US08505487B2
Embodiments of absorbent materials are suitable for animal litter and/or soil supplements/fertilizers. In certain embodiments, such absorbent materials may be comprised of approximately 40% pine, approximately 40% white fir, and approximately 20% organic alfalfa, as just an example.
US08505484B2
A milking arrangement includes a milking robot (10) having a first link (L1), a second link (L2), a third link (L3), an end effector (E), sensor (16) and a control unit (15). The first link is rotatable to a first angle within a first angle range (α1) via a first joint (11). The second link is rotatable to a second angle within a second angle range (α2) via a second joint (12). The third link (L3) is rotatable to a third angle within a third angle range (α3) via third joint (13). The links (L1, L2, L3) are rotatable so that the end effector is movable within a three-dimensional workspace (W). Each position of the end effector within the workspace corresponds to a single combination of the first, second and third angles.
US08505482B2
A method for controlling the milking by a milking machine includes, during an initial phase of the milking, increasing a milking vacuum and/or a maximum pulsation vacuum for the milking gradually from a first selected vacuum level (1L) towards a second selected vacuum level (2L) to thereby improve teat stimulation and decreasing the risk of a second milk letdown. When a second milk letdown (2ML) is detected, the maximum pulsation vacuum is preferably immediately lowered to a third selected vacuum level (3L), and is kept at that third selected vacuum level until a certain milk flow has been established, whereupon the pulsation vacuum level is then again increased gradually until the second selected vacuum level is reached.
US08505465B2
A railway truck is provided comprising first and second wheelsets, each wheelset comprising at least a left and a right wheel adjacent opposite ends of an axle. Each axle is supported for rotation about an axle axis by a respective bearing adjacent the left and right wheels. A first frame member extends between a bearing support adjacent the left wheel of the first wheelset and a bearing support adjacent the right wheel of the second wheelset. A second frame member extends between a bearing support adjacent the left wheel of the second wheelset and a bearing support adjacent the right wheel of the first wheelset. The first and second frame members are free to move without interference from each other to cause the truck to steer in response to a change in a rolling direction of either of the first and second wheelsets.
US08505462B2
The present invention is related to the field of mechanical engineering and describes an automatically adjustable system of traverse rails with multiple characteristics that extend the useful life of the sustain by a minimum factor of four while providing redundant security backup to the rails allowing human passengers to move from one place to another in and easy and safe manner with a minimum of noise and vibration while providing the owner of the system benefits of lower maintenance cost and less exposure to financial risk. Also the system can be installed in a multitude of natural places without the need to cut or damage the environment. Using the same components this system offers other configuration options to increase the possibilities of installing a system with desirable characteristics over a greater number of inclinations. Combining the various components starting with a smooth rail as in FIG. 1 with the self-equalizing system FIG. 3 for a maximum conservation of energy to maximum breaking rail with the skeleton braid in FIG. 2 with the maximum braking security system of in FIG. 4.
US08505457B2
An austenitic stainless steel ammunition cartridge includes an outer region and a base, wherein the outer region is about 50%-80% of the thickness of the base, which serves to minimize the sidewall ironing required to form the cartridge. The cartridge blank can be formed by spin forming, compression forming, grinding, or a combination thereof. Tooling to form the insert can include at least a pair of blocks and inserts, at least one insert defining a centrally positioned aperture.
US08505456B2
A cartridge ammunition, in particular grenade ammunition, is provided that includes a projectile and a propellant charge case for accommodating the projectile and a propulsion, having a high pressure chamber and a low pressure champer, wherein the projectile and the propellant charge case are fastened to one another by way of a connection. The connection includes a membrane having at least one target braking point/opening point, which opens at a predetermined pressure in the high pressure chamber of the propulsion.
US08505447B2
An apparatus is provided for compressing a loose solid feedstock. The apparatus includes a two stage compressor. The first compression stage is a screw compressor. The second compressor stage is a reciprocating compressor. The reciprocating compressor operates co-axially with, and receives its feed from, the screw compressor. The compressor establishes feedstock plug in a discharge pipe. A choke cone maintains pressure in the plug. The choke cone is actively controlled in response to operation of the compressor. The discharge from the compressor has a cooling jacket, and includes an expanding taper. The reciprocating compressor, the screw compressor, and the choke cone are all adjustable in real time to control the compression of the feedstock according to a pre-programmed schedule that need not have equal compression and retraction strokes. The operation of the screw compressor may be advanced or eased off depending on the motion of the reciprocating compressor.
US08505446B2
A plant has a line to convey trays and a processing chamber under modified atmospheric conditions that has a regulating chamber with gates at an entrance and a regulating chamber (9) with gates at an exit to introduce and extract trays with foodstuff. Before the input regulating chamber there is a stacking device for stacking trays, after the exit of the input regulating chamber (4) and inside the processing chamber there is an unstacking device, and transfer device are arranged to introduce stacks of trays in the processing chamber through the regulating chamber in order to provide sufficient time to regulate the atmospheric conditions in the regulating chamber without lowering the advance rate of the trays in the line.
US08505441B2
An espresso coffee machine comprises a boiler and a pump for feeding hot water under pressure to one or more brew groups (1), each of which comprises a receptacle (24) for infusing a predetermined dose of ground coffee, a hot water feed pipe (38) and an outlet pipe (40). Manual operating means (30, 50) are provided at the inlet of each brew group for selectively putting the coffee powder receptacle (24) in communication with the water feed pipe (38), with the outlet pipe 40 or with both the pipes in order to preinfuse the coffee powder.
US08505440B2
A coffee pod with varying intensity. The coffee pod includes a substantially rigid sidewall, a substantially rigid base, and coffee grinds positioned therein. More than about seventy percent (70%) of the coffee grinds may include a particle size distribution of between about 200 to about 300 microns. The coffee grinds may have a weight of the about five (5) to about eight (8) grams.
US08505436B2
A proportional actuator valve (110) adapted for position control and position adjustment is provided. The proportional actuator valve (110) includes a valve housing (112) having at least two chambers (324, 325). The chambers are separated by one or more sealing members (322). A valve slider (113) is provided that is movable in the valve housing (112). One or more grooves (329) are formed in the valve slider (113). The one or more grooves (329) pneumatically communicate with the two chambers (324, 325) of the valve housing (112). One or more bores (327, 328) are also formed in the valve slider (113). The one or more bores (327, 328) pneumatically communicate with the one or more grooves (329). Movement of the valve slider (113) relative to the valve housing (112) provides a pneumatic valve action.
US08505429B2
The invention relates to a separator device for separating the on-board and ground portions of a launcher fueling module, the device comprising: a locking system having a locking finger (50) mounted on the ground portion (22) and having a blocking portion (523), and a locking pin (42) on the on-board portion (21) co-operating by engaging with the blocking portion (523) in order to hold the on-board portion (21) and the ground portion (22) in a locking position. The separator system further comprises an actuation system that, under vertical movement of the launcher (10), enables the blocking portion (523) to be disengaged from the locking pin (42), whereby the on-board portion (21) is suitable for being separated from the ground portion (22). The invention also provides a method of separating the on-board and ground portions of a launcher fueling module, which method is implemented by means of such a separator device.
US08505428B2
A telescopic charging handle incorporated into an upper receiver of an AR-15 type firearm includes a first stem portion integrally formed with a handle shaped head. A second stem portion terminates at a distal end in a projecting beak and is further telescopically engaged at a proximal end to the first stem portion. In this fashion, the charging handle is extended upon being rearwardly displaced in order to accommodate a modified length sub caliber action.
US08505423B2
An apparatus includes a receiving module, a conversion module, first and second rollers, a motor, and a cutting head. The receiving module receives a desired weight value. The conversion module converts the desired weight value to a first length of wheel weight material based on a linear density of the wheel weight material. The first and second rollers engage first and second opposing sides of a continuous strip of the wheel weight material. The linear density of the wheel weight material is approximately constant along the continuous strip. The motor directly drives the first roller based on the first length. The cutting head is selectively actuated to cut the wheel weight material.
US08505421B2
A tool-holding device for a lathe is provided including a lathe-attachment portion, with a base sized and shaped for placement on a lathe and attaching means for attaching the base to the lathe. The lathe-attachment portion also has a circular-perimeter, angled mounting apparatus integral with the base and having equal-sized wedge-shaped, double sloped clamping portions and a partly threaded central locking base-bore. Attached to the lathe-attachment portion is a frusto-conical multiple-tool tool-holder having a lower surface with an equal number of equal-sized wedge-shaped, double sloped clamping surfaces to mate with the clamping portions of the base. The upper surface of the tool-holder has insert pockets for attachment of tools. A central bore extends through the tool-holder for locking the tool-holding device to a lathe or other machine.
US08505420B2
The magnetized hand tools each include a sleeve of resilient material disposed over each handle or the base of the tool. One or more magnets are installed between the tool handle(s) and the resilient grip(s) covering the handle(s). Alternatively, the tool may have one or more magnets installed in the base, i.e., the drive attachment end, of a socket, with a sleeve being applied over the base of the socket to retain the magnet(s). The socket sleeve has a passage therethrough for the conventional square drive of the ratchet or other tool used to drive the socket. The magnets are recessed into the base of the socket to allow the overlying sleeve portion to lie immediately adjacent to the surface of the socket base, and may be inset into recesses in the tool handles and/or positively attached thereto for more positive retention.
US08505413B2
A hydraulic power output unit can be used in a hydraulic hybrid drive system for propelling a vehicle. The hydraulic power output unit includes a housing having an input shaft that extends within the housing and is adapted to be rotatably driven by a source of rotational power. A hydraulic pump is rotatably driven by the input driveshaft to pump hydraulic fluid. A vibration damper is provided within the housing for dampening vibrations in the input shaft.
US08505408B2
An adjustable steering column assembly includes a fixed rack secured to a first portion and a moving rack secured to a second portion, which are releasably engaged by a clamp mechanism to permit relative movement therebetween. The fixed rack comprises two rows of teeth spaced apart from one another and extending towards. The moving rack also comprises two rows of teeth which extend away from each other. A clamp engaging means moves the moving rack into and out of engagement with the fixed rack. The teeth on the two racks are offset relative to one another. The mechanism is further arranged so that when if a tooth on tooth event occurs the fixed rack interacts with the moving rack to cause the moving rack to move sideways to permit the teeth to become inter-engaged when the mechanism finally reaches the locked position.
US08505407B2
A steering column device where an inner column can be reliably clamped and sufficient rigidity and strength of an outer column can be achieved. A semi-circular arc rib (132) is formed on the peripheral edge of a closed end section (131) of a slit (13). The rib (132) is substantially semi-circular are-shaped and projects outward from an outer peripheral surface (15A) of an outer column (1). Further, linear ribs (133A, 133B) extend linearly toward the vehicle body front side so as to be continuous from the vehicle body front side of the semi-circular arc rib (132). The semi-circular arc rib (132) and the linear ribs (133A, 133B) reinforce the peripheral edge of the slit (13) of the outer column (1) whose rigidity and strength are impaired. Thus the rigidity and strength of the outer column (1) are improved.
US08505403B2
A gear shifting device for shifting gears of a transmission comprises: at least one guide rail each extending in a longitudinal axis thereof; a plurality of shift effecting members (e.g., shift forks or the like) configured to move a plurality of corresponding sliding sleeves coupled to the guide rail for shifting gears upon actuation of a shift actuator, the shift effecting members each having a terminal end portion with a finger receiving opening formed therein, the finger receiving opening extending in a direction generally parallel to the longitudinal axis of the guide rail; and a shift shaft extending in a direction generally parallel to the longitudinal axis of the guide rail, the shift shaft having a shift finger coupled thereto. The shift shaft is rotatable to pivotally position the shift finger at locations aligned with the finger receiving openings of the shift effecting members, and is also displaceable in the longitudinal direction in the finger receiving openings to move the shift effecting members to effect a gear shifting operation. Methods of shifting gears with a gear shifting device are also disclosed.
US08505402B2
A gear change device for a motor vehicle includes a first and a second primary shaft coaxial with respect to each other, selectively connectable to the driving shaft of the motor vehicle, and a first and a second secondary shaft, whose axes are parallel and spaced from the common axis of said primary shafts. A fifth shaft is parallel and spaced with respect to the common axis of the two primary shafts and with respect to the axes of the two secondary shafts. A parking gear wheel is connected in rotation with the further pinion and cooperates with a locking device in a parking condition. The parking gear wheel is mounted freely rotatable around the axis of the fifth shaft. The parking gear wheel extends radially towards the first secondary shaft within the space between the first reverse gear wheel and a rolling bearing which rotatably supports the first secondary shaft. The bearing is axially interposed between the first reverse gear wheel and the output pinion of the first secondary shaft.
US08505395B2
A partial dilution exhaust sampling system has an expanded ability to simultaneously perform two different evaluations on exhaust from a power source. Beyond testing for particulate matter production, the system may simultaneously evaluate exhaust for undesirable gaseous emissions such as NOx and carbon dioxide and/or concurrently evaluate particle size and distribution in the exhaust sample. After extracting sample flow from the exhaust stream of the power source and adding diluent to the sample flow, the diluted sample flow is divided into a first portion flow and a second portion flow. Depending upon whether the additional exhaust evaluation device is in parallel with the particulate measurement gravimetric filter or in series with the filter, a dilution flow actuator and/or an exit actuator may be adjusted to account for a fraction of diluted sample flow directed to the auxiliary exhaust evaluation device.
US08505392B2
A mobile platform with six degrees of freedom includes a static base plate, six branched chain, a dynamic moving plate and twelve fixing assembly. Each of the static base plate and the dynamic moving plate defines six spherical ball sockets. The dynamic moving plate is adjustably and movably mounted upon the static base plate. The six branched chains is adjustably assembled between the static base plate and the dynamic moving plate, enabling the dynamic moving plate to move relative to the static base plate along six degrees of freedom. Each branched chain comprises two ball heads rotatably engaged with one corresponding ball socket of the static base plate and one corresponding ball socket of the dynamic moving plate.
US08505388B2
An apparatus for simulating stresses experienced by a rotor blade root in a complementary disc fixture, especially in gas turbine engines. The apparatus comprises a mounting member for receiving a blade speciman having a root. The mounting member has an aperture for receiving the root of the blade specimen, and blade contacting regions on either side of said aperture for holding said blade specimen in said aperture. The apparatus further comprises an actuator for applying a tension load to said blade specimen. The blade contacting regions are undercut such that there is a gap between said blade contacting regions and a main body of said mounting member, whereby the blade contacting regions are able to deflect outward into said gap when a tension load is applied to the blade specimen.
US08505384B2
A rig for studying a component has a component support for mounting the component. A speaker applies sound energy to airfoils in the component. A vibrometer studies the effect of the applied sound on the airfoils. At least two of the vibrometer, the component support, and the speaker are rotatable relative to each other. In a separate feature, a vibrometer for studying the effect of sound energy on airfoils in a component is provided with a vision system. The vision system is operable to identify the exact location at which the laser is studying the effect on the airfoil. Methods are also disclosed.
US08505382B2
A system for ultrasensitive mass and/or force detection of this invention includes a mechanical oscillator driven to oscillate in a nonlinear regime. The mechanical oscillator includes a piezoelectric base with at least one cantilever resonator etched into the piezoelectric base. The cantilever resonator is preferably a nonlinear resonator which is driven to oscillate with a frequency and an amplitude. The system of this invention detects an amplitude collapse of the cantilever resonator at a bifurcation frequency as the cantilever resonator stimulated over a frequency range. As mass and/or force is introduced to the cantilever resonator, the bifurcation frequency shifts along a frequency axis in proportion to the added mass.
US08505381B2
A capacitive acceleration sensor includes an acceleration sensor moving part and an acceleration sensor stationary part together forming a capacitor for detecting acceleration, a sealing structure hermetically enclosing but not contacting the acceleration sensor moving part, and at least one support pillar enclosed by but not directly contacted by the acceleration sensor moving part, both ends of the at least one support pillar being in contact with inside walls of the sealing structure. The acceleration sensor moving part is electrically connected to the at least one support pillar.
US08505369B2
An arrangement is provided for determining the oil consumption of an oil-lubricated machine. The arrangement includes an oil circuit, which leads from an oil tank via a start line to the oil-lubricated machine and back, via a return line to the oil tank, and a balance for determining the weight of oil in the oil tank. A device for heating oil is assigned to the start line in such a way that the oil is heated to a predeterminable operating temperature for the oil-lubricated machine before reaching the oil-lubricated machine. A method for determining oil consumption is also provided.
US08505355B2
A bidirectional sphere prover is used to check the accuracy of a custody transfer meter when fluids, such as crude oil or gasoline are bought and sold. The bidirectional sphere prover of the present invention uses a straight calibrated section of pipe between the detection switches, the straight calibrated section of pipe being free of welds, flanges and elbows.
US08505354B2
A compensated gas detector incorporates first and second pellistors combined with first and second resistors and an intervening switch. Control circuits can close the switch for normal gas detection. The switch can be opened to carry out diagnostic measurements. A compensation coefficient can be established in order to compensate outs from the pellistors due to mechanical damage thereto.
US08505353B2
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing magnesium alloy processing materials capable of improving low cycle fatigue life. The manufacturing method for magnesium alloy processing materials with improved low cycle fatigue life comprises pre-straining a magnesium alloy processing material which is processed.
US08505352B2
The invention relates to a method for producing hollow profile-members having a longitudinal flange, wherein a plate which is arranged between the stamp and the first die being preshaped by introducing a stamp into a first die to form an U-shaped profile-member having a first member and a second member, and wherein the U-shaped profile-member being shaped with a second die to form an O-shaped profile-member having a longitudinal flange. In one aspect, the plate is preshaped to form the U-shaped profile-member, a longitudinal flange member portion is shaped in at least the first member and the longitudinal flange member portion is constructed during the shaping of the U-shaped profile-member to form an O-shaped profile-member substantially in a shape-retaining manner to form a portion of the longitudinal flange.
US08505347B2
A locking device which has a lock cylinder and a matching key. The key has a key bit with at least one coding notch and a blocking rib with at least one indentation. The lock cylinder has a housing with a bearing bore and a cylinder core that is mounted in the bearing bore and a blocking member. The blocking member is engagable in a blocking recess of the bearing bore and prevents rotation of the cylinder core. A pivot lever is mounted in the cylinder core and has a bearing end about which the pivot lever pivots, and a sensing end which senses the blocking rib The pivot lever closes off a capturing opening for the housing pin when the blocking rib is the proper height and opens the capturing opening after a partial rotation of the cylinder core when the blocking rib is missing.
US08505342B1
The present invention relates to a bicycle lock structure with dual latch, which includes a latch seat and a lock body, wherein two parallel latches are set on one side of the latch seat, two inserting holes are set on one side of the lock body for inserting the latches, and at least a bead is drove to wedge into a wedged hole of the latch by a slider inside the lock body to form wedged locking, the lock picking difficulty is increased by such structure, to thereby improve the anti-theft effect.
US08505341B2
A household cleaning appliance includes a bulk dispensing system configured to receive a removable cartridge containing multiple doses of treating chemistry and configured to deliver a charge of treating chemistry from the cartridge to a treating chamber and a water supply configured to be selectively coupled to the bulk dispensing system to flush at least a portion of the bulk dispensing system.
US08505340B2
A present invention relates to a fabric treating apparatus including an inside cabinet which forms a treating chamber in which the fabrics treated, and a heating unit for supplying any one between hot wind and steam to the treating chamber, and a driving unit for generating driving power, and a driving unit frame is disposed the upper side of the inside cabinet for fixing the driving unit, and a sealing unit is pressed by the driving unit frame and penetrates the driving unit frame and the inside cabinet.
US08505328B2
An elongated polymeric ribbon is mounted to the cabinet of a refrigerator/freezer or the door and at least one electrical conductor is integrally formed in the ribbon, which also integrally includes at least one fluid conduit. In one embodiment, the ribbon is mounted in association with an elongated spine, such that a module can be mounted anywhere along the spine and coupled to the polymeric ribbon for receiving operating utilities therefrom. This system provides the manufacturer with the capability of positioning a module requiring operating utilities at any desired location within a refrigerator/freezer cabinet and/or on the doors of the refrigerator/freezer. The ribbon connector is accessed by connections which allow dealers to customize refrigerators for individual consumers.
US08505322B2
A battery cooling system operates by pumping liquid through a cooling fluid circulation path. Because the battery cooling system pumps liquid, the compression system that generates the cooling power does not require the use of a condenser. The compression system utilizes a compression wave. An evaporator of the cooling system operates in the critical flow regime in which the pressure in an evaporator tube will remain almost constant and then ‘jump’ or ‘shock up’ to an increased pressure.
US08505317B2
Refrigerating device formed by a main compressor (190), a condenser (140) downstream of and in fluid communication with the main compressor (190), main expansion means (170) downstream of the condenser (140) and an evaporator (180) downstream of and in fluid communication with the main expansion means (170), which also comprises a turbocompressor unit (160) in fluid communication between the evaporator (180) and the main compressor (190) and a heat exchanger (150, 152) having a hot branch (150c) connected upstream, via an inlet line (145), to the condenser (140) and downstream, via an outlet line (149), to the main expansion means (170) and a cold branch (15Of) connected, upstream, to an expansion means (142, 144) mounted on a branch (146) of the line (145) and, downstream, to a turbine portion (162) of the turbocompressor unit (160). The invention also relates to a method for circulating a refrigerating fluid inside the abovementioned device.
US08505313B2
Disclosed are a method and device for a refrigerant-based thermal storage system wherein a condensing unit and an ice-tank heat exchanger can be isolated through a second heat exchanger. The disclosed embodiments provide a refrigerant-based ice storage system with increased reliability, lower cost components, and reduced power consumption compared to non-isolated systems.
US08505312B2
LNG vapor from an LNG storage vessel is absorbed using C3 and heavier components provided by a fractionator that receives a mixture of LNG vapors and the C3 and heavier components as fractionator feed. In such configurations, refrigeration content of the LNG liquid from the LNG storage vessel is advantageously used to condense the LNG vapor after separation. Where desired, a portion of the LNG liquid may also be used as fractionator feed to produce LPG as a bottom product.
US08505301B2
A steam engine in which a liquid and a steam are jetted so that a rotor is turned by the reaction thereof, and the rotor having a well-balanced simple structure. In the steam engine, the rotor 5 having a plurality of bent flow paths 53A to 53D arranged at regular intervals therein is rotatably supported in a closed container 1 filled with the liquid being fitted onto a boss portion 11 of the closed container 1. The boss portion 11 is alternately forming slide-contact portions 11A having a steam feed port and recessed portions 11B. The steam fed into the bent flow path 53 from the steam feed port causes the liquid in the flow path to be jetted outward to rotate the rotor 5. The rotor 5 is of a point-symmetrical shape in cross section free of unbalanced weight, has no moving part, and is simple in structure. When the bent flow path 53 communicates with the recessed portion 11B, the steam remaining in the flow path is cooled and disappears, and the flow path is filled with the liquid.
US08505288B2
A compressed-air energy storage system according to embodiments of the present invention comprises a reversible mechanism to compress and expand air, one or more compressed air storage tanks, a control system, one or more heat exchangers, and, in certain embodiments of the invention, a motor-generator. The reversible air compressor-expander uses mechanical power to compress air (when it is acting as a compressor) and converts the energy stored in compressed air to mechanical power (when it is acting as an expander). In certain embodiments, the compressor-expander comprises one or more stages, each stage consisting of pressure vessel (the “pressure cell”) partially filled with water or other liquid. In some embodiments, the pressure vessel communicates with one or more cylinder devices to exchange air and liquid with the cylinder chamber(s) thereof. Suitable valving allows air to enter and leave the pressure cell and cylinder device, if present, under electronic control.
US08505284B2
An exhaust gas treatment system for an internal combustion engine is provided and includes an exhaust gas conduit, a hydrocarbon supply, a particulate filter (“PF”), at least one sensor, a first temperature sensor, a second temperature sensor, and a control module. The PF is in fluid communication with the exhaust gas conduit and has a filter structure for removal of particulates in the exhaust gas. The filter structure has an innermost region and an outermost region. The PF is selectively regenerated during operation of the internal combustion engine. The PF has a stratified temperature structure that causes the particulates trapped at the innermost region of the PF burn off before the particulates trapped in the outermost region of the PF during regeneration. The control module has a memory with an infinite stage temperature control curve stored thereon.
US08505283B2
An internal combustion engine, in which an NOX selective reducing catalyst (15) is arranged inside an engine exhaust passage, and aqueous urea stored in an aqueous urea tank (20) is fed to the NOX selective reducing catalyst (15) to selectively reduce the NOX. The aqueous urea tank (20) comprises a main tank (20a) and a sub tank (20b) arranged inside the main tank (20a). The aqueous urea in the sub tank (20b) is sent to an aqueous urea feed valve (17). When the aqueous urea tank (20) should be refilled with aqueous urea, the sub tank (20b) is refilled with aqueous urea. It is detected by a level sensor (40) if the aqueous urea in the aqueous urea tank (20) is refilled. When it is judged that the NOX purification rate falls below an allowable level at the time of engine operation right after the aqueous urea in the aqueous urea tank (20) has been refilled, it is judged that the refilled aqueous urea is abnormal.
US08505279B2
The present invention is directed towards methods and systems for treatment of exhaust gas from an engine. In one embodiment, an exhaust gas treatment system for a diesel engine is provided. The system includes a urea selective catalytic reduction (U-SCR) catalyst in fluid communication with a diesel engine to receive an exhaust gas flow therefrom. The system also includes a four-way catalyst in fluid communication with the U-SCR catalyst to receive the exhaust gas flow therefrom, the four-way catalyst comprising a lean nitrogen oxide (NOX) trap (LNT) and diesel particulate filter (DPF).
US08505274B2
A compressor compresses air to produce compressed air. A mixture of fuel and the compressed air is combusted in a combustor to produce combustion gas. The combustion gas is supplied to a turbine to obtain rotational power. High-temperature gas accumulated in a space partitioned by an exhaust-side bearing portion that rotatably supports a turbine shaft and an exhaust diffuser is discharged through an exhaust gas passage. The high-temperature gas is sucked into the exhaust gas passage by exhaust gas flowing in the exhaust diffuser.
US08505273B2
An ice and/or frost preventing system for positioning in an airflow tunnel having an air inlet includes a plurality of waveguide passages positioned in the airflow tunnel; an air filter positioned in each waveguide passage; a microwave energy source coupled to each waveguide passage; a first screen positioned in the airflow tunnel upstream of the plurality of waveguide passages; and a second screen positioned in the airflow tunnel downstream of the plurality of waveguide passages. The microwave energy sources and the first and second screens create a guided, standing wave, microwave energy that substantially prevents at least one of ice and frost from forming on the air filters. A turbine system including the ice and/or frost preventing system is also described.
US08505270B2
Method and devices for treating equine laminitis by cryotherapy, comprising a boot to be fitted over the horse's hoof, having a wedge shaped sole that is angled by 20° toward the front; The purpose is accomplished by the boot in conjunction with three opportunely shaped removable soles, and a cryotherapy reservoir of flexible material, that is inserted into the boot and connected to an external device for refrigeration by circulation of a fluid.
US08505263B2
A flexible hurricane shutter or barrier to protect buildings from over pressure has inflatable cushions held in place by a fabric material capable of withstanding winds in excess of 100 mph. The barrier can be stored on site in a rolled fashion. Retainers are mounted on a building to guide and secure the longitudinal edges of the fabric to permit ease of deployment. The retainers may be spaced apart over one side of a building and the barrier may be deployed over an entire surface of a multi-story building by raising and lowering the fabric. Inflatable cushions are held between the fabric and the building. The inflated cushions reinforce the material and distribute the force of impact throughout the surface of the cushions and act as spacers to both hold the fabric off the structure and focus the forces onto stranger portions of the structure.
US08505257B2
Floor panels are shown, which are provided with a mechanical locking system having tongue and grooves provided with protrusions and cavities which are displaceable in relation to each other and configured such that the protrusions can obtain a vertically unlocked position where they match the cavities and a vertically locked position where the protrusions overlap each other.
US08505256B2
A compliant insert for flexibly supporting a synthetic floor tile above a ground surface that includes one or more elongate bodies, with each elongate body having a longitudinal axis oriented parallel to a top surface of the floor tile, a top face having an attachment interface for coupling to a tile support structure extending downward from an underside of the floor tile, and a bottom face of having at least one contact flat for contacting the ground surface and at least one upwardly-directed recess for allowing liquids to flow underneath the insert. Each of the elongate bodies also has a thickness and stiffness sufficient, in an unloaded state, to elevate the support structure a distance above the ground surface.
US08505254B2
A fastening system for a plate-shaped structural element on a pitched roof is provided. The plate-shaped structural element is bordered in a water-tight manner in a frame and fully replaces the roof covering, and the eaves-side and ridge-side cross beams of the frame which run transversely to the ridge-eaves direction have profiles which are matched to each other and engage in each other. The top side of the eaves-side cross beam has a mounting that surrounds the edge of the plate-shaped structural element, and the bottom side thereof has a support for fastening to the roof structure. The support includes a web that extends from the mounting to the support, a protrusion extending beneath the mounting and receives an extension that extends from the ridge-side cross beam thereof.
US08505246B1
An outdoor screen room for creating a bug-free environment comprises a plurality of upright screened sidewalls held in a framework that also supports a plurality of screened roof panels that are pivotally attached to the framework, allowing them to be shifted between an enclosure-covering disposition for summer use and a vertical disposition during winter months when snow loads on a horizontal or a slightly pitched roof may be a problem.
US08505243B2
A device for covering and protecting a rain gutter to prevent debris, vermin and other material from entering the gutter and accumulating therein. The device includes an elongated body having an apertured trough oriented downwardly into a rain gutter, and a roof-matching coating on an upper surface of the body. The coating comprises granules embedded in a substrate secured to the body. A clear top coat can overlap the roof-matching coating.
US08505232B2
A slip style bobber comprising a hollow central housing constructed from a first mating half and second mating half. The hollow central housing includes a mounting member for the attachment of a pair of printed circuit boards having a replaceable power source, a switch, and a light source. A pair of tubes arranged coaxial are received within mounting member and extend from the interior of the housing to the exterior of the bobber. The bobber is water tight and constructed out of a translucent plastic to allow for illumination of the device during low light conditions. The bobber is multi colored and reversible.
US08505217B2
A skate boot with a rear element that includes a tendon guard upwardly extending from an outsole of the boot is disclosed. The rear element covers at least a rear portion of an ankle received within the boot. The rear element has a base in connection with a heel portion of the outsole such that the rear element is displaceable relative a remainder of the boot in a forward and rearward direction about the connection. The rear element is an external element of the boot, and has a desired flexibility allowing the rear element to flex in the forward and rearward direction following a given forward and rearward flexion of the ankle.
US08505216B2
An article of footwear and a method of manufacturing the footwear are disclosed. The footwear has an upper and a sole structure. The upper is secured to sole structure and the upper is formed from three layers: a first layer, a second layer, and a third layer. The second layer is formed from a polymer material and molded to the first layer, but the second layer may alternately be molded to the third layer. The third layer is joined with at least one of the first layer and the second layer such that the second layer is positioned between the first layer and the third layer.
US08505214B2
An article of footwear has a shoe body, including a shoe upper and a bendable sole which together define a first cavity, and the sole includes a second cavity. A pump is positioned inside the second cavity and it is operated by a device inside the sole. This device contains at least one portion movable within the second cavity against the pump in response to bending or unbending of the sole.
US08505213B2
A dryer nozzle for a drying unit in a vehicle wash system includes a nozzle portion for emitting high velocity air to an exterior surface of a vehicle passing thereunder. The nozzle portion has an inner nozzle section and an outer nozzle section. The inner nozzle section and the outer nozzle section being configured such that they can be positioned one inside the other during operation. At least one of the inner nozzle section or the outer nozzle section can be extended and retracted as directed towards or away from the surface of the vehicle.
US08505212B2
A method for improving the manufacture and reliability of new, remanufactured, repaired or reconditioned Fire Control Radar APG-68 tactical radar systems (FCR) utilized in military aircraft and providing such units with extended useful life expectancies equivalent to or better than new of the FCR APG-68 unit high frequency, high voltage dual mode radar transmitters that are deployed in over 1000 state-of-the-art military aircraft such as the F-15, F-16 and F-18 fighter aircraft, and B-1 bombers. The novel method extends the mean lifetime of previously repaired and repairable FCR APG-68 tactical radar units and radar units and ageing transmitters from about 100 to a few hundred hours to about five hundred or more hours by the step of removing embedded moisture and absorbed moisture from the heterogeneous electronic components in the FCR APG-68 tactical radar unit.
US08505209B2
A diagnostic tool including a first arm and a second arm, a top surface of the first arm comprising a graphical ranking guide comprising a plurality of images that graphically illustrate at least a portion of rank classifier indicia for a classification system comprising a plurality of ranks, each of the images corresponding to at least one of the ranks.
US08505207B2
A cutting knife, in particular for cutting food, includes a blade being disposed rotatably about a rotation axis and a drive being designed as an electric motor, which includes a rotating rotor and a stationary stator, which interact for driving the blade and which impart a rotational movement on the blade during operation of the cutting knife. Herein, the rotor is rotatable about the rotation axis, is connected in a rotationally fixed manner with the blade and rotates during operation of the cutting knife together with the blade about the rotation axis. In this way, a cutting knife is provided which is improved with regard to its construction such that the driving of the blade is simplified and the manageability of the cutting knife is improved.
US08505199B2
An interconnection element is provided for conductive interconnection with another element having at least one of microelectronic devices or wiring thereon. The interconnection element includes a dielectric element having a major surface. A plated metal layer including a plurality of exposed metal posts can project outwardly beyond the major surface of the dielectric element. Some of the metal posts can be electrically insulated from each other by the dielectric element. The interconnection element typically includes a plurality of terminals in conductive communication with the metal posts. The terminals can be connected through the dielectric element to the metal posts. The posts may be defined by plating a metal onto exposed co-planar surfaces of a mandrel and interior surfaces of openings in a mandrel, after which the mandrel can be removed.
US08505198B2
A method for manufacturing an electronic assembly, including at least one electronic component and a circuit trace structure, by which the at least one electronic component is contacted. In the method, a conductive foil is patterned in a first step to form the circuit trace structure. In a second operation, the circuit trace structure is equipped with the at least one electronic component. In a final operation, another foil is laminated onto the conductive foil equipped with the at least one electronic component on the side on which the conductive foil is equipped with the at least one electronic component.
US08505195B2
Disclosed is tool having a first-class double lever including a first lever and a second lever fixed by a pivot, a platform coupled to an end of the first lever and configured to support a wall jack and a blade holder coupled to an end of the second lever, the blade holder being adjustable to move an attached blade linearly in a direction towards the platform.
US08505194B2
An apparatus and method of mounting components are provided. The apparatus for mounting components includes: a component supplying unit which supplies the components so that the components move in at least one line; and a plurality of suction nozzles disposed to approach to or retreat from the components, wherein intervals between the plurality of suction nozzles are changeable so that the suction nozzles correspond to positions of the components. The method of mounting components includes: disposing a plurality of suction nozzles corresponding to the positions of the components; picking up the components by using the suction nozzles adjusting intervals between the suction nozzles; moving the suction nozzles to an upper side of a substrate, on which the components are to be mounted; and putting the components down on the substrate.
US08505192B2
A manufacturing method of common mode filters and a structure of the same are revealed. A common mode choke layer is disposed over a composite substrate and a second magnetic material layer is coated on an upper surface of the common mode choke layer. The common mode choke layer is produced by a wafer-level electrode leading out method and having leading-out terminals on sides thereof. External electrodes are formed on sides of the common mode choke layer by partial cutting, sputtering, lithography and electroplating at wafer level and corresponding to the leading-out terminals. Thereby common mode filters produced are supported more stably. Moreover, the volume is minimized due to inductive coils and external electrodes connected by wafer level packaging. Thus the common mode filters are mass-produced, the cost is down and the defect rate is reduced.
US08505177B2
A removal and replacement tool for vehicles contains a first body including a chamber, a second hole, and a third hole; a grip set including a second body and a push piece, the push piece including an arcuate notch; at least one first returning spring, one end of which is fixed in the chamber, and another end of which abuts against two sides of the second body; a shaft member disposed in the chamber, and its one end extending out of the first body from the first hole; a second spring, one end of which abuts against the chamber, another end of which is biased against the shaft member; an engaging member including a first side wall and a second side wall; a rotary knob including a rotating portion and a rod portion connecting with the rotating portion.
US08505155B2
A surface cleaning apparatus comprises a recovery tank. The surface cleaning apparatus can further include a base, and the recovery tank can have side rails to facilitate alignment of the recovery tank with the base. The recovery tank can include a float assembly with a pivotable closure member. The recovery tank can have a lid with a handle and latch to secure the lid to the recovery tank. Further, the recovery tank can comprise a lid with a working air conduit mounted to the lid and removable from the recovery tank with the lid.
US08505148B2
A personal hygiene brush which includes a furcated end comprising cleaning heads from which bristles radiate about the outer perimeter and a non-furcated end including an additional cleaning head from which bristles radiate about the outer perimeter. The personal hygiene brush is capable of cleaning of all types of piercings, intra and extra-orally, as well as dental implants and implant supported prosthesis. The personal hygiene brush enables the user to clean around, under and through their individual ornamental body rings and rods without removing them from the body parts to which they are attached.
US08505125B1
A drain strainer with an upper drain plate with large holes and a lower basket with small holes allows particulate matter to fall through the large holes but not enter the small holes. This two-story feature allows the drain strainer to have a flush, aesthetically pleasing appearance, and also prevents particulate matter from sitting on top of the drain, which could sully the feet of a shower user or could float to other parts of the tub or sink. The upper drain plate could be attached via a recessed hinge with a finger hole that allows a user to easily access the basket without the use of tools.
US08510854B2
A digital rights management (DRM) method and system between devices are discussed. In order to allow a first device connected with a second device to use a rights object (RO) bound to the second device, the second device decodes the particular content or the RO and transmits the decoded particular content or the decoded RO to the first device. State information of the RO according to a usage amount of the particular content used by the first device is managed by the second device.
US08510845B1
Method and apparatus for monitoring identity misrepresentation by a user on a network are described. In one example, validated identity information for the user is received from a trusted source. Data exchanged between a network client on a device associated with the user and the network is monitored. An identity misrepresentation by the user is detected based on the validated identity information. A notification of the identity misrepresentation is sent to the trusted source.
US08510831B2
The present disclosure generally pertains to systems and methods for protecting network resources from denial of service attacks. In one exemplary embodiment, a responder stores an access filter value used to determine whether an incoming message frame has been transmitted from an authorized user. In this regard, a user communication device includes logic for determining the access filter value stored at the responder and, includes the access filter value in a message frame transmitted from the computer to the responder. The responder compares the received access filter value to the stored access filter value. If such values match or otherwise correspond, the responder authenticates the message frame. However, if such values do not match or otherwise correspond, the responder discards the message frame. Thus, the responder processes authenticated message frames and discards unauthenticated message frames thereby preventing denial of service attacks from malicious users.
US08510825B2
Techniques for securing a client. A BIOS agent stores policy data within a BIOS of the client. The BIOS agent is one or more software modules that execute in the BIOS of the client. The policy data describes one or more policies which the client should follow. When an operating system agent detects that a condition, specified by a particular policy of the one or more policies, has been met, the operating system agent performs one or more actions specified by the particular policy, such as disabling the client, retrieving a file from the client, erasing a file from the client, or encrypting a file on the client. The operating system agent is one or more software modules that execute in the operating system of the client.
US08510820B2
Various systems and methods of embedded authentication are described herein. One method of the preferred embodiment can include receiving at an authentication server a transaction token from a host website, the host website including an embeddable interface and prompting a user challenge by the authentication server at the embeddable interface. The method of the preferred embodiment can also include creating a signed authentication token in response to a successful user challenge, and transmitting the signed authentication token from the authentication server to the embeddable interface.
US08510817B1
A computerized method of providing access to a secure resource includes, to each of a plurality of authorized users, providing a link to the secure resource. Each link includes a unique password embedded therein and each unique password relates to a particular user identification (userID) and personal identification number (PIN). The method also includes receiving a request to access the resource using a link having a password embedded therein, which request originates at a web browser. The method further includes directing the browser to a login screen and receiving via the login screen a userID and PIN. The method also includes determining whether the userID and PIN relate to one another and to the password and allowing or denying access to the resource in accordance with the determination.
US08510814B2
A method and apparatus are provided to enable a server to determine if a client connecting to the server is doing so by means of human user interaction, as opposed to an automated process. In order to authorize access to services, the option of determining user identity, such as by means of a graphical shared secret, is also provided. Three aspects are described: (i) image formation from an object model; (ii) presentation of image choices to a user, and (iii) user action. Image formation includes the creation of one or more categorized 2-dimensional images with object regions for each image automatically qualified. These one or more categorized images can be created by means of a Randomizable Image Generation Object for Human Recognition, comprised of (i) a 3-dimensional object model, (ii) a plurality of rendering threshold and constraint parameters, and (iii) categorization and qualitative metadata. The one or more 2-dimensional images are preferably transmitted to the user for authentication without the image metadata, which may be retained on the server. Related inquiry text can be sent when human user interaction is being determined and not user identity authentication.
US08510812B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a framework for facilitating the deployment of management tunnels between management and managed devices. The tunnel may be initiated either from the management device or from the managed device. When the channel is first established, the credentials of the respective devices are verified. To this end, each of the devices may be pre-provisioned with unique identifier, as well as certificate assigned by a certificate authority together with associated private key. Upon initial setup of the tunnel, the identity of the management device may be provided by the administrator. Alternatively, the devices may be pre-configured by the manufacturer to participate in a web of trust, with each device capable to accept recommendations for an identity of the management server from the other member devices. Finally, a management device locator server may be provided to facilitate easy configuration.
US08510794B1
Various embodiments of methods and apparatus for a unified management interface across internal and shared computing applications are disclosed. In some embodiments, one or more processors perform, responsive to receiving a plurality of access management requests at an identity management interface, transmitting an access management instruction to a customer internal application via an on-premise proxy, and transmitting another access management instruction to a shared computing system application via a multi-customer gateway on the shared computing system.
US08510792B2
A method includes identifying at a gateway device of a network a plurality of devices connected to the network. The method includes monitoring network traffic at the gateway device and determining that a particular traffic flow associated with one of the plurality of devices violates a privacy constraint. The method also includes providing a risk assessment associated with the privacy constraint violation. The risk assessment is at least partially based on terms and conditions associated with a particular device of the plurality of devices.
US08510791B2
A method for dynamically decoding protocol data on a computer system is provided using a protocol decoder, which inspects and analyzes protocol data received by the computer system. A protocol decoding program controls the decoding and analysis process. The method may be used by an intrusion prevention system to identify anomalous protocol data that may cause harm to applications receiving the data.
US08510786B2
System and method to extend the data carrying capacity of a hybrid fiber cable (HFC) network by adding wideband RF signal capability above 1 GHz, and replacing at least some CATV active devices such as amplifiers with a new type of Coax Domain Node (CDN) device that acts to segment the CATV cable portion of the HFC network into a series of smaller domains. The CDN generally filter RF signals from 5-865 MHz, while amplifying and passing RF signals over 1 GHz. Upstream capability is enhanced because the CDN intercept 5-42 MHz upstream signals from each domain and convert to 1 GHz+ signals. Downstream capability is also enhanced because the CDN can take efficiently encoded 1 GHz+ digital data, QAM modulate it, and locally inject into each domain without crosstalk between domains. The system pushes data management and downstream from the head end to the CDN, creating more throughput.
US08510785B2
A method and on-demand computing system for hierarchical caching of content in an on-demand computing device. The method receives, at the on-demand computing device, a request to send media content to a playback device, where the media content is stored in a media library of a content server. The method retrieves the media content from a hierarchical cache for the on-demand computing device, and sends the media content to the playback device. The hierarchical cache includes a first cache, a second cache, and the content library, where the first cache has a length based on an age of the second cache.
US08510779B2
A system, method and software program is provided for creating and implementing self-contained mini-applications that store, retrieve and display data and allow user interaction in a constrained computing environment such as a set-top box used in the delivery of digital television. The system, method and software program of the present invention, also known as “TV widgets” allows users to personalize data and facilitate the access of such data with a click of a button from a remote control unit. The TV widgets include a myriad of widgets of which some are, “My 8 ball”, a widget that recommends television programming to a viewer, “My TV search” for searching specific television programs, “My Weather”, “My Yellow Pages”, “Smart Navigation”, “Instant Messaging with Smart User Interface”, as well as others. A TV widget framework provides user interface context for launching and managing the widgets, in addition, it maintains a library code that implements the TV widget components. Among the implementations of the TV widgets is a widget based TV navigator created as a collection of widgets from conventional grid guides and navigators that include a grid guide widget, a “what's on now” widget (sorted by channel), a movie recommendation widget among others.
US08510769B2
A media device meeting an idleness criteria may be detected. In response to detecting an idleness criteria, media content may be sent to the media device. The media device may be configured to receive a particular content stream or streams accessible via the internet comprising the media content. The media device may derive a fingerprint from the media content and send the fingerprint to a fingerprint database, along with additional data pertaining to the media (such as title, synopsis, closed caption text, etc.). Detecting that a media device meets an idleness criteria may involve receiving a signal from the media device, the media device completing a duration of time without receiving a user command at the media device, or determining that the media content has resource availability for deriving a fingerprint.
US08510755B2
The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for automatically re-starting services. Embodiments of the invention can be used to re-start a service when it is determined that the service stopped during the processing pending work. A container manager durably tracks a service's status (busy/idle and alive/dead) and tracks transitions between statuses. Accordingly, when a busy service is deemed dead (due to any event), the container manager can automatically re-start the service. Upon re-start the service can check for pending work and start executing its pending work.
US08510750B2
A method to generate and save a resource representation recited by a request encoded in a computer algorithm, wherein the method receives from a requesting algorithm an Unresolved resource request. The method resolves the resource request to an endpoint and evaluates the resolved resource request by the endpoint to generate a resource representation. The method further generates and saves in a cache at least one Unresolved request scope key, a resolved request scope key, and a cache entry comprising the resource representation. The method associates the cache entry with the resolved request scope key and with the at least one Unresolved request scope key using a mapping function encoded in the cache.
US08510746B2
A set of data structures defines resource relationships and locations for a set of resources to form defined resource relationships and defined locations for the set of resources. A receiver obtains, from an unsecure device, replaceable unit data and characterization data for a current resource in the set of resources. A writer merges obtained replaceable unit data for a current resource with obtained characterization data for the current resource for each resource of the set of resources to form a set of data files.
US08510745B2
An optimization problem models the dynamic placement of applications on servers under two types of simultaneous resource requirements, those that are dependent on the loads placed on the applications and those that are independent. The demand (load) for applications changes over time and the goal is to satisfy all the demand while changing the solution (assignment of applications to servers) as little as possible.
US08510743B2
The subject matter of this specification can be embodied in, among other things, a method that includes executing one or more computer applications and ranking the applications according to one or more criteria that change in response to a user's interaction with the applications. State information for certain of the one or more applications is saved and one or more applications are terminated in response to a memory condition. Subsequently, one of the terminated applications is revived using the saved state information.
US08510742B2
This job allocation method for allocating jobs to each computer that processes the job without intensively managing a load state of each computer includes: identifying computers having a configuration necessary for a processing of a generated job by using a profile management data storage storing data of a configuration of each computer; identifying a job allocation mode according to a current job generation state by using an allocation mode data storage storing data concerning an allocation mode of computers to the jobs in association with the job generation state; transmitting a job generation notification to at least one of the identified computers according to the identified job allocation mode; and when a job acquisition refusal notification is received in response to the job generation notification, resending a job generation notification to a computer having a configuration necessary for the generated job. Thus, by sending the job generation notification, not a job allocation notification, without intensively managing the load state of each computer, which processes the jobs, it is possible to reduce the processing load of a master computer.
US08510733B2
A grid computing network including a server node and several client nodes, of which at least one client node includes a core program to manage the computing modules of the client node, the computing modules being coded as data bundles including independent packages, the packages being executable by the core program independently. The core program is also coded as a data bundle including individual packages, wherein one single package of the computing module or the core program can be activated for other computing modules of the client node for the computing task of the computing module.
US08510723B2
A binary rewriter that can provide complete code coverage without relocation information is provided, together with a method of performing such rewriting. The method can include processing a binary file as an original binary file. The method can also include disassembling the binary file to provide a disassembled binary file. The method can further include rewriting the disassembled binary file without relocation information to provide a rewritten binary file. The rewriting can provide a physical transformation in a recording medium relative to the binary file in the recording medium prior to the rewriting. The processing the binary file, disassembling the binary file, and rewriting the disassembled binary file can be performed by a particular machine.
US08510721B2
The construction or use of a hierarchical time tree that represents an execution time of a program. To construct the hierarchical time tree, the time frame corresponding to the root node is the execution time during which the plurality of call stack samples were gathered from the program. Beginning at the root node, and proceeding recursively, each node is then populated in a manner that all of the call stacks for a given time period need not be accessed in order to provide a report regarding the given time period.
US08510719B2
Methods, systems, and computer program products for implementing a real-time, user configurable, debugging framework for use in debugging applications. A method includes executing an application on a computer, the application comprising a plurality of instructions including a debug macro instruction. The debug macro instruction is associated with a set of parameters for describing one or both of system and application conditions. The method also includes specifying one or more trigger criteria, the trigger criteria comprising a set of dynamic values for the set of parameters. The method further performing, while the application is executing, executing the debug macro instruction, detecting whether the trigger criteria have been met by the application, the detecting in response to executing the debug macro instruction, and upon detecting that the trigger criteria have been met, initiating a debugging session in response to the detecting.
US08510717B2
A method and a system for validating a plurality of files via static tests from a test suite are described. The method includes selecting a plurality of static tests from a test suite, executing the plurality of static tests on a plurality of files to validate the plurality of files, and storing records after executing the plurality of static tests to record the validation of the plurality of files. The system includes an application, a plurality of files inside the application, the plurality of files to describe and configure the application, a plurality of static tests to validate the plurality of files, and a framework to apply the plurality of static tests to the plurality of files.
US08510715B1
Some embodiments provide a system that facilitates coverage analysis in a software program. During operation, the system identifies a complex instruction in the software program. Next, the system generates a set of sub-instruction blocks that is functionally equivalent to the complex instruction. Finally, the system uses the sub-instruction blocks in place of the complex instruction during coverage analysis of the software program.
US08510703B1
A method and system for auto-routing wiring within a PCB. In some embodiment, a first broad region within a first layer and a counterpart first broad region within a second layer are defined. The counterpart regions define a first broad via location. In some embodiments, the first and second broad via locations of the first and second layers can then be subdivided into a plurality of triangular regions. The triangular regions on the first and second layers can then be compared to more accurately locate an appropriate via location.
US08510702B2
An automated system, and method of operating the same, for interactively routing interconnections in a layout of an integrated circuit. Interconnections among subchips in the integrated circuit, specified by a netlist, are displayed by the system by way of airlines. The system provides a symbolic view of the bus, showing a representative wire of the bus, such as that associated with the least-significant or most-significant bit position in the bus. The physical routing of the representative wire is interactively defined, using orthogonal wire segments in selected conductor levels. Bus properties, for example including bit pitch, wire pitch, LSB/MSB, and a direction of expansion, are associated with the routing data for each segment of the representative wire. The combination of the routing data and the bus property data enable building of the entire bus from the interactive routing of the representative wire in the symbolic view.
US08510697B2
The invention generally relates to systems and methods for modeling I/O simultaneous switching noise, and, more particularly, to systems and methods for modeling I/O simultaneous switching noise in a selected chip window area while accounting for the effect of current sharing among neighbors. A method includes determining a current sharing factor of areas of an integrated circuit (IC) chip package, and determining an offload scaling factor of the IC chip package based upon the current sharing factor and numbers of I/O devices in neighboring areas of the IC chip package.
US08510695B1
A technique for determining stress in interconnects of an integrated circuit design includes generating a maximal spanning tree of a directed graph. The directed graph represents an interconnect of an integrated circuit design. The technique also includes locating a first point on the spanning tree that has a lowest stress and a second point on the spanning tree that has a highest stress. The technique further includes determining whether a maximum first stress between the first and second points is less than a critical stress.
US08510676B2
The invention concerns a device for creating semantic browsing options comprising a means to select an initial set of images from an input database comprising a plurality of images, each image being associated with a semantic information out of a semantic information space, a means to determine a semantic information sub-space represented by the semantic information associated with said initial set of images, The device comprises also: a means to select a reduced sub-space out of said sub-space, a means to create semantic links to images of the database associated with the semantic information of said reduced sub-space, a means to display at least one image of the database associated with the semantic information of said reduced sub-space.
US08510670B2
An information processing apparatus inputs instructed coordinates to a display screen, and selects an object displayed at a coordinate position that corresponds to the input coordinates. When a drag operation for the object that was selected by the selection unit has been detected, a determination is made of whether or not the distance between the coordinate position of the selected object and input coordinates after the drag operation was detected exceeds a predetermined distance. If that distance does not exceed the predetermined distance, a moving amount of the object is made less than a moving amount of the drag operation, or the selected object is not moved.
US08510662B1
Methods for rendering effects of graphical components of a graphical user interface are provided. One method includes defining a screen display having one or more components. The method also includes defining a start state for at least one of the one or more components and defining an end state for at least one of the one or more components. An operation of determining if a component identified for transition includes a defined start state and a defined end state is also provided. The method determines a transition type for the component that that has the defined start state and the defined end state and identifies an effect type based on the determined transition type. To render, the method includes (a) altering a graphics state at a time interval and (b) painting the component for the identified graphics state at the time interval. The method repeats (a)-(b) until the graphics state matches the defined end state. The component is then rendered at the defined end state using a particular defined transition effect.
US08510656B2
An interactive storybook system and method are provided that allow a user with or without the assistance of an operator to make a storybook their own by replacing markers with their own selection from a listing of provisional words and provisional images. The computer-based interactive storybook application may be used by teachers, parents, therapists, and other adults for teaching or therapy applications which assist children in learning and growing.
US08510654B2
An apparatus, system, method, and article for shuffling video information are described. The apparatus may include a media processing node to receive video information. The media processing node may include a shuffling module to shuffle the video information according to a shuffle order and a trusted entity programmed based on the shuffle order to provide access to the video information. The video information may be provided in an unshuffled manner when accessed through the trusted entity. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08510642B2
A system for decoding data includes a symbol based error correction code device. The error correction code device includes a channel detector configured to generate probability mass function (PMF) information. The error correction code device further includes a decoder coupled to the channel detector. The decoder is configured to use the PMF information from the channel detector to perform an error correction code operation. The decoder also is configured to generate PMF information. The channel detector is configured to receive extrinsic PMF information in a turbo equalization scheme.
US08510630B2
A wireless device to include a non-volatile memory to execute an encoding scheme to provide single-cell error detection and correction on program operations in which the initial nibble value is Fh and on program operations that result in a nibble value of 0h. The non-volatile memory uses multiple writes to program a nibble more than once with non-zero data between erase cycles.
US08510614B2
A bad block identification method for a memory is provided. The memory includes at least one memory block for storing data. A data decoding function is performed on the data, and it is determined whether the data decoding function was performed successfully. If the data decoding function was not performed successfully, at least one predetermined location in the memory block is checked. It is determined whether the predetermined location is marked by predetermined information. If the predetermined location is not marked by the predetermined information, the memory block is identified as a bad block.
US08510604B2
Static data race analysis of at least a portion of a multi-threaded application in order to identify potential data race defects in the multi-threaded application. The static data race analysis includes intra-component static analysis as well as inter-component static analysis. The intra-component static analysis for a given component involves identifying a set of memory accesses operations in the component. For each of at least one of the set of memory access operations, the analysis determines whether there is a data race protection element associated with the memory access command.
US08510598B2
A method for providing reduced power consumption in a computer memory system is provided. The method includes transferring, by a memory controller coupled to a volatile memory, a non-volatile memory, and a buffer, first data from the volatile memory to the buffer. The buffer stores less data than the volatile memory and the non-volatile memory. The method also includes placing the volatile memory into self-refresh mode after transferring the first data to the buffer. The method further includes conveying the first data from the buffer to the non-volatile memory, where the amount of first data exceeds a predetermined threshold. While conveying the first data, the memory controller takes the volatile memory out of self-refresh mode when the amount of first data in the buffer reaches the predetermined threshold. The volatile memory is ready to transfer second data to the buffer when the memory controller is finished transferring the first data.
US08510593B2
A control apparatus includes a lower layer control unit configured to perform control of a load, an upper layer control unit configured to control the lower layer control unit, a communication unit configured to perform communication between the upper layer control unit and the lower layer control unit via a communication line, a detection unit configured to detect power supply voltage of the lower layer control unit, wherein the upper layer control unit detects communication abnormality of the communication unit and notifies the communication abnormality, the upper layer control unit notifying abnormality of power supply voltage of the lower layer control unit, in such a manner as to be identified from the communication abnormality of the communication unit.
US08510590B2
Methods and systems for cluster resource management in virtualized computing environments are described. VM spares are used to reserve (or help discover or otherwise obtain) a set of computing resources for a VM. While VM spares may be used for a variety of scenarios, particular uses of VM spares include using spares to ensure resource availability for requests to power on VMs as well as for discovering, obtaining, and defragmenting the resources and VMs on a cluster, e.g., in response to requests to reserve resources for a VM or to respond to a notification of a failure for a given VM.
US08510588B2
Objects of the invention are to provide a clock generation circuit and to provide a semiconductor device including the clock generation circuit. The clock generation circuit includes an edge detection circuit, a reference clock generation circuit, a reference clock counter circuit, and a frequency-divider circuit. The reference clock counter circuit is a circuit which outputs a counter value, which is obtained by counting the number of waves of a reference clock signal outputted from the reference clock generation circuit, in a period of time from when the edge detection circuit detects an edge of a signal which is externally inputted to the edge detection circuit to when the edge detection circuit detects the next edge, to the frequency-divider circuit. The frequency-divider circuit is a circuit which frequency-divides the reference clock signal based on the counter value.
US08510585B2
A method includes detecting a trigger condition, and in response to detecting the trigger condition, reducing a voltage applied to a graphics controller component of a memory controller. The reduction in voltage may cause the voltage to be reduced below a voltage level required to maintain context information in the graphics controller component.
US08510576B2
A semiconductor integrated circuit includes: a plurality of domains each supplied power supply voltage from corresponding one of a plurality of power supply units; and a plurality of operation control units each connected to corresponding one of the plurality of domains and controlling an operational state of the corresponding domain, wherein each of the domain transmits a operation change request to the corresponding operation control unit, the operation change request representing a request for a change of the operational state with a change in current value of the domain, and the operation control unit calculates a current change rate of the domain resulted from the change of operational state upon receiving the operation change request, and transmits a response signal approving the change of operational state to the corresponding domain in case of the current change rate is within a specified value.
US08510569B2
In one embodiment, a processor includes a microcode storage including processor instructions to create and execute a hidden resource manager (HRM) to execute in a hidden environment that is not visible to system software. The processor may further include an extend register to store security information including a measurement of at least one kernel code module of the hidden environment and a status of a verification of the at least one kernel code module. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08510568B2
A content import method in a digital rights management (DRM) system imports transport streams received from outside a domain, generates a content file, and regularly inserts information in the form of transport packets necessary for decrypting encrypted content into a payload of the content file. Accordingly, even if usage constraint information (UCI) included in the received content changes, packaging is possible. When a device pertaining to the domain receives half of an imported content file via streaming, transport packets of the received half of the imported content file can be promptly decrypted without a time delay.
US08510563B2
A communication apparatus includes: a first storage unit storing a certification authority certificate; a verification unit verifying an electronic signature attached to a first electronic mail received by a receiving unit from a mail server based on the certification authority certificate; an output unit outputting the first electronic mail when a verification result of the verification unit is positive; a deletion unit deleting the first electronic mail from the mail server; a notification unit notifying a user of information regarding a specific certification authority when a specific certification authority certificate is not stored in the first storage unit; an acquiring unit acquiring the specific certification authority certificate; and a storage control unit storing the acquired specific certification authority certificate. The receiving unit again receives the first electronic mail. The verification unit verifies an electronic signature attached to the again received first electronic mail based on the certification authority certificate.
US08510559B2
A method and apparatus for securing the interface between a Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) and a Terminal in wireless communications is disclosed. The security of Authentication and Key Agreement (AKA) and application level generic bootstrapping architecture (GBA) with UICC-based enhancements (GBA_U) procedures is improved. A secure shared session key is used to encrypt communications between the UICC and the Terminal. The secure shared session key generated using authenticating or non-authenticating procedures.
US08510558B2
A key agreement protocol between a first party and a second party comprises the following steps from the first party perspective. An encrypted first random key component is sent to the second party, the first random key component being encrypted using a public key of the second party in accordance with an identity based encryption operation. An encrypted random key component pair is received from the second party, the random key component pair being formed from the first random key component and a second random key component computed at the second party, and encrypted at the second party using a public key of the first party in accordance with the identity based encryption operation. The second random key component, in encrypted form, is sent to the second party, the second random key component being encrypted using the public key of the second party. A key for use in subsequent communications between the first party and the second party is computable at the first party based on the second random key component. The key may be computed at the second party based on the first random key component.
US08510546B2
Mechanisms are provided for performing approximate run-ahead computations. A first group of compute engines is selected to execute full computations on a full set of input data. A second group of compute engines is selected to execute computations on a sampled subset of the input data. A third group of compute engines is selected to compute a difference in computation results between first computation results generated by the first group of compute engines and second computation results generated by the second group of compute engines. The second group of compute engines is reconfigured based on the difference generated by the third group of compute engines.
US08510542B2
Methods and apparatus involve booting a computing device from a flash device. The flash device has memory partitions, including a read-only and a read/write partition. The read-only includes an operating system for use by the computing device and defines an initial system state. The read/write is configured to store a delta from the initial system state. Upon booting the computing device subsequent to an initial boot, the delta and the initial system state together define the whole system state. In other features, a write engine from the read-only partition tracks changes to the initial system state and writes some, but not all of the changes back to the read/write partition thereby minimizing a number of writes to the flash memory. In this manner, the speed of the flash memory can be used to quickly boot/reboot a computing device, while avoiding the wear limits associated with writing to flash devices.
US08510536B2
Techniques for vector completion mask (VCM) handling are provided. A data structure includes a mask field for each operand of a particular operation. A processor attempts to execute the operation with multiple operands, which are identified in the data structure by the mask fields. If operands are successfully retrieved for execution with the operation, then the corresponding mask field within the data structure is cleared. The processor can reset if any field remains set within the data structure and can re-process the operation with operands that were not previously handled with the operation.
US08510530B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for managing memory for programs operating asynchronously. In one aspect, a method includes receiving, by a first process and from a second process that is asynchronous to the first process a request to perform operations; and a first callback referencing an executable portion of the second process; generating a wrapper callback referencing the first callback, the wrapper callback configured to deallocate a referenced memory location and cause execution of the referenced first callback when the wrapper callback is executed; and in response to performing operations based on the request, the operations including allocating the referenced memory location, executing the wrapper callback, including executing the first callback and deallocating the referenced memory location subsequent to executing the first callback.
US08510525B2
A method of duplicating data to multiple random accessible storage devices has steps of reading one segment of source data having multiple segments, continuously detecting newly-connected random accessible storage devices, duplicating same segments to all connected random accessible storage devices, stopping duplicating the source data to any random accessible storage device that has stored all segments of the source data and repeating the steps from the beginning. When duplicating the source data to all connected random accessible storage devices, same segments of the source data are written to all connected random accessible storage devices. Therefore, a single writing task is proceeded in each writing session. The source data can be written to all random accessible storage devices at high speed. Consequently, efficiency of asynchronously duplicating data to multiple random accessible storage devices is increased.
US08510513B2
Provided are a network load reducing method and a node structure for a multiprocessor system with a distributed memory. The network load reducing method uses a multiprocessor system including a node having a distributed memory and an auxiliary memory storing a sharer history table. The network load reducing method includes recording the history of a sharer node in the sharer history table of the auxiliary memory, requesting share data with reference to the sharer history table of the auxiliary memory, and deleting share data stored in the distributed memory and updating the sharer history table of the auxiliary memory.
US08510510B1
A medium, system, and method are disclosed for implementing an in-memory inode cache. The cache stores inodes that include respective file metadata. The system includes a replacement module that prioritizes the inodes for replacement according to retention priorities for the inodes. The system also includes a prioritization module that is configured to increase the retention priority of a given inode in the cache in response to detecting a cache hit on the given inode and that the given inode meets one or more longevity criteria.
US08510503B2
Provided are a ring buffer circuit in which a data full state and a data empty state may be correctly detected without depending on whether read and write operations are synchronous or asynchronous with each other, and a control circuit for the ring buffer circuit. The ring buffer circuit includes: a read and write memory having addresses specified by N bits; a write address counter pointer and a read address counter pointer which are provided for the read and write memory to count (N+1)-bit gray codes; and write and read address converter circuits provided to convert the (N+1)-bit gray codes output from the write and read address counter pointers into N-bit addresses which may be directly designated as write and read addresses of the read and write memory.
US08510501B2
A data protection device includes a basic input output system chip and a main control chip. The basic input output system chip stores basic input output system program and includes a write protection pin and a plurality of status registers. The main control chip includes a plurality of general purpose input output pins. One general purpose input output pin is electrically connected to the write protection pin of the basic input output system chip, the voltage level of the general purpose input output pin is controlled by performing different command programs of the basic input output system program, and the status registers and the basic input output system chip are selectable to be in a write protection mode or a writable mode under the control of the voltage level of the write protection pin of the basic input output system chip.
US08510498B2
This disclosure concerns a memory system including: chips (MC00-MC37) laid out with erasure blocks, the erasure blocks respectively being formed by laying out with pages and being an erasure unit, the pages respectively being formed by laying out with cells; IO line groups connected to the chips, wherein the chips connected to the same IO line group form a memory group (MG0-MG3), and the memory group is divided into first to n-th sub-memory groups (BB-SGA to BB-SGD), and number of bad blocks of the chip having a smallest number of bad blocks in a k-th sub-memory group in the memory groups is larger than number of bad blocks of the chip having a largest number of the bad blocks in a (k+1)-th sub-memory group in the memory groups, the bad blocks are the erasure blocks in which erasing, writing or reading of data cannot be performed correctly.
US08510494B2
Memory associated with a mobile communication device, such as memory removably inserted into a memory card slot, may be accessed, in the alternative, by a mobile communication platform or by a remote USB host. A memory access module connected to the memory card slots is operative in one of two modes: a pass-through mode and a USB mode. In the pass-through mode, the memory card slots are directly connected, via switching circuits, to memory interfaces on the mobile communication platform. A USB interface on the mobile communication platform may additionally be connected, in pass-through mode, via a USB hub to a remote USB host. In the USB mode, the memory card slots are connected, via switching circuits, second memory interfaces, and a controller, to a USB hub supporting USB 3.0 transfer protocols, and accessible by a remote host.
US08510486B2
A data transfer device and method include obtaining a compression ratio and a compression speed of data for each of a plurality of compression levels, obtaining a compression ratio of data for each of the compression levels, adding a predicted time required for the compression and a predicted time required for the transfer of the data for each of the compression levels to determine a compression level for which the added predicted time is shortest, compressing the data to be transferred at the determined compression level and transferring the compressed to a transfer destination.
US08510484B2
There is provided a content transmission apparatus including a reception unit for performing a receiving process for receiving, from a content output apparatus, a transmission instruction that is based on an output order of pieces of content data, a transmission unit for starting transmission of content data to the content output apparatus in response to the transmission instruction, and a control unit for controlling a time interval for causing the reception unit to perform the receiving process, according to wait information indicating a status of wait until transmission of the content data to the content output apparatus is to be started.
US08510478B2
A circuit having at least one processor and a microprogrammed machine for processing the data which enters or leaves the processor in order to input or output the data into/from the circuit in compliance with a communication protocol.
US08510469B2
In an embodiment, a packet data switching system comprises content-addressable memory configured to redirect, to a measurement computer, a request to access a server application program hosted at a server computer in response to receiving the request from a client computer; the measurement computer comprises request rewriting logic configured to receive the request via redirection based on the CAM, to record a first time value representing a time of receiving the request, to forward the request to the server application, to receive a response from the server computer to the request, to rewrite a payload of the response by embedding a browser-executable measurement reporting script into the payload, and to forward the rewritten response to the client; performance recording logic configured to receive a second time value from the client based on the client computer executing the measurement reporting script, and to store a performance record with the time values.
US08510467B2
The invention relates to a method for monitoring at least one message, each message being associated with an action generated by at least one element or user of an information system (1000), said message(s) being collected by at least one message collecting device of the IS. According to the invention, the method comprises the step of defining a plurality of reference event categories each associated with at least one reference action from an ontology based on an intention class that characterizes the purpose of each reference action, an activity type class that qualifies the nature of each reference action, a movement class that characterizes the means for implementing each reference action, a target class that characterizes the object of each reference action, and a gain class that characterizes the result of each reference action.
US08510465B2
An art distribution system for distributing art to multiple display devices within an environment. The art distribution system provides a technique for specifying images to be displayed in an environment. The art distribution system provides a hierarchical representation of spaces within the environment. Each space may be further subdivided into subspaces. The art distribution system allows a user to select a space within the hierarchy and then to select an image that is to be displayed at the display devices within the selected space. The art distribution system then displays the selected image within the space including within all subspaces of the selected space. The art distribution system may allow a subsequent assignment of the image to a subspace to override within that subspace the previous selection of an image for the space.
US08510457B2
A generic method is described for storing data in the HSS (2) by the S-CSCF (1) of an IMS. When a SIP message containing new information relating to an IMPI/IMPU pair is received by the S-CSCF (1), a data package is created for storage at the HSS (2), containing the new information. An SAR command is sent to the HSS (2) containing an AVP including an instruction to the HSS (2) and the new data package. In one aspect a unique data package is controlled by the S-CSCF (1). When new information relating to the IMPI/IMPU is received in a SIP message, this is added to any previously sent data package to create a new data package. In another aspect the HSS (2) controls a unique data package, returning the data package to the S-CSCF (1) to be amended if necessary. In another aspect separate data packages are used.
US08510456B2
In a connection device connected to a network mounted in a boat, a protocol of a connection device connected to a network mounted in a boat is identified based on a communication ID in a certain message transmitted through the network. A device protocol is determined in accordance with the protocol of the network. Data communication in the network is performed in conformity with the device protocol. Accordingly, when the connection device is connected to the network, the connection device automatically identifies a protocol of the network and operates appropriately. Therefore, upward compatibility is maintained and usability is improved.
US08510454B2
A system and method are provided that allows users to define a set of parameters for Uniform Resource Locator (URL) mapping rules. A URL may be defined for each output parameter condition, input parameters inspected, and the output parameter value determined. Business logic is executed before and after URL mappings have been determined. Multiple exclusive groups of mapping rules are maintained and an incoming URL can be explicitly directed to a rule group. Rule handlers, new URLs within an existing link generator, as well as input and output parameters are created to act on parameters during processing. Input parameters and values are translated to output parameters and values, respectively. Output parameters and values are mapped to a destination URL. In addition, a customizable bulk loading tool is provided which sends the mapped sets directly to a client to add values to the sets and then returns the document.
US08510449B1
Caching of data requests in session-based environment. An embodiment of a method includes a client preparing a data request for a storage server in a session-based environment. The prepared data request is transmitted from the client to the storage server. The data request is stored in a cache memory for the client via a protocol for the session-based environment.
US08510440B2
A method and system for assisting a user having a role and a qualification. In accordance with this method, a software tool is provided that is adapted to limit a user to a functional limitation predefined by a first role and a data access limitation predefined by a qualification. The method comprises the steps of receiving a request for assistance from said user, accessing said software tool with a customer care role having a view functionality only limitation, and simulating said first role and said qualification while operating in said customer care role, to assist said user. In the preferred embodiment, the simulation functionalities that the customer care role has, enable that customer care role to simulate update and create functionalities. Also, preferably, the customer care role may use the user's identification to obtain access to the software tool.
US08510436B2
Methods and systems for utilizing captured packets to determine the operations performed on packets by a network device are described. One or more packets are captured and forwarded through the network device. Operations performed on the captured IP packets are logged.
US08510435B2
A highly scalable and distributed call/media modeling and control framework is described. In particular, a plurality of anchor point servers are provided which enable one or more applications to exert call and media control over in-progress communication sessions even though the applications were not originally bound to the communication session during its setup.
US08510434B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and DNS server for load balancing network servers. The method includes: monitoring whether each network server is capable of providing a network service, deleting an IP address of a network server which is incapable of providing a network service from an IP list in a DNS server or setting the IP address as invalid in the IP list according to a monitoring result; receiving, by the DNS server, a request from a network user for accessing a network server, selecting an IP address from valid IP addresses in the IP list which corresponds to the request; providing, by a network server having the selected IP address, network services for the network user.
US08510428B2
In a load balancing system, user-configurable geographic prefixes are provided. IP address prefix allocations provided by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and associated geographic locations are stored in a first, static database in a load balancing switch, along with other possible default geographic location settings. A second, non-static database stores user-configured geographic settings. In particular, the second database stores Internet Protocol (IP) address prefixes and user-specified geographic regions for those prefixes. The specified geographic region can be continent, country, state, city, or other user-defined region. The geographic settings in the second database can override the information in the first database. These geographic entries help determine the geographic location of a client and host IP addresses, and aid in directing the client to a host server that is geographically the closest to that client.
US08510425B2
In a first aspect of the present invention, methods and apparatus implement graphical user interfaces for interactively specifying service level agreements used to regulate delivery of services to, for example, computer systems. An interactive graphical user interface allows a user to see the effects of varying values of service delivery variables on the level of service achievable in a particular service delivery context. In a second aspect, methods and apparatus of the present invention provision resources required for service delivery. In the second aspect, the methods and apparatus of the present invention select a service delivery model dependent on context. The selected service delivery model is used to provision resources that will be required during service delivery. In a third aspect, methods and apparatus of the present invention monitor compliance with a service level agreement during a service delivery event. In instances where a given service delivery does not comply with service level attributes specified in a controlling service level agreement, the methods and apparatus of the present invention take corrective action.
US08510414B2
A method of managing a call managed at any given time by a call controller, which method includes steps of: choosing an initial call controller managing said call, measuring the satisfaction of criteria during the call, deciding as a function of said measurement to change the call controller managing said call, and in the event of a decision to change, transmitting information relating to the call to the chosen call controller.
US08510408B2
A method for operating a computer network for example a school to preload the content of web addresses on the local memory, i.e. the web cache memory for use in for example a subsequent lesson. The network comprises at least one device, a web cache memory, and internet access apparatus to connect a device on the network to internet using a web browser, relevant devices on the network being accessible to a network administrator and defined network users (teachers and pupils), a method whereby one of said defined network users (teachers) uses a modified web browser to define a set of web addresses (web pages) to be accessed, said set of web addresses being stored in the network, and operates the network to cause the content of the set of web addresses to be stored on said web cache memory, whereby the content may be accessed by the pupils during said lesson via the network without further access to internet. Limits or quotas may be set up for the amount of memory space usable by each user so as to prevent overload of the memory and users may be limited to access web pages defined by one or more preload tasks on the memory at a particular time. Software to allow the method of the invention may be loaded on the web cache.
US08510390B2
Email system including an email aggregation server providing distributed polling and related methods
An email system may include at least one email server having mailboxes for storing email messages therein, and a plurality of mobile wireless communications devices. The system may further include at least one email aggregation server for polling the mailboxes for email messages, and forwarding the email messages to respective mobile wireless communications devices. The at least one email aggregation server may divide each of a plurality of repeating polling time intervals into a plurality of subintervals, and schedule each mailbox for at least a first type polling over each subinterval and for a second type polling over each polling time interval. The second type polling may be more comprehensive than the first type polling. The at least one email aggregation server may distribute the second type polling of the mailboxes over each polling time interval.
US08510388B2
A method for tracking messages in a mentoring environment includes presenting to a reviewer a computer-based activity tracking form that is populated with data from an underlying relational database, wherein the underlying relational database includes a content of e-mail messages addressed to an adult mentor and a content of e-mail messages addressed to a juvenile protégé, and wherein the underlying relational database includes a status of e-mail messages between the adult mentor and juvenile protégé as determined by an e-mail interceptor; displaying a status of an e-mail, between the adult mentor and the juvenile protégé, which has been intercepted by the e-mail monitor; in response to a displayed status indicating that the e-mail has not been reviewed, blocking transmission of the e-mail to an intended recipient; and in response to the displayed status indicating that the e-mail has been reviewed, enabling transmission of the e-mail to the intended recipient.
US08510386B2
An e-mail service provider method and apparatus provide means for individuals to register with a service that provides e-mail addresses that correspond to their vehicle license plate characters. Registered users will make their e-mail addresses available to those observing their vehicles. The service provider also furnishes indicia for attachment to the vehicles that identify the vehicle owner as a registered user of the service and possibly having an interest in a particular sport, hobby, affiliation or other special interest. The service provider furnishes mailboxes for unregistered users, storing any mail for such users until the user registers with the service provider. Registered users are permitted to maintain profiles that store information related to the user such as hobbies, interests affiliations and, if desired, phone numbers. Registered users have the option of permitting access to their profiles by marketing interests. If access is granted, the user may receive targeted marketing e-mail.
US08510374B2
A client-specific or client-independent polling interval is provided to each client dynamically based on server load. The polling interval can be provided in the server polling response sent in response to a client polling request. The polling interval can be determined using a feedback control system or using a Bucket Reservation Method. The server uses a next polling interval and a flag that indicates if the previous polling request was ignored. Using these two parameters the server can continuously control the polling frequency from the client to achieve optimal performance.
US08510373B2
Methods for synchronizing data in client-server architectures are described. A client stores data in first and second fields. The value stored in the second field depends on the value stored in the first. When the client writes a new value to the first field, it disables writing to the second field. The client sends a refresh request and receives a refresh response from a server. The refresh request and response contain differences in data stored in the client and server fields. If the refresh response includes a new value for the second field, the client writes the value to the second field. A round trip pending flag associated with the first field is set. A data invalid flag associated with the second field is set. New data can be written to a third field when the value of the third field does not depend on the value of the first field.
US08510368B2
A short URI, provided by a server on behalf of a third party, may be evaluated by selecting a device agent associated with the short URI and determining a destination URI corresponding to the device agent and the short URI, the destination URI identifying a payload. The server requests the payload and determines a current payload status by evaluating characteristics of the response against response characteristics that are expected based at least in part on a payload type of the payload. A payload status report is provided to the third party indicating the determined current payload status.
US08510364B1
Methods for matrix processing and devices therefor are described. A systolic array in an integrated circuit is coupled to receive a first matrix as input; and is capable of operating in two modes, namely a triangularization mode and a back-substitution mode. The systolic array, when in a triangularization mode, is coupled to triangularize the first matrix to provide a second matrix. When in a back-substitution mode, the systolic array is coupled to invert the second matrix.
US08510352B2
A file system independent virtualized boot block with discovery volume and cover files renders a volume visible when accessed by an accessing system which differs from a source system. For example, a downlevel operating system recognizes that data is present on a volume created in an uplevel operating system, even where the uplevel data itself may not be accessible.
US08510350B2
Methods and apparatus uniquely distinguish one file from another in a file system. In one embodiment, a flat architecture uses metadata of files for distinguishment, but files can have identical names and pathname(s) are unneeded. During a file save or find operation, users supply terms useful to themselves regarding the file, but created underlying metadata distinguishes all files. Also, an ever-decreasing list of possible file matches accompanies the save or find operation as users enter more save or search terms regarding files under present consideration. Other features contemplate a user interface (UI), a file system manager and an API exposed to other applications/computing devices. Computer program products are also disclosed.
US08510346B2
One aspect of the present invention can include a method, a computer program product, an apparatus, and a system for handling Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) updates to entities. The aspect can receive at least one update to be applied to a UDDI entity within a UDDI registry. Each received update can be applied to the related UDDI entity. At least one subscriber of the updated entity can be determined. A status indicator for each detected subscriber can be changed to indicate that a subscription to the entity has been deleted, wherein the change to the status indicator negates a need to scan the subscriptions associated with the entity for each received update to the entity.
US08510342B1
Systems and methods are provided wherein executable files are prepared from source code without generating intermediate files. For example, rather than using a compiler to prepare an intermediate file that is then used by a linker, the compiler may stream its output directly to the linker, thus enabling the linker to perform its functions in parallel with the compiler. The system may also use a data streaming facility, such as a pipe, to stream data between the compilation and linking processes.
US08510339B1
A software facility for selecting documents is disclosed. The facility maintains a dimensional model of a group of documents. The dimensional model reflects values for a number of differentiated attributes for each of the documents of the group. The facility receives a query specifying values for one or more of these attributes. In response to receiving the query, the facility uses the dimensional model to generate a list of documents in the group having the attribute values specified by the query.
US08510337B2
The present invention provides a system and method for accessing electronic data through entry of images as queries in search engine. The system uses various image capturing devices and communication devices to capture images and enter them into image database. Image recognition techniques encode images in a computer readable format. The processed image is then entered for comparison into at least one database populated with images and associated information. Once the newly captured image is matched with an image in the database, the information linked with that image is returned to the user.
US08510335B2
A method for controlling access to a database is disclosed, as well as a corresponding database system. The method comprises: receiving, from a user, a request for a data post in said database; determining that said user should be allowed access to said requested data post based on a security context associated with said data post and said user; providing said user with access to said data post; and validating, by an external security system, at least one of the user and the data post, said validation being based on a validation field, controlled by the external security system and being associated with said user and/or data post. Hereby, the database can be operated with its native operational procedures, thereby enabling a very fast and efficient performance. At the same time, the validation by the external security system provides a high degree of security.
US08510328B1
A software system that automates the use of computing systems by storing English language sentences using synonyms and symbol words to allow user access to computer resources without having to know the technical details or the specifics associated with a body of knowledge. Synonym sentences allow users to get to computer resources using different words stored in different sentences that open the same computer resource (i.e.: a document) to significantly improve a first time request for information. Sentences learned (stored) in text or SQL databases or used in a software agent sentence or search engine sentence are automatically parsed and directed to the appropriate knowledge repository to automated computer processes or to get user information without having to know any technical details required to navigate through computer systems or computer data. Multiple words or sentences can be linked together with computer resources to further automate job tasks.
US08510327B2
A semantic query over a corpus of data is constructed using a graphical user interface to create an aggregation of graphical representations of annotations associated with a plurality of data elements contained within the corpus of data and graphical representations of search terms contained within the plurality of data elements. The aggregation includes at least one annotation and at least one search term. The relative positions of the graphical representations of the annotations and the search terms are manipulated within the aggregation within the graphical user interface to express relationships among the annotations and search terms, yielding a visual spatial representation of the semantic query. The annotations, search terms and expressed relationships define the semantic query that is used to search the corpus of data.
US08510326B2
Methods, systems, and apparatuses, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for providing data related to conversion paths. In one aspect, a plurality of conversion paths are received. Each conversion path includes one or more user interactions that include a plurality of dimensional data. A priority sorted list of dimensions is received and dimensional data is selected from each user interaction based on the sort list of dimensions. Each conversion path is converted into a dimensional path, and each dimensional path includes dimensional elements that corresponds to user interactions of the conversion path. Each dimensional element comprises the selected dimensional data from the corresponding user interaction. The plurality of dimensional paths are aggregated together based upon the number of dimensional elements within each dimensional path and the dimensional data of the dimensional elements. Reports can be generated using the aggregated dimensional data.
US08510325B1
A system may receive a search query. The system may further provide a list of first documents relating to the search query in a first area of a user interface and provide additional information that has been retrieved from the first documents in a second, different area of the user interface. The additional information includes an attribute name and an associated attribute value.
US08510323B2
Provided is a method for grouping identity records to generate candidate lists to use in an entity and relationship resolution process. A plurality of identity records provide attributes of entities. The received identity records are grouped into a group of identity records. A composite query on values for selected attributes of the identity records in the group is generated and applied to an entity database to obtain composite results of entity records in the entity database matching the attribute values of the composite query. For the identity records in the group, an individual query on attributes of one of the identity records is performed against the composite results of the entity records to determine a candidate list of entity records from the entity database for the identity record.
US08510315B2
One or more techniques and/or systems are disclosed for prioritizing one or more travel itineraries based on an itinerary query. Respective candidate itineraries from a set of candidate itineraries are ranked based on one or more ranking factors for the candidate itineraries, where the candidate itineraries were identified from a location-interest graph using the query. A desired number of the ranked candidate itineraries are re-ranked based on a one or more historical travel sequences, such that one or more prioritized travel itineraries can be identified in response to the itinerary query.
US08510306B2
Method, system, and computer program product for faceted search with relationships between categories are provided. The method includes: having a document set of multiple documents, each document having associated categories to which it belongs; grouping multiple categories associated with a document into a category set based on a relationship between the multiple categories; associating the category set with the document; and indexing the category set for retrieval of documents from categories sharing a category set. Wherein indexing the category set includes: having an index entry of a textual representations of a category, wherein the index entry includes a single occurrence for each document to which the category is attached; adding a payload to a document occurrence of a serialization of an identifier of the category sets to which the category belongs associated with the document. Indexing the category set further includes: adding an index entry for category set data, wherein the index entry includes a single occurrence for each document, wherein a document occurrence includes a payload of a serialization of an identifier of category sets associated with the document, and an identifier of the categories belonging to the category sets.
US08510305B2
Machines, computer readable media, program products, and computer-implemented methods of file management, storage, and display are provided. According to an example of an embodiment of a method, a user is displayed an icon palette having a palette boundary and including icons representing a plurality of predetermined categories representing notable events in a life of the user. An unsorted file is assigned to at least one predetermined category through a user action so that dragging and dropping a file across the palette boundary onto an icon on the icon palette assigns the file to a category. The user is prompted to fill out a questionnaire associated with the file. The questionnaire includes any additional categories, album data, a journal entry, event information, and display information. The display device displays an album of files using pre-selected formats based on information provided in the questionnaires.
US08510293B2
Included are embodiments for determining sort order. At least one embodiment of a method includes determining a plurality of search results associated with at least one search criteria. Some embodiments of a method include determining a first distance between at least one of the search results and a home page associated with the at least one search result and determining a display order for the plurality of search results.
US08510287B1
An annotation system that provides annotations for a corresponding set of entities with regard to a user is presented. The annotation system annotates the entities independently of the selection of the entities to be annotated. Upon receiving a set of entities to annotate, the annotation system identifies a set of annotation relationships between the user and the entity. Each annotation relationship identifies a reason or basis for which the entity may be relevant to the user. The annotation relationships are scored to identify the strength of the relationship between the user and the entity. A configurable threshold number of annotation relationships with the greatest affinity between the user and the entity are selected as the annotation for the entity.
US08510285B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for using pre-search triggers. In one aspect, a method includes identifying one or more topics and determining that a confidence score associated with a particular topic of the one or more identified topics satisfies a predetermined threshold value. An occurrence of a pre-search trigger can be detected. In response to determining that the confidence score associated with the particular topic satisfies the predetermined threshold value and detecting the occurrence of the pre-search trigger, a search engine can be instructed to execute a search using a search query associated with the particular topic. A representation of a resource identified in results received in response to the search can be provided.
US08510284B2
Large-scale event processing systems are often designed to perform data mining operations by storing a large set of events in a massive database, applying complex queries to the records of the events, and generating reports and notifications. However, because such queries are performed on very large data sets, the processing of the queries often introduces a significant delay between the occurrence of the events and the reporting or notification thereof. Instead, a large-scale event processing system may be devised as a large state machine organized according to an evaluation plan, comprising a graph of event processors that, in realtime, evaluate each event in an event stream to update an internal state of the event processor, and to perform responses when response conditions are met. The continuous monitoring and evaluation of the stream of events may therefore enable the event processing system to provide realtime responses and notifications of complex queries.
US08510280B2
A system, method, and computer-readable medium for dynamic detection and management of data skew in parallel join operations are provided. Rows allocated to processing modules involved in a join operation are redistributed among the processing modules by a hash redistribution of the join attributes. Receipt by a processing module of an excessive number of redistributed rows having a skewed value on the join attribute is detected by a processing module which notifies other processing modules of the skewed value. Processing modules then terminate redistribution of rows having a join attribute value matching the skewed value and either store such rows locally or duplicate the rows. The processing module that has received an excessive number of redistributed rows removes rows having a skewed value of the join attribute from a redistribution spool allocated thereto and duplicates the rows to each of the processing modules. The join operation is completed by performing a local join at each processing module and merging the results of the local join operations.
US08510270B2
A system and method for transferring data between different types of systems, and in particular uses log-based replication to transfer data between different types of systems. In accordance with an embodiment, the system can be used to perform a one-time or initial copy of the MySQL data from a source database system to a target database system, and/or to replicate the on-going transactions captured from a MySQL database's binary log into one or additional non-MySQL database(s) on a continuous basis, such that the two systems are synchronized for transactions of interest. In accordance with an embodiment, full or partial data changes can be extracted from the MySQL binary log, optionally transformed, skipped or augmented, output or written to a file, and then applied at any of one or more target systems (e.g. another MySQL database, or a non-MySQL database), thereby synchronizing the source and target systems.
US08510269B2
A method for reorganizing a first database includes copying data from the first database to a second database having an index structure different from that of the first database, updating the second database to reflect changes that have been made to the first database since the commencement of the copying, and switching the second database for the first database.
US08510263B2
A method for validating SRS registry transaction data includes receiving OLTP transaction data from a first database, parsing the OLTP transaction data, and comparing the parsed OLTP transaction data to one or more of a set of profiles. Each of the one or more of the set of profiles includes metadata in XML files. The method also includes caching the parsed OLTP transaction data in a first data cache, receiving log data associated with the OLTP transaction data; and caching the log data in a second data cache. The method further includes correlating the parsed transaction data cached in the first data cache with the log data cached in the second data cache.
US08510259B2
XBRL instance data configured according to a given XBRL hypercube specification (or an extension thereof) may be automatically mapped to a multidimensional database configured according to the given XBRL hypercube specification. Such a multidimensional database may be configured for analytical processing of multi-dimensional analytical queries related to the XBRL instance data and/or for analytical processing by a business intelligence tool. Multidimensional data from a multidimensional database may also be automatically mapped to an automatically-generated XBRL hypercube specification structured according to the multidimensional database.
US08510253B2
In accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention, an apparatus comprises at least one processor and at least one memory. The at least one memory includes computer program code. Further, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following obtain first activity data from a user; receive second activity data from one or more groups; compare first and second activity data; indicate difference between the first and second activity data; and suggest at least one activity to a user based at least in part on the indicated difference between first and second activity data.
US08510250B2
The present invention refers to the field of metadata enhancement system for broadcast televisions program, in particular to provide to the customer more information about a current, past or future broadcast. It concerns a method to enhance transmitted contents, said method starting from the metadata to populate a knowledge database. This method is based on a iterative process to fetch information from open Internet using as search criteria the result of the previous search. The data in the knowledge database are organized in data triple. According to one embodiment, the iterative process is stops when the returned data are related to another content.The knowledge database is then accessible for a user to obtain additional information about a content by sending a suitable request to the Query Server Module in charge of the knowledge database.
US08510248B2
Bootstrapping a recommender system that makes item recommendations. The bootstrapping identifying questions for use in interviewing a user, e.g., a new user to the recommender system, to obtain user information, e.g., user profile information, for use in predicting item ratings for the user, the predicted item ratings for use in identifying item recommendations for the user. The bootstrapping using a cost function to minimize error in selection of the questions for the interview. The bootstrapping comprising a static bootstrapping and an adaptive bootstrapping.
US08510236B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for generating hash functions. In one aspect, a method includes generating hash functions by sequentially determining a weight vector for each hash function to maximize an accuracy measure derived from current constraint weights and updating the current constraint weights for use in calculating a weight vector of a next hash function in the sequence. In another aspect, the determined weight vector maximizes an accuracy measure and a variance measure. In still another aspect, a method includes generating an adjusted covariance matrix and generating a sequence of hash functions from the adjusted covariance matrix. In still another aspect, a method includes sequentially generating a sequence of hash functions, where the weight vectors for any previously generated hash functions are used to identify constraints used to generate the weight vector for each next hash function in the sequence.
US08510230B2
A method is disclosed that enables the selection of a team of people in an organization, such as a business enterprise, to participate in a task that involves communicating with each other, in which the selection of the team seeks to maximize the team cohesiveness. The illustrative embodiment of the present invention incorporates the use of a social network model to describe the communication pattern in the organization. Based on the relationship between the organization's social network structure and the cohesiveness between the people in the organization, the technique of the illustrative embodiment estimates the dyadic cohesiveness of each pair of people, which is defined as the expected value of relationship strength between each evaluated pair of people. One component of the relationship strength is the number of interactions between the two people in the pair. The technique of the illustrative embodiment then uses the cohesiveness estimates to select teams.
US08510222B2
An automated teller machine (ATM) which includes a plurality of peripherals including a user interface for interacting with a user providing user information; a plurality of virtual automated teller machines (VATMs) resident in the ATM, the VATMs networked to a plurality of financial institutions, each VATM capable of using its own ATM software application and capable of providing its own menu of banking options to the user; and an interface to communicate between the VATMs and the plurality of peripherals, receive the user information from the user interface, identify the user's financial institution, link the user with the user's financial institution through a selected VATM corresponding to the user's financial institution and provide the menu of banking options to the user as if the user were using an ATM dedicated to the user's financial institution.
US08510220B2
Methods and systems for viewing aggregated financial obligations utilizing a mobile device such as a mobile telephone (cellphone) or wireless connected personal digital assistant (PDA). A mobile financial transaction system (MFTS) is coupled for wireless communications with a mobile device of a user. The MFTS is also coupled for electronic communications with an aggregator that collects information from a plurality of payees with whom a user has a financial relationship. The MFTS receives payment to make information from the aggregator corresponding to a payment to be made by the user to a payee. The MFTS generates summarized payment to make information comprising a predetermined selected subset of the payment to make information received from the aggregator. The MFTS wireless communicates the summarized payment to make information to the user's mobile device. The summarized payment information is then displayed on a user's mobile device.
US08510217B1
A pre-paid card, referred to as an Internet card, in accordance with the invention can be used to make anonymous payments over the Internet for services and products, e.g., to pay for Internet access and/or product purchases. The Card is purchased, e.g., with cash, from a card retailer, e.g., a convenience store. In some embodiments the card includes security information which is hidden from the retailer but can be viewed by the purchaser, e.g., after performing a tear off or scratch off operation to reveal the security information. The security information can be used to authorize a transaction to be charged against the card without the need to reveal any personal information and without the risk of the retailer making unauthorized purchases since the security information is hidden from the retailer. By avoiding the need for personal information privacy is maintained and the risk of identity theft avoided.
US08510212B2
System and method for aggressively trading a spread trading strategy in an electronic environment are provided herein. According to the example embodiments, a trader may configure the automated trading tool to trade as aggressively as possible by leaning on a price without an associated quantity. This allows a trader to possibly obtain a more profitable price as well as get filled faster. Traders submit an order for a spread and the automated trading tool calculates the quote order price based on a defined level of aggressiveness, the leaned on price, and the desired spread price. Based on the level of defined aggressiveness and the gap in the market, the automated trading tool may lean on a mildly, moderately, or extremely aggressive price.
US08510210B1
Systems and methods for creating and disseminating an interest rate swap volatility index based on an underlying interest rate swaption, and for creating and trading derivative investment products based on the interest rate swap volatility index, are disclosed. In one aspect, an interest rate swap volatility index based on an underlying interest rate swaption is calculated. The interest rate swap volatility index may be accessed by a processor of a trading platform and a standardized, exchange traded derivative may be created based on the calculated interest rate swap volatility index. Information associated with the interest rate swap volatility index derivative may then be transmitted for display.
US08510208B2
A method and system for trading financial instruments which reduces the leakage of trading interest when buyers and sellers of financial instruments desire to trade. Accordingly, in one embodiment, a trading system allows traders to speculate on the hidden liquidity in the market by offering liquidity at fixed prices which are inferior to the NBBO (National Best Bid Offer) in exchange for rights to sweep the market for better priced quotes. In another embodiment of the invention, a liquidity provider can set their own fee. This fee is charged to the liquidity taker if their quote is executed. This fee compensates traders for the risk of taking a position in a financial instrument. In another embodiment of the invention, dummy orders are used to reduce trading interest leakage when limit orders are placed into order books. In another embodiment of the invention, a trading system will only match liquidity taking orders with single liquidity providing orders of equal or greater in size.
US08510207B2
According to some embodiments, a futures contract is listed on a futures trading exchange. The futures contract physically settles upon expiration into a reference swap. The reference swap is cleared by a clearing house so that the physical settlement requires that the holder of a position in the futures contract upon expiration takes a specified side of the reference swap against the clearing house. The reference swap may for example be a credit default index swap, a single-name credit default swap, an interest rate swap or a yield curve swap.
US08510202B2
Systems and methods embodying the present invention permit a trader of securities such as municipal bonds to observe real-time data relating to actual or prospective trades of relevance to a contemplated trade, while excluding those actual or prospective trades that are insufficiently relevant. The trader, or other user, can specify filtering criteria according to which actual or prospective trade data will be collected and presented. The retrieval and presentation of matching data permits an informed yet rapid determination of a price, or other information, for a particular municipal bond or analogous security.
US08510195B2
The invention relates to a system for providing a site-related weather insurance contract for a product, such as an agricultural product like seeds or fertilizer. The system comprises a central data processing unit (CDPU), a remote measurement device (RMD) for the measurement of site-dependent weather parameters, and a remote data processing unit (RDPU) of a retailer. The RMD measures and provides the site-dependent weather parameters as remotely measured data. The RMD communicates the remotely measured data to a CDPU. The RDPU generates a data set (RDPU data) an insurance ID code and communicates the RDPU data to a CDPU. The CDPU receives the RDPU data and generates an individual contract confirmation code and communicates it to at least one remote communication device (UCD). The invention further relates to a method and a retailer remote communication device (RRCD), computer software, and a data storage medium, each usable with the system.
US08510193B2
The invention relates to a method for acquiring data from a user at the time of a card payment made using a payment terminal, in which: a data acquisition request is displayed (26) on a screen of the payment terminal following the completion of the payment transaction; the data is acquired (28) by the payment terminal; the acquired data is validated (30) in the terminal; and, if the data is valid, the data is transmitted (34 or 37) by the payment terminal to a consolidation server and a card removal authorization message is displayed (36) on the screen of the terminal. The acquisition includes a maximum period parameter and the data is considered to be invalid if acquired after said maximum period and/or if acquired when the chip card is not in the payment terminal.
US08510192B2
A graphical user interface related to non-standard settlement trading in financial instruments is provided. The graphical user interface preferably includes a selectable portion of a display screen related to a financial instrument and a selectable tab for accessing a selectable portion of the display screen related to one or a plurality of non-standard settlement positions with respect to the financial instrument. In one embodiment of the invention, when the tab is selected, access is provided to the selectable portion of the display screen related to the plurality of non-standard settlement positions.
US08510190B1
Illustratively, there can be a securitization system that is comprised of a computer or computers using a network, and a process, for the conversion of assets into marketable securities. In one embodiment, the securitization system includes a distribution system to distribute at least some of the marketable securities generated by the securitization system to one or more buyers. The process may utilize a new definition of securitization that expands the universe of securitizable assets, the universe of asset securitization methodologies, and the respective universes of securities and investment assets that can be designed and generated thereby.
US08510181B2
A computer-based method for administering performance of a contract uses a server accessible by multiple performing parties through a data network, such as the Internet. The method includes receiving performance data at the server from at least one of the performing parties through the data network. The performance data indicates an amount of work performed under the contract by the performing party, and may further include an amount of materials stored. A payment amount is determined based on the performance data. A schedule of values associated with performance of the contract may be initially stored, so that determining the payment amount is further based on comparing the performance data with the schedule of values. The payment amount is sent from the server to other performing parties through the data network. The other performing parties may be notified by an email indicating, for example, that the payment amount has been approved.
US08510176B2
A business method that enables a user or owner of one or a plurality of data sources to set fees or other consideration(s) for exchanges and links to a second or a plurality of data sources discovered through Internet searches or other data source discovery methods and integrating the data or the data sources into a data supply chain or federated data source.
US08510163B2
Disclosed is a system and mechanism that virtualizes a physical queue in a retail establishment. Customers using this system have the ability to indicate they would like to pay now (i.e., enter the virtual queue) using a button on their mobile device, and then they continue shopping until the mobile device informs them to proceed to a checkout counter. In addition, the system implements features that address users waiting in the queue. One feature is about transactions within the queue. This means that customers can buy priority using their mobile device, while waiting. Another feature is targeted advertisement and recommendation of products, leading to increased impulsive purchases.
US08510162B1
The present invention relates to translating loyalty requests between loyalty clients and loyalty hosts. For example, one embodiment of the present invention provides a method for translating point-of-sale loyalty requests by using a loyalty request to create a translated loyalty request that is compatible with a loyalty host and by using the loyalty response to create a translated loyalty response that is compatible with the loyalty client.
US08510157B2
This specification relates to tracking phone calls related to online content items. In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include the actions of determining a probability that a call to a phone number resulted from a first interaction of a set of interactions. In general, another aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include the actions of determining a rank score for an online content item, including for each call of a plurality of phone calls to the phone number, attributing the call to an online content interaction of a set of online content interactions; determining, using the rank score, whether to provide the online content item to a client device; and providing the online content item to the client device upon determining to do so using the rank score.
US08510154B2
System and method may use assessment information obtained by assessing original content items or creators of the original content items in accordance with a hierarchical talent assessment process, to return search results responsive to a search for talented original content creators. The assessments of the creators and the content items by talent assessors may be monitored to increase the objectivity of the search results returned responsive to a search for talented original content creators.
US08510151B2
Current monitoring systems often provide the operating condition of a specific component and do not consider the impact of a specific failure upon an entire system or a business. Nor do the current systems provide an avenue for the business to predict the loss, as well as its impact, and make an educated decision of mitigating the loss based upon economic, environmental, and health and safety considerations. Methods and systems are provided for predicting loss events, impacts of loss events, and providing potential corrective measures to reduce or eliminate the occurrence or impact of the loss events. One aspect relates to the use of system-wide information to predict variables that are directly linked to business impact, such as production loss. Extraneous and transactional data are also utilized according to other aspects of the invention.
US08510149B1
A method is described for collecting inference execution events from forward-chaining business rule engines and constructing causality network graphs for visual presentation to an end user. Using the causality network graph, the user may navigate logic paths leading to particular conclusions or actions.
US08510141B2
A marking device for a marking operation to mark a presence or an absence of one or more underground facilities is configured to access and display facilities map information, and/or other image information, as a visual aid to facilitate the marking operation. In various aspects, methods and apparatus relate to: selection of an appropriate “base” facilities map, or information from a database of facilities map data, relating to a given work site/dig area; selection of an appropriate pan and/or zoom (resolution) for displaying facilities map information; appropriately updating displayed facilities map information while a marking device is used during a marking operation (e.g. changing pan, zoom and/or orientation); overlaying on the displayed facilities map information marking information and/or landmark information relating to the marking operation; and storing locally on the marking device, and/or transmitting from the marking device, facilities map information and/or overlaid marking/landmark information (e.g., for further processing, analysis and/or subsequent display). In one aspect, a location at which marking material is dispensed is compared to a location of a facility line as indicated by the facilities map or other image information, and an alert may be generated based on the comparison.
US08510129B2
A system and method used to create a longitudinal medical record for an injured person that in at least one embodiment begins a location remote from a medical facility. The system includes in at least one embodiment a plurality of mobile computing devices. In at least one embodiment, the mobile computing devices provide an interface for receiving information from a first responder or a medic.
US08510128B2
An animated representation of a consumer is enabled to interact with an animated representation of a point of service rendered in a user interface to select characteristics of a medical service provider; the selected characteristics of the medical service provider are received; an available medical service provider is identified based at least in part on the selected characteristics; and a communication channel is provided to establish an electronic, real-time communication between the consumer and the identified medical service provider.
US08510123B2
A network system for serving digital content to a graphical user interface of a user device is provided. The system includes a database storing user data including user preferences and events in a calendar of a system user; a processor configured to automatically scan the database to determine an event scheduled for a predetermined window of time; to automatically determine the event is associated with entertainment of the user and access one or more entertainment services, and to prepare content conveying an entertainment package customized to the event of the user; and a server to serve the content for presentation by the graphical user interface.
US08510115B2
A data processing apparatus including a voice input unit adapted to input voice, an operating unit adapted to be operated by a user, a data processing unit adapted to process data according to voice inputted in the voice input unit or an operation of the operating unit, and a determination unit adapted to determine whether a subsequent process is a voice input prohibited process in the case where the subsequent process is to be conducted based on voice inputted into the voice input unit, wherein the data processing unit switches from processing according to voice inputted in the voice input unit to processing according to an operation of the operating unit in the case where the determination unit determines that the subsequent process is a voice input prohibited process.
US08510107B2
A detector for determining an audio data bit rate of a pre-compressed audio elementary stream (AES), in which the pre-compressed AES includes a plurality of preamble length fields is provided. The detector includes an analyzer module configured to determine one or more candidate audio data bit rates of the AES from the plurality of preamble length fields, a detector module configured to determine whether one or more of the candidate audio data bit rates are correct, and a selector module configured to select one of the one or more candidate audio data bit rates determined to be correct as the audio data bit rate of the pre-compressed AES.
US08510100B2
Methods and a system for a natural language control interface are provided to enable a user to modify various properties of a document. The modifications comprise building sentences from modification words, and combining them together in one display. The modifications are displayed in real time for a user to observe as they are inputted. The order of the modifications is managed by the user and is configured to be changed, added and/or removed.
US08510082B2
An optical interrogation system is described herein that can interrogate a label-independent-detection (LID) biosensor and monitor a biological event on top of the biosensor without suffering from problematical parasitic reflections and/or problematical pixelation effects. In one embodiment, the optical interrogation system is capable of interrogating a biosensor and using an oversampling/smoothing algorithm to reduce oscillations in the estimated location of an optical resonance caused by the problematical pixelation effect which makes it easier to determine whether or not a biological event occurred on the biosensor.
US08510075B2
This invention relates to an emissivity test instrument for measuring the emissivity of overhead electric transmission conductors. The emissivity test instrument includes a vacuum chamber, a data acquisition module connected to the vacuum chamber and adapted to receive data therefrom, and a computing device. The vacuum chamber is adapted to seat a test sample therein. The computing device is connected to the data acquisition module and is adapted to perform a test on a test sample and generate a test results report.
US08510071B2
A method is provided for calibrating voltage values and current values detected by a high-frequency measuring device. In a first step, a first parameter is calculated based on impedances calculated when the measuring device is connected to a first set of three reference loads and impedances of the first set of three reference loads. In a second step, plasma processing is carried out with the measuring device connected to a load to be measured, and detected voltage and current values are calibrated using the first parameter, and impedances as viewed from a connection point towards the load side are calculated based on the calibrated voltage and current values. In a third step, three impedances that encompass, when displayed on a Smith chart, a narrower range than a range encompassed by the impedances of the first set of three reference loads are determined, where the narrower range includes the impedances calculated in the second step. In a fourth step, a second parameter is calculated based on impedances calculated when the measuring device is connected to a second set of three reference loads respectively having the three impedances and also on impedances of the second set of three reference loads. In a fifth step, the measuring device is connected to the load to be measured, and detected voltage and current values are calibrated using the first parameter and the second parameter.
US08510070B2
A high-resolution, non-contact sensor that measures the temperature of an elongated roll comprises an array of low-mass air temperature elements positioned adjacent the cylindrical surface. As the roll rotates a boundary layer of air is formed along the contour of the roll. Each air temperature element can be housed in a chamber into which a portion of the boundary layer air directed. The temperature of the air temperature element eventually stabilizes and is a function of the roll surface temperature. Associated air compensator elements detect ambient air temperatures and the actual surface temperature profile is extracted from calibration curves based on measurements from both the air temperature and compensator elements.
US08510068B2
Provided is a photoelectric smoke sensor capable of correcting a sensitivity according to a state of contamination. The photoelectric smoke sensor includes: a storage section (6) for storing a zero detection value VN and an initial zero detection value; a moving average value calculating section (51) for calculating a moving average value of detection AD values output from a detection portion (1, 2, 3); a zero detection value updating section (52) for calculating a new zero detection value VN when a sensitivity of the detection portion is decreased as compared with that in an initial state, and in addition, when a rate of change in the moving average value with respect to the zero detection value VN exceeds a predetermined value; a detection AD value correcting section (53) for correcting the detection value; and a smoke-density computing section (54) for converting the corrected detection value into smoke-density data.
US08510061B2
Methods, systems, and computer readable media for wireless crack detection and monitoring are disclosed. According to one system, a crack detector is affixed to a surface of a material for detecting a crack in the material. In response to detecting a crack, a crack indicator is generated, indicating the existence of the crack. A mote wirelessly communicates the crack indicator to an external device. The mote may also store multiple crack indicators in local memory before being downloaded to the external device.In other embodiments, the mote may time-stamp the crack indicator for indicating a time when the crack was detected. Additionally, the mote may associate other information with the crack indicator such as temperature and acceleration information.
US08510057B1
Summarizing an aggregate contribution to a characteristic for an individual is disclosed, including determining the characteristic to be evaluated, identifying one or more markers associated with the characteristic, retrieving the measurement of the individual for each of the one or more markers from a database of individuals' markers, retrieving a statistical factor that measures the association between the marker associated with the characteristic and the characteristic for each of the one or more markers from the marker database, and determining the aggregate contribution based at least in part on the retrieved statistical factors.
US08510054B2
A method for intracellular metabolic flux analysis comprising (a) culturing cells in a medium not containing any isotope-labeled substrate to a target phase of the metabolic flux analysis, (b) adding an isotope-labeled substrate to the medium, and continuing culture and collecting samples from the medium in time course, (c) measuring isotope distribution in an intracellular metabolite contained in the samples collected in time course, (d) performing a regression analysis for measured data and calculating an isotope distribution ratio in a steady state, and (e) analyzing a metabolic flux of the cultured cells by using the calculated isotope distribution ratio.
US08510049B2
Techniques for a maximum entropy approach to assigning probabilities, including those used in multiple realization history matching systems and methods, are disclosed. For example, in one embodiment, a method includes obtaining one or more available sample values Yi associated with a reservoir; computing a maximum entropy assignment λ of one or more discrete probabilities Pi(Yi) associated with each of the one or more available sample values Yi, where each discrete probability Pi(Yi) represents a probability that one or more variables Y will take a set of particular values Yi; and performing at least one determination regarding the reservoir using the maximum entropy assignment λ, including approximating a continuous probability distribution P(Y) using a sum of probability distributions Pi(Yi)+/−λ.
US08510046B2
A marine electronic device such as a chartplotter which includes a display; a location determining component; and a processing system for receiving location data from the location determining component and for causing information to be displayed by display. The processing system causes the display to display information which assists an operator in navigating and ascertaining characteristics of bodies of water, objects on nearby shores, and other vessels.
US08510042B2
Data in an update data format for performing an update of reference map data is formed by storing in each data frame divided for each data type, at least one of: a first group of one or more common map data records to be stored according to the data type of each data frame in a common map data frame after a conversion by a conversion unit; a second group of one or more first map data records to be stored according to the data type of each data frame in a first map data frame after a conversion by a conversion unit; and a third group of one or more second map data records to be stored according to the data type of each data frame in a second map data frame after a conversion by a conversion unit.
US08510041B1
Pose data includes multiple pose samples, where each pose sample indicates a reported location of a device at a respective time, and where the multiple pose samples describe a trajectory of the device. To correct the pose data, pose modification data for some of the pose samples is received, indicating respective modifications of the pose samples by a user. Several other pose samples are automatically modified in view of the received pose modification data. To automatically modify the pose samples, one or more user modification constraints are applied, where each user modification constraint seeks to preserve the modification of the location of the device for a respective pose sample. One or more location constraints are also applied, each of which seeks to preserve the reported location of the device for a respective pose sample. Modified pose data is generated in view of the user modification constraints and the location constraints.
US08510038B2
A route guidance system includes: a current position detecting unit; a display condition determination processing unit that determines, for each of pieces of lane data that correspond to a lane list display section set in a forward direction of a vehicle position, whether a display condition for creating a lane list is satisfied, based on the pieces of lane data; a display setting processing unit that sets a piece of the lane data that satisfies the display condition as a display target; and a list display processing unit that displays the lane list based on the piece of the lane data that has been set as the display target. Thus, the piece of the lane data that satisfies the display condition is set as the display target, and the lane list is displayed based on the piece of the lane data that has been set as the display target. Consequently, the size of the lane list can be prevented from becoming too large.
US08510017B2
A cylinder-to-cylinder air/fuel ratio imbalance determination system obtains an imbalance determination parameter that increases or decreases as a difference between the air/fuel ratios of different cylinders increases, based on output values of an air/fuel ratio sensor, and makes a cylinder-to-cylinder A/F imbalance determination, based on the result of comparison between the imbalance determination parameter and a threshold value for imbalance determination. The determination system changes the amount of fuel injected into one or more of the cylinders so as to create a forced imbalance condition in which the air/fuel ratio of a particular cylinder deviates from the air/fuel ratio of the remaining cylinders, and obtains an air/fuel ratio sensor evaluation parameter (e.g., rate of change ΔAF of the detected air/fuel ratio) in this condition. Then, the determination system determines whether the air/fuel ratio sensor is adequate for making a cylinder-to-cylinder A/F imbalance determination, by comparing the evaluation parameter with a reference parameter (an evaluation parameter obtained based on output values of a reference air/fuel ratio sensor in the same forced imbalance condition).
US08510013B2
A gas turbine includes a rotor, and a controller for controlling a shutdown of the gas turbine based on a target fuel-to-air ratio profile and/or controlling a rotor speed according to a target speed schedule to attain a specified duration for the shutdown. The controller controls the rotor speed by engaging the starting system to turn the rotor.
US08510012B2
An anti-tailgating vehicle system includes a communication bus on a host vehicle, a forward vehicle sensor that senses a forward vehicle in front of the host vehicle, and an electronic control unit. The forward vehicle sensor transmits a forward vehicle message to the communication bus based on a distance to the forward vehicle. The electronic control unit receives the forward vehicle message from the communication bus and determines a relative speed between the host and forward vehicles based on the forward vehicle message. If the forward vehicle message indicates the host vehicle is not within a safe zone range relative to the forward vehicle while a host vehicle cruise control system is not engaged, the electronic control unit transmits a host vehicle control message to the communication bus for limiting a torque of the host vehicle.
US08510011B2
A system for controlling a vehicle that controls driving force and braking force such that a vehicle speed is maintained at a target vehicle speed. More specifically, when the vehicle speed exceeds the target vehicle speed, the system for controlling a vehicle maintains the driving force at or above a predetermined value, and applies braking force to the vehicle such that the vehicle speed is maintained at the target vehicle speed. This provides the vehicle with sufficient driving force for uphill driving following the downhill driving, and thus to travel uphill without significant speed loss. In other words, the vehicle ascends the uphill road smoothly at an approximately constant speed.
US08510007B2
A vehicle motion control device adjusts vibrations occurring in components of a vehicle so as to control the motion of a vehicle having independent drive assemblies for front wheels and for rear wheels. The vehicle motion control device includes a base request torque calculation unit that calculates first and second base request torques in response to a request made by the driver of a vehicle. A correction torque calculation unit calculates first and second correction torques used to adjust vibrations in a low-frequency band and in a high-frequency band of the vibrations of the components of the vehicle. An internal combustion engine control unit and a motor generator control unit control an internal combustion engine and a motor generator so that the first and second base request torques are corrected with the first and second correction torques.
US08510005B1
A method for controlling the torque phase of a clutch-to-clutch power downshift in a vehicle includes determining, during a near-sync boost (NSB) state of the power downshift, a synchronization speed. The method includes estimating, via a controller, a feed-forward clutch pressure that holds a speed of the turbine at the synchronous speed, and then ramping a clutch pressure command to the oncoming clutch to the calculated feed-forward clutch pressure. Closed-loop proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control is initiated over the clutch pressure command during the NSB phase in response to a predetermined PID activation event. A vehicle includes an engine, transmission, torque converter, and a controller. The controller has a processor and memory on which instructions embodying the above method are recorded. Execution of the instructions by the processor causes the controller to execute the method.
US08510004B2
An exemplary system includes at least one valve configured to control fluid flow in a dual-clutch transmission system. A solenoid is operably connected to the at least one valve and configured to move the valve to a plurality of positions. A primary processing unit is in communication with the solenoid and configured to determine an intended position of the valve. A controller is configured to receive the intended position of the valve from the primary processing unit and generate a primary control signal associated with the intended position of the valve. The solenoid is configured to move the valve to the intended position based on the primary control signal. A secondary processing unit is configured to receive information from the primary processing unit and prevent the primary control signal from controlling the solenoid if the primary processing unit is unable to control the solenoid.
US08509989B2
A monitoring process for monitoring a computing element in a control device of a motor vehicle, wherein the computing element includes three program modules by which the performance of the motor vehicle is influenced. The computing element is executed on a processor, wherein the processor includes a functional computer and a monitoring computer that is physically independent of the functional computer, and the monitoring computer includes two monitoring units that are independent of each other.
US08509987B2
In exemplary implementations of this invention, data regarding the position and operation of a vehicle is gathered by a GPS unit and an On Board Diagnostic (“OBD”) port, respectively. This data is wirelessly transmitted by a wireless transceiver located in the vehicle. The transmitted data from multiple vehicles is received by a remote processor. The data is processed and selectively shared with users of a public web interface, in accordance with user preferences. A user selects the type of data that may be shared and the specified persons, classes of persons or public with whom particular data or types of data may be shared. In some cases, data gathered by the OBD ports and GPS units is transmitted to a host server of a social network, and selectively shared over the social network in accordance with that network's policies.
US08509979B2
An object of the present invention is to detect the generation of a drag torque in a locking mechanism, in a hybrid vehicle in which a speed change mode can be changed between a fixed speed change mode and a stepless speed change mode by the action of the locking mechanism. In a hybrid vehicle, a brake mechanism is a wet multiplate brake apparatus and can selectively lock a motor generator. On the other hand, in a case where the drag torque is generated in the brake mechanism, if the motor generator is in a positive rotation state, an actual motor generator torque (first torque) is greater than a torque (less as a reaction torque, second torque) calculated from the operating condition of the hybrid vehicle by the amount of the drag torque. If the motor generator is in a negative rotation state, the first torque is less (greater as the reaction torque) than the second torque. The ECU uses this phenomenon to detect the drag torque.
US08509974B2
A system includes a hybrid power train having a combustion torque device, an electrical torque device, a driveline mechanically coupled to the torque devices, a battery that exchanges energy with the driveline, and a torque input device that provides a torque request. The hybrid power train is at least partially parallel. The system includes a controller having modules to execute operations for rate control of the hybrid power train. A battery protection module determines a battery protection charge rate limit, a power train protection module determines a power train protection torque change limit, and a torque request module determines the torque request. A rate control module provides a torque balance parameter in response to the limits and the torque request. A torque control module provides an electrical torque and a combustion torque to the driveline in response to the torque balance parameter.
US08509967B2
The invention relates to a system and a method for calculating flight predictions of an aircraft in which an intermediate prediction horizon is defined between the flight phase and the leg. This horizon, that is called vertical section, is defined such that the limit conditions that are applicable to it, for example the target speed, target altitude, characteristic altitude and maximum end-of-section distance, are valid for the entire vertical section. Thus, it is not necessary, in calculations to check the compatibility of the flight parameters with the applicable constraints, to arbitrarily select the constraint that must be given priority. Furthermore, this intermediate level architecture allows for a greater modularity of the prediction management software and therefore a greater factorization of the developments and greater ease of maintenance.
US08509964B2
The present invention is directed to a remote control system for controlling a railway vehicle. The remote control system including a remote control device for transmitting signals to a first controller module. The first controller is mounted to the railway vehicle and controls and monitors the functions of the railway vehicle. The first controller module also relays information to the remote control device. The remote control system can also include a portable safety switch allowing any individual in proximity to the railway vehicle to send a stop signal to the first controller module to stop the railway vehicle if any unsafe conditions exist.
US08509957B2
A power supply system includes a solar power generator, a storage, a controller, a calculator calculating a predicted amount of electricity consumed and a predicted amount of electricity generated, a calculator calculating a shortage amount that is a difference between the predicted amount of electricity consumed and the predicted amount of electricity generated, and a device setting a predicted amount of electricity stored. In a specified time in which electricity cost is lower than in other times, the controller controls such that the storage is supplied with electricity supplied to a building until an amount of electricity stored reaches the predicted amount of electricity stored. In the other times when an amount of solar power generation is larger than an amount of electricity consumed by an electric load, the controller controls such that the storage stores a surplus of the solar electricity.
US08509956B2
A wind turbine configuration management system, a central computer system and a method is provided. The configuration management system includes a central computer system and a wind turbine control system controlling a wind turbine. The central computer system is coupled to the wind turbine control system over a communication network. A processing unit of the central computer is configured to periodically request configuration data from the wind turbine control system, receive configuration data from the wind turbine control system and to compare the received configuration data to a stored data.
US08509953B2
A smart grid for improving the management of a power utility grid is provided. The smart grid as presently disclosed includes using sensors in various portions of the power utility grid, using communications and computing technology, such as additional bus structures, to upgrade an electric power grid so that it can operate more efficiently and reliably and support additional services to consumers. Specifically, the additional bus structures may comprise multiple buses dedicated to the different types of data, such as operational/non-operational data, event processing data, grid connectivity data, and network location data. The multiple buses may comprise different segments in a single bus or may comprise separate buses. The multiple buses may be used to transport the various types of data to other smart grid processes (such as at a centrally located controller).
US08509947B2
The invention proposes an autonomous mobile robotic device in the form of an integrated machine for producing beverages or liquid comestibles.
US08509941B2
The present invention relates to a method and a device for the machining of an object using a tool, in which the tool (2) or the object (18) is guided using a handling apparatus, which has multiple movement axes for the coarse positioning of the tool (2) or object (18), which form a kinematic chain. In the method, an additional actuator (3), which has a higher positioning precision in at least one dimension or axis than the other movement axes, is inserted between a terminal link (1) of the kinematic chain and the tool (2) or object (18). A relative movement of the tool (2) or terminal link (1) of the kinematic chain to the object (18) is detected using at least one sensor (5) and a deviation from a target movement path is compensated for using the additional actuator (3). The method and the associated device allow the use of robots or other handling apparatuses having lower path precision for applications which require a high precision during the guiding of the tool.
US08509939B2
A method of creating a pattern incorporating words in a unique format. Information including selected words, numbers, and symbols are entered into a computer program. The computer program arranging the information into a matrix format in which each word is interconnected with at least one other word by a letter common to each word. The resulting matrix is then as a template for reproducing the matrix on garments and other physical objects. The words entered into the computer program are arranged in a hierarchy with different words occupying different levels within the hierarchy, with a user of the method designating a different color for each level within the hierarchy and the words in the resulting matrix being displayed in the selected colors.
US08509932B2
A method and system are provided for manufacturing a physical dental model. A virtual model is provided representative of at least a portion of the intra-oral cavity including at least one dental implant implanted therein, and the virtual model includes a virtual portion representative of each dental implant. The virtual spatial disposition of each such virtual portion is determined with respect to the virtual model, corresponding to a real spatial disposition of the respective implant with respect to the intra oral cavity. A physical model is then manufactured based on the virtual model, the physical model including a physical analog corresponding to each implant at a respective physical spatial disposition with respect to the physical model corresponding to the respective virtual spatial disposition of the respective virtual portion with respect to the first virtual model as already determined. In some embodiments, a jig is provided configured for maintaining a desired physical spatial disposition between the physical analog and a cavity of the physical dental model at least until the physical analog is affixed in the cavity.
US08509928B2
Method for producing a stationary wave field of arbitrary shape comprising the steps of defining at least one volume being limited in the direction of the axis of propagation of a beam, of the type 0≦z≦L; defining an intensity pattern within the said region 0≦z≦L by a function F(z), describing the said localized and stationary intensity pattern, which is approximated by means of a Fourier expansion or by a similar expansion in terms of (trigonometric) orthogonal functions; providing a generic superposition of Bessel or other beams highly transversally confined; calculating the maximum number of superimposed Bessel beams the amplitudes, the phase velocities and the relative phases of each Bessel beam of the superposition, and the transverse and longitudinal wavenumbers of each Bessel beam of the superposition.
US08509917B2
A nerve stimulation lead has a distal end, a proximal end, and a longitudinal length. The nerve stimulation lead includes a plurality of electrodes disposed at the distal end, a plurality of terminals disposed at the proximal end, and a plurality of conductive wires electrically coupling the plurality of electrodes electrically to the plurality of terminals. The nerve stimulation lead also includes at least one anchoring unit disposed on the nerve stimulation lead. The at least one anchoring unit is configured and arranged for anchoring the nerve stimulation lead against a bony structure.
US08509912B2
External power source, system for controlling and method for predicting heat loss of implantable medical device during inductive recharging by an external primary coil. A primary coil inductively couples energy to a secondary coil when energized and placed in proximity of the secondary coil. Control circuitry, operatively coupled to said primary coil, determines the energy absorbed in said tissue based on a total applied power by said external power source, power lost in said electronic circuitry, power lost in said electronic circuitry, power lost in said primary coil and power applied to said rechargeable power source and controlling said total applied power based upon said energy absorbed in said tissue.
US08509905B2
Selective high-frequency spinal cord modulation for inhibiting pain with reduced side effects and associated systems and methods are disclosed. In particular embodiments, high-frequency modulation in the range of from about 1.5 KHz to about 50 KHz may be applied to the patient's spinal cord region to address low back pain without creating unwanted sensory and/or motor side effects. In other embodiments, modulation in accordance with similar parameters can be applied to other spinal or peripheral locations to address other indications.
US08509893B2
Various techniques for delivering atrial pacing and supraventricular stimulation to achieve a desired ventricular rate and/or cardiac output are described. One example method described includes delivering a pacing signal configured to cause an atrial depolarization to a heart of a patient, wherein the atrial depolarization results in an associated refractory period during the cardiac cycle, and delivering a signal to a supraventricular portion of the heart of the patient subsequent to the atrial refractory period and during a ventricular refractory period of the cardiac cycle.
US08509891B2
A method and system are disclosed for setting the pacing parameters utilized by an implantable cardiac device in delivering cardiac resynchronization therapy. The system may, in different embodiments, be implemented in programming of the implantable device and an external programmer in communication therewith or in the programming of the implantable device by itself. The selection of the pacing parameters is based at least in part upon measurements of intrinsic cardiac conduction parameters. Among the pacing parameters which may be selected in this way are the atrio-ventricular delay interval used in atrial-tracking and AV sequential pacing modes and the biventricular offset interval.
US08509882B2
A personal monitoring device has a sensor assembly configured to sense physiological signals upon contact with a user's skin. The sensor assembly produces electrical signals representing the sensed physiological signals. A converter assembly, integrated with, and electrically connected to the sensor assembly, converts the electrical signals generated by the sensor assembly to a frequency modulated physiological audio signal having a carrier frequency in the range of from about 6 kHz to about 20 kHz.
US08509880B1
A portable medical examination device used for cancer detection using tissue illumination with radiation of a certain wavelength band to provide the operator with either reflected images of the tissue or by inducing visible fluorescence of the irradiated tissue. The medical examination device has an illumination source transmitting a light beam through a first lens unit to condition the light beam; a fiber optic bundle including an excitation fiber and an image fiber, wherein the excitation fiber delivers the conditioned light from the first lens unit to a tissue to be examined and wherein the image fiber directs the light emanating from the illuminated tissue to a second lens unit; and an angularly adjustable visualization unit, wherein a light beam conditioned by the second lens unit is visualized by the device operator and/or captured by an image capture device.
US08509879B2
An apparatus for wide-field functional imaging (WiFI) of tissue includes a spatially modulated reflectance/fluorescence imaging (SI) device capable of quantitative subsurface imaging across spatial scales, and a laser speckle imaging (LSI) device capable of quantitative subsurface imaging across spatial scales using integrated with the (SI) device. The SI device and LSI device are capable of independently providing quantitative measurement of tissue functional status.
US08509877B2
According to the invention, a VOI (Volume of Interest) generation setting section disposed in an endoscope insertion support apparatus comprises a VOI setting function section, a VOI extending function section, a VOI direction determining function section, a VOI branch determining function section, a VOI resetting function section, a VOI information storage function section, a VOI size determining function section and a VOI branch extracting function section. This configuration enables a VOI to be effectively set in a tubular organ having a strictured part and tubular path area information on the tubular organ to be extracted.
US08509875B2
An MR process locates a medical instrument with an attached microcoil in the examination volume of an MR device. The microcoil is part of a resonant circuit matched to the resonant frequency of the MR device and having no external controls. At least two temporally successive high frequency pulses (RF) are generated within the examination volume. After each of the high frequency pulses (RF), frequency-coded MR signals (S1, S2) from the examination volume are recorded. The position of the medical instrument is determined by analyzing the differences between the recorded MR signals (S1, S2).
US08509872B2
A picafina device that is an electrode for measurement of neuron electrical activity where the number of measurement points is very large, and methods of selecting a subset of available measuring electrodes on the surface of the device. The device can keep the selection for a predetermined length of time, or for an indefinite length of time, both under control of the researcher or the neurosurgeon. Selecting a different measuring pad, or a combination of pads, is equivalent to making measurement at a different location or on a nearby neuron. Several parallel measurements can be made, in which case correlations can be made between the firing of different neurons.
US08509863B2
A method, system and apparatus for expandable housing of a mobile communication device are disclosed. A housing of a mobile communication device includes a base layer, at least one of a component layer coupled communicatively on either side of the base layer to enable modification of a modular peripheral component integrated into the housing by sliding the modular peripheral component through a set of grooves located on opposite sides of each of the component layer and the base layer and a holding mechanism in the component layer that enables the modular peripheral component to remain in a fixed position. The modular peripheral component includes a daisy-chainable expansion port that enables an additional modular peripheral component integratable in the mobile communication device to be communicatively coupled with the housing across a variety of physical connections of the daisy-chainable expansion port.
US08509860B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for reducing power consumption of a mobile device in determining locations by determining if the mobile device is stationary; and if the mobile device is stationary, determining if the mobile device is in a zone with a known location and assign the known location as the location of the mobile device without involving a position determination system in the mobile device to reduce power consumption arising therefrom.
US08509855B2
A mobile information terminal has a front surface on which a display surface of a display device is arranged and a rear surface on which a plurality of operation keys are arranged. The mobile information terminal further has a half-depressing sensor for detecting that each of the operation keys is half-depressed and/or a touch sensor for detecting that each of the operation keys is touched. A control section executes a processing operation to cause the display device to display an image showing the arrangement of said operation keys and to change an icon which corresponds to a key of operation keys when a control section determines, according to an input signal from the half-depressing sensor or the touch sensor, that the finger of the operator is placed on this key of operation keys.
US08509852B2
A device and method include detecting signal strength received at a mobile cellular communication device. A dropped call is detected between the device and another device as a function of detected signal strength. The dropped call is reconnected when detected signal strength reaches a selected first threshold.
US08509831B2
A distributed antenna system comprises users; remote radio heads which are to be divided into clusters; and a central base station (CBS) including a CBS processor, a CBS memory, a user ordering module, and a user scheduling and cluster formation module. The user ordering module is configured to order the users in decreasing values of proportional fair scheduling metrics to provide a set of ordered users. The user scheduling and cluster formation module is configured to schedule the users according to the order of the users in decreasing values of proportional fair scheduling metrics; and for each user being scheduled according to the order of the users, pick up first N number of remote radio heads, in decreasing order of signal strength to the user being scheduled, which have not been picked up previously, to form a cluster of size N for the user being scheduled.
US08509829B2
The present invention provides a method for implementing an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) service in a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network, which is implemented based on a mobile intelligent network service and a flash message service. A Mobile Switching Center (MSC) triggers the mobile intelligent network service, a Service Control Point (SCP) determines an operation type code of the current step according to a user identification and a USSD access code and performs a corresponding operation, and at the same time constructs short message content associated with the operation type code of the current step, and transmits the short message content to a Mobile Station (MS) by way of the flash message. The present invention also correspondingly provides a system and device for implementing a USSD service in a CDMA network. By providing an operation prompt, the present invention realizes real-time message interaction, and reduces user's misoperation effectively.
US08509828B2
A text message application server capable of prioritizing incoming SMS messages and passing them to operators for a response, the operators interacting with the application server via the internet. The application server can handle multiple different called numbers, or messages with different identifying words in the message and can prioritize the messages on the basis of the message content.
US08509827B2
Disclosed are a system, method, and article of manufacture of a context-data acquisition and ranking. A context-data type is determined from a query. At least one context-data source that provides the context-data type is identified. A request for a context data of the context-data type is generated from the at least one context data source. A received context data from the at least one context data source according a specified parameter may be ranked. The received context data may be provided to the device that generated a short message. The received context data may be provided to a recipient mobile device. The received context data may be associated with a component of a short message generated by a device that generated the query. The received context data may be appended to the short message.
US08509826B2
Disclosed are a system, method, and article of manufacture of an association of context data with a text-message component. A context data is associated with a text-message component. The association between the context data and the text-message component may be indicated with a user interface. The association between the context data and the text-message component may be embedded in a text-message signal. The association between the context data and the text-message component may be embedded in a short message service (SMS) signal.
US08509825B2
Voicemail is received at a voicemail server and converted to an audio file format; it is then sent or streamed over a wide area network to a voice to text transcription system comprising a network of computers. One of the networked computers plays back the voice message to an operator and the operator intelligently transcribes the actual message from the original voice message by entering the corresponding text message (actually a succinct version of the original voice message, not a verbose word-for-word conversion) into the computer to generate a transcribed text message. The transcribed text message is then sent to the wireless information device from the computer. Because human operators are used instead of machine transcription, voicemails are converted accurately, intelligently, appropriately and succinctly into text messages (SMS/MMS).
US08509820B2
In a location identifying method, the sight of users of mobile communication terminals is estimated by calculating directions of the users based on position information of the mobile communication terminals, and the location where the lines of sight of the users are concentrated is identified based on the estimated sight. By identifying a location where the lines of sight of the users of the mobile communication terminals are concentrated, it is possible to identify an installation location where high advertising effectiveness can be achieved. Moreover, since only acquisition of the position information of the mobile communication terminals is needed, it is possible to efficiently identify an installation location of an advertisement, etc. Therefore, it is possible to efficiently identify an installation location of an advertisement or a billboard where high advertising effectiveness can be achieved.
US08509800B2
Systems and methods are provided for adaptive control of call quality-of-service. Using the systems and methods, if the uplink of a given mobile station is congested, the quality of the data, e.g., video data, sent by the mobile station along its uplink is adjusted to allow an optimal number of calls to be transmitted through the congested location. A centralized base station controller (CBSC) may obtain congestion information, such as frame loss ratio or frame delay, from its portion of the mobile network. The CBSC then relays this information to a mobile station and/or to a CBSC associated with one or more mobile station(s) at the other end of the call. The mobile stations may then adapt the quality of the video conferencing accordingly. Using the disclosed systems and methods, bandwidth utilization may be improved, allowing a high number of calls to be completed, and reducing the occurrence of dropped calls.
US08509795B2
A method of performing data transmission corresponding to semi-persistent resources for a user equipment of a wireless communication system includes performing a data transmission process corresponding to a communications link according to a semi-persistent grant in a transmission opportunity of the semi-persistent grant when no non-semi-persistent grant is found on a physical channel for the transmission opportunity of the semi-persistent grant, where the semi-persistent grant and the non-semi-persistent grant correspond to the communications link.
US08509790B2
In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for a communications facility that is adapted to communicate with at least one other mesh network node at a communication speed selected from a plurality of communication speeds.
US08509785B2
The present invention provides method and arrangements for dynamically and automatically obtaining a macro layer TA footprint for a femtocell, i.e. the femtocell's location in relation to the macro layer TAs, and to use this information to minimize signaling load from Tracking Area Updating in conjunction with femtocells.
US08509784B2
A mobile communication method according to the present invention includes a step A of causing a mobile station in a standby mode in a first cell to transmit a communication start request signal, a step B of judging whether or not to measure communication quality of a second cell on the basis of judgment as to whether or not the particular service is provided in each of the cells and judgment as to whether or not communication quality of the second cell is included in the communication start request signal, the second cell overlaid by the first cell in a different frequency band and a step C of starting communication of the mobile station in either one of the first cell and the second cell on the basis of the measured communication quality of the second cell.
US08509778B2
The present invention relates to methods and arrangements for configuring the HeNB (Home eNode B) to retrieve location information indicative of its location and sending this location information via a core network node to a UE (User Equipment) authorized to access the HeNB. The UE can then based on this received location information and on a determination of the location of the UE determine whether the UE is being positioned in the coverage of the HeNB. This implies that the authorized UEs of the HeNB know when they should try to find and access the HeNB and the UEs may then avoid accessing the HeNB when it is out of the HeNB coverage which will save UE battery and reduce interference.
US08509775B2
An EV-DO terminal module is made up of hardware and software for implementing the function as an EV-DO terminal. A W-LAN terminal module is made up of hardware and software for implementing the function as an AP of W-LAN. An information exchange terminal module has a function equal to that of the W-LAN terminal module. A control module has a dialup function and a function based on PPP protocol and is a hardware and software module for controlling the EV-DO terminal module, the information exchange terminal module, and the W-LAN terminal module.
US08509773B2
A system and method for making vehicle originated calls to a telematics service provider or other call center. The method includes identifying a call type associated with a desired wireless communication of speech or data to the call center, and then carrying out one of a number of different call connection processes depending on the call type. For voice channel cellular connections, an in-band modem cellular connection is preferably established in most instances using a connection retry strategy that includes primary, secondary, and possibly tertiary connection attempts. The system and method can be carried out in connection with various cellular system technologies, but is especially suited for use with GSM systems.
US08509772B2
A method and apparatus for that provides a re-entry procedure following a radio frequency outage in a wireless communication network is disclosed. The method includes providing (204) a entity identification for a base station (102-106) or a paging controller (108) to a mobile station (110) during initial entry of the mobile station to a wireless communication network. The method also includes storing (206) mobile station context information at an entity corresponding to the entity identification. After a radio frequency outage occurs after the initial entry of the mobile station into the network, a notification is sent (218) that indicates that the mobile station is re-entering the wireless communication network. Based on the notification that there has been a radio frequency outage, the mobile station context information is obtained (220) to assist the mobile station to re-enter the wireless communication network.
US08509769B2
A method and apparatus for performing the method are provided. The method includes operating a mobile device in a first network while a timer of the mobile device is running to prevent the mobile device from scanning for a second network. The method also includes determining a distance that the mobile device is from a reference location, where the reference location is associated with where the mobile device is prevented from scanning for the second network. The method further includes adjusting the timer when the determined distance from the reference signal exceeds a threshold. When the determined distance exceeds the determined distance, the mobile device can scan for the second network.
US08509766B2
A communication apparatus is provided including a display unit, a storage unit capable of storing therein display condition information in which a display instruction for causing the display unit to perform display processing or a non-display instruction for not allowing the display unit to perform the display processing is set, and a short distance wireless communication control unit for controlling a connection establishment communication with a communication party by a communication system based on electric field coupling or magnetic field coupling and data communication with the communication party by the communication system. The short distance wireless communication control unit judges whether the non-display instruction is set in the display condition information stored in the storage unit, and does not make the data communication with the communication party when judging that the non-display instruction is set, the communication control unit.
US08509765B2
A network for providing high speed data communications may include multiple terrestrial transmission stations that are located within overlapping communications range and a mobile receiver station. The terrestrial transmission stations provide a continuous and uninterrupted high speed data communications link with the mobile receiver station employing a wireless radio access network protocol.
US08509764B2
A method and system for setting transmission rate of messages transmitted and received by a mobile unit. The method and system include monitoring the speed of the mobile unit; and adjusting the transmission rate based on the speed of the mobile unit. Prevailing conditions may also be determined and the transmission rate may be further adjusted based on the prevailing conditions. The prevailing conditions may be determined based on at least one of states of one or more sensors local to the mobile unit and information provided from an external source over a communication system. The prevailing conditions may include at least one of slick pavement, limited visibility, road construction, object in roadway, accident, dense traffic, and anomalous driving behavior.
US08509760B2
A disclosed service for managing mobile and wireless communication devices (MWCDs) includes enabling a server to generate a standard remote configuration command (RCC) and enabling a transmitter coupled to the server to transmit the RCC wirelessly. The RCC configures a feature on a first MWCD of a first supplier and a second MWCD of a second supplier. The RCC may disable one or more of a set of selected MWCD peripheral devices. For example, the RCC may disable an MWCD camera, an MWCD microphone, and/or an MWCD speaker. In some embodiments, the RCC transitions the MWCD to a restricted state in which the MWCD is unable to record multimedia content including audio and video content. In these embodiments, the RCC may configure one or more of the features on each of a set of MWCDs within a defined geographic region.
US08509754B2
The present invention provides an “update forwarder” function to facilitate downloading applications to mobile devices. The update forwarder receives updates on its “network side” from one or more device management servers, stores the updates, and then delivers them from its “device side” to one or more mobile devices. By using wired or short-haul wireless links on both its network and device sides, the update forwarder can reduce demand for the precious bandwidth of a widespread wireless network. The update forwarder can receive downloads during off-peak times for the device management servers and at times when the mobile device is turned off or otherwise unavailable. Downloads can be scheduled to be delivered only when the mobile device is not otherwise in use. The update forwarder can be implemented with little cost as one function running on a device, such as a home PC or local server, that already serves other functions.
US08509749B2
A mobile communication apparatus includes a searching module, a retrieval module, and a display module. The searching module searches for an address corresponding to a phone number inputted into the mobile communication apparatus. The retrieval module retrieves a geographic map corresponding to the address. The display module displays the retrieved geographic map.
US08509734B1
A mobile payment network receives location information from mobile devices used to conduct transactions between two account holders, and qualifies any requested transactions based on the physical proximity of the two devices relative to each other.
US08509733B2
Systems and methods for identifying and characterizing relationships based on communication traffic. The methods may include accepting indications of communication conducted among entities over a communication network, and using a link processor, analyzing the indications so as to identify that two or more of the entities are interrelated by detecting one or more intermediate entities with which the two or more entities communicate. A criterion may be evaluated with respect to the indications associated with a given entity, responsively to meeting the criterion, disqualifying the given entity from serving as an intermediate entity in analyzing the indications.
US08509731B2
An emergency locator component for a mobile communication device enables the mobile communication device to obtain location information from other neighboring mobile devices in the event that the mobile communication device is unable to determine its own location. The mobile communication device employs a short-range radiofrequency transceiver to broadcast a request for location information to the neighboring mobile devices. A response containing location information may be received from another mobile device equipped with a similar emergency locator component. Accordingly, this technology enables mobile devices to exchange location information by setting up an ad-hoc network. The location information can be included, for example, in an emergency phone call to an emergency services call center.
US08509723B2
The present invention is a system for increasing Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) in a wireless communication system comprising a plurality of antennas each antenna providing a signal, a device for selecting a subset of signals provided by the plurality of antennas, a maximum ratio combiner for summing the selected subset of signals provided by the plurality of antennas, and a decision device for measuring the selected subset of signals against a predefined threshold. The device for selecting the subset of signals is coupled to the plurality of antennas. The maximum ratio combiner is coupled to the selected subset of signals and the decision device for measuring the selected subset of signals against a predefined threshold. The decision device is coupled to the selecting device such that one selected signal of the selected subset of signals is replaced by an unused signal provided by the plurality of antennas.
US08509717B2
A frequency modulation receiver is provided. The frequency modulation receiver includes an automatic frequency controller and a signal detector. The automatic frequency controller receives a demodulated frequency modulation signal demodulated from a radio frequency signal and outputs a control voltage to control an oscillation frequency of a local oscillator. The signal detector coupled to the automatic frequency controller receives the control voltage and determines whether the radio frequency signal is a frequency modulation signal according to the control voltage and a predetermined voltage range.
US08509709B2
Consumer electronic device having a distributed form factor millimeter wave receiver and transmitter
A consumer electronic device having distributed form factor millimeter wave receiver and transmitter comprising a first motherboard part including a baseband module; a second motherboard part including a receive (RX) active antenna, wherein the RX active antenna is connected to the baseband module using a pair of cables; and a third motherboard part including a transmit (TX) active antenna, wherein the TX active antenna is connected to the baseband module using a pair of cables.
US08509705B2
A method and apparatus for providing channel feedback is provided herein. During operation a covariance matrix at time t (R) is calculated as a function of a received downlink signal. Matrix Ct is also calculated and is based on a previous quantized covariance matrix (Rqt-1), the covariance matrix (R) at time t, and a forgetting factor (γ) that is applied to Rqt-1. The Ct is then used to create a DERC feedback message (signal or waveform) and may be transmitted with pilots on a proper feedback channel to a base unit. The base unit receives the feedback (Ct) as a DERC waveform on a proper feedback channel. The base unit uses non-coherent or coherent detection to detect the DERC values send by the remote unit and uses the DERC values with a previous quantized covariance matrix estimate, a forgetting factor, and a weighting value to compute a covariance matrix estimate to use for beamforming. The base unit then uses the covariance matrix estimate to determine appropriate channel beamforming weights, and instructs transmit beamforming circuitry to use the appropriate weights.
US08509698B2
Aspects of a method and system for a programmable interference suppression module may include receiving a communication signal comprising one or more desired signal, and one or more undesired signals. The communication signal may be utilized to generate estimated channel state information. The estimated channel state information may be formatted for use in interference suppression. A reduced interference signal may be generated from a delayed version of said communications signal and the estimated channel state information, wherein the one or more undesired signals may be attenuated. The reduced interference signal may be formatted for post-processing. The desired signals may comprise WCDMA and/or HSDPA signals, and the undesired signals may be inter-cell and/or intra-cell interference. Further processing may comprise HSDPA processing and/or RAKE finger processing. The communication signal may be a Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) compliant signal.
US08509683B2
A two conductor hard wired communications link accepts an actual value of at least one parameter of interest from an environmental sensor in the form of data encoded on the conductors via current modulation. The sensor is mounted in location remote from an irrigation controller. A circuit connected to the sensor transmits an RF signal representing an actual value of a parameter of interest detected by the sensor. A data relay is connected to the hard wired communication link of the irrigation controller. The data relay includes a receiver that receives the RF signal, and circuitry configured to extract the actual value of the parameter of interest and emulate a predetermined set of physical and protocol properties of the hard wired communication link of the irrigation controller.
US08509658B2
A developer supply container detachably mountable to a developer receiving apparatus and settable in a developer receiving apparatus by a setting operation including at least a rotation toward a setting position, includes a containing portion for containing the developer; a rotatable discharging member for discharging the developer out of said containing portion; drive transmitting means, engageable with a driving gear provided in said developer receiving apparatus and rotatable in a direction opposite the setting direction, for transmitting a rotating force from said driving gear to said discharging member.
US08509641B2
An electrophotographic printing device includes a fixing unit; and a temperature sensor. The fixing unit includes: a fixing member; a pressing member pressed against the fixing member; and a heater which heats at least the fixing member of the fixing member and the pressing member, the fixing unit fixing a toner image on a recording material to the recording material while carrying the recording material through a fixing nip formed between the fixing member and the pressing member. The temperature sensor is attached to a recording material supplying unit, and detects a temperature of a recording material stored in the recording material supplying unit, and a fixing temperature is controlled based on the detected temperature.
US08509630B2
A method is provided of determining the cause of artifacts in images produced by an electrophotographic (EP) printer. A reference image is printed and artifacts in it are detected. After printing normal images, a test image is printed and artifacts in it are detected. If a detected artifact in the test image does not correspond to a detected artifact in the reference image, a characteristic frequency spectrum of the artifact in the test image is determined. Run-out on rotatable imaging components is measured, and a characteristic frequency spectrum of each is determined. The test image spectrum is compared to each component spectrum to identify which component is causing the artifact.
US08509626B2
A device is provided for use with a dither tone signal and an information signal. The device includes a laser diode, an electro-optic modulator, a first filter and a second filter. The laser diode can output a first light signal, whereas the electro-optic modulator can transmit a second light signal. The first filter can generate a first filtered signal based on the information signal. The second filter can generate a second filtered signal based on the dither tone signal. The first light signal is based on the dither tone signal, the information signal and the first filtered signal. The second light signal is based on the first light signal, the information signal, the dither tone signal and the second filtered signal. The filtered signals reduce or cancel the undesired leaked/interfering signals.
US08509622B2
The present disclosure discloses an optical module and optical communication system. The optical module includes an upper housing (210), a printed circuit board (220), and an integrated chip (240) and an optical transceiver module (250) arranged on the printed circuit board, the upper housing (210) and the lower housing (230) together forming a space accommodating the printed circuit board (220), the integrated circuit board (240), and the optical transceiver module (250), and a first flexible thermally conductive component (260) arranged between the printed circuit board (220) and the lower housing (230). One surface of the first flexible thermally conductive component (260) is contacted with the integrated chip (240), and another surface of the first flexible thermally conductive component (260) is contacted with the lower housing (230). The optical module provided by the present disclosure has good heat dissipation performance and relatively high reliability.
US08509620B1
A system and method for utilizing the optical service channel for secondary communications without impacting the system communications passing along the channel is disclosed. The secondary communications are combined with the system communications and injected onto the optical service channel. The system communications are given a higher priority than the secondary communications to ensure that the system communications are given the required bandwidth.
US08509618B2
A photonic network includes a plurality of nodes each supporting add and drop of at least Y wavelengths, a plurality of optical links interconnecting the plurality of nodes, the plurality of optical links support up to X wavelengths and Y≦X, an optical routing protocol configured to compute a loop-free path through the plurality of nodes on the plurality of links, the loop-free path is computed for one of the X wavelengths or a group of the X wavelengths using routing constructs adapted to a photonic domain, and optical components at each of the plurality of nodes configured to selectively block at least one of the X wavelengths based on the computed loop-free path. A photonic routing method and photonic node are also disclosed.
US08509616B2
Devices, systems and methods for run-time reassignment of the interconnection between devices pertaining to a Physical (PHY) layer and devices pertaining to a Media Access Control (MAC) layer, with no packet loss or with at most one packet lost are provided. The strategies employed by these devices, systems and methods used REMOTE FAULT, PAUSE and IDLE PATTERN messages. The devices may be interconnected via a reconfigurable optical crossbar.
US08509607B2
A camera head comprising: (a) housing having a front and back orientation and defining a cavity, the housing being cylindrical and having an axis, the housing having a rear portion for interengaging with a support system; (b) a first wall annularly configured in the housing; (c) a front portion in threaded engagement with the housing such that rotating the front portion causes it to move axially with respect to the housing, the front portion having a front face at least a portion of which is transparent, the front portion comprising a second wall being cylindrical and extending backward from the front face to define a center cavity, the first and second walls cooperating to define an annular cavity; (d) at least one lens attached to the second wall and disposed in the center cavity; (e) one or more light emitting devices disposed in the annular cavity and operatively connected to the housing; and (f) at least one imaging device disposed in the cavity operatively connected to the housing and optically coupled to the lens; and wherein when the front portion is rotated relative to the housing, the lens moves with the front portion while the light emitting device remain stationary with respect to the housing.
US08509601B2
A method and computing system for seamlessly inserting a local audio clip into a primary audio stream. The method sends the primary audio stream to an audio output port, and determines main parameters for the primary audio stream. The method receives a request to insert an encoded local audio clip, locates an insertion point in the primary audio stream that coincides with an end of a frame boundary, and identifies a best matching encoded local audio clip for the main parameters. The method receives and sends the best matching encoded local audio clip to the audio output port, stores the primary audio stream in a buffer while sending the best matching encoded local audio clip, and resumes the sending of the primary audio stream when the sending of the best matching encoded local audio clip is complete.
US08509590B2
A metadata recording device that inserts an invalid byte for anti-emulation without scanning the contents of metadata and allows a data length after the anti-emulation is performed to be a fixed length is a metadata recording device that records main data and metadata, which are binary data, and includes: a generation unit configured to generate pieces of invalid data, each of which is data of a value not included in a specific byte sequence that is a byte sequence having a specific meaning; an insertion unit configured to insert each piece of the invalid data into the metadata at intervals shorter than a length of the specific byte sequence; and a recording unit configured to record the metadata into which the pieces of the invalid data are inserted.
US08509589B2
The present invention relates to a method for receiving a broadcase program in a mobile communication terminal. The present invention includes receiving a broadcast program in the mobile communication terminal, recording the broadcast program when a first event occurs, playing back the recorded broadcast program when a second event occurs, manipulating the recorded broadcast program playback to eliminate a time lag between the recorded broadcast program playback and the received broadcast program, and determining whether the time lag between the recorded broadcast program playback and the received broadcast program is eliminated.
US08509577B2
Embodiments of the invention provide a fiberoptic device that uses a gradient-index (GRIN) lens for focusing a light beam emitted by an optical fiber, but achieves a substantially longer focal length than that of a GRIN lens alone by placing a beam expander (e.g., no core fiber or step-index multimode fiber) between the terminal end of the optical fiber and the GRIN lens to simulate free space therebetween. In one embodiment, a fiberoptic device comprises an optical fiber having a fiber core and an end through which a light beam emits from the fiber core; a beam expander having a first end coupled to the end of the optical fiber and having a second end, the beam expander permitting the light beam emitting from the fiber core to pass from the first end to the second end and to expand from the first end to a larger size at the second end; and a gradient-index fiber lens coupled to the second end of the beam expander to receive the light beam from the beam expander and focus the light beam.
US08509572B2
A trace information processing apparatus includes: a positional information acquisition unit acquiring positional information pieces respectively indicating positions where elements constituting an electronic document are located in the electronic document; a trace information acquisition unit acquiring trace information pieces respectively indicating traces on which an electronic writing tool has passed in an operation performed plural times in which the electronic writing tool is moved on a medium having the electronic document printed thereon while the electronic writing tool is in contact with the medium; a generation unit generating a trace information group by grouping the trace information pieces; a characteristic information acquisition unit acquiring characteristic information on a position where the trace information group is located in the electronic document; and a determination unit determining one of the elements as one element with which the trace information group is associated, based on the positional information pieces and the characteristic information.
US08509560B2
An apparatus for improving image sharpness includes a pixel detector that labels each of pixels in an image as one of an edge/texture type and a non-edge/texture type, a pixel type determiner that classifies each of the pixels that are labeled as the edge/texture type as one of a border point type pixel, a transition point type pixel, and a peak point type pixel, and a filter. The filter includes a shrinking/expanding filter and a high boost filter, the shrinking/expanding filter filtering the border point type pixels, and the high boost filter subsequently filtering the peak point type pixels and then filtering the transition point type pixels.
US08509557B2
A method, system and computer software product for improving rate-distortion performance while remaining faithful to JPEG/MPEG syntax, involving joint optimization of Huffman tables, quantization step sizes and quantized coefficients of a JPEG/MPEG encoder. This involves finding the optimal coefficient indices in the form of (run, size) pairs. By employing an interative process including this search for optimal coefficient indices, joint improvement of run-length coding, Huffman coding and quantization table selection may be achieved. Additionally, the compression of quantized DC coefficients may also be improved using a trellis-structure.
US08509556B2
An image coding apparatus for coding image data. The image coding apparatus includes: a first coding mechanism predicting a quantization parameter and a quantization matrix to be used for calculating a target amount of code for the image data by coding the image data; a second coding mechanism correcting the quantization parameter predicted by the first coding means from an error between an amount of generated code produced by coding using the quantization parameter and the quantization matrix predicted by the first coding mechanism and the target amount of code; and a third coding mechanism coding the image data using the quantization parameter corrected by the second coding mechanism.
US08509551B2
An image encoder including: a predicted-image generating unit that generates a predicted image in accordance with a plurality of prediction modes indicating predicted-image generating methods; a prediction-mode judging unit that evaluates prediction efficiency of a predicted image outputted from the predicted-image generating unit to judge a predetermined prediction mode; and an encoding unit that subjects an output of the prediction-mode judging unit to variable-length encoding. The prediction-mode judging unit judges, on the basis of a predetermined control signal, which one of a common prediction mode and a separate prediction mode is used for respective color components forming the input image signal, and multiplexes information on the control signal on a bit stream, multiplexes, when the common prediction mode is used, common prediction mode information on the bit stream, and multiplexes, when the common prediction mode is not used, prediction mode information for each of the color components on the bit stream.
US08509547B2
This invention enables parallelly sorting data in substantially M blocks though statistical information is updated. In the first scan conversion, (15) input transform coefficients of a two-dimensional array are read out and output in accordance with scan order information ScanOrder[ ], thereby outputting sorted one-dimensional array data. At this time, a significant coefficient detection unit determines whether the sorted data is a significant coefficient. Upon receiving a notification that the sorted data is a significant coefficient, a statistical information update unit updates statistical information ScanTotals[x] at a corresponding position. When the relationship between statistical information ScanTotals[x] and immediately preceding statistical information ScanTotals[x−1] is an ascending order, ScanOrder[x−1] and ScanOrder[x], and ScanTotals[x−1] and ScanTotals[x] are swapped respectively. A second scan conversion unit starts scan conversion of transform coefficients with a delay of at least two transform coefficients from a first scan conversion unit.
US08509541B2
A method for detection of eye comprises computing an average inter-ocular distance for a given face. The method further comprises, detecting of a skin region of the given face. Furthermore, the method comprises identifying a search region for the given face. The method may also comprise computing an actual inter-ocular distance and computing eye centers of the given face.
US08509539B2
An image processing apparatus includes a storing unit that stores dictionary data including information on a feature area that indicates an area where a feature of a subject appears; and a subject determination unit that compares, when an input image is acquired, the feature area of the dictionary data with an area of the input image corresponding to the feature area of the dictionary data, to determine whether the input image includes the subject.
US08509535B2
A method for emphasizing differences in graphical appearances between an original document and a modified document using annotations with outer and inner boundaries is disclosed. A first bitmap of the modified document and a second bitmap of the original document are received. A set of difference points is derived from a comparison of the first bitmap and the second bitmap. Those difference points are representative of coordinates within the first and second bitmaps having pixel value differences exceeding a predetermined threshold. An outer boundary and an inner boundary of the difference points is derived, then an annotation defined by an area between the outer boundary and the inner boundary is generated.
US08509531B2
The present invention provides an image processing apparatus, and an image processing method, which can reproduce an edge portion with a high resolution in a high resolution raster image, and suppress image degradation such as a jaggy, while suppressing processing cost. In the present invention, an image processing part divides image data of raster data into blocks of M×N pixels (M, N are integers of 1 or more and also at least one of M and N is an integer of 2 or more). Then, the part performs color rounding processing in the block and counts the number of colors in the block. Subsequently, when the number of colors existing in the block is two, the part acquires shape information about arrangement of the two colors. Then, the part stores the shape information and color information for a first color and color information for a second color.
US08509528B2
Aspects of the invention provide systems and methods for converting a digital image represented in a lower bit depth representation to a higher bit depth representation. A saturation region is identified, where a color model value of the pixels in the saturation region is above an upper saturation threshold or below a lower saturation threshold. The color model value for each pixel in the saturation region is then adjusted by a corresponding adjustment. The magnitude of the adjustment for each pixel is based on characteristics of the image data.
US08509519B2
A system and method for adjusting perspective and disparity in a stereoscopic image pair using range information includes receiving the stereoscopic image pair representing a scene; identifying range information associated with the stereoscopic image pair and including distances of pixels in the scene from a reference location; generating a cluster map based at least upon an analysis of the range information and the stereoscopic images, the cluster map grouping pixels of the stereoscopic images by their distances from a viewpoint; identifying objects and background in the stereoscopic images based at least upon an analysis of the cluster map and the stereoscopic images; generating a new stereoscopic image pair at least by adjusting perspective and disparity of the object and the background in the stereoscopic image pair, the adjusting occurring based at least upon an analysis of the range information; and storing the new generated stereoscopic image pair in a processor-accessible memory system.
US08509511B2
In an X-ray diagnostic apparatus, a volume 3D image in which a desired blood vessel center line has been extracted is stored in a CT 3D image storage unit, and an X-ray two-dimensional image updated in real time is stored in an X-ray 2D image storage unit. The three-dimensional image is aligned with the X-ray two-dimensional image in an alignment unit. Further, a distal end position of a device and a position thereof after a predetermined time are searched for in a search unit, and the distal end position of the device in the three-dimensional image is calculated in a computing unit. Then, a cross-sectional image of the three-dimensional image is displayed on a monitor.
US08509502B2
An image analysis system comprising: (a) an image input module adapted to receive a medical image; and (b) an analytic module adapted to segment the image, identify a plurality of vertebrae and label each vertebra.
US08509500B2
It is judged whether a fingerprint authentication process has successfully been performed, based on a result obtained by comparing input fingerprint information generated from a fingerprint image input through a fingerprint sensor with registered fingerprint information registered in advance. In the case where a result indicating that the authentication process has failed has been obtained, an overlapping area size corresponding to the time when the input fingerprint information and the registered fingerprint information overlap each other the most is obtained. By using the overlapping area size and a similarity level indicating a matching degree between the input fingerprint information and the registered fingerprint information corresponding to the time when these images overlap each other the most, it is judged whether a re-input of an input fingerprint image should be requested. In the case where the judgment result is in the affirmative, the re-input of an input fingerprint image will be requested.
US08509497B2
Subtracting the date of taking a registrant's face image from the date of taking a photographic image of a person to be recognized, the number of elapsed years Y of the registrant's face image is calculated. If Y<5, an unsophisticated image comparator is selected. If 5≦Y<10, a first face parts comparator is selected to calculate the degree of resemblance between the photographic image and the registrant's face image more precisely than the unsophisticated image comparator. If 10≦Y, a second face parts comparator is selected. If the face image is a child's, the second face parts comparator compares the photographic image not only with the child's face image but also with his/her cognate's face image. After the photographic image is compared with every registrant's face image, the personal data of the top four registrants having the highest degree of resemblance is displayed on an LCD.
US08509490B2
A trajectory processing apparatus comprises a trajectory database configured to store a position coordinate of a movable body detected from a camera image in association with data that specifies the camera image from which the movable body is detected, and a camera image database configured to store the camera image. A control section fetches the position coordinate of the movable body and the specifying data for the camera image from which the movable body is detected from the trajectory database. Further, the position coordinate of the movable body fetched from the trajectory database is displayed in a display section as a trajectory of the movable body. Furthermore, the control section acquires from the camera image database the camera image specified by the specifying data fetched from the trajectory database. Moreover, this camera image is displayed in the display section.
US08509488B1
Satellite-based navigation techniques can help determine a user's position on a map and can also determine directions to a destination. Functionality can be implemented to determine the user's orientation and direction of motion based on a captured image taken in the direction of motion. The captured image may be preprocessed to compensate for a camera angle and to vary image properties before being transmitted to a server. The user's orientation may be determined based, at least in part, on knowledge of a user's position on a map and comparing the captured image to a set of other images. Walking directions can accordingly be tailored based on the user's orientation.
US08509485B2
In an information processing apparatus, an external-information acquisition unit acquires external information such as an image, a sound, textual information, and numerical information from an input apparatus. A field-image generation unit generates, as an image, a “field” that acts on a particle for a predetermined time step based on the external information. An intermediate-image memory unit stores an intermediate image that is generated in the process of generating a field image by the field-image generation unit. A field-image memory unit stores the field image generated by the field-image generation unit. A particle-image generation unit generates data of a particle image to be output finally by using the field image stored in the field-image memory unit.
US08509484B2
An image acquisition unit of an information processing device acquires data for a moving image including an image of a user and captured by an image capturing device. A tracking processing unit uses a particle filter to perform visual tracking in the moving image so as to estimate a head contour of the user. A gesture detection unit identifies a facial region in an area inside the head contour, acquires a parameter indicating the orientation of the face, and keeping a history of parameters. When time-dependent change in the orientation of the face meets a predetermined criterion, it is determined that a gesture is made. The output data generation unit generates output data dependent on a result of detecting a gesture. The output control unit controls the generated output data so as to display the data on the display, for example.
US08509468B2
A receiver or loudspeaker having a plurality of sound generators each having a housing and a sound output. An oblong channel is formed by a channel-forming element and parts of the housings. The sound outputs are positioned on one side of a middle of the channel and a outlet of the channel is positioned on the other side of the middle of the channel so that the channel has a length adapted to acoustically alter the sound. The use of the housings for forming the channels provides a more compact structure.
US08509461B2
A bone conduction device, comprising: a sound input element configured to receive an acoustic sound signal; an electronics module configured generate an electrical signal representing said acoustic sound signal; and a transducer, comprising a mass configured to move in a rotational direction, configured to generate a vibrational force in a tangential direction with respect to a recipient's bone.
US08509454B2
Aspects of the invention provide methods, computer-readable media, and apparatuses for spatially manipulating sound that is played back to a listener over a set of output transducers, e.g., headphones. The listener can direct spatial attention to focus on a portion of an audio scene, analogous to a magnifying glass being used to pick out details in a picture. An input multi-channel audio signal that is generated by audio sources is obtained, and directional information is determined for each of the audio sources. The user provides a desired direction of spatial attention so that audio processing can focus on the desired direction and render a corresponding multi-channel audio signal to the user. A region of an audio scene is expanded around the desired direction while the audio scene is compressed in another portion of the audio scene.
US08509450B2
A method of enhancing an audio signal includes the steps of: a) receiving a primary audio input signal, b) receiving a detected audio signal which comprises: A) an echo component derived from play-out of the primary audio input signal and B) a noise component, and c) estimating from the primary audio input signal and the detected audio signal: 1) a set of frequency-specific lower bound gains, such that each frequency-specific lower bound gain, when applied to a respective frequency of the primary audio input signal, would cause the noise component to just mask the echo component at that respective frequency and 2) a set of frequency-specific upper bound gains, such that each frequency-specific upper bound gain, when applied to a respective frequency of the primary audio input signal, would cause the echo component to just mask the noise component at that respective frequency; d) estimating a set of frequency-specific gains in such a way that each frequency-specific gain falls between the respective frequency-specific lower bound gain and respective frequency-specific upper bound gain; and e) applying the frequency-specific gains to the primary audio input signal.
US08509449B2
A key protector for a storage volume is created by generating an intermediate key and protecting, based at least in part on a public/private key pair, the intermediate key. A volume master key for encrypting and decrypting one or more volume encryption keys that are used to encrypt the storage volume can be encrypted in different manners, including being encrypted based at least in part on the intermediate key. A key protector for the storage volume is stored that includes both the encrypted volume master key and information indicating how to obtain the intermediate key. Subsequently, the key protector can be accessed and, based at least in part on a private key of the entity associated with the key protector, the intermediate key can be decrypted. The intermediate key can then be used to decrypt the volume master key.
US08509448B2
A sending device generates a first and a second KMM, wherein the first KMM includes a first KEK and a KMM encryption key, and the second KMM includes a set of symmetric encryption keys. The sending device further encrypts the set of symmetric encryption keys using the first KEK; encrypts the first KEK and the KMM encryption key using a first public key of a receiving device; and encrypts the second KMM using the KMM encryption key to generate an encrypted second KMM before sending the first KMM and the encrypted second KMM to the receiving device. The receiving device decrypts the first KEK and the KMM encryption key using a first private key that corresponds to the first public key; and decrypts the encrypted second KMM using the KMM encryption key to obtain the encrypted set of symmetric keys.
US08509446B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide a network system for quantum key distribution (QKD) for free space and fiber networks. The system of the present invention generates a couple of photons which have different wavelength and inputs each of the photons into the asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer to obtain time-bin entangled state. It provides polarization information with one part of the photons. Then it can obtain hybrid quantum entanglement. The system of the present invention may be used hybrid quantum key distribution system applied for both free space and fibers.
US08509435B2
Methods and systems for a transport single key change point for all package identifier channels are disclosed and may include descrambling a received transport stream comprising multiple package identifier (PID) channels with multiple key change points, and synchronizing at least a portion of the multiple key change points to occur at a common time. The transport stream may be conditional access or copy protect scrambled. The timing of the key change points may be synchronized by modifying one or more scrambling control bits for the descrambled received transport stream. At least one PID channel in said descrambled received transport stream may be re-scrambled utilizing one or more of the scrambling control bits, and a portion of the PID channels may bypass the re-scrambling. The re-scrambling may include one or more of CP re-scrambling and CA re-scrambling. Each PID channel may be de-scrambled and/or re-scrambled utilizing a separate key.
US08509434B2
Disclosed are a method and apparatus capable of reducing the computational complexity of encryption and decryption by encrypting only data of scalable video coding contents for each coding layer in terms of temporal, spatial, and SNR scalabilities to provide a service for protected scalable video coding contents, and capable of protecting contents by generating and distributing an encryption key for encryption and decryption depending on a class of a contents consumer.
US08509427B2
An encryption and authentication technique that achieves enhanced integrity verification through assured error-propagation using a multistage sequence of pseudorandom permutations. The method generates intermediate data-dependent cryptographic variables at each stage, which are systematically combined into feedback loops. The encryption technique also generates an authentication tag with minimal post processing that is the size of the state.
US08509426B1
The XZ-elliptic curve cryptography system and method provides a computerized method that allows for the encryption of messages through elliptic polynomial cryptography and, particularly, with the embedding of either a symmetric secret key or a public key in the message bit string. The method of performing XZ-elliptic polynomial cryptography is based on the elliptic polynomial discrete logarithm problem. It is well known that an elliptic polynomial discrete logarithm problem is a computationally “difficult” or “hard” problem.
US08509424B2
A fast key-changing hardware apparatus, which generates one sub-key each clock cycle, which is used by advanced encryption system (AES) algorithm block cipher, is independent from the AES algorithm block cipher. The invented apparatus automatically generate expanded keys from the input cipher key, store them in the key expanded RAM and ready to be used by the AES algorithm block cipher. If the key changing and the key expanding speed in the fast key-changing device is as fast as the data block (i.e. 128, 192, or 256 bits) processing speed in the AES algorithm block cipher, the cipher system has the characteristic of one-time pad perfect cryptography. When using this device with a fixed key cipher system, the original input cipher key can be detached or destroyed from the system and guarantees the safety of the cipher key.
US08509420B1
Methods, systems and apparatuses can be used to detect and prevent invalid or unwanted pulses. In various implementations, pulse information received from a telephony device can be used to identify a duration associated with the pulse. Based upon the duration, a determination can be made whether the pulse is invalid.
US08509413B2
Device and method for recognizing wanted and/or unwanted telephone calls of a telephone user as a function of the user's behavior. The device has an interface to at least one telephone of the user and an interface to at least one media terminal. A mechanism determines the input of a telephone call on the user's telephone. An examining mechanism establishes a spatial relationship between the user's telephone and the media terminal. A detection mechanism detects the activation state of the media terminal. A tapping mechanism taps the media content playing on the media terminal at the time point of the input of a telephone call on the user's telephone. A comparison mechanism compares the media content during an incoming call on the user's telephone with the media content of Event Files of a User Profile stored in a storage mechanism. A determining mechanism determines whether a call is wanted.
US08509404B2
A user device is configured to download an autodialer application that permits a user, of the user device, to purchase a prepaid calling plan and make calls using the prepaid calling plan; receive an instruction to purchase the prepaid calling plan; receive payment to establish a prepaid balance associated with the prepaid calling plan; present confirmation information when the payment is received, the confirmation information including the prepaid balance and access information; receive a request to make a call using the prepaid calling plan, the request including a number corresponding to a destination user device; call the destination user device using the number corresponding to the destination user device and the access information; determine a duration of the call to the destination user device; compute a cost of the call based on the duration of the call; and update the prepaid balance based on the cost of the call.
US08509402B2
A communication device may execute a first type of determination process based on a first type of determination standard, and execute a second type of determination process based on a second type of determination standard. The communication device may perform communication in accordance with a first communication scheme, if determined in the first and second types of determination process that the communication device can perform communication. The communication device may perform communication in accordance with a second communication scheme, if determined in the first type of determination process that the communication device can not perform communication. The communication device may notify specific information, if determined in the second type of determination process that the communication device can not perform communication, and may not notify, if determined in the first type of determination process that the communication device can not perform communication.
US08509388B2
In one embodiment, an advantageous system, apparatus, and method are provided for automatically and remotely pre-provisioning or provisioning a customer's digital subscriber line device via the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or the integrated services digital network (ISDN) using a caller identification (CID) sequence in a multiple data message format (MDMF).
US08509387B2
An X-ray imaging apparatus is provided with a multi X-ray source and a collimator in which a plurality of slits for X-rays to pass through are two-dimensionally formed, the size and position of the slits being adjustable. A control unit, as a first control mode, controls the size and position of the slits to move an examination region in parallel, when an X-ray source is changed to a different X-ray source, such that the examination directions are parallel before and after the change. Also, the control unit, as a second control mode, controls the size and position of the slits to rotate the examination direction, when an X-ray source is changed to a different X-ray source, such that the center of the examination regions is the same before and after the change.
US08509379B2
In a method and x-ray device to adapt the width and the position of a central value of a greyscale windowing for imaging with the x-ray device based on CT values determined with said x-ray device, the adaptation takes place within the scope of a determination and adjustment of an acquisition tube voltage of an x-ray tube of the x-ray device for an examination of a defined tissue of a patient, assuming a reference tube voltage for the examination of the defined tissue of the patient, and in which a width and position of a central value of the greyscale windowing that are associated with the reference tube voltage are automatically adapted to the acquisition tube voltage.
US08509375B2
Disclosed is a method for removing a thermal sleeve from a cold leg of a reactor coolant system, which enables removal of an unintentionally separated thermal sleeve without implementation of a pipe cutting operation, preventing invasion of impurities into pipes and securing reliability in repetitious welding of the pipes. In particular, the method enables a remote operation and an underwater operation using wire ropes, thus being capable of minimizing a negative effect on workers due to radiation exposure.
US08509372B1
A multi-band clock generator includes a phase-locked loop (PLL) integrated circuit responding to first and second clock signals, and includes a multi-band voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) responding to a multi-bit control word that sets a frequency characteristic curve of the VCO. The multi-band clock generator also includes an adaptive frequency calibration (AFC) circuit responding to the first and second clock signals, and the AFC circuit is configured to look-up a first multi-bit control word during an operation to lock an output clock signal generated by the VCO to a first frequency characteristic curve associated with the first multi-bit control word.
US08509362B2
A high sensitivity GPS receiver includes an acquisition engine and a tracking engine. The acquisition engine processes GPS satellite data at data rate that is substantially equal to twice the coarse acquisition (CA) code chip rate. This data rate advantageously enables the acquisition engine to process GPS satellite data with relatively less hardware area than traditional GPS acquisition approaches. In one embodiment, the high efficiency acquisition engine may be over-clocked, thereby allowing different phases of a CA code to be correlated quickly. The tracking engine can advantageously process GPS satellite data at a data rate that does not have an integer relationship to the CA code chip rate.
US08509354B2
Improved spur reduction architectures that improve linearity in direct radio frequency (RF) receiver architectures. Non-uniform sampling in the form of sampling clock phase (or frequency) modulation is used to induce phase (or frequency) modulation on signals that are being received from a given Nyquist zone. At the output of the ADC (analog-to-digital converter), the signals are de-modulated to remove the induced modulation based on the Nyquist zone that is being received. The de-modulation process results in non-desired spurious artifacts (interfering leakage signals and ADC spurs) being spread in the frequency domain. Strong spurious artifacts may be removed after measuring the induced modulation and de-modulating. For the case of weak spurious artifacts, the de-modulation for the desired Nyquist zone spread these signals in the frequency domain. Induced modulation on signals may also provide a dithering effect on the ADC.
US08509348B2
According to one exemplary embodiment, a method for producing an up-converted and amplified transmission signal comprises performing a logarithmic transformation of an input transmission signal to form a logarithmically transformed transmission signal, adding the logarithmically transformed transmission signal to a logarithmic local oscillator signal to form a sum signal, and performing an antilogarithmic transformation of the sum signal to produce the up-converted and amplified transmission signal. In one embodiment, a log-antilog circuit for producing an up-converted and an amplified transmission signal comprises a transmission log block configured to receive an input transmission signal and to provide a logarithmically transformed transmission signal as a transmission log block output, and an antilog block coupled to the transmission log block. The antilog block is configured to receive a sum signal of the transmission log block output and a logarithmic local oscillator signal.
US08509346B2
This application relates to an apparatus comprising a signal generator configured to generate a signal. The apparatus encompasses a predistortion unit configured to pre-distort the generated signal. The apparatus includes a pulse width modulating unit configured to modulate the pre-distorted signal into at least two signals. The apparatus comprises at least two amplifying units each configured to amplify one of the two modulated signals.
US08509344B2
A radio transmission device and a radio communication method employ sequence length decision units which hold a correspondence in which one basic sequence length is set for a plurality of transmission bandwidths. The sequence length decision units acquire transmission bandwidth information and decide a sequence length corresponding to the acquired transmission bandwidth information. A decision is made as to which of the cyclic extension process or the truncation process is to be executed on a Zadoff-Chu sequence according to the sizes of the acquired transmission bandwidth information and the basic sequence length. Then, a difference between the transmission bandwidth and the basic sequence length, i.e., the number of possible cyclic extension/truncation symbols, is obtained.
US08509343B2
A wireless communications device transmits during a first time using a single tone and during a second time using a plurality of tones. The wireless communications device uses linear power amplification for transmitting multi-tone signals and non-linear power amplification for transmitting at least some single tone signals. In some embodiments a linear amplification range on a first amplifier's characteristic curve is used for the linear amplification and a non-linear amplification range on the first amplifier's characteristic curve is used for the non-linear amplification. Filtering subsequent to the amplification is controlled to accommodate the type of amplification being used. In some embodiments, the decision as to whether to use linear amplification or non-linear amplification is a function of whether the intended transmitted signal is to be a single tone signal or a multi-tone signal. In some embodiments, the decision is also a function of intended range.
US08509342B2
A method for processing a sinusoidal carrier frequency signal includes generating a series of samples by sampling the carrier frequency signal at a system sampling rate until a wrap up sample is yielded. The wrap up sample position is within a predetermined distance of an end of a cycle of the carrier frequency signal and, the series of samples constitute a digital representation of the cycle of the carrier frequency signal. A position of each of the series of samples is adjusted by an amount proportional to the wrap up sample position from the cycle end and the adjusted samples are stored in memory.
US08509331B2
The present invention relates to a method for blind estimation of at least one parameter of an OFDM signal according to a maximum likelihood (ML) criterion. In one embodiment, the estimation method uses a deterministic maximum likelihood criterion. In another embodiment, the estimation method assumes that the modulation symbols modulating the sub-carriers of the OFDM multiplex are i.i.d. and Gaussian random variables. The estimation of said parameter is carried out while minimizing a cost function depending on the chosen criterion.
US08509330B2
Time-varying and frequency-selective channels in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) network are estimated by first storing, in a buffer at a receiver, a received signal corresponding to a set of pilot tones of a set of OFDM symbols. The pilot tones are predetermined and inserted in frequency subcarriers and time slots of the OFDM symbol. A covariance matrix of the received signal is estimated. A diagonal matrix is estimated based on the covariance matrix and a variance of noise in the received signal. The diagonal matrix indicates delays of non-zero paths in a time domain. A channel impulse response (CIR) for each OFDM symbol is estimated using the diagonal matrix, and the received signal. Then, the CIR is transformed to the frequency domain to obtain the channel frequency response (CFR).
US08509329B2
Disclosed are a data receiving apparatus that may discriminate a type of a received data frame, and a data transmission apparatus that may apply a constellation mapping scheme to a data frame so that a data receiving apparatus may discriminate the data frame in accordance with the constellation mapping scheme applied to the data frame.
US08509328B2
Disclosed herein is a reception apparatus including: an acquisition section configured to acquire an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing signal composed resultingly of signals transmitted by the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing method from a plurality of transmission apparatuses; a correction value calculation block configured to calculate a correction value for correcting a drift amount of the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing signal using the phase of either a first pilot signal or a second pilot signal extracted from the acquired orthogonal frequency division multiplexing signal, the first pilot signal being obtained from pilot signals which are in phase with one another coming from the plurality of transmission apparatuses, the second pilot signal being acquired from pilot signals which are out of phase with one another coming from the plurality of transmission apparatuses; and a correction block configured to correct the drift amount of the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing signal in accordance with the calculated correction value.
US08509326B2
A transmitter for transmitting OFDM signals includes a space-time or space-frequency encoder to generate coded OFDM symbols by arranging a sequence of OFDM symbols or variants thereof in a predetermined space-time or space-frequency block matrix or a portion thereof. The transmitter also includes a frequency selector to select a particular OFDM carrier frequency out of a number of available OFDM carrier frequencies, and a signal generator to generate OFDM signals by applying the selected OFDM carrier frequency to the coded OFDM symbols.
US08509325B2
An adaptive thresholding technique eliminates suboptimum threshold values by adjusting for varying channel conditions to eliminate interference where no channel energy is present, without discarding viable taps having useful channel energy. The adaptive thresholding technique adaptively optimizes receive threshold values for both wide and local area channels based only on measured C/I ratios 300. Thresholds are calculated based on instantaneous C/I estimates and/or weighted average C/I estimates calculated from WID/LID energies obtained from the current superframe WIC/LIC symbols respectively. In alternate embodiments, thresholds are calculated based on instantaneous C/I estimates and/or weighted average C/I estimates calculated from WTPC and LTPC symbols for the wide and local area channels, respectively The present adaptive thresholding technique dynamically reduces the threshold as the C/I estimate increases to mitigate performance degradation due to removal of weak signal taps. There is a separate threshold for each of the 12 coding and modulation modes supported by an exemplary receiver.
US08509313B2
Error concealment for video with a scene change detection based on inter-coded macroblock energy, spatial concealment for scene changes, and temporal concealment with predicted motion vectors as the global motion vector of the prior frame when half of the current frame macroblocks are corrupted.
US08509294B2
To provide a signal generator, a signal generating system, and a signal generating method capable of repeatedly generating an arbitrary waveform and making the phases of the head and tail of the generated waveform continuous with each other, without changing the frequency of the waveform.A signal generator (10, 11, 12) includes phase shift means (30) that receives waveform data which is repeatedly output n times, shifts the phase of each sample data item in an n-th waveform data item by a phase shift amount φn corresponding to the number of times n the waveform data is repeatedly output, and outputs the waveform data to D/A conversion means.
US08509274B2
A method for producing light emission from a two terminal semiconductor device with improved efficiency, includes the following steps: providing a layered semiconductor structure including a semiconductor drain region comprising at least one drain layer, a semiconductor base region disposed on the drain region and including at least one base layer, and a semiconductor emitter region disposed on a portion of the base region and comprising an emitter mesa that includes at least one emitter layer; providing, in the base region, at least one region exhibiting quantum size effects; providing a base/drain electrode having a first portion on an exposed surface of the base region and a further portion coupled with the drain region, and providing an emitter electrode on the surface of the emitter region; applying signals with respect to the base/drain and emitter electrodes to obtain light emission from the base region; and configuring the base/drain and emitter electrodes for substantial uniformity of voltage distribution in the region therebetween.
US08509270B2
The invention describes classes of robust fiber laser systems usable as pulse sources for Nd: or Yb: based regenerative amplifiers intended for industrial settings. The invention modifies adapts and incorporates several recent advances in FCPA systems to use as the input source for this new class of regenerative amplifier.
US08509263B2
Communication efficiency may be enhanced by using compressed headers. In an example embodiment, a method is performed by a transmitting device to reduce header size. A mapping is created between a logical channel identifier and a compressed logical channel identifier. The compressed logical channel identifier occupies fewer bits than the logical channel identifier. The mapping is transmitted to a receiving device. A compressed header that includes the compressed logical channel identifier is formulated. A communication that includes the compressed header is transmitted to the receiving device. In another example embodiment, a method is performed by a receiving device to decode a header having a reduced size. A mapping and a communication including a compressed header are received. A compressed logical channel identifier is extracted from the compressed header. A logical channel identifier is recovered from the compressed logical channel identifier using the mapping.
US08509262B2
A mobile station in a communication system including a base station, the mobile station includes a unit for sending a signal that allocates a plurality of different Zadoff-Chu sequences to a frame to the base station.
US08509251B2
The present invention is to provide a gateway device which, when determining that a network device connected thereto is a web camera and receives a packet from the web camera, is able to automatically add a port of the gateway device connected with the network device to a VLAN designated by the gateway device and then add a specific group code to the packet to specify the VLAN, such that the gateway device can transmit the packet to the VLAN according to the specific group code. The gateway device is then able to automatically set transmission priority of the packet to a high priority, such that after the packet is transmitted out of the VLAN, the packet can be transmitted through a transmission channel with the high priority, so as to improve the convenience of using the web camera and assure the transmission priority of the packet in the VLAN.
US08509249B2
An Ethernet exchanger is coupled to two or more Ethernet networks to exchange information among the two or more Ethernet networks using virtual circuits. A first Ethernet network is associated with a first carrier and a first port of the Ethernet exchanger. A second Ethernet network is associated with a second carrier and a second port of the Ethernet exchanger. Network information of the first Ethernet network and network information of the second Ethernet network are provided by the respective first carrier and the second carrier and stored in a database. A virtual circuit is provisioned to interconnect the first Ethernet network and the second Ethernet network based on a partnership between the first carrier and the second carrier and based on the stored information about the first network and the second network. The virtual circuit is associated with the first port and the second port. The stored information about the first network or the second network is reusable for subsequent provisioning of other virtual circuits associated with the first carrier or the second carrier.
US08509247B2
A router of a first network and a router of a second network are connected to a third network. A connection request including information relating to the direction of communication performed by a first service provider that exists on the first network is transmitted from the first network to the second network via the third network. On the basis of the information relating to the direction of communication included in the connection request transmitted from the first network to the second network, a second service provider that exists on the second network is selected and a response that includes identification information of the selected second service provider is transmitted from the second network to the first network via the third network.
US08509236B2
Techniques that offer enhanced diversity in the selection of paths (e.g., ECMP paths) and/or ports from ports associated with trunks for forwarding data traffic. In one embodiment, one or more functions are used to generate a result. A first portion of the generated result may be used as an index (e.g., ECMP index) for selecting a path (e.g., an ECMP path) from multiple possible paths for forwarding a packet. A second portion of the generated result, different from the first portion, may be used as an index (trunk index) for selecting an output port from multiple output ports associated with a trunk for forwarding a packet. In this manner, selected portions of the generated result may be used as indices, one for selecting a path and another for selecting a trunk port for forwarding packets such that the two indices are not the same and are not dependent upon one another.
US08509232B2
A capability is provided for supporting fault-resilient propagation of traffic in networks using redundant multicast trees (RMTs). Fault-resilient propagation of traffic from a first node to a second node is supported using one or both of a pair of RMTs rooted at the first node and a pair of RMTs rooted at the second node. The pair of RMTs rooted at the first node includes a pair of node-disjoint paths from the first node to the second node. The pair of RMTs rooted at the second node includes a pair of node-disjoint paths from the second node to the first node. The first node propagates multicast traffic toward the second node using at least one of the RMTs in the pair of RMTs rooted at the first node. The first node propagates unicast traffic toward the second node using at least one of: at least one of the RMTs in the pair of RMTs rooted at the first node, or at least one of the RMTs in the pair of RMTs rooted at the second node.
US08509228B2
A method and apparatus for prioritizing source Media Access Control (MAC) address miss processing is described. In one embodiment of the invention, a network bridge receives multiple frames (each including a source MAC address) at multiple ports of multiple line cards. If a source MAC address of a received frame is associated with a different port than which it was received on, the network bridge places a source MAC miss message in a high priority MAC move miss queue. If a source MAC address of a received frame is not associated with any of the ports of the network bridge, the network bridge places a source MAC miss message in a low priority unknown MAC miss queue. The network bridge processes those source MAC miss messages in the high priority queue with a higher priority than processing those source MAC miss messages in the low priority queue.
US08509222B2
A method and corresponding apparatus are provided to route a call from a customer to a destination. A call setup message sent from a customer switch intended to signal a switch to perform a call routing function or request a call routing function be performed is intercepted. A call release message sent from the switch intended to signal the customer switch of network congestion is intercepted. In response to either the call setup message or the call release message being intercepted, a routing engine is queried with the destination of the call for a specific route over which to carry the call. The call setup message is modified to include the specific route. The call release message is responded to with a re-route call message that includes the specific route. The switch is directed with either the modified call setup message or re-route call message to use the specific route to carry the call from the customer to the destination.
US08509221B2
An optimized gateway selection process of the present invention is based on a universal mobility manager (UMM), a component for inter-technology location management. The UMM is capable of holding location information for diverse cellular networks, as well as for Internet telephony systems. For cellular networks, UMM acts as a traditional HLR; for an Internet telephony network, it acts as the entities that are responsible for user/terminal registration (registrar in SIP, gatekeeper in H.323) and address resolution (proxy server in SIP, gatekeeper in H.323). An optimal gateway selection is possible based on location related information provided by the UMM which had not previously been available. Utilizing the newly available information enables a gateway to be selected which may, for example, enable the circuit switched portion of a call to now be minimized.
US08509212B2
An approach is provided for remotely controlling and/or tracking mobile devices. A request is received to track a mobile device. A control signal is generated, in response to the request, to remotely activate an application on the mobile device for controlling an audio interface or an imaging interface of the mobile device to capture a signal from the audio interface or the imaging interface.
US08509211B2
A method of reducing interference by a first wireless audio communication system with a second wireless communication system that is different from the first wireless system is provided. The first wireless system is caused to transmit data packets with a time gap between packets during which the first wireless system is not transmitting. Periodically a long time gap between two packets of the first system is set to be at least as long as a longest time it can take the second wireless system to transmit a data packet even when packet transmission errors are occurring in the first wireless system such that if packets were retransmitted by the first wireless system the long time gap would be reduced to be less than the longest time it can take the second wireless system to transmit a data packet. As such, the second wireless system can transmit one or more data packets during each long time gap during which the first wireless system is not transmitting.
US08509209B2
A method for transmitting a band bitmap in a wireless communication system is provided. The method includes selecting at least one selection band from a plurality of bands, the plurality of bands being distributed throughout a whole frequency band, grouping the plurality of bands into a plurality of band groups, setting a primary bitmap for each band group according to whether the selection band is included in each band group and setting a secondary bitmap for bands in each band group, and transmitting the primary bitmap and the secondary bitmap. Radio resources used to transmit a band bitmap can be reduced by decreasing the number of bits of the band bitmap.
US08509206B2
A method of adjusting time alignment of a sampled data stream is disclosed. The method comprises transferring the sampled data stream from a baseband subsystem to a digital interface, transferring the sampled data stream from the digital interface to a digital radio comprising a pulse shaping filter modulator, modulating the sampled data stream by using the pulse shaping filter modulator, and transmitting the modulated sampled data stream. The method further comprises transferring a time adjustment control signal from the baseband subsystem to the digital radio, and the modulating step comprises a step of adjusting, based on the time adjustment control signal, the time alignment of the sampled data stream using a sample resolution. Corresponding computer program product, arrangement, and electronic device are also disclosed.
US08509203B2
In a mobile station which communicates wirelessly with a wireless base station with a plurality of connections established by using part or all of a plurality of frequency bands, a plurality of wireless communication interfaces is associated with the plurality of frequency bands, and a processor makes a sleep request to the wireless base station, acquires from the wireless base station information about a result of scheduling complying with the sleep request and indicating non-sleep intervals of the individual connections and the frequency bands to be used for the respective non-sleep intervals, and performs sleep control on the plurality of wireless communication interfaces in accordance with the acquired information.
US08509195B2
A wireless hybrid time division multiple access/code division multiple access (TDMA/CDMA) user equipment (UE) includes a signaling receiver and a data detection device in communication with the signaling receiver. The signaling receiver is configured to receive and recover signaled information of code and timeslot assignments of the UE to support an RF communication. The data detection device is configured to recover from the signaling information an identifier of a plurality of assigned timeslots and an indication of a first and last code of a set of consecutive codes. The last code is identified by an identifier associated with the last code.
US08509183B2
According to an Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (E-MBMS) service method of the present invention, an E-MBMS service is received from a first base station. If neighbor cell MBMS control information is modified in the first base station, MBMS paging information, including a factor informing that the neighbor cell MBMS control information has been modified, is received from the first base station. When an MBMS control information update cycle is reached, modified neighbor cell MBMS control information is received from the first base station and is stored. When a user equipment moves from the first base station to a second base station, a P-T-M radio bearer is reset based on the stored neighbor cell MBMS control information and receiving the E-MBMS service from the second base station. Accordingly, the consumption of battery power can be reduced, and an E-MBMS service being services is not interrupted although a user equipment moves.
US08509180B2
An efficient use of downlink (DL) air-interface bandwidth during handoff of user equipment from a source cell to a target is provided. In conjunction with a handoff message to ensure receipt, expedited status exchanges are provided so that initial communications do not require a subsequent retransmission of duplicate data. A method for transmitting a dedicated Random Access Channel (RACH) preamble and cell information, receiving a RACH from the user equipment to start communication, and transmitting a handover message and a radio link control (RLC) status message or an UL grant in response to receiving the RACH is provided. Also, a method for receiving a handover message and target cell information from a source cell to start handover negotiations, initiating communication with target cell using the target cell information, receiving a handover message and (RLC) status message, and using the received information to approximate status reporting is provided.
US08509175B2
A method of transmitting a downlink control signal is disclosed, by which localized allocation and distributed allocation are efficiently used in transmitting a downlink control signal. The present invention includes multiplexing the downlink control signal in a manner of if there exists downlink data transmission to a prescribed UE, applying localized allocation to a transmission of the downlink control signal including the scheduling information on the uplink data transmission of the UE and applying distributed allocation to another transmission of the downlink control signal and transmitting the multiplexed downlink control signal.
US08509173B2
A method and apparatus of controlling a transmit power in a wireless local area network is provided. A wireless device operated in a TV White Space transmits a white space map indicating a list of available channels, and transmits an extended power constraint indicating a plurality of transmission channels and a plurality of maximum transmit powers, wherein the plurality of transmission channels are selected among the list of available channels and each of the plurality of maximum transmit powers corresponds to a maximum transmit power for each of the plurality of transmission channels. Interference can be mitigated between wireless devices operated in the TV White Space.
US08509167B2
A radio communication system for a radio communication service and a terminal is provided, namely, a method for communicating data blocks between a base station and the terminal in Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (E_UMTS) or Long Term Evolution (LTE) System evolved from UMTS, and more particularly, to a method of effectively identifying a transmitter of a data block received by a receiver.
US08509165B2
A method for filling a WiMAX downlink frame by the base station of a WiMAX network, wherein the downlink MAC Protocol Data Units (MPDUs) are fitted into the WiMAX downlink frame by means of a DL-MAP scheduler, which allows the concatenation of downlink MPDUs from different connections in single bursts, the bursts having a rectangular shape in terms of the two dimensions—OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) symbols and subchannels—of a WiMAX downlink frame, is characterized in that the DL-MAP scheduler is configured in a way that it considers the concatenation of downlink MPDUs from different connections in single bursts based on the available and/or the remaining free space in the WiMAX downlink frame, such that it simplifies the DL-MAP scheduler task of filling the WiMAX downlink frame minimizing the amount of wasted radio resources.
US08509152B2
A method of routing a wireless network is provided. The method is performed by each of a group of nodes and includes: receiving a routing request signal; determining whether a node itself is a destination node, by referring to a traffic distribution table showing traffic throughput of the group of nodes and an intermediate-node weight table showing weights of intermediate nodes on all paths between the group of nodes and a source node, wherein a route path is selected by referring to the weights of intermediate nodes; and when it is determined that the node itself is the destination node transmitting a routing response signal to the source node that has transmitted the routing request signal, and receiving a packet from the source node, wherein the transmitting and receiving are performed by the determined destination node. By using the method, traffic in wireless network extreme communications can be distributed at intermediate nodes as well as at destination nodes. Therefore, all the networks can be effectively used in extreme circumstances.
US08509151B2
A mobile communication method according to the present invention includes step of notifying an information transfer device 501 of identification information on a radio base station 201 by a network device 100, the information transfer device 501 corresponding to an inputted installation location of the radio base station 201, step of managing, by the information transfer device 501, the notified identification information on the radio base station 201, step of transmitting, when the radio base station 201 is installed or moved, an installation signal from the radio base station 201 to an information transfer device 501 to which the radio base station is connected, step of transferring the installation signal to the network device 100 by the information transfer device 501 to which the radio base station 201 is connected, if the information transfer device 501 manages the identification information on the radio base station 201 included in the received installation signal.
US08509147B1
In a communication system, a first base station wirelessly transmits a first base station access code. A second base station wirelessly transmits a second base station access code. A wireless communication device wirelessly receives the first base station access code and the second base station access code and processes the first base station access code and the second base station access code to generate a common access code. The wireless communication device wirelessly transmits the common access code. The first base station wirelessly receives the common access code and processes the common access code to initiate the registration of the wireless communication device with the first base station. The second base station wirelessly receives the common access code and processes the common access code to initiate the registration of the wireless communication device with the second base station.
US08509137B2
An intentional presence system in accordance with the present invention includes a transmitting device at a first physical location that is responsive to a command intentionally initiated by a first individual at the first physical location to develop a presence signal intended for a second individual at a second physical location. The intentional presence system further includes a receiving device located at the second physical location which is receptive to the presence signal and which is operative to generate an indication to the second individual of the first individual's presence with respect to the transmitting device.
US08509128B2
A convergence engine may provide a high level message for a high level engine representative of multiple messages received by a network interface or other physical layer transmission device. The high level engine may access one or more high level messages via functions describing the state of a non-network-portal station.
US08509127B2
There is provided with a management device including: a communication unit configured to receive input function information indicating input functions provided by input devices through a wireless network and receive reception level information indicating reception levels of signals which an output device connected to the wireless network has received from the input devices from the output device; and a determiner configured to determine an input device to be combined with the output device based on the input function information and the reception level information.
US08509119B2
The present invention includes a method for sharing a quantity of resources between several users in a telecommunication network or a computing system starting from a given date. The method includes updating a tree, each node of which represents a time period. The tree contains at least one node representing a time period including the given date. The concatenation of the time periods represented by daughter nodes of a parent node represent the time period represented by the parent node.
US08509117B1
Method and system for faster device learning are provided. The invention provides a method of sending multiple object identifiers in a single Get Next Request, enabling the learning of the management information of more than one variable simultaneously, and reducing the time required for learning the management information of the network. Multiple OIDs are generated from an OID, and they are sent in a single request packet, to learn their management information. The invention also provides a network comprising a Network Management System (NMS), at least one device, and a set of variables residing in each device. The NMS is capable of sending at least one OID in a single request to the device.
US08509115B2
A multicast control method in an Ethernet passive optical network, the method includes steps: (A) configuring different id for user-end devices and their user ports; labeling users on office-end devices by using id for user-end devices and their user ports; setting up user's multicast authorization table; (B) based on the multicast authorization table, office-end devices control user's multicast authority; based on the controlled result, setting up multicast filtration tables and user filtration tables for user-end devices; based on the multicast filtration tables and user filtration tables, user-end devices filter multicast data, and forward them to users having multicast authority. The method controls multicast for different user ports on the same user-end device so as to raise security of multicast.
US08509114B1
Method and apparatus provide in-band dynamic bandwidth management in a circuit-switched emulation service over Internet Protocol.
US08509108B2
An apparatus and method for detecting a voice period in a mobile communication system are provided. The method includes determining a voice codec rate, comparing a maximum size of a Silence InDication (SID) packet and a minimum size of a voice packet corresponding to the determined voice codec rate, and detecting the voice period by using any one of a packet size and an inter-packet interval according to the comparison result.
US08509104B2
A sequence of received signals is identified, by a receiver of signals transmitted via a channel of a wireless communications system, as one of a number of known orthogonal sequences. The sequence of received signals is received; a modified sequence is calculated by replacing some of the received signals by their complex conjugate values; the modified sequence is correlated with each one of the number of known orthogonal sequences to obtain a correlation result for each of the known sequences; and the sequence of received signals is identified as the known sequence having the largest correlation result. When some signals in the received sequence are complex conjugated before being correlated with the known sequences, the correlation sum will increase so that even in case of a considerable frequency error the correlation sum for the correct sequence will be sufficiently large to be distinguished from noise.
US08509100B2
Systems and methods that automatically collect data associated with system-identified errors as well as data associated with events associated with user-initiated actions. A data collection profile defines data to be collected and a user-initiated trigger. When the user-initiated trigger is sensed, data is collected according to the data collection profile. The collected data can be uploaded immediately, or stored for some period of time before being transmitted to a collection system. A user recognizes an event which may not be recognizable by the system and the user provides an input defined as the user-initiated trigger. Data may be collected for a brief time before, during and a brief time after sensing the user-initiated trigger and may be uploaded to a system. The user may annotate the collected data by explaining the error, after which the explanation is correlated with the collected data.
US08509098B2
The invention comprises a method and apparatus for determining a network connectivity in a network having a plurality of nodes. In particular, one embodiment of the method includes generating a candidate link for each of a plurality of node pairs, predicting a performance of each candidate link by evaluating an expected impact of at least one condition on each candidate link, and determining the network topology using the predicted performances of the candidate links. The performance of each candidate link may be predicted by identifying at least one condition, determining the expected impact of the at least one condition on the candidate link, and predicting the performance of the candidate link by adjusting an expected performance of the candidate link using the expected impact of the at least one condition on the candidate link.
US08509097B1
A data communication network (DCN) having a plurality of network devices coupled to the DCN with at least one of the network devices having a “boot once” connectivity manager processor (CMP). The CMP receives its power over the DCN rather than from the power applied to the network devices. The CMP can execute special operating system code and maintain network connectivity even if the network device itself is powered off, is being booted or is otherwise non-functional. The CMP is also coupled to the network device's memory so that it may respond to out-of-band polling requests for device status information from network management tools. With CMP, network administrators can monitor the boot process of network devices, determine that a network device is non-functional due to power loss and can maintain an accurate inventory status of spare network devices that are stored un-powered in a spares closet.
US08509092B2
Disclosed is a signal control method that is characterized by receiving a first signal, a second signal comprising multiple components, component information indicating the relationship between the components, and analysis control information comprising information indicating the relationship between the components and the second signal. The signal control method is further characterized by controlling the first signal or the second signal on the basis of the components and the analysis control information.
US08509090B2
An apparatus for testing a communication circuit includes a dynamic range module. The dynamic range module includes signal strength adjustment module and a control module. The signal strength adjustment module adjusts a peak signal strength of test packets transmitted according to a predetermined test sequence. The control module selectively controls the signal strength adjustment module to adjust the peak signal strength based on the predetermined test sequence.
US08509082B2
A system and method for load balancing network resources. Network performance information regarding data flow through a network is gathered using performance information packet data packets. The data flow is distributed through access points of the network using connection control admission control engines. The distributing includes routing the data flow to more efficiently use the network resources based on the PIP data packets.
US08509069B1
A method includes receiving packets from a network with a plurality of packet-forwarding engines (PFEs) of a router, wherein the plurality of PFEs are interconnected by a switch fabric, determining an egress one of the PFEs for each of the packets, and forming fixed-sized fabric cells that share data associated with the packets that are destined for the same egress PFE while preventing packets destined for different egress PFEs to share any of the fabric cells. The fabric cells are transmitted through the switch fabric to communicate the packets to the egress PFEs.
US08509057B2
A communication system comprising a first communication apparatus and a second communication apparatus. The first communication apparatus includes a communicating section that communicates with the second communication apparatus via a first data signal line; an alive signal receiving section that receives, via a first alive signal line, an alive signal indicating whether the second communication apparatus is in an alive state in which it is capable of communicating with the first communication apparatus; and a reset signal transmitting section that, when the second communication apparatus is not in the alive state, transmits a reset signal to the second communication apparatus. The second communication apparatus includes a communicating section that communicates with the first communication apparatus via the first data signal line; an alive signal transmitting section that transmits the alive signal via the first alive signal line; and a reset signal receiving section that, upon receiving a reset signal, resets the communicating section of the second communication apparatus.
US08509054B2
In an OFDM-based transmission method it can be stated for the preamble (4, 7) of a data packet that its N preamble segments (B, B) are obtained from the segment-by-segment multiplication of an initial segment, which is fixed for all N preamble segments, by a multiplication sequence with a length of N elements. It can be stated for the OFDM data symbols that a plurality of OFDM symbols which are transmitted successively in time each include at least one pilot signal, with the respective subcarrier which transmits the at least one pilot signal being dependent on the time index of the espective OFDM symbol.
US08509049B2
According to one embodiment, an optical recording medium is provided in which interlayer crosstalk is low and in which stable and high-quality recording characteristics can be obtained. To this end, in this optical recording medium, an intermediate layer whose thickness variation is managed to be equal to or less than a predetermined value is provided between a first recording part and a second recording part.
US08509046B2
A recording wavelength generator selects control parameters of a recording pulse sequence, based on combinations of mark length, a first space length of a first space immediately before the mark, and a second space length of a second space immediately after the mark. A laser drive circuit records the marks by the recording pulse sequence. The first and second space lengths are classified into m and n types, respectively. An absolute value of a difference between two predetermined control parameters from among (m×n) control parameters selected during recording on a second information layer located on an incidence side of the laser beam with respect to a predetermined first information layer from among N information layers is equal to or greater than an absolute value of a difference between two predetermined control parameters from among the (m×n) control parameters selected during recording on the first information layer.
US08509040B2
An optical pickup device includes a polarization diffraction grating to diverge an optical beam reflected from an optical disc and an optical detector to receive the optical beam diverged by the polarization diffraction grating, a polarization of 0 order diffracted light diffracted through the polarization diffraction grating is substantially perpendicular to that of a +1 order diffracted light diffracted therethrough, and a polarization filter having a plurality of domains is mounted between the polarization diffraction grating and the optical detector.
US08509039B1
A thermally-assisted recording (TAR) disk has an improved insulating layer beneath the chemically-ordered FePt (or CoPt) alloy recording layer. The insulating layer is a solid substitution crystalline alloy MgXO, where the element X is selected from nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co). The composition of the MgXO crystalline solid substitutional alloy is of the form (Mg(100-y)Xy)O where y is between 10 and 90, and more preferably between 20 and 80. An optional layer of crystalline “pure” MgO may be located between the MgXO layer and the FePt recording layer and in contact with the recording layer, or between an underlayer and the MgXO layer.
US08509036B2
A plurality of laser diode units is tested in a bar state, each of the laser diode units in which a laser diode that includes a first electrode and a second electrode formed on surfaces facing each other and that is mounted on a mounting surface of a submount such that the first electrode faces the mounting surface of the submount. The method includes preparing a bar in which mounting areas each of which includes the laser diode unit formed thereon and dicing margins for separating the bar into the separate laser diode units are alternatively aligned along a longitudinal direction wherein a first pad electrically connected with the first electrode of the laser diode is disposed on the mounting surface of each of the mounting areas of the submounts and a second pad electrically connected to the first pad of either one of the mounting areas that are adjacent to the dicing margin is disposed on the mounting surface of each of the dicing margins of the submounts: contacting sheet-shaped probes to the second electrode and the second pad at a slantwise angle with respect to the second electrode and the second pad, and pressing the probes to the second electrode and the second pad while deforming the probes; and providing a potential difference between the second electrode and the second pad through the probes so that the laser diode emits laser light.
US08509023B2
A memory device includes an antifuse. The antifuse is configured to program a bit cell of the memory device. The antifuse is configured with a PMOS device.
US08509022B2
A fuse set includes a first row constituted by a plurality of fuses which are arranged with a first spacing; a second row including a plurality of fuses which are disposed to correspond to the fuses of the first row on the same plane, and separated from the fuses of the first row with a second spacing; and a connection part disposed between the first row and the second row and electrically connected with the plurality of fuses of the first row and the plurality of fuses of the second row, wherein the connection part and the pluralities of fuses of the first and second rows are disposed on different planes.
US08509016B2
Methods and memory devices for repairing memory cells are discloses, such as a memory device that includes a main array having a plurality of sections of memory cells. One such main array includes a plurality of sets of input/output lines, each of which may be coupled to a respective plurality of memory cells in each section. One such memory device also includes a redundant section of memory cells, corresponding in number to the number of memory cells in each of the sections of the main array. An addressing circuit may contain a record of, for example, sections that have been determined to be defective. The addressing circuit may receive an address and compare the received address with the record of defective sections. In the event of a match, the addressing circuit may redirect an access to memory cells corresponding to the received address to memory cells in the redundant section.
US08509015B2
An integrated circuit precharges a node 6 to a precharge voltage using precharging circuitry 4. During a discharge phase discharging circuitry 8 selectively discharges that node 6 is to represent a data/signal value. Sensing circuitry 10 detects a discharge characteristic to identify the data/signal value being represented. During the subsequent precharging operation of the node 6 back to the precharge voltage, validating circuitry 12 detects a precharge characteristic, such as the precharge current, the charge transferred, changes in the node voltage or a like, and compares this to the detected discharge characteristic corresponding to the data/signal value sensed by the sensing circuitry. If there is a mismatch, then an operation error signal is generated. The operation error signal may be used to adjust operation parameter, such as the operating voltage/frequency, the timing of the operation of a portion of the integrated circuit or another parameter.
US08509014B2
Failure bit map (FBM) data and a built-in-self-test-repair (BISTR) module enable collecting and analyzing FBM data of an entire memory to identify the best repairing method (or mechanism) to make repairs. By performing obvious repair during collection of the FBM data, testing and date storage resources can be saved. As a result, the repair method is better and more efficient than algorithms (or methods) known to the inventors, which only utilize partial (or incomplete) failure data. The compressed data structures used for the FBMs keep the resources used to capture the FBM data and to repair the failed cells relatively limited.
US08508996B2
A program method of a nonvolatile memory device according to example embodiments includes a operation (a) of detecting a level of a program voltage; and a operation (b) of providing a unselected word line voltage and a bit line precharge voltage having a variable level respectively according to the detected level of the program voltage.
US08508995B2
A system and method for adjusting read threshold voltage values, for example, in a read circuit internal to a memory device. The quality of an associated read result may be estimated for each read threshold voltage value used to read memory cells. Only read results estimated to have sufficient quality may be allowed to pass to storage. The read threshold voltage value may be adjusted for subsequent read operations, for example, if the associated read result is estimated to have insufficient quality. The read threshold voltage value may be iteratively adjusted, for example, until a read result is estimated to have sufficient quality.
US08508992B2
A method of operating a semiconductor memory device includes performing an LSB program operation for selected memory cells while raising a program voltage, when the threshold voltages of some of the selected memory cells reach a target level, storing data, corresponding to a relevant program voltage, in a first flag cell, performing the LSB program operation for some of the selected memory cells, having threshold voltages not reached the target level, until the threshold voltages of all the selected memory cells reach the target level, and after the LSB program operation is completed, performing an MSB program operation for the selected memory cells by using a program voltage, set based on the data stored in the first flag cell, as a start program voltage.
US08508991B2
A method for performing memory access management includes: with regard to a same memory cell of a memory, according to a first digital value output by the memory, requesting the memory to output at least one second digital value, wherein the first digital value and the at least one second digital value are utilized for determining information of a same bit stored in the memory cell, and a number of various possible states of the memory cell is equal to a number of various possible combinations of all bit(s) stored in the memory cell; and based upon the at least one second digital value, generating/obtaining soft information of the memory cell, for use of performing soft decoding. An associated memory device and a controller thereof are also provided.
US08508990B2
A non-volatile memory device includes a memory cell array including a plurality of multi-level cells each storing data corresponding to one of a plurality of states of a first group of states, and a control circuit. The control circuit is configured to program data corresponding to one of the plurality of states in a first multi-level cell according to a first verify voltage level of a first group of verify voltage levels, and to control the first multi-level cell to be re-programmed to one of a plurality of states of a second group of states according to a first verify voltage level of a second group of verify voltage levels. Each voltage level of the second group of verify voltage levels has a higher level than the verify voltage levels of the first group of verify voltage levels.
US08508985B2
In a magnetic memory which employs applied spin torque magnetization reversal and does not require the switching of the current direction at the time of rewrite, a memory cell includes a stack of a ferromagnetic fixed layer, a nonmagnetic layer, a ferromagnetic recording layer, a nonmagnetic layer, and a ferromagnetic magnetization rotation assist layer. Recording is performed by making the recording layer magnetization direction parallel or antiparallel to the fixed layer magnetization direction. The magnetization directions of the fixed, recording and assist layers are oriented in in-plane directions of the respective magnetic layers, and the magnetization directions of the assist and fixed layers are at 90 degrees. Write current flows from the fixed to the recording layer where the recording layer magnetization direction is rewritten from parallel to antiparallel of the fixed layer magnetization direction and where the recording layer magnetization direction is rewritten from antiparallel to parallel direction.
US08508976B2
Provided is a nonvolatile memory element which has a small variation in operation and allow stable operation. The nonvolatile memory element includes: a first electrode (102); a second electrode (106); a variable resistance layer (105) which is formed between the electrodes (102 and 106) and is connected to the electrodes (102 and 106), and which reversibly changes between a high resistance state and a low resistance state according to a polarity of a voltage applied between the electrodes (102 and 106); and a fixed resistance layer (104) which has a resistance value that is 0.1 and 10 times as large as a resistance value of the variable resistance layer in the high resistance state, the fixed resistance layer (104) being formed between the electrodes (102 and 106) and being electrically connected to at least a part of the variable resistance layer (105).
US08508962B2
A control circuit, during a positive period in which current flows from a power conversion apparatus to a load, causes a second snubber capacitor to discharge by controlling a second auxiliary switch to be turned on while a second main diode is turned on, and during a negative period in which current flows from the load to the power conversion apparatus, causes a first snubber capacitor to discharge by controlling a first auxiliary switch to be turned on while a first main diode is turned on.
US08508959B2
A multi-voltage power supply includes a transformer, a first output circuit to generate a first output voltage using a voltage transferred to a secondary winding of the transformer, and a first output voltage controller to control a voltage supplied to the primary winding of the transformer according to the first output voltage. The multi-voltage power supply includes second through Nth output circuits to generate second through Nth output voltages using the voltage transferred to the secondary winding of the transformer, and second through Nth output voltage controllers performing control in order to linearly output the second through Nth output voltages by feeding back the second through Nth output voltages. Accordingly, multiple (at least two) output circuits, which are on the secondary winding side of the transformer, to realize multiple output voltages can be independently controlled, and in particular, by linearly controlling the multiple output circuits, the multiple output voltages can be stably controlled regardless of the number of output voltages.
US08508948B2
A communication apparatus includes first and second housings connected to each other by a hinge mechanism. The first housing includes a first substrate having electronic components electrically connected to an antenna, a first hinge portion configuring a portion of the hinge mechanism, and a first conductive member provided in the first hinge portion. The second housing includes a second substrate having electronic components, a waterproofing partition wall surrounding the second substrate, a second hinge portion configuring a portion of the hinge mechanism, a second conductive member provided in the second hinge portion to be capacitively-coupled with the first conductive member, and a third conductive member insertion-molded therein. The third conductive member includes an inner portion positioned on an inner side of the partition wall, and an outer portion extending from the inner portion toward an outer side of the partition wall and capacitively-coupled with the second conductive member.
US08508947B2
An assembly of substrate packages interconnected with flex cables. The assembly allows input/output (I/O) signals to be speedily transmitted between substrate packages via flex cable and without being routed through the motherboard. Embodiments relate to a substrate package providing detachable inter-package flex cable connection. The flex cable comprises a transmission region that includes a plurality of signal traces and a ground plane. A plurality of solder mask strips are disposed on the plurality of signals traces to provide anchoring for the signal traces. The solder mask strips intersect the signals traces. The exposed signal traces and the ground plane are coated with organic solderability preservative material. Hermetically-sealed guiding through holes are provided on the substrate package as a mechanical alignment feature to guide connection between flex cables and high speed I/O contact pads on the substrate package. Embodiments of the method of fabrication relate to simultaneously forming hermetically-sealed guiding through holes and I/O contact pads.
US08508946B2
A circuit board assembly includes a circuit board, a fixing device, and a color-changing layer. The fixing device is capable of holding and securing the circuit board and includes a main body and a cover. The cover is rotatably hinged to the main body. The color-changing layer is located on either or both of the circuit board and cover. When the circuit board is assembled at a predetermined position of the fixing device and is secured on the main body by the cover, the cover exerts a pressure to form protruding points on the color-changing layer at the positions corresponding to the elastic contacts, the color-changing generates an electric field and changes color, which is easily and quickly verifiable by a worker.
US08508937B2
A stylus receiving mechanism includes a handle whereon a first opening and a second opening are formed on two ends. A chamber is formed inside the handle for receiving a stylus. The stylus receiving mechanism further includes a fastening part installed on an inner wall of the handle and disposed on a side of the chamber for pressing the stylus in a third direction perpendicular to a first direction for fastening the stylus inside the chamber after the stylus passes through the first opening in the first direction or passes through the second opening in the second direction opposite to the first direction to be received inside the chamber.
US08508935B2
A handheld electronic device and an operating method thereof are provided. The handheld electronic device includes a first body, a second body, and a moving assembly. The moving assembly includes a sliding module and at least one rotating module. The sliding module is coupled to the second body, wherein the second body is moveable between a first position and a second position. The rotating module is coupled between the first body and the sliding module so that the second body is rotated relative to the first body. The second body is automatically rotated from the second position to a third position to form a first angle with the first body. The second body can be rotated between the third position and a fourth position to form a second angle with the first body, wherein the second angle is greater than the first angle.
US08508924B2
A portable electronic device includes a first cover, a second cover and a connecting mechanism connecting the first cover with the second cover. The connecting mechanism includes a fixing base fixed on the first cover, a turning base fixed on the second cover, a first linking board rotatably connected to the fixing base and the turning base, a second linking board rotatably connected to the fixing base and the turning base. The fixing base, the first linking board, the turning base and the second linking board collectively form a four-bar linkage mechanism. The connecting mechanism further includes an arc spring urged between the second linking board and the fixing base to supply an elastic force to the four-bar linkage mechanism.
US08508919B2
Embodiments related to establishing and maintaining precision alignment in an optical system are disclosed. For example, one disclosed embodiment provides an optical device comprising an outer casing and a rigid optical support disposed within an interior of the outer casing and to which a plurality of optical components are mounted. The embodiment further comprises a printed circuit board spatially separated from the optical support and the plurality of optical components, wherein one or more electrical components are mounted to the printed circuit board. The embodiment also comprises one or more electrical conductors electrically connecting the one or more electrical components to the one or more optical components.
US08508917B2
A sealed electrical enclosure for use in hazardous locations for enclosing circuit breakers having a bottom housing and a top housing with a labyrinth joint, a serrated joint, or combination of both being formed therebetween, a first aperture extending through a first end wall of the bottom housing and positioned adjacent a first contact terminal of a first circuit breaker, the first aperture further including a first metal bus extending therethrough and in electrical contact with the first contact terminal, and a second aperture extending through a second end wall of the bottom housing and positioned adjacent a second contact terminal of the first circuit breaker, the second aperture further including a second metal bus extending therethrough and in electrical contact with the second contact terminal, and a first actuating mechanism positioned on the top housing adapted for manipulating a switch of the first circuit breaker.
US08508915B2
Disclosed are a multilayer ceramic condenser and a method of manufacturing a multilayer ceramic condenser. There is provided a method of manufacturing a multilayer ceramic condenser, including: printing a plurality of stripe-type inner electrode patterns on a ceramic green sheet in parallel; forming a laminate by stacking ceramic green sheets on which a plurality of stripe-type inner electrode patterns are formed; cutting the laminate so that a first inner electrode pattern and a second inner electrode pattern are alternately stacked; and forming a first side part and a second side part by applying ceramic slurry in order to cover the side of the laminate to which both the first inner electrode pattern and the second inner electrode pattern are exposed.
US08508911B2
A multilayer body includes first and second capacitance conductors and an internal conductor, which define a capacitor, provided therein. First and second external electrodes are respectively connected to the first and second capacitance conductors via first and second led out conductors. The internal conductor faces the first and second capacitance conductors. Third and fourth external electrodes are connected to the first capacitance conductor via third and fourth led out conductors. Fifth and sixth external electrodes are connected to the second capacitance conductor via fifth and sixth led out conductors.
US08508907B2
A device collects electrostatic charge from the atmosphere and stores the electrostatic charge for further use. The device includes a primary array including a plurality of electrically-conducting collectors, a plurality of electrically-conducting inductors, a charge regulator, and a charge storage device. A secondary array can be added to improve the efficiency of the primary array.
US08508901B2
An overcurrent detection circuit in accordance with an exemplary aspect of the present invention includes a detection transistor, a potential difference setting unit, and a first transistor whose current value is controlled by the potential difference setting unit. Further, the potential difference setting unit includes a first depletion type transistor, a power-supply voltage being supplied to the drain of the first depletion type transistor, and the gate and source of the first depletion type transistor being connected to the gate of the first transistor, a second transistor, the drain and gate of the second transistor being connected to the gate of the first transistor, and a second depletion type transistor provided on the current path between the sources of the first transistor and the second transistor, the gate and drain of the second depletion type transistor being connected to the source of the detection transistor.
US08508894B2
A sustained-arc control system is constituted with a capacitance which is placed between a gap on a solar battery array, working to control or inhibit the sustained arc. A solar battery array has a plurality of solar cells to provide a power source onboard an artificial satellite. A plurality of series circuits each of which composed of the solar cells connected in series is connected in parallel. The sustained-arc control system on the solar battery array is constituted with a capacitance lying between a positive line and a negative line to be charged with a voltage oscillation arising from the sustained arc. Electrostatic capacity of the capacitance is in a range of from at least 33 nF to 10 μF.
US08508885B2
According to one embodiment, a magnetic head includes a main pole configured to apply a recording magnetic field, a return pole opposed to a trailing side of the main pole across a write gap and configured to return magnetic flux from the main pole, a coil configured to excite magnetic flux in the main pole, a spin-torque oscillator located between respective facing surfaces of the return pole and an end portion of the main pole on the recording-medium side and configured to produce a high-frequency magnetic field, a current source configured to apply current to the spin-torque oscillator through the return and main poles, and a nonmagnetic layer provided in at least one of the poles and extending from a facing surface of the at least one of the poles, which faces the spin-torque oscillator, in a direction across the facing surface.
US08508882B1
A spindle motor includes a base portion; a stator arranged above the base portion; a rotor hub including a cover portion positioned above the stator, and a side wall portion arranged to extend downward from an outer edge of the cover portion; a rotor magnet positioned radially outward of the stator, and fixed to an inner circumferential surface of the side wall portion of the rotor hub; and a bearing mechanism arranged to support the rotor hub and the rotor magnet to be rotatable. A height of the rotor magnet as measured in an axial direction is preferably in a range of about 2 mm to about 3 mm (both inclusive), and a height of a stator core of the stator as measured in the axial direction is preferably in a range of about 50% to about 75% (both inclusive) of the height of the rotor magnet.
US08508880B2
In order to improve a consistent data track during writing to a storage medium, a plurality of read sensors are affixed to a transducer head. In one implementation, the transducer head includes multiple read sensors placed up-track of the write pole. In another implementation, the transducer head includes at least one read sensor placed up-track of the write pole and at least one read sensor placed down-track of the write pole. Each position of the multiple read sensors relative to the write pole may be unique. One or more read signals of selected read sensors are used to determine the read location and therefore the write pole location relative to the storage medium.
US08508876B2
A data storage system for detecting a location of a head relative to a magnetic media is described. This system comprises arms, a preamplifier circuit coupled to the arms for controlling the arms, a proximity sensing system positioned within the preamplifier circuit, the proximity sensing system comprising: an input stage for transmitting an input sense signal; a programmable gain stage coupled to receive the input sense signal and operative for transmitting a gain signal in response to receiving the input sense signal; a multiplexer coupled to receive the gain signal and at least one control signal, the multiplexer operative for transmitting a multiplexed signal; a detector coupled to receive the multiplexed signal and a second control signal, the detector operative for transmitting an output signal; wherein an amplitude associated with the output signal enables detecting the location of the head.
US08508868B2
A holding arrangement for an optical element, in particular for a cylindrical lens, includes a basic structure surrounding an optical element and a mounting device by which the optical element is supported on the basic structure. The mounting device has two degrees of freedom so that the optical element can be supported by the mounting device in a manner that allows the optical element to rotate about both about an optical axis and an axis perpendicular to the optical axis. If the optical element is a cylindrical lens, the axis perpendicular to the optical axis can be an axis perpendicular to an axial direction of the cylindrical lens. The disclosure further relates to a manipulator unit for an optical system which includes a holding arrangement.
US08508867B2
A lens barrel includes an optical imaging system having an optical axis and forming an optical image of an object. The lens barrel further includes a frame including a wall extending in the optical axis direction; an electronic component provided in the frame; and a flexible cable electrically connected to the electronic component. An opening is formed in the wall. The flexible cable covers at least a part of the opening to block a light passage through the opening.
US08508866B2
An imaging lens includes, from an object-side to an image-side: a first lens of positive refractive power with a convex surface on the object-side, an aperture stop, a second lens of negative refractive power with a convex surface on the image-side and a meniscus shape, a third lens of positive refractive power with a convex surface on the object-side and a meniscus shape. Specified conditions are satisfied in order to enhance a high brightness and reduce aberrations.
US08508856B2
An immersion microscope objective formed of thirteen or fewer lens elements includes, in order from the object side, first and second lens groups of positive refractive power, a third lens group, a fourth lens group having negative refractive power with its image-side surface being concave, and a fifth lens group having positive refractive power with its object-side surface being concave. The first lens group includes, in order from the object side, a lens component that consists of a lens element of positive refractive power (when computed as being in air) and a meniscus lens element having its concave surface on the object side. Various conditions are satisfied to ensure that images of fluorescence, obtained when the immersion microscope objective is used in a laser scanning microscope that employs multiphoton excitation to observe a specimen, are bright and of high resolution. Various laser scanning microscopes are also disclosed.
US08508848B2
The specification and drawings present a new apparatus and method for providing a wide field-of-view as well as illumination uniformity in exit pupil expanders (EPE) using stacked EPE substrates (or plates) with non-symmetric exit pupil expansion that use a plurality of diffractive elements for expanding the exit pupil of a display for viewing.
US08508840B2
A device for reducing time distortion generated in light pulses by an optical frequency converter including at least one nonlinear optical component (4) having a nonlinear optical susceptibility χ of about 2 or 3, the converter being capable of receiving at least one incident pulse light beam (2), the incident light pulses having a duration Δt0, an optical frequency ω0±Δω0 and an intensity I0(t), and of generating, by frequency conversion, at least one output pulse beam (3), the output light pulses having a duration Δt1, an optical frequency Δ1±Δω1 different from ω0±Δω0, and an intensity I1(t). The time distortion-reducing device includes a pre-compensation linear time filter (5) provided on the path of the incident beam (2), and capable of reducing the intensity time distortions generated in the frequency-converted output light pulses to at least one pre-compensation intensity Icomp.
US08508828B2
This magnetic voice-coil shutter drive actuation system for an optical shutter having an aperture with at least one shutter blade includes an actuator operating to open/close the shutter blade when moved in opposing directions, and a moveable element that operates said actuator and can be a moveable voice coil or a moveable permanent magnet. The voice coil is activatable to generate an electromagnetic flux in opposing polar orientations to react against the magnetic flux produced by the permanent magnet. The moveable element can be located in a position peripheral of the aperture and not surrounding the aperture, or in a position peripheral of the aperture and surrounding the aperture. The magnetic flux produced by the permanent magnet and the electromagnetic flux produced by the voice coil define magnetic axes that are parallel to each other and to a central axis for the aperture.
US08508819B2
An image reading device includes a tray unit, a recording unit disposed above the tray unit, an outer guide defining a curved path extending from the tray unit to the recording unit, a sheet feeder configured to feed a sheet from the tray unit to the curved path, and a return guide disposed between the recording unit and the tray unit. The return guide pivots about a shaft and guides the sheet having an image recorded thereon back to the curved path. The tray unit includes at least one supporting portion. The return guide includes at least one supported portion. The at least one supporting portion of the tray unit engages the at least one supported portion of the return guide such that the return guide takes a guiding position in which the return guide defines a return path extending to the curved path.
US08508818B2
An image reading apparatus includes a document feed unit that can adopt a first attitude to sandwich a document against a document table and a second attitude to release the document. An attitude detection unit detects the attitude of the document feed unit. A document detection unit detects whether a document is on a placement section of the document feed unit. An input acceptance unit accepts a selection input indicating whether a document on the document table is a read object document when attitudes of the document feed unit have been detected in a second-to-first sequence by the attitude detection unit when a document is detected on the document placement section. A control unit sets a document on the document table as the current read object, when the input acceptance unit accepts a selection input indicating that the document on the document table is to be a read object document.
US08508817B2
An image reading apparatus enabling a user to place originals on any of sheet feed trays without confirming requested orientation of the originals, either front facing or back facing. Image data of an original fed from a first sheet feed tray and read by a first reading unit is processed handling as image data of a front surface of the original, and image data of an original fed from the first sheet feed tray and read by a second reading unit is processed handling as image data of a back surface thereof. Image data of an original fed from a second sheet feed tray and read by the first reading unit is processed handling as image data of the back surface of the original, and image data of an original fed from the second sheet feed tray and read by the second reading unit is processed handling as image data of the front surface thereof.
US08508816B2
An image reading apparatus includes: a conveying roller that comes in contact with a sheet medium and causes a conveying force to convey the sheet medium in a conveying direction to act on the sheet medium contacting the conveying roller; an imaging unit that captures an image of the sheet medium that has been conveyed; a guide plate that is provided upstream of the imaging unit in the conveying direction, forms a part of a conveying path through which the sheet medium is conveyed, and includes a plurality of slits along a main-scanning direction perpendicular to the conveying direction; and a charging member that is chargeable, provided upstream of the imaging unit in the conveying direction, arranged separate, via the plurality of slits, from the sheet medium that is being conveyed, and charged at least when the sheet medium is being conveyed by the conveying roller.
US08508812B2
An image reading apparatus includes a light source unit, an image sensor, and a light guiding unit at least including a light reflector. The light guiding unit may include a first masking shield and a second masking shield. The light source unit irradiates light toward an original. The image sensor picks up an image of the original based on reflected light of the light by the original. The light guiding unit is provided on an opposite side to the light source unit to cause a part of the light to directly enter into the image sensor, when the original is not fed to the image sensor. The light guiding unit reduces light incident to the image sensor, among the light and light having transmitted through the original, at the time of picking up the image of the original by the image sensor.
US08508806B2
An image data is generated by scanning an original. The image data is converted and stored into a RAM. Preview data is generated from the converted data and then displayed on a display unit. When a transmission command is received after the display unit displays the display data, the converted data is transmitted to a prescribed destination.
US08508802B2
According to this invention, a printing control program which is recorded on a computer-readable recording medium and generates default print setting information when a computer prints includes a code for a management table creation step of creating a setting management table in which at least one threshold is set for a restricted item in a print process and the setting value of at least one item belonging to the print setting information is related to the range of the value of the restricted item defined by the threshold, a code for a read step of acquiring the current value of the restricted item, and reading, from the management table, the setting value of at least one item that belongs to the print setting information and is related to the range of the value to which the value belongs, and a code for a creation step of creating and saving print setting information containing the setting value read in the read step as the setting of the item.
US08508797B2
When recording is performed in a pixel region by M (M is an integer equal to or larger than 2) passes with N (N is an integer equal to or larger than 2) recording element groups, density variation due to a deviation between recording positions of dots that are recorded by different passes is suppressed while a load of data processing is decreased.First, multivalued image data (24-1 to 24-2) corresponding to the M passes is generated from input image data, and the multivalued image data corresponding to the M passes is quantized to generate quantized data (26-1 to 26-2) corresponding to the M passes. Then, the quantized data corresponding to the M passes is divided into quantized data being complements of each other and corresponding to the N recording element groups. Accordingly, the quantized data (28-1 to 28-4) corresponding to the M passes for the N recording element groups is obtained. With this configuration, the density variation due to the deviation between the recording positions by the M passes can be suppressed. Also, since the number of pieces of data subjected to the quantization is small, the load of the quantization can be decreased.
US08508787B2
System and method for automatic translation of documents scanned by multifunctional printer machines
A method and system for translating documents with the use of a multifunctional printer machine, including capturing an image of a document; determining regions of the document captured that include original text; performing optical character recognition of the regions of the document captured that include the original text; specifying a source language corresponding to the original text; specifying one or more target languages corresponding to translated text; performing language translation of the original text into translated text; selecting one or more page layout templates having multiple pre-designated areas for receiving the original text and the translated text; and outputting one or more printouts in accordance with the one or more page layout templates selected, including at least an area designating (i) the original text in the source language and (ii) the translated text in the one or more target languages.
US08508785B2
Methods and a system for providing an image enhanced product are provided. One method includes identifying a framing system having a holding area with positioning features that hold a masking surface that generally blocks the passage of light through the masking surface except in a plurality of window areas; determining an arrangement of a plurality of overlapping receiver mediums to provide a plurality of image receiving areas in correspondence with one of the of the window areas when a reference edge of each of the receiver mediums is located using an associated one of the positioning features; and printing images in the image receiving areas of the plurality of receiver medium sheets according to the determined arrangement; wherein said determining is performed in a manner that causes any overlapping edge between two receiver mediums to be positioned outside any of the window areas, and causes at least portions of selected images to be positioned within the window areas.
US08508781B2
In the image forming apparatus, when the document data is developed to generate the print data in order to print out by the document data, the possibility of repeated requests to print out by the document data is determined by whether or not the document data is stored in the shared directory, or whether or not the document data is attached to the electronic mail distributed to a plurality of people. If the need of storing the document data has been determined, the document data is stored in the image forming apparatus. Upon receipt of a request to print out by the same document data as this document data, the stored print data is used for printing.
US08508775B2
The present invention provides an image processing apparatus that reduces a memory region for image processing and a processing load when transferring image data to image processing unit; and a control method therefor. To accomplish this, the image processing apparatus inputs an image, divides the image input by the input unit, generates a plurality of tile images, separately packetizes a body region image and a peripheral region image, generates a packet of the body region image and a packet of the peripheral region image, and performs control to store the packet of the body region image and the packet of the peripheral region image generated by the second generation unit in the storage unit in association with each other.
US08508770B2
An image forming apparatus for controlling power supply is provided. An image forming apparatus includes at least one cover unit to be mounted in the image forming apparatus, at least one replaceable unit to participate in an image forming operation of the image forming apparatus, a sensing unit to sense whether the at least one cover unit is opened or closed, and a main board unit to cut off the power supply to the at least one replaceable unit for a predetermined period of time when the at least one cover unit is opened or closed. Accordingly, stable operation is enabled.
US08508765B2
A method and system for transmitting scanned data from a network scanner to a host are provided, in which a port is set in the host to receive the scanned data when the host and the scanner are connected via a network, the host is accessed from the scanner to detect port information regarding the set port, and the scanned data is transmitted from the scanner to the host via the port corresponding to the detected port information. Therefore, the inconvenience of having to search a scanner from a host and then receiving scanned data when using a network scanner is eliminated and the scanned data can be directly transmitted from the network scanner to the host.
US08508762B2
An image processing apparatus which imposes a usage restriction on an included function according to access control information for each user, and executes processing for a permitted user, comprises a setting unit which sets a condition required to release the usage restriction of the included function; a determination unit which determines whether or not a processing request from a user to a usage-restricted function satisfies the condition required to release the usage restriction; a generation unit which generates, when the determination unit determines that the processing request satisfies the condition required to release the usage restriction, restriction release information required to temporarily release a restriction of the usage-restricted function; and an execution unit which releases the restriction of the usage-restricted function based on the restriction release information generated by the generation unit, and executes processing by the function.
US08508761B2
A method used by printing apparatus executing a job based on a print setting accepted via an operation unit including accepting a stop instruction for stopping a print operation for the job via the operation unit and displaying a setting screen reflecting a print setting made for the job for which the print operation is stopped, in response to acceptance of a stop instruction.
US08508757B1
Systems and methods are provided though which a transaction, e.g., in a multi-tier, distributed application may be initiated from a portable or hand-held device, such as a smartphone. A computer system or systems, possibly remote from the device, may approve the transaction, complete it, or both, and the remote computer system or systems may cause a document to be printed, e.g., by a printer physically proximate to the device.Aspects of the invention are illustrated by embodiments in which a drug prescription may be created electronically using a hand-held device. In such an embodiment, the prescription may be transmitted to one or more remote computer systems, such as an application server, for processing. If specified, the remote computer systems may cause a prescription to be printed, e.g., at a printer near the prescriber's location. The prescriber may sign the printed prescription and give it to a patient or pharmacy.
US08508753B2
The length of the process from capturing an image by an optical reading unit to discharging the medium is shortened, and throughput improved. A media transportation mechanism conveys a medium to be scanned. An optical reader disposed to the medium transportation path optically reads the conveyed medium. A storage unit stores the captured image. A transmission unit reads and transmits the captured image stored in the storage unit to another device. A discharge control unit discharges the medium while the captured image is being transmitted to the other device after the optical reader finishes scanning the medium.
US08508747B2
Systems and methods for providing trigger signals in an optical interrogator, wherein multiple triggers are generated within each period of a varying reference signal, and wherein the triggers are evenly spaced according to the wavenumber of the reference signal. In one embodiment, an optical frequency domain reflectometry system provides a laser beam to a reference interferometer to produce a reference signal. This signal is passed through a 4×4 optical coupler which splits the signal into a first signal and a second signal that is 90 degrees out of phase with the first signal. These signals are converted to electrical signals, and a trigger unit generates triggers at points at which the two electrical signals have zero-crossings, and at which the magnitudes of the signals are equal. The resulting triggers remain evenly spaced within the period of the reference signals, even when the period is changed.
US08508739B2
A gas concentration measurement device which utilizes a TDLAS measurement method, and in which the phase-sensitive detection can be performed by digital processing using an integer-arithmetic device, is provided. In the gas concentration measurement device according to the present invention, AC components corresponding to integer multiples of a modulation frequency f contained in an input signal are removed by taking a moving average of data obtained from an output signal of a multiplier 62 for a period of time corresponding to one cycle of the modulation frequency f . As a result, a DC component in the output signal of a digital filter 63 relatively increases, making it easier to extract the DC component by a digital low-pass filter 64, so that a sufficiently accurate phase-sensitive detection can be made even if a digital processing based on integer arithmetic is used.
US08508733B2
The invention relates to a method for estimating the quantity of light scattered by a heterogeneous participating media. In order to optimise the display while minimising the required calculation time, the method comprises steps for selecting at least one level of spatial subdivision of said media from among a plurality of hierarchic levels of spatial subdivision according to at least one item of error information representative of an attenuation difference in said media according to at least one direction between two consecutive hierarchic levels, and estimating the quantity of light scattered by sampling of said media along at least one scattering direction, the sampling being a function of at least one selected spatial subdivision level.
US08508712B2
A fluid handling structure and lithographic apparatus is disclosed in which measures are taken, in particular to the dimensions and spacing of an array of openings in a bottom surface of the fluid handling structure, to deal with and/or prevent formation of bubbles in immersion liquid.
US08508710B2
In accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure, a difference is detected between a first image and a second image. The second image can include at least a portion of the first image reflected from a display panel and light from an object passing through the display panel.
US08508709B2
A method of repairing a pixel structure is provided. In the method, the pixel structure on a substrate is provided and includes a scan line, a data line, an active device, an insulating layer, and a pixel electrode. The scan line and the data line are located on the substrate. The active device is located on the substrate and electrically connected to the scan line and the data line. The insulating layer covers the scan line, the data line, and the active device and has a contact opening. The pixel electrode is located on the insulating layer and fills the contact opening to electrically connect the active device. A laser removing process is performed to remove the pixel electrode in the contact opening, such that the pixel electrode is electrically insulated from the active device.
US08508706B2
In one embodiment, a liquid crystal display device includes a first substrate and second substrate opposing the first substrate. A seal material is formed on the first substrate to attach the first substrate and second substrate with a predetermined cell gap therebetween. The seal material is formed in an approximately rectangular closed loop shape having four straight line portions. The straight line portion includes an expanded portion in which the width of one of the straight line portions is locally expanded. A barrier is arranged between the location where the expanded portion is formed and one end of the first substrate.
US08508704B2
A pixel array including a plurality of scan lines, a plurality of data lines, and a plurality of sub-pixels is provided. Each sub-pixel is electrically connected to one of the scan lines and one of the data lines correspondingly. Each sub-pixel arranged in the nth row includes a first switch, a second switch, a first pixel electrode, a second pixel electrode and a third switch. The first switch and the second switch are electrically connected to the nth scan line and the mth data line. The first pixel electrode is electrically connected to the first switch. The second pixel electrode is electrically connected to the second switch and has an opening for accommodating the first pixel electrode. In each sub-pixel, the first pixel electrode is surrounded by the second pixel electrode. In addition, the third switch is electrically connected to the (n+1)th scan line and the second pixel electrode.
US08508699B2
A transflective LCD unit includes a liquid crystal (LC) layer: first and second substrates sandwiching therebetween the LC layer to define an array of pixels each including a reflective area and a transmissive area; an electrode assembly for driving the LC layer such that the LC layer in the reflective area is driven in a longitudinal-electric-field mode and the LC layer in the transmissive area is driven in a lateral-electric-field mode; and a reverse-tilt control member for controlling a reverse tilt area in which a reverse tilt of LC molecules occurs near the boundary between the reflective area and the transmissive area.
US08508696B2
A display apparatus comprises a display panel, a first polarizing plate and a second polarizing plate. The display panel comprises a first substrate including a pixel electrode, a second substrate opposite to the first substrate, and a liquid crystal layer disposed between a first surface of the first substrate and a first surface of the second substrate. The first polarizing plate comprises a first polarizer having a first polarizing axis, and a first λ/4 phase difference plate having a refractive index between about 1.35 and about 2.05 in a thickness direction. The second polarizing plate comprises a second polarizer having a second polarizing axis crossing the first polarizing axis, and a second λ/4 phase difference plate having a refractive index between about 1.35 and about 2.05 in a thickness direction. Accordingly, light leakage in a side view may be reduced and viewing angle may be improved.
US08508695B2
A polymer-dispersed liquid crystal system has a continuous polymer structure having defined therein a plurality of discrete bodies of liquid crystal material. The bodies of liquid crystal material exhibit a polydomain operating state in which the liquid crystal material within each body is arranged in multiple domains, each domain being defined by a quantity of liquid crystal material whose molecules have a substantially common identifiable alignment in at least one axis, wherein the resolved alignments of neighboring domains diverge substantially from one another and are stable over time.
US08508694B2
An electronic device may have a liquid crystal display with backlight structures. The backlight structures may produce backlight that passes through display layers in the display. The display layers may include color filter elements, a liquid crystal layer, and a thin-film transistor layer. The backlight structures may have a light guide plate with opposing first and second edges. The light guide plate and other display layers may be assembled within support structures such as a metal chassis and a plastic chassis. A first strip of light-emitting diodes may be attached to the first edge of the light guide plate in a position that is floating with respect to the metal chassis. A second strip of light-emitting diodes may be attached to the second edge of the light guide plate in a position that is fixed with respect to the metal chassis.
US08508686B2
A display system includes a housing member which has space therein, a plurality of light source units which are placed in the space, a diffusion member which is disposed on the light source units, a liquid crystal display panel which is disposed on the diffusion member, an infrared camera unit which is interposed between the liquid crystal display panel and the diffusion member and photograph a front region of the liquid crystal display panel, and a plurality of infrared light sources which emit infrared light to the front region of the liquid crystal display panel.
US08508673B2
A user interface device for presenting selected viewing content and methods for manufacturing and using same. The user interface device is adapted for installation at a suitable location via any of a wide variety of conventional mounting systems. The user interface device thereby can select and present viewing content and, when not in use, can be stowed in a manner that does not interfere with the user. A malfunctioning user interface device can be easily removed from the mounting system and replaced with another user interface device, minimizing inconvenience to the user and facilitating repairs. Since the user interface devices are produced with a common docking interface system, each user interface device can, without modification, be engaged by any other mounting system. Thereby, only one version of the user interface device needs to be produced, purchased, and inventoried.
US08508665B2
An image processing apparatus and control method are provided. The image preprocess apparatus includes an image receiver which receives an analog broadcasting signal; an image processor which converts the analog broadcasting signal into a digital broadcasting signal; and a filtering unit which selectively performs a low pass filtering on the analog broadcasting signal to filter a frequency higher than a preset frequency and transmits the selectively-filtered analog broadcasting signal to the image processor corresponding to a reception of the analog broadcasting signal by air.
US08508656B2
A method and a circuit for controlling a dynamic image sensor defining, for each image, several successive time intervals of exposure of photodiode cells, starting from successive decreasing reset levels, wherein the time intervals of exposure of the image respect a homogeneous distribution of the amount of cells in ranges of brightness levels.
US08508649B2
Providing for optical imaging lenses employing non-linear distortion for image magnification is described herein. By way of example, a five-lens system can perform magnification functions by producing distortion that expands the image in the center of the field of view and compresses the image in the periphery of the field of view. This distortion can be corrected through image processing to yield a rectified image. Further, the five-lens system can be implemented as part of a fixed-focus imaging system, or in conjunction with a variable focus optical magnification imaging system.
US08508645B1
A reproducing apparatus, an image data reproducing method, a program, and a storage medium each detects an attitude state of the reproducing apparatus, extracts a part of an area of image data obtained by an image pickup device, and reproduces the part of the area of the extracted image data. According to the detection result, the part of the area of the image data is changed to another part of the area and rotation processing of another part of the area is performed, thereby reproducing the another part of the area which was subjected to the rotation processing.
US08508643B2
The present invention includes a method and system for processing images captured with an image-capturing device. According to the present invention, a method and system includes reconfiguring a display of an image based on the orientation of the image-capturing device when the image is captured. Through the use of the method and system in accordance with the present invention, a user can view captured images without having to account for a rotation of the image-capturing device. The method and system includes capturing the image with an image-capturing device, determining an orientation of the image-capturing device and reconfiguring a display of the image based on the orientation of the image-capturing device.
US08508642B2
A solid-state imaging device and a camera system are provided. The solid-state imaging device capable of performing an intermittent operation includes a pixel unit and a pixel signal readout unit for reading out a pixel signal from the pixel unit in units of a plurality of pixels for each column. The pixel signal readout circuit includes a plurality of comparators and a plurality of counters whose operations are controlled by outputs of the comparators. Each of the comparators includes an initializing switch for determining an operating point for each column at a start of row operation, and is configured so that an initialization signal to be applied to the initializing switch is controlled independently in parallel only a basic unit of the initialization signal used for a horizontal intermittent operation, and the initializing switch is held in an off-state at a start of non-operating row.
US08508641B2
In an imaging mode for reading a part of a plurality of pixels, signals of same color adjacent pixels are simultaneously read out to capacities, and at least two capacities in a same pixel row are once short-circuited. Further, capacities of a plurality of the pixel rows are once short-circuited to perform operation for averaging the pixels in vertical and horizontal directions. With the configuration, it is possible to solve deterioration in image quality due to occurrence of moire caused by reduction in sampling frequency in a thinning reading operation mode capable of high-speed reading.
US08508635B2
In a solid-state imaging device, each of a plurality of switches is connected between a pulse output terminal of each delay unit and a pulse input terminal of the next-stage delay unit. Each of a plurality of switches is connected between the pulse output terminal and the pulse input terminal of each delay unit. A plurality of switches is turned on and a plurality of switches is turned off in conjunction with an oscillation operation, and a plurality of switches is turned off and a plurality of switches is turned on in conjunction with a holding operation.
US08508626B2
A digital moving picture photographing apparatus and processing apparatus may generate vibration data when shooting a moving picture or may induce vibrations when displaying the moving picture. The digital moving picture photographing apparatus may include an image capture device that generates image data from incident light, a motion vector acquisition unit that acquires a motion vector based on the image data, a sound data generation unit that generates sound data from incident sound waves, a vibration data generation unit that generates vibration data based on the sound data or the motion vector, a storage medium that stores a moving picture file including at least one of the sound data and the vibration data along with the image data, a vibration unit that induces vibrations corresponding to the moving picture file, and a display unit that displays an image corresponding to the image data or the moving picture file.
US08508613B2
An image capturing apparatus that effectively extends a depth of field of an imaging unit by performing restoration processing on image data obtained by imaging a subject with the imaging unit, in which image data (A/D converted digital image signal) are corrected by a linear correction unit such that an input light versus output signal value characteristic of the image sensor becomes linear and the restoration processing for depth of field extension is performed on the linear corrected image data.
US08508611B2
Provided is an image processing apparatus including: an image combination unit which generates combined images by combining photographed images having different exposure times; and a motion area detection unit which performs a comparison process on a plurality of the combined images generated by the image combination unit to acquire a pixel value difference and which performs a motion area detection process of comparing the pixel value difference with a predetermined threshold value and determining a pixel area, of which the pixel value difference is equal to or larger than the threshold value, to be a motion area where motion of a subject is estimated to have occurred.
US08508609B2
An image pickup device comprising visible color optimization under received near-infrared and infrared light conditions is disclosed. Color signals corresponding to light received through each of a plurality of color filters are processed to determine a near-infrared and infrared light energy contribution. The color signals are processed to optimize color of received images.
US08508603B2
An object detection device that shares a bus with an external memory and another device includes a data acquisition unit that acquires original image data from the external memory via the bus, a reduction processing unit that generates pieces of reduced image data from the original image data at differing reduction rates after the data acquisition unit acquires the original image data once, and an object detection unit that detects a position at which an object appears in the pieces of reduced image data by performing matching processing on the pieces of reduced image data using a template for the object.
US08508602B2
A photographing apparatus includes a photographing device for photographing an image of an object and converting the photographed image to an electric signal, an image conversion unit for converting the electric signal of the photographing device to image data, a detection area setting unit for setting a part of an image produced by the image data as a detection area, a detection unit for detecting a change of the object and generating a detection signal, and a photographing control unit for operating the photographing device and performing photography based on the detection signal.
