US08578504B2
According to one embodiment, a method for securing information includes detecting an access to sensitive data and determining user information associated with the access to sensitive data. The method also includes determining a unique user identifier associated with the user information. In addition, the method includes comparing the access to sensitive data to a policy utilizing the unique user identifier. Further, the method includes determining that the access to sensitive data violates the policy in response to comparing the access to the policy. The method also includes recording an entry in response to determining that the access to sensitive data violates the policy.
US08578494B1
A method of detecting a potential security threat on a computing system is provided. The method comprises embedding time series data relating to the computing system within a reconstructed phase space and partitioning the reconstructed phase space into a plurality of regions. The method further comprises generating a first matrix having a plurality of cells. The first matrix comprises a row and a column for each of the plurality of regions. A value stored in each cell is based on a probability that the system will transition from a first region associated with the cell to a second region associated with the cell and a rate of separation of trajectories of the embedded data within at least one of the first region and the second region. The first matrix is generated using a first set of the time series data that is associated with a normal operating condition of the computing system in which the computing system is not under attack from a security threat. The method further comprises generating a second matrix based on a second set of the time series data and comparing the first matrix and the second matrix to detect whether a potential security threat is present on the computing system.
US08578491B2
An apparatus, system and method are described for use in detecting the presence of malware on subscribers computers. The apparatus, system and method are network based and may be deployed within an Internet Service Provider (ISP) network. The system may include a plurality of network sensors for receiving and analyzing network traffic to determine the presence of malware. An aggregating apparatus receives alerts of the presence of malware and translates a network identifier of the alert to a subscriber identifier. The aggregating apparatus aggregates alert information and forwards it to a reporting infrastructure that can generate notifications in order to notify a subscriber that malware has been detected on a computer associated with the subscriber.
US08578484B2
Systems and methods for identifying content in electronic messages are provided. An electronic message may include certain content. The content is detected and analyzed to identify any metadata. The metadata may include a numerical signature characterizing the content. A thumbprint is generated based on the numerical signature. The thumbprint may then be compared to thumbprints of previously received messages. The comparison allows for classification of the electronic message as spam or not spam.
US08578479B2
A system, method, and computer program product for identifying a worm are disclosed. The system, method, and computer product are configured to generate a signature for a computer worm by identifying a set of bits representing the signature, generate a first worm signature based on the signature, and generate a second worm signature based on the signature. The first worm signature is formatted for a first device and the second worm signature is formatted for a second, different device. The first worm signature and the second worm signature are different.
US08578474B2
Apparatus, methods and/or computer program products are provided that facilitate entering secure passwords into a user device. A user requested image is displayed via a display or monitor of a user device. The image is zoomable to one or more higher resolution levels beyond an initial display resolution, and the image is displayed at higher resolution levels in response to a user activating a zoom function via the user device. The coordinates of a user selected feature within a displayed higher resolution level image are obtained and translated into a password. The password is then entered into the requesting application.
US08578472B2
Method and devices for making access decisions in a secure access network are provided. The access decisions are made by a portable credential using data and algorithms stored on the credential. Since access decisions are made by the portable credential non-networked hosts or local hosts can be employed that do not necessarily need to be connected to a central access controller or database thereby reducing the cost of building and maintaining the secure access network.
US08578469B2
Methods, systems, and computer program products for computer system protection are provided. Embodiments protect against unauthorized access to information on stolen and/or illegally transported computer systems. Embodiments include locking of functionalities within a computer system when the computer system moves outside a designated area. Embodiments include limiting access to functionalities within the computer system based on the location of the computer system. Embodiments of the present invention include allowing variable levels of access protection depending on the location of the computer system.
US08578465B2
In one embodiment, a client device may send one or more sub-session requests to one or more corresponding session controllers through a computer network to obtain one or more corresponding sub-session tokens that indicate in which sub-sessions of an online collaborative computing session the client device is permitted to participate. The client device may then receive particular sub-session tokens (e.g., based on certain permissions), which may then be sent to a collaboration server to establish one or more permitted sub-sessions of the online collaborative computing session with the client device as indicated by the received sub-session tokens.
US08578462B2
A system and method for secure session management in a web farm using a session token. A session management web service updates the session token with each request received from a browser. If the request must be redirected to a new server where the requested resource is located, then the decrypted session token is transmitted to the new server and the session management web service generates a new session token to be used in place of the previous session token. The new session token is transmitted to the browser with the requested web resource.
US08578460B2
Technologies are generally described for automatically reconnecting a security principal to cloud services through correlation of security principal identifier attributes. A new security principal for a user may be detected and automatically reconnected to the user's cloud based services. An administrator for the security domains may specify a value of a unique security principal metadata attribute for the original security principal in a customizable security principal metadata attribute in the new security principal in the same or new security domain. A secondary verification metadata attribute may optionally be specified to ensure the correct security principal is reconnected to the user's cloud based resources. The correlation between the original security principal for the user and the new security principal may be used to reconnect the user's cloud resources.
US08578431B2
In embodiments of an adaptive timeshift service, a live content server distributes live television content to television client devices. The live television content from the live content server can be recorded into a buffer of a timeshift server as the live television content is being distributed. Both the live television content from the live content server and recorded television content can be simultaneously recorded into the buffer of the timeshift server.
US08578426B2
Methods and systems enable mobile TV providers to select programs for broadcast based on viewer preference indications or votes. Information regarding candidate programs or content may be broadcast and displayed on mobile devices. A voting user interface may receive viewer preferences or votes and transmit vote information to the mobile TV broadcast network using a unicast network. Received voting information may be tallied to select a program or content for broadcast. Interim vote tallies may be broadcast to mobile devices until a voting session is terminated. Results of the voting session may be broadcasted followed by broadcast of the selected program.
US08578425B2
Detailed herein is a technology which, among other things, allows recording and playback of multi-stream interactive television. In one approach to this technology, the service configuration for an interactive television feature is determined. Data describing this service configuration is then obtained, and a recording device is then configured to record a portion of the interactive television feature. A number of data streams associated with that portion of the interactive television feature are recorded. The recorded portion of the interactive television feature can then be displayed.
US08578422B2
The invention relates to a process for selecting services in a television system using graphical indications displayed on a screen.The invention comprises in particular the steps of: (a) determining a first list (30) of services, the first list being a subset of a second list; (b) displaying at least a part of the first list, ordered according to a predetermined criterion; (c) selecting a service present in the second list, but not in the first list; (d) displaying a visual indicator (39) marking the relative location, according to the predetermined criterion, of the selected service in the first list (30). The invention also relates to the terminal for the implementation of the process.
US08578417B2
An information processing device includes: a storage unit configured to store one or a plurality of content playlists; a virtual playlist generating unit configured to generate a virtual playlist of the content and stored in the storage unit in a manner correlated with the content; a reception unit configured to receive user instructions; an editing unit configured to, in the event of receiving editing instructions as to the content, subject the virtual playlist to editing processing following the editing instructions; and a title display control unit configured to, in the event of receiving a title display instruction for displaying the title of the content on a predetermined display unit, displaying the title of the content based on the virtual playlist which has been subjected to the editing processing by the editing unit.
US08578411B1
Controlling the admission of interactive television iTV applications to an iTV application distribution system is accomplished through the use of iTV application profiles that enumerate sets of allowed functions and behaviors for the iTV applications within the distribution system. In general, the profiles comprise filters that enable various functions within the distribution system, and may be applied to the iTV applications according to any of a number of bases. The distribution system includes an interface or console adapted to permit a system operator to create the application profiles and establish rules for attaching the profiles to the iTV applications, and an application profile engine configured to automatically validate the iTV applications against the profiles according to those rules.
US08578409B1
A custom ad selection and delivery system may include an ad selector to select candidate ads for one or more ad avail opportunities, a bandwidth resource manager to provide information about available bandwidth in a content delivery system, and a policy manager to weight ad avail opportunity versus bandwidth costs to delivery customized advertising to subscribers, and to cause allocation of bandwidth and insertion of customized ads into multiple program streams comprising the same program content but different ad content, and to cause different subscriber equipment to map different program frequencies to similar content streams having advertising content inserted therein that is customized to different subscriber demographics.
US08578400B2
A media processing device enables quick, easy, problem-free removal of processed media while maintaining high media quality. The media processing device, such as a disc publisher 1, has a tray 70 with a stacker unit 71 for storing media M, and a tray holding unit that supports the tray 70 movably between a removal position and a storage position. Overlapping channels and lands are formed on the top of the tray 70 and on the ceiling part of the tray holding unit facing the top of the tray 70.
US08578380B1
A condition variable for controlling access to a critical section of computer code by a plurality of concurrently running execution threads comprises a data structure with a head list linking threads in an arrival order and a tail list linking threads in a reverse arrival order. Together, the head and tail lists together indicate which threads are currently blocked on the condition variable. A wait counter indicates how many threads are currently linked in the data structure and a signal counter indicates how many times the condition variable has been signaled for waiting threads that are currently linked in the data structure. The head and tail pointers, as well as the wait and signal counters, may be implemented as fields of a single, atomically updatable data word.
US08578379B2
The invention relates to memory overload management for Java virtual machines (JVMs) in Web application sever systems. Disclosed is a method and system of memory overload management for a Web application sever system, wherein the Web application sever system comprises multiple JVMs, the method comprising: determining one or more replica shards for which replacement shall be performed; determining one or more target JVMs for storing a corresponding replica shard set including at least one replica shard from the one or more replica shards; and for each target JVM, performing the following: judging whether the free memory of the target JVM is adequate for storing the corresponding replica shard set; if the judging result is negative, performing the following: causing the target JVM to suspend the creation of session until the free memory of the target JVM becomes adequate for storing the corresponding replica shard set.
US08578367B2
A method for enhancing functionality of locked-down computers by allowing installation of software applications on the locked-down computers operated by users having limited administrator permissions. The method comprises detecting an attempt for installation of a software application on a locked-down computer; generating a virtual software application corresponding to the software application, wherein the virtual software application is generated in a virtual environment; and enabling the execution of the virtual software application in the virtual environment.
US08578361B2
Updating an electronic device using first update agent code resident in the non-volatile memory is disclosed. The electronic device comprises non-volatile memory containing at least one of: firmware and software. An example method includes determining whether the first update agent code is a current version. The method also includes replacing the first update agent code with an updated version of the first update agent code from a removable memory card operatively coupled to the electronic device. The method also includes updating at least one: firmware and software in the electronic device using the updated version of the first update agent code, and first update information associated with the at least one of: firmware and the software.
US08578346B2
Disclosed is a system and method for validating and repairing flow diagrams using a process modeling validation method in conjunction with a process modeling repair method. The process modeling validation method points out structural ambiguities in a flow diagram that can make its automatic interpretation difficult. It also proposes fix to resolve such ambiguities. The method discloses a process semantic annotation scheme that can interpret process semantics in a flow graph implicit in a flow diagram. Further, the validation process compares one or more components of one or more drawings to a set of rules determined by a business process modeling standards and provides a set of semantic errors describing faulty parts of the drawing that do not comply with the business process modeling standards. The process modeling repair method corrects the drawing to ease and enable its automatic interpretation of the flow diagram and make the faulty parts of the drawing comply with the business process modeling standards.
US08578336B1
A user interface for designing tests to be run against a piece of software. The user interface provides an environment in which test specifications including scenarios, business flow modules, flow lists, and steps and actions may be presented, created and modified. The user interface may be dynamically updated with data from a repository to update the presented information. Changes to code associated with the scenarios, business flow modules, flow lists, and steps and actions may be dynamically communicated back to a repository to update the code without a need to repackage an application associated with the code. The test specifications may be specified in a generic format, such as an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) format that meets a schema.
US08578324B2
Methods and systems are provided for adding variability support for a modeling language. Developers may utilize the added support to transform a model written in a preexisting domain-specific modeling language for product line development in which there is structural and configurational diversity. A variability layer is incorporated into the model, which permits product developers to better use the language to model product line variants.
US08578322B2
A method to create an integrated circuit that includes digital and analog components comprising: displaying on a computer system display, user input to the computer system that specifies parameter information to determine a binding between an analog circuit design component and a digital circuit design component; saving the user specified parameter information within a file that also specifies at least a portion of the analog circuit design; associating the analog circuit design component a first design block of an integrated circuit that also includes a second digital design block coupled to the first design block; using parameter information to determine a binding between the first analog circuit design component and the first digital circuit design component; saving the determined binding in computer readable storage media.
US08578314B1
Systems and methods receive a design of a circuit layout. The circuit layout has some available spaces. Such systems and methods automatically insert capacitor arrays in the specified spaces. Each of the capacitor arrays has capacitor cells, and each of the capacitor cells has capacitor structures and a buried implant. The process of inserting the capacitor arrays comprises a process of forming the capacitor arrays to either: grow the capacitor arrays to the size of the specified spaces; grow the capacitor arrays to a specified capacitance value within the restriction of the length dimension or the width dimension of the specified spaces; or grow the capacitor arrays to a specified capacitance value, irrespective of dimensional length dimension or width dimension limitations (where the only limitations are the dimensions of the specified space).
US08578310B2
Computing accurately and effectively the impact of clock skew on statistical slack in the presence of statistically variable timing quantities that accounts for both common path credit in the common portion of the clock tree, and RSS credit in the non-common of the clock tree. The clock skew is measured on a per launch and capture path-pair basis as a function of on the post-CPPR path-specific slack (including RSS credit), total mean value of latch-to-latch delay, RSS value of random latch-to-latch delay, test guard time and test adjust. The method includes: performing an initial block-based SSTA including CPPR analysis; selecting at least one launch and capture path-pair for skew analysis; for the at least one path pair, recording post CPPR slack, total mean value of latch-to-latch delay, RSS value of latch to latch delay, test guard time and test adjust; and quantifying the impact of clock skew on statistical slack thereof.
US08578309B2
A system and method is disclosed for functional verification and/or simulation of dies in a multi-die 3D ICs. The system and method include converting an I/O trace, embodied as a Value Change Dump, to one or more Universal Verification Methodology objects. This conversion aids in identify and fixing issues contained in die.
US08578306B2
A method for designing a system on a target device is disclosed. A system is synthesized by converting a high level description of the system into gates, registers, and reset circuitry. An analysis is performed to identify and remove redundant reset circuitry. The system is optimized after the redundant reset circuitry has been removed. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US08578301B2
Systems and methods for the organization of hierarchical events are disclosed. A parent event in a first calendar application workspace classifies a hierarchy of events. A child event child event corresponds to a hierarchy of events. Identification of the parent event and a new child event results in the display of the new child event in a second calendar application workspace, the new child event being a scheduled event in the hierarchy of events that does not indicate a calendaring conflict with the parent event. A collaborative organization environment for discussion concerning the new child event may be provided.
US08578297B2
Disclosed is a method of browsing a set of media items on a display device. A sequence of thumbnail images corresponding to a portion of the set are initially displayed in a looping arrangement. A first thumbnail image of the sequence is displayed at a size larger than other thumbnail images of the sequence. The first thumbnail image corresponds to a focus position in the sequence. The arrangement responds to a user scrolling action to replace display of a second thumbnail image adjacent to an insertion point in the displayed sequence with a third thumbnail image corresponding to a media item of the set not displayed prior to the user action. The method then updates the focus position and insertion point and replaces a display of the first thumbnail image with display of a fourth thumbnail image corresponding to the updated focus position.
US08578296B2
A integrated content guide for multiple sources is provided with hyper-text type links to allow for the selection of various programs. The hyper-text links are provided for a transmitted and then stored digital bit stream. This allows for the embedding within the content guide what could be additional commercial information. The embedding may also be as to additional information for other related television or radio shows or the like. Information can be additional television shows, related information or activities on on-line services or automatic telephone ordering of products or services being displayed.
US08578294B2
A menu user interface providing device and a method thereof are disclosed. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the method of providing a menu user interface by a portable apparatus, including determining whether a main menu icon displayed on a touch screen is selected; determining whether a menu mode is an activation mode or an inactivation mode if the main menu icon is selected; and changing the menu mode into the activation mode if the menu mode is determined as the inactivation mode and forming an expanded menu by radically arranging a submenu of n hierarchies, n being a natural number, corresponding to the main menu icon and displaying the formed expanded menu through a touch screen. Accordingly, with the present invention, a user interface capable of inputting various data with easy manipulation and minimized multi-points can be provided.
US08578292B2
A user may control automatic zooming and scrolling functionality with respect to a selected point in the document. A user may provide a first input to select an anchor point in the document. A user may then provide a second input to indicate a zooming level. In response to the second input, the document may zoom in or out of the document (depending on the input) and simultaneously perform scrolling to adjust the displayed center of the document towards the anchor point. The scrolling and zooming functions are performed automatically in response to the second input. In some embodiments, a custom zoom cursor may be displayed during a zoom state and change to indicate the zooming function performed. In some embodiments, the input device may be a pointing device such as a mouse, or another type of input device such as a keyboard, touch screen or other device.
US08578287B2
A computer readable storage medium storing a set of instructions that are executable by a processor, the set of instructions being operable to store a virtual representation of a plurality of physical components, display the virtual representation, receive user interaction with at least one of the virtual representations and send a command to the physical component corresponding to the user interaction.
US08578281B2
A session invitation can be received from a first communicator for a first communication session. The session invitation can be for a temporary participant to join a sub-session of the first communication session for a sub-session duration specified by the first communicator. The sub-session duration can be less than a duration of the first communication session. The session information can be conveyed to the temporary participant within a session invitation so that the sub-session duration is able to be presented to the temporary participant. Thus, the temporary participant is able to accept or deny the session invitation with full knowledge of the sub-session duration.
US08578278B2
Upon receiving a request for a user interface view from a user interface, a user identity and a user authorization class for a user of the user interface can be checked against a user registry and an authorization class registry, respectively. A user interface view component can be retrieved according to the user identity and the user authorization class. The user interface view can be generated by aggregating the retrieved user interface view component with at least one other user interface view component consistent with the user identity and user authorization class, and the generated user interface view can be returned for display to the user via the user interface. Related systems, articles of manufacture, and computer-implemented methods are described.
US08578276B2
The system includes a user interface module to receive a request to access a dynamic adaptive custom user interface and to generate a dynamic adaptive custom user interface. The user interface module configures the user interface with one or more application modules, where each application module utilizes a data set provided by an application server. The user interface module uses a proxy module to obtain the data set from the application server. The user interface module populates the user interface with the data set from the application server and provides the dynamic adaptive custom user interface having the data set provided by the application server.
US08578274B2
Systems and methods for aggregating web feeds relevant to a geographical locale from multiple sources are disclosed. One embodiment includes, aggregating a web feed using identifier information included in source metadata, parsing the web feed according to mapping information in the source metadata to generate a normalized web feed from the web feed having a data structure specified by the mapping information, determining the geographical locale that is relevant to the web feed, performing filtering on the normalized web feed to determine whether the normalized web feed includes qualified content for publication, and/or publishing the qualified content to be accessible to the user on the user device through a user interface on which the qualified content is depicted as being relevant to the geographical locale.
US08578272B2
A user interface (UI) for controlling buffered content of a streaming presentation is disclosed. In one embodiment, the UI includes a time line which represents a length in time of a streaming content that has been buffered at a receiver, such as a client device which retrieves the streaming content by sending one or more URLs, in a playlist file, to a transmitter; an indicator on the time line shows a current playback position within the buffered content at the receiver.
US08578259B2
Tools and techniques for media portability and compatibility for different destination platforms are provided. These tools may receive commands to launch a media portability capability, and may receive source media as input for transformation. These tools may also receive indications of profile settings for specifying how to transform the source media for enhanced portability on destination systems for playback. The source media may be transformed in response to the profile setting, with the transformed media inserted into a document. The tools may then distribute the document to the destination system for playback.
US08578256B2
In one embodiment, a signal-processing receiver has an upstream processor and a low-density parity-check (LDPC) decoder for decoding LDPC-encoded codewords. The upstream processor generates a soft-output value for each bit of the received codewords. The LDPC decoder is implemented to process the soft-output values without having to wait until all of the soft-output values are generated for the current codeword. Further, the LDPC code used to encode the codewords is arranged to support such processing. By processing the soft-output values without having to wait until all of the soft-output values are generated for the current codeword, receivers of the present invention may have a lower latency and higher throughput than prior-art receivers that wait until all of the soft-output values are generated prior to performing LDPC decoding. In another embodiment, the LDPC decoder processes the soft-output values as soon as, and in the order that, they are generated.
US08578249B2
Techniques to support low density parity check (LDPC) encoding and decoding are described. An apparatus includes at least one processor and a memory coupled to the at least one processor. The at least one processor is configured to encode or decode a packet based on a base parity check matrix and a set of lifting values. In a particular embodiment, the set of lifting values is limited to lifting values that are each a different power of two. The memory is configured to store parameters associated with the base parity check matrix.
US08578248B2
Adaptive systems include a memory device including a plurality of memory cells, a data quality monitoring block, and an adaptive data encoding block, the data quality monitoring block and the adaptive data encoding block both being operatively coupled to the memory device. The data quality monitoring block is configured to determine a quality value of a group of one or more memory cells included in the memory device, the determined quality value being indicative of a quality of the group of one or more memory cells. The adaptive data encoding block is configured to select a coding scheme from a plurality of coding schemes to encode data to be written to the group of one or more memory cells in the memory device, the selection of the coding scheme being based at least in part on the determined quality value of the group of one or more memory cells.
US08578244B2
Memory devices that, in a particular embodiment, receive and transmit analog data signals representative of bit patterns of two or more bits such as to facilitate increases in data transfer rates relative to devices communicating data signals indicative of individual bits. Programming error correction code (ECC) and metadata into such memory devices includes storing the ECC and metadata at different bit levels per cell based on an actual error rate of the cells. The ECC and metadata can be stored with the data block at a different bit level than the data block. If the area of memory in which the block of data is stored does not support the desired reliability for the ECC and metadata at a particular bit level, the ECC and metadata can be stored in other areas of the memory array at different bit levels.
US08578242B1
A data storage device is disclosed including a non-volatile memory comprising a plurality of memory segments. The LBAs of a read command are mapped to PBAs addressing the memory segments. At least two seed values corresponding to two of the LBAs are generated and stored in an array. The array is then indexed to access the seed value corresponding to each LBA, wherein the seed value is used to seed an error code generator.
US08578229B1
A high throughput and scalable MIMO detector can use a K-Best detection algorithm to find K combinations of transmit symbols that are likely to be the symbols that were actually transmitted. The K-best MIMO detector can include a plurality of stages, where each stage may correspond to a transmit antenna, and each stage can find K best symbol combinations based on information from a previous stage. To find the new K best symbol combinations, at each stage, a plurality of metrics for potential combinations are computed and sorted by magnitude. The MIMO detector preferably uses a high throughput, merge sorting algorithm to sort the metrics.
US08578227B2
A test device for a system-on-chip includes a sequential logic circuit and a test circuit. The sequential logic circuit generates a test input signal by converting a serial input signal into a parallel format in response to a serial clock signal and a serial enable signal and generates a serial output signal by converting a test output signal into a serial format in response to the serial clock signal and the serial enable signal. The test circuit includes at least one delay unit that is separated from a logic circuit performing original functions of the system-on-chip, performs a delay test on the at least one delay unit using the test input signal in response to a system clock signal and a test enable signal, and provides the test output signal to the sequential logic circuit, where the test output signal representing a result of the delay test.
US08578216B2
An execution history tracing method includes tracing an execution history of a CPU upon executing, in a semiconductor device including the CPU, a program by using the CPU, for one or a tracing target, from outside the semiconductor device via software. The execution history tracing method includes recording, in a buffer, target information as trace information about an execution of the one or the tracing target, for each instruction cycle in which the target information is produced as the execution history; and performing data sorting by using the software to group the trace information about the execution of the one or the tracing target, the trace information being recorded for the each instruction execution cycle, for each of the one or the tracing target.
US08578204B1
A system for managing distributed storage includes a collection of one or more compute sites that are connected and that perform a joint computation. A witness node is connected to the one or more compute sites. A membership service allows a change in collection membership, in response to a failure, to continue the joint computation without causing data inconsistency or corruption. If the membership service is unable to reach a decision on the change in collection membership in response to the failure, the witness node controls the decision on the change in collection membership to continue the joint computation. A distributed storage system provided by the system described herein may advantageously meet consistency guarantees and maximize data access even when individual compute sites and/or their interconnects fail.
US08578202B2
A system and method is provided for ensuring high availability for a distributed application. A management object manages multiple scenarios defined for protection units associated with a distributed application. The management object may coordinate various operations performed at the protection units based on management object configuration information.
US08578197B2
An image processing apparatus includes a managing part to perform a first process to store the log information in a storage unit and a second process necessary to turn OFF a main power, a generating part to generate the log information by performing a third process necessary to turn OFF the main power, and to send to the managing part a first request signal causing the managing part to perform the first process on the generated log information, and a request part to send to the managing part a second request signal causing the managing part to perform the second process and to send to the generating part a third request signal causing the generating part to perform the third process, when a detecting part detects an OFF state of a main power switch.
US08578196B2
A method and system for reducing power consumption when processing mathematical operations. Power may be reduced in processor hardware devices that receive one or more operands from an execution unit that executes instructions. A circuit detects when at least one operand of multiple operands is a zero operand, prior to the operand being forwarded to an execution component for completing a mathematical operation. When at least one operand is a zero operand or at least one operand is “unordered”, a flag is set that triggers a gating of a clock signal. The gating of the clock signal disables one or more processing stages and/or devices, which perform the mathematical operation. Disabling the stages and/or devices enables computing the correct result of the mathematical operation on a reduced data path. When a device(s) is disabled, the device may be powered off until the device is again required by subsequent operations.
US08578174B2
Some embodiments provide a system that facilitates use of a computing device. During operation, the system obtains an event description of an event on the computing device. Next, the system computes a message authentication code (MAC) for the event description using a secure component associated with the computing device. Finally, the system uses the MAC to maintain the integrity of an event log containing the event description.
US08578168B2
A method for preparing and verifying a document, comprising the steps of: presenting the document to a document-registering office in a machine-readable format; editing the document to add an identification code associated with a non-copiable object; signing the edited document using a private key of the document-registering office; printing the digitally signed document in a machine-readable form; presenting the document and the object to an inspecting authority; recovering the digitally signed document from the machine-readable form of the printed document; verifying the digital signature of the document-registering office; and verifying that the identification code in the document corresponds to that of the presented object.
US08578165B2
A key establishment protocol includes the generation of a value of cryptographic function, typically a hash, of a session key and public information. This value is transferred between correspondents together with the information necessary to generate the session key. Provided the session key has not been compromised, the value of the cryptographic function will be the same at each of the correspondents. The value of the cryptographic function cannot be compromised or modified without access to the session key.
US08578163B2
A communication method in which an operation, such as authentication, required when a new communication terminal participates in a mesh network is carried out in a more efficient manner. A second communication terminal that has already established an adjacent communication link with at least two first communication terminals, out of a plurality of communication terminals, distributes an adjacent terminal list including terminal identifiers of the first communication terminals along with a temporal key generated by the second communication terminal. One of the first communication terminals that received the adjacent terminal list and the temporal key distributes adjacent registration information, which is generated using a second temporal key. The other one of the first communication terminals that received both the adjacent terminal list and the adjacent registration information determines whether the terminal identifier of one of the first communication terminals is included in the adjacent terminal list, and whether the first temporal key distributed along with the adjacent terminal list matches with the second temporal key used for generating the adjacent registration information. If both determination results are affirmative, one of the first communication terminals is authenticated.
US08578162B2
A unique identifier which substantially prevents product counterfeiting, wherein the unique identifier can be produced in a very cost-effective manner. The unique identifier is suitable not only for use as a product identifier but also for authorization, for example for securing physical or electronic accesses, such as doors, computer programs or the like.
US08578161B2
A protocol provides authentication of peripheral devices by a computing device to which the peripheral device connects. Computing devices include a verifier with a public key that authenticates multiple associated private keys. Private keys are embedded on peripheral devices. When the verifier is able to authenticate a connected peripheral, particular functionality is enabled that may not be enabled for peripherals that do not authenticate.
US08578159B2
A method and apparatus for establishing security associations between nodes of an ad hoc wireless network includes two authentication steps: an initial first contact step (authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA)-based authentication), and a “light-weight” step that reuses key material generated during first contact. A mesh authenticator within the network provides two roles. The first role is to implement an 802.1X port access entity (PAE), derive transient keys used for encryption with a supplicant mesh point via a four-way handshake and take care of back end communications with a key distributor. The second role is as a key distributor that implements a AAA-client and derives keys used to authenticate a mesh point during first contact or fast security association. The key distributor and the on-line authentication server can communicate to one another without these messages being transported over mesh links.
US08578155B2
A broadcast receiving apparatus comprises a broadcast receiving unit (1, 4˜13) for receiving a digital broadcast; a communication unit (1˜3) for performing two-way communication through a network; an operation unit 15 for performing an acquisition operation of a key for decrypting an encrypted broadcast program received by the broadcast receiving unit; and an address generating unit 16 for generating an address of an acquisition location of the key which is accessible with the communication unit, by using program arrangement information corresponding to the broadcast program based on the acquisition operation of a key by the operation unit.
US08578154B2
A tag generation method for generating tags used in data packets in a broadcast encryption system is provided. The method includes detecting at least one revoked leaf node; setting a node identification (node ID) assigned to at least one node among nodes assigned node IDs at a layer 0 and to which the at least one revoked leaf node is subordinate, to a node path identification (NPID) of the at least one revoked leaf node at the layer 0; generating a tag list in the layer 0 by combining the NPID of each of the at least one revoked leaf nodes at the layer 0 in order of increment of node IDs of the corresponding at least one revoked leaf nodes; and generating a tag list in a lowest layer by repeatedly performing the setting and generation operation down to the lowest layer.
US08578148B2
A method and system to transmit code to a System on Chip (SOC) from a host processor using a host-side driver is provided herein. The SOC and host processor are coupled by a bus. The host driver receives an overlay from an application layer and stores the overlay. The host driver receives an IOCTL to be transmitted to the SOC. The host driver determines whether an input/output control (IOCTL) value of the IOCTL to be transmitted to the SOC corresponds to an IOCTL value in one of the stored overlays. The host driver transmits an overlay to the SOC if the IOCTL value of the IOCTL to be transmitted is equal to at least one IOCTL value in the overlay. The host driver then transmits the IOCTL to the SOC.
US08578142B2
Systems and methods for sharing data storage on an electronic device are disclosed. A system may include a memory and a processor, an operating system executing on the electronic device, a preboot application executing on the electronic device, and a virtual drive. The operating system may be configured to mount the virtual drive and the preboot application may also be configured to mount the virtual drive.
US08578141B2
A loop predictor and a method for instruction fetching using a loop predictor. A processor may include a loop predictor in addition to a primary branch predictor. A relatively common scenario in program execution is that a set of branches repeat over and over forming a loop. The loop may be detected based on a repeated pattern of access to a data structure used for branch prediction. Once a loop is detected and it may be determined whether the codes would stay in the loop for at least a duration sufficient to disable the branch prediction. On a determination that the detected loop is locked, a sequence of instruction addresses in one iteration of the detected loop may be captured in a buffer and the branch predictor may be turned off and a sequence of fetch instructions may be played from the buffer.
US08578139B2
A data processing apparatus and method of data processing are provided. The data processing apparatus comprises execution circuitry configured to execute a sequence of program instructions. Checkpoint circuitry is configured to identify an instance of a predetermined type of instruction in the sequence of program instructions and to store checkpoint information associated with that instance. The checkpoint information identifies a state of the data processing apparatus prior to execution of that instance of the predetermined type of instruction, wherein the predetermined type of instruction has an expected long completion latency. If the execution circuitry does not complete execution of that instance of the predetermined type of instruction due to occurrence of a predetermined event, the data processing apparatus is arranged to reinstate the state of the data processing apparatus with reference to the checkpoint information, such that the execution circuitry is then configured to recommence execution of the sequence of program instructions at that instance of the predetermined type of instruction.
US08578136B2
An apparatus and method are provided for performing register renaming, whereby architectural registers from a set of architectural registers are mapped to physical registers from a set of physical registers. Available register identifying circuitry is provided which is responsive to a current state of the apparatus to identify which physical registers form a pool of physical registers available to be mapped by register renaming circuitry to an architectural register specified by an instruction to be executed. Configuration storage stores configuration data whose value is modified during operation of the processing circuitry, such that when the configuration data has a first value, the configuration data identifies at least one architectural register of the architectural register set which does not require mapping to a physical register by the register renaming circuitry. The available register identifying circuitry is arranged to reference the configuration storage, such that when the configuration data has the first value, the number of physical registers in the pool is increased due to the reduction in the number of architectural registers which require mapping to physical registers. This enables the performance benefits from performing register renaming to be improved, without the need to increase the number of physical registers within the physical register set.
US08578130B2
Partitioning a node of a multi-node system into more than one partition is disclosed. First resources of the node are physically partitioned into more than one partition. The first resources physically partitioned to each partition are directly inaccessible by other partitions of the node. Second resources of the node are then internally logically partitioned into the more than one partition. Each second resource internally separates transactions of one partition from transactions of other partitions. Furthermore, the node can be dynamically repartitioned into other partitions, such as a single partition, without having to take the multi-node system down. Operating system (OS) instances of the partitions may have assumptions provided to allow for dynamic partitioning, such as quiescing the processors and/or the input/output components being reconfigured, purging remote cache entries across the entire OS, etc. Each partition may have associated therewith registers that are protected from access by other partitions.
US08578118B2
An implantable medical device and associated method store physiological data in response to detecting a physiological event. The medical device includes multiple first memory locations allocated to each of a number of physiological event types and a second single memory location allocated for storing entries of physiological signal data corresponding to each of the plurality of physiological event types.
US08578115B2
The present disclosure includes methods and devices for operating a solid state drive. One method embodiment includes mirroring programming operations such that data associated with a programming operation is programmed to two or more locations in memory of the solid state drive. The method also includes ceasing to mirror programming operations upon an occurrence of a particular event.
US08578107B2
A method for scheduling the migration of extents between extent pools of a storage system is disclosed herein. In certain embodiments, such a method includes periodically profiling an extent pool to generate a historical data access profile of the extent pool. Using this historical data access profile, the method determines an optimal migration window for migrating an extent to the extent pool. The method then identifies an actual extent for migration to the extent pool. Once the actual extent is identified, the method schedules the extent for migration to the extent pool during the optimal migration window. A corresponding apparatus and computer program product are also disclosed herein.
US08578087B2
A method for concurrently converting a standard volume to a thin-provisioned volume includes initially establishing metadata for a thin-provisioned volume. The method then updates the metadata for the thin-provisioned volume to point to extents residing in a standard volume. The method then suspends I/O to metadata for the standard volume. Upon suspending the I/O, the method migrates control of the extents in the standard volume from a standard-volume control algorithm to a thin-provisioned-volume control algorithm. The method then resumes the I/O to the metadata for the thin-provisioned volume. Using this technique, standard volumes may be rapidly converted to thin-provisioned volumes while minimally disrupting I/O to the volumes. A corresponding apparatus and computer program product are also disclosed and claimed herein.
US08578084B2
A data storage device may include a first memory board and a second memory board, where the first memory board and the second memory board each comprise multiple memory chips. The data storage device may include a controller board that is arranged and configured to operably connect to the first memory board and the second memory board, where the controller board includes a high speed interface and a controller that is arranged and configured to receive commands from a host using the high speed interface and to execute the commands, where the first memory board and the second memory board are each separately removable from the controller board.
US08578081B1
The present invention is directed to a housing unit, which allows an electronic device such as a portable digital audio player to be substantially hermetically sealed within an audio device. The electronic device is controllable by a user while housed with the housing unit. The audio device is able to be used in a vehicle such as a car, a camper, or a boat or in other common consumer products.
US08578080B2
Various embodiments of this disclosure may describe method, apparatus and system for reducing system latency caused by switching memory page permission views between programs while still protecting critical regions of the memory from attacks of malwares. Other embodiments may be disclosed and claimed.
US08578078B1
Multiple components on a programmable chip are interconnected using a shared bus fabric. Each component has an interface with multiple input lines including an input valid line, an input ready line, and an input data line and multiple output lines including an output valid line, an output ready line, and an output data line. Positive valid latency is provided on the input side while positive ready latency is provided on the output side. Adapters are inserted automatically between components to allow implementation of interfaces without buffers.
US08578059B2
A method and system are disclosed for deploying a configuration in a process control system wherein at least a portion of the configuration is deployed to a set of field devices. Initially the set of deployment packages are stored within a configuration storage. Thereafter, deployment is initiated on the set of deployment packages from the configuration storage. In response to the initiating deployment step, an automated cascaded deployment is commenced to the set of connected field devices. The automated cascaded deployment includes first deploying the sets of deployment packages to a set of control module assemblies. The method furthermore includes second deploying the received portions of the set of deployment packages to a set of I/O module assemblies. The set of I/O module assemblies maintain and pass the received sub-portions of the set of deployment packages to sets of field devices.
US08578054B2
In one embodiment, a reactive routing computer network may be partitioned into diverse logical topologies, and a source node may transmit route request (RREQ) messages toward a destination node on each logical topology. In response, the source node may receive route reply (RREP) messages indicating routes to the destination node in each logical topology. The source node may thus select a route for each logical topology to reach the destination node, accordingly. In another embodiment, if partitioned logical topologies do not produce two or more routes or as a standalone embodiment, the source node may transmit RREQ messages toward the destination node without any corresponding logical topology. The destination node receives RREQ messages, and two or more routes from the source node to the destination node may be determined (e.g., by the destination or source node) based on the received RREQ messages at the destination node and path selection criteria.
US08578051B2
Methods and systems for operation upon one or more data processors for efficiently processing communications based upon reputation of an entity associated with the communication.
US08578047B2
A method and apparatus for performing resource allocation in a communication system is provided. The method includes receiving a data frame including encapsulated data and a transmission opportunity, the data frame being divided into sub-frames which include primary resource blocks that are divided into secondary resource blocks storing the encapsulated data or the transmission opportunity, deconstructing the data frame to retrieve a portion of the encapsulated data or the transmission opportunity by determining a location of one of the sub-frames and one of the secondary resource block that included the portion of the encapsulated data or the transmission opportunity, wherein the location of the one secondary resource block is determined based on the inner boundaries.
US08578043B2
A wireless communication device for presenting alternative media during an out of signal condition is disclosed. The device comprising a receiver configured to receive a primary media stream. A memory coupled to the receiver to store a secondary media. A user interface to output one of the primary media stream and the secondary media stream. A detector module that detects when a first predetermined characteristic has been met, the characteristic preventing the output of the primary media stream received from the broadcast transmitter. A media selector module that selects between the primary media stream from the receiver and the secondary media from the memory in response to the detector module detecting that the first predetermined device characteristic has been met.
US08578039B2
A method and apparatus turns a typical home telephone system into a platform for delivery of web based content and services. The preferred embodiment of the invention comprises a broadband enabled telephone system for the home and a series of web servers that collect, package, and deliver personalized content and services to all of the telephone handsets throughout the home. With this end-to-end solution, any information or services available via the web can be delivered through a broadband enabled telephone system. Through the web, each member of a family can build a profile which defines what information and services they want available through the handset. In addition, each handset can be dynamically personalized for any family member. The color screens on the handsets become windows through which an individual can view and interact with a broad range of content and services. The audio channels thus become an extension of the voice based services, such as messaging and voice chat.
US08578036B1
A system and a computer-implemented method for processing a cookie description file are provided. A browser provides the cookie description file that includes meta-information associated with cookies that are associated with a domain. The meta-information includes cookie information specific to each cookie. The cookie description file is parsed and the meta-information associated with each cookie is extracted. The parsed meta-information is displayed in a user-readable format on a client device.
US08578033B2
A media stream is transmitted from a server device to a client device. The client device (10) transmits set-up request messages (43a), discovery messages (44b) and a play command message (45a). The server receives versions of the set-up request messages (43b), the discovery message (44b) and the play message (45b) with matching identifier in the payloads of the messages. The server device (12) receives the discovery messages (44b) on a predetermined port and stores information recording that the discovery messages (44b) have been received, at least when no corresponding set-up request message 43b has been received before. The server device (12) compares the identifiers from the received set up request message (43b) and the discovery message (44b) according to the information recording reception, at least when the discovery message (44b) has been received before the set-up request message (43b). The server device (12) selects transport parameters for transmission of the media stream responsive to detection that the first and second identifier have matching values, the selected transport parameters being based on data from said set-up request message (43b) and a port identification from a source field of the discovery message (44b). The media stream is transmitted in accordance with the selected transport parameters to the client device (10) addressed to the port determined from the source field of the discovery message (44b).
US08578032B2
A method and system for deploying content to client applications is provided. Inbound messages are accepted from a client application running on a client device via a proxy IP/port. The inbound messages are packaged into an internal message format with an HTTP redirector. The packaged message is forwarded to a back-end server via a message router. A response is received form from a web server. The response is packaged into the internal message format with the back-end server. The response is then forwarded to the HTTP redirector via a message router. The response can then be transferred to the client application running on the client device, via the proxy IP/port.
US08578022B2
In various embodiments, a method may be provided comprising: determining a number of established TCP connections to a server; comparing the number of established TCP connections to the server to a upper threshold value; and if the number of established TCP connections to the server is greater than or equal to the upper threshold value, determine an adaptive idle timeout value based on the relationship between the number of established TCP connections to a server and the upper threshold value.
US08578016B2
A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for identifying nodes in a network data processing system. Cache data is received from a set of routers in the data processing system. The cache data includes an identification of the nodes sending data packets onto the network data processing system. The nodes on the network data processing system are identified using the cache data from the set of routers.
US08578013B2
A device may include a donor to maintain a pool of addresses; a group of borrowers to obtain addresses from the donor; a daemon that has registered an interest in one or more borrowers in the group of borrowers; and a library to maintain first relationships between donors and borrowers that have obtained addresses from the donors, maintain second relationships between daemons and borrowers in which the daemons have registered an interest, receive a notification regarding an incident associated with the donor, identify, in response to the notification, the group of borrowers based on the first relationships, determine that the daemon has registered an interest in the one or more borrowers in the group of borrowers based on the second relationships, and output, to the daemon, a notification regarding the incident associated with the donor.
US08578003B2
Techniques are described for providing users with access to computer networks, such as to enable users to interact with a remote configurable network service in order to create and configure computer networks that are provided by the configurable network service for use by the users. Computer networks provided by the configurable network service may be configured to be private computer networks that are accessible only by the users who create them, and may each be created and configured by a client of the configurable network service to be an extension to an existing computer network of the client, such as a private computer network extension to an existing private computer network of the client. If so, secure private access between an existing computer network and new computer network extension that is being provided may be enabled using one or more VPN connections or other private access mechanisms.
US08577998B2
In one embodiment, a method comprises receiving address configuration information for each of a plurality of subscriber devices associated with the same customer account. The method also comprises identifying, using the address configuration information, any of the subscriber devices that are not colocated with the other subscriber devices associated with the same customer account.
US08577995B2
Wireless access protocol-capable wireless devices are able to synchronize displayed Web content. A first WAP device requests a synchronized session through the sync Proxy of the network. The sync Proxy, through a WAP Push Proxy, sets up the synchronized session. One or both wireless devices may then request content from a Web site. This content is transmitted from the Web site to the first device, and through a WAP proxy to the second device.
US08577993B2
Techniques are disclosed for caching provenance information. For example, in an information system comprising a first computing device requesting provenance data from at least a second computing device, a method for improving the delivery of provenance data to the first computing device, comprises the following steps. At least one cache is maintained for storing provenance data which the first computing device can access with less overhead than accessing the second computing device. Aggregated provenance data is produced from input provenance data. A decision whether or not to cache input provenance data is made based on a likelihood of the input provenance data being used to produce aggregated provenance data. By way of example, the first computing device may comprise a client and the second computing device may comprise a server.
US08577985B2
A pull-based parallel video server system and method of implementation useful in an on-demand video system includes a plurality of slave admission schedulers operating in parallel with a master admission scheduler to back up the master admission scheduler that controls access to an array of pull-based video servers according to a protocol that accounts for jitter and loss of packets, as well as network delays. A transport protocol is provided that improves video data throughput under such conditions. To determine the architecture and functional requirements of the redundant admission schedulers, an analytical tool in the form of a performance model has been developed that incorporates network delays, delay jitters and packet losses on the communication links between the clients, schedulers and servers.
US08577983B2
A system and method for notifying an instant message recipient of the arrival of the instant message is provided, and includes managing the presence of the recipient on a network, determining a notification priority level of the message, and notifying the recipient based on the notification priority level. In embodiments, the higher the notification priority level, the more sensorially obtrusive the notification can be.
US08577981B2
A system receives an identifier for a temporary destination in response to messaging software at a client requesting that a messaging server create the temporary destination. The messaging software uses the identifier to indicate the temporary destination as a destination for responses to messages from the messaging software. The identifier is logged. A disconnection from the messaging server is detected. A second request for a temporary destination is created. The identifier is indicated in the second request. The second request indicating the identifier is transmitted to the messaging server to preserve a messaging service in a highly available environment.
US08577979B2
One or more policies to be applied to a set of one or more messages in a message oriented middleware are defined. Metrics of the message oriented middleware are monitored. Application of a policy in response to a trigger condition being satisfied is initiated. Application of the policy applies actions across the set of one or more messages.
US08577978B2
In some examples, an instant message addressed to an intended instant messaging recipient may be forwarded to the recipient's mobile telephone when the recipient's mobile telephone number is known to the instant message sender. In one example, an instant message is forwarded to the intended recipient's mobile telephone number when the instant message sender's contact information for the intended recipient includes an instant message address (e.g., a screen name or other type of instant message identifier) and a mobile telephone number, without dependence upon the intended recipient's presence on the instant message (IM) system or through actual login or registration with an IM forwarding service. In another example, an instant message addressed to an intended instant messaging recipient is forwarded to the recipient's mobile telephone when the recipient is known to the instant message sender.
US08577974B2
A conference server, provided according to an aspect of the present invention, identifies a participant of a meeting in progress and requests scheduling option for a subsequent meeting from the identified participant. On receiving a scheduling option from the participant, the conference server determines the possible participants (“recipients”) of the subsequent meeting and informs the recipients of the received scheduling option. In one embodiment, the conference server requests the scheduling option when a conflict between the meeting in progress and the subsequent meeting is found and sends notifications to the recipients (determines by examining the calendars of users). In another embodiment, the conference server requests the scheduling option for a follow-up meeting for the meeting in progress, and updates the calendars of the recipients (determined as the participants of the meeting in progress and any users invited).
US08577972B1
Managing instant messages may include receiving instant messages created by or on behalf of one or more message sources for delivery to an intended recipient. From among the received instant messages, qualifying instant messages may be identified that satisfy a capture rule, and two or more of the qualifying instant messages may be captured. The intended recipient may be informed of the captured instant messages unobtrusively, and also may be enabled to manage the captured instant messages.
US08577971B2
In accordance with some embodiments, a computer-implemented method for fetching email from an email server to a portable electronic device is disclosed. The method includes fetching email from the email server upon occurrence of at least one of: expiration of a first period of time after activation of an email application running on the device; expiration of a second period of time after a prior email fetch while the email application is running in the foreground; expiration of a third period of time after the prior email fetch while the email application is running in background; or expiration of a fourth period of time after the portable device is unlocked.
US08577962B2
A server apparatus includes a first storage, a second storage, a communication unit, and a controller. The first storage is configured to store statistical information that is generated by performing a statistical process of a plurality of pieces of first meta and second meta information and that indicates a frequency of the first meta information. The second storage is configured to store a plurality of pieces of content information that indicates one of a commodity content and a service content to be recommended. The communication unit is configured to receive, from a client apparatus, the second meta information. The controller is configured to select content information relating to the first meta information having predetermined frequencies or more with respect to the received second meta information from the plurality of pieces of content information stored, and control the communication unit to transmit the content information to the client apparatus.
US08577959B2
Concepts and technologies are described herein for managing recurring appointments without losing historical data associated with the recurring appointments. In accordance with the concepts and technologies disclosed herein, a recurring appointment definition can be modified without deleting the recurring appointment definition and/or losing exceptions, notes, and/or other data associated with the recurring appointment definition. Additionally, the concepts and technologies disclosed herein allow the modification of an existing recurring appointment definition without creating a new recurring appointment definition. Thus, synchronization between rules-based calendaring applications and expansion-based calendaring applications can be accomplished without creating multiple instances of related recurring appointments created due to modifications of the recurring appointment definition.
US08577955B2
A method and system for distributing images for display by client systems. A distribution system includes an image server system that is connected to image client systems via a communications link, such as the Internet. The image server system is responsible for providing image packages to the image client systems and for collecting information from the image client systems. Each image client system periodically sends a heartbeat communication to the image server system. Upon receiving a heartbeat communication, the image server system determines the state of the image client system that sent the heartbeat communication and responds appropriately. The response may include instructions for the image client system to retrieve new images, to retrieve software updates, to send usage data, and so on.
US08577951B1
Circuitry can be provided in a fixed logic device, or can be configured into a programmable integrated circuit device such as a programmable logic device (PLD) to perform vector-based matrix operations for matrices of arbitrary size, up to a predetermined maximum size. The circuitry may be used where input row vectors of a matrix are to be combined—e.g., by multiplication—with the same initial vector, which may be one of the rows. Column memories may be provided to hold the input matrix data, so that each row may be read by simultaneously accessing the same index in each column memory. In accordance with the invention, the number of column memories may be less than the actual number of columns so that multiple physical “row access” operations are used to access each logical row. A “circular latch” may be provided to hold the initial vector.
US08577949B2
A system for a conjugate gradient iterative linear solver that calculates the solution to a matrix equation comprises a plurality of gamma processing elements, a plurality of direction vector processing elements, a plurality of x-vector processing elements, an alpha processing element, and a beta processing element. The gamma processing elements may receive an A-matrix and a direction vector, and may calculate a q-vector and a gamma scalar. The direction vector processing elements may receive a beta scalar and a residual vector, and may calculate the direction vector. The x-vector processing elements may receive an alpha scalar, the direction vector, and the q-vector, and may calculate an x-vector and the residual vector. The alpha processing element may receive the gamma scalar and a delta scalar, and may calculate the alpha scalar. The beta processing element may receive the residual vector, and may calculate the delta scalar and the beta scalar.
US08577925B2
Systems and methods consistent with the invention may include selecting a plurality of hosts to store data structures by defining a color incidence process used to model a host assignment process, determining, by the color incidence process, a color allocation, and assigning the data structures to one of the plurality of hosts based on the color allocation determined by the color incidence process.
US08577922B2
An information management apparatus includes: a data receiving section, a collected data storage section, an aggregating section, a feature extracting section, a determining section, and an evaluation data storage section. The data receiving section periodically receives action data showing an action of a user. The collected data storage section stores the action data received by the data receiving section every user. The aggregating section generates a data set every user by aggregating action data containing an approximate content, of the action data stored in the collected data storage section. The feature extracting section extracts an index and a reference showing privacy confidentiality of the data set as a feature to incorporate in the data set. The determining section determines whether or not the privacy confidentiality of the feature of the data set is equal to or higher than a predetermined level. The evaluation data storage section stores the data set which passed the determining section.
US08577916B1
Search-based contact initiation methods and apparatus are provided. In particular, a contact initiator enters search terms in the form of qualifications or characteristics desired of a contact recipient. The search term are used to search qualifications records that include qualifications entered or selected by candidate qualifications recipients. When a match or best match between search criteria and a record associated with a candidate communication recipient is found, the contact initiator is placed into communication with that communication recipient. Communications between the communications initiator and the communication recipient are established using a contact address associated with the qualifications of the communication recipient.
US08577911B1
Systems, software, and computer-implemented methods can be used to present search results and search refinement suggestions identified in response to a search query using a search refinement wheel. In response to receiving a search query, a set of suggested query refinements are obtained. A spoke graph structure processable to present a visual representation of the search query and at least a portion of the set of the at least one search query refinements is generated, where the search query is represented by a first node in the visual representation and each of the portion of the set of the search query refinements is represented by an individual spoke in the visual representation that can be activated to generate a corresponding new search query. The generated graph can be provided in response to the search query, e.g., to a client device from which the search query is received.
US08577909B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for generating visual media search results are provided. A first visual media search query in a first language is received. One or more bilingual refinements are identified for the first visual media search query. Each bilingual refinement associates an initial query in the first language and a subsequent query in a different second language. The initial query is equivalent to the first visual media search query. The subsequent query is a translation of the initial query in the second language. The subsequent query followed the initial query in a series of queries received from a user in a session. A first bilingual refinement is selected from the one or more bilingual refinements according to a first criterion. A set of visual media search results is generated based on the first search query and the selected first bilingual refinement's associated subsequent search query.
US08577900B2
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for enhancing webpage browsing. The method of the invention includes a predicting step which predicts, for a first block in the webpage, a subsequent second block, based on a browsing history of blocks of webpages by at least one user; and a link generating step of automatically generating a link pointing to the second block based on a result of the predicting step. The apparatus includes: predicting means configured to predict, for a first block in the webpage, a subsequent second block, based on a browsing history of blocks of web pages by at least one user; and link generating means configured to automatically generate a link pointing to the second block based on a result of the predicting means.
US08577899B2
Methods and systems supporting curation of items in a searchable knowledge base are provided. The methods and systems include mining one or more search queries of the searchable knowledge base, where each of the search queries includes a plurality of the items. The method further includes determining one or more pairs of items using a processor, where each of the pairs of items includes a correlation value exceeding a threshold. The correlation values for the pairs of items are based upon the frequency the items of the pairs of items co-occur within the search queries. The method further includes providing the pairs of items to a curator, where the curator reviews the pairs of items.
US08577897B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for triggering rich results in response to publication queries. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a publication query. One or more publication search results are obtained. A rich result is triggered based on a score of the first-ranked publication result if it meets a threshold relative to other publication search results. The rich result is populated with additional metadata about the publication obtained from web resources and product resources from multiple corpora. The rich result is provided with the publication search results.
US08577886B2
Methods and or systems relating to inferential networks. This invention is further directed to methods and systems for making and using inferential networks. Still further, this invention is generally directed to making one or more inferential networks by using data generated from directed searches of collections of linked databases.
US08577882B2
A method, system and computer program product for searching multilingual documents. The method includes the steps of: receiving a search request based on at least one language; searching a first relevant document using the search request where the first relevant document (1) is written in a first language and (2) has a first image; finding a second relevant document having a second image which is similar to the first image and is written in a second language; and searching a second relevant document using the search request.
US08577873B2
Implementations and techniques for determining a relative importance among ordered lists are generally discussed.
US08577870B2
Methods and systems are provided for querying a database. One exemplary method for obtaining data from an on-demand database supporting one or more tenants involves obtaining model database statistics based on expected utilization information for a tenant and providing the model database statistics to the on-demand database. The on-demand database utilizes the model database statistics to generate a query plan and executes the query plan to obtain data from the model database statistics.
US08577868B1
A system receives a search query from a user and searches a repository of documents based on the search query to obtain search results. The system provides the search results to the user and automatically bookmarks one or more of the search results without the user explicitly requesting that the one or more search results be bookmarked.
US08577860B2
A mobile station is arranged to determine its location, which is searched against street addresses from a database, and at least one matching street address is retrieved. The street address is searched on the mobile station and/or over the network. The search engine conducts a search in the mobile station file system and/or the Internet and/or a file system over the network with the at least one query term, —at least one search result is arranged to be displayed to user on the screen of the mobile station. This facilitates on-demand effortless Mobile Internet Search that allows the users to access opportunities that they did not know about, or would not have had time to find out about with minimum effort as the software of the mobile phone is scanning the Internet and information pages for these opportunities and displaying the results dynamically on the mobile phone screen.
US08577855B2
A lock is acquired on a data structure. Content in the data structure is read and verified while the lock is held. The lock is then released, and then the file system components that are referred to by the data structure are verified. In essence, a file system consistency check of the file system components is performed offline in the background while the data structure remains accessible.
US08577851B2
A content alignment system according to certain embodiments aligns a sliding window at the beginning of a data segment. The content alignment system performs a block alignment function on the data within the sliding window. A deduplication block is established if the output of the block alignment function meets a predetermined criteria. At least part of a gap is established if the output of the block alignment function does not meet the predetermined criteria. The predetermined criteria is changed if a threshold number of outputs fail to meet the predetermined criteria.
US08577847B2
A system and method for managing data repositories may include providing techniques for end users to access and manipulate reports stored in the repositories. Text-based, image-based, or other types of reports may be stored in online and offline repositories, and in response to a search request, reports stored in the online and offline repositories may be retrieved. End users may export report data from text-based and image-based formats by converting the data into a spreadsheet format using various customization techniques. Thus, end users may edit, modify, analyze, or otherwise manipulate information in online and offline reports, while maintaining integrity of the information in the repositories.
US08577843B1
A method for updating a digital project log comprises receiving via one of the plurality of receivers an observation, the observation comprising one of a plurality of observer identifiers, selecting a project log based on the combination of the observer identifier included with the observation and the receiver identifier associated with the receiver used to receive the observation, and storing information included in the observation in the selected project log.
US08577841B2
Changes to a hierarchical organizational structure may be stored in different versions of a data structure depicting the hierarchical organizational structure. Each of these versions may include a validity period field representing a time period that the hierarchical organizational structure depicted in the version accurately reflects the organizational structure of the organization. Each of the versions may also be designated as active or inactive. In some instances, each of the versions may be designated as inactive except for a version that reflects the organizational structure of the organization at a particular time, which may change over time. Historical copies of versions may be stored and subsequently recalled to identify an organizational structure that was in effect at a particular time in the past. The recalled version may then be used to limit the results of a query to a selected node of the historical organizational structure.
US08577830B2
A non transitory computer readable medium and a method of detecting excavation of an underground tunnel, the method includes: propagating a light pulse through an underground optic fiber; generating detection signals responsive to Brillion scattered light resulting from the propagating of the light pulse through the underground optic fiber; wherein the detection signals represent tension values at multiple locations along the underground optic fiber; and processing the detection signals to detect excavation of the underground tunnel.
US08577829B2
An “unstructured event parser” analyzes an event that is in unstructured form and generates an event that is in structured form. A mapping phase determines, for a given event token, possible fields of the structured event schema to which the token could be mapped and the probabilities that the token should be mapped to those fields. Particular tokens are then mapped to particular fields of the structured event schema. By using the Naïve Bayesian probability model, a “probabilistic mapper” determines, for a particular token and a particular field, the probability that that token maps to that field. The probabilistic mapper can also be used in a “regular expression creator” that generates a regex that matches an unstructured event and a “parameter file creator” that helps a user create a parameter file for use with a parameterized normalized event generator to generate a normalized event based on an unstructured event.
US08577828B2
An exemplary methodology, procedure, system, method and computer-accessible medium can be provided to assign a joint-probability distribution to a set of continuous variables, given a sample of independent joint observations. The exemplary embodiments can transform at least a portion of particular data into transformed data, repeat the transformation until a marginal distribution of at least the portion of the particular data has been transformed to be at least sufficiently near or to reach a predetermined distribution, and estimate at least one likelihood of at least one predetermined result associated with the particular data as a function of the transformed data, whereas the repeated transformation ascends a likelihood function and/or is performed by unitary transformations.
US08577815B2
A method and system for characterizing, detecting, and predicting or forecasting multiple target events from a past history of these events includes compressing temporal data streams into self-organizing map (SOM) clusters, and determining trajectories of the temporal streams via the clusters to predict the multiple target events. The system includes an evolutionary multi-objective optimization (EMO) module for processing the temporal data streams, which are obtained from a plurality of heterogeneous domains; a SOM module for characterizing the temporal data streams into self-organizing map clusters; and a target event prediction (TEP) module for generating prediction models of the map clusters. The SOM module employs a vector quantization method that places a set of vectors on a low-dimensional grid in an ordered fashion. The prediction models each include trajectories of the temporal data streams, and the system predicts the multiple target events using the trajectories.
US08577813B2
A device is configured to allow a user to select any of a plurality of accounts to employ in a financial transaction. The user device includes a biometric sensor configured to receive a biometric input, a user interface configured to receive a user input including secret information known to the user and identifying information concerning an account selected by the user from the plurality of accounts. The user device includes a communication link configured to communicate with a secure registry, and a processor coupled to the biometric sensor to receive information concerning the biometric input, the user interface, and the communication link. The processor is configured to generate a non-predictable value and encrypted authentication information from the non-predictable value, the identifying information, and at least one of the information concerning the biometric input and the secret information, and communicate the authentication information via the communication link to the secure registry.
US08577810B1
A method to authorize a mobile payment for a transaction. The method includes receiving a facial image of a consumer who requests the mobile payment for the transaction using account information stored in a mobile device of the consumer, wherein the facial image is provided by a point-of-sale (POS) device while initiating the transaction on behalf of the consumer, receiving a verified facial image of an account holder, comparing the facial image of the consumer and the verified facial image of the account holder based on a pre-determined criterion to verify the consumer as the account holder, generating, in response to verifying the consumer as the account holder, an authorization of the mobile payment based on the account information, and sending the authorization to the POS device to complete the transaction.
US08577802B1
An aspect of the invention provides methods and computer media to support on-demand transportation shipments, supply order requests, change orders, and reports. A bank and business partners may coordinate so that a client can schedule pickups of deposits, delivery of change orders, transportation shipments, and reports. When at least one deposit is created at a banking center for one or more banking customers and an aggregate deposit amount exceeds a predetermined amount, an on-demand pickup of the deposits at the banking center is automatically requested. Also, an on-demand pickup of deposits may be automatically requested at a bank customer's location when the aggregate deposit amount exceeds a predetermined threshold. Moreover, an on-demand change, supply order, or report order may be automatically submitted when available cash is below a predetermined threshold. The available cash may be based on a total amount of cash or on a currency denomination amount.
US08577797B1
Various embodiments are disclosed for processing image cash letter files comprising transactions directed to a first image exchange system and transactions directed to a second image exchange systems. First and second cash letter output files may be generated, where the first and second cash letter output files may comprise cash letter file headers based on a header of an input cash letter file. Each transaction record included in the input cash letter file may be directed to either the first output cash letter file or the second output cash letter file. The headers of the respective output cash letter files may be updated based on the records written thereto.
US08577796B2
Aspects of the disclosure relate to assisting credit account holders during economic hardship. More specifically, aspects of the disclosure relate to systems and methods for providing a rebate of at least a portion of a finance charge applied to a credit account. Unlike certain prior art systems and methods, embodiments disclosed herein may benefit both the credit account holder as well as the financial institution that extends the credit account. In one embodiment, it may be determined that several credit accounts meet a threshold of probability of having a charge-off. In certain embodiments, the number of accounts that receive a rebate may be limited to a certain percentage of credit accounts with a non-zero balance.
US08577794B2
A system and method for collecting information to facilitate enrollment in an electronic funds transfer program includes a system operator that solicits prospective participants in the electronic funds transfer program and directs those prospective participants to an enrollment process that is accessible via the Internet. The prospective participants input profile information, which is preferably authenticated, and thereby enrolls in the electronic funds transfer program. Subsequent to enrollment automatic electronic funds transfers between an enrollee and another party are initiated on a periodic basis in accordance with the profile information. The system operator maintains a database that stores and operates on the profile information.
US08577793B1
Online multi-variable/multi-party auctions coordinate homeowners, mortgage holders, and investors to refinance homes with underwater mortgages, being initiated by homeowner/mortgage holder registration within the website. Registration triggers email invitations with access to personalized bidding platforms. Auctioning comprises bidding for a new total loan amount equaling/exceeding current fair market values, and/or matching interest rate bids by investors, who may risk share therein, with homeowner monthly payment bids. Auction completion requires homeowner, lien holder(s), and investor(s) acceptance, resulting in mutual rescission of original loan agreement(s). Electronic closings create Time-Out Mortgages, which are recorded, and Home Certificates—a hybrid security being a combination promissory note (with additional benefits) and agreement for sharing a “Deferred Recapture Amount,” being a difference between the new principal loan amount and prior total home lien amounts. Sharing is tailored at auction according to one of several schemes incentivizing agreement, which drive up housing prices while reducing risk of foreclosure.
US08577782B2
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method for generating conditional offers for semi-anonymous trading participants is provided. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method comprises associating a trading entity with an identifier; acquiring trade history information including a history of trading transactions associated with said identifier; and receiving an offer from a Liquidity Provider based on said trade history information, said offer being only made to the trading entity associated with one of said identifiers.
US08577781B2
A method is provided for placing a trade order for a commodity on an electronic exchange to be executed at a future time, said method comprising the steps of displaying a trading screen for a commodity market, said trading screen including a future time schedule and an order entry region corresponding to each future time segment of the future time schedule, and scheduling an order corresponding to a future time segment by locating a pointer of a user device within an order entry region corresponding to the future time segment and sending an input signal via the pointer.
US08577780B2
Methods and Systems for routing an indication of interest message are provided in which one or more external trade messaging systems are monitored to discover and collect information related to a trading posture of a plurality of trading counterparties. The information related to the trading posture of the plurality of trading counterparties is stored in a database and accessed, upon receipt of an indication of interest message to intelligently route the indication of interest message to at least one of the plurality of trading counterparties based at least in part on the information regarding the trading posture of the plurality of trading counterparties stored in the database.
US08577774B2
A system and method for using asymmetrical offsets for products in a risk management analysis system are disclosed. Conventional systems assign symmetrical offsets for products, that is, if two products have an 80% correlation they each would be assigned an offset of 80% with respect to each other. However, it is desirable to allow for asymmetrical offsets. In the disclosed system and method, when two products have a correlation of 80%, one may be assigned an offset of 75% and the other may be assigned an offset of 80%. There are many reasons to vary the offset between the products. The varying offset may reflect an asymmetry in the risk in one of the products, such as being traded in an illiquid market or in a less desirable venue. The varying offset may correct for an imbalance in spread credits due to special charges from intra spreading.
US08577772B2
A system for generating liquidity includes a plurality of client user interfaces and a matching system. Each client user interface includes a trading desktop which stores unexecuted trading positions. The matching system is coupled with the plurality of client user interfaces and configured to receive information about the unexecuted trading positions. The system can identify as a match one or more first indications of interest which can fulfill one or more second indications of interest, based upon the information about the unexecuted trading positions. For the identified matches, the system can provide a notification of the match and an invitation to execute the match to corresponding client user interfaces. When an invitation is accepted, the system forwards an order to an order execution system for execution.
US08577767B2
A method and system for processing communications between travel service providers and travel insurers where travel service providers use different messaging formats. A travel service provider transmits itinerary data to a travel insurer in one messaging format. The travel insurer may then convert the itinerary data into a format compatible with the travel insurer's system and determine an optimal policy choice based on the itinerary data. The travel insurer may then transmit this choice to the travel service provider in the travel service provider's preferred messaging format, and the travel service provider offers the product to the consumer through the travel service provider's interface.
US08577765B2
A system and method for displaying a plurality of profit and risk related indicators are described. A graphical interface displays and dynamically updates a plurality of profit/loss (P/L) indicators including a realized, net, and open indicator. The net and open indicators are based on a trader's net position and a current market level, while the realized indicator is based on trader's buys and sells associated with a tradeable objects. In one embodiment, the plurality of indicators are displayed in relation to a plurality of money management regions defining a maximum order quantity and a maximum net position controlling the trader's trades, so that a trader can quickly determine his current as well as potential money management parameters. The graphical interface may also display a plurality of potential risk/gain indicators in relation to a realized profit indicator so that a trader, before entering an order having a predetermined order quantity, can view a potential risk/gain in entering into a predetermined net position in view of potential market movements.
US08577757B2
An inventory management system for forecasting demand in a print production environment may include a computing device and a computer-readable storage medium in communication with the computing device. The computer-readable storage medium may include programming instructions for updating a predictive model with intervention information comprising an anticipated demand value and a confidence value associated with the anticipated demand value. The predictive model may be associated with a demand distribution of a print-related service. The computer-readable storage medium may include programming instructions for generating a demand forecast associated with the print-related service by using the updated predictive model, using the generated demand forecast to compare a current inventory level associated with the print-related service to an anticipated inventory level associated with the demand forecast of the print-related service, and ordering additional inventory in response to the current inventory level being less than the anticipated inventory level.
US08577736B2
The sale of a vehicle may involve many cost and profit components. It is generally impossible for a potential buyer to know all of these components. For example, dealers may be paid by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) on their Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) and volume bonus. Embodiments disclosed herein may determine and present to a user an accurate estimate of dealer cost, taking into consideration an aggregate of dealer cost components. For each component, a predictive model may be built to determine an expected value at a particular level. An average of the expected value of the component is then calculated for the most recent month. From that, an average bonus payout per vehicle for the most recent month may be determined. A base dealer cost is adjusted to account for these payouts to produce an accurate estimate of actual dealer cost.
US08577732B1
A method and system of providing custom background-downloads, where content is selected for background downloading to a subscriber based on an analysis of the current time, the subscriber's current location, and online transaction history records regarding a plurality of subscribers over time, each record indicating content that was a subject of the transaction. A custom content server may determine the subscriber's current location and the current time, and the server may then select transaction history records reflecting transactions that occurred in the past at a similar location and time (possibly just records for transactions involving the subscriber currently at issue). The server may then select one or more pieces of available content based on their similarity to the content indicated by the selected transaction records. And the server may background-download the selected content to the subscriber. The invention can be used to provide custom-channel definitions or custom content-catalogs, for instance.
US08577727B1
A system includes a master device and a slave device. The slave device is configured to provide a customer waiting to be seated at a restaurant with menu information for the restaurant, receive at least one of a drink order or a food order from the customer while the customer is waiting to be seated at the restaurant, and transmit the at least one of a drink order or a food order. The master device is configured to receive the at least one of a drink order or a food order from the slave device, and cause the at least one of a drink order or a food order to be forwarded to a kitchen of the restaurant based on at least one of a position of the customer on a waiting list or an estimated amount of time until the customer will be seated.
US08577704B2
An output formula is automatically generated from an input formula using one of multiple methods determined by types of one or more parameters associated with the input formula and a dimensional operation associated with a dimension of at least a first parameter. The automatically generated output formula is stored, or a representation based on the automatically generated output formula is presented using a user interface.
US08577699B1
Methods and systems are disclosed for providing quotes on multiple types of insurance policies concurrently. The quotes are individually personalized rather than a class or group quote. The methods and systems significantly reduce the number of insurability questions required to obtain a quote. This reduced set of questions may be used to generate quotes on multiple policies concurrently for a given type of insurance. The methods and systems, however, are applicable to multiple types of insurance. Similarly, the quotes may be “directionally correct” quotes, or they may be provided as a range of possible premiums. Quotes for family members may also be obtained at the same time on similar insurance policies. Personal information may be automatically prefilled to the extent such information is available. Other aspects include the ability to apply for the quoted insurance policies directly from the quotes and to save the quotes for subsequent retrieval.
US08577693B2
Methods and systems are described for obtaining a parameter relating to a stent inventory shortage and for specializing one or more stents in response to obtaining the parameter relating to the stent inventory shortage.
US08577692B2
A method and apparatus is disclosed for operating a medical device with a screen having an improved graphical user interface, which selectively reallocates screen display for both single and multi-channel pumps. Channel indicators associate operation information with a specific delivery channel. Patient or drug order verification is facilitated with a rendering of the patient or the entire drug order/label on the screen. Decimal numbers are presented in vertically offset decimal format. A dual function button cancels the current operation and, after a delay, clears entered parameters. An area sensitive scrollbar cycles through information at various speeds. Screen brightness is adjusted based on an ambient light detector. A screen saver mode activates based on several operating conditions. The screen is incorporated in a removable user interface.
US08577690B2
Method and system are disclosed for facilitating patient access to pharmacies. The system and method of the present invention involves setting up a prescription registry service. The prescription registry service stores the prescriptions of patients who are members of the registry. Pharmacies, including national and international pharmacies, may then subscribe to the registry service. The pharmacies may be required to satisfy one or more qualification criteria in order to subscribe to the registry service. A patient may then select one of the subscribing pharmacies to fill his prescriptions with reduced risk and increased confidence. Only pharmacies that have been authorized by the patient may access and fill a registered prescription. All communication between the member and the pharmacy are conducted through the pharmacy's normal channels and not through the registry service.
US08577688B2
An alliance business relationship is managed by receiving a request for a relationship from a firm. An alliance taxonomy stored in a database is used to determine whether the request is an alliance. An opportunity in the request is identified and quantified. The alliance is formed, executed, and subsequently terminated. Thereafter, the alliance is again evaluated against the criteria in the taxonomy to determine whether another relationship type applies.
US08577673B2
In one embodiment, a method of receiving a decoded audio signal that has a transmitted pitch lag is disclosed. The method includes estimating pitch correlations of possible short pitch lags that are smaller than a minimum pitch limitation and have an approximated multiple relationship with the transmitted pitch lag, checking if one of the pitch correlations of the possible short pitch lags is large enough compared to a pitch correlation estimated with the transmitted pitch lag, and selecting a short pitch lag as a corrected pitch lag if a corresponding pitch correlation is large enough. The postprocessing is performed using the corrected pitch lag. In another embodiment, when the existence of irregular harmonics or wrong pitch lag is detected, a coded-excited linear prediction (CELP) postfilter is made more aggressive.
US08577666B2
A modular circuit emulation system includes a global clock generator that generates a plurality of clock signals. A plurality of emulation boards each include at least one programmable circuit and a clock buffer. The clock buffer generates at least one synchronized clock signal for clocking the programmable circuit or circuits, based on at least one of the plurality of global clock signals.
US08577652B2
A method, computer-readable storage medium, and computer system for modeling a dynamic system comprising a plurality of components are disclosed. A computing device is used to provide a spreadsheet environment and a plurality of shape objects within the spreadsheet environment. The shape objects represent the physical components of the dynamic system. At least one shape object has a behavioral characteristic that is associated with a physical component of the dynamic system. A connector in the spreadsheet environment is used to specify a connection between at least two of the shape objects. The connection represents a relationship between the physical components represented by the connected shape objects.
US08577621B2
A method for processing biopolymer arrays and apparatus and computer program products for executing the method. The method may include reading a different array identifier for each biopolymer array from a tag associated with that array. At least some of the biopolymer arrays are read and results from each read array saved in a memory linked with the read identifier for that array. Different communication addresses and a selection of an array identifier for each, are received. For at least some of the arrays, the saved results for each are matched with one of the different communication addresses using the identifier, and the saved results transmitted for those arrays to the matched different communication addresses. A method of processing data from the reading of biopolymer arrays is also provided.
US08577614B2
The present disclosure provides a method of normalizing characterization information comprising: defining a plurality of characteristics, for each characteristic defining a set of allowed values and defining a logging interval. The method further comprises: at a plurality of logging intervals, selecting a value from the set of allowed values for a characteristic of the plurality of characteristics, and storing the selected value for the characteristics at the plurality of logging intervals. The present disclosure also provides a system for correlating log information comprising: a core set log data module for storing core set log data information, an electrical log data module for storing electrical log data information, a correlation module for correlating the core set log data information with the electrical log data information, and an input/output module for inputting and displaying the core set log data information the electrical log data information.
US08577608B2
A method essentially comprising a step of storing each plot mesh. Each plot mesh receiving plots sent thereto by detector means and retaining in memory at least the altitude of the highest plot and the number of plots neighboring said highest plot in said mesh. The altitude and the number of plots neighboring are updated each time a new plot is sent to the plot mesh. A step of rejecting plot meshes is presenting a number of neighboring plots that is less than a predetermined rejection threshold value. The rejection threshold value is a function of the position of the mesh relative to the detector means. A step is preparing the local terrain elevation database from the plot meshes (M(i,j)) that are not rejected.
US08577606B2
Systems and methods for guiding a vehicle and vehicle sensor bias determination methods are disclosed. A method for guiding a vehicle includes a primary antenna of a primary survey-grade GNSS-receiver and a secondary antenna of a secondary GNSS-receiver mounted to the vehicle, which are at least temporarily receiving GNSS-signals of a global positioning system. A plurality of physical sensors mounted to the vehicle generate physical data indicative of respective measured physical parameters of at least part of the vehicle. The method includes de-biasing the physical data and applying a recursive statistical estimator, such as a Kalman filter, to the de-biased physical data and an output of the primary and secondary GNSS-receivers to determine a position and velocity of the vehicle.
US08577599B2
A system for a vehicle navigation accurately calculates travel times between locations and serves a vehicle driver request for the shortest time route. A navigation server compiles data of common road segments between two locations that are contained in route requests and subsequently calculates travel time between the two locations. When subsequent route requests contain further information pertaining to the same locations, the navigation server updates the travel time. Consequently, the navigation server can calculate the travel times of different routes from the same source vehicle location and destination location. When a vehicle driver requests directions from the vehicle's current location to a destination, the navigation server then provides directions for the shortest time route to the vehicle driver.
US08577598B2
A method for presenting a route includes receiving a starting point and a destination point and computing a route that includes a route segment between the two points. The method further includes determining, based on a user's travel history, whether the route segment is an unfamiliar segment, and identifying, based on the user's travel history, a road that is familiar to the user. The method includes providing, in a format that distinguishes the familiar road from the computed route, the computed route and the familiar road relative to the unfamiliar segment for presentation of the familiar road within a scaled range of the unfamiliar segment.
US08577595B2
A device, system, and method for generating location and path-map data for displaying a location and path-map is disclosed. The device includes a first set of sensors for generating a plurality of first data signals with respect to an attitude of an object; a second set of sensors for generating a plurality of second data signals with respect to the attitude of the object; an imaging device for generating a plurality of third data signals that include a most significant feature, which is disposed in at least two images of the imaging device; and at least one processing device that is adapted to calculate a heading direction (bearing) of the device using the plurality of first data signals and the plurality of second data signals; to calculate a distance traveled along the heading direction using the plurality of third data signals; and to translate the calculated heading direction and calculated distance traveled into a leg or portion of a leg of a path-map for visual display on a two- or three-dimensional system.
US08577593B2
A method for producing navigation instructions is disclosed. The method includes generating a navigation route. The generated navigation route is translated from textual instructions and/or audio prompts to sign language symbols, and the sign language symbols are provided to a vehicle.
US08577589B2
A method and apparatus for providing a location information-based scheduling service is disclosed. The method includes determining a meeting point or appointed place based on location information associated with a plurality of portable terminals. The method includes suggesting various routes and means to travel to the appointed place; and providing data content to a user of a first portable terminal until one or more users associated with the other portable terminals arrive at the appointed place. The appointed place can be determined based on a distance between all the portable terminals and/or their respective movement times. Users can share their expected arrival times and information regarding their current locations while traveling towards the appointed place. If a portable terminal user requests a content while waiting for other users to arrive, the surplus time can be calculated and available contents can be provided within the surplus time.
US08577579B2
A vehicle control system includes a forward vehicle sensor transmitting a forward vehicle message based on a range to a forward vehicle. An adaptive cruise controller receives the forward vehicle message from the forward vehicle sensor. The adaptive cruise controller transmits a cruise controller message based on the range to the forward vehicle. A braking system controller receives the cruise controller message and transmits an engine control message based on the cruise controller message. An engine controller receives the engine control message and controls a torque and/or speed of an engine as a function of the engine control message.
US08577576B2
An inverted pendulum type vehicle includes a travelling motion unit capable of moving on a floor surface, an actuator for driving the travelling motion unit, a base body mounted with the travelling motion unit and the actuator, a tilt detector configured to detect a tilt of the base body, and a controller configured to control the actuator. The controller controls an operation of an actuator so as to restrict a representative point velocity which is a travelling velocity of a predefined representative point located above a ground contact point of the vehicle and is determined according to a travelling velocity of the travelling motion unit and a tilt of the base body.
US08577569B2
A vehicle control apparatus includes a bad-road control-mode switch configured to be manipulated by a driver, and a bad-road control section configured to perform a bad-road control when a bad-road control mode is selected by the bad-road control-mode switch. The bad-road control section includes a braking-force applying section configured to apply a braking force to a drive-wheel, and a driving-force applying section configured to apply a driving force to the drive-wheel which is receiving the braking force from the braking-force applying section, as the bad-road control.
US08577567B2
A vehicle control device having a shift-by-wire system that switches a driving range of a vehicle transmission by inputting a range switching signal to a shift switching device, includes: an abnormality detecting means that detects an abnormality that the shift switching device cannot switch the driving range, of the shift-by-wire system; and a driving force suppressing means that suppresses a driving force of a vehicle when an abnormality is detected in the shift-by-wire system and when a vehicle stop is predicted, and the driving force suppressing means switching a gear stage of the vehicle transmission to a higher-speed gear stage.
US08577562B2
The construction vehicle is provided with an engine, a clutch, a travel device, a work equipment, a drive force setting dial, and a controller that includes: a theoretical value determination unit that determines a theoretical value, for the degree of engagement to make the upper limit value of the drive force equal to a set drive force; an operational state determination unit that determines whether the work equipment is outputting the drive force in a predetermined travel direction; a drive force determination unit that determines whether the drive force is greater than the set drive force; and a degree of engagement reduction unit that, if of operational state determination and of drive force determination are both affirmative, causes the degree of engagement to approach the theoretical value.
US08577559B2
A drive arrangement for the drive of an agricultural implement is provided that includes a drive engine that can be brought into a drive connection over a separable power take-off shaft clutch with a power take-off shaft output. A drive line of the operating implement is connected with the power take-off shaft output, with an overload clutch, and a control arrangement. The control arrangement is connected to a sensor arranged for the detection of the torque at the power take-off shaft output and, in normal operation, permits an actuator to disengage the power take-off shaft clutch as soon as the torque detected by the sensor reaches or exceeds a first threshold value, that corresponds to a torque that is smaller than the cut-off torque of the overload clutch. Immediately following, the control arrangement orders the actuator to engage the power take-off shaft clutch and when the power take-off shaft clutch is disengaged permits a torque at the power take-off shaft output that is greater than the cut-off torque of the overload clutch.
US08577558B2
A system and method for steering an implement comprises a steering detector for detecting a target steering angle associated with an implement steering system. An implement mode detector is capable of determining whether or not the implement is acting in a lowered mode of operation in which a ground-engaging component other than one or more wheels engage the ground. An implement steering controller is arranged to adjust the target steering angle by reducing or by limiting the target steering angle to a maximum steering angle if the implement is in the lowered mode.
US08577553B2
A lateral motion control apparatus for a vehicle includes a control stop determination unit that determines whether or not to stop the control for the control target by the control target control unit based on a steering operation amount inputted by a driver of the vehicle, and a degeneration control amount determination unit that determines a degeneration control amount for the control target such that the control amount for the control target degenerates after the time when the control stop determination unit has determined that the control for the control target is to be stopped. When the control stop determination unit has determined that the control for the control target is to be stopped, the control target control unit controls the control target based on the degeneration control amount determined by the degeneration control amount determination unit.
US08577547B2
A system and method for putting a fuel cell vehicle into a performance mode by preloading sub-systems in the fuel cell system so that high power is available from the fuel cell stack quicker than during normal fuel cell system operation. For example, if a driver activates a vehicle performance mode, the fuel cell system can respond by, for example, increasing the compressor speed, increasing anode recirculation, increasing air and cooling fluid flow through the radiator, increasing battery state-of-charge, etc. Thus, when the driver requests the high power after the system is in the performance mode, the system is able to deliver the desired power immediately or at least quicker and for a longer time period.
US08577538B2
A system for controlling more than one remote vehicle. The system comprises an operator control unit allowing an operator to receive information from the remote vehicles and send commands to the remote vehicles via a touch-screen interface, the remote vehicles being capable of performing autonomous behaviors using information received from at least one sensor on each remote vehicle. The operator control unit sends commands to the remote vehicles to perform autonomous behaviors in a cooperative effort, such that high-level mission commands entered by the operator cause the remote vehicles to perform more than one autonomous behavior sequentially or concurrently. The system may perform a method for generating obstacle detection information from image data received from one of a time-of-flight sensor and a stereo vision camera sensor.
US08577537B2
A vehicle guidance system includes a location determining component for determining locations of the vehicle; a weight sensor for sensing a weight associated with the vehicle; a steering actuator for steering at least one wheel of the vehicle; and a computing device in communication with the location determining component, the weight sensor, and the steering actuator. The computing device receives cartographic data representative of a desired path for the vehicle, receives location information from the location determining component, controls operation of the steering actuator in order to guide the vehicle along the desired path, and adjusts a steering parameter at least partially based on the weight sensed by the weight sensor.
US08577533B2
A control apparatus for a hybrid vehicle that includes a battery includes a controller that controls a charge amount of the battery. The controller limits the charge amount of the battery at a time of low vehicle speed even when a state of charge of the battery has fallen. The controller relaxes a limitation on the charge amount when a power driving mode, in which higher priority is given to responsiveness of a driving force than at a time of a normal driving mode, is selected as a driving mode of the hybrid vehicle.
US08577518B2
An automated airborne video recording system for imaging pipeline or electric line rights-of-way, irrigation canals, or any other linear ground features. The system includes a gimbaled, stabilized camera system, a data recorder, and autonomous imager software that computes the shortest vector between the aircraft position and the pipeline based on the aircraft GPS and the Geographic Information Database. The system then commands the stabilized camera system to point directly at the pipeline regardless of the aircraft position and orientation, automatically collecting continuous NTSC or digital video of the entire right of way.
US08577513B2
There is provided a power system including a power transmitting apparatus and a power receiving apparatus. The power transmitting apparatus includes: a power generating unit generating power using renewable energy; a first power measuring unit measuring a power amount generated in a specified period; and a power transmitting unit transmitting the generated power in the specified period and information on the measured power amount to the power receiving apparatus. The power receiving apparatus includes: a power receiving unit receiving the power and the information on the power amount from the power transmitting apparatus; a second power measuring unit measuring a power amount received in the specified period; a determining unit comparing the received power amount and the measured power amount and determining whether such amounts match; and a power reception control unit operable when the amounts do not match, to stop reception of the power and the information.
US08577508B2
Embodiments according to the present invention provide methods and a system for a control approach that effectively maintains the DC link voltage at a constant set value under variable system conditions and keeps the converter operating within an optimal power factor range.
US08577506B2
A control valve conditioning method in an electrohydraulic pressure control unit comprising at least one electrically triggered solenoid valve that is controlled in an analog manner. The solenoid valve is operated at a specific operating current according to a functional correlation or characteristic diagram between the valve current and the differential pressure characteristic curve when the pressure is controlled, said functional correlation or characteristic diagram being stored in the pressure control unit. The method comprises the following steps: a) temporarily applying at least one anti-hysteresis pulse to the solenoid valve during which a current is set far below or far above the operating current in the valve; b) applying the anti-hysteresis pulse at the desired operating current before or during controlled operation, and c) applying the anti-hysteresis pulse wherein the duration is limited in such a way that the anti-hysteresis pulse has largely no influence on the brake pressure.
US08577504B1
Disclosed is a system for suppressing vibration and noise mitigation in structures such as blades in turbomachinery. The system includes flexible piezoelectric patches which are secured on or imbedded in turbomachinery blades which, in one embodiment, comprises eight (8) fan blades. The system further includes a capacitor plate coupler and a power transfer apparatus, which may both be arranged into one assembly, that respectively transfer data and power. Each of the capacitive plate coupler and power transfer apparatus is configured so that one part is attached to a fixed member while another part is attached to a rotatable member with an air gap therebetween. The system still further includes a processor that has 16 channels, eight of which serve as sensor channels, and the remaining eight, serving as actuation channels. The processor collects and analyzes the sensor signals and, in turn, outputs corrective signals for vibration/noise suppression of the turbine blades.
US08577501B2
A remote control unit configured to wirelessly control a mobile robot moving through an environment and having a robot camera. The remote control unit comprises a privacy button operable by a local user and configured to engage a privacy mode of the mobile robot, and a wireless transmitter configured to emit a wireless control signal to the mobile robot based on input from a keypad of the RC unit. The wireless control signal is configured to cause the robot camera to block the field of view of the robot camera such that the environment of the mobile robot is obscured when the privacy mode of the mobile robot is engaged.
US08577495B2
A method for calibrating a CNC machine comprises mounting a gauge to a table of the CNC machine and calibrating a probe to the gauge mounted on the CNC machine. A total deviation of the probe and an actual table center position from a nominal table center position for a coordinate system associated with the CNC machine are determined. A controller operatively connected to the CNC machine and the probe is programmed to compensate for the total deviation.
US08577494B2
Disclosed herein is technology for, among other things, a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, and a control system and a control method therefor, by which a target parameter that is measured from a wafer processed with a plurality of processing parameters that are processing conditions of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus to process a wafer, a multiple classification analysis is performed with the plurality of processing parameters and the target parameter to calculate a model formula expressing the target parameter in a selected parameter, a predicted value of the target parameter of the wafer being processed by use of the model formula is calculated, while the processing is being performed, the processing parameters of the processing is modified on the basis of the predicted value, and the processing is continuously performed.
US08577490B2
Transport scheduling and transport processes for low microbial (“LM”) bulk products are described. The transport scheduling and processes facilitate low microbial activity in a LM bulk product during the transport of the LM bulk product.
US08577488B2
The present invention relates to a method of optimizing self-supporting film production. The method includes the steps of: determining at least one scrap factor which relates to a total amount of scrap in processing a film product; correlating the at least one scrap factor to at least one processing parameter; and adjusting the at least one processing parameter to reduce the total amount of scrap in processing the film product. The present invention also relates to a system for optimizing film production.
US08577481B2
A system and method for predicting operation of a plant or process receive an input value from the plant or process. An integrity of a non-linear model corresponding to a local input space of the input value may be determined. The non-linear model may include an empirical representation of the plant or process. If the integrity is above a first threshold, non-linear model may be used to provide a first output value. However, if the integrity is below the first threshold, a linearized first principles model may be used to provide a second output value. The linearized first principles model may include an analytic representation of the plant or process. Additionally, the analytic representation of the plant or process may be independent of the empirical representation of the plant or process. The first output value and/or the second output value may be usable to manage the plant or process.
US08577479B2
There is provided a power transmitting apparatus including a power transmission side communication unit for communicating with a power receiving apparatus, a power transmission unit for transmitting power to the power receiving apparatus in a non-contact manner, a transmission power information deriving unit for increasing discretely a first transmission power to transmit from the power transmission unit to the power receiving apparatus, and deriving information related to power transmission for determining a second transmission power corresponding to power desired by the power receiving apparatus based on reception of received power information transmitted from the power receiving apparatus at the power transmission side communication unit, indicating that a received power level meet a predetermined level, and a transmission power determining unit for determining the second transmission power to transmit to the power receiving apparatus based on information related to power transmission derived by the transmission power information deriving unit.
US08577474B2
An improved implantable pulse generator (IPG) containing improved telemetry circuitry is disclosed. The IPG includes charging and telemetry coils within the IPG case, which increases their mutual inductance and potential to interfere with each other; particularly problematic is interference to the telemetry coil caused by the charging coil. To combat this, improved telemetry circuitry includes decoupling circuitry for decoupling the charging coil during periods of telemetry between the IPG and an external controller. Such decoupling circuitry can comprise use of pre-existing LSK circuitry during telemetry, or new discrete circuitry dedicated to decoupling. The decoupling circuitry is designed to prevent or at least reduce induced current flowing through the charging coil during data telemetry. The decoupling circuitry can be controlled by the microcontroller in the IPG, or can automatically decouple the charging coil at appropriate times to mitigate an induced current without instruction from the microcontroller.
US08577469B2
Apparatus (10) is provided for treating an intervertebral disc (20) of a subject. The apparatus (10) includes a first electrode (30), configured to be inserted into a nucleus pulposus (40) of the disc (20), and a second electrode (32), configured to be placed outside of the nucleus pulposus (40), in a vicinity of the nucleus pulposus (40). A control unit (34) is configured to drive a current between the first and second electrodes (30, 32), and to configure the current to electroosmotically drive fluid between inside and outside the nucleus pulposus (40). Other embodiments are also described.
US08577446B2
Described herein are stress detection systems and methods of using such systems.
US08577430B1
A superconducting nanowire photon detector apparatus comprising detection, insulating, and substrate layers. The insulating layer provides electrical isolation of a plurality of individual detector elements from the interconnection network fabricated on the substrate layer except where electrical interconnection between the inputs and outputs of each detector element and the interconnection network is intended.
US08577426B2
Various embodiments are directed to systems and techniques for reducing power consumption in a mobile computing device. In one or more embodiments, a mobile computing device may be arranged to determine a user environment based on detected antenna impedance or detected current. After the user environment is determined, the mobile computing device may confirm that total radiation power (TRP) for the mobile computing device at an initial conducted power level exceeds the minimum TRP threshold required by the network carrier to receive acceptable quality of service (QoS). Based on the excess TRP for the particular user environment, the mobile computing device may determine a reduced conducted power level to be input to an antenna system. Accordingly, significant power savings may be achieved. To save additional power, the mobile computing device may automatically adjust and/or improve antenna impedance matching based on user environment allowing a further reduction in conducted power.
US08577425B2
A wireless headset has a body, an ear clip, and at least two devices for converting at least two different sources of energy into electrical power. The body includes an RF integrated circuit in electrical communication with an antenna and a baseband circuit, the baseband circuit being in electrical communication with a microphone and a speaker. The at least two devices for converting at least two different sources of energy into electrical power are in electrical communication with the RF integrated circuit and the baseband circuit. The ear clip is engaged to the body. The at least two sources of energy are selected from the group consisting of solar energy, thermoelectric energy, piezoelectric energy, and vibration energy.
US08577424B2
A vehicle-based computing apparatus includes a computer processor in communication with persistent and non-persistent memory. The apparatus also includes a local wireless transceiver in communication with the computer processor and configured to communicate wirelessly with a wireless device located at the vehicle. The processor is operable to receive, through the wireless transceiver, a connection request sent from a nomadic wireless device, the connection request including at least a name of an application seeking to communicate with the processor. The processor is further operable to receive at least one secondary communication from the nomadic device, once the connection request has been processed. The secondary communication is at least one of a speak alert command, a display text command, a create phrase command, and a prompt and listen command.
US08577416B2
A wireless transceiver includes an antenna array that transmits an outbound RF signal containing outbound data to remote transceivers and that receives an inbound RF signal containing inbound data from the remote RF transceivers, wherein the antenna array is configurable based on a control signal. An antenna configuration controller generates the control signal to configure the antenna array to hop among a plurality of radiation patterns based on a hopping sequence. An RF transceiver section generates the outbound RF signal based on the outbound data and that generates the inbound data based on the inbound RF signal. In one configuration, a switching section selectively couples a selected one of the antennas in the array to the RF transceiver section, based on the control signal. In another configuration, the RF transceiver section includes an RF section for each antenna in the array.
US08577415B2
A wireless communication system and a wireless network accessing device are disclosed. The wireless communication system comprises an intelligent terminal and a wireless network accessing device. The intelligent terminal comprises a first card holder and a first interface. The first card holder is configured to receive a first SIM card, and the first interface is electrically connected to the first card holder. The wireless network accessing device comprises a second card holder, a second interface, a baseband chip and a switch module. The second card holder is configured to receive a second SIM card, the second interface is removably electrically connected to the first interface, and the switch module is electrically connected to the second card holder, the second interface and the baseband chip so that the baseband chip is selectively electrically connected to the first card holder or the second card holder.
US08577406B2
There is provided a communication device including: a communication unit that receives a beacon for a second communication service making secondary usage of a spectrum assigned to a first communication service; and a control unit that controls a transmission power to be used for transmission of a radio signal of the second communication service from the communication unit based on location data included in the beacon and indicating a location of a transmission source node of the beacon and a location of an interfered node interfered by the second communication service.
US08577404B2
An embodiment is directed to switching between server-arbitrated group communication sessions at an access terminal (AT) within a wireless communications system. The AT participates in a first group communication session when it receives an announce message announcing a second group communication session, acquires priority levels for the first and/or second group communication sessions and determines whether to switch between sessions based on the priority level(s). In another embodiment, the AT participates in a given processing task (e.g., a gaming session, a voice call, a group session, etc.) when it receives an alert that relates to a group communication session. If the alert is specially configured to force the given access terminal to drop the given processing task, the AT drops the given processing task irrespective of whether the AT later joins the announced group communication session.
US08577398B2
Coincident with the evolution, maturation, etc. of wireless messaging ecosystems an infrastructure that provides for enhanced content delivery in new and creative ways. The delivery model leverages the features, capabilities, etc. that are offered by MMS to deliver various types of content (e.g., content that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to display on a wireless device using the wireless device's native facilities) to wireless devices by, possibly inter alia, processing the content (including, possibly among other steps, formatting the content, rendering the content as one or more images, etc.) and subsequently delivering the processed content to a wireless device via MMS. The infrastructure may optionally leverage the capabilities of a centrally-located Messaging Inter-Carrier Vendor.
US08577396B2
The present invention relates generally to a manner by which to page an access terminal of a radio communication system to alert the access terminal of a pending call, or other communication. More particularly, the present invention relates to apparatus, and an associated method, that provides for the generation, sending, and analysis of a quick page message upon a paging channel, such as a QPCH (quick paging channel) defined in an exemplary cellular communication system. The page message is formed in a manner that reduces the likelihood of occurrence of false wakeup of an access terminal. Excessive battery depletion, as a result of false wakeup of the access terminal, is avoided.
US08577382B2
A technique for a mobile communication system defining a dedicated channel (DCH) active set and an enhanced-dedicated channel (E-DCH) active set, includes performing a power measurement of a pilot signal from a cell that is not included in the E-DCH active set but included in the DCH active set, and performing a power measurement of a pilot signal from a cell that is included in the E-DCH active set.
US08577381B2
The disclosure includes a method of and associated system for placing nodes in a wireless local area network (WLAN). The method includes receiving user-specified parameters regarding the network. The parameters can include a layout of a building or other space, and requirements for the WLAN. An algorithm then employs these parameters to automatically create and optimized layout of multiple wireless access points for the WLAN. The method can display the layout and provide various types of information to the user.
US08577378B2
Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products are disclosed for facilitating a beacon-assisted handover from a macro network to a femto cell during an active call. A femto cell management system assigns a unique identifier to a femto cell, which the femto cell utilizes to broadcast a beacon at a frequency different than the operating frequency of the femto cell. A wireless terminal receives a control message from the macro network directing the wireless terminal to scan particular frequencies. The wireless terminal subsequently provides a report to the macro network identifying attributes ascertained from the scan, which includes attributes associated with the beacon. The macro network then performs a handover from the macro network to the femto cell as a function of the attributes.
US08577376B2
A system and method include determining location information identifying a location of a portable information handling device, sorting a list of network profiles based on the location information, and scanning the list of sorted network profiles to identify an access point for connecting the portable information handling device to a network.
US08577374B2
A method and apparatus for handover between base stations are disclosed. The method includes: a first base station sending handover request messages to neighboring base stations (401); the neighboring base stations judging whether to accept the handover according to information in the handover request messages, and sending judgment results to the first base station through request response messages (402); the first base station determining one destination base station from the neighboring base stations which are able to accept the handover, and sending a confirmation handover message to the destination base station (403); the destination base station allocating resources for a user equipment after receiving the confirmation handover message, and sending the allocated resources to the first base station through a confirmation handover response message (404); and the first base station indicating that the user equipment hands over to the destination base station after receiving the confirmation handover response message (405).
US08577368B2
The invention relates to a method for the transfer of policy control information during handover in a communication system. A session between a terminal and a remote node via a first network node has been established previously. The session comprising media components transmitted via the first gateway using first media component bearers. A handover condition is detected and a signaling connection is established between the terminal and the second gateway. Information on a second network node is obtained by the terminal, which determines if a proxy for the session has changed. If it has, information on media components is sent to a policy decision entity associated with the second network node. The policy decision entity authorizes second media component bearers with the information provided. Finally, the second media component bearers are established between the terminal and the second gateway.
US08577365B2
A mobile communication terminal includes a location registration request unit 120 that makes a location registration request for a location registration in each of the mobile communication networks 200 and 300 to a 3.9G network 300, a location registration response receiving unit 130 that receives a location registration response representing a result of the location registration in the both mobile communication networks 200 and 300 in response to the request for the location registration, a location registration determination unit 140 that determines whether or not the location registration only in the 3.9G network 300 between the both mobile communication networks 200 and 300 is completed, based on the location registration response, and a first mobile communication network switching control unit 150 that performs a switching control of the mobile communication network for causing the mobile communication terminal 100 to be resident in the 2G/3G network 200 in a case where the location registration determination unit 140 determines that the location registration only in the 3.9G network 300 is completed.
US08577362B2
A computer implemented method for determining geometric impact of anchor placement on localization accuracy and the subset of anchors which mitigates the impact of measurement-induced noise.
US08577357B2
A device and method for generating user notifications associated with tasks that are pending completion on a mobile device. When additional input is required from a user of the mobile device to complete performance of a task and is not being received from the user within a predefined time period, at least one form of user notification is generated. The particular form or forms of user notification are defined by a user profile associated with the user. User notifications may comprise visual, audible, and/or vibratory alerts, and different forms of these user notifications may be generated in a sequence. The volume of audible alerts or the period between periodic user notifications may vary over time.
US08577350B2
Systems, methods, and computer-readable mediums for managing communications on telecommunication devices utilizing communication categories are provided. A subset of contacts accessible by a telecommunication device are associated with one or more communication categories. Each communication category can be associated with a set of communication activities. Based on a selection of a specific contact, a telecommunication device can generate a display having display objects representative of communication categories associated with the selected contact. Additionally, based on a selection of a communication category, the telecommunication device can further generate a display including display objects representative of a set of communication activities corresponding to the selected communication category.
US08577348B2
There is provided a system for providing content through a Content Delivery/distribution Network (CDN) that includes a plurality of storage entities. A Content Requesting device (CR) generates and transmits requests for content. A Content Server (CS) receives the requests from the CR, provides notifications regarding a current location of the content, and at least one of stores the content and interfaces with the CDN to distribute the content to one of the plurality of storage entities. A Content Consuming device (CC) receives the notifications from the CS and retrieves the requested content from one of the CS and the one of the plurality of storage entities based on the current location of the content specified in the notifications.
US08577341B2
Methods and apparatus for providing voicemail services to callers of wireless devices may include providing customized outgoing messages to callers based upon the caller's identification. A subscriber to the voicemail service may select one or more contacts associated with the subscriber to receive a customized outgoing message while the remaining callers receive a general outgoing message. The methods and apparatus may further include distributing voicemail messages from a subscriber's voicemail accounts to one or more social networking sites. The subscriber to the voicemail services may share one or more received voicemail messages via one or more social networking accounts associated with the subscriber.
US08577338B2
Techniques involving messaging applications are disclosed. For example, an apparatus may include a communications interface module and a messaging module. The communications interface module may receive an incoming message of a conversation thread that is originated by a remote device. The incoming message includes a text portion and an attached media item. The messaging module automatically outputs the incoming message to a user interface in an output format. This output format includes both the text portion and content of the attached media item. The attached media item may be of various types. Examples of media items include video files, audio files, image files, resource locators, and application files. The embodiments, however are not limited to these examples.
US08577335B2
A system and method for verifying receipt of a postal mail item mailed by a sender of the postal mail item is presented. A method reads postal information from a postal mail item that identifies the postal mail item. The postal information is combined with identification information that identifies the recipient of the postal mail item. The postal information and the identification information are sent to the sender of the postal mail item.
US08577334B1
A method of providing privileged access to an electronic device is provided. The method comprises receiving a first request for an activation code, where the first request comprises an identifier of the electronic device. An activation expiration time is determined by a computer system. An activation code is determined based on the identifier of the electronic device, and the activation code is transmitted. A second request for a token to unlock privileged access to the electronic device is received, where the second request comprises the activation code and the identifier of the electronic device. When the activation code received in the second request correlates with the identifier of the electronic device provided in the second request and when the second request is received before the activation expiration time, the token to unlock privileged access to the electronic device is transmitted.
US08577332B1
A method and system for offering a femtocell to a subscriber. The method includes a computer system making a first determination that a level of wireless performance experienced by a mobile station of a subscriber at a given location is less than a threshold level. The method further includes the computer system making a second determination that the given location is location associated with a billing address of the subscriber. The method then includes, in response to the first and second determinations, the computer system initiating a process of offering a femtocell to the subscriber.
US08577331B2
A mobile communication network offers notification to an account holder upon occurrence of an infraction of a subscriber selected restriction by operation of one of the mobile stations under the subscriber's account. In the examples, the subscriber can select a directory number/station under the account, a desired one of a number of available restriction options and one or more parameters of the selected restriction. When the mobile communication network detects an infraction, caused by operation of the mobile station through the network, a system or processor obtains a destination address designated for an account holder, for the subscriber's account, such as the directory number for one of the subscriber's stations selected as that of the account holder. The system sends a notification of the infraction intended for the account holder, using the destination address, for example, as a text message sent through the network to the account holder's mobile station.
US08577329B2
System and methods for carrier-centric mobile device data communications cost monitoring and control
Systems and methods for providing carrier-centric data communications cost monitoring and controls are provided. In an embodiment, the method operates by receiving a registration request associated with a subscriber session, determining current data usage associated with the subscriber, and receiving data usage thresholds. The method further comprises receiving quotas associated with the subscriber session and collecting data usage information associated with the subscriber session. The method sends a notification to the subscriber when a pre-determined quota is exceeded during the subscriber session and controls data usage. The cost monitoring and control system comprises a usage policy server and a usage policy application. The usage policy application allows a carrier to offer alterations to terms of a subscription. The usage policy application displays current data usage information on a per-network and per-application basis using subscriber profile information, subscriber session information, and prior subscriber usage history provided by the usage policy server.
US08577326B2
In accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention, a method comprises determining a sleep cycle comprising a number of discontinuous reception (DRX) cycles at a user equipment (UE) based at least on one of a current available power level, a call setup delay interval, and a quality of a received paging indicator channel (PICH) signal; entering a power saving mode during the determined sleep cycle at the user equipment (UE) upon an occurrence of a triggering event; and waking up from the power saving mode and checking for an active call after an occurrence of a second triggering event.
US08577325B2
Disclosed herein is a low noise amplifier having both ultra-high linearity and a low noise characteristic and a radio receiver including the low noise amplifier. The low noise amplifier includes a first main transistor unit, a first auxiliary transistor unit, and an optimum noise and input impedance matching capacitor. The first main transistor unit includes a first NMOS transistor and a first PMOS transistor configured to form a complementary common source amplifier, a feedback-type resistor connected between drains of the first NMOS transistor and the first PMOS transistor and configured to generate biases to the two transistors, and bias resistors connected to bodies of the first PMOS transistor and the first NMOS transistor. The first auxiliary transistor unit includes transistors connected to the two transistors. The optimum noise and input impedance matching capacitor is connected to output terminals of the first main transistor unit and the first auxiliary transistor unit.
US08577318B2
Methods and apparatuses for optimized channel selection are disclosed. In one example, a channel quality is measured of each channel of an available number of channels on which a mobile communication device can transmit and receive. A subset of the available number of channels is allocated to a long range channel class responsive to the channel quality. An RSSI of the mobile communication device is monitored and correlated to a mobile communication device proximity to a base station. A channel is selected from the long range channel class if the mobile communication device proximity is greater than a predetermined proximity.
US08577313B2
Methods and systems for vector combining power amplification are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a plurality of signals are individually amplified, then summed to form a desired time-varying complex envelope signal. Phase and/or frequency characteristics of one or more of the signals are controlled to provide the desired phase, frequency, and/or amplitude characteristics of the desired time-varying complex envelope signal. In another embodiment, a time-varying complex envelope signal is decomposed into a plurality of constant envelope constituent signals. The constituent signals are amplified equally or substantially equally, and then summed to construct an amplified version of the original time-varying envelope signal. Embodiments also perform frequency up-conversion.
US08577308B2
Disclosed are a beamformer and a beamforming method. The beamformer includes a plurality of dividers, each of which divides an input signal along a plurality of paths, an input switch which selects one of the dividers such that the input signal is input to the selected divider, a phase shifter which shifts phases of respective output signals from the divider, and an output switch which transmits the output signals from the phase shifter to an antenna.
US08577307B1
At least two waveforms are operated on a single antenna. A scheduler module coordinates the at least two waveforms. A modem module processes the at least two waveforms. A transmitter propagates the at least two waveforms to the antenna.
US08577302B2
The disclosed systems and methods achieve improved communication by periodically sending sounding packets from a transmitter; feeding back, from a receiver, the change in beamforming estimation according to reception of the sounding packets; and utilizing the change in beamforming estimation to produce transmitter beamforming.
US08577273B2
A guide path branched downward from a conveyance path for guiding a sheet having a toner image fixed thereon to a sheet discharge tray, a switchback path, and an inversed discharge path guide the sheet once, and then guide the sheet to the sheet discharge tray with its front and back surfaces and its leading and trailing edges in a sheet conveyance direction reversed. A fan supplies air between a sheet discharged by a sheet discharge roller and a sheet already discharged onto the sheet discharge tray from a supply opening provided below the sheet discharge roller. A control portion for controlling a blowing operation of the fan selectively operates the fan when discharging the sheet after passing the sheet through the guide path, the switchback path, and the inversed discharge path.
US08577259B2
An image forming device includes photosensitive drums, developer cartridges, an endless belt, first collecting units, first conveying units, a second collecting unit, a second conveying unit and communication portions. The photosensitive drums form a drum array including a leading photosensitive drum. Each developer cartridge has a waste developer accommodating chamber. Each first collecting unit collects waste developer on the corresponding photosensitive drum. Each first conveying unit conveys the waste developer toward the waste developer accommodating chamber. The second collecting unit collects waste developer on the endless belt. The second conveying unit conveys the waste developer toward the waste developer accommodating chamber. Each communication portion allows fluid communication between the first conveying unit and the waste developer accommodating chamber. One of the communication portions associated with the leading photosensitive drum also allows fluid communication between the second conveying unit and the waste developer accommodating chamber.
US08577257B2
A process unit including a first housing detachably attachable to an image forming apparatus, an image carrier to carry an image on a surface of the image carrier, a charger to charge the surface of the image carrier, a developing device to form the image on the surface of the image carrier, a cleaning device to remove toner from the surface of the image carrier, a lubricant to be supplied to the surface of the image carrier, a lubricant container to contain the lubricant, and a waste toner container to store the toner removed from the surface of the image carrier. The first housing includes the image carrier and at least one of the charger, the developing device, and the cleaning device. The lubricant, the lubricant container, and the waste toner container together are detachably attachable to the first housing.
US08577252B2
A process cartridge detachably mountable to a main assembly of an image forming apparatus includes an image-bearing member on which an electrostatic image is to be formed; a first frame; a bearing member, detachably mountable to the first frame, for rotatably supporting the image-bearing member; a first hole provided in the bearing member; a first wall, provided on the first frame, in which a second hole is provided; a second frame for rotatably supporting a developer carrying member on which a developer for developing the electrostatic image is to be carried; a second wall, provided on the second frame, in which a third hole is provided; and a connecting member including a shaft portion penetrating through the first hole, the second hole and the third hole and tightly engaging in the second hole, and including a flange portion, provided at an end portion of the shaft portion, for preventing the bearing member from being detached from the first frame.
US08577246B2
A developer containing device for containing a developer includes a partition arranged between an outer space and an inner space for containing the developer, a bearing arranged on the partition, a rotation shaft carried by the bearing and extending from the outer space to the inner space, a sealing member arranged on the inner space side, having one end side fixed to the partition and the other end side being in contact with a surface of the rotation shaft, and thereby isolating the bearing from the inner space, a communication groove arranged at the surface of the rotation shaft, and connecting the outer space to a closed space isolated from the inner space by the sealing member, and a communication passage arranged on the partition for connecting the outer space to the closed space.
US08577245B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member rotatably supported in a body of the image forming apparatus, and bearing a developer image; a developing device including a developing container, a developing member, and a transporting member, the developing container containing a developer, the developing member disposed so as to oppose the image bearing member, the developing member having thereon the developer in the developing container and rotating to develop a latent image, the transporting member transporting the developer in the developing container while stirring the developer, the developing device being unremovably supported with respect to the body of the image forming apparatus; and a damping member disposed with respect to an axial direction of a rotational axis of the developing member so as to be situated at an end portion of the developing container in the axial direction, and restraining vibration of the developing container.
US08577240B2
An image forming apparatus includes a sensor member having first and second ends opposite to each other in a longitudinal direction of the sensor member and supported by support structures consisting of the first and second ends, and first and second support portions supporting the first and second ends; a first support structure including a first protruding portion fitted on a first recess portion supporting the first protruding portion; and a second support structure including a second protruding portion fitted on a second recess portion supporting the second protruding portion. The second protruding portion has first and second cylinder portions extending in a longitudinal direction of the second protruding portion. The second recess portion has an insertion portion allowing the second protruding portion to be inserted, a pass portion allowing the first cylinder portion to pass therethrough, and a positioning portion fitted on the second cylinder portion.
US08577238B2
There is provided a fixing device including: a heating member that, while rotating, heats and fixes a developer image onto a recording medium; a pressing member that nips and presses the recording medium between itself and the heating member; an external heating member configured to make contact with an outer surface of the heating member and to move away from the outer surface of the heating member, the external heating member making contact with the outer surface of the heating member and heating the heating member; and a moving section that computes a contact position of a leading edge of the recording medium and the outer surface of the heating member, and moves the external heating member such that the external heating member contacts the outer surface of the heating member based on the computed position.
US08577232B2
A thermal fixing device includes a fixing member, a flexible endless belt, a flexible endless belt, a rotary pressure member, a heating unit, and a rotation detector. The flexible endless belt is disposed on an outer circumferential surface of the fixing member. The rotary pressure member is disposed parallel to and pressing against the fixing member via the endless belt. The heating unit heats the endless belt. The rotation detector detects a rotation speed of the endless belt. The heating unit is powered off when the rotation speed of the endless belt detected by the rotation detector is at or below a predetermined threshold value.
US08577223B2
An FSO transceiver (4) comprising a body (6), at least one lens (9) fixed to the body in a first position (C) and means for attaching a connector (11) for an optical fiber (3) at a second position (B) at a predefined distance (Zbc) to the lens, the lens being adapted to converge rays (8) of light sent to the FSO transceiver via free space into the optical fiber. The means for attaching the connector is a temperature compensation device (10) having an expansion coefficient being higher than an expansion coefficient of the body and that the temperature compensation device is fixed to the body in a third position (A) and has a free end which allows the temperature compensation device to expand or contract according to temperature changes, and that the second position is positioned between the third position and the first position.
US08577216B2
The disclosure relates to techniques for calibration of an auto-focus process in an image capture device. The techniques may involve calibration of a lens actuator used to move a lens within a search range during an auto-focus process. For example, an image capture device may adjust reference positions for the search range based on lens positions selected for different focus conditions. The different focus conditions may include a far focus condition and a near focus condition. The focus conditions may be determined based on a detected environment in which the device is used. Detection of an indoor environment may indicate a likelihood of near object focus, while detection of an outdoor environment may indicate a likelihood of far object focus. An image capture device may detect indoor and outdoor environments based on lighting, exposure, or other conditions.
US08577203B2
Provided is a method and apparatus for generating and consuming sensory effect media. The method for generating sensory effect media includes receiving sensory effect information about sensory effects that are applied to media, and generating sensory effect metadata including the received sensory effect information. The sensory effect metadata includes effect description information for describing the sensory effects and device control description information for controlling devices that perform the sensory effects.
US08577201B2
Systems and methods are provided for managing a time-shift buffer (TSB) that is used for buffering video presentations. One such method includes receiving user input identifying a storage capacity for the TSB and modifying a storage capacity of the TSB such that it is at least substantially equal to the storage capacity identified by the user input.
US08577192B2
Described are tunable multiport optical filters that filter systems with many optical channels in a convenient and cost-effective manner. The tunable multiport optical filters of the invention are simple in design and have few optical components. The basic elements are a dispersion element and a rotating mirror. With properly arranged arrays of input and output optical fibers, individual wavelength components from a selected input beam are spatially separated and steered by the rotating mirror to selected output locations. The optical properties from the selected components may be measured by one or more photodetectors. The filters are also useful for selecting and routing optical signals.
US08577185B2
An apparatus and method for efficiently interpolating and rendering transformed images on mobile devices are provided. The method includes obtaining a plurality of super pixels by virtually increasing a resolution of the original image, determining a sampling position of a target image pixel under transformation, selecting the nearest super pixel from the plurality of super pixels for the target image pixel, and determining a characteristic of the selected nearest super pixel for the target image pixel. The apparatus and method render a transformed image having image quality comparable to that achieved by bilinear interpolation method while significantly reducing the necessary calculation cost.
US08577183B2
A method samples a first spectral band to obtain an initial image frame, determines at least one region of interest of the scene from the initial image frame, each of the at least one region of interest associated with a mean signal level, illuminates the at least one region of interest with at least one illuminator when the mean signal level of the at least one region of interest is at or below a respective threshold of a first plurality of thresholds, the at least one region of interest being illuminated in accordance with a power threshold indicating a minimum illuminator power and agility necessary to illuminate the at least one region of interest, collects at least one image frame in at least one sub-band of a second spectral band, and generates at least one image to be displayed from at least the at least one image frame.
US08577175B2
A subject position determination method includes: generating a plurality of binarized images of a target image based upon color information or brightness information of the target image; calculating an evaluation value used to determine a subject position in the target image for each of the plurality of binarized images; and determining a subject position in the target image based upon the evaluation value.
US08577172B2
The invention provides a reconfigurable module allowing morphological operations to be carried out for image processing. The module includes an operational block having five inputs, three outputs, three adders/subtracters and four logic blocks. The logic blocks provide various routings between the three adders/subtracters to enable the outputs to deliver the result of basic operations carried out on the five inputs. The reconfigurable module has a reduced number of components while at the same time allowing various morphological operations to be performed whose parameters can be modified. Furthermore, the reconfigurable module is serially combined to carry out more complex morphological operations. The invention also provides a method for implementing the reconfigurable module allowing an integral image, an eroded image, an expanded image, a distance image or projections along the rows and columns of the original image to be determined starting from an original image.
US08577157B2
The invention relates to a method and a device for transmitting a current image of a sequence of digital images between a server device and a client device which are connected by a communication network. Each image of the sequence is encoded in a multi-resolution format, each resolution comprising a set of non independent elementary entities. The method of the invention comprises detecting motion, carried out on spatial entities defined with respect to said elementary entities, between the current image and a reference image, then determining a first set of elementary entities comprising the elementary entities relating to said at least one moving spatial entity and determining a second set of elementary entities which are necessary for reconstructing said moving spatial entities. Finally, at least part of each of the elementary entities of said first and second sets is sent to the client device.
US08577154B2
An automated human action recognition system may automatically recognize one or more actions of a human from 2D input image data representing a sequential series of input images of the human performing the one or more actions. Each input image may be from an unknown viewpoint. A computer memory system may contain 2D reference image data representing a plurality of reference actions which a human may perform. The 2D reference image data may include a plurality of linked sequences of key poses, including a linked sequence of key poses for each reference action. For each reference action, each key pose within the linked sequence of key poses for the reference action may consist essentially of 2D image data that is representative of a human figure performing the reference action at a selected point during the reference action. The timing of the selected points within the linked sequence of key poses for the reference action may be based on changes in the position of the human figure during the performance of the reference action. The linked sequence of key poses for the reference action may uniquely distinguish it from the linked sequence of key poses for all of the other reference actions. A computer processing system may be configured to determine which of the reference actions best matches the 2D input image data with no knowledge of the viewpoint of the 2D input image data.
US08577152B2
A method and apparatus that classify an image. The method extracts a feature vector from the image, wherein the feature vector includes a plurality of first features. The extracting of each of the first features includes: acquiring a difference between sums or mean values of pixels of the plurality of first areas in the corresponding combination to obtain a first difference vector in the direction of the first axis, and obtaining a second difference vector in the direction of the second axis. A first projection difference vector is acquired with a second projection difference vector. A sum of magnitudes of the first projection difference vector and the second projection difference vector as the first feature is obtained; and the image according to the extracted feature vector is classified.
US08577151B2
A region where a detecting target object exists is extracted by a comparison between an evaluated value indicating a probability that the detecting target object exists and a threshold, through the process of producing a differential image between different frames in plural frames constituting a continuous image, of setting an average value in an averaging region extended around each pixel of the differential image as a new value of each pixel, of obtaining the evaluated value by applying a filter that acts on a search region on an image to a search region extended around a search pixel that is extracted by comparing the new value and the threshold, on the differential image.
US08577147B2
An objective is to eliminate dotted lines in a character box in image data to increase the character recognition rate. There are some cases in which a dotted line candidate cannot be extracted due to many overlapping parts of dotted lines and characters or due to a blurry part in a dotted line. In such cases, the position of a dotted line candidate is estimated referring to features such as the interval, length, width, etc. of a dotted line candidate in the same character box (or in a character box for another relevant item), and image data of the estimated position and image data of a previously extracted dotted line (or a reference dotted line) are compared to determine whether or not they are an identical dotted line.
US08577145B2
In a method and apparatus for identifying an embossed character, light of one color is directed in one direction across the embossed character to illuminate certain character parts and light of another color is directed in another direction across the embossed character to illuminate other character parts. Image data for the two colors are captured and are subjected to separate image processing to detect edges highlighted by the directed light. The processed images are combined and supplemented with OCR analysis before being compared with predicted characters. Based on the comparison, a determination is made as to the probable identity of the character.
US08577143B2
Embodiments disclosed include methods and systems for reusing labels for connected component labeling including assigning one or more labels to one or more groups of raw data representing one or more regions by designating one or more data structures as containing information about the one or more regions; connecting the one or more labels determined to be related; choosing a root label for the connected one or more labels, the root label determined by locating an earliest data element from the one or more groups of raw data; altering a label list of the one or more labels, the label list altered by flagging the root label to include a region label index; and overwriting one or more region label indexes according to the root label.
US08577142B2
An image processing device calculates a frequency of a pixel value for each block, generates a first histogram formed by N bins, mixes the first histogram of a high luminance block and the first histogram of each block, and thereby generates a second histogram for each block. Based on the second histograms of a block including a target pixel and an adjacent block, a frequency of a pixel value that depends on a pixel position in the block of the target pixel is calculated, and a third histogram is generated for each pixel. A relationship between the pixel value and an output value of the pixel value is generated based on the third histogram such that a maximum cumulative frequency of the third histogram matches a maximum value of the output value of the pixel value, and the output value is calculated from the pixel value of the target pixel.
US08577132B2
An electronic document generation system includes a first layer generation unit that generates a character image layer that represents a character image in the scanned image by a predetermined number of bits, an edge image generation unit that generates an edge image of the character image, a second layer generation unit that generates an antialiasing layer that includes a binarized image generated based on the edge image and that is to be superimposed in a semi-transparent state on the character image layer, a file generation unit that generates the electronic document that includes the character image layer and the antialiasing layer, and a base color determination unit that determines a base color of the character image. The second layer generation unit sets the same color as the base color for the antialiasing layer.
US08577116B2
A computer-implemented method of imaging an assay sample having a set of individual samples using a camera is provided. A set of image frames is received. The set of image frames corresponds to an image stream of the assay obtained by the camera. A set of measurement results is identified. Individual measurement results in the set of measurement results are respectively associated with individual image frames in the set of image frames. A subset of measurement results is selected based, at least in part, on an exposure time. Individual measurement results in the subset of measurement results are combined to obtain an integrated measurement result.
US08577113B2
A reconstruction system reconstructs projection data generated by a detector array of an imaging system having at least one truncated row of detector modules. The reconstruction system includes a projection data generator that augments the projection data with projection data created for the at least one truncated row of detector modules. The reconstruction system further includes a convolver that convolves the augmented projection data. The reconstruction system further includes a back-projector back-projects the augmented projection data and generates volumetric image data indicative thereof.
US08577112B2
Featured is a method for automatically evaluating acquired MRI data, determining the quality of the acquired images and removing the image data when it is determined that an image is corrupted so the imaged data for the corrupted image is removed from the subsequent tensor fitting. In further embodiments, such determining includes judging the quality of the image data to determine if the image data satisfies a quality threshold criteria and if determined not to be satisfied adjudging the image to be corrupted. Such methods include performing said evaluating, determining and removing in real time and in the case where an image is determined to be corrupted, such methods further includes re-acquiring additional image data corresponding to each of the one or more images removed as being corrupted. Also featured are MRI systems embodying such methods.
US08577111B2
High resolution time sequences of 3D images that show the dynamics of a time varying changes are provided. The 3D time series of images representing an object that include time varying changes may be produced from lower dimensional image time sequences, such as 2D images. The 2D images may be generated using angiography and may include fluid flow information (e.g., arrival times). The fluid flow information may be provided, for example, by injecting a chemical into the fluid and analyzing its position in the object or body over time. A varying contrast model may be applied to determine the location of the chemical at different points in time which may assist in detecting an ailment.
US08577108B2
A method for estimating the location of an anatomical structure in an x-ray image of a patient obtains the x-ray data in digital format. The method estimates the location of at least a first benchmark feature within the x-ray image according to the obtained digital x-ray data and defines a region of interest within the image according to the estimated location of at least the first benchmark feature. A region of interest for the anatomical structure is searched using a template. The location of the anatomical structure on a display according to the template searching results is highlighted.
US08577107B2
A technique is disclosed for generating a new contour and/or a 3D surface such as a variational implicit surface from contour data. In one embodiment, a point reduction operation is performed on data sets corresponding to any combination of transverse, sagittal, or coronal contour data prior to processing those data sets to generate a 3D surface such as a variational implicit surface. A new contour can also be generated by the intersection of this surface with an appropriately placed and oriented plane. In this manner, the computation of the variational implicit surface becomes sufficiently efficient to make its use for new contour generation practical.
US08577096B2
An encoding apparatus encodes an image by tile in a smallest possible size while suppresses segmentation of a specific region in the image into tiles. Vertical lines at left and right ends of n-th face region are defined as boundary candidate vertical lines Lh(n) and Lm(n), and horizontal lines at upper and lower ends of the n-th region, as boundary candidate horizontal lines Lu(n) and Ls(n). A divider determines a horizontal line of another region existing within the range of the horizontal lines Lu(n) and Ls(n) of the n-th region as a line to be deleted. Further, the divider determines a vertical line of another region existing within the range of the vertical lines Lh(n) and Lm(n) as a line to be deleted. This processing is performed to the final region, then image data is divided using horizontal and vertical lines except the lines determined as lines to be deleted.
US08577094B2
A method of identifying images as matching comprises comparing two image templates using a master mask to select corresponding codes from the templates. The master mask excludes blocks from the matching process and/or weights blocks according to their known or expected reliability.
US08577075B2
A speaker includes a yoke defining a receiving cavity therein, a first magnet received in the receiving cavity of the yoke, a second magnet received in the receiving cavity of the yoke and opposite to the first magnet, a first coil surrounding the first magnet, a second coil surrounding the second magnet, and a diaphragm drove to vibrate by both of the first coil and the second coil. A shape of the first coil is approximately a horse's hoof and defines a first linear side, a flexuous side and a pair of first arc sides coupled with two ends of the first linear side and two ends of the flexuous side.
US08577074B2
A low frequency transducer arrangement includes at least one substantially annular magnet. A voice coil is disposed within and concentric with the magnet. A pole is disposed within and concentric with the voice coil. An air gap is defined between the magnet and the pole. The pole includes a bottom half having a downwardly facing axial recess. A plurality of first air passages extend laterally from the axial recess and fluidly interconnect the recess and the air gap. A top half has an upwardly facing axial recess. A plurality of second air passages extend laterally from the upwardly facing axial recess and fluidly interconnect the upwardly facing recess and the air gap. The first air passages and/or the second air passages are non-radially oriented.
US08577072B2
In an electronic device, a speaker attaching section 17 which is vertically open with respect to a circuit board 10 and into which a speaker 16 is press-fitted is integrally formed on a contact sheet 13 arranged on the circuit board 10 provided inside an upper case 8. Therefore, the speaker 16 can be easily attached in a manner that sound therefrom does not leak, simply by the speaker 16 being press-fitted into the speaker attaching section 17 of the contact sheet 13. Accordingly, in the present invention, the structure of the speaker section 6 is simple and the number of its components is small, whereby the thickness of the speaker section 6 can be reduced. In addition, sound generated by the speaker can be favorably and reliably emitted from the speaker attaching section 17 to the outside of the upper case 8, without chattering noise being generated.
US08577067B2
The invention provides systems and methods for providing hearing aid. An open ear canal hearing aid may be provided in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. The hearing aid may include a part that contains electronic components, a passive amplifier, and a securing mechanism. The securing mechanism may include bristles or balloons. The securing mechanism may have various configurations and be adjustable.
US08577066B2
Methods and apparatus for transmitting vibrations via an electronic and/or transducer assembly through a dental patch are disclosed herein. The patch assembly may be attached, adhered, or otherwise embedded intra-orally on a tooth or oral tissue. The electronic and transducer assembly may receive incoming sounds either directly or through a receiver to process and amplify the signals and transmit the processed sounds via a vibrating transducer element coupled to a tooth or other bone structure, such as the maxillary, mandibular, or palatine bone structure.
US08577051B2
According to one embodiment, a sound signal compensation apparatus includes an input module, a compensation module, and an output module. The input module receives identification information identifying a first frequency with regard to a resonance of an ear closed by an earphone or headphone. The compensation module performs first compensation emphasizing a second frequency on a sound signal, the second frequency being determined based on the identification information or the first frequency. The output module outputs the compensated sound signal. The compensation module is configured to perform the first compensation emphasizing the second frequency, at which emphasis is greater than or equal to 2 dB and less than or equal to 12 dB.
US08577050B2
Embodiments provide improved bone conduction calibration. In one embodiment a bone conduction vibrator coupling member is provided with opposing surfaces configured to contact the housing of an earphone coupler about the opening of the housing and support the housing of a bone conduction vibrator above the opening of the earphone coupler housing. The coupling member has an inner wall defining an aperture extending through the coupling member that is configured to receive the vibrating member of the bone conduction vibrator and provide the vibrating member with access to the cavity of the earphone coupler. A calibration system includes a bone conduction vibrator coupling member positioned upon an earphone coupler. Methods for calibrating a bone conduction vibrator using such a calibration system are also provided.
US08577045B2
An encoding apparatus comprises a frame processor (105) which receives a multi channel audio signal comprising at least a first audio signal from a first microphone (101) and a second audio signal from a second microphone (103). An ITD processor 107 then determines an inter time difference between the first audio signal and the second audio signal and a set of delays (109, 111) generates a compensated multi channel audio signal from the multi channel audio signal by delaying at least one of the first and second audio signals in response to the inter time difference signal. A combiner (113) then generates a mono signal by combining channels of the compensated multi channel audio signal and a mono signal encoder (115) encodes the mono signal. The inter time difference may specifically be determined by an algorithm based on determining cross correlations between the first and second audio signals.
US08577041B2
An MTA certificate containing a public key is provided to a provisioning server, typically via an MIB. The provisioning server retrieves configuration information associated with the MTA. A symmetric session key is randomly generated and used to encrypt the configuration information. The public key is used to encrypt the symmetric key. The encrypted session key is combined with the encrypted configuration information into a composite file, and the composite file is distributed to the device that contains the MTA.The MTA device decrypts the session key using its private key that corresponds to the public key and the decrypted session key is used to decrypt the configuration information. The decrypted configuration information is used to complete initialization of the MTA device.
US08577035B2
The present invention relates to an electronic circuit for securing data interchanges between a computer station and a network, said circuit comprising a first network interface connected to said network, said circuit comprising at least a second network interface connected to a network interface of said computer station, a unit for processing data passing between the first network interface and the second network interface, an interface for connection to an internal bus of the computer station suitable for electrically connecting the power supply, said electronic circuit not comprising any means of transferring processed data with the bus of said station. The invention applies in particular to the protection of personal computers handling confidential data.
US08577033B2
A cable television system provides conditional access to services. The cable television system includes a headend from which service “instances,” or programs, are broadcast and a plurality of set top units for receiving the instances and selectively decrypting the instances for display to system subscribers. The service instances are partially-encrypted using public and/or private keys provided by service providers or central authorization agents. Keys used by the set tops for selective decryption may also be public or private in nature, and such keys may be reassigned at different times to provide a cable television system in which piracy concerns are minimized.
US08577032B2
A common key block encryption device includes a first hash unit applying locked key permutation to a variable-length s-bit plaintext, and outputting a fixed-length n-bit first block and a second (s-n)-bit block; a first encryption processing unit outputting a third block encrypted by element of n-bit block tweakable block cipher using tweak, inputting the first block; a second encryption processing unit generating a random number (s-n)-bit block with a result of group computation of the third block and the first block as input by using an arbitrary cipher having theoretical security at least against a known-plaintext attack; and a second hash unit applying the locked key permutation to the result of the group computation of the random number block and the second block, and to the third block to output a fifth n-bit block and a sixth (s-n)-bit block. The fifth and sixth blocks are concatenated into an s-bit encryption.
US08577022B2
To improve encryption technology for a data processing apparatus in order to reduce a possibility of having communication broken by a third party. The data processing apparatus encrypts subject data and renders it as encrypted data to record it on a predetermined recording medium, and decrypts the encrypted data recorded on the recording medium to change it back to the subject data. The encryption is performed in units of plain text cut data generated by cutting the subject data by a predetermined number of bits, where the number of bits of the plain text cut data is varied and dummy data of a size having the number of bits matching with a piece of the plain text cut data of the largest number of bits is mixed with pieces of the plain text cut data other than that of the largest number of bits out of the plain text cut data.
US08577016B1
An online and offline communication processing and tracking using data processing and data/voice networks is described. A phone address from a phone address number pool is automatically assigned to a first entity. A call quality rating is determined and recorded. A call from a caller directed to the phone address is received at a call bridging system coupled to at least one network, wherein the call is associated with call signaling information. Based at least in part on the call quality associated with the caller call, the caller call is assigned to a first location in a call queue. An outbound call is generated from the call bridging system and the inbound and the outbound calls are bridged. One or more parameters of the bridged call are compared to the call quality rating. An indication is recorded regarding the successful bridging of the calls in association with an entity identifier.
US08577007B2
A method for automatically scheduling phone calls, including dynamically assigning priorities to each of a plurality of a user's contacts, selecting one of the plurality of the user's contacts based on highest priority, wherein random selection is used in case more than one contact has the highest priority, placing a phone call to the selected contact, and updating the priority of the selected contact, if the placing a phone call successfully reaches the selected contact. A telephone and a computer-readable storage medium are also described and claimed.
US08577003B2
Disclosed are systems and methods which provide a centralized architecture for call processing. Embodiments utilize voice over Internet protocols (VoIP) to carry calls from a location at which calling services are provided to a centralized call processing platform providing call processing functionality, such as calling party identification, call validation, call routing, and connection to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Call processing gateways may be utilized to provide plain old telephone service (POTS) analog line interfaces for use with a plurality of telephone sets disposed for use at a location and at least one wide area network (WAN) interface for providing high speed data communication to a centralized call processing platform. PSTN interfacing by a call processing platform may be provided as a VoIP connection to the PSTN and/or as POTS trunking Call processing platforms may provide for data sharing, aggregation, and/or analysis across multiple facilities served.
US08576997B2
A system includes a processor and a memory accessible to the processor. The memory includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations including, in response to an activation event, sending information to a biometric input device to activate the biometric input device. The operations further include receiving biometric data corresponding to a particular user from the biometric input device. The operations include determining whether an identification of the particular user matches the biometric data. In response to determining that the identification of the particular user matches the biometric data, a service is provided to a device associated with the particular user.
US08576993B2
A method for delivering messages in a telecommunications network includes delivery of a first text-form message of a session N to the user of the service, in such a way that the sender address is convened to correspond to the session number N and the session stage J, in stages 2-n of the session N. Thus, a text-form message is received, from the user of the message service, at the sender address defined in the message in the previous stage, and the session proceeds according to the contents of the message, in such a way that the sender address is converted to correspond to the session number N and the new session stage J, and the next text-form message of session N is sent to the user of the message service.
US08576985B2
The methods of the invention determine the unit cell parameters of a crystalline solid form using diffraction data and applying an algorithm. Using the algorithm, the unit cell parameters may be determined, which may allow one to distinguish between different crystalline solid forms of a substance.
US08576981B2
An image reconstruction method includes a reconstruction algorithm of pixel data, weighting coefficients by which first projection data and second projection data at which a corresponding X-ray beam passes through a pixel lying on a reconstruction plane and which are opposite in view angle direction to each other, are to be multiplied, are calculated by equations each using a term of a distance between an X-ray generator and detector system and the reconstruction plane plus an offset distance at the acquisition of the projection data.
US08576963B2
A non-coherent detection apparatus includes, inter alia, a correlation unit, a frequency offset estimator, and a signal detector. The correlation unit obtains a differential phase signal by multiplying a complex conjugate value of a delay signal obtained by delaying a received signal by (N+1) chips by the received signal, sums-up resultant values obtained by multiplying each component of the differential phase signal by each component of a correlation sequence and outputs a correlation signal. The frequency offset estimator estimates a frequency offset based on a value obtained by accumulatively summing-up the correlation signals corresponding to preamble portions of the received signal. The signal detector detects an original signal from the received signal based on a size of a real-number part of a resultant value obtained by multiplying the frequency offset estimated by the frequency offset estimator by the correlation signal corresponding to a PHY payload portion of the received signal.
US08576959B2
A receiver for discrete Fourier transform-spread-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-S-OFDM) based systems, including a prefilter for received signal codeword(s); and a log-likelihood ratio LLR module responsive to the prefilter; wherein the prefilter includes a pairing and whitening module that based on channel estimates and data rate enables the LLR module to perform either a Serial-In-Serial-Out (SISO) based log likelihood ratio processing of an output from the paring and whitening module or a two-symbol max-log soft output demodulator (MLSD) based log likelihood ratio processing of an output from the pairing and whitening module.
US08576952B2
A configurable all-digital coherent demodulator system for spread spectrum digital communications is disclosed herein. The demodulator system includes an extended and long code demodulator (ELCD) coupled to a traffic channel demodulator (TCD) and a parameter estimator (PE). The demodulator also includes a pilot assisted correction device (PACD) that is coupled to the PE and the TCD. The ELCD provides a code-demodulated signal to the TCD and the PE. In turn, the TCD provides a demodulated output data signal to the PE. The PACD corrects the phase error of the demodulated output data based on an error estimate that is fed forward from the PE. Accumulation operations in the ELCD, TCD, and PE are all programmable. Similarly, a phase delay in the PACD is also programmable to provide synchronization with the error estimate from the PE.
US08576949B2
A method for receiving and processing a digital radio broadcasting signal includes: receiving a digital radio broadcasting signal comprised of two or more multicast contents, playing a first one of the multicast contents, and concurrently storing a second one of the multicast contents. A receiver that implements the method is also provided.
US08576947B2
Signal conversion circuitry and method for converting a multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) packet data signal transmission to a plurality of complex data samples for processing by shared test equipment, e.g., a single vector signal analyzer (VSA).
US08576942B2
A transmitter includes: a decoder for transforming an IQ signal into a linear sum of two vectors which have non-negative coefficients, respectively, which form an angle of (π/4), and which are included in eight vectors representing directions indicated by eight angles of (−π/2), 0, (π/2), π, (−3π/4), (−π/4), (π/4), and (3π/4), respectively, and for outputting information upon magnitudes and angles of the two vectors; a phase generator for generating eight phase signals corresponding to phases of (−π/2), 0, (π/2), π, (−3π/4), (−π/4), (π/4), and (3π/4), respectively, and outputting the eight phase signals; and a selector for selecting two phase signals having phases equivalent to angles of the two vectors, from among the eight phase signals, and amplifying the two phase signals having been selected, based on the information upon the magnitudes and the angles, and outputting, as a plurality of amplification signals, the two phase signals having been amplified.
US08576938B2
A receiving station receives a waveform that includes at least a first symbol of a predetermined symbol length and comprising a first set of frequency components at predetermined carrier frequencies modulated with preamble information and a second set of frequency components at predetermined carrier frequencies modulated with information. The receiving station processes sampled values from the first symbol based on channel characteristics estimated from the first set of frequency components to decode information encoded on a first subset of the second set of frequency components. The receiving station processes sampled values from the first symbol based on channel characteristics estimated from the first set of frequency components and the first subset of the second set of frequency components to decode information encoded on a second subset of the second set of frequency components.
US08576919B2
Improved methods and apparatuses are provided for switching of streaming data bitstreams, such as streaming data bitstreams typically used in video streaming and other related applications. Some desired functionalities provided herein include random access, fast forward and fast backward, error-resilience and bandwidth adaptation. The improved methods and apparatuses can be configured to increase coding efficiency of and/or reduce the amount of data needed to encode a switching bitstream.
US08576911B2
An efficient method of motion estimation is provided. The method includes receiving a plurality of macroblocks in a reference frame, wherein the plurality of macroblocks are used for motion estimation related to a current frame, and performing the motion estimation for a plurality of macroblocks in the current frame by using the received plurality of macroblocks in the reference frame.
US08576910B2
Provided that a first segment is an earliest time segment included in a discrete time segment, and a second segment is a time segment subsequent to the first segment, a positive second-segment parameter that corresponds to a weakly monotonically increasing function value of an average amplitude of prediction residuals in a time segment including the second segment is used as a parameter for variable length coding of prediction residuals in the second segment. In addition, a value that corresponds to a weakly monotonically increasing function value of the sum of the second-segment parameter and a positive additional value that corresponds to an index representing the prediction effectiveness of time-series signals in the time segment including the second segment is used as a parameter for variable length coding of the prediction residual at a certain discrete time in the first segment.
US08576901B2
A modem is provided for a wireless device that is capable of providing service for at least two SIMs. The modem has at least a first set of modem components and a second set of modem components. The modem selectively reconfigures the arrangement of the plural sets of modem components. In a first configuration, the first set of modem components provides wireless connection service for a first SIM of the wireless device and the second set of modem components provides wireless connection service for a second SIM of the wireless device. This allows active wireless connections to be made on behalf of both SIMs simultaneously by the sets of modem components. In a second configuration, the first set of modem components and the second set of modem components provide wireless connection service for the first SIM.
US08576891B2
The sealed gas laser oscillator that includes the airtight vessel, the laser gas supply source that supplies a laser gas to the airtight vessel, and the vacuum pump that performs evacuation until a pressure of an inside of the airtight vessel reaches a target reached pressure every predetermined interval between laser gas exchanges and is connected to the airtight vessel, and that performs laser oscillation in a state where the airtight vessel is filled with the laser gas. The gas laser oscillator includes a unit that determines the target reached pressure on the basis of the interval between laser gas exchanges, a leakage rate of an impurity gas from the outside to the airtight vessel after evacuation, and an allowable impurity gas pressure at which the gas laser oscillator is capable of being operated.
US08576890B2
A VCSEL includes a grating layer configured with a non-periodic, sub-wavelength grating, in which the non-periodic, sub-wavelength grating includes at least one first section configured to have a relatively low reflection coefficient and at least one second section configured to have a relatively high reflection coefficient to cause light to be reflected in a predetermined, non-Gaussian, spatial mode across the sub-wavelength grating. The VCSEL also includes a reflective layer and a light emitting layer disposed between the grating layer and the reflector, in which the sub-wavelength grating and the reflector form a resonant cavity.
US08576884B2
A system and method for discarding or inserting audio frames in a jitter buffer is described. The system and method provides improved audio quality as compared to conventional jitter buffer management systems. In one embodiment, buffer control logic determines whether to discard audio frames to be stored in a jitter buffer or to insert audio frames among audio frames to be output from a jitter buffer based not only on the number of audio frames currently stored in the jitter buffer but also based on the power of the current audio frame to be stored in or output from the jitter buffer. The system and method is generally applicable to any wireless or wired communication system in which audio signals are transmitted between entities operating in different clock domains.
US08576865B1
A switch includes a first IC and a second IC. The first IC includes a first set of (N+1) serializer/deserializer (SERDES) modules communicating with a first set of (N+1) SERDES modules of a switch IC; a first set of N SERDES modules communicating with a first set of N ports; and a first set of N multiplexer modules communicating with (i) the first set of N SERDES modules and (ii) the first set of (N+1) SERDES modules of the first IC. The second IC includes a second set of (N+1) SERDES modules communicating with a second set of (N+1) SERDES modules of the switch IC; a second set of N SERDES modules communicating with a second set of N ports; and a second set of N multiplexer modules communicating with (i) the second set of N SERDES modules and (ii) the second set of (N+1) SERDES modules of the second IC.
US08576863B2
A system determines a scheduling value based on a current length of a downstream queue in a network device. The system sends the scheduling value from the downstream queue to an upstream queue and schedules dequeuing of one or more data units, destined for the downstream queue, from the upstream queue based on the scheduling value.
US08576856B2
The invention concerns a residential gateway device designed for a decentralized client equipment and comprising converting means for providing interoperability between to separate IP telephony services.
US08576855B2
A system and method for interface association between an ATM interface and a GigE/IP interface of a routing switch platform (RSP) to enable network management of a redundant pair of RSPs which serve as an interface between GigE/IP and ATM are provided.
US08576852B2
The system provides a low cost way of providing high speed point to point communications between two offices, as well as Internet access, which exploits the use of low cost access technologies, such as ADSL, in such a way that (a) no CO component is required to deploy the solution, (b) the two offices could have different types of communication technologies available, and (c) more than two offices can form an overlay network, whereby each pair of offices has a virtual single high throughput pipe available which is achieved through aggregation of Internet access services at each office. The proposed system allows intranet communication links or Internet connections to be aggregated, thereby enabling faster and more reliable communications.
US08576850B2
A band control apparatus including: a buffer memory configured to hold and output data units on a first-in first-out basis; a counter memory configured to hold a counter value; and a processor configured to add a value to the counter value on a basis of a rule, reduce, when a first one of the data units is output from the buffer memory, cause, when a first condition of a total size of the data units being smaller than a buffer threshold is satisfied, the first data unit to be output when a second condition that the counter value is larger than the size of the first data unit is satisfied and the counter value is larger than a counter threshold, and cause, when the first condition is not satisfied, the data units to be output in sequence with the first data unit first, until a third condition is satisfied.
US08576848B2
Example scalable multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) based networks, and methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to implement the same are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes determining at an area border router (ABR) an OSPF metric representing a cost associated with transporting data between a provider edge router (PER) and the ABR within a non-zero OSPF area, replacing at the ABR a first MPLS label included in a BGP message received from the PER with a second MPLS label associated with the PER and assigned by the ABR, replacing at the ABR a next-hop attribute included in the BGP message with a value representing a loopback address of the ABR, updating at the ABR a route cost attribute included in the BGP message to include the OSPF metric, and re-advertising from the ABR the modified BGP message into an OSPF area 0.
US08576847B2
Mechanisms are provided for determining a path maximum transmission unit of a path between a source node and a destination node of the path. These mechanisms transmit an echo request packet from the source node to the destination node along the path. The mechanisms further determine, by at least one intermediate node along the path, whether a size of the echo request packet is greater than a maximum transmission unit (MTU) of a next link of the path from the intermediate node to a next node along the path. Moreover, the mechanisms record, by the at least one intermediate node, the MTU of the next link in the echo request packet in response to the determination that the size of the echo request packet is greater than the MTU of the next link.
US08576846B2
For a peer-to-peer call in an ad hoc wireless network, a wireless device performs discovery of a target wireless device, performs authentication of the target wireless device and generates a session key (e.g., using a pre-shared key or a certificate provisioned on the wireless device), forms an ad hoc wireless network with the target wireless device, and communicates peer-to-peer with the target wireless device via the ad hoc wireless network. The wireless device may perform discovery with a list of identifiers for wireless devices designated to communicate with this wireless device. The wireless device may derive a service set identifier (SSID) used to identify the ad hoc wireless network based on its user-specific identifier (e.g., its phone number) and/or a user-specific identifier for the target wireless device. The wireless device may also performs IP address discovery using the user-specific identifier for the target wireless device.
US08576839B2
A scalable router-switch comprises a plurality of switch units each having consolidation means for data disassembling and reassembling. The switch units are arranged into switch modules and the switch units of each switch module are interconnected through a dual rotator to form a contention-free temporal mesh.
US08576838B2
The invention concerns a method of setting up a call-back to a caller in a packet-based telecommunications network, and a terminal and a media server to execute this method. The call-back is initiated by a user receiving a media stream. The user sets up a packet-based connection to a media server and receives the media stream from the media server. After choosing by the user to call back the caller, the media server generates a cookie with data defining a state of the media stream and sends the cookie to the user. The user initiates the call-back to the caller independently of the media server. After termination of the call-back, the data defining the state of the media stream are sent to the media server and are used to resume the transmission of the media stream to the user from a state following the state defined by the data.
US08576834B2
This invention relates to a communication system using an internet protocol (IP) address. Subscriber terminals have the same subscriber identification and different IP addresses. A server establishes a connection between the terminals via the network. A service system has a table including the subscriber identification information and the IP addresses of the subscriber terminals.When a connection request is made by a subscriber terminal to the group of subscriber terminals while a connection between one subscriber terminals of the group and another subscriber terminal is established, the service system detects an unused IP address associated with the common subscriber identification information of the group of subscriber terminals in the table and notifies the unused IP address to the sever, and the sever makes a call to a subscriber terminal in accordance with the unused IP address.
US08576824B2
A wireless communications network includes a base station to communicate with plural mobile stations over a wireless link. A broadcast message is sent to the plural mobile stations, with the broadcast message containing an indication for indicating to the plural mobile stations that the mobile stations are to change data rates for transmissions over a reverse wireless link.
US08576821B2
A wireless network uses an improved frame structure to increase timing acquisition capabilities as well as reduction of spectral lines. In one aspect, the frame packet can be used to communicate the different modes of operation under which the packet was created.
US08576815B2
A device receives roaming information associated with a user equipment (UE), a current eNodeB conducting a current Internet protocol (IP) session with the UE, and a plurality of eNodeBs that are neighboring the current eNodeB. The device also selects, based on the roaming information and from the plurality of eNodeBs, an optimal eNodeB to which to handover the UE, and establishes a preemptive IP session with the optimal eNodeB. The device further initiates a handover of the current IP session and the UE from the current eNodeB to the optimal eNodeB, where the current eNodeB acts as an anchoring point for a bearer path associated with the UE during the handover.
US08576807B2
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate employing a hybrid transmission structure in a wireless communication environment. Each transport block (e.g., MAC PDU) can be split into multiple code blocks. Moreover, each of the code blocks can be further divided into two or more code block segments. Further, code block segments from a given code block can be transmitted over a channel during disparate time slots of a subframe. Also, within a given subframe, code block segments corresponding to differing code blocks can be transmitted sequentially in time. Utilization of the foregoing can enable employment of a pipelined decoder structure at a receiver while allowing for optimization of time/frequency diversity.
US08576791B2
A method for reusing control channel resources in a wireless system includes selecting a subset of control channel resources from a specified set of control channel resources in a search space of the wireless system. The subset is smaller than the set. In addition, the method includes transmitting a first control channel using only the subset of control channel resources. Further, the method includes selecting at least one of the control channel resources not transmitted in the first control channel. Furthermore, the method includes transmitting a different control channel using at least one of the control channel resources specified for but not scheduled in the first control channel.
US08576788B2
A method and apparatus for performing carrier management in a broadband wireless communication system supporting multiple carriers are disclosed. The method for a mobile station to perform carrier management procedure with a base station supporting multiple carriers includes receiving a carrier management command message from the base station, the carrier management command message including an action code for carrier management and a polling bit in a MAC Control Extended Header (MCEH) indicating whether an acknowledgement message is required, transmitting the acknowledgement message in response to the carrier management command message to the base station when the carrier management command message is successfully received and the polling bit is set to 1, and transmitting a carrier management indication message corresponding to the action code included in the carrier management command message to the base station.
US08576786B2
A hierarchical downlink (DL) synchronization channel (SCH) is provided for wireless OFDM/OFDMA systems. The SCH includes a Primary SCH (P-SCH) for carrying PA-Preambles used for coarse timing and frequency synchronization, and a Secondary SCH (S-SCH) for carrying SA-Preambles used for cell ID detection. The total time length occupied by P-SCH and S-SCH is equal to one OFDM symbol time length of a data channel, and S-SCH is located in front of P-SCH in each DL frame. A perfect multi-period time-domain structure is created and maintained in P-SCH to increase preciseness of frame boundary estimation. With overlapping deployment of macrocells and femtocells, a predefined SCH configuration scheme is provided to separate frequency subbands used for macrocells and femtocells such that interferences in S-SCH can be mitigated. In addition, a self-organized SCH configuration scheme is provided to allow more flexibility for femtocells to avoid or introduce interference in S-SCH.
US08576783B2
An uplink scheduling apparatus and method in a communication system are provided. In the uplink scheduling method, a scheduling metric is calculated for each Mobile Station (MS). An MS with a high priority level is selected according to the calculated scheduling metric. The number of subchannels and a product of a modulation order and coding rate (MPR) are extracted according to input variables for the selected MS. The number of subchannels to be allocated to the selected MS is determined according to the MPR and the subchannels are allocated to the selected MS. The scheduling metric is updated for the each MS.
US08576770B2
Disclosed is a wireless communication base station device capable of reducing the power consumption of a terminal when broadband transmission is performed with only an uplink. With this device, a setting unit (101) sets mutually different terminal IDs per a plurality of uplink unit bands for a terminal (200) that communicates using a plurality of uplink unit bands and prescribed downlink unit bands which are fewer in number than the uplink unit bands; a control unit (102) that respectively allocates resource allocation information per a plurality of uplink unit bands to a PDCCH arranged in a prescribed downlink unit band; and a PDCCH creation unit (103) that creates a PDCCH signal by respectively masking the resource allocation information per a plurality of uplink unit bands with the terminal ID that has been set per a plurality of uplink unit bands.
US08576769B2
Methods of operating a transceiver including an antenna having a plurality of antenna feed elements are disclosed. The methods include receiving a plurality of samples of a receive signal from the plurality of antenna feed elements, estimating locations of a plurality of signal sources from the plurality of receive signal samples, identifying a plurality of interference sources from among the plurality of signal sources, generating a plurality of antenna feed element weights wM in response to the locations of the interference sources, forming an antenna beam from the antenna to the geographic region using the antenna feed element weights wM, and communicating information over the antenna beam. Related transceivers, satellite gateways and satellites are also disclosed.
US08576761B1
In accordance with unscheduled automatic power save delivery (U-APSD) mechanisms, an access point typically creates an unscheduled service period irrespective of availability of downlink data packets for a WLAN device. This can result in a large overhead that can limit the performance and throughput of the WLAN device. Functionality can be implemented on the access point and/or on the WLAN device so that the access point suppresses creating the service period (and transmitting an indication of an end of the service period) when there are no downlink data packets for the WLAN device. In some implementations, configuring the access point to defer creating the service period until it is determined that the WLAN device has transmitted all scheduled uplink data packets, or until the access point has available downlink data, can facilitate conservation of radio resources, and reduce power consumption.
US08576759B2
An access point includes a beacon module and a control module. The access point transmits a beacon during a beacon interval. The beacon module determines a first portion of the beacon interval and a second portion of the beacon interval. The access point operates in a normal mode during the first portion of the beacon interval. The control module operates the access point in a power save mode during the second portion of the beacon interval. The control module operates the access point in the power save mode in response to a client station not communicating with the access point during the first portion of the beacon interval.
US08576753B2
A relay station is provided for use in a wireless communication system. The wireless communication system includes a plurality of base stations communicatively coupled to a backhaul network and at least one mobile station. The relay station is shared by at least a first base station and a second base station. The relay station includes a transceiver, a controller and relay circuitry. The transceiver transmits signals to and receives signals both base stations and a mobile station. Signals transmitted to the base stations include a single preamble, MAP and FCH. The controller is electrically connected to the transceiver and is operable to measure a signal quality of the mobile station while connected to the first base station. The relay circuitry is electrically connected to the controller and is operable to conduct a phased handoff from the first base station to the second base station based on the signal quality.
US08576752B2
A single channel full duplex wireless communication system includes a processor, a transmitter, a receiver, a secondary transmission path, a combining element, a primary transmission feedback path and a secondary transmission feedback path. The transmitter transmits a transmission signal via a transmission path. The receiver receives a received signal via a reception path. The transmitter and the receiver utilize one channel to transmit and receive signals. The transmission signal causes self-interference. The processor estimates a first transfer function and feeds the secondary transmission path with the transmission signal adjusted by the first transfer function to reduce the transmission signal leaked to the reception path. The combining element combines the transmission signal with the adjusted secondary transmission path signal to remove the self-interference. The primary transmission feedback path output is modified by a second transfer function. The secondary transmission feedback path output is modified by a third transfer function.
US08576745B2
A system and method for enhanced physical layer device autonegotiation. The autonegotiation process typically identifies the highest common denominator amongst various standardized modes of operation. Enhanced autonegotiation can be used to select a mode of operation that is not the highest common denominator. Enhanced autonegotiation can also identify a non-standardized mode of operation using next page messaging, additional physical signaling, or Layer 2 messaging.
US08576741B2
There is provided a method for enabling a user equipment (UE) to transition between a non-discontinuous reception (Non-DRX) level and at least one discontinuous reception (DRX) level. The UE in a DRX level wakes up periodically to monitor a scheduling channel. The method includes receiving a DRX indicator in a Non-DRX level with continuously monitoring the scheduling channel and transitioning from the Non-DRX level to a DRX level indicated by the DRX indicator. The UE can transition between multiple DRX levels by an explicit command/signaling.
US08576730B2
Content is distributed from a source to a sink only if the sink is within a predetermined geographic locality. In one embodiment, a signature request is sent to the sink. The sink obtains an actual signature compares it to the requested signature, and if the requested signature and the actual signature resemble each other sufficiently closely, then the content is sent to the sink The signature is compiled from parameters obtained from appropriate parameter detectors. The parameter detectors generate, detect and monitor various signals required for determining the locality of the sink.
US08576727B2
A system and method for unique identifier exchange during auto-negotiation. Wired networks can include non-conformant bridges and/or repeaters that can erroneously forward link protocol frames such as LLDP. These present a problem for higher layer protocols that attempt to manage properties of the link. The unique identifiers exchanged during auto-negotiation can be passed up to higher layers for an integrity check of unique identifiers exchanged using higher layer protocols.
US08576717B2
Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for determining rogue traffic using flow statistics and a list of authorized media engines. A system configured according to this disclosure receives data associated with a group of packets in a media queue, such as the source network address where the packets originated, the destination network address for the packets, and an indication of an associated queue for the packets. The system then verifies the data received by comparing the source network address to a list of network addresses of known media engines. The system further verifies that the indication of an associated queue for the packets is correct for the packets. Should the system detect failure in the verification of known media engines or the verification of indication of associated queues, the system generates a notification.
US08576707B2
A method and an apparatus are provided, which provide for single-channel bus coupling of safety-relevant processes. The method is distinguished in that a data record which is relevant for the safety-critical process is processed via at least two redundant processing channels, in particular on a protocol-specific basis, in accordance with identical laws for in each case one safe protocol and the redundant safety messages for single-channel bus coupling are joined together to form a common safe protocol, to be precise in that each of the processing channels accesses a common buffer register, with write authorization for each register location being allocated only once, in such a way that the common safe protocol is joined together in components by in each case writing in different components of the respective safety messages.
US08576702B2
A multicast stream is received. At a non-designated router, a multicast stream is received with respect to which the non-designated router is not a designated router responsible for sending the multicast stream to a host. The received multicast stream is discarded.
US08576701B2
The present invention relates to the field of communication technologies and discloses a method, an apparatus, and a system for active-standby switchover. The method includes: copying at least one packet group to a standby board; recording the copied packet group and generating a transmission rule chain table of an active board according to a sequence of copying, so that the standby board generates a transmission rule chain table of the standby board which is the same as the active transmission rule chain according to the sequence of copying; and transmitting the packet group according to the sequence of the transmission rule chain table of the active board. By using the method, resuming transmission from a breakpoint upon an active-standby switchover is enabled.
US08576682B2
Provided are a method and an apparatus to prevent reproducibility of data with respect to an optical information storage medium. The method includes recording patterns with respect to the optical information storage medium using irradiated light so as prevent reproduction of the data. The patterns may cause an error or a malfunction when attempting to access the data of the optical information storage medium so as to prevent the reproduction of the data.
US08576677B2
An object of the present invention is to achieve both low noise and fast response in an optical signal detecting circuit capable of providing all of three signals—a focus error signal, a tracking error signal, and an RF signal—with only a single detection system. A single current-to-voltage converter converts a current signal obtained by adding currents flowing through two photodiodes, into a voltage signal. Not only currents flowing into the photodiodes, but also currents flowing out from the photodiodes are taken out as the voltage signals. Moreover, by applying two different reference voltages to the current-to-voltage converters, a reverse bias voltage is applied between the terminals of each photodiode.
US08576661B2
In some aspects of the disclosure, a method and an apparatus is disclosed for investigating material surrounding the borehole. The method includes generating a first low frequency acoustic wave within the borehole, wherein the first low frequency acoustic wave induces a linear and a nonlinear response in one or more features in the material that are substantially perpendicular to a radius of the borehole; directing a first sequence of high frequency pulses in a direction perpendicularly with respect to the longitudinal axis of the borehole into the material contemporaneously with the first acoustic wave; and receiving one or more second high frequency pulses at one or more receivers positionable in the borehole produced by an interaction between the first sequence of high frequency pulses and the one or more features undergoing linear and nonlinear elastic distortion due to the first low frequency acoustic wave to investigate the material surrounding the borehole
US08576658B2
The invention relates to a method for acquiring seismic data at a plurality of positions spread out over a zone on the seabed which includes transmitting acoustic waves in the water layer above the zone by a plurality of sources, for each of the acquisition positions, dropping from the surface a seismic acquisition equipment, the equipment comprising a seismic acquisition unit and autonomous guiding equipment adapted to receive while descending acoustic signals from the sources and to control its trajectory according to the received acoustic signals so as to direct said equipment towards said position, performing the seismic acquisition, causing the acquisition equipments to move up to the surface, and retrieving the acquisition equipments on the surface.
US08576647B2
A semiconductor device includes a bit line; a data bus line corresponding to the bit line; a selection transistor that controls electrical connection between the bit line and the data bus line; a write amplifier that writes data to the bit line through the data bus; and a test circuit. The test circuit sets the bit line to a first potential during a test period regardless of an operation of the write amplifier, sets the data bus line to a second potential and then sets the data bus line in a floating state to detect transition of the data bus line from the second potential to the first potential, with the selection transistor being activated to electrically connect the bit line and the data bus line.
US08576645B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a signal processing unit configured to generate a control signal corresponding to burst length information and an output controlling unit configured to control an output of a data strobe signal in response to the control signal.
US08576640B2
A data output apparatus includes a driver driving unit configured to generate driving signals by using input data when a data output enable signal is enabled, a data driver unit configured to drive an output terminal to a level corresponding to the input data in response to the driving signals to generate output data, and an output data level control unit configured to open a current path to control a level of the output data, wherein the current path is different from a current path for driving the output terminal to a level corresponding to the input data.
US08576635B2
A nonvolatile memory device includes memory cell blocks each configured to comprise memory cells erased by an erase voltage, supplied to a word line, and a bulk voltage supplied to a bulk, a bias voltage generator configured to generate a first erase voltage, having a first pulse width and a first amplitude, in order to perform the erase operation of the memory cells and a second erase voltage, having a second pulse width narrower than the first pulse width and a second amplitude lower than the first amplitude, in order to perform an additional erase operation if an unerased memory cell is detected after the erase operation is performed, and a bulk voltage generator configured to generate the bulk voltage.
US08576631B2
Techniques for sensing a semiconductor memory device are disclosed. In one particular exemplary embodiment, the technique(s) may be realized as a semiconductor memory device comprising a plurality of memory cells arranged in an array of rows and columns and data sense amplifier circuitry coupled to at least one of the plurality of memory cells. The data sense amplifier circuitry may comprise first amplifier circuitry and resistive circuitry, wherein the first amplifier circuitry and the resistive circuitry may form a feedback loop.
US08576628B2
A nonvolatile random access memory that can be mounted on a substrate during a standard CMOS process. A memory cell comprises: a first MIS transistor including a first semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type in an electrically floating state, first drain and source regions of a second conductivity type formed on the first semiconductor layer, and a first gate electrode formed over the first semiconductor layer via a first gate insulating film; and a second MIS transistor including a second semiconductor layer of the first conductivity type isolated from the first semiconductor layer, second drain and source regions of the second conductivity type formed on the second semiconductor layer, a second gate electrode formed over the second semiconductor layer via a second gate insulating film. The first and second gate electrodes are electrically connected to each other so as to form a floating gate in an electrically floating state.
US08576613B2
Example embodiments relate to an SRAM device and a method of manufacturing the same. The SRAM device may include first transistors operating in a horizontal direction and second transistors that are disposed on the first transistors to operate in a vertical direction. In example embodiments, the second transistors may be vertically connected to the first transistors. In example embodiments, the second transistors may be vertical transistors that include vertical gates surrounding vertical channels.
US08576609B2
A memory array having memory cells comprising a diode and a phase change material is reliably programmed by maintaining all unselected memory cells in a reverse biased state. Thus leakage is low and assurance is high that no unselected memory cells are disturbed. In order to avoid disturbing unselected memory cells during sequential writing, previously selected word and bit lines are brought to their unselected voltages before new bit lines and word lines are selected. A modified current mirror structure controls state switching of the phase change material.
US08576607B1
An integrated circuit and methods of operating same are described. In an embodiment of the integrated circuit included is an array of memory cells, where each of the memory cells includes a resistance-change storage element and a thyristor-based storage element coupled in series. In embodiments of the methods included are methods for data transfer, data tracking, and operating a memory array.
US08576602B2
Polysilicon diodes fabricated in standard CMOS logic processes can be used as program selectors for One-Time Programmable (OTP) devices, using electrical fuse, contact/via fuse, contact/via anti-fuse, or gate-oxide breakdown anti-fuse etc. as OTP element The diode can be constructed by P+/N+ implants on a polysilicon as a program selector. The OTP device has an OTP element coupled to a polysilicon diode. The OTP devices can be used to construct a two-dimensional OTP memory with the N-terminals of the diodes in a row connected as a wordline and the OTP elements in a column connected as a bitline. By applying a high voltage between a selected bitline and a selected wordline to turn on a diode in a selected cell for suitable duration of time, a current flows through an OTP element may change the resistance state. The cell data in the OTP memory can also be read by turning on a selected wordline and to couple a selected bitline to a sense amplifier. The wordlines may have high-resistivity local wordlines coupled to low-resistivity global wordlines through conductive contact(s) or via(s).
US08576599B2
A multi-wafer CAM cell in which the negative effects of increased travel distance have been substantially reduced is provided. The multi-wafer CAM cell is achieved in the present invention by utilizing three-dimensional integration in which multiple active circuit layers are vertically stack and vertically aligned interconnects are employed to connect a device from one of the stacked layers to another device in another stack layer. By vertically stacking multiple active circuit layers with vertically aligned interconnects, each compare port of the inventive CAM cell can be implemented on a separate layer above or below the primary data storage cell. This allows the multi-wafer CAM structure to be implemented within the same area footprint as a standard Random Access Memory (RAM) cell, minimizing data access and match compare delays.
US08576597B2
The commutator for a bridgeless PFC circuit is characterized in that a synchronous half-wave rectifier is connected between a bridgeless PFC boost circuit and an AC power source and is coupled to the two terminals of the AC power source. The synchronous half-wave rectifier contains a first synchronous transistor, a second synchronous transistor, and a control circuit.
US08576593B2
A power converting apparatus is configured with single-phase sub-converters (4) connected to AC input lines of individual phases of a three-phase main converter (3) in series therewith. In a control device (12) for performing output control of the power converting apparatus, a current command value calculating circuit (20) which adjusts a DC voltage command given to the main converter (3) so that DC voltages of the sub-converters (4) follow a command and generates AC current commands so that a DC voltage of the main converter (3) follows the DC voltage command is configured with a CPU, and AC currents are controlled by switching output voltage levels of the sub-converters (4) at an AC side thereof so that deviations of instantaneous AC current values from the AC current commands become smaller.
US08576592B2
A power supply includes two or more input waveforms being shaped or selected so that after being separately level-shifted and rectified, their additive combination results in a DC output waveform with substantially no ripple. The power supply may comprise a waveform generator, a level conversion stage for step up or down conversion, a rectification stage, and a combiner. The waveform generator may generate complementary waveforms, preferably identical but phase offset from each other, such that after the complementary waveforms are level-converted, rectified and additively combined their sum will be constant, thus requiring no or minimal smoothing for generation of a DC output waveform. The level conversion may be carried out using transformers or switched capacitor circuits. Feedback from the DC output waveform may be used to adjust the characteristics of the input waveforms.
US08576585B2
A power device includes a power supply module, a first electrical isolation unit, a second electrical isolation unit, a feedback control unit, and a comparing unit. The power supply module includes a feedback compensating terminal and an output terminal, the feedback compensating terminal provides a related voltage of output power, and the output terminal provides an output voltage. When the related voltage of output power is smaller than the predetermined voltage, the comparing unit controls the first electrical isolation unit to change operation of the feedback control unit and the second electrical isolation unit, to allow the power supply module to adjust the output voltage.
US08576582B2
A DC-DC converter includes a current-source power converter that converts direct current into alternating current; a transformer that transforms the voltage of the alternating current output from the current-source power converter; a rectifier that converts the alternating current the voltage of which has been transformed by the transformer, into direct current; and a capacitor that is connected in series with winding of the transformer on the rectifier side, and blocks a direct-current component from being applied to the transformer.
US08576579B2
A mounting and fixing apparatus for analog-to-digital electrical equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises: a mounting rail (11), an electrical equipment-insulated pedestal (12) and a stop element (16). By translation and locking of the stop element (16) mounted on the electrical equipment-insulated pedestal (12), the dimension of the opening mounting and fixing the electric equipment to the mounting rail (11) may be manually varied or locked, which greatly improves the firmness and stability for mounting the electric equipment, and thereby realizing convenient mounting and dismounting of the electric equipment or convenient movement or rearrangement of the electric equipment in the mounting rail (11), and enhancing the interchangeability and compatibility for coordination and mounting of the electric equipment to the mounting rail (11).
US08576576B2
A display apparatus and a driving chip mounting film in the display apparatus, capable of simplifying a manufacturing process and reducing a process time. The display apparatus includes an insulating substrate; a display device formed on the insulating substrate and for defining an image display unit; pads formed on the insulating substrate and electrically connected to the display device; a first circuit substrate disposed at and separate from a first side of the insulating substrate; and a number of driving chip mounting films including one-side ends electrically connected to the first circuit substrate, and other-side ends electrically connected to the pads. A number of driving chips are mounted on each of the number of driving chip mounting films.
US08576575B2
A printed circuit includes a number of conductive wires. The conductive wires include at least one first conductive wire section, at least one second conductive wire section, and at least one first connection section. An angle between the at least one first conductive wire section and the at least one first connection section is defined as angle αn, the angle αn is in a range from about 90 degrees to about 180 degrees. An angle between the at least one second conductive wire section and the at least one first connection section is defined as angle βn, the angle βn is in a range from about 90 degrees to about 180 degrees. The angle αn and βn are not simultaneously be 180 degrees. αn−αn−1≠0, βn−βn−1≠0, wherein n is the number of the plurality of conductive wires.
US08576570B2
The adaptive computing system described herein may generally include a modular control, switching, and power supply architecture. In particular, the adaptive computing system may provide a platform supporting multiple independent desktop computer modules that occupy less physical space than a standalone commercial computer, provide performance density comparable to current server solutions, and address concerns relating to stability, safety, productivity, performance, assembly, service, and other factors important to diverse desktop computer user communities. Moreover, mechanical, electrical, and functional components associated with the adaptive computing system may have various certifications or otherwise be relied upon to demonstrate compliance with criteria in regulatory, environmental, consumer safety, and other contexts.
US08576558B2
A mounting apparatus for mounting a data storage device includes a sliding member, a drive bracket, and a rotating member. The drive bracket includes a first side plate. A sliding groove is defined in the first side plate. The sliding member is received in the sliding groove. The rotating member is pivotally mounted to the first side plate. A curled piece and an arm are located on opposite ends of the rotating member. The arm defines a restricting room. The rotating member is adapted to rotate on the first side plate between a first position and a second position. In the first position, the curled piece abuts the first side plate and is elastically deformed by the first side plate, and the sliding member is disengaged from the restricting room. In the second position, the curled piece is released, and the restricting room receives and restricts the sliding member therein.
US08576537B2
A ceramic multilayer surface-mount capacitor with inherent crack mitigation void patterning to channel flex cracks into a safe zone, thereby negating any electrical failures.
US08576531B2
In one embodiment of the present invention, a multiphase electric circuit is disclosed for shutting down a current conducted over respectively one AC power controller. The neutral points of the voltage systems connected to the phases are not connected to each other via a neutral conductor. The AC power controller of each phase is provided with two thyristors. A single series connection is connected parallel to all phases, which series connection comprises a capacitor and a number of parallel-connected quenching switches corresponding to the number of phases. The capacitor can be charged up via a diode bridge and a transformer.
US08576529B2
The present invention discloses a power stage control circuit including: a driver circuit for controlling a power stage according to an error amplified signal; an error amplifier circuit for comparing a feedback voltage at a feedback terminal with a reference signal to generate the error amplified signal; a current generator circuit coupled to the feedback terminal for generating a fault detection current flowing to the feedback terminal; and a feedback terminal short detection circuit for generating a fault signal to stop the operation of the power stage when the feedback voltage is smaller than a short-circuit threshold voltage or when the fault detection current is larger than a short-circuit threshold current.
US08576527B2
An intelligent electronic device having a slow speed communications link creates one or more virtual communications channels using unused or dedicated bits from a primary real-time communications channel. The virtual communications channels are used to transport low-speed information, such as fault location information, device configuration information, device revision information, and date/time information.
US08576523B2
Techniques for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection for amplifiers and other circuitry employing charge pumps. In an exemplary embodiment, a Vneg switch coupling a second flying capacitor node to a negative output voltage node is closed in response to an ESD event being detected between a supply voltage node and the negative output voltage node. A ground switch coupling a ground node to the second flying capacitor node is closed in response to an ESD event being detected between the ground node and the negative output voltage node. The Vneg switch is further closed in response to the ESD event being detected between the ground node and the negative output voltage node. Further techniques are disclosed for providing on-chip snapback clamps at the output of a power amplifier coupled to the charge pump to protect against ESD events as defined by the standard IEC 61000-4-2.
US08576521B2
A controller-based detection system configured to adaptively learn to distinguish between detected light that is indicative of an arc fault event and detected light that is not related to an arc fault event. In particular, the detection system is configured to observe the electrical power system as it is operated under various conditions to induce light events that are unrelated to arc fault events. Using the observed information about the light events that are unrelated to arc fault events, the detection system determines one or more detection algorithms. During normal operation of the electrical power system, the adaptively determined one or more detection algorithms are utilized to identify arc fault events in the electrical power system.
US08576518B1
A current-perpendicular-to-the-plane magnetoresistive sensor has an exchange-coupled side shield structure on each of two side regions of the sensor and an exchange-coupled top shield structure on the sensor and the two exchange-coupled side shield structures. Each exchange-coupled structure comprises an antiferromagnetic layer and a shield of soft magnetically permeable material exchange-coupled with the antiferromagnetic layer. Each side shield and the top shield has its magnetization oriented generally parallel to the sensor front edge and generally parallel to the plane of the sensor's free ferromagnetic layer. The shields in each exchange-coupled side shield structure and the exchange-coupled top shield structure may be an antiparallel coupled structure of two magnetically permeable films separated by a nonmagnetic coupling film.
US08576517B1
A magnetic recording transducer is provided. The magnetic recording transducer comprises a main pole including a nose portion, the nose portion terminating at an air-bearing surface (ABS). The magnetic recording transducer further comprises at least one coil having a coil front distal from the ABS, and at least one side shield. The at least one side shield extends from at the ABS to not further than the coil front.
US08576508B2
A tape library system includes a plurality of cartridge cells for accommodating a plurality of tape cartridges respectively, a tape drive for writing and reading data to and from the tape cartridge inserted therein, a diagnosis drive for diagnosing the tape cartridge inserted therein, an cartridge carriage mechanism for inserting and ejecting the tape cartridge into and from the tape drive and the diagnosis drive, and a diagnosis controller for controlling the cartridge carriage mechanism to load the tape cartridge into the diagnosis drive and for controlling the diagnosis drive to diagnose the tape cartridge inserted therein.
US08576506B1
A disk drive is disclosed comprising a head actuated over a disk comprising a plurality of servo sectors defining a plurality of servo tracks. The servo tracks form a plurality of servo zones. A disk locked clock is synchronized relative to a servo data rate of the servo zone the head is over. A first reader/writer gap is measured in cycles of the disk locked clock at a first servo track in the first servo zone. A second reader/writer gap is measured in cycles of the disk locked clock at a second servo track in the second servo zone. The first and second reader/writer gaps are normalized to generate a normalized first and second reader/writer gaps. A third reader/writer gap is estimated in cycles of the disk locked clock at a third servo track in the second servo zone based on the normalized first and second reader/writer gaps.
US08576500B2
A photographing lens system including, in order from an object side to an image side: a first positive lens element having a convex object-side surface and a convex image-side surface; a second negative lens element, the object-side and image-side surfaces thereof being aspheric; a third lens element having a convex object-side surface and a concave image-side surface, the object-side and image-side surfaces thereof being aspheric and at least one of which being provided with at least one inflection point; and an aperture stop disposed between an imaged object and the second lens element; wherein there are three lens elements with refractive power.
US08576494B2
A zoom lens system includes a first unit having a positive refractive power, a second unit having a negative refractive power that moves for magnification-varying, a third unit having one of a positive refractive power and a negative refractive power that moves for magnification-varying, and a fourth unit having a positive refractive power.
US08576489B2
A wide angle imaging system combines compound array fore-optics with single axis relay optics to generate distortion free images with an infinite depth of field. A curved first array of objective lenslets focuses multiple apertures of light through the tubes of a louver baffle terminated by field stops. A curved second array of field lenslets, positioned immediately after the field stops, passes the light beams through an array of pupil planes. A curved final array of erector lenslets refocuses the beams into a curved array of sub-images. The relay optics transform the curved array of sub-images into a flat final image that is contiguous. The fore-optics and relay optics are optimized concurrently to achieve much higher performance than is possible in either compound array optics or sequential optics. This is accomplished by varying the lenslet radii of the fore-optics in annular increments to compensate for aberrations introduced by the relay lenses.
US08576488B2
A beam splitter optical surface comprises a transparent substrate and a multilayer optical coating applied in a pattern onto the transparent substrate. The multilayer optical coating has at least an optically reflective layer and an optically absorbent layer.
US08576484B2
A display apparatus includes: a display unit in which sub-pixels are periodically arranged at a first sub-pixel pitch in a first direction of a screen, each pixel is formed by the plurality of sub-pixels, the pixels are periodically arranged at a first pixel pitch in the first direction, and a plurality of viewpoint images is displayed on a display surface; and a barrier unit in which transmissive sections having a first width in the first direction are periodically arranged. On the assumption that pS1 is the first sub-pixel pitch, pP1 is the first pixel pitch, dPB is a distance between the display surface of the display unit and the barrier section, and α and m (where m=0, 1, 2, . . . , N−1 (where N is the number of plurality of viewpoint images)) are a constant greater than 0, the first width wB1 is expressed by following expression; w B 1 = ( α p P 1 2 · d PB + m ) · p S 1 .
US08576481B2
Method and apparatus for detecting an opening in a transmission fiber connecting a discrete gain unit to a pump unit of a Remote Optically Pumped Amplifier (ROPA) system. The method comprises measuring an optical power entering the pump unit from the transmission fiber, the optical power being in a selected wavelength range, and establishing that the optical power lacks an ASE noise power component generated by the gain unit. The lack of this component indicates the presence of a break or opening in the transmission fiber, and triggers corrective action whereby pump lasers within the pump unit are shut down or have their power reduced to a safe level.
US08576476B2
An electro-optic display comprising at least two separate layers of electro-optic material, with one of these layers being capable of displaying at least one optical state which cannot be displayed by the other layer. The display is driven by a single set of electrodes between which both layers are sandwiched, the two layers being controllable at least partially independently of one another. Another form of the invention uses three different types of particles within a single electrophoretic layer, with the three types of particles being arranged to shutter independently of one another.
US08576472B2
A device representing a reflector, for example an evanescent reflector or a multilayer interference reflector, with at least one reflectivity stopband is disclosed. A medium with means of generating optical gain is introduced into the layer or several layers of the reflector. The optical gain spectrum preferably overlaps with the spectral range of the reflectivity stopband. This reflector is attached to multilayer passive cavity structure made of semiconducting, and/or dielectric, and/or metallic materials with the inserted tools of achieving wavelength selection of the optical modes. For example, volume Bragg gratings, distributed feedback gratings or patterns, using of vertical optical cavities surrounded by multilayer Bragg reflectors can be applied. The optical modes of the passive optical cavity partially penetrate into the gain region of the reflector. As a result of the interaction of the gain medium in the reflector region and the passive cavity modes, photons are generated or amplified in the passive cavity at wavelengths defined by the passive cavity modes. The materials selected for the passive cavity layers are chosen to provide the necessary temperature dependence of the effective index of refraction of the related optical modes of the passive cavity and serve as a tool to achieve the controlled temperature dependence of the wavelength of the emitted photons. In particular a complete suppression of the wavelength to temperature variations can be achieved. In another case a strong shift of the resonant wavelength or wavelengths with temperature may be realized. Thus the structure represents an optoelectronic device with controlled temperature dependence of the emission wavelength.
US08576467B2
The present invention provides an optical scanning apparatus at least including two optical scanning units that freely rotate about a rotation shaft and are disposed in parallel to the rotation shaft; two light sources provided for each optical scanning unit in relation to the optical scanning unit; and four primary mirrors provided respectively opposite and sandwiching the optical scanning unit, and the mirrors reflecting the light from the light source that is scanned by the optical scanning unit, wherein the first optical path that extends from a first optical scanning unit to one primary mirror that corresponds to the first optical scanning unit and a second optical path that extends from a second optical scanning unit to one primary mirror that corresponds to the second optical path are formed to overlap in a vertical orientation on a sectional surface including both rotation shafts of the two optical scanning units.
US08576462B2
An apparatus includes: a light source opposite to one surface of a medium; a backing member opposite to another surface of the medium and including a backing surface opposite to the another surface of the medium; an imaging unit opposite to the one surface of the medium and at a position different from the light source in a conveyance direction, and to pick up an image of the medium and the backing surface on which a shadow of the medium is formed due to light from the light source; and a processor to generate image data including the image of the medium and the backing surface based on a result by the imaging unit, wherein the backing surface is inclined with respect to the conveyance direction, and a gap between the path and the backing surface decreases from a light source side toward an imaging unit side.
US08576451B2
As set forth herein, computer-implemented methods and systems facilitate the generation of halftone screens for moiré-free color halftoning. A first fundamental frequency vector and a second fundamental frequency vector of a halftone cell are sheared using a selected shearing value. The shearing value is selected as an offset in a fast scanning or slow scanning direction. The selected shearing value satisfies various moiré-free conditions associated with the identified frequency vectors and is capable of being selected for multiple halftone screens. The halftone screens generated using the sheared frequency vectors are used for moiré-free halftoning.
US08576449B2
As set forth herein, computer-implemented methods and systems facilitate halftoning using a parametrically controlled spot function based on triangle tessellation, which in turn facilitates dot growth control of periodic halftone using an irregular seed structure. The spot function determines the shape of the halftone dot used to reproduce a given pixel. The spot function is well suited for growing halftone dots arrayed on a non-regular grid and can also be used for grids with regular order. The spot function includes adjustable parameters for controlling its sharpness and slope.
US08576439B2
A modified WCS (Windows Color System) pipeline is provided, which calculates the color transform off-line. More specifically, the color transform is calculated once after any profile is changed, and the calculated color transform data is stored for later use. During the printing process (i.e. when the user prints a document), the stored color transform data is retrieved and used by the pipeline to perform subsequent steps such as content color translation, without re-performing the color transform calculation.
US08576432B2
A PODSS acquires from a job ordered from the client PC, limited access information for accessing an APSS. If a user selects the received job from an MFP, and if it is necessary to access the APSS, the PODSS notifies the MFP of the access information. The MFP then uses the notified access information to request the APSS for a corresponding application service. The PODSS receives processed service data and generates print data to be transmitted to the MFP.
US08576428B2
An image forming apparatus includes an output image forming unit that forms an output image from an image-repeat image which is obtained by arranging a plurality of input images on one recording medium based on predetermined repeat conditions, a preview image generating unit that generates reduced images of the input images, sets arrangement positions of the reduced images based on the repeat conditions, and arranges the reduced images in the arrangement positions in accordance with the repeat conditions, thereby generating a preview image, and a display unit that displays the preview image generated by the preview image generating unit.
US08576415B2
Attachment of a USB memory is sensed and whether the USB memory can be recognized or not is determined based on data information output from the USB memory. When the USB memory cannot be recognized, an emulation transition screen is displayed. Thereafter, when an instruction to start transition to an emulation mode is given, an emulation mode transition instruction signal and an IP address of an MFP on a network are output. Receiving the input of the emulation mode transition instruction signal, an emulation mode start-up/end unit starts up the emulation mode.
US08576409B2
A method for measuring the internal space of an elongate body. The elongate body has in a global xyz-coordinate system a longitudinal axis x. A laser profile scan is carried out, in which a laser scanner, which carries out scans in a plane, is moved through the internal space of the elongate body. The scan plane is tilted about the y-axis by a tilt angle α or about the z-axis by a tilt angle γ. Preferably, the scan plane is tilted about the y-axis and the z-axis corresponding to the global coordinate system of the internal space. An apparatus for carrying out the method.
US08576385B2
A pressure sensor (10) comprising fiber Bragg grating (FBG) strain sensors (12) provided within an optical fiber (14), an optical fiber strain sensor carrier rod 16 and a pressure intensifying sleeve (18). The carrier rod (16) is formed from a first glass fiber reinforced epoxy resin composite material having a first stiffness/elastic modulus the direction of strain sensing. The sleeve (18) is formed from a second composite material, having a lower axial stiffness in the direction of strain sensing than that of the carrier rod (16). Under an applied hydrostatic load, the sleeve (18) exerts an axial compressive load onto the section of rod (16) within the sleeve (18). The axial compressive strain experienced by the rod (16) is thereby increased in the region within the sleeve (18) compared to the axial compressive strain that would be produced in the rod (16) if the sleeve (18) was not present.
US08576384B2
The present invention discloses a distance detecting sensor. The distance detecting sensor includes a casing, a focusing lenses, a circuit board mounted with several electronic elements, an emitting device for emitting infrared light, and a receiving device for receiving and sensing a reflected infrared light. The distance detecting sensor is configured to have a high detection accuracy and improved detection performance.
US08576383B2
The present invention provides a laser rangefinder and a method of activating the laser rangefinder to measure distance. The laser rangefinder has a first sensing to sense whether the user is aiming the laser rangefinder at a target and a second sensing device to sense an acceleration of the laser rangefinder and the acceleration has to be smaller than a preset value. The laser rangefinder will be automatically activated to measure distance when both of the first sensing device and the second device are checked.
US08576379B2
A part of a plate of a predetermined shape detachably mounted on a moving body is detected by an alignment system while the position of the moving body is measured by a measurement unit that sets a movement coordinate system of the movement body, and based on the detection results and the measurement results of the measurement unit corresponding to the detection results, position information of an outer periphery edge of the plate is obtained. Therefore, even if there are no alignment marks on the moving body for position measurement, the position of the plate, or in other words, the position of the moving body can be controlled on the movement coordinate system set by the measurement unit, based on the position information of the outer periphery edge of the plate.
US08576375B2
There is provided is an optical member-holding apparatus which can hold a plurality of optical members of two different optical systems, even when the optical members exist in a common barrel in a mixed manner, such that the relative positions between the optical members can be easily adjusted; and which holds a mirror in a projection optical system and a mirror in an illumination optical system and includes a barrel unit, an inner ring holding the mirror, a holding member holding the mirror, a support plate attached to the barrel unit, and a holding-supporting mechanism attached to the support plate and adjusting the relative position of the mirror to the mirror.
US08576370B1
A display assembly includes a display having a substantially planar surface configured to provide an image, a substrate having a nonplanar surface, and a shim provided between the display and the substrate. The shim has a first nonplanar surface and a second generally planar surface. The first nonplanar surface has a shape generally corresponding to the shape of the nonplanar surface of the substrate.
US08576369B2
Disclosed herein is a liquid crystal display device including a plurality of pixels each having a reflecting section and a transmitting section, the pixels each including a plurality of sub-pixels resulting from alignment division, the liquid crystal display device including: an element layer formed on a substrate; an insulating film formed on the substrate so as to cover the element layer; a pixel electrode formed on the insulating film so as to be connected to the element layer; a gap adjusting layer formed on the insulating film on the element layer including a region of connection between the element layer and the pixel electrode; and a dielectric formed on a connecting part for making an electric connection between the sub-pixels.
US08576366B2
A pixel array includes pixel sets. Each pixel set includes a first and second scan lines arranged in parallel on a substrate, a data line not parallel to the first and second scan lines, a first active device electrically connecting the first scan line and the data line, a second active device electrically connecting the second scan line and the data line, a first pixel electrode electrically connecting the first active device, a second pixel electrode electrically connecting the second active device, and an auxiliary electrode pattern that includes a connecting portion and a first and second branch portions. A gap is between the first and second pixel electrodes. The connecting portion underneath the gap between the first and second pixel electrodes partially overlaps the first and second pixel electrodes. The first and second branch portions connect the connecting portion and partially overlap the first and second pixel electrodes, respectively.
US08576365B2
A display panel including a first plate, a second plate, and a spacer and a display medium between the first plate and the second plate is provided. The first plate has a first substrate, a scan line and a data line on the first substrate, an active device electrically connected to the scan line and the data line, a pixel electrode electrically connected to the active device, and a first common electrode electrically insulated from the pixel electrode and alternatively arranged with the pixel electrode. The second plate has a second substrate, a second common electrode on the second substrate and disposed corresponding to the first common electrode of the first plate, and a floating electrode electrically insulated from the second common electrode and disposed corresponding to the pixel electrode of the first plate.
US08576363B2
The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device including a liquid crystal layer disposed between a first substrate and a second substrate, a pixel electrode in a reflection region and a transmission region over the first substrate, a film for adjusting a cell gap in the reflection region over the first substrate, and an opposite electrode in the reflection region and the transmission region over the second substrate. The pixel electrode in the reflection region is provided over the film and reflects light. The pixel electrode in the transmission region transmits light. The pixel electrode in the reflection region and the transmission region includes a slit. The slit is overlapped with at least a part of a step portion which is provided by the film between the reflection region and the transmission region.
US08576360B2
The present invention provides a color filter substrate in which reduction in display qualities is suppressed even if color mixing is generated when a plurality of differently colored transparent layers are formed by a method using a liquid material, such as an ink jet method, and to provide a liquid crystal display panel and a liquid crystal display device each including the color filter substrate. The color filter substrate of the present invention comprises a plurality of color display units, each of the color display units including four or more differently colored transparent layers, wherein the color filter substrate includes a frame structure which surrounds each of the differently colored transparent layers, and the differently colored transparent layers are arranged such that an average of color difference values for pairs of adjacent differently colored transparent layers becomes minimum.
US08576351B2
An illuminating lens includes a main body and a ring portion. The main body has a light exit surface, and the light exit surface has a first light exit surface recessed toward a point on the optical axis and a second light exit surface extending outwardly from the periphery of the first light exit surface. The first light exit surface has a transmissive region in the center thereof, and a total reflection region on the peripheral side thereof. The ring portion has a back surface configured to guide the light that has been emitted from a light source, totally reflected repeatedly at the light exit surface, and then entered the ring portion to an end surface by total reflection.
US08576341B2
In one embodiment of the present invention, motion compensated interpolation is performed by locating full frame conceal and reveal areas, determining intermediate frame occlusion areas of an interpolated frame of the displayable output by locating intermediate frame conceal areas based on projected locations of pixels within the full frame conceal areas using forward motion vectors and information about a time slot for the interpolated frame, and by locating intermediate frame reveal areas based on projected locations of pixels within the full frame reveal areas using backward motion vectors and information about the time slot for the interpolated frame; for any pixels in the interpolated frame to which there is neither a forward vector nor a backward vector projecting: including the pixel in an intermediate frame conceal area if it is not located within the full frame reveal area; including the pixel in an intermediate frame reveal area if it is not located within the full frame conceal area; and using the intermediate frame conceal and reveal areas to interpolate values for pixels within an area of the interpolated frame.
US08576327B2
An imaging apparatus includes an imaging optical system, an image pickup device, a photographing position determining device configured to determine a plurality of photographing positions to continuously photograph a subject, and an image data dividing device configured to divide image data obtained by the image pickup device into a plurality of large sections and to divide the image data into a plurality of small sections each being smaller than the large section. The photographing position determining device configured to determine one or more reference positions as the photographing positions based on focused information of the large sections, and when a number of the photographing positions determined based on the large sections is less than a predetermined number, to additionally determine the photographing position based on focused state information of the small sections such that the predetermined number of the determined photographing positions is obtained.
US08576322B2
An image shooting apparatus records video information obtained by shooting a subject, and transfers the video information to an external appliance by communication conforming to the HDMI standards. The image shooting apparatus also records rotation information representing how, when a video based on the video information is displayed on the external appliance, the video is to be rotated, and, when transferring the video information, transmits the rotation information to the external appliance by use of CEC conforming to the HDMI standards. Thus, an image shooting apparatus that transmits a shot video to an external appliance also transmits rotation information by use of CEC so as to be capable of making the external appliance display the shot image in a rotated state.
US08576313B2
Color filter arrays or mosaics are provided for imaging a scene with diffraction limited optics. A distribution of color types in a color filter array is biased toward smaller wavelengths to avoid or reduce loss of spatial resolution information at higher wavelengths due to a larger extent of diffraction at the higher wavelengths. Demosaicing methods for reconstructing a partial or full color image from raw image data involve applying correction factors to account for diffraction. The correction factors are based on pixel size and/or a measure of the extent of diffraction (e.g., an Airy disk diameter) for each wavelength in the color filter array.
US08576302B2
There is provided an imaging apparatus including an optical elements that disperses an incoming light from a subject into a first light composed of wavelength components in a visible light region only, and a second light which does not contain the first light and which is composed of wavelength components in other than visible light region only, a color image pickup device that receives the first light irradiated from the optical element, and a monochrome image pickup device that receives the second light irradiated from the optical element.
US08576298B2
An image pickup apparatus is provided which includes an image pickup device; a display unit configured to perform a control operation to display a signal output from the image pickup device on a monitor; a first photometry section configured to measure luminance of an image of an object based on the signal output from the image pickup device; a second photometry section configured to measure luminance of the image of the object using a photometric sensor mounted at a position different from the image pickup device; and a controller configured to control exposure based on photometric information obtained from the second photometry section in a case where, before photometric information is obtained from the first photometry section, a request is made by a user to capture an image for recording an output of the image pickup device.
US08576293B2
An imaging system may include a multi-channel image sensor. In a multi-channel image sensor, multiple image streams from a common pixel array may be provided to a common interface transport for output on multiple logic channels. Image streams may include high-definition (HD) video and snapshot image data. Video image data may be resized using resize circuitry on the image sensors. Snapshot image data may be processed by the image sensor. Full-resolution portions of snapshot images may be output concurrently with resized HD video image data on multiple logic channels to an image signal processor. In an alternative embodiment, stack memory on the image sensor may be used to store full-resolution snapshot image data. Full-resolution snapshot image data may then be output concurrently with resized HD video image data at a slower data rate than the video image data.
US08576276B2
A see-through head-mounted display (HMD) device, e.g., in the form of augmented reality glasses, allows a user to view a video display device and an associated augmented reality image. In one approach, the augmented reality image is aligned with edges of the video display device to provide a larger, augmented viewing region. The HMD can include a camera which identifies the edges. The augmented reality image can be synchronized in time with content of the video display device. In another approach, the augmented reality image video provides a virtual audience which accompanies a user in watching the video display device. In another approach, the augmented reality image includes a 3-D which appears to emerge from the video display device, and which is rendered from a perspective of a user's location. In another approach, the augmented reality image can be rendered on a vertical or horizontal surface in a static location.
US08576268B2
An optical device includes a laser light source for outputting a laser beam; an optical member including an aspherical lens with an incident surface on which the laser beam is incident and an output surface from which the laser beam is output, and adapted to scan the laser beam output from the output surface across a predetermined target; and a housing for housing the optical member. The optical member further includes a first positioning portion at a side of the incident surface and a second positioning portion at a side of the output surface. The housing includes a first engaging portion to be engaged with the first positioning portion and a second engaging portion to be engaged with the second positioning portion. The first and second positioning portions have mutually different shapes.
US08576260B2
The image display quality is improved by uniforming the display luminance. For that purpose, the plasma display device has a plasma display panel, and image signal processing circuit. Image signal processing circuit includes loading correcting section. Section includes number-of-lit-cells calculating section for calculating the number of discharge cells to be lit for each display electrode pair in each subfield, load value calculating section for calculating the load value of each discharge cell based on the calculation result by number-of-lit-cells calculating section, correction gain calculating section for calculating the correction gain of each discharge cell based on the calculation result by load value calculating section and the positions of the discharge cells, and correcting section for subtracting, from an input image signal, the result derived by multiplying the input image signal by the output from correction gain calculating section.
US08576258B2
For improving the brightness decay of a display due to its aging, a non-volatile memory such as Flash can be used to store a brightness accumulation value of each point of the display, and each point can be compensated for its brightness accordingly. However, the non-volatile memory suffers from incorrect write-in data or temporary power disconnection, and thus the error will exist all the time to make the display non-even. Hence, the present invention uses a multiple data backups and CRC error detection, plus new/old data comparison to protect data the non-volatile memory from incorrect brightness compensation value so as to uniform the brightness of the display.
US08576257B2
An integrated circuit device includes first to Nth memory blocks disposed along a first direction, a power supply circuit, and a data driver disposed in a second direction with respect to the first to Nth memory blocks. The power supply circuit includes an analog reference power supply voltage output circuit that outputs an analog reference power supply voltage. The analog reference power supply voltage output circuit is disposed between an Mth memory block and an (M+1)th memory block among the first to Nth memory blocks. An analog reference power supply line is provided in an area of the data driver along the first direction.
US08576256B2
Embodiments of a system that includes one or more integrated circuits are described. During operation, the system calculates a brightness metric associated with a video image. Then, the system identifies a subset of the video image based on the brightness metric, where the subset of the video image includes spatially varying visual information in the video image. Next, the system determines the intensity setting of the light source based on a first portion of the brightness metric associated with the subset of the video image, where the light source is configured to illuminate a display that is configured to display the video image.
US08576252B2
An information display apparatus includes: a display portion that displays image information; an acquiring unit that acquires image information being subjected to a display processing; a scale-up and scale-down processing unit that subjects the acquired image information to a scale-up and scale-down processing with a designated scale-up and scale-down ratio; and a deforming unit that compares a size of the image information subjected to the scale-up and scale-down processing with a size of a display area of the display portion, and deforms the image information so that an entirety of the image information is displayed on the display area in a case where the image information is larger than the display area.
US08576249B2
There are provided: a map display control unit that brings up a map on display at a display monitor; a stormy weather condition information reception unit that receives stormy weather condition information; and a stormy weather condition information display control unit that provides a storm path forecast, indicating a predicted path of a storm, based upon the stormy weather condition information by superimposing the storm path forecast over the map on display at the display monitor. The stormy weather condition information display control unit displays the storm path forecast by using a fan-shaped range centered on a current position of the storm with an arc thereof passing through a predicted position that the storm is estimated to assume.
US08576241B1
Effective color-aware search of a collection of content associated with one or more images is enabled. Content and/or its associated images may be automatically associated with representative palette colors in a suite of color palettes. Color palettes may be of a variety of types and have a hierarchical structure in which lower levels enable increasingly subtle distinctions between shades of color. Color palette hierarchies may be effectively presented, and appropriate portions emphasized based on associated search result sets. Search result sets may be refined and/or reordered in accordance with color palette selections and/or representative confidences of color palette selections for items at least referenced therein.
US08576236B2
Disclosed are methods and systems for granting an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) in a multi-ASIC environment controlled access to a shared resource. A system includes a first ASIC, a second ASIC, and a shared memory that stores a shared resource and a data set partitioned into fields. The first ASIC writes data to a first subset of the fields and reads data from the fields. The first ASIC includes first logic that computes a first value based on the data read from the fields. The second ASIC writes data to a second subset of the fields and reads data from the fields. The second ASIC includes second logic that computes a second value based on the data read from the fields. Based on the first and second values respectively computed by the first and second logic, only one of the first and second ASICs gains access to the shared resource.
US08576233B2
When a generating device generates a control program for displaying images of characters on a display screen of a mobile terminal, if a character represented in accordance with a font identity not supported by the mobile terminal is included, an item of image data representing an image that depicts the character according to the font identity is generated in advance in the generating device. When the control program is executed in the mobile terminal, a character represented in accordance with a font identity not supported by the mobile terminal can be displayed by use of the image data that has been generated in advance. With regard to a font identity supported by font data stored in the mobile terminal, an image depicting a character according to the font identity can be generated using the font data, so that the image is displayed on the mobile terminal.
US08576228B2
Several embodiments provide methods and apparatuses for use with node-based compositing to assist in the generation of a second eye or camera of a stereoscopic image. In one implementation, a method for use in 3D movie production comprises the steps: displaying composite nodes to a user, the composite nodes indicating how to composite a first plurality of rendered 2D elements into an output image, the rendered 2D elements and the plurality of composite nodes corresponding to a first eye of a 3D image; and receiving user input to add one or more transition nodes to the composite nodes, each transition node following a respective composite node and to be used for regeneration of one or more elements corresponding to the respective composite node, wherein the composite nodes and the one or more transition nodes are to be used to direct generation of a second eye of the 3D image.
US08576225B2
Systems and processes for rendering fractures in an object are provided. In one example, a surface representation of an object may be converted into a volumetric representation of the object. The volumetric representation of the object may be divided into volumetric representations of two or more fragments. The volumetric representations of the two or more fragments may be converted into surface representations of the two or more fragments. Additional information associated with attributes of adjacent fragments may be used to convert the volumetric representations of the two or more fragments into surface representations of the two or more fragments. The surface representations of the two or more fragments may be displayed.
US08576224B2
A method of determining a rigid motion between a master solid model and an approximated target model (or, more generally, between any two models having different types) includes identifying, within each model, geometrical entities having a unique characteristic, and then determining the best match between the identified geometric entities. The system provides, in machine-readable form, a master model comprising a precise definition of a three-dimensional solid and a target model comprising a simplified definition of the three-dimensional solid. Then it identifies a first set of geometric entities (e.g., planar faces) within the master model that have a unique characteristic (e.g., planar area), and identifies a second set of geometric entities in the target model that have the unique characteristic. The system then determines a best match between a member of the first set of geometric entities and a member of the second set of geometric entities using, for example, a Hungarian matching algorithm. Linear edges of matched faces are compared to determine the appropriate rigid motion.
US08576217B2
Disclosed is a system and method to improve the extraction of transistor and OLED parameters in an AMOLED display for compensation of programming voltages to improve image quality. A pixel circuit includes an organic light emitting device, a drive device to provide a programmable drive current to the light emitting device, a programming input to provide the programming signal, and a storage device to store the programming signal. A charge-pump amplifier has a current input and a voltage output. The charge-pump amplifier includes an operational amplifier in negative feedback configuration. The feedback is provided by a capacitor connected between the output and the inverting input of the operational amplifier. A common-mode voltage source drives the non-inverting input of the operational amplifier. An electronic switch is coupled across the capacitor to reset the capacitor.
US08576210B2
A display apparatus is disclosed. The display includes a display panel, a signal transmitter, and a driving chip. The signal transmitter is electrically connected with the display panel at a first bonding region of the display panel and receives an input signal from the outside. Further, the driving chip is electrically connected with the display panel at a second bonding region of the display panel and outputs a driving signal in response to the input signal. Further, the signal transmitter includes a base layer, a first conductive layer that is electrically connected with the display panel, and a second conductive layer that covers the first bonding region and the second bonding region. The second conductive layer can block electro static discharge and electro magnetic interference, such that it is possible to prevent display quality of the display apparatus from being deteriorated.
US08576205B2
There is provided an image display device which is connected to a general-purpose interface connectable to a plurality of types of general-purpose devices as an interface for an image supply device and displays images sequentially based on a plurality of image data sequentially supplied from the image supply device, the image display device including a communication controller that controls data communication through the interface and an image display unit that displays an image based on the image data, wherein the communication controller transmits identification information representing a predetermined general-purpose device other than the image display device as identification information representing the type of the image display device to the image supply device for starting the data communication, and wherein the communication controller receives the image data from the image supply device as the general-purpose device and supplies the received image data to the image display unit for display.
US08576204B2
Apparatus, systems and methods for the synchronization of asynchronous display streams are disclosed. For example, a method is disclosed including receiving a first display data stream, receiving a second display data stream, determining a temporal offset between the first display data stream and the second display data stream, and adjusting at least one blanking interval of the second display data stream to reduce the temporal offset. Other implementations are also disclosed.
US08576201B2
A stylus for a portable electronic device, includes a bar portion, a nib portion, and a lens member. The nib portion is formed at an end of the bar portion, the lens member is rotatably connected to the nib portion and used as a magnifying lens to better observe characters written using the stylus.
US08576200B2
A touch panel capable of recognizing at least one gesture and the method thereof are provided. The touch panel comprises: a first optical unit, comprising a first light emitting element and a first light receiving element, arranged at a first position of the touch panel; a first optical element arranged along a first edge of the touch panel for reflecting light; a second and a third optical element arranged along a second and a third edge of the touch panel, respectively, for retro-reflecting the light, the second edge being adjacent to both the third edge and the first edge; and a processing unit for recognizing the at least one gesture according to changes to distance and slope of possible touch points.
US08576195B2
A touch sensor function-equipped display device includes: a first substrate that has a common electrode; a second substrate that is disposed to face the first substrate; a display unit that is disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate; and a touch sensor that detects a touch position on a touch surface disposed on the first substrate side or the second substrate side. The second substrate includes: a plurality of data lines that are aligned in a row direction; and a plurality of capacitance lines that are aligned in a column direction approximately perpendicular to the data lines. The touch sensor includes an electric-potential rise rate detecting unit that detects a magnitude of parasitic capacitance generated near each intersection of the plurality of capacitance lines and the plurality of data lines as the rise rate of an electric potential of the data line at the time of application of a voltage to the capacitance line defining the each intersection and detects a position near the intersection in which the rise rate of the electric potential detected by the electric-potential rise rate detecting unit is out of a predetermined range as the touch position.
US08576191B2
A display and control device for medical equipment, comprising several identically configured display/control units, which are located on a base unit. The base unit is equipped with a bus, to which the display/control units and components of the medical equipment are connected. The base unit comprises connection devices, which are used to connect the display/control units to the bus. Once a display/control unit has been connected, a configuration unit transmits configuration data to the display/control unit and only then defines which function the display/control unit is to fulfill. This permits defective display/control units to be simply replaced. The construction of the display/control units is likewise simple and not susceptible to malfunctions.
US08576184B2
An approach is presented for browsing content files. The data manager determines to present a file at a device. Further, the data manager receives an input for selecting one or more of elements of metadata associated with the file based, at least in part, on the presentation of the file. Then, the data manager determines to select one or more other files based, at least in part, on the input.
US08576177B2
Apparatus and methods are disclosed for simultaneously tracking multiple finger and palm contacts as hands approach, touch, and slide across a proximity-sensing, multi-touch surface. Identification and classification of intuitive hand configurations and motions enables unprecedented integration of typing, resting, pointing, scrolling, 3D manipulation, and handwriting into a versatile, ergonomic computer input device.
US08576176B2
A method and apparatus for inputting letters by combining basic elements obtained by separating and symbolizing strokes of letters, so as to provide excellent letter intuitiveness and recognition. According to the present invention, a letter may be input by pressing one of or sequentially pressing two of keys to which basic elements , , , , , , , †, , —, and obtained by separating and symbolizing strokes of letters are assigned, and letters may be rapidly and conveniently input by minimizing key pressing paths.
US08576174B2
An electronic device and method of operating comprises a housing; a base coupled to the housing; and an electro-mechanical transducer coupled to the base, the electro-mechanical transducer configured to operate in a resonant mode and output a haptic effect upon receiving a drive signal at a predetermined drive frequency. In an embodiment, the electro-mechanical transducer further comprises a plurality of electro-mechanical transducers, each electro-mechanical transducer configured to operate in its respective resonant mode and output a respective haptic effect upon receiving a drive signal having a predetermined drive frequency. Alternatively or additionally, the electro-mechanical transducer further comprises a plurality of spaced apart electro-mechanical devices coupled thereto in a serial fashion between a first end proximal to the base and a second end distal to the base.
US08576172B2
A touch system comprises overlapping coordinate input sub-regions defining a generally contiguous input surface. Each coordinate input sub-region generates pointer coordinate data in response to pointer contacts thereon. When a pointer contact is made on a region of a coordinate input sub-region that overlaps with an adjacent coordinate input sub-region, each overlapping coordinate input sub-region processes acquired images to derive pointer data and triangulates the position of the pointer using the derived pointer data. Thereafter, the triangulated positions generated by the overlapping coordinate input sub-regions are processed in accordance with defined logic thereby to determine the position of the pointer contact relative to the touch surface.
US08576168B2
A 3-dimensional operation input apparatus, a control apparatus, a control system, a control method, and a handheld apparatus are provided with which planar operations are possible without an increase in the number of components. An input apparatus includes an angular velocity sensor unit and an acceleration sensor. A threshold value is set to angular velocity values detected by the angular velocity sensor unit. Depending on whether the angular velocity values are smaller than the threshold value and whether at least one of acceleration values is larger than a threshold value, a switch can be made between a planar operation mode and a 3-dimensional operation mode. Therefore, a switch can be made between the planar operation mode and the 3-dimensional operation mode without having to use a sensor other than the acceleration sensor and the angular velocity sensor without increasing the number of components.
US08576160B2
A display apparatus and a method for driving display thereof are provided. The display apparatus drives an upper backlight unit and a lower backlight unit so that a first time period during which both the upper backlight unit and the lower backlight unit are simultaneously turned on exceeds half of a second time period during which the upper backlight unit is turned on. Accordingly, the display apparatus may increase a time period during which both the upper backlight unit and the lower backlight unit are simultaneously turned on.
US08576158B2
A contrast ratio promotion method for a display device is provided. The display device contains a back light module having a brightness and has a maximum luminance. The contrast ratio promotion method comprises the steps of continuously receiving a picture signal during each unit time, continuously calculating a ratio of a luminance of a picture corresponding to the picture signal to the maximum luminance, where the ratio is defined as an instant relative luminance, setting a first ratio, a first buffer time and a first adjusting time, and gradually reducing the brightness of the back light module to a minimum brightness during the first adjusting time when a first cumulated time for the respective consecutive plural instant relative luminances being smaller than the first ratio is longer than the first buffer time.
US08576150B2
Respective lines forming a positive-polarity signal pixel circuit part, such as a Vdd line 102, a Cs1-connecting line 104 and a line 106 for a data line Di+, and respective lines forming a negative-polarity signal pixel circuit part, such as a Vdd line 103, a Cs2-connecting line 105 and a line 107 for a data line Di−, are arranged symmetrically to each other with respect to a pixel center line II-II′, respectively. Since the Vdd line 102 and the Vdd line 103 are positioned at right and left ends in one pixel, they serve as guard patterns to restrict crosstalk originating in either a Cs1-connecting line or a Cs2-connecting line of adjacent left and right pixels. The line 106 for the data line Di+ and the line 107 for the data line Di− are arranged in the vicinity of a central portion of the pixel.
US08576146B2
A display device and a driving method thereof for easily determining photographing timing and recognizing text by improving field visibility. The display device includes: a signal controller generating image data and an image control signal in accordance with an input signal; and a display unit including scan lines transmitting scan signals, data lines transmitting data signals, and pixels connected to the scan lines and data lines and displaying an image corresponding to the image data. Here, when the input signal is an image signal for displaying a photographed image or text, the signal controller generates the image data to correspond to a unit frame period composed of frames as weighted image data corresponding to one of the frames, and the display device displays an image corresponding to the weighted image data to have an energy proportional to a number of the frames in the unit frame period.
US08576142B2
One embodiment provides a display device, including: a luminous flux generator which generates luminous flux including image information; a reflector plate which reflects the luminous flux generated by the luminous flux generator toward one eye of a viewer; a head detector which detects a head of the viewer by using at least two pairs of distance sensors; a controller which controls a position of the reflector plate based on an output from the head detector; and a driver which drives the reflector plate based on an output from the controller.
US08576141B2
A three-dimensional display device includes a plurality of transmissive display units arranged in different depth positions in view from an observer and a moiré vanishing element for diffusing light. The moiré vanishing element has a spatial frequency characteristic to cut off a spatial frequency more than a spatial frequency having a cycle being twice as large as an interval of boundaries of pixels forming a first transmissive display unit arranged behind the moiré vanishing element in the view from the observer.
US08576139B2
A media content distribution and display system and method that includes a central server, a number of remote display devices, and an electronic network for communicating therebetween. The central server receives and stores a plurality of media content, where each of the media content has one or more attributes associated therewith that relate to characteristics of the media content. The remote display devices receive the media content from the central server. Each remote display device includes at least one electronic display, one or more target attributes associated with the remote display device that relate to environmental variables of the remote display device, and a biasing engine for comparing the media content attributes with the target attributes, and for causing the electronic display to display only those of the media content having one or more of the attributes associated therewith that satisfy a predetermined matching criteria.
US08576138B2
In an antenna unit including a dome-shaped top cover, an antenna module disposed in the top cover and adapted to receive radio waves, a bracket covering an under surface of the top cover, and a gasket disposed between the top cover and the bracket to thereby ensure hermeticity in the top cover, the bracket includes a bottom portion pressure welding the gasket between the bottom portion and the top cover to make inside of the top cover an enclosed space, and a mounting portion integrated to the bottom portion to enable the antenna unit to mount in a narrow-mounting-space cabinet.
US08576127B1
The present invention is directed to antenna system embodiments which allow for hand-held, ultra-wideband (UWB) multi-antenna operation to be realized within the severe size constraints necessary for Department of Defense (DOD) hand-held missions. Further, the antenna system embodiments disclosed herein provide a miniature UWB multiple antenna solution for multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) and radiation pattern null steering suitable for hand-held soldier radios.
US08576121B2
Method for localization of the lateral position of the wheels of a vehicle equipped with a tire pressure monitoring system. Each wheel of the vehicle includes an electronic unit fixed onto a rim of radius R. Each unit notably includes two accelerometers, disposed perpendicular to one another and one measuring a radial component F1 of the acceleration, and the other a tangential component F2 of the acceleration. These components are out of phase by a predetermined phase-shift angle α. The method includes: I) measuring, per wheel rotation, at given intervals of time (Tmeasurement), a number (N) of acceleration values by each of the accelerometers (5a, 5b), II) calculating a physical value (P) representative of the sign of the phase-shift angle α between the two accelerometers, III) determining the lateral position of the wheel, based on the physical value (P) representative of the sign of the phase-shift angle.
US08576120B2
A satellite communication ground station configured for communicating over an inclined orbit geostationary satellite may include a tracking antenna having three fixed axis and one moving axis, a motor for swinging the antenna along the moving axis, a controller for controlling the motor, a receiver configured to receive a signal arriving from the satellite via the tracking antenna and an estimator configured to estimate reception quality of a signal received by the receiver. The invention described herein presents a method for tracking an inclined orbit geostationary satellite, the method comprising a learning step and a tracking step, wherein the learning step includes use of a filter for reducing alignment errors and reducing the amount of peaking required for aligning the antenna with the satellite and tracking its movement.
US08576115B2
A vehicle length sensor for a vehicle such as a variable length truck, the sensor being provided with a mount for mounting the sensor on a vehicle and being arranged with a detection circuit arranged to measure, in use, a length of a vehicle to which the sensor is mounted. Typically, the detection circuit comprises a transmitter circuit, which is arranged to transmit radiation along the length of the vehicle, and a receiver circuit that is arranged to receive radiation that was transmitted by the transmitter circuit and reflected from the vehicle, and in which the detection circuit is arranged to determine from the reflected radiation the length of the vehicle. The sensor may also act as a lane change assistant, comparing the range of other vehicles to the length of the vehicle to which it is mounted.
US08576099B2
A circuit includes a first circuit portion operable as a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for generating a DAC common mode voltage signal (outp), a second circuit portion having a comparator for comparing the DAC common mode voltage (outp) against a received signal common mode voltage (vsumdc), the comparator providing a single bit output, and a single bit register configured to receive the single bit output of the comparator, the single bit output used to control a feedback circuit, the feedback circuit configured to control the DAC common mode voltage signal.
US08576092B2
A mobile communications device includes a locator unit to receive and process information regarding a current location for the mobile communications device, a parking status determination unit to determine a parking status for the device based on at least changes in the current location, and a communication unit to forward the parking status to a parking community processor. A method includes determining a parking status of a vehicle associated with a person as a function of movement of a personal mobile communications device.
US08576091B2
A method and system for processing road sign content by a mobile computing device in a vehicle. A wireless communication network is monitored for signals continuously broadcasted over the network from road sign transmitters, the signals including road sign messages containing road sign content information from road signs. A signal of said continuously broadcasted signals is captured as a result of the monitoring, the captured signal including a message of the road sign messages, the message including road sign content information from a road sign of including road signs, the captured signal being in range of the mobile computing device. The message is interpreted to ascertain the road sign content information from the road sign. Based on display parameters previously defined by a user, the road sign content information in the captured message is displayed onto a display device in the vehicle operationally coupled to the mobile computing device.
US08576090B2
Apparatus and methods for controlling and communicating with one or more tools in a downhole tool string including a tractor, an auxiliary tractor tool, a logging tool, a safety sub, a release mechanism, a unit containing sensors for monitoring downhole conditions, a setting tool, and a perforating gun. Also provided are apparatus and methods for controlling and communicating with one or more perforating guns, release devices, and explosive devices in a string to be lowered into a wellbore. Control and communication are accomplished by sending signals from the surface to control switches in the control units on the tool, with redundant switches for safety, to state machines in the respective control units, each state machine returning a signal verifying switch status to the surface. Control and power functions are accomplished with voltage of different polarities for safety.
US08576089B1
A system for data communication connection in an architecture including an optical fiber communication line running from a communication service provider source to a proximity of at least one building, a fiber optic branch line extending from a point along the communication line generally towards the at least one building, and a receptacle, comprises a communication unit, a fiber optic cable coupled to the communication unit, and at least one connector adapted to couple the branch line to the fiber optic cable coupled to the communication unit. The connector may reside within the receptacle, and at least one of the communication unit, the cable, the branch line, the connector, and the receptacle may provide a visual indication that coupling of the branch line and the cable is effected.
US08576083B2
A rain detector for use with an automotive vehicle. The rain detector includes a capacitance sensor mounted to the inside surface of a windshield. The sensor includes at least two output lines which vary in capacitance as the function of magnitude of rain on the outside surface of the windshield. A programmed microcontroller receives the sensor output lines as analog input signals and then compares the magnitude of the capacitance with a threshold capacitance. In the event that the sensed capacitance exceeds the threshold capacitance, indicative of raindrops on the outside surface of the windshield, the microcontroller generates an output signal to the wiper control circuitry of the vehicle to activate the windshield wiper system.
US08576082B2
A system for detecting an improperly secured busway joint in an electrical distribution busway includes a busway joint parameter sensor, a transmission circuit and a remote computer. The busway joint parameter sensor is disposed so as to sense a selected parameter of the busway joint. The transmission circuit is in data communication with the busway joint parameter sensor and is configured to transmit real time busway joint parameter data. The remote computer is in data communication with the transmission circuit and is configured to present an indication upon detection of abnormal real time busway joint parameter data.
US08576075B2
Systems and methods for placing RFID tags on objects are shown and described. The method includes scanning an object and analyzing one or more reflected signals from the to determine a suggested location for placement of an RFID tag. The scan can be accomplished using a scanning device having an antenna that operates in the near field of the object to measure at least one RF property of the reflected signal from the object.
US08576072B2
An optoelectronic sensor (10) is provided with a light transmitter (12) for transmitting a light signal (16) into a monitoring area (18), a light receiver (26) for receiving and converting the light signal (22) remitted or reflected from an object (20) in the monitoring area (18) into a reception signal, a switching output (30) for the output of a switching signal when the reception signal meets a switching criterion (E), a pre-failure alarm output (32) for the output of a pre-failure alarm signal, and an evaluation unit (28) configured to detect a contamination state that is present when the reception signal meets a contamination criterion (C) but not the switching criterion (E) and to output a pre-failure alarm signal when a contamination period during which the contamination state extends for more than a tolerated period (TPFA,ON) and/or when a contamination state occurrence number that is incremented upon each entry of the contamination state is larger than a tolerated number. The evaluation unit (28) is further configured to add up the contamination period also across several discontinuous periods of the contamination state or to count the contamination state occurrence number also across periods during which neither the switching criterion (E) nor the contamination criterion (C) are met, respectively.
US08576071B2
An automatic lock and automatic unlock method for a computer system and the associated computer system are provided. The method includes steps of detecting whether a user is in a predetermined range when a computer system is in an unlock status and recording a duration during which the user is not in the predetermined range, controlling the computer system to enter a lock status when the duration is greater than a predetermined time, determining whether the user has an effective authority when the computer system is in the lock status and the user is detected in the predetermined range, and controlling the computer system to enter the unlock status when the user has the effective authority.
US08576066B2
One or more embodiments manage emergency response services. An emergency event is determined to have occurred. A set of civilian responders currently available to respond to the emergency event is selected from a plurality of civilian responders in response to determining that the emergency event has occurred. Each civilian responder in the set of civilian responders is associated with at least one wireless communication device. The set of civilian responders is notified that the emergency event has occurred. A set of emergency event information associated with the emergency event is transmitted to at least one wireless communication device associated with each civilian responder in the set of civilian responders.
US08576063B2
The present invention relates to a system and method for tracking the position of a moving object. A system for tracking the position of a moving object includes: WSNs composed of a plurality of sensor nodes, each generating connection release information representing that the connection between the corresponding WSN and a moving object having a moving node serving as a sensor node attached thereto has released if having perceived the departure of the moving object; base stations managing the plurality of WSNs and collecting position information on the plurality of sensor nodes; a node information database storing the position information on the plurality of sensor nodes collected by the plurality of base stations; middleware checking the current position information on the moving object stored in the node information database if receiving the connection release information through any of the plurality of base stations, and deleting the current position information on the moving object stored in the node information database if the checked current position of the moving object is in a WSN having perceived the departure of the moving object; and a moving-object tracking application provided with the position information on the moving object by the middleware to track the position of the moving object. According to the present invention, it is possible to efficiently process information of a WSN managed by each base station in middleware managing a plurality of base stations, thereby improving the accuracy in tracking the position of a moving object.
US08576061B2
In at least one embodiment, a device for controlling one or more vehicle features for a primary driver and a secondary driver is provided. The device comprises at least one controller that is configured to receive at least one driver status signal indicative of the driver being one of the primary driver and the secondary driver and to determine whether the driver of the vehicle is the one of the primary driver and the secondary driver based on the at least one driver status signal. The controller is further configured to control one or more vehicle features and to prevent the one or more vehicle features from being disabled in response to determining that the at least one driver status signal indicates that the driver of the vehicle is the secondary driver.
US08576060B2
An apparatus for transmitting tire pressure signals includes a transmission buffer and a transmitter. The transmission buffer is configured to store tire pressure monitoring data. The transmitter is configured to transmit a signal including the tire pressure monitoring data. The signal includes a burst that includes plurality of frames and each of the frames includes the tire pressure monitoring information. A plurality of pause spaces is disposed between at least some of the frames in the burst.
US08576054B2
A pulsed electrical remote control interface for an equipment item including a plurality of functions to be controlled includes at least a first command input associated with a first command line (TC-Type, TC-Type-plus, TC-Type-minus) for selecting at least one function (RF ON, RF OFF, ALC ON, ALC OFF, FCA UP, FCA DOWN, GCA UP, GCA DOWN, SCA UP, SCA DOWN, INHIBIT) to be performed from the plurality of functions and at least one second command input associated with a second command line (EXE, EXE-UP-ON, EXE-DOWN-OFF) for executing the selected function, each command input being associated with an outbound pulsed command line and a return line, the return line possibly being shared with a number of outbound lines. Applicable to the control of any kind of equipment that includes a large number of functions and requires a large number of pulsed command signals, notably in the field of satellite communication systems.
US08576048B2
A method for accessing a locked object. A first SMS message addressed to a short code and requesting access to the locked object is received by an Approval Authority computer and/or short code from one of a locked object and a requestor's wireless communication device. The Approval Authority computer determines whether to grant the requested access, and sends, back to one of the locked object and the requestor's wireless communication device, one of an access code for the locked object and a SMS reply containing the access code. If the requested access is granted, the Approval Authority also initiates billing the requestor a predetermined fee for the access.
US08576047B2
A motor vehicle outside door handle with a wall surrounding an interior space, a first sensor electrode of a first capacitive sensor for triggering a final locking operation, a second sensor electrode of a second capacitive sensor for triggering a locking operation, and an evaluation circuit, which is connected to the first sensor electrode. The second sensor electrode is arranged in the interior space. The first sensor electrode, the second sensor electrode and the evaluation circuit are accommodated in a single sensor module which can be inserted into the interior space. The sensor module has a flat plastic trough which has a bottom wall and is open on one side. A printed circuit board provided with connecting cables is placed into the plastic trough filled with a plastics compound. The sensor electrodes are formed by metal-coated layers of the printed circuit board or by metal bodies mounted on the printed circuit board.
US08576031B2
A magnetic attachment mechanism and method is described. The magnetic attachment mechanism can be used to releasably attach at least two objects together in a preferred configuration without fasteners and without external intervention. The magnetic attachment mechanism can be used to releasably attach an accessory device to an electronic device. The accessory device can be used to augment the functionality of usefulness of the electronic device.
US08576026B2
A band-pass filter has a plurality of frequency band channels each including a first inductor having a first terminal coupled to a first balanced port and a second terminal coupled to a second balanced port. A first capacitor is coupled between the first and second terminals of the first inductor. A second inductor has a first terminal coupled to a first unbalanced port and a second terminal coupled to a second unbalanced port. The second inductor is disposed within a first distance of the first inductor to induce magnetic coupling. A second capacitor is coupled between the first and second terminals of the second inductor. A third inductor is disposed within a second distance of the first inductor and within a third distance of the second inductor to induce magnetic coupling. A second capacitor is coupled between first and second terminals of the third inductor.
US08576025B2
An acoustic wave device includes a piezoelectric substrate, an IDT electrode provided on the piezoelectric substrate, a dielectric layer provided so as to cover the IDT electrode, and a first stress relaxation layer provided on the dielectric layer. Furthermore, the acoustic wave device includes an extraction electrode connected to the IDT electrode and extracted onto the first stress relaxation layer, and a bump provided on the extraction electrode. An elastic modulus of the first stress relaxation layer is smaller than that of the dielectric layer.
US08576017B2
An electronic high frequency induction heater driver, for a variable spray fuel injection system, uses a zero-voltage switching oscillator that utilizes a full H-bridge topology wherein the semiconductor switches are synchronized within the bridge for function. The induction heater driver, upon receipt of a turn-on signal, multiplies a supply voltage through a self-oscillating series resonance, wherein one component of the tank resonator circuit comprises an induction heater coil magnetically coupled to an appropriate loss component so that fuel inside a fuel component is heated to a desired temperature.
US08576008B2
An RF receiver is described comprising a common gate common source LNA with a variable resistor in the source of the common gate transistor, a variable resistor in the source of the common source transistor, and a variable resistor in the RF input. A Smart Gain Control varies the resistance in the resistors to produce linear amplification in the LNA while maintaining input matching. Further, a broad dynamic range RSSI is described that implements a feedback control loop to maintain signal power within a sensitivity range of the power detector in the RSSI.
US08576004B2
Power amplifying systems and modules and components therein are designed based on CRLH structures, providing high efficiency and linearity.
US08576001B2
Disclosed herein are an offset compensation apparatus for a magnetic detection circuit, and a method thereof. The offset compensation apparatus includes: an amplifying unit amplifying an output voltage, and outputting the amplified voltages; an offset detection unit detecting an offset; a comparison unit determining whether or not the offset output from the offset detection unit is greater than a pre-set positive reference value or smaller than a pre-set negative reference value; a counter unit; and a current supply.
US08575999B2
In a constant current circuit, a drain terminal is connected to an output terminal of a current, and a gate voltage operable in a saturation region is applied to a source-grounded transistor. An increase current generating circuit generates an increase current equivalent to an increase of a current due to a channel length modulation effect of the transistor. A current mirror circuit generates a current having the same value as that of the increase current generated by the increase current generating circuit and supplies the generated current to the drain terminal of the transistor.
US08575993B2
Certain semiconductor processes provide for the use of multiple different types of transistors with different threshold voltages in a single IC. It can be shown that in certain ones of these semiconductor processes, the speed at which high threshold transistors can operate at decreases with decreasing temperature. Thus, the overall processing speed of an IC that implements high threshold transistors is often limited by the lowest temperature at which the IC is designed (or guaranteed) to properly function. Embodiments of a system and method that overcome this deficiency by “pre-heating” the IC (or at least portions of the IC that implement the high threshold transistors) such that the IC can operate at a frequency (once pre-heated) higher than what would otherwise be possible for a given, minimum temperature at which the IC is designed (or guaranteed) to properly function at are provided.
US08575984B1
A multistage latch-based isolation cell is provided. The isolation cell includes a latch to receive a first binary signal and an enable signal. The latch initially supplies a second binary signal with an unknown value in response to the enable port receiving an enable signal having a first polarity value, and subsequent to receiving the first binary signal with a first value, supplying the second binary signal with the first value. The isolation cell includes a delay device to receive the enable signal and to supply a delayed enable signal. A reset latch receives the second binary signal, the delayed enable signal, and a reset pulse. The reset latch supplies a third binary signal equal to the first value in response to the reset latch receiving the reset pulse, followed by the delayed enable signal with the first polarity value, followed by the second binary signal.
US08575979B2
Provided is a fully differential adaptive bandwidth phase locked loop with differential supply regulation. One fully differential phase locked loop includes a differential active loop filter and regulator coupled to an output of a differential charge pump, a differential voltage-controlled oscillator coupled to differential control voltages developed by the differential active loop filter and regulator, and a bias circuit coupled to the differential control voltages and providing a bias current to the differential charge pump.
US08575975B1
A system and method for charging heavy capacitive loads may comprise an n-stage stacked charging circuit wherein n is an integer greater than one which may comprise n−1 capacitors and a voltage supply, each sequentially electrically connected to the capacitive load in an order through a respective first through nth switch during a respective first through nth charging time period; the n−1th capacitors each sequentially electrically connected to the capacitive load in reverse order during a first through n−1th discharging time period through the respective n−1th through first switches. The system and method may comprise an n+1th switch electrically connecting the capacitive load to ground during an nth discharging period. The capacitive load may comprise a piezoelectric element, which may comprise an inkjet printer head inkjet actuator.
US08575972B2
A first plurality of clock signals including a first clock signal and a second clock signal is received, the first and second clock signal out of phase with each other. A second plurality of clock signals comprising a third clock signal and a fourth clock signal is received, the third and fourth clock signals out of phase with each other. A plurality of enable signals are received. A fifth clock signal is determined based on the first plurality of clock signals and the plurality of enable signals. A sixth clock signal is determined based on the second plurality of clock signals and the plurality of enable signals. A seventh clock signal is determined based on the fifth clock signal and the sixth clock signal.
US08575971B1
Techniques are described to mirror currents and subtract currents accurately. In an implementation, a circuit includes a first current source coupled to a first node to provide a current IPD1 and a current mirror coupled to the first node through a first switch T1 to provide a current IREF1. In a closed configuration, the current IREF1 flows from the current mirror into the first node. A sigma delta modulator controls the switch T1 such that over a period of time an average current flowing from the current mirror into the first node is equal to the current IPD1 flowing out of the first node. The sigma delta modulator generates a digital output to control switch T2 to allow a current IREF2 into a second node, thus subtracting a portion of a current IPD2 at the second node over a period of time.
US08575969B2
A semiconductor device configured that its differential pair is made operable in both states of high speed with a high consumption current and low speed with a low consumption current. A differential circuit includes differential pair transistors and a tail current source for supplying a tail current that is switchable so that an amount of current flowing in the differential pair transistors may be switched between at least two sates of different levels. The differential pair transistors have a characteristic that, with a decrease of currents flowing in the differential pair transistors, a value of σ(ΔI/gm) decreases monotonously, where σ denotes a standard deviation, ΔI denotes a difference of the amounts of current of the differential pair transistors, and gm denotes transconductance of the differential pair transistors.
US08575967B2
This description relates to an edge detector including a pulse generator configured to generate a first pulse when a first clock and a second clock are at a same logic level and generate a second pulse when the first clock and the second clock are at different logic levels. The edge detector further includes a first RC circuit configured to charge the first pulse and a second RC circuit configured to charge the second pulse. The edge detector further includes a circuitry that, based on a width of the first pulse or of the second pulse, is configured to provide a select signal to select an edge of the second clock for triggering.
US08575961B2
A multi-valued driver circuit selectively outputs, to a transmission line, one from among multiple voltages according to a selection signal. A memory circuit stores setting data which define the respective levels of the multiple voltages. According to the selection signal, a selector circuit selects one from among the multiple setting data stored in the memory circuit. A Thevenin termination circuit outputs a voltage that corresponds to the upper M bits of the data thus selected by the selector circuit. An R-2R ladder circuit outputs a voltage that corresponds to the lower Nl bits of the data thus selected by the selector circuit.
US08575960B2
A programmable analog device in which data can be held even when supply of a power supply potential is stopped. The programmable circuit includes unit cells connected in parallel or in series, and each of the unit cells includes an analog element. A conduction state of each of the unit cells is changed between an on state and an off state. Each of the unit cells includes, as a switch of the unit cell, a first transistor having a sufficiently low off-state current and a second transistor, a gate electrode of the second transistor being electrically connected to a source or drain electrode of the first transistor. The conduction state of the unit cell is controlled with a potential of the gate electrode of the second transistor, which can be kept even when no power is supplied thanks to the low off-state current of the first transistor.
US08575950B2
A resistance measuring apparatus which includes a variable voltage source, a signal display circuit, a bridge consisting of a first standard resistor, a second standard resistor, an adjustable resistor and the unknown resistor, a bridge balance display circuit and a dynamic voltage display circuit alternatively connected within the bridge. The resistance measuring apparatus is adapted to measure static resistance and dynamic resistance variation of an unknown resistor in the case of external environment having changed dramatically.
US08575938B2
A marine electromagnetic receiver cable includes a plurality of signal processing modules disposed at spaced apart locations along the receiver cable. A power supply line is connected to each of the signal processing modules and to an electric current source. A current regulation device is connected in the power supply line proximate each signal processing module. The current regulation devices are connected such that an amount of current flowing through the power supply line is substantially constant. At least one electromagnetic receiver is functionally coupled to an input of each signal processing module.
US08575935B2
The invention relates to a nuclear magnetic resonance imaging radio frequency receiver, the receiver being adapted to receive analogue signals from at least one radio frequency receiver coil unit (122; 204; 306), the radio frequency receiver comprising an analogue-digital converter (408) to convert the analogue magnetic resonance signal into a first digital signal, a resampling and demodulation unit (414) to convert the first digital signal into a second digital signal, a communication interface (400: 600; 602) adapted for transmitting the second digital signal via a communication link (202), and a first clock generator (406) for generating a sampling clock, the sampling clock being the direct clock source for the analogue-digital converter (408), the first clock generator (406) being adapted to generate the sampling clock using a digital timing reference, the digital timing reference being received digitally via the communication link (202) by the communication interface (400: 600; 602), wherein the receiver further comprises a second clock generator (410) for generating a system clock, the system clock being the direct clock source for the resampling and demodulation unit (414), the second clock generator (410) being adapted to generate the system clock using the sampling clock.
US08575934B2
According to one embodiment, a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus includes a static magnetic-field generating unit, a gradient magnetic-field generating unit, a plurality of metal shim plates in a plate shape, and a shim holding unit. The metal shim plates adjust uniformity of the static magnetic field. The shim holding unit holds the metal shim plates in a layered state. Each of the metal shim plates includes a convex having a certain angle at a certain position, and the metal shim plates are layered such that the convex of each one metal shim plate comes into contact with a back of the bent convex of another metal shim plate.
US08575928B2
A sensor that includes an actuator having a plurality of actuator magnets. A detector proximate to and mechanically isolated from the actuator defines a bore. A detector magnet inside the bore may move in the bore from a first position to a second position. An optical signal passes through the detector so that the detector magnet blocks the optical signal when the detector magnet is in the first position.
US08575915B2
A system and method for controlling an electrical device is provided. The method includes receiving three phase power from a source, decomposing signals representative of power in each phase of the three phase power to provide a positive-sequence component of each phase and tracking the positive-sequence component of each phase via a phase locked loop and a tracking filter.
US08575902B1
Circuits, methods, and apparatus that reduce the power required to drive transistors in switching power supply regulators under various load conditions. One example provides a power supply regulator having multiple parallel transistors in order to reduce series on resistance. When the regulator is lightly loaded, a reduced number of devices are driven by the regulator. That is, one or more devices are not driven, rather their gates are held at a voltage such that the devices remain in the off or non-conductive state. When the regulator is more heavily loaded, more or all of the devices are driven.
US08575881B2
An energy saver delay circuit for an induction motor is disclosed. The energy saver delay circuit includes a power factor control circuit including an integrator, the integrator having a negative summing junction and a current injection circuit electrically connected to the negative summing junction, the current injection circuit configured for injecting an offset current into the negative summing junction to cause about the maximum available voltage from a power source to be supplied to the motor for a predetermined amount of time. Current injection may be triggered by voltage being applied to the motor, wherein the voltage exceeds a predetermined value. Alternatively, current injection may be triggered by current flowing through the motor, responsive to the current exceeding a predetermined threshold current. Alternatively, current injection may be triggered by voltage across the power factor control circuit, responsive to the voltage exceeding a predetermined threshold voltage.
US08575880B2
An apparatus and method are provided for adjusting torque and speed of a motor, while remaining within the voltage limit of a power supply. The invention provides a brushless direct current motor with independently driven and switchable stators. In an aspect, each stator and the rotor is structured to function as an independent motor separate from another stator and the rotor. A first power electronics directs energy to a first stator, and a second power electronics directs energy to a second stator. A rotor rotates relative to the stators. In an aspect, a commutation electronics determines electrical position of the rotor relative to the stators, and synchronizes current pulses directed to a sequentially selected phase of the stators, to generate a rotating magnetic field that communicates with the rotor. A controller sets the connection of the first power electronics in series or in parallel with the second power electronics.
US08575875B2
In a converter of a motor drive control device, one of a first switching element and a second switching element is selected in accordance with a current command value of a current flowing through a reactor. The converter is then controlled so that a drive command for the selected switching element is generated. In this way, the efficiency of the converter is improved while a voltage step-up or step-down operation is performed by the converter.
US08575874B2
An electronically commutated motor (ECM) often employs a Hall sensor for reliable operation. Even when a Hall sensor is omitted from a motor having a plurality of stator winding phases (24, 26) and a permanent-magnet rotor (22), one can reliably detect direction of rotation of the rotor by the steps of: (a) differentiating a voltage profile obtained by sampling either (1) induced voltage in a presently currentless phase winding or (2) voltage drop at a transistor, through which current is flowing to a presently energized phase winding, and (b) using such a differentiated signal (du—24″/dt, du—26″/dt) to control current flow in an associated phase winding. In this manner, one obtains reliable commutation, even if the motor is spatially separated from its commutation electronics.
US08575872B2
The present invention advantageously provides a motorized roller shade that includes a shade tube, a motor/controller unit and a power supply unit. The motor/controller unit is disposed within the shade tube, and includes a bearing, rotatably coupled to a support shaft, and a DC gear motor. The output shaft of the DC gear motor is coupled to the support shaft such that the output shaft and the support shaft do not rotate when the support shaft is attached to the mounting bracket.
US08575859B2
To a constant-current power supply whose output current can be variably set, light emitting modules can be connected in parallel. A control unit recognizes connection information outputted from an information output unit provided in each of the light emitting modules and varies the output current of the constant-current power supply. Drive can be controlled in response to a state of the connected light emitting modules such as the connecting number of light emitting modules.
US08575851B1
The present invention relates to a programmable LED driver to control a plurality of LEDs. The driver comprises an LED driver circuit, a programmable integrated circuit (PIC) such as a microprocessor, and capacitive touch pads. The driver receives a 110 volt AC current and is sized to fit within a standard 110 volt AC outlet box. The programmable integrated circuit is adapted to scan said touch pad array and generate an output signal to said LED driver circuit corresponding to said scan.In an embodiment of the present invention, the touch pad array comprises a plurality of touch pads and the touch pads are the faceplate of a 110 volt AC outlet box.A further embodiment of the present invention comprises a touch pad plate remote from the programmable integrated circuit, the touch plate comprising a plurality of capacitive touch pads wirelessly connected to the programmable integrated circuit.
US08575839B2
A headlamp LED lighting apparatus, which lights an LED block 2 having a plurality of LEDs connected in series, samples the output voltage of the headlamp LED lighting apparatus, calculates the average voltage during every prescribed interval, and has a storage unit for storing the average voltage during every prescribed interval calculated. A control circuit 8 compares the voltage variation in the average voltage during every prescribed interval read out of the storage unit with a prescribed threshold, and decides an LED failure of the LED block 2 from a result of the comparison.
US08575833B2
An organic light-emitting display apparatus including improved power supply lines which may sufficiently handle high current. The organic light-emitting display apparatus includes power supply lines outside an encapsulation layer sealing the display unit to a substrate. Because the power supply lines are outside the encapsulation layer their thickness can be increased to increase the current conducting capacity of the power supply lines.
US08575832B2
The present invention relates to a field emission display, which includes: a base substrate; a plurality of cathode strips, disposed over the base substrate; an insulating layer, disposed over the cathode strips and having a plurality of openings, therewith the openings corresponding to the cathode strips; a plurality of anode strips, disposed over the insulating layer, where the cathode strips and the anode strips are arranged into a matrix and the anode strips individually have at least one impacted surface; and a plurality of subpixel units, individually including: an emissive region having a phosphor layer disposed over the impacted surface; and at least one emissive protrusion, corresponding to the emissive region and disposed in the openings to electrically connect to the cathode strips and protrude out of the openings. Accordingly, the present invention can enhance light utilization efficiency of a field emission display.
US08575828B2
A corner of a distal end of a ground-electrode-side noble metal tip of a spark plug is taken as a first corner; a corner of a leading end of a center-electrode-side noble metal tip is taken as a second corner; a corner formed at a starting point where a diameter of the center electrode is reduced is taken as a third corner; a corner of the ground electrode is taken as a fourth corner; a corner closest to the third corner of the corners on the distal end of the ground-electrode-side noble metal tip is taken as a fifth corner; a length of a virtual flying spark path defined between the first corner and the second corner is taken as L1; a length of a virtual flying spark path defined between the third corner and the fourth corner is taken as L2; a length of a virtual flying spark path defined between the third corner and the fifth corner is taken as L3; and L2 or L3, whichever is shorter, is taken as L4, the spark plug fulfills a relational expression of L4/L1≧1.1.
US08575826B1
A connection structure of an LED lamp holder and heat radiation fins includes a heat radiation fin module, a heat radiation core pipe and an insulation connector. The heat radiation fin module includes a plurality of heat radiation fins surrounding the heat radiation core pipe. Each heat radiation fin has an insertion portion and a stop tab at a distal end thereof. The insulation connector includes a plurality of engaging hooks and engaging holes around an opening corresponding to the heat radiation fins. The heat radiation fins are coupled to the heat radiation core pipe. The insertion portions of the heat radiation fins hold against the engaging hooks and are inserted in the engaging holes of the insulation connector. The stop tab of each heat radiation fin holds against the respective engaging hook so that the insulation connector and the heat radiation fins are connected quickly.
US08575823B2
A laminated piezoelectric material has a four-layered piezoelectric material and electrode layers for applying a voltage to each layer of the four-layered piezoelectric material. Each piezoelectric material has an inorganic piezoelectric material with a remanent polarization in a thickness direction. The layers are laminated so that a direction of an electric field is counter to a direction of the remanent polarization in one of the layers and the direction of the electric field coincides with the direction of the remanent polarization in the other three layers, or the direction of the electric field coincides with the direction of the remanent polarization in one of the layers and the direction of the electric field is counter to the direction of remanent polarization in the other three layers, when a voltage is applied to each piezoelectric material of the four-layered piezoelectric material via electrode layers.
US08575821B2
A piezoelectric actuator 10 according to each embodiment of the present invention comprises: a column-like piezoelectric body 31, whose bottom face is fixed to a base portion 20, and which stands from the base portion; and a driving power supply section for applying a driving voltage to the piezoelectric body. The piezoelectric body includes two sets (32, 33) of a pair of electrodes for providing electrical fields to the piezoelectric body. The two sets are formed so that each of the two sets is provided to each of two regions into which the piezoelectric body is divided by a virtual plane VPL1 parallel to the center axis CL of the piezoelectric body. The driving power supply section applies the driving voltage Vin having a “frequency between the second-order bending resonant frequency and the first-order expansion-contraction resonant frequency” to either one of the two sets, selectively.
US08575818B2
A surface acoustic wave element has a small energy loss and when it is used in a filter device, suppresses a spurious component occurring near the resonant frequency of a principal response and improves the frequency characteristic near the pass band of the filter device. The surface acoustic wave element includes a piezoelectric substrate, a comb-shaped electrode, and an insulating film. The comb-shaped electrode is disposed on the piezoelectric substrate. The insulating film is disposed so as to cover the piezoelectric substrate and the comb-shaped electrode. Where λ is the wavelength of an elastic wave that propagates in the piezoelectric substrate and h is the difference between the maximum and minimum values of a thickness dimension from the top surface of the piezoelectric substrate to the top surface of the insulating film, 0.01≦h/λ≦0.03 is satisfied.
US08575810B2
To provide a motor including: an annular stator including permanent magnets and stator cores that are alternately arranged circumferentially, and coils; an annular outer-rotor being arranged outside the stator, having a rotational axis coincident with a central axis of the stator, and having first salient poles; and an annular inner-rotor being arranged inside the stator, having a rotational axis coincident with the central axis to rotate in conjunction with the outer-rotor, and having second salient poles equal in number to the first salient poles, the magnets are magnetized circumferentially and extend radially, and each have respective ends that are opened toward the outer-rotor and toward inner-rotor in the radial direction, the coils are each wound by concentrated-winding on a tooth constituted from a different one magnet and respective parts of two stator cores adjacent to the magnet, and the first and second salient poles are arranged at offset positions circumferentially.
