US08844518B2

A solar power tower solar receiver absorber including: an enclosure; at least one panel configured to be illuminated by solar flux; a core made of at least one material with heat conductivity at least partially encompassed by the enclosure; and a plurality of tubes passing through the core and extending substantially in a parallel direction with respect to the panel configured to be illuminated. The tube is configured for circulation of a fluid to be heated, for example a gas for operating a gas turbine.
US08844513B2

A device, system and method for heating fluid (air) in a flue to create a draw prior to combusting a fuel in a combustion device. The device, system and method includes a housing that may be integrated about the flue. The housing may include a heat exchanger that itself may include a heating source that may be in thermal communication with the flue and a temperature differentiation driver. The heat exchanger may operate to transfer heat energy from the heating source to a fluid constrained to a path created by the flue. The result is a pressure differential created within the flue to help draw the fluid out of the combustion device. The heat exchanger may be configured such that it may cause heat transfer to the heavier, more dense fluid contained within the ventilation system prior to combusting fuel in a combustion device, thereby causing the fluid to be relatively less dense thus creating a draw.
US08844503B2

A fuel supply system and method of controlling fuel flow through a supply system is provided including a variable flow, i.e. speed, electric fuel transfer pump and a control system adapted to variably control the transfer pump based on fuel demand of the engine. The system provides improved transient response by providing the transfer pump with a feed forward speed/flow command based on engine fueling demand determined based on engine operating conditions. The transfer pump is controlled based on fuel demand not necessarily achieved yet by the high pressure pump and injectors. Therefore, this system controls the EFTP substantially simultaneously with controlling the high pressure pump and injectors to optimize fuel flow through the entire system ensuring the minimum required fuel flow is passing through the second the fuel filtration system, hence maximizing steady state fuel filtration efficiency, and minimizing surge effects on filtration efficiency.
US08844501B2

The invention relates to a control and regulation method for an internal combustion engine having a common rail system, wherein a rail pressure is regulated in normal operation in that a first actual rail pressure is determined via a first filter from the rail pressure, an offset is calculated from a target rail pressure and the first actual rail pressure, a variable is calculated via a pressure regulator from the offset and a PWM signal having a first PWM frequency (f1) for activation of a control process is determined in dependence on the variable. A second actual rail pressure (pCR2(IST) is determined via a second filter, a load rejection is recognized if the second actual rail pressure (pCR2(IST)) exceeds a first threshold value (GW1), upon exceeding the first threshold value (GW1) the PWM signal switches over from the first PWM frequency (f1) to a second PWM frequency (f2) and the rail pressure is controlled upon exceeding a second threshold value in that the PWM signal is temporarily set to a PWM value that is higher than that of normal operation.
US08844495B2

The present disclosure generally relates to an engine with an integrated mixing of fluids device and associated technology for improvement of the efficiency of the engine, and more specifically to an engine equipped with a fuel mixing device for improvement of the overall properties by inline oxygenation of the liquid, a change in property of the liquid such as cooling form improved combustion, or the use of re-circulation of exhaust from the engine to further improve engine efficiency and reduce unwanted emissions.
US08844482B2

A camshaft for actuating the gas exchange valves of an internal combustion engine. The camshaft includes a camshaft tube, a hydraulic camshaft adjuster, a valve for controlling the hydraulic fluid supplied to the camshaft adjuster and an actuation device, arranged in the interior of the camshaft tube, for actuating the valve. The actuation device is secured against displacement in the axial direction. The camshaft is light-weight and functional elements in addition to the actuation device and optionally the valve can be integrated into the interior of the camshaft. It should furthermore be possible to arrange an oil or vacuum pump at the end of the camshaft opposite the camshaft adjuster, the pump being drivable by the camshaft. The actuation device is designed as an electromagnetic, piezoelectric or electrical actuator and is connected to the camshaft tube such that they rotate together.
US08844480B2

An internal-combustion engine with two intake valves for each cylinder is provided with a system for variable actuation of the intake valves, comprising a single solenoid valve for each cylinder that controls communication of the pressurized-fluid chamber of the system with an exhaust channel. The solenoid valve is a three-way, three-position solenoid valve, comprising an inlet permanently communicating with the pressurized-fluid chamber and with the hydraulic actuator of an intake valve, and two outlets communicating, respectively, with the actuator of the other intake valve and with said exhaust channel. The solenoid valve has a first position, in which the inlet communicates with both of the outlets, a second position, in which the inlet communicates only with the aforesaid outlet connected to the actuator of an intake valve and does not communicate, instead, with the outlet connected to the exhaust channel, and a third position, in which the inlet does not communicate with any of the two outlets.
US08844470B2

An animal handling system (AMS), useful for positioning an immobilized animal in a predefined configuration, including: a proximal portion, held outside a medical device, comprises at least one inner shaft, and at least one outer shaft, the at least one outer shaft telescopically maneuverable along the at least one inner shaft to provide a telescopic mechanism of variable (proximal-) length, the proximal portion; and a distal portion comprising a configurable encapsulatable life support system (ELSS), the ELSS is rotatable and/or linearly reciprocatable along the main longitudinal axis of the shafts by means of the maneuverable telescopic mechanism of the proximal portion. The proximal portion further comprising indicia indicating the linear displacement and rotation of the ELSS of the distal portion, such that the ELSS is accurately and reversibly configured within the medical device to optimized animal analyses.
US08844468B2

An aquarium landscape system that includes an aquarium that contains a combination of one or more aquatic animals and water, a base gravel mold with a top surface with 4 corners and a plurality of eye hooks that each have a threaded vertical insert portion and a circular eye portion that expose the circular eye portion of the eye hooks above the top surface of the base gravel mold. The system also includes one or more air hose connector valves that perpendicularly protrude from the top surface of the base gravel mold, a plurality of air valves that perpendicularly protrude from the top surface of the base gravel mold, the air valves emit the incoming air received by the air supply source into the aquarium and a pair of removable handles to remove the system from the aquarium for cleaning.
US08844461B2

A chemical fluid handling system is defined to supply a number of chemicals to a number of fluid inputs of a mixing manifold. The chemical fluid handling system includes a number of fluid recirculation loops for separately pre-conditioning and controlling the supply of each of the number of chemicals. Each of the fluid recirculation loops is defined to degas, heat, and filter a particular one of the number of chemical components. The mixing manifold is defined to mix the number of chemicals to form the electroless plating solution. The mixing manifold includes a fluid output connected to a supply line. The supply line is connected to supply the electroless plating solution to a fluid bowl within an electroless plating chamber.
US08844460B2

A pontoon boat including at least two pontoons and a deck supported on the pontoons. A wall assembly is anchored to the deck and extends generally upwardly therefrom to present an interior space for accommodating passengers. The wall assembly is composed of a plurality of wall segments, each including an open framework of extruded hollow beam members with an open area between the beam members. Each wall segment also includes at least one panel covering at least a portion of the open area, and the panel is secured by an adhesive along at least three of its edge regions to the beam members.
US08844458B2

A storage assembly comprising a slideable upper drawer unit and a lower drawer unit disposed in a housing. The upper drawer unit includes a slideable workstation and one or more primary drawers disposed beneath the workstation. A work panel is hingeably attached to a top surface of the workstation whereby the work panel is operable between an open position and a closed position. In the closed position, the work panel covers and conceals at least a portion of the top surface of the workstation, and in the open position the work panel is perpendicular to the top surface of the workstation. The work panel is received in a rear slot of the workstation when it is in the open position. The workstation may include features such as a sink and a cook top. The housing may be received in a seat casing, console, or bench on the boat.
US08844457B2

Method for building boats comprising a plurality of panels (11, 12) attached at the bottom and at the side to a hull (13) and at the top to a deck (14) suitable for defining a plurality of watertight compartments in the underdeck area, the method comprising the steps of attaching together the panels (11, 12) according to predetermined angles through fitting elements (20, 20′, 20″) of the type provided with at least two pathways for receiving the panels (11, 12), mutually arranged according to predetermined angles, and a pathway for receiving adhesive from outside and for distributing it in the pathways for receiving the panels (11, 12), anchoring the panels (11, 12) to the deck (14) and to the sides (13′) of the hull (13).
US08844454B2

The activation for a path and time related motion of a thread cutting and lead-in stitching unit (7) and the thread brake (25) occurs by a cam drive driven by the primary shaft (9) and a cam drum (75) arranged on the upper shaft (17). This way, an absolute synchronization of the elements of the thread cutting and lead-in stitching unit (7), the thread brake (25), and the hook as well as the needle is ensured.
US08844449B2

A large tree mover system includes a trench formed around the circumference of the tree, and a plurality of elongate supports beneath the root ball of the tree. Two or more connecting beams positioned over the plurality of supports connect the plurality of supports to form a substantially rigid frame. The plurality of inflatable airbags are positioned under the plurality of supports, and these or other airbags may be positioned under the supports to roll the root ball to a selected location. A method of moving large trees is also disclosed.
US08844445B2

An anchor cribbing machine includes a pair of ballast cribbing assemblies and a pair of rail clamp assemblies. The ballast cribbing assemblies are hydraulically-driven to push ballast away from the opposing sides of a railroad tie so that an anchor may be applied to the rail at the tie location. The ballast cribbing assemblies include support beams that are movable longitudinally relative to the rails and rotatable between an operative and a stowed position. The rail clamp assemblies are configured to engage the rail to prevent the machine from being driven off the rails in operation.
US08844443B2

Disclosed is spin-stabilized ammunition for use in grooved or smooth bore handheld firearms with calibers up to 60 mm. The projectile of the ammunition features a body in the shape of a truncated cone at the top of a cylinder with proportions of the cone length to the cylinder length varying between from one-to-six to one-to-three depending on the expected initial speed of the projectile after the ammunition has been discharged. A central longitudinal barrel extends through the projectile with a proportion of the entrance diameter and exit diameter of 1.38-to-one for expected discharge speeds near sound velocity or of 1.22-to-one for expected discharge of hypersonic velocities. Finally, nozzles within the projectile create a spinning motion around the projectile's axis, the nozzles being located between cavities for propellant charges.
US08844433B2

The present invention provides for measuring the air flow in an appliance. An air flow measuring device, such as a vane (aka turbine) anemometer, is placed directly into an air flow passageway and provides a signal indicative of the amount of air flow. This signal can be used e.g., to undertake a remedial response in the event the amount of air flow is not sufficient to provide proper cooling or ventilation of the appliance.
US08844429B2

A beverage maker, such as a pump espresso machine, comprises a noise attenuator reducing pump noise. The noise attenuator has a housing with an inlet chamber receiving inlet flow from an inlet port, the inlet chamber having compliant walls permitting volumetric expansion. An outlet chamber in the noise attenuator housing has an outlet port and spheroidal walls. A flow-restrictor is disposed between the inlet and outlet chambers. An elastomeric insert in the housing forms the inlet chamber and at least part of the outlet chamber.
US08844420B2

A glass plate cutting machine 1 includes a cutter wheel 4 for forming a cut line 3 on a glass plate 2; a moving means 5 for moving the cutter wheel 4 along a cut line 3a which has been preset and is to be formed on the glass plate 2; a resiliently pressing device 6 for resiliently pressing the cutter wheel 4 against the glass plate 2; and a control unit 7 for controlling the resiliently pressing device 6 so as to alternately change over the intensity of a resiliently pressing force of that cutter wheel 4 with respect to the glass plate 2 in the movement of the cutter wheel 4 by the moving means 5.
US08844418B2

The invention describes a device for guiding a saw blade, in particular a saw blade that is driven in an oscillating way, having a base body through which a guide slot extends for guiding a saw blade, which guide slot opens into a first guide surface configured as contact surface for the workpiece, having a stop which is supported on the base body and which comprises a second guide surface configured for being brought into contact with the workpiece and arranged at an angle relative to the first guide surface, and having a handle as means for holding the base body.
US08844414B2

An apparatus for cutting a window covering comprises a saw blade for cutting a plurality of different types of window coverings. A first controllable drive moves the saw blade into engagement with a window covering selected from the plurality of different types of the window coverings. A second controllable drive for rotates the saw blade. A preferred saw blade feed rate and a preferred saw blade speed for each of the plurality of different types of window coverings is determined. The first variable drive and the second variable drive are controlled based on the preferred saw blade feed rate and the preferred saw blade speed for the window covering being cut.
US08844408B2

A pneumatic ratchet wrench having a pneumatically actuated reversing device includes two cylinders disposed downstream of two branch conduits, and two plungers, each slidable in the respective cylinder by a burst of pressurized air from the branch conduits to bring an actuator into engagement with a direction selector so as to turn the direction selector in a selected one of clockwise and counterclockwise directions for unidirectionally rotating a drive body. The operation of direction selection is easy and handy to conduct.
US08844406B2

A seal breaker to break the seal of a container includes the container cap having either one or more slots with an adjacent rigid portion capable of penetrating the seal or one or more pointed projections capable of penetrating the seal or one or more pointed projections.
US08844395B2

A torque transmission assembly includes two structural component parts for coupled engagement to one another so as to rotate together around an axis of rotation, a first of these structural component parts has an inner circumferential toothing and a second of these structural component parts has an outer circumferential toothing for a rotary coupling engagement with the inner circumferential toothing. The teeth in one toothing of an inner circumferential toothing and outer circumferential toothing are bounded by end faces in a first axial end area of the one toothing. The one toothing has at least one tooth with an end face which is extended forward axially relative to the end faces of the other teeth of the one toothing, and the end face of at least one tooth of the one toothing with the end face which is extended forward axially forms a circumferentially deflecting end face for the other toothing.
US08844393B2

A dual clutch transmission (DCT) control module includes a position control module that actuates a shift fork of the DCT during a first shift state based on a measured shift fork position and a target shift fork position. A force control module adjusts a control force associated with the shift fork during a second shift state based on synchronizer slip.
US08844391B2

A transmission mechanism with a pair of selectively engageable clutch systems that has an upstream gear ratio and a downstream gear ratio that combine to provide an effective gear ratio. A different clutch drive member is associated with an input side of each of the pair of clutch systems. The clutch drive members are driven for rotation by an engine input member. The upstream gear ratio is determined by the gear ratio between the engine input member and one of the clutch drive members. Output sides of each of the clutch systems drive an associated one of a pair of non-coaxial layshafts. Pinions are located on and selectively driven by the layshafts. A countershaft is spaced from both of the layshafts, and has a plurality of gears. Each of the gears is driven for rotation by one of the pinions of the layshafts. The downstream gear ratio is determined by the gear ratio between the selected pinion and the intermeshed gear.
US08844389B2

An automatically locking actuator includes a first end connector, a rotatable drive screw operably coupled to the first end connector, a nut assembly threadably mounted on the drive screw, a second end connector operably coupled to the nut assembly and a rotary lock having a rotor and where the actuator moves between extended and retracted positions in response to rotation of the rotor.
US08844388B2

A system and method for interfacing non-sterile sensors to a sterile flow stream is disclosed. Typically, sensors cannot be sterilized in the same manner as other components of the flow stream. This results in complex processes to incorporate a sterilized sensor into a sterilized flow stream. By introducing a separation membrane, the desired sensor can be interfaced to the sterile flow stream. By doing so, the sensor need not be sterile, only sufficiently clean. The membrane separates the sterile environment within the flow stream from the sensor, while still permitting the sensor to function.
US08844387B1

An inspection sled for remotely inspecting cables includes a chassis. The left end and right end of the chassis each includes a collar and a swing arm. Swing arms can be opened to admit a cable within the confines of the collars. The swing arms can be closed such that the cable is journaled within the collars, thus allowing the inspection sled to travel along the length of the tensioned cable to perform inspections of the tensioned cable.
US08844382B1

A system for use in measuring an end play of a wheel hub assembly includes a cap attachable to a shaft of a wheel hub assembly. A frame has a cavity receiving a measurement probe extending outwardly from the cavity. The probe contacts the cap and is configured to measure movement of the cap to determine endplay of the bearing assembly on the shaft. The frame includes a plurality of legs extending from the frame to mount on the shaft. The legs contain torque sockets and torque limiters which are threadably engaged and tightened onto lugs of the wheel hub assembly without exceeding a preselected torque. The torque sockets allow the frame and system to be used on hub assemblies having wheels thereon without removal of the wheels from the hub assemblies or lug nuts from the lugs supporting the wheel.
US08844381B2

A torque wrench comprises a handle, a wrench head having a ratcheting workpiece engaging portion, and a tensor beam defining a longitudinal axis and having a rectangular cross-section perpendicular to the longitudinal axis. A first strain gauge is coupled to one side of the tensor beam, and a second strain gauge is coupled to another side orthogonal to the one side. A processor coupled to the first and second strain gauges converts an output signal from one of the strain gauges into an equivalent torque value. The tensor beam is intermediate the handle and the wrench head and is rotatably coupled to the wrench head and is rotatable, with respect to the tensor beam, between a first position in which the processor processes an output signal from the first strain gauge and a second position in which the processor processes an output signal from the second strain gauge assembly.
US08844380B2

A torque sensor has a magnetic sensor, which is composed of a first magnetic detecting element, a second magnetic detecting element and a comparator. The first magnetic detecting element outputs an output signal of a provisional detection value, while the second magnetic detecting element outputs an output signal of a reference value. The comparator compares the provisional detection value and the reference value and outputs the provisional detection value as an authorized detection value, when a difference value between the provisional detection value and the reference value is smaller than a predetermined threshold value.
US08844346B1

A dynamic load estimation system is provided including: a vehicle load bearing tire; at least one tire sensor mounted to the tire, the sensor operable to measure a tire deformation of the one tire and generate a raw load-indicating signal conveying measured deformation data; road roughness estimation means for determining a road roughness estimation; filtering means for filtering the measured deformation data by the road roughness estimation; and load estimation means for estimating an estimated load on the one tire from filtered measured deformation data. A road profile estimate is fused with the static load estimate in order to obtain an instantaneous tire load estimate.
US08844340B2

The invention provides a device for the gravimetric detection of particles in a fluid medium, simultaneously providing a high quality factor, easier operating conditions, small size and low production costs. For this purpose, the subject of the invention is a device for the gravimetric detection of particles in a fluid medium, comprising a flat electromechanical oscillator (1), means for supporting the oscillator and means for actuating said oscillator, said means being designed to ensure that the oscillator (1) vibrates in its plane, said device further including a channel (4) for passage of the fluid, said channel being in fluid communication with a through-cavity (1b) made in said oscillator.
US08844338B2

A gas sensor element of the present invention detects concentration of a specific gas within a measured gas. The gas sensor element comprises: a wiring layer formed inside a sensor; an insulating layer covering a front surface of the wiring layer; an electrode terminal provided on a main surface of the insulating layer on an opposite side of the insulating layer from the wiring layer, and electrically connected to the wiring layer; and an intermediate layer interposed between the electrode terminal and the wiring layer, and electrically connecting the electrode terminal and the wiring layer. The electrode terminal is composed of a first metal material. The wiring layer is composed of a second metal material. The intermediate layer is composed of whichever of the first metal material and the second metal material has the lower melting point.
US08844333B2

A forming machine for forming a longitudinal margin of a strip of material into a desired profile and methods encompassing the steps inherent in the described mechanical structures and operation thereof. The forming machine includes a frame, a drive mechanism, a plurality of forming elements, and an edge guide mechanism. The edge guide mechanism applies pressure along the edge margin in a lateral direction, thereby following the edge margin as the strip is advanced through the machine. The edge guide includes a carriage assembly attached to the frame that comprises a carriage support frame and a carriage movably disposed thereon. The edge guide mechanism includes an actuator connected to the carriage that is operative to urge the carriage toward edge margin. At least one guide roller is mounted to the carriage and adapted to receive the edge margin of the strip.
US08844325B2

A liquid additive dispensing apparatus for dispensing a liquid additive into a washing machine having a tub accommodating a fluid and a basket rotatably disposed in the tub. A storage container is provided for storing the liquid additive. A tube is used to implement a fluid communication between the storage container and the tub. The tube has an inlet coupled to the storage container and an outlet coupled to the tub. The apparatus further has a venturi member arranged in the tub and in fluid communication with the outlet of the tube. The venturi member creates a venturi effect at the outlet of the tube when the wash basket rotates in the tub to send water or air into the venturi member, so that a reduced pressure is created at the outlet to suck the liquid additive from the storage container to the tub.
US08844320B2

A manufacturing method of a sheet glass material for magnetic disk, the method includes, dropping process for dropping a lump of molten glass; pressing process for sandwiching simultaneously the lump from both sides of the dropping path of the lump with surfaces of a pair of dies facing together, and performing press forming to the lump to obtain a sheet glass material, wherein at least one of the pair of dies has a concave shape with respect to the dropping path of the lump.
US08844310B2

A refrigerator including a cabinet having a cabinet door pivotally connected thereto. A primary ice bin is disposed on one of the cabinet and the cabinet door and includes a primary gate operable between a closed position and an open position. A secondary ice bin is disposed on the other of the cabinet and the cabinet door. The secondary ice bin includes a secondary gate operable between a closed position and an open position. The secondary gate operably engages with the primary gate to form an ice overflow route when the primary gate and the secondary gate are in the open position. An ice maker is disposed inside the cabinet and adapted to dispense ice into the primary ice storage bin.
US08844304B2

A pool heating system is disclosed. The pool heating system includes, in some embodiments, an immersed condenser coil. In some embodiments, the immersed condenser coil is immersed in a pool of water receiving hot refrigerant gas at high pressure from an outdoor unit, transferring heat to water in the pool, condensing the gas and transmitting condensed refrigerant to the outdoor unit. The system also includes an outdoor unit. In some embodiments, the outdoor unit includes a compressor, an expansion valve, an evaporator, and a fan.
US08844301B2

An air-conditioning apparatus includes a heat medium relay unit accommodating heat exchangers for exchanging heat between a flammable refrigerant and a heat medium different from the refrigerant. The heat medium relay unit is disposed in a space in a structure that is not an air conditioned space. One or more outdoor units are connected to the heat medium relay unit to circulate the refrigerant therein. The outdoor units are disposed in a space outside the structure or a space inside the structure that is not isolated completely from the space outside the structure. One or more indoor units are connected to the heat medium relay unit by a different system than that of the outdoor units. The indoor units circulate the heat medium therein to exchange heat with air related to the indoor space.
US08844292B2

A method for purging fuel from a fuel system of a gas turbine engine on shutdown of the engine comprises, in one aspect, terminating a fuel supply to the fuel system and using the residual compressed air to create a reversed pressure differential in the fuel system relative to a forward pressure differential of the fuel system used to maintain fuel supply for engine operation, and under the reversed pressure differential substantially purging the fuel remaining in the system therefrom to a fuel source.
US08844288B2

A steam turbine facility is provided which is capable of appropriately sealing a gap between members made of cast material of Ni-based alloy even under the steam-temperature condition of 650° C. or higher, and which includes a first member and a second member whose base material is formed of cast material composed of at least one of Ni-based alloy, austenite steel, or high-chrome steel, form a space where the steam of 650° C. or higher flows. Between the first member and the second member, a metal gasket is provided which has a plurality of portions in line contact with the first member and the second member. On the first member and the second member, a first high-hardness layer which is harder than the base material, is provided at least in a portion where each of the first member and the second member is in line contact with the metal gasket.
US08844287B1

The present invention is directed at the thermodynamic property amplification of a given thermal supply, provided by hydrocarbon combustion or in the preferred application heat provided by low-grade geothermal energy from the earth, for a vapor power cycle. The present invention achieves the desired objectives by segregating the compressible supercritical energy stream from the heat exchanger (boiler) into hot and cool fractions using a vortex tube, where the hot temperature is elevated above the heat exchanger temperature; and adding back heat (enthalpy) to the cool stream increasing the cool temperature to that of the geothermal heat exchanger. The heat-exchanger (boiler) supercritical gaseous mass flow segregated by a counterflow vortex tube (or bank of vortex tubes) forms hot and cool fractions where the hot temperature is raised above the heat-exchanger supply temperature, and heat (enthalpy) is added to the cool stream thereby increasing the cool temperature to that of the heat exchanger supply temperature.
US08844286B2

An air cleaner includes a case in which an inner cylindrical filter and an outer cylindrical filter are housed, the case having a case body that defines an opening end surface closed by a cover member. The case includes an air inlet provided to an outer circumference of the case body for supplying outside air and an exhaust outlet provided to a bottom of the case body at a downstream side in an air-flowing direction for discharging the air supplied through the air inlet and filtered through the inner cylindrical filter and the outer cylindrical filter. A mass flow rate sensor is provided in the exhaust outlet to measure the flow rate of the air. A flow straightening grid is provided at the upstream side of the mass flow rate sensor to straighten the flow of the air.
US08844285B2

A two-stage supercharging exhaust turbocharger includes: a high-pressure-stage supercharger having a high-pressure turbine driven by exhaust gas discharged from an exhaust manifold of an engine; a low-pressure-stage supercharger having a low-pressure turbine driven by the exhaust gas used to drive the high-pressure-stage supercharger, the high-pressure-stage supercharger and the low-pressure-stage supercharger being arranged in series in an exhaust gas passageway; and an exhaust gas control valve configured to selectively change flow rates of the exhaust gas passageways of the high-pressure-stage supercharger and the low-pressure-stage supercharger, wherein an exhaust manifold incorporating casing is configured by integrally forming the exhaust manifold, a high-pressure turbine housing of the high-pressure-stage supercharger, and a valve casing accommodating the exhaust gas control valve.
US08844276B2

An exhaust muffler disposed in proximity to a cylinder of a general-purpose engine is provided, in which an exhaust muffler for a general-purpose engine is formed from a muffler main body connected to a cylinder of a general-purpose engine via an exhaust pipe and disposed adjacent to the cylinder, a partition member that divides the interior of the muffler main body into a first muffler chamber communicating with the exhaust pipe and a second muffler chamber communicating with an exhaust outlet of the muffler main body, and an exhaust cooling pipe exposed outside the muffler main body while providing communication between the first muffler chamber and the second muffler chamber. This enables exhaust gas to be cooled effectively by passing though the exhaust cooling pipe when moving from the first muffler chamber to the second muffler chamber, thus enhancing muffling by reducing the pressure of the exhaust gas.
US08844270B2

The present disclosure relates to a diesel exhaust treatment device including a catalytic converter positioned upstream from a diesel particulate filter. An electric heater is positioned between the catalytic converter and the diesel particulate filter. A shore station can be used to provide power and combustion air to the diesel exhaust treatment device during regeneration of the diesel particulate filter.
US08844269B2

There is disclosed a method and system for pressurizing a reductant solution from a reductant storage device and superheating the pressurized reductant solution. The superheated pressurized reductant solution at least partially decomposes in the heat exchanger and/or a decomposition chamber before it is released into an exhaust system. The at least partially decomposed reductant solution is delivered to the exhaust system upstream of the SCR catalyst.
US08844262B2

A gas turbine engine is provided having an offtake passage that in one form is capable of extracting a bypass flow from the engine. The airflow traversing the offtake passage is introduced to an exhaust flow of the gas turbine engine through an offtake outlet. The offtake outlet includes an airflow member that is moveable. A nozzle is also provided for exhaust from the gas turbine engine. In one form the nozzle includes moveable duct members. Flows exiting the offtake outlet and the nozzle can be combined after passing the airflow member and the moveable duct members, respectively.
US08844245B2

A method for packaging a beverage comprising particulates in a liquid, the method comprising dispensing a first portion of the beverage from a first source into containers, wherein the first portion of the beverage comprises at least a majority of the particulates and a first portion of the liquid, dispensing from a counterpressure filler a second portion of the beverage from a second source into the containers, wherein the second portion of the beverage comprises a second portion of the liquid, and sealing the containers to form packaged beverages. An apparatus for packaging a beverage comprising particulates in a liquid. A method for packaging, in sequence, a first beverage comprising particulates in a liquid and a second beverage comprising a carbonated beverage. A method for packaging a beverage comprising a dairy component and a liquid.
US08844244B2

A take-up fastener is disclosed for fastening a level in a frame construction to the level below so as to resist upward forces generated by wind and other sources on the framed construction. The take-up fastener in general includes a take-up plate, or washer, fastened to a portion of the upper level and a take-up screw fit through the take-up plate and fastened to the adjacent level below. Once the take-up fastener is fully assembled, the take-up plate includes a pair of tabs which are capable of engaging threads on a take-up screw in a way that allows one-way motion of the take-up screw relative to the take-up plate. In particular, the take-up plate can move downward relative to the take-up screw, for example on constricting of the wooden members to which the take-up plate is affixed. However, the engagement between the take-up plate and take-up screw prevents movement of the take-up plate upward with respect to the take-up screw, for example upon an upward load due to wind or other external force.
US08844243B1

An arbitrary structural insulated panel and an adjoining structural insulated panel, which include magnesium oxide boards as the exterior panels, can be connected together by a first spline and a second spline. The arbitrary structural insulated panel is first connected to a building floor foundation. Then the first spline and the second spline are adhered into the arbitrary structural insulated panel. The adjoining structural insulated panel is then secured to the arbitrary structural insulated panel as the first spline and the second spline engage with the adjoining structural insulated panel. A plurality of fasteners is used as the final step to further secure the arbitrary structural insulated panel and the adjoining structural insulated panel.
US08844241B2

Methods and apparatus are provided for lining one or more surfaces of concrete structures during fabrication thereof. A structure-lining apparatus comprises a plurality of structure-lining panels and a plurality of concrete-anchoring components. The panels, which may extend in longitudinal and transverse directions, are interconnected to one another in edge-to-edge relationship at their transverse edges to line at least a portion of the interior of the structural form. The concrete-anchoring components extend in an inward/outward direction from the panels. The concrete-anchoring components may: be integrally formed with the panels; connect to the panels via suitably configured connector components; and/or connect edge-adjacent panels to one another. The concrete-anchoring components may comprise concrete-anchoring features which may extend in the longitudinal and transverse directions (e.g. in a plane parallel to the panels) to provide concrete-anchoring surfaces. In particular embodiments, the concrete-anchoring features comprise a stem which extends in the inward/outward and longitudinal directions and, at a distance spaced apart from the panels in the inward/outward direction, one or more leaves which extend in the longitudinal and transverse directions to provide anchoring surfaces. Concrete is then poured into the form on an interior of the lining panels and allowed to solidify in the form. As the concrete solidifies, the concrete-anchoring components bond the lining panels to the resultant concrete structure.
US08844228B2

A dry-cast concrete block is provided. The dry-cast concrete block comprises a surface to be exposed, at least a portion of the surface having a cast texture with a natural stone appearance. The cast texture may have a surface level difference of greater than 4 mm. In one example of implementation, the dry-cast concrete block may be a paving unit, in which case the surface level difference may be greater than 6 mm, such as between 6 mm and 12 mm. In another example of implementation, the dry-cast concrete block may be a wall construction unit, in which case the surface level difference may be greater than 15 mm, such as between 15 mm and 25 mm. Each of a plurality of points of the cast texture may define a respective texture angle between 75° and 90°. The cast texture may comprise at least one valley each having a respective depth greater than 4 mm. A process for manufacturing such a concrete block is also provided.
US08844227B1

The invention comprises a product. The product comprises a foam insulating panel, the panel having a first primary surface and an opposite second primary surface, wherein the foam insulating panel defines at least one recessed channel in the first primary surface, the at least one recessed channel being sized and shaped to provide a mold for a structural reinforcing member. The product also comprises a concrete panel formed on the first primary surface and filling the at least one recessed channel so as to provide a structural reinforcing member for the concrete panel. The product further comprises an elongate anchor member in the foam insulating panel and extending from the first primary surface of the foam insulating panel into the concrete panel. A method of making a composite reinforced insulated concrete structure is also disclosed.
US08844226B2

A solar heat pump building preferably includes a building, an air barrier insulation layer, a material insulation layer and a plurality of ducts. The air barrier insulation layer includes a ceiling air barrier insulation layer and a wall air barrier insulation layer. The ceiling air barrier insulation layer is a ceiling air gap created between a ceiling sheet and a roof panel.The wall air barrier insulation layer is a wall air gap created between the ceiling sheet and two opposing lengthwise wall panels, and two inner end wall sheets and two opposing end wall panels. Two lengthwise wall insulation layers are attached to vertical portions of the ceiling sheet. Two end wall insulation layers are attached to the two inner end wall sheets. A plurality of ducts include lengthwise ducts and end ducts, which are retained in the wall air barrier insulation layer to channel air.
US08844220B2

The present invention relates to a computer room which is surrounded by a lower floor, at least one side wall and a roof, with an air-permeating load-bearing floor disposed above the lower floor, on which, in use, computer equipment is disposed. A separation arrangement provides for the separation from each other of a riser channel for hot air above the computer equipment on the one hand and a return channel for air being carried back from the top of the computer room to the space under the load-bearing floor on the other hand. The surface area of the return channel of a cross-section of the computer room amounts to at least 5% of the surface area of the riser channel of the same cross-section.
US08844216B2

This invention provides upper diverters which are used on support structures on roofs. Such upper diverter has a lower flange which interfaces with the respective roof panel, and an upstanding wall which extends up from the lower flange. The upper diverter diverts water, flowing down the roof, laterally away from the respective roof panel.
US08844211B2

An office workwall assembly includes a work frame assembly that includes a pair of vertical frame members, a horizontal frame member extending between and operably coupled to the pair of vertical frame members, wherein the pair of vertical frame members each include at least one longitudinally-extending channel. The frame assembly further includes a pair of frame mounting bracket secured within the at least one channel by at least one mechanical fastener and adapted to be secured to a wall structure and support the frame assembly from the wall structure, wherein the vertical frame members may be vertically, horizontally and/or angularly adjusted with respect to the mounting bracket positioned within the channel. The workwall assembly also includes an office utility assembly operably coupled with and supported by the pair of vertical frame members, wherein the office utility assembly is cantilevered from the frame assembly.
US08844206B2

The present invention is a mobile performance stage mounted on a hydraulic lift truck for enabling a quick and easy performance setup in a location that does not already have a dedicated stage. The lift truck supports a hydraulic lift mechanism, which supports the stage and enables the stage to be elevated to a desired height. The stage is a rectangular cuboid resembling a cargo hold of most cargo trucks, with doors at each of the four lateral sides that open to reveal a performance area. The perimeter of the stage is outlined by short sidewalls except for the side of the stage between the performers and the audience. The stage comprises trusses outlining the vertical sides and roof of the stage for mounting lighting and other performance equipment. The stage also comprises a digital display, a safety railing, and a utility platform.
US08844205B2

A passive damper for earthquake hazard reduction includes an inner member received in an outer member, with an elastomeric material disposed in the gaps between the inner and outer member. The elastomeric material has at least a first and a second portion. The first portion is bonded or connected to both the inner member and outer member such that no slippage occurs between the members and the material. The second portion is not bonded or connected to at least one of the inner and outer members such that slippage may occur.
US08844204B2

A revolving security door includes a drum defining a secure zone between door openings controlled by a revolving door disposed within the drum and wherein light curtain sensors and active infrared sensors may detect an intruder moving from a non-secure side of the doorway to the secure side and detect objects left behind in a secure zone. Methods of operation prevent persons or objects from passing from the non-secure side to the secure side of the doorway.
US08844203B2

A sliding window assembly for a vehicle includes a fixed panel and a sliding panel moveable relative to the fixed panel between an open position and a closed position. An elongated member is connected to the fixed panel and defines a channel extending along a longitudinal axis from a first end to a second end. The channel receives the sliding panel for movement of the sliding panel relative to the fixed panel. A rail is disposed in the channel along the longitudinal axis and is spaced along the longitudinal axis from the first end. The elongated member defines a drain hole molded into the elongated member in the channel. The drain hole is defined between the rail and the first end of the channel along the axis for draining water from the channel.
US08844200B2

A door operator for use with a door includes an arm that extends from the door operator. The door operator includes a motor moving the arm to move the door between a closed position and an open position and between the open position and the closed position. A current sensor generates a current signal corresponding to the current to the motor. A position sensor in communication with the door arm generates a position signal corresponding to the position of the door relative to the frame. A controller communicates with the sensor and the motor. The controller controls a motor current to the motor in response to the current signal and the position signal.
US08844193B2

An apparatus for killing and removing ticks from the skin of mammals which includes an aerosol canister. An environmentally safe refrigerant HFO-1234yf is carried within the aerosol canister. A mechanism is for dispensing the environmentally safe refrigerant from the aerosol canister directly onto a tick to immobilize and kill the tick. Another mechanism is for safely removing the dead tick from the skin of a mammal.
US08844192B2

An insect pest-controlling apparatus (1) includes a light-reflecting attraction unit (4) that reflects sunlight and a trap (6) to trap insects attracted to light reflected by the light-reflecting attraction unit (4). The light-reflecting attraction unit (4) is a reflector whose reflectance of 220 to 390 nm light wavelength components is 5% or less. Because the light-reflecting attraction unit (4) reflects almost no ultraviolet rays, the contrast of ultraviolet rays is increased in the space compared with sunlight by the insect pest-controlling apparatus (1) and diurnal agricultural insect pests are strongly attracted to the light-reflecting attraction unit (4). Accordingly, diurnal agricultural insect pests can be attracted and trapped in large quantities in the daytime.
US08844185B2

A modular firearm comprising an adjustable modular buttstock assembly. The buttstock assembly can include a frame with a central opening. A comb assembly having a cheek piece and a butt plate assembly having a recoil pad each can be mounted to the frame by an adjustment apparatus. Each adjustment apparatus can include of a guide post and/or a threaded adjustment post each received in respective bores in the frame to adjust the positions of the cheek piece and recoil pad. The adjustment apparatus also can include a locking or engagement feature that can selectively increase the friction between the frame and the guide post and/or adjustment post, to help prevent the translation of the guide post and/or adjustment post in the bore in the frame to fix the comb assembly and butt plate assembly in desired positions with respect to the frame.
US08844179B2

A backlight section is adapted for use in connection with a large format graphic illumination system. The backlight sheet has one or more electroluminescent panels attached to it. This backlight sheet will be mounted onto a display surface. The graphic sheet is then mounted over the assembled backlight sheet having the electroluminescent panels thereon.
US08844168B2

A lacing system for an article of footwear may include a lateral series of lace-receiving elements and a medial series of lace-receiving elements. A first lace extends consecutively through a first lateral lace-receiving element, a second lateral lace-receiving element, a fourth medial lace-receiving element, a fifth lateral lace-receiving element, a third medial lace-receiving element, and again through the first lateral lace-receiving element. A second lace extends consecutively through a first medial lace-receiving element, a second medial lace-receiving element, a fourth lateral lace-receiving element, a fifth medial lace-receiving element, a third lateral lace-receiving element, and again through the first medial lace-receiving element.
US08844167B2

The embodiments relate to an article of footwear and method of manufacturing that includes a first layer and a second layer configured to form a plurality of tunnels configured to receive a cord system. The manufacturing includes steps of placing a first layer, placing a cord on the first layer, securing the cord on the first layer, placing a second layer on the first layer and the cord, attaching the second layer to the first layer, and detaching the cord from the first layer. When the cord is secured with a thread, the thread may be removed by dissolving or cutting. The attaching of the second layer to the first layer can be completed by stitching or thermal welding, for example.
US08844166B2

Insole (1) intended to be placed removably in a shoe (8), said insole comprising a long and thin body (2) and a vibrating device (4) embedded in said body (2), said vibrating device (4) comprising an electric accumulator (12), a control system (14) and a vibration generator (16).
US08844158B2

The invention relates to a felt material comprising at least one felt layer and an absorbing layer, to a method for producing the felt material, and to the use of the felt material in textiles, shoes, technical application or medical applications. The felt material according to the invention has the advantages of conventional felt materials regarding the warming and damping properties and is permeable to air in the dry state. Due to the special design, however, it is waterproof in the wet state and thus it is suitable for sealing many materials. The felt material according to the invention binds more humidity or binds water in a different way than common felt materials.
US08844153B2

A micrometer includes: a displacement detector that detects a displacement of a spindle; a display device that is rotatably attached to a fixed sleeve; and a control device that controls the display device. The display device includes: an image display section that displays an image including a measurement value based on the displacement detected by the displacement detector; a surface member that faces the image display section and has a touch surface; a position sensor that detects a position pressed on the touch surface; and a support member that supports the image display section, the surface member and the position sensor while the touch surface is exposed to an outside, the support member being rotatably attached to the fixed sleeve.
US08844139B2

A method of making a multilayer all-ceramic dental appliance. A first article can be formed of a first material based on a first digital surface representation having a desired outer shape of the dental appliance. A portion of the first article can be removed to form an outer layer comprising a cavity dimensioned to accommodate an inner layer. A second article can be formed by filling the cavity of the first article with a second material. The second article can be further processed, as desired. For example, a desired inner shape can be formed in the second article. Such a desired inner shape can be based on a second digital surface representation of a dental object configured to receive the dental appliance. At least one of the first article, the outer layer, and the second article can be fired, for example, while still being coupled to a support.
US08844133B2

A hybrid rocket motor is manufactured by photopolymerizing the solid fuel grain in a stereolithography method, wherein fuel grains in a plastic matrix are deposited in layers for building a solid fuel rocket body in three dimensions for improved performance and for a compact design,
US08844129B2

A method and apparatus for removing cracks on a gas turbine engine component includes mounting a first pivotable tool to a base, mounting a second pivotable tool to the first pivotable tool, and mounting a fixture holding the gas turbine engine component to the second pivotable tool. The first pivotable tool and the second pivotable tool are adjusted to position the gas turbine engine component in a desired orientation. A linear tool is then moved along an axis to machine at least one crack from a surface of the gas turbine engine component.
US08844126B2

Electrical resistance between a male part and a female part through a canted spring is disclosed using mathematical modeling. Increase or decrease in resistance can be quickly analyzed by looking at the equivalence resistance and the number of contacts at the input side, the output side, or both. The number of contacts may also be created by forming a dimple having a discontinuity.
US08844117B2

The present invention relates to a machine tool and a corresponding method for machining, in particular for turning and milling, a workpiece having a central bore, said machine tool including a tool holder for holding a tool, a work rest for seating the workpiece, a work mounting for holding the workpiece in place, and a drive mechanism for rotating the workpiece about a central rotation axis, wherein the work rest has an arbor for attaching the workpiece, such that a section of the arbor projects into the central bore on a first side of the workpiece, and wherein the work mounting has a counter-holder movable in the direction of the bore axis of the central bore for applying a contact pressure, acting in the direction of the bore axis, to the workpiece on a second side opposite the first side.
US08844115B2

A method for producing a machine casing of a shredding device includes providing component parts and/or assembly groups of the machine casing of the shredding device. Retaining ring bolts are provided, and at least some of the component parts and/or assembly groups of the machine casing are connected to each other through use of the retaining bolt rings.
US08844114B2

A system and method for an engineered joint according to one example embodiment includes a hinge pin and loops that extend from membranes around the hinge pin. Multiple embodiments include loops that extend from an upper module membrane and cross to attach to a second upper module membrane and loops that extend from a first lower module membrane and cross to attach to a second lower module membrane.
US08844105B2

Furniture, such as a chair, and method of assembly thereof includes the steps of configuring an upholstery fabric outer covering and a flap having one or more open sides, the flap affixable on one side to the outer covering. A number of foam blocks are configured in shapes, which, taken together, conform to the shape of the furniture to be assembled.
US08844102B2

A funerary urn includes a receptacle (1) that has an opening (4) that is equipped with a removable sealing partition (11) for introducing ashes. The urn is equipped with side walls (3), a lower wall (2), and an upper wall (5), with one of the walls being removable in order to open and close the urn, the urn also including first and second inside compartments (6, 7) that each has an access element that is independent of the other and separate from the opening (4) for introducing ashes. The first compartment is equipped with a window (8) toward the outside, and the second compartment is completely concealed. The urn is designed for the perpetuation of memory because it makes it possible to preserve an emotional and material trace of the deceased individual thanks to independent compartments of the receptacle receiving the ashes.
US08844097B2

A hinge including a device bracket, a door bracket, a first arm, a second arm, and a door stop is provided. The device bracket mounts to a device surface. The door bracket mounts to a door surface of a door. The first arm is mounted for rotation about a first pin and a second pin. The second arm is mounted for rotation about a third pin and a fourth pin. The first pin and third pin are mounted to the device bracket, and the second pin and fourth pin are mounted to the door bracket. The first pin is closer to an axis of rotation of the door than the third pin when the door is in a closed position. The door stop is mounted to the second arm and positioned to contact the first arm when the door is opened to a selected angle.
US08844096B2

The present invention discloses a caster device comprising a column, a wheel module and a directional mechanism. The wheel module is pivoted on the column. The directional mechanism includes a directional component movably disposed inside the wheel module and detachably engaged with the column. A moving direction of the directional component is intersected with a pivoting axis of the wheel module. Because the moving direction of the directional component of the present invention is intersected with the pivoting axis of the wheel module, the column is locked well, so as to result in a better orientation effect by using the directional mechanism. The directional component is movably disposed inside the wheel module, so that the directional component is intersected with the pivoting axis of the wheel module rapidly, so as to increase an operating efficiency for orientation.
US08844088B2

A spray mop utilizing a latch and an auxiliary latch that prevents a hinge bar of a mop head from separating and keeping either a cloth mop or a string mop in place. The spray mop utilizes a spray mop that is activated by the use of a lever near the handle of the spray mop. In another embodiment, the hinge bar just uses a latch without an auxiliary latch.
US08844083B2

An adjustable, modular handicap-access-ramp system enables transport of wheelchairs and temporarily or permanently physically handicapped individuals and no-step access thereof into and out of a structure. The system comprises a plurality of core modules and at least one additional module adapted to be combined with each other and the core modules to configure a customized ramp. At least one combined locating and support pin is adapted to connect to each other those of the core and additional modules disposed adjacent to each other. At least one substantially infinitely adjustable column assembly allows movement of predetermined core and additional modules up or down and to a desired angle. At least one connector allows attachment to each other of adjacent core and additional modules that require a change in grade with respect to each other.
US08844079B2

A patient support including a pressure adjustable mattress system. The pressure adjustable mattress system includes a support surface and a controller to control the pressure of the support surface.
US08844072B2

An infant supporting apparatus includes a base frame, a support frame and a resting support. The base frame includes a first and a second leg frame portion pivotally connected with each other about a first pivot axis, wherein the first and second leg frame portions have foot portions. The support frame is assembled with the base frame, and includes a first and a second support frame portion pivotally connected with each other about a second pivot axis spaced apart from the first pivot axis, the first and second pivot axes being vertically aligned with each other. The resting support is suspended from the first and second support frames for receiving the placement of a child.
US08844071B1

A self-contained convertible bed and storage system is disclosed herein to accommodate the needs of various users by transforming into an assembly fit either for crib use or an assembly fit for bed use with storage capabilities. The self-contained convertible bed and storage system preferably comprises: a crib framework assembly; a mattress platform assembly; and a support system having a fourfold corner-support-system, a front sidewall support, and a rear sidewall support. The crib framework assembly and the mattress platform assembly are releasably attached one to another to form a multi-purpose changeable bed arrangement. The crib framework assembly, mattress platform assembly, support system may be arranged in combination to form a crib. Alternatively, the mattress platform assembly and support system may be arranged in combination to form a bed.
US08844069B1

An inflatable tank and basin system for providing water for sanitation has a tank constructed from a pliable material with a tank sealed cavity for inflation. In a first state, upon inflation, the tank is for containing water. In a second state, upon deflation, the tank is collapsible for easy portability. The system has a basin with a concave basin top. The basin is constructed from a pliable material with a basin sealed cavity for inflation. In a first state, upon inflation, the basin is for containing water. In a second state, upon deflation, the basin is collapsible for easy portability. The inflatable tank and basin system is for providing water for sanitation in areas wherein there is no present or there is limited/remote access like in parks and disaster shelters.
US08844068B2

A shower drain adapter configured to allow use of a bondable waterproof membrane with a shower pan drain system comprises a drain body and a lower mating flange extending from the drain body. The lower mating flange is operable to mate with an upper portion of a body of a shower pan drain installable on a waste pipe. An integrated bonding flange extends from the drain body and is operable to be sealably attached to a bondable waterproof membrane to provide a waterproof seal between the membrane and the adapter.
US08844063B2

Disclosed is a form-fitting glove and catching device that provides sports fans with a ready means to catch a ball entering the spectator seating area while not reducing the wearer's ability to handle items will the glove is worn. The device comprises a glove having a body region covering the palm region and backside region of the wearer's hand, a thumb portion, a forefinger portion and a plurality of shortened finger portions. Spanning between the thumb and forefinger portions is a mitt web material for accepting a baseball or similar sports ball therein. The palm region includes a layer of protective padding, while the base of the body region comprises an opening having a strap securement means. The mitt web is a woven or netted material being secured along its periphery to the exterior portion of the thumb portion and forefinger, or alternatively to the thumb portion and middle finger.
US08850606B2

A computer readable medium storing a program causing a computer to execute a process for information processing, the process includes: receiving a first characteristic value calculated on the basis of first document information for use in detecting whether the first document information is tampered with or not; receiving a second characteristic value calculated on the basis of second document information for use in detecting whether the second document information is tampered with or not; and calculating a third characteristic value for use in detecting whether third document information is tampered with or not on the basis of the first characteristic value, the second characteristic value and the third document information related to integration of the first document information and the second document information.
US08850599B2

A method and system process a document having attached thereto a set of digital rights specifications, the digital rights specifications specifying constraints on the processing of the document. A workflow controller selects candidate devices, for processing the document, from a plurality of devices and determines, for each candidate device, that the device meets the digital rights specifications requirements. A set of devices are assigned to process the document from the set of devices that meet the digital rights specifications constraints. The workflow controller detects a failed device included in the assigned set of devices to process the document and determines potential candidate devices to replace the failed device. For each potential candidate device, it is determined if the potential candidate device meets the digital rights specifications requirements. A device that meets the digital rights specifications constraints is assigned to replace the failed device.
US08850598B2

A service management system and a method of executing a policy. In one embodiment, the service management system includes: (1) a repository configured to contain device, system, subscriber and service descriptions that define services in terms of a set of systems and devices that assume roles based on at least one of capabilities and attributes thereof and (2) a policy engine coupled to the repository and configured to employ the repository to identify end points relevant to a policy, identify services in which any of the end points play a role, identify subscribers having an identified device of the end points and a subscription to an identified service and cause the policy to be executed with respect to identified devices of identified subscribers and identified systems.
US08850593B2

In one implementation, encrypted data and a virtual machine are stored together as a virtual machine-data image, wherein the virtual machine is configured to EXERT management control over the data based on policies set by an owner of the data. In another implementation, metadata defining or tagging policies for usage of data is associated with the data. Control capabilities of service providers are mapped to the policies, wherein those service provider environments that best satisfy the controls mapped to the policies are identified.
US08850589B2

Methods for training a static security analysis classifier include running an initial security analysis on a training codebase to generate a set of vulnerabilities associated with the training codebase; analyzing the program with a feature set that limits a number of detected vulnerabilities to generate a limited set of vulnerabilities associated with the feature set; comparing the limited set of vulnerabilities to a known vulnerability distribution to generate an accuracy score; and iterating the steps of analyzing and comparing using different feature sets to find a feature set having a highest accuracy score.
US08850587B2

A method of monitoring levels of security conformity and preparedness of a plurality of network connected computing machines, obtains a report by remotely scanning the machines in segments. The machines might already be connected to commercial security software and a patch dispenser. The report includes definition dates and any files quarantined by the commercial security software, patch-management-software communication present and the patches received. The method uses the report and software (not installed on the scanned machines) to produce a Network Security Scanner for Enterprise Protection output to perform a security-preparedness audit of the scanned machines. The audit non-intrusively ascertains. If the scanned machines conform to user-defined fields and policies, and assists in selective security updating of the machines. The scanning, unrecognized by the scanned machines may be configured to suit their OS, and done periodically as desired. A computer readable medium executing the method is included.
US08850583B1

A method and device for intrusion detection using secure signatures comprising capturing network data. A search hash value, value employing at least one one-way function, is generated from the captured network data using a first hash function. The presence of a search hash value match in a secure signature table comprising search hash values and an encrypted rule is determined. After determining a search hash value match, a decryption key is generated from the captured network data using a second hash function, a hash function different form the first hash function. One or more of the encrypted rules of the secure signatures table having a hash value equal to the generated search hash value are then decrypted using the generated decryption key. The one or more decrypted secure signature rules are then processed for a match and one or more user notifications are deployed if a match is identified.
US08850579B1

A system, method and computer program product for implementing dynamic behavior rules for malware detection. A method of heuristic analysis of computer program execution is used. A behavior of a computer program is monitored, analyzed and blocked in runtime. Actions performed or triggered by each executable component are compared against a set of behavioral rules. The behavioral rules determine wherever the requested action is allowed or blocked, and which new behavioral rules are needed to be applied to future actions. Executed actions (allowed or blocked) introduce new dynamic behavioral rules to the computer system, which in turn can apply these rules for analyzing behavior of subsequent components executed on the computer system.
US08850544B1

The present invention provides a new method for user centered privacy which works across all 3rd party sites where users post content, or even for encryption of emails. Users have an identity with a Hyde-It Identity provider (HIP) which authenticates the user to a Hyde-It Service (HITS) which performs key distribution. The functionality can be invoked through a user toolbar, built into the browser or be downloaded on demand via a bookmarklet.
US08850542B2

A system and method for authenticating mobile communications devices. The method comprises: generating a code corresponding to a user configured to be rendered on a rendering device to produce a rendered code, the rendered code being readable by a mobile communications device having a code reading device, the rendered code comprising a secret token; storing the secret token along with information identifying the user on a first storage device; providing the code to the user; receiving, at the authentication server, a setup message from the mobile device, the message includes a device identifier and the secret token; comparing the received secret token and the secret token stored on the first storage device; if the received secret token matches the secret token stored on the first storage device, storing, on a second storage device, information identifying the user and a trusted device value corresponding to the device identifier.
US08850540B2

The examples of the present invention provide a method and device for verifying a dynamic password. In the method and device, some algorithm parameters can be exchanged in public by using a DH algorithm, and thus a same key is shared safely between two entities, so as to implement the verification of the dynamic password and further improve the security of identity verification. Moreover, the method and device can be easy to use. Further, by the above technical solution, no message exchange is needed between a mobile device and a verification server, and a user does not need to pay for additional flux, so as to decrease the burden of the user and verification costs.
US08850536B2

The disclosed embodiment relates to identity verification and identity management, and in particular, to methods and systems for identifying individuals, identifying users accessing one or more services over a network, determining member identity ratings, and based on member identity ratings that restrict access to network-based content and certain user-to-user interactions. Further, the user experience in performing identity management is simplified and enhanced as disclosed herein.
US08850528B2

Organizing permissions to authorize a subject to perform an action on an object in a cloud computing environment is described. A plurality of permissions associated with a cloud customer is created. A first set of permissions from the plurality of permissions is associated with one or more objects. Each of the first set of permissions describes an action performed on an object. A second set of permissions from the plurality of permissions is associated with one or more users. Each of the second set of permissions describes an action to be performed by one or more users.
US08850523B2

A watermarking process is contemplated to facilitate branding and other message communication operations, such as to facilitate notifying a user associated with a home service provider of a watermark or communicating advertisements and/or personal messages to the user while accessing services through a visited service provider. The contemplated watermarking process may be particularly beneficial with devices having capabilities to roam between multiple service providers.
US08850518B2

A method is provided for user authentication, comprising: provision of a client device provided with an encryption function of variables K, t, x, in which: K is a secret shared by the server and the client device; t is a time-dependent variable; and x is a variable having at least two values, a step of calculation (S30) by the client device of a first value of the function obtained for a first value of x, for authentication of the user by the server; and a step of calculation (S80, S110) by the client device of a second value of the function, obtained for a second value of x, for verification of the user authentication by the server. Also provided is a user authentication device with means of calculation of values of said function.
US08850512B2

Each virtual machine in a set of virtual machines managed by the virtual machine manager is identified. For each virtual machine in the set, it is determined whether the respective virtual machine is online. For at least the virtual machines determined to be offline, a machine image is collected for each offline virtual machine. Security of the offline virtual machines is assessed from the collected images. For virtual machines identified as online, an agent is loaded on each online virtual machine in the set via the virtual machine manager. The loaded agents are used to assess security of the online virtual machines in the set.
US08850509B2

An enhanced multimedia over coax alliance (MoCA) implementation having a single Receive (Rx) physical (Phy) module that is arranged to receive data via one of at least two Rx radio frequency (RF) modules, which are arranged to be in communication with a coaxial cable, and at least two transmit (Tx) Phy modules respectively arranged to be in communication with two Tx RF modules, which are also arranged to be in communication with the coaxial cable.
US08850507B2

Systems and methods for navigating hypermedia using multiple coordinated input/output device sets. Disclosed systems and methods allow a user and/or an author to control what resources are presented on which device sets (whether they are integrated or not), and provide for coordinating browsing activities to enable such a user interface to be employed across multiple independent systems. Disclosed systems and methods also support new and enriched aspects and applications of hypermedia browsing and related business activities.
US08850499B2

Systems and methods may be provided for retrieving non-on-demand media data and on-demand media data that is provided by separate data sources. On-demand media data may be cached to reduce system latencies and the burden on the distribution network.
US08850496B2

A system is configured to receive, from a user device, a request for video content and closed captioning content associated with the video content; obtain, based on the request, device information that identifies a first video format that is supported by the user device; obtain the video content and the closed captioning content, where the video content conforms to a second video format, and where the closed captioning content conforms to a text format; convert the video content from the second video format to the first video format and the closed captioning content from the text format to the first video format; and transmit the converted video content and the converted closed captioning to the user device, where the converted video content and the converted closed captioning content enable the user device to play the converted video content and the converted closed captioning content without modifying the user device.
US08850495B2

A system for delivering advertisements based on a digital television system and a mobile communication device is disclosed. The television system and the mobile device are connected in ad hoc manner when a program is broadcasted by the television system. When a user is attracted by an item in the program, an instruction is sent from a remote control device of the television system or from the mobile device to send a data file including a product identifier to the mobile device. The user may use a cursor controlled by the remote control device or by the mobile device to locate the item. An icon is displayed on a display screen of the mobile device to represent the received data file. When the icon is selected, the mobile device is connected to a data manager in the Internet to deliver more product information to the user.
US08850492B2

According to embodiments described in the specification, a method, system and apparatus for delivering Non-Real-Time (NRT) data to a mobile electronic device are provided. The method comprises: storing the NRT data in a memory of a server, the NRT data comprising a multimedia file; storing at least one network identifier in the memory, the at least one network identifier identifying at least a portion of the multimedia file and a storage location of the multimedia file; formatting the NRT data using a processor of the server, wherein the formatting comprises generating header data including the at least one network identifier, and appending the multimedia file to the header data; and providing the formatted NRT data to broadcast equipment for broadcasting.
US08850485B2

A method and system providing enhanced data for visual displays are provided. A remote selector identifies a plurality of objects and sends at least one request to retrieve data about the objects. A server receives the request from the remote selector and retrieves the data about the objects using one or more unique index keys from a database. A display device displays the data provided by the server, and the data concurrently appears with the objects on the display device.
US08850484B2

An apparatus, method and data structure for generating at least one table in a broadcast environment, are provided. The apparatus includes a generator to generate an event information table (EIT) and an extended text table (ETT). The ETT has program guide information for an n-hour span and has a transmission interval. The ETT has a transmission interval and program description information according to the EIT. The transmission interval of the EIT is shorter than the transmission interval of the ETT.
US08850482B2

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, an Internet Protocol Television system having a controller to create a template defining a format of presentation of an webpage or HTML page using an iTV or IPTV application system, receive a request for the page from a subscriber of the iTV or IPTV system. The system can access application system subscriber data for the subscriber and a presentation of the page is dynamically adapted according to the application system subscriber data. In one alternative at, the page can be dynamically adapted by changing in content or by changing a look and feel of an HTML page or webpage. In another alternative, the webpage or HTML page can be dynamically adapted by modifying graphic user interface elements based on the application system subscriber data. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US08850478B2

Systems and methods according to exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide a user interface including an electronic program guide and scrollable visual directories.
US08850471B2

A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and a memory structure for presenting an advertisement for playback in conjunction with a streamed media program are described. The method permits the user to control advertising breaks and in particular, the timing of advertising breaks associated with the media program.
US08850467B1

A computer-implemented method, computer program product, and computing system for receiving one or more transmitted frame identifiers that are mathematical representations of one or more transmitted video frames included within a multi-frame video. One or more video frames included within the multi-frame video are received, thus defining one or more received video frames. A mathematical representation of each of the one or more received video frames is generated, thus defining one or more received frame identifiers. The one or more received frame identifiers are compared to the one or more transmitted frame identifiers to determine a level of similarity between the one or more received video frames and the one or more transmitted video frames.
US08850466B2

The invention relates to a system for determining a list of currently watching one or more viewers of a smart TV, which comprises at the smart TV: (a) a mobile phone connection unit for detecting pre-registered telephones of potential viewers that are within a short range from the TV; (b) a normal schedule unit for pre-recording for each potential viewer his normal schedule; (c) a recent activity monitoring unit for recording recent viewers activity within the smart TV; and (d) a viewer determination unit for receiving data from said mobile phone connection unit, from said normal schedule unit, and from said recent activity unit, and for determining from said data a list of one or more currently watching viewers of the TV.
US08850460B1

Described are techniques for performing remote procedure calls (RPCs). An RPC API is described which provides for using an optimized technique and an unoptimized technique for performing RPCs. The optimized technique includes a client container performing a call to obtain RPC configuration information which is then stored by the client container and may be used by the client container in connection with multiple RPC invocations. Techniques are also described for communicating parameter information between containers executing in different address spaces by forming parameter information on the client side using embedded lists, encoding the parameter information on the client side prior to transmission to the server, and transmitting the encoded parameter information to the server which determines output parameters and returns the output parameters to the client.
US08850456B2

In one embodiment, the present invention includes a system that can optimize message passing by, at least in part, automatically determining a minimum number of fabrics and virtual channels to be activated to handle pending connection requests and data transfer requests, and preventing processing of new connection requests and data transfer requests outside of a predetermined communication pattern. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08850454B2

The invention provides for a method and computer program product for integrating an e-business service application being provided by a B2B server and one or more other remote applications by means of an Entity-Relationship model.
US08850453B1

Described are techniques for event notification. A first notification about a first event is received. A timer is set to an amount of time. Processing waits until an occurrence of either receiving a second notification of a second event or expiration of said timer indicating that the amount of time has lapsed. It is determined whether the amount of time has lapsed or whether the second notification has been received. If the expiration time has lapsed, notification of the first event is provided, and otherwise, if the second notification has been received prior to the amount of time lapsing, the timer is reset and processing waits for an occurrence of either receiving a next notification of an event or expiration of the timer indicating that the amount of time has lapsed.
US08850447B2

Embodiments of the invention relate to multiprocessing systems. An aspect of the invention concerns a multiprocessing system that comprises a hardware control component for selecting a hardware management action responsive to a hardware policy and a virtualization component for presenting virtual hardware resources to a software task execution environment. The system may further comprise a software workload management component for controlling at least one running software task and routing at least one new software task using the virtual hardware resources; and a communication component for signaling the software workload management component to perform a software management action in compliance with the hardware management action. The hardware policy may be a hardware power management policy, and the software management action may comprise quiescing the at least one running software task or routing the new software tasks to a different software task execution environment.
US08850444B2

This invention provides a data transfer control device for carrying out data transfer using a plurality of transfer resources. The data transfer control device comprises a transfer resource management portion that set the plurality of transfer resources to either one of a transfer-enabled state whereby data transfer is enabled and a plurality of standby states on the basis of a load on the data transfer control device and that manages the plurality of transfer resources so as to assume the set operating status; and a load distribution portion that distributes the data to transfer resources that have been set to the transfer-enabled state. The plurality of standby states are states which data transfer is disabled and which mutually differ at a minimum in terms of at least one of power consumption level and transition time to the transfer-enabled state.
US08850435B2

An operation management apparatus obtains a value Xi indicating the number of process requests being processed by an information processing apparatus during each sampling operation, from N samplings acquired during a specific time period from the information processing apparatus, wherein N is an integer satisfying a condition of 1≦N, and i is an integer satisfying a condition of 1≦i≦N. The apparatus determines, for a plurality of information processing apparatuses, a ratio of the sum of values Xi, each value Xi having a difference, from a maximum value of the values Xi, falling within a specific range, to the total sum of the values Xi. The apparatus detects an information processing apparatus having the ratio equal to or higher than a specific value.
US08850433B2

Techniques are disclosed for controlling and managing virtual machines and other such virtual systems. VM execution approval is based on compliance with policies controlling various aspects of VM. The techniques can be employed to benefit all virtual environments, such as virtual machines, virtual appliances, and virtual applications. For ease of discussion herein, assume that a virtual machine (VM) represents each of these environments. In one particular embodiment, a systems management partition (SMP) is created inside the VM to provide a persistent and resilient storage for management information (e.g., logical and physical VM metadata). The SMP can also be used as a staging area for installing additional content or agentry on the VM when the VM is executed. Remote storage of management information can also be used. The VM management information can then be made available for pre-execution processing, including policy-based compliance testing.
US08850432B2

A mechanism for controlling utilization in a multi-tenant Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) environment in a cloud computing system is disclosed. A method includes obtaining, by a resource control module executing on a computing device, an active capacity metric of each virtual machine (VM) of a plurality of VMs in a district of a multi-tenant PaaS system, the active capacity metric comprising a result of dividing a number of containers that are currently executing in the VM by a maximum number of active containers allowed to execute in the VM, determining that the active capacity metric of a source VM in the district exceeds an active capacity threshold associated with the source VM, and migrating at least one of the containers of the source VM to a target VM in the district, wherein the target VM is operating with an active capacity metric below the active capacity threshold associated with the target VM.
US08850431B2

A method and system for managing a computing system by using a hierarchy of autonomic management elements are described. The autonomic management elements operate in a master-slave mode and negotiate a division of management responsibilities regarding various components of the computing system.
US08850421B2

A system sends firmware updates from a telemetry system to a monitoring device. One or more sensors are coupled to a monitoring device that has a unique user ID. The sensors acquire user information selected from of at least one of, a user's activities, behaviors and habit information. ID circuitry at the monitoring device includes ID storage, a communication system that reads and transmits the unique ID from an ID storage, a power source and a pathway system to route signals through the circuitry and elements to enable installation of firmware updates. A telemetry system is in communication with the one or more sensors and includes a database of user ID's. The telemetry system analyzes telemetry data from the monitoring device based on at least one of, user's activities, behaviors and habit information and creating personalized information about the user.
US08850415B2

The invention concerns model program analysis of software code using model checking. Initially, a transition system (22) and an extensible markup language (XML) (24) representation of the data is generated. Next, labels (26) for the transition system are generated by querying the XML representation of the data using (markup) query language. The labels and the structure of the transition system are then used as input to model checking techniques to analyse the software code (28). It is an advantage of the invention that the problem of labelling a transition system can be transformed into the XML domain so that detailed information about the software code can be extracted using queries in a format that can be run in the XML domain which are well known. At the same time the transformation to the XML domain does not prevent the use of efficient model checking technologies.
US08850413B2

Methods are disclosed of compiling a software application having multiple functions. At least one of the functions is identified as a targeted function having a significant contribution to performance of the software application. A code version of the targeted function is generated with one of multiple machine models corresponding to different target utilizations for a target architecture, specifically corresponding to the one with the greatest of the different target utilizations. The generated code version of the targeted function is matched with an application thread of the target architecture.
US08850409B2

A method is provided for translating sets of constraint declarations to imperative code sequences based on defining an instantiatable object per set, inserting calls to a notification callback mechanism on state modification and defining calls in the constraint context as imperative code sequences that, in response to these callbacks, take actions to maintain these constraints.
US08850402B2

Methods, systems, and products for determining performance of a software entity running on a data processing system. The method comprises allowing extended execution of the software entity without monitoring code. The method also comprises intermittently sampling behavior data for the software entity. Intermittently sampling behavior data may be carried out by injecting monitoring code into the software entity to instrument the software entity, collecting behavior data by utilizing the monitoring code, and removing the monitoring code. The method also comprises repeatedly performing iterations of the allowing and sampling steps until collected behavior data is sufficient for diagnosing performance of the software entity. The method may further comprise analyzing the collected behavior data to diagnose performance of the software entity.
US08850395B2

A method, a system and a computer program product for managing graphical user interface (GUI) objects in a testing environment. GUI objects in the testing environment are uniquely identified and the GUI objects have corresponding test objects. The uniquely identified GUI objects in the test environment are sorted in response to the pre-defined hierarchy of properties belonging to the set of properties and the pre-defined hierarchy of properties includes at least one spatial property.
US08850393B2

Techniques are provided for testing new software slated to be deployed on a target machine population with a number of target machines having a number of existing software programs. Method steps can include obtaining a list of depending software programs on selected ones of the target machines. The list can include those of the existing software programs which depend on the new software and/or those of the existing software programs on which the new software depends. The steps can further include identifying relevant test cases based on the list of depending software programs, instantiating a plurality of test client platforms characteristic of the target machine population, and testing the relevant test cases on the plurality of test client platforms to identify failures.
US08850382B2

An analysis apparatus for a printed circuit board. The analysis apparatus includes a processor that executes a process of rewriting physical property data of a wiring layer of a printed circuit board to a value. The value is based on physical property data of an electronic part having a heat-generating attribute. The electronic part is mounted on the portion of the wiring layer. The analysis apparatus converts the physical property data of the portion of the wiring layer that has the electronic part to physical property data of an insulating layer of the printed circuit board.
US08850377B1

A method of configuring an integrated circuit includes developing a circuit simulation model of a circuit having an output port to be configured in the integrated circuit. A number of simultaneously switched outputs (SSOs) are defined according to the circuit simulation model, and a propagation delay at the output port is characterized according to the number of SSOs. The circuit simulation model is back-annotated from the output port to add the propagation delay in a signal path of the output port to produce a second circuit simulation model. A configuration bitstream is generated according to the second circuit simulation model and the integrated circuit is configured according to the bitstream.
US08850366B2

A method for making a mask for an integrated circuit (IC) design includes receiving an IC design layout having a plurality IC features and performing a targeted-feature-surrounding (TFS) checking operation to identify a targeted-feature-surrounding-location (TFSL) in the IC design layout. The method also includes inserting a phase-bar (PB) to the TFSL, performing an optical proximity correction (OPC) to the IC design layout having the PB to form a modified IC design layout and providing the modified IC design layout for fabrication of the mask.
US08850364B2

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and a device for sending file data. The method comprises: obtaining a shift that is relative to an initial position of a to-be-sent file and is generated when a representative to-be-sent file shifts in a display area; determining whether a position of the to-be-sent file after the shift exceeds a preset position; and if the position of the to-be-sent file after shifting reaches or exceeds the preset position, sending the to-be-sent file to a corresponding receiving terminal.
US08850362B1

A method and system are disclosed for browsing an electronic hierarchical product catalog. The catalog is organized as a tree data structure with each node corresponding to an item category, an item sub-category, or an attribute that describes characteristics of items in a category. Such attributes may be used as filters for searching for an item or item category. The catalog tree is a collection of linked independent sub-trees including category and attribute sub-trees. The sub-trees allow navigation of the catalog tree via links between various nodes. The sub-trees may be linked to multiple other sub-trees, providing easy navigation for users and simplifying the addition of new sub-categories and attributes to the catalog tree, for service providers. The use of linked sub-trees also allows attributes set by the user in a previous search to be used in a subsequent search for a similar item.
US08850345B1

In a method for interacting with a system that includes physical devices that are interfaced with computer software, a graphical representation of a physical device that can be graphically interconnected with a graphical representation of a software module is generated. The graphical representation of the physical device is capable of being represented as either a graphical copy mode representation or a graphical ghost mode representation. On-screen interaction with functionality of the physical device is enabled when the graphical representation of the physical device is in the graphical copy mode representation. A true physical state of the physical device is tracked when the graphical representation of the physical device is in the graphical ghost mode representation. The tracking of the true physical state of the physical device disables on-screen interaction with functionality of the physical device. A dual-mode graphical user interface element for interfacing with a physical device also is described.
US08850344B1

Various systems and methods can perform a drag operation. The drag operation involves selecting an item displayed in a graphical user interface, and moving the selected item from a first location to a second location on the graphical user interface. One method involves detecting a user input and modifying the drag operation in response to the user input while the drag operation is ongoing.
US08850342B2

Systems, methods and articles of manufacture are disclosed for splitting an avatar a split point in a virtual world. In one embodiment, a location in the virtual world may be designated as the split point. It may be determined that a first avatar has encountered the split point. The user may be prompted to specify whether to split the first avatar in a virtual world. Responsive to a request to split the first avatar, a second avatar may be created from the first avatar. The first avatar and the second avatar may be controlled independently in the virtual world and in response to user input. A user may also request to merge the first avatar and the second avatar. A third avatar may be created from the first avatar and the second avatar, responsive to the request to merge. The third avatar may include assets of both the first avatar and the second avatar.
US08850338B2

A system for selecting an anatomical image for display includes a main image display displaying at least one anatomical image; a touch-screen display; a processing unit providing a selection of graphical directories of anatomical images; and a network configured to interface the main image display with the processing unit and configured to interface the touch-screen display with the processing unit. The system displays at least one of the selection of graphical directories of anatomical images on the touch-screen display and enables selecting at least one of the selection of graphical directories from the processor without removing the anatomical image from the main image display. The touch-screen display includes a button enabling interchangeable display of the anatomical image and the selection of graphical directories of anatomical images. The system enables selecting at least one anatomical image by touching the corresponding image in the directory displayed on the touch-screen display.
US08850331B2

A method and system is provided for item inquiry and information presentation via standard communication paths. More particularly, the method and system detects an item associated with an avatar of a virtual universe (VU) user in a VU and determine information associated with the item. Additionally, the method and system are operable to display the information in the VU in a high-resolution component of the VU.
US08850322B2

A method includes receiving a request for network topology information for a network. The request includes an identifier for a requesting entity and an identifier for the network. The method also includes accessing network topology information for the network based on the identifier for the network. The network topology information identifies a plurality of network elements in the network and defines a relationship between the network elements. A diagrammatic view of the network topology is determined based on the network topology information for the network. The method includes determining one or more aspects of at least one network element based on the identifier for the requesting entity. The method further includes associating the one or more aspects to the at least one network element to form a customized diagrammatic view of the network topology. The method also includes providing the customized diagrammatic view of the network topology.
US08850320B2

A method and system for creating at least one presentation, comprising: at least one computer; at least one application operable on the at least one computer, the at least one application configured for: receiving a plurality of assets; and allowing at least one user to define the at least one presentation over the time that the at least one presentation is to be displayed, using at least two assets to be simultaneously presented for at least one selected point in time.
US08850308B1

Techniques are described for automatically determining the structure of multiple related Web pages based at least in part on human-supplied information, such as in at least some situations by automated operations of a website structure determination system to determine a common structure of at least some Web pages of a target Website of interest. In at least some such situations, the techniques include identifying structural elements or other structural locations within the common structure of multiple related Web pages that correspond to one or more types of information of interest. Once such structural locations are identified for one or more types of information of interest, information of those types may then be automatically retrieved from various Web pages of the target Website using those identified structural locations, even if those Web pages have not been previously manually reviewed.
US08850302B2

If a web page contains a moving image object, an information processing apparatus generates drawing data of the moving image object in a raster format and creates captured data by incorporating the generated drawing data of the moving image object into drawing data of the web page generated in a vector format.
US08850298B2

An apparatus having a first circuit and a second circuit is disclosed. The first circuit may be configured to generate (i) a plurality of symbols and (ii) a plurality of decision values both in response to detecting an encoded codeword. The second circuit may be configured to (i) generate a plurality of probabilities to flip one or more of the symbols based on the decision values, (ii) generate a modified probability by merging two or more of the probabilities of an unreliable position in the symbols and (iii) generate a decoded codeword by decoding the symbols using an algebraic soft-decision technique in response to the modified probability.
US08850288B1

Techniques for optimizing data storage are disclosed herein. In particular, methods and systems for implementing redundancy encoding schemes with data storage systems are described. The redundancy encoding schemes may be scheduled according to system and data characteristics. The schemes may span multiple tiers or layers of a storage system. The schemes may be generated, for example, in accordance with a transaction rate requirement, a data durability requirement or in the context of the age of the stored data. The schemes may be designed to rectify entropy-related effects upon data storage. The schemes may include one or more erasure codes or erasure coding schemes. Additionally, methods and systems for improving and/or accounting for failure correlation of various components of the storage system, including that of storage devices such as hard disk drives, are described.
US08850283B2

It is described a method for determining a received data block by employing a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request procedure. The described method comprises calculating (104) first soft-information values being associated with a first reception of the data block, storing the calculated first soft-information values in a first buffer (121), and calculating (104) second soft-information values being associated with a second reception of the data block, wherein the second reception results from a retransmission of the data block following the first reception. The described method further comprises rate matching (128) a first soft data block comprising the calculated and stored first soft-information values, rate matching (118) a second soft data block comprising the calculated second soft-information values, and decoding (152) a combination of the rate matched first soft data block and the rate matched second soft data block. It is further described a radio receiver arrangement, a computer-readable medium and a program element, which are all adapted for carrying out and/or for controlling the described received data block determination method.
US08850281B2

Technologies are generally described for secure digital signatures that employ hardware public physically unclonable functions. Each unique digital signature generator can be implemented as hardware such that manufacturing variations provide measurable performance differences resulting in unique, unclonable devices or systems. For example, slight timing variations through a large number of logic gates may be used as a hardware public physically unclonable function of the digital signature unit. The hardware digital signature unit can be parameterized such that its physical characteristics may be publicly distributed to signature verifiers. The verifiers may then simulate randomly selected portions of the signature for verification.
US08850279B2

An architecture for testing a plurality of circuits on an integrated circuit is described. The architecture includes a TAP Linking Module located between test pins on the integrated circuit and 1149.1 Test Access Ports (TAP) of the plurality of circuits to be tested. The TAP Linking Module operates in response to 1149.1 scan operations from a tester connected to the test pins to selectively switch between 1149.1 TAPs to enable test access between the tester and plurality of circuits. The TAP Linking Module's 1149.1 TAP switching operation is based upon augmenting 1149.1 instruction patterns to affix an additional bit or bits of information which is used by the TAP Linking Module for performing the TAP switching operation.
US08850274B2

Embodiments are directed to a method of embedding configuration files in a document generated by a system, with the configuration file including settings associated with the generation of the document. A particular embodiment is directed to the embedding of configuration files of a testing system in a report document generated by the testing system. The configuration file includes system settings and external settings in association with the test results documented in the report document. For example, a testing system can generate a PDF report document associated with a test performed, and embed configuration files into the PDF report document. The embedding of configurations files in the PDF document can be done by using standard embedding mechanisms already available in the PDF file format and supported by most PDF viewing tools. The embedding of the configuration file can be performed automatically when the report document is generated.
US08850272B2

Embodiments of the disclosure relate to a method and system for measuring preventability metric of an application. The preventability metric quantifies the extent to which bugs and failures, and the causes for failures are diagnosed in the application. Also, the extent to which appropriate preventive or corrective activities are deployed before deployment of the application is provided. Further, a framework to monitor and control the preventability metric systematically is disclosed. The methodology is to obtain the efficiency of the preventive techniques used on the application, use the obtained efficiency measures to arrive at a preventability metric that quantifies the preventability of failures of the application.
US08850266B2

A mechanism is provided for effectively validating execution units within a processor. A branch test pattern is generated for execution by an execution unit that is under validation testing. An execution pattern is selected from a set of execution patterns thereby forming a selected execution pattern. The selected execution pattern is loaded into a condition register. The branch test pattern is executed by an execution unit based on the selected execution pattern in the condition register. Responsive to the branch test pattern ending, values output from the execution unit during execution of the branch test pattern are compared to a set of expected results. Responsive to a match of the comparison, the process is repeated for each execution pattern in the set of execution patterns. Responsive to a match of the comparison for the execution patterns in the set of execution patterns, the execution unit is validated.
US08850264B2

An information terminal includes a start processing unit of a central processing unit which executes restart processing and a notification unit which outputs reason information indicating a reason for executing the restart processing.
US08850261B2

Jobs submitted to a primary location of a service within a period of time before and/or after a fail-over event are determined and are resubmitted to a secondary location of the service. For example, jobs that are submitted fifteen minutes before the fail-over event and jobs that are submitted to the primary network before the fail-over to the second location is completed are resubmitted at the secondary location. After the fail-over event occurs, the jobs are updated with the secondary network that is taking the place of the primary location of the service. A mapping of job input parameters (e.g. identifiers and/or secrets) from the primary location to the secondary location are used by the jobs when they are resubmitted to the secondary location. Each job determines what changes are to be made to the job request based on the job being resubmitted.
US08850242B2

The self-powered device is configured to be powered by energy collected from a surrounding environment. The self-powered device includes an energy collector, and a memory having instructions for selecting one of a plurality of modes of operation. The energy collector is configured to collect energy to power the self-powered device from a surrounding environment in which the self-powered device is located. The plurality of modes of operation include: (i) a low-power mode of operation in which the self-powered device consumes less than a pre-determined or adaptively-determined amount of power and the self-powered device uses less than its full capabilities, and (ii) and a high-power mode of operation in which self-powered device consumes more than the pre-determined or adaptively-determined amount of power and the self-powered device uses its full capabilities. The instructions for selecting one of a plurality of modes of are configured to (a) select the low-power mode of operation when available energy becomes insufficient to fully power the self-powered device, and (b) select the high-power mode of operation when sufficient energy again becomes available to fully power the self-powered device.
US08850239B2

The network computing cluster includes one or more network computing stations and one or more power autarkic network computing stations supplied by one or more associated local power generators. The power autarkic network computing stations and the local power generators are connected with a local power network. A control signal is sent to a resource managing unit of the network computing cluster via a communication network. The control signal indicates the ability of the power autarkic network computing stations to process IT-services. The resource managing unit receives the control signal via the communication network. Triggered by the control signal, the resource managing unit sends a signal for transferring an IT-service processed by a network computing station of the network computing stations to the network computing station via the communication network. The processed IT-service is transferred to one of the power autarkic network computing stations via the communication network.
US08850229B2

An apparatus for generating a decryption key for use to decrypt a block of encrypted instruction data being fetched from an instruction cache in a microprocessor at a fetch address includes a first multiplexer that selects a first key value from a plurality of key values based on a first portion of the fetch address. A second multiplexer selects a second key value from the plurality of key values based on the first portion of the fetch address. A rotater rotates the first key value based on a second portion of the fetch address. An arithmetic unit selectively adds or subtracts the rotated first key value to or from the second key value based on a third portion of the fetch address to generate the decryption key.
US08850228B2

A computing device and a method for controlling access to driver programs obtains a first system time at the time that an application uses a CTL_CODE to access a driver program. The first system time and the CTL_CODE is encrypted to generate an encrypted CTL_CODE which is then sent to the driver program. The encrypted CTL_CODE is decrypted to obtain the first system time and the CTL_CODE therein. A second system time at the time that the driver program receives the encrypted CTL_CODE is obtained and compared with the first system time. Access to the driver program is allowed if a difference between the first system time and the second system time falls within a predetermined range, and access to the driver program is forbidden if the difference is beyond the predetermined range.
US08850223B1

An inventive apparatus that integrates the operation of a hard disk emulator and a cryptographic accelerator on a single blade server card. An application with cryptographic operations can off load computationally intensive calculations to the cryptographic accelerator so that the speed at which the application performs actions can be increased significantly. Typically, the hard disk emulator is a flash memory component and the accelerator can perform at least modular exponentiation calculations. One bus is employed for communication between the hard disk emulator and the accelerator. Another bus is employed to communicate with other resources off the card. Often, the card is configured to operate as one of a several blade servers in a chassis.
US08850215B2

A computing device which includes an access control mechanism which is used to control access to keys which are used in cryptographic processes. Any application wishing to gain access to a key must first obtain authorization from the access control mechanism. Authorized applications may access keys directly, without having to pass data through the access control mechanism.
US08850212B2

A method of extending an integrity measurement in a trusted device operating in an embedded trusted platform by using a set of policy commands to extend a list of Platform Configuration Registers (PCRs) for the device and the current values of the listed PCRs and an integrity value identifying the integrity measurement into a policy register, verify a signature over the integrity value extended into the policy register, and, if verification succeeds, extend a verification key of the trusted platform, plus an indication that it is a verification key, into the policy register, compare the integrity value extended into the policy register with a value stored in the trusted platform, and, if they are the same: extend the stored value, plus an indication that it is a stored value, into the policy register, and extend the integrity measurement in the trusted device if the value in the policy register matches a value stored with the integrity measurement.
US08850210B2

An authentication system, including a service use device 1 which presents blurred information obtained by blurring certification information desired to be certified, service providing devices 3a to 3c which verify the validity of blurred information presented by the service use device 1, and an authentication device 2 which supports the service use device 1 to issue valid blurred information. The authentication device 2 adds a digital signature to information including certification information and blurred information, and generates authentication information including the obtained digital signature, certification information, and blurred information (S2). The service use device 1 generates, based on the authentication information generated in the authentication device 2, blurred authentication information including blurred information selected according to an instruction from a user, instruction information representing the instruction, and a digital signature (S4). The service providing devices 3a to 3c verify the validity of blurred information indicated by instruction information included in the blurred authentication information generated by the service use device 1, based on the digital signature included in the blurred authentication information (S6).
US08850205B2

A method of and an authentication server for distributing a key are disclosed. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the method of distributing a key, which is distributed by an authentication server connected with wireless terminals through a communication network, for encrypting and decrypting data in accordance with providing a service can include: obtaining characteristic information by decrypting encrypted characteristic information that has been received from each of n number of wireless terminals; generating a random key; generating a group key used for encrypting and decrypting data in accordance with providing a service; and generating a distribution key by using the random key, the group key and the characteristic information, and transmitting the distribution key to each wireless terminal.
US08850202B2

A system and method for authenticating a peer device onto a network using Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP). The key lifetime associated with the keying material generated in the peer device and the authentication server is communicated from the authenticator to the peer device within the EAP Success message. The peer device, having been provided with the key lifetime, can anticipate the termination of its authenticated session and initiate re-authentication prior to expiry of the key lifetime.
US08850199B2

Methods, systems, and computer programs for producing hash values are disclosed. A prefix-free value is obtained based on input data. The prefix-free value can be based on an implicit certificate, a message to be signed, a message to be verified, or other suitable information. A hash value is obtained by applying a hash function to the prefix-free value. The hash value is used in a cryptographic scheme. In some instances, a public key or a private key is generated based on the hash value. In some instances, a digital signature is generated based on the hash value, or a digital signature is verified based on the hash value, as appropriate.
US08850198B2

A method for validating a road traffic control transaction. The method includes: storing a cryptographic key assigned to a transaction receiver, in the transaction receiver; recording an image of a vehicle; reading an identification of the vehicle in the recorded image by OCR and generating a control transaction thereof in the control station; generating a random key and encrypting the recorded image into authentication data with the random key and the cryptographic key in the control station; transmitting the recorded image, the control transaction, the random key and the authentication data to the transaction receiver; in the transaction receiver, encrypting the received recorded image into nominal authentication data with the received random key and the stored cryptographic key; and comparing the received authentication data with the nominal authentication data. The received control transaction is then validated when the received authentication data and the nominal authentication data are identical.
US08850195B2

Systems and methods are described for applying digital rights management techniques to tethered devices. In one embodiment, a host device is operable to translate a relatively sophisticated license into a simpler format for use on a relatively low-capability device. In another embodiment, a method of using extended SCSI commands to communicate over a USB connection is provided.
US08850192B2

An apparatus and method for determining contents information corresponding to a Rights Object (RO) by transmitting information on contents together when the RO is moved from a mobile device to a memory card or a smart card or when the RO is moved from the memory card or the smart card to the mobile device are provided. The apparatus includes a meta information manager for determining information on contents corresponding to the RO when the RO is moved, and for generating meta information containing the determined contents information, and a controller for providing control to transmit the RO and the meta information generated by the meta information manager to a portable storage device. Accordingly, the conventional problem can be solved in which information on contents cannot be determined by using a Contents IDentifier (CID) if the RO does not exist together with the contents.
US08850191B2

Example embodiments provide various techniques for securing communications within a group of entities. In one example method, a request from an entity to join the group is received and a signed, digital certificate associated with the entity is accessed. Here, the signed, digital certificate is signed with a group private key that is associated with a certification authority for the group. The signed, digital certificate is added to a group roster, and this addition is to admit the entity into the group. The group roster with the signed, digital certificate is itself signed with the group private key and distributed to the group, which includes the entity that transmitted the request. Communication to the entity is then encrypted using the signed, digital certificate included in the group roster.
US08850189B2

Various embodiments enable so-called extended data to be added to a signed digital certificate without having a private key of a Certification Authority available. In at least some embodiments, a request to add extended data to a digital certificate generated by a certificate authority is received from a client device. The digital certificate includes a signed first portion, and an unsigned second portion that includes reserved empty spaces that are reserved for the extended data. The extended data is added to the unsigned second portion. the extended data includes a client ID associated with the client device. The unsigned portion of the digital certificate is signed after the extended data is added.
US08850185B1

Technologies are described herein for post attack man-in-the-middle detection. A first computer receives and stores public key certificates when connections are established. The first computer also uploads the stored public key certificates associated with a domain to a second computer each time a connection is established with the domain. The second computer receives the public key certificates from the first computer. The second computer then determines whether any of the public key certificates provided by the first computer are fraudulent certificates by comparing the received certificates to known valid certificates. If the second computer determines that the first computer has received one or more fraudulent certificates, the second computer may cause action to be taken with regard to the fraudulent certificates.
US08850179B2

Sensitive, Type 1 KIV-encrypted data is encapsulated into IP packets in a remotely deployed, secure communication system. The IP packets are addressed to a matching IP encapsulator/decapsulator device over the public Internet or other IP protocol network, that then passes it to a similar Type 1 KIV device for decryption. Thus, sensitive, encrypted data is made to appear as if it were any other commercial network data, cloaking it in the vast and busy world of the Internet. The present invention is embodied in a system that provides secure Voice-Over-IP (VoIP), video and data network functionality in a single, small size deployable case, to a remote user. Most importantly, the embodiment allows for the routing of bulk encrypted (i.e., secure) data over a public network, e.g., the Internet.
US08850176B2

A speed-up booting module of an electronic device includes a first heat pipe with two ends connected to a first component and a second component respectively, and the first heat pipe including a first working fluid, wherein when a booting process is performed at a first environmental temperature, the heat from the first component in operation is transferred to the second component so that a temperature of the second component reaches an operating temperature; and a second heat pipe with two ends connected to the first component and a third component respectively, and the second heat pipe including a second working fluid, a boiling point of the second working fluid is higher than the boiling point of the first working fluid; wherein at a second environmental temperature, a temperature of the second component reaches the boiling point, the heat from the first component is transferred to the second component.
US08850170B2

An apparatus and method for dynamically determining the execution mode of a reconfigurable array are provided. Performance information of a loop may be obtained before and/or during the execution of the loop. The performance information may be used to determine whether to operate the apparatus in a very long instruction word (VLIW) mode or in a coarse grained array (CGA) mode.
US08850168B2

A processor apparatus according to the present invention is a processor apparatus which shares hardware resources between a plurality of processors, and includes: a first determination unit which determines whether or not a register in each of the hardware resources holds extension context data of a program that is currently executed; a second determination unit which determines to which processor the extension context data in the hardware resource corresponds; a first transfer unit which saves and restores the extension context data between programs in the processor; and a second transfer unit which saves and restores the extension context data between programs between different processors.
US08850144B1

A method, system, and program product for transparently shifting between using a virtual service layer (VSL) performing active-active replication which presents the volume of the first site and the volume of the second site as a single volume and a second replication technique for replicating the volume of the first site and the volume of the second site without use of the VSL.
US08850138B2

Embodiments disclosed herein provide a high performance content delivery system in which versions of content are cached for servicing web site requests containing the same uniform resource locator (URL). When a page is cached, certain metadata is also stored along with the page. That metadata includes a description of what extra attributes, if any, must be consulted to determine what version of content to serve in response to a request. When a request is fielded, a cache reader consults this metadata at a primary cache address, then extracts the values of attributes, if any are specified, and uses them in conjunction with the URL to search for an appropriate response at a secondary cache address. These attributes may include HTTP request headers, cookies, query string, and session variables. If no entry exists at the secondary address, the request is forwarded to a page generator at the back-end.
US08850136B1

The transmission of buffered data is coordinated between a storage medium and a host in response to a request from the host. One or more blocks of data are transferred from the storage medium to a buffer memory. One or more frames of data are transmitted from the buffer memory to the host, wherein the number of blocks ending in the frame is recorded in a blocks/frame register, and possibly also in a block count accumulator register. Buffer release pulses for releasing buffer space in memory are sent to the buffer memory, based on the number of blocks in the blocks/frame register, or the number of blocks accumulated in the block count accumulator register when a signal is received from the host. A pointer which points to the last block of data successfully transferred is updated in accordance with the buffer release pulses.
US08850135B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods and systems for securely installing software on a computing device, such as a mobile device. In one embodiment, the device executes an installer that securely installs the software. In order to perform installations securely, the installer configures one or more secure containers for the software and installs the software exclusively in these containers. In some embodiments, the installer randomly determines the identifiers for the containers. These identifiers remain unknown to the software to be installed. Instead, an installation framework maintains the correspondence between an application and its container. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.
US08850134B1

A system and method in accordance with the present invention provides for a solution benefiting from providing for non-duplicative access to data located in a system memory via the alignment of transaction sub-command breaking points with memory burst boundaries associated with the system memory, by creating a plurality of sub-commands for a transaction each having breaking points, identifying a plurality of memory burst boundaries for the system memory each having burst boundary points, and aligning a plurality of breaking points with a plurality of burst boundary points to provide single access to data located in the system memory.
US08850130B1

Disclosed is an improved approach for using advanced metadata to implement an architecture for managing I/O operations and storage devices for a virtualization environment. According to some embodiments, a Service VM is employed to control and manage any type of storage device, including directly attached storage in addition to networked and cloud storage. The advanced metadata is used to track data within the storage devices. A lock-free approach is implemented in some embodiments to access and modify the metadata.
US08850125B2

In one embodiment, a system comprises a memory and a memory controller that provides a cache access path to the memory and a bypass-cache access path to the memory, receives requests to read graph data from the memory on the bypass-cache access path and receives requests to read non-graph data from the memory on the cache access path. A method comprises receiving a request at a memory controller to read graph data from a memory on a bypass-cache access path, receiving a request at the memory controller to read non-graph data from the memory through a cache access path, and arbitrating, in the memory controller, among the requests using arbitration.
US08850120B2

Some embodiments of the present invention provide a system that performs stores in a memory system. During operation, the system performs a store for a first thread, which involves creating an entry for the store in a store queue for the first thread. It also involves attempting to store-mark a corresponding cache line for the first thread by sending a store-mark request for the first thread to the memory system, wherein a store-mark on the cache line indicates that one or more store queue entries are waiting to be committed to the cache line. If the attempt to store-mark the cache line fails because a second thread holds a store-mark on the cache line, and if obtaining the store-mark will ensure forward progress for the first thread, the system forces the second thread to release the store-mark, so the first thread can acquire a store-mark for the cache line.
US08850116B2

A method for communication between an initiator system and a storage cluster. The method comprises receiving an initial I/O request from the initiator system to a first storage system; providing a referral response from the first storage system to the initiator system, the referral response providing information for directing the initiator system to a second storage system; notifying the second storage system regarding the referral response via a prefetch notice, the prefetch notice including an operation type and address information for accessing requested data; when the initial I/O request is a read request, prefetching at least a portion of the requested data stored in the second storage system in to a cache; receiving a second I/O request from the initiator system to the second storage system; and providing to the initiator system the portion of the prefetched data from the cache of the second storage system.
US08850114B2

The invention is an improved storage array controller that adds a level of indirection between host system and storage array. The storage array controller controls a storage array comprising at least one solid-state storage device. The storage array controller improvements include: garbage collection, sequentialization of writes, combining of writes, aggregation of writes, increased reliability, improved performance, and addition of resources and functions to a computer system with a storage subsystem.
US08850112B2

A non-volatile hard disk drive cache system is coupled between a processor and a hard disk drive. The cache system includes a control circuit, a non-volatile memory and a volatile memory. The control circuit causes a subset of the data stored in the hard disk drive to be written to the non-volatile memory. In response to a request to read data from the hard disk drive, the control circuit first determines if the requested read data are stored in the non-volatile memory. If so, the requested read data are provided from the non-volatile memory. Otherwise, the requested read data are provided from the hard disk drive. The volatile memory is used as a write buffer and to store disk access statistics, such as the disk drive locations that are most frequently read, which are used by the control circuit to determine which data to store in the non-volatile memory.
US08850109B2

An apparatus having a first circuit and a second circuit. The first circuit may be configured to (i) parse a first data word into a first data portion and a second data portion and (ii) parse a first address into a first address portion and a second address portion. The second circuit generally has a plurality of memory blocks. The second circuit may be configured to store the second data portion in a particular one of the memory blocks using (i) the first data portion to determine the particular memory block and (ii) the first address portion to determine a particular one of a plurality of locations within the particular memory block. The data portion may not be stored in the memory blocks. The particular location may be determined independently of the second address portion.
US08850108B1

A plurality of storage nodes in a single chassis is provided. The plurality of storage nodes in the single chassis is configured to communicate together as a storage cluster. Each of the plurality of storage nodes includes nonvolatile solid-state memory for user data storage. The plurality of storage nodes is configured to distribute the user data and metadata associated with the user data throughout the plurality of storage nodes such that the plurality of storage nodes maintain the ability to read the user data, using erasure coding, despite a loss of two of the plurality of storage nodes. The chassis includes power distribution, a high speed communication bus and the ability to install one or more storage nodes which may use the power distribution and communication bus. A method for accessing user data in a plurality of storage nodes having nonvolatile solid-state memory is also provided.
US08850103B2

A NAND flash memory logical unit. The NAND flash memory logical unit includes a control circuit that responds to commands and permits program and/or erase commands to be interruptible by read commands. The control circuit includes a set of internal registers for performing the current command, and a set of external registers for receiving commands. The control circuit also includes a set of supplemental registers that allow the NAND flash memory logical unit to have redundancy to properly hold state of an interrupted program or erase command. When the interrupted program or erase command is to resume, the NAND flash memory logical unit thus can quickly resume the paused program or erase operation. This provides significant improvement to read response times in the context of a NAND flash memory logical unit.
US08850101B2

In one embodiment, a system comprises a plurality of memory ports. The memory ports are distributed into a plurality of subsets, where each subset is identified by a subset index. The system further comprises a first address hashing unit configured to receive a request including at least one virtual memory address. Each virtual memory address is associated with a replication factor, and the virtual memory address refers to graph data. The first address hashing unit translates the replication factor into a corresponding subset index based on the virtual memory address, and converts the virtual memory address to a hardware based memory address. The hardware based address refers to data in the memory ports within a subset indicated by the corresponding subset index.
US08850089B1

A method and apparatus for unified final buffer with pointer-based and page-based scheme for traffic optimization have been disclosed.
US08850088B2

A computer system includes a server using a virtual volume (virtual logical volume) shared by a plurality of storage apparatuses. A management system managing the computer system accepts a selection of a first storage apparatus to be a determination target from among the storage apparatuses, performs a first determination of whether a first access path including the first storage apparatus exists or not. If the first access path exists, the management system performs a second determination of whether or not the first access path is an active access path used by the server for accessing the storage area (the storage area of the storage apparatus) assigned to a part of the virtual volume used by the server, and determines whether the first storage apparatus can be stopped or not on the basis of a result of the first determination or a result of the second determination. The access path is a path from the server to one of the storage apparatuses.
US08850087B2

The present invention provides the function of dynamically switching the allocation of snapshot data in a pool according to the use status of the pool. More specifically, the present invention provides the function of dynamically switching a storage mode to be applied to the pool from a storage mode in which the snapshot data is aggregated in a specific pool volume to a storage mode in which the snapshot data is distributed to plural pool volumes, or from the storage mode in which the snapshot data is distributed to the plural pool volumes to the storage mode in which the snapshot data is aggregated in the specific pool volume, according to the use status of the pool.
US08850086B2

An SD switch box embedded within a cellular handset, including circuitry for switching access to NAND storage that is embedded within the cellular handset, between a consumer electronic device that is external to and connected to the cellular handset, and between a base band modem that is embedded within the cellular handset, so as to enable shared use of the NAND memory by the consumer electronic device and by the base band modem, thereby enabling the cellular handset to be operational for cellular communication via its internal base band modem while its internal NAND memory is accessible to the external consumer electronics device.
US08850084B2

A data processing system includes an audio processor with a main memory for storing data, first and second buffers for temporarily storing the data to input/output an audio signal, and a data input/output (I/O) unit for outputting the stored data. A direct memory access (DMA) controller is provided for transmitting data between the main memory and the first and second buffers according to a DMA transmission process. If transmission of the data stored in the first buffer ends and an interrupt signal is thus generated, the DMA controller increases sizes of the first and second buffers during transmission of the data stored in the second buffer.
US08850082B2

A system for implementing a virtual Universal Serial Bus (USB) compound device with a simulated hub enables a single physical USB device, such as a USB peripheral device, to expose multiple stand-alone functions on the USB bus. Logical functions on the single physical USB device can be added and removed dynamically without re-enumerating the entire device and without affecting the state of other functions. Logical functions can also be independently implemented on any of a number of processors in a system that has access to the USB hardware. Each processor can enumerate as one or more USB devices via the virtual hub. Initialization of logical functions can be performed via the virtual USB hub to maintain a charging current level from a USB host in a device having a discharged battery.
US08850081B2

In one aspect, the issues of events that may impact one or more partitions of sub-socket partitioning in one or more sockets can be handled. Specifically, events for partitions can be handled in a socket with sub-socket partitioning, wherein the events may include reset, interrupts, errors and reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) management.
US08850079B2

A method of setting an address of a component that includes determining a characterization value associated with a consumable, calculating a number of address change operations based upon the characterization value, and setting a last address generated from the number of address change operations as the new address of the component, wherein the characterization value is determined based upon a usage of the consumable.
US08850076B2

A component of an electronic device comprises a network connection processor, which comprises a physical network connection block to receive data from and transmit data to a network and a first data processor configured to process data arriving at the network connection processor, and a second data processor configured to process data received from the network connection processor.
US08850074B2

The present invention provides a data synchronization method applied to a host and at least a client. First, the host transmits a request for synchronization operation to the client. The client replies at least a piece of connection information to the host. The host judges if the connection information contains operation flags. If not, the host transmits a request for data transmission to the client for driving the client to transmit the corresponding data of the connection information to the host. When the host completes receiving the data, the host stores an operation flag to the connection information and transmits it to the client for overwriting the connection information in the client.
US08850067B2

A device receives Internet protocol (IP) traffic flow data from network devices of a wireless network, groups the network devices into sets based on the IP traffic flow data, and estimates, based on the sets, information associated with the network devices. The device also groups the network devices into clusters based on the estimated information, ranks the clusters, and assigns IP address pools to each of the network devices based on the ranked clusters. The device further provides the assigned IP address pools to authorization, authentication, accounting (AAA) devices of the wireless network.
US08850064B2

Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method and related network node including one or more of the following: receiving a Diameter message at the DRA from an origin device; establishing a context object in response to receiving the Diameter message; evaluating a rule that includes a context object reference, wherein the evaluation includes accessing the context object based on the context object reference; and transmitting a message based on the evaluation of the rule.
US08850051B2

Methods, systems, and computer program products for transaction-based IP telephony call processing are disclosed. According to one method, a signaling message associated with an IP telephony event is received at an IP telephony node. In response to receiving the signaling message, an IP telephony transaction instance is instantiated to process the signaling message. The signaling message is processed using the IP telephony transaction instance.
US08850047B2

When an access control apparatus 1 receives an update request for session information of a user terminal 3, the access control apparatus having received the update request identifies multiple access control apparatuses storing therein the session information of the user terminal 3 on the basis of an identifier of the user terminal. Further, the access control apparatus 1 having received the update request sends a new update request for the session information of the user terminal 3 to each of the multiple identified access control apparatuses. Each of the access control apparatuses having received the new update request updates a session-data storage part of the access control apparatus having received the new update request in association with an update time.
US08850039B2

This system has a unit that specifies storage location of electronic information of which publication is to be validated; a unit that acquires the publicized electronic information to be validated from the specified storage location; a unit that registers, in a memory, publication validation information of the acquired publicized electronic information, which includes at least one of image data of the publicized electronic information and acquisition record information which indicates a path by which the publicized electronic information is acquired; a unit that designates a search condition to search electronic information of which publication is to be verified; a unit that searches the memory according to the designated search condition, to specify publicized electronic information; a unit that reads, from the memory, publication validation information of the specified publicized electronic information and transmits the reading information; and a unit that verifies the transmitted reading information.
US08850031B2

To provide a pairing system which requires no special hardware and is capable of easily pairing terminals intended by a user. A pairing management device includes a pairing control module which receives pairing requests from communication terminals and data terminals, and generates tentative pairs from the communication terminals and the data terminals which transmitted the pairing request, and a confirmation data control module which allots and transmits pair confirmation data which corresponds on one-on-one basis to the communication terminals and the data terminals forming the tentative pairs, and allows the pairing control module to update the tentative pairs to final pairs when the pairing control module receives pair alteration data corresponding to the pair confirmation data from the communication terminals or the data terminals.
US08850030B2

A method and an SLA portal (204) in a communication network (202), for establishing an SLA (Service Level Agreement) between a third party content provider (200) and an operator of the network for ensuring network resources needed for delivering a specific service. When an SLA request (2:1) is received from the content provider for the service, at least one viable predetermined SLA is retrieved (2:2) from an SLA database (206) holding a plurality of predetermined SLAs. The retrieved at least one viable SLA is then sent (2:3) on offer to the content provider, optionally together with an assigned service identifier. Thereby, the process of establishing the SLA is automated and any physical meetings and correspondence otherwise can be avoided to save time and costs.
US08850029B2

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for managing at least one aspect of a connection based on application behavior. In use, a connection request is received from an application. Additionally, a behavior of the application is identified. Furthermore, at least one aspect of a connection made in response to the connection request is managed, based on the behavior.
US08850021B2

Technologies are generally described for methods, instructions, and client applications for device discovery in a ubiquitous computing environment. In some examples, the methods, instructions, and client applications may facilitate the organization of features of devices in a ubiquitous computing environment into a series of hierarchical hash numbers, the ordering of the hierarchical hash numbers corresponding to the respective devices, and the searching for a particular one of the devices by attempting to match hashed search criteria to the ordered hierarchical hash numbers at one of the devices in the ubiquitous computing environment.
US08850014B2

Setting up a label switched path (LSP) for traffic between nodes of a network, involves sending a request message requesting reservation of resources for the requested LSP, from an ingress node (10) via intermediate nodes (40) and returning an acknowledgement message to an upstream node along the path. Absence of an acknowledgement from the downstream node, that the request message was received, is detected. Whether the given node should react to the detected absence can be determined from an indication (R) in the request message. Thus other nodes can react more quickly to take remedial action, to reroute or to remove the resource reservations without a long wait for a time out or a refresh message from the waiting ingress node, to enable more efficient use of the resources.
US08850007B2

A method and system for increasing server cluster availability by requiring at a minimum only one node and a quorum replica set of replica members to form and operate a cluster. Replica members maintain cluster operational data. A cluster operates when one node possesses a majority of replica members, which ensures that any new or surviving cluster includes consistent cluster operational data via at least one replica member from the immediately prior cluster. Arbitration provides exclusive ownership by one node of the replica members, including at cluster formation, and when the owning node fails. Arbitration uses a fast mutual exclusion algorithm and a reservation mechanism to challenge for and defend the exclusive reservation of each member. A quorum replica set algorithm brings members online and offline with data consistency, including updating unreconciled replica members, and ensures consistent read and update operations.
US08849988B2

The present invention is directed towards systems and methods for monitoring an access gateway. The systems and methods include monitors on appliances that generate and send requests to logon agents or login page services on access gateways. Based on the responses from the logon agents or login page services, the monitors determine whether the logon agents or login page services are available.
US08849986B2

Provided is a system and method for optimizing the presence notifications. The system includes a presence server which stores the presence subscription and presence information; and a presence XDMS for storing the authorization related information, wherein the presence server store the filtering rule pertaining to presence based notification delivery. The method includes: storing the presence subscription and presence information by a presence server; and storing the authorization related information by a presence XDMS, wherein a filtering rule pertaining to presence based notification delivery is used with the presence server.
US08849984B2

A bandwidth requesting device is to be connected via a network to a plurality of client devices that play contents. The bandwidth requesting device is to appropriate bandwidths to the plurality of client devices and includes a bandwidth securement requesting unit that determines a request bandwidth, based on bandwidth management information and appropriation request bandwidths sent from the plurality of client devices. The bandwidth securement requesting unit requests a relay server, provided externally from the network, that determines bandwidths usable by the network, to secure the request bandwidth. The bandwidth requesting device also includes a processing unit that resolves, upon a competition among the appropriation request bandwidths sent from the plurality of client devices, the competition. Further, the bandwidth requesting device includes a communication unit that communicates with the relay server and the plurality of client devices to receive the bandwidth management information.
US08849981B2

A benchmark response time is determined for a browser application request sent to a network server over a network. The response time is determined by performance monitoring code that is loaded into and monitors the browser application from the client. The performance monitoring code automatically sends a request to a network server; the request is not sent in response to user input. The network server receives the request, generates a response and provides the response to the browser application. The response includes a fixed amount of randomly generated data. The browser application receives and processes the response, but does not display the bytes or change the content displayed in the browser application as a result of the response. The browser application sends the times at which the browser application sends the request and the browser application completes processing the response data to the network server for further processing.
US08849978B1

Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for providing an application store are presented. In some embodiments, a request for updated policy information for at least one application may be received at an application store from a policy agent. Based on receiving the request, it may be determined, at the application store, whether one or more policies for the at least one application have been updated. Based on determining that the one or more policies for the at least one application have been updated, at least one policy update may be provided to the policy agent.
US08849971B2

A cloud management system can be configured to monitor and allocate resources of a cloud computing environment. The cloud management system can be configured to receive a request to instantiate a virtual machine. In order to instantiate the virtual machine, the cloud management system can be configured to determine the current resource usage and available resources of the cloud in order to allocate resources to the requested virtual machine. The cloud management system can be configured to scale the resources of the cloud in the event that resources are not available for a requested virtual machine.
US08849965B2

A system and method include determining an amount of network traffic to add to traffic in the network to emulate a desired condition, beginning a test of the network such that network nodes generate test traffic in accordance with the determined amount of network traffic to emulate the desired condition, receiving the test traffic, and calculating network performance measures as a function of the received test traffic.
US08849964B2

Systems and methods are provided for compressing and decompressing still image and video image data in mobile devices and monitoring applications. Corresponding mobile device and camera architectures, and service platform architectures for transmitting, storing, editing and transcoding still images and video images over wireless and wired networks and viewing them on display-enabled devices are also provided.
US08849962B2

An image forming apparatus and a method of controlling the same including a networking function includes checking the connection of a network cable, and displaying a screen to configure a network when the connection of the network cable is checked, thus allowing a user to circumvent time-consuming steps by providing a user with direct access to a menu to configure a network upon connection of a network cable to the image forming apparatus, thereby allowing the user to more easily configure the network and with increased efficiency.
US08849959B2

In some implementations, a method for using closed captions in a double display scenario includes, obtaining a video stream configured to be displayed on a first display device. The video stream includes closed captions. The method also includes, identifying one or more symbols or words included in the closed captions; and obtaining a set of instructions. The set of instructions includes instructions to display content information relating to at least one symbol or word in the one or more symbols or words. The method further includes, in response to obtaining, and in accordance with, the set of instructions, executing one or more applications based on a type of the content information; and formatting for display, on a second display device, output from the one or more applications. The applications include one of: a web browser, a music application, a feed reader application, a coupon application, and a content viewer.
US08849956B2

A system for providing video processing feedback to content providers uploading a video file. As the content provider uploads a video file to the video processing server, the server processes the uploading file and extracts representative video frames from the video file. The video processing server embeds the representative frames into a processing feedback page hosted on a web server in the video processing server. Each representative frame in the feedback page represents a part of the uploading video. The feedback page is accessible through the content provider's browser and the feedback page includes a sequence of representative frames in temporal order. In one embodiment, the representative frames in the feedback page are colored or shaded to indicate whether the video part represented by a particular frame has been processed.
US08849950B2

In one example, a device for receiving information for multimedia data includes one or more processors configured to determine a byte range of a file of a representation of multimedia content to request from a source device, form a uniform resource locator (URL) that specifies, in a file path portion of the URL, according to a template, the file and the byte range in accordance with requirements of the source device, and issue a GET request that specifies the formed URL to the source device.
US08849949B1

Systems and methods utilize the data plane of an access switch to aid in providing control plane proxy services when the access switch is undergoing a software upgrade on its control plane. In one aspect, a method includes providing a peer switch with current state information of the host computer, encapsulating a control plane query packet sent from the host computer using a first hardware circuit of the access switch, forwarding the encapsulated control plane query packet to the peer switch using the first hardware circuit. The method further includes receiving a response to the control plane query packet from the peer switch using the first hardware circuit and directing the response to the host computer.
US08849939B2

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a system and technique for coordinating write sequences in a data storage system includes a processor configured to receive from a primary device, responsive to the primary device receiving a request to write to primary storage, a request for a sequence number. The system also includes a sequence generator configured to: generate a current sequence number for the write; generate a first identifier indicating an identity of secondary devices writing to secondary storage based on the current sequence number; generate a second identifier indicating an identity of secondary devices writing to secondary storage based on the current sequence number and a previous sequence number; transmit the current sequence number and the second identifier to the primary device; and transmit the current sequence number and the first identifier to the secondary devices writing to secondary storage based on the previous sequence number.
US08849937B2

Provided are an apparatus and method for time synchronization in a Precision Time Protocol (PTP) network. According to an aspect, there is provided a time synchronization apparatus including: a synchronization unit configured to perform time synchronization between a master and at least one slave based on the number of synchronization messages that are sent from the master; a state-of-synchronization determiner configured to measure performance of the synchronization to thereby determine the state of the synchronization; and a number-of-messages adjustor configured to adjust the number of synchronization messages based on the state of the synchronization. Therefore, by automatically adjusting the number of synchronization messages that are sent from a master according to network traffic, the states of slave nodes, etc., it is possible to minimize entire network traffic and optimize the synchronization performance of nodes.
US08849929B2

Items of an item set may be stored by an item server (e.g., mail messages comprising a mailbox stored by a mail server) that supports the application of actions, but only within a constraint (e.g., a maximum duration or computational resources consumed by the action). The application of complex actions to large item sets may exceed the constraint if performed in one request. Moreover, the request may be made by a user interface of a user device, but the user interface may stall while interoperating with the item server to perform the action. Instead, a background process may issue a sequence of requests applying the action to respective batches of items within the constraint. This architecture may enable the user interface to remain responsive to the user while the action is performed, and even to be terminated without jeopardizing the completion of the action upon the item set.
US08849925B2

A system and method of using the system for capturing and storing electronic messages is disclosed. The system includes a client device and a remote server in communication with the client device. The client device comprises a first processor, software running on the processor, a storage device, and a transmitter. The software captures electronic messages sent and received by the client device. The server comprises a processor, software running on the processor, a storage device and an output device. The software archives the electronic messages received from the client device.
US08849924B2

Network infrastructure management may be provided. First, administrative tools associated with a plurality of network topologies may be provided in a management console. Providing the administrative tools may comprise providing a first set of tools associated with a first network topology in the console. The first network topology may be an on-premises topology. Providing the administrative tools may also comprise providing a second set of tools associated with a second network topology in the console. The second network topology may be a cloud topology. Next, communications for the plurality of network topologies may be established to manage the plurality of network topologies through the management console. Establishing the communications for the plurality of network topologies may comprise establishing a first communications channel between the first network topology and the console. In addition, establishing the communications may comprise establishing a second communications channel between the second network topology.
US08849914B2

A system and method for enabling co-browsing between two or more users accessing a website in separate sessions. Each of the users operates a web browser instance to browse the website. The website comprises one or more web pages, at least a portion of which includes embedded software code or script. A collaboration manager, established after the users consent to co-browsing, associates the sessions of the users. As the users navigate to new web addresses in the website or enter data into their browser instances, the software code or script embedded within the web pages rendered in the browser instances causes each user's browser to communicate changes in the web addresses or data to the collaboration manager. The collaboration manager receives the communicated changes and provides them to other co-browsing users. Synchronization of cursors, scroll-bar positions and other browser events is also supported.
US08849908B2

A real-time integrated information sharing and telecommunications collaboration system is disclosed. The system includes at least one central server to create, store, display, edit, distribute, share, control and archive voice, data, video and images with a plurality of simultaneous wireless and wireline remote display devices. The system includes at least one central server monitors, controls and protects voice, data, video and image communications to, from and between display devices through encrypted token based security identifiers. The sharing of information and communication data packets between the display devices is contingent upon permissions assigned to individual human or machine end users. All data and communications, including the encrypted token based security identifiers may be stored simultaneously or individually within the central server, display device, or a third-party remote storage device whereby each or all may reside behind additional security systems and firewalls at a plurality of locations. All voice, data, video and images are seamlessly integrated through either one or in combination of communications paths to include, but not limited to, the Public Switched Telephone Network, World Wide Web, Internet, Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), Local Area Network (LAN), satellite, land mobile radio, WiFi, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), broadband over powerlines and other wireline and wireless networks.
US08849907B1

A conference notification system in which potential participants to a conference re notified of relevant sections of the conference as they occur. Records are maintained of associations of persons to at least one or more conference section indicators, each indicator being uniquely associated with a conference section. The system identifies the current conference section and identifies persons associated with the current section, notifying them accordingly.
US08849904B2

A proxy server automatically includes web applications in web pages at the network level. The proxy server receives, from a client device, a request for a network resource at a domain and is hosted at an origin server. The proxy server retrieves the requested network resource. The retrieved network resource does not include the web applications. The proxy server determines that the web applications are to be installed within the network resource. The proxy server automatically modifies the retrieved network resource to include the web applications. The proxy server transmits a response to the client device that includes the modified network resource. The network resource may remain unchanged at the origin server.
US08849900B2

A system and method for supporting mobile coalitions for entertainment comprises devices including a master device, a server having a multimedia service executable by the master device and modules operable to recommend formation of a coalition based on the service, invite the devices to participate in the coalition, set up the coalition by determining the devices to participate, launching on each device a link to the coalition, performing emulation of the coalition by streaming a portion of the service to each device until experience is satisfactory, and continuing by transmitting the service to the devices, capture interactions on the devices by users, the interactions comprising at least gestures, taps correlating to messages of quality of experience, adapt the coalition by managing user inputs conveying quality of experience, maintaining synchronization of the devices, and maintaining the service when one or more of the devices cease to participate, and terminate the coalition.
US08849898B2

Example apparatus, methods, and computers support adaptive, collaborative deduplication. One example method includes controlling a computer to compute a correlation between a processing state associated with collaborative data deduplication performed by the computer and an environmental state associated with a collaborative data deduplication environment with which the computer interacts. With the correlation in hand, the method then includes controlling the computer to adapt how the computer participates in collaborative data deduplication based, at least in part, on the correlation. The adaptations can include changing what processing is performed on the computer and what data is stored on the computer.
US08849892B2

A system and method for brokering messages in a distributed system is disclosed, in which a resource, such as a hypertext file specified by a user agent, is preprocessed to request the services of a message broker configured to communicate messages among a plurality of non-compatible clients and servers for sending a message to an application at an application server in a protocol not supported by the user agent. In response, markup is generated and sent back to the user agent.
US08849891B1

In an embodiment, the systems, methods, and devices disclosed herein comprise a computer resource monitoring and allocation system. In an embodiment, the resource monitoring and allocation system can be configured to allocate computer resources that are available on various nodes of a cluster to specific jobs and/or sub-jobs and/or tasks and/or processes.
US08849888B2

A stream application uses small chunks of executable code configured to process data tuples flowing into a processing element. A scheduler allocates the processing elements to individual compute nodes or hosts for execution. However, the stream application may assign various constraints that stipulate which hosts are suitable for a particular processing element. If a host meets the constraints, it may be categorized as an unconditional candidate host. In addition, the scheduler may also track conditional candidate hosts that would be suitable for the processing element if a certain user action is performed—e.g., modifying a constraint, removing a constraint, modifying a stream element, and the like. The list of conditional candidate hosts may then be displayed to the user who can choose to perform the one or more actions to change the conditional candidate host to an unconditional candidate host for the processing element.
US08849886B2

A discrete-time analog filter including multiple storage cells each coupled to common input and output ports and each including at least one of capacitor and at least one switch. Each cell periodically samples an input signal and contributes to an output signal. At least two cells sample the input signal at different frequencies. The cells may be grouped together into one or more filter taps, where each filter tap may have a specified timing delay. Timing signals of a given tap may be non-overlapping phases of a given frequency. Cells may have a fixed or programmable capacitance associated with a corresponding weighting coefficient, and different taps may have different weighting coefficients. Taps may be coupled to implement a negative weighting coefficient. Programmable gain may be implemented with switches or by tap output coupling including sub-filter summing arrangements. Self-timed cells based on a master clock are disclosed.
US08849878B1

A system for an efficient data rehydration comprises a server, one or more reader device managers, a writer device manager, and a verifier. The server is for receiving a restore list comprising a plurality of storage locations and lengths for performing a data rehydration. The one or more reader device managers is for reading a data set indicated by the restore list by reading the plurality of storage locations for the lengths from one or more storage nodes. The plurality of storage locations and lengths indicate chunks from a client system stored as part of a full or as an incremental backup session on a storage device attached to a storage node. The writer device manager is for transferring the data set to a save node. A verifier is for verifying transfer of the data set.
US08849872B2

An embodiment relates to a method of providing data. The method includes monitoring a user interface to detect a change in the user interface. The change indicates a desired modification to data presented in the user interface. The method also includes generating a request to modify data in response to detecting the change in the user interface and transmitting the request to a repository storing the data to be modified.
US08849871B2

A system and method for allocating join processing between and RDBMS and an assisting cluster. In one embodiment, the method estimates a cost of performing the join completely in the RDBMS and the cost of performing the join with the assistance of a cluster coupled to the RDBMS. The cost of performing the join with the assistance of the cluster includes estimating a cost of a broadcast join or a partition join depending on the sizes of the tables. Additional costs are incurred when there is a blocking operation, which prevents the cluster from being able to process portions of the join. The RDBMS also maintains transactional consistency when the cluster performs some or all of the join processing.
US08849869B2

In various embodiments, a computerized method includes creating a first item of a list having at least two items that form a portion of electronic content. The computerized method can include creating a second item of the list within the electronic content, as well as converting the second item to a separate paragraph below the first item, wherein the separate paragraph is part of the first item. The computerized method may include creating another item of the list below the separate paragraph, wherein a continuity is maintained between the first item and the another item of the list. The computerized method includes storing the electronic content in a machine-readable medium.
US08849864B2

A digital archive system includes a plurality of digital files and a user interface that allows a user to designate any one of the files as an anchor file and to link other ones of the files to a designated anchor file. The user interface allows a user to annotate each file linked to an anchor file with information describing the respective file and any relationship between the anchor file and the respective linked file. The content of an anchor file and all files linked thereto can be displayed via the user interface.
US08849856B2

The present application includes methods and system for managing a storage device. In one implementation, a storage allocator that is present in a host or a storage device receives a request to store a file in a storage area of the storage device. The storage allocator marks the file as discardable in a file system structure associated with the storage device and updates a primary file allocation table (“FAT”) to associate a cluster chain that is allocated to the file with the file. The storage allocator additionally updates a discardable FAT or a database to reflect a physical location of the file, or may generate one or more location files that store the physical location of the file. The storage allocator then manages the storage area device based on the FAT and a discardable FAT, database, or one more location files indicating the physical location of the file.
US08849853B2

A method of automatically selecting a number of secondary images and a display template for display with a primary preselected image based on analyzing the primary image's attribute information and comparing the secondary images attribute information and the templates image attribute requirements. The attribute information is used to evaluate a compatibility of the images and template so that a best compatibility fit can be obtained when displaying the images.
US08849851B2

A computer identifies a plurality of data retrieval requests that may be serviced using a plurality of unique data chunks. The computer services the data retrieval requests by utilizing at least one of the unique data chunks. At least one of the unique data chunks can be utilized for servicing two or more of the data retrieval requests. The computer determines a servicing sequence for the plurality of data retrieval requests such that the two or more of the data retrieval requests that can be serviced utilizing the at least one of the unique data chunks are serviced consecutively. The computer services the plurality of data retrieval requests according to the servicing sequence.
US08849837B2

A system is provided that that dynamically matches data originating from one or more data sources. The system analyzes a matching configuration file, where the matching configuration file includes one or more matching configurations. The system modifies a probabilistic matching algorithm of a matching engine at runtime based on the one or more matching configurations and based on two or more data records of the plurality of data records that require matching. The system compares two data records of a plurality of data records using the modified probabilistic matching algorithm. The system generates a match score for the two data records based on the match weight for each data record field.
US08849834B2

Techniques for organizing single or multi-column temporal data into R-tree spatial indexes are provided. Temporal data for single or multiple column data, within a database system, is converted into one or more line segments. The resulting line segments are transformed into a minimum bounding rectangle (MBR). Finally, the MBR is inserted into an R-tree spatial index.
US08849830B1

Delivering a search result is disclosed. A category is associated with a document based at least in part on one or more scores that measure the relevance of that document to a base category. A search query is obtained. One or more results is delivered in a manner that includes an indication of at least one category with which the result is associated.
US08849829B2

Embodiments include methods and systems for generating trending search magazines. Trending topics may be identified from news servers. A search magazine edition may be generated for a trending topic. The edition has a search magazine format, including a news section, a user-generated media section and an about section. News and article servers are searched for articles on the trending topic. Media is searched for on the trending topic. Descriptive information is searched for on the trending topic. The search results of these automatic searches are transformed into the search magazine format of the edition and provided for display in a current display view of a mobile device.
US08849828B2

Techniques are described for refining the manual classification of assets classified or categorized using the terms of a business glossary. A semantic refinement mechanism is used to refine the manual classification of such assets, as well as subsequently evaluate the refined asset classifications. Further, the refined asset classifications may be used as a training set for a machine learning classifier. That is, should the classification of an asset contributing to a refinement change, the refinement based on that classification may be undone, at least in some cases.
US08849827B2

A content tagging and management capability is provided for enabling automatic tagging of content and management of tagged content. A method includes receiving content including an object, and automatically associating an information structure with the object included within the content to form thereby tagged content. The content may be received locally at a content capture device, and the information structure may be automatically associated with the object by the content capture device. The automatic tagging may be performed at the content capture device when the content is captured by the content capture device. The content may be received at a computer, and the information structure may be automatically associated with the object by the computer. The information structure may be available locally or retrieved from one or more remote devices.
US08849822B2

The present disclosure discloses a method for generating a search result and an information search system. The method for generating a search result includes: receiving, by an information search system, a search request; obtaining, by searching, a plurality of pieces of matching information that match the search request; obtaining a respective amount of user response associated with each of the plurality of pieces of matching information and further obtaining a total amount of user response associated with a respective categories to which each of the plurality of pieces of matching information belongs; and ranking the plurality of pieces of information to generate a search result based on the total amount of user response associated with the respective category to which each of the plurality of pieces of matching information belongs. By using the above technical scheme, a result of more rational ranking of matching information can be displayed to a user when the user performs a search, thus improving experience of the user.
US08849814B2

A documents database has a plurality of documents, including but not limited to text files, video clips and sound files. Each document is associated with at least one category of a plurality of categories in a categories database, and each category has at least one keyword. A search request having at least one search term is received from a user, and a categories database is searched for categories having a keyword corresponding to the user search term to identify first level categories. The other keywords from the identified first level categories are retrieved and the documents database is searched for documents having a user search term or a retrieved keyword. The identified documents are then ranked and presented to the user. Other search expansion techniques, and display techniques, are also discussed.
US08849813B1

Method and system are provided to determine a member profile associated with a reference to a person in a publication and may be used beneficially to identify members of a social network in news articles. The system may be configured to detect a publication that was shared by a member of an on-line social networking system, determine that the publication includes a name entity, and identify a member profile in the on-line social networking system that represents a member referenced by the name entity. The process of identifying a member profile in the on-line social networking system that represents a member referenced by the name entity may include building a list of candidate profiles from the member profiles of the on-line social networking system and selecting a matching profile from the candidate profiles, utilizing one or more disambiguation techniques.
US08849812B1

Techniques for generating content for topics based on user demand are disclosed. In some embodiments, generating content for topics based on user demand includes determining a topic based on a user demand; automatically generating content for the topic; and selecting the content that is contextually relevant for display within a corpus of content (e.g., a web site, a social networking web page, content customized for mobile devices, content customized based on location awareness, or an electronic mail message).
US08849805B2

It is possible to present a recipe according to a request reflecting how strongly the user feels for cooking. An information processing apparatus acquires a first feeling degree specified by a user as a degree of strength of feelings for cooking. The information processing apparatus acquires a second feeling degree of each recipe on the basis of a plurality of attributes of the recipe. The second feeling degree is calculated as the degree of strength of feelings for cooking. The plurality of attributes are identified from the recipe stored in a storage means. The information processing apparatus searches for one or more recipes whose second feeling degrees within a range according to the first feeling degree is calculated, and causes the found recipe to be presented.
US08849804B1

Methods and systems for distributing interest categories within a hierarchical classification, wherein a parent interest category is identified and the hierarchical classification is filtered. A sub-interest category is extracted, based on the filtering, and a weighting associated with the sub-interest category is transferred into the parent interest category. The weighting is distributed in the hierarchical classification.
US08849799B1

Systems and methods of selecting supplemental content for a document in a computer network environment. A data processing system can receive a notification of a request for a document. The data processing system can access a set of Boolean query expressions stored in association with a plurality of supplemental content records and identify a subset that are satisfied by the document. The data processing system can determine a document relevance score for each query expression in the subset. The score may be based, in part, on a feature of a document token that contributes to satisfying the respective query expression. The data processing system can select an expression from the subset based on the scores and select a supplemental content record associated with the selected Boolean query expression. The data processing system can output data for supplementing the document with a content indicated by the selected supplemental content record.
US08849797B2

A query governor intelligently sets tailored thresholds for a query accessing a computer database. The query governor preferably generates a tailored threshold for each query sent to the database for execution. The tailored threshold for the query is preferably compared to an estimated query execution time to determine whether to execute the query. The query governor uses one or more factors applied to a standard threshold to generate the tailored threshold. The factors preferably include user factors and query factors. These factors are dynamically adjusted by the query governor in an intelligent way to increase optimal use of the database. Other factors may include factors such as job priority factor, resource factor and an application factor.
US08849789B2

A computer system is disclosed. The computer system includes one or more processors, and a memory storage storing one or more instructions for implementing a search tool. The instructions, when executed, instruct the computer system to perform a set of steps. The steps include receiving a search query from a user computer, the search query including one or more search terms to use to perform a first search. The steps further include, based on the one or more search terms, performing the first search, and providing for display at the user computer a list of one or more law-related documents responsive to the search query, a list of one or more recommended sources in which to perform a second search for documents, and a list of legal topics associated with the responsive documents.
US08849782B2

A method of accessing tape storage analytics data gathered from tape libraries. The method includes generating a user interface on a client device via a web browser. The user interface includes a first screen displaying graphics or an analysis table generated based on the tape storage analytics data. The method includes receiving user input selecting a portion of the displayed graphics or an item within a cell of the analysis table and, then, modifying the user interface to display a second screen, which presents a subset of the tape storage analytics data corresponding to the selected portion and to operation of at least one of one or more tape libraries, one or more tape drives, and one or more tape media within the tape libraries. The receiving and modifying steps may be repeated to navigate between data corresponding to a tape library, a tape drive, and media.
US08849777B1

A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for protecting data, comprising receiving a changed block, reading a previous backup to get a file list in change block tracking, checking a file in a modified master file table list for a reference flag, wherein the modified master file table list is based on the changed block, and modifying a database entry based on the reference flag.
US08849757B2

Technologies are generally provided for conveying tree and index needs of a database by collecting and forwarding a statistically representative set of data requests so that a new datacenter can use its existing auto-learning and adjustment techniques to create local indices before receiving its first real or live requests. In some examples, requests at an origin datacenter may be collected to provide a small population of queries that are representative of a larger population of queries. Filters and/or anonymizers may be employed to adhere to data sharing rules and restrictions while still allowing a new datacenter to build indices and test performance. Thus, the new datacenter may be trained asynchronously from another site and without actual data changing hands. Training and testing of destination database services may be completed before committing to customer migration.
US08849749B2

Load balancing in a parallel database system is performed using multi-reordering, in which a sequence of multiple processors (two, three, or more) that have small average load (for example, the smallest of any such sequence) is selected to participate in load balancing. In the case of three adjacent low-load processors, the load of all three is evenly distributed over two of them, and the remaining processor becomes a free processor. The free processor is moved adjacent to a high-load processor, the load of which is then shared with the free processor. Data is moved in a “transaction” so that the view of data is always consistent. The database continues to service requests from a former location while data undergoes a transfer.
US08849744B2

A method (and system) includes providing a memory including a plurality of named locations each holding a value and introducing at least one freshener. The at least one freshener chooses one of the plurality of named locations and re-computes its value.
US08849743B2

A client receives an object definition defining an object and an array of elements from a server. Each of the elements in the received array includes data representing objects associated with a data store of the server. The client instantiates a plurality of objects based on the received array and based on the received object definition. The objects are then accessed via a web application executing on the client.
US08849742B2

A computer implemented method includes determining whether a time of day corresponds to a charging window, responsive to a determination that a vehicle is in a non-charging state. The method also includes retrieving a start time and charge requirement for an upcoming journey. The method further includes determining if sufficient time remains to charge a vehicle to the charge requirement, responsive to a determination that the time of day corresponds to the charging window. Also, the method includes alerting a user to the non-charging state, responsive to a determination that insufficient time remains to charge the vehicle to the charge requirement.
US08849721B2

A social networking system includes a mechanism for integrating user actions on objects outside of the social networking system in the social graph. External system operators include widgets that, when executed by user devices, record user interactions that correspond to a defined structure of actions and objects. Third party operators utilize a tool provided by the social networking system to define the structure of actions and objects. External actions are recorded by the social networking system for publishing to the social graph.
US08849720B2

An electronic ticket exchange system has a market-making system by which patrons submit bids over a limited time period for seats of different quality. A trading system provides for a secondary market in which patrons who have purchased tickets for an event can sell them to other patrons. All of the rights associated with a ticket, such as entry into the venue, are stored in electronic form. An electronic venue entry control system verifies that a person owns an electronic ticket property right, and authorizes the privileges associated with the ticket, such as entry to the venue. A seating system is employed to determine an optimal seating configuration based upon patron-specific preferences, after the initial sale of tickets and prior to entry into the venue.
US08849716B1

A system and method for network file filtering to prevent identity theft or misuse by restricting access to files likely to contain sensitive data is disclosed. The file filtering process includes scanning at least one data file for density of a selected pattern. Files identified as containing the selected pattern may be further analyzed to determine the likelihood of the presence of sensitive information. The process may also include restricting access to files that are identified as likely to contain sensitive information.
US08849711B2

A graphic user interface is disclosed that combines a traditional trading, bookkeeping system or clearing system window with a detailed margin and/or collateral asset calculation analysis window on a single screen. The disclosed GUI provides the flexibility to analyze any combination of products or instrument classes such as single stock futures, futures (of all types), options (of all types), forward contracts, security options, securities and cash-based assets. Conventional systems merely block entry of orders beyond a predetermined credit limit or display clearing/bookkeeping information on all types of portfolio or accounts. The disclosed GUI, in an automated real-time or manual execution control basis, provide the user useful information (all types of numerical and/or graphical display) concerning which products contribute to and how much each product position contribute to the margin limits on, for example, multiple levels; all types of product level, product period (duration) level, account level and clearing level, etc. In one embodiment, the margin window may include a “what if” Scenario Panel and an “Actuals” Margin Analysis Panel. This Scenario Panel allows the user to experiment with “what-if” scenarios in real time or on an as-needed basis. This allows the user to better assess the changes an “actual” position(s) or “what-if” position(s) may have on the margin requirements on all account level types. Further, the actual panel displays the account's actual positions and the associated contributions each position has to that account's margin requirements.
US08849710B2

A method for making purchases with a mobile device at a physical location is described. A service provider receives information about an item available for purchase, and this information is projected on a surface. A user in the vicinity of the surface views the projected information and provides input through the user's mobile device. The projected information changes based on the input. The user selects an item for purchase and pays for the selected item through the mobile device.
US08849708B2

A method for customizing a device during order fulfillment is described. A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag of an electronic device is wirelessly loaded with customization information at an order fulfillment center without disturbing packaging surrounding the electronic device or without powering up the electronic device.
US08849700B2

An information distribution system including an image data processing device, a server, and a portable telephone unit having an image data acquisition unit that acquires image data with a destination address attached thereto and a display unit that displays the image data. The image data is distributed from the image data processing device to the portable telephone unit, and advertisement information based on user information is extracted from an advertisement information storage unit and appended to image/text data by an advertisement information appending unit provided in the server.
US08849694B1

Various methods, systems, and computer program products are disclosed for communicating location-based promotional messages to a mobile communication device. The method may include receiving a request associated with a mobile communication device. In response to the request, the method may include determining a location of the mobile communication device and a potential interest of a user of the mobile communication device. Based on the location of the mobile communication device and the potential interest of the user, the method may include identifying a promotional message from among other promotional messages. Upon identification, the method may include communicating the promotional message to be displayed at the mobile communication device.
US08849693B1

Disclosed is a system for performing online data queries and purchasing advertisements associated with business listings. The system for performing online data queries is a distributed computer system with a plurality of server nodes each fully redundant and capable of processing a user query request. Each server node includes a data query cache and other caches that may be used in performing data queries. The data query, as well as request allocation, is performed in accordance with an adaptive partitioning technique with a bias towards an initial partitioning scheme. Generic objects are created and used to represent business listings upon which the user may perform queries. Various data processing and integration techniques are included which enhance data queries. An update technique is used for synchronizing data updates as needed in updating the plurality of server nodes. A multi-media data transfer technique is used to transfer non-text or multi-media data between various components of the online query tool. Optimizations for searching, such as the common term optimization, are included for those commonly performed data queries. Also disclosed is a system for targeting advertisements that are displayed to a user of the system. Advertisements may also be purchased using this system. Advertisements are linked to the business listings that may result from a user query for particular types of businesses or listings.
US08849690B1

A system and method for aircraft maintenance planning according to which an optimized bill of work is generated for a line maintenance station at which one or more airplanes are parked or are expected to be parked.
US08849687B2

Disclosed is a computerized method for dispatching energy from distributed resources in a discharge event so that the energy stored in individual devices is levelized, or so that an operator request is met. Evaluation of event parameters may be deferred. The method may be utilized to dispatch energy from plug-in electric vehicles. Systems and methods to account for electricity dispatched to or from electric vehicles are disclosed. Systems and methods for incentivizing consumers to participate in a dispatch event or curtail energy use are disclosed.
US08849684B1

A coverage management system is described herein that enables an insurance agent and an insured party to engage in a streamlined insurance procurement process. The coverage management system facilitates generation of interactive insurance-related documents, provides mechanisms to interact with the documents, and optimizes agent-insured interaction via the insurance-related documents.
US08849670B2

Systems and methods are provided for receiving speech and non-speech communications of natural language questions and/or commands, transcribing the speech and non-speech communications to textual messages, and executing the questions and/or commands. The invention applies context, prior information, domain knowledge, and user specific profile data to achieve a natural environment for one or more users presenting questions or commands across multiple domains. The systems and methods creates, stores and uses extensive personal profile information for each user, thereby improving the reliability of determining the context of the speech and non-speech communications and presenting the expected results for a particular question or command.
US08849668B2

A speech recognition apparatus is provided. The speech recognition apparatus includes a primary speech recognition unit configured to perform speech recognition on input speech and thus to generate word lattice information, a word string generation unit configured to generate one or more word strings based on the word lattice information, a language model score calculation unit configured to calculate bidirectional language model scores of the generated word strings selectively using forward and backward language models for each of words in each of the generated word strings, and a sentence output unit configured to output one or more of the generated word strings with high scores as results of the speech recognition of the input speech based on the calculated bidirectional language model scores.
US08849666B2

Speech recognition processing captures phonemes of words in a spoken speech string and retrieves text of words corresponding to particular combinations of phonemes from a phoneme dictionary. A text-to-speech synthesizer then can produce and substitute a synthesized pronunciation of that word in the speech string. If the speech recognition processing fails to recognize a particular combination of phonemes of a word, as spoken, as may occur when a word is spoken with an accent or when the speaker has a speech impediment, the speaker is prompted to clarify the word by entry, as text, from a keyboard or the like for storage in the phoneme dictionary such that a synthesized pronunciation of the word can be played out when the initially unrecognized spoken word is again encountered in a speech string to improve intelligibility, particularly for conference calls.
US08849665B2

A machine translation method, system for using the method, and computer readable media are disclosed. The method includes the steps of receiving a source language sentence, selecting a set of target language n-grams using a lexical classifier and based on the source language sentence. When selecting the set of target language n-grams, in at least one n-gram, n is greater than 1. The method continues by combining the selected set of target language n-grams as a finite state acceptor (FSA), weighting the FSA with data from the lexical classifier, and generating an n-best list of target sentences from the FSA. As an alternate to using the FSA, N strings may be generated from the n-grams and ranked using a language model. The N strings may be represented by an FSA for efficiency but it is not necessary.
US08849664B1

Methods, systems, and computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium for real-time acoustic adaptation using stability measures are disclosed. The methods include the actions of receiving a transcription of a first portion of a speech session, wherein the transcription of the first portion of the speech session is generated using a speaker adaptation profile. The actions further include receiving a stability measure for a segment of the transcription and determining that the stability measure for the segment satisfies a threshold. Additionally, the actions include triggering an update of the speaker adaptation profile using the segment, or using a portion of speech data that corresponds to the segment. And the actions include receiving a transcription of a second portion of the speech session, wherein the transcription of the second portion of the speech session is generated using the updated speaker adaptation profile.
US08849658B2

Some embodiments describe methods, programs, and systems for speech encoding. Among other things, a received input signal representing a property of speech is quantized to generate a quantized output signal. Prior to the quantization, a version of the input signal is supplied to a first noise shaping filter having a first set of filter coefficients effective to generate a first filtered signal. Following the quantization, the quantized output signal is supplied to a second noise shaping filter having a second set of filter coefficients, thus generating a second filtered signal. A noise shaping operation is performed to control a frequency spectrum of a noise effect in the quantized output signal caused by the quantization, wherein the noise shaping operation is based on both the first and second filtered signals. Finally, the quantised output signal is transmitted in an encoded signal.
US08849657B2

In an apparatus and method for isolating a multi-channel sound source, the probability of speaker presence calculated when noise of a sound source signal separated by GSS is estimated is used to calculate a gain. Thus, it is not necessary to additionally calculate the probability of speaker presence when calculating the gain, the speaker's voice signal can be easily and quickly separated from peripheral noise and reverb and distortion are minimized. As such, if several interference sound sources, each of which has directivity, and speakers are simultaneously present in a room with high reverb, a plurality of sound sources generated from several microphones can be separated from one another with low sound quality distortion, and the reverb can also be removed.
US08849655B2

An encoder whereby the bit efficiency of encoding can be improved, thereby improving the qualities of signals as decoded. In the encoder: a time-frequency converting unit (101) converts signals, which are to be encoded, to frequency domain signals; an adaptive spectrum formation encoding unit (102) determines an effective range in the frequency band of the frequency domain signals; and a pulse vector encoding unit (103) pulse vector encodes only the signal components within the effective range.
US08849654B2

A method, a device and a system for voice encoding/decoding are disclosed in the present invention. The method includes: assembling an input pulse code modulation signal into one signal according to a designated time slot and assembly manner; and encoding the assembled signal according to a designated encoding manner to output an encoded voice signal. In the present invention, because a process of assembling or splitting the signal may be implemented through software, in the case that hardware in a current network does not need to be replaced, an effect of encoding/decoding voice with a 7 K spectrum may be achieved in the current network.
US08849653B2

Methods, computer program products and systems for updating a dictionary on a computer are provided including identifying a set of words included with an application program being installed on the computer and identifying one or more installed dictionaries within the computer. The dictionaries that are identified, typically by searching the computer for installed dictionaries, may then be updated by adding one or more words of the set to at least one of the installed dictionaries. Optionally, one or more installed dictionaries may be identified by the user responding to a query asking the user to identify dictionaries or applications that contain dictionaries installed on the computer. An application programming interface may add the words to the dictionaries by associating the installed dictionaries with one or more installed application programs and identifying an API that is specific for the application and using the API to update the dictionaries.
US08849646B2

Methods and apparatus for simulating a distributed business process are disclosed. The methods and apparatus simulate an interdependent business process, such as a financial transaction system, in a secure distributed manner. Each business entity that is part of the interdependent business process models itself on a local client device at any chosen level of detail. A simulation server connects the separate client based simulations into one large simulation. Details of each local simulation may be hidden from other simulation participants. However, interruptions in business flow caused by simulated disruptions introduced at the simulation server and/or a client device are propagated to all of the effected simulation participants via the simulation server. In addition, if a client based model is not available, the server supplies a software agent to replace the inputs and outputs normally associated with that portion of the overall simulation.
US08849641B1

A system is configured to: identify a block of a model; represent the block as a group of sub blocks; and establish connections for the group of sub blocks. The block includes an input signal and two or more output signals. The group of sub blocks include a state block that provides a state, and two or more output blocks for receiving the state.
US08849640B2

A method of planning a drilling operation IS provided that comprises selecting a set of targeted regions based on data from a three-dimensional shared earth model and generating at least one targeted segment within each one of the set of targeted regions The method further comprises defining at least one application agent for the purpose of evaluating the at least one targeted segment within each one of the set of targeted regions based on a potential payout in terms of production of hydrocarbons The exemplary method additionally comprises identifying at least one well trajectory through the at least one targeted segment within each one of the set of targeted regions And the method comprises employing the at least one application agent to evaluate well trajectories based on the potential payout in terms of at least one of production of hydrocarbons, drilling complexity, cost or stability of well planning.
US08849633B2

A treatment delivery system or a simulation system simulates treatment of a patient, including testing the ability of one or more tracking methods to track a target position during the simulation. The system then presents simulation results to a user, the simulation results indicating whether any of the one or more tracking methods will successfully track the target position during treatment delivery.
US08849623B2

Systems and methods which implement surrogate (e.g., approximation) models to systematically reduce the parameter space in an optimization problem are shown. In certain embodiments, rigorous (e.g., higher fidelity) models are implemented with respect to the reduced parameter space provided by use of surrogate models to efficiently and more rapidly arrive at an optimized solution. Accordingly, certain embodiments build surrogate models of an actual simulation, and systematically reduce the number of design parameters used in the actual simulation to solve optimization problems using the actual simulation. A multi-stage method that facilitates optimization of decisions related to development planning and reservoir management may be provided. Iterative processing may be implemented with respect to a multi-stage optimization method. There may be uncertainty in various parameters, such as in reservoir parameters, which is taken into account according to certain embodiments.
US08849622B2

A system for large scale data modelling is described. The system includes at least one data measurement sensor (230) for generating measured data, a training processor (240) to determine optimized hyperparameter values in relation to a Gaussian process covariance function including a sparse covariance function that is smooth and diminishes to zero outside of a characteristic hyperparameter length. An evaluation processor (260) determines model data from the Gaussian process covariance function with optimised hyperparameter values and measured data. Also described is methods for modelling date, including a method using a Gaussian process including a sparse covariance function that diminishes to zero outside of a characteristic length, wherein the characteristic length is determined from the data to be modelled.
US08849619B2

A system and method for generating three dimensional functional space reservation systems of a vehicle from a conceptual space reservation is disclosed. In one embodiment, in a method for generating three dimensional functional space reservation systems, functional, connectivity and geometrical information associated with two conceptual space reservation versions of the vehicle is collected from design databases. The two conceptual space reservation versions include current and previous conceptual space reservation versions. Then, mathematical models are created in organized binary form. Delta information detected from the two conceptual space reservation versions of the vehicle is outputted. Further, a set of rules and checks is applied in the mathematical model of the current conceptual space reservation version and standardized entities information is outputted. A set of functional attributes is also applied to standardized entities and the three dimensional functional space reservation systems including new part numbers for the design entities are generated.
US08849610B2

Methods, devices, and computer programs are presented for creating a unified data stream from multiple data streams acquired from multiple devices. One method includes an operation for receiving activity data streams from the devices, each activity data stream being associated with physical activity data of a user. Further, the method includes an operation for assembling the unified activity data stream for a period of time. The unified activity data stream includes data segments from the data streams of at least two devices, and the data segments are organized time-wise over the period of time.
US08849608B2

A method and apparatus for surveillance. A signal is sent to sensors on a ground in an area. The sensors are configured to generate electromagnetic radiation in response to the signal to activate the sensors. The current positions of the sensors are detected from the electromagnetic radiation generated by the sensors in response to the signal.
US08849605B2

A method and apparatus are described for sensor based detection of pedestrian motion. Based on a 3-axis accelerometer, the apparatus may differentiate between walking, running, standing still, or any random movement that the user may perform. The method may comprise the steps of performing a time domain analysis and a frequency domain analysis. The time domain analysis may be based on a Teager-Kaiser Energy Operator. The frequency domain analysis may be based on a fast Fourier transform. A apparatus for detecting pedestrian motion may comprises an accelerometer, an operator, a Teager-Kaiser Energy Operator, a first peak detection, a second peak detection, a buffer, a fast Fourier transform, a memory and a look-up table. The apparatus may be a hand held device.
US08849604B2

A method for calculating the probability of moisture build-up in a compressor includes the steps of sensing a temperature of the ambient air, sensing a discharge pressure of the compressor, sensing a temperature of the compressor, processing the ambient air temperature and operating pressure sensed to obtain a required temperature at which condensation will form, and comparing the temperature of the compressor to the required temperature.
US08849601B2

A method for self-calibrating, while a vehicle is moving, an accelerometer mounted on a wheel of the vehicle so that its plane of maximum sensitivity is secant with the axis of rotation of the wheel. The average value and on the other hand the amplitude of the signal representative of the acceleration Acc-read delivered by the accelerometer are calculated first, for an established speed of the vehicle, based on measurements performed by the accelerometer during a time window corresponding to the time needed for the wheel to complete n rotations, with n>1, then the values of the gain C1 and of the offset C2 of the accelerometer are determined by resolving the system of two equations with two unknown values: ω2R=C1×(average value of Acc-read)+C2 2 g=C1×(amplitude of Acc-read) with: ω the speed of rotation of the wheel, R the radius of the wheel.
US08849588B2

A hardness test method performed by a controller of a hardness tester includes a first measurement process measuring an indentation curve (indentation history curve) for a plurality of times under a same condition with respect to a test specimen for verification in a predetermined environment; a setting process setting an acceptable range of variation in a load loading curve based on load loading curves (load loading history curves) of the plurality of the indentation curves obtained by the first measurement process; a second measurement process measuring an indentation curve under a same condition as the first measurement process with respect to the test specimen in an actual usage environment; and a judging process judging whether a load loading curve of the indentation curve measured by the second measurement process is within the acceptable range of variation in a load loading curve set by the setting process.
US08849580B2

Disclosed herein are systems and uses of systems operating between fully quantum coherent and fully classical states. Such systems operate in what is termed the “Poised realm” and exhibit unique behaviors that can be applied to a number of useful applications. Non-limiting examples include drug discovery, computers, and artificial intelligence.
US08849577B2

Methods for metabolomically determining the biological affects of compounds are described.
US08849575B2

The present invention generally relates to methods of rapidly and efficiently searching biologically-related data space. More specifically, the invention includes methods of identifying bio-molecules with desired properties, or which are most suitable for acquiring such properties, from complex bio-molecule libraries or sets of such libraries. The invention also provides methods of modeling sequence-activity relationships. As many of the methods are computer-implemented, the invention additionally provides digital systems and software for performing these methods.
US08849574B2

A horizon-picking solution for a geological volume of interest is determined. To determine the horizon-picking solution, a plurality of horizons through the geological volume of interest included in an initial horizon-picking solution are perturbed to more closely follow the local character of measured data related to the geological volume of interest. In particular, the horizons may be perturbed simultaneously by blending the initial solution with a secondary horizon-picking solution that automatically identifies a plurality of horizons through the geological volume of interest that follow the measured data related to the geological volume of interest.
US08849573B2

A method of estimating formation porosity using a neural network for neutron porosity tools. In the training stage, the near-to-far ratio, environmental variables, such as mineralogy, borehole size, standoff etc., are fed to the inputs and the neural network is trained for obtaining the related true porosity (the output). The trained neural network is implanted into tool's firmware for the real time porosity measurement, accounting for the environmental effects considered during training.
US08849552B2

An illustrative method of data gathering includes determining that a vehicle traveling characteristic has changed beyond an expected parameter. The method further includes recording the GPS coordinates of the vehicle and ceasing recording the GPS coordinates of the vehicle when the vehicle traveling characteristic resumes the expected parameter. Finally, the method includes determining and storing a traffic control feature associated with at least one set of the GPS coordinates, if the recorded GPS coordinates of the vehicle correspond to previously recorded GPS coordinates.
US08849550B2

A method is provided for controlling an exhaust gas temperature of an engine of a vehicle during interruption of fuel supply to the engine, wherein the engine drives a driveline of the vehicle. The method involves alternating between two or more operational modes, wherein at least one of the operational modes maintains a higher exhaust temperature than the one or more other operational modes.
US08849549B2

A method of controlling combustion of a diesel engine may include a vibration measuring step of measuring engine vibrations, a measurement region setting step of setting a range where an LPP (location of peak pressure) is predicted from measured vibration data, a frequency transforming step of transforming a vibration signal to a frequency response function, a frequency integrating step of integrating the transformed frequency response function, an LPP detecting step of selecting a location of peak pressure from integrated frequency response function, an estimated value determining step of selecting LPP offset and SOC (start of combustion) offset by using the detected LPP, an error determining step of determining LPP value error and SOC value error by comparing the estimated LPP value and the estimated SOC value with a target LPP value and a target SOC value, and a combustion correcting step of correcting and controlling combustion by the determined errors.
US08849546B2

A method of selecting between two operation modes in a dual fuel internal combustion engine of the diesel-type is provided. The engine includes a combustion chamber at least partly delimited by a piston, a first fuel supply for a first fuel, the first fuel supply being located in or at the combustion chamber and/or in or at an inlet port thereof, and a second fuel supply for a second fuel. The engine has two different operation modes, both operation modes including the steps of pre-mixing the first fuel in the combustion chamber and/or in the inlet port, compressing the charge containing the first fuel to conditions that allow auto-ignition of the second fuel, performing a first injection of the second fuel into the combustion chamber to initiate auto-ignition of the second fuel, thereby initiating conditions for combustion of the fuel remaining in the combustion chamber after auto-ignition of the second fuel. The first operation mode is distinguished by homogeneous ignition and combustion of the remaining fuel. The second operation mode is distinguished by pre-mixed flame propagation combustion of the remaining fuel. The method includes adjusting the amount of the second fuel injected in the first injection of the second fuel, and/or the timing of the first injection of the second fuel, so as to control the combustion chamber temperature and pressure after auto-ignition of the second fuel such that selection between the first and second operation modes is achieved. A dual fuel internal combustion engine of the diesel-type is also provided.
US08849545B2

A system according to the principles of the present disclosure includes a fuel volatility module, a temperature generation module, and a fuel control module. The fuel volatility module estimates a volatility of fuel provided to an engine based on an engine torque and an engine speed. The temperature generation module generates a temperature of an intake valve of the engine. The fuel control module selectively increases an amount of fuel provided to the engine based on the temperature of the intake valve, the engine torque, and the fuel volatility.
US08849531B2

A method of managing clutch thermal loads in a multi-speed dual-clutch transmission (DCT) paired with an engine in a vehicle includes assessing whether the vehicle is being accelerated and ascertaining whether a position of a vehicle accelerator during the acceleration is maintained within a predetermined range. The method also includes identifying a DCT clutch that is being slipped during the acceleration, determining an amount of time remaining until the clutch stops slipping, and comparing a first preset time span indicative of the time remaining until the clutch reaches a threshold temperature with the amount of time remaining until the clutch stops slipping. The method additionally includes setting a time delay for activating an indicator if the amount of time remaining until the clutchs stops slipping is greater than the first preset time span. Furthermore, the method includes activating the indicator after the time delay.
US08849529B2

A method for determining the contact point for a clutch in a vehicle comprising an engine, a clutch, powered wheels and a gearbox. The gearbox has a first gearbox component which is connected to the clutch and disconnectable from the powered wheels. The method steps include estimating (405) a friction torque for the first gearbox component, whereby the torque transmitted by the clutch is a function of estimated friction torque, closing (407) the clutch, whereby a representation of a torque transmitted by the clutch is determined for a plurality of positions for the clutch, determining (409) the contact point by means of the determined representation of torque transmitted, and the further step (402), before the closure of the clutch, of accelerating the first gearbox component if its rotation speed is below a certain value. Also a system and a vehicle for performing the method are disclosed.
US08849523B1

A soil detection and planting apparatus. The apparatus includes a vehicle and a controller coupled to the vehicle. The apparatus further includes a planting device coupled to the vehicle, the planting device configured to plant seeds or plants into a soil material. The apparatus includes a ground penetrating radar sensor coupled to the vehicle. The ground penetrating radar soil sensor is configured to scan the soil material up to a designated depth beneath a surface of the soil material, wherein the ground penetrating radar soil sensor is further configured to provide a sensor feedback signal to the controller with respect to an intrinsic characteristic of the soil material. The controller is configured to instruct placement of a seed or a plant into the soil material based on the feedback signal.
US08849517B2

Embodiments of the inventive subject matter ensure that a hands-free driving situation of a motor vehicle can be detected. In the case of such detection of a hands-free driving situation, requirements of a driving assistance system are preferably reset with respect to steering corrections made by the driving assistance systems. In this manner, virtually independent steering of the vehicle such as, for example, and autopilot type of driving assistance functionality is therefore advantageously avoided.
US08849508B2

A driver assistance system includes a stereo vision system that includes at least one camera and at least one sensor disposed on or in a vehicle; a roadside marker detection unit configured to receive stereo image data from the stereo vision system, and to detect roadside markers from the stereo image data; and a road path estimation unit configured to estimate a road path in a direction of travel of the vehicle, based on the roadside markers detected by the roadside marker detection unit.
US08849505B2

Methods and systems for locating a vehicle are disclosed, including detecting one or more environmental conditions, the one or more environmental conditions being indicative of an occurrence of an environmental event, determining a probability of the occurrence of the environmental event in response to detecting the one or more environmental conditions, and effecting a preventive action in response to the probability being above a threshold probability, the preventive action being configured to protect the vehicle from the environmental event.
US08849494B1

An autonomous vehicle may determine to seek assistance navigating using a first trajectory. The autonomous vehicle may be configured to receive and store data about a plurality of obstacles. A particular obstacle in the plurality of obstacles may partially or wholly obstruct the first trajectory. The autonomous vehicle may select a portion of the stored data that includes data representing the particular obstacle. The selected portion of the stored data may be provided to an assistance center. A second trajectory may be received from the assistance center, where the second trajectory is not obstructed by the particular obstacle.
US08849492B2

A driving assistance apparatus is provided with: a storing device for storing each of a plurality of past driving situations of a self-vehicle as a group of a plurality of driving situation factors, for storing, correspondingly to each of the plurality of past driving situations, an action characteristic value and a driving situation occurrence frequency, and for storing, correspondingly to each of the plurality of driving situation factors, a factor influence value and a factor change frequency; an estimating device for estimating a future driving action of the driver on the basis of the plurality of past driving situations, the action characteristic value, the driving situation occurrence frequency, the factor influence value, and the factor change frequency; and a performing device for performing driving assistance in accordance with the estimated driving action.
US08849472B2

Systems for reducing power usage and/or wastage use sensors to gather information about a circuit and its usage. Triggers are identified based on the information from the sensors, and subsequently used to control power delivery by reversibly effectuating energization and deactivation of particular circuits through smart nodes.
US08849471B2

The invention relates generally to systems, devices and methods for the efficient use of utilities, more particularly to the distribution and provision of electricity supply at appropriate voltages, monitoring and usage by end devices, and to facilitating consumers in changing their energy usage behavior, and to adopt and easily install appropriate sustainable, energy efficient or renewable technologies. Said end devices typically including traditional electric, electronic and lighting appliances requiring AC or DC power provision or low voltage DC power via AC/DC converters.
US08849469B2

A data center system is described which includes multiple data centers powered by multiple power sources, including any combination of renewable power sources and on-grid utility power sources. The data center system also includes a management system for managing execution of computational tasks by moving data components associated with the computational tasks within the data center system, in lieu of, or in addition to, moving power itself. The movement of data components can involve performing pre-computation or delayed computation on data components within any data center, as well as moving data components between data centers. The management system also includes a price determination module for determining prices for performing the computational tasks based on different pricing models. The data center system also includes a “stripped down” architecture to complement its use in the above-summarized data-centric environment.
US08849466B2

A four channel gas delivery system comprising: an inlet channel; four outlet channels; four flow sensors; four control valves, each valve being arranged so as to control the flow from the inlet channel through a corresponding one of the outlet channels; a flow ratio control system configured so as to control the flow from the inlet channel through the corresponding outlet channels so that the following flow ratios are controlled: (a) a first ratio of flows between the outlet channels of a first pair; (b) a second ratio of flows between the outlet channels of a second pair; and (c) a third ratio of flows between the first pair of outlet channels relative to the second pair of outlet channels; wherein the third ratio is controlled by generating at least one bias signal respectively applied to at least one pair of valves, the bias signal being a function of a predetermined set point of the third ratio and measured values of the third ratio.
US08849461B2

A wireless system is provided for monitoring environmental, soil, or climate conditions and/or controlling irrigation or climate control systems at an agricultural or landscape site. In some embodiments, the wireless system includes at least one wireless nodes for monitoring environmental, soil, or climate conditions and/or for controlling one or more irrigation or climate control systems at the site. The wireless system also includes a server computer system located remotely from the site. The server computer system is coupled to the node/s over a communications network for receiving data from and controlling operation of the node/s. The server computer system is also coupled to a device operated by an end-user over a communications network for transmitting the data to and receiving remote control commands or queries from the end-user.
US08849452B2

A control system or the like capable of causing a controlled object to act in an appropriate form in view of an action purpose of the controlled object to a disturbance in an arbitrary form.Each of a plurality of modules modi, which are hierarchically organized according to the level of a frequency band, searches for action candidates which are candidates for an action form of a robot R matching with a main purpose and a sub-purpose while giving priority to a main purpose mainly under the charge of the module over a sub-purpose mainly under the charge of any other module. The actions of the robot R is controlled in a form in which the action candidates of the robot R searched for by a j-th module of a high frequency are reflected in preference to the action candidates of the robot R searched for by a (j+1)th module of a low frequency.
US08849446B2

The present invention provides an efficient transferring control method in a vacuum processing apparatus of a linear tool in which plural vacuum robots are arranged in transferring mechanical units to which process chambers are connected and processing-target members are passed and received among the plural vacuum robots. In addition, the present invention provides a vacuum processing apparatus in which there are provided plural controlling methods, and a unit which determines whether rates of the transferring robots are to be controlled or rates of the process chambers are to be controlled on the basis of processing time of each processing-target member and switches the controlling method in accordance with a site whose rate is controlled.
US08849445B2

A storage and retrieval system includes a casing having an interior storage area and a staging area, a plurality of containers positioned in the interior storage area, and a gantry assembly positioned within the casing. The gantry assembly is operable to move each of the plurality of containers between the interior storage area and the staging area. The staging area simultaneously receives and supports more than one container to allow access to the more than one container.
US08849442B2

Disclosed are a component mounting line and a component mounting method where it is not necessary for an operator to perform an input operation in an inspection device when substitute components are used in a component mounting device. When substitute components are mounted in place of one type of components at the mounting positions on the substrate PB, a component mounting device 4 creates substitute component related data including information specifying the substrate PB on which substitute components are mounted and the mounting positions at which the substitute components on the substrate PB are mounted and information indicating the types of substitute components and transmits the substitute component related data to the post-mounting inspection device. The post-mounting inspection device 5 specifies the substrate PB on which the substitute components are mounted and the mounting positions at which the substitute components on the substrate PB are mounted on the basis of the substitute components related data received from the component mounting device 4 and changes image data 45 (inspection data) for the components P at the mounting positions at which the substitute components are mounted to data corresponding to the types of the substitute components.
US08849436B2

A system includes at least one controller device connectable to a computer where a mixer function is implemented by application software. The controller device includes: a communication interface connectable to the computer; a plurality of faders capable of remote-controlling parameters of channels assigned thereto; a channel shift button; and a bank shift button. The channels assigned to the faders are collectively shifted by one channel in response to an instruction given via the channel shift button, or collectively shifted by the one bank in response to an instruction given via the bank shift button. For each of the controller devices, identification information of the controller device and information of a first channel of all of the assigned channels is stored so that the stored information is used at the time of activation of the software for restoring previous settings stored at the time of last deactivation of the software.
US08849435B2

Certain exemplary embodiments described herein relate to digital downloading jukebox systems of the type that typically include a central server and remote jukebox devices that communicate with the central server for royalty accounting and/or content updates. More particularly, certain exemplary embodiments relate to jukebox systems that have revenue-enhancing features such as for example, music recommendation engines and bartender loyalty programs. Such innovative techniques help to both increase per jukebox revenue as well as keep jukebox patrons engaged with the jukebox.
US08849434B1

Methods and apparatus to control audio leveling in media presentation systems are described. An example method for controlling audio leveling in a media presentation system includes receiving data including media content and metadata and selecting an audio leveling technique to be used in an audio leveling process based on the metadata.
US08849421B2

Strain relief loops are forced by being formed into medical leads such that a body of the lead imposes a force to regain the loop if the loop has been disturbed. Because the strain relief loop is forced, the surgeon implanting the medical lead is not required to create the strain relief loop as a step in the implantation procedure. Forcing the strain relief loop ensures that the strain relief is achieved. The forced strain relief loop also ensures that the loop is present to reduce heating at the electrodes of the medical caused by exposure to excessive radiofrequency energy. The forced strain relief loop may be created by heating the lead body while held in the loop configuration by a mold to cause the loop configuration to persist once the medical lead is removed from the mold.
US08849418B2

An anchor sleeve for securing a therapy delivery element, such as a stimulation lead or catheter, within a living body, that includes an inner sleeve with pre-formed locations of weakness that facilitate localized deformation. The anchor includes a deformable outer sleeve with a primary lumen extending along an axis. The outer surface of the outer sleeve includes a plurality of suture grooves oriented generally concentric to the axis. The inner sleeve includes a plurality of beams connected at deflection regions arranged around a secondary lumen. The inner sleeve is located in the primary lumen adjacent to the suture grooves so that the secondary lumen is generally concentric with the primary lumen. A plurality of locations of weakness are preformed in each of the beams to facilitate localized deformation in response to a radially inward force applied around the suture grooves by a suture material.
US08849414B2

An implantable paddle lead includes a paddle body coupled to a distal end of an elongated lead body. A plurality of contacts are disposed on a front surface of the paddle body. At least one manually bendable shape-retaining member is interconnected with the paddle body. The at least one shape-retaining member is formed from a deformable material that is stiff enough to maintain a given shape for at least one day. The at least one bendable shape-retaining member is interconnected with the paddle body such that bending the at least one shape-retaining member causes a corresponding bend of at least a portion of the paddle body in proximity to the at least one shape-retaining member.
US08849397B2

A device (1) for the medical care of a patient in an emergency which comprises an item of clothing (2) which may be worn by the patient on the body and monitoring devices (8, 9) arranged on the item of clothing (2), which may monitor at least one physiological function of the patient, in order to detect an emergency. The device further comprises a cardiac compression device (3, 4) arranged on the item of clothing (2), which is operatively connected to the monitoring device (8, 9), in order to treat the patient with a cardiac resuscitation when the monitoring device (3, 4) determines an emergency, and a defibrillator (5, 6, 7) as well as the intraosseous delivery of drugs into the bone marrow cavity of the breast bone. Moreover, a device (1) for the medical care of a patient in an emergency, which comprises as a therapeutic device a respiratory therapeutic device (10, 11, 12, 13) which is able to supply oxygen and/or a drug for pulmonary resuscitation into the respiratory system of the patient.
US08849395B2

A guide catheter system includes a guide catheter having a proximal end, a distal end, an outer wall and a first, second and third electrode wherein the first, second and third electrodes are spaced longitudinally apart from each other on the outer wall of the catheter, and an electrical impulse generator connected to the guide catheter wherein the electrical impulse generator includes a circuit for selecting an adjacent pair of electrodes to use as a bipolar electrode system to send an electrical impulse and a method of use thereof to treat vasospasm.
US08849388B2

A method for detecting an R-wave from an ECG signal (x(t)) derived from a living body, the method comprising the steps of (a) acquiring the ECG signal from the living body, (b) digitizing the ECG signal into a digital ECG signal (x(ti)), (c) filtering the digital ECG signal with a bandpass filter (53) and applying an absolute value filter (55) thereto to create a filtered ECG signal (g(ti)), (d) for each sequential value of the filtered ECG signal, comparing (57) the filtered ECG signal to an ECG tracking threshold (TT), (e) if the filtered ECG signal is no greater than TT, incrementing a counter (59), but if greater than TT, setting the counter to zero; and (f) comparing (63) the counter to a predetermined refractory count RC and, if the count is equal to RC, outputting an R-wave trigger indicating that an R-wave has been detected.
US08849385B2

Techniques for performing a lead integrity test during a suspected tachyarrhythmia are described. An implantable medical device (IMD) may perform the test prior to delivering a therapeutic shock to treat the suspected tachyarrhythmia and, in some cases, may withhold the shock based on the test. In some examples, the IMD measures an impedance of a lead a plurality of times during the suspected tachyarrhythmia. In some examples, the IMD measures the impedance a plurality of times between two sensed events of the suspected tachyarrhythmia. The IMD or another device may determine a variability of, or otherwise compare, the measured impedances to evaluate the integrity of the lead. Instead of or in addition to withholding a shock, the IMD or another device may change a sensing or stimulation vector of the IMD, or provide an alert to a user, if the integrity test indicates a possible lead integrity issue.
US08849380B2

Apparatus and methods are disclosed for multi-spectral imaging of tissue to obtain information about the distribution of fluorophores and chromophores in the tissue. Using specific spectral bands for illumination and specific spectral bands for detection, the signal-to-noise ratio and information related to the distribution of specific fluorophores is enhanced as compared to UV photography, which uses a single RGB image. Furthermore, the chromophore distribution information derived from the multi-spectral absorption images can be used to correct the fluorescence measurements. The combined fluorescence, absorption, and broadband reflectance data can be analyzed for disease diagnosis and skin feature detection.
US08849375B2

An IVUS catheter is advantageously provided with a particular radio-opaque pattern enabling detection of catheter rotation angle with respect to an X-ray imaging source for co-registering IVUS image data with angiographic X-ray or CT image data, for example. An ultrasound catheter system supports orientation and display of intra-vascular ultrasound imaging data. The system comprises an ultrasound catheter for acquiring ultrasound images comprising a body having a pattern of radio-opaque material on the external surface of the catheter body. The pattern varies with angular rotation of the catheter and indicates an angle of rotation of a predetermined reference orientation of the catheter relative to an X-ray radiation source, so that an X-ray image of the catheter body indicates the pattern and the pattern is analyzable by an image data processor to determine the angle of rotation.
US08849371B2

A patient treatment unit for analyzing and treating abnormality of human or animal tissues, includes a display; a pulse generator circuit that outputs a sequence of electrical pulses at a pulse frequency, the electrical pulses having a pulse width, the pulse generator controlling the pulse frequency and the pulse width of the electrical pulses; a pair of probes for contacting a body of a patient and electrically coupled to the pulse generator; and a voltage and current sensing circuit that senses a voltage or a current via the probes when contacting the body of the patient.
US08849370B2

A medical imaging system is provided. The medical imaging system comprises a movable acquisition device, a processing unit and a display, wherein the display is fixed to the movable acquisition device.
US08849363B2

An open-structure magnetic assembly is adapted to generate a homogeneous magnetic field in an accessible space region, including a first and second independent source of magnetic field (10, 12), each generating a contribution to the resulting magnetic field. The first source includes a conducting or superconducting plate (20), carrying an unidirectional current flow (I) from an input side (22) to an output side (24) and at least one external current recirculating path (30) between the output side (24) and the input side (22) of the plate. The second source includes a volume of magnetized material or an arrangement of coils, arranged for generating a magnetic field component oriented according to the magnetic field generated by the first source (10), and whose intensity exhibits a gradient in a direction perpendicular to the conducting plate (20) adapted to compensate, in a region of interest, an opposite gradient in the magnetic field intensity generated by the first source (10).
US08849354B2

According to one embodiment, a method includes establishing a plurality of wired connections between a base station and a plurality of geographically distributed remote transceivers. Each remote transceiver of the plurality of remote transceivers has one or more physical antenna ports. The plurality of remote transceivers are assigned to a plurality of sets where each set has one or more of the plurality of remote transceivers. One or more logical ports is assigned to each set of the plurality of sets. Each logical port of a set corresponds to at least one physical antenna port of the one or more remote transceivers of the respective set. Data traffic is sent from the base station to the endpoint using at least one wireless connection between the endpoint and at least one physical antenna port of the one or more remote transceivers of a first set of the plurality of sets.
US08849353B2

In a system of MIMO communications in a wireless network, a number of wireless units are logically divided into a plurality of user groups, through operation of a semi-orthogonal user selection sub-system. For example, the user selection sub-system may implement a heuristic user selection algorithm based on near-orthogonality. Each user group is assigned a discrete transmission channel, which may be orthogonally defined in terms of frequency, time, or code. Data is transmitted over the channels (e.g., from network base stations) in a coherently coordinated manner, according to a zero-forcing beamforming operation. The system may be configured for operation in a time/frequency selective manner, e.g., over time/frequency selective fading channels. The wireless units may be allocated to the time/frequency slots based on prioritization of channel strength and considerations of fairness, in conjunction with the application of a semi-orthogonal user selection algorithm.
US08849348B2

A method includes identifying, by a mobile device, a time, a day, a date or a location, and accessing a database storing first information correlating the time, day, date and location to a personal mode or a business mode for the mobile device. The method also includes identifying, exception information associated with the time, day, date, or location, and identifying user preference information associated with the personal mode and the business mode. The user preference information identifies a background associated with a home screen, icons provided on the home screen, or links to information accessible via the home screen. The method further includes configuring the mobile device in the personal or business mode based on the first information and the exception information, wherein the configuring includes providing, on the home screen, information corresponding to the user preference information associated with either the personal or business mode.
US08849345B2

There are provided an apparatus and a method for super high-speed wireless communications. The apparatus includes a signal processor transmitting data to be transmitted through a predetermined super high-speed communications network when the super high-speed communications network is connected and transmitting data to be transmitted through a predetermined high-speed communications network when the super high-speed communications network is disconnected; a super high-speed wireless communications unit converting the data transmitted from the signal processor to a super high-speed wireless signal suitable for transmission through the super high-speed communications network; and a high-speed wireless communications unit converting the data transmitted from the signal processor to a high-speed wireless signal suitable for transmission through the high-speed communications network.
US08849338B2

There is disclosed a channel adjusting method capable of suppressing the occurrence of interference between a cognitive pilot channel (CPC) and an auxiliary control channel (ACS) in cognitive wireless communications. According to the channel adjusting method for use in cognitive wireless communications, initially, a connection using a cognitive pilot channel (CPC) is set up. Thereafter, it is determined whether or not a spectrum sensing channel (ACS) is to be utilized. If yes, it is then determined whether or not any interference occurs between the spectrum sensing channel (ACS) and the set-up cognitive pilot channel (CPC). This allows an adjustment to be performed such that no interference occurs between the cognitive pilot channel (CPC) and the spectrum sensing channel (ACS).
US08849331B2

Techniques for allocating network resources of a communications network are described. A network resource scheduler allocates communication bursts to telecommunications devices in a manner so as to conserve power of the mobile telecommunication devices. The network resource scheduler may allocate communication bursts such that at least one of the mobile telecommunication devices may enter sleep mode during a current communications block and be awoken prior to a subsequent communications block.
US08849328B2

An improved base station sharing in a radio communication system is disclosed. A logical base station is arranged to share a physical base station in the radio communication system with at least one further logical base station. According to an embodiment of the invention, the logical base station is associated with a control node and with an operation and maintenance node in the radio communication system, wherein the control node and the operation and maintenance node are separate from at least one further control node and at least one further operation and maintenance node being associated with the at least one further logical base station.
US08849327B2

An apparatus and a method for controlling power in a wireless communication system are provided. The method includes receiving interference information comprising a resource usage rate, from at least one neighboring BS, calculating a throughput variance amount, which is expected if the serving BS changes power, experienced by the at least one neighboring BS, by using the interference information, calculating a throughput variance amount, which is expected if the serving BS changes power, of at least one Mobile Station (MS) having access to the serving BS, and controlling power for the at least one MS by using the throughput variance amount experienced by the at least one neighboring BS and the throughput variance amount of the at least one MS. The interference information represents a throughput variance amount generated in the at least one neighboring BS when the serving BS changes the power.
US08849319B2

A method for processing a conflict of communication service procedures and associated devices are provided, which are used to solve the problem that the user equipment (UE) receiving the circuit switching (CS) domain paging message conflicts with initiating the Non-Access Stratum (NAS) procedure by itself. Said method includes that: the UE receives a first paging message from the network side equipment; when the UE judges the first paging message is a CS domain paging message and that the UE itself is about to initiate an original Non-Access Stratum (NAS) procedure, the UE ignores the first paging message and initiates the original NAS procedure.
US08849317B2

The present invention provides a method for paging legacy and advanced access terminals. One embodiment of the method comprises receiving a notification that an access terminal is entering an idle mode and determining whether the access terminal is a legacy device identified by a fixed length identifier or an advanced device identified by one of a plurality of mode-dependent identifiers. The mode-dependent identifier is used to identify the advanced device in the idle mode. This embodiment may also include allocating one or more first paging cycles to the access terminal when it is a legacy device or one or more second paging cycles to the access terminal when it is an advanced device. The first and second paging cycles are different.
US08849313B2

A camera for generating in a first mobile device a video signal, for viewing by a user, on the first mobile device, the camera generated video signal. The first mobile device has a connector and a cable, to connect the first mobile device camera generated video signal, by cable, to a second mobile device or to a television (TV) set, for viewing the first mobile device camera generated video signal on the second mobile device or on a television (TV) set. The first mobile device has a receiver, demodulator and processor for receiving, demodulating and processing OFDM modulated signals used in a Wi-Fi network and has a second receiver, demodulator and processor for receiving, demodulating and processing CDMA modulated signals used in a cellular system. The first mobile device receives, demodulates and processes location finder signals, such as GPS signals and has a touch screen generated control signal to control use of the first mobile device.
US08849311B2

A server device includes: a receiving unit configured to receive, from each of a plurality of information-processing devices, location information showing a respective location of each information-processing device; a setting unit configured to set a condition showing that one information-processing device is close to another information-processing device, based on a predetermined parameter; a determining unit configured to determine whether a first information-processing device and a second information-processing device from among the plurality of information-processing devices satisfy the condition based on the location information received by the receiving unit; and a transmitting unit configured to transmit information determined at the determining unit to the first information-processing device and the second information-processing device, in a case that the determining unit determines that the first information-processing device and the second information-processing device satisfy the condition.
US08849310B2

An event based service provides services and/or products based on an event. Services/products are made available to persons attending an event. Services, products, and/or advertisements can be made available to persons via wireless mobile communications devices. The services/products can be made available to persons attending an event. Services/products can be made available while the event is occurring. Additionally, advertising space is auctioned allowing the ability to bid for advertising space for advertising services/products via the event based service. Individual providers can offer services/products to a group of people at the same location, and at a time that people may be most interested in the services/products. Access to the event based service can be via service provider offered access points. An individual provider's device can act as a server that enables services/products to be purchased. An individual provider's device can act as a network gateway that enables services/products to be purchased.
US08849309B2

A method of providing forecast of road transit times on roads of a monitored roads network, can include receiving a forecasted road transit time indication calculated by a road traffic monitoring system in respect of at least one road of the monitored roads network; and correcting the received forecasted road transit time indication based on information obtained from a cellular mobile communications network. The information includes information related to mobile terminals connected to the cellular mobile communications network and engaged in calls, and located in the neighborhood of the at least one road.
US08849300B2

This invention provides a method, system and device for positioning a mobile terminal. The method includes: instructing, by a serving base station or an upper level relay, measuring a transmission time of a positioning signal with the mobile terminal, and instructing two relays in a serving cell to measure the transmission time of the positioning signal with the mobile terminal; and calculating, by the serving base station or the upper level relay, a position of the mobile terminal according to the transmission time of the positioning signal, the position of the serving base station or the upper level relay and the position of the two relays. The method, system and device provided by the present invention can reduce communication overhead in mobile terminal positioning, and improve the positioning accuracy of mobile terminal positioning.
US08849299B2

A method for modulating scanning behavior of a wireless user equipment (UE) device includes determining a geographic area location where the wireless UE device is located and responsive to determining that a radio access technology (RAT) previously available in the geographic area location is not currently available, modifying the frequency of searches for the radio access technology. A corresponding wireless user device is also shown.
US08849288B2

An exemplary method comprises positioning a first antenna to receive a first signal from a second antenna, the second antenna comprising energy absorbing material that functions to expand beamwidth, receiving the first signal from the second antenna, detecting a plurality of gains based on the first signal, repositioning the first antenna relative to the second antenna to a position associated with an acceptable gain based on the first signal, removing at least some of the energy absorbing material from the second antenna to narrow the beamwidth of the second antenna, receiving, by the first antenna, a second signal from the second antenna, detecting a plurality of gains based on the second signal, and repositioning the first antenna relative to the second antenna to a position associated with an increased gain of the plurality of gains based on the second signal, the increased gain being greater than the acceptable gain.
US08849287B2

A mobile communication method according to the present invention includes step A of notifying, by a radio base station NodeB01, a radio network controller RNC01 of location information of the radio base station NodeB (location code: bbb), step B of notifying, by the radio network controller RNC01, an exchange station MSC/SGSN of the location information of the radio base station NodeB (location code: bbb) when a mobile station UE starts communication via the radio base station NodeB and the radio network controller RNC01, and step C of controlling each session of the communication by the exchange station MSC/SGSN based on the location information of the radio base station NodeB (location code: bbb).
US08849286B2

A system and method for optimizing handover parameters for a plurality of mobile terminals on a common transportation platform in a cellular network includes at least a first terminal and a second terminal and a controller. The controller is configured to determine that each of the first and second terminal are on the common transportation platform, monitor a status of a handover attempt of the first terminal, and if the handover attempt is successful, adopt handover parameter settings of the first terminal for the second terminal, and if the handover attempt is not successful, change handover parameter settings for the second terminal.
US08849284B2

A mobile communication method according to the present invention includes the steps of: when a gateway apparatus (S-GW) is switched from a first state where downlink data is transmitted to a first radio access apparatus to a second state where the downlink data is transmitted to a second radio access apparatus, transferring, from the first radio access apparatus to the second radio access apparatus, the downlink data which is received from the gateway apparatus and to which specific information is added; and transmitting, from the second radio access apparatus to a mobile station (UE), transfer downlink data which is transferred from the first radio access apparatus and to which the specific information is added, before new downlink data transmitted from the gateway apparatus (S-GW).
US08849282B2

A user communications device, such as a mobile telephone, obtains and reports capability information to a serving base station. The capability information identifies if a neighboring UTRAN base station is HSPA/EDCH capable. The serving E-UTRAN base station can use this information to control handover decisions and load balancing performed thereby.
US08849278B2

Methods, systems and apparatus that facilitate activation of mobile devices, such as communication devices or multi-function devices, via a computer are disclosed. According to one aspect of the invention, a mobile device can be forced into a limited service mode until properly activated with a service provider for a wireless network. According to another aspect of the invention, a mobile device can defer its attempt to send a location update request to a wireless network. According to still another aspect of the invention, a mobile device can be automatically controlled to reset a portion of its internal hardware to initiate a location update request.
US08849270B2

A system includes redundantly configured resources designated as active geo-redundant nodes (AGNs) and standby geo-redundant nodes (SGNs), a set of covered agents (CAs) that rely upon the redundantly configured resources, and a geographic redundancy coverage issuer (GRCI) configured to manage the geo-redundant nodes. The GRCI maintains a CA list identifying a set of subscribers to redundancy management services supported by the GRCI, an AGN list identifying a set of active geo-redundant nodes, and an SGN list identifying a set of standby geo-redundant nodes. The GRCI provides the AGN list and the SGN list to subscriber CAs. In response to receiving a message identifying a failed AGN, the GRCI updates the AGN list to reflect a failed status for the failed AGN and issues an update message to CAs reflecting the failed status for the failed AGN and a transition of an activated SGN to the AGN list.
US08849269B2

A cellular communication system in which overload of a base station is averted by offering users the option to communicate using a spectrum outside of the spectrum allocated for cellular communication. Incentives are offered to connect to the base station using the alternative spectrum, which may not support communications at the same rate as could be supported using the spectrum allocated to the base station for cellular communications. Users may be selected to receive an offer to receive incentives based on range to the base station, with users closer to the base station being more likely to receive such an offer. The cellular communications system may be a 3G wireless system and the alternative spectrum may be white space in the digital TV spectrum.
US08849261B2

A system and method for the insertion of additional content to messages sent between mobile communications devices. The system provides for a point system which allows users of the system to accumulate points for additional content sent with text messages. The points may be used for various functions such as purchasing premium services or may be applied towards the user's service charges.
US08849260B2

An apparatus and a method provide a shortcut service to execute a service in a portable terminal. The method for setting the shortcut service includes when a shortcut service setup event generates, determining a service to map onto a shortcut service button among at least one service provided by the portable terminal; and storing the shortcut service button and service information mapped onto the shortcut service button.
US08849256B2

To provide customized information to the user, a wireless communications network node receives a stream of data associated with a user. A first trend associated with at least a first attribute in the stream of data is identified, and based on the identified first trend, customized information is sent for presentation to the user at a mobile station.
US08849255B2

A method of limiting presentation of rules based events includes receiving a request to view a rules based event at a computer. A first estimate of a first geographic location of the computer is obtained. The first estimate includes a first confidence determination. If the first confidence determination is less than a first established confidence level, a second estimate of the first geographic location of the computer is obtained. The second estimate includes a second confidence determination for comparison to a second established confidence level. The first estimate and the second estimate define a composite estimated geographic location of the computer. Information on a second geographic location of the rules based event is retrieved. The retrieved information is compared with the composite estimated geographic location of the computer. Access to the rules based event is provided based on access rules, the comparison, and the composite estimated geographic location.
US08849251B2

A system and method for facilitating communications between a mobile device and a network application are provided. A mobile device transmits a request for data change information that includes a time out interval. The network application receives the request and measures a time elapsed since the receipt of the data change request. The network application will only transmit a notification to the mobile device client if new data is received or the time out interval has elapsed. As notifications are received, the mobile client device tunes the time out interval based upon network and device parameters.
US08849244B2

A wireless service provider identifies a mobile computing device capable of short-range wireless communication and in an agreement to receive service from a cellular network. The wireless service provider provides, to the mobile computing device, terms for a third party computing device to accept in order to gain access to the cellular network via the mobile computing device. In response to a third party computing device agreeing to the terms, the wireless service provider indicates to the mobile computing device to allow the third party computing device to access the cellular network via the mobile computing device.
US08849242B2

A system and a method for charging for directed provisioning and using of dynamic content to limited resource devices, through an integrated platform which handles all aspects of aggregation and management of such dynamic content. The integrated platform features a billing system for performing billing actions. The billing system of the present invention interacts with other components of the integrated platform in order to be able to determine the charge for particular triggering events, such as downloading dynamic content, and/or events which are actually triggered by the application itself. The charge is preferably determined according to one of a plurality of rules, as applied by a rules engine of the billing system. These rules are part of a charging policy, which may optionally be determined by the content provider.
US08849241B2

An apparatus for enabling provision of energy-aware connection and code offloading may include at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code. The at least one memory and the computer program code may be configured, with the processor, to cause the apparatus to perform at least monitoring, at a client terminal, communications or processes associated with at least two applications of the client terminal, determining whether a trigger condition associated with the communications or processes monitored is met based at least on a directed graph defining a plurality of triggers for different applications and corresponding inputs and outputs associated with each respective trigger, and determining whether to direct an operational adjustment with respect to at least one of the communications or processes monitored based at least on profile information in response to the trigger condition being met. A corresponding method and computer program product are also provided.
US08849238B2

The described method and system provide for forgotten phone notification and vehicle theft notification. A method includes: activating a configurable device pairing program module associated with a short-range wireless unit of the telematics unit when a triggering condition is satisfied; determining, using the configurable device pairing program module and short-range wireless unit, whether the paired mobile device is within range of the short-range wireless unit; and providing, in response to a determination that the paired mobile device is not within range of the short-range wireless unit, a notification to the paired mobile device that the vehicle is being operated in the exception state that is based, at least in part, upon the paired mobile device not being detected during the determining step.
US08849227B2

In accordance with some embodiments, methods for controlling the second order intercept point in a receiver are provided, the methods comprising: generating an amplitude modulated test tone; causing the test tone to be received by a receiver; determining a characteristic of a second order intercept point of the receiver based on the received test tone; and based on the characteristic, adjusting a parameter of the receiver. In accordance with some embodiments, systems for controlling the second order intercept point in a receiver are provided, the systems comprising: a test tone generator that generates an amplitude modulated test tone; a receiver that receives the test tone; a correlator that determines a characteristic of a second order intercept point of the receiver based on the received test tone; and digital logic that, based on the characteristic, adjusts a parameter of the receiver.
US08849223B2

Apparatus for a power harvesting wireless transmitter. The wireless transmitter includes a magnet, an inductor, a power supply, a processor, and a transmitter with an antenna. The magnet interacting with the inductor provides a sole source of power sufficient to power the transmitter. The inductor is connected to the power supply. The power supply includes a voltage multiplier, a storage unit, and, in one embodiment, a voltage regulator. The processor includes at least one input connected to one or more local switches, sensors, and instruments. The processor outputs an identifier and data corresponding to the inputs. The processor output is connected to the transmitter, which sends a wireless signal containing the identifier and data.
US08849222B2

A mobile communications method, device, and system for adjusting a phase parameter in a diversity signal, based at least in part on phase feedback from a base station. While in uplink communication with a base station, a mobile device may receive a phase feedback signal from the base station. The mobile device may calculate a modified value of a phase parameter based on the phase feedback signal in order to transmit diversity signals with a gradual change in phase difference. The modified value may be between a phase parameter value indicated by the base station's phase feedback signal and a phase parameter value initially transmitted by the mobile device.
US08849215B2

A user device performs a set of measurements at a specified rate when the user device in a discontinuous reception (DRX) mode, and determines a signal condition of a signal received from a serving cell. The user device adjusts the specified rate based on the signal condition. The reduction in the rate may reduce a current drain by the user device when the user device is in the DRX mode.
US08849210B2

For interference control, a sector m estimates interference observed from terminals in neighbor sectors and obtains an interference estimate. Sector m may generate an over-the-air (OTA) other-sector interference (OSI) report and/or an inter-sector (IS) OSI report based on the interference estimate. Sector m may broadcast the OTA OSI report to the terminals in the neighbor sectors. These terminals may adjust their transmit powers based on the OTA OSI report. Sector m may send the IS OSI report to the neighbor sectors, receive IS OSI reports from the neighbor sectors, and regulate data transmissions for terminals in sector m based on the received IS OSI reports. Sector m may control admission of terminals to sector m, de-assign admitted terminals, schedule terminals in sector m in a manner to reduce interference to the neighbor sectors, and/or assign the terminals in sector m with traffic channels that cause less interference to the neighbor sectors.
US08849209B2

A communications device may include a wireless radio frequency (RF) transceiver, and a controller coupled to the wireless RF transceiver. The controller may be configured to determine received signal characteristics and perform a spectral estimation operation associated with a frequency spectrum on the received signal characteristics, determine a channel selection method characteristic associated with a channel in the frequency spectrum including channels, generate statistical values for each channel based upon the received signal characteristics, and select a portion of the frequency spectrum for a signal to be transmitted by the wireless RF transceiver based upon the spectral estimation operation, the statistical values, and the channel selection method characteristic.
US08849195B2

The present invention provides a communication device that can reduce a housing of an electronic device in size and thickness when the communication device is built in the electronic device. The communication device includes: an antenna coil (11a) arranged on an outer peripheral portion (134) of a housing (131) surface facing a reader/writer (120) of a mobile phone (130); a magnetic sheet (13) that attracts a magnetic field transmitted from the reader/writer (120) to the antenna coil (11a); and a communication processing unit (12) that is driven by a current flowing in the antenna coil (11a) and performs communication with the reader/writer (120), wherein the magnetic sheet (13) is arranged on the reader/writer (120) side of the antenna coil (11a) at a center portion (132a), and the antenna coil (11a) is arranged on the reader/writer (120) side on an outer periphery (130d) side.
US08849187B2

An amplifier for controlling or reducing broadband noise is disclosed. An amplifier determines whether a useful signal is being amplified and controls the gain of the amplifier at least when useful signals are not being amplified to prevent or minimize the amplification of noise.
US08849185B2

Methods and systems to produce audio output signals from audio input signals. In one embodiment, a first portion of the audio input signals can be pre-processed, with the output used to modulate ultrasonic carrier signals, thereby producing modulated ultrasonic signals. The modulated ultrasonic signals can be transformed into a first portion of the audio output signals, which is directional. Based on a second portion of the audio input signals, a standard audio speaker can output a second portion of the audio output signals. Another embodiment further produces distortion compensated signals based on the pre-processed signals. The distortion compensated signals can be subtracted from the second portion of the audio input signals to generate inputs for the standard audio speaker to output the second portion of the audio output signals. In yet another embodiment, noise can be added during pre-processing of the first portion of the audio input signals.
US08849173B2

A developer collecting device includes a housing in which an opening disposed opposite to a developer holding member is formed, a collection member that is disposed to be capable of coming in contact with and being separated from the developer holding member and that detaches the developer and collects the detached developer in the housing, a sealing member that is disposed to be capable of coming in contact with and being separated from the developer holding member and that seals up a gap between the developer holding member and the housing, a suction passage to which a suction unit suctioning the developer into the housing is connected, a developer transport unit that transports the developer to one end of the housing, and a filtration member that is tilted so that at least an upper part thereof overlaps with the upside of the developer transport unit in a plan view.
US08849157B2

In a cap for sealing a filling port formed in a developer container, a base is in the shape of a circular plate. A first cylindrical portion is in the shape of a cylinder extending from a peripheral portion of the base in a first direction. A second cylindrical portion is in the shape of a cylinder extending from the peripheral portion of the base in a second direction that is opposite to the first direction. A first projecting portion projects radially outwardly from an outer circumferential surface of the first cylindrical portion with a predetermined projecting amount. A second projecting portion projects radially outwardly from an outer circumferential surface of the second cylindrical portion with a projecting amount equal to the predetermined projecting amount of the first projecting portion.
US08849155B2

An image forming device includes a photosensitive unit, a developer cartridge, and a developing device. The photosensitive unit includes a photosensitive body. The developer cartridge accommodates developer therein and has a supported portion supported by the photosensitive unit. The developing device is disposed between the photosensitive unit and the developer cartridge and is supported by the photosensitive unit and is pivotally movable about the supported portion. The developing device includes a developer carrying member carrying the developer thereon. The developer carrying member is movable, in accordance with the pivotal movement of the developing device, between a contact position at which the developer carrying member is in contact with the photosensitive body and a separate position at which the developer carrying member is separated from the photosensitive body.
US08849151B2

A photosensitive member unit includes: a first image forming unit including a first photosensitive member rotatable on a first axis line; and a second image forming unit including a second photosensitive member rotatable on a second axis line parallel with the first axis line and disposed in parallel with the first image forming unit at a first side in an orthogonal direction perpendicular to the first and second axis lines. The first image forming unit includes a charger and a cartridge containing portion. The charger includes: a charging member; a cleaning member for cleaning the charging member; and an operating member for operating the cleaning member. The operating member is inoperable when the developing cartridge is installed in the cartridge containing portion, and is exposed to be operable in the cartridge containing portion when the developing cartridge is removed from the cartridge containing portion.
US08849149B2

An image forming apparatus includes temperature sensors that measure temperatures at different locations in the longitudinal direction of a photosensitive drum. The image forming apparatus also includes an image processing circuit configured to change an exposure condition in the longitudinal direction of the photosensitive drum based on measured values obtained by the temperature sensors. A related image forming method includes calculating a temperature at a third location between the first and second location based on the measured temperatures at the first location and the second location, and controlling an exposure condition for exposure at the third location in accordance with image information, including changing the exposure condition for the exposure at the third location based on the calculated temperature at the third location.
US08849144B2

In a case where a display unit displays a setting screen having a first display area to display a draft graphical image in accordance with draft setting and a second display area to display a finished graphical image in accordance with sheet setting, and a user designates a position to be stapled, a staple region mark is superimposed and displayed on a region corresponding to the position to be stapled in the draft graphical image in accordance with the draft setting, and a staple position mark is superimposed and displayed on a position corresponding to the position to be stapled in the finished graphical image in accordance with the sheet setting.
US08849141B2

An image forming apparatus includes a fixing device, a temperature sensor and a controller. The fixing device includes a heat source, a heat member heated by the heat source, and a back-up member. The temperature sensor detects a temperature of the heat member. The controller controls the heat source and includes an output determination unit determining an output at which the heat source is operated to generate a target temperature; a first setting unit setting a first target temperature; a second setting unit setting a second target temperature lower than the first target temperature; a switching unit switching the target temperature from the first target temperature to the second target temperature; a determination unit determining whether a recording sheet is conveyed; and a supplemental output control unit generating a supplemental output greater than the output if the recording sheet is conveyed when the target temperature is switched.
US08849139B2

In a case of executing a marginless print mode on an image forming apparatus, a control portion controls a position changing portion configured to change a position of a toner image and a position of a recording material for image formation. Then, the position changing portion is controlled to move the position of the toner image and the position of the recording material for subsequent image formation by the same change amount toward a smaller of image data amounts corresponding to both end portions of the recording material of the toner image formed before the subsequent image formation.
US08849108B2

A method includes detecting wavelength collision including identifying a pair or pairs of ONTs that transmit the colliding wavelengths and recovering from collision wherein wavelengths of the pair or pairs of ONTs that cause collisions are re-adjusted to eliminate the collision.
US08849096B2

One disclosed aspect of the embodiments relates to a technique, when a moving image file is divided and divisional moving images are reproduced simultaneously in a plurality of display areas, for allowing a user to easily search for a desired scene in the entire moving image more quickly. A moving image reproducing apparatus divides a moving image to generate a plurality of divisional moving images and reproduces the divisional moving images simultaneously. If the user issues an instruction to divide a first divisional moving image that is being reproduced and generate a plurality of second divisional moving images, in response to the instruction, the apparatus acquires a reproduction position of the first divisional moving image. The apparatus starts reproduction of the plurality of second divisional moving images at a position corresponding to the acquired reproduction position.
US08849094B2

A data structure includes content data and accompanying data which is formed on the basis of a plurality of first units, the accompanying data being used for displaying information accompanying the content data. Among the first units in which time information is defined, the time of a target first unit based on the order of the first units is set to be later than the decoding time defined in the first unit arranged in the order earlier than the target first unit by an amount equal to N first units where N indicates the upper limit of the number of first units that can be stored in a buffer provided for a decoder for decoding the first units.
US08849086B2

An optical fiber attenuator includes a connector unit, an insert component and an attenuation unit. The connector unit includes a shell member and having a first shell part, and a second shell part that extends from and forms a unitary body with the first shell part, that reduces in cross-section with respect to the first shell part, and that cooperates with the first shell part to define a through hole. A resilient portion is connected to and extends inclinedly and outwardly away from the second shell part and towards the first shell part. The insert component includes an insert body disposed in the through hole, and a trench formed in the insert body. The attenuation unit has one end inserted into the trench and another end inserted into the second shell part.
US08849085B2

A flexible dust cover is provided for use with a parallel optical communications module for preventing airborne matter, such as dirt, dust, and gases from entering the module. The flexible dust cover fits snugly to the module to protect components of the module and the optical pathways of the module from airborne matter. The flexible dust cover has an elasticity that allows it to be temporarily deformed from its original shape to a stretched state by application of a stretching force to enable the module to be inserted into a central opening formed in the cover. The force is then removed, causing the cover to attempt to return to its original, non-stretched shape. When this happens, interior surfaces of the cover form a snug fit about exterior surfaces of the module. This snug fit fills in air gaps in the module that would otherwise be exposed to the environment.
US08849082B2

An optical fiber comprising: (I) a germania doped central core region having outer radius r1 and (II) a maximum relative refractive index Δ1max and a cladding region including (i) a first inner cladding region having an outer radius r2>5 microns and refractive index Δ2; (ii) a and a second inner cladding region having an outer radius r3>9 microns and comprising refractive index Δ3; and (iii) an outer cladding region surrounding the inner cladding region and comprising refractive index Δ4, wherein Δ1max>Δ4, Δ2>Δ3, and wherein 0.01%≦Δ4−Δ3≦0.09%, said fiber exhibits a 22 m cable cutoff less than or equal to 1260 nm, and 0.25≦r1/r2≦0.85.
US08849067B2

According to an embodiment, an image processing apparatus includes: a reading unit, a magnification change processing unit, a wait time acquiring unit, and a signal output unit. The reading unit reads image data from the memory line by line. The magnification change processing unit performs a magnification change process on the image data and outputs. The wait time acquiring unit acquires wait time information on a value corresponding to a wait time from when a synchronous signal, representing a start of read of the image data for each line, falls to when the magnification change process starts. The signal output unit outputs, to the reading unit, a permission signal indicating whether read of image data of a next line is permitted or denied based on the wait time information while the magnification change processing unit is outputting the image data.
US08849064B2

A computer-implemented method for viewing images on an interactive computing device comprises displaying an image from a stack comprising a display image and at least one compressed sub-image of nominally the same scene, each of the sub-images of the stack having been acquired at respective focal distances. Responsive to a user selecting a portion of the displayed image, the selected portion is mapped to a corresponding mapped portion of a sub-image within the stack according to the difference in focal distances between the displayed image and the sub-image. At least one row of compressed image blocks of the at least one sub-image extending across the mapped portion; and a reference value for a point in the compressed image stream of the sub-image preceding the row of compressed image blocks is determined. Using the reference, the row of blocks of the sub-image at least partially decoded, and a measure of focus for an area of the mapped portion coinciding with the decoded image blocks is computed to determine if at least that content of the sub-image should be displayed within a display image.
US08849053B2

A parametric loop filter uses a set of fixed filters to remove or reduce noise and artifacts introduced during video coding. The filters are pre-trained offline and hardwired into encoder and decoder, instead of online trained Wiener filters. The filters are able to be specified using one or more parameters including: direction, bandwidth along the direction (bw//) and bandwidth perpendicular to the direction (bw⊥). The filter to be used is able to be derived from local image characteristics or predicted from neighboring blocks. The parametric loop filter utilizes much less computation, delay and memory access at the encoder. Fixed coefficients allow fast implementation of filtering at the decoder. A parametric loop filter is able to be combined with online training to further improve performance, by allowing one or more fixed filters to be replaced with online trained Wiener filters.
US08849045B2

A display system includes: a display device, a transmitting device which generates compressed data by performing a compression process on image data corresponding to a display image, and a driver which drives the display device in response to the compressed data received from the transmitting device. The driver includes: a decompression circuit which generates decompressed data by decompressing the compressed data, an FRC circuit configured to perform an FEC process on the decompressed data to generate display data and a drive circuit which drives the display device in response to the display data. The following relation holds: m2>m3>m1, where m1 is a number of bits of the compressed data per pixel, m2 is a number of bits of the decompressed data per pixel and m3 is a number of bits of the display data per pixel.
US08849041B2

The disclosure relates to recognizing data such as items or entities in content. In some aspects, content may be received and feature information, such as face recognition data and voice recognition data may be generated. Scene segmentation may also be performed on the content, grouping the various shots of the video content into one or more shot collections, such as scenes. For example, a decision lattice representative of possible scene segmentations may be determined and the most probable path through the decision lattice may be selected as the scene segmentation. Upon generating the feature information and performing the scene segmentation, one or more items or entities that are present in the scene may be identified.
US08849022B2

Encoding and decoding an image may be performed by setting a plurality of segments of a second color component block based on pixel values of a first color component block. The plurality of segments may be predicted by using different context pixels, and the second color component block may be encoded and decoded based on the predicted plurality of segments.
US08849020B2

A search system using images is provided in which when a user does not know a relevant URL or search keyword correctly while surfing the Internet, he or she can search a desired website using only an image. The search system using images according to the present invention comprises an image search server and a user terminal. The image search system comprises: an image conversion section for converting the image included in the website information and the to-be-searched image uploaded by the user into search format images; an image search section for comparing eigen values of both the to-be-searched image uploaded by the user and the search image included in the website information and detecting the website information having a matching eigen value; and a storage section for storing the detected website information, the image included in the website information, and information regarding eigen values.
US08849019B2

A method and system operative to process color image data are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method can comprise the steps of receiving color image data, determining the color ranges to be applied to the color image data, assigning each of the pixel positions in the image data a color range, assigning a different spatial binary pattern to each color range, and assigning each of the pixel positions a binary output pixel value that corresponds to the spatial binary pattern assigned to the color range assigned to that pixel position. The resulting binary image data can be written to a file for subsequent storage, transmission, processing, or retrieval and rendering. In other embodiments, a system can be made operative to accomplish the same.
US08849018B2

In a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention, an automated, computerized method is provided for processing an image. According to a feature of the present invention, the method comprises the steps of providing an image file depicting an image defined by image locations, in a computer memory, generating a bi-illuminant chromaticity plane in a log color space for representing the image locations of the image in a log-chromaticity representation for the image, providing a set of estimates for the orientation of the bi-illuminant chromaticity plane and calculating an orientation for each one of the image locations as a function of the set of estimates for the orientation.
US08849017B2

An image processing apparatus includes: an image feature outputting unit that outputs each of image features in correspondence with a time of the frame; a foreground estimating unit that estimates a foreground image at a time s by executing a view transform as a geometric transform on a foreground view model and outputs an estimated foreground view; a background estimating unit that estimates a background image at the time s by executing a view transform as a geometric transform on a background view model and outputs an estimated background view; a synthesized view generating unit that generates a synthesized view by synthesizing the estimated foreground and background views; a foreground learning unit that learns the foreground view model based on an evaluation value; and a background learning unit that learns the background view model based on the evaluation value by updating the parameter of the foreground view model.
US08849010B2

The present invention relates to a method and a system for rectifying images. An original stereo image pair is obtained, and the epipolar lines corresponding to the original stereo image pair are parallelized to obtain a first transformed stereo image pair. Epipolar lines corresponding to the first transformed stereo image pair are collinearized to obtain a second transformed stereo image pair. The present invention parallelizes and collinearizes the epipolar lines corresponding to the stereo image pair after the images are rectified.
US08849009B2

Provided are an image processing method and apparatus, and an image reproducing method and apparatus. The image processing method includes receiving three-dimensional (3D) image data; generating additional information about the 3D image data; and inserting the additional information in a blanking interval of the 3D image data.
US08849008B2

A technique for determining a set of calibration parameters for use in a model of a photo-lithographic process is described. In this calibration technique, images of a test pattern that was produced using the photo-lithographic process are used to determine corresponding sets of calibration parameters. These images are associated with at least three different focal planes in an optical system, such as a photo-lithographic system that implements the photo-lithographic process. Moreover, an interpolation function is determined using the sets of calibration parameters. This interpolation function can be used to determine calibration parameters at an arbitrary focal plane in the photo-lithographic system for use in simulations of the photolithographic process, where the set of calibration parameters are used in a set of transmission cross coefficients in the model of the photo-lithographic process.
US08849007B2

A method is provided for determining which of a plurality of possible lines is most likely to be an actual line passing through a possible corner of a pallet. The method may comprise: providing a Ro image comprising pixels valued to generally correspond to an orthogonal distance from an origin point in the Ro image to one or more possible lines in a corresponding grey scale image; providing, using a computer, a location in the Ro image corresponding to a possible pallet corner; defining, using the computer, a plurality of possible lines passing through the possible pallet corner, each of the possible lines being respectively oriented at one angle within a range of angles to an axis of the Ro image; and determining, using the computer, which of the plurality of possible lines is most likely to be the actual line passing through the possible pallet corner.
US08849006B2

The disclosure is directed at a system and method for darkfield imaging system and method for automated cell screening of cells. The system and method acquires multi- or hyperspectral digital darkfield images of cells and then processes the images to obtain measurements which can then be supplied or displayed to a user to analyze.
US08849002B2

Compressed sensing (CS) estimation approaches rely on a priori sparsity to significantly reduce the number of samples needed to provide high sampling fidelity, relative to the normal Shannon-Nyquist limit. Accordingly, CS approaches are of considerable interest for detector multiplexing in applications which have inherently sparse signals (e.g., the two correlated photon detection events in PET imaging). However, CS approaches also tend to fare poorly in the presence of noise, which has limited their applicability in practice. In this work, we show that CS estimation can be used to provide an estimate of the support of an image. This estimated support is then used as a constraint for maximum likelihood image reconstruction. This approach has robust noise performance and provides high reconstruction fidelity.
US08848995B2

A method of classification of image portions corresponding to fecal residues from a tomographic image of a colorectal region, which comprises a plurality of voxels (2) each having a predetermined intensity value and which shows at least one portion of colon (6a, 6b, 6c, 6d) comprising at least one area of tagged material (10). The area of tagged material (10) comprises at least one area of fecal residue (10a) and at least one area of tissue affected by tagging (10b). The image further comprises at least one area of air (8) which comprises an area of pure air (8a) not influenced by the fecal residues. The method comprises the operations of identifying (100), on the basis of a predetermined identification criterion based on the intensity values, above-threshold connected regions comprising connected voxels (2) and identifying, within the above-threshold connected regions, a plurality of connected regions of tagged material comprising voxels (2) representing the area of tagged material (10). The method further comprises the operation of classifying (104) each plurality of connected regions of tagged material on the basis of specific classification comparison criteria for each connected region, in such a way as to identify voxels (20) corresponding to the area of fecal residue (10a) and voxels (2) corresponding to the area of tissue affected by tagging (10b).
US08848993B2

In a method and a magnetic resonance (MR) system to generate MR images based on an MR measurement of the magnetic resonance system, MR data are acquired in three-dimensional k-space along straight lines proceeding in parallel. Each of these lines is defined by a point in a plane which intersects each line and that is situated orthogonal to each line. The points in the plane are arranged such that a distribution of the points obeys spiral phyllotaxis.
US08848992B2

The invention relates to a method of determining a susceptibility gradient map, the method comprising acquiring (300) a magnetic resonance k-space dataset, said dataset comprising magnetic resonance echo data, wherein a recursive iteration is used to determine the susceptibility gradient map. Further, the invention relates to a method of determining a susceptibility gradient map, the method comprising acquiring a magnetic resonance k-space dataset, said dataset comprising magnetic resonance echo data, wherein the acquired dataset comprises magnetic resonance echo data of multiple echoes with different echo times, wherein a susceptibility gradient map is determined separately for each echo time resulting in a temporary susceptibility gradient map, wherein the method further comprises calculating a total susceptibility gradient map by combining all determined temporary susceptibility gradient maps.
US08848989B2

A system for visualizing a myocardium represented by a cardiac image comprises a resampling means and a visualizing means. The resampling means resamples the intensity levels at sampling points on a plurality of curved surfaces, each curved surface enclosing at least part of a heart cavity and zero or more of the plurality of curved surfaces and being enclosed by the remaining curved surfaces of the plurality of curved surfaces, the plurality of curved surfaces together covering a hollow region in the cardiac image, the hollow region comprising the outer cavity walls of a group of at least one heart cavity. The visualizing means is arranged for visualizing at least part of at least one of the plurality of curved surfaces, using resampled intensity levels obtained from the resampling means. The group of at least one heart cavity may be the left atrium alone. It may also be the complete heart.
US08848985B2

A face-image registration device extracts, from a moving image which is inputted thereto, a face image showing a face of a person and registers the face image in a dictionary. The face-image registration device includes representative-face-image extracting means for extracting, from the moving image, at least one face image which satisfies a predetermined representative condition, so as to obtain a representative face image, and registration-face-image extracting means for extracting, from the moving image, at least one face image which shows the person shown in the representative face image but is not the representative face image and which satisfies a predetermined registration condition, so as to obtain a registration face image. The face-image registration device also includes face-image registration means for registering, in the dictionary, the registration face image in association with the representative face image.
US08848983B1

Systems and methods for ranking geographic features in a geographic information system are provided. In particular, geographic features can be assigned ranking scores based on characteristics of viewsheds associated with the geographic features. In particular, characteristics of a viewshed associated with a geographic feature can be analyzed to assess the visibility of the geographic feature. A ranking score can be assigned to the geographic feature based on the characteristics of the viewshed. The ranking score can be used prioritize information in a geographic information system.
US08848976B2

The present invention relates to a video tracker which allows automatic tracking of a selected area over video frames. Motion of the selected area is defined by a parametric motion model. In addition to simple displacement of the area it can also detect motions such as rotation, scaling and shear depending on the motion model. The invention realizes the tracking of the selected area by estimating the parameters of this motion model in the complex discrete wavelet domain. The invention can achieve the result in a non-iterative direct way. Estimation carried out in the complex discrete wavelet domain provides a robust tracking opportunity without being effected by noise and illumination changes in the video as opposed to the intensity-based methods. The invention can easily be adapted to many fields in addition to video tracking.
US08848975B2

A method of tracking an object in an input image stream, the method comprising iteratively applying the steps of: (a) rendering a three-dimensional object model according to a previously predicted state vector from a previous tracking loop or the state vector from an initialization step; (b) extracting a series of point features from the rendered object; (c) localizing corresponding point features in the input image stream; (d) deriving a new state vector from the point feature locations in the input image stream.
US08848953B2

A method for the operation of a hearing device with at least one receiver includes carrying out a fixed second frequency shift of an electrical receiver signal supplying the receiver or of a predefinable frequency range of the receiver signal and a variable first frequency shift of the receiver signal or of a predefinable frequency range of the receiver signal. The first frequency shift is changed depending on the occurring feedback. A frequency shift which effectively prevents feedback is advantageously carried out, while artifacts of the frequency shift are minimized.
US08848940B2

A headset is described. The headset includes a headset insert worn on a head of a user. The headset insert includes a first connector having a first mechanical coupler. The first connector is configured to mate in at least two different orientations with a second connector having a second mechanical coupler. A frame includes the second connector that mates with the first connector. The frame is adapted to receive the headset insert in at least two different orientations.
US08848936B2

A personal audio device, such as a wireless telephone, includes noise canceling circuit that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal and injects the anti-noise signal into the speaker or other transducer output to cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds. A processing circuit monitors a level of the anti-noise signal, determines that the anti-noise signal may cause damage to the transducer and adjusts the generation of the anti-noise signal such that damage to the transducer is prevented.
US08848930B2

A method and an arrangement for adapting an alert signal level generated by a device to an ambient of the device is provided. The method may include processing a sound signal corresponding to a test signal or an alert signal, generating a correlation value by correlating the sound signal with a generated sound signal, comparing the correlation value with a value, and adjusting the alert signal to a level based on result of the comparison.
US08848927B2

A recorder (10) for recording a scene (12) includes an apparatus frame (218), an optical assembly (220), an image system (222), a position assembly (243), an audio system (224), and a compensation system (248). The image system (222) captures an image (252) of the scene (12). The position assembly (243) can be an autofocusing assembly (244) that focuses the optical assembly (220) on a subject (16) of the scene (12). The position assembly (243) generates position information relating to the position of the subject (16) relative to the recorder (10). The audio system (224) captures a captured sound from the scene (12). The compensation system (248) evaluates the position information and the captured sound from the scene (12) and provides an adjusted sound track in view of the position information.
US08848926B2

Provided is a method for controlling synchronizing downmix signals and MPEG surround side information signals by controlling a delay according to the kind of downmix audio signals in an MPEG surround decoder. When multi-channel audio signals are restored using an HE-AAC decoder and a low-power MPEG surround decoder and complex QMF signals outputted from the HE-AAC decoder are used as downmix signals, a delay unit compensates for a delay caused in a real-to-complex converter. Anther delay unit delays spatial parameters to compensate for a delay caused in QMF and Nyquist banks when time-domain downmix signals are used. Also, when multi-channel audio signals are restored using an HE-AAC decoder and a high-quality MPEG surround decoder and complex QMF signals outputted from the HE-AAC decoder are used as downmix signals, a delay unit compensates for a delay caused in a real-to-complex converter.
US08848923B2

A method for control ling information object (102) usage in a network of information (100) wherein information objects (102) are identified by information object identities and locations of the information objects (102) are indicated by location pointing information, the method comprising receiving (5b) an encrypted information object (102), sending (7) to a resolution node (D200) a request for location pointing information of a key issuing node (D300), the request comprising an identity of the received information object (102), receiving (8) the location pointing information of the key issuing node (D300), sending (9) to the key issuing node (D300) a request for an access key (104) for decrypting the encrypted information object (102), the request comprising the identity of the received information object (102), receiving (11) the access key (104), and decrypting (12) the received encrypted information object (102) with the received access key (104).
US08848922B1

Secure information is managed for each host or machine in an electronic environment using a series of key identifiers that each represent one or more secure keys, passwords, or other secure information. Applications and services needing access to the secure information can specify the key identifier, for example, and the secure information currently associated with that identifier can be determined without any change to the code or manual input or exposure of the secure information on the respective device. Functionality such as encryption key management and rotation are inaccessible and transparent to the user. In a networked or distributed environment, the key identifiers can be associated with host classes such that at startup any host in a class can obtain the necessary secure information. Updates and key rotation can be performed in a similar fashion by pushing updates to host classes transparent to a user, application, or service.
US08848920B2

The present invention encompasses an electronic device, such as a server, which may be operated in a communication system. The electronic device comprises a method for receiving a request from another electronic device to transmit keys, for example a mobile terminal. Responsive to the request, the server generates the required keys and determines a best time to send the keys to the mobile client device such that a new connection is not required just for sending the requested keys. The best time to send the keys may be during a scheduled connection for sending non-key data, for example a connection setup for transmitting system parameters, content data, etc. By sending the keys along with the non-key data, a need for a special connection is avoided.
US08848919B2

Providing revocation status of at least one associated credential includes providing a primary credential that is at least initially independent of the associated credential, binding the at least one associated credential to the primary credential, and deeming the at least one associated credential to be revoked if the primary credential is revoked. Providing revocation status of at least one associated credential may also include deeming the at least one associated credential to be not revoked if the primary credential is not revoked. Binding may be independent of the contents of the credentials and may be independent of whether any of the credentials authenticate any other ones of the credentials. The at least one associated credential may be provided on an integrated circuit card (ICC). The ICC may be part of a mobile phone or a smart card.
US08848914B2

Various embodiments relate to wireless communications, and more particularly, to methods and apparatus for authorizing use of spectrum, e.g., through the issuance of spectrum access keys, and/or preventing or discouraging the unauthorized use of licensed spectrum. Peer to peer wireless communications between authorized users of licensed spectrum may involve scrambling/descrambling of information communicated between authorized devices. In some embodiments air interface timing and/or other information received from a second device, e.g., a beacon or GPS transmitter, is incorporated into a computation of a pseudo-random bit sequence which is also computed based on a spectrum access key communicated to authorized spectrum users. In some embodiments authorized peer to peer devices scramble communicated information based on the generated pseudo random bit sequence thereby preventing or discouraging communication with devices which are not authorized to use the spectrum and lack a spectrum access key used to generate the pseudo random bit sequence.
US08848913B2

Techniques for performing scrambling and descrambling in a communication system are described. In an aspect, different scrambling sequences for different channels and signals may be generated based on different cyclic shifts of a base scrambling sequence, which may be a maximal-length sequence. A scrambling sequence for a given channel may be generated by (i) determining a sequence selector value based on a channel type value and at least one parameter value for the channel and (ii) cyclically shifting the base scrambling sequence based on the sequence selector value. In another aspect, a reference signal sent on variable system bandwidth may be generated with two scrambling sequences, which may be different cyclic shifts of a base scrambling sequence. Scrambling/descrambling for positive and negative frequencies for the reference signal may be performed with the first and second scrambling sequences, respectively.
US08848912B2

A terminal identification method is provided which enables two-way communications between terminals and a network while identifying terminal IDs and protecting privacy. Also, authentication method and system are provided which require no complicated calculating process, less steps and smaller amount for wireless communications, and less power consumption. A server and terminal share a hash function and an initial value determined for each terminal, calculate the same temporary ID by hashing the initial value the same number of times with the hash function, and identify the terminal using the calculated temporary ID. The server and the terminal also hold a common hash function and authentication information, acquire an authenticating communication parameter from communication parameters temporarily common during communication, and generate an authentication key using the authentication information, the authenticating communication parameter, and the hash function. Then at least one of the server and terminal performs authentication using the generated authentication key.
US08848900B2

Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for updating customer service agent skillset definitions within a customer relationship management system. According to one embodiment, updating a skillset definition for an agent in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can comprise defining an initial skillset for the agent including indications of areas of expertise for which the agent is available to handle related customer requests. A request can be received from the agent to update the initial skillset definition to indicate a new area of expertise for which the agent wishes to be considered qualified. A determination can be made as to whether the agent is qualified for the new area of expertise. In response to determining the agent is qualified, the skillset for the agent can be updated to indicate the agent is qualified to begin handling customer requests related to the new area of expertise.
US08848895B2

A system for and method of providing a gateway transfer mechanism is presented. In one exemplary embodiment, the system and method of providing a gateway transfer mechanism may be realized as a method, comprising identifying, at a gateway, a call to be routed to a first location, determining whether to transfer the call to a second location, in the event the call is to be transferred to the second location, transferring the call, wherein transferring the call comprises ending a process to route the call to the first location, generating transfer information for the second location, and transferring the call to the second location using the generated transfer information.
US08848892B2

The present invention relates to contact list with means to attach memo to contact list entry. Memo comprises of one or more of data, voice, image, and video files. Memo is displayed on communication device when corresponding contact list entry is activated, such as when contact list entry is selected to initiate outgoing communication; and when incoming communication is received from entity corresponding to contact list entry. Present invention provides users means to remember desired conversation points at the time communication is initiated with an entity.
US08848889B2

An embodiment according to the invention provides automatic discovery, via Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Voice Biometrics, of the identification of a caller, when the caller is making a phone call from, for example, a residential line. The caller may, for example, initiate a phone call by voice request to a computer or other device. The device initiates the call, but rather than using the conventional technique of determining Calling Name via lookup to the Transaction Capabilities Application Part (TCAP) database, the embodiment uses a technique of ASR in tandem with voice or other biometrics to recognize who within the residence is making the call, and to use the name associated with the requesting caller's voiceprint for determining the Calling Name to display to the called party. Other forms of biometrics, such as image biometrics (e.g., facial or iris biometrics), may alternatively be employed.
US08848886B2

A system and method for displaying information to a user of a telephone during a telephone call may include requesting information from a plurality of applications in response to receiving data indicative of a telecommunications device during a telephone call. The information may include information associated with a second user of the telecommunications device. The information received from the applications may be displayed for the first user to view during the telephone call.
US08848873B2

An X-ray imaging system can include an X-ray tube, an X-ray generator, a precharging module and a triaxial cable. The X-ray tube can be configured to generate an X-ray emission and include an anode, a cathode and a filament. The X-ray generator can be coupled with the X-ray tube and include a high voltage module and a low voltage module. The high voltage module can be being configured to supply a dosing voltage across the X-ray tube and the low voltage module can be configured to supply a dosing current to the filament. The precharging module can be configured to supply a precharge voltage. The triaxial cable can electrically connect the X-ray generator to the X-ray tube. The outer shield conductor of the triaxial cable can carry a ground voltage, the inner shield conductor can carry the precharge voltage and the center conductor can carry the dosing voltage.
US08848870B2

An X-ray optical configuration for irradiation of a sample (1) with an X-ray beam having a line-shaped cross-section, wherein the configuration contains an X-ray source (2) and a beam-conditioning X-ray optics, is characterized in that the X-ray source (2) comprises a brilliant point source (4) and the X-ray optics comprises an X-ray optical element (3) which conditions X-ray light emitted by the point source in such a fashion that the X-ray beam is rendered parallel in one direction perpendicular to the beam propagation direction and remains divergent in a direction which is perpendicular thereto and also to the beam propagation direction. An X-ray optical element of this type enables use of both point-shaped and line-shaped beam geometries without complicated and time-consuming conversion work.
US08848867B2

The present invention pertains to an apparatus and method for adaptive exposure in imaging systems. An x-ray source for producing x-ray radiation and an x-ray detector for measuring amount of x-ray radiation passing through the human patient and striking the detector can be used. A tomographic image of the human patient or a tomosynthetic image of the human patient can be generated. Region of interest filtering and equalization filtering can be utilized. Filtering can be accomplished with a mechanical shield or shutter or with electronic control of the x-ray source.
US08848859B2

An X-ray or infrared imagery apparatus that performs a large sweep while reducing the irradiation or illumination dose. It comprises a support, an X-ray or light ray source that emits a beam through a slit of a dose limiter which is driven in translation, a detector irradiated or illuminated by the beam in order to detect an intensity attenuated along the X-ray or light ray propagation path through the body, an analog-to-digital converter to convert the detected intensities into data in order to determine an attenuation of the X-rays or light rays by the body, and a programmed computer to process the data in order to obtain an image representing the attenuation of the X-rays or light rays. The dose limiter either is driven in translation at a speed proportional to the detector or driven in translation at the same speed than the detector in front of a reflector.
US08848851B2

An output signal adjustment system includes a signal adjustment unit, a reference slope generating unit, a slope detecting unit, a voltage-to-current conversion unit, and a control unit. The slope detecting unit compares the slope of the rising and falling edges of the output signal of the reference slope generating unit with that of the signal adjustment unit and outputs a voltage signal. The voltage-to-current conversion unit converts the voltage signal into a current signal. Based on the current signal, the control unit outputs a control signal for controlling the adjustment of the signal adjustment unit to the slope of the rising and falling edges of the output signal. The output signal adjustment system can automatically adjust the slope of the rising and falling edges of the output signal, so that the output signal is insensitive to the packaging, the printed circuit board, the transmission line and other sender loads.
US08848848B2

A method of adjusting the transmission time of a signal in a radio link, the method being performed by a transmitter configured to transmit the signal over the radio link to a receiver and comprising the steps of ascertaining an accuracy that the receiver assumes for the transmitter's clock, calculating an assumed drift of the transmitter's clock based on the assumed accuracy of that clock and the time since a previous correlation between the transmitter's clock and the receiver's clock; and transmitting the signal at a time dependent on the assumed drift.
US08848837B2

A method for carrier frequency tracking of a received signal having a burst structure includes dividing each burst into a number of segments. The carrier frequency offset of a first segment within a burst is measured to obtain a first segment carrier frequency offset measurement value. The carrier frequency offset of a second segment within the burst is corrected by a second segment carrier frequency offset correction value based on the first segment carrier frequency offset measurement value.
US08848830B2

A method for providing a first modulation scheme based on a second modulation scheme, the second modulation scheme including a first constellation point associated with a first bit pattern and a second constellation point associated with a second bit pattern. The method includes mapping the second bit pattern from the second constellation point to the first constellation point, wherein an energy associated with the second constellation point is greater than an energy associated with the first constellation point.
US08848826B2

A method for adaptively driving data transmission and a communication device using the same are provided. The proposed method includes following procedures. Detection result is generated after detecting a receiving signal on a receiving path of the communication device. Driving parameter is generated according to the detection result. Finally, a transmitting signal on a transmitting path is adjusted according to the driving parameter.
US08848822B2

A feedback method for interference alignment in wireless network having K transmitters and K receivers, the method including: transmitting, by a transmitter n−1, a precoding vector of the transmitter n−1 (n being an integer between 2 and K−1) to a receiver n+1; calculating, by the receiver n+1, a precoding vector of a transmitter n using the precoding vector of the transmitter n−1; and transmitting, by the receiver n+1, the precoding vector of the transmitter n to the transmitter n.
US08848819B2

Transmission quality is improved in an environment in which direct waves dominate in a transmission method for transmitting a plurality of modulated signals from a plurality of antennas at the same time. All data symbols used in data transmission of a modulated signal are precoded by hopping between precoding matrices so that the precoding matrix used to precode each data symbol and the precoding matrices used to precode data symbols that are adjacent to the data symbol in the frequency domain and the time domain all differ. A modulated signal with such data symbols arranged therein is transmitted.
US08848812B2

A mixed waveform configuration for wireless communications including a first portion that is modulated according to a single-carrier modulation scheme and a second portion that is modulated according to a multi-carrier modulation scheme. The waveform is specified so that a channel impulse response (CIR) estimate obtainable from the first portion is reusable for acquisition of the second portion. The first portion includes a preamble and header and the second portion typically incorporates the payload.
US08848808B2

Methods and apparatus are described for time domain signals. A method includes creating a bipolar pulse whose high (up) and low (down) periods are separately and precisely controllable.
US08848802B2

A video compression framework based on parametric object and background compression is proposed. At the encoder, an embodiment detects objects and segments frames into regions corresponding to the foreground object and the background. The object and the background are individually encoded using separate parametric coding techniques. While the object is encoded using the projection coefficients to the orthonormal basis of the learnt subspace (used for appearance based object tracking), the background is characterized using an auto-regressive (AR) process model. An advantage of the proposed schemes is that the decoder structure allows for simultaneous reconstruction of object and background, thus making it amenable to the new multi-thread/multi-processor architectures.
US08848786B2

A method, medium, and apparatus for encoding and/or decoding video by generating a scalable bitstream supporting at least two bit-depths with forward compatibility, wherein the scalable bitstream comprises a base layer bitstream including a base quantization level and a base quantization parameter corresponding to a base bit-depth, and an enhancement layer bitstream including residue between an extended quantization level and a compensated quantization level that is predicted from the base quantization level, and a refined quantization parameter for refining the difference between an extended bit-depth and the base bit-depth.
US08848782B2

A reception apparatus includes: a data reception unit receiving compressed/encoded data from external apparatuses; a decoding unit decoding the compressed/encoded data to obtain received data; a data processing unit performing data processing so that information based on the received data obtained from the decoding unit is displayed on corresponding display windows, respectively; a window size setting unit setting sizes of the display windows respectively corresponding to the external apparatuses; an encoding bit rate determination unit determining an encoding bit rate of each external apparatus corresponding to the size of the display window based on a correspondence relation between the size of the display window and the encoding bit rate; an information transmission unit transmitting information regarding each of the encoding bit rates to each of the corresponding external apparatuses; and a size/bit rate correspondence relation setting unit setting the correspondence relation for each of the external apparatuses.
US08848769B2

Embodiments of the present invention allow for adjustment of transmitter amplitude during joint transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) equalization. During joint TX and RX adaptation, when the receiver requires a gain update, the receiver gain update is masked above or below a preset range. The RX gain update (instruction) is encoded into a transmitter amplitude update (instruction) transferred through back channel communication. The translation of RX gain to TX amplitude update is performed after the RX gain reaches a specified range. Such masking, encoding and translation reserves a certain amount RX gain range to account for RX gain variation due to process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) changes over time, and also to offer better linear equalization in the receiver over a constrained VGA bandwidth.
US08848764B2

The present invention proposes an LTE eNodeB receiver channel estimation technique that is referred to as reduced complexity minimum mean squared error (MMSE) technique for channel estimation. From the invention's assumptions, estimations and modified calculations, the present invention generates precise channel estimates of RS using the reduced complexity MMSE matrix and previously computed LS channel estimates HLS is as follows: (Formula I) which generates precise channel estimates of RS using the reduced complexity MMSE matrix and previously computed LS channel estimates. As a second aspect of the present invention, it is desired that the SNR be estimated within −3 dB of the actual channel SNR. As a third aspect of the invention, an adaptive method of data channel interpolation from RS channel is being proposed in this invention.
US08848752B2

Signal generating systems and methods are described. One signal generation system includes first and second lasers configured to generate first and second laser beams having respective frequencies wherein a difference in the respective frequencies corresponds to an output frequency, a photodetector configured to produce a signal at the output frequency, and first and second electro-optic modulators configured to respectively electro-optically modulate the first and second laser beams using the signal to produce respective first and second modulated optical signals, each of the first and second modulated optical signals having a respective sideband corresponding to the frequency of the other one of the first and second laser beams. The first laser is seeded with the respective sideband of the second modulated optical signal and the second laser is seeded with the respective sideband of the first modulated optical signal to phase-lock the first and second laser beams to each other.
US08848750B2

An optical pulse source comprising a DPSS pump laser, a photonic crystal fiber (PCF), and acousto-optic modulator (AOM) gating device is disclosed. The pump pulses are coupled through lenses to the AOM gating device, which is synchronized to the pump laser and is operable to gate the pump pulses to a reduced repetition rate Rr=Rf/N, where Rf is the pump laser fundamental frequency. The pulses from the AOM are injected via optics into the PCF. Propagation through the PCF causes the pulses to broaden spectrally to produce optical supercontinuum pulses. An optical pulse source that further includes an acousto-optical tunable filter (AOTF) operable to convert the optical supercontinuum pulses into wavelength variable output pulses is also provided. A method of scaling the energy of the optical supercontinuum pulses is also disclosed.
US08848745B2

A system, method, and computer program product for allowing a first processor to access flash or other non-volatile memory that is associated with a second processor. The first processor obtains parameters that allow the initialization of an internet protocol (IP) stack. The parameters can be obtained using the trivial file transfer protocol (TFTP), for example. The first processor communicates with the second processor using a socket protocol, sending a command word that represents either a read or write command. The command word specifies where in the non-volatile memory the access is to occur, and for how many bytes. Information is then returned to the first processor, allowing the first processor to verify the success of the access.
US08848743B1

A method of communicating count value information in an Optical Transport Network (OTN) signal frame. The method comprises determining a count value indicating a number of payload bytes to be sent in a next OTN signal frame; determining that a change in the count value (Δ) with respect to a current count value is within a predetermined range; selecting an inversion pattern indicating the change in the count value; determining a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code associated with the inversion pattern; and, inserting the inversion pattern and the CRC code in a Generic Mapping Procedure (GMP) overhead of the OTN signal frame.
US08848742B2

Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to techniques for adjusting transmission gap between Multicast Broadcast Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) symbols and non-MBFSN symbols within a MBSFN subframe.
US08848738B2

There is provided an optical transmission device which includes a determiner, a convertor, and a switch. The determiner determines whether a frame includes a fixed stuff byte area or not when the frame is received from a first network, where the frame includes a payload area for storing client data and the fixed stuff byte area is for storing fixed data. When the determiner determines that the frame includes the fixed stuff byte area, a convertor to convert a fixed stuff byte area into the payload area and a switch switches a clock frequency from a first clock frequency used in the first network to a second clock frequency used in a second network when the frame including the converted fixed stuff byte area is output to the second network on the basis of the clock frequency as a reference.
US08848731B2

System and method for facilitating data transfer between logic systems and a memory according to various conditions. Embodiments include systems and methods for facilitating and improving throughput of data transfers using a shared non-deterministic bus, a system and method for managing a memory as a circular buffer, and a system and method for facilitating data transfer between a first clock domain and a second clock domain. Embodiments may be implemented individually or in combination.
US08848726B1

Systems and methods to process packets of information use an on-chip information processing system configured to receive, resolve, convert, and/or transmit packets of different packet-types in accordance with different protocols. A first packet-type may use a protocol for wired local-area-networking (LAN) technologies, such as Ethernet. A second packet-type may use a proprietary protocol. The proprietary protocol may be used to exchange information with one or more packet processing engines, such as neural processing engines.
US08848722B2

A method and apparatus (“utility”) for facilitating connection of rack-mounted data devices (50) to a data network is provided. The utility includes a distribution strip (42) and a number of network ports (44), disposed on the distribution strip (42), for use in connecting the rack-mounted data devices (50) to the network. The distribution strip (42) has a longitudinal axis, and is disposed on a rack (40) such that a length of the distribution strip (42), defined relative to the longitudinal axis, extends primarily or exclusively along a vertical axis of the rack (40). The distribution strip may further include a data network switch device. A utility is also provided that provides improved redundancy with regard to connections of rack-mounted data devices by including a distribution strip (42) that includes first and second ports (46) for connecting the distribution strip (42) to a network device (56).
US08848719B2

In one or more embodiments of the disclosed technology, an Access Point (AP) schedules communication traffic flows or service tasks between an Access Point (AP) and one or more member stations in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). The communication traffic flows or service tasks may include both control and management flows and data traffic flows. The communication traffic flows or service tasks may include traffic flows or streams of different types, each of which may have different service intervals. The order of service tasks can be changed from cycle to cycle, randomly, by rotation, or based on historical delay records.
US08848717B2

The present invention relates to network communications technologies, and discloses a method, an apparatus, and a network system for multi-port load sharing. The method includes: receiving packets destined for a destination; searching an address port mapping table for corresponding logical egress port information according to destination address information carried in the packets; searching a logical port table for information about a corresponding load sharing group according to the logical egress port information, where the load sharing group includes at least two physical ports and each physical port corresponds to at least two subchannels; and encapsulating the packets into at least one subchannel corresponding to each physical port in the load sharing group respectively according to a preset load sharing policy, and forwarding the packets to the destination through the corresponding physical port. The embodiments of the present invention are applicable to network communications.
US08848710B2

The present invention is directed towards a method and system for providing a technique referred to as flash caching to respond to requests for an object, such as a dynamically generated object, from multiple clients. This technique of the present invention uses a dynamically generated object stored in a buffer for transmission to a client, for example in response to a request from the client, to also respond to additional requests for the dynamically generated object from other clients while the object is stored in the buffer. Using this technique, the present invention is able to increase cache hit rates for extremely fast changing dynamically generated objects that may not otherwise be cacheable.
US08848705B2

An apparatus associated with a first domain, the apparatus comprising a processor configured to compute a portion of a Point-to-Multipoint (P2MP) path, wherein the P2MP path spans a plurality of domains including the first domain, wherein the apparatus does not require knowledge of a core tree of domains to compute the portion of the P2MP path.
US08848697B2

A virtual broadband transmitting unit (FIG. 2) includes a stream generator to generate a multiplicity of data streams (115) from an incoming media data stream, and a transmission manager to control the upload of the multiplicity of data streams along a multiplicity of transmission channels (112) to at least one wireless communication network. A virtual broadband receiver (35) includes means to receive a multiplicity of media data streams from a multiplicity of data connections, and an assembly engine to assemble the data streams into a single media stream.
US08848694B2

Providing high quality voice/sound communications over a local loop of a telephone network is disclosed. The method includes receiving a voice signal, digitizing the voice signal into a high quality voice signal, utilizing sampling rates and/or sizes above the threshold, negotiating voice processing characteristics between a customer premises equipment and a network element, receiving speech at a customer premises equipment according to the negotiation, converting the received speech into high bandwidth signal and transmitting the high bandwidth signal to a telephone local loop, transmitting the high bandwidth signal from the local loop to wideband node that packetizes the high bandwidth signal for transmission to a packet network and receiving the packetized signal from the packet network at a switch that switches between an on-network or off-network status. A voice over IP platform can route packetized signals from the packet network to the telephone network or another packet network.
US08848680B2

There is provided a method and apparatus for transmitting a frame which is performed by a transmission STA in a WLAN system. The method of transmitting a frame according to the present invention includes generating an MAC Protocol Data Unit (MPDU) to be transmitted to a target station, generating a PLCP Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) by attaching a Physical Layer Convergence Procedure (PLCP) header to the MPDU, and transmitting the PPDU to the target station. The PLCP header comprises a partial Association ID (AID) of the target station.
US08848678B2

A method of performing hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) in a wireless communication system is provided. The method includes receiving a system configuration signal, the system configuration signal comprising frame configuration information and HARQ delay information, receiving a downlink (DL) signal in a DL subframe and transmitting an acknowledgement (ACK)/not-acknowledgement (NACK) signal for the DL signal in a UL subframe.
US08848672B2

The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, and more particularly, a method and device providing control information for uplink transmission in a wireless communication system supporting uplink multi-antenna transmission. An uplink multi-antenna transmission scheduling method, according to one embodiment of the present invention, comprises the following steps: creating downlink control information (DCI), which includes precoding information showing a transmission rank and a precoding matrix of an uplink transmission; transmitting said created downlink control information, which schedules the transmission of an uplink, through a downlink control channel; and receiving said uplink transmission, which is scheduled according to said downlink control information, through an uplink data channel, wherein the size of said precoding information can be determined with respect to the available number of precoding matrices, according to the number of said multi-antennas and uplink transmission rank.
US08848668B2

The invention relates to a method for configuring a context for a connection delivering a packet data service to a mobile terminal via a target wireless access network. The mobile terminal is initially connected to an originating wireless access network and the packet data service may be provided to the mobile terminal via the originating wireless network. Moreover, the invention provides an authentication server, a packet data gateway and a packet data service support node which participate in the context configuration method. To provide a method that allows establishing connection for packet service delivery to a mobile terminal from a wireless access network, as for example a UMTS, as fast as possible the invention suggests to preconfigure service provision of the packet data service via the target wireless access network by establishing a context prior to the mobile terminal connecting to the target wireless access network.
US08848663B2

A radio base station including a mobile communication system, a first relay node and a second relay node which are connected via a radio bearer, the second relay node and a radio base station which are connected via a radio bearer, where a mobile station is configured to perform a handover process between a first state, in which a radio bearer is set with the first relay node in order to communicate via the first relay node, the second relay node, and the radio base station, and a second state, in which a radio bearer is set with the radio base station in order to communicate via the radio base station, and a mobile station is configured such that during the handover process. Control signals involved in the handover process are sent and received via the radio bearer between the first relay node and the second relay node and via the radio bearer between the second relay node and the radio base station.
US08848662B2

The present invention relates to a wireless communication system and UE providing wireless communication services, and a method of effectively performing a handover procedure in an evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) that has evolved from a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, or a LTE-A (LTE-Advanced) system and it may be an object of the present invention to perform the handover procedure without terminating a data transmission between a terminal and a base station by utilizing carrier aggregation scheme, which allows a high-speed data transmission by using a plurality of frequencies.
US08848657B2

In one embodiment, the present disclosure is a method and apparatus for detecting silent gaps in wireless network service. In one embodiment, a method for detecting gaps in the service of a wireless network includes monitoring a series of control messages exchanged between a first mobile switching center and a second mobile switching center in the wireless network, where the series of control messages relate to a handoff of a wireless device being served by the wireless network and logging any errors detected during the exchange of the control messages.
US08848645B2

A system and method for managing resources in a heterogeneous network, which includes a primary system and a secondary system, and in which a communication coverage range of the primary system is divided into a plurality of regions, the system including: a heterogeneous network resource management module configured to collect and manage resource usage status within a managed region; and a secondary system resource management module configured to acquire the resource usage status of each region from the heterogeneous network resource management module and to allocate resources to the secondary system by utilizing the acquired resource usage status of each region in accordance with a priority determined based on an efficiency of resource multiplexing between the primary system and the secondary system in each region. The system and method improve resource usage efficiency.
US08848641B2

A system and method for radio link failure recovery is presented. A set of component carriers is identified. Each one of the set of component carriers includes a control channel monitored by a user equipment (UE). The control channel signals data channel assignment information for the UE. Radio link failure recovery is performed using monitoring of only a subset of the set of component carriers. In some cases, performing radio link failure recovery includes performing radio link failure detection, and detecting radio link failure by detecting an out-of-sync condition on a downlink physical layer, the out-of-sync condition occurring for a predetermined duration. In some cases, a number of component carriers in the subset of the set of component carriers is equal to 1.
US08848635B2

In one aspect, the invention provides apparatuses and methods for communicating, from one network node to another network node, application data together with priority information so that the receiving network node may use the priority information in scheduling the transmission of the application data to the intended receiver of the application data.
US08848634B2

One object of the present invention is to make a base station detect inconsistency between an uplink maximum transmission power P_CMAX actually set by a mobile station, and a maximum transmission power P_EMAX allowed by the base station for the mobile station without making the mobile station report to the base station about a transmission power upper-limit value P_UMAX associated with a power class of the mobile station. A base station (10) determines inconsistency between a set value P_CMAX of a maximum transmission power which a mobile station (13) actually imposes on itself and an index value P_RMAX of the maximum transmission power used in the base station (10) for scheduling a radio resource carrying an uplink signal. This determination is performed based on at least one of reception quality of the uplink signal, a radio modulation scheme applied to the uplink signal, and notification information from the mobile station (13) included in the uplink signal (except a transmission power upper-limit value P_UMAX).
US08848631B2

Interference between users in an MU-MIMO system is minimized by effective precoding, without increasing an overhead of control data. In a wireless communication system in which multiplex communication is possible between multiple UE1, UE2, and BS, a channel estimation and precoding selection unit 539 in BS estimates channels from the respective UE1, UE2 to the BS, determines a precoding matrix P from a projection matrix to make the two channel response matrices orthogonal or nearly orthogonal, and feeds back the precoding matrix P to UE2, and executes precoding on only UE2 of the two. A precoding unit 524 in the UE2 employs the precoding matrix P that has been notified to perform precoding of a data stream, and sends the precoded data stream to the BS.
US08848630B2

An apparatus and method for supporting Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) for an anonymously allocated bandwidth in a broadband wireless communication system are provided. The method of a terminal includes obtaining classification information of HARQ support ranging codes from a message received from a base station, to request an anonymously allocated resource, transmitting one of the HARQ support ranging codes, receiving a resource allocation message including HARQ related information and anonymous resource allocation information, and transmitting one of a ranging request message and a bandwidth request header according to the resource allocation information.
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