US08584946B2
A card reader device for reading a card having data stored on a magnetic stripe incorporated into the card is disclosed in which the card reader device comprises a read head for passing a magnetic stripe of a card by to read data stored on a magnetic stripe and for producing a signal indicative of data stored on a magnetic stripe, a signal setting device for setting an amplitude of the signal indicative of data stored on a magnetic stripe, and an output jack adapted to be inserted into a microphone input associated with a cell phone for providing the signal indicative of data stored on a magnetic stripe to a cell phone. Data stored on the card and sensed by the card reader device is decoded by components such as a microphone amplifier, an analog to digital converter, and a microprocessor already resident in a cell phone.
US08584941B2
A method of conducting a transaction involving transfer of a filled prescription order from a pharmacy to a customer. The method includes detecting that the filled prescription order is available for transfer from the pharmacy to the customer. Upon detecting that the filled prescription order is available for transfer from the pharmacy to the customer, the method automatically completes at least one process for facilitating the transfer of the filled prescription order to the customer.
US08584927B2
Packaging material configured to be folded and sealed to produce a gable-top package for pourable food products comprises a web of material provided with a crease pattern along which the web of material is foldable. The crease pattern includes first and second transverse fold lines extending transversely across the material web, and a plurality of longitudinal fold lines extending longitudinally away from the first transverse fold line toward the opposite longitudinal end of the web of material, with adjacent pairs of the longitudinal fold lines defining respective walls of the gable-top package when the packaging material is folded and sealed. The crease pattern also includes a pair of oblique fold lines extending obliquely from the first transverse fold line to the second transverse fold line such that an area enclosing triangular panels is bounded by the oblique lines and portions of the first and second transverse fold lines.
US08584919B2
A surgical stapling apparatus having an end effector capable of performing a surgical procedure. The surgical stapling apparatus may include a driving pawl that interfaces with a manually actuatable handle. The driving pawl may have a pawl body with a driving tooth thereon that is configured to interact with an actuation shaft such that, as the manually actuatable handle is actuated, the driving tooth interacts with the actuation shaft to cause the actuation shaft to apply the actuation motions to an elongated body operably coupled to the end effector. When the end effector experiences a firing load that exceeds a predetermined magnitude of firing load, the driving tooth moves relative to the pawl body to disengage from the actuation shaft to prevent further transfer of the actuation motions to the elongated body even though the manually actuatable handle continues to be actuated.
US08584915B1
A hanger plate is mounted by a hook to a toolbox. The hook is mounted to a protrusion on a side of the toolbox and includes two flexible plates defining a compartment. The hanger plate includes a hole, a hanger hole, and a slot between the hole and the hanger hole. The protrusion is received in the hole. A channel extends from the hole to the slot. A spacing between two lateral walls of the slot is larger than a width of the hook. A bridge extends from one of the lateral walls to the other lateral wall. The hook is engaged with the hanger plate, with the bridge received in the compartment, with a top wall of the slot located between a top edge of the hook and the hanger hole, with the hanger hole located outside of a length of the side of the body of the toolbox.
US08584913B1
A method and apparatus for reconnecting a button to a garment includes positioning the button in a desired location on the front side of garment. The ends of a wire are then manually inserted into the thread receiving holes of the button, and the wire is pushed through the garment from the front side to the back side so that the wire urges the button into contact with the first side of the garment, and the ends of the wire penetrate the back side of the garment thereby forming first and second protruding legs. The protruding legs are then manually bent over until they abut the back side of the garment. A sheet is then adhesively applied to the back side of the garment to cover the bent over protruding legs. In another embodiment, the protruding legs are twisted together before being bent over.
US08584902B2
A child resistant cap with a U-channel safety component includes an inner and an outer member. The inner member has sidewalls with two horizontal tracks, being an upper and a lower track. There in a top horizontal flange with breaks to permit movement of outer member inwardly projecting lugs therethrough, and a central horizontal flange with breaks to permit movement of inwardly projecting lugs from the lower track upwardly past the central horizontal break, past the upper track, and through the breaks of the upper track top horizontal flange. There are vertical stops that prevent the lugs from entering the break when in the upper track, and one stop adjacent one break on the lower track to permit lugs to enter the break when in the lower track. A user rotates the outer member to a position for movement to the lower track, rotates to a stop, and lists to open.
US08584900B2
A beverage dispenser for providing mixed beverages. The beverage dispenser has a housing containing a plurality of first liquids, a plurality of second liquids, and a water supply, wherein the first liquids comprise liquors, and wherein the second liquids comprise mixer syrup. The beverage dispenser also has an interface, a dispensing spout and a server. The interface is provided on the housing to input variable data and receive variable instructions. The server electrically operates valves to control the flow of first liquids, second liquids and water to the beverage dispenser spout based on instructions entered at the interface and a pouring schema stored in memory.
US08584892B2
A packet of an enzyme and/or enzyme producing bacteria is contained within the core of a roll of toilet tissue or similar paper product wound on a core. The packet has a cover that dissolves or disintegrates on contact with water and disperses its contents into the aqueous waste stream. The packet may contain a mixture of bacterial cultures that produce enzymes to attack the greasy or fatty components of the waste stream. An additional article such as a sample of a liquid or creme personal care product may also be contained within the tissue paper core.
US08584891B2
A multi-use modular container includes a food storage container portion having insulated bottom and upstanding side walls defining a food storage container interior area and an open top. An insulated divider member is positioned in the food storage container interior area and divides the interior area into first and second chambers. The divider member is configured to maintain a different temperature in the first and second chambers. A non-food container portion includes non-insulated bottom and upstanding side panels that define an interior area and open top. The non-food container is releasably coupled to the food-container with a fastener. A storage compartment is situated on an outer surface of one of the upstanding side walls of the food storage container, the storage compartment defining a storage area and an opening configured to give selective access to the storage area.
US08584887B2
A tamper evident container (10) where the base (12) has an inverted U-shaped section (25) connected to the base sidewall (21), and an annular flange (16a) extending from the base inverted U-shaped section (25) such that the base annular flange (16a) extends in a plane generally parallel to the base bottom wall (23). The lid also features an inverted U-shaped section (45) connected to the lid top surface (43), and an annular flange (16b) extends from the lid inverted U-shaped section (45) such that the lid annular flange (16b) extends in a plane generally parallel to the lid top surface (43). The base and lid inverted U-shaped sections (25, 45) are sized such that, when mounted to one another, the base and lid annular flanges (16a, 16b) abut one another and may be bonded together to thereafter form a tearable strip.
US08584886B1
A self-contained garbage or trash container system with an integrated removable, manual compaction device designed primarily for home or industrial use. The system includes an outer receptacle with attached hinged lid; an internal receptacle; a compaction device; and an attachment mechanism integrated into the lid and/or the compaction device as part of the system to house compaction device.
US08584878B2
This invention relates to a closure for sealing an opening of a container. In particular, the present invention relates to a closure (10) for sealing a mouth of a container, such as a bottle. According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a closure for sealing an opening defined by a mouth of a container, the closure comprising a body (12) adapted to overlie the mouth; and a discontinuous skirt (14) extending from the body, wherein the skirt is deformable between an open position and a closed position. The present invention also provides methods for applying the closure to a container.
US08584877B2
A pour cap for a fluid container includes a cap body, a gasket mounted to the cap body, and an open or closed position communication structure. The pour cap can be positioned on the fluid container in a closed position wherein the container is hydraulically sealed with a high pressure seal, or in an open position wherein fluid flow occurs through flow passages on the gasket and the cap body with first and second low pressure seals preventing unwanted leakage between joining parts on the pour cap. The open or closed position communication structure can include a rib and mating detent for producing a clicking sensation upon manipulation of the pour cap by the user, and/or visual features on the cap body viewable by the user, or a cap body having a asymmetrical shape configured for viewing or tactile interpretation by the user.
US08584867B2
Meat trim portions are sorted by employing quantitative lean point analysis and one or more sorting steps. Embodiments of the present invention are adapted to make lean point determinations, to compare the determinations to one or more sorting parameters, and to direct meat trim portions to one of a plurality of containers based on the comparison. Meat trim portions from each container are subsequently processed into ground meat.
US08584856B2
Containers for containing a laundry product, having a helical grip translating down the container.
US08584843B2
At least one embodiment of a package system for particulate organic product includes a box element and an insert element. The box element generally includes a side pocket for retaining an auxiliary packet, such as a packet of cigarette rolling papers. The insert element acts as a transparent window aligned with one or more window apertures in the first face panel of the box element, and is extendable from the box element to provide a tray which can be partitioned into a product measurement zone and a product retentions zone. The partitioning may be provided by a foldable closure panel and associated tuck flap acting in cooperation with one another. The box element and insert element may be formed from respective pre-cut and scored blanks.
US08584841B1
A container is described and which includes a first, substantially transparent base portion, and a second substantially transparent base portion, which is hingedly mounted to the first base portion, and wherein the first base portion defines an internal cavity for enclosing individual objects of interest, and wherein the container is fabricated in a manner whereby the objects of interest may be visually inspected from their opposite sides, and wherein the container further has a thickness dimension which permits the container be accepted and delivered by the Postal Service.
US08584840B2
In one embodiment, a storing and dispensing cap is provided and includes a housing movably couplable to a container neck having a lip, a dispensing platform coupled to the housing, and a dispenser opening between an exterior edge of the dispensing platform and the housing. The dispenser opening is configured to be plugged by the lip of the container neck when the housing is coupled to the container neck, and the dispenser opening is configured to be unplugged when the housing is not coupled to the container neck. A storing and mixing system including such a cap, and a method of storing and mixing using such a cap are also provided.
US08584839B2
The present invention relates to a removable device for preserving and releasing a product contained in a reservoir (2) having a rupturable wall. Said device is in the form of a stopper (1) intended to be fitted on a container (5), and comprises: a cap (3) which is able to engage with the neck (50) of the container (5) and through which passes a hollow dispensing tube (12) which leads into said container (5), and an insert (4) able to be positioned on or in the neck (50) of the container. The cap (3) and the insert (4) delimit a rigid chamber (10) of variable volume, containing at least one reservoir (2) containing said product and at least one opening (11) for releasing the product in the container (5).Means enable the cap (3) and the insert (4) to be moved closer together, reducing the volume of the chamber (10) and rupturing the reservoirs (2). These means consist of a screw thread (30) present on the cap (3) and engaging with the screw thread (51) on the neck (50).
US08584836B2
The invention allows unwrapping without stress, including in the dark, and the assured taking of the condom in the right orientation, without risk of inversion, without risk of contaminating contact with the exterior of the condom, with no risk of the condom falling from the wrapping during opening, without risk of tearing the condom with the teeth or a cutting object during unwrapping.
US08584833B2
An oscillating conveyor includes a support, a conveying element arranged to carry objects to be moved and supported by the support in order to be displaced between a first extreme position and a second extreme position, and a driving device to displace the conveying element. The driving device includes a crank mechanism, which includes a pendulum pin, which in relation to a rotational axis of the crank mechanism is mounted such that, when the crank rotates, at the pendulum pin an angle between the axis of rotation and a first pivot pin varies within an angular range being either obtuse or acute, resulting in the desired displacement of the conveying element at different speeds, the position of the pendulum pin in relation to the rotational axis being adjustable to vary the displacement speed of the conveyor element.
US08584831B2
A transfer conveyor transports standardized unit loads, such as freight containers, pallets or the like, from a first height level to a second height level, in particular from a higher storage location to a lower transport device. The transfer conveyor is part of a rocker having an adjustable inclination around a pivot axis from one position in which one end of the rocker is aligned with one height level to another position in which the other end of the rocker is aligned with the other height level. Effectiveness and cost-efficiency of the transfer conveyor are created due to the ability of the rocker to be swiveled by the weight of the unit load itself while being transported on the transport conveyor.
US08584829B2
A method of safe transfer of filter segments to a grouping belt in a process of producing multi-segment filters. The method includes transferring the filter segments using a filter segments' flow track, wherein the filter segments' flow track includes, consecutively, a zone of delivery of prepared segments, a zone of separation of delivered segments by a separating unit, a zone of intercepting of separated segments by a transferring unit, a zone of transferring segments by the transferring unit, and a zone of placing the segments by the transferring unit on a horizontal path of the grouping belt; detecting incorrect flow of filter segments in any zone and/or between the zones; and moving the transferring unit and/or the separating unit out of the filter segments' flow track if an incorrect flow of filter segments is detected, and interrupting the process of producing multi-segment filters.
US08584826B2
A system for conveying material is disclosed. The system may include a base assembly including at least one proximal leg movably, and a plurality of wheels configured to move between a transport position in which the plurality of wheels is adjacent to the base, and a working position in which the plurality of wheels is spaced from the base relative to the transport position, wherein the at least one proximal leg is configured to move between a retracted position in which the plurality of wheels supports the system on a ground surface, and an extended position in which the at least one proximal leg supports the system on the ground surface and at least one wheel of the plurality of wheels does not support the system on the ground surface; a conveying assembly; and a support assembly configured to move the conveying assembly between storage and operating positions.
US08584822B2
A closed loop strap handle for a piece of luggage that has been modified to have the closed loop strap handle replaceably added thereon. The closed loop strap handle includes a strap, and apparatus for replaceably having the closed loop strap handle added onto the piece of luggage. The apparatus sits within the piece of luggage. The strap replaceably engages into the apparatus and loops to replaceably engage itself.
US08584817B2
A shock absorber is attached coaxially with a reciprocating rod driven by a reciprocating unit to prevent a bending moment from being applied to the reciprocating rod in absorbing an impact force. The shock absorber has a hollow rod and an outer cylindrical body mounted axially movably relatively to and outside the hollow rod. An accommodating space is formed between the hollow rod and the outer cylindrical body. The hollow rod carries an annular piston, which partitions the accommodating space into two liquid chambers. A compression spring biases the outer cylindrical body toward one end of the hollow rod. When an impact forces the outer cylindrical body toward the other end of the hollow rod, liquid flows from one of the liquid chambers to the other through a gap, so that a resistance force is applied to the annular piston.
US08584812B2
A brake monitor for monitoring a brake system of an elevator system that includes a drive and a drive controller checks for a travel signal generated by the elevator system. If a brake-release signal is not received within a time-window after the occurrence of the travel signal, the brake monitor activates a relay circuit for interrupting a safety circuit of the elevator system or for interrupting a control voltage of the drive controller so that the elevator system can be stopped.
US08584810B2
In an elevator system, a destination call registration device converts operation key information corresponding to a pressed key into floor information by using building specification data. The destination call registration device generates a destination call registration request which includes the floor information converted from the operation key information and sends the destination call registration request to a group management control device. The group management control device registers the destination call for a destination floor indicated in the floor information. The group management control device sets building specification data and sends the building specification data to the respective destination call registration devices for conversion.
US08584804B2
An applicator assembly for delivery of a pumpable material to a top surface of a rail head of rail includes an applicator body having an orifice for delivery of the pumpable material to the top surface of the rail. The body is resiliently yieldable to permit the applicator body to move from a raised position, in which the orifice is positioned for delivering the pumpable material to the top surface of the rail head, to a depressed position in the event the applicator is contacted by a train wheel. The applicator body thereafter returns to the raised position. The applicator body is mounted for movement between a working position in which the applicator body is closely adjacent the rail head and a rail-service position in which the applicator body is remote from the rail head. When the applicator body is in its working position, a metal portion of the applicator body contacts the rail head to form a metal-on-metal hard seal extending lengthwise of the rail head for inhibiting leakage of the pumpable material from the top of the rail head. The applicator assembly is free of any non-metal seals for sealing against such leakage.
US08584802B2
There is provided a mobile height-adjustable platform that includes a chassis with ground engaging wheels. A mast is pivotally connected to the chassis and is movable between a transport position where the mast is parallel to and disposed over the chassis, and an operative position where the mast is perpendicular to the chassis and extends upwards. A conveyor moves along the mast and a work platform is pivotally connected to the conveyer. The work platform is movable between a transport position where the platform is parallel to the mast and an operating position where the platform is perpendicular to the mast.
US08584800B2
A load monitoring system (14) is provided for a mobile work platform that includes an operator platform (6), a base (2) and a lift mechanism (5) for lifting the operator platform relative to the base. The load monitoring system includes a load cell (12) for monitoring the load on the operator platform (6) and a control device (16) for controlling operation of the work platform, wherein the control device (16) is constructed and arranged to sense and monitor both static and dynamic loads on the operator platform.
US08584774B2
A drill system for use with a drill rod includes a support member, and a drill assembly movably associated with the support member and configured to be connected to the drill rod. The system further includes a centralizing device movably associated with the support member and configured to receive the drill rod. The centralizing device includes a movable jaw and a latch arm connected to the jaw and configured to move the jaw between an open position and a closed position for retaining the drill rod. Furthermore, the latch arm has a locking feature configured to hold the latch arm in a locked position to thereby hold the jaw in the closed position.
US08584770B2
A power tool with a motor, a housing, a transmission, an output spindle, a front bearing and a rear bearing. The motor has an output shaft. The transmission is disposed in the housing and receives a rotary input from the output shaft. The transmission includes an input planetary stage, which has an input planet carrier, and an output planetary stage. The output spindle is driven by the transmission and has a first end, which extends at least partly through the input planetary stage, and a second end opposite the first end. The front bearing is disposed between the output spindle and the housing to support the second end of the output spindle for rotation about the spindle axis. The rear bearing indirectly supports the first end of the output spindle in the housing for rotation about the spindle axis.
US08584766B2
A seal assembly sealingly engages a packer that is retrievable from the packer. The seal assembly comprises a sealing structure for receiving by a seal bore of the packer, and a housing assembly defining an inner chamber and having at least one control line conduit and at least one flow conduit passage. The seal assembly further comprises at least one control line extending through the control line conduit into the inner chamber, and at least one flow conduit extending through the flow conduit passage into the inner chamber.
US08584761B2
A motor includes two or more sections. Each section includes a submersible tubular housing and a stator core disposed within the housing. The stator core has one or more lobes and each lobe has a winding wrapped therearound. The motor further includes a rotor disposed within the housing and including a shaft and a rotor core. The rotor core has two or more lobes. Each section is incrementally oriented so that the sections may be operated to mimic a multi-phase motor.
US08584759B2
An apparatus positionable along a downhole string. The apparatus includes a flexible structure retained on a surface of the string in a first condition. The flexible structure movable by a flow to substantially fill an annular space between the string and a radially positioned structure in a second condition. A method of diverting fracturing treatments in a wellbore is also included.
US08584756B1
A method of isolating annular areas formed by multiple well casings can include providing fluid communication through a wall of one of the casings at a location where another one of the casings outwardly surrounds the first casing, then flowing a cement into an annulus formed radially between the first and second casings, then providing fluid communication through the wall of the first casing and a wall of the second casing, and then flowing another cement into another annulus external to the second casing. A method of abandoning a well can include perforating a casing at a location where another casing outwardly surrounds the first casing, flowing a cement into an annulus formed radially between the first and second casings, the cement including a tracer, perforating the first and second casings, and flowing another cement into another annulus external to the second casing, the second cement including a second tracer.
US08584752B2
Embodiments include methods for recovering petroleum products from a formation containing heavy crude oil. In one embodiment, a method includes positioning a steam generator within the petroleum-bearing formation, flowing a fuel source and an oxidizing agent into the steam generator, generating and releasing steam from the steam generator to heat the heavy crude oil, flowing a catalytic material containing a nanocatalyst into the petroleum-bearing formation, and exposing the catalytic material to the heavy crude oil. The method further provides forming lighter oil products from the heavy crude oil within the petroleum-bearing formation and extracting the lighter oil products from the petroleum-bearing formation. In some examples, the fuel source contains methane, syngas, or hydrogen gas, and the oxidizing agent contains oxygen gas, air, or oxygen enriched air. The nanocatalyst may contain cobalt, iron, nickel, molybdenum, chromium, tungsten, titanium, alloys thereof, or combinations thereof.
US08584742B2
A heat exchanger having excellent heat exchanging performance is obtainable by a simple production technique and at a low cost. This is achieved by providing a fin member and by increasing heat conductivity between the fin member and a meandering pipe body. Further, the heat exchanger is made compact for high degrees of layout freedom, enabling the heat exchanger to be installed in a tight space. Engagement grooves (8) are provided in both end surfaces (6, 7), which are opposite to each other, of a fin member (5) in which fins (4) are parallel arranged. Straight pipe sections (2) are parallelly arranged, with gaps (16)in between, in the engagement grooves (8) of the fin member (5). The straight pipe sections (2)a are connected at bent sections (3). A pair of meandering sections (11, 12) is arranged opposite to each other with an insertion gap (17) of the fin member (5) in between. On (11) of the meandering sections and the other meandering section (12) are connected by a connection pipe (13) to form a meandering pipe main body (1). The straight pipe sections (2) of the one meandering section (11) are arranged in the engagement grooves (8) in the one end surface (6) of the fin member (5) inserted and arranged in the insertion gap (17) between the one meandering section (11) and the other meandering section (12) of the meandering pipe body (1), and the straight pipe sections (2) of the other meandering section (12) are arranged and fixed in the engagement grooves (8) in the other end surface (7).
US08584741B2
A heat exchanger has a plurality of chamber units. The chamber units include an inlet orifice, an outlet orifice, and a plurality of walls defining a chamber interior. The inlet receives a heat exchange medium flowing in a first flow direction in an initial line of flow. Disposed within the chamber interior is a medium directing member, having an inclined surface, which diverts the heat exchange medium from the initial flow direction so that it disperses within the chamber interior in at least two distinct flow patterns. Directional flow of the medium may be facilitated by two medium directing channels disposed within one or more of the chamber walls. Protrusion members on one or more chamber walls enhance dispersion of the heat exchange medium, causing a turbulent flow pattern within the chamber interior. The heat exchange medium exits the chamber, via the outlet, in the initial line of flow. The chambers are interconnected to form assemblies. Plural assemblies are arranged between manifolds to complete the heat exchanger.
US08584738B2
A cold plate includes a face sheet comprising a composite material and having a lower surface and at least one cooling tube attached to the lower surface and being capable of transmitting a cooling fluid therethrough. A heat extraction system includes a cold plate comprising a face sheet comprising a composite material and having a lower surface and at least one cooling tube attached to the lower surface and being capable of transmitting a cooling fluid therethrough. The heat extraction system further includes a pump in fluid communication with the cold plate and a heat exchanger in fluid communication with the pump and the cold plate. A method for fabricating a cold plate includes providing a face sheet comprising a composite material and attaching at least one cooling tube to a lower surface of the face sheet.
US08584728B2
A rail for use in a covering for an architectural opening to secure one edge of a retractable shade material includes a recess opening toward the top or bottom of the rail with the recess being adapted to secure an associated edge of the shade material so that the shade material covers a front of the rail to conceal it from view. The edge of the shade material can be releasably retained within the recess by being connected to a removable insert that can be slidably or otherwise retained within the recess. The recess opens upwardly when the rail is used as a headrail or downwardly when the rail is used as a bottom rail.
US08584720B2
Annular tire overlay (11) for drawing onto the rolling surface of tires (40), which has a tread (17) on its outside and a gripping surface (15) on its inside, which tire overlay (11) is so designed that contact between the rolling surface of the tire (40) and the surfacing of the road is prevented by the tire overlay (11) when the tire overlay has been drawn onto a tire. The said tire overlay (11) is provided with a flange (21) which stops the tire overlay (11) from shifting in the axial direction of the wheel. Advantageously, the tire overlay is additionally stiffened by a flange (21) of planar form to keep the contact area on the surface below small.
US08584712B2
A station for reloading a sprayer is disclosed that includes a tank coupled to at least one coating material circuit by a coupler, a docking unit that is adapted to receive a sprayer; and at least one accumulator having a volume that is greater than or equal to the volume of the tank. Each accumulator is connected to at least one circuit by the coupler. The station also includes a mechanism for pressurizing the accumulator. The accumulator is connected to the docking unit which is, in turn, connected to the tank.
US08584707B2
A manifold assembly configured for distributing fluid to an externally connected hydraulic component which may be capable of leakage detection through measurement of pressure decay. The manifold assembly may include a manifold body and a valve assembly. The manifold body may have a plurality of fluid passages. Fluid flow may be controlled by the valve assembly attached to the manifold body. The valve assembly may include two valve devices capable of controlling fluid flow. When fluid is blocked by the valve devices, any fluid leakage may be unloaded from the valve assembly through an orifice located between the two valve devices. The orifice may provide a pressure unloading feature which may increase accuracy of measuring the pressure decay during leakage detection.
US08584706B2
A vortex generator, designed to bring a medium into a controlled vortex motion, with a hollow inlet section (1) to direct the medium into the vortex generator. The inlet section consists of a rotational symmetric cavity (101) with a curved geometry (108). Furthermore, a vortex chamber (4a; 4b), inside which the vortex motion is to be established, is attached to the inlet section. The inlet section (1) contains at least one spiral-shaped conic channel for di-recting the medium from the rotational symmetric cavity to the vortex chamber. The vortex chamber is either trumpet-shaped (4a) or egg-shaped (4b).
US08584700B2
A discharge valve including a tubular, valve seat and a valve guide disposed above the valve seat. The valve guide has a discharge passage plug and a guide rod that is affixed to, and projects downwardly from, the bottom of the plug. The valve guide also has an interiorly threaded, lifting sleeve that is affixed to, and projects upwardly from, the top of the plug. A piston is disposed between the valve seat and the valve guide. The piston has a conical, head portion for engaging the top of the valve seat, and a stem portion that is affixed to, and extends upwardly from, the head portion. The stem portion has a longitudinal socket within which the guide rod is slidably received. The stem portion also has a number of apertures that intersect the socket for providing pressure relief to the socket. A compressed spring is disposed between the valve guide and the head portion of the piston for normally retaining the head portion in engagement with the valve seat. An externally threaded, valve retainer is disposed above the valve guide for pressing the valve guide toward the valve seat.
US08584696B2
A water control structure of a faucet includes a main body, a water collecting base, and a water control valve. The main body is tubular with thin body wall, having a receiving space that receives the water collecting base having water inlet holes on lower portion thereof for water inlet tubes, and each water inlet hole extends upwards to form a water inlet channel, and a water outlet channel is formed therebetween. A water outlet hole is formed on an upper portion of the water outlet channel, and the water outlet hole is provided for the water connecting tube of the water channel to plug in. A valve base is formed on sideway of the water inlet channel and the water outlet channel. The faucet includes the main body and the water collecting base respectively, so the complexity of the main body is reduced, and the manufacturing process is simplified.
US08584693B2
A monitoring apparatus for monitoring the relative flow rates of first and second gases that are to be mixed comprises a first flow-monitoring, laminar flow element in a first gas flow path for detecting a differential first gas pressure thereacross and a second flow-monitoring, laminar flow element in a second gas flow path for detecting a differential second gas pressure thereacross. A comparator device compares the differential pressures and is operable to generate a response in dependence on said comparison.
US08584683B2
A disposable nail polish removing device 12 for removing nail polish and other debris from a finger or toe nail. The nail polish removing device 12 is generally spherical and has one or more indentations 18 for grasping the device. One or more operational areas 24, 26 on the remaining surface 22 of the device may be used to facilitate the absorption and application of a cleaning fluid when one of the operational areas is juxtaposed with a finger or toe nail. The nail polish removing device 12 may be a sponge.
US08584682B1
A scarf with hairpiece device has a generally rectangular bandana with a first bandana surface, a second bandana surface, a first bandana side, a second bandana side, a third bandana side, and a fourth bandana side. The bandana has four quadrants. Arc-shaped first attachment means, second attachment means, and third attachment means are located on the first surface in the fourth quadrant offset from one another. A linear fourth attachment is located on the second surface in the first quadrant. A first sunglasses holding component has a strip located on the second surface in the first quadrant. A second sunglasses holding component has a strip located on the second surface in the third quadrant. The sunglasses holding components are attached on a first end and a second end with an open middle for allowing sunglasses legs to pass through.
US08584674B1
The invention discloses a safety mechanical system by which emergency oxygen is delivered to motor vehicle occupants during an accidental water submersion of the vehicle. The system utilizes an oxygen filled tank located in the trunk, or another concealed area. The tank is connected to a manifold system with an automatic valve. The valve is activated and opened when a series of sensors detects that the vehicle is partially or fully submerged. Upon such detection, the valve is opened and oxygen is delivered through the manifold, then to a series of flexible tubes to a set of drop down masks that automatically deploy from an overhead console in the vehicle's headliner. The drop down assembly is of an adequate length of coiled hose similar to that found on a commercial airliner for oxygen use during sudden decompression. With such an installed system, vehicle occupants are provided with a mask and oxygen until they can be rescued or escape on their own.
US08584672B2
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a protective hood is provided for protecting a wearer's head and face from environmental elements. The hood includes a hood body, a lens, a nose cup disposed inside of the hood body and harness assembly. The harness assembly is attached to the outside of the hood body for securing the hood body and nose cup to the wearer's head and face. The hood further includes at least one nose cup link. Each nose cup link having a portion that is internal to the hood body, a portion that is external to the hood body and a mid-section portion that is connected to the hood body at a plurality of points along mid-section portion. The harness assembly is connected to the external portion of the hood cup link for adjusting the nose cup.
US08584671B2
A nasal dilator is formed as a unitary truss of laminated, vertically-stacked layers. A resilient layer provides stabilization and expansion of nasal wall outer tissues, while an adhesive layer attaches the dilator to the user's skin. Dilator component shapes are designed to facilitate manufacture with reduced material waste. Some embodiments can be assembled by the user to customize the size or configuration to personal preference.
US08584670B2
Methods, pharmaceutical compositions, and systems are provided which include a method for treating a pulmonary viral infectious disease in a subject. The method includes administering a pharmaceutical composition including at least one agent to a pulmonary tissue of the subject, wherein the pharmaceutical composition is administered as two or more distinct and non-overlapping particle size ranges configured to contact two or more levels of pulmonary tissue of the subject, wherein the at least one agent is configured to achieve a selected pH range in the two or more levels of pulmonary tissue of the subject.
US08584666B2
A solar receiver assembly includes a tube adapted to carry a heat transfer medium and a glass envelope surrounding the tube and having opposed ends. An interface is disposed between each end and the tube so as to seal and support the tube from the envelope. And the receiver includes a prism disposed over the interface to divert incident radiation away from the interface and toward the tube and/or the glass envelope. The prisms may be provided with reflective and/or anti-reflective coatings to further optimize diversion of radiation from the interface.
US08584662B2
Apparatus and methods of processing fiber-cement workpieces to form fiber-cement shake panels. One embodiment of such a method comprises positioning a cured fiber-cement workpiece over an anvil plate having at least one slot and driving a cutting blade along a straight, vertical path to pass a cutting edge of the cutting blade through the workpiece. The process can optionally include coating the fiber-cement panels before installing the fiber-cements panels on a wall.
US08584654B2
A method for controlling a tank ventilation device (102) for a motor vehicle (100) is proposed in which first of all a tank vent valve (28) of the tank ventilation device (102) is closed. Then, the value of a control signal for the tank vent valve (28) is increased in the sense of an opening of the tank vent valve (28) until a leak detection means (23, 31) associated with the tank ventilation device (102) recognizes a leak in the tank ventilation device (102). The value of the control signal at which the leak in the tank ventilation device (102) is recognized is identified as the opening control value for opening the tank vent valve (28). In this way, the opening control value for the tank vent valve (28) can be determined with a high frequency and precision.
US08584653B2
An internal combustion engine is provided with a fuel injector which injects fuel into an intake port and exhaust variable valve timing mechanism which changes a valve timing of an exhaust valve. A control device executes early exhaust valve closing control which advances a closing timing of an exhaust valve when conditions for executing early exhaust valve closing control stand. The control device detects an output torque output by an engine body. At the time of deceleration of the engine, even when the condition for executing early exhaust valve closing control stands, execution of early exhaust valve closing control is prohibited when it is predicted that the output torque will become smaller than the limit torque. Thus, due to execution of the early exhaust valve closing control, a large torque fluctuation is prevented from occurring at the time of deceleration of the engine.
US08584650B2
A method of operating an engine including varying a level of ignition energy provided to the engine during an engine start is provided. For example, the ignition energy level may be varied responsive to the amount of alcohol in fuel delivered to the engine in order to improve cold engine starting with higher alcohol fuels.
US08584644B2
An engine for use in an air hybrid vehicle comprises at least one cylinder having a piston (20) defining a variable volume working chamber (10) and intake (12, 14) and exhaust (16) valves controlling the flow of air into and out of the working chamber. The cylinder is operable in any one of at least two modes, namely a first mode in which power is generated by burning fuel in the working chamber (10), and a second mode in which the cylinder acts to compress air drawn into the working chamber (10) and to store the compressed air in an air tank (36). The engine further comprises a non-return valve (32) in an intake port leading to an intake valve (12) of the cylinder so as to define an auxiliary chamber (30) in the intake port between the intake valve (12) and the non-return valve (32). A passage (24) connecting the auxiliary chamber (30) to the air tank (36) contains a valve (34) for controlling the flow of compressed air between the auxiliary chamber (30) and the air tank (36). In the invention, a stop (40) is provided which is operative to prevent full closure of the intake valve (12) when the engine is operating in the second mode, whereby the air compressed in the working chamber by the movement of the piston is admitted through the open intake valve (12) into the auxiliary chamber (30).
US08584640B2
The invention relates to a finger follower, or lever (1) of a valve train, for example of a piston-type internal combustion engine, with a lever body (2) having an end-sided base web (4), on which there is a spherical cap-shaped bearing cup (8) for an articulated mounting on a bearing pin of a housing-sided support element, said bearing pin terminating as a spherical cap; and on this base web is fastened a retaining clamp (9), engaging with an annular groove of the bearing pin, in order to secure the finger follower (1) on the support element in such a way that said finger follower can move to a limited extent.
US08584639B2
A valve drive of an internal combustion engine is provided, having a camshaft (1) which includes a carrier shaft (2) and a cam part (3), which is arranged thereon in a rotationally fixed manner and displaceable between two axial positions and which has at least one cam group of directly adjoining cams (5, 6) having different cam elevations and an axial gate (8) having two cam tracks (9, 10) that extend axially along the circumference in opposing directions, and further having an actuating element (11) that can be coupled to the axial gate for displacing the cam part in the direction of both cam tracks. The cam tracks are arranged one behind the other in the circumferential direction of the axial gate (8).
US08584634B2
A camshaft assembly for an internal combustion engine comprising: a hollow outer shaft 2, an inner shaft 4, cam lobes 6, 8, a phaser 42, 32, and a remote control valve 16. The inner shaft 4 is received within the hollow outer shaft 2. The phaser 42, 32 is mounted to the inner and outer shafts 4, 2. The remote control valve 16 controls the flow of fluid to and from the phaser 42, 32 through a plurality of passages 22, 24, 26, 28 and the inner shaft 4.
US08584633B2
An eVCP camshaft phaser comprising a harmonic gear drive unit having a circular spline and a dynamic spline linked by a common flexspline, and a single wave generator disposed within the flexspline. The circular spline is connectable to either of a crankshaft-connectable sprocket or an engine camshaft, the dynamic spline being connectable to the other thereof. The wave generator is driven selectively by an eMotor to cause the dynamic spline to rotate past the circular spline, thereby changing the phase relationship between the crankshaft and the camshaft. A coaxial coil spring is connected to the sprocket and to the phaser hub and is positioned and tensioned to bias the phaser and camshaft to a stop position wherein the engine can run or be restarted after the eMotor is de-energized. Preferably, the spring comprises a spring cassette for easy assembly into the eVCP.
US08584624B2
An equine support boot comprises a base portion, at least one upper strap, a concave portion formed in the base portion, an orthopedic pad disposed in the concave portion, and at least one sling strap connected to the base portion, the sling strap being configured to apply an upward force on the concave portion.
US08584618B1
The present invention features a pet carrier with handle and wheels. The carrier comprises a cage, a removable top cover, a cage base and a removably attached handle. The cage has a pivotable front door with ventilation slots and door lock. The removable top cover has a bubble shape and is transparent with a picture slot for pet picture or other relevant information. The cage base has a plurality of retractable wheels with each wheel connected to the bottom side of the cage via a support leg and a hinge. The cage has male and female clip connector to connect to a removable strap component, which can also be used to secure the pet within a vehicle. The carrier also comprises a removable handle to be used to push the carrier.
US08584617B2
A clumping animal litter is disclosed which includes non-swelling particles and a swelling agent coated on the non-swelling particles. In one embodiment, the non-swelling particles are manufactured by agglomerating clay fines.
US08584602B2
A laboratory table has a frame with a front frame part and a rear frame part and replaceable tabletop elements positionable on the frame. A detent rail is arranged on the front or rear frame part, having detent openings. Each of these detent openings is for the insertion and sliding guiding of a detent bolt of a tabletop element. In addition, the tabletop elements has at least one detent bolt for insertion and sliding guiding in one of the detent openings of these detent rails. Each tabletop element has at least one fixing mechanism, which is spaced apart from the detent bolt, and which fixes the tabletop element in a locking position and holds the detent bolts, which are guided parallel to a plate axis of the tabletop element in the detent rail in a fixing position.
US08584599B2
A pallet is formed from a thermoplastic material of the polyolefin type, from two pieces, base and deck, that can be coupled to each other with fasteners therebetween. The base and deck are provided with posts each projecting in a direction towards the other and able to be coupled to each other in order to form hollow columns. The posts projecting from the base form the outer wall of a plurality of columns, and the posts projecting from the deck are located at the interior of the columns, forming the inner wall thereof and thus constituting a hollow passage between the outer and inner walls of the columns. The hollow space is filled up with a foamed material to provide a greater impact resistance and resistance to disassembly under normal conditions of operation. The pallet can be integrally recycled without the need to separate the components thereof.
US08584595B2
According to one embodiment, a vehicle drive apparatus configured to drive a vehicle includes a motor arranged on a bogie to drive a wheel, a cooling fan arranged to be rotatable integrally with a rotational shaft of the motor to cool the motor, a control device arranged under a floor of the body to face the bogie and configured to supply an electric power to the motor and control the motor, and a ventilation duct arranged between the motor and the control device and configured to guide a cooling wind blown by the cooling fan into the control device.
US08584593B2
A transportation system which is linked through a common single operating system, in the form of a vacuum tube-link network of transport tubes avoids the limitations of current transportation systems in terms of cost of construction, continuous rising costs of maintenance, limited speed capacity, limited volume capacity, insufficient safety, and vulnerability to environmental and climatic changes. The present invention offers year-round, uninterrupted operation while providing a safe haven at stations for the public during environmental or climatic conditions making sustaining life difficult or impossible. The transportation system of the present invention operates in a contained vacuum tube link environment within which a transport capsule is levitated. Levitation is provided by permanent magnets located in the interior of the transport tube and liquid-cooled super-conducting bulk elements located on the capsule. Cooling may be provided by a fluid such as nitrogen, helium, etc.
US08584590B2
A multiple-part marking system that comprises at least one first part comprising at least one oxalate ester, at least one fluorescer, and at least one inorganic salt; and at least one second part comprising at least one peroxide and at least one catalyst, wherein the at least one inorganic salt is chosen from sodium thiosulphate, potassium thiosulphate, cobalt acetate, copper acetate, lead acetate, cupric chloride, ferric chloride, calcium iodide, potassium iodide, and silver nitrate. Light and heat are emitted when the two parts interact.
US08584580B2
A system of modular, interlocking, raised-rail grate panels and a complementarily-shaped basin for supporting and peripherally-containing the base of the grate panels while continuing to allow the passage of gasses lengthwise between the raised rails and the passage of gases and liquids through the base of the grate panels, such that delivery of searing and reflective heat to a cooking food is facilitated, wherein the grate panels and basin are coated with an abrasion-resistant, high-temperature, easy-to-clean, non-stick coating for ease of use, and wherein accessory features such as integrated, stylized food branding irons and raised-rail adaptive cooking tools are optionally provided.
US08584565B1
This document provides devices and methods for processing elongate generally cylindrical food products. For example, this document provides devices and methods for longitudinally cutting sausages, and the sausage designs as cut thereby.
US08584559B2
The device for automatically feeding blanks or half-finished workpieces to a machine tool, more particularly a CNC lathe, and automatically unloading the machined workpieces is composed of a gantry loader having an integrated feeder device that allows loading bars into the rear of the spindle of the lathe, thereby constituting a universal automatic feeding device. Furthermore, the latter more particularly allows a controlled removal of the bar end after all workpieces have been machined from a respective bar.
US08584556B2
The invention relates to a method and a device for the precision machining of crankshafts or camshafts to final size tolerances RZ<10 μm, preferably ≦5 μm and concentricity tolerances≦30 μM, preferably 6 μm. The crankshafts or camshafts has been machined by a cutting operation and at least partly subjected to hardening. According to the invention, after an initial cutting operation and subsequent hardening to 45 to 60 HRC, preferably 50 to 53 HRC, a final cutting operation is carried out using cutting inserts fitted with CBN or PCD inlets. The device used for this purpose has cutting inserts which are fitted with CBN or PCD inlets, wherein cutting inserts clamped in place laterally, radially and tangentially follow each other alternately.
US08584554B2
A torque multiplier includes a main body, a torque input shaft, at least one torque sensor, an angle sensor, and an information transmission circuit. The main body contains therein at least one gear train. The gear train has upper and lower ends respectively forming a torque input port and a torque output shaft. The torque output shaft is coupleable with a tool piece, such as a socket. The torque input shaft has an end fit into the torque input port and an opposite end coupleable with a torque device, such as a hand tool, an electrical tool, or a pneumatic tool. The torque device applies a torque input to the torque input shaft that in turn rotates the gear train to provide a multiplied torque output to the torque output shaft. The torque sensor is mounted to a surface of the torque output shaft of the gear train of the main body to detect the torque value of the torque output shaft and provide a torque value signal. At least one angle sensor mounted to the main body detects a horizontal angle of the main body and the torque output shaft and provides an angle value signal. The information transmission circuit is arranged inside the main body to transmit, in a wired or wireless fashion, the torque value signal and the angle value signal to at least one electronic device for storage, display or use.
US08584550B1
A gear shift arrangement for a bicycle that is separate and distinct from a brake lever of the bicycle, in which the bicycle has a derailleur and a derailleur cable associated therewith, includes a single lever adapted to only perform a shifting operation of gears of the bicycle, a housing, a mounting arrangement in the housing for mounting the single lever for movement in a first pivoting direction and for movement in a second substantially linear direction, and a shift control mechanism in the housing for controlling shifting of the gears of the bicycle in a first shifting direction upon movement of the single lever in the first pivoting direction and for controlling shifting of gears of the bicycle in a second, opposite shifting direction upon movement of the single lever in the second substantially linear direction.
US08584547B2
A robot part, such as a robot arm or a robot joint, surrounded by an impact absorbing structure is provided. According to the invention, the impact absorbing structure has a shroud surrounding the robot part. The shroud is mounted on two spacing elements such that an interspace is formed between the shroud and the robot part. At least one of the spacing elements mounts the shroud elastically. Also provided is a method of protecting a robot part by providing the robot part with an impact absorbing structure according to the invention.
US08584545B2
A drive train for a motor vehicle, including a drive unit having a drive shaft and a transmission having a transmission input shaft and a plurality of gears, of which at least one is used as a starting gear for the motor vehicle, and having a friction clutch, which is arranged between the crankshaft and the transmission input shaft and is actuated in an automated manner. In order to prevent start-up noise caused by backlashes in the motor vehicle, a backlash present in the transmission is compensated by applying a small compensating torque set at the friction clutch to the transmission input shaft while the starting gear is engaged before start up.
US08584543B2
In a drive train of a motor vehicle having an engine and a dual-clutch gearbox for transmitting engine power to driven wheels of the motor vehicle, an additional gearbox having at least two shift positions with different transmission ratios is arranged between the engine (5) and the driven vehicle wheels in series with the dual clutch gearbox.
US08584541B2
An anti-backlash assembly of the type for transferring motion via a pin movable along a slot. The assembly comprises a pivot lever and a second lever member. The pivot lever comprises a body portion and a pivot lever portion extending from the body portion to a pivot lever distal end. The pivot lever portion defines a pin engagement slot extending from adjacent the pivot lever distal end toward the body portion. A pair of fingers extend in parallel and spaced relationship from the pivot lever distal end of the pivot lever portion toward the body portion to engage opposite sides of a pin of the engagement arm. Each of the fingers includes a pin engaging section extending to an inwardly extending distal end and a spring section extending in a for urging the fingers into clamping engagement with the pin.
US08584532B2
Disclosed is a rotor for a torque sensor configured to improve a mechanical coupling force with respect to a jig in a process of adjusting a torque center, thus enabling a fine adjustment, the rotor including a rotor body having a sleeve coupled to a rotating shaft and a yoke protruding from an outer circumference of the sleeve, a ring-shaped magnet coupled to an outer circumference of the yoke, and an anti-slip structure formed on the rotor body and partially coming into contact with a jig during a rotating process for adjusting a torque center, thus inhibiting slipping between the rotor body and the jig when a rotating force is transmitted, so that slipping between the jig and the rotor body is inhibited to enable precise transmission of the rotating force whereby accuracy is improved during fine adjustment of the torque center.
US08584527B2
A single wire interface for a transducer transmits the transducer output as a frequency modulated signal over one single wire during one interval. During a second interval a reference signal is transmitted as a frequency modulated signal. Both the transducer output and the reference signal output are processed by the same circuitry during the respective intervals to provide both frequency modulated signals. The frequencies of the two signals are measured and then the ratio of the two periods which is the reciprocal of the two frequencies is calculated. This ratio is the direct measure of the output of the transducer and when provided eliminates sources of errors.
US08584523B2
A sensor device includes a base plate, a seismic mass having an upper side and a lower side that is situated such that given acceleration of the base plate the seismic mass is capable of being displaced in a direction oriented non-parallel to the upper side and/or to the lower side, at least one raised stop on the seismic mass, and a detection and evaluation device that is adapted to acquire a displacement movement of the seismic mass relative to the base plate and, taking into account the displacement movement, to determine an item of information relating to an acceleration of the sensor device and/or to a force acting on the sensor device, the seismic mass having at least one resilient area that includes the at least one stop and at least one displaceable remaining area, and the resilient area being connected to the remaining area via at least one spring. A method is for manufacturing a sensor device.
US08584510B2
A method of determining a pressure parameter of a plant sample (1) comprises the steps of subjecting the plant sample (1) to a clamp pressure (pclamp) created with a clamp device (10), measuring at least one pressure response value (pp) of the plant sample (1), which depends on the clamp pressure (Pclamp)/and determining the pressure parameter on the basis of the at least one pressure response value (pp), wherein the clamp pressure (pclamp) is adjusted, such that the plant sample (1) has a viscoelastic pressure response to the clamp pressure (pclamp). Furthermore, an apparatus (100) for determining a pressure parameter of a plant sample (1) is described.
US08584507B2
A gas sample introduction device for introducing sample gas to a gas analyzer includes a measuring tube, a sample gas supply flow path for introducing the sample gas to the measuring tube,a carrier gas supply flow path for introducing carrier gas to the measuring tube, an exhaust flow path for discharging the gas passing through the measuring tube to outside, and a collecting tube for absorbing a component in the sample gas. A first flow path switching device switches between a first state in which the measuring tube is inserted between the sample gas supply flow path and the exhaust flow path, and a second state in which the measuring tube is inserted between the carrier gas supply flow path and the gas analyzer. A second flow path switching device switches between a collecting-tube inserted state and a collecting-tube short-circuited state in which the collecting tube is not inserted.
US08584504B2
An ammonia concentration detection sensor 100, has: a sensor element 110 capable of detecting the ammonia concentration of a measurement target gas; and a protective cover 120 that regulates the inflow of the measurement target gas into the sensor element 110 and protects the sensor element 110. The protective cover 120 is coated with a coating layer.
US08584493B2
The invention describes an actuating lever which can be pivoted into a recess, and which, in the pivoted-in position, can be locked in place by means of a key-actuable lock, such as a cylinder lock, wherein the access opening for the key is provided with a cover, secured by means of a pin, wherein according to the invention the cover can be moved along the longitudinal extension of the actuating lever between two end positions, with said cover closing off the access opening in one end position and exposing the access opening in the other end position, and wherein the cover forms an undercut groove, which receives the head of a pin which is secured to the actuating lever.
US08584487B2
A refrigerant system utilizes an expander to expand refrigerant and to drive or assist in driving an associated compressor. By varying the compressor load, the speed of the expander can be adjusted to achieve the desired thermodynamic characteristics of the expanding refrigerant and enhance expander operation.
US08584484B2
An aircraft cooling system evaporator arrangement has at least two mutually independent coolant circuits, at least two evaporation devices arranged to be hydraulically parallel for enabling an exchange of heat between the coolant and a refrigerant, at least two supply lines for supplying refrigerant to the evaporation devices, and at least two discharge lines for discharging refrigerant from the evaporation devices. A different one of the evaporation devices, a different one of the supply lines and a different one of the discharge lines are assigned to each of the coolant circuits, and the supply lines are hydraulically separate from each other as are the discharge lines. At least one refrigerant sensor monitors a refrigerant state of each of the discharge lines and an expansion valve is driven in accordance with the refrigerant sensors to control streams of refrigerant through the supply lines.
US08584478B2
A no-frost refrigerator includes at least one storage compartment, an evaporator, which can be switched on and off and is disposed in a chamber that is separate from the storage compartment, and a fan for driving an exchange of air between the storage compartment and the chamber. Of the evaporator and fan, at least one can be operated while the other is switched off.
US08584474B2
Provided is an ice maker that includes a mold including a plurality of cavities for receiving water to be frozen into ice pieces, a driver operatively connected to the mold for adjusting a position of the mold to a plurality of different locations during an ice making cycle, and a controller. A limit switch is located at a plurality of different positions along a range of travel of the mold to be actuated and transmit a signal indicative of the mold's arrival at the different locations. The mold can travel along path including first portion having a first axis of rotation and a substantially vertical portion, and can be driven by a motor with a drive shaft rotatable about a single axis of rotation. The motor can drive both the mold and a bail arm, and the mold can be leveled upon reaching a predetermined location. The ice maker can perform a Dry Cycle in response to detecting an anomaly during ice making.
US08584473B2
The invention relates to a cooling apparatus, especially for cryogenically preserving biological samples, comprising a duct (5) for delivering a coolant (3) to a cooling chamber (1), a heater (6) that has an adjustable first heating performance (P2) for heating the coolant (3) delivered to the cooling chamber (1), a first temperature sensor (8-10) for measuring the temperature (T2-T4) in the cooling chamber (1), a second temperature sensor (7) for measuring the temperature (T1) of the coolant (3) delivered to the cooling chamber (1), and a regulator (11) for regulating the temperature. Said regulator (11) is embodied as a multiple regulator which detects several temperatures (T1-T4) as control variables and/or adjusts several heating performances (P1, P2) as manipulated variables. The invention further relates to a corresponding operating method.
US08584467B2
A method of controlling a combustor of a gas turbine is disclosed. The method includes operatively disposing a combustor can in a combustor of a gas turbine. The combustor can comprising a plurality of combustor fuel nozzles, each having a fuel injector and configured to selectively provide a liquid fuel, a liquid fluid or liquid fuel and liquid fluid to a fuel injector nozzle that is configured to provide, respectively, a plurality of liquid fuel jets, a plurality of liquid fluid jets or a combination thereof, that are in turn configured to provide an atomized liquid fuel stream, an atomized liquid fluid stream, or an atomized and emulsified liquid fuel-liquid fluid stream, respectively. The method also includes selectively providing an amount of fuel, fluid or a combination thereof to the fuel injector nozzle to produce an atomized fuel stream, atomized fluid stream, or an atomized and emulsified fuel-fluid stream, respectively.
US08584466B2
A combustor for a turbine engine is provided. The combustor includes a first liner; a second liner positioned relative to the first liner to form a combustion chamber therebetween, the combustion chamber configured to receive a fuel-air mixture; an igniter positioned relative to the combustion chamber and configured to ignite the fuel-air mixture; a first group of air admission holes positioned in the first liner and forming a regular circumferential pattern around the first liner; and a second group of air admission holes positioned in the first liner at a first circumferential position corresponding to the igniter, the second group of air admission holes departing from the regular circumferential pattern.
US08584463B2
An exemplary system and method for storing and retrieving energy in a thermoelectric energy storage system is disclosed. The thermoelectric energy storage system includes a working fluid that is circulated through a first and second heat exchanger, and a thermal storage medium that is circulated through the first heat exchanger. The second heat exchanger is in connection with a first thermal bath during a charging cycle and with a second thermal bath during a discharging cycle. In this way roundtrip efficiency is improved through minimizing the temperature difference between the first thermal bath and the hot storage tank during charging, and maximizing the temperature difference between the second thermal bath and the hot storage tank during discharging.
US08584460B2
A method and an arrangement are provided for reducing a NOx-content in the exhaust gas of an internal combustion engine in a vehicle. An exhaust gas recirculation supplies exhaust gas from the exhaust outlet to the intake of the internal combustion engine, and at least two energy absorbers are provided in series in the exhaust flow downstream of the exhaust outlet and absorb energy of the exhaust gas. The exhaust gas is overheated to a first temperature by driving the combustion engine in a range of rotational speed producing hot exhaust gas at the exhaust outlet. The first temperature is sufficient to drive the at least two energy absorbers. A temperature of the exhaust gas is established downstream of the at least two energy absorbers sufficient to remove NOx from the exhaust gas in the exhaust after treatment system with an efficiency of more than 80%.
US08584458B2
A power plant includes an engine configured to receive charge air and produce exhaust. A first turbo machine is configured to be driven by the exhaust and drive a compressor that receives air. The compressor is configured to produce the charge air. A second turbo machine is configured to receive a portion of the exhaust and rotationally drive a pump in response thereto. High temperature and low temperature EGR heat exchangers are arranged in the exhaust gas recirculation passage serially relative to one another upstream from the pump. A heat exchanger arranged in the exhaust gas recirculation passage upstream from the pump. A water separator is arranged in the exhaust gas recirculation passage fluidly between the heat exchanger and the pump. An EGR catalyst is arranged in the exhaust gas recirculation passage upstream from the heat exchanger.
US08584449B2
A manifold for a multicylinder internal combustion engine which includes a plurality of outlets (1) comprises upper, lower and central shells (15, 5, 51) that are connected with one another and define inlet channels and outlet spaces (63, 65). A baffle plate (35) is attached to different shells (5, 15) by means of a fixed/movable bearing and can expand thermally without transferring thermal stresses to the shells (5, 15).
US08584439B2
A pickup assembly of an agricultural machine has a rotatable shaft and bulkheads with a reel assembly having plural double-stacked tine rows flanked by reel cover attachment areas. Each double-stacked tine row has a plurality of spaced apart tines with a pair of radially extending portions for engaging crop material. Each double-stacked tine row has a first row of tines and a second row of tines offset from the first row such that adjacent tines are offset in both a direction around the circumference of the shaft and also in a transverse direction along the shaft. A reel cover is coupled to the bulkhead and has slots through which portions of the tines extend.
US08584438B2
The present description discusses apparatuses and methods for applying straps around a bundle of objects by applying a variable force to tension the strap around the bundle of objects and then actuating a series of cams to control the sealing of the strap around the bundle of objects. The apparatus includes a track assembly extending substantially about a strapping station. The track assembly is adapted to receive a strap and to release the strap during a tensioning operation. An accumulator delivers strap to the track assembly. The accumulator has a strap conveyor system that defines a strap path and an accumulator container adjacent to the strap path. Strap can be accumulated in the accumulator container and subsequently delivered to the track assembly.
US08584426B2
Another exemplary embodiment relates to a sash assembly. The sash assembly includes an outer sash having at least one groove, an inner sash having at least one groove, and a removable binder extending along a perimeter of a surface of the outer sash and inner sash. The binder is configured to engage the outer sash and the inner sash and to mechanically couple the outer sash and the inner sash together. The binder includes a plurality of protrusions. Each protrusion is configured to mate with one of the groove in the inner sash and the groove in the outer sash. Each protrusion includes a plurality of flexible barbs that are compressed when the protrusion mates with one of the grooves. The flexible barbs provide a force on interior edges of the groove to couple the inner sash and outer sash together. The binder is configured for removal for service of the sash assembly.
US08584423B2
Floor panels and floor elements therefore are made of sheet-shaped cores which are formed with sealing means for preventing or counteracting changes in the properties of the floor panels caused by moisture.
US08584420B2
A spacer device (30) for use in a cavity wall of a building to determine the separation of the building elements of the two leaves (19,20) of the wall during construction, comprising a support body (31) having a plurality of spaced projections (32) extending transversely of the general plane of the support body and, in use, across the cavity between the said two leaves, each projection having means for preventing or at least inhibiting the transfer of moisture at least in one direction from one end of the projection to the other.
US08584418B2
A cross runner connector receivable in a through runner hole that locks with an identical opposed connector and locks with the through runner hole with increased tensile strength, both locks being releasable without tools by manipulation of the associated cross runner.
US08584415B2
A sealing gasket for use attached preferably to the topmost edge of gypsum board when used as construction wallboard. The gasket includes a support leg section capable of being mounted in engagement with preferably the uppermost edge of the gypsum board. The gasket includes a sealing leg extending outwardly from said leg section which includes an intumescent component to facilitate sealing between the edge of the gypsum board and the wall structure above. In one embodiment the sealing leg includes an intumescent impregnated paper material covered with a structurally enhancing layer. An adhesive layer can be included to attach the gasket to the gypsum wallboard. The sealing leg in this embodiment has an “A” or “P” profile and will extend upwardly and inwardly over the upper edge of the gypsum board at an obtuse angle with respect to the support leg for sealing thereabove in the head-of-wall area.
US08584409B1
A stairway barricade assembly includes a pair of barricade panels and a pair of barricade hinges carried by the pair of barricade panels, respectively, and adapted to pivotally attach the pair of barricade panels, respectively, to the stairway. Each of the barricade panels includes an outside panel portion adapted for positioning outside the stairway handrail, an inside panel portion extending from the outside panel portion and adapted for positioning inside the stairway handrail and a handrail slot between the outside panel portion and the inside panel portion. The handrail slot is adapted to accommodate a corresponding handrail of the stairway. The barricade panels are selectively pivotal between a closed position in which the inside panel portions block the stairway and an open position in which the inside panel portions unblock the stairway.
US08584403B2
A fluid flow channel may include a scavenger system, which may expel solids from the channel. The channel may be supported by structure and include a floor surface, a transition surface, and a ramp surface. The scavenger system may include an actuator that may be pivotally mounted to the structure. The actuator may be attached to a face plate framework which may include a box structure for increased strength. The actuator may propel the face plate framework across the floor surface, transition surface and ramp surface of the channel. The face plate framework may be adapted for rolling reciprocating contact with the channel surface. The channel floor may afford a park position for the scavenger system and the ramp surface may be angled to reduce jamming of the scavenger system. The channel may also include a wear plate to reduce wear between the scavenger system and the channel.
US08584402B2
Provided is a door opening and closing system capable of returning to a return state where a catch and a retractable arm are engaged with each other even if the retractable arm is closed completely as a result of incorrect usage such as a prank. A catch has a catch base which is mounted on either one of the door and a frame and a catch shaft which is installed in the catch base slidable in an axial direction and engaged with a retractable arm. At a tip end of the catch shaft, a small-diameter part is provided as a step part. The step part of the catch shaft and the retractable arm are engaged with each other in a state where the retractable arm is further rotated in the closing direction after a main body part of the catch shaft and the retractable arm are engaged with each other.
US08584395B2
Generally, a decoy duck apparatus of the invention includes a decoy duck body which includes an interior cavity which receives anchor retrieval means. A quantity of tether is wound on a spool portion of the anchor retrieval means, and an anchor is attached to a distal end of the tether. With a first embodiment of the invention, the anchor retrieval means include a spring-powered anchor retrieval mechanism. Preferably, a bottom chamber is located in the decoy duck body below the interior cavity. The bottom chamber is defined by an interior cavity bottom wall and a decoy body bottom wall. A removable and replaceable drain plug located in the decoy body bottom wall for permitting drainage of water out from the bottom chamber. Preferably, a resilient tether guide is interconnected between the interior cavity bottom wall and the decoy body bottom wall. The resilient tether guide receives the tether and wipes water off of the tether when the tether is raised and lowered with respect to the decoy duck body. With a second embodiment of the invention, the anchor retrieval means include a hand-cranked anchor retrieval mechanism.
US08584393B2
An accessory bracket 100 comprising first element 200 and second element 300 along with means for attaching first element with a firearm mount 10 and second element. The second element provides a semi-cylindrical accessory bar 320 with a length to safely extend the accessories such that the accessories do not interfere with operator vision or full movement or deflection of firearms. When attaching the second element with the first element, the accessory bracket provides an upper and lower position for adjusting the height of the second element in relation to the first element, the firearm mount, and the firearm 20. Safe, interchangeability for multiple firearms and accessories are provided as well as access areas and apertures for attaching the first and second elements, changing a barrel, wiring and connectors for accessories, as well as for firearm cooling and dispersal of gas and debris from the firearm rounds of ammunitions.
US08584382B2
The present invention relates to an insole, in particular for a sports shoe, and shoe comprising an electronic chip. In order to provide a shoe, in particular a sports shoe, with an electronic chip in a more cost efficient way compared to the prior art, wherein the chip can easily be replaced or removed in case of failure or for recycling, the invention provides an insole, in particular for a sports shoe, wherein the insole comprises an electronic chip. The insole may be fitted into any kinds of shoes and may be readily replaced or removed, as is not an inherent part of the shoe.
US08584381B2
An article of sports footwear (10) comprises an upper part or casing (11) to partly surround the user's foot, and a sole (12), associated with the casing (11). The sole (12) comprises an internal insole (13) having, during use, an upper surface (13a) attached to the casing (11) and a lower surface (13b) to which at least an anti-slip support element (14), made of an at least partly soft material, is attached. The insole (13) has a plurality of stiffening elements (15) made of a harder material than that of the anti-slip element (14), and disposed in correspondence with the position of the sole (12) where the front bindings (19) and/or back bindings (20) of the skis act. The stiffening elements (15) are inserted in gaps and spaces present in the anti-slip element (14) so as to be disposed slightly retracted with respect to the at least one anti-slip support element (14) in a non-deformed condition of the latter, as for example when in use for walking, and being able to be disposed at least flush therewith in the deformed condition of the anti-slip element (14), for example when in use for skiing.
US08584378B2
The present invention relates to an outsole for a shoe, the outsole including a sole plate, extending from a heel part, via a midfoot part, into a forefoot part of the outsole, at least one first reinforcing rib integrated into the sole plate, and a reinforcing plate disposed above or below the at least one first reinforcing rib. The present invention also relates to a shoe, including a shoe upper including a closure region and a sole region, and at least one reinforcing element attached to the inside of the shoe upper, arranged in a midfoot part of the shoe upper, and including a plurality of flexible bands extending between the closure region and the sole region.
US08584368B2
A position restriction structure of scissors includes a main body, a second body, a driving handle, a connecting piece, a restricting piece and a plurality of hinged units, wherein a main hinge hole and a second hinge hole provided for the second body and the driving handle are through and passing through a center portion of the main body, and the second body and the driving handle have a gearing teeth portion and a activating teeth portion engaged with each other. The restricting piece attaches to one side of the second body and driving handle and the hinge unit passes therethrough. The restricting piece clamps the second body and the driving handle through a screw and screw nut of the hinge unit to restrict axial position of the gearing teeth portion and activating teeth portion to prevent the second body from shear forces and to improve durability of the product.
US08584366B2
A serving utensil comprises a handle having a gripping portion that is gripped by the user. A serving receptacle is operatively connected to the handle. There is mounted to the serving utensil a serving scraper having a resilient arm with a bowed shape. The resilient arm has a scraping end and a mounting end. A mounting means at the mounting end is for mounting the resilient arm to the serving utensil forwardly of the gripping portion of the utensil used to grip the utensil and rearwardly of the serving receptacle. A scraper-remover is disposed at the scraper end of the resilient arm so that food can be scraped off of the food receptacle of the utensil when the serving scraper is actuated by the user.
US08584356B2
A method of fabricating a lobed structure for a gas turbine flow mixer having an annular upstream portion extended downstream by a portion forming a multilobed skirt, the method comprising: making a fiber preform (100) out of refractory fibers and having a shape corresponding to the shape of the lobed structure to be fabricated, from a plurality of component elements of fiber texture that are assembled together and shaped by means of tooling of a shape corresponding to the shape of the lobed structure to be fabricated so as to obtain an assembled fiber preform having a first preform portion (111) corresponding to the annular portion of the lobed structure and a second preform portion (112) corresponding to the multilobed skirt of the lobed structure, the component elements of the fiber preform being assembled together at least in part along connection lines (121) extending substantially in the flow direction of the flow past the lobes of the multilobed skirt preform portion; and densifying the assembled and shaped fiber preform by means of a matrix that is ceramic, at least in part.
US08584352B2
Multilayer printed wiring boards superior in formation of an ultrafine wiring, which can form a conductive layer superior in peel strength on a flat insulating layer surface, can be prepared by a method including the following steps (A)-(E): (A) a step of laminating a film with a metal film, wherein a metal film layer is formed on a support layer, on an internal-layer circuit substrate via a curable resin composition layer, or laminating an adhesive film with a metal film, wherein a curable resin composition layer is formed on a metal film layer of the film with a metal film, on an internal-layer circuit substrate; (B) a step of curing a curable resin composition layer to form an insulating layer; (C) a step of removing a support layer; (D) a step of removing a metal film layer; and (E) a step of forming a metal film layer on an insulating layer surface by electroless plating.
US08584343B2
The invention relates to a method for the application of a function or joint element to an elastically deformable planar material or workpiece, the function element having a rivet section on a contact surface, extending beyond said surface, wherein the application of the function element to the planar material is achieved in a jointing and riveting process by introduction of the section into a joint opening and by plastic deformation of the river section in a rivet connection engaging behind the joint opening, wherein, in a boundary region enclosing the joint opening, the planar material is held under tension between the deformed rivet connection and the contact surface of the function element.
US08584340B2
A method is provided for producing a tight, form-fitting connection between a housing cover and a housing body, wherein the housing cover has cover tabs protruding from an edge thereof, and an edge area of the housing body has recesses for respectively receiving the cover tabs. The method involves positioning the housing cover on the housing body and deforming the cover tabs in the housing recesses to produce the tight, form-fitting connection in a single operation with a single tool.
US08584337B2
An electronic component repair method for removing an electronic component soldered on a substrate, the method includes: mounting a heat transfer plate on the electronic component to be removed, the heat transfer plate being formed by bonding a plurality of heat transfer members via a heat insulating member, heating the heat transfer plate mounted on the electronic component by a heating unit, the heating unit heating individually each of the heat transfer members by different heat amount; and removing the electronic component from the substrate after the heating.
US08584326B2
A slider has an upper blade of a slider body having an insert groove of a locking pawl, a temporary engagement portion which temporary engages and fixes the locking pawl, and a claw hole. The temporary engagement portion is adapted so that, with the locking pawl fixed in position, the position in height of the upper end of the temporary engagement portion is the same as or lower than that of the upper surface of the upper blade. This prevents the temporary engagement portion from being pressed and crushed when the temporary engagement portion is in contact with the tab and so on. As a result, an automatic stop mechanism of the slider can stably function.
US08584316B2
The hinge (1) for furniture comprises at least one deceleration device attached to the outside of the hinge box (4), an actuating lever (12) for the deceleration device, supported in oscillating fashion in the hinge box (4), and elastic return means to bring the actuating lever (12) back to an initial position, the deceleration device comprising a housing body (15) which extends peripherally along a side wall (9) of the box (4) and has means for fixing it to the side wall (9), the elastic return means being located on the housing body (15) outside the box (4) and providing at least one elastic arm (16) which protrudes into the inside of the box (4) through an aperture (17) in the side wall (9) of the box (4) to connect operatively with the actuating lever (12).
US08584309B2
A vacuum cleaner includes an auxiliary suction nozzle in fluid communication with an auxiliary port provided on the vacuum cleaner. A vacuum hose can be coupled with the auxiliary port to establish fluid communication between the auxiliary suction nozzle and a source of suction.
US08584306B2
A robot cleaner to perform a cleaning process by changing a traveling pattern according to a cleaning start position and a method for controlling the same are disclosed. The robot cleaner recognizes a current position of the robot cleaner upon receiving the automatic cleaning command. If the automatic cleaning process starts from the charger, the robot cleaner performs the automatic cleaning process using a conventional cleaning method. Otherwise, if the automatic cleaning process starts from the outside of the charger, the robot cleaner changes a traveling pattern, performs the spot cleaning process and then selectively performs the automatic cleaning process.
US08584297B2
A hand-operated drain snake is provided. The snake includes a first shaft having a first longitudinal axis, an auger disposed on an exterior surface of the first shaft, a second shaft having a second longitudinal axis, and a transverse member. A proximal end of the first shaft is disposed on one side of the transverse member and a proximal end of the second shaft is disposed on an opposite side of the transverse member such that the first axis is substantially parallel to the second axis, and the first axis is offset from the second axis by an offset distance.
US08584294B2
A scrub head includes a first disc scrub member, a movable support having first and second positions, and a movable disc scrub member. The first disc scrub member is rotatable about a first vertical axis. The movable disc scrub member is rotatable about a second vertical axis and is connected to the movable support. The movable disc scrub member is configured to move relative to the first disc scrub member along first and second orthogonal axes of a horizontal plane, which is transverse to the first and second vertical axes, between first and second positions respectively corresponding to the first and second positions of the movable support.
US08584286B2
Systems and methods for providing a self deflating cushion whereby a volume of air within the cushion is controllably released to a surface of the cushion thereby providing a cooling effect to the seated anatomy of a user. The cushion further provides a variety of internal, open cell cushioning materials that store and release air during use of the cushion.
US08584279B2
A patient support surface including a cover defining an interior region, a layer of three dimensional material, located at the interior region, and an air circulation device disposed adjacent the layer of three dimensional material. The patient support surface includes at least one of a percussion device and a vibration device, located at the interior region.
US08584272B2
A system is provided for enhancing the interconnectability of a bathtub to a plumbing system. More specifically, provided is a flexible conduit and an overflow assembly that allows for a portion of the overflow assembly to be easily located with the wall of a bathtub. The flexible conduit provided allows for adjustability of the conduit to the openings of the bathtub. In addition, provided are methods and apparatus that facilitate testing of a plumbing assembly. Finally, an apparatus and methods are provided that protect portions of the finished bathtub assembly to decrease in the need for replacing said hardware. It is envisioned that aspects and inventions disclosed herein can be used in conjunction to facilitate the interconnection and protection of hardware associated with a bathtub.
US08584271B2
A corner for a pool providing a transition of the corner angle therein and thereby providing for ease of installation, improved aesthetics, improved operation, and simpler maintenance.
US08584269B2
A nozzle assembly of a toilet bidet and its control method are disclosed. The nozzle assembly includes: a cleansing nozzle with a cleansing water flow path; a dispensing tube connected with the cleansing water flow path to dispense cleansing water; an actuator including a connector coupled to the dispensing tube and a plurality of polymer driving bodies coupled to the connector, wherein an electroactive polymer is housed within the polymer driving bodies, a pair of electrodes are formed on an outer surface of the polymer driving bodies, and when voltage is selectively applied to the electrodes of each polymer driving body, the electroactive polymer moves toward one electrode to force a corresponding polymer driving body to be bent to thereby adjust a dispensing angle of the dispensing tube; and a voltage supply unit that applies voltage to the electrode of the polymer driving body.
US08584267B2
A manual toilet seat lifter apparatus is provided for lifting and lowering a toilet seat and toilet seat cover. A riser rod is pivotally connected to a hinge pin supported on the toilet seat. A handle is connected to a top end of the riser rod, and a counterweight is connected to a bottom end of the riser rod. An engagement member on the riser rod proximal to the counterweight is adapted to engage a hook provided on the toilet seat cover so that the toilet seat and cover both may be lowered simultaneously upon manipulation of the handle on the riser arm.
US08584265B2
Headgear and head suspension system adapted to support an object with a head of a wearer. A flexible circumferential band has an anterior portion and a posterior portion, at least a portion of the anterior portion of the flexible circumferential band having a replaceable headband bridge having a particular configuration. A configuration of the head suspension system may be modified by replacing the replaceable headband bridge with another headband bridge of a different configuration.
US08590057B1
A server may receive encryption key requests that each identify a sender of the encryption key request and at least one recipient of information that is to be encrypted with the requested encryption key. In response, an encryption key may be sent to the sender of the encryption key request. Information identifying the sender and the at least one recipient may be stored. The server may receive decryption key requests that each identify a sender of the decryption key request and a sender of encrypted information. In response, a decryption key may be sent to the sender of the decryption key request if and only if the sender of encrypted information and the sender of the decryption key request, as both identified by the information in the decryption key request, match, respectively, a sender of an encryption key request and an associated recipient, as both identified by the stored information.
US08590054B2
Network activity in a network is regulated. Network activity scores that correspond to network usage patterns for respective network users are calculated. A network user is assigned into one of multiple risk classes responsive to a respective one of the network activity scores. A subsequent action is selected responsive to which of the risk classes the network user is assigned.
US08590053B2
Methods, systems, and devices secure content in memory. The content includes a lock that prohibits reading the content from memory. Prior to expiration of the lock the content cannot be read from memory. However, a preview option allows at least a portion of the content to be accessed. The preview option provides a preview of the content. At expiration, the content is readable.
US08590040B2
Embodiments of the invention are directed towards logic and/or modules stored in processor secure storage to determine whether a first platform firmware image (e.g., basic input/output system (BIOS), device read-only memory (ROM), manageability engine firmware) loaded onto a processor cache is valid. The processor executes the first platform firmware image if it is determined to be valid. If the first platform image is determined to be invalid, a second platform firmware image is located. If this platform firmware image is determined to be valid, the processor will execute said second platform image.In some embodiments of the invention, the determination of whether the first platform firmware image is valid is based, at least in part, on verification of a digital signature associated with the first platform firmware image. The digital signature may be created, for example, from a private key, wherein the digital signature is verified via a public key.
US08590034B2
A system (101) for implementing redaction rules in compliance with an organization's privacy policy, where the system intercepts messages between an information source (103) and an information destination (102), modifies the message contents based on redaction rules (106) and forwards the redacted contents over to the client. The system also maintains a record of the redacted information and updates the contents of any message submitted by the client (102) in order to maintain database integrity.
US08590030B1
A system for efficiently storing and activating credential seeds that are embedded in authentication devices. Device manufacturers provide copies of credential seeds embedded in the devices to an authentication service. The authentication service stores the credential seeds for authentication devices in a pre-active credential seed data store. When a credential seed is needed to perform a real-time or near real-time authentication of a One Time Password, the credential is fetched from the pre-active credential seed data store, used to authenticate the OTP and injected into the active credential seed data store, which can be a database. Thereafter, the credential seed is fetched from the active credential seed data store for real-time and near real-time authentication of OTPs. The credential seeds can be stored in the data stores with additional information, such as user profile data, permissions and authorizations, OTP authentication algorithm information, metadata, OTP moving factor data, time-to-live, and other attributes.
US08590029B2
A mechanism is provided for managing access authorization to forums open to anonymous users within an organization. A token distributor application provides a unique token to each member of a community or organization. The application is trusted by all members to not store an association between the authenticated user and the token when a token is assigned. The only control exerted by the token distributor is to block users who have already obtained a token from receiving another token. The communication tool or collaboration space may accept creation of a new anonymous identity, such as a nickname, to any individual supplying a token assigned by the token distributor application. An administrator may ban users by token. A banned user cannot access the communication tool or collaboration space using a nickname associated with a banned token.
US08590001B2
A method of operation of a network storage system includes: receiving a host command for displaying a video stream; performing a forced read ahead of the video stream beyond the host command including: identifying a high definition video stream, dynamically setting a block count and a loop count for the forced read ahead, and transferring data from hard disk drives to a cache for anticipating a host next command; and transferring cached data from the cache for responding to the host next command for displaying the video stream.
US08589999B1
A media processing unit, the media processing unit including: (i) an input interface, configured to receive a second media stream, wherein the second media stream includes first access units and second access units; wherein each second access unit lacks decoding parameters sufficient for full decoding of the second access unit; wherein each first access unit includes decoding parameters required for full decoding of at least one first access unit and of at least one second access unit; (ii) a media-processor, configured to select a selected access unit of the second media stream, and to process the second media stream to provide a processed second media stream by writing into the selected access unit decoding parameters that are responsive to decoding parameters of a previous first access unit; and (iii) a transmitter, configured to transmit the processed second media stream to a splicer.
US08589997B2
A community access or cable television (CATV) entry adapter interfaces a CATV network to subscriber devices at a subscriber premises. The CATV entry adapter is remotely disabled or enabled through the CATV network to prevent or allow downstream CATV signals from reaching subscriber devices connected to the adapter. The CATV entry adapter is also adapted to function as a hub in a MoCA network independently of whether the CATV entry adapter is disabled or enabled.
US08589995B2
A synchronization information providing server to synchronize a broadcast program with additional information related to the broadcast program, a synchronization information providing method of synchronizing a broadcast program with additional information related to the broadcast program, a client apparatus to process synchronization information received from the synchronization information processing server and a method of processing synchronization information received from the synchronization information processing server are provided. The synchronization information providing server manages metadata of a broadcast frame constituting a broadcast program and additional information related to the metadata. The metadata includes time information and image feature information of the broadcast frame. Upon receiving synchronization request information, which includes time information and image feature information about at least one broadcast frame of a predetermined broadcast program, synchronization information to synchronize the predetermined broadcast program with additional information related to the predetermined broadcast program is provided to the client apparatus.
US08589990B2
A demonstration arrangement for controlling a plurality of television sets or other controllable electronic devices has one or more programmed processors. A control interface is adapted to receive user commands. The processors are programmed to, upon receipt of user commands: select one or more television sets or groups of television sets while leaving others of the television sets unselected; select one of the content sources; and send signals that cause the selected content sources to be displayed by the selected one or more television sets or groups of television sets without affecting operation of unselected television sets or groups of television sets. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.
US08589989B2
An in-train information distribution and display system and enables dynamic selection and display of contents having higher advertising effectiveness according to train information. A first program listing having time slots set therein and a plurality of advertising content data associated with each of the time slots of the first program listing, as candidates for program material, are prepared in a ground content-distribution server. An on-board central-distribution server determines the program material by selecting one of the plural advertising content data associated with each of the time slots of the first program listing, based on train information and passenger information obtained from a train-information central unit. A program listing having determined program materials constitutes a second program listing. Video terminals render advertising content data allocated to the respective time slots according to the second program listing and display the advertising content data as advertising information on displays.
US08589988B2
A method for converting a sink device and an apparatus for providing a content using the same are provided. The method for converting the sink device includes receiving a sink device conversion command from a first sink device, transmitting the content to a second sink device if a conversion approval of the sink device is received from the second sink device, and transmitting a control authority related to a content provision from the first sink device to the second sink device.
US08589985B2
A method, system API and computer product for adapting reverse data channel (RDC) utilization by selectively restricting the reporting of statistics data from client devices using a client-side filter adapted in response to configuration data from a file or other source file.
US08589984B1
An in-show product advertisement and purchase system is disclosed. The system effectively promotes product advertisement as well as enables customers to conveniently purchase the desired products directly from a displaying medium during the advertisement. The system establishes a linkage between show content and advertised products such that customers have practical impression and experience about what the advertised products embody in real life. The system is a TV version of an online store. The system is an interactive and listable method for advertisement. The in-show products are updateable.
US08589983B2
A method of controlling a television receiver, and which includes receiving, via an input unit, an automatic channel setting command for automatically setting channels; searching, via a processor, television broadcast channels including television airwave and cable channels and media sources different than the television airwave and cable channels; and assigning, via the processor, preset channels to the television broadcast channels and assigning non-preset channels to the media sources found in the searching step.
US08589982B2
Using a TV, a viewer watching broadcast TV or Internet video content on a display can select a “Video Search” application indicating viewer desire to obtain information about a currently playing video program. The application is invoked to send a name of the currently playing video program to a server on the Internet and associated with a database to cause the server to execute a search only of the database associated with the Internet server and not to execute a search of the Internet. The server returns metadata related to the currently playing vided program, which is presented on the display along with the currently playing video program.
US08589980B2
The invention concerns a method and an apparatus performing the method. In the method a change to a background download enabled state is detected at a mobile node. The mobile node retrieves at least one content package from a remote node and detects a change to a browsing mode. The mobile node indicates the existence of at least one content package on a display to the user and receiving an indication via a remote control unit of a selection of a content package by the user. In response, the mobile node presents content from at least one file in the content package on the display, receives an indication via the remote control unit of a selection of a hyperlink in the content package and downloads a content item corresponding to the hyperlink.
US08589979B2
A digital television translator includes a digital television receiver for receiving a first digital television signal at a first frequency and generating a digital transport stream from the first digital television signal. The digital transport stream can include original Program and System Information (PSIP) data having RX channel data that is indicative of the first frequency, the first major channel number, and/or the first minor channel number. The digital television translator also includes a PSIP update module for updating the original PSIP data in the digital transport stream by replacing the RX channel data with TX channel data. The TX data is indicative of a second frequency, a second major channel number, and/or a second minor channel number. The digital television translator further includes a digital television modulator for converting the digital transport stream having the updated PSIP data into a second digital television signal at the second frequency, where the second frequency can be the same or different from the first frequency.
US08589976B2
A program guide system is provided in which an interactive television program guide that is implemented at least partially on user television equipment receives program listings data and real-time data such as sports scores, news data, and the like. The real-time data may be stored in a database maintained by the program guide, so that the program guide may access the stored real-time data at a later time. Updated program listings information may be provided to the program guide as part of the data stream in which the real-time data is provided. Unique keys may be generated for the program listings data and real-time data associated with each live event. The keys may be compared at the program guide to determine which program listings correspond to which items of real-time data. A controllable ticker may be displayed on top of a television program on the user television equipment. The controllable ticker may be sponsored. Different types of real-time data may be assigned different expiration times. When data has expired it may be removed from the database.
US08589975B2
A non-frame television program guide notification system is provided. The system allows a user at a system to order and receive notifications of non-frame television programs. The user can order notifications by selecting a program or supplying a program title directly. The user can specify when and how often the notifications will be generated and received. If desired, the user can view a list of all currently requested notifications. Entries can be added to the list or the user can cancel a previously ordered notification.
US08589966B2
An optical pickup whose thickness is small and power consumption is low is provided, in which these advantages are achieved by increasing the driving force generated in the tilt coil in an objective lens driving apparatus and by making the thickness of the objective lens driving apparatus to be small.In an optical pickup including: an objective lens for condensing light onto an optical disc; a lens holder to which the objective lens has been attached; a focusing coli, a tracking coil, and a tilt coil, which have been attached to the lens holder; and a reflection mirror for reflecting light toward the optical axis of the objective lens, the tilt coil is made to have a shape in which the tilt coil is not brought into contact with the side of the reflection mirror, the side being near to the objective lens.
US08589963B2
An electronic device comprises a main body and a limiting mechanism. At least one clasp is mounted on the inner surface of the main body. The limiting mechanism comprises a locking portion and a blocking portion. The at least one clasp is capable of being hooked to the opening and engaged with the locking portion to secure the limiting mechanism to the main body. The blocking portion abuts the at least one clasp for preventing the at least one clasp from disengaging from the locking portion after the at least one clasp is hooked to the locking portion.
US08589957B2
An adaptive content platform includes one or more content-enabled, dependent applications, each of which includes a user interface and business logic. A services layer, which is interfaced with the dependent applications and a software infrastructure, provides one or more services that are usable by the dependent applications.
US08589944B2
Method and system aspects for mapping tasks to iteratively improve task assignment in a heterogeneous computing (HC) system include identifying a current machine that defines a makespan in the HC system. Further included is the reassigning of at least one task from the current machine to at least one alternate machine in the HC system according to a predefined reassignment constraint. Reassigning also includes reassigning the at least one task when the at least one alternate machine can perform the at least one task in addition to previously assigned work while finishing in less time than the time of the makespan reduced by time required for the task being reassigned.
US08589943B2
Multi-threaded processing with reduced context switching is disclosed. Context switches may be avoided through the use of pre-emption notification, a pre-emption wait time attribute and a no-context-save yield.
US08589942B2
A hard real time (HRT) thread scheduler and a non-real time (NRT) thread scheduler for allocating processor resources among HRT threads and NRT threads are disclosed. The HRT thread scheduler communicates with a HRT thread table including a plurality of entries specifying a temporal order for allocating execution cycles to one or more HRT threads. If a HRT thread identified by the HRT thread table is unable to be scheduled during the current execution cycle, the NRT thread scheduler accesses an NRT thread table which includes a plurality of entries specifying a temporal order for allocating execution cycles to one or more NRT threads. In an execution cycle where a HRT thread is not scheduled, the NRT thread scheduler identifies an NRT thread from the NRT thread table and an instruction from the identified NRT thread is executed during the execution cycle.
US08589919B2
In one embodiment, an apparatus configured for communication with a plurality of virtual machines includes a virtual switch in communication with one or more of the virtual machines, an interface in communication with one or more of the virtual machines and configured for communication with a hardware implemented switch, and a mode selector for assigning to each of the virtual machines, a mode of operation for forwarding data from the virtual machine and switching the assigned mode of operation at one or more of the virtual machines. The mode of operation is selected from a first mode wherein the data is forwarded by the hardware implemented switch and a second mode wherein the data is forwarded by the virtual switch.
US08589914B2
A virtual installation map, and method involving installing a software functionality using the same, the virtual installation map including a first software installation map including a plurality of software elements representative of a related software file, the software elements also including at least one dependency to another software element. The virtual installation map further including a second software installation map also including a second plurality of software elements representative of related software file along with related dependencies. The first and second software installation maps may be hosted in separate databases and may relate to software products provided by different vendors. One or both software installation maps may include a pointer or other reference to the other installation map thereby providing a virtual installation map, in one example.
US08589913B2
One embodiment is a method of installing a block-level write tracking driver in a Microsoft Windows™ operating system so that no reboot of the system is need, another embodiment is a method of installing a block-level write tracking driver in a Linux operating system so that no reboot of the system is needed, and still another embodiment is a method of tracking block-level writes to snapshots under newer Microsoft Windows™ operating systems.
US08589911B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving first user input, the first user input indicating a first intent; searching applications installed on the computing device based on the first intent; determining that none of the installed applications are capable of fulfilling the first intent; transmitting a request to a server system, the request requesting applications capable of fulfilling the first intent; receiving a list of one or more applications, each of the one or more applications being capable of fulfilling the first intent; downloading and installing a first application of the one or more applications; launching the first application; and fulfilling the first intent using the first application.
US08589903B2
A computer-based system can comprise a patch management system to a load patch to a software program; and an installer to install components of the software program. The installer can interpret metadata to instruct the patch management system to automatically load the patch to the software program.
US08589896B2
Apparatus and methods are provided for controlling the loading status of DLLs. Specifically, a streaming program compiler is provided. The compiler includes operation modules for calling DLLs during streaming program execution; association table generating units for generating association tables according to user-defined rules, where the association table includes entries indicating (i) stream branches of the streaming program and (ii) an operation module corresponding to the stream branches; and a trigger generating unit for generating a trigger based on user-defined rules, where the trigger generating unit (i) determines which conditions for loading and unloading DLLs fit the streaming program, (ii) matches these conditions to a particular stream branch to identify a matched stream branch, and (iii) sends out triggering signals indicating the matched stream branch. This invention also provides a corresponding method and controller.
US08589895B2
A mechanism is provided for automatic detection of assertion violations. An application may write assertion tuples to the assertion checking mechanism. An assertion tuple forms a Boolean expression (predicate or invariant) that the developer of the application wishes to check. If the assertion defined by the tuple remains true, then the application does not violate the assertion. For any instruction that stores a value to a memory location or register at a target address, the assertion checking mechanism compares the target address to the addresses specified in the assertion tuples. If the target address matches one of the tuple addresses, then the assertion checking mechanism reads a value from the other address in the tuple. The assertion checking mechanism then recomputes the assertion using the retrieved value along with the value to be stored. If the assertion checking mechanism detects an assertion violation, the assertion checking mechanism raises an exception.
US08589892B2
A Design-Under-Test (DUT) may be designed to perform speculative execution of a branch path prior to determination whether the branch path is to be performed. Verification of the operation of DUT in respect to the speculative execution is disclosed. A template may be used to generate a plurality of tests. In addition to standard randomness of the tests to various parameters in accordance with the template, the tests may also differ in their respective speculative execution paths. The tests are partitioned by a generator into portions to be placed in speculative paths and portions to be placed in non-speculative paths. The generator may provide for a variance in portions. The generator may provide for nested speculative paths.
US08589891B2
Provided are techniques for the tracing of computer processes and, more specifically, to techniques that enable a work unit to be traced across multiple processing components. A data structure is created and associated with a work unit. The first time a unit of work is processed a tracing context is retrieved form a pool and associated with the data structure. As the unit of work is passed from component to component, the data structure is passed so that each component has access and is able to augment the same tracing context associated with the unit of work.
US08589890B2
A system, method, computer program product, and program storage device for storing trace information of a program is disclosed. Upon entering or calling a subroutine, a memory buffer is created. Whenever a nested subroutine is called inside the subroutine, a subordinate memory buffer is created. Upon completion of a subroutine execution, a corresponding memory buffer is deleted. When encountering an event (e.g., an error, a defect, a failure, a warning) during execution, all data in currently existing memory buffers are transferred to a secondary memory storage device (e.g., a disk).
US08589884B2
The present invention provides a method, system and computer program product for identifying regression test cases for a software application by identifying one or more units of functionalities of the software application, structuring the use case activity diagrams using the identified units of functionalities, modifying the structured use case activity diagrams when there is a change in the software application, and analyzing the modifications made to the structured use case activity diagrams to identify regression test cases for the changes in the software application.
US08589882B2
A method that may include: monitoring over time, actions carried out by at least one programmer over a software development environment to yield development patterns; comparing the development patterns to best practice rules to yield a comparison results indicating deviations of the development patterns from the best practice rules; and analyzing the comparison results based at least partially on a likelihood of each action deviated from the respective best practice rule to result in a software bug, to yield an analysis of potential software bug prone code sections, wherein at least one of the monitoring, the comparing, and the analyzing is executed by at least one processor.
US08589879B2
Upon receiving debugging program activation instructions sent from a communication port (1), debugging program activation instruction distribution units (61 and 71) distribute the received debugging program activation instructions to execution units designated by these activation instructions. Debugging program activation units (62 and 72) are provided for each execution unit (A and B) and, based on the activation instructions distributed by the activation instruction distribution units (61 and 71), activate debugging programs (63 and 73) on the execution units designated by these activation instructions.
US08589873B2
There is disclosed a software engineering system and method for engineering software components. In an embodiment, the method comprises providing the software component with an input interface, an output interface, and a control interface, the control interface being configurable to receive external conditions or parameters that are specific to an environment or to a domain; and providing one or more externally modifiable adapters, the one or more externally modifiable adapters having environment-specific or domain-specific data, and being configurable to be dynamically bound to the software component in dependence upon external conditions or parameters that are specific to an environment or to a domain in which the software component is to be executed.
US08589872B2
There is disclosed a system and method for identifying a variable type during coding of a software program. In an embodiment, the method comprises defining a unique variable type string for the variable type, and when a unique variable type string is typed adjacent to a new variable name, converting the unique variable type string to a variable type identifier tag attached to the new variable name. Each unique variable type string may be defined as a prefix or a suffix. In another embodiment, the method further comprises defining a unique variable scope string for a variable scope, and when a unique variable scope string is typed adjacent to a new variable name, converting the variable scope to a variable scope identifier tag attached to the new variable name. The variable type identifier tag and the variable scope identifier tag may both be attached to the new variable name in a subscript font and/or superscript font.
US08589866B2
In an embodiment, a data processing system comprises device driver generation logic that is encoded in one or more computer-readable storage media for execution and which when executed is operable to perform receiving a first capability description from a computer peripheral device, wherein the first capability description describes one or more capabilities of the computer peripheral device; receiving a generic device driver file; receiving configuration data; automatically generating a device driver for the computer peripheral device and for a computer operating system based on the first capability description, the generic device driver file and the configuration data; device job processing logic that is configured to receive a request to use the computer peripheral device, to request and receive current first capability description from the computer peripheral device at the time of the request, to generate based on the current first capability description and send to the computer peripheral device job ticket data that describes a job for the computer peripheral device to perform, and to provide job data formatted in a page description language to the computer peripheral device.
US08589865B2
Composite applications can be created that utilize a plurality of different services across a plurality of different cloud stack layers. The composite applications are defined using the Service Component Architecture (SCA) model. Composite applications can be translated from the SCA model into a format compatible for a virtualization platform, such as the Open Virtualization Format (OVF). Composite applications, as defined in the format compatible for the virtualization platform, can be deployed on the virtualization platform.
US08589864B2
An application provisioning model is automatically created. The model is created from a high-level application and specifies dependencies of the application. It is used to provision the application on one or more nodes or other actions.
US08589863B2
Techniques for extending a service model with specification of information consumed. The service model includes specification of at least one exposed interface. A receiving operation receives specification of information consumed by a service implementation of the service model. The information consumed is information that is or needs be utilized by the service implementation without being passed through the exposed interface. A generating operation automatically generates an extended service model using a computer processor. The extended service model includes specification of the exposed interface and specification of the information consumed by the service implementation.
US08589855B1
A datapath extraction tool uses machine-learning models to selectively classify clusters of cells in an integrated circuit design as either datapath logic or non-datapath logic based on cluster features. A support vector machine and a neural network can be used to build compact and run-time efficient models. A cluster is classified as datapath if both the support vector machine and the neural network indicate that it is datapath-like. The cluster features may include automorphism generators for the cell clusters, or physical information based on the cell locations from a previous (e.g., global) placement, such as a ratio of a total cell area for a given cluster to a half-perimeter of a bounding box for the given cluster.
US08589852B1
Certain circuit models include design parameters that reflect user choices and statistical parameters that reflect modeling uncertainty. For each performance goal (e.g., a one-sided performance goal), a closest point of failure in the statistical parameters is used to identify a statistical corner that characterizes a specified tolerance for that performance goal. Adjusting the design parameters to improve performance for these corners improves overall performance and corresponding yields.
US08589851B2
Designing memory subsystems for integrated circuits can be time-consuming and costly task. To reduce development time and costs, an automated system and method for designing and constructing high-speed memory operations is disclosed. The automated system accepts a set of desired memory characteristics and then methodically selects different potential memory system design types and different implementations of each memory system design type. The potential memory system design types may include traditional memory systems, optimized traditional memory systems, intelligent memory systems, and hierarchical memory systems. A selected set of proposed memory systems that meet the specified set of desired memory characteristics is output to a circuit designer. When a circuit designer selects a proposed memory system, the automated system generates a complete memory system design, a model for the memory system, and a test suite for the memory system.
US08589846B2
Systems and techniques are described for determining a transition-effect model for a timing arc of a library cell. A transition-effect model can be determined for each library cell that is used during an optimization process. The transition-effect models enable an optimization system to estimate the impact of a change in the transition at an output of a driver gate on the delays of downstream gates without requiring to propagate the change in the transition to the downstream gates. Once determined, the transition-effect models can be used to compute one or more transition-induced penalties during circuit optimization. An optimization system can then use the one or more transition-induced penalties to determine whether or not to accept an optimizing transformation, or to discretize a solution obtained from a numerical solver.
US08589838B1
A method for designing a system on a target device includes merging a netlist for a first partition of the system generated from a bottom-up design flow with a netlist for a second partition of the system from a top-down design flow to form a combined netlist, and performing fitting on the combined netlist.
US08589835B2
A system and methods are disclosed for inferring higher level descriptions of circuit connectivity from register transfer level (RTL) netlists in order to provide more understandable and manageable design descriptions for complex System-on-Chip (SOC) designs. In particular, rule-based interface matching is automatically performed by analyzing actual port names on instances of functional elements and blocks to form signal groupings that comprise a higher-level abstracted description. An example syntax is provided for defining rules that are used to define how various analysis are performed. Data describing standard interfaces on common Intellectual Property (IP) blocks is optionally made available to facilitate interface matching. Also, a facility is included to allow user-guided mapping on instantiated interfaces with respect to actual port names in an RTL-level design.
US08589822B2
Some embodiments of the inventive subject matter are directed to presenting a first portion of content and a second portion of content in a two-dimensional view via a graphical user interface and detecting an input associated with one or more of the first portion of the content and the second portion of the content. Some embodiments are further directed to selecting the first portion of the content in response to the detecting of the input, and changing the presenting of the first portion of the content from the two-dimensional view to a three-dimensional view in response to the selecting the first portion of the content. Some embodiments are further directed to continuing to present the second portion of the content in the two-dimensional view while changing the presenting of the first portion of the content to the three-dimensional view.
US08589821B1
A technique for end-user programming includes populating a template with graphically illustrated actions and then invoking a command to generate a screen element based on the template. The screen element is rendered within a computing environment and provides a mechanism for triggering execution of a sequence of user actions. The sequence of user actions is based at least in part on the graphically illustrated actions populated into the template.
US08589818B1
An off-screen content indication system receives an identification of a geographic term, generates an off-screen content indicator that indicates a location of an off-screen entity associated with the identified geographic term, places the off-screen content indicator outside a viewport that currently displays a portion of a map to a user, and temporarily moves or shifts the viewport toward the general direction of the location of the off-screen entity to reveal the generated off-screen content indicator.
US08589816B2
A CE device employs user interfaces to allow a user to define energy management rules within the user's premises, visualize energy use in the home and in neighbor's homes for comparison and competition in saving energy, and receive tailored advertisements for appliances that are more energy efficient than what the user currently owns.
US08589809B2
Systems and methods of conducting a meeting between a plurality of people in a virtual environment are provided. A display associated with each of the plurality of people outputs a virtual conference room that includes an avatar associated with each of the plurality of people, and a virtual display that displays a 3-D model of a manufacturing facility. A selection of an object of the 3-D model is received and the virtual display displays information associated with the selected object of the 3-D model. The display associated with each of the plurality of people outputs the virtual conference room and the virtual display with the information associated with the selected object of the 3-D model.
US08589804B2
The present invention provides techniques relating to collaboratively authored stories and electronic books, and the writing thereof. Techniques are provided in which a template relating to a story, and a set of rules governing collaborative writing of the story by multiple user authors, are obtained. Writing contributions, for integration into the story, may be obtained from each of the user authors. A completed story is obtained, in which forming the completed story includes integrating the writing contributions. Access to the story, such as in the form of an electronic book, is provided to users, such as for a fee.
US08589803B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, an avatar engine having a controller to retrieve a user profile associated with a user, present the user an avatar having characteristics that correlate to the user profile, detect one or more responses of the user during a communication exchange between the user and the avatar, identify from the one or more responses a need of the user, establish a communication session with a second avatar engine responsive to the identified need of the user, engage in a communication exchange with the second avatar engine in relation to the identified need of the user, and identify one or more results from the communication exchange. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US08589801B2
An identification card with a planar member having a plurality of apertures formed therein and a plurality of prisms, each respectively mounted in one of the apertures so as to produce a refraction of a selected color of light transmitted through the aperture different from the refraction of a color of light transmitted through the other prisms in the plurality of other apertures.
US08589799B2
A method provides, as part of a computer administration system, an administration interface that can operate almost any computerized device having a user interface. The computer administration system manages components of a computer system and the administration interface is operable to configure the components and to provide dynamic performance and configuration information of the components to the user as the components operate. The method provides a “commentary input” area on the administration interface while providing performance and configuration information of a specific component or a set of components. Thus, the method can receive comment(s) about the specific component(s) of the computerized system in the commentary input area. When this occurs, the method stores the comment(s) in a data store in a manner that associates the comment(s) with the specific component(s) that was being monitored. The method also automatically stores contemporaneous component data with each comment in the data store.
US08589786B2
The results of a trademark availability search can be graphically depicted using a store layout diagram. A store layout diagram shows the layout of a store including the various sections of the store. Graphical elements representing trademarks are arranged on the store layout diagram and positioned so that they are visually associated with the relevant sections of the store.
US08589778B2
There is disclosed a system and method for processing multi-modal collaboration. In an embodiment communication received from multiple modes are converted into a common format. Using various conversion modules, the communication may be converted into a common electronic text format (e.g. ASCII text) that contains keywords. Once the communication is converted into a common format, the information contained in the communication may be analyzed and consolidated into related areas or topics. The consolidated information may then be searched for common references in order to augment the information context.
US08589763B2
A cache memory is operated in a write through system, and an operation to be performed when a cache mishit occurs is performed when corresponding data is not stored in the cache memory, or only when an error occurs although there is the data. Then, a bit indicating that a soft error has occurred before is set in the cache memory, and when the bit indicates “1” and if an error has occurred again, it is determined that a hardware error has occurred, and an interrupt is generated in the CPU. The bit is to be reset at time intervals sufficiently shorter than the frequency at which it is considered that a soft error occurs.
US08589762B2
Multi-bit stuck-at fault error recovery can be enabled by adaptive multi-bit error correction method, in which the overhead of error correction hardware is reduced without affecting the lifetime of the memory device. Error correction logic hardware is decoupled from memory blocks. An error correction logic block is partitioned such that error correction logic entries support different number of error correction capabilities based on the probability of occurrence of the different number of errors in different memory blocks. Faulty memory blocks are mapped to appropriate error correction logic entries. The mapping can be one-to-one or many-to-one depending on embodiments. The adaptive partitioning of the error correction logic entries can be configured to match projected statistical distribution of errors in logic blocks, and can reduce the total error correction logic overhead, provide sufficient error correction, and/or extend the lifetime of the memory device.
US08589758B2
The present disclosure describes a method, performed by a data processor comprising a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) module configured for calculating CRC remainders for encoded data and a comparator comprising a shift register, for making a cyclic redundancy check of an encoded data record of bit length L, in which at least A bits of the record represent content data and at least B bits represent check data. A system for performing a cyclic redundancy check is also described.
US08589756B2
A memory card according to an embodiment includes: a memory section having a binary storage area (SLC area) and a multi-value storage area (MLC area); an error correction section configured to correct an error of data stored in the MLC area; and an erasure correction section configured to store, in the SLC area, the position information on the multi-value memory cell storing the data having the error detected by the error correction section and configured to perform erasure correction on the basis of the position information.
US08589753B2
A method and apparatus may be used for supporting multiple hybrid automatic repeat request (H-ARQ) processes per transmission time interval (TTI). A transmitter and a receiver may include a plurality of H-ARQ processes. Each H-ARQ process may transmit and receive one TB per TTI. The transmitter may generate a plurality of TBs and assign each TB to a H-ARQ process. The transmitter may send control information for each TB, which may include H-ARQ information associated TBs with the TBs. The transmitter may send the TBs using the associated H-ARQ processes simultaneously per TTI. After receiving the TBs, the receiver may send feedback for each of the H-ARQ processes and associated TBs indicating successful or unsuccessful receipt of each of the TBs to the transmitter. The feedback for multiple TBs may be combined for the simultaneously transmitted H-ARQ processes, (i.e., TBs). When MIMO is implemented, one H-ARQ process may be associated with one MIMO stream, or codeword. The feedback may include a channel quality indicator (CQI) per MIMO stream or codeword. The control information and the feedback may be sent via a layer 1 or layer 2/3 control part.
US08589752B2
A method of transmits a data block of a type from a transmitting device (for example a transmitting network node) to a receiving device (for example a receiving network node), in particular during a temporary block flow. A transmitting device is capable of receiving at least two different types of positive/negative acknowledgements for data blocks of said type from said receiving device and the reaction of the transmitting device to the positive/negative acknowledgements depends on the type of the said received positive/negative acknowledgement.
US08589751B2
The provided are a don't-care-bit identification method and program for identifying don't-care-bits from the first and the second input vectors in an input-vector pair while keeping the sensitization status of paths, in a combinational circuit, sensitized by applying the first and the second input vectors in serial to input lines of combinational circuit. The method identifies an unspecified bit from the first and the second input vectors V1 and V2 composed of logic values 0 and 1, which are applied to the combinational portion in a sequential circuit or to an independent combinational circuit. The method includes an identification step for identifying an unspecified bit from the first and the second input vectors, while keeping sensitization status of a part of or all of the paths, sensitized by applying the first and the second input vectors.
US08589749B1
A method and apparatus for preventing the overwriting of memory contents during certain scan operations is disclosed. An integrated circuit (IC) may include a memory and a scan chain having a number of serially coupled scan elements. A number of the scan elements may be coupled to circuitry for inputting signals to or receiving signals output from the memory. An inhibit circuit may also be coupled to the circuitry for inputting signals to the memory. During scan shifting operations commensurate with a scan dump mode or a memory dump mode, the inhibit circuit may de-assert one or more control signals that otherwise enable access to the memory in order to prevent shifted data from overwriting the contents stored in the memory. The apparatus may also include a bypass unit coupled to a memory read port, which can be activated to prevent unauthorized access to protected data stored in the memory.
US08589746B2
A system and method for sharing a communications link between multiple protocols is described. A system includes a communications interface configured to exchange information with other systems using at least one of a plurality of protocols; a protocol select register that stores a value that selects a protocol from among the plurality of protocols to become an active protocol; and a state machine accessible to the communications interface, the state machine used to control the exchange of information through the communications interface according to the active protocol. The active protocol is used by the communications interface to exchange information while the remaining protocols of the plurality of protocols remain inactive. The state machine sequences through a series of states that cause the communications interface to operate according to the active protocol, and that are designated as inert sequences under the remaining protocols.
US08589745B2
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a semiconductor die such as a system on a chip (SoC) that includes a logic analyzer with a built-in trace buffer to store information communicated between on-die agents at speed and to provide the information to an off-die agent at a slower speed. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08589736B2
An automated system and method for test data generation for software testing. The present application relates to management of software testing by generating test data automatically. Further the system and method generate test data automatically with respect to two coverage criteria Boundary Value Coverage (BVC) and Masking Boundary Value Coverage (MBVC) in the white-box setting.
US08589731B1
A method of rolling back software in an automatic teller machine is provided. The automatic teller machine includes at least one computer and at least one software program running on the at least one computer. The at least one software program includes at least one virtual environment. The method includes detecting the failure of at least on software component running on the at least one computer. The method further includes restoring a previous version of the software. Finally, the method includes activating the restored software.
US08589727B1
Methods and apparatus for providing continuous availability include communicatively coupling a first node and a second node, each having at least one processor, an executing application management framework, and a first application. The first node is executing its associated first application. A plugin for the first node application management framework is executed. The plugin is dynamically loadable by the application management framework. The plugin specifies application availability rules for protecting the availability of the first application.
US08589724B2
A method and apparatus for rebuilding a data set. In accordance with some embodiments, a data storage device is coupled to a host. An error condition associated with a memory of the data storage device is detected. Data stored in a first portion of the memory unaffected by said error condition is transferred to the host. A communication signal is output to the host that indicates that data stored in a second portion of the memory affected by said error condition will not be transferred to the host. The host reconstructs the data stored in the second portion of the memory responsive to the communication signal.
US08589721B2
A system and method are disclosed for balancing the requirements of high availability achieved by redundant active components and power saving achieved by less active components. The requirement for high availability can be expressed by the recovery time objective (RTO) which specifies the amount of time it takes to recover from a failure in the system. Based on the configured RTO, the system configures the most appropriate power mode.
US08589719B2
A control apparatus controls a signal processing unit. The signal processing unit is mounted within a case and includes a waveform shaping unit which performs a waveform shaping process on an inputted signal. The control apparatus includes: an obtaining device which obtains (i) mounting information indicating a mounting state of the signal processing unit, (ii) temperature information indicating a temperature of the signal processing unit, and (iii) processing unit characteristic information indicating characteristics unique to the signal processing unit; and an adjusting device which adjusts waveform shaping characteristics of the waveform shaping unit, on the basis of the mounting information, the temperature information and the processing unit characteristic information.
US08589714B2
The disclosure describes a novel method and apparatus for allowing a controller to access a bus router using a communication occurring in response to one edge of a clock to select one or more devices for access using a communication occurring on the opposite edge of the clock. Additional embodiments are also provided and described in the disclosure.
US08589711B1
A system including an integrated circuit (IC) and a power supply regulator external to the IC. The IC operates in accordance with an active mode and a lower power mode, and is configured to retain a logical state during the low power mode. The power supply regulator is configured to i) supply a first voltage potential to a first pin of the IC during the active mode, and ii) disable the first voltage potential during the low power mode. The IC is configured to provide a first feedback signal from an internal supply of the IC to the power supply regulator via the first pin.
US08589709B2
Processor-management techniques that purposely alternate a processor between an operating state and a non-operating state while the processor is executing the workload. The techniques leverage the “ultra-low-power” non-operating states of many processors to provide predictable power and/or frequency control of the processor. These techniques can provide better performance than known clock-throttling and dynamic voltage and frequency scaling schemes for controlling processors.
US08589708B2
Some embodiments provide a clock and data recovery (CDR) system to recover clock and data information from an analog signal. The CDR system may include an integral path and a proportional path that are part of an integral-proportional control loop. The integral path may be used to track frequency changes in a clock signal that is embedded in the analog signal, while the proportional path may be used to track phase changes in the clock signal that is embedded in the analog signal. The proportional path may be executed at a first clock frequency, while the integral path may be executed at a second clock frequency that is lower than the first clock frequency to reduce the power consumption of the CDR system.
US08589707B2
A system and a method for optimizing power in an electronic device are described. The system may be used to implement low power techniques to achieve maximum performance with low battery utilization. A processing load level monitor monitors load(s) on processors. Processor frequencies are updated through the driver until the load is close to 100%, which means that the core frequency is changed to the load processor around 100% at the minimum possible frequency.
US08589703B2
Disclosed is a tamper respondent covering. The tamper respondent covering has a cover-shaped structure to cover an electronic part which is exposed. This covering protects electronic parts embedded inside or exposed outside a product, such as ICs that contains data concerning security and certification, communication connectors that transmit data, etc. from a tempering operation or an alternating operation. The tamper respondent covering protects data from a tampering operation or an altering operation by erasing the data or disabling operation of the electronic part containing the data in response to an act of attempting to remove the covering from a printed circuit board of the electronic part or to drill a hole in the covering.
US08589701B2
In accordance with certain aspects, bound key operations on ciphertext and/or data are implemented. A bound key operation can receive both data to be signed and a bound key blob that is bound to one or more processors, recover a private key from the bound key blob, and generate a digital signature over the data using the private key. A bound key operation can alternatively receive both ciphertext and a bound key or bound key structure bound to one or more processors, recover or reconstruct a private key based on the bound key or bound key structure, and use the private key to generate plaintext corresponding to the ciphertext.
US08589681B1
Systems and methods for selective authorization of dependent code modules are provided. According to one embodiment, responsive to a monitored file system or operating system event initiated by an active process, a real-time authentication process is performed or bypassed on a code module to which the monitored event relates with reference to a multi-level whitelist. The multi-level whitelist includes a global whitelist database remote from the computer system, maintained by a trusted service provider and which contains cryptographic hash values of approved code modules; and a local whitelist database that includes cryptographic hash values of a subset of the approved code modules. The active process is allowed to load the code module when the authentication process is bypassed or when the cryptographic hash value of the code module matches one of the cryptographic hash values of approved code modules within the multi-level whitelist.
US08589662B2
A dynamic predictive and/or exact caching mechanism is provided in various stages of a microprocessor pipeline so that various control signals can be stored and memorized in the course of program execution. Exact control signal vector caching may be done. Whenever an issue group is formed following instruction decode, register renaming, and dependency checking, an encoded copy of the issue group information can be cached under the tag of the leading instruction. The resulting dependency cache or control vector cache can be accessed right at the beginning of the instruction issue logic stage of the microprocessor pipeline the next time the corresponding group of instructions come up for re-execution. Since the encoded issue group bit pattern may be accessed in a single cycle out of the cache, the resulting microprocessor pipeline with this embodiment can be seen as two parallel pipes, where the shorter pipe is followed if there is a dependency cache or control vector cache hit.
US08589658B2
Extended translation look-aside buffers (eTLB) for converting virtual addresses into physical addresses are presented, the eTLB including, a physical memory address storage having a number of physical addresses, a virtual memory address storage configured to store a number of virtual memory addresses corresponding with the physical addresses, the virtual memory address storage including, a set associative memory structure (SAM), and a content addressable memory (CAM) structure; and comparison circuitry for determining whether a requested address is present in the virtual memory address storage, wherein the eTLB is configured to receive an index register for identifying the SAM structure and the CAM structure, and wherein the eTLB is configured to receive an entry register for providing a virtual page number corresponding with the plurality of virtual memory addresses.
US08589655B2
A system and method for effectively scheduling read and write operations among a plurality of solid-state storage devices. A computer system comprises client computers and data storage arrays coupled to one another via a network. A data storage array utilizes solid-state drives and Flash memory cells for data storage. A storage controller within a data storage array comprises an I/O scheduler. The characteristics of corresponding storage devices are used to schedule I/O requests to the storage devices in order to maintain relatively consistent response times at predicted times. In order to reduce a likelihood of unscheduled behaviors of the storage devices, the storage controller is configured to schedule proactive operations on the storage devices that will reduce a number of occurrences of unscheduled behaviors.
US08589652B2
A directory and members are allocated to store a data set, wherein the directory stores pointers to the members to allow data stored in the members to be accessed. The directory is expanded to accommodate an expansion of the data set, causing the directory to be stored in non-contiguous pages and becoming fragmented. A computational device determines that a threshold that measures a level of fragmentation of the directory relative to an amount of storage allocated for the data set has been exceeded. The computational device reorganizes the fragmented directory, into a reorganized directory that is stored in contiguous pages at the end of the data set, in response to determining that the threshold has been exceeded.
US08589642B2
A computer system having a plurality of host computers and a storage system is provided which allows any one host computer to perform a global copy operation on any arbitrary or all storage areas in the storage system. To this end, storage areas provided by the disk devices are grouped into groups by allocating group numbers to a plurality of specified storage areas. The copy operation can be performed by specifying desired groups. Each of the groups is made up of sub-groups and the sub-groups are defined for each computer to assure a consistency of copy order of the sub-groups.
US08589629B2
A system and method for data allocation in a shared cache memory of a computing system are contemplated. Each cache way of a shared set-associative cache is accessible to multiple sources, such as one or more processor cores, a graphics processing unit (GPU), an input/output (I/O) device, or multiple different software threads. A shared cache controller enables or disables access separately to each of the cache ways based upon the corresponding source of a received memory request. One or more configuration and status registers (CSRs) store encoded values used to alter accessibility to each of the shared cache ways. The control of the accessibility of the shared cache ways via altering stored values in the CSRs may be used to create a pseudo-RAM structure within the shared cache and to progressively reduce the size of the shared cache during a power-down sequence while the shared cache continues operation.
US08589619B2
A data writing method for a rewritable non-volatile memory module is provided, the rewritable non-volatile memory module has a plurality of physical blocks, each of the physical blocks has a plurality of physical pages, a portion of the physical blocks are mapped to a plurality of logical blocks, and each of the logical blocks has a plurality of logical pages. The data writing method includes receiving data, and the data has a plurality of data bits and belongs to one of the logical pages. The data writing method also includes determining whether each of the data bits is a specific value. The data writing method further includes not writing the data into the physical pages when each of the data bits is the specific value. Thereby, the performance of a memory storage apparatus is improved.
US08589618B2
A memory system includes a nonvolatile memory device and a controller. The controller includes a working memory and is configured to control the nonvolatile memory device. The nonvolatile memory device is configured to store drive data required to access the nonvolatile memory device. When an initialization operation of the memory system is performed, the controller activates an operation standby signal after loading a portion of the drive data stored in the nonvolatile memory device into the working memory.
US08589598B2
A redundancy manager manages commands to peripheral devices in a computer system. These peripheral devices have multiple pathways connecting it to the computer system. The redundancy manager determines the number of independent pathways connected to the peripheral device, presents only one logical device to the operating system and any device driver and any other command or device processing logic in the command path before the redundancy manager. For each incoming command, the redundancy manager determines which pathways are properly functioning and selects the best pathway for the command based at least partly upon a penalty model where a path may be temporarily penalized by not including the pathway in the path selection process for a predetermined time. The redundancy manager further reroutes the command to an alternate path and resets the device for an alternate path that is not penalized or has otherwise failed.
US08589596B2
A data transfer controlling apparatus includes a first controlling unit that performs a broadcast transfer to a plurality of nodes connected to a first route switching device, and requests a second node representing nodes connected to a second route switching device that is connected to the first route switching device to perform a broadcast transfer when the first controlling unit receives a request of the broadcast transfer from a first node connected to the first route switching device, and a second controlling unit that performs the broadcast transfer to all of nodes connected to the first route switching device when the second controlling unit receives a request of a broadcast transfer from the second node.
US08589593B2
The invention includes a method and apparatus for processing protocol messages for multiple protocol instances. In one embodiment, a method for processing protocol messages includes receiving a plurality of messages for a plurality of processors where each received message is associated with one of the protocol instances, generating a processing request for each message, queuing the processing requests, and servicing the queues in a manner for arbitrating access by the queues to the processors for processing the messages. A processing request generated for a received message identifies one of the protocol instances with which the message is associated. The processing requests are queued using a plurality of queues associated with the respective plurality of protocol instances, where each processing request is queued in one of the queues associated with the one of the protocol instances with which the processing request is associated. The servicing of each queue includes reading a processing request from the queue, if the queue has at least one processing request queued therein, and causing the one of the processors with which the processing request is associated to process one of the messages associated with the protocol instance identified by the processing request. The queues may be serviced in a round-robin manner for arbitrating access by the queues to the processors, thereby enabling atomic processing of the messages.
US08589589B2
A method, a system, and an apparatus are provided for organizing management information bases (MIB) in a network. A table, associated with an overlay MIB structure, is populated with entries. Each entry defines an object identifier (OID) of a mount point and an OID of a mount target. A selection is made between the existing OIDs and OIDs corresponding to a MIB overlay. When management communication refers to managed objects, they can be referred to in terms of OIDs defined by the MIB overlay, as an alternative to their existing OIDs. An agent infrastructure is defined to support the MIB overlay structure.
US08589581B2
Broadcast signal c is transmitted from a broadcast transmitter 5 to an artificial satellite 1 for predetermined signal conversion, whereby broadcast signals al to an are transmitted to all of Japan. On-earth stations 6-1 to 6-n are installed for weather forecast data. These on-earth stations receive the broadcast signals al to an, respectively, transmitted from the artificial satellite 1, and transmit receiving state data b1 to bn, respectively, based on receiving level data to the artificial satellite 1. The receiving state signals are changed with variations of their radio wave attenuation according to whether it is cloudy, rainy, snowy, the cloud density, etc. The receiving state data are collectively sent back to a weather forecast center 9. Weather forecast data e obtained by analysis in the weather forecast center 9 is transmitted to the artificial satellite 1, which in turn sends weather forecast data f back to all of Japan.
US08589577B2
IP encapsulation equipment encapsulates, into bursts, IP packets representing sets of multimedia data delivered by at least one multimedia content server. The bursts are accompanied beforehand by information data at least partly defining the set of data that is integrated into those IP packets and/or the content of which that set of data forms part, with a view to the broadcasting thereof to receiver equipments via a communication network. The information data added to the received IP packets is analyzed to instruct the encapsulation means to encapsulate at least some of those IP packets in selected positions in the bursts as a function of the corresponding information data. In this manner, all the IP packets including, the data of a set, are encapsulated in a single burst.
US08589574B1
Dynamic application instance discovery and state management within a distributed system. A distributed system may implement application instances configured to perform one or more application functions within the distributed system, and discovery and failure detection daemon (DFDD) instances, each configured to store an indication of a respective operational state of each member of a respective group of the number of application instances. Each of the DFDD instances may repeatedly execute a gossip-based synchronization protocol with another one of the DFDD instances, where execution of the protocol between DFDD instances includes reconciling differences among membership of the respective groups of application instances. A new application instance may be configured to notify a particular DFDD instance of its availability to perform an application function. The particular DFDD instance may be configured to propagate the new instance's availability to other DFDD instances via execution of the synchronization protocol, without intervention on the part of the new application instance.
US08589569B2
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for invoking a plug-in that is dynamically associated with a database operation. During operation, a client sends a request to a database system to perform an operation on the database, wherein the request includes a control-message which specifies a plug-in which needs to be executed. Next, the system executes the plug-in at a plug-in server to obtain a plug-in result. Then, the system determines if the plug-in result is an error identifier. If so, the system sends the error identifier to the client. On the other hand, if the plug-in result is not an error identifier, the system performs the operation to obtain an operation result. The system then sends the operation result to the client.
US08589566B2
Methods and client devices are provided for supporting a plurality of separate voice communication sessions. According to an exemplary method, a first voice communication session is initiated from the first client device to a second client device. The first client receives a request for establishing a second voice communication session from a third client device, and then establishes the second voice communication session from the third client device to a fourth client device. The second voice communications session may be established through the first client device and may include streaming communication between the third client device and the fourth client device. The second voice communication session continues through the first communications device, even after the first voice communication session has been terminated.
US08589564B2
A method, apparatus and computer instructions are disclosed for maintaining the compatibility of a multiple nodes in a distributed systems management environment with multiple configuration settings, by transforming the configuration data stored in the master repository (one possible realization is where XML documents contain the configuration data) from one version of the product to a previous version of the product. For multiple versions of the systems management environment, a transformation pipeline process (one possible realization of such a process may utilize XSLT) can be used by a “master” node to transform the configuration data multiple times for each version of the environment, until the configuration data has the format of the intended recipient “slave” node. Also, by performing the transformation process on the “master” side of the computing environment, “slave” nodes with older version configuration settings can continue to operate without having to upgrade their software applications in this regard.
US08589563B2
A method for facilitating communication sessions includes establishing a communication session between a first endpoint and a second endpoint, sending a hibernation message from the first endpoint, and receiving the hibernation message by the second endpoint. The method further includes storing, by the first and second endpoint, session state information associated with the communication session in response to receiving the hibernation message, and deactivating at least a portion of the communication session. After storing the session state information by the first and second endpoints, the method further includes retrieving the session state information by the first and second endpoints, and reestablishing the deactivated portion of the communication session.
US08589557B1
The disclosed embodiments provide a system that facilitates the deployment and execution of a software offering. During operation, the system obtains a service definition of the software offering. Next, the system creates a work-breakdown structure based on a set of policies from the service definition. Finally, the system uses the work-breakdown structure to automatically provision a set of resources for use by the software offering without requiring manual configuration of the resources by a user.
US08589556B2
A mechanism is provided for allocating energy budgets to a plurality of logical partitions. An overall energy budget for the data processing system and a total of a set of requested initial energy budgets for the plurality of partitions are determined. A determination is made as to whether the total of the set of requested initial energy budgets for the plurality of partitions is greater than the overall energy budget for the data processing system. Responsive to the total of the set of requested initial energy budgets exceeding the overall energy budget, an initial energy budget is allocated to each partition in the plurality of partitions based on at least one of priority or proportionality of each partition in the plurality of partitions such that a total of the initial energy budgets for the plurality of partitions does not exceed the overall energy budget of the data processing system.
US08589554B2
Disclosed are methods and systems for intelligent resource pool management of heterogeneous datacenter resources. In one embodiment, intelligent resource pool management is utilized to assist in application provisioning performed based upon a blueprint and deployment model defining requirements of the provisioned application. In other embodiments, intelligent resource pool managers are configured to work in concert with other intelligent resource pool managers and/or a centralized provisioning engine. Resource pools may also be configured in a hierarchical manner whereby higher level resource pools may automatically draw resources from lower level resource pools as directed by one or more intelligent resource pool managers.
US08589546B2
Methods and apparatus for managing devices and content in a network environment. In one implementation, a method of adding a client as a member of a hub network includes: detecting a client connected to a server in a hub network; authenticating said client; authorizing said client; and adding said client as a member in said hub network.
US08589544B2
A method is provided in one example and includes verifying a storage capacity of a network element coupled to an end device over a network connection. The method also includes executing script provided in the network element, which is configured for exchanging packets in a network environment. The script initiates a collection of data being retrieved from the end device. The data can be Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, and Security (FCAPS) data associated with the end device. The data collected from the end device is communicated to a next destination.
US08589543B2
Techniques are provided for monitoring the state or status of virtual data centers. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving state information representing the state of hardware devices supporting instantiations of virtual data centers operating within a physical data center. The state information is mapped to hardware devices supporting a selected instantiation of a virtual data center to identify state information for the selected instantiation of a virtual data center. An assessment is then made, based on the state information for the selected instantiation of a virtual data center, regarding a degree to which the selected instantiation of a virtual data center is operating in accordance with predetermined policy. A user is then notified of the assessment via, e.g., a color-coded dashboard representation of the selected instantiation of a virtual data center or a color-coded aspect of the selected instantiation of a virtual data center.
US08589537B2
Provided are methods and computer program products for aggregating and reporting network application performance metrics by process pool. Methods may include mapping ones of a plurality of processes into one of at least one process pool; and aggregating, for each of the process pools, performance metrics generated for each of the plurality of processes mapped into that process pool.
US08589533B2
System and method for maintenance support for electronically actuated and/or monitored appliances implemented within an electronically networked automation system, having a central monitoring unit processing present operating parameters for appliances for establishing the servicing state of the appliances using comparison operating parameters, where an external SSIS server logically combines the servicing request established by the monitoring unit with appliance-specific servicing performance information stored in a database and forwards these data to electronic mobile terminals of the servicing personnel in order to perform the servicing.
US08589531B2
A network difference reporting method and system categorizes the differences between two networks, and provides an output report structured by these categories. The preferred categories include objects common to both networks that have different attributes; objects found only in the first network; objects found only in the second network; and objects common to both networks that have similar attributes. A user-interface is provided to allow a user to identify objects or attributes that are to be included or excluded from the identified differences. Preferably, the output reports includes a graphic display of differences that uses the same hierarchical object attribute structure as the networks, to facilitate a rapid understanding of the reported differences between the networks.
US08589528B2
A computer system comprising a number of components which make up an infrastructure with the system having a Directory 10 and an APS which is adapted to centralize and automate information management for online service systems.
US08589515B2
Each of a group of visible widgets are registered by an aggregated widget request processing module for aggregated data request processing. It is determined that an aggregated data update event associated with at least one of the registered visible widgets has occurred. Data associated with the aggregated data update event is obtained from a server. The data is distributed among the group of visible widgets based upon an aggregated data distribution profile.
US08589514B2
A system for a server-less peer-to-peer data network for content transfer between wireless devices is described. The system includes a first wireless device having a first address and content, and a second wireless device. The first wireless device transmits a message including the first address over a first service. The second wireless device receives the message from the first wireless device and establishes a communication path to the first address over a second service to receive the content from the first wireless device. A method embodiment includes transmitting a message from a first wireless device to a second wireless device over a first service, wherein the message includes a first address. The method further includes establishing, by the second wireless device, a communication path over a second service to the first address to receive content from the first wireless device after receiving the message from the first wireless device.
US08589511B2
Method, system, and computer program product are provided for enabling a content creator who is not an owner of a content site to provide variable content to content consumers. The method includes: defining content consumers by their relationship to a content creator; receiving a request for a content item from a content consumer; determining the relationship of the content consumer to the content creator; and returning a version of the content item for the determined relationship. A content creator may select content of a content item, and may provide different versions of the selected content with an indication of a relationship between the content creator and a content consumer for a version.
US08589504B1
Described are systems and methods of migrating data from a source array to a destination array transparently with respect to a management application program executing on a host system and using management information to send management messages to the storage arrays. Data are copied from the source array to the destination array during a data migration event. A first array management interface is associated with the source array and a second array management interface is associated with the destination array. Each array management interface includes management information that a management application executing on the host can use to communicate with the storage array. The first and second array management interfaces are exchanged during the data migration event so that the array management interface associated with the destination array becomes associated with the source array and the array management interface associated with the source array becomes associated with the destination array.
US08589501B2
Software is executed on a wireless device for presenting a response aggregation drawn upon a message having at least two desired recipients. The software of presenting at least two message-structure item questions via the wireless device and receives input requesting response aggregation drawn upon the message having at least two desired recipients and transmits the message to at least one of the at least two desired recipients using the wireless device.
US08589500B2
Provided is a communication apparatus (e-mail reception apparatus) capable of storing more contents of necessary e-mails even if only a limited number of e-mails can be stored. An e-mail reception apparatus has a reception unit for receiving an e-mail, a memory unit for storing the e-mail received, and a control unit, if a predetermined event is detected, for controlling to combine e-mails meeting a combination rule among the e-mails stored in the memory unit, to store a combination e-mails in the memory unit and to delete original e-mails.
US08589493B2
Managing the sending of electronic mail (email) messages and responding to requests from indirect recipients for related information. An email message is originated with a first recipient and a recipient request prompt, which comprises a unique recipient request identifier (ID) linking it to the originator's email address. An empty recipient request list is generated, likewise linked to the recipient request ID. The message is then sent to a first recipient, who in turn forwards it to a second recipient. The recipient response prompt is displayed to the second recipient, who uses it to generate a recipient request for related information. The recipient request ID of the originated message and the second recipient's email address are appended to the recipient request, which is then sent to the message originator. The recipient request is received by the email system and parsed. The second recipient's email address is then appended to the recipient request list corresponding to the parsed recipient request ID. The originator is notified of the recipient request and responds accordingly.
US08589488B2
A system and method for creating content such as artificial reality (AR) messages at an event, particularly among members on a social network, thereby enhancing and expanding the event experience. Typically, a participant shares an event with spectators, such as friends or a subset of friends in the participant's social network. The AR message may include geo-referenced artificial reality words, products or symbols and appear in a perspective view of the event to the participant or spectators. In addition to creating an active gallery for an event, messages, audio and video can be exchanged among participants and spectators, and virtual goods, money, bets, applause, other feedback, and donations exchanged.
US08589486B2
The disclosure describes systems and methods for utilizing data collected and stored on multiple devices in order to improve the performance of the network via a markup language for addressing and delivering communications. The markup language invokes W4COMN operations through a free-form, natural language syntax which enables completely personalized user-defined designations for real-world entities (RWEs) or information objections (IOs) utilizing names or functional tags. Desired network operations including addressing network resources, entities or users are activated when the markup language is augmented via processing with W4 contextual data into an actual W4COMN circuit, process or event.
US08589485B2
A GUI (graphical user interface) apparatus for connecting with a location of a participant by a two-way communication system such as a video conference system. The apparatus includes a display processing device for arranging a plurality of display frames to display still pictures representing specific nominated connection destinations on a screen of display device, a plurality of operation devices arranged on the display frames in a one-to-one relation and a connection processing device for connecting with a particular nominated participant through the network when the operation device arranged corresponding to the display frame, on which the still picture representing the particular nominated participant is displayed, is operated.
US08589481B2
A mechanism is provided for presenting a software application to a plurality of users in a cloud computing environment. For example, an application that was designed for use by a single user is provided in a cloud based platform without re-architecting the application. Using a web-based interface, multiple cloud users may launch and execute the application. The various instances of the application are provided to the cloud users as if the application were designed as a multi-user application.
US08589479B2
A distributed hierarchical registry provides services, such as registry services, including client device discovery and communication services. The distributed hierarchical registry comprises a plurality of registry groups where a registry group comprises a plurality of registry servers. The registry servers receive client device information, such as status, capability, and usage information, and update other registry servers, in the same registry group and/or in other registry groups, using a quorum consensus protocol. The registry servers also respond to lookup requests from client devices. Registry servers use policies to define parameters such as a number of registry servers that make up a read quorum and the number of registry servers that make up a write quorum.
US08589476B2
A method an apparatus is provided for providing selected media files, which are chosen from among a plurality of media files, to a user over a packet-switched network such as the Internet. The method begins by receiving over the packet-switched network a request from the user to receive media content. Next, a user profile associated with the user is retrieved from a database. The user profile reflects user preferences in media content to be received over the packet-switched network. The plurality of media files are ranked based at least in part on the user profile. At least one highly ranked media file is selected from among the ranked plurality of media files. At least one of the highly ranked media files is forwarded to the user over the packet-switched network.
US08589472B2
A method, data processing system, and computer program product for processing information. A server-side agent running on a server data processing system monitors for a selected event for processing by the server-side agent. In response to detecting the selected event for processing by the server-side agent, the server-side agent requests information to process the selected event from a client-side agent running on a client data processing system. The server-side agent performs a subset of functions performed by the client-side agent. In response to receiving a response with the information to process the selected event from the client-side agent, the server-side agent performs a set of steps to process the selected event using the information received from the client-side agent.
US08589471B2
A provider definition represents software that implements the semantics of one or more operations on an object in an object-oriented system. A provider represents a specific instance of a provider definition. One or more providers implement operations for objects in the system. A component of the system called the provider registry maintains a mapping of providers and operations as defined by the provider definitions. When handling a request to invoke a operation on an object, the system dynamically dispatches to the correct provider based on this mapping. Where more than one provider are registered as implementing the desired operation on an object, techniques are disclosed for selecting a provider to perform the desired operation.
US08589459B1
The present invention provides a security and privacy enhanced method for geolocation. The system works by creating a space called the N−4Tk space on top of the Internet by locating N geographically dispersed servers in the Internet and computing as the coordinate for any computing device on the Internet, its distance to the N servers. The distance is computed as the 4Tk distance which is the time taken by a message of size k to travel between two points at a particular time of day. The system can also be used iteratively where each iteration uses a different set of Slaves in order to close in on the user with finer granularity. Interesting benefits of the system include the difficulty for an attacker to misrepresent the location, and also while the system can hone in on a locale for the user it does not violate the user's privacy.
US08589452B2
A method of creating alerts in a database system is disclosed. The method may include allowing the selection of at least one field or record to be monitored, determining the data in a database that affects the value of the selected field or record, storing a trigger related to the data determined to affect the value of the selected field or record wherein the trigger communicates if the data is accessed and creating a notification of the communication of the trigger.
US08589451B1
In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method comprises receiving a query in a controller. A data store stores data in a relational database. The database comprises a plurality of fields and a plurality of data elements. Each field is associated with a portion of the data elements. The database is arranged as at least one table, and the query identifies data of an object to be stored in a data set. The method further comprises determining, by the controller, whether the relational database includes a field associated with a class of the object; and if the relational database does not include a field associated with the class of the object, adding a column to the relational database, the added column having a field corresponding to the class. The method further comprises adding the data of the object to the relational database.
US08589449B2
A network storage system comprises data storage, one or more file system APIs, and a metadata handler. The data storage can comprise file data and associated metadata. The file system APIs can be configured to read and write file data and metadata to and from the data storage. The metadata handler can have a library of functions for handling the metadata. The library can include a metadata blob creation function and a metadata blob extraction function. The metadata blob creation function cooperates with the file system APIs to read source metadata associated with specified file data and creates and populates a metadata blob from which a substantial copy of the source metadata can be generated. The metadata blob extraction function receives at least a metadata blob, extracts information from the metadata blob, and cooperates with the file system APIs to generate destination metadata, a substantial copy of the source metadata.
US08589445B2
A data-processing apparatus is provided. The data-processing apparatus creates and dynamically maintains relationships between operational data and output data. The data-processing apparatus has first line items for storing operational data. The first line items have operational attributes and at least one treatment attribute. The treatment attribute specifies qualifiers used to create qualified operational data. Impact attributes specify destinations for the qualified operational data in a set of second line items which is arranged to hold the output data. The data-processing apparatus is particularly suited to use as a business planning tool.
US08589440B1
System, method and apparatus having the capability of using various authentication mechanisms to share a first party's (user's) personal information stored in a server computer connected to the Internet with a second party (requester). The authentication mechanisms may include a biometric identifier, a single-use password, an expiration time on a password, or permit a second party (requester) to access authorized portions of a first party's (user's) credit/debit card information or likes or dislikes or personal health information from an online database. Also disclosed is a method of providing access to a first party's information using an authentication code that is valid for a predetermined number of access requests and attempting to access the first party's information beyond the predetermined number raises an alarm.
US08589437B1
A system for separating identifying data from personal data is disclosed. The system includes: a first set of stored data comprising a plurality of identifying data structures containing identifying data; a second set of stored data comprising a plurality of personal data structures containing personal data; a set of mapping data comprising a plurality of mappings, wherein each mapping is between an identifying data structure and a personal data structure; and an application configured to receive mapping data associated with a mapping, determine a mapping associated with the mapping data, and obtain a personal data structure based on the mapping. The set of mapping data is logically separate from the first set of stored data, the second set of stored data, and the application.
US08589429B1
Embodiments may include a system configured to receive search session data that indicates, for each of multiple search sessions performed by a respective user, multiple search queries submitted by that user during the search session. The system may also receive search selection data that indicates, for each of multiple search queries resulting in a set of search results, a particular item selected from that set of search results by a respective user. The system may be configured to perform a co-occurrence analysis on the search data in order to generate one or more search indices that specify, for a given search query, one or more search queries determined to be related to the given search query according to the co-occurrence analysis. The system may be configured to process a client request for related queries that are related to a query of interest submitted by the user within that request.
US08589426B1
A method is provided for a simultaneous file editor. At least three files are downloaded from at least one computer. Content of the at least three files is stored in a relational database. The content in the relational database is accessed. The content is displayed. Any mismatched lines in the content are identified. The content is edited. The edited content is stored in the relational database. The edited content is uploaded from the relational database as edited versions of the at least three files to the at least one computer.
US08589423B2
Systems and methods for generating and providing enhanced screenshots may include executing instructions stored in memory to evaluate at least a portion of a viewing frustum generated by the instructions to determine one or more objects included therein, obtain metadata associated with the one or more objects, and generate at least one enhanced screenshot indicative of the at least a portion of the viewing frustum by associating the metadata of each of the one or more objects with a location of each of the one or more objects within the at least one enhanced screenshot to create hotspots indicative of each of the one or more objects such that selection at least one hotspot by a computing system causes at least a portion of the metadata associated with the at least one hotspot to be displayed on a display device of a computing system.
US08589398B2
In one example embodiment, a method is illustrated as including retrieving item data from a plurality of listings, the item data filtered from noise data, constructing at least one base cluster having at least one document with common item data stored in a suffix ordering, compacting the at least one base cluster to create a compacted cluster representation having a reduced duplicate suffix ordering amongst the clusters, and merging the compacted cluster representation to generate a merged cluster, the merging based upon a first overlap value applied to the at least one document with common item data.
US08589394B2
A system and method are described for dynamically generating a table containing data from multiple model nodes. For example, a computer-implemented method according to one embodiment of the invention comprises: displaying a plurality of attributes from multiple different nodes of an application; providing a user interface allowing a user to select attributes from the plurality of attributes to be displayed as columns within a table; receiving an identification of a set of attributes within the plurality of attributes selected by the user; and storing the identification of the set of attributes as configuration data within local data storage, the local data storage being separate from a system data storage in which program code and data for the application is maintained.
US08589386B2
A system and method for facilitating displaying search results in an enterprise computing environment. An example method includes determining results of a computer based search in response to a resource request; displaying the results via one or more cards, wherein each of the one or more cards includes information pertaining to a particular search result; and illustrating, in a card, at least a portion of the information via one or more graphics. In a specific embodiment, the one or more graphics include one or more visually coded graphics, including an indicator illustrating a qualification score associated with a human resource, and an indicator illustrating an availability score associated with the human resource.
US08589381B2
In order to enable hierarchized resource-managing functions to mutually request processing and maintain the uniqueness of processing performed by each of the resource-managing functions, a process is performed as follows. When a first action request is inputted, an action-handler search unit analyzes the request condition indicated in the first action request, and searches an action-handler table for an action handler corresponding to the request condition. An action execution unit starts the action handler detected by the action-handler search unit and performs processing defined in the started action handler. In the case where all or part of the processing requested by the first action request is not performed by the action execution unit, the action execution unit produces and transmits a second action request indicating a request condition of all or the part of the processing in a common data form.
US08589380B2
Apparatus and method for the automatic discovery of control events from the publication of documents
A method and system for discovering a control event from electronically published documents is provided, in which a control program on a computer identifies electronically published documents stored in a plurality of network servers which potentially contain control events relevant to the control of goods and/or services, the control events being identified by reference to a user interest database containing user interest identifiers. Identified documents are analyzed by a classification program to determine whether control events are present, referring to a control event database. A control event classification is assigned to documents determined to contain at least one discovered control event, the assigned control event classification and information identifying the associated document is stored in a classification database, and a report of discovery of documents containing control events is be provided to a user. The report may includes a link to the control event classification and/or its associated document.
US08589376B2
The present invention allows a user to subscribe to multiple concurrent channels of syndicated content published over the internet. The user receives notification of the content which is new since the previous time that the user accessed a channel. The user can select the frequency of checking for new content and the user can specify how far back in time to check. In addition, the user can specify a maximum number of changes to be presented.
US08589372B2
A method and system for automated document registration with cloud computing. The method and system described herein provide an automatic cloud document registration system that creates a secure cloud transformed electronic document with an unalterable time and date stamp stored in a cloud storage object. The cloud storage object comprises plural separate portions stored in plural separate secure storage locations on plural other different server network devices distributed across the cloud communications network but functions as a single secure cloud storage object. Target and server network devices cannot determine where on the cloud communications network the cloud storage object is stored thereby providing additional security and privacy for the secure cloud transformed electronic document. Multiple third-parties are provided an ability to view a given original document in the secure cloud transformed electronic document format from anywhere on the cloud communications network.
US08589369B2
The apparatuses and methods described herein may operate to identify, from an index structure stored in memory, a reference minimum bounding shape that encloses at least one minimum bounding shape. Each of the at least one minimum bounding shape may correspond to a data object associated with a leaf node of the index structure. Coordinates of a point of the at least one minimum bounding shape may be associated with a set of first values to produce a relative representation of the at least one minimum bounding shape. The set of first values may be calculated relative to coordinates of a reference point of the reference minimum bounding shape such that each of the set of first values comprises a first number of significant bits fewer than a second number of significant bits representing a second value associated with a corresponding one of absolute coordinates of the point.
US08589360B2
A method for verifying a consistency level in a key-value store, in which a value is stored in a cloud-based storage system comprising a read/write register identified by a key. At a centralized monitor node, a history of operations including writes and reads performed at the key is created, and a distance between a read of a value at the key and a latest write to the key is determined. It can then be ascertained whether the distance satisfies a relaxed atomicity property.
US08589357B2
A technique for making versions of rows of a user-defined tracked table temporally queryable. The database management system of the technique permits temporal queries of user-defined tables. The queries return versions of rows in the user-defined table that are currently in an undo log maintained by the database system. Associated with the tracked table are a system history table which contains versions of the rows and temporal metadata indicating when the versions were in the tracked table and a system form history table which contains versions of the form of the tracked table and metadata indicating when the tracked table had the form. These tables are created and maintained by a background process in the database management system. A temporal query on the tracked table combines results from the undo log with results from the system history table. The results' form is determined by the system form history table.
US08589356B2
Aspects of the invention provide a solution for determining a storage location for a data item from among a set of persistent storage locations having varying access speeds. Each data item is associated with a score that is based on the frequency with which the data item has been accessed, as well as possible other factors such as open time and/or close time of the data item, the amount of data in the data item, the period from the last time the data item was closed to the next time that the data item is opened and/or the total amount of data in the data item. Data items with high scores relative to other data items are assigned to faster access storage location while data items with lower scores are assigned to slower access storage locations.
US08589354B1
A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for efficiently backing up information are disclosed. In an embodiment, this may comprise receiving information about a computer system from at least one probe, selecting data to be backed up, and backing up the selected data. Boolean and/or conditional logic may be applied to the information received from the probes, and data backed up based on the logic analysis. A probe frequency may be determined and used for polling probes, and the probe frequency may be adjusted based on factors such as the received information, server utilization, and network utilization. A modular approach may be used in which a probe determines whether a condition has been met, and transmits that determination to a backup server.
US08589350B1
Systems, methods, and media for synthesizing a view of a file system are provided herein. Methods may include receiving a request to obtain a view of at least a portion of a file system backup for a device, responsive to the request, mounting one or more backup files for the device on a backup node, generating a view of the at least a portion of a file system created from the one or more mounted backup files, the view being accessible via the intermediary node that is communicatively coupled with the backup node.
US08589339B2
The present invention provides a data collection device that lightens a registering workload for an administrator and prevents that a set of procedures for a data collection is started later than a registered start time. A data collection device 101 comprises: a database 105 in which start times of the sets of the procedures have been previously registered; and a registration control unit operable, if a received specified time is the same as any of the previously registered start times, to search and retrieve a time that is different from any of the previously registered start times in association with a new set of the procedures, instead of registering the specified time.
US08589338B2
A data repository includes information for multiple data systems, which can each control data in this and a number of other domains. A business process can be launched by one of the data systems to update the target data and any related data in the repository or any other related repository. Any request to update data is intercepted and the business process can launch workflows and apply policies as needed to process the request. Workflows can be associated with the fields being updated or process being executed, such that any update to the target data is also accurately reflected in any other related system. Further, launching a workflow allows processes to be run before the data is updated, such that the data can be modified, added to, rejected, or otherwise processed before being added to the appropriate repositories.
US08589337B2
A method and a system for analyzing a data value of interest in a multidimensional database. The data value of interest is first identified in a structured report. The data source for the structured report is retrieved. A context for the data value of interest in the data source is collected, for example, by extracting a slicer from the structured report, by extracting members of master-detail pages, or by extracting a default measure from the structured report. An analysis specification based on the collected context is then built, and the data value of interest is analyzed using the analysis specification. The result from analyzing the data value of interest may be presented in an analysis view.
US08589333B2
A system and method for sharing information across security boundaries including a server for sharing information between networks. The method for includes receiving data structured as semantic statements, retrieving a set of rules and ontology, processing a semantic statement from data with rules and ontology, determining whether the semantic statement is consistent with rules and ontology, and determining a fact that gives rise to an inconsistency if the semantic statement is inconsistent. The method further includes removing the fact that gives rise to the inconsistency and releasing data when the semantic statement is consistent with rules and ontology.
US08589329B2
A capability for incremental tracking of multiples quantiles is provided. A method for performing an incremental quantile update using a data value of a received data record includes determining an initial distribution function, updating the initial distribution function to form a new distribution function based on the received data value, generating an approximation of the new distribution function, and determining new quantile estimates from the approximation of the new distribution function. The initial distribution function includes a plurality of initial quantile estimates and a respective plurality of initial probabilities. The new distribution function includes a plurality of quantile points identifying the respective initial quantile estimates and a respective plurality of new probabilities associated with the initial quantile estimates. The approximation of the new distribution function is generated by connecting pairs of adjacent quantile points using linear approximations of regions between the pairs of adjacent quantile points.
US08589326B2
Even with SIP and the varied communications options available to users, the monitoring of presence itself may not provide sufficient information to determine a most appropriate contact modality for a communication. Therefore, there is a need for a more complete method of generating a landscape of recent activity from which a preferred communication modality can be determined, with a corresponding solution provided that allows a contactor to contact a contactee via that modality. For example, a network of bearer channels or feeds can be established as input to a presence determination module. The inputs can include not only presence information, but also feeds from one or more blogs, micro blogs, social networking sites, etc., that allow a more complete picture of recent activity to be determined. Based on this input a preferred contact modality can be determined that may enhance the ability of a contactor to contact a contactee.
US08589323B2
The diagnostic and report system tests computer systems for defects that are able to cause performance and functional problems. An agent application is first installed on a user's system. The agent application then retrieves problem data from the expert system library pertinent to the user's operating environment. The agent application tests the user's system for each problem description within a downloaded data structure from the expert system library. If a problem is discovered, a script attempts to remediate the problem and/or notifies the user, describing the issue. The agent application utilizes discrete programs and/or scripts to send data to a knowledge base so that the knowledge base is able to generate new discrete programs and/or scripts using artificial intelligence which are sent to the expert system library. With additional discrete programs and/or scripts, the user's system is better protected.
US08589321B2
Methods and apparatus consistent with the invention provide the ability to organize and build understandings of machine data generated by a variety of information-processing environments. Machine data is a product of information-processing systems (e.g., activity logs, configuration files, messages, database records) and represents the evidence of particular events that have taken place and been recorded in raw data format. In one embodiment, machine data is turned into a machine data web by organizing machine data into events and then linking events together.
US08589319B2
Methods, systems, and products adapt recommender systems with pairwise feedback. A pairwise question is posed to a user. A response is received that selects a preference for a pair of items in the pairwise question. A latent factor model is adapted to incorporate the response, and an item is recommended to the user based on the response.
US08589318B2
An RF fingerprinting methodology is generalized to include non-RF related factors. For each fingerprinted tile, there is an associated distance function between two fingerprints (the training fingerprint and the test fingerprint) from within that tile which may be a linear or non-linear combination of the deltas between multiple factors of the two fingerprints. The distance function for each tile is derived from a training dataset corresponding to that specific tile, and optimized to minimize the total difference between real distances and predicted distances. Upon receipt of an inference request, a result is derived from a combination of the fingerprints from the training dataset having the least distance per application of the distance function. Likely error for the tile is also determined to ascertain whether to rely on other location methods.
US08589306B1
A database driven tool can be used to enable front line engineering personnel to make requests regarding the use of open source software, to document those requests, and to provide responses to those requests to their originators. Information in addition to open source requests can also be maintained, including incoming licenses for a company's products, outgoing licenses for a company's products, and whether a particular product has been scanned to verify that all incoming licenses for that product have been identified.
US08589305B2
An audio-video display device (AVDD) includes a licensable component providing a licensable function. The licensable function is available to present data on the AVDD without paying a license fee to exploit the licensable function when the AVDD is in a retail demonstration mode, whereas post-vending of the AVDD the licensable function is available to present data on the AVDD only pursuant to a license fee therefor being arranged.
US08589303B2
An asset management apparatus includes a processor for conducting arithmetic operation processing and a storage device, and executes an asset management program to detect unfairness. The asset management program includes a common asset management part common to the asset management apparatus and other devices, and a device specific asset management part specific to the asset management apparatus. The asset management apparatus acquires the device specific asset management part and device specific part setting information. When executing the asset management program, the asset management apparatus refers to the device specific part setting information, links the device specific asset management part to the asset management program, and executes the linked asset management program.
US08589302B2
A method, apparatus, system, and computer program product for an automated modular and secure boot firmware update. An updated boot firmware code module is received in a secure partition of a system, the updated boot firmware code module to replace one original boot firmware code module for the system. Only the one original boot firmware code module is automatically replaced with the updated boot firmware code module. The updated boot firmware code module is automatically executed with the plurality of boot firmware code modules for the system and without user intervention when the system is next booted. The updated boot firmware code module may be written to an update partition of a firmware volume, wherein the update partition of the firmware volume is read along with another partition of the firmware volume containing the plurality of boot firmware code modules when the system is booted.
US08589299B2
In general terms, embodiments of the present invention relate to methods and apparatuses for providing a financial service that involves a coverage network. For example, in some embodiments, a method is provided that includes: (a) receiving transaction information associated with a transaction, where the transaction involves an account and a holder of the account, and where the transaction has a transaction amount; (b) determining, based at least partially on the transaction information, that the account does not have enough available funds or credit to cover the transaction amount; (c) prompting a member of a coverage network to consent to covering at least part of the transaction amount, where the coverage network is associated with the account or the holder, and where the prompting occurs after the determining that the account does not have enough available funds or credit; (d) receiving the member's consent to covering at least part of the transaction amount; and (e) authorizing the transaction based at least partially on the receiving the member's consent.
US08589297B2
Systems, methods, and devices are described for a refundable prepaid transaction cards. The methods and systems include a prepaid transaction card funded with funds by a purchaser. Also included is an issuer. The issuer receives the funds a distributes a prepaid transaction card associated with the funds. The methods and systems also include a prepaid transaction card identifier, wherein the prepaid transaction card identifier identifies the prepaid transaction card. The issuer maintains a central computer system that stores at least one parameter entitling the purchaser to a refund of at least a portion of the funds. The methods and systems also include a cash pool, the cash pool holding at least a portion of the funds funded by the purchaser.
US08589296B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, in which a method includes attributing a value to a pre-paid payment instrument, determining an expiration time associated with the pre-paid payment instrument, and automatically return an un-used portion of value associated with the pre-paid payment instrument at the expiration time to the purchaser.
US08589293B2
Embodiments are directed to methods for routing messages using logically independent recipient identifiers and server computers operable to implement those methods. In one embodiment, an authorization request message is received at the server computer from a sending institution. The authorization request message comprises a non-financial institution identifier and a recipient identifier separate from the non-financial institution identifier, the non-financial institution identifier identifying a non-financial institution, the recipient identifier associated with a recipient, wherein the authorization request message requests authorization for a transaction between a sender and the recipient. The server computer then determines the non-financial institution from a number of different non-financial institutions, routes the authorization request message to the non-financial institution, and receives, from the non-financial institution, an authorization response message, the authorization response message indicating whether or not the transaction is approved.
US08589277B2
A graphical interface and method are provided for displaying market information corresponding to a tradable object. One graphical interface includes a chart region for displaying historical market data in relation to a first value axis, and a market grid region in alignment with the chart region. The market grid region comprises a plurality of areas for receiving commands from a user input device to send trade orders, and the areas are displayed in relation to a second value axis. A plurality of values displayed along the second value axis is a subset of values displayed in relation to the first value axis, and can be modified to a new plurality of values that corresponds to a new subset of values on the first value axis.
US08589276B2
A system, method and computer program product creates an index based on accounting based data, as well as a portfolio of financial objects based on the index where the portfolio is weighted according to accounting based data. A passive investment system may be based on indices created from various metrics. The indexes may be built with metrics other than market capitalization weighting, price weighting or equal weighting. Non-financial metrics may also be used to build indexes to create passive investment systems. Additionally, a combination of financial non-market capitalization metrics may be used along with non-financial metrics to create passive investment systems. Once the index is built, it may be used as a basis to purchase securities for a portfolio. Specifically excluded are widely-used capitalization-weighted indexes and price-weighted indexes, in which the price of a security contributes in a substantial way to the calculation of the weight of that security in the index or the portfolio, and equal weighting weighted indexes. Valuation indifferent indexes avoid overexposure to overvalued securities and underexposure to undervalued securities, as compared with conventional capitalization-weighted and price-weighted.
US08589270B2
An improved forecasting and modeling tool for planning and estimating sales of consumer products, including social expression products in a retail operation. The tool enables retailers to create a plan based on information shared between the retailer and vendor of social expression products. The methodology employed begins with actual sales totals for the prior term and the plan goal for the current term and provides financial calculations based on a variety of factors to determine the sales bridge needed to meet the current term goal. Information relating to actual sales, significant events, door activity, current forecast, trending data, and vendor initiatives are input into the application and are used in financial calculations to determine a current term sales plan.
US08589263B2
A business object model, which reflects data that is used during a given business transaction, is utilized to generate interfaces. This business object model facilitates commercial transactions by providing consistent interfaces that are suitable for use across industries, across businesses, and across different departments within a business during a business transaction. In some operations, software creates, updates, or otherwise processes information related to a retail allocation and/or a retail event business object.
US08589261B2
A computer-network implemented system recognizes that (i) the security issuer retains (i.e. withholds) the right to lend a debt or equity security prior to security issuance, and (ii) the system allows security borrowers to request from the security issuers, through the system, the right to borrow the non-borrowable security from the security issuer, according to borrowing/lending rates and time periods set by the security issuer with the system, so that (iii) security borrowers can then acquire the right to lend the non-borrowable security from the security issuer, and thereafter, (iv) security borrowers can sell the non-borrowable security short in the financial marketplace and profit from a short sale, without adversely effecting the security issuer.
US08589248B2
An aspect of the present invention includes a protocol for conveying data during an e-commerce session with a polymorphic response, comprising initiating a session with a message from a buyer application to a broker application and a session identifier assigned by the broker application; conducting the session between the buyer application and a supplier application; and concluding the session with a additional message which includes a schema identifier for the additional message, resolvable in a context of a system identifier; and a polymorphic response comprising a type and a version, wherein the polymorphic response includes additional data elements corresponding to values assigned to the type and version.
US08589245B2
A system for storing information about searches and inquiries by a customer is provided. The system includes a customer service server that receives information from two or more sources, such as from a retail location sales agent, a website, a call center agent, etc. The information is associated and correlated to interrelate inquiries from the different sources. Further, when the user enters a retail location, a node or server at the retail location can push test application to a user's mobile device based on the past inquiries. These test applications are provided only when the customer is present in the retail location. As such, hacking the application is prevented. Further, with the customer using the application in the retail location, a sales agent is present to assist the customer.
US08589243B2
Techniques are described for notifying a user of creative digital media associated with the user's geographic location. Embodiments of the invention receive location information specifying the geographic location of the user. Embodiments identify one or more instances of creative digital media having an association with the specified geographic location of the user. An indication of at least a portion of the identified instances of creative digital media is then provided to the user.
US08589240B2
To aid potential purchasers in selecting products and services and to generate sales leads that may be sold to sellers, an Internet-based website is provided comprising products that are not available through the website's proprietor.
US08589236B2
A mobile device is used to initiate and execute a transaction between a customer and a merchant. A mobile device is used to initiate a point of sale transaction, wherein a merchant ID is sent to a payment processing server. Responsive to receiving a communication from the mobile device, the payment processing server requests transaction information from the merchant, wherein the merchant is identified based on the provided merchant ID. The merchant can provide transaction information such as the total sale amount to the payment processing server. The payment processing server can authenticate the customer and initiate a purchase transaction with the appropriate financial institutions associated with the customer and the merchant. The payment processing server can send a confirmation of the executed transaction to the merchant and the mobile device.
US08589232B2
An advertising method and system with use of multi-screened computer monitor units is disclosed. A server having a database in which is stored a plurality of advertisement software packages is in data communication with a network of interconnected computers, each of which is associated with a multi-screened monitor unit having an agent side and at least one oppositely facing client side. After a request for an advertisement is initiated, an advertisement software package is retrieved from the database according to predetermined selection rules and transmitted to a target computer. A corresponding advertisement image is displayed on a client side of the monitor unit while the agent is able to view other images on the agent side of the monitor unit. In one embodiment, the multi-screened monitor unit receives VGA data and USB video data from the target computer and transmits the same to the agent and client sides, respectively.
US08589228B2
A “General Click Model” (GCM) is constructed using a Bayesian network that is inherently capable of modeling “tail queries” by building the model on multiple attribute values that are shared across queries. More specifically, the GCM learns and predicts user click behavior towards URLs displayed on a query results page returned by a search engine. Unlike conventional click modeling approaches that learn models based on individual queries, the GCM learns click models from multiple attributes, with the influence of different attribute values being measured by Bayesian inference. This provides an advantage in learning that enables the GCM to achieve improved generalization and results, especially for tail queries, than conventional click models. In addition, most conventional click models consider only position and the identity of URLs when learning the model. In contrast, the GCM considers more session-specific attributes in making a final prediction for anticipated or expected user click behaviors.
US08589227B1
A computer-implemented method of reconciling media property invoice data for advertising services with advertising agency final buy data, the media property invoice data comprising a plurality of invoice items, each invoice item corresponding to an actual advertisement spot that was run by the media property, the final buy data comprising a plurality of final buy items, each final buy item corresponding to an advertisement spot request that was placed by the advertising agency with the media property, the method comprising: (a) comparing the invoice items with the final buy items; and (b) responsive to the comparing step, identifying the invoice items for which a payment to the media property is authorized. Based on this comparison, an electronic fund transfer of the appropriate amount of money can be made from a financial account to the media property. Further still, GUIs for exception handling can be presented to a user to identifying any actions that should be taken on invoice items that trigger an exception handling condition. Corresponding systems and software are also disclosed herein.
US08589225B2
The invention provides consumers with the services of multiple cards or accounts while allowing consumers to carry a single card, transponder, code and/or other access device. Because the card may access combined services such as financial transaction services and transportation services, the system may facilitate charging the financial account for the transportation services. The system may allow the consumer to use loyalty points or geographic based loyalty points to pay for the transportation services. The system may also limit the use of certain loyalty points based upon the geographic area for certain transportation services in certain geographic areas.
US08589212B2
Systems and methods for determining one or more vehicles that are desirable for stocking an inventory of a dealer may include receiving one or more vehicle purchasing parameters from a dealer; receiving one or more behavior metrics associated with one or more consumers of at least one of the dealer, a vehicle wholesaler, or a vehicle retailer; determining, based at least in part on the vehicle purchasing parameters and the behavior metrics, one or more vehicles; determining, based at least in part on the vehicle purchasing parameters and the behavior metrics, a justifiable purchase price for the vehicles; determining a location of the vehicles; and determining, based at least in part on the justifiable purchase price and the location of the vehicles, at least a portion of the vehicles for restocking an inventory of the dealer.
US08589208B2
Uncorrelated data from a variety of sources, such as consumer panels or retailer points of sale, are combined with maximal coverage of a universal data set for a population in a manner that permits useful inferences about behaviorial propensities for the population at an individual or household level.
US08589203B1
A system is provided for project pipeline risk management. A distribution tool generates project resource distributions for associated organizations, wherein each of the project resource distributions comprises allocations of project resources to project phases and corresponds to one of multiple projects. The risk tool identifies risks, wherein each of the identified risks corresponds to one of the projects. The risk tool determines an initial risk exposure for each project based on an initial probability for each identified risk and an initial impact severity for each identified risk. The risk tool determines an updated risk exposure for each project based on an updated probability for each identified risk and an updated impact severity for each identified risk. The distribution tool generates updated project resource distributions based on the completed project information and a difference between the initial risk exposure and the updated risk exposure for each project.
US08589192B2
Techniques to segment a ticket into at least two ticket segments for a customizable event experience are disclosed. Events can have natural break points or event segments such as innings, periods, quarters, halves, or acts. In accordance with the claimed subject matter, a ticket can be segmented into a ticket segment for each of the event segments. Event factors, progression, and demand information can be monitored to allow or deny access to a ticket segment, set pricing, filter ticket segments, or adjust ticket segments. Furthermore, as the event progresses, analysis can continue and the ticket segments can be dynamically updated accordingly.
US08589187B2
The described concepts relate to automated patient disposition. One example can receive a clinician's disposition for a patient. This implementation can perform parameter-based cluster analysis on the patient and a set of patients to identify a sub-set of the patients with which the patient has a high similarity. This example can also cause a graphical user interface to be generated that conveys parameters from the sub-set of the patients and the patient.
US08589185B2
Document of medication administration is provided by a clinician acknowledging previous clinical results such that the previous clinical results are used for documentation purposes. A command is received to document the administration of a medication to patient. Based on the command, it is determined that documentation of the medication administration requires entry of information regarding at least one clinical result for the patient. Additionally, it is determined that a previous clinical result is available for documentation. The medication administration is then documented using the previous clinical result.
US08589183B2
An information management system for restricting access to personal data in compliance with law or regulation includes a database having restricted records stored therein, at least one of the records including an identification of a client or group of clients about whom said record concerns. A computer system under the control of a trusted information broker is configured to receive via a communication medium a request initiated by a requestor for access to at least one of the restricted records in the database, the request including an identification of the requestor. The computer system is further configured to transmit a request for consent to the client and receive an indication from the client that the client consents or does not consent to access to the restricted record by the requestor. The computer system grants or denies access to the restricted records based upon the indication from the client.
US08589182B1
A drug distribution system and method utilizes a central pharmacy and database to track all prescriptions for a sensitive drug. Information is kept in the database regarding all physicians allowed to prescribe the sensitive drug, and all patients receiving the drug. Abuses are identified by monitoring data in the database for prescription patterns by physicians and prescriptions obtained by patients. Further verification is made that the physician is eligible to prescribe the drug by consulting a separate database, and optionally whether any actions are taken against the physician. Multiple controls beyond those for normal drugs are imposed on the distribution depending on the sensitivity of the drug.
US08589181B2
Systems and methods for managing medical information for medical service providers are provided. Personnel are able to manage and track workflow operations, evaluate profitability, and maintain records in an integrated and streamlined manner by executing various modules of a software application. A Dashboard module provides a unitary display of information regarding employee efficiency and operational profitability; a Virtual Will Call module allows for the virtual placement of items in storage areas reflecting the corresponding physical will call storage locations; an Rx Tracker module provides information regarding the status of prescriptions as they go through the process from ordered to dispensed; the Maintenance module allows personnel to define customized delivery methods; and the Archive Viewer module provides a way for personnel to archive images in any accessible drive or memory device, including portable storage media, and to view such images independently of the module using an archive viewer executable.
US08589179B2
A hub-spoke patient information service in which a patient's data can be obtained from a network of independent data sources through a centralized service. The hub of the service stores patient identification information and the spokes store the patient's clinical data. In a preferred embodiment, the spokes are independent sources (e.g. each spoke is generally unrelated to other spokes) and include hospitals, doctor offices, clinics, insurance companies, or other entities that store or track clinical data. Preferably, the data sources use a first authentication to properly identify or authentic the service. Once access is granted, the spoke sources are queried for the patient's data. In response, each data source provides the type of patient data available from the source. The user is shown the types of data available without generally showing the actual data. The user can then select the specific patient data to retrieve from the spoke sources.
US08589175B2
The invention provides population models, methods, and algorithms for targeting a dosing regimen or compound selection to an individual patient. The methods and algorithms of the invention utilize population models that incorporate genotype information for genes encoding drug metabolizing enzymes for one or more compounds of interest. The methods allow integration of genotype information for one or more genes encoding a drug metabolizing enzyme, particularly a cytochrome P450 gene with patient data. The methods allow integration of genotype information and the effect of one or more compounds on one or more drug metabolizing enzymes. The methods allow iterative feedback of drug metabolizing data obtained from a patient into the process of generating a dosage regimen recommendation for a compound of interest for an individual patient.
US08589174B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to methods, devices, and systems to monitor activity. One method to monitor activity includes monitoring a sensor activated by an individual. The method also includes recording activation of the sensor, determining a behavior routine of the individual based on recorded activations of the sensor, and analyzing the recorded sensor activations to determine a behavior routine. The method also includes identifying a change in the behavior routine based on the analysis of the recorded sensor activations.
US08589170B1
A message device records and plays messages. In a first aspect, actuation is effected by way of a single control. The control generally corresponds to the whole cover. Relatedly, in a second aspect the device is extremely simple and promotes openness communication. The device can be placed or hung almost anywhere to facilitate message leaving and receiving in almost any group or organization. In one embodiment actuation is achieved by pressing on substantially any portion of the cover. In a second embodiment, a rocker configuration is implemented to actuate a record mode by pressing on one end of the cover and a play/listen mode by pressing on an opposite end. The device comprises a base, electrical components, a cover, and in some embodiments, a side wall.
US08589157B2
An automated “Voice Search Message Service” provides a voice-based user interface for generating text messages from an arbitrary speech input. Specifically, the Voice Search Message Service provides a voice-search information retrieval process that evaluates user speech inputs to select one or more probabilistic matches from a database of pre-defined or user-defined text messages. These probabilistic matches are also optionally sorted in terms of relevancy. A single text message from the probabilistic matches is then selected and automatically transmitted to one or more intended recipients. Optionally, one or more of the probabilistic matches are presented to the user for confirmation or selection prior to transmission. Correction or recovery of speech recognition errors avoided since the probabilistic matches are intended to paraphrase the user speech input rather than exactly reproduce that speech, though exact matches are possible. Consequently, potential distractions to the user are significantly reduced relative to conventional speech recognition techniques.
US08589138B2
A system and method to analyze analog, mixed-signal, and custom digital circuits. The system and method displays to a user characteristic values of a circuit and statistical uncertainty values of the characteristic values early in a sampling or characterization run of the circuit. The characteristic values and their statistical uncertainties are updated as the sampling or characterization run progresses. The user can halt the sampling or characterization run once a desired level of uncertainty is attained. The system can automatically halt the sampling or characterization run, once the statistical uncertainty lie within a pre-determined range.
US08589133B1
Interdependencies between pairs/groups of individual systems are evaluated in determining the composition of a universal system of interdependent systems. Data tables reflecting the interdependencies are contained in a central database resident in a server's memory. Plural/multiple computers are connected to the server, each computer having running thereon at least one simulation program, each simulation program being associated with at least one individual system and being characterized by individual time steps. In each individual time step, the simulation program updates (reads data from and writes data to) the central database, and displays updated information. In each universal time step (characterizing the simulation of the universal system), all simulation programs are temporally coordinated so that each simulation program's individual time step takes place once; no universal time step is perfected until every individual time step has completed its updating of pertinent data in the central database.
US08589131B2
This procedure proposes the appropriate equations that determine the rotor movement in order to obtain the aerodynamic actions for each blade in each iteration (the forces that are transmitted to the helicopter and the moments with respect to the articulations), and they are resolved by discretizations made in the rotor disc, such that that the blade elements of the partition are connected to the disc, which does not rotate, instead of to each blade. The blades pass through an azimuth range in each iteration, making a division of each blade longitudinally into ne elements, and the rotor disc into na sectors, corresponding to divisions of the range of azimuth angles. Therefore, partitions are made on ne·na blade elements, identifying each blade element by means of its distance to the rotor axis and its azimuth angle.
US08589125B2
The invention relates to a product design support system for supporting product design business so as to design and develop a product in a short time. The system creates an L-row orthogonal table according to set design parameters, executes many times, for each of L sets of design parameter groups, a virtual prototyping operation by adjusting the dimensional tolerance of each part, processes averages and variances of L sets of evaluation indexes obtained by the virtual prototyping operations, to form a response surface and response surface model, makes a factorial effect diagram of design parameters for each evaluation index, examines the factorial effect diagram, forms optional combinations of design parameters sensitive to the evaluation indexes, applies the combinations to the response surface model, forms many design solutions by optionally combining all design parameters that may achieve design target values, conducts filtering to extract a maximum likelihood design solution candidate group that achieves specified evaluation index limit values out of the design solutions, selects a maximum likelihood design solution group from the solution candidate group, and presents the same to a user.
US08589122B2
A simulation apparatus includes a simulation management unit for designating an elapsed time point, a robot operation calculation unit for causing the operation program to be executed to a designated elapsed time point to determine the operating position of the robot at the designated elapsed time point, a machine tool operation calculation unit for sequentially determining the operating position of the machine tool while at the same time executing the machining program continuously, and a machine tool operation storage unit for storing the determined operating position of the machine tool in correspondence with the elapsed time point each time a unit time elapses. The simulation management unit displays three-dimensional models of the robot and the machine tool on a display unit based on the operating positions of the robot and the machine tool at the designated elapsed time point acquired from the robot operation calculation unit and the machine tool operation calculation unit.
US08589116B2
A method for determining an object angle, especially for a driver assistance system in a motor vehicle, includes the steps of determining directional angles of the object with respect to two sensors, determining the object angle based on the directional angles, determining a cross-misalignment angle as the difference of the determined directional angles, determining a validity signal indicating the validity of the object angle based on the cross-misalignment angle and compensating for the influence of a relative misalignment of the sensors on the determined object angle based on the cross-misalignment angle.
US08589112B2
An energy analysis system provides valuable input into building energy expenditures. The system assists with obtaining a detailed view of how energy consumption occurs in a building, what steps may be taken to lower the energy footprint, and executing detailed energy consumption analysis. The analysis may include, as examples, a balance point pair analysis to determine either or both of a heating balance point and a cooling balance point, an exception rank analysis to identify specific data (e.g., energy consumption data) in specific time intervals for further review, or other analysis. The system may display the analysis results on a user interface.
US08589097B2
A method for diagnosing the state of health of a battery includes, determining a first state-of-charge value from the battery voltage during partial discharge at constant current, determining a second state-of-charge value from the open circuit voltage of the battery, and calculating the state of health from the difference between the first and second state-of-charge values.
US08589095B2
A power measuring device includes an induced current meter and a power consumption indicator. The induced current meter measures and outputs a first current information of a power circuit or a second current information of a main power circuit. A voltage information of one of the branching power circuits is measured by the power consumption indicator, and the power consumption indicator receives the first or the second current information from the induced current meter. A first information is calculated according to the first current information and the voltage information, a second information is calculated according to the second current information and the voltage information, and both of the current information is displayed by the indicator. The first current information and the voltage information are obtained by the induced current meter and the indicator respectively and synchronously. The second current information and the voltage information are obtained by the induced current meter and the indicator respectively and synchronously.
US08589092B2
A non interrupting on-line water distribution pressure monitoring system for a dry barrel fire hydrant includes an upper portion or the head and a lower portion or the barrel having an opening. A water flow control mechanism mounted at the opening of the lower portion of the barrel for controlling the water flowing through the barrel. An operating rod for activating the water flow control mechanism having an upper operating rod and a lower operating rod extends through the barrel between the upper and lower portions. The upper operating rod is secured to the head and the bottom of the lower operating rod is secured through the water flow control mechanism to extend beyond the lower portion of the barrel. A water pressure measuring device is housed within the bottom of the lower operating rod and extending beyond the bottom of the lower operating rod. A communication mechanism is positioned remotely from the dry barrel fire hydrant for receipt, collection and distribution of information collected from the water pressure measuring device.
US08589090B2
Devices for testing medical pumps via tracking induced single or multiple bubble trajectories within a light-transmissive fluid flow conduit including an outflow path and an inflow path relative to a manifold configured for bubble insertion by a carriage translatably disposed along the conduit, where the carriage including a first light emitting unit and a first photo receptor, and a signal processing unit configured to output motor command signals based on input signals from the first photo-receptor.
US08589084B2
Ethanol emissions from a direct ignition spark ignition are measured using mass spectrometry. The method exploits specific fragment ions from ethanol. Ethanol contributes ions of mass number 31, and no other gas species produces ions at this mass number. The method and a device for implementing the method can be used for online detection of ethanol in emissions from engines burning E85 or other ethanol/gasoline mixtures.
US08589082B2
Disclosed is a method for managing diabetes by reducing the post-prandial blood glucose spike, or the glucose shock. The blood glucose spike, or the glucose shock is reduced by generating a person-specific glucose profile for at least one significant meal to tune or train a blood glucose model (kinetic, artificial intelligence or hybrid), and then using the tuned or the trained model embedded in a computation-capable electronic device to compute and recommend a person-specific meal plan and an exercise plan, including semi-continuous meal ingestion and post-meal exercise while sitting at home or office. Advantages over prior art are that the method uses less strenuous exercise with no or less medicine, is person-specific, quantitative and more suitable for use by an individual, a dietician, or a health care practitioner.
US08589072B2
A navigation system comprises at least one processor, a satellite navigation receiver operatively coupled to the processor and configured to receive a plurality of navigation signals from one or more navigation satellites, and an inertial measurement unit operatively coupled to the processor and configured to generate inertial measurement data. An extended Kalman filter is configured to receive the plurality of navigation signals and the inertial measurement data. A processor readable storage medium includes instructions executable by the processor to combine the plurality of satellite signals with the inertial measurement data in the extended Kalman filter to generate a navigation solution. The plurality of navigation signals includes L1 pseudorange measurements, L2 pseudorange measurements, L1 accumulated carrier phase measurements, and L2 accumulated carrier phase measurements.
US08589068B2
In order to notify a user that a facility is present in the neighborhood of a route to a destination, a mobile phone includes a location obtaining portion to obtain a present location (S03, S09), a destination setting portion to set a point of destination (S02), a departure point setting portion to set a point of departure (S04), a facility extraction portion to extract facility information of a facility located in the neighborhood of a route from the point of departure to the destination from among facility information included in map information (S08), and a light emission control portion to give notification at a prescribed timing if at least one facility information is extracted by the facility extraction portion (S14).
US08589063B2
A navigation device includes a processor, a memory accessible by the processor, and a device to determine at least one physical parameter applied to the navigation device and to output information indicative of the at least one parameter to the processor. In at least one embodiment, the processor is arranged to determine a road-surface feature based upon the received information and to store road-surface quality information in the memory indicating the location of the road-surface feature.
US08589036B2
A method and system for automatically setting adjusting and monitoring load-based limits is capable of monitoring the hookload, rig weight and combined measured weight and compare those parameters to limits. If any of the hookload, rig weight or measured weight should increase to a level beyond its limit, the system is able to adjust the operation of the well service rig to limit damage to the equipment and danger to the operators and service personnel. The system is also capable of adjusting each of the limits as the weight of the rig and actual hookload change over time while conducting an activity to maintain the respective limits in the most beneficial range.
US08589021B2
An operation control device includes: a database for storing generated heat amount conditions of a device provided in a satellite and temperature environment conditions based on an orbital position and attitude of the satellite; a thermal analysis condition generation unit for generating thermal analysis conditions on the basis of telemetry data transmitted from the satellite, the generated heat amount conditions, and the temperature environment conditions; an analysis unit for performing thermal analysis for computing a temperature inside the satellite on the basis of the thermal analysis conditions; a temperature distribution data generation unit for generating temperature distribution data of part or all inside the satellite in a three-dimensional display format on the basis of the temperature values obtained by the thermal analysis; and a display unit for displaying the temperature distribution data.
US08589003B2
Systems and methods are described for monitoring different conditions that are simultaneously or concurrently experienced by different vehicles in the same consist and using the monitored conditions to locally change operations of one or more of the vehicles. In accordance with one embodiment, operations data related to one or more vehicles of the consist is acquired from one or more of plural different locations in the consist. The operations data and location data related to where the operations data is acquired are communicated to a first vehicle of the consist. Command data is formed based on the operations data and the location data. The command data directs at least one of the vehicles in the consist to change one or more operations of the at least one of the vehicles. The command data is transmitted to one or more of the vehicles of the consist.
US08589001B2
A method for controlling first and second locomotives of a railroad train, the first and the second locomotives separated by at least one railcar. The method comprises determining a location of the first locomotive and a location of the second locomotive, determining an operating condition of the first locomotive and an operating condition of the second locomotive, determining a first control aspect of the first locomotive responsive to the operating condition and the location of the first locomotive, determining a second control aspect of the second locomotive responsive to the operating condition and the location of the second locomotive, and controlling the first and the second locomotives according to the first control aspect and the second control aspect, respectively.
US08588999B2
Methods and systems are provided for improving a balance between engine fuel economy and exhaust emissions in an off-highway vehicle. One example method includes adjusting an engine injection timing based on an ambient NOx level estimated by a NOx sensor in the engine intake. Another example method includes adjusting a trip plan with a time in notch duty cycle based on a deviation from the time in notch duty cycle from a reference duty cycle.
US08588993B2
A voltage regulation optimization (VRO) system receives inputs from a DCS or other distribution network control/monitoring system. The VRO then calculates optimized control commands for various network devices including the controllable taps of voltage regulating transformers.
US08588989B1
A system includes a power-consuming, at least one energy storage device, and a power management system. The facility is configured to receive electrical power from an electric utility grid. The energy storage device is located at the power consuming facility and is configured to store electrical energy from the electrical power received from the electric utility grid. The power management system is configured to receive, from the electric utility grid, a request that indicates an amount of power and, in response to the request, to cause at least a portion of the power-consuming facility to be powered by the at least one energy storage device rather than the power received from the electric utility to grid such that an amount of the received power consumed by the power-consuming facility is reduced by at least the indicated amount.
US08588986B2
A method for transmission network control, the transmission network being configured for use in providing electricity from a generator to an end user, the method including receiving a sensitivity parameter, identifying a switchable set of switches within the transmission network using the sensitivity parameter, determining a candidate switch from the switchable set to change a corresponding state, wherein the state can be changed from open to closed and closed to open, determining a proposed change of state of the candidate switch, updating an optimal power flow (OPF) problem as a function of the candidate switch and the proposed change of state, determining and storing in a memory a solution to the updated OPF problem, generating an updated sensitivity parameter based on the stored solution to the updated OPF problem, and determining, using the updated sensitivity parameter, if the stored solution to the updated OPF problem meets a predetermined criterion.
US08588982B2
An exemplary mechanical parking system includes platforms for parking vehicles, a switch electrically connected to the platforms, cameras mounted on the platforms, a data processing device electrically connected to the cameras and the switch, and an alarm electrically connected to the data processing device. When any one of the platforms is switched to move, the cameras capture photos/videos for an environment of the mechanical parking system and send the photos/videos to the data processing device continuously. The data processing device analyzes whether there is a person appearing in the photos/videos and decides whether the movement of the platform should be stopped via the switch. After the danger is precluded, the movement of the platform is restored and the cameras start to work again, until the parking of the car is finished.
US08588974B2
A work apparatus sets a virtual target point on an image plane in an imaging apparatus, and obtains a plurality of coordinate values of a moving unit at which a work reference point of a work unit and the virtual target point are caused to match in an image captured by the imaging apparatus. Further, the work apparatus obtains, in the image, coordinate values of the moving unit at which a position of light projection by a distance information obtaining unit and the virtual target point are caused to match, and a plurality of pieces of distance information obtained from the distance information obtaining unit at those coordinate positions. Then, the work apparatus calculates, based on the plurality of coordinate values and the plurality of pieces of distance information obtained through the above processing, a calibration parameter for the moving unit and the distance information obtaining unit.
US08588970B2
A robotic system includes a plurality of robotic elements, each having at least one processing component, at least one memory component, and an I/O interface; and a virtual backplane coupling the plurality of robotic elements.
US08588969B2
A mechanical robot senses smoke or CO or other indication of air quality and alarms when air quality falls below a threshold.
US08588964B2
Storage devices, systems, methods, and computer program products are provided for dispensing medication. The storage devices include a container dispensing device for providing users with containers that can be used to securely transport (i.e., in a closed, identifiable container) medications dispensed from the storage device for a single selected patient. In this way, a single user may be able to dispense medications for multiple patients during a single user interaction with a storage device, while keeping medications for different patients separate and easily identifiable so as to provide secure transport between the storage device and the different patients' bedsides. Thus, a printing device may be provided for printing a summary of details, such as in the form of a label and/or a receipt. A sensor may also be provided for detecting the receipt of medications into the container as a check that the correct medications were dispensed by the user.
US08588956B2
A polishing system configured to polish a lap includes a lap configured to contact a workpiece for polishing the workpiece; and a septum configured to contact the lap. The septum has an aperture formed therein. The radius of the aperture and radius the workpiece are substantially the same. The aperture and the workpiece have centers disposed at substantially the same radial distance from a center of the lap. The aperture is disposed along a first radial direction from the center of the lap, and the workpiece is disposed along a second radial direction from the center of the lap. The first and second radial directions may be opposite directions.
US08588948B2
An audio enabled control menu system, method and device is provided. Embodiments of the present invention include an encoder including an input device actuation of the encoder by an operator of the control menu device; memory including a menu structure and a plurality of audio segments stored in the memory; and a microcontroller in operable communication with the encoder and the memory, the microcontroller further configured to receive menu navigation input from the encoder and output one of the plurality of audio segments in response to the menu navigation input, the microcontroller further configured to execute predetermined control actions in response to the menu navigation input. Embodiments of the invention transmit menu options to an operator in an audio format such that the operator can browse and select menu options with one hand and does not need to look at a visually displayed menu.
US08588939B2
Disclosed herein is a method of assembling an implantable medical lead configured to receive a stylet. The lead is provided with a tubular insulation layer, an electrode is disposed on the tubular insulation layer, an electrical conductor is routed through the tubular insulation layer, and a stylet stop is inserted into a distal end of the tubular insulation layer. The electrical conductor is directly and mechanically connected to the stylet stop and is in electrical communication with the electrode.
US08588935B2
An implantable medical lead includes a lead body, a first electrode, a second electrode, a third electrode, and a fourth electrode. The electrodes are located at fixed positions along the length of the lead body, and the second and third electrodes are positioned between the first and fourth electrodes. The first electrode has a proximal end, the fourth electrode has a distal end, and the distance from the proximal end of the first electrode to the distal end of the fourth electrode is between 5 centimeters and 7 centimeters. The combined length of the second and third electrodes is between 2.5 and 5 times greater than the combined length of the first and fourth electrodes. The lead may be used for applying electrical signals to an occipital nerve of a patient.
US08588932B2
In general, the disclosure describes techniques for communication between at least one lead-borne device of an implantable lead and a medical device to which the lead is connected. The lead-borne device communicates with the medical device by modulating an impedance. The lead-borne device may communicate one or more bits of data to the medical device by selectively presenting either a first impedance or a second impedance to the medical device during one or more bit windows. The first and second impedance values may be respectively associated with first and second binary values, e.g., a high or one and low or zero.
US08588931B2
Neural stimulation is effected by a stimulus current pulse. The current pulse is initially of an amplitude to rapidly induce a desired electrode voltage, and is subsequently of reduced amplitude to control electrode voltage in a desired manner. This can effect a reduced peak electrode voltage while delivering a given amount of charge. Optimization of the current pulse may further involve parameterising an electrode current waveform as a sequence of piecewise constant steps, each step having substantially the same duration as all other steps and each step having a calculatable amplitude, and identifying electrode-tissue interface (ETI) parameters. For each step of the pulse, the respective step amplitude is then calculated using the identified ETI parameters to optimise the electrode voltage.
US08588929B2
The disclosure is directed towards posture-responsive therapy. To avoid interruptions in effective therapy, an implantable medical device may include a posture state module that detects the posture state of the patient and automatically adjusts therapy parameter values according to the detected posture state. A system may include a posture state module that records a current posture of a patient, a user interface that receives a therapy adjustment, a processor that associates a posture that the posture state module recorded when the user interface received the therapy adjustment with the therapy adjustment, determines whether the posture falls within a defined posture state, compares the therapy adjustment to therapy information associated with the defined posture state, and updates the set of posture state definitions based on the determination and comparison.
US08588914B2
An implantable medical device (IMD) with a housing and electrodes on at least two surfaces of the housing is described. The surfaces may be, for example, opposed, substantially parallel surfaces, e.g., top and bottom surfaces. Location of electrodes on multiple surfaces of the housing may allow the IMD to deliver stimulation to a variety of tissues and with a variety of current field configurations. For example, the IMD may deliver peripheral nerve field stimulation (PNFS) to one or more tissue areas via electrodes selected from one or both of the surfaces to, for example, reduce the sensation of pain in a tissue area proximate to an implantation site of the IMD without targeting a specific nerve. The IMD may be implanted between or within intra-dermal, deep dermal, or subcutaneous layers of the tissue of the patient to deliver PNFS to any one or more of these layers.
US08588912B2
A system and method for remotely programming a patient medical device (PMD) is presented. Programming instructions specified remotely are translated into commands formatted for a PMD to control functionality thereof. Correctness of the PMD-formatted commands is checked. Patient consent to modify the functionality of the PMD is confirmed. Application of the PMD-formatted commands to the PMD is controlled during a programming session initiated and performed remotely. The application of the PMD-formatted commands is confirmed through interrogation of the PMD to verify the functionality modified.
US08588901B2
Systems and methods of use for guiding the flow of energy through a subject to stimulate tissue.
US08588900B2
The perivascular leak repair system, and method of using the same, of the present invention provides a sealant reservoir with a repair catheter operably attached; a flow control device disposed between the sealant reservoir and the repair catheter, and the flow control device responsive to a flow control signal; a heart phase detector generating a diastole phase signal; an injection switch generating a injection signal; and a flow controller responsive to the diastole phase signal and the injection signal, and generating the flow control signal. A method of sealing a perivascular leak comprises identifying the perivascular leak; inserting a repair catheter to the perivascular leak; injecting sealant at the perivascular leak; and removing the repair catheter. The sealant can be injected when the heart is in diastole to sweep the sealant into the perivascular leak.
US08588891B2
A wave-based tomographic imaging method and apparatus based upon one or more rotating radially outward oriented transmitting and receiving elements have been developed for non-destructive evaluation. At successive angular locations at a fixed radius, a predetermined transmitting element can launch a primary field and one or more predetermined receiving elements can collect the backscattered field in a “pitch/catch” operation. A Hilbert space inverse wave (HSIW) algorithm can construct images of the received scattered energy waves using operating modes chosen for a particular application. Applications include, improved intravascular imaging, bore hole tomography, and non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of parts having existing access holes.
US08588885B2
In various embodiments, a catheter comprising an expandable electrode assembly or basket is provided. In specific embodiments, the basket is particularly useful for mapping electrical activity at one or more locations within the heart. The basket can comprise a plurality of bendable or deflectable arms. At least one of the arms may have varied flexibility over its length in the form of one or more discontinuities of stiffness or flexibility at an elbow region or other variances in flexibility over the arm's length. Such variance in flexibility may allow the arm to assume a different bent configuration or respond to external factors more positively than possible with an arm having a static or near static flexibility or stiffness over its length.
US08588881B2
A small diameter flexible electrode designed for subcutaneous in vivo amperometric monitoring of glucose is described. The electrode is designed to allow “one-point” in vivo calibration, i.e., to have zero output current at zero glucose concentration, even in the presence of other electroreactive species of serum or blood. The electrode is preferably three or four-layered, with the layers serially deposited within a recess upon the tip of a polyamide insulated gold wire. A first glucose concentration-to-current transducing layer is overcoated with an electrically insulating and glucose flux limiting layer (second layer) on which, optionally, an immobilized interference-eliminating horseradish peroxidase based film is deposited (third layer). An outer (fourth) layer is biocompatible.
US08588880B2
An ear sensor provides a sensor body having a base, legs extending from the base and an optical housing disposed at ends of the legs opposite the base. An optical assembly is disposed in the housing. The sensor body is flexed so as to position the housing over a concha site. The sensor body is unflexed so as to attach the housing to the concha site and position the optical assembly to illuminate the concha site. The optical assembly is configured to transmit optical radiation into concha site tissue and receive the optical radiation after attenuation by pulsatile blood flow within the tissue.
US08588872B2
In the present invention, a rear cover 1 of a display part is made of at least a resin material, and a rear cover 4 of an operation part is made of a metal material. Respective plane portions of a front case 2 of the display part and a front case 3 of the operation part are made mainly of a metal material, and at least hinge parts 2c and 3c, which are formed on the front case 2 of the display part and the front case 3 of the operation part, are made of a resin material.
US08588859B2
A method for controlling communication setting of a mobile terminal, includes: outputting a communication setting widget indicating an operational state of at least one data communication function associated with the mobile terminal; receiving a signal for changing the operational state, the signal being associated with at least a part of the outputted communication setting widget and changing the operational state of at least one of the at least one data communication functions according to the signal.
US08588858B2
A portable terminal with a pair of housings is provided, in which a guide rib is formed in a first housing for providing a reception groove, a first hinge member is engaged with the first housing for rotating upon a first hinge axis extended along a length direction of the first housing, a second hinge member is formed in a second housing and includes a hinge housing extended along a width direction of the second housing, and an additional device is accommodated in the hinge housing.
US08588855B1
A wireless communication device is operated in a M by N multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) mode. M is the number of antennas transmitting to the communication device from a first base station. N the number of receiving antennas and receivers. M and N are integers greater than one. The wireless communication device is operated in an M by N−1 MIMO mode while a first one of the N receiving antennas and a first one of the N receivers receives wireless communication from a second base station.
US08588851B2
The mobile telephone includes a data storage divided into a plurality of storage volumes. Each storage volume includes at least one partition, each partition of each storage volume being adapted to store content. The mobile telephone also includes a supply chain for content stored in the storage volumes with the user, the chain including: a detector for detecting storage volumes; a reader for reading storage volumes; a content supply device for supplying content to applications of the telephone; and at least one content presentation application. The reader for reading the storage volumes includes a plurality of volume scanners, the content supply devicer includes a plurality of content suppliers, and the storage volume detector includes a single daemon and a single program for listening to the daemon.
US08588845B2
According to the present invention, a receiving node of a telecommunications network (20) (e.g. a radio base station (22) in uplink, or a mobile terminal (24) in downlink) transmits a single acknowledgement message to a transmitting node (e.g. a mobile terminal (24) in uplink, or a radio base station (22) in downlink) in respect of signals received over a plurality of frequency-aggregated carriers (component carriers) (10) between the transmitting and receiving nodes. If all signals are decoded correctly in the receiving node, a positive acknowledgement message (ACK) is sent to the transmitting node; if not all signals are decoded correctly, a negative acknowledgement message (NACK) is sent, or no acknowledgement message is sent. In this way, a single acknowledgement message can be sent for signals received over multiple carriers. The acknowledgement message can have the same format as legacy standards (for example, as specified in Release 8 of the 3GPP specifications), providing compatibility with existing equipment. The number of messages is also reduced compared with the straightforward approach of transmitting individual acknowledgement messages per component carrier.
US08588844B2
A method for communication includes arranging multiple access points in a wireless local area network (WLAN) to communicate over the air with a station in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) configuration. Transmission quality is measured, in alternation, between two or more of the access points and the station in a plurality of different MIMO states. Each MIMO state is characterized at least by a respective number of spatial streams to be transmitted in the state. Responsively to the measured transmission quality, one of the access points and one of the MIMO states are selected to transmit data to the station.
US08588842B2
Method and apparatus for dynamically optimizing the transmission level of each remote terminal in a satellite-based communication network. Each remote terminal maintains quasi-error-free communication at the highest efficiency level available under changing link conditions and network configurations, without requiring the reservation of substantial power margins, which results in a much more efficient satellite network.
US08588837B2
An open loop power control method for setting a transmit power of mobile station (22) during a handoff from a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service to a circuit switched service sets a transmit power of the mobile station based upon a power level associated with the VoIP call. A disclosed example includes using an average power level of a reverse pilot channel of the VoIP call and correction factors based upon forward link and reverse link parameters during the VoIP call.
US08588836B2
Systems and methods are provided for delivering both PMP communications, for example standard cellular communications via a base station, and also delivering P2P communications, for example, communications between two mobile stations, using the same spectral resources for both types of communication.
US08588833B2
A method for assigning and coordinating uplink reference signals for cooperative communication is disclosed. Data about an assigned uplink reference signal sequence used by a wireless communication device is received at a non-serving base station. An uplink reference signal estimate is determined based on the data. The uplink reference signal estimate is used to coherently demodulate a signal received from the wireless communication device or is used to estimate an uplink channel between the non-serving base station and the wireless communication device.
US08588816B2
Aspects provide for systems, methods, apparatus and computer program products for selecting advertisements for presentation on wireless device applications based on the current device location and the current interests of the device user. The current interests of the device user are defined by the application currently being executed on the device and/or current user inputted requests for content. In this regard, present aspects provide for highly targeted advertising that serves to provide advertisements to users based on their current needs, which are defined in terms of their current interests and current location.
US08588812B2
The present invention relates to a method for detecting closed subscriber group (CSG) cells through a terminal in a wireless communication system. The method for detecting the CSG cells in the wireless communication system comprises the steps of: determining a present position of the terminal; measuring a physical layer identifier of a corresponding cell when the present position of the terminal corresponds to a position of a prestored CSG cell; and detecting the corresponding cell as the priorly connected CSG cell when the measured physical layer identifier corresponds to the physical layer identifier of the prestored CSG cell. Desirably, the method further comprises the steps of measuring system information of the corresponding cell; and detecting the corresponding cell as the priorly connected CSG cell when the upper layer cell identifier included in the system information corresponds to the upper layer cell identifier of the prestored CSG cell.
US08588806B2
A wireless device includes a user interface that generates a pairing signal in response to an indication from a user to pair the wireless device to at least one remote device and generates a first location request signal in response to a second indication from a user to locate the at least one remote device. A short-range wireless transceiver communicates RF signals to pair the wireless device to the at least one remote device and that transmits a first RF paging signal to the at least one remote device in response to the location request signal.
US08588801B2
Providing for a multipoint equalization (MPE) framework for coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission in wireless communication is described herein. The disclosed MPE framework involves distributed scheduling decisions for CoMP transmission, reducing complexity of scheduling coordination as compared with centralized scheduling techniques that coordinate scheduling decisions for multiple network base stations. Further, the MPE framework involves distributed computation of CoMP transmission coefficients, relying on a maximum of two backhaul hops to obtain information for the computation, and disseminate the transmission coefficients. The disclosed MPE framework shows substantial gains in various network deployments over conventional CoMP techniques.
US08588799B2
A method and apparatus for processing downlink communication and a corresponding assisting method and apparatus are provided. According to an embodiment, a method for assisting a base station in processing downlink communication in a user equipment includes: estimating a downlink channel between the base station and the user equipment; determining a spatial correlation matrix between the base station and the user equipment according to the result of estimating the downlink channel; determining at least one pre-coding vector among a plurality of pre-stored pre-coding vectors based upon the spatial correlation matrix; and notifying the base station about the determined at least one pre-coding vector and spatial correlation matrix. The downlink communication processing disclosed herein improves the performance of a system, improves the average throughput and the throughput of an edge user of the multi-user MIMO system and has a wider applicability scope than the original codebook and feedback mechanism.
US08588792B2
Method for reducing call initiation collisions in a wireless communication system includes determining, at an eNodeB, a need to reduce a number of call initiation requests arriving from a plurality of user equipment (UEs). One operation provides broadcasting, by the eNodeB, a notification message to the UEs responsive to the determining of the need to reduce the number of call initiation requests, the notification message including information for facilitating a determination of whether a receiving UE is permitted to transmit a call initiation request to the eNodeB. Another feature includes receiving, at the eNodeB, the call initiation request from one or more of the plurality of UEs that are determined to be permitted to transmit the call initiation request.
US08588786B2
A method and apparatus in a mobile switching center (MSC) performs a tandem handoff in a wireless communication network. The serving MSC receives a handoff request from a serving base station (BS) for a handoff to a target BS of a target MSC. When the serving MSC does not have physical handoff trunks, the serving MSC sends a tandem handoff request to a tandem MSC.
US08588784B2
The invention provides a mobile communication system capable of transferring data to be sent to mobile terminal equipment from one wireless base station to another during hand over, the wireless base station of a transfer source of the data including an accumulation portion that holds the data until the data normally arrives at the mobile terminal equipment.
US08588780B2
A method is disclosed where information is sent to at least one mobile device in a connected mode first system. The information is indicative that a deliberate connection re-establishment is to be used to access at least one second system at least in certain situations when the at least one mobile device is in connected mode. The mobile device in the first system can process the information, and based on the processing, initiate a deliberate connection re-establishment procedure to access a second system.
US08588778B2
A system and method for detecting the failure of a user's femto cell and automatically reselecting a neighboring femto cell to establish temporary communications until the user's femto cell returns to operation. The neighboring femto cell selected for use is based on signal strength and configuration parameters related to limitations placed on the temporary access by the neighboring femto cell owner. Once the user's femto cell returns to operation, the user's mobile communication device returns to use of the primary femto cell.
US08588776B1
A communication system for controlling with which base station a mobile station exchanges user communications. A first base station of a plurality of base stations with which the mobile station communicates is configured to receive a user selection from a user. The user selection indicates that the mobile station is near the first base station. In response to the user selection, the first base station transfers a notification message indicating that the mobile station is nearby the first base station. A communication control system receives the notification message from the first base station. In response to receiving the notification message, the communication control system transfers a control message for delivery to the mobile station to limit the mobile station to exchanging user communications only with the first base station. The first base station exchanges user communications with the mobile station.
US08588772B2
A method and apparatus for delivering a mobile terminated call to user equipment (UE) in a circuit switched fallback (CSFB) capable wireless network system using prepaging. When the VMSC registered in the HLR of the called UE receives a provide roaming number message from the HLR indicating that a CS call to the UE has been originated at a GMSC, the VMSC starts a paging process with a mobility management entity (MME) then returns a mobile station roaming number (MSRN) to the HLR when the called UE is in EMM-connected mode. Alternatively, the VMSC sets a guard timer and returns the MSRN to the HLR when the guard timer expires. In the meantime, the VMSC remain in a paging stage waiting for the response from the UE falling back to the UMTS/GSM network from the LTE network.
US08588755B2
A system to provide a supplementary service control menu includes an information collection unit to collect state information associated with a supplementary service; a level determination unit to determine a level of the supplementary service using the state information; a menu building unit to generate an identifier (ID) of the supplementary service and to build the supplementary service control menu; and a menu display unit to display the built supplementary service control menu including the supplementary service having an effect associated with the level on a screen. A method for providing the supplementary service control menu includes collecting state information associated with a supplementary service; determining a level of the supplementary service; generating an ID of the supplementary service; building the supplementary service control menu including the generated ID; and displaying the supplementary service control menu including the supplementary service having an effect associated with the level.
US08588754B2
A method of facilitating telephone calls for a mobile communication device associated with a user of a personal call center. A list of contact numbers are received, each contact number corresponding to a call to be made for the mobile communication device on behalf of the user of the call center. Based on a schedule associated with the user of the call center, it is determined whether the user is available for calls to be made. If the user is available for calls to be made, a call to a recipient from the list of contact numbers is initiated and the call is connected to the mobile communication device.
US08588752B2
A system and method for creation and management of user location policies and data. Generally described, the system provides for automated tools and personal tools that can alleviate the onerous and expensive task of updating location data and location based policies. The automated tools can use existing information within company databases to create and manage standard user locations. The personal tools can allow the user to personally create manage their own locations through a graphical user interface. The automated and personal tools can utilize global positioning system information to track the current location of the user. The information can be used to determine physical locations to a certain degree.
US08588736B2
In one embodiment, a signal having a real-time usage value associated with operation of a mobile device is received from the mobile device. Information on a service agreement for the mobile device is received. A command is sent to the mobile device when the operation of the mobile device crossed a threshold condition of the service agreement. The command is configured to cause the mobile device to implement an operational change at the mobile device in response to the command.
US08588733B2
A system and method for providing a conduit to send information to emergency services from a wireless device. Systems and methods for registering an alarm button on a wireless device and sending to public and/or private emergency services providers information related to the wireless device including its location, information about a wireless device end user and/or subscriber associated with the wireless device, and information recorded by one or more wireless devices during and subsequent to the time the alarm button is activated.
US08588732B2
A method and system for re-establishing a connection from a PSAP or 911 call center to a terminal of a 911 caller who has subscribed to IN services, for example, after a terminal of a 911 caller has been disconnected from the PSAP or 911 call center. If the call is dropped, the PSAP or 911 call center can, manually, or automatically via the system of the present invention, dial or cause to be dialed, a pre-determined prefix prior to dialing the number of the terminal of the 911 caller. In a separate embodiment of the method and system of the present invention, a separate parameter is used in CAMEL IDP and ISUP IAM to indicate the calling party category to identify that the call is originating from a PSAP or 911 call center.
US08588730B2
A user of a first mobile station, which is lost either in silent mode or switch-off mode may send a ‘Find-Me’ message to the first mobile station from a second mobile station. The first mobile station, after receiving the ‘Find-Me’ message, may power-on the first mobile station enabling the first mobile station to receive voice call and messages. Also, if the first mobile station is in silent mode, the first mobile station may change the profile of the first mobile station from a silent to a regular-noisy mode. The user of first mobile station may call-up the first mobile station and identifies the location of the first mobile station by tracking the ringing sound. The first mobile station may send a location message to the second mobile station in response to receiving the ‘Find-Me’ message that may be used to identify the location of the first mobile station.
US08588717B2
A radio communications device includes a headphone assembly, which includes at least one aural speaker or transducer and a headphone cable functioning as an antenna and providing electrical signals carrying audio information to the at least one aural speaker or transducer. A signal separator coupled to the headphone cable separates the electrical signals carrying audio information transmitted to the headphone cable and radio frequency (RF) signals received from the headphone cable. A radio receiver receives the RF signals from the signal separator and converts the RF signals to electrical signals carrying audio information. A tuner is provided for tuning the headphone cable to a selected operating frequency of the radio receiver. An audio amplifier amplifies electrical signals carrying audio information from the radio receiver to be transmitted through the headphone cable to the at least one aural speaker or transducer.
US08588715B2
A receiver (200) that receives a radio signal transmitted from a transmitter includes a receiving unit (2042) that receives a signal that is wirelessly transmitted from the transmitter at one of a plurality of transmission frequencies, a receiving frequency change determining unit (2048) that determines whether a receiving frequency is to be changed, based on the signal received by the receiving unit, and a communication error acceptance time setting unit (2046) that sets an acceptance time as a period of time for which communication errors after confirmation of a receiving operation are accepted, based on the signal received by the receiving unit. The communication error acceptance time setting unit sets the acceptance time to different periods of time, depending on whether the receiving frequency change determining unit determines that the receiving frequency is to be changed.
US08588714B2
A method for regulating a power amplifier for operation in a timeslot data transmission system comprises providing the power amplifier with a bias for setting an operating point for the power amplifier, wherein the bias has a respective bias value. In addition, a supply voltage control signal is provided, wherein a supply voltage value is set such that a prescribed output power value of the power amplifier is attained. The bias value is changed to a new bias value. These steps are repeated until a prescribed criterion is met, but for at least one subsequent timeslot. Next the bias value of the subsequent timeslot is set to the bias value of the previous timeslot.
US08588711B2
A transmission apparatus includes an analog digital converter that performs sampling on a demodulated signal obtained by demodulating a part of an output signal, which is produced by amplifying a modulated signal of a baseband signal including a plurality of signals having frequencies separated from each other, at a sampling frequency lower than a frequency of a given intermodulation distortion component and converting the demodulated signal into a digital signal, a detection section that detects an aliasing component of the given intermodulation distortion component produced by the conversion of the analog digital converter, and a distortion compensation section that compensates an input signal to be modulated for the given intermodulation distortion component in accordance with the detected aliasing component.
US08588709B2
A switching apparatus in a wireless communication system using multi-channels includes: a first antenna unit configured to transmit and receive data of a first multi-channel among the multi-channels; a second antenna unit configured to transmit and receive data of a second multi-channel among the multi-channels; a first transceiver configured to receive the data from the first antenna unit and transmit the data to the first transceiver; and a selection unit configured to transmit an output of the second antenna unit to the first transceiver.
US08588699B2
A method of avoiding a channel interference in a single channel sensor network, includes periodically measuring an energy of a channel used by at least one node included in the sensor network; exchanging the measured energy of the channel with a neighbor node of the at least one node; receiving energy of all nodes of the sensor network and determining if there is an interference, by a coordinator node, which is a highest node of the at least one node; and when it is determined that there is an interference, switching a channel influenced by the interference to a channel which has been scanned by the coordinator node and is not influenced by the interference, thereby avoiding an influence of the interference.
US08588697B1
Embodiments disclosed herein provide systems and methods for modifying a dormancy timer in a wireless communication device. In a particular embodiment, a method comprises exchanging wireless communications between a wireless device and an access node on a wireless communication network. The method further comprises determining a reverse noise indicator for the access node. The method also includes determining a modification for a dormancy timer in the wireless access node based on the reverse noise indicator, wherein the dormancy timer indicates when a communication access channel on the wireless access node that is allocated to the wireless device should be released. Additionally, the method comprises modifying the dormancy timer in accordance with the dormancy timer modification.
US08588695B1
Embodiments disclosed herein provide systems and methods for modifying the data transfer rate of wireless communications transferred by a wireless device. In a particular embodiment, a method comprises exchanging wireless communications between a wireless device and an access node on a wireless communication network. The method further includes determining a reverse noise ratio for the access node. Additionally, the method includes generating a message indicating the reverse noise ratio and transferring the message to the wireless device. The method further comprises receiving the message in the wireless device and modifying a data transfer rate of the wireless communications from the wireless device based on the reverse noise ratio indicated by the message.
US08588691B2
An information processing apparatus includes a first communication unit that receives management data including at least identification information of content data from a different device by using a first communication method. The apparatus also includes an output unit that outputs a first display based on the management information received by the first communication unit. Further, the apparatus includes a selection acceptation unit that accepts a selection of the content data according to a selection operation on the first display. The apparatus additionally includes a second communication that sends a request for the content data of which the selection acceptation unit accepts the selection to the different device and receives the content data corresponding to the request by using a second communication method whose communication range is wider than that of the first communication method.
US08588687B2
A handheld diabetes management device having a plurality of communication modules for communicating with a plurality of medical devices via a shared antenna or multiple antennas, where the handheld diabetes management device includes a first communication module, a second communication module, and an arbitration module. The first communication module selectively communicates in a first frequency band with an insulin infusion pump external to the handheld diabetes management device via a first antenna using a first wireless communication protocol. The second communication module selectively communicates in the first frequency band with a continuous glucose monitor external to the handheld diabetes management device via a second antenna or the first antenna using a second wireless communication protocol. The arbitration module grants permission to communicate to the first communication module and denies permission to communicate to the second communication module when the first and second communication modules request permission to communicate concurrently.
US08588685B2
A radio frequency identification (RF) system includes an RF reader, an RF tag, and a network connection module. The RF reader includes a reader radio frequency (RF) bus transceiver. The network connection module includes a network connection RF bus transceiver, wherein the reader RF bus transceiver exchanges at least one of inbound RF data and outbound RF data with the network RF bus transceiver via an RF bus.
US08588684B2
According to one embodiment, the signal electrode is disposed on the first principal surface side of the substrate and is connected to the other end of the second signal line. The housing covers and accommodates therein the substrate, the communication unit, the first signal line, the terminal, the second signal line, and the signal electrode. The conductive material is arranged on an outer side of the housing so as to be opposite to the signal electrode, and includes an outer peripheral portion extended outward beyond an outer periphery of the signal electrode. The communication apparatus carries out data communication via a living body.
US08588682B2
A near field RF communicator has an inductive coupler (223) to enable inductive coupling with a magnetic field of an RF signal; a rectifier (213,214,215,216) to rectify an AC voltage derived from an RF signal inductively coupled to the inductive coupler (223); and a regulator (209,210,211,220,221,900) to regulate a voltage derived from an RF signal inductively coupled to the inductive coupler, the regulator having a voltage-controlled impedance (210, 211) and a regulator controller (209) to provide a control voltage for the voltage controlled impedance and to vary the control voltage in dependence upon a current flowing through the voltage controlled impedance (210, 211). To prevent the voltage regulator from drawing excess current and energy from an RF field in which the communicator is present the voltage regulator is controlled to provide a chosen impedance characteristic.
US08588673B2
A conveying device includes a support member that supports a conveyed medium; a rotation member that is rotated by a drive unit, the rotation member having a contact surface for contacting the conveyed medium supported by the support member to cause the conveyed medium to move on a rotation of the rotation member; a position-changing unit that changes a position of the support member in accordance with the rotation of the rotation member from a first position where the conveyed medium does not contact the contact surface to a second position where the conveyed medium contacts the contact surface; and a buffer mechanism that allows movement of the position-changing unit or the support member in a direction opposite to a direction of the position change of the support member from the first position to the second position caused by the position-changing unit.
US08588670B2
A fixing device includes a metal thermal conductor provided inside a loop formed by a fixing rotary body to heat the fixing rotary body; a heater provided inside the metal thermal conductor to heat the metal thermal conductor; a pad support provided inside the metal thermal conductor; and a reflector provided between the heater and the pad support to reflect heat emitted by the heater thereto toward an inner circumferential surface of the metal thermal conductor. The reflector includes a center reflection portion provided at a center of the reflector in a longitudinal direction thereof and a plurality of end reflection portions provided at respective lateral ends of the reflector. A plurality of reflector moving assemblies is connected to the plurality of end reflection portions of the reflector, respectively, to tilt the plurality of end reflection portions toward the center reflection portion.
US08588663B2
A developing device includes: a developer holding body including: a hollow development rotary body which is opposed to an image holding body capable of holding a toner image and has a smooth surface whose surface roughness is lower than or equal to 5 μm in terms of maximum height; and a magnet member which is fixedly housed in the development rotary body and in which a plurality of magnetic poles are arranged alongside its periphery, the developer holding body operating in such a manner that developer containing toner and carrier is held on the development rotary body by magnetic force produced by the magnetic poles of the magnet member as the development rotary body is rotated; a layer regulating rotary body as defined herein; and a development driving device as defined herein.
US08588658B2
An image forming apparatus includes a latent image carrier, a development device, a discharge port through which developer is discharged, a discharge port detector, and a controller that determines whether to permit driving of the development device in a direction reverse to a normal direction or to terminate discharge of developer based on detection results by the discharge port detector in discharge of developer. The development device includes a developer carrier, a developer supply member disposed in a supply compartment facing the developer carrier, a developer collection member disposed in a collection compartment lower than the supply compartment, a developer agitation member disposed in an agitation compartment disposed at a height similar to that of the collection compartment, to transport developer in a direction opposite conveyance direction by the developer supply member and the developer collection member.
US08588654B2
An image forming apparatus includes a rotatable image bearing member for carrying a latent image; a developing device including a developer carrying member, rotatable about a rotational axis thereof, for carrying a developer and for developing a latent image formed on the bearing member; a rotatable feeding member, provided in the developing device, for feeding the developer; a first driving force receiving member, provided at one axial end portion of the developer carrying member, for receiving a driving force for driving the developer carrying member; a second driving force receiving member, provided at the other axial end portion of the developer carrying member, for receiving a driving force for driving the feeding member; a first drive inputting member for driving the first driving force receiving member; a second drive inputting member for driving the second driving force receiving member; and an abutment member, provided at each of the axial end portions of the developer carrying member, or determining a gap between the image bearing member and the developer carrying member, wherein the first driving force receiving member and the second driving force receiving member are provided such that when the first driving force receiving member and the second driving force receiving member receive the respective driving forces, components of the driving forces which are toward and away from the image bearing member are co-directional with each other.
US08588645B2
A multi-function printer includes an image forming unit and a scanner unit. The image forming unit includes a body casing, a developing unit having a developing roller extending in a lateral direction, a developer cartridge provided on one side of the axis of the developing roller and detachably attached to the body casing, a discharge tray, a side cover, a support unit for supporting the developer cartridge such that the developer cartridge is detachably attached to a front side of the body casing, a sheet feeding tray detachably attachable to the front side of the body casing, and a discharge unit provided on the front side of the body casing and discharging sheet on which an image is formed to the rear side of the body casing. The scanner unit is provided above the image forming unit having a predetermined space opened on the one side therebetween.
US08588633B2
An image forming apparatus includes a color toner image forming portion, a transparent toner image forming portion, a heating portion, an obtaining portion that obtains information on an area where a gloss level should partly be increased and an area where the gloss level should partly be decreased in an image, and a controller controls the color toner image forming portion and the transparent toner image forming portion to form the color toner images and a first partial transparent toner image on a recording material, controls the heating portion to heat the color toner images and the first partial transparent toner image on the recording material, controls the transparent toner image forming portion to form a second partial transparent toner image on the recording material, and controls the heating portion to heat the second partial transparent toner image on the recording material based on information obtained by the obtaining portion.
US08588631B2
An image forming apparatus includes a rotatable image bearing member including an electroconductive base member and a photosensitive member formed on the electroconductive base member; a contact charging device for electrically charging the photosensitive member; a DC voltage applying device for applying a DC voltage to the contact charging device; an exposure device for exposing the charged photosensitive member to light; and a current detecting device for detecting a current passing from the contact charging device to the electroconductive base member of the image bearing member. The image forming apparatus includes a control device capable of executing an operation in a humidity detecting mode in which an area of the photosensitive member is electrically charged by applying a DC voltage to the contact charging device and the photosensitive member is rotated without exposing the area to the light by the exposure device and then the area is electrically charged again by applying the DC voltage to the contact charging device. The control device detects information on a humidity on the basis of a current detected by the current detecting device when the area is electrically charged again by applying the DC voltage to the contact charging device.
US08588630B2
An image forming apparatus having a rotary image bearing member, a charging device to charge the image bearing member. an irradiator to irradiate the image bearing member to form a latent electrostatic image thereon, a developing device to develop the latent electrostatic image with a developing agent containing toner to obtain a visible image, a transfer device to transfer the visible image to a recording medium, a first cleaner that slidably contacts the image bearing member to remove toner remaining thereon, a driving mechanism to drive the image bearing member at different linear speeds, a noise detector provided in the vicinity of the image bearing member to detect noise, and an abnormal noise predictor device to predict whether abnormal noise hear during image formation based on noise detected by the noise detector when the image bearing member is driven not during image formation at a linear speed different from that during image formation.
US08588625B2
A consumables storage container has an opening through which consumables are supplied. The consumables storage container includes a seal detachably attached to the opening to seal the opening, a part ID storage disposed on the seal, and a positioning holder to position and hold the seal at a prescribed position where the part ID storage is readable after the opening is unsealed.
US08588617B2
An optical transceiver assembly comprises a transmission system, a reception system and a coupling system which directs a part of the signals produced by the transmission system to the reception system. Said part of the transmission signals is detected by a photodetector matrix of the reception system, outside an useful zone of the matrix which is dedicated to the detection of the received signals. A transmission direction may therefore be determined in real time while the received signals are detected. A difference between the transmission direction and a reception direction of the transceiver assembly may then be precisely compensated for at each moment during a tracking step. The transceiver assembly may be a free space laser optical communication terminal.
US08588616B2
In a method and an apparatus for the optical transmission of data by a pulse-width modulated light source (LED), in which a set dimming factor (N) is replaced with a cycle-dependent dimming factor (NI), the cycle-dependent dimming factor is modulated for encoding the data to be transmitted and corresponds to the set dimming factor over a time interval which is resolvable for the human eye.
US08588606B2
A network monitoring module for deployment in a branched optical network at a split location where the network splits into a plurality of branches, the network monitoring module is disclosed, comprising an array of transmitters for generating optical test signals, an output of each transmitter in the array being optically connected to a respective branch, a detector for receiving a remotely generated optical trigger signal which identifies a particular one of the transmitters, and a CMOS circuit for selectively triggering the transmitter identified in the optical trigger signal to transmit an optical test signal into the branch connected to that transmitter.
US08588605B2
A polarizing hood including a first polarized filter with the center of the filter removed. Placed forward and in front of the first polarized filter is a second linear polarized filter substantially the size of the hole in the first polarized filter and is held in place by a clear lens. The polarization may be adjusted. In response to light collocated with an objective lens shined through the first polarizing filter, the light become polarized. The reflected polarized light returns through the second polarized filter, and full polarization is accomplished with respect to the viewing camera.
US08588596B2
A universal underwater enclosure has a spherical shell having a hollow in which a camera or other device can be inserted, a lens attached to the shell that can be opened to insert a device, and glove assemblies extending into the hollow for manipulating a device placed therein. The glove assemblies are not full gloves, reducing the dimensions of the enclosure—thereby minimizing buoyancy. A mounting system attaches to a device's tripod mount receptor, fixes the device, and allows it to be adjusted in three dimensions. A pressure equalization system relieves stress on the enclosure, which exhibits neutral buoyancy. A flash mounted on the shell operates independently of any device. Modular lens pods replace the lens to accommodate various other lenses. The glove assemblies have perimeter lips secured to the shell by fasteners and a bezel around teardrop-shaped holes in the shell. The fingers allow access to a device's controls.
US08588589B2
Exemplary systems and methods for automatically converting media content stream data from a buffer to a permanent recording are disclosed. An exemplary method includes a media content access subsystem receiving data representative of a media content stream, temporarily storing the data representative of the media content stream within a buffer for playback to a user, detecting an input command provided by the user to pause the playback of the media content stream, pausing the playback of the media content stream, accumulating data representative of a portion of the media content stream not yet played back within the buffer, detecting an alert condition indicating that the data representative of the portion of the media content stream not yet played back is about to be lost from the buffer, and converting the data representative of the portion of the media content stream not yet played back to a permanent recording.
US08588583B2
Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for interactive video frame selection are described. One embodiment includes a method having the steps of causing a frame of a video to be displayed, receiving a selection of a point at a first location within the frame, and determining a particle in the frame associated with the point. The method further includes the steps of receiving a movement of the point to a second location, determining a second frame of the video comprising the particle based at least in part on a distance between the particle and the second location of the point in the second frame.
US08588575B2
A method of presenting video frames of a video segment at a non-standard speed is provided. A frame count is set to an initial value. For each video frame that is to be presented, a time offset relative to a staring time within the video segment is generated. The time offset may be generated by multiplying the frame count by two values. The first value is a length of time for which each selected frame is to be presented to the user, and the second value is the presentation rate of the video segment relative to a normal presentation rate. A video frame within the video segment corresponding to the time offset within the video segment is selected and output for presentation. The frame count is then updated, and the process is repeated for the next frame to be presented.
US08588574B2
A backlight includes a lightguide, a light source disposed with respect to the lightguide to introduce light into the lightguide and a turning film. Optical structures are formed in one of an output surface and a back surface of the lightguide. The optical structures are arranged to extract light from the lightguide. A back reflector is disposed adjacent the back surface. The optical structures are formed to include a varying pattern arranged to mask non-uniformities in the output of the lightguide.
US08588561B2
An interconnect system includes a first circuit board, first and second connectors connected to the first circuit board, and a transceiver including an optical engine and arranged to receive and transmit electrical and optical signals through a cable, to convert optical signals received from the cable into electrical signals, and to convert electrical signals received from the first connector into optical signals to be transmitted through the cable. The transceiver is arranged to mate with the first and second connectors so that at least some converted electrical signals are transmitted to the first connector and so that at least some electrical signals received from the cable are transmitted to the second connector.
US08588555B1
This invention provides a computer processor architecture optimized for power-efficient computation of certain sensory recognition (e.g. vision) algorithms on a single computer chip. Illustratively, the architecture is optimized to carry out low-level routines and a special class of high-level sensory recognition routines derived from research into human brain perception processes. In an illustrative embodiment, the processor includes a plurality of processing nodes, arranged in a hierarchy of layers, and the processor resolves features from sensory information input and provides the feature information as input to a lowest hierarchy layer thereof. The hierarchy simultaneously, recognizes multiple components of the features, which are transferred between the layers so as to build likely recognition candidates. Each node can further include memory constructed and arranged to refresh and retain features determined to be likely recognition candidates by a thresholding process. These are provided to an overseer that directs a function to occur.
US08588553B2
Input pixel values associated with input pixel positions having a first spacing along a direction are received and processed to determine output pixel values associated with output pixel positions having a second spacing along the direction, from respective combinations of input pixel values weighted by coefficients given by an interpolation function. In a downscaling operation, the second spacing is larger than the first spacing, and the weighting coefficients represent values of the interpolation function expanded spatially by an expansion factor equal to the ratio of the second spacing to the first spacing.
US08588539B2
To filter a digital signal, in which, for each sample of the signal, a plurality of context functions take account of a predetermined number of other samples of the signal: the value of a context function from the plurality of context functions for each sample to be filtered is calculated; the signal is divided into a set of sub-signals corresponding respectively to the different values of the context functions; and, for each sub-signal: an optimal filter is determined according to a first criterion that depends on the values of the sub-signal; and the optimal filter is associated with the context function corresponding to the sub-signal.Application to the coding of a digital signal representing an image.
US08588531B2
A computer implemented method and system for calculating a degree of similarity between two graphs whose nodes are respectively given discrete labels include providing, for each of the two graphs, label values respectively to a given node and nodes adjacent thereto so that different ones of the discrete labels correspond to different ones of the label values. The nodes are sequentially tracing for each of the two graphs, and, during the tracing of the nodes, a new label value is calculated through a hash calculation using a label value of a currently visited node and also using label values of nodes adjacent to the currently visited node to update the label value to the currently visited node. The degree of similarity between the two graphs is calculated on the basis of the number of the label values having been given to nodes of the two graphs and agreeing between the two graphs.
US08588530B2
A method of detecting a region having a specific shape in a camera is provided. The method includes processing input image data in a camera and detecting the region having the specific shape. The method includes calculating gradation differences between a central pixel and respective peripheral pixels in each of local regions of an image frame, comparing an average gradation difference with each of the gradation differences and obtaining local gradient pattern (LGP) values based on a comparison result in each of the local regions, and detecting the region having the specific shape from the image frame using the LGP values obtained from the respective local regions.
US08588528B2
Disclosed are techniques and systems to provide a scanned image in which a portion of the image is overlaid with OCR generated text corresponding to the text of the original scanned document.
US08588520B2
A gradation distribution of an image character is analyzed, the character color of the image character is analyzed, a gradation ratio between a turning point of a character stroke and the character stroke other than the turning point is analyzed, contrast at an edge of the character stroke is analyzed, the vertical size and center position of the image character are analyzed, the character size of the image character and pitch are analyzed, the first to sixth scores that quantify the respective analysis results are aggregated to discriminate whether the image character is handwritten or printed, and the recognition target item is checked to determine whether it includes both handwritten and printed characters. This makes it possible to enhance accuracy of handwritten-printed character discrimination, which leads to reducing a processing time for character recognition and enhancing accuracy of the character recognition.
US08588514B2
The invention relates to a method, apparatus and system for processing first depth-related information associated with an image sequence. The method of processing comprises mapping first depth-related information of respective images of a shot of the image sequence on corresponding second depth-related information using a first estimate of a characteristic of the distribution of first depth-related information associated with at least one image from the shot, the mapping adapting the first depth-related information by enhancing the dynamic range of a range of interest of first depth-related information defined at least in part by the first estimate, and the amount of variation in the mapping for respective images in temporal proximity in the shot being limited.
US08588513B2
Described herein is a method and system for motion compensation. This system and method use confidence for motion vector selection. Relative cost and an estimate of noise power may be used to characterize residual values and influence confidence determination.
US08588508B2
A method for matching characterizing features of an optical scanner against target characterizing features is provided. The characterizing features are produced from characterizing data (also referred to as a signature characteristic) produced from a scan of a mask by the scanner against target scanner signature characteristics produced from a scan of the mask by another optical scanner that produces the target scanner signature characteristic.
US08588488B2
A method includes generating a set of group-wise registered images from a time sequence of images based on a region of interest of a subject or object identified in at least one of the images, the image sequence, and a motion model indicative of an estimate of a motion of the subject or object during which the image sequence is acquired.
US08588487B2
The invention is generally directed to the field of image processing, and more particularly to a method and an apparatus for determining a wavefront of an object, in particular a human eye. The invention discloses a method and an apparatus for real-time wavefront sensing of an optical system utilizing two different algorithms for detecting centroids of a centroid image as provided by a Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor. A first algorithm detects an initial position of all centroids and a second algorithm detects incremental changes of all centroids detected by said first algorithm.
US08588479B2
A plurality of pieces of information related to the iris pattern of an eye can be checked against each other in a short time. Characteristic curves (S(1)-S(8)), which are in accordance with eight ring areas (A1-A8) formed by dividing an image of an iris, are generated. The polarities of the gradients of these characteristic curves are then arranged, thereby generating codes (1-8) to be checked. Each of these codes (1-8) to be checked consists of a ternary combination of +, − and zero, whereby the amount of data to be handled during the checking process can be reduced. As a result, checking the codes to be checked can be performed in a short time.
US08588470B2
Methods and systems for improved license plate signature matching by similarity learning on synthetic images comprise generating a plurality of synthetic license plate images; applying one or more transformations to the synthetic license plate images to cause the synthetic license plate images to more closely resemble authentic license plate image captures; and providing the synthetic license plate images as inputs to a machine distance learning algorithm in which weighted similarity scores are calculated between signatures of analogous and non-analogous license plate images and one or more sets of signature weights are iteratively adjusted to increase the likelihood that comparing analogous license plate images results in high weighted signature similarity scores and comparing non-analogous license plate images results in low weighted signature similarity scores.
US08588464B2
An object-enabled navigation system assists a vision-impaired user in navigating an environment. The system captures 3D movement of a moving object within the environment, wherein the three-dimensional movement is determined using at least one image capture device aimed at the moving object. The system predicts a mobile path of the visually-impaired user. The system determines whether the movement of the moving object will intersect with the mobile path of the vision-impaired user and informs the vision-impaired user whether the movement of the moving object will intersect the mobile path of the vision-impaired user.
US08588459B2
Various implementations are provided for, for example, determining watermarking data, performing the watermarking, and processing watermarked data. At least one implementation watermarks AVC bitstream that uses CAVLC entropy coding. The watermarking data may be determined in a pre-processing stage and stored for later use in watermark a bitstream. One method accesses variable-length encoded data including an encoding of information identifying an actual reference used to predictively encode an image. The encoding of the information has a particular value. The method determines an alternative value that is different from the particular value, such that the alternative value is an encoding of alternative information that identifies a different reference from the actual reference. The alternative value is for use in watermarking the variable-length encoded data.
US08588445B2
A hearing aid processing apparatus includes audio input units that receive input audio; hearing aid signal processing units that generate first and second output signals each having different frequency characteristics, from the input audio received by the audio input units, based on the characteristics of the band pass filter having the greatest bandwidth among virtual band pass filters composing an auditory filter of a listener. A first audio output unit outputs, as an audio, the first output signal generated by the hearing aid signal processing unit to the left ear of the listener; and a second audio output unit outputs, as an audio, the second output signal generated by the hearing aid signal processing unit to the right ear of the listener.
US08588438B2
A driving interface device adaptive to a flat speaker is introduced herein. The driving interface device is coupled with an external sound source for receiving sound signals, and boosts voltage levels of the sound signals to drive the thin flat speaker without using an external power source. In one embodiment, an impedance component is provided in the driving interface device for coupling to the external sound source, so as to drive the flat speaker.
US08588435B2
A microphone and a method for manufacturing the same. The microphones includes a substrate die; and a microphone and an accelerometer formed from the substrate die. The accelerometer is adapted to provide a signal for compensating mechanical vibrations of the substrate die.
US08588422B2
Methods and apparatus involve protecting encrypted data of endpoint computing assets by managing decryption keys. The endpoint has both a traditional operating system for applications, and the like, and another operating system during a pre-boot phase of operation. During use, the pre-boot operating system prevents users of the endpoint from accessing the encrypted data and the key. Upon determining the encrypted data has been compromised, the key is disassociated from the encrypted data. Disassociation can occur in a variety of ways including deleting or scrambling the key and/or data or re-encrypting the encrypted data with a new key. Key escrowing and updating through the pre-boot is further contemplated. The pre-boot phase also contemplates a limited computing connection between the endpoint and a specified authentication server and approved networking ports, USB devices and biometric equipment. Security policies and enforcement modules are also disclosed as are computer program products, computing arrangements, etc.
US08588421B2
A Universal Serial Bus (USB) compatible storage device is utilized as a security token for storage of cryptographic keys. A cryptographic subsystem of a processor accesses cryptographic keys in containers on the USB compatible storage device. Accessing includes storing and/or retrieving. The processor does not include an infrastructure dedicated to the USB compatible storage device. Cryptographic key storage is redirected from an in-processor container to the USB compatible storage device. No password or PIN is required to access the cryptographic keys, yet enhanced security is provided. Utilizing a USB compatible storage device for a cryptographic key container provides a convenient, portable, mechanism for carrying the cryptographic key, and additional security is provided via physical possession of the device.
US08588417B2
Systems and methods for broadcast and multicast retransmissions within a protected wireless communications system are described. Retransmitted broadcast or multicast frames are designated by modification of fields or subfields in the MAC header of the frame which are constituent parts of the additional authentication data used to generate encryption keys. Such modifications cause legacy receivers to disregard the retransmitted frames or render legacy receivers to be unable to decrypt the retransmitted frame, avoiding the generation of duplicate frames. Non-legacy receivers recognizing the modification conventions can restore the MAC header to the original state and can reconstruct the original encryption keys and decrypt the retransmitted frames. A non-legacy transmitter can retransmit a frame without the need to re-encrypt the frame.
US08588412B2
In one embodiment, a mechanism for generating pseudo-random number sequences is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving seed values for a pseudorandom number generator (PRNG) in a computing system, the seed values being polynomials. The method further includes running the PRNG using the seed values as initialization parameters, the running including performing operations of the PRNG over GF(2n), and generating a sequence of pseudorandom numbers.
US08588409B2
Methods for choosing groups for a static Diffie-Hellman key agreement protocol to inhibit active attacks by an adversary are provided. In mod p groups, an even h is chosen of value approximately ( 9/16)(log2n)2, values r and n are determined using sieving and primality testing on r and n, and a value t is found to compute p=tn+1 wherein p is prime. In elliptic curve groups defined over a binary filed, a random curve is chosen, the number of points on the curve is counted and this number is checked for value of 2n wherein n is prime and n−1 meets preferred criteria. In elliptic curve groups defined over a prime field of order q, a value n=hr+1 is computed, wherein n is prime and n−1 meets preferred criteria, and a complex multiplication method is applied on n to produce a value q and an elliptic curve E defined over q and having an order n.
US08588405B2
At least one example embodiment discloses terminals including at least one alterable function key and a display to display in proximity to the key an indication relating to the function of this key, which includes indicating to a communication server which types of indication the terminal is able to display in proximity to this key, sending, from the server to the terminal, information defining at least one KPML command that the server is capable of receiving and that it is capable of executing and information defining at least one indication associated with the command and which must be displayed on the terminal, in proximity to an adaptable function key depending on a telephone state of an active communication.
US08588398B1
Resource allocation in a contact center can be performed using a network of nodes. Such a network of nodes can be organized according into resource nodes, domain nodes, and service nodes, with paths from the domain nodes, through the service nodes, to the resource nodes being used in the allocation.
US08588392B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a network element operating in a communication system having a controller element to receive from an initiating party a message directed to a subscriber of the communication system, receive from the subscriber a request to present the message, identify the initiating party supplying the message, transmit the identity of the initiating party to a telephone number mapping (ENUM) system with a request for a communication ID of a presence system that monitors the initiating party, transmit to the presence system according to the communication ID a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) SUBSCRIBE message requesting presence information of the initiating party, and present the subscriber one or more options to communicate with the initiating party according to the presence information received in a SIP NOTIFY message supplied by the presence system. Additional embodiments are disclosed.
US08588391B2
An approach for establishing a communication session according to a subscriber profile that is automatically updated is disclosed. A locator device, which is associated with a subscriber and includes a Global Positioning System (GPS) transponder, outputs geographic information that is transmitted to a communications network for establishing the communication session. The geographic information corresponds to one of a plurality of addresses specified in the subscriber profile to set a current address. The addresses are associated with a plurality of devices adapted to complete the communication session. The one address is designated as the current address if the geographic information corresponds to the one address, otherwise the current address is set to a default address, wherein the communication session is established based on the current address.
US08588390B2
A call relay server comprises a usage status management unit that, when a user starts using a system from a main terminal and the notification is received from the main terminal and if a sub terminal related to the main terminal is registered, confirms the user via the main terminal whether to delete the registration of the sub terminal and, if a deletion instruction is received, deletes the registration of the sub terminal.
US08588386B2
A system and method for managing contact information is provided. In one implementation, for example, a method comprises accessing a contact record associated with a user of a user communication device, the contact record comprising at least one originating identifier identifying the user communication device and at least one contact field identifying contact information of a contact associated with the user. A contact record map is generated in which an alias identifier is assigned for the contact record. A destination identifier is selected from a plurality of available destination identifiers and assigned to the contact associated with the user. The assigned destination identifier is unique with respect to other contacts associated with the user. The alias identifier and the destination identifier are to the origination identifier identifying the user communication device within the contact record map.
US08588371B2
An inverter circuit allowing a single drive circuit to perform both tracking control for tracking resonance frequency fluctuations caused by load fluctuations, and power control, thereby reducing switching loss. An inverter drive circuit part obtains a phase difference between output current and output voltage directed to a load circuit connected to a midpoint of two arm circuits of the inverter circuit, and controls a phase of the driving signal directed to each semiconductor switch such that the phase difference becomes zero or a predetermined value, enabling an operating frequency of the inverter circuit part to track a resonance frequency of the load circuit, and enabling a current phase to be delayed with respect to a voltage phase, thereby achieving ZCS. Since the phase difference is used, an auxiliary circuit is not necessary for measuring a current value in proximity to the semiconductor switches.
US08588355B2
A timing recovery controller capable of performing timing recovery for a data sequence at twice a symbol rate includes a sampler, a timing base device, a timing error detector and a timing lock detector. The timing error detector includes a first delay unit and a second delay unit, for delaying a data sequence to output a first delay data sequence and a second delay data sequence, respectively, and a timing error calculating module, for generating a timing error value, to adjust a time base. The timing lock detector includes a third delay unit, for delaying the data sequence to output a third delay data sequence, and a timing lock determination module, for generating a timing lock determination result.
US08588352B2
A wireless device is configured so that an RF-IC unit calculates a difference value between IQ data received by an antenna Ant1 and IQ data received by an antenna Ant2 and transfers the difference value to a base band processing unit, instead of the IQ data received by the antenna Ant2. The wireless device is further configured so that the base band processing unit reconstructs the IQ data corresponding to the antenna Ant2, based on the difference value and the IQ data received by the antenna Ant1.
US08588351B2
Apparatus may be provided including a spectrum analyzer and decision circuitry. The spectrum analyzer may be configured to ascertain wireless signal signature data from a wide range of frequency bands. The decision circuitry may be configured to modify operation of one or both of a receiver and a transmitter based on the signal signature data.
US08588347B1
Systems and methods for performing efficient blind decoding. A first plurality of decision metrics corresponding to a first repetition of periodic decoding information is stored. The first plurality of decision metrics is grouped into sequential portions. A plurality of combined versions of the sequential portions is stored into combining buffers arranged in sequence. Each combined version is associated with a different sequence of timing information. A first of the plurality of combined versions stored in a first of the combining buffers is combined with a second version of a second plurality of decision metrics that corresponds to a second repetition of the periodic decoding information. The second version is associated with timing information adjacent in the timing information sequence to the timing information associated with the first combined version. The data is decoded based on information in the combining buffers.
US08588341B2
A circuit that transfers data between a first clock domain using a first clock and a second clock domain using a second clock synchronized with the first clock. The circuit comprises a data holding circuit operating at the first clock, an enable signal generation circuit connected to the data holding circuit. Preferably, the data transfer circuit includes an edge signal generation circuit connected to the data holding circuit, the edge signal generation circuit generating an edge signal allowing the data holding circuit to receive and send the data when edges of the first clock and the second clock align, and applying the edge signal to the data holding circuit.
US08588338B2
A circuit for providing AM/PM modulation is described. The circuit includes a signal generator, which provides two phase modulated (PM) signals used to form two drive signals which are later combined in a constructive/destructive fashion. The combination of the two phase modulated signals form a signal for driving a load. When the load is driven, the resulting signal is AM/PM modulated.
US08588332B2
A Dynamic Digital Pre-Distortion (DDPD) system is disclosed to rapidly correct power amplifier (PA) non-linearity and memory effects. To perform pre-distortion, a DDPD engine predistorts an input signal in order to cancel PA nonlinearities as the signal is amplified by the PA. The DDPD engine is implemented as a composite of one linear filter and N−1 high order term linear filters. The bank of linear filters have programmable complex coefficients. To compute the coefficients, samples from the transmit path and a feedback path are captured, and covariance matrices A and B are computed using optimized hardware. After the covariance matrices are computed, Gaussian elimination processing may be employed to compute the coefficients. Mathematical and hardware optimizations may be employed to simplify and reduce the number of multiplication operands and other operations, which can enable the DDPD system to fit within a single chip.
US08588326B2
Methods and devices are provided for MIMO OFDM transmitter and receivers having odd and/even numbers of transmit antennas. Various methods for pre-coding information bits before space time coding (STC) are described for enabling transmission of information bits over all antennas. Methods of decoding received signals that have been pre-coded and STC coded are also provided by embodiments of the invention. Pilot patterns for downlink and uplink transmission between a base station and one or more wireless terminals for three transmit antenna transmitters are also provided. Variable rate codes are provided that combine various fixed rate codes in a manner that results in codes whose rates are dependent on all the various fixed rate codes that are combined.
US08588324B2
The specification and drawings present a new method, apparatus and software related product (e.g., a computer readable memory) for implementing precoding for a coordinated multi-point joint transmission in LTE wireless systems using a specific product structure for a multi-point precoding matrix with designed and/or specified usage of multi-point codebooks for generating spatial data stream between a UE having multiple antennas and a plurality of cells.
US08588321B2
When power scaling is applied to multi-user MIMO, a reduction in transmission rate is suppressed and transmission efficiency is improved. When signals are transmitted through spatial multiplexing from a wireless base station 11 to a plurality of pieces of user equipment 12 and 13, notification of a transmission parameter (MCS) of the distant user equipment (UE-B) 13 is provided as control information to the adjacent user equipment (UE-A) 12. The user equipment 12 calculates, based on the received control information, a reception quality (CQI) after cancellation of a signal serving as an interference signal and destined for the other user equipment 13, and feeds back the calculated result to the wireless base station 11. Based on this feedback, the wireless base station 11 sets a transmission parameter (MCS) of each piece of the user equipment 12 and 13 using the CQI after the cancellation, and transmits signals intended for respective users through spatial multiplexing after performing power distribution between the users by power scaling.
US08588320B2
The present invention relates to an encoder for encoding incoming symbols of an incoming data stream into channel symbols of a channel data stream for transmission over a transmission channel as well as to a corresponding decoder. To improve the error rate compared to a known Alamouti encoder, a scaled Alamouti encoder is proposed. In an alternative embodiment a scaled and rotated Alamouti encoder is proposed.
US08588319B2
Techniques for supporting MIMO transmission with layer permutation are described. In one aspect, multiple codewords may be generated for transmission from multiple antennas (e.g., virtual antennas), with the number of codewords being less than the number of antennas. Each codeword may be mapped across the multiple antennas. Two codewords may be generated. For rank 3, the first codeword may be mapped to one layer (or one antenna on each subcarrier), and the second codeword may be mapped to two layers (or two antennas on each subcarrier). For rank 4, each codeword may be mapped to two layers. In another aspect, a base CQI indicative of an average signal quality may be determined. A delta CQI indicative of improvement over the average signal quality may also be determined. In yet another aspect, selection may be performed with different penalty factors for different ranks or number of codewords.
US08588310B2
A method for managing delivery of encoded bits to a decoder is disclosed. In the method, a number of bits associated with a variable system delay is determined. The variable system delay is a time interval between each of a plurality of frames being encoded and decoded and is measured with respect to a current time for each of the plurality of frames. A number of bits in an encoder buffer for an encoder is determined. A number of bits in a decoder buffer for a decoder configured to receive encoded bits from the encoder is determined based on the bits associated with the variable system delay and the bits in the encoder buffer. Delivery of the encoded bits to the decoder is managed based on the number of bits determined to be in the decoder buffer.
US08588309B2
In many videoconferencing applications, bandwidth is at a premium, and thus, it is important to encode a given video frame intelligently. It is often desirable that a larger amount of information be spent encoding the more important parts of the video frame, e.g., human facial features, whereas the less important parts of the video frame can be compressed at higher rates. Thus, there is need for an apparatus, computer readable medium, processor, and method for intelligent skin tone and facial feature aware videoconferencing compression that can “suggest” intelligent macroblock compression ratios to a video encoder. The suggestion of compression rates can be based at least in part on a determination of which macroblocks in a given video frame are likely to contain skin tones, likely to contain features (e.g., edges), likely to contain features in or near skin tone regions, or likely to contain neither skin tones nor features.
US08588307B2
A method and apparatus for decoding hierarchical mode information including mode information indicating whether a current block is encoded in an encoding mode identical to an encoding mode of a plurality of consecutive previous blocks.
US08588299B1
Decoding video data. At least one video stream including a first plurality of frames encoded at a first resolution and a second plurality of frames encoded at a second resolution are received, wherein the second plurality of frames encoded at the second resolution directly correspond to at least a subset of the first plurality of frames encoded at the first resolution, and wherein the first resolution is greater than the second resolution. The video stream is decoded based on at least one received frame of the first plurality of frames encoded at the first resolution and at least one received frame of the second plurality of frames encoded at the second resolution.
US08588295B2
Electronic devices for de-quantization are disclosed. An electronic device includes at least a multiplier. The multiplier generates a de-quantization scale by multiplying a first sub-factor by a second sub-factor after acquiring a macro-block (MB) from a bitstream. The generated de-quantization scale enables de-quantization of a block of the MB. Another electronic device includes at least a multiplier. The multiplier generates a quantization scale by multiplying the inverse of a first sub-factor by the inverse of a second sub-factor after acquiring an MB from a video sequence. The generated quantization scale enables quantization of a block of the MB.
US08588294B2
A plurality of programs are statistically multiplexed using a plurality of two-pass encoders. Pictures in the plurality of programs are encoded in a first encoding pass using a plurality of first encoding modules. RW—passOne, which is a total number of bits used to encode all the pictures in a sequence in the plurality of programs in the first encoding pass, is determined. RW—passTwo, which is a total target number of bits for all pictures in a same sequence in the plurality of programs in a second encoding pass, is also determined. Rtwo,Ff,picType(i,l), which is a target bit allocation for each picture in each program l of the plurality of programs, is determined based on RW—passOne, RW—passTwo, and Rone,Ff,picType(i,l). Rone,Ff,picType(i,l) is a number of bits consumed for a corresponding picture in the first encoding pass. The plurality of programs are encoded using a plurality of second encoding modules and Rtwo,Ff,picType(i,l) in the second encoding pass to form a plurality of variable bit rate (VBR) compressed bit streams. Thereafter, the plurality of VBR compressed bit streams are multiplexed to form a single constant bit rate (CBR) bit stream.
US08588293B2
A moving image data distribution system for distributing reproduction content data that is hierarchically structured so that lower layer data is synthesized with upper layer data to form high quality data. The moving image data distribution system includes a transmitting apparatus and a receiving apparatus. The transmitting apparatus includes a transmission data storing unit that stores the reproduction content data, an upper layer first data length determining means for determining a data length of the upper layer first data based on a reproduction delay time from when the receiving apparatus receives only the upper layer data to when the receiving apparatus reproduces the reproduction contents, an upper layer first data transmitting means for reading upper layer first data determined based on the upper layer first data length from the storing unit, and transmitting the upper layer first data to the receiving apparatus, and an upper layer subsequent data transmitting means for reading upper layer subsequent data subsequent to the upper layer first data from the storing unit, and transmitting the upper layer subsequent data to the receiving apparatus. The receiving apparatus includes a lower layer data storing unit that stores the lower layer data, a hierarchical data synthesizing means for synthesizing the lower layer data with the upper layer first data or the upper layer subsequent data, and a reproducing means for reproducing high quality data synthesized by the hierarchical data synthesizing means.
US08588290B2
An apparatus including a bang-bang clock and data recovery module and a decision feedback equalizer. The decision feedback equalizer is coupled with the bang-bang clock and data recovery module. The apparatus is configured to reduce an effect on a settling point of the bang-bang clock and data recovery module due to coupling between the bang-bang clock and data recovery module and the decision feedback equalizer.
US08588288B2
An example method for controlling a continuous time linear equalizer includes: developing a voltage histogram of a signal present at an output of a continuous time linear equalizer; developing a quality factor for the voltage histogram; comparing the quality factor with a prior quality factor; decreasing an equalization of the continuous time linear equalizer if the quality factor is less than the prior quality factor and increasing the equalization of the continuous time linear equalizer if the quality factor is greater than the prior quality factor.
US08588287B2
A method, a device and a system for detecting channel quality are provided. The method includes: judging whether a Transmit Power Control (TPC) symbol output by a receiver is an invalid symbol; when the TPC symbol is a valid symbol, judging whether polarities of in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) components of the valid symbol are opposite to each other; counting the number of invalid symbols, the number of valid symbols, and the number of valid symbols with opposite polarities; and estimating a Bit Error Rate (BER) according to the number of the invalid symbols, the number of the valid symbols, and the number of the valid symbols with the opposite polarities, and detecting the channel quality through the BER.
US08588280B2
Embodiments of a system that communicates bidirectional data between two devices via shared links is described. In this system, data is transmitted on the shared links by one of the devices using single-ended drivers, and corresponding symbols are received on the shared links by the other device using differential comparison circuits. The data may be encoded as a series of parallel codewords prior to transmission. Each shared link may communicate a respective symbol in each codeword, which can have one of two possible logical values (e.g., a logic 0 or a logic 1). The corresponding symbols received by the other device may comprise a parallel symbol set, and each of the differential comparison circuits may compare symbols received on pairs of the shared links. A decoder in the other device may decode a respective parallel symbol set from the outputs of the differential comparison circuits to recover the encoded data.
US08588275B2
The invention relates to an electronic device that includes a plurality of buffers and a phase locked loop. For each buffer a fractional divider is provided which is coupled to receive the output from the phase locked loop and configured to feed a divided output signal to a respective buffer. A spread spectrum clock control logic stage in the spread spectrum clock (SSC) is provided which is configured to individually adjust a value of the division of each fractional divider in order to individually and independently modulate the output signal of each fractional divider according to a spread spectrum modulation scheme.
