US08753209B2

An apparatus includes a handheld device that has a virtual machine configured to execute applications and a port dedicated to transmitting and receiving data for the virtual machine. The handheld device also includes an application manager for assigning an application instance identifier to an instance of an application executed by the virtual machine.
US08753201B2

Systems, methods, and displays are disclosed for logging a player at a gaming table having a plurality of player positions for the purpose of tracking the play of the player. System can include a processor; a data structure storing account data for each player, the data including at least player identification data; a display configured to display a depiction of the gaming table, a plurality of player positions and a position locator, the locator positioned apart from the depicted player positions; a data input device to input data to position the locator to identify a player position; and a device to access the player account data, the processor associating player identification data with the identified player position. The locator can be configured as a pointer, e.g., a pointer and slide. The processor can be configured to highlight the position identified by the locator. Related methods and apparatus are also disclosed.
US08753200B1

Methods for customizing an educational experience of a gamer are provided. The method can include the generating of learning DNA which can include information relating to the gamer. The learning DNA can be generated by the aggregation of data received from the gamer, collected from other data sources, and generated based on the interaction of the user with an evaluation and rectification system. The method can further include selecting a mission for a user based on the learning DNA and/or information relating to the user.
US08753199B2

Described herein are processes and devices that automatically generate a player profile. One of the devices described is a wagering game system. The wagering game system can present a plurality of pictures on a wagering game machine, kiosk, or other network device. The plurality of pictures includes aesthetic content. The wagering game system can receive player input indicating a preference for the aesthetic content of at least one of the plurality of pictures. The wagering game system can generate a wagering game player profile to store player preferences associated with wagering games and wagering game machines. The wagering game system can assign values to the player preferences based on the preference for the aesthetic content.
US08753196B2

A gaming system including a central server linked to a plurality of gaming machines. The gaming system includes a plurality of different types of progressive awards adapted to be provided to one or more players of the gaming machines in the gaming system. In one embodiment, one or more progressive awards are each associated with a progressive hit value, wherein when each progressive award increments to its respective progressive hit value, a triggering event occurs and such progressive award is provided to a player. In one embodiment, one or more progressive awards are each associated with a secondary game, wherein if the secondary game is triggered, a player is provided either a fixed award or one of the progressive awards associated with the secondary game based on a play of the secondary game. In one embodiment, one or more progressive awards are each associated with an outcome of a primary game, such as a designated symbol combination, wherein if the associated primary game outcome is generated, such progressive award is provided to a player.
US08753193B2

The Return Driven Casino Game Outcome Generator makes the first true class of casino video game possible by creating games that measure and reward skills like fast reflexes and manual dexterity while earning consistent and reliable profits for game operators. In RDOG, a method of determining a reward due to a player of a regulated game may include steps of enabling the player to interact with one or more reward generating assets within the regulated game; measuring a level of skill of the player in interacting with reward generating assets, and determining the reward due to the player for each successful interaction with a reward generating asset, the reward being determined according to the measured skill level, a random number and a time elapsed since a last successful interaction with any one of the reward generating asset.
US08753192B2

Systems and methods provide power management on a wagering game machine. Inrush power may be reduced by staggering application of power to various power supplies in a wagering game machine. A processor or timer may control the activation of power supplies. Further power management may be provided by placing wagering game machine peripherals in a power consumption mode appropriate to the activity or lack of activity on a wagering game machine.
US08753186B2

The disclosure relates to systems and methods for providing an integrated online platform for gameplay of word-based games, obtaining and using virtual assets related to the word-based games such as crossword puzzle games and word search puzzle games, providing sponsored word-based games, and facilitating sweepstakes entries based on the word-based games. The systems and methods may provide an integrated online platform that facilitates the convergence of word-based games, sponsored brands, sweepstakes, prizes, and obtaining and using virtual assets related to the word-based games across social networks, mobile networks, and/or other networks. The integrated online platform leverages the use of various puzzles such as puzzles from third party puzzle providers, custom puzzles, and/or other puzzles for gameplay of the word-based games. The sponsored word-based games may provide opportunities for the user to win items such as branded items and the sponsor to engage an audience.
US08753185B1

Methods and systems of providing a game in an interactive media application based on information stored in a database are provided. The game is provided in part by using a database to select a source individual and a destination individual. Based on the source individual and information stored in a database and associated therewith, a plurality of associated candidates are selected, each of which has a defined relationship with the source individual. Representations of the source individual, the destination individual, and the first plurality of candidates are provided on a display. Based on user input, one candidate of the first plurality of candidates is selected, and it is determined whether the database defines a relationship between the selected candidate and the destination individual. If such a relationship exists, a user is alerted. If no such relationship exists, then a new set of candidates is retrieved based on the selected candidate.
US08753181B2

A program for a game device having a timer, the program causing a computer to function as: an event table storage section which stores an event table created based on registration information input by a player, the event table defining a plurality of first parameters used for an event process and an available period of each of the first parameters; an event condition setting section which determines whether or not the player has performed a predetermined operation, detects an operation timing of the predetermined operation when the predetermined operation has been determined to have been performed, sets a second parameter used for the event process based on the detected operation timing, and sets an event condition based on the second parameter; and an event processing section which determines whether or not the event condition has been satisfied, selects an available first parameter from the first parameters referring to the event table based on time information generated by the timer when the event condition has been determined to have been satisfied, and performs calculations based on the selected first parameter.
US08753179B2

An apparatus for the automated mechanical processing of pieces of meat conveyed in a row comprises a transporting device, a cutting device having a cutting head and a control device. The cutting device comprises a holding and guiding device on which the cutting head is movably arranged to execute separating cuts at an angle to the straight conveying direction along the straight movement path at a fixed guiding tilt angle (α). A transport belt forming a component of the transporting device and transporting the meat pieces in a lying manner passes continuously by the holding and guiding device. The cutting element which, for cutting, is formed by a rotationally driven circular blade limited at its height position over the transport belt. The control device correlates a velocity component (VT) of the movement velocity of the cutting head, which velocity component of the movement is in conveying direction with the conveying velocity of the meat pieces in the conveying direction when executing the separating cuts. The apparatus is used in particular to skin fish fillets, wherein a tail end section is cut off of the fish fillet with a chamfer cut that generates a fillet end chamfered at a slant as an insertion aid for drawing in the skin to be removed into the draw-in gap of a skinning machine.
US08753172B1

A CNC system for effecting a finishing treatment of a surface, including: a mechanical assembly having a mechanical arm, adapted to move within at least two controllable axes of motion; a shoe arrangement, adapted to connect to an end of the arm and having at least one flexible surface finishing pad; and a drive mechanism adapted to drive the arm; a controller; a communication arrangement adapted to deliver communication signals between the controller and the mechanical assembly; and a positioning system providing the controller with positioning information with respect to the mechanical assembly, the system configured whereby the arm is responsive to the controller, the mechanical assembly adapted to urge the working surface against a workpiece surface, whereby a pressure is delivered thereto, the mechanical assembly including a controllable spring arrangement disposed and adapted to contribute to an overall mechanical compliance, normal to the working surface, of the mechanical assembly, the spring arrangement responsive to the controller, and wherein the controller is adapted to control the spring arrangement to maintain the pressure within a pre-determined range, or to constrain the pressure to a set point.
US08753166B2

In one aspect, the present invention is directed to a system for rendering audio animation, the system comprising: two or more non-biotic figures; an audio player, having two or more audio sources correspondingly to the two or more non-biotic figures, for simultaneously playing the audio signals associated with the two or more non-biotic figures; and two or more speaker units corresponding to the two or more audio sources. The system may further comprise means for wireless transmission of the audio signal of at least one of the audio sources to a remote speaker unit thereof. The means for wireless transmission may comprise a wireless transmission unit deployed at the audio player, and a wireless receiving unit deployed at the speaker unit. The non-biotic figure may be a two-dimensional, three-dimensional figure, and so on.
US08753160B2

A method is disclosed for forming a PDP front electrode by applying a particular type of photopolymerizable black paste, drying the black paste, and applying a particular type of photopolymerizable white paste on top of the dried black paste.
US08753158B2

A retaining structure for a honeycomb structure includes a honeycomb structure, a retainer mat, and a housing. The honeycomb structure is a member made of a ceramic material. The retainer mat is in contact with the honeycomb structure and directly retains the honeycomb structure. The housing is in contact with the retainer mat and directly retains the retainer mat. The housing is made of aluminum. The housing includes an inner wall, an outer wall, and a coolant passage. The inner wall is in contact with the retainer mat. The coolant passage is located between the inner wall and the outer wall. An inflow port of the coolant passage is located at one end of the housing. A discharge port of the coolant passage is located at the other end of the housing.
US08753148B2

This invention relates generally to an electrical connector assembly for interconnecting printed circuit boards. More specifically, this invention relates to a high speed, high density electrical connector and connector assembly having wafers with an improved pin conductor. The connector contains a shield plate having at least one contact end that is bent in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the shield plate.
US08753144B2

A connector assembly (1) includes a connector (10) including contact terminals (11), a cable (20) having conductors (221), and a wiring board (30) which electrically connects the connector (10) and the cable (20). The wiring board (30) includes first connecting portions (32) which are arranged at a first pitch (P1) and to which the contact terminals (11) are electrically connected, second connecting portions (33) which are arranged at a second pitch (P2) and to which the conductors (221) of the cable (20) are electrically connected, and wiring lines (34) which electrically connect the first connecting portions (32) and the second connecting portions (33). The first pitch (P1) is smaller than the second pitch (P2).
US08753130B2

A joint terminal usable in an interposer. The joint terminal includes a first terminal member; and a second terminal member detachably attached to the first terminal member and electrically conductible to the first terminal member. The second terminal member includes a contact part capable of contacting with and separating from a conductor portion of a counterpart of the interposer; a spring part adapted to generate a contact pressure for pushing the contact part against the conductor portion; and an attachment part abutting on and detachably attached by a frictional force to the first terminal member. The contact part, the spring part and the attachment part are formed integrally with each other as a unitary member.
US08753121B2

Apparatus and methods for endodontic treatment of teeth provide effective cleaning of organic material (such as pulp and diseased tissue) from the root canal system. In an embodiment, a compressor system generates high pressure liquid (e.g., water) that flows through an orifice to produce a high-velocity collimated jet of liquid. The high-velocity jet is directed toward a surface of a tooth, for example, an exposed dentinal surface, and impingement of the jet onto the surface generates an acoustic wave that propagates throughout the tooth. The acoustic wave effectively detaches organic material from dentinal surfaces and tubules. The detached organic material is flushed from the root canal system by the liquid jet and/or by additional irrigation.
US08753113B2

A removable intraoral device is useful for longitudinal in vivo biofilm research. The device is adapted to allow it to be retained in the oral cavity long enough for biofilm to form and to affect the oral mucosa. The device is readily removable to facilitate longitudinal observations. The device is biostable. The device does not interfere with the animal's daily activities such as eating and drinking. The device can be fabricated and maintained at low cost.
US08753110B2

A vented combustion chamber for an insect attractant engine is provided for a flying insect trapping device of the type that relies upon combustion of a fuel to generate a flow of carbon dioxide to attract flying insects. The combustion chamber, which is generally tubular and horizontally oriented in operation, is vented through a hole formed in one side of the chamber wall that extends from the outer surface of the chamber into the interior thereof. During operation of the device, this through-hole allows gas inside the chamber to be vented to the outside, changing the effective length of the combustion chamber for the purposes of wave generation is changed so that creation of a resonance cycle or standing wave, and the resulting acoustic phenomenon of howling, is prevented.
US08753109B2

The invention relates to a device for providing a gas/combustion air mixture for a gas burner, comprising a fan (11) for providing a combustion air flow, a gas control device for providing a gas flow and a mixing device (13) for mixing the combustion air flow and the gas flow, thus providing the gas/combustion air mixture. Said mixing device (13) and the fan (11) are connected together on one side, and on the other side, the mixing device and the gas control device are connected together. According to the invention, the mixing device (13) and the fan (11) are connected together in such a manner that a vibration absorber (15) is arranged between a connecting section (12) of the mixing device (13) and a connecting section (10) of the fan (11).
US08753107B2

A rotary molding system for molding food products, mold cavities formed when a mold shell rotates mold shapes disposed along the mold shell into a fill position between a fill plate and a wear plate. Molded food products are removed from mold cavities using knock-out cups, the use of air pressure, or the use of a vacuum source disposed below the mold cavity, without the need to slow the rotation of the mold shell. Knock-out cups may be used with a heating system to reduce accumulation of unwanted materials on the knock-out cups. The rotary molding system can also be used to form products with contoured surfaces. A smart tagging system can be used to ensure that compatible sets of mold shells and knock out cups are being used. A vacuum region may be disposed upstream of the fill position to remove air within the mold cavity prior to filling.
US08753105B2

An apparatus for manufacturing a three-dimensional object by layerwise consolidation of powder comprises a lowerable build platform for supporting the object during manufacture and a sealable chamber for controlling the atmosphere around the object. The apparatus also has gas transport devices, such as pumps and valves. Substantially all of the gas transport devices are maintained within a controlled atmosphere.
US08753104B2

Embodiments of the invention are used to provide ways of tire tread molding and retreading with a double tread rubber body having a unitary structure that comprises two treads in order to remove the need for buffing an oxide layer typically associated with tread molding and curing. Embodiments of the double tread molding and retreading methods also remove the need for cementing the cured tread to prevent future oxidation buildup. Once the double tread is cured and cooled, it is cut along the centerline with a double tread separation apparatus to expose a soft non-oxidized inner rubber. The cutting is much less energy intensive when compared to buffing with an expendable wire brush. There is no risk of spots of oxidized rubber being missed as is the case with buffing. There is little or no dust created.
US08753096B2

A compressor overload protection device utilizes a first electrode of an electric connector to electrically connect a first OLP overload protection loop that is electrically connected to a first power line of an external power source. In addition, a second OLP overload protection loop is connected to a second electrode and a third electrode of the electric connector, and a capacitor is electrically connected between the third electrode and the first electrode. When the operation of the compressor is overloaded, the first and second OLP overload protection loop can provide proper protection mechanism with respect to the first power line and the second power line to prevent a motor of the compressor from being overheated and damaged, and the electrodes of the electric connector can be effectively prevented from exploding.
US08753091B1

A wind turbine blade may include a plurality of longitudinal composite members each having a fiber and resin layer around a predetermined cross-sectional shape and each comprising at least one longitudinal outer surface and at least one longitudinal mounting surface, each of the outer surfaces of the plurality of longitudinal composite members corresponding to a different portion of a desired airfoil shape, the plurality of longitudinal composite members assembled such that the outer surfaces of the composite members form at least a majority of the airfoil shape. An outer skin may be provided. The composite members may be made up of transportable segments. A method of assembly may include transporting the segments to a desired location such as an installation site for assembly of the wind turbine blade at the installation site.
US08753086B2

An impeller includes a substantially cylindrical cup portion arranged to rotate about a center axis, a plurality of blades fixed to an outer circumferential surface of the cup portion for unitary rotation with the cup portion to draw air from one axial side and discharge the air to the other axial side, and an annular connector portion arranged to interconnect the blades. The connector portion has a substantially cylindrical shape in a position spaced apart about 70% to about 90% of the radial length of the blades from the base of each of the blades on the outer circumferential surface of the cup portion, and the ratio of a total axial height of the connector portion to a total radial gap between the outer circumferential surface of the cup portion and the inner circumferential surface of the connector portion is equal to or smaller than about 0.9.
US08753078B2

A guide vane assembly for a turbomachine, comprising a guide vane and a liner: the guide vane comprising an aerofoil portion having a radially outer platform, wherein one of the outer platform and the liner has a hook element, the hook element comprising an opening and a circumferentially extending channel, and the other one of the outer platform and the liner comprises a retaining element having a head portion, wherein in an operational orientation the head portion located within the channel and is too wide to be withdrawn through the opening of the hook element.
US08753077B2

A slinger shield structure is provided and includes a first annular disc, having a body, opposing faces defining an aperture extending through the body and through-holes extending through the body, which are arrayed around the aperture, a second annular disc having a body and opposing faces defining an aperture extending through the body, a hub for connection with the first and second annular discs at the respective apertures and radial vanes suspended between the first and second annular discs at a distance from the hub to define radial channels between adjacent radial vanes and drainage channels between the radial vanes and the hub.
US08753075B2

A method for suspending a fan case and a fan case assembly in which a fan case is suspended are disclosed herein. The fan case assembly includes an inner ring encircling an axis. The fan case assembly also includes a first outer ring encircling the axis and having an annular flange. The fan case assembly also includes a plurality of struts each extending radially outward from an inner end engaged with the inner ring to an outer end engaged with the first outer ring. The fan case assembly also includes a second outer ring abutting the first outer ring along the axis. The fan case assembly also includes a plurality of leaves each fixed to the second outer ring and extending along the axis. The leaves are slid over an outer surface of the first outer ring to engage the first and second outer rings together.
US08753068B2

A highly efficient and long-life pump is provided through improvement of pump efficiency by extending an effective length of a blade of an impeller and through reduction of friction loss of a thrust bearing. In a pump 110, a suction direction X and a discharge direction Y of a liquid are approximately perpendicular to each other. The pump 100 includes a shaft 27 positioned downstream of a suction inlet 22; an impeller 25 configured in a disk shape that rotates around the shaft 27, the impeller 25 having a plurality of blades 25c formed radially in a radial direction from a center area located at a center portion of the disk shape as seen in the suction direction X, the plurality of blades 25c being positioned at an approximately same longitudinal position as a longitudinal position of a discharge outlet 23; and a bearing (18-1) that receives the shaft 27, the bearing (18-1) being positioned at the center area of the impeller 25 and having a through hole (18-1c) as a guide portion for guiding the liquid drawn in from the suction inlet 22 to the discharge outlet 23.
US08753064B2

A transfer assembly incorporated into a part forming operation including a structure exhibiting a generally open interior. A pair of elongated pivotal supports extend in parallel fashion along inner facing sides of the structure and channel the received opposite edges of each part delivered from the part forming operation. A rotary actuating component is mounted at an intermediate end location of the structure between the sides and pivotally interconnects to the end supports via a pair of linkage arms. A proximity trigger switch determines delivery of a part from the out feed location and, upon being activated, actuates the rotary component to separate the side extending supports to release the part for stacking in plural fashion within the open interior, following which reverse actuation of the rotary component pivotally resets the supports for receiving a subsequent part.
US08753062B2

The disclosure describes a novel approach of utilizing a front loading waste collection vehicle. A gripper system is added to the fork tube of a front loading waste collection vehicle. The gripper system allows a front loader to lift and dump waste bins into the truck's hopper for the collection of trash, recyclables and/or other materials.
US08753051B2

Generally disclosed is an exemplary dunnage bag valve assembly that may be used to inflate a dunnage bag to capacity or deflate a dunage bag while minimizing the impact of fighting back pressure during deflation. In one embodiment the valve assembly comprises: a tubiform body having a flange disposed therearound; an internal support bar; a flapper coupled to the support bar along the midsection of the flapper, wherein the flapper closes the tubiform of the tubiform body; a lever with a fulcrum on the support bar, wherein operating of the lever on the fulcrum bends or folds the flapper along its midsection for opening the tubiform of the tubiform body during deflation of an air bag.
US08753049B2

A cutting tool is designed to prevent chip packing. The cutting tool includes a body that rotates about an axis center, a hole portion that is open in a tip end surface of the body, a wall portion that is formed of the hole portion and an outer circumferential surface of the body, a notch portion that is communicated with the hole portion, and a blade portion that is formed or held at a portion where the notch portion intersects with the tip end surface of the wall portion. The blade portion includes an inner side surface that passes through an inner end portion of a bottom blade and intersects with a rake surface through a ridge line. The inner side surface is inclined so that a distance between the inner side surface and the axis center is increased towards a direction opposite to the rotational direction of the body.
US08753043B2

A system and method for installing sheet piles using active gripping along side portions of the sheet piles. A sheet pile profile including first and second locking profiles and a gripping flange enables engagement of the sheet piles onto a mandrel for installation. Double engagement flanges on the locking profiles and an expandable connection between adjacent sheet piles provide improved resistance to fluid passage.
US08753041B2

The invention provides an injection, sealing, valving and passageway system for use with hollow rock bolts and hollow injection bars used in mining, civil engineering, tunneling and construction including use with hollow self drilling rock bolts. The invention comprises a plurality of passageways with one or more one way flow valves along the passageways. The invention enables one or more fluids to be pumped into a hollow rock bolt or other hollow elongate member either sequentially or simultaneously without cross contamination of fluids in another passageway or back flow of fluids along the wrong passageway. The invention is typically used to install self drilling rock bolts whereby a drilling fluid is initially pumped through the hollow bolt during the drilling cycle, and then a two part chemical resin or cement grout is pumped through the hollow bolt to anchor the bolt in the borehole.
US08753037B2

The device is provided with a plurality of intermediate grid plate elements (12) with a top and a bottom surface, which are adapted to be positioned one on top of the other. Each intermediate grid plate element (12) comprises a grate strutting (18, 19) as well as a plurality of support members (20) which are distributed, in particular in a regular manner, over the intermediate grid plate element (12), wherein said support members (20) extend between the bottom face and the top face of an element in a direction substantially transverse to the extension of the intermediate grid plate elements (12) and are supported on the support members (20) of an adjacent intermediate grid plate element (12) arranged below a respective intermediate grid plate element (12), and support the support members (20) of an adjacent intermediate grid plate element (12) arranged above said respective intermediate grid plate element (12).
US08753033B2

A securing device for securing medical accessory units to a table for a medical imaging apparatus, includes a frame unit, a locking unit that is configured for locking to the table, and an adjusting unit for setting at least one locking position. The adjusting unit has at least one guide unit for a guided locking motion into the at least one locking position.
US08753025B2

An imaging device enclosure for a vehicle including a housing having an image device aperture. A motor is disposed in the housing and is operably connected with a mobile wedge. The mobile wedge is operable between an extended position and a retracted position. An imaging device is slidably connected with the mobile wedge and is movable between the retracted position corresponding to the extended position of the mobile wedge and the extended position corresponding to the retracted position. A flexible boot is disposed over the image device aperture. The flexible boot defines a flexible opening. The imaging device protrudes through the flexible opening when the imaging device is in the extended position.
US08753020B2

A cable assembly comprises: a housing having a receiving groove through an front surface and a rear surface thereof; a plurality of conductive terminals received in the housing, a cable electrically connected to the conductive terminals and a spacer having a basic portion located behind the housing and a tongue portion extending forwardly from the basic portion and received in the receiving groove. A plurality of lenses are located on a front end of the tongue portion of the spacer, and a plurality of optical fibers are corresponded and coupled to the lenses, respectively.
US08753018B2

A wheel bearing useful for automobiles includes an axle shaft and an axle tube around the shaft, inner and outer bearing races defined respectively at the outer periphery of the shaft and the inner periphery of the tube. A circumferential row of balls and a circumferential set of rollers disposed axially apart between the inner and outer bearing races to form a ball bearing and a roller bearing, in parallel, for supporting the axle shaft within the axle tube.
US08753017B2

Through-holes are formed in an axially intermediate portion of a cylindrical portion of a first metal core, at predetermined intervals in a circumferential direction, and the through-holes pass through the cylindrical portion in a radial direction. A first elastic seal has a lip that is in sliding contact with an outer peripheral face of a cylindrical portion of a second metal core, a first cylindrical portion that is in close contact with an inner peripheral face of an axially inner-side portion of the cylindrical portion of the first metal core, a second cylindrical portion that is in close contact with an outer peripheral face of an axially outer-side portion of the cylindrical portion of the first metal core, and connecting pieces that are inserted into the through-holes of the cylindrical portion of the first metal core and that connect the first cylindrical portion with the second cylindrical portion.
US08753012B2

A package includes at least one closed end including a pair of opposed package panels, each face of the pair of opposed package faces including an interior side and an exterior face, at least one panel comprising a woven polymer material, wherein the interior faces of the package panels are joined to one another to define an interior joined area, the joined panels being folded towards and joined to the exterior face of the package to define a second joined area.
US08753001B2

The application relates to a metering apparatus for introducing a powdery medium into a fluid, comprising a guide device for guiding the fluid and a metering device, said metering device being arranged above the guide device such that the powdery medium released by the metering unit is scattered onto the surface of the fluid.
US08752997B2

The present invention proposes a backlight module which includes a back frame and at least one light bar. The back frame is coated with a specific thermal conducting material. The thermal conducting material may form various shapes on the back frame according to locations where the at least one light bar is disposed. Thermal energy produced by the at least one light bar is escaped via the thermal conducting material with various shapes, so that temperature can be uniform across the back frame.
US08752994B2

The invention relates to an illumination system (10), a luminaire (102), a collimator (30) and a display device (200). The illumination system according to the invention comprises a light source (20) and the collimator. The light source is configured for emitting a substantially Lambertian light distribution around a symmetry axis (22). The refractive collimator is configured for redirecting light from the light source to at least partially illuminate an illuminating surface (50) in which at least a part of the illuminating surface being substantially parallel to the symmetry axis. The refractive collimator comprises a concave input window (34) and an at least partially convex output window (40) for refracting light towards the illuminating surface.The effect of the illumination system according to the invention is that a height of the illumination system may be reduced due to the use of the refractive collimator.
US08752989B2

An illuminated vehicle emblem assembly is provided that includes a power source, a backing member, and a light-producing assembly coupled to the power source and supported by the backing member. The light-producing assembly may include an electroluminescent light source. The illuminated vehicle emblem assembly further includes a translucent base region over the light source, a chromatic layer over the translucent base region, and a translucent sealing structure configured to seal the backing member, the light producing assembly, and the chromatic layer. The illuminated vehicle emblem assembly exhibits a chrome- or mirror-like finish when viewed under ambient lighting conditions. Further, the illuminated vehicle emblem assembly possesses a glowing appearance when activated under low-light or night-time conditions.
US08752985B2

A gobo support assembly, for a stage lighting fixture, has a disk-shaped gobo; a gobo support having a first seat for housing the gobo; and a gobo carrier wheel rotating about an axis and having a second seat for housing the gobo support; the gobo carrier wheel and the gobo support being connectable in sliding manner in a direction substantially perpendicular to the axis, and being locked mutually by a reversible click-on locking mechanism to hold the gobo support in a given position inside the second seat.
US08752983B2

In one embodiment, a lamp comprises an optically transmissive enclosure. An LED array is disposed in the optically transmissive enclosure operable to emit light when energized through an electrical connection. A gas is contained in the enclosure to provide thermal coupling to the LED array. The gas may include oxygen.
US08752982B2

The present invention provides a modularized street lamp, which includes a lamp holder, a first light emission module, and a second light emission module. The first light emission module and the second light emission module are mounted to the lamp holder so that each of the light emission modules covers a respective area of illumination to achieve an effective distribution of areas of illumination. When one of the light emission modules gets broken, the remaining one of the light emission modules is still staying in operation to give off light to allow pedestrians to watch out any situation occurring in roads or streets. Further, the present invention can be manufactured in an easy way and includes no special configuration so that any manufacturer in the industry can easily manufacture the lamp to thereby ensure fairness of maintenance operations.
US08752964B1

A system having one or more lenticular units and more supplementary parts without lenticular properties. The lenticular units consist of lenticular plates that are capable of visualizing various clinically relevant examination objects. In all the examination positions, the system may visualize a fixation area that is shown alone or together with clinically relevant examination objects targeted at the examination of clinically relevant visual functions. Supplementary parts with various optical properties may be fixed or be moved relative to the lenticular units. Various clinically relevant examination objects may be visualized for the right eye and the left eye in that the examination objects of the system are provided with different colors or light polarizations and using eyeglasses with a differently colored glass for the right eye and the left eye or with polarization filters with a different direction for the right eye and the left eye.
US08752944B2

A printing material supply system includes a printing device and a cartridge. The printing device has a cartridge mounting structure. The cartridge is removably attached to the cartridge mounting structure. The cartridge mounting structure has a device-side terminal, a lever, a first device-side locking element and a second device-side locking element. The first device-side locking element is configured as part of the lever to lock the cartridge at a position on a positive Z-axis side and on a positive X-axis side of the device-side terminal. The second device-side locking element is configured to lock the cartridge at a position on a positive Z-axis side and on a negative X-axis side of the printing material supply tube.
US08752934B2

A wiping device (20) for cleaning outer surfaces of at least one row of ejection nozzles in at least one print head (4a, 4b) of an ink jet printing module (2) of a franking machine when the module is moving above the wiping device in first and second directions (X, Y), comprising two wiping rollers (26, 28) located one behind the other in the first direction and adapted to rotate in opposite directions around respective fixed shafts (30, 32), the two wiping rollers being permanently dampened in contact with a cleaning fluid (24) contained inside a container (22); and the two wiping rollers are adapted via a one-way bearing (34, 36) to remain stationary alternatively, one during the moving of the module in the first direction and the other during the moving of the module in the second direction.
US08752926B2

A liquid ejecting apparatus includes a piezoelectric element provided with a piezoelectric layer and an electrode provided on the piezoelectric layer; and a driving unit supplying a driving waveform driving the piezoelectric element to the piezoelectric element.
US08752915B2

An articulation mechanism for a sliding shelf stem of a household appliance is disclosed. The articulation mechanism may operate without the use of an additional piece and may be made only with a stamping on the counter-door itself of the household appliance. The configuration of the articulation mechanism may simplify its fabrication and assembly, and may reduce or eliminate the need for use of accessories and tools for the assembly processes, simplifying construction.
US08752912B1

A method for converting a watertight carrying case into a desk that includes mounting a bracket onto rearward projections from the case for permitting the case to serve as a desk without compromising its watertightness.
US08752905B1

An ice breaking machine has a frame adapted to be mounted on a vehicle, and two subframes rotatably connected thereunder. The subframes in turn carry axles on which are mounted a plurality of wheel assemblies each composed of a wheel with six point mounts carrying six standard heavy equipment teeth. The wheels are keyed to the axle, with a mathematical relationship between the angles of the keyways of adjoining wheels so that the teeth of each wheel are slightly out of line with the teeth of the wheels on either side.
US08752902B2

A trim attachment retainer having a body portion including a proximal end and an engagement end. At least one cross member is integral with and substantially orthogonal to the body portion. At least one barb extends from the engagement end. The at least one barb includes a base and a distal end. The distal end is closer than the base to the at least one cross member.
US08752900B2

Modular furniture is provided. More specifically, upholstered furniture, including chairs, sofas, loveseats, and beds that are operably configured for removing and/or replacing one or more component of the furniture, such as arm rests, support legs, backs and sides are provided. In particular, an upholstered chair comprising: a base having a seat fixedly connected with a backrest; and a plurality of glass block sides removeably connected with the base is provided. The modular furniture systems can be used by consumers to replace selected components of the furniture with updated components for a new look.
US08752897B2

The invention relates to a vehicle seat which may be adjusted forward and back along a seat rail arranged on both sides, and in which both the inclination of a seat surface and a back surface and a height thereof may be adjusted. Such a vehicle seat is intended to be adapted very easily and in an uncomplicated manner to the different body sizes of drivers. This is achieved in that a common adjustment mechanism is provided for all seat adjustment sequences, which coordinates the individual adjustment sequences, in that the coordination of the adjustment sequences produces seat adjustments in which the seating position of the respective driver is optimized irrespective of body size.
US08752892B2

A vehicle seat includes a seat cushion, a seat back that is connected to the seat cushion in a manner so as to be reclined and raised with respect to the seat cushion, a lower band member that covers a connecting portion of the seat cushion and the seat back, and a supply portion provided in the lower band member. The seat back includes a cushion that forms a contour of a seat, a cover, and a blower arranged inside the seat back. Air blown from the blower is blown toward a sitting side of the seat back via a flow path portion of the cushion, while outside air is supplied to the blower. The supply portion communicates an inside of the seat back with an outside of the seat back, and outside air taken in from the supply portion is supplied to the blower.
US08752889B1

A bench system having a first and second panel mounted atop a first and second leg and a third and fourth leg, the panels are separated by a gap, the first leg and third leg and the second leg and fourth leg are pivotally connected via a pivot component, the legs are adjustable in length via an adjusting means, a sheet atop the panels, straps attached to the sheet at a first and second side, an extension sheet having a first and second side edge, and a top edge, wherein the top edge or a portion thereof is removably attached to the fourth side of the sheet via an attachment means, the first and second side edges of the extension sheet extend past the legs and sheet, and a pole on each side edge of the extension sheet.
US08752887B2

A hybrid combination structure of a roof frame is provided. In particular, the hybrid combination structure of a roof frame is configured to include a roof frame made of a plastic material, a front reinforce panel made of a steel material and mounted at a front of the roof frame, a center reinforce panel made of a steel material and mounted at a middle of the roof frame, and a rear reinforce panel made of a steel material and mounted at a rear of the roof frame to provide the integral roof frame in which steel and plastic are combined with each other, thereby improving sag and torsion problems to improve support rigidity and reducing weight and costs to improve a value of the product.
US08752884B2

A structural reinforcement for insertion into a cavity of a vehicle structure including a base reinforcing portion, an expandable material and a localized reinforcement is disclosed. The localized reinforcement is placed within the structural reinforcement at a location of anticipated increased deformation during vehicle impact in an effort to reduce deformation and control the load distribution post-impact.
US08752875B1

An electronic device holding system having a panel with a first end and a second end opposite the first end, a third end and a fourth end opposite the third end, a handle surface, and an attachment surface, a handle is pivotally attached to the handle surface and can pivot either in a first direction toward the third end of the panel and a second direction toward the fourth end of the panel, or in a third direction toward the first end of the panel and a fourth direction toward the second end of the panel, and a first half attachment means on the attachment surface and a second half attachment means for attaching to a smart phone, tablet, or electronic reader, the first half attachment means is adapted to temporarily engage the second half attachment means.
US08752873B2

The present invention relates to a gripper device for transporting a rack (3) for microscope slides (4), in particular in systems for preparing tissue samples for histological examinations, the gripper device having a gripping mechanism including a pair of gripping arms (2), whose ends are configured as gripping sections (7) for gripping the rack. In order to provide a gripper device which can be used in a versatile manner in automated stainers and coverslippers and contributes to reducing the cost of manufacture, it is proposed that the gripping sections (7) be provided with first profiles (17) for gripping the rack (3) in a vertical position and second profiles (18) for gripping the rack (3) in a horizontal position.
US08752863B2

A vehicle seat assembly may include an air bag module having an inflatable air bag and a housing that receives the air bag. The housing has a main body that substantially encloses the air bag prior to inflation of the air bag, and an extension formed integrally with the main body. The extension is substantially enclosed by the main body prior to inflation of the air bag, and the extension has an end. Upon inflation of the air bag, the end of the extension is configured to extend outside the main body such that the end extends between the air bag and a component of the seat assembly.
US08752846B1

A roller load support, for mounting on a load carrying vehicle such as a lift truck, has an elongate frame with a forwardly tapering vertical thickness and an upper surface for insertion beneath the underside of a load. Different longitudinally spaced pluralities of transverse upper rollers are movable upwardly to protrude through the frame's upper surface to engage the underside of the load during the insertion process. During the insertion process, the upper rollers are pushed upward by corresponding different pluralities of transverse lower rollers which rotatably engage the floor or other surface beneath the frame and frictionally counter-rotate the upper rollers. The lower rollers are spaced nonuniformly relative to each other along the length of the frame, with such spacings increasing progressively in size, within each plurality of lower rollers, in a forward direction toward the front end of the frame. Conversely, each such plurality of lower rollers has sequentially corresponding nonuniform spacings which decrease progressively in size, from plurality to plurality, in the forward direction.
US08752844B1

A shoe mobility system for allowing a user's shoe to roll on a ground surface while the user is seated in a wheelchair. The system features a base panel connected to a back panel at an angle, wherein the panels are for positioned at the back and bottom area of a shoe. A pair of flanges extends from the back panel of the system, and an axle spans the flanges. A wheel is rotatably attached to the axle. The system is attachable to the user's shoe.
US08752838B2

A video bingo poker game comprising: providing each player with an individual flashboard, each flashboard having an equal number of spaces, each space defined by a column label and a space number, wherein the space number is randomly selected from a predefined number range for each column; providing a plurality of bingo balls, wherein each bingo ball has markings associated with one of the plurality of spaces; randomly selecting a first group of bingo balls; displaying to each player the markings associated with each selected bingo ball of the first group of bingo balls; marking each square associated with each of the first group of bingo balls on each individual flashcard; and determining any winning flashboard.
US08752832B2

A sheet conveying apparatus includes: a first conveying guide that has a first conveying face of a conveying path; a second conveying guide that has a second conveying face opposed to the first conveying face; and a guide portion that is provided at any one of the first conveying guide and the second conveying guide, the guide portion has an elastic member that is fixed to one of the first conveying guide and the second conveying guide, and a rigid member that is provided on the face side of the elastic member on which the sheet passes and that has a surface more rigid than that of the elastic member, and the elastic member is deformed by pressing of the conveyed sheet when the sheet passes through the guide portion.
US08752825B2

An image forming apparatus includes an apparatus body, an image forming unit, a guide member, and a cover. The guide member is configured to be pivotable with respect to the apparatus body and is configured to guide the sheet along a transporting path. The cover is configured to be pivotable with respect to the apparatus body and is configured to open and close at least a part of the transporting path. The guide member includes a first engaging portion and the cover includes a second engaging portion which engages the first engaging portion of the guide member. One of the guide member and the cover includes an engagement guiding portion which guides one of the first engaging portion and the second engaging portion toward the other one of the first engaging portion and the second engaging portion, such that the first engaging portion and the second engaging portion engages with each other.
US08752823B2

The sheet feeding apparatus includes a feeding roller that includes an arc-shaped friction portion and a notch portion, and causes the friction portion to feed the sheet; a feeding motor rotationally driving the feeding roller; a separation pad that presses the sheet fed by the friction portion on a surface other than a surface at the friction portion, and separates a double-fed sheet; and a feeding spring that causes the sheet supporting portion to wait below the feeding roller such that the sheet supported on the sheet supporting portion is not in contact with the friction portion until the friction portion reaches the separation pad, and, when the friction portion reaches the separation pad, moves up the sheet supporting portion to an abutting position at which the sheet supported on the sheet supporting portion is pressed against the friction portion and the friction portion feeds the sheet.
US08752821B2

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming device to form an image on a sheet and a sheet feeding unit to feed the sheet to the image forming device. The sheet feeding unit includes an endless, dielectric belt disposed facing an upper surface of a sheet stack to contact and attract an uppermost sheet to the surface thereof and feed the sheet in the sheet feeding direction, and an electric potential pattern forming unit to form an electric potential pattern on the surface of the dielectric belt. The electric potential pattern has multiple potential holding sections of identical absolute values and opposite polarities disposed adjacent to each other at a uniform pitch. The electric potential pattern forming unit forms the electric potential pattern to have equal numbers of positive potential holding sections and negative potential holding sections.
US08752818B2

A bookbinding device and a print-medium post-treatment apparatus having the same. In the bookbinding device, when a print medium drops and is loaded a stack plate, a drop position of a leading end of the print medium is changed according to a size of the print medium. This prevents sequence upset of print media when the print media are stacked one above another on the stack plate.
US08752810B2

A fluid strut includes a frangible locking member including a generally cylindrical locking pin mounted to an outer cylindrical housing of the strut and extending radially inwardly toward a gas spring cylinder. The locking pin is movable between operative and inoperative positions. In the operative position, the spring-loaded frangible locking pin extends into engagement with the gas cylinder and can advance radially to a locking position once the outer housing extends beyond the location of the gas cylinder. In an inoperative position, the locking pin is held in a retracted position. The end of the locking pin has a reduced diameter, such that, if a purposeful force is placed upon the strut when in a locked position, the pin can shear, allowing the rod to be retracted within the cylinder and the closure member to be closed without damage.
US08752809B2

Methods and apparatus to couple valve shafts and closure members are described. An example coupling apparatus includes an expansion pin to be disposed in a bore defined by a first aperture of a valve shaft and a second aperture of a closure member. The first and second apertures are coaxially aligned when the valve shaft is coupled to the closure member. A first tapered pin is disposed in a first opening of the expansion pin adjacent a first end of the expansion pin and a second tapered pin is disposed in a second opening of the expansion pin adjacent a second end of the expansion pin. The first tapered pin causes the expansion pin to expand at a first location when the first tapered pin is disposed in the first opening and the second tapered pin causes the expansion pin to expand at a second location different than the first location when the second tapered is disposed in the second opening.
US08752807B2

A seat block capable of maintaining a well-fitted state of a seat portion in a simple and reliable manner regardless of use conditions. A seat portion base body (43) is provided in a housing (67) provided with a valve passage (66) and allows a piston (28) for opening and closing a valve passage (66) to be pressed on the seat portion base body (43). A spring member (23) applies an elastic force to the seat portion base body (43) such that the elastic mechanism (23) cooperates with the housing (67) to retain the seat portion base body (43).
US08752802B1

A clamping device adapted to electronic product of different dimensions, includes a base unit, a clamping member, two stoppers, a moving unit, a release unit, and two rotation units. The base unit is used for placing an electronic product on it. The clamping member clamps the electronic product by the manner of closing the stoppers. The clamp member is installed on the moving unit. The moving unit adjusts the position of the clamping member by the manner of straight moving. The two stoppers are installed on the corresponding rotation units, respectively. The two rotation units adjust positions of the two stoppers by rotary manner. The release unit may release the state of clamping the electronic product. The clamping device clamps the electronic product of different dimensions through a variety of positions of the clamping member and the two stoppers.
US08752799B2

The present invention discloses a stand for a cooler containing cooling solution. The cooler further includes an attached flexible tubing outlet for draining the cooling solution through the flexible tube outlet into a medical cuff for reducing swelling of injured tissue. The stand further comprises a cylindrical container with a cavity for receiving through the opened top end of the lateral sidewall the cooler therein. An elongated pedestal is further defined by a top end and a bottom end. The top end of the pedestal is attached underneath the bottom side of the container. The container is supported in an upright position a distance above the surface of the ground. An aperture is located in the lateral side wall for receiving the flexible tubing outlet therethrough.
US08752792B2

An object of the invention is to provide a low-cost closing member for an opening having an excellent lightning protection capability.A door body 30, a clamp ring 40 made of a composite material, and an opening 12 of a wing panel 11 made of the composite material are electrically connected by surface bonding of conductive materials in a butt section of an abutment surface 34 of the door body 30 and a tapered surface 40c of the clamp ring 40 and a butt section of a tapered surface 40d of the clamp ring 40 and an abutment surface 14 of the opening 12.
US08752787B2

A magnetic suspension electric rotor flying saucer comprises: a saucer shell (1), a saucer cabin (2), a rotor system (3), and a control system (4). The rotor wing system is a magnetic suspension electric rotor wing system (3) composed of a magnetic suspension rotor wing wheel (5), an electrodynamic ring (6), a magnetic suspension shaft (7) and magnetic suspension lead rails (8). The electrodynamic ring (6), the magnetic suspension shaft (7) and the magnetic suspension lead rails (8) are fixed on the saucer shell (1). The magnetic suspension rotor wing wheel (5) is suspended in space limited by the electrodynamic ring (6), the magnetic suspension shaft (7) and the magnetic suspension lead rails (8) and rotates around the magnetic suspension shaft (7) by the electromagnetic thrust.
US08752785B2

The landing gear system for an aircraft includes a shock strut assembly that is coupled to the airframe with a universal joint. A tire member is mounted to the shock strut assembly. The landing gear system also includes a drag brace assembly coupled to an airframe of the aircraft with a spindle, the spindle being rotatable about a spindle axis. A radius rod is rotatably coupled to the airframe of the aircraft. The radius rod and the shock strut assembly are retractable about a retraction rotation axis. Further, the spindle axis has a common intersection point with the centerline axis and the retraction rotation axis. The orientation of the spindle axis causes a translation of the tire member to have a longitudinal component during a compression of the shock strut assembly.
US08752784B2

An aircraft rotary wing motion control fluid device providing motion control and with wireless sensing of at least one fluid property inside the fluid device is provided. The wireless sensing system is integrated with at least one of the first and second aircraft rotary wing motion control fluid device bodies. The wireless sensing system includes at least one fluid property sensor in sensing proximity to the at least one fluid chamber and a communications device for wirelessly conveying a measurement made by the at least one fluid property sensor to a remote location.
US08752782B2

The subject embodiments are directed to a system to allow an uninterrupted flow of a coil welding wire from one container to another container, the coil of welding wire including a coil top and a coil bottom. Each container includes at least one vertically extending side wall, a closed bottom, a top opening for removing the welding wire and a wire coil receiving cavity within the outer packaging for receiving the wire coil, the feeding end and the trailing end being positionable near the top opening. A wire retaining ring is disposed on the coil top in the container and another said container, the wire retaining ring includes a slot that extends radially from a center of the coil to allow the trailing end of the coil to be drawn at a location away from the center of the coil.
US08752774B2

A tubular outer needle, slidably housed in a body, can communicate nozzle and suck chambers R1, R2 with each other and shut them from each other, and defines nozzle and suck chambers R1, R3. A rod-like inner needle, coaxially slidably housed in the outer needle, has a tip end portion movable into the suck chamber R2 at its lowermost position. In the range of small inner lift amount, an annular clearance is formed between an inner peripheral surface of an inner side wall defines the suck chamber R2 and an outer peripheral surface of an outer side wall of the needle tip end portion. Outer and inner lift amounts are regulated such that when fuel injection is started, the outer and inner lift amounts simultaneously increase from zero while when fuel injection is terminated, the inner lift amount returns to zero after the outer lift amount returns zero.
US08752770B2

Pursuant to some embodiments, methods, apparatus, systems, devices, and means for issuing a payment device from a remote dispensing device are provided which include receiving a request to purchase a payment device from the remote dispensing device, the request including a load amount. Device information is read from a pre-personalized payment device in the remote dispensing device, and a request is made to an issuer of the pre-personalized payment device, for personalization data to personalize the pre-personalized payment device. In some embodiments, the request is sent over a secure authenticated session established between a module of the dispensing device and the issuer. The personalization data is loaded in the pre-personalized payment device to create a personalized payment device, and the personalized payment device is dispensed for use by a consumer.
US08752765B2

A mother/daughter card non-volatile memory system includes a daughter card containing the memory and a mother card containing the memory controller and host interface circuits. The daughter memory card contains as little more than the memory cell array as is practical, in order to minimize its cost, and has an interface for connecting with a variety of mother controller cards having physical attributes and host interfaces according to a number of different published or proprietary memory card standards. Different types of memory cards may be used when the operating parameters of the memory are stored within it in a protected location, the mother card controller then reading these parameters and adapting its operation accordingly. A radio frequency antenna may be included on a surface of the card along with its electrical contacts, in order to provide a radio frequency identification function.
US08752762B2

A display unit comprising a plurality of display modules arranged in a row and having an upper display section and a lower display section. One of the display modules includes an interactive Kiosk, and a second of the display modules includes at least one computer controlled card reading video station. A consumer may pass a coded paint color sample card past a code reader in the video station and is thereafter presented with a display of a color present on the sample card followed by a selectable sequence of video display screens, which may comprise part of a color selection application program.
US08752754B2

Disclosed are an apparatus for adhering solder powder to finely adhere the solder powder to an electronic circuit board and a method for adhering solder powder to the electronic circuit board. The apparatus for adhering solder powder includes a container that contains an electronic circuit board and solder powder; a board holding portion provided in the container to hold the electronic circuit board such that a board surface thereof substantially faces a vertical direction; a tilting device which sets an initial position of the container as a tilted position where the container is tilted in a first direction, and which tilts the container from the initial position in a second direction that is opposite to the first direction, and tilts the container back in the first direction; and a vibrating device provided with an eccentric motor provided in the center of a bottom portion of the container which provides vibration to the bottom portion of the container through rotation of a rotating shaft, and control device for setting the rotating shaft of the eccentric motor in the same direction as the tilting direction of the container.
US08752750B2

An apparatus comprising a plurality of chambers for receiving an associated plurality of staples, each formed with a shape memory that allows the staple to adopt a straightened configuration, when placed in a stapler, and a deployed configuration for suturing when released from the stapler; and a sleeve moveable relative to the chambers between a first position, in which the staples are trapped by the sleeve within the chambers in the straightened configuration, and a second position, whereby the staples are freed to adopt the deployed configuration, wherein the sleeve is adapted to move between the first and second positions by rotating relative to the chambers.
US08752743B2

An article carrier has a first member including a top side and a first arch. The first arch optionally is for receiving a first article. The article carrier also has a moveable second member connected to the first member. The second member is moveable from a first position connected to a lateral side of the first member and to a second position where the moveable second member is not connected to the lateral side. The moveable second member may retain a second article on the moveable second member in the second position. The second member may capture a temple bar of a pair of glasses on the second member.
US08752724B2

A container system includes a container having an opening and an insert configured to be placed in the container through the opening. The insert includes a sleeve substantially corresponding in shape to a shape of an inner surface of the container adjacent to the opening.
US08752713B2

A hollow porous membrane with a reduced cost and excellent separation characteristic, water permeability, and mechanical strength and a process of producing the hollow porous membrane with an excellent adhesive property between a support and a porous membrane layer at a low cost are provided. The hollow porous membrane includes a porous membrane layer in which dense layers are disposed in the vicinities of an outer surface and an inner surface. In the process of producing the hollow porous membrane, membrane-forming dopes of a first membrane-forming dope and a second membrane-forming dope, which contain the material of the porous membrane layer and a solvent, are successively applied and stacked onto the outer circumferential surface of a hollow support and the applied membrane-forming dopes are simultaneously coagulated. In the process of producing the hollow porous membrane, a porous membrane layer is formed by applying a membrane-forming dope containing a material of the porous membrane layer and a solvent to the outer circumferential surface of the hollow support and coagulating the applied dope, and a hollow braid obtained by circularly knitting a yarn formed of multi-filaments is used as the support.
US08752712B2

An automated method is used to direct seeds to desired locations. The method includes isolating individual seeds from a plurality of seeds, for example, in a seed bin, and then measuring desired properties of the seeds. The measured properties are evaluated, and the seeds are then directed to desired locations, for example, based on the measured properties. The individual seeds are each contacted with a stream of air to move the seeds to the desired locations.
US08752706B2

A dual purpose waste receptacle and toilet tissue roll storage device in which the toilet tissue storage area is arranged below the waste receptacle and provides a base on which the dual purpose device stands in use. A flanged top provides for convenient handling. The device may be made in one or two pieces.
US08752704B2

A daily blister card housing a unit dose includes a back side and a front side opposite the back side. The front side includes a manufacturer indicator visible on the front side. A face has an outer periphery and a total planar area bounded by the outer periphery. One or more blisters extend outwardly at the face that contain at least three unit doses that are visible from outside the one or more blisters. Each of the one or more blisters includes a shoulder contacting a cavity backing surface and a projected cavity area bounded by the shoulder that is projected onto the cavity backing surface. A total projected cavity area of the one or more blisters is no more than about 45 percent of the total planar area bounded by the outer periphery.
US08752697B2

The invention relates to an adjusting device for use on a conveyor for transporting packages in a transport direction, comprising at least one transport element forming a transport surface for the packages and further comprising functional elements that can be adjusted in an axial direction transversely with respect to the transport direction, having at least one spindle assembly with at least two spindles, the axes of which are oriented parallel to each other and transversely with respect to the transport direction, having at least two dividing or adjusting elements, each of which engages in a threaded spindle by means of a threaded hole.
US08752692B2

An apparatus for conveying printed products, includes a first accumulating section and at least one second accumulating section to convey the printed products from at least one intake area to at least one discharge area. The apparatus includes a feeding device to supply the printed products to one of the first or second accumulating sections in the at least one intake area. The apparatus further includes a discharge device to remove the printed products from one of the first or second accumulating sections in the at least one discharge area.
US08752690B2

Bills are fed from a customer serving section to a discriminator according to continuous feeding, and the discriminator reads identification information of the bills to store the identification information in an identification information storage. When the discriminator discriminates a bill, it determines whether or not the same identification information as the identification information of the bill is stored in the identification information storage. If the same identification information is stored, the customer serving section feeds the bills to the discriminator according to intermittent feeding. This prevents any bill from being undiscriminated.
US08752687B2

The invention is directed to a flexible, elastomeric slide having two major edges and two minor edges and mounting holes on the major edges for suspension underneath a solids control system. The major edges may be reinforced by rigid edge strips.
US08752685B2

The lock-up device includes an input rotary member, an output rotary member, an elastic member and a support member. The elastic member elastically couples the input rotary member and the output rotary member in a rotational direction. The support member is rotatably disposed relatively to the input rotary member and the output rotary member. The support member has a support part supporting the elastic member and an engaging part engaged with the elastic member in the rotational direction. The support part of the support member herein has an outer peripheral side support portion supporting the outer peripheral side of the elastic member. Further, the outer peripheral end of the outer peripheral side support portion has a curvature continuously reduced in proportion to distance from the engaging part in the rotational direction.
US08752678B2

A disc brake is arrangeable in a space that accommodates a brake caliper having an application device. The brake caliper is held slidably with guiding elements on a brake carrier, which is fastened with screws to an axle connection at the vehicle. The caliper straddles a brake disc, against which brake pads can be pressed on either side while braking. At least the brake pad on the application side is mounted movably in the direction of the brake disc in a pad shaft of the brake carrier. A device for the visual identification of the wear of a brake pad and/or brake disc is constructed so that for identifying wear, a pointer element, extending in the opposite direction to the brake disc, is connected at least at one screw.
US08752671B1

A portable, collapsible, free-standing device for use by a rider to access the saddle stirrup when mounting a horse. The device has a center support pole with a handle on one end and a base on the other. Two folding steps are each pivotally mounted to spaced-apart brackets attached to the pole, to assist the rider to reach the stirrup. Several folding legs are mounted to a collar attached to the center pole in order to stabilize the device. The legs can be configured with extensions so that the device can be leveled on uneven terrain. Pivoting foot pads can be attached onto the ends of the legs. A rope is attached to the handle so that the device can be pulled up after the rider has mounted the horse, whereupon the device can be folded and collapsed for storage on the horse.
US08752668B2

A track having a stopping means that can stop a puck member from descending an undesired distance. After stopping of the puck member, the user can relocate the puck member within a channel for continued downward movement within the channel.
US08752667B2

A membrane is disclosed. The membrane contains a first weight disposed at a center portion of the membrane, and a first hinge structure disposed away from the center portion of the membrane.
US08752665B1

An air, fuel, and water mixture is injected into a resonance chamber forming micro-packets. The micro-packets are ignited forming micro-explosions in a combustion chamber containing a central resonance chamber creating a standing wave interfering with a standing wave in the resonance chamber generating the micro-packets. The interfering waves are in phase aiding in the disassociation of molecules, including hydrogen and oxygen, in the air, fuel and water mixture. Efficient combustion is achieved with a nearly zero carbon emissions. The heat generated from the combustion may be used to produce work by any conventional device, such as a steam engine or turbine or generate heat for a building.
US08752660B2

There is obtained a cooling structure for a vehicle that can keep low a temperature of an interior of a power unit chamber in which a power unit is disposed. A cooling structure for a vehicle has: a power unit that is disposed within a power unit chamber disposed at a vehicle front side and at which air intake ports are formed in a front end side in a vehicle front-rear direction; an air-cooling-type heat exchanger that is disposed at a rear side with respect to the power unit, and that is cooled by heat exchange with air that passes from a front side to a rear side; and a communication duct that communicates a rear side portion with respect to the air-cooling-type heat exchanger and a rear side portion of the power unit in the power unit chamber.
US08752653B2

An internal blowout preventer used in drilling rigs for the discovery and production of hydrocarbons from the earth is disclosed. The internal blowout preventer has two independently and remotely operable blowout preventer valves in the same body, providing for greater service life and higher reliability during drilling operations. The two valves are loaded into the internal blowout preventer housing from a single end, and are operable by an actuator assembly.
US08752649B2

A well bore reaming device and method are disclosed. The device includes a drill string, a bottom eccentric reamer coupled to the drill string, and a top eccentric reamer coupled to the drill string, wherein the bottom and top eccentric reamers have a prearranged spacing and orientation.
US08752648B2

Predicting a drill string stuck pipe event. At least some of the illustrative embodiments are methods including: receiving a plurality of drilling parameters from a drilling operation; applying the plurality of drilling parameters to an ensemble prediction model comprising at least three machine-learning algorithms operated in parallel, each machine-learning algorithm predicting a probability of occurrence of a future stuck pipe event based on at least one of the plurality of drilling parameters, the ensemble prediction model creates a combined probability based on the probability of occurrence of the future stuck pipe event of each machine-learning algorithm; and providing an indication of a likelihood of a future stuck pipe event to a drilling operator, the indication based on the combined probability.
US08752644B2

An electric tool, particularly a saw, has a connecting region and an actuating handle. The actuating handle is pivotally arranged on the connecting region, wherein the actuating handle can be pivoted into a number of pivoted positions and the actuating handle has at least one actuating switch for the electrical actuation of the electric tool. An uncomfortable position of the hand during actuation of the actuating handle is avoided and a high degree of comfort is achieved by the connecting region and the actuating handle being connected to each other by way of an articulated connection and by the articulated connection having a bearing lug and a handle pivot pin in engagement with the bearing lug.
US08752643B2

A work vehicle, such as a motor grader, comprises a frame, a ripper, a tie bar attached to the frame, and a four-bar linkage attached to and disposed between the ripper and the tie bar for transferring a load between the ripper and the frame via the four-bar linkage and the tie bar. The four-bar linkage and the tie bar are co-planar with respect to a plane within which the four-bar linkage is movable relative to the frame. A toolbar for the ripper is also disclosed.
US08752642B2

An implement height adjuster is provided to allow for the adjustment of the height of an implement remotely from the tractor cab without requiring the user to stop the tractor to make individual adjustments. The implement height adjuster is configured to be coupled to a planter unit or other equipment towed behind a tractor and includes a motor, a gear reduction transmission coupled to the motor, and a flexible output shaft, that is coupled to the transmission at a first end and to the implement to be adjusted at a second end. The flexible output shaft allows the motor of the implement height adjuster to be mounted in various positions on the equipment. The gear reduction transmission or motor includes a position sensor that allows the operator of the tractor to know the position of a particular implement without requiring a visual inspection of the implement. A control panel is used to manage the vertical adjustment of one or a series of implements. The control panel provides power to the implement height adjusters and uses the output signals of the sensor to determine the exact location of each the tillage implement.
US08752636B2

A tubular gripping assembly for use with a top drive to handle a tubular includes a tubular gripping tool having a mandrel and gripping elements operatively coupled to the mandrel; and a link assembly attached to the mandrel, wherein a load of the link assembly is transferred to the mandrel. The tubular gripping assembly may also include one or more of a swivel having selectively actuatable seals, a thread compensator to facilitate tubular make-up, or a wedge lock release apparatus to facilitate the release of gripping elements from the tubular.
US08752635B2

A technique is provided that utilizes one or both of a control line actuation mechanism and a connector protection mechanism for use in a wellbore environment. Upon landing a lower well assembly and an upper well assembly at a desired wellbore location, control line connectors are engaged. The control line actuation mechanism and/or connector protection mechanism facilitate the formation of a desirable control line connection.
US08752629B2

A valve assembly for regulating fluid flow in a horizontal wellbore. A housing can be coupled to a production tubular. A chamber is defined within the housing and can be in fluid communication through a flow channel with an inner annulus formed adjacent the wellbore. A piston and a biasing member can be disposed within the chamber, where the biasing member biases the piston into a first position. A flowpath is defined within the housing and communicable with both the production tubular and the inner annulus. The flowpath can include one or more nozzles disposed therein, and the piston can be configured to move between the first position allowing fluid flow through the flowpath to the production tubular and a second position preventing fluid flow to the production tubular.
US08752617B2

A system is provided for drilling and/or servicing a well bore using continuous lengths of coiled tubing in which a turntable assembly rotates a coiled tubing reel assembly and a counter balance system about the well bore such that the coiled tubing is rotated while in the wellbore. A coiled tubing injector may be provided on a separate turntable assembly or on the same turntable assembly as the reel assembly. A swivel support assembly may be provided for managing operation lines associated with the system.
US08752597B2

A fluid dispensing nozzle includes a removable valve subassembly that controls the flow of fluid and the recovery of fluid vapor through the body of the nozzle. The subassembly may be pre-assembled and installed within a nozzle body as a single unit. The nozzle may include a vacuum-driven automatic shut-off system which prevents fluid from flowing through the nozzle when the downstream end of the nozzle spout is submerged. The shutoff system may also be magnetically actuated to allow for dry testing in which the automatic shut-off functionality is testing without dispensation of fluid.
US08752595B2

A kit for inflating and repairing inflatable articles, in particular tires, the kit having a compressor assembly, a container of sealing liquid and connectors for connecting the container to the compressor assembly and to an inflatable article for repair or inflation; the compressor assembly being housed in an outer casing defining a seat for the container of sealing liquid. The container is housed removably in the seat and functionally connected to the compressor assembly so as to form a compact unit ready for use.
US08752590B2

An extendable rope protecting sleeve is provided as an apparatus that extends over an existing climbing rope providing a barrier that protects said climbing rope from fraying and weakening as a result of direct contact with damaging surfaces. The expandable rope protecting sleeve shrouds a climbing rope during a climber's descent with minimal interference to the climber's range of motion. The apparatus provides the extendable sleeve with a detachable engagement through a breakaway wrist strap in order reduce the likelihood of the climber being encumbered by the apparatus. Additionally, the detachable engagement is provided in a manner that avoids a sudden jerking sensation upon detachment. Through the combination of the aforementioned components the apparatus is able to slowly expand over a climbing rope covering exposed sections of the climbing rope during the climber's descent.
US08752589B2

The present invention comprises a method and means for repairing the wall of a manhole wherein a material capable of curing and hardening is adhered to the wall. An expandable bladder engages the curable and hardenable material and presses against and smoothes the material. The bladder may be chemically bonded to the curable and hardenable material or it may be mechanically bonded.
US08752581B2

A hydraulic tank for an industrial truck having a tank lower part with a base and a side wall and produced in one piece, a tank cover which is connected to an upper edge of the side wall, is produced in one piece and defines at least one hydraulic medium receiving chamber together with the base and the side wall, at least one hydraulic medium intake pipe extending from a hydraulic medium suction connector of the tank cover, and at least one hydraulic medium return pipe extending from a hydraulic medium return connector of the tank cover, wherein the hydraulic medium intake pipe and the hydraulic medium return pipe, together with the tank cover, form a tank upper part which is assembled as a modular unit with the tank lower part to form the hydraulic tank.
US08752575B2

The present invention provides a faucet including a cartridge assembly with a radially offset key.
US08752574B1

A system for installing sealant into a stuffing box of an industrial valve with a first volatile organic compound injection valve providing a seal; a removable plug for sealingly engaging an end of the injection port bore forming an additional seal; a rotatable shut off pin for regulating flow through the injection port bore, a high pressure packing gland with packing gland bore, a threaded packing chamber, a threaded injection valve port, and a rotatable packing gland shut off pin to regulate sealant flowing through the packing gland bore or to stop flow of sealant.
US08752572B2

A bundle trailer for containers including (i) a supporting frame on which a plurality of bundles are located; (ii) a plurality of bundles, each bundle comprising: a bundle frame, a plurality of containers containing a chemical, and at least one bundle value for controlling delivery of the chemical in the containers; (iii) at least one trailer valve; and (iv) at least one clamp for fixing the bundle is disclosed. The bundle trailer is capable of delivering high purity hygroscopic, corrosive chemicals, such as elemental fluorine and mixtures thereof, with good flexibility, high safety, and low cost.
US08752570B2

A device for controlling fluid flow includes a conduit that defines a channel through which fluid flows opposing upstream and downstream directions of fluid flow. A rupture valve obliquely disposed in the channel to selectively prevent fluid flow through the channel, the rupture valve resisting rupture in response to pressure exerted on the rupture valve in the upstream direction and selectively rupturing in response to pressure exerted on the rupture valve in the downstream direction.
US08752558B2

An apparatus for molding and packaging molded tobacco pieces includes a mold having cavities oriented to allow ejection of molded tobacco pieces into a container. The apparatus also includes a knockout for ejecting the molded tobacco pieces, and a cutter having at least two blades for cutting the molded tobacco pieces into vertically aligned slices by passing one or more blades horizontally through the cavities.
US08752544B2

The present application includes an independent and redundant measurement of anesthetic concentration, based on acoustic time-of-flight measurements, added to an anesthetic vaporizer. The redundant anesthetic concentration measurement is used to make the vaporizer inherently safe by design and monitor true vaporizer empty. Further, using an acoustic wave splitting technique and the time-of-flight measurements, the flows at the vaporizer inlet and outlet are computed. The flow measurements are used to monitor carrier gas loss, anesthetic consumption, and anesthetic delivery time remaining and provide such information to the vaporizer operator.
US08752543B2

A fluid dispensing device for dispensing a fluid having a viscosity of from 10 to 2000 mPas at 25° C., the dispensing device having at least one finger-operable lever pivotably moveable into the housing transversely with respect to the longitudinal axis of the fluid discharge device, to apply a force to an actuating member connected to the neck of a container, the device having a pre-load to prevent pivoting until a pre-determined force is applied, wherein the actuating member and the lever have surfaces which slidingly interact, wherein the pre-load is formed by one of the surfaces of the actuating member or the lever having a dual-gradient profile.
US08752541B2

A heating system can include certain pressure sensitive features. These features can be configured to change from a first position to a second position based on a pressure of a fuel flowing into the feature. These features can include, fuel selector valves, pressure regulators, burner nozzles, and oxygen depletion sensor nozzles, among other features.
US08752540B2

A warming oven includes a base, a heating unit, a heat conducting unit, and a reflective shield. The base has an accommodating space. The heating unit is disposed within the accommodating space. The heat conducting unit includes a positioning plate, a top plate spaced apart from the positioning plate, a quartz glass tube inserted into the positioning plate and the top plate, and a plurality of upright connecting rods disposed around the positioning plate and the top plate. The reflective shield is formed with a plurality of vent holes, and includes a bottom cover that covers a top end of the heat conducting unit and that has a vertically curved outer mirror surface for reflecting light from a fire flame produced by the heating unit, thereby providing an illumination effect.
US08752529B2

A spark ignition internal combustion engine is equipped with a fuel pressure sensor for detecting a viscosity of fuel supplied to a fuel injector based on a variation in a fuel pressure. In a case of stratified combustion by a spray guided injection, an ECU advances a fuel injection start timing of the fuel injector 4 according to the detected viscosity of the fuel. Thus, even if the viscosity of the fuel is significantly high, the fuel-rich area is well formed at a vicinity of the discharge electrode so that a preferable combustion condition can be maintained.
US08752520B2

A piston for an internal combustion engine, for example a diesel engine, including a body delimited laterally by a skirt and configured to collaborate with walls of a cylinder of axis of revolution C in which the piston can slide along the axis C, the piston including a transverse face that includes a central pip, a peripheral ring, and a bowl of axis of revolution B that extends from the central pip towards the peripheral ring to which it connects at a lip of thickness Ep. The bowl includes, in substantial vertical alignment with the lip, a torus in profile, for example of a dome-shaped, of maximum radius Rt capable of guiding fuel injected under the lip in a region of a re-entrant zone R towards the central pip. The tip of the pip lying on the axis of revolution B of the bowl rises to a height that is a distance Dt of between 5.4 mm and 8 mm, or substantially equal to 7.2 mm, below the level of the peripheral ring.
US08752510B2

A steam generator includes a lower integrated tubesheet and plenum (ITP) configured to receive feedwater and a first set of heat transfer tubes fluidly coupled to a plurality of stubs protruding from a first side of the lower ITP. A second set of heat transfer tubes fluidly couples to plurality of stubs protruding from a second side of the lower ITP. The first set of heat transfer tubes is coiled in a substantially clock-wise direction, and the second set of heat transfer tubes is coiled in a substantially counter-clockwise direction. The steam generator further includes an upper ITP fluidly coupled to the first and second set of heat transfer tubes, wherein the feedwater entering the lower ITP is converted to steam in the first and second sets of heat transfer tubes. The upper ITP is configured to transport the steam away from the steam generator.
US08752509B1

The A-Z Livestock Training Rope is a humane, effective animal training and handling apparatus which teaches leading, tying, trailer loading, ground manners, cinch and saddle pressure, pressure on reins, stops rearing-up and bucking, and is a safer alternative to standard drag lines. It consists of a rope attached to a ring looped around the animal's barrel then passed through the halter. As the operator applies pressure to the end of the rope, the loop tightens around the barrel which exerts pressure on the animal. When the animal yields to the direction of the operator, the rope slacks and the pressure is relieved. As this action is repeated, the animal will learn to yield without the need for pressure on the rope.
US08752508B2

The invention relates to a molded pet toy puzzle with a top aperture to receive a ball and wherein gravity will force the ball randomly into one of three tunnels with a terminus at each end. Each terminus will have some type of covering wherein an animal must determine how to open the covering to retrieve the ball.
US08752503B2

To generate plasma inside a tube of a small opening diameter and perform plasma processing inside the tube. A plasma processing device 2 is formed by a chamber (4) and a microwave generation device (6). A microwave is introduced into the chamber via a quartz tube (16). A tube holder (18) is arranged inside the quartz tube (16). Two holes are formed in the side surface of the tube holder (18). A tube (20) of a small opening diameter is fixed to the end of the tube holder (18).
US08752497B2

An anchor device includes a connecting member between an anchor and its anchor line, having a first part designed to be fastened to one end of the shank of the anchor and a second part extending axially and designed to be fastened releasably to the first part and to be connected to the anchor line; including a piston which is slidable in a cavity of the second part; and a body designed to be moved by sliding along the anchor line until it interacts with the piston, thus releasing the first part and second part.
US08752489B2

The present invention discloses a pallet construction having a body including a plurality of interconnected structural members defining at least an upper support surface, a bottom and a plurality of interconnecting sides. A plurality of stand-offs extend from underside projecting locations of the body in order to elevate the bottom an upward distance from a ground supporting location. A mesh or other sheer material is provided and exhibits durable load carrying and anti-tear properties. The mesh is applied over at least the upper support surface and, in additional variants, along each of the extending side surfaces such that the body establishes a three dimensional volume defining interior. In order to support the mesh, the body includes upper and lower vertically spaced and rectangular perimeter defining members separated by spaced apart and vertically interconnecting members.
US08752481B2

A blender with an air intake snorkel where the snorkel extends away from a motor housing provided by the blender is provided. The snorkel includes an air intake opening, an outlet opening, and a conduit fluidly connecting the intake and outlet openings. In one preferred embodiment, the snorkel includes a cap connected to the snorkel wherein the cap partially obstructs access to the intake opening in order to prevent contamination of the conduit. The outlet opening fluidly communicates with an inlet aperture provided by the motor housing. In use, an electric motor contained by the housing actuates a fan. The fan pulls air through the intake opening, conduit, and outlet opening. The air enters the housing via the inlet aperture where it acts to cool the electric motor. In one preferred embodiment, the appliance is a blender and the motor housing comprises a blender base that is installed on a countertop or in-counter (i.e., a portion of the blender extends into or through the plane defined by a countertop). The air intake snorkel reduces contamination of the interior of the appliance, provides efficient airflow for motor cooling, and reduces the re-circulation of warm appliance exhaust air into the motor housing.
US08752480B1

An apparatus for preparing a melon juice concentrate, such as watermelon juice concentrate, includes a finisher with brushes for separating melon flesh from melon rind including leaving at least 1/16 inch flesh on the rind and screens for separating juice from flesh. The apparatus also includes a steamer to reduce bacteria count on whole melon, a chopper for chopping melons into pieces less than about 16 inches square, an extractor for extracting juice from the flesh, and an evaporator for concentrating melon juice to form melon juice concentrate. The steamer includes a cylinder frame, steam jets directing steam through apertures in the cylinder frame at whole melon therein, and a motivator to move the whole melon along the cylinder frame. The apparatus can also process cantaloupe, honeydew melon, and other melon.
US08752479B2

An indoor range-top grill allows a user to substantially duplicate outdoor grilling indoors. In some embodiments, the indoor range-top grill sits on top of a gas or electric burner of a stove and uses heat from the burner to grill and cook food. Typically, the indoor range-top grill comprises a grill enclosure having an opening at a top and a hole at a bottom, a burner shield positioned inside the grill enclosure, and a grate positioned above the burner shield. The hole allows heat and flame from the burner through to heat the burner shield. In some embodiments, the burner shield comprises a heat director integrally coupled to a grease ring. Preferably, the heat director burns grease, which thereby adds true BBQ taste/flavor to the food. The grease ring typically guides food residue away from the hole, trapping the food residue between the grease ring and the grill enclosure.
US08752477B2

An Espresso making device includes a brew chamber for enclosing a quantity of coffee grind, and a tube for supplying pressurized hot water to the brew chamber. Espresso is obtained by conducting the hot water through the coffee grind, where the water and the coffee grind are forced to interact. During an Espresso making process, a pressure of the water in the water supplying tube is monitored and compared to a predetermined pressure. In case the measured pressure appears to deviate from the predetermined pressure, a size of an internal volume of the brewing chamber is adjusted, so that an extent to which the coffee grind is compressed and a flow through resistance of the coffee grind are adjusted. Due to this, it is possible to adjust the pressure in such a way that the predetermined pressure is reached.
US08752475B2

An engine with a positive pressure assisted brake booster is disclosed. In one example, an operator applying vehicle brakes is assisted by positive pressure provided by a compressor coupled to an engine of the vehicle. Operation of the vehicle brakes may be improved especially when engine vacuum is limited.
US08752473B2

A firearm including a barrel, receiver, indirect gas system and an adjustable gas block. Four positions of adjustment are provided for on the adjustable gas block, each of which provides a different setting to regulate gas flow into the host firearm's operating system. A position of adjustment is selected based on how the firearm is being used. The provided positions of adjustment are calibrated for the standard use of the host firearm, use of a silencer, use of the firearm under hard or adverse conditions or when it is necessary to increase the firearm's rate of fire, and to block the flow of gas into the operating system. The provided gas block is designed to function with an indirect gas operating system, but could be adapted for use with a direct gas impingement system as well. Excess gas from the operating system is not vented from the gas block thereby eliminating the generation of additional muzzle flash and sound. No tool is required to manipulate the adjustment mechanism of the gas block.
US08752469B2

Described embodiments include a system, device and method. A described device includes a layer of a first material configured to reflect a substantial portion of a specified incident air blast wave energy. The layer of the first material has an acoustic impedance substantially mismatched to air's acoustic impedance, and a thickness less than about 3 mm. The device includes a layer of a second material configured to attenuate a substantial portion of the specified incident air blast wave energy utilizing an inelastic response. At least a portion of a back surface of the first material is proximate to at least a portion of a front surface of the second material.
US08752465B2

A laser weapon system includes a chamber configured to direct a post-detonation gas flow between a first mirror and a second mirror, and an ejectable ammunition cartridge containing a first gas and a second gas. The cartridge is fluidly connected to the chamber.
US08752464B2

A slice blade assembly for various produce items is provided. A circular array of V-shaped blades is carried in an outer support ring. Each blade is held in place by a new non-welded block and nut which interlock with bent tabs formed at the tips of each blade. Each blade is adjustable since each blade is bendable at its apex. Each worn or damaged blade may be removed and replaced without replacing the block and nut that support the blade.
US08752460B2

A needle roll for perforation or pickup of material pieces or webs includes a needle roll body and needles. The needles protrude beyond the outer surface of the needle roll body for perforation into the material pieces or webs. The material roll body is mounted to rotate in a machine frame. The needles are movable relative to the needle roll body.
US08752458B2

Disclosed is a cutting tool that is capable of performing cutting operations on a variety of materials such as, for example, plasterboard, glass, wood, laminated wood, cardboard, plastics, such as PERSPEX®, tiles, or the like. The cutting tool comprises an upper and lower part with the upper and lower parts being separated by spacing means that are preferably retractable. The upper and lower parts include at least one cutting device. The upper and lower parts are held together by magnetic attraction.
US08752457B1

A pallet dismantler includes cantilevered supports to support a pallet by its deck boards, which automatically aligns the pallet with a band saw blade.
US08752455B1

A hollow shaped socket insert adapter rotatively driven by a single socket driver for tightening, loosing, and removing various sizes of nuts/bolts.
US08752454B2

A system is provided to facilitate the substitution of power tools for manual manipulation of thread protectors on threaded tubulars. Male-thread protectors are manipulated using a driven cup with a flexible inner liner to engage the protector, the cup having expansion and gripper features. Female-thread protectors are manipulated using a driven elastic body fittably engaged with the inner surface of the protector. The manipulators are fitted with tool adapters to fit power tools such as an impact wrench.
US08752453B2

A bicycle pedal with automatic engagement and disengagement, including a body rotatably mounted on a pedal axle one side including a front hoop and a rear hoop, each hoop having two branches connected by a crossmember, at least one of the hoops being mounted to rotate about a geometrical axis parallel to that of the pedal and being spring-loaded toward the other hoop by spring means, the space between the hoops being adapted to receive and to clamp a cycling shoe cleat; the spring-loading means of the hoop are situated, in a direction orthogonal to the branches of the hoop, outside the space between the branches; the pedal body includes exterior arms spaced from the interior arms to form yokes having facing orifices in which two coaxial individual axles, respectively associated with each branch, are engaged and supported, and the individual axles composing the articulation axle of the rotary hoop.
US08752439B2

A torque sensing system can sense the torque that is flowing through a mechanical system. The torque sensing system allows for better control because the torque and horsepower of the mechanical system can be known at all times. The torque sensing system includes an input shaft and an output shaft that prompts a torque shaft to deflect onto a load cell, where the force of the deflection of the torque shaft onto the load cell may be used to determine the torque of the system.
US08752423B2

The invention relates to a technical inspection method which comprises the specific application of an ultrasound wave perfectly adapted for interacting with the rubber and for detecting: defects, tears, gaps, the state of wear of the rubber, and the breakage of steel wires or meshes in giant OTR (off-the-road) tires. Said inspection consists of injecting, into any sector of the tire and using an ultrasound defect detector device, ultrasound waves that generate echoes by bouncing off breaks or interfaces in the material, the assessment of which yields a diagnosis of the internal condition and operating state of the tire.
US08752417B2

The invention relates to a method for separating fractions of a mixture to be separated including the steps of providing a device comprising at least two chromatography columns mounted in series, discontinuously injecting a mixture to be separated, in a single point of the device, discontinuously drawing off the fraction enriched in the product of interest, in a single point of the device, and injecting eluents in each column and displacing the points for injection eluents, the eluents having a different eluting power. The method allows efficient separation which is simple to perform.
US08752416B2

A method of measuring properties of a fluid that uses a conductor electrically connected to a current source. A magnetic field is created about the conductor and the conductor is introduced into the fluid medium. A current waveform, having a frequency, is periodically passed through the conductor, so as to cause the conductor to move, due to force exerted on the conductor from interaction of the current and the magnetic field. The conductor movement is sensed, producing a sense signal that is amplified into an amplified sense signal. The phase relationship between the current waveform and the amplified sense signal is measured and the current waveform frequency is adjusted to create a phase lock loop. The frequency when the phase lock loop is in lock state is measured as the phase between the excitation and the measured sense signal is varied, and fluid properties are calculated from the measured frequencies.
US08752411B2

A device for detecting volatile substances has a containment box with at least one inlet opening for introduction of gas flow, one or more outlet openings of the gas flow, at least one analysis opening, one or more detection sensors arranged in the containment box, and at least one probe insertable in the containment box through at least one analysis opening. When the probe is initially treated by a sample of a substance to be examined and is inserted in the containment box, the gas flow uniformly carries the volatile substances from the sample to one or more sensors. A detection apparatus and a detection method for volatile substances are also described.
US08752377B2

A device for cooling charge air, specifically for cooling charge air which is compressed in a compressor of at least one exhaust-gas turbocharger and which is to be supplied to an internal combustion engine, wherein at least two charge-air coolers are arranged in a common housing, specifically in such a way that charge air to be cooled can be supplied separately to the charge-air coolers arranged in the common housing via in each case one separate incoming-air chamber provided by the common housing, and that cooled charge air can be discharged jointly from the charge-air coolers arranged in the common housing via a common outgoing-air chamber provided by the common housing.
US08752374B2

A device for adjusting the stroke volume of a first piston engine (1), having a bent-axis design, and a second piston engine (2), having a bent-axis design, and a common component (4) by which the stroke volumes can be adjusted. A valve (12) is provided which, when a maximum pressure level in the working lines (3) is exceeded, the valve (12) is reversed such that the common component (4) reverses the stroke volumes toward a lower power consumption arrangement.
US08752365B2

The present invention provides for a method for dosing an urea-based reducing agent into a exhaust gas stream generated from a combustion engine and addressed to an aftertreatment system, e.g. SCR or SCRT system. According to the method of the invention the gas exhaust stream is conveyed into a dosing housing which develops along a longitudinal axis. In particular the gas is conveyed by generating an annular inlet jet inclined with respect of said axis. The urea-based reducing agent is injected by generating, inside the housing, an urea-based reducing agent spray which is preferably coaxial to said axis of the housing.
US08752356B2

A method of forming a reclosable fastener track having a slider. The process provides a reclosable fastener track, forms a slit in the fastener track, attaches a slider to the fastener track, seals the slit in the fastener track after the slider attaches, and creates a first and a second end stop on the track.
US08752355B2

A system and method of stabilizing and strengthening wall structures constructed with hollow core cementitious blocks that have not been filled with concrete. Relatively small ports are drilled at the grout line every 4-6 courses along the vertical plain of one hollow core and this and every second core is then filled with a high density expanding resin thus filling the core there by providing sufficient strength and rigidity, yet flexibility to the wall structure to withstand significant seismic activity.
US08752351B2

A roofing shingle is provided. The roofing shingles includes an overlay sheet including a headlap portion and a tab portion and an underlay sheet secured to the overlay sheet such that a region of the underlay sheet overlaps a region of the headlap portion of the overlay sheet. A reinforcement material is secured to the headlap portion of the overlay sheet. The reinforcement material is configured to improve nail pull-through. The reinforcement material extends beyond the overlapping regions of the headlap portion and the underlay sheet a distance of about 0.12 inches or less.
US08752350B2

An apparatus comprises a thermal protection element, a number of washers, a ceramic layer, a number of blind fasteners, and a number of tabs. The thermal protection element has an upper surface, a lower surface, and a plurality of sides. The ceramic layer covers at least the plurality of sides of the thermal protection element. The number of tabs is connected to the number of sides by the number of blind fasteners secured to the ceramic layers. The tabs may be part of a frame secured to a groove around the plurality of sides.
US08752346B1

A panel having a surface for supporting heat transfer tubing and at least one edge for mating and interlocking with an adjacent panel, improves versatility in leading the tubing upon the supporting surface in a variety of configurations.
US08752344B1

An end tube has an interior and exterior diameter and a length. A central tube has an interior and an exterior diameter and a length. The length of the central tube is greater than the length of the end tube. The exterior diameter of the end tube is essentially equal to the interior diameter of the central tube. An upper portion of the end tube is inserted into and attached to a lower portion of the central tube. In this manner a lower portion of the end tube is adapted to be inserted into a vent pipe of a roof.
US08752342B1

A wet well design that utilizes recycled material in sectional components to construct wet wells on site is disclosed. Traditional wet well components are made of pre-cast concrete. Green Recycled Material Component Wet Well components are constructed using recycled plastic, recycled steel and recycled Styrofoam. The method described herein for constructing the components and assembling the wet well on site addresses several logistical problems associated with the pre-cast concrete design including reducing project start to completion time, delivery costs, large crane rental costs and power line relocation costs. This design also enables construction of oblong wet wells in medians and other restricted areas as components can be straight or curved sections. Finally, this design eliminates the shifting of traditional cement well components due to uplift from underground water pressure through the use of a new anchoring system. Shifting can result in groundwater intrusion into the well.
US08752337B2

The invention relates to a tower part for a wind turbine including at least one wall segment and at least one aperture segment including at least one aperture. The wall segment and the aperture segment are connected and the aperture segment is of a substantially uniform thickness and is thicker than the thickness of the wall segment. The invention further related to an aperture cover system for covering at least one aperture in a tower part for a wind turbine including cover plates and attachments for attaching the system to the tower part, wherein the attachments do not affect the fatigue limit of the tower part. Finally, the invention relates to a method for manufacturing a wind turbine tower part and uses thereof.
US08752334B1

A sliding door gripping apparatus includes a base that includes a first side and a second side. The first side is concavely arcuate. A panel is attached to and extends away from the second side. A suction cup is removably attachable to a glass surface of a sliding door. A coupling assembly couples the suction cup to the first side of the base to allow the suction cup to attach the panel to the sliding door. The suction cup is pulled toward the first side of the base when the base is rotated in a first direction with respect to the suction cup to increase adhesion between the suction cup and the sliding door when the suction cup is attached to the glass surface. The panel is abuttable by a person's appendage to open the sliding door when the suction cup is attached to the sliding door.
US08752313B2

Three-dimensional lightweight foam greeting cards are described herein having a foam body with a perimeter wall that extends between two spaced apart parallel pieces of planar sheet material such as heavy gauge paper, cardboard, or other such material. The greeting cards have a partially hollowed foam body or one or more cavities in the foam body concealed in the front and back by the planar sheet material which may be pre-cut in the shape of the foam body are decorated consistent with the design of the foam body. The cavities in the foam body may contain various electronic components that enable the greeting card to produce sound, record and playback a personalized message, trigger light activation, trigger the movement of moveable parts, display digital video, photographs or slideshows, or a combination thereof.
US08752311B2

A system and method for using color to indicate a state of a home appliance, such as an iron. The iron has a sole plate and a water tank in fluid communication with the sole plate, a heater for heating the sole plate, a sensor for sensing a temperature of the sole plate, a user interface for setting a desired temperature for the sole plate, and a controller in communication with user interface and the sensor for controlling the heater. An illumination device under the control of the controller is provided to illuminate the water tank, particularly the interior thereof, in a color that is representative of a state of the iron, such as a power condition of the iron and/or a temperature of the sole plate.
US08752308B2

A clothing article for a foot including a sole including a sealed collapsible air cavity having disposed therein a return support for expanding a collapsed air cavity wherein the air cavity includes an outlet permitting a quantity of air to exit when the air cavity is collapsed; an upper, coupled to the sole, for covering a portion of the foot; an air-actuated active element coupled to the upper, the active element including a first mode and a second mode, the active element biased to the first mode and responsive to the quantity of air to transition from the first mode to the second mode; and a communication channel, coupled to the outlet and to the active element, for transferring the quantity of air from the air cavity to the active element.
US08752301B2

Systems and methods for a chainsaw safety device are described. In some embodiments, a method comprises activating a chainsaw, receiving a first acceleration value associated with acceleration of the chainsaw, comparing the first acceleration value to a predetermined acceleration threshold, and deactivating the chainsaw based on the comparison.
US08752294B2

A method of manufacturing a stiffened panel, and a datum part for use in such a method. The method comprises: holding the panel with a jig; holding a datum part with the jig; engaging the panel and the datum part with a stringer; and joining the stringer to the panel. Preferably an additive process is used to form the datum part. By growing the datum part in a series of layers, the shape of each layer can be selected to enable the shape or size of the datum part to be optimised.
US08752280B2

A method for manufacturing a Z-directed component for insertion into a mounting hole in a printed circuit board according to one example embodiment includes extruding a substrate material according to the shape of the Z-directed component. A conductive material is then selectively applied to the extruded substrate material and the Z-directed component is formed from the extruded substrate material.
US08752279B2

A method for protecting an aircraft component from ice formation uses a thermally conductive film. The film includes a polymer, an electrically conductive material, and a sufficient concentration of hexagonal boron nitride to provide adequate heat transfer properties, and have high thermal conductivity, peel strength, and shear strength. The films can include thermoset polymers, thermoplastic polymers, or blends thereof, and can also include reinforcing materials such as fiberglass, carbon fiber, metal mesh, and the like, and thermally conductive fillers, such as aluminum oxide, aluminum nitride, and the like. The films can be included in composite materials. The films can be used as part of a layered structure, and used in virtually any application, for example, various locations in aircraft, where heating is desirable, including nacelle skins, airplane wings, heated floor panels, and the like.
US08752277B2

A method for manufacturing an antenna device may include a first step of forming an antenna circuit so that the resonance frequency of the antenna circuit will be lower than an oscillation frequency of the reader/writer. The antenna circuit includes an antenna coil that receives the magnetic field transmitted from the reader/writer and a capacitor electrically connected to the antenna coil. The manufacturing method also includes a second step of affixing a magnetic sheet to the antenna coil via an adhesive. The magnetic sheet is at a face-to-face position with respect to the antenna coil and is configured to change the inductance of the antenna coil. The adhesive is of a film thickness to change the inductance so that the resonance frequency of the resonance circuit will be coincident with the oscillation frequency depending on the spacing between the antenna coil and the magnetic sheet.
US08752272B2

A method for molding a plug and a hose or a pipe, wherein the plug is part of a pipe connection and the pipe connection is constructed as a sealing plug-in connection between a connecting piece and the plug. The plug includes an outer part and an inner part connected to each other in one piece and a rear free end of the plug forms an annular gap. The deformation forces acting on expanding jaws of an expanding device during the molding of the plug and the hose or the pipe are directly recorded and the molding of the plug and the hose or the pipe is performed in dependency on these directly recorded deformation forces. As a result, a constant molding degree is achieved in case of plugs and hoses or pipes with varying wall thicknesses.
US08752269B2

An interlocking system for connecting a programmable module and an automation controller of an industrial control and automation system is provided. The interlocking system includes a key comprising a shaft with a head and a first attachment feature. The interlocking system also includes a first keyhole in a programmable module cover. The first keyhole is configured to enable the head to pass upwardly there through. The interlocking system also includes a second keyhole in an automation controller cover. The second keyhole is configured to enable the first attachment feature to slide downwardly there through such that disengagement of the key from the second keyhole is resisted. The interlocking system also includes a second attachment feature on a lower surface of the automation controller cover. The second attachment feature is configured to engage with the first attachment feature when the first attachment feature is rotated about an axis of the shaft.
US08752266B2

A medical device-includes a polymer stent crimped to a catheter having an expansion balloon. The stent is crimped to the balloon by a process that includes heating the stent to a temperature below the polymer's glass transition temperature to improve stent retention without adversely affecting the mechanical characteristics of the stent when later deployed to support a body lumen.
US08752256B2

A method for preparing a surface, previously roughed in a mechanical manner and comprising sharp-edged ridges and recesses, on metal workpieces for applying a thermally sprayed layer. The roughened layer is machined by hammer or percussion brushes with a rapidly rotating hammer or percussion brush having a plurality of resilient percussion wires that are oriented in a radially outward manner, such that the edges of the ridges are broken in order to improve the adhesion of the subsequently applied thermally sprayed layer or are at least curved forming rear sections. The brush rotates at a high rotational speed of approximately 3000-6000 rotations per minute and is displaced laterally with its rotational axis being at a parallel distance that remains constant in relation to the surface of the workpiece such that percussion wires distributed on the periphery of the brush impact with the ends thereof of the surface areas adjacent to the workpiece at an oblique angle that is less than 90° in rapid succession. The brush consists of an essentially cylindrical rotationally symmetrical brush body having a plurality of support bars that are parallel to the axis, that are mounted on the periphery of the brush between front-sided brush disks.
US08752250B2

Systems and methods for removing material, e.g., linters, from seeds, e.g., ginned cottonseeds, are provided. The systems and methods involve rotating the seeds in a rotatable drum having a plurality of longitudinal brushes. The centrifugal force created by the rotation of the drum and the plurality of longitudinal brushes urge the seeds against an interior surface of the drum that is lined with a brush insert. In this way, work is performed that removes the material from the exterior of the seeds. The material is removed using reduced pressure and the processed seeds are removed. The system may include a brush insert that is easily removed from the rotatable drum. Other systems and methods are disclosed.
US08752249B1

The present invention relates to a pivotal shaft device comprising: a pivot unit, a base and two connection units. The base and the pivot unit are located in parallel, two distal ends of the base are respectively formed with at least a groove, a magnetic unit is installed at an inner side of each of the grooves, an attachment area is formed on a surface of the base defined between the grooves; the two connection units are respectively connected with two distal ends of the pivot unit, each of the connection units is respectively formed with a protrusion, the protrusion is slidingly disposed in the groove of the base and magnetically attracted and positioned by the magnetic unit.
US08752243B2

A wheel assembly for an infant carrier apparatus can include a shock absorber, and at least a wheel pivotally coupled with the shock absorber. The shock absorber is formed integrally in a single body comprising a cushion structure capable of elastic deformation, and a mount structure having a tubular shape adapted to assemble with a support frame of an infant carrier apparatus. Examples of the infant carrier apparatus can include an infant stroller apparatus.
US08752239B2

A canister style surface cleaning apparatus comprises a wheeled based having a front end and a cleaning mount, the cleaning mount adapted to receive a surface cleaning attachment that comprises a first flexible hose; a portable cleaning unit removably mounted on the wheeled base and comprising a suction motor and at least one cyclonic separation stage having an associated material collection chamber which is sealed when the portable cleaning unit is removed from the wheeled base; and, a fluid flow path extending from the cleaning mount to a clean air exit of the surface cleaning apparatus.
US08752235B2

A control system for a vacuum cleaner is disclosed. The control system includes a control pad for generating a number of user inputs. The control system further includes a serial controller for reading the state of the number of inputs and generating serial data in response thereto. The control system yet further includes a processor adapted to receive the serial data and generate control signals that controls a number of electric devices on the vacuum cleaner. A method of operating a vacuum cleaner is also disclosed.
US08752228B2

Silicon wafers and the like are cleaned using new scrubber-type apparatus in which measures are taken to compensate for differential cleaning of the central region of the wafer by: using rotary brushes having one or more non-contact portions arranged in the section thereof that faces the central region of the substrate, or toggling the relative position of the wafer and the rotary brushes, or directing cleaning fluid(s) preferentially towards the central region of the wafer. Another aspect of the invention provides scrubber-type cleaning apparatus in which the rotary brushes are replaced by rollers (110). A web of cleaning material (116) is interposed between each roller and the substrate. Various different webs of cleaning material may be used, e.g. a length of tissue, a continuous loop of cleaning material whose surface is reconditioned on each cleaning pass, adhesive material provided on a carrier tape, etc.
US08752226B2

A pool cleaner includes a housing having a front, rear and adjoining side portions and a base plate having a water inlet. A pump is configured to draw water and debris from the pool through the inlet for filtering and discharge filtered water through an outlet. A pair of wheels are coupled proximate the front and rear of the housing, each of which is coupled to an opposing end of an axle, each opposing end of the axle being slidably moveable along the housing in a forward and rearward directional path of the cleaner in response to a steering assembly. An on-board controller includes memory for storing a cleaning program, and a processor electrically coupled to the memory to execute the cleaning program to automatically control the steering assembly to position each end of the axles to steer the cleaner while it is moving in a forward or reverse direction.
US08752222B2

An adaptable surface system including a plurality of individually adjustable surface units and a plurality of pressure sensors. Each pressure sensor corresponds to one of the adjustable subsurface units and is positioned to measure an amount of pressure exerted upon the subsurface unit. The system also includes a controller that receives a first pressure value from a pressure sensor, compares the value to a threshold, and adjusts the height of the first subsurface unit based on the comparison. The controller also receives a second pressure value from a second pressure sensor, compares the second pressure value to the threshold, and adjusts the height of a second subsurface unit based on the comparison.
US08756709B2

According to the type of each of a plurality of external input interfaces, it is decided whether digital watermark information is to be detected from data entered via the external input interface. Digital watermark information is not detected from data entered via the external input interface and from which it has been decided not to detect any digital watermark information, but the data is recorded. Thus, there can be provided a data recording apparatus which is not applied with a any heavy load owing to the omission of any unnecessary detection of digital watermark information.
US08756701B2

A data security manager in a multi-nodal environment enforces processing constraints stored as security relationships that control how different pieces of a multi-nodal application (called execution units) are allowed to execute to insure data security. The security manager preferably checks the security relationships for security violations when new execution units start execution, when data moves to or from an execution unit, and when an execution unit requests external services. Where the security manager determines there is a security violation based on the security relationships, the security manager may move, delay or kill an execution unit to maintain data security.
US08756696B1

The present invention relates to a technique for debugging and testing potential virus, trojans, and other malware programs. The present invention, named Cyberlock™ provides a technique to analyze malware programs on a network in a secure manner, which allows multiple users to access or monitor the analysis. In the present invention, a virtual machine (VM) may be run on a network, emulating the operation of a Windows, LINUX, or Apple operating system (or other O/S), and the malware or suspected malware may be executed on that virtual machine. The virtual machine is isolated on the network, but accessible to one or more users, in such a manner than the malware or suspected malware may be analyzed.
US08756692B2

A content posting associated with a user of the social media service and including an embedded command is received. The posting can be submitted to the social media service as a status update or message to the social media account associated with the application. The content posting is processed to generate a request to one or more data sources to query for information or perform an action (e.g. update a data record). The response is parsed to extract data values which are inserted into pre-configured templates in accordance with the characteristics of the response delivery method preference set by the user and stored in a application user profile.
US08756685B2

A detection system of a suspicious malicious website using the analysis of a JavaScript obfuscation strength, which includes: an entropy measuring processor of measuring an entropy of an obfuscated JavaScript present in the website, a special character entropy, and a variable/function name entropy; a frequency measuring processor of measuring a specific function frequency, an encoding mark frequency and a % symbol frequency of the JavaScript; a density measuring processor of measuring the maximum length of a single character string of the JavaScript; and a malicious website confirming processor of determining whether the relevant website is malicious by comparing an obfuscation strength value, measured by the entropy measuring processor, the frequency measuring processor and the density measuring processor, with a threshold value.
US08756684B2

A computer readable storage medium has instructions for execution on a computer. The instructions monitor transactions between a server and a set of clients. An evaluation of session indicators associated with the transactions is performed. Individual sessions between the server and individual clients of the plurality of clients are isolated in response to the evaluation.
US08756682B2

According to some embodiments of the invention, a method for network protection is provided. The method includes receiving with a network security software a request from an entity to stop at least a portion of unauthorized network traffic from being transmitted through a firewall. The entity lacks control over the firewall and the network security software is operable to control the firewall. The method also includes using the network security software to automatically determine that the entity is an authorized entity authorized to make the request. The method also includes initiating a block of the unauthorized network traffic at the firewall in response to the automatic determination.
US08756678B2

A method for verifying the certification of a recording apparatus (14) associated to a control device (12), wherein the control device (12) validates a first certificate written on the recording apparatus (14). Furthermore, a method for identification of a recording apparatus (14), a method for handling a recording apparatus (14), and a recording apparatus for use in connection with a control device (12) are disclosed.
US08756672B1

In some embodiments, a computerized method includes presenting multiple choices for attributes of a multi-layered graphical password, wherein each of the attributes is associated with one of a plurality of layers of the multi-layered graphical password. The multi-layered graphical password is for use in accessing a system. The method includes receiving selections from among the multiple choices, wherein the selections identify a group of the attributes of the multi-layered graphical password. The selections are associated with a user attempting access to the system. The method includes authenticating the user based on the group of the attributes of the multi-layered graphical password. The method also includes allowing the user access to the system.
US08756669B2

A system and method of implementing a security mode in a mobile communications device, including a mobile communications device comprising a processor, and a computer readable storage medium storing programming for execution by the processor, the programming including instructions to activate a security mode of the mobile communications device, and pursuant to activation of the security mode, disable a first class of features of the mobile communications device, wherein other features of the mobile communications device remain enabled after activation of the mobile security.
US08756662B2

A plant control system may include a manipulation monitoring terminal that includes a local user authentication unit configured to authenticate a user who logs in the manipulation monitoring terminal and a domain controller that includes a domain user authentication unit and communicates with the manipulation monitoring terminal. The manipulation monitoring terminal may include a user authentication alarm unit configured to generate a security alarm when the local user authentication unit performs user authentication on the user in a state in which the domain controller is in normal operation.
US08756660B2

Techniques for enabling two-factor authentication for terminal services are described. A client receives an authentication token from an authentication server. The authentication token is used as a factor for authenticating the client to a terminal services device. Native authentication of the client is also performed.
US08756651B2

Access control techniques relate to verifying compliance with security policies before enabling access to the computing resources. An application is provided on a client that generates verification codes using an authentication seed. Prior to granting the client the authentication seed necessary to generate a verification code, a server may perform a policy check on the client. Some embodiments ensure that the client complies with security policies imposed by an authenticating party by retrieving a number of parameter values from the client and then determining whether those parameter values comply with the security policies. Upon determining that the client complies, the authentication seed is issued to the client. In some embodiments, the authentication seed is provided such that a policy check is performed upon the generation of a verification code. The client is given access to secure information when the client is determined to comply with the security policies.
US08756644B2

A method, computer readable medium and an apparatus for providing supplemental information related to a character featured on a broadcast television program, wherein the supplemental information is not broadcast along with the broadcast television program. A viewer can request specific supplemental information associated with the broadcast television program through a telephone or electronic network interface. In some embodiments, a service controller transmits the requested supplemental information such that an audio component of the supplemental information does not conflict with the audio component of the broadcast television program.
US08756639B2

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a set top box having a controller to present bandwidth adjustments options for customer premises equipment comprising the set top box where the bandwidth adjustments options include a bandwidth limit for the customer premises equipment, receive a selection of the bandwidth adjustments options, and transmit the selection of the bandwidth adjustments options to a network device for adjusting the bandwidth limit for the customer premises equipment. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US08756633B2

Content from a source, such as the Internet, may be displayed on a window on a television, such as a crawl screen, closed caption area, or picture-in-picture (PIP) area. This may allow a user to watch television and view both television content and Internet content simultaneously without the need to access another device, such as a laptop computer, personal digital assistant, or the like. For example, a user may connect a data processing system, such as a computer, to a video control module, e.g., digital video recorder (DVR) or other box used to control a television. The user may then access a tool bar, for example, provided with an Internet browser that runs on the data processing system to identify portions of one or more Web sites to be displayed on the television through the video control module. The video control module may also be configured to allow the user to interact with the Internet content displayed on the television through use of the television remote, for example.
US08756632B2

Described are computerized methods and apparatuses, including computer program products, for providing electronic program guide services. The method includes storing an active media object list identifying media objects in an active state, receiving one or more tag requests identifying one or more programs, and updating a tag list to identify the one or more programs identified by the one or more tag requests. Each of the one or more programs are associated with one or more media objects. The method also includes generating a user navigation list comprising source identifiers of a plurality of selected media objects and a plurality of titles associated with each of the plurality of selected media objects. The plurality of selected media objects are each associated with at least one of the one or more programs identified in the tag list and included in the active media object list.
US08756626B2

To receive new services including audio or video content for presentation by a cable-compatible digital television or other digital audio/video receiver, a module may be connected to the HOST-POD interface of the digital television. The module has a receiver for receiving audio or video content in a first compression format, a transcoder for converting said audio or video content from the first compression format into a second, different compression format, and a controller for transmitting the audio or visual content in the second compression format to the digital television over a HOST-POD interface. By using such a module, front-end components of the digital television may be bypassed while back-end components may be utilized to decompress and present the content. The module may be a PC card or smart card for example.
US08756625B2

A media guidance application is provided by which users can view program listings associated with programming that the user may access using other user equipment devices. The media guidance application, implemented on, for example, a remote system, may determine through communications with television equipment whether or not the television equipment is authorized to provide a particular package of television programming to be viewed by the user. For example, an online program guide application may determine whether or not television equipment allows a user to view particular channels and, based on that determination, proceed to determine what packages of programming the user subscribes to. A customized program guide may then be displayed based on what programming the user subscribes to on various systems.
US08756619B2

A method performed by one or more computing devices includes determining a relevancy function of viewer tendencies based on set-top box data from a subscription television service and defining a cluster of set-top boxes based on the relevancy function. The method also includes building a tendency profile for the cluster, the tendency profile including predicted actions for viewers within the cluster. The method further includes assigning the set-top box to the cluster and directing a cluster-oriented presentation to a particular set-top box within the cluster.
US08756607B2

A data-processing method and system generally comprises identifying a plurality of hardware resources associated with a data-processing apparatus, time-slicing the plurality of hardware resources. Thereafter the plurality of active hardware resources can be allocated among a plurality of active hardware resources associated with the data-processing apparatus, thereby allowing a limited number of hardware resources to service a larger number of physical devices associated with the data-processing apparatus. An appropriate hardware resource can be selected from among the plurality of active hardware resources utilizing one or more swapping algorithms.
US08756606B2

Upon occurrence of an abnormality, a safety control can be executed more rapidly. An OS partially includes a partition scheduler that selects and decides a time partition to be subsequently scheduled according to a scheduling pattern including TP1 in which an execution time is allocated to a safety monitoring program, TP2 in which the execution time is allocated to a normal control program, and TP3 in which the execution time is allocated to a safety control program. A processor executes the OS to cause the partition scheduler to periodically operate. The partition scheduler is activated upon detection of an abnormality by one of the safety monitoring program executed in TP1 and the normal control program executed in TP2, and switches the time partition from TP1 or TP2 to TP3.
US08756605B2

An apparatus and method for scheduling execution of multiple threads on a shared processor resource is described in connection with a multithreaded multiprocessor chip. Using a thread selection policy that switches between available threads every cycle to give priority to the least recently executed or scheduled threads, different threads are able to operate in a way that ensures no deadlocks or livelocks while maximizing aggregate performance and fairness between threads. Prioritization is accomplished by monitoring and sorting thread status information for each thread, including speculative states in which a thread may be speculatively scheduled, thereby improving usage of the execution pipeline by switching a thread in with a lower priority.
US08756602B2

Long distance cloud migration (LDCM) to overcome the limitations faced by the cloud migration techniques over long distance, high speed WAN infrastructures. LDCM overcomes the negative effects of existing TCP/IP mechanisms on the efficient use of available bandwidth. LDCM also acts as an acceleration engine to optimize various hypervisor, storage and security applications.
US08756592B2

Prior to updating of an information processing program that stores a program update module for updating a wireless interface driver or the information processing program used for communications with a router, a printer stores the minimal information necessary for communications such as the wireless interface driver or setting information (service set identification (SSID), Wep key, etc.) necessary for using the wireless interface driver in basic update user information stored in an area different from an area for the information processing program. If updating of the information processing program is suspended and an error occurs in the information processing program, a basic update module protected from overwriting utilizes the basic update user information to restart communications with the router.
US08756589B2

A JIT (Just-In-Time) compiler performs dual-mode code generation by determining whether an application has opted-in to SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) code generation both at JIT-time and at runtime. The application may select the code generation mode by identifying whether it has opted-in to SIMD code generation. As a result, the underlying implementation guarantees application compatibility by allowing the application to select the code generation mode. Additionally, applications have the ability to select into different code generation modes during concurrent execution.
US08756584B2

A code instrumentation method and a code instrumentation apparatus for instrumenting object codes of programs to enable memory access tracing. The code instrumentation method includes: identifying an object code block to be executed circularly in object codes; identifying at least one memory access instruction in the object code block where a memory address to be accessed during the circular execution of the object code block keeps unchanged; and inserting a routine for tracing the memory access to be executed by the at least one memory access instruction outside the object code block.
US08756582B2

A method for a hybrid code signature including executing, via a processor, an application, the executing comprising executing a root instruction of the application; profiling, via the processor, the executing of the application, the profiling comprising storing a reference signature; determining, via the processor, a working signature of instructions executed subsequent to the executing of the root instruction, the determining comprising implementing a hashing function of the instructions in response to storing the reference signature; tracking the updating of the working signature by storing a value in a counter; and updating continuously, via the processor, the working signature with the hashing function while at least the working signature does not match the reference signature.
US08756573B2

Disclosed are various embodiments for an ingestion process modifying digital items. A computing system receives an uploaded digital item configured to communicate with a testing server application when executed. The ingestion process reconfigures the digital item to communicate with a production server application when executed.
US08756566B2

A software configuration management (SCM) system can include operations such as removing a selected section from a first artifact in a first stream, wherein the first artifact includes a plurality of sections, and creating a second artifact in the first stream including the selected section. The second artifact does not include at least one other section of the plurality of sections. An annotation can be generated using a processor that specifies the first artifact, a range within the first artifact corresponding to the selected section, and the second artifact into which the selected section is moved. The annotation can be used to apply changes implemented in selected artifacts from one stream to another.
US08756555B2

A standard cell library is disclosed. The standard cell library contains cells wherein at least one transistor in at least one cell is annotated for gate length biasing. Gate length biasing includes the modification of the gate length, so as to change the speed or power consumption of the modified gate length. The standard cell library is one used in the manufacturing of semiconductor devices (e.g., that result as semiconductor chips), by way of fabricating features defined on one or more layouts of geometric shapes. The annotations serve to identify which ones of the transistor gate features are to be modified before using the geometric shapes for manufacturing the semiconductor device.
US08756547B2

Some embodiments provide a method that identifies a first physical design solution for positioning several configurable operations on several reconfigurable circuits of an integrated circuit (IC). The method identifies a second physical design solution for positioning the configurable operations on the configurable circuits. One of the identified physical design solutions has one reconfigurable circuit perform a particular configurable operation in at least two reconfiguration cycles while the other identified solution does not have one reconfigurable circuit perform the particular configurable operation in two reconfiguration cycles. The method costs the first and second physical design solutions. The method selects one of the two physical design solutions based on the costs.
US08756528B2

A system and method of enabling a user to customize a layout of a video display uses a data file. The data file may be stored within an application. The data file enables the user to specify at least one parameter of a cell of a video display such as, for example, a location, height, width, and display percentage. A layout creating module creates the layout based on the parameter(s) defined by the user. A dynamic icon creating module dynamically creates an icon that represents the layout created by the user. Preferably, the icon depicts the layout of created by the user.
US08756525B2

An information processing apparatus includes a display unit configured to display a plurality of display information items, each corresponding to a content item, and an indicator for indicating one of the display information items, an operation unit, and a control unit. The control unit receives an instruction for updating the display position of the indicator. When the indicator indicates and selects one of the display information items on the display unit, the control unit determines a relationship between the display information item indicated and selected by the indicator and the display information items other than the display information item selected by the indicator and displays the relationship between the display information item selected by the indicator and the display information item determined to have a relationship with the display information item selected by the indicator among the display information items other than the display information item selected by the indicator.
US08756524B2

The present specification relates to a portable electronic device comprising at least one processor; a display connected to the processor and controllable by the processor; and non-volatile storage configured to maintain a plurality of applications and an application programming interface for enabling generation and control of a title bar, wherein the application programming interface includes a private part for managing the state of the title bar and a public part that provides an interface to the applications.
US08756519B2

Techniques that enable content from a web page to be shared directly with one or more targets, which may be an application, a buddy from a buddy list (e.g., in a chat application), and the like. An embodiment of the present invention can identify contents on a web page that are to be made sharable and make the identified contents sharable. The content that is made sharable can then be shared with a share target using, for example, drag and drop operations. For example, a user may select sharable content on a web page, drag the content to a target, and drop it directly on the target thereby sharing the content with the target.
US08756515B2

In an embodiment, a computer system instantiates a real-time incremental editor configured to receive editing inputs that are to be applied to data of a data model, where the data model data declaratively defines a UI model that drives the behavior of a corresponding UI based on the UI model. The computer system receives an editing input from a user indicating one or more desired edits that are to be made to the UI and determines, based on the received editing inputs, which changes are to be made to the data model data to enact the desired changes in the UI. The computer system updates the UI in real-time based on the determined edits to the data model data and presents the updated UI in real-time without losing state information in the resultant UI.
US08756510B2

User-initiated or intelligently automated acquisition, extraction and presentation of content such as photos, videos, and/or other content (e.g., news stories, product displays, advertisements, etc.), from a Web site in a full-screen slideshow via client-side software, which may be implemented as a stand-alone application, an extension (a.k.a. plug-in, or add-on), a Web browser feature (a.k.a. function), or as an embedded component associated with the content.
US08756505B2

A browser interpretable document comprising a first media file or a pointer to the first media file; a graphical user interface definition, or a pointer to the graphical user interface definition, the graphical user interface definition comprising a first user interface element and a function associated with the first user interface element; and, a set of commands, or a pointer to the set of commands, for controlling the operation of a plurality of media players; wherein, when the browser interpretable document is rendered by a conventional web browser, the web browser can render a graphical user interface based on the graphical user interface definition, and wherein the rendered graphical user interface controls one of the plurality of media players to facilitate playing of the first media file.
US08756503B2

A system and method are provided for dynamically generating a query using touch gestures. A virtual magnet is movable on a display device of a tactile user interface in response to touch. A user selects one of a set of text documents for review, which is displayed on the display. The system is configured for recognizing a highlighting gesture on the tactile user interface over the displayed document as a selection of a text fragment from the document text. The virtual magnet is populated with a query which is based on the text fragment selected with the highlighting gesture. The populated magnet is able to cause a subset of displayed graphic objects to exhibit a response to the magnet as a function of the query and the text content of the respective documents which the objects represent and/or to cause responsive instances in a text document to be displayed.
US08756499B1

In one example, a computing device may include at least one processor that outputs a graphical keyboard. The at least one processor may determine a selection of one or more keys; and determine a character string based on the one or more keys in the selection, wherein the character string is not included in a vocabulary used by the computing device to identify character strings. The at least one processor may, in response to determining that the character string is not included in the vocabulary used by the computing device to identify character strings, associate the character string with an out-of-vocabulary language model score; and determine, based at least in part on a spatial model score associated with the gesture and the out-of-vocabulary language model score, a combined score that indicates a probability that the character string corresponds to the gesture; and output for display the character string.
US08756489B2

A system for dynamic assembly of form fragments is provided. The system may reside on a computer system hosting a computing application and may include a request processor be configured to receive a request to generate an electronic form based on a host template and a document description, an insertion points processor, a stitching module, and an output module. The insertion points processor may be configured to parse the host template to determine an insertion point and determine a form fragment to be referenced in the host template at a location designated by the insertion point, based on information present in the document description. The stitching module may be configured to insert a reference to the form fragment into the host template at the location indicated by the insertion point. The output module may be configured to generate a result electronic form, utilizing the host template and the form fragment.
US08756487B2

A content management system (100) includes a plurality of devices (110) communicatively coupled to a content server (105). Each of the plurality of devices (125,135) has a context (130,140) associated with it. The content server (105) includes a content processor (115) and stores a plurality of content (150). The content processor (115) is adapted to receive a request for at least one context (120) from one of the plurality of devices (110); extract at least one context related information created from composed fragments from the request; and generate a context-based content (145) using the extracted at least one context related information.
US08756486B2

Memory systems, systems and methods are described that may include a plurality of stacked memory device dice and a logic die connected to each other by through silicon vias. One such logic die includes an error code generator that generates error checking codes corresponding to write data. The error checking codes are stored in the memory device dice and are subsequently compared to error checking codes generated from data subsequently read from the memory device dice. In the event the codes do not match, an error signal can be generated. The logic die may contain a controller that records the address from which the data was read. The controller or memory access device may redirect accesses to the memory device dice at the recorded addresses. The controller can also examine addresses or data resulting in the error signals being generated to identify faults in the through silicon vias.
US08756485B1

Processing a received signal includes receiving a code word that is different from an expected code word, determining, at least in part using a logic circuit, whether the difference between the received code word and the expected code word is acceptable based at least in part on one or more bit differences, and in the event it is determined that the difference is unacceptable, providing an indication of an error.
US08756481B2

Memory, modules and methods for using error detection with multi-level memory cells where the number of storage levels of the memory cells is an integer power of a non-binary prime number are provided. Additional circuit and methods are disclosed.
US08756479B2

Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with LDPC decoder architectures are described. According to one embodiment, an apparatus includes a super-parity-check matrix that corresponds to at least a portion of a low density parity check (LDPC) code matrix. The super-parity-check matrix is coupled to a high throughput LDPC decoder and a low throughput LDPC decoder. The super-parity-check matrix includes n parity check matrices, each including x rows corresponding to x check node processing elements and y columns corresponding to y bit node processing elements. Thus, the super-parity-check matrix comprises nx rows and ny columns. The numbers n, x, and y are selected so that ny codeword can be processed in single time unit by the high throughput decoder and y codeword bits can be processed in a single time unit by the low throughput decoder.
US08756478B2

Various embodiments of the present invention are related to methods and apparatuses for decoding data, and more particularly to methods and apparatuses for multi-level layered LDPC decoding. For example, in one embodiment an apparatus includes a variable node processor and a check node processor. The variable node processor is operable to generate variable node to check node messages and to calculate perceived values based on check node to variable node messages. The check node processor is operable to generate the check node to variable node messages and to calculate checksums based on variable node to check node messages. The check node processor includes a min finder circuit operable to identify a minimum, a next minimum and an index of minimum value in the variable node to check node messages. The variable node processor and check node processor are operable to perform layered multi-level decoding.
US08756471B2

A user equipment comprises a transmitter and an adaptive modulation and coding controller. The transmitter is configured to transmit data over an air interface in a single transmission time interval with a first specified modulation and coding scheme, where the single transmission time interval has a plurality of transport block sets. In response to receiving a repeat request for retransmission of at least one particular transport block set, the transmitter retransmits the at least one of the particular transport block sets. The adaptive modulation and coding controller is configured to change the specified modulation and coding scheme to a second specified modulation and coding scheme, enabling a combining of a particular transport block set transmitted at the first specified modulation and coding scheme with a retransmitted version of the particular transport block set transmitted at the second specified modulation and coding scheme.
US08756469B2

A method and apparatus for evaluating and optimizing a signaling system is described. A pattern of test information is generated in a transmit circuit of the system and is transmitted to a receive circuit. A similar pattern of information is generated in the receive circuit and used as a reference. The receive circuit compares the patterns. Any differences between the patterns are observable. In one embodiment, a linear feedback shift register (LFSR) is implemented to produce patterns. An embodiment of the present disclosure may be practiced with various types of signaling systems, including those with single-ended signals and those with differential signals. An embodiment of the present disclosure may be applied to systems communicating a single bit of information on a single conductor at a given time and to systems communicating multiple bits of information on a single conductor simultaneously.
US08756467B2

Embodiments of integrated circuits include a first input interconnect, a second input interconnect, an output interconnect, a shift register, a select register, a test access port (TAP) controller, and select register decode circuitry. The TAP controller is coupled to the first input interconnect and the select register, and the TAP controller is configured to shift a select value provided on the first input interconnect into the select register. The select register decode circuitry is configured to control, based on the select value, which of a plurality of test data output signals are provided to the output interconnect, where the plurality of test data output signals includes a first test data output signal and a second test data output signal. The first test data output signal is provided by the shift register, and the second test data output signal is received from a second integrated circuit on the second input interconnect.
US08756464B2

Disclosed are a flash memory device and flash memory programming method that equalizes a wear-level. The flash memory device includes a memory cell array, an inversion determining unit to generate a programming page through inverting or not inverting a data page based on a number of ‘1’s and ‘0’s in the data page, a programming unit to store the generated programming page in the memory cell array; and a data verifying unit to read the programming page stored in the memory cell array, to restore the data page from the programming page according to whether an error exists in the read programming page, and to output the restored data page, and thereby can equalize a wear-level of a memory cell.
US08756462B2

Methods, systems, and computer program products for configurable alert delivery in a distributed processing system are provided. Embodiments include for each alert generated by an incident analyzer, applying active alert filters to the alert; wherein applying the active alert filters to the alert includes: creating a list of all active alert filters and a set of all active listeners; and for each active alert filter, running the active alert filter; if the active alert filter indicates that the alert should not go to one or more of the active listeners, removing the one or more active listeners from the set of all active listeners; if the active listeners set is empty, stopping processing of the alert; and if the active listeners set is not empty, selecting the next active alert filter from the active alert filter list.
US08756453B2

A first component, executing in a first data processing system, receives, over a data communication network using a first adapter, a first diagnostic heartbeat packet from a second adapter in a second data processing system. The first heartbeat packet comprises a header, a set of heartbeat parameters, and a set of diagnostic attributes. The first component determines, based on a set of values corresponding to the set of diagnostic attributes, that a soft network error condition exists in the data communication network. The soft network error condition is a network error condition that adversely affects the transmission of packets having certain properties in the data communication network. The first component stores the set of values in a state information record associated with the first component and re-routes data traffic from one link to a different link between the first and the second data processing systems.
US08756452B2

Pulses are used to control work ingress. Generally, a variable-speed clock is used for accepting work for lower-priority services. A clock rate is controlled by a load monitor. The load monitor periodically collects sensor measurements of resources available after allocations by higher-priority services. Based on the sensor measurements, the load monitor adjusts the clock speed up or down (i.e., depending on the amount of resources available after allocations by higher-priority services). At the boundary of the lower-priority service (e.g., where work enters the system), work requests are enqueued to be associated with a future pulse of the clock. Work is accepted or rejected based on a determination of whether the work request can be allocated a clock pulse within a defined period of time.
US08756449B2

In one embodiment, a device in a computer network monitors an alternating-current (AC) waveform of an electrical power source at the device, where the power source is part of a polyphase power source system. Once the device determines a particular phase of the polyphase power source system at the device, then the device joins a directed acyclic graph (DAG) specific to the particular phase. In another embodiment, a device detects a time of a zero crossing of the AC waveform, and may then determine a particular phase of the polyphase power source system at the device based on the time of the zero crossing relative to a corresponding location within a frequency hopping superframe of the computer network.
US08756441B1

A system and method for monitoring power usage in a data storage environment, the system comprising a data storage system, a power monitor coupled to the data storage system and configured to monitor power consumption of the data storage system, a database in communication with the power monitor in order to communicate the monitored power consumption to the database, and computer-executable program code operating in memory coupled with a processor in communication with the database, wherein the computer-executable program code is configured to enable a processor to execute logic to receive power consumption information about the monitored power consumption, and display the monitored power consumption information to a user.
US08756429B2

A method, programmed medium and system are provided for enabling a user to choose a user-preferred encryption type from among a plurality of encryption types listed in a user's Kerberos configuration file. During the ticket granting process in a Kerberos system, a user is requested to select a preferred encryption type to be used in the Kerberos communication from among encryption types contained in the user's Kerberos configuration file. The user-selected encryption type is then implemented for use in encrypting a session ticket (as well as generating the session key of user requested encryption type) for use by the user machine in communicating securely with an Kerberized application server when being communicated by that particular user. Thus, the system allows different users to simultaneously communicate with the same Kerberized application server using a supported encryption type of the user's own choice.
US08756427B2

The present invention is related to a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) for providing advanced security functions. The WTRU includes trusted platform module (TPM) for performing trusted computing operations; and a secure time component (STC) for providing a secure measurement of a current time. The STC and the TPM are integrated to provide accurate trusted time information to internal and external to the WTRU. The STC may be located on an expanded a subscriber identity module (SIM), on the WTRU platform, or two STCs may be used, one in each location. Similarly, the TPM may be located on an expanded SIM, on the WTRU platform, or two TPMs may be used, one in each location. Preferably, the STC will include a real time clock (RTC); a tamper detection and power failure unit; and a time report and sync controller.
US08756424B2

Techniques to avoid polarization in a communication network include a network switch or device having a first interface to receive a data unit or packet, and a second interface via which the packet is transmitted from the network device. The network device includes a hash value generator configured to generate, using a depolarizer, a depolarized key from an initial key (where the initial key is based on contents of the packet and the depolarizer is unique to the network device), and to generate a hash value based on the depolarized key and the packet by using a hash function that is common to all network devices in the network. The hash value may be optionally modified to load balance egress traffic of the network device. The network device selects an egress link or port, such as by determining an index into an egress table based on the (modified) hash value.
US08756421B2

Provided are an authentication device using a true random number generating element or a pseudo-random number generating element, for example, a USB token, an authentication apparatus using the same, an authentication method, an authentication system and the like. In the authentication system, the authentication device is prepared on a user side, and one code generated in the authentication device is used to encrypt another code. The authentication apparatus registers the codes and decrypts the encrypted code sent from the authentication device by using the registered codes to perform an authentication.
US08756420B2

A computing device connects with a vision measuring machine (VMS). Then the computing device generates a one time password (OTP). A size of the OTP, the OTP are stored in a predefined file. The computing device obtains a size of measurement program codes of the VMS. The size of the OTP and the size of the measurement program codes are stored in the predefined file. The measurement program codes are encrypted by the OTP. If the measurement data includes image data of an object which is measured by the VMS, the computing device stores the encrypted program codes, a type of the image data, image data, and a size of the image data in the predefined file.
US08756412B2

A method includes synchronizing a first gateway with information from a second gateway. The second gateway operates in a primary role with at least one primary network address. The second gateway communicates with at least one wireless device that uses at least one encryption key during at least one secure communication session. The information includes the at least one encryption key. The method also includes detecting a switchover event at the first gateway. The method further includes, in response to detecting the switchover event, switching the first gateway to the primary role, communicating using the at least one primary network address, and maintaining the at least one secure communication session at the first gateway after the first gateway switches to the primary role.
US08756408B2

Some microprocessors and microcontrollers have a bi-directional reset pin. In such devices, output signals on the reset pin are decoded by reset reason decode logic circuitry. The output of the reset reason decode logic can be provided to another device or processor, which generates a readily recognizable output signal indicative of a reason why the processor reset. Output signals that can indicate why a processor was reset can include a high or low state of different durations, serial bit streams or a number of pulses, each of which correspond to and therefore identify a reason why the processor was reset.
US08756405B2

A data processor is disclosed that accesses its local memory by routing requests through a data path that is external the data processor. A reservation/decoration controller implements specialized handling associated with a received request to access local memory. In addition to implementing special handling, a memory controller that is associated with the reservation/decoration controller routes a corresponding access request back to the data processor core to access its local memory.
US08756402B2

A processing module, a processor circuit, an instruction set for processing data, and a method for synchronizing the processing of codes are provided. In an embodiment of the invention, a processing module for processing instructions, the instructions relating to user data and control data according to a communication protocol. The processing module includes a first processing circuit configured to process the instructions relating to the control data, and a second processing circuit configured to process the instructions relating to the user data.
US08756395B2

Methods of operation of a memory device and system are provided in embodiments. Initialization operations are conducted at a first frequency of operation during an initialization sequence. Memory access operations are then performed at a second frequency of operation. The second frequency of operation is higher than the first frequency of operation. Also, the memory access operations include a read operation and a write operation. In an embodiment, information that represents the first frequency of operation and the second frequency of operation is read from a serial presence detect device.
US08756385B2

A system may identify a second software configuration item for possible backup in response to selection of a first software configuration item for backup, where the first and second software configuration items are related. The system may include a detecting unit for detecting information regarding at least one hardware and at least two software configuration items. A repository may store a set of data for each configuration item based on the detected information. The set of data may include a predetermined attribute of the configuration item and a relation between the configuration item and another configuration item. An identifying unit may then identify the second software configuration item from the attribute and/or the relation upon selection of the first software configuration item for backup.
US08756378B2

A method for managing caches, including: broadcasting, by a first cache agent operatively connected to a first cache and using a first physical network, a first peer-to-peer (P2P) request for a memory address; issuing, by a second cache agent operatively connected to a second cache and using a second physical network, a first response to the first P2P request based on a type of the first P2P request and a state of a cacheline in the second cache corresponding to the memory address; issuing, by a third cache agent operatively connected to a third cache, a second response to the first P2P request; and upgrading, by the first cache agent and based on the first response and the second response, a state of a cacheline in the first cache corresponding to the memory address.
US08756359B2

A computer system for multi-processing purposes. The computer system has a console comprising a first coupling site and a second coupling site. Each coupling site comprises a connector. The console is an enclosure that is capable of housing each coupling site. The system also has a plurality of computer modules, where each of the computer modules is coupled to a connector. Each of the computer modules has a processing unit, a main memory coupled to the processing unit, a graphics controller coupled to the processing unit, and a mass storage device coupled to the processing unit. Each of the computer modules is substantially similar in design to each other to provide independent processing of each of the computer modules in the computer system.
US08756347B2

According to our invention, linked operation between a monitor apparatus for displaying images, and a set-top box for transmitting image signals to the monitor apparatus via a required interface, can be achieved properly, even if both units are constructed in casings separate from each other. The monitor apparatus uses a CEC line to transmit a CEC vendor command including at least a code associated with unit information, and the set-top box apparatus transmits the CEC vendor command including at least the code associated with the unit information. Upon receiving the vendor command from the set-top box apparatus, the monitor apparatus switches to the linked operation with the set-top box.
US08756345B2

Methods and structure are provided for managing Protection Information (PI) in a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) expander. The Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) expander comprises a Serial Management Protocol (SMP) target. The SMP target is operable to receive, from a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) controller, an SMP command for managing Protection Information (PI) for a RAID volume at the SAS expander. The expander further comprises a control unit operable to generate PI for the RAID volume in response to receiving the SMP command from the controller, and a Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP) initiator operable to generate SSP commands for writing the PI to a storage device that provisions the RAID volume based upon input from the control unit.
US08756330B2

A method performed by a first network node of an IMS Network is provided. The method includes receiving a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) in a header field in a first SIP message; receiving a token in the header field in the first SIP message, the token indicative of a type of a network node in a path of the first SIP message; and based on the received token, sending a second SIP message including the received URI, the second message conveying information about the first network node.
US08756318B1

A software distribution mechanism evaluates network addresses of requesting clients to determine a location for each client. The clients from a particular location are grouped together and a fraction of those clients in a particular group are recipients of a software distribution. The faction is adjusted to enable more or fewer clients to download, thus effectively throttling the amount of bandwidth consumed by a mass distribution event. The fraction may be adjusted for particular geographical locations and the time of day to make more effective use of network bandwidth.
US08756317B2

A system authenticates a user for accessing an electronic mailbox of the user from a remote device and obtaining electronic mail (email). An email server is provided by an email service provider and contains the electronic mailbox of the user. A mobile office platform is operative for accessing the email server and determines if an authentication token is required to access the electronic mailbox of the user. An authentication token is received from the email server or other server if an authentication token is required. Access is attempted to the electronic mailbox of the user using the authentication token. The authentication token is stored for subsequent use by the user to access their electronic mailbox if access to the electronic mailbox using the token has been successful.
US08756305B2

Identification information for identifying each network out of a plurality of wireless networks is received. A wireless network identified by arbitrary identification information is wirelessly connected. Whether a printer in the wirelessly connected wireless network has a function of connecting a digital camera and performing output processing is inquired of the printer. Connection to the printer is controlled in accordance with a response to the inquiry. The digital camera performs output processing together with the connected printer. An information output apparatus having a function of connecting an information storage terminal apparatus by simple operation and performing output processing can be wirelessly connected.
US08756301B2

The present invention is directed towards systems and methods for automating runbook documentation. The method according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises receiving a network event and determining whether the event is a known or unknown event. The method comprises executing a policy associated with the event if the event is known event. The method comprises passing the event to the operator for review against a database of existing runbooks if the event is an unknown event. The method comprises executing an existing policy if the operator identifies a runbook for the runbook event. The method comprises requesting a new policy for the event if the operator does not identify an existing runbook for the event.
US08756297B2

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for facilitating custodian-based routing. During operation, the system receives, at a computing device serving as a backup custodian to one or more mobile devices, a request for a piece of content from a requesting device, which has mapped the content to the computing device based on the content's name without using the computing device's physical address. The system determines whether the content is available on the computing device. In response to the content not being available on the computing device, the system identifies a mobile device that stores the content, and obtains the content from the identified mobile device. The system then caches the content on the computing device, thereby enabling the computing device to provide the content in response to subsequent requests without connecting to the identified mobile device, and provides the content to the requesting device.
US08756287B2

When a membership number acquisition unit obtains a membership number from a management device, an identification information creation unit assigns a unique identification data to the membership number, creates identification information element containing the assigned identification data and the obtained membership number, and assigns an e-mail storing unit to the identification information element on a one-to-one basis. When a target e-mail acquisition unit obtains the selected membership number and the e-mail from the management device, a delivery unit identifies the identification information element that contains the membership number that agrees with the obtained selected membership number and stores the obtained e-mail in the e-mail storing unit that corresponds to the specified identification information element.
US08756275B2

The present invention is directed towards computerized social networks and e-commerce including facilitating ad-hoc screen sharing and co-browsing between users of a social network. The collaborative web browsing method comprising providing a server computer having a Shopping With A Friend (SWAF) server engine coupled to a database, a SWAF client engine coupled to the SWAF server engine and a plurality of client computers each having a web browser program that runs the SWAF client engine. The web browser program does not include a collaboration plug-in.
US08756273B2

A system and method for handling of cross-system metadata in a system landscape with a hub and backend systems is presented. Reference metadata that is associated with a first backend system and that refers to metadata of a second backend system is stored in a storage associated with the first backend system, the storage further separately storing backend system metadata that is associated only with the first backend system. Connecting metadata, which establishes a connection between backend system metadata associated with the first backend system and backend system metadata of any other backend system, is stored separately. At 206, the first backend system is linked to the hub by the connecting metadata from storage associated with the first backend system to a hub storage associated with the hub. The connecting metadata is activated in the hub to link the first backend system with the second backend system.
US08756272B1

A system and method for the management of client computing device content requests by service providers are provided. The requested content corresponds to content organized as a series of ordered frames, which include a number of reference frames. The management of the content requests can include the selection of computing devices corresponding to various Point of Presence locations for providing requested content. The selection of the computing devices can incorporate logic related to the delivery of a first subset of the content from a Point of Presence based on minimizing delivery latencies. The selection of the computing devices can incorporate logic related to the delivery of a second subset of the content from a second Point of Presence based on minimizing costs associated with delivery of the second subset.
US08756263B2

A binary logic unit to apply any Boolean operation on two input signals (va, vb) is described, wherein any Boolean operation to be applied on the input signals (va, vb) is defined by a particular combination of well defined control signals (ctl0, ctl1, ctl2, ctl3), wherein the input signals (va, vb) are used to select a control signal (ctl0, ctl1, ctl2, ctl3) as an output signal (vo) of the binary logic unit representing the result of a particular Boolean operation applied on the two input signals (va, vb). Furthermore a method to operate such a binary logic unit is described.
US08756256B2

Methods and systems enable communication devices equipped with software defined radio based chipset modules to seamlessly re-program the communication device to operate on any of a variety of service provider networks. By re-programming a communication device equipped with software defined radio based chipset module, the communication device can support communications over both UMTS and CDMA communication networks. An environment is provided which allows a user to quickly and efficiently switch between service provider accounts supporting communications.
US08756246B2

Disclose is an improved approach for caching lexical values for RDF data. A compact, efficient resource ID to value mapping is stored in memory, where the cache is stored in memory such that the overhead of accessing and updating it is minimized. The advantage of this approach is improved query performance, since the database is performing less work with the in-memory RDF resource caching. In addition, throughput and performance of the database are also improved.
US08756230B2

A quality validation method to improve inspection and validation processes by increasing their quality, efficiency, and positive impact. This method automatically prompts operators at one or more validation stations to follow a validation path comprising one or more validation items configurable by part number. It allows for automatic or manual feedback on the result of each item checked, the ability to enforce a particular pack-out consist based upon user provided specifications, and the ability of historically storing inspection results comprising container, part and inspection item information and results. It additionally provides an easily accessible interface to configure validation items and areas by part number, configure validation paths comprising of a variable quantity and order of validation items, and obtain information in a variety of useful formats.
US08756215B2

A document to be indexed is initially indexed in dependence upon language-specific rules of a single language. A success metric is used to assess the effectiveness of the single language indexing. If a threshold level of success is not attained, the document is identified as multi-lingual. In response to identifying the document as multi-lingual, the document is queued for multi-lingual indexing. A document may be fragmented into a number of smaller documents, each of which is indexed separately.
US08756204B2

Architecture for multi-level undo on a client in grid-based applications. The architecture is a control driven cascading changes system where change tracking works seamlessly in asynchronous (and synchronous) scenarios. A client application is associated with a grid object and, instantiates and configures the grid object. The application can initiate a change to data in the grid and/or the user can edit the data in the grid directly. A result of the change is a notification to the application, the notification including an order key. The application consumes the notification and can then append new changes based on synchronous or asynchronous computations by calling an update function using the order key. The application uses the key to attach further updates which are properly collected together for undo/redo.
US08756203B2

A system and method for determining media to be exported out of a media library is described. In some examples, the system determines a media component to be exported, determines the media component is in the media library for a specific process, and exports the media component after the process is completed.
US08756199B2

Time required for a file server to determine files to be migrated from a first storage region to a second storage region is reduced. A file service system coupled to the storage system for providing a first storage region and a second storage region stores identifiers of files that have been accessed by a client, in accessed file identifier information and determines the files to be migrated from the first storage region to the second storage region based on metadata of the files stored in the first storage region and the accessed file identifier information.
US08756197B1

A system and method for creating a consistent view of previously backed up data. In one embodiment, a point in time copy of a set of data is requested. The point in time copy includes a base image of the set of data and additional data corresponding to transactions targeted to the set of data which are received during creation of the point in time copy. A subset of the additional data usable to generate a consistent view of the set of data from the base image is determined. A file that includes a set of changes to the base image represented by the subset is created and stored in association with the base image. Responsive to a request for access to the copy, the previously stored subset is utilized to create a consistent virtual view of the copy from the base image.
US08756195B2

The different advantageous embodiments provide a method for identifying changes in data sets. An ending version for a data set is received. A beginning version for the data set is identified. The ending version for the data set is compared with the beginning version for the data set. A number of differences is calculated between the ending version and the beginning version. A data structure is created that identifies the number of differences between the ending version and the beginning version.
US08756187B2

In selected embodiments a recommendation generator builds a network of interrelationships between venues, reviewers and users based on their attributes and reviewer and user reviews of the venues. Each interrelationship or link may be positive or negative and may accumulate with other links (or anti-links) to provide nodal links the strength of which are based on commonality of attributes among the linked nodes and/or common preferences that one node, such as a reviewer, expresses for other nodes, such as venues. The links may be first order (based on a direct relationship between, for instance, a reviewer and a venue) or higher order (based on, for instance, the fact that two venue are both liked by a given reviewer). The recommendation engine in certain embodiments determines recommended venues based on user attributes and venue preferences by aggregating the link matrices and determining the venues which are most strongly coupled to the user.
US08756183B1

Described is a system for representing, storing, and reconstructing an input signal. The system constructs an index of unique polychronous groups (PCGs) from a spiking neuron network. Thereafter, a basis set of spike codes is generated from the unique PCGs. An input signal can then be received, with the input signal being spike encoded using the basis set of spike codes from the unique PCGs. The input signal can then be reconstructed by looking up in a reconstruction table, for each unique PCG in the basis set in temporal order according to firing times, anchor neurons. Using a neuron assignment table, an output location can be looked up for each anchor neuron to place a value based on the firing times of each unique PCG. Finally, the output locations of the anchor neurons can be compiled to reconstruct the input signal.
US08756171B2

A method for predictive analytics in a semi-structured process including updating, iteratively, at least one probability of a probabilistic process model based on a completed task, wherein updating the at least one probability of the probabilistic process model includes receiving the probabilistic process model associated with a todo list including a plurality of tasks of the semi-structured process, defining a cost of each of the plurality of tasks, prioritizing the plurality of tasks according to the costs, and recommending a next task from the todo list according to a prioritization
US08756157B1

A system transfers money to a payee's payment card account, without requiring an additional payment card or without acquiring a payee's payment card or account information. A payee registers a payment account with a service provider. A system receives an identification, generated from a business entity, of the payee and information associated with a notice to be transmitted to a device associated with the payee. The system transmits the notice (advertisement or offer) to the device, the notice being associated, prior to the transmitting, with the payee payment account and being transmitted prior to the payee buying product or service associated with the notice using the payee payment account. The system receives receiving an indication of a purchase associated with the notice and completed using the payee payment account and applies an amount of money associated with the notice as a discount.
US08756152B2

Methods, computer-readable media, and apparatuses are disclosed for quantifying risk and control assessments. The risk includes both residual risk and direction of risk. Various aspects of the invention quantitatively compare the risk and control assessments against step-ahead losses using special regression models that are particularly applicable to this kind of data. The empirical comparison may be performed on both loss event frequency and severity in two different and separate dimensions. The empirical comparison may also be performed using losses extracted by even occurrence and event settlement dates in two separate dates.
US08756145B2

A method implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code, includes receiving information in support of a bid and determining if value-add eligibility criteria is met. Additionally, the method includes calculating a bid price based on the information if the value-add eligibility criteria is met, updating a record indicating the bid price and tracking additions and changes to the record.
US08756144B2

A system and method of conducting a securities auction through the use of a computer network including programs and databases to be accessed by participants through the Internet using a standard browser. The seller inputs bid requests through a website that may be accessed by bidders once they are logged into the host computer network. All bids are entered into the computer and are accessible to all bidders on a real time basis as the auction proceeds. Additionally the bids and their times of entry are updated automatically as the auction proceeds so that all bidders are aware of the prices and status of all bids and whether any trades have been executed.
US08756143B1

A computer-based auction method and auction system in which vendors offer products, services and/or information as auction objects, auction object data relating to the auction objects being captured in an input module and being disseminated over telecommunications channels, and in which interested customers make auction bids for offered auction objects, bid data being prepared and being sent over a telecommunications network to an evaluation unit, where they are evaluated and the best bid for the auction object is determined, class designations based on a predefined object classification being inserted into the auction object data and the auction object data being filtered based on customer-specific object profiles, and during the preparation of the bid data in the communication terminal of the customer a bid amount entered by the interested customer is linked to at least certain data contained in the auction object data.
US08756133B2

A computer system for processing data relating to a deferred variable annuity contract during the accumulation phase includes a data storage device storing data relating to the deferred variable annuity contract, including a payment base value, a contract value, a withdrawal percent, a birth date of a relevant life, and a formula for determining, based on the withdrawal percent and a withdrawal base value, an available periodic benefit payment amount that does not decrease the payment base; and a processor. The processor is configured to determine a withdrawal percent applicable to a date, based on whether the date is prior to a date of a selected birthday of the relevant life.
US08756128B2

A computer-readable medium has encoded thereon software for maintaining a steady-state worth of an inhomogenous renewable resource pool. The software includes instructions for causing a data-processing system to evaluate an indicator of a historical worth of the resource pool, to determine a draw amount at least in part on the basis of this indicator, and to output data representative of that draw amount.
US08756125B1

A method for providing remote financial assistance involves obtaining a request from a customer for financial assistance, and scheduling an appointment slot selected from multiple appointment slots, based on the request, where the scheduled appointment slot is associated with a financial professional selected from multiple financial professionals, where the multiple financial professionals are geographically dispersed, and where the financial professional provides remote financial assistance to the customer, in the scheduled appointment slot, by inputting financial information associated with the customer into a financial professional online interface.
US08756123B2

Various embodiments of systems and methods for inventory verification using inventory snapshots are described herein. In response to a first inventory posting in a current time period, a current open inventory snapshot is created with inventory information. If there is a previously open inventory snapshot that is created in a previous time period before the current period, then the previously open inventory snapshot is closed. To verify inventory for a past time period, a difference between an inventory snapshot that is valid for the past time period and an inventory snapshot that is valid for a time period previous to the past time period is compared with aggregated inventory change confirmations posted in the past time period. An error indicator is provided if there is a mismatch between the difference and the aggregated inventory change confirmations.
US08756120B2

A hybrid context information matching approach may produce a customized product catalogue based on the user's context and the mobile device the user is using. A Knowledge Base (KB) and a KB manager, along with various processes perform specific collaborative tasks in order to achieve the overall goal of producing a customized product catalogue. In addition, the effort builds and/or updates the KB. Various contextual inputs are provided from both the user environment and data repositories. Hybrid matching is performed in order to determine optimal search results based on the contextual input provided.
US08756119B1

A method for aggregating mobile phone orders for shipping to a recipient comprising analyzing, by a server computer, orders placed via a plurality of ordering systems, wherein the orders may comprises a plurality of ordered items; identifying, by the server computer, recipient addresses with common destinations; unifying, by the server computer, the identified recipient addresses with common destinations; determining, by the server computer, criteria for when to release an order for shipment to a recipient; accumulating, by the server computer, ordered items for the recipient; combining, by the server computer, the accumulated ordered items into a shipment, wherein a shipment comprises at least one container; and releasing, by the server computer, the container for shipment when at least one of the criteria is met.
US08756118B1

In an embodiment, a method comprises sending, from a procurement computer to a client computer, a message indicating that a pre-authorization request for one or more requested items from an e-commerce website was approved; causing displaying a particular item as approved for purchase from the e-commerce website; causing launching a web browser and causing downloading a shopping cart webpage of the e-commerce website; sending, from the procurement computer to the shopping cart webpage, item information associated with the particular item, and causing displaying the item information on the shopping cart webpage as one of one or more ordered items; in response to determining that the user requested to proceed to a checkout webpage, causing downloading the checkout webpage and causing displaying the one or more ordered items on the checkout webpage; causing placing a purchase order for the one or more ordered items from the checkout webpage.
US08756117B1

A single instance, multi-tenant procurement system, includes an access module to provide access to a plurality of end users associated with an organization to their respective accounts, each account being customized by a super user of the organization, a search engine to execute searches for products offered by one or more suppliers, a transaction module to process and track one or more requisitions generated by the plurality of end users, a business rules module to apply business rules established between the organization and the one or more suppliers to process the requisitions, and a data repository to store data generated on the system.
US08756115B2

A modular system and method is provided that enables the consumer to design/build his or her own bird feeder based on interchangeable modular components that include multiple bases of different styles, multiple nutrient reservoirs of different styles, and one or more additional components, each having different styles. The system and method provides an on-line store that allows consumers to view the various styles for each component and to select their own base, reservoir, etc. Once the desired components have been selected on-line, a bill of materials listing the components is printed at a manufacturing facility where the selected components are pulled from a common inventory, assembled into a custom feeder and shipped to the consumer.
US08756110B2

Systems and methods are disclosed for processing transactions and associated data. In one exemplary implementation, there is provided a method for processing information associated with transactions involving a product, wherein the product may comprise an experience, a physical product, and/or a digital product. Moreover, illustrative methods may include performing processing associated with a plurality of subroutines, such as a first subroutine for handling an experience, a second subroutine for handling a physical product and/or a digital product, and/or one or more additional subroutines associated with fulfillment.
US08756108B2

According to an embodiment, a system comprises a remote server adapted to interact with a buyer device and one or more other servers over a network, wherein the remote server is adapted to implement a shopping cart. The system also comprises one or more processors, and one or more memories adapted to store a plurality of machine-readable instructions which when executed by the one or more processors are adapted to cause the system to receive, at the remote server, first transaction information from the buyer device through the shopping cart, wherein the first transaction information comprises a transaction request from a first seller; receive, at the remote server, second transaction information from the buyer device through the shopping cart, wherein the second transaction information comprises a transaction request from a second seller; and process the first and second transaction information through the shopping cart for the first and second seller.
US08756104B2

Systems and methods are disclosed for providing content in accordance with informational campaigns or advertisements administered by one or more distribution partners. the distribution partners typically revenue share with the system administrator (system owner), who coordinates the informational campaigns and sends electronic mails (e-mails) associated therewith. By applying a distribution optimization formula to various informational or advertising campaigns of the distribution partners, e-mails with links to these distribution partners will be sent to users, and each user who opens the e-mail and clicks on a portion of the e-mail over an underlying link, will be directed to the requisite distribution partner, typically the server associated therewith.
US08756086B1

A system evaluate the effectiveness of a given advertising source in generating sales leads and monitoring how the sales leads were handled. Providing a detailed computerized system to provide reports to customer's managers to advise them how effective a given advertising program or medium was in generating sales leads and to advise them how many responses were genuine potential customers interested in buying the product or service. Also providing a system to monitor how sales lead were handled by sales personnel including evaluation on how a sales call was handled and if a sales lead was successfully completed as a sale.
US08756083B2

The invention is a method and system useful in determining the degree of comparative negligence of an insured person involved in an accident as compared to the comparable negligence of other parties involved in the accident, in particular the insurance claimant. The method and system of the invention include, at a minimum, the steps of gathering preliminary information concerning accident type, applying preliminary rules to the preliminary information to determine accident type, gathering additional information specific to the accident type, and applying accident-type-specific rules to the additional information to determine the degree comparative negligence of said insured person and/or the claimant.
US08756079B2

A method for applying a user correction to medical fact extraction may include extracting, using at least one processor, a first set of one or more medical facts from a first portion of a text documenting a patient encounter. A correction to the first set of medical facts may be received from a user documenting the patient encounter. A second set of one or more medical facts may be extracted from a second portion of the text based at least in part on the user's correction to the first set of medical facts. An apparatus for applying a user correction to medical fact extraction may include at least one processor and at least one computer-readable storage medium storing processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, perform the above-described method. At least one computer-readable storage medium may be encoded with computer-executable instructions that perform the above-described method.
US08756076B2

Methods, computer systems, and computer storage media are provided for providing a third-party user HIPAA-compliant access to an electronic medical record system at a clinical site. A request for a clinical study participant list is received from the third-party user, and it is determined that the third-party user has viewing and access rights with respect to the clinical study participant list. The third-party user can select a participant on the clinical study participant list and access the participant's electronic medical record within the electronic medical record system. The electronic medical record is presented to the third-party user in a read-only view, and the third-party user is prevented from searching the EMR system for other electronic medical records.
US08756074B2

Systems and methods are provided for providing a real-time health risk assessment generated based on a plurality of health parameters entered via a plurality of health parameter controls. A health parameter entry interface includes a plurality of health parameter controls to enter values, where the values include demographic parameters, health history parameters, and family history parameters. A disease risk interface includes an alphanumeric depiction of risks of a person developing one or more health conditions based on values entered using the health parameter entry interface. A disease risk location identification interface includes a picture of a human body, where when a risk of a person developing a health condition is greater than a threshold, a graphic is displayed on the picture of the human body at a position associated with the health condition.
US08756068B2

A speech decoder includes a demultiplexing unit, a low frequency band decoding unit, a band splitting filter bank unit, a coded sequence analysis unit, a coded sequence decoding/dequantization unit, a high frequency band generation unit, low frequency band time envelope calculation units that acquire a plurality of low frequency band time envelopes, a time envelope calculation unit that calculates high frequency band time envelopes using time envelope information and the plurality of low frequency band time envelopes, a time envelope adjustment unit that adjusts the time envelope of high frequency band components using the time envelopes obtained by the time envelope calculation unit, and a band synthesis filter bank unit.
US08756061B2

In syllable or vowel or phone boundary detection during speech, an auditory spectrum may be determined for an input window of sound and one or more multi-scale features may be extracted from the auditory spectrum. Each multi-scale feature can be extracted using a separate two-dimensional spectro-temporal receptive filter. One or more feature maps corresponding to the one or more multi-scale features can be generated and an auditory gist vector can be extracted from each of the one or more feature maps. A cumulative gist vector may be obtained through augmentation of each auditory gist vector extracted from the one or more feature maps. One or more syllable or vowel or phone boundaries in the input window of sound can be detected by mapping the cumulative gist vector to one or more syllable or vowel or phone boundary characteristics using a machine learning algorithm.
US08756056B2

For determining a quantizer step size for quantizing a signal including audio or video information, a first quantizer step size as well as an interference threshold are provided. Then, the actual interference introduced by the first quantizer step size is determined and compared with the interference threshold. Despite the fact that the comparison reveals that the actually introduced interference exceeds the threshold, a second, coarser quantizer step size is nevertheless used, which will then be used for quantization if it turns out that the interference introduced by the coarser, second quantizer step size falls below the threshold or falls below the interference introduced by the first quantizer step size. Thus, the quantization interference is reduced while the quantization is coarsened and, thus, the compression gain is increased.
US08756035B2

A visualization system for creating, displaying and animating overview and detail heat map displays for industrial automation. The visualization system connects the heat map displays to an interface component providing manual or automatic input data from an industrial process or an archive of historical industrial process input data. The animated heat map displays providing quality, prognostic or diagnostic information.
US08756034B2

A test installation for electrical filter installations has, in the interior of a housing, a dust measurement device, a converter control cabinet, a feed for the converter control cabinet, a computer, connecting apparatuses for connecting the dust measurement device to a clean and a raw-gas dust channel of the electrical filter installation, cables for connecting the converter control cabinet to a high-voltage rectifier for the electrical filter installation, as well as a power connection, and wherein the housing has recesses for passing through at least the connecting apparatuses, the cable and power supplies for the feed and for the power connection.
US08756033B2

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system not depending on an operator who operates the apparatus is provided. The system includes a measuring unit (coordinate calculation section 2034) that measures a relative position and a relative posture of the ultrasonic probe with respect to an examinee using image information on the examinee acquired by the ultrasonic probe, a control amount calculation unit (2035) that calculates an amount of control of the position and posture of the ultrasonic probe based on the measurement result of the measuring unit and at least one of a probe control mechanism that controls the position and posture of the ultrasonic probe using the amount of control calculated by the control amount calculation unit and a guiding information presentation unit that presents information for guiding movement of the position and posture of the ultrasonic probe using the amount of control calculated by the control amount calculation unit.
US08756028B2

A fault detection method of semiconductor manufacturing processes is disclosed. The method includes the steps of providing a storage device, collecting a fault detection and classification(FDC) parameter by the storage device, setting up a measurement site for measuring an online measurement parameter, collecting a wafer acceptance test(WAT) in correspondence to the FDC parameter, establishing a first relationship equation between the FDC parameter and the online measurement parameter, establishing a second relationship equation of the online measurement parameter and the WAT by using the first relationship equation, establishing a third relationship equation between the FDC parameter and the WAT, establishing a waning region of the manufacturing processes by using the first, second, and third relationship equations, and determining the situation of generating wafer defects according to the warning region. The present invention discloses a system architecture for the method.
US08756024B2

An energy analysis system provides valuable input into building energy expenditures. The system assists with obtaining a detailed view of how energy consumption occurs in a building, what steps may be taken to lower the energy footprint, and executing detailed energy consumption analysis. The analysis may include, as examples, a balance point pair analysis to determine either or both of a heating balance point and a cooling balance point, an exception rank analysis to identify specific data (e.g., energy consumption data) in specific time intervals for further review, or other analysis. The system may display the analysis results on a user interface.
US08756002B2

An approach is provided for providing aggregated position-related information at a user interface based on invocation conditions. An invocation platform determines one or more applications, one or more services, or a combination thereof that provide position-related information. The invocation platform further determines one or more invocation conditions associated with the position-related information, the one or more applications, the one or more services, or a combination thereof. The invocation platform also causes, at least in part, a presentation of at least one user interface that aggregates the position-related information from the one or more applications, the one or more services, or a combination thereof based, at least in part, on the one or more invocation conditions.
US08755998B2

A method for reducing the risk of a collision between a vehicle and at least a first external object is contemplated. The risk of a collision may be reduced with use of a collision avoidance system having a detection unit adapted to issue a control signal in the event it detects a collision involving a first external object in a vicinity of the host vehicle, and an action unit adapted to operate the collision avoidance system such that an emergency maneuver can be initiated by the collision avoidance system at an earlier stage if the control signal is issued, as compared to when no control signal is issued.
US08755989B2

Methods and systems are provided for improving fuel usage while addressing knock by adjusting the use of spark retard and direct injection of a fluid based on engine operating conditions and the composition of the injected fluid. One or more engine parameters, such as EGR, VCT, boost, throttle position, are coordinated with the direct injection to reduce torque and EGR transients.
US08755983B2

In vehicular control apparatus and method, a traveling environment of a forward position of an advance direction of a vehicle in which an actuator for a vehicular control purpose is mounted is detected, a reliability of a result of measurement of the traveling environment by the traveling environment measurement section is determined, and an operation of the actuator is determined with the determined reliability as a requiring condition.
US08755981B2

A method of controlling a transmission includes estimating an expected coefficient of friction of the clutch, estimating a value of an expected torque required to maintain a constant slip of the clutch for a current input torque applied to the transmission, and determining a value of an actual torque applied to the clutch to maintain the constant slip of the clutch at the current input torque. An actual coefficient of friction of the clutch is calculated by dividing the actual torque applied to the clutch by the expected torque applied to the clutch, and multiplying that quotient by the expected coefficient of friction of the clutch. A feed forward torque command is then adjusted based upon the actual coefficient of friction of the clutch to define a revised value of the feed forward torque command, which may then be used to control the clutch for various control operations.
US08755975B2

A controller and control method for an automatic vehicle door movement control system which includes a plurality of signaling devices and at least one door actuator for opening and closing at least one vehicle door in accordance with an instruction signal from the signaling devices is configured to selectively mask a redundant instruction signal. The redundant instruction signal is an instruction signal received after the receipt of a primary instruction signal and prior to the completion of an automatic door movement operation. The redundant instruction signal is masked when it is determined to be against an ascertained user intent or when the primary instruction signal is determined to be more indicative of the ascertained user intent.
US08755969B2

A bicycle suspension control apparatus includes a user operating device and a control device. The control device is operatively coupled to the user operating device to selectively control a front bicycle suspension between a plurality of operating states and a rear bicycle suspension between a plurality of operating states. The control device is configured to selectively change the operating states of both the front and rear bicycle suspensions to different ones of the operating states in response to a single operation of the user operating device. The control device controls the front and rear bicycle suspensions such that a first operating state change operation of one of the front and rear bicycle suspensions occurs later than a second operating state change operation of the other of the front and rear bicycle suspensions.
US08755967B1

Aspects of the disclosure relate generally to detecting the edges of lane lines. Specifically, a vehicle driving on a roadway may use a laser to collect data for the roadway. A computer may process the data received from the laser in order to extract the points which potentially reside on two lane lines defining a lane. The extracted points are used by the computer to determine a model of a left lane edge and a right lane edge for the lane. The model may be used to estimate a centerline between the two lane lines. All or some of the model and centerline estimates, may be used to maneuver a vehicle in real time and also to update or generate map information used to maneuver vehicles.
US08755964B2

An outlet is provided to output power stored in a power storage device as commercial power, and the outlet receives power supply from the power storage device via a voltage converter. A car navigation device is configured to store information about traveling of a vehicle to a destination. An ECU obtains the information about traveling to the destination from the car navigation device, and controls a state of charge of the power storage device based on the information up to the destination and a usage status of the outlet up to the destination.
US08755963B2

Motor traveling using only an output of a rotating electrical machine utilizing power of a vehicle-mounted power storage device is applicable to an electrically-powered vehicle, within a region inside a maximum output line in motor traveling. The maximum output line is composed of straight line portions defining an upper limit torque and an upper limit vehicle speed and a curved line portion defining upper limit output power, in motor traveling. When an output power upper limit value from the power storage device is limited due to an increase in a current load or a reduction in the SOC of the power storage device, a driving region to which motor traveling is applicable is narrowed. Operation in a high rotation region, where efficiency is reduced, is avoided by changing the upper limit vehicle speed in motor traveling in response to the SOC and/or the current load of the power storage device.
US08755961B2

A drive condition, which is used to determine a SOC management plan, is collected from each of road sections and is cumulatively memorized in a durable memory medium. When a remaining charge amount of a battery reaches a lower limit standard value or an upper limit standard value at a certain location, a candidate control section is defined around and includes such point. The candidate control section is defined to extend a predetermined distance forward and backward from such point. The drive conditions stored for the candidate control section are used to determine the SOC management plan that controls the remaining charge amount of the battery to be controlled within a standard range. When the vehicle enters the candidate control section, the drive control of a power source in the vehicle is performed according to the SOC management plan for the candidate control section.
US08755960B2

A hybrid powertrain system includes an internal combustion engine and a torque machine wherein electrical energy is controllably transferred between an electric energy storage device and the torque machine by a control system. A method for controlling the hybrid powertrain system includes monitoring a voltage, a current, and a power output of the electric energy storage device. A battery power control scheme is executed to control the output power of the electric energy storage device associated with the electrical energy transferred between the electric energy storage device and the torque machine. The battery power control scheme is disabled when the control system loses a power limit authority associated with the electrical energy transferred between the electric storage device and the torque machine during ongoing operation. The battery power control scheme is re-enabled when the control system regains the power limit authority.
US08755953B2

A method and apparatus comprising an existing aircraft node and an information agent located in the existing aircraft node. The existing aircraft node is connected to a number of aircraft systems and a network in an aircraft network data processing system. The information agent is configured to provide access to information received by the existing aircraft node to other aircraft nodes in the aircraft network data processing system.
US08755949B2

Disclosed are a telematics system using human body communication, a portable device having a telematics function using human body communication, and a method for providing a telematics service using human body communication. The telematics system using human body communication includes: a vehicle receiving an authentication key from at least one portable device through human body communication using a human body as a medium, and controlling the opening and closing of a door of the vehicle based on whether or not the received authentication key is valid; and a first portable device transmitting a first authentication key through a user's body in contact with the vehicle.
US08755945B2

Methods and apparatus control the temperature of an electronic component of a computer. A temperature sensor is read that measures a temperature of an electronic component of a computer. The speed of a compressor is adjusted based on the read temperature to maintain a pre-defined temperature range for the electronic component. The compressor compresses a refrigerant. The refrigerant is sent to a condenser that condenses the refrigerant. The refrigerant is sent to a heat exchanger that is thermally coupled to the electronic component and that transfers thermal energy from the electronic component to the refrigerant. Finally, the refrigerant is sent back to the compressor. Solenoid valves can be used to control the flow of refrigerant to heat exchangers for one or more additional electronic components.
US08755941B2

A method and system for controlling a temperature of an exhaust gas being introduced to a catalyst is provided. Using an adjustable flow controller, an adjustable amount of tempering fluid is provided to the exhaust gas prior to the exhaust gas proceeding to the catalyst. A sensor senses a parameter indicative of a temperature of the exhaust gas being introduced to the catalyst. A computer processor uses a relationship to relate the parameter to an adjustment of the adjustable flow controller that will adjust the amount of tempering fluid provided to the exhaust gas and change the temperature of the exhaust gas being introduced to the catalyst toward a target temperature. Adjustment of the adjustable flow controller is initiated by the computer processor to change the flow of the tempering fluid, and the relationship between the parameter and the adjustment of the adjustable flow controller is updated.
US08755940B2

A system for optimizing and controlling a circulating fluidized bed combustion (FBC) system (7) and an air pollution control (APC) system (9) includes a controller (205, 305, 406) and an optimizer (210, 310). The controller (205, 305, 406) is connected to the FBC system (7) and/or the APC system (9). The optimizer (210, 310) is connected to the controller (205, 305, 406). The optimizer (210, 310) provides an optimized setpoint (220, 320, 420) to the controller (205, 305, 406) based on an economic parameter (235, 335, 435) and system outputs (230, 330) from the FBC system (7) and the APC system (9). The controller (205, 305, 406) provides an optimized input (215, 315) to the FBC system (7) and/or the APC system (9) based on the optimized setpoint (220, 320, 420) from the optimizer (210, 310) to optimize operation of the FBC system (7) and/or the APC system (9).
US08755938B2

Embodiments of methods of querying a diabetic patient regarding compliance with adherence criteria comprises instructing the diabetic patient to collect at least one sample in a sampling set of biomarker data, wherein each sampling set comprises a sufficient plurality of samples recorded over a collection period, comparing the collected samples to an acceptable range, wherein the acceptable range encompasses biomarker values that would be expected upon compliance with the adherence criteria, and informing the diabetic patient if at least one sample is an unacceptable value which falls outside of the acceptable range, and performing at least one additional task after detecting the unacceptable value.
US08755930B2

The present invention generally relates to a method, apparatus, and computer program product for optimizing article or bin location in an automated storage device to increase the efficiency of article retrieval in filling an order. Methods of example embodiments may determine a number of touches of each of a plurality of bins of a storage system, where the touches are calculated over a predetermined period of time, identify a bin with more touches than a bin at a first location, where the bin with more touches is at a second location, and direct the bin with more touches than the bin at the first location to be swapped with the bin at the first location. Identifying a bin with more touches may include identifying a bin with a number of touches that exceeds the number of touches of the bin in the first location by a predetermined amount.
US08755926B2

A sewing machine includes a needle position detector configured to detect whether or not a needle is located at a needle-down position or a needle-up position, a first imaging member configured to image a first range of an underside of workpiece cloth while the workpiece cloth is being moved, a second imaging member configured to image a second range of the underside of the workpiece cloth while the workpiece cloth is being moved, an imaging control unit configured to control an imaging process so that the imaging process is executed when the needle is located at the needle-up position, based on detection result and so that the imaging process is stopped when the needle is located at the needle-down position, an image synthesis unit configured to synthesize the images obtained by the imaging units, thereby obtaining a synthesized image, and a display unit configured to display the synthesized image.
US08755925B2

Manufacturing and assembly of a shoe or a portion of a shoe is enhanced by automated placement and assembly of shoe parts. For example, a part-recognition system analyzes an image of a shoe part to identify the part and determine a location of the part. Once the part is identified and located, the part can be manipulated by an automated manufacturing tool.
US08755923B2

A method for generating an optimized body structure is provided. A first topology optimization of a first body configuration is performed to generate a second body configuration. A subset of critical body components are identified based on load path values for the second body component and are parameterized. A second optimization is performed. The second optimization includes a low fidelity optimization for the geometry, the gauge and the grade of the critical body components, and a high fidelity optimization for the mass of each of the critical body components to generate an optimized set of critical body components. The optimized set of critical body components are combined with non-critical body components from the second body configuration to generate a final body configuration which is optimized for performance and weight.
US08755922B2

An apparatus for controlling a wave field synthesis renderer with audio objects includes a provider for providing a scene description, wherein the scene description defines a temporal sequence of audio objects in an audio scene and further includes information on the source position of a virtual source as well as on a start or an end of the virtual source. Furthermore, the audio object includes at least a reference to an audio file associated with the virtual source. The audio objects are processed by a processor, in order to generate a single output data stream for each renderer module, wherein both information on the position of the virtual source and the audio file itself are included in mutual association in this output data stream. With this, high portability on the one hand and high quality due to secure data consistency on the other hand are achieved.
US08755919B2

A media token with a pushbutton RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag which, when activated by a button press, enables a globally unique identifier (“GUID”) encoded in the tag to be read by an RFID reader that is operatively coupled to a client device. The GUID is resolved by an on-line media content service which identifies media content that is associated with the media token. The service streams the content to the client device, or delivers it for local storage which is rendered by the client device. Since the press of the button causes the content to begin playing, an association is created between the media token and the rendered content. However, the media token itself does not function as a content container, but instead provides a convenient way to control content playback while functioning as a physical vehicle that can be packaged, touched, and shared much like traditional media.
US08755918B2

The exchange time information to be acquired from an LED illumination lamp by an illumination instrument or the exchange time information to be stored by the illumination instrument itself is recognized by a controller via an ON/OFF control-dedicated switch control line or a general-purpose power line. The exchange time information is acquired in an OFF period of the LED illumination lamp ON-period noise. The exchange time information acquisition function is checked on a daily basis so as to cope with an alarm after a long period. The exchange time check result is stored so as to execute the alarm at an appropriate timing. The exchange time information held by the LED illumination lamp itself is transmitted firstly to the illumination instrument by simple information transmission means. The information is recognized by using a control path existing between the illumination instrument and the controller at hand.
US08755916B2

A control system for optimizing an oxy-fuel power plant comprises an optimizer in communication with the oxy-fuel power plant; the oxy-fuel power plant being operative to recycle carbon dioxide from a flue gas stream to a boiler; a control platform; the control platform being operative to control the oxy-fuel power plant; and a simulator; the simulator being operative to simulate performance of the oxy-fuel power plant.
US08755912B2

An apparatus for remotely operating a computer using a combination of voice commands and finger movements. The apparatus includes a microphone and a plurality of control elements in the form of touch-sensitive touchpads and/or motion-sensitive elements that are used to operate the computer and to move an on-screen cursor. At least one touchpad is used to selectively switch between a command-mode of operation in which the computer interprets spoken words as commands for operating the computer and any software applications being used, and a text-mode of operation in which the computer interprets spoken words literally as text to be inserted into a software application.
US08755908B2

A conductive coil arrangement, in particular for electrode catheters for cardiac therapy, including a multipolar conductive coil having a plurality of coradially interwoven individual coil wires and a contact zone in which at least one individual coil wire from the conductive coil can be connected to a contact element for electrical contacting. The at least one individual coil wire to be contacted is routed outwardly out of the wire interconnection of the conductive coil with a radial direction component. The remainder of the conductive coil is routed further centrally axially through the contact zone.
US08755906B2

A device for brain stimulation includes a cannula configured and arranged for insertion into a brain of a patient; at least one cannula electrode disposed on the cannula; and an electrode lead for insertion into the cannula, the electrode lead comprising at least one stimulating electrode.
US08755905B2

A device for brain stimulation that includes a lead having a longitudinal surface; at least one stimulation electrode disposed along the longitudinal surface of the lead; and at least one recording electrode, separate from the at least one stimulation electrode, disposed along the longitudinal surface of the lead.
US08755900B2

An improved external charger for an implantable medical device is disclosed in which charging is at least partially controlled based on a sensed pressure impingent on its case, which pressure is indicative of the pressure between the external charger and a patient's tissue. The improved external charger includes pressure detection circuitry coupled to one or more pressure sensors for controlling the external device in accordance with the sensed impingent pressure. The sensed pressure can be used to control charging, for example, by suspending charging, by adjusting a maximum set point temperature for the external charger based on the measured pressure, or by issuing an alert via a suitable user interface. By so controlling the external charger on the basis of the measured pressure, the external charger is less likely to create potentially problematic or uncomfortable conditions for the user.
US08755897B2

One embodiment includes a system for prescribing therapeutic treatment for a patient via communications over a network, including an implantable medical device (IMD) to be implanted in the patient to record a patient characteristic, the implantable medical device being programmable and configured to communicate via wireless communications with the IMD and to communicate securely over the network, the medical device programming computer including a user interface. The embodiment includes a server to communicate securely over the network with the medical device programming computer, the server including at least a first expert prescription system comprising at least one physician's prescription and at least one expert-system to compare the at least one patient characteristic to the at least one physician's prescription to issue a parameter to be programmed into the IMD based on the comparison.
US08755889B2

A method and apparatus stimulating a vagus nerve of a patient. The apparatus includes a pulse generator having an adjustable pulse output parameter and adapted to be electrically coupled to the vagus nerve. The pulse generator generates pulses for a burst period that is followed by a rest period. The apparatus also includes a respiration sensor coupled to the pulse generator. The respiration sensor detects the inspiration and the expiration phases of the respiration. The pulse generator generates stimulation pulses during both the detected inspiration and expiration phases. The pulses are delivered with the output parameter adjusted to provide greater stimulation strength during the inspiration phase than during the expiration phase.
US08755884B2

Cardiac pacing methods for an implantable single chamber pacing system, establish an offset rate for pacing at a predetermined decrement from either a baseline rate (i.e. dictated by a rate response sensor), or an intrinsic rate. Pacing maintains the offset rate until x of y successive events are paced events, at which time the offset rate is switched to the baseline rate for pacing over a predetermined period of time. Following the period, if an intrinsic event is not immediately detected, within the interval of the offset rate, the rate is switched back to baseline for pacing over an increased period of time. Some methods establish a preference rate, between the offset and baseline rates, wherein an additional criterion, for switching from the offset rate to the baseline rate, is established with respect to the preference rate.
US08755883B2

A system, method, or device monitor a force-frequency relationship exhibited by a patient's heart. A contractility characteristic, such as a heart sound characteristic of an S1 heart sound, is measured. The contractility characteristic indicates the forcefulness of a contraction of the heart. The frequency at which the heart is contracting is determined. A group of (contractility characteristic, heart rate) pairs is stored in a memory device. The group of pairs defines a force-frequency relationship for the heart. The method may be implemented by an implantable device, or by a system including a implantable device.
US08755880B2

The present invention includes methods and devices for delivering an active agent into the eye of a subject. One such device may include an anode assembly having an anode housing and an anode configured to electrically couple to a power source, the anode assembly being configured to contact and remain against a surface of the eye. The device may also include a cathode assembly having a cathode housing and a cathode configured to electrically couple to the power source, the cathode assembly being configured to contact and remain against the surface of the eye. Additionally, the device may include at least one active agent reservoir functionally associated with at least one of the anode assembly and the cathode assembly.
US08755879B2

Analog electrical and pressure data obtained by an EEG/pressure sensor matrix from the subject are sent to a signal processing module that derives digital EEG data from the electrical signal and pressure data without using sensors attached to a subject's head. The pressure data are used as a secondary signal to measure the physical orientation of the subject's head. The physical orientation is used to transform the derived EEG signal to a known coordinate axis (the orientation of the subject's head) to obtain useful, consistent, and accurate EEG data. The EEG may be used to determine a sleep state of a subject and to awaken the subject while in a particular state.
US08755875B2

A system for heart performance characterization and abnormality detection includes an acquisition device for acquiring an electrophysiological signal representing heart beat cycles of a patient heart. A detector detects one or more parameters of the electrophysiological signal of parameter type comprising at least one of, (a) amplitude, (b) time duration, (c) peak frequency and (d) frequency bandwidth, of multiple different portions of a single heart beat cycle of the heart beat cycles selected in response to first predetermined data. The multiple different portions of the single heart beat cycle being selected from, a P wave portion, a QRS complex portion, an ST segment portion and a T wave portion in response to second predetermined data. A signal analyzer calculates a ratio of detected parameters of a single parameter type of the multiple different portions of the single heart beat cycle. An output processor generates data representing an alert message in response to a calculated ratio exceeding a predetermined threshold.
US08755865B2

A system and method are provided for determining individualized scan and injection protocols for contrast-enhanced diagnostic imaging. Taking into account parameters specific to the scan subject, injection-related parameters, and scan parameters, the system and method can determine an optimal timing for a scan sequence to begin, to ensure that the scan sequence coincides with a desired contrast enhancement. Some embodiments further provide for real-time triggering of the scan commencement based on bolus tracking, and can adapt the scan and injection protocols in real-time based on monitored dynamic scan subject parameters and/or actual enhancement values determined from image data.
US08755850B2

Provided are a mobile communication terminal and a photography method for the same using a conversion lens. The mobile communication terminal includes a terminal body, a camera assembly installed at one side of the terminal body and a conversion lens detachably installed on a front surface of the camera assembly, wherein product data of the conversion lens mounted on the camera assembly are automatically identified and a microcomputer installed in the terminal body automatically adjusts a photography mode such that a special photography mode is entered without requiring any professional knowledge.
US08755846B2

A wireless telecommunication device including a foreground unit, and a background unit that is physically separated from the foreground unit and in local communication with the foreground unit. The foreground unit is provided to support incoming calls independently of the background unit. Furthermore, the foreground unit and the background unit cooperate to support outgoing calls. The scope of the invention also includes a method for doing business by offering the foreground unit for sale in a packaging having a form factor selected from the group consisting of: a pen, a pen cap, a wristwatch, and a necklace.
US08755844B2

A mobile terminal including a main body; first and second speakers positioned in different regions of the main body; and a controller configured to detect a vibration command, to determine if audio contents are currently being reproduced on the mobile terminal when the vibration command is detected, and to apply a first signal having a frequency of a limited range to only one speaker among the first and second speakers so that vibration is generated by the only one speaker and to apply a second signal corresponding to the audio contents to the other speaker so that the audio contents are output by the other speaker, when the contents are currently being reproduced when the vibration command is detected.
US08755834B2

A method and arrangement for transmitting and receiving RF signals, associated with different radio interfaces of communication systems, employ a direct conversion based transceiver which substantially comprises one receive signal branch and one transmit signal branch. Mixing frequencies of the different systems are generated by a single common by use of an output frequency divider in combination with the synthesizer, and by use of filtering corresponding to a system channel bandwidth by means of a controllable low-pass filter operating at baseband frequency.
US08755829B2

A radio resource measurement method in a heterogeneous network includes a user equipment (UE) that performs radio resource measurement; when a measurement result meets a predefined condition, the UE performs radio resource measurement on restricted resources according to configuration information of the restricted resources, wherein the restricted resources are a set of all sub-frame resources corresponding to Almost Blank Sub-frames (ABSes) or are a subset of the set. Therefore, the precision of RLM measurement or RRM measurement of a mobility system can be improved, and the implementation complexity of the UE can be decreased.
US08755823B2

A method and system for reporting a location of an asset. The method includes: receiving a location tracking request for the asset; dynamically determining a status of the asset; and allowing acquisition of the location of the asset based on the determined status. The method further includes: obtaining the location of the asset responsive to the received request and said allowing; and reporting the obtained location of the asset. The system includes: a reporting module for receiving a location tracking request for the asset; a status module for dynamically determining a status of the asset; and a tracking module for obtaining the location of the asset responsive to the determined status. The reporting module reports the location of the asset responsive to the received location tracking request.
US08755821B2

Location of wireless equipment is reported based at least on transition amongst motional states of the wireless equipment. Measured data and metrics are employed for detection of at least one movement condition of wireless equipment to identify changes in a mobility profile thereof. Change in the mobility profile can convey change in motional state of the wireless equipment; analysis of the data and metrics enables determination of such change. While idle, the wireless equipment can monitor its mobility profile to identify changes in the motional state of the wireless equipment. Identification of certain changes in the motional state of the wireless equipment enable the wireless equipment to measure, report, and update location thereof at the network platform of a network operator that provides wireless service to the wireless equipment. Reported location of the wireless equipment can be exploited for several location-based services.
US08755820B2

Traffic and signaling are routed between a set of networked femto access points (APs) and location-based services are enabled. A femto AP in the set of femto APs is functionally linked to a routing platform that manages traffic and signaling, and is functionally connected to a controller component that relays at least part of data and control to a femto network platform. The femto network platform allows access to one or more external networks. Routing platform can exchange signaling with one or more femto APs to enable, at least in part, location-based services based at least in part on identifier(s) for a femto AP, access privileges, or time-of-flight measurements that assess propagation timing between a mobile device and a femto AP. Routing platform can supply timing configuration to enable predetermined spatial resolution of location estimates. Location estimates can be recorded and conveyed to a consumer layer.
US08755819B1

Aspects of the subject technology relate to systems, methods, and machine-readable media for determining a location of a device. A system is configured to identify a group of devices, wherein each device in the group of devices is within a threshold distance of the other devices in the group of devices, receive at least one image of a surrounding area from one or more devices in the group of devices, and determine a relative position for at least one device in the group of devices based on the at least one image received from the one or more devices.
US08755818B2

Techniques for supporting periodic and other location services with Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) and other location architectures are described. The techniques can provide position estimates for a SUPL enabled terminal (SET) to a SUPL agent periodically and/or based on trigger events. A Home SUPL Location Platform (H-SLP) receives from the SUPL agent a request for position estimates for the SET. The H-SLP starts a SUPL location session with the SET. For each of at least one reporting event during the location session, the H-SLP obtains a position estimate for the SET and sends the position estimate to the SUPL agent. The position estimate may be derived by the SET and sent to the H-SLP. Alternatively, the position estimate may be derived by the H-SLP based on measurements from the SET.
US08755812B2

The field of wireless communications is related, especially the technique of transmitting uplink sounding reference signal (SRS) by a mobile terminal with multiple transmission antennas is related. A method for receiving uplink sounding reference signal includes the following steps: receiving the SRS signals, which are respectively transmitted from respective radio frequency transmission modules of the mobile terminal according to the respectively allocated Transmission Comb (TC) values and Cyclic Shift (CS) values when the transmission period arrives, wherein TC values and/or CS values allocated for any two radio frequency transmission modules are different; determining the radio frequency transmission module corresponding to every received SRS signal according to the TC values and CS values respectively allocated for respective radio frequency transmission modules. A device for receiving uplink sounding reference signal, a method and a device for transmitting uplink sounding reference signal are also provided. Because different TC values and/or different CS values are allocated for respective radio frequency transmission modules, (multiple) radio frequency transmission modules can transmit SRS signals through (multiple) transmission antennas during the same transmission period by way of Frequency Division Multiplex (FDM) or Code Division Multiplex (CDM).
US08755811B2

A technique for reducing a time delay between an application output at a subscriber station and uplink resource allocation for the subscriber station includes scheduling, between periodic uplink resource allocations, one or more probe uplink resource allocations for the subscriber station. Next, respective information in at least one of the one or more probe uplink resource allocations is received at an access point. Finally, subsequent periodic uplink resource allocations are scheduled based on at least one of the one or more probe uplink resource allocations.
US08755809B2

Provided is a communication method of a base station and a target terminal. Resources used for a channel feedback may be reduced by determining a wireless resource based on information about a channel and information about a mobility of the target terminal in each of at least one route, and by feeding back channel state information.
US08755807B2

Techniques for supporting Coordinated MultiPoint (CoMP) transmission are described. For CoMP transmission, multiple cells may simultaneously send one or more data streams to one or more UEs on the same time-frequency resources based on short-term channel feedback from at least one UE to at least two cells. In an aspect, a semi-static configuration may be used by a set of cells for CoMP transmission to a UE. The semi-static configuration may indicate resource elements available to the set of cells to send CoMP transmission to the UE. The available resource elements may be determined based on a maximum number of TDM control symbols for all cells in the set and resource elements used for cell-specific reference signals by the cells in the set. A cell in the set may send data on the available resource elements to the UE for the CoMP transmission.
US08755795B2

A method, wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU), and base station for access network interworking. Temporary identity mapping rules are defined for use during access network reselection. Mapping rules for tracking area identity, routing area identity, temporary mobile subscriber identity (TMSI), packet TMSI, and S-TMSI identity are used when reselecting UTRAN, E-UTRAN, and GERAN access networks. Depending upon access network support, a WTRU may indicate a type of identity (TMSI, P-TMSI, or S-TMSI) that is included in an access network reselection request.
US08755792B2

A vehicular communication apparatus communicably connected to a portable communication terminal, includes: an information acquisition device that acquires facility information about a facility from the portable communication terminal; an information storage device that controls a storage to store the facility information in association with the portable communication terminal; and an information display device that controls a display to display the facility information stored in the storage when the portable communication terminal providing the facility information is reconnected to the vehicular communication apparatus, and that controls the display not to display the facility information stored in the storage when a new portable communication terminal different from the portable communication terminal providing the facility information is connected to the vehicular communication apparatus.
US08755776B2

A system for targeting advertising content includes the steps of: (a) receiving respective requests for advertising content corresponding to a plurality of mobile communication facilities operated by a group of users, wherein the plurality includes first and second types of mobile communication facilities with different rendering capabilities; (b) receiving a datum corresponding to the group; (c) selecting from a first and second sponsor respective content based on a relevancy to the datum, wherein each content includes a first and second item requiring respective rendering capabilities; (d) receiving bids from the first and second sponsors; (e) attributing a priority to the content of the first sponsor based upon a determination that a yield associated with the first sponsor is greater than a yield associated with the second sponsor; and (f) transmitting the first and second items of the first sponsor to the first and second types of mobile communication facilities respectively.
US08755764B2

A system and method for extending the cellular range of communications using a vehicle telematics unit. The system includes the vehicle telematics unit which is connected with other vehicle hardware and includes wireless cellular capability for communicating from the vehicle to a call center or other facilities via a wireless communication system. The method carried out by the system includes identifying a cellular base station in wireless communication with a vehicle telematics unit; attempting an emergency call via the identified cellular base station using the vehicle telematics unit; determining that a forward link portion of a cellular signal between the vehicle telematics unit and the identified cellular base station lacks sufficient strength to place the attempted emergency call; and transmitting emergency communications via the identified cellular base station using a reverse link portion of the cellular signal based on the determination.
US08755761B1

The present invention reduces the degradation in performance of one or more radio signals that are co-transmitted with a first radio signal from the same transmitting antenna in the same frequency channel and received by the same antenna due to multipath or other shared interference, where the one or more radio signals can be separated from the first radio signal. All received signals are coupled to the same adaptive array or adaptive filter to reduce multipath or other shared interference of the first radio signal, which reduces multipath and other shared interference in the other radio signals before they are separated and processed by their respective receivers, or the individual radio signals are separated before the first signal enters the adaptive array and coupled to a slave weighting network slaved to the weights of the adaptive array of the first signal to reduce interference in all the signals.
US08755759B2

Some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to transmission techniques that result in power savings relative to previous solutions. These techniques often transmit a signal-of-interest by using two paths, namely, a transmission path (which includes a power amplifier) and a control path. The signal-of-interest is evaluated in “fast-track” fashion on the control path, such that the control path can “tune” a DC supply signal provided to the power amplifier. Thus, when a delayed version of the signal-of-interest is provided over the transmission path to the power amplifier, the DC supply signal provided to the power amplifier helps ensure that the power amplifier has “just enough” DC supply to ensure reliable operation without dissipating excess power. In this way, the techniques disclosed herein help to reduce power consumption in transmitters, thereby potentially helping to extend battery life and reduce undesired heating for users.
US08755752B2

Disclosed are a radio wave propagation characteristic estimation system, radio wave propagation characteristic estimation method, and radio wave propagation characteristic estimation program for estimating propagation characteristics of radio waves at high speeds, without deteriorating accuracy. An object selection module reads map data prerecorded on a map data memory unit and selects structures from the structures indicated in structure data included in the map data according to the height thereof, a radio wave propagation path calculation module searches for the path of radio waves emitted from a transmission point based on the structure data related to the selected structures and location data for the transmission point and an observation point, and calculates the propagation path of the radio waves until the radio waves reach the observation point, and a radio wave propagation characteristic estimation module estimates the propagation characteristics of radio waves at the observation point based on this calculated path.
US08755745B2

The present invention is a modular, reconfigurable and cognitive Microsystem that dynamically adapts itself to a given radio context for an improved user experience and health risk detection while enabling the realization of custom telehealth products in a flexible and highly integrated manner. The Microsystem of the invention is made of one or several semiconductor dies, with complementary functionality, that are integrated both vertically and horizontally. By default, the Microsystem of the invention includes a ‘base’ die made of dual-mode and dynamically reconfigurable functional blocks implementing the whole ‘Bluetooth Low Energy’ standard and a portion of the ‘Zigbee/IEEE 802.15.4’ specification. The Microsystem according to the invention is particularly well-suited for the collection and transfer of (tele)health data but can also be applied to other application markets and devices having the need to support the operating modes, ‘Bluetooth Low Energy’ and/or ‘Zigbee/IEEE 802.15.4’, in a modular, reconfigurable and cognitive manner.
US08755728B2

A fixing device includes a fixing unit and a switching unit. The fixing unit includes an emitting unit that emits light and a housing that houses the emitting unit. The fixing unit fixes a toner image to a recording medium by emitting the light to a surface of the recording medium, the recording medium having the toner image formed thereon and having been transported to a predetermined fixing position that is away from the housing. The switching unit switches a state of the fixing device from a first state in which the housing and the recording medium are positioned away from each other to a second state in which the surface of the recording medium at the fixing position is sealed with the housing.
US08755727B2

A surface processing apparatus includes a heater and a controller for controlling a heating of a sheet. The controller determines a difference between a position, on the sheet, of an image indicated by original image information and a position, on the sheet, of the actually formed image on the sheet indicated by outer configuration information of the sheet and the actual image information. The controller corrects inputted heating position information, for the heater, on the basis of information of the difference, and controls the heating of the heating means in accordance with the corrected heating position information.
US08755721B2

A powder container includes a powder containing compartment having a powder outlet connectable to a horizontally extending tube of an apparatus in conjunction with installation of the powder container in the apparatus, a removably insertable plug member to open and close the powder outlet in conjunction with installation of the powder container, and at least one discrimination protrusion projecting from an outer circumferential surface of the powder container. The powder contained in the powder containing compartment is discharged from the powder outlet thereof to the tube. A downstream end of the discrimination protrusion is positioned downstream from a downstream end of the powder outlet of the powder containing compartment in an installation direction in which the powder container is installed in the apparatus, and at least one of shape, arrangement, and quantity of the discrimination protrusion is unique to the type of powder contained in the powder container.
US08755720B2

A powder supply device including a powder storage, a powder discharge part, and an air suction part. The powder storage stores a powder. The powder discharge part is adapted to discharge the powder from the powder storage to a powder container. The powder discharge part is communicatable with the powder storage and connectable to the powder container. The air suction part is adapted to suck an air from the powder container to generate an air current flowing from the powder storage to the powder container.
US08755709B2

A control apparatus can control at least one of a first image forming apparatus and a second image forming apparatus connected downstream of the first image forming apparatus. When switching from a first mode to a second mode, if the second image forming apparatus is unable to perform image forming on a second side of a sheet whose first side has undergone image forming in the second image forming apparatus before the second image forming apparatus performs image forming on a second side of a sheet whose first side has undergone image forming in the first image forming apparatus, an order of the sheet whose first and second sides undergo image forming in the second image forming apparatus and the sheet whose first side undergoes image forming in the first image forming apparatus and whose second side undergoes image forming in the second image forming apparatus is not swapped.
US08755706B2

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming device, a fixing device, a first fan configured to supply air to a first area of the fixing device, a second fan configured to supply air to a second area of the fixing device, a first temperature detector for detecting a temperature of the first area, a second temperature detector for detecting a temperature of the second area, and a control unit configured to start to operate the first fan and the second fan, wherein, when a displacement amount of a recording material with respect to a conveyance reference is a predetermined amount or larger and when the recording material is displaced toward the first area, the control unit sets a temperature for starting to drive the second fan to be lower than a temperature that is set when the positional displacement amount is less than the predetermined amount.
US08755689B2

A method for localizing an optical network termination in an optical access network including an optical line termination and a number of optical links. The method includes: detecting that the optical network termination is connected to an optical link and retrieving from it a termination identifier univocally identifying the optical network termination, using the termination identifier for retrieving an optical link identifier associated with the termination identifier and univocally identifying a given optical link of the optical links; inducing a change in an optical connection between the optical line termination and the given optical link, thus modifying an optical parameter of first optical signals received at the optical line termination through the given optical link; checking whether second optical signals received at the optical line termination from the optical network termination are affected by the change; and in the affirmative, determining that the optical network termination is connected to the first optical link.
US08755688B2

An optical fiber transmission distribution assembly, wherein the assembly comprises at least a first splitter having a first split ratio of 1:x (where x is an integer) connected to optical drop cables leading to subscribers, and at least a second splitter having a second split ratio of 1:y (where y is an integer and is different from x), and transfer means whereby an optical drop cable connected to the first splitter can be transferred to receive split optical signals from the second splitter, thereby enabling the signal in the transferred drop cable to be further split by addition of a third splitter at a ratio of 1:p (where p is an integer), to provide p subscriber connection points each having a 1:p*y split ratio at the subscriber end of the transferred drop cable.
US08755678B2

An explosion proof forced air electric heater is designed to supply heat to hazardous areas where the atmosphere contains readily combustible gases, vapors or dust particles. The heater employs an air mover which forces air through a metal heat sink with strategically placed electric heating elements. The terminal ends of the heating elements extend into a sealed and encapsulated explosion proof containment chamber which is connected to a centralized explosion proof enclosure. The explosion proof enclosure contains the control features and the electrical connections of the heater along with external accessories. The heating cycle is controlled via an electronic control circuit. The electronic circuit controls the process heating temperature, air mover operation, heating element operation, temperature measuring device operation, and monitors the total operation time of the heating elements while providing process failure feed back to the operator.
US08755677B2

A moving-picture processing device distributing moving-picture data to an information processing terminal includes: a division processing unit for generating a plurality of divided moving-picture data obtained by dividing moving-picture data, a moving-picture processing unit for subjecting each data item of said plurality of divided moving-picture data to a distribution process for distributing moving-picture data, and a distribution processing unit for sequentially distributing, by each arbitrary data amount as distribution data to the information processing terminal, each data item of said plurality of divided moving-picture data that have undergone the distribution process. The moving-picture processing unit executes the distribution process in parallel.
US08755676B2

A video recording method is provided. The method includes steps of: determining a threshold bit rate according to a storage space and an expected recording period; capturing a video data; determining whether a current bit rate is greater than the threshold bit rate; storing a predictive frame of the video data when the current bit rate is not greater than the threshold bit rate; and not storing the predictive frame when the current bit rate is greater than the threshold bit rate.
US08755667B2

A recording playback device having a database of recordings with titles, automatically enters a title input mode upon receiving character input from a user while a recording is being played if the there is not title in the database for the recording. Playback of the recording is not interrupted in the title input mode. In the case of a DVD player, the on-screen display mode is used to display the characters entered by the user on the same video display used for video content from the DVD.
US08755665B2

An electromagnetic wave gathering device includes a pillared electromagnetic waveguide body and a reflective structure. The reflective structure is located at about an axis of the pillared electromagnetic waveguide body. The reflective structure comprises a plurality of bicone reflective units. Each of the reflective units has a first reflective surface. The electromagnetic wave gathering device may have a smaller volume and is handy for use.
US08755663B2

Impact resistant fiber optic enclosures for fiber optic components and related methods are disclosed. In one embodiment, a fiber optic enclosure is provided and comprises a housing comprising a base, a cover, and a seal disposed between the cover and the base to secure the cover to the base and define an interior cavity configured to support one or more fiber optic components. At least one expandable joint is disposed in the housing and configured to deflect and/or assist in deflecting an impact load applied to the housing. In this manner, any fiber optic components disposed in the interior cavity are protected from being damaged and/or from being exposed to the environment outside of the interior cavity. The at least one expandable joint may be disposed in at least one of the cover and the base. The at least one expandable joint may comprise two expandable joints as another example.
US08755655B2

An optical module is described. This optical module includes at least two optical devices that communicate with each other using edge-to-edge optical coupling of an optical signal between optical components in the two optical devices. Note that the edge-to-edge optical coupling may occur without mode converters at edges of either of the optical devices. Furthermore, the edge-to-edge optical coupling may be facilitated by an alignment substrate, which is mechanically coupled to the two optical devices. This alignment substrate aligns the edges of the two optical devices so that they are approximately parallel to each other, and aligns the optical components in the two optical devices.
US08755641B2

An optical modulator includes: a substrate made of a material having an electro-optical effect; an optical waveguide formed on the substrate; and a modulation electrode for modulating an optical wave propagating through the optical waveguide, wherein emitted light emitted from the optical waveguide is guided by optical fiber, and polarization of the substrate is reversed in a predetermined pattern along the optical waveguide so as to provide waveform distortion having a characteristic opposite to a wavelength dispersion characteristic of the optical fiber.
US08755634B2

An obstacle region candidate point relating unit assumes that a pixel in an image corresponds to a point on a road surface, and associates pixels between images at two times on the basis of the amount of movement of a vehicle in question, a road plane, and a flow of the image estimated. When a pixel corresponds to a shadow of the vehicle in question or the moving object therearound appearing on the road surface, the ratio of intensities of the pixel values of the spectral images between two images should be approximately the same as the ratio of the spectral characteristics of the sunshine in the sun and the shade. Therefore, when the ratio of intensities is approximately the same as the ratio of the spectral characteristics, the obstacle determining unit does not determine that the pixel in question is a point corresponding to the obstacle. Only when the ratio of intensities is not approximately the same as the ratio of the spectral characteristics, the obstacle determining unit determines that the pixel in question is a point corresponding to the obstacle.
US08755631B2

A system for controlling effects performed on an image includes a digital camera having a display that displays the image. Masking tools position graphical representations on the display to define a portion of the image that is altered when the effects are subsequently applied to the image. The several masking tools may be combined to form a single masking tool.
US08755626B2

An image processing device specifies the number of pixels m for securing a delay time for preventing an error diffusion process from being performed at pixels of the (N+1)-th line in which diffusion of errors from a pixel of N-th line (N is a natural number) of image data is not completed, performs a control of starting an error diffusion process of the (N+1)-th line of the image data after the error diffusion process of the m-th pixel for the N-th line of the image data, and performs the error diffusion process for each line of the image data.
US08755623B2

Disclosed are an image enhancement method, an image enhancement device, an object detection method, and an object detection device. The image enhancement method comprises steps of (a) letting an input image be a waiting-for-enhancement image and detecting specific objects in the waiting-for-enhancement image; (b) determining, based on an image feature of an object area including the detected specific objects, an image enhancement parameter so that an after-enhancement image enhanced according to the image enhancement parameter points out the image feature; (c) enhancing the waiting-for-enhancement image; (d) detecting the specific objects in the after-enhancement image; and (e) determining whether a predetermined stopping condition is satisfied. If the predetermined stopping condition is satisfied, then the after-enhancement image having a best result of object detection up to now is output; otherwise the after-enhancement image serves as the waiting-for-enhancement image, and steps (b) to (e) are carried out repeatedly.
US08755621B2

A data compression system and a data compression method using the same are provided. The data compression method includes acquiring original data from a memory and performs image processing and quantization on the original data to transform the original data into a quantization matrix. The data compression method then transforms the quantization matrix into a digital sequence based on a coding table and compares the data volume of the digital sequence and a target volume to generate a volume difference. The data compression method transforms the digital sequence into an inverse quantization matrix based on the volume difference and then transforms the inverse quantization matrix into a modified digital sequence based on the volume difference. The data compression method repeats the processes until the data volume of the digital sequence is substantially equal to a target volume or within an acceptable range of the target volume.
US08755614B1

A method of processing an image includes the steps of receiving selection of the first region of interest (ROI) of an image, processing the first image data related to the first ROI, displaying the first image ROI based on the first image data, receiving selection of the second ROI of the image, which at least partially overlapping the first ROI, processing the second image data related to a portion of the second ROI that does not overlap the first ROI, combining the processed second image data with the processed first image data that overlaps the second ROI, and displaying the second image ROI based on the combined processed second image data and the processed first data.
US08755606B2

Systems (100) and methods (300) for efficient feature data analysis. The methods involve: determining a first number of screen pages needed to verify that each of a plurality of clusters of detected features comprises only detected features which were correctly identified during feature extraction/detection operations as being of the same feature class as a selected feature of an image; determining a second number of screen pages needed to verify that each of a plurality of singular detected features was correctly identified during the feature extraction/detection operations as being of the same feature class as the selected feature of the image; selecting one of a plurality of different validation processes based on values of the first number of screen pages and the second number of screen pages; and performing the selected validation process to verify that each of the detected features does not constitute a false positive.
US08755603B2

An information processing apparatus includes an identifying unit, a character recognition unit, an obtaining unit, a correcting unit, and an output unit. The identifying unit identifies a still image included in a moving image. The character recognition unit performs character recognition on the still image identified by the identifying unit. The obtaining unit obtains information about the moving image. The correcting unit corrects, on the basis of the information obtained by the obtaining unit, a character recognition result generated by the character recognition unit. The output unit outputs the character recognition result corrected by the correcting unit in association with the moving image.
US08755594B2

An information processing device includes a first calculation unit which calculates a score of each sample image including a positive image in which an object as an identification object is present and a negative image in which the object as the identification object is not present, for each weak identifier of an identifier including a plurality of weak identifiers, a second calculation unit which calculates the number of scores when the negative image is processed, which are scores less than a minimum score among scores when the positive image is processed; and an realignment unit which realigns the weak identifiers in order from a weak identifier in which the number calculated by the second calculation unit is a maximum.
US08755592B2

Disclosed is a stereo matching system and method using a dynamic programming scheme. The stereo matching system and method using a dynamic programming scheme according to the present invention may perform viterbi type stereo matching using at least two different penalty of disparity discontinuity (PD) values and synthesize the performed stereo matching results, thereby outputting a disparity map.
US08755590B2

The technology disclosed relates to scanning of large flat substrates for reading and writing images. Examples are flat panel displays, PCB's and photovoltaic panels. Reading and writing is to be understood in a broad sense: reading may mean microscopy, inspection, metrology, spectroscopy, interferometry, scatterometry, etc. of a large workpiece, and writing may mean exposing a photoresist, annealing by optical heating, ablating, or creating any other change to the surface by an optical beam. In particular, we disclose a technology that uses a rotating or swinging arm that describes an arc across a workpiece as it scans, instead of following a traditional straight-line motion.
US08755585B2

According to one embodiment, an X-ray computed tomography apparatus includes an X-ray tube, an X-ray detector, and a rotating unit. The first reconstruction processing reconstructs a clinical image based on projection data detected by the X-ray detector. The second reconstruction processing reconstructs a noise image based on noise data. The clinical image is combined with the noise image.
US08755584B2

A method is disclosed for producing a computed tomographic image of a subject, the method including: using a radiation source and detector, obtaining radiation transmission information relating to a region of interest in the subject; using the source and detector; obtaining a series of projection images of the region of interest. Each projection image is obtained by: directing an imaging beam of radiation from the source through the region of interest onto the detector along a respective direction; the detector having a detection area.
US08755583B2

A method and apparatus for generating at least one functional data set of a perfused region of the human or animal body are proposed. A first image data set is supplied comprising at least two images of the perfused region recorded at different times before and after an injection of contrast agent into a first artery supplying the region. A second image data set is supplied comprising at least two images of the perfused region recorded at different times before and after an injection of contrast agent into a second artery supplying the region. A first functional data set is generated by pixel-based calculation of at least one perfusion parameter from the first image data set. A second functional data set is generated by pixel-based calculation of at least one perfusion parameter from the second image data set.
US08755580B2

Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) enables the detection of specific DNA sequences in cell chromosomes by the use of selective staining. Due to the high sensitivity, FISH allows the use of multiple colors to detect multiple targets simultaneously. The target signals are represented as colored dots, and enumeration of these signals is called dot counting. Using a two-stage segmentation framework guarantees locating all potential dots including overlapped dots.
US08755568B2

A hand gesture from a camera input is detected using an image processing module of a consumer electronics device. The detected hand gesture is identified from a vocabulary of hand gestures. The electronics device is controlled in response to the identified hand gesture. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.
US08755565B2

The X-ray CT apparatus which includes an X-ray generator and an X-ray detector for acquiring projection data of an object from plural angles and creates an arbitrary cross-sectional image of the object on the basis of the projection data includes: an extraction section which extracts a region, which includes a target organ moving periodically, from the cross-sectional image; a synchronous phase determination section which determines a synchronous phase, which is used when creating a synchronous cross-sectional image synchronized with periodic motion of the target organ, on the basis of continuity of the target organ in a direction perpendicular to the cross-sectional image; a synchronous cross-sectional image creating section which creates the synchronous cross-sectional image on the basis of projection data corresponding to the synchronous phase determined by the synchronous phase determination section; and a display unit which displays the synchronous cross-sectional image.
US08755562B2

An apparatus includes a capturing unit that captures a target object and generates a range image representing distance information, a general estimation unit that analyzes the range image and estimates a general position and orientation of the target object, and a determination unit that determines a priority order of a plurality of identification units, based on the estimated general position and orientation. In addition, a setting unit sets a search window indicating a range for detailed estimation of position and orientation of the range image based on a preregistered general size of the target object, a calculation unit calculates a difference between a first distance value of a first pixel in the range image and a second distance value of a second pixel which is next to the first pixel in the range image, and an updating unit updates the search window based on the calculated difference. A detailed estimation unit estimates a detailed position and orientation of the target object, using the plurality of identification units in the determined priority order within the range of the search window.
US08755555B2

A set of adjustable and convertible headphones includes a headband, an adjustment member, and an earpiece. The adjustment member is connected to the headband by a hinge; earpiece has a channel receiving the adjustment member and is slidably connected to the adjustment member. Rotation of the adjustment member with respect to the headband is spring-loaded in only one direction. The adjustment member and the earpiece in combination include a detent mechanism for resisting sliding movement of the earpiece with respect to the adjustment member. The adjustment member may be completely removed from the channel, thereby disconnecting the earpiece from the headband. The earpiece may then be replaced by another ear covering (e.g., an earmuff, an ear protector, etc.) as desired. The replacement ear covering may include an audio speaker, for example an audio/earmuff combination earpiece.
US08755551B2

A hearing apparatus has a housing, a receiver in the housing, and a sound conductor through which sound from the receiver is conducted out of the housing. In order to render the device as small as possible, the hearing apparatus has a cover piece which is inserted into the housing in such a way that a sound channel is formed. The sound channel is thereby delimited at the sides by the housing and the cover piece. A special sound-conducting tube can therefore be dispensed with.
US08755543B2

Audio perception in local proximity to visual cues is provided. A device includes a video display, first row of audio transducers, and second row of audio transducers. The first and second rows can be vertically disposed above and below the video display. An audio transducer of the first row and an audio transducer of the second row form a column to produce, in concert, an audible signal. The perceived emanation of the audible signal is from a plane of the video display (e.g., a location of a visual cue) by weighing outputs of the audio transducers of the column In certain embodiments, the audio transducers are spaced farther apart at a periphery for increased fidelity in a center portion of the plane and less fidelity at the periphery.
US08755539B2

An electrostatic transducer loudspeaker includes a filterless class-D amplifier to modulate an audio input signal to generate a modulated signal containing a PWM switching carrier component, and a transformer directly connected at an output side of the filterless class-D amplifier and directly connected at an input side of an electrostatic transducer, whereby the equivalent capacitance of the electrostatic transducer and the equivalent inductance of the transformer establish a resonance circuit to demodulate the modulated signal to generate an AC voltage to drive the electrostatic transducer.
US08755538B2

Disclosed is a tuning sound (TS) feedback apparatus. The tuning sound (TS) feedback apparatus includes: a TS pick-up casing which is disposed and fixed inside or near the hearing organ of a sound engineer who manages tuning operations for sound output from a sound output terminal of a sound device having an equalizer; a sound/electric conversion element which is included in the TS pick-up casing, picks up the TS output from the sound output terminal of the sound device, and converts the picked-up TS into an electrical signal; and a TS output module which is included in the TS pick-up casing, converts the TS converted into the electrical signal by the sound/electric conversion element into wired or wireless communication data to be used for external communication, and transmits the data to the sound device.
US08755534B2

A laser device, finder of range(s), and an inclinometer are used to figure a sound producing device's position adjustment(s). Laser beam(s) of the laser device and the inclinometer characterize direction(s) of sound produced by the sound producing device. The laser beam(s) can be one or more colors or patterns each characterizing the general direction of sound produced by the sound producing device. A stadium can have many speaker housings each including a speaker, the laser, range finder and the inclinometer. Each speaker housing is mounted on, and remotely adjustable with respect to, an structural member as to the general direction of sound emitted from the speaker housing into the area for stadium seating. The inclinometer's output can be rendered by a monitor seen by an audio engineer who also uses the laser beam's direction to make adjustments to the position of the speaker housing relative to its structural member.
US08755533B2

Systems and methods may be used to modify a controllable stimulus generated by a digital audio device in communication with a human user. An input signal is provided to the digital audio device. In turn, the digital audio device sends a stimulus based on that input signal to the human user, who takes an action, usually in the form of an output signal, to characterize the stimulus that the user receives, based on the user's perception. An algorithm, lookup table, or other procedure then determines a difference between the input signal and the output signal, and a perceptual model is constructed based at least in part on the difference. Thereafter, a new value for the parameter of the digital audio device is suggested based at least in part on the perceptual model. This process continues iteratively until the user's optimal device parameters are determined.
US08755531B2

An audio system receives a multi-channel signal which is fed to a controller (121) that generates a first drive signal for a first sound emitter (111) by combining signals of a plurality of the channels. The first drive signal has a signal component contribution from a first bandwidth of each channel of the multi-channel signal. The multi-channel signal is also fed to another controller (115) which generates second drive signals for second sound emitters (101-109). The second drive signals are generated from a single channel signals of the multi-channel signal and in a second bandwidth having a lower cut-off frequency which is above 950 Hz for a 3 dB gain attenuation relative to an average gain for a frequency band extending 1 kHz above the lower cut-off frequency and higher than a lower cut-off frequency of the first bandwidth. A delay processor (125) introduces a delay for signal components of the first drive signal relative a corresponding second drive signal.
US08755530B2

A method for multi-channel processing in a multi-channel sound system, in which a channel or a channel mixture is first split into individual channels, the individual channels are limited by setting the values of the parameters channel fader, threshold, release, and output level and then encoding the individual channels. At least two channels are compressed and/or limited with a uniform output level value in method step, one channel is provided with a deviating output level value, which is set, depending on the audio material to be processed, and every further channel is compressed and/or limited in such a manner that it has an output level value that is at least one decibel less than the uniform output level value. The individual channels are combined into an encoded (coded) channel by setting a value of at least one of the parameters channel fader, threshold, release, and output level.
US08755525B2

A method of key distribution from a first entity to a second entity including the first entity communicating with a moveable key device so as to share a secret data with said moveable key device, relocating said moveable key device to a location having a quantum link with said second entity, transmitting a quantum signal from said moveable key device to said second entity on said quantum link, the quantum signal being based on said secret data; and said first entity and said second entity undertaking key agreement based on the quantum signal received by the second entity. Such a method allows the principles of quantum key distribution to be applied even in the absence of a suitable quantum communications link between the first and second entities.
US08755520B2

An apparatus and method for generating a key for a broadcast encryption. The apparatus includes a node secret generator for managing a user that receives broadcast data in a tree structure and for generating a unique node secret for each node in the tree structure. The apparatus also includes an instant key generator for temporarily generating an instant key used at all nodes in common in the tree structure, and a node key generator for generating a node key for each node by operating the node secret generated at the node secret generator and the instant key generated at the instant key generator. Thus, key update can be efficiently achieved.
US08755516B2

A sanitary phone patch system for use with a telephone assembly including first and second protective pads having an adhesive backing comprising an adhesive and a peel-away sheet; and a carrying case for carrying them therein. The telephone assembly includes a telephone with a mouthpiece comprising a microphone; and an earphone acting as a receiver. The first protective pad covers the mouthpiece and the second protective pad covers the earphone. The adhesive backing is located on a bottom portion of the first and second protective pads for removeably-attaching to the mouthpiece and the earphone, respectively. The first protective pad for covering the mouthpiece and the second protective pad for covering the earphone are treated with an antibacterial solution. The protective pads for covering the mouthpiece and earphone are disposable and comprise fibrous material(s).
US08755514B1

Various embodiments associated with signal classification are described. A repeating signal can be partially corrupted and therefore a receiver can obtain an incomplete signal. In one example, the incomplete signal can have discontinuous unobstructed segments. In order for the receiver to understand the contents of the signal, the receiver can identify repeated information in the discontinuous unobstructed segments. This repeated information can be processed to determine content of the signal. In one embodiment, the signal is a dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signal. The receiver can process the content of the DTMF, such as by employing a set of high and low band pass filters, and can identify a high and low frequency of the DTMF. With the high and low frequencies identified, the receiver can access a look-up table and identify a character indicated by the high and low frequency. The receiver can then use or send out the identified character.
US08755513B2

A modular interactive voice recognition (“IVR”) overlay system and a method of processing calls. The system provides an application server, a plurality of agent workstations and a graphical user interface (“GUI”) to allow a hybrid approach to processing calls using an automated IVR and live agents. The system and method allow a single agent to process multiple calls simultaneously and is compatible with existing IVR systems and can be implemented as an add-on to existing IVR systems.
US08755495B1

Displaying an IP call status is disclosed. An IP call status notification is received from an IP telephony device. A display update is caused by transmitting a display notification to an IP telephone.
US08755484B2

Some embodiments provide an integrated circuit (“IC”). The IC includes multiple configurable circuits that configurably perform operations of a user design based on configuration data. The IC also includes a configurable trigger circuit that receives a set of configuration data that specifies an operational event. The configurable trigger circuit also determines whether the operational event has occurred during implementation of the user design of the IC. Additionally, the operational trigger event outputs a trigger signal upon determining that the operational trigger event has occurred.
US08755483B2

A nuclear fuel composition includes a nuclear fissile material and a neutron-absorption material that adjoins the nuclear fissile material. The nuclear fuel composition may be used in a nuclear reactor, such as a thermal reactor.
US08755481B2

A computer implemented method for modelizing a nuclear reactor core, including the steps of: partitioning the core in cubes to constitute nodes of a grid for computer implemented calculation, calculating neutron flux by using an iterative solving procedure of at least one eigensystem, the components of an iterant of the eigensystem corresponding either to a neutron flux, to a neutron outcurrent or to a neutron incurrent, for a respective cube to be calculated.A control parameter is varied to impact a neutron eigenvalue μ through a perturbed interface current equation and drive the neutron eigenvalue μ towards 1.
US08755474B2

Embodiments of an apparatus for signal conditioning, a serial data interface, and a method for a programmable delay filter are disclosed. In an embodiment of an apparatus for signal conditioning, a wave shaping circuit has a precursor signal, a post cursor signal, and a main signal combined to provide an output signal. The precursor signal, the post cursor signal, and the main signal are provided for combination independently of a clock signal. The main signal is delayed relative to the precursor signal, and the post cursor signal is delayed relative to the main signal.
US08755461B2

A local wireless signal receiving apparatus using digital RF processing technology including: a receiving digital RF processor receiving an RF signal and detecting an IF signal from the received RF signal; a zero-crossing signal detector detecting a zero-crossing signal from the detected IF signal, and converting the detected zero-crossing signal into a digital signal; and a receiving signal processor converting the digital signal into a local wireless signal.
US08755453B2

In one embodiment, a transmitter includes a binary sequence generator unit configured to provide a sequence of reference signal bits, wherein the sequence is an inseparable function of a cell identification parameter, a cyclic prefix mode corresponding to the transmitter and one or more time indices of the sequence. The transmitter also include a mapping unit that transforms the sequence of reference signal bits into a complex reference signal, and a transmit unit configured to transmit the complex reference signal. In another embodiment, a receiver includes a receive unit configured to receive a complex reference signal and a reference signal decoder unit configured to detect a sequence of reference signal bits from the complex reference signal, wherein the sequence is an inseparable function of a cell identification parameter, a cyclic prefix mode corresponding to a transmitter and one or more time indices of the sequence.
US08755452B2

An apparatus and method that may select a coding mode of an OFDM sub-carrier symbol stream between a diversity mode or a multiplexing mode according to information received in a wireless network.
US08755447B2

A communications system, e.g., a wireless microphone, incorporates a quadrature modulator system to reduce power consumption with respect to traditional approaches and is general in nature to support any two-dimensional digital technique. The quadrature modulator system comprises different subsystems, including a digital-analog transformation circuit, a baseband filter, and a quadrature modulator. The digital-analog transformation circuit converts discrete time samples to a continuous time signal, and further includes an oversampling noise-shaping modulator such as a sigma-delta modulator. The baseband filter then removes out-of-band energy including sampling images and quantization noise. Some of the circuit components may comprise discrete devices that may result in a reduction of power consumption for the quadrature modulator system. Alternatively, some or all of the circuit components may be incorporated in a single electronic device. For example, an in-phase/quadrature-phase (I/Q) converter and oversampling noise-shaping modulator may be implemented within one field-programmable gate array.
US08755446B2

A method of sharpening video data may include, for at least some pixels in the video data, determining a motion value for a pixel. The sharpness of the pixel may be changed inversely in relation to the motion value of the pixel. Pixels that have higher velocities may be sharpened less than slower moving or stationary pixels in an image of video data.
US08755436B2

A method for coding a picture portion of a picure of a video sequence is disclosed, at least one picture of the video sequence being a key picture. The method comprises the following steps: a) calculate a saliency map of the key picture, b) estimate for the picture portion to be coded, at least one motion vector pointing towards a portion of the key picture, c) motion compensate at least one portion of the saliency map using an estimated motion vector to obtain, for said picture portion, at least one portion of the predicted saliency map, and d) code the picture portion according to the saliency level of the portion of the predicted saliency map. The invention also relates to a method for decoding a binary stream, a coder able to code pictures of a video sequence and a decoder of a binary stream.
US08755432B2

An apparatus generating audio cues for content indicative of the position of audio objects within the content comprising: an audio processor receiving raw audio tracks for said content and information indicative of the positions of at least some of said audio tracks within frames of said content, said audio processor generating corresponding audio parameters; an authoring tool receiving said audio parameters and generating encoding coefficients, said audio parameters including audio cue of the position of audio objects corresponding to said tracks in at least one spatial dimension; and a first audio/video encoder receiving an input and encoding said input into an audio visual content having visual objects and audio objects, said audio objects being disposed at location corresponding to said one spatial position, said encoder using said encoding coefficients for said encoding.
US08755431B2

Embodiments of the invention are generally directed to transmission and detection of multi-channel signals in reduced channel format. An embodiment of a method for transmitting data includes determining whether a first type or a second type of content data is to be transmitted, where the first type of content data is to be transmitted at a first multiple of a base frequency and the second type of data is to be transmitted at a second multiple of the base frequency. The method further includes selecting one or more channels from a plurality of channels based on the type of content data, clocking a frequency on the first or second multiple of the base frequency according to the type of content data in the selected channels, modifying the content data to fit within a single output channel, and transmitting the modified data via a single output channel at the chosen multiple of the base frequency.
US08755425B2

A communication method for transmitting meta-data through a meta-carrier signal comprising encoding meta-data using an encoder, the meta-data comprising information that identifies a repeating relay to which a spread meta-carrier signal is to be transmitted, encoded using an encoder, modulating, using a modulator and spreading, using a spreader, the encoded meta-data such that the spread meta-carrier signal results, and transmitting, by a transmitting device, the spread meta-carrier signal to the repeating relay wherein the repeating relay does not process or modify the spread meta-carrier signal, the spread meta-carrier signal being transmitted over at least a portion of a bandwidth of the repeating relay.
US08755422B2

A surface emitting laser includes lower and upper multilayer mirrors, first-conductivity-type and second-conductivity-type contact layers formed between the lower and the upper multilayer mirrors, an active layer formed between the first-conductivity-type and the second-conductivity-type contact layers, a current confinement layer formed between the second-conductivity-type contact layer and the active layer, and first and second composition gradient layers formed facing each other across the current confinement layer. The first composition gradient layer and the second composition gradient layer are formed such that bandgap energy of each of the layers is monotonically decreased from the current confinement layer to an adjacent layer and approach bandgap energy of the adjacent layer in a growth direction.
US08755420B2

A safety and interlock circuit for use with devices which could cause injury if an error condition causes improper operation. A control program executing on a processor monitors a variety of device conditions, including pulse over-duration threshold, diode over-current threshold, pulse lock-out duration, temperature threshold, and pulse repetition frequency limit, and prevents the laser from firing if an error condition is detected. In addition, the error conditions are logged in a persistent memory to facilitate subsequent diagnosis and correction.
US08755419B2

A laser diode drive circuit includes a power supply circuit connected to an anode of a laser diode to supply a variable voltage to the laser diode, and a drive current control circuit connected to a cathode of the laser diode to control a current of the laser diode. The power supply circuit generates a start-up voltage which is equal to the sum of the maximum drive voltage that is larger than the drive voltage and a predetermined first reference voltage, acquires a cathode voltage of the laser diode while the start-up voltage is generated, generates a voltage by lowering from the start-up voltage so as to diminish the difference between the acquired cathode voltage and the first reference voltage, and the first reference voltage is the minimum cathode voltage necessary to supply a predetermined current to the laser diode by the drive current control circuit.
US08755414B2

A laser device having a wave emission within a frequency range of 0.5 to 5 THz, includes a semiconductor heterostructure having a cylindrical form with a circular cross-section and including: a first optically nonlinear semiconductor material layer including an emitting medium configured to emit at least two optical whispering gallery modes belonging to the near-infrared spectrum, the two whispering gallery modes being confined within the first layer and enabling the generation, within the first layer, of radiation within an electromagnetic whispering gallery mode having a frequency of 0.5 to 5 THz, the radiation being obtained through the difference in frequency of the two whispering gallery modes, the cylindrical geometry of the heterostructure ensuring phase tuning between the two optical whispering gallery modes belonging to the near-infrared spectrum and the terahertz mode at the difference in frequency; a second and a third semiconductor material layer, each having an optical index weaker than the index of the material of the first layer and located on both sides of the first layer; at least one metal layer located on one end of the hetero structure.
US08755407B2

Embodiments disclosed herein relate to a new set of radio link protocols (RLPs) configured to provide for efficient data transmission in a multi-link communication system. In an embodiment, an upper-layer packet is segmented into link-layer packets to be transmitted over a plurality of communication links, each including a first sequence number in accordance with a predetermined order. A second sequence number is further added to each link-layer packet to be transmitted for the first time. The second sequence number is configured to be in a sequence space associated with a particular communication link, and may be used for detection of missing packets.
US08755405B2

A method of generating optimal packet workload for achieving a balance between maximizing cell throughput and fairness across multiple users in UMTS/HSPA Network is disclosed. The packet scheduler of the current invention enhances the performance of other schedulers, such as Proportionally Fair Scheduler in NodeB and RNC in UMTS/HSPA Networks by monitoring recent RAN bandwidth to each mobile device, and increasing buffer occupancy of high rate data-flows in the RAN devices. The scheduler uses the desired performance goals of maximum cell throughput and fairness at various network congestion levels, and controls egress burst rate while delivering packets to the RAN (Radio Access Network).
US08755402B2

Two wireless communications devices in a wireless network may reserve a period of time for directional data communications between themselves during a Contention Access Period. The technique may include transmitting Clear-to-Send messages to each other, and to any other devices with which either has established a directional link, to prevent interfering transmissions from these other devices. Other devices that have not established a directional link with either of these two may overhear the CTS messages and also refrain from transmitting interfering signals during the reserved time period.
US08755401B2

A system and method for scalable multifunctional network communication between presentation devices and service providers are disclosed. A group of consumer premise equipment (CPE) units are coupled to the presentation devices, and a headend control computer receives upstream messages from the CPE units and for sending downstream messages to the CPE units. A group of service provider control subsystems interface between the headend control computer and the service providers. The head end control computer receives messages from the CPE units and transports them to the service provider control subsystems, and the headend control computer receives messages from the service provider control subsystems and transports them to the CPE units.
US08755399B1

A common-direction duplexer may include a common port, a first-band port, and a second-band port. The common-direction duplexer may also include a first filter between the common port and the first-band port. The first filter may be configured to pass a first frequency range and filter out a second frequency range and a third frequency range. The first and second frequency ranges may be associated with a first-direction signal transmitted in the first and/or second frequency range. The third frequency range may be spectrally between the first and second frequency ranges and may be associated with a second-direction signal that propagates in a direction opposite that of the first-direction signal. The common-direction duplexer may also include a second filter between the common port and the second-band port. The second filter may be configured to pass the second frequency range and filter out the first and third frequency ranges.
US08755391B2

A method and a device are provided for operating at least a first radio access technology and a second radio access technology, the method including the step of: a hybrid radio frame is provided including elements of the first radio access technology and of the second radio access technology.
US08755386B2

Tokens identifying all of the physical routing devices, i.e., network nodes, through which a packet travels are recorded in a limited amount of space reserved in the header of the packet for such tokens. When insufficient space remains in the header of the packet for all tokens required to identify all physical routing devices through which the packet travels, sequences of multiple tokens are replaced with an abbreviation token representing the sequence. The sequence of tokens represented by an abbreviation token can also be abbreviation tokens, supporting recursive abbreviation of the token sequence in the header of the packet as needed to record the entire route of the packet through the network regardless of the limited space in the header for tracking the route of the packet.
US08755381B2

A system for processing packets includes a communications interface and a processor. A communications interface receives a packet between a source and a destination. The processor identifies a flow between the source and the destination based on the packet. The processor determines whether some of packet data of the packet matches to storage data in storage using hashes. The processor then stores the packet data in a block of memory in the storage based on the flow and if the packet data does not match the storage data.
US08755379B2

An apparatus and method for enabling duplication between line cards of between physical links when Internet Protocol (IP) packet data of a backbone network is transmitted through a physical link (T1/E1/J1) in an IP-BSS system is provided. The apparatus includes a scheduler for examining a queue depth of queues stored in a queue buffer of each of a plurality of line cards. The apparatus also includes a virtual queue manager for receiving the queue depth from the scheduler, for fragmenting the IP packet received through a backbone network, for determining priority of the line cards according to the queue depth, and also for transmitting the fragmented packet according to the priority.
US08755376B2

In one embodiment, the method of processing telephony sessions includes: communicating with an application server using an application layer protocol; processing telephony instructions with a call router; and creating call router resources accessible through a call router Application Programming Interface (API). In another embodiment, the system for processing telephony sessions includes: a call router, a URI for an application server, a telephony instruction executed by the call router, and a call router API resource.
US08755375B2

A method is provided for providing customized ring-back tones to callers on a wireline network such as a public switched telephone network having an advanced intelligent network or a VoIP network. When a call request is received from a calling party to connect to a called party through a wireline telephone network it is determined if the calling party is identified in a screening list for the called party. If so, then a customized audible ring-back tone is played to the calling party until the called party is connected to the calling party or until the call request is terminated.
US08755366B2

A wireless access point. The wireless access point includes an interface for communicating with a communications network. The wireless access point includes a wireless interface configured to communicate with a number of wireless devices. The wireless access point includes a processor for executing a set of instructions and a memory for storing the set of instructions. The set of instructions are executed to receive a request from a wireless device through the wireless interface to communicate through the wireless access point, query a communications service provider to determine whether the wireless device is associated with the communications service provider and has an agreement to access other wireless access points including the wireless access point, and enable the wireless device to communicate through the wireless access point in response to determining the wireless device is associated with the communications service provider and has an agreement to access the other wireless access points.
US08755349B2

A method is provided for generating and allocating time-frequency mapping pattern (TFP) in a communication system. A set of orthogonal TFPs is generated from a TFP. And a TFP from the set of orthogonal TFPs is allocated to a user equipment in a transmission time interval, TTI, within a cell of the communication system. Also provided are a transmitter, a base station, and a user equipment.
US08755339B2

A method for generating a Dedicated Reference Signal (DRS) is provided, which includes generating a Reference Signal (RS) sequence of each antenna port, spreading each RS sequence and obtaining an spread RS sequence, multiplying each spread RS sequence by a predefined scrambling code and obtaining a desired DRS sequence. An apparatus for generating a DRS is also provided. The problem of the imbalance of the power of OFDM symbols is cured, and DRS interference between different cells can be randomized.
US08755330B2

The disclosure provides a method and system for reporting quality statistic information of a call link. The method comprises the steps that: a message for transmitting the quality statistic information of the call link is predetermined between a Base Station (BS) and a Base Station Controller (BSC); when detecting that the current call enters into a local switching mode, the BS reports the detected quality statistic information of the call link of the current call to the BSC through the predetermined message; the BSC parses the received predetermined message, and reports quality statistic information of the call link of the current call obtained by parsing. The system comprises a BS and a BSC. The disclosure can transmit, in the local switching mode, the quality statistic message of the call link to the BSC, to enable the BSC to learn the link quality of the user plane in the local switching mode in time, thus a decision can be made in time and continuity of observing the call link quality by the BSC and the staff in two switching modes is guaranteed.
US08755326B2

Disclosed are a base station apparatus and a repeater apparatus for transceiving signals in a wireless communication system. The repeater apparatus comprises: a receiver which receives a signal from a base station through a first region of a first downlink subframe in a component carrier that supports first and second wireless communication schemes; and a transmitter which transmits, through a second region of the first downlink subframe, a signal to one or more terminals of one or more first type of terminals which use the first wireless communication scheme and one or more second type of terminals which use the second wireless communication scheme, simultaneously with said reception of the signal. Here, the first region and the second region are multiplexed in the first downlink subframe in accordance with a frequency division multiplexing (FDM) scheme.
US08755321B2

The present invention discloses a method for transmitting multimedia broadcast multicast services, comprising the following steps: a Time Division Duplex system divides a time slot for bearing multimedia broadcast multicast services into code channels; each multimedia broadcast multicast service to be transmitted is borne on a corresponding divided code channel, and is transmitted to a user equipment based on the single frequency network mode of the multimedia broadcast multicast service. The present invention also discloses a method for receiving multimedia broadcast multicast services, and apparatus for transmitting and receiving multimedia broadcast multicast services, such that time slot resources for bearing multimedia broadcast multicast services are utilized more sufficiently.
US08755315B1

Receivers, apparatuses, and methods associated with packet classification based power saving receiver are described. In one embodiment, an 802.11 receiver includes receive and control units. The receive unit has a higher power receive frame state and a lower power ignore frame state. The receive unit, when in the receive frame state, receives radio frequency (RF) signals associated with an incoming frame and provides decoded information concerning the incoming frame. The receive unit, when in the ignore frame state, does not receive RF signals associated with the incoming frame and/or does not decode RF signals associated with the incoming frame. The control unit controls the receive unit to enter the ignore frame state upon determining that the incoming frame is to be filtered and to return to the receive frame state in time to receive a subsequent incoming frame and perform end of frame processing consistent with the CSMA/CA protocol.
US08755310B1

A system creates and operates a conferencing session over communication networks in conjunction with other external processes. The system can include a conferencing server (e.g., including at least one processor, memory, a nonvolatile or magnetic memory), which interconnects client devices. These clients can include smartphones which can communicate through the server text, audio, or video information, and combinations of these. Connections can be through a date network such as the Internet.
US08755306B1

An ad-hoc network approach for addressing ad-hoc network address assignment, name resolution, and service discovery in ad-hoc networks. The size of the ad-hoc network may be limited to a selected number of ad-hoc network stations. A first portion of the ad-hoc network address assigned to stations joining the ad-hoc network may be fixed and a second portion of the ad-hoc network address may be selected dynamically, as each new station joins the ad-hoc network. A station may generate an information element that may be included in ad-hoc network messages. An exemplary information element may include a last byte of the ad-hoc network address associated with the transmitting station, a 4-byte timestamp field which indicates a number of milliseconds since the station claimed the network address, a user-friendly name to identify the station, a universally unique identifier (UUID) for each service offered by the transmitting station, and a network-address-in-use bitmap.
US08755304B2

A TOA positioning system can be implemented to improve location estimation of a wireless network device. A first subset of a plurality of reference wireless network devices for determining potential locations of the wireless network device and a second subset of the plurality of reference wireless network devices for determining an estimated location of the wireless network device can be selected. The first and the second subsets can be selected based on a plurality of distance measurements and an average distance and associated with each of the plurality of reference wireless network devices. The potential locations of the wireless network device can be determined based on the first subset of the plurality of reference wireless network devices. The estimated location of the wireless network device can be determined from the potential locations of the wireless network device based on the second subset of the plurality of reference wireless network devices.
US08755296B2

A wireless communication device includes a sensor processing unit that generates sensor data including a measurement result acquired by a sensor; a communication measurement unit that generates communication quality data including a communication state for transmitting a packet; a compression determination unit that determines compression rates of first sensor data and first communication quality data according to the contents of the first sensor data including the transmitted sensor data and the generated sensor data or the contents of the first communication quality data including the transmitted sensor data and the generated communication quality data; a compression unit that compresses the first sensor data and the first communication quality data according to the determined compression rates; and a wireless communication unit that transmits a packet including the compressed first sensor data and the compressed first communication quality data to another wireless communication device or the access point.
US08755294B2

A communication system includes a plurality of communication terminals including a first communication terminal to broadcast a route request message to a third communication terminal via a second communication terminal, the second and third communication terminals create a route to the first communication terminal. The second and third communication terminals include a route creation device for creating a plurality of the routes to the first communication terminal by broadcasting the route request message to each terminal included in the plurality of terminals to duplicatively receive the route request message. The second and third terminals further include a route management device for storing and managing the plurality of routes. The second and third terminals further include a route management device that establishes one of the created routes as a communication route to the first communication terminal.
US08755291B2

Network interface apparatus with power management is disclosed, which comprises a physical layer circuit, for receiving a packet on a network; a media access control circuit, for performing the media access processing on the packet to output a processed packet; an interface circuit, coupled to the media access control layer, for transmitting the processed packet to a bus; a detecting circuit, coupled to the physical layer circuit, for detecting a transmitting status of the packet on the network to output a detecting signal; a loading control circuit, coupled to the detecting circuit, for controlling a load positioned in the interface circuit according to the detecting signal.
US08755288B2

A network system comprises a first communication device having a first address connected, using a network, to a second communication device having a second address. The first communication device includes a monitor frame transmitter configured to generate a monitor frame including the second address as a destination address and the first address as a source address, and to output the generated monitor frame to the network; and a monitoring-response frame monitor configured to monitor reception of a monitoring-response frame sent back from the second communication device. The second communication device includes: a monitoring-response frame transmitter configured to, in response to reception of the monitor frame, generate the monitoring-response frame by exchanging the destination address in the received monitor frame for a source address and the source address in the received monitor frame for a destination address, and output the generated monitoring-response frame to the network.
US08755283B2

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for synchronizing state among load balancer components. Embodiments of the invention include load balancers using a consistent hashing algorithm to decide how new connections should be load balanced. Use of consistent hashing algorithm permits load balancers to work in a stateless manner in steady state. Load balancers start keeping flow state information (destination address for a given flow) about incoming packets when it is needed, i.e. such as, for example, when a change in destination host configuration is detected. State information is shared across load balancers in a deterministic way, which allows knowing which load balancer is authoritative (e.g., is the owner) for a given flow. Each load balancer can reach the authoritative load balancer to learn about a flow that cannot be determined locally.
US08755270B2

A radio access network (20) comprises a radio network controller (26) and a radio base station (28). The radio network controller (26) is configured to perform admission control and to allocate resources of a cell. The radio base station (28) is configured to determine load/congestion on a high speed shared channel and to generate an indication of the load/congestion for transmission to the radio network controller. In some example embodiments and modes, at least one of the radio network controller and the radio base station is configured to allocate at least some of the resources for the high speed shared channel to support a guaranteed service and also to allocate at least some resources to support a non-guaranteed service. In some example implementations of this aspect, a user(s) of the non-guaranteed service is permitted to use the resources up to a reserved resource level of resources. According to another non-limiting aspect of the technology, the radio base station is further configured to generate a recommended action for dealing with the load/congestion.
US08755267B2

Stateful failover redundancy support is provided for network address translation (NAT). A master NAT device is backed-up with at least one back-up NAT device. Existing sessions are synchronized between the two NAT devices, such as via a dedicated link between them. In the event of a failover where the master NAT device is unable to perform its NAT functions, ownership of Internet protocol (IP) addresses is transferred from the master NAT device to the back-up NAT device. The back-up NAT device, which is now owner of the IP addresses, assumes the NAT functionality associated with these IP addresses and continues the existing sessions, as well as processing new sessions.
US08755266B2

Provided is a method for avoiding traffic duplication in a point to multi-point network, the method including monitoring a status of first interconnection links in a first data path from a source to a destination, the first data path including an ingress node, an egress node, and one or more intermediate nodes. The method further includes establishing a second data path if a link of the first interconnecting links is determined to be an inoperable link, the second data path including the ingress node, the egress node, at least one of the one or more intermediate nodes and second interconnecting links, the second interconnecting links including new interconnecting links and a subset of the first interconnecting links, the subset not including the inoperable link in the first interconnecting links.
US08755260B2

Aspects of the disclosure provide an apparatus. The apparatus includes a collimator configured to have a plurality of positions, and a controller configured to control the collimator to move to a predetermined position associated with a data layer of an optical storage medium to collimate a light beam. The collimated light beam is then focused onto the data layer of the optical storage medium.
US08755259B2

An optical element has at least one surface divided into a plurality of regions and includes: a first region configured to converge light with a wavelength λ1 onto a storage surface of a first optical disc and converge light with a wavelength λ2 onto a storage surface of a second optical disc; and a second region formed around the outer circumference of the first region and configured to converge light with the wavelength λ1 onto the storage surface of the first optical disc. The second region has a concave-convex structure concentrically formed on an aspheric surface and having a cross section being a saw teeth shape. The concave-convex structure is formed by a plurality of different saw teeth shapes, and the plurality of different saw teeth shapes respectively give different phase differences corresponding to substantially integer multiples of the wavelength λ1, for light with the wavelength λ1.
US08755257B2

Aspects of the disclosure provide a method for detecting land pre-pits. The method includes detecting, based on a land pre-pit threshold, a land pre-pit data stream from a signal responsive to land pre-pits on an optical medium, comparing a characteristic of the detected land pre-pit data stream in a specific number of wobble periods with a pre-determined land pre-pit characteristic in the specific number of wobble periods, and adjusting the land pre-pit threshold based on the comparison.
US08755251B1

A ground rodent repeller includes a main rod, a cover, a battery base and a control circuit board. One end of the main rod has an opening and a first screw thread. The cover has a second screw thread and a first locking part. The second screw thread and the first screw thread engage with each other. One end of the battery base has a second locking part, which engages with the first locking part of the cover. By this configuration, the components are designed for simple assembly, have a low production cost, can be promptly installed, and have ideal sealing and water proof effects.
US08755240B2

An optical memory device and a method of recording/reproducing information by using the optical memory device. The optical memory device includes a substrate; a first barrier layer formed on the substrate; a quantum well layer; a second barrier layer; a quantum dot layer; and a third barrier layer. The quantum well layer has an energy band gap which is wider than that of the quantum dot layer, and the second barrier layer has an energy band gap which is wider than that of the quantum well layer, so that electrons in excitons which are generated in the quantum dot layer by light of a certain wavelength are captured by the quantum well layer to record information, and then, recorded information may be erased or reproduced by irradiating light of a certain wavelength to the optical memory device.
US08755238B2

A redundancy control circuit includes an address fuse circuit and a first circuit. The address fuse circuit includes a plurality of first fuses. Each of the first fuses is configured to be cut based on a result of comparing a number of bits of a defective input address having a first logic level with a number of bits of the defective input address having a second logic level. The address fuse circuit is configured to generate a first address using the first fuses based on a cutting operation that depends on the result of comparing. The first circuit is configured to output either the first address or a second address that is an inverted address of the first address as a repair address, wherein a logic level of each of bits of the repair address is the same as that of the defective input address.
US08755233B2

According to one embodiment, there is provided memory system including a non-volatile memory device, a monitoring unit, and a changing unit. The non-volatile memory device stores data. The monitoring unit monitors a characteristic of the non-volatile memory device when writing and erasing processes are performed to write and erase the data to and from the non-volatile memory device. The changing unit changes at least one of a value of a writing start voltage and an increase width of a writing voltage in the writing process in accordance with the monitored characteristic so that a time for the writing process is substantially identical to a target value. The writing process is a process in which a writing operation and a verification operation are alternately repeated.
US08755231B2

A flash memory is disclosed. The flash memory includes a flash memory chip; a serial-to-parallel converter for receiving and converting a serial data to a parallel data; and a data mode decision circuit connected to an output terminal of the serial-to-parallel converter for generating an inversion control signal through the parallel data and for applying an inversion processing to the parallel data and then outputting an inverted parallel data to the flash memory chip under the control of the inversion control signal. By converting the serial data to a parallel data and then writing the parallel data into the flash memory chip, a lower proportion of the inversion control signal to the total amount of data is achieved, and therefore less area is consumed while the same programming efficiency and average programming power is maintained compared with a flash memory adopting the bit inversion technique of the prior art.
US08755227B2

A NAND flash memory unit is described, including a string of memory cells connected in series, S/D regions coupled to two terminals of the string, at least one select transistor couple between a terminal of the string and an S/D region, and at least one erase transistor couple between the at least one select transistor and an S/D region. The select transistor is for selecting the string of memory cells. The erase transistor is for reducing Vt-shift of the select transistor.
US08755216B2

A programmable resistance memory employs a feedback control circuit to regulate the programming current supplied to a selected programmable resistance memory element. The programmable resistance memory may be a phase change memory. The feedback control circuit monitors and controls the characteristics of a current pulse employed to program a memory cell.
US08755214B2

A method, an apparatus, and a device for determining the state of a phase-change memory cell. The method includes the steps of: biasing a cell with a time-varying read voltage (Vread); making a measurement (TM) that satisfies a predetermined condition where the predetermined condition depends on a cell current when the read voltage is applied; and determining a state of the cell based on the measurement.
US08755211B2

According to one embodiment, a semiconductor memory device comprises a first silicon pillar including a first pair of columnar portions and a first connection portion, a second silicon pillar including a second pair of columnar portions and a second connection portion in the shunt region, the second silicon pillar being adjacent to the first silicon pillar, a first interconnection connected to one of the first pair of columnar portions of the first silicon pillar, a second interconnection connected to one of the second pair of columnar portions of the second silicon pillar. The first interconnection is connected to a dummy bit line. The first interconnection and the second interconnection are connected on the same level.
US08755203B2

An improved valley-mode switching (VMS) scheme and circuitry for implementing the improved VMS switching scheme in a switch-mode power converter are disclosed. For a given switching cycle, a desired switch turn-on time is determined based on a pulse width modulation, pulse frequency modulation, or other suitable power converter control scheme. Also, one or more times corresponding to local minimums (valleys) are predicted for the voltage across a power switch of the switching power converter. The power switch is turned on at a valley immediately subsequent or otherwise subsequent to the desired switch time determined according to the power converter control scheme. Thus, the improved VMS scheme enables low-voltage switch operation to reduce switching loss and EMI noise without restricting the control scheme of the power converter.
US08755201B2

An example controller includes a feedback circuit coupled to provide feedback information representative of an output of the power converter during at least a portion of an OFF time of a power switch. A sense input receives a sense signal that is representative of a reflected voltage representative of an input voltage of the power converter during at least a portion of an ON time of the power switch. A fault detector is to be coupled to detect a fault condition in response to the reflected voltage being below a fault threshold for a fault period of time. A control is coupled to the fault detector and the feedback circuit to control switching of the power switch to regulate the output of the power converter in response to the feedback information and inhibit the switching of the power switch in response to the fault detector detecting the fault condition.
US08755199B2

An integrated circuit includes a first pin for receiving a feedback signal, a second pin for receiving a current signal indicative of a current in a primary of a transformer, and a switching circuit coupled to the first and second pins and responsive to the feedback signal to determine a frequency at which to provide an upper drive signal and a lower drive signal, and further responsive to the current signal to change a value of the feedback signal when the current signal exceeds a first threshold, and to stop providing the upper and lower drive signals when the current signal exceeds a second threshold, the second threshold higher than the first threshold.
US08755194B2

An electronic device includes a housing unit having an accommodating portion, and first and second openings communicating with the accommodating portion. A waterproof element is made of a resilient material, and includes a main body that is disposed on the accommodating portion and that has a top face, and a side face extending upwardly from the top face. The electronic component module includes a circuit board and an electronic component. The circuit board has a board bottom face disposed on and abutting against the top face of the main body and covering the second opening, and a board edge abutting against the side face of the main body. An electronic component is attached to the circuit board, extends through the main body of the waterproof element, is disposed inside the accommodating portion, and faces the first opening.
US08755190B2

A housing of an electronic device includes a first housing body, a second housing body and a buffer. The first housing body defines an accommodating recess. The second housing body is assembled to the first housing body and adapted to be foldable relative to the first housing body. The buffer is disposed on the second housing body. In a closed position, the second housing body and the first housing body are stacked with each other, the accommodating recess is recessed away from the second housing body, the buffer faces the first housing body, and the buffer substantially overlaps with a fringe of the accommodating recess.
US08755186B2

An economical heat pipe type cooling device with high performance and stable start at low environmental temperatures below 0° C., and a railcar control equipment using the invented heat pipe type cooling device are provided. The midsection between two bents formed on a heat pipe is used as an evaporator; lengths of two distal sections to be used as the condenser sections are intentionally differentiated each from the other; and the condenser section of greater length is provided with heat radiating fins more than those on the condenser section of shorter length. This configuration permits each of two condenser sections to be provided with mutually different condensing capacity and accordingly the condenser section of shorter length works to cool heat-generating elements even though the condenser section of greater length would suffer from freezing problem at low temperatures. A sufficient cooling effect is rendered at ordinary temperature.
US08755182B2

Apparatuses, methods, and systems directed to efficient cooling of data centers. Some embodiments of the invention allow encapsulation of cold rows through an enclosure and allow one or more fans to draw cold air from the cold row encapsulation structure to cool servers installed on the server racks. In other particular embodiments, the systems disclosed can be used to mix outside cool air into the cold row encapsulation structure to cool the servers. In some embodiments, the present invention involves fanless servers installed on the server racks and introduces fan units to draw cooling air from the cold row encapsulation structure through the fanless servers on the racks.
US08755177B2

An apparatus for controlling the temperature of a disk drive during manufacture of the disk drive has a cell having a mounting arrangement to which a disk drive can be mounted and having walls defining a volume in which the disk drive is received when mounted to the mounting arrangement during manufacture of the disk drive. At least one wall of the cell adjacent said volume is heat conductive and is arranged such that a disk drive when received in the volume does not touch said at least one wall. An air-agitating device agitates air between the at least one wall and a disk drive when received in the volume to encourage heat transfer between said at least one wall and a disk drive when inserted into the volume. The air-agitating device is mounted so as to be vibrationally isolated from a said disk drive when mounted in the cell.
US08755173B2

A digital multimeter includes a display for displaying a measured parameter, a selector for selecting the measured parameter, at least one jack configured to receive a test lead plug, and a housing assembly including the display, the selector and the jack. The selector includes a push button, a rotary selector switch, a knob coupled to the rotary selector switch, and a cover molded over the knob. The cover includes a relatively soft material compared to the knob. The housing assembly includes a first and second housing portions coupled together, a gasket sealing the first and second housing portions, and a jacket overlying parts of the first and second housing portions and the gasket. The housing assembly defines an internal cavity and is configured to absorb impact energy in response to dropping the digital multimeter up to approximately one meter and protect against water and dust ingress into the cavity.
US08755172B1

A power transfer device adapted for interconnection with the electrical system of a building includes a housing that includes a base having a back wall and an intermediate member that engages the base. A first housing section engages the base and the intermediate member and defines a first interior portion. A second housing section engages the base and the intermediate member and cooperates with the base to define a second interior portion. Fasteners secure the intermediate member, the first housing section and the second housing section together. Power transfer switching components are interconnected with and carried by one of the housing sections. A cover may be pivotably mounted to the housing. During assembly, the power switching components are mounted to one of the housing sections to form a subassembly that is connected to the base as a single unit.
US08755166B2

A vacuum capacitor includes a fixed electrode, a movable electrode, a movable electrode shaft, a magnetic flux receiving unit, a magnetic flux generating unit and a capacitance control unit. The fixed electrode is formed from a plurality of electrode members in a vacuum casing. The movable electrode is formed from a plurality of electrode members arranged in gaps formed between the electrode members of the fixed electrode in the vacuum casing. The movable electrode shaft supports the movable electrode. Capacitance appearing between the movable electrode and the fixed electrode is varied by rotation of the movable electrode shaft. The magnetic flux receiving unit rotates the movable electrode shaft in the vacuum casing. The magnetic flux generating unit is located outside the vacuum casing and rotates the magnetic flux receiving unit by magnetic attraction. The capacitance control unit rotates the magnetic flux generating unit.
US08755161B2

An overvoltage protection circuit is based on replacing the bias resistor in a conventional overvoltage protection circuit with a self-biased latch. The new circuit automatically survives both overvoltage and overcurrent events.
US08755160B2

An electrical power distribution system for an aircraft comprises a power source electrically connected to an electrical load and at least one circuit interruption device for interrupting current in the power distribution system. A distinguishing device is connected to the system for distinguishing a transient electrical event in the system from a steady-state level of electrical activity in the system, wherein the transient electrical event induces a potential difference across all or part of the distinguishing device. The circuit interruption device is operable to interrupt current flowing through the power distribution system if the potential difference across the distinguishing device exceeds a threshold voltage.
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