US08671716B2
There is provided a method of manufacturing a vitreous silica crucible having non-bubbles on the inner surface without necessitating new apparatuses for grinding and polishing and without damaging the productivity. According to the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a vitreous silica crucible including the processes of: gathering a vitreous silica layer containing residual bubbles existing in a near-surface region of the transparent layer of the vitreous silica crucible by controlling the number of rotations applied to the vitreous silica crucible in a state that an inner surface side of the vitreous silica crucible is fused by arc heating; and moving a portion of a non-bubble layer in the surface of the transparent layer exposed by movement of the residual bubble-containing layer to cover a region in which bubbles have gathered with the non-bubble layer.
US08671714B2
A heat exchanger unit includes first and second plate heat exchangers disposed in series along a refrigerant flow direction. A refrigerant flows from the first plate heat exchanger to the second plate heat exchanger when the heat exchanger unit operates as an evaporator to heat the refrigerant, and the refrigerant flows from the second plate heat exchanger to the first plate heat exchanger when the heat exchanger unit operates as a condenser to cool the refrigerant. The first and second plate heat exchangers have first and second gas-liquid mixing structures to promote gas-liquid mixing of the refrigerant when the heat exchanger unit heats the refrigerant. The first and second gas-liquid mixing structures are configured such that pressure loss becomes larger when the gas-liquid mixing action becomes higher and such that the gas-liquid mixing action of the first gas-liquid mixing structure is higher than the gas-liquid mixing action of the second gas-liquid mixing structure.
US08671702B1
In an aspect, a recessed thermostat assembly includes a thermostat housing having a face plate and one or more side walls at least partially enclosing one or more thermostat components. The face plate is wider than the side walls. A moveable brace is responsive to and operatively associated with a brace actuator such that movement of the brace actuator in a first direction responsively causes the moveable brace to move toward the face plate, and movement of the brace actuator in a second direction responsively causes the moveable brace to move away from the face plate. The brace actuator accessible through the face plate. The movable brace is configured to impinge a building wall structure between the movable brace and a rear surface of the face plate when the moveable brace is moved toward the face plate.
US08671694B2
In one aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) apparatus. The apparatus includes a saturator configured to saturate NPG with water vapor, and a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG), a low pressure steam loop through the saturator, wherein the HRSG is configured to heat the low pressure steam loop. The apparatus further includes a compressor and a heat exchanger configured to heat the NPG using waste process heat and extraction air from the compressor, wherein the heated NPG thereby becomes diluent nitrogen.
US08671690B2
A combustor 500 is composed of a plurality of premixed combustion burners 100 each comprising a fuel nozzle 110 provided in a burner tube 120, the fuel nozzle 110 having a plurality of swirl vanes 130 on an outer peripheral surface thereof. Injection holes 133a, 133b are formed in each swirl vane 130. Staging control is exercised such that when a gas turbine is in a full load state, a fuel is injected through the injection holes 133a, 133b of all the swirl vanes 130, and when the gas turbine is under a partial load, the fuel is injected only through the injection holes 133a, 133b of a specific number of the swirl vanes 130 adjacent in a circumferential direction, and fuel injection through the injection holes 133a, 133b of the remaining swirl vanes 130 is stopped. By performing such staging control over fuel injection or its stoppage for the swirl vanes 130, a fuel-air ratio can be increased locally, generation of CO and UHC can be suppressed, and high efficiency combustion can be achieved, even under the partial load.
US08671680B2
A hydraulic system comprising a receiving body with electrohydraulic valve, with at least one hydraulic pump, and with channels for connecting the pump to at least one hydraulic load. A pulsation situation arises as a result of the delivery of a pressure medium by the pump and/or as a result of pressure medium being withdrawn by the load. At least one damping unit is provided, having a plurality of pulsation damping means such as, in particular, a damping chamber, and orifice. The hydraulic system provides a uniform and cost-effective solution for different operating situations and prevents a decrease in comfort. The damping unit has at least one switching means for adjusting the action of said damping unit to a varied pulsation situation by connecting or disconnecting one or more damping means.
US08671674B2
Hydrostatic transmission apparatus for a vehicle having a front group of drive members and a rear group of drive members, a pump, a front motor and a rear motor contributing to driving respective ones of the front and rear groups of drive members; a first one of the motors and a second one of the motors connected to the first motor via a series duct also being connected to the main orifices of the pump, thereby constituting a closed transmission circuit; at least one pressure-limiting valve being interposed between the series duct and a low-pressure circuit, and being suitable for connecting the series duct to the low-pressure circuit while being controlled as a function of the high pressure of the pump. The pressure in the series duct is thus effectively limited to a pressure representative of the pressure necessary for driving the vehicle.
US08671666B2
An aftertreatment system including a method which provides a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalyst disposed in an exhaust stream of an engine; determines that an ammonia pre-load condition for the SCR catalyst is present; determines a first amount of ammonia pre-load in response to the ammonia pre-load condition; injects an amount of ammonia or urea into the exhaust stream in response to the first amount of ammonia; and adsorbs a second amount of ammonia onto the SCR catalyst in response to injecting an amount of ammonia or urea, where the second amount of ammonia is either the injected amount of ammonia or an amount of ammonia resulting from hydrolysis from the injected amount of urea.
US08671660B2
A catalyst degradation determination device is provided that can determine the degradation of a selective reduction catalyst with high precision while also suppressing a temporary decline in purification performance. By way of controlling a urea injection device, the catalyst degradation determination device increases, in a selective reduction catalyst in a state in which the storage amount is a maximum, the storage amount thereof by a detection reduced-amount portion DSTNH3—JD, and then decreases the amount until it is determined that ammonia slip has occurred. Then, degradation is determined based on the time at which the slip determination flag FNH3—SLIP was set to “1” when fluctuating the storage amount. The detection reduced-amount portion DSTNH3—JD is set to a value that is larger than the storage capacity of the selective reduction catalyst in a degraded state and smaller than the storage capacity of the selective reduction catalyst in a normal state.
US08671654B2
A case is disclosed that is made from a corrugated material and has a generally flat transversely extending base panel and first and second transversely extending, generally parallel, side wall panels upstanding from, and being oriented generally orthogonal to, the base panel. First and third end wall panels meet at a first vertically extending seam extending upwards from one end of the base panel and second and fourth end wall panels meet at a second vertically extending seam extending upwards from an opposite end of the base panel. A blank for forming such a case is also disclosed. A method comprises forming a sheet of corrugated fiberboard; operating a die cutting apparatus to form a generally flat case blank from the sheet of corrugated fiberboard at a first location; transporting the flat case blank to a second location; operating a case forming apparatus at the second location to fold the case blank to form the case; after the case has been formed by the case forming apparatus, operating a loading apparatus to load at least one item into the case; and sealing opposed top panels.
US08671651B2
A packaging machine (10) comprising two or more packaging subsystems each capable of packaging articles (A) into a carton, wherein the packaging subsystems share a common source of articles (11) to be packaged and at least one transfer mechanism 5 (22) is provided for transferring articles (A) from the common source to any of the two or more packaging subsystems.
US08671645B1
The present invention relates safing insulation and, particularly, to safing insulation with pre-applied smoke sealant and methods for using the same. In one exemplary embodiment, safing insulation sheets are formed from individual safing insulation sections having a layer of smoke sealant applied to the upper surface of the safing insulation sections. In order to form the safing insulation sheets, individual safing insulation sections are arranged with the fibers of each individual section extending in a vertical direction and a smoke sealant is applied thereto. The smoke sealant acts to mechanically secure the individual sections of safing insulation to one another and also eliminates the need to apply smoke sealant to the safing insulation after installation. Advantageously, by pre-applying the smoke sealant to the safing insulation, the need to use spraying equipment to apply the smoke sealant to the safing insulation at a job site is eliminated.
US08671643B2
The invention relates to a wind turbine including a foundation and a tower positioned on the foundation where the tower includes more than one modules, where the modules each include a separate strengthening structure defining the outer edges of the module and wind turbine equipment, and where the more than one module are positioned substantially vertically on top of each other in an upright position within the tower. The modules are connected directly and/or indirectly through the strengthening structure, to the foundation. The invention further relates to a method for assembling a wind turbine at a wind turbine site and a method for handling more than one wind turbine modules.
US08671637B2
A concrete wall mold formed with a structural insulating core of horizontally and vertically integrated spacer blocks with tongue and groove connections between framing members having connectors attached to the framing members and embedded into the concrete surface. The spacer blocks having additional support molds to reinforce the concrete surface by means of adding rib, column, beam molds or drainage channels and recess grooves. The concrete surface may be located above or below the concrete wall mold.
US08671636B2
A wall is provided with a plurality of stud frames disposed in at least one row, an outer layer, an inner layer, and an insulation layer. The stud frames are coupled between the outer layer and the inner layer. The stud frames are provided with a front stud, a back stud, a top plate, a bottom plate and at least one support member. The support members are coupled with the front stud and the back stud. The front stud and the back stud are disposed vertically. The broad sides of the front stud are parallel with the broad sides of the back stud. The top plate and the bottom plate are disposed horizontally. The top member is coupled with a top end of the front stud and a top end of the back stud. The bottom plate is coupled between the front stud and the back stud.
US08671621B2
A vehicle window opening/closing device 1 comprises: an inversion pulley 12 provided to an upper portion of a guide rail 10; a drive mechanism 14 provided, in line, to a lower end of the guide rail 10, and constituted so that a speed reduction mechanism including a worm and a worm wheel, and a drum connected concentrically with the worm wheel are received into a same housing 15; a close-side cable 24, whose one end is fixed to the drum and whose other end is coupled to a carrier plate 11 via the inversion pulley 12; an open-side cable 25, whose one end is fixed to the drum and whose other end is coupled directly to the carrier plate 11; and an electric motor 17 having an armature coupled mechanically to the worm, the electric motor being capable of being coupled to the drive mechanism 14.
US08671614B1
An injection tip for use with an injector for injecting liquid chemical into a tree such as a palm tree which includes a body portion, a needle and a point member mounted on the forward end of the needle. The needle has liquid ejector holes formed therein adjacent the forward end thereof.
US08671613B2
A tree slide facilitating movement of a Christmas tree via sliding along a support surface without damage to the surface is described. The tree slide includes a central region of substantially planar extent and an arcuate perimeter which surrounds and extends from the central region. The arcuate perimeter forms a cavity along one side of the tree slide. In some embodiments, a rim is provided which extends from the arcuate perimeter opposite of the central region. In other embodiments, the tree slide could also include a cover, composed of a stretchable and conformable material, which conceals a tree stand and the tree slide.
US08671609B2
A method of producing a superalloy gun barrel includes providing a tubular workpiece made of a cobalt-based superalloy material, the workpiece having at least about 30% by weight of fcc phase and having an inner diameter and an outer diameter. The method further includes placing the workpiece on a mandrel such that the inner diameter is adjacent to the mandrel and compressing the outer diameter of the workpiece at a temperature below a recrystallization temperature of the workpiece using a combination of axial and radial forces so that the mandrel contacts the inner diameter and imparts a compressive hoop stress to the inner diameter of the workpiece.
US08671606B2
A firearm includes a barrel having first and second ends, and is adapted to fire a round of ammunition from the second end. A handgrip is operatively coupled to and extending in a downward direction relative to the barrel. An ammunition magazine is removably received within the handgrip. The magazine includes a front, a rear, and a pair of opposed side surfaces extending between the front and rear. A clip member includes at least an arm portion extending along the rear of the magazine. The arm portion of the clip member is adapted to allow the ammunition magazine to be temporarily attached to an object while outside of the magazine.
US08671605B2
An off-trigger locator for firearm comprises an elongated member adapted to mounted to a frame of the firearm adjacent a trigger of the firearm. The member is configured to allow a user of the firearm to sense the member with a trigger finger of the user and to move the trigger finger between the member and the trigger without significant movement of a hand of the user. The member comprises longitudinally opposite first and second ends with longitudinal sides extending between the longitudinally opposite ends. A locator surface is arranged between the longitudinal sides. The longitudinal side adjacent the trigger of the firearm forms a shoulder. The other longitudinal side is spaced from the shoulder by the locator surface. The width of the member at the shoulder is greater than the width of the member at the other longitudinal side. A method of mounting the off-trigger locator is provided.
US08671604B2
For a marking carrier, the following is provided for the purpose of simple production and installation: the marking carrier has at least one spring tongue extending from the main body of the marking carrier, the spring tongue being designed to act on the vehicle component in a resilient manner and to preload the main body against the vehicle component in a preloading direction, and the marking carrier has at least one spring tab, which acts on the vehicle component in such a way that the spring tab retains the marking carrier in a retaining direction opposite the preloading direction.
US08671603B2
A sign system for displaying product information proximate a product being vended. The sign system includes a support for maintaining a sign system at a predetermined orientation. A substantially planar face is appended to the support having a front surface and a rear surface. A primary sign is releaseably retained to the front surface of the planar face, the primary sign having an opening or window therein. At least one channel is configured to the front or rear surface of the planar face and positioned substantially behind the opening or window of the primary sign. A secondary sign is releaseably retained within the channel such that at least a portion of the secondary sign is visible through the opening or window in the primary sign.
US08671600B2
Disclosed herein are electric fireplaces comprising (a) a shade comprising a plurality of openings; (b) a reflector comprising a shaft and a plurality of flame-shaped reflecting elements; (c) a simulated fuel bed; (d) a light source; and (e) a flame display screen, wherein the flame display screen is located between the reflector and simulated fuel bed, and wherein the shade is located between the light source and the reflector so that light from the light source passes through the plurality of openings of the shade.
US08671597B2
A snow plow towing hitch system removably attached to an existing vehicle hitch which is lightweight and compact to allow an individual to attach the snow plow towing hitch system to a vehicle hitch when needed and to remove and store it when not in use. The snow plow towing hitch system includes a connecting bar connected to a vehicle hitch, a vertical support bar attached to the connecting bar, a plow blade rotatably attached to the vertical support bar, and a spring attached to the vertical support bar and the plow blade to limit rotation of the plow blade. Another alternate embodiment of the snow plow towing hitch system comes in a kit form allowing the user to easily assemble the snow plow towing hitch for use and to disassemble for storage or to use portions as a snow shovel.
US08671580B2
A power operated knife comprises a blade supporting structure supporting an annular blade for rotation about a central axis. The blade and blade supporting structure are engagable along bearing contact locations that are spaced apart in a direction parallel to the axis so that the blade is stabilized both radially and axially as the knife operates. The blade supporting structure comprises a split blade housing member that is radially expandable and contractible to receive the blade. The split blade housing member and blade engage along relatively short lines of bearing contact that serve to minimize friction and blade heating when the knife operates. The bearing locations are spaced apart both circumferentially around the blade perimeter and in the direction of the axis so that the blade position is stabilized during operation of the knife.
US08671570B2
The vapor chamber is used in an electronic device. The electronic device includes a metal casing. The vapor chamber includes an upper cover, a working fluid, a waterproof layer, and a wick structure layer. The upper cover is disposed on inner walls of the metal casing to define a containing space. The working fluid is filled into the containing space. The waterproof layer is formed on inner walls of the containing space. The wick structure layer is formed on the waterproof layer.
US08671569B1
A cleaning and piston replacement kit for an accumulator of a vehicle transmission which includes a brush for cleaning, reconditioning and polishing worn accumulator bores and replacement pistons each of which includes a pair of sealing rings for supporting and spacing the replacement pistons from the accumulator bores to thereby prevent scrapping of the walls of the bores by movement of the pistons within the bores and a method of reconditioning the accumulator bore.
US08671544B2
A microneedle mold and a method of manufacturing a microneedle mold are provided for use in fabricating microneedles. The method includes providing a microneedle mold base with recesses therein, the recesses corresponding to the microneedles to be fabricated and extending from a first surface of the microneedle mold base; and forming side-port forming holes in the microneedle mold base, the side-port forming holes extend in side surfaces of the recesses within the microneedle mold base at side-port forming positions of the recesses.
US08671532B2
An eyeglass lens processing apparatus includes: a mode selector for selecting an auxiliary lens processing mode; an eyeglass data input unit for inputting a first target lens shape of the eyeglass lens and a right target lens shape-to-left target lens shape distance; a first hole data input unit for inputting a position of a first hole, to which a first magnet is attached; a determination unit which determines second target lens shape of the auxiliary lens, a position of a second hole to which a second magnet is attached, positions of third holes to which a bridge is attached; and a processing controller which processes the auxiliary lenses based on the second target lens shape data, and drills the auxiliary lenses based on the second and third hole positions in the auxiliary lens processing mode.
US08671528B2
An assembling construction assembles a mountable member to a support member by holding a head portion of a clip on a mounting seat of the mountable member while securely fitting a leg portion in a mounting hole in the support member, the mounting seat has an instruction groove and guide grooves, the head portion of the clip has a first flange portion beam-like strip-shaped elastic pieces and which are brought into press contact with end portions of the guide grooves and stopper projections which are adapted to be brought into engagement with the end portions of the guide grooves when the clip is attempted to be shifted largely relative to the mounting seat.
US08671524B2
The present invention concerns processes for reducing water in never-dried fiber comprising copolymer derived from the copolymerization of para-phenylenediamine, 5(6)-amino-2-(p-aminophenyl)benzimidazole; and terephthaloyl dichloride, the process having the following steps in a continuous process, (a) a step of drying a never-dried fiber having at least 0.1% sulfur at less than 150° C. until the moisture content of the fiber is less than 60 weight percent; and (b) a step of further drying the fiber above 150° C. while the moisture content of the fiber is no more than 60 weight percent; and the fiber being further heated to at least 350° C. in either an additional continuous or separate step.
US08671522B2
The invention relates to a method for manufacturing a hinge between two workpieces or components; first a hinge socket is inserted in an opening of the first component and then a hinge pin is inserted in the hinge socket; the second component can be fastened to the hinge pin end protruding from the hinge socket.
US08671511B2
An upright surface treating appliance includes a main body having a user operable handle, a surface treating head connected to a yoke moveable relative to the main body, a stand moveable relative to both the main body and the yoke between a supporting position for supporting the main body in an upright position, and a retracted position, and a stand retaining mechanism for releasably retaining the stand in the supporting position and from which the stand is releasable upon application of a force to one of the main body and the stand. The yoke is moveable relative to the main body in response to an impact on the surface treating head to apply said force to the stand. This allows the force of the impact on the surface treating head to be transferred through the stand to the stand retaining mechanism, which, depending on the magnitude of the impact, can release both the stand and the yoke for movement relative to the main body. This avoids the need to provide separate releasing mechanisms for both the yoke and the stand.
US08671510B2
A hand-held and stick vacuum cleaner includes a stick body having a body discharge part formed in a front part thereof and a first connecting terminal provided on a rear part thereof; and a hand-held cleaner unit detachably mounted in the rear part of the stick body and having discharge parts formed in front and rear part thereof and a second connecting terminal corresponding to the first connecting terminal provided on the rear part thereof.
US08671503B2
A cleaning sponge with embedded clusters for providing enhanced scouring is disclosed. In one embodiment, the cleaning sponge comprises a sponge body and a plurality of discrete fiber clusters embedded within the sponge body. Each fiber cluster is a matrix of interconnected fibers. In one embodiment, each fiber cluster is a three dimensional web of entangled fibers bonded to one another at their mutual contact points.
US08671501B2
An adjustable roller frame may include a frame, a pair of extension arms that are slidable within a channel in the frame, and a pair of cam assemblies that are used to selectively prevent and permit the extension arms to slide.
US08671492B2
An attachment part for an electric toothbrush is disclosed. The attachment has a brush head, a tubular connecting piece being connected to the brush head for connecting the same to the head of a toothbrush handle, and a drive shaft for driving the working head. The connecting piece has at least one interior latching element that is arranged such that it is suitable to move into the interior of the neck of the handle and to create a disengageable connection of the attachment part to the neck of the handle, the interior latching element being radially inwardly offset, with regard to the diameter thereof, relative to an internal cylindrical surface of the connecting piece, such that a gap remains between the exterior of the interior latching element and the internal cylindrical surface, the gap being suitably made such that a wall of the neck of the handle can be moved into it.
US08671486B1
A blanket assembly for swaddling an infant (e.g., newborn baby) includes a blanket body defining a pocket between an upper layer and a lower layer of the body at one end of the blanket body, the pocket accessible via an opening selectively closeable to seal the pocket. A neck, spine and spinal cord support device of a semi-rigid material is removably insertable in the pocket of the blanket body and secured within the blanket by the pocket so as to maintain the support device in a substantially fixed position within the blanket body. The support device supports the head, neck, spine and spinal cord of a newborn baby or infant when the infant is laid on the blanket body in a supine position and wrapped in the blanket body, so as to inhibit injury to the infant's head, neck, spine and spinal cord while carried by a person.
US08671483B2
A furniture cushion comprises a matrix of interconnected pocketed springs, each spring of which is contained within a pocket of fabric, and a fiber pad overlying an upper surface of the matrix of pocketed springs, the fiber pad having a first layer in contact with the upper surface of the matrix of pocketed springs and a second layer in contact with the first layer, the first layer having a first density and said second layer having a second density, the first density being greater than the second density. At least one edge guard may be secured to the matrix of pocketed springs.
US08671478B2
The present invention relates to a cover for a mattress and bed deck. More particularly, the present invention relates to a mattress and bed deck cover for an adjustable bed that reduces the exposure of the mattress and bed deck to unsanitary conditions.
US08671472B2
An air control and aromatherapy module for a jetted tub comprising an air control member having a body portion defining an intake opening, a scent container defining a scent opening, and a housing having a body portion. The scent container is positioned within the body portion of the air control member. The air control member and the scent container are at least partially disposed within the body portion of the housing. The air control member and the housing define a central passageway and the scent opening of the scent container is in fluid communication with the central passageway. A method of providing aromatherapy to a jetted tub is also disclosed.
US08671471B2
A bath includes a water outlet or outlets arranged to in use direct a flow of water from behind onto the upper body of a bather or bathers sitting in the bath and leaning back against the wall of the bath. The upper body water outlet(s) may comprise two spaced water outlets one positioned to direct a water flow onto the left-side upper body of a bather and the other positioned to direct a water flow at the same temperature onto the right-side upper body of the bather.
US08671470B2
A wax-less toilet gasket is provided that is formed of an open cell foam having a hydrophobic skin, layer, coating or covering. To this end, the toilet gasket may be formed of a self-skinning polyurethane, a polyurethane with an in-mold coating, or a polyurethane with a waterproof agent. The toilet gasket is characterized by a body with a ring shaped upper portion and a truncated conical extension integrally extending downwardly therefrom. In use, fastening bolts that project through the toilet flange attached to the floor conduit then extend through the ring shaped configuration and attach to the toilet base.
US08671468B2
A hinge assembly for a toilet seat, the hinge assembly comprising a hinge post for pivotally supporting the toilet seat on a toilet bowl, and a bolt embedded in the hinge post and configured to extend through an opening in the toilet bowl, the bolt having thereon a plurality of projections extending into the hinge post to distribute to the hinge post forces applied to the bolt.
US08671465B2
A nursing canopy for concealing a nursing mother's upper front torso and infant is disclosed. The canopy comprises a panel of opaque fabric having dimensions sufficient to cover at least a region from the mother's upper chest to below the mother's breasts. A fastening strap can be attached to the upper edge of the panel for securing the panel around the mother's neck. A self-supporting neckline stiffener is located along the top edge of the panel and defines a self-supporting neckline of the panel. The neckline cooperates with the fastening strap to hold the neckline a spaced-apart distance from the mother, defining an open viewing area between mother and infant. A secondary self-supporting stiffener is provided on the panel at a distance below the neckline, the ends of which rest against the mother's sides to hold the panel a spaced-apart distance from the feeding infant.
US08677509B2
A touch screen device may include: a touch panel receiving a touch signal; a noise measurement unit measuring a noise value input to the touch panel; a determination unit determining whether or not the measured noise value exceeds a threshold; and a control unit controlling an operation mode to be maintained or switched according to a determination result of the determination unit.
US08677508B2
Provided are first monitoring unit 106a for monitoring whether service provision unit 102 has been called by an application, second monitoring unit 107a for monitoring whether a network access request is sent to a network, first access control unit 106b for controlling the network access request of the call detected by the first monitoring unit 106a, based on a security level assigned to the application program that has called the service provision unit, and second access control unit 107b for determining whether the first access control unit 106b has already performed access control on the network access request detected to have been sent by the second monitoring unit 107a, and, if the access control has been performed, controlling the network access request based on a security level assigned to the application program that has sent this network access request.
US08677496B2
A method and apparatus for Automatic Risk Assessment of a Firewall Configuration facilitates the automatic generation of a risk assessment of a given firewall configuration. The method scans the firewall analyzer report, before the human user does, and flag the Configuration errors. Each found mis-configuration is called a risk item. The report is analyzed according a Knowledge Base of known risk items. The method further filters duplicate risk item which are trigger by different rules.
US08677493B2
A method for providing malware cleaning includes detecting potential malware on a first device connected to a network. A request including information to allow a second device connected to the network to determine an appropriate cleaning response is sent from the first device to the second device over the network. Upon receiving the request, the second device attempts to identify an appropriate cleaning response and, if a response is identified, sends the cleaning response over the network to the first device. The cleaning response is usable by the first device to address the detected potential malware.
US08677487B2
A method is provided in one example embodiment that includes detecting repetitive connections from a source node to a destination node, calculating a score for the source node based on the connections, and taking a policy action if the score exceeds a threshold score. In more particular embodiments, the repetitive connections use a hypertext transfer protocol and may include connections to a small number of unique domains, connections to small number of unique resources associated with the destination node, and/or a large number of connections to a resource in a domain. Moreover, heuristics may be used to score the source node and identify behavior indicative of a threat, such as a bot or other malware.
US08677460B2
A file authentication requesting device that stores a computer program for requesting authentication of files in digital systems, the device comprises a confirmation request system that generates a request for a confirmation receipt from a third party authenticator authenticating the attributes of a file; a transferring system that transfers attributes of at least one file to be authenticated to the third party authenticator from the device that requested the confirmation; and a receiving system that receives the confirmation receipt comprising authenticated file attributes, after authentication by the third party authenticator; wherein, at least one file authentication is received from the third party authenticator. Corresponding processing devices, media, systems and methods are also provided.
US08677446B2
Systems, methods and computer readable media for centrally managed impersonation are described. Examples include a system having a central server and a remote shell daemon running on a remote machine, wherein a trust relationship is established between the central server and the remote shell daemon. Examples also include a method wherein a user sends the management system a request to act upon a remote machine. The management system determines whether the user is authenticated for the requested action. Upon authentication, the management system identifies an impersonation policy based on user profile and the remote machine. The management system connects to the remote machine, impersonates an elevated privilege account if required, and executes the user action on the remote machine.
US08677445B2
An information processing apparatus, includes: a registration unit that refers to a use limit information memory which stores use limit information indicating a policy of a use limit of a document corresponding to a set of a mark image indicating that use of the document is limited and user associated information relating to a user associated to the document, extracts the mark image and person in charge information from document image information obtained by reading a paper document including the mark image and the person in charge information indicating a person in charge with respect to contents of the paper document, acquires the use limit information corresponding to a set of the extracted mark image and the user associated information corresponding to the extracted person in charge information from the use limit information memory, and registers the acquired use limit information associated with a document including the document image information in a document memory.
US08677441B2
A system and method is provided for selective filtering of transmissions based on information received from a tuner. An embedded diplexer in a consumer electronic device allows the device to be used in a variety of different signal environments. For example, a television with an embedded switching filter coupled to the television tuner is operable in environments where television signals are transmitted on frequencies up to 1 GHz and in environments where MoCA signals are transmitted on 1 GHz frequencies.
US08677439B2
The disclosure provides a method and system for reducing channel switching delay of an IPTV. The method comprises that: an IPTV system plans a multicast association mode; the IPTV system determines, after receiving a message of requesting to access a multicast group from a terminal, other multicast groups associated with the multicast group which the terminal requests to access according to the multicast association mode and makes the terminal synchronously join in the multicast group which the terminal requests to access and other multicast groups associated with the multicast group which the terminal requests to access; provides normal multicast streams of the multicast group which the terminal requests to access, and provides no multicast streams or Low-Definition Television (LDTV) multicast streams of the other multicast groups associated with the multicast group which the terminal requests to access, and when the terminal switches channels, the IPTV system provides the terminal with normal multicast streams of the multicast group of a channel to which the terminal requests to switch when determining that the terminal has joined in the multicast group of the channel to which the terminal requests to switch. The method can reduce the channel switching delay of the IPTV and further improve the QoS of the IPTV service.
US08677436B2
It is the object of the present invention to provide a stereoscopic video distribution system, a stereoscopic video distribution method, a stereoscopic video distribution apparatus, a stereoscopic video viewing system, a stereoscopic video viewing method, and a stereoscopic video viewing apparatus. In the stereoscopic video distribution system according to this invention, stereoscopic video signals provided by a plurality of video distribution source servers for distributing stereoscopic videos are once received by a transcoding server, so that the stereoscopic video signals can be reproduced by a BD player and a TV for stereoscopic viewing.
US08677431B2
A request is received from a subscriber of a video content network offering a switched digital video service. The request is to establish a new switched digital video session within a service group of the video content network. The service group includes both preferred and standard subscribers and has a plurality of existing sessions. It is determined whether adequate bandwidth is available to establish the new switched digital video session without tearing down any of the existing sessions. Responsive to the determination indicating that adequate bandwidth is not available without tearing down any of the existing sessions, at least one of the existing sessions is torn down. In this step, those of the existing sessions corresponding to the preferred subscribers are exempted from teardown. The new switched digital video session is established in accordance with the request. A switched digital video control apparatus, a set-top terminal, and a system are also disclosed.
US08677428B2
There is provided a system and method for rule-based dynamic server-side streaming manifest files. There is provided a method comprising receiving a request to provide a first video content for playback, evaluating a plurality of rules for the first video content, generating a dynamic manifest file referencing the first video content, and providing the dynamic manifest file in response to the request, thereby enabling an application to playback the first video content for output on a display by interpreting the dynamic manifest file. The rules may implement various features such as dynamic advertisement insertion, load balancing, client customization, user and device targeting, enhanced security mechanisms, global announcements, and others. As streaming protocols are widely supported by default on many client platforms, the dynamic manifest files can be utilized in a user friendly and transparent manner compared to client-side solutions requiring cumbersome client software installations.
US08677423B2
A digital residential entertainment system is disclosed recording video data of an event. The apparatuses include a processor communicating with memory. The memory stores video data of the event captured by a camera, and the video data includes a series of picture frames of the event. A loop buffer also stores video data of the event captured by the camera. A rule-based engine stored in the memory uses a set of rules to store the contents of the loop buffer in the memory. The apparatus utilizes the loop buffer to provide video data prior to occurrence of the event.
US08677422B2
A vehicle seat interconnect includes a cable that propagates data signals along a length of the cable and a transceiver provided on at least one vehicle seat of a vehicle. The transceiver is wirelessly coupled with the cable and transmits the data signals between the transceiver and the cable.
US08677415B2
A subscriber to a video service generally has available to them an on-screen program guide. The program guide lists programming (e.g., TV shows) that are available to the subscriber for a certain upcoming time period. The programming guide may sort the listings by channel and time, areas of interest, age appropriateness and/or MPAA or TV rating, free or additional cost, etc. In an embodiment, the programming guide includes an ability to make a selection to see which TV shows are recommended by reviewers. Such reviewers may be individuals or panels or institutions to which some credibility may be attached—a trusted source. After selecting a reviewer, the subscriber is made aware of the programs recommended by the selected reviewer.
US08677414B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a set top box having a controller to present media content to a user, receive a message, and selectively cease presentation of the media content until after the message is reviewed. Additional embodiments are disclosed.
US08677413B2
A digital television (DTV) data stream includes an event information table (EIT), the EIT including: a descriptor including: a descriptor tag identifying the descriptor as a genre descriptor, a descriptor length field, and at least one category code for an associated event in a DTV data stream.
US08677410B2
A method, data processing system, and computer program product for delivering media content. Outputs in a media player for use in delivering versions of a media content are identified. A parameter for each of the outputs is identified to form a set of parameters. A content distribution module forms a version of the media content from the media content and the set of parameters for each of the outputs to form a set of media content. Each of the set of media content is sent through an associated output in the outputs at substantially a same time.
US08677403B2
A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for administering a video channel comprising a plurality of video feeds. A method in accordance with the present invention comprises coupling a computer to a transmission station, the transmission station receiving the plurality of video feeds, arranging a plurality of icons on a monitor of the computer to emulate a video layout to be presented, associating a video feed of the plurality of video feeds with an icon of the plurality of icons, and enabling manipulation of the video feeds through the computer.
US08677402B2
Systems and methods are provided to allow users to browse services, content items, or the like using the language that is generally most familiar to them, and in particular ones that are not available on an IPTV. Thus, users can browse content offerings on the second display in a language and font set that are personalized to themselves, and they may further send the content item to the IPTV for playback. The disclosed systems and methods provide a way for a group of users to exploit individual “second displays” to view, browse, and navigate content or data service offerings, by service providers, e.g., internet network services, in a preferred language and using preferred fonts, especially one not supported by a content playback device, on behalf of a content playback device, e.g., IPTV, the same having authenticated credentials for playback of such content, and then arrange for a selected content item or items to be played back on the content playback device. The second displays serve as a visual aid to the IPTV, but generally do not require additional investment by the user because the same make use of a device, e.g., a smartphone, laptop computer, tablet computer, an internet appliance, a desktop computer, etc., which most users would already have in their possession. Such a second display is a significant complement to an IPTV because of the second display's strength in supported languages and character font sets, data entry, processing power, and user experience in content management.
US08677395B2
In a targeted advertising system focused advertisements or alternate content is pre-stored on a handheld device, inserted into a multimedia stream at predefined times and points in the content stream for a predefined interval, otherwise referred to as a spot. A micro-splicer, instantiated on a handheld device, enables alternate content rendering, instead of the original program content, at available advertisement spots during program content viewing. The micro-splicer uses metadata to identify the correct alternate content and display it in the correct spot. The micro-splicer also enables switching the display back to the multimedia program content after the end of the alternate content. User viewing and interaction with the alternate content is ensured by instructing the micro-splicer to switch back to multimedia program content only after receipt of predefined user feedback.
US08677394B2
In one embodiment, a capability is disclosed for conveying a link to further information over a cable system to a consumer device, wherein the video link can be associated with an external video source. The information can be conveyed to the consume device in one embodiment by embedding the video link information within a stream of MPEG formatted video information using an EBIF application. The video link information can be a URL from which the external information, typically video information, can be received. Upon detecting the link, the consumer device opens up a display window on a television image, which is presented to the viewer in an overlaid manner in addition to the MPEG video information on a television display. Typically, after the external video is presented, the window is closed.
US08677392B2
Distributed navigation of broadcast signals is provided through an on-line application connected through a second network connection. A customer receives the broadcast signals through a first network connection, and navigates the broadcast TV content through an on-line application by a browser connected through a second network connection. The present on-line application provides flexible and re-configurable content services, which will need to be customized once for each service provider, but will render consistently on a variety of PC and non-PC client devices. Further, the present on-line application can provide targeted advertising by maintaining an advertising profile for each viewer, determined in part by recording data about the navigating of the content of the broadcast signals, and by recording a plurality of selections of the viewer transmitted to the on-line application. The on-line capability further provides ease for roaming access.
US08677389B2
Media monitoring and measurement systems and methods are disclosed. Some embodiments of the present invention provide a media measurement system and method that utilizes audience data to enhance content identifications. Some embodiments analyze media player log data to enhance content identification. Other embodiments of the present invention analyze sample sequence data to enhance content identifications. Other embodiments analyze sequence data to enhance content identification and/or to establish channel identification. Yet other embodiments provide a system and method in which sample construction and selection parameters are adjusted based upon identification results. Yet other embodiments provide a method in which play-altering activity of an audience member is deduced from content offset values of identifications corresponding to captured samples. Yet other embodiments provide a monitoring and measurement system in which a media monitoring device is adapted to receive a wireless or non-wireless audio signal from a media player, the audio signal also being received wirelessly by headphones of a user of the monitoring device.
US08677384B2
Methods and systems provide clickstream captures at a remote component, such as a video control system of a television network, by receiving user commands generated by the viewer that are sent to the remote component concurrently relative to when they are generated by the viewer. The commands are captured and then information related to these commands is stored remotely from the premises of the viewer. Additionally, the user commands may be executed remotely such as at a video control system of a television network or alternatively may be executed at the premises of the viewer such as within a set top box. Information related to these user commands continues to be stored remotely from the premises of the viewer after the user commands have been executed such that the information related to these user commands can be processed as necessary and used for various purposes.
US08677373B2
A computation resource control apparatus includes an activation unit, a first queue managing unit, an allocating unit and a second queue managing unit. The activation unit activates a computation resource being in a stop state in accordance with a computation request. The first queue managing unit adds the computation resource which is being activated to a first queue. The allocating unit allocates the computation resource, which is output from the first queue, to the computation request to execute a computation process corresponding to the computation request. The second queue managing unit adds the computation resource which has completed the computation process to a second queue and places the computation resource, which is output from the second queue, in the stop state.
US08677369B2
In one embodiment, a method for allocating programs to resources suited to operating conditions thereof comprises generating composition management information for a plurality of resources based on management information relating to performance and capacity of each of the resources. The composition management information includes identification information for the resources used by a plurality of programs. The method further comprises searching for and locating the composition management information of a resource identified by the identification information for each of the programs, based on the composition management information of the resources, and generating program information which associates composition management information of each of the programs with the composition management information of the located resource; and outputting information indicating that a resource abnormality has occurred with one of the programs, in cases where the composition management information of the resource which is associated with the program in the program information corresponds to one or more rules for detecting a resource abnormality in the program.
US08677352B2
Embodiments of the present invention include methods, systems, apparati, computer program products and other tangible realizations of techniques to support interchange of role for guest and host operating system instances executed (or executable) within a virtualization system. In particular, one embodiment of the present invention is a method operating a computer system, the method comprising: (a) selecting a first operating system image from amongst plural operating system images accessible to a hardware machine; (b) booting the hardware machine using the first operating system image and executing code thereof as a host operating system; (c) providing a virtualization environment and instantiating therein a virtual machine using configuration data descriptive of a particular system virtualized, wherein the configuration data is stored separately from the first operating system image; and (d) loading from a second one of the operating system images, a guest operating system and executing code thereof in connection with the instantiated virtual machine.
US08677347B2
This invention relates to a device management apparatus. This device management apparatus is a device management apparatus which communicates with a client computer, includes an output management unit adapted to manage output information of a device for each user, an identification unit adapted to identify a user who is about to install a driver, a device extraction unit adapted to extract a device used by the user identified by the identification unit based on the output information, and a transmission unit adapted to transmit the driver of the device extracted by the device extraction unit to the client computer.
US08677340B2
A computer-implemented method, system, and computer program product for planning and optimizing information technology (IT) infrastructure transformations is presented. A predictive effort estimation model for transforming an existing IT infrastructure into a transformed IT infrastructure is initially created. The introduction of a new application into the existing IT infrastructure through a use of a decision tree as a transformation path determination is emulated to create a transformation path emulation. The use of a software factory is emulated for introducing the new application into the existing IT infrastructure to create a software factory use emulation for creating the transformed IT infrastructure. The predictive effort estimation model is accurized using results from the transformation path emulation and the software factory use emulation to create an accurized transformed IT infrastructure model. A physical transformed IT infrastructure is then deployed using the accurized transformed IT infrastructure model.
US08677339B2
Component relinking in migrations may include discovering one or more dependencies in one or more components; planning one or more new locations where the one or more components are to be placed; determining relinking needs in the one or more components based on the discovering and the planning; and applying the relinking needs.
US08677335B1
Disclosed herein are methods and systems for using on stack replacement for optimization of software. A source code is compiled into an unoptimized code on a computing device. The unoptimized code is then executed on a computing device. A hot count is incremented. It is then determined whether a function within the unoptimized code is hot. If a function is determined to be hot, an OSR triggering code is inserted at a back edge of each loop within the function. The OSR triggering code is configured to trigger OSR at a loop depth that is less than the hot count.
US08677334B2
A computer-implemented method, system, and article of manufacture for parallelizing a code configured by coupling a functional block having an internal state and a functional block without any internal state. The method includes: creating and storing a graphical representation where functional blocks are chosen as nodes and connections between functional blocks are chosen as links; visiting the nodes on the graphical representation sequentially, detecting inputs from functional blocks without any internal state to functional blocks having an internal state and storing these functional blocks as a set of use blocks, and detecting inputs from functional blocks having an internal state to functional blocks without any internal state and storing these functional blocks as a set of definition blocks; and forming strands of functional blocks based on information on the set of use blocks and information on the set of definition blocks stored in association with the functional blocks.
US08677332B1
Systems and methods for compiling one or more code blocks written in programming language are provided. In some aspects, display associated with application is provided. Display includes plurality of graphical objects. That each of plurality of graphical objects is associated with child code block in one-to-one association between graphical objects and child code blocks is determined. Each child code block is written in programming language. The child code blocks associated with plurality of graphical objects are transformed into single parent code block. Parent code block, upon compiling, is configured to be reused across execution contexts and to allow injection of global scope. Parent code block, upon specific execution, includes execution context for specified child code block. Parent code block is configured to receive indication of specified child code block for initiating execution of parent code block. Parent code block is compiled.
US08677330B2
A compiling method compiles an object program to be executed by a processor having a plurality of execution units operable in parallel. In the method a first availability chain is created from a producer instruction (p1), scheduled for execution by a first one of the execution units (20: AGU), to a first consumer instruction (c1), scheduled for execution by a second one of the execution units (22: EXU) and requiring a value produced by the said producer instruction. The first availability chain comprises at least one move instruction (mv1-mv3) for moving the required value from a first point (20: ARF) accessible by the first execution unit to a second point (22: DRF) accessible by the second execution unit. When a second consumer instruction (c2), also requiring the same value, is scheduled for execution by an execution unit (23: EXU) other than the first execution unit, at least part of the first availability chain is reused to move the required value to a point (23: DRF) accessible by that other execution unit.In other compiling methods (FIG. 8), the object program includes a loop kernel block and a basic block preceding the loop kernel block, and the basic block includes a producer instruction (p1) and the loop kernel block includes a consumer instruction (c1, c2) requiring a value produced by the producer instruction. The loop kernel block is scheduled first, after which the basic block is scheduled. These methods can put additional move instructions between producer and consumer instructions in the basic block instead of the loop kernel block, or eliminate the move instructions altogether.
US08677326B2
A method for allowing license tools to detect the installation of applications that are not physically installed on a machine when an Application Virtualization Environments is used. In one embodiment of the invention, the license tools may further detect application usage. In one embodiment of the invention, a virtual installation signature may be defined. Agents in a target computer may be used to compare the virtual installation signature of an application with a localized list of potential applications to detect whether the software is installed on the target computer.
US08677324B2
An event-driven performance measurement technique provides a set of transaction definitions that specify transaction actions that correspond to start and end points of a transaction. Events associated with execution of an application are received by a processor-based machine. The machine uses the events to generate transactions in accordance with the set of transaction definitions. The transactions can be used to evaluate performance of the application.
US08677322B2
The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for debugging in a multiple address space environment. Embodiments of the invention include techniques for recording debug information used for translating between an abstract unified address space and multiple address spaces at a target system (e.g., a co-processor, such as, a GPU or other accelerator). A table is stored in the recorded debug information. The table includes one or more entries mapping compiler assigned IDs to address spaces. During debugging within a symbolic debugger, the recorded debug information can be used for viewing program data across multiple address spaces in a live debugging session.
US08677314B1
A system and machine-implemented method modifying a source code file to reduce dependencies included therein. The source code file is parsed to identify a symbol within the source code file, and one or more header files are identified, each of which is capable of resolving the symbol for the source code file. A header file is selected from the one or more header files for inclusion in the source code file, based on a predetermined set of rules. The source code file is modified to include the selected header file.
US08677313B2
A functional design creation tool generates a functional design diagram for visual presentation on a display. The functional design creation tool extracts content from a processed requirements specification including one or more processed requirement statements. The functional design creation tool applies one or more glossaries and a set of heuristic rules to the extracted content. Functional design diagram components may be generated by the functional design creation tool based on the application of the glossaries and set of heuristic rules. The functional design tool may generate a functional design diagram based on the functional design diagram components. The functional design diagram may be transmitted to a display.
US08677309B2
A framework (referred to herein as Application Integration Architecture, or AIA) that formalizes and orchestrates activities in an SOA development lifecycle. In one set of embodiments, AIA can capture development-related information in a shared data store and cause the information to flow in an automated or semi-automated manner from one lifecycle phase to the next as the lifecycle progresses. This information flow can, in turn, facilitate automations at each lifecycle phase for the responsible stakeholders (e.g., solution architects, developers, installation developers, etc.), thereby enforcing SOA best practices, enhancing development productivity, and ensuring the quality of the final SOA deliverables.
US08677308B2
A method and system for generating an application programming interface (API) request message for an API service application is provided. The API service application is stored within a service owner (SO) computer device and includes a memory device for storing data and a service provider (SP) computer system that includes a processor and an open API platform. The SP computer system in communication with the memory device and the SO computer device. The SP computer system is programmed to receive from a developer a plurality of selections of parameters defining an API service request, generate an API request message for a specific API service using the received parameter selections, the API request message including the received parameter selections in a predetermined format required by the specific API service, generate a response to the generated API request message, and display the generated API request message and response on a single webpage.
US08677305B2
An electronic automation design tool with a sink locator unit creates clusters of loads from a plurality of loads within a sector of a clock network design based on balancing magnitudes of the loads among the clusters of loads and based on minimal delays of each of the clusters and respective ones of a plurality of sink locations in the sector of the clock network design. The tool determines centers of the clusters of loads, and sink locations corresponding to the centers of the clusters for connecting output terminal points of sector buffers are determined. Each of the sector buffers drive a clock signal to a corresponding one of the clusters of loads.
US08677292B2
A method of designing an integrated circuit includes providing a standard cell database including a plurality of standard cells; providing an index file having cell-context information indexed to the plurality of standard cells; retrieving the cell-context information of one of the plurality of standard cells from the cell-context file; and applying the index information to a design of the integrated circuit.
US08677288B2
A block management method for OPC model calibration includes calculating differences in several different optical functions between first patterns of a first mask and patterns of a second mask corresponding to the first patterns but differing therefrom by a predetermined bias, selecting one or more of the optical functions based on the calculated differences, clustering data of variations in the values of the calculated differences in the selected ones of the optical functions, selecting respective ones of the first patterns in consideration of how the data clusters, and designating the selected first patterns as test patterns.
US08677287B2
A display input device is comprised of a touch panel 1 for carrying out a display of information and an input of information, a vibration detection sensor (proximity sensors 12 or an acceleration sensor 23) for detecting a vibration of an object to be detected which is positioned opposite to the touch panel 1, and a control unit 3 for, when it is determined that a relative vibration between the touch panel and the object to be detected, which is detected by the vibration detection sensor, has an amount equal to or larger than a predetermined amount, carrying out a process of enlarging an image in a display area having a fixed range, which is displayed on the touch panel 1, to display the enlarged image.
US08677285B2
A method and apparatus for receiving an input by a user on an interactive touchscreen display based, electronic data and communication device, the input comprising a contact gesture, which further comprises touchscreen single or multiple simultaneous contacts. The contact gestures are classified as primary, secondary, tertiary, universal and non-universal contact gestures. The method further includes performing an operation or entering an operational mode based on the user input.
US08677281B2
A system, apparatus and method for experience time sampling via a mobile graphical user interface. A method includes receiving mood data from an individual in predefined time intervals via a mood mapping graphical user interface hosted by a mobile device. The mood mapping graphical user interface is comprised of a 2×2 diagram having a valence dimension and an intensity dimension. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08677272B2
A method of validating a menu design for a computer program can include identifying a plurality of menu nodes, wherein each node is associated with at least one attribute, comparing attributes of different menu nodes according to a use case, and indicating whether a conflict exists between attributes of different menu nodes for the use case.
US08677267B2
A method and user interface which enables the setting of a variable value feature, having a plurality of values associated therewith, wherein the plurality of values include a default value and a plurality of non-default values. The method and user interface displays a first value associated with a user selected variable value feature and changes the displayed first value associated with the selected variable value feature by a predetermined amount so as to display a second value associated with the selected variable value feature by a user engaging a user activatable area associated with the selected variable value feature. The method and user interface determines if an annotated message is associated with the displayed second value associated with the selected variable value feature and displays the annotated message associated with the selected variable value feature along with the displayed second value associated with the selected variable value feature when it is determined that the displayed second value associated with the selected variable value feature has an associated annotation message.
US08677266B2
The disclosure provides a method for moving a Chinese input candidate word box and a mobile terminal, wherein the method includes: creating a candidate word box and drawing the candidate word box in a position within the range of a screen; analyzing and calculating a moving distance after generating an input signal, through directly dragging the candidate word box by a user or through operating a direction key or a direction soft key by the user to move the candidate word box; and destroying the candidate word box in situ when the moving distance is not beyond the range of the screen, and redrawing a candidate word box in a new position which the candidate word box is moved to. The method and the mobile terminal of the disclosure enable the user to freely move the position of the candidate word box within the range of the screen according to the user's requirement when the user inputs Chinese, so that the user can acquire the view in the range of the whole screen, thereby improving utilization rate of the range of the screen.
US08677261B2
An in-vehicle display system is installed in a vehicle for displaying information to a user. The system includes a display unit that displays information; an operation unit that is located separately from the display unit and that allows a user to perform user operations including a directional operation and a turning operation; and a receiver that receives user instructions for making entry of plural characters that can be displayed on the display unit, based on displayed content displayed on the display unit and the user operations made with the operation unit. The receiver receives: (i) a first one of the directional operation and the turning operation as the user instruction in order to select a group from amongst a plurality of groups displayed on the display unit each of the plurality of groups representing a plurality of characters which are candidates for entry, and (ii) a second one of the directional operation and the turning operation as the user instruction in order to select a character from amongst the plural characters included in the group that is selected by the first one of the directional operation and the turning operation.
US08677259B2
The system and a computer-implemented method annotate a multimedia object on a web page hosted on a publisher computer system. A web page that includes a multimedia object is rendered in a web browser of a client computer system. One or more layers, including a transparent layer, at least partially located over the multimedia object displayed on the web page are generated wherein the one or more layers are configured to facilitate the creation and display of annotation data for the multimedia object based on user interface events produced by a user of the client computer system. Annotation data for the multimedia object is received from the user. The annotation data is transmitted to an annotation server for storage. A visual indicator indicating that the annotation data is associated with the multimedia object is displayed, wherein the visual indicator is rendered in the one or more layers.
US08677253B2
A first computer system in a collaborative environment receives a plurality of indications of actions executed on content of a second computer system in the collaborative environment. A mapping between the content of the second computer system and corresponding content of the first computer system is determined. A subset of the plurality of indications of the actions executed on the content of the second computer system that are to be executed on the corresponding content of the first computer system is identified. A preview of executing the subset of the plurality of indications of the actions is presented on the first computer system. The subset of the plurality of indications of the actions is executed on the corresponding content of the first computer system.
US08677247B2
A computer-implemented method for distinguishing a live actor from an automation is described. A user request to access a service is received, and, in response, the user is presented with a minority set of N objects and a majority set of >N objects. The majority set includes objects sharing at least one common attribute expected to be apparent to a human observer absent among objects associated with the minority set. The user is requested to identify at least one object, from among the objects associated with the minority or majority set, that satisfies a predetermined criterion and in response an indication of a selection of at least one object is received. Whether the user-selected object satisfies the predetermined criterion is determined and as is that the user is a human upon determining that the user-selected object satisfies the predetermined criterion.
US08677231B2
There is provided a method for requesting an electronic document based on XML in which the electronic document is created using a syntax defining a structure of a constructed electronic document. The electronic document request method can include creating a request document including an element name/attribute name based on a previously prescribed syntax without defining an additional syntax for requesting the electronic document, requesting a supply of the electronic document having an information on the element name/attribute name recorded in the request document, and receiving the electronic document including the information on the requested element name/attribute name.
US08677222B2
The embodiments of the invention disclose a method and a device for decoding an RS code, the method comprising: receiving bit reliability information of the RS code output by a channel, performing a hard decision on the bit reliability information to obtain a hard-decision result value sequence; determining a type of an error of the hard-decision result value sequence according to an initial check array corresponding to an encoding mode of the RS code; according to preset corresponding relationships between types of errors of the hard-decision result value sequence and error-correcting modes capable of correcting the errors, determining an error-correcting mode corresponding to the type of the error of the hard-decision result value sequence, and performing a bit error correction on the hard-decision result value sequence according to the determined error-correcting mode; outputting the hard-decision result value sequence after the bit error correction as a decoding result.
US08677219B2
The present invention relates to code-dependent bit interleavers for parallel non-uniform channels. Since the channel dependence of a given code ensemble is dominated by the mutual information between the channel input and output, the present invention proposes to simplify the analysis about the decoding behavior by using a set of surrogate binary erasure channels. The approximation of the actual channel by the surrogate BEC is established on the equivalence of bitwise capacities, which represent the mutual information between the uniformly-distributed binary input and the likelihood ratios of the effective parallel AWGN channels. Moreover, the transition of the erasure probabilities is modeled by a linear difference equation around the decoding threshold SNR, from which we can derive a necessary condition on the convergence of decoding iterations and achieve a useful guideline for the configuration of the bit interleaver.
US08677216B2
A stacked semiconductor memory device includes an error correction code (ECC) controller that controls the number of bits in an ECC word and corrects errors in memory cell array layers using the ECC word.
US08677213B2
An electronic device comprises an error correction coding device. The error correction coding device comprises a parity code generator. This generator is a circuit for computing a remainder polynomial by dividing a user data polynomial by a generator polynomial and generating a parity code from this remainder polynomial. This generator computes the remainder polynomial by dividing and inputting either a bit string comprising coefficients of the generator polynomial, or a bit string comprising coefficients of the generator polynomial and a bit string comprising coefficients of the generator polynomial, and dividing a minimal unit multiple times based on either a division width of the user polynomial or a division width of the user polynomial and the generator polynomial, and outputs a bit string comprising the coefficient of this remainder polynomial.
US08677209B2
In a communications system that demultiplexes user data words into multiple sub-words for encoding and decoding within different subword-processing paths, the minimum distance between bit errors in an extrinsic codeword can be increased by having corresponding subword encoders/decoders in the different subword-processing paths perform subword encoding/decoding with different encoder/decoder matrices.
US08677193B2
This disclosure relates generally to identifying and locating a failed or failing system component within a computer system, and more specifically to providing indicator lights and/or associated voice alerts to indicate, identify, and locate failed or failing system components within a computer system. A method for indicating a fault in a computer system in accordance with an embodiment includes: detecting a fault in the computer system; obtaining a problem definition associated with the fault; and generating an audible voice fault alert corresponding to the problem definition.
US08677188B2
An error in a web page displayed on a device is detected. The error is assigned to a bucket to indicate a type of the error, and a record describing the current state of the device is generated. Both an indication of the bucket and the record describing the current state of the device are then sent to a server. At the server, error information including error records and bucket identifiers are received from multiple devices. Each error record describes a current state of one of the multiple devices at a time when an error in a web page displayed on the one device was detected. Each bucket identifier corresponds to one of the error records and describes a type of the error associated with that error record. The error records are grouped into multiple baskets based at least in part on the current state information in the error records.
US08677184B2
According to one embodiment, a system for creating a list of related defects in a network environment includes a processor, and a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith. The computer readable program code includes computer readable program code that, when executed by the processor, causes the system to acquire a device list related to devices in multiple paths of a network, computer readable program code that, when executed by the processor, causes the system to query one or more information sources using the device list to retrieve defect data from the one or more information, sources, computer readable program code that, when executed by the processor, causes the system to create a list of related defects based on the retrieved defect data, and computer readable program code that, when executed by the processor, causes the system to output the list of related defects.
US08677179B2
An information processing apparatus includes a degeneration control unit and a re-synchronization processing instructing unit. The degeneration control unit degenerates, of a first controller group including a first controller and a second controller group including a second controller, the second control device group when the first and second controller performing a synchronization operation with each other detect occurrence of errors. The re-synchronization processing instructing unit instructs a controller included in the first controller group to execute re-synchronization processing. When another controller different from the first controller receives the instruction for the execution of the re-synchronization processing, the another controller performs interrupt mask setting. When the first controller receives the instruction for the execution of the re-synchronization processing, the first controller withholds the execution of the re-synchronization processing, starts error processing, and instructs the controller that performs the interrupt mask setting to release the interrupt mask.
US08677168B2
Management of power resources of an electronic device are disclosed. The electronic device has multiple subsystems in communication with a power supply, and an interface in communication with the subsystems. A directive is received with the interface to perform a function with the electronic device. A subset of the subsystems needed to perform the function are identified. For each identified subsystem and in response to receipt of the directive, a predicted power-resource quantity needed to perform the function is determined. A determination is made whether sufficient unallocated resources of the power supply are available to accommodate the predicted power-resource quantity for each identified subsystem. Respective portions of the available and unallocated resources of the power supply are accordingly allocated for use by respective identified subsystems in accordance with the determined power-resource quantities, with such allocation rendering the respective portions unavailable for use other than by the respective subsystems.
US08677166B2
A semiconductor device includes a power gating unit, a combinational logic unit and a clamping unit. The power gating unit is turned on to output an internal signal at an output electrode based on an input signal or turned off according to operation modes. The combinational logic unit includes an input electrode directly connected to the output electrode of the power gating unit through a data line, and generates an output signal based on the internal signal received through the data line. The clamping unit is turned on to clamp the internal signal at a logic high level or at a logic low level or turned off according to the operation modes. The semiconductor device clamps the output electrode of the power gating unit without degrading an operation speed of the semiconductor device.
US08677164B2
A microcomputer according to the present invention includes: a CPU (Central Processing Unit) that has a plurality of modes including a usual operational mode and a STANDBY mode, a clock supply being stopped in the STANDBY mode; a clock generation circuit that generates a clock supplied to the CPU; and a control circuit that monitors a mode of the CPU, determines a mode to which the CPU should transit according to the mode of the CPU and a type of an interruption request to the CPU, and controls the clock generation circuit according to the determined mode.
US08677161B2
A method for optimizing efficiency and power consumption in a hybrid computer system is disclosed. The hybrid computer system may comprise one or more front-end nodes connected to a multi-node computer system. Portions of an application may be offloaded from the front-end nodes to the multi-node computer system. By building historical profiles of the applications running on the multi-node computer system, the system can analyze the trade offs between power consumption and performance. For example, if running the application on the multi-node computer system cuts the run time by 5% but increases power consumption by 20% it may be more advantageous to simply run the entire application on the front-end.
US08677160B2
Methods, computers, and products for managing power consumption of a computer, the computer including a computer processor and managing power consumption of a computer includes: dynamically during operation of the computer, setting, by an in-band power manager in dependence upon performance metrics of the computer processor, a current performance state (‘p-state’) of the computer processor; and providing, by the in-band power manager to an out-of-band power manager, the current p-state of the computer processor.
US08677158B2
One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for assigning power management classifications to a process, transitioning a computing environment into a connected standby state based upon power management classifications assigned to processes, and transitioning the computing environment from the connected standby state to an execution state. That is, power management classifications, such as exempt, throttle, and/or suspend, may be assigned to processes based upon various factors, such as whether a process provides desired functionality and/or whether the process provides functionality relied upon for basic operation of the computing environment. In this way, the computing environment may be transitioned into a low power connected standby state that may continue executing desired functionality, while reducing power consumption by suspending and/or throttling other functionality. Because some functionality may still execute, the computing environment may transition into the execution state in a responsive manner to quickly provide a user with up-to-date information.
US08677154B2
A processor-implemented method, system, and/or computer program product protects sensitive data in a received transmission. A network interface receives a data transmission, which includes multiple units of data. Any sensitive data in the received data transmission is identified by the recipient according to a pre-determined rule. Identified sensitive data from the data transmission is then encrypted.
US08677144B2
In an embodiment, authenticated hardware and authenticated software are cryptographically binded using symmetric and asymmetric cryptography. Cryptographically binding the hardware and software ensures that original equipment manufacturer (OEM) hardware will only run OEM software. Cryptographically binding the hardware and software protects the OEM binary code so it will only run on the OEM hardware and cannot be replicated or altered to operate on unauthorized hardware. This cryptographic binding technique is referred to herein as secure software and hardware association (SSHA).
US08677142B2
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a client device is protected against the execution of unauthorized software. The client includes a code authentication process that verifies the integrity of executable code, by generating and comparing a first hash value of the executable code with a known hash value of the original code. Furthermore, during boot-up, the client initializes a CPU exception vector table with one or more vector table entries. One or more, or all, of the vector table entries direct the CPU to execute the code authentication process prior to executing an event handler when an exception event occurs. Consequently, the code authentication process is virtually guaranteed to execute, thereby protecting against the execution of unauthorized code.
US08677141B2
A client-side enforcement mechanism may allow application security policies to be specified at a server in a programmatic manner. Servers may specify security policies as JavaScript functions included in a page returned by the server and run before other scripts. At runtime, and during initial loading, the functions are invoked by the client on each page modification to ensure the page conforms to the security policy. As such, before a mutation takes effect, the policy may transform that mutation and the code and data of the page. Replicated code execution may take place at both the client and the server where the server runs its own shadow copy of a client-side application in a trusted execution environment so that the server may check that the method calls coming from the client correspond to a correct execution of the client-side application The redundant execution at the client can be untrusted, but serves to improve the responsiveness and performance of the Web application.
US08677140B2
A computer-implemented method represents a list of informational items using a bit array. The method converts an informational item to a cryptographic value using a cryptographic algorithm and extracts a plurality of n-bit samples from the cryptographic value. The n-bit samples includes at least a first field and a second field. The first field identifies a group of bits of the bit array and the second field identifies one or more individual bits within the group of bits. The individual bits are set to a pre-determined value according to the first field identifying the group of bits and the second field identifying the individual bits within the group of bits.
US08677139B1
Once an individual is issued a Universal Identifier (UID) it uniquely identifies that person anywhere in the world. The UID could be embedded in any type of device, token or apparatus that is capable of transmitting it (only several bytes of data) to a reader device. Alternatively, for the purposes of authentication the UID could also be entered via a keypad or via any other means. The code scheme for a UID could be any type of symbol sequence that is capable of providing enough combination to cover the entire expected human population. Although it can also be used without biometric data the intended use of the UID is in conjunction with biometric authentication. The Universal Identifier is universal from two aspects: first it is a global or worldwide identifier for people around the world; second it is to be used most generally in any type of transactions, processes or scenarios where authentication is needed. UIDs are issued by an Identity Clearinghouse (IC) or Universal Authentication Authority (UAA) or a Centralized Identity Management Service (CIMS) after verifying the uniqueness of submitted biometric and personal data.
US08677137B2
In one example embodiment, an information processing apparatus determines whether a target ID is a unique ID or a partial randomization ID that includes a first part being replaced by a different number and a second part being generated based on the unique ID. In response to the target ID being the partial randomization ID, the information processing apparatus generates an access key based on the second part of the partial randomization ID and a key. The information processing apparatus executes a mutual authentication process using the generated access key.
US08677134B2
A system and method for signing data transferred over a computer network is described. In one aspect, the HTTP header of an HTTP response message is extended to include a content identifier, a content expiration time, and a digital signature. The digital signature may be generated from the content identifier, the content expiration time, and the message body of the HTTP response message.
US08677133B1
The present invention validates provenance dates of electronic documents. A document version date may be determined by creating a unique checksum for the document and having the document's owner digitally sign it with a private key. The checksum and digital signature are securely stored by an authorization entity along with a timestamp fixing the date/time. A unique resource identifier is returned to the user. Subsequently, if the document's date needs to be proved to a third party, a verification program is applied to the original document to create a new checksum. The unique resource identifier is used to retrieve the signed checksum from the authorization entity. Upon verification of matching checksums, the timestamp provided by the authorization entity proves the date/time the document existed. In addition, the public key provided by the document owner proves that the checksum was signed by the owner's private key, proving their ownership.
US08677130B1
The present invention provides for an authenticity marker to be embedded within web page and/or email content which allows a user to validate that the content originates from the true source of the content and is not merely a copy. The method includes a user requesting content in the form of a web page and/or email from a server using a web browser or email client. The server receives the request, retrieves the content and forwards it to an authentication server. The authentication server inserts into the retrieved content a unique fractal icon and/or information only known between the owner of the content and the user.
US08677129B2
A software system and method for executing secure commercial transactions online is disclosed. A user's password is received to initiate secure socket layer (SSL) communications with a transaction site on a server. A web session associated with the SSL communications is encrypted by associating a domain name of the transaction site with its SSL public key. Then, the user's password is added to a hypertext markup language (HTML) header of a message within the web session. When added, the password is invisible to a hypothetical man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacker, who cannot read the encrypted message nor mimic the user. The MITM is thus unable to compromise the user's account as the MITM is unable to provide the correct password into any fraudulent message.
US08677128B2
An encryption based method of enabling a plurality of parties to share, create, hide, or reveal message or token information over a network includes a commutative group cipher (CGC), where the underlying CGC is secure against ciphertext-only attack (COA) and plaintext attacks (KPA), and is deterministic. The protocols doe not require a trusted third party (TTP), and execute rapidly enough on ordinary consumer computers as to be effective for realtime play among more than two players. Protocols are defined which include VSM-L-OL, VSM-VL, VSM-VPUM, and VSM-VL-VUM, wherein the letters V, O, SM, P, and UM represent, respectively, Verified, Locking Round, Open, Shuffle-Masking Round, Partial, and Unmasking Round.
US08677118B1
Building a kernel hook module (KHM) on a build machine in an automated manner uses a script file to control the process. A user requests a KHM for a particular Linux kernel of a Linux distribution. The build machine is rebooted if necessary to run the target Linux distribution. Kernel source files for the Linux distribution are loaded and installed on the build machine. Various parameters are set and source code representing the functionality of the KHM (or that of a related software product) are loaded onto the build machine. The KHM is then built automatically under direction of the script file. A control machine receives the user request for a particular KHM over the Internet and directs operation of the build machine. A test machine tests the KHM once built. The KHM works in conjunction with anti-virus software or other software.
US08677115B2
A request is received from a client for accessing a resource provided in a network, the request including credential data representing system integrity of at least one component running on the client. In response to the request, one or more credential identifiers identifying the credential data is transmitted to a management server that provisioned the client. Credential reference data is received from the management server based on the one or more credential identifiers. The client is authenticated based on a comparison of the credential data received from the client and credential reference data received from the management server.
US08677110B2
A client terminal receives, in response to a boot command issued by a user to boot the client terminal, a first start command to start monitoring. The client terminal acquires first time information, repeatedly at certain time intervals from a basic software, and stores the first time information in a storage area. The client terminal receives a termination command to terminate the basic software. If the termination command is a command to terminate the basic software by using the basic software, the client terminal stores normal termination information in the storage area. When a second start command is received, and no normal termination information is stored in the storage area, the client terminal acquires second time information from the basic software and creates, depending on a result of comparison between the second time information and the first time information, log information relating to a termination of the basic software.
US08677106B2
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a mechanism for managing thread divergence in a thread group executing a multithreaded processor. A unanimous branch instruction, when executed, causes all the active threads in the thread group to branch only when each thread in the thread group agrees to take the branch. In such a manner, thread divergence is eliminated. A branch-any instruction, when executed, causes all the active threads in the thread group to branch when at least one thread in the thread group agrees to take the branch.
US08677093B2
A method of tier management of data comprises performing a tier migration log information setup process which includes selecting an area specified by a virtual volume address and a logical volume address; determining a destination tier for the area based on a number of accesses to the area; and updating a tier migration log information by inputting the determined destination tier and a time; and performing a process using the tier migration log information to determine whether to migrate a specific area which includes loading a tier migration log from the tier migration log information by selecting a specific time; checking if a current tier of the specific area equals a destination tier specified by the tier migration log; and if the current tier is not equal to the destination tier, migrating the specific area to the destination tier.
US08677086B2
A data storage system includes a first storage processor including a first memory device; a second storage processor including a second memory device; and a third memory device coupled to the first storage processor and the second storage processor. The first and second storage processors are interconnected to enable mirroring of data between the first memory device and the second memory device. During a first mode of operation, data processed by the first storage processor and the second storage processor is mirrored between the first memory device and the second memory device and, during a second mode of operation, data processed by the first storage processor is mirrored from the first memory device to the third memory device.
US08677084B2
A system, method and machine-readable medium are provided to configure a non-volatile memory (NVM) including a plurality of NVM modules, in a system having a hard disk drive (HDD) and an operating system (O/S). In response to a user selection of a hybrid drive mode for the NVM, the plurality of NVM modules are ranked according to speed performance. Boot portions of the O/S are copied to a highly ranked NVM module, or a plurality of highly ranked NVM modules, and the HDD and the highly ranked NVM modules are assigned as a logical hybrid drive of the computer system. Ranking each of the plurality of NVM modules can include carrying out a speed performance test. This approach can provide hybrid disk performance using conventional hardware, or enhance performance of an existing hybrid drive, while taking into account relative performance of available NVM modules.
US08677081B1
A processor includes a plurality of cache memories, and a plurality of processor cores, each associated with one of the cache memories. Each of at least some of the cache memories is associated with information indicating whether data stored in the cache memory is shared among multiple processor cores.
US08677080B2
The statuses of an actual area are (1) a first status which indicates that [the actual area] is already initialized and can be assigned to a virtual area, (2) a second status which indicates that [the actual area] is already assigned to a virtual area, and (3) a third status which indicates that [the actual area] cannot be assigned to a virtual area and initialization which is specified data write is to be performed. The storage controller limits the total virtual volume capacity which is the total capacity of one or more virtual volumes which are associated with the pool, in accordance with whether the pool comprises an actual page in the third status or not, to the capacity of the pool or smaller.
US08677074B2
Memory access techniques, in accordance with embodiments of the present technology, redirect memory access requests received from a baseband processor to shared memory coupled to an application processor. The techniques enable substantially real time read and write accesses by the application and baseband processors to the shared memory coupled to the application processor.
US08677070B2
According to an aspect of the embodiment, an FP includes a plurality of entries which holds requests to be processed, and each of the plurality of entries includes a requested flag indicating that data transfer is once requested. An FP-TOQ holds information indicating an entry holding the oldest request. A data transfer request prevention determination circuit checks the requested flag of a request to be processed and the FP-TOQ, and when a transfer request of data as a target of the request to be processed has already been issued and the entry holding the request to be processed is not the entry indicated by the FP-TOQ, transmits a signal which prevents the transfer request of the data to a data transfer request control circuit. Even when a cache miss occurs in a primary cache RAM, the data transfer request control circuit does not issue a data transfer request when the signal which prevents the transfer request is received.
US08677065B1
Aspects of the innovations herein are consistent with a storage system for storing variable sized objects. The storage system may be a transaction-based system that uses variable sized objects to store data. The storage system may be implemented using arrays disks that are arranged in ranks. Each rank may include multiple stripes. Each stripe may be read and written as a convenient unit for maximum performance. A rank manager may be provided to dynamically configure the ranks to adjust for failed and added disks by selectively shortening and lengthening the stripes. The storage system may include a stripe space table that contains entries describing the amount of space used in each stripe. An object map may provide entries for each object in the storage system describing the location (e.g., rank, stripe and offset values), the length and version of the object.
US08677052B2
A system for storing data comprises a performance storage system for storing one or more data items. A data item of the one or more data items comprises a data file or a data block. The system further comprises a segment storage system for storing a snapshot of a stored data item of the one or more data items in the performance storage system. The taking of the snapshot of the stored data item enables recall of the stored data item as stored at the time of the snapshot. At least one newly written segment is stored as a reference to a previously stored segment.
US08677043B2
An A filler module may include, but is not limited to: a body portion; and at least one conductive portion receivable within a component port of a computing device.A method for initializing a computing system may include but is not limited to: detecting a presence or absence of one or more filler modules within one or more computing device component ports; and determining compliance with an allowed filler module configuration according to the detection of the presence or absence of the one or more filler modules withing the one or more computing device component ports.A system comprising: a computing device component port; and a processing device configured to: detect a presence or absence of one or more filler modules within one or more computing device component ports, and determine compliance with an allowed filler module configuration according to the detection of the presence or absence of the one or more filler modules within the one or more computing device component ports.
US08677041B2
A method and system for balancing loads of a plurality of bus lanes of a snooping-based bus. The system includes: a receiver for receiving snoop transactions from the bus lanes, each of the snoop transactions having a snoop request and at least one snoop response, an analyzer for analyzing respective actual and expected loads of each of the bus lanes dependent on the received snoop transactions, and a controller for providing a next snoop request from a number of outstanding snoop requests to a buffer allocated to the system, where the buffer is dependent on the analyzed loads of the bus lanes.
US08677040B2
A host-peripheral adaptor includes a host adaptor and a portable peripheral adaptor. The host adaptor includes a substantially flat peripheral-adaptor-side interface. The peripheral-adaptor-side interface is designed in a way that it is not easy to tamper with. The portable peripheral adaptor includes a host-adaptor-side interface that is designed to operatively connect to the peripheral-adaptor-side interface of the host adaptor. The portable peripheral adaptor also includes one or more peripheral-side interfaces for accommodating one or more peripheral devices such as a storage media. The portable peripheral adaptor and the host adaptor include a set of data lines and the host adaptor also includes circuitry for recognizing the specific type of a peripheral device and, based on its specific type, for setting a suitable communication path to transfer data between a host and the peripheral device.
US08677037B1
In one embodiment of the invention, a memory apparatus for improved write performance is disclosed. The memory apparatus includes a base printed circuit board (PCB) having an edge connector for plugging into a host server system; a card level power source to provide card level power during a power failure; a memory controller coupled to the card level power source and having one or more memory channels; and one or more non-volatile memory devices (NVMDs) coupled to the card level power source and organized to respectively couple to the memory channels controlled by the memory controller. Each memory controller provides queuing and scheduling of memory operations on a channel for each NVMD in the memory channels. Responsive to power failure, the memory controller receives card level power and changes the scheduling of memory operations to the NVMDs in each memory channel.
US08677036B2
A power control device coupled to a power supply device and an information processing device, and configured to control a power supply from the power supply device to the information processing device, the power control device including: a first input/output unit configured to input/output data from/to the information processing device; a second input/output unit configured to input/output data from/to the power supply device by a change of state of signal lines; a storage unit configured to store data input from the first input/output unit and the second input/output unit; and a control unit configured to execute a conversion process for converting data input from the first input/output unit to a change of state of a signal line that can be output from the second input/output unit, and converting a change of state of a signal line input from the second input/output unit to a data format that can be output from the first input/output unit.
US08677031B2
Facilitating, at least in part, by circuitry, accessing of at least one controller command interface
An embodiment may include circuitry to facilitate, at least in part, a first network interface controller (NIC) in a client to be capable of accessing, via a second NIC in a server that is remote from the client and in a manner that is independent of an operating system environment in the server, at least one command interface of another controller of the server. The command interface may include at least one controller command queue. Such accessing may include writing at least one queue element to the at least one command queue to command the another controller to perform at least one operation associated with the another controller. The another controller may perform the at least one operation in response, at least in part, to the at least one queue element. Many alternatives, variations, and modifications are possible.
US08677028B2
In general, this disclosure describes techniques that allow communication between devices/modules of a computer system regarding inter-device/module command execution. In accordance with the techniques described herein, an operating device of a computing system may receive from a client one or more command indications of commands to be executed on the operating device. The operating device may further receive at least one command completion indicator that indicates a command for which one or more clients are awaiting completion of execution. The operating device may generate an interrupt that indicates completion of execution of the command for which the at least one command completion indicator was received. The interrupt may be a generic interrupt or a client-specific interrupt. In this manner, inefficiencies caused by client monitoring of operating device command execution may be reduced.
US08677027B2
A computer program product for performing input/output (I/O) processing is configured for performing a method including: obtaining information relating to an I/O operation at a channel subsystem; generating and storing in local channel memory at least one address control word (ACW) specifying one or more host memory locations for data transfer and including a field for storing header information; generating an address control structure specifying a location in the local channel memory of a corresponding ACW; receiving a data transfer request from a network interface that includes the address control structure; responsive to an input data request, routing the data to at least one host memory location specified by the corresponding ACW and storing header information in the corresponding ACW; and responsive to an output data request, routing the data from a host memory location specified by the ACW to the network interface and appending header information to the data.
US08677017B2
Location information for a node in a network is determined. A first distance from the node to at least one global landmark node is determined and a second distance from the node to at least one local landmark node proximally located to the node is determined. Location information for the node based on the first distance and the second distance is generated.
US08677015B2
The disclosed apparatus includes a MAC learning table storing a MAC address and port identification information that uniquely identifies a port for transferring a frame to which the MAC address is assigned. The apparatus includes updating the MAC learning table, reading a MAC address of a link trace frame, transferring the link trace frame via a port determined based on the MAC learning table, storing a correspondence relationship of a predetermined MAC address and port identification information, saving a correspondence relationship set as an object to be deleted at a time of updating the MAC learning table, transferring the link trace frame, if there is no correspondence relationship relevant to the MAC address of the link trace frame in the MAC learning table, and sending a response frame to a switching hub which is an originator of the link trace frame with transfer of the link trace frame.
US08677012B2
A method of transmitting/receiving a frame between a portable terminal and a base station in a wireless broadband Internet network are provided. More particularly, a method of transmitting/receiving frames can include activating a session between the portable terminal and the base station, removing at least one header information field included in an Internet protocol (IP) datagram after activating the session, adding a network header which sets a predetermined transport connection identifier (TCID) to the IP datagram, generating the frame, and transmitting the generated frame via the activated session. Preferably, the frame is generated in any one of the portable terminal and the base station, and transmitted to the other one of the portable terminal and the base station.
US08677007B2
Methods for redirecting, on a client, a communication of the client to a server to upon determining the server is not useable to communicate to the client include the steps of: establishing, by an client agent on a client, a transport layer connection between the client and an intermediary appliance, the intermediary appliance providing access to one or more servers; receiving, by the client agent from the intermediary appliance, address information identifying at least one of the one or more servers available to communicate; determining, by the client agent, the transport layer connection is unusable to communicate; establishing, by the client agent, a second transport layer connection between the client and one of the identified available servers to bypass the appliance. Corresponding systems are also described.
US08676990B2
A method for managing communication in a system having a device in communication with a server via a communication path which includes gateway. A communication session is initiated by transmitting a request signal from the device to the gateway. The signal is then routed through the gateway, and the signal is then transmitted from the gateway to the server.
US08676987B2
A method of processing data in an IPTV receiver and such an IPTV receiver are disclosed. The method includes transmitting a request signal for resolution of a content reference identifier (CRID) corresponding to a content, receiving location information including a session description protocol (SDP) file, and a session initiation protocol-uniform resource identifier (SIP-URI) corresponding to the CRID, and controlling a session setup for processing a content by using the received SDP file.
US08676986B2
Systems and methods for establishing and operating data sessions between mobile subscriber units and packet data servers on a wireless communication network are presented. Some aspects described herein are directed to preventing the loss of an initial configuration request signal (e.g. under the LCP protocol) from a packet data server to a mobile subscriber prior to successful establishment of a radio air link to the mobile subscriber. Other aspects are directed to detecting the presence or absence of a radio air link to the mobile subscriber as a determinant of whether the packet data server is to send a configuration request signal to the mobile subscriber, or whether the packet data server should withhold the request signal until the air link is established. Some or all aspects presented are suitable for use in 3G or CDMA-2000 systems using the A10/A11 communication control protocol and the PPP data communication protocol.
US08676972B2
A method and a system for identifying unauthorized accesses to a data network service by a particular node in a data network is disclosed. The NMC communicates with an agent periodically to gather a list of users of the service node. An agent is installed on the service node to monitor all network accesses to the service. By configuring the agent to monitor all access to the service node, through SNMP or a similar protocol, the agent maintains a list of all accesses to that service node. This list is stored internally by the agent and queried for by the NMC periodically. The access information stored by the agent is periodically retrieved by the NMC for all monitored nodes and compared with the authorization list for the node. If unauthorized accesses are found, they are identified by the NMC. These unauthorized accesses can be notified to the appropriate entity in a number of ways such as through paging, email or a report viewable through the NMC.
US08676968B2
In a method for determining information about a computing system, a designated process in the computing system is monitored. A determination whether a selected event has occurred in the designated process is made. State information and configuration information regarding the computing device is collected in response to a determination that the selected event has occurred. Meta information associated with the designated process is determined in response to a determination that the selected event has occurred. The state information, the configuration information and the meta information is recorded in an accessible file.
US08676967B2
When a notification request for an event is received from a client apparatus, information about the type of the event, an event notification apparatus, and the client apparatus included in the notification request are registered. Upon reception of issuance of an event from an event notification apparatus, it is determined whether the event notification apparatus, the type of the event, and a client apparatus that has requested notification of the event have been registered. If it is determined that the event notification apparatus, the type of the event, and the client apparatus have been registered with respect to the event, the event is transmitted to the registered client apparatus.
US08676954B2
Disclosed are an apparatus and method of managing a multiple agents via a session client. One example method of operation may include selecting multiple endpoint devices to manage, establishing a connection to a server, and identifying at least two agent identifiers identifying multiple agents corresponding to the multiple endpoint devices. The method may also include transmitting a session setup command to the server including the at least two agent identifiers and receiving a confirmation that a session has been established between the session client and the multiple agents of the multiple endpoint devices.
US08676953B2
A demand response management system which may be used by utilities, independent system operators, intermediaries and others to manage operations of demand response programs relative to customers, clients, participants, and users of outputs from the utilities, independent system operators, and the like. The demand response management system may provide demand response signal propagation and generation from demand response events. There may be an aggregation of customers, clients, participants, users, and the like. The aggregation may be performed and managed by the utility, independent system operator, or the like, before a DR event is initiated and even before a DR signal is generated.
US08676951B2
In a system of local DHT overlays, each has KVS nodes, including one super node. The super nodes organize a global DHT overlay. Each super node maintains Bloom filters of keys in its local DHT overlay for all key ranges. To obtain data corresponding to a key from other local DHT overlays, a super node sends a request to a node which is responsible for the key range hashed from the specified key. The responsible node determines local DHT overlays which may have data corresponding to the key according to Bloom filters registered in the super nodes of the local DHT overlays, updated and converted from counting filters. Requests are sent to the super nodes of the local DHT overlays identified by the responsible node. Thus, requests are not needlessly sent to super nodes of local DHT overlays which do not have data corresponding to the key, thereby reducing traffic.
US08676950B2
A method for restarting a set of nodes forming a peer-to-peer network. The method includes determining a first node of the set of nodes to be restarted and a subset of nodes known to the first node. Each node in the set of nodes to be restarted, prior to restarting, is configured to select a node and transmitting a message to the known nodes, containing an identifier of the selected node. Upon receiving the message, each known node is configured to back up duplicate sessions by determining sessions duplicated between the known node and the node in the set of nodes to be restarted and duplicating the sessions determined to be duplicate and verifying whether the known node is the next node, based on the message's content, and if the known node is the next node selecting the known node as a next node to be restarted.
US08676943B1
Architectures and techniques are described to manage a site according to the content of a number of documents. In some cases, the number of documents may include a fleet state document that specifies aspects related to the site, such as performance metrics. Additionally, fleet creation documents may be created that indicate tasks to be executed in order to realize the aspects specified in the fleet state document. Further, task attribute maps specifying values for the attributes of each task upon execution may also be created. A workflow engine may execute the tasks of the fleet creation documents according to the values of the task attribute maps in order to configure computing devices of a fleet to realize the aspects of the fleet state document.
US08676942B2
A network and connection provisioning framework for configuring and provisioning multiple aspects of network connectivity (e.g., multiple networks, media types, and/or connections). The framework may comprise a unified configuration interface that enables an administrator to configure multiple different types of network connectivity. A single configuration file comprising settings for multiple aspects of network connectivity may be generated based on preferences entered by a system administrator, or by exporting current settings from a particular computing device. Global configuration policies or other configuration settings that span multiple types of network connectivity may be also created and stored in one or more configuration files. Stand-alone media managers and/or plug-in modules may implement one or more standardized application programming interface functions so that they may interoperate with the network and connection provisioning framework. The standardized API may be used to ensure that configuration information is handled and stored in a standardized manner by different media managers and/or plug-in modules.
US08676939B2
A system is provided to deploy a computing application in a cloud using a service provider interface. The system comprises a configuration request detector, a configuration object retriever, and a configuration installer. The configuration request detector receives, at a computer system provided within a virtualization service, a configuration request. The configuration object retriever retrieves a configuration object in response to the configuration request. The configuration installer uses the configuration object, to automatically install a configuration associated with the configuration object to produce a second version of the computing application. The second version of the computing application provides additional features or services according to the definition of the configuration object.
US08676937B2
Disclosed is a Social-Topical Adaptive Networking (STAN) system that can inform users of cross-correlations between currently focused-upon topic or other nodes in a corresponding topic or other data-objects organizing space maintained by the system and various social entities monitored by the system. More specifically, one of the cross-correlations may be as between the top N now-hottest topics being focused-upon by a first social entity and the amounts of focus ‘heat’ that other social entities (e.g., friends and family) are casting on the same topics (or other subregions of other cognitive attention receiving spaces) in a relevant time period.
US08676936B2
A managing method and/or an apparatus for servicing contents provided by contents provider includes creating a segment for providing contents to a subscriber terminal according to a prescribed regulation; connecting contents connection points connected to the contents with menus; and forming a segment menu of the segment by at least one menu connected to the contents to be provided to the subscriber terminal subscribed to the segment and selected from the menus.
US08676935B2
In a content distributing system, a feature amount distributing server 140 includes a processing information generation unit 141 which generates processing information, a feature amount extraction unit 112 which extracts a content feature amount from distributed contents, a processing unit 142 which processes the content feature amount and generates a processed feature amount, a selecting unit 143 which selects an evaluation feature amount from the content feature amount or the processed feature amount, and a distributing unit 144 that distributes the evaluation feature amount to a client 130. A monitoring server 117 has a warning unit which collates the processing information generated by the processing information generation unit 141 of the feature amount distributing server 140 and a quality evaluation value received from the client, and gives a warning when the processing information and the quality evaluation value are mismatched with each other.
US08676929B2
A system and method for pushing information to a mobile device are disclosed herein. A triggering event is detected, and information relevant to the detected trigger event is determined. The information is located in one of a plurality of memory location channels, wherein the information is stored in the one of the plurality of memory location channels based on a category of the information matching a pre-defined category of the one of the plurality of memory location channels. When the information relevant to the detected triggering event comprises content information, a meta tag is inserted to the content information. The meta tag relates to display of specific one or more advertisements with the content information. The content information that includes the meta tag is transmitted to the mobile device.
US08676925B1
A method and an apparatus for capturing and sharing of visual information on a peer-to-peer basis are disclosed. Examples of visual information captured and shared from one peer to another include real-world events, people, and/or landscapes. In one embodiment of the invention, an incentive plan motivates a peer subject to capture and share desired visual information with other peers. In a preferred embodiment, a peer subject can use an image-capturing device to create visual information associated with specific metadata. In another embodiment of the invention, a peer subject can create an incentive plan for a specific set of desired metadata for visual information to motivate other peer subjects to provide visual information that satisfies the specific set of desired metadata. In one example, a metadata set can include information related to geographical location, time stamp, focal length, aperture value, shutter speed, exposure compensation, lens angle, and/or lens orientation.
US08676914B2
A network-enabled device is synchronized with other nodes. Services are run on the device, including at least a node service and a service repository service. Peer nodes on a network are accessed, and a service list which includes services available locally at the network-enabled device and services available remotely at peer nodes is maintained at the service repository service. The node service manages synchronized access to the service list by multicasting a change notification responsive to a change in the services available locally, and by listening to multicasts of change notifications from peer nodes. Responsive to a change in local services, the node service collects a list of local services at the device, generates a SyncGUID by using a hash function applied to the list of services, formats a change notification message which includes the SyncGUID, and multicasts the formatted change notification message to peer nodes on the network.
US08676912B2
In a multicast publisher-subscriber environment, a configurator machine manages a consumer pool of multiple receiver machines. The consumer pool is dedicated to a topic. Each receiver machine has a unique consumer address within the consumer pool allocated by the configurator machine. The configurator machine receives registration data from a receiver machine to be added to the consumer pool and provides a consumer address to the receiver machine. The receiver machine transmits a multicast communication to advertise its availability to receive messages on the topic. The multicast communication includes the consumer address. A transmitter machine may publish a message on the topic. The message may be a multicast communication directed to any receiver machine in to the consumer pool, or the message may be a point-to-point communication directed to the receiver machine with the consumer address.
US08676910B2
The present invention discloses a method, a server, a client and a system for network platform interaction which belong to the technical field of communication. The method comprises steps wherein: an intermediate platform detects a location event which includes selecting a contact person on a first platform and locating the contact person at a certain position; the intermediate platform acquires the information about the contact from the first platform, determines a corresponding second platform according to the position, and sends the location event to the second platform; the second platform analyzes the location event to acquire the related data of the position, acquires the contact person's information from the intermediate platform, and executes corresponding operations according to the contact person's information and the related data of the position. The system comprises a server and a client, wherein the server comprises an intermediate platform and the client comprises a first platform and a second platform. The invention reduces the complexity and development cost of the network platform and the mutual dependence and coupling degree of two interacting parties.
US08676896B1
A network is disclosed that includes a message originator computer and a message recipient computer, for secure electronic mail delivery. In accordance with the invention, the network includes a message delivery server that can distinguish between real and phantom messages. In operation, the message originator computer waits a random time and then transmits a first encrypted phantom message to the message delivery server. This message is to spoof an eavesdropper into believing that there is a steady stream of messages being sent from the originator computer. However, the message delivery server recognizes the message as a phantom message and discards it. When the message originator computer receives a user request to transmit a real message to the recipient computer, it waits a random time and then encrypts and transmits the real message to the message delivery server. The message delivery server recognizes the message as a real message and forwards the real message to the recipient computer. Meanwhile, the message originator computer can continue transmitting encrypted phantom messages to the message delivery server. In this manner, an eavesdropper will be tricked into believing that there is a steady stream of messages being sent from the originator computer.
US08676888B2
A method for a multi-terminal session, and a communication system and related devices thereof are disclosed according to the present invention. Accordingly, the user experience is improved. The method of the present invention includes setting up a connection between each terminal of a multi-terminal user and a session transfer server; setting up a connection between the session transfer server and a peer user; conducting a session between each terminal of the multi-terminal user and the peer user via the session transfer server.
US08676886B2
A host Web page includes an evolving interactive dialog box wherein an Internet user may enter user data to be processed. When the user completes entering user data in a first revolution of the interactive dialog box, the first revolution is replaced with a second revolution of the evolving interactive dialog box without disturbing or affecting any other part of the host Web page being displayed. Beneficially, the first and second revolutions may be communicated to a user computer together with and at a same time as the host Web page. Also, the second revolution may include a variety of data which is selected or customized to match the user data submitted in the first revolution. Each revolution of the evolving interactive dialog box may be comprised of any combination of general textual data entry fields, category (pull-down) menus, contact information data entry fields, and opt-in/opt-out buttons.
US08676882B2
A system and method for supporting content distribution in an electronic network includes a peer-to-peer network of electronic devices. The electronic devices are initially preloaded in a distributed manner with various content segments from corresponding content items. When a system user selects a particular content item on a corresponding electronic device, a download manager of the electronic device may automatically generate content segment requests to other appropriate electronic devices in the peer-to-peer network. The download manager may then download and automatically reassemble the content segments to produce the selected content item for utilization by the system user.
US08676878B2
A method of managing a domain, a method of extending a domain, and a method of selecting a reference point controller are provided. The method of operating the domain includes: receiving a request for authenticating a reference point controller from a reference point controller candidate; invalidating a membership of the stored reference point controller; generating a unique reference point controller membership for verifying that the reference point controller candidate is a new reference point controller; and transmitting the generated reference point controller membership to the reference point controller candidate. Accordingly, even when an error occurs in the reference point controller, the function of the reference point controller can be rapidly replaced by using the reference point controller candidate.
US08676859B2
One embodiments of the present invention is directed to a data-analysis system, implemented as one or more electronic computers that execute one or more computer programs. The data-analysis system includes a metadata-extraction component that extracts indications of data entities and relationships between data entities from data stored on one or more electronic-memory and mass-storage devices, a relationship-inference component that analyzes the data to infer additional relationships between data entities, a context-determination component that determines one or more contexts within which the data is analyzed, and a navigational analysis tool, displayed on a computer device, that provides an interface that allows for navigation between relationship-interconnected data entities within each of one or more contexts, for viewing representations of data entities and relationships, and for editing and updating the relationships.
US08676858B2
Methods and apparatus teach a digital spectrum of a file. The digital spectrum is used to map a file's position in a multi-dimensional space. This position relative to another file's position reveals distances between the files. Closest files can be grouped together. When contemplating voluminous numbers of files for digital spectrums, various methods include: concatenating all such files together to get a single key useful for creating a file's spectrum; or compressing files individually and combining their collective dictionaries into a single dictionary that defines the digital spectrum. Each provides advantage over the other. The latter consumes considerably less run time because each compression event can be distributed to a separate processor. Method two provides better spectrums because it is more “informationally” valid than is method one.
US08676857B1
A graph database storage system contains a graph database that has multiple graph nodes. A first pointer points from a particular graph node to a particular synthetic context event node in a synthetic context event database. A second pointer points from the particular synthetic context event node in the synthetic context event database to a particular data store in a data structure, such that the first pointer and the second pointer associate the particular data store with the particular entity represented in the graph database via the particular synthetic context event node.
US08676856B2
A method for generating a model of a physical entity, in particular the earth, using one or more hierarchically organized multi-resolutional data trees T, each data tree including a plurality of nodes Nk, each node having a grid with a fixed number of points, wherein each node can store an arbitrary number of data items, each holding scalar field values for each point in the grid, the method including the steps of creating a geometry using one or more data trees; and creating an associated overlay using one or more data trees, wherein at least one of the geometry and overlay includes a formula to be applied to data within one or more data trees. This enables manipulation of the data within the data trees during rendering and increases the adaptability of the model without an increase in the required memory space. In preferred embodiments the nodes of the data trees include time dependent geo-references to allow the data trees to be time rotated.
US08676854B2
A computer implemented method and system presents search result or other data generated in response to a request by a user. The search results are formed of one or more items. The invention system corresponds each item to a respective person. A screen view is generated showing a hierarchy of people including the people corresponding to the items of the search results. Indicated in the screen view is the extent of connectedness between the user and the people corresponding to the items of the search results. The invention system displays indications of the items of the search results in the screen view in a manner illustrating the items in context of the shown hierarchy. This enables a user to (i) easily and readily assign respective confidence levels to items of the search results, and to (ii) determine relationships among people without explicitly requesting the information from others.
US08676853B2
A method and system are presented for accessing existing software. The method includes maintaining a library of software profiles, creating a new software profile to be searched against the library, searching the library to locate profiles similar to the new software profile, and identifying existing software associated with such similar profiles. An exemplary system embodiment of the present invention includes a library of software profiles and associated software, a search engine or process, an interface which accepts user formulated desired software profiles and outputs software located in the search. In operation, a search engine finds software profiles similar to a user formulated desired software profile and the interface outputs software associated with such similar software profiles. In preferred exemplary embodiments, searching the library is accomplished via Case-Based Reasoning, where a similarity score between software profiles is a function of “matching” and “non-matching” weights for profile field values, and also accounts for “synonymal matching weights” which are managed by a synonyms table.
US08676852B2
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for selecting database items from a database, where the database items are indexed by a list of item identifiers. The item identifiers may be in the form of text. An initial display is generated which includes one or more parts of the item identifiers. Selection of the one or more parts may be made and results in the generation of a display of a further one or more parts for selection. The further one or more parts may be selected in order to add to the selected one or more parts to build a larger part or whole of an item identifier. Selection from a large list of item identifiers may be carried out in a relatively short time period.
US08676851B1
A method of executing a transaction in a distributed storage system includes, for data chunks of a read set of the transaction, reading data of the data chunks of the read set through remote direct memory access and determining a validity of the read data by evaluating a version and a lock of each data chunk of the read set. For data chunks of a write set of the transaction, the method includes setting locks on the data chunks of the write set, writing data to the locked data chunks through remote direct memory access, releasing the locks of the locked data chunks, and incrementing a version number of each released data chunk.
US08676848B2
A method, system, and program product for identifying cloud resources are provided, and further a method, system, and program product for configuring cloud resources are provided. The method for identifying cloud resources may include receiving a request with respect to at least one resource in a cloud and determining a set of resources among the at least one resource in the cloud in accordance with the received request. Determining the set of resources may include consulting an ontology including metadata associated with the at least one resource in the cloud and computing the set of resources based on the metadata and the received request. Additionally, the method may include computing a cost factor with respect to the determined set of resources. Furthermore, the method may include rendering, in response to the received request, the determined set of resources and the cost factor with respect to the determined set of resources.
US08676846B2
Methods for providing a generic database security application using virtual private database (VPD) functionality are provided. The methods may include inserting rows into a user security table in a database providing VPD functionality, each row comprising a user ID for which database access is to be controlled, the name of a database object to be secured, and a predicate; and defining a security policy function common to all secured database objects, said security policy function generating a second predicate to be appended by the database's VPD functionality to queries made on a queried secured database object by a querying user, said second predicate based on at least one predicate in at least one row in the user security table, the at least one row referencing the name of the queried secured database object and the user ID of the querying user. Related systems and computer program products are also provided.
US08676845B2
A method, system and computer-readable medium for controlling access to a relational database is presented. The method includes: defining and creating a plurality of entitlement tables, wherein the entitlement tables are usable by multiple relational databases; receiving a request, from a user, for access to requested data in a relational database, wherein the user is identified by a user identifier that is set by a relational database program; and determining if the user is authorized to access the requested data by comparing the user identifier with an entry in an entitlement table that is associated with the requested data in the relational database, wherein the entitlement table defines which data classifications are authorized to be accessed by the user. The plurality of entitlement tables may have a priority hierarchy, wherein the priority hierarchy defines a higher priority entitlement table as being dominant to a lower priority entitlement table.
US08676842B2
Provided are techniques for creating a unique class of Mbean in which a “parent” Mbean generates and manages multiple “child” Mbeans. When a user requests the functionality of a particular Mbean, a specific type of Mbean, or parent Mbean, is called. The parent Mbean is a factory method that, rather than executing the request, generates a child Mbean to execute the request. The child Mbean is assigned a name that distinguishes the child from other children of the same parent and the process that called the parent is provided with the name. In this manner, the calling process may use the assigned name to access the specific child Mbean for future requests and the child Mbean is employed to store client state information.
US08676832B2
The invention relates to a system (100) for retrieving a volumetric image data subset comprised in a data storage (105) of volumetric image data sets, the system comprising: a first query unit (111; 113) for composing a first query for searching the data storage (105) for a volumetric image data set comprising the volumetric image data subset; a second query unit (112; 113) for composing a second query for searching the volumetric image data set for the volumetric image data subset, the second query comprising anatomical structure information for identifying an anatomical structure within the volumetric image data set; a first determination unit (121; 123) for determining the volumetric image data set, based on the first query; a second determination unit (122; 123) for determining the volumetric image data subset of the volumetric image data set, based on the anatomical structure identified within the volumetric image data set, using the anatomical structure information comprised in the second query; and a retrieval unit (125) for retrieving the determined volumetric image data subset. The system is thus capable of retrieving a reduced amount of data describing the anatomical structure, i.e. a subset of a volumetric image data set.
US08676830B2
A computer implemented method of generating keyword recommendations is provided, which includes providing keyword frequency data in computer readable media that indicate frequency counts of keywords used in past internet searches; providing keyword affinity data in computer readable media that indicate affinities between pairs of keywords used in past user internet searches; identifying keywords from the keyword frequency data that include the selected keyword; identifying keywords from the keyword affinity data that have an affinity to the selected keyword; and prioritizing the identified keywords based upon the keyword frequency.
US08676828B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media are provided. An example method includes receiving user input in a control, for example, one associated with a search engine. The user input includes a series of input characters that when completed would form a completed user request. The method further includes, while receiving the user input, evaluating the characters to identify completions for the completed request. The method further includes identifying, by one or more processors, a content item associated with the one or more completions and identifying display data associated with the content item for transmission to the user along with one or more completions in response to receiving the user input.
US08676826B2
The embodiments provide for automatic incremental learning of programming language grammar. A corpus (i.e., a text file of software code written in a particular programming language) is parsed based on a set of grammar rules. An unparsed statement from the corpus is identified along with a section thereof, which did not match any of the grammar rules in the set. A subset of the set of grammar rules at fault for the parsing failure is identified. Groups of new grammar rules are developed such that each group comprises at least one new grammar rule, such that each group can parse the unparsed statement, and such that each new grammar rule is a modification of grammar rule(s) in the subset. One specific group can then be selected for possible incorporation into the set of grammar rules. Optionally, before a specific group is selected, the groups can be heuristically pruned and/or ranked.
US08676823B2
A system and method for efficiently and intelligently matching student enrollment records is disclosed. The method may be used, for example, to track student progress from secondary to postsecondary institutions and generate statistics about aggregate college enrollment rates to inform policy decisions. In exemplary embodiments, the matching algorithm accounts for common variations in student names and geographical distances between secondary institutions and the student's current known address to generate higher confidence matches.
US08676822B2
There is provided a system and method for quality assured media file storage. There is provided a method for use by a processor to verify quality of a new media file by transcoding a master media file into a first media file, determining a quality of the first media file, applying a first quality assurance scheme to the first media file for an assured quality, calculating a first hash value using a hash function for the first media file, storing the first hash value in a memory, transcoding the master media file into a new media file, calculating a test hash value using the hash function for the new media file, and searching the memory for the test hash value to decide whether the new media file has the assured quality, without having to apply the first quality assurance scheme again to the new media file.
US08676820B2
A method for processing a search query according to one embodiment includes receiving a search query containing terms; combining at least some consecutive terms in the search query to create biwords; looking up at least some of the terms and biwords in a search index for identifying sections of documents containing the at least some of the terms and/or biwords; generating a content score for each of the identified sections based at least in part on a number of the terms and biwords found in the sections of each document, wherein the biwords are given a higher priority than matched terms, wherein the priority affects the content score; and selecting and outputting an indicator of at least one of the sections, or portion thereof, based at least in part on the content score.
US08676814B2
Face-containing images within web pages are automatically annotated to identify the people having those faces. The annotation is based on faces detected in the images and named entities detected in text associated with the images. Each candidate named entity may be scored by the prominence of the named entity in the text relative to the other extracted named entities. Queries are sent to a search engine based on the extracted candidate named entities. Sample images are returned. Face similarity calculations may be computed based on the featured faces and sample faces detected in the search engine-returned sample images to associate a probability score between each featured face and each candidate named entity. A bipartite matching instance may be solved to arrive at a maximum likelihood assignment of named entities to featured faces.
US08676801B2
Computer-implemented systems and methods are provided for processing a multi-dimensional data structure. For example, systems and methods are provided for processing the multi-dimensional data structure and allowing cell selection rules related to the multi-dimensional data structure to be resolved efficiently, so that computational cost associated with processing the multi-dimensional data structure can be saved.
US08676797B2
A method of adding web-based content to a web notebook can include producing multiple search results responsive to a search request; generating in the multiple search results multiple corresponding icons, each of which, when invoked, causes content associated with a corresponding search result in the multiple search results to be placed in a web notebook associated with a user account; and forming a correlation between one of the multiple search results and the web notebook.
US08676795B1
A plurality of phrases may be extracted from documents associated with one or more document sources. The plurality of phrases may be filtered and processed to determine a frequency in which the plurality of phrases appear in the documents and/or a number of the document sources in which each phrase appears. A weight may be assigned to each of the phrases and, based at least in part on the assigned weight, a visual representation of the plurality of phrases may be presented. The visual representation may be dynamically updated based at least in part on an updated frequency or an updated total number of document sources associated with any one of the plurality of phrases.
US08676788B2
Provided are techniques for processing structured content within Large Object (LOB) data that is stored in a column of a database table. Structural metadata describing structures that each define a different format of the structured content is stored. A request for data in the database table is received. The structural metadata is used to create an empty result set with columns defined by at least two of the structures. For each row of data in the database table that includes LOB data, control data is used to identify one of the structures to be applied to the structured content within the LOB data stored in that row of data, and the structured content within the LOB data in that row of data is mapped to the columns in the result set based on the identified one of the structures. The result set is returned.
US08676781B1
A method and system for associating an advertisement with a web page are disclosed. Web pages associated with potential queries may be identified using a search engine. A mapping operation may be performed to obtain a map of the web pages as a function of the potential queries. A reverse mapping operation may be performed to obtain a grouping of potential queries as a function of one of the web pages. An active query may be selected from the grouping of potential queries to provide to an advertising service to associate an advertisement with the web page.
US08676778B2
Methods and apparatus for electronically publishing information on a computer network are disclosed. A computer connected to a computer network is provided to host a database. The computer is configured receive a request from a user to electronically publish information on the computer network. The computer then may accept and store input from the user in a database. The computer may then electronically publish the user input by making information stored in the database freely accessible on the computer network.
US08676776B2
A system and a method are disclosed for multi-prefix, interactive search capability on a mobile communications device. A keystroke is input into a search query field of a landing page and a multi-prefix search is performed. The landing page is refreshed to display the results. The landing page displays a first tier of search results, which can include channels or links to web pages associated with the user input. If the search result that is selected is a channel, the channel is displayed. If the search result that is selected is a web page, the web page is displayed. The landing page corresponding to the selected channel, or to the web page, may then be searched or explored. If the desired channel is not displayed within the first tier of search results, another keystroke may be input. The landing page refreshes accordingly and additional keystrokes may be entered.
US08676771B2
A system and method for maintaining version information. An identifier (“ID”) that identifies a collection of associated files is obtained. An index is generated that specifies the contents of the collection of associated files. The ID may be saved along with the index in a target version file to convey version information about the collection of associated files. Subsequently, the index may be extracted from the target version file to compare with a corresponding index extracted from a reference version file. The result of the comparison may be used to determine whether the contents of the collection of associated files match a reference.
US08676767B2
A data file comprising a plurality of blocks of data may have two or more versions. The meaning of the data file is insensitive to the ordering of the blocks of data within the data file. Updates to the data file may be identified by providing each of said plurality of blocks of data with a first checksum and each of said versions of the data file with a second checksum of the said version of the data file as a whole. The second checksum of the first version of the data file is compared with the second checksum of the second version of the data file. If the comparison indicates that the second checksums of the first and second versions of the data file differ, then the first checksums of each of said plurality of blocks of data of the first and second versions of the data file are compared and an indication is provided of which of the plurality of blocks of data differs between the first and second versions of the data file.
US08676761B1
A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for efficiently backing up information are disclosed. In some embodiments, a source is analyzed, the source profile is generated based on the analysis, the source profile is then associated with a source image, and the source profile is stored in a storage device. In some embodiments, the source profile is stored in a source profile database. In some embodiments, the source image may be modified based on the source profile. The source image may have software components removed.
US08676760B2
A method, computer program product and system for maintaining data integrity of multiple copies of a piece of data in data servers of multiple data centers, includes maintaining a cluster of catalog servers, where one of the catalog servers is selected as the master catalog server, storing the piece of data in a primary data server chosen from the data servers, duplicating the piece of data to one or more backup data servers chosen from the data servers, recording a data state information to the master catalog server, duplicating the data state information to the cluster of catalog servers, and updating the data servers and the cluster of catalog servers when the primary data server fails.
US08676751B2
Described are systems and methods for communicating between a primary database and a standby database of a high availability data recovery (HADR) system. A plurality of primary partitions in a primary database and a plurality of standby partitions in a standby database are configured to communicate with each other. A transition of the plurality of primary partitions from a first HADR state to a second HADR state is synchronized.
US08676740B2
An attribute estimation system and a method in which there are no cases that the estimation accuracy declines in a specific numerical value area, and an age estimation system, a gender estimation system and an age and gender estimation system using this is provided.It is a system to estimate an age of a person photographed in an input image, the system including: a classifier 3 that estimates the age of a person as a discrete quantity based on data of an input image; a classifier 4 that estimates the age of a person as a continuous quantity based on data of an input image; and an integration unit 7 that integrates an estimated result of the classifier 3 and an estimated result of the classifier 4.
US08676738B2
For a group of elements defined with a first relationship between elements stored in a first data memory unit and a second relationship therebetween different from the first relationship stored in a second data memory unit, a relationship detector includes a first distance calculating unit that calculates a predetermined first distance between the two elements belonging to the group in the first relationship, a second distance calculating unit that calculates a predetermined second distance between the two elements belonging to the group in the second relationship, and an unpredictability calculating unit that calculates a dissociation level between the first distance and the second distance between the two elements belonging to the group through a predetermined rule.
US08676737B2
A missing case of a fixed scope can be detected among a plurality of business rules of unrestricted forms. According to one or more embodiments, the described detecting includes building a rules inhibition graph for the plurality of business rules representing a constraint model comprising a plurality of nodes and describing a plurality of cases which make the plurality of business rules non-applicable; labeling the rules inhibition graph with values satisfying constraints of the constraint model by search and inference, and determining a missing case when a consistent labeling satisfying the constraints of the constraint model is obtained. Using one or more of the described embodiments missing cases which may result from unforeseen interactions of overlapping tests over an a priori unknown number of attributes among arbitrary business rules may be detected.
US08676733B2
Object recognition techniques are disclosed that provide both accuracy and speed. One embodiment of the present invention is an identification system. The system is capable of locating objects in images by searching for local features of an object. The system can operate in real-time. The system is trained from a set of images of an object or objects. The system computes interest points in the training images, and then extracts local image features (tokens) around these interest points. The set of tokens from the training images is then used to build a hierarchical model structure. During identification/detection, the system computes interest points from incoming target images. The system matches tokens around these interest points with the tokens in the hierarchical model. Each successfully matched image token votes for an object hypothesis at a certain scale, location, and orientation in the target image. Object hypotheses that receive insufficient votes are rejected.
US08676728B1
The location of a sound within a given spatial volume may be used in applications such as augmented reality environments. An artificial neural network processes time-difference-of-arrival data (TDOA) from a known microphone array to determine a spatial location of the sound. The neural network may be located locally or available as a cloud service. The artificial neural network is trained with perturbed and non-perturbed TDOA data.
US08676726B2
A system and method for automated variable creation for adaptive fraud analytics are disclosed. A data structure for creation of rules is generated. The data structure represents nodes and associations between nodes from inputs for fraud/non-fraud conditions, and is generated from fraud and non-fraud data collected in an adaptive modeling process from past transactions. All unique paths between nodes of the data structure are determined to define a rule for each path. Each rule is then converted to a binary indicator variable to generate a set of binary indicator variables, and one or more complex variables is derived from the set of binary indicator variables. The one or more binary indicator variables and one or more complex variables can be provided to an adaptive scoring engine to score new transactions or to predict future behaviors.
US08676720B1
The present invention allows multiple parties to collaborate on managing the content of an electronic catalog. In one embodiment, the invention can include receiving at a hub records from a first source, receiving at the hub updates of the records from a second source, and transferring the updated records to the first source. In another embodiment, the invention can include transferring to a hub records having information related to items in an electronic catalog and receiving updates of the records from the hub.
US08676719B2
The present disclosure relates to a system for collecting and providing information on loaded/empty status of vehicles, which gathers loaded and empty vehicle information via the Internet and then provides shipping arrangement agencies in various regions information on freight for which a vehicle has not been dispatched and information on empty vehicles, from information collected on loaded and empty vehicles. Accordingly, multilevel procurement for freight is avoided, and freight can be delivered to a destination in a timely manner as requested by a merchant, which reduces freight transport charges and procurement fees.
US08676717B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a renege reducing hiring method. Other embodiments of the present invention provide a renege factor evaluation method. Other embodiments of the present invention provide an organizational renege reduction method. Other embodiments of the present invention provide a candidate renege prediction method in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. An still other embodiments of the present invention provide a psychometric analysis tool for predicting the renege rate.
US08676706B2
Embodiments of the invention relate to systems, methods, and computer program products for maintaining an updated check register in connection with an online banking account of a payor that tracks pending check payments using check imaging technology. Some embodiments of the present invention provide a computer-implemented method including the following steps: receiving an image of at least a portion of a paper check, wherein the portion comprises an indication of an amount of money to be drawn on a financial account, processing the image to determine the amount, identifying the financial account, and recording the amount in connection with the financial account, wherein the recording step occurs prior to receiving any indication that the check has been presented for payment. In addition, the method may also include making the financial account with an indication of the pending payment available to be viewed by the payor.
US08676705B1
The communication device comprising a voice communicating implementer, an incoming communication ID implementer, a payment monetary value data transmitting implementer, a remaining monetary value data updating implementer, an automated supplementary monetary value data adding implementer, and a simultaneous implementation implementer.
US08676700B2
A bulk deposit can be made at a financial institution based on dealings between a remitter and the remitter's agent. Information concerning transactions between the agent and the agent's customers, is transferred by the agent to the remitter and, in turn, from the remitter to a service provider that is distinct from the agent, the remitter, and the remitter's bank. The service provider can generate a deposit slip and store in a database, information about the slip. This deposit slip is marked with (a) transaction amounts for the agent's customers, (b) the bulk cash to be deposited; and (c) a summary of any discrepancy between the two. The provider makes available to the financial institution at least some of the transaction information including (a) its correlation to the deposit slip, and (b) detail greater than that produced on the deposit slip.
US08676699B2
Methods and systems for risk monitoring and reporting impacts of credit ratings on rated legal entities are provided. In a method of reporting an impact of credit ratings on a rated legal entity, a plurality of credit rating terms related to a rated legal entity are converted to at least one logical trigger comprising one or more logical expressions. The credit rating terms may impact performance of a legal right or obligation associated with the rated legal entity. The trigger(s) are stored in a computer database. At least one trigger is retrieved from the database. A status for one of the retrieved triggers is evaluated based on predetermined values of the logical expression(s) of the retrieved trigger. Status information for at least one rated legal entity is displayed based on the evaluated status of the retrieved trigger(s).
US08676697B2
Trading software may receive trading information from an exchange. The trading software may use the trading information to compute an estimate of last traded total sweep quantity. The trading software may also display the last traded total sweep quantity on a trading screen.
US08676688B2
In one aspect, the invention comprises a method comprising issuing perpetual preferred securities that provide non-cumulative dividends with a fixed liquidation preference; wherein valuation of the securities upon redemption or conversion is based on market value of a specified number of common shares, and wherein the securities are operable to receive treasury stock method accounting. In various embodiments: (1) the securities receive C or D Basket treatment from Moody's; (2) the securities receive treasury stock method accounting because, upon conversion or redemption, common shares are issued only with respect to the valuation of the securities in excess of the fixed liquidation preference; and (3) upon conversion or redemption the number of common shares is equal to (A×B−C)/B, where A=a conversion rate, B=price per share of the common shares, and C=the fixed liquidation preference.
US08676674B2
This relates to transferring funds from a payer to a payee in a electronic payment system. The electronic payment system includes a payment processor and an accounts database. The payment processor receives a payment request from the payer. The payment request includes information to identify the payee and a payment amount. An accounts database is accessed to determine if the accounts database includes an account associated with the payee. Based on a determination that the accounts database includes an account associated with the payee, an electronic message is sent from the payment processor to the payee, to notify the payee of the payment request. The accounts database is accessed to determine if the payee is identified as having a trusted relationship with the payer.
US08676663B1
Method, system, and computer program product embodiments are disclosed for providing recommendations to hospitality customers. Defining steps include establishing a connection with a customer's mobile device, obtaining information about the location of the customer's mobile device, determining recommended goods or services currently offered by one or more business locations, and outputting for display on the customer's mobile device a listing of the recommended goods or services navigable by category or subcategory.
US08676657B2
A method and system of updating an electronic shopping list (ESL) indicating items that may be purchased in response to detecting, by a wireless device having access to the ESL, a service request event corresponding to an asset. Upon detection of the service request event, a service request item may be inserted into the ESL. The asset may be queried from time to time to verify operation of the asset. The items listed in the ESL may be ordered according to a date the service request event was detected.
US08676656B2
A method of demonstrating a household appliance by executing a demonstration software to cause demonstration of at least one component of the appliance and to display related information on a user interface of the appliance by a multimedia program.
US08676654B2
A transaction system and method is provided for enabling potential buyers to purchase goods through reverse on-line auction process. The transaction system is configured to automatically receive periodic uploads of information regarding goods for sale by suppliers and to store this information in a database. A potential buyer can login to the transaction system and submit searches for goods based on a variety of parameters which may include condition, warranty, and revision. The potential buyer also submits an offer price for each requested item. The transaction system queries the database to determine if the requested goods are available. The transaction system selects the vendor so as to maximize the sales margin and then determines whether the buyer's offer can be accepted based on predetermined margin requirements. If the buyer's offer can be accepted, the system generates an acceptance to the offer from the buyer and generates a purchase order to the selected supplier.
US08676652B1
In a method for sending a counter-offer in response to receiving an indication about a point-of-sale transaction, a computer receives from a point-of-sale program a point-of-sale transaction and an indication that the point-of-sale transaction is to be paid for utilizing a first payment option and is to be recorded using a second payment option. The computer determines that a counter-offer is appropriate. The counter-offer includes a request that the point-of-sale transaction be paid for utilizing the second payment option. The computer sends to the point-of-sale program the counter-offer.
US08676651B2
Systems and methods for dynamically sizing, structuring and operating advertisements that include a variety of content, including interaction prompts and other elements, which enable an engagement-based revenue generation model. According to one embodiment, a computer implemented method comprises storing advertising content, serving an XML file from an advertising server to an advertisement manager in order to control a player on a user computer, dynamically generating the advertisement through the player based on directions from the advertisement manager and the stored content, and tracking and reporting a user's engagement with the advertisement in order to determine compensation for the publisher.
US08676641B2
An online reward exchange system and method of operation, which includes an exchange computer that interoperates via a computer network with user computers, reward point issuer computers, and merchant computers. The merchants' products may be purchased by a user by requesting an issuer(s) to redeem reward points in exchange for payment to the merchant for the product. The exchange computer is the gateway to the system and manages various transactions such as providing online product catalogs to users that list the merchants products, as well as displaying to the user the reward points he has available in his reward programs with the issuers. Once a user selects a desired product the exchange computer can mediate or manage the purchase transaction in which reward points are redeemed by the selected issuer and consideration is conveyed to the merchant in exchange for the merchant providing the product to the user.
US08676637B2
Methods of detecting potential click fraud are provided in which information relating to a click on an Internet advertisement is received. A measured location of a source of the click is also received. The source of the click may be identified as potentially fraudulent based at least in part on the received information and the measured location of the source. Methods of identifying potentially fraudulent activations of Internet advertisements and related systems and computer program products are also provided.
US08676630B2
A characteristic forecasting system is disclosed. The characteristic forecasting system may have a memory module and a processor. The memory module may store instructions, that, when executed, enable the processor to generate forecast data for a target item based on historical data related to the target item, the forecast data representing a forecast for characteristics of the target item. The processor may also be enabled to analyze a subset of the historical data within an observation window to determine whether the forecast data should be updated with new forecast data and generate the new forecast data for the target item responsive to a determination that the forecast data should be updated with the new forecast data.
US08676625B2
A reception management system for handling transactions includes a plurality of ACMs (Automated Contract/Consulting Terminals) for receiving procedure requests for predetermined transactions from customers, a plurality of ROTs (Remote Operation Terminals) to be employed by an operator for handling the procedure requests, a server for storing information for managing the operators for each transaction skill, and information about queues formed for each transaction skill upon a procedure request accepted from an ACM, and a queue monitoring terminal for monitoring the queues by receiving information from the SACD server.
US08676624B2
A method may include defining an avatar as information related to at least one of communication, skills, responsibilities, experience, physical location, availability, workload, or history of work success. The avatar may be registered in an enterprise and interaction with a service may occur based on the information defining the avatar.
US08676616B2
An improved processing system for tracking commerce on the Internet provides for subvariable processing and includes web page scanning to discern fraud or improper content to insure proper promotion of select products within the network environment.
US08676612B2
A method and computerized system is disclosed for managing the underwriting, quoting and binding an insurance policy with regard to the technology used to militate against the financial consequences of property losses. The invention utilizes a classifier for categorizing and weighing risk, composed of data representing in an identified building, a first unmitigated insurance risk and a second insurance risk, based upon the use of certain technology. A plurality of such weights are summed such that the weights generate a minimized risk for a building structure under consideration. Combinations of technologies employed in building structures are mapped to classifications, which then permits an underwriter to establish a premium. In another aspect of the invention, data structures representing the quantification of risk reduction attendant a given technology or product are chained into a plurality of decision trees that process a construction phase and a pruning phase.
US08676602B2
A computerized method of providing patient treatment values in real time, including the steps of providing a computer database having a plurality of predetermined patient selection criteria, patient condition categories, and drug selection, dosing values and related information, and providing an input device in communication with the computer database for inputting one or more of the patient selection criteria, patient condition categories and drug selection and dosing values and related information. A computer display in communication with the computer database and the input device is provided for displaying precalculated dosing values based on one or more inputted patient selection criteria, patient condition categories and dosing values and related information. One or more of the patient selection criteria, patient condition categories and treatment type is input by the input device into the computerized database provided in step (a) and associating a unique identifier with the inputted information. An appropriate drug dose is determined by the computer database, based on one or more of the patient selection criteria, patient condition categories and drug dosage values. The unique identifier is then used to communicate the appropriate drug dosage for administration to the patient.
US08676594B2
A rating server is provided with: a rating acquisition unit configured to acquire, from a user who purchased content sold in a plurality of types of sales modes, a rating for the content; a rating collection unit configured to determine, by collecting the rating given by a user on the content having the same title, the degree of the rating for the content based on a title regardless of a difference or a similarity in a sales mode of the content purchased by the user; and a rating information providing unit configured to provide, to an external apparatus, the degree of the rating for the content based on the title as a result of the rating for the content by the user.
US08676593B2
Methods and systems for controlling a geographic region of data in cloud computing are described. A method implemented in a computer infrastructure including a combination of hardware and software includes: receiving a request from a local computing device to save data on a network including a plurality of data storage locations in a plurality of different geographic regions; determining a specified geographic region of the plurality of different geographic regions by analyzing at least one of: (i) file attributes associated with the data, and (ii) predefined rules; identifying one of the plurality of data storage locations within the specified geographic region based on the determining step; and routing the data to the identified one of the plurality of data storage locations within the specified geographic region.
US08676591B1
An audio receiving system includes logic configured to reduce the accumulation of delays caused by the late arrival of audio packets. This logic is configured to accelerate or decelerate presentation of a resulting audio stream in response to the detection of late packets. The acceleration is discontinued once the effects of the late packets have been compensated for. The audio receiving system is typically applied to applications in which lag is undesirable. These can include web conferencing, telepresence, and online video games.
US08676587B1
Computerized apparatus and methods for obtaining and displaying information, such as for example directions to a desired entity or organization. In one embodiment, the computerized apparatus is configured to receive user speech input and enable local performance of various tasks, such as obtaining desired information relating to entities, maps or directions, or any number of other topics. The obtained data may also, in various variants, be displayed in various formats and relative to other entities nearby.
US08676583B2
An action is performed in a spoken dialog system in response to a user's spoken utterance. A policy which maps belief states of user intent to actions is retrieved or created. A belief state is determined based on the spoken utterance, and an action is selected based on the determined belief state and the policy. The action is performed, and in one embodiment, involves requesting clarification of the spoken utterance from the user. Creating a policy may involve simulating user inputs and spoken dialog system interactions, and modifying policy parameters iteratively until a policy threshold is satisfied. In one embodiment, a belief state is determined by converting the spoken utterance into text, assigning the text to one or more dialog slots associated with nodes in a probabilistic ontology tree (POT), and determining a joint probability based on probability distribution tables in the POT and on the dialog slot assignments.
US08676581B2
Embodiments are disclosed that relate to the use of identity information to help avoid the occurrence of false positive speech recognition events in a speech recognition system. One embodiment provides a method comprising receiving speech recognition data comprising a recognized speech segment, acoustic locational data related to a location of origin of the recognized speech segment as determined via signals from the microphone array, and confidence data comprising a recognition confidence value, and also receiving image data comprising visual locational information related to a location of each person in an image. The acoustic locational data is compared to the visual locational data to determine whether the recognized speech segment originated from a person in the field of view of the image sensor, and the confidence data is adjusted depending on this determination.
US08676577B2
A method of utilizing metadata stored in a computer-readable medium to assist in the conversion of an audio stream to a text stream. The method compares personally identifiable data, such as a user's electronic address book and/or Caller/Recipient ID information (in the case of processing voice mail to text), to the n-best results generated by a speech recognition engine for each word that is output by the engine. A goal of this comparison is to correct a possible misrecognition of a spoken proper noun such as a name or company with its proper textual form or a spoken phone number to correctly formatted phone number with Arabic numerals to improve the overall accuracy of the output of the voice recognition system.
US08676573B2
A method and apparatus for decoding portions of a data stream, wherein each portion comprises a plurality of samples. The method comprises storing portions of the data stream, decoding portions of the data stream to form decoded portions, and storing the decoded portions. The method further comprises identifying that a portion of the data stream is degraded. Following identifying that a portion of the data stream is degraded, the method generates a decoded portion for the degraded portion of the data stream using the stored decoded portions. The method also updates a state of a decoder by: estimating a pitch period of the degraded portion; selecting a group of successive samples of the stored portions of the data stream, the group of successive samples offset from the degraded portion in the data stream by a multiple of the estimated pitch period; and decoding the selected samples at the decoder.
US08676571B2
An audio signal processing system including a time-frequency conversion unit which converts an audio signal in time domain into frequency domain in frame units so as to calculate a frequency spectrum of the audio signal, a spectral change calculation unit which calculates an amount of change between a frequency spectrum of a first frame and a frequency spectrum of a second frame before the first frame based on the frequency spectrum of the first frame and the frequency spectrum of the second frame, and a judgment unit which judges the type of the noise which is included in the audio signal of the first frame in accordance with the amount of spectral change.
US08676569B2
An error concealment method and apparatus for an audio signal and a decoding method and apparatus for an audio signal using the error concealment method and apparatus. The error concealment method includes selecting one of an error concealment in a frequency domain and an error concealment in a time domain as an error concealment scheme for a current frame based on a predetermined criteria when an error occurs in the current frame, selecting one of a repetition scheme and an interpolation scheme in the frequency domain as the error concealment scheme for the current frame based on a predetermined criteria when the error concealment in the frequency domain is selected, and concealing the error of the current frame using the selected scheme.
US08676562B2
An input unit inputs a drawing information based on a first language on a display by at least one of a plurality of users each locating at predetermined position relative to the display. A conversion unit converts the drawing information based on the first language to an information based on a second language. A control unit presents the information based on the second language on the display according to a location of another user of the plurality of users as a person to present the information based on the second language.
US08676560B2
In a normal operation, a physical unit simulator is allowed to speculatively perform high-speed continuous execution. Only when an actual input comes in, a speculative input and the actual input are compared with each other. Thereafter, in response to inconsistency between the inputs, the physical unit simulator is returned to a point closest to the point of the actual input and is allowed to execute a variable step module to reach the point of the actual input. Upon arrival at the point of the actual input, the simulator is shifted back to the high-speed continuous execution from there. Thus, a processing speed of the simulator can be significantly improved.
US08676559B2
A system and method for providing schematic reviews is provided. The method includes providing a schematic design, selecting a signal, where the signal is a graphical representation, previewing the signal, obtaining relevant information on components constituting the signal, and controlling the signal to obtain relevant information on the components. Controlling the signal comprises activating a link to a data compilation related to the signal component, and activating the data compilation comprises creating a link to a datasheet. The graphic representation of the signal comprises providing a block diagram overview of connectivity of the signal components and the graphical representation comprises a graphical three dimensional model, and providing a log database that includes review information provided by multiple reviewers and is accessible by the reviewers. A notation medium is provided for the reviewers for communication between the reviewers.
US08676556B2
A hydrocarbon exploration method is disclosed for developing a model of at least one effective material property of a subsurface reservoir as a function of the composition and structure of the reservoir rock. In one embodiment, the method comprises: obtaining a 3D image (102) of a rock sample characteristic of a reservoir of interest (101); segmenting the 3D image into compositional classes (103) based on similarities in mineralogy, structure and spatial distribution; selecting a model (105) that relates an effective material property of interest to the volume fractions of each compositional class; and determining the parameters of the model (106). The model may be used to assess the commercial potential of the subsurface reservoir (107).
US08676555B2
System and method for extraction and processing of river bank coordinates from imagery, generation of an unstructured mesh of the river using river bank positions and available or synthetic bathymetry, application of upstream and downstream boundary forcing data, contingencies for handling missing data, and configuration of multiple realizations of the developed river model.
US08676550B1
A system and method are described that model a passive multiplexer, which may be used for a junction of a plurality of signal filters (e.g., radio frequency, microwave, satellite, etc.). Illustratively, based on obtaining parameters for the individual signal filters, an initial resonant frequency offset vector estimation may be calculated and input into a convergence algorithm to determine a set of multiplexer parameters. In particular, the convergence algorithm is generally different from the initial resonant frequency offset vector estimation calculation, and the initial resonant frequency offset vector estimation assists in achieving better (e.g., faster, more frequent) convergence on a set of multiplexer parameters from the convergence algorithm.
US08676546B2
A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide the ability to create a flow-grade solution. In a computer application, a curve from which a slope is to be projected and an elevation field depth buffer, that provides a 2D array with one element for each coordinate, are defined. A slope angle for the slope is specified. As grading shapes are rendered, by sweeping a cone with the slope angle along the curve, a grid is used to capture, into the buffer, an elevation for each vertex of the grid. A flow grade solution represented by the field depth buffer is thus obtained. The flow grade solution includes a path of steepest slope (determined from the elevations stored in the buffer) from any given location in the grid.
US08676544B2
A method for predicting the aerodynamic performance of an aircraft element under predetermined conditions, the aircraft element having at least one break at least partially separating two parts that cannot or should not be modeled with a common envelope form, in which: a digital form representative of the form that the aircraft element assumes under the predetermined conditions studied and in which each break is represented, is created, for each break, a totally non-coincident boundary surface at the joining of the two parts is created, and a partial structured meshing around each part is generated, the two partial meshings made in this way being independent of one another, and digital aerodynamic simulation computations using this meshing are carried out with the aid of an aerodynamic computation code capable of processing a totally non-coincident join.
US08676540B1
Methods are presented for adjusting trigger threshold values to compensate for drift in the quiescent level of a signal monitored for initiating a data recording event, thereby avoiding false triggering conditions. Initial threshold values are periodically adjusted by re-measuring the quiescent signal level, and adjusting the threshold values by an offset computation based upon the measured quiescent signal level drift. Re-computation of the trigger threshold values can be implemented on time based or counter based criteria. Additionally, a qualification width counter can be utilized to implement a requirement that a trigger threshold criterion be met a given number of times prior to initiating a data recording event, further reducing the possibility of a false triggering situation.
US08676534B2
A method for determining the rotation speed of at least one supercharger (14) in an internal combustion engine (1); the method includes detecting, through a microphone (25), the intensity of a sound signal generated by the rotation of the supercharger (14) and determining the evolution of the frequency content of the sound signal over time; determining, completely irrespective of the sound signal, a first estimation of the rotation speed of the supercharger (14) through which an interval of plausible frequencies for the rotation speed of the supercharger (14) may be determined; determining a second estimation of the rotation speed of the supercharger (14) according to the frequency content of the sound signal within the interval of plausible frequencies and validating the second estimation of the rotation speed of the supercharger (14) using the first estimation of the rotation speed of the supercharger (14).
US08676531B2
A measured value for a PMV within a living space is sent to a comfort efficacy evaluating device. Occupancy information (the current number of occupants N) in the living space is sent to the comfort efficacy evaluating device. The comfort efficacy evaluating device calculates a comfort index P as P=1.0−|PMV|/3, and this comfort index P is weighted by the number of occupants N at the time that the comfort index P was taken. In this case, if the number of occupants is relatively high, the weighting is high, and if the number of occupants is relatively low, then the weighting is low. Additionally, the weighted comfort index P is integrated over an evaluation interval, and thus integrated value, or a weighted average based on this integrated value, is used as a comfort efficacy index TP. An evaluation of the efficacy of energy conservation can be performed in the same way, taking into account the current occupancy of the living space.
US08676530B2
A performance testing framework enables multiple components working together to test a deployed application automatically in an unattended manner and to analyze the test results easily. At very high level, the performance testing framework can run performance tests on a tested system with one or more variations without user intervention and save the test results and configuration metadata to a database for later analysis. Each of the variations is composed of a set of logical dimensions and values associated with each of those dimensions to be tested.
US08676522B2
A locator for locating a concealed conductor comprises a first field detector operable to detect an alternating magnetic field along a first axis parallel to a primary axis of the locator; a second field detector, displaced from the first field detector and operable to detect an alternating magnetic field along a second axis parallel to the primary axis of the locator; and a processor operable to calculate a difference between a field detected by the first detector and a field detected by the second detector, and to calculate an indication of the lateral displacement of the concealed conductor from the primary axis of the locator using the difference.
US08676520B2
A method for determining an amount of a liquid energy commodity in storage in an underground cavern generally comprises the steps of: establishing a volume function for a brine pond associated with the underground cavern; acquiring an image of the brine pond; transmitting the acquired image to a central processing facility; analyzing the acquired image to calculate a depth of the brine in the brine pond; estimating the volume of the brine in the brine pond based on the calculated depth and using the volume function; determining the amount of the liquid energy commodity in storage in the underground cavern associated with the brine pond based on the estimated volume of the brine in the brine pond; and communicating information about the amount of the liquid energy commodity in storage to a third-party market participant.
US08676508B2
A method for determining a road profile of a lane located in front of a vehicle via sensed image data (1) and/or sensed inherent vehicle movement data (2). An estimating device (3) is provided, to which the sensed image data (1) and/or the sensed inherent vehicle movement data (2) are supplied. A road elevation profile (P) of the lane located in front of the vehicle is determined via the sensed image data (1) and/or the sensed inherent vehicle movement data (2).
US08676500B1
A method of providing intersection assistance with a portable electronic device to remind a user of traffic rules when the user approaches traffic intersections includes receiving an input from the user indicating a destination location for generating navigation instructions to the destination location, determining a current location of the portable electronic device according to received position signals, providing navigation instructions to the destination location according to the current location of the portable electronic device, and reminding the user of traffic rules related to intersections for a geographical location in which the portable electronic device is currently located when the portable electronic device detects that the portable electronic device is approaching an intersection, where reminding the user of traffic rules related to intersections comprises indicating a side of a second road the user should turn onto when making a turn from a first road onto the second road.
US08676493B2
A system and method of better alarm management is provided. The method includes importing a floor map of a monitored area onto a workstation, configuring the floor map, and generating an optimal guidance route map on the floor map. The optimal guidance route map provides a user with at least one route from the workstation to a designated device in the monitored area.
US08676488B2
A vehicle surrounding monitor device 10 includes a front area millimeter-wave radar 11 to a left dead angle millimeter-wave radar 18 which monitor different areas around a host vehicle 100, a vehicle speed sensor 21 and the like which detect the traveling state of the host vehicle 100, a winker signal sensor 31 which detect the state of a driver, and an obstacle detection method determination ECU 41 which controls the operation of the front area millimeter-wave radar 11 and the like and information processing. The obstacle detection method determination ECU 41 sets priority on the front area millimeter-wave radar 11 and the like on the basis of the traveling state of the host vehicle 100 and the state of the driver detected by the vehicle speed sensor 21, the winker signal sensor 31, and the like, and controls the operation of the front area millimeter-wave radar 11 and the like and the information processing on the basis of the priority. Therefore, control differs between a radar having high priority and a radar having low priority, such that, even when a plurality of radars are used, it becomes possible to monitor the surroundings the host vehicle 100 while reducing the load of a CPU or an in-vehicle LAN.
US08676481B2
The invention relates to a device for assisting in the choice of a diversion airport for an aircraft piloted by a crew (200), said aircraft comprising a flight management system including location means (207) calculating the position of the aircraft, said device comprising a navigation database (202) and a performance database (203) of the aircraft, said device being characterized in that it comprises a company database (201) comprising airports and characteristics of said airports, means (205) of calculating a list of airports, called candidate airports, from the airports in the company database, from the navigation database and from the selected characteristics by the crew, means (204) for calculating remaining flight time and fuel consumption predictions for each of the candidate airports from the position of the aircraft, from weather conditions and from the performance database, and an interface giving the favored airports for diversion according to pre-established criteria or determined in real time using the interface.
US08676479B2
Method and systems are provided for controlling a vehicle system including an engine that is selectively deactivated during engine idle-stop conditions. One example method comprises, adjusting a brake torque applied to a deactivated rotating engine after an engine restart request, the brake torque applied to slow the engine to at least a predetermined threshold speed without stopping the engine, and engaging a starter to the still rotating engine to increase the engine speed and restart the engine.
US08676472B2
An atmospheric pressure estimating apparatus which estimates an atmospheric pressure applied to a calculation of control parameters of an internal combustion engine, is provided. An estimated intake air control valve passing air flow rate is calculated based on the estimated atmospheric pressure, the detected intake pressure, and the detected intake air control valve opening. The estimated atmospheric pressure is updated so that the estimated intake air control valve passing air flow rate coincides with the detected intake air control valve passing air flow rate. The estimated intake air control valve passing air flow rate is calculated using the updated estimated atmospheric pressure. The update of the estimated atmospheric pressure and the calculation of the estimated control valve passing air flow rate are sequentially performed. Consequently, the estimated control valve passing air flow rate follows the intake air flow rate, and the estimated atmospheric pressure follows the atmospheric pressure.
US08676458B2
An automatic clutch control device comprises a clutch interposed between a prime move and an input shaft of a transmission; a target clutch torque calculation section; a gear change control section; an accelerator pressing-down speed detecting section; a judging section for judging whether or not the accelerator pressing-down speed exceeds at least one predetermined pressing-down speed threshold value; a prime mover rotational speed increasing control section operated when the accelerator pressing-down speed exceeds the threshold value, for disconnecting the input shaft and the prime mover and then for controlling the prime mover rotational speed to increase and come to be equal to the input shaft rotational speed which has been increased by a lower speed gear stage having been established; and a target clutch torque change calculation section for calculating a change amount that changes the target clutch torque in dependence on the magnitude of the accelerator pressing-down speed.
US08676447B2
To be configured inexpensively to enable cost reduction and sense sitting posture of an occupant highly accurately, occupant posture sensing apparatus 100 includes capacitance sensor unit 10 and circuit unit 20. Capacitance sensor unit 10 includes first and second sensing electrodes 11 and 12 provided at portions of vehicle interior ceiling 2 ahead of and right above a seat 40 and connected to capacitance sensing circuit 21 of circuit unit 20 and shield-driving circuit 23 through selector switches SW1 and SW2. CPU 29 of circuit unit 20 determines sitting posture of occupant (human body) 48 sitting on the seat 40 based on information regarding position of head 49 of the occupant 48 by using capacitance values detected by capacitance sensing circuit 21 based on capacitances from sensing electrodes 11 and 12. Posture information regarding the determined sitting posture is output to ECU mounted on a vehicle 1 and used for controlling air bag deployment, etc.
US08676446B2
In a control unit for passenger protection and a method for triggering passenger protection devices, a Manchester-coded signal is supplied by an interface and the Manchester-coded signal is decoded by a coding unit, so that an analyzer unit performs the triggering of passenger protection devices as a function of the decoded signal. The decoding unit uses a shift register structure for decoding and oversampling for the Manchester-coded signal.
US08676435B2
Maintaining a dynamic service registry for a self-diagnosing device, including: detecting, by the self-diagnosing device, a fault condition, wherein the fault condition indicates that the self-diagnosing device needs to be serviced; detecting, by the self-diagnosing device, that the fault condition has been resolved; determining, by the self-diagnosing device, the geographic location of the self-diagnosing device upon detecting that the fault condition was resolved; and entering, by the self-diagnosing device, the fault condition and the geographic location of the self-diagnosing device when the fault condition was resolved into the dynamic service registry.
US08676432B2
A vehicle fault diagnosis and prognosis system includes a computing platform configured to receive a classifier from a remote server, the computing platform tangibly embodying computer-executable instructions for evaluating data sequences received from a vehicle control network and applying the classifier to the data sequences, wherein the classifier is configured to determine if the data sequences define a pattern that is associated with a particular fault.
US08676431B1
A vehicle has a plurality of control apparatuses, a user input, a geographic position component, an object detection apparatus, memory, and a display. A processor is also included and is programmed to receive the destination information, identify a route, and determine the current geographic location of the vehicle. The processor is also programmed to identify an object and object type based on object information received from the object detection apparatus and to determine at least one warning characteristic of the identified object based on at least one of: the object type, a detected proximity of the detected object to the vehicle, the location of the detected object relative to predetermined peripheral areas of the vehicle, the current geographic location of the vehicle, and the route. The processor is also configured to select and display on the display an object warning image based on the at least one warning characteristic.
US08676430B1
A vehicle can be controlled in a first autonomous mode of operation by at least navigating the vehicle based on map data. Sensor data can be obtained using one or more sensors of the vehicle. The sensor data can be indicative of an environment of the vehicle. An inadequacy in the map data can be detected by at least comparing the map data to the sensor data. In response to detecting the inadequacy in the map data, the vehicle can be controlled in a second autonomous mode of operation and a user can be prompted to switch to a manual mode of operation. The vehicle can be controlled in the second autonomous mode of operation by at least obtaining additional sensor data using the one or more sensors of the vehicle and navigating the vehicle based on the additional sensor data.
US08676428B2
A system for triggered request for downloaded information from a vehicle-based monitor comprises a transmitter, a receiver, and a processor. The processor is coupled to the transmitter and the receiver. The processor is configured to determine whether it is desired to receive one or more data from a vehicle-based monitor. In the event that it is desired to receive one or more data from the vehicle-based monitor, the processor is configured to provide an indication that it is desired to receive the one or more data from the vehicle-based monitor. The processor is configured to receive the one or more data.
US08676427B1
A method includes receiving, at a computing system, audio data from one or more microphones associated with a vehicle. In one example, the audio data originates from a source external to the vehicle and the vehicle is configured to operate in an autonomous mode. The method also includes processing the audio data to generate directional data related to a direction of the source of the audio data relative to the vehicle and processing the audio data to generate identification data related to an identity of the source of the audio data. Further, the method includes controlling the vehicle in the autonomous mode in response to the directional data and the identification data, using the computing system.
US08676412B2
A boat with several stability and handling design improvements. It has an enhanced reactive suspension system positioned in the vessel between a set of separating hull and body components. The boat also has improved braking, steering and stabilizing systems designed around multiple pivoting mechanisms on the vessel hull that work individually or in unison to achieve the desired braking or steering effect. The stabilizing system is operated by a computerized, gyroscopic hydraulic control to maintain stability and comfort of ride, minimizing the roll, pitch and yaw commonly experienced in the passenger compartment.
US08676411B2
Apparatus and methods for a grade crossing protection system include at least one camera providing surveillance of a grade crossing, the at least one camera coupled to a transmitter configured to transmit a signal that includes imagery of the grade crossing to a transceiver onboard a train. A display unit onboard the train is provided to allow the train operator to view the grade crossing. A control unit in communication with the transceiver is configured to monitor the received signal and, based upon a determined location of the train relative to the train crossing, issue a command to the train's brake system to reduce the speed of the train, or stop the train, before the train reaches the grade crossing.
US08676406B2
In accordance with particular embodiments, a system includes a path creation module configured to create future flight paths for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Each future flight path comprises one or more branch points marking changes in the UAV's flight path. The system also includes a display that is configured to present a graphical user interface that may include a 3D view of a geographic area; flight paths; and a menu of commands. The system also includes a gamepad that may include two thumb-sticks to adjust the displayed geographic area and the perspective of the displayed geographic area. The gamepad also includes time buttons configured to scroll through a flight time that begins with a current actual time and ends with the end of the UAV's flight. The gamepad further includes buttons configured to select a command from the menu and to select a first future flight path of the one or more future flight paths to be sent to the UAV.
US08676405B2
A method of controlling the flight of a rotorcraft in a feed-forward/feedback architecture includes utilizing an aircraft plant model to control the rotorcraft performance; determining when an external load is coupled to the rotorcraft; and modifying an inverse plant when the external load is present.
US08676403B2
The present invention relates to methods of controlling the flight path of an aircraft to follow as closely as possible a predetermined four-dimensional flight path, such as when flying continuous descent approaches. A method of controlling an aircraft to follow a predetermined four-dimensional flight path is provided that comprises monitoring an actual along-track position and an actual vertical position of the aircraft relative to corresponding desired positions on the predetermined flight path. Throttle commands are generated based on deviations of the actual vertical position of the aircraft from the desired vertical position. Elevator commands are generated based on the deviation of the actual along-track position from the desired along-track position and on the deviation of the actual vertical position from the desired vertical position.
US08676397B2
A method for regulating the temperature of a datacenter within an optimum temperature range includes predicting, using a computing device, a thermal load from a workload scheduler containing information on machines assembled in the datacenter to be turned on and/or off during a particular time period, and the thermal load of the datacenter associated with the work of the machines within the particular time period; and controlling at least one cooling system of the datacenter based upon the predicted thermal load within the particular time period under consideration of the thermal inertia of the datacenter by at least one of activating, controlling, and deactivating cooling resources of the cooling system in advance to maintain the temperature of the datacenter within the optimum temperature range.
US08676395B2
A communication terminal includes a first communication unit having a power supply function by electromagnetic induction, and a second communication unit having a communication capability higher than that of the first communication unit. When communicating with a communication partner terminal, it is determined whether to receive power from the communication partner terminal. Upon determining to receive the power by the power supply function of the first communication unit, communication with the communication partner terminal by the second communication unit is controlled using the power supplied from the communication partner terminal by the power supply function of the first communication unit.
US08676394B2
A method for managing power consumption within a facility includes receiving a request to reduce a total level of power consumption within the facility by a predetermined measure (S23). A plurality of operating parameters indicative of how much power is being consumed by each of a plurality of facility systems is received (S21). A corresponding cost associated with a marginal power reduction is determined for each of the plurality of facility systems using the received plurality of operating parameters (S24). A power allocation to the facility system of the plurality of facility systems that is determined to have a lowest marginal cost of power reduction is incrementally reduced (S25). The steps of determining a corresponding cost and incrementally reducing power are repeated until the total level of power consumption within the facility has been reduced by the predetermined measure.
US08676387B2
Embodiments of methods and systems for monitoring of pumps are provided. According to one embodiment of the invention, there is disclosed a method for determining operating states of pumps. The method may include receiving, by a controller from a first sensor communicating with a first pump, a first vibration measurement. Further, the method may include receiving, by the controller from a second sensor communicating with a second pump, a second vibration measurement. Operating states of the first pump and the second pump may be thus determined based at least in part on comparing the first vibration measurement to a first operating condition and comparing the second vibration measurement to a second operating condition. A control action may be transmitted responsive to determining the respective operating states of the first pump and the second pump.
US08676383B2
The invention relates to a device for carrying out of chemical or biological reactions with a reaction vessel receiving element for receiving a microtiter plate with several reaction vessels, wherein the reaction vessel receiving element has several recesses arranged in a regular pattern to receive the respective reaction vessels, a heating device for heating the reaction vessel receiving element, and a cooling device for cooling the reaction vessel. The invention is characterized by the fact that the reaction vessel receiving element is divided into several segments. The individual segments are thermally decoupled from one another, and each segment is assigned a heating device which may be actuated independently of the others. By means of the segmentation of the reaction vessel receiving element, it is possible for zones to be set and held at different temperatures. Because the reaction vessel receiving element is suitable for receiving standard microtiter plates, the device according to the invention may be integrated in existing process sequences.
US08676379B2
A control device (1) for a robot arm (8) which, if a person approach detection unit (3) detects approach of a person, performs control according to an impact between the robot arm (8) and the person. The control performed according to the impact is performed through an impact countermeasure motion control unit (4) and by setting individual mechanical impedances for respective joint portions of the robot arm (8) based on a movement of the person detected by a human movement detection unit (2).
US08676378B2
A robot, a station, system and method therefor is described. The docking system includes, among other items, a robot and a docking station. The robot may have a power storage unit configured to supply power for the robot, a docking terminal group having a first docking terminal and a second docking terminal, and a robot control unit configured to control working state of the robot. The docking station includes a conductive terminal group comprising at least a first conductive terminal and a second conductive terminal. The conductive terminal group is configured to be electrically connected to the docking terminal group respectively. The robot control unit comprises a signal transmission module configured to be electrically connected to the first docking terminal and send a predetermined detection signal, a signal receiving module configured to be electrically connected to the second docking terminal. When the signal receiving module receives a predetermined feedback signal corresponding to the predetermined detection signal, the robot control unit verifies that the docking of the docking terminal group of the robot with the conductive terminal group of the docking station has succeeded. The robot can reliably dock to the docking station without human intervention, which brings extreme convenience to production and life.
US08676377B2
An inventory shelf monitoring system includes a plurality of track systems located on at least one shelf of a retail or warehouse establishment. Each track system includes a sensor and actuator that determines the position of a product pusher. The identity and location of the product pusher, for each track system on the shelf, is sent to a data acquisition and transmitter circuit that assembles, formats, and transmits pusher position data to a central receiver. The data is then transmitted to a central processing unit in a user device that maintains data corresponding to product count, availability, and activity associated with each track unit of each shelf employing the system. Inventory control, the prevention of out-of-stock situations, and the assessment of activity indicative of theft or accident is thus monitored in real time for prompt remedial action.
US08676376B2
Embodiments of the invention include systems and methods of dispensing control for a product dispenser. In one embodiment, a system or product dispenser can be provided. The system or product dispenser can include a plurality of beverage ingredient sources comprising a respective beverage ingredient, a plurality of beverage supply lines in respective communication with the plurality of ingredient sources, at least one pump in communication with the plurality of beverage supply lines, and a controller in communication with the at least one pump and operable to execute a set of instructions. The set of instructions can be operable to store data associated with a prior poured beverage, provide a command for a user to dispense the prior poured beverage in a subsequent pour, and after selection of the command, based at least in part on the data associated with a prior poured beverage, dispense a subsequent beverage similar to the prior poured beverage.
US08676375B2
An automated cassette-to-cassette substrate handling system includes a cassette storage module for storing a plurality of substrates in cassettes before and after processing. A substrate carrier storage module stores a plurality of substrate carriers. A substrate carrier loading/unloading module loads substrates from the cassette storage module onto the plurality of substrate carriers and unloads substrates from the plurality of substrate carriers to the cassette storage module. A transport mechanism transports the plurality of substrates between the cassette storage module and the plurality of substrate carriers and transports the plurality of substrate carriers between the substrate carrier loading/unloading module and a processing chamber. A vision system recognizes recesses in the plurality of substrate carriers corresponding to empty substrate positions in the substrate carrier. A processor receives data from the vision system and instructs the transport mechanism to transport substrates to positions on the substrate carrier in response to the received data.
US08676374B2
Provided is a substrate-processing apparatus including a transfer member loading and taking out a substrate to and from a storage member, and a control unit controlling the transfer member. The transfer member includes a plurality of transfer arms and an arm-driving part moving the respective transfer arms horizontally, and substrates are loaded on the respective transfer arms. The control unit controls a movement velocity and a position of the transfer member and compares movement velocity profiles of the transfer arms, so as to control movement velocities of the respective transfer arms. Accordingly, the simultaneously driven transfer arms simultaneously arrive at target points, and thus the substrate-processing apparatus reduces transfer time and improves productivity.
US08676373B2
A method for offsetting a part on a CNC machine comprises clamping a part to a fixture on a table for the CNC machine and machining a plurality of features and surfaces on the part. A plurality of global offsets are calculated for the fixture and the table based on location data of the plurality of features and surfaces. An actual part position on a global coordinate system for the CNC machine is determined by translating the fixture and the table by each the plurality of global offsets to the coordinate system. The actual part position is compensated to a nominal part position for each of the controllable axes of the CNC machine and a controller is programmed with a global offset compensation based upon the calculated offset for each controllable axis of the CNC machine to adjust each of the controllable axes to the actual part position.
US08676372B1
A method and apparatus for managing machining. A desired level of engagement of a tool may be identified with a workpiece. A tool path for the tool may be generated relative to the workpiece. The tool path may have a number of levels of engagement of the tool with the workpiece along the tool path. The number of levels of engagement of the tool with the workpiece along the tool path may be based on the desired level of engagement.
US08676367B2
A system for lot based, multi-step wafer manufacturing processes is provided and includes a transfer apparatus, disposed among tools for performing respective process steps on each wafer of each lot of wafers transferred thereto, the transfer apparatus being configured to transfer each lot from a current tool to a next tool in accordance with a process step sequence, a dispatcher operably coupled to the transfer apparatus to modify the lot order in response to a modification condition detection, a measurement unit configured to receive each wafer of each fully processed lot and to collect measurements therefrom and a processor disposed in signal communication with the dispatcher and the measurement unit to analyze the measurements relative to the lot order for evidence that a process step of a corresponding tool is responsible for performance effects.
US08676353B2
In the control system having plural control devices that are connected to a network, and control objects different from each other, an engine control device, a meter control device, and an AT control device, which are second control devices store a control volume computation procedure for computing the control volume of a pre-determined control among controls made by the engine control device which is a first control device, therein. The engine control device compares the control volume related to the pre-determined control computed by the engine control device with the control volume related to the pre-determined control computed by the meter control device. If a comparison result is different, the engine control device again compares the control volume with the control volume related to the pre-determined control computed by the AT control device, and controls an object to be controlled by the engine control device according to the comparison result.
US08676352B2
A device for fastening permanently or temporarily implantable medical devices includes a main body (1) having a first end (1a) and a second end (1b), a flexible and extensible body section (2) therebetween, and a first inflexible and inextensible body support (3) which is fixedly attached to the body section (2) at the second end (1b) of the main body (1), whereby the extensible section (2) can be converted from an unextended state to an extended state in which it is lengthened in comparison with the unextended state. At least one first flexible finger-shaped anchor (4) protrudes away from the main body (1) and is attached to the first body support (3) at an anchor mount (4a). At least one first flexible retraction device (5) is provided for retraction of a respective first anchoring means (4), wherein the retraction device (5) is connected to the body section (2) and to the anchor (4). On conversion of the body section (2) from the unextended state to the extended state, the retraction device (5) does not expand, so that the respective anchors (4) are moved in the direction of the main body (1).
US08676349B2
An apparatus for releasably engaging an implantable medical device during delivery includes an elongate, tubular body having an open distal end a plurality of deflectable jaw members extending distally from the distal end of the body and terminating in distal tip portions, and an actuating member slidably disposed within the body and including a distal end portion operable to prevent inward deflection of the jaw members when positioned proximate the distal tip portions. The jaw members are adapted to releasably engage an engagement feature of the implantable medical device.
US08676348B2
Apparatus for treating a body of a subject is provided. The apparatus includes (1) a first electrode, configured to be placed at a first site in the body of the subject, (2) a second electrode, configured to be placed at a second site in the body of the subject, (3) a pressure sensor, configured to detect a pressure at at least the first site, and (4) a control unit, configured to, at least in part responsively to the detected pressure, induce electroosmotic movement of a fluid between the first and second sites, by driving a current between the first and second electrodes. Other embodiments are also described.
US08676346B2
Disclosed is an electrode, such as an SCS paddle electrode, having a lead attached thereto along an interior portion of the electrode. The lead and electrode are configured such that the lead may be positioned generally coplanar with a top surface of the electrode, and may likewise be erected from such coplanar orientation up and away from the top surface of the electrode. Thus, the lead can maintain the typical configuration of emerging from the back end of the electrode, but because at least portions of the lead are not permanently bonded into the electrode paddle, the lead (when desired) can be pulled upward, with or without surrounding strain relief material, to emerge from the top surface of the paddle at an angle or curve to such top surface. This allows the base of the paddle to engage a bony opening, such as when the electrode is inserted into a patient's spine, skull, plane of fascia, etc.
US08676338B2
Systems and methods that enable delivery of radiofrequency energy and cryotherapy applications to adipose tissue for reduction and contouring of body fat are described herein. Aspects of the disclosure are directed to methods for reducing surface irregularities in a surface of a subject's skin resulting from an uneven distribution of adipose tissue in the subcutaneous layer. The method can include delivering capacitively coupled or conductively coupled radiofrequency energy to a target region of the subject at a frequency which selectively heats fibrous septae in a subcutaneous layer of the target region to a maximum temperature less than a fibrous septae denaturation temperature. Furthermore, the method can include removing heat such that lipid-rich lobules in the subcutaneous layer are affected while non-lipid-rich cells and lipid-rich regions adjacent to the fibrous septae are not substantially affected.
US08676325B2
An adaptive airway treatment system is described for treating a dorsal displacement disorder in a horse. A pacemaker processor generates a dorsal displacement disorder treatment signal as a function of at least one therapy parameter. One or more stimulation electrodes are adapted to interface with tissue of the horse for delivering the treatment signal to continuously or intermittently stimulate soft palate tissue of the horse during an entire period of increased activity of the horse or for training prior to exercise.
US08676320B2
An implantable medical lead includes a lead body having a proximal portion and a distal portion. The lead also includes first and second contacts located at the proximal portion of the lead body, and includes first and second electrodes located at the distal portion of the lead body. The first electrode is electrically coupled to the first contact and the second electrode is electrically coupled to the second contact. The first contact has a proximal end and a distal end and the second contact has proximal end and a distal end. The second contact is radially spaced apart from the first contact. The contacts do not extend around the lead body. This disclosure also relates to an implantable lead extension and to an implatable signal generator having connectors configured to receive the present lead.
US08676317B1
Techniques are provided for estimating defibrillation impedance of an implantable cardioverter/defibrillator (ICD). Briefly, at least two low-voltage resistance values are measured at different voltages using a pair of stimulation electrodes connected to the ICD. High-voltage defibrillation impedance is then estimated by the ICD based on a weighted combination of the measured resistance values. In one example, a set of weight coefficients, calculated during an initial calibration procedure, are applied to the measured resistance values to produce the estimate of the high-voltage defibrillation impedance. The weight coefficients are updated whenever a defibrillation shock is delivered, based on actual defibrillation impedance values measured during the shock.
US08676301B2
A guide wire incorporating a handle that incorporates a handle at the proximal end of said guide wire, the handle incorporating a guide wire actuator slidably disposed upon an actuator rail, the guide wire actuator being affixed to the proximal end of the guide wire and a guard rail contained within the actuator rail that prevents buckling of the proximal end of the guide wire. The handle can be connected to a catheter device amalgamating the guide wire and the catheter, allowing the catheter and guide wire to be operated simultaneously while also enabling the guide wire to be advanced or torqued independently of the catheter device.
US08676293B2
An apparatus and process for measuring the motion of internal joint structures during and for measuring the function of muscles involved with the motion of a joint of a subject are disclosed. The apparatus can be configured in three forms: a horizontal, vertical, or butterfly motion control device. Each configuration comprises a static member and a moving member, in which the moving member operates to move or be moved by the subject being studied. Also disclosed are processes for using each apparatus to measure of the relative motion of a skeletal structures in a subject, in which the subject is positioned in the apparatus and commanded to move while diagnostic medical images are taken or captured. Additionally, processes for using each apparatus to specifically measure and collect data on the function of the subject's muscles are disclosed.
US08676292B2
Apparatus for radiation based imaging of a non-homogenous target area having distinguishable regions therein, comprises: an imaging unit configured to obtain radiation intensity data from a target region in the spatial dimensions and at least one other dimension, and an image four-dimension analysis unit analyzes the intensity data in the spatial dimension and said at least one other dimension in order to map the distinguishable regions. The system typically detects rates of change over time in signals from radiopharmaceuticals and uses the rates of change to identify the tissues. In a preferred embodiment, two or more radiopharmaceuticals are used, the results of one being used as a constraint on the other.
US08676287B2
Systems and methods for processing sensor analyte data, including initiating calibration, updating calibration, evaluating clinical acceptability of reference and sensor analyte data, and evaluating the quality of sensor calibration. During initial calibration, the analyte sensor data is evaluated over a period of time to determine stability of the sensor. The sensor may be calibrated using a calibration set of one or more matched sensor and reference analyte data pairs. The calibration may be updated after evaluating the calibration set for best calibration based on inclusion criteria with newly received reference analyte data. Fail-safe mechanisms are provided based on clinical acceptability of reference and analyte data and quality of sensor calibration. Algorithms provide for optimized prospective and retrospective analysis of estimated blood analyte data from an analyte sensor.
US08676285B2
This disclosure describes systems and methods for monitoring a patient on a ventilator-oximeter system. The disclosure describes a novel approach determining if the oximeter and the ventilator are attached to the same patient and if not providing a warning.
US08676284B2
A method for noninvasive blood glucose monitoring involves metabolic heat measurement and algorithm to correct interferences from environmental factors, and physiological or pathological conditions of subjects.
US08676282B2
A superconducting magnet coil support with cooling and a method for coil cooling are provided. One superconducting coil support arrangement includes a superconducting coil and at least one support beam supporting the superconducting coil and defining a tank for storing a cooling fluid therein. The superconducting coil support arrangement further includes a plurality of cooling tubes coupled to the superconducting coil and connected to the at least one support beam, wherein the plurality of cooling tubes are configured to transfer the cooling fluid therethrough.
US08676267B2
Systems and methods for use in CDMA antenna systems are provided in which signals each having a common overhead component are transmitted on a set of adjacent beams of a sector with a micro-timing offset between signals transmitted on adjacent pairs of beams which is large enough that destructive cancellation substantially does not occur between the pair of beams.
US08676246B2
A position information obtaining section 102 obtains position information indicating the current position of an information communication terminal 100. A safety area storing section 103 stores in advance a safety area considered as being safe because the security risk such as information leak is low. A safety determination section 104 determines, based on the position information and the safety area, the security risk of wireless communication performed by the information communication terminal 100 at the current position. The communication control section 105 controls a wireless communication section 106 so as to transmit a radio signal at a larger radio wave intensity when the safety determination section 104 has determined that the risk is low, and to transmit a radio signal at a smaller radio wave intensity when the safety determination section 104 has determined that the risk is high.
US08676245B2
A system (10) and method (50) for controlling the transmission power of a node (14) that includes at least one base station (12), at least one node (14), a sensor (16), and a control unit (20). The node (14) is in communication with the base station (12). The sensor (16) is integrated with each of the nodes (14), wherein the sensor (16) collects data that includes at least the amount of combustible material (18) proximate to the node (14). The control unit (20) is integrated with each node (14) and configures the transmission power of each of the nodes (14) based upon the data collected by the sensor (16).
US08676242B2
An apparatus and method for transmitting push-to-talk (PTT) communications through multicast channels to a plurality of wireless devices. The PTT server uses the unicast approach to deliver the PTT communication to a group of PTT clients when it does not have the location information of the PTT clients in the group. In one embodiment, the wireless devices report their location to a PTT server after receiving a PTT communication for a group and a timer is started. The wireless devices continue to report their location when moving from an area served by one base station to an area served by another before the timer expires. The PTT server also starts the timer for that PTT group with the same value after initiating the PTT group communication. The PTT server uses the location information to determine if multicast channels can be used when transmitting PTT communications to the wireless devices.
US08676237B1
Techniques for providing information to users implemented through personal mobile devices such as cell phones, PDAs, electronic book readers, and other such devices are described herein. The described techniques and systems allow users to request searches, perform information seeking, purchasing, or other types of transactions with a provider via a mobile or wireless network using the messaging service capabilities of the users' mobile devices. Messages may be compiled in a manner customized to a user request and may be provided without the user authenticating to the provider in some instances.
US08676227B2
A method of performing a data transaction between a portable storage device and an electronic device includes determining positions of the portable storage device by a positioning module of the portable storage device, calculating distance between a current position and a position of a previous data transaction to determine whether a position-based criterion is met by a processing module, establishing a data connection between the portable storage device and the electronic device when the position-based criterion is met, and performing the data transaction between the portable storage device and the electronic device.
US08676224B2
A speakerphone system integrated in a mobile device is automatically controlled based on the current state of the mobile device. In one implementation, the mobile device is controlled based on an orientation or position of the mobile device. In another implementation, the control of the speakerphone includes automatically controlling one or more graphical user interfaces associated with the speakerphone system.
US08676221B2
Certain aspects provide a method for reducing interference in a cooperative MIMO system.
US08676220B2
An apparatus and method for operating a hierarchical cell in a wireless communication system are provided. A femto BS transitions into a sleep mode if there is no accessed MS for a predefined time. The femto BS transmits a FEMTO-ADV message in the sleep mode to notify of the presence of the femto BS. The femto BS releases the sleep mode upon receiving a MOB-FEMTO-AWAKE-REQ message from an MS receiving the FEMTO-ADV message. Thereafter, the femto BS communicates with the MS.
US08676219B2
A method of providing a wireless extension to a plant automation network connected to a plurality of wired devices, each wired device performing a process control function, includes connecting a plurality of wireless devices to the plant automation network, each of the plurality of wireless devices adapted to communicate with at least another one of the plurality of wireless devices via at least one respective wireless connection; and providing access to each of the plurality of wireless devices from a host disposed in the plant automation network, such that the host accesses the plurality of wired devices and the plurality of wireless devices using a common communication scheme.
US08676214B2
A distributed antenna system (DAS) is provided, comprising a host unit and a plurality of remote placed to define a common coverage area. Each of the plurality of remote units is communicatively coupled to the host unit, points at least partially towards the common coverage area, and simulcasts data from the host unit.
US08676212B2
A user equipment terminal for measuring signal power in a neighbor cell includes a movement speed estimating unit configured to estimate a movement speed of the user equipment terminal or a fading frequency of a propagation; a measurement bandwidth determining unit configured to determine a measurement bandwidth according to the movement speed or the fading frequency of the propagation; and a measurement unit configured to measure signal power in the neighbor cell within the determined measurement bandwidth.
US08676207B2
A mobile communication method according to the present invention is a mobile communication method in which a mobile station is handed over from a cell #B and is subordinate to a radio base station to a cell #C and is subordinate to a radio base station, and includes a step of transmitting “Measurement Configuration” for instructing to measure and report a desired radio quality to the mobile station, a step of transmitting, by the radio base station, “HO Request”, which includes identification information assigned to the cell #B, to the radio base station, a step of transmitting, by the radio base station, “HO Request Ack” including “HO Command” not including “Measurement Configuration” to the radio base station in response to the identification information assigned to the cell #B, and a step of transmitting, by the radio base station, the “HO Command” to the mobile station.
US08676203B2
The invention provides a method of handover from an active network to a selected one of a plurality of potential other networks. In addition to the overall solution, the solution proposed has several individual aspects. All subsidiary aspects are related to the common problem mentioned above and sharing the underlying common solution concept of implementing a system in which selective handover is possible and in which a list of available other networks provided by an active network can be handled and selection made by a terminal, so that neighbor cell information can be transmitted based on expressed terminal preferences.
US08676202B2
A technique is disclosed, according to which a race condition between a PMIPv6 binding by a PBU message of PMIPv6 and a CMIPv6 binding by a BU message of CMIPv6 can be resolved. MN 200 has a plurality of radio communication interfaces, and a first interface is connected to MAG 220 of a home PMIPv6 domain 230, for instance. In case the connection of a second interface is changed from MAG 221 of a home PMIPv6 domain to AR 222 of a CMIPv6 domain 231, a BU message 262 is transmitted from the second interface to LMA/HA 250, and identification information of this BU message is notified to MAG from the first interface. By adding time information to this identification information and by transmitting it to LMA/HA, MAG can identify transmission time of the BU message (i.e. relative order with the other messages) from this time information.
US08676194B2
Techniques are provided for providing automated configuration of computing devices. More particularly, principles of the invention may use anticipated context to precondition a device whose operational mode is alterable via computer controllable operations. Anticipated context may be affected by any number of parameters including, but not limited to, current location, time of day, destination end-point, e.g., phone number to be called, past history, subscription rate plans, power requirements of device, application demands with respect to quality-of-service (QoS), security, calendar information, and so on. Further, principles of the invention may use locally derived knowledge about the intended use of a device and dynamically enable it in a desirable mode of operation using locally reachable configuration parameters stored in advance based on the anticipated context for the operation of the device. Still further, principles of the invention may dynamically locate necessary configuration parameters via a service discovery process.
US08676192B2
A method for ground to air communication includes receiving a first pilot signal on a first wide beam from a first ground base station by a first antenna element covering a first range of azimuth angles from an aircraft. Data is received on a directed data beam from the first ground base station by the first antenna element. A second pilot signal is received on a second wide beam from a second ground base station by a second antenna element covering a second range of azimuth angles different than the first range of azimuth angles. A signal strength of the second pilot signal is compared with a signal strength of the first pilot signal. Data reception is switched from the first antenna element to the second antenna element if the signal strength of the second pilot signal is greater than the signal strength of the first pilot signal.
US08676169B2
A phone system for providing dial by specialty features that can dynamically update providers within the system. A dial by specialty service can be provided on a user's mobile device. The dial by specialty service can prompt the user to enter in specialty information, which can represent specific services or goods the user is looking for. The dial by specialty service can then search an augmented directory to find the telephone number of a provider who best satisfies the search criteria. In one embodiment, the service can place a call on behalf of the user to transfer the user to the telephone number. The providers at the time of being called can decline to accept the call from the dial by specialty service. The selected provider can also choose to be removed from the augmented directory altogether.
US08676162B2
The present invention discloses a Remote Subscriber Identification (RSID) system with a communication device in communication with a remote database capable of seamlessly storing, linking, and transferring mobile data to a user's communication device. The communication device receives a biometric information of a subscriber and accesses a subset of the mobile information by authenticating the user in the remote database and uses the subset of mobile information for communication with a third-party associated with at least one item of the subset of the mobile information. The user's data can be used on any communication device that capable of recognizing personal identifying information, transmitting this information to the remote database, accessing the user's subscriber specification information and any subscriber personalized information, and transmitting it to the user's communication device, enabling the user to use this information with the communication device.
US08676158B2
A method for verifying a purported location of a wide area network user is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of receiving information from a user via a wide area network, including a purported geographical location of the network user. A first network address from which the information is received is recoded, and an access code is generated and recorded. The access code is broadcast in a defined region that includes the purported geographical location of the user. A user access code is then received via the wide area network from the user. The user access code is compared with the access code broadcast in a defined region, and the first network address is compared to a second network address from which the user access code is received. If the codes and addresses match, the geographical location of the user is considered verifies and the user may be validated. Various methods for broadcasting the access code and various systems for implementing the method are disclosed.
US08676157B2
A wireless network system wherein just inputting information regarding new wireless network settings from one client system enables the wireless network settings in the wireless network wireless communication control system and all of the client systems to be synchronously changed. The wireless communication control system is provided with a setting change instruction unit transmitting setting change instructions to all of the client systems based on a setting change request of the wireless network from a single client system and a wireless communication control system side setting content update unit updating the wireless network setting content in the wireless communication control system in synchronization with the processing of the setting change instruction unit. Each of the client systems is provided with a setting change instruction reception unit receiving a setting change instruction from the setting change instruction unit and a client system side setting content update unit updating the wireless network setting content in the client system based on the setting change instruction received by the setting change instruction reception unit.
US08676145B2
A balanced mixer circuit (300, 400, 500, 600, 700 and 800) in a baseband receiver (202) includes an oscillator circuit (212), a mixer (214 and 215), a digital-to-analog converter (258 and 259) and a digital signal processor (250). The mixer includes CMOS devices (301, 302, 303 and 304). In response to differential outputs from the mixer, the digital signal processor controls the digital-to-analog converter to output bias voltages for the gate of at least one of the CMOS devices of the mixer to compensate for imbalance in the differential output of the mixer that may be caused by mismatch among two or more CMOS devices of the mixer or caused by other reasons, in order to increase second order intercept point of the mixer.
US08676142B2
In a radio communication station having antennas an antenna diversity system and a gain controllable amplifier the gain of the gain controllable amplifier is set by using a first antenna, the signal levels of signals received at the antennas is measured, a group of antennas is determined having a signal level which exceeds the signal level of the first antenna by no more than a predetermined value, and out of said group of antennas the antenna with the highest signal level is selected out or the first antenna is selected out if said group is empty.
US08676136B2
A radio antenna switch module for a high frequency radio transceiver enables the radio transceiver to have a small number of receivers and transmitters and a larger number of antennas, whereby each antenna has a different diversity characteristic. The diversity between antennas provide for greater communication reliability, while the small number of receivers and transmitters allows the transceiver to operate at relatively low power compared to conventional radio transceivers. The switch module also allows for two loopback modes between the transmitter and the receiver for at-speed, low-cost self-test in production.
US08676135B2
Methods and apparatus are disclosed for improvements in vehicle entertainment systems. A user (vehicle passenger) may wish to buy a song (or other media item) that is currently playing on the vehicle digital radio. In one embodiment, the user may direct a purchase command directly to a music vendor, without going through a central server. In the example of purchasing digital music files, such vendors currently may include iTunes, Amazon.com, Rhapsody and others. The purchase command may be entered at the user's mobile phone user interface. In another embodiment, the purchase request may be entered to the vehicle control system without the use of a mobile phone. The requested media item is downloaded to the vehicle and or to a designated alternative destination which may be the user's home or office or mobile device.
US08676132B2
One high-frequency switch Qm supplied with transmit and receive signals to ON, and another high-frequency switch Qn supplied with a signal of another system to OFF are controlled. In the other high-frequency switch Qn, to set V-I characteristics of near-I/O gate resistances Rg1n-Rg3n of a near-I/O FET Qn1 near to a common input/output terminal I/O connected with an antenna are set to be higher in linearity than V-I characteristics of middle-portion gate resistances Rg3n and Rg4n of middle-portion FETs Qn3 and Qn4. Thus, even in case that an uneven RF leak signal is supplied to near-I/O gate resistances Rg1n-Rg3n, and middle-portion gate resistances Rg3n and Rg4n, the distortion of current flowing through the near-I/O gate resistances Rg1n-Rg3n near to the input/output terminal I/O can be reduced.
US08676131B2
Method and apparatus for base stations and subscriber units allows soft handoff of a CDMA reverse link utilizing an orthogonal channel structure. Subscriber units transmit an orthogonally coded signal over a reverse link to the base stations. A given base station provides timing control of the timing offset of the reverse link signal. Based on at least one criterion, an alignment controller determines that the given base station should hand off timing control to another base station, and a soft handoff process ensues. In response to a command or message for soft handoff of the subscriber unit from the given base station to another base station, the subscriber unit makes a coarse timing adjustment to the timing of the coded signal. The subscriber unit may make fine timing adjustments based on feedback from the base station controlling timing. Multiple base stations may provide power control feedback to the subscriber unit.
US08676128B2
A method and apparatus for providing uplink signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) estimation in a wireless communication system. A first signal is received over a first channel and a second signal is received over a second channel, where the second signal is received at a higher signal power level than said first signal. A signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the second signal is measured, and the SNR of the first signal is determined based at least in part upon the measured SNR of the second signal.
US08676126B2
The present invention relates to an apparatus and to a method for acquiring downlink channel information in a radio communication system having a multi-cell/sector structure, comprising receiving channel quality information of a mobile station and loading information of cells/sectors adjacent to the mobile station, checking the carrier to interference and noise ratio (CINR) contained in the channel quality information, checking the average loading factor of the adjacent cells/sectors contained in the loading information, summing the average loading factors for each of the adjacent cells/sectors to calculate an effective loading factor, and compensating for the CINR with the effective loading factor to acquire channel information of the base station.
US08676125B2
A system and method of reducing interference on a communication channel between an access terminal and a serving cell or node are disclosed. A cooperation request may be sent to an interfering cell or node to reduce and/or mitigate interference on the communication channel caused by the interfering cell or node. The interfering cell or node may perform beamforming, may intermittently transmit its wireless signal, or may move at least one antenna to mitigate and/or reduce interference on the communication channel.
US08676124B2
Techniques for scheduling users for transmission on the uplink in a wireless communication system are described. A cell may perform interference cancellation for uplink transmissions and may observe lower effective noise and interference due to interference cancellation. The lower effective noise and interference may allow the cell to operate with a higher effective target load, which may support a higher overall throughput for the cell. In one design, an effective target load for a cell using interference cancellation may be determined, e.g., based on a target rise-over-thermal (RoT) for the cell and an interference cancellation efficiency factor. An available load for the cell may be determined based on the effective target load, which may be higher than a target load for the cell without interference cancellation. Users in the cell may then be scheduled for transmission on the uplink based on the available load.
US08676117B2
A wireless IC device includes a wireless IC chip, a power supply circuit board upon which the wireless IC chip is mounted, and in which a power supply circuit is provided, the power supply circuit includes a resonant circuit having a predetermined resonant frequency, and a radiation pattern, which is adhered to the underside of the power supply circuit board, for radiating a transmission signal supplied from the power supply circuit, and for receiving a reception signal to supply this to the power supply circuit. The resonant circuit is an LC resonant circuit including an inductance device and capacitance devices. The power supply circuit board is a multilayer rigid board or a single-layer rigid board, and between the wireless IC chip and the radiation pattern is connected by DC connection, magnetic coupling, or capacitive coupling.
US08676116B2
An electronic device may include a housing having a display opening therein, processing circuitry within the housing, and wireless transceiver circuitry within the housing and coupled to the processing circuitry. The electronic device may also include NFC transceiver circuitry within the housing and coupled to the processing circuitry, a display within the housing and coupled to the processing circuitry, the display having an external surface exposed through the display opening and having an internal surface within the housing, and an NFC antenna positioned within the housing behind and aligned with the internal surface of the display and coupled to the NFC transceiver circuitry.
US08676111B2
An image forming apparatus is provided, which includes a fixing unit, a cooling roller disposed downstream relative to the fixing unit in a sheet feeding direction, an ejection roller disposed downstream relative to the cooling roller in the sheet feeding direction, a driving unit rotating the cooling roller and the ejection roller normally or reversely, and a controller including a determining unit determining whether a detected temperature is higher than a predetermined temperature, the controller switching between a first mode to, after a sheet passes through the cooling roller, control the driving unit to reversely rotate the cooling roller and the ejection roller being rotating normally and a second mode to, in a state where the cooling roller is nipping the sheet, control the driving unit to reversely rotate the cooling roller and the ejection roller being rotating normally, based on the determination of the determining unit.
US08676094B2
A developing device includes a developer container; a developer holding body including a magnet member and a substantially cylindrical member; a transport member including a rotating shaft and a substantially spiral transport blade; a layer-thickness regulating member; and an interrupting member that is arranged between the developer holding body and the transport member, that intersects with a first virtual plane passing through a facing position between the regulating member and the developer holding body and being adjacent to a rotation locus of a radial-direction outer edge of the transport blade at a position at which a speed in a circumferential direction of the transport blade has a speed component toward the regulating member, and a second virtual plane passing through rotation centers of the developer holding body and transport member, and that interrupts movement of the developer pushed and moving in the radial direction of the transport blade.
US08676093B2
A developing device includes a first developer containing chamber, a second developer containing chamber, a first inflow section, a second inflow section, a first conveyance member and a second conveyance member. The first inflow section allows the developer to flow from the second developer containing chamber into the first developer containing chamber. The second inflow section allows the developer to flow from the first developer containing chamber into the second developer containing chamber. The first conveyance member conveys the developer contained in the first developer containing chamber in a first developer conveyance direction. The second conveyance member conveys the developer contained in the second developer containing chamber in a second developer conveyance direction. In a range corresponding to the first inflow section, an area of a cross section, perpendicular to the second developer conveyance direction, of the second developer containing chamber decreases along the second developer conveyance direction.
US08676089B2
Composition for use in an apparatus for delivery of a functional material to an image forming member
The presently disclosed embodiments relate generally to an image forming apparatus comprising a delivery member in contact with either the surface of an imaging member or in contact with the surface of the bias charge roller, wherein the delivery member is fabricated as a polymer matrix impregnated with functional materials, such that the functional material is transferred onto the imaging member or bias charge roller from the delivery member. Embodiments also pertain to an improved electrophotographic imaging member comprising a very thin outer layer on the imaging member surface, where the outer layer comprises functional materials, such as paraffin, that act as a lubricant and/or a barrier against moisture and/or surface contaminants. The improved imaging member exhibits improved xerographic performance, such as reduced torque, reduced friction, and deletions in high humidity conditions.
US08676085B1
An electrophotographic photosensitive drum unit includes a cylinder having a photosensitive layer at an outer periphery thereof and a drum flange provided at one end of the cylinder. The drum flange includes at least two projections provided inside of the drum flange and projected radially inwardly of the drum flange, with a space diametrically between the two projections. Each of the two projections projects radially inwardly of the drum flange to a greater extent at a position farther from the cylinder than it does at a position closer to the cylinder. Each of the two projections is provided with a recess to facilitate deformation of the projection.
US08676083B2
An upper conveyance guide is provided at an apparatus main body. A guide surface of a lower conveyance guide is provided facing a guide surface of the upper conveyance guide, and can be drawn out in the direction intersecting the sheet conveyance direction with respect to the apparatus main body. A cleaning unit is provided on the back side in the drawing-out direction of the lower conveyance guide, moves together with the lower conveyance guide when the lower conveyance guide is drawn out from the apparatus main body, and cleans the guide surface of the upper conveyance guide.
US08676080B2
An image forming apparatus capable of selectively discharging a sheet having an image formed with toner on one surface thereof and a sheet having images formed with toner on both surfaces thereof includes a fixing unit configured to fix a toner image on a sheet, a sheet stacking portion configured to stack sheets each having the toner image fixed thereon, and a control portion configured to control a maximum sheet stacking amount of sheets stacked in the sheet stacking portion. The control portion controls the maximum sheet stacking amount set when sheets, at least one of which has the toner images formed on both surfaces thereof, are stacked to be smaller than the maximum sheet stacking amount set when sheets each having the toner image formed on one surface thereof are stacked.
US08676079B2
An operating device includes a first support frame, a support shaft, an operating panel, a second support frame, and a spring. The first support frame is fixed to a front side of a main apparatus. The support shaft projects from the first support frame in a widthwise direction of the main apparatus. The second support frame is pivotally supported on the support shaft in such a manner as to be displaceable within a predetermined range in the widthwise direction while supporting the operating panel. The spring biases the second support frame in a first direction which the second support frame is pressed against the first support frame. The first support frame has a plurality of recesses on a circumference of a circle that is concentric with the support shaft. The second support frame has a first projection capable of being engaged into any one of the recesses.
US08676071B2
Apparatus and method for minimizing ghosting defects and process control instabilities for a printing system are disclosed. According to an exemplary embodiment, a controller retrieves uniformity measurements of an interdocument zone (IDZ) and sheet zone (SZ). In response to the uniformity measurements, a transfer current IDZ level is controlled to minimize differences in subsequent charging, photodischarge and/or development associated with the IDZ and SZ.
US08676067B2
An image forming apparatus includes: a photoconductor; a charger configured to charge the photoconductor, the charger including a discharge wire and a grid; a voltage applying circuit configured to generate charge voltage and apply the charge voltage to the discharge wire of the charger; a grid-current detector configured to detect a grid current passing through the grid; a controller configured to control the voltage applying circuit on the basis of a detection value detected by the grid-current detector so that the grid current is constant; an abnormal-discharge detector configured to detect an abnormal discharge occurring in the charger; and a suppression resistor configured to suppress abnormal discharge energy. The suppression resistor includes a first terminal and a second terminal. The first terminal is connected to the grid. The second terminal is connected to at least one of the grid-current detector and the abnormal-discharge detector.
US08676060B2
A quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signal generator, which can obtain optical signals such as QAM signals without handling multilevel electrical signals, can be produced by using a plurality of parallel Mach-Zehnder modulators (MZMs), such as quadruplex parallel MZMs (QPMZM). The quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signal generator includes a first waveguide, a first quadrature phase-shift-keying (QPSK) signal generator provided on the first waveguide, a second waveguide connected with the first waveguide at a wave-combining point, and a second quadrature phase-shift-keying (QPSK) signal generator provided on the second waveguide.
US08676055B2
A method of transmitting data using electromagnetic waves, comprising the steps of providing (101) a first electromagnetic signal (S1) having a first wavelength (λ1) and a second electromagnetic signal (S2) having a second wavelength (λ2) different from the first wavelength; dividing (102) each of the first (S1) and second (S2) electromagnetic signals into a first polarization component (S1x; S2x) having a first polarization direction and a second polarization component (S1y; S2y) having a second polarization direction orthogonal to the first polarization direction; modulating (103) the first polarization component (S1x) of the first electromagnetic signal (S1) to encode a first data stream (DS1); modulating (104) the second polarization component (S2y) of the second electromagnetic signal (S2) to encode a second data stream (DS2); and transmitting (105) a combined electromagnetic signal (Scomb) comprising the first and second polarization components of the first electromagnetic signal (S1) and the first and second polarization components of the second electromagnetic signal (S2).
US08676050B2
A method for calibrating a focus point for a camera lens may include capturing a reflection of a focus point measuring device that is affixed to the camera. The method may include evaluating a captured image of the reflection to measure a calibration amount for a focus point, and adjusting a focus point of a lens of the camera by the calibration amount. The focus point measuring device may include a substantially planar target surface defining a plane, and a ruled target surface inclined at substantially 45° to the substantially planar target and extending through the plane thereof, marked to indicate respective distances in front of and behind the plane. The device may further include a fixture for holding the substantially planar target surface and the ruled target surface in a defined orientation to the camera, enabling performance of the method.
US08676046B2
Embodiments relate to methods and systems for gathering, archiving, transmitting, and processing forensic and latent fingerprints. An integrated forensic fingerprint scanning system is provided that includes a number of features for use with forensic-quality fingerprinting. One set of features of embodiments of the portable forensic fingerprint scanning system provides real-time feedback for accurate fingerprinting and training, including visual and/or audio feedback. Another set of features provides cadence-based functionality for improving fingerprinting results. Another set of features provides cryptographic-based approaches to secure highly sensitive collected fingerprint information against loss, theft, or surreptitious modification or tampering. Yet another set of features provides latent fingerprint collections and processing. Still another set of features provides various databasing functions, including centralized storage, data sharing, secure networking, etc. And another set of features provides compatibility with a large variety of jurisdiction-specific inputs and/or outputs, including linguistic interactivity, alerts, print cards, etc.
US08676039B2
There is provided an information processing apparatus which generates, for an image reproducing apparatus, an application program that is executable by the image reproducing apparatus, the image reproducing apparatus operating under a basic program that is capable of executing an application program recorded in a first area of a recording medium but that is incapable of reproducing image data that is recorded in a second area of the recording medium, and the information processing apparatus comprising: a program generation unit which generates a reproducing program for the image reproducing apparatus to reproduce the image data recorded in the second area of the recording medium, as an application program executable by the image reproducing apparatus; and a recording unit which records the reproducing program generated by the program generation unit into the first area of the recording medium.
US08676037B2
The recording medium includes a data structure with at least one playlist file stored in a playlist area of the recording medium. The playlist file includes at least one playitem, at least one sub-playitem and mark information. The playitem provides navigation information for reproducing at least one still picture from a first file. The sub-playitem is associated with the playitem and provides navigation information for reproducing audio data from a second file. The mark information includes at least one mark pointing to the still picture.
US08676032B2
A playback apparatus plays back, from a recording medium, a plurality of information files, and a modified file which is generated using a portion of the plurality of information files. If modified data specified in playback description data for specifying a playback procedure for the plurality of information files including the modified file is not recorded on the recording medium, the playback apparatus changes the playback operation for the information files.
US08676031B1
A system and method are disclosed for providing a digital medium, such as a Digital Video Disc (DVD), enabling playback of different versions of a media presentation depending on the locality of the viewer, where each version includes embedded advertisements for a corresponding locality. In one embodiment, a DVD stores a media presentation such as, for example, a movie, an episode of a television program, or the like. Depending on the location of the viewer, the DVD provides a version of the media presentation having embedded advertisements relevant to the locality of the viewer.
US08676028B2
A method for reproducing data recorded on an interactive recording medium in conjunction with associated auxiliary data is disclosed. An interactive recording medium reproducing apparatus reproduces A/V data recorded on an interactive recording medium such as an interactive DVD in conjunction with contents data provided by a contents providing server using navigation information for the contents data also provided by the contents providing server, thereby allowing synchronized reproduction of data from different sources.
US08676026B2
A data recording apparatus includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire a first type data and a second type data, and a recording unit configured to record the first type data or the second type data acquired by the acquisition unit in a recording medium. The recording unit refers to a first pointer which indicates a logical position regarding the first type data in the recording medium to determine a position to start recording the first type data based on the logical position indicated by the first pointer. The recording unit refers to a second pointer which indicates a logical position regarding the second type data in the recording medium to determine a position to start recording the second type data based on the logical position indicated by the second pointer.
US08676012B2
A fiber optic cable includes a polymeric jacket defining an outer periphery and a cavity interior thereto, an optical fiber positioned within the cavity, and first and second longitudinal strength elements fully embedded in the jacket on opposite sides of the cavity from one another, where the strength elements define a bend axis of the cable passing there through that is orthogonal to the length of the cable, and the bend axis and the length of the cavity define a preferential plane for bending. The cable resists bending about a third axis that is orthogonal to the length of the cable and the bend axis, where the third axis and the length of the cable define a non-preferential plane for bending. The difference in flexural rigidity between the preferential and non-preferential planes limits formation of spontaneous knots in a coil of the cable while providing flexibility for ease of handling.
US08676011B1
A cable can inhibit water that may inadvertently enter the cable from flowing lengthwise within the cable. The cable can include an outer jacket and at least one optical fiber disposed within the outer jacket. Water blocking barriers can be disposed at different longitudinal locations along the cable, and each water blocking barrier can provide a seal. Each barrier can include a polymer or a cured material and at least one derivative of at least one initiator that induces a reaction with the polymer or the cured material. The at least one initiator can include at least one of a photoinitiator or a thermal initiator.
US08676009B2
An optical device includes a waveguide slab, first and second input port couplers, and first and second output port couplers located over a planar optical substrate. The waveguide slab has a plane of symmetry. The first and second input port couplers extend from the waveguide slab and have an input coupler pair axis located about midway between the first and second input port couplers. The input coupler pair axis is offset at a nonzero first distance from the plane of symmetry. The first and second output port couplers extend from the waveguide slab and have an output coupler pair axis located about midway between the first and second output port couplers. The output coupler pair axis is offset at a different nonzero second distance from the plane of symmetry.
US08676004B1
Systems and methods for optimizing port usage in an optical circuit switch are disclosed herein. A plurality of optical circulators can be coupled to the plurality of input and output ports of an optical circuit switch. An optical circulator coupled to an input port and an optical circulator coupled to an output port can form a bidirectional pair capable of communicating with any other bidirectional pair of the optical circuit switch. In this regard, the number of bidirectional ports of an optical circuit switch can be increased allowing additional bandwidth to flow through the optical circuit switch. Increasing the efficiency and capabilities of optical circuit switches within a large scale communications network can offer increased functionality and performance with little trade off.
US08676001B2
In one embodiment the present invention is a method for populating and updating a database of images of landmarks including geo-clustering geo-tagged images according to geographic proximity to generate one or more geo-clusters, and visual-clustering the one or more geo-clusters according to image similarity to generate one or more visual clusters. In another embodiment, the present invention is a system for identifying landmarks from digital images, including the following components: a database of geo-tagged images; a landmark database; a geo-clustering module; and a visual clustering module. In other embodiments the present invention may be a method of enhancing user queries to retrieve images of landmarks, or a method of automatically tagging a new digital image with text labels.
US08675997B2
Example embodiments disclosed herein relate to feature based image registration. Feature based image registration determines correspondence between image features such as points, lines, and contours to align or register a reference or first image and a target or second image. The examples disclosed herein may be used in mobile devices such as cell phones, personal digital assistants, personal computers, cameras, and video recorders.
US08675994B1
An apparatus generally having a first memory, a second memory and a circuit is disclosed. The first memory may be configured to store a warp table. The warp table is generally accessed through a single data port of the first memory. The second memory may be configured to buffer an input image. The input image may have a plurality of input pixels arranged in two dimensions. The circuit may be configured to generate an output image by a warp correction of an input image. The warp correction may be defined by the warp table. The output image may include a plurality of output pixels. At least one of the output pixels maybe generated during each clock cycle of the circuit.
US08675991B2
A method of modifying the viewing parameters of digital images using image feature detection for achieving desired parameters based on one or more sub-groups of pixels that correspond to one or more selected image features such as a face, body, pets, or a background region or a foreground region. Such methods may be used for animating still images, automating and streamlining application such as the creation of slide shows and screen savers of images containing selected image features. Two or more features such as a foreground region and a background region may be separated and independently processed.
US08675984B2
Techniques are provided to generate high or wide dynamic range image from two or more input images of different exposure settings by directly merging coefficients derived from the input images in a transform domain. Energy values may be determined from coefficients blocks derived from the input images. The energy values may be compared with thresholds to determine weight factors for the coefficient blocks. An output coefficient block in the transform domain, used in or used to generate the output image, may be determined as a weighted combination of the coefficient blocks in the transform domain derived from the input images. If input images are compressed in transform domain, an output image can be generated without performing decompression in transform domain.
US08675980B2
A method and a system for reducing update frequency of an image processor, in particular a software and/or a component. The image processor enables modifying the quality of digital images derived from and addressed to a set of appliances. The set of appliances includes an image capture device and/or an image scanning device. The image processor uses formatted data dependent on at least one variable, associated with defects of at least one appliance of the set of appliances. The formatted data includes parameters of at least a parameterable model dependent on the variables. The formatted data enables establishing a correspondence, in particular by a correspondence table, between part of the variables and identifiers. The identifiers enable determining the value of the variable corresponding to an identifier taking into account the identifier and the image.
US08675975B2
An image encoding method using color space estimation is provided. A method for encoding a second color space pixel corresponding to coordinates of a first color space pixel using color spaces, includes encoding a pixel of a first color space; calculating a color space estimation value of a current pixel of a second color space by referring to the encoded pixel of the first color space; and encoding a differential value of the calculated color space estimation value and the current pixel value. Thus, the image compression efficiency can be enhanced by using the information between the color spaces in the image encoding, and the lossless image compression can be accomplished by ruling out the similarity of the pixels.
US08675973B2
An acquisition unit acquires feature vectors (the number is N). A first selection unit selects first neighbor features (k (1≦k≦N)) of each feature vector in order of higher similarity from the feature vectors. A second selection unit generates a plurality of groups each including similar feature vectors from the feature vectors, and selects second neighbor features (u (1≦k+u≦N−2)) of each feature vector in order of higher similarity. Each of the second neighbor features is differently included in a group. A determination unit calculates a density of each feature vector by using a threshold, the first neighbor features and the second neighbor features, and determines feature vectors to be classified into the same class as each feature vector by using the density and a threshold. A classification unit classifies the feature vectors into a plurality of classes by using the selection result. A control unit controls each threshold.
US08675960B2
One aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be implemented in a method that includes sampling an image to generate a sample portion; evaluating pixels in the sample portion to determine whether the pixels correspond to skin tone colors; generating, based on the determination, a skin tone result indicating a confidence level that the received image includes a depiction of human skin; and providing the skin tone result to an image management application to indicate a likelihood the image depicts a human face.
US08675951B2
A method for generating a three dimensional (3D) model of an object is depicted in a two dimensional (2D) image is disclosed, The 2D image includes associated 3D information. The method includes an operator determining a geometric primitive corresponding to shape characteristics of the object and then the generation of the 3D model based on the determined geometric primitive, the 2D image, and the associated 3D information.
US08675946B2
When a plurality of X-ray images in a time sequence is stored in an image data storing unit (25), a marker coordinate detecting unit (26a) detects coordinates of a stent marker in each X-ray image, and a motion vector calculating unit (26b) calculates, with coordinates of the stent marker detected in a first frame as reference coordinates, a motion vector of the coordinates of the stent marker detected in each X-ray image of a second and subsequent frames with respect to the reference coordinates. Then, a filter application range determining unit (26c) moves and determines an application range of a smoothing filter in each X-ray image based on the motion vector, and the filtered image generating unit (26d) generates a filtered image by performing a process by the smoothing filter between application ranges determined in a process target image and a reference image.
US08675943B2
A method and system for isolating the heart in a 3D volume, such as a cardiac CT volume, for patients with coronary artery bypasses is disclosed. An initial heart isolation mask is extracted from a 3D volume, such as a cardiac CT volume. The aortic root and ascending aorta are segmented in the 3D volume, resulting in an aorta mesh. The aorta mesh is expanded to include bypass coronary arteries. An expanded heart isolation mask is generated by combining the initial heart isolation mask with an expanded aorta mask defined by the expanded aorta mesh.
US08675940B2
A method of deriving blood flow parameters from a moving three-dimensional (3D) model of a blood vessel includes determining a reference vascular cross-sectional plane through a location of a lumen in a moving 3D model of the blood vessel at one time within the model, determining a plurality of target vascular cross-sectional planes at multiple times via temporal tracking of the reference plane based on a displacement field, determining a plurality of contours based on an intersection of the target vascular cross-sectional planes with the moving 3D vessel model at multiple times within the model, and determining a blood flow parameter of the vessel from intersections of each contour of a given one of the times with a phase contrast magnetic resonance (PC-MRI) image of the blood vessel from the corresponding time.
US08675934B2
An image segmentation embodiment comprises applying a second derivative operator to the pixels of an image, growing a set of contours using seeding grid points as potential contour starting points, determining a contour strength vector for each of the contour pixels, generating a partial ellipse representing an estimated location of an object in the image, dividing the partial ellipse into a plurality of support sectors with control points, determining a contour strength and position for each contour, adjusting a position of each sector control point based on the contour positions weighted by the contour strengths of the contours centered in the respective sector, fitting the partial ellipse to the adjusted positions of the control points, and generating a segmentation mask of the object based on the partial fitted ellipse.
US08675929B2
Certain embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method for synchronized viewing of a plurality of images of an object. Corresponding landmarks of an object are synchronized between a first image set and a second image set. In an embodiment, the landmarks are folds of a human colon and the first image set and second images sets are computerized tomography scans, at least one image set being a prone scan of a portion of anatomy and at least one image set being a supine scan of a portion of the anatomy. An indicator for at least a first location in a first image set is displayed. The location of a second location in a second image set of an object is determined, wherein the second location corresponds to the first location of the object. The second location in the second image set is displayed.
US08675918B2
Methods and apparatus for robust video stabilization. A video stabilization technique applies a feature tracking technique to an input video sequence to generate feature trajectories. The technique applies a video partitioning technique to segment the input video sequence into factorization windows and transition windows. The technique smoothes the trajectories in each of the windows, in sequence. For factorization windows, a subspace-based optimization technique may be used. For transition windows, a direct track optimization technique that uses a similarity motion model may be used. The technique then determines and applies warping models to the frames in the video sequence. In at least some embodiments, the warping models may include a content-preserving warping model, a homography model, a similarity transform model, and a whole-frame translation model. The warped frames may then be cropped according to a cropping technique.
US08675912B2
A system and method as described for compiling feedback in command statements that relate to applications or services associated with spatial objects or features, pointing at such spatial object or feature order to identify the object of interest, and executing the command statements on a system server and attaching feedback information to their representation of this object or feature in a database of the system server.
US08675911B2
The electro-optical system for determining position and orientation of a mobile part comprises a fixed projector having a center of projection (O) and a mobile part. The projector is rigidly linked with a virtual image plane, and the mobile part is rigidly linked with two linear sensors defining a first and a second direction vector. The fixed part projects onto the image plane and onto the sensors patterns, not represented, forming at least two secant networks of at least three segments that are each parallel. The two electro-optical devices are coplanar and their directions secant, the orientation and the position of the mobile part are determined by calculating the positions of the projections on the image plane of a first triple of points comprising the projections of three points.
US08675905B2
An improved case for a handheld electronic device is provided. The case comprises: a housing for enclosing an audio transducer and a display, the housing having a front portion having an interior region formed therein, a window for the audio transducer and the display in the interior region, a housing surface surrounding the window and a transducer hole for part of the audio transducer; and a lens having an interior lens surface, the interior lens surface formed to mate with the housing surface and the lens having a first region having an indentation formed in the interior lens surface. For the case, a cavity is formed by the indentation with the transducer hole when the interior lens surface is mated with the housing surface to cover the transducer hole; and the case has an opening formed therein in fluid communication with the cavity and atmosphere around the handheld electronic device.
US08675900B2
An ear-level hearing device and a handheld computer with a graphical user interface determines a subject's own hearing threshold. Hardware includes the smartphone, viewing screen of the smartphone, smartphone software, ear level hearing device, transmitter on the smartphone and receiver on the ear level device (ELD) communicating with the graphical user interface on the smartphone to the ear level hearing device. The interface on the smartphone may include an automatic routine or buttons to vary frequency and amplitude of a frequency dependent sound presentation to the earpiece. Software installed on the hand-held smartphone system sends wireless signals to the ELD changing acoustic parameters in the listening device. The ELD stores frequency/amplitude parameters of the thresholds and wirelessly delivers them to the smartphone. The smartphone uses the threshold data to derive the appropriate amplified acoustical signal (relative to the thresholds) to the subject.
US08675894B2
An audio console system includes an input for receiving an audio signal. The system may also include a user adjustable input amplifier which may amplify audio signals received from the input with a predefined gain. The system may additionally include a direct out output amplifier provided after the adjustable input amplifier. The direct out output amplifier may output a direct out output signal. The direct out output amplifier may adjust a gain of a signal transmitted from the adjustable input amplifier. The direct output amplifier may be configured in such a way, that, upon a user adjustment of the adjustable input amplifier, the direct out output amplifier may adjust the gain of the direct out output signal inversely to the adjustment of the input amplifier resulting in a predefined gain of the audio signal from the at least one input to the direct out output being maintained.
US08675887B2
A wireless illuminative speaker system, comprising a wireless transmitter comprising a transmitter body, a wireless transmit module, a main board printed board circuit assembly (PCBA), and a support, and at least one wireless illuminative receiving speaker comprising a speaker body, an illuminating part, a speaker part, and a wireless receiving module. The wireless transmitter operates to obtain audio data from an external electronic device and to transmit the audio data in the form of wireless audio digital signals, the wireless transmit module is disposed in the transmitter body, the main board PCBA operates to control the wireless transmit module, the support operates to mount an audio playing device thereon, the wireless illuminative receiving speaker operates to receive the wireless audio digital signals from the wireless transmitter and to plays the received wireless audio digital signals after digital-to-analog conversion, and the illuminating part is disposed in the speaker body.
US08675883B2
A new acoustic echo suppressor and method for acoustic echo suppression is described herein. Exemplary embodiments of the acoustic echo suppressor use one linear regression model for each subband. The linear regression model for each subband may operate on the squared magnitude of the input samples as well as corresponding cross-products. In this way, accurate and robust estimates of the echo signal in each subband can be obtained, thereby providing good echo reduction while keeping the signal distortion low.
US08675879B2
A method of operating a User Equipment (UE) for generating a second scrambling code group where the UE is configured for receiving downlink transmission from a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) on a set of at least two downlink carriers including an anchor carrier and at least a first secondary carrier includes: determining a first scrambling code group associated with a first cell on the anchor carrier and deriving the second scrambling code group associated with a second cell on said first secondary carrier using a predefined rule defining the relation between the second scrambling code group and the first scrambling code group.
US08675876B2
Differential phase shift (DPS) quantum key distribution (QKD) is provided, where the average number of photons per transmitted pulse is predetermined such that the secure key generation rate is maximal or nearly maximal, given other system parameters. These parameters include detector quantum efficiency, channel transmittance and pulse spacing (or clock rate). Additional system parameters that can optionally be included in the optimization include baseline error rate, sifted key error rate, detector dead time, detector dark count rate, and error correction algorithm performance factor. The security analysis leading to these results is based on consideration of a hybrid beam splitter and intercept-resend attack.
US08675872B2
Various embodiments facilitate program content access management. One embodiment is a system with a secure content provider communicatively coupled to a first system and a second system, operable to stream encrypted content over the first system, and operable to communicate access control information over the second system; and a receiving device coupled to the first system and the second system, operable to receive the encrypted program content from the first system, operable to receive the access control information over the second system such that the encrypted program content is decrypted based on the access control information to generate program content, and operable to communicate the program content to a presentation device.
US08675867B2
Provided is an information processing apparatus for realizing an electronic signature system of the MPKC signature method capable of safety certification with respect to chosen-message attack. An information processing apparatus including a first inverse transformation unit that transforms an element y of a finite ring Kn containing elements constituted of n numbers into an element y′ of the finite ring Kn by an inverse transformation T−1 of a first secret polynomial T, an element computation unit that considers the element y′ of the finite ring Kn obtained here as an element Y of an n-order extension A of a finite ring K and computes an element Xε{Z|f(Z)=Y} of an inverse image of mapping f: A→A represented by a predetermined multivariable polynomial by using the element Y, an element selection unit that selects one element X of the inverse image with a probability p proportional to a number of elements α of the inverse image and outputs an exception value with a probability (1-p), and a second inverse transformation unit that considers the element X selected here as an element x′ of the finite ring Kn and transforms the element x′ of the finite ring Kn into an element x of the finite ring Kn by an inverse transformation S−1 of a second secret polynomial S is provided.
US08675866B2
In the field of computer enabled cryptography, such as a keyed block cipher having a plurality of rounds, the cipher is hardened against an attack by a protection process which obscures the round keys using the properties of group field automorphisms and applying masks to the states of the cipher, for encryption or decryption. This is especially advantageous in a “White Box” environment where an attacker has full access to the cipher algorithm, including the algorithm's internal state during its execution. This method and the associated computing apparatus are useful for protection against known attacks on “White Box” ciphers, by eliminating S-box operations, together with improved masking techniques and increasing the cipher's complexity against reverse engineering and key storage attacks.
US08675856B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for a media terminal adapter (MTA) that contains a routing table for routing incoming telephone calls based on caller identification information. The MTA is coupled to a router/hub, where all digital telephones are then connected to the router/hub. Any analog telephones are connected to the MTA. The routing table defines incoming calls using their caller identification information and associates each defined call with a corresponding telephone(s). In this manner, an incoming call that is intended for one predominant telephone user is routed to the desired telephone using the telephone's IP address or a physical connection interface.
US08675855B2
A VoIP-enabled communications system includes IVR authentication for web initiated telephone calls. A web-based user initiates a telephone call by providing his telephone number and one or more target telephone numbers. In some embodiments, the target telephone number is identified by clicking on a call hyperlink. The system calls the user's telephone number and plays an IVR recording that asks the user to accept or reject the proposed connection to the target telephone number. If the user rejects, then he may be subject to being added to a Do Not Call list. If the user accepts, then the target number is called, and the connection bridged. Alternatively, if the user accepts, then the target number is called, and an IVR recording played. If the target also accepts, then the system bridges the telephone numbers and connects the call. Additional features may also be provided through the IVR recordings, for example, adding or removing numbers from the Do Not Call list.
US08675852B2
Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for determining location of a principal. According to one embodiment, a method of providing location information for a principal can comprise receiving a presence event related to the principal. A location of the principal can be indicated by or determined based on the presence event. The location of the principal can be stored as a location attribute of a presence profile of the principal. The method can further comprise providing access to the location attribute of the presence profile of the principal to one or more subscribers or users of a presence service. In some cases, providing access to the location attribute of the presence profile of the principal to the one or more subscribers can be based on one or more policies of the presence service.
US08675845B2
Embodiments described herein provide a user with the ability to enter and validate contact addresses when composing a message on a mobile device. The user may access at least one of a local contact address data store and a remote contact address data store when entering and validating contact addresses.
US08675832B2
A network telephony system is provided which enables unified messaging services. The system generally includes at least one user agent operatively coupled to a data network and a signalling server operatively coupled to the data network. The user agents are telephony endpoints, such as standalone Internet telephony appliances or personal computers with appropriate telephony software. A messaging server is provided which is operatively coupled to the data network and is responsive to the signaling server. The system also includes a media server which is operatively coupled to the network and includes computer data storage media for storing message files. The media server is responsive to the messaging server and, on occurrence of a message condition, is directly accessible to a calling party to store a message file for subsequent retrieval by a called party.
US08675830B2
A method and apparatus for delivering information to a subscriber involved in an active telephony session is provided. A message originating from a sender and directed to the subscriber is received. Information related to the message is delivered to the subscriber by interrupting the active telephony session involving the subscriber.
US08675825B1
Systems and methods for secure recording in a customer center environment are provided. The system receives data related to a communication at a media distribution device. A key is provided by a key server to the media distribution device to encrypt the received data. In addition, an identifier may be associated with the received data. The key and the identifier are stored in a database associated with the key server. The encrypted data is recorded the a recorder, where it is accessible to authorized users within the customer center. Upon request, the key is provided to the authorized user to decrypt the encrypted data for play back. The customer center environment may include a user interface for viewing customer contacts. The contact may be organized into folders and annotations associated with the customer contacts may be received.
US08675822B2
Methods and systems are disclosed to dispatch service resources in a communication network. An example method disclosed herein receives a notice of error for a user service, identifies equipment associated with the user service, analyzes the equipment to generate a dispatch instruction, and automatically executes the dispatch instruction in response to the equipment analysis.
US08675819B2
Integral liquid-coolant passageways in an x-ray tube. In one example embodiment, an x-ray tube includes a can at least partially defining an evacuated enclosure, a cathode at least partially positioned within the evacuated enclosure, and an anode at least partially positioned within the evacuated enclosure. The can has first integral liquid-coolant passageways formed therein. The can is configured to have a liquid coolant circulated through the first integral liquid-coolant passageways to thereby cool the can without the can being submersed in a liquid coolant.
US08675813B2
The solid-state imaging device comprises a photodetecting section having M×N pixel portions P1,1 to PM,N two-dimensionally arranged in a matrix of M rows and N columns. A pixel portion Pm,n of the photodetecting section includes a photodiode PD generating charge of an amount according to an incident light intensity and a reading-out switch SW1 connected to the photodiode PD. The photodetecting section includes plural dummy photodiodes PD1 arranged around one pixel portion without not completely surrounding the one pixel portion, and each dummy photodiode PD1 is provided in a region surrounded by any two pixel portions adjacent to one another.
US08675812B1
A configuration of logic elements enables existing Serial-In-Parallel-Out (SIPO) shift registers to perform their own bit count, report the receipt of a valid transmission consisting of an expected number of bits and report the receipt of an invalid transmission consisting of greater than the expected number of bits. Logic elements additional to the foregoing enable SIPO shift registers to receive valid transmissions of varying expected numbers of bits. Special purpose integrated circuits (ICs) are disclosed which also contain the aforementioned configurations of logic elements. Newly designed SIPO shift registers which contain within them the foregoing configurations of logic elements are further disclosed. Potential messages of multiple acceptable message lengths are accommodated. Some embodiments are equipped with tri-state data outputs.
US08675803B2
The invention relates to a plug device for jet pumps installed in nuclear power plant vessels, which comprises two covers (1-2) that form two independent plug units, one fitted on the even pump, which incorporates two plugs (6), and the other on the odd pump of each jet pump assembly, which incorporates three plugs (6), both mounted on a common base (3) at the end of respective arms (4), articulated in the central area, which are actuated by mechanical or hydropneumatic means. The plugs may be blind, in which case they are used to seal the five outlets of the nozzle of the jet pump, or channeled, being used to close the decontamination circuit of the recirculation loops, preventing the cleaning solution from being dispersed in the reactor.
US08675784B1
A method for detecting communications from multiple transmission antennas includes receiving a signal with at least one receive antenna, wherein the signal comprises data transmitted from at least one of the transmission antennas, calculating an equalized received signal and an equalized channel matrix using the signal and a channel matrix, determining whether a correlation factor threshold value is exceeded, and based on the act of determining, generating a listed based log likelihood ratio (LLR) soft output or a MMSE LLR soft output based on the equalized received signal and the equalized channel matrix.
US08675782B2
A receiver may be operable to receive a QAM-based, inter-symbol correlated (ISC) signal having pilot overhead of 5% at a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The receiver may be operable to process the QAM-based, ISC signal to output information at a particular rate with a symbol error rate lower than or equal to 1e−2. The first SNR may be at least 3 dB below a SNR required to achieve the same particular information rate and the same symbol error rate while processing a signal having zero inter-symbol interference.
US08675779B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for communicating using harmonic tones. In one aspect, a method includes receiving harmonic tones that represent data being reported by a node that generated the harmonic tones; selecting data that are represented by each of the harmonic tones; and providing the data that are represented by the harmonic tones.
US08675775B1
A unified system of programming communication. The system encompasses the prior art (television, radio, broadcast hardcopy, computer communications, etc.) and new user specific mass media. Within the unified system, parallel processing computer systems, each having an input (e.g., 77) controlling a plurality of computers (e.g., 205), generate and output user information at receiver stations. Under broadcast control, local computers (73, 205), combine user information selectively into prior art communications to exhibit personalized mass media programming at video monitors (202), speakers (263), printers (221), etc. At intermediate transmission stations (e.g., cable television stations), signals in network broadcasts and from local inputs (74, 77, 97, 98) cause control processors (71) and computers (73) to selectively automate connection and operation of receivers (53), recorder/players (76), computers (73), generators (82), strippers (81), etc. At receiver stations, signals in received transmissions and from local inputs (225, 218, 22) cause control processors (200) and computers (205) to automate connection and operation of converters (201), tuners (215), decryptors (224), recorder/players (217), computers (205), furnaces (206), etc. Processors (71, 200) meter and monitor availability and usage of programming.
US08675774B2
A method of transmitting data in a wireless communication system from a transmitter to a receiver, including the steps of modulating data at the transmitter using a first signal constellation pattern to obtain a first data symbol. The first data symbol is transmitted to the receiver using a first diversity branch. Further, the data is modulated at the transmitter using a second signal constellation pattern to obtain a second data symbol. Then, the second data symbol is transmitted to the receiver over a second diversity path. Finally, the received first and second data symbols are diversity combined at the receiver. A transmitter and a receiver are embodied to carry out the method above.
US08675766B2
A method of transmitting pilot signals by a transmitter in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna system using an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme includes allocating pilot subcarrier locations within a resource block including OFDM symbols in a time domain and subcarriers in a frequency domain based on variables of ‘18k’, ‘9mi’ and ‘floor (ns/2)’, wherein ‘k’ indicates a subchannel index, ‘ns’ indicates a symbol index, ‘mi’ corresponds to ‘(ns+i)mod 2’, ‘i’ indicates an antenna index, wherein ‘floor (n)’ denotes a greatest integer that is not greater than ‘n’; and transmitting the pilot signals to a receiver based on the allocated pilot subcarrier locations.
US08675749B2
A system and method is provided for estimating the channel in OFDM transmission with inter-carrier interference (ICI). A channel in a data subcarrier in a subchannel shared between pilot subcarriers and data subcarriers can be estimated by performing interpolation based on estimated channels in pilot subcarriers in the same OFDM symbol as the subcarrier, such as through spline interpolation. A second estimate of the channel in the subcarrier can be produced by averaging an estimate of the channel in a subcarrier in the subchannel in a previous OFDM symbol and an estimate of the channel in a subcarrier in the subchannel in a succeeding OFDM symbol. A third estimate of the channel in the subcarrier can be produced through a linear combination of the first estimate and the second estimate. The channel in data subcarriers can be estimated through a weighted sum of the channel in nearest subcarriers.
US08675745B2
A method for detecting the presence of an OFDM signal in a received signal wherein said received signal is down converted into baseband and subjected to a passband filtering corresponding to a band of interest before being sampled. The thus sampled signal is subjected to a second filtering for eliminating at least one interfering line in the band of interest. The presence of an OFDM signal is detected if the signal filtered by the second filtering is cyclostationary.
US08675734B2
Discussed are a method and an apparatus of encoding/decoding by using a bit precision. In accordance to an aspect of the present invention, it is possible to encoding and decoding an image or a video by using a bit precision. Accordingly, compression efficiency can be improved and the decoding complexity can be reduced by encoding/decoding video data by use of the bit precision.
US08675732B2
A method and an apparatus of compressing image data are provided. The method of compressing data comprises calculating differences between values of predetermined pixels from among pixels constructing an image and values of reference pixels respectively corresponding to the predetermined pixels; ordering bits, which correspond to bit strings of the differences, into bit planes; and coding the bit planes according to priority of the bit planes.
US08675724B2
A method for updating a tap coefficient of a decision feedback equalizer is provided. The method includes sampling a first input signal received by a sampler of a decision feedback equalizer. It is determined if an amplitude of the first input signal falls within a range defined between a first predetermined voltage level and a second predetermined voltage level. If the amplitude of the first input signal falls outside the range, a tap coefficient is updated to generate an updated tap coefficient that is fed back to adjust an amplitude of a second input signal received at an input end of the decision feedback equalizer. If the amplitude of the first input signal falls within the range, the tap coefficient is free from being updated.
US08675714B2
Distortions of both amplitude and phase along a transmission line are compensated for by a trace canceller inserted between a transmitter and a receiver. The trace canceller has an equalizer that compensates for a trace length between the transmitter and the trace canceller. A variable gain amplifier between the equalizer and an output buffer has its gain controlled by an automatic gain control circuit that compares low-frequency swings of the input and output of the trace canceller. The gain of the variable gain amplifier is reduced to prevent the output buffer from saturating and clipping peak voltages on its output. Thus both the variable gain amplifier and the output buffer remain in the linear region. Training pulses from the transmitter are passed through the trace canceller without clipping of peak voltages, allowing the transmitter and receiver to adjust transmission parameters to best match the transmission line.
US08675712B1
In accordance with the teachings described herein, system and methods are provided for a GPS PRN code interpolation scheme with a reduced memory requirement. An example GPS receiver system may include a memory, a local PRN code generator, and an interpolator. The memory may be used to store GPS PRN code received from a global positioning satellite. The local PRN code generator generates a replica PRN code having a repeating code that includes at least a first epoch and a second epoch. The interpolator determines an offset point in the first epoch of replica PRN code and interpolates the replica PRN code at a predetermined sample rate to generate an interpolated replica PRN code for use in correlating with the GPS PRN code.
US08675708B2
Provided is a laser oscillation apparatus capable of stabilizing resonance even when finesse of an optical resonator is increased and generating stronger laser light than that of a traditional apparatus by accumulating laser light in the optical resonator. The laser oscillation apparatus includes a laser light source which generates laser light for excitation, a fiber amplifier which generates laser light with a desired wavelength when the laser light generated at the laser light source for excitation is supplied, an optical resonator, an optical isolator which is interposed between the optical resonator and the fiber amplifier and which guides the laser light from the fiber amplifier to one side of the optical resonator while blocking laser light in the opposite direction, a circulation optical path which accelerates resonance as introducing laser light emitted from the other side of the optical resonator and returning the laser light to the optical resonator via the fiber amplifier and the optical isolator, and a modulator which performs amplitude modulation on the laser light in the circulation optical path.
US08675704B2
The present disclosure relates to a diode laser and a method for producing the same. In one embodiment, the diode laser, comprises a passive pedestal layer structure, an active ridge layer structure positioned over the passive pedestal layer structure, a p-contact contacting a top side of the active ridge layer structure, a first n-contact disposed on a first side of the active ridge layer structure, a second n-contact disposed on a second side of the active ridge layer structure and, an n-final-metal layer connecting the first n-contact metal and the second n-contact metal, wherein the n-final-metal layer is continuous over the active ridge layer structure.
US08675701B2
The present invention relates to opto-isolators. Opto-isolators are disclosed that include a transmitter package and a vertical VCSEL disposed within the transmitter package. The opto-isolators further include a receiver package and a photodetector disposed within the receiver package. The photodetector is optically coupled to the VCSEL and configured to receive an output optical signal generated by the VCSEL. The opto-isolators further include an alignment package configured to receive the transmitter package and the receiver package. In another embodiment, opto-isolators include a VCSEL and a photodetector optically coupled to the VCSEL and configured to receive an output optical signal generated by the VCSEL. The opto-isolators further include a package enclosing both the VCSEL and the photodetector.
US08675697B2
A master oscillator system may include a grating configured to function as one resonator mirror in an optical resonator, a spectral bandwidth tuning unit configured to tune the spectral bandwidth of a laser beam transmitted within the optical resonator, a storage unit configured to store a control value of the spectral bandwidth tuning unit corresponding to a desired spectral bandwidth and a controller configured to control the spectral bandwidth tuning unit based on the control value stored in the storage unit.
US08675692B2
A base station resets a wireless signal processing time depending on the processing capability of a terminal, and determines the transmission position of a feedback signal for a data packet using the reset wireless signal processing time and transmits the same to the terminal. If the feedback signal indicates the success of reception of the data packet, the data packet can be processed using the reset wireless signal processing time, and the wireless signal processing time can be reset to a smaller value.
US08675685B2
A semiconductor device comprising interface logic for transmitting data bursts across an interface. The interface logic is arranged to transmit bursts of data across the interface such that the start of a burst of data is substantially aligned with a symbol interval (SI) boundary. The interface logic is further arranged to apply an offset to the SI boundary at the start of the burst of data.
US08675683B2
A method and circuit for implementing end-to-end credit management for enhanced large packet reassembly in an interconnect system, and a design structure on which the subject circuit resides are provided. A transport layer provides buffering and credit control for a super packet received from a source device. A source transport layer sends an End-to-End (ETE) credit request message to a destination transport layer for an outstanding super packet transmission to a destination device. The destination transport layer grants credit to allow at least one source to send a super packet to the destination. The source transport layer fragments the super packet into multiple packets and sends all packets of the super packet only responsive to the credit request being granted by the destination transport layer that is needed to send all packets of the super packet.
US08675676B2
The network system includes a controller (10) and a plurality of terminals (20). The controller (10) sends a first request signal (41) which indicates a first limited time period defining a range within which the controller (10) receives signals respectively from the terminals (20) of which the number is identical to the maximum number of the terminals (20). Upon receiving the first request signal (41), the terminal (20) sends a first response signal (51) within the first limited time period. The controller (10) determines a total number of the terminals (20) on the basis of the number of the first response signals (51) received within the first limited time period, thereby determining a second limited time period defining a range within which the controller (10) receives signals respectively from the terminals (20) of which the number is identical to the total number of the terminals (20). The controller (10) sends the second request signal (42) which indicates the second limited time period. Upon receiving the second request signal (42), the terminal (20) sends a second response signal (52) within the second limited time period.
US08675672B1
A Hierarchical Cluster Tree (HCT) overlay network reflects underlying physical network topology including inter-node distances (e.g., hop count), and an HCT structure groups nodes based on distance measurements. Local area networks (LANs) are basic building blocks. The network includes first and second level-1 clusters of LANs, each LAN including computerized data processing and/or storage nodes. A distance between LANs in the level-1 clusters is less than or equal to a predefined level-1 maximum distance. The LANs of the first and second level-1 clusters form a level-2 cluster of LANs in which a distance between cluster medoid nodes of the level-1 clusters is less than or equal to a predefined level-2 maximum distance greater than the level-1 maximum distance. Clustering can be extended to higher levels having successively greater maximum distances.
US08675656B2
In one embodiment, service routers may register their serviced VPNs with a service directory/broker (SDB), and edge routers may register their attached VPNs. The SDB may then return service headers, each corresponding to a particular VPN, and also returns an address of a service router corresponding to each service header to the edge routers. An edge router may then push an appropriate service header onto a received packet, and forward the packet to the corresponding service router, which forwards the packet based on a maintained VRF for a VPN according to the service header (e.g., thus the edge routers need only maintain limited/reduced VRFs). Also, services provided by the service routers may be distinguished using service headers accordingly. In this manner, the edge routers may forward packets requiring one or more desired services to service routers configured to perform such services.
US08675655B2
The invention relates to a telecommunication network having IP packet-supporting capabilities, which includes a load distribution processing function, either centralized or distributed, by means of which a load distribution function may be applied to sets of paths between network nodes or sets of links of network trunks. The load distribution processing function handles different load distribution functions. Each of the different load distribution functions is associated to a different network input unit involved in the load distribution for a set of paths between network nodes or a set of trunk links. The invention also relates to a method of load distribution in a telecommunication network as summarized above.
US08675653B2
A system and method are provided for providing both static and dynamic IP multicasting. When a router receives a PIM message or an IGMP message, the router determines whether the group specified in the message is within the multicast Static-Range. If the group pertains to a static multicasting group, the router does not propagate the message to upstream routers and only connects or disconnects interfaces internal to the router. If the multicast group address in the message is not within the multicast Static-Range, the router implements PIM or IGMP protocols. If the invention is used for broadcasting TV, the low end of TB channels or commonly used channels can be created as static IP multicast. This way, a user can access or leave such channels without an entire shortest path tree being created or torn down, improving access time and channel surfing for a user.
US08675652B2
Network devices and methods are provided for packet processing. One method includes using logic embedded in an application specific integrated circuit on a network device to dynamically adjust an access control list. According to the method, the access control list is adjusted in response to information received from a checking functionality related to packets received by the network device from a particular port. The method also includes handling packets later received from the particular port according to the adjusted access control list.
US08675649B2
In an audio network system constructed from a main node and a plurality of satellite nodes each having a plurality of ports, the main node generates and transmits a main packet including audio signals of a plurality of channels. Each satellite node selects one of the plurality of ports in turn, and confirms whether the main packet arrives at the selected port every predetermined period or not. When the main packet arrives at the selected port every predetermined period, the main packet is received via the port by continuing selection of the port. In the case where reception of the main packet is lost, one is selected from the plurality of ports in turn, the operation to confirm arrival of the main packet is restarted, and another port at which the main packet arrives at the present stage is automatically found.
US08675645B2
A method for operating a wireless mesh data network with multiple nodes, wherein data frames are transmitted from a source node via one or more intermediate nodes to a destination node, wherein the source node, the one or more intermediate nodes, and the destination node constitute network nodes of the data network, wherein during transmission of a data frame, at least some of the network nodes which receive the data frame, using a precursor list for the destination nodes which is assigned to the destination nodes of the data frame, check whether the network node sending the data frame is in the precursor list, and wherein in the case of a positive result, the data frame is transmitted to a further network node, and in the case of a negative result, the data frame is thrown out or processed by an error recovery routine.
US08675643B2
An IP telephone system includes a first IP telephone terminal and a second IP telephone terminal. IP telephone communications are established between the first and second IP telephone terminals via Internet when the second IP telephone terminal has acquired identification data identifying the first IP telephone terminal. The second IP telephone terminal further acquires terminal data identifying a function that the first IP telephone terminal can control via Internet. The first IP telephone terminal receives from the second IP telephone terminal data instructing to execute the function that the first IP telephone terminal can control. Then, the first IP telephone terminal controls execution of the function identified by the data received from the second IP telephone terminal.
US08675638B2
The invention provides a method and apparatus for enabling DTMF signal processing in the core VoIP network. More specifically, the present invention enables a VoIP network to recognize and respond to special DTMF signals entered by a user and initiate the appropriate service logic response to satisfy the user's service request.
US08675637B2
Disclosed are a method, apparatus and system for interworking between H.320 or H.324 and SIP. The method comprises receiving a SIP message indicative of capabilities supported by a first endpoint device and deferring responding to the SIP message. The method further comprises receiving from a second endpoint device an H.320 or H.324 message indicative of the capabilities supported by the second endpoint device in response thereto responding to the SIP message thereby to establish a media communication channel between the first and second endpoint devices based on their respective capabilities.
US08675634B2
Methods, systems, and devices are described for synchronization in mesh satellite communications. The arrival time of the gateway signal may be used to set a start of receive frame time for a terminal. A received control signal from the gateway may then be used to set a start of transmit frame time for the user terminal. The distance between the satellite and the gateway may change. Ephemeris data, various collections of terminal measurements, or terminal sync bursts may be used to modify start of transmit frame or start of receive frame settings for the terminal or gateway.
US08675633B2
A wireless communication apparatus includes: a communication module configured to wirelessly communicate with first and second counterpart communication apparatuses through a wireless channel during a period in which the wireless channel is allowed to be exclusively used, wherein the communication module multiplexes first and second data frames and transmits the first and second data frames to the first and second counterpart communication apparatuses, wherein the communication module completes receiving first and second receipt confirmation frames being respectively sent from the first and second counterpart communication apparatuses at first and second receipt completion timings, the second receipt completion timing being in synchronization with the first receipt completion timing, and wherein the communication module transmits a next first data frame and a next second data frame after elapse of a given time from the first receipt completion timing and the second receipt completion timing.
US08675630B2
Disclosed are systems, methods and computer program products for facilitating multiplexing of simultaneous multiple connections between a mobile device and its IP mobility anchors, such as mobile IP home agents or proxy mobile IP local mobility anchors. An example method comprises assigning a unique IP mobility anchor identifier to each IP mobility anchor associated with the mobile device. The method further comprises negotiating an IP flow reservation for each IP mobility anchor identifier and signaling a request to associate each negotiated IP flow with an IP tunnel to a particular IP mobility anchor. The method further comprises sending packets through each negotiated IP flow and associated IP tunnel to each IP mobility anchor.
US08675629B2
A system and method of extending the range of a vehicle telematics unit includes determining that a vehicle telematics unit is outside of a geographic range beyond which time division multiple access (TDMA) transmissions sent from the vehicle telematics unit to a base station arrive at the base station after a time slot allocated to the vehicle telematics unit in a time frame has passed; calculating a time delay that causes the TDMA transmissions to arrive at the base station in the allocated time slot of a subsequent time frame; and sending TDMA transmissions from the vehicle telematics unit at a time determined using the time delay.
US08675626B2
Provided are a radio terminal, a radio base station, a channel signal forming method, and a channel signal receiving method, by which the number of blinds in the processing for receiving allocation control information is reduced without causing disadvantage regarding the reception of a broadcast channel signal. In a base station (100), an information size adjustment unit (103) uses, in a common search space in a downlink additional unit band, the larger of the information size of downlink allocation control information determined from the bandwidth of a downlink additional unit band and the information size of uplink allocation control information determined from the bandwidth of an uplink unit band associated with the downlink additional unit band by a broadcast channel signal transmitted in the downlink additional unit band, as a size adjustment reference, and uses, in a UE specific search space, the larger of the information size of the downlink allocation control information determined from the bandwidth of the downlink additional unit band and the information size of the uplink allocation control information determined from the bandwidth of the uplink unit band of a unit band group, as the size adjustment reference.
US08675623B2
Techniques for use in contending for a portion of a television channel spectrum are disclosed. In some instances, a back-off value is used to decide whether a contender's contention number will be transmitted when the contention channel is free, and the back-off value is determined based on the contention number. In some instances, a contender monitors the contention channel and withdraws from contention if it detects from the contention channel that a higher priority contender is in contention.
US08675622B2
In a wireless local area network including an access controller (AC) and an access points (AP), the AC transmits a functionality inquiry to the AP. Upon receiving the inquiry, the AP transmits a query response including the functional capabilities of the AP. The AC then generates a map of the functional capabilities present in the network based on the inquiry response. Conflicting or redundant functional capabilities are identified and are disabled, enabled, or reconfigured by instructions from the AC. The AC may selectively enable and/or disable functional capabilities at nodes in the network to provide a more balanced load on the network, and to provide for load sharing by allocating functionalities between and among network nodes having common functional capabilities to satisfy a variety of situations encountered in the network.
US08675618B2
A logical channel establishment method for a mobile terminal is provided for improving network connection possibility and connection reliability. A logical channel establishment method of the present invention includes transmitting a resource request message for establishing a logical connection to an unlicensed wireless access network via a base station; retransmitting, when a resource request rejection message is received or no response message is received before a timer expires, the resource request message after a retry timer expires; and repeating retransmission of the resource request message a threshold number of retransmission times until a logical connection is established.
US08675615B2
A method and system for temperature-driven airlink selection in a multi-mode wireless device is disclosed. The method may include monitoring a temperature in the multi-mode wireless device while the multi-mode wireless device operates in a first airlink mode, determining whether to switch the airlink mode of the multi-mode wireless device in response to a change in the monitored temperature, and switching the multi-mode wireless device to operate in a second airlink mode in response to a determination to switch the airlink mode.
US08675596B2
A method for resource reservation in a wireless communication system is provided. A plurality of physical resource units (PRUs) is provided and a reserved region is reserved. The reserved region is greater than or equal to a frequency band size of a subband which is a unit of contiguous PRUs in a frequency domain among the plurality of PRUs.
US08675595B2
A coordination node in a communication system, a communication system and methods for operating the communication system which allows data transmission with a guaranteed latency even when there are a relatively large number of network nodes, wherein a plurality of network nodes in the communication system are combined to form a group. The network nodes in the group are allocated a respective common address, and at least one guaranteed timeslot within a transmission frame is made available to the network nodes in the group solely for use for the data transmission by assigning it to the common address.
US08675591B2
Disclosed in the present invention are a method for mobile reception of a multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) by a user equipment and a user equipment. The method includes: when a UE moves from a source cell to a target cell, the UE judges whether the UE will move out of or has already moved out of one or more multimedia broadcast multicast single frequency network (MBSFN) areas.
US08675589B2
A method for a base station to transmit a channel-state-information reference signal for up to 8 antenna ports includes mapping, in accordance with a predetermined pattern, the channel-state-information reference signal for up to 8 antenna ports onto a data region of a downlink subframe having an extended cyclic prefix (CP) structure, and transmitting the downlink subframe onto which the channel-state-information reference signal for up to 8 antenna ports has been mapped; and, in the predetermined pattern, the channel-state-information reference signal for up to 8 antenna ports in mapped onto 2 OFDM symbols on the data region of the downlink subframe, with a definition for mapping onto at least one of 4 subcarrier wave positions in each of the 2 OFDM symbols, and the 4 subcarrier wave positions defined in the predetermined pattern can be disposed at 3 subcarrier wave intervals.
US08675587B2
A method and apparatus for selecting a bandwidth option for a cell in a network are disclosed. For example, the method obtains, for the cell, network traffic data for a geographical area for mobility traffic and fixed wireless traffic, a physical characteristic of an antenna in the geographical area, and a type of connectivity at a customer premise, determines a busy time data traffic from the network traffic data for both the fixed wireless traffic and the mobility traffic, determines, for the cell, a cell range from the physical characteristic of the antenna and the type of connectivity at the customer premise, selects a bandwidth option from a plurality of bandwidth options, and determines an average throughput in accordance with the bandwidth option that is selected and the cell range, wherein the average throughput comprises a throughput for serving both the mobility traffic and the fixed wireless traffic.
US08675585B2
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system. More particularly, the present invention discloses a method and apparatus for monitoring a downlink control channel in a wireless communication system which supports multiple carriers. According to one embodiment of the present invention, provided is a method in which a user equipment that supports carrier aggregation for performing communication through the use of a plurality of component carriers monitors a downlink control channel, wherein said method comprises the steps of: receiving, from a base station, setup information for a specific component carrier among the plurality of component carriers; starting a timer in accordance with the control signal received through the downlink control channel; and monitoring the downlink control channel through the specific component carrier and deactivating the rest of the plurality of component carriers when timer expires.
US08675583B2
A method of performing wireless communication in a multi-carrier system by a User Equipment (UE) comprises receiving minimum aggregation information on at least one carrier which is determined as a default irrespective of carriers supportable by the UE, configuring the at least one carrier on a basis of the minimum aggregation information, and performing communication using the at least one carrier.
US08675575B2
Channel sounding for spatial division multiple access (SDMA) under the IEEE 802.11 protocol is described.
US08675573B2
Management of uplink resources in a wireless communication is presented. In one embodiment, management of uplink resources comprises receiving a multi-bit acknowledge (multi-bit A/N) that is available for uplink transmission and receiving other information that is available for uplink transmission along with the multi-bit A/N. Next, it is determined whether a condition has been met. If the condition has been met, an uplink message is created comprising the multi-bit A/N but dropping the other information. If the condition has not been met, an uplink message is created which jointly codes the multi-bit A/N and the other information. The uplink message is then transmitted to a receiver.
US08675572B1
Methods and systems for periodically transmitting traffic channel assignment (TCA) messages in a radio access network are disclosed herein. An exemplary method involves (a) periodically transmitting a capsule that includes one or more TCA messages, wherein an async timer specifies a period that is used to periodically transmit the capsule; and (b) using one or more backhaul-latency indicators as a basis for determining the period that is used to periodically transmit the capsule. The method may further comprise periodically repeating (b) in order to dynamically update the async timer to reflect changes in backhaul latency.
US08675562B2
A system, method, and computer readable medium for processing a call setup in a network system are provided. A femtocell system receives a call origination for a call to be terminated with a user equipment serviced by the femtocell system from a core network, transmits a page message to the user equipment, performs a service connection with the user equipment, creates a connection for the core network, and completes the call setup with the user equipment.
US08675561B2
A method of determining a distance between a first wireless device and a second wireless device is provided. In this method, a location symbol can be generated by filtering and modulating a pseudorandom (PRN) code. The location symbol can be provided in a data field of a legacy wireless packet to form a first location packet. The first location packet can be transmitted from the first wireless device to the second wireless device. A second location packet can be transmitted from the second wireless device to the first wireless device, wherein the second location packet is substantially identical to the first location packet. An effective roundtrip time between the first and second wireless devices can be determined based on the first and second location packets. The distance between the first and second wireless devices can be computed using this roundtrip time.
US08675558B2
An evolved Node B (eNB) in a 3GPP LTE-based network receives Channel State Information-Reference Signal (CSI-RS) from a User Equipment (UE) that is configured with Precoder Matrix Indicator (PMI) disabled. A channel is estimated between the eNB and the UE for link adaptation in Transmission Mode 9 (TM9) based on CSI-RS by the UE and SRS by the eNB. CQI is calculated at UE such that if a number of CSI-RS antenna ports equals one, TM9 transmission from the eNB to the UE uses a predetermined single antenna port. If the number of CSI-RS antenna ports equals two, TM9 transmission from the eNB to the UE uses transmit diversity. If the number of CSI-RS antenna ports does not equal one or two, TM9 transmission from the eNB to the UE uses spatial multiplexing based on a rank-1 precoder that is determined from a wideband channel covariance matrix R.
US08675548B2
Provided is an apparatus and method for providing a packet service in a mobile communication system. An RNC broadcasts an SIB signal including Always-On availability information. Upon receipt of an RRC connection request message for requesting an Always-On mode, the RNC maintains a preservation state in communication with a core network. A UE detects the Always-On availability information in the SIB signal received from the RNC to determine whether the Always-On mode is available. If the Always-On mode is available, the UE generates the RRC connection request message to transmit the generated RRC connection request message to the RNC.
US08675547B2
According to one embodiment of the invention, a method comprises transmitting a Layer 2 (L2) frame from a first wireless device. Upon receipt of a frame in response to the L2 frame, the first wireless device uses information conveyed in the frame to modify its functionality.
US08675542B2
A method of operating a relay station in a wireless communication system is provided. The method includes operating in a first mode comprising a first sub-mode and a second sub-mode, in the first sub-mode a first downlink and a first uplink between a base station and the relay station being simultaneously activated, in the second sub-mode a second downlink and a second uplink between the relay station and a mobile station being simultaneously activated, and operating in a second mode comprising a third sub-mode and a fourth sub-mode, in the third sub-mode the first downlink and the second uplink being simultaneously activated, in the fourth sub-mode the first uplink and the second downlink being simultaneously activated.
US08675536B2
Systems and methods are described for configuring customer premises equipment in a wireless network in response to reconnection of subscriber station to a base station. A set of rules is provided that governs configuration of a network interface based in part on whether the interface connects to a different base station after reconnection. Reconfiguration may include cycling power of the network interface and the decision to cycle power may be based on network configuration determined after the loss of communication. This decision can be made after the loss of communication and after the network interface is reconnected to the wireless network through the same or a different base station. The rules may be processed by a combination of subscriber equipment, network interface and base station. Power may be cycled responsive to a message transmitted by the one base station to the network interface.
US08675533B2
The present invention discloses a method for determining a radio frame bearing a multimedia broadcast multicast service notification message, including: a sending end configuring a Multicast Control Channel (MCCH) Modification Period (MCCHMP), a period coefficient (PeriodCoeff) and a notification message offset (NotificationOffset), and when a system frame number (SFN) modulo a ratio of the MCCHMP to the PeriodCoeff is equal to the NotificationOffset, a radio frame corresponding to a value of said SFN is the radio frame of sending the Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) notification message. The present invention obtains the radio frame of sending the MBMS notification message by less MCCH information, so that the receiving and analyzing processes of the terminal save power.
US08675529B2
Apparatus, systems, and methods disclosed herein operate to provide wireless communication between personal mobile communication (PMC) devices. An emulated wireless access point (AP) at a first PMC device (PMC1) establishes a first tunneled direct link setup (TDLS) session between a first station module (STA1) incorporated into the PMC1 and a second station module (STA2) incorporated into a second PMC device (PMC2). Following establishment of the TDLS session, the wireless AP is allowed to sleep; and most infrastructure management duties are handled by the STA1 during the session. PMC device battery charge may be conserved as a result. The emulated wireless AP may also establish a second TDLS link to a third station module (STA3) incorporated into a third PMC device (PMC3). The STA1 may then bridge data traffic flow between the STA2 and the STA3. Such bridging operation may enable communication between two PMC devices otherwise unable to decode data received from the other.
US08675517B2
Embodiments of the present application enable a user to map a network topology and to then dynamically filter the map display by hiding or showing nodes based on discovery characteristics, such as Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) status, Active Directory (AD) Domain Controllers (DC) status, group membership status, etc. to allow customization of maps views. In particular, a topology mapping is formed by collecting topology data of a network and storing this topology data. Filtering criteria are received from a user, and the stored topology data is filtered using this received filtering criteria. The filtered topology data is then displayed to the user.
US08675503B2
Embodiments of the invention enable a large number of wireless communication networks to be efficiently used while the size of a device operated by a user is reduced and power is saved by providing a communication terminal whose connection with different wireless communication networks can be dynamically reconfigured. A communication terminal whose connection with a plurality of wireless communication networks can be dynamically reconfigured is provided with a data communication aggregation device, a communication application executing device, and a local communication path therebetween. The data communication aggregation device interfaces with the plurality of wireless communication networks and communicates with the communication application executing device through the local communication path. The communication application executing device executes an application for communicating with an outside communication network.
US08675492B2
The present invention relates to a method and a base station (14, 700) for load balancing in Semi-Persistent Scheduling, SPS transmission. The method can comprise to activate downlink or uplink SPS transmission for a User Equipment (12, step 204), and to obtain information about transmission load comprising SPS transmission or HARQ ACK/NACK responses to SPS transmissions, on a Physical Shared or Control Channel (steps 206; 402; 406; 502, 504, 508, 510). Based on the obtained information it is determined for which subframe within a duration of T subframes, the transmission load comprising SPS transmission or HARQ ACK/NACK response to SPS transmissions, on a Physical Shared Channel or on a Physical Control Channel is the lowest within the duration of T subframes (steps 208; 404; 408; 506, 512, 514). SPS transmission is then scheduled to be valid in the determined subframe having the lowest SPS transmission load on the Physical Shared Channel or to be valid in a subframe causing the HARQ ACK/NACK responses to the SPS transmissions to be transmitted in the subframe having the lowest of HARQ ACK/NACK responses to the SPS transmissions, within the duration of T subframes (step 210). This load balancing provides a number of advantages comprising less postponed scheduling, less unused subframes and less collisions on said channels.
US08675485B2
A Multi-Homing System is equipped with an Adaptive ISP Access Cloud State Detection apparatus (ACSD) that improves the reliability of the availability of digital connections (links) between computer sites, such as a Computer Premises Network and the Internet, in which such connections are made by connecting through a multiplicity of ISP Access Clouds (links). Reliability is improved over prior art methods by using data elements of Internet Protocol data-grams, e.g. record fields or bits of fields, that are regularly and normally exchanged between the ISP Access Clouds and the CPN without creating additional data traffic. Data Elements from each ISP Access Cloud are used by processing functions of the by the ACSD to test for conditions that indicate that it may be in a DOWN status. when a DOWN status is suspected, other functions in the ACSD initiate transmission of a set of PROBE packets that can reliably determine if the suspect link is actually DOWN or merely giving a response that would be interpreted as DOWN by prior art methods.
US08675477B2
The present invention provides an address refreshing method and device of the Ethernet ring network, and the method comprises: when a current node state of each node in the Ethernet ring network is a protection state, if a failure of a first link in the Ethernet ring network disappears, transmitting a No Request (NR) protocol message indicating that the link failure disappears through node(s) connected with the first link; a node in the Ethernet ring network which receives the NR protocol message switching the node state of the node into a pending state; and when the current node state of each node in the Ethernet ring network is the pending state, if a link failure appears in the Ethernet ring network, transmitting a link failure notification (SF) protocol message through node(s) connected with the failed link; a node in the Ethernet ring network which receives the SF protocol message switching the node state of the node into the protection state, and refreshing an address forwarding table according to address refreshing information carried in the SF protocol message.
US08675476B2
A communication session between a first communication device and a second communication device is hosted in an Internet Protocol (IP) based packet data network. A contact server functions as a bridge service between the first communication device and the second communication device. A communication link between the first communication device and the contact server or the second communication device and the contact server is initially a voice-over IP (VoIP) communication link over a wireless data network comprised of a first packet data media stream. The contact server receives the first packet data media stream and at least one other packet data media stream from the first communication device and combines them into a single packet data media stream before transmitting the combined single packet data media stream to the second communication device.
US08675472B2
A network management system has a bus and a system controller connected to the bus. The bus has a plurality of fixed ports, where each of the ports is capable of connecting a router card to the system controller. A method of sending a file from the system controller to a router card includes receiving a request packet from the router card where the request packet includes a file type and the port address, identifying the file from the file type and the port address, and sending the file to the router card. The system controller has a memory storing the location of files associated with each of the port addresses, a request receiver for receiving a request for a file of a file type from a router card, an identifier for identifying a file, and a sender for sending the identified file to the router card. The router card has a memory for storing an operating system image and a configuration, and a request sender for sending a request for an operating system image and a configuration to the system controller upon power-up of the router card.
US08675471B2
A method for constructing a space-time/space-frequency code, and a transmitting method and apparatus are provided, which relate to the field of wireless communication technologies. The method for constructing a space-time/space-frequency code includes: classifying at least two transmitter antennas into K groups, and classifying information symbols into K′ groups; constructing a Toeplitz matrix for information symbols in each group according to the number of transmitter antennas in a transmitter antenna group; and substituting the Toeplitz matrix for nonzero elements in an Orthogonal Space-Time Block Coding (OSTBC) matrix that is based on K and K′, and when the OSTBC matrix comprises a zero element, substituting a zero matrix with a corresponding dimension, for the zero element. The space-time code constructed with the above method has orthogonality.
US08675468B2
An Ethernet link may comprise a plurality of active and/or silent channels. Training of one or more link partners for one or more silent channels may be triggered based on monitoring training parameters for an active channel. The link partners may be trained for the silent channels and link partners corresponding to the silent channels may be configured according to the training. Training parameters for an active channel may be compared to a threshold or relative change value. The threshold or relative change value may be fixed, may be based on measurement results and/or may be programmable. The link partners may be configured for silent channels for an echo canceller, a far-end crosstalk canceller and/or a near-end crosstalk canceller. The silent channels may be trained based on transmitting a pulse or LDPC frame via the silent channels.
US08675459B2
The amplitude deviation of a tracking error signal in an optical disk apparatus is reliably corrected by processing signals at low costs. A servo signal generator generates a tracking error signal and a lens error signal from a photodetected signal. A lens error deviation signal memory circuit stores the lens error signal generated at the servo signal generator, and reproduces the one-turn deviation of the lens error signal. A tracking error signal corrector learns an amplitude correcting value for the tracking error signal from the tracking error signal detected in reproducing the one-turn deviation of the lens error signal, and stores the amplitude correcting value in a correcting signal generator.
US08675457B1
A near-field light generator includes a waveguide, a plasmon generator, and an MgO layer. The waveguide includes a core and a cladding. The plasmon generator has an outer surface including a plasmon exciting part and a near-field light generating part, and is configured so that a surface plasmon is excited on the plasmon exciting part based on light propagating through the core, and the near-field light generating part generates near-field light based on the surface plasmon. The MgO layer is in contact with at least part of the outer surface of the plasmon generator excluding the near-field light generating part, and not in contact with the core. The cladding is lower in refractive index than the core and the MgO layer.
US08675456B2
A method of writing binary data comprising (i) heating a magnetic microstructure from an initial temperature to an above-ambient temperature that is not less than a transition temperature for the magnetic microstructure, which causes a phase transition interlayer of the magnetic microstructure to transition from an antiferromagnetic phase to a ferromagnetic phase; and (ii) reversing an orientation of magnetization of a magnetic storage layer of the magnetic microstructure with a magnetic field while the phase transition interlayer is in the ferromagnetic phase.
US08675452B2
Improved systems and methods for timing athletic events. A radio-based starter unit and a radio based timer unit communicate wirelessly via radio. Push buttons/switches and lights and a speaker in the units provide an intuitive, easy to use interface. Handshaking occurs between the starter unit and the timer unit, and lights indicate that the event is ready to start. Real time clocks in the units are synchronized. Upon detection of race or other event start, such as from a starter's pistol, information indicative of the race start time is transmitted from the start unit to the timer unit. A camera in communication with the timer unit provides video frames, and the timer unit encodes and inserts elapsed time information in the video frames, which are then output from the timer unit for review and analysis on a computer.
US08675448B1
A method includes identifying a ping forecast time window given a current set of target tracks to hold, discretizing the ping forecast time window with more than one potential ping time, calculating, given more than one ping source and ping waveform, a ping control metric for each combination of potential ping time, ping source, and ping waveform, and creating a ping command using the maximum calculated ping control metric. The ping command includes a specific ping source from the more than one ping source, a specific ping waveform from the more than one ping waveform, and a specific ping time from the more than one potential ping time. The ping control metric may be a user-defined metric that is a function of predicted signal-to-noise ratios and predicted target tracks, and may contain aspect dependent target strength and target position and velocity data for a particular potential ping time.
US08675438B2
An integrated circuit memory device includes a refresh control circuit that generates an internal memory refresh command signal having a period that is changed relative to a period of an external memory refresh command signal received by the memory device. This change in the period of the internal memory refresh command may be in response to detecting a change in temperature of the memory device. In particular, the refresh control circuit is configured so that the period of the internal memory refresh command signal is increased in response to detecting a reduction in temperature of the memory device.
US08675431B2
A memory cell array of a first semiconductor chip includes a normal cell array and a spare cell array. A first defect address data output circuit outputs first defect address data indicating an address of a defective memory cell in the memory cell array. A first comparison circuit compares address data with the first defect address data and outputs a first match signal in case of matching. A second defect address data output circuit outputs second defect address data indicating an address of a defective memory cell in the memory cell array. A second comparison circuit compares the address data with the second defect address data and outputs a second match signal in case of matching.
US08675425B2
An arrangement of memory devices and a controller is based on an interface with a reduced pin count relative to a known memory device and controller arrangement. Facilitating the reduced pin count interface the reduction of multiple strobe signal to a single strobe signal. In addition, a packet header transmitted on the data bus followed by a payload, includes an encoded indication of the type of the payload. Aspects of the present application relate to providing a traditional memory device with external logic devices, where the logic devices handle the single strobe and the packet header, thereby permitting single strobe operation.
US08675424B2
Systems and methods are described herein that reduce the read latency of a cache by separating read and write column select signals that cause the cache to initiate certain read and write operations, respectively.
US08675407B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a plurality of memory cell data holding transistors provided in each block; a row decoder including transfer transistors, a voltage controller and a block selector in each block, the transfer transistors electrically connected to respective of the memory cell transistors, the voltage controller connected to gates of the respective transfer transistors and transferring a desired voltage to the gates of the respective transfer transistors, the block selector electrically connected to gates of the respective transfer transistors and configured to select blocks. A voltage generator generates the voltage to be supplied to the transfer transistors; and a controller controls the row decoder and the voltage generator circuit. When data is written, the gates of the respective transfer transistors are connected to the voltage controller in each non-selected block, and the gates of the respective transfer transistors are disconnected from the voltage controller in each selected block.
US08675406B2
A memory system including non-volatile memory devices and a corresponding refresh method are disclosed. The method groups memory blocks of the non-volatile memory devices into memory groups, determines a refresh sequence for the memory groups, and refreshes the memory groups in accordance with the refresh sequence.
US08675400B2
According to one embodiment, a magnetic memory includes a magnetoresistive element includes a first reference layer, a first nonmagnetic layer, a recording layer, a second nonmagnetic layer, and a second reference layer which are sequentially stacked, the recording layer being connected to a terminal to which a high-level voltage is applied, a magnetization direction of the recording layer being variable, magnetization directions of the first and second reference layers being invariable and antiparallel, a first selection transistor connected between a first bit line and the first reference layer, and constituted of an N-channel MOSFET, a second selection transistor connected between a second bit line and the second reference layer, and constituted of an N-channel MOSFET, and a word line connected to gates of the first and second selection transistors.
US08675392B2
Some embodiments include methods of reading memory cells. The memory cells have a write operation that occurs only if a voltage of sufficient absolute value is applied for a sufficient duration of time; and the reading is conducted with a pulse that is of too short of a time duration to be sufficient for the write operation. In some embodiments, the pulse utilized for the reading may have an absolute value of voltage that is greater than or equal to the voltage utilized for the write operation. In some embodiments, the memory cells may comprise non-ohmic devices; such as memristors and diodes.
US08675389B2
A memory cell including conductive oxide electrodes is disclosed. The memory cell includes a memory element operative to store data as a plurality of resistive states. The memory element includes a layer of a conductive metal oxide (CMO) (e.g., a perovskite) in contact with an electrode that may comprise one or more layers of material. At least one of those layers of material can be a conductive oxide (e.g., a perovskite such as LaSrCoO3—LSCoO or LaNiO3—LNO) that is in contact with the CMO. The conductive oxide layer can be selected as a seed layer operative to provide a good lattice match with and/or a lower crystallization temperature for the CMO. The conductive oxide layer may also be in contact with a metal layer (e.g., Pt). The memory cell additionally exhibits non-linear IV characteristics, which can be favorable in certain arrays, such as non-volatile two-terminal cross-point memory arrays.
US08675376B2
Techniques include systems and methods of synchronizing multiple parallel inverters in a power converter system. In one embodiment, control circuitry is connected to a power layer interface circuitry at each of the parallel inverters, via an optical fiber interface. The system is synchronized by transmitting a synchronizing pulse to each of the inverters. Depending on the operational mode of the system, different data exchanges may occur in response to the pulse. In an off mode, power up and power down data may be exchanged between the control circuitry and the inverters. In an initiating mode, identification data may be transmitted from the inverters to the control circuitry. In an active mode, control data may be sent from the control circuitry to the inverters. In some embodiments, the inverters also transmit feedback data and/or acknowledgement signals to the control circuitry. Power layer circuitry of the inverter adjusts a local clock based upon sampled data from the control circuitry to maintain synchronicity of the inverters between synchronization pulses.
US08675374B2
Methods, systems, and devices are described for an adjustment module that interacts with a parameter detection module to provide a threshold value for initiating switching of a switching module in a cyclical electronic system. Aspects of the present disclosure provide a switching module used in conjunction with an inductor that is coupled with the switching module. The threshold voltage for switching the switching module may be adjusted to provide switching at substantially zero volts while maintaining sufficient energy in the inductor to drive the voltage at a switching element in the switching module to zero volts. Such auto-adjustment circuits may allow for enhanced efficiency in cyclical electronic systems. The output of an up/down counter may be used to set another parameter that effects the performance of the cyclical electronic system in order to enhance the performance of the cyclical electronic system.
US08675369B2
A module board has a configuration in which a first circuit board, a first composite sheet, a second circuit board, a second composite sheet, and a third circuit board are laminated in this order. Inspection terminals are arranged in a matrix shape in a predetermined region on an upper surface of the third circuit board. Electronic components are mounted on the first and second circuit boards. The inspection terminals are electrically connected to the electronic components mounted on the first and second circuit boards through vias and wiring patterns.
