de-emphasized if the URL used in its hyperlink is present in a set of URLs of results that are deemed to have been seen by the user. When the user clicks or taps a page menu button to navigate to a different page, the method further includes adding to that set the URLs of the results of the visited page. Page menu buttons are highlighted if they pertain to pages containing results deemed to have been seen by the user.
US08452742B2
It is possible to surely commit a revision made on a software component in a software component database and a software product group and to create a new software product from the same database. Provided is a software configuration management system which includes a software component database and a software product management unit and accepts data transmission/reception from a software component database management client and a software product operation client. The software configuration management system further includes: a component-product correspondence table, component-file correspondence information, a synchronization unit for mutually committing a modification of the software component database and a modification of a software product; update information; and a correspondence table update unit.
US08452727B2
An interactive system enables users to generate and submit lists of items (e.g., products) for viewing by other users. The user-generated lists are selectively suggested to users of the system based on their respective behaviors, such as their item viewing activities, searches, and/or item purchases. The system may monitor the behaviors of users who access particular user-generated lists, and based on the monitored behaviors, generate measures of the effectiveness of particular lists (e.g., effectiveness at driving item purchases). The measures of effectiveness may be considered in selecting particular lists to suggest.
US08452726B2
In a method, system, and computer-readable medium having instructions for sharing information between tenants of a multi-tenant database, information is received on a connection between a first tenant of a multi-tenant database and a second tenant and the connection has information on a scope of data from the first tenant shared with the second tenant, data is allowed for a record of the first tenant to be accessible to the second tenant in accordance with the connection, information is received on a file related to the record of the first tenant, and data is allowed from the file to be accessible to the second tenant in accordance with the connection.
US08452718B2
Automated determination of a number of profiles for a training data set to be used in training a machine learning system for generating target function information from modeled profile parameters. In one embodiment, a first principal component analysis (PCA) is performed on a training data set, and a second PCA is performed on a combined data set which includes the training data set and a test data set. A test data set estimate is generated based on the first PCA transform and the second PCA matrix. The size of error between the test data set and the test data set estimate is used to determine whether a number of profiles associated with the training data set is sufficiently large for training a machine learning system to generate a library of spectral information.
US08452714B2
The present invention relates to a system and method for the automatic creation of a process model having a graphical representation. The system includes a planner to determine different plans for addressing a problem, and a graphics engine for displaying the process model for the different plans. Furthermore, the present invention includes a method for forming a process model having the steps of obtaining a planning data from a planning software; accessing a graphical editor; building the information needed to create a process model; and drawing a process model diagram with the graphical editor.
US08452711B2
Apparatus preventing unauthorized copying of a document includes a secure document reproducing system having a document input device to receive and reproduce the secure document. A reader device detects an electronic data storage device affixed to the document and reads authorization information stored therein. A user wishing to copy the secure document inputs authorization information into a user interface module. The authorization information from the user is compared to the authorization information retrieved from the electronic data storage device, and if the two are identical, the secure document is reproduced.
US08452701B2
Methods for consumers to pay at the point of sale by using a personal communicator to wire transfer funds out of their bank account. The communicator is coupled to, and exchanges signals with a reciprocating communicator of the seller, which in turn is coupled to the seller's bank. This way the money is transferred as an EFT payment code directly from the buyer's bank to the seller's bank, where it may be considered direct deposited, without processing delays. Devices also include vending machines that can receive payment this way. Bank computers are provided with systems and software for enabling the above. The bank computers are accessible by telephone lines, and work with cooperating banks by exchanging signals, for transferring the funds. The seller's bank generates a payment confirmation code that is ultimately transmitted to the seller's satisfaction for releasing the goods at the point of sale.
US08452690B2
A system and method for money management in an electronic trading environment are presented. According to one embodiment, a money management application intercepts an order before the order is sent to an exchange, and determines a plurality of P/L levels, based on which the money management application then selects a set of money management parameters to be used to control or modify order parameters before the order is sent to the exchange. The plurality of profit levels may include a net profit level determined based on a trader's net position and a current market level, a realized profit level determined based on trader's sells and buys associated with the tradable object, or an open profit level determined based on the realized and net profit levels. The set of money management parameters may include a maximum order quantity and a maximum net position so that, for example, if the order quantity associated with the order is higher than the maximum order quantity associated with the applicable set of money management parameters, the order quantity may be modified to the maximum order quantity.
US08452689B1
A digital image of a check may be divided into segments. The segments may be processed to determine the edges between the background data and the check data in the segments of the digital image. A histogram of each segment may be determined and used to determine the edges of the check image portions in the segments and thus the edges of the check. The data outside the edges of the check image portions in the segments may be considered to be background data and may be identified and/or removed. The segments, with the background data removed, may be recombined into an image of the check and provided into a digital image file that may be transmitted to an institution system for deposit of the check in an account.
US08452674B2
A system and method for creating a build set and a BOM from user selected options from a single source model.
US08452657B2
A system is disclosed for messaging over a data network, such as the Internet and interactive TV, which allows every registered user to generate and update one or more user portfolio(s) containing information relative to Providers and/or individuals of which the user is willing to view their messages. The messages are displayed inside the space of the webpage where usually banners are shown. The system may provided benefits to the user upon displaying messages with commercial value to him. The disclosed messaging system allows an easy and effective communication path between providers and users any time publicly or privately in the banner area of a web site, which does not occupy additional space on the user's browser, and does not require the user to load another application besides his browser.
US08452650B2
A request for content is received. First content is selected for the request. The first content is selected from among multiple content items based on information in the request, a characteristic of how the first content is to be presented, and a stored pricing threshold value selected based on the characteristic. The characteristic of how the first content is to be presented includes an amount of available space that is occupied by the first content when the first content is presented. The selected first content is provided for presentation by a publisher that provides second content.
US08452633B2
A system and method for managing a portfolio or projects is disclosed wherein the relationships between the goals of an organization are determined and a weight is applied to each goal. These weights are indicative of the importance of each goal in achieving another goal. Each project in the organization is assigned a contribution value that indicates the importance of that project in achieving one or more of the organizational goals and strategic impacts of that project to those goals is calculated as a function of the contribution value of the project. This strategic impact is compared to objective criteria, such as the budget allocated to that project, and a determination is made whether the resources allocated to that project should be adjusted as a function of the relationship between this strategic impact and the objective criteria.
US08452632B2
A computer-implemented method provides location-sensitive and time-sensitive calendaring to a wireless device, such as a cell phone, pager, PDA, etc. A user's calendar is maintained with a number of appointments, start times and end times for the appointments, meeting place and a list of attendees for the appointments. When the present time reading is within a predetermined minimum of a meeting start time of an appointment of a calendar user, the location of the user is determined based on the location of the wireless device. The location of the meeting place is also determined. Using historical data (of the user or others), the estimated time of arrival of the user at the meeting place is determined. If the estimated time of arrival is after the meeting start time, then a late message may be sent to the user and/or to the other meeting attendees.
US08452630B1
A method for scheduling workers in a business day. The method includes obtaining a scheduled worker distribution specifying an amount of work to be performed by the workers during a business day, where each worker is assigned a schedule within a work window, which includes a core component and a flex component. The method further includes obtaining a forecasted demand distribution for an amount of work to be performed by the workers during the business day and comparing the scheduled worker distribution with the forecasted demand distribution for the business day. The method further includes creating a new schedule for a worker when the scheduled worker distribution and the forecasted demand distribution are not substantially equal, where the new schedule is within the work window associated with the worker, and notifying, a predetermined amount of time in advance of the business day, the worker of the new schedule.
US08452626B2
In a method of estimating a replacement cost associated with an existing technology performed by a processor, one or more costs associated with implementing the existing technology are obtained, in which the one or more costs include an environmental cost and a utility cost associated with implementing the existing technology. In addition, an existing net benefit of continuing implementation of the existing technology based upon the obtained one or more costs are calculated.
US08452611B1
According to one example embodiment, there is provided a method and an apparatus to evaluate the credit of a healthcare patient. The example embodiment provides methods and computer systems programmed to use multiple variables that are known about a patient prior to a service being rendered to segment the patient population into finer grained groupings. These finer grained groupings allow financial factors, such as a credit score, to be a more accurate predictor. Also, according to another example embodiment, the model is not a generic model for all patients, but the variables and their parameters are specific to a particular healthcare organization's or facility's patient population. This creates a custom model that further enhances its predictiveness.
US08452601B2
In some embodiments, a reading device is provided with a shortcut read mode in which a user can instruct the reading device of the type of document (e.g., invoice, package label, newspaper, etc.) that is to be read so that the device can more efficiently find and read back to the user desired (target) information from the document.
US08452599B2
The present invention is a method and system for extracting messages from a person using the body features presented by a user. The present invention captures a set of images and extracts a first set of body features, along with a set of contexts, and a set of meanings. From the first set of body features, the set of contexts, and the set of meanings, the present invention generates a set of words corresponding to the message that the person is attempting to convey. The present invention can also use the body features of the person in addition to the voice of the person to further improve the accuracy of extracting the person's message.
US08452597B2
The present application describes systems, articles of manufacture, and methods for continuous speech recognition for mobile computing devices. One embodiment includes determining whether a mobile computing device is receiving operating power from an external power source or a battery power source, and activating a trigger word detection subroutine in response to determining that the mobile computing device is receiving power from the external power source. In some embodiments, the trigger word detection subroutine operates continually while the mobile computing device is receiving power from the external power source. The trigger word detection subroutine includes determining whether a plurality of spoken words received via a microphone includes one or more trigger words, and in response to determining that the plurality of spoken words includes at least one trigger word, launching an application corresponding to the at least one trigger word included in the plurality of spoken words.
US08452582B1
A method and system are provided for parametrically adapting a behavioral model pre-configured for a preset supply reference level to fluctuations therein. The behavioral model is adaptively scaled for deviation of the electronic system supply reference from its preset level. The scaling includes reconstructing a surrogate device parametrically representative of a portion of the behavioral model's undisclosed circuit. The reconstruction includes pre-setting a transistor type for the surrogate device, such that the surrogate device is configured with a conductive channel current-voltage characteristic of the preselected transistor type. Device-specific properties for the surrogate device are generated based on selective cross-correlation of operating points between the conductive channel current-voltage characteristic and V-t and I-V curves associated with the behavioral model. An instantaneous value for a modeled current parameter may then be replaced with a scaled channel current value generated for the surrogate device responsive to supply reference deviation from its preset level.
US08452576B2
A method and system thereof for simulating behavior of a thermodynamic system over time, including a momentum refreshment process and a conservative dynamics process, where the momentum refreshment process includes partially refreshing a momentum to define refreshed momentum by considering solutions for a starting momentum determined by a numerical implementation for integrating a generating linear differential equation.
US08452562B2
Method and system providing an automated workflow for installing and/or calibrating laboratory equipment. The workflow empowers an end user to perform installation and calibration thereby reducing the costs associated with such activities. The automated workflow taught herein, can greatly reduce the incidence of calibration error by providing for verification of certain events during the calibration process.
US08452559B2
A “density trace” according to an embodiment of the present invention is formed by measuring the density of each column of a frequency domain bitmap above a user-specified “amplitude threshold.” The density of each column equals the sum of the densities of all of the pixels in the column that are above the amplitude threshold divided by the sum of the densities of all of the pixels in the column. A density trace provides a convenient way to define and represent the occupancy for a large number of columns, and also allows density data to be quickly transmitted from one instrument or computer to another. In some embodiments, a density trace is incorporated into a trigger detector of a test and measurement instrument and used to generate a trigger signal. The trigger detector compares the density trace to a user-specified “density threshold” and generates the trigger signal when the value of any point of the density trace violates the density threshold.
US08452555B2
In one aspect, the invention comprises a device for measuring electricity usage, comprising: means for remote disconnection via power line communication; means for detection of electricity theft; means for tamper detection; and means for reverse voltage detection. In another aspect, the invention comprises an apparatus for multi-channel metering of electricity, comprising: (a) a meter head operable to measure electricity usage for a plurality of electricity consumer lines; (b) a transponder operable to transmit data received from the meter head via power line communication to a remotely located computer, and to transmit data received via power line communication from the remotely located computer to the meter head; and (c) a load control module operable to actuate connection and disconnection of each of a plurality of relays, each relay of the plurality of relays corresponding to one of the plurality of electricity consumer lines.
US08452553B2
A device and a method. The device includes: (i) a processor, connected to the receiver, (ii) an interface adapted to receive a test vector and to output a test response, the test vector includes a first group of signals that include idle signals and at least one information frame and a second group of signals that include timing signals and data signals; and (iii) a receiver, connected to the interface. The receiver is adapted to receive the first group of signals and filter out the idle signals and at least one instruction frame delimiters to provide at least one instruction. The device is adapted to send the at least one instruction to at least one instruction buffer. The processor is adapted to execute at least one instruction stored in the at least one instruction buffer and to respond to the second group of signals such as to provide test responses.
US08452551B2
A method and apparatus for monitoring multiphase fluid flow passing within a pipe is provided. The method includes the steps of: a) providing a flow pressure value and a flow temperature value for the multiphase fluid flow within the pipe; b) providing a fluid flowmeter operable to be attached to an exterior of the pipe, the flowmeter including a spatial array of at least two sensors disposed at different axial positions along the pipe, which flowmeter is adapted to produce flow velocity signals indicative of a velocity of the fluid flow traveling within the pipe; c) providing a processor adapted to include an equation of state model for the pressure, volume, and temperature properties for the multiphase fluid flow, and further adapted to receive composition data values for the multiphase fluid flow, the flow pressure value, and the flow temperature value, and the flow velocity signals from the flowmeter; and d) determining a volumetric flow rate of one or both the gas phase and liquid phase of the fluid flow.
US08452549B2
An apparatus for detecting erroneous cable stripping includes an auxiliary bracket having a stripping blade coupled thereto to cut a part of a sheath of a cable to strip the cable, a sensor attached to the auxiliary bracket to sense bending deformation of the auxiliary bracket occurring when tensile force is applied to the cable to strip the cable, and a central processing unit configured to receive a signal sent in response to bending deformation of the auxiliary bracket and determine whether the cable has been stripped erroneously or not.
US08452544B2
An analog waveform signal detection/data acquisition system that is based on negative group delay for reducing inherent delay in analog waveform or signal detection and acquisition and facilitating earlier than otherwise possible responsive actions to analog waveform data. Signal advance amplification and data conditioning reduces distortion and permits greater temporal advance than previously possible.
US08452542B2
Disclosed are computational methods, and associated hardware and software products for scoring conservation in a protein structure based on a computationally identified family or cluster of protein structures. A method of computationally identifying a family or cluster of protein structures in also disclosed herein.
US08452541B2
Systems and methodologies for efficient vaccine design are disclosed herein. A methodology for efficient vaccine design in accordance with one or more embodiments disclosed herein may be operable to receive a graph having vertices corresponding to epitope sequences present in the pathogen population, weights for respective vertices corresponding to respective frequencies with which corresponding epitope sequences appear in the pathogen population, and directed edges that connect vertices that correspond to overlapping epitope sequences. Such a methodology may also be operable to determine a candidate vaccine sequence of overlapping epitope sequences by identifying a path though the graph corresponding to a series of connected vertices and directed edges that maximizes the total weight of the vertices in the path for a desired vaccine sequence length.
US08452538B2
Methods and systems are provided for evaluating petrophysical properties of subterranean formations and comprehensively evaluating hydrate presence through a combination of computer-implemented log modeling and analysis. Certain embodiments include the steps of running a number of logging tools in a wellbore to obtain a variety of wellbore data and logs, and evaluating and modeling the log data to ascertain various petrophysical properties. Examples of suitable logging techniques that may be used in combination with the present invention include, but are not limited to, sonic logs, electrical resistivity logs, gamma ray logs, neutron porosity logs, density logs, NRM logs, or any combination or subset thereof.
US08452536B2
A method of defining a navigation system comprising at least one inertial platform and involving terrain correlation, the estimations of the state vector of a platform being made by a navigation filter which furthermore accesses the data of an onboard map, allows the definition of the parameters relating to, respectively, the inertial platform and at least one terrain sensor allowing Terrain-Aided-Navigation, the definition of the parameters being carried out on the basis of computations carried out with the help of statistical syntheses not involving a modeling of the navigation filter.
US08452530B2
A navigation device divides a pathfinding range into plural areas and performs pathfinding in consideration of congestion information. The navigation device includes a forecast congestion information generating unit configured to generate forecast congestion information corresponding to a predetermined time based on traffic information; and a forecast congestion information applying unit configured to apply, to each of the areas, the forecast congestion information corresponding to a time when a vehicle arrives in each of the areas. The navigation device includes an area setting unit configured to set regions divided by concentric circles centering around a present location, as the plural areas. The radius of the concentric circles is incremented by a fixed length that is set beforehand for each region or each time zone.
US08452526B2
Systems and methods for estimation of roadway travel information based on historical travel data are disclosed. In one embodiment, a system for estimating travel conditions may comprise, for example, a communication network; an automobile navigation system communicatively coupled to the communication network, the automobile navigation system for specifying a future travel information for travel along the desired route on the desired date; and a processor communicatively coupled to the communication network, the processor estimating travel conditions associated with the desired route on the desired date, and the processor performing said estimation by correlating the future travel information with historical travel information.
US08452520B2
A control system for an engine includes a parameter determination module and a period determination module. The parameter determination module determines a first fuel injection parameter based on a rate of change of a quantity of fuel injected during a period, and determines a second fuel injection parameter based on an initial quantity of fuel injected during the period. The period determination module determines a desired fuel injection period based on a desired fuel injection quantity, the first and second fuel injection parameters, and at least one of mass air flow (MAF) rate, intake air temperature (IAT), fuel injector pressure (FIP), engine coolant temperature (ECT), and exhaust gas air/fuel (A/F) ratio.
US08452510B1
A device includes: actual-intake-pipe-pressure detection unit (11); estimated-intake-pipe-pressure detection unit (12) for calculating an estimated intake pipe pressure based on a rotation speed of the engine and an opening degree of a throttle valve; pressure difference calculation unit (13) for calculating a pressure difference between the actual and estimated intake pipe pressures; pressure difference integration unit (14) for integrating the pressure difference with respect to time; pumping brake detection unit (15) for determining that a pumping brake operation is performed when a integral value is equal to or more than a first determination value; and throttle valve control unit (16) for carrying out control for the pumping brake during the pumping brake operation based on a result of the determination by the pumping brake detection unit (15), and carrying out ordinary control otherwise.
US08452507B2
An actuator device for use in a land vehicle, comprising an actuator for actuating a wheel brake of the land vehicle, a control unit for controlling the actuator and a processing unit. The processing unit is connected to the control unit and an external main control unit in order to route signals of the main control unit to the control unit. The actuator device further comprises a memory for storing actuator-specific information. This memory is connected to a monitoring unit. The monitoring unit is connected in turn to the control unit and the processing unit.
US08452506B2
A device, program and method for monitoring the environment of a vehicle capable of moving according to a path. The device, program and method comprises the steps of calculating a plurality of critical levels of driving depending on detection sensors, parameters related to the vehicle and an obstacle being in the environment of the vehicle, determining if an obstacle is on the path of the vehicle and depending on the calculated critical levels of driving and determination of an obstacle on the path of the vehicle, making a decision concerning the braking of the vehicle.
US08452501B1
Sugar cane harvester automatic cutter height control systems maintain consistent cutter heights even as a harvesting machine traverses changing field conditions. After an operator chooses an initial cutting height the automatic systems maintain that height even as ground conditions change.
US08452500B1
A powertrain includes an engine and a continuously variable transmission including a planetary gear arrangement and a variator. An input drives the variator and the planetary gears. A first planetary output gear is connected to the first output of the planetary gear arrangement. A second planetary output gear is connected to the first output, and a third planetary output gear is connectable by a first clutch to a second output of the planetary gear arrangement. A first output member is connected to the third planetary output gear, a second clutch releasably connects the first output member with the first planetary output gear, a third clutch connects the first output member with the second planetary output gear, a fourth clutch connects the second output member with the first planetary output gear, and a fifth clutch connects the second output member with the second planetary output gear.
US08452498B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for a tactile feedback system. The system comprises a transmission indicator having a position, the position adapted to be adjusted by a user, a feedback device coupled to the transmission indicator, the feedback device adapted to produce a vibration in response to a feedback signal, and a control system adapted to detect the position of the transmission indicator and to transmit a feedback signal to the feedback device.
US08452497B2
A method of controlling a shifting operation in an automatic transmission of a commercial vehicle. A targeted gear and an associated target rotational speed are determined, via a transmission control, depending on predetermined parameters, and the shifting operation is executed upon reaching a determined shifting rotational speed. A shift interlock is activated, at least temporarily, during a downshifting operation when, upon reaching the shifting rotational speed, the determined target rotational speed lies below a predetermined rotational speed limit.
US08452487B2
In a system reporting a malfunction in connection of a first communication line and a desired source apparatus which is due to be connected to the first communication line. In a first memory section, information showing that the source apparatus is due to be present in the system is stored in advance and a malfunction informing apparatus connected to a second communication line. Whether or not the communication is interrupted is checked based on connection information in a second memory section and the information stored in the first memory section. The connection information shows connection history showing that the source apparatus was connected to the first communication line. Through the second communication line, it is informed to a destination apparatus that there is a malfunction in the connection of the source apparatus and the first communication line, when it is checked that the communication is interrupted.
US08452480B2
A method of authorizing external devices that can be optionally connected with a data bus of a motor vehicle is provided. At least a first code can be entered by an operator in an external device that can be connected with the data bus, and is sent by the external device by way of the data bus to an authorization device of the motor vehicle. The first code is compared with a second code by the authorization device and, if the first code corresponds to the second code, the device connected with the data bus is authorized for coupling to the data bus. The second code is defined on the motor vehicle side independently of the external device. The second code, or a replacement code suitable for its determination, is emitted by an output unit in the motor vehicle interior.
US08452469B2
A hybrid vehicle control apparatus is provided with an engine, an electric motor, a holding element, an automatic transmission, a range position detecting device and a controller. The holding element is arranged between the engine and the electric motor to selectively connect and disconnect the engine and the electric motor to and from each other. The automatic transmission is arranged between the electric motor and a drive wheel. The range position detecting device detects a range position of the automatic transmission selected by a driver. The controller executes a control operation serving to stop the engine while also executing a slip control serving to lower a torque transfer capacity of the holding element upon a determination that a request to stop the engine has occurred while the engine is operating, the holding element is engaged, and the automatic transmission is detected in a non-driving range.
US08452467B2
The system comprises a track profile database stored in a memory that has data relative to the identity of one or more wayside devices for a track and data relative to a location associated with each of the one or more wayside devices on the track. A camera generates visible spectral data of the wayside equipment as the vehicle travels on the track. A data storage device is provided for storing the spectral data received from the camera and data relative to a location of the powered vehicle when the camera generates the spectral data of the wayside equipment wherein the location of the powered vehicle represents the location of the wayside equipment. A controller is configured to compare the location data of the wayside equipment in the database to the location data associated with the spectral data of the wayside equipment stored in the data storage device.
US08452458B2
An objective method and system for dynamic analysis of prosthesis-bound subjects for determining optimal prosthesis alignment adjustments consists of a motion detection system, motion database, blending engine and algorithms, and a graphical user interface with suitable program controls whereby manual, semi-automatic, or fully automated analysis of a prosthesis-equipped subject's motion performance can be done in real time to determine objectively the optimal adjustments for the subject's prosthesis in a precise clinical protocol context.
US08452438B2
Tools and/or resources which newly become available to a re-entrant flow manufacturing line, data processing pipeline or the like are allocated in substantially real time to processing operations independent of and consistent with a scheduling segment previously generated by dispatching items such as workpieces or data to tools and/or resources of a manufacturing line until the newly available tool or resource can be conveniently included in a subsequently generated schedule segment in order to avoid productivity loss due to schedule latency. Items can be dispatched in a priority order to accelerate completion of processing. A schedule segment including the newly available tool or resource can be facilitated by merging allocations of a real time dispatch list with allocations of a dispatch list corresponding to a previously generated schedule segment.
US08452437B2
A method identifies time sensitive processing sequences within a production environment using a computerized device. The processing sequences perform operations utilizing one or more tools. The method also identifies non-committed work in process items that are grouped in non-committed lots for release into one or more of the time sensitive processing sequences, and identifies committed work in process items that are being processed in committed lots within the time sensitive processing sequences, using the computerized device. The method sorts the non-committed lots by a predetermined priority, again using the computerized device. Starting with the highest priority non-committed lot (and continuing with others of the non-committed lots in priority order) the method determines whether there is available tool capacity to process a non-committed lot through each corresponding time sensitive processing sequence using the computerized device. If the tool capacity is available for the non-committed lot, the method releases the non-committed lot to begin the corresponding time sensitive processing sequences, using the computerized device.
US08452436B2
The invention features computer based methods and systems for obtaining information about tooth movement caused by at least one orthodontic element fixed on a dentition. The invention also features computer programs for generating, when executed, a method for obtaining information about tooth movement caused by at least one orthodontic element fixed on a dentition, as well as non-transitory machine readable storage media containing such computer programs.
US08452435B1
In response to user selection of automatic generation of an exploded view of a data element at a level in a hierarchical representation of an assembly, an exploded view of at least part of the assembly at the selected level can be generated automatically and the exploded view presented to the user.
US08452424B2
In a case where a position command path for a control position of a load 5 that is equivalent to a moving object is set by issuing a position command Rc(z), a gain for one of a high-frequency component, a specified frequency, and a specified frequency width is constrained. This means that a resonant frequency can be constrained, and that after the position command Rc(z) arrives at a target position, a position detection signal Y(z) can also arrive at the target position in a set number of steps. It is therefore possible to perform positioning at high speed and with high precision by constraining a resonance mode of a mechanism that includes the moving object, and a feed-forward control can be performed that meets target positioning times that are set for various types of operating patterns.
US08452421B2
An exemplary insertion tool configured to facilitate insertion of a lead into a bodily orifice includes a handle assembly configured to facilitate handling of the insertion tool, an insertion assembly coupled to the handle assembly and comprising a rigid holding tube configured to removably couple to a portion of the lead, and a release assembly disposed at least partially within the handle assembly and comprising a release button. The release assembly is configured to release the lead from the holding tube in response to user actuation of the release button. Corresponding insertion tools, systems, and methods are also described.
US08452417B2
A system for treating pain uses spinal cord stimulation and peripheral subcutaneous field stimulation separately or in combination. The system includes an implantable device that is configured to deliver several electrical signals. Several electrical leads are connected to the implantable device. The electrical leads are implanted in the patient such that an electrical signal induces a current to flow between a subcutaneous lumbar region of the patient and a spinal cord region of the patient. The system can also include electrical leads that are implanted in the patient such that an electrical signal induces a current to flow across a lumbar region of the patient. A method for treating leg and back pain is also disclosed.
US08452410B2
A device and method for gait training, such as for rehabilitation of a person after a stroke is provided. In some embodiments, the device comprises a stimulator, preferably electric stimulator, for provoking a spinal cord withdrawal reflex in the person by stimulation on the person's foot in response to a control signal. Hereby, the person's leg will move and initiate a gait swing. A sensor is placed to sense movement of the leg and provide a feedback signal accordingly. A processor unit with a processor runs a control algorithm which calculates the control signal in response to the feedback signal. Thus, the method is based on a closed-loop design, and the control signal is preferably calculated for each walking step, and it is preferably based on the feedback signal obtained from the preceding walking step. Hereby reflex habituation can be accounted for. Preferably, the stimulator has a plurality of stimulator channels with electrodes placed on different sites distributed on the sole of the foot and on the heel. The feedback signal may be based on accelerometer(s), and/or gyroscope(s), and/or goinometer(s) positioned on the leg and/or foot, e.g. partly or fully integrated in an in-sole for a shoe etc.
US08452407B2
A small implantable stimulator(s) having at least two electrodes is implanted adjacent to a gastrointestinal nerve and/or muscle for the stimulation treatment of gastrointestinal disorders, including gastrointestinal motility, sphincteric disorders, and/or eating disorders. The stimulator provides a means of stimulating tissue at a stimulation site when desired, and may be implanted via a minimal surgical procedure.
US08452405B2
Noncaptured atrial paces can result in long-short cardiac cycles which are proarrhythmic for ventricular tachyarrhythmia. Approaches are described which are directed to avoiding proarrhythmic long-short cycles. For cardiac cycles in which the atrial pace captures the atrium, a first post ventricular refractory period (PVARP) and a first A-A interval are used. For cardiac cycles in which the atrial pace does not capture the atrium, both an extended PVARP and an extended A-A interval are used. The A-A interval following a noncaptured atrial pace is extended from an atrial depolarization sensed during the extended PVARP.
US08452396B2
Systems and methods are described for analyzing a plurality of beats after detection of a suspected cardiac arrhythmia to determine a beat discriminator, identify a beat subsequent to completion of charging of an implantable medical device by applying the beat discriminator, and synchronize delivery of a shock from the medical device to the identified beat. In some examples, identifying the beat using the beat discriminator may help to accurately synchronize the shock with a beat representative of physiological cardiac events instead of an oversensed beat, e.g., noise sensed signal that is misclassified as a cardiac beat.
US08452377B2
A coil assembly for guiding a magnetic object, such as an endoscopy capsule, in a workspace, wherein the magnetic object exhibits a magnetic dipole, includes different versions of coil assemblies having a number of individual coils and corresponding activation units for feeding current to the respective coils. The coil arrangement can have exactly eleven individual coils and eight power amplifiers, nine individual coils and seven power amplifiers, eight individual coils with six or seven power amplifiers, six individual coils with five power amplifiers, and five individual coils with five power amplifiers.
US08452373B2
A system and method is provided in which a diffusion tensor image of the gray matter of a subject's brain is recorded. The diffusion tensor image is used to determine the Fractional Anisotropy of that area of the subject's brain. It has been determined that a decrease in Fractional Anisotropy is related to a decrease in dendritic quality and/or quantity in the subject's brain, which is typically caused by the presence of Alzheimer's Disease. Consequently, the Fractional Anisotropy determination is used to diagnosis the presence of Alzheimer's Disease.
US08452371B2
Techniques for imaging a blood vessel are described. A transducer attached to a catheter is guided to a first site within a blood vessel. The catheter is moved to a second site proximal to the first site at a speed selected to enable the transducer to generate a signal indicative of a geometry wall, the lumen, and a portion of the side branch. A first image of the blood vessel obtained from the signal is oriented with a second image of the blood vessel such that a first portion of the first image aligns with a second portion of the second image.
US08452368B2
The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for measuring an analyte in a host. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for transcutaneous measurement of glucose in a host.
US08452356B2
Optical microneedles are adapted for near-infrared or mid-infrared in vivo spectroscopic sensing; and provide a MEMS-based spectrometer for continuous lactate and glucose monitoring by means of a near-infrared or mid-infrared optical microneedle array in a transdermal patch.
US08452347B2
A system including a headset and an audio gateway, and software applications that may be used with such headsets and gateways. The headset enables a user to discover and interact with applications resident on the headset, gateway, or a network accessible by the gateway. The headset functions as an application platform for the control and execution of the applications. The invention includes a method for providing a service to a user of the headset. The method involves the headset performing service discovery on the audio gateway to determine a method of transferring an application to the audio gateway, where the application provides the service. The headset causes the application to be transferred to the audio gateway using a method based on the service discovery, and the audio gateway executes the application, enabling the user to issue voice commands that are executed by the audio gateway to provide the service.
US08452345B2
A portable terminal is provided to inform a user of status information via vibration pattern. The portable terminal may include a vibration generation unit for vibrating the portable terminal and a controller changing status information of a messenger program or a member relative to the messenger program to a vibration pattern while performing the messenger program, and the controller controlling the operation of the vibration generation unit in response to the vibration pattern such that the portable terminal can perform a messenger service by way of an interface unit using tactile sensation to enhance a user's convenience and satisfaction.
US08452344B2
Methods and apparatuses for embedding event notification into multimedia content being reproduced on an electronic device are provided herein. The method may include causing reproduction of multimedia content on said electronic device, detecting an event that requires notification of a user of said electronic device and responsive thereto applying a modification to said reproduction of said multimedia content, according to said event, wherein said modification achieves a user-perceivable variation in said reproduced multimedia content.
US08452343B2
A portable terminal includes an output device configured to output a ringing tone, a vibrator configured to generate vibration, and a first controller configured to detect a missed call indicating that an incoming call response operation is not performed, and a second controller coupled to the first controller. The second controller is configured, if the first controller detects the missed call, to notify a missed call notification at predetermined time intervals by at least one of the ringing tone output from the output device and the vibration generated by the vibrator, the missed call notification indicating that a response operation for the missed call is not performed.
US08452339B2
A mobile terminal and a method of controlling the same are disclosed. The mobile terminal includes a touch screen displaying at least one item and a scroll bar that receives a first touch signal for renewing at least one of the at least one item and displaying the item, and a controller changing the appearance of the scroll bar when receiving a second touch signal for selecting at least one of the item and moving the selected item to the scroll bar. When a touch signal for moving an item to the scroll bar is input, the display state of the scroll bar is changed, and thus it is possible to easily indicate whether an item is selected without setting an additional region.
US08452334B2
A quantized multi-rank beamforming scheme for multiple-antenna systems such as a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) wireless downlink. User equipment (UE) estimates downlink channel and transmit power and determines rank and power allocations. A quantized beamforming matrix is then determined by the UE using successive beamforming. The UE also determines channel quality indices (CQI) which it feeds-back to the wireless downlink base station along with the index of the quantized beamforming matrix. The base station uses the CQI information to select a UE for scheduling of downlink transmission and the quantized beamforming matrix index received from the selected UE to beamform the downlink transmission to the UE. Base station overhead and is minimized while providing near-optimal performance given the constraints of a limited feed-back channel and computational complexity of the UE.
US08452327B2
A data communication method, a communication system, and related devices are configured to establish a transaction identifier (TI) in a user equipment (UE). The data communication method includes the following steps. A mobility management entity (MME) receives a request message and obtains ability information of the UE. If the UE has an ability to access a Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network/GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network (UTRAN/GERAN), the MME generates the TI. A communication system and related devices are also provided. Thus, the TI is effectively established in the UE, so as to ensure normal processing of the UE.
US08452318B2
A higher limit of forward supplemental channel transmitting power of sector trunking group users is reduced or increased correspondingly based on whether sector power is overload, and it is set as a target maximum transmitting power of trunking group forward supplemental channels; the trunking group users are divided into groups based on channel board, and an adjusting step size is determined based on a ratio between trunking group combining transmitting power of the users divided and forward supplemental channel shared transmitting power of the sector trunking group, and a comparison between the forward supplemental channel shared transmitting power of the sector trunking group and target maximum transmitting power of the trunking group forward supplemental channels, and the higher limit of the forward supplemental channel transmitting power of sector trunking group is adjusted based on the adjusting step size.
US08452316B2
Techniques for adjusting transmit power to mitigate both intra-sector interference to a serving base station and inter-sector interference to neighbor base stations are described. The amount of inter-sector interference that a terminal may cause may be roughly estimated based on the total interference observed by each neighbor base station, channel gains for the serving and neighbor base stations, and the current transmit power level. The transmit power may be decreased if high interference is observed by a neighbor base station and increased otherwise. The transmit power may be adjusted by a larger amount and/or more frequently if the terminal is located closer to the neighbor base station observing high interference and/or if the current transmit power level is higher, and vice versa. The intra-sector interference is maintained within an acceptable level by limiting a received SNR for the terminal to be within a range of allowable SNRs.
US08452308B2
A computer-readable recording device may store a computer program including instructions for causing a computer of a mobile device to operate as: (1) a selecting module that selects, based on first information, second information and third information, a particular device being substantially located in a specific direction indicated by the third information from a plurality of candidate devices on a wireless network, and (2) a controlling module that controls a communication unit that is configured to communicate using the wireless network such that the communication unit communicates with the particular device selected by the selecting module.
US08452306B2
A system for locating an object, comprising one or more of a first GPS receiver and a first long and short range transceiver onboard a subject object at a first location; one or more of a second GPS receiver and a second long and short range transceiver onboard a secondary object at a second location; a control center for transmitting a location query message requesting first location information; the first long range transceiver transmitting the first location information to the control center, or the first short range transceiver transmitting the first location information and a subject object identification to the second short range transceiver, that transmits the first location information and the subject object identification to the control center, or the second long range transceiver transmitting the second location information to the control center when the subject object and the secondary object are within a predetermined distance.
US08452303B2
Methods and apparatus are disclosed for reducing wireless telecommunication costs for enterprises having a plurality of PBX-equipped sites, connected by either a public network (e.g., the PSTN, the Internet, etc.), a private network (e.g., leased lines, a virtual private network [VPN] over the Internet, etc.), or some combination of public and private networks. In particular, the illustrative embodiments of the present invention attempt to reduce telecommunication costs by advantageously routing calls from an off-premises wireless terminal belonging to the enterprise via one or more of the enterprise's private branch exchanges. The present invention is especially advantageous in that it can reduce telecommunication costs for calls from an off-premises wireless terminal to any type of destination: another cell phone, a wireline terminal, a private branch exchange, etc.
US08452301B2
In accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention, channel quality data is collected in a cellular communication network on a cell level. The channel quality data is used to determine a signal format for use in common downlink channels, wherein the signal format may comprise, for example, a modulation scheme or code rate for use in the common downlink channels.
US08452298B2
A method of a device for managing interface circuits between an access network and a core network that relate to a telecommunication technology field includes: sending, by a resource management entity, a circuit management message to a control function entity, converting in format and sending, by the control function entity, the circuit management message to a resource coordination entity, wherein the circuit management message is configured to instruct the resource coordination entity to implement a circuit management operation; or receiving, by the resource management entity, a circuit management message sent by the resource coordination entity, converted in format and forwarded by the control function entity, and implementing, by the resource management entity, the circuit management operation according to the resource management message.
US08452287B2
This invention has as its object to implement dynamic processing according to processing loads on access points in a wireless communication local network system including a plurality of independent wireless cells. According to this invention, a communication control method for a communication control apparatus, which controls a wireless communication in a wireless communication local network system including a plurality of independent wireless cells, includes: a step of determining the processing loads of respective APs; a step of selecting an STA, which is to associate with another independent wireless cell built using an AP with a low processing load by switching processing, of STAs, which associate with an independent wireless cell built using an AP with a high processing load; and a step of requesting to transmit parameter information required to associate with the other independent wireless cell.
US08452286B2
Access to wireless communication is disclosed, wherein a network control unit identifies availability of different communication networks for a communication device. The communication device is notified of a recommendation of identified communication networks. In response to this notification, the communication device initiates access to the recommended communication network for establishing a communication channel.
US08452281B2
In a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), roaming from one access point to another by a mobile station without interruption to network service may be facilitated by frequently performing background scans to find neighboring access points while the mobile station is associated to the WLAN. Frequent background scanning, however, depletes battery life. By dynamically adjusting the background scanning interval during the mobile station's association to the WLAN, the mobile station's immediate need for network connectivity performance may be met, while simultaneously prolonging battery life. For example, by using a shorter background scanning interval during a telephone conversation, network connectivity performance may be maintained throughout the call. Longer background scanning intervals may be used during periods when interruptions to network connectivity may be better tolerated.
US08452275B2
Network entity, method and computer-readable storage medium for use in a network that includes an arrangement of cell sites, each cell site being configured to provide wireless services to users within a respective coverage region. The network entity comprises an input configured to receive position information regarding occurrence of an event at an event site, and a processing entity configured to determine on a basis of the position information regarding occurrence of the event and policy information regarding the network, whether the event warrants coverage region reconfiguration and, if so, to generate a message commanding an adjustment to the coverage region of at least one cell site. An output is configured to release the message towards the at least one cell site, whereby application of the adjustment to the coverage region of the at least one cell site enables an increase in traffic to be accommodated in a vicinity of the event site.
US08452274B2
The described method and system provide for the provisioning of a telematics unit on a telematics-equipped vehicle with cellular service information without pre-loading the information during manufacture of the vehicle or telematics unit. A telematics unit may be manufactured without cellular service information (e.g. MIN, MDN, carrier information) pre-loaded. At the vehicle assembly plant where the telematics unit is installed on a vehicle, the assembly plant's programming system may determine the final country destination for the vehicle and program the destination of the vehicle into the telematics unit. The assembly plant may further obtain vehicle attribute data (including a cellular identifier for the telematics unit) and send the data to a TSP. The TSP may then work with the wireless carrier in the destination country to assign the telematics unit a phone number and other cellular service information. After the telematics unit has determined that the vehicle is at the destination, the telematics unit may connect to a network using cellular commands to request an “over-the-air” cellular programming session. The wireless carrier may then push a phone number and other cellular service information into the telematics unit through the over-the-air cellular programming session.
US08452272B2
A device for programming user-defined information into an electronic device is provided. The programmer allows a user to program customized information, such as user-selected audio, video, or Internet access information into his or her programmable device. Such electronic devices include wireless telephones, pagers, and personal digital assistants. The programmer allows a user to, among other things, customize the device to suit his or her particular taste.
US08452270B2
Provided are an apparatus and a method for providing a ring back tone in a mobile communication terminal. Character information is received through a wireless data communication or generated through a user input. The character information is transformed into voice using a text-to-speech transformer and then provided as a ring back tone.
US08452269B2
The present invention relates to a process for delivering to a telecommunications network consuming subscriber (1, 1′) content uploaded by a creating subscriber (2) depending on the activity pattern subscribed to by said consuming subscriber, comprising: the consuming subscriber (1, 1′) configures an activity pattern by defining an activity profile related to the creating subscriber who creates said content and a content profile related to said content that he/she is interested in receiving, the creating subscriber (2) uploads content in a telecommunications network, an activity pattern subscriptions manager (50) obtains an activity profile on said creating subscriber, and obtains a content profile on said content uploaded by the creating subscriber, and the activity pattern subscriptions manager (50) compares said activity profile and content profile obtained for the creating subscriber with the activity profile and content profile configured by the consuming subscriber in the activity pattern, and in the event of matching notifies said consuming subscriber of said content.
US08452266B2
A sender-specified courtesy notification scheme to delay notification by a receiving device of the receipt of a data message is disclosed. A sender may specify a notification parameter defining a delay and send the parameter in association with the data message to a recipient. The recipient's receiving device evaluates the parameter and notifies in response. Local notification data defined by the recipient may also be evaluated. Received data messages subject to delayed notification may be hidden by the receiving device or quietly displayed (e.g. as per other received messages) until the expiry of the delay. Notification parameters and data can be formulated as one or more rules which may take into account the current location of the receiving device. A notification delay may be ignored in certain situations depending on recent use of the receiving device.
US08452265B2
Systems and methods use mobile telephones as input devices for recording audio messages on a server. A user inputs a first feature code into the mobile telephone and the feature code is sent to a mobile switching center (MSC). The MSC maps the feature code to a server and forwards the feature code and a user identification to the server. Once the mobile telephone is connected to the server, the user can record his audio message. The user can later retrieve the recorded audio message by inputting a second feature code into the mobile telephone. The second feature code is also assigned to the server. The recorded message is played after the mobile telephone is connected to the server.
US08452264B1
Systems, products, and methods are disclosed for enabling a user to receive a message at the time of an incoming call. One embodiment of the method includes receiving a set of dialed digits from a calling device, recognizing a code in the dialed digits, and sending display information (based on the code) to a target device, which presents the display information before the call is answered.
US08452262B2
The present invention is a terminal device for transmitting and receiving mails, comprising: a mail receiving unit; a judging unit operable to judge whether a command declaration is included in a received mail; a command interpreting unit operable to extract and interpret a specific command following the command-declaration if the judgment of the judging unit is affirmative; a creating unit operable to create, if the specific command is interpreted as target list creation, a list of corresponding targets in memory of the terminal device; and a mail transmitting unit operable to create and transmit a mail having the created list as a mail main body and addressed to a requester.
US08452259B2
Modular personal networks (MPNs) are disclosed that include multiple devices that may be worn, carried, or used in close proximity to a user. The devices communicate wirelessly. Devices include security circuitry that prevents them from being used in a different MPN once the user has configured them. Devices not designed for use within an MPN can be included in the network using a bridge device. Devices can be integrated into items of jewelry, such as earrings, rings, pendants, and bracelets. One item of jewelry, such as a bracelet, can support multiple replaceable modules with variable functions. Functions of the MPN can include communications, entertainment, medical monitoring, sports monitoring, personal organization, and games. Multiple users each with his or her own MPN can use them to collaborate in creation of music. An MPN can be used for mobile recognition and logging of wildlife.
US08452254B2
According to certain embodiments, a system comprises a main transmission line, one or more piezoelectric filters coupled to the main transmission line, and one or more sub-signal transmission lines coupled to the one or more piezoelectric filters. The main transmission line communicates a main signal from an antenna to a main receiver. Each piezoelectric filter selects a sub-signal of a specific center frequency. Each sub-signal transmission line communicates a sub-signal to a sub-signal receiver.
US08452253B2
According to one embodiment, a compact low-power receiver comprises first and second analog circuits connected by a digitally controlled interface circuit. The first analog circuit has a first direct-current (DC) offset and a first common mode voltage at an output, and the second analog circuit has a second DC offset and a second common mode voltage at an input. The digitally controlled interface circuit connects the output to the input, and is configured to match the first and second DC offsets and to match the first and second common mode voltages. In one embodiment, the first analog circuit is a variable gain control transimpedance amplifier (TIA) implemented using a current mode buffer, the second analog circuit is a second-order adjustable low-pass filter, whereby a three-pole adjustable low-pass filter in the compact low-power receiver is effectively produced.
US08452247B2
In one example, a Bluetooth enabled navigation device pairs with a mobile phone and then sends a plurality of tuning transmissions, each at a different transmission power gain amount, to a remote server using the mobile phone. These tuning transmissions are encoded using frequency tones that synthesize speech for transmission through the mobile phone and a voice channel of its wireless telecommunications network. The navigation device then tunes transmit power settings according to a received response to the tuning transmissions and uses the tuned transmit power settings for subsequent transmission to the remote server using this particular mobile phone.
US08452242B2
A user interface provided for helping a consumer interact with a company, its products or services, such as conducting a business-related action and/or transaction, by interacting with a functionally identified functional component(s) on a wireless device. The functional component is functionally identified via the company's mark, including logos, trademarks, brand, name, etc. In addition, the invention provides for a method for gaming, wagering, betting, gambling, and/or lottery play through a wireless device interface by strategic placement of functional identifiers in or on components of a wireless device and a method of using the interface.
US08452240B2
There is provided a radio communication device that includes a plurality of leaky coaxial cables that transmit and receive radio signals, a detection unit that detects a difference in reception timing of a radio signal transmitted from another radio communication device among the plurality of leaky coaxial cables, and a transmission timing adjustment unit that adjusts transmission timing of radio signals to be respectively transmitted from the plurality of leaky coaxial cables based on the difference in the reception timing detected by the detection unit.
US08452237B2
A method and apparatus for automatic frequency control in a receiver of a wireless device, the method determining a channel estimation for a received signal; calculating a signal to noise ratio for the channel estimation; applying a weighting factor determined based on the calculated signal to noise ratio for the channel estimation to the channel estimation to create a weighted channel estimation; and supplying the weighted channel estimation to a voltage controlled oscillator.
US08452230B2
A method for controlling gain in a wireless repeater includes using two or more gain control metrics indicative of stability of the repeater, at least two of the gain control metrics having different integration lengths, where the integration length is the sum of the coherent integration time and the non coherent integration time, and controlling a variable gain value of the repeater based on one or more of the selected gain control metric(s) where the gain control metric(s) to use is selected based on the stability of the repeater.
US08452229B2
Provided is a relay transmission method capable of obtaining the diversity effect even when a relay station has detected an error in a relay signal when performing communication between a base station and a mobile station via a relay station. In the relay station used in this method, a decoding unit (104) performs error-correction-decoding of a systematic bit by performing repeated decoding such as a turbo decoding by using a parity bit and obtains a decoding result formed by a systematic bit after the error-correction-decoding. An error judging unit (105) judges whether the decoded result has an error by using CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check). An encoding unit (106) performs error-correction-encoding of the decoded result and obtains a systematic bit after error-corrected-encoded and a parity bit. A selection unit (107) selects the decoded result inputted from the decoding unit (104) or the bit string inputted from the encoding unit (106) according to the judgment result obtained by the error judging unit (105) and outputs it to a modulation unit (108).
US08452218B2
A fixing device includes a tubular fusing film, a heater, a nip member, a backup member, a first supporting member, and a second supporting member. The heater may be disposed inside the tubular shape of the fusing film. The nip member may be disposed so as to be in sliding contact with the inner surface of the fusing film and heated by the heater. The backup member may form a nip portion between the backup member and the fusing film with the fusing film between the backup member and the nip member. The first supporting member may be configured to support the nip member. The second supporting member may be configured to support the heater and movably support the first supporting member so that the nip member moves relative to the backup member and the heater.
US08452213B2
In an image forming apparatus, a support frame configured to support a plurality of cartridges each including a photoconductor is allowed to be pulled out from a casing of the apparatus. A plurality of light-emitting parts configured to expose a corresponding photoconductor to light is arranged in each exposure unit which is movable between an exposure position proximate to the corresponding photoconductor and a retreating position away from the photoconductor. A pair of side plates of the support frame, which extends in a direction perpendicular to a main direction in which the light-emitting parts are arranged, has guide slots formed therein, each of which is configured to guide movement of a corresponding exposure unit between its exposure and retreating positions. Each guide slot includes a positioning portion configured to position the exposure unit in position in a subordinate direction perpendicular to the main direction and to an exposure direction.
US08452207B2
An in situ replacement cartridge (200) for an electrophotographic printer includes a rigid, cylindrical photoreceptive member (206); a housing (233) for retaining and attaching the photoreceptive member to the printer; and a removable shield (231a, 231b) surrounding the photoreceptive member.
US08452205B2
An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a sheet, includes: a pair of panels which constitute a main body skeletal structure of the image forming apparatus and face each other; a main body skeletal structure shaft which connects between the pair of panels and is fixed to each of the pair of panels; and a unit which is installed between the pair of panels and needs positioning based on the main body skeletal structure shaft, wherein an exposed section which is provided on the main body skeletal structure shaft and serves as a measuring reference position for a measuring instrument when a positional relationship between the main body skeletal structure shaft and the unit is measured by use of the measuring instrument after completing assembling of the image forming apparatus.
US08452204B2
A dry electrophotographic printer is operated to remove toner from a longitudinal member. A process-control time interval, and a cleaning time interval that is a positive multiple thereof, are selected. Prints are produced until the process-control time interval elapses, as measured by a timing device. A process-control patch is produced in a process-control frame. This is repeated until the cleaning interval has elapsed. In the process-control frame, after the cleaning interval elapses, the photoreceptor and development member are spaced apart, then, after a selected time delay, brought into operational relationship, so that a stop at one end of the photoreceptor contacts an end block at one end of the development member, and toner is removed from the longitudinal member, which is connected to the end block.
US08452203B2
In an image forming apparatus, exhaust fans of a ventilation device and an intake port of an air purifier are provided on side wall portions respectively that are opposite each other in a main casing of the image forming apparatus, and the exhaust fans of the ventilation device are provided in a location higher than the intake port of the air purifier. With this configuration, silicone that is discharged from the exhaust fans of the ventilation device is almost never suctioned into the intake port of the air purifier, such that almost none of this silicone adheres to a discharging electrode of the ion generator, and an ion generating efficiency of the ion generator can be maintained over a long period without dropping.
US08452196B2
A device for measuring a length of a recoding material, includes: a rotating body that rotates in contact with a recording material which is transported; a length measuring unit that measures a length of the recording material based on a rotation of the rotating unit; a detecting unit that detects at least one of a rotation and an oblique advance of the recording material; and a correcting unit that corrects a value measured by the length measuring unit based on an output of the detecting unit.
US08452192B2
This invention relates to an apparatus and a method for monitoring statistical characteristics of phase noises, as well as to a coherent optical communication receiver. The apparatus for monitoring statistical characteristics of phase noises comprises an argument calculating unit (203), for obtaining an argument of a signal input thereto; an unwrapping unit (204), for unwrapping the argument obtained by the argument calculating unit (203) to obtain a phase signal (205); a delaying unit (207), for delaying the phase signal; a differentiating unit (209), for obtaining a difference between a phase signal currently obtained by the unwrapping unit (204) and a phase signal delayed by the delaying unit (207); a modulus squaring unit (210), for obtaining a square of the modulus of the difference; and an averaging unit (211), for averaging squares of moduli of a plurality of differences obtained by the modulus squaring unit (210) to obtain a mean-squared differential phase (MSDP) value.
US08452191B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for compensating for impairments caused by a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). One such method comprises receiving an optical signal which has been distorted in the physical domain by an SOA, and propagating the distorted optical signal backward in the electronic domain in a corresponding virtual SOA.
US08452189B2
An optical signal representing digital data is produced by an opto-electronic semiconductor device having a group of three or more opto-electronic light sources that emit optical signals in accordance with a pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) scheme. The optical signal can be transmitted through an optical fiber coupled to an assembly containing the opto-electronic semiconductor device.
US08452186B2
In a coherent optical receiver of an optical communications network, a method of recovering a clock signal from a high speed optical signal received through an optical link. A set of compensation vectors are adaptively computed for compensating Inter-symbol Interference (ISI) due to at least polarization impairments of the optical signal. A channel delay is estimated based on the computed compensation vectors. The estimated channel delay is subtracted from the computed compensation vectors to generate corresponding modified compensation vectors. Finally, the modified compensation vectors are used to derive a recovered clock signal.
US08452183B2
Disclosed is a multimedia data transmitter that can transmit multimedia data such as image, voice and control signal whose media are different from each other through an optical transmission medium such as plastic or glass optical cables to a short or long distance area. The multimedia data transmitter includes: a digital signal processing logic, converting multimedia data transmitted in different transmission formats into data of a single transmission format, converting parallel image data into serial image data; an interface control logic, generating a control signal for transmission of the data converted by the digital signal processing logic, interfacing interface data; an optical driver, performing optical transmission of the serial data generated by the digital signal processing logic according to the control signal generated by the interface control logic, processing an optical-to-electrical converted signal.
US08452179B2
An apparatus-transmitting signals in a network includes a light source generating an optical signal for encoding information transmitted over a light path of the network, a modulator controlling the optical signal to generate chirped optical pulses having a first frequency spectrum such that when the pulses are transmitted from the apparatus and received at an end of the first light path the pulses have a chromatic dispersion penalty that is less than a predetermined penalty. Modulation control circuitry receives instructions from a remote controller and, in response to the instructions, controls the modulator such that the chirped optical pulses have a second frequency spectrum such that when the pulses are transmitted from the apparatus and received at an end of a second light path of the telecommunications network the pulses have a chromatic dispersion penalty that is less than a predetermined penalty.
US08452176B2
A method of providing routes through heterogeneous subsystems in an optical network is disclosed, which includes generating, using a processing device, a reachability matrix based on subnetwork information; and generating, using the processing device, a topology associated with the optical network using the reachability matrix. The method also includes determining, using the processing device, a shortest path through the optical network using the reachability matrix and a cost model graph; and displaying, using a graphical user interface, subsystems associated with the shortest path, regeneration locations associated with the shortest path, wavelengths associated with the shortest path, the topology, and the shortest path. Corresponding apparatus and computer-readable storage media are also disclosed.
US08452174B2
A system includes an optical transmitter configured to generate an optical signal that includes a scrambled polarization state; and output the optical signal via an optical fiber associated with a network path that is transporting network traffic. The system also includes an optical receiver configured to receive the optical signal; measure a polarization associated with the optical signal; determine, based on the polarization, a degree of polarization associated with the test signal; identify a differential group delay associated with the test signal based on the degree of polarization; output a notification that the optical fiber is available to carry high capacity traffic when the differential group delay is less than a threshold, where the high capacity traffic includes a data rate that his greater than another threshold; and output a notification that the optical fiber is not available to carry the high capacity traffic when the differential group delay is not less than the threshold.
US08452172B2
The present invention relates to testing a passive optical network having a head end and a plurality of terminals, which terminals are connected to the network at a respective plug and socket arrangement located at customer premises. A test device is provided having a standard plug for connection in place of a terminal in the socket of the relevant customer premises. An identification device is provided in the socket. The test device is arranged to (i) read the identity of the identification device and (ii) test the line and transmit a result to the head end together with the identity so that the line to the customer premises can be tested remotely. When the line has been tested, the test device can be removed. Because the test device uses an existing connection, the optical (insertion) loss is reduced.
US08452171B1
A telephoto lens sighting apparatus. A mount couples to a hot shoe of a camera and a first sight couples to the mount. The first sight has a first gap that corresponds with a viewing aperture of a telephoto lens coupled to the camera. A second sight may be movably coupled to the camera through a sliding track and may thereby move with respect to the first sight. The second sight has a second gap, and the first gap and second gap when aligned correspond with a viewing aperture of a telephoto lens coupled to the camera. A first receiver may couple to the camera to selectively receive the first sight and a second receiver may couple to the camera to selectively receive the second sight. The first sight and second sight may each pivot to a plurality of positions and their heights may be adjusted.
US08452160B2
Consumers may appear to be featured in videos by being appropriately photographed and their image mapped onto a character in a video. A pre-existing video file has a computer-generated (“CG”) actor rendered throughout, except in, e.g., a head region, where a consumer's image data will be mapped. The consumer's image data is mapped onto the CG actor, and the CG actor's animation track is mixed with the remainder of the video, completing the same. The consumer may choose from among several videos, depending on the genre they prefer. The system and method may also apply to marketing and advertising methods, especially with regard to targeted advertising and product placement.
US08452159B2
An image processing device includes: a display control unit causing a displaying unit to show an editing area; a receiving unit receiving a command from a user; an editing unit placing, in the editing area, one or more images selected according to a selection command received by the receiving unit; an encoding unit which provides a result of encoding data to be encoded after the receiving unit receives a predetermined command to generate the result of encoding all the data to be encoded including image data corresponding to the one or more images accommodated in the editing area; and an encoding control unit which causes the encoding unit to start encoding partial data before the receiving unit receives the predetermined command, the partial data being at least a part of the data to be encoded.
US08452157B2
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.
US08452149B2
A cable management panel including chassis, a sliding drawer, and a rack and pinion arrangement. The rack and pinion arrangement including a first length of track located on an interior surface of the chassis, a second length of track provided on a drawer slide, and a gear that engages both the first track and the second track to control the movement of a sliding radius limiter mounted to the drawer.
US08452144B2
A light emitter according to one embodiment has a fiber shape. And it includes a core portion containing a light emitting material, the material absorbing excitation light and emitting light having a wavelength longer than a wavelength of the excitation light. And also it includes a clad portion provided outside the core portion, the clad portion having a first region and second regions, the second regions being periodically formed in the first region, the second regions having a refractive index higher than a refractive index of a first region, the refractive index of the first region being equal to or higher than a refractive index of the core portion.
US08452140B2
An socket assembly (100) comprises an optical socket (1) and an IC package (5) assembled to the optical socket (1), the optical socket (1) comprises an insulative housing (4) with a plurality of passageways (4110), a plurality of optic members (3) received in the passageways (4110) and a plurality of electrical contacts (2) received in the insulative housing (1). The optic member (3) comprises a waveguide (31) and a lens (32) at the end of the waveguide (31), the IC package (5) comprises a plurality of lenses (510) located at the bottom portion (51) thereof and a plurality of electrical conducts (512) located at peripheral thereof, the lens (510) are received in the passageway (4110) and the electrical conducts (512) connect with the electrical contacts (2).
US08452136B2
A suspension board with circuit includes a circuit board including a metal supporting board, an insulating layer formed on the metal supporting board, and a conductive layer formed on the insulating layer; and an optical waveguide provided in the circuit board. The optical waveguide is provided with a positioning portion for positioning the optical waveguide and a near-field light generation portion for generating a near-field light by a light applied from the optical waveguide.
US08452134B1
A frequency selective infrared (IR) photodetector having a predetermined frequency band. The exemplary frequency selective photodetector includes: a dielectric IR absorber having a first surface and a second surface substantially parallel to the first surface; an electrode electrically coupled to the first surface of the dielectric IR absorber; and a frequency selective surface plasmonic (FSSP) structure formed on the second surface of the dielectric IR absorber. The FSSP structure is designed to selectively transmit radiation in the predetermined frequency band that is incident on the FSSP structure substantially independent of the angle of incidence of the incident radiation on the FSSP structure.
US08452131B2
A system and method for performing an identity search in a database of iris images for a probe iris image includes generating a full-length iris code and a compact iris code for iris images in a database, and generating a full-length iris code and a compact iris code for a probe iris image. The compact iris code for the probe image is scored against all compact iris codes in the database. A fraction of the database is retained based on score data. The full length iris code for the probe image is scored against all the full length iris codes in the retained portion of the database.
US08452128B2
The systems and methods include multiple processors that each couple to receive commands and data, where the commands and/or data correspond to frames of video that include multiple pixels. Additionally, an interlink module is coupled to receive processed data corresponding to the frames from each of the multiple processors. The interlink module selects pixels of the frames from the processed data of one of the processors based on a predetermined pixel characteristic and outputs the frames that include the selected pixels.
US08452124B2
A system for detecting motion blur may include a process in which one or more digital images taken by a camera having a shutter are obtained, wherein the digital image depicts objects in a physical world. Further, the system may estimate the motion blur in the digital image using a ratio of one or more values obtained from the projection of a 2D spectrum of the image and a Fourier transform of a sequence of the shutter used in obtaining the image.
US08452120B2
An image processing device includes: a level difference calculation means for calculating the difference of pixel values between each pixel and a neighborhood pixel as a level difference; a classification means for classifying respective pixels into classes in each range of the level difference; a boundary proportion calculation means for calculating proportion of the number of pixels at a block boundary as a boundary proportion according to the respective classes; and a block noise intensity determination means for determining a level difference of the class in which the boundary proportion is higher than a given threshold as well as the maximum value as block noise intensity in the image.
US08452110B2
A method of classifying a compressed input image's compression level, comprising applying inverse quantization to DCT coefficients extracted from the compressed input image, giving rise to dequantized DCT coefficients, applying a threshold to the dequantized DCT coefficients, and determining a compression level classification for the compressed input image according to a relation among the threshold and at least one of the dequantized DCT coefficients.
US08452105B2
Some embodiments provide a method of selecting a section of interest in an image that includes numerous pixels. the method draws a curvilinear boundary about the section of interest. From the curvilinear boundary, the method generates a two-dimensional transition tunnel region about the section of interest. The method analyzes image data based on the tunnel region to identify a subset of pixels in the region that should be associated with the section of interest. In some embodiments, the tunnel region includes a pair of curves bounding the tunnel region. In some embodiments, the curvilinear boundary has a particular shape, and generating the tunnel region includes determining whether the tunnel can be generated at a specified width with both curves of the tunnel having the same particular shape as the defined border. In some embodiments, analyzing image data includes comparing pixels inside the transition tunnel region to pixels outside the transition tunnel region.
US08452100B2
A feature point calculating section binarizes the image data to obtain a centroid of a consecutive component in which pixels are connected as a feature point, reverses the image data, obtains a centroid as a feature point from the reversed image data similarly, and adds them as a feature point of the image data. A features calculating section calculates a predetermined invariant based on the feature point containing the feature point obtained from the reversed image data, and calculates a hash value based on the predetermined invariant. A vote process section retrieves a hash table based on the calculated hash value, votes for a document of an index stored in association with the hash value, and accumulatively adds the vote. A similarity determination process section compares the number of votes calculated by the vote process section with a predetermined threshold value to determine a similarity.
US08452095B2
An image processing device is provided by the present invention, which includes a unit configured to acquire a pixel block contacting an enclosing border of a character rectangle extracted from an image, a determination unit configured to determine whether or not the acquired pixel block has a likelihood of noise, a unit configured to generate a noise candidate removed character rectangle by removing from the character rectangle the pixel block as to which it is determined to have the likelihood of noise, and an outputting unit configured to assess validities by performing character recognition for both of the noise candidate removed character rectangle and the character rectangle, and configured to output a recognition result for one of them having greater validity assessed.
US08452094B2
A real-time image generator is disclosed. A real-time image generator may include a first block extracting only a luminance component having a saturation, hue, and value domain from red, green and blue values of an image. A second block outputs a log summation value and pixel count value with respect to a luminance component of an overall image by using the extracted luminance component and a natural log value. A third block calculates a luminance average value of the image by using the natural log summation value and the pixel count value outputted in the second block, the third block generating a tone mapping look up table including a tone mapping operator (Ld) for each luminance range to obtain a final output image using the calculated luminance average value. The third block outputs a tone mapped red, green and blue value by multiplying a corresponding tone mapping operator (Ld) of the tone mapping look up table by a red, green and blue value of the input image.
US08452091B2
An image-processing method that converts a skin color of an image is provided, the method including detecting a face region of an image, when a face region is detected in the image, verifying whether the face region is a face by analyzing the characteristics of the face region, and when the region is determined to be a face, extracting a skin region in the image, and converting the skin color of the extracted skin region into a desired skin color.
US08452090B1
A system and method for performing Bayer reconstruction of images using a programmable graphics processing unit (GPU) are described herein. A Bayer filtered image in RAW format is uploaded to the GPU, unpacked, and reconstructed. Optionally, the reconstructed image may be transformed into any desired color space and/or displayed by a video card in which the GPU resides. The reconstruction is performed independently on each of the red, blue, and green image fields. The red and blue image fields are reconstructed using first and second interpolation passes in first and second orthogonal directions. Each reconstruction pass preferably employs a two-lobed Lanczos filter. The green image field is interpolated using a single interpolation pass in a direction diagonal to the first and second orthogonal directions, and preferably employs a box filter.
US08452089B2
A system and method for effectively performing an image identification procedure includes an image matching manager that derives source characteristics for a source image and target characteristics for target images. The image matching manager compares the source characteristics and the target characteristics to determine whether the source image matches any of the target images. The source characteristics and the target characteristics may include color-space characteristics and curve-space characteristics from the respective images. A processor of an electronic device typically controls the image matching manager to effectively perform the image identification procedure.
US08452084B2
A method for compressing an elevation map by means of digital image processing, according to which local and global parameters of an elevation map are calculated for sorting the elevation map into a corresponding category and the elevation map is categorized according to the calculated local and global parameters. Optimal parameters for compressing the elevation map are determined according to the calculated local and global parameters and according to the corresponding category and then the elevation map is compressed by applying on it digital image processing by using the determined optimal compression parameters.
US08452077B2
A method is provided for imaging a workpiece by capturing successive frames of an elongate stationary field of view transverse to a workpiece transit path of a robot, while the workpiece is transported by the robot. The robot transit path is illuminated with an elongate illumination pattern transverse to the transit path to obtain a workpiece image of successive frames. Motion-induced image distortion is corrected by computing respective correct locations of respective ones of the frames along the transit path.
US08452076B2
In apparatuses for automatically acquiring and also for automatically classifying images of defects present on a sample such as a semiconductor wafer, a classifying system is provided which are capable of readily accepting even such a case that a large number of classification classes are produced based upon a request issued by a user, and also even such a case that a basis of the classification class is changed in a high frequency. When the user defines the classification classes, a device for designating attributes owned by the respective classification classes is provided. The classifying system automatically changes a connecting mode between an internally-provided rule-based classifier and an example-based classifier, so that such a classifying system which is fitted to the classification basis of the user is automatically constructed.
US08452071B2
A self-service terminal for storing currency, includes a detection unit, an image capturing unit, a database, and a serial number reading unit. The detection unit detects the currency. The image capturing unit is connected to the detection unit, and captures an image of a side of the currency on which a string of serial numbers are printed. The database is connected to the image capturing unit. The database includes depositor's information stored therein. The database saves the image therein. The serial number reading unit is connected to the database. The serial number reading unit captures the string of serial numbers from image. The database saves the string of serial numbers therein, and associates the string of serial numbers with the information of the depositor.
US08452069B2
Method of eliminating the effect of afterglow on a radiation image read out of a photostimulable phosphor screen. For each pixel the amount of afterglow generated by previously scanned pixels in the same line of pixels is determined and subtracted from the digital signal representation of that pixel.
US08452067B2
The present invention discloses a method for generating a bone mask. The method comprises the following steps: performing a noncontrast computed tomography scan on a subject in axial mode to get a first data set; after the subject injected with a contrast medium, performing a postcontrast computer tomography angiography scanning on the subject in helical mode to get a second data set; reconstructing the two mentioned data set to acquire a first reconstruction image and a second reconstruction image respectively; resampling the first reconstruction image based on the second reconstruction image by using a computer to get a third reconstruction image; and thresholding values of data which are greater than or equal to a scheduled Hounsfield unit in the third reconstruction image to get a bone mask.
US08452066B2
A processing is executed for identifying an image area which blocks an observation target, and removing the identified area. An image processing apparatus 10 is provided, which allows multiple projection drawings to be generated by projecting a three-dimensional image from any projecting direction and determines a removal target area, out of the designated area in each projection drawing. The image processing apparatus 10 is provided with an input section 40 for allowing a user to roughly specify an image area that blocks the observation target, the image area forming a maximum area, and an area judgment section 32 for identifying a removal target image area, and an image processing section 31 for constructing an image where the removal target image area has been removed.
US08452065B2
A system detects malignant lymph nodes using an MR imaging device, for, in the absence of a contrast agent, acquiring in a patient anatomical volume of interest including lymph nodes, (a) a first image using a variable flip angle, lymph node enhanced contrast, MR image acquisition process, (b) a second image using a susceptibility weighting imaging acquisition process and (c) a third image using a diffusion weighting imaging acquisition process. In the presence of a contrast agent absorbed by benign lymph nodes, MR imaging device acquires in the patient anatomical volume of interest, (d) a fourth image using a susceptibility weighting imaging acquisition process. A display processor processes data representing the first, second, third and fourth images for display of malignant and benign lymph nodes on a reproduction device.
US08452062B2
A respiration determination apparatus includes a bronchial tree image data set providing unit which provides a bronchial tree image data set showing a bronchial tree. The apparatus further includes a bronchial tree detection unit for detecting the bronchial tree in the bronchial tree image data set, and a respiratory information determination unit for determining information about the respiration from the detected bronchial tree.
US08452043B2
A system for identifying motion video content, with a registered fingerprint database in advance for video contents of broadcasting video signals, wherein said system at least comprises a frame buffer into which a consecutive of video frame images of a motion video content to be identified are stored; a frame sampler by which sample values on the video frame images are obtained; a fingerprint store in which the sample values are held as a fingerprint A for search in the fingerprint database; and a matcher which performs a fingerprint pattern matching algorithm between the fingerprint A for search in the fingerprint database and fingerprints B contained in the fingerprint database so as to determine whether the motion video content has ever been broadcasted before. The system according to the present invention can effectively organize, archive, and search video content; lower the cost of digital storage devices; and identify video content efficiently and with minimal or no human interactions.
US08452041B2
Described is a vented speaker driver assembly utilizing a speaker driver having a pole piece that defines therein a vent that is not covered by a dust cap. The frame of the speaker driver is configured to be mounted to a structure's surface such that the pole piece of the driver is located within the structure's interior space. The vented speaker driver is configured to be utilized in a back-to-back vented driver assembly wherein the sound of more than one speaker driver is achieved in a footprint of only one driver and with minimized generation of physical vibrations from the assembly.
US08452036B2
This invention relates to a system (100, 200) for enabling a hearing device (106, 202) wireless access to a communication network (114). The system (100, 200) comprises a first transceiver unit (108) in said hearing device (106, 202) communicating according to a first communication protocol. The system (100, 200) further comprises a server device (112, 204) comprising an input/output unit (122), which is connected to the communication network (114) and communicates according to a second communication protocol, a second transceiver unit (118), which is connected wirelessly to the first transceiver unit (108) and communicates according to the first communication protocol, and comprising a translator unit (120), which interconnects the second transceiver unit (118) and the input/output unit (122) and translates between the first and second communication protocol.
US08452032B2
A nested compound loudspeaker comprising a speaker assembly chassis (11), an outer driver (18) connected to the speaker assembly chassis (11) and having an inner edge, which defines an opening in the outer driver (18) and forms a functional edge (20), and an inner driver (8) connected to the speaker assembly chassis (11) and at least partially surrounded by the opening of the outer driver (18) and the inner driver (8) having an acoustical center axis located at a distance (r) from the functional edge (20) in a radial direction (α). The distance (r) is non-constant around the acoustical center axis, wherein the distance (r) has a first value in a first radial direction (α) and a second value different to the first value in a second radial direction (α).
US08452031B2
An ultrasonic acoustic device includes a carbon nanotube structure. The carbon nanotube structure is capable of causing a thermoacoustic effect and generating ultrasonic sound wave in liquid medium.
US08452016B2
There is provided a system and method for distributors to use an interoperable key chest. There is provided a method for use by a distributor to obtain content access authorizations from a key chest or central key repository (CKR), the method comprising receiving a user request from a user device for access to an encrypted content identified by a content identification, transmitting a key request to the CKR including the content identification, receiving an encrypted first key from the CKR, decrypting the encrypted first key using a second key to retrieve the first key, and providing a DRM license for the encrypted content to the user device using the first key for use by the user device to decrypt the encrypted content using the first key. By generating such DRM licenses, distributors can unlock protected content even sourced from distributors using different DRM schemas.
US08452010B2
A television set-top box has a receiver receiving a digital television signal comprising: a plurality of unencrypted packets and a plurality of encrypted packets, where the encrypted packets carry data describing an active region of a video frame. A decrypter decrypts the encrypted packets. A decoder decrypted packets to produce a signal suitable for play on a television set. This abstract is not to be considered limiting since other embodiments can include more, fewer or different features than those described in this abstract.
US08452003B2
Technique is proposed for managing total power consumption in an access network comprising two or more interface modules serving a plurality of subscriber lines, the technique comprises performing a study of real power consumption of the subscriber lines in the access network on a line-to-line basis, correlating results of the study with inventory information concerning allocation of the subscriber lines to the interface modules and power consumption ensured by said modules to the lines and, based on the correlation, assessing optimality of allocation of the subscriber lines to the interface modules.
US08452001B1
A line driver including a first driver circuit, a second driver circuit, and a first summing circuit. The first driver circuit generates a first component signal having a first polarity based on a first transmit signal, the bias signal, and the offset signal. The second driver circuit generates a second component signal having a second polarity based on a second transmit signal, the bias signal, and the offset signal. The first summing circuit sums the first and second component signals to generate a first differential signal. A first average current of the first differential signal for multiple symbols is greater than a second average current of a second differential signal for the symbols. The second differential signal is generated by summing a first biased signal and a second biased signal.
US08451995B2
A mechanism for indicating a specific response message to be played to a caller is provided. A call that comprises an identification of a caller is received in a recipient device. If the recipient device is operating in the phone management mode, a recipient notification of the call is blocked on the recipient device. If the caller is identified as a known caller based on the identification of the caller, a caller specific response message is sent to the known caller. The caller specific response message is at least one of an interactive or a non-interactive caller specific response message. The interactive response message includes a code with which to respond. If the response message is the interactive response message and the caller enters the code associated with the interactive response message, then the recipient notification of the call is activated on the recipient device.
US08451993B2
The present disclosure provides a dial-up connection method of a mobile data terminal, which includes: the mobile data terminal sets a value of a wireless dial-up state variable as “connected” after receiving an initial dial-up connection request from a user equipment and sets dial-up information, and maintains the value of the wireless dial-up state variable as “connected” after the user equipment disconnects an initial connection with the mobile data terminal; and the mobile data terminal sends a “successfully connected” message to the user equipment when determining, after receiving a non-initial dial-up connection request from the user equipment, the value of the wireless dial-up state variable is “connected” and dial-up information in the non-initial dial-up connection request is identical with the set dial-up information. The present disclosure also provides a dial-up connection device of a mobile data terminal. With the method and device, a mobile data terminal can realize a fast dial-up connection, thereby greatly shortening the time spent on the dial-up connection.
US08451992B2
A network device may maintain an association of a telephone number with information identifying a rule and information identifying multimedia content, where the telephone number is associated with the network device, and where the rule specifies when the multimedia content is to be provided in connection with a telephone call to the telephone number. The network device may further receive a telephone call from a user device, where the telephone call is directed to the telephone number; detect, in connection with the telephone call, that the rule has been satisfied; and provide the multimedia content to the user device in response to detecting that the rule has been satisfied.
US08451983B2
A database and communications server allow for composure of an emergency disaster plan that is tailored to the demographic and geographic information provided by a subscriber to the disclosed system. In the event of an emergency, relevant portions of a family disaster plan are communicated to a subscriber and the family members of the subscriber. Each subscribing family member may communicate with the database, which in turn automatically distributes the message to all family members. After the disaster has ended, insurance information is relayed to the subscriber, and the subscriber's insurance companies are notified.
US08451982B2
A management apparatus of a notification system includes an interface unit that communicates with a store terminal used for a predetermined site work process by a site worker and an IP telephone terminal used for IP phone call, which are located at one work site; an accepting unit that accepts an emergency notification to the site worker; a display control unit that displays and outputs the accepted emergency notification on the store terminal via the interface unit; and a calling unit that calls the IP telephone terminal via the interface unit to make the site worker recognize the emergency notification.
US08451981B2
A telecommunication central office site monitor system comprising a central monitoring board configured to receive and send reported current values. The reported current values may be provided by current monitors, with each current monitor being arranged in-line with a power protection device and identified with a particular piece of telecommunication equipment.
US08451974B2
The present invention provides for an improved scanning process with a stationary X-ray source arranged to generate X-rays from a plurality of X-ray source positions around a scanning region, a first set of detectors arranged to detect X-rays transmitted through the scanning region, and at least one processor arranged to process outputs from the first set of detectors to generate tomographic image data. The X-ray screening system is used in combination with other screening technologies, such as NQR-based screening, X-ray diffraction based screening, X-ray back-scatter based screening, or Trace Detection based screening.
US08451968B2
A phase-coupled clock signal generator comprises a start-stop oscillator (1) to which a control signal is applied. The clock frequency is dependent on an adjusting value (F). For adjusting and monitoring the clock frequency, the clock signal generator is provided with a counter (2). This counter counts the number of received clock pulses during a predetermined period and generates a corresponding counting value (C). A control circuit (3) compares the counting value (C) with a reference value and adapts the adjusting value (F). Such a clock signal generator is suitable for On Screen Display applications in a television receiver.
US08451961B2
Various schemes for reducing effects of interference within communication systems are disclosed. A transmitter transmits a signal in a first time interval and a scrambled version of the signal in a second time interval, which does not overlap with the first time interval. A receiver receives a composite signal including a signal transmitted from the desired transmitter as well as signals from interferers in the first or the second time interval. The receiver determines a dominant interferer and obtains knowledge of signal scrambling done by the interferer as well as the desired transmitter by sensing an identification associated with the interferer or the desired transmitter. This knowledge is employed to determine coefficients for combining the received composite signals received in the first and the second time interval in order to recover the desired signal in a manner that maximizes the SNR associated with the desired signal or completely cancels the dominant interference.
US08451959B2
An iterative, blind, frequency-offset estimation process that does not require any training signal or demodulated information symbols is disclosed. Receivers embodying the disclosed processes can produce periodic frequency-offset estimates, without running computationally intensive equalization or demodulation algorithms, by exploiting the temporal correlation of the received signal in the time domain, as well as the received signal's correlation across in-phase and quadrature dimensions, in some embodiments, to find a frequency-offset estimate that best fits the received signal in a maximum-likelihood sense. In an exemplary method of estimating receiver frequency offset, a spatially stacked signal block is formed from multi-branch signal samples corresponding to each of two or more time-separated samples of the received signal. The spatially stacked signal block is used in computing a maximum-likelihood joint estimate of the receiver frequency offset and the spatial covariance of the spatially stacked signal block de-rotated by the receiver frequency offset.
US08451954B2
A system for mitigating impairment in a communication system includes a delay block, a signal level block, a moving average window block, an impulse noise detection block, and a combiner. The delay block receives and delays each chip of a plurality of chips in a spreading interval. The signal level block determines a signal level of each chip of the plurality of chips in the spreading interval. The moving average window block determines a composite signal level for a chip window corresponding to the chip. The impulse noise detection block receives the signal level, receives the composite signal level, and produces an erasure indication for each chip of the plurality of chips of the corresponding chip window. The combiner erases chips of the plurality of chips of the spreading interval based upon the erasure indication.
US08451947B2
A burst demodulator. Implementations may include a first frequency estimating module adapted to remove a first frequency offset from a plurality of data samples. A second frequency estimating module may be coupled with the first frequency estimating module and may be adapted to remove a second frequency offset from the plurality of data samples. A third frequency estimating module may be coupled with the second frequency estimating module and may be adapted to remove a third frequency offset from the plurality of data samples. A clock phase estimating module may be coupled with the third frequency estimating module and may be adapted to calculate a clock phase offset value, select one or more coefficients for a finite impulse response (FIR) filter, and process the plurality of data samples with the FIR filter. A data processing module may be adapted to recover the data included in the plurality of data samples.
US08451942B2
In one embodiment, a wireless transmission apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus includes a generator unit, an amplitude adjuster unit, a phase adjuster unit, and a setting unit. The generator unit generates an amplitude control signal that minimizes an amplitude difference and a phase control signal that minimizes a phase difference in a state in which a power is set during an OFF period of a switch. The amplitude adjuster unit adjusts an amplitude of a feedback RF signal according to the amplitude control signal during an ON period of the switch. The phase adjuster unit adjusts a phase of a local signal according to the phase control signal during the ON period. The setting unit sets, for a Cartesian loop, a first loop gain when the switch is OFF, and a second loop gain higher than the first loop gain when the switch is turned from OFF to ON.
US08451938B2
Generating codewords and determining an information symbol from a codeword for transmission in a telecommunication system is disclosed. The method and apparatus provided by the embodiments of the invention allow up to a maximum number of codewords to be generated given the code alphabet size. Embodiments of the invention also provide method and apparatus for determining an information symbol from a codeword.
US08451932B2
A transmitter is for use with multiple transmit antennas and includes a precoder unit configured to precode data for a transmission using a precoding matrix selected from a codebook, wherein the codebook corresponds to the following three transmission properties for an uplink transmission: 1) all precoding elements from the precoding matrix have a same magnitude, 2) each precoding element from the precoding matrix is taken from a set of finite values and 3) there is only one non-zero element in any row of the precoding matrix. The transmitter also includes a transmit unit configured to transmit the precoded data.
US08451930B2
A channel matrix is estimated for a channel subject to frequency and time selective fading in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication network. The method uses a recursive least-squares (RLS) process and an expectation-maximization (EM) process, based on a L1-Lq regularized sparse regression. The method significantly improves an accuracy of the channel estimation by using high-order matrix extension to obtain covariance matrices. The covariance matrices and an initial estimate are refined by a sparse EM to obtain the final estimate of the channel.
US08451929B2
An apparatus for calculating weights associated with a received signal and applying the weights to transmit data is provided. The apparatus comprises: at least two antennas; a multiple-input and multiple-output capable transceiver in communication with each of the at least two antennas; and processing circuitry capable of causing diversity combining, the processing circuitry in communication with the multiple-input and multiple-output capable transceiver. In operation, the processing circuitry is capable of causing the apparatus to: receive a first signal, calculate weights associated with the first signal, and apply the weights to transmit data. Additionally, the apparatus is configured such that the at least two antennas are capable of transmitting a second signal including the transmit data to a multiple-input capable node.
US08451927B2
Improving channel response characteristics between a transmitter and a receiver, in a Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO)-system without increasing the number of receiving antennas, by using fractional sampling in a receiver, delaying and transmitting part of plural transmitting signals demodulating data of the plural data series.
US08451925B2
A method and pre-corrector for correcting signals in radio frequency links are provided. The method comprises: obtaining, in a time division order, a set of pre-distortion vectors for the respective radio frequency links by using one and the same set of pre-distortion vector obtaining means based on difference in arrival time of cyclic delay frames in the respective radio frequency links of a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system; and correcting a subsequent signal in the respective radio frequency links by using the set of pre-distortion vectors corresponding to that radio frequency link. With the present invention, it is only required to scan a frame header once to generate an error vector table for the input signal across the entire dynamic range of power. The device can be reused by utilizing the cyclic delay frame structure, so as to achieve high linearity of a radio frequency header.
US08451923B2
In a radio communication apparatus, a MIMO system deciding section of a transmitter unit decides an object MIMO communication system with reference to a CQI value and a measured rate table while an AMC table controlling section selects an object MCS value according to the decided MIMO communication system and CQI value. The AMC table controlling section changes the MCS value step by step according to a transmission count and a result (success/failure) of the communication. If the communication (receiving) is successful or if the transmission count reaches the maximum value, the controlling section updates the mean value of the measured rate table. At this time, based on a value estimated from the combination of the MIMO communication system, the encoding system, and the modulating system that are used currently, the controlling section changes the reference for selecting another combination that are not used currently.
US08451919B2
An OFDM reception apparatus effectively suppresses a reduction in reception performance during high-speed mobile reception. The OFDM reception apparatus includes a transmission channel characteristic estimating unit for calculating a transmission channel characteristic value indicating phase and amplitude distortions in an OFDM signal for each sub-carrier, the phase and amplitude distortions occurring during propagation through a transmission channel, and calculating an n-th differentiation of the transmission channel characteristic value, and an interference component removing unit for using the transmission channel characteristic value and the n-th differentiation calculated for each of the sub-carriers by the transmission channel characteristic estimating unit, to remove an interference component between the sub-carriers from the OFDM signal.
US08451916B2
A relay-based communication system and method processing a signal without a cyclic prefix is provided. An apparatus for generating a relay signal includes a signal receiving unit which receives a source signal transmitted from a source node to a relay node and detects a received signal, a signal conversion unit which extracts samples corresponding to a first time duration from the received signal, sums the received signal and the extracted samples in a second time duration, and generates a converted received signal, a relay signal generation unit which generates a relay signal cooperating with the source signal based on the converted received signal according to a space frequency block code (SFBC) scheme, and a signal transmission unit which transmits the generated relay signal to a destination node.
US08451913B2
A data system permits bus encoding based on frequency of the bus and the frequency of switching on the bus so as to avoid undesirable frequency conditions such as a resonant condition or interference with other electrical devices. Transmission frequencies along one or more busses are monitored and used to control the encoding process, for example, an encoding process based on data bus inversion (DBI). The use of both a measure of an absolute number of logic levels (“DBI_DC”) and a measure of a number of logic level transitions relative to a prior signal (“DBI_AC”) provides a measure of control that may be used to compensate for both main and predriver switching noise.
US08451909B1
A method for operating a video system is provided. The method includes receiving video data of a first scene and a second scene, processing at least a first portion of the video data to generate a first video of the first scene having a first quality level, processing at least a second portion of the video data to generate a second video of the second scene having a second quality level, and processing at least a third portion of the video data to detect an occurrence of an event in the first scene. In response to detecting the occurrence of the event in the first scene, the method continues by processing at least a fourth portion of the video data to generate a third video of the first scene at a third quality level, where the third quality level is different than the first quality level, and transferring the third video for display.
US08451899B2
The present invention relates to a method for conducting interlayer motion prediction in encoding or decoding of video signal. The present method sets motion information of an intra-mode macro block of a base layer with motion information of an inter-mode macro block that is vertically adjacent to the intra-mode macro block, derives motion information of a pair of macro blocks adjacent vertically each other from the two macro blocks, and uses the pair of macro blocks in inter-layer motion prediction.
US08451895B2
Multiview videos are acquired of a scene with corresponding cameras arranged at poses, such that there is view overlap between any pair of cameras. V-frames are generated from the multiview videos. The V-frames are encoded using only spatial prediction. Then, the V-frames are inserted periodically in an encoded bit stream to provide random temporal access to the multiview videos. Additional view dependency information enables the decoding of a reduced number of frames prior to accessing randomly a target frame for a specified view and time, and decoding the target frame. The method also decodes multiview videos by maintaining a reference picture list for a current frame of a plurality of multiview videos, and predicting each current frame of the plurality of multiview videos according to reference pictures indexed by the associated reference picture list.
US08451884B2
An offset calibration method is provided. Two input terminals of an equalizer are switched to a common voltage at a first time point, wherein the equalizer generates a first equalized signal and a second equalized signal according to the common voltage. It is determined whether a first offset voltage is present in the equalizer according to the first and second equalized signals generated from the common voltage. If the first offset voltage is determined to be present in the equalizer, a first compensation voltage is provided to the equalizer.
US08451883B1
Systems, methods, and devices for determining an eye diagram of a serial input signal to an integrated circuit without an oscilloscope are provided. For example, one embodiment of an integrated circuit device may be capable of determining an eye diagram associated with an equalized serial input signal. The device may include an equalizer and eye viewer circuitry. The equalizer may receive and perform equalization on a serial input signal to produce the equalized serial input signal, and the eye viewer circuitry may determine horizontal and vertical boundaries of the eye diagram associated with the equalized serial input signal.
US08451882B2
An OFDM modulation/demodulation method in a transmission system that transmits data from a transmission source to a transmitting destination through OFDM modulation/demodulation is provided, which includes an extension step of extending, by the transmission source, a symbol period by copying an OFDM-modulated symbol in a predetermined place of the OFDM-modulated symbol for a predetermined length; a transmission step of transmitting, by the transmission source, the OFDM-modulated symbol that includes the extended symbol period to the transmitting destination; a demodulation performance step of receiving, by the transmitting destination, the OFDM-modulated symbol from the transmission source and performing OFDM demodulation of the received OFDM-modulated symbol from a plurality of time points; and a selection step of selecting, by the transmitting destination, the demodulation result of the OFDM demodulation to be adopted on the basis of the demodulation results of the OFDM demodulation from the plurality of time points.
US08451863B2
Systems and methods that identify the Upper Layer Protocol (ULP) message boundaries are provided. In one example, a method that identifies ULP message boundaries is provided. The method may include one or more of the following steps: attaching a framing header of a frame to a data payload to form a packet, the framing header being placed immediately after the byte stream transport protocol header, the framing header comprising a length field comprising a length of a framing protocol data unit (PDU); and inserting a marker in the packet, the marker pointing backwards to the framing header and being inserted at a preset interval.
US08451858B2
A method for collision avoidance in multiple protocol networks using a shared communication medium begins by determining a first protocol probable active time period. The method continues by determining a first protocol probable inactive time period. The method continues by generating a transmit blocking indication based on the first protocol probable active time period and the first protocol probable inactive time period.
US08451848B2
The invention relates to a method of arranging communication in a local area networking system comprising a first device, a second device and an intermediate node for arranging data transmission between the first device and the second device. The second device is arranged to multicast and/or broadcast messages to devices in the system. The transmission of multicast and/or broadcast messages to the first device is prevented by the interworking means.
US08451840B2
Not Mobile IP (NMIP) comprises methods for implementing macro-mobility in an IP network, wherein macro-mobility means the ability of a node to change its network-layer, e.g., IP, address without disturbing existing transport-layer and application-layer sessions, e.g., conversations. When two NMIP nodes establish a new NMIP session, they exchange pseudo-random numbers, or nonces, and store the nonces in a session table. When a first node changes its IP address, the first node sends to the second node an address-update message that contains the new IP address and the first node's nonce. If the received nonce matches a nonce in the session table, then the second node updates its protocol control blocks with the new IP address, and sends an address-update reply message to the first node. Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) can be used to secure or replace the exchange of nonces.
US08451807B2
A method of routing a packet in an ad-hoc network is provided. The method provides a packet at a first node, the first node being one of a plurality of nodes. A destination node is determined for the packet, the destination node being one of the plurality of nodes. Configuration information is also provided, the configuration information representing the location of each of the plurality of nodes. Finally, at least one forward node in a direction towards the destination node is selected based on the configuration information, and packets are sent to the at least one forward node.
US08451803B2
Systems and methods that manage measurement behavior of a UE in connected mode and while in discontinuous operation. The UE is enabled to autonomously (e.g., independent of instructions from network) enter a state of measurement, and generate a measurement report for the network, when quality of serving cell falls below the threshold of S_Intrasearch parameter. Moreover, the UE can perform inter-frequency and/or inter-RAT measurements autonomously by employing the “natural gaps” from its DRX pattern, when such are adequate to perform such measurements.
US08451796B2
Wireless LAN base station devices (107 to 109) monitored by a wireless LAN base station monitoring server device (105) send wireless LAN base station information on themselves to the wireless LAN base station monitoring server device (105). A combined wireless terminal (110) which is to start communication requests the wireless LAN base station information on connectable wireless LAN base station devices. The wireless LAN base station monitoring server device (105) sends information on whether or not there is any connectable base station device and, if any, the connectable wireless LAN base station information according to information acquired from the combined wireless terminal (110) having requested the wireless LAN base station information via a 3G network (102). The combined wireless terminal (110) having received the wireless LAN base station information determines whether or not to set up a connection to a wireless LAN network (103) from the wireless LAN base station information.
US08451789B2
Method, apparatus, and computer program product embodiments are disclosed for independent wireless resource sharing on a fair basis to enable selecting the most suitable coexistence between wireless networks. Example embodiments of the invention include a hierarchical resource request process that enables reallocation of radio resources in a coexistence band. When new resources are requested by a network, a search is made for free resources in the coexistence band. If this does not succeed, a check is made for any allocated but unused resources in the coexistence band that have been advertised by neighboring networks. If there are insufficient advertised resources, then the allocation of resources in neighboring networks is analyzed and compared with the requesting network's need for network resources. There are two graduated stages to the analysis. In an example light analysis stage, an analysis of the allocation of resources is limited to neighboring networks within the same network allocation group as the requesting network's. In a more extensive analysis stage, all of the neighboring networks are analyzed. In this manner, a more complete resource reallocation may be achieved.
US08451782B2
A wireless network (1) comprises mesh devices and non-mesh devices. A medium access control architecture incorporates at least a point coordination function as an access method, wherein the point coordination function starts a contention-free period (30) with a beacon (32) so that a non-polled transmission by the non-mesh devices is prevented. Further, the mesh devices are enable to communicate during the contention-free period (30). Hence, communication between the mesh devices is priorisized so that a high reliability is achieved and utilization of the wireless network (1) is optimized.
US08451778B2
A method and an apparatus of transmitting a control signal in a wireless communication system is provided. They generate a first-spread sequence by spreading a modulated sequence in the first slot by using a first orthogonal sequence, generate a second-spread sequence by spreading a modulated sequence in the second slot by using a second orthogonal sequence. The first spread sequence and the second spread sequence are transmitted in a subframe. A length of the first orthogonal sequence is shorter than a length of the second orthogonal sequence, the second orthogonal sequence is generated by removing at least one element included in the first orthogonal sequence, and the at least one element to be removed is identical in every index of the first orthogonal sequence.
US08451777B2
Techniques are described that can be used to assign identifiers to mobile stations in a Network Access Provider (NAP) domain and a paging identifier. In some cases, the NAP identifier and paging identifier can be unique in the NAP domain and the paging group domain. The paging identifier can be derived from a NAP identifier.
US08451767B2
A method and an apparatus for transmitting and receiving data via a MAC protocol in a mobile communication system. The method includes inputting an SDU including transmission data through a logical channel and generating a first PDU that includes the SDU without including multiplexing information for identification of the logical channel, by a first transmission entity; acquiring the first PDU and generating a second PDU including the first PDU in a payload of the second PDU, by a second transmission entity that operates between the first transmission entity and a physical layer; inserting the multiplexing information for identification of the logical channel corresponding to the first PDU into header information of the second PDU; and transmitting the second PDU through the physical layer.
US08451763B2
The location of one or more mobile nodes in a wireless local area network (WLAN) is determined. Nodes in the WLAN include respective ping drivers to generate ping event values related to transmit count stamps and receive count stamps for wireless messages exchanged between the nodes. Each wireless message is associated with a transmit offset corresponding to an expected transmit time. A sorting module groups the ping event values and produces a difference between the respective receive count stamps and the transmit count stamps for each wireless message. Based on the sorted ping event values, the sorting module generates transmit offset values relating to the transmit offsets. A space-time calibration unit generates, from the sorted differences and the transmit offset values, a clock rate solution and a location solution for at least one of the nodes in the WLAN.
US08451762B2
A method and apparatus are described including mapping a multicast connection to a unicast uniform resource identifier, establishing a state for a multicast-to-unicast conversion, allocating ports, receiving multicast addressed data packets and converting the multicast addressed data packets to unicast addressed data the packets.
US08451742B2
A communication apparatus includes an input interface to receive a flow of segmented data, and an output interface to transmit the received data from a plurality of physical links. The output interface includes storage units corresponding to the respective physical links to store transmission data. A link monitor unit observes how much data is accumulated in each storage unit. A distribution unit selects which physical link is to be used to output the received data. Based on the observations by the link monitor unit, the distribution unit changes the selection to an alternative physical link that has a larger amount of stored data than the currently selected physical link.
US08451741B2
It is a basic idea to determine the characteristics of a jitter profile measured over a plurality of packets, and classify the jitter profile based on the determined characteristics as well as information representative of the particular access used for communication between the sender and the receiver. The classified jitter profile is then matched to an appropriate action for media layer adaptation so that a proper action for media layer adaptation can be initiated.
US08451734B2
A method for measuring data loss of a data flow in a communication network is provided. The method includes, at a transmitting node: marking each data unit of the data flow for dividing the data flow in blocks so that: data units of a same block have a feature with a same value, while data units of contiguous blocks have the feature with different values; increasing a first counter when the feature has the first value, and a second counter when the feature has the second value; and transmitting the data flow to a receiving node. The method includes, at the receiving node, for each data unit: checking the feature, increasing a third counter when the feature has the first value, and increasing a second counter when the feature has the second value. The method includes calculating data loss based on detected values of first, second, third and fourth counters.
US08451721B2
An improved solution for managing messages through a request response protocol network utilizing a path-based adaptive prioritization and latency management is provided. A weight for a message is determined at a message management computing device based upon a number of hops and a latency of networks passed through by the message. A hop latency target for a current hop segment is evaluated relative to an overall latency target and the determined weight for the message. A priority of the message is adjusted in response to determining that the overall latency target, relative to the weight for the message and the hop latency target for the current hop segment, exceeds a configured allowable hop latency deviation for the current hop segment.
US08451718B2
Methods, systems, and devices are provided for managing flow of datagram traffic, generally across networks. According to some of these methods, a flow control mechanism is used to avoid over-subscription of some ports without pausing extended areas of a network. According to other methods, a congestion control mechanism is used to minimize datagram traffic between a port sending datagrams to an over-subscribed port and the over-subscribed port itself.
US08451713B2
A network element aggregates a number of its ports together to form a link aggregation group. To move communications from one of the aggregated ports in case that port fails or otherwise becomes inactive, the network element may use exchange a special marker message and response with a remote network element coupled to the failed port. The network elements use proprietary signaling within the special marker message and response to enable the exchange of these messages on an active one of the aggregated ports while identifying the failed one of the ports.
US08451708B2
Shape-wise thicknesses of a cover layer and first through (N−1)th intermediate layers of an optical recording medium having refractive indexes nr1, nr2 are converted into thicknesses t1, t2 of the respective layers having a predetermined refractive index which makes a divergent amount equal to a divergent amount of a light beam resulting from the thicknesses tr1, tr2, a difference DFF between the sum of a thickness “ti” through a thickness “tj”, and the sum of a thickness “tk” through a thickness “tm” is set to 1 μm or more (where i, j, k, and m are each any positive integer satisfying i≦j
US08451707B1
A semiconductor wafer has a plurality of patterned thermally-assisted recording (TAR) head structures. Each TAR head structure includes a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). The semiconductor substrate serves as an extended cavity for the VCSEL. Each TAR head structure also includes a conventional read head and write head, and an optical waveguide with a grating coupler and a near-field transducer (NFT).
US08451705B2
An apparatus includes a waveguide configured to deliver light to a transducer region. The apparatus also includes a plasmonic transducer that has two metal elements configured as side-by-side plates on a substrate-parallel plane with a gap therebetween. The gap is disposed along the substrate-parallel plane and has an input end disposed proximate the transducer region and an output end. The transducer is configured to provide a surface plasmon-enhanced near-field radiation pattern proximate the output end in response to the light received by the waveguide.
US08451704B2
A phase difference layer 12 and a reflection layer 13 are provided. Then, adjustment is performed such that the phase difference layer 12 and the reflection layer 13 impart a predetermined phase difference to light having a particular wavelength bandwidth or plural kinds of light of different wavelengths that enter in an oblique direction relative to the normal direction of the plane of the phase difference layer 12. By virtue of this, the light 16a that goes forward and backward through the phase difference layer 12 and then exits the layer has an ellipticity κ of 0.7 or greater. Thus, in particular, when this wave plate is employed in an optical head device, the function of reflection and the function of a ¼-wave plate are integrated. Thus, stable recording and reproduction of an optical disk are achieved, and size reduction is achieved in the optical head device.
US08451700B2
In one embodiment, the optical pickup device includes: a light source that emits a light beam; a diffractive element that diffracts the light beam and generates a zero-order and ±first-order diffracted light beams; an objective lens that converges the diffracted light beams onto the same track on the storage medium; and a photodetector that receives the diffracted light beams reflected from the storage medium. If a distance from a light beam spot left by the zero-order diffracted light beam on the track to light beam spots left by the ±first-order diffracted light beams on that track is d [μm], the scanning linear velocity of the storage medium is v [m/s], and a time it takes for a phase-change material of the storage medium that has once been melted by the zero-order diffracted light beam to solidify is T [μs], vT≦d is satisfied.
US08451697B1
A disk drive is disclosed comprising a head actuated over a disk comprising a plurality of spiral tracks. During a seek operation, a demodulation window is opened in response to a window offset during a first revolution of the disk, wherein the demodulation window corresponds to the head approaching a spiral track. A window position error signal (PES) is generated representing a difference between a target framing of the demodulation window around the spiral track crossing and a detected framing of the demodulation window around the spiral track crossing. The window offset is adjusted in response to the first window PES, and the demodulation window is opened in response to the adjusted window offset during a second revolution of the disk.
US08451696B2
A method and apparatus for providing a signal for driving a heating element in a TAR or HAMR enabled disk storage system that includes an optical transducer (or near-field optical source) for further focusing the beamspot of a laser onto a magnetic media, thereby heating the media. The storage system includes a temperature sensor proximate to the near-field transducer which provides a feedback loop to the laser driver to adjust the power of the laser.
US08451690B2
A control method for use with a lighting system is provided. The lighting system includes a light source and an ultrasonic transceiver. The control method includes steps of: measuring the time of an ultrasonic signal emitted from the ultrasonic transceiver and reflected by the object to reach the ultrasonic sensor to obtain a time of flight; calculating a distance between the object and the ultrasonic transceiver according to the time of flight; defining at least one control region according to the distance; and moving the object to the control region, thereby performing a controlling operation corresponding to the control region and adjusting an optical characteristic.
US08451675B2
A memory system that includes a first bit line coupled to a first set of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) cells, a second (complementary) bit line coupled to a second set of DRAM cells, and a sense amplifier coupled to the first and second bit lines. The sense amplifier includes a pair of cross-coupled inverters (or a similar latching circuit) coupled between the first and second bit lines, as well as a first select transistor coupling the first bit line to a first global bit line, and a second select transistor coupling the second bit line to a second global bit line. The first and second select transistors are independently controlled, thereby enabling improved read and write access sequences to be implemented, whereby signal loss associated with bit line coupling is eliminated, ‘read bump’ conditions are eliminated, and late write conditions are eliminated.
US08451674B2
Synchronization is provided in a memory system. During memory write operations a timing reference signal is transmitted with control signals to a memory device, and a calibration signal is received from the memory device. An internal clock signal is adjusted based on the calibration signal, and a data signal is then transmitted according to the internal clock. In this manner, the data is synchronized such that the data is accurately sampled according to the local clock signal.
US08451661B2
Methods of programming memory cells, and memories incorporating such methods, are disclosed. In at least one embodiment, programming is accomplished by applying a set of incrementing program pulses to program a selected cell to a first target threshold voltage, and applying a set of incrementing inhibit pulses to an unselected cell to fine-tune program the selected cell to a second threshold voltage.
US08451657B2
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes an MIS transistor having nodes, a control circuit configured to apply a first set of potentials to the nodes to cause an irreversible change in transistor characteristics, to apply a second set of potentials to the nodes to cause a first current to flow through the MIS transistor in a first direction, and to apply the second set of potentials to the nodes to cause a second current to flow through the MIS transistor in a second direction opposite the first direction, and a sense circuit configured to produce a signal responsive to a difference between the first current and the second current.
US08451656B2
The present invention provides a multi-level memory device and method of operating the same. The device comprises a memory structure in which a distribution density of resistance levels around its minimum value is higher than that around its maximum value.
US08451655B2
A circuit includes magneto-resistive random access memory (MRAM) cell and a control circuit. The control circuit is electrically coupled to the MRAM cell, and includes a current source configured to provide a first writing pulse to write a value into the MRAM cell, and a read circuit configured to measure a status of the MRAM cell. The control circuit is further configured to verify whether a successful writing is achieved through the first writing pulse.
US08451647B2
A resistance control method for a nonvolatile variable resistive element in a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device is provided. The device includes a memory cell array in which unit memory cells having nonvolatile variable resistive elements and transistors are arranged in a matrix. The memory cells that are targets of a memory operation are selected by first selection lines (word lines), second selection lines (bit lines) and third selection lines (source lines). The method includes steps of selecting one or more first selection lines, selecting a plurality of second selection lines, and applying a compensated voltage in which a change in potential of the third selection lines caused by current flowing into the third selection lines through the second selection lines is compensated in a voltage that is necessary for the memory operation, such that the voltage necessary for the memory operation is applied to all of the selected memory cells.
US08451637B1
The present application discloses methods, circuits and systems for power conversion, using a universal multiport architecture. When a transient appears on the power input (which can be, for example, polyphase AC), the input and output switches are opened, and a crowbar switch shunts the inductance which is used for energy transfer. This prevents this inductance from creating an overvoltage when it is disconnected from outside lines.
US08451629B2
A circuit for an oscillator structured to drive a control device of a switching resonant converter; the converter having a switching circuit structured to drive a resonant load provided with at least one transformer with at least a primary winding and at least a secondary winding. The control device structured to drive the switching circuit, and the converter structured to convert an input signal into an output signal, the integrated circuit includes a first circuit structured to charge and discharge a capacitor by a first current signal such that the voltage at the ends of the capacitor is between first and second reference voltages, the current signal having a second current signal indicating the output voltage of the converter; the integrated circuit including a second circuit structured to rectify a signal indicating the current circulating in the primary winding.
US08451627B2
Methods, circuit designs, systems, and devices for the conversion of high voltage alternating current (AC) to low voltage, high current direct current (DC) are described. An exemplary apparatus includes a rectifier for receiving a high voltage AC line power input and for outputting a full wave, high voltage DC, a gating component coupled to the rectifier for receiving the high voltage DC output by the rectifier, wherein the gating component is configured to gate the high voltage DC by turning on at a zero crossing level and turning off when the high voltage DC exceeds a preset voltage threshold and wherein the output of the gating component is an intermediate voltage DC capped by the preset voltage threshold, and a DC-DC converter coupled to the gating component for receiving the intermediate voltage DC output by the gating component, wherein the DC-DC converter is configured to step down and smooth out the intermediate voltage DC to a desired high current, low voltage DC output.
US08451623B2
A mounting apparatus includes a chassis, an expansion piece secured to a first end of an expansion card, a carrier and a supporting device configured to support a second end of the expansion card. The chassis includes a bottom plate, and the carrier is mounted on the bottom plate. The supporting device includes a first supporting member secured to the carrier, and a second supporting member secured to the first supporting member. The first supporting member and the second supporting member sandwich the expansion card when the second supporting member is attached on the first supporting member.
US08451622B2
A circuit board module includes a circuit board, a plurality of electronic components, a plurality of connectors and a cover. The circuit board includes a heat dissipation unit. The electronic components, the connectors and the heat dissipation unit are disposed on a first surface of the circuit board. The cover has a plurality of openings with the shapes and the sizes corresponding to the connectors and the heat dissipation unit. When the cover covers the circuit board, the openings expose the connectors and the heat dissipation unit. Users can plug and pull the connectors of the circuit board through the openings. The size of the cover is corresponding to the circuit board. The circuit board module is dust-proof and can prevent the users from accidentally touching the electronic components.
US08451616B2
According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes a housing, a wiring pattern, a recess, a pad portion, and an electronic component. The wiring pattern is formed on an inner surface of the housing from an electrically conductive adhesive. The recess is in the inner surface of the housing. The pad portion is formed in the recess from the conductive adhesive and connected to an end portion of the wiring pattern. The electronic component includes a terminal which contacts the pad portion.
US08451603B2
An attachment mechanism for attaching a first component and a second component includes at least a body integrally formed with the first component. In the described embodiment, the body includes at least a first portion, and a second portion spaced apart from the first portion where the first portion is deflectable in at least a first direction and the second portion is deflectable in at least a second direction substantially orthogonal to the first direction. The second portion secures the second component to the first component with a securing force proportional to an amount of deflection of the first portion and the first portion and the second portion remain apart.
US08451599B1
Sleeves for different portable electronic devices (portable media players, wireless telephones, handheld computers, etc.) adapt the outer contours of the devices such that all can fit within the pocket of a standard device dock. Each sleeve situates its portable electronic device within the pocket of the dock such that at least one of its power/communications ports is situated at a standard location. The device dock then also accommodates a connector which fits within the dock pocket, and which has power/communications ports situated at the standard location, such that when the sleeved device is inserted into the pocket, its power/communications ports interface with the power/communications ports of the connector. The connector can incorporate data storage devices, power supplies, interface cables extending to other devices (such as personal computers, stereo systems, etc.) such that it lends the functionality of these devices to the sleeved device situated within the pocket.
US08451595B2
An electronic device having a concealed keyboard includes a first housing, a second housing rotatably coupled to the first housing, and a concealment cover coupled to a rear of the first housing. The first housing has a coupling edge and two sides that are substantially perpendicular to the coupling edge of the first housing. The second housing has a coupling edge and two sides that are substantially perpendicular to the coupling edge of the second housing. A receiving portion is formed on a rear surface of the first housing and is configured to receive the second housing. When the second housing is in the receiving portion, each respective side of the first housing and the second housing are co-terminal with one another. The concealment cover is exteriorly positioned with respect to the second housing when the second housing is in the receiving portion.
US08451594B2
Provided is a universal stand for multivision for forming the multivision using a plurality of display devices. The universal stands includes: a plurality of base frames arranged horizontally and vertically in lines; and a support frame which is mounted on each of the base frames to move vertically or horizontally and supports the display device.
US08451590B2
A modular power distribution system comprises a chassis; and a backplane including a power input, and a plurality of module connection locations. A plurality of modules are mounted in the chassis, each module mounted to one of the module connection locations. Each module includes: (i) an OR-ing diode; (ii) a circuit protection device; (iii) a microprocessor controlling the circuit protection device; and (iv) a power output connection location. A circuit option switch is located on each module for setting the current limits for each module. A control module is provided connected to the backplane.
US08451580B2
There is provided a multilayer ceramic capacitor capable of controlling equivalent series resistance (ESR) characteristics. The multilayer ceramic capacitor includes: a ceramic laminate including dielectric layers and a plurality of internal electrodes having different polarities and alternately stacked between the dielectric layers; and external electrodes formed on both sides of the ceramic laminate, wherein each of the internal electrodes includes a main electrode and a lead for connecting the main electrode to the external electrode, and an equivalent series resistance (ESR) value is determined by adjusting a ratio of a width to a length of the lead, whereby the ESR characteristics of the multilayer ceramic capacitor may be controlled.
US08451577B2
A lightning-resistant fastener, a cap, a fastener member, and a method for attaching the lightning-resistant fastener are provided, which enhance workability and quality stability besides reliably securing an insulating property, and can lead to enhancement in safety of an airframe and reduction in manufacturing cost. A head portion 25b of a fastener main body 25 includes a head cap 50, and a shaft portion 25s of the fastener main body 25 includes a shaft cap 30, whereby a direct strike of lightning to a fastener member 24, and occurrence of an arc discharge from the fastener member 24 in the case of a lightning strike can be suppressed. A hole 52 is formed in the head cap 50, and a thread groove 52a is formed in the hole 52, whereby the head cap 50 can be reliably and easily positioned and attached to the fastener member 24.
US08451566B2
A current-perpendicular-to-plane (CPP) tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) or giant magnetoresistance (GMR) read sensor with ferromagnetic buffer and seed layers is proposed for high-resolution magnetic recording. The ferromagnetic buffer layer is preferably formed of an amorphous Co—X (where X is Hf, Y, Zr, etc.) film. It provides the CPP read sensor with microstructural discontinuity from a ferromagnetic lower shield, thus facilitating the CPP read sensor to grow freely with preferred crystalline textures, and with ferromagnetic continuity to the ferromagnetic lower shield, thus acting as a portion of the ferromagnetic lower shield.
US08451563B1
A method fabricates a side shield for a magnetic transducer having a nonmagnetic layer and an ABS location corresponding to an ABS. The nonmagnetic layer has a pole trench therein. The pole trench has a shape and location corresponding to the pole. A wet etchable layer is deposited. Part of the wet etchable layer resides in the pole trench. A pole is formed. The pole has a bottom and a top wider than the bottom in the pole tip region. Part of the pole in the pole tip region is in the pole trench on at least part of the wet etchable layer. At least parts of the wet etchable layer and the nonmagnetic layer are removed, forming an air bridge. The air bridge is between part of the pole at the ABS location and an underlying layer. Side shield layer(s) that substantially fill the air bridge are deposited.
US08451561B2
A servo write head for writing a servo pattern on a magnetic tape is provided. A flat magnetic pattern writing surface has a magnetic gap contoured to correspond to the servo pattern, and is disposed to allow the magnetic tape to slidably contact therewith. Sloped surfaces are disposed upstream and downstream of the magnetic pattern writing surface in a magnetic tape transport direction at positions retreated from a position of the magnetic pattern writing surface. The sloped surfaces extend obliquely relative to the magnetic pattern writing surface. Connecting surfaces curved gently to smoothly connect the sloped surfaces to the magnetic pattern writing surface are disposed between the magnetic pattern writing surface and each of the sloped surfaces.
US08451549B2
The present invention is directed to provide an enhanced variable power zoom lens that is lightweight as a whole, and especially, has its focusing lens optics reduced in weight so as to relieve of a load on a focusing drive system, and that has its anti-vibration lens optics reduced in both diameter and weight so as to relieve of a load on an anti-vibration drive system and downsize the same. The enhanced variable power zoom lens is adapted to have the foremost or first lens group of positive refractivity, the second lens group of negative refractivity, the third lens group of positive refractivity, the fourth lens group of negative refractivity, and the fifth lens group arranged in this sequence from a position closer to the object where a distance between each pair of the adjacent lens groups is varied during zooming from the wide-angle end to the telephoto end, each lens group comes closer to the object at the telephoto end than at the wide-angle end, the third lens group and the fourth lens group separating the farthest apart from each other at the intermediate zooming range, and the fourth lens group is moved closer to the image plane for shifting from infinity focusing to proximity focusing.
US08451546B2
An image pickup lens compatible with small high-pixel image pickup elements (e.g., from CCD and CMOS image sensors having a pixel pitch of 1.75 μm and a pixel count of 5 mega pixels to CCD and CMOS image sensors having a pixel pitch of 1.4 μm and a pixel count of 8 mega pixels) is provided. An image pickup lens 7 includes, in order from an object side to an image surface side: an aperture stop 5, a first lens 1 having positive power; a second lens 2 that is a meniscus lens having negative power and whose lens surface facing the image surface side is concave; a third lens 3 that is a meniscus lens having positive power and whose lens surface facing the image surface side is convex; and a fourth lens 4 that has negative power, whose lens surfaces are both aspherical and whose lens surface facing the image surface side is concave near the optical axis. A diffractive optical element is formed on one of the lens surfaces of the first lens 1 or the second lens 2.
US08451544B2
A lens barrel includes a rear movable member holding a rear optical element, an off-axis removable member holding a removable optical element, a front movable member supporting the off-axis removable member, and a removal driving member supported by the front movable member. When the front and rear movable members are at the photographing positions, the removable optical element is positioned in front of the rear optical element, and when the front and rear movable members are at the retracted accommodating positions, the removable optical element overlaps the rear optical element. When the front and rear movable members relatively move rearward, the removal driving member contacts the rear movable member to be slidable in a driven direction of the off-axis removable member while the off-axis removable member does not contact the rear movable member.
US08451533B2
A fluorescence microscope 100 includes an illumination optical system 120 that illuminates a sample with excitation light, fluorescence detection optical systems 130, 140 and 150 that detect fluorescence from the sample, optical members 8, 12, 13, 16, 17 and 20 that are disposed on an optical path of the illumination optical system and on an optical path of the fluorescence detection optical system, have different wavelength characteristics with each other, and are included in the illumination optical system and in the fluorescence detection optical system, a memory 23 that stores the wavelength characteristic of each of the optical members, and a display 23a that displays each of the wavelength characteristic read out from the memory on the same frame, and displays fluorescence detection wavelength range of a detectable fluorescent dye added to the sample.
US08451532B2
A control apparatus of an optical amplifier includes a monitoring section that measures power of light inputted to the optical amplifier, a power-wavelength characteristics variable section that is operable to change a wavelength characteristic of power of the light inputted, a wavelength number decrease recognition section that compares the value of the power of light measured by the monitoring section with a predetermined threshold, and a control section that controls the power-wavelength characteristics variable section when the wavelength number decrease recognition section judges that the value of the power of light falls below the threshold.
US08451531B2
A light amplifier includes first and second multi-pass amplifiers, an excitation light source, and a beam splitter. The second multi-pass amplifier includes a light attenuation portion provided in an optical path for a light pulse to travel to pass through a light amplification medium a plurality of times, for attenuating energy of the input light pulse. In addition, an excitation light pulse from the excitation light source is split by the beam splitter into two light pulses. These two pulses are input to the first and second multi-pass amplifiers, respectively. Thus, fluctuation in energy of the light pulse output from the light amplifier can be less than fluctuation in energy of the excitation light pulse.
US08451530B2
A laser source includes a laser device configured to emit laser light at a given angle with respect to a normal of an output end face; and an optical device configured to include an optical waveguide that guides and outputs the laser light. The output end face of the laser device is parallel to an input end face of the optical device, and the optical waveguide extends in a direction of θw1 that is given by θw1=arcsin(sin θa1/nF), where θa1 denotes an outgoing angle of the laser light from the laser device, and nF denotes an effective refractive index of the optical waveguide for the laser light.
US08451523B2
A light source device includes a light source, a coupling lens configured to convert light emitted from the light source into a beam of light, a holding member configured to hold the coupling lens, and a frame to which the holding member is fixed. The holding member includes a tubular main body portion for holding the coupling lens, and a pair of first protrusions sticking out from an outer peripheral surface of the main body portion. The pair of first protrusions have fixing surfaces lying in the same plane and fixed to the frame.
US08451519B2
A multicolor marking platform may include a marking engine with a storage device storing color standard data, a non-black color separation station, marking process stations to selectively mark a color test pattern on a target substrate, and a color control logic with color control applications to selectively control color characteristics of the marking engine by controlling the non-black color separation station or a marking process station; and a spectral sensor to detect each color test pattern on the target substrate and provide corresponding color measurement data to the color control logic. The color control logic may selectively control the non-black color separation station or a marking process station in response to the color measurement data and the corresponding color standard data in relation to the selected color control application. Various embodiments of the multicolor marking platform and a method for controlling color in same are also provided.
US08451517B2
A calibrating and positioning structure of a scanning apparatus is provided. The scanning apparatus includes a scanning platform and a scanning window. The scanning window has a wide edge. The calibrating and positioning structure includes a calibrating part and at least one positioning part. The calibrating part is disposed on the scanning platform, and aligned with the wide edge of the scanning window. The at least one positioning part is partially overlapped with the calibrating part, wherein the positioning part is not aligned with the wide edge of the scanning window.
US08451515B2
An image reader includes a light source, a light reception element, an optical member, and a hold body. The light source applies light to a document. The light reception element receives reflected light reflected by the document. The optical member introduces the reflected light into the light reception element. The hold body has an entry part which is disposed in a portion not contributing to image formation of the reflected light on the light reception element through the optical member. The hold body holds the optical member.
US08451514B2
A multifunction peripheral includes a scanning platform, a scanning module, a recording unit and a controlling unit. The scanning platform includes a standby position, a position-calibrating structure and a datum line. The scanning platform is divided into a first zone and a second zone by the datum line. The position-calibrating structure is included in the second zone. The scanning module is movable with respect to the scanning platform for performing a scanning operation. The recording unit is used for recording a parameter associated with a position of the scanning module with respect to the scanning platform. The controlling unit is used for controlling movement of the scanning module according to the parameter recorded in the recording unit, so that the scanning module is moved through the position-calibrating structure to perform a position-calibrating operation. After the position-calibrating operation is completed, the scanning module is moved to the standby position.
US08451508B2
Aspects of the invention provide a projector capable of projecting desired image information by enabling the user to select easily and promptly an image input interface terminal into which the desired image information is inputted, among image input interface terminals. The projector can include image input I/Fs into which image signals from image input devices are inputted, a touch panel having a liquid crystal display to display image information inputted from the image input I/Fs, a thumbnail generating portion to generate thumbnail images to be displayed on the liquid crystal display, and a changeover switch to selectively switch the image input I/Fs by operations on the touch panel. Image information inputted from the selected image I/F can be projected. This enables the user to select desired image information promptly for the desired image information to be projected.
US08451503B2
A print quality control method, comprises the steps of: providing a visual referring target on the printing substrate, setting a specific halftone of black “K”; creating a neutral grey tone i.e. NGT; placing tightly both MGT and NGT next to each other across the printing surface; and comparing both printed tones result. By adopting the grey balance theory and visual matching technique, the resultant can provide accurate ink balance information for the production personnel to immediate execute the correction on the imbalance inking condition during production.
US08451501B2
Provided are methods, apparatus and systems related to watermark decoding via spectral analysis of an image. According to one exemplary method, spectral analysis is performed to decode a watermark within an image, where the pixel spacing associated with the image was modulated to encode the watermark.
US08451499B2
An image processing apparatus includes a storage unit storing an image and a processing unit performing image processing in each segment of the stored image to obtain a value of each pixel in a predetermined order using calculation results for peripheral pixels processed. At least one segment is a quadrangular area. Two sides of the quadrangular area extend from a first vertex of two opposite vertices of the area toward two of subsequent pixels after a first pixel at the first vertex so that the area includes the subsequent pixels whose values are obtained using a calculation result for the first pixel. The other two sides extend from a second vertex of the two vertices toward two of previous pixels before a second pixel at the second vertex so that the area includes the previous pixels for which a value of the second pixel is calculated using calculation results.
US08451493B2
Provided are a data processing method and a data processor for ink jet printing, which are capable of achieving uniform and high-quality images while stabilizing density and color development in each of pixels. To this end, a mask pattern for setting permission and non-permission to print dots in each area is arranged non-periodically by using an integral multiple of m×n areas as one unit. The m×n areas allow one pixel to be expressed in half-tone. Thereby, density in the pixel is stable since a plurality of dots printed in the same pixel are printed approximately in the same event. Moreover, since each of the units (clusters) is non-periodically arranged, a uniform image can be obtained.
US08451481B2
A facsimile apparatus includes an acquisition unit and a first registration unit. The acquisition unit acquires a transmission source number and a reception number of a facsimile reception document. The first registration unit acquires use restriction information corresponding to the transmission source number and the reception number acquired by the acquisition unit from a first storage unit for storing first correspondence relation information in which use restriction information of documents and transmission source numbers and reception numbers of facsimile communication are associated with each other, and registers second correspondence relation information in which the use restriction information and the facsimile reception document are associated with each other in a second storage unit for storing correspondence relation information between documents and use restriction information.
US08451474B2
A host computer which generates a print job subjected to printing by a printer stores a drawing command output from an application in a spool file via a graphic engine. A spool system, the graphic engine, and a job chasing function processing unit execute a chasing data generation process by using the drawing command. The spool system, the graphic engine, and a graphics control unit execute a print data generation process by using the same drawing command. At this time, the drawing command is read out and output so as to successively execute the chasing data generation process and print data generation process. With this configuration, there are provided a method of protecting leakage of information by which the contents of information can be reliably chased without requiring either a special application or a device having a special function and posing any restriction on the read or output path, and an information processing apparatus and driver program which implement the method.
US08451469B2
A controller for a printing device may include a data file selecting unit, an index printing data generating unit, and a providing unit. The data file selecting unit may sequentially select a data file. The index printing data generating unit may generate index printing data by sequentially storing a set of printing data in the memory, wherein the set of printing data defines an image described by the sequentially selected data file. The providing unit may provide the index printing data to a print performing unit. In a case where the index printing data generating unit cannot process a particular data file due to a shortage of remaining capacity in the memory when first index printing data is generated, the index printing data generating unit may postpone processing of the particular data file. The data file selecting unit may select the particular data file when second index printing data is generated.
US08451463B2
An information processing method includes the steps of acquiring information for identifying customized drivers; displaying the customized drivers in such a way as to be identifiable based on the information acquired in the acquisition step; selecting a driver to be installed from the customized drivers displayed in the display step; and installing the customized driver selected in the selection step.
US08451456B2
A device for determining the surface topology and associated color of a structure, such as a teeth segment, includes a scanner for providing depth data for points along a two-dimensional array substantially orthogonal to the depth direction, and an image acquisition means for providing color data for each of the points of the array, while the spatial disposition of the device with respect to the structure is maintained substantially unchanged. A processor combines the color data and depth data for each point in the array, thereby providing a three-dimensional color virtual model of the surface of the structure. A corresponding method for determining the surface topology and associated color of a structure is also provided.
US08451448B1
Illumination sources are connected to ends of micropipette probes having total internal reflection tips. The total internal reflection produces evanescence at the tips. The evanescence causes fluorescence of dye marked target molecules at tips of the probes. The evanescence is limited to about 100 nm from the tips. The presence of a target molecule at the end of a probe is observed by observing the fluorescence. The limited penetration of the evanescence eliminates noise in the signal and unwanted bleaching of dyes in the cell, so that repeated, multiple and arrays of probes may be applied.
US08451445B2
An apparatus for detecting an array substrate comprises: a transparent carrier for supporting an array substrate to be detected thereon; a light source disposed on one side of the transparent carrier; and a modulator disposed on the other side in parallel with the transparent carrier. The modulator comprises a liquid crystal layer and two transparent substrate layers disposed on both sides of the liquid crystal layer, and one transparent substrate layer away from the transparent carrier is a first transparent conductive substrate layer, and a second polarizer is disposed thereon. A first polarizer is disposed between the light source and the transparent carrier, so that the light emitted from the light source is transmitted through the first polarizer to the transparent carrier. A light receiver receives the light emitted from the light source and then transmitted through the transparent carrier, the array substrate and the modulator.
US08451443B2
A concave reflection type diffraction optical element used for a Rowland type spectrometer, in which: the Rowland type spectrometer detects wavelengths in a range including a wavelength λ1 or more and a wavelength λ2 or less (λ1<λ2); the concave reflection type diffraction optical element has a diffractive efficiency D(λ) at a wavelength λ which shows local maximum and maximum value at a wavelength λa satisfying, λ 1 ≦ λ a < 7 λ 1 + 3 λ 2 10 ; the concave reflection type diffraction optical element includes a reference surface having an anamorphic shape; and the following condition is satisfied: R>r, where R indicates a meridional line curvature radius of the reference surface and r indicates a sagittal line curvature radius thereof.
US08451438B2
An integrating sphere photometer and a measuring method of the same are provided to precisely measure a directional light source. The integrating sphere photometer includes an integrating sphere having a plurality of through-holes, a plurality of photometers disposed at the through-holes, baffles disposed in front of the photometers to be spaced apart therefrom, an auxiliary light source disposed inside the integrating sphere, an auxiliary baffle disposed in front of the auxiliary light source, and a summing unit of output signals of the photometers under the illumination of a light source to be measured disposed in the central area inside the integrating sphere.
US08451435B2
An optical anemometric probe includes a laser source emitting a linearly polarized primary light beam and an optical block having splitting means for separating the primary beam, an optical reference pathway, an optical emission pathway and an optical measurement pathway. The optical block includes optical means of rotation of the polarization arranged at the output of the laser source and before the splitting means. The optical emission pathway has an optical circulator, a first optical emission/reception head illuminating a first measurement zone, and a second optical emission/reception head illuminating a second measurement zone. The optical circulator has four ports, e.g., a first input port, a second and a third input/ouput port linked respectively to the first optical head and to the second optical head, and a fourth port linked to the optical measurement pathway.
US08451434B2
A zeta potential measurement system comprising: a cell having a cell wall and bottom for holding suspended particles; an optical measurement probe having a probe tip comprising a transparent and conducting thin film coating which prevents ionic current from accumulating charge on the probe tip, and wherein the optical measurement probe is inserted through the cell wall such that the probe tip is in fluid communication with the sample; a counter electrode inserted through the cell wall opposite to the optical measurement probe; a laser source which is disposed so as to deliver light to the optical measurement probe via an optical directional coupler and optical waveguide; wherein the optical measurement probe focuses the light onto a front surface of the probe tip, such that the light reflected from the front surface of the optical measurement probe and light backscattered from particles in the sample are collected by the probe tip, and thereafter focused to a optical waveguide and delivered through the coupler to a photodetector; an electrical output of the photodetector is connected to a filtering and amplification module, wherein an analog output of the amplification module is connected to an analog-to-digital converter, wherein the analog-to-digital converter creates a digital data stream which is stored in a first memory; and a computer or microprocessor which calculates the frequency power spectrum from the stored digital data stream and stores the frequency power spectrum in a second memory, wherein the first and second memories can be either the same or different.
US08451432B2
A laser spot tracker comprising a quadrant detector. A portion of a spot of laser light reflected from an object being illuminated (OBI) may be defocused to occupy a significant portion such as one-third of the field of view, while another portion remains focused, therefore allowing for quick calculation of the spot centroid. With such a “composite spot”, multiple target (OBI) positions may simultaneously be defined in elevation and azimuth with respect to null by analyzing the energy in each quadrant. The X and Y angle information (off null) for multiple targets (OBIs), and their codes may be displayed. For a large, defocused spot, two segmented multi-element detectors may be used, one in front of and the other behind the focal plane to reduce the effects of hot spots in a spot of laser light collected from an object being illuminated.
US08451402B2
A color conversion sheet realizing suppression of deterioration in a color conversion layer and improvement in light extraction efficiency is provided. The color conversion sheet includes: a color conversion layer converting a part of first color light as incident light to second color light having a wavelength longer than that of the first color light; and a pair of sealing sheets sandwiching the color conversion layer from a light incidence side and a light emitting side and each having an inorganic stack film on a substrate. Reflectance of the sealing sheet on the light incidence side to the second color light is higher than that to the first color light, and reflectance of the sealing sheet on the light emitting side to the first color light is higher than that to the second color light.
US08451397B2
A thin film transistor array panel comprises a plurality of gate lines formed on an insulating substrate; a repair line formed on the insulating substrate; a gate insulating layer formed on the gate lines and the repair line; a plurality of data lines formed on the gate insulating layer; an electricity dissipation line formed on the gate insulating layer crossing the gate lines and the repair line; and a first diode connecting the repair line and the electricity dissipation line. When static electricity is introduced through the repair lines, the static electricity is transferred to the electricity dissipation line and is dispersed or exhausted before it reaches to the data lines. As a result, the TFTs and wires in the display area are prevented from being destroyed by the static electricity.
US08451390B2
A projection stereoscopic display includes: a stereoscopic display optical system receiving linearly polarized light from the light source and displaying a first picture and a second picture both having binocular parallax by linearly polarized light with polarization directions orthogonal to each other, in which the stereoscopic display optical system includes: a reflective liquid crystal panel modulating and reflecting linearly polarized light from the light source in response to a picture signal, a first polarizing device splitting the first picture from reflected light from the reflective liquid crystal panel, a retardation device converting the polarization direction of the first picture into a direction orthogonal thereto, and a second polarizing device splitting the second picture from reflected light from the reflective liquid crystal panel, and superimposing the second picture on the first picture of which the polarization direction is converted by the retardation device.
US08451385B2
In a signal transmitter and a signal receiver, a multiplexing part multiplexes a video signal and a time-base-compressed audio signal on the basis of a multiplexing control signal to transmit the multiplexed signal through a data line in the signal transmitter. Further, a demultiplexing part demultiplexes a video/audio multiplexed signal received through the data line into the original video signal and audio signal by a demultiplexing control signal in the signal receiver. According to the so-configured signal transmitter and signal receiver, it is possible to realize a signal transmission system compliant with the DVI standard, in which the audio signal as well as the video signal can be transmitted.
US08451378B2
A video device to generate analog video signals to a plurality of display devices comprises a video processing chip, a plurality of video output interface circuits and a plurality of detection circuits. The video processing chip converts input video data into the analog video signals and comprises at least one video decoder and a plurality of analog to digital convertors. The video output interface circuit transmits the analog video signals to the plurality of display devices. The detection circuit detects voltage of horizontal sync signals of the analog video signals to determine connection of the video output interface circuit to the display device, and generates a feedback signal to the video processing chip to control the video decoder and the analog to digital convertor accordingly.
US08451368B2
An optical imaging system with extended depth of focus is provided. The optical imaging system includes an optical imaging module, an array type detector and an image restoration module. The optical imaging module has a specific longitudinal spherical aberration corresponding to the depth of focus. The array type detector is coupled to the optical imaging module to obtain a image via the specific longitudinal spherical aberration provided by the optical imaging module. The image restoration module is coupled to the array type detector, wherein the array type detector converts the obtained image to a digitalized image and the image restoration module receives the digitalized image and performs an image restoration operation to the digitalized image to form an image with extended depth of focus.
US08451350B2
According to one embodiment, a third optical black portion is arranged in parallel with a first optical black portion in a row direction and in parallel with a second optical black portion in column direction. At least one of the vertical line correction circuit and the horizontal line correction circuit adds/subtracts arithmetic average of the third black level signal generated by the third optical black portion.
US08451328B2
An image processing device captures a normal light image of an observed region via a plurality of color filters having different spectral characteristics, respectively, generates a uniform image having low contrast by extracting each picture signal corresponding to a picture signal in a wavelength band for which light absorption characteristic of a contrast region in the observed region becomes low, and corrects each picture signal of a fluorescence image of the observed region by using the uniform image.
US08451326B2
The present invention realizes stereoscopic television broadcasting which can reproduce a stereoscopic image best in state of stereoscopic viewing and a receiver for the stereoscopic television broadcasting.In stereoscopic television broadcasting, a reference size of a display of a receiver is determined, images for right and left are displayed on the display with a reference size in a superimposing manner, and transmission is performed such that a distance between the same corresponding points of an infinite subject image is reproduced and displayed to be equal to an interpupillary distance of a human.
US08451320B1
Methods and apparatus for performing stereoscopic image encoding and decoding are described. Left and right eye images are generated. Image difference information is generated, e.g., a set of pixel values resulting from XORing the pixel values of the left and right eye images. One of the left and right eye images is compressed along with the difference map. The compressed image and compressed difference map is stored and/or transmitted. Stereoscopic images are generated by decompressing and using the received compressed image and compressed difference information. Prior to generation of the difference map the left and right eye images may be subject to a transposition operation to minimize the differences between the images and thus the size of the difference map. When transposition is applied, transposition information is stored and communicated in addition to the compressed image data so that the transposition can be reversed during the stereoscopic image generation process.
US08451314B1
Methods, computer systems, and computer readable media for one way and two way video and audio communications between a clinician at a remote location and a patient located in a patient room that is in a location different from the clinician are provided.
US08451312B2
A handheld communication device is used to capture video streams and generate a multiplexed video stream. The handheld communication device has at least two cameras facing in two opposite directions. The handheld communication device receives a first video stream and a second video stream simultaneously from the two cameras. The handheld communication device detects a speech activity of a person captured in the video streams. The speech activity may be detected from direction of sound or lip movement of the person. Based on the detection, the handheld communication device automatically switches between the first video stream and the second video stream to generate a multiplexed video stream. The multiplexed video stream interleaves segments of the first video stream and segments of the second video stream. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US08451310B2
An image forming apparatus including; an exposure section provided with, a light emitting element, a polygon mirror to receive light beams from the light emitting element, and to expose an image carrier using light beam via the polygon mirror based on image data; an image processing section to adjust image magnification by image processing of the image data; and, a control section configured to select at least either of a first magnification adjustment to change a rotation speed of the polygon mirror and a second magnification adjustment to carry out image processing of the image data by the image processing section, based on comparison results between a paper interval time during recording paper conveyance in image formation and the first magnification adjustment time required to stabilize polygon mirror rotation in the first magnification adjustment, when adjusting image magnification with respect to recording paper.
US08451299B2
To provide a hold-type display device having a fine luminance efficiency while suppressing generation of motion blur. A controller according to the invention adjusts a signal outputted to a hold-type image display panel, which includes: a double-speed drive converting part which divides one frame of an inputted video signal to a plurality of sub-frames; a color converting part which converts a video signal of three primary colors including the plurality of sub-frames to a video signal of four or more colors including the three primary colors and a compound color; and a sub-frame converting part which converts, the video signal converted by the color converting part, to a signal having a plurality of different gradations whose average luminance value becomes equivalent to luminance of the video signal converted by the color converting part, and takes each of the plurality of gradations as each of gradations of the plurality of sub-frames.
US08451281B2
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a device that has a device processor and a device memory. The device can couple to a host with a host processor and host memory. Both of the memories can have page tables to map virtual addresses to physical addresses of the corresponding memory, and the two memories may appear to a user-level application as a single virtual memory space. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08451278B2
It may be desirable to apply corrective data to aspects of captured image or the user-performed gesture for display of a visual representation that corresponds to the corrective data. The captured motion may be any motion in the physical space that is captured by the capture device, such as a camera. Aspects of a skeletal or mesh model of a person, that is generated based on the image data captured by the capture device, may be modified prior to animation. The modification may be made to the model generated from image data that represents a target or a target's motion, including user gestures, in the physical space. For example, certain joints of a skeletal model may be readjusted or realigned. A model of a target may be modified by applying differential correction, magnetism principles, binary snapping, confining virtual movement to defined spaces, or the like.
US08451271B2
This disclosure describes, generally, methods and systems for plotting a graphically displayed box chart. The method includes receiving a data set. The data set includes a first axis and a second axis and the data set consists of ordered pairs. The method further includes determining that the first axis is discrete and that the second axis is continuous and rounding values of the second axis' portion of the ordered pairs of the data set, based on a first level of granularity. The method includes based on the rounded values, creating data point groupings, and based on the data point groupings, determining a total number of data point locations for the first axis. The method further includes jittering values of the first axis' portion of the ordered pairs of the data set at each determined data point location, wherein the jittering alters the values based on a second level of granularity.
US08451264B2
According to an aspect of an embodiment, a method for displaying an image including a plurality of blocks in which code information can be embedded, includes obtaining a first image including a plurality of blocks, obtaining a second image determined by changing the characteristic value of the selected blocks of the first image so as to associate the value with the code information to be embedded, and displaying the first image data and the second image data, sequentially.
US08451257B2
A controller board includes a memory and a timing controller. The memory stores previous frame image data. The timing controller outputs driving image data based on current frame image data supplied from an external device and the previous frame image data. The timing controller disperses a frequency band of the current frame image data within a reference frequency range to generate dispersed current frame image data and transmits the dispersed current frame image data to the memory.
US08451251B2
A light sensing circuit includes a photodiode including a cathode electrode and an anode electrode and for receiving light from the outside and generating a current corresponding to the received light, a driving transistor for amplifying the current generated in the photodiode, a capacitor for storing a first initiation voltage transmitted to the driving transistor, a first switching transistor for compensating for a threshold voltage of the driving transistor corresponding to a current scan signal, and a second switching transistor for transmitting the first initiation voltage corresponding to the current scan signal.
US08451248B1
Disclosed is a display device that provides a user with tactile feedback using a tactile user interface. The display device includes a touch sensitive display unit to display an object, a tactile feedback unit to generate tactile feedback, and a controller. The controller detects a first touch that is in contact with a region of a first object displayed on the display unit, detects a second touch controlling the first object that is consecutive to the first touch, controls the first object in response to the second touch, generates first tactile feedback according to properties of the first object in response to the second touch, detects a third touch controlling the first object that is consecutive to the second touch, the third touch being detected in a region of a second object displayed on the display unit, and generates the first tactile feedback in response to the third touch.
US08451244B2
Disclosed herein are liquid-crystal display (LCD) touch screens that integrate the touch sensing elements with the display circuitry. The integration may take a variety of forms. Touch sensing elements can be completely implemented within the LCD stackup but outside the not between the color filter plate and the array plate. Alternatively, some touch sensing elements can be between the color filter and array plates with other touch sensing elements not between the plates. In another alternative, all touch sensing elements can be between the color filter and array plates. The latter alternative can include both conventional and in-plane-switching (IPS) LCDs. In some forms, one or more display structures can also have a touch sensing function. Techniques for manufacturing and operating such displays, as well as various devices embodying such displays are also disclosed.
US08451238B2
A user interface for a touch-screen display of a dedicated handheld electronic book reader device is described. The user interface detects human gestures manifest as pressure being applied by a finger or stylus to regions on the touch-screen display. In one implementation, the touch-screen user interface enables a user to turn one or more pages in response to applying a force or pressure to the touch-screen display. In another implementation, the touch-screen user interface is configured to bookmark a page temporarily by applying a pressure to the display, then allowing a user to turn pages to a new page, but reverting back to a previously-displayed page when the pressure is removed. In another implementation, the touch-screen user interface identifies and filters electronic books based on book size and/or a time available to read a book. In another implementation, the touch-screen user interface converts text to speech in response to a user touching the touch-screen display.
US08451225B2
A cushion that provides support for the heel of the hand and wrist, elevates the wrist and minimizes pressure on the central hand/wrist area of nerves, tendons, and vessels while using a computer mouse. A cushion having an upper and lower surface connected by at least one side wall, with a fixation to a computer mouse, surrounding a resilient pad. The lower surface is low friction, to slide on a separate planar surface. The top surface is soft. The middle layer(s) is of varying resilient materials that support the sides of the heel of the hand/wrist, while leaving the central area open. The size of this cushion may vary, to support different sized hands, while using a computer mouse. The connection to the mouse is variable to fit different sizes and shapes of computer mouse.
US08451224B2
A method, system and apparatus provide that movement of an interference pattern of a coherent light beam is mapped to cursor movement to effect navigation of a user interface. A remote controller operable to emit a coherent light beam is in cooperative arrangement with a display device operable to display a user interface, navigable by means of a cursor. A laser diode element and coupled diffuser element of the remote controller generate the coherent light beam. Movement of the remote controller causes movement of an interference pattern of the coherent light beam impinging upon a sensor of the display device; movement of the interference pattern is sensed by the display device and mapped to corresponding movement of the cursor in the user interface. Thus, the remote controller may be used to navigate an on-screen user interface by movement of the remote controller itself.
US08451218B2
An electronic control module interface system may include a sensing surface having a symbol representative of a function of a motor vehicle, a sensing device coupled to the sensing surface, configured to sense a proximity between a physical pointer and the sensing surface and to generate a browsing signal when the proximity is less than a predefined proximity threshold value, and configured to generate a selection signal when the physical pointer contacts or depresses the sensing surface, and an output device coupled to the sensing device, and configured to produce an output representative of the function of the motor vehicle upon receiving the browsing signal.
US08451217B2
The general field of the invention is that of devices for controlling a computer-based pointer of a computer-based assembly comprising two different computer-based systems, a first secure system comprising at least one first viewing screen and a man-machine interface called CCD controlling the position of the pointer, and a second non-secure system comprising at least one second viewing screen controlled by the same CCD. The control device according to the invention comprises a means called the “CCD manager” belonging to the first system, ensuring the control of the CCD transmission links and comprising the following functions activated when a displacement instruction is transmitted by the user to the CCD, the pointer occupying a first position in the reference plane, determination of the new position of the pointer, determination of the pointer membership area as a function of this new position, authorization of transfer of the displacement instructions coming from the CCD to the secure system or to the open system corresponding to the previously determined membership area.
US08451215B2
A virtual plane including a display screen is divided into small regions. If calculated coordinates of an intersection is located in one of the small regions outside the display screen, an icon corresponding to the small region is displayed at a predetermined position. If coordinates of the intersection are not calculated, an icon corresponding to the small region in which the preceding intersection coordinates were located in is displayed at a predetermined position.
US08451214B2
The invention relates to a remote controlled positioning system, a control system and a display device thereof. The remote controlled positioning system includes a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel, a backlight source, a plurality of infrared ray (IR) sources and a directional remote controller. The LCD panel includes a plurality of display areas. The plurality of IR sources is disposed behind the LCD panel, wherein the IR sources are correspondingly disposed according to the positions of the display areas to respectively emit infrared rays to pass through the LCD panel. The directional remote control receives the infrared rays emitted by the infrared ray sources to obtain positional information pointed to a position of the LCD panel by the directional remote control.
US08451213B2
The disclosure describes a device and method for adjusting a backlight for a display for an electronic device. The method comprises: identifying a highest brightness value for a pixel in an image to be generated on the display; determining a brightness headroom value for the image based on a difference between the highest brightness value and a maximum brightness level for the display; and if the brightness headroom value is determined to be larger than a predetermined threshold, then when an adjusted image based on the image is generated on the display having a brightness based on the brightness headroom, generating an adjusted backlight level for the backlight, the adjusted backlight level being based on a ratio of the highest brightness value to the maximum brightness level.
US08451198B2
A display device (10) includes an upper substrate (first substrate) (2), a lower substrate (second substrate) (3), and a conductive liquid (16) that is sealed in a display space (S) formed between the upper substrate (2) and the lower substrate (3) so as to be moved toward an effective display region (P1) or a non-effective display region (P2). The display device (10) includes a signal electrode (4), a reference electrode (5), and a scanning electrode (6). An M voltage (intermediate voltage) between an H voltage (first voltage) and a L voltage (second voltage) and a voltage other than the M voltage are applied to the signal electrode (4) within a selected period (predetermined period) T during which one of the H voltage and the L voltage is applied to the reference electrode (5).
US08451194B2
An information processing system includes a media information acquisition section that acquires media information, a media information storage section that stores the media information acquired by the media information acquisition section, a usualness level evaluation section that evaluates a usualness level of a user based on information that includes sensor information from at least one of a behavior sensor that measures a behavior of the user, a condition sensor that measures a condition of the user, and an environment sensor that measures an environment of the user, and a write section that writes the usualness level of the user evaluated by the usualness level evaluation section in the media information storage section so that the usualness level is linked to the media information acquired by the media information acquisition section.
US08451193B2
A display (202) is formed on an OLED layer (210) and at least one other layer formed of different display technology (212). At least one sensor (206 and/or 208) is used to determine a condition which impacts readability of the display (202). The different display layers are enabled and disabled in response to the sensed conditions to provide optimum viewing.
US08451171B1
An alignment tool for aligning an antenna to a satellite configuration and a method for aligning an antenna to a satellite configuration is disclosed. An alignment tool for aligning an antenna to a satellite configuration in accordance with the present invention comprises a meter for measuring a satellite downlink signal power from the antenna, a motor for adjusting at least one fine adjustment mechanism of the antenna, and a processor, coupled to the motor and to the meter, for commanding the motor based on the received power from the antenna, wherein the processor commands the motor to maximize a received power from the antenna.
US08451166B2
A distance measurement system for locating a geostationary satellite equipped with a transponder includes: a central station emitting a distance measurement signal; and at least one measurement station receiving the emitted signal, including means for measuring the time of arrival of the emitted signal, and transmitted via the transponder of the satellite. The central and measurement stations, of known positions, include synchronization means with a common time base. The transponder is that of a satellite telecommunications system, and has a bandwidth B. The central station includes means for emitting a specific distance measurement signal, distinct from the telecommunications signals transmitted via the transponder, with periodic events and with spread spectrum, the bandwidth of which is included in B.
US08451165B2
Described is a mobile radar system which provides both persistent surveillance and tracking of objects with adaptive measurement rates for both maneuvering and non-maneuvering objects. The mobile radar system includes a vehicle having mounted therein an active, electronically-steerable, phased array radar system movable between a stowed position and a deployed position and wherein the phased array radar system is operational in both the deployed and stored positions and also while the vehicle is either stationary or moving. Thus, the mobile radar system described herein provides for longer time on target and longer integration times, increased radar sensitivity and improved Doppler resolution and clutter rejection. This results in a highly mobile radar system appropriate for use in a battlefield environment and which supports single-integrated-air-picture metrics including but not limited to track purity, track completeness, and track continuity and thus improved radar performance in a battlefield.
US08451162B2
In one aspect, a measurement system is disclosed that includes a source of microwave radiation having one or more wavelengths capable of penetrating through a visibly opaque obstruction, e.g., a wall. The source can be movably positioned on one side of the obstruction for illuminating thereof. The system can further include a microwave reflecting element disposed on another side of the obstruction, where the reflecting element is capable of reflecting at least a portion of the radiation transmitted through the obstruction. A plurality of radiation sensors are positioned relative to the obstruction so as to differentially detect at least a portion of the reflected radiation transmitted through the obstruction so as to determine a position of the source relative to the reflective element.
US08451159B1
A method for converting an analog signal to a digital signal is provided. Initially, a digital representation of a portion of an analog signal is generated. Residue of the analog signal is then sampled at a sampling instant so as to generate a residue sample. A signal having a frequency that is proportional to the voltage of the residue sample is generated, and the signal is measured to generate coarse and fine measurements of the frequency. A digital representation of the residue sample from the coarse and fine measurements is then generated.
US08451148B2
Provided is an encoding apparatus including: a determination unit which determines bit allocation at the time of quantizing a data signal based on normalization information of the data signal so that a data length as a result of fixed length encoding of the quantized data signal becomes close to a second data length which is equal to or larger than a first data length allocated to a result of variable length encoding of the quantized data signal; a quantizer which quantizes the data signal based on the bit allocation; and an encoder which performs variable length encoding on the quantized data signal, wherein the determination unit updates the second data length so that a difference between a data length of the variable-length-encoded data signal and the first data length is within a predetermined range.
US08451147B2
In an illustrative embodiment, a data interface circuit is provided. The data interface circuit comprises data sources, input blocks, a space switch, output blocks and a multi-core processor. The data interface circuit allows data provided in different voltage ranges and sampling frequencies to be transmitted to the appropriate core in the multi-core processor via the switch. Data conversion elements in the input blocks convert data from the data sources and having varying voltage ranges and sampling frequencies into data having a voltage range and sampling frequency suitable for the space switch. Analogously, data conversion elements in the output blocks convert data from the space switch into data having a voltage range and sampling frequency suitable for the corresponding core in the multi-core processor. In one embodiment, level shifters and FIFO buffers are used in the input blocks and output blocks.
US08451144B2
A flap advisory system provides an advisory to a pilot informing that a speed of the aircraft should be attended to because of a current or desired flap setting. More specifically, the flap advisory system compares a measured airspeed of the aircraft either directly to a flap placard speed or to a marginal speed range set below the flap placard speed for a given flap setting. If the measured airspeed is determined to be excessive then the system provides an advisory indicating the airspeed is too fast. Further, the system may provide an advisory when a movement of a flap handle is detected such that continued movement of the flap handle would place the flaps in a setting that is inappropriate for the measured airspeed.
US08451140B2
Monitoring road surface conditions using a mobile computer unit carried by a vehicle operating on a road network and adapted to detect information about the road surface conditions. The detection may be done by means of bump sensors which may also provide information on the size and the depth of the bump according to a detected shock with respect to the vehicle speed. Such information may then be transmitted to a central controller server. The central server may use the collected information for several purposes, such as help in planning maintenance of the road network; forwarded to users and vehicles for journey planning purposes; and to deviate traffic in case of extreme surface damage.
US08451138B2
A method for operating a cryostorage device (100), especially for biological samples, is described which comprises a sample carrier (10) to receive at least one sample (11) and a data storage (20), wherein data are inductively transmitted from the data storage device (20) into a wireless transmission channel (40) and/or conversely using a resonant circuit (30) connected to the data storage device (20).
US08451130B2
A gesture-based animal trainer is provided. The gesture-based animal trainer is configured to be used by a person that provides gesture commands to an animal. As used herein, the term “gesture commands” refers to gestures that are each associated with a respective animal training command, wherein a gesture is defined as a selected group of movements performed by a person. The gesture-based animal trainer detects whether the person performs a gesture command and provides a stimulus to the animal in accordance with the gesture command. Upon the animal associating the respective stimulus with the gesture command, the gesture-based animal trainer allows the animal to receive the gesture command regardless of whether the person is within the animal's line of sight.
US08451127B2
A locator system for electronic devices including at least one jacket for a modular wireless communicator, each jacket having an identifier, and a modular wireless communicator that attaches to each one of the at least one jacket, including a positioning system for identifying a location of the modular wireless communicator, a log manager for recording a plurality of entries in a log, each entry including the jacket identifier for a jacket currently attached to the modular wireless communicator, and a current location as identified by the positioning system, and a controller for notifying the log manager of occurrence of a log trigger event, wherein the log manager records a new entry in the log when it receives a notification of a log trigger event from the controller, and wherein the log trigger events enable determination of a location where a jacket was last actively used with the modular wireless communicator.
US08451126B2
A combination EAS/RFID antenna for use in an EAS/RFID surveillance system. The antenna includes an EAS antenna element and an RFID antenna element. The EAS antenna element includes an EAS loop antenna defining an interior area. The RFID antenna element is positioned within the interior area defined by the EAS loop antenna and includes a ground plane and RFID patch antenna. The ground plane and/or the RFID patch antenna have a segmented conductor pattern etched thereon. The segmented conductor pattern minimizes eddy currents in the ground plane produced by current flow through EAS loop antenna. The RFID antenna element is situated proximate the EAS loop antenna in such a fashion that the overall size of the antenna is reduced.
US08451125B2
Disclosed is an RFID-based reader configured to allow a UHF band RFID reader unit to recognize an RFID tag in a short distance, and to minimize an erroneous recognition, the reader including a gate frame discretely installed at both sides of an entrance and exit, a parabolic surface type reflective plate perpendicularly installed inside of the gate frame, an array antenna arranged on the reflective plate for receiving a tag information transmitted from an RFID tag, and an RFID reader unit for controlling an operation of the array antenna and converting the tag information received from the array antenna to a tag data.
US08451124B2
A method for sensing a stimulus comprising providing a sensing assembly having a first structure and a second structure, wherein the first structure is made of a material different than the second structure and each of the first structure and the second structure is nanoscale. The method further includes providing an inductive antenna operably coupled to the sensing assembly, disposing the sensing assembly upon a spatial area, exposing the sensing assembly to the stimulus thereby producing a detectable change in the sensing assembly, and wirelessly coupling a reader with the inductive antenna to obtain a signal representative of the detectable change in the sensing assembly.
US08451117B2
In accordance with at least some embodiments, a process for transmitting a signal is presented. The process may be implemented to detect an occurrence of a predetermined event associated with an object and in response to detecting the occurrence of the predetermined event, transmit a signal relating to a content associated with the object.
US08451116B2
A wireless battery-powered daylight sensor for measuring a total light intensity in a space is operable to transmit wireless signals using a variable transmission rate that is dependent upon the total light intensity in the space. The sensor comprises a photosensitive circuit, a wireless transmitter for transmitting the wireless signals, a controller coupled to the photosensitive circuit and the wireless transmitter, and a battery for powering the photosensitive circuit, the wireless transmitter, and the controller. The photosensitive circuit is operable to generate a light intensity control signal in response to the total light intensity in the space. The controller transmits the wireless signals in response to the light intensity control signal using the variable transmission rate that is dependent upon the total light intensity in the space. The variable transmission rate may be dependent upon an amount of change of the total light intensity in the space. In addition, the variable transmission rate may be further dependent upon a rate of change of the total light intensity in the space.
US08451115B2
A system for preventing a portable terminal from being left is characterized in that the portable terminal sounds an alarm when a signal from a wireless terminal can no longer be received, terminates sounding of the alarm after a predetermined amount of time passes, and makes a transition to a lock standby state.
US08451094B2
A radio frequency identification (RFID) reader outputs an interrogation signal, and hops/varies the phase of the interrogation signal sent by the RFID reader over time. Varying the phase of the interrogation signal enables the RFID reader to provide, for each zone of an RF field of the RFID reader, a particular phase that reduces of the effects of interference RF signal(s) present in that zone of the RF field. Reducing the interference in each zone of the RF field increases the throughput of RFID tags that can be successfully read by the RFID reader.
US08451092B2
Systems and methods for efficiently querying and identifying multiple items on a communication channel are disclosed. The invention is well suited to use with radio frequency identification with interrogation devices and systems that identify radio frequency identification transponders. A depth-first tree traversal protocol algorithm, including commands and symbols, is used to more efficiently interrogate a plurality of transponders in a short amount of time.
US08451091B2
The present invention provides, as one aspect, a control system having sensor units and an electronic control unit. The electronic control unit includes a transmission controlling means which sets a signal line connected to the sensor unit, which is a destination of communication data, to a first state, sets the signal line connected to the sensor unit, which is not the destination, to a second state, and transmits the communication data to the destination via a communication line. The sensor unit includes a reception controlling means which determines a state of the signal line connecting a sensor to the electronic control unit. When determining that the signal line of the sensor unit is in the first state, the reception controlling means receives the communication data and performs a predetermined process. When determining that the signal line is in the second state, the reception controlling means discards the communication data.
US08451085B1
A co-fired multi-layer stack chip resistor is provided. The co-fired multi-layer stack chip resistor includes a ceramic substrate and a multi-layer stack resistance structure monomer. The ceramic substrate is formed by stacking multiple layers of the ceramic membranes, wherein the ceramic membranes is formed of a bearing membrane and a porcelain slurry with the solvent, the binder and the dispersant. The multi-layer stack resistance structure monomer is stacked on the ceramic substrate, and includes multiple bearing membranes and multiple resistive layers, wherein each resistive layer is formed on the surface of the corresponding bearing membrane, the resistive layers are parallel to each other, and the contiguous resistive layers are stacked with the interval of the predetermined distance along the vertical direction. The multi-layer stack resistance structure monomer and the ceramic substrate are sintered and shaped with the predetermined sintering temperature and the predetermined sintering time in a kiln stove.
US08451082B2
A low profile coil-wound bobbin includes a spool, a terminal, a lower flange, and a terminal base member. The spool is configured to have a coil-wire arrangement wound around an axis the spool. The terminal is to be coupled to the coil-wire arrangement and a first side of a circuit board such that the axis of the spool is substantially normal to the circuit board and the bobbin extends completely through the circuit board. The lower flange is coupled to the spool to at least partially contain the coil-wire arrangement. The terminal base member is coupled to the lower flange and the terminal. A vertical member of the terminal base member includes a chamfer region on a top edge of the vertical member to guide and reduce stress on a wire end of the coil-wire arrangement.
US08451050B2
Information technology equipment includes a circuit block, a local power source line for supplying a power source to the circuit block, a power source line, and a first transistor which is provided with a source-drain path thereof between the power source line and the local power source line, in which the first transistor is controlled to an OFF state in a first state, and is controlled to an ON state in a second state, and when the first state is shifted to the second state, the first transistor is controlled such that a rate of changing a current flowing in the source-drain path of the first transistor does not exceed a predetermined value.
US08451045B2
An inverter control apparatus is provided that offers a ‘soft turn off’ to a gate operation of the inverter so as to securely protect the IGBT. In particular, an inverter control system according to the present invention may include a gate operating portion that controls turn on/off of an IGBT and forcibly turns off the IGBT if a short circuit or an over current is detected from the IGBT, a current buffer that amplifies a control current for the turn on/off of the IGBT that is outputted from the gate operating portion, and a filter that delays the forcible turn off control current that is outputted from the gate operating portion.
US08451039B2
Apparatus for storing a data value in the form of a master-slave latch supporting zig-zag power gating is described. A NAND gate 52 at the output of the latch forces a predetermined retention signal value at the output from the latch during a retention mode. A scan multiplexer 42 at the input to the latch selects the scan input, which is the predetermined retention signal from another latch, during the retention mode. Within the latch power gated circuitry 32 is subject to zig-zag power gating using virtual power rails VDDZ and VSSZ so as to reduce the leakage current. State storing circuitry 34 is permanently connected to the power supplies VDDG, VSSG such that it is able to maintain whatever signal value is stored therein during the retention mode.
US08451038B2
A switched mode power supply (SMPS) comprising a feedback unit, voltage feed forward (VFF) compensation signal generator and a transient detector. A VFF compensation signal is only applied to the output of the feedback unit when a transient is detected by the transient detector on the input voltage of the SMPS, thereby saving power and computation time. The transient detector comprises a first comparator to detect that a positive transient has occurred if a difference signal is greater than a positive threshold level; a second comparator to determine if the difference signal is within a predetermined range of positive values and output a result that indicates if the difference signal is within the predetermined range of positive values; and a first calculator to detect that a positive transient has occurred if, out of a first predetermined number of consecutive results of the output of the second comparator, there is at least a second predetermined number of results indicating that the difference signal is within the predetermined range of positive values. The transient detector comprises further features for similarly detecting a negative transient.
US08451028B2
Methods and devices for detecting single-event transients in combinational logic circuits and other circuits. A sensing circuit detects a voltage or current deviation at a bulk contact node of a transistor. Output of the sensing circuit is amplified and used to flip a latch. Output of the latch may be evaluated and used in possible error correction measures.
US08451021B1
A method for calibrating resistors on an integrated circuit chip via a daisy chain scheme. The method comprises the step of configuring one or more links of the daisy chain scheme, wherein each of the one or more links comprises one or more master resistors and one or more slave resistors. The method further comprises the steps of calibrating at least one on-chip reference resistor, the one or more master resistors, and the one or more slave resistors via the daisy chain scheme. The method using the daisy chain scheme enables resistance of at least one off-chip reference resistor to be duplicated to multiple distant locations while maintaining a low mismatch error.
US08451019B2
A method of detecting a failure in an information processing apparatus is provided. The method includes detecting at least one of a power supply failure and a unit failure, monitoring the detected unit failures, and determining a detected unit failure for a first unit is erroneous if the monitoring indicates another of the units receiving power from a same power supply system as the first unit has also detected a unit failure. The power supply failure indicates a failure associated with a power supply system affecting more than one of the units, and the unit failure indicates a failure of one of the units.
US08451017B2
A substrate, preferably constructed of a ductile material and a tool having the desired shape of the resulting device for contacting contact pads on a test device is brought into contact with the substrate. The tool is preferably constructed of a material that is harder than the substrate so that a depression can be readily made therein. A dielectric (insulative) layer, that is preferably patterned, is supported by the substrate. A conductive material is located within the depressions and then preferably lapped to remove excess from the top surface of the dielectric layer and to provide a flat overall surface. A trace is patterned on the dielectric layer and the conductive material. A polyimide layer is then preferably patterned over the entire surface. The substrate is then removed by any suitable process.
US08451013B1
An insulated fiber sensor apparatus is used in a composite that includes a number of fibers in a matrix. An insulated fiber is connected with the composite and is covered with insulation such that the insulation separates the insulated fiber from the matrix and from the number of fibers in the matrix. Further, a measurement device is connected with the insulated fiber. According to one aspect of the invention, the fibers are carbon fibers.
US08451011B2
An object of the present invention is to provide an electrostatic capacity-type sensor which is excellent in durability and can detect bending-deformation. An electrostatic capacity-type sensor comprises a dielectric film made of an elastomer and a pair of electrodes arranged via the dielectric film, and detects the deformation based on a change in the electrostatic capacity between the pair of electrodes. The pair of electrodes have an elastomer and a conductive filler blended in said elastomer, and are expansible/contractible depending on the deformation of the dielectric film, and exhibit a small change in the conductivity even when expanded and contracted.
US08451006B2
A fuel cell system is configured to have: a voltage superimposing unit that superimposes a predetermined AC signal on an output voltage of a fuel cell; a unit that detects an output voltage value of a battery device, the output voltage value varying as the fuel cell output voltage value on which the AC signal has been superimposed varies; a battery device voltage comparison unit that compares the detected battery device output voltage value with a predetermined threshold voltage; and a measurement permission determination unit that determines whether the AC impedance measurement is permitted or not based on whether or not the battery device output voltage value exceeds the threshold voltage. The fuel cell system can protect the battery device in the impedance measurement of the fuel cell based on an AC impedance method.
US08451000B2
An inductive position sensor includes an electronic circuit, which is configured such that initially three digital signals are able to be generated from the signals detected by three receiver printed conductors. At least two position values are ascertainable by combining the three digital signals, and the position values are able to be supplied to a comparator. A measuring system includes, in addition to the position sensor, a data interface and sequential electronics which include the comparator.
US08450989B2
A system can include a switching circuit configured to conduct electrical current through at least one switch device thereof during an activation interval of the switch device in response to a periodic control signal. A tracking system is configured to provide a tracking signal indicative of a predetermined point of the activation interval. Sampling circuitry is configured to measure the electrical current at the predetermined point of the activation interval in response to the tracking signal, such that the sampling circuitry provides an output signal indicative of an average electrical current.
US08450988B2
A DC-DC converter comprises a high-side switch, a low-side switch connected to the high-side switch, and an output capacitance. An inductance has one end connected to the high-side switch and the low-side switch and another end connected to the output capacitance. A shunting device circulates current flowing through the inductance back to the inductance during a load reduction transition to control a voltage across the output capacitance.
US08450983B2
A microcomputer that exercises driving control and power-generation control over a motor generator unit and a power-generation maintaining unit that, separately from the power-generation control exercised by the microcomputer, maintains a power-generation process performed by the motor generator unit are provided. While the microcomputer is operating normally, the power-generation maintaining unit allows the microcomputer to exercise the power-generation control. When an abnormality has occurred in the microcomputer, the power-generation maintaining unit acts as a backup or secondary controller to maintain the power-generation process performed by the motor generator unit, in an autonomous manner independently of the microcomputer.
US08450982B2
A charge control circuit equipped with a function of controlling a charging current to be supplied to a secondary battery, comprises: a detecting unit for monitoring a temperature; and a charge control unit for controlling so as to break the charging current when the monitored temperature rises to a temperature equal to or more than a predetermined set temperature, decrease the charging current as the monitored temperature becomes higher when the monitored temperature is in a predetermined temperature range lower than the set temperature, flow the charging current having a predetermined current value in a state where the monitored temperature is lower than a lower limit temperature of the temperature range, or flow the charging current having a current value smaller than the current value when the monitored temperature is within a range of from an upper limit temperature of the temperature range to the set temperature.
US08450977B2
A driving circuit for an N-channel Metal Oxide Semiconductor (NMOS) transistor can include a charge pump unit and a driver coupled to the charge pump. The charge pump can receive a source voltage and output an output voltage higher than the source voltage, where the source voltage is applied to a source terminal of the NMOS transistor. The driver receives the output voltage of the charge pump unit and converts the output voltage to a driving voltage operable for conducting the NMOS transistor.
US08450976B2
Generally, a system includes a control circuitry configured to detect a current wherein the detected current is one of a battery discharge current or a battery charging current; a first transistor configured to disconnect a load from at least one of a battery and a DC/DC converter if the battery discharge current exceeds a maximum battery discharge current setting; and a second transistor configured to adjust the charging current to maintain the charging current at or near a charge current setting.
US08450975B2
In a battery pack, undesired current consumption is reduced during a shipping period to extend the charge keeping time of the battery pack. The battery pack includes at least one of battery cells, a charge switch, a discharge switch, and a microcomputer for controlling the charge switch and the discharge switch in accordance with a voltage of the battery cells. The battery pack has a shipping mode where the battery pack is shut down during the shipping period.
US08450971B2
A method for conducting an operation including a power tool battery pack. The battery pack can include a housing, a first cell supported by the housing and having a voltage, and a second cell supported by the housing and having a voltage. The battery pack also can be connectable to a power tool and be operable to supply power to operate the power tool. The method can include discharging one of the first cell and the second cell until the voltage of the one of the first cell and the second cell is substantially equal to the voltage of the other of the first cell and the second cell.
US08450967B2
A server of a network-controlled charging system for electric vehicles receives a request for charge transfer for an electric vehicle at a network-controlled charge transfer device, determines whether to enable charge transfer, and responsive to determining to enable charge transfer, transmits a communication to the network-controlled charge transfer device that indicates to the network-controlled charge transfer device to enable charge transfer.
US08450958B2
Triggered by a position detection sensor detecting that a rotor is positioned at any one of K predetermined electrical angles, for example, 60°, 180°, and 300°, a voltage vector to be given to a motor is updated. When, for example, the rotation frequency is equal to or higher than a specified value, the predetermined electrical angles is changed into M, for example, into one angle of 60°.
US08450956B2
An apparatus for controlling operation of inverter system configured to drive a motor by using an inverter, and to normally operate the motor in a resonance-generated frequency band if the resonance occurs, and a method thereof are disclosed, wherein the method includes detecting a current outputted by an inverter system to a motor, if an operation frequency of the motor is in a resonance frequency band, converting the detected current to a d axis current and a q axis current, calculating a difference between the converted d axis current and pre-sampled d axis current (magnetic flux portion), multiplying the calculated difference by a preset comparative control gain to calculate a comparative control voltage, and adding the calculated comparative control voltage to a torque portion voltage responsive to an operation frequency of the motor to generate a driving voltage of the motor.
US08450949B2
A light emitting diode (LED) driving device outputs a driving signal according to a select signal, an update data, and an update command. The driving device includes a buffer circuit, a display data storage, and a signal generating circuit. The buffer circuit includes register series and a bypass register. The buffer circuit selectively stores the update data in the register series and the bypass register according to the update command. The display data storage stores multiple display data. The display data storage updates the display data by using the update data stored in the register series according to the update command. The signal generating circuit outputs the driving signal according to the display data. When the update data is stored in the bypass register, the clock of the update data passing through the driver is reduced.
US08450943B2
To a constant-current power supply whose output current can be variably set, light emitting modules can be connected in parallel. A control unit recognizes connection information outputted from an information output unit provided in each of the light emitting modules and varies the output current of the constant-current power supply. Drive can be controlled in response to a state of the connected light emitting modules such as the connecting number of light emitting modules.
US08450939B2
A method for igniting and for starting high-pressure discharge lamps is provided. The method may include applying a takeover voltage to the lamp for a predetermined time of a burst; superimposing ignition pulses on the takeover voltage in such a way that the voltage of the ignition pulses and the takeover voltage are added up and an interruption being provided between two bursts; and changing the ignition pulses from burst to burst or within a burst from the positive half-cycle of the takeover voltage to the negative half-cycle of the takeover voltage, and vice versa.
US08450934B2
A circuit arrangement for operating a low-pressure discharge lamp may include a voltage source with two terminals; switches; and a series resonant circuit; a controller configured to control the switches such that an AC voltage is applied to the resonant circuit; a PTC thermistor coupled on one side to a circuit point of the resonant circuit and on the other side, at least one of via a diode, to the first terminal of the voltage source and, via a diode to the second terminal of the voltage source; a resistive element connected in series with a diode in the circuit between a terminal of the voltage source and the PTC thermistor; and an evaluation device configured to tap off the voltage drop across the resistive element and being coupled to the controller in order to deactivate the controller.
US08450926B2
An article of manufacture comprises a thin film solid state lighting device, such as an organic light emitting diode (OLED) device, having a planar light emitting side and an opposite planar mounting side and including electrodes disposed on the planar mounting side of the thin film solid state lighting device, the electrodes including a magnetic material configured to conductively convey electrical drive current to drive the thin film solid state lighting device to emit light at the planar light emitting principal side. The article of manufacture may further comprise a fixture having a planar surface with magnets arranged to mate with the electrodes to magnetically secure the thin film solid state lighting device with the fixture and to concurrently form electrically conductive paths including the magnetic material of the electrodes configured to conductively convey electrical drive current. Thus this magnetic connection provides both mechanical support and electrical conduction path.
US08450921B2
A wavelength conversion structure comprises a phosphor layer comprising a first part and a second part formed on the first part, wherein the first part and the second part have a plurality of pores, a first material layer formed in the plurality of pores of the first part, a second material layer formed in the plurality of pores of the second part and a plurality of phosphor particles, wherein the plurality of phosphor particles is distributed in the first material layer and the second material layer.
US08450916B2
A display device including a first substrate; a display unit on the first substrate, the display unit displaying an image; and a second substrate facing the first substrate with the display unit interposed therebetween, wherein the first substrate and the second substrate are optical contact bonded to each other.
US08450911B2
To provide a piezoelectric thin film element comprising: a piezoelectric thin film on a substrate, having an alkali-niobium oxide-based perovskite structure expressed by a composition formula (K1-xNax)yNbO3, wherein composition ratios x, y of the piezoelectric thin film expressed by (K1-xNax)yNbO3 are in a range of 0.4≦x≦0.7 and 0.7≦y≦0.94.
US08450900B2
A method for the mechanical winding of a coil having at least one wire is disclosed. The coil has a coil inner side and at least two winding layers, with one winding layer being formed by turns situated essentially parallel to the coil inner side, to increase the precision of the winding and to reduce the dimensional tolerances of the winding. At least during the winding of a first winding layer, a gap is formed at a predefinable position between a first turn and a second turn adjacent to the first turn, with the second turn being wound immediately following the first turn. The width of the gap at least regionally is at least one wire diameter, and the wire is guided into the gap after the winding of the second turn, and optionally after the winding of further turns, thereby forming at least one support turn.
US08450899B2
A stator includes a stator core and a multi-phase stator coil comprised of a plurality of electric wires. Each of the electric wires has first, second, . . . , nth in-slot portions and first, second, . . . , (n−1)th turn portions, where n is an integer not less than 4. The first in-slot portions of the electric wires are located most radially outward and the nth in-slot portions are located most radially inward in the slots of the stator core. Each of the electric wires also has a first end portion positioned on the first in-slot portion side and a second end portion positioned on the nth in-slot portion side. Each of phase windings of the stator coil is formed of at least two of the electric wires. The first end portion of one of the two electric wires is connected to the second end portion of the other electric wire.
US08450894B2
A method for forming an electromechanical actuator that involves using at least one motor module engageable with an output ram for controllably translating the output ram along a linear axis of the output ram. A torque sensing adaptive control (TSAC) system is used for monitoring motor module torque within the motor module and generating a disengagement command signal. The disengagement command signal is used to initiate disengagement of the motor module from the output ram when the torque within the motor module is outside an allowable motor module torque range.
US08450888B2
A brushless starter/generator includes a rotor rotatably mounted within a stator mounted within a housing and an oil cooling system using cooling oil from an engine accessory gearbox for cooling the rotor and the stator. The rotor is fixedly mounted on a rotor shaft having a rotor heat exchanger disposed therein. A stator heat exchanger for cooling the stator includes an oil jacket around the housing. The stator heat exchanger includes a grooved tube around the housing and axially extending axial passages connected to annular inlet and outlet manifolds in the grooved tube. The rotor shaft is operably connected to a power take-off shaft within the gearbox and rotatably supported by a shaft bearing in a gearbox casing of the accessory gearbox. The oil cooling system is a dry cavity oil cooling system which prevents cooling oil from entering an air gap between the rotor and the stator.
US08450878B2
Methods and apparatus for power factor correction include selectively coupling bit reactive loads with a load having dynamic reactive properties to dynamically correct a power factor. Methods and apparatus for reducing distortion in a power delivery system include a means for determining distortion in a power line, forming a corrective signal according to the distortion and selectively sinking and sourcing current to the power line according to the corrective signal.
US08450875B2
An apparatus for controlling at least one electrical load may include at least one pushbutton; a communications interface for communicating with the loads, the loads being switched on and off by the at least one pushbutton via the communications interface; and a first controlled switch with control logic, said switch being connected between the loads and a power supply, and the first controlled switch isolates the power supply from the loads as soon as all of the loads have been disconnected via the communications interface.
US08450872B2
A vertical wind power generator with automatically unstretchable blades is disclosed. The vertical wind power generator includes a generator, a linkage mechanism, a lifting type blade assembly, a resistance type blade assembly and a drive unit. The drive unit provides power for driving the linkage mechanism. The drive unit has an output shaft movable between a first position and a second position. When the output shaft is moved to the first position, the linkage mechanism is driven to move the resistance type blades to a stretched position. When the output shaft is moved to the second position, the linkage mechanism is driven to move the resistance type blades to an unstretched position.
US08450870B1
A power-generating system using sea current and sea anchors provides a constant source of renewable clean energy. The device will not disturb the environment and have relatively low maintenance requirements. The device will not disturb the flow of traffic on rivers and will not interfere with maritime activities. The system will also be self contained so that it will be relatively easy to move the device, if needed in the event of extremely inclement weather conditions.
US08450858B2
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device having a first wiring layer, a first interlayer insulating film, a second interlayer insulating film, a third interlayer insulating film, and a second wiring layer, in which the method includes depositing the second wiring layer on the third interlayer insulating film and, where the widths of first wiring layer and the second wiring layer are 10.0 μm or greater, executing one of etching the second wiring layer to set a width of 1.0 μm or greater in a portion where the first wiring layer and the second wiring layer overlap and etching the second wiring layer to seta horizontal distance of 2.0 μm or greater between adjacent portions of the first wiring layer and the second wiring layer.
US08450854B2
The present invention provides an interconnect structure in which a patternable low-k material is employed as an interconnect dielectric material. Specifically, this invention relates to single-damascene and dual-damascene low-k interconnect structures with at least one patternable low-k dielectric. In general terms, the interconnect structure includes at least one patterned and cured low-k dielectric material located on a surface of a substrate. The at least one cured and patterned low-k material has conductively filled regions embedded therein and typically, but not always, includes Si atoms bonded to cyclic rings via oxygen atoms. The present invention also provides a method of forming such interconnect structures in which no separate photoresist is employed in patterning the patterned low-k material.
US08450851B2
It is an object of the present invention to prevent an influence of voltage drop due to wiring resistance, trouble in writing of a signal into a pixel, and trouble in gray scales, and provide a display device with higher definition, represented by an EL display device and a liquid crystal display device.In the present invention, a wiring including Cu is provided as an electrode or a wiring used for the display device represented by the EL display device and the liquid crystal display device. Besides, sputtering is performed with a mask to form the wiring including Cu. With such structure, it is possible to reduce the voltage drop and a deadened signal.
US08450846B2
Methods and systems for communicating via flip-chip die and package waveguides are disclosed and may include communicating one or more signals between sections of an integrated circuit via one or more waveguides integrated in a multi-layer package. The integrated circuit may be bonded to the multi-layer package. The waveguides may be configured via switches in the integrated circuit or by MEMS switches integrated in the multi-layer package. The signals may include a microwave signal and a low frequency control signal that may configure the microwave signal. The low frequency control signal may include a digital signal. The waveguides may comprise metal and/or semiconductor layers deposited on and/or embedded within the multi-layer package.
US08450845B2
The object of the present invention is to efficiently dissipate heat from the upper and lower main surfaces of a semiconductor device carrying a semiconductor element. A semiconductor device (1) is provided with an insulating substrate (10A), an insulating substrate (10B) provided so as to face the insulating substrate (10A), and a semiconductor element (20) disposed between the insulating substrate (10A) and the insulating substrate (10B) and having a collector electrode and an emitter electrode provided on the side opposite to that of the collector electrode. The collector electrode is electrically connected to a metal foil (10ac) provided on the insulating substrate (10A), and the emitter electrode is electrically connected to the metal foil (10bc) provided on the insulating substrate (10B). As a result, heat generated by the semiconductor element (20) is efficiently dissipated from the upper and lower main surfaces of the semiconductor device (1).
US08450844B2
There is provided a semiconductor package. A semiconductor package according to an aspect of the invention may include a core part having a semiconductor chip mounted within a receiving space therein; an insulation part provided on one surface of the core part; and a via part provided by filling a hole-processed surface formed simultaneously through the insulation part and a passivation layer for protecting an electrode pattern part on the semiconductor chip.
US08450843B2
The semiconductor device comprises a semiconductor chip and a printed wiring board having a recess in which the semiconductor chip is housed face-down, wherein the printed wiring board comprises multiple wiring layers below a circuit surface of the semiconductor chip on which connection terminals are formed, and the multiple wiring layers include a first wiring layer for forming signal wires, a second wiring layer for forming a ground plane, and a third wiring layer for forming power wires and power BGA and ground BGA pads in sequence from the circuit surface.
US08450832B2
Large tuning range junction varactor includes first and second junction capacitors coupled in parallel between first and second varactor terminals. First and second plates of the capacitors are formed by three alternating doped regions in a substrate. The first and third doped regions are of the same type sandwiching the second doped region of the second type. A first input terminal is coupled to the first and third doped regions and a second terminal is coupled to the second doped region. At the interfaces of the doped regions are first and second depletion regions whose width can be varied by varying the voltage across the terminals from zero to full reverse bias.
US08450831B2
A semiconductor device, includes a semiconductor device, a wiring layer provided on the semiconductor substrate, a high frequency wiring provided in the wiring layer, and plural dummy metals provided in the wiring layer apart from the high frequency wiring, wherein the wiring layer in plan view includes a high frequency wiring vicinity region and an external region surrounding the high frequency wiring vicinity region, wherein the high frequency wiring vicinity region includes a first region enclosed by an outer edge of the high frequency wiring, and a second region surrounding the first region, wherein the plural dummy metals are disposed dispersedly in the high frequency wiring vicinity region and in the external region respectively, and wherein an average interval between the dummy metals in the high frequency wiring vicinity region is wider than that in the external region.
US08450829B2
Pitch multiplied and non-pitch multiplied features of an integrated circuit, e.g., features in the array, interface and periphery areas of the integrated circuit, are formed by processing a substrate through a mask. The mask is formed by patterning a photoresist layer which simultaneously defines mask elements corresponding to features in the array, interface and periphery areas of the integrated circuit. The pattern is transferred to an amorphous carbon layer. Sidewall spacers are formed on the sidewalls of the patterned amorphous carbon layer. A layer of protective material is deposited and then patterned to expose mask elements in the array region and in selected parts of the interface or periphery areas. Amorphous carbon in the array region or other exposed parts is removed, thereby leaving a pattern including free-standing, pitch multiplied spacers in the array region. The protective material is removed, leaving a pattern of pitch multiplied spacers in the array region and non-pitch multiplied mask elements in the interface and periphery areas. The pattern is transferred to a hard mask layer, through which an underlying substrate is etched.
US08450825B2
A semiconductor package is disclosed. In one aspect, the package includes a base frame and a wiring substrate mounted on the base frame. The base frame has two pieces made of a material with respectively a first and a second coefficient of thermal expansion and connected to each other via resilient connecting structures. The wiring substrate has electric wiring tracks providing the electric connection between first and second bond pads, provided for being electrically connected to bond pads on respectively a die and a printed wiring board. The electrical wiring tracks have flexible parts provided to expand and contract along with the resilient connecting structures.
US08450821B2
A method and apparatus used for forming a lens and spacer combination, and imager module employing the spacer and lens combination. The apparatus includes a mold having a base, spacer section, and mold feature. The method includes using the mold with a blank to create a spacer that includes an integral lens. The spacer and lens combination and imager modules can be formed on a wafer level.
US08450809B2
Provided is a semiconductor device for applying common source lines with individual bias voltages. The device includes a substrate, cell transistors arrayed in a cell matrix shape on the substrate and configured to have gate insulating patterns, gate electrodes, common source regions, drain regions and channel regions. Word lines are configured to electrically interconnect the gate electrodes with each other. Common source lines are shared between only a pair of the neighboring word lines and are configured to electrically interconnect the common source regions with each other. Drain metal contacts and source metal contacts are arranged in a straight line on the drain regions. Bit lines are electrically connected to the drain metal contacts. And impurity regions are configured to control the threshold voltage of the channel regions.
US08450808B1
A device includes a first and a second HVMOS device, each includes a gate electrode over a semiconductor substrate, wherein the gate electrodes of the first and the second HVMOS devices have a first gate length and a second gate length, respectively, with the second gate length being greater than the first gate length. Each of the first and second HVMOS devices includes a first and a second well region of a p-type and an n-type, respectively, and a native region between and contacting the first and the second well regions. The first and the second well regions have higher impurity concentrations than the native region. The native region of the first HVMOS device and the native region of the second HVMOS device have a first native-region length and a second native-region length, respectively, wherein the second native-region length is greater than the first native-region length.
US08450798B2
A monolithically integrated trench FET and Schottky diode includes a plurality of trenches extending into a FET region and a Schottky region of a semiconductor layer. A trench in the Schottky region includes a dielectric layer lining the trench sidewalls, and a conductive electrode having a top surface that is substantially coplanar with a top surface of the semiconductor layer adjacent the trench. An interconnect layer electrically contacts the top surface of the semiconductor layer adjacent the trench so as to form a Schottky contact with the top surface of the semiconductor layer adjacent the trench. A surface of the semiconductor layer in the Schottky region is lower relative to a surface of the semiconductor layer in the FET region.
US08450787B2
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory has a semiconductor substrate, a first insulating film formed on a channel region on a surface portion of the semiconductor substrate, a charge accumulating layer formed on the first insulating film, a second insulating film formed on the charge accumulating layer, a control gate electrode formed on the second insulating film, and a third insulating film including an Si—N bond that is formed on a bottom surface and side surfaces of the charge accumulating layer.
US08450783B2
The semiconductor device includes a source line, a bit line, a signal line, a word line, memory cells connected in parallel between the source line and the bit line, a first driver circuit electrically connected to the source line and the bit line through switching elements, a second driver circuit electrically connected to the source line through a switching element, a third driver circuit electrically connected to the signal line, and a fourth driver circuit electrically connected to the word line. The memory cell includes a first transistor including a first gate electrode, a first source electrode, and a first drain electrode, a second transistor including a second gate electrode, a second source electrode, and a second drain electrode, and a capacitor. The second transistor includes an oxide semiconductor material.
US08450782B2
A field effect transistor includes a high resistance layer on a substrate, a semiconductor operation layer that is formed on the high resistance layer and includes a channel layer that has the carbon concentration of not more than 1×1018 cm−3 and has the layer thickness of more than 10 nm and not more than 100 nm, a recess that is formed up to the inside of the channel layer in the semiconductor operation layer, source and drain electrodes that are formed on the semiconductor operation layer with the recess intervening therebetween, a gate insulating film that is formed on the semiconductor operation layer so as to cover the recess, and a gate electrode that is formed on the gate insulating film in the recess.
US08450778B2
A semiconductor device has first and second interconnect structures in first and second columns, respectively, of an array. Each of the first and second interconnect structures has a reference voltage node and first, second, third, and fourth conductors that are coupled to each other and formed at a first layer, a second layer, a third layer, and a fourth layer, respectively, over a substrate having a plurality of devices defining a plurality of bit cells. The reference voltage node of each interconnect structure provides a respectively separate reference voltage to a bit cell corresponding to said interconnect structure. None of the first, second, third, and fourth conductors in either interconnect structure is connected to a corresponding conductor in the other interconnect structure. The second layer is above the first layer, the third layer is above the second layer, and the fourth layer is above the third layer.
US08450777B2
A reverse-conducting insulated gate bipolar transistor includes a wafer of first conductivity type with a second layer of a second conductivity type and a third layer of the first conductivity type. A fifth electrically insulating layer partially covers these layers. An electrically conductive fourth layer is electrically insulated from the wafer by the fifth layer. The third through the fifth layers form a first opening above the second layer. A sixth layer of the second conductivity type and a seventh layer of the first conductivity type are arranged alternately in a plane on a second side of the wafer. A ninth layer is formed by implantation of ions through the first opening using the fourth and fifth layers as a first mask.
US08450774B2
In one example, we describe a new high performance AlGaN/GaN metal-insulator-semiconductor heterostructure field-effect transistor (MISHFET), which was fabricated using HfO2 as the surface passivation and gate insulator. The gate and drain leakage currents are drastically reduced to tens of nA, before breakdown. Without field plates, for 10 μm of gate-drain spacing, the off-state breakdown voltage is 1035V with a specific on-resistance of 0.9 mΩ-cm2. In addition, there is no current slump observed from the pulse measurements. This is the best performance reported on GaN-based, fast power-switching devices on sapphire, up to now, which efficiently combines excellent device forward, reverse, and switching characteristics. Other variations, features, and examples are also mentioned here.
US08450765B2
An LED chip includes a transparent substrate and a number of lighting structure units each including a p-type semiconductor and an n-type semiconductor and a recess extending from the p-type semiconductor to the n-type semiconductor. The recess is filled with metal material which covers the surface of the lighting structure units. By filling the recess with metal material, the heat generated by the lighting structure units can rapidly transfer to the metal material. A method for manufacturing the light emitting diode chip is also provided.
US08450757B2
The light-emitting device includes a light source and a gradient index (GRIN) element. The GRIN element has a cylindrical refractive index profile in which the refractive index varies radially and is substantially constant axially. The GRIN element includes a first end surface opposite a second end surface and is characterized by a length-to-pitch ratio. The GRIN element is arranged with the first end surface adjacent the light source to receive light from the light source, and emits the light from the second end surface in a radiation pattern dependent on the length-to-pitch ratio. Since the radiation pattern depends on the length-to-pitch ratio of the GRIN element, LEDs with different radiation patterns can be made simply by using GRIN elements of appropriate lengths.
US08450754B2
LED layers are grown over a sapphire substrate. Individual flip chip LEDs are formed by trenching or masked ion implantation. Modules containing a plurality of LEDs are diced and mounted on a submount wafer. A submount metal pattern or a metal pattern formed on the LEDs connects the LEDs in a module in series. The growth substrate is then removed, such as by laser lift-off. A semi-insulating layer is formed, prior to or after mounting, that mechanically connects the LEDs together. The semi-insulating layer may be formed by ion implantation of a layer between the substrate and the LED layers. PEC etching of the semi-insulating layer, exposed after substrate removal, may be performed by biasing the semi-insulating layer. The submount is then diced to create LED modules containing series-connected LEDs.
US08450752B2
The present invention provides a semiconductor device realizing reduced occurrence of a defect such as a crack at the time of adhering elements to each other. The semiconductor device includes a first element and a second element adhered to each other. At least one of the first and second elements has a pressure relaxation layer on the side facing the other of the first and second elements, and the pressure relaxation layer includes a semiconductor part having a projection/recess part including a projection projected toward the other element, and a resin part filled in a recess in the projection/recess part.
US08450750B2
A silicon carbide semiconductor device is provided that includes a semiconductor layer made of silicon carbide and having a surface with a trench having a sidewall formed of a crystal plane tilted at an angle in a range of not less than 50° and not more than 65° relative to the {0001} plane, and an insulating film formed to contact the sidewall of the trench. A maximum value of the nitrogen concentration in a region within 10 nm from the interface between the sidewall of the trench and the insulating film is not less than 1×1021 cm−3, and the semiconductor device has a channel direction in a range of ±10° relative to the direction orthogonal to the <−2110> direction in the sidewall of the trench. A method of manufacturing the silicon carbide semiconductor device is also provided.
US08450740B2
A display device includes an infrared sensing transistor and a visible sensing transistor. The visible sensing transistor includes a semiconductor on a substrate; an ohmic contact on the semiconductor; an etch stopping layer on the ohmic contact; a source electrode and a drain electrode on the etch stopping layer; a passivation layer on the source electrode and the drain electrode; and a gate electrode on the passivation layer. The etch stopping layer may be composed of the same material as the source electrode and the drain electrode. The infrared sensing transistor is similar to the visible sensing transistor except the etch stopping layer is absent.
US08450735B2
An object is to prevent contamination of a semiconductor film in a transistor or a semiconductor device including the transistor. Another object is to suppress variation in electrical characteristics and deterioration. A transistor including: a gate electrode layer provided over a substrate; a gate insulating film provided over the gate electrode layer; a semiconductor layer which is provided over the gate insulating film and which overlaps the gate electrode layer; a carbide layer provided over and in contact with a surface of the semiconductor layer; and a source electrode layer and a drain electrode layer which are electrically connected to the semiconductor layer is provided.
US08450732B2
Oxide semiconductors and thin film transistors (TFTs) including the same are provided. An oxide semiconductor includes Zn atoms and at least one of Ta and Y atoms added thereto. A thin film transistor (TFT) includes a channel including an oxide semiconductor including Zn atoms and at least one of Ta and Y atoms added thereto.
US08450725B2
The invention relates to a semi-conductor transducer, and to the use thereof in an electron donor or electron acceptor space sensor. Said transducer consists of an insulating substrate on the surface of which two electrodes and a semiconductor sensitive element are provided. The sensitive element consists of a layer of a semiconductor molecular material M1 having a conductivity C1 and a layer of a semiconductor molecular material M2 having a conductivity C2 and a forbidden bandwidth Eg2<1 eV. The material layer M1 is in contact with the electrodes. The material layer M2 is deposited on the material layer M1 and is not in contact with the electrodes. The conductivities are such that C2/C1≧1.
US08450724B2
A device is provided by use of a helical substituted polyacetylene. The device comprises a structure comprised of a helical substituted polyacetylene having a helical main chain, and a pair of electrodes for applying a voltage or electric current to the structure, wherein the molecule of the helical substituted polyacetylene has a length larger than the distance between the pair of the electrodes.
US08450716B2
A memory device memory device includes a first array of memory structures disposed in rows and columns and constructed over a substrate, each memory structure having a first signal electrode, a second signal electrode, and a resistive layer positioned between the first signal electrode and the second signal electrode.
US08450708B2
Arrangement for and method of generating uniform distributed illumination pattern for imaging reader
A substantially uniform distributed illumination pattern of light is generated on and along a symbol to be read by image capture. A solid-state imager is mounted on a tilted printed circuit board in a tilted handle of an ergonomic reader. An imaging lens assembly captures return light over a field of view from the symbol along an imaging axis, and projects the captured return light onto the imager. An illumination light source is mounted on the board for emitting illumination light at an acute angle of inclination relative to the imaging axis. An optical component includes a first lens portion with a polynomial incident surface for intercepting, bending and aligning the emitted illumination light to generate the pattern in a scan direction along the symbol, and a second lens portion with a toroidal or cylindrical aspherical surface for collimating the aligned illumination light to generate the pattern in a transverse direction.
US08450705B1
The present invention provides a lighting apparatus for nail beauty comprising a bottom plate having a shape non-restricted to any form and a housing having an arched main body attached to the bottom plate to form a space therebetween; characterized in that: a plurality of lighting modules are provided on a top and two lateral sides of the housing to form a ring array; the lighting modules comprise light sources and heat sinks; the lighting modules provided on the top of the housing are tilted slightly such that light emitted therefrom is shone toward the front end of the apparatus and toward the area opposite of the opening of the space between the housing and the bottom plate. Therefore, fewer light sources are required for uniform UV lighting on the nails and the reflection of UV light out to the external of the apparatus can be prevented for safer uses.
US08450704B2
A system for modifying dislocation distributions in semiconductor materials is provided. The system includes one or more vibrational sources for producing at least one excitation of vibrational mode having phonon frequencies so as to enhance dislocation motion through a crystal lattice.
US08450700B2
An ion supply device includes an ion generator for generating ions for removing static electricity, a carrier gas supply unit for supplying to the ion generator a carrier gas for carrying the ions generated in the ion generator, and an ion supply nozzle for blowing the ions and the carrier gas from the ion generator through a blow-off opening toward an electricity removal target from which static electricity is to be removed. A slit is provided at the blow-off opening and has an increased width as the slit gets distant from the electricity removal target. The ion supply nozzle includes an internal flow path and a plurality of internal fins provided at a portion of the internal flow path near the blow-off opening so that the ions and the carrier gas blown from the slit is uniformly distributed along a lengthwise direction of the slit.
US08450675B2
Image projector having a photo sensor providing measurement values necessary for a color calibration
An image projector for calibrating a color of an image and recalibrating the color of the image is provided. The image projector includes an illuminating optical part having at least three independent light sources; a light modulator for modulating light emitted from the illuminating optical part according to an image signal; an imaging optical part for projecting the light modulated by the light modulator onto the screen to form an image; and a photo sensor disposed in a light path traveling in a different direction than a direction of the light beam to be projected on the screen, receiving a portion of the light beam modulated by the light modulator and providing measurement values necessary for a color calibration.
US08450652B2
An apparatus for thermally treating semiconductor substrates has a processing space which is defined by first walls substantially parallel to the semiconductor substrate and a second side wall connected to the first walls; a substrate holding device disposed in the processing space which defines a substrate retaining region for a semiconductor substrate in the processing space; and heating elements which are disposed in the processing space between at least one of the first walls and the substrate retaining region. The thermal gradient between the edge of the semiconductor substrate and the center of the semiconductor substrate can be effectively compensated by providing a shutter between the substrate retaining region and the heating elements which limits the radiation emitted in the processing space by the heating elements in the direction of the substrate retaining region.
US08450651B2
A human skin mask heating/warming device includes a case and an electrical heating device. The case includes an upper casing and a lower casing. One end of the upper casing is pivotally connected with one end of the lower casing. The upper and lower casings can be opened/closed to enclose a mask (pack) in the case. Alternatively, the case is integrally formed with the upper and lower casings or the upper and lower casings are integrally assembled with each other to form the case. One side of the case is formed with a slot or slit. The mask (pack) can be guided into the case through the slot or slit. The electrical heating device includes an electrical unit and a heating unit. The electrical unit provides a current to the heating unit for generating heat. The heating unit is disposed on the case for providing heat to the mask (pack).
US08450649B2
A self-shielding welding electrode and a method of making the same are provided. The self-shielding welding electrode contains lithium aluminate in either the flux or the electrode portion of the electrode.
US08450647B2
A drive roll is disclosed that is useable in a wire feeder for advancing a wire. The drive roll includes a first side, a second side offset from the first side, and an annular surface between the first side and the second side. An annular groove is formed in the annular surface and defines an engagement surface. Pluralities of lands are spaced along the engagement surface and pluralities of notches are formed in the engagement surface for engaging and advancing the wire. An engagement ratio is defined between the total land area of the plurality of lands and the total notch area of the plurality of notches calculated at the engagement surface. The engagement ratio defines a drive roll that accurately engages and advances the wire over a longer period of use.
US08450641B2
Laser machining systems and methods with moving laser scanning stage(s) providing force cancellation
Laser machining systems and methods may use one or more moving laser scanning stages with force cancellation. The force cancellation is provided by moving masses linearly with equal and opposition motion. One or more of the masses may be a laser scanning stage. The laser machining systems may be used to scribe one or more lines in large flat workpieces such as solar panels. In particular, laser machining systems and methods may be used to scribe lines in thin film photovoltaic (PV) solar panels with accuracy, high speed and reduced cost.
US08450640B2
An area of reduced thickness is formed in a panel, and a pattern of microscopic holes are formed in the area. The holes are filled with a light transmissive material such as a curable polymer. The thinned area may also be filled with a polymer to reinforce the thinned area and the polymer may be colored to add color to light transmitted through the pattern. The panel can form a portion of a housing surrounding a lighting source that makes the holes visible when lit.
US08450638B2
To form a deeper scribed groove with less energy or to improve the scribing speed, without making the apparatus configuration complicated is intended. The present invention relates to a laser scribing method which includes: forming on a workpiece a plurality of beam spots arranged in a state being separated from one another along the scribing direction, and forming a linear scribed groove on the workpiece by moving the plurality of beam spots in the scribing direction. The plurality of beam spots are obtained from a laser beam of a single ray bundle.
US08450630B2
Exemplary contact backings for vacuum interrupters are described.
US08450628B2
A projective capacitive touch sensor structure includes following elements. Two second transparent patterned electrodes are disposed on a substrate and located at two sides of a first transparent patterned electrode. A bridging wire strides over the first transparent patterned electrode and electrically bridges the second transparent patterned electrodes to form a conducting wire. A transparent dielectric pad is disposed between the bridging wire and the first transparent patterned electrode. A dielectric portion of the transparent dielectric pad located above the first transparent patterned electrode and the second transparent patterned electrodes includes an upper surface, a lower surface and an inclined side surface connecting the upper surface and the lower surface, an area of the upper surface is 70%-95% of an area of the lower surface, and an included angle between the inclined side surface and the lower surface is an acute angle.
US08450615B2
A ceramic multilayer substrate in which cracks resulting from the difference in shrinkage caused by heat or thermal shrinkage caused by firing can be prevented effectively between an end surface electrode and a substrate main body. The substrate main body includes alternately stacked first and second ceramic layers, and including first recesses provided in end surfaces of at least two adjacent ceramic layers so as to communicate with each other, and an electroconductive end surface electrode is disposed in the first recesses in the substrate main body. The first and the second ceramic layer each have a sintering start temperature and a sintering end temperature, and at least one of the sintering start temperature and the sintering end temperature is different between the first and the second ceramic layer. The substrate main body has a second recess in at least one of the ceramic layers having the first recesses so as to communicate with the first recess and lie between other ceramic layers. In the second recess, an electroconductive protrusion connected to the end surface electrode is disposed.
