US08689344B2
A system for integrating modules of computer code may include a sandbox validator for receiving a first module and verifying that the first module complies with one or more sandbox constraints. A computing device may execute the first module within a runtime environment. A module integrator may operate within the runtime environment for receiving a request from the first module to access a service provided by a second module and only allowing the first module to access the service when the first module is authorized to access the service according to a service authorization table. The sandbox validator may ensure the first module correctly identifies itself when requesting a service provide by another module and that the first module includes runtime policing functions for non-deterministic operations. A service authorizer may generate an authorization policy for the first module, which is sent to the computing device along with the first module.
US08689335B2
Mapping between object types in an enterprise security assessment sharing (“ESAS”) system enables attacks on an enterprise network and security incidents to be better detected and capabilities to respond to be improved. The ESAS system is distributed among endpoints incorporating different security products in the enterprise network that share a commonly-utilized communications channel. An endpoint publishes a security assessment when a potential security incident is detected. The security assessment identifies the object of interest, the type of security incident and its severity. A level of confidence in the detection is also provided which is expressed by an attribute called the “fidelity”. ESAS is configured with the capabilities to map between objects, including users and machines in the enterprise network, so that security assessments applicable to one object domain can be used to generate security assessments in another object domain.
US08689331B2
The invention provides methods and systems for detecting exploits. A received file is examined to determine whether or not it corresponds to any of one or more predetermined models of normal file types. If the received file does not correspond to any of the one or more predetermined models of normal file types, it is flagged as a potential exploit.
US08689327B2
A method for characterizing a computer program section held in a computer memory system may include dividing the computer program section into segments, where program commands contained in the computer program section may be used to define a program flow relationship between the segments, and determining characteristic data which may be associated with the program flow relationship of the segments. The characteristic data may be compressed to form a signature which identifies the computer program section.
US08689317B2
A method for facilitating surveillance of a targeted user participating in communication sessions conducted over a communications network, such as a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) network, that employs a session initiation protocol (SIP). The method includes receiving a subscription request from a third party subscriber, the subscription request identifying a targeted user to be monitored, monitoring communication sessions in which the targeted user is a participant, to detect SIP events corresponding to state transitions associated with the communication sessions. A system for facilitating surveillance of a targeted user includes an application programming interface (API) operable to receive a subscription request from a third party subscriber, the subscription request identifying the targeted user, wherein the third party subscriber is not a participant in the one or more communication sessions, and a SIP events monitoring module operable to detect one or more predetermined SIP events associated with the communication sessions based on the subscription request and notify the third party subscriber of the detected SIP events.
US08689314B2
Method and apparatus of managing entitlement management message for supporting mobility of DCAS host
A method of supporting a mobility of a Downloadable Conditional Access System (DCAS) host is provided. The method includes: by the second authentication proxy server: performing mutual authentication with a secure micro of the host to generate a session key; requesting an integrated personalization system to download a secure micro client to the host, wherein the secure micro client is encoded using the session key; and transmitting, to a DPS, mapping information between the second authentication proxy server and the secure micro of the host, wherein, in response to receiving the mapping information, the DPS instructs a CAS server to transmit an entitlement management message to the network of the second authentication proxy server without transmitting the entitlement management message to the network of the first authentication proxy server.
US08689309B2
The invention relates to an authentication token for a communication network. The token may include a microprocessor, a memory, a stored secret key (Ki) and a set of instructions for controlling the microprocessor into performing an authentication calculation on the basis of a received random (RAND) and on the basis of the stored secret key. The token further includes a memory location dedicated for storing a counter value and it includes instructions for making the counter value evolve each time the authentication calculation is performed.
US08689308B2
In one aspect, a disclosed portable authentication device (PAD) includes a processor, storage media, an interface for enabling communication with an external information handling system (IHS), e.g., a computer or a telephony device, and executable instructions embedded in the storage media, for automated authentication. The embedded instructions include instructions for enabling a user to store authentication information, e.g., use ID and password information, corresponding to an IHS destination, e.g., a telephone number of an interactive voice response system or an IP address of a web server. If the PAD recognizes the current destination, the PAD may respond to an assertion of a keypad control element by making authorization information corresponding to the current destination available to the user or providing the authorization information directly to the current destination. The PAD may include one or more telephony interface(s), e.g., RJ-11 jack(s) and one or more computer interfaces, e.g., USB connector(s).
US08689307B2
An improved system and method are disclosed for peer-to-peer communications. In one example, the method enables the creation of a virtual endpoint that may operate within a peer-to-peer network to represent a device that is unable to operate as an endpoint.
US08689272B2
Systems, devices, and methods are disclosed for managing multimedia traffic across a common wireless communication network. Embodiments may include content devices, end point devices, a network node, and a wireless dongle. The network node and the wireless dongle may have application functions transmitting and receiving application data streams including a video application. The video application may include a conversion engine to compress, expand, or convert video data. Further, both the network node and the wireless dongle may transmit downstream video streams and receive upstream video streams. In addition, the network node may have a master controller function and a node management function, and a dongle management function each managing video traffic streams and application data streams. In addition, the dongle management function controls admission of a video traffic stream originating from the wireless dongle to the wireless communication network.
US08689269B2
Techniques are described for presenting streaming media content to users in an engaging manner. A streaming media player may provide an interface that allows users to browse though a collection of available titles sorted into different categories (e.g., science fiction titles, television shows, westerns, etc.). The interface may be configured to automatically begin playback of one of the media titles at a designated insertion point, providing a user with a preview of the title. The insertion point itself may be selected as an interesting point in a given title, and therefore, likely to engage a user in that title.
US08689257B2
Methods and systems for content recording and indexing are described. Content may be accessed from a content source. The content may be processed to generate an index of the content. Programming data for future content may be accessed. A content selection guide may be generated in accordance with the index and the programming data. The content selection guide may include a listing of the indexed content and the future content.
US08689245B2
A feed-screw type optical pick-up device transfer mechanism is provided for transferring an optical pick-up device through a base member coupled to a follower member in a state in which teeth of the follower member are engaged with a screw portion threaded around an external circumference of a driveshaft. The teeth of the follower member include two main teeth relating to the transfer of the optical pick-up device, and at least one subsidiary tooth provided between the two main teeth and not related to the transfer of the optical pick-up device.
US08689244B2
A communication system according to one aspect of the present invention, comprises one or more integrated circuits. The one or more integrated circuits comprise at least one of a local integrated circuit and a remote integrated circuit. At least one sending application hardware module located on the local integrated circuit has a sending logic that controls the sending of messages from the sending application hardware module. At least one receiving application hardware module is located on at least one of the local integrated circuit or remote integrated circuit. A sending application hardware module sends messages to a receiving application hardware module without its sending logic having been constructed with a priori knowledge of the address of or the path to said receiving application hardware module. A dispatch logic located on the local integrated circuit that routes at least one or more.
US08689243B2
An Application Programming Interface (API) provides functions for interacting with contact lists and contacts that are stored in a unified contact store by a primary contact service. For example, a client of a unified communications service may use the API to access contact information that is stored with a primary contact service (e.g. a messaging application/service). The contact information is maintained by the primary contact service. The API includes functions such as, but not limited to: adding a new IM contact to a group, adding a new IM group, removing an IM contact from a group, adding a distribution group to an IM list, getting an IM item list, and tagging an IM contact. The contacts may be obtained from the primary contact service and temporarily stored by the client (e.g. within a cache) of a different service.
US08689241B2
According to an example implementation, a computer-readable storage medium, computer-implemented method and a system are provided to detect a plurality of computer events, determine an event severity for each event, select a set of the events having a highest severity of the plurality of events, determine an event category for each event in the set of events, display an event management console including an entry for each event of the set of events, each entry in the event management console including at least an event description and an event severity indicator that indicates event severity, and wherein the displayed event management console also includes one or more evocations for each event category of the set of events, each evocation providing a suggested course of action to address events of the event category.
US08689236B2
A system and method may generate executable block diagrams in which at least some of the blocks run in accordance with message-based execution semantics. A message may include an input data payload that does not change over time, and the message may persist for only a determined time interval during execution of block diagram. A message-based execution engine may control execution of message-based blocks in which a source block may generate a message at a particular point in time, the message may be sent to one or more destination blocks triggering execution of those blocks, and the message may be destroyed on or after a determined time interval. Other execution domains, such as a time-based or state-based execution domain, may be provided, and the system may implement a hybrid execution model. A verification engine may provide one or more tools for evaluating and verifying operation of message-based blocks. The verification engine may support one or more verification blocks that may be added to the block diagram and associated with the diagram's message-based blocks. The verification blocks may capture and present messages exchanged among the message-based blocks. The verification blocks may also specify an expected interaction of messages, and determine whether the actual messages are equivalent to the expected interaction. If not, the verification block may perform one or more predefined actions, such as suspending further execution of the block diagram.
US08689232B2
A shared object space in a computer system provides synchronized access to data objects accessible to a plurality of concurrently running applications in the computer system. The shared object space is allocated a portion of memory of the computer system and concurrently running applications are able to connect to the shared object space. The shared object space restricts simultaneous access to data objects by the concurrently running applications by associating locks with the data objects.
US08689230B2
An embodiment provides for operating an information processing system. An aspect of the invention includes allocating an execution interval to a first logical processor of a plurality of logical processors of the information processing system. The execution interval is allocated for use by the first logical processor in executing instructions on a physical processor of the information processing system. The first logical processor determines that a resource required for execution by the first logical processor is locked by another one of the other logical processors. An instruction is issued by the first logical processor to determine whether a lock-holding logical processor is currently running. The lock-holding logical processor waits to release the lock if it is currently running. A command is issued by the first logical processor to a super-privileged process for relinquishing the allocated execution interval by the first logical processor if the locking holding processor is not running.
US08689229B2
A network system includes an application service provider (ASP) which is connected to the Internet and executes an application, and a CPU resource provider which is connected to the Internet and provides a processing service to a particular computational part (e.g., computation intensive part) of the application, wherein: when requesting a job from the CPU resource provider, the application service provider (ASP) sends information about estimated computation time of the job to the CPU resource provider via the Internet; and the CPU resource provider assigns the job by correcting this estimated computation time based on the estimated computation time sent from the application service provider (ASP).
US08689226B2
A processing subsystem has plural processing stages, where output of one of the plural processing stages is provided to another of the processing stages. Resources are dynamically assigned to the plural processing stages.
US08689217B2
An apparatus for thread processing robot software components includes a data port unit for storing input data in a buffer and then processing the data in a periodic execution mode or in a dedicated execution mode; an event port unit for processing an input event in a passive execution mode; and a method port unit for processing an input method call in the passive execution mode by calling a user-defined method corresponding to the method call. In the periodic execution mode, the data is processed by using an execution thread according to a period of a corresponding component. In the dedicated execution mode, a dedicated thread for the data is created and the data is processed by using the dedicated thread.
US08689208B2
Architecture that enables separation of a user interface (UI) upgrade from the content and application logic upgrade. Administrators can upgrade to take advantage of new infrastructure features, and independently schedule the UI upgrade, for example, to accommodate customization work or to ensure user training. Furthermore, administrators can now allow users to choose when to switch to the new UI. More specifically, the architecture facilitates the separation of a UI upgrade from content and application logic upgrade, the ability to control the UI upgrade at multiple levels of precision, the ability for application logic and UI components to change behaviors based on the UI version of the context, and the ability to “preview” the updated UI before permanently switching to it. Additionally, UI components can be filtered to only appear in the appropriate UI version, and the site's UI version can be compared to versions that a component is compatible with.
US08689203B2
Software update techniques are described. In at least one implementation, updates are filtered based on criticality to operation of one or more items of software. A plurality of identities are published to a plurality of computing devices, each for a respective one of the updates that are filtered as being critical to the operation of the one or more items of software. The updates that are not filtered as being critical to the operation of the one or more items of software are made available via polling.
US08689197B2
Disclosed herein is a method of optimizing an executable program to improve instruction cache hit rate when executed on a processor. A method of predicting instruction cache behavior of an executable program is also disclosed. According to further aspects of the present invention, there is provided a software development tool product comprising code which when executed on a computer will perform the method of optimizing an executable program. A linker product and a computer program are also disclosed.
US08689186B2
Mechanisms allow a user to test a BPEL process by simulating partner Web services. To simulate the partner Web services, a development environment is extended to include an intermediate component that intercepts messages intended for a partner Web service and displays those messages in a testing user interface. In the testing user interface, a user can create and send messages in direct response to the messages invoked while executing the BPEL process. The development environment may also include an alternate deployment descriptor, as part of a BPEL engine. The alternate deployment descriptor identifies where a message should be routed. For example, the alternate deployment descriptor lists the address of the intermediate component, rather than the actual partner Web service address, so that messages can be redirected to the testing user interface.
US08689185B1
In one embodiment, a method of batch processing electronic data is provided. The method includes identifying one or more batch processing features common to a plurality of batch processing applications. The method also includes defining software code for managing execution of the common batch processing features, integrating the software code into at least one of the batch processing applications, and defining and taking one or more checkpoints. Moreover, the method includes retrieving input data in response to control data, processing at least a portion of the input data, determining the time of an error in response to the error during processing, retrieving data stored at the most recent one of the checkpoints, and processing at least a portion of the retrieved checkpoint data.
US08689183B2
This invention discloses a software development system that includes a user input device, a compiler, a build microprocessor and a data storage. The data storage stores a built program built by the build microprocessor by packaging a plurality of heterogeneous program units comprises at least a binary program-unit processed by the compiler and at least a non-compiled program unit inputted by a user to the built microprocessor through the user input device. The program unit to be compiled into binary program unit and the non-compiled program unit stored in the data storage are programmed by at least two different programming languages.
US08689175B2
A system for generating and deploying rules in a business rule management system (BRMS) is described. An example system includes a communications module and a translator. The communications module may be configured to receive an input. The input may specify a rule expressed in a custom syntax. The translator may be configured to translate the rule expressed in the custom syntax into a translated rule. The translated rule may be in a form of a source code suitable for being compiled into an executable module.
US08689163B2
A semiconductor apparatus and a design method for the semiconductor apparatus allow debugging or repairs by using a spare cell. The semiconductor apparatus includes a plurality of metal layers. At least one repair block performs a predetermined function. A spare block is capable of substituting for a function of the repair block. And at least one of the plurality of metal layers is predetermined to be a repair layer for error revision. At least one pin of the repair block is connected to the repair layer through a first pin extension, and at least one pin of the spare block is capable of extending to the repair layer. When the repair block is to be repaired, the pin extension of the repair layer and the repair block is disconnected, and at least one pin of the spare block is connected to the repair layer through a second pin extension.
US08689159B1
One embodiment sets forth a technique for on-chip satisfying timing requirements of on-chip source-synchronous, CMOS-repeater-based interconnect. Each channel of the on-chip interconnect may include one or more redundant wires. Calibration logic is configured to apply transition patterns to wires comprising each channel and calibration patterns that are generated in response to the transition patterns are captured. Based on the calibration patterns, wires that best satisfy the timing requirements of the on-chip interconnect are selected for use to transmit data. The calibration logic also trims the delays of the clock and selected data wires based on captured calibration patterns to improve the timing margin of the on-chip interconnect. Improving the timing margin of the on-chip interconnect improves chip yields.
US08689152B2
A double-sided integrated circuit chips, methods of fabricating the double-sided integrated circuit chips and design structures for double-sided integrated circuit chips. The method includes removing the backside silicon from two silicon-on-insulator wafers having devices fabricated therein and bonding them back to back utilizing the buried oxide layers. Contacts are then formed in the upper wafer to devices in the lower wafer and wiring levels are formed on the upper wafer. The lower wafer may include wiring levels. The lower wafer may include landing pads for the contacts. Contacts to the silicon layer of the lower wafer may be silicided.
US08689151B1
A method, system, and computer program product for improving printability of a design of an integrated circuit (IC) using pitch-aware coloring for multi-patterning lithography (MPL) are provided in the illustrative embodiments. A first shape is identified in a layout of the IC corresponding to the design as being apart by a first distance from a second shape. The first distance is a forbidden distance and at least equal to a minimum distance requirement of a lithography system. A determination is made that the first shape and the second shape are colored using a first color. The first shape is changed to a second color, such that even though the first distance is at least equal to the minimum distance requirement of the lithography system, the first and the second shapes are placed on different masks to print the design, thereby improving the printability of the design.
US08689148B1
In an electronic design automation technique for optical proximity correction, an optimized mask function that has values other than those allowed for a particular mask type, such as 0 and 1 for a chrome-on-glass binary mask, evolves it to a solution restricted to these values or narrow intervals near them. The technique “regularizes” the solution by mixing in a new cost functional that encourages the mask to assume the desired values. The mixing in may be done over one or more steps or even “quasistatically,” in which the total cost functional and the mask is brought from pure goodness-of-fit to the printed layout for given conditions to pure manufacturability by keeping the total cost functional minimized step-by-step. A goal of this gradual mixing-in is to do thermodynamically optimal work on the mask function to bring it to manufacturable values.
US08689142B2
A method including receiving a user selection of a first media content, determining a second media content based on characteristics of the first media content in relation to characteristics of the second media content, and determining a third media content based on the characteristics of the second media content in relation to characteristics of the third media content. The method further includes causing, at least in part, display of a first icon representing the second media content and a second icon representing the third media content.
US08689139B2
Expandable user interface menu techniques are described, including displaying a menu having a menu item, receiving an input indicating selection of the menu item, and expanding the menu, based on one or more parameters associated with the menu item, to present a structure configured to receive another input associated with the menu item, the menu item remaining displayed while the menu is expanded.
US08689136B2
A system for backend conversion attribution of an advertisement served to a user device. The advertisement server provides an advertisement to the user device. The advertisement server receives user information from the user device. The advertisement server stores attributable event information and the user information into an attributable event record in a data store. Based on a user event, a conversion server receives conversion information and the user information from the user device. The conversion server stores the conversion information and the user information into a conversion record in the data store. An attribution server matches the attributable event record with the conversion record.
US08689134B2
A method for facilitating window navigation on an electronic display including the steps of rendering at least one elongated strip on opposing sides of a first window wherein the strips are selectable by a user through a user interface device, associating at least one strip with a second window and at least one strip with a third window wherein the strips are each configured to transition one of the second and third windows to the forefront of the electronic display upon selection of the respective strip by the user through the user interface device.
US08689131B2
Embodiments are provided for creating and executing a custom action in a workflow generated by an application program executing on a computer system. The application program may receive a selection of a custom action to execute in the workflow in a user interface generated by the application program. The application program may translate the custom action into a user interface button for executing the custom action in the workflow. The application program may display the button for executing the custom action in the workflow. The application program may also resolve references to external content in a shared workflow document by communicating with a workflow engine to register a callback function for receiving a location of the shared workflow document on a remote computer system. The workflow engine may send the location of the shared workflow document to the application program to enable access to the external content.
US08689130B1
Techniques for providing a single text field and multiple different types of user input modes for inputting information into the single text field are described herein. In some instances, a user may enter a first portion of text into the text field in a first user input mode before inputting a second portion of text into the field in a second user input mode. The techniques may enforce a first set of rules associated with the first user input mode while the user enters the first portion of text. The techniques may then enforce a second, different set of rules associated with the second user input mode while the user enters the second portion of text. As such, the techniques enable a user to provide two or more different pieces of information into a single text field.
US08689126B2
Systems and methods for displaying graphical indications to indicate dependencies between scripts are disclosed. For example, a computer-implemented method is used to identify script dependencies between form objects. The form objects are part of a form created in a form design application. The form can be used by a user in a form rendering application. The computer-implemented method includes identifying with a processing device a script that performs a function. The method also includes determining with the processing device references in the script to plural form objects. The method further includes flagging the plural form objects corresponding to the references as related form objects. The method additionally includes rendering on a display device a graphical indication of the related form objects.
US08689123B2
This document describes techniques for application reporting in an application-selectable user interface. These techniques permit a user to view reports for applications in a user interface through which these applications may be selected. By so doing, a user may quickly and easily determine which applications to select based on their respective reports and then select them or their content through the user interface.
US08689109B1
Techniques are described for facilitating access of computing system users to restricted or other functionality, such as internal functionality of a business or other organization. The functionality access may be facilitated by an access provider system that executes on a client computing system of an authorized user, such as a program operating in conjunction with another presentation program that presents publicly available information by modifying interactions available to the user when using the presentation program or otherwise providing additional information to the user. In some situations, the additional information is provided by temporarily modifying the information being presented by the presentation program, such as to provide additional information that is related to functionality corresponding to a subject area of the currently presented information and/or corresponding to an aspect of the currently presented information that is indicated by the user.
US08689107B2
A system and method for aggregating IP flows in a telecommunication network is disclosed. A multi-protocol flow representing packets captured from the telecommunications network during a selected time period is displayed on a user interface of a network monitoring system. The multi-protocol flow is highlighted on the user interface display if any session records within the multi-protocol flow do not meet operator-defined criteria. The user interface detects a user's selection of the multi-protocol flow and displays a plurality of protocol-specific flows that are within the multi-protocol flow. The user interface detects the user's selection of one of the protocol-specific flows and displays a plurality of session flows that are within the selected protocol-specific flow. Any session records that do not meet operator-defined criteria are highlighted on the user interface.
US08689106B1
A method and apparatus for displaying logical information upon devices within a computer system. The method and apparatus include a logical volume information server coupled to a volume manager that provides the logical information that is created by the volume manager to at least one device. The at least one device comprise a logical volume information client that receives the logical information from the logical volume information server and displays that logical volume information upon the network or storage device. In this manner, an operator may quickly identify the logical information that corresponds to a physical device within a network or a storage appliance.
US08689105B2
The present invention is directed to a system and method for monitoring perceived quality of a packet-switched voice service in a network. The method includes the step of receiving a packetized voice communication via the packet-switched voice service. At least one objective measurement is obtained from the received packetized voice communication. User perceived quality of voice data is derived from the at least one objective measurement. The user perceived quality of voice data is provided to a user. The steps of receiving, obtaining, deriving, and providing are performed in real-time.
US08689096B2
A computer-based method is used for completing missing data needed in a transaction-tax-related application, where the method uses completing rules that define, depending on which missing data needs to be completed, what further data might be considered for deriving the missing data. A completing rule associated with the missing data is evaluated, and an auto-completion certainty parameter is determined as a result of the completing rule evaluation. Completed data is derived according to the certainty parameter.
US08689083B2
Digital communication coding methods resulting in rate-compatible low density parity-check (LDPC) codes built from protographs. Described digital coding methods start with a desired code rate and a selection of the numbers of variable nodes and check nodes to be used in the protograph. Constraints are set to satisfy a linear minimum distance growth property for the protograph. All possible edges in the graph are searched for the minimum iterative decoding threshold and the protograph with the lowest iterative decoding threshold is selected. Protographs designed in this manner are used in decode and forward relay channels.
US08689079B2
According to one embodiment, a command generator sequentially and speculatively issues channel-by-channel access commands to a memory interface in a predetermined access process. A purger returns a series of unexecuted already-issued access commands using a purge response if an error occurs in any of memory accesses via a plurality of channels. A command progress manager updates command progress information such that the command progress on each of the plurality of channels returns to a position specified in an oldest access command of a series of the returned access commands issued to the channel. The command generator issues the channel-by-channel access commands including the oldest access command to the memory interface based on the updated command progress information.
US08689070B2
Scan chain diagnosis techniques are disclosed. Faulty scan chains are modeled and scan patterns are masked to filter out loading-caused failures. By simulating the masked scan patterns, failing probabilities are determined for cells on a faulty scan chain. One or more defective cells are identified based upon the failing probability information. A noise filtering system such as the one based upon adaptive feedback may be adopted for the identification process.
US08689052B2
In a method, system, and computer-readable medium having instructions for performing asynchronous testing of an application that is occasionally connected to an online services system, metadata describing at least a portion of an online services database is retrieved and the at least a portion of the online services database is authorized for replication at a software application, information is determined for an entity for an application database from the metadata, a request is sent for a database using the software application interface and the request has an asynchronous operation call to the database for the entity, an execution of the asynchronous operation call is recorded within a callback function, a response is received for the asynchronous operation call, and a result is determined for the software application performance.
US08689043B1
A method, system, computer system, and computer program product to quickly synchronize replicas of data stored at multiple secondary nodes upon failure of a primary node. Secondary nodes to which an update to data in a region of a storage area is sent are identified. When all of the secondary nodes have acknowledged the update, a notification is sent to each of the secondary nodes. Respective indicator(s) (e.g., “outstanding update” or “out of sync” indicators) can be set to indicate that the data have changed in respective region(s) at one of the secondary nodes when the update has been received at that secondary node. The indicator(s) can be reset for the respective region(s) when the notification sent by the primary node is received at the secondary node. Data in the region(s) can be synchronized with data at secondary nodes when either node has an indicator set for that region.
US08689034B2
Methods and apparatus that receive, at a wireless device, power through wire or inductive pad are described. The received power is monitored to back up data from the device to a server in a network through an OTA (over the air) wireless interface. The data is transmitted to the server to back up the data on the device. While backing up the data, whether the power has been removed from the device is determined. The backing up of the data in the device can be terminated automatically and without user request, in response to the determination that the power has been removed.
US08689022B2
Methods of and apparatus for controlling power drawn by an appliance through a USB port. The method includes limiting any electrical current drawn by an appliance to one of seven levels according to whether the data lines receive a bias from a power line, the data lines are in electrical communication with each other, and the power source includes a host computing device, or according to logic and voltage levels of the data lines when any of the pull-down resistor and the current and voltage sources are connected or not connected to the D+ data line. The apparatus includes a controller programmed to selectively connect a pull-down resistor, a current source, and a voltage source to a D+ data line and to limit any electrical current drawn from a power source to one of the seven levels according to voltage levels on the D+ data line and a D− data line.
US08689020B2
Disclosed and described herein are embodiments of systems, methods and computer program for scheduling demand events over a time period based on differences between the estimated power availability and the estimated power consumption at various points during the time period. In one aspect, methods are described. One embodiment of a method comprises establishing a defined time period, estimating power availability over the time period, estimating power consumption over the time period, and scheduling, using a computing device, demand events over the time period based on differences between the estimated power availability and the estimated power consumption at various points during the time period.
US08689018B2
An apparatus and method is described herein for reducing noise in a power distribution network for an interface. The power distribution network is characterized. And based on that characterization, worst case patterns for the interface are predicted and avoided. As one example, characterization includes providing a stimulus, such as a step function stimulus, and determining a mathematical function response, such as a step function response. Then, based on the step function response, a resonant frequency for the power distribution network is determined; from which patterns that cause the resonant frequency are identified/predicted. And when identified patterns are detected, they are scrambled or manipulated to avoid causing a worst-case noise scenario in an interface's power distribution network.
US08689014B2
In an encryption device, in a case where predetermined first data is input, the first data is converted into second data that is data decrypted from the first data and, in a case where the second data is input, the second data is converted into the first data, and the converted data is encrypted to be output to a storage unit.
US08689006B1
A data leakage prevention system, method, and computer program product are provided for preventing a predefined type of operation on predetermined data. In use, an attempt to perform an operation on predetermined data that is protected using a data leakage prevention system is identified. Additionally, it is determined whether a type of the operation attempted includes a predefined type of operation. Furthermore, the operation on the predetermined data is conditionally prevented based on the determination to prevent circumvention of the protection of the data leakage prevention system.
US08689004B2
A server system receives and installs multiple claim provider plug-ins. Each of the claim provider plug-ins implements the same software interface. However, each of the claim provider plug-ins can provide claims that assert different things. Claims provided by the claim provider plug-ins can be used to control access of users to a resource.
US08688984B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer-readable storage medium, and including a method for providing content. The method comprises receiving a first login associated with a first anonymous identifier and first device, creating an associated first private-public key pair, storing a first private key locally in the first device, and publishing a first public key. The method further comprises receiving a second login from a second different device, creating a second private-public key pair, storing a second private key, publishing the second public key, creating a secret key using the first public key, and associating a second anonymous identifier with the secret key. The method further comprises subsequently receiving a login the first device, creating the secret key using the second public key, associating the first anonymous identifier with the secret key, receiving a request for content from either device, and providing content using the association.
US08688983B2
A method for transmitting data between a first and a second point comprises the steps of transmitting data, from the first to the second point, together with a signature comprising bits of a first authentication code, and transmitting an acknowledgement, from the second to the first point. The length of the first authentication code is greater than the length of the signature and the first authentication code comprises hidden authentication bits. The acknowledgement is produced by using hidden authentication bits of a second authentication code presumed to be identical to the first, produced at the second point.
US08688981B2
A method of logging in a health information tele-monitoring device by using a personal portable device. The method includes issuing a security key embedded in a health information tele-monitoring device to a personal portable device, storing the security key issued by the health information tele-monitoring device in the user's personal portable device; requesting the user's personal portable device to authenticate the health information tele-monitoring device in order to connect the health information tele-monitoring device to a healthcare server; and authorizing access of the health information tele-monitoring device to the healthcare server.
US08688975B2
An invention for certifying a virtual entity in a virtual universe is disclosed. A virtual business may opt to register with a security certificate administration center to obtain a security certificate. A user of another virtual entity is provided with an ability to initiate a verifying process to check whether a security certificate symbol or a graphic resembling a security certificate symbol represents a valid security certificate. Virtual universe client and server software may be modified to enable a secured connection between the user and the security certificate administration center for the verification.
US08688974B2
A method for managing wireless multi-hop network key is applicable to a security application protocol when a WAPI frame method (TePA, an access control method based on the ternary peer-to-peer identification) is applied in a concrete network containing a Wireless Local Area Network, a Wireless Metropolitan Area Network AN and a Wireless Personal Area Network. The key management method of the present invention includes the steps of key generation, key distribution, key storage, key modification and key revocation. The present invention solves the technical problems that the prior pre-share-key based key management method is not suitable for larger networks and the PKI-based key management method is not suitable for wireless multi-hop networks; the public-key system and the ternary structure are adopted, thereby the security and the performance of the wireless multi-hop networks are improved.
US08688973B2
A computer-implemented method of securing communications sent by a first user to a second user may include receiving, by a first user from a trusted third party, at least one public cryptographic value corresponding to the first user and at least one private cryptographic value corresponding to the first user, providing, by the first user to a second user, a plurality of values corresponding to an identification device identified by an identifier, deriving, by the first user, a shared key, using the at least one private cryptographic value of the first user, and at least one of the plurality of values corresponding to the identification device identified by the identifier and protecting communications sent by the first user to the second user with the shared key.
US08688972B2
A system, method and media for a service oriented architecture. This description is not intended to be a complete description of, or limit the scope of, the invention. Other features, aspects and objects of the invention can be obtained from a review of the specification, the figures and the claims.
US08688970B2
The invention provides a method for trust relationship detection between a core and access network for a user equipment. The gist is that a security tunnel establishment procedure is used so one entity, be it part of the core network or be it the user equipment itself, is provided with information to determine whether the access network is trusted or untrusted. The information may comprise a first IP address/prefix, which is initially assigned to the user equipment, upon attaching to the access network. The necessary information may further comprise a second IP address/prefix, which is an address/prefix that is allocated at a trusted entity of the core network. Depending which entity determines the trust relationship of the access network, it might be necessary to transmit either the first IP address/prefix or the second IP address/prefix or the first and the second IP address/prefix using the security tunnel establishment procedure.
US08688965B2
Embodiments of the invention involve decreasing boot time by utilizing virtualization or partitioning techniques. In an embodiment, a hypervisor/platform partition controls the platform access to the boot target medium. The boot target medium may be a local medium or a remote medium on a server. When the boot medium is a local medium, the boot target data is selectively stored in a fast memory. When the boot target medium is a remote medium, the boot target data is stored in a local medium. When the system reboots, or an operating system on the platform is reset, boot target data may be retrieved from the fast, local memory rather than the original, slower boot target medium. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08688953B2
A method and a system for allowing a guest operating system (guest OS) to modify an entry in a TLB directly without an involvement of a hypervisor are disclosed. Upon receiving a guest TLB miss exception, a guest OS issues a TLBWE (TLB Write Entry) instruction to logic. The logic runs the TLBWE instruction at a supervisor mode without invoking a hypervisor. The TLB may incorporate entries in a guest page table and entries in a host page table.
US08688951B2
Operating system virtual memory management for hardware transactional memory. A system includes an operating system deciding to unmap a first virtual page. As a result, the operating system removes the mapping of the first virtual page to the first physical page from the virtual memory page table. As a result, the operating system performs an action to discard transactional memory hardware state for at least the first physical page. Embodiments may further suspend hardware transactions in kernel mode. Embodiments may further perform soft page fault handling without aborting a hardware transaction, resuming the hardware transaction upon return to user mode, and even successfully committing the hardware transaction.
US08688946B2
An auxiliary storage medium is selected for writing data of a set of one or more pages being paged-out from real memory. The auxiliary storage medium is selected from among a plurality of auxiliary storage media, including differing types of storage media, based on characteristics of the plurality of storage media and/or the attributes of the data being written to the auxiliary storage media.
US08688936B2
A technique for handling a FlashCopy® process includes receiving a FlashCopy® instruction for a source disk, performing a FlashCopy® point in time copy of the source disk on to a target disk, creating a map specifying the FlashCopy® point in time copy from the source disk to the target disk, creating a primary fdisk for the source disk, if one does not already exist, and creating a primary fdisk for the target disk, if one does not already exist, or, if one does already exist, converting the existing primary fdisk for the target disk into a secondary fdisk, and creating a new primary fdisk for the target disk.
US08688921B2
A software transactional memory system is provided with multiple global version counters. The system assigns an affinity to one of the global version counters for each thread that executes transactions. Each thread maintains a local copy of the global version counters for use in validating read accesses of transactions. Each thread uses a corresponding affinitized global version counter to store version numbers of write accesses of executed transactions. The system adaptively changes the affinities of threads when data conflict or global version counter conflict is detected between threads.
US08688917B2
A method and apparatus for monitoring memory accesses in hardware to support transactional execution is herein described. Attributes are monitor accesses to data items without regard for detection at physical storage structure granularity, but rather ensuring monitoring at least at data items granularity. As an example, attributes are added to state bits of a cache to enable new cache coherency states. Upon a monitored memory access to a data item, which may be selectively determined, coherency states associated with the data item are updated to a monitored state. As a result, invalidating requests to the data item are detected through combination of the request type and the monitored coherency state of the data item.
US08688910B2
A data processing system has a cache which receives both non-debug snoop requests and debug snoop requests for processing. The non-debug snoop requests are generated in response to transactions snooped from a system interconnect. Debug control circuitry that is coupled to the cache provides the debug snoop requests to the cache for processing. The debug snoop requests are generated in response to debug snoop commands from a debugger and without the use of the system interconnect. In one form snoop circuitry has a snoop request queue having a plurality of entries, each entry for storing a snoop request. A debug indicator corresponding to each snoop request indicates whether the snoop request is a debug snoop request or a non-debug snoop request.
US08688906B2
An apparatus and method are disclosed for distributing writes asymmetrically. An asymmetric distribution module calculates an asymmetric distribution of writes for a plurality of drives. A write module writes data to each drive in accordance with the asymmetric distribution of writes.
US08688903B1
An associative list processing unit and method comprising employing a plurality of prioritized cell blocks and permitting inserts to occur in a single clock cycle if all of the cell blocks are not full.
US08688894B2
Methods and circuits for page based management of an array of Flash RAM nonvolatile memory devices provide paged base reading and writing and block erasure of a flash storage system. The memory management system includes a management processor, a page buffer, and a logical-to-physical translation table. The management processor is in communication with an array of nonvolatile memory devices within the flash storage system to provide control signals for the programming of selected pages, erasing selected blocks, and reading selected pages of the array of nonvolatile memory devices.
US08688892B2
A system and method for increasing DDR memory bandwidth in DDR SDRAM modules are provided. DDR memory has an inherent feature called the Variable Early Read command, where the read command is issued on CAS latency before the completion of the ongoing data burst and the effect of the CAS latency is minimized in terms of the effect on bandwidth. The system and method optimizes the remaining two access latencies (tRP and tRCD) for optimal bandwidth.
US08688887B2
Computer peripheral expansion apparatus, methods of operation, and computer program products including blade peripheral expansion units (‘BPEUs’), each BPEU including a peripheral interconnect multiplexer coupled for peripheral interconnect data communications through an upstream peripheral interconnect bus (‘PIB’) segment to a host blade, the upstream PIB segment fanned out by the multiplexer into two or more peripheral downstream interconnect channels, the multiplexer connecting the upstream PIB segment to only one of the downstream channels at a time; and the two or more downstream peripheral interconnect channels, at least one of the downstream channels connected to at least one peripheral interconnect device (‘PID’) in the BPEU, the peripheral interconnect device being a device that communicates with the host blade according to a peripheral interconnect data communications protocol, one of the downstream channels configured to connect to an upstream PIB segment in another BPEU.
US08688878B1
Described is data storage system modeling. Received at a first data storage system is information representing a workload for I/O operations directed to a logical devices having storage provisioned on physical devices of a second data storage system. Information representing the workload may be obtained by performing discovery processing to discover performance characteristics of the physical devices of the second data storage system. Discovery processing may include receiving, at the first data storage system, I/O operations from a client directed to the set of one or more logical devices having storage provisioned on the physical devices of the second data storage system. The I/O operations are then issued to the second data storage system. In response, performance data is obtained at the first data storage system representing the workload for the plurality of I/O operations. Performance of the second data storage system is modeled in accordance with the workload.
US08688877B1
The present disclosure describes techniques and apparatuses for multiport memory architecture. In some aspects serial data is received from a data port and converted to n-bit-wide words of data. The n-bit-wide words of data are then buffered as a k-word-long block of parallel data into a line of a multiline buffer as a block of k*n bits of data. The block of k*n bits of data is then transmitted to a multiport memory via a write bus effective to write the block of k*n bits of data to the multiport memory.
US08688875B2
The present disclosure provides a host electronic device including a main operating circuit, a first peripheral bus, an interface circuit, a second peripheral bus, and a conversion device. The interface circuit is coupled between the second peripheral bus and a host computer for receiving an external command form the host computer through a transmission protocol compatible with a first interface. The conversion device is coupled between the first and the second peripheral bus including an external virtual adapter, an internal virtual adapter, and a network channel. Furthermore, the conversion device encodes and decodes the external command, and produces a decoded external command. A processor of the main operating circuit executes the decoded external command, such that the main operating circuit implements a corresponding operation.
US08688874B2
A method of controlling one or more devices in data communication with a common controller to perform one or more functions, each of the devices having a synchronous clock, a synchronized real time clock register and a memory, the method comprising: arming the devices such that the devices commence performing the functions synchronously, receive and store to their respective memory data acquired as a result of performing the functions and store to their respective memory time stamp information indicative of the time of acquisition of the acquired data; a trigger device in data communication with the common controller responding to a command to perform the functions by sending a first message to the host controller that includes data indicative of a time of receipt of the command; the host controller responding to the first message by sending the devices a second message including data indicative of the time of receipt by the further device of the command; and the devices responding to the second message by reading their respective memories and sending the acquired data stored therein to the host controller commencing from a location in each respective memory corresponding to the time of receipt or a next available location.
US08688867B2
A method and system (200) for communicating between a first and second serial communications protocol (SCP) enabled device (202, . . . , 212, 224). The method includes the step of comparing a data block comprising a plurality of data values from the first SCP enabled device to a plurality of reference data values. The method also includes the step of determining which of the data values has changed and which of the data values has not changed. This determination is made based on the comparing step. The method further involves writing substantially only the data values that have changed to a memory of the second SCP enabled device.
US08688865B2
A command to change a device identifier is output to a first slave device and to a second slave device using a shared data line. The first slave includes a first device identifier, and the second slave device includes a second device identifier. A value for the first device identifier is replaced within a time period using the shared data line. During the same period of time, a value for the second device identifier is maintained.
US08688861B2
The invention relates generally to synchronizing functions on handheld devices and more particularly to precisely synchronizing a function among a large number of devices having multiple different platforms. The invention provides the ability to cause a large number of handheld devices to perform certain functions simultaneously, within seconds or fractions of a second of each other. In certain aspects, the invention provides an apparatus for synchronizing a function among devices, including one or more processors in communication with a memory and configured to, for each of the devices, send an event to the device, receive a timepacket, and send a return timepacket, thereby causing the device to receive the event and invoke the function after a delay.
US08688847B2
A computer implemented method for performing automatic latency mitigation in a remote access system comprises using a network connection between a client in remote access with a server to define a virtual channel for determining latency in the network connection, and providing a latency value for the connection. The latency value is used to determine a mitigating action for reducing the latency or the effect of latency in the connection, and the mitigating action is executed at the client.
US08688845B2
Example embodiments of the present disclosure are related to terminal servers. In an example embodiment a license can be associated with, or define, a set of capabilities and a session can be generated that includes the capabilities. In an example embodiment the session can be generated in view of a license and privileges that are associated with an account identifier of a user requesting a session from a terminal server.
US08688842B2
It is disclosed a method comprising holding access information relating to a terminal and a first network entity external to a currently visited network of the terminal, the access information being associated with a first network plane below a second network plane relating to network session initiation, and signaling, based on the second network plane, the held access information to a controlling entity; a method comprising receiving the signaled access information, the receiving being performed based on the second network plane, and relaying, based on the second network plane, the received access information to a second network entity; and a method comprising receiving the relayed access information, the receiving being performed based on the second network plane, and configuring the first network plane based on the access information.
US08688836B2
A method performed in a network element coupled between a subscriber end station and an AAA server for avoiding AAA processing by at least temporarily suppressing AAA access-request messages for a rejected subscriber end station. The network element receives subscriber session-request messages from the subscriber end station. Subscriber session-request messages include information for verifying an identity that the network element transmits to the AAA server as AAA access-request messages. The network element receives AAA access-response messages corresponding to the AAA access-request messages. Responsive to an AAA access-response message, the network element determines that additional AAA access-request messages should be, at least temporarily, suppressed with regards to the subscriber end station. Responsive to determining, the network element suppresses any additional AAA access-request messages from being transmitted to the AAA server. The suppression of AAA access-request messages conserves execution resources in the network element and the AAA server.
US08688832B2
Embodiments of the invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to load balancing for servers having multiple blades and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for load balancing at the blade level for servers having multiple blades. In one embodiment of the present invention, a blade server for performing load balancing may comprise a plurality of blades, each blade coupled with a plurality of outgoing ports. The blade server may further include a blade management module configured for monitoring throughput performance of the server and the plurality of blades, wherein each blade is coupled with a plurality of outgoing ports, instructing a blade to switch from a first outgoing port to a second outgoing port when throughput performance decreases and instructing the blade to switch from the second outgoing port back to the first outgoing port when throughput performance increases.
US08688829B2
The method for binding a sensor and an actuator can be categorized into three types: manual binding, automatic binding and semi-automatic binding. Manual binding methods increase users' operational burden when a great number of sensors and actuators are to be bound. The current hard-coded automatic binding method suffers from lack of versatility. The template-based semi-automatic binding method still requires users to input some information manually. The disclosure provides an automatic binding method, which can automatically and reasonably bind the functions of a sensor and an actuator without user input, in a sensor network comprising a plurality of sensors and actuators.
US08688828B2
Techniques are provided to facilitate monitoring of utility application traffic streams. At a network device that routes utility application traffic for utility devices, control information is received, where the control information is configured to cause the network device to monitor utility application traffic that passes through the network device. The network device monitors a header inserted into utility application traffic messages based on the control information.
US08688827B2
Methods, apparatus and systems, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for providing a scalable and elastic two-level overlay computer network. A host network is provided. The host network includes a system of interconnected computers and can to support one or more transport layer protocols. A first overlay network is generated on top of the host network. The first overlay network includes one or more first-level nodal entities. At least some of the first-level nodal entities operate as factories for generating second-level nodal entities in a second overlay network. In response to receiving an instruction, one or more factories dynamically generate the second overlay network. The second overlay network includes several networked second-level nodal entities that can support data processing and data communication between the second-level nodal entities.
US08688826B2
A method (700) and mobile computing device (200) are described. In its simplest form, the method includes the steps of: operating (710) an application in synchronous communication with an application server via a persistent IP session, defining an active mode, wherein the synchronous communication is automatically enabled by establishing a persistent IP session according to a prearranged schedule; and providing (720) a dormant mode wherein the synchronous communication is automatically disabled in the mobile device by closing the persistent IP session according to the prearranged schedule. Advantageously, energy can be saved in the mobile computing device, thereby extending the life of an energy storage device or a battery. By the use of intelligent pushing management, substantial energy savings can be gained, by using prearranged scheduling of dormant and active modes.
US08688825B1
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for managing distribution of a finite amount of resources. In use, a quota is received from a first repository, the quota including a portion of a finite amount of resources. Additionally, a plurality of requests is received from a plurality of entities, where each of the plurality of requests is requesting one or more of the resources. Further, the one or more of the resources are conditionally provided to the plurality of entities, in response to the plurality of requests. Further still, it is determined whether a predetermined amount of resources exist. Also, an additional quota is conditionally requested from the first repository, based on the determining.
US08688820B1
A system receives a management configuration set defining at least one event to be detected in the application server, and a respective associated action to be taken upon detection of the events. For each of the events to be detected in the application server, the system instantiates an event class to detect the event. For each of the actions to be taken upon detection of the event by the event class, the system instantiates a respective action class to perform that action on behalf of the event class that detects the event. The system operates the instantiated event classes to detect events and to send an event notification to each of the respective action class associated with that event.
US08688810B2
A method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving rich media content. A creator creates configuration information of each node formed in a hierarchical structure in a changeable format in which a driver can change the configuration information, and transmits content including the configuration information of each node to the driver. A driver receives the content, determines whether configuration information of each node formed in a hierarchical structure in the received content is created in the changeable format, reconfigures each node when the configuration information is created in the changeable format, and performs an application on the reconfigured node.
US08688809B2
In general, in one aspect, instructions are received from a user for management of a network device, the instructions are adjusted for compatibility with requirements of a network provider other than the user, and the adjusted instructions are implemented on the network device.
US08688805B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for providing pertinent multimedia content to mobile subscribers based on dynamically created profiles. Users are provided information relevant to their interests based on dynamic profiles developed as a result of prior patterns of use, interest and behavior. Such profile generation is automated without need for active user participation in selecting what would be desirable information.
US08688803B2
Disclosed is a method for efficiently distributing content by leveraging the use of a peer-to-peer network infrastructure. In a network of peers, a handful peers can receive content from centralized servers. These peers can then flood this content out to more clients who in turn can send the content along to others. Ultimately, a request for content can be fulfilled by locating the closest peer and obtaining the content from that peer. In one embodiment the method can be used to distribute content by creating content distribution groups of one or more client computing devices and redirecting requests for content from the server to the content distribution group. A further contemplated embodiment efficiently streams time sensitive data through the use of a spanning tree architecture of peer-to-peer clients. In yet another embodiment the present invention provides for more efficient use of bandwidth for shared residential broadband connections.
US08688798B1
The present invention provides a system and method for a shared write address protocol (SWAP) that is implemented over a remote direct memory address (RDMA) connection. Each party to a connection establishes a flow control block that is accessible to its partner via a RDMA READ operation. The novel protocol operates so that each module needs to have one outstanding RDMA READ operation at a time, i.e., to obtain the current flow control information from its partner. In operation, if data to be transmitted is less than or equal to a buffer size, an INLINE message data structure of the SWAP protocol is utilized to send the data to be target. However, if the data is greater than the buffer size, a second determination is made as to whether sufficient space exists in the message pool for the data. If insufficient space exists, the sender will wait until sufficient space exists before utilizing a novel WRITE operation of the SWAP protocol to transmit the data.
US08688787B1
A system, method, and apparatus for providing continuous operations of a user e-mail application at a user computing device. At least two application servers, such as e-mail servers, are provided with each application server running the user e-mail application concurrently and independently. Each application server may have a persistent storage device associated with it for storing data. In response to a user request for data processing within the user application, the user request is transmitted to the at least two application servers for processing therein. A return result—responsive to the user request as processed by the one of the at least two application servers—is passed to the user computing device from one of the at least two application servers. In this manner, if one of the application servers fails or becomes unavailable due to a disaster or otherwise, the user e-mail requests can be continuously processed by at least the other application server without any delays.
US08688786B2
A method and system for busy presence state detection in an instant messenger system. The method may include detecting a computer system activity level, determining whether the activity level exceeds an activity threshold, and transitioning a presence state of an instant messenger to a busy state in response to determining that the activity level exceeds the activity threshold, where the presence state corresponds to a given user. The system may include a computer system and an instant messenger software module configured to execute on the computer system. The instant messenger software module may be further configured to detect a computer system activity level, determine whether the activity level exceeds an activity threshold, and transition a presence state of the instant messenger software module to a busy state in response to the determination that the activity level exceeds the activity threshold, where the presence state corresponds to a given user.
US08688783B2
A computer-implemented method of selecting a real time collaboration application can include associating each of a plurality of real time collaboration applications with a plurality of performance statistics, receiving a request for a real time collaboration session from a personal productivity application, and identifying a data type to be shared through one of the plurality of real time collaboration applications. One of the plurality of real time collaboration applications can be selected according to the data type to be shared and the plurality of performance statistics. The selected real time collaboration application can be output.
US08688780B2
System(s) and method(s) are provided for peer-to-peer exchange of data in a control system. Decentralized storage and multi-access paths provide complete sets of data without dependence on a specific or pre-defined data source or access paths. Data is characterized as data resources with disparate granularity. The control system includes a plurality of layers that act as logic units communicatively coupled through access network(s). Server(s) resides in a service layer, whereas client(s) associated with respective visualization terminal(s) are part of a visualization layer. Peer-to-peer distribution of data resource(s) can be based on available access network(s) resources and optimization of response time(s) in the control system. When client requests a data resource, all the locations of the data resource and the quickest source to retrieve it are automatically determined. The client stores copy of data resource. Peer-to-peer distribution of data resource(s) can be implemented within the service layer or the visualization layer.
US08688775B2
Using the ALTO Service, networking applications can request through the ALTO protocol information about the underlying network topology from the ISP or Content Provider. The ALTO Service provides information such as preferences of network resources with the goal of modifying network resource consumption patterns while maintaining or improving application performance. This document describes, in one example, an ALTO server that intersects network and cost maps for a first network with network and cost maps for a second network to generate a master cost map that includes one or more master cost entries that each represent a cost to traverse a network from an endpoint in the first network to an endpoint in the second network. Using the master cost map, a redirector may select a preferred node in the first network with which to service a content request received from a host in the second network.
US08688771B2
Content is automatically provided to a mobile web browsing device from a web server, by the following process: (a) receiving at a computer, remotely connected to the device, a log of data identifying content that has been viewed by the device; (b) automatically sending updated content stored on the web server to the device; (c) causing that updated content to be automatically stored in device memory. Because user activity is replicated back from the device to the remote computer, the content cached on a given device can be completely optimised for the user of that device and no-one else.
US08688759B2
An algorithm system to detect a broad class of signals in Gaussian noise using higher-order statistics. The algorithm system detects a number of different signal types. The signals may be in the base-band or the pass-band, single-carrier or multi-carrier, frequency hopping or non-hopping, broad-pulse or narrow-pulse etc. In a typical setting this algorithm system provides an error rate of 3/100 at a signal to noise ratio of 0 dB. This algorithm system gives the time frequency detection ratio that may be used to determine if the detected signal falls in Class Single-Carrier of Class Multi-Carrier. Additionally this algorithm system may be used for a number of different applications such as multiple signal identification, finding the basis functions of the received signal and the like.
US08688756B2
In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for storing file system content in a multi-tenant on-demand database system. These mechanisms and methods for storing file system content in a multi-tenant on-demand database system can enable embodiments to reduce a number of files stored on a file system, avoid copying of all file system content to file system copies, etc.
US08688753B2
Various embodiments for operating a transformation system, capable of transforming a logical data object (LO) to a transformed logical data object (TLO), are provided. In one such embodiment, an open LO request to a certain LO and addressed by the at least one client to the at least one storage device, is intercepted. An identifier (ID) in a header of a TLO corresponding to the requested LO and stored in the at least one storage device, is obtained. The obtained ID is used to characterize the TLO and the LO. A determination is made whether the transformation system handles at least one open LO characterized by an ID with a same value as the obtained ID. The requested LO is opened if at least one open LO is not found. An instance corresponding to the intercepted open LO request is generated. The instance is associated to the obtained ID.
US08688749B1
A system and method providing cross-ontology multi-master replication is described. In a first embodiment a method for cross-ontology multi-master replication comprising the steps of: obtaining, at an importing site, an exporting site ontology and a set of one or more database changes; wherein the exporting site ontology defines a set of one or more data types; and after mapping the exporting site ontology to an importing site ontology, incorporating the set of one or more database changes into a database including mapping each of one or more data types of the set of data types to a data type defined by the importing site ontology using an ontology map.
US08688748B2
A product lifecycle management (PLM) system, method, and machine-readable medium. A method includes receiving dimension information for a table structure for a plurality of related attributes of a PLM object. The method includes creating a common table definition corresponding to the plurality of related attributes. The method includes creating a plurality of table structures according to the common table definition, each of the plurality of table structures corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of related attributes.
US08688745B2
Methods and apparatuses for searching metadata are described herein. In one embodiment, an example of a process for search metadata includes, but is not limited to, in response to a search query for metadata stored in one or more of metadata stores, the search query is partitioned into multiple search query segments. Thereafter, searches corresponding to the search query segments are performed, where each search is performed independently within the one or more metadata stores. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.
US08688742B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a platform for an open overlay for online services, such as social networking sites, that permit users to share and leverage information within a single context. In some embodiments, the single context is implemented as a web site that is accessible to a social network of users that are known to each other. Systems and methods are provided that share and forward information for the users' online services within the single context. Client applications are provided that serve as an open overlay for the user and permit the user to seamlessly utilize the services of multiple online services within a single context. In some embodiments, the users' existing account identities and security information are utilized alone or in combination, and thus, the users are not required to establish a separate or new account for accessing the open overlay service.
US08688741B2
A method for reporting and updating device description framework information. The device description framework information reporting method implements that the terminal device reports the updated device description framework information to DMS, which includes: updating the local device description framework information based on the changed structure of the device management tree; informing the updated device description framework information to DMS. The device description framework information updating method improves the validity of DMS's management over the terminal device. The updating method includes: receiving an updating inform about the device description framework information from a terminal device; acquiring the update of the device description framework information based on the updating inform; and updating the device description framework information of the terminal device stored locally based on the acquired device description framework information. Corresponding device, device management server and system are also provided.
US08688737B2
A method and an apparatus for generating and reproducing media object-based metadata are provided. The method includes generating a media stream which includes media objects and generating metadata which corresponds to each of the media objects. Each of the media objects includes metadata position information for accessing the corresponding metadata. The method facilitates real-time reproduction and modification of content.
US08688736B2
The technology performs database access control in a manner that decreases computational cost of the database access control with an object type definition of a database object that permit multiple parent objects. The system determines whether to grant a user access to a database object via a first set of access control paths that do not rely on whether the user has permission to access a minimum number of parent objects of the database object. Responsive to a determination not to grant the user access via the first set of access control paths, the system determines whether to grant the user access to the database object via a second set of access control paths that determine whether the user has permission to access the minimum number of parent objects of the database object.
US08688735B2
A computer-implemented method for obtaining information corresponding to a first user. The computer-implemented method includes, obtaining information corresponding to a first user, accessing a database comprising information corresponding to a plurality of individuals, based on the information corresponding to a plurality of individuals. The method further includes determining whether a potential relationship exists between a first user and at least one of the plurality of individuals.
US08688730B2
Various embodiments illustrated and described herein pertain to at least one of systems, methods, databases, and instructions stored on computer-readable mediums for data allocation identification. One method according to some embodiments includes determining a database allocation of an entity and identifying a domain directly associated with the entity. The method may further include determining at least one header table field directly associated with the entity by identifying a directly associated type definition linked to the directly associated domain, wherein the directly associated type definition refers to the header table field, wherein each header table field is in a corresponding header table. This, and other embodiments, are illustrated and describe in detail herein.
US08688729B2
Transaction-segregated metrics are obtained for component invocations of different transactions of an application. Corresponding tree data structures are maintained by an agent and a manager which describe sequences of invoked components of the different transactions. The start and end of each component are each represented by a node in each branch of the tree data structure. Each transaction is identified by matching a branch to a transaction trace. Gatherers are linked to one or more nodes to collect the transaction-segregated metrics. For example, metrics can be gathered separately for component invocations in different transactions. Metrics can also be gathered together for instances of different components in one or more transactions. A user interface includes a directed graph having vertices connected by edges. Edge portions are visually distinguished from one another based on the metrics of the gatherers. Each edge portion can be associated with one or more of the gatherers.
US08688728B2
A search method includes the step of creating a list of candidate probe words. For each candidate probe word, the number of item descriptions that contain the candidate probe word is counted. Q probe words are chosen whose word count most equally divides the number of remaining item descriptions into q+1 subgroups. The q probe words are presented for selection. Based on the selection, the list of probe words is pruned to eliminate items that that were not selected. The counting step, choosing step, presenting step and pruning step are repeated until a final list of items remain.
US08688723B2
Embodiments include methods, apparatus, and systems for using range queries in multidimensional data in a database. One embodiment is a method that defines a query box from a search for multidimensional data in a database. The method examines an intersection between a Z-interval and the query box by decomposing the Z-interval into hyper-boxes that are also Z-intervals in Z space. Items in the query box that match the search are discovered.
US08688722B1
To process a sequence of outer joins in a database system, the database system performs a first outer join of the sequence of outer joins. A result of the first outer join is stored in a result table stored across plural storage modules of the database system. At least a subset of records of the result table is redistributed across the storage modules according to a first join attribute of the result table, where any record of the result table that has a null value for the first join attribute is not redistributed. A second outer join of the sequence is performed using the redistributed result table and another table, where the second outer join is based on the first join attribute of the result table.
US08688717B2
Methods and apparatuses are provided for generating, updating, and using an interest graph. A plurality of interests representing a plurality of subjects' affinities towards a plurality of topics may be obtained. A processing device may generate an interest graph based on the obtained interests. The generated interest graph may include: (i) at least two nodes, each of the at least two nodes representing an interest of the obtained interests, wherein the obtained interests are free of any personally identifiable information associated with the plurality of subjects and (ii) at least one link connecting a first node to a second node of the at least two nodes, the at least one link representing a relatedness of the interest represented by the first node to the interest represented by the second node.
US08688715B1
A method includes receiving a query that that is unstructured for a plurality databases; receiving data identifying resources that are determined to be responsive to the query, each resource associated with a search score that defines a respective position of the resource in an order of responsiveness to the query; determining, a service requirement from the terms of the query; determining, for each of the databases, a service requirement score for the database; for each resource that is associated with one of the databases, adjusting the search score based on the service requirement score for the database; generating search results, each search result identify a corresponding resource that was determined to be responsive to the query, and the search results being ordered according to the respective search scores and adjusted search scores of the resources.
US08688709B2
An approach provides distributed editing and storage of digital media. Video information is retrieved during recording of the video information to a video file. The video information is edited during the recording of the video information. An index file for the media is generated during the recording of the media, wherein the index file include indices for decoding the media; and periodically updating the index file throughout the recording of the media. After completion of the recording of the media, another index file is generated corresponding to the media for inclusion into the media file.
US08688705B1
A system for generating a model is provided. The system generates, or selects, candidate conditions and generates, or otherwise obtains, statistics regarding the candidate conditions. The system also forms rules based, at least in part, on the statistics and the candidate conditions and selectively adds the rules to the model.
US08688703B1
A request for a metadata object is received. It is determined whether the metadata object is stored in a metadata cache. In the event the metadata object is not stored in the metadata cache, a request to obtain the metadata object is sent to a source with which the metadata object is associated in a format associated with the source. The metadata object is transformed from a native format of the source into a common format if the metadata object as provided by the source is in a native format that is not the same as the common format. Access to the metadata object in the common format is provided.
US08688685B2
Accelerated sub-string searches on large data sets can be performed using filtering processes that can improve or optimize run time performance. A first filtering process can include partitioning a binary tree into sections to enable an exact search to replace a substring search for part of the binary tree and for part of the binary tree to be potentially excluded from substring searching. A second filtering process can include comparing count representations of entries in the binary tree and of a received input string to potentially further exclude entries from substring searching.
US08688684B2
A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, define, in real-time, qualifier set combinations for work items. Thus, the contact center can create a dictionary of combinations of work item attributes that may be defined as work items are introduced to the system. The definition of the combinations allows for large qualifier sets without the large expenditure of resources to define all possible combinations of attributes for the contact center.
US08688674B2
A method, apparatus and system of method and system of directory sharing and management in a group communication environment is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method of a fast-search server includes processing a character of a query of music data, referencing the character with a reverse index of a music database, determining that the character matches a data record of the music database using the reverse index and returning the data record of the music database prior to receiving all characters of the query of music data from a user. The reverse index may be created from a combination of letters appearing as a string in a data field of the music database. The method may include preforking the character of the query of music data along with other processes in the fast-search server to minimize concurrency issues and to minimize threading locks.
US08688673B2
A system and method for communication and collaboration are disclosed. A generalized annotation based mechanism using an emergent self organization characteristic of the natural language of the annotations allows users to search for relevant items, users to search for relevant users, and items to search for relevant users based on aggregation of stored annotations having associations between keywords, items and users in a context space. Aggregations based on correlations between users, items and keywords, are used to form a collaborative content relevance that allows users to be directed to items or other users, and items to be directed to users.
US08688664B2
A method for updating floor information for display by an elevator in a remote property includes receiving, from a property server, data indicative of a floor for which the elevator lacks floor information, receiving, from a remotely executing process, new floor information for the floor; storing the new floor information in a floor information database; receiving, from the property server, a request identifying the remote property and requesting updated floor information for the remote property; and retrieving updated floor information from the floor-information database.
US08688663B2
A control unit of a data processing device stores data files on the storage medium, when it is connected to the data processing device, and stores, upon a user selecting additional data related to the data files, the additional data in the near field communication unit. A near field communication reading unit sends a wireless reading signal to the near field communication unit, and receives a response comprising the additional data. A control unit presents the additional data for a user of a data processing device.
US08688661B2
A transaction is initiated via a transaction begin instruction. During execution of the transaction, the transaction may abort. If the transaction aborts, a determination is made as to the type of transaction. Based on the transaction being a first type of transaction, resuming execution at the transaction begin instruction, and based on the transaction being a second type, resuming execution at an instruction following the transaction begin instruction. Regardless of transaction type, resuming execution includes restoring one or more registers specified in the transaction begin instruction and discarding transactional stores. For one type of transaction, the nonconstrained transaction, the resuming includes storing information in a transaction diagnostic block.
US08688655B2
A method for providing a compressed index for a stream of binary data records comprises steps of indexing a field from each record in a bitmap index, compressing stored bits in each column of the bitmap index by replacing a group of successive bits with a code and outputting the code. There is provided at least one of a first code for replacing a sequence of a first filling, a literal and a second filling, and a second code for replacing a sequence of a first literal, a filling and a second literal. In this context, a filling is a sequence of bits with the same value and a literal is a sequence of bits with different values.
US08688649B2
A scalable computer arrangement and method accesses certain stored information using algorithms. The validity of the algorithms and retrieved data are determined by validity management modules. If the algorithm or the retrieved data is determined to be invalid, the algorithm or retrieved data may be updated to self-correct dynamically over time with changing stored information. In another embodiment, the computer arrangement includes standardized database access systems having hyper objects for accessing information across the network in a standardized manner, even though the networked databases may employ different schema and formats. Each computer system operates independently, and yet is able to dynamically self correct when invalid algorithms or data is determined. New computer systems can be added or removed without requiring adjustments to its database schema or formats and without synchronizing with the existing networked computer systems.
US08688648B2
Embodiments of the invention relate to systems, methods, and computer program products for improved electronic discovery. Embodiments herein disclosed provide for an enterprise-wide e-discovery system that provides for validity verification of electronic communications prior to subsequent processing, such as decryption or standardized format conversion.
US08688647B2
In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for calculating a size of an entity. These mechanisms and methods for calculating a size of an entity can enable optimized data analysis, improved system resource knowledge, increased efficiency, etc.
US08688646B2
Techniques are described for speculatively executing operations on data in a data stream in parallel in a manner that increases the efficiency of the stream-based application. In addition to executing operations in parallel, embodiments of the invention may determine whether certain results produced by the parallel operations are valid results and discard any results determined to be invalid.
US08688645B2
A method includes quiescing a file system of source storage system through a backup engine associated with the source storage system and a destination storage system and capturing, at the source storage system, a point-in-time image of the file system thereof through the backup engine. The method also includes sharing the captured point-in-time image of the file system of the source storage system with the destination storage system to enable the storage systems to have a common base data and negotiating between the storage systems for the common base data. Further, the method includes applying, to the common base data at the source storage system, a differential change corresponding to a difference between the common base data and a point-in-time image of the file system of the source storage system backed up at the destination storage system.
US08688639B2
A distributed media access system and method. The method includes making each of a plurality nodes in a P2P network designate at least one nearest neighbors as a first node candidate and perform at least one random walk to obtain a second node candidate according to the peer list; calculating user preferences of the request node and user preferences of the first and second node candidates according to the first and second node candidates and the preference parameters corresponding to the first and second node candidates so as to obtain a plurality of similarity values; selecting the more similar candidate as buddies of user of the node according to the calculated similarity values; and establishing a buddy list according to the buddies of user and storing the buddy list such that the P2P network can quickly find buddies of the node through the buddy list.
US08688632B2
In an information processing system 1 including first to third storage systems 50a to 50c, the first storage system 50a performs stubbing by managing entity data of a file in the second storage apparatus 10b, migration by replicating the data of the file to the second storage apparatus 10b, and recall by writing the entity data of the file from the second storage apparatus 10b back to the first storage apparatus 10a. Moreover, the second storage system 50b performs remote copy by replicating metadata of the migrated file from the first storage apparatus 10a to the third storage apparatus 10c at timing of the migration (synchronously), and replicating the entity data of the file to the third storage apparatus 10c at timing independent of the timing of the migration (asynchronously).
US08688626B2
A computer implemented method, system, and/or computer program product generates technical business data requirements from functional process requirements. Such method, system, and/or computer program product include data processing infrastructure. The data processing infrastructure may further include at least one data persistence component and at least one business process hierarchy. The computer implemented method, system, and/or computer program product obtain a set of technical elements concerning functional process requirements for each business process within the business process hierarchy. Such method, system, and/or computer program product classify technical elements into functional objects, link each of the functional objects to at least one process within the business process hierarchy and generate a plurality of business data roadmap templates in the data processing infrastructure. The generated business data roadmap templates are stored in the persistence component of the data processing infrastructure.
US08688621B2
Systems and methods for information compression. In a first method embodiment, a computer implemented method for compressing information includes finding a closest match entry of a dictionary to a data block, the dictionary stored in computer usable media. A logical exclusive OR combination of the closest match entry and the data block is performed to form a spatial difference vector identifying locations wherein the data block differs from the closest match entry. An information difference vector comprising differences between the data block and the closest match entry is formed. A compressed data block comprising the spatial difference vector, the information difference vector and a reference to the closest match entry is produced. The compressed data block is characterized as being smaller than the data block.
US08688620B2
Systems and methods of anomaly detection in data centers. An example method may include analyzing time series data for the data center by testing statistical hypotheses. The method may also include constructing upper and lower bounds based on the statistical hypotheses. The method may also include flagging anomalies in the time series data falling outside of the upper and lower bounds.
US08688614B2
According to one embodiment, an information processing system is coupled to a number of sensors for receiving information generated by the sensors. The information processing system generates records from the received information and binds the records in a multi-dimensional structure including a temporal dimension and another dimension including other records that share a common criterion. The information processing system compares a particular record against other records to detect an abnormality of the particular record.
US08688610B1
Methods and media for facilitating estimation of the causal effect for individuals based on predictor factors associated with the individuals. Estimated values of the causal effect may be used to distinguish between individuals and to recommend treatment based on the predicted treatment effect for the individuals.
US08688609B2
An approach for transforming a starting list of purchase types into a selection list of valid purchase types by employing a configurable rule is presented. A unit price and commodity code are received for an item whose purchase is being charged to an account. Based on a category of the item, a starting list including purchase types is generated. Each purchase type specifies a corresponding accounting function. A rule set is identified in a table that associates the rule set with purchase type(s) specifying corresponding accounting functions. Identifying the rule set includes determining that the purchase type(s) are in a maximal subset of the purchase types included in the starting list. Based on the rule set and the unit price, a rule is identified in another table. The rule is applied to generate a selection list comprising a proper subset of the starting list.
US08688605B2
Provided are techniques for incrementally integrating and persisting context over an available observational space. At least one feature associated with a new observation is used to create at least one index key. The at least one index key is used to query one or more reverse lookup tables to locate at least one previously persisted candidate observation. The new observation is evaluated against the at least one previously persisted candidate observation to determine at least one relationship. In response to determining the at least one relationship, a threshold is used to make a new assertion about the at least one relationship. The new observation is used to review previous assertions to determine whether a previous assertion is to be reversed. In response to reversing the previous assertion, the new observation, the new assertion, and the reversed assertion are incrementally integrated into persistent context.
US08688599B2
A transportation problem solving device for solving a transportation problem to optimize the end-to-end physical distribution consisting of a regional transportation and an inter-depot transportation, comprising a transformation section for adding a regional representative node representing a plurality of collection and delivery spots belonging to a depot to a model of inter-depot transportation, and incorporating the regional transportation between each of the plurality of collection and delivery spots belonging to the depot and the depot into a part of the model of inter-depot transportation as the inter-depot transportation between the depot and the regional representative node, an inter-depot transportation computing section for solving the transportation problem, based on a transformation model in which the regional transportation is incorporated into the inter-depot transportation, and computing a transportation plan for each delivery order in an inter-depot transportation portion, when a plurality of transport requests are input, and an output section for outputting the transportation plan computed by the inter-depot transportation computing section.
US08688598B1
One or more images of items for an order being processed at processing station of an order fulfillment center may be captured and associated with the order. Alternatively, a short video clip may be captured of the order being packaged. An electronic notification that the order has been processed may be sent to a customer associated with the order. The electronic notification may include a reference to one or more of the captured images or video clips. The customer may use a reference included in the notification to view the captured images. The customer may view captured images to verify that the order has been correctly processed. The captured images may include images of the items being packaged for shipment and may show the shipping address on the package allowing the customer to verify that indeed it is his package in the images.
US08688594B2
According to some embodiments, a system comprises an interface and one or more processors. The interface receives a search request indicating that a buyer requests to search for properties to evaluate. The one or more processors determine one or more buyer preferences that describe preferred characteristics for the properties according to the buyer. The one or more processors also determine whether an available property located proximate to a device associated with the buyer satisfies at least a threshold amount of the buyer preferences. If the available property satisfies at least a threshold amount of buyer preferences, the interface communicates a notification recommending that the buyer evaluate the available property.
US08688593B2
Selected embodiments of the present disclosure provide systems, methods and media for receiving prospective indication information and processing the received prospective indication information to generate result information. In certain embodiments, among others, a user is prompted to provide the prospective indication information, and at least a portion of the prospective indication information is converted into a common measurement system format and subsequently balanced in combination with other prospective indication information in the common measurement system format to generate balanced combination result information. In some embodiments, the processing further includes generating a result communication based at least in part upon the balanced combination result information, identifying a recipient for the result communication based at least in part upon the balanced combination result information, and transmitting the result communication to the recipient. Other systems, methods and media are also provided.
US08688592B1
A method, computer program product, and computer system for receiving a first scan of an identifier from a first computing device is disclosed. The identifier is associated with a financial transaction. A second scan of the identifier is received from a second computing device. The financial transaction is processed based upon, at least in part, receiving the second scan of the identifier from the second computing device.
US08688590B2
A system and method is provided for an on-demand advertising information vault so that advertisers may establish accounts for distributing advertisements on-line to potential subscribers. The on-demand information vault also provides for consumers to subscribe to advertisements from advertisers based on the consumer's preferences of categories of products or services. An advertiser may also establish rewards for viewing their advertisements for inducing consumers to subscribe to their advertising service. In this way, a consumer may agree to receive only certain types of advertisements and receive remuneration for viewing the advertisements. The vault mechanisms may also provide for protecting the identities of the consumer and advertiser and avoids misusing personal data by others by employing security measures.
US08688580B1
In an embodiment, a method comprises initiating a plurality of electronic funds transfer transactions using an automated clearing house (ACH) operator, wherein each of the transactions is associated with one of a plurality of financial institution routing numbers; receiving a negative return code for a particular transaction that is associated with a particular financial institution routing number; in response to receiving the negative return code for the particular transaction and the particular financial institution routing number, and without waiting for an end of a waiting time period specified in one or more financial regulations: marking, as accepted, all other transactions in the plurality that are associated with the same particular financial institution routing number; releasing the marked transactions.
US08688575B2
A comprehensive, convenient, cost-effective, and intuitive mechanism for individuals to create, manage, and modify customized portfolios of assets and liabilities based on the individual's investment preferences, weighting schemes, risk tolerance, and timeframe. The mechanism includes a server (64) that has data storage (66) for the individual's data. The individual input (60) is used in asset and liability selections (62). There are investment tools (62) to educate individuals on investing concepts, terms, definitions, and strategies. Individuals, through an on-line discussion group, can discuss their investing questions with knowledgeable investors and access other individuals' investment related issues and comments. Investing can include fractional shares and odd lots. The system associated with the mechanism aggregates and nets the trading orders to reduce transactional costs.
US08688569B1
A system and method for post closing and custody services is disclosed. The method may comprise: receiving loan documents directly from a closing agent upon closing of a loan; imaging at least a portion of the loan documents; making one or more of the imaged documents accessible to one or more post closing users; and performing a custody review of the loan documents prior to other post closing services associated with the loan.
US08688568B2
Certain embodiments provide consolidated price level expansion. Data associated with the individual price levels represented by a consolidated price level is expanded and provided through an expanded consolidated price level interface. In certain embodiments, the expanded consolidated price level interface includes a pop-up interface. In certain embodiments, the expanded consolidated price level interface includes an in-line interface. In certain embodiments, an order may be entered using the expanded consolidated price level interface.
US08688564B2
A user interface and method are disclosed for providing trading between a plurality of semi-fungible and non-fungible goods. A plurality of book axes are displayed in a single interface, each book axis representing a market for a particular good. Orders for goods are displayed as marks on the axes to display the relative value of the orders. A value axis is provided that relates the value of the goods from each market to each other. Thus, a single interface provides the means to relate the values of different semi-fungible goods. The value axis may be displayed in units of price, or a custom value designated by a user or pre-defined by the interface. Quantity information is represented in the interface through the display of a dimension of an order icon. Precise information about each order is displayed either in a panel view or a pop-up window.
US08688563B2
This disclosure describes, generally, methods and systems for exchanging alternative currencies. The method includes creating, at an alternative currency platform, a plurality of user accounts and receiving, from a first user in the plurality of user accounts, an alternative currency exchange offer. The alternative currency exchange offer includes one or more offer terms and associated assets. Furthermore, the method includes extending the alternative currency exchange offer from the first user to the second user, in response to receiving acceptance of the offer from the second user, verifying the associated assets of the first user and the second user, and in response to verification of the assets of the first user and second user, providing settlement of the alternative currency exchange offer.
US08688556B2
A method includes generating a first interactive graphical user interface (GUI) that identifies one or more guaranteed income options to fund essential retirement expenses and receiving a selection of a guaranteed income option. The method includes generating a second interactive GUI that identifies one or more investment options to fund lifestyle retirement expenses and receiving a selection of an investment option. The method includes generating a third interactive GUI that identifies one or more unexpected liability coverage options and receiving a selection of an unexpected liability coverage option. The method includes generating a fourth interactive GUI that identifies one or more legacy planning options and receiving a selection of a legacy planning option. The method includes generating a retirement plan that identifies the selected guaranteed income option, the selected investment option, the selected unexpected liability coverage option, and the selected legacy planning option.
US08688553B1
A system and method for product market analysis using consumer financial data obtains financial data associated with a given consumer. At least part of the consumer financial data is then stored by the process for product market analysis using consumer financial data, or another party/application, typically in accounts/locations associated with the given consumer. An electronic media based marketing device is then provided by a product marketer, the electronic media based marketing device being capable of activation. When a consumer activates the electronic media based marketing device at least part of the consumer financial data associated with the consumer is transferred to the product marketer. As a result, the product marketer obtains significant amounts of information for market analysis purposes such as creating a potential consumer profile and determining a target market for the given product an/or service.
US08688540B1
Various embodiments of the system and method for managing sales and fulfillment services described herein may include a fulfillment coordination service. The fulfillment coordination service may be configured to receive a selection of one or more items of a merchant. The one or more items may be registered for fulfillment service with a fulfillment service provider. The fulfillment coordination service may also be configured to generate a sales listing for each selected item for listing with a sales listing provider. The fulfillment coordination service may in various embodiments receive an order indication for one or more of the selected items listed on the sales listing. The fulfillment coordination service may be configured to send a fulfillment request to the fulfillment service provider for the one or more items indicated by the order indication.
US08688523B1
A system, method and computer program product are included for providing multiple modes of communication between an advertiser and a user. In use, an advertisement capable of being used to initiate communication between an advertiser and a user is displayed, utilizing a network. Further displayed is a plurality of modes of communication capable of being selected by the user in association with the advertisement. Still yet, computer code required to enable at least one of the modes of communication may be downloaded to a device of the user.
US08688522B2
A method and system may in response to a request for advertisement components stored at a server, select a subset of advertisement components, and transmit the advertisement components to a client. The client may, for example insert the components into an advertisement in order to, for example, display an advertisement that is custom made for the particular client, or includes a random selection of components, or is an advertisement with components assembled for a different reason.
US08688516B2
A disclosed example method involves generating a geographic-based consumption index for a product based on a first per-person sales volume of the product in a first cell of a plurality of geographic cells of a larger geographic area. The example method also involves generating a demographic-based consumption index for the product based on a second per-person sales volume of the product for a demographic group in the first cell. An advertisement to present to a person is selected based on an online web interest, a geographic location, and a demographic of the person and further based on the geographic-based consumption index and the demographic-based consumption index.
US08688498B2
Delay in a workflow is avoided by introducing a skip operation upon execution of the workflow. Additionally, a person in charge of the workflow eventually participates in the workflow process even if he/she has been skipped. The workflow design defines skippable activities, in advance, as well as re-execution points in order to reassign the skipped activities.
US08688491B1
Business management methods for on-demand trial based marketing and sales are introduced. Using on-demand trial technology, usage metrics can be automatically generated by tracking the usage of specific products and corresponding duration. Usage metrics and other data are automatically processed to qualify and channel leads to pertinent categories in sales and marketing. The present invention facilitates a more directed effort to investigate leads and makes the information of customers available for follow-up that has higher prospective sales potential. The present invention may also be used to dispatch pre-release reports automatically to a vendor.
US08688490B2
A method for evaluating travel accommodations is provided that includes identifying a plurality of hotel properties and assigning a hotel marketability index score to one or more of the properties such that one or more of the properties may be ranked. The hotel marketability index score may be based on a selected one or more characteristics associated with one or more of the hotel properties, the characteristics including rate competitiveness, hotel availability, hotel location within a cluster location, and hotel quality within the cluster location.
US08688487B2
A method for measuring technical maturity index (TMI) for oilfield operations of an oilfield, the oilfield having a subterranean formation with geological structures and reservoirs therein. The method includes sending an assessment including a listing of a number of capabilities to at least one user associated with a first oilfield operation, where each of the number of capabilities is associated with a technology for the oilfield operations, and receiving a first number of responses in response to the assessment for the first oilfield operation, where each of the first number of responses specifies one of the number of capabilities and a level of adoption corresponding to the one of the number of capabilities. The method further includes obtaining a TMI for the first oilfield operation using the first number of responses and presenting the TMI for the first oilfield operation.
US08688484B2
Disclosed is a resource management method by which one or more lender center apparatuses each lend one or more computer's resources to a borrower center apparatus, and which is executed by the borrower center apparatus. The method includes the step of receiving, from each of the lender center apparatuses, resource information on one or more resources, and registering the resource information to a management table, the step of detecting a shortage of one or more computer's resources in the borrower center apparatus, and pinpointing a bottleneck causing the shortage, the step of searching through the management table for one or some of the resources which can resolve the bottleneck, and creating a center list of one or some of the lender center apparatuses which possess the searched resources, and the step of requesting the lender center apparatuses on the center list to lend the searched resources.
US08688480B1
An automated system is disclosed for managing accounts receivable for outstanding healthcare accounts. In particular, the system in accordance with the present invention is an automated system which preemptively assesses the risk of denials of outstanding healthcare accounts by way of a self-learning engine driven by current data and prioritizes those accounts for follow up according to the risk profile of the account. As such, the system is able to minimize denials by the respective payers thereby improving optimizing the efforts of healthcare accounts receivable personnel while improving the revenue yield and minimizing the revenue cycle.
US08688479B1
A web application may be used to take an on-line application for an annuity. The application may collect the applicant's personal information (e.g., name, address, etc.), type of annuity applied for (e.g., immediate or deferred, retirement or non-retirement, etc.), sources of funding, beneficiaries, etc. The web application may also allow the application to be signed electronically. The web application may take application for annuities that are supported by various different types of back-end systems, and may provide the information collected from the applicant to the appropriate back-end system.
US08688474B2
An integrated system provides patients with secure, real-time access to their Personal Health Record and an Enterprise Health Information System (PHR and EHIS, respectively). Access may be provided by way of the Internet and via a Personal Health Portal (PHP) web page. From the secure PHP web page, patients can view information created and maintained by their health care providers and their affiliated staff. The patients can also request services and information from their health care providers and affiliated staff, directly access EHIS-related services, such as scheduling an appointment, scheduling, paying a bill, enrolling in a class, completing insurance and other forms, and viewing information and Internet services that are relevant to their particular health status.
US08688470B1
A data information exchange, which accesses data from liability insurers and health plans, manages the data and allows health plans to identify when their plan participants are third party claimants in injury claims. In another aspect, subrogation entities access the data information exchange in order to perform subrogation operations for the health plans, relating to the health plan's participants. In another aspect, coordination of benefit recovery entities access the data information exchange in order to perform recovery operations for the health plans, relating to health providers which rendered services to participants of the health plans.
US08688469B2
System and method for identifying a prospective clinical therapy for a prospective patient. The patient has a medical device, performed with a medical apparatus. The system has a historical database and an analyzer. The historical database incorporates information relating to a multiplicity of patients, each of the multiplicity of patients having a medical device and each of the multiplicity of patients having undergone a clinical therapy, the information including, for each of the multiplicity of patients, device characteristics of the medical device and an assessment of efficacy of clinical therapy. The analyzer correlates device characteristics of the prospective patient with the device characteristics and the assessment of efficacy of clinical therapy of the multiplicity of patients using the historical database to identify a prospective clinical therapy for the prospective patient associated with the device characteristics in the historical database having a relatively greater efficacy than the clinical therapy.
US08688465B2
Electronic assigning of expense data related to sales calls to customers such as health care professionals (HCPs) aids in complying with local, state, federal, or other regulatory reporting requirements and guidelines. The method includes providing expense report data and presenting a line-item entry of the report on a display. Through a user interface, one or more customers included within a database are selected. An expense amount associated with the line-item entry is automatically allocated into dollar amounts among the selected customer(s) and entries in the database are updated for each selected customer to now include the allocated dollar amounts.
US08688464B2
A facility for screening service requests for requesting assistance is described. The facility receives from a user a service request that requests assistance with solving a problem associated with a system accessible to the user and includes information related to the system. The facility searches a collection of system status information for at least one entry that corresponds with the received information related to the system. Where a corresponding entry is found, the facility provides to the user an indication of the correspondence and an opportunity to cancel the service request.
US08688460B1
An automated system and method for customer management deploys customer databases to profile customer service requests for distribution to appropriately assigned agent representatives. The representatives adopt particular roles according to customer care volume, inquiry type, time of day and other customer management needs. Consumer profiles may be accessed in real time to combine customer care events with cross-selling and other promotions related to the consumer's transaction history and other factors.
US08688458B2
An approach for adjusting an adjustable element, such as a mirror, head rest, steering wheel, heating/air condition blower, associated with a vehicle by determining the position of a speaker in the vehicle.
US08688455B2
A method and apparatus of facilitating text-to-speech conversion of a domain name are provided. At a processor of a computing device, a pronunciation of a top level domain of a network address is determined by one or more of: generating a phonetic representation of each character in the top level domain pronounced individually; and, generating a tokenized representation of each individual character of the top level domain suitable for interpretation by a text-to-speech engine. For each other level domain of the network address, at the processor, a pronunciation of the other level domain is determined based on one or more recognized words within the other level domain.
US08688454B2
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for adapting a language model in response to error correction. One embodiment of a method for processing an input signal including human language includes receiving the input signal and applying a statistical language model combined with a separate, corrective language model to the input signal in order to produce a processing result.
US08688450B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for disambiguating contact information are described. A method includes determining, for each of multiple communications that were initiated by a user of a mobile device, a time when the communication was initiated or received; determining, for each of multiple contacts associated with the user, a probability associated with the contact based at least on the times when the communications were initiated or received; weighting a contact disambiguation grammar according to the probabilities; and processing audio data using the contact disambiguation grammar to select a particular contact.
US08688445B2
This specification describes technologies relating to multi core processing for parallel speech-to-text processing. In some implementations, a computer-implemented method is provided that includes the actions of receiving an audio file; analyzing the audio file to identify portions of the audio file as corresponding to one or more audio types; generating a time-ordered classification of the identified portions, the time-ordered classification indicating the one or more audio types and position within the audio file of each portion; generating a queue using the time-ordered classification, the queue including a plurality of jobs where each job includes one or more identifiers of a portion of the audio file classified as belonging to the one or more speech types; distributing the jobs in the queue to a plurality of processors; performing speech-to-text processing on each portion to generate a corresponding text file; and merging the corresponding text files to generate a transcription file.
US08688432B2
A method, apparatus, and full-system simulator for speeding memory management unit simulation with direct address mapping on a host system, the host system supporting a full-system simulator, on which a guest system is simulated, the method comprising the following steps: setting a border in the logical space assigned for the full-system simulator by the host system, thereby dividing the logical space into a safe region and a simulator occupying region; shifting the full-system simulator itself from the occupied original host logical space to the simulator occupying region; and reserving the safe region for use with at least part of the guest system.
US08688429B2
A system for making real-time predictions about an arc flash event on an electrical system is disclosed. The system includes a data acquisition component, an analytics server and a client terminal. The data acquisition component is communicatively connected to a sensor configured to acquire real-time data output from the electrical system. The analytics server is communicatively connected to the data acquisition component and is comprised of a virtual system modeling engine, an analytics engine and an arc flash simulation engine. The arc flash simulation engine is configured to utilize the virtual system model to forecast an aspect of the arc flash event.
US08688428B2
A performance evaluation device includes: a control timing model unit for outputting a timing for inputting a control signal input/output between plural function blocks contained in a simulation model corresponding to a hardware; a control signal transfer period calculation unit for calculating a transfer period of the control signal between the plural function blocks in accordance with the timing for inputting the control signal; a data timing model unit for outputting a timing for inputting a data signal corresponding to the control signal, which is input/output between the plural function blocks; and a data signal transfer period calculation unit for calculating a transfer period of the data signal between the plural function blocks in accordance with the timing for inputting the data signal.
US08688418B2
A process for the verification and validation testing of equipment and components for drilling, completion, production and general well construction (typically such as subsurface safety valves, wellhead trees, blowout preventers and wireline pressure control equipment) to determine the suitability of such equipment for use in oil and gas wells in high pressure high temperature environments. In particular, the process of the present invention comprises, among other steps, the steps of analyzing such components using an elastic-plastic finite element model with respect to certain preset load conditions and establishing stable model convergence, conducting a ratcheting assessment by running analysis on such model on all components that exhibit local plasticity, and examining all components to determine fatigue sensitive locations and subjecting such components to a fatigue analysis. The process may further comprise a process for qualifying the materials to be used in the manufacture of the equipment components with respect to their ability to withstand high pressure and high temperature environmental conditions.
US08688415B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for determining stress intensity factors. In one or more embodiments, the method can include the steps of defining a crack tip zone about one or more crack tips of one or more arbitrarily shaped cracks in an arbitrarily shaped solid. The one or more crack tip zones can be constrained within a finite element model representation mesh of the arbitrarily shaped solid to provide one or more constrained crack tip zones. The combination of the finite element model representation mesh and the one or more constrained crack tip zones can be processed to determine the stress intensity factor for each of the one or more arbitrarily shaped cracks.
US08688412B2
A system includes a process controller and an equation evaluation apparatus. The equation evaluation apparatus includes an equation editor, a model factory, and an equation evaluation engine. The equation editor is adapted to receive equations describing a process to be controlled by the process controller. The equation editor is also adapted to generate model information representing the equations. The model factory is adapted to receive the model information and generate an equation stack representing the equations. The equation evaluation engine is adapted to receive evaluation information from the process controller, evaluate at least one of the equations using the evaluation information and the equation stack, and send a result of the evaluation to the process controller. The model information could include information representing algebraic equations, differential equations, algebraic states, differential states, inputs, parameters, constants, and/or expressions.
US08688410B2
A cable-management system that integrates management information about infrastructure into objects and provides a visualization of cable and inventory objects within a building. An embodiment of the present invention comprises a computer-implemented cable management system comprising a cable module configured to manage at least one cable object associated with at least one physical cable and to automatically synchronize cable availability information with at least one inventory database, an infrastructure module configured to manage at least one infrastructure object associated with a building layout, wherein attributes of the at least one infrastructure object are associated with the at least one cable object, and a capacity module configured to calculate at least one utilization value associated with the at least one infrastructure object, whereby the at least one utilization value, the at least one cable object, and the at least one infrastructure object are integrated into a visualization of the building layout.
US08688408B2
A method is provided to measure an aircraft under simulated flight-loads while the aircraft is not in flight. Simulated flight-loads may be applied to the aircraft, while the aircraft is not in flight, in order to substantially simulate flight pressure distribution loads the aircraft would experience during flight. A position of one or more portions of the aircraft may be measured, while the aircraft is under the simulated flight-loads, to determine an effect of the simulated flight-loads on the aircraft.
US08688406B2
A personal items network, comprising a plurality of items, each item having a wireless communications port for coupling in network with every other item, each item having a processor for determining if any other item in the network is no longer linked to the item, each item having an indicator for informing a user that an item has left the network, wherein a user may locate lost items. A method for locating lost personal items, comprising: linking at least two personal items together on a network; and depositing one or both of time and location information in an unlost item when one of the items is lost out of network.
US08688389B2
Absolute quantitation of protein in a sample is provided by comparing a sum or average of the N highest ionization intensities observed for peptides of a particular protein along with a calibration standard. The calibration standard can be in the form of a table generated by prior protein peptide analysis performed using one or more pre-determined proteins. The comparison is used to determine a corresponding absolute quantity of protein based on the observed sum or average of ionization intensities. A simple conversion factor can be applied to the calibration standard value to determine the absolute quantity of protein in the sample.
US08688385B2
Methods for selecting a medication for a patient are described that include determining the patient's genotype for a panel of genes and selecting the medication based on the genotype. Articles of manufacture also are provided that include nucleic acid molecules for detecting alleles of genes encoding drug metabolizing enzymes and genes encoding products involved in neurotransmission.
US08688380B2
A method and apparatus in a vehicular telemetry system and a remote data analysis system for detecting an event and switching a data acquisition mode. Checking a state of a data acquisition mode. If the state is in a filtered data state and if an indicator value is at or above a threshold value, then switch the data acquisition mode to an unfiltered data state and acquire unfiltered data. If the data acquisition mode is in an unfiltered data state and if the indicator value is below the threshold value, switch the data acquisition mode to a filtered data state and acquire filtered data.
US08688379B1
Systems, methods, and machine-readable media for determining one or more possible destinations that may be reached using a hierarchy of maps. The system may be configured to receive search parameters indicating a starting point and an allotted cost and identify a set of nodes on a first level map that may be reached given the allotted cost. If further level maps in the hierarchy of maps are to be searched, the system may identify nodes in other level maps in the hierarchy of maps that may be reached given the remaining allotted cost and add the identified nodes to the set of nodes. Based on the set of nodes, the system may calculate the area that may be reached from the starting point given the allotted cost.
US08688364B2
A method determines a partial area of a map which is described by features, the partial area describing the remaining range of a motor vehicle. An energy-storage system supplies a drive system which acts on at least one wheel of the motor vehicle. The remaining range is determined as a function of energy stored in the energy-storage system using an algorithm which expands from a current position of the motor vehicle. The method uses divides the map into geometric, in particular rectangular, structures of equal size. Whenever, in the context of the expansion, a feature lying in a structure or corresponding to a structure is added, the structure is added to the partial area.
US08688360B2
A motor vehicle having an internal combustion engine, a differential pressure sensor or two pressure sensors for detecting a pressure difference, which may be in an exhaust tract of the internal combustion engine, and an evaluation unit for evaluating the detected pressure difference. Moreover, the present invention relates to a method for operating a motor vehicle. A controlling arrangement is provided for controlling an automatic start-stop system or an ignition system of the motor vehicle as a function of the result of the evaluation of the detected pressure difference used to detect immersion or submersion of a tailpipe of the exhaust tract in water, sludge, or a similar liquid medium in order to prevent the internal combustion engine from shutting off when the tailpipe is immersed or submerged.
US08688358B2
A torque estimating system for an internal combustion engine includes a plurality of cylinders and estimates torque for each cylinder. A cylinder pressure of a cylinder pressure sensor (CPS) mounted cylinder #1 is acquired. Measured indicated torque Te1 resulting from an explosion in the CPS-mounted cylinder #1 is calculated based on the cylinder pressure. A first angular acceleration dω1/dt and a second angular acceleration dω2/dt are calculated. Estimated indicated torque Te2 resulting from an explosion in a CPS-less cylinder #2 is calculated using the measured indicated torque Te1 of the CPS-mounted cylinder #1 and a difference value between the second angular acceleration dω2/dt and the first angular acceleration dω1/dt.
US08688356B2
When the variation of the knock control system learning value is large, an idle speed learning control is performed in a learning acceleration mode. In this mode, the idle speed learning update increases and idle speed learning is performed at a high speed. By performing the idle speed learning in the learning acceleration mode, the idle speed learning can immediately follow large variations of the knock control system learning value. Accordingly, the idle speed learning control performed during idling of a hybrid car can be completed in a short time, and fuel consumption during idling can be reduced.
US08688355B2
A required intake air flow rate is converted to a post-model required intake air flow rate (BMtsm) by a base-system normative model, and the inverse model of an intake system model is used to calculate a base-system required throttle opening degree (BTA) so as to achieve the post-model required intake air flow rate (BMtsm). On the other hand, the required in-take air flow rate (Mt) is converted to a post-model required intake air flow rate (HMtsm) by a high-response-system normative model, and the inverse model of the intake system model is used to calculate a high-response-system required throttle opening degree (HTA) so as to achieve the post-model required intake air flow rate (HMTsm). Then, a target throttle opening degree (TAt) is set so as to fall within the range from the base-system required throttle opening degree (BTA) to the high-response-system required throttle opening degree (HTA) and the reduce a variation amount.
US08688353B2
An engine control apparatus which may be employed in automotive vehicles. The engine control apparatus is equipped with a controlled variable arithmetic expression which defines correlations between a plurality of combustion parameters and a plurality of controlled variables of actuators for control of an operation of the engine to calculate a combination of command values to be outputted to the actuators for regulating the controlled variables needed to achieve target values of the combustion parameters. When one of the command values is produced outside an allowable operation range of a corresponding one of the actuators, the engine control apparatus corrects or limits the one of the command values to an upper or a lower limit of the allowable operation range, thereby ensuring the stability in bringing engine output characteristics close to desired values.
US08688350B2
A hybrid powertrain includes a combustion engine, an electric machine arrangement, a gearbox operable to receive motive power from at least one of the combustion engine and the electric machine arrangement for providing motive power to a load of the powertrain. The powertrain is configurable in operation so that its combustion engine is switchable between an inactive state and an active state. The combustion engine is cranked to switch it from its inactive state to its active state. Application of cranking torque to the combustion engine is controlled in operation to substantially temporally coincide with a gear change in the gearbox.
US08688335B2
A method for control of a gearbox (20) installed in a motor vehicle (1), which method effects a downshift of the gearbox (20) from a first gear (G1), for which the acceleration a of said vehicle (1) is negative, to a second gear (G2), for which the acceleration a is positive or substantially equal to nil, which downshift involves at least one intermediate gear step between the first gear (G1) and second gear (G2). An engine speed for changing gear at an intermediate gear step is higher than an engine speed for changing gear at a preceding intermediate gear step. Also a system, a motor vehicle, a computer program and a computer program product for performing the method are disclosed.
US08688332B2
A management system for use at a worksite is disclosed. The management system may have at least one object detection sensor configured to generate a first signal indicative of a feature of a roadway traversed by the mobile machine, a positioning device configured to generate a second signal indicative of a position of the mobile machine, and at least one performance sensor configured to generate a third signal indicative of a performance parameter of the mobile machine as the mobile machine traverses the feature. The management system may also have a controller configured to determine a surface condition of the roadway based on the first signal, index the surface condition to a particular location on the roadway based on the second signal, and generate a map of the roadway providing a representation of the surface condition and the performance parameter.
US08688328B2
When a start-up operation by a driver is detected while a vehicle is maintained at a stopped state, a target driving force for suppressing the movement of the vehicle on the road to be driven is calculated, based on the grade obtained regarding the road to be driven on. After the vehicle is driven by the target driving force, the braking force is released so as to terminate the maintaining of the stopped state of the vehicle. Preferably, the state of being driven by the target driving force is maintained until the releasing of the braking force is completed. When the releasing of the braking force is completed, the driving force is increased to start-up the vehicle. With such a start-up control, vehicles are prevented from moving temporarily in a direction opposite from the traveling direction, and a smooth star-up can be achieved.
US08688327B2
A driving support apparatus of a vehicle supports driving of the vehicle, the vehicle includes a rudder angle varying device capable of changing a relative relation between a steering angle and a rudder angle. The driving support apparatus includes a following control device for controlling the rudder angle varying device such that the vehicle follows a target driving route; a steering angle specifying device for specifying the steering angle; and a judging device for judging whether or not overriding performed by a driver takes place on the basis of the specified steering angle and a reference steering angle which is the steering angle in making the vehicle follow the target driving route. The following control device stops the vehicle following for the target driving route if it is judged that the overriding takes place.
US08688318B2
Methods, program products, hybrid, and non-hybrid vehicles are provided for providing diagnostics for a direct current (DC) converter of the hybrid, and non-hybrid vehicle. The vehicle includes an engine, a rechargeable energy storage system (RESS), the direct current (DC) converter, and a controller. The engine is automatically turned on and off based on driver inputs in accordance with an auto-stop feature. The RESS at least facilitates turning on the engine. The DC converter is coupled to the RESS. The controller is coupled to the DC converter, and is configured to determine a status of the engine, receive a DC converter voltage value from the DC converter, and provide diagnostics for the DC converter based on the engine status, RESS voltage, and the DC converter voltage.
US08688316B2
Disclosed herein are an apparatus and method for collecting vehicle diagnostic information. The apparatus for collecting vehicle diagnostic information includes a conversion unit and an optical multiplexing unit. The conversion unit receives a plurality of frames complying with respective different protocols from a plurality of networks for vehicles, which collects vehicle diagnostic information, in electric signal form, and converts the plurality of frames into a plurality of optical signals having respective different wavelengths based on the wavelengths previously assigned to the respective protocols. The optical multiplexing unit generates a wavelength division multiplexed signal by performing wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) on the plurality of optical signals, and transmits the wavelength division multiplexed signal via an optical cable.
US08688315B2
A first analyzing step is a step that conducts numerical analysis of a flow field but does not conduct numerical analysis of a temperature field in a state in which a motor rotor is rotating. The second analyzing step is a step that conducts numerical analysis of both the flow field and the temperature field after the first analyzing step ends. Accordingly, before numerical analysis of the flow field and numerical analysis of the temperature field are conducted together, numerical analysis is conducted first on the flow field in first analyzing step before it is conducted on the temperature field. As a result, compared with when the second analyzing step is executed from the beginning without conducting the first analyzing step, the calculation load of the numerical analysis on an electronic calculator can be reduced, which enables the time that it takes to conduct the numerical analysis to be shortened.
US08688306B1
Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to limiting the use of an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle by particular occupants based on permission data. More specifically, permission data may include destinations, routes, and/or other information that is predefined or set by a third party. The vehicle may then access the permission data in order to transport the particular occupant to the predefined destination, for example, without deviation from the predefined route. The vehicle may drop the particular occupant off at the destination and may wait until the passenger is ready to move to another predefined destination. The permission data may be used to limit the ability of the particular occupant to change the route of the vehicle completely or by some maximum deviation value. For example, the vehicle may be able to deviate from the route up to a particular distance from or along the route.
US08688293B2
An apparatus on an integrated circuit, and method thereof, provides a real-time flexible interface between inputs from a vehicle components and outputs to the vehicle control components. The functions comprises of a programmable interconnection matrix, engine sensors and a control interface. Both engine sensors and control functions comprise of fixed hardwired functions and a customization hardware area. The apparatus therefore provides means for flexible powertrain events control target for the next generation of low-polluting power trains of vehicles.
US08688290B2
A predictive destination entry system for a vehicle navigation system to aid in obtaining a destination for the vehicle. The navigation system utilizes a memory for storing data relating to prior driving history or habits. A processor connected with the memory examines the information stored in the memory for making predictions for the current destination desired by a user of the vehicle. The information stored in the memory may be segregated into distinct user profiles and may include the vehicle location, previous driving history of the vehicle, previous searching history of a user of the vehicle, or sensory input relating to one or more characteristics of the vehicle. The navigation system may either confirm the predicted destination with the user of the vehicle before generating or displaying a travel route to the predicted destination or may automatically generate and display the travel route without verifying the destination with the user.
US08688275B1
Embodiments of the present invention provide methods and systems for ensuring that mobile robots are able to detect and avoid positive obstacles in a physical environment that are typically hard to detect because the obstacles do not exist in the same plane or planes as the mobile robot's horizontally-oriented obstacle detecting lasers. Embodiments of the present invention also help to ensure that mobile robots are able to detect and avoid driving into negative obstacles, such as gaps or holes in the floor, or a flight of stairs. Thus, the invention provides positive and negative obstacle avoidance systems for mobile robots.
US08688274B2
A robot positioning method includes the following steps. A optical sensing device is configured at a front end of a robot. Then, the optical sensing device captures a calibration plate image, and a relative position of the optical sensing device with respective to a calibration plate is calculated according to a Bundle Adjustment. A robot calibration method includes the following steps. An optical sensing device is driven to rotate around a reference axis of a calibration plate, so as to calculate a translation matrix between the calibration plate and the robot, and the optical sensing device is driven to translate along three orthogonal reference axes of the calibration plate, so as to calculate a rotation matrix between the calibration plate and the robot.
US08688265B2
A computerized method includes sorting mail that comprises a multiple pass mail sort operation, wherein the multiple pass mail sort operation for a mail piece that is undeliverable as addressed comprises performing a first pass of the multiple pass mail sort operation, wherein performing the first pass comprises capturing data to identify a feature of the mail piece. The multiple pass mail sort operation also includes generating a first fingerprint for the mail piece between performing the first pass and performing a second pass of the multiple pass mail sort operation. The multiple pass mail sort operation also includes performing the second pass of the multiple pass mail sort operation. Performing the second pass includes determining a final disposition of the mail piece that is undeliverable as addressed.
US08688262B1
A tube handling system with a semi-automatic lab tube selection apparatus for enabling a user to pick a select lab tube in a standard lab tube holding rack with open-bottom wells that contain one or more lab tubes that includes a tube selection unit having, a housing with a top deck having a tube rack support, a transport mechanism contained within the housing having a carriage assembly, with the carriage assembly having a carrier with a push-pin, a drive system that moves the carrier and the push-pin under the tube rack support, and an actuator that raises the push-pin on command for removal, and, a control system to locate the carrier and the push-pin at a select location corresponding to a selected position under an open-bottom well of a tube rack positioned on the tube rack support to raise the push-pin for removal.
US08688261B2
Disclosed are a transport apparatus that holds and transports an object on a predetermined transport track using a transport portion provided at the leading end of an arm and is capable of acquiring the teaching information of a transport position using a normal transport operation, a position teaching method, and a sensor jig. A transmissive sensor (32) is provided in a sensor jig (30) such that the projection segments of an optical axis (41) and an optical axis (42) on a projection plane intersect with each other and neither the project segment of the optical axis (41) nor the projection segment of the optical axis (42) is aligned with the X-direction and the Y-direction. During a position teaching operation, the sensor jig (30) is provided so as to be held by a wafer transport portion (24), thereby detecting target members (51, 52).
US08688259B1
A method and system are provided for automatically portioning workpieces, such as food products, by simulating portioning the workpieces in accordance with one or more directly controlled characteristics (parameters/specifications) and/or indirectly controlled characteristics (parameters/specifications). The workpiece is scanned to obtain scanning information, then simulating portioning of the workpiece is carried out in accordance with the one or more directly controlled characteristics (parameters/specifications), thereby to determine the one or more indirectly controlled characteristics of the one or more final pieces to be portioned from the workpiece. The simulated portioning of the workpiece is performed for multiple combinations of one or more directly controlled characteristics until an acceptable set of one or more directly controlled characteristics and/or one or more indirectly controlled characteristics are determined.
US08688257B2
A programming apparatus has a parameter storage section for storing parameters related to the operation control of an operating mechanism of an NC machine tool, a CL data storage section for storing CL data including data relating to a moving position of a tool and machining conditions, an NC program generating section for referring to the parameters in the parameter storage section, and generating an NC program form the CL data in the CL data storage section, and NC program storage section for storing the generated NC program. The NC program generating section checks whether the machining condition data included in the CL data is suitable by referring to the parameters, and, when it is not suitable, corrects the machining condition data using the parameters and then generates an NC program based on the CL data in which the corrected machining condition data is included.
US08688250B2
A reproduction apparatus 2 collects sounds on which spread codes are superimposed with a microphone 20 to calculate correlation values between the collected sound signals and the same spread codes as those of an apparatus which performed the superimposition to identify content reproduced by a reproduction apparatus 1 in accordance with the intensity of the peaks of the calculated correlation values. A control portion 22 identifies content which is correlated with the identified content and is necessary for the reproduction apparatus 2. The control portion 22 reads out the identified content data from a content data storage portion 25 to output the musical score data and the audio data to a display portion 23 and a reproduction portion 26, respectively. The display portion 23 displays the input musical score data on a screen, while the reproduction portion 26 reproduces the input audio data to generate sound signals.
US08688241B2
Provided is a control system capable of reducing cost while securing reliability of original processing of a microcomputer. An engine control device and a meter control device each store a control amount calculating procedure for calculating a control amount regarding a significant control to be performed on the control target of the engine control device. The engine control device compares a control amount regarding the significant control calculated by the engine control device, and a control amount regarding the significant control calculated by the meter control device, to thereby control the control target of the engine control device based on a result of the comparison.
US08688240B1
A apparatus for the electro-physiologic stimulation of the human nervous system includes an electrical assembly having an integrated circuit (IC) producing a sequence of physiologically compatible electromagnetic waveforms, the IC having ungrounded positive and negative outputs of the waveforms, a battery in electrical communication with the IC board, a positive electrode pad in electrical communication with positive outputs of the waveforms, a lower housing in which the IC battery and positive electrode pad are secured, and an upper housing in press-swivel contact with an outer periphery of the lower housing in which 360 degrees of rotation of the upper housing relative to the lower housing is enabled. Also included is a flexible housing for an electrical cable in electrical communication with an opposite end of the cable, carrying the negative sides of the waveforms, and a negative electrode pad in electrical communication with the conductive plate.
US08688239B2
The invention relates to an electrode arrangement for applying of a transcutaneous electrical stimulation stimulus onto the surface of a section of the human ear, which comprises a holding element to be attached at or in the ear as well as at least one electrode, which electrode is arranged in or at an electrode carrier, wherein the holding element comprises a linear guide in which a supporting rod is arranged linear movable in the direction of a longitudinal axis (L) of the holding element and wherein the electrode carrier is arranged at the supporting rod. To obtain an improved transcutaneous stimulation the invention proposes that the electrode carrier comprises at least one carrier section on which the electrode is arranged, wherein the electrode comprises at least one cylindrical and/or spherical segment shaped and/or conical surface section.
US08688238B2
An implantable medical elongated member includes a first outer surface portion and a second outer surface portion extending around at least ten percent of an outer perimeter of the elongated member. A fixation element extends a distance from the first outer surface portion of the implantable medical elongated member. A longitudinally-extending section of the second outer surface portion proximate to a distal end of the elongated member is substantially devoid of any fixation elements that extend the distance from second outer surface portion.
US08688235B1
A lead has a first lead section; a second lead section; and a transition member disposed between the first and second lead sections at a transition site. Material of at least one of the first lead section and the second lead section passes through openings in the transition member.
US08688233B2
A method for using spinal cord stimulation to treat symptoms of motor disorders includes implanting a stimulation lead within a ventral portion of the epidural space. The lead is implanted with at least a portion of the electrodes facing the spinal cord. In a method for providing therapy to a patient suffering from a motor disorder, electrical stimulation energy is applied to at least one ventral column nerve fiber through the implanted stimulation lead. A peripheral region of the patient's body exhibits the symptoms of the motor disorder, and the ventral column nerve fiber to which the stimulation is applied innervates that peripheral region.
US08688232B2
A suture anchor for securing a therapy delivery element in a desired location within a living body using a suture material. The suture anchor includes an inner sleeve with a primary lumen sized to receive the therapy delivery element. The inner sleeve includes a compliant material having a first durometer. An anchor body extends around at least a portion of the inner sleeve and includes a portion of the primary lumen. The anchor body includes a compliant material having a second durometer less than the first durometer. At least one exterior suture groove is located on the anchor body to receive the suture material. The exterior suture groove extends substantially to the inner sleeve so the suture material engages directly with the inner sleeve.
US08688230B2
A system (102) comprising a box (104) for implanting in a mammal body part (106), which box is provided with a first electrical contact (110, 121, 114, 116, 118, 120), and a module (108) for accommodating in the box, which module is provided with a second electrical contact (122, 124, 126) for cooperation with said first electrical contact. The first electrical contact and the second electrical contact are mutually movable, at least in a stationary accommodation of the module in the box, between a contact position in which said first and second electrical contacts are electrically connected, and a non-contact position in which said first and second electrical contacts are separated from each other.
US08688227B2
A medical instrument for delivering electrotherapy is provided. The instrument includes an outer support member having an open distal end and a base wall portion within the support member arranged to form a cup-like volume at the distal end. The instrument also includes at least one aperture formed in the cup-like volume for applying a suction to the cup-like region. The instrument further includes a first and a second electrode having at least a portion within the cup region or proximate to the cup region for providing an electric field in the cup region when a bias signal is applied between the first and second electrodes.
US08688224B2
Disclosed is an implantable biomedical device that incorporates an electrical energy generator. The electrical energy generator harvests kinetic energy from voluntary motor activity of a human or animal and converts the kinetic energy to usable electrical energy which is used to power the biomedical device. In certain embodiments, the electrical energy generator includes a housing, an electrical conductor, an electromagnetically active mass, springs connecting the mass to the housing, and electrically circuitry to generate a usable source of electrical power for the biomedical device.
US08688215B2
A pacemaker optimising apparatus comprising: a component (4) which noninvasively or invasively monitors a haemodynamic measurement continuously in an individual and a processor (15) for receiving the haemodynamic measure and generating a pacemaker programming signal in response to this. There is also provided a communication device (17) for sending the pacemaker programming signal to the control system of the pacemaker (2). There is also a method for an efficient process by which this apparatus can automatically use the haemodynamic measurements to determine the ideal settings for a particular pacemaker in a particular individual, and to updates the pacemaker's settings accordingly.
US08688214B2
A system comprising implantable device, the implantable medical device including an intrinsic cardiac signal sensor, an impedance measurement circuit configured to apply a specified current to a transthoracic region of a subject and to sample a transthoracic voltage resulting from the specified current, and a processor coupled to the intrinsic cardiac signal sensor and the impedance measurement circuit. The processor is configured to initiate sampling of a transthoracic voltage signal in a specified time relation to a fiducial marker in a sensed intrinsic cardiac signal, wherein the sampling attenuates or removes variation with cardiac stroke volume from the transthoracic voltage signal, and determine lung respiration using the sampled transthoracic voltage signal.
US08688206B2
The segments of an anatomically corresponding bull's eye graph familiar to echocardiologists is annotated by coloring those segments for which ECG data indicates the presence of myocardial infarction injury. In an illustrated example, segments are colored with a second color when the ECG data corresponding to those segments are indicated as being the site of a coronary occlusion. The segments of the bull's eye graph may be colored in a third color with the results of a diagnostic imaging exam, such as by coloring segments exhibiting wall motion abnormalities with a third color.
US08688182B2
A superconductive electric cable is provided in which a cable core is arranged in a cryostat, where the cable core is composed of three phase conductors arranged concentrically around an inner cooling duct, with an electric insulation arranged between the phase conductors, and where the cryostat is surrounded by an electric insulation, which is surrounded by a neutral conductor of normally conductive materials. In this cable, a neutral conductor or a screening is arranged only outside of the cryostat, and is formed by normally conductive material which surrounds the cryostat as a common neutral conductor, where an insulating material is arranged between this neutral conductor and the cryostat.
US08688173B2
Provided is a mobile phone that comprises: a speaker; and an audio data storage unit configured to store therein a plurality of audio data pieces in one-to-one correspondence with a plurality of levels of relative communication reception frequency, the relative communication reception frequency being calculated for each of a plurality of originators and indicating a ratio of frequency of receiving incoming communications from the originator to frequency of receiving incoming communications from a particular originator, specifies, when an incoming communication is received, from among the levels, a level of the relative communication reception frequency for an originator of the received incoming communication, and outputs a ringtone from the speaker based on one of the audio data pieces corresponding to the specified level.
US08688166B2
A communication device establishes a connection in a congested wireless communications network environment by systematically reducing a probability of attempting to connect to a strongest, but overly-congested, cell. A transceiver of the communications device attempts at least one first Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure with a first cell that is currently designated as a serving cell. A RACH controller of the communications device detects a failure to successfully connect to the first cell via the at least one first RACH procedure, autonomously determines, based at least on a probability value, which is greater than 0% and less than 100%, whether to de-prioritize the first cell for a period of time, and, in response to determining to de-prioritize the first cell, reduces a priority value assigned at the UE to the first cell for cell selection/reselection, and assigns a selected time period during which the priority value remains reduced.
US08688165B2
A mobile terminal transmits one or more first communication channels in a first frequency region and one or more second communication channels in a second frequency region. With the channels experiencing different fading conditions, the terminal receives separate transmit power control (TPC) commands. Instead of simply adjusting the transmit power of the channels as commanded, the terminal computes a power offset indicative of the difference between the commanded power of one or more of the first channels and the commanded power of one or more of the second channels. The terminal then selectively performs transmit power control of the first and second channels on either an independent basis, according to the respective TPC commands, or a joint basis, depending on whether the computed power offset falls outside of a pre-determined range of values. In doing so, the terminal allows independent control of channels, while also mitigating self-interference and/or spectral emissions.
US08688161B2
A system and method for creating an ad hoc communications group in a push-to-talk (PTT) system. A user may create an ad hoc group for a PTT communications by selecting members from different sources in a wireless communications device. The user may select members from a caller identification list, a recent call list, or a contact list. The ad hoc communications group thus composed is sent to a server and the server will then set up a PTT communications among the members of this ad hoc group.
US08688157B2
A method providing wireless communication between a first station and a second station. The method establishes at least one communication path between at least one pair of antennas including a first antenna of the first station and a second antenna of the second station, wherein at least one of the first and second antennas is a narrow beam antenna, selects at least one part of the bandwidth available on the communication path, and transmits data between the pair of antennas over the selected part of the bandwidth.
US08688153B2
A signal transmission apparatus including: a plurality of modulating sections configured to modulate a transmission object signal; and a plurality of demodulating sections configured to demodulate the modulated signals modulated by the modulating sections, wherein each of carrier frequencies as frequencies different from each other used by respective sets of the modulating sections and the demodulating sections is set such that frequency of a third-order intermodulation distortion component generated on a basis of two carrier frequencies adjacent to each other is not present within any of reception bands of modulated signals based on each of the other carrier frequencies.
US08688143B2
A system and method for providing a location based service to create a social network, comprising activating a feature from a wireless terminal, registering from the wireless terminal with a location based service associated with the feature, creating a profile of a user of the feature, and displaying candidates based on the profile and based on the geographic location of the candidates. A Global Positioning System (GPS) may be used to geographically locate active users of a feature. An activity map may be associated with a feature, the activity map displaying active users of the feature.
US08688140B2
Determination of the location and bearing of an asset having an RF-tag imbedded therein is accomplished through extended radio frequency triangulation. A beacon arrangement determines the direction of an RF tag from a specially designed beacon node. RF-tag localization is further improved by repeating this measurement from multiple spatially displaced beacon nodes. The beacon nodes are equipped with multiple strategically located antennas and transmit frames with each symbol cyclically switched to a different antenna. The symbols traveling different distances result in phase shifts within the frame received by the RF-tag. From the phase shifts and the known arrangements of the antennas the angle at which the RF-tag is RF visible from the specific beacon node can be estimated. Determination of the signal phase shifts are part of the baseband processing hardware, the rest of the location determination procedure may be realized in software.
US08688132B2
Sensing wireless transmissions from a licensed user of a licensed spectral resource includes obtaining information indicating a number of adjacent sensors that are concurrently sensing wireless transmissions from the licensed user of the licensed spectral resource. Such information can be obtained from a main node controlling the sensor and its adjacent sensors, or by the sensor itself (e.g., by means of short-range communication equipment targeting any such adjacent sensors). A sensing rate is then determined as a function, at least in part, of the information indicating the number of adjacent sensors that are concurrently sensing wireless transmissions from the licensed user of the licensed spectral resource. Receiver equipment is then periodically operated at the determined sensing rate, wherein the receiver equipment is configured to detect wireless transmissions from the licensed user of the licensed spectral resource.
US08688129B2
Techniques for handling arriving calls with grade of service (GoS) differentiation for multiple tiers of services are described. The multiple tiers may be for different levels of service subscriptions, different types of calls, etc. In one design, calls in multiple tiers of services may be received by a base station. The calls in the multiple tiers may be differentiated based on at least one parameter. In one design, different blocking rates may be supported for calls in different tiers, e.g., with progressively lower blocking rates being supported for calls in progressively higher tiers. In another design, different call setup queuing delays may be supported for calls in different tiers, e.g., with progressively shorter queuing delays being supported for calls in progressively higher tiers.
US08688126B2
Embodiments of the present invention provides a method for falling back to a 2G/3G network, a relevant device and a system. The embodiments of the present invention includes: receiving, by a mobility management entity, a first message from an access network device, where the first message carries location area information of a target 2G/3G cell to which a user equipment UE prepares to connect; sending a second message for requesting to perform a location update on the UE to a mobile switching center MSC corresponding to a location area of the target 2G/3G cell; receiving a third message from the MSC, where the third message carries a temporary mobile station identity TMSI allocated to the UE by the MSC; and sending, to the UE, a fourth message carrying the TMSI, so that the UE, after being connected to the target 2G/3G cell, communicates with the MSC by using the TMSI.
US08688121B2
A method for a user equipment (UE) operating in a Long Term Evolution network. The method includes the UE receiving a command for a handover from a source cell to a target cell. The method further includes, when the UE has valid stored system information for the target cell, the UE discarding a dedicated radioResourceConfigCommon information element received from the source cell in the handover command and the UE applying radio resource configuration information retrieved from the stored system information.
US08688120B2
When a terminal moves from a serving cell to a target cell, the carrier in use is switched to the primary carrier of the serving cell and then handed over to the target cell. Hereupon, handover is performed by switching the carrier used by the terminal operating with the primary carrier of the serving cell to the primary carrier of the target cell to perform handover. When the terminal has fully entered the target cell, the best carrier is selected from among the carriers available to the target cell, thus allowing the terminal to perform frequency conversion to the best carrier.
US08688117B2
The teachings of the present disclosure relate to seamless handover between macro base stations and publicly accessible femto base stations that includes scheduling a null period in a femto base station's communications activity. The method also includes monitoring mobile station activity during the null period at the femto base station. A candidate mobile station is identified based on the monitoring. An identifier of the candidate mobile station is transmitted from the femto base station to a macro base station. The identifier may be used to initiate handover of service of the candidate mobile station from the macro base station to the femto base station.
US08688115B2
Access control according to a policy defined for a plurality of electronic devices comprising a cellular modem and associated with the same user If an end user has two electronic devices, such as a fire alarm or an electricity meter, which both have a cellular modem and are allowed to operate in parallel under the same subscription, the end user can abuse this subscription by lending or selling one of the devices to another person. This abuse can be prevented by the present invention in that the network access is controlled according to a policy defined for the plurality of electronic devices operating under the same subscription. In particular, the policy defines a threshold distance between a primary electronic device and each additional electronic device belonging to said plurality of electronic devices operating under the same subscription which specifies the maximum distance from the primary electronic device which still allows to gain access to the network.
US08688112B2
Systems and methodologies are described that effectuate or facilitate detecting a cell (serving or neighboring cell) in multichannel wireless communication environments. In accordance with various aspects set forth herein, systems and/or methods are provided that receive signals from multiple cells and identify candidate cells based at least in part on the received signals, compare signal metrics for each of the candidate cells, select signal metrics associated with each of the candidate cells, and compare signal metrics to identify proximate base stations located within a candidate cell.
US08688102B2
A method for remotely configuring parameters of GPRS-type communication devices (2, 3) within a communications system in which data are exchanged between said GPRS-type communication devices (2, 3) and a central communications system (1) over a cellular phone network (6). According to the invention, configuration parameters (Pn) are first set and then stored in a configuration instruction queue (10) of said central communications system (1). Upon initiation of a communication using the GPRS protocol from a transmitting GPRS-type communication device (Idm), corresponding configuration parameters, provided that they are stored in queue, are then sent to said transmitting GPRS-type device (Idm) using GPRS protocol. The method is applicable to remote configuration of utility metering data over a GSM type network.
US08688094B2
A method of operating a mobile communication system-supporting data transmission between a mobile station (MS) and a network in a number of different packet data protocols (PDPs) including a point-to-multipoint-multicast (PTM-M) protocol PDP data is formatted and unformatted by a sub-network dependent convergence protocol (SNDCP) according to the PDP of data. The PDP is identified to the SNDCP by a protocol identifier transmitted between the network and the mobile station. In order to allow a MS to receive a PTM-M in an IDLE state, a unique protocol identifier is permanently assigned to PTM-M transmissions while other identifiers are dynamically assigned to other PDPs by the network.
US08688091B2
A method and apparatus for providing an idle screen service are disclosed. A mobile communication terminal receiving contents provided from at least one content provider server in a mobile communication system environment is also disclosed. The mobile communication terminal may include a content receiver module which receives contents provided through a mobile communication system by separating into layers, a handset operating system module which operates the terminal and runs an application and which has a user interface, and a content management application module which synthesizes the contents separated into layers received from the content receiver module into one idle screen layer and which provides it to the idle screen of the mobile communication terminal. According to at least one embodiment of the invention, several contents provided in a mobile communication system environment can be provided at once on a mobile communication terminal idle screen in an idle mode, to satisfy the demands of the user for DIY services and increase the content participation rate.
US08688087B2
An N-dimensional affinity confluencer comprises an affinity table to maintain a plurality of affinities for each of a plurality of wireless devices. A sphere of influence (SPIN) table provides an influence for determination of a confluence between affinities maintained in the affinity table. An affinity confluence determination module determines an affinity confluence between the plurality of wireless devices and an influence parameter associated with the sphere of influence (SPIN) table. An affinity confluence is determined from among a plurality of wireless devices by determining a confluence of at least two predefined affinities from among a plurality of wireless devices. A sphere of influence parameter is applied to the confluence to determine those of the plurality of wireless devices defined by an affinity confluence. The plurality of wireless devices need not be within a common communication network.
US08688065B2
An electromagnetic signal receiver and methods for determining the noise level and signal power in a signal of interest while the receiver is operating. In some embodiments, the signal of interest is a GPS signal. The receiver includes a noise source that provides a noise signal of known power during intervals while the signal of interest is observed. By measuring a signal-to-noise ratio for the signal of interest and the noise power in the signal of interest, the noise level and signal power of the signal of interest can be computed. Various methods of making the measurements and computing the power of the signal of interest are described. Applications of the system and method are described.
US08688063B2
A receiving apparatus in a wireless communication system includes: an antenna configured to receive a wireless frequency signal including a first frequency band signal and a second frequency band signal; a low noise amplifier (LNA) configured to amplify the wireless frequency signal, output the first frequency band signal as a differential phase signal, and output the second frequency band signal as a common phase signal; a differentiator configured to pass only the differential phase signal between the signals outputted from the LNA; and a combiner configured to pass only the common phase signal between the signals outputted from the LNA.
US08688060B2
A detection circuit that can accurately detect signal peak is described. In an exemplary design, the detection circuit includes a bias voltage generator and a MOS transistor. The bias voltage generator provides a bias voltage as a function of temperature. The MOS transistor receives an input RF signal and the bias voltage and provides a rectified signal, which may be a linear function of the input RF signal and may have reduced deviation with temperature due to the bias voltage. The bias voltage generator may generate the bias voltage based on a temperature-dependent current having a slope selected to reduce deviation in the rectified signal with temperature. An offset canceller may cancel a reference voltage from the rectified signal and provide an output signal. A bulk bias generator may generate a bulk voltage for the bulk of the MOS transistor as a function of temperature to improve operating speed at higher temperature.
US08688059B2
A wireless base station that performs wireless communication with a mobile terminal is connected to a plurality of time information notification servers. The wireless base station selects any of a plurality of pieces of time information notified from a plurality of time information notification servers, respectively, and corrects an internal clock based on the selected piece of time information. This can keep the internal clock of the wireless base station highly accurate.
US08688051B2
A mobile station (UE) according to the present invention includes: a measurement unit (13) configured to measure a radio quality of a serving cell and a peripheral cell; a filtering unit (14) configured to perform filtering on the measurement result; and a determination unit (15) configured to determine as to whether or not to notify the measurement result after the filtering. The filtering unit (14) configured to adjust a filter coefficient for filtering the measurement result, when the mobile station (UE) is in a discontinuous reception state.
US08688030B2
A service management platform for processing packet switched communications is provided. The service management platform has a component for handling voice calls. The component for handling voice calls comprises a first input/output for sending and receiving data packets associated with a first leg of a call, a second input/output for sending and receiving data packets associated with a second leg of the call, a monitoring component for monitoring copies of the data packets for commands contained within a payload of the data packets, and a relay component for directly relaying the data packets between the first input/output and the second input/output and for generating and forwarding copies of the data packets to the monitoring component.
US08688028B2
A broadcast response system provides, e.g., a radio broadcast listener with the ability to obtain media content such as music or speech while listening to the radio. The user can respond to items in the radio broadcast such as advertisements, fund raising drives, or interactive listener polls during the broadcast. Data such as song title and artist, author or publisher and the IP address for the location where the digital version of the content is stored, can be transmitted using, e.g., the RBDS/RDS data stream. A reference number representing song title and artist, author or publisher and the IP address for the location where the digital version of the content is stored can also be employed for ease of implementation. This reference number can reside in a lookup table to be accessed by broadcast response server.
US08688021B2
A glossing device includes a first roller, a second roller, an endless rotary belt, a third roller, a heater, a belt cooler, and a suction mechanism. The second roller is disposed parallel to the first roller. The endless rotary belt is looped for rotation around the first and second rollers. The third roller is disposed opposite the first roller via the belt. The heater is disposed adjacent to the belt to heat the belt. The first and third rollers press against each other via the belt to form a nip therebetween. The belt cooler is disposed inside the loop of the belt downstream from the first roller and upstream from the second roller for cooling the belt. The belt cooler includes at least two mutually spaced cooling elements that together form a gapped contact surface for establishing thermal contact with the belt.
US08688016B2
A paddle assembly for a shake-free toner cartridge comprises a toner paddle having a plurality of scrapers. When installed in a toner cartridge, a main scraper scrapes toner adhering to interior surfaces and directs toner from a first region of the toner reservoir into the opening in a first portion of the front of the housing. A secondary scraper positioned adjacent with the main scraper scrapes and directs toner from a second region of the toner reservoir into the first region. A side scraper scrapes toner adhering to interior surfaces of respective side walls of the housing.
US08688013B2
A developing device comprises a first and a second developer conveyance path; a first conveyance member; a second conveyance member; and, a developing roller. A developer collection path guides the developer left on a surface of the developing roller in a direction away from the first developer conveyance path. A third conveyance member is provided in a third developer conveyance path. A toner supply port supplies new toner to the third developer conveyance path. A developer drawing and conveyance path guides the developer supplied with the new toner to the second developer conveyance path. A developer drawing member is provided in the developer drawing and conveyance path for simultaneously agitating and conveying the developer.
US08688012B2
In a disclosed developing device, a developing part includes a developer carrier for circulating a developer inside the developing part and for supplying the developer to an image carrier, a developer supply member for supplying the developer to the developer carrier, and a developer collection member for collecting the developer which is not used. A developer stirring part is arranged at a different position from a position of the developing part. A developer conveyance part carries the developer by an air conveyance in a developer conveyance path from the developer stirring part to the developing part. A developer detection part includes an opening which communicates between the developer supply member and the developer collection member, is arranged at a downstream side in a flow direction of the developer below and near the developer supply member, and detects whether the developer exists in a vicinity of the developer supply member.
US08688005B2
A fixing device includes an enclosure housing, a removable handle, and a detachable attachment mechanism. The enclosure housing encloses the fixing device therein. The removable handle detachably attaches to the housing to move the housing at least in a direction of handling. The detachable attachment mechanism includes a pair of first mutually engageable portions in the housing and a pair of second mutually engageable portions in the handle. A method of installing a fixing device in an image forming apparatus is also disclosed.
US08688003B2
A process cartridge is provided for detachably mounting to a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus. The process cartridge includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum, a developing roller for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the electrophotographic photosensitive drum, a drum frame supporting the electrophotographic photosensitive drum, a developing frame supporting the developing roller, the developing roller being movable between a contacting position in which the developing roller is in contact with the electrophotographic photosensitive drum and a spacing position in which the developing roller is spaced from the electrophotographic photosensitive drum, a force receiving member capable of taking an operating position for moving the developing frame from the contacting position to the spacing position, and a stand-by position retracted from the operating position, an urging portion for urging the force receiving member, and an engaging portion for engaging with the force receiving member.
US08687989B2
A transfer unit includes a rotatable static-dissipative member with a time-varying electrical property. A second member selectively transfers toner to or from the static-dissipative member. A power source selectively produces an electrostatic transfer field between the static-dissipative member and the second member, so that toner is transferred between the static-dissipative member and the second member. A charger spaced apart from the static-dissipative member selectively deposits charge thereon. A control system successively drives a plurality of different selected voltages or currents through the charger and measures a plurality of respective resulting charger currents or voltages. It uses the selected voltages or currents and the respective charger currents or voltages to automatically estimate a variation in the electrical property. It then causes the power source to produce an electric transfer field that transfers toner and compensates for the estimated variation.
US08687988B2
A detection unit is disposed between a feeding unit and a secondary transfer unit on a conveyance path, and detects a transfer material that is conveyed. A control unit, if the detection unit cannot detect the transfer material by a predetermined timing after a feeding operation by a feeding unit, moves the secondary transfer unit away from a intermediate transfer member, causes the intermediate transfer member to continue rotating, and causes the feeding unit to retry feeding of the transfer material.
US08687987B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member; developing devices, each of which includes a developer carrying member, having an electrode member, for carrying a developer, and a developer feeding member, having a core metal and a surface foam layer, for supplying the developer to the developer carrying member; a supporting member, supporting the developing devices, for sequentially rotating the developing devices to a developing position; and a controller for executing an operation for reducing non-uniform distributions of the developers in the developing devices on the basis of electrostatic capacities between the electrode members and the core metals, respectively.
US08687985B2
A belt drive apparatus is equipped with an endless belt rotationally movable by being supported by a plurality of rollers. A moving speed signal output part outputs a signal based on a rotational movement of the endless belt. A width direction position signal output part outputs a position signal for which its value changes in response to a position of the endless belt in a direction of width of the endless belt. A width direction position control part controls a position of the endless belt in the direction of width of the endless belt. A process execution part performs a predetermined process using the signal output from the moving speed output part based on the position signal output from the width direction position signal output part.
US08687982B2
An OSNR measuring device n OSNR measuring device includes an input port to which a signal light is given; a wavelength filter which includes a variable passband, and selectively takes out an optical component corresponding to a signal optical wavelength to be measured from the signal light; a wavelength control circuit which controls the passband of the wavelength filter; a delay interferometer which branches a light output from the wavelength filter and delays one of the branched lights with respect to the other branched light and in which the branched lights are made to interfere with each other; a photodetector which detects a power of a delay interference light output; and an OSNR calculation circuit which calculates, based on a bandwidth of a passband of the wavelength filter and the power of the delay interference light, an optical signal to noise ratio of a signal optical wavelength to be measured.
US08687975B2
The present invention provides one or more embodiments of an optical interconnect design suitable for providing communication between computer system components in a computer system device. The optical interconnect can be integrated on a chip, and can be used to implement complex chips with a large number of cooperating components.
US08687973B2
A voltage generator (400) includes a resistor ladder including resistors (4000-4008) which divide a supplied voltage to generate a plurality of reference voltages, a resistor (4009) provided between a power supply voltage (VCC) and one terminal of the resistor ladder, and a resistor (4010) provided between a power supply voltage (VEE) and the other terminal of the resistor ladder.
US08687970B2
The invention relates to a system comprising an optoelectronic modulator device and demodulator device for establishing communication between optical communication systems by means of differential modulation with eight phase changes. Said system can increase the information transmission capacity by up to three times that of a system with two phase changes. The modulation formats transmittable by the system are called: NRZ-D8PSK, RZ-D8PSK, D8PSK. The invention also relates to the design of the modulator which is formed by a differential modulation precoder and optical signal phase modulators, in which the signals leaving the precoder control the phase modulators in order to perform differential modulation with eight phase changes in relation to the optical signal originating from a semiconductor laser. The invention further relates to the design of a demodulator positioned at the terminal end of the communication system, formed by three receiver branches each containing different electronic devices used for the electronic processing of the signals received.
US08687969B2
Two or more optical transceivers coupled to each other by an optical link to optimize communication over the optical link. A first transceiver generates electrical data that represents an operational parameter for optimization. The transceiver then converts the electrical data into an optical signal and transmits the optical signal over the optical link to a second transceiver. The second transceiver recovers the electrical data from the optical signal and uses the recovered electrical data to change characteristics of the optical signal transmitted by the second transceiver.
US08687965B2
A Universal Serial Bus (USB) dongle may include an optical transceiver having a USB inter face for engagement to an electronic device such as a laptop computer or other USB-configured device. The USB dongle may include a converter or buffering, isolation, modulation or amplification circuitry. The USB dongle sends and receives data signals which may be carried upon an optical transmission as generated by an LED light source which in turn is in communication with a host device such as a network processor. The USB dongle may also include operational amplifiers (op-amps) and transistor amplifiers.
US08687962B2
Bidirectional data signals are exchanged between a central unit and a plurality of network terminals. The optical carrier frequencies of the downstream and upstream signals are chosen so that reflections do not interfere with the selected signal at the optical network unit and not with the received upstream signals at the central unit. The optical network units select their associated downstream signal and generate an associated upstream signal.
US08687956B2
Systems and methods are described that provide a distributed restoration signaling protocol for shared mesh restoration with standbys for transparent optical networks.
US08687948B2
An apparatus for recording a sequence of video data signals on a record carrier has been proposed. The apparatus comprises input means (1) for receiving video data signals, generating means (100) for generating characteristic point information signals, processing means (100) for processing the characteristic point information signals for a plurality of characteristic points into a sequence of characteristic points information signals (CPI) and writing means (102) for writing the sequence of video data signals and the sequence of characteristic points information signals on the record carrier. The characteristic point information signals identify a characteristic point in the sequence of video data signals. Various measures are proposed in relation to the CPI aiming at improving quality of trickplay and random access playback operations.
US08687934B2
A method for securing a fiber optic component includes: providing a holding medium having a tack and mounted on a substrate; and placing the fiber optic component in intimate contact with the holding medium to thereby secure the fiber optic component to the substrate. The tack of the holding medium releasably bonds the fiber optic component to the holding medium and the holding medium retains its tack upon removal of the fiber optic component to permit re-placement of the fiber optic component or placement of a further fiber optic component on the holding medium to secure said fiber optic component or further fiber optic component to the substrate.
US08687930B2
Cables have reduced freespace, reduced tube diameters, and reduced strength member diameters. The cables are designed to pass robustness testing such as GR-20 while using smaller amounts of raw materials to produce.
US08687926B2
A side-hole optical cane for measuring pressure and/or temperature is disclosed. The side-hole cane has a light guiding core containing a sensor and a cladding containing symmetrical side-holes extending substantially parallel to the core. The side-holes cause an asymmetric stress across the core of the sensor creating a birefringent sensor. The sensor, preferably a Bragg grating, reflects a first and second wavelength each associated with orthogonal polarization vectors, wherein the degree of separation between the two is proportional to the pressure exerted on the core. The side-hole cane structure self-compensates and is insensitive to temperature variations when used as a pressure sensor, because temperature induces an equal shift in both the first and second wavelengths. Furthermore, the magnitude of these shifts can be monitored to deduce temperature, hence providing the side-hole cane additional temperature sensing capability that is unaffected by pressure. Additionally, the side-hole cane can be used to measure a differential pressure between a first pressure ported to the side-holes and a second external pressure.
US08687925B2
An image storage processing apparatus includes an image acquisition means for acquiring taken image data imaged at an imaging apparatus unit, a bio-information acquisition means for acquiring bio-information of a user of the imaging apparatus unit at the time of imaging the taken image data acquired by the image acquisition means, a subject information acquisition means for acquiring subject information as an image analysis result of the taken image data acquired by the image acquisition means and a storage processing means for performing processing of recording the taken image data acquired by the image acquisition means, the bio-information acquired by the bio-information acquisition means and the subject information acquired by the subject information acquisition means in a recording medium in a state in which they are associated with one another.
US08687921B2
It is an object of the present invention is to provide an image processing technique that can detect the rotation of an observation image of a specimen with high accuracy. An image processing apparatus according to the present invention indirectly corrects a rotation gap between measurement image data and reference image data through wide-angle image data including a measurement part of a specimen (FIG. 1).
US08687905B2
Down-sampling of an image may be performed in the DCT domain. Transform matrices are obtained for down-sampling a DCT image of size M×N to a down-sampled DCT image of size I×J. The transform matrices may be used to down-sample the DCT image directly in the DCT domain. A spatial domain down-sampling method is selected and applied to the DCT image to produce a down-sampled DCT reference image. The transform matrices are selected by solving an optimization problem, leading to transform matrices which achieve a desired trade-off between the visual quality of images obtained using the transform matrices and the computational complexity associated with using the transform matrices. The visual quality is a measure of the difference between the down-sampled DCT image obtained using the transform matrices and the visual quality of the DCT reference image obtained using a spatial domain down-sampling method.
US08687899B2
The present disclosure relates to an assistance device for image recognition that comprises a memory storing sets of image descriptors, respectively associated with an image area and including first vector data, second angle data, and third scale data. A first operator receives a designation of two descriptors and establishes a Boolean representing a check of a similarity criterion of the descriptor vectors from a comparison among first data. A second operator receives a designation of two descriptors and establishes a rotation angle parameter from the second data. A third operator receives a designation of two descriptors and establishes a scale factor parameter from the third data. A controller receives the designations of first and second sets of descriptors and applies the first operator to each pair including a descriptor of the first set and a descriptor of the second set in order to derive a list of similar descriptor pairs, calls the second operator and the third operator for each of said pairs and for storing the group of parameters thus obtained, as well as an estimator of the resemblance of the images of the first and second sets using a statistic processing of said parameters.
US08687882B2
An apparatus, and an associated method, facilitates selection of white balancing to adjust the color cast of a captured image. A quantum dot element is positioned to receive incident light associated with a scene forming an image that is to be captured. Incident light upon the quantum dot element causes photonic emissions that are detected and converted into electrical form. The electrical representations of the photonic images are used to measure or determine a color ratio. The value of the color ratio is utilized to select white balancing of a captured image, captured either prior to, concurrent with, or subsequent to, the color-ratio determination.
US08687878B1
A method and system for locating an object in three-dimensional space is provided. In some embodiments, a computerized method for extracting positional information in three dimensions for a point from a first image and a second image is provided. A first epipolar line and a first reference line projected in the first image are generated. The first epipolar line corresponds to the point. A second epipolar line and a second reference line projected in the second image are generated. The second epipolar line corresponds to the point. The positional information for the point is determined based on intersecting the first eipipolar line and the first reference line and based on intersecting the second epipolar line and the second reference line.
US08687876B2
It is arranged so that stereoscopic images will not overlap one another. A stereoscopic image to be pasted in a free-layout electronic album is selected. The amount of parallax of the stereoscopic image to be pasted in this electronic album is set. When this is done, the selected stereoscopic image is enlarged or reduced in size so as to take on the set amount of parallax. Automatic layout for pasting enlarged or reduced stereoscopic images on each page of the electronic album in such a manner that these stereoscopic images will not overlap one another is carried out. The result of the layout is displayed.
US08687873B2
A method for inspecting flat objects, especially wafers, comprising the steps of scanning a digital image of the object surface; detecting defects on the object surface; generating a binary image of the scanned image where only detected defects are represented; and compressing the binary image; and wherein detected defects are enlarged before compressing by adding additional, adjacent image points to the image points of the defects. It may be advantageous if only defects having a selected size, shape or position are enlarged.
US08687869B2
A method for reconstructing an image from emission data includes generating a compressed point-spread function matrix, generating an accumulated attenuation factor; and performing at least one image projection operation on an image matrix of the emission data using the compressed point-spread function matrix and the accumulated attenuation factor. The image projection operation can include rotating an image matrix and an exponential attenuation map to align with a selected viewing angle. An accumulated attenuation image is then generated from the rotated image matrix and rotated exponential attenuation map and a projection image is generated for each voxel by multiplying the accumulated attenuation image and point spread function matrix for each voxel. The rotating and multiplying operations can be performed on a graphics processing unit, which may be found in a commercially available video processing card, which are specifically designed to efficiently perform such operations.
US08687860B2
A method and system for analyzing and retrieving breast tissue abnormality tracking data, providing a tool for a radiologist that includes a report summarizing the statistical frequency of diagnosed patients, both locally and nationally, with mammogram region-of-interest classifications similar to the mammogram images taken of the anatomy of an individual patient. In one embodiment, a computer aided diagnostic program can be tested or verified against the mammography images and the region-of-interest classifications that have been validated by definitive patient diagnosis. Another embodiment allows the efficient collection of all of the mammogram abnormalities for a given medical facility in order to provide trending data or radiologist performance analysis. In yet another embodiment, the region-of-interest abnormalities in a single location in a patient's tissue are correlated across a variety of imaging modalities including X-rays, mammogram, CT, ultrasound, MRI, or other imaging technologies.
US08687850B2
An apparatus 1 for determining a kind of a steel material detects a spark pixel from a color picked-up image 2 of a spark 19 produced when a steel material 18 is ground, and detects a pixel, in which the density of any one color component for judgment selected from among RGB color components is low, as a low-density pixel from the spark pixels. The apparatus 1 determines that the steel material is a steel material consisting of the high-strength steel if the ratio of the total number of low-density pixels to the total number of spark pixels is not lower than a threshold value for judgment, and determines that the steel material is a steel material consisting of the ordinary steel if the ratio is lower than the threshold value for judgment.
US08687842B2
Provided are a cooker and a method of controlling the cooker. An image of food scanned by an image sensor is corrected, and thus, can be free from distortion due to a lighting device. Accordingly, a user can more accurately recognize a cooking state of the food.
US08687832B2
Hearing aid system with feedback arrangement to predict and cancel acoustic feedback, method and use
A hearing aid system includes an input transducer, an output transducer, and an electrical signal path between them. The signal path includes a signal processing unit. An electrical feedback cancellation path is formed between the output side and the input side of the signal path and subtracts an estimate of acoustical feedback from a signal on the input side of the amplifier part, the electrical feedback cancellation path including an adaptive filter for providing a variable filtering function. A probe signal generator generates a probe signal characterizing an acoustical feedback path, the probe signal being fed to the adaptive filter of the electrical feedback cancellation path. A second input transducer is located at a position where the acoustical signal is substantially free from acoustic feedback from the output transducer, and the adaptive filter uses a signal derived from the second electrical input signal to influence its filtering function.
US08687828B2
A cover unit that is provided to an electronic device as a waterproof cover, the cover unit covering one or more openings formed in a housing of the electronic device with respect to a plurality of speakers, and comprising a frame member having a plurality of windows disposed therein, the windows facing the speakers in one-to-one correspondence, and a waterproof film covering the windows. Having such a structure, the cover unit covers the one or more openings formed in the housing, and has an advantageous effect of suppressing at least one of (i) an increase in parts composing an electronic device and (ii) an increase in distortion of sound. Additionally, since a vibration unit faces a corresponding one of the speakers, the unnecessary vibration of the vibration unit is inhibited, which leads to a reduction in the distortion of sound.
US08687819B2
A hearing aid system and a method of estimating ambient noise in a listening device includes an input transducer and an output transducer, an electrical forward path between the input transducer and the output transducer providing a forward gain, an electrical feedback path comprising an adaptive filter for estimating the acoustic feedback gain from the output transducer to the input transducer. A method determines the quality of a critical gain measurement for a listening device. The method comprises a) monitoring the energy of the first-difference of the filter coefficients of the adaptive filter over time and b) applying a predefined threshold criterion to the change in energy content from one time instance to another to determine an acceptable impact of the ambient noise. This technique may e.g. be used for the fitting of hearing instruments where background noise is variable.
US08687816B2
An apparatus, method and a computer program are provided. The apparatus is configured to process an electrical output signal from a loudspeaker to detect a user input signal.
US08687811B2
A diabetes care kit for providing diagnostics and therapy that is preconfigured to reduce initial setup by a user. The kit can include a handheld diabetes managing device and insulin pump. The handheld diabetes managing device and insulin pump can each be preloaded with an encryption key such that the handheld diabetes managing device and the insulin pump are paired and a secure bidirectional communication link exists between the handheld diabetes managing device and the insulin pump.
US08687806B2
A method and apparatus is provided for decrypting an encrypted transport stream, comprising. The method includes receiving the encrypted transport stream over a content delivery network. The encrypted transport stream is encrypted using a first control word that serves as an encryption/decryption key. A variable control word is received over the content delivery network. The variable control word is mathematically constrained to create a second control word. The encrypted transport stream is decrypted using the second control word if the second control word is the same as the first control word.
US08687804B2
For a data transfer, security is negotiated via a control channel operating in accordance with a first protocol. The data is transmitted responsive to the security negotiation on a data channel operating in accordance with a second protocol. For example, a described implementation involves using a security control protocol and a separate secure data transfer protocol that operate cooperatively, but independently, to provide flexible application layer security with highly efficient data transfers.
US08687802B2
Conventional block ciphers that traffic in 128-bit block sizes are ill-suited for operating in small domains like credit card numbers. Some embodiments relate to techniques for constructing and speeding up practical and provably secure schemes for deterministically enciphering data from a small domain like credit card numbers using a conventional block cipher or other pseudorandom function.
US08687801B2
Provided are a method and apparatus for acquiring data regarding a domain for the protection of digital content, and more particularly, a method and apparatus for acquiring domain information and domain-related data in which content received from an external source is converted into content that complies with a set of rules of a digital rights management (DRM) system and a license for the use of the result of the conversion is issued by receiving domain information including a domain key identifier from a domain information providing apparatus and receiving an updated domain key that is a valid domain key currently being used in a domain from a DRM object providing apparatus.
US08687793B2
The automatic selection of interfaces can result in the optimization of interaction between entities. Such selection of interfaces can be applied specifically in the context of interactive voice response systems, and can allow the interface presented to a caller to be optimized based on factors including the caller's usage of the system.
US08687783B2
Methods and apparatuses to connect people for real time communications to access diverse categories of information. One embodiment includes; storing data representing a privilege of a user during a predetermined period of time; responsive to a first request made via a presentation of a listing of the first entity for a service of the first entity, establishing a connection for real time communications between the user and the first entity to deliver the service of the first entity, if the user has the privilege at a time of the first request; and responsive to a second request made via a presentation of a listing of the second entity for a service of the second entity, establishing a connection for real time communications between the user and the second entity to deliver the service of the second entity, if the user has the privilege at a time of the second request.
US08687779B2
A telecommunication and multimedia management apparatus and method that supports voice and other media communications and that enables users to: (i) participate in multiple conversation modes, including live phone calls, conference calls, instant voice messaging or tactical communications; (ii) review the messages of conversations in either a live mode or a time-shifted mode and to seamlessly transition back and forth between the two modes; (iii) participate in multiple conversations either concurrently or simultaneously; (iv) archive the messages of conversations for later review or processing; and (v) persistently store media either created or received on the communication devices of users. The latter feature enables users to generate or review media when either disconnected from the network or network conditions are poor and to optimize the delivery of media over the network based on network conditions and the intention of the users participating in conversations.
US08687777B1
Embodiments of the invention provide a system for generating an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) database, the system comprising a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. The memory comprising a list of telephone numbers associated with one or more destinations implementing IVR menus, wherein the one or more destinations are grouped based on a plurality of categories of the IVR menus. Further the memory includes instructions executable by said processor for automatically communicating with the one of more destinations, and receiving at least one customization record from said at least one destination to store in the IVR database. Further, a corresponding method for generating an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) database is also provided.
US08687775B2
A computer-implemented system and method for generating audio content using a telephony system. The method includes receiving a telephone call initiation request through a computer implemented graphical interface, initiating a telephone call to a selected telephone number, recording at least a portion of the telephone call to generate audio content, and posting the generated audio content on the computer implemented graphical interface to allow one or more users to access the generated audio content.
US08687774B1
A method and system is provided for receiving a fax message and forwarding the fax message to an email destination and/or sending an email message to notify of the receipt of the fax message. The system has a plurality of access devices which are coupled to each other over a network such as the Internet. These access devices may include computers, workstations, and the like. Upon receipt of a fax message, the message may be forwarded to an e-mail box. Alternatively, a notification of the message is sent to a recipient in the form of an email message. The system may be configured based on the specifications of the caller or the recipient.
US08687768B2
Methods and systems for passive resonant voltage switching are provided. One passive resonant switching system includes a voltage switching system having one or more passive resonant modules to provide a switching voltage output. Each of the passive resonant modules include switching devices configured to operate in open and closed states to produce first and second voltage level outputs from a voltage input. The passive resonant modules also include a capacitor connected to the one or more switching devices and configured to receive a system discharge energy during a resonant operating cycle when switching an output voltage from the first voltage level to the second voltage level, and to be recharged when switching from the second to first voltage level. The passive resonant modules further include a resonant inductor and an additional switching device.
US08687766B2
A method for analysis includes directing a converging beam of X-rays toward a surface of a sample and sensing the X-rays that are diffracted from the sample while resolving the sensed X-rays as a function of angle so as to generate a diffraction spectrum of the sample. The diffraction spectrum is corrected to compensate for a non-uniform property of the converging beam.
US08687759B2
A power module assembly includes a reactor core immersed in a coolant and a reactor vessel housing the coolant and the reactor core. An internal dry containment vessel submerged in liquid substantially surrounds the reactor vessel in a gaseous environment. During an over-pressurization event the reactor vessel is configured to release the coolant into the containment vessel and remove a decay heat of the reactor core through condensation of the coolant on an inner surface of the containment vessel.
US08687747B2
Methods and apparatus for symbol timing recovery are provided. Both a coarse symbol timing recovery method and apparatus, and a fine symbol timing recovery method and apparatus are described which can be used jointly for symbol recovery, for example in phase shift keying receivers. The coarse method involves the use of differential correlations and finding the time difference in peak values of the correlation results. The fine method involves interpolation of a received digital signal, followed by filtering and timing error detection. The error detection signal is further filtered and used to control the interpolator. The methods provide for robust symbol timing synchronization.
US08687737B2
In various embodiments, a first and second complex multiplier may be configured to receive an input signal and provide a baseband I component signal and a baseband Q component signal, respectively. A first and second filter may be configured to filter the baseband I component signal and the baseband Q component signal, respectively. An equalizer may be configured to equalize the filtered baseband I component signal and the filtered baseband Q component signal. A carrier recovery portion may be configured to generate a reference signal based on the equalized filtered baseband I component signal and the equalized filtered baseband Q component signal. A first and second multilevel comparator may be configured to receive the equalized filtered baseband I component signal from the carrier recovery portion and provide an output I and receive the equalized filtered baseband Q component signal and provide an output Q signal for further modulation.
US08687733B1
A method, circuit, and a system for performing digital predistortion are disclosed. Digital predistortion may be used to compensate for or null the distortion caused by power amplifiers. The distortion of power amplifiers is usually larger at higher magnitudes or powers, and therefore, a larger percentage of the samples collected for the digital predistortion may be of higher magnitude or power. At least one sample of lower magnitude or power may be ignored or not collected. Accordingly, fewer samples can be used to perform digital predistortion, thereby allowing digital predistortion to be performed more quickly and efficiently with fewer resources.
US08687730B2
A wireless device includes a channel covariance matrix calculating unit that calculates a covariance matrix based on a channel matrix estimated based on radio signal transmitted from a transmitting station. The wireless device further includes a first metric calculating unit that calculates a first metric based on the calculated covariance matrix. The wireless device further includes a W1 determining unit that calculates a first precoding matrix common to a plurality of bands based on the calculated first metric. The wireless device further includes second metric calculating units that calculate a second metric using the calculated first precoding matrix. The wireless device further includes an optimal CQI/PMI/RI determining unit that calculates a second precoding matrix of each band based on the calculated second metric.
US08687725B2
Disclosed herein is a wireless transmission system. Transmission antennas are provided on a first communication apparatus while reception antennas individually corresponding to the transmission antennas are provided on a corresponding second communication apparatus. Each reception antenna receives a desired wave from a corresponding transmission antenna as a direct wave and receives an unnecessary wave from a different transmission antenna as a direct wave. The first communication apparatus modulates only the amplitude of a carrier signal for all channels. The second communication apparatus demodulates composite waves of desired waves and unnecessary waves received by the reception antennas by envelope detection or square-law detection and carries out correction operation for the demodulation signals based on transmission characteristics of transmission spaces between the transmission and reception antennas to acquire transmission subject signals.
US08687724B2
A method for performing a fast multiple-subcarrier-joint-modulation (MSJM) precoding. The method comprises grouping input information bits into bit blocks; converting the bit blocks into bit vectors; mapping a first group of bits of each bit vector to a real dimension of symbols in a symbol vector; mapping a second group of bits of each bit vector to an imaginary dimension of symbols in the symbol vector, wherein the mapping of the real dimension and the mapping of imaginary dimension are performed simultaneously; and modulating symbol vectors into data subcarriers.
US08687722B2
An OFDM wireless communication system with an access point and a plurality of remote user terminals estimates an uplink channel. The access point receives training symbols transmitted by the user terminals. Each training symbol includes pilot symbols associated with phase offset estimation OFDM sub-carriers. The phase offset estimation sub-carriers include subsets of sub-carriers associated with each respective user terminals. Each subset is used exclusively by the associated user terminal during channel estimation. The channel estimation sub-carriers are used by all user terminals. For each terminal the access point estimates symbol-specific phase offsets specific to the user terminal using the received pilot symbols associated with the user specific subset of the phase offset estimation sub-carriers. The access point also estimates the uplink channel using the user-terminal-symbol-specific phase offset estimates and the received symbols.
US08687718B2
Disclosed is a method of processing a series of data bits for transmission on a transmit link, the method comprising mapping the series of data bits to a series of data symbols; demultiplexing the series of data symbols to a plurality of substreams of symbols; modulating each substream of symbols to a corresponding series of OFDM symbols; and space precoding the plurality of series of OFDM symbols to form one or more series of space precoded OFDM symbols, wherein the demultiplexing is dependent on channel state information for the transmit link.
US08687708B2
There is provided a method of optimizing Rate Distortion Optimization candidate assessment in hardware apparatus, comprising determining which Rate Distortion Optimization candidates out of a plurality of candidates are separately processable, determining a processing delay of critical portions of candidate assessment hardware, determining a rule set governing how the separately processable candidates may be ordered for processing, determining an optimized processing order for processing the separately processable candidate assessments, dependent on the processing delay of critical portions of the candidate assessment hardware and the determined rule set, and processing the candidates according to the determined processing order. There is also provided an apparatus for carrying out the improved Rate Distortion Optimization method.
US08687704B2
A bitstream decoding apparatus and a method thereof, where the bitstream decoding apparatus includes: a decoder forming unit, configured to generate and output CSCI control information and connection control information by using partial decoder descriptions stored in a description storing unit; and a decoding unit, which selectively loads a plurality of functional units included in a toolbox by using the CSCI control information and the connection control information to decode a bitstream to video data.
US08687697B2
Techniques and tools for encoding and decoding motion vector information for video images are described. For example, a video encoder yields an extended motion vector code by jointly coding, for a set of pixels, a switch code, motion vector information, and a terminal symbol indicating whether subsequent data is encoded for the set of pixels. In another aspect, an encoder/decoder selects motion vector predictors for macroblocks. In another aspect, a video encoder/decoder uses hybrid motion vector prediction. In another aspect, a video encoder/decoder signals a motion vector mode for a predicted image. In another aspect, a video decoder decodes a set of pixels by receiving an extended motion vector code, which reflects joint encoding of motion information together with intra/inter-coding information and a terminal symbol. The decoder determines whether subsequent data exists for the set of pixels based on e.g., the terminal symbol.
US08687695B2
An image includes a plurality of image blocks each including a plurality of pixels and having an associated motion vector. The image is processed by selecting an image block and a corner region (E1x) located in a corner of the selected image block to provide a selected corner region. A plurality of adjacent image blocks located adjacent to the selected corner region are then selected from the plurality of image blocks. The motion vectors assigned to the adjacent image blocks are then compared to determine if the motion vectors form a homogeneous vector field. When the motion vectors of the adjacent image blocks form a homogeneous vector field, a motion vector for the corner region is generated from the motion vectors of the adjacent image blocks. When the motion vectors of the adjacent image blocks do not form a homogeneous vector field, the motion vector for the corner region is set equal to the motion vector of the image block.
US08687692B2
A method of processing a video signal is disclosed. The present invention includes obtaining a DC (discrete cosine) transform coefficient for a current macroblock and partition information of a DC (direct current) component block from a bitstream, obtaining transform size information of each partition of the DC component block based on the partition information of the DC component block, performing an inverse DC transform or a Hadamard transform based on the transform size information of the partition of the DC component block, performing inverse quantization on a result value from the transform and an AC (alternating current) component, and reconstructing a residual block by performing an inverse DC transform on a result value from the inverse quantization, wherein the residual block includes a block indicating a pixel value difference between an original picture and a predicted picture.
US08687689B2
A typical data acquisition system takes periodic samples of a signal, image, or other data, often at the so-called Nyquist/Shannon sampling rate of two times the data bandwidth in order to ensure that no information is lost. In applications involving wideband signals, the Nyquist/Shannon sampling rate is very high, even though the signals may have a simple underlying structure. Recent developments in mathematics and signal processing have uncovered a solution to this Nyquist/Shannon sampling rate bottlenck for signals that are sparse or compressible in some representation. We demonstrate and reduce to practice methods to extract information directly from an analog or digital signal based on altering our notion of sampling to replace uniform time samples with more general linear functionals. One embodiment of our invention is a low-rate analog-to-information converter that can replace the high-rate analog-to-digital converter in certain applications involving wideband signals. Another embodiment is an encoding scheme for wideband discrete-time signals that condenses their information content.
US08687680B2
Through the use of a least squares minimization concept, the loop length, the number of bridged taps and length of the bridged taps on a transmission line can be determined from readily available modem data. In particular, the loop length, the number of bridge taps and the length of bridged taps can be estimated by comparing a measured frequency domain channel impulse response of the transmission line to a model of a loop that is comprised of multiple sections and multiple bridge taps.
US08687679B2
An apparatus interfaces a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)/off-the-shelf (OTS) modem for pulsed data communication using existing sensor aperture among radar platforms. The apparatus includes a demodulator for receiving a sequence of first pulse signals, at least one first pulse signal of the sequence of first pulse signals being modulated with an input signal. The demodulator includes a pulse regeneration module for regenerating a pulse timing of the sequence of first pulse signals and a pulse demodulation module for demodulating the sequence of first pulse signals to recover the input signal in synchronization with the pulse timing of the sequence of first pulse signals.
US08687677B2
In a multivalue modulation type with one pilot symbol inserted for every 3 or more symbols, signal points of each one symbol immediately before and after a pilot symbol are modulated using a modulation type different from that for pilot symbols. In this way, it is possible to suppress deterioration of the accuracy in estimating the reference phase and amount of frequency offset by pilot symbols and improve the bit error rate characteristic in the signal to noise ratio in quasi-coherent detection with symbols whose symbol synchronization is not completely established.
US08687674B1
A surface acoustic wave (SAW) correlator spread-spectrum (SS) receiver is disclosed which utilizes a first demodulation stage with a chip length n and a second demodulation stage with a chip length m to decode a transmitted SS signal having a code length l=n×m which can be very long (e.g. up to 2000 chips or more). The first demodulation stage utilizes a pair of SAW correlators which demodulate the SS signal to generate an appropriate code sequence at an intermediate frequency which can then be fed into the second demodulation stage which can be formed from another SAW correlator, or by a digital correlator. A compound SAW correlator comprising two input transducers and a single output transducer is also disclosed which can be used to form the SAW correlator SS receiver, or for use in processing long code length signals.
US08687673B1
A correlation magnitude signal is divided into a plurality of samples at a sequence of intervals over a symbol time, where the correlation signal corresponds to a magnitude of a correlation of a signal received at a receiver device with a known sequence. A sample with a highest magnitude value for the symbol time is selected from the plurality of samples. A symbol-synchronization signal that corresponds to an interval of the sequence of intervals containing the sample with the highest magnitude value is provided to a rake receiver system.
US08687670B2
A Bluetooth paging procedure can implement a mechanism for predicting a Bluetooth paging channel in a paging channel hopping sequence. One or more Bluetooth paging channels, on which one or more page requests intended for a Bluetooth device were received, are determined from a plurality of Bluetooth communication channels. One of a plurality of paging channel hopping sequences associated with the Bluetooth device that comprises each of the one or more determined Bluetooth paging channels is identified. A time delay associated with determining a target Bluetooth paging channel from the plurality of Bluetooth communication channels on which to transmit a page response is determined. The target Bluetooth paging channel is determined based, at least in part, on the identified one of the plurality of the paging channel hopping sequences and the time delay.
US08687656B2
Methods, apparatuses, and systems are presented for switching between channels of encoded media data involving receiving encoded media data including reference frames and dependent frames for a plurality of channels, wherein each dependent frame refers to at least one reference frame. Frames associated with a first channel from the plurality of channels are decoded to generate a decoded signal for the first channel. While decoding frames associated with the first channel, data corresponding to at least one reference frame associated with a second channel from the plurality of channels are stored. In response to a control signal for switching from the first to the second channel, at least one dependent frame associated with the second channel is decoded by utilizing the stored data corresponding to the at least one reference frame associated with the second channel, to generate a decoded signal for the second channel.
US08687655B2
A signal demultiplexer includes a conversion unit that converts a format of a high speed signal transfer frame output from a terminating unit into a format of a converted frame; a parallelization unit that parallelizes the converted frame and outputs a predetermined number of data columns; and a separating unit that separates plural low speed signal transfer frames from the predetermined number of the data columns. The conversion unit converts the format of the high speed signal transfer frame into the format of the converted frame by delaying a signal storing area using first and second overhead areas, to include an “i” th tributary slot among the predetermined number of the tributary slots assigned to the signal storing area into an arbitrary “i” th data column among the predetermined number of the data columns, and to align front positions of the predetermined number of the data columns.
US08687654B1
A system, method and apparatus for transmitting a packetized video stream over a network comprising receiving a frame of a video stream having a plurality of partitions of varying sizes, the plurality of partitions having an ordered sequence, identifying one or more of the plurality of partitions having a size that is less than a predetermined maximum, and allocating the identified one or more of the plurality of partitions into a plurality of packets in a manner that: (a) results in each packet having a size that is less than the predetermined maximum; (b) minimizes a cost value that is based at least in part on the difference between the size of the smallest packet and the size of the largest packet; and (c) maintains the allocated partitions in the ordered sequence. After allocation, the packets are transmitted over the network.
US08687648B2
In general, this disclosure relates to techniques for transmitting data using one or more identified channels of a spectrum. One example method comprises identifying, with a first communication device, at least one channel currently available in a digital broadcast spectrum, and receiving, with the first communication device, data sent from a second communication device. The method further comprises transmitting the data from the first communication device in the at least one identified channel of the digital broadcast spectrum, wherein the transmitted data complies with a digital broadcast format.
US08687643B2
A data transmission device includes a unit that changes the number and combination of optical communication paths forming a virtual communication path. The data transmission device has functions of forming a virtual communication path by connecting only the number of optical communication paths satisfying a required bandwidth and of turning off operation circuits forming unconnected optical communication paths.
US08687637B2
A communication control method for controlling communication between a first node and a second node via a relay device, the method includes transmitting a control packet from the first node to the second node before transmitting a first packet which is a higher priority than another packet to be relayed, stopping a packet from being output from a packet storage device for the another packet by the relay device, for a period indicated by the control packet, the packet storage device being included in one of a plurality of output ports of the relay device from which the first packet is to be output, and transmitting the first packet from the first node to the second node or from the second node to the first node during the period.
US08687634B2
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method, an apparatus, and a system for diverting a packet multiple times between a master network device and multiple slave devices. The method includes: receiving a packet sent by a first slave device, where the packet includes an MPLS header that carries multi-diversion information, the multi-diversion information includes a multi-diversion identifier field, and the multi-diversion identifier field is used to indicate a slave device to which the packet needs to be diverted; determining, according to the multi-diversion identifier field, a second slave device to which the packet needs to be diverted; and sending the packet to the second slave device.
US08687628B2
A balanced, bufferless switch scalable to high capacities and requiring less processing effort with less internal fabric expansion in comparison with prior-art switches. The balanced, bufferless switch employs a pre-switching or post-switching balanced-connector.
US08687616B1
What is disclosed is a method of operating a communications system. The method includes transferring a wireless local area network (WLAN) beacon signal from a wireless transceiver, where the WLAN beacon signal comprises packets identifying the WLAN. The method further provides receiving wireless wide area network (WWAN) signals into the wireless transceiver and determining WWAN characteristics. The WWAN characteristics comprise at least one of signal strength, data rate, and transceiver battery status. The method further includes, in the wireless transceiver, inserting a characteristic indicator into the packet headers of the WLAN beacon signal indicating the WWAN characteristics.
US08687613B2
A method and system for peer to peer wide area network communication is provided. A peer in the network receives one or more media and one or more associated control signaling from any one of a plurality of Logical Media/Control Channels, wherein each Logical Media/Control Channel is associated with a Transport Resource on a base station; formats the media into a Formatted Media Packet; formats the control signaling into an Internet Peer to Peer Control Signaling; concatenates the Formatted Media with the Internet-Peer to Peer Control Signaling to form a Concatenated Packet comprising an Internet-Peer to Peer Control Signaling and a Media Packet; duplicates the Concatenated Packet, thereby forming a duplicated Concatenated Packet comprising at least one of a unicast packet and a multicast packet; and transmits the duplicated Concatenated Packets via the wide area network.
US08687605B2
A method for coordinating communications between a user equipment and a base station is presented. The method includes receiving an assignment of timeslots within each of a plurality of contiguous radio blocks for at least one of uplink and downlink communications between the user equipment and the base station. After receiving the assignment of timeslots within each of a plurality of contiguous radio blocks, the method includes reducing a number of radio blocks and associated timeslots monitored by the user equipment.
US08687603B2
A method for improving discontinuous reception for a user equipment of a wireless communication system includes separately managing retransmission reception time limits of a plurality of downlink hybrid automatic repeat request (DL HARQ) processes when the discontinuous reception is used in the plurality of DL HARQ processes.
US08687593B2
A system and method for multimedia sharing in a collaborative session are provided. A method for operations at an applications server, where the applications server is a member of a session, includes receiving a first message to change a controller device from a first device to a second device, reconfiguring a signaling path of the session based on the first message, and communicating media with a remote party through the signaling path.
US08687592B2
A system and method for switching a session of a User Equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system are provided. According to the method, if the UE performs a handover from a macro base station of a macro cell to a femto base station of a femto cell, a femto base station transmits a path switch request message, which includes a serving gateway relocation Information Element (IE), to a Mobility Management Entity (MME) of the macro cell, in order to request a switching from an existing session of the UE to a new session managed by the femto base station. Then, in response to the path switch request message, the MME switches the existing session of the UE to the new session and transmits a path switch approval message to the femto base station. The serving gateway relocation IE includes information requesting relocation of a serving gateway of the UE to a femto serving gateway within the femto cell.
US08687591B2
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate providing user plane support for internet protocol (IP) relays. Service data units (SDU) received at a radio communication layer can be provided to an upper communication layer, such as a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, without regard to sequence numbers. The upper communication layer can handle reordering of the received protocol data units. Since communications related to a plurality of devices through one or more IP relays can be mapped over a single bearer, allowing reordering at the upper communication layer can mitigate delay caused where a donor or other upstream access point is delayed in providing a sequential SDU related to one of a plurality of devices downstream. In this regard, SDUs related to other devices can be processed by the upper communication layer while waiting for the sequential SDU.
US08687580B2
Reducing latencies for content protection in audio/video networks includes reserving a wireless channel for a time period to accommodate control message exchange for content protection in data communication between a wireless transmitter and wireless receiver over a wireless channel. The control message exchange includes wirelessly transmitting a control request message from the transmitter for content protection to the receiver, and transmitting a control response message from the receiver to the transmitter in reply. Reserving the wireless channel includes reserving the wireless channel for a time period that accommodates the control message exchange. The time period includes a single transmission opportunity period for communication on the wireless channel, to reduce latency for the control message exchange between the transmitter and receiver.
US08687579B2
The present invention discloses a method for detecting downlink control information, including: when scheduling across carriers is enabled, determining by user equipment (UE) user-specific search space monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) according to component carrier indexes, wherein the component carrier indexes include component carrier indexes corresponding to various component carriers implementing scheduling across carrier and being scheduled across carriers. Also the present invention also provides an apparatus for detecting downlink control information, a user equipment and a network side device. The present invention solve the overlap problem of common search space and user-specific search space in Release 10 and solves the problem of determining a search space for the PDCCH in the situation of scheduling across carriers is enabled in Release 10.
US08687576B2
A scheduler for ranking-based scheduling of multiple users on a shared communication channel of a serving base station in a wireless communication system comprises a determiner (42), a priority ranker (44), a user selector (46) and a resource allocator (48). The determiner (42) is configured to determine, for each user of a given traffic class, measured bandwidth share ratios with respect to each of a number of other traffic classes. The priority ranker (44) is configured to determine, for each user, a priority rank based on i) achievable bit rate of the user according to reported channel quality, and ii) a quality of service component representing compliance of the measured bandwidth share ratios to corresponding target bandwidth share ratios. The user selector (46) is configured to select a subset of the users among those users having the highest priority ranks, and the resource allocator (48) is configured to allocate transmission resources of the base station to the selected subset of the users for transmission of user data on the shared communication channel.
US08687566B2
A communication system performs adaptive scheduling by considering present and past reported CQI values and other indications of channel conditions in scheduling a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) and then executing a ‘dithering’ function in order to effectuate an MCS that is intermediate between adjacent discrete MCSs. In one embodiment, the communication system determines a first MCS based on a channel quality metric received from a mobile station (MS) and then transmits data utilizing the first MCS. The communication system assigns weights to each of the first MCS and a second MCS based on whether the transmitted data is acknowledged and, based on the assigned weights, selects one of the first and second MCSs for a subsequent transmission of data to the MS. The communication system also may assign weights to each of a first and second MCS based on a transition between a MIMO-A and a MIMO-B transmission scheme.
US08687564B2
Random access dimensioning methods and procedures for frequency division multiplexing access systems
A method of determining random access resources performed by a mobile terminal, the method comprising: receiving information on available random access resources from a network; deciding how to derive the random access resources to be allowed based on default values or information received from the network; measuring received signal quality of at least one of a cell to be accessed and a neighboring cell; and deriving the allowed random access resources based on the deciding and the measuring.
US08687560B2
In a positioning system, each network access device in a first subset of N1 network access devices transmits a wireless location beacon signal, producing N1 wireless location beacon signals that are transmitted by the first subset. Each network access device in a second subset of N2 network access devices receives the Ni wireless location beacon signals from the first subset and calculates N1 TOAs from each of the N1 received wireless location beacon signals, producing N1×N2 calculated TOAs by the second subset. Using one or more wireless transmissions, one or more network access devices transmits the location coordinates of the network access devices and transmits the N1×N2 calculated TOAs, differences calculated among the N1×N2 calculated TOAs, or a combination of one or more of the N1×N2 calculated TOAs and one or more of the differences calculated among the N1×N2 calculated TOAs.
US08687540B2
A device for generating a pilot signal for use in a wireless repeater where the pilot signal is added to a transmit signal for transmission includes a pilot power control unit configured to set a power level of the pilot signal as a function of a gain of the repeater and a power level of the transmit signal, where the function comprises a linear or non-linear function. In one embodiment, the operation of the repeater may be divided into gain regions and the inserted pilot power is controlled according to the different gain regions of the repeater. When the repeater gain is low, the pilot power may be set greater than the transmit power to ensure there is sufficient signal to use for channel estimation. When the repeater gain is in steady state, the pilot power may be set to be lower than the transmit power to avoid interference.
US08687538B2
There is provided arrangements for controlling and supporting network sharing. A set of common system information which applies to communication networks sharing at least one shared local communication area for communicating with host network elements is prepared. A set of dedicated system information which applies to at least one of the communication networks sharing the at least one shared local communication area is prepared. The dedicated system information is addressed only to host network elements being configured to support sharing of a local communication area. System information including the set of common system information and the set of dedicated system information is transmitted. The common system information includes an information element indicating radio frequency channels used by neighboring local communication areas of the communication networks that share the at least one shared local communication area, said neighboring local communication areas neighboring the at least one shared local communication area.
US08687537B2
A communication system includes a reception device and at least one transmission device. The transmission device includes: a signal transmission unit which transmits at least one unicast signals and a multicast signal to the reception device. The reception device includes: a plurality of signal reception units which receive at least one the unicast signals and the multicast signal from the transmission device; a first control unit which receives the unicast signals from the transmission device using all of the plurality of signal reception units when only the unicast signals are received; and a second control unit which receives the unicast signals from the transmission device using some of the plurality of signal reception units, and simultaneously receives the multicast signal from the transmission device using another signal reception unit of the plurality of signal reception units, when the unicast signals and the multicast signal are received.
US08687531B2
A system for wirelessly communicating from a high speed data modem using a first radio transceiver at a first location and a second radio transceiver at a second location preferably includes: (i) a housing (containing the data modem, the first radio transceiver, a radio processor, and a power supply) connected to an outdoor supporting structure, which supports a coaxial cable carrying an RF signal and AC power; (ii) a splitter to split the RF signal from the AC power, wherein the radio processor sends a digital signal to the first radio transceiver, which sends the signal to a first antenna, and wherein the signal is provided from the first antenna to a second antenna coupled to the second radio transceiver at a user device, wherein the system communicates the signal from the second antenna to the second radio transceiver and then to a second radio processor coupled to the user device; and wherein the DC power is provided to the data modem, the first radio transceiver, and the radio processor.
US08687527B2
An inventive method for link adaptation for an LTE/LTE-A uplink with a turbo SIC receiver includes the steps of determining a precoding matrix index PMI and rank index RI selection for an LTE/LTE-A uplink when precoding of the uplink is enabled, responsive to channel state information of a subcarrier in the uplink; determining a decoding order for codewords in the uplink i) when the precoding of the uplink is not enabled and ii) if needed when the precoding of the uplink is enabled; performing modulation and coding scheme MCS assignment for the uplink based on a hard decision successive interference cancellation SIC rule (without intra-CW cancellation) or a partial hard decision successive interference cancellation SIC rule (with intra-CW cancellation), responsive to the determined PMI and RI selection; and influencing data transmission in the uplink responsive to the MCS assignment for detection by a turbo SIC receiver.
US08687526B2
A method for processing a stream of a digital broadcast transmitter, the digital broadcast transmitter, a method of processing a stream of a digital broadcast receiver, and the digital broadcast receiver are provided. The method includes: configuring a stream including a slot to which mobile data is allocated; and encoding and interleaving the configured stream and outputting the encoded and interleaved stream. Each slot of the stream includes signaling data, and the signaling data includes a slot indicator indicating a type of a slot, and may include at least one of a backward training indicator and a forward training indicator according to a value of the slot indicator. Accordingly, information on an adjacent slot is efficiently used.
US08687523B2
Various systems and methods for integrating ring-protocol-compatible devices into network configurations that also include non-ring-protocol-compatible devices are disclosed. One such method, which can be performed by a network node that supports a ring protocol, involves generating a ring protocol packet and sending that ring protocol packet to a neighboring node. The ring protocol packet includes information, and the presence of this information within the packet causes a network device that receives the ring protocol packet to drop the ring protocol packet unless the network device supports a ring protocol. The information can include a reserved address (e.g., in the destination address field of the packet) as well as a ring protocol identifier.
US08687516B2
Method, system and apparatus for spectrum prediction are provided. The method includes: obtaining the first sampling data of target spectrum, wherein the first sampling data including existing service information, channel information and channel state information of the target spectrum; extracting channel state information of all channels of the same service in each timeslot from the first sampling data, and generating a sampling matrix; extracting a spectrum resource occupancy mode combination of the target spectrum from the sampling matrix; obtaining the second sampling data of the target spectrum, matching the spectrum resource occupancy mode combination according to the second sampling data of the target spectrum, and predicting the channel state of the target spectrum in a future timeslot according to the matching result.
US08687515B2
A channel characteristic obtained from a pilot signal is stored for a prescribed number of symbols and a Fourier transform is performed (1), the power of each Doppler frequency component is calculated (2), filtering is performed in the time direction for each Doppler frequency component (3), noise components are masked (4), power changes between mutually adjacent Doppler frequency components are emphasized (5), and motion information is generated by comparison with a predetermined decision threshold (6). Velocity detection that detects velocity of motion from a received signal with high precision in order to improve mobile reception performance by optimizing demodulation operations according to velocity of motion thereby becomes possible.
US08687512B2
A system or method that receives a current request from a client, and responds to the current request based on signal strength associated with a previous request. If the current request is received on a non-preferred communication band, and a previous request was received on a preferred communication band within a pre-determined time, the system determines whether the signal strength associated with the previous request is weaker than a pre-determined threshold signal strength level for the preferred communication band. If so, the system responds to the current request. Otherwise, the system ignores the current request. If no recent request on the preferred communication band is received, and the signal strength associated with the current request is weaker than a pre-determined threshold signal strength level for the non-preferred communication band, the system responds to the current request on the non-preferred communication band. Otherwise, the system ignores the current request.
US08687509B2
The present invention relates to a method for random beam-forming based on a codebook. The method includes generating a first random variable corresponding to a Gaussian distribution; generating a second random variable corresponding to a uniform distribution; generating a plurality of beam elements by using the first variable, the second variable, spatial correlation between channels, and indexes of transmitting antennas; and forming a beam by using the plurality of beam elements.
US08687507B2
A probing method, arrangement, and system for estimating a condition, such as available bandwidth, of a data path in a communication network including multiple nodes are described. A probe-packet sender node transmits probe packets with a sent inter-packet separation and a time-to-live towards an intermediate node. Control message packets are generated by the intermediate node when the time-to-live expires. The probe-packet sender node receives the control message packets and calculates a received inter-packet separation. An estimate of the data path condition can be generated based on the sent inter-packet separation and the received inter-packet separation.
US08687504B2
A system and method provide enhanced link loss forwarding in an Ethernet system to determine link degradation and to selectively block and re-establish transport between a near end device and far end device based on a SONET connection between end devices and link status detection using local packets. When an excessive number of errors are detected in an Ethernet port, a device enters a Links Off mode from a Transport mode where Ethernet ports are turned off at both ends of a circuit associated with the errors. A Block Transport mode is then entered where local packets (e.g., OAM packets) are monitored to evaluate link quality (e.g., SONET bit error rate). Transport mode is re-established when acceptable link quality is achieved for a selected period of time.
US08687502B2
A method and system for transmitting data corresponding to at least one endpoint device problem in a packet communications network is described. Specifically, an endpoint device detects at least one problem that pertains to the endpoint device. The endpoint device then generates data pertaining to the endpoint device problem. Lastly, the endpoint device then transmits the data detailing that endpoint device problem to the packet communications network.
US08687492B2
Apparatus configured to implement a Proxy Call Session Control Function for use within an IP Multimedia Subsystem core network. The apparatus comprises a receiver for receiving a session initiation request in respect of an IP Multimedia Subsystem service, and a threshold determiner for determining a threshold applicable to user traffic associated with said service. The apparatus further comprises a sender for sending a session authorization request to a policy decision function, the request including said threshold and a service data flow identifier identifying the user plane flow for said session.
US08687487B2
A method of communicating with a network interface includes providing a packet to the network interface, where the packet includes an address field indicating a destination of the packet. The network interface analyzes the address field, and determines if it reflects an address associated with the network interface. If not, the network interface provides the packet to a network. If the network interface determines the address field reflects an address associated with the interface, it provides information in the packet to an application executing at the network interface. Accordingly, information targeted to an application can be communicated by associating an address, such as a network address, with the network interface, allowing for communication of the information without extensive processing of each packet at the interface.
US08687484B2
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for efficiently using a resource in a relay system. In detail, the present invention relates to a method for controlling an uplink signal transmission of user equipment in a wireless communication system, and to an apparatus for same. The method comprises the following steps: checking a cell-specific first SRS transmission subframe set; checking a relay-specific second SRS transmission subframe set; and allocating a resource for the uplink signal transmission. The uplink signal is transmitted to a relay via a backhaul subframe in the event the backhaul subframe falls within the first SRS transmission subframe set but does not fall within the second SRS transmission subframe set. The uplink signal transmission is dropped from the backhaul subframe in the event the backhaul subframe falls within the second SRS transmission subframe set.
US08687482B2
Apparatus and method for controlling traffic flow in backhaul link in wireless communication network
A method, system, and apparatus for controlling traffic flow in one or more backhaul links in a wireless communication network is provided. Each backhaul link of the one or more backhaul link includes a backhaul uplink and a backhaul downlink. The method includes analyzing one or more backhaul uplinks and one or more backhaul downlinks between a controller and one or more Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs). The method further includes communicating one or more messages between the controller and the one or more BTSs. The one or more messages include analysis of the one or more analysis of one of the one or more backhaul uplinks and the one or more backhaul downlinks. The method further includes controlling the traffic flow in at least one of the one or more backhaul uplinks and the one or more backhaul downlinks based on the one or more messages.
US08687475B2
In one embodiment, an optical pickup device includes a fixed portion 100, a movable portion 11, first and second elastic supporting members 12a and 12b, one and the other ends of which are secured to the fixed portion 100 and the movable portion 11, respectively, and an objective lens 8 secured to the movable portion 11. The objective lens 8 is arranged inside of the area that is defined between two lines that are respectively drawn from one and the other ends of the first elastic supporting member 12a perpendicularly to the first elastic supporting member 12a and outside of the area defined between the first and second elastic supporting members 12a and 12b.
US08687473B2
A tape recording apparatus in communication with a tape medium, and includes a head and a controlling unit to control the head to read and write data to the tape medium, wherein the controlling unit performs operations, comprising: determining an overwrite starting position by skipping data units whose beginning position cannot be determined until a data unit is reached having a beginning position that can be determined; and performing an overwrite operation at the overwrite starting position at the data unit whose beginning position can be determined.
US08687466B2
An element of an ultrasonic transducer includes a first substrate, at least one cell of the ultrasonic transducer arranged above the first substrate, and a second substrate arranged under the first substrate, in which a first power supply for applying an electric signal to the first substrate is formed.
US08687464B2
A very low frequency marine seismic source has a reservoir of water (47) feeding water to an aperture communicating with the surrounding water (13). The rate of water flow through the aperture is controlled by a rotor disc (11) and stator disc (9) having holes which overlap to a greater or lesser extent as the rotor rotates. The modulation of the flow of water produces a modulated pressure signal which is radiated into the surrounding water. The device is intended to produce acoustic signals over a band extending down to 0.5 Hz or lower.
US08687463B2
This invention relates to a method for processing at least two seismic data sets (10, 20), each data set comprising several seismic traces (i, j) grouped by bins (Bi, Bj) and by offset classes (Oi, Oj), the method including the following steps: calculating at least one attribute (a(i, j)) characteristic of a similarity between a first trace (i) of a first data set (10) and a second trace (j) of a second data set (20), selecting or not the first and second traces (i, j) according to a selection criterion applied to the calculated attribute (a(i, j)).
US08687458B2
A semiconductor apparatus includes an odd data clock buffer group configured to maintain or shift a phase of a multi-phase source clock signal, and output a first multi-phase clock signal, an even data clock buffer group configured to maintain or shift a phase of the multi-phase source clock signal, and output a second multi-phase clock signal, an odd data output buffer group configured to drive odd data in response to the first multi-phase clock signal and output the driven data to an odd data pad group, and an even data output buffer group configured to drive even data in response to the second multi-phase clock signal and output the driven data to an even data pad group, wherein the phases of clock signals of the first and second multi-phase clock signal are different from each other.
US08687455B2
A hot electron (BBHE) is generated close to a drain by tunneling between bands, and it data writing is performed by injecting the hot electron into a charge storage layer. When Vg is a gate voltage, Vsub is a cell well voltage, Vs is a source voltage and Vd is a drain voltage, a relation of Vg>Vsub>Vs>Vd is satisfied, Vg−Vd is a value of a potential difference required for generating a tunnel current between the bands or higher, and Vsub−Vd is substantially equivalent to a barrier potential of the tunnel insulating film or higher.
US08687450B2
Provided is a semiconductor device which performs a refresh operation by sequentially counting a refresh address including a main word line address, a mat address, and a sub word line address in order of the main word line address, the mat address, and the sub word line address. The semiconductor device includes a control signal generation unit configured to activate, latch, and output a toggle control signal when a delayed refresh signal is inputted at the initial stage, deactivate and output the toggle control signal after additionally counting a redundancy word line address when counting of the main word line address with respect to the mat address is completed, and then activate, latch, and output the toggle control signal when the delayed refresh signal is inputted.
US08687447B2
A semiconductor memory apparatus includes: a precharge voltage control unit configured to selectively output a bit line precharge voltage or a core voltage as a control voltage in response to a test signal; a bit line equalization unit configured to precharge a bit line to the control voltage; a sense amplifier driving control unit configured to generate a first voltage supply control signal, a second voltage supply control signal and a third voltage supply control signal in response to the test signal, a sense amplifier enable test signal, a first voltage supply signal, a second voltage supply signal and a third voltage supply signal; and a voltage supply unit configured to provide the core voltage, an external voltage and a ground voltage to a sense amplifier with an open bit line structure in response to the first to third voltage supply control signals.
US08687446B2
A semiconductor device includes a memory array that has dynamic memory cells. In a self refresh test mode, a self refresh test mode controller monitors and/or controls various blocks and internal signals in the semiconductor device. The self refresh test mode controller may communicate with a remote testing device through various conductors including one or more DQ lines and/or one or more address lines.
US08687438B2
In the disclosed technology, the device identification code of a memory integrated circuit is changeable. In some cases, multiple device identification codes are stored on the memory integrated circuit, and multiple device identification code selection data are stored on the memory integrated circuit. A device identification code register can store a selected device identification code.
US08687436B2
Systems and methods for reducing delays between successive write and read accesses in multi-bank memory devices are provided. Computer circuits modify the relative timing between addresses and data of write accesses, reducing delays between successive write and read accesses. Memory devices that interface with these computer circuits use posted write accesses to effectively return the modified relative timing to its original timing before processing the write access.
US08687431B2
Methods of programming a memory and memories are disclosed. In at least one embodiment, a memory is programmed by determining a pretarget threshold voltage for a selected cell, wherein the pretarget threshold voltage is determined using pretarget threshold voltage values for at least one neighbor cell of the selected cell.
US08687430B2
Memory devices, methods, and sample and hold circuits are disclosed, including a memory device that includes a sample and hold circuit coupled to a bit line. One such sample and hold circuit includes a read circuit, a verify circuit, and a reference circuit. The read circuit stores a read threshold voltage that was read from a selected memory cell. The verify circuit stores a target threshold voltage that is compared to the read threshold voltage to generate an inhibit signal when the target and read threshold voltages are substantially equal. The reference circuit stores a reference threshold voltage that can be used to translate the read threshold voltage to compensate for a transistor voltage drop and/or temperature variations.
US08687425B2
A nonvolatile memory device includes a plurality of channel structures formed over a substrate and including a plurality of interlayer dielectric layers alternately stacked with a plurality of channel layers; first and second vertical gates alternately disposed between the channel structures along one direction crossing with the channel structure and adjoining the plurality of channel layers with a memory layer interposed therebetween; and a pair of first and second word lines disposed over or under the channel structures and extending along the one direction in such a way as to overlap with the first and second vertical gates. The first word line is connected with the first vertical gates and the second word line is connected with the second vertical gates.
US08687418B1
An embodiment of the present invention includes a non-volatile storage unit comprising a first and second N-diffusion well separated by a distance of P-substrate. A first isolation layer is formed upon the first and second N-diffusion wells and the P-substrate. A nano-pillar charge trap layer is formed upon the first isolation layer and includes conductive nano-pillars interspersed between non-conducting regions. The storage unit further includes a second isolation layer formed upon the nano-pillar charge trap layer; and at least one word line formed upon the second isolation layer and above a region of nano-pillar charge trap layer. The nano-pillar charge trap layer is operative to trap charge upon application of a threshold voltage. Subsequently, the charge trap layer may be read to determine any charge stored in the non-volatile storage unit, where presence or absence of stored charge in the charge trap layer corresponds to a bit value.
US08687410B2
A method is provided for programming a memory cell in a memory array. The memory cell includes a resistivity-switching layer of a metal oxide or nitride compound, and the metal oxide or nitride compound includes exactly one metal. The method includes programming the memory cell by changing the resistivity-switching layer from a first resistivity state to a second programmed resistivity state, wherein the second programmed resistivity state stores a data state of the memory cell. Numerous other aspects are provided.
US08687395B2
It is described a high efficiency rectification stage using dynamic threshold MOSFET. The idea is to use the input signal to reduce the threshold voltage when the transistor has to be on, and to increase the threshold when the transistor has to be off. This allows reducing both the resistive losses and the leakage current. A matching network allows the generation of a second higher voltage signal to drive the control gates and the bulk, i.e. the wells, of the transistors. Further, a self-tuned front-end is provided to extend the bandwidth of the high-Q charge pump.
US08687392B2
A power converter is provided that has an alternating-current (AC) to direct-current (DC) switched-mode power converter circuit that converts alternating-current power into direct-current power for powering an attached electronic device. Power can be conserved by automatically placing the power converter circuit in a low-power standby mode of operation whenever the electronic device is detached from the power converter. A monitoring circuit can be powered by a capacitor or other energy storage element while the power converter is operating in the standby mode. If the monitoring circuit detects an output voltage change that is indicative of attachment of the electronic device or if the storage element needs to be replenished, the monitoring circuit can place the power converter circuit in an active mode of operation.
US08687380B2
A wiring board including a first rigid wiring board including a conductor and having an accommodation portion, the accommodation portion having wall surfaces, a second rigid wiring board accommodated in the accommodation portion and including a conductor electrically connected to the conductor of the first rigid wiring board, the second rigid wiring board having side surfaces, an insulation layer formed on the first rigid wiring board and the second rigid wiring board, and a metal film having a solid pattern formed directly on a boundary portion formed between the wall surfaces of the accommodation portion and the side surfaces of the second rigid wiring board.
US08687379B2
The present invention provides a dual chip signal conversion device, comprising: a carrier, one side surface thereof being provided with at least a first contact and a second contact while the other side surface thereof being provided with at least a third contact and a fourth contact; a first chip disposed at one side surface of the carrier and electrically connected to the second and fourth contacts; a second chip disposed at one side surface of the carrier and electrically connected to the first chip; and an antenna disposed within the carrier and electrically connected to the second chip.
US08687374B2
An electronic controller for a vehicle includes a box-shaped frame having only one opened side that has a notch portion into which an electric connector whose connection port protrudes toward an outside fits and a cover that closes an opening of the frame, in which while a groove filled with a sealant is provided at least on a bonded surface of an electric connector to which the cover is bonded, a first convex portion that fits into the groove is provided in a circumferential portion of the cover. Moreover, the electric connector has a flange portion opposite to an inner wall of the frame around the notch portion, and the flange portion is provided with a second convex portion protruding toward the inner wall to surround the notch portion.
US08687369B2
An apparatus configured to create a resistive pathway for an electronic assembly is disclosed. In one embodiment, the pathway can be formed with a resistive film in conjunction with a conductive adhesive and a coverlay. In another embodiment, the resistive film, the conductive adhesive and the coverlay can be relatively transparent. In yet another embodiment, the resistive pathway can couple directly with traces on an electronic assembly saving space and easing assembly.
US08687368B2
An assembled structure includes an integrated circuit chipset and a heat-dissipating module. The heat-dissipating module includes a heat sink, a locking member and at least one elastic element. The heat sink includes a base and a plurality of fins. The locking member includes a rectangular frame with at least one sustaining part. Two first lateral plates are downwardly extended from a first side and a second side of the rectangular frame, respectively. The first side and the second side are opposed to each other. In addition, at least one hook is formed on an inner surface and a lower edge of each first lateral plate. The elastic element has a first part sustained against the base of the heat sink and a second part sustained against the sustaining part of the rectangular frame. The hooks are engaged with a bottom surface of the substrate of the integrated circuit chipset.
US08687366B2
A voltage supply apparatus for a motor vehicle, especially a passenger car, truck or a motorcycle, includes a storage cell arrangement having one or more electrochemical storage cells and/or double layer capacitors that are mounted on top of each other. The storage cell arrangement is releasably connected in a form-fitting way to a heat-conducting cooling device that removes heat from the storage cells and/or double layer capacitors such that at least some of the storage cells and/or double layer capacitors of a respective storage cell group can each be thermally connected with the heat-conducting cooling device.
US08687364B2
A cooling apparatus for an electronics rack is provided which includes an air-to-liquid heat exchanger, one or more coolant-cooled structures and a tube. The heat exchanger, which is associated with the electronics rack and disposed to cool air passing through the rack, includes a plurality of distinct, coolant-carrying tube sections, each tube section having a coolant inlet and a coolant outlet, one of which is coupled in fluid communication with a coolant loop to facilitate flow of coolant through the tube section. The coolant-cooled structure(s) is in thermal contact with an electronic component(s) of the rack, and facilitates transfer of heat from the component(s) to the coolant. The tube connects in fluid communication one coolant-cooled structure and the other of the coolant inlet or outlet of the one tube section, and facilitates flow of coolant directly between that coolant-carrying tube section of the heat exchanger and the coolant-cooled structure.
US08687362B2
A portable briefcase office comprises of a computer unit, a storage unit, and a supplies and devices unit. It integrates a computer, printer, projector, storage space, battery, and other office supplies in one easily transported briefcase. It is not a case for devices, but a compact apparatus that incorporates these devices as it would appear in an entire office.
US08687349B2
A storage device transfer station is provided for transferring storage devices from a human operator to automated machinery for testing. The storage device transfer station includes a plurality of slots each capable of holding a storage device. The plurality of slots is arranged in at least one field, and the field is arranged between two parallel planes. Each slot has a first open end and a second open end, such that each open end is accessible for loading and unloading a storage device. The first open ends are accessible at a first plane of the two parallel planes and the second open ends are accessible at a second plane of the two parallel planes.
US08687344B2
A laminated ceramic electronic component includes curved surface portions provided in an outer surface of a ceramic element assembly, and internal conductors provided within the ceramic element assembly that are exposed in the curved surface portions and principal surfaces to define starting points for plating deposition. A base layer, in an external conductor, which is defined by a plating film is arranged so as to directly cover the exposed portions of the internal conductors.
US08687336B2
An over-current protection device is disposed on a circuit board and configured to protect a battery. The over-current protection device includes a resistive device, at least one insulation layer and a weld electrode layer. The resistive device exhibits positive temperature coefficient behavior. The insulation layer has a thickness of at least 0.03 mm. The weld electrode layer is configured to weld a strip interconnect member to electrically coupled to the battery, and has a thickness of at least 0.03 mm. The insulation layer and the resistive device are disposed between the weld electrode layer and the circuit board. The circuit board, the resistive device and the weld electrode layer are electrically coupled in series. The association of the resistive device and the weld electrode layer has a thermal mass capable of withstanding welding the strip interconnect member without significant damage to the over-current protection device.
US08687334B2
A controller 43 turns on a semiconductor switch 41 in a normal mode, and turns off the semiconductor switch 41 in a sleep mode. A bypass resistor 5 is connected in parallel to the semiconductor switch 41. A resistance value of the bypass resister 5 is so large as that in the sleep mode, a dark current is supplied to an electronic device 3 via the bypass resistor 5, and if an electric wire downstream of the bypass resistor is short-circuited, an electric current more than a permissive current is prevented from flowing to the electric wire.
US08687322B1
According to one embodiment, a magnetic recording head of a disk drive includes a main pole configured to generate a magnetic field in a direction perpendicular to a recording layer of a recording medium, a write shield magnetic pole opposite to a trailing side of the main pole with a gap, a coil configured to excite a magnetic flux in a magnetic circuit, and a high-frequency oscillator provided between a tip portion of the main pole on a side of the recording medium and the write shield magnetic pole to generate a high-frequency magnetic field. The write shield magnetic pole includes an end face opposite to the high-frequency oscillator and the end face is formed so that a distance from the main pole increases with an increasing distance from the recording medium.
US08687321B2
A magnetic head assembly includes: a magnetic recording head, a head slider, a suspension and an actuator arm. The magnetic recording head includes a spin torque oscillator and a main magnetic pole. The spin torque oscillator includes, a first magnetic layer including at least one selected from the group consisting of a Fe—Co—Al alloy, a Fe—Co—Si alloy, a Fe—Co—Ge alloy, a Fe—Co—Mn alloy a Fe—Co—Cr alloy and a Fe—Co—B alloy, a second magnetic layer, and an intermediate layer provided between the first magnetic layer and the second magnetic layer. The main magnetic pole is placed together with the spin torque oscillator. The magnetic recording head is mounted on the head slider. The head slider is mounted on one end of the suspension. The actuator arm is connected to other end of the suspension.
US08687320B2
A magnetic head includes a pole layer accommodated in a groove. The pole layer has a track width defining portion and a wide portion. The pole layer includes a plurality of magnetic films stacked. At least one of the plurality of magnetic films includes a first portion included in the track width defining portion, a second portion included in the wide portion, and a third portion coupling the first and second portions to each other. In a cross section passing through the center of the pole layer taken in the track width direction, the second portion is smaller than the first portion in thickness and the top surface of the third portion is inclined with respect to a direction perpendicular to a medium facing surface.
US08687318B2
A recording head comprising a write pole and a coil structure asymmetric with respect to the write pole and configured to generate more magnetic flux on a trailing side of the main pole than the magnetic flux on a front side of the main pole.
US08687314B2
According to one embodiment, a method includes sensing a first servo sensor while a longitudinal tape is moved in a first direction; determining position error between the magnetic head and a desired position related to the at least one defined servo track; providing signals to operate a fine actuator to translate the magnetic head laterally in a manner to reduce the determined position error; calculating a first average position of the magnetic head for at least one first run-out cycle while the longitudinal tape is moved in the first direction; calculating a first offset of the magnetic head while the longitudinal tape is moved in the first direction; operating a coarse actuator to position the coarse actuator substantially at a target position using the first offset and the first average position.
US08687303B2
SMR disk drives with hybrid E-regions that include a nonvolatile solid state memory E-region in addition to the magnetic media E-regions on disk are described. The memory E-region can be used in operations that will be referred as destaging and/or restaging to sequentialize sets of exception records to reduce the time and energy spent in executing seeks in the disk E-region. The ratio of the size of the solid state memory E-region to the total E-region capacity on the disks can be optimized for selected applications according to the invention using tradeoffs between performance and cost. For example, an embodiment with a memory E-region size that is 10% of the total disk E-region capacity achieves substantial performance enhancement over a disk-only E-region implementation and also results in smaller costs than would be required in a NAND-only memory E-region.
US08687302B2
Interface circuitry of a storage device or other type of processing device comprises at least one data path, and an adaptive power supply configured to provide a variable supply voltage to the data path. The adaptive power supply comprises a reference voltage circuit having a plurality of field effect transistors collectively configured to provide a variable reference voltage, with different ones of the field effect transistors being biased into different operating regions. For example, a first subset of the field effect transistors may each be biased into a linear region such that the variable reference voltage tracks variations in on-resistance of one or more corresponding field effect transistors of the data path, and a second subset of the field effect transistors may each be biased into a saturation region such that the variable reference voltage tracks variations in threshold voltage of the corresponding field effect transistors of the data path.
US08687300B2
Systems and/or methods for measuring latency in an electronic device such as, e.g., a storage device, may include coupling circuitry configured to capacitively couple an outbound or write data path to an inbound or read data path. A latency measurement signal may be driven on the write data path, the coupling circuitry may transmit at least a portion of the latency measurement signal from the write data path to the read data path, and the latency measurement signal may be sensed on the read data path to be used to determine communication path latency in the device.
US08687289B2
The disclosure concerns a projection objective, which can include an object plane in which an object field is formed, an entry pupil, a mirrored entry pupil (RE) in a mirrored entry pupil plane obtained by mirroring the entry pupil (VE) at the object plane, an image plane, an optical axis, at least a first mirror and a second mirror. The projection objective can have a negative back focus of the entry pupil, and a principal ray originating from a central point of the object field and traversing the objective from the object plane to the image plane can intersect the optical axis in at least one point of intersection, wherein the geometric locations of all points of intersection lie between the image plane and the mirrored entry pupil plane.
US08687284B2
A lens apparatus has an image pickup optical system including a focus lens and a zoom lens, a focus detector, a defocus amount calculating unit, and a controller. The focus detector detects a focus state of the image pickup optical system. The defocus amount calculation unit calculates a defocus amount based on the detected focus state. The controller calculates a driving amount necessary to drive the focus lens to a focus position based on the calculated defocus amount. The controller controls the driving of the focus lens. In particular, the controller controls a driving speed of the focus lens depending on the calculated defocus amount and the calculated driving amount.
US08687283B2
A zoom lens includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a front lens group including a first lens unit having positive refractive power and a second lens unit having refractive power, and a rear lens group including a plurality of lens units. The second lens unit includes a reflective member configured to bend an optical path. At least the first lens unit and at least two lens units of the rear lens group move during zooming. The second lens unit does not move for zooming. A reflection unit including the reflective member moves perpendicularly to an optical axis of the front lens group during retraction. At least part of the front lens group is retractable into a space caused by movement of the reflection unit. A focal length f2 of the second lens unit and a focal length ft of the entire zoom lens at a telephoto end are appropriately set.
US08687279B2
The invention relates to a lens comprising two or more seating surfaces and an optical axis offset from the center of the lens such that the optical axis is spaced by a first distance from a first seating surface and by a second distance from a second seating surface. The first and second distances are different so that the lens can be orientated to provide at least two different optical axis heights depending upon which seating surface is chosen to seat the lens.
US08687271B2
A display has a light source, a spatial light modulator and an intermediate spatial light modulator. The display may be a front projection display or a rear-projection display. The spatial light modulator is illuminated with light from a light source. The intermediate spatial light modulator is located in a light path between the light source and the spatial light modulator. The light source may comprise an array of controllable light-emitters. The display may provide a high dynamic range.
US08687261B2
An electrochromic device comprising a counter electrode layer comprised of lithium metal oxide which provides a high transmission in the fully intercalated state and which is capable of long-term stability, is disclosed. Methods of making an electrochromic device comprising such a counter electrode are also disclosed.
US08687252B2
In known light modulation means, complex phase and amplitude values for modulating light waves are implemented and modulated either separately by two different light modulation means or a light modulation means having two layers of double-refracting materials, leading to increased expenses for material and adjustment. A new device is disclosed that simplifies the modulation of light waves in phase and amplitude in a single light modulation means made of double-refracting material. In a device having regularly disposed, controllable light-modulated elements having a double-refracting material for complex modulation of coherent light waves, and a modulation controller controlling the force-induced alignment of the optical axes of the molecules of the double-refracting material, means are provided for independently aligning the optical axes of the molecules in the light-modulating elements in two dimensions. The alignment can take place by electrical, magnetic, or optical acting means.
US08687244B2
In a case where it is determined after reading an original that an abnormal pixel is included in image data generated by reading the original, after the original is reversed by a reversing unit for re-reading of the original by a reading unit, the original is conveyed to a reading position of the reading unit and image data generated by the re-reading of the reading unit is corrected.
US08687235B2
An information apparatus determines whether a number of color pages in a document data has increased, and when it is determined that the number of the color pages has not increased, page reduction processing is executed on specified pages in the document data, and when it is determined that the number of the color pages has increased, page reduction processing is not executed on the specified pages in the document data.
US08687225B2
An image forming apparatus includes a rendering processing unit for generating rendering data by sequentially performing a rendering process on units of printing data corresponding to a job and storing the rendering data in a first area, an image processing unit for generating image data by sequentially performing an image process on units of rendering data in the page unit and storing the image data in a second area, an output control unit for outputting the image data in an order, and a memory full detection unit for detecting, if the output of subject units of the image data is incomplete when a specific time elapses since the rendering process on the subject units of the job is completed and only a part or all of the subject units of the image data are stored in the second area, that an image data storage amount exceeds an acceptable amount.
US08687221B1
Embodiments of the present invention include a method, an apparatus, a system, and logic encoded in one or more computer-readable tangible media to carry out a method. The method in some versions forms a script that is usable by an inspection system for inspecting printed material produced according to a printing workflow. The method in some versions inspects printed material produced according to a printing workflow, the inspecting including executing a script.
US08687220B2
An image forming apparatus having an operation mode, an energy saving mode, and a stop mode includes an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording member, and a control unit that controls the image forming unit, wherein the control unit includes an arithmetic unit that performs a logical operation or a numerical operation, a storage unit that stores a register value used by the arithmetic unit in a non-volatile register which is readable and writable, and retains stored information even when no power is supplied, and a change unit that changes the register value stored in the non-volatile register so as to correspond to a mode change between the operation mode and the energy saving mode or between the operation mode and the stop mode.
US08687218B2
When a print server apparatus receives a service utilization request that includes setting identification information, printing device identification information, and service provision unit identification information, the print server apparatus transmits to a device management server apparatus print setting data identified based on the setting identification information, the printing device identification information, and location information indicating a location of the service provision unit identified based on the service provision unit identification information. The device management server apparatus creates a screen for setting print setting information of a function that can be executed by the printing device based on configuration data about the printing device identified based on the printing device identification information and the print setting data, associates the location information with a predetermined object included in the screen, and transmits the screen.
US08687217B2
A wireless network printing system and method, the system including: a first wireless terminal to selectively connect to an ad-hoc network, where inter-device communication is directly performed between devices, and an infrastructure network, where inter-device communication is indirectly performed, via an access point (AP); a second wireless terminal to transmit data to the first wireless terminal, via the ad-hoc network; and an image forming device affiliated with the infrastructure network, to print the data, after the data has been relayed through the first wireless terminal.
US08687212B2
What is provided are a system, method, and computer program product for protecting information displayed on a fax confirmation page. Several embodiments are provided. In one embodiment, for example, a Gaussian kernel is used to blur the digitized image to be printed on the confirmation page. In one method, a large enough blur kernel is selected so that text of a certain size will be rendered illegible. A method is also provided wherein a copy of the first page of the faxed document used to provide the content to be displayed on the confirmation page of the faxed document is stored on a storage device. A character sequence which references the stored original content on the storage media is printed on the confirmation page. A new confirmation page can be reconstructed and printed if it is desirable to have the altered content made visibly legible. Various other embodiments are disclosed.
US08687209B2
A processing apparatus includes a processing unit and a first registration unit. The processing unit executes a requested process. The first registration unit registers therein first identification information which identifies another device, in advance. If a request for the process is received from said another device, the processing unit complies with the request without authenticating a user who makes the request on condition that the first identification information of said another device which makes the request is registered in the first registration unit.
US08687206B2
A method for determining axial location of rotor blades is provided. The method may monitor an output signal of a sensor configured to detect the proximity of the rotor blades, wherein at least one of the rotor blades being marked with a position marker that is configured to cause a recognizable inconsistency in the output signal only when the rotor blades rotate at a known default axial position. The method may further determine the axial displacement of the rotor blades if the inconsistency is not detected in the output signal for at least one full revolution of the rotor blades.
US08687204B2
A method and apparatus for measuring refractive index of an object are disclosed. The method includes, acquiring a number of first fringes of a first interference pattern formed by interference of a first beam of light transmitted through the object with a second beam of light not transmitted through the object; acquiring a number of second fringes of a second interference pattern formed by interference of a third beam of light reflected from a first surface of the object with a fourth beam of light transmitted through the object and reflected from a second surface of the object; and calculating the refractive index of the object based on the number of first fringes and the number of second fringes. The method may further include calculating the Abbe number of the object based on the refractive indices of the object measured at different wavelengths.
US08687203B2
A method of determining a shape of an optical test surface (14) includes: with adaptation optics (20), adapting a wavefront of a measuring beam (30) to a desired shape of the optical test surface (14), interferometrically measuring the shape of the optical test surface (14) with the adapted measuring beam, irradiating the adapted measuring beam at different angles of incidence onto the optical test surface and respectively measuring the wavefront of the measuring beam after the interaction of the measuring beam with the optical test surface (14), establishing the effect of the adaptation optics (20) upon the interferometric measurement result from the wavefronts measured for the individual angles of incidence, and determining the shape of the optical test surface (14) by removing the established effect of the adaptation optics (20) from the interferometric measurement result.
US08687196B2
A composite pane arrangement, in particular for a motor vehicle, is provided with a composite pane that includes, but is not limited to at least two panes connected with each other by an intermediate layer, and with at least one optical sensor device for the optical detection of moisture on an outer surface of the composite pane facing away from the intermediate layer. The optical sensor device is arranged between the two panes and is electrically contacted by means of transparent, laminar conductive traces.
US08687195B2
An optical measurement apparatus including a light irradiation portion configured to irradiate light onto a sample flowing through a flow path in a detachable chip; a light detection portion configured to detect optical information emitted from the sample when irradiated with the light by the light irradiation portion; and a judgment portion configured to judge an exchange period of the chip based on the optical information detected by the light detection portion.
US08687187B2
Highly sensitive Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) sensors are described in the form of a optical resonator and a metal nanostructure deposited on surface of the optical resonator. In one embodiment the optical resonator is in the form of a photonic crystal, but other optical resonators are contemplated. Examples are described in which the resonant near-fields of a large-area replica molded photonic crystal efficiently couples light from a laser to dielectric-metal “post-cap” nanostructures deposited on the photonic crystal surface by a glancing angle evaporation technique, achieving a high SERS enhancement factor. Other constructions are also contemplated a metal nanostructure formed on a dielectric support deposited on the photonic crystal, including a metallic film deposited over close-packed surface of nanospheres, arrays of metallic nanotriangles, metallic nanorods, metallic nanohelices, arrays of metallic nanospheres, and roughened metal surfaces.
US08687181B2
Disclosed is a method for testing a light-emitting device comprising the steps of: providing a light-emitting device comprising a plurality of light-emitting diodes; driving the plurality of the light-emitting diodes with current; generating an image of the light-emitting device; and determining a luminous intensity of each of the light-emitting diodes with the image. An apparatus for testing a light-emitting device comprising a plurality of light-emitting diodes is also disclosed. The apparatus comprises: a current source to provide a current to drive the plurality of the light-emitting diodes; an image receiving device for receiving an image of the light-emitting device in the driven state; and a processing unit for determining a luminous intensity of each of the light-emitting diodes with the image.
US08687180B2
A system and method of determining a focal position for an objective positioned at a measurement location of a sample holder in a microscopy imaging system are provided. The objective is moved to a position relative to the sample holder that corresponds to a distance between the objective and the sample holder. The sample holder has a conditioned upper surface. A focusing light beam is projected onto the sample holder when the objective is located at the position, and the objective focuses the focusing light beam on the sample holder. A reflected light beam resulting from reflection of the focusing light beam off the conditioned upper surface is observed. The focal position for the objective is determined based on the reflected light beam such that the objective produces an in focus image of a microscopy sample when the objective is located at the focal position.
US08687179B2
A wavefront aberration measuring apparatus comprising: an illumination optical system provided to an incident side of a test lens; and a measuring optical system provided to an exit side of the test lens, the illumination optical system including an aperture stop capable of being opened and closed, and the illumination optical system being movable along an optical axis of the illumination optical system so as to adjust positions of the aperture stop and an entrance pupil of the test lens to have an optically conjugate relation with each other. Accordingly, it becomes possible to provide a wavefront aberration measuring apparatus capable of suppressing errors in measured result.
US08687178B2
A process is proposed for testing a laser device that has been set up to emit pulsed focused laser radiation, the focal position of which is adjustable both in and across the direction of propagation of the laser radiation. The laser device includes a contact element that is transparent to the laser radiation, with an abutment surface for abutment of an object to be machined. Within the scope of the process, a test object that is transparent to the laser radiation at least in a machining region is applied onto the abutment surface of the contact element. Then laser radiation is beamed into the test object bearing against the abutment surface and in the process the focal position is moved in accordance with a predetermined test pattern, in order to generate enduring machining structures in the test object.
US08687176B2
To press a medium using an appropriate pressing force and perform colorimetric measurement, a color measurement device for performing colorimetric measurement of a print pattern printed on a medium, the color measurement device comprising a pressing member for pressing the medium; a power source for outputting power for the pressing member to press the medium; a detecting part for detecting a pressing force on the medium; a color measurement section for performing colorimetric measurement of the print pattern; and a control part for controlling the power source so that the pressing force detected by the detecting part is equal to a predetermined pressing force, and for causing the color measurement section to perform colorimetric measurement of the print pattern printed on the medium pressed by the pressing member.
US08687173B2
A system and method for determining a measured distance between a measuring device (20A) and an object (21), the system including a first laser source (13) for producing a first light beam (13A) having a first waveform (32) and a first frequency; a second laser source (11) for producing a second light beam (1 IA) having a second frequency, said second light beam (HA) having a second waveform (36), wherein said first frequency is chirped up at the first rate as said second frequency is chirped down at the first rate, and said second frequency is chirped up at the second rate as said first frequency is chirped down at the first rate; an optical element (15) for combining said first light beam (13A) with said second light beam (HA) into a combined light beam path (17), said optical element (15) splitting a returning portion of said combined light beam path (17) into a third light beam (24); and a single detector (23) for receiving said third light beam (24) including two different beat frequencies that are proportional to the measured distance.
US08687167B2
A method controls a scanning function of a lithographic apparatus. A first alignment strategy is used. A monitor wafer is exposed to determine baseline control parameters pertaining to the scanning function. The baseline control parameters are periodically retrieved from the monitor wafer. Parameter drift is determined from the baseline control parameters. Corrective action is taken based on the determination. A production wafer is exposed using a second alignment strategy, different to the first alignment strategy. The corrective action is modified so as to be substantially closer to the correction that would have been made had the second alignment strategy been used in exposing the monitor wafer.
US08687164B2
A liquid crystal display device includes an illuminator and a liquid crystal panel for performing displaying by using light which is emitted from the illuminator. The liquid crystal panel includes a pair of substrates, a liquid crystal layer provided between the pair of substrates, and a pair of alignment films provided on sides of the pair of substrates facing the liquid crystal layer. At least one of the alignment films is a photo-alignment film which is imparted with an orientation regulating force through a photo-alignment treatment, and the illuminator includes a light source causing primary generation of at least blue light, among other light which is used for displaying.
US08687157B2
To provide a portable electronic device monitor which is a horizontal electric field liquid crystal display device and which is capable of clear display even outdoors. A reflective electrode is provided in a horizontal electric field liquid crystal display device. By providing the reflective electrode, natural light can be reflected efficiently and clear display can be provided outdoors. In addition, by providing the reflective electrode with unevenness, reflectance can be increased. The present invention provides a horizontal electric field liquid crystal display device such as this which is capable of clear display even outdoors.
US08687150B2
Disclosed is a liquid crystal display module that improves luminance of a liquid crystal panel by enhancing a light transmittance. The liquid crystal display module comprises a liquid crystal panel with plural unit pixels for converting incident light into colored light, wherein each unit pixel includes red (R), green (G), blue (B), and white (W) sub-pixels; a light source for supplying light to the liquid crystal panel; an optical member for guiding light emitted from the light source toward a frontal direction of the liquid crystal panel; and a polarizing means including a polarization area for polarizing the light outgoing from the liquid crystal panel, and a hole for transmitting the light therethrough.
US08687147B2
There is provided a color-regulating device for illumination. The color-regulating device includes a light-valving structure for adjusting a flux ratio of outgoing light through the light-valving structure to incident light entering the light-valving structure, and a color-adjusting structure having a wavelength-band converting element for changing incident light with a wavelength band into outgoing light with a different wavelength band through the element. Wherein, the light-valving structure and the color-adjusting structure do not overlap on the traveling path of the light emitted from the light source. Mixing the outgoing light of the light source passing through the light-valving structure with the outgoing light of the light source passing through and at least a portion thereof converted by the color-adjusting structure with a different wavelength band yields a color-adjusted light of different color temperature from that of the light source.
US08687135B2
A stereoscopic liquid crystal display device having a touch panel and a method for manufacturing the same, wherein a stable touch detection can be performed without influencing the operation of a neighboring display panel or an electrically-driven liquid crystal lens, are disclosed.
US08687133B2
A stereoscopic display device includes a display panel, two different polarized backlights and a synchronization module. The display panel is used to alternately generate first visible images and second visible images. The two different polarized backlights are to alternately illuminate the display panel so as to output the first visible images and second visible images, respectively. The synchronization module is used to synchronize the first visible images and second visible images with illumination periods of the respective polarized backlights.
US08687108B2
An image pickup apparatus includes a detector configured to detect an in-focus direction based on a focus signal that results from an output signal of an image pickup device by reciprocating a focus lens in an optical axis direction, and a focus controller configured to provide focusing by moving the focus lens in the in-focus direction. The focus controller is configured to set an amplitude of the focus lens when moving a center of a reciprocation of the focus lens, to be less than that of the focus lens when the center of the reciprocation of the focus lens is not moved.
US08687107B2
A photographing device according to the present invention comprises: an imaging section that captures a subject image and outputs image data; a motion picture recording section that records a motion picture based on the image data; a parameter setting section that sets a photographing parameter to change a photographing state; and a parameter control section that automatically changes the photographing parameter during the recording of the motion picture regardless of the set photographing parameter.
US08687106B2
A mobile phone apparatus 10 is equipped with a camera module 36 including an image sensor (52), an AE evaluation circuit (60), etc. When a camera function is executed, an exposure is adjusted such that an exposure evaluated value is equal to an exposure target value, whereby, an AF controlling processing is executed. For example, when a shutter key is operated, the exposure target value is changed to an exposure target value for AF control being smaller than an exposure target value for normal photographing. Furthermore, a frame rate is increased such that the exposure evaluated value having a correlation to the frame rate is smaller than the exposure target value in response to the change of the exposure target value. Then, the AF controlling processing is executed on the basis of the image data every frame output from the image sensor (52) at the increased frame rate.
US08687104B2
A user attempting to obtain information about an object can capture image information including a view of that object, and the image information can be used with a matching or identification process to provide information about that type of object to the user. In order to narrow the search space to a specific category, and thus improve the accuracy of the results and the speed at which results can be obtained, the user can be guided to capture image information with an appropriate orientation. An outline or other graphical guide can be displayed over image information captured by a computing device, in order to guide the user in capturing the object from an appropriate direction and with an appropriate scale for the type of matching and/or information used for the matching. Such an approach enables three-dimensional objects to be analyzed using conventional two-dimensional identification algorithms, among other such processes.
US08687100B2
A solid-state imaging device includes: a pixel section formed by pixels performing photoelectric conversion arranged in a matrix; a pixel signal readout section capable of column-parallel processing including an A/D conversion function for reading out a pixel signal from the pixel section and performing analog-digital conversion of the signal, the pixels being read in groups; a voltage sampling section sampling a bias voltage generated by an internal or external voltage generating circuit for a period in accordance with a control signal and supplying the sampled bias voltage to the pixel signal readout section; and a control section controlling the signal readout operation of the pixel signal readout section and the voltage sampling operation of the voltage sampling section. The pixel signal readout section includes a functional portion. The control section exercises control such that the voltage sampling operation is performed in a period other than at least either of a period in which an analog signal is read out or in which A/D conversion is carried out.
US08687089B2
In a method and an apparatus for managing an album, when a user inputs a desired album title, texts of the desired album title are recognized and arranged, and a folder corresponding to the album title is automatically generated. Thus, convenience of the user is improved.
US08687088B2
An image capturing apparatus which communicates with another image capturing apparatus, comprises an image capturing unit configured to obtain image data by capturing an image of an object; a reception unit configured to receive image data captured by the other image capturing apparatus during communication with the other image capturing apparatus; a storage unit configured to store the image data received by the reception unit in a storage medium; and a processor configured to describe image information of the image data received by the reception unit in an information file which describes image information used to identify image data stored in the storage unit.
US08687081B2
A method and apparatus for processing an image based on a scene mode. An image processing apparatus is disclosed including a digital signal processor (DSP) configured to select scene modes applicable to a live-view image and configured to display the selected scene modes as icons on the live-view image. An image processing method is disclosed including selecting scene modes applicable to a live-view image; and displaying the selected scene modes as icons on the live-view image.
US08687078B2
A face recognition technique includes using a multi-classifier face detector to determine above a threshold probability that region of an image includes a face. Further probability values are determined for a set of classifiers for the region to provide a recognition profile. Face detection and recognition probabilities are determined for at least one classifier of the set. The recognition profile is compared against a predetermined recognition profile to determine a degree of match.
US08687077B2
A method for controlling a camera through a Multi-Hop-based wireless sensor network includes: sensing whether an event occurs or not in a corresponding area and transmitting position information on the corresponding area and type information on the event, converting the received position information on the event into a movement control signal for the camera, calculating camera driving values in a left/right direction and an up/down direction using the converted signal, controlling a zoom-in operation of the camera lens using the calculated camera driving values according to the received event type and photographing an object located in the corresponding direction, and transmitting the photographed images over the outer network.
US08687072B2
A system and method for creating composite images by utilizing a camera comprises a cradle device that transports the camera across a target area during a scanning procedure that captures and stores image data. During the scanning procedure, a motion detector captures and provides scan motion data to a scanning manager from the camera. The scanning manager may then responsively utilize the scan motion data to accurately extract still frames corresponding to the target area from the captured image data at pre-determined time intervals. A stitching software program may then access and combine the still frames generated by the scanning manager to thereby create composite images.
US08687062B1
An aerial camera system is disclosed comprising: a camera cluster, including a plurality of cameras, each camera orientated in a direction selected from a plurality of different camera directions having a downward component; one or more rotators that rotate the camera cluster about respective one or more axes in response to one or more signals, and a control module that successively provides one or more signals to the one or more rotators to rotate the camera cluster and cause the cameras in the camera cluster to acquire respective aerial images.
US08687057B2
A three-dimensional measurement apparatus generates patterns to be projected onto the measurement object, images the measurement object using an imaging unit after projecting a plurality of types of generated patterns onto the measurement object using a projection unit, and computes the coordinate values of patterns on a captured image acquired by the imaging unit, based on the projected patterns, a geometric model of the measurement object, and information indicating the coarse position and orientation of the measurement object. Captured patterns on the captured image are corresponded with the patterns projected by the projection unit using the computed coordinate values, and the distances between the imaging unit and the patterns projected onto the measurement object are derived. The position and orientation of the measurement object are estimated using the derived distances and the geometric model of the measurement object, and the information on the coarse position and orientation is updated.
US08687048B2
The present invention relates to image processing apparatus and method, and a program which can display a stereoscopic image that provides more natural depth perception. A panoramic image generating section 25-1 generates a panoramic image PR for the right eye by extracting and synthesizing each strip region TRR in a plurality of captured images that are captured successively in the state in which an imaging apparatus ii is moving. A panoramic image generating section 25-2 generates a panoramic image PL for the left eye by extracting and synthesizing each strip region TRL in the plurality of captured images. From the panoramic image PR and the panoramic image PL, a disparity controlling section 26 detects the dominant disparity of these panoramic images, and shifts the entire panoramic images in accordance with the detection result to thereby adjust disparity. A display section 27 simultaneously displays the disparity-adjusted pair of panoramic images, thereby displaying a stereoscopic panoramic image with more natural depth perception. The present invention can be applied to a camera.
US08687042B2
Set-top box circuitry and methods of operating the same are described that support the delivery of media content between one or more media content sources and a screen assembly of a display system. The set-top box circuitry is configured to process media content having display requirements that exceed constraints associated with a viewing environment that includes the screen assembly to produce processed media content having display requirements that do not exceed the constraints. The set-top box circuitry may also be configured to obtain substitute media content that replaces requested media content when the requested media content has display requirements exceeding constraints associated with a media content source, a communication path from the media content source, and/or the viewing environment.
US08687035B2
An optical scanning device includes an air-tight casing, an air-tight container and a tube-like member. The air-tight casing is configured to accommodate at least a polygon mirror and a driving unit that rotates the polygon mirror. The air-tight container is disposed at a distance from the air-tight casing and outside an outer wall surface vertically above the air-tight casing. The tube-like member is configured to communicatively connect an inside of the air-tight casing and an inside of the air-tight container.
US08687030B2
There is provided an exposing device which includes an elongated optical head in which a plurality of light emitting portions are arranged, and a supporting member to which the optical head is adhered. The optical head and the supporting member are adhered by a first adhesive, and a second adhesive of which a modulus of elasticity after curing is lower than that of the first adhesive. The second adhesive is applied in a second adhesive area which is located at a boundary between the optical head and the supporting member and which is longer, in a longitudinal direction of the optical head, than a first adhesive area which is located at the boundary and to which the first adhesive is applied.
US08687018B1
A computer-implemented system, method, or computer-readable medium storing a set of instructions for execution on a processor may edit and confirm data associated with geographic locations shared by models graphically representing physical objects corresponding to geographic locations displayed in a web-enabled mapping system. This may allow a user to edit or create a graphic component corresponding to a model and receive an edited or created model at the mapping system. The user may also change or supplement graphical and non-graphical data corresponding to the model's location in response to receiving the edited or created model at the mapping system, and determine if the user changed or supplemented the non-graphical data associated with the model. This changed data may also be reviewed against rules to determine if it should be associated with the model that is displayed in the mapping system.
US08686999B2
The following discloses antialiasing systems and methods. Information about one or more fragments or primitives in a pixel area may be dynamically stored. The stored information may include, for example, depth, color, location and coverage. The coverage and depth information may be tracked at a higher frequency across the pixel than the number of fragments or primitives. Fragments or primitives that enter into a pixel area may be compared with fragments or primitives that have been stored. The comparisons may be based on depth and coverage. Either the incoming fragment or the stored fragment may be deleted based on the comparisons. Information associated with fragments that are preserved may be sampled at any location associated with their coverage area of a pixel. Fragments or primitives that are not discarded may be preserved for a final resolve process, which may incorporate information available from neighboring pixel areas.
US08686998B2
An apparatus and a method for generating 3-dimensional computer graphic images. The image is first sub-divided into a plurality of rectangular areas. A display list memory is loaded with object data for each rectangular area. The image and shading data for each picture element of each rectangular area are derived from the object data in the image synthesis processor and a texturizing and shading processor. A depth range generator derives a depth range for each rectangular area from the object data as the imaging and shading data is derived. This is compared with the depth of each new object to be provided to the image synthesis processor and the object may be prevented from being provided to the image synthesis processor independence on the result of the comparison.
US08686987B2
Disclosed is an output circuit including a differential amplifier stage, an output amplifier stage, an amplification acceleration circuit and a capacitance connection control circuit. The output amplifier stage includes push/pull type transistors connected an output terminal. The amplification acceleration circuit includes a first switch and a first transistor, connected between a first output of the differential amplifier stage and the output terminal, and a second transistor and a second switch connected between the output terminal and a second output of the differential amplifier stage. The capacitance connection control circuit includes first capacitive element having first end connected to the output terminal, a first switch connected between a second end of the first capacitive element and a first voltage supply terminal, and a second switch connected between the second end of the first capacitive element and one output of a first differential pair of the differential amplifier stage.
US08686986B2
An image display apparatus includes a light source, a scanner that scans an output beam emitted from the light source to forms an image on a projection surface, a light source driver that control intensity of the output beam emitted from the light source by controlling a drive current for driving the light source based on input image data, a light source drive power supply that supplies power to the light source driver, and a voltage controller that controls an output voltage from the light source drive power supply based on the input image data.
US08686985B2
A liquid crystal display (LCD) driving system includes a reference voltage generator to generate a plurality of reference voltages. The LCD driving system also includes a plurality of drive buffers to generate drive voltages according to at least one of the reference voltages, and to drive at least a portion of a liquid crystal display to present data according to the drive voltages.
US08686983B2
A voltage regulator for controlling a reference pulse-voltage comprising a sequence of positive-negative pulses which defines an active range and a dummy range is disclosed. The voltage regulator includes an acquisition unit adapted to receive each pulse of the reference pulse-voltage and determine whether an alteration of the pulse is needed according to a predetermined calculation, and generate a result message when it is determined that an alteration of the voltage pulse is needed, and a voltage control unit adapted to generate an output pulse-voltage corresponding to the reference pulse-voltage. When no result message is generated, the voltage control unit is configured to output an output pulse having the same polarity as that of the received pulse of the reference pulse-voltage, and when the result message is generated, the voltage control unit is configured to output an output pulse having an opposite polarity to that of the received pulse.
US08686982B2
A current generator for supplying or sinking current to/from pixels. The current generator includes a variable power source, a first amplifier having a first input terminal coupled to the variable power source, a sensing resistor coupled between an output terminal of the first amplifier and an external terminal of the current generator, and a second amplifier having a first input terminal and a second input terminal coupled to respective ends of the sensing resistor and an output terminal coupled to a second input terminal of the first amplifier.
US08686981B2
Methods and devices are provided for controlling the brightness of a display for an electronic device based on ambient light conditions. In one embodiment, an electronic device may employ one or more brightness adjustment profiles for changing the brightness of a display based on ambient light levels and/or the angle of incidence of one or more ambient light sources. In certain embodiments, one or more ambient light sensors may be designed to perceive the ambient light level differently based on the angle of incidence of a light source. The perceived ambient light level may then be used to adjust the display brightness based on the one or more brightness adjustment profiles. In other embodiments, one or more ambient light sensors may be designed to detect the angle of incidence of an ambient light source. In these embodiments, the detected angle and the ambient light level may be used to adjust the display brightness.
US08686975B2
An interactive device includes a first sensor, a first button, an accelerometer, a processor, and a transmitter. The first sensor is configured to receive coordinate information from a coordinate projection of a projector. The first button is configured to transmit an erase signal when the first button is pressed. The accelerometer is configured to provide angle information for the interactive device. The processor is in communication with the first sensor, with the first button, and with the accelerometer. The processor configured to receive the coordinate information from the first sensor, to receive the erase signal from the first button, to receive the angle information from the accelerometer, and to generate erase information based on the coordinate information, the erase signal, and the angle information. The transmitter is in communication with the processor, and is configured to transmit a delete request including the erase information received from the processor to the projector.
US08686969B2
An input apparatus with integrated detection sections of electromagnetic type and capacitive type is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a substrate, a control device and at least one signal processing device on the substrate. The substrate comprises an electromagnetic sensor coil layout and a capacitive sensor layout.
US08686968B2
A touch screen panel in which an occurrence of a scratch at intersections of coupling patterns respectively coupling first sensing cells and second sensing cells to each other in a first direction and in a second direction is prevented. The touch screen panel includes a transparent substrate, sensing patterns formed on a surface of the transparent substrate. The sensing patterns include first sensing cells disposed along a first direction, second sensing cells disposed between the first sensing cells along a second direction intersecting the first direction, first coupling patterns coupling the first sensing cells to each other in the first direction, second coupling patterns coupling the second sensing cells to each other in the second direction, and an insulating layer disposed between the first coupling patterns and the second coupling patterns at intersections of the first coupling patterns and the second coupling patterns. The insulating layer includes a concave part formed below the second coupling patterns in an area where the first coupling patterns and the second coupling patterns intersect and a protruding part positioned around the concave part so as to have a height higher than the concave part.
US08686964B2
A method and system for recognition of an intended user interaction with a digitizer is provided, the method comprising characterizing an intended user interaction input signals of a specific user, storing at least one characterization criterion from the characterization, and determining if a subsequently detected input signals meets the at least one characterization criterion.
US08686962B2
Embodiments of the invention are directed to a system, method, and software for implementing gestures with touch sensitive devices (such as a touch sensitive display) for managing and editing media files on a computing device or system. Specifically, gestural inputs of a human hand over a touch/proximity sensitive device can be used to control, edit, and manipulate files, such as media files including without limitation graphical files, photo files and video files.
US08686961B2
An electronic apparatus includes a casing, a movement detection sensor that detects a movement of the casing, an input unit having an input operation surface, a pressing force detection sensor that detects a pressing force applied to the input unit through the input operation surface, and a control unit. The input unit is provided to the casing and capable of detecting an input operation position within the input operation surface. The control unit judges whether one of the pressing force detected and an amount of a change based on the change in the pressing force exceeds a first threshold value, performs a process of an input determination in a case where the one of the pressing force and the amount of the change in the pressing force exceeds the first threshold value, and changes the first threshold value in accordance with a degree of the movement of the casing detected.
US08686952B2
Methods and systems for processing touch inputs are disclosed. The invention in one respect includes reading data from a multi-touch sensing device such as a multi-touch touch screen where the data pertains to touch input with respect to the multi-touch sensing device, and identifying at least one multi-touch gesture based on the data from the multi-touch sensing device and providing an appropriate multi-haptic response.
US08686946B2
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a dual-mode input device. According to one embodiment, the aforementioned device includes an input surface having an input plane. The device also includes an optical sensor having a central projection plane that lies perpendicular to the input plane of the input surface so as to detect gesture input from a user.
US08686944B1
The response to the movement of a scroll wheel varies depending upon the application currently being used. The variation can be in ratcheting vs. free wheeling, speed and acceleration. Ratcheting can be automatic in word processing, with free wheeling automatic in photo editing, for example. In another aspect of the invention, text can be highlighted and searched by pressing a button on an input device to activate a search. The search can either be an Internet search or a desktop search. Different manners of activating the button (such as a short press vs. a long press) can be used to select between an Internet and desktop search.
US08686935B2
An liquid crystal display device, including: m+1 data lines crossing n gate lines defining m×n pixels; m×n thin film transistors in each of the m×n pixels, wherein n thin film transistors in a column m are alternately connected to the mth data line and the m+1th data line; and an electrical connector that connects a 1st data line to an m+1th data line.
US08686933B2
An LCD device adapted to improve its picture quality in spite of the brightness variation includes: a gray scale modulator modulating R, G, and B data; a backlight dimming controller generating a back dimming signal that is inversely proportional to the modulated R, G, and B data generated in the gray scale modulator; and an over driving controller selectively overshoot-compensating the R, G, and B data from the gray scale modulator in every gray scale level through the comparison of the R, G, and B data of current frame and the R, G, and B data of previous frame, wherein, the modulated R, G, and B data each include maximum gray scale levels lower than those of the overshoot compensated R, G, and B data.
US08686931B2
A light emitting device includes a first substrate, a second substrate, a driving circuit, a first electric supply line, and a second electric supply line. In a case where while an image is displayed on the first substrate side, an image is not displayed on the second substrate side, the value of the potential which is supplied to the second electric supply line, to be a value where voltage between both ends of the second light-emitting element falls below the light-emitting threshold voltage. In a case where while an image is not displayed on the first substrate side, an image is displayed on the second substrate side, the value of the potential which is supplied to the first electric supply line, to be a value where voltage between both ends of the first light-emitting element falls below the light-emitting threshold voltage.
US08686928B2
A self light emitting device having a function of correcting drops in brightness in self light emitting elements in a pixel portion, and capable of displaying a uniform image without brightness irregularities, is provided. A specific test pattern is displayed when an electric power source is connected, brightnesses are detected by photoelectric conversion elements arranged in each pixel, and then stored in a memory circuit. A correction circuit then corrects a first image signal based on portions which are insufficient from standard brightnesses (brightnesses of normal self light emitting elements at the same gray stale, stored in advance), and a second image signal is obtained. Display of an image in a display device is performed in accordance with the second image signal.
US08686921B2
In general, in one aspect, the disclosure describes an apparatus having a frame buffer having a first area allocated to buffer display information for content to be displayed on a local display. A frame buffer allocator is to dynamically expand the frame buffer to include one or more additional areas allocated to buffer display information for content to be displayed on one or more remote displays associated with one or more wireless devices. A dynamic geometry manager is to configure the one or more additional areas of said frame buffer. One or more remote-frame-buffer protocols are to transfer the display information from the one or more additional areas to the one or more wireless devices. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08686900B2
A multi-antenna GNSS system and method provide earth-referenced GNSS heading and position solutions. The system and method compensate for partial blocking of the antennas by using a known attitude or orientation of the structure, which can be determined by an orientation device or with GNSS measurements. Multiple receiver units can optionally be provided and can share a common clock signal for processing multiple GNSS signals in unison. The system can optionally be installed on fixed or slow-moving structures, such as dams and marine vessels, and on mobile structures such as terrestrial vehicles and aircraft.
US08686898B2
A DDS based system, such as a radar, includes means for generating a plurality of transmission signals using a DDS, and means for integrating signals derived therefrom, such as received signals. The system further includes means for varying the relative starting phase of the plurality of transmission signals, or adjusting the DDS input clock while maintaining similar primary output frequency characteristics of the transmission signals. The approach has the effect of changing the location of unwanted frequency spurs in each of the transmission signals, and hence the effects of these are decreased in the integration process. An improvement in the sensitivity of the system results. Although primarily suited to radar applications the invention may find utility in other systems such as sonar or lidar systems.
US08686895B2
A radar level gauge system comprising first pulse generating circuitry for generating a transmission signal, second pulse generating circuitry for generating a reference signal; and frequency control circuitry for controlling the second pulse generating circuitry to achieve a predetermined frequency difference between the transmission signal and the reference signal. The radar level gauge system further comprises first frequency selection circuitry configured to provide a higher order harmonic frequency component of the transmission signal to the frequency control circuitry; and second frequency selection circuitry configured to provide a higher order harmonic frequency component of the reference signal to the frequency control circuitry. The frequency control circuitry is configured to control the second pulse generating circuitry based on the higher order harmonic frequency component of the transmission signal and the higher order harmonic frequency component of the reference signal. Hereby, improved regulation of the reference signal can be achieved substantially without any increase in power consumption of the radar level gauge system.
US08686893B2
A signal processing unit in a radar device calculates a change amount Y (=log(P)−log(Pb)) between a power P of a current arrival echo and a power of a previous arrival echo arrived before an observation period TSW. A memory unit in the radar device stores, every type of objects, a probability distribution of the change amount Y calculated from the arrival echo from the object. On the basis of the calculated change amount Y and the probability distribution, the signal processing unit determines a probability Pr to obtain the change amount Y every type of object, and determines that the object having the maximum probability Pr is the object which transmits the current arrival echo.
US08686891B2
The invention relates to a locating device, in particular a hand-guided locating device, with a locating unit (36) for detecting the presence of an object (16, 18) arranged in an examination object (14) by means of an examination signal (38), which has a polarization unit (50) provided for a procedure with the examination signal (38), and with a housing (20) for taking up the locating unit (36), which has a longitudinal axis (24). It is proposed that in at least one operating mode the polarization unit (50) specifies at least one first polarization plane (52, 54) aligned obliquely to the longitudinal axis (24).
US08686890B2
A remote controller for controlling a remote unit includes a stationary button assigned to a first function of the remote unit, and a first flexible button assigned to a second function of the remote unit and configured to be addable to or removable from the remote controller. The remote controller may further include a base, a membrane layer mountable on the base, the membrane layer including the stationary button and a first flexible button base, a first flexible button cap mountable on the first flexible button base to form the first flexible button, and a first face mountable on the membrane layer and having a first opening pattern exposing the stationary button and the first flexible button.
US08686889B2
A system for signal processing comprising a cyclic analog to digital converter structure having a first stage and a second stage, wherein the first stage is configured to receive an input signal to perform 1.5 bits/stage ADC and to generate a first stage output signal, and the second stage is configured to receive the first stage output signal and to perform fine offset tuning using a final conversion phase. The second stage further configured to perform 1.5 bits/stage ADC and to generate a second stage output that is fed back to the first stage to iteratively generate a next 1.5 bits, until (N−3) most significant bits of N bits of data are generated. A third stage configured to generate a three least significant bits of the N bits of data using a flash ADC sampling circuit that samples a residue signal at the output of the first stage.
US08686883B2
Disclosed are a Multiple User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) codebook design method, and a communication device using the codebook. A MU-MIMO codebook design method includes analyzing beam patterns of candidate vectors included in a predetermined candidate codebook, and eliminating at least one of the candidate vectors based on the beam patterns of the candidate vectors to generate the MU-MIMO codebook for a MU-MIMO system being comprised of the remaining vectors.
