US08678370B2
A recording apparatus to record an image on a recording medium using a recording head includes a first conveying roller, a second conveying roller, and a controller. The first conveying roller is positioned upstream of the recording head in a conveying direction and the second conveying roller is positioned downstream of the recording head in the conveying direction. In response to a first conveying mode being selected, the controller performs a rotational phase control in which the controller controls rotational phases of the first conveying roller and the second conveying roller such that the recording medium is conveyed by predetermined sections of circumferences of the first conveying roller and the second conveying roller when a trailing end of the recording medium passes the first conveying roller. In response to the second conveying mode being selected, the controller does not perform the rotational phase control.
US08678365B2
In a device and a method for aligning and holding a plurality of singulated semi-conductor components in receiving pockets of a terminal carrier that are separated from each other, the terminal carrier has spring elements, which are part of a spring plate. The spring plate has a plurality of recesses disposed next to each other for forming a corresponding plurality of receiving pockets for the semi-conductor components, wherein the spring elements are formed from the spring plate in one piece.
US08678363B2
A multiple vise system comprising at least two vise heads, each vise head comprising two jaws and a tightening screw and also comprising a supporting structure. The supporting structure is configured to support each vise head and allows the position of the vise heads to be adjusted according to at least two degrees of freedom with respect to each other. Position adjustment is achieved by means of track and slots mechanisms, swivels and telescoping poles. A number of secondary clamps are included to hold specially shaped objects such as printed circuit boards and to hold objects too large to be held by a vise head.
US08678359B2
Apparatuses, methods and systems directed to reducing mineral buildup on drift eliminators of a cooling tower. Some embodiments of the invention allow irrigation of the drift eliminators of the cooling tower with fluid in the basin of the cooling tower to reduce mineral buildup. In other embodiments, the systems disclosed can be integrated with the drift eliminators to provide constant irrigation of to reduce mineral buildup. In some other embodiments, a control unit is used to selectively irrigate the drift eliminators based on the fluid temperature in the basin and the temperature inside and outside of the cooling tower.
US08678356B2
There is provided a microbubble generating method including: supplying a gas to a rotator 2 while rotating the rotator 2 in a liquid; injecting the gas into the liquid from bubble injection holes formed in the surface of the rotator 2; and applying a shear force, produced by the relative movement between the liquid and the rotator, to gas bubbles present on and in the vicinity of the surface of the rotator 2 to generate microbubbles. The microbubble generating method can easily generate a large amount of microbubbles without forcibly creating a swirling flow of fluid.
US08678353B2
A fluid inlet and distribution system for a volatile organic removal device includes a cabinet having an upper wall and multiple downcomer assemblies positioned within the cabinet accessible through a cabinet access. The multiple downcomer assemblies are divisible into first and second cabinet compartments isolated from each other by a dividing wall. A flow distribution duct assembly connected to the upper wall of the cabinet includes upper, bottom, outward facing and inward facing substantially flat containment walls defining a generally rectangular shaped flow passage. A contaminated fluid inlet is connected to one of the upper, inward facing, or outward facing containment walls. A discharge duct connected to the bottom containment wall is positioned above a receiving chamber operating to equally divide a flow of a contaminated fluid containing a volatile organic compound discharged through the discharge duct equally to the first and second cabinet compartments.
US08678348B1
A gas flow control valve comprising coupling means for coupling to a measurement tube, wherein the coupling means are compatible with existing means for coupling valves to the measurement tube, means for directing gas from a well head through the gas flow control valve and out of an exit port, means for finely tuning the flow rate of gas passing through the flow control valve comprising, means for longitudinally translating a valve needle via rotation of a rotating assembly, wherein the valve needle comprises a tapered portion and a shoulder, wherein the tapered portion of the valve needle comprises a truncated cone which increases in diameter in the direction of gas flow, and means for visually indicating the longitudinal position of the gas flow control valve.
US08678346B2
A solenoid valve assembly including a process control valve plumbed within a hazardous environment; a solenoid coil mated to the valve and configured to operate the valve, the solenoid coil located within the hazardous environment; a valve coil configured to receive power and transfer that power to the solenoid coil, thereby operating the valve, the valve coil located within the hazardous environment; and a controller coil configured to transmit power to the valve coil, the controller coil located in the hazardous environment.
US08678345B2
A temperature control system for a gas appliance utilizes an improved variable orifice gas flow modulating valve capable of direct modulation of gas flow through an orifice directly into a gas burner to provide a constantly maintained temperature in an appliance working compartment, as selected by human interface via a temperature selector. An actuator attached to a gas fitting body of the valve provides for linear movement of a metering pin into the taper inside the orifice, accomplishing the variable controlled modulated flow of gas directly into the burner. The actuator is controlled by an input signal from a programmable controller whose output is determined by calculations based on inputs from a temperature selector and a temperature sensor located in the gas appliance working compartment.
US08678340B2
A hydraulic control valve apparatus including a valve body and a hydraulic control valve that is disposed in the valve body in parallel to an upper horizontal surface of the valve body. The hydraulic control valve includes a spool, a biasing member that biases the spool, and a damper chamber that accommodates the biasing member. The valve body includes a drain hole through which a pressurized oil is discharged from the hydraulic control valve, and a first communication passage that allows fluid communication between the drain hole of the valve body and the damper chamber of the hydraulic control valve. The drain hole and the first communication passage are formed on the upper horizontal surface of the valve body.
US08678338B2
A mounting rack structure includes a rack body having a plurality of downward extended supporting legs, each of which is provided near a distal end with an mounting hole; a plurality of mounting hole adapters; and a plurality of fastening elements. The mounting hole adapter includes at least one vertical extension portion with a first retaining flange and a central passage having at least one second retaining flange formed therearound; and is assembled to the mounting hole with the first retaining flange firmly pressed against one side of the supporting leg. The fastening element can be extended through the central passage of the mounting hole adapter to firmly lock the supporting leg and accordingly the rack body to a heat-generating unit. With the mounting hole adapter, the mounting rack structure can be used with different types of fastening elements to save the cost for making different molds.
US08678337B2
A device for fastening a fixture to a fastening structure of a vehicle including: a base comprising a first clamping jaw which can be positioned in a clamping direction (Z) over the slot and pressed in the clamping direction (Z) with respect to the fastening structure, a second clamping jaw comprising a clamping portion which can be inserted into the fastening channel, and a shaft which projects from the clamping portion; an actuating unit which is supported on the base such that it can be moved back and forth; and a gear system which couples the actuating unit to the second clamping jaw such that a movement of the actuating unit generates the longitudinal movement of the second clamping jaw.
US08678336B2
The vehicle seat runner comprising first and second profiles sliding inside each other and a stop fixed on the first profile to limit the travel of the second profile. The stop passes through a first opening in the first profile and has, inside the runner, a stop face oriented capable of stopping the second profile and a nose opposite the stop face and that rests against an inner face of the first profile. The stop is extended opposite the nose, by a shank that extends against an outer face of the first profile to a fixing lug clipped into a second opening in the first profile.
US08678322B2
Radiation shields include an outer composite wall, an inner composite wall, and an enclosed fuel chamber disposed between the inner and outer composite walls. A fuel may be contained within the enclosed fuel chamber. Spacecraft include one or more such radiation shields, and may further include a fuel cell and a conduit providing fluid communication between the fuel chamber of the radiation shield and the fuel cell. Methods of forming a radiation shield system include forming an enclosed fuel chamber between an outer composite wall and an inner composite wall of a radiation shield, and providing fuel within the enclosed fuel chamber.
US08678315B2
The invention relates to a strut system for the stabilization of the shell (2) of an aerodynamic aircraft component in a commercial aircraft, comprising a pair of connection supports (4a, 4b) connected on the inside to the shell (2) and opposing each other, between which connection supports (4a, 4b) several struts (5) extend to form a latticework structure (3), which struts (5) in nodal points (6a, 6b) arranged on the ends are non-detachably connected to the connection supports (4a, 4b), wherein the area extension of the latticework structure (3) is aligned in such a manner relative to a middle plane of symmetry (11) that the struts (5), formed with an open symmetrical cross section, as well as the cross section of the connection supports (4a, 4b), are arranged so as to be symmetrical to the aforesaid.
US08678312B2
A console for aircraft that is located between two seats which face each other. The console includes an open ledge with a cup holder arrangement. The cup holder arrangement includes two removable holder dividers which can be flipped up or down and held into position by a spring-loaded cam arrangement. The console also includes two inwardly facing surfaces which provide connectors for electronic devices resting on the ledge. A light-emitting face is provided on a back wall of the ledge so that any articles resting on the ledge can be seen in dark environments.
US08678301B2
A swirling device for injecting a medium into a turbine is provided. The swirling device includes a central axis, a central passage in an axial direction along the central axis and an outer perimeter. The swirling device further includes a first duct and a second duct. The first duct and the second duct are adapted for guiding the medium from a region surrounding the outer perimeter to the central passage. The first duct includes a first depth in the axial direction and the second duct includes a second depth in the axial direction. The first depth and the second depth are different.
US08678296B2
On a two-dimensional optical identification device with same gray level, a plurality of two-dimensional optical identification codes are arranged, each having a plurality of data blocks and an outer positioning block. Each data block has a plurality of defined patterns, and each defined pattern is located in one of virtual areas produced by equally dividing the data block. The outer positioning block has a plurality of first positioning points and a first direction identification point, and is placed at two adjacent boundaries of the plurality of data blocks for defining the positions of the plurality of data blocks. A fixed position data block is selected as a data block coding indication block for indicating the coding of the other data blocks.
US08678295B2
A miniaturized Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag and a microstrip patch antenna thereof are provided. The miniaturized RFID tag includes: a chip, substrate and a microstrip patch antenna. The microstrip patch antenna is attached to a surface of the substrate and includes a power supply part and a radiation part connected with each other. The power supply part is connected with the chip through a microstrip line. Two sides of the radiation part are provided with at least one slit which has the length of one-half wavelength and enables the tag product to be used normally within a range of shorter than one-half normal wavelength. A maximum point and a minimum point are generated in the radiation part simultaneously, so the tag can be used normally without influencing the performance, even when the tag is in contact with any metal surface. The tag can be miniaturized at the same time.
US08678291B2
A support that includes a detachable element which has one border, of which at least a portion is attached to the support, with the border portions attached to the support all being so attached by weakened attachment seams, where the support also includes at least two lines of weakness that allow the support to be separated into at least two portions connected by a weakened attachment seam to the detachable element, with each of the lines of weakness being such that, when the support is bent along this line of weakness until it breaks, none of the weakened attachment seams breaks totally. Also disclosed is a method for the detachment of such a detachable element as well as a method for the manufacture of such a support.
US08678287B2
An optical code reader forms images of an optical code on an object. The reader comprises first and second viewing surfaces generally transverse to one another. The surfaces bound a viewing volume in which the object may be imaged. The reader also comprises a set of one or more imagers positioned on an opposite side of one or more of the first and second viewing surfaces relative to the viewing volume, and oriented and configured to capture images of the object from at least three different views. Each of the views passes through one of said first and second viewing surfaces. At least one of said views passes through the first viewing surface, and at least one of said views passes through the second viewing surface. The reader also comprises at least one mirror, off which is reflected at least one of the views.
US08678285B2
A method of and apparatus for generating a multiple raster-type scanning pattern by modulating a multi-cavity laser diode in such a way that it sequentially generates different laser beams synchronously during different laser scanning cycles, while the output laser beams are directed incident upon a rotating polygonal laser scanning element. The system does not require additional moving parts beyond the rotating polygon scanning element so as to reduce complexity and simplify construction of the laser scanning mechanism.
US08678269B2
A method for joining, assembling, at least two parts made of silicon carbide-based materials by non-reactive brazing is provided. According to the method, the parts are contacted with a non-reactive brazing composition, the assembly formed by the parts and the brazing composition is heated to a brazing temperature sufficient to melt the brazing composition totally or at least partly, and the parts and brazing composition are cooled to that, after solidification of the brazing composition, a moderately refractory joint is formed; wherein the non-reactive brazing composition is an alloy comprising, in atomic percentages, 45% to 65% silicon, 28% to 45% nickel and 5% to 15% aluminum. A brazing composition as defined above is provided. A brazing paste, suspension comprising a powder of said brazing composition and an organic binder as well as a joint and assembly obtained the foregoing method are also provided.
US08678265B2
Disclosed herein is a strip joining apparatus for pipe mill equipment. The strip joining apparatus cuts a trailing end of a preceding steel strip and a leading end of a following steel strip, and puts the cut surfaces of the two steel strips into contact with each other, and then welds them to each other. Particularly, a cutting blade of a first cutting unit and a cutting blade of a second cutting unit are inclined in the downward direction at predetermined angles relative to each other. Thus, the ends of the two steel strips, which are respectively cut by the cutting blades, define a ‘V’-shape groove. In this state, the cut ends of the two steel strips are put in close contact with each other and are welded to each other, so that the quality of welding of the junction between the thick strips can be enhanced.
US08678264B2
A surgical instrument including a handle assembly, an elongated body portion, a head portion and an elongated channel. The elongated body portion extends distally from the handle assembly. The head portion is disposed adjacent a distal end of the elongated body portion and includes an anvil assembly and a shell assembly. The elongated channel includes a proximal opening and a distal opening. The proximal opening is disposed distally of a proximalmost end of the handle assembly and proximally of the shell assembly. The distal opening is disposed on the shell assembly.
US08678260B2
Methods, cleavers, and packagings for cleaving an optical fiber using an abrasive medium are disclosed. In one embodiment, a bladeless cleaver includes a body having an arcuate exterior surface, which may be provided in one embodiment by an exterior surface of a tool or toolkit, such as, but not limited to, a consumables kit or other packaging. A cleaver structure is disposed on the body such that a space between the arcuate exterior surface of the body and the cleaver structure is configured to receive a portion of the optical fiber to be cleaved. The cleaver structure comprises an abrasive medium carrier that is configured to be actuated to place the abrasive medium in contact with the portion of the optical fiber to create a flaw in the portion of the optical fiber. In another embodiment, the portion of the optical fiber may be positioned directly along the arcuate exterior surface of the body.
US08678259B2
An apparatus for carrying flying discs in such a way that the apparatus does not interfere with the selection and throwing of the flying discs. In one embodiment, a flying disc caddy includes a holster, a belt, and a strap. The holster includes a pouch and dividers. The dividers are spaced apart inside the pouch to form pockets or slots. The pockets receive individual flying discs. The holster is slideably attached to a belt. The belt is configured to wrap around the waist of a disc golf player. The belt secures the holster such that the opening of the holster is aligned to the waist. The holster is also attached to a strap. The strap is configured to wrap around the thigh of a disc golf player. The strap secures the lower end of the pouch to the thigh such that the pouch does not flail during play.
US08678256B2
A roof rack system includes first and second longitudinal tracks mountable to the roof substantially parallel to one another. The roof rack system includes first and second roof rack assemblies. Each roof rack assembly has a cross member configured to span between the longitudinal tracks. The roof rack assembly has first and second support modules operatively connecting the cross member to the first and second longitudinal tracks, respectively, such that each of the support modules establishes a four bar linkage with the cross member. The roof rack assembly has a biasing member, as well as a locking mechanism that is configured to hold the support modules in a collapsed position, and is releasable to allow the biasing member to urge the support modules to a deployed position in which the cross member is raised above the longitudinal tracks. The for/aft position of the support modules is adjustable.
US08678255B2
A personal portable devices keeper (10) and its method of use are disclosed. The keeper mainly comprises a housing formed by a shell (12) and a base (14), a spool assembly (16) controlled by a spiral spring (18) and a ratchet mechanism consisting of a ratchet plate (32) in the spool, a ratchet bead (20), and a straight slot (50) in the base, a clip (22), and a length of cord (24) with a bob (72) securing a strap loop (90). The shell has a cord port (28) and is rotatable independently from the spool so that the cord remainder is adjustable even after the cord is fully retracted by the spring. The strap loop ties a personal portable device directly through its strap holder or the like. The keeper is fully operable through the cord dragged by the portable device that is normally held and operated by one hand.
US08678249B2
A mounting system is provided for mounting a valve for accommodating the flow of fluent a substance from a supply of the fluent substance wherein the valve includes a peripheral attachment portion, an intermediate portion extending from the peripheral attachment portion, and a flexible, resilient head that extends from the intermediate portion and that has (a) a first side, (b) a second side, (c) at least one self-sealing slit through the head, (d) a laterally marginal portion adjacent the intermediate portion, and (e) confronting, openable portions along the slit to define an initially closed orifice. The mounting system includes a retention structure for engaging holding the valve and includes an abutment structure. The abutment structure is adapted to be disposed adjacent the valve intermediate portion so that the abutment structure can be engaged by the valve head first side at the laterally marginal portion of the valve head to limit movement of the laterally margin portion of the valve head in one direction.
US08678245B2
What is being proposed is a dispensing device for a preferably cosmetic liquid and a manufacturing method. A first material is pretreated in areas through the application of a coating or embossing foil such that a second material which is injection-molded directly against it does not bond with the first material in the pretreated area but rather can be detached again.
US08678243B2
One aspect of the invention provides a component for a fluid dispenser which defines a dosing chamber for a piston member to stroke in and has an end adapted for engaging a fluid outlet of the fluid dispenser or a seal which overlies the fluid outlet to selectively close and open the fluid outlet or seal. Other aspects are disclosed herein.
US08678242B2
A device (110, 10) dispenses dosages of a free-flowing substance from a source unit (70) containing the substance. The device has a base unit (120, 20) and a receiving unit (130, 30), so that the source unit can be set into, and removed from, the receiving unit. An actuator (150, 50) generates repeated bidirectional pivoting movements of the receiving unit about the base unit. A connector unit (140, 40), arranged between the base unit and the receiving unit, pivotally supports the receiving unit, providing rotational mobility about a pivoting axis. The connector unit is slidably supported with translatory mobility relative to the base unit. The actuator generates repeated bidirectional translatory movements of the base unit. In this way, the receiving unit is subjected to repeated bidirectional pivoting movements and, superimposed on the latter, repeated bidirectional translatory movements.
US08678240B2
A manually operated product dispenser includes a user interface which operates via a linkage mechanism on a dispensing mechanism. The linkage mechanism transfers displacement from the user interface to the dispensing mechanism but incorporates resilient means permitting the user interface to be operated to the full extent permitted by the interface, but transmitting to the dispensing mechanism only as much of the operation of the interface required to permit the dispenser mechanism to dispense a predetermined amount of product.
US08678238B2
A self-contained, hand-held spray dispensing device includes an internal source of pressurized fluid that exerts a motive force on a pair of liquid ejecting elements to cause each to eject a liquid into a discharge line. The liquids remain separated until each exits its discharge port. A pressurized fluid is directed over the outlet ends of the discharge line beginning before a flow interrupter in the discharge line is opened to permit flow therethrough and ceasing after liquid flow is terminated. The pressurized fluid flow over the outlet of the discharge line aerosolizes liquids emanating from the outlet ends. The liquid ejecting element is connected to a force transmitting yoke. The yoke responds to pressurized fluid from the source to generate the motive force on the ejecting element.
US08678227B2
A leg assembly for selective attachment to a portable support structure having a base and removable lid. The leg assembly includes a plurality of legs that are selectively attachable to both the base and lid. When attached, the legs extending from the base to the lid thereby supporting the lid. The legs are substantially parallel to one another. The assembly further includes at least one cross member extending between two of the legs to stabilize and prevent lateral movement of the legs. The cross member also abutingly contacts and supports the lid whereby the base and lid function as a support structure.
US08678222B2
An airtight compact that contains a volatile product until a time of use. The airtight compact includes a translucent and fragile pot partially encased by a base assembly, which has a rotatable lid assembly pivotably coupled to the base assembly. The rotatable lid assembly comprising a liner over-molded to an inner lid that directly seals to a rim of the fragile pot partially encased by the base. The fragile pot may be formed of a translucent glass, which is protected by the base and the rotatable lid assemblies.
US08678212B2
A receptacle sealing system includes a container with a rim defined at an upper opening thereof, and an adjustable closure for covering the opening of the container and having a sealed orientation and an unsealed orientation. The adjustable closure includes a rigid lid, and an integral annular seal having an outer annular wall, wherein when the adjustable closure is disposed in the unsealed orientation, the outer annular wall is oriented in the first position to face the top surface of the rigid lid, and, wherein when the adjustable closure is disposed in the sealed orientation, the outer annular wall is oriented in the second position in order to substantially seal onto the upper exterior wall of the container.
US08678209B2
Disclosed are systems and methods for providing a user installable gantry crane, wherein the gantry runways, supported by columns, utilize a lightweight truss, having a high weight to strength modulus, that permits assembly of the system without the need for rigging equipment.
US08678184B2
An improved method for the manufacture of an oil-in-water emulsion involves three procedures: (i) preparation of a preliminary emulsion; (ii) microfluidization of the preliminary emulsion to reduce its droplet size; and (iii) filtration of the microfluidized emulsion through a hydrophilic membrane. The emulsions are useful as vaccine adjuvants.
US08678182B2
A device for filling containers including an upper main element, a lower main element and lateral main elements connecting the upper and the lower main element; support elements arranged at one another without a continuous drive device, which support elements are provided with receivers for the containers and are run in an endless manner through the device past operating stations and along the main elements; a drive which runs the support elements in a feed direction at least through the upper main element or the lower main element along the operating stations; and operating elements arranged at the support elements through which a feed force of the drive is introduced into the support elements, wherein the operating elements at the support elements are gear racks in which a drive side feed member with a complementary teething engages in order to introduce the feed force into the support elements.
US08678171B2
A passing apparatus for a workpiece associated with an absorbent article receives a first sheet-like workpiece at a receiving position, changes a longitudinal direction of the first sheet-like workpiece to a direction that intersects the longitudinal direction at the time the first sheet-like workpiece is received, and discharges the first sheet-like workpiece with the changed longitudinal direction at a discharge position. The passing apparatus includes: a plurality of holding pads each having a plane section to be in contact with and for holding the first sheet-like workpiece, a revolution mechanism for causing the holding pads to revolve about a revolution axis normal to the plane section, and a spin mechanism for causing the holding pad to spin about a spin axis normal to the plane section. On an orbit of the holding pad determined by the revolution mechanism, the receiving position and the discharge position are set.
US08678166B2
An articulated discharge end for a conveyor that is positionable adjacent to a moveable receiver includes a frame, having a distal end, configured to bear a discharge end of a conveyor belt at the distal end. The frame has two axes of rotation, whereby the distal end is vertically translatable and laterally rotatable. A guide is disposed near the distal end, and is configured to contact the moveable receiver, whereby motion of the moveable receiver can substantially govern vertical translation and lateral rotation of the distal end.
US08678146B2
Provided is a disk brake having a caliper. The caliper includes a cylinder part disposed at one side in a disk axial direction and having a bore for accommodating a piston, a pair of arm parts extending to both sides of the cylinder part in a disk rotational direction and having ends to which sliding pins are fixed, and a guide attachment part configured to couple the one arm part to the cylinder part and to which a cable guide member is fixed, which are integrally formed with each other. A thickness of the guide attachment part in a disk diameter direction and a thickness of the one arm part in the disk diameter direction at least partially overlap in the disk axial direction.
US08678144B2
An apparatus for a bicycle brake comprises a housing with a first piston bore and a second piston bore, a first piston disposed in the first piston bore, a first piston rod attached to the first piston and extending from the first piston toward the outside of the housing for coupling to a first brake arm, and a second piston disposed in the second piston bore. The first piston moves along a first piston axis, and the second piston moves along a second piston axis.
US08678142B2
In a destination floor registration device 800, a boarding detection unit 804 detects a boarding of an elevator user; when no button operation by destination floor registration buttons 500 is performed after a predetermined period of time has elapsed since detection of the boarding, a voice destination floor registration unit 805 outputs from a voice output device 400 a message for prompting a passenger to pronounce a destination floor; a voice recognition unit 806 recognizes the destination floor pronounced by the passenger; and a voice destination floor registration unit 805 requests an elevator car control device 200 to register the destination floor recognized by the voice recognition unit 806.
US08678131B2
An acoustic baffle for reducing noise of a centrifugal fan includes a base for mounting with a fan outlet and a projection extending from the length of the base at a back side of the base and curving away from a top surface of the base. The projection continuously tapers along at least one side from an area proximate the base to an apex. The apex aligns with a fan tangency point, and the apex or a trough of the projection aligns with a midpoint of the outlet, when the acoustic baffle is installed in the outlet. The acoustic baffle effects a gradual variation in radial and tangential airflow at the blower outlet, to reduce fan blade passage tone.
US08678117B2
A motor wheel assembly for a motor vehicle comprises a radial flux brushless electric motor having a plurality of stator magnets arranged along a circumferential path; a wheel; first connecting means to connect motor to wheel in a torque transfer manner and second connecting means suitable for connecting motor to the motor vehicle. The motor wheel assembly defines a seat interrupting the sequence of stator magnets along the circumferential path and is suitable for housing a caliper of a braking system of the motor vehicle.
US08678116B2
An apparatus for an accessory drive configuration includes an internal combustion engine having a crankshaft which is structured to provide traction power. A torque-transmitting shaft extends through a portion of an internal combustion engine assembly, and the torque-transmitting shaft provides mechanical power to an accessory drive system. The internal combustion engine and an electric motor are operably coupled to the torque-transmitting shaft to selectively provide torque to the torque-transmitting shaft.
US08678114B1
A power wheelchair with guard for playing sports for eliminating G-Force effects and improving safety. The power wheelchair with guard for playing sports includes a frame assembly; a mobility system including drive wheels and casters upon which the frame assembly is mounted and also including a motor and a power control module for actuating the drive wheels; a seat assembly being secured to the frame assembly and including a seat support member and a seat; and a guard assembly being attached to the frame assembly and extending forwardly thereof.
US08678105B2
A plug arrangement in a machine tool comprises a primary plug part, which is associated with a drive motor, and a secondary plug part. According to the invention the primary and secondary plug parts are assembled to form a common plug part.
US08678096B2
A method comprising providing a centralizer disposed about a wellbore tubular, wherein the centralizer comprises a first collar, a second collar, a plurality of bow springs coupling the first collar to the second collar, and a plurality of particulates disposed on an outer surface of at least one bow spring, wherein one or more of the first collar, the second collar, and the bow springs comprise a composite material, and placing the wellbore tubular in a wellbore disposed in a subterranean formation. A method comprising providing a centralizer disposed about a wellbore tubular, wherein the wellbore tubular comprises a stop collar, a protrusion, or an upset on either end of the centralizer, and wherein the centralizer comprises three or more collars, a plurality of bow springs comprising a plurality of portions of bow springs, wherein each portion of bow springs couples two adjacent collars, and wherein one or more of the collars and the bow springs comprise a composite material, and placing the wellbore tubular in a wellbore disposed in a subterranean formation.
US08678081B1
A downhole tool such as a bridge or frac plug includes a combination anvil and coupler that forms both the anvil or bottom stop on a mandrel, and a coupler to attach a burn device. One or more members, including a packer ring, can be disposed on the mandrel and movable with respect to the central mandrel along a longitudinal axis of the central mandrel. The combination anvil and coupler includes an upper attachment section attached to the mandrel, an upper surface against which the members are compressed, and a lower attachment section attached to a burn device.
US08678076B2
A plate type heat exchanger having a plurality of stacked plate pairs made up of first and second plates. Each plate pair has opposed manifold members that form respective inlet and outlet manifolds for the flow of a first fluid through a first set of fluid channels formed by the plate pairs. The manifold members space the plate pairs apart to form a second set of transverse flow channels for the flow of a second fluid. A protrusion member is formed at an end portion of the plates and proximal to each of the manifold members and has a mating surface, such that the protrusion members on the second plate of one plate pair align and abut with the protrusion members on the first plate of an adjacent plate pair thereby reinforcing and strengthening the manifold region of the heat exchanger to prevent deformation of the manifold under pressure.
US08678071B2
A lightweight metal mold having a necessary rigidity is realized. Firstly, an original pattern of an evaporative pattern is formed by machining an evaporative material block. The original pattern includes a three-dimensional mesh structure including a plurality of bar-shaped parts and connecting points that connect ends of the bar-shaped parts and are distributed in a three-dimensional space, and a plurality of block parts having fixed relative positional relationship by being fixed to the three-dimensional mesh structure. Then, at least a portion of at least one or more of the bar-shaped parts composing the original pattern is removed, and replaced with a tube member. Then, a full-mold casting is performed by using the evaporative pattern having the replaced tube member. Positional relationship of the block parts in which surfaces, etc. necessary for the metal mold are formed is fixed by the three-dimensional mesh structure, and the necessary rigidity is secured. The metal mold is made lighter by using the three-dimensional mesh structure. Due to the replacement with the tube member, an amount of gas generated upon the full-mold casting is suppressed, and a decrease in casting quality is prevented.
US08678066B2
An apparatus is configured to receive a tire having at least two bead portions, including a first bead portion and a second bead portion. The apparatus includes a plurality of members configured to engage the first bead portion of the tire, at least one expander configured to move the plurality of members outward, and a rotating device configured to rotate the plurality of members about an axis of the tire.
US08678064B1
A laminating machine for making sheet laminations using a thermal laminating film is disclosed which protects the film from being mounted in the machine in a manner that will expose its adhesive side to the heated laminating rollers in the machine. The film is stored on upper and lower supply rollers in the machine. Each supply roller is engaged at one end by a forward end of a rotatable piston disposed in a variable-length spring operated chuck. A stem attached to the forward end of the piston extends rearwardly from the forward end and away from the roller into a cylindrically enclosed body portion of the chuck. There the stem is engaged by a one-way needle bearing which permits the film to be unwound from the supply roller only in one direction, thus permitting only the non-adhesive side of the film to contact the machine's heated laminating roller.
US08678063B2
An applicator roll (1) is described for a labeling apparatus for paying out and applying self-adhesive labels, which with each operating cycle moves one self-adhesive label into a dispensing position underneath an applicator roll. Depending on the printing mechanism used in the labeling apparatus, whether printing an even or an odd number of digits, it is advantageous to arranged a profiled ring (32) formed on a sleeve (31) of the applicator roll (1) in the center or off center. In addition, label formats of different widths require applicator rolls of different widths. These problems are solved in the applicator roll (1) described here in that its sleeve (31) supports two cylindrical jackets (34) on either side of the profiled ring (32). The cylindrical jackets (34) are axially displaceable on the sleeve (31) and can be releasably, positively locked in several positions against axial shifting, preferably by mutual engagement of an annular collar (38) and an annular groove (40). In this way, the applicator roll (1) can be adapted to printing mechanisms with even or odd numbers of digits and to labels of different widths.
US08678056B2
A tire with a radial carcass reinforcement comprising a crown reinforcement formed from at least two working crown layers of inextensible reinforcing elements and from at least one layer of circumferential reinforcing elements positioned radially between two working crown layers, the working crown layers adjacent to the layer of circumferential reinforcing elements being on each side of the equatorial plane and in the axial continuation of the layer of circumferential reinforcing elements coupled over an axial width, in order thereafter to be decoupled. A layer of polymer blend having a thickness greater than 1.5 mm over an axial width greater than 0.1×d is positioned axially between the axially exterior end of the layer of circumferential reinforcing elements and the axially interior end of the coupling zone of the working crown layers.
US08678053B2
A child's riding toy is provided having a vehicle body, at least one rotatable tire, and traction band. The at least one rotatable tire is configured to support at least a portion of the vehicle body and move the vehicle body from one location to another. The rotatable tire comprises a circumferentially-extending tread section, a sidewall, and a circumferentially-extending shoulder connecting to both the tread section and sidewall. The circumferentially-extending tread section comprises a tread surface configured to engage a ground surface while supporting at least the portion of the vehicle body. The tread section includes a channel equatorially located and circumferentially-extending. The traction band is sized to fit within the channel and have a top surface located about flush with the tread surface such that as the tread surface engages the ground surface so too does the band's top surface. Wherein both the traction band and tire tread simultaneously engage the ground to move the ride-on toy.
US08678048B2
The invention relates to the field of food industry, more particularly, to commercial equipment, and is useful in apparatuses for dispensing beer and other foaming and/or carbonated beverages from an isobaric storage to plastic bottles or glasses for sale in retail kiosks, shops, restaurants, and bars. The technical result of the present invention is a simplified maintenance both of the apparatus for a manual dispensing of beverages as a whole due to excluding the need for a sanitary treatment of a part of the filling pipe each time a container is filled and a simplified maintenance of taps due to eliminating the need for frequent washing of units and parts of these means after the dispensing of beer or another beverage is over. The technical result is reached by two embodiments of the three-way cock (6364), which are installed in the apparatus for a manual dispensing of foaming and/or carbonated beverages to uncovered containers (54). The apparatus includes a housing (52) with a stage (53) for positioning an uncovered container (54) thereon and a filling pipe (55) mounted thereon for feeding a beverage, one end of the pipe (55) being arranged above the place where the uncovered container (54) is positioned. The apparatus is equipped with a cap (56) which is hermetically fastened to the stage, with an option of being disconnected, under which there are the filling pipe (55) and the place where the uncovered container (54) is positioned; a unit for fastening the cap and supplying or removing the container (54) from under it; and a unit for supplying under pressure a beverage or gas to underneath the cap (56) and removing the gas therefrom.
US08678041B2
A spoolable pipe is disclosed, the spoolable pipe having an internal pressure barrier formed about a longitudinal axis, and a reinforcing layer(s) enclosing the internal pressure barrier. In one embodiment, the reinforcing layer(s) can include fibers having at least a partial helical orientation about approximately thirty and about approximately seventy degrees relative to the longitudinal axis, and, the wall can include at least one external layer enclosing the reinforcing layer(s) and having a permeability at least ten times greater than the permeability of the internal pressure barrier. The reinforcing layer(s) can further include a coating. The pipe can also include an energy conductor(s) integrated with and/or located between the internal pressure barrier and/or the reinforcing layer(s).
US08678038B2
An exhaust system includes an exhaust pipe. The exhaust pipe includes an outer pipe and an inner pipe. A first through-hole and a second through-hole are provided in a peripheral surface of the outer pipe and a peripheral surface of the inner pipe, respectively, to receive an exhaust gas detector. Third through-holes are provided in the peripheral surface of the outer pipe, at a different position than that of the first through-hole. Since the third through-holes are provided in the outer pipe, a liquid can be drained promptly from a space between the outer pipe and inner pipe. Exhaust gas can be prevented from being discharged to the atmosphere by sealing the third through-holes.
US08678027B2
An exhaust passage component includes: an inner space used as part of an exhaust passage of a hot water supply apparatus; a drainage passage configured such that if condensed water is produced in the inner space, the condensed water is caused to flow out of the inner space; a first sheet metal member, at least part of which includes a first recess formed by drawing and a plate-like portion formed around the first recess; and a second sheet metal member, at least part of which includes a second recess by drawing and a flange formed around the second recess.
US08678026B2
An automatic vacuum-relief apparatus for liquid suction systems includes a vessel defining a chamber filled with liquid in communication with a liquid flow line, a rotary shaft extending through the chamber to support a valve device adjacent to the liquid flow line and to move the valve device to open a relief-air flow channel to relieve increased suction caused by inlet blockage, and a piston on the rotary shaft responsive to suction increases within the liquid flow line and chamber to actuate shaft rotation. The valve device, chamber and relief-air flow channel are configured and arranged to cause a spurt of liquid from the chamber into the inlet while the valve device is moving from its isolating position toward its opening position upon inlet blockage, whereby the spurt of liquid pushes the blockage away from the inlet and the relief air reduces the suction. The valve includes a liquid-flow barrier secured with respect to the liquid flow line such that the barrier is in an open position allowing flow of liquid from the inlet to the outlet during normal operation and in a closed position isolating the inlet from the outlet in response to suction increases upon inlet blockage.
US08678013B2
A smoking article, such as a cigarette, comprises a lighting end and a mouth end. The smoking article possesses an aerosol-generation system that includes (i) a heat generation segment, and (ii) an aerosol-generating region or segment. A mouth end piece segment can be located at the mouth end of the smoking article. A segment of tobacco cut filler, gathered tobacco paper, or other type of flavor source material, can be positioned between the mouth end piece segment and the aerosol-generation segment. Optionally, segment composed of tobacco cut filler can be positioned so as to provide a lighting end segment.
US08678006B2
A patient support system for an operating room table is provided. At least a portion of the patient support system components form a no-air-loss patient support surface. At least one fluid pump can supply air pressure to a plurality of no-air-loss air cells, and at least one pressure release valve can release air pressure from the no-air-loss air cells. A computer can compare air pressure within the air cells to a desired air pressure set point and can modulate the air pressure by actuating the at least one fluid pump and/or the at least one pressure release valve to bring the air pressure within the air cells to a desired air pressure. After the initial air pressure adjustments are made and the desired air pressure is achieved, no further adjustments during the operation are able to be made by the computer so that the patient positioned thereon the patient support system will not be moved by the patient support system during an operation.
US08677996B2
The disclosure describes a novel approach for displaying information on a ventilator system. The disclosure describes a novel respiratory system including a removable primary display and system status display. Further, the disclosure describes a novel method for displaying ventilator information and a novel method for controlling a ventilator system.
US08677983B2
A clay target trap machine including a clay target throwing machine (1) and associated target hopper or magazine (2) mounted on a base, the base being mounted on a carriage (8) movable automatically on rails (12) and able to throw clay targets from more than one position and at a number of different firing angles and heights.
US08677980B1
A fuel conditioning system is applied to common rail direct injection or unit injector diesel engines. A liquid fuel is conditioned with gas for combustion in the combustion chambers. The system includes an elongate conditioning vessel, at least one fuel dispensing inlet, at least one carbon dioxide inlet port, and at least one conditioned fuel outlet port on the vessel. Carbon dioxide and diesel fuel are fed into the inlet portion of the vessel. The mixture travels a path of at least ten feet in the vessel to the outlet portion to cause the carbon dioxide gas to dissolve in the liquid fuel for forming a liquid/gas fuel solution. At least one high-pressure fuel pump feeds the liquid fuel/gas solution into fuel injectors.
US08677972B2
An intake manifold module for preventing fuel leakage of a vehicle, may include a runner unit where a runner may be formed, a mount section connected with the runner unit and mounted at an intake port of a cylinder head, and a reinforcing bracket mounted at an edge around an injector installed on the cylinder head in the mount section, wherein the reinforcing bracket may be pre-mounted in a process line prior to an engine assembly line by using a joining member.
US08677964B2
A variable valve lift apparatus includes a cam, a swing arm of which one end thereof a valve is connected to and the swing arm contacting the cam, a support portion selectively supporting the other end of the swing arm, a hydraulic lash adjuster of which an oil supply hole and an oil exhaust hole thereto, and selectively supporting the swing arm according to oil supplying thereto or oil exhausting therefrom, a check valve selectively opening the oil exhaust hole and a control portion controlling the check valve for the check valve to selectively open the oil exhaust hole.
US08677956B2
A control valve for a device for variably adjusting the control times of gas-exchange valves of an internal combustion engine. The control valve has a substantially hollow cylindrical valve housing, a non-return valve and an annular filter. The annular filter is arranged within the valve housing and the non-return valve has a closing body and a spring element.
US08677937B2
A milking liner for an automated milking machine includes a barrel that moves between an uncollapsed position and a collapsed condition when it is subjected to a vacuum milking condition. The barrel defines at least three parallel channels open to the inner surface of the barrel. The configuration of the sidewall of the barrel and the channels cause the barrel to uniformly collapse when the barrel is subjected to a vacuum milking condition. In one configuration, ribs protrude from the barrel sidewall and define channels with the same wall thickness as the sidewall segments disposed between the ribs.
US08677934B2
An isolated nucleic acid molecule comprising, or consisting of, a polynucleotide sequence encoding an oligopeptide capable of inducing post-mating depression of receptivity to mating in female insects, wherein said oligopeptide is resistant to proteolytic degradation, is provided for expression in sterile transgenic male insects useful in the control of insect populations.
US08677932B2
A metering mechanism is configured for transferring measured doses of a granular material from a first location to a second location, and is particularly suited for metering source material in a vapor deposition apparatus. A receiver is disposed to receive the granular material from the first location. A discharge port is axially offset from an outlet of the receiver. A reciprocating delivery member having a passage defined therethrough is moved in a reciprocating path by a controllable drive device between a load position wherein the passage is aligned with the receiver outlet and a discharge position wherein the passage is aligned with the discharge port. The amount of granular material transferred from the first location to the second location is a function of the volume of the passage and the reciprocating rate of the delivery member.
US08677927B2
The invention discloses a coating apparatus for coating slurry on a substrate. The coating apparatus comprises: a container for storing the slurry; a slurry pushing means connecting with the container through a discharging pipe; a coating head connecting with the slurry pushing means through another discharging pipe and connecting with the container through a feed-back pipe, and a controlling valve provided within the feed-back pipe. The coating head comprises: a coating slit; a discharging concave; a feed-back concave; a separator provided between the feed-back concave and the discharging concave; and an extending concave for correspondingly covering and matching with the discharging concave and the feed-back concave. The discharging concave and the feed-back concave are respectively provided with a discharging aperture and a feed-back aperture for respectively connecting with the discharging pipe and the feed-back pipe.
US08677925B2
The present invention provides a chamber 1 comprising a chamber section 2 having a substrate processing compartment into which a substrate is loaded for a predetermined processing step, and reinforcing members 3 removably mounted on the discrete outer walls of the chamber section. Each of the reinforcing members comprises a plate-like joint member 32 or a rib member 31 which is removably mounted on the corresponding outer wall of the chamber section. The reinforcing member may comprise both the plate-like joint member 32 and rib member 31.
US08677920B1
Various aspects can be implemented to provide a reconfigurable underwater vehicle. In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in a underwater vehicle that includes a hull that is angular in shape and capable of avoiding sonar detection. The hull can include a bow and a stern that are substantially similar in shape. The underwater vehicle can also include a plurality of reconfigurable modules that are interconnected to form the hull of the underwater vehicle. Each reconfigurable module is capable of performing a different function associated with operation of the underwater vehicle. Further, the plurality of reconfigurable modules can be built in a warehouse away from a shipyard and assembled to form the underwater vehicle at the shipyard.
US08677917B2
An ocean going vessel with interchangeable superstructure and hull in which the superstructure has control units for controlling propulsion and steering, as well as components for communication and navigation. The superstructure and the hull each have an interface providing quick connect and disconnect capability between the control units of the superstructure and the components being controlled of the hull. A system for interchanging superstructures and hulls for ocean going vessels is enabled in which the superstructure of an inbound vessel is removed and transferred to an outbound hull with the use of a crane at the port facility. This facilitates quick turnaround time of the superstructure and crew of the inbound vessel. This also enables inbound ship hulls to be inspected without delaying the outbound hull that has been preloaded from being shipped out of port with the transferred superstructure.
US08677901B2
A method of manufacturing a premeasured compressed charge in which the compressed charge has a leading end portion with a smaller dimension than both a trailing end portion and a desired caliber of the intended firearm and the trailing end portion has a larger diagonal dimension than the desired caliber of the firearm. The method comprises the steps of providing a mold with cavities, filling the mold cavities with gunpowder, pressing gunpowder to form a compressed charge so that one of a density and a compaction of the gunpowder, adjacent the leading end portion of the compressed charge, is about 0% to about 5% less than the density or the compaction of the gunpowder adjacent the trailing end portion to facilitate a more complete combustion of the compressed charge upon discharge of the firearm, and removing the compressed charge from the cavities.
US08677897B2
A pad printing machine including at least one pad holder and an object carrier which is positionally displaceably relative to the pad holder and is designed to receive one or more objects, where said pad printing machine further comprises a setup print image receiving element at a fixed distance from the object carrier, further an image recorder to generate an image of at least one zone of the setup print image receiving element, a position deviation detector ascertaining the deviation of the actual position of a print image situated on the print image receiving element from a reference position defined by reference data, and a position shift ascertaining element to ascertain the shift of the object carrier relative to a reference position, as well as a method for printing objects using a pad printing machine.
US08677892B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for controlling microorganisms in food materials, by which bacterial groups that cause deterioration of the quality of food materials such as poultry and pathogenic microorganisms that cause food poisoning can be efficiently controlled. Specifically, the present invention relates to a method for controlling microorganisms in food materials, comprising a step of subjecting a food material immersed in a sterilizing solution to repeated treatment with negative pressure and ordinary pressure and/or a step of subjecting the food material immersed in the sterilizing solution to resonant ultrasonication.
US08677888B2
The present invention relates generally to method and a device to make a single or a multiple repeated single servings of a select flavored, carbonated beverage. The instant abstract is neither intended to define the invention disclosed in this specification nor intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way.
US08677885B2
A floating piston actuator for use with multiple hydraulic systems includes a housing and a piston assembly. The piston assembly includes an elongate shaft or ram, at least one secured piston coupled to the ram, and a set of moveable pistons moveably disposed within the housing chamber on the ram such that the set of moveable pistons are translatable relative to a longitudinal axis of the ram. The set of moveable pistons form at least three hydraulically separate actuator cylinders where each of the three hydraulically separate actuator cylinders are disposed in fluid communication with a corresponding pressurized fluid source. The floating piston actuator allows hydraulic redundancy while maintaining a similar length compared to existing multi-system actuators. The floating pistons can be arranged in multiple configurations to allow operation with a hydraulic system failure without force fight or binding and with a higher output force than conventional multi-system actuators.
US08677883B2
Rotary lug breeches and weapons including such rotary lug breeches are disclosed. An example rotary lug breech includes a bolt carrier. Wherein when releasing the bolt, a cam section of a receiver converts a releasing motion into a screwing motion to release a cartridge. During the screwing motion, a first stud surface interacts with the cam section. During a locking process, the first stud surface engages the cam section to perform a pre-control process that rotates a control pin in a slot from a releasing position in which an advancement of the bolt carrier exerts substantially no torque on the bolt, to a control position in which a first slot surface of the slot interacts with the control pin. When the bolt carrier moves forward, the bolt carrier exerts a torque on the bolt to enable the bolt and the bolt carrier move relative to one another.
US08677882B2
A protection system includes a net with lines connected at nodes and hard points attached to at least select nodes. A frame supports the net and positions it in a spaced relationship with respect to a vehicle or structure. The frame preferably includes select adjacent tubular members connected via a flexure to prevent damage to the frame when impacted.
US08677880B2
A combination magazine and outer skin for a firearm including a magazine core adapted to releasably engage a firearm in communication with an action assembly associated with the firearm. Multiple cores are stackable end-to-end to define a continuous interior, with an end cap engaging an open bottom of a lowermost core. A design indicia exhibits an interior recess and is assembled around the stacked cores. A dual use follower is in use with an uppermost located magazine and maintains the assembly bolt in an open position and following the last cartridge being fired until such time as the magazine is removed. In the further variant, with a BHOA installed in place, the follower activates the BHOA and the bolt to remain in the retracted/open position, following magazine removal.
US08677878B1
Apparatus and methods provide thermal management of a propulsion circuit in an electromagnetic munition launcher.
US08677873B2
A planar band saw blade having an outer cutting edge with a plurality of saw teeth also includes sets of secondary teeth placed in cutout portions along a centerline of the band saw blade. The secondary tooth sets provide portions within the body of the saw blade that provide additional cutting action that reinforces the primary outer cutting edge of the blade. The band saw blade may include teeth on each parallel edge and the interior tooth sets in each cutout portion alternatively point toward opposite edges.
US08677871B2
The invention relates to a cutting device for, in a cutting direction, cutting a belt layer from a web of unvulcanised rubber having mutually substantially parallel cords that are at a cord angle, comprising: a blade which sideward with respect to the cutting direction, is freely movable; a first detector for during cutting detecting a sideward displacement of the +0d5; a control computer, operationally coupled to the first detector, for giving control instructions on the basis of displacement information from the detecting means regarding sideward displacement of the +0d5; at least one actuator, operationally coupled to the control means for during cutting adjusting the cutting direction of the +0d5 on the basis of the control instructions.
US08677848B2
A speed reduction device for a power seat adapted to be fixed to a seat frame, the speed reduction device includes a worm gear rotating with a motor output shaft, a helical gear meshed with the worm gear and rotating with a drive shaft driving a movable portion of the power seat, and a casing accommodating the worm gear and the helical gear. The casing includes a casing body rotatably supporting the worm gear, a casing cover tightened to the casing body, annular fitting portions fitted to each other, a first engagement portion formed at an outer circumferential side of the annular fitting portion of one of the casing body and the casing cover, a second engagement portion formed at the other of the casing body and the casing cover and engaging with the first engagement portion, and a tightening means tightening the casing cover to the casing body.
US08677835B2
An excitation AC signal biased by a predetermined DC voltage is applied to a coil to allow a DC voltage component in a coil output signal to contain failure information about disconnection, partial disconnection, or the like of the coil. The DC voltage component contained in the coil output signal is detected, and the detected DC voltage is provided as an offset voltage for a failure diagnosis. Further, to check a peak level of the excitation AC voltage, a DC voltage corresponding to the peak level may be contained in the offset voltage. A differential amplifier circuit for obtaining a difference between a coil detection output AC voltage component and a reference AC voltage component outputs an obtained differential signal offset by the offset voltage. Accordingly, the differential signal containing the offset voltage as the failure information is transmitted to a circuit for torque measurement as a torque detection signal via a single output line. The circuit for torque measurement provides the torque detection data based on the transmitted differential signal and at the same time extracts the offset voltage to use it for the failure diagnosis.
US08677829B2
Apparatus, systems and methods are provided for production and integration of compact illumination schemes. More particularly, disclosed embodiments relate to apparatus/systems and methods for production of highly compact illumination schemes, whereby photoacoustic waves are induced in a target sample. Additionally, the disclosed apparatus/systems and methods are effective to produce compact and portable integrated transducer-illumination arrays. Apparatus disclosed generally include at least one lighting source and a beamsplitting assembly. Systems disclosed generally include one or more apparatus for the production of compact lighting schemes, an ultrasonic transducer assembly and means for coupling the one or more apparatus and US transducer assembly with a target sample.
US08677822B2
An angular velocity detection circuit is connected to a resonator for making excited vibration on the basis of a drive signal and detects an angular velocity. The angular velocity detection circuit includes: a self-vibration component extraction unit that receives, from the resonator, a detection signal including an angular velocity component based on a Coriolis force and a self-vibration component based on the excited vibration and extracts the self-vibration component from the detection signal; a direct-current conversion unit including an integration unit that integrates an output signal of the self-vibration component extraction unit; and a temperature characteristic compensation unit that compensates for a variation due to a temperature in an output signal of the direct-current conversion unit.
US08677819B2
An in-line fuel properties measurement unit (IFPMU) (50) for in-line assembly in a fluid flow path, in particular a fuel flow path of an aircraft, includes a compensator section (58) and a densitometer section (60). The densitometer section is connected in-line with the compensator section such that full fluid flow is seen by each section. The IFPMU further includes a circuit card having tabs or “arms” for electrically interfacing with cylinders of the compensator section, wherein the cylinders include reliefs formed therein to create an air gap between the cylinder and the tab.
US08677815B2
The apparatus for a borehole influx fluid parameters measurement comprises an enclosure open on two adjacent sides and having a poorly deformable heat-insulating rear wall, a cover and side walls made of elastically deformable heat-insulating material. Inside the enclosure a cellular structure of elastically deformable heat-insulating material is mounted with the gap relative to the enclosure's rear wall and having the through cells insulated from one another. Said cells forming the apparatus inlet openings on one side of the cellular structure and on the other side they are connected with the gap, the total area of the inlet openings significantly exceeds the area of the structure side surface they are located at. The transducers for the measurement of the influx fluid parameters are disposed inside the cells.
US08677806B2
A leak detection system includes a water delivery device having a flow chamber, closing valve member and at least one contact seat for receiving a portion of the closing valve member. A first contact is located on the closing valve member and a second contact is located on the contact seat, where the first and second contacts are coupled to a leak detection circuitry. A water flow detection element is located within the flow chamber, where the leak detection circuitry is configured to be in an inactive mode when the first and second contacts are apart and where the leak detection circuit is set to active when the first and second contacts are in contact with one another, when the closing valve member and contact seat are in a closed arrangement.
US08677797B2
With a first push rod which is to be inserted/removed into/from a steel pipe through an opening at one end and a second push rod which is to be inserted/removed into/from the steel pipe through an opening at the other end, a metal core disposed on a side on which the first push rod is inserted/removed into/from the die assembly is sandwiched and this metal core is stopped from rotating with the first push rod. With the state of stopping the rotation of the first push rod, the metal core is introduced into the steel pipe through the opening at the one end by both the push rods. After the metal core is pressed into the steel pipe while stopped from rotating with the first push rod, this metal core is pushed back by the second push rod.
US08677796B2
A hemming station is configured for hemming a panel assembly including an outer panel having a hem flange defined by a hem edge. The hemming station includes a roller configured to fold the hem flange, a heating device configured to heat the hem edge, and a control unit. The control unit is configured to control the roller and the heating device such that the roller folds the hem flange when the temperature of the hem edge is in a predetermined temperature range.
US08677794B2
There is described multi-stand rolling mill with stands having four motorized rolls and provided with controls outside the stand and retractile spindles, which comprises a central body with said stands; a first platform (41) on a side charge position carrying the substitution stands; a second platform (42) on a side discharge position, opposite to said side charge position; a transversal translation device (43, 44) adapted to push the substitution stands against the corresponding stands to be substituted on the central body. The stands to be substituted translate on the second platform, and the substitution stands substitute the stands to be substituted in the central body.
US08677793B2
A shaping tool as depicted in exemplary FIG. 3 comprising a rotatable base member having at least one profiled bending roller (13) which is mounted on a circular track and is rotatable about a rotation axis. The bending roller (13) arranged on a radially movable slide (11) is movable from a position defining a maximum working aperture for the tool, by means of a spring-loaded lever (9) which has an axial configuration, into a position defining a minimum working aperture for the tool.
US08677785B2
A laundry machine includes a first laundry treatment space configured to receive laundry therein, a second laundry treatment space configured to receive laundry therein, and an air supply unit configured to supply air to the second laundry treatment space, the air supply unit comprising a fan, a heating part, a first sensor part for sensing a temperature of air supplied by the air supply unit, and a control part for controlling a temperature of the supplied air to be within a predetermined range.
US08677782B2
This invention relates to a method of making glass. In certain example embodiments, a major surface(s) of the glass is treated with aluminum chloride (e.g., AlCl3) at or just prior to the annealing lehr. The aluminum chloride treatment at or just prior to the annealing lehr, in either a float or patterned line glass making process, is advantageous in that it allows the treatment to be performed at a desirable glass temperature and permits exhaust functions in or proximate the annealing lehr to remove byproducts of the treatment in an efficient manner. In certain example embodiments, the glass may be polished for thinning after the treatment, with the polishing being performed on a major surface of the glass opposite to a major surface which has been treated with aluminum chloride.
US08677781B2
A device and method is provided to enable the enlargement of a piercing to a desired diameter. The device includes a series of units with each unit consisting of a plug body, a front end cap and a rear end cap and each unit increasing in size compared to the previous unit in the series. Each unit is able to securely attach to the previous unit and enable it to push the previous unit out of the piercing as it is pushed into the piercing.
US08677779B2
An air conditioning system has one expansion valve supplying refrigerant to two evaporators. A vapor quality of a refrigerant has an initial value at a primary inlet of a primary evaporator, and has a resultant value at the primary outlet. The primary evaporator has a bypass inlet at a first location where the vapor quality of the refrigerant is less than about 80% of the resultant value. A secondary evaporator has a secondary inlet receiving a bypass portion of the metered flow of refrigerant split-off at a second location of the primary evaporator between the first location and the expansion valve. The secondary outlet is connected to the bypass inlet. Thus, cooling can be achieved for two different zones using only one expansion valve.
US08677773B2
Disclosed is a refrigerator that includes a main body having a cooling chamber. The refrigerator also includes a door coupled to the main body and configured to open and close the cooling chamber. The refrigerator further includes a home bar positioned at a front surface of the door and configured to provide access to contents of the refrigerator without opening the door. In addition, the refrigerator includes a heater positioned at the home bar and configured to adjust an amount of heat based on an ambient temperature.
US08677766B2
A gas turbine engine comprises a pre-swirl structure coupled to a shaft cover structure and located radially between a supply of cooling fluid and a flow path. The pre-swirl structure defines a flow passage and includes a plurality of swirl members in the flow passage. A flow direction of cooling fluid passing through the flow passage is altered by the swirl members such that the cooling fluid has a velocity component in a direction tangential to the circumferential direction. The bypass passages provide cooling fluid into a turbine rim cavity associated with a first row vane assembly to prevent hot gas ingestion into the turbine rim cavity from a hot gas flow path associated with a turbine section of the engine.
US08677765B2
Gas-turbine combustion chamber with a combustion chamber head made from a metallic material and mounting at least one burner, and with a combustion chamber wall made from a ceramic material, where at least one igniter plug or other combustion chamber attachment is arranged in a recess of the combustion chamber wall, and where in the area of the recess a seal is arranged that is mounted by a metallic holding mechanism from another component than the combustion chamber wall.
US08677763B2
A turbine engine has a compressor for delivery of compressed air to a combustor. The combustor delivers hot combustion gas through an outlet to a turbine. The turbine includes a nozzle assembly, downstream turbine blades, and shroud assemblies adjacent radially distal ends of turbine rotor blades. The nozzle and shroud assemblies include internal cooling passages for receiving compressed air from the compressor and, cooling air apertures opening through walls of the vanes and shrouds into the hot gas path to release film cooling air. The number of apertures, the aperture area, and the aperture pattern are varied in relation to the circumferential temperature profile of the combustion gas with a higher aperture area and/or higher number of apertures in high temperature regions and a lower aperture area and/or lower number of apertures in low temperature regions.
US08677753B2
A system for supplying a working fluid to a combustor includes a fuel nozzle, a combustion chamber downstream from the fuel nozzle, and a flow sleeve that circumferentially surrounds the combustion chamber. A plurality of fuel injectors are circumferentially arranged around the flow sleeve to provide fluid communication through the flow sleeve to the combustion chamber. A distribution manifold circumferentially surrounds the plurality of fuel injectors, and a fluid passage through the flow sleeve and into the distribution manifold provides fluid communication through the flow sleeve to the plurality of fuel injectors.
US08677750B2
A unit for an internal combustion engine includes a turbocharger unit and an auxiliary component adjacent to the turbocharger unit and provided with means for connection thereof to the structure of the engine. The auxiliary component has a fluid outlet or inlet arranged immediately adjacent to a fluid inlet or outlet of the turbocharger unit, but not in contact therewith. The unit further includes a cylindrical sealing member, resiliently deformable, having opposite ends sealingly associated respectively to the fluid outlet or inlet of the auxiliary component and to the fluid inlet or outlet of the turbocharger unit.
US08677746B2
A brake booster includes a housing, a retention cuff, and a spring. The housing defines a passage to an interior chamber. The retention cuff is positioned in the interior chamber about the passage. The spring engages the retention cuff in the interior chamber. The master cylinder arrangement includes a tube member and a brake fluid reservoir. The tube member includes a first end and a second end. The tube member extends through the passage and the retention cuff such that the first end of the tube member is exposed to the interior chamber of the brake booster. The brake fluid reservoir is in fluid communication with the tube member.
US08677742B2
An accumulator includes a canister, a piston, a sleeve, and a solenoid control valve assembly. The canister has an inner surface that defines an interior volume. The piston is slidably disposed within the interior volume of the canister. The piston is located between the inner surface of the canister and an outer surface of the sleeve. The piston divides the interior space into a fluid filled chamber and an air filled chamber. A fluid pathway is created by an outer surface of the sleeve and the inner surface of the canister. The fluid pathway allows fluid from an exterior source to either enter or exit the fluid chamber. The solenoid control valve assembly includes a valve body, a valve biasing member, and a plunger that is slidable within a recess of the valve body.
US08677739B2
Hydrocarbon traps used to trap then release unburned hydrocarbons upon startup of a spark ignition internal combustion engine are sensitive to degradation if exposed to normal temperature exhaust gases. On board diagnostics of HC traps are provided by the invention, by incorporating a heat sensitive oxygen storage material in the HC trap material, and using conventional determination of OSC efficiency to determine if the HC trap material has been exposed to excessive temperature.
US08677735B2
A control device of an internal combustion engine is provided. A silver-alumina based catalyst device is arranged in an engine exhaust system, and an exhaust gas air-fuel ratio in the catalyst device is made rich to restore the NOX adsorption ability of the catalyst device.
US08677733B2
A ducted fan gas turbine assembly has a propulsive fan driven by a core engine. The turbine assembly has an annular bypass duct which receives an airflow from the fan and is bounded on the radially inward side by the core engine and on the radially outward side by an engine nacelle. The turbine assembly has a thrust reverser assembly having a vane arrangement including a first set of turning vanes for channelling airflow from the duct in a rearward direction, a second set of turning vanes for channelling airflow from the bypass duct in a forward direction. The thrust reverser assembly includes a plurality of blocker doors which are deployable to block the bypass duct. The nacelle has stationary and movable cowl portions that cooperate with the thrust reverser assembly to provide several operational configurations.
US08677726B2
An exemplary method of making a load bearing elevator traction belt includes applying individual coatings of a jacket material to each of a plurality of tension members such that each tension member is individually coated separately from the other tension members. A portion of the individual coatings are joined together to secure the tension members into a desired alignment and to form a single jacket that establishes a geometry of the belt.
US08677723B2
A method for filling dual-chamber systems in pre-sterilizable carrier systems includes providing at least one washed, siliconized and sterilized dual-chamber system in a magazine. The dual-chamber system includes respective separating elements separating the two chambers from each other. The magazine accommodates at least one dual-chamber system and is arranged in a container that is sealed with a closing element. The method additionally includes introducing the container into a clean room; opening the container and filling a first chamber of the at least one dual-chamber system; and closing the first chamber. The method further includes filling a second chamber of the at least one dual-chamber system; closing the second chamber; and removing the system from the clean room.
US08677720B2
A composite support structure is provided with a plurality of support strands surrounded by a carbon fiber reinforced polymer mesh and surrounded by structural concrete. The support structure provides various advantages in withstanding compressive, tensile, and shear loading.
US08677709B2
Disclosed herein is an interlocking siding panel system for securing to the side of a structure with planar surfaces. When the panel is secured to the structure through the nail strip a full contact strip opposite the nail strip lays flat against the structure causing the panel portion below an point of inflection in the panel to raise up off of the structure creating a gap to facilitate movement of moisture past a locking leg that integrates with the panel below.
US08677706B2
The invention relates to a wall or roof surface element comprising a temperature barrier layer and an extremely thin external insulating layer. Alternatively, an absorption layer can also be provided on the external side. A building fitted with said type of elements has a positive energy balance.
US08677704B2
Designed for office interior environments and layouts, there is provided a module wall system that comprises a module having a number of cavities and opposite cavities. The modules may include board plates, lateral plates, cover plates, and internal rails that are built to accommodate cables and utilities. The internal rails may be posted throughout the length of such modules and may interconnect with columns. The cavities may have cover plates positioned conveniently to form a structural, functional and decorative composition. The modules are interconnected, structured and fixed with the columns, which can be posted vertically and sitting on feet, to provide better stability. The columns are hollow and fitted with removable column cover for access to wiring or complementary accommodation of decorative objects. Modules may form various convenient work areas or cubicle layouts with functional and aesthetic environments. The columns may have different cross sectional formats, such as the square, triangular, hexagonal, etc. formats shown.
US08677703B2
An articulating raised access floor panel is provided. The floor panel plate has upper and lower surfaces, four edges defining four corner portions, and a diagonal clear slot positioned at each of the corner portions. A diagonal channel member is connected to the lower surface at each of the corner portions so that the channel member extends axially and parallel with the clear slot. A bar is slidably received in each of the channel members. The bar includes a leveling screw capable of operation through the clear slot so that the plate is capable of vertical adjustment with respect to a pedestal support system.
US08677697B2
An anchor for embedment in a concrete slab to provide for the lifting of the slab comprises first and second elongate plates adapted to be arranged in facing relationship for form a composite anchor. Each of the first and second plates has a distal end and a proximate end and at one hole between the distal and proximate ends. The proximate end of each plate has a flange bent outwardly of the outer planer face thereof. The distal end of each plate has laterally projecting feet that are bent laterally of a planar face. The side edges of each of the plates have converging side edges that extend downwardly to the feet.
US08677695B2
A detritus exclusion appliance includes a support that is preferably, but not necessarily, constructed of extruded aluminum and that comprises a screen made of surgical grade stainless steel wire mesh that prevents debris from entering rain gutters. The support is preferably formed of an extruded material that includes one or more upwardly projecting support beams. A center beam may project upwardly beyond beams to either side of it to create a curved profile in which the wire mesh is curved along an axis of the support to slope downwardly on either side of the center beam. This arrangement assists in shedding detritus and debris from the screen. Various embodiments are described.
US08677694B2
A system for separating water from debris. A gutter cover is secured to a gutter and extends to engage the top of the roof adjacent the gutter along a contact line. The gutter cover may have a perforate surface comprising closely spaced and normally water impervious holes through the gutter cover such that water does not flow through the holes unless the water is forced through the holes or attracted through the holes. The line of contact forms an imperfect junction between the edge of the gutter cover and the roof so that water flows through the contact line and beneath the gutter cover.
US08677688B2
The invention provides a door system comprising a door leaf having a first horizontally disposed edge and a second horizontally disposed edge inferior to the first horizontally disposed edge; a rod-less cylinder in communication with the first horizontally disposed edge; and a cam surface formed with the second horizontally disposed edge to limit the door to a single plane of movement relative to an opening of an enclosure defining a door jamb.
US08677680B2
The present disclosure illustrates a method, apparatus and system for treating fire ant mounds. One or more aspects comprise a pressure vessel for holding water and steam, a water-heating circuitous pipe network for heating water and a steam-heating circuitous pipe network for heating steam. A heat source contemporaneously heats the water-heating circuitous pipe network, the steam-heating circuitous pipe network and the pressure vessel. Steam is generated, superheated and is supplied to a probe for applying steam to fire ant mounds. A nozzle containing counter-sunken ports may be attached to the probe. A sliding hammer to aid insertion and extraction may be fixed to the probe. An articulated protective shroud attached to the probe remains in contact with the ant mound surface.
US08677678B2
An insect trap (100) includes an entrapment chamber (110) with an entry structure (140) over one open end. The entry structure includes (i) a lid (142) with a central aperture (144) and one or more peripheral apertures (146); (ii) a tapered guide (150) on one side of the lid, and (iii) a port fixture (160) that extends through the central aperture and engages the tapered guide. The port fixture includes one or more tubular ports (168) that extend through the peripheral apertures, and one or more cartridges (170) that are removably inserted into the tubular ports. The cartridges contain attractant that is exposed to the interior of the attractant chamber when the trap is assembled. The cartridges may be replaced to replenish or replace attractant without removing the entry structure.
US08677674B2
A sighting system for a firearm is provided and may include a rear-sight assembly having a rear surface opposing a shooter, a pair of rear-aiming points, and a U-shaped opening disposed between the pair of rear-aiming points. The rear surface may be formed at an angle relative to a top surface of the firearm such that a bottom portion of the rear surface disposed proximate to the top surface of the firearm is farther away from a shooter than a top portion of the rear surface. The sighting system may also include a front-sight assembly including a housing having a front-aiming point, a brightly colored material surrounding the front-aiming point, and a top coat extending over the brightly colored material and the front-aiming point.
US08677667B2
Provided herein are an ambidextrous thumb safety and apparatuses for providing the same for a handgun. The ambidextrous thumb safety and apparatuses generally comprise right and left thumb safeties pivotally mounted in opposition to a handgun frame, means for pivotally interconnecting the mounted right and left thumb safeties on the handgun frame and means for initiating pivotal movement of the right and left side plates upon application of a force thereto. Particularly, a secondary pin with a threaded end extends from the sear contact surface on the right thumb safety and is connected to the left thumb safety via a screw at a counterbored hole through the left thumb safety.
US08677664B2
A bolt (20, 20′) for locking the stock (11) to a receiver (12) of a firearm having mobile masses (13), comprising a tubular element (21) which can be closed at the ends respectively by means of a bolt-body cap (22) which can be screwed to the receiver (12) and by means of a bolt -stock cap (23) on which the stock (11) can be tightened, the tubular element housing in its interior a mechanism (40, 40′) for damping the withdrawal speed of the mobile masses (13) of the firearm, situated on their withdrawal trajectory and equipped with a free end not connected to the mobile masses (13) and destined for coming into contact with the latter during their withdrawal movement following the firing of the firearm for damping the stress.
US08677658B2
An elongated digging attachment for an excavator, including a recessed main body portion, a connection assembly connected to the main body portion, and a ground engaging portion connected to the main body portion and oppositely disposed from the connection assembly. The recessed main body portion defines a concave curvature, the recessed main body portion and the ground engaging portion define a scoop, and the scoop has an aspect ratio of at least about 1:3.
US08677657B2
The golf shoe outsole of the invention has a generally flexible forward section and a generally hard heel section, each section having a plurality of pod sections molded thereupon, each pod section having at least one cleat attached thereto. and an outer edge or perimeter that is flared quite significantly to provide a greater degree of flexibility and traction with turf, and therefore greater stability and balance to the user.
US08677645B2
The invention relates to a measurement element (1, 11, 17, 26) for a length measuring system (40) in the form of a flexible strip comprising a measurement body (4) that can be scanned using a measuring unit (41) of the respective length measuring system (40). The flexible strip consists of a non-magnetic first layer (2, 13, 19, 28) and a magnetizable second layer (3, 14, 20, 29). The first layer (2, 13, 19, 28) is designed as a strip consisting of a metal material, coated at least in part on one side with the second layer (3, 14, 20, 29), said first layer acting as a support layer for the second layer. The second layer (3, 14, 20, 29) comprises several magnetizable regions that form the measurement body (4).
US08677644B1
An assault weapon locking wedge gage tool assembly includes a main body portion; at least one limit stop plate assembly connected to the main body portion; an interchangeable locking wedge stop connected to the limit stop plate assembly and configured to engage a locking wedge of a weapon; a moveable gage ball plunger positioned in the limit stop plate assembly and contacting the locking wedge; at least one position indicator operatively connected to the moveable gage ball plunger, wherein the position indicator displays a relative position of the locking wedge with respect to a known position of the locking wedge stop. The assembly includes an interchangeable ring configured around the main body portion.
US08677643B2
A portable articulated arm coordinate measuring machine for measuring the coordinates of an object in space is provided. The AACMM includes a base and an arm portion having an opposed first and second ends. The arm portion including a plurality of connected arm segments that each includes at least one position transducer for producing a position signal. An electronic circuit is provided that receives the position signal from the at least one position transducer and provides data corresponding to a position of the measurement device. A noncontact three-dimensional measuring device is coupled to the first end, the device having an electromagnetic radiation transmitter and is configured to determine a distance to an object based at least in part on the speed of light in air. A processor is configured to determine the three-dimensional coordinates of a point on the object in response to receiving the position signals and the distance to the object.
US08677636B2
In one embodiment, a tool for door installation is described herein including a top part configured to fit onto a top edge of a door using a compression fit and comprising a shim portion having a first shim thickness and a hinge side part configured to fit onto an edge of the door using a compression fit, the hinge side part comprising a shim portion having a second shim thickness. The tool further includes a strike side part configured to fit onto an edge of the door using a compression fit, the strike side part comprising a shim portion having a third shim thickness. The tool also includes a level device attached to one of the parts of the tool.
US08677634B2
A power tool is provided with a perforated material remover to remove perforated material from power tool cutting implements. The power tool also includes a rip guide which has a long guide edge and two attachment points to the shoe/base of the saw. The rip guide is attached to the base/shoe via a pair of L-shaped openings that accept L-shaped support arms of the rip guide. The rip guide can also be folded for compact storage. The power tool also includes dual bevel scales for quickly and easily setting the bevel angle on the power tool.
US08677633B2
A hand-held band saw has a handle for grasping the band saw, a motor, a drive wheel driven by the motor, a driven wheel and a continuous blade disposed about the drive wheel and the driven wheel. A portion of the continuous blade is positioned in a cut zone to perform a cutting operation. A workpiece guard is spaced from the continuous blade and positioned generally between the cut zone and the handle for limiting movement of the workpiece after the cutting operation.
US08677631B2
A pair of scissors includes a pair of plate-shaped blades respectively formed by press working. Each of the blades pairing up with each other includes an edge line portion for sliding against the other blade and a recessed portion which is formed at a portion adjacent to the edge line portion with a difference in level from the edge line portion, which is away from a blade back face of the other blade in a thickness direction, and which has a bottom face substantially parallel to a blade back face of the edge line portion.
US08677630B2
A utility knife has a receiving cavity which opens through the body. A cartridge comprising a magazine of blades is removably insertable into the receiving cavity. A carrier within the body is manually operable for receiving a blade from the cartridge and positioning the blade for extension through the opening to present a cutting edge. The cartridge may be released from the utility knife body by depressing a button and withdrawing the cartridge. The cartridge is releasably held in place within the knife body and releasable when the blade carrier is in its retracted position and the release button is depressed. When the thumb button moves the blade carrier into its extended position to expose the knife blade, the cartridge is rendered unreleaseable even if the release button is depressed. The release button, which will enable removal of the magazine when depressed and blade carrier is in its retracted position, also serves to release of the blade from the blade carrier to permit removal of a used blade from the knife body when the blade carrier is in its extended position.
US08677624B2
A ring including a shank having platforms at predetermined locations on an outer surface of the shank, where the platforms identify preferred positions for setting gemstones.
US08677621B2
With a method for the repair of compressor rotors designed in blisk technology the damaged stage is severed from the rotor, and a new blisk is joined to the rotor by electron-beam welding. For stress relieving the rotor is subjected to local thermal treatment by means of a current produced in the weld area by electro-magnetic induction.
US08677617B2
A printed circuit board assembly and method of assembly is provided for a printed circuit board having a top and bottom surface with at least one edge portion having a rounded surface extending from the top surface to a point below the top surface and at least one electrical contact pad located on the top surface and extending over the edge portion rounded surface to a point below the top surface.
US08677613B2
Enhanced modularity in heterogeneous three-dimensional computer processing chip stacks includes a method of manufacture. The method includes preparing a host layer and integrating the host layer with at least one other layer in the stack. The host layer is prepared by forming cavities on the host layer for receiving chips pre-configured with heterogeneous properties relative to each other, disposing the chips in corresponding cavities on the host layer, and joining the chips to respective surfaces of the cavities thereby forming an element having a smooth surface with respect to the host layer and the chips.
US08677605B2
A method for manufacturing a sensor unit includes the steps of: Step 1 is providing a substrate having sensor unit areas. Each sensor unit area is partitioned into two individual circuit areas. A signal emitting device and a signal detecting device are respectively disposed on the two circuit areas. Step 2 is forming a packaging structure to cover the two circuit areas, the signal emitting device, the signal detecting device, and a cutting area between the two circuit areas using a mold. Step 3 is cutting the packaging structure along the cutting area to form a separation cut groove. Step 4 is assembling a separation member onto each sensor unit area. The separation member is disposed on the separation cut groove so that the signal emitting device and the signal detecting device on the same sensor unit area are isolated from each other.
US08677600B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method of dispensing a porous material and to a method of making a porous material insert for various plant grow pots, plant bowls, and plant baskets, the porous material insert including a growth enhancing element integrated with and dispersed throughout the insert.
US08677595B2
A method of making retractable pipe, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: (1) preparing a pipe body which comprises an outer pipe and an inner pipe; providing a handle seat and a handle button on the outer pipe; providing a handle actuation means inside the handle seat; providing a push rod assembly, a locking block, a sliding block and a reset spring at the handle actuation means; (2) providing a guiding groove and locking troughs on the inner pipe, and arranging locking troughs on the inner pipe; (3) providing a fixing sleeve inside the handle seat; providing raised guiding rails on the fixing sleeve; the raised guiding rails are slidably inserted in the guiding groove; the sliding block forces a locking tongue to fit into the locking trough to lock the retractable pipe. A retractable pipe made by the above method is also disclosed.
US08677591B2
A system and methods for disassembling a machine is provided. The machine includes a casing including a plurality of arcuate channels defined therein. The system includes a reaction bridge configured to couple to a casing, the reaction bridge including a first leg, a second leg and a support beam extending therebetween, a force device including an actuator and a connecting rod extending therefrom, wherein the force device is coupled to the reaction bridge support beam. The force device is configured to apply a force to an end of a segment positioned in one of the casing channels. The system also includes a clevis assembly coupled to the connecting rod, wherein the clevis assembly is configured to engage the segment to facilitate removal of the segment from the rotary machine.
US08677583B2
Machine tool (11) comprises spindle supporting side structure (13) erected on a floor surface for supporting spindle (15) having tool (T) mounted thereon and work supporting side structure (17) erected on the floor surface in opposition to spindle supporting side structure (13) for supporting work (W), and is used to machine the work by relative motion of tool (T) and work (W). An upper end of spindle supporting side structure (13) and an upper end of work supporting side structure (17) are connected to interconnection member (41).
US08677581B2
The invention regards a deep rolling machine (2) for crankshafts (5) with several deep rolling units (3) in a scissor-type configuration that are attached to the deep rolling machine (2) in the direction of the axis of rotation (4) of the crankshaft (5) with respective lateral distances (6) one besides another in a way that they can swivel thanks to the fact that some deep rolling devices (3) are intended for the deep rolling of main bearing journals (14) and other deep rolling units (3) are intended for the deep rolling of the pin bearing journals of the crankshaft (5) and that the deep rolling units (3) carry at the outer ends of their two scissor-type arms respectively one deep roller head (11) and a supporting roller head (9) that, together, form a deep rolling tool (3) where the deep rolling tool (10) along the scissor-type arms has a distance from the fastening point of the deep rolling unit (3) to the deep rolling machine (2) that is long when compared to the ratio between the width (7) of the scissor-type arms and their length. At least one of the deep rolling units (3) intended for the deep rolling of the main bearing journals (14) or of the pin bearing journals features a device (8) that enters into contact with the crankshaft (5) when the deep rolling unit (3) is in its working position, and that stabilizes the deep rolling unit (3) in the direction of the axis of rotation (4) of the crankshaft (5).
US08677571B2
An improved hose clamp having an annular band having an inner face, tensioning means, and an annular spring liner; the spring liner having a circumferential shoulder near an edge of the liner; and a central, cylindrical, rippled, contact portion of smaller circumference than the shoulder, and of smaller width than the inner face of the band. The shoulder is adapted to abut the inner face and the contact portion is adapted to contact a hose or other article to be clamped. The ripples may be symmetric, for example, sinusoidal, or asymmetric, such as saw-tooth shaped.
US08677566B2
A hinge for wings or doors, in particular for electrical household appliances, comprises a first element (2) and a second element (3) pivoted to each other and movable relative to each other in tilting fashion, a connecting lever (5) between the elements (2, 3), the lever (5) pivoting on the first element (2), the second element (3) being box-shaped and comprising inside it a spring (7) connected to the lever (5) by a drive rod (8) which can slide at least partly inside the second box-shaped element (3) itself.
US08677565B2
A hinge for appliances includes a lever and a box-shaped body having a bottom wall and two side walls. The lever and the body, one of which is fixable to a frame of the appliance and the other to a door, are tiltably hinged to each other by a first pin to make the door movable between open and closed positions. The hinge includes an elastic mechanism located at least partly inside the body for producing an elastic reaction force which opposes opening of the door, a connecting rod hinged to a first end of the lever, a tie rod hinged to the connecting rod and connected to the elastic mechanism, and a pivot pin for the tie rod and the connecting rod, slidable with its ends in respective guides formed in the side walls of the body when the door is opened and closed.
US08677561B2
The present invention relates to an automatic door closer including: a main housing having the shape of a cylinder; a damper housing adapted to divide the interior of the main housing into an upper chamber and a lower chamber and having oil charged thereinto and a fixed vane formed at one side of the inner peripheral surface thereof in such a manner as to be projected toward the center thereof; a cover fixedly coupled to the upper periphery of the main housing; an activating shaft having one end extended to the outside through the cover in such a manner as to be rotatably supported and the other end rotatably supported against the bottom surface of the main housing through the damper housing; a rotary vane formed integrally to the outer periphery of the activating shaft so as to divide the interior of the damper housing into first and second chambers, together with the fixed vane; a return spring adapted to provide a returning force of returning the activating shaft to an initial setting position at the time when the door is closed; and damping means adapted to selectively provide a damping function if the activating shaft and the rotary vane are rotated in a closing direction of the door.
US08677560B2
A door closer for doors, particularly glass doors, which are supported by a stationary support structure and are movable between an open door position and a closed door position. The door closer comprises a box-shaped body and a pin reciprocally coupled to rotate around a first axis between the open door position and the closed door position. A closing mechanism causes the door to return automatically and a braking mechanism counteracts the action of the closing mechanism. First and second cam elements are unitary with the pin and interposed between a first and second plunger elements acting thereon.
US08677557B2
A vacuum cleaner canister includes a mechanism cooperable with the canister inlet duct to divide the canister into an upper zone of high velocity vortex air flow and a lower zone of reduced velocity air flow so as to reduce the likelihood of recycling particles through the vacuum cleaner filters. The inlet duct is positioned below the filters. The duct redirects air flow downwardly from the inlet port into the canister and a baffle redirects the downward flow to a circumferential flow.
US08677555B1
A mobile cleaning system to be used for cleaning organic liquids from a hard surface includes tanks for storing water, and for storing used, dirty water after cleanup. A water-based cleaner is sprayed onto the spill, which can be, but need not be, done in connection with the cleanup system. The system then sprays heated fresh water under high pressure onto the spill. A high throughput vacuum system removes the hot water and the spill materials concurrently as the hot water is applied to the treated area. The vacuumed liquids are stored in an on-board tank for later disposal.
US08677546B1
In implementations of the present disclosure, one or more ropes can be inserted along the length of one or more natural openings of a luffa to create a luffa sponge having rope handles.
US08677535B2
A patient support apparatus includes a base, a frame coupled to the base, and a deck supported by the frame and capable of moving relative to the frame. The patient support apparatus further includes an egress unit coupled to the deck to move between an egress position and a storage position relative to the barrier. The egress unit may include electronic controls to limit movement of various portions of the egress unit.
US08677529B2
A surgery table utilizing first and second sections which are hingedly attached to one another. First and second sections are also connected to supports apart from the hinged portion. An elevator moves one of the sections upwardly and downwardly at the support. The resultant position of the frame formed by the first and second sections may take the configuration of a flat surface or an upwardly or downwardly oriented “vee”.
US08677528B2
A siderail system of a patient support apparatus includes a siderail having a siderail opening formed therein. A sanitizer container is positioned within the siderail opening. The sanitizer container contains a sanitizer substance therein.
US08677527B2
A portable playyard comprises: a playyard frame having two opposite upper side rails and an upper end rail; a crossing rod bridging the upper side rails; a flexible bottom wall mounted to a bottom side of the playyard frame; a flexible surrounding wall unit mounted to the playyard frame and including two opposite side walls and an end wall; a flexible partitioning wall connected to the playyard frame, trained on the crossing rod and having a vertical wall portion extending downwardly from the crossing rod, the vertical wall portion cooperating with the end wall to define a chamber therebetween; and at least one flexible shelf disposed in the chamber and connected to and cooperating with the partitioning wall to define a storage compartment therebetween.
US08677524B2
A movable part which combines with a stationary part to form a bed includes: a contact sensor (50); wheels (44) rotatable in all directions; a body drive unit (31) which drives the wheels (44); an avoidance instruction unit (51) which generates an avoidance instruction according to a result of detection by a contact sensor (50); a rotation center setting unit (52) which sets a rotation center Q2 for the avoidance instruction; an avoidance instruction translation unit (54) which translates the avoidance instruction and the rotation center Q2 into a move instruction; and a position detection unit (34) which detects a positional relationship to a docking area (20), and the rotation center setting unit (52) sets the rotation center according to the positional relationship detected by the position detection unit (34).
US08677523B2
A wheelchair includes a seating bottom portion, a chair back bottom support member supporting a chair back bottom member, and a chair knee bottom support member supporting a chair knee bottom member. A chair leg first bottom support member is bendably coupled to the chair knee bottom support member. The chair leg first bottom support member supports a chair leg first bottom member, a chair leg second bottom support member is bendably coupled to the chair leg first bottom support member, and the chair leg second bottom support member supports a chair leg second bottom member. A chair base portion bendably couples the chair back bottom support member and the chair knee bottom support member and supports a chair waist bottom member, a first link portion coupling the chair back bottom support member and the chair knee bottom support member, and a second link portion coupling the chair back bottom support member and the chair leg first bottom support member to each other. The wheelchair forms a bed capable of being changed to a knee lifting posture when being combined with a bed main body portion.
US08677521B2
A former creates a sloping profile for waste-water run off below a waterproof floor covering of a shower area. The former is made of a molded or cast plastics material and has sloping surfaces converging to define an integral linear drainage trough having upstanding side walls and a base, the base of the trough containing at least one predefined drainage hole for connection to a shower waste. The former may be covered with a flexible waterproof floor covering, the covering placed between the sides of the trough and a support frame, and retained in position by fasteners through the frame and trough. A perforated drainage cover is mounted on and secured to the support frame by fasteners.
US08677516B2
A headgear bracket for mounting night vision goggles includes a base having a fastener recess and a fastener opening within the fastener recess, the fastener opening having a beveled perimeter. A fastener is insertable into the fastener opening, the fastener including a head, a tapered neck extending from the head, and a body extending from the neck. When the fastener is inserted into the opening, the tapered neck abuts the beveled perimeter of the fastener opening.
US08677515B2
An article of apparel is disclosed that includes a covered electronic device. The apparel is at least partially formed from a material element that defines an aperture. The electronic device is locatable within the aperture and secured to the material element. A material covers the electronic device such that the electronic device cannot be seen. Upon activation of the electronic device, the readout is seen through the material. The electronic device may be a timing device, such as a watch, or a global positioning system unit. The apparel may be a wristband formed from a textile material or any of a variety of other types of apparel.
US08683608B2
In a multi-user communication system in which communication is carried out between a display apparatus and multiple information terminal apparatuses (a moderator terminal apparatus and a user terminal apparatus) over a network, the moderator terminal apparatus sends, to the display apparatus, a data ID (ID information) for identifying data to be displayed in a display unit of the display apparatus, user information indicating a user that is an owner of that data, and access rights information that is set for each user using the information terminal apparatuses and that indicates whether or not the generation and changing of that data is permitted. The display apparatus displays the data identified by the data ID (ID information) in the display unit based on the user information and the access rights information.
US08683603B2
Methods and systems for providing a centralized management system with an integrated license server and pluggable license features are provided. More particularly, the administration of application instances or other assets through the centralized management system results in the initiation of a license validation process by the central management system in cooperation with a license server. The system management application providing centralized asset management and the license server performing license validation are co-resident on a central management server. The availability of assets requiring a license is implemented through asset administration data maintained by the central management server, to indicate the existence of a required license, where the license server indicates that the required license is available. Access to an asset is denied where the license server indicates the absence of a required license to the system management server.
US08683602B2
A system and method for secure transport of data, the method comprising: sharing of key information with a key distributor, wherein the key information is for enabling decryption of first and second encrypted data, the key distributor being for making one or more decryption keys available to an authorized user; creating a container object, the container object comprising: first encrypted data having a first encryption based on at least a part of said key information; second encrypted data having a second encryption based on at least a part of said key information, wherein the first encryption is different to the second encryption; and metadata relating to the first encrypted data and the second encrypted data; and sending the container object to a data store or otherwise making the container object available, to allow user access to said data container object.
US08683594B2
A data storage device includes a storage medium and a controller circuit configured to be coupled to an external host to provide an interface between the external host and the storage medium, the controller circuit configured to detect a virus carried by a data file transferred to and/or stored in the storage medium. The controller circuit may be further configured to cure the detected virus.
US08683592B1
An improved technique for performing forensic investigations in an electronic system includes capturing and associating multiple streams of information. The streams include a network stream and a storage stream. The network stream includes a record of network activities. The storage stream includes a record of storage activities. In some examples, the storage stream includes both disk activities and memory activities, including both reads and writes. Records of the captured streams are stored in a data storage array and are associated by applying a common timing reference to the records. A comprehensive history is thus obtained, with both network and storage activities coordinated in time, to enable examination and tracing of suspect or malicious occurrences across network and storage domains. The improved technique can be used in both physical and virtual computing environments and affords particular advantages in virtual and cloud environments where forensic analysis has proven to be difficult.
US08683589B2
A system includes a detection unit configured to detect unauthorized access to one or more information processing apparatuses that are virtually implemented by virtual machines executed by a computer; an authorized network configured to transfer authorized access to the one or more information processing apparatuses from an external network; a honeypot network configured to transfer unauthorized access to the information processing apparatuses from the external network; and a control unit configured to connect the information processing apparatuses for which no unauthorized access has been detected to the authorized network, and connect the information processing apparatuses for which unauthorized access has been detected to the honeypot network; wherein the control unit shifts, in response to detecting unauthorized access by the detection unit, the corresponding information processing apparatus into a decoy mode in which the detected unauthorized access is disconnected from a normal operation.
US08683582B2
A method and system for electronic access security uses touches and movements on a touch sensitive surface to determine graphical passcode that are used in a manner similar to passwords. Graphical passcodes comprise various combinations of swipes, taps or drags on a touchscreen surface as defined by a user. A user's selected graphical passcode is stored in memory for comparison to subsequent entries of graphical passcode in order to authenticate the users. An envelope may be generated to define a range of acceptable pressure, speed, coordinate positions or other parameters, as a function of time or position, required for passcode authentication. The envelope may be stored in a computer memory and is used to authenticate a user by determine whether an entered graphical passcode falls within the envelope.
US08683575B2
A security application is described for determining conditions within a computer application that would create the desire to allow or disallow access to certain system functions or features by the application. The security application analyzes the conditions and sets a lock that enables the application to perform only certain types of actions that would be considered secure by the security application.
US08683558B2
An Activity Access Control (AAC) utility controls access to applications and devices by allowing an administrator to set terms of use/access regarding a applications and/or devices for a group of users, whose activity are monitored. The AAC utility also enables administrator and user access to a compromise facility via a centralized access point to establish or request changes to the terms of use/access. The AAC utility allows the administrator to dynamically update information and set terms based on real-time information collected during activity monitoring. Dynamic updates may also occur based on the monitored user's request, the priority of the requesting user(s), historical data, occurrence of a special event, completion of other internal or/external tasks, and/or pre-set limitations or thresholds. In addition, the AAC utility facilitates the real-time display or publishing of the terms of use, status information, and statistical information to users and the administrator.
US08683554B2
A method for managing third party application program access to user information via a particular native application program interface (API) is provided. The method includes providing a wrapped native API including a wrapper library and inspecting a third party application program for the presence of the wrapper library in an unmodified form. The application program is inspected to identify API calls. An identified API call to a circumventing API is instrumented by wrapping the circumventing API to generate a wrapped non-circumventing API and modifying the third party application program to redirect the identified API call from the circumventing API to the wrapped non-circumventing API. A request for a permission to access user information is received from the third party application program via the wrapper library executed on a user device. An authorization is received to provide the permission to access the user information, and the permission to access the user information is provided to the executed third party application program.
US08683549B2
A computer related security mechanism requires that a human participate in an access verification sequence. Upon a request to access secure data, a puzzle is provided to the requester. Proper solution of the puzzle requires human participation. The puzzle is chosen such that its solution is within the capabilities of a human, but beyond the current state of the art for computer systems. The puzzled can be visually and/or audibly rendered to the user. In one configuration, the puzzle is obtained via a library of pluggable puzzle generators. Puzzle generators in the library can be replaced as the state of the art of computing technology improves.
US08683547B2
A system for managing adaptive security zones in complex business operations, comprising a rules engine adapted to receive events from a plurality of event sources and a security manager coupled to the rules engine via a data network, wherein upon receiving an event, the rules engine determines what rules, if any, are triggered by the event and, upon triggering a rule, the rules engine determines if the rule pertains to security and, if so, sends a notification message to the security manager informing it of the triggered event, and wherein the security manager, on receiving a notification message from the rules engine, automatically establishes a new security zone based at least in part on the contents of the notification message, is disclosed.
US08683546B2
The claimed subject matter provides systems and/or methods that combat identity follow-on attacks. The system can include components for receiving a plurality of security configuration changes, selecting which of the changes included in the plurality of security changes to approve or disapprove, and based on which of the changes are approved or disapproved by an administrator, generating a further plurality of security configuration changes that the administrator can once again approve or disapprove until the administrator is satisfied with the security configuration changes.
US08683537B2
A method that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may embedding a watermark in media content for presentation at a rendering device using an editor to associate the watermark with one or more metadata pointers that point to additional media content according to an embedded link of the watermark to generate a group of one or more metadata pointers where the watermark includes an embedded link to additional media content used to modify the media content based on a content exchange between the rendering device and a computer. The method may further include storing the group of one or more metadata pointers, where a selection of the watermark invokes access to the altered media content containing the additional media content associated with the watermark, thereby producing the altered media content at the one or more user devices. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US08683534B2
A method and apparatus for storing and distributing video information in an interactive information distribution system by storing video information on either a centralized or de-centralized secondary storage partition in a network of provider and subscriber equipment, and therein distributing the video information to a subscriber having made a request for such video information.
US08683528B2
Information processing methods to make it possible to reserve recording of a program without imposing a large burden on a user. A server transmits program attribute information to a video recording and reproducing apparatus via a network. The program attribute information includes program attribute names and program attribute retrieval conditions. The video recording and reproducing apparatus causes a display apparatus to display a list of the program attribute names. The user selects from the list a program attribute name to which a program that the user wishes to reserve for recording seems to be most closely related. The video recording and reproducing apparatus compares the retrieval conditions corresponding to the selected program attribute name and EPG (electronic program guide) information and, when the retrieval conditions are satisfied, records a program represented by the EPG in a recording reservation list. The methods can be applied to a hard disk video recorder.
US08683526B2
In one of many possible implementations, a system includes a content delivery subsystem providing online resource data and programming data associated with media content. The system further includes a content processing subsystem configured to communicate with the content delivery subsystem via a network. The content processing subsystem is configured to receive the programming data and to generate a program guide user interface including at least a subset of the programming data. The content processing subsystem is configured to access and utilize the online resource data to generate the program guide user interface when the online resource data is accessible via the network. The content processing subsystem is further configured to maintain and utilize offline resource data instead of the online resource data to generate the program guide user interface when the online resource data is inaccessible via the network.
US08683517B2
An interactive television application with mosaic browsing is provided. Selectable cells that may be associated with entities are used to display information corresponding to the entities. Information may include brand marks such as logos or any other suitable entity identifier. A cell may be in focus or it may not be in focus. When a cell is in focus the information displayed in the cell may be different than the information displayed when the cell is not in focus. Users may navigate among cells. The cells may be grouped into regions based on, for example, their association with similar entities.
US08683516B2
Systems for browsing media that is accessible via the Internet are described. In many embodiments, the system includes a browsing application that identifies media within pages retrieved via the Internet by performing document analysis. The document analysis identifies pieces of media referenced by the page and, in a number of embodiments, also identifies pieces of media referenced by pages linked to by the original page. The identified pieces of media can be used to generate playlists that can then be played for a user via a television. In several embodiments, the browsing application is configured to render a playback page that shows pieces of media queued in a playlist and facilitates user navigation to other sites using a typical television remote control.
US08683515B2
In one embodiment, a receiver for an accelerated channel change is provided. The receiver receives a first version of a video stream for a first channel and causes display of video for the first version of the video stream for the channel. A second version of a video stream is received upon a channel change to a second channel, the second version including non-discardable pictures from the first version of the video stream. The receiver displays video for the second version of the video stream for the second channel. When a transition point is reached in the first version of the video stream for the second channel, a first version of a video stream for the second channel can be displayed.
US08683507B2
A method and an apparatus for reproducing a moving image according to a parental level are provided. In the method, a video frame stream is digital-processed, so that frames are detected. Whether a parental level is set in each detected frame is determined. When the parental level is set, a frame sequence number of a frame to be reproduced next is determined using a next frame sequence number set in the frame.
US08683496B2
Cross-environment rendering and user interaction support provide a seamless computing experience in a multi-operating system computing environment. The multi-operating system computing environment may include a mobile operating system and a desktop operating system running concurrently and independently on a mobile computing device. Full user interaction support is provided for redirected and/or mirrored applications that are rendered using an extended graphics context. An extended input queue handles input events from virtual input devices for remotely displayed applications. Remotely displayed applications are mapped to separate motion spaces within the input queue. The mobile computing device may be a smartphone running the Android mobile operating system and a full desktop Linux distribution on a modified Android kernel.
US08683492B2
A method and mechanism for verifying information on a managed device is provided. A request is received at a managed device that contains one or more values that comprise proposals for a correct value of a managed object of the managed device. The managed object may be a SNMP MIB object. The managed object may store information for any attribute for the managed device. Next, a determination is made as to whether any of the one or more values in the request match the correct value of the managed object. Thereafter, a notification message is transmitted from the managed device to a management station that indicates whether any of the one or more values in the request match the correct value of the managed object. The notification message may identify which one of the one or more values in the request matches the correct value of the managed object.
US08683479B1
Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to shift information technology workload demands are disclosed. An example method disclosed herein comprises obtaining demand profiles for workloads in an information technology infrastructure, each demand profile representing resource utilization over time to support a respective workload, and evaluating the demand profiles to shift, in time, assignment of at least one of the workloads to resources of the information technology infrastructure based on a target demand profile for an aggregation of the workloads.
US08683474B2
In an accounting apparatus, a conflict determination unit determines whether or not the accounting mode is in a conflict state where a process is executing in another logical CPU and stores the determination result in an accounting information storage unit, when a process of the user starts to be executed in a logical CPU of an SMT processor. And a CPU use time acquisition unit collects the CPU use time of the process in the conflict state or the non-conflict state distinctively and stores it in an accounting information storage unit. Thereafter, a CPU use time conversion unit converts the CPU use time in the conflict state, with a predetermined weighting, based on the CPU use time in the conflict state and the non-conflict state, after the end of executing the process, and an accounting calculation unit calculates the accounting amount for the process from an effective use time.
US08683473B2
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for dynamic task association. The method includes maintaining a plurality of projects. Each project may include a plurality of tasks specific to the project. The method may also include detecting a change in a particular task of a first project that affects one or more tasks of a second project. The first project and the second project may be of the plurality of projects and the second project may be independent from the first project. The method may also include updating one or more tasks of the second project affected by the change in response to detecting the change in the particular task of the first project.
US08683468B2
A system and method for automatically migrating the execution of work units between multiple heterogeneous cores. A computing system includes a first processor core with a single instruction multiple data micro-architecture and a second processor core with a general-purpose micro-architecture. A compiler predicts execution of a function call in a program migrates at a given location to a different processor core. The compiler creates a data structure to support moving live values associated with the execution of the function call at the given location. An operating system (OS) scheduler schedules at least code before the given location in program order to the first processor core. In response to receiving an indication that a condition for migration is satisfied, the OS scheduler moves the live values to a location indicated by the data structure for access by the second processor core and schedules code after the given location to the second processor core.
US08683459B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for sizing the operating system of a virtual machine. The computer-implemented method includes receiving information representative of an extended application layer and a container, both of which operate at a virtual machine at a host. A determination is made regarding whether one or more aspects of the extended application and the container may be deinstalled by testing at the virtual appliance preconfigured sets of extended application layers and container infrastructure layers, the testing of preconfigured sets performed in order from a smallest preconfigured set having a smallest number of components to a lamest preconfigured set having a lamest number of components. The extended application and the container are implemented without the deinstalled aspects.
US08683458B2
A method and apparatus for upgrading a network appliance. In one embodiment, a network appliance determines that it should be upgraded using a full install image. The network appliance then reserves an upgrade staging area in its memory device, downloads the full install image from a server to the upgrade staging area, and marks the upgrade staging area as bootable. Further, the network appliance reboots itself, and installs the full install image.
US08683457B1
An electronic device is disclosed comprising a non-volatile memory storing a first version of a control program (CP), a first header comprising a first version identifier (VID) identifying the first version of the CP and a first VID check code generated in response to at least the first VID. The non-volatile memory further stores a second version of the CP, and a second header comprising a second VID identifying the second version of the CP and a second VID check code generated in response to at least the second VID. When the first and second VIDs are valid, the electronic device selects between the first version and the second version of the CP in response to the first and second VIDs, and executes the selected version of the CP.
US08683450B2
Systems, methods, and media for testing software patches are provided (200). The methods include: injecting a software patch into a program (202); running multiple instances of a part of the program containing the software patch (204); obtaining outcomes of the multiple instances (208); and determining, using the outcomes, whether the software patch is executed properly (210).
US08683445B2
A user-interface testing process involves generating plural display-data representations of a common subject for plural respective user-interface instances. The resulting display data is tracked for each of the application user-interface instances so as to generate respective object-level descriptions of the user interface instances. The object-level descriptions are compared to detect differences between the application user-interface instances.
US08683428B2
Various embodiments provide a mechanism by which a driver writer can describe the operation set of a particular driver using an intermediary representation, such as an XML. A generation tool can then process the intermediary representation and generate client code and device driver code to support these operations. In one or more embodiments, driver operation and associated elements that support the driver operation can be described according to a customized schema that is specific to the operation of the particular device driver.
US08683418B2
A dynamic system coupled with “pre-Silicon” design methodologies and “post-Silicon” current optimizing programming methodologies to improve and optimize current delivery into a chip, which is limited by the physical properties of the connections (e.g., Controlled Collapse Chip Connection or C4s). The mechanism consists of measuring or estimating power consumption at a certain granularity within a chip, converting the power information into C4 current information using a method, and triggering throttling mechanisms (including token based throttling) where applicable to limit the current delivery per C4 beyond pre-established limits or periods. Design aids are used to allocate C4s throughout the chip based on the current delivery requirements. The system coupled with design and programming methodologies improve and optimize current delivery is extendable to connections across layers in a multilayer 3D chip stack.
US08683415B2
A disclosed method includes: accepting designation of a condition of grouping plural signal lines to be wired from a user; and switching and carrying out a grouping of the plural signal lines into plural groups based on the designated condition and a disposition pattern of start terminals and end terminals of the plural signal lines. The condition may be designated from a first requirement, a second requirement and a third requirement that includes the first requirement and the second requirement and in which a priority is set to the first requirement or the second requirement.
US08683414B2
A semiconductor integrated circuit device having a control signal system for avoiding failure to check an indefinite signal propagation prevention circuit, for facilitating a check included in an automated tool, and for facilitating a power shutdown control inside a chip. In the semiconductor integrated circuit device, power shutdown priorities are provided by independent power domains (Area A to Area I). A method for preventing a power domain having a lower priority from being turned OFF when a circuit having a high priority is turned ON is also provided.
US08683410B2
Some embodiments provide a method of designing a configurable integrated circuit (“IC”) with several configurable circuits. The method receives a design having several sets of operations for the configurable circuits to perform in different operational cycles. For at least a first set of operations that has a start operation and an end operation, the method assigns a particular operation in the first set to a first operational cycle based at least partially on the position of the particular operation with respect to the start and end operations.
US08683407B2
A hierarchical design flow generator for designing integrated circuits is disclosed. In one embodiment, the hierarchical design flow generator includes: (1) a partitioner configured to partition a hierarchical design flow for designing an IC into a late design flow portion and an early design flow portion, (2) a timing budgeter configured to provide a timing budget for the IC design based on initial timing constraints and progressive time constraints generated from the late design flow portion and the early design flow portion and (3) a modeler configured to develop a model for a top level implementation of the IC design based on the timing budget and block implementations generated during the late design flow portion.
US08683397B2
Disclosed are a method and an apparatus of designing a semiconductor chip. The disclosed method includes the steps of: storing a plurality of EMS (Electro Magnetic Susceptibility) semiconductor IPs (Intellectual Property) and a plurality of EMI (Electro Magnetic Interference) semiconductor IPs; selecting a proper semiconductor IP from among the plurality of EMS shielding semiconductor IPs in a case of an input pin, and selecting a proper semiconductor IP from among the plurality of EMI shielding semiconductor IPs in a case of an output pin; and designing the semiconductor chip by disposing the selected semiconductor IP.
US08683393B2
Systems for integrated electronic and photonic design include a graphical user interface (GUI) configured to lay out electronic and photonic design components in a design environment; a design rule checking (DRC) module configured to check design rules for electronic and photonic components according to manufacturing requirements; and a processor configured to adjust photonic components according to photonic design requirements and to reconcile conflicts between electronic and photonic components.
US08683386B2
A multi-user virtual reality universe (VRU) process receives input from multiple remote clients to manipulate avatars through a modeled 3-D environment. A VRU host models movement of avatars in the VRU environment in response to client input, which each user providing input for control of a corresponding avatar. The modeled VRU data is provided by the host to client workstations for display of a simulated environment visible to all participants. The host maintains personalized data for selected modeled objects or areas that is personalized for specific users in response to client input. The host includes personalized data in modeling the VRU environment. The host may segregate VRU data provided to different clients participating in the same VRU environment according to limit personalized data to authorized users, while all users receive common data.
US08683380B2
Various embodiments of a method, apparatus and computer readable storage medium are disclosed. An application performs a close operation of windows displaying portions of a unit of information on a display. The portions of the unit of information are content of the unit of information. The close operation removes the windows from the display, and causes positioning information to be stored in the unit of information. The positioning information comprises at least one indicator of the portions of the unit of information that were displayed in the windows at a time of the close operation. The application performs an open operation. The displayed portions of the unit of information at the time of the close operation are redisplayed by the open operation in windows on the display in accordance with the positioning information in the unit of information.
US08683378B2
Systems and methods for improving the scrolling of user interfaces of electronic devices are provided. For example, a user interface may provide various visual, aural, and tactile enhancements for increasing the ease and speed with which a user may scroll through a list of listings to highlight a particular listing. Each listing may be associated with a particular entry in a media library. Moreover, each listing may be associated with one of multiple sublists in the list of listings, and each sublist may be defined based on a characteristic of a first piece of metadata associated with each entry in the media library. The various visual, aural, and tactile enhancements may be provided based on a relationship between a previously highlighted listing and a currently highlighted listing.
US08683377B2
Embodiments herein include a scroll manager that provides a mechanism for scrolling that includes automatic zooming or resizing during a scrolling operation. In response to receiving a scroll input, the scroll manager automatically reduces a graphical display size of electronic content to a second graphical display size while simultaneously moving the electronic content across a display area in a given direction. An initial layout of the electronic content is maintained during scrolling operations. By using less vertical space a given page or document containing the content does not need to travel as far vertically on the display screen to display more content. Because the display difference is a shorter linear display distance, this scrolling functionality provides a finer-grained control when scrolling more electronic content. Location during scrolling operations can be identified by visual context, thereby improving scroll navigation efficiency and control.
US08683376B2
When having determined that the input event from a client unit is the selection of an object, a server unit requests the client unit to transmit display area information that sets a display screen area on the drawing data. The server unit acquires the display area information transmitted from the client unit in response to the request. The server unit determines whether the area of the object selected on the drawing data fits in the display screen area corresponding to the acquired display area information. If having determined that the area of the object does not fit in the display screen area, the server unit changes the display area information so that the area of the object may fit in the display screen area and transmits the changed display area information to the client unit. The client unit displays the drawing data received from the server unit.
US08683370B2
An aspect of the technology described relates to a dashboard creation system for generating dashboards displaying key performance indicator information. The dashboard creation system includes: a business database comprising a plurality of business values; an intermediate table comprising intermediate data; and at least one key performance indicator record. In some implementations, the intermediate data includes: an intermediate value corresponding to a selected plurality of the business values; and an intermediate link identifying the corresponding selected plurality of business values. Also, the key performance indicator record may include: a key performance indicator value corresponding to the intermediate value; a key performance indicator link corresponding to the intermediate link and identifying the corresponding selected plurality of the business values; and a key performance indicator format corresponding to a desired graphical format for depicting the key performance indicator value. The intermediate value may be a summary value corresponding to an analysis of the selected plurality of business values. In such case, the intermediate link may comprise a summary link identifying analytical procedures for producing the summary value.
US08683369B2
A user interface is controlled to support a user using an image processing apparatus which can perform a task, for example, for storing image data obtained by a scanner in a memory or printing the image by a printer. In a display apparatus which can display a user interface including operation items, a user's intention is estimated, and an operation by the user for specifying a task is supported. For example, statuses of an image input unit and an image accept unit relating to execution of the task are monitored, and display forms of the operation items are varied in accordance with results of the monitoring.
US08683363B2
Alignment guides configured for velocity-sensitive behavior are disclosed. In one embodiment, during a user interface element move gesture, the gesture velocity is determined, and while moving the user interface element during the gesture, the user interface operates in a first or a second state with respect to displaying alignment guides. When the velocity of the user gesture exceeds a predefined velocity threshold, the display of the user interface is maintained in the first state, which does not include visibly displaying alignment guides. When the velocity of the user gesture is less than the predefined velocity threshold, the user interface is displayed in a second state that includes visibly displaying one or more alignment guides. In some embodiments, gesture velocity is used to set alignment guide attraction strength.
US08683362B2
In various embodiments, a card metaphor is established, in which each activity can be represented within an area of the screen referred to as a card. In various embodiments, any of several display modes are available for viewing, interacting with, manipulating, initiating, and dismissing cards. A persistent positional relationship can be established among cards, represented by a one-dimensional sequence. Newly opened cards are generally placed at the end of the sequence, although a new card that bears a relationship to an already open card may, in some embodiments, be placed adjacent to the already open card. In various embodiments, cards may be grouped, with such groups being represented as stacks of cards or by other visually distinctive means.
US08683359B2
Systems and methods for in-place user interface (UI) and dataflow modeling, including a number of UI elements of a graphical user interface (GUI) grouped in several GUI fragments. A first fragment of the several GUI fragments is switched from UI design mode to dataflow design mode, where the UI elements are replaced by data elements. The data elements in the first fragment may be related to define one part of a dataflow. A second fragment of the several GUI fragments is separately switched from UI design mode to dataflow design mode, where the UI elements are replaced by data elements. The data elements of the second fragment may be related to define another part of the dataflow. A relationship is created between the data elements of the first fragment and the data element of the second fragment based on the dataflow.
US08683356B2
A method is performed by an electronic communication device. The method includes storing electronic messages, and storing criteria for determining whether a stored message is related to a current message. A current electronic message is displayed to, a user of the communication device, including the current message's outside address and message body. The relevance of each of the stored messages to the current message is assessed based on the previously-stored criteria. Those messages that meet the criteria are selected and displayed along with the current message.
US08683354B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a first computing device having a controller to present an avatar having characteristics that correlate to a user profile and that conform to operating characteristics of the first computing device, and transmit to a second computing device operational information associated with the avatar for reproducing at least in part the avatar at said second computing device. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US08683352B2
Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to hierarchical tree file browsers and provide a method, system and computer program product for selectably flattening a hierarchical tree object structure in a hierarchical tree object browser. In one embodiment of the invention, a method of flattening an object hierarchy in an object browser can be provided. The method can include selecting a node in an object hierarchy in an object browser and, responsive to selecting the node, displaying content for the selected node and content for at least one node below the selected node in the object browser.
US08683351B2
A chat user interface for threaded text chat systems. The user interface can include a canvas view in which multiple portions of a threaded text tree for a chat session can be rendered separately and concurrently. The user interface further can include a chat participant view, a chat input view and an outline view of an ongoing chat session. Notably, selections of a threaded text tree rendered in the canvas view can be configured for zooming so that certain parts of the threaded text tree can be viewed more readily than other parts of the threaded text tree. Moreover, as new text entries are provided to any branch of the threaded text tree, visual indicators can be activated in the canvas view to alert an end user to the location of the new text entries. Finally, the canvas view can accommodate both imported external objects, such as graphics or links to Web pages, and also a white board region into which notations can be applied by an end user during the course of a chat session.
US08683337B2
A streaming composition system is described herein that provides easy workflow and playback capabilities for content producers to create composite media assets from existing and on-going media content and for streaming clients to seamlessly playback composite multimedia streams provided from different sources. These assets provide broadcasters an option to quickly turn around highlights for an on-going event. The streaming composition system allows a producer to identify clips within existing media assets and compose the clips into a new unified streaming presentation. For producers that already have smooth streaming media assets, the system leverages these assets to provide seamless playback across clip boundaries including advanced playback support for advertisement insertion, fast forward, rewind, and so on.
US08683330B2
An information processing apparatus for controlling printing of a printing apparatus has a user interface, a graphics unit, and a print information storing unit to store generated print information before transmitting the generated print information to the printing apparatus. When generating the print information, the graphics unit generates job identification information for identifying the printing operation settable based on the input printout conditions and a print information generation instruction. The graphics unit correlates the generated job identification information and the generated print information. The user interface generates job identification information for the printing operation, obtains the print information correlated with the generated job identification information, and activates a print information use unit for presenting information, related to the printing operation, to the user.
US08683323B2
A method includes obtaining a first XML schema and a second XML schema. One or more schema objects of each of the first XML schema and the second XML schema are identified. An identified schema object of the first XML schema is compared with an identified schema object of the second XML schema. If a difference is detected between the compared schema objects, a risk of the detected difference affecting operation of a composite application incorporating the first schema or the second schema is evaluated. A notification of the evaluated risk is issued.
US08683321B2
The present invention relates to systems and methods for registry driven transformation of a document exchanged between businesses or applications. More particularly, it relates to systems and protocols for using one or more commonly accessible registries to transform electronic commerce documents among dissimilar interfaces, preferably XML documents. Particular aspects of the present invention are described in the claims, specification and drawings.
US08683316B2
A method and apparatus is provided for populating and submitting electronic forms by proxy over a data-packet-network. The apparatus comprises software running on a system of network-connected servers that enables a user, connected to one of the servers, to navigate to a site containing an electronic form and obtain data about the site and the form. The data obtained is used in conjunction with data about the user to construct a machine readable job order upon user request that may be executed for the purpose of automatic form population and submission to a host sponsoring the site. Upon acceptance of the submitted form, data used for log-in is stored where it is entered along with site data as a new registered site item for a user such that future navigation to the site, auto log-in and data return is performed automatically on behalf of the user.
US08683315B2
A system and method for creating integrated web form and database applications. One or more embodiments of the invention enable a system and method for creating integrated web form and database applications. The system enables click-and-drag form creation and automatically codes the markup, validation script and database schema. The system does not require programming to create forms or a database schema to associate form data with. In addition, the system does not require programming for integrating forms and a database. By generating the schema to implement a form, a non-database programmer such as a designer can create web forms that store and display data to and from a database without programming any software. In this manner, designers can perform tasks that heretofore have required software engineers.
US08683311B2
A method described herein includes receiving data that identifies a web page, wherein the data that identifies the web page is desirably displayed to a first individual and resolving the web page to generate a markup language document, wherein the markup language document comprises unstructured data. The method also includes extracting portions of the markup language document and generating a structured data object, wherein the structured data object includes the portions of the markup language document. The method further includes causing a summary of the web page to be displayed to the first individual, wherein the summary of the web page is based at least in part upon the structured data object.
US08683302B2
Positions holding different bit values between a first code word, which is obtained by coding an information bit sequence based on a coding method utilizing quasi-cyclic codes, and a second code word, which has the close Hamming distance from the first code word and satisfies a parity check of the coding method, are identified. Thereafter, a code word is generated by inserting bit values known to the transmitter and receiver into the identified positions of the information bit sequence and coding the information bit sequence. Upon reception of a signal based on the generated code word, the receiver judges whether known bit values held by corresponding positions in a code word obtained by decoding the received signal are the same as preset bit values. If the judgment result is negative, the code word based on the received signal is judges as erroneous even when it satisfies the parity check.
US08683297B2
A method includes generating a replacement default read threshold at least partially based on a default read threshold and on an updated read threshold. The method also includes sending the replacement default read threshold to the memory.
US08683289B2
A flexible and relatively hardware efficient LDPC decoder is described. The decoder can be implemented with a level of parallelism which is less than the full parallelism of the code structure used to control the decoding process. Each command of a relatively simple control code used to describe the code structure can be stored and executed multiple times to complete the decoding of a codeword. Different codeword lengths are supported using the same set of control code instructions but with the code being implemented a different number of times depending on the codeword length. The decoder can switch between decoding codewords of different lengths, without the need to change the stored code description information, by simply changing a code lifting factor that is indicative of codeword length and is used to control the decoding process. When decoding codewords shorter than the maximum supported codeword length some block storage locations may go unused.
US08683287B2
According to one embodiment, an error correcting decoder includes a first error correction decoding module, an interleaving module, a delay module, a second error correction decoding module, and a corrector. The first error correction decoding module performs a first error correction decoding to a received signal in accordance with a broadcasting system. The interleaving module rearranges a data array of an output of the first error correction decoding module in a second order. The data array is ordered in a first order which is reverse to the second order. The delay module delays the received signal by a processing time of the first error correction decoding module. The second error correction decoding module performs a second error correction decoding to an output of the interleaving module and an output of the delay module. The corrector configured to correct a delay of an output of the second error correction decoding module based on a packet position defined by the broadcasting system.
US08683281B2
Scan and Scan-BIST architectures are commonly used to test digital circuitry in integrated circuits. The present disclosure improves upon low power Scan and Scan-BIST methods. The improvement allows the low power Scan and Scan-BIST architectures to achieve a delay test capability equally as effective as the delay test capabilities used in conventional scan and Scan-BIST architectures.
US08683279B2
A TAP linking module (21, 51) permits plural TAPs (TAPs 1-4) to be controlled and accessed from a test bus (13) via a single TAP interface (20).
US08683278B2
A semiconductor device, comprising: a user circuit having a plurality of flip-flops; and a connection path which, while in test mode, connects the plurality of flip-flops and forms a scan chain, wherein the connection path has a logic operation circuit which performs a logic operation on a non-inverted output value of any flip-flop among the plurality of flip-flops and outputs the result, or, an inverted value connection path which outputs to a following-stage flip-flop an inverted output value of any flip-flop among the plurality of flip-flops.
US08683259B2
A method begins by a processing module identifying sets of dispersed storage (DS) units for each of a plurality of dispersed storage networks (DSNs) in a computing system network, wherein a set of the sets of DS unit stores an error coded data file. The method continues with the processing module identifying a reference entity within the computing system network. The method continues with the processing module determining first data access performance information between the reference entity and a first one of the sets of DS units and determining second data access performance information between the reference entity and a second one of the sets of DS units for each of the plurality of DSNs. The method continues with the processing module storing the first and second data access performance information for each of the plurality of DSNs to produce system data access performance information.
US08683252B2
A recording medium, method and apparatus for managing data are discussed. According to an embodiment, the present invention provides a method of reproducing main data and additional data. The method includes receiving the additional data associated with the main data, the additional data being divided into a plurality of segment units; and reproducing the additional data in a synchronous manner with the main data using time information if indication information indicates a presence of the time information. The time information indicates a presentation time of the additional data with respect to the main data. The main data and the additional data are reproduced according to management data, the management data including link information for linking the main data and the additional data.
US08683243B2
Dynamically switching cores on a heterogeneous multi-core processing system may be performed by executing program code on a first processing core. Power up of a second processing core may be signaled. A first performance metric of the first processing core executing the program code may be collected. When the first performance metric is better than a previously determined core performance metric, power down of the second processing core may be signaled and execution of the program code may be continued on the first processing core. When the first performance metric is not better than the previously determined core performance metric, execution of the program code may be switched from the first processing core to the second processing core.
US08683242B2
A system and method for leveraging physiological traits to control microprocessor frequency are disclosed. In some embodiments, the system and method may optimize, for example, a particular processor-based architecture based on, for example, end user satisfaction. In some embodiments, the system and method may determine, for example, whether their users are satisfied to provide higher efficiency, improved reliability, reduced power consumption, increased security, and a better user experience. The system and method may use, for example, biometric input devices to provide information about a user's physiological traits to a computer system. Biometric input devices may include, for example, one or more of the following: an eye tracker, a galvanic skin response sensor, and/or a force sensor.
US08683239B2
A method of allocating power to ports in an Ethernet switch, including: (1) assigning a configuration power to a selected port, wherein the assigned configuration power is less than a power supplied by the selected port to a powered, (2) enabling and powering the selected port in a single indivisible step, (3) determining the power limit of a device coupled to the selected port, (4) comparing the power supplied by the selected port to the device with the configuration power assigned to the selected port, and (5) if the power supplied by the selected port to the device is greater than the configuration power assigned to the selected port, then increasing the configuration power of the selected port to correspond with the power limit of the device.
US08683236B2
There is provided an outlet expansion apparatus including a first connection outlet to which an electronic appliance is to be connected, a second connection outlet that is for connecting to a power supply outlet that is to be a supply source of power, and a delegate authentication unit that carries out, in a case the electronic appliance not having a function of carrying out authentication with a power management apparatus managing an amount of power to be supplied to the electronic appliance is connected to the first connection outlet and the power supply outlet is connected to the second connection outlet, authentication to be carried out on the power management apparatus by the electronic appliance connected to the first connection outlet on behalf of the electronic appliance.
US08683232B2
A portable storage device has a storage peripheral interface connecting to a computer. An encrypted data storage is available to the computer connected to the interface. The encrypted data storage includes a first part accessible after an authentication. A controller has a first operation mode performing encryption and decryption of data of the first part after the authentication of a first combined credential. The encryption and the decryption rely on a cipher key derived from a second combined credential. The first combined credential and the second combined credential are derived from at least a computer signature of the computer connected to the interface and a user credential of a user of the computer connected to the portable storage device.
US08683227B2
A communication system is provided with an information processing device, and a management device capable of updating old data stored in the information processing device by outputting new data to the information processing device. The management device is provided with an old data input device that inputs the old data, a first new data input device that inputs the new data, an encryption device that encrypts the new data by utilizing the old data as a key, and a new data output device that outputs the new data encrypted by the encryption device to the information processing device. The information processing device is provided with an old data storage that stores the old data, a second new data input device that inputs the encrypted new data output by the management device, a decryption device that decrypts the encrypted new data by utilizing the old data as a key, and an updating device that updates the old data stored in the old data storage to the new data decrypted by the decryption device.
US08683221B2
Described embodiments provide a method of coordinating debugging operations in a network processor. The network processor has one or more processing modules. A system cache of the network processor requests a data transfer between the system cache and at least one external memory. A memory interface of the network processor selects an encrypted data pipeline or a non-encrypted data pipeline based on whether the processed data transfer request includes an encrypted operation. If the data transfer request includes an encrypted operation, the memory interface provides the data transfer to the encrypted data pipeline and checks whether a debug indicator is set for the data transfer request. If the debug indicator is set, the memory interface disables encryption/decryption of the encrypted data pipeline. The data transfer request is performed by the encrypted data pipeline to the at least one external memory.
US08683216B2
A method and apparatus for identifying an electronic file as polymorphic malware. A server receives from a client device a hash value and metadata associated with an electronic file. The server determines that the received metadata relates to corresponding metadata stored at a database, the corresponding stored metadata being associated with a further hash value that differs from the received hash value. A determination is made that each of the received hash values have been reported by fewer than a predetermined number of clients and, as a result, it is determined that the electronic file is likely to be polymorphic malware.
US08683208B2
According to one embodiment, an information processing device stores a program list and plural types of security functions each defining therein protection attributes for respective arguments related to input and output of data to be protected, and stores function argument protection attributes and dependency relations each of which is defined by a determinant set and a dependent attribute that satisfy a predetermined condition. The device detects a combination of first and second security functions in which integrity of variables included in a determinant set of one dependency relation in the first security function are verified by the second security function, generates a third security function which adds protection attributes that guarantee integrity to variables included in the dependent attribute of the dependency relation in the first security function when verification of the second security function is successful and which outputs the variables, and updates the function argument protection attribute and the dependency relation concomitantly with an addition of the third security function.
US08683207B2
The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for updating signature algorithms used for signing an assembly with a strong name without changing the identity of the assembly. The present invention enables an assembly that has already been given an identity (via strong name signing with an identity public/private key pair) to be resigned with a different public/private key pair without changing the original identity that was based on the identity public/private key pair. This is accomplished by including a counter signature within the assembly that links the original identity of the assembly to the new signature key pair.
US08683206B2
A system and method of authenticating data files is provided. The method includes providing a plurality of software part files and a manifest file associated with the software part files. The manifest file identifies each of the plurality of software part files. The method includes associating the manifest file with a manifest detached digital signature. The method also includes digitally signing the manifest file with the manifest detached digital signature. The manifest detached digital signature authenticates the manifest file. The method includes associating each of the plurality of software part files with one a plurality of unique detached digital signatures. The method includes digitally signing each of the plurality of software part files with one of the plurality of unique detached digital signatures. Each of the plurality of unique detached digital signatures authenticates one of the software part files.
US08683204B2
An improved secure transaction system for facilitating secure transactions between devices in a network is set forth. The system includes a first device. A secure agent, adapted for encrypting and delivering a message on behalf of the first device, is provided. The secure agent has a secret key drawn at random from a large domain embedded in the agent by the first device. A second device, adapted to obtain the message, based on a session ID, from the secure agent, is provided. The second device can selectively test the truth of a corresponding message from the agent, based on querying of the first device. The testing is unknown and unpredictable to the secure agent during the transaction. In this manner, the first device and agent are kept separate to deter cheating.
US08683190B2
Circuits, methods, and apparatus that allow signals that are compliant with multiple standards to share a common connector on an electronic device. An exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides a connector that provides signals compatible with a legacy standard in one mode and a newer standard in another mode.
US08683187B2
A method and apparatus for hibernation booting in a mobile terminal supporting two processors are provided. In the hibernation booting method, when power is turned on, a master processor performs hibernation booting. A slave processor performs normal booting under control of the master processor. The master processor and the slave processor determine data needing synchronizing, and perform synchronization depending on whether the data needing synchronizing have been changed.
US08683186B2
An information device has a storage medium storing information items which includes a first program provided on a first partition, a second program and data provided on a second partition to restore the first program on the first partition to a predetermined state, a boot block which causes system activation from one of the first partition and the second partition, and an active-partition switching program which indicates, to the boot block, one of the first and second partitions. An input/output system activates the active-partition switching program when a specific operation is performed. The active-partition switching program indicates to the boot block that system activation is to be executed from the second partition.
US08683174B2
A storage system comprises a storage apparatus which includes a processor, storage disks, and a memory storing a page mapping table, a page mapping program, and a page-filename mapping program. A file system manages a file tree of files with filenames. The page mapping table specifies a relationship between data volumes in the storage apparatus and the storage disks and the file system, the data volumes each including pages, each page including segments, each segment including sectors. The file tree has for each storage apparatus a hierarchy of directories and files based on relationships among the data volumes, the pages, and the segments. The page mapping program and the page-filename mapping program are executable by the processor to specify, by page, a location of data contained in the I/O request by referring to the page mapping table and the file tree.
US08683173B2
The present disclosure includes methods, devices, and systems for a logical address offset. One method embodiment includes detecting a memory unit formatting operation. Subsequently, in response to detecting the formatting operation, the method includes inspecting format information on the memory unit, calculating a logical address offset, and applying the offset to a host logical address.
US08683167B1
A method, computer program product, and computing system for maintaining a queue of cache operations to be performed within a cache memory system. The cache operations include one or more of cache write operations and cache read operations. The cache operations within the queue are reordered based, at least in part, upon a maximum acceptable write operation latency.
US08683164B2
Systems and methods are disclosed herein, such as those that operate to control a set of delays associated with one or more data clocks to clock a set of data bits into one or more transmit registers, one or more data strobes to transfer the set of data bits to at least one receive register, and/or a set of memory array timing signals to access a memory array on a die associated with a stacked-die memory vault. Systems and methods herein also include those that perform data eye training operations and/or memory array timing training operations associated with the stacked-die memory vault.
US08683161B2
A mass storage device and method that utilize storage memory and a shadow memory capable of increasing the speed associated with copying data from one location to another location within the storage memory without the need to access a host computer for the copy transaction. A controller of the mass storage device receives a file copy request for a file to be copied between first and second locations within the storage memory. Data from the first location within the storage memory is then loaded into a shadow memory means of the mass storage device, and then the data is written from the shadow memory means to the second location within the storage memory.
US08683157B2
The storage system of the present invention is able to generate one virtual logical device from different logical devices which exist in each of the different storage control units and remote-copy all or part of the virtual logical device to another logical device. The same virtual identifier is set for a volume of the first storage unit and for a volume of the second storage unit. The path control unit of the host identifies a plurality of volumes which have the same virtual identifier as one virtual volume. A remote copy pair can also be set by a virtual volume and a volume of the third storage unit. The setting of the virtual volume and the setting of the remote copy can be performed by means of an instruction from the management server.
US08683156B2
Data blocks are copied from a source (e.g., a source virtual disk) to a target (e.g., a target virtual disk). The source virtual disk format is preserved on the target virtual disk. Offsets for extents stored in the target virtual disk are converted to offsets for corresponding extents in the source virtual disk. A map of the extents for the source virtual disk can therefore be used to create, for deduplication, segments of data that are aligned to boundaries of the extents in the target virtual disk.
US08683146B2
A storage apparatus including: a first controller that generates an access to a storage device; the first controller includes: a first relay unit configured to relay the access to the storage device; and an access control unit configured to be activated after activation of the first relay unit and to relay the access to the storage device via a second relay unit; and a second controller that includes the second relay unit and generates the access to the storage device, wherein when the first relay unit receives a connection request for an access path between the first relay unit and the storage device from the second controller, the first relay unit establishes the access path to the storage device irrespective of an activation state of the access control unit.
US08683129B2
The disclosed embodiments provide a system that uses speculative cache requests to reduce cache miss delays for a cache in a multi-level memory hierarchy. During operation, the system receives a memory reference which is directed to a cache line in the cache. Next, while determining whether the cache line is available in the cache, the system determines whether the memory reference is likely to miss in the cache, and if so, simultaneously sends a speculative request for the cache line to a lower level of the multi-level memory hierarchy.
US08683125B2
A tier identification (TID) is to indicate a characteristic of a memory region associated with a virtual address in a tiered memory system. A thread may be serviced according to a first path based on the TID indicating a first characteristic. The thread may be serviced according to a second path based on the TID indicating a second characteristic.
US08683117B2
According to the embodiments, an external storage device switches to an interface controller for supporting only a read operation of nonvolatile memory when a shift condition for shifting to a read only mode is met. A host device switches to an interface driver for supporting only the read operation of the nonvolatile memory when determining to recognize as read only memory based on information acquired from the external storage device.
US08683098B2
Described herein are a method and an apparatus for minimizing within-die variations in performance parameters of a processor. The apparatus comprising: a reference generator to generate an adjustable compensated reference signal; a bias generator to generate a bias signal based on the adjustable compensated reference signal; a transmitter coupled with the bias generator to transmit an output signal; and a feedback mechanism to sample the output signal from the transmitter and to provide the sampled output signal to the bias generator.
US08683088B2
A system and method for protecting against corruption of data stored in a peripheral storage device. The peripheral storage device is communicatively coupled with a host computer. The peripheral storage device includes at least memory and a controller. Data from the host computer is stored to a first portion of the peripheral storage device memory. The controller backs up some or all of the data to a second portion of the data to a second portion of the peripheral storage device memory. The controller restores some or all of the data from the second portion of the peripheral storage device memory to the first portion of the peripheral storage device memory.
US08683086B2
A remote control of the present invention automatically identifies one or more peripheral devices which need to be programmed with the remote control. In some embodiments, the remote control is able to visually identify a peripheral device from an image, obtain the configuration information for the peripheral device, and program itself in the background according to the configuration information. These tasks are advantageously performed by the remote control, without user input. The remote control can be programmed to support a plurality of peripheral devices. When the remote control is used to control a peripheral device, the remote control will first present a selection list on the display screen. The selection list includes all the peripheral devices that the remote is communicatively coupled with. Upon the user selecting the desired peripheral device to be controlled, the remote control dynamically outputs a customized user interface associated with the selected peripheral device.
US08683081B2
A method for displaying advertisement content is provided. The method includes, launching an application from a removable memory device with a plurality of non-volatile memory cells and a controller including a processor, wherein the application is launched when the removable memory device interfaces with a host system; launching a display window on a display device that is controlled by the application; and displaying advertisement content on the display window, real-time from a server or offline using the advertisement content stored on the removable memory device.
US08683080B2
A network device includes a content requesting interface for adding desired selected content to a queue associated with a remote content provider. Memory stores received selected content that is received from the remote content provider. A network interface provides at least one of usage and storage status data relating to the received selected content stored in the memory to the remote content provider, receives additional ones of the desired selected content in the queue from the remote content provider based on the at least one of the usage and the storage status data of the received selected content in the memory, and stores the desired selected content received from the remote content provider as the received selected content in the memory. The storage status includes at least one of a hidden status, an erased status, and an amount of the received selected content stored in the memory.
US08683078B2
A method and system for QoS control for remote access to UPnP devices, is disclosed. Enabling QoS control for remote access to UPnP devices involves providing a UPnP control point; providing a UPnP device in a network, wherein the first UPnP control point is connected to the network via a communication link; and providing access between the UPnP control point and the UPnP device by utilizing a UPnP proxy that examines UPnP messages in and out of the network and translates the local URL in the message to a URL that is accessible by the UPnP control point over the communication link.
US08683077B2
A method for conveying information related to a transport addressing scheme is provided. A user agent (UA) is also provided that is configured to convey information related to a transport addressing scheme. The UA includes a processor configured to include in a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message an indicator related to the transport addressing scheme.
US08683067B2
A video navigation system and method can be utilized to efficiently and adjustably navigate video content. In one embodiment, a video information control method facilitates efficient video navigation. A video stream is received and video access point selection between multiple access points in said video stream is controlled. The presentation information is forwarded for each of the multiple access points. In one exemplary implementation, the presentation information is forwarded to a display and the information is directed to presenting a main viewing area and navigation areas that present looping video clips or portions of the video stream at time intervals ahead of and behind the video portion being presented in the main viewing area.
US08683062B2
Techniques for centralized publishing of network resources within computer networks are described. Publication of and access to the network resources are controlled from a single, centralized location, advantageously improving the uniformity of network administration responsibilities, and overall robustness of the network.
US08683057B2
A method for conversion between SIP message and ISUP message for number portability service and corresponding conversion apparatus are provided. In the method for converting the ISUP message into the SIP message, the ISUP message is received and parameters related to number portability are read from the ISUP message, a number portability type is determined according to the parameters related to number portability, and the parameters related to number portability are mapped into the SIP message based on the number portability type. The SIP message includes: destination address parameter, which represents destination user number; npdi parameter, which indicates execution of the number portability dip and uniquely identifies the number portability type; and rn parameter, which represents the number to be routed to the destination user number. The conversion apparatus for converting ISUP message into SIP message and the method for converting SIP message into ISUP message and corresponding conversion apparatus are also provided.
US08683055B2
A system for expediting IP address assignment. An apparatus that desires to initiate a connection with another apparatus may be deemed an initiator (e.g., or a “handover requester” in Near Field Communications, or NFC, terminology). In the instance that an apparatus is deemed to be an initiator, a further determination may be made as to whether the initiator is already a member of a network. If the initiator is determined not to already be a member of a network, the initiator may provide IP address configuration information usable by the other apparatus for assigning an IP address to the initiator. The IP address that is set in the initiator may then be based on an IP address provided to the initiator by the other apparatus in response to the previously sent IP address configuration information.
US08683048B2
An apparatus and method for determining an authorized IP service for an access terminal during an establishment of a PPP connection. In an aspect of the disclosure, a data link is established with the access terminal, and a request to authenticate the access terminal is provided to an authentication/authorization server. During authentication, an IP Service Authorized Parameter is provided by the authentication/authorization server, the IP Service Authorized Parameter for indicating the authorized IP service for the access terminal. Thereby, a network layer protocol and a mobility protocol are each configured according to the authorized IP service that corresponds to the IP Service Authorized Parameter.
US08683041B2
A method for controlling and maintaining a level of service of web applications is disclosed. The method includes generating a context for each request sent from a client to a web server and for each reply sent from a web server to a client. Then it is determined whether the context belongs to an identified transaction. Statistics respective of the identified transaction is then gathered. Further, a determination is made whether at least one policy predefined for the identified application is violated. A plurality of corrective actions are performed if at least one policy is determined to be violated.
US08683040B2
An intermediary node (105) comprises a first control node communication module (151) adapted for forming a first communication network (152) with a first control node (101); a second control node communication module (153) adapted for forming a second communication network (154) with a second control node (103), wherein the first communication network is communicatively separated from the second communication network; and a user node communication module (155) adapted for forming a user communication network (127) with at least one first user node (109) and for receiving a user request (141) from the first user node, wherein the intermediary node (105) is adapted to generate an anonymous user request (143) based on the user request and to perform a selection to transmit the anonymous user request selectively to the first control node (101) or to the second control node (103).
US08683024B2
The present invention discloses a remote network management system for coupling a series of remote serial devices, servers, and computers to one or more user workstations allowing for selective access of the remote devices. The remote serial devices, servers, and computers are all connected to a remote management unit which interfaces the user workstations to the remote devices. The power supply of each remote device is also connected to the remote management unit through a controllable power supply. The video from the remote networking equipment is digitized and optimized by an LCD controller located within the remote management unit before it is compressed for transmission. An option menu containing a menu of all the remote devices allows a user to select and operate any of the remote devices. The option menu is also utilizes to selectively control the power to the remote serial devices, servers, and computers.
US08683020B2
A facility for publishing information in a distributed network without a central management infrastructure is described. In various embodiments, the facility receives an indication of a new node and a destination node, the new node omitted from a contact list associated with the destination node, the contact list having an approximately logarithmic distribution of neighboring nodes; introduces the new node to the destination node via a permanent circuit; and causes the destination node to add the new node to the contact list when adding the new node improves the logarithmic distribution of neighboring nodes.
US08683013B2
A method is provided in one embodiment and includes establishing a video session involving an endpoint and a server; evaluating network criteria associated with characteristics that can affect a bit rate for the video session; and communicating bit rate hint data, which is based on the network criteria, to the endpoint for consideration in a bit rate request. The bit rate request involves streaming data in the video session. The method also includes receiving the bit rate request from the endpoint.
US08683005B1
A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for optimizing resource use in a mobile device network is disclosed. In some embodiments, this includes using a processor to store mobile device data on a server, creating server metadata based on the stored mobile device data, storing the server metadata in a mobile device cache, and using the mobile device to access the server metadata stored in the mobile device cache.
US08683000B1
A virtual network interface system with memory management is provided, including a network interface controller having a memory with a memory credit and a flow-control for managing the network interface controller. A computer cluster is linked to the network interface controller for exchanging the memory credit with the network interface controller.
US08682996B2
Apparatus for handling received messages, the apparatus comprising: a communication-interface controller operable on behalf of a processor to intercept and screen received messages on the fly portion-by-portion during reception, and to submit those messages determined to have passed such screening to the processor for processing.
US08682993B1
A method for a data capturing and exchange system. The data capturing and exchange system has a plurality of devices in a sub-network and a network server connected to the sub-network. The method includes capturing an unstructured data record of a document on a device, collecting metadata associated with the unstructured data record; determining a recipient for the unstructured data record in a health information exchange, and composing a data message containing the unstructured data record. The method also includes obtaining the composed data message containing the unstructured data record, packing the composed data message into a packed message containing a structured data record corresponding to the unstructured data record, and sending the packed message to the recipient in the HIE can receive and recognize the document.
US08682991B2
A computer system for facilitating communications between users that, in various embodiments, is configured for: (A) receiving, from a first user, one or more user watch area attributes; (B) using the one or more user watch area attributes to define a watch area; (C) receiving, from a second user, a message associated with a particular geographical location, wherein the second user has indicated that the message should be associated with the particular geographical location; (D) determining whether the particular geographical location is located within the user watch area; and (E) at least partially in response to determining that the particular geographical location is located within the user watch area, subscribing the first user to a thread of messages that includes the message.
US08682988B2
Systems and methods for advanced e-mail and messaging are disclosed. Profiles which include visual keys enable more efficient communications between users. Profiles may be pushed out to recipients or may be pulled in by recipients, with control over updated elements shared between the profile owner and the recipient. Additional capabilities include the ability to delete e-mails sent to a recipient regardless of when sent, extended subject line support to enable more efficient communications, and Improved display of threaded e-mail messages. Furthermore, features to reduce necessary communications bandwidth are also disclosed.
US08682982B2
A system, method, computer program product, and carrier are described for causing message content to undergo an evaluation mode at least partly dependent upon one or more message content destinations and indicating at least one outcome of the evaluation mode before detecting an apparent authorization to transmit the message content to the one or more message content destinations; or obtaining one or more evaluation parameters in association with a message content destination selection and transmitting at least a tentative-message-content evaluation result from an application of the one or more evaluation parameters to tentative-message-content.
US08682979B2
An e-mail system is disclosed that overcomes many deficiencies of, but is backward compatible with, existing e-mail systems. Embodiments of the system may include various features, including but not limited to: (1) secure transfer of e-mail messages, without the need for users to replace existing e-mail clients or to change e-mail addresses; (2) tracking of all actions performed in connection with an e-mail transmission; (3) the ability for a recipient to view information about an e-mail message, optionally including information about how other addressees have responded to it, before deciding whether to retrieve the e-mail message; (4) the aggregation of entire e-mail conversations into a single threaded view; (5) the ability to include both private and public messages in a single e-mail communication; (6) sender control over downstream actions performed in connection with an e-mail message; (7) flexible control over cryptographic methods used to encrypt emails messages for storage.
US08682976B2
A peer-to-peer network including a set of nodes distributed among a set of processing devices and arranged in a circular form in such a way that each node has a unique successor node. Each node has a memory to store data associated with keys and, on reception of a request containing a key, provides data associated with the key. Each data item stored in the memory of a first node is duplicated in the memory of a second node, different from said first node. The second node is chosen from among the nodes deployed on the set of processing devices different from the processing device on which the first node is deployed.
US08682968B2
The present invention discloses a method, a system, and a node for node interconnection on a content delivery network. This content delivery network includes a first-level CDN node that is formed of a first CDN media server and a first CDN content storage and is configured to provide content for a user, and a second-level CDN node that is formed of a second CDN media server and a second CDN content storage and interconnects with the first-level CDN node, where the first CDN media server accesses the content in the second CDN content storage by using an IP-layer storage access protocol. The networking is simplified and the content access efficiency and the resource utilization are improved by using the technical solutions of node interconnection on the content delivery network provided in the present invention.
US08682960B2
An apparatus may include a processor configured to receive a request for a service or content from a first device. The processor may be further configured to receive a user's context information from a second device. The processor may additionally be configured to filter the requested service or content based at least in part upon the user's context information. The processor may be further configured to provide the filtered service or content to the first device. Corresponding methods and computer program products are also provided.
US08682958B2
The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for decoupling cluster data from cloud deployment. The decoupling facilitates taking down and reattaching a cluster to persisted data as needed. Other embodiments of the invention include resuming a cluster's execution on a different topology and/or different system states based on a persisted data set.
US08682956B2
An onboard computer system including instructions causing a processor to store a first-user media profile indicating media preferences of a user. The processor also determines that the vehicle is encountering a second vehicle and receives a second-user media profile. The processor also evaluates the profiles to determine whether the profiles bear a predetermined similarity and, in response to determining the similarity exists, identifies recommended media, based on characteristics of the profiles, and initiates provision of the recommended media to one of the users of the first vehicle and the user of the second vehicle.
US08682948B2
In embodiments of scalable random number generation, a system includes one or more entropy pools that combine entropy data, which is derived from entropy sources based on event data. A root pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) maintains a seeded entropy state that is reseeded by the entropy pools, and a seed version identifier updates to indicate a current seed version of the root PRNG. Processor PRNGs are instantiated one each per logical processor in a kernel of the system, where each processor PRNG maintains a PRNG entropy state that is reseeded from the root PRNG, and a processor PRNG generates a random number from a respective PRNG entropy state when invoked.
US08682947B2
A rollable random number generator (1) for providing a random value. The random number generator comprises a processor (11) controllable by a movement sensor (17) and the processor (11) being arranged to be programmable to present the random value as a desired message.
US08682934B2
A metadata generating apparatus generating metadata associated with content data continuously generated in real time includes an additional information acquiring unit that acquires additional information corresponding to at least one piece of the content data and a link information adding unit that adds link information uniquely identifying the at least one piece of the content data corresponding to the additional information to the corresponding additional information to generate the metadata.
US08682927B2
Embodiments of the inventive concept can extract digital document information related with a specific individual to achieve a work load reduction associated with evidentiary material preparation for litigation. Recorded digital information can be displayed and user-specifying information can be set for each of a plurality of document files. The user-specifying information shows which user contained in user information one or more document files is related with. A recording unit can record the set user-specifying information. At least one user is selected, and a document file where user-specifying information which corresponds to the selected user was set is searched. Additional information showing whether or not the searched document file is related with the litigation is set via a display unit. A document file which is related with litigation is outputted based on the additional information.
US08682923B2
Methods are disclosed of processing a set-level query across one or more attributes, the query being grouped by one or more attributes, whereby groups that satisfy the set-level query may be aggregated over one or more attributes. The methods use bitwise arithmetic to efficiently traverse bitmap and bit-slice vectors and indexes of a data relation to determine groups that solve the set-level query.
US08682921B2
A computer-implemented system for facilitating cross-subsystem queries of a plurality of building automation subsystems includes a first database storing a logical model for a building automation system. The system further includes a second database storing information for the plurality of building automation subsystems. The second database relates information for the plurality of building automation subsystems based on the logical model of the first database. The system also includes a query engine configured to decompose a cross-subsystem query received from an application into a plurality of subsystem queries using the information of the second database.
US08682920B2
In order to automatically enrich the contents of presentation, MFP includes a display control portion for outputting presentation data for display, a specifying instruction accepting portion for accepting an instruction for specifying part of the presentation data, a related information search portion for searching for related information related to a specified part specified by the specifying instruction, a conversion portion for converting the presentation data into transmission data that allows extraction of related information related to the specified part, and a transmission portion for transmitting the transmission data.
US08682916B2
A plurality of network file manager switches interoperate to provide remote file virtualization. Copies of file data and/or metadata are maintained at a central site and at one or more remote sites. The network file manager switch at the remote site may satisfy certain client requests locally without having to contact the network file manager switch at the central site. A global namespace is maintained and is communicated to all network file manager switches.
US08682910B2
At least one quasi-identifier attribute of a plurality of ranked attributes is selected for use in anonymizing a database. Each of the ranked attributes is ranked according to that attribute's effect on a database-centric application (DCA) being tested. In an embodiment, the selected quasi-identifier attribute(s) has the least effect on the DCA. The database is anonymized based on the selected quasi-identifier attribute(s) to provide a partially-anonymized database, which may then be provided to a testing entity for use in testing the DCA. In an embodiment, during execution of the DCA, instances of database queries are captured and analyzed to identify a plurality of attributes from the database and, for each such attribute identified, the effect of the attribute on the DCA is quantified. In this manner, databases can be selectively anonymized in order to balance the requirements of data privacy against the utility of the data for testing purposes.
US08682907B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for evaluating substitute terms. One of the methods includes selecting a first term and a second term. A first co-occurrence frequency is determined for co-occurring terms in search queries that include the first term. A first vector is generated for the first term using the first co-occurrence frequencies. A second co-occurrence frequency is determined for the co-occurring terms in the search queries that include the first term adjacent to the second term. A second vector is generated for the second term using the second co-occurrence frequencies. A score for the second term as a context for a substitution rule based on the first term is computed, wherein the score is based on a comparison between the first vector and the second vector.
US08682900B2
The invention provides a system and method for retrieving documents from a collection of documents that match a word search query. A word index is generated for each document in which each entry is an enriched-term string built from the stemmed form of the word to be searched and a separator character followed by the original form of the word to be searched. During a retrieving operation, a search query is processed depending the original form or the stemmed form of a word to be searched. Cross-documents tables are addressed to find documents that match the enriched-term string of the word to be searched.
US08682897B2
A system and method are disclosed for managing playlists of digital content. Digital content preference data is received from a plurality of users. The preference data is then processed to generate a group preference playlist, which contains references to digital content that is mutually preferred by each of the users. The group preference playlist is then initiated to play the mutually-preferred digital content.
US08682895B1
A real-time messaging platform and method is disclosed which classifies messages in accordance with a combination of user engagement events as modified to reflect the temporal structure of the user engagement events. A message can be assigned a metric based, for example, on a weighted combination of user engagement rates, decayed with time to reflect an intuition that recent interactions by one or more users with the message will have a greater impact than older interactions with the message. Different types of interaction by one or more users with the message can be assigned different weights when the different engagement events are combined and, also, can be assigned different temporal characteristics.
US08682892B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for ranking search results. One of the methods includes determining, for each of a plurality of groups of resources, a respective count of independent incoming links to resources in the group; determining, for each of the plurality of groups of resources, a respective count of reference queries; determining, for each of the plurality of groups of resources, a respective group-specific modification factor, wherein the group-specific modification factor for each group is based on the count of independent links and the count of reference queries for the group; and associating, with each of the plurality of groups of resources, the respective group-specific modification factor for the group, wherein the respective group-specific modification for the group modifies initial scores generated for resources in the group in response to received search queries.
US08682890B2
A method for generating a recommendation is provided. The method includes the steps of: receiving at least one of a negative and positive example from one or more other users; and determining a recommendation for a user based on at least one of the negative and positive examples. The method can further include the step of generating a user profile for the user based on previous behavior of the user, in which case the determining step can include determining the recommendation based on the negative example and the user profile. The determining step can also include the step of determining the recommendation based on both of the negative and positive examples.
US08682883B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to systems and methods for determining sets of products which are similar to each other in terms of consumers' wants and needs. Queries are performed on a particular product. Documents relating to the query are received and stored. A dictionary is created from the received documents, whereby the documents, which are text files, are scrubbed of certain data to create a scrubbed text file. Topic modeling is then performed on the cleansed text file. Various methods can be used to perform topic modeling, including, but not limited to, latent semantic analysis, nonnegative matrix factorization, and singular value decomposition.
US08682881B1
Systems, methods, and computer readable storage mediums are provided for automatically extracting data from a classified website. A website is determined to be a classified website based on a set of heuristics. Then page models for other classified websites are accessed. The page models may include listing page models, detail page models, and/or city page models. A listing page in the classified website is determined based on similarity of the listing page to the page models for the other classified websites. Then a listing page model for the listing page in the classified website is created. After the model has been created data from the classified website is extracted based at least in part on the listing page model. Similar processes are performed for determining a details page, creating a details page model, and extracting data from the classified website using a details page model.
US08682880B2
An information providing apparatus includes: a communication unit to receive transmitted information containing first location information associated with a first communication apparatus; a registering unit to extract, from the transmitted information, one or more keywords and the first location information, and to register the first location information and the one or more keywords in a keyword database; a request interface to receive a request for information from a second communication apparatus and a second location information associated with the second communication apparatus; an extractor to reference the keyword database and to extract one or more keywords based on the second location information; and a search requesting unit to output a search request containing the one or more keywords extracted by the extractor, wherein the search request is output to another computer that executes a search to provide information to the second communication apparatus.
US08682878B2
The present invention provides systems and methods for presenting a quantity of information in a single tool. Such a tool includes a map of various objects, the objects having themes relating to a given overall concept, wherein at least one object contains information relating to other objects that have a relationship with that object.
US08682874B2
When an index is partitioned and managed in a plurality of indexes in a search system which deals with large amounts of data, the number of documents registered in each partitioned index may be varied, and inefficient data transfer may occur at the time of index reconfiguration when search nodes are added or deleted. In the present invention, mapping information is used to map search node IDs to slot regions obtained by equally partitioning a circular hash value space in which a start point and an end point of the hash value space are assumed to be identical, so that each document is mapped to each partitioned index.
US08682873B2
A deduplication storage system enables new input data to be deduplicated with data of synthetic backups already constructed, and for this purpose efficiently calculates deduplication digests for synthetic backups being constructed, based on already existing digests of data referenced by the synthetic backups. For each input data segment of the plurality of input data segments of a synthetic backup being constructed, a plurality of deduplication digests of stored data segments, referenced by the input data segment, is retrieved from an index. Each input data segment is partitioned into each of a plurality of fixed-sized data sub-segments. A calculation is performed producing a deduplication digest for a data sub-segment, where the calculation is based on the retrieved deduplication digests of the plurality of stored data sub-segments referenced by the input data sub-segment.
US08682868B2
A method implemented in a computer infrastructure including a combination of hardware and software includes receiving from a local computing device a request to securely delete a file. The method also includes determining the file is deduplicated. The method further includes determining one of: the file is referred to by at least one other file, and the file is not referred to by another file. The method additionally includes securely deleting links associating the file with the local computing device without deleting the file when the file is referred to by at least one other file. The method also includes securely deleting the file when the file is not referred to by another file.
US08682859B2
A method and apparatus for transferring records between database tables using a transaction log. In one embodiment of the method, a first application generates a transaction for deleting a record from a first table in a database. In response to the generation of the first transaction, a copy of the record is stored in an entry of a transaction log before the record is deleted from the first table. A second application generates an instruction for copying the record from the transaction log to a second table, and the record is copied from the entry to the second table.
US08682857B2
Methods, devices, and products are disclosed for recording media. An input is received via a user interface to record media. An entry is created in a recording schedule to record the media. The recording schedule is sent to a restoration server, such that the recording schedule is mirrored to the restoration server.
US08682856B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and system for processing query messages over a network. Specifically, a plurality of queries may be extracted from a plurality of query messages received from a plurality of users over a network. A number of queries, included in the plurality of queries, may be determined, and a current sequence number may be associated with the plurality of queries. A request message may be created including the plurality of queries, a first sequence number equal to the current sequence number and a first message count equal to the number of queries. The request message may be sent to a search engine and a response message may be received from the search engine. The response message may include a plurality of replies, a second sequence number, a second message count, a third sequence number and a third message count. A plurality of reply messages may be created from the plurality of replies and sent to the plurality of users over the network.
US08682852B1
Maintaining data at a failover site includes an application writing data at a primary site corresponding to the failover site, where data is transferred asynchronously from the primary site to the failover site, the application issuing an application check point and initiating a system check point in response to the application issuing the application check point, where the system check point causes data at the failover site to be consistent with the primary site. The application check point may complete only after the system check point completes. The application check point may complete independently of completion of the system check point. The application check point may complete either only after the system check point completes or independently of completion of the system check point according to a specific criteria.
US08682839B2
Embodiments of the claimed subject matter provide a method and system for predicting bidding keyword monetization. The claimed subject matter provides a method and system with which the value of a keyword for the purpose of relevant online advertisement may be evaluated according to various metrics to determine a bidding landscape for use in advertising campaigns. The value of the keyword considers certain attributes related to the monetization of the keyword.One embodiment of the claimed subject matter is implemented as a method for predicting keyword monetization for one or more keyword-advertisement relationships. Historical data for the one or more keyword-advertisement relationships is referenced and used to generate a global model of the one or more keyword-advertisement relationship. The relationships are then evaluated according to a time-series analysis, which parses the data from the historical data and the global model to create predictions for the keyword monetization according to the keyword-advertisement relationships.
US08682837B2
In at least one embodiment, a trust rating system and method provide a precise and accurate, structured (yet adaptable and flexible), quantifying way of expressing historical trustworthiness so the user or decision maker can make more informed decisions on the data or information being evaluated.
US08682832B2
The present invention teaches methods for applying an avatar behavior rule within a virtual universe environment. An avatar behavior rule and a violation threshold for the rule are defined for a virtual universe environment. The behavior of a collective plurality of avatars within the virtual universe is monitored for compliance with the rule, including determining an amount of compliance with the rule and comparing the compliance amount with the violation threshold. If the compliance amount does not exceed the violation threshold but avatars are complaining that the monitored behavior of another of the avatars is at an objectionable level, then the rule or the violation threshold is revised until the monitored behavior of the collective plurality of avatars within the virtual universe exceeds the revised violation threshold, or none of the avatars is complaining.
US08682831B2
Various systems and methods for integrating procedural logic with a stateless constraint engine are disclosed. One method involves accessing a first set of values generated by a stateless constraint engine based upon a first set of inputs and then accessing a second set of values generated by the stateless constraint engine subsequent to the first set of values and based upon a second set of inputs. The second set of values is validated based upon a procedural constraint. The procedural constraint can include a precondition and a postcondition. The precondition is dependent upon at least one value from the first set of values, and the postcondition is dependent upon at least one value from the second set of values.
US08682828B2
Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for generating a data set are provided. One method includes generating a data set based on input data using a plurality of brokers. The method further includes receiving a request from a user and determining whether the request can be fulfilled using data currently in the data set. When the request can be fulfilled using data currently in the data set, the data is accessed using broker(s) configured to provide access to data within the data set. When the request cannot be fulfilled using data currently in the data set, at least one new broker is spawned using existing broker(s) and additional data needed to fulfill the request is added to the data set using the new broker. The method further includes generating a response to the request using one or more of the plurality of brokers.
US08682825B2
An embodiment of the invention provides a method and system for analyzing a plurality of reports. More specifically, a change detection module predicts results of future reports based on past reports and identifies a first report that deviates from its predicted results. A dependency analysis module connected to the change detection module at least one report sharing a dependency with the first report by performing a dependency analysis and/or a usage analysis. The dependency analysis labels the first report and at least one second report as sharing a dependency if the second report deviates from its predicted results. The usage analysis labeling the first report and at least one report analyzed by an analyst as sharing a dependency if the report analyzed by the analyst is analyzed in response to the identification of the first report.
US08682821B2
A method of detecting movement includes using a radar sensor to monitor a space, and receiving an output signal from the radar sensor. A Fourier transform is performed on the output signal to produce a frequency domain signal spectrum. The frequency domain signal spectrum is transformed into an acoustic domain signal. It is decided whether the output signal is indicative of movement of a predetermined object or a non-human animal dependent upon at least one feature of the acoustic domain signal and at least one spectral feature of the signal spectrum.
US08682819B2
Architecture that employs machine-based learning to automatically categorize data on a per-user basis. Auto-tagging reduces the burden on infoworkers by creating a machine learning model to learn from user tagging behavior or preferences. Once this information is obtained, a trained model for this specific user is used to assign tags to incoming data, such as emails. The architecture finds particular applicability to compliance and message retention policies that otherwise would mandate extra work for the infoworker. The architecture learns the tagging behavior of a user and uses this learned behavior to automatically tag data based on the user's prior tagging habits. A regression algorithm is employed to process the training data according to an n-dimensional framework for prediction and application of the tag(s) to the incoming messages.
US08682817B1
Methods of analyzing solutions to a failure of a product are provided. A method comprises evaluating the fitness of solutions associated with a plurality of individuals in a population for the failure. Each of the plurality of individuals comprises a dominant genotype and a recessive genotype. Each genotype represents a solution for addressing a potential failure of the product. A fitness function is applied to the dominant genotype of each individual. The fitness function is configured to determine a confidence value for one or more of the solutions based on historical data regarding the solutions that is stored in a database. The method further comprises storing previously encountered genotypes in the recessive genotypes of the individuals and determining a proposed solution for addressing the failure of the product based on the fitness evaluation.
US08682813B2
To predict the class of an unknown sample, a) a discriminant function for assigning each training sample to class 1 or class 2 is obtained, b) the discriminant score of each training sample and an unknown sample are calculated using the function, c) it is determined whether the score of the unknown sample is either not smaller than the largest score or not larger than the smallest score taken among all of the training samples, d) if the determination in c) is affirmative, the class of the unknown sample is determined based on the score of the unknown sample, e) if the determination in c) is negative, then the training samples having the largest score and the smallest score are removed to form a new training sample set from remaining training samples, and f) a) to e) are repeated.
US08682805B1
A computer implemented method includes receiving from a search request user an activity keyword for performing a keyword search. An advertisement is sent to the search request user where the advertisement is selected by identifying a location associated with the keyword and basing the selection of the advertisement at least in part on the location.
US08682799B1
Method and system for setting port licenses in a switch is provided. The method includes receiving a command from a user for adding a license for a port; reading a licensing table; checking if a maximum port licensing number is exceeded; and modifying the licensing table, wherein licensing values are modified to grant a license to the user for the port. The system includes a licensing table containing port licensing information; and a firmware that adds a license to a port when a device is attached to a port.
US08682792B2
A system, method and computer program product for processing payments for goods or services, including a payment processor that receives a payment request from a merchant for goods or services and that includes a mobile phone number or mobile phone account of a user, sends a payment authorization request text message to the mobile phone requesting payment authorization, and receives a payment authorization text message from the mobile phone authorizing or not authorizing the payment. If the payment is authorized, the payment processor pays the merchant and charges the mobile phone account for the payment. If the payment is not authorized or if the payment is not received within a predetermined period of time, the payment processor declines to pay the merchant for the goods or services.
US08682791B2
Systems and methods are described for redeeming rewards at a merchant's point-of-sale. The reward redemption takes place in real time and can be accomplished without the active participation of the merchant. A single credit card with no additional information may be used with a single swipe from the consumer to access both credit and rewards accounts, such that a single authorization request is made to encompass both rewards and credit. Merchants can be fully compensated for transactions by the issuer despite the customer's choice to redeem rewards.
US08682788B2
Methods, computer readable media, and apparatuses for electronically sorting and managing mail within an electronic lockbox are described. Mail may be routed from a mail delivery service to a first location. The mail may be scanned at the first location and information may be extracted from the envelopes and items within the envelopes. The information may be verified and grouped into electronic transactions. The electronic transactions may be classified and sorted into batches based on identifiers contained within the information extracted from the mail. The batches of electronic transactions may be processed and information relating to the transactions may be stored.
US08682781B1
Systems and methods for implementing a confirmation period are disclosed. An example method includes identifying a market condition associated with a quantity of a tradeable object of a trading strategy, wherein the market condition triggers an adjustment to the trading strategy; initiating a confirmation period in response to the market condition; when a reevaluation of the market condition during the confirmation period indicates that the market condition has ceased, preventing the adjustment to the trading strategy; and when the market condition persists throughout the confirmation period, proceeding with the adjustment to the trading strategy.
US08682780B2
Systems and methods are provided for conducting securities lending transactions using an electronic trading platform. In accordance with an implementation, the electronic trading platform receives, from a trader, information identifying initial terms of a transaction to lend or borrow shares of a security. The electronic trading platform may generate an instruction to broadcast the initial terms to one or more counterparties, and may subsequently facilitate negotiations between the trader and the one or more counterparties for terms of the transaction. The electronic trading platform may execute the transaction in accordance with the negotiated terms.
US08682779B2
A method for stock option trading includes receiving an option order at a market, contemporaneously receiving a copy of the option order at an electronic drop (EDrop) system, which is separate and distinct from the market, obtaining a potential cross quantity and a potential cross price based on the option order at the EDrop system, and submitting, through the EDrop system, a contra-order, with respect to the option order, to the market for fulfillment, wherein the contra-order specifies at least one of an underlying security potential cross quantity, and the potential cross price.
US08682777B1
Methods and systems for computer-based trading enhanced with market and historical data displayed on live screen. Users of the trading platform are able to view on their live screen of executed and pending orders, information about the market depth of a transmitted order, the current view of all transmitted orders and executed trades, historical view of all transmitted orders and executed trades, bond instrument details, execution prices for the various bond instruments, yield for the bond instruments, and spread for the bond instruments.
US08682776B2
A system and method are provided for facilitating the exchange of data between one or more price providers and customers who communicate with the price providers through various portals, each of which may use it own data format. In transmitting data from customer to price provider, the data output from each portal is normalized to a standardized format and then transmitted to the appropriate price provider(s) where the data exchanged with the various portals can be viewed by a trader at a single display or can be exchanged with an automated pricing engine. The customer may also be provided with a universal Web site at which a customer may access any of the portals' Web sites to simplify access for the customer as well.
US08682771B2
A computer-based aggregated security investment service interacts with one or more customers via one or more communication links. The service allows multiple customers to execute aggregated purchase orders of securities in dollar increments. Customers setting up accounts have the ability to select numerous different types of individual, joint, conventional, or tax advantaged accounts. The present invention also provides a mechanism for reducing the exposure of the investment service to purchases of securities with fluctuating prices by staggering share purchases as two or more sub-orders. Finally, the present invention provides a method of producing customized communications for users associated with a non-affiliated organization without requiring separate hardware components for each organization.
US08682769B2
A system and method are provided for presenting trading information. One example method includes displaying a plurality of effective trade indicators corresponding to price levels at which effective trades have been initiated, and displaying trading information corresponding to each effective trade. The effective trades can be determined based on user-configured trade definitions. The trading information can include a traded quantity and profit/loss corresponding to each effective trade. In addition to the trading information, current market information could be displayed as well in relation to the plurality of effective trades.
US08682767B2
A computer system for furnishing data relating to investments has a processor and one or more memory storage devices in communication with the processor. Data relating to investments is stored in the one or more memory storage devices. A catalog includes at least data stored in at least one of the one or more memory storage devices, the data including at least logical locations for the data relating to investments. The processor is adapted to execute services for calling to the catalog for locations of the data, and, employing at least logical locations of the selected data obtained from the catalog, access the selected data from at least one of the memory storage devices, perform one or more operations on the selected data, and provide the selected data for display to a user.
US08682751B1
A computer-implemented method for automatically determining estimated item dimensions may facilitate operations of a materials handling facility when exact dimensions of items are not known. Such a method may involve determining dimensions of a container, portal, or dimensionally constrained path in which an instance of a given item is handled and determining estimated dimensions of the item dependent on dimensions of the container, portal, or path. In some embodiments, the method may include determining dimensions of a second container, portal, or path in which an instance of the item is handled and updating the estimated item dimensions dependent on the dimensions of the second container, portal, or path. In some embodiments, the method may include recommending a container, portal, or path suitable for storing or transporting one or more items dependent on the estimated dimensions. In some embodiments, the estimated dimensions may facilitate identifying items in an inventory area.
US08682748B1
Self-service application and method facilitate the ability of a self-service system to resolve conflicts in an automated fashion. When a user “opts-in” to a product offer presented to the user by the self-service system, the self-service system determines if the offered product conflicts with an existing product or characteristic associated with the user's account. If there is a conflict and the conflict can be better explained in another communication channel, the self-service system informs the user that there is a problem with the user purchasing the product, and offers to provide more information via a second communication channel. If the user accepts such offer, the self-service system begins communicating with the user about the conflict in the second communication channel. In one embodiment, in transitioning to the second communication channel, the self-service system maintains the user state information.
US08682743B2
An apparatus and method for selecting a vendor for a customized good or service, including receiving vendor attributes from the vendors and receiving invitation-for-bid data from the buyer defining a custom job. The invitation-for-bid-data is received through a web browser and is compared to the vendor's attributes based on at least one selection criterion to generate a vendor selection pool of vendors qualified to bid on the job. Vendors in the vendor selection pool receive a vendor's invitation-for-bid. A bid is received from at least one vendor. The lowest price bid is identified, the buyer is informed of the identity of the selected vendor, and solicited for approval of the selected vendor. Upon receipt of approval from the buyer, an order is issued to the selected vendor. The non-selected vendors in the selection pool are informed of the bid prices and of the selection results.
US08682742B2
A virtual space may be provided to users to participate in, e.g., a game. The users may be able to purchase access to unlockable in-game content within the virtual space for other users, also referred to beneficiaries. Responsive to the completion of such a purchase transaction, access to the purchased unlockable in-game content is facilitated for the one or more beneficiaries.
US08682740B2
A computer-implemented method and apparatus for providing navigation of a database includes a plurality of records having attributes, the method including transmitting a webpage configured to display a plurality of hierarchies of selectable filters corresponding for plural manufacturer's products, wherein each hierarchy corresponds to the respective manufacturer's product taxonomy, receiving at least one attribute value based on a filter selection, transmitting a query to an index for unique identifiers corresponding to that satisfy the at least one attribute value, receiving the unique identifiers, transmitting a query to a product data set for records in the data set corresponding to the unique identifier, receiving, with a computing device, the one or more records, and transmitting said one or more records.
US08682727B2
A travel support server (5) distributes a first e-mail to a user terminal device (2-k). The first e-mail has a link to the URL in which transfer function to a web page of a tourism resource corresponding to the user position in a travel destination and user information are embedded. An advertisement server (6) distributes a second e-mail to the user terminal device (2-k). The second e-mail has advertisement information which is provided to the user identified by selecting the link in the first e-mail.
US08682725B2
In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include the actions of identifying a target region and an exclusion region of the target region, where the target region encompasses the exclusion region. A target user is identified within the target region and not within the exclusion region encompassed by the target region. A target advertisement is selected for the target user based on the target user being within the target region and not within the exclusion region encompassed by the target region. The target advertisement is sent to the target user. An exclusion user is identified within the exclusion region encompassed by the target region. An exclusion advertisement different from the target advertisement is selected for the exclusion user based on the exclusion user being with the exclusion region. The exclusion advertisement is sent to the exclusion user.
US08682723B2
Conversations in an online content universe are monitored. A social analysis module analyzes individual conversations between publishers in the online content universe. Publishers that influence a conversation are identified.
US08682713B2
A method is disclosed for providing advertising content for display in a page over a network. Ad inventory is identified and/or organized based on a category and a geographic region. The ad inventory may be displayed on an interactive map that is used for selecting from the inventory based on the geographic location.
US08682712B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products for monitoring an experiment relating to the conversion rates of landing page variants to test landing page designs. One method includes computing respective conversion rates for each of a plurality of corresponding landing page variants, based on the number of times a conversion page is reached from the corresponding landing page variant, and based on the number of times the corresponding landing page variant is reached from one or more advertisements; and computing a confidence interval for each conversion rate. A user monitoring the experiment can be notified if winning or losing variants emerge. A time to completion of the experiment can be estimated. Presentation to browsing users of winning variants can be favored, and losing variants can be disfavored, during the experiment as they emerge.
US08682708B2
A risk framework is described for computing risk. One or more persons may be grouped into classes of stakeholders. Different types of risk may be classified into risk categories. Within each risk category, events contributing to that type of risk may be determined and assigned a weight/severity value and a likelihood of occurrence value. Risk likelihood may be computed for each risk category by summing the products of weight/severity value and likelihood of occurrence value for each event within the risk category. A severity level may be determined and assigned with respect to each class of stakeholders regarding the risk categories, and a risk score may be computed for each stakeholder class and risk category combination. An aggregate risk likelihood may be computed by summing and/or weighting the risk likelihoods computed for each risk category.
US08682697B1
Systems and methods are provided for generating edits for healthcare transactions to address billing discrepancies. Information associated with an audit performed on a healthcare transaction may be received. Based at least in part on the received information, a billing discrepancy associated with the healthcare transaction may be identified. Based upon the identified billing discrepancy, a proposed edit may be generated that can be utilized to mitigate an impact of the identified billing discrepancy during the processing of one or more subsequent healthcare transactions.
US08682691B2
Systems and methods of exchanging Healthcare Quality Measures (HQM) are disclosed. Healthcare providers can define one or more HQMs by constructing expressions using an expression builder according to a funding organization's requirements. The expression builder advantageously allows the Healthcare provider to build measure expressions without the need to know a complex programming language. Once a measure is derived, it can be converted to a common HQM data format and exchanged with the organization via an intermediary HQM service. The HQM data can then be converted into the organization's proprietary format. Thus, HQM data exchanges among providers and organizations are simplified.
US08682679B2
A binaural object-oriented audio decoder including a decoder device to decode and render an audio object based on head-related transfer function (HRTF) parameters. The decoder device positions an audio object in a virtual three-dimensional space. The HRTF parameters are based on elevation, azimuth, and distance parameters and correspond to the position of the audio object in the virtual three-dimensional space. The binaural object-oriented audio decoder is configured to receive the HRTF parameters that vary for the elevation and azimuth parameters only. The binaural object-oriented audio decoder further includes a distance processor for modifying the received HRTF parameters according to a received desired distance parameter. The modified HRTF parameters are used to position the audio object in the three-dimensions at the desired distance. The modification of the HRTF parameters is based on a predetermined distance parameter for the received HRTF parameters.
US08682672B1
A system and method is described that permits synchronization of a transcript with an audio/video stream of a webcast. The system also permits a user to perform a search of the transcript and then to jump in the webcast audio/video stream to the point identified during the search.
US08682668B2
A speech recognition apparatus that performs frame synchronous beam search by using a language model score look-ahead value prevents the pruning of a correct answer hypothesis while suppressing an increase in the number of hypotheses. A language model score look-ahead value imparting device 108 is provided with a word dictionary 203 that defines a phoneme string of a word, a language model 202 that imparts a score of appearance easiness of a word, and a smoothing language model score look-ahead value calculation means 201. The smoothing language model score look-ahead value calculation means 201 obtains a language model score look-ahead value at each phoneme in the word from the phoneme string of the word defined by the word dictionary 203 and the language model score defined by the language model 202 so that the language model score look-ahead values are prevented from concentrating on the beginning of the word.
US08682663B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for generating, distributing, and using speech recognition models are disclosed. The methods, systems, and apparatus include actions of receiving a speech data representation of an utterance and obtaining feature data extracted from the speech data representation of the utterance. Additional actions include obtaining a transcription of the utterance using the feature data and identifying contact information associated with the transcription. Further actions include determining that a network connection exists and initiating communication using the contact information based on determining that a network connection exists.
US08682661B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for recognizing speech input. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a user input and a grammar including annotations, the user input comprising audio data and the annotations providing syntax and semantics to the grammar, retrieving third-party statistical speech recognition information, the statistical speech recognition information being transmitted over a network, generating a statistical language model (SLM) based on the grammar and the statistical speech recognition information, the SLM preserving semantics of the grammar, processing the user input using the SLM to generate one or more results, comparing the one or more results to candidates provided in the grammar, identifying a particular candidate of the grammar based on the comparing, and providing the particular candidate for input to an application executed on a computing device.
US08682651B2
The invention relates to the analysis of characteristics of audio and/or video signals for the generation of audio-visual content signatures. To determine an audio signature a region of interest for example of high entropy—is identified in audio signature data. This region of interest is then provided as an audio signature with offset information. A video signature is also provided.
US08682650B2
Non-intrusive speech-quality assessment uses vocal-tract models, in particular for testing telecommunications systems and equipment. This process requires reduction of the speech stream under assessment into a set of parameters that are sensitive to the types of distortion to be assessed. Once parameterized, the data is used to generate a set of physiologically-based rules for error identification, using a parametric modeling of the shape of the vocal tract itself, by comparison between derived parameters and the output of models of physiologically realistic forms for the vocal tract, and the application of physical constraints on how these can change over time.
US08682644B1
A multi-language sorting index may allow sort keys for multiple languages to be stored in an auxiliary table associated with a primary table in which the strings to be sorted are stored. Sort keys may be generated for each string and stored in the auxiliary table, with duplicate sort keys excluded. Queries for sorted data in the first table may use the auxiliary table to identify and sort the requested data.
US08682631B2
A design specifications-driven platform (100) for analog, mixed-signal and radio frequency verification with one embodiment comprising a client (160) and server (150) is presented. The server comprises an analog verification database (110), a code and document generator (1020), a design to specifications consistency checker (103), a symbol generator (104), a coverage analyzer (105), a server interface (106), a web server (111), and an analog verification server application (101). The client comprises a web browser (130), generated datasheets and reports (120), generated models, regression tests, netlists, connect modules, and symbols (121), generated simulation scripts (122), a client interface (124), design data (131), simulators (132), and a design data extractor (123).
US08682629B2
A multi-phasic dynamic reservoir simulator includes a reservoir model for a karst system comprising: a plurality of caves connected via at least one conduit, wherein the plurality of caves and the at least one conduit are filled with at least two types of fluids, an exit point for a fluid to leave the karst system and at least one entry point for a fluid to enter the karst system from a surrounding rock matrix, and a set of parameters defining volumes and distributions of the at least two types of fluids in the plurality of caves and the at least one conduit; and a program having instructions for causing a processor to simulate fluid flows in the reservoir model for the karst system.
US08682628B2
One or more computer-readable media include computer-executable instructions to instruct a computing system to iteratively solve a system of equations that model a wellbore and fracture network in a reservoir where the system of equations includes equations for multiphase flow in a porous medium, equations for multiphase flow between a fracture and a wellbore, and equations for multiphase flow between a formation of a reservoir and a fracture. Various other apparatuses, systems, methods, etc., are also disclosed.
US08682624B2
A method of simulating, reconstructing and scaling digital data sets, in particular images, but not exclusively. The method of the invention is based on a training image that is directly sampled each time a point in the simulation image is to be filled, and does not need the preliminary creation of a data structure storing conditional probabilities, as it is often the case in known multipoint simulation method. Accordingly, the method of the invention is less memory-demanding than conventional methods, and is better suited to simulations including continuous variables. Embodiments regarding the application to reconstruction of partial images and downscaling are also presented.
US08682610B2
Physical sensor devices, methods, and computer useable mediums for estimating an orientation of a physical sensor device are disclosed. According to one embodiment, a method for estimating an orientation of a physical sensor device includes determining a sensed vector associated with a physical sensor and comparing the at least one sensed vector to at least a portion of a plurality of check vectors. Each check vector corresponds to an orientation of the physical sensor device. A reference vector is associated with each check vector, thereby defining a plurality of reference vectors. The method further includes selecting at least one check vector that is closest to the at least one sensed vector, selecting a selected at least one reference vector associated with the selected at least one check vector, and estimating the orientation of the physical sensor device based at least in part on the selected at least one reference vector.
US08682608B2
A behavior recognition apparatus includes a hand movement observation unit which outputs hand movement data indicating a hand movement made by a user; a velocity variation detection unit which detects a time at which the hand movement matches a predetermined movement pattern; and a feature selection unit which selects the hand movement data outputted at the time detected by the velocity variation detection unit. A standard behavior pattern storage unit stores a movement pattern data sequence represented by a hand movement data sequence, in association with a user behavior; and a behavior recognition unit calculates a degree of similarity between the movement pattern data sequence stored in the standard behavior pattern storage unit and the hand movement data selected by the feature selection unit, and recognizes, as the user behavior, a behavior represented by the movement pattern data sequence when the degree of similarity is the highest.
US08682607B2
A motion state detection method which uses a pair of electrodes, facing each other to fix mutual positional relationship, and a movable spherical conductor disposed between the pair of electrodes, putting the pair of electrodes into either a conduction state or a non-conduction state, includes: defining a plurality of level values determined by the proportion of a duration of the conduction state in a unit time period and calculating a level value in the unit time period among the plurality of level values as a first level value; adding a second predetermined value to the first level value to calculate a second level value; and calculating the sum of squares of a plurality of first level values in a plurality of consecutive unit time periods as a first detection value and calculating the sum of squares of a plurality of second level values as a second detection value.
US08682606B2
An implementation of a system and method for using sensors such as one or more gyroscopes and/or accelerometers to sense input is provided. For example, one or more of such sensors may be use to provide virtual buttons at various areas on the housing of a mobile device, detect a force against the housing, or to detect relative movement of the mobile device.
US08682605B2
A system for determining a property of a paving-related material is provided. Such a system comprises a measuring device for selectively and directly measuring the property. A computer device is capable of executing a software program product and communicating with the measuring device. The computer device directs the measuring device to measure the property of the paving-related material according to a parameter determined by the software program product, and to receive data comprising the measured property from the measuring device. A communication element operably engaged between the measuring device and the computer device allows communication therebetween. The communication element is configured to allow the computer device to be spaced apart from the measuring device, thereby allowing the computer device to be prepared, to include the parameter and to manipulate the data, in spaced apart relation with respect to the measuring device. An associated method is also provided.
US08682581B2
A navigation system includes a navigation radio and a sensor onboard a vehicle. The navigation radio receives and processes low earth orbit RF signals to derive range observables for a corresponding LEO satellite. A sensor is operable to generate at least one of vehicle speed data, acceleration data, angular rate data and rotational angle data under high vehicle dynamics. The navigation radio includes a navigation code operable to obtain a position, velocity and time solution (a “navigation solution”) based on the one or more range observables, ephemerides for the corresponding LEO satellite, a heading pseudomeasurement, a navigation radio altitude pseudomeasurement; one or more vehicle velocity pseudomeasurements orthogonal to the altitude pseudomeasurements; and the generated at least one of vehicle speed data, acceleration data, angular rate data and rotational angle data. The navigation radio uses the navigation solution to acquire a GPS signal during interference with a coarse acquisition GPS signal.
US08682568B2
A diesel engine is provided, which includes an engine body to be supplied with fuel containing diesel fuel as its main component, a geometric compression ratio being set to 15:1 or below, a fuel injection valve arranged in the engine body so as to be oriented toward a cylinder of the engine body and for directly injecting the fuel into the cylinder, and a control module for controlling a mode of injecting the fuel into the cylinder through the fuel injection valve. The control module performs a main injection where the fuel is injected to cause a main combustion mainly including a diffusion combustion and performs a plurality of pre-stage injections where the fuel is injected prior to the main injection to cause a pre-stage combustion prior to the main combustion. The control module controls the injection mode of the injections to adjust a heat release rate.
US08682555B2
Apparatus (control device) and a method for controlling a torque transmitting device such as a brake, wet clutch, dry clutch (10) during a filling and slip phase is provided, e.g. for coupling a first shaft (12) to a second shaft (14) via the wet clutch (10). A reference profile (52) for a control variable is provided, wherein the chronological progress of said control variable influences the position of a piston (22) for actuating clutch elements (16, 18). Each clutch element (16, 18) is connected to the first shaft (12) or the second shaft (14), with respect to a cylinder (20) of the wet clutch (10), and the control variable is determined during each coupling and a valve (38) for applying a pressure source to the piston (22) is operated, wherein the valve (38) is controlled during each coupling by means of a feed forward closed loop control (54) such that the control variable follows the reference profile (52). Due to the increased control quality by considering non-linear effects by means of the reference profile (52) for the feed forward closed loop control (54) at every coupling through learning, the coupling time can be shortened without increasing the risk of an uncomfortable coupling behavior.
US08682535B2
A vehicle speed estimator includes a unit that selects a minimum rotation speed among rotation speeds of wheels detected by a rotation speed detector and calculates a reference wheel speed of a construction vehicle at every predetermined time. The unit includes: a variable filter processor that performs a low-pass filter processing to the minimum rotation speed, the variable filter processor having a variable time constant; and a time constant changer that changes the time constant of the variable filter processor in accordance with travel conditions of the construction vehicle.
US08682529B1
A navigation information distribution system comprising one or more servers in communication with each other to parse embedded data attached to an electronic mail message. The servers are configured to receive an email including destination data associated with subscriber identification. Before parsing the embedded data, the server may confirm the subscriber identification included in the email is a valid active subscriber. After confirmation of the subscriber's status, the servers parse the destination data from the email and determine a location based on the destination data using a map database. After parsing, the server may receive a request for the location from a nomadic wireless device for downloading. The request from the nomadic wireless device may include the subscriber identification to associate the stored data on the server with the subscriber. The server may transmit the location for communication to the nomadic wireless device.
US08682526B2
Described herein is a automotive air-conditioning system configured to implement a sub-critical refrigerating cycle and comprising a condenser and a fan associated thereto, a compressor, an evaporator, an expansion valve of the non-electronically-controlled type, and an electronic control system configured to receive a signal indicative of the ambient temperature outside the vehicle and to generate a control signal for the fan of the condenser on the basis of the ambient temperature outside the vehicle.
US08682523B2
A first sensor outputs a signal characterizing a temperature of air being inducted by an engine of a vehicle. A second sensor outputs a signal characterizing a temperature of air surrounding an occupant cabin of the vehicle. A third sensor outputs a signal indicating presence of an adjacent object. A signal processing unit determines a distance between the third sensor and the adjacent object in accordance with a signal strength calibration as a function of the third sensor signal. The signal strength calibration is specified as a function of the first sensor signal when a first vehicle speed condition is met. The signal strength calibration is specified as a function of the second sensor signal when a second vehicle speed condition is met. The signal strength calibration is specified as a function of first sensor signal and the second sensor signal when a third vehicle speed condition is met.
US08682518B2
A shift control system for a hybrid vehicle having an engine and a motor as power sources, may include a driving condition detector which detects whether a kick-down shift-request occurs, and a hybrid control unit which determines a motor rotation speed of a target shift-speed when the kick-down shift-request may be detected, determines whether the motor rotation speed satisfies a required torque, and executes a kick-down shift in EV (ElectircVehicle) mode or in HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle) mode according to a condition that the motor rotation speed satisfies the required torque or not.
US08682506B2
A method and device for precise control of and controller design for aircrafts consisting of at least one spinning part and at least one non-spinning part is provided. The required torques for control of the spinning parts and for the non-spinning parts are continuously and individually calculated. All torques are combined to get the correct torque for the complete aircraft. Doing this, it's possible to continuously apply the correct torque, both correctly distributed among the roll and pitch axes (correct angle), and correct magnitude. The result is a decoupling of the roll and pitch axes, simplifying controller design to a design of two single input single output controllers, one for each axe.
US08682501B2
A data processing device includes a memory, an arithmetic circuit that accesses the memory by outputting an access control signal CTRL that controls access to the memory, a first data storage unit that stores first data used when a self-diagnosis is performed, a read-modify-write circuit that generates second data by replacing a part of the first data stored in the first data storage unit with modify data outputted from the arithmetic circuit, and a determination unit that diagnoses a failure of the read-modify-write circuit by comparing the second data with an expected value.
US08682499B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure include devices and methods for controlling combustion air. For example, in one embodiment, a method for controlling combustion air includes determining an amount of leaking air in a boiler, determining a constant that depends on a heating value of a fuel in the boiler, and adjusting an amount of controlled air supplied to the boiler.
US08682481B2
A media processing device, a control method for a media processing device, and a control program for the same can accurately detect the last one or specified number of media stored in the media stacker. Media stackers store media in a stack. Media processing units write data and/or print a label on the media. A media transportation mechanism has a transportation arm that can hold the media and move vertically, and transports the media between the media stackers and the media processing units by movement of the transportation arm. A control unit controls the media processing units and the media transportation mechanism 31. The control unit has a measurement unit that measures the height of media stacked in the media stacker when media is removed from the stacker by the media transportation mechanism, and a comparison unit that compares the measured media height with a reference value to detect the difference therebetween, and determines the remaining media count in the media stacker.
US08682476B2
A method and an apparatus for the order picking of items in an order-picking installation (30) with an automatic order-picking device (31) and an associated dynamic-storage rack (1) as a store for replenishing the automatic order-picking device with items. The items are automatically transported, preferably separately according to type, in containers or boxes (2) to the dynamic-storage rack (1) on a driven conveying line (4). After reading and identifying the boxes (2), they are introduced automatically by an activated stationary lift (5) and activated level serving devices (6) of the dynamic-storage rack (1) into selected dynamic-storage channels (3) of the dynamic-storage rack. The channels have exits (A) that can be manually reached by an operator (17). After manual removal of the containers/boxes (2) at a selected exit (A) of a dynamic-storage channel (3), and then unpacking of the containers/boxes by the operator, the items are introduced, separately according to type, into order-picking compartments of the automatic order-picking device (31), in order to replenish order-picking device (31).
US08682467B2
An embroidery data generating device generates embroidery data usable to sew by a sewing machine an embroidery pattern composed of a plurality of color-based pattern portions. The device includes a color data storage unit storing data of a plurality of defined colors, an assignment unit randomly extracting a color from the color data stored on the color data storage unit, the extracted color being used as thread color data for specifying colors of the color-based pattern portions respectively, the assignment unit assigning the extracted colors to the respective color-based pattern portions and a sewing sequence data storage unit storing data of set sewing sequence of the color-based pattern portions. The device generates embroidery data in which an order of contrasting density of the colors assigned to the respective color-based pattern portions by the assignment unit as the thread color data corresponds to a sewing sequence of the color-based pattern portions.
US08682461B2
Region having a same size in a audio signal region of a transmission frame is allocated to each of an active engine and passive engine. The active engine reads out input signals written into regions of the frame, performs signal processing on the read-out signals, and writes resultant signals into the region allocated to the active engine. The passive engine reads out the input signals written into the regions, performs the same signal processing as the active engine on the read-out signals, and writes resultant output signals into the region allocated to the passive engine. When a flag of the active engine is indicative of a normal state, an output device reads out the output signals from the region allocated to the active engine, but, when the flag is indicative of an abnormal state, the output device reads out the output signals from the region allocated to the passive engine.
US08682451B2
A lead system has an elongate body, an active fixation assembly movable relative to the elongate lead body, including a non-stationary electrode. The lead system further includes a non-stationary electrode member and an electrical interconnect electrically connected between the non-stationary electrode member and the stationary electrode member. The electrical interconnect provides a reliable electrical interconnection between the stationary electrode and the non-stationary electrode, while allowing the non-stationary electrode to move relative to the stationary electrode.
US08682447B2
Apparatus and method for determining the relative position and orientation of neurostimulation leads
Interelectrode impedance or electric field potential measurements are used to determine the relative orientation of one lead to other leads in the spinal column or other body/tissue location. Interelectrode impedance is determined by measuring impedance vectors. The value of the impedance vector is due primarily to the electrode-electrolyte interface, and the bulk impedance between the electrodes. The bulk impedance between the electrodes is, in turn, made up of (1) the impedance of the tissue adjacent to the electrodes, and (2) the impedance of the tissue between the electrodes. In one embodiment, the present invention makes both monopolar and bipolar impedance measurements, and then corrects the bipolar impedance measurements using the monopolar measurements to eliminate the effect of the impedance of the tissue adjacent the electrodes. The orientation and position of the leads may be inferred from the relative minima of the corrected bipolar impedance values. These corrected impedance values may also be mapped and stored to facilitate a comparison with subsequent corrected impedance measurement values.
US08682436B2
A method for selecting a target vein for left ventricular lead placement for cardiac resynchronization therapy includes determining electrical dispersion for the first coronary vein by calculating the difference between (i) activation time at a location of the vein that has the latest activation time of a plurality of locations in the vein and (ii) activation time at a location that has the earliest activation time of the plurality of locations. The method may further include (ii) determining whether the magnitude of the electrical dispersion for the vein meets or exceeds a predetermined threshold selecting the vein if the vein meets or exceeds the predetermined threshold; or (ii) selecting, among several veins, the vein that has the highest electrical dispersion.
US08682435B2
A cardiac rhythm management system recognizes patterns of interval durations, distinguishing between events in different heart chambers even though signals associated with those different heart chambers are processed using a commonly shared sensing circuit. A therapy delivery algorithm ignores intervals between cardiac events occurring in different heart chambers when determining a cardiac rate upon which the delivery of therapy is based. This reduces the risk of inappropriate delivery of therapy to the patient. Delayed conduction left ventricular beats are not erroneously recognized as a subsequent right ventricular beat, preventing such short intervals from inappropriately triggering a defibrillation countershock.
US08682433B2
An implantable device and associated method for delivering a multi-site pacing therapy includes electrodes for sensing cardiac signals and delivering cardiac pacing pulses. Electrodes positioned at first and second selected pacing sites are used to deliver pacing pulses to a first heart chamber using a bipole comprising the first electrode and the second electrode. A controller is configured to determine if anodal and cathodal capture can be achieved during pacing using the bipole. Responsive to anodal and cathodal capture being achieved, the controller selects a multi-site pacing configuration comprising the bipole for singly pacing the first and second pacing sites.
US08682430B2
A neural stimulation system senses autonomic activities and applies neural stimulation to sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves to control autonomic balance. The neural stimulation system is capable of delivering neural stimulation pulses for sympathetic excitation, sympathetic inhibition, parasympathetic excitation, and parasympathetic inhibition.
US08682423B2
A system comprising an electromyogram (EMG) system operative to sense electromyographic activity generated in a muscle, at least one position sensor, and a processor in communication with the EMG system and the at least one position sensor, the processor operative to process data of the EMG system and three-dimensional position and orientation information from the at least one position sensor to provide an output that comprises electromyographic activity data as a function of the three-dimensional position and orientation of the at least one position sensor.
US08682422B2
A heart monitor is disclosed. The monitor computes ST segment deviations and stores the results in heart rate based histograms. Periodically, the monitor analyzes the histogram data to determine a normal range of ST deviation for a particular heart rate range. The monitor computes heart rate dependent ischemia detection thresholds based on the upper and lower boundaries of the normal range.
US08682415B2
A method for displaying medical image data. The method includes digitally combining 3D volume visualizations to form a plurality of four-dimensional (4D) volume visualizations representing the 3D volume visualizations over a period of time. The plurality of 4D volume visualizations include first and second 4D volume visualizations. The first 4D volume visualization including the entirety of the common region during a first time period, and the second 4D volume visualization including the entirety of the common region during a different second time period. The method also includes digitally combining the first and second 4D volume visualizations by digitally processing the first and second 4D volume visualizations to generate a modified 4D volume visualization of the entirety of the common region.
US08682408B2
Devices and methods are described for providing continuous measurement of an analyte concentration. In some embodiments, the device has a sensing mechanism and a sensing membrane that includes at least one surface-active group-containing polymer and that is located over the sensing mechanism. The sensing membrane may have a bioprotective layer configured to substantially block the effect and/or influence of non-constant noise-causing species.
US08682407B2
A pulse oximetry sensor comprises emitters configured to transmit light having a plurality of wavelengths into a fleshy medium. A detector is responsive to the emitted light after absorption by constituents of pulsatile blood flowing within the medium so as to generate intensity signals. A sensor head has a light absorbing surface adapted to be disposed proximate the medium. The emitters and the detector are disposed proximate the sensor head. A detector window is defined by the sensor head and configured so as to limit the field-of-view of the detector.
US08682402B2
A mobile communication device includes executable instructions for carrying out a method including setting a time duration for an application, receiving a first input, receiving a second input, determining the elapsed time between the first and second inputs, modifying the time duration based upon the elapsed time, and dimming a screen of the mobile device when the elapsed time exceeds the time duration.
US08682391B2
A mobile terminal including a user input unit configured to receive user-inputs; a wireless communication unit configured to wirelessly communicate with at least one other terminal; at least one camera configured to capture images; a touchscreen configured to display a camera preview image captured by the camera; a position-location processor configured to obtain information on a current position of the mobile terminal; and a controller configured to search for textual object information corresponding to an object within the camera preview image based on the current position of the mobile terminal, to control the camera to photograph the camera preview image and to store the photographed camera preview image as a picture file, to output query information to query whether the searched textual object information is to be stored together with the picture file, and to store the picture file with or without the searched textual object information based on an answer to the output query information.
US08682388B2
A mobile device includes a touch screen display and touch screen circuit for receiving touch inputs. A camera configured to acquire one or more images in front of the display. A proximity sensor configured to provide an indication that a user is in close proximity to the touch screen display. A processor being effective to determine, in response to the indication of the proximity sensor, whether the user is in a position to view the display based on the one or more images of the camera. If the proximity sensor provides an indication that the user is in close proximity to the display and the processor determines, based on the one or more images, that the user is in a position to view the display, then at least one of the display and the touch screen circuit are not disabled.
US08682375B2
An apparatus for providing dynamic assignment of session capabilities such as buddy list capabilities includes a processing element. The processing element may be configured to receive a message associated with a communication session with a network node, acquire service plan based capabilities associated with the network node, receive device based capabilities associated with the network node, and determine session based capabilities associated with the service based on the device based capabilities and the service plan based capabilities on a per subscriber basis.
US08682373B2
The present invention proposes new method(s) and apparatus(es) used for request and allocation of uplink transmission resource in wireless access network, which enables the mobile terminal to use non-contention resources closely spaced on time domain to trigger or adjust reallocation of uplink resource, so that quick response of the base station to the resource allocation request of a mobile terminal is effectively realized, and the demand of delay sensitive service is satisfied.
US08682372B2
A method and apparatus for improved battery performance of user equipment in a wireless network having multiple radio resource control (RRC) states, the method comprising the steps of: monitoring, at the user equipment, application data exchange; determining when no application on the user equipment is expected to exchange data; and initiating, from the user equipment, a transition to a less battery-demanding radio resource control state or mode.
US08682368B2
An access point includes a transmitter configured to transmit signals, a receiver configured to receive signals, and a timing information device. The timing information device is configured to receive a timing information request from a station associated to the access point, receive timing information for a beacon signal sent by a second access point, and report the timing information to the station. The timing information includes a time difference relative to a known reference time for transmission of the beacon signal and the time difference is an offset in timing units.
US08682361B2
A home network service system using an SMS service, the home network service system including: a text message processor to receive a text message; and a home network control apparatus to control a home network device according to the text message by converting a control signal corresponding to the text message using a protocol compatible with the home network device and transmitting the converted control signal to the home network device. Accordingly, various types of home network devices can be easily controlled.
US08682349B2
Communication by location method that geoplaces asynchronous message threads to a specific first geographic location geo-fence within which they are visible, and a second sub geo-fence for replies. This geopinning process may be done by remote users. The message threads have a first viewing distance parameter, a second reply parameter, and other parameters. Users with mobile devices such as GPS equipped smart phones may set their devices to discover message threads that are within a specified radius of the actual device itself, or a device virtual map location, allowing very distant threads to be viewed. However only users with a real geographic proximity to the thread within the specified reply distance may reply to the thread. The method will generally be implemented by software residing on mobile devices and host servers, and may additionally use data from map servers to place the treads in a map context.
US08682343B2
In an embodiment, a mobile radio communication device is provided. The mobile radio communication device may include a mobile radio communication protocol circuit configured to provide a mobile radio base station function for a mobile radio communication with another mobile radio communication device; a network control interface circuit configured to receive time dependent or location dependent operation control signals from a network device containing data that enables determination of at least one of at least one piece of location-related information and at least one piece of time-related information; a localization circuit configured to determine at least one of at least one piece of time-related information and at least one piece of location-related information of the mobile radio communication device based on the operation control signals received by the network control interface circuit; and an execution circuit configured to execute a pre-defined action to control the mobile radio communication protocol circuit based on the at least one piece of time-related information or the at least one piece of location-related information determined by the localization circuit.
US08682337B2
A method is described that comprises executing a service selection method on an off load processor of a computing system to select an available network service for handling traffic sent to/from a handheld device. The execution of the service selection method is performed while a main CPU of said computing system is in a low power state.
US08682334B2
The area density of broadcast stations having respective service areas and broadcasting on the same channel is increased without exceeding a specified level of co-channel interference within the service areas by a method in which the field strength of the signal transmitted by the first broadcast station is monitored, and a field strength determining property of the first broadcast station is controlled in response to the monitoring.
US08682333B2
A method and apparatus for processing a message in a mobile, telecommunications device. The method comprises: receiving a Cell Update Confirm (CUC) message; determining whether the device has an empty C_RNTI variable; when the device has an empty C_RNTI variable, determining whether the CUC message includes a new C_RNTI; when the CUC message includes a new C_RNTI and the CUC message would cause the device to enter a state which requires the UE to respond to the message before entering the state, carrying out at least one further step prior to entering the state.
US08682311B2
A two-way wireless repeater and booster system and method with watermarking of uplink signals are disclosed. The repeater includes a network unit having at least one wireless receiver and at least one wireless transmitter, the network unit being configured to communicate with the network transceiver. The transceiver further includes a user unit having at least one wireless receiver and at least one wireless transmitter, the user unit being configured to communicate with the user transceiver, and a two-way communication path between the network unit and the user unit to communicate signals between the network transceiver and the user transceiver in autonomous hops comprising between the network transceiver and the network unit, between the user transceiver and the user unit, and between the network unit and the user unit. The network unit and/or user unit is further configured to repeatedly transmit a training sequence to the other unit to train the at least one channel equalizer of the other unit.
US08682309B2
Decision support information is exchanged over a secure wireless network among mobile computing devices, and also optionally a central command computer. Each of the mobile computing devices has one or more sensors connected and interfaced to it. Output data from the sensor(s) can be sent over the network to one or more other devices on the network. A command for a sensor also can be sent over the network to cause the sensor to take some action such as turning on or turning off. The mobile computing devices on the network automatically share plug-in software components needed by any of the devices to view transmitted sensor output data and/or act on sensor commands.
US08682308B2
Methods, program products, and systems of over-the-air device configuration are disclosed. In general, in one aspect, a mobile device can determine, in an application subsystem of the mobile device, that the mobile device requests an initial setup. The application subsystem can send a request to a baseband subsystem of the mobile device. The request can include an indicator specifying that the baseband subsystem is to operate in a service configuration mode. The mobile device can request the configuration information from a registration server using the baseband subsystem that operates under the service configuration mode. Requesting the configuration information from the server can include connecting to the server over the air using a cellular network, through a specified carrier and under a specified data transfer cap. The mobile device can then configure the mobile device using configuration information received from the server.
US08682304B2
Voicemail is received at a voicemail server and converted to an audio file format; it is then sent or streamed over a wide area network to a voice to text transcription system comprising a network of computers. One of the networked computers plays back the voice message to an operator and the operator intelligently transcribes the actual message from the original voice message by entering the corresponding text message (actually a succinct version of the original voice message, not a verbose word-for-word conversion) into the computer to generate a transcribed text message. The transcribed text message is then sent to the wireless information device from the computer.Because human operators are used instead of machine transcription, voicemails are converted accurately, intelligently, appropriately and succinctly into text messages (SMS/MMS).
US08682302B2
An information service provides search and notifications to inform when certain people (e.g., friends, family, business contacts, etc.) are nearby so as to facilitate communications with those people. Users may define lists of people whose locations may be tracked by positioning equipment based on personal communications/computing devices carried by the people. The information service processes this people and place data to identify those of the listed people that are in the user's vicinity, and provide notifications and user-initiated search results informing the user such as via the user's personal communications/computing device.
US08682301B2
A method of displaying a tutorial to a user of a mobile device is disclosed. In some examples, the mobile device receives an input associated with one or more user functions of the mobile device and launches a locally based application in response to the received input. The locally based application may output instructions to the user explaining to the user how to implement the one or more user functions.
US08682289B2
A prepaid messaging solution that utilizes a pre-delivery debit query to tariff a short message, coupled with an additional debit query performed once necessary billing information has been acquired. A short message is tariffed prior to message delivery via a pre-delivery debit query to a prepaid server. During message delivery, the prepaid server is queried a second time, following the HLR query performed by the Short Message Service Center (SMSC). This subsequent debit query bills a subscriber for any additional service fees discovered throughout message delivery, e.g., international/roaming fees, etc. If either the pre-delivery debit query or the subsequent debit query indicates that a subscriber has insufficient account balance to deliver a short message, the message is prevented from being delivered. If a message is dropped due to lack of account balance, any funds debited throughout the attempted message delivery may be credited back to the subscriber's prepaid account.
US08682288B2
A method and a system for processing call detail record transmission in a charging system. The method includes: a service processing node detecting a load status of a transmission link after receiving a call detail record generated by a service program, if the transmission link is idle is detected, sending the received call detail record to a charging server; or else storing the received call detail record in a first storage area in the service processing node as a stocked call detail record file; and the charging server detecting a load status of a call detail record processing module after receiving the call detail record sent by the service processing node, if the call detail record processing module is not idle is detected, storing the received call detail record in a second storage area in the charging server as a stocked call detail record file.
US08682281B2
A monitoring application and method in a disabled telecommunication device for monitoring communication sessions initiated by the device and detecting an emergency communication session that is initiated by the device. If an emergency communication session is detected, the monitoring application generates and transmits a message to a rating engine over a non-voice channel. The non-voice channel may be an unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) channel, a short message service (SMS) channel, or other like messaging channel. When the message is received via the non-voice channel, various callback techniques may be implemented to allow the disabled device to receive communications after the emergency communication session, even though such communications would normally be prevented as a result of a service lock.
US08682276B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide a mobile station which enables transmission of control information on broadcast communication or multicast communication to a radio network controller without establishing a dedicated channel in broadcast communication or multicast communication. The mobile station related to this invention includes a control information generating unit (14) for generating control information on broadcast communication or multicast communication, a control information identifier adding unit (15, 16, 17) for adding a control information identifier for specifying a type of the control information to the control information, and a transmitting unit (12) for transmitting the control information to a radio network controller (RNC) via a common channel.
US08682272B2
Methods are described of processing a signal transmitted over a channel in a wireless communication system. A method includes estimating at intervals at least one parameter of a time varying communication environment of said system. At least one processor-related signal processing criterion can be monitored for implementing a signal processing activity. Based on said at least one parameter and said at least one processor-related criterion, a signal processing function can be selected from a plurality of signal processing functions implementable by a processor. Each signal processing function includes a plurality of code blocks having a sequence of instructions for execution on a processor platform, the processor platform including a set of configurable operators having a plurality of predetermined configurations, each sequence of instructions including at least one configuration instruction, which selects one of the plurality of predefined configurations for executing that code block. Related receivers and software implementations are described.
US08682269B1
A first radio receiver may be configured to receive an RF signal from an RF port and may comprise a first cascode amplifier configured to provide a primary RF signal on a primary path for processing by the first RF receiver and a bypass RF signal on a bypass path. A second radio receiver may be configured to receive a sum of the bypass RF signal and an amplified primary RF signal. As a result, the second radio receiver is coupled to the same RF port and the signal received by the second receiver is maintained constant irrespective of the RF signal current drawn by the first receiver. The product of the impedance of the tuned load of the first radio receiver and the gain of the amplifier amplifying the primary RF signal is set to unity.
US08682267B2
A wireless transmission apparatus that can accurately select an optimal modulation scheme on a per block basis in a multi-carrier communication system in which block division of subcarriers and adaptive modulation are performed. In this wireless transmission apparatus, a propagation path characteristics acquisition section acquires the average SNR and SNR variance for each block, which are estimated by a wireless reception apparatus, using received signals inputted from a reception RF section and outputs these to an assignment section. The assignment section selects a modulation scheme for each block based on the average SNR and SNR variance of each block inputted from the propagation path characteristics acquisition section and modulation sections modulate multi-carrier signals included in each block, with the modulation scheme for each block selected by the assignment section.
US08682266B2
A system, apparatus, method and article to manage diversity for a wireless multicarrier communication system are described. An apparatus may include a diversity agent to couple to a transmitter, the diversity agent to convert a determined number of input bits into symbols, interleave the symbols across multiple spatial streams, and map the symbols to tones for each spatial stream. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08682261B2
Exemplary embodiments include an antenna for receiving electromagnetic radiation in a broadcast radiation band and a near-field radiation band to generate a Radio Frequency (RF) signal. A coupling element couples the RF signal to a first port and at least one additional port, which may be a second port and a third port. A wireless power receiver on the first port includes a rectifier for converting the RF signal to a DC signal when the antenna couples to radiation in the near-field radiation band in a coupling-mode region of the antenna. A near-field communication transceiver includes circuitry for communicating information on the antenna in the near-field radiation band when the coupling element couples the second port to the RF signal. A broadcast receiver on the third port includes circuitry for receiving and tuning the broadcast radiation band when the coupling element couples the third port to the RF signal.
US08682260B1
The present disclosure relates to a multi-band RF power amplifier (PA) module, which is used to receive, filter, and amplify a first RF input signal to provide a first RF output signal using a first tunable bandpass and notch filter. The multi-band RF PA module may include a supporting substrate having at least a first inductive element that provides a first portion of the first tunable bandpass and notch filter. Further, the multi-band RF PA module may include at least a first semiconductor die, which is attached to the supporting substrate and provides a second portion of the first tunable bandpass and notch filter. A transceiver module may provide the first RF input signal.
US08682245B2
A security system may include an access control device associated with a personnel access position. The access control device may include a first Near-Field Communication (NFC) sensor, and a first controller configured to selectively grant personnel access based upon receiving a valid security code from the first NFC sensor, and to deny personnel access and generate an access denial electronic message(s) based upon receiving an invalid security code from the first NFC sensor. The system may also include a mobile wireless communications device(s) including a second NFC sensor and a second controller, which may be configured to communicate a security code via the second NFC sensor to the first NFC sensor based upon proximity therewith, and to receive a corresponding access denial electronic message from the first controller based upon the security code being invalid.
US08682244B2
An underwater communications system is provided that transmits electromagnetic and/or magnetic signals to a remote receiver. The transmitter includes a data input. A digital data compressor compresses data to be transmitted. A modulator modulates compressed data onto a carrier signal. An electrically insulated, magnetic coupled antenna transmits the compressed, modulated signals. The receiver that has an electrically insulated, magnetic coupled antenna for receiving a compressed, modulated signal. A demodulator is provided for demodulating the signal to reveal compressed data. A de-compressor de-compresses the data. An appropriate human interface is provided to present transmitted data into text/audio/visible form. Similarly, the transmit system comprises appropriate audio/visual/text entry mechanisms.
US08682234B2
There is provided a transfer device that is used for transferring a developer image hold on a surface of an image supporting body to a first face of a transfer member transported and includes a transfer member that includes a conductive surface layer that is rotatable around a first rotation axis and be elastically transformed, forms a second contact area, which differs from the first contact area in a transporting direction of the transfer member, by contacting with a second face of the transfer member, and is supplied with a transfer voltage used for transferring the developer image onto the first face of the transfer member, a transformation unit that elastically transforms the transfer member, and an adjustment unit that adjusts a shape of the second contact area by adjusting the degree of elastic transformation of the transfer member.
US08682233B2
An apparatus including a transfer belt, an edge sensor and a belt steering roll. The transfer belt having a lateral edge and the edge sensor detecting lateral positions of the lateral edge as it passes the edge sensor. The belt steering roll controlling lateral movement of the transfer belt, which is rotatably mounted maintaining rolling engagement with the transfer belt. An axis of rotation of the belt steering roll selectively tiltable defining a steering angle with respect to an axis reference orientation. Changes in the steering angle inducing a lateral shift profile to the lateral edge. The lateral shift profile defined by changes to the lateral positions of the lateral edge during a period. The steering angle being changed based on a differential between a currently detected lateral position of a segment of the lateral edge and a predetermined lateral position derived from the lateral shift profile.
US08682229B2
A developing device, includes a developer agitating member, an upstream side developing roller, and a downstream side developing roller; wherein a toner in a developer handed over from the upstream side developing roller to the downstream side developing roller has a volume average particle size larger than a volume average particle size of the toner in the developer conveyed by the upstream side developing roller to the facing position between the upstream side developing roller and a photoreceptor drum.
US08682223B2
An image forming device includes a development member carrying a developer for forming a toner image at an image carrier, a cleaning member abutting against the development member for removing the developer remaining on the development member, a transportation member provided in contact with the development member for transporting the developer supplied to the development member, and a driving unit controlling driving of at least one of the transportation member and the development member. The driving unit executes preliminary driving of the development member and transportation member for a given time under a state where supply of the developer to the transportation member is stopped, prior to main driving in image formation. Consumption and/or degradation of the developer in preliminary driving is suppressed while strain at the development member or transportation member formed of a resilient member is removed.
US08682211B2
A developing device frame unit supporting a regulating member regulating the layer thickness of developer on a developer carrier. The unit includes a frame having a seal forming portion, first and second, first and second end seals contactable to the carrier surface to prevent carrier-axial-direction leaking of the developer, and a blade sealer sealing between the regulating member and the frame to prevent developer leaking when the regulating member is mounted. The blade sealer is an elastomer resin material which is injection-molded with a metal mold and in the seal forming portion where the end seals are provided. The blade sealer connects the end seals with each other, and a protrusion provided by a squeezed-out portion of the resin material is provided by injecting, into a space defined by the metal mold, the seal forming portion, and the end seal seals, a resin material volume larger than a volume of the space.
US08682210B2
An image-forming device includes photosensitive drums arranged parallel to each other and extending in a first direction; developing units corresponding to the photosensitive drums; a belt in contact with the photosensitive drums and moving in a second direction crossing the first direction; a cleaner for cleaning waste toner on the belt; a first conveying unit extending in the first direction; a second conveying unit extending in the first direction separately from the first conveying unit in a third direction orthogonal to the first and second directions; and a connecting unit connecting the first and second conveying units. The toner is conveyed by the first conveying unit to pass through the connecting unit, and conveyed by the second conveying unit. One of the developing units includes a toner container. The connecting unit is positioned on one end side of the photosensitive drums and overlaps the container in the first direction.
US08682209B2
An image forming apparatus includes: an image forming unit having a plurality of photoconductor drums arranged in tandem; a conveyor belt arranged opposite to the plurality of photoconductor drums and configured to convey a recording sheet; a cleaning unit having a cleaning member positioned in contact with the conveyor belt to collect substance adhering to the conveyor belt, and a receptacle configured to store the substance collected by the cleaning member, wherein the cleaning unit is arranged on the same side as the image forming unit with respect to the conveyor belt; and a positioning member configured to cause the cleaning member to be positioned at a contacting position where the cleaning member contacts with the conveyor belt and at a spaced-apart position where the cleaning member is away from the conveyor belt.
US08682200B2
A process cartridge detachably mountable to a main assembly of an image forming apparatus, the process cartridge includes a first unit provided with a photosensitive drum, and a second unit provided with a developer carrying member and connected with the first unit so as to be movable between a contact position in which the developer carrying member is contacted with the drum and a spacing position in which the developer carrying member is spaced from the drum. The second unit includes a first contact portion for contacting to a main assembly electrical contact and for receiving a first contact force therefrom, and a second contact portion for contacting to the main assembly electrical contact and for receiving a second contact force therefrom, to electrically connect with the main assembly electrical contact when the cartridge is mounted to the main assembly and the second unit is positioned in the contact position.
US08682184B2
An image forming apparatus includes: a developing unit; an intermediate hopper including a toner detector, for replenishing the developing unit with toner; a container that replenishes toner to the intermediate hopper and includes a replenishment amount storage unit for storing an accumulated toner replenishment amount; a control unit for determining whether or not the container is empty and whether or not the container has been replaced; a reader/writer for causing the replenishment amount storage unit to update the accumulated toner replenishment amount; and a storage unit for storing an integrated value of toner replenishment amounts in a container empty mode, and the reader/writer causes the replenishment amount storage unit of the container after being replaced to store the accumulated toner replenishment amount.
US08682181B2
An apparatus receives data encoded in a format where information bits for transmission are mapped into symbols each carrying a plurality of bits, some being encoded through a pulse position modulation (PPM) format and some being encoded through an additional modulation format on at least one PPM pulse. A receiver detects the signal through a dual-polarization coherent receiver front-end, recovering polarization components of the signal by decoding a first non-zero portion of a plurality of bits carried by a symbol based on slot position of at least one PPM pulse in the polarization components and a second non-zero portion of the plurality of bits carried by the symbol based on the additional modulation carried by at least one PPM pulse in the polarization components. Pilot-assisted single-carrier frequency-division equalization (PA-SC-FDE) may be used for reliable signal reception in the presence of severe PPM errors.
US08682180B1
Methods, systems, and devices are described for a low complexity interpolator for use in optical transmission systems. An input receives a digitized version of an optical signal, and provides samples of the received signal to a filter module. The filter module filters the input samples according to a set of filter coefficients provided by a memory. The set of filter coefficients are provided based on the output of a numerically controlled oscillator that provides an output corresponding to an accumulation of partial periods of the first sample rate. Filtered data samples are output to a sample block assembler that receives the data samples, removes filtered data samples where it is indicated that the sample is not valid, and outputs valid filtered data samples at the second sample rate and at a fixed number of samples power output period.
US08682179B1
A method of protection switching between first and second transceivers where dispersion compensation is effected electrically in the transmitters. The method includes detecting, at the second transceiver, a signal failure of a signal transmitted from the first transceiver and, upon detecting the signal failure, signalling the first transceiver to change its compensation function. The signalling can be done by encoding overhead bits in a signal transmitted from the second to the first transceiver. Another method of protection switching includes both transceivers toggling alternate reception paths upon detecting a signal failure and changing their dispersion compensation function to that of their respective alternate path.
US08682178B2
A method is provided for setting a timing of phase modulation by a target phase modulator within an optical transmitter which performs 2n order phase shift keying, n being a natural number equal to or more than two. The method is provided with: feeding a specific pattern to the optical transmitter to allow the xPSK transmitter to emit an optical carrier in accordance with the specific pattern; receiving the optical carrier by a delay interferometer; converting a pair of light signals emitted from constructive and destructive outputs of the delay interferometer into an electrical signal; detecting a peak to peak value of the electrical signal; and setting the timing of the phase modulation by the target phase modulator so as to minimize the peak to peak value of the electrical signal.
US08682177B2
It is an object to provide an optical frequency control device or the like which can quickly carry out control over a wide frequency range. The object is achieved by an optical frequency control device or the like comprised of an optical SSB modulator (2), a bias voltage source (3) for applying a bias voltage to the optical SSB modulator (2), and a modulating signal source (4) for applying a modulating signal to the optical SSB modulator (2), wherein the modulating signal source (4) is provided with an arbitrary waveform generator (5) for generating an electrical signal with an arbitrary waveform, and an electrical signal multiplier (6) for multiplying a frequency of the electrical signal generated by the arbitrary waveform generator (5).
US08682175B2
For an optical network link, a receiving node monitors optical performance and upon determination of lowered optical performance for an extended period of time, the node can signal a transmitting node to lower bit transfer rate from a nominal bit transfer rate. The receiving node has a transponder which has a digital electronic variable bandwidth filter to process the digitized signals at the lowered bit transfer rate to increase the SNR of the signals. Optical performance of the link is optimized although at the lowered bit transfer rate.
US08682174B2
An optical receiver according to the invention includes a polarization diversity unit receiving a polarization multiplexed optical signal obtained by multiplexing two optical signals having a same frequency band of carrier waves and polarization states orthogonal to each other, and a frequency domain equalization unit receiving signal components parallel to mutually orthogonal polarization axes from the polarization diversity unit, wherein the frequency domain equalization unit includes filters for which filter coefficients thereof are set for compensating degradation of transmission characteristics in one optical signal without polarization multiplexing by means of the frequency domain equalization.
US08682169B2
Systems and methods are operable to detect infrared (IR) signals at a media device. Exemplary embodiments include a media device configured to receive media content; at least one IR detector residing in the media device, and configured to receive a portion of IR signals emitted from a remote control; and a cover lens disposed in a portion of an enclosure of the media device. The cover lens has a first cover lens portion configured to receive the IR signals emitted from the remote control and is configured to transmit a first portion of the received IR signal to the IR detector when the media device is horizontally oriented, and has a second cover lens portion configured to receive the IR signal emitted from the remote control and is configured to transmit a second portion of the received IR signal to the IR detector when the media device is vertically oriented.
US08682167B2
An optical apparatus includes a first optical amplifier for adjusting an output value to a constant level; an optical signal processor located before the first optical amplifier and processing the optical signal; a second optical amplifier located before the optical signal processor and subjected to automatic gain control for adjusting a gain constant; and a controller detecting a level of the optical signal at an output of the second optical amplifier. The controller adjusts a level of an output value of the first optical amplifier such that the level of the optical signal at the output of the second optical amplifier is held at the optimum value if the detected level of the optical signal differs from an optimum value, compensates for a loss caused in the optical signal processor and maintains the level of the optical signal at the output of the second optical amplifier at the optimum value.
US08682166B2
Subcarrier multiplexing type optical communication method and passive optical network using the same
Disclosed is a subcarrier multiplexing type optical communication method including the steps of receiving a first optical signal composed of a plurality of subcarrier channels having different frequencies, creating a second optical signal having a wavelength different from a wavelength of a received signal; and detecting the subcarrier channels from a third optical signal obtained by subjecting the first optical signal to wavelength shift by means of the second optical signal.
US08682164B2
An optical wavelength division node includes an optical splitter, a plurality of optical circulators, and a colorless light source module. The optical splitter receives and splits a downstream signal light source into a first-path and a second-path signal light source. The optical circulator in a first-order position receives and transmits the first-path signal light source to an optical network unit in a first-order position, and receives a return signal and passes it to a next optical circulator, and finally the optical circulator in a last-order position receives the return signal and transmits it. The colorless light source module receives the second-path signal light source and the return signal transmitted by the optical circulator in a last-order position, and uses the second-path signal light source to modulate the return signal to generate an upstream signal light source to be transmitted to the optical line terminal by the optical splitter.
US08682162B2
A return path system includes inserting RF packets between regular upstream data packets, where the data packets are generated by communication devices such as a computer or interne telephone. The RF packets can be derived from analog RF signals that are produced by legacy video service terminals. In this way, the present invention can provide an RF return path for legacy terminals that shares a return path for regular data packets in an optical network architecture.
US08682153B2
An image capturing system and a lens module thereof are provided. The lens module includes a first barrel, a second barrel, a lens, a swing lever and a connecting shift. The first barrel has a bump. The second barrel is disposed inside the first barrel. The swing lever has a first end and a second end. The lens is disposed at the first end. The connecting shift connects the swing lever and the second barrel. The swing lever is rotated around the connecting shift. The bump is used for pushing the second end of the swing lever.
US08682151B2
Disclosed is an optical unit with a shake correction function which is capable of suppressing interference with swinging of a movable module due to the rigidity of a wiring material and a repelling force generated when the wiring material is deformed, even when the wiring material is extended from the movable module. The optical unit uses a flexible wiring board as the wiring material for electrically interconnecting the movable module and outside. In the flexible wiring board, the connecting portion of a movable-side connecting section and an extending unit is provided, in the optical axis direction, on a side where the swing center of the movable module is positioned with respect to the position of the center of supporting a spring member to the movable module. The swing center, the connecting portion, and a fixed-side connecting section are at the same position in the optical axis direction.
US08682150B2
A lens driving apparatus has a lens portion 21, a first driving portion 36 and 37 to cause a movement of a movable unit 20 including said lens portion 21 relatively to a fixed portion 10 along a vertical direction of a light axis of said lens portion 21, a second driving portion 23 and 26 to cause a movement of said lens portion relatively to said fixed portion 10 along said light axis, an image sensor 11 held on said fixed portion 10 to detect a light which comes through said lens portion 21, an inner casing 28a held on said fixed portion 10 to cover said movable unit 20 and said image sensor 11, and a planar flexible printed circuit 50 to which a shake detection sensor 58 detecting a shake of said fixed portion 10 is connected. The planar flexible printed circuit 50 is attached to contact with a sidewall surface of said inner casing 28a parallel to the light axis of said lens.
US08682149B2
An apparatus and method for heating fluidic materials.
US08682141B2
A video and audio recording apparatus includes a recording medium that records base data therein and a control unit that starts and stops destructive editing in response to an instruction to start and stop destructive editing received through an operation unit. When part of the base data is deleted, the control unit writes, using management information for managing a physical area of the base data in the recording medium on the per predetermined recording unit basis, information indicating that the physical area in which the deleted part of the base data was recorded is defined as a reserved area on the per predetermined recording unit basis to the management information. When the edit data is input in response to the instruction to start editing, the edit data is overwritten into the physical area managed using the management information and defined as a reserved area on a preferential basis.
US08682136B2
Representing a video by a frame of the video. Processing a frame by receiving a first frame of a video; dividing the received first frame into at least one region; and for each region, obtaining a pixel value from a each of a plurality of pixels of the region; and determining variability among the obtained pixel values. For a determined variability less than a predetermined threshold, processing at least one subsequent frame.
US08682120B2
An optical device comprising a planar waveguide located on a planar substrate, the planar waveguide including a light-transmissive layer and an optical grating coupler being located along the planar substrate and being adjacent to and optically coupled to the planar waveguide. The optical coupler includes an optical grating of the light-transmissive layer. The optical grating includes a periodic arrangement of light-refractive structures and one or more slotted openings separating the optical grating into two or more grating segments that have long axes that are substantially parallel to a propagation direction of a light beam configured to pass between the planar waveguide and the optical coupler. Pitch distances between adjacent ones of the grating segments are less than a wavelength of the light beam divided by an effective refractive index of the light-transmissive layer.
US08682114B2
An optical device may include a slab, a first waveguide extending from a first portion of the slab to supply multiple first optical signals to the first portion of the slab, multiple second waveguides coupled to a second portion and to a third portion of the slab. The optical device may include multiple third waveguides provided extending from a fourth portion of the slab to direct a corresponding one of the multiple first optical signals away from the slab, a fourth waveguide extending from the fourth portion of the slab to supply multiple second optical signals to the fourth portion of the slab, and multiple fifth waveguides extending from the first portion of the slab to direct a corresponding one of the multiple second optical signals away from the slab. The optical device may include circuits to receive the first optical signals, the second optical signals, and local oscillator signals.
US08682110B2
A method and apparatus for converting a resolution of a block-based image. The method includes: dividing a low resolution image frame into a plurality of blocks, each block having a predetermined size; performing motion prediction in a sub-pixel unit of each of the divided blocks and determining a motion vector in the sub-pixel unit; dividing the motion vector of the sub-pixel unit into a first motion vector having an integer pixel unit and a second motion vector having the sub-pixel unit; determining at least one low resolution reference block corresponding to each of the divided blocks by using the first motion vector having the integer pixel unit; converting each of the divided blocks into high resolution block by using the second motion vector having the sub-pixel unit and the one low resolution reference block; and generating a high resolution image frame by using each of the converted high resolution blocks.
US08682109B2
A method and system of generating a super-resolution image is provided. fusing The method includes inputting an image; and generating an estimated high-resolution image of a current time by fusing an input image and an estimated high-resolution image of a previous time corresponding to the input image.
US08682103B2
An image processing device that accumulatively generates a synthetic image by joining a first image, which is a single image or is constituted by a plurality of the images joined together, and a second image that is input, every time when the second image is input, the device comprising: a center-position obtainment portion (11) that obtains position information on a first center point being a center point of each of the images constituting the first image and position information on a second center point being a center point of the second image; and a synthetic image generation portion (12) that obtains the first center point of an image overlapping the second image among the images constituting the first image, and that joins the first image and the second image to generate the synthetic image, using perpendicular bisectors between the obtained first center points and the second center point as a joint between the first image and the second image, based on the obtained position information on the first center points and the obtained position information on the second center point.
US08682102B2
A method for removing cyclic noise from a borehole image includes transforming the image into the frequency domain using a two-dimensional (2-D) transform (e.g., using a discrete cosine transform). The cyclic noise components (peaks) are removed from the transformed image which is then inverse transformed back into the spatial domain using an inverse 2-D transform to obtain a corrected image. An automated method enables the cyclic peaks to be identified and removed from the borehole image via downhole processing.
US08682100B2
A field sequence detector determines the field sequence of a series of fields of video by assessing the vertical frequency content of hypothetical de-interlaced images. Hypothetical images are formed from a currently processed field and an adjacent (e.g. previous or next) field. If the vertical frequency content is relatively high (e.g. above ½ the Nyquist frequency for the image), the hypothetical image is assessed to be formed of improperly interlaced fields, belonging to different frames. If the frequency content is relatively low, the hypothetical image is assessed to be properly assembled from fields of the same frame. The field sequence in the series of fields may be detected from the assessed frequency content for several of said series of fields. Known field sequence, such as 3:2 pull-down, 2:2 pull down, and more generally m:n:l:k pull-down sequences.
US08682098B2
An image data processing method for creating a clear blur-compensated image; the method calculates the motion data between a reference image and a target image, calculates difference in pixel value between the reference image and the target image for every block matched by the motion data, calculates, based on the difference in pixel value, the blending ratio between the reference image and the target image for each block, and creates a synthesized image by synthesizing the reference image and the target image according to the motion data and the blending ratio. An image processing apparatus implementing the image data processing method noted above is also disclosed.
US08682092B2
Hierarchical data in which image data that represents an image at different resolutions is arranged according to the resolution comprises three types of data including a header, index blocks, and tile images. The header defines a plurality of areas produced by dividing the pyramidal hierarchical structure in the virtual space in which the hierarchical data is generated. A pointer pointing to one of the index blocks is set in each area. The index blocks are generated for the respective areas in the structure defined by the header. A pointer pointing to one of the tile images is defined for a position in the images in a plurality of layers belonging to each area. The images are image data actually used to render an image.
US08682091B2
Exemplary method, system, and computer program product embodiments for real-time image recompression are provided. In one embodiment, by way of example only, compressed segments that are identified as having used at least one of a plurality of inefficient compression operations are partially decoded. The compressed segments are recompressed by employing context mapping. Additional system and computer program product embodiments are disclosed and provide related advantages.
US08682080B2
In an image processing apparatus that determines tilt angles of an image, coordinates of points in the image are each transformed into a distance ρ and an angle θ, and votes are cast to a vote table having the distance ρ and the angle θ as headers. A predetermined number of points having numbers of votes ranked high are extracted from the vote table, and an extraction angle θx is determined to achieve maximum consistency with angles θ at the predetermined number of points, and the tilt angles of the image are determined based on the determined extraction angle θx.
US08682072B2
An example of a method of identifying objects having desired characteristics includes obtaining images of objects and metadata associated with each image. Further, the method includes automatically initializing a portion of the each image as at least one of a foreground portion and a background portion according to the metadata associated with the each image. Furthermore, the method includes segmenting the each image into the foreground portion and the background portion. In addition, the method includes determining at least one foreground portion depicting an object of the desired characteristics. Further, the method includes electronically providing an image corresponding to the at least one foreground portion.
US08682067B2
In a method for determining object edge curves in a recorded image of a multispectral camera, the image recorded is converted into a false color image, hue value from the HSV color space is assigned to each pixel in the false color image such that the hue value corresponds to a hue angle on a predetermined color circle, and the pixels are classified as object pixels and background pixels, such that those pixels with hue values that are within a predetermined value range are defined as the object pixels. An entropy profile is then determined by way of a displaceable evaluation window, such that the entropy of mixing S is calculated for each pixel from the object pixels and background pixels according to the equation: S = - k ( n A ln n A n A + n B + n B ln n B n A + n B ) where nA denotes the number of object pixels within the evaluation window, nB denotes the number of background pixels within the evaluation window and k is a proportionality factor.
US08682063B2
Methods, apparatus, and computer-readable storage media for dynamic color flow modeling. A dynamic color flow model that incorporates motion estimation in a probabilistic fashion is described. By automatically and adaptively changing model parameters based on the inferred local motion uncertainty, the dynamic color flow model accurately and reliably models the object appearance, and improves the foreground color probability estimation when compared to conventional methods. The dynamic color flow model may, for example, be applied to both foreground and background layers (or to additional layers) for video object segmentation, obtaining significantly improved results when compared to conventional methods.
US08682060B2
According to one embodiment, an image processing method includes calculating an activity value for a first block, the activity value indicating a higher degree of activity as pixel values vary in a greater degree in the first block, and calculating a first evaluation value that indicates higher evaluation as a difference between a pixel value of the first block and a pixel value of a second block is smaller. The method further includes calculating a second evaluation value that indicates higher evaluation as correlation between a relative spatial relationship of the pixel value of the first block and that of the pixel value of the second block is higher, and calculating a third evaluation value by weighting the first evaluation value and the second evaluation value to search for the second block that corresponds to the first block, a weight of the first evaluation value is larger as the activity value is larger.
US08682043B2
A method of obtaining and merging volumetric data and surface data of a patient's dentition for use in designing and/or manufacturing a prosthodontic component, such as a drill guide, an implant, or other prosthodontic appliance, for example. A plurality of radio-opaque markers are temporarily secured directly to a patient's dentition. Surface data is then obtained, such as by scanning the patient's dentition with the markers or alternatively, by taking an impression of the patient's dentition with the markers, forming a physical model that includes analogs of the markers, and scanning the physical model. Either before or after the surface data is obtained, an anatomical, volumetric image data set of the patient's dentition is obtained via a volumetric scan of the patient's dentition with the markers appearing in the image data set. The markers appearing in both the volumetric data set and the surface data set are used by suitable computer software to merge the volumetric and surface data sets to form a merged image data set and to generate a combined model of the patient's dentition from which a surgical drill guide or other prosthodontic appliance may be designed and manufactured.
US08682039B2
A method for enhancing face recognition abilities in a user. The method in one embodiment includes the steps of generating a first plurality of faces, each face differing from other faces in at least one aspect; displaying each of the faces to the user; and perceptually discriminating by the user, each of the displayed faces in response to the at least one aspect. In another aspect the invention relates to an apparatus for enhancing face recognition abilities in a user. In one embodiment the apparatus includes a system for generating a first plurality of faces, each face differing from other faces in at least one aspect; a display for displaying each of the faces to the user; and a device for recording the perceptually discriminating, by the user, each of the displayed faces in response to the at least one aspect.
US08682038B2
According to as illustrative embodiment, a method for detect in a document includes capturing a first plurality of images of a document at a first wavelength of electromagnetic radiation, capturing a second plurality of images of the document at a second wavelength of electromagnetic radiation, and assembling the first and second pluralities of images to form one or more images of the document.
US08682034B2
The present invention involves a system for automatically screening closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras for large and small scale security systems, as used for example in parking garages. The system includes six primary software elements, each of which performs a unique function within the operation of the security system to provide intelligent camera selection for operators, resulting in a marked decrease of operator fatigue in a CCTV system. Real-time image analysis of video data is performed wherein a single pass of a video frame produces a terrain map which contains parameters indicating the content of the video. Based on the parameters of the terrain map, the system is able to make decisions about which camera an operator should view based on the presence and activity of vehicles and pedestrians, furthermore, discriminating vehicle traffic from pedestrian traffic. The system is compatible with existing CCTV (closed circuit television) systems and is comprised of modular elements to facilitate integration and upgrades.
US08682033B2
In a lane boundary detection device, a plurality of edge components are extracted from a captured image capturing the periphery of the own vehicle. Candidates of a curve (including straight lines) that is to be the boundary of a driving area are extracted as boundary candidates based on the placement of the plurality of edge components. Then, an angle formed by a tangent in a predetermined section of each extracted boundary candidate and a vertical line in the captured image is calculated. Boundary candidates of which the formed angle is less than an angle reference value are set to have low probability. The boundary candidate having the highest probability among the boundary candidates is set as the boundary of the driving area.
US08682032B2
Events are classified through string pattern recognition. Text labels are assigned to image primitives in a time-ordered set of training images and to related time-ordered transactions in an associated training transaction log in a combined time-ordered training string of text labels as a function of image types. Transactions are labeled in a training transaction log with a transaction label, a training primitive image of a start of a transaction with a start image text label, a training primitive of an entry of a transaction into the log with an entry image text label, and a training primitive of a conclusion of a transaction with an ending image text label. Positive subset string patterns are discovered representing true events from the combined time-ordered training string of text labels, and negative subset string patterns defined by removing single transaction primitive labels from the positive subset string patterns.
US08682031B2
The present invention enables the detecting and tracking of a specific subject using a simple structure and simplified operations without registering characteristic information of the subject. The invention comprises: a subject detection means that detects a subject image from an image; a subject-recognition-information storage means that stores a recognition ID of the subject image as well as a first position that is the position at which the subject image was last detected within the image; and a recognition ID assigning means that assigns the recognition ID to the subject image, wherein if the first position is within a predefined distance from the position at which the subject detection means detects the subject image, the recognition ID assigning means assigns the recognition ID corresponding to the first position to the subject image.
US08682030B2
Embodiments are disclosed herein that relate to the front-projection of an interactive display. One disclosed embodiment provides an interactive display system comprising a projector and a display screen configured to display an image projected by the projector, the display screen comprising a retroreflective layer and a diffuser layer covering the retroreflective layer, the diffuser layer being configured to diffusely reflect only a portion of light incident on the diffuser layer from the projector such that another portion of light passes through the diffuser layer and is reflected by the retroreflective layer back through the diffuser layer. The interactive display system also comprises a camera configured to capture images of the display screen via light reflected by the retroreflective layer to identify via the images a user gesture performed between the projector and the display screen.
US08682024B2
An apparatus and method of processing image data sub-samples image data by generating a data patch by dividing the image data into a plurality of blocks and sequentially accessing pixel data values in each of the blocks through a plurality of line memories. The image data is divided into the plurality of blocks, the blocks are stored in each of the line memories, and the pixel data values stored in each of the line memories are sequentially accessed, so as to generate the data patch for sub-sampling the image data.
US08682021B2
A speaker unit adaptable to limited mounting space, allowing reduction in the lowest resonance frequency, and realizing higher sound pressure and smaller distortion is provided. A diaphragm includes a trunk portion 43 to which a coil 5 is attached, and an edge portion 42 surrounding an outer circumference 43a of trunk portion 43 in plan view. A reinforcement sheet is attached to the trunk portion. An outer circumference 42a of edge portion 42 includes first and second edge straight sections LE1 and LE2, and an edge curve section CE. Each of the first and second edge straight sections LE1 and LE2 extend in the major axis direction and minor axis direction of edge portion 42. An edge curve section CE joins the first and second edge straight sections LE1 and LE2 together. Each of trunk portion 43 of the diaphragm and reinforcement sheet is transparent to light having a wavelength in the visible light region.
US08682020B2
In one embodiment, a mobile device including a magnet unit that is thermally coupled to the heat sink portion of a housing of the mobile device is disclosed. The mobile device comprises a speaker driver that includes a magnet unit, a housing having a heat sink portion that is made of a material having a high thermal conductivity, and a thermal component. The heat sink portion has a first face that is coupled to the speaker driver and a second face that is exposed to the exterior of the mobile device. The thermal component binds the speaker driver to the first face of the heat sink portion to create a cooling path from the magnet unit to the exterior of the mobile device. Other embodiments are also described.
US08682017B2
A device (300) and method (600) for equal audio porting is provided. The device can include a first side with at least one first audio port (182) providing a data communication aspect, a second side with at least one second audio port (184) providing an audio communication aspect, and a transducer (110) positioned between the first side and the second side. The transducer projects sound out of the at least one first audio port and the at least one second audio port such that a quality of the sound through the at least one first audio port and the at least one second audio port are substantially the same.
US08682016B2
Hearing devices configured to fit within the bony portion of the ear canal and batteries that may be used with same. Such hearing devices may have a hearing device core, which includes a battery and an acoustic assembly with a microphone and receiver positioned such that the lateral end of the receiver substantially abuts the medial end of the microphone, and a seal apparatus on the hearing device core.
US08682015B2
A receiver includes a housing and a sleeve. The housing forms a chamber, and the coil is disposed in the chamber and radiates a flux. The sleeve at least partially surrounds the coil such that a majority of flux radiated from the coil is blocked by the sleeve. The sleeve is constructed of a highly conductive material and is insulated from the housing.
US08682014B2
A portable audio device has a voice coil audio signal processor in which a desired audio content signal is combined with an anti-noise signal produced by an active noise cancellation block. A voice coil amplifier receives a volume setting and is coupled to an output of the voice coil audio signal processor. A speaker is coupled to an output of the voice coil amplifier. In addition, a telecoil audio signal processor also receives the desired audio content, and feeds a telecoil amplifier that receives a telecoil coupling strength setting, followed by a telecoil. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US08682005B2
A microphone assembly includes one or more transducers (2210) that are positioned in one or more housings. A preprocessing circuit (2215) includes a inverted comb filter (2245) for eliminating predetermined frequencies between harmonics of the human voice in a predetermined frequency range. A processing circuit (2220) coupled to the preprocessing circuit (2215) is used for outputting an electrical signal such that the transducers (2210) used in combination with the processing circuit (2220) very effectively cancels noise. The microphone assembly can be employed in a vehicle accessory such as a vehicular mirror.
US08682004B2
In a vehicle-to-vehicle network, a driver may listen to audio generated by other drivers participating in the network. The usability of the audio is enhanced by determining the relative positions of the providing and the receiving vehicles and then distributing received audio to specific speakers in the audio system of the receiving vehicle to create an impression that the sound originates from a source on the line between the two vehicles. The audio distributed to different speakers in the vehicle changes as the relative positions of the two vehicles changes. Volume changes and Doppler effects can be added to the audio if the two vehicles are converging or diverging.
US08681988B2
A method for encoding a connection between a base (2) and a mobile part (1), and a computer program product is povided. The method comprises generating a key agreed to by the base (2) and the mobile part (1) during a first connection, wherein the key comprises an index assigned by the base during the first connection, and b) using the generated key for a second connection between the base (2) and the mobile part (1), wherein the data to be transferred between the base (2) and the mobile part (1) are identified and encoded using the index assigned to the key. The security of wireless data transfer is thus increased in a simple and low-cost manner.
US08681983B2
The aim of the present invention is to propose a method for providing attribute-based encryption for conjunctive normal form (CNF) expressions, the said CNF expression comprising at least one clause over a set of attributes, the said method using a key generation engine, an encryption engine and a decryption engine.
US08681982B2
A method of establishing a quantum key for use between a first network node (QNode1) and a second network node (QNode3) in a network for carrying out quantum cryptography includes a key agreement step carried out by a third node (QNode2) and the second node (QNode3) and a subsequent authentication step carried out by the first and second nodes directly. As the key agreement step does not involve QNode1, another key agreement step may be simultaneously performed by another pair of network nodes QNode4, QNode5 to agree a quantum key for use by network nodes QNode1 and QNode5. The invention allows respective quantum keys to be established between a network node and each of a set of other nodes more rapidly than is the case if each quantum key is established serially by key agreement and authentication steps.
US08681977B2
A switcher device comprises a multiplexer coupled in-between at least one input and output cards. The multiplexer detects the presence of an event signal from an activated sink. In response to the detection of the event signal, a processor changes an address of an HDCP receiver from a first address to a second address for enabling the at least one source to authenticate with the input card and enabling the output card to authenticate with the at least one sink for security protocol encryption. In response to the non-detection of the event signal, the processor changes the address of an HDCP receiver from the second address to the first address for disabling the at least one source from initiating a first authentication with the input card, therefore the output card also does not attempt to initiate a second authentication with the at least one sink for security protocol encryption.
US08681976B2
Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for generating a device dependent cryptographic key in a rate-limited way. A system configured to practice the method first receives data associated with a user. The data associated with the user can be a password, a personal identification number (PIN), or a hash of the password. Then the system performs a first encryption operation on the user data based on a device-specific value to yield first intermediate data and performs a second encryption operation on the first intermediate data based on the device-specific value to yield second intermediate data. Then the system iteratively repeats the second encryption operation until a threshold is met, wherein each second encryption operation is performed on the second intermediate data from a previous second encryption operation. The iterations produce a final cryptographic key which the system can then output or use for a cryptographic operation.
US08681975B2
A method and associated apparatus for use in a data distribution process to allow an untrusted intermediary to re-encrypt data for transmission from an originator to a message receiver without revealing the data (message) or the cipher to the intermediary. This method uses a composition of two ciphers for re-encrypting the message at the intermediary, without revealing the plain text message or either cipher to the intermediary.
US08681964B1
A method and apparatus are disclosed of transmitting live event notification information to a user device. One example method may include retrieving event user preference information from an event user database based on prestored user preferences. The method may also include transmitting an initial event notification message to an end user communication device based on the event user preference information to notify the end user of an upcoming event and receiving a response message from the end user communication device indicating a current availability of the end user. The user device may receive notification information via more than one communication channel and respond in a number of different ways.
US08681963B2
A method and communication device for scheduling a conference call. The method includes receiving, in a first communication device, an invitation message containing at least some conference call scheduling information with respect to a scheduled conference call session; displaying an interface in relation to the invitation message, the interface including an option to send a request for recorded conference call content of the scheduled conference call session; receiving an input selecting the option; and sending a communication to a second communication device including a response to the invitation message and including said request for recorded conference call content. A conference call server is also described for sending recorded conference call content to the communication device.
US08681960B2
An exemplary method provides access to call origination features contained in an internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) for a subscriber of the IMS who originates a call request from customer premises equipment (CPE) outside of the IMS. The call request is received at a public service identity (PSI) server in the IMS with a phone number to which the call request is routed. An IMS internal desk number is retrieved based on the number of the outside CPE. A first modified call request is transmitted from the PSI server to a telephony application server (TAS) identifying the IMS internal desk number as a request universal resource identity (RURI). Call origination treatment as specified by the subscriber is performed by the TAS. The first modified call request is processed by the TAS to form a second modified call request in which the RURI is a number of a destination party and a P-asserted identity (PAID) is the IMS internal desk number such that the second modified call request appears as if it was initiated from a phone within the IMS. The second modified call request is transmitted to a node in the IMS for further processing and ultimately termination at the destination party.
