US08768921B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to an approach for reusing information/knowledge. Specifically, embodiments of the present invention provide an approach for retrieving previously stored data to satisfy queries (e.g., jobs/tickets) for solutions to problems while maintaining privacy/security of the data as well as ensuring the quality of the results. In a typical embodiment, a query for a solution to a problem is received and details are extracted therefrom. Using the details, a search is performed on a set of data stored in at least one computer storage device. Based on the search, a set of results will be generated and classified into a set of categories. In any event, the quality of each of the set of results will be assessed based on the usefulness of the set of results.
US08768918B2
A browser-based tool is provided that loads a Webpage, accesses the document object model (DOM) of the page, collects information about the page structure and parses the page, determines through the use of heuristics such factors as how much text is found on the page and the like, produces statistical breakdown of the page, and calculates a score based on performance of the page. Key to the operation of the invention is the ability to observe operation of the Webpage as it actually loads in real time, scoring the page for several of various performance factors, and producing a combined score for the various factors.
US08768908B2
A search query is resolved prior to being submitted to one or more search engines. The query is resolved such that the query unambiguously corresponds to a category included in a query ontology that relates search queries to query categories. The query may be resolved by supplementing the query with additional information corresponding to the category. For example, the query may be formatted into a canonical form of the query for the category. Alternatively or additionally, the query may be supplemented with one or more keywords that are associated with the category and that represent words or phrases that appear in a high percentage of search results for queries from the category. Resolving the query yields search results that more closely reflect search results desired by a user submitting the query.
US08768895B2
Transmitting or storing subsegments is disclosed. A data stream or a data block is received and broken into a plurality of segments. For at least one segment, the segment is broken into a plurality of subsegments. A previously stored or transmitted segment similar to the at least one segment is identified. A fingerprint is computed for at least one subsegment. And, using the fingerprint for the at least one subsegment, determining whether the at least one subsegment is identical to a subsegment of the previously stored or transmitted segment without directly comparing the content of the at least one subsegment with the content of the subsegment of the previously stored or transmitted segment.
US08768893B2
A method includes generating a first table having a set of attributes for each file in a first set of files associated with a first computer user. The set of attributes for each file in the first set of files have a plurality of attribute types. The method further includes generating a second table having a set of attributes for each file in a second set of files associated with a second computer user. The set of attributes for each file in the second set of files have the plurality of attribute types. The method further includes generating a similarity table by comparing each set of attributes in the first table with each set of attributes in the second table, utilizing a predetermined similarity metric, and determining whether the first and second computer users have at least one file with common attributes, based on data in the similarity table.
US08768890B2
A continuous set of committed transactions can be lost without destroying the integrity of the database, by deferring the writing of the database pages stored in cache to the database on stable storage. A waypoint tracks a point in the transaction log following which transactions have not been applied to the database on stable storage and thus records after the waypoint are not needed for recovery to a consistent database. When there is a failover of an active database on Node A to a passive database on Node B, log records are compared starting with the most current and moving backwards and the point at which divergence in the log occurs is determined. When the lost portion of the log occurs after the point indicated by after the waypoint, the database is recoverable by log-based incremental reseed.
US08768880B2
A transformation method and system is provided. The method includes generating a data hub application configured to embed extract, transform, and load (ETL) processes. The data hub application is linked to source tables and target tables. Meta data associated with the source and target tables is transferred from virtual views of the data hub application to an ETL work area of the ETL processes. An ETL job is generated and linked to the data hub application. ETL processes are executed and results are determined.
US08768874B2
Systems and methods for predicting the outcome of chaotic systems are described. An example of a prediction system disclosed herein includes, in general, functional elements to vary the initial conditions of a chaotic system and calculate a plurality of possible trajectories for the chaotic system. The prediction system also includes calculating a Lyapunov exponent for each of the plurality of possible trajectories and selecting the trajectory with the smallest Lyapunov exponent as the most likely trajectory to occur.
US08768871B2
The disclosure relates to a method of generating a diverse set of variants to screen improved and novel properties within the variant population, a system for creating the diverse set of variants, and the variant peptides.
US08768868B1
Described is a system for multi-class classifier threshold-offset estimation for visual object recognition. The system receives an input image with input features for classifying. A pair-wise classifier is trained for each pair of a plurality of object classes. A set of classification responses is generated, and a multi-class receiver-operating-characteristics (ROC) curve is computed for a set of threshold-offsets. An objective function of classification performance is computed from the ROC curve and optimized using particle swarm optimization (PSO) to generate a set of optimized threshold-offsets. The optimized threshold-offsets are then applied to the classification responses. The resulting classification responses are compared to a predetermined value to classify each input feature as belonging to one object class or another. The tuning of the threshold-offsets with (PSO) improves classification performance in a visual object recognition system.
US08768867B1
Systems and methods for crowed prediction and attendance forecasting are described. In some embodiments, a method may include generating an initial attendance forecast for a venue (e.g., a retail store, a restaurant, a bar, a nightclub, a museum, a theater, a stadium, an airport, a hotel, a park, etc.) using a historical attendance prediction model and historical data (e.g., historical point-of-sale data, weather data, geo-position data, satellite image data, or traffic data, etc.). The method may also include creating a dynamic attendance prediction model for the venue based, at least in part, upon the initial attendance forecast and real-time data (e.g., real-time point-of-sale data, utility usage data, employee attendance data, audio or visual equipment usage data, number of detected internet-enabled devices, reservation data, arrivals and departures data, social network data, etc.). The method may further include generating an updated attendance forecast for the venue using the dynamic attendance prediction model.
US08768863B2
Machine learning models are used for ranking news feed stories presented to users of a social networking system. The social networking system divides its users into different sets, for example, based on demographic characteristics of the users and generates one model for each set of users. The models are periodically retrained. The news feed ranking model may rank news feeds for a user based on information describing other users connected to the user in the social networking system. Information describing other users connected to the user includes interactions of the other users with objects associated with news feed stories. These interactions include commenting on a news feed story, liking a news feed story, or retrieving information, for example, images, videos associated with a news feed story.
US08768862B2
A method for the partially or completely automatic commissioning of packs of one or several articles, in particular beverage articles, including receiving a commissioning order for preparing a target unit which comprises a target carrier and target packs of one or several articles, holding ready a source unit which comprises a source carrier and source packs of a predetermined article, automatically determining whether the source unit is suited for negative commissioning based on the commissioning order, and if the source unit is suited for negative commissioning, use of the source unit as target unit.
US08768851B2
Electronic messages may be processed using a stamp authority by receiving an electronic message, identifying a stamp associated the message, determining if the stamp is valid, and, if the stamp is determined to be valid, distinguishing the message from messages with which a valid stamp is not identified.
US08768843B2
Executable applications on a gaming machine are verified before they can be executed, for security purposes and to comply with jurisdictional requirements. Unlike in prior systems for authenticating the executable applications, embodiments allow for new executable applications to be provided and verified over time with different private and public key pairs, even after the operating code of the gaming machine is certified by the jurisdiction and deployed in the field.
US08768842B2
In an embodiment, an apparatus includes a control logic to selectively audit transactions between the apparatus and a separate entity based on a type for the transactions. The apparatus also includes an encryption logic to encrypt an audit log that includes at least one attribute of one of the selectively audited transactions.
US08768841B2
The present invention relates to an information processing system, an information processing apparatus and method, and a program in which the purchase of content can be facilitated. When a device to which content data is downloaded and a device for giving an instruction to purchase the content data are different, a purchase form for purchasing the content data is sent to the device for giving an instruction to purchase the content data. The user ID and password are input into the purchase form, and the device to which the content data is downloaded is determined by the user ID. If the device to which the content data is downloaded cannot be specified because the user registers a plurality of devices, a destination determination form for specifying the device to which the content data is downloaded is sent. The content data is then distributed to the device indicated in the destination determination form. The present invention is applicable to a server for executing processing concerning content data.
US08768837B2
Example embodiments of the presently described subject matter are described that require a customer to use a secure payment token if, during a payment transaction, it is determined that the payment transaction poses a risk. A risk analysis may be performed based at least in part on data related to the payment transaction, such as data related to the customer, the transaction itself, the merchant, etc. If the results of the risk analysis indicate that an unacceptable amount of risk exists, the merchant or any interested party may require the customer to use a secure payment token, for example, a smart card, to conduct the transaction. Otherwise, the customer may proceed by using a static payment token, for example a credit card or PIN/password-based payment token.
US08768832B2
There is provided financial transaction funds collection and distribution methodology and system. A financial service provider assists in providing information to a third party transaction processor, who is engaged to process financial transactions such as insurance claims. Payors enroll as participants with the financial service provider, and information about the payors' banks, funding sources, or other financial institutions are linked to the payors in a database maintained by the payment system. Once a payor and the payor's financial institution are enrolled, funds may be obtained from the payor's bank by the financial service provider on behalf of the third party transaction processor, and without transaction-by-transaction involvement from the payor, significantly reducing the time, expense, and costs associated with financial transaction collection and payment.
US08768821B1
A computer-implemented system and method for computing summaries of securities order book information from trading venues is provided. Messages, which include order book market tick data for order books, are received at a market data analyzer computer from a producer. The producer includes an electronic trading venue or a market data consolidator. The order book market tick data is summarized on the market data analyzer computer by computing time weighted averages of a volume of securities available at average spreads as the order book market tick data messages are received. Messages, which include the summaries of the order book market tick data, are transmitted from the market data analyzer computer to one or more consumers at some sampling interval or triggered by some sampling event. The number of the messages transmitted from the market data analyzer computer is lower than the number of messages received from the producer.
US08768812B2
A system is provided that includes a plurality of modules. The system includes modules configured to determine a present value distribution of contingent positive utility attributable to commitment resources to an asset at a subsequent time, and a present value of a contingent negative utility required to make the resource commitment or deviate from a resource commitment to a known alternative asset. The modules are configured to determine the distribution of contingent positive utility based upon first parameters that reflect risk in the positive utility, and determine the contingent negative utility based upon second parameters that reflect risk in the negative utility. The system also includes a module configured to determine a value of an option to commit the resources based on the distribution of contingent positive utility and the contingent negative utility.
US08768811B2
A server computer and a multitude of client computers form a network computing system that is scalable and adapted to continue to evaluate the performance characteristics of a number of genes generated using a software application. Each client computer continues to periodically receive data associated with the stored genes stored in its memory. Using this data, the client computers evaluate the performance characteristic of their genes by comparing a solution provided by the gene with the periodically received data associated with that gene. Accordingly, the performance characteristic of each gene may be updated and varied with each periodically received data. The performance characteristic of a gene defines its fitness. The genes may be virtual asset traders that recommend trading options. The genes may be assigned initially to different classes to improve convergence but may later be decided to merge with genes of other classes to improve diversity.
US08768807B2
An anonymous trading system comprises one or more matching engines, one or more market distributors and one or more trader terminals for input of orders from institutions trading on the system. The trader terminals are connected to the system through bank nodes. A broker terminal is connected through a bank node and enables voice brokers to trade on the system on behalf of client traders. The voice brokers terminal can be configured for any client trader and will display the market view for that trader. Trades in which the broker terminal participates are not concluded until a manual credit check has been performed.
US08768805B2
A variety of embodiments for hardware-accelerating the processing of financial market depth data are disclosed. A coprocessor, which may be resident in a ticker plant, can be configured to update order books based on financial market depth data at extremely low latency. Such a coprocessor can also be configured to enrich a stream of limit order events pertaining to financial instruments with data from a plurality of updated order books.
US08768796B2
The present disclosure provides methods and apparatus for analyzing the revenue cycles of a facility to more accurately predict future financial performance. Using the methods and apparatus disclosed herein, accountants and financial planners are given forecasts of future accounts paid based on current accounts receivable and past accounts paid.
US08768782B1
A fact checking system is able to verify the correctness of information and/or characterize information by comparing the information with one or more sources. The fact checking system automatically monitors, processes, fact checks information and indicates a status of the information. Fact checking results are able to be validated by re-fact checking the fact check results.
US08768781B2
An e-commerce system and method of presenting a product to a potential consumer, where a video relating to the product and a first graphic having time sensitive information associated with the product is broadcast towards a remote display device of the potential consumer to be displayed together on the remote display device. Furthermore, the system and method updates the time sensitive information to create updated time sensitive information associated with the product and generates a second graphic having at least a portion of the updated time sensitive information associated with the product before broadcasting the video and the second graphic towards the remote display device of the potential consumer to be displayed together.
US08768777B2
A system includes a network of auto-id nodes and a processor. Each auto-id node includes index data that defines a hierarchical relationship between the auto-id node and another auto-id node within the network, and the auto-id nodes include a storage for storing status and history data about one or more assets that have been read by the auto-id node. The processor is operable to extract data from the network of auto-id nodes by following index data within the auto-id nodes to query only selected auto-id nodes within the network, and the selected nodes are arranged in a hierarchical network defined by indices of the auto-id nodes.
US08768769B2
Disclosed are systems, computer-readable medium and a method for delivering advertisements to user devices. The method includes storing first data associated with online and physical activity of plurality of customers, storing second data associated with current status of plurality of advertisers, matching a customer with an advertiser based on analysis of the first data and the second data and delivering an advertisement to a device associated with the matched customers online and physical activity. The on-line and physical activity is captured by a plurality of devices including a mobile device via a plurality of sensors.
US08768760B1
A method, within and by a computer hardware system configured to serve a first web page associated with a first user and a second web page associated with a second user includes the following. A first indication to opt into a reciprocal linking arrangement is received from a first computer associated with the first user. A second indication to opt into the reciprocal linking arrangement is received from a second computer associated with the second user. The reciprocal linking arrangement is established based upon both the first and second users opting to participate in the reciprocal linking arrangement. Based upon the reciprocal linking arrangement, second and first functional identification elements, respectively associated with the first and second entities, are respectively included within the second and first web pages. The reciprocal linking arrangement is established within a database associated with the computer hardware system.
US08768755B2
Toll transaction payment processing includes accessing image data for a vehicle, the image data corresponding to at least one image of the vehicle engaging in a transaction with a toll facility. The image data is processed to determine one or more vehicle identifiers for the vehicle. A fleet vehicle company associated with the vehicle is electronically identified based on the one or more vehicle identifiers. Billing information for the transaction between the vehicle and the toll facility is electronically communicated to the fleet vehicle company.
US08768748B2
A method may include receiving an order associated with processing a media file and generating a workflow associated with fulfilling the order. The method may also include identifying tasks associated with the workflow and generating an estimate associated with executing the tasks. The method may further include allocating resources associated with executing the tasks and scheduling execution of the order.
US08768746B2
A marketing method and system. The method includes receiving by a computing system total population data. A peer group is selected from the total population data. The peer group is associated with a first marketing action. A list of attributes characterizing the peer group is generated. The attributes are associated with the marketing action, demographic data, and additional purchasing habits of the peer group. A target group of individuals of the total population data is selected. The attributes are associated with the individuals of the target group. Scores associated with the individuals of the target group are generated. The individuals of the target group are ranked based on said scores. A ranking list based is generated. The ranking list includes the individuals of the target group in a ranked order. The ranking list is stored.
US08768737B1
Embodiments are directed towards generating schedules for managing team members that may be responsible to be on-call for responding to incidents. Schedules may be configured to schedule team members and manage the rotation of one or more team members assigned to one or more schedule layers. Also, schedules may be employed to determine which team member may be responsible to respond and/or resolve incidents that may be reported and/or detected. If a team member is determined to be the on-call or responsible team member, a notification engine may determine the methods for notify the responsible of the incidents. Further, the notification engine may monitor whether the responsible team has received the notification. The notification engine may employ one or more other notification methods to ensure that the responsible team member may be notified.
US08768725B2
A method for providing a user with the ability to access and collect records associated with the user in a secure and private manner includes associating access information with the user for the user to use to access a server storing files comprising records associated with the user in a computer readable storage medium, providing the user with a user interface on a computing device to remotely access the records stored on the server, receiving at the server the files comprising records associated with the user from a service provider associated with the user, receiving at the server a request from the user made through the user interface of the computing device for access to the files, wherein the access information is associated with the request, and sending the user a file containing the records associated with user from the server to the computing device in response to the request.
US08768721B2
The examination schedule memory unit stores an examination schedule including the starting time and the ending time of each examination. A cleaning capacity memory unit stores cleaning-capacity information that specifies the cleaning capacity of cleaning apparatuses that clean a scope used for the examination. A cleaning schedule generation unit generates a cleaning schedule for cleaning a used scope produced at the end of each examination with cleaning apparatuses having a cleaning capacity required by the cleaning-capacity information stored in the cleaning capacity memory unit. The scope shortage determination unit determines whether or not there will be a shortage of scopes to be used for each examination in accordance with both the examination starting time specified by the above examination schedule and the cleaning ending time specified by the cleaning schedule.
US08768717B2
An apparatus for maintaining a library of program data for medical pumps, the apparatus comprising: memory loaded with a database, the database including a plurality of program data records and a plurality of data key records, each program data record containing a set of program data items, at least some of the program data items included in the database for controlling operation of a medical pump, each data key record containing a data key and each data key identifying one of the data program records; a database management system programmed to link a data key to a set of program data; and a scanner in data communication with the database management system, the database management system being further programmed to receive a code scanned by the scanner, save the code in a data key record, and link the code to a set of program data, the code being a data key.
US08768712B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, receiving audio data; determining that an initial portion of the audio data corresponds to an initial portion of a hotword; in response to determining that the initial portion of the audio data corresponds to the initial portion of the hotword, selecting, from among a set of one or more actions that are performed when the entire hotword is detected, a subset of the one or more actions; and causing one or more actions of the subset to be performed.
US08768710B1
A device for enhancing a watermark signal extracted from an output signal of a watermarking encoder including an input signal portion corresponding to an input signal to the watermarking encoder and a watermark signal portion corresponding to the watermark signal includes an input configured to receive the input signal and the watermark signal, an enhancement module operatively connected to the input and configured to a) enhance the watermark signal at least in part by adjusting a gain of the watermark signal to obtain an enhanced watermark signal, and b) generate an enhanced output signal including an input signal portion corresponding to the input signal and an enhanced watermark signal portion corresponding to the enhanced watermark signal.
US08768709B1
A system, apparatus, and method for verifying that a consumer seeking to conduct a transaction with a merchant is authorized to use an associated account. An exemplary embodiment of the apparatus may include a voice response unit, a storage medium, and a voice print comparator The voice response unit may be configured to obtain a test voice print during a transaction between the consumer and the merchant. The storage medium may be configured to store information associated with the consumer, and a control voice print associated with the information. Also, the voice print comparator may be configured to receive the control voice print, compare the test voice print to the control voice print, and to return a match level signal indicating a degree of match therebetween.
US08768707B2
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving an acoustic input signal at a speech recognizer. A user is identified that is speaking based on the acoustic input signal. The method then determines speaker-specific information previously stored for the user and a set of responses based on the recognized acoustic input signal and the speaker-specific information for the user. It is determined if the response should be output and the response is outputted if it is determined the response should be output.
US08768704B1
An input signal that includes linguistic content in a first language may be received by a computing device. The linguistic content may include text or speech. Based on an acoustic feature comparison between a plurality of first-language speech sounds and a plurality of second-language speech sounds, the computing device may associate the linguistic content in the first language with one or more phonemes from a second language. The computing device may also determine a phonemic representation of the linguistic content in the first language based on use of the one or more phonemes from the second language. The phonemic representation may be indicative of a pronunciation of the linguistic content in the first language according to speech sounds of the second language.
US08768700B1
A system may receive a voice search query and may determine word hypotheses for the voice query. Each word hypothesis may include one or more terms. The system may obtain a search query log and may determine, for each word hypothesis, a quantity of other search queries, in the search query log, that include the one or more terms. The system may determine weights based on the determined quantities. The system may generate, based on the weights, a first search query from the word hypotheses and may obtain a first set of search results. The system may modify, based on the first set of search results, one or more of the weights. The system may generate a second search query from the word hypotheses and obtain, based on the second search query, a second set of search results for the voice query.
US08768693B2
A system and method for assigning one or more tags to an image file. In one aspect, a server computer receives an image file captured by a client device. In one embodiment, the image file includes an audio component embedded therein by the client device, where the audio component was spoken by a user of the client device as a tag of the image file. The server computer determines metadata associated with the image file and identifies a dictionary of potential textual tags from the metadata. The server computer determines a textual tag from the audio component and from the dictionary of potential textual tags. The server computer then associates the textual tag with the image file as additional metadata.
US08768673B2
A computer-implemented system and method for improving glucose management through cloud-based modeling of circadian profiles is provided. For each daily meal period, two sets of pre- and post-meal period data that include a blood glucose level and a diabetes medication dosing are stored into a circadian profile for a diabetic patient in a cloud computing infrastructure. Predicted blood glucose is modeled over the infrastructure and the access will be validated. A model, including expected blood glucose values and their predicted errors is created from the blood glucose levels in each profile and visualized in a log-normal distribution. Target ranges for blood glucose are determined and superimposed over the expected values. Pharmacodynamics of the medication are obtained. An incremental change in dosing of the medication is propagated over a model day and the expected blood glucose values and their predicted errors are adjusted in response to the incremental dosing change.
US08768665B2
A method and system for modeling and analyzing wafer nanotopography data utilizes a nonlinear contact finite element model. Inputs to the model include lithography chuck parameters and site-based geometry data. Outputs from the model include in-plane distortions and out-of-plane distortions, from which defocus and overlay can be derived.
US08768648B2
Methods, devices, and computer programs are presented for managing power consumption in an activity monitoring device associated with a user. One method includes an operation for analyzing sensor data acquired by sensors of an activity monitoring device to be worn on a wrist of a user, the sensor data being associated with motion of the user. In addition, the method includes an operation for determining the motion profile of the activity monitoring device based on the sensor data. The method further includes an operation for identifying display settings for a display of the activity monitoring device based on the motion profile. The display settings are associated with a rate of power consumption by the display. The display settings are applied to the display of the activity monitoring device when the identified display settings are different than the current display settings.
US08768641B2
A digital control system for performing a durability test with a steering test rig is disclosed. The digital control system comprises a learning control device for controlling periodic reference signals in servo actuator systems, such as hydraulic cylinders and electrical motors. This learning device is referred to as POISON (periodic on-line iterative signal optimum navigation) controller. By iterative learning of a corrected reference signal, the POISON controller is able to compensate for control errors which occur in conventional closed loop control systems. In contrast to existing control systems, the POISON controller is capable of permanent online operation. Therefore it is able to compensate for certain changes in the controlled system. The POISON controller can easily be added to existing servo control loops.
US08768638B2
A method and device for performing spectrum analysis of a signal in a plurality of frequency bands with respective different frequency resolutions. The method includes a data acquisition step and a subsequent data evaluation step for every frequency band. The data acquisition step and the subsequent data evaluation step proceeds cyclically and continuously for every frequency band of the spectrum analysis. The corresponding device for performing spectrum analysis of a signal cyclically stores a scanning sequence of the signal for every frequency band in one circular buffer each. A discrete Fourier transformer uses the cyclically stored scanning sequences to calculate the spectral values pertaining to the respective frequency band.
US08768636B2
A system and method for detecting impaired electric power equipment. An exemplary embodiment may receive electromagnetic radiation and process the resulting signal. For example, signal processing may be used to identify electromagnetic radiation having a particular pattern that is characteristic of electric power equipment. Furthermore, an embodiment may determine the time and/or location during testing. As a result, an exemplary embodiment may be useful for stationary and/or mobile testing of an electrical system.
US08768615B2
A method and apparatus for identifying a set of needed permissions for a vehicle. A travel plan is identified for the vehicle. Information is identified about the vehicle. The set of needed permissions is identified for the vehicle to travel using the travel plan.
US08768607B2
A method and apparatus for managing aircraft. Data about components for the aircraft is identified. Fuel efficiency of the aircraft is identified using the data about the components for the aircraft and a model of the aircraft. The model of the aircraft identifies fuel use. The aircraft is managed using the fuel efficiency identified for the aircraft.
US08768606B2
A user device may be configured to output, to a server device, a request for traffic congestion information, receive audio or visual information regarding an identified occurrence of traffic congestion; and present a visual representation of the occurrence of traffic congestion. The visual representation may include a selectable option to access at least a portion of the received audio or visual information regarding the occurrence of traffic congestion. The user device may further be configured to present, based on a selection of the selectable option, the at least a portion of the received audio or visual information regarding the occurrence of the traffic congestion.
US08768592B2
A method for reducing the steering torque in a motor vehicle in a driving situation in which the vehicle is being braked and steered at the same time. By shifting the brake force to the rear wheels, the front wheels become easier to steer compared to a standard brake force distribution. The maximum required power of an electric steering assistance system is thus greatly reduced.
US08768591B2
The invention relates to a method for operating a brake boosted brake system of a vehicle, comprising the monitoring of a mode of operation of the brake boosted brake system with regard to agreement of a total braking torque applied to at least one wheel of the vehicle by the brake boosted brake system with a specified target total braking torque and/or with regard to a displacement of a brake medium volume of the brake boosted brake system to a force/pressure conversion element (22) of the brake boosted brake system, if a braking torque difference between the applied total braking torque and the specified target total braking torque is greater than a specified reference difference, and/or if the brake medium volume displaced to the force/pressure conversion element (22) is larger than a specified reference volume; further comprising the defining of a target boosting force change with regard to a boosting force (Fu) provided by a brake booster (14) of the brake boosted brake system, taking into account the braking torque difference and/or the displaced brake medium volume, and outputting the target boosting force change to the brake booster (14). The invention further relates to a corresponding control device for a brake boosted brake system of a vehicle.
US08768583B2
Systems and methods for detecting collisions. One system includes a processor configured to receive data from at least one sensor installed on a shovel, identify a plurality of planes based on the data, determine if the plurality of planes are positioned in a predetermined configuration associated with a haul truck to identify whether the plurality of planes represent a haul truck. The processor is further configured to receive a current position and a current direction of movement of a dipper of the shovel, and determine if a collision is possible between the dipper and the identified haul truck based on the plurality of planes, the current position, and the current direction of movement and without receiving any information from the haul truck. If a collision is possible, the processor is configured to alert an operator of the shovel and, optionally, augment movement of the dipper.
US08768574B1
A vehicle hood hinge assembly comprises a first hinge member; a second hinge member; a vehicle hood mount for connecting the vehicle hood member to the second hinge member, the vehicle hood mount being movably connected to the second hinge member for movement relative to the second hinge member between an operating position and an elevated position; a releasable lock for releasably locking the vehicle hood mount to the second hinge member in the operating position; a driving member movably connected to the first hinge member on the vehicle body; and an actuator for receiving an impact detection signal and, in response to the impact detection signal, configured to move the driving member so as to release the releasable lock and move vehicle hood mount from the operating position to the elevated position.
US08768573B2
Vehicle with an occupant safety system includes an occupant safety system designed to reduce injury to an occupant during an accident involving the vehicle and a processor coupled to the safety system and that receives at least one inertial property of the vehicle and information about a portion of a road ahead of the vehicle in its travel direction. If the processor determines, based on the at least one inertial property and the information, that the vehicle is unlikely to safely travel that portion of the road, the processor initiates action to ensure safe travel of the vehicle or safety of the occupant. The inertial property of the vehicle may be provided by an inertial measurement unit (IMU) that measures acceleration in three orthogonal directions and angular velocity about three orthogonal axes, all at a substantially common location. The occupant safety system may include one or more inflatable airbags.
US08768561B2
A notification system for an electrically charged vehicle having a charging system and a climate control system comprising a vehicle charging system, a display screen in communication with the vehicle charging system wherein the display screen is operable to provide a status update of the vehicle charging system wherein the status update provides information to the user regarding charging and/or pre-climate conditions. The status update is operable to provide a predetermined message to the user on the display screen regarding charging and/or pre-climate conditions within the electrically charged vehicle.
US08768552B2
A vehicle brake system and method designed to maximize the contributions from a regenerative braking system, yet still provide adequate safety measures that address potential regenerative braking failure. According to one embodiment, the method determines both a requested deceleration from the driver and an actual deceleration experienced by the vehicle, and uses the difference between these two values to calculate a deceleration error that can be integrated over time and compared to an error threshold. If the integrated or accumulated deceleration error surpasses the error threshold, then the method may reduce or disable the regenerative braking system until it can confirm that it is operating properly.
US08768551B2
A rear wheel driving apparatus includes: a left wheel driving device having a motor for driving a left rear wheel, and a planetary gear decelerator; a right wheel driving device having a motor for driving a right rear wheel, and a planetary gear decelerator; and a control device for controlling the motors. The motors are connected to sun gears of the planetary gear decelerators, respectively, the left rear wheel and right rear wheel are connected to the planetary carriers, respectively, and the ring gears are connected to each other. The control device performs driving control on only one of the motors to control the rotations of ring gears.
US08768550B2
An electric vehicle includes: a motor configured to be driven by electric power supplied from a battery; a limit control unit configured to calculate a limit rate for limiting a requested torque requested for the electric vehicle so that an induced voltage developed by the motor is equal to or lower than a voltage of the battery; a drive torque calculation unit configured to calculate a drive torque for traveling the electric vehicle based on the requested torque and the limit rate.
US08768549B2
A battery-powered vehicle and a vehicle battery maintenance system that includes a battery charger that monitors energy consumption data from the vehicle battery to generate charging instructions to a charger. A central data unit (CDU) can determine whether if a vehicle electrical load is consuming too much energy and then generate instructions to the vehicle controller to limit the energy consumption. The CDU can notify an offsite central computer if the battery has not been charged according to charging instructions.
US08768534B2
A method for using an Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) located on an aircraft to communicate Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) data to a remote aircraft flight data collection unit is provided. The method is directed to receiving FOQA data from one or more aircraft systems with an EFB on an aircraft while the aircraft is in-flight, and automatically transmitting the received FOQA data from the EFB to a remote aircraft flight data collection unit for analysis.
US08768533B2
A communication device includes a first resistance circuit (RB) connected between an output of a signal generating unit (602) and a first terminal (TS1) and having a resistance value corresponding to a requested operation mode requested to a vehicle. The vehicle (10) includes: a second resistance circuit (RA) connected between a ground node (512) fed with a reference potential and a second terminal (TS2); and a vehicle control unit (508) for setting an operation mode of the vehicle. The vehicle control unit (508) detects a signal potential of a signal (CPLT) via a first signal extraction node (N1) provided on a path connecting the second terminal (TS2) and a second resistance circuit (RA) to each other, and sets the operation mode of the vehicle (10) at the requested operation mode corresponding to the resistance value of the first resistance circuit (RB).
US08768528B2
A method and apparatus of controlling the electric power usage of electric thermal storage heaters and systems are based on: 1) current and recorded measurements local to the heater and building; 2) current measurements external to the heater and building; 3) forecasts communicated to the apparatus. The method also includes sending out communications about power use as well as various other local measurements. The apparatus has local controls on the electric thermal storage, including but not limited to the relays that control flow of power into the heating elements, a logic module that integrates the local controls, as well as communication channels that extend outside the building to entities capable of providing automatic forecasts and potentially other types of information not available locally.
US08768518B2
A method of setting an exclusive controller for a water heater, wherein a plurality of controllers are provided for user to operate to control a water heater, includes the steps of: a) Provide each controller an identification code, and saving the identification codes of the controllers in a processor of a water heater; b) Input a command through a controller, and sending the command to the processor of the water heater, wherein the command includes the identification code of the controller; c) Make a recording that the controller is an exclusive controller when the identification code in the command is identical to the identification code in the processor; d) Execute the command from the exclusive controller to control the water heater, and rejecting commands from the other controllers; and e) Repeat the step d until the recording of the exclusive controller is canceled.
US08768512B2
A robot and a control method thereof. The control method includes generating and storing plural grasping motions corresponding to data of a target object, selecting a grasping motion corresponding to a grasping purpose of the target object among the plural grasping motions, generating a path of arms corresponding to the selected grasping motion, calculating torques to track the path of the arms, and outputting the torques toward the arms so as to perform movement of the arms and grasping of the target object. The grasping motion path corresponding to the grasping purpose is generated and the path of arms is generated, thereby reducing overall calculation time during grasping of the target object to increase calculating efficiency, minimizing generation of the path of the arms, and allowing an arm path calculating process to be performed at the late stage of a grasping control process to improve grasping performance.
US08768509B2
Presented is a method and apparatus comprising one or more robotic members which are curvaceous or snake-like; having movable shapers through which may pass an articulable column having successive joints formed of alternating ball and socket members. The shapers can be directed up and down the articulable column, to create virtually any radius of curvature, in any direction. The robotic member may also include discrete microelectronic mechanical devices (MEMS) shapers with embedded addressable controllers. Thus the device, with computerized control is capable of negotiating a tortuous path to access the site of a given operation and to retreat along the same path, without injury to the body in which the arm is directed. Once at the work site, the articulating columns, or parts of them, may be put in compression, causing them to become rigid.
US08768503B2
The invention concerns a method for the creation of addendums (4) of tools for sheet metal formed parts (2). In the case of this method, fill surfaces (7) for the smoothing of irregular zones of a component edge (3) are generated. Initial directions (31) of sectional profiles (10) are determined in such a manner, that sectional profiles (10) at a distance from one another are arranged along a component (3, 8) with utilization of these initial directions (31) and that an addendum (4) is creatable by the connection of these sectional profiles (10).
US08768501B2
Methods and systems for the fabrication and application of Magnetically Actuated Propellers (MAPs) are described. MAPs are structures with typical feature sizes in the range of 20 nanometers up to 100 microns in one spatial dimension. MAPs are propellers that can be obtained from nano-structured surfaces and that can be produced in large numbers. MAPs are propelled and controlled by magnetic fields. The MAPs are optimized for low Reynolds number propulsion and can be moved in fluids and biological tissues. MAPs are useful for measurements, quantification, imaging and sensing purposes e.g. detecting biomolecules and for the controlled transportation of (drug- and bio-) molecules and the delivery of microscopic and nanoscale objects and/or materials or systems of therapeutic value. The MAPs are formed on a substrate and the released from the substrate using sonication, vibration, agitation, dissolution or etching which allows the MAPs to be produced in large numbers.
US08768489B2
Methods and devices for comprising: obtaining an estimated heart rate training zone for a user; measuring the pulse rate of the user; and performing a plurality of computerized talk tests, such that a higher number of computerized talk tests are performed when the measured pulse rate is more in the vicinity of the estimated heart rate training zone than outside the vicinity of the estimated heart rate training zone. Other embodiments include devices for controlling an exercise program, comprising: an interface to an element configured to play auditory signals, and an interface to an element configured to record a user's speech in accordance with the auditory signals; wherein the device is configured to provide an indication upon identifying involuntary interruptions in the user's speech.
US08768484B2
A multichannel vestibular prosthesis includes a sensor system and a microcontroller configured to communicate with the sensor system to receive sensor signals from the sensor system while in operation. The microcontroller is configured to provide control signals in response to the sensor signals. The multichannel vestibular prosthesis also includes a neuroelectronic interface integrated circuit configured to communicate with the microcontroller to receive the control signals, and a plurality of electrodes electrically connected to the neuroelectronic interface integrated circuit. The neuroelectronic interface integrated circuit includes a digital controller configured to communicate with the microcontroller, a plurality of digital-to-analog converters configured to communicate with the digital controller, and a plurality of analog current control circuits, each constructed to communicate with a respective one of the plurality of digital-to-analog converters. Each of the plurality of analog current control circuits can be electrically connected directly or under software control to a respective one of a plurality of electrodes for delivering electrical stimuli to at least one vestibular nerve, and the digital controller is configured to control amplitudes, frequencies, polarities and durations of currents to be delivered to any combination of the plurality of electrical leads.
US08768475B2
An exemplary system includes 1) a sound processor configured to divide an audio signal into a plurality of analysis channels, wherein each of the analysis channels contains information corresponding to a distinct frequency band of the audio signal, and wherein one of the analysis channels contains fine structure information corresponding to the audio signal, and 2) an implantable cochlear stimulator configured to generate electrical stimulation in accordance with the information contained within each of the analysis channels, apply the electrical stimulation to at least one stimulation site within a patient via a plurality of stimulation channels, each of the stimulation channels corresponding to one of the analysis channels and configured to convey the information contained within the analysis channels to the patient via at least one electrode, and at least partially isolate one of the stimulation channels from a rest of the stimulation channels.
US08768474B1
A method of electro-therapeutic stimulation uses an electrical signal with a periodic-exponential background pulse over a controllable periodic-exponential main pulse. By properly setting the signal and moving electrodes to proper locations on the body, the signal is used to electro-therapeutically mimic a cross-crawl pattern and return a patient to a state of neurological balance, to identify specific cellular disruption locations, to treat the identified cellular disruption locations including performing a pain associated movement, and to neurologically train from a facilitator muscle to one or more receiver muscles.
US08768471B2
A method of treating a medical condition in a patient using an implantable medical device, comprising providing an electrical signal generator; providing at least a first electrode operatively coupled to the electrical signal generator and to a vagus nerve of the patient; sensing cardiac data of the patient; determining at least a first cardiac parameter based upon said cardiac data; setting at least a first value; declaring an unstable brain state of a patient from said at least a first cardiac parameter and said at least a first value; and adjusting the at least a first value. Also, a computer readable program storage device encoded with instructions that, when executed by a computer, performs the method. In addition, the implantable medical device used in the method.
US08768467B2
Systems and methods for implantable medical devices and headers are described. In an example, an implantable medical device includes a device container including an electronic module within the device container. A header is coupled to the device container. The header includes a header core including a conductive member electrically coupled to the electronic module within the device container. A header shell is disposed around the header core and attached to the device container. An antenna is coupled to the header core and electrically coupled to the electronic module. A first portion of the header is proximate the antenna. The first portion includes a first dielectric constant that is lower than a second dielectric constant of a second portion of the header.
US08768460B2
A system and method for painlessly calculating an estimated defibrillation threshold, such as by using an implantable medical device and a controller. The estimated defibrillation threshold can be calculated using a delivered first energy to a first thoracic location, an electric field detected at a second thoracic location, and an electric field detected between a third thoracic location and a fourth thoracic location. The estimated defibrillation threshold represents an energy that, when delivered at the first thoracic location, can create an electric field strength in a target region of the heart that meets or exceeds a target electric field strength.
US08768455B2
Disclosed are advances in the arts with novel topical applicator apparatus for applying substances such as cleansers, cosmetic preparations and medications to the skin. The apparatus includes an applicator body having a power portion connected with an impulse portion, which in combination with an applicator head, transmits one or more various impulses to the skin supplemental to the substance applied. Exemplary preferred embodiments include configurations for providing mechanical and/or electrical or other impulses.
US08768454B2
A portable, non-invasive device for providing therapeutic treatment to a joint to promote healing of the joint includes a cuff positionable around the joint. The cuff includes an electromagnetic stimulator configured to provide an electromagnetic field within the joint and a single-use thermal exchange component configured to provide temperature-based therapy to the joint.
US08768453B2
Electrode voltage monitoring circuitry for an implantable neurostimulator system having a plurality of electrode-driver integrated circuits (ICs) in provided. Electrodes from either or both ICs can be chosen to provide stimulation, and one of the IC acts as the master while the other acts as the slave. Electrodes voltages on the slave IC are routed to the master IC, and thus the master IC can monitor both electrode voltages on the slave as well as electrode voltages on the master. Such voltages can be monitored for a variety of purposes, and in particular use of such voltage is disclosed for determining the resistance between electrodes and to set a compliance voltage for stimulation.
US08768452B2
The disclosure is directed to a chronic implantable neurostimulator that supports trial and chronic modes of operation. The implantable neurostimulator can alternatively include one or more sensors that may or may not function differently in trial and chronic modes. In particular, the device is designed to be used as both a trial neurostimulator and a permanent, or chronic, neurostimulator. A trial neurostimulation period is generally desired to evaluate the efficacy of the therapy. A percutaneous or implantable trial neurostimulator is used for the trial neurostimulation period. In most cases, the trial period is successful, in which case the trial stimulator is explanted and replaced with a permanent, i.e., “chronic,” implantable stimulator. In accordance with the disclosure, an implantable neurostimulator supports both trial neurostimulation and chronic neurostimulation in the event trial stimulation is successful. In this manner, the additional surgery ordinarily required for replacement of the trial stimulator can be avoided. Instead, the implanted neurostimulation device remains implanted and is reconfigured to transition from trial stimulation to chronic stimulation.
US08768448B2
A method of measuring electrically evoked auditory brainstem responses of a patient or animal body is provided. The method includes surgically implanting an auditory prosthesis having an electrode array, the electrode array positioned either intracochlear or substantially proximate a brainstem of the body. At least one electrode is stimulated in the electrode array. Electrically evoked auditory brainstem responses resulting from said stimulation are recorded using, at least in part, an electrode in the electrode array as a negative electrode, and a positive electrode positioned substantially proximate the vertex of the head of the body.
US08768447B2
The invention relates to processing of physiological signal data in patient monitoring. In order to alleviate the problems caused by suppression waveforms in the analysis of physiological signal data, measurement data is derived from a segment of the time series of physiological signal data and valid measurement data is collected from the derived measurement data, thereby to form a set of valid measurement data. The collecting includes selecting measurement data that fulfills at least one predetermined threshold condition. Furthermore, at least a portion of the set of valid measurement data is supplied to a further processing stage when the amount of collected measurement data in the set is at least at a predetermined level. The deriving and collecting may be repeated for consecutive segments of the time series, in which case the supplying is performed for at least some of the consecutive segments of the time series.
US08768446B2
Methods of generating an extended cluster are disclosed. A first cluster including data representative of a first signal indicative of an abnormal physiological symptom is generated. A second signal is detected as representing a second abnormal physiological symptom and the second abnormal physiological symptom continues after the first abnormal physiological symptom ends. An extended cluster including the data from the first signal and the second signal is generated that extends from the time when the first abnormal physiological symptom occurs to the time when the second abnormal physiological symptom ends. The first and the extended cluster may include data of both the first and second signals the entire period of the clusters. If desired, the first signal or the second signal may be provided from a sensor implanted in a patient's brain tissue.
US08768434B2
An volume of a patient can be mapped with a system operable to identify a plurality of locations and save a plurality of locations of a mapping instrument. The mapping instrument can include one or more electrodes that can sense a voltage that can be correlated to a three dimensional location of the electrode at the time of the sensing or measurement. Therefore, a map of a volume can be determined based upon the sensing of the plurality of points without the use of other imaging devices. An implantable medical device can then be navigated relative to the mapping data.
US08768422B2
A sliding-type mobile electronic device that can be easily assembled and can reduce restrictions of circuit design is provided. The sliding-type mobile electronic device according to the present invention includes a first cabinet 1 in which a circuit board is incorporated, a second cabinet 2 that is slidably connected to the first cabinet, in which an electric constituent is mounted, and a flexible lead 6 drawn from the electric constituent, passed through an opening provided in the first cabinet, and connected to the circuit board 5. The flexible lead has an overlapped portion 63 in which a part of the flexible lead is folded on a predetermined region F provided on a front surface of the circuit board.
US08768417B2
A radio base station (BS) includes: a radio communication unit (110) configured to transmit broadcast control data via an antenna unit (101) including a plurality of antennas (ANT1 to ANTn), the broadcast control data being data common to a plurality of radio terminals executing radio communication with the radio base station and being used to control the radio communication; a quality acquisition unit (121) configured to acquire quality information indicating quality of the radio communication between each of the plurality of radio terminals and the radio base station; and an identification unit (122) configured to identify, from the plurality of radio terminals, a degraded radio terminal having the quality lower than a threshold value, based on the quality information acquired by the quality acquisition unit (121). The radio communication unit (110) performs beam-forming transmission of the broadcast control data in the direction corresponding to the degraded radio terminal identified.
US08768416B2
A communication system, apparatus and method are provided according to embodiments of the present invention. The communication system includes: a base band unit (BBU), at least two antennas and at least two radio-frequency (RF) units, where the at least two RF units are connected with the BBU respectively; and each of the antennas is connected with at least two RF units respectively, so that a signal received from a same sector by an antenna is sent to the BBU via different RF units. With the embodiments of the present invention, the reliability of RF units may be improved without increasing the hardware cost of the base station.
US08768410B2
A mobile communication terminal (100) has a switch (140A) that switches to either a path (T2) that supplies a transmission signal from a modulator-demodulator circuit (200) to a transmitting and receiving antenna (101) via a transmission filter (110A) and via a notch filter (120A) or a path (T1) that supplies the transmission signal to transmitting and receiving antenna (101) via the transmission filter (110A) and a switch (140B) that switches to either a path (R2) that supplies a reception signal from transmitting and receiving antenna (101) to the modulator-demodulator circuit (200) via a reception filter (110B) and a notch filter (120B) or a path (R1) that supplies the reception signal to the modulator-demodulator circuit (200) via the reception filter (110B).
US08768404B2
When active software makes a request for measuring position information, during roaming, a control unit does not execute GPS measurement, but notifies the software of an error indicating that, for example, measurement is failed, and thereby prevents establishment of communication for a function which cannot be executed by the software.
US08768397B2
A wireless communication device is configured for performing uplink transmission power control. The wireless communication device includes a processor and instructions stored in memory. The wireless communication device performs uplink transmission power control for multiple regulated frequency bands or component carriers. The wireless communication device determines a total transmission power for at least one component carrier and allocates transmission power to at least one antenna.
US08768391B2
The present invention provides for a method of controlling selection of a localised scheduling scheme or a distributed scheduling scheme within an OFDMA downlink and including the step of estimating a fading characteristic and initiating switching between the scheduling schemes responsive to the result of the said estimation, wherein the fading characteristic can comprise one of fading rate or fading type, and wherein the invention can provide for such estimating functionality within a mobile radio communications device.
US08768383B2
A method for a user equipment (UE) to receive control information from a network in a wireless mobile communication system is provided. In the method, the UE receives a paging identifier indicating whether or not a paging message to be transmitted to the user equipment is present and receives the paging message including a type indicator indicating a paging type, according to the paging identifier.
US08768381B2
A wireless device includes a user interface that generates a pairing signal in response to an indication from a user to pair the wireless device to at least one remote device and generates a first location request signal in response to a second indication from a user to locate the at least one remote device. A short-range wireless transceiver communicates RF signals to pair the wireless device to the at least one remote device and that transmits a first RF paging signal to the at least one remote device in response to the location request signal.
US08768379B2
In general, the invention relates to methods and systems that record the location of a user and determine the corresponding physical named location (e.g. business location) visited by the user. The system further provides suggested or recommended destinations and targeted content to the user. A network includes a server programmed with a database of location information, a database of user information, payment account information, and a wireless communication system capable of communicating with the user's mobile device. The location of the mobile device is ascertained and recorded. The system determines the physical named location (e.g. business location) visited by the user at a particular time and stores the information in a location history. The system further provides suggested or recommended businesses of interest based on the user's current location and location history.
US08768378B2
A method of enabling reporting of high precision position determination data in a cellular communication system includes detecting two different cell polygons, each representative of a geographical location of a respective cluster of high precision position determinations in response to a positioning request, joining the two different cell polygons to form a merged cell polygon by selectively joining a respective outer perimeter of each of the polygons to minimize a resulting merged cell polygon area while maintaining a number of corners of the merged cell polygon below a predetermined threshold, and reporting the merged cell polygon to a network node to provide position determination data originating from the two different cell polygons as the single merged cell polygon.
US08768375B2
A network sends to a user equipment (UE) an indication (e.g., a request for permission) to perform a position fix for the UE. The network also selectively sends to the UE a pre-session command for an action related to position determination. For example, the command may direct the UE to (1) clear all or a portion of location-related data at the UE prior to performing the position fix, (2) send back a position estimate for the UE, if available, or (3) apply a time offset and/or a position offset in performing the position fix. The UE sends to the network an acknowledgment (e.g., a grant of permission) to perform the position fix. The UE also performs the action indicated by the command (if any) received from the network prior to or in conjunction with performing the position fix. The network and UE perform the position fix for the UE.
US08768372B2
Providing fairness-based metrics for managing inter-sector interference of a mobile AN is described herein. By way of example, accumulation of resource utilization messages (RUMs) at a sector of the mobile AN can be based at least in part on a performance metric of that sector as compared with one or more neighboring sectors. In at least one aspect, performance metrics of multiple sectors of the mobile AN can be aggregated and a RUM accumulation rate of each sector is determined based on the aggregated metric. Accumulation rates can further be updated periodically as sector and/or aggregated metrics of the mobile AN change. Accordingly, accumulation and utilization of RUMs is based on inter-sector fairness to optimize overall wireless communication quality of service for the mobile AN.
US08768367B2
A method and apparatus of routing a call in a femtocell network are disclosed. In one example call routing method, a call is originated from the mobile station via a femtocell access point and the call is transmitted to a femtocell gateway, a mobile switching center and a carrier gateway server and onto an enterprise gateway server to obtain policy information. A routing policy is determined based on the obtained policy information and the call is routed to its destination based on the routing policy. The call may be routed via local media from a femtocell access point directly to the enterprise gateway server. The call routing procedures may implement the Iuh protocol and/or the session initiation protocol (SIP) for call signaling in the femtocell network. Call routing may be performed in a wireless cellular communications network or an enterprise network environment.
US08768365B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a mechanism for controlling a repeater that is less costly and more flexible. The objective is achieved by a method in a control unit (150) for controlling a repeater (100) being comprised in a radio access network (110). The control unit sends a repeater control message to the repeater (100). The repeater control message is tunneled as ordinary data communication via an available radio communication channel (160) within the radio access network (110). The repeater control message is configured to control the repeater (100).
US08768364B2
A node that manages a plurality of femto cells identifies the femto cells that use an identical scrambling code, transfers a relocation request from the macro/micro network of a moving source to the femto cells and obtains information from a correct moving destination to achieve inter-network mobility of the mobile station.
US08768354B2
A method for improved system selection by wireless mobile devices in 3GPP networks is provided. Location data is retrieved by the wireless device to estimate an initial system on which the wireless mobile device will attempt initialization. Using the location data, an absolute radio frequency channel number (ARFCN) associated with the location data is determined from an ARFCN table stored in memory in the wireless mobile device. The wireless mobile device can then perform system selection using the determined ARFCN. A server generates and maintains the ARFCN table which is initially provided to the wireless mobile device at manufacturer, during provisioning or as an over-the-air update.
US08768349B1
A method, system, and medium are provided for consolidating subscriber information from one or more data stored located within a mobile telecommunications network. The subscriber information may include, for example, a subscriber's service attributes or identifying information. As each data store may use a different protocol to communicate with the network, the system has the capability to identify the protocol used by each data store to allow for communication between each data store and the network. In addition, as each data store may store the subscriber information in a different format, the system identifies the schema used by each data store so that the subscriber information may be consolidated into a single schema to generate a unified subscriber profile, thus providing for efficient and effective customer service by a service provider.
US08768344B2
Methods and apparatuses are directed to calibrating a misconfigured wireless access point. One method may include receiving a position of mobile station(s) and wireless signal model measurements derived from packets exchanged between the mobile station(s) and a plurality of wireless access points, receiving positions and/or identities of the plurality of wireless access points used in determining the position of the mobile station(s), comparing a position of the mobile station(s) with wireless signal model measurements, and identifying a misconfigured wireless access point based upon the comparing. Another method may include receiving positions associated with a plurality of wireless access points, determining a position of a mobile station based upon a wireless signal model, comparing the position of the mobile station and the wireless signal model with the positions associated with the plurality of wireless access points, and determining whether at least one wireless access point is misconfigured.
US08768342B2
A cooperative system for testing signal strength near a target area selected by a wireless provider is disclosed, using test units installed in the fleet vehicles of an unrelated service enterprise. The system in one embodiment includes an algorithm for comparing test parameters to the route data contained in the dispatch plan for the fleet vehicles, in order to identify the optimal routes on which to send test units. A computer software product for storing the parameters and executing the algorithms is also disclosed. Signal testing in a target area is accomplished through the symbiotic relationship between the testing units and the fleet vehicles, whereby the wireless provider benefits from unit carriage along routes already being traveled by the fleet vehicles for a different purpose. This Abstract is provided quickly inform a reader about the subject matter, and not for use interpreting the scope or meaning of the claims.
US08768340B2
There are provided a mobile communication terminal testing apparatus and a method of testing a mobile communication terminal capable of displaying an EVM for each slot. A mobile communication terminal testing apparatus 1 includes a reception unit 12 that receives a transmission signal of a radio frequency from a mobile communication terminal 2, converts the transmission signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal as a reception signal having a digital value, an EVM measuring circuit 22 that measures the modulation accuracy of each symbol included in the reception signal, a slot selecting section 32 that selects at least one of a plurality of slots, and a display unit 43 that displays the EVM of each symbol included in the slot selected by the slot selecting section 32.
US08768335B2
Disclosed is a wireless communication system and terminal for providing a wireless communication service, and more particularly, a method of effectively perform an operation of MDT (Minimization Driving Test) for a specific area or a specific cell in an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (E-UMTS) evolved from a UMTS, Long Term Evolution (LTE) System or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) system.
US08768326B2
Various techniques for service access point configuration for mobile terminals of wireless systems are provided. Pre-configured service access point settings may be provided on a multimedia memory card with a client application capable of configuring the service access point settings in the mobile terminal from the pre-configured service access point settings on the multimedia memory card. Over-the-air updating of service access point settings may be performed by communication between a service access point and a mobile terminal or a client application on the mobile terminal for automatically configuring service access point settings on the mobile terminal based upon information provided by the service access point. Service content specific pricing in the mobile domain is also provided. Service content specific pricing content delivery may be provided through a particular service access point configured for the service content specific pricing.
US08768325B2
A method receives a call by recognizing a posture of a user in a portable terminal. The method includes identifying whether a call reception event occurs, detecting a motion in which the user brings the portable terminal to an ear by using a posture detecting sensor, when the call reception event occurs, and connecting the call upon detecting the motion.
US08768319B2
A system and computer-implemented method for positioning targeted sponsored content on a mobile communication facility includes the steps of: (a) receiving data corresponding to a transaction event having occurred via the interaction of a user with the mobile communication facility, wherein the transaction event includes transmission of data representative of a first product or a first service being purchased by the user and credit card information associated with a credit card of the user used to purchase the first product or first service; (b) selecting advertising content based at least upon a relevance between an advertisement for a second product or a second service and the credit card information, wherein the relevance is further based on information relating to compatibility of the advertising content, second product, or second service with the mobile communication facility; and (c) presenting the selected advertising content on a display of the mobile communication facility.
US08768318B2
A docking station may provide an enhanced user interface for mobile communication devices. In one particular implementation, a device may include a base unit configured to provide connections to one or more user interface devices and an interface for connecting to a mobile phone, where the base unit connects the mobile phone to the one or more user interface devices to provide an enhanced interface for the mobile phone.
US08768315B2
A method and apparatus for identifying a suspect through location and time events is provided herein. During operation a central server continuously receives updates from multiple networks regarding device identifiers and associated access points. When an event (e.g., a crime) occurs at a certain location, an access point(s) near the event are identified and devices associated with the access point(s) at the time of the event are determined. The identified devices are then utilized to determine potential suspects.
US08768282B2
Apparatus for generating a plurality of radio-frequency RF subcarrier signals for transmission between two adjacent ultra-high frequency UHF broadcast channels comprises a signal generator for generating a plurality of local oscillator LO signals, and a plurality of mixers each arranged to mix one of the LO signals with one of a plurality of input signals to generate one of the RF subcarrier signals, said input signal including information to be transmitted by said RF subcarrier signal. Variable gain amplifiers can be provided to independently amplify the RF subcarrier signals before they are combined. The LO signals can have the same frequency and the input signals can have different frequencies, or the LO signals can have different frequencies and the input signals can have the same frequency. A second LO signal with a different frequency to a first LO signal can be obtained by dividing a reference frequency by a predetermined value and mixing with the first LO signal. Methods of generating a plurality of RF subcarrier signals are also disclosed.
US08768270B2
A TX/RX switch includes a first switching device connectable with a power amplifier and a second switching device connectable with a low noise amplifier. Both the first switching device and the second switching device are operating in an ON state in transmit mode to provide substantial linearity including no significant alternating current signal swing across any two nodes of the first switching device and the second switching device in the ON state.
US08768264B2
Systems and methods for decreasing the amount of information sent on a feedback channel are disclosed. Spectral binning and/or a Markov state model may be used to reduce the amount of information sent on the feedback channel.
US08768254B2
A calendar application for use with a first portable electronic device includes time-dependent events having a start time and an end time and proximity-dependent events having a specified device ID that corresponds to a second portable electronic device. Both the time-dependent events and the proximity-dependent events are stored in the calendar application and the proximity-dependent event is convertible into a time-dependent event. A proximity reminder is generated when the second portable electronic device is in short range radio frequency communication range of the first portable electronic device.
US08768248B2
A multi-protocol, multi-band array antenna system may be used in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system reader and sensory networks. The antenna array may include array elements with an integrated low noise amplifier. The system may employ digital beam forming techniques for transmission and steering of a beam to a specific sensor tag or group of tags in a cell. The receive beam forming network is optimized for detecting signals from each sensor tag. Narrow and wideband interferences may be excised by an interference nulling algorithm. Space division multiplexing may be used by the antenna system to enhance system processing capacity.
US08768247B2
A wireless communication system is disclosed. The wireless communication system performs data transmission using spatially multiplexed streams from a first terminal including N antennas to a second terminal including M antennas (N and M are integers larger than or equal to 2 and N>M).
US08768241B2
A method and system for processing a digital assessment template are provided. The system includes at least one tangible processor and a memory with instructions to be executed by the at least one tangible processor for processing a digital assessment template. The template which includes a description of a plurality of data structures that are configured for interpreting an assessment associated with the template. The assessment was marked with strokes by an assessment-taker who was administered the assessment and responded to at least one problem provided by the assessment. The template describes a location of the marked assessment in which to find each stroke that corresponds to a response by the assessment-taker and how to interpret the strokes. Each of the locations and how to interpret the strokes are selectable.
US08768237B2
An image forming apparatus is provided. The image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, a return-sheet conveyer unit to convey a recording sheet carried from the image forming unit along a return-sheet path to return to the image forming unit, an upper frame unit including a pair of side frames to support the image forming unit in a position there-between, and a pair of lower frames arranged to have a predetermined amount of clearance there-between to have the return-sheet conveyer unit in the clearance, and configured to be less rigid than the upper frame unit and to support lower sections of the pair of side frames. A vertical position of the return-sheet conveyer unit with respect to the image forming unit is defined with reference to the upper frame unit by having a part of the return-sheet conveyer unit aligned to be in contact with the upper frame unit.
US08768229B2
A fixing device includes at least one separator including a pawl separatably contacting a fixing rotary body to separate a recording medium discharged from a fixing nip formed between the fixing rotary body and a pressing rotary body from the fixing rotary body; at least one first rotary body rotatably supported by the at least one separator to contact and guide the recording medium separated by the pawl in a recording medium conveyance direction; at least one second rotary body disposed downstream from the first rotary body in the recording medium conveyance direction to contact and guide the recording medium guided by the first rotary body in the recording medium conveyance direction; and at least one brush mounted on an outer circumferential surface of at least one of the first rotary body and the second rotary body.
US08768228B2
A charge elimination needle is set at a predetermined position (first position) when a recording material is separated by utilizing the curvature of a separation stretching roller without using a separation assist roller, and at a position (second position) higher than the first position when the recording material is separated by using the separation assist roller.
US08768226B2
A developing roller which is excellent in image quality and image durability and stably outputs a uniform image, and a process cartridge and an electrophotographic apparatus using the developing roller are provided. The developing roller has a mandrel, an elastic layer and a surface layer covering the elastic layer surface, wherein the surface layer contains a urethane resin having at least one structure of the followings A) and B) between two adjacent urethane linkages: A) a structure represented by the following structural formula (1), and at least one structure selected from the group consisting of structures represented by the following structural formulae (2) and (3), and B) a structure represented by the following structural formula (4), and the surface layer contains polyurethane resin particles of which the elastic part of the indentation work based on ISO 14577-1 is 80% or more, is obtained:
US08768219B2
Provide herein is a description of a bias charging member that includes a conductive core, and an outer surface layer disposed on the conductive core. The outer surface layer includes carbon black and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene.
US08768215B2
An image forming apparatus includes an supporting an image bearing member; a developing unit including first and second developer carrying members for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the image baring member; first and second gap regulating members for regulating gaps between the image bearing member and the first and second developer carrying members, respectively; an urging member for urging the developing unit toward the image forming unit; and a positioning member for positioning the developing unit relative to the image forming unit. The positioning member includes a preventing portion for preventing, while permitting movement of the developing unit in a circumferential direction of the image bearing member at one longitudinal end of the developing unit, movement of the developing unit in the circumferential direction of the image bearing member at the other longitudinal end of the developing unit.
US08768214B2
Disclosed is an image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus includes a body frame, a support roller placed at one side of a movement path of a printing medium, a transfer roller assembly placed at the other side of the movement path of the printing medium at a position adjacent to the support roller, and a door to open or close the body frame so as to expose the movement path of the printing medium. The transfer roller assembly has a rotating axis kept at a fixed position of the body frame, and is moved away from the support roller in linkage with an opening operation of the door.
US08768212B2
A process unit includes an image bearing member, a first frame, a developing unit, a pressing assembly, and a pressing-force adjusting assembly. The first frame supports the image bearing member. The developing unit includes a developing roller and a second frame supporting the developing roller. The pressing assembly generates a first pressing force acting on the developing unit such that the developing roller is in pressure contact with the image bearing member. The pressing-force adjusting assembly contacts one of the first frame and the developing unit and generates a second pressing force acting on the developing unit against the first pressing force. The second pressing force is smaller than the first pressing force.
US08768210B2
A color electrophotographic image forming apparatus in which a cartridge tray supporting a plurality of cartridges is movable through a plurality of opening portions to respective outside positions outside an apparatus main body. In the color electrophotographic image forming apparatus, the plurality of cartridges are removably mounted to the apparatus main body to form an image on a recording medium. The color electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes a cartridge tray, which is movable, while supporting the plurality of cartridges, between an inside position positioned inside the apparatus main body and the outside positions, a plurality of opening portions provided in the apparatus main body, through which the cartridge tray is movable between the inside position and the outside positions, and doors for opening and closing the plurality of opening portions.
US08768198B2
An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of image forming units which are provided side by side at least in a horizontal direction, each of which includes a rotatable image bearing member and an image forming section adapted to form a toner image on the image bearing member, and an air blow device configured to generate an air flow to cool the plurality of image forming units. In addition, a belt is placed above the plurality of image forming units, and a changing member is disposed in a space below the belt and between two image forming units located next to each other among the plurality of image forming units and configured to change flowing direction of the air flow generated by the air blow device. The changing member directs the air flow to flow along a rotation axis direction of the image bearing member from both ends of an upper area of the space toward a center of the upper area of the space, and then flow from the center of the upper area of the space to below the space.
US08768195B2
An image processing apparatus is capable of performing a plurality of toner-saving processes each reducing an amount of toner consumed to form an image. The apparatus includes a selecting unit that allows a user to select one toner saving process from the plurality of toner saving processes; a toner saving unit that performs the one toner saving process selected through the selecting unit; and a display unit that provides, when the one toner saving process is a predetermined toner saving process that yields a printed output whose print quality is not easily presumed by the user, a preview display representing the print quality of the printed output to be yielded by the one toner saving process.
US08768193B2
A fixing apparatus capable of reducing deterioration in productivity while preventing a fixing roller from being heated to a high temperature. The fixing roller has a heating unit incorporated therein, and a rotatable pressurization roller abuts on the fixing roller. A thermistor detects a surface temperature of the fixing roller. A fixing operation is controlled by selectively switching between a first mode and a second mode in which the number of sheets subjected to fixing per unit time is smaller than in the first mode. One of the first and second modes is selected based on a first temperature detected by the thermistor at a first time, a second temperature detected by the thermistor at a second time, and a minimum temperature of the fixing roller at which the toner image can be fixed.
US08768191B2
A fixing device includes: a fixing member which fixes a toner image on a sheet; a plurality of sliding contact members which sliding contact a surface of the fixing member in which roughness of sliding surfaces of the plurality of sliding contact members is different from each other; a counter which accumulates a count value based on the number of fixing operations to determine a contact period of time of the plurality of sliding contact members to be brought into contact with the fixing member; and a controller which controls the plurality of sliding contact members to be brought into contact with the fixing member based on the accumulated count value of the counter.
US08768189B2
A method of charging a photoreceptor (3) includes a first corona charging unit (2) a first corona electrode (4), a first shell electrode (6), and a first high voltage power supply (22). The shell electrode is connected through a resistor to ground and the high voltage power supply is connected to the first corona electrode. A second corona charging unit (10) has a second corona electrode (12), and a first grid electrode (14) connected to a second shell electrode (16). A first corona current from the first high voltage power supply to the first corona electrode and a return current from the first shell electrode to ground is sensed and a voltage on the first high voltage power supply is adjusted to maintain a constant difference. The first corona charging unit charges the photoreceptor to at least 63% of the desired voltage.
US08768188B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit configured to form a toner image, a first detection unit configured to detect a height of the toner image and output height information, a second detection unit configured to detect a density of the toner image, a storage unit configured to store data for converting height information to density information, a determination unit configured to convert the height information detected by the first detection unit to the density information based on the stored data and determine an image forming condition of the image forming unit based on the converted density information, and an updating unit configured to, in an updating mode for updating the stored data, update the stored data based on the height information of a patch toner image, which is formed by the image forming unit, being output by the first detection unit and a density of the patch toner image detected by the second detection unit.
US08768183B2
The printing apparatus discharges, to a discharge unit, the sheet bearing the image printed by the print operation. The printing apparatus controls to execute sample printing according to accept a sample printing request during the print operation, and discharge a page obtained by the sample printing to a discharge destination different from the discharge unit. The printing apparatus discharges, to a second discharge location different from a first discharge location, a sheet subsequent to the sheet discharged to the first discharge location, according to accept the sample printing request during a print operation during which the sheet discharge unit discharges a sheet to the first discharge location of the discharge unit.
US08768177B2
Consistent with the present disclosure, data, in digital form, is received by a transmit nodes of an optical communication, and converted to analog signal by a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to drive a modulator. The modulator, in turn, modulates light at one of a plurality of wavelengths in accordance with the received data. The modulated light is then transmitted over an optical communication path to a receive node. At the receive node, the modulated optical signal, as well as other modulated optical signals are supplied to a photodetector circuit, which receives additional light at one of the optical signal wavelengths from a local oscillator laser. An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is provided in the receive node to convert the electrical signals output from the photodetector into digital form. The output from the ADC is then filtered in the electrical domain, such that optical demultiplexing of individual channels is unnecessary.
US08768173B2
An optical receiver includes: a first generator to generate, from an optical signal to which a reference signal is inserted, a first digital signal representing a signal component of a first partial band including the reference signal, using a first local oscillation light of a first frequency; a second generator to generate, from the optical signal, a second digital signal representing a signal component of a second partial band including the reference signal, using a second local oscillation light of a second frequency being different from the first frequency; a frequency compensator to adjust a frequency of the signal component of the first partial band and a frequency of the signal component of the second partial band according to a frequency of the reference signal; and a combiner to combine the first and second partial bands adjusted by the frequency compensator.
US08768171B2
The present invention relates to light-based communication, and more particularly it relates to methods for configuration of at least one remote light-sensing device, to a central light-emitting unit and to a light-sensing device. According to the invention, spatial configuration of remote light-sensing devices (e.g. peripherals such as loudspeakers or light devices), will be achieved by transmission of embedded identifiers or configuration information in light emitted in a plurality of directions from a central light-emitting unit. With a different identifier or different configuration information for each direction of transmission, the directions can be distinguished from each other. The invention enables a user to place remote light-sensing devices in a desired spatial position and the central light-emitting unit will be able to determine location and spatial function, i.e. for example whether the peripheral is an audio device and/or a lighting device. As a result, the peripherals will be correctly configured without any user interaction required.
US08768169B2
The invention discloses a time synchronization method and system for a passive optical network (PON) system to solve the problem that an ONU cannot be synchronized with an OLT accurately in the PON. The invention implements the time information synchronization between the ONU and the OLT by using a management path. The time information includes an information transmission delay between the ONU and the OLT and the sending time identifier information of the time information. The invention avoids the technical defect of the unfixed delay for an upper layer protocol data message in a GPON by using the characteristic that a PLOAM message or an OMCI message is not segmented during the transmission thereof in the PON, thus ensuring every ONU can be synchronized with the OLT accurately.
US08768166B2
Adaptive power setting techniques for optical transceivers are provided. Optical signals are received at a first optical transceiver device that are transmitted from a second optical transceiver device. A receive power of the optical signals received at the first optical transceiver device from the second optical transceiver device is determined. A characteristic of optical signals transmitted by the first optical transceiver device to the second optical transceiver device is modulated to indicate to the second optical transceiver device a disparity of the receive power with respect to a target receive power level at the first optical transceiver device. Conversely, the first optical transceiver device adjusts a power level of optical signals transmitted by the first optical transceiver device to the second optical transceiver device based on a characteristic of the optical signals received at the first optical transceiver device.
US08768165B2
The invention refers a method and an arrangement for in service Raman gain measurements and monitoring of a wavelength division multiplex system. By measuring the power level values of a transmitted WDM signal (WMS_TX) and an optical supervisory signal (OSS_TX) at the transmitter and the power level values of the received signals (WMS_RX; OSS_RX) the Raman gain can be calculated for the different channels.
US08768157B2
A multiple degree of freedom actuator can have at least one first MEMS actuator configured to move a platform in translation and at least one second MEMS actuator configured to move the platform in a different direction, e.g., tangentially. The first MEMS actuator(s) can facilitate autofocus and/or zoom, for example. The second MEMS actuator(s) can facilitate optical image stabilization (OIS), for example.
US08768149B2
The present invention relates to a user interface provision method and to a system using the method, and more specifically relates to: a user interface provision method in which video signals provided from a plurality of content providers are generated in a browsing interface and supplied to a display device; and a system using the method.
US08768131B2
Multimode optical fiber is disclosed herein having a core surrounded by first and second annular cladding regions. The second annular cladding region has a maximum relative refractive index that is at least 0.05% higher than the minimum relative refractive index of the first annular cladding region.
US08768128B1
The specification describes an optical fiber color coding scheme that uses two colors, where each of the two colors constitutes one half of the surface of the optical fiber coating. If a longitudinal portion of the coating is considered a hollow cylinder, then each of the two colors is a hollow hemi-cylinder. To ensure that each of the two colors is always plainly visible to an installer, the two colors are formed with a twist. Using two colors for coding substantially increases the number of available unique color codes. Coloring the entire coating reduces the chances of error in identifying the optical fibers.
US08768127B1
A fiber optic cable can comprise a jacket enclosing an internal space. A member extending lengthwise within the space can provide two or more compartments. Each compartment can house a respective bundle of optical fibers that are color coded for distinguishing the fibers of an individual bundle from one another. Different compartments can house different number of optical fibers. The compartments can comprise indicia for distinguishing the compartments and/or the bundles from one another. The member can be formed by extrusion and can have removable or detachable fins. With the extruded member in a relaxed state, the compartments can be closed. A series of dies can insert the bundles of optical fibers in the compartments. The dies can manipulate the member to open the compartments for bundle insertion. Once the bundles are inserted in the respective compartments, the dies can release the member so the compartments close on the bundles.
US08768126B2
An underwater optical fiber cable includes two end portions, an extruded metal tube, at least one optical fiber and a polymeric sheath surrounding the extruded metal tube. The at least one optical fiber is housed in loose configuration in the extruded metal tube. The cable includes a controlled cathodic protection system connected to one of the end portions of the underwater cable and includes an anode bed arranged outside the underwater cable and an electric connection connecting the anode bed to the extruded metal tube of the underwater cable at one of the end portions of the underwater cable.
US08768120B2
An optical assembly includes a combination of laser sources emitting radiation, focused by a combination of lenses into optical waveguides. The optical waveguide and the laser source are permanently attached to a common carrier, while at least one of the lenses is attached to a holder that is an integral part of the carrier, but is free to move initially. Micromechanical techniques are used to adjust the position of the lens and holder, and then fix the holder it into place permanently using integrated heaters with solder.
US08768112B2
A system includes an electrical generator comprising a stator, a rotor, and a gas coolant path through an interior of the electrical generator and at least one fiber optic purity sensor configured to sense a gas purity of a flow of a gas coolant through the gas coolant path.
US08768109B2
An electro-optic modulator includes a substrate, a pair of transmission lines, a first strip-shaped electrode, and a pair of second strip-shaped electrodes. The substrate includes a surface and a reversely-polarized portion. The transmission lines are formed in the surface and extend substantially in parallel with each other. One of the transmission lines is formed within the reversely-polarized portion and the other is out of the reversely-polarized portion. The first strip-shaped electrode is formed on the surface and covers the transmission lines. The second strip-shaped electrodes are positioned at two sides of the first strip-shaped electrodes and parallel with the first strip-shaped electrode.
US08768107B2
Aspects of the invention pertain to matching a selected image/photograph against a database of reference images having location information. The image of interest may include some location information itself, such as latitude/longitude coordinates and orientation. However, the location information provided by a user's device may be inaccurate or incomplete. The image of interest is provided to a front end server, which selects one or more cells to match the image against. Each cell may have multiple images and an index. One or more cell match servers compare the image against specific cells based on information provided by the front end server. An index storage server maintains index data for the cells and provides them to the cell match servers. If a match is found, the front end server identifies the correct location and orientation of the received image, and may correct errors in an estimated location of the user device.
US08768104B2
The present invention is related to the processing of data, and more particularly to a method of and system for processing large volumes of Earth observation imagery data. A system for processing a large volume of Earth observation imaging data is described, comprising a computer including a visual display and a user interface, a plurality of servers, an image database storing said Earth observation imaging data as a plurality of separate image data files, and a network for interconnecting the computer, plurality of servers and image database. The plurality of servers is operable to process the separate data files in a distributed manner, at least one of the plurality of servers is operable to process the separate data files in a multiprocessing environment and at least one of the plurality of servers is operable to collate the processed separate data files into a single imaging result.
US08768099B2
The present invention provides a method, apparatus and system of content creation, content post processing, new image capture and image composition whereby alternate images or video content may be selectively integrated into an original video in real time. In the present invention, sufficient metadata is created at the time of the creation of the original video content to both describe objects/areas in the original video that are available for integration of alternate images/video and to provide a means of controlling the alternate video capture and processing to fit the alternate image/video into the areas in the original video defined as available for integration of alternate image/video. The result is a mechanism whereby personal/alternate video/images may be integrated with existing video content, such as in one embodiment, music videos (e.g., video Karaoke), games, broadcast video, DVD videos, and the like, in real time.
US08768094B2
Various embodiments are described herein for a system and method for calibrating a display device to eliminate distortions due to various components such as one or more of lenses, mirrors, projection geometry, lateral chromatic aberration and color misalignment, and color and brightness non-uniformity. Calibration for distortions that vary over time is also addressed. Sensing devices coupled to processors can be used to sense display characteristics, which are then used to compute distortion data, and generate pre-compensating maps to correct for display distortions.
US08768093B2
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for reducing noise. A method of reducing noise according to an aspect of the present invention includes calculating a noise level of a reference pixel forming an input image, determining a weighted value to be allocated to the reference pixel based on similarity of a reference window including the reference pixel with respect to at least one comparative window existing in a comparative region of the input image and having the same size as the reference window, and the calculated noise level of the reference pixel, and filtering the input image using the determined weighted value.
US08768085B2
A Hadamard transform-based image compression method includes performing a Hadamard transform on 2k pixel values according to a product of a 2k×2k stage Hadamard matrix and a 2k×2k adjustment matrix to generate 2k conversion values, where k is a positive integer and at least one of the 2k conversion values is zero. The adjustment matrix satisfies a condition that: when the 2k pixel values are divided into G pixel groups each comprising 2k/G adjacent pixels values and the adjustment matrix is multiplied with a first 2k×1 matrix formed by the 2k pixel values to transform the first 2k×1 matrix to a second 2k×1 matrix, each pixel value of the first matrix is transformed to an average of a pixel group comprising the pixel value to form the second 2k×1 matrix.
US08768064B2
This image feature extraction device extracts, from an image, an image feature that makes it possible to adjust the balance between identification capability and robustness, which are the scales of the capability of determining identity of images. This image feature extraction device executes hierarchical quantization to calculate quantization indexes of a plurality of hierarchies in accordance with a previously defined hierarchical quantization method for each quantization target region of an image, and outputs a hierarchical quantization index code, which is an encoding allowing unique specification of the quantization indexes of the respective hierarchies of each quantization target region.
US08768061B2
A method and system are disclosed for post optical character recognition font size determination. Optical character recognition output from an optical character recognition engine that includes character and bounding box information is aggregated into character strings. Measurements are then collected from each character in each character string that correspond to alignment heights of the top or bottom of the character with an ascender-line, a cap-line, a digit-line, a mean-line, a base-line, or a descender-line. Histograms are formed for each of these heights for each character string from the collected measurements. Based on the histograms, a pivot height is selected and used to determine the relative font size of the character string. The relative font size is normalized using a preselected factor associated with the selected pivot height. The normalized font size is then output as the font size of characters in the optical character recognition output.
US08768060B2
An image processing apparatus includes a storage unit, a receiving unit, a search unit, a processing unit and an output unit. The storage unit stores information of drawn image elements. The receiving unit receives a transformation instruction to transform a part of the image elements specified by the information of the image elements. The search unit searches the storage unit for an image element that (i) has a relation, being based on a predetermined condition, with the image elements, which are a target of the transformation instruction, and (ii) is not the target of the transformation instruction. The processing unit performs a transformation process on (i) the image elements, which are the target of the received transformation instruction, and (ii) the image element, which is found as the search result, based on the received transformation instruction. The output unit outputs the result of the transformation process.
US08768059B2
An image processing apparatus segments Western and hieroglyphic portions of textual lines. The apparatus includes an input component that receives an input image having at least one textual line. The apparatus also includes an inter-character break identifier component that identifies candidate inter-character breaks along a textual line and an inter-character break classifier component. The inter-character break classifier component classifies each of the candidate inter-character breaks as an actual break, a non-break or an indeterminate break based at least in part on the geometrical properties of each respective candidate inter-character break and the bounding boxes adjacent thereto. A character recognition component recognizes the candidate characters based at least in part on a feature set extracted from each respective candidate character that can be histogram features, Gabor features or any other feature set applicable to character recognition. A Western and hieroglyphic text classifier component finds and classifies textual line segments as Western text segments or hieroglyphic text segments and further passes the recognition results to an output component.
US08768057B2
Methods and systems of the present embodiment provide segmenting of connected components of markings found in document images. Segmenting includes detecting aligned text. From this detected material an aligned text mask is generated and used in processing of the images. The processing includes breaking connected components in the document images into smaller pieces or fragments by detecting and segregating the connected components and fragments thereof likely to belong to aligned text.
US08768054B2
An image processing device separates an original image signal into a plurality of components including a first component serving as a skeleton component and a second component obtained after the first component is separated from the original image signal, obtains a signal level of the first component or the original image signal, sets a tone conversion coefficient to be applied during tone conversion based on the signal level of the first component or the original image signal, performs tone conversion processing on the first component using the tone conversion coefficient, obtains the signal level of the first component, sets a noise reduction processing parameter on the basis of the signal level of the first component, and reduces a noise of the second component using the noise reduction processing parameter and the tone conversion coefficient.
US08768050B2
Product images are used in conjunction with textual descriptions to improve classifications of product offerings. By combining cues from both text and image descriptions associated with products, implementations enhance both the precision and recall of product description classifications within the context of web-based commerce search. Several implementations are directed to improving those areas where text-only approaches are most unreliable. For example, several implementations use image signals to complement text classifiers and improve overall product classification in situations where brief textual product descriptions use vocabulary that overlaps with multiple diverse categories. Other implementations are directed to using text and images “training sets” to improve automated classifiers including text-only classifiers. Certain implementations are also directed to learning a number of three-way image classifiers focused only on “confusing categories” of the text signals to improve upon those specific areas where text-only classification is weakest.
US08768047B2
Script detection service techniques are described. In an implementation, a corpora of text is analyzed to determine which strings in the corpora of text are to be included in a targeted dictionary that is usable for language detection services. The targeted dictionary is populated with strings that are individually associated with a human language. The strings include individual text characters associated with values that correspond to a particular subset of values in a table that associates subsets of values with individual human writing systems.
US08768034B2
A method provides motion corrected MR image data in an MR imaging system. The method employs an imaging method for acquiring k-space data of a k-space data array during an imaging scan and the k-space data represents image data of a patient anatomical region. The method acquires k-space data associated with a central region of the k-space data array and subsequently acquires k-space data external to the central region of the k-space data array. The method acquires a motion signal indicating respiratory motion at least during the acquisition of the k-space data external to the central region and compares the motion signal with a predetermined threshold. The method identifies acquired k-space data corresponding to acquisition periods when the motion signal exceeds the threshold and excludes use of the identified acquired k-space data in image reconstruction using the remaining acquired k-space data.
US08768032B2
A computer-implemented method for correcting artifacts in measured image data due to differential scatter rejection in a computed tomography system is provided. A system for correcting artifacts in measured image data due to differential scatter rejection in a computed tomography system is also provided. Additionally, a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions thereon for correcting artifacts in measured image data due to differential scatter rejection in a computed tomography system is provided.
US08768031B2
A method is disclosed of providing time dependent three dimensional imaging of a region of a patient comprising blood vessels in a perfusion bed.
US08768020B2
Embodiments of the invention include a method for detecting visual stress scenes in a video. First, a video that includes scenes that may cause visual stress in some viewers is received. Then, a signal representing human perceptual response from scenes in the video is generated. An envelope follower is applied to the perceptual response, from which indications that the video contains visual stress scenes may be generated. The output may also be used to control a contrast limiting circuit, which modifies the original video to remove or minimize those scenes that may cause visual stress. Additionally, output from the envelope follower may be converted to a simulated EEG signal and used to verify accurate modeling by comparing the simulated EEG signal to one measured directly from a viewer watching the same video.
US08768017B2
An image processing apparatus includes an area dividing unit that divides an image obtained by capturing inside of a body lumen into one or more areas by using a value of a specific wavelength component that is specified in accordance with a degree of absorption or scattering in vivo from a plurality of wavelength components included in the image or wavelength components obtained by conversion of the plurality of wavelength components; and a target-of-interest site specifying unit that specifies a target-of-interest site in the area by using a discriminant criterion in accordance with an area obtained by the division.
US08768015B2
A device is not able to detect the forgery of a finger with high accuracy by the comparison of a reflected light image and a transmitted light image that are obtained from the same finger. A determination device is provided with an input element for receiving the reflected light image obtained by photographing a fingerprint of a finger with light reflected from the surface of the finger and the transmitted light image obtained by photographing the fingerprint of the finger with light transmitted through the finger, and a determination element for comparing the reflected light image and the transmitted light image, and outputting a real-forgery determination result of the fingerprint of the finger.
US08768004B2
The invention relates to a method for decoding a watermark embedded in a video comprising blocks of samples representative of the video comprising the steps of determining in the video a location of a watermarked block; determining a location for each reference block among a plurality of reference blocks wherein a reference block is associated to a watermark value among a plurality of watermark values; comparing the watermarked block with each reference block; and identifying watermark value for the watermarked block from the results of the plurality of comparison. The method is remarkable in that each reference block is equally located in the video, for instance the pirated video, so that the plurality of comparisons between the watermarked block and each reference block is performed among the same video.
US08768001B2
The disclosure relates to apparatus and methods for processing images. The method for generating a manga-style image from an input image comprises: generating a line drawing from the input image; generating a manga-style screening from an input image; and overlaying the line drawing and the manga-style screening to generate the manga-style image. The method can provide a high efficient way for auto-generating manga images.
US08767993B2
A sensor system is located in an environment composed of a first medium, where waves propagate with a first phase velocity, the sensor system including at least one main enclosure and a sensor array with at least two sensors, said sensor array being arranged inside the main enclosure, wherein the space inside the main enclosure between the sensor array and the inner surface of the main enclosure is filled with a second medium, in which waves propagate with a second phase velocity, the second phase velocity being different from the first velocity.
US08767985B2
A headrest provided with several loudspeakers which normally reproduce an ambiophonic sound experience. The headrest generally includes a central section provided with at least one loudspeaker, one side section provided with at least one loudspeaker and a second side section provided with at least one loudspeaker. The side sections are arranged on either side of the center section, and extend substantially perpendicularly towards the top relative to the center section. The headrest is arranged in a way so it can be connected to an audio signal source capable of generating several different audio signals.
US08767983B2
A module including a micro-electro-mechanical microphone is disclosed. One embodiment provides a substrate having a trough-shaped depression and a micro-electro-mechanical microphone. The micro-electro-mechanical microphone is mounted into the trough-shaped depression of the substrate.
US08767978B2
A system and method are provided for processing sound signals. The processing may include identifying individual harmonic sounds represented in sound signals, determining sound parameters of harmonic sounds, classifying harmonic sounds according to source, and/or other processing. The processing may include transforming the sound signals (or portions thereof) into a space which expresses a transform coefficient as a function of frequency and chirp rate. This may facilitate leveraging of the fact that the individual harmonics of a single harmonic sound may have a common pitch velocity (which is related to the chirp rate) across all of its harmonics in order to distinguish an the harmonic sound from other sounds (harmonic and/or non-harmonic) and/or noise.
US08767974B1
Comfort noise, such as can be used in voice communications can be generated using methods in the frequency domain and/or in the time domain. In various embodiments, a comfort noise spectrum can be generated in the frequency domain as the product of a background noise sample and a random noise sample. In other embodiments, the comfort noise can be generated directly in the time domain as the convolution of a background noise sample and a random noise sample.
US08767972B2
Improved approaches of designing and fitting hearing aids to make hearing aids more accessible to people with hearing loss are disclosed. The hearing aids can be capable of being fitted by users themselves or by other non-hearing specialists. In one embodiment a hearing aid can be self-calibrating. In another embodiment, hearing aids can be fitted, i.e., configured, for individuals with hearing loss using a simplified procedure that hearing aid users or non-hearing specialists can easily follow.
US08767971B2
Provided is a sound pickup apparatus that increase the flexibility in installation of microphones, while enabling sound from a sound source to be picked up in stereo without using the information on the current positions of the microphones. The sound pickup apparatus includes a microphone (110) including 4 or more sound pickup units (110a to 110d) placed so as to have different main axis directions of directivity, the microphone being installed in a position where sound outputted from a loudspeaker can be picked up; a level calculating unit (112) configured to calculate a signal level of sound outputted from the loudspeaker for each output signal of the 4 or more sound pickup units (110a to 110d); a mixing coefficient calculating unit (113) configured to calculate mixing coefficients adjusted to the main axis directions of directivity of the 4 or more sound pickup units by using the signal level calculated by the level calculating unit; and a signal mixing unit (115) configured to generate a stereo signal by mixing output signals of the 4 or more sound pickup units by using the mixing coefficient calculated by the mixing coefficient calculating unit.
US08767956B2
A processing unit transforms first input information into first nonlinear transformed information that is transformed into first linear transformed information, and transforms second input information into second nonlinear transformed information that is transformed into second linear transformed information. An exclusive-or section performs an exclusive-or operation based on the first and second linear transformed information. When the first nonlinear and linear transformed information are expressed as a first and second sequence vector, respectively, and the second nonlinear and linear transformed information are expressed as a third and fourth sequence vector, respectively, then a first row vector chosen from a first inverse matrix of a first matrix that transforms the first sequence vector to the second sequence vector, and a second row vector chosen from a second inverse matrix of a second matrix that transforms the third sequence vector to the fourth sequence vector, are linearly independent.
US08767954B2
A cryptographic framework embodies modular methods for securing data, both at rest and in motion, via an extensible encryption method. Key derivation and synchronization methods are defined. Using a small set of initialization values (keys), a multi-dimensional geometric form from which two or more entities (participants) may derive the same discrete set of public and secret keys. Participants can initialize a random number generation method of practically infinite non-repeating length. Furthermore, the random number generator can be used as a One Time Pad synchronized between participants, without ever exchanging said One Time Pad. Furthermore, a method for ciphering and deciphering data including a method for splitting the encrypted data into multiple files or streams and for recombining the original data back. Finally, a method for extending the encryption to include a practically unlimited number of external authentication factors without negatively impacting encryption performance while simultaneously increasing cryptographic strength.
US08767953B2
A system and method of generating at least two distinctive auditory alerts upon receiving a transmission or telephone call at a device is described. Data indicative of a first plurality of sounds corresponding to a user of a device configured to receive the transmission or telephone call is accessed, such as from a memory. The first plurality of sounds is played at the device so as to identify a received transmission or telephone call being directed to the user. A telephone number, subscriber name or identifier associated with a transmitting or calling party of the transmission or telephone call is accessed. Data indicative of a second plurality of sounds designating the transmitting or calling party based on the subscriber name, telephone number or identifier is retrieved, such as from a data structure, and the second plurality of sounds is played at the device so as to identify the transmitting or calling party.
US08767945B2
System and method to change a mode of communication used by an agent at a contact center for customer service, the method including: receiving, from a customer, a customer contact via a first mode of communication; establishing a first communication link, using the first mode of communication, between the customer and the agent; communicating by use of the first mode of communication between the customer and the agent; receiving an instruction, via an instant message, to change the mode of communication to a second mode of customer service; interpreting, by the contact center, the instruction from the agent; establishing a second communication link, using the second mode of communication, between the customer and the agent; and communicating by use of the second mode of communication between the customer and the agent.
US08767943B2
Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for routing communications to contact centers. When an incoming communication is detected, calling party identification information is associated to a communications profile. When a called party has multiple communications devices, then a location is received for each of the called party's multiple communications devices. The incoming communication is then routed based on the location of the called party's multiple communications devices.
US08767942B2
Broadcasting data streams to telephony devices via talk paths, wherein audio data streams are muted based on connection states of each of the plurality of talk paths. Each telephony device sends an input audio data stream to a media server via a respective talk path. The media server combines input audio data streams received from the telephony devices to generate output audio data streams for sending to the telephony devices via the respective talk paths. For each telephony device, a determination is made as to whether to mute the respective output audio data stream. The determination is based on connection states of each of the talk paths.
US08767927B2
A call from a caller to an interactive voice response (IVR) system may be serviced based on behavior by the caller in one or more prior calls to the IVR system. The call may be serviced by predicting information to be used in servicing the call. Predicting such information may include analyzing data reflecting behavior by the caller in one or more prior calls to the IVR system.
US08767923B1
Systems and methods for providing emergency communications within controlled-environment facilities are disclosed. In some embodiments, a method may include providing a communication platform. The communication platform may be configured to, in a first mode of operation, enable communications between devices (e.g., telephones, etc.) operated by residents (e.g., inmates, etc.) of a controlled environment facility (e.g., jail, prison, etc.) and devices (e.g., telephones, etc.) operated by non-residents of the controlled environment facility. The method may also include switching the communication platform from the first mode of operation to an emergency mode of operation. In the emergency mode of operation, the communication platform may be configured to enable an emergency communication from a first device operated by a resident of the controlled environment facility to a second device controlled by emergency response personnel (e.g., hostage negotiator, counselor, police officer, etc.).
US08767921B2
An anomaly detection system comprises an echo canceler and anomaly detection logic. The echo canceler has a plurality of taps respectively associated with a plurality of tap coefficients. The anomaly detection logic is configured to determine a difference between a new tap coefficient associated with one of the taps and a previous tap coefficient associated with the one tap. The anomaly detection logic is configured to perform a comparison between the difference and a threshold and to detect an anomaly along a telecommunication line based on the comparison.
US08767916B2
An X-ray imaging apparatus comprises a first grid, a second grid, and an X-ray image detector. The first grid passes X-rays emitted from an X-ray source and produces a first periodic pattern image. The second grid opposes the first grid. The second grid partly blocks the first periodic pattern image and produces a second periodic pattern image with moiré fringes. The X-ray image detector detects the second periodic pattern image and produces image data. The X-ray image detector has pixels arranged in two dimensions in X and Y directions. The M pixels arranged in the Y direction form one group. The group is shifted in the Y direction by the number of the pixels less than M each time. A phase of an intensity modulated signal, composed of pixel values of the pixels in the each shifted group, is calculated. Thereby a differential phase image is produced.
US08767914B2
A method of manufacturing a structure includes a step of preparing a substrate including a silicon section, recessed sections and protruding sections formed by etching the silicon section, and a first insulating layer disposed on top portions of the protruding sections; a step of forming second insulating layers on sidewalls and bottom portions of the recessed sections; a step of forming seed layers containing metal above the bottom portions of the recessed sections; and a step of forming plating layers in such a manner that the recessed sections are filled with metal by electroplating. The second insulating layers contain an organopolysiloxane having at least one of a partial structure represented by the following formula (1) and a partial structure represented by the following formula (2): where R1, R2, and R3 represent alkyl groups identical to or different from each other.
US08767908B2
A technique for processing of data from time-of-flight (TOF) PET scanners. The size of TOF PET data may be reduced without significant loss of information through a process called rebinning. The rebinning may use the Fourier transform properties of the measured PET data, taken with respect to the time-of-flight variable, to perform data reduction. Through this rebinning process, TOF PET data may be converted to any of the following reduced representations: 2D TOF PET data, 3D non-TOF PET data, and 2D non-TOF PET data. Mappings may be exact or approximate. Approximate mappings may not require a Fourier transform in the axial direction which may have advantages when used with PET scanners of limited axial extent. Once TOF PET data is reduced in size using this rebinning, PET images may be reconstructed with hardware and/or software that is substantially less complex and that may run substantially faster in comparison to reconstruction from the original non-rebinned data.
US08767907B2
A shift register includes a plurality of shift register circuits, where an Nth shift register circuit of the shift register includes a driving unit, a boost unit, a pull up unit, and a key pull down unit. The driving unit is for providing a gate signal, a first boost control signal, and a first transmission control signal according a first driving signal and a high frequency clock signal. The boost unit is for boosting the voltage of the first driving signal according to a first boost signal. The pull up unit is for providing a second driving signal according to the first transmission control signal and the gate signal, and is for providing a second boost signal according to the first boost control signal and a second boost control signal. The key pull down unit is for pulling down the first driving signal according to a second transmission control signal.
US08767906B2
In one embodiment, the in-bundle force measurement device includes an elongated main body, and a sensing structure disposed at a distal end of the main body. The sensing structure is configured to output a measurement indicative of force applied to the sensing structure.
US08767898B2
A device receives a data signal and a reference timing signal provided from a first clock. The device includes a sample clock that operates independently from the first clock, wherein the sample clock outputs a sample clock signal that is asynchronous with the reference timing signal; a sampler for sampling a data signal in accordance with the sample clock signal and outputting a sampled data signal; and a resampler for resampling the sampled data signal according to a resampling ratio and outputting a resampled data signal such that a number of data samples in the resampled data signal within a synchronization time interval defined with respect to the reference timing signal equals a nominal number of data samples that would occur in the sampled data signal within the synchronization time interval when the sample clock signal was synchronized to the reference timing signal.
US08767893B2
The present invention aims at eliminating the effects of frequency offsets between two transceivers by adjusting frequencies used during transmission. In this invention, methods for correcting the carrier frequency and the sampling frequency during transmission are provided, including both digital and analog implementations of such methods. The receiver determines the relative frequency offset between the transmitter and the receiver, and uses this information to correct this offset when the receiver transmits its data to the original transmitter in the return path, so that the signal received by the original transmitter is in sampling and carrier frequency lock with the original transmitter's local frequency reference.
US08767892B1
A synchronization system for initial setup of phases of local oscillators in a wireless receiver of a communication system characterized by transmission of data packets having a predetermined preamble consisting of M identical sections of L symbols followed by a single section of the same kind, multiplied by −1, and wherein the wireless receiver is operative to perform decimation in an RF demodulator. The synchronization system includes a twofold correlator, an accumulator, a multipler, a threshold comparator, a carrier phase former and a clock phase former, and operates at a decimated symbols frequency, and performs not only preamble detection, but also symbols clock phase detection together with carrier phase detection, while enabling the theoretically possible noise immunity.
US08767884B2
According to one embodiment, a receiver includes an EVM calculating unit which calculates an EVM (Error Vector Magnitude) value of an input signal. Further, a receiver includes a control unit which determines whether the frequency of EVM calculation is reduced or not, according to a comparison between the EVM value and a predetermined range including a threshold for switching processing by the EVM value. Further, a receiver includes a data reducing unit which controls the calculation interval of the EVM value in the EVM calculating unit, according to the determination result by the control unit.
US08767874B2
A simple block coding arrangement is created with symbols transmitted over a plurality of transmit channels, in connection with coding that comprises only simple arithmetic operations, such as negation and conjugation. The diversity created by the transmitter utilizes space diversity and either time or frequency diversity. Space diversity is effected by redundantly transmitting over a plurality of antennas, time diversity is effected by redundantly transmitting at different times, and frequency diversity is effected by redundantly transmitting at different frequencies: Illustratively, using two transmit antennas and a single receive antenna, one of the disclosed embodiments provides the same diversity gain as the maximal-ratio receiver combining (MRRC) scheme with one transmit antenna and two receive antennas. The principles of this invention are applicable to arrangements with more than two antennas, and an illustrative embodiment is disclosed using the same space block code with two transmit and two receive antennas.
US08767873B2
Methods and devices for communicating in a communication system are described herein. One aspect of the subject matter described in the disclosure provides a method of communicating over one or more space-time streams. The method includes transmitting a precoded portion of a first stream with a bandwidth of 1 MHz or less. The method further includes transmitting, when there are at least two streams, a precoded portion of a second stream with a cyclic shift delay, relative to the first stream, of 4 μs. The method further includes transmitting, when there are at least three streams, a precoded portion of a third stream with a cyclic shift delay, relative to the first stream, of 1 μs. The method further includes transmitting, when there are at least four streams, a precoded portion of a fourth stream with a cyclic shift delay, relative to the first stream, of 5 μs.
US08767872B2
Techniques for transmitting data and pilot for control information are described. In one aspect, a user equipment (UE) may spread a reference signal sequence with a first orthogonal sequence to obtain multiple pilot sequences. The UE may then send the multiple pilot sequences on multiple subcarriers in multiple symbol periods, one pilot sequence in each symbol period. The UE may modulate the reference signal sequence with control information (e.g., ACK information) to obtain a modulated sequence. The UE may spread the modulated sequence with a second orthogonal sequence to obtain multiple data sequences. The UE may then send the multiple data sequences on the multiple subcarrier in multiple symbol periods for data. In another aspect, the UE may send multiple pilot sequences on multiple subcarriers in multiple symbol periods separated by at least one symbol period, one pilot sequence in each symbol period.
US08767864B2
Modulated signal A is transmitted from a first antenna, and modulated signal B is transmitted from a second antenna. As modulated signal B, modulated symbols S2(i) and S2(i+1) obtained from different data are transmitted at time i and time i+1 respectively. In contrast, as modulated signal A, modulated symbols S1(i) and S1(i)′ obtained by changing the signal point arrangement of the same data are transmitted at time i and time i+1 respectively. As a result the reception quality can be changed intentionally at time i and time i+1, and therefore using the demodulation result of modulated signal A of a time when the reception quality is good enables both modulated signals A and B to be demodulated with good error rate performances.
US08767862B2
A system for selecting optimal phase combinations for RF beamformers in a MIMO hybrid receiving systems augmented by RF Distribution Network. The system addresses the issue of providing beamforming gains for a plurality of layers using one common set of weights for each beamformer. The specification may be based on channel estimation of all layers as viewed by all receiving antennas, and maximizing metrics that capture the total received power.
US08767858B2
Provided is a communication system using a space division multi-user multiple input multiple output (SD-MIMO) communication method. A transmission apparatus may transmit, to each of terminals included within a coverage, common control information commonly transmitted to the terminals and individual control information individually transmitted to each of the terminals. The transmission apparatus does not precode the common control information and transmits the non-precoded common control information. The transmission apparatus precodes the individual control information and transmits the precoded individual control information.
US08767845B2
Various embodiments are directed to systems and methods for processing signals comprising a first component and a second component. A bandwidth of the first component may be centered at a center frequency. A bandwidth of the second component may be offset from the center frequency by an offset frequency such that at least a portion of the bandwidth of the second component overlaps a skirt of the first component. In various embodiments, a transmitter may split a single signal to generate the first and second components, shift the frequency of the second component, recombine and transmit the two components. Also, in various embodiments, a receiver may receive the signal and derive the first and second components by correcting for cross-interference.
US08767844B2
A data processing device (100, 300) is described forming part of a receiver for a multicarrier communications system. The data processing device is configured to process at least one observed symbol to generate an information bit estimate for the symbol, and includes a channel prediction stage configured to receive an observed symbol and at least one feedback signal representing an estimate of a transmitted symbol and to generate a channel prediction. At least one initial processing stream (104) is configured to process the observed symbol on the basis of a channel prediction calculated at a respective time by the channel prediction stage and to output a signal representing an estimate of a transmitted symbol corresponding to the observed symbol for feed back into the channel prediction stage. A subsequent processing stream (102) is configured to process the observed symbol on the basis of a channel prediction calculated at a second time by the channel prediction stage at least partly on the basis of an output of at least one initial processing stream in respect of the observed symbol, to generate an information bit estimate corresponding to the observed symbol.
US08767836B2
The use of a picture delimiter that is contained in a NAL unit type value that is reserved in the current AVC or SVC specification. The present invention provides the scalability information for the H.264/AVC base layer in such a manner that bitstreams remain decodable with H.264/AVC decoders. In addition, the picture delimiter of the present invention may contain many other syntax elements that can help in easier processing of bitstreams compared to the plain H.264/AVC bitstream syntax.
US08767826B2
There are provided video encoders, video decoders, and corresponding methods. A video encoder for encoding video signal data for an image block includes an encoder for encoding all color components of the video signal data using a common predictor. A video decoder for decoding video signal data for an image block includes a decoder for decoding all color components of the video signal data using a common predictor. Additionally, an apparatus and method for encoding and decoding signal data for an image block includes an encoder and decoder for encoding/decoding color components of the video signal data without applying a residual color transform thereto. Furthermore, a video encoder and decoder for encoding/decoding video signal data for an image block includes an encoder and decoder for encoding/decoding the video signal data using unique predictors for each of color components of the video signal data.
US08767825B1
A system and method provide a video coding system for adaptively transcoding videos based on video coding complexity (VCC). A VCC engine of the system is configured to generate a measure of how difficult to encode a source video based on a trained VCC model. A video rate-distortion modeling engine of the system is configured to estimate a rate-distortion model and a scaling model. The VCC model, rate-distortion model and the scaling model are trained on a video corpus of the system. The trained VCC model, rate-distortion model and the scaling model are used by an adaptive bitrate transcoding sub-system to transcode a source video with an optimized bitrate and visual quality. The trained VCC model, rate-distortion model and the scaling model are further used by an adaptive resolution transcoding sub-system to transcode a source video with an optimized resolution and visual quality.
US08767820B2
A system employs adaptive data rate reduction of rendered pixel data for wireless transmission between a source device and a display device. The source device determines the display properties of the display device and the current available bandwidth of a wireless channel connecting the source device to the display device. The source device adjusts a data rate reduction process that is applied to the rendered pixel data before the resulting pixel data is wirelessly transmitted based on these parameters. In response to a change in the data rate reduction process, the source device further can transmit to the display device an indicator that identifies the current data rate reduction type and effective compression ratio being applied by the source device. The display device can use this indicator to configure the processing of the rendered pixel data at the display device so as to mirror or otherwise comply with the particular data rate reduction process applied by the source device.
US08767819B2
An encoding circuit (1) encodes an input image. A thinning-out decision unit (2) determines whether or not a picture needs to be thinned out. A dummy picture storage device (4) stores a dummy picture. A dummy picture is encoded data in which all the blocks refer to the same picture, motion vectors of all the blocks are zero, and none of the blocks has prediction residual information. A reference picture selection unit (5) selects a reference picture from among a plurality of referenceable pictures. A header generating unit (7) generates a header to be added to a dummy picture. In the header, the selected reference picture is assigned to an index specifying a reference picture for the dummy picture.
US08767816B2
A spatial prediction method for coding a residual image in layered video coding. The spatial prediction method includes selecting at least one of a default mode, a horizontal mode and a vertical mode as a spatial prediction mode, taking into account an activity of at least one adjacent block located adjacent to a first block among blocks included in the residual image; and coding differences between pixels of the first block and pixels of a prediction bock constructed by one of the selected at least one or more spatial prediction modes. The at least one adjacent block includes a first adjacent block located on the left of the first block and a second adjacent block located on the top of the first block.
US08767814B2
A pulse-width modulator (PWM) includes a plurality of comparators for comparing an input signal with a plurality of reference signals and for providing a plurality of corresponding comparison signals. The pulse-width modulator also includes a combinational logic for receiving the plurality of comparison signals and for generating a plurality of binary pulse-width modulation signals on the basis of the plurality of comparison signals. At most only a currently selected binary pulse-width modulation signal of the binary pulse-width modulation signals is at a first signal level at a time. The currently selected binary pulse-width modulation signal is associated to a specific reference signal of the plurality of reference signals which is currently closest to the input signal among the plurality of reference signals in terms of a given amplitude relation between the plurality of reference signals and the input signal.
US08767806B2
Techniques are provided for an adapter device configured to enable communications between a quad small form-factor pluggable (QSFP) transceiver unit and a CXP host port. The adapter device comprises a first connector unit, a second connector unit, a microcontroller unit and a plurality of reception equalizer units. Data signals are sent by the transceiver unit to a first equalizer unit via the first connector unit. The first equalizer unit adjusts the data signals and sends the data signals to the host port via the second connector unit. Likewise, data signals are sent by the host port to a second equalizer unit via the second connector unit. The second equalizer unit adjusts the data signals and sends the data signals to the transceiver unit via the first connector unit.
US08767801B1
The ability of clock and data recovery (“CDR”) circuitry on an integrated circuit (“IC”) to handle jitter in a serial data input signal can be tested by using transmitter circuitry on the IC to produce a serial data output signal whose time base has been subjected to modulation. Loop-back circuitry on the IC may be used to apply the serial data output signal to the CDR circuitry as the serial data input signal of the CDR circuitry. Modulation circuitry on the IC may be used to cause the above modulation of the time base of the serial data output signal.
US08767796B2
Methods and systems consistent with this invention receive a plurality of transmitted signals in a receiver having a plurality of receive elements, wherein each transmitted signal has a different spatial location. Such methods and systems receive the plurality of transmitted signals at the plurality of receive elements to form a plurality of receive element signals, form a combined signal derived from the plurality of receive element signals, and detect each of the plurality of transmitted signals from the combined signal by its different spatial location. To achieve this, methods and systems consistent with this invention generate a plurality of arbitrary phase modulation signals, and phase modulate each of the plurality of receive element signals with a different one of the phase modulation signals to form a plurality of phase modulated signals. Such methods and systems then combine the plurality of phase modulated signals into a combined signal, generate expected signals, and cross-correlate the combined signal with the expected signals to form correlation signals. Such methods and systems then store the correlation signals in a correlation signal memory and analyze the correlation signals to extract information from the transmitted signals.
US08767791B2
Methods and systems for controlling the gas concentrations in the chambers of a two chamber gas discharge laser such as an excimer laser are disclosed. A first set of inject opportunities is selected for the laser chamber of the master oscillator, and a second set of inject opportunities is selected for the laser chamber of the power amplifier. At each selected inject opportunity for the master oscillator, its laser chamber receives an inject containing a fixed amount of a non-halogen containing gas, and a calculated amount of a halogen containing gas. At the selected inject opportunities for the power amplifier, its laser chamber receives a fixed amount of the halogen containing gas, and may also receive a fixed amount of the non-halogen containing gas.
US08767783B2
A light source device is provided with a coherent light source for emitting the coherent light, and a pattern changer for changing an interference pattern of the coherent light on a surface of the illumination object. The pattern changer includes a photorefractive crystal which is arranged between the coherent light source and the illumination object and on an optical path of the coherent light and exhibits a photorefractive effect, and a changer for changing at least one of a light intensity distribution, a polarization direction, a wavelength and an intensity of coherent light incident on the photorefractive crystal. The illumination object is illuminated with the coherent light.
US08767778B2
A system for synchronizing unrelated information or reference signals originating from multiple sources. The signals may be in different signal formats or subject to different delays at a receiving device. The system may include a master reference time generator connected to at least one of a plurality of slave reference signal generators via a packet network. The master reference time generator may include a master reference time counter and a sampling device for sampling the master reference time counter. The master reference time generator may encode time data in master reference time packets and feed these packets into the packet network. The slave reference signal generator(s) is adapted to accept the encoded time data as an input to generate a reference signal, the phase of which is calculated based on the time elapsed since an initial time point.
US08767770B2
The invention relates to a method for selecting a data transfer method in a telecommunication system wherein several data transfer methods exist for selection. The method comprises determining a message to be transmitted on the basis of inputs received from a user. At least one piece of property information concerning the message being entered or already entered is checked. In order to transmit the message, the data transfer method associated in predetermined selection conditions with the property information is selected.
US08767766B2
A method and apparatus are described including identifying a channel that a decentralized network is using for communications and identifying a station that is a member of the decentralized network to monitor data transmission activity over the identified channel. Also described are a method and apparatus for a station to transmit data over a communication medium of a decentralized network including monitoring the communication medium, determining if the communication medium is idle, transmitting data if the communication medium is idle and if the station has a data to transmit and adjusting a slot count and a service ring configuration if the medium is busy. Further described are a method and apparatus including monitoring a communication channel used by a decentralized network, determining a number of available idle time slots between two successive frame transmissions initiated by different stations, updating a service ring, adjusting a number of stations and adjusting a slot count.
US08767765B2
A wireless communications device operates in a system where communications resources may be used by multiple devices concurrently. A device, with an acquired set of recurring time intervals, selects, e.g., pseudo-randomly, an interval or intervals to be used as a combined data transmission and channel measurement time interval. The other time intervals in its set are to be used as data transmission time intervals. The combined use type interval facilitates the measurement of interference on the device's channel while still allowing the device to transmit some data during the interval. A combined use interval includes a first portion for data transmission and a second portion for channel measurement. In some embodiments, the first portion is fixed size and the second portion occurs at the very end of the interval. In some embodiments, the duration of the first portion is varied over time such that the channel measurement start time varies.
US08767758B2
A method and apparatus to enable configuring of a management frame priority and security type. The method and the apparatus may set a priority level and a transmission data rate of a management frame. The apparatus includes a memory including a priority queue for each management frame and a transmitter to transmit said management frame according to the priority queue of said frame.
US08767755B2
A network router connects network nodes within a ring network for transferring frames of data within the network. The network router has a plurality of network ports which provide a physical interface to the network nodes. The network router further has a routing processor which is connected to the network ports. The routing processor is configured for receiving frames and transmitting frames at the same time. It reads a specific payload section from a received frame and places the data read from the specific payload section within another specific payload section of a frame to be transmitted.
US08767752B1
A system that includes a switch fabric and a resource coherency and analytics engine (RCAE). The RCAE includes a virtual traffic shaper (VTS). The VTS includes virtual output queues (VOQs), where each VOQ is associated with a virtualizable resource group (VRG)-OP pair. The VTS includes functionality to receive a first packet, make a first determination that the first packet is to be sent to a first OP, make a second determination that the first packet is associated with a first VRG, and store, based on the first and second determinations, the first packet in a VOQ associated with a first VRG-OP pair. The VTS also includes functionality to schedule the first packet for transmission from the VOQ to the switch fabric.
US08767749B2
A network apparatus includes a customer network portion having a customer premises equipment (CPE) bridge configured to connect to internal network entities of the customer network portion and to edge bridges of a provider network portion interconnecting separate customer network portions. The CPE bridge is configured to determine a transparent local area network service (TLS) for a packet received from one of the internal network entities based on a media access control (MAC) address of a destination of the packet in a different separate customer network portion. The CPE bridge is also configured to modify the packet to indicate the determined TLS, for the provider network portion to utilize to transmit the packet based on the determined TLS to a second CPE bridge associated with the destination, without the provider network utilizing the destination MAC address.
US08767748B2
A signal distribution circuit includes: first to n-th input lines on which first to n-th signals are respectively input; first to (n−1)th selectors each of which selects one of two inputs under the control of a select signal; and a first output line on which the first signal is output and second to n-th output lines on which output signals of the first to (n−1)th selectors are respectively output, wherein: the first and second inputs of the first selector are supplied with the first signal and the second signal, respectively, the first and second inputs of the i-th selector (i is an integer between 2 and (n−1)) are supplied with the output signal of the (i−1)th selector and the (i+1)th signal, respectively, and any of the selectors, when selected by the select signal, selects the second input and, when not selected by the select signal, selects the first input.
US08767744B2
A utility company may schedule when and how endpoints report resource consumption data based on relative priorities of endpoints or the customers associated therewith. By associating endpoints with one of multiple different quality of service (QoS) levels, and sending each endpoint a reporting schedule based on its respective QoS level, the utility company may configure prioritized reporting of resource consumption data by endpoints of an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) with automatic meter reading (AMR).
US08767740B2
A method of managing a packet administration map for data packets to be received via a network. A receiver in the network monitors sequence numbers and stores missing sequence numbers within an internal data structure, called a packet administration map. A reversed keying is used which means that the upper limit of the range of contiguous missing data packets is used as the key entry in the administration map.
US08767713B2
A system and method of conducting wireless communications between a wireless communication device (WCD) and both a first network (e.g., IS-2000) supporting voice and data services and a second network (e.g., IS-856) supporting packet data services. The method comprises providing the WCD with a primary transceiver and a secondary receiver for conducting wireless communications in a spatial diversity for the second network traffic or broadcast; disabling the secondary receiver and spatial diversity before a paging slot or 1x system acquisition and synchronization attempts; tuning the secondary receiver to a first network carrier frequency to perform first network activities; and retuning the secondary receiver to a second network carrier frequency for spatial diversity after performing the first network activities. The first network activities may include pilot set maintenance, overhead message maintenance, page match detection, or 1x system acquisition and synchronization attempts.
US08767712B2
A method of forwarding GRE encapsulated messages by a forwarding device. The method comprises the forwarding device setting up a tunnel table entry upon receipt of a GRE encapsulated message, the GRE encapsulated message comprising subnet mask information of a subnet; and sending a response message to the subnet after setting up the tunnel table entry, the response message comprising information informing the subnet of the setting up of said tunnel table entry.
US08767706B2
A user equipment and corresponding method of transmitting symbol by the user equipment in a wireless communication. The user equipment transmits a plurality of symbols to a base station, each symbol including a cyclic prefix and a data part. The method includes: receiving a timing adjustment command from the base station, the timing adjustment command advancing a transmission timing of symbol after a predetermined time; and transmitting a timing adjusted symbol to the base station. A length of the timing adjusted symbol is varied so that the timing adjusted symbol does not include an overlapping part with a previous symbol.
US08767703B2
A method of polling in a wireless communications system includes prohibiting polling within a predetermined period and triggering a poll function while polling is prohibited. After the predetermined period has expired the method determines that there are no protocol data units (PDUs) scheduled for transmission or re-transmission and that the poll function was triggered by a “Every Poll_PDU PDU” trigger, and selects a PDU to schedule for re-transmission to fulfill the poll function.
US08767702B2
A method and apparatus for allocating subcarriers in an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) system is described. In one embodiment, the method comprises allocating at least one diversity cluster of subcarriers to a first subscriber and allocating at least one coherence cluster to a second subscriber.
US08767682B2
In a cellular communications network comprising a plurality of transmitting sites wherein each transmitting site comprises at least one antenna, a method of serving a given data stream to a target-mobile terminal, comprising: designating at least two of the plurality of transmitting sites as cooperating sites; assigning tones to each transmitting site from a sub-band associated with the cooperating sites; dividing the data stream into at least two sub-data streams, each of the sub-data streams for transmission over selected tones; and interlacing tones of the cooperating sites in accordance with a selected one of a time switching and a frequency switching transmit diversity technique.
US08767658B2
A method for sending uplink scheduling grant signaling and a base station, applied in an Advanced Long Term Evolution (LTE-A) system, the method includes: a base station, according to a number of clusters occupied with non-consecutive resource allocation by a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) of a scheduled user equipment in a component carrier, configuring at least one uplink scheduling grant signaling for the user equipment, wherein each uplink scheduling grant signaling indicates an allocation of resource for one or two clusters occupied by the PUSCH; and the base station allocating a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) for each uplink scheduling grant signaling, and sending the uplink scheduling grant signaling to the user equipment. The flexibility of the resource allocation in the case of multiple clusters is enhanced, meanwhile the reliability of transmission of the scheduling grant signaling is ensured.
US08767656B2
QoS channels for multimedia services on a general purpose operating system platform using data cards
A SIP (session initiation protocol) service activation abstraction layer that provides a unified interface to upper layer applications for discovering, establishing, and managing the QoS connectivity. In one implementation, this is IP Multimedia Subsystem-centric, further supporting applications that utilize SIP for session control. This capability extends to the data card universe allowing UMTS data card vendors to establish concurrent QoS-based sessions using multiple primary PDP (packet data protocol) contexts based on a set of SIP triggers, further allowing applications running on a computing system to transparently utilize the established pipes based on the individual QoS requirements.
US08767654B2
A method and apparatus for signaling the release of a persistent resource in long term evolution (LTE) are disclosed. An indication of the release of a downlink (DL) persistent resource is received by a wireless transmit receive unit (WTRU) from an evolved Node-B (eNB) via a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). A positive acknowledgement (ACK) is transmitted by the WTRU which denotes that the indication has been received. The PDCCH or a medium access control (MAC) CE may be used by the eNB to signal the indication. At least one bit may be added to contents of the PDCCH to signal whether the PDCCH is for DL persistent or dynamic resource allocation. The DL persistent resource is then released and an indication that the DL persistent resource has been released is transmitted.
US08767644B2
In one aspect of the disclosed teachings, associating a plurality of contention-based uplink grants with a range of uplink resource blocks allows one contention-based uplink grant message to signal the entire plurality of grants. As an example in the LTE context, the signaling load on the PDCCH is reduced by using a single contention-based uplink grant message to signal a plurality of contention-based uplink grants. The message indicates an allocated set of uplink resource blocks and the number of separate uplink resource grants represented by the set is known or signaled, such that user terminals recognize that separate subsets of uplink resource blocks within the set each correspond to a separate contention-based uplink grant. Information included in the contention-based uplink grant message, or otherwise signaled can be used to control the probability at which the user terminals attempt contention-based uplink transmissions and/or to control the MCS used for such transmissions.
US08767640B2
A method of communication includes allocating a portion of a superframe centralized contention based period where the access method is based on directional ALOHA. The centralized contention based period is divided into equal time slots, and each sequential set of N time slots forms a time cycle. During a time cycle, a wireless device listens for requests from other wireless devices while it changes its receiving direction from one time slot to another.
US08767636B2
A basic idea is to determine scheduling priorities of users based on information representative of experienced end-to-end quality of user communication in an overall network, and allocate communication resources in a wireless sub-network (100; 200) of the overall network to users based on the determined scheduling priorities. For example, the sub-network (100; 200) may be a wireless access network within an overall network, and end-to-end quality information related to the overall network may then be taken into account in the local scheduling procedure in the access network.
US08767629B2
A method for triggering a terminal to send a sounding reference signal includes: obtaining requirement information of measurement, where the requirement information includes a position and a bandwidth of a frequency hand to be measured; selecting a resource for a terminal from at least two preset resource patterns according to the requirement information, where multiple types of resource information are preset in each resource pattern of the at least two preset resource patterns to indicate a resource; and triggering the terminal to utilize the selected resource to send, a sounding reference signal.
US08767607B2
When one node has information to transmit to a group of nodes using a parameterized quality of service (PQoS) transmission, a broadcast flow is created rather than creating a multicast flow, which is not available. While the flow is created as a broadcast flow, if the flow is to be directed to less than all of the nodes on the network, then the flow will be considered a Multicast PQoS flow. The broadcast flow is created using a process that is known as a “PQoS Create Flow” transaction.
US08767606B2
A method of transmitting and receiving control information in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method of receiving control information related to a specific point-to-multipoint service in a user equipment of a wireless communication system comprises receiving a notification message including indication information and an identifier identifying the point-to-multipoint service from a network, the indication information indicating at least one downlink channel related to the specific point-to-multipoint service among a plurality of downlink channels established for transmission of control information for at least one or more point-to-multipoint service, and receiving at least one downlink channel indicated by the indication information.
US08767601B2
A device for communicating in a wireless network, such as, for example, a non-AP STA, is adapted to send a trigger frame to an AP for group-addressed frames. In addition, an AP may be adapted to be triggered for group-addressed frames to deliver the group-addressed frame to a non-AP STA. The group-addressed frames could include data frames or management frames or both. Such a device or non-AP STA can advantageously stay in a power save mode until it is ready to wake up to send a trigger frame to the AP, and does not need to wake up at regular intervals, such as at every DTIM time interval, to listen for beacons from the AP and to receive any group-addressed frames destined for it and buffered at the AP. In this way, the battery life of the device may be extended.
US08767600B2
There is provided a protocol for a power save mode (PSM) in a direct link setup wireless network. In an aspect of the present invention, among first and second stations between which a direct link has been set up, the first station trying to enter the PSM transmits a request message, including schedule information necessary for communication with the second station, to the second station. The second station transmits a response message, including a status code indicating whether it accepts the schedule information or not, to the first station in response to the request message. If the status code indicates that the second station accepts the schedule information, the first station may transmit an MPDU whose power save bit is set to ‘1’ to the second station and then enter the PSM. However, if the status code indicates unacceptability, modified schedule information may be included in the response message.
US08767598B2
In embodiments, a transmitting device sends a time reference field to a receiving device when indicating that no more frames will be sent to the receiving device. The time reference informs the receiving device of the length of time that the transmitting device has committed not to transmit to the receiving device. When operating in conformance with the ECMA-368 standard, the time reference allows the transmitting device to control the length of the commitment period after the MORE FRAMES bit is set to zero. In this way, the commitment not to transmit may be made for a shorter time than the time until the beginning of the following Distributed Reservation Protocol (DRP) reservation block or the time to the beginning of the following superframe. The time reference may be added in the Medium Access Control header or included in a vendor-specific message, for example.
US08767597B2
A wireless communication apparatus includes a wireless communication device for multiplexing communication channels according to a predetermined method for carrying out wireless communication with a terminal, and carrying out communication with the terminal; and a control device for providing a plurality of program executing environments corresponding to the respective communication channels to operate in parallel or a in multitask manner, wherein, in each of the program executing environment, a process for providing a virtual wireless communication device interface corresponding to a corresponding communication channel and for carrying out Media Access control for communication via the virtual wireless communication device interface is executed, and the control device causes only the program being executed in the program executing environment to carry out communication via a virtual wireless communication device interface provided by the program being executing in the program executing environment.
US08767596B2
A user equipment and method for contention-based uplink access to a base station. Contention-based configuration data identifies multiple contention-based access zones along with minimum power headroom values for each contention-based access zone. The user equipment devices can randomly select a demodulation reference signal parameter value when transmitting on a selected contention-based access zone.
US08767578B2
In an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)-based wireless mesh network, a communication node receives information regarding a next transmission time of a 1-hop node and a 2-hop node through the 1-hop node, calculates next transmission intervals of the 1-hop node and the 2-hop node, determines a next transmission time of the communication node by using the next transmission intervals of the 1-hop node and the 2-hop node, and then transmits, to an 1-hop node of the communication node, the information of the next transmission time together with the information of the transmission time of the 1-hop node, received from the 1-hop node.
US08767574B2
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for estimating a received signal power of a first transmission channel at a receiving node in a communications system wherein a received signal comprises information transmitted by a transmitting node over at least two transmission channels. The received signal power of a second of the at least two transmission channels is measured, and together with an estimate of the relationship between the transmission power of the second transmission channel and the transmission power of the first transmission channel; the measurement of the received signal power is used in estimating the received signal power of the first transmission channel.
US08767569B2
A communications interface between an end-user and an edge node of a communication network for establishing, prior to data transmission, the differentiated service code points supported by the network. The end-user first issues a service request message (42) to an edge node of the communication network. The edge node responds with an acknowledgement message (44) carrying information as to which DSCP's the network is able to support. Finally, the application at the end-user can decide how to mark the relevant packets during data transmission depending on the levels of differentiated service supported by the network.
US08767559B2
Disclosed is a determination device provided with: a determination unit for determining whether or not a received frame is a predetermined specific frame; an error detection unit for detecting errors in relation to the frame; a disposal unit for disposing of the frame when an error is detected in relation to the frame and the frame is not the specific frame; and a rewriting unit for rewriting code for detecting errors in relation to the specific frame, in accordance with the state of the current frame.
US08767556B2
Systems and methods for configuring a network of radios for dynamic spectrum access are described. A network radio can include hardware and/or software modules for detecting a radio environment and negotiating common communications channels with a plurality of other radios in the network. Network radio behavior can be defined by a plurality of predefined policies which are used in combination with the information about the radio environment to select common operating parameters.
US08767554B2
Methods and systems for optimizing bandwidth utilization in an in-home network may include determining usage and/or quality of communication links operating in accordance with first and second communication protocols in a multi-protocol wired and wireless network. Data communication may be routed from a first communication link operating in accordance with the first communication protocol to a second communication link operating in accordance with the second communication protocol, based on the determining. The first communication protocol may include a wired communication standard and the second communication protocol may include a wireless communication standard. The determining and routing may be performed by a network controller. The rerouting may increase bandwidth usage efficiency and/or data throughput of the network. The determining and rerouting may be performed dynamically.
US08767553B2
A method includes receiving non-elastic traffic into a cellular network serving users; varying long-term dissatisfaction of the users with dynamic resource allocations during traffic overload of the cellular network, the long term dissatisfaction being measured by at least one of a function of number of times a user from the users receives bad quality of service and a level of deterioration of quality of service to the user; and influencing number of satisfied users of the cellular network responsive to the varying of long-term dissatisfaction.
US08767548B1
A method of adapting wireless transmission rates that includes the steps of determining at least a short-term loss ratio for wireless communication during a window of time, and adapting a transmission rate responsive to at least the short-term loss ratio, a maximum tolerable loss threshold for the communication during the window, and an opportunistic rate increase threshold for the communication during the window. A size of the window, the maximum tolerable loss threshold, and the opportunistic rate increase threshold are responsive to the transmission rate used for the communication. Preferably, the window is re-started if the transmission rate changes. Also, systems, devices, and memories that embody the foregoing.
US08767541B2
Various traffic management techniques may be employed in a multi-hop wireless communication system. For example, a decision to transmit data to another node may be based on whether that node is able to effectively transmit its data. A decision to transmit an interference management message may be based on the amount of data a parent node may transmit. A decision to transmit an interference management message may be based on how effectively data is being transmitted. A weight may be assigned for an interference management message based on a traffic scheduling policy.
US08767539B2
Systems and methods provide for performing admission control in a communications network. The method includes: receiving a request for an entity or service for admission to the communications network; calculating resources, wherein the step of calculating resources includes: estimating a first future resource use for current entities and services in the communications network; and estimating a second future resource use for the entity or service received in the request; determining admission to the communications network of the received request based at least in part on the step of calculating resources; and using a partitionable booking window, if admission is allowed for the received request, for booking the first and second future resource uses based at least in part on the step of calculating resources.
US08767537B1
A method and apparatus for managing wireless devices on an aircraft. A map for a number of wireless devices on the aircraft is generated. The number of wireless devices is identified in a profile. A risk for the number of wireless devices on the aircraft is identified during operation of the aircraft using state information for the aircraft and the profile. Access to a wireless network on the aircraft by the number of wireless devices is managed based on the risk identified for the number of wireless devices.
US08767534B2
A method for controlling the transmission of data via data connections associated with different applications, by means of a transmission medium in a local network having at least two stations for data transmission. Different priorities and different parameters characterizing a quality of service are associated with the applications. The establishment, by a first station, of a new data connection associated with a first application is limited according to the available free channel capacity of the transmission medium and the use of the transmission medium by existing data connections having associated applications containing a priority corresponding to the first application.
US08767531B2
A communications link of multiple parallel communications lines includes at least one redundant line. In a first aspect, the lines are periodically recalibrated one at a time while the others carry functional data. If a fault is detected, the faulty line is disabled and the remaining previously calibrated lines transmit functional data. In a second aspect, impending line malfunction is detected from anomalies during calibration. In a third aspect, line malfunction is detected from receiver circuit output by determining a logical lane upon which each detected error occurs, and by mapping the logical lane to a physical line currently carrying the logical lane data.
US08767525B2
A method and apparatus is provided for transmitting an orthogonal frequency domain multiple access (OFDMA) signal including a synchronization channel signal transmitted within a localized portion of a bandwidth of the OFDMA signal, the synchronization channel signal having predetermined time domain symmetry within the localized portion of the bandwidth and including information for providing at least partial cell identification information. The synchronization channel signal enables an initial acquisition and cell search method with low computational load which provides OFDMA symbol timing detection and frequency error detection and frame boundary detection and cell specific information detection in an OFDMA system supporting multiple system bandwidths, both synchronized and un-synchronized systems, a large cell index and an OFDMA symbol structure with both short and long cyclic prefix length.
US08767522B2
In a broadband wireless communication system, a spread spectrum signal is intentionally overlapped with an OFDM signal, in a time domain, a frequency domain, or both. The OFDM signal, which inherently has a high spectral efficiency, is used for carrying broadband data or control information. The spread spectrum signal, which is designed to have a high spread gain for overcoming severe interference, is used for facilitating system functions such as initial random access, channel probing, or short messaging. Methods and techniques are devised to ensure that the mutual interference between the overlapped signals is minimized to have insignificant impact on either signal and that both signals are detectable with expected performance by a receiver.
US08767519B2
An information recording medium in which bottoms of a guide groove and a pit array formed on a disc substrate are allocated on a same flat plane and shaped in flat. Further, in a transition area from a pit array to a guide groove or from a guide groove to a pit array, the information recording medium is provided with an intermediate area composed of a pit array of which height changes from a height between a bottom and a side of a groove to another height between the bottom and a side of the pit array.
US08767514B2
Implementations of a cMUT have a telemetric antenna operative to telemetrically transmit an output signal generated by the cMUT in reception mode (RX). The cMUT generates the output signal by converting a received energy applied on the cMUT. The received energy may be an acoustic wave or a low-frequency pressure signal. The acoustic wave may be generated by a separate acoustic energy source. The cMUT may form a modulated signal using a carrier signal modulated with the output signal, and telemetrically transmit the modulated signal carrying the output signal to increase efficiency. The antenna may also receive an input signal from outside to telemetrically power on the cMUT.
US08767511B2
A method for the global acoustic positioning of the USBL or SBL type of a marine or submarine target is more accurate than the method used by known USBL or SBL systems, while applying a network of sensors having the same material dimensions as those of these known systems. The method makes use of the movements of the network of sensors to apply principles of the processings by synthetic antenna. The principle of the synthetic antenna transposed to the present problem consists in using the signals received by the hydrophones of a physical antenna placed on a moveable platform at K different moments in succession, and therefore at K locations in succession in order to provide an estimate of the position of the beacon by virtue of an antenna of virtually greater dimensions.
US08767505B2
A method for conducting seismic operations includes the steps of deploying a seismic streamer carrying an electrically powered device from a vessel into water having waves, providing an in-sea generator in electrical connection with the device, producing electricity from the in-sea generator by harvesting mechanical energy from the waves, and providing the produced electricity to the device.
US08767501B2
Associative index extended (AIX) caches can be functionally implemented through a reconfigurable decoder that employs programmable line decoding. The reconfigurable decoder features scalability in the number of lines, the number of index extension bits, and the number of banks. The reconfigurable decoder can switch between pure direct mapped (DM) mode and direct mapped-associative index extended (DM-AIX) mode of operation. For banked configurations, the reconfigurable decoder provides the ability to run some banks in DM mode and some other banks in DM-AIX mode. A cache employing this reconfigurable decoder can provide a comparable level of latency as a DM cache with minimal modifications to a DM cache circuitry of an additional logic circuit on a critical signal path, while providing low power operation at low area overhead with SA cache-like miss rates. Address masking and most-recently-used-save replacement policy can be employed with a single bit overhead per line.
US08767486B2
The output driver circuit includes a plurality of pull-up sub-drivers that pull up a voltage at the output terminal according to a pull-up signal based on the output data. The output driver circuit includes a plurality of pull-down sub-drivers that pull down the voltage at the output terminal according to a pull-down signal based on the output data. Selection from among the pull-up sub-drivers is made by an assigned pull-up calibration signal and selection from among the pull-down sub-drivers by an assigned pull-down calibration signal so as to make a pull-up current drivability and a pull-down current drivability for the voltage at the output terminal equal. A timing of turning on of the pull-up sub-drivers is calibrated by the pull-down calibration signal. A timing of turning on of the pull-down sub-drivers is calibrated by the pull-up calibration signal.
US08767485B1
A supply voltage generation circuit includes a comparison unit, a voltage level control unit and a voltage regulator circuit. Comparison unit is configured to compare input data and output data of a memory array to each other and thereby generating a comparison result, wherein output data are storage data stored in a plurality of memory units of memory array processed by a program operation according to input data, and the comparison result indicates the number of different bits existing between the output data and the input data. Voltage level control unit is configured to generate a control signal according to the comparison result. Voltage regulator circuit is configured to provide a supply voltage for the memory array and adjust the value of the supply voltage according to the control signal. A memory and an operation method of a supply generation circuit used for a memory array are also provided.
US08767483B2
Electronic apparatus and fabrication of the electronic apparatus that includes detection of the majority of values in a plurality of data bits may be used in a variety of applications. Embodiments include application of majority bit detection to process data bits in a device for further analysis in the device based on the results of the majority bit detection. In an embodiment, such further processing in a memory device after majority bit detection may include data bit inversion prior to outputting the data from the memory device.
US08767468B2
Provided are a nonvolatile memory device and a read method of the same. The read method applying one of a plurality of unselected read voltages to unselected wordlines adjacent to a selected word line. The voltage applied to the unselected word lines being based on which of a plurality of selected read voltages is applied to the selected wordline.
US08767467B2
Memory devices and methods are disclosed, including a method involving erasing a block of memory cells. After erasing the block, and before subsequent programming of the block, a number of bad strings in the block are determined based on charge accumulation on select gate transistors. The block is retired from use if the number of bad strings exceeds a threshold. Additional embodiments are disclosed.
US08767465B2
A nonvolatile memory device and method of manufacturing the same are provided. In the nonvolatile memory device, a blocking insulation layer is provided between a trap insulation layer and a gate electrode. A fixed charge layer spaced apart from the gate electrode is provided in the blocking insulation layer. Accordingly, the reliability of the nonvolatile memory device is improved.
US08767464B2
A semiconductor memory device, having a memory array which has two memory banks which can be accessed simultaneously is provided. A word line selection circuit selects the word line according to the row address information, and a controller controls the word line selection circuit according to the received instruction. The controller performs the first read operation of the word line selection circuit in response to a first read command, and performs the second read operation of the word line selection circuit in response to a second read command. The first read operation selects the n-th word line of one of the memory banks and selects the (n+1)-th or (n−1)-th word line of the other memory bank, and the second read operation selects the n-th word line of one of the memory banks and selects the n-th word line of the other memory bank.
US08767461B2
A method and system for extending the life span of a flash memory device. The flash memory device is dynamically configurable to store data in the single bit per cell (SBC) storage mode or the multiple bit per cell (MBC) mode. In the MBC storage mode, the cell can have one of multiple possible states, where each state is defined by respective threshold voltage ranges. In the SBC mode, the cell can have states with threshold voltages corresponding to states of the MBC storage mode which are non-adjacent to each other to improve reliability characteristics of the cell.
US08767458B2
Multi-port semiconductor memory cells including a common floating body region configured to be charged to a level indicative of a memory state of the memory cell. The multi-port semiconductor memory cells include a plurality of gates and conductive regions interfacing with said floating body region. Arrays of memory cells and method of operating said memory arrays are disclosed for making a memory device.
US08767456B2
An apparatus and associated method for a multi-bit memory capable of being selected with a magnetic layer. Various embodiments of the present invention are generally directed to a first selection layer with a low coercivity that is disposed between first and second storage layers that each have a high coercivity. In response to magnetic saturation of the first selection layer, programming of a logical state to the second storage layer is allowed.
US08767451B2
An internal voltage generating circuit includes a divided voltage generator configured to generate a divided voltage by dividing a feedback internal voltage level at a division ratio corresponding to an operation mode control signal, a voltage detector configured to detect a level of the divided voltage based on a reference voltage level, an internal voltage generator configured to receive a supply voltage as power source and generate the internal voltage in response to an output signal of the voltage detector, and an under-driving unit configured to under-drive an internal voltage terminal to a supply voltage in an under-driving operation region that is determined in response to the operation mode control signal.
US08767447B2
A method of storing a bit at a memory device is disclosed. A memory cell the memory device is formed of a germanium-deficient chalcogenide glass configured to alternate between an amorphous phase and a crystalline phase upon application of a selected voltage, wherein a drift coefficient of the germanium-deficient chalcogenide glass is less than a drift coefficient of an undoped chalcogenide glass. A voltage is applied to the formed memory cell to select one of the amorphous phase and the crystalline phase to store the bit.
US08767446B2
A magneto resistive random access memory system includes a first magnetic-tunnel-junction device coupled to a first bit-line, a second magnetic-tunnel-junction device coupled to a second bit-line, a selection transistor coupled to the first and second bit-lines and a word-line coupled to the selection transistor.
US08767436B2
A method for non-destructive reading of logic data stored in a memory includes applying to a first wordline a reading voltage so as not to cause a variation of the stable state of polarization of a layer of ferroelectric material, and generating a difference of potential between first and second bitlines. An output current is generated comparing the output current with a plurality of comparison values, and determining the logic value of the logic data to be read on the basis of the comparison.
US08767435B1
In one embodiment of the invention, there is provided a method for operating a magnetic memory device. The method comprises selecting a subset of magnetic memory cells of the magnetic memory device; applying a first programming voltage to the selected subset of cells for a predetermined amount of time, wherein the programming voltage is selected to exceed a threshold operating voltage thereby to cause irreversible breakdown of the subset of cells; and reading selected cells of the magnetic memory device by passing a read current through a diode connected in series with each magnetic memory cell.
US08767432B1
An apparatus for applying Oersted fields to a magnetic memory device comprises a first metal layer; a first insulating layer positioned on the first metal layer; a magnetic shift register wire positioned on the first insulating layer; a second insulating layer positioned on the magnetic shift register wire; a second metal layer positioned on the second insulating layer; a first conducting wire positioned in the first metal layer and extending transverse to the magnetic shift register wire; and a second conducting wire positioned in the second metal layer and extending transverse to the magnetic shift register wire. The first conducting wire is offset relative to the second conducting wire, the offset being defined by a distance between a first axis normal to the magnetic shift register wire and through the first conducting wire and a second axis normal to the magnetic shift register wire and through the second conducting wire.
US08767421B2
Processes, machines, and articles of manufacture that may management power conversion as provided. This may include circuit topology or management that serves to improve power conversion efficiency from a DC waveform to an AC waveform. This circuit topology or management may include considering and managing the voltage across a DC-link capacitive bus and the phase angle output of an AC waveform in order to influence or improve power conversion characteristics or efficiency.
US08767379B2
A recreational vehicle user interface (RVUI) system/method that allows centralized control and monitoring of electrical/environmental subsystems within the context of a recreational vehicle is disclosed. The system/method permits monitoring of a wide variety of electrical/environmental subsystems in this context, including but not limited to battery temperatures, battery voltages, overall system voltages, battery disconnect relays, vent fans, solar panels, cabin temperatures, battery temperature alarms, power converter modules, temperature sensitive power converters, load management controllers, AC distribution controllers, transfer switches, AC/generator inputs, storage tank levels, pumps, and other electrical loads. The system/method may be optionally configured to wirelessly communicate with a mobile device using a variety of customizable mobile user interface applications, and/or be configured to support a universal control/sensor motherboard that mates to a customizable user interface daughterboard with associated custom display/control indicia bezel/panel or integrated touch screen display/control.
US08767365B2
A protection circuit includes an electronic switch and a comparator. The comparator includes a positive input connected to a first power supply, a negative input connected to an output power supply, and an output connected to a first terminal of the electronic switch through a first resistor. A second terminal of the electronic switch is connected to a device. A third terminal of the electronic switch is connected to the output power supply. When a voltage on the positive input is greater than a voltage on the negative input, the comparator outputs a high level signal to turn on the electronic switch, the output power supply powers the device. When the voltage on the positive input is less than the voltage on the negative input, the comparator outputs a low level signal to turn off the electronic switch, the output power supply does not power the device.
US08767359B2
An ESD protection circuit and method for its use are provided. The circuit comprising: a discharge path formed by first and second NMOS transistors which are sequentially connected between a ground and a power supply; an ESD event detection unit; first and second drive units respectively connected between an output of the ESD event detection unit and a gate of the first transistor and between the output of the ESD event detection unit and a gate of the second transistor. The first and second drive units respectively cause the first and second transistors to be turned on during an ESD event and to be turned off when there is no ESD event.
US08767358B2
An apparatus 2 comprising a cryogenic chamber 4 and a galvanic input interface 6 to the cryogenic chamber 4 configured to receive a lower amplitude electric current 8. A converter 10 is located within the cryogenic chamber 4 and configured to convert the lower amplitude electric current 8, provided by the galvanic input interface 6, to a higher amplitude electric current 12 for supply to a load 14 within the cryogenic chamber 4. A controller 16 is configured to control the converter 10 and to detect the onset of quench by comparing the duration of the charge/discharge cycle of the convertor with a stored value. The controller 16 may also compare an instantaneous value of load current with a stored value of load current.
US08767352B2
A suspension board with circuit includes a conductive pattern, including a slider arranged on a surface side of the suspension board with circuit and mounted with a magnetic head, the magnetic head being electrically connected with the conductive pattern; and a light emitting device arranged on the back surface side of the suspension board with circuit and electrically connected with the conductive pattern, in which the conductive pattern includes a first terminal provided on a surface of the suspension board with circuit and electrically connected with the magnetic head; and a second terminal provided on the back surface of the suspension board with circuit and electrically connected with the light emitting device.
US08767343B1
A disk drive is disclosed comprising a disk comprising a plurality of data tracks, a head, and control circuitry comprising a servo control system operable to actuate the head over the disk. When an access command is received to access a target data track, a seek operation is initiated to seek the head toward the target data track, wherein the seek operation includes integrating a first state of the servo control system and limiting an output range of the integrating. The output range of the integrating is increased during the seek operation, for example, if an error occurs during the seek operation.
US08767341B1
Disk drives are described that include a hybrid servo patterns in which the augmented servo burst fields, which can be Integrated Servo sequences, that provide the PES and also supply additional information such as a SAM, LSBs of the track identifier (TID), sector number, depending on the specific embodiment. Embodiments without write-to-read gaps before the servo sector SIDs are described. The augmented servo burst fields can be read after gapless writing of the preceding data area. For seeking operations the needed bits of the TID without having to detect or decode the Integrated Servo sequences or other augmented servo burst fields. Depending on the embodiment all or the most significant bits of the track identifier can be obtained during seeks by reading the TID fields passing under a read head as the read head moves across tracks without having to detect or decode the Integrated Servo sequences.
US08767338B2
A magnetic head slider is disclosed. The magnetic head slider includes a slider substrate and a laminated magnetic head element on the slider substrate. Additionally, the laminated magnetic head element includes a magnetoresistance effect element and a recording magnetic pole formed in a layer higher than the magnetoresistance effect element. A first thin-film resistor heater element is formed in a position further from an air bearing surface than the magnetoresistance effect element and the magnetic recording pole and a second film resistor heater element is formed in a layer lower than the first thin-film resistor heater element, and closer to the air bearing surface and the magnetoresistance effect element than the first heater element. A thin-film resistor sensor element is formed in a layer higher than the second thin-film heater element and closer to the air bearing surface than the second heater element.
US08767334B2
In one embodiment, a system includes a library manager for communicating with a plurality of logical libraries having data organized therein and stored on sequential access media therein, wherein the library manager controls movement operations of a plurality of shuttle cars along one or more shuttle pathways, wherein each of the shuttle cars are for transporting a sequential access medium between any of the plurality of logical libraries, wherein each of the logical libraries comprises at least one local station for sending and/or receiving shuttle cars to and/or from the plurality of logical libraries, wherein the one or more shuttle pathways connect the stations in a multi-drop arrangement, wherein each destination station is represented by a unique export-only address, and wherein all source stations are represented by a common import-only address. Other systems, methods, and computer program products are also described according to various embodiments.
US08767332B1
A disk drive is disclosed comprising a disk, a head, and control circuitry comprising a servo control system operable to actuate the head over the disk. A vibration signal VS(k) is measured representing a disturbance in the servo control system. A first future value of the vibration signal VS(k) is predicted based on: VS1(k+1)=α1[VS(k)−VS(k−1)]+VS(k) where α1 is a first scalar corresponding to a first frequency range. A second future value of the vibration signal VS(k) is predicted based on: VS2(k+1)=α2[VS(k)−VS(k−1)]+VS(k) where α2 is a second scalar corresponding to a second frequency range different from the first frequency range.
US08767327B1
A heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) disk drive has a laser, a transducer coupled to the laser and a rotatable disk. The disk has a recording layer with concentric or spiral data tracks, servo sectors extending across the tracks, a laser power gap adjacent each servo sector, and data sectors between the laser power gaps and the servo sectors. The servo sector preceding the first data sector to be written and the servo sector following the last data sector to be written are identified. Any old data in the data sectors between said first and last servo sectors is acquired, and the old and new data is combined. The laser is turned on when the laser power gap adjacent the first servo sector rotates past the transducer. The combined old and new data is then written in all of the data sectors continuously between said first and last servo sectors.
US08767326B2
Magnetoresistive (MR) bias is dynamically controlled in a tape drive using a processor device. Upon determining head amplitude is below a threshold value, the MR bias is adjusted for increasing the head amplitude and extending the useful life span of the tape drive.
US08767325B2
The data recording apparatus for recording data to a recording medium having one or more tracks arranged in parallel comprises a data recorder configured to record data to the one or more tracks, a memory configured to store data, and a controller configured to control the data recorder. The controller determines whether or not the one or more tracks include a data defective region in which the data has not been recorded properly, stores in the memory the data that has not been recorded properly, designates a position corresponding to the data defective region, which is in a track arranged in parallel to the data defective region, and reads from the memory the data that has not been recorded properly, and records that data to the position corresponding to the data defective region.
US08767320B2
An endoscope optical system, including a front group and a rear group arranged in this order from an object side such that an aperture stop is arranged between the front and rear groups, wherein the front group includes a negative lens and a positive lens arranged in this order from the object side, the rear group includes a positive lens and a cemented lens arranged in this order from the object side, and when f (unit: mm) denotes a focal length of an entire endoscope optical system, EX (unit: mm) denotes a distance (which takes a minus sign on the object side with respect to an image plane) from the image plane to an exit pupil, and f2 (unit: mm) denotes a focal length of the rear group, the endoscope optical system satisfies conditions: −10
US08767319B2
The disclosed internal focusing large-aperture medium telephoto lens has as lens groups a positive first lens group, a positive second lens group, and a third lens group, in that order from the object side. When focusing on nearby objects, the first lens group and the third lens group have a fixed position relative to the image surface, and the second lens group displaces toward the object side. The second lens group has only one negative lens, and, in order from the object side, has at least a positive lens, a negative lens, and a positive lens. The following expression is fulfilled: −0.5<(R1+R2)(R1−R2)<−0.1 (wherein, R1: radius of curvature of the object side surface of the negative lens in the second lens group; R2: radius of curvature of the image side surface of the negative lens in the second lens group).
US08767316B2
An optical imaging lens includes, from an object side to an image side, an aperture stop, first, second, third, fourth, and fifth lens elements. The first lens element has a positive refracting power, its object-side surface has a convex portion in a vicinity of an optical axis, and its image-side surface has a concave portion in the vicinity of the optical axis. The second lens element has a negative refracting power, and its image-side surface is concave. The fourth lens element has a convex image-side surface. The object-side surface of the fifth lens element has a convex portion in the vicinity of the optical axis, and the image-side surface of the fifth lens element has a concave portion in the vicinity of the optical axis.
US08767315B2
An optical image capturing system includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens element, a second lens element, a third lens element, a fourth lens element, a fifth lens element, a sixth lens element and a seventh lens element. The first lens element with positive refractive power has a convex object-side surface. The second through seventh lens elements all have refractive power. The sixth lens element has an object-side surface and an image-side surface which are both aspheric. The seventh lens element has an object-side surface and an image-side surface which are both aspheric, its wherein the image-side surface of the seventh lens element changes from concave at a paraxial region thereof to convex at a peripheral region thereof.
US08767314B2
A zoom lens and a photographing device including the zoom lens, the zoom lens including a first lens group having a negative refractive power, a second lens group having a positive refractive power, and a third lens group having a positive refractive power, which are sequentially arranged in the direction from an object side to an image side. During zooming from a wide angle position to a telephoto position, an interval between the first lens group and the second lens group decreases, and an interval between the second lens group and the third lens group increases. The first lens group comprises a first lens, a second lens being a negative lens formed of plastic, and a third lens being a positive lens formed of plastic. Therefore, the zoom lens is compact and low-priced and has a high magnification.
US08767308B2
The present invention relates generally to an arcuate liquid meniscus lens with a meniscus wall. Some specific embodiments include a liquid meniscus lens with a meniscus wall essentially a conical frustum and at least a portion of the conical frustum concave in relation to the optical axis. An application of an electrical current to the meniscus wall provides for a increase in negative power in an optical quality provided by the liquid meniscus lens. Embodiments may also include a lens of suitable size and shape for inclusion in a contact lens.
US08767303B2
A device comprises at least one optics member (O) comprising at least one transparent portion (t) and at least one blocking portion (b). The at least one transparent portion (t) is made of one or more materials substantially transparent for light of at least a specific spectral range, referred to as transparent materials, and the at least one blocking portion (b) is made of one or more materials substantially non-transparent for light of the specific spectral range, referred to as non-transparent materials. The transparent portion (t) comprises at least one passive optical component (L). The at least one passive optical component (L) comprises a transparent element (6) having two opposing approximately flat surfaces substantially perpendicular to a vertical direction in a distance approximately equal to a thickness of the at least one blocking portion (b) measured along the vertical direction, and, attached to the transparent element (6), at least one optical structure (5).
US08767294B2
A transmission optic having a transparent sheet with opposing front and back faces and an end face adjacent the front and back faces. The separation between the back face and a nearest point on the front face varies as a conic function of distance along the front face from that point to the end face.
US08767292B2
The present invention relates to a laser apparatus capable of supplying laser beams from each of plural beam emitting ends constituting laser beam output ports, and realizes the overall low power consumption and low non-linearization. The laser apparatus comprises a seed light source, beam emitting ends, an intermediate optical amplifier, an optical branching device, and final-stage optical amplifiers. The number of beam emitting ends is greater than the number of seed light sources, and the final-stage optical amplifiers and the beam emitting ends correspond to each other one-on-one. The optical branching device includes an input port associated to the seed light source and plural output ports associated to the respective beam emitting ends so as to constitute a part of the light paths between the seed light source and the beam emitting ends. The intermediate optical amplifier is disposed on the light path between the seed light source and the optical branching device, while the final-stage optical amplifiers are respectively disposed on the branch lines between the beam emitting ends and the optical branching device.
US08767286B2
A method and apparatus for mode-matching double-clad fibers. In some embodiments, a first fiber section that has a first core, wherein the first core has a first core diameter connects to a mode-field adaptor, wherein the mode-field adaptor includes a first portion having a central volume that has a substantially constant index-of-refraction radial profile and a diameter larger than the first core diameter, and a second portion that has a graded-index (GRIN) central volume, wherein the GRIN central volume has a central axis and a graded index-of-refraction radial profile having an index that gradually decreases at larger distances from its central axis and a length selected to focus light into the core of a second fiber wherein the second core has a diameter that is larger than the first core diameter, and wherein the second fiber section is double clad. Some embodiments are polarized.
US08767279B2
A handheld imaging probe for performing optical coherence tomography is disclosed. The handheld imaging probe includes a lens tube and a housing. The lens tube contains an objective lens and a polycarbonate sheet. The polycarbonate sheet provides a bio-safe contact with a tissue sample to be examined. The housing, which is connected to the lens tube, contains a micromirror for directing a laser beam to irradiate the tissue sample via the objective lens and the polycarbonate sheet.
US08767265B2
First intermediate data is generated from print data and character edge data serving as second intermediate data is generated by extracting edge sections of a character from the print data. A rendering process is applied to the first intermediate data and a dither matrix with a first number of lines is used to apply a pseudo halftone formation process to data after the rendering process to generate a first pseudo-halftone image. A rendering process is applied to the second intermediate data and a dither matrix with a second number of lines greater than the first number of lines is used to apply a pseudo halftone formation process to data after the rendering process to generate a second pseudo-halftone image. A pseudo-halftone image obtained by an OR operation of the first pseudo-halftone image and the second pseudo-halftone image is output.
US08767254B2
Images are prepared for blending with a reflection. Angles of incidence and angles or reflection lead to reflections of a viewer appearing to be different than actual size. Accordingly, image preparation can include scaling images of objects to be blended with a reflection to an appropriate size. For a flat specular surface the size is one half the size the object would be if the object were sized to be associated with the feature that is reflected. A viewer will focus on the reflection of the viewer at an object plane. An image associated with the specular surface will be blurred. Accordingly, the preparation can include compensating for the blurring. Preparation can also include reducing an area coverage of the image of the object to no more than about fifty percent of the region of the refection to provide space for the reflection.
US08767245B2
A method is disclosed. The method includes configuring one or more sets of rules within an input device to route print jobs to a plurality of workflows, receiving a print job at an input device, matching the print job with a first of a plurality of workflows based on a set of rules associated with the first workflow and routing the print job to the first workflow.
US08767243B2
In a proxy device, the processor functions as a requesting unit, and a sending unit. When the receiving unit receives, from the terminal device, reservation data including reservation instruction data that instructs making a reservation to output the image by the outputting device and first outputting-device identification data for identifying the outputting device, and the receiving unit receives, from the outputting device identified by the first outputting-device identification data, first request data that requests image data, the requesting unit transmits, to the terminal device, second request data requesting one of the image data and acquiring data for acquiring the image data. When the receiving unit receives one of the image data and the acquiring data from the terminal device, the sending unit sends one of the image data received from the terminal device and image data acquired based on the acquiring data, to the outputting device.
US08767240B1
A system includes an input module configured to receive a data stream of encoded print data. The data stream includes image file data and a plurality of command operations, the encoded print data corresponds to a page of print data, and each of the command operations corresponds to at least one pixel in a line on the page of print data. An image file decoding module is configured to decode the image file data, store the decoded image file data in a first memory, and store, in the first memory, first identifiers identifying where the decoded image file data is stored. A print data decoding module is configured to receive the command operations and the identifiers, and generate decoded print data based on the command operations, the first identifiers, and the decoded image file data.
US08767237B2
A printing authentication system includes an identification information storage unit, a providing unit and a specifying unit. The identification information storage unit stores, as an identification information set, plural pieces of user identification information given to a same user. If authentication is valid with regard to an authentication request accompanying specific user identification information, the providing unit reads out a specific user identification information set including the specific user identification information from the identification information storage unit and provides the specific user identification information set. If user identification information, associated with print data, of a requester who requests printing of the print data matches any one of the user identification information constituting the specific identification information set, the specifying unit specifies the print data as a printing target.
US08767235B2
An image processing system including a first image forming apparatus that sends fax data, and a second image forming apparatus that receives fax data sent from the first image forming apparatus via a communication link. The system also includes a first information processing apparatus connected to the first image forming apparatus, and which provides the fax data to the first image forming apparatus. The first information processing apparatus may include an identifier adding unit that adds an identifier indicating a process to be performed on the fax data by the second image forming apparatus, and a data sending unit that controls the first image forming apparatus to send the fax data in response to an instruction from the first image forming apparatus.
US08767232B2
An image processing apparatus determines one of a plurality of parameters as a parameter used for line width correction of an image based on a comparison between the images of the straight lines obtained by reading printed straight lines subjected to line width correction using the plurality of parameters and an image of a straight line as a reference image which is to be obtained by reading the straight line printed in a predetermined line width.
US08767231B2
A multi-function apparatus includes a body, an image reading unit, a document cover and a locking member. The image reading unit is movable between a closed position and an opened position. The document cover is movable between a closed position and an opened position. The locking member is movable to a first position and a second position and includes a first engagement portion and a second engagement portion. In response to a movement of the document cover to the opened position, the locking member moves to the first position and locks the image reading unit to the closed position. In response to a movement of the image reading unit to the opened position, the locking member moves to the second position and locks the document cover to the closed position.
US08767227B2
A printer driver acquires capability from a print device to thereby acquire information (difference capability) regarding the difference between capability and a printer driver support function. The printer driver determines a print setting (a print setting to be transmitted) to be processed by the print device and a print setting (a print setting to be applied) to be processed by the printer driver based on the difference capability. When the selected print setting is the print setting to be transmitted, the printer driver transmits the print setting and original data to the print device. When the selected print setting is the print setting to be applied, the printer driver applies the print setting to original data to thereby generate print data.
US08767220B2
A method of calibrating a printing system for positioning at least one printed image, the printing system includes a first image bearing surface, the method includes: a) forming a background pattern and at least three fiducials on the first image bearing surface, wherein the background pattern is larger than a first printed image and the at least three fiducials are within an area formed by the first printed image; b) transferring a portion of the first printed image to a second image bearing surface; c) measuring a first residual image on the first image bearing surface, wherein the first residual image is a portion of the background pattern and the at least three fiducials remaining on the first image bearing surface after the step of transferring; and, d) calculating at least one calibration parameter for the printing system based on the measuring of the first residual image.
US08767212B2
In at least one embodiment, a flow cytometer includes a flow cell defining a sheath flow encompassing a dyed biological particle, a first optical source irradiating first light onto the flow cell, a second optical source irradiating second light onto the flow cell downstream where the first light is irradiated, a first optical detector detecting scattered light or fluorescence from the biological particle to output a first electrical signal corresponding thereto, a plurality of second optical detectors arranged along the flow cell, each of the second optical detectors detecting fluorescence from the biological particle to output a second electrical signal corresponding thereto, and a signal processor summing the second electrical signals output from the plurality of the second optical detectors in a plurality of time windows estimated based upon when the first optical detector detects the scattered light or the fluorescence, thereby to increase the second electrical signals of the fluorescence from the biological particle excited by the second light.
US08767207B2
The present disclosure relates to a system for optical detection of particles arranged in a viewing area suitable for being illuminated by radiation with a predetermined wavelength. The system includes an optical detector, and an assembly of metal plasmonic channels arranged in a single plane of which one end is close enough to the viewing area to allow optical information to be transferred from one end to the other of the channels. The channels are arranged such that the assembly forms an array for transferring optical information around the viewing area. The value of at least one spatial characteristic of the array is respectively lower and higher than the wavelength near the ends of the channels that are respectively close to and far away from the viewing area. The system includes an optical decoupler between the ends that are far away from the viewing area and the optical detector.
US08767204B2
A spectrophotometer 10 includes built-in detector 24 and external detector 32. When a mountable/removable optical path switcher 23a is installed in a specimen chamber 23, measurement based on detection signals from built-in detector 24 is replaced by measurement based on detection signals from external detector 32. The spectrophotometer further includes a measurement data threshold-value storage unit 51 that stores threshold value T for measurement data from built-in detector 24 or external detector 32, and a light-receiving detector recognition unit 52 that recognizes which detector is able to receive the measuring light beam based on the results of a comparison between threshold value T and measurement data from built-in detector 24 or external detector 32 while the measuring light beam is being introduced into specimen chamber 23.
US08767200B2
A luminous flux branching element includes a transparent base member arranged diagonally to an optical axis and having an incidence plane and an emission plane parallel to each other. Incident light from the incidence plane is split into a main luminous flux emitted from an emission position on the emission plane and a branched luminous flux emitted from a branch position apart from the emission position and having a smaller light quantity than of the main luminous flux. A reflecting member is arranged on the incidence plane to cause the incidence plane to reflect reflected light from the emission plane. A non-coat region in which antireflection-treatment is not performed is formed in a region of the emission plane where the incident light from the incidence plane is reached, and antireflection-treatment is performed in the emission plane excluding the non-coat region and the incidence plane.
US08767199B2
An inspection system including a lens. In one instance, the lens is a solid immersion lens. The inspection system includes a component or components for providing a self aligning solid immersion lens arrangement in order to allow at most a small distance between the solid immersion lens and a device under test and components or components for constraining a force exerted on the device under test. The inspection system may include a “purge” port, or a thermal isolation configuration or an anti-contamination component. The inspection system may include software and hardware to prevent crashing of the lens. The inspection system may also include a method for ensuring that various objective lenses can be replaced while maintaining the intended spacing between lenses.
US08767198B2
A detection apparatus comprising a chuck, a probe device, a light-sensing device and a light-concentrating unit is disclosed. The chuck bears light-emitting diode chips. The probe device includes two probes and a power supply. The end point of the probes respectively electrically connects with one of the light-emitting diode chips and the power supply to make the light-emitting diode chip emits a plurality of light beams. The light-sensing device is disposed on one side of a light-emitting surface of the light-emitting diode chip so as to receive the light beams emitted by the light-emitting diode chip. The light-concentrating unit is disposed between the light-emitting diode chip and the light-sensing device to concentrate the light beams emitted by the light-emitting diode chip.
US08767196B2
A method for measuring propagation loss in a plane light guide plate, which includes the following steps of making an input light generated by an input light generator pass through an optical coupler, an optical reflection device individually or pass through the optical coupler first and then the optical reflection device, and finally propagate toward an optical measurement device to obtain at least one optical parameter according to the optical coupler, the optical reflection device or the combination thereof; and making the input light pass through the optical coupler and then the plane light guide plate, and further pass through the plane light guide plate from one side thereof toward the optical reflection device in order to reflect the input light toward the optical measurement device, so as to obtain a propagation loss of the plane light guide plate according to the at least one optical parameter.
US08767189B2
A pair of first gate electrodes IGR, IGL are provided on a semiconductor substrate 100 so that potentials φTX1, φTX2 between a light-sensitive area SA and a pair of first accumulation regions AR, AL alternately ramp. A pair of second gate electrodes IGR, IGL are provided on the semiconductor substrate 100 so as to control the height of first potential barriers φBG each interposed between the first accumulation region AR, AL and a second accumulation region FDR, FDL, and increase the height of the first potential barrier φBG to carriers as a higher output of a background light is detected by a photodetector.
US08767187B2
In one aspect, a method includes representing a range of Doppler frequency offsets as a local oscillator waveform comprising a plurality of digital waveform samples, selecting a portion of the plurality of digital waveform samples using a Doppler value to form an optical heterodyne; and generating a signal associated with a target within a bandwidth of a receiver using the optical heterodyne.
US08767179B2
An imaging method in scanning photolithography includes application of different quantity first and second exposure doses of electromagnetic radiation through a reticle to a photosensitive substrate while scanning across a substrate exposure field along a direction of scan. The first dose spans entirely across the width of the exposure field during the scan and occurs all along the exposure field. The second dose covers less than the entire width of the exposure field during the scan, and is applied at a location spaced along the direction of scan from where the first dose is being applied while the first dose is being applied. Other embodiments are disclosed, including apparatus embodiments.
US08767176B2
A microlithographic projection exposure apparatus has a mirror array having a base body and a plurality of mirror units. Each mirror unit includes a mirror and a solid-state articulation, which has at least one articulation part that connects the mirror to the base body. A control device makes it possible to modify the alignment of the respective mirror relative to the base body. Mutually opposing surfaces of the mirror and of the base body, or of a mirror support body connected to it, are designed as corresponding glide surfaces of a sliding bearing.
US08767169B2
A lithographic apparatus including a fluid handling structure configured to contain immersion fluid in a space adjacent to an upper surface of the substrate table and/or a substrate located in a recess of the substrate table, a cover having a planar main body that, in use, extends around a substrate from the upper surface to a peripheral section of an upper major face of the substrate in order to cover a gap between an edge of the recess and an edge of the substrate, and an immersion fluid film disruptor, configured to disrupt the formation of a film of immersion fluid between an edge of the cover and immersion fluid contained by the fluid handling structure during movement of the substrate table relative to the fluid handling structure.
US08767162B2
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display panel, which can prevent a Mura from forming at the time of physical impact or vibration for improving a display quality. The liquid crystal display panel can include an upper substrate having a plurality of column lines formed thereon, a lower substrate having a plurality of row lines formed thereon perpendicular to the plurality of column lines, a pixel region formed at each crossed region of the plurality of column lines and the plurality of row lines, and column spacers each formed between the upper substrate and the lower substrate for maintaining a cell gap between the upper substrate and the lower substrate, wherein the column spacers formed at a first region of a display region adjacent to a liquid crystal injection have dot shapes.
US08767154B2
A photoalignment method includes irradiating light in a first direction to a first alignment layer, and irradiating light in a second direction opposite the first direction, after disposing a first mask on the first alignment layer.
US08767152B2
A liquid crystal display comprises two parallel spaced substrates and a liquid crystal layer with negative dielectric anisotropy interposed between the substrates. The ratio d/p, the cell gap d between the substrates to the pitch p of the liquid crystal layer, is equal to or less than 0.3, and the retardation value Δn*d may be in the range of 0.25-0.4. In absence of electric field, the liquid crystal molecules are arranged vertically to the substrates, and when the sufficient electric field is applied, the liquid crystal molecules are parallel to the substrates and twisted by 90° from one substrate to the other.
US08767149B2
Provided is a liquid crystal display including a first substrate and a second substrate facing each other, a plurality of pixel electrodes formed on the first substrate and each including a first subpixel electrode and a second subpixel electrode, a common electrode formed on the second substrate, a shielding member formed on the first substrate or the second substrate and overlapping a portion of the first subpixel electrode, an alignment layer formed on at least one of the plurality of pixel electrodes and the common electrode and subjected to photo-alignment, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the first substrate and the second substrate.
US08767148B2
Disclosed herein is a color filter, which includes a first substrate, a patterned color, resist layer, a patterned passivation layer, an adhesive layer and a second substrate. The patterned color resist layer is disposed on the first substrate. The patterned passivation layer is stacked on the patterned color resist layer. The adhesive layer covers the patterned protective layer. The second substrate is disposed on the adhesive layer. A display device having the color filter is disclosed herein as well.
US08767138B2
A vacuum suction control mechanism apparatus is capable of accurately bonding a film to a bonding object with a simple structure. The vacuum suction control mechanism apparatus includes a bonding head including a space defined therein, suction holes attracting a film, the suction holes extending from a surface of the bonding head to the space defined in the bonding head, a movable piece partitioning the space into two regions, the movable piece being movable relative to the bonding head within the space in contact with the suction holes, and a connection portion connectable to a decompression source, the connection portion being provided in a first region of the two regions.
US08767123B2
According to one embodiment, an information processing apparatus includes a display, a connector which outputs a video signal, a display driver which controls output of a video signal to the display and connector, a monitoring unit which monitors whether a partner switches an input from a video signal output from the connector to another video signal, the partner being connected to the connector, and an output switching unit which instructs the display driver to switch the output destination of the video signal from the connector to the display when the monitoring unit detects that the input of the partner is switched to the other video signal.
US08767121B2
A multimedia content conversion apparatus and method, and a multimedia content distribution system are provided. The apparatus includes a storage unit storing original data received from a multimedia content provider, an authentication unit determining whether a viewer is authorized with respect to the original data stored in the storage unit, a decryptor decrypting the original data if it is determined by the authentication unit that the viewer is authorized, and a data combiner combining the original data and the data decrypted by the decryptor. Accordingly, even if several TVs are installed in a home, a viewer can view desired multimedia content through all of the TVs with only one content conversion apparatus. Even when the viewer watches a TV in which the content conversion apparatus is not included, the viewer can view desired multimedia content by changing a channel of a TV which includes the content conversion apparatus. Since the content conversion apparatus provides content of various image standards, the viewer can view desired content regardless of a type of TV being used.
US08767119B2
An interchangeable lens mountable to a camera body, includes a focus lens operable to adjust a focus state of a subject, a driver operable to drive the focus lens by repeatedly performing slight advancing and retreating of the focus lens along an optical axis, a lens-side obtaining unit operable to obtain a control signal for driving the driver from the camera body, and a lens-side transmission unit operable to transmit, to the camera body, information about a direction of slight advancing and retreating operations of the focus lens.
US08767115B2
An auto-focus method includes steps of receiving a first image from an image capturing unit, wherein the first image conforms to a first resolution of the image capturing unit; setting a focus frame in the first image; converting the first image into a second image, wherein the second image conforms to a second resolution of a display unit and the second resolution is smaller than the first resolution; and displaying the second image and the first image within the focus frame in the display unit.
US08767112B2
A device is proposed comprising a display screen for displaying digital information and/or images in a first mode of operation of the device, an image sensor having a set of photosensitive cells for capturing at least one digital image in a second mode of operation, and a control unit for controlling at least one display parameter of the screen in the first mode of operation. The control unit is configured to adjust the parameter on the basis of information representative of the brightness of ambient light obtained from at least a subset of the set of photosensitive cells of the image sensor.
US08767109B2
A solid-state image pickup device includes pixels diagonally arranged, each including a photoelectric conversion unit and a plurality of transistors and wiring extending in the vertical and horizontal directions which is diagonally arranged around the photoelectric conversion unit in each of the pixels so that at least one portion of the wiring is arranged along at least one side of the photoelectric conversion unit.
US08767104B2
An image sensor that has a pixel array section in which pixels are arrayed in a two-dimensional manner in vertical and horizontal directions and that controls an exposure time of each pixel in a rolling shutter method is disclosed. The sensor includes control means for determining an electronic shutter occurrence number within one horizontal scanning period, which is the number of rows where electronic shutters are simultaneously performed in one horizontal scanning period, by an operation based on an address addition amount (P1, P2, P3, . . . , PN) when a vertical address movement amount of the pixel array section for every one horizontal scanning period in an exposure regulation shutter, which is an electronic shutter for regulating exposure, executed corresponding to electric charge reading in each pixel is expressed as repetition of the address addition amount (P1, P2, P3, . . . , PN).
US08767097B2
The present invention discloses an image capturing device and a lens actuating device and a lens actuating method thereof. The lens actuating device comprises a focus lens group, a zoom lens group, a motor and a microcontroller. The focus lens group is arranged for changing a focus point of the image. The zoom lens group is arranged for changing distance of the image. The motor is arranged for driving the movements of the focus lens group and the zoom lens group respectively. The microcontroller is arranged for receiving a plurality of instructions, and controlling the motor at one of a plurality of predetermined speeds according to the instruction received to control the motor to drive the focus lens group or the zoom lens group to perform a focus motion or a zoom motion.
US08767096B2
An AR taking image producer produces an AR taking image of a current frame. A displaying image producer produces a displaying image of the current frame and first to fourth interpolative displaying images. An image pattern reader reads a marker on the AR taking image. CPU retrieves AR moving image that is associated with the marker from an AR image memory. An AR image overlying section produces first to fourth interpolative AR images, and overlies the images on the areas of the marker.
US08767095B2
An image capturing unit outputs both a valid video signal (a primary video signal) and an unnecessary video signal (a secondary video signal) as an output signal; a flash detection unit detects white band interference caused by an external flash; and a flash correction unit delays the valid video signal using a first delay unit and delays the unnecessary video signal using a second delay unit. When white band interference has occurred, the outputs of the respective delay units are added together by an adding unit, generating a corrected signal. An output selection unit selects and outputs the signal from the first delay unit in normal times, and when interference caused by an external flash has occurred, selects and outputs the corrected signal.
US08767093B2
An image-capturing device includes: an image sensor that captures an image of a photographic subject and outputs the image; an image size conversion unit that converts a whole of the image outputted from the image sensor to an entire region image having a lesser number of pixels than a number of pixels of the whole of the image; a cutting out region setting unit that sets a cutting out region for a partial region image to be cut out from the image outputted from the image sensor; an image cutting out unit that cuts out the partial region image corresponding to the cutting out region from the image outputted from the image sensor; and a recording control unit that records the entire region image converted by the image size conversion unit and the partial region image cut out by the image cutting out unit in an image recording unit, while establishing a relation to each other.
US08767084B2
A multidimensional histogram is used to characterize an image (or object), and is used to identify candidate matches with one or more reference images (or objects). An exemplary implementation employs hue information for two of the dimensions, and a second derivative function based on luminance for a third dimension. The simplicity and speed of the detailed arrangements make them well suited for use with cell phones and other mobile devices, which can use the technology for image/object recognition, e.g., in visual search applications.
US08767072B1
A system and method are disclosed for determining geoposition of an observer. The system includes a sensor such as a wide field of view camera or telescope that can capture an image of the sky. The image of the sky is used to compile a table or list of the stars in the sky along with their positions. This table or list is pattern-matched with a predetermined list or table of stars to identify each star. In one embodiment, the distances between all stars in the image are computed and compared to star images from an atmospheric refraction model. A comparison of the measured table or list and the refraction model, using an optimization algorithm, is performed to determine the geoposition of the observer. In an alternative embodiment, a sensor capable of measuring two different frequency bands obtains two images of each star in the sky simultaneously. A difference in displacement is determined between the two frequencies for each imaged star; and a magnitude and direction of the difference in displacement is used to determine the geoposition of a body.
US08767070B2
A surveillance system (1) includes a configuration module (7) that defines object characteristic ranges, the configuration module including a selection device (10, 13) for interactive selection and/or confirmation of selection of an object (9) as a reference object (14), the object characteristic ranges being defined on the basis of the object characteristics of the reference object (14). The selection device includes a display device (13) on which the surveillance scene (12) containing the objects (9) is depicted in real time, and a human-machine interface to mark an object on the display device as the reference object. An object detector is programmed and/or electronically configured to detect moving objects in the surveillance scenes and to classify them as objects to be monitored on the basis of their object characteristics. The classification is performed by comparing the object characteristics of the object to the object characteristic ranges that form classification conditions.
US08767068B2
A distance measuring apparatus includes: a number of simple lenses in substantially the same shape, on which light that has come from the object of range finding is incident; and an image capturing section, which has a number of image capturing areas and which captures the images of the object of range finding that have been produced by the respective simple lenses on their associated image capturing areas. The lens surfaces of each lens that are opposed to the object of range finding and the image capturing section, respectively, are only aspheric refracting surfaces. In each of the simple lenses, the paraxial radii of curvature R1 and R2 of the lens surfaces that are opposed to the object of range finding and the image capturing section, respectively, and its focus length f satisfy the condition −2.4≦f(1/R1+1/R2)≦−0.6.
US08767067B2
The present invention relates to a broadcasting system, a sending apparatus and a sending method, a receiving apparatus and a receiving method, and a program that make it possible to cause a user to feel a sense of realism, to display an image suitable for the preferences of a user, or the like by performing an appropriate process on a receiving side of the broadcasting system.A sending apparatus 11 sends material data, which is acquired by a sensor, and additional information, which is used to process the material data with a receiving apparatus 12. The receiving apparatus 12 receives the material data and the additional information, and generates output data on the basis of the material data and the additional information. Further, the receiving apparatus 12 produces output on the basis of the output data, e.g., produces output with output means such as a display device or an air conditioner. The present invention can be applied to, for example, a broadcasting system that broadcasts.
US08767057B2
An image processing device includes an image acquisition section that acquires an image that has been acquired by imaging a tissue using an endoscope apparatus, an in vivo position identification information acquisition section that acquires in vivo position identification information that specifies an in vivo position of the endoscope apparatus when the image has been acquired, a in vivo model acquisition section that acquires a in vivo model that is a model of the tissue, an on-model position determination section that specifies an on-model position that corresponds to the position specified by the in vivo position identification information on the acquired in vivo model, and a linking section that links information about the acquired image to the specified on-model position.
US08767055B2
An image display method of a stereo display apparatus is provided. The image display method includes the following steps. A stereo display apparatus is provided, wherein the stereo display apparatus provides N view zones for a viewer and includes a periodic structure and a pixel plane. N view zones are divided in a space according to the N value. Projection areas corresponding to each of the view zones are formed on the pixel plane by the periodic structure, wherein each of the projection areas corresponds to at least one sub-pixel unit on the pixel plane. Image information of each view zone is obtained according to the corresponding sub-pixel units. A stereo image is displayed by blending image information of each view zone.
US08767052B2
A remote controller, a display apparatus, 3D glasses and a control method thereof are provided. The remote controller includes a first communication unit which communicates with a three-dimensional (3D) display apparatus, a user input unit which allows a user to input a selection for controlling the 3D display apparatus, a signal processor which selects one of a two-dimensional (2D) mode and a 3D mode and processes a video signal to be displayed in the selected mode, a display unit which displays the processed video signal in the selected mode, and a controller which controls the first communication unit to send the 3D display apparatus a control signal corresponding to a user's selection input through the user input unit, and the signal processor to select one of the 2D mode and the 3D mode based on the display mode of the 3D display apparatus.
US08767051B2
A display apparatus, three-dimensional (3D) glasses, and a display system including the display apparatus and the 3D glasses are provided. The 3D glasses which interwork with an external display apparatus include: a wireless receiver which receives a sync signal and audio signals from the external display apparatus; a shutter driver which drives shutters according to the received sync signal; and an audio output part which processes and outputs the received audio signal. Thus, users can individually enjoy contents without interfering with one another by selecting and listening to audio corresponding to an image viewed through the display apparatus.
US08767047B2
An image processing system includes at least two, complementary, angle sensitive pixel (ASP) structures, having a spatial frequency domain ASP output including a background output and a plurality of ASP response outputs, in response to an optical input; an ASP response output subtractor component, which functions to suppress the background output and perform a subtraction of at least two of the ASP response outputs; and a processing component that can process the subtracted spatial frequency domain ASP response outputs. An optical domain image processing method includes the steps of providing at least two, complementary, angle sensitive pixel (ASP) structures; obtaining a spatial frequency domain ASP output including a plurality of complementary ASP response outputs, in response to an optical input; performing a wavelet-like transform of the ASP response outputs in the optical domain prior to performing any operation in a digital domain; and obtaining a desired output of the optical input.
US08767042B2
An image processing apparatus includes a receiving module, first and second processors, depth information generation module, and an image generation module. The receiving module receives a moving image including images. The first and second processors decode the moving image inputted from the receiving module and generate decoded data for each of the images. The depth information generation module generates, based on the decoded data generated by the first processor, depth information concerning the decoded data. The image generation module generates a parallax image, if an image with which the decoded data generated by the second processor is associated is subsequent to an image with which the depth information generated by the depth information generation module is associated, by using the decoded data generated by the second processor and depth information concerning an image subsequent to the image with which the generated depth information is associated.
US08767038B2
Provided is a panorama image synthesis technique using a scanning charged-particle microscope and capable of obtaining a panorama image synthesis that is robust against contamination and the imaging shift and distortion of an image in a wide-field imaging region (EP) for semiconductor fine patterns. The panorama image synthesis technique in the wide-field imaging region (EP) using the scanning charged-particle microscope is characterized in that the layout of each adjustment point, each local imaging region, and an imaging sequence comprising the imaging order of the each adjustment point are optimized and created as an imaging recipe.
US08767037B2
Systems and techniques for panoramic imaging are disclosed herein. Systems for capturing a panoramic image of a panoramic field of view include a fisheye lens having a first field of view, a mirror optically coupled to the fisheye lens for reflecting an image of the a second field of view through the fisheye lens, the second field of view having a portion overlapping the first field of view, and a detector, optically coupled to the fisheye lens and the mirror, for capturing a first portion of the panoramic image corresponding to the first field of view and a second portion of the panoramic image corresponding to the second field of view.
US08767030B2
A system for a grooming mirror in a portable electronic device with a user-facing CCD camera has a makeup function that when activated activates the user-facing camera on the device, the camera captures images of a user's face and displays live images of the user face on the screen, wherein, the device functions as a grooming mirror for the user. The makeup function operates on the captured images to crop and digitally focus the images to show close up images of the user face, thus the device functions as a mirror for the face for grooming and applying cosmetics. The device has a feature to put on hold a face to face communication function, while the user uses the makeup function for grooming and to apply cosmetics. The device is equipped with a user-facing light that is activated to light up the face for the camera.
US08767027B2
In one embodiment, a method for preventing hammer coils of a line printer hammer bank from overheating during printing includes establishing the maximum allowable temperature threshold of any given hammer coil, monitoring the temperature of all hammer coils during printing, keeping a moving average of dots printed per unit time on each hammer coil, and if one or more coils reach a temperature higher than the threshold, determining the current maximum dot-per-hammer density that the hot coils can print per stroke of the hammer bank that will enable them to cool down adequately from their current temperatures. The rate of printing is restricted to this current established maximum dot-per-hammer density on only those coils which have a temperature at or above the maximum allowable temperature, minus a suitable hysteresis.
US08767023B2
A scanning image display includes a light source, a light detector, a scanning section, a storage section, a current controlling section, a reference current section, a sweep section, and a change section. The light detector detects the laser light emitted from the light source. The scanning section scans the laser light. The current controlling section controls laser light by supplying a current supplied to the light source. The storage section is configured to store a reference current value, a reference light output value, and a gamma table. The reference current section supplies the reference current value to the current controlling section. The sweep section sweeps current values supplied to the current controlling section to obtain one current value where the detected laser light corresponds to the reference light output value. The change section changes the gamma table based on the one current value obtained by the sweep section.
US08767019B2
The disclosed subject matter provides for specifying a processing operation by means of a gesture by way of a first and second database, tables, organizational graphs, organizational nodes, KPI-values (including aggregated KPI values, O-aggregated KPI-values), and an application where the application displays the O-aggregated KPI values retrieved from the first database or received from the second database in an organization view of the GUI, the organization view displaying the current organization node and its direct child organization nodes, the organization view enabling the user to navigate within the organization graph, whereby a selection of one of the displayed organization nodes triggers a re-execution wherein the selected organization node is used as the current organization node.
US08767010B2
A method for rendering static graphics in a mobile device in applications such as map applications. Panning increments are received for panning a previously rendered frame to a panned frame. A rendering region is then determined based on the panning increment. A candidate polygon is then clipped to create clipped polygons contained within the rendering region. The clipped polygons can then be rendered, and a portion of the previously rendered frame can be copied, to provide the panned frame.
US08766995B2
A graphics system includes a graphics processor and a cache memory system. The graphics processor includes processing units that perform various graphics operations to render graphics images. The cache memory system may include fully configurable caches, partially configurable caches, or a combination of configurable and dedicated caches. The cache memory system may further include a control unit, a crossbar, and an arbiter. The control unit may determine memory utilization by the processing units and assign the configurable caches to the processing units based on memory utilization. The configurable caches may be assigned to achieve good utilization of these caches and to avoid memory access bottleneck. The crossbar couples the processing units to their assigned caches. The arbiter facilitates data exchanges between the caches and a main memory.
US08766994B2
Image latency is reduced in a video display system where an image is displayed for a stroke video frame period. The system has a display device and a plurality of memory buffers, each of which is adapted to receive image data (in a receiving condition) or to display data to the display device (in a display condition). The stroke video frame period is divided into at least two time periods and the number of memory buffers provided is at least the number of time periods per stroke video frame period. One of the memory buffers is in the display condition for a first time period, with the remaining memory buffers in the receiving condition. At the end of the time period, the memory buffers are rotated so that the displayed memory buffer moves to the receiving condition and one of the receiving buffers moves into the display condition.
US08766993B1
A method of transmitting visual data from a host computer to multiple displays across a computer network is disclosed. Visual data is stored in a plurality of frame buffers, each frame buffer associated with a separate display. A frame buffer update sequence is determined, with operations to be performed on frame buffers in the plurality. The data stored in the plurality of frame buffers is encoded as specified by the buffer update sequence to yield encoded images and each encoded image is sent across a computer network to the separate display associated with the frame buffer from which the encoded image was derived.
US08766991B2
A graphics processing unit 2 includes a texture pipeline 6 which performs filter operations upon texture values. If the texture values are integer texture values, then they may be processed by the texture pipeline in a variable order corresponding to the order in which they are retrieved from a memory 4. If the texture values are floating point texture values, then they are processed in a fixed order in order to ensure result invariants as the filter operation is non-associative for floating point values. The filter operation is not commenced until all of the floating point texture values have been retrieved from the memory 4 and other available for processing.
US08766985B1
An animation processor comprises a processor, an instruction memory, a working memory, inputs and outputs, and an input for receiving an input animation sequence comprising a plurality of time-sequenced frames, storage for a style image pair, comprising an input style image and an output style image, wherein differences between the input style image and an output style image convey a style for drawings and other visual elements, logic for generating set of time-varying orientation fields, logic for rendering velocity fields for the sequences, and an output for outputting an output animation sequence that takes on the style specified by the style image pair, with the output animation sequence having temporal coherence.
US08766979B2
Described are computer-based methods and apparatuses, including computer program products, for compressing three dimensional data of a scene. Data is received comprising (i) three dimensional data of a scene, and (ii) depth data associated with the three dimensional data. A triangle mesh is generated based on the three dimensional data, the triangle mesh comprising a plurality of triangles, each triangle including three vertices and three edges connecting the three vertices. For each edge in the triangle mesh, a metric is calculated for the edge based on data from the depth data associated with the edge, a length of the edge, and a curvature of the edge. A set of edges is collapsed based on a metric associated with each edge in the set of edges to generate a compressed triangle mesh.
US08766978B2
Methods and apparatus for generating curved extrusions. A user interface may be provided via which the value of one or more extrusion parameters and/or a reference point may be changed. The extrusion parameters may include a depth parameter that controls the amount of extrusion, an X angle parameter that controls the angle of bend in the X direction, a Y angle parameter that controls the angle of bend in the Y direction, a scale parameter that controls the scale factor, and a twist parameter that controls the angle of extrusion twist. A weight function for changing one or more of the extrusion parameters non-uniformly along the sweep path may also be provided. An extrusion may be generated from an initial 2D object according to the set of extrusion parameters and the reference point.
US08766968B2
A display device including a display panel, a gate driver, a data driver and a signal controller. The display panel includes gate lines and data lines, the gate driver is connected to the gate lines, the data driver is connected to the data lines and the signal controller controls the display panel, the gate driver, and the data driver. The signal controller includes a timing controller and a low voltage differential signaling (LVDS) receiving unit. The timing controller includes a frame memory. The display device further includes an analog-to-digital (AD) board including an LVDS transmission unit, wherein the LVDS transmission unit transmits a signal identifying a stopped image or a moving image to the LVDS receiving unit, and in response to the signal identifying the stopped image, the signal controller maintains the display of the same image on the display panel by using the frame memory.
US08766967B2
A method of driving a display panel includes converting a first data enable signal including a first cycle based on a compensation parameter to generate a second data enable signal including a second cycle longer than the first cycle, generating a plurality of gate signals based on the second data enable signal to output the gate signals to a plurality of gate lines of the display panel, and generating a plurality of data voltages based on the first data enable signal to output the data voltages to a plurality of data lines of the display panel.
US08766963B2
An OLED display device for improving a contrast ratio is disclosed. The OLED display device includes a pixel circuit, wherein the pixel circuit includes a driving transistor driving the light emitting device, a first switching transistor supplying a data voltage from a data line to a first node in response to a first scan signal from a first scan line, a second switching transistor connecting the driving transistor to a power line in a diode structure in response to the first scan signal from the first scan line, a third switching transistor supplying a reference voltage from a reference voltage supply line to the first node in response to a light emission control signal from a light emission control line, a fourth switching transistor connecting the driving transistor to the light emitting device in response to the light emission control signal from the light emission control line, a fifth switching transistor connecting the fourth switching transistor to the reference voltage supply line in response to a second scan signal from the second scan line, a storage capacitor connected between the first node and a second node connected to a gate electrode of the driving transistor, and a boost capacitor connected to the first scan line and the second node.
US08766962B2
In a bistable display device having a driver circuit, the driver circuit has multiple electrical ports for electrically connecting to external circuits. The electric potential difference between any two neighboring ports is less than 10 volts so that electrical punch-through caused by great electric potential difference and short distance between the electrical ports is substantially avoided.
US08766959B2
A display unit with which diffraction reflection is able to be decreased is provided. The display unit includes a display section having an organic EL device and a pixel circuit for every pixel. The pixel circuit has a first transistor for writing a video signal and a second transistor for driving the organic EL device based on the video signal written by the first transistor. The second transistor has a gate, a source and a drain. The organic EL device has an anode, an organic layer, and a cathode. An upper face of the source or the drain is formed at least in a region opposed to the anode or the cathode.
US08766954B2
A stylus (100) is configured for actively interacting with a touch-sensitive interface (201) by injecting or sinking charge in response to a touch-detection signal emitted from the touch-sensitive interface (201). One stylus (100) includes a stylus body (104) and a compound tip (105) extending axially from the stylus body (104). The compound tip (105) can include a center electrode (101) that is configured to detect electric field variations from the touch-sensitive interface (201) and a shroud electrode (102) that is concentrically disposed about the center electrode (101). An active circuit (103) coupled between the center electrode (101) and the shroud electrode (102) is configured to apply a gain to the detected electric field variations and to change a potential of the shroud electrode (102) synchronously with the electric field variations detected by the center electrode (101).
US08766946B2
A sensing circuit having a first substrate, a second substrate, a layer of dielectric material, a first electrode, a second electrode and an electrostatic capacitance detection unit is provided. The second substrate faces the first substrate. The dielectric material is held between the first substrate and the second substrate. The first electrode and the second electrode are arranged between the dielectric material and the first substrate. The electrostatic capacitance detection unit is configured to produce a detection signal having an amplitude according to a value of capacitance formed between the first electrode and the second electrode through the dielectric material.
US08766945B2
An input device includes an acquisition unit to acquire touch region information including position coordinates of a plurality of sensors in a touch screen and a sensed value of each sensor, a first calculation unit to calculate a shape of a touch region based on the touch region information, and a second calculation unit to calculate a detected touch position detected as a touch position based on the shape.
US08766937B2
A method of facilitating input at an electronic device includes detecting a first touch at a first touch location on a touch-sensitive device; the first touch being associated with a first character; detecting a second touch at a second touch location on the touch-sensitive surface, the second touch being associated with a second character; when movement of one of the first touch and the second touch is detected, determining a distance between the first touch location and the second touch location, the distance being associated with a number of characters of an object; identifying candidate objects in reference data that match the number of characters and include an initial character that matches the first character and a final character that matches the second character; and displaying at least one candidate object.
US08766932B2
The present disclosure relates to a touch panel includes a transparent insulator and two electrode plates. Each of the two electrode plates includes a transparent conductive layer. The transparent insulator is located between two transparent conductive layers. The transparent insulator has a refractive index larger than 1.0 which can reduce a chromatic dispersion to improve a display effect of the touch panel. The transparent insulator is a continuous layer in a solid state.
US08766928B2
A method is performed at a multifunction device with a display and a touch-sensitive surface. The method includes: displaying a first user interface for an application at a first magnification level. The first user interface includes a first plurality of user interface objects. The application has a range of magnification levels, including a predefined magnification level for requesting a second user interface with a multi-finger pinch gesture. The method also includes: detecting a first multi-finger pinch gesture on the touch-sensitive surface; and, in response: when the first magnification level is the predefined magnification level, displaying the second user interface simultaneously with the first user interface, wherein the second user interface includes a second plurality of user interface objects that are distinct from the first plurality of user interface objects in the first user interface; and when the first magnification level is greater than the predefined magnification level, zooming out the first user interface in accordance with the first multi-finger pinch gesture.
US08766925B2
An apparatus for providing input to a processor includes a sensor pad having a surface and a sensor array for sensing pressure at the surface and producing signals corresponding to the pressure at the surface. The sensor array having columns and rows of electrodes that are covered with resistive material which fills in the spaces between the electrodes and acts as a linear resistor between the electrodes and measures pressure on the pad surface between the electrodes. The apparatus includes an interface in contact with the sensor pad and in communication with the sensor array which couples to the processor to communicate the signals to the processor. A method for providing input to a processor includes the steps of sensing pressure with a sensor pad having a surface and a sensor array for sensing the pressure at the surface. There is the step of producing signals corresponding to the pressure at the surface with the sensor array. The sensor array having columns and rows of electrodes that are covered with resistive material which fills in the spaces between the electrodes and acts as a linear resistor between the electrodes and measures pressure on the pad surface between the electrodes. There is the step of communicating the signals to the processor with an interface in contact with the sensor pad and in communication with the sensor array which couples to the processor.
US08766922B2
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a movement control method and system of a terminal input unit having a plurality of protrusions. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention disclose a process and an apparatus for controlling each protrusion so that the input unit forms interface modes used for a function control according to a user function of the terminal.
US08766918B2
A system is described for predictive text entry. Initially, the items that may be entered by the user are displayed. The user can navigate through these items and enter one of them to a text string (130). A predictive text entry algorithm is used, which depending on the previously entered item, determines items, which are likely to be entered next. A plurality of these items (140), for example two or three, is displayed. The user can then select any one of these items without navigating through the displayed items.
US08766917B2
Systems and methods according to the present invention address these needs and others by providing a handheld device, e.g., a 3D device, which uses at least one sensor to detect motion of the handheld device. The detected motion can then be mapped into a desired output, e.g., cursor movement.
US08766916B2
A pointing device includes two lenses with wide and narrow view angles respectively. In a short distance range, the pointing device utilizes the lens with wide view angle to increase visible range. In a long distance range, the pointing device utilizes the lens with narrow view angle to increase size of a formed image of a reference point. In addition, the pointing device senses images through both of the lenses with wide and narrow view angles to obtain rotational information. The pointing device can provide not only positional information but also angular information.
US08766914B2
Measuring audience size for a digital sign comprises generating a plurality of paths, one for each face detected in a first sequence of video frames captured by a camera proximate the digital sign, and generating a zone in the sequence of video frames through which passes a threshold number of the paths. Motion and direction of motion within the zone is then measured in a second sequence of video frames to calculate the audience size that passes through the zone in the second sequence of video frames.
US08766913B2
A telephone book data processor includes: a connection element for connecting to an external device via a short range communication manner to transfer a telephone book data; a telephone book data obtaining element for obtaining the telephone book data; a memory having multiple memory regions for storing the telephone book data; and a controller for executing a telephone book data transfer process and a telephone book data utilizing process. The controller defines one memory region as an object of the telephone book data transfer process and another memory region as an object of the telephone book data utilizing process. The controller executes the telephone book data utilizing process with using the telephone book data in the another memory region while the controller executes the telephone book data transfer process for storing a new telephone book data in the one memory region.
US08766907B2
A drive control method for a display panel configured to constantly provide a good display quality with ensuring that EMI countermeasures are properly carried out is accomplished. Image data used to display a plurality of drive regions of a display panel obtained by dividing the display panel is supplied to data drivers of the plurality of drive regions based on transmission clock signals respectively having different transmission clock frequencies suitable for the plurality of divided drive regions, a common drive-start control signal used for all of the plurality of drive regions is generated based on a reference clock signal having a clock frequency different from any of the transmission clock frequencies, and drive signals start to be output from the data drivers of the plurality of drive regions to display elements corresponding to the respective data drivers at a same timing based on the supplied drive-start control signal.
US08766905B2
A backlight device which uses a light emitting diode as a light source, the back light device being configured to irradiate a liquid crystal display panel from a rear surface of the liquid crystal display panel, the backlight device having a structure where plural lines are provided on a backlight board with a certain gap, each of the lines being where plural of the light emitting diodes are provided, the backlight device includes a light emitting diode driving part configured to segment an entire screen of the backlight board into plural segmented regions and configured to independently control brightness of the light emitting diodes with a segmented region unit.
US08766894B2
A liquid crystal display system including a signal processing device uses interpolation to generate an intermediate image frame using previous image frame data and present image frame data. The system converts data of the intermediate image frame into transposed image data that is to be used to drive a liquid crystal display panel and display a corresponding image. The transposed image data and the present image data are subjected to a prespecified DCC process (dynamic capacitance compensation process) to thereby generate respective first and second compensation image data. Since the first compensation image data is generated based on the transposed image data and the transposition is configured to prevent over-compensation by the DCC process, over-compensation by the dynamic capacitance compensation process can be reduced or prevented.
US08766888B2
Disclosed is an IPS mode LCD device, which comprises first and second substrates, N gate lines arranged on the first substrate substantially in parallel, M data lines arranged to cross the gate lines so as to define m×n pixel regions, a plurality of first switching devices formed at each crossing of the gate lines and the data lines, first electrodes electrically connected with the first switching devices, second electrodes generating a horizontal electric field along with the first electrodes in the pixel regions, a common voltage supplier generating a common voltage from an n−1th gate line and an nth gate line and supplying the generated common voltage to the second electrodes, and a liquid crystal layer formed between the first and second substrates.
US08766876B2
The present invention relates to a projector for outputting advertisement images, and it is an aim of the present invention to provide a projector for advertisement images which can project advertisement images onto surfaces of windows in a train. For this purpose, the projector of the present invention comprises: an image-processing unit installed in the engine room of the train to play back advertisement images; image distribution units installed in the respective passenger cars of the train to receive the advertisement images by communicating with the image-processing unit; and a plurality of image output(display) units arranged at a predetermined interval and close to the windows in the passenger cars so as to output, onto the windows, the advertisement images transmitted from the image-processing unit and received by the image distribution units, such that the advertisement images can be projected onto the surfaces of the windows.
US08766875B2
An integrated stiffener and RF reflector (stiffener/reflector) (100) for a RF emitter which includes: a plurality of vertical ribs (102) constituting side walls of the stiffener/reflector; a plurality of horizontal ribs (104) formed in a width direction of the stiffener/reflector; a top cover (204) including metallization layer (308), the top cover being electrically coupled to a ground layer (312) of the RF emitter and configured in such a way to direct all of RF energy in an opposite direction to the top cover. Each of the vertical (102) and horizontal (104) ribs has a sandwich structure, which includes: a foam core layer (302) disposed on a layer of the RF emitter (314); a thin film layer (306) bonded to sides and top of the rib to form facesheets of the sandwich structure.
US08766871B2
Provided is an antenna device, including insulating base substrate (190), first monopole antenna (110), and second monopole antenna (120), the antennas being disposed on insulating base substrate (190), wherein first monopole antenna (110) and second monopole antenna (120) have: first portions extended in a same direction from power feeding ends connected to first power feeding section (180); and second portions extended from the first portions separately to left and right sides, and first passive element (130) is disposed between the first portion of first monopole antenna (110) and the first portion of second monopole antenna (120).
US08766870B2
A multiple frequency band antenna is provided that includes a radiating unit having a slot formed on a first surface of the substrate that is closed at one end and open at the other end, and a feed unit formed on a second surface of the substrate to pass through an area on the second surface that corresponds with the same area on first surface between the center and the closed side of the slot. The feeding unit comprises at least one switch which adjusts the size of an area for feeding power to the antenna. The radiating unit is resonated in a plurality of frequency bands when the switch is turned off, and the radiating unit is resonated in a single frequency band which is different from the plurality of frequency bands when the switch is turned on. Consequently, an antenna is implemented for use in multiple frequency bands.
US08766843B2
A comparator includes a first amplifier and a level holding part. The first amplifier includes differential-pair transistors and outputs a signal of a level corresponding to a comparison result from a first output node. The differential-pair transistors serve as a comparison part that receives a reference voltage, a signal level of which changes with a slope, at a gate of one of the differential-pair transistors, receives an input signal at a gate of the other of the differential-pair transistors, and compares the reference voltage with a potential of the input signal. The level holding part holds a level of the first output node such that the other transistor having an output part thereof connected to the first output node out of the differential-pair transistors of the first amplifier does not fall into a level at which a saturated operation condition is not satisfied.
US08766831B2
A successive-approximation A/D converter includes a reference voltage generator configured to generate a reference voltage, a comparator configured to receive an input analog signal and generate a voltage difference by comparing the input analog signal and the reference voltage, an error-correction circuit including a variable capacitor configured to correct the voltage difference based on a capacitance of the variable capacitor, an error-correction controller configured to retrieve from memory a correction amount and control the error-correction circuit to vary the capacitance of the variable capacitor according to the correction amount, and a successive approximation register logic circuit configured to generate an output digital signal based on the voltage difference from the comparator.
US08766820B2
The present invention consists of a device especially configured for enabling locating an aircraft quickly which due to an accident has fallen in an area where the search for the remains is especially difficult, such as the sea or mountainous areas. It is made up of a container (1) with an automated lock (7) divided internally into two chambers (2 and 3) in which metal sheets (4) and hollow spheres (5) are introduced; an attached beacon (6), a memory circuit (14); and it is operated by means of an automated control. All these elements form an assembly as a result of a protective and waterproof shell (8) joining them together. It also has an anchor (10) joining it to the outer part of the aircraft where it is arranged, which allows automating the release of the device as the result of a signal indicating the imminence of an accident.
US08766819B2
A system for display management based on operator stress level employs a biosensor detecting stress level of an operator. A biomonitoring system receives input from the biosensor and provides an output responsive to a threshold of stress. An operational display control receives the output from the biomonitoring system and modifies an information display based on the stress threshold.
US08766815B2
A light signaling device including a tubular body having an outer surface to which LEDs are mechanically connected. An inner surface of the body defines a channel inside the tubular body and has a heat dissipation unit through which the heat generated by the LEDs is dissipated. The light signaling device also comprises a lower air conveyor mechanically connected to the lower edge of the tubular body, partially closing the lower opening of the inner channel of the tubular body and is provided with separate conveyance channels, each of which extended between an inlet section thereof and an outlet section thereof according to a trajectory which has at least one component radial with respect to the main extension axis. Each of the conveyance channels is in communication with the light signaling device exterior via the inlet section and with the lower opening of the inner channel via the outlet section.
US08766814B2
A motorman's cab display system includes a motorman's cab display apparatus that can automatically adjust display luminance of a display device without using an illuminance sensor. The motorman's cab display apparatus determines, based on location information of a train transmitted from a train information control system, whether the train is traveling in a tunnel, sets, when determining that the train is traveling in the tunnel, as the luminance of a display screen, luminance for inside of tunnel set in advance, and sets, when determining that the train is traveling outside the tunnel, as luminance of the display screen, luminance information for outside of tunnel set in advance. A display control method for motorman's cab display apparatuses includes: calculating a traveling location of the train; and adjusting the luminance of the display screen according to the luminance information output from a luminance determining unit.
US08766812B2
A tension detector may detect and help correct tension in a lift cable. The cable may include a lift cable within a telescopic structure, such as a telescopic tower. The tension sensor may detect when the cable tension is outside a high tension threshold and a low tension threshold and trigger an alert when outside the thresholds. The alert may be an audible alert or a visual alert. A controller may prevent a user from making the tension worse and encourage an operator to correct the tension problem by preventing a winch from expanding or retracting the telescopic structure. The tension sensor may use springs to calibrate the thresholds for the high tension and low tension and a series of pulleys to manipulate an arm to engage a tension sensor.
US08766805B2
A method is provided for alerting a user of scheduled tasks prior to falling asleep. The method includes associating an alarm device with a user's body by securing a wearable device to the user's wrist, placing the device in a pocket, integrating the device into the user's clothing such as a belt, or otherwise placing the device in contact with or adjacent to the user. The device includes one or more sensors for detecting physiological and/or environmental parameters such as heart, respiration, or pulse rate, body movements, eye movements, ambient light, and the like. Upon detecting a pre-sleep state, the device gathers information about tasks which the user desires to perform or attend to prior to going to sleep, and alerts the user before falling asleep.
US08766801B2
A dual band antenna includes a far field antenna structure for facilitating the communication of first data with a remote device via far field signaling in a millimeter wave band. A near field antenna structure facilitates the communication of second data with a remote device via near field signaling in a near field band. The far field antenna structure and the near field antenna structure share at least one common antenna element.
US08766798B2
A sensor module generates sensor data in response to an impact to protective headgear, wherein the sensor module includes an accelerometer and a gyroscope and wherein the sensor data includes linear acceleration data and rotational velocity data. A device processing module generates event data in response to the sensor data. A device interface sends the event data to a monitoring device when the device interface is coupled to the monitoring device.
US08766789B2
A personal emergency device is provided to individuals to allow the individuals to request emergency assistances. The device communicates with a base receiver to indicate the individual has requested assistances. The base receiver then communicates with an emergency system such as e-911 emergency services or a remote care system. The base receiver or the remote care system may forward information to the emergency services to provide first responders with additional information regarding the individual. The information may include personal information such as age and name, and the information may include medical information such as a recent blood pressure, weight, and blood glucose level.
US08766787B2
A safety improvement method of an Idle Stop and Go (ISG) function may include: recognizing initial conditions that senses whether an engine is restarted, when the engine is restarted by the ISG, and whether a driver operates a vehicle, and determines whether to warn the driver; warning the driver that makes the driver recognize that the engine is restarted if it is determined to warn the driver in recognizing initial conditions; and stopping the warning that stops warning the driver after warning the drive has been executed. Warning the drive may be achieved by an alarm generated from a buzzer for a predetermined time and a visual screen that is provided for the driver.
US08766786B2
A user interface comprising a display arranged to display visual content and a tactile surface arranged to convey a tactile representation, wherein said tactile representation is based on said visual content. This has the advantage of enabling a user to perceive content being displayed to him with less cognitive effort.
US08766785B2
Provided is a method, a device, and a system, in which a sensor of a sense-providing device senses a motion of a sense-providing device, without using a plurality of cameras, to detect an object and provide sensory information.
US08766771B2
An information processing apparatus includes a display control section that performs display control of a first operation screen for performing first operation and a second operation screen for performing second operation. The information processing apparatus also includes a control section that performs control of terminating the first operation screen or making the first operation screen invisible based on information as to whether or not the user needs to authenticate display of the first operation screen or display of the second operation screen when the second operation screen is displayed in a state in which the first operation screen is displayed.
US08766765B2
A device, method and computer program product that provides tactile feedback to a visually impaired person to assist the visually impaired person in maintaining eye contact with another person when speaking to the other person. The eyeglass-based tactile response device includes a frame that has sensors mounted thereto, and a track that interconnects eyepieces on the device. In one example, a motor and a wheel are coupled to the track and are driven across the track depending on the amount of feedback to be provided to the user regarding how much the user should turn his or her head.
US08766749B2
A miniature circuit breaker having a pair of operable contacts in a main current path between a line terminal and load terminal, a trip mechanism for opening the contacts if an overcurrent condition occurs, and an electric motor to close the contacts via a contact closing mechanism. The trip mechanism includes a trigger mechanism and a contact opening mechanism, a current sensor arranged to detect current through the main current path, and a control unit. The trigger mechanism triggers the contact opening mechanism if a trip signal is produced. The control unit produces a trip signal to operate the trigger mechanism if it determines a short circuit condition occurs based on output of the current sensor; and the control unit is arranged to operate the electric motor to trigger the contact opening mechanism into opening the contacts independently of the trigger mechanism if it determines that an overload condition occurs.
US08766744B2
In one aspect of the invention, a duplexer including a multilayer substrate with multiple stacked layers and a back surface with a rectangular shape is disclosed. An antenna terminal, a transmission terminal, a reception terminal, a ground terminal, and a conductor are provided in various positions on the multilayer substrate for improved performance.
US08766740B2
An equalizer for compensating transmission losses of electronic communication signals includes a circuit board and a compensation module. The compensation module includes a pair of input pins, a pair of output pins, and at least two resistors. When a signal transmitted by the circuit board is received by the input pins, a first portion of the signal is directly output from the output pins, a second portion of the signal is reflected by the first resistor and transmitted back to the output pins to output, and a third portion of the signal is reflected by the second resistor and transmitted back to the output pins to output, such that output of the equalizer applies two stages of compensation.
US08766739B2
A microwave frequency tunable filtering balun is provided. The microwave frequency tunable filtering balun comprises a first microwave split ring transmission line resonator and a second microwave split ring transmission line resonator arranged in a bilaterally symmetrical manner, a fourth variable capacitor and a fifth variable capacitor of same parameters. It combines two functions of balun and tunable bandpass filter (BPF) into one circuit, resulting in a compact design. The balun characteristic and frequency-tuning mechanism are investigated, and the design equations are derived.
US08766736B2
Methods for compensating the existing crystal oscillator frequencies in extended temperature ranges. Utilizing existing crystal oscillators on any system design which may have quartz crystals with associated circuitry to deliver frequency or timing reference signals and increasing the accuracy of such by additional circuitry.
US08766727B2
A power amplification circuit amplifies and then outputs transmission signals of a first frequency and a second frequency, which are different from each other. When the transmission signal of the first frequency is input, a first switch is turned ON, a first LC parallel resonant circuit enters a resonant state and the transmission signal is transmitted using a line containing a first capacitor as a main line. When the transmission signal of the second frequency is input, a second switch is turned ON, a second LC parallel resonant circuit enters a resonant state and the transmission signal is transmitted using a line containing a second capacitor as a main line. Therefore, a transmission signal does not pass through, using as a main line, a line into which a switch has been incorporated.
US08766711B2
A switching circuit device has a first transistor which has a drain coupled to a high-potential terminal, a source coupled to a low-potential power supply, and, a driving circuit, which outputs, to a gate of the first transistor in response to an input control signal, a pulse having a potential higher than a threshold voltage of the first transistor and a potential of the low-potential power supply, wherein the driving circuit has a first inverter including a second transistor provided between the gate and the source of the first transistor, wherein when the first transistor changes from on to off due to the pulse, the second transistor conducts and short-circuits the gate and the source of the first transistor.
US08766708B2
A semiconductor device includes an internal voltage input buffer configured to determine voltage levels of a pull-up driving node and a pull-down driving node as a result of a comparison between a voltage level of an internal voltage node and a voltage level of a reference voltage node such that the pull-up driving node and the pull-down driving node to maintain a voltage level difference, and an internal voltage driving block configured to pull-up drive the internal voltage node in response to the voltage level of the pull-up driving node and pull-down drive the internal voltage node in response to the voltage level of the pull-down driving node.
US08766707B1
Apparatus and method for supplying electrical power to a device. A system on chip (SOC) integrated circuit includes a first region having a processing core and a second region characterized as an always on domain (AOD) power island electrically isolated from the first region and having a power control block. A first power supply module is used to apply power to the first region, and a second power supply module is used to apply power to the second region. The second power supply module includes a main switch between the first power supply module and a host input voltage terminal. The power control block initiates a low power mode by transitioning the main switch to an open state. This causes the first region to receive no electrical power while the second region continuously receives power during the low power mode.
US08766704B2
Various embodiments of a method and apparatus for performing adaptive voltage adjustment based on temperature value are disclosed. In one embodiment, and integrated circuit (IC) includes logic circuitry having at least one temperature sensor therein. The IC also includes a power management circuit coupled to receive temperature readings from the temperature sensor. The power management circuit is configured to determine a temperature of the IC based on a temperature reading received from the temperature sensor. The power management circuit may compare the determined temperature to a temperature threshold. If the temperature exceeds a temperature threshold value, the power management circuit may cause the operating voltage to be reduced by an amount equivalent to a voltage guard band.
US08766702B2
A power semiconductor device includes first and second power semiconductor elements connected in parallel to each other and a drive control unit. The drive control unit turns on or off each of the first and second power semiconductor elements in response to an ON instruction and an OFF instruction repeatedly received from outside. Specifically, the drive control unit can switch between a case where the first and second power semiconductor elements are simultaneously turned on and a case where one of the first and second power semiconductor elements is turned on first and thereafter the other thereof is turned on, in response to the ON instruction. The drive control unit turns off one of the first and second power semiconductor elements first and thereafter turns off the other thereof, in response to the OFF instruction.
US08766699B2
A switching circuit according to one embodiment includes first to fourth semiconductor switch elements. A pulse-like signal is applied to each input terminal of the switch elements such that when the first and fourth switch elements are in an ON (OFF) state, the remaining switch elements are in an OFF (ON) state. The switching circuit includes first and second capacitance elements. The first capacitance elements connected between an output terminal of the second semiconductor switch element and the second capacitance elements connected between an input terminal of the second semiconductor switch element and an output terminal of the fourth semiconductor switch element has a capacitance to reduce a parasitic capacitance between the input and output terminals of each of the fourth and second switch elements at a frequency N times (N is an integer of 1 or more) as high as a clock frequency of the pulse-like signal.
US08766698B2
A return-type current-reuse mixer having a transconductance/amplification stage, a mixing stage, and a high-pass and a low-pass filter network. The transconductance/amplification stage has a current-reuse CMOS topology wherein an input frequency signal is converted into a frequency current, low-frequency components are removed from the frequency current by the high-pass filter network, the frequency current is fed into the mixing stage, modulation occurs in the mixing stage, and then an intermediate-frequency signal is generated and output. Once high-frequency components are removed from the intermediate-frequency signal by the low-pass filter network, the intermediate-frequency signal is sent again for input into the transconductance/amplification stage, then amplified in the transconductance/amplification stage and output. The mixer transconductance/amplification stage employs a current-reuse technique. The input frequency and the output intermediate-frequency signal share a common transconductance/amplification stage. The mixer reduces power consumption, simplifies the circuit topology, and provides high conversion gain.
US08766695B1
This disclosure provides examples of circuits, devices, systems, and methods for generating a reference clock signal and delaying a received clock signal based on the reference clock signal. In one implementation, a circuit includes a control block configured to generate a control signal. The circuit includes an oscillator configured to generate a reference clock signal. The oscillator includes a plurality of delay elements each configured to receive the control signal and to introduce a delay in the reference clock signal based on the control signal. The delay elements of the oscillator are arranged to generate the reference clock signal. The circuit further includes a delay block configured to receive a clock signal and to generate a delayed clock signal. The delay block includes one or more delay elements each configured to receive the control signal and to introduce a delay in the clock signal based on the control signal.
US08766694B2
A semiconductor integrated circuit includes a rupture instructing pulse generation unit configured to generate a rupture instructing pulse signal in response to a fuse rupture command signal and an address; a first anti-fuse rupture unit configured to perform an operation for rupturing a first anti-fuse during an enable period of the rupture instructing pulse signal, and generate rupture information of the first anti-fuse; a pulse shifting unit configured to delay the rupture instructing pulse signal and generate a delayed rupture instructing pulse signal; and a second anti-fuse rupture unit configured to perform an operation for rupturing a second anti-fuse during an enable period of the delayed rupture instructing pulse signal, and generate rupture information of the second anti-fuse.
US08766693B2
The present invention provides an improvement of a 4-quadrant clock phase interpolator design to allow independent rotation of the output clocks in steps of 90°. This feature is useful in clock/data recovery where the 90° “jumps” can be used as a coarse control to re-align the data capture clock to achieve any desired data word alignment and/or receive bus clock alignment. The phase interpolator has a switching circuit comprising a single level of switches; a set of four transistor loads; and a set of four current sources operable to be switched by the switching circuit through to any of the set of four transistor loads.
US08766690B2
A source driver with an automatic de-skew capability is configured to receive a data signal and a clock signal from a timing controller, which are configured to drive a liquid crystal display panel. The source driver includes a signal delay unit, a setup time register, a hold time register, a first signal delay unit, a second delay unit and a logic circuit. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the first data delay signal is configured to sample the second clock delay signal and the second data delay signal is configured to sample the first clock delay signal.
US08766685B1
A PLL circuit comprises a phase frequency detector (PFD), a charge pump (CP), a low pass filter (LPF), a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), a frequency divider (FD) and a reset module. The PFD receives a first and a second input signals, and outputs a first and a second adjustment parameters according to phase and frequency difference between the first and the second input signal. The CP is coupled to the PFD, generates a current according to the first and the second adjustment parameters. The LPF is coupled to the CP, and generates a voltage according to the current. The VCO is coupled to the LPF, and generates an oscillation frequency according to the voltage. The FD receives and divides the oscillation frequency, and generates the second input signal. The reset module generates a reset signal to feed to the FD, wherein the reset module receives the first signal.
US08766678B2
A semiconductor apparatus comprises a power-up signal generation section configured to generate a power-up signal, a driver configured to drive and output the power-up signal, and a main circuit block configured to perform predetermined functions in response to an output from the driver, wherein the power-up signal generation section and an input terminal of the driver are connected by a disconnectable element.
US08766675B1
A circuit includes: a pull down circuit including a first PFET and a second PFET connected in series between a pad of a USB circuit and ground; and a pull up circuit including a first NFET and a second NFET connected in series between the pad and a supply voltage. The circuit includes: a third PFET connected to a gate of the first PFET and a gate of the second PFET; a third NFET connected to a gate of the first NFET and a gate of the second NFET; a fourth PFET connected to the first NFET and the second NFET; and a fourth NFET connected to the first PFET and the second PFET. A pad voltage has a nominal minimum and maximum. Each of the first PFET, the second PFET, the first NFET, and the second NFET has a nominal voltage less than the pad voltage nominal maximum.
US08766663B2
A method and circuit for implementing calibration of a linearly weighted, thermal coded I/O driver output stage, and a design structure on which the subject circuit resides are provided. The circuit includes a PFET calibration impedance matching function determining calibration PVTP bits for calibrating output stage PFETs of the linearly weighted, thermal coded I/O driver output stage, an NFET calibration impedance matching function determining calibration bits PVTN for calibrating output stage NFETs of the linearly weighted, thermal coded I/O driver output stage once the PFET calibration is complete and an output latch function providing the calibration PVTP and PVTN outputs for the I/O driver output stage to match an impedance of an external calibration resistor. A clock logic function generates an output latch clock and an internal reset signal completing calibration.
US08766662B1
Methods and a system for operating a programmable device are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a master summary data and loading an original configuration data to configuration registers of the programmable device. The method further includes generating a current summary data by performing a summary operation of a current configuration data of the configuration registers of the programmable device, comparing the current summary data with the master summary data, and performing an exception action if the current summary data does not match with the master summary data.
US08766659B2
A contactor includes a contactor base material including a first material and a conductor film including a second material. The conductor film is formed only on a contact surface with an electrode of a semiconductor apparatus at a tip of the contactor film.
US08766658B2
A probe includes a contact member brought into contact with an object to be tested. Contact particles having conductivity are uniformly distributed in the contact member. A part of the contact particles protrude from a surface of the contact member on the side of the object to be tested. A conductive member having elasticity is placed on a surface of the contact member on the opposite side to the object to be tested. The probe further includes an insulating sheet including a through hole and the contact member is so positioned as to penetrate the through hole. An upper part of the contact member is formed of a conductor which does not include the contact particles. An additional conductor is placed on a surface of the conductor on the side opposite to the object to be tested.
US08766657B2
A sensor has a strip resonator filter that energizes an emitter patch which emits an electric field out from the strip resonator filter (away from the strip resonator filter). The capacitance of the filter, or specifically the coupling capacitance and radiation pattern of the slotted patch, is altered when an object such as a finger is near the sensor. Resulting changes in a signal outputted by the filter can be used to determine how close the object is to the sensor. The strip resonator filter may be a half wavelength strip resonator coupled filter having three separate strips. The patch may have a slot and two accompanying strips. An arrangement of multiple sensors may detect the position of an object in two or three dimensions.
US08766656B2
The present invention relates generally to a system and a method for thermal control. More particularly, the invention encompasses an apparatus for thermal control and management of at least one device under test (DUT). The inventive thermal control and management apparatus also allows for the management of a plurality of devices under test, and with each device under test having its own testing regimen. The thermal control and management of the device under test (DUT) is managed using at least one thermoelectric element or cooler (TEC), which can be used to either heat or cool the corresponding device under test (DUT).
US08766654B2
A package structure with conformal shielding includes a substrate providing electrically connected inner grounding structures, a chip module mounted on the substrate, a molding compound covering the chip module and one surface of the substrate, and a conductive shielding layer covering the molding compound and the lateral sides of the substrate, and electrically connected with a part of the inner grounding structures. The substrate further provides one or multiple independent conductive structures electrically connected with the conductive shielding layer and exposed to the outside. By measuring the resistance value between one independent conductive structure and the conductive shielding layer or another independent conductive structure or one ground contact and then comparing the measured resistance value with a predetermined reference value, the EMI shielding performance of the package structure is determined.
US08766647B2
The transient load current of a circuit powered by a power distribution network is increased in a plurality of steps, with the step transition times being adjusted based on the transient noise of the power distribution network. This reduces the resonance noise that would otherwise occur in the supply current of the power distribution network.
US08766635B2
A gradient coil apparatus for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system includes an inner gradient coil assembly and an outer gradient coil assembly disposed around the inner gradient coil assembly. The outer gradient coil assembly has an outer surface, a first end and a second end. The gradient coil apparatus also includes a force balancing apparatus disposed around the outer surface of the outer gradient coil assembly. In one embodiment, the force balancing apparatus includes an active force balancing coil disposed around the outer surface of the outer gradient coil assembly. In another embodiment, the force balancing apparatus includes a first passive conducting strip disposed around the first end of the outer gradient coil assembly and a second passive conducting strip disposed around the second end of the outer gradient coil assembly.
US08766631B2
The invention relates to a device (1, 21, 31, 41, 64) for the preparation and measurement of a nuclear spin resonance (NMR) measurement sample (10), including—a flow-through NMR probehead (2), with a first tube (3) and a second tube (14) each for the supply and removal of a liquid NMR measurement sample (10),—at least one chamber (4, 22, 32) which is connected to one of the tubes (3, 14),—a sample inlet (5) for introducing the liquid measurement sample (10) into the device (1, 21, 31, 41, 64), wherein at least one chamber (4, 22, 32) has at least one connection for increasing (9, 24, 25, 42, 43, 46, 47) and releasing (8, 23, 27, 48a, 48b) the gas pressure, and in which at least one chamber (4, 22, 32) comprises means for mixing the liquid measurement sample (10) contained in the chamber (4, 22, 32) with a gas With the inventive device it is possible to reduce the measurement sample consumption when doing an NMR spectroscopic measurement on liquid measurement samples to which spin order can be catalytically transferred.
US08766630B2
The present disclosure provides a method of monitoring a property of a sample, such as a nanoscopic property of the sample. The method comprises the steps of providing a quantum probe having a quantum state and exposing the quantum probe to the sample in a manner such that the property of the sample, in the proximity of the quantum probe, affects quantum coherence of the quantum probe. The method also comprises detecting a rate of quantum decoherence of the quantum probe to monitor the property of the sample. Further the present disclosure provides an apparatus for monitoring a property of a sample.
US08766626B2
The invention relates to a rotation path detection device for vehicles of public transportation having a drive device (20) for an entry/exit apparatus, which is mounted so it can be pivoted and/or displaced. Said apparatus has a drive unit (22), an electric drive motor (44), and a first reduction gear (26) and a second reduction gear (72), which is connected to the drive motor (44), having a sensor for ascertaining the position of the reduction gear.
US08766623B2
A magnetic-field sensor and a method of calibrating a magnetic-field sensor are disclosed. In one embodiment the method includes supplying the measurement arrangements with an excitation signal to generate a tappable measuring signal at each measurement tap of the measurement arrangements, detecting the measuring signals, evaluating the detected measuring signals by comparing the detected measuring signals with a comparison value, determining the measurement arrangement with a smallest difference, in terms of magnitude, between the detected measuring signals and the comparison value, and choosing the measurement arrangement with the smallest difference for a measurement operation of the magnetic-field sensor. The magnetic-field sensor includes a plurality of magnetoresistive sensor elements connected to form measurement arrangements each measurement arrangement including a measurement tap, wherein the magnetoresistive sensor elements are laterally distributed on a chip of the magnetic field sensor.
US08766613B2
A method of operating a voltage regulator circuit includes generating a control signal by an amplifier of the voltage regulator circuit. The control signal is generated based on a reference signal at an inverting input of the amplifier and a feedback signal at a non-inverting input of the amplifier. A driving current flowing toward an output node of the voltage regulator circuit is generated by a driver responsive to the control signal, and the driver is coupled between a first power node and the output node. The feedback signal is generated responsive to a voltage level at the output node. A transistor, coupled between the output node and a second power node, is caused to operate in saturation mode during a period while the voltage regulator circuit is operating.
US08766612B2
An error amplifier includes a first amplification circuit with a reference signal input and a feedback signal input representing the amplitude of a load voltage of a switched mode power supply. The error amplifier includes a difference amplifier providing a difference signal representing a difference between the reference signal and the feedback signal, provided for determining the duty cycle of a switching signal in the switched mode power supply. The first amplification circuit further includes a control circuit providing a control signal generated as a function of the difference between the reference signal and the feedback signal.The error amplifier also includes a second amplification circuit, included in a compensation circuit. The second amplification circuit receives the control signal, and the operating current of the second amplification circuit is adjusted by an amount indicated by the control signal.
US08766609B2
A power supply controller includes: a controlling section that, upon determination that no anomaly has occurred, causes a semiconductor switch to execute turning on and, upon determination that the anomaly has occurred, causes the semiconductor switch to maintain an off state; a monitoring section that monitors which condition the controlling section is in, the condition being normal or anormal; and a switching section that, upon monitoring result by the monitoring section indicating the normal condition, causes turning on and off of the semiconductor switch by the controlling section and, upon the monitoring result indicating the anormal condition, causes turning on and off of the semiconductor switch with an external on-off command signals.
US08766604B2
A switching power supply is provided to supply an AC input voltage. The supply includes a control circuit configured to detect a voltage of the AC power source in a voltage waveform, and switch elements in a synchronous rectification switching mode in synchronization with polarities of the voltage waveform when the AC input voltage is equal to or greater than a predetermined voltage value. The control unit also operates the switching without synchronization with the polarities when the AC input voltage is smaller than the predetermined voltage value.
US08766590B2
An energy storage system of an apartment building, an integrated power management system, and a method of controlling the integrated power management system. Power may be efficiently consumed by supplying remaining power stored in an energy storage system of each apartment to a common load.
US08766589B2
In a motor control unit, a current-carrying failure detection unit determines a first determination condition and a second determination condition. The current-carrying failure detection unit measures a duration of a state where the first determination condition is satisfied, and a duration of a state where the second determination condition is satisfied. When the first or second duration exceeds a predetermined reference period, the current-carrying failure detection unit determines that a current-carrying failure has occurred.
US08766582B2
A trash can with a power operated lid can include a sensor assembly and a lifting mechanism. The sensor assembly can include at least one light emitter and at least one light receiver, the viewing area of the at least one light receiver being limited in size. The lifting mechanism can include a controller, a drive motor, and a lifting member. The trash can with power operated lid can further include at least one position sensor for detecting the position of the lid.
US08766576B2
A detection and control device is provided for detecting a motor fault of an electric motor with star point topology, with an evaluation unit, a control unit, and a return unit. The return unit is configured for returning a star point potential of the electric motor to the evaluation unit, the evaluation unit is configured for evaluating the star point potential and the control unit is designed for passivating a motor fault on the basis of the evaluation. The function of the return unit and of the evaluation unit may also be assumed by control lines and by the control unit.
US08766570B2
Exemplary embodiments are directed to a converter for an electrical system that is controlled in such that switching sequences for the converter, determined with respect to an optimization goal are modified such that by correcting a flux error resulting from assumptions on which the first optimization of the switching sequence is based.
US08766563B2
Described herein is a drive arrangement for the motor-driven adjustment of an adjustable element in a motor vehicle, the drive arrangement having two electrical drives and a control device, the drives, in the fitted state, acting in the same way on the adjustable element and having a substantially identical configuration, apart from tolerance-related discrepancies. The control device has a power controller which, in the fitted state, during the motor-driven adjustment of the adjustable element, subjects the electrical power that is output respectively to the two drives to closed-loop control, for the purpose of compensating for the tolerance-related discrepancies, in such a way that an identical electrical power consumption is established for both drives.
US08766556B2
A remotely controllable track lighting system includes a track with lamps supported on the track that are individually controlled by a wireless remote. Each lamp may be set to different intensity levels (e.g., high, mid, low, off) or to the same intensity level. All lamps may be set, upon initially turning on the lamps or at another time, to previously set intensity levels. The track system may also be powered via a wall switch where initially turning on the lamps via the wall switch causes all of the lamps to return to their previously set intensity levels or the user can move the wall switch off then on within a short period of time (e.g., 3 seconds) to cause all of the lamps to be set high.
US08766554B1
Aspects of the disclosure provide a lighting system. The lighting system includes a transformer having a primary winding on a receiving path and a secondary winding on a delivering path. The receiving path receives electric energy regulated based on a dimming angle. The delivering path delivers the received electric energy. According to an aspect of the disclosure, the lighting system includes a secondary switch, and a dimming controller. The secondary switch is switched on to couple a light source, such as an LED array, and the like, with the delivering path to emit light in response to the delivered electric energy and is switched off to decouple the light source from the delivering path. The dimming controller is configured to detect the dimming angle based on an electrical property of the delivering path. Then, the dimming controller switches on and switches off the secondary switch based on the dimming angle.
US08766550B1
An AC LED lighting apparatus using a voltage edge detector is provided. The AC LED lighting apparatus includes: a rectification unit configured to rectify an AC voltage to output a DC rectified voltage; an LED unit including a first light emitting group and a second light emitting group each including at least one LED; and an LED driving control unit configured to control a serial/parallel connection relationship between the first light emitting group and the second light emitting group by comparing a voltage level of the rectified voltage input from the rectification unit with a reference voltage. The LED driving control unit sets the reference voltage by detecting a slope of the rectified voltage and simultaneously detecting the voltage level of the rectified voltage and the detected slope of the rectified voltage.
US08766541B1
A method to modulate the density of an electron beam as it is emitted from a cathode, the method comprised of connecting a source of pulsed input power to the input end of a nonlinear transmission line and connecting the output end directly to the cathode of an electron beam diode by a direct electrical connection.
US08766540B2
A lighting device includes: a power conversion unit which converts a direct current (DC) power into a power required by a load; an output current detection unit which detects an output current of the power conversion unit; and a source voltage detection unit which detects a source voltage. Further, the lighting device includes an operation unit which calculates an output current command value so as not to exceed an upper limit of the output current command value set according to a resistance value of an externally connected resistor; and a control unit which controls the power conversion unit such that the output current thereof the power conversion unit becomes the output current command value.
US08766537B2
Methods for improving the efficiency of infrared (IR) halogen lamps and IR halogen lamps having improved efficiency are disclosed. In a method of aligning a filament in a lamp body, the lamp body having the filament therein is rotated, and tubular end portions are heated and necked down which may assist in positioning the filament within the lamp and reduce end losses. IR halogen lamps formed from glass tubes having an OD less than 5 mm are also disclosed. The reduced diameter of the glass tubing increases the surface area for IR energy reflection and reduces end losses. Spuds or beads may be used to position the filament within the lamp.
US08766530B2
An organic light emitting diode display includes a substrate. A control electrode is on the substrate. A gate insulating film covers the control electrode. An input electrode and an output electrode are on the gate insulating film and face each other. An oxide semiconductor is between the input electrode and the output electrode and on the control electrode. A pixel electrode is on portions of the edges of the output electrode and is electrically connected. An organic light emitting member is on the pixel electrode. A common electrode is on the organic light emitting member. The oxide semiconductor and the pixel electrode may be of the same layer.
US08766527B1
A light-emitting device includes a light-emitting die and, at least partially surrounding the light-emitting die, a phosphor element comprising (i) a binder and (ii) disposed within the binder, one or more wavelength-conversion materials for absorbing at least a portion of light emitted from the light-emitting die and emitting converted light having a different wavelength. The phosphor element has an outer contour having (i) a curved region that defines only a portion of a hemisphere having a hemisphere radius, and (ii) a base opposite the curved region having a non-zero centroid z-offset within the hemisphere, a ratio of the centroid z-offset to the hemisphere radius having a value ranging from 0.3 to 0.8.
US08766523B2
An exit window can include an exit window foil, and a support grid contacting and supporting the exit window foil. The support grid can have first and second grids, each having respective first and second grid portions that are positioned in an alignment and thermally isolated from each other. The first and second grid portions can each have a series of apertures that are aligned for allowing the passage of a beam therethrough to reach and pass through the exit window foil. The second grid portion can contact the exit window foil. The first grid portion can mask the second grid portion and the exit window foil from heat caused by the beam striking the first grid portion.
US08766521B2
In process of threadably fitting a metal shell having a surface formed with an Ni plated layer into a mounting hole, in a state where a gasket made of stainless steel is uncompressed while being interposed between a protrusion part and an opening periphery, a surface of the gasket is out of contact with another surface thereof. When the gasket is viewed on a cross section in a direction of an axial line O, the gasket contacts with the protrusion part at one point of a point X, the gasket contacts with the opening periphery flat one point of a point Y, and the point Y is located outside of the point X in a radial direction. Further, the point Y is located inside of a maximum outer diameter Dz of a seating surface of the protrusion part in the radial direction.
US08766519B2
An electrode material for use with spark plugs and other ignition devices, where the electrode material includes ruthenium (Ru), plus one or more additional constituents like precious metals, refractory metals, active elements, metal oxides, or a combination thereof. In one example, the electrode material is a multi-phase material that has a matrix phase including ruthenium (Ru) and one or more precious metals, refractory metals and/or active elements, and a dispersed phase including a metal oxide. The metal oxide may be provided in particle form or fiber/whisker form, and is dispersed throughout the matrix phase. A powder metallurgy process for forming the electrode material into a spark plug electrode is also provided.
US08766518B2
A high intensity discharge lamp includes an electrically insulating arc tube. A sealed shroud encloses the arc tube. An electrically conductive frame member is disposed inside the shroud and is electrically connected to an electrical conductor that extends in the arc tube. Electrically conductive foil is fastened to the frame member and forms a closed loop that encircles a leg of the arc tube by an angle in a range of at least 270 degrees to 360 degrees. The foil can be connected to the frame member and to itself. A distance from an outer surface of a flange of the arc tube leg to a proximal edge of the foil can range from 1.5 to 8 mm. A width of the foil can range from 1 mm to 4 mm.
US08766514B2
A piezoelectric resonator element includes a piezoelectric substrate formed of an AT-cut quartz crystal substrate in which the thickness direction thereof is a direction parallel to the Y′ axis; and excitation electrodes disposed so as to face vibrating regions on both front and rear principal surfaces of the piezoelectric substrate. The piezoelectric substrate includes a rectangular excitation portion in which sides parallel to the X axis are long sides thereof, and sides parallel to the Z′ axis are short sides thereof; and a peripheral portion having a smaller thickness than the excitation portion and formed around the excitation portion. Each of side surfaces of the excitation portion extending in a direction parallel to the X axis is present in one plane, and each of side surfaces of the excitation portion extending in a direction parallel to the Z′ axis has a step.
US08766510B2
The invention relates to a method of making an actuator comprising a plurality of force elements and an actuator made according to the method. The method comprises providing a coupler for coupling force from the force elements to a load; calculating a transfer function for each force element wherein the transfer functions allow the force provided to the load to be predicted; determining an error functional which is indicative of any undesired dips in the predicted force; calculating the parameters of the force elements which minimize the error functional, and coupling force elements having the calculated parameters to the coupler to make the actuator.
US08766500B2
A system and method for power purification is provided. The system contains a power source. A motor is connected to the power source. A plurality of rotating elements is provided, each rotatable about a primary axis, wherein each of the plurality of rotating elements supports at least one magnet, wherein each of the magnets is located along a common plane. A first rotating element of the plurality of rotating elements is mechanically connected to the motor. At least one flywheel element is mechanically connected to each of the plurality of rotating elements. At least one output device is mechanically connected to at least one of the plurality of rotating elements.
US08766496B2
A linear electric motors including a housing, a first armature movable on a first essentially linear path with respect to the housing, and a second armature movable on a second essentially linear path with respect to the housing, wherein the first armature is mounted to the housing by a first mounting spring, wherein the first armature and the second armature are coupled to each other by a coupling spring, and wherein the second armature is mounted to the housing by a second mounting spring.
US08766492B2
A hot plug connector, for hot plugging of a hard disk drive in a system, includes a main body and electric cables. The main body includes a power interface. The electric cables connect the power interface of the main body with a power supply. The power interface is configured for connecting to the hard disk drive.
US08766483B2
Wireless power transfer is created using a first antenna that is part of a magnetic resonator, to create a magnetic field in an area of the first antenna. One or more parasitic antennas repeats that power to create local areas where the power is more efficiently received.
US08766478B2
A power system and a control method thereof are disclosed. The power system comprises: providing a plurality of power sources; electrically connecting a plurality of converters between the power sources and at least one load, wherein the converters are electrically connected to the power sources respectively in a one-to-one manner; and positive feed-forward controlling each of the converters by using a positive feed-forward control circuit electrically connected to one of the power sources in a one-to-one manner, for the use to protect the input voltage source from over-current drawing by reducing the input current of the converter when the source voltage drops, regardless constant output-voltage.
US08766469B2
An installation for producing supplementary electrical energy for an electricity network includes at least first and second water reservoirs, the first water reservoir being situated at a first level and the second water reservoir being situated at a second level lower than the first level, a communicating pipe between the first water reservoir and the second water reservoir being provided with a remote-controlled valve, and a hydro-electric generating system being provided with a pumping installation. The first and/or second water reservoir is integrated in the foundations in the lower portion of an artificial building that needs to be built for a primary function independently of a secondary function of producing electricity. The first water reservoir or the second water reservoir may constitute a common body of water in the vicinity of ground level. The water reservoirs integrated in foundations of buildings may in particular cooperate with installations for air-conditioning or heating the buildings at the base of which they are constructed, or associated buildings.
US08766463B2
A package carrier includes a metal substrate, a pad, a dielectric layer, and a circuit layer. The metal substrate has a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface. The pad is disposed on the first surface. The dielectric layer is disposed on the first surface and covers the pad. A thickness of the dielectric layer is less than 150 μm. The circuit layer is embedded in the dielectric layer and connected to the pads.
US08766460B2
Embodiments of mechanisms of utilizing an interposer frame to form a package using package on package (PoP) technology are provided in this disclosure. The interposer frame is formed by using a substrate with one or more additives to adjust the properties of the substrate. The interposer frame has through substrate holes (TSHs) lined with conductive layer to form through substrate vias (TSVs) with solder balls on adjacent packages. The interposer frame enables the reduction of pitch of TSVs, mismatch of coefficients of thermal expansion (CTEs), shorting, and delamination of solder joints, and improves mechanical strength of the PoP package.
US08766458B2
Stacked microelectronic dies employing die-to-die interconnects and associated systems and methods are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a stacked system of microelectronic dies includes a first microelectronic die, a second microelectronic die attached to the first die, and a die-to-die interconnect electrically coupling the first die with the second die. The first die includes a back-side surface, a surface depression in the back-side surface, and a first metal contact located within the surface depression. The second die includes a front-side surface and a second metal contact located at the front-side surface and aligned with the first metal contact of the first die. The die-to-die interconnect electrically couples the first metal contact of the first die with the second metal contact of the second die and includes a flowable metal layer that at least partially fills the surface depression of the first die.
US08766455B2
A semiconductor device includes a first semiconductor chip, a first connection structure disposed on a first side of the first semiconductor chip, a second semiconductor chip disposed on a second side of the first semiconductor chip, and a second connection structure disposed between the first and second semiconductor chips, wherein a number of the second connection structures is less than a number of the first connection structures.
US08766451B2
A chip packaging structure includes a flexible plate, a chip, and a plurality of leads. The chip is disposed on the flexible plate. A first boundary and a second boundary are defined on the flexible plate. The first boundary is located between the chip and the second boundary. A first area is formed between the first boundary and the chip. A second area is formed between the first boundary and the second boundary. The chip includes a plurality of signal conducting points and a plurality of non-signal conducting points. The plurality of leads are disposed on the flexible plate and include a plurality of signal leads and a plurality of non-signal leads. The width of the non-signal lead is smaller than the width of the signal lead extending out of the second boundary.
US08766429B2
A semiconductor package includes a first package including a first wiring board and at least one first semiconductor chip mounted on the first wiring board, a second package stacked on the first package. The second package includes a second wiring board and at least one second semiconductor chip mounted on the second wiring board. The semiconductor package further includes at least one connection terminal connecting a plurality of signal lines of the first and second wiring boards, respectively, with each other. The semiconductor package further includes at least one ground terminal connecting a plurality of ground lines of the first and second wiring boards, respectively, with each other, and includes a side surface, and a shielding member covering a top surface and a side surface of a structure including the first and second packages and the shielding member is disposed on the at least one ground terminal.
US08766426B2
A method of manufacture of an integrated circuit packaging system includes: providing a carrier; mounting an integrated circuit device having component connectors directly on the carrier; placing a restraint structure over the integrated circuit device for controlling warpage of the integrated circuit device during bonding of the component connectors to the carrier causing some of the component connectors to separate from the carrier; and bonding all of the component connectors to the carrier.
US08766419B2
Provided are a power module having a stacked flip-chip and a method of fabricating the power module. The power module includes a lead frame; a control device part including a control device chip; a power device part including a power device chip and being electrically connected to the lead frame; and an interconnecting substrate of which the control and power device parts are respectively disposed at upper and lower portions, and each of the control and power device chips may be attached to one of the lead frame and the interconnecting substrate using a flip-chip bonding method. The method includes forming bumps on power and control device chips on a wafer level; separately sawing the power and control device chips into individual chips; adhering the power device chip onto a thermal substrate and the control device chip onto an interconnecting substrate; combining a lead frame, the thermal substrate, and the interconnecting substrate with one another in a multi-jig; and sealing the power and control device chips, and the control and power device chips may be attached to one of the lead frame and the interconnecting substrate using a flip-chip bonding method.
US08766418B2
A semiconductor device includes a first semiconductor chip; an extension formed at a side surface of the first semiconductor chip; a connection terminal formed on the first semiconductor chip; a re-distribution part formed over the first semiconductor chip and the extension and including an interconnect connected to the connection terminal and an insulating layer covering the interconnect; and an electrode formed above the extension on a surface of the re-distribution part and connected to the interconnect at an opening of the insulating layer. The electrode is mainly made of a material having an elastic modulus higher than that of the interconnect. The electrode includes a bonding region where the electrode is bonded to the interconnect at the opening, and an outer region closer to an end part of the extension. The interconnect is formed so as not to continuously extend to a position right below the outer region.
US08766414B2
A memory cell is provided that includes a semiconductor pillar and a reversible resistance-switching element coupled to the semiconductor pillar. The semiconductor pillar includes a heavily doped bottom region of a first conductivity type, a heavily doped top region of a second conductivity type, and a lightly doped or intrinsic middle region interposed between and contacting the top and bottom regions. The middle region includes a first proportion of germanium greater than a proportion of germanium in the top region and/or the bottom region. The reversible resistivity-switching element includes a material selected from the group consisting of NiO, Nb2O5, TiO2, HfO2, Al2O3, CoO, MgOx, CrO2, VO, BN, and AlN. Numerous other aspects are provided.
US08766412B2
A semiconductor chip has devices formed on a first principal plane of a semiconductor substrate, wherein a second principal plane of the semiconductor substrate is planarized, and an organic film having plus charges on an outer side is provided on the second principal plane.
US08766410B2
Integrated circuits having combined memory and logic functions are provided. In one aspect, an integrated circuit is provided. The integrated circuit comprises: a substrate comprising a silicon layer over a BOX layer, wherein a select region of the silicon layer has a thickness of between about three nanometers and about 20 nanometers; at least one eDRAM cell comprising: at least one pass transistor having a pass transistor source region, a pass transistor drain region and a pass transistor channel region formed in the select region of the silicon layer; and a capacitor electrically connected to the pass transistor.
US08766407B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor wafer includes a semiconductor substrate and an interconnect layer formed on the semiconductor substrate. In the semiconductor wafer, the semiconductor substrate includes a first region that is located on the outer periphery side of the semiconductor substrate and that is not covered with the interconnect layer. The interconnect layer includes a second region where the upper surface of the interconnect layer is substantially flat. A first insulating film is formed in the first region. The upper surface of the interconnect layer within the second region and the upper surface of the first insulating film substantially flush with each other.
US08766406B2
A method of preparing self-aligned isolation regions between two neighboring sensor elements on a substrate. The method includes patterning an oxide layer to form an opening between the two neighboring sensor elements on the substrate. The method further includes performing a first implant to form a deep doped region between the two neighboring sensor elements and starting at a distance below a top surface of the substrate. The method further includes performing a second implant to form a shallow doped region between the two neighboring sensor elements, wherein a bottom portion of the shallow doped region overlaps with a top portion of the deep doped region.
US08766405B2
Provided is a semiconductor device. The semiconductor device includes a first insulation layer on a semiconductor substrate, the first insulation layer including a lower metal line, a second insulation layer on the first insulation layer, the second insulation layer including a metal head pattern, a thin film resistor pattern on the metal head pattern, a third insulation layer on the thin film resistor pattern, an upper metal line on the third insulation layer, a first via passing through the first, second, and third insulation layers to connect the lower metal line to the upper metal line, and a second via passing through the third insulation layer and the thin film resistor pattern to connect the metal head pattern to the upper metal line.
US08766397B2
An optoelectronic integrated circuit substrate may include a first region and a second region. The first region and the second region each include at least two buried insulation layers having different thicknesses. The at least two buried insulation layers of the first region are formed at a greater depth and have a greater thickness as compared to the at least two buried insulation layers of the second region. A micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) structure may be formed in a third region that does not include a buried insulation layer.
US08766391B2
Photodetector arrays, image sensors, and other apparatus are disclosed. In one aspect, an apparatus may include a surface to receive light, a plurality of photosensitive regions disposed within a substrate, and a material coupled between the surface and the plurality of photosensitive regions. The material may receive the light. At least some of the light may free electrons in the material. The apparatus may also include a plurality of discrete electron repulsive elements. The discrete electron repulsive elements may be coupled between the surface and the material. Each of the discrete electron repulsive elements may correspond to a different photosensitive region. Each of the discrete electron repulsive elements may repel electrons in the material toward a corresponding photosensitive region. Other apparatus are also disclosed, as are methods of use, methods of fabrication, and systems incorporating such apparatus.
US08766389B2
A solid-state imaging element including: a sensor substrate in which a photoelectric conversion section is arranged and formed; a circuit substrate in which a circuit for driving the photoelectric conversion section is formed, the circuit substrate being laminated to the sensor substrate; a sensor side electrode drawn out to a surface of the sensor substrate on a side of the circuit substrate and formed as one of a projection electrode and a depression electrode; and a circuit side electrode drawn out to a surface of the circuit substrate on a side of the sensor substrate, formed as one of the depression electrode and the projection electrode, and joined to the sensor side electrode in a state of the circuit side electrode and the sensor side electrode being fitted together.
US08766378B2
Programmable field effect transistors (FETs) are provided using high-k dielectric metal gate Vt shift effect and methods of manufacturing the same. The method of controlling Vt shift in a high-k dielectric metal gate structure includes applying a current to a gate contact of the high-k dielectric metal gate structure to raise a temperature of a metal forming a gate stack. The temperature is raised beyond a Vt shift temperature threshold for providing an on-state.
US08766372B2
Methods of fabricating a first contact to a semiconductor device, which fundamentally comprises providing a semiconductor device formed on a substrate. The substrate further includes a conductive surface. A dielectric layer is formed over the substrate and has an opening exposing the conductive surface. The opening extends an entire length of the semiconductor device, partway down the entire length of the device, extending from the device onto adjacent field of the device, or and a combination thereof. A barrier layer is formed within the opening. A copper containing material fills the opening to form a first contact to the semiconductor device.
