US08892621B2

A multiplier circuit for generating a product of at least first and second multiplicands includes encoding circuitry comprising a plurality of encoders. Each of the encoders is operative to receive at least a subset of bits of the first multiplicand and to generate a partial product corresponding to the subset of bits of the first multiplicand. The encoding circuitry is further operative to incorporate a negation of the product as a function of at least a first control signal supplied to the multiplier circuit. The multiplier circuit further includes summation circuitry coupled with the encoding circuitry. The summation circuitry is operative to sum each of the partial products generated by the encoding circuitry to thereby generate the product without performing post-incrementation.
US08892617B2

A jitter generator for generating a jittered clock signal, includes a jitter control signal generator and a jittered clock generator. The jitter control signal generator is utilized for selecting a digital control code from a plurality of candidate digital control codes at individual time points and respectively outputting a plurality of selected digital control codes. The jittered clock generator is coupled to the jitter control signal generator, and utilized for generating the jittered clock signal. The jittered clock generator dynamically adjusts the jittered clock signal according to the plurality of different digital control codes.
US08892613B1

A method of reading data from a partitioned directory incident to a serialized process. A first read and an offset value are received. A first data block in a modeled fully partitioned directory is identified based on the offset value and a predetermined number of entries associated with a buffer. It is determined whether the first data block in the fully partitioned directory is present in the actual partitioned directory. Zeros are written in the buffer if the first data block in the fully partitioned directory is not present in the actual partitioned directory otherwise the first data block associated with the actual partitioned directory is written to the buffer. A second data block is similarly read by a second read operation and written. The second data block is associated with a second subdirectory, selected based on a horizontal node traversal at a node level of said first subdirectory.
US08892609B1

A method for generating a unified database includes receiving a structured set of data, where each set is made up of records having fields, aggregating values within a first field of the records, automatically applying a set of rules to the first field values to determine correlations among the first field values, calculating a confidence level regarding a label for the first field, providing the label to the first field, storing the first field values in the first field in the unified database, and receiving more information to increase the confidence level. A system for generating a clinical database and a method for using the database are also described.
US08892607B2

Graph transformations are used by a data management system to correct violations of service-level objectives (SLOs) in a data center. In one aspect, a process is provided to manage a data center by receiving an indication of a violation of a service-level objective associated with the data center from a server in the data center. A graph representation and a transformations data container are retrieved by the data management system from data storage accessible to the data management system. The transformations data container includes one or more transformations. The transformation is processed to create a mutated graph from a data center representation from the graph representation. An option for managing the data center is determined as a result of evaluating the mutated graphs.
US08892605B2

Relationship management systems in accordance with embodiments of the invention are configured to provide systematic ways for a user to measure, and manage relationships in the user's social network. One embodiment of the invention includes a relationship management server system, and a database. In addition, the relationship management server system is configured to store a user account associated with a user in the database, store information concerning contacts associated with the user in the database, store event information associated with the user and at least one of the stored contacts in the database, store at least one objective in the database, score at least one relationship between the user and a contact based upon stored event information associated with the user and the contact to create a scored relationship graph, and generate a recommendation concerning an action based upon the stored objective and the scored relationship graph.
US08892603B2

Provided are computer program product, system, and method for restoring deduplicated data objects from sequential backup devices. A server stores data objects of extents having deduplicated data in the at least one sequential backup device. The server receives from a client a request for data objects. The server determines extents stored in the at least one sequential backup device for the requested data objects. The server or client sorts the extents according to an order in which they are stored in the at least one sequential backup device to generate a sort list. The server retrieves the extents from the at least one sequential backup device according to the order in the sort list to access the extents sequentially from the sequential backup device in the order in which they were stored. The server returns the retrieved extents to the client and the client reconstructs the requested data objects from the received extents.
US08892598B2

A method begins by a processing module determining to retrieve a dispersed error encoded file from a dispersed storage network wherein the dispersed error encoded file is stored as a plurality of sets of encoded data slices. The method continues with the processing module determining whether a neighboring device has a desire to retrieve the dispersed error encoded file and when the neighboring device has a desire to retrieve the dispersed error encoded file, coordinating retrieving of the dispersed error encoded file such that, collectively, the device and the neighboring device receive at least a decode threshold number of encoded data slices of a first set of encoded data slices and at least the decode threshold number of encoded data slices of a second set of encoded data slices.
US08892590B2

A method and apparatus for predicting search queries for a user on a search-based system is described. A search engine tracks search queries from a user received at the search engine. A prediction engine compares a search query history from the user with search query histories from other users on the search engine. The search query histories are stored in a storage device of the search-based system. A prediction of a search query for the user is generated based on the comparison. Search query histories from other users having greater similarities with the search query history from the user have a greater computation weight than search query histories from other users with less similarities with the search query history from the user.
US08892588B2

An Internet infrastructure supports searching of images by correlating a category selection with that of plurality of images hosted in Internet based servers in selected categories. An image search server supports delivery of search result pages to a client device based upon a search image or category selection, and contains images from a plurality of Internet based web hosting servers. The image search server delivers characteristic analysis of an image to the client device upon request. The selection of images is based upon: (i) word match, that is, by selecting images, titles of which correspond to the search image; and (ii) image correlation, that is, by selecting images, image characteristics of which correlates to that of category selection. The selection of images in the search result page also occurs on the basis of popularity. The category selection server also selects category based upon user's choice.
US08892582B2

A method and system and related computer program products are described for identifying an object of service comprising the initial step of generating and storing a static composite identifier representing a state of the object of service. Then, whenever it is desired to identify the object of service, the steps are carried out of: generating a dynamic composite identifier representing a current state of the object of service; locating and retrieving the stored static composite identifier, and searching a database for a match with an object of service recorded therein using either the static or the dynamic composite identifiers, or both.
US08892578B2

Many software applications allow users to consume and interact with a variety of data, such as files, photos, web pages, emails, and/or other content. Because the amount of content may be cumbersome to sift through, software applications may provide filtering and searching capabilities to aid users in finding desired content. However, the trial and error involved in current searching techniques may be time consuming and/or diminish the user's experience. Accordingly, one or more systems and/or techniques for presenting visual previews of search results are disclosed herein. In particular, a user may reference an identifier (e.g., “Bill”) that may be used as search criteria to retrieve corresponding objects (e.g., photos of Bill). A visual preview of the retrieved objects may be presented to the user. The user may quickly view visual previews of search results by referencing various identifiers without committing to a particular search result set.
US08892577B2

There are provided an input unit which inputs an object with scan information attached thereto into an image of a subject acquired on the basis of the scan information, and an insertion unit which inserts report information to the object when preparation of an image interpretation report of a study based on the image is completed.
US08892575B2

A method for building dictionary entry names for data elements of a canonical data model includes identifying candidate terms for the dictionary entry name of a node or equivalence class of the canonical data model. The method includes counting a frequency of occurrence of candidate terms in use and based on the use counts creating a candidate ordering of terms for the complete ordered dictionary entry name of the node or equivalence class. The method further includes validating the candidate ordering of terms for the complete ordered dictionary entry name of the node or equivalence class by comparison of the ordering with reliable dictionary entry name entries in a database and/or by usage counts in search engine results.
US08892572B2

A system and method identifies a video file in response to a video based search query. A video imaging device in a mobile device captures a video file, and sends the video file to a search engine. A database associated with the search engine stores pre-indexed metadata of pre-indexed frames of video. A video analyzer separates the received video file into individual frames, analyzes the individual frames received from the mobile device by converting the individual frames into metadata, and compares the metadata to the pre-indexed metadata of the pre-indexed frames stored in the database. The video analyzer then sends a message containing information about the identified pre-existing video back to the mobile device based on the comparison of metadata. The metadata of the file and/or the metadata in the database may include one or more of pixel information, histogram information, image recognition information and audio information for each individual frame.
US08892559B2

In an embodiment a method is provided. The method includes receiving forecast information in a computer from a first group of users. The method also includes integrating the forecast information into a database and corresponding OLAP cube accessible by the computer. The method further includes receiving comments on specific entries of the forecast information in the computer from a second group of users. The method also includes receiving changes of the forecast information in the computer from a second group of users The method further includes integrating comments and changes into the database and OLAP cube. Moreover, the method includes providing a display of the comments and the changes to the first group of users in an interface to the computer.
US08892540B2

The innovation relates to systems and/or methodologies for facilitating dynamic sustainability searches. A sustainability search component executes a query, and returns one or more results that satisfy a set of search criteria and a set of sustainability factors. The search criteria can include keywords, such as product types, process types, and additional features related to the keywords, such as price, location, brand, and so forth. The sustainability factors are alternative cost measures for a given process, product, or plant element. The sustainability search component can analyze the returned results, and rank the results based on sustainability.
US08892537B2

A total homepage service providing system includes an information provider information administration unit configured to register and administrate information of an information appliance of an information provider and information of the information provider; a homepage generation unit configured to automatically generate a homepage which can be displayed on the information appliance of the information provider and an information appliance of an information user, using metadata received from the information appliance of the information provider; a homepage registration and administration unit configured to store a file of the generated homepage, and register and administrate the homepage; and an index generation and administration unit configured to generate one or more homepage indexes for an information search, using keywords extracted and classified from the generated homepage, and administrate the generated homepage indexes.
US08892535B2

A lower-level master node sends, to a higher-level master node, a write set expanded in its own memory including a shadow copy of its own database and a heap_tuple map, and the higher-level master node that received the write set verifies whether the update has already been executed and sends the record of this update to the lower-level master node as a transaction log, whereby the database can be updated efficiently and consistently from the lower-level master node to the higher-level master node, and from the higher-level master node to the lower-level master node under its control.
US08892533B2

Efficiency of cached objects such as singleton objects and other software constructs having a first-invocation cost is improved by replacing the software code for creating a method instance (the “creation code”) with the instance itself. Upon first invocation, the calling method causes the first version of the method to be performed, and also causes the first version to be replaced by the second version. Thus, the invention facilitates creation of singleton objects that run without any branch logic, so as to improve speed and efficiency. The need for locking and exception handling is reduced, resultant code is simplified, and potential for error is reduced.
US08892532B2

A document archiving and retrieval system enables third parties to verify that an electronic document had been archived on a particular date and time. For each document to be archived, a hash function generates a digital fingerprint of the document, and inserts it into a hash list file, together with an indicator of the location of the file in the archive. The hash list file is submitted to an electronic time stamping authority to obtain a corresponding digital time stamp. Upon request, authentication of the hash list file with the digital time stamp, and verification that the current hash of the file matches that in the hash list file proves that the document was archived on the date indicated by the digital time stamp, and had not subsequently been altered.
US08892522B2

There is provided a map information providing technology that can keep map information very fresh at all times.A map information management system has a map to be updated DB for storing map data to be updated that is used to update and maintenance, a map to be provided DB for storing map data to be provided that is distributed, an updated data DB for storing updated data for updating the map data to be provided, a map DB update means for updating the map data to be updated when the updated data for updating the map data of the map data to be updated DB is input, an updated data creation mean for creating the differential data before and after it is updated by the updated data and storing the differential data in the updated data DB as the updated data, and a data distribution means for extracting the map data to be provided or the updated data stored in the map to be provided DB when it receives a request to distribute the map data or the updated data from a destination system and distributing it to the destination system.
US08892521B2

A method includes receiving a request to save a first file as immutable. The method also includes searching for a second file that is saved and is redundant to the first file. The method further includes determining the second file is one of mutable and immutable. When the second file is mutable, the method includes saving the first file as a master copy, and replacing the second file with a soft link pointing to the master copy. When the second file is immutable, the method includes determining which of the first and second files has a later expiration date and an earlier expiration date, saving the one of the first and second files with the later expiration date as a master copy, and replacing the one of the first and second files with the earlier expiration date with a soft link pointing to the master copy.
US08892520B2

A computing system and a storage device are provided. A computing system includes a first storage media, a second storage media having an input/output speed slower than that of the first storage media, and a hybrid file system management unit to manage a first physical file system and second physical file system, and provide a virtual file system manager with a virtual file system converted from the first physical file system and second physical file system. The first physical file system controls the first storage media and the second physical file system controls the second storage media.
US08892516B2

Techniques for writing data in a distributed database system having a plurality of members and a master are disclosed. In one embodiment, a write request is received at an originating member. The write request is applied to a version of a database on the originating member and is placed in a journal queue of items for propagating to the master in one single atomic action. The write request is propagated to the master. Whether the propagated write request is associated with a conflict is determined, and in an event it is determined that the propagated write request is associated with the conflict, an indication that the write request is associated with the conflict is sent to the originating member.
US08892515B2

Techniques are described for identifying conflicts between a prospective temporal key and an index of temporal keys, the index sorted based on a time value associated with each of the temporal keys. Embodiments determine whether a first temporal key within the index of temporal keys conflicts with the prospective temporal key. Here, the keys within the index may be sorted based upon a respective time value associated with each of the keys. Upon determining that the first temporal key conflicts with the prospective temporal key, the prospective temporal key is designated as conflicting with at least one existing temporal key in the index of temporal keys.
US08892507B1

Described are techniques for performing quota management in a distributed file system. An allocation quota specifies an upper limit of storage for allocation for a quota set of the distributed file system. The distributed file system includes metadata file system(s) and data file system(s). For files in the distributed file system, metadata is stored in one of the metadata file systems and file content data is stored in the data file systems. A quota coordinator partitions the allocation quota among the data file systems. The data file systems are allocators of storage and each receives a portion of the allocation quota specifying an upper limit of storage that the data file system has available for allocation for the quota set. Storage is allocated for client requests. The storage allocation is performed by each of the data file systems in accordance with the portion of the allocation quota assigned.
US08892484B2

A method and apparatus for predicting significant future events based on previous events. Plural messages representing events are received. Attributes of the messages are mapped to respective feature dimensions to define a multidimensional histogram. Co-occurrence of at least two event types are determined based on queries of the multidimensional histogram. Anomalous event types are detected from the messages by comparing feature dimensions of incoming messages to probability density functions of the cluster corresponding to the event type and highly anomalous event types are determined. Causal relationships between each pair of event types are determined and a Bayesian belief network of the pairs of event types is created and used to predict future events based on occurrence of additional events.
US08892481B2

A health and fitness management system is provided that has a health and fitness application operating, e.g., on a smart phone, that can wirelessly communicate with an activity module worn on the user which has a motion sensor, e.g., an accelerometer. The application accepts food and weight inputs (e.g., from the smart phone) and user activity units (e.g., from the activity unit) and develops a user intrinsic metabolism. The application includes fitness arc and health quotient graphical indicators that guide the user on health and fitness activities.
US08892480B2

A user's context history is used to help select contextual information to provide to the user. Context data describing the user's current context is received and a plurality of information items corresponding to the user's current context are identified from a contextual information corpus. A personalized user behavior model for the user is applied to determine the likelihood that each of the identified information items will be of value to the user. One or more of the information items are selected based on the corresponding likelihoods and the selected information items are provided for presentation to the user.
US08892479B2

A machine learning model is trained by instructing a user to perform various predefined gestures, sampling signals from EMG sensors arranged arbitrarily on the user's forearm with respect to locations of muscles in the forearm, extracting feature samples from the sampled signals, labeling the feature samples according to the corresponding gestures instructed to be performed, and training the machine learning model with the labeled feature samples. Subsequently, gestures may be recognized using the trained machine learning model by sampling signals from the EMG sensors, extracting from the signals unlabeled feature samples of a same type as those extracted during the training, passing the unlabeled feature samples to the machine learning model, and outputting from the machine learning model indicia of a gesture classified by the machine learning model.
US08892475B2

Methods, apparati, and computer-readable media for providing authorization and other services. In a preferred embodiment, an authorization service includes both a messaging specification and a set of rules that govern its use. A first customer wishing to use the authorization service prepares a request that complies with the service's messaging specification and transmits it to a first participant. The first participant transmits the request to a second participant, which processes the request according to authorization information provided by a second customer and rules that have been specified for the service. The second participant then prepares a response that complies with the service's messaging specification.
US08892462B1

Disclosed herein are techniques for providing a digital receipt to a consumer upon tender of payment to a merchant through the use of a proxy payment card in a financial transaction. The proxy payment card can be associated with multiple financial accounts (e.g., accounts associated with credit cards, debit cards, or gift cards). The digital receipt is automatically received at a personal computing device of the consumer in response to the financial transaction being charged to a financial account associated with the proxy payment card. The digital receipt includes information indicative of the financial transaction. The digital receipt can also include one or more interactive components that allow the consumer to interact with the transaction (and/or merchant) subsequent to transmission of the receipt, such as adding a tip, providing feedback, redeeming a promotion reward, tracking loyalty reward points, or reviewing transaction records of past and present transactions.
US08892457B2

A relocatable and remotely actuatable vehicle security system. In some embodiments, the vehicle security system includes a relocatable structure forming an enclosure over a parking surface and an electronic actuation system. The relocatable structure has a closeable opening through which a vehicle enters and leaves the enclosure. The electronic actuation system is configured to actuate a drive mechanism to close the opening or to expose the opening upon receipt of a remotely generated signal.
US08892456B2

In one embodiment, a mobile electronic device at least having a processor programmed to acquire an access instruction to allow a voter to access vote issues; and execute the following code: to provide, to the voter, information identifying vote issues; to enable the mobile electronic device to transmit at least one vote of the voter, where the enabling is based on: a first software instruction that instructs the mobile electronic device to present a first vote issue, a second software instruction that instructs the mobile electronic device to receive a first vote from the voter, where the voter submits the first vote by a first single action performed immediately after the presentation of the first vote issue and without any intervening action, a third software instruction that instructs the mobile electronic device of the voter to transmit the received first vote from the voter to the computer system.
US08892455B2

Methods and systems for providing location assessments are provided. Example embodiments provide a Location Assessment Provider System, which generates and provides assessments of various characteristics of specified locations. In one embodiment, the Location Assessment Provider System receives a specified location, determines a location assessment for the specified location, generates a visual representation of the determined location assessment, and provides the generated visual representation to a client system. Determining a location assessment may be based on geographic-related information about, or associated with, the specified location, such as the presence and location of geographic-related features associated with the specified location. This abstract is provided to comply with rules requiring an abstract, and it is submitted with the intention that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
US08892454B2

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for configuration of web services. In general, data is received characterizing web service calls for an application, a placeholder destination for the web service calls, and an identification of a system to be mapped to the placeholder; and a configuration is generated for the web service calls, where the configuration maps the placeholder destination to the system. The configuration may be a configuration of proxy objects to make the web service calls. Mapping the placeholder destination to the system may include generating a configuration including the system in lieu of the placeholder destination. Systems may be included in domains, where a security policy may be applied to systems in a domain.
US08892452B2

Systems and methods are disclosed herein for identifying potential insurance prospects. The potential customers or prospects are identified by determining prospect underwriting affinity scores, prospect affinity scores, and prospect context scores with predictive models. The scores are then combined into a combined prospect score, which is used to adjust insurance underwriting, workflow, and premium determination processes for the prospects.
US08892450B2

The application describes a method and an apparatus to prevent clipping of an audio signal when protection against signal clipping by received audio metadata is not guaranteed. The method may be used to prevent clipping for the case of downmixing a multichannel signal to a stereo audio signal. According to the method, it is determined whether first gain values (4) based on received audio metadata are sufficient for protection against clipping of the audio signal. The audio metadata is embedded in a first audio stream (1). In case a first gain value (4) is not sufficient for protection, the respective first gain value (4) is replaced with a gain value sufficient for protection against clipping of the audio signal. Preferably, in case no metadata related to dynamic range control is present in the first audio stream (1), the method may add gain values sufficient for protection against signal clipping.
US08892443B2

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for a speech recognition application for directory assistance that is based on a user's spoken search query. The spoken search query is received by a portable device and portable device then determines its present location. Upon determining the location of the portable device, that information is incorporated into a local language model that is used to process the search query. Finally, the portable device outputs the results of the search query based on the local language model.
US08892437B1

Example embodiments of the present invention may include a method that provides transcribing spoken utterances occurring during a call and assigning each of the spoken utterances with a corresponding set of first classifications. The method may also include determining a confidence rating associated with each of the spoken utterances and the assigned set of first classifications, and performing at least one of reclassifying the spoken utterances with new classifications based on at least one additional classification operation, and adding the assigned first classifications and the corresponding plurality of spoken utterances to a training data set.
US08892436B2

A method of recognizing speech is provided. The method includes the operations of (a) dividing first speech that is input to a speech recognizing apparatus into frames; (b) converting the frames of the first speech into frames of second speech by applying conversion rules to the divided frames, respectively; and (c) recognizing, by the speech recognizing apparatus, the frames of the second speech, wherein (b) comprises converting the frames of the first speech into the frames of the second speech by reflecting at least one frame from among the frames that are previously positioned with respect to a frame of the first speech.
US08892430B2

A difference signal calculating unit of a noise detecting device calculates a difference between the amplitudes of a residual signal at each sample timing and a residual signal at the preceding sample timing. A difference signal comparing unit determines whether or not an impulsive noise is present on the basis of the difference signal at the current sample timing, and the difference signal at each sample timing within a predetermined duration from the current sample timing.
US08892424B2

An audio analysis system includes a terminal apparatus and a host system. The terminal apparatus acquires an audio signal of a sound containing utterances of a user and another person, discriminates between portions of the audio signal corresponding to the utterances of the user and the other person, detects an utterance feature based on the portion corresponding to the utterance of the user or the other person, and transmits utterance information including the discrimination and detection results to the host system. The host system detects a part corresponding to a conversation from the received utterance information, detects portions of the part of the utterance information corresponding to the user and the other person, compares a combination of plural utterance features corresponding to the portions of the part of the utterance information of the user and the other person with relation information to estimate an emotion, and outputs estimation information.
US08892416B2

A mechanism for providing equation-level diagnostic error messages for system models undergoing circuit simulations is discussed. The components in a model of a system being simulated are converted into multiple numerical equations where each equation corresponds to a component in the system being simulated or a topology equation for the system model. Each numerical equation is numerically analyzed in order to identify illegal configurations in the system. Upon detection of an error, an error message listing the components associated with the illegal configuration is generated for the user.
US08892412B2

A method for correlating data predicted by a processor physics-based geologic model to describe a subsurface region with obtained data describing the subsurface region. Data is obtained describing an initial state of the subsurface region. Data describing a subsequent state of the subsurface region is predicted. The predicted data is compared with the obtained data taking into account whether the obtained data or the predicted data represent a discontinuous event. A sensitivity of the predicted data is determined if the predicted data is not within an acceptable range of the obtained data. The data describing the initial state of the subsurface region is adjusted based on the sensitivity before performing a subsequent iteration of predicting data describing the subsequent state of the subsurface region. A representation of the subsurface region based on the data describing the subsequent state of the subsurface region is outputted.
US08892410B2

A method for transforming seismic surface waves into depth profiles of dynamic properties of the soil such as the soil shear modulus or wave velocity or wave attenuation. The invention uses seismic data recorded preferably with a plurality of sources and receivers with a two-stage inversion approach. First, variations in surface-wave waveforms are decomposed (303) into surface-consistent transfer functions preferably for each source, each receiver, and each small region (301) of the surface. Then the transfer functions for each region are inverted (308) to determine soil properties or near-surface properties (such as the shear modulus) as a function of depth. The method can solve for the complex multi-mode nature of the surface waves for a media with both vertical and lateral changes in properties. Errors and limits in resolution for traditional methods from misidentification of ground roll modes or from assuming laterally uniform soil properties are avoided.
US08892409B2

The present invention is applicable in the field of corporate finance, corporate capital investments, economics, math, risk analysis, simulation, decision analysis, and business statistics, and relates to the modeling and valuation of investment decisions under uncertainty and risk within all companies, allowing these firms to properly identify, assess, quantify, value, diversify, and hedge their corporate capital investment decisions and their associated risks.
US08892402B2

A channel (500) is configured and arranged to be fixedly mounted (401) to equipment (100) to be temporarily monitored. At least one sensor-engagement member (800) is movably captivated (402) within this channel and a sensor assembly (1000), comprising a plurality of photosensitive receptors (1001) that are disposed in a pattern that corresponds to signal lights as comprise a part of the monitored equipment, is biased (404) towards the sensor-engagement member by an affixment member (1200) to thereby retain the sensor assembly in place with respect to the monitored equipment. By this approach, the sensor assembly, in combination with the sensor-engagement member, can be moved (403) along the channel to a selected position with respect to at least one of the signals lights and then retained in that selected position by the affixment member.
US08892394B1

A system and method are provided for tracking race participants via a Global Positioning System, providing feedback in substantially real time to the race participant, and optionally to other remote individuals via web publication at the user's preference. The feedback includes graphical and tabular presentation of such information as geographic position, race route, current race performance metrics, projection of future milestone and final race performance, projected position at a given time, projected time to a given position, relative performance to historical participants, to personal historical performance and to other members of the current race that are being tracked in aggregate or by demographic or otherwise subdivided.
US08892393B2

A method and system for object location detection in a space, the method including the steps of: configuring the resolution of a multi dimensional sensing apparatus to divide a multi dimensional space into M first sub spaces; scanning the multi dimensional space to generate M first sensed data and at least one first locked space; configuring the resolution of the multi dimensional sensing apparatus to divide each of the at least one first locked space into N second sub spaces; scanning the at least one first locked space to generate at least one group of second sensed data and at least one second locked space; and combining at least one of the M first sensed data that corresponds to the at least one first locked space, with the at least one group of second sensed data to form a set of output sensed data.
US08892390B2

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for determining a motion state of a mobile device. Accelerometer data is received from accelerometer sensors onboard the mobile device, wherein the accelerometer data represents acceleration of the mobile device in three-dimensional space. An accelerometer signal vector representing at least a force due to gravity on the mobile device is determined. Two-dimensional accelerometer data orthogonal to the accelerometer signal vector is calculated. A motion state of the mobile device is determined based on the two-dimensional accelerometer data.
US08892389B1

To determine a system condition, temperature information from at least one temperature sensor in the system is received, along with second information from at least a second type of sensor in the system. An out-of-range temperature condition is detected according to the received temperature information. According to the second information, one of plural potential causes of the out-of-range temperature condition is selected.
US08892378B2

The present application relates to a tool for detecting perforations in hydrocarbon pipelines based on the sensing system thereof. The function of said tool is to pass longitudinally through a pipeline of specific diameter, monitoring the thickness thereof and detecting any hole over the path followed and, in accordance with the data obtained, establishing the distance at which the holes are located, calculated from the starting point, the time at the instant of detection and also the circumferential position and size thereof, all the aforesaid as part of an online process implemented as the tool progresses through the target pipeline. At the end of the run, the information may be downloaded to a computer where it is available for use and for the corresponding decisions concerning integrity.
US08892374B2

Systems and methods of identifying electrical sources of audible acoustic noise may involve identifying first frequency content of a circuit board, wherein the first frequency content is associated with at least one of acoustic noise and a vibration of the circuit board. Second frequency content of an electrical signal associated with the circuit board may also be identified. In addition, a coherence between the first frequency content and the second frequency content may be determined.
US08892373B2

A method for determining the starting instant (t0) of a periodically oscillating signal response (E2; E2′), wherein the signal response comprises a first set of half periods (E2a-d; E2′a-d) having a polarity equal to a polarity of the first half period (E2a; E2′a) in the signal response, and a second set of half periods (E2e-h; E2′e-h) having a polarity opposite to the polarity of the first half period (E2a; E2′a) in the signal response.The method comprises the steps of: determining a peak half period (E2e; E2′f) as the half period with the highest amplitude in a selected one of the first and second sets; determining a zero-crossing instant (ZC1; ZC′1) of the signal response occurring a known time distance from the peak half period (E2e; E2′f); determining the starting instant (t0) of the signal response (E2; E2′) based on the zero-crossing instant (ZC1; ZC′1) and a relationship between the peak half period (E2e; E2′f) and the starting instant (t0).
US08892370B2

A control and measurement system for a coriolis flowmeter having a flowtube, a driver adapted to vibrate the flowtube, and a pair of sensors adapted to generate signals indicative of movement of the flowtube when it is being vibrated by the driver, wherein the sensors are positioned relative to one another so the signals from the sensors are indicative of a mass flow rate of fluid through the flowtube. A digital drive signal generator is adapted to generate a variable digital drive signal for controlling operation of the driver. The digital drive signal generator can be adapted to cause the driver to resist motion of the flowtube during a first time period and amplify motion of the flowtube during a second time period. The digital drive signal generator can also be adapted to initiate motion of the flowtube by sending one or more square wave signals to the driver.
US08892368B2

The invention relates to a method for applying extensometric sensors in railway tracks, in combination with electronic equipment and a post-processing of the signals and data obtained to measure the stresses on railway tracks and the like, as well as to measure contact forces between the wheel of the vehicle or train and the actual rail on which it is travelling. According to the method, the following is performed: capturing micro-deformations in a known point of the track; analyzing these micro-deformations; identifying the element corresponding to the micro-deformation signal peaks coinciding with the passage of the train over one of the cross members of the track; analyzing the micro-deformation signal peaks previously identified; obtaining signals by means of sensors (5) arranged in plates (6) screwed to the rail (7); and finally calibrating each detected micro-deformation peak and the relationship thereof with the magnitudes to be measured.
US08892367B2

The present invention directed to rolling weight deflectometers having sensors to measure pavement deflection, and to provide test data to determine the subgrade modulus and equivalent thickness of pavements. This information is then utilized to determine more than deflection and according to the present invention is utilized to determine critical strain parameters that can be applied to predict bearing capacity, rutting and roughness characteristics of pavements. This invention enhances the value of pavement testing while at the same time allowing for testing systems having fast moving wheel loads. The collected data can be used to determine vertical compressive strain and horizontal tensile strain, which can be more valuable for the prediction of remaining life time and recommendations for repair and maintenance.
US08892364B2

The invention is based, at least in part, on the development of stabilized binding molecules that consist of or comprise a stabilized scFv and methods for making such stabilized molecules.
US08892360B2

A method of generating a suggested navigation route with a portable electronic device includes presenting a map to a user on a touch-sensitive screen of the portable electronic device, and receiving touch input from a user stroking the touch-sensitive screen from a touch-down location corresponding to a starting point on the map to a release location corresponding to an ending point on the map for indicating a location of a preferred route, the preferred route beginning with the starting point and finishing with the ending point. The method further includes generating the suggested navigation route by selecting streets for the suggested navigation route according to the preferred route in order to closely approximate the preferred route, presenting the suggested navigation route to the user on the touch-sensitive screen, and providing navigation assistance to the user for guiding the user along the suggested navigation route.
US08892354B2

In general, embodiments of the present invention relate to prescription-based travel route recommendation. In a typical embodiment, a prescription related to a medical condition of a patient is received (e.g., electronically in a computer memory medium or the like). Among other things, the prescription typically comprises a set of criteria (e.g., route specifics such as topography/incline, mode of travel such as walking, running, cycling, etc.) for a desired travel route for the patient. Then, using global positioning satellite (GPS) technology or the like, the system will access/receive information corresponding to a geographical area associated with the patient. Using this information, a set of possible travel routes between a starting point and a destination within the geographical area will be determined. Then, by comparing the set of criteria to the information, at least one travel route will be identified from the possible travel routes for treating the medical condition.
US08892353B2

The disclosure is directed to a method, computer program product, mobile device or a system allowing for determining various route metrics based on stored route records associated with routes traversed by the mobile device. The determination of a route metric may utilize processing of a single route record or multiple route records. Exemplary route metrics include route timing metrics such as lap times, or route record metrics. Configurations of computer program products, mobile devices and systems for enabling the determination of various route metrics are also described.
US08892350B2

A system and method for estimating journey destinations is disclosed. The system comprises a conversion module, a frequency module, a metric module, a quality module and a summary module. The conversion module converts a set of driver history data to a set of learning parameters. The frequency module analyzes the set of learning parameters and current journey data to generate estimated journey data describing one or more potential journeys. The metric module analyzes the estimated journey data and the set of current status data to determine one or more metrics associated with the estimated journey data. The quality module determines one or more quality scores associated with the estimated journey data. The summary module determines one or more status summaries and one or more estimate summaries. The summary module associates the one or more status summaries and the one or more estimate summaries with the estimated journey data.
US08892345B2

A method for predicting traffic wherein the method is a trend based extrapolation method that uses real time traffic data and historic traffic data to generate a predictive traffic product. The predictive traffic product provides expected traffic speeds for the short term future, for example, between two to twelve hours into the future.
US08892344B2

A method, system, and computer program product for solving a traffic congestion problem are provided in the illustrative embodiments. Using an application executing using a processor and a memory in a data processing system, a congested route section is selected from a set of congested route sections. A set of congesting vehicles is selected, where the set of congesting vehicles cause congestion in the selected congested route sections by being positioned on the selected congested route section. A vacancy data structure corresponding to the selected congested route section is populated. A subset of the set of the congesting vehicles is selected. The subset of the set of the congesting vehicles is rerouted to a candidate route section identified in the vacancy data structure.
US08892338B2

A damping apparatus for an automobile is provided, capable of ensuring a high level of reliability while obtaining excellent damping effect with simple configuration. The damping apparatus for an automobile that reduces vibrations of an automobile body may include an actuator that is attached to the automobile body and drives an auxiliary mass; a current detector that detects a current flowing through an armature of the actuator; a section that detects a terminal voltage applied to the actuator; a calculation circuit that calculates an induced voltage of the actuator, and further calculates at least one of the relative velocity, relative displacement, and relative acceleration of the actuator, based on a current detected by the current detector and the terminal voltage; and a control circuit that drive-controls the actuator based on at least one of the relative velocity, relative displacement, and relative acceleration of the actuator calculated by the calculation circuit.
US08892335B2

The invention relates to a method for controlling a corona ignition device which, in a cyclically operating combustion engine, ignites a fuel-air mixture by means of a corona discharge originating from an ignition electrode in that by means of a primary voltage applied to a primary side of a DC/AC converter, an electrical oscillator circuit is excited, which oscillator circuit is connected to the ignition electrode, wherein the impedance on the primary side of the DC/AC converter is successively measured. According to the invention it is provided that by evaluating the impedance measurements, a time of the start of a corona discharge is determined, this time is compared with a target value, and the activation of the primary side of the DC/Ac converter is changed depending on a result of this comparison.
US08892326B2

A tool for configuring a replacement electronic control unit for a vehicle is provided. The tool includes a computer storage medium having a computer program encoded thereon which may be stored on an electronic module or installed on a computing device that connects to a communications bus in the vehicle. The program includes code for accessing a first memory associated with an original electronic control unit for the vehicle, retrieving a configuration for the original electronic control unit from the first memory, associating the configuration with a vehicle identification number associated with the vehicle in a second memory remote from the vehicle and downloading the configuration from the second memory to a third memory associated with the replacement electronic control unit for the vehicle.
US08892318B2

A control device controls a belt type continuously variable transmission including a primary pulley, a secondary pulley, and a belt, and controls a gear ratio based on a primary oil pressure and a secondary oil pressure. The control device includes a belt slip controller which oscillates the secondary oil pressure and monitors a phase difference between an oscillation component included in an actual secondary oil pressure and an oscillation component included in an actual gear ratio to estimate a belt slip state. The controller controls the actual secondary oil pressure to decrease based on the estimation to maintain a predetermined belt slip state. An oscillation amplitude setter sets an oscillation amplitude of the secondary hydraulic pressure small when the gear ratio is high compared with when the gear ratio is low, in a case of oscillating the secondary hydraulic pressure in the belt slip control.
US08892316B2

A demand driving force parameter indicative of a demand driving force of the engine is set based on the accelerator pedal operation amount, and a target value of an engine driving force control amount is set based on the demand driving force parameter. The engine driving force control amount is controlled so as to coincide with the target value. A target rotational speed of the engine is set based on the demand driving force parameter, and the continuously variable transmission is controlled so that the rotational speed of the engine coincides with the target rotational speed. One of a first operation mode and a second operation mode is selectable, wherein the fuel consumption rate in the second operation mode is less than the fuel consumption rate in the first operation mode. When the second operation mode is selected, the demand driving force parameter corresponding to the accelerator pedal operation amount is set to a value which is smaller than a value of the demand driving force parameter in the first operation mode, and the target value is calculated based on a first predetermined characteristic preliminarily set according to the engine rotational speed and the demand driving force parameter. The first predetermined characteristic is set so that the target value corresponding to the same engine rotational speed is substantially constant in a first predetermined range of the demand driving force parameter.
US08892310B1

This disclosure relates to a system and method for detecting execution of driving maneuvers based on pre-determined driving maneuver profiles. Some or all of the system may be installed in a vehicle and/or be otherwise coupled with a vehicle. In some implementations, the system may detect execution of driving maneuvers by the vehicle based on pre-determined driving maneuver profiles. The system may include one or more sensors configured to generate output signals conveying information related to the vehicle. In some implementations, the system may detect execution of the driving maneuvers by the vehicle based on a comparison of the information conveyed by the output signals from the sensors to criteria included in the pre-determined driving maneuver profiles.
US08892308B2

A vehicle guidance system is disclosed where the vehicle includes a steering wheel assembly including a steering wheel and a hub, the hub connected to a steering shaft rotatable about a steering wheel axis within a steering column for steering the vehicle. The vehicle guidance system includes a receiver for receiving a position indication signal, a steering controller for generating a steering control signal based on the position indication signal and a drive assembly to directly drive the steering wheel assembly responsive to the steering control signal. The drive assembly generates a torque about a drive axis to rotate the steering wheel assembly, wherein the drive axis of the drive assembly is coaxial to the steering wheel axis.
US08892306B2

A motor is driven by the γ-axis current of a γδ coordinate system that is an imaginary rotating coordinate system. A command current value preparation unit sets the γ-axis command current value based on the command steering torque and the detected steering torque. The command current value preparation unit includes a command current increase/decrease amount calculation unit and an addition unit. The command current increase/decrease amount calculation unit calculates the current increase/decrease amount for the command current value based on the sign of the command steering torque and the deviation of the detected steering torque from the command steering torque. The current increase/decrease amount calculated by the command current increase/decrease amount calculation unit is added to the immediately preceding value of the command current value by the addition unit. Thus, the command current value in the present calculation cycle is calculated.
US08892302B1

A driver reminder system to remind at least the driver of a vehicle, prior to leaving such vehicle, that there is at least one other occupant in the vehicle. The system couples to after-market and OEM vehicle alarm systems to provide vehicle alerting of a child left in the vehicle.
US08892301B2

An apparatus and a method for controlling a head lamp of a vehicle are disclosed. The apparatus includes one or more processors configured to: determine whether at least one of a low beam and a high beam is turned on; select at least one of a plurality of pieces of control information for controlling an illumination pattern according to the determination result; and control the illumination pattern according to the selected control information.
US08892296B2

[Problem]An object of the present invention is to provide a power state diagnosis method and a power state diagnosis apparatus that pass and increase not only a d-axis current but also a q-axis current to a current value that a steering behavior does not occur to perform a diagnosis in the vector control of a motor, and determine that a power supply degraded, that the power supply is normal and that the diagnosis is not completed without giving an uncomfortable feeling to a driver, detecting a timing that there is not a driver, and needing to comprise a plurality of actuators.[Means for solving the problem]The present invention is a power state diagnosis method that diagnoses a power state of a vehicle which comprises an electrical control system supplied from a power supply and a motor controlled by a vector control method, comprising: gradually increasing a d-axis current to a current value that a steering behavior does not occur and applying the d-axis current, concurrently gradually increasing a q-axis current that is a rectangular-wave with positive and negative directions to the current value and applying the q-axis current, and determining degradation of the power supply when a voltage value of the power supply is equal to or less than a power supply threshold and a given period of time T1 elapses.
US08892291B2

A vehicle system and a method for calculating a vehicle mass is provided. In at least one embodiment, the system and the method measure current consumed by an electric machine of the vehicle to calculate vehicle mass. A controller of the vehicle uses the calculated mass to control operation of the vehicle, for example a four wheel drive, transmission, stability control, or brake system of the vehicle. A GPS and tire speed sensor system may be incorporated to detect the presence of a towed object, for example a trailer, and to further adjust operation of the vehicle.
US08892285B2

A method for operating a powertrain system includes determining an objective function for an object component of interest of the powertrain system. Constraints are determined for a plurality of independent variables and dependent variables. Permutations of the objective function are evaluated with reference to the independent variables and the dependent variables. The objective function is evaluated to determine maximum and minimum values for the objective function for each of the permutations. Overall minimum and maximum values for the objective function are determined based upon the maximum and minimum values for the objective function for each of the permutations. Operation of the powertrain system associated with the object component of interest is controlled based upon the overall minimum and maximum values for the objective function.
US08892278B2

A method for implementing an overhead rail guided transport system includes the following steps: a vehicle transport system is provided, which includes an upper rail guided transport system, a lower rail guided transport system, a vehicle exchange equipment, and a plurality of vehicles operating in the upper and lower rail guided transport system; respective vehicle utilizing rates in the upper and lower rail guided transport systems are provided; the vehicle exchange equipment is used to interchange the vehicles respectively operating in the upper and lower rail guided transport systems in order to equilibrate the respective vehicle utilizing rates.
US08892275B2

A method and device optimize the vertical trajectory of an aircraft in flight along a predetermined approach trajectory. The method and device include the use of a calculator, which is structured to predict a predicted stabilization altitude at which the aircraft will reach a setpoint approach speed as a function of the current aircraft parameter values, a theoretical vertical trajectory, and predetermined models of aerodynamic efficiency of the aircraft. A comparator is structured to determine absolute value differences between the predicted stabilization altitude and the setpoint stabilization altitude and to compare the differences against a predetermined altitude threshold. A vertical trajectory determination unit is structured to determine an optimized vertical trajectory as a function of the current aircraft parameter values, auxiliary parameter values corresponding to a final approach axis, and the absolute value differences between the predicted stabilization altitude and the setpoint stabilization altitude.
US08892269B2

A thermal sensor is placed in a low power state. When the sensor is triggered to wake from the low power state, it initiates a thermal sensor scan from the sensor value measured prior to the low power state. The thermal sensor initially adjusts the measured value with a fast count by a configurable adjustment of greater than 1, and after reaching an inflection point performs normal count by adjustments of 1.
US08892267B2

A method is implemented in a computer infrastructure and includes receiving data defining a detected gas emission level of a power generation facility. The method also includes communicating the data defining the detected gas emission level to at least one subscriber device using one of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) based communication and Session Initial Protocol (SIP) based communication.
US08892265B2

A method of deploying a ram air turbine for an aircraft only during flight that deploys the ram air turbine only when a predetermined number of aeronautical power generation contactor signals are in an engaged state, an external power generation contactor is in a disengaged state, wheels for the aircraft are in an airborne state and all of multiple primary electric buses are in a fault state that represents electric potential below a predetermined level.
US08892259B2

A robotic surgical system for performing a surgical procedure within the body of a subject includes an elongate surgical instrument, a robotic controller configured to control the motion of the distal end portion of the surgical instrument, and a mechanomyography feedback system in communication with the robotic controller. The mechanomyography feedback system includes an elongate sphincter contraction sensor configured to monitor a physical response of a sphincter of the subject and to provide a mechanomyography signal corresponding to the monitored response. Additionally, the feedback system includes a processor configured to receive the mechanomyography signal, to determine if the received signal is indicative of an induced sphincter response, and to provide a control signal to the robotic controller if an induced sphincter response is detected.
US08892253B2

A swarm robot and a sweeping method using the swarm robot are provided. The swarm robot removes a plurality of objects in a given sweeping area, and at least two swarm robots collaborate to remove the individual object. The swarm robot searches the sweeping area, detects environment information of the sweeping area, locates the swarm robot in the sweeping area, generates a local map and an object map using the environment information and the acquired position, moves to the object according to the local map and the object map, and removes the object.
US08892238B2

A method and an apparatus for shaping an edge at a juncture of two adjoining surfaces of a part. A first surface and a second surface of the part are abraded by contacting a polishing surface of a polishing wheel to the first surface and to the second surface. The polishing surface spins in opposite rotational directions about an axis parallel to the edge when contacting the first and second surfaces respectively. The polishing surface moves at different translational speeds and the polishing wheel spins at different rotational speeds along straight segments and along curved segments of the edge. The shaped edge has a visually smooth and geometrically uniform appearance.
US08892237B2

Methods and systems are provided for fabricating and measuring physical features of a semiconductor device structure. An exemplary method of fabricating a semiconductor device structure involves obtaining a first measurement of a first attribute of the semiconductor device structure from a first metrology tool, obtaining process information pertaining to fabrication of one or more features of the semiconductor device structure by a first processing tool, and determining an adjusted measurement for the first attribute based at least in part on the first measurement in a manner that is influenced by the process information.
US08892235B2

A method and system for producing a dental implant surgical guide is disclosed. A patient-specific virtual model is generated using image data specific to a patient and virtual dental implants. The virtual model aligns the image data with the virtual dental implants using modeling software. A virtual mold is generated from the virtual model, and a physical mold is generated from the virtual mold. The physical mold is covered with a thermoplastic sheet via a thermoforming process. Excess thermoplastic material is trimmed off after the thermoforming process to produce a thermoformed piece. Metal tubes corresponding to each the virtual dental implants are placed onto the physical mold denoting the position, trajectory, and depth of the one or more virtual dental implants. A dental implant surgical guide that contains the thermoformed piece with the one or more tubes is produced.
US08892230B2

A multicore system 2 includes a main system program 610 that operates on a first processor core 61 and stores synthesized audio data, which is mixed audio data, to a buffer for DMA transfer 63, a standby program 620 that operates on a second processor 62, and an audio output unit 64 that sequentially stores the synthesized audio data transferred from the buffer for DMA transfer 63 and plays the stored synthesized audio data. When an amount of storage of the synthesized audio data stored to the buffer for DMA transfer 63 has not reached a predetermined amount of data determined according to the amount of storage of the synthesized audio data stored to the audio output unit 64, the standby system program 620 takes over and executes the mixing and the storage of the synthesized audio data that is executed by the main system program 610.
US08892227B2

A processing unit executes at least one of a task of a radio tuner, a task of a television tuner, a task of a playback control unit for playback of stored image and sound, a task of an indication unit for indicating image according to image data, a task of a navigation unit for detecting a present position and indicating the detected position on a map, and a task of a route search unit for searching for a route and indicating the searched route on the map, in accordance with a predetermined priority. When execution of multiple tasks by the processing unit exceeds processing performance of the processing unit, a processing suspension unit suspends a task, which satisfies a predetermined condition, among the multiple tasks currently executed by the processing unit, irrespective of a priority of the task.
US08892226B2

An audio recording may be repaired by implementing a processor to process the harmonic signal content of the audio recording; calculating a difference signal from the harmonic signal content by subtracting a predicted harmonic signal from a detected harmonic signal, the predicted harmonic signal being obtainable by a predictor means and the detected harmonic signal being detected by the processor; defining a threshold for the difference signal above which the difference signal indicates the occurrence of one or more acoustic excitation events; and thereby producing an events display which allows an operator to visually distinguish between indicated excitation events that are present as a result of a disturbance in the audio recording and indicated excitation events that are present as a result of natural harmonics in the audio recording; and repairing one or more of the displayed excitation events by a repair circuit which is in communication with the processor.
US08892222B2

The fume extraction system (10) includes a fume hood (12) located at the end of an articulated exhaust duct robotic arm (14) Three pairs of photoelectric sensors (34, 36, 38, 40, 42 and 44) are provided on the fume hood (12) to sense the presence of an electric welding arc (64) The system (10) includes a control unit (50) that generates command signals for the arm (14) based on signals received from the sensors so as to automatically position the hood (12) over the arc (64) and maintain a predetermined height distance between them A method of automatically positioning a fume hood is also disclosed The system and the method can provide a more dependable operation than ever before without the need of a complex construction.
US08892219B2

The disclosed invention primarily relates to methods for assisting and motivating persons with respect to various exercise and rehabilitation regimens they might undertake, mentally as well as physically. The invention also has potential application to for diagnosis and/or treatment of certain mental and physical disorders, and in other situations where a form of companionship may be provided the user. In addition the invention herein provides an enjoyable means of social interaction with others providing further motivation for physical and mental activity represented.
US08892212B2

Approaches are described for fitting an implanted cochlear implant having electrode array contacts to the implanted patient. A normal electrode stimulation arrangement is used to deliver electrode stimulation signals to the active electrode channel electrode contacts at an initial common charge level. The common charge level is increased until a desired common percept criteria is met to establish a common baseline charge level for the stimulation electrode contacts. For each individual electrode contact, a fitting stimulation signal is delivered to the electrode starting from the common baseline charge level and the charge level is increased until an individual electrode percept criteria is met.
US08892208B2

A system and method for conducting closed loop deep brain stimulation on an individual, and more specifically, for receiving local field potential neural signals, encoding and filtering the signals into the logarithmic domain, processing the signals, and determining optimal stimulation parameters for deep brain stimulation based on the processed neural signals. The system and method may also include an RF-DC converter such that the system may be powered in whole or in part based on radio frequency signals. The system and method may also include an RF transceiver such that the system may transmit data wirelessly to an external receiver, or may receive stimulation parameters wirelessly from an external transceiver.
US08892207B2

Methods and apparatuses are described for monitoring synchronization of two or more brain areas and delivering an electrical therapy to the brain to facilitate synchronization of the two or more brain areas. The electrical therapy can be titrated to improve synchronization between the two or more areas of the brain based on the one or more signals, the synchronization between the two or more areas of the brain occurring in response to the patient being exposed to external sensory stimulus, wherein the electrical therapy does not independently cause activation of either of the two or more areas of the brain.
US08892201B2

A stimulating medical device comprising a stimulating assembly implantable proximate to nerve cells of a recipient having at least one agent delivery port and a plurality of electrical contacts; an electrical stimulation controller configured to generate electrical stimulation signals for application to a first population of the nerve cells via one or more of the plurality of electrical contacts; a pharmaceutical agent source configured to provide a pharmaceutical agent to the at least one delivery port for application to a second population of the nerve cells; and a pharmaceutical agent controller configured to control one or more of the pharmaceutical agent source and the at least one delivery port to cause selective application of the pharmaceutical agent to the second population of nerve cells.
US08892196B2

An apparatus including a main processing unit. The apparatus further including a precordial patch coupled to the main processing unit, the precordial patch having a plurality of sensors for detecting heart sounds and cardiac electrical signals (ECG). The apparatus further including a probe coupled to the main processing unit, the probe having a sensor for detecting oxygen saturation of blood circulating through a human. A method is further described including simultaneously measuring and analyzing heart sounds, cardiac electrical signals (ECG) and oxygen saturation of blood circulating through a human. The method further includes performing an algorithm to determine the presence of a significant congenital heart disease and displaying management recommendations based on results of the algorithm.
US08892192B2

An apparatus for turbid sample measurement comprising a plurality of light sources for illuminating a turbid sample target area with non-spatial structured light, a projection system for illuminating the turbid sample target area with spatial structured light, a sensor for collecting light from the turbid sample target area, and a processor to analyze the data captured by the sensor to yield scattering and absorption coefficients of the turbid sample. A method comprises illuminating the sample with spatial structured light, collecting light reflected from the sample at a number of wavelengths, illuminating the sample with non-spatial structured light, collecting light reflected from the sample at a number of wavelengths, and combining the measurements of the collected light to obtain the optical properties of the sample and/or the concentration of absorbing or fluorescent molecules. The wavelengths of the spatial and non-spatial light sources are preferably different.
US08892190B2

Method for assessing the patency of a patient's blood vessel, advantageously during or after treatment of that vessel by an invasive procedure, comprising administering a fluorescent dye to the patient; obtaining at least one angiographic image of the vessel portion; and evaluating the at least one angiographic image to assess the patency of the vessel portion. Other related methods are contemplated, including methods for assessing perfusion in selected body tissue, methods for evaluating the potential of vessels for use in creation of AV fistulas, methods for determining the diameter of a vessel, and methods for locating a vessel located below the surface of a tissue.
US08892184B2

A magnetic resonance (MR)-positron emission tomography (PET) device dual modality system includes a dual modality detector system, conductors, and a PET processing device. The dual modality detector system includes a plurality of PET detector device having a framing recovery device and PET detectors, and an MR detector device having a magnetic resonance (MR) receiver. The conductors are electrically connected to the PET detectors. The PET processing device transmits modulated timing and frame synchronization signals to the PET detectors via the conductors and the framing recovery device. The frame synchronization signal is missing one or more framing signals, thereby reducing a spectral radiation of the conductors that causes interference to the MR receiver of the MR detector device. The framing recovery device detects the timing and frame synchronization signals and recovers the one or more missing framing signals.
US08892181B2

A non-invasive fetal monitoring system includes a plurality of contact elements, each of the contact elements comprising a plurality of electrodes configured in a unique pattern. The plurality of contact elements are configured for attachment to an external skin surface of a pregnant female for detecting fetal and/or maternal electrical activity.
US08892172B2

Method of enabling a remote communications device (106) with a telematics functionality module (150) can include providing a docking apparatus (114) coupled to interface with a vehicle (109). The remote communications device is communicatively coupled to the docking apparatus, wherein the remote communications device is non-enabled with a telematics functionality module (150). The docking apparatus and the remote communications device enable the remote communications device with the telematics functionality module.
US08892169B2

A mobile terminal according to an exemplary embodiment includes a display unit that displays predetermined information, a display control unit that controls the display unit, an input unit that allows input of predetermined information, and a setting unit that sets the display unit to a first low brightness display state, in which the first low brightness display state displays the display unit with low brightness. When the setting unit sets a display state of the display unit to the first low brightness display state, the display control unit controls the display unit to display only predetermined information that should be displayed while controlling the display unit to display a background screen of the display unit with lowest brightness or brightness near the lowest brightness, which is first low brightness, at the time of displaying the predetermined information on the display unit.
US08892167B2

A method for processing contact information includes setting a contact information list on a display; selecting a piece of contact information from the contact information list; binding the selected contact information to a specific area of the display; obtaining service information corresponding to the contact information, and displaying the service information on the specific area of the display.
US08892158B2

An object is to achieve low power consumption and a long lifetime of a semiconductor device having a wireless communication function. The object can be achieved in such a manner that a battery serving as a power supply source and a specific circuit are electrically connected to each other through a transistor in which a channel formation region is formed using an oxide semiconductor. The hydrogen concentration of the oxide semiconductor is lower than or equal to 5×1019 (atoms/cm3). Therefore, leakage current of the transistor can be reduced. As a result, power consumption of the semiconductor device in a standby state can be reduced. Further, the semiconductor device can have a long lifetime.
US08892156B2

A mobile terminal having a flat panel sound output unit and vibration generation method for the same are disclosed. When a user touches the mobile terminal, the user can feel a sense of touch through the flat panel sound output unit. The mobile terminal includes: a touch screen; a flat panel sound output unit attached on a surface of the touch screen to generate sounds or vibrations according to an input signal; and a vibration processor sending, when a touch event occurs at the touch screen, a signal to the flat panel sound output unit to generate vibrations corresponding to the touch event. Hence, the method can provide a sense of touch to the user without use of a separate vibration motor.
US08892154B2

A method of operating a base station such that the method comprises determining whether there are any mobile devices that are not associated with the base station that require protection from interference caused by downlink transmissions of the base station and setting a maximum permitted transmission power for the base station based on the result of the step of determining. A base stations operating according to this method is also disclosed.
US08892138B2

A method and apparatus for transferring a message from a wireless communication device to another communication device. A communications device generates a message using the wireless communication device. The wireless communication device determines a geographical location and an orientation of the wireless communication device. A geographical region is determined using the geographical location and orientation, and a remote server determines the presence of an entity associated with the other communication device in the selected geographical region. The message is then transferred to the other communication device.
US08892135B2

A method and apparatus for communication in a wireless sensor network. In one embodiment, one or more routers in a network may be available for communication with one or more star nodes at a randomized time and/or frequency. A connectivity assessment, which may be performed at several different frequencies and/or times, may be performed to evaluate the quality of communications between devices in the network. Primary and secondary communication relationships may be formed between devices to provide for system redundancy. One or more proxies may be maintained where each proxy includes a status of one or more devices in the network, e.g., one or more star nodes or routers. Proxies may be used to handle information requests and/or status change requests, e.g., a proxy may be requested to change a communication relationship between devices in the network and may generate command signals to cause the corresponding devices to make the change.
US08892122B2

Disclosed are a transmitting/receiving apparatus and method using a differential cyclic delay diversity MIMO scheme.
US08892121B2

A software LBS trigger is initiated by a wireless device to request a set of proximate location information points relating to, e.g., points of interest, location tagged blogs, etc., based on the user's current location. The LBS trigger may be initiated when the user moves, and may include speed of the user to define a proximate area within which the user's device will be presented with relevant location information upon reaching. The size of the proximate area may be based on available memory in the wireless device, and/or on network bandwidth limitations. If walking, a smaller proximate area is defined, or if moving fast, the area of close proximity is larger. The location-based information points are stored locally on the user's device, and presentation to the user when the user gets closely proximate to the relevant information point.
US08892112B2

The disclosed subject matter provides for selecting a radio access bearer resource based on historical data related to the radio access bearer resource. Location information can be employed to determine a radio access bearer resource. Historical information related to the radio access bearer resource can then be employed to determine the suitability of the radio access bearer resource. A set of radio access bearer resources can be ordered or ranked to allow selection of a suitable radio access bearer resource from the set. Incorporation of historical information can provide for additional metrics in the selection of a radio access bearer resource over simple contemporaneous radio access bearer resource information. In some embodiments timed fingerprint location (TFL) information can be employed to determine a location.
US08892105B2

A method in a network node (110) for configuring cells for downlink operations in a telecommunications system (100) is provided. The network node (110) is configured to support non-contiguous downlink operations on more than one cell (f1, f2, f3, f4) in at least one frequency band. The network node (110) receives a signal from a user equipment (121) in the telecommunications system (100). The signal comprises information about radio access capability of the user equipment (121). Information about radio access capability of the user equipment (121) comprises a first indication which indicates the maximum number of cells that is supported by the user equipment (121) in the non-contiguous downlink operation. Furthermore, the information about radio access capability of the user equipment (121) comprises a second indication which indicates the maximum gap bandwidth between cells (f1, f2, f3, f4) that is supported by the user equipment (121) in the non-contiguous downlink operation. Then, the network node (110) configures more than one cell (f1, f2, f3, f4) for a non-contiguous downlink operation supported by the user equipment (121) based on the first and second indication in the information about radio access capability of the user equipment (121).A network node (110), a method in user equipment and a user equipment (121) are also provided.
US08892102B2

The present disclosure relates to controlling a frequency band of operation of one or more base stations in a cellular communication network based on associated parameters of air interfaces of the one or more base stations. In one embodiment, a control element of the cellular communication network obtains parameters for an air interface of a base station. In addition, in some embodiments, the control element obtains one or more parameters for air interfaces of one or more additional base stations. Using the one or more parameters, the control element obtains a decision to switch a frequency band of operation of the base station from a first frequency band to a second frequency band. In response, the control element sends a command to the base station to switch the frequency band of operation of the base station from the first frequency band to the second frequency band.
US08892099B2

A method for obtaining an uplink signal quality of a neighbor cell includes: a serving Evolved Node B obtaining a downlink transmission path loss of current user equipment in said neighbor cell according to a reference signal power of said neighbor cell and a measurement report result of said user equipment for said neighbor cell, taking said downlink transmission path loss as an uplink transmission path loss of said user equipment in said neighbor cell, and estimating the uplink signal quality of said user equipment in said neighbor cell according to said uplink transmission path loss. Correspondingly, the present invention further provides a method for optimizing handover and an evolved node B.
US08892098B2

A communication apparatus and method for a dual-mode mobile terminal provides supporting communications through a wireless local area network and a cellular network, simultaneously. The communication apparatus includes a first communication unit for supporting a wireless local area network communication; a second communication unit for supporting a cellular communication; and a control unit for controlling the second communication unit to set up a media session with another terminal and for controlling the first communication unit to retrieve a preferred channel among a plurality of channels provided by an Access Point.
US08892097B2

Methods and apparatus are provided for selecting a serving cell in a communication network for reducing power consumption in a UE, is provided. Network topology information is determined by obtaining cell rank information for the UE, extracting a mobility state of the UE, and applying a double moving average principle to the cell rank information of the UE. The network topology information is employed to determine a change in network topology. Radio Frequency (RF) scans are optimized based on the network topology.
US08892096B2

A base station transmits signals on a frequency (f1) in an active transmission interval (TI) having a starting time and being part of a transmission cycle (TC) including other active transmission intervals for other frequencies (f0, f1, f2, f3) appearing in a predetermined discontinuous transmission scheme that specifies the relationship (Δ1, A2, A3) between the starting times of the active transmission intervals of the frequencies of the set. The mobile station scans the set of frequencies during a scanning cycle (SC) corresponding to the transmission cycle (TC) and determines the frequencies at which the base stations transmit. The start of each scanning is made at a point in time that is specified for the corresponding frequency by the discontinuous transmission scheme and the scanning of one frequency involves ending scanning of this frequency at the end of a time range (TR) of pre-determined length if no signal is detected within this time range.
US08892094B2

An extended cell search procedure enables more inclusive measurement reports by mobile terminals operating in a heterogeneous network. The mobile terminal may be configured to conduct an extended cell search to enable better detection of signals transmitted from weaker cells. For mobile terminal with extended cell search capabilities, the network sends an extended cell search message to the mobile terminal when there is a need for an extended cell search. In response to the extended cell search message, the mobile terminal uses an extended cell search procedure rather than the normal cell search procedure (as specified in Rel-8 of the LTE standard) when performing cell searches.
US08892093B1

Embodiments disclosed herein provide systems and methods for operating a home wireless communication network to facilitate increasing the rescan timer for a wireless communication device. In a particular embodiment, a method comprises determining a location of a wireless communication device that is roaming on a visited wireless network. The method further includes determining a communication load in a portion of the home wireless network that is proximate to the location of the roaming wireless communication device and processing the communication load to determine if a home network rescan timer in the wireless communication device should be increased. If the home network rescan timer in the wireless communication device should be increased, the method further comprises transferring a first message for delivery to the wireless communication device indicating an increase to the home network rescan timer.
US08892088B2

Various embodiments for handling an incoming call are disclosed. One embodiment is a method implemented in a media playback device. The method comprises establishing, by the media playback device, a connection with an output device and streaming, by the media playback device, audio content to the output device. The method further comprises receiving, by the media playback device, an indication from a communication device of an incoming call received by the communication device and responsive to receiving the indication, providing, by the media playback device, an alert corresponding to the incoming call.
US08892082B2

The disclosed subject matter provides automatic response to localized input. Where a first user equipment enters a service area, the presence of the first user equipment can be determined from an identification information. The identification information can be employed to access information relating to the identification information. Where either the identification information or the information associated with the identification information satisfy one or more predetermined rules, a response can be determined. The determined response can be made accessible. As such, a second user equipment can receive the response based, at least in part, on the first user equipment entering the service area.
US08892074B2

A multimedia messaging service center (MMSC) and method for caching mobile phone newspaper thereof are disclosed. The MMSC comprises a memory module, a mobile phone newspaper message processing module and a network attached shortage (NAS) module. In this method, after receiving a multimedia message, the MMSC decodes the multimedia message and determines whether the multimedia message is a mobile phone newspaper message; if it is, then the MMSC transmits the message body of the multimedia message to the mobile phone newspaper message processing module. The mobile phone newspaper message processing module determines whether the same message body has been saved in the memory module; if it is, then said message body is discarded, otherwise, said message body is saved into the memory module. The processing efficiency of the MMSC and the user experience are improved by the present invention.
US08892069B2

A method is intended for automatically configuring address(es) between eNBs (NBi) of an LTE access network. This method comprises i) transmitting a chosen message to at least one Mobility Management Entity (MME) of a core network connected to the LTE access network, this chosen message including at least one transport layer address of a first eNB (NB1) and/or authentication and/or security data of this first eNB (NB1) for connection to the latter, and ii) relaying within a downlink message an identifier of this first eNB (NB1) and the at least one transport layer address and/or the authentication and/or security data for the connection of this first eNB (NB1) to a set of at least one chosen eNB (NBi).
US08892067B2

A method of displaying fitness data on a portable electronic device in communication with a mobile phone includes storing a database in a memory of the mobile phone, the database including geographic data, receiving, with the mobile phone, position signals indicating a current position of the mobile phone, and generating fitness data on the mobile phone according to position signals received by the mobile phone over time. The method also includes transmitting a request from the portable electronic device to the mobile phone for requesting fitness data to be sent from the mobile phone to the portable electronic device, the portable electronic device being separate from the mobile phone, transmitting requested fitness data from the mobile phone to the portable electronic device in response to the request received by the mobile phone, and displaying the requested fitness data on a display of the portable electronic device.
US08892062B2

Methods for reducing power dissipation from an input power source in a telecommunications system are disclosed. In one embodiment the method includes: utilizing a first I2C device to monitor an input voltage and input current to a remote unit; providing the input voltage and input current to a main microprocessor for calculating an input power; utilizing a second I2C device to monitor an output voltage and output current from the remote unit; providing the output voltage and output current to the main microprocessor for calculating an output power; calculating a power efficiency of the remote unit at the main microprocessor based on the input power and the output power; utilizing a third I2C device to provide the power efficiency of the remote unit to a digital power manager; and utilizing the digital power manager to control the DA trim output to a DC/DC converter.
US08892061B2

Receipt of a radio broadcast signal by a mobile communication device is tracked based on a signal strength measurement signal and location information. The signal strength measurement signal indicate a signal strength of the radio broadcast signal, received via a communication channel and measured at the mobile communication device, over a particular time period. The location information indicates a location of the mobile communication device within a geographic area over the particular time period. Effectiveness of the radio broadcast signal is determined with respect to receipt of the radio broadcast signal by a plurality of mobile communication devices within the geographic area over the particular time period.
US08892058B2

A communication system including a first station having at least two first narrow beam antennas and a second station having at least two second narrow beam antennas. The first and second stations establish a first communication path for wireless communication via a pair of first and second narrow beam antennas. When communication via the first communication path is disturbed by obstacles, the first and second stations automatically establish at least one alternative communication path, which is spatially different from the first communication path, for wireless communication using the at least two first narrow beam antennas and the at least two second narrow beam antennas.
US08892047B2

A wireless communication terminal capable of changing a channel, and a channel changing method of the wireless communication terminal. The wireless communication terminal generates a plurality of channels by dividing at least part of a frequency band for ultra-wideband communications into a plurality of frequency sub-bands, receives a radio signal in at least one of the plurality of the channels, and changes a channel for receiving the radio signal. Accordingly, high quality communications are feasible between the transmitter terminal and the receiver terminal in an optimized channel environment, and signal interference between the receiver terminals connected to different transmitter terminals can be prevented. Additionally, it is possible to carry out the channel change rapidly and efficiently and to reduce the power consumption required to transmit and receive radio signals comprising a chaotic carrier signal.
US08892034B2

A terminal module is configured to fit inside an internal power source receptacle in a housing of a process field device, and comprises a wired power source connection, power conditioning electronics, and a field device connection. The wired power source connection is configured to receive power from an external source. The power conditioning electronics are capable of conditioning power from the wired power source connection for reception by the industrial field device. The field device connection is configured to provide power conditioned by the power conditioning electronics to the process field device via a terminal configured to receive and mate with the internal power source.
US08892030B2

A wireless communication apparatus may operate selectively as a master station or as a remote station in a wireless network. When the apparatus operates as the master station, the apparatus may manage one or more remote devices that operate as remote stations. The apparatus continues operating as the master station until a continuation period elapses when the number of remote devices to be managed is zero. The continuation period begins when the number of remote devices becomes zero. If the number of remote devices becomes one or more before the continuation period elapses, the apparatus continues operating as the master station, even after a lapse of the continuation period. If the number of remote devices remains zero until the continuation period elapses, the apparatus stops operating as the master station after the lapse of the continuation period.
US08892029B2

The present invention discloses a method for BSR reporting, a relay node, an E-UTRAN NodeB, and a system, which are applied in the field of communications. In the present invention, a BSR reporting manner of an RN is configured according to the number of UEs managed by the RN, and a BSR is sent to a D-eNB Donor eNB according to the configured BSR reporting manner. The present invention effectively solves the problem that currently the existing BSR mechanism is not applicable to an interface between an RN and a D-eNB.
US08892025B2

A radio receiver may comprise a receiver adaptable for receiving a plurality of broadcast streams over a plurality of broadcast channels, wherein the receiver will attempt to receive a selected broadcast stream on a selected broadcast channel, and if the selected broadcast stream is not receivable on the selected broadcast channel, the receiver will attempt to receive the selected broadcast stream on an alternative broadcast channel. A computer readable medium may allow a user of a receiver to create a composite stream comprising at least one portion selected from each of at least two of a plurality of broadcast streams. A method of open interface merge replication may involve comparing data between first and second databases, and if a conflict exists, updating one of the first and second databases with at least a portion of data from the other of the first and second databases to resolve the conflict.
US08892023B2

An image forming apparatus acquires an amount of deflection of the transporting sheet from a reference position thereof and calculates a required shift amount of the sheet. It determines whether or not the sheet is shifted frontward. If so, the image forming apparatus acquires a second specified shift value which is determined based on an urging force and the required shift amount using a second correction equation. Alternatively, if the sheet is shifted backward, the image forming apparatus acquires a first specified shift value which is determined based on the urging force and the required shift amount using a first correction equation. The image forming apparatus performs a registration roller shift correction based on the acquired first or second specified shift value.
US08892021B2

An image forming apparatus includes at least: an image bearing member; a protective layer forming unit including at least a protective agent supplying member and an image bearing member protective agent; and a rotational speed controlling unit. In at least one embodiment, the protective agent supplying member includes a core material and a foam layer including a plurality of cells, and a number of cells n existing at a contact portion between a surface of the image bearing member and the protective agent supplying member is greater than 9 and less than 23. Further, a traveling speed V of the cells with respect to the surface of the image bearing member at the contact portion is greater than 837 cells/mm2/s and less than 4,670 cells/mm2/s.
US08892017B2

A fixing device includes a magnetic-field generating unit that generates a magnetic field; a substantially cylindrical fixing rotational body that faces the magnetic-field generating unit, generates heat by electromagnetic induction of the magnetic field, and melts and fixes a developer image to a recording medium; a temperature-sensitive contact part that contacts an inner side of the fixing rotational body, and faces the magnetic-field generating unit, its permeability decreasing if its temperature becomes a permeability-change start temperature or higher; and a temperature-sensitive non-contact part arranged at the inner side of the fixing rotational body to face the magnetic-field generating unit in a range different from the contact part, and spaced from the fixing rotational body. An angle defined by the contact part and the center of the fixing rotational body is 60° or larger.
US08892006B2

Provided is a developing device including: a first helical blade; a second helical blade formed at the same blade pitch as a blade pitch of the first helical blade; a developer discharge port for discharging surplus developer; and a regulating member formed in a reverse phase with respect to the first helical blade. When a proximity portion is at a position facing a communication portion, a blade apex portion of the second helical blade is arranged to fall within a range of from a position facing an end surface portion of the communication portion on a downstream side of the second conveyance path to a position immediately before a position facing the proximity portion, which is reached in accordance with a phase shift of the second helical blade. A first stirring member and a second stirring member are driven at the same rotational speed.
US08892004B2

A cartridge drive gear assembly for holding a drum coupling includes a drive gear having an outer surface and an inner surface, the inner surface including inner projections which extend into the interior of the drive gear and includes at least two voids disposed on opposing sides of the inner projections, and at least one slot disposed in the inner surface.
US08892003B2

An image forming apparatus 100 includes: a common voltage-applying unit 8 that applies a voltage to charging-assistant members 7Y, 7M, and 7C of a plurality of image forming portions PY, PM, and PC; and a control unit 110, at the start of applying a voltage to the charging-assistant members of the plurality of image forming portions by the voltage-applying unit 8, switches the absolute value of the applied voltage from a smaller first value to a larger second value when images are formed by the plurality of image forming portions.
US08891997B2

A power supply apparatus determines that an input AC voltage has reached a voltage at which a power supply control IC can start operating, based on the voltage at an auxiliary winding of a transformer included in a first converter. Note that since the first converter operates so as to maintain a constant voltage at the auxiliary winding, whether the input AC voltage has fallen to an operation lower limit voltage or lower cannot be detected by only monitoring the voltage at the auxiliary winding. The power supply apparatus monitors a second voltage that is proportional to the input AC voltage is generated from the voltage being applied to the primary side of a second converter. Accordingly, the power supply control IC starts and stops operating in accordance with the input AC voltage.
US08891988B2

An image forming portion has a transfer portion for transferring a toner image formed on an image carrier onto the recording paper, and a fixing portion for heating and compressing the recording paper on which the toner image is transferred to fix the toner image to the recording paper. A control portion controls to heat and compress the recording paper by the fixing portion without performing transfer of the toner image by the transfer portion to smooth the recording paper under predetermined condition. At this time, the control portion is able to set variably the number of times to pass through the fixing portion without performing transfer of the toner image onto the recording paper and pressure force when the recording paper passes through the fixing portion.
US08891986B2

A mode in which a toner image formed on an intermediate transfer belt passes through a primary transfer portion without a toner image being transferred from a photosensitive drum onto the intermediate transfer belt is provided. In the mode, an area of the photosensitive drum that passes through the primary transfer portion while the toner image is passing through the primary transfer portion is defined as a first area. When the first area passes through a charging position, a charging bias is adjusted so that the occurrence of an image defect is prevented.
US08891983B2

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member, a developer container, a first calculator, and a second calculator. The first calculator calculates an amount of the developer supplied to the image bearing member from the developer container, on the basis of an amount of the developer measured by a measuring device after an image forming operation, and an amount of the developer initially contained in the developer container. A controller outputs an information signal relating to the developer amount accumulated in the collection container on the basis of the amount of the developer calculated by the first calculator and the amount of the developer calculated by the second calculator.
US08891982B2

Electronic systems, such as printing systems, often use components that have integral memory. The integral memory can be used to store information about the component. In some printing systems this memory includes a portion that stores a value indicative of a print yield. Disclosed is a method and system for allowing the memory to have data indicative of an increased print yield.
US08891981B2

An image forming apparatus executes banding correction at a level determined according to variation of the density characteristic of the image forming apparatus to achieve a high quality image. In the image forming apparatus, a banding correction unit acquires information about a cause of density variation that may occur in a sub scanning direction of a rotation member, which is used for forming a toner image on an image carrier based on input image information and sets, based on the acquired information, the level of the density correction, which is determined according to the density variation cause information.
US08891975B2

There is provided an optical receiver. The optical receiver includes a board to be coupled with an optical transmission line array, an optical diode array disposed on the board, and the optical diode array including a plurality of photo diodes each of which receives light from a corresponding optical transmission line in the optical transmission array. Further bias suppliers, conversion circuits, and capacitors are provided on the board or a real side of the board. Each of the photo diodes includes a first electrode and second electrodes, the first electrode receives a bias voltage supplied by a bias supplier, a current signal flowing through the second electrode is converted by a conversion circuit into a voltage signal, and one end of a capacitor is coupled to the first electrode and the other is grounded.
US08891974B2

A distortion compensation circuit compensates for distortion generated by one or more non-linear elements such as a laser device and/or an optical fiber and may include a primary signal path for carrying an input signal and a secondary signal paths for generating distortion. The distortion compensation circuit may also include a controllable phase inverters and a tunable filter. For example, the secondary signal path may include a distortion generator to produce distortion products from the input signal and a signal controlled phase inverter that inverts the phase of the distortion products and a tunable filter that adjusts the phase of the frequency dependent distortion. The phase inversion and tunable filter may be controlled in response to control signals generated based on one or more parameters such as, for example, laser power, input RF channel loading, temperature, and fiber length.
US08891967B2

In optical networks new links are added between nodes over time to satisfy the increasing traffic demands of the network. Existing links are normally not changed, resulting in a network that does not have the lowest energy consumption. A method provides a way to reduce the energy consumption of the overall network while supporting the required traffic demands at all times. The network includes a multiple source nodes, and multiple destination nodes. The network is represented by a graph of nodes connected by edges, wherein each node represents an optical network element and each edge represents a path connecting two optical network elements. Each edge is labeled with a demand. The non-bridge edge with a lowest demand is removed from the graph, and the lowest demand is added to the non-bridge edge with a highest demand. These steps are repeated until a termination condition is reached.
US08891960B2

A method of communicating data between a network device and a data network to which the device is connected via an optical fiber data link in which the device is connected to the optical fiber data link and the connection is monitored to detect data communication at a first standard. If data communication is detected at the first standard, data communication is established using the first standard. If not, the connection is monitored at the second standard. If data communication is detected at the second standard, data communication is established using the second standard.
US08891958B2

There is provided a method of determining transmission quality of a path in an optical communication network system obtained by connecting a plurality of networks, the method including: acquiring a value representing transmission performance corresponding to a network condition of each of spans in the path in the optical communication network system; and determining the transmission quality of the path on the basis of the acquired value representing transmission performance corresponding to the network condition of each of spans.
US08891954B1

A device for detachably coupling with a camera. The device includes a mount configured to detachably couple with a hot shoe of the camera. The mount includes a resilient retaining feature protruding from a bottom surface of the mount and configured to physically contact a bottom surface of the hot shoe such that the mount is pushed upwards within the hot shoe to securely retain the mount within the hot shoe.
US08891951B2

A lens barrel includes a moving lens unit that moves in accordance with a zooming operation, a focus lens that moves to correct an image plane variation caused by a movement of the moving lens unit, a driver that moves the focus lens, a controller that controls the driver, a zoom state detector that detects a zoom state, a focus lens detector that detects a position of the focus lens, a storage portion that stores tracking data indicating the position of the focus lens to correct the image plane variation, and a data correction portion that measures a real position of the focus lens in an in-focus state in a plurality of zoom states for each zooming operation in directions from wide angle to telephoto sides and from the telephoto to wide angle sides to generate correction data and correct the tracking data based on the correction data.
US08891950B2

A moving body photographing system, apparatus, method and program wherein an individual can easily take a photograph while operating the moving body. A portable terminal moves together with a moving body and includes a moving body photographing module for inputting a condition when the moving body is to be photographed to reserve photographing. A wireless communication section and a moving body communication section transmit information representing the inputted condition and representing a position of the portable terminal to a management apparatus and a photographing apparatus. The management apparatus and the photographing apparatus include a wireless position measurement section for measuring a position of the moving body moving together with the portable terminal. A camera apparatus is provided for photographing the moving body in accordance with a condition inputted to the portable terminal based on the position information of the moving body measured by the moving body position measurement means.
US08891945B2

A recording/reproducing method includes: reading a first uncompressed data from a first recording medium; reading the first uncompressed data from a buffer memory at a speed higher than a normal reproduction speed and compressing the read first uncompressed data to generate a compressed data; and recording the generated compressed data in a second recording medium; determining whether a predefined unit volume of compressed data is recorded in the second recording medium; and when it is determined that the predefined unit volume of compressed data is not yet recorded in the second recording medium, generating a second uncompressed data by reading the compressed data from the second recording medium at a speed higher than the normal reproduction speed and decompressing the read compressed data when it is determined that the predefined unit volume of compressed data is already recorded in the second recording medium.
US08891925B2

An optical fiber having both low macrobend loss and low microbend loss. The fiber has a first inner cladding region having an outer radius r2>8 microns and refractive index Δ2 and a second outer cladding region surrounding the inner cladding region having refractive index Δ4, wherein Δ1>Δ4>Δ2. The difference between Δ4 and Δ2 is greater than 0.002 percent. The fiber exhibits a 22 m cable cutoff less than or equal to 1260 nm, and r1/r2 is greater or equal to 0.25.
US08891924B2

A surgical system includes an external anchor, an internal anchor and an instrument. The external anchor is adapted to be positioned outside a body. The internal anchor is adapted to be inserted into the body via a single entrance port, positioned inside the body and magnetically coupled with the external anchor. The instrument is adapted to be inserted into the body via the single entrance port and secured to the internal anchor. The instrument includes an end-effector that has multiple degrees of movement via multiple axes.
US08891918B2

Methods, systems, and products illuminate display devices. An image is injected into a tapered portion of a waveguide. The tapered portion reflects the image to create total internal reflectance of the image within the waveguide. A frustrator withdraws a frustrated image from the waveguide, and the frustrated image is displayed to a viewer.
US08891917B2

The invention relates to a transverse mode filter in an optical waveguide (3). The aim of the invention is to produce a transverse mode filter that permits a monolithic construction of a laser in a multi-mode waveguide. To achieve this, according to the invention the filter comprises a Fabry-Perot cavity integrated into the optical waveguide (3) and comprising two reflective elements (5) situated at a distance from one another. In addition, the waveguide (3) is modified in the region of the Fabry-Perot cavity and/or in the region of the reflective elements (5) in relation to the remaining regions of the waveguide with respect to the effective refractive index of at least one mode of the waveguide.
US08891916B2

A surface-plasmon-polaritons (SPPs) tunable optical resonant ring filter that includes an SPPs waveguide, an SPPs tunable directional coupler, and an SPPs tunable resonant ring. The tunabilities of the resonant frequency, the resonant depth, and the filtering bandwidth are achieved by tuning the loss and transmission phase of the resonant ring and the coupling ratio of the directional coupler. Since the metal core layer of the SPPs waveguide is capable of multiplexing electro-optical signals, the SPPs tunable optical resonant ring filter can be used not only in an integrated optics system, but also in an integrated electro-optics hybrid system.
US08891915B2

An optical switch system and the system includes a semi-transmissive semi-reflective module is configured to intercept, in a transmission manner, test light that is the same as the signal light with respect to the propagation path and output after being modulated by the optical output control module; the imaging module is configured to acquire the test light, generate corresponding initial optical path information and sampled optical path information in sequence, and transfer the initial optical path information and the sampled optical path information to the judging module in sequence; the judging module is configured to record the initial optical path information, and compare the sampled optical path information with the initial optical path information; and the control module is configured to control the optical output control module according to a comparison result.
US08891914B2

Telecommunications switches are presented, including expandable optical switches that allow for a switch of N inputs×M outputs to be expanded arbitrarily to a new number of N inputs and/or a new number of M outputs. Switches having internal switch blocks controlling signal bypass lines are also provided, with these switches being useful for the expandable switches.
US08891912B2

An optical ribbon (20) includes at least one optical fiber and a conformal coating at least substantially encapsulating said at least one optical fiber. The optical ribbon is flat and has a generally curved section (42) which can be routed around components (40) on a printed wiring board (22) or can be used as a built-in ferrule retermination loop.
US08891905B2

Systems and methods which provide generation of high resolution depth maps from low resolution depth information using boundary-based processing techniques are disclosed. Boundary-based depth processing provided by embodiments implements boundary detection and boundary-based interpolation algorithms for providing high resolution depth information from low resolution depth information and high resolution image information. Boundary detection algorithms are implemented according to embodiments to detect object boundaries (e.g., depth discontinuities), where the low resolution depth samples are typically inaccurate and generally in need of refining. Boundary-based interpolation algorithms are implemented according to embodiments of the invention to refine intermediate upsampled depth information (e.g., spatially interpolated low resolution depth information), using the boundary information provided by a boundary detection algorithm, and provide high resolution depth information.
US08891895B2

Imaging of falling objects is described. Multiple images of a falling object can be captured substantially simultaneously using multiple cameras located at multiple angles around the falling object. An epipolar geometry of the captured images can be determined. The images can be rectified to parallelize epipolar lines of the epipolar geometry. Correspondence points between the images can be identified. At least a portion of the falling object can be digitally reconstructed using the identified correspondence points to create a digital reconstruction.
US08891891B2

Apparatuses and techniques relating to encoding a video are provided. An encoding device includes a motion coding module configured to determine a coding block level for processing an image data, and further configured to determine a block formation for a motion coding of the image data according to the coding block level; and a texture coding module configured to determine a block size for a texture coding of the image data according to the block formation to thereby generate a coded bit stream.
US08891889B2

Image encoding and decoding methods and related devices are provided. An image encoding and decoding method includes: for a sub-image block obtained by partitioning an image block, determining at least two position parameters, in which the at least two position parameters include a first position parameter and a second position parameter, the first position parameter identifies whether the sub-image block is a rectangle or not a rectangle, and the second position parameter identifies endpoint information of the sub-image block; determining an encoding sequence of the first position parameter and the second position parameter according to a partition manner of the image block; and encoding the at least two position parameters according to the determined encoding sequence.
US08891888B2

A code is received. The code conveys data about a quantized coefficient that corresponds to a pixel of an image file. A decoding mode and a version of a code mapping format for decoding the received code is determined. The decoding mode and the version of the code mapping format dynamically change based on a previously-decoded code. The received code is decoded, during the decoding mode, according to the version of the code mapping format to obtain the data about the quantized coefficient.
US08891887B2

An image processing device including a selection section configured to select, from a plurality of transform units with different sizes, a transform unit used for inverse orthogonal transformation of image data to be decoded, a generation section configured to generate, from a first quantization matrix corresponding to a transform unit for a first size, a second quantization matrix corresponding to a transform unit for a second size from a first quantization matrix corresponding to a transform unit for a first size, and an inverse quantization section configured to inversely quantize transform coefficient data for the image data using the second quantization matrix generated by the generation section when the selection section selects the transform unit for the second size.
US08891863B2

HDR images are coded and distributed. An initial HDR image is received. Processing the received HDR image creates a JPEG-2000 DCI-compliant coded baseline image and an HDR-enhancement image. The coded baseline image has one or more color components, each of which provide enhancement information that allows reconstruction of an instance of the initial HDR image using the baseline image and the HDR-enhancement images. A data packet is computed, which has a first and a second data set. The first data set relates to the baseline image color components, each of which has an application marker that relates to the HDR-enhancement images. The second data set relates to the HDR-enhancement image. The data packets are sent in a DCI-compliant bit stream.
US08891854B2

A device for transforming 2D images into 3D images includes a position calculation unit and an image processing block. The position calculation unit generates multiple start points corresponding to multiple pixel lines of a panel according to a display type of the panel. The image processing block reshapes multiple input enable signals into multiple output enable signals according to the start points. The pixel lines of the panel displays the output data signal as multiple image signals respectively according to the output enable signals. The image signals include multiple left-eye image signals and multiple right-eye image signals.
US08891849B2

Systems and methods for determining an extended low contrast detectability performance function for an operating range for a core operating mode of a radiographic imaging system using actual reconstructed images characterize the contrast performance of a radiographic imaging system over its operating range and for any patient size based on the off-line calibration, uses ordered pairs of flux index and contrast index for each scanned object to provide a contrast index for each protocol for each contrast set, and uses the ordered pairs of flux index and contrast index to determine an extended low contrast detectability performance function for the operating range of a radiographic imaging system. Extended low contrast detectability performance data compilation and methods of clinical use, and low contrast phantom configurations and methods of calibration are also disclosed.
US08891839B2

The present system combines image morphing technology, exercise programming, supplement sales, and motivational techniques into one product. Users begin by entering their current measurements, measurement goals and current picture into the system, preferably via a Web site. The picture is segmented into body components, and each affected segment is morphed based upon the measurements, goals, and the segment's responsiveness to weight loss in order to create a modified image representative of the user in a post-regimen condition. This system helps health and fitness businesses obtain new members and retain existing members by showing the members how they will look after following a specific regimen of diet and/or exercise. The system also predicts health risks of diabetes, heart disease, and stroke associated with the user's pre-regimen and post-regimen conditions.
US08891833B2

Provided is an image processing apparatus including a segmentation unit configured to segment image data into a plurality of segments to create a plurality of segmented image data, a detection unit configured to execute face detection processing for detecting a face area from image data before being segmented and each of the plurality of segmented image data, a recognition unit configured to execute recognition processing for determining whether the face detected by the detection unit is a face of a registered person, in each of the plurality of segmented image data, and a control unit configured to control whether to cause the recognition unit to execute the recognition processing as to each of the plurality of segmented image data depending on a result of the face detection in the image data before being segmented.
US08891826B2

An image processing system includes: an object detecting unit that detects a moving body object from image data of an image of a predetermined area; an object-occurrence-position detecting unit that detects an occurrence position of the object detected by the object detecting unit; and a valid-object determining unit that determines that the object detected by the object detecting unit is a valid object when the object is present in a mask area set as a non-detection target in the image of the predetermined area and the occurrence position of the object in the mask area detected by the object-occurrence-position detecting unit is outside the mask area.
US08891823B2

A position information acquiring apparatus comprises: a first acquiring unit configured to acquire first position information of the position information acquiring apparatus upon image capturing; a first storage unit configured to store image data generated by the image capturing and the first position information in a memory in association with each other; a second acquiring unit configured to acquire second position information of the position information acquiring apparatus upon image capturing; and a second storage unit configured to store the second position information in the memory in association with the image data when the second position information higher in accuracy than the first position information is acquired after the first storage unit stores the image data and the first position information in association with each other.
US08891812B2

A method to secure unique information about a handwritten document and to provide verification of document's authenticity, integrity and non-repudiation. The method includes the following steps: creating a document having an area of interest containing information, segmenting the area of interest on the document into a plurality of elements, obtaining the average gray scale of each element, inserting the average gray scale of each element into an identifier, and attaching the identifier to the document.
US08891810B2

The invention relates to a loudspeaker system in which the diaphragm of the speaker has a defined material thickness particularly in the edge region thereof and comprises a suspension which is axially symmetrical about the mechanical rest position of said diaphragm and is formed by one, preferably two identical mirrored components, characterized in that the sound emission towards the rear is performed to at least 50 percent by the inner space of a magnetic system. The invention further relates to the use of the loudspeaker system as loudspeaker boxes or in radios, television screens, radio receivers, hand-held radio devices, measurement receivers, mobile telephones and headphones or the like.
US08891805B2

A speaker apparatus selects a path which emits a speaker sound. The speaker apparatus includes a speaker unit for outputting the sound generated from voice data, a body including at least one or more emission paths for guiding and emitting the sound output from the speaker unit, and a member for opening or shutting out at least one emission path.
US08891803B2

A portable electrical appliance comprises an audio signal source, a power supply module having a housing external to the portable electrical appliance for providing power to the electronic appliance having, a power converter for providing DC power to at least the portable electrical appliance, a speaker for generating sound and audio processing means for manipulating audio signals from the audio signal source, wherein the power converter, audio processing means and speaker are mounted within the housing, and communication means for coupling the audio signal to the processing means. The communication means is able to be wireless or wired.
US08891799B2

An earphone includes a cylindrical portion having an opening in one end and an audio output unit which outputs sound from one face. The audio output unit is fixed to the cylindrical portion such that another face is in contact with an end face of the one end of the cylindrical portion. The audio output unit and the cylindrical portion are insertable at least partially in the external auditory canal of a human being. The earphone further includes a thin-wall part provided in the cylindrical portion and a ring, made of a material of a greater specific gravity than the cylindrical portion, which is fixed to the inner surface. The ring is fixed in a position such that the ring overlaps in the axial direction of the cylindrical portion with respect to the thin-wall part.
US08891797B2

An audio format transcoder for transcoding an input audio signal, the input audio signal having at least two directional audio components. The audio format transcoder including a converter for converting the input audio signal into a converted signal, the converted signal having a converted signal representation and a converted signal direction of arrival. The audio format transcoder further includes a position provider for providing at least two spatial positions of at least two spatial audio sources and a processor for processing the converted signal representation based on the at least two spatial positions to obtain at least two separated audio source measures.
US08891792B2

The present invention relates to a bone conduction speaker and its compound vibration device. The compound vibration device comprises a vibration conductive plate and a vibration board, the vibration conductive plate is set to be the first torus, where at least two first rods inside it converge to its center; the vibration board is set as the second torus, where at least two second rods inside it converge to its center. The vibration conductive plate is fixed with the vibration board; the first torus is fixed on a magnetic system, and the second torus comprises a fixed voice coil, which is driven by the magnetic system. The bone conduction speaker in the present invention and its compound vibration device adopt the fixed vibration conductive plate and vibration board, making the technique simpler with a lower cost; because the two adjustable parts in the compound vibration device can adjust both low frequency and high frequency area, the frequency response obtained is flatter and the sound is broader.
US08891787B2

A POP noise suppressing circuit includes a blocking capacitor, an outputting element connected to the blocking capacitor, a current generating unit, a charging unit connected to the current generating unit, a discharging unit connected to the current generating unit, a switching unit connected to the charging unit and the discharging unit and a power amplifying unit connected between the switching unit and the blocking capacitor. The current generating unit provides two slowly increasing currents respectively to the charging unit and the discharging unit. The switching unit is for switching between the charging unit and the discharging unit. The charging unit forms a charging current. The discharging unit forms a discharging current. The voltage of the blocking capacitor increases smoothly in a process of powering on and decreases smoothly in a process of powering off. A POP noise suppressing method is also provided.
US08891783B2

A directional sound system is disclosed. The directional sound system (400) comprises a plurality of equalization stages (404, 406) configured to equalize an input signal; and a transducer stage (412) configured to transmit the equalized input signal; wherein the plurality of equalization stages (404, 406) comprises a first equalization stage (404) configured to employ an approximated model of the transducer stage (412) and a second equalization stage (406) configured to compensate for differences between the approximated model of the transducer stage (412) and an actual model of the transducer stage (412).
US08891779B2

There is provided an in-ear earphone comprising a housing having at least one electroacoustic transducer, a control unit which outputs a test signal to the electroacoustic reproduction transducer for reproduction, and a tightness measuring unit for measuring a parameter representative of the tightness of a fit of the earphone in an ear canal. The control unit is adapted to output a second audio signal as confirmation of a tight fit of the earphone to the electroacoustic reproduction transducer for reproduction.
US08891778B2

A method for enhancing speech includes extracting a center channel of an audio signal, flattening the spectrum of the center channel, and mixing the flattened speech channel with the audio signal, thereby enhancing any speech in the audio signal. Also disclosed are a method for extracting a center channel of sound from an audio signal with multiple channels, a method for flattening the spectrum of an audio signal, and a method for detecting speech in an audio signal. Also disclosed is a speech enhancer that includes a center-channel extract, a spectral flattener, a speech-confidence generator, and a mixer for mixing the flattened speech channel with original audio signal proportionate to the confidence of having detected speech, thereby enhancing any speech in the audio signal.
US08891777B2

A method of binaural signal enhancement in a binaural hearing aid system, includes providing at least one microphone audio signal in response to sound, providing an estimate of one of a target signal and a noise signal based on the at least one microphone audio signal, phase shifting the estimate of one of the target signal and the noise signal, providing a phase shifted signal in which the phase shifted estimate of one of the target signal and the noise signal substantially substitutes the respective one of the target signal and the noise signal, transmitting a first signal representing the phase shifted signal towards a first eardrum of a user of the binaural hearing aid system, and transmitting a second signal representing the at least one microphone audio signal towards a second eardrum of the user. A system for performing the method is also described.
US08891776B2

The processing efficiency of a process used to decode frames of an enhanced AC-3 bit stream is improved by processing each audio block in a frame only once. Audio blocks of encoded data are decoded in block order rather than in channel order. Exemplary decoding processes for enhanced bit stream coding features such as adaptive hybrid transform processing and spectral extension are disclosed.
US08891771B2

Communication parameters can be appropriately set without deteriorating user operability even if roles are not determined in advance when automatically setting the communication parameters. The invention includes a communication method when apparatus C newly joins a network formed of apparatuses A and B. The method is characterized by including a step of causing apparatus B to determine whether it belongs to the network in response to press of a button, and to operate as a provider and notify apparatus A of it upon determining that it belongs to the network, and a step of causing apparatus A to transmit, upon receiving the notification, a search response signal containing information on apparatus B in response to a search signal from apparatus C.
US08891767B2

It has long been assumed in physics that for information to travel in empty space between two parties (the Sender and the Receiver), “physically real” entities have to travel between the parties. The recently discovered technique of interaction-free measurement—wherein the presence of an object is inferred without the object directly interacting with the interrogating light—has caused this basic assumption to be questioned. This technique has found application in quantum key distribution in the form of counterfactual quantum key distribution—albeit with limited efficiency. In the present invention, using the “chained” quantum Zeno effect, this logic is taken to its natural conclusion and, in the ideal limit, information can be transferred between the Sender and the Receiver without any physical particles whatsoever traveling between them.
US08891759B2

A cryptographic processing device includes a private key storage unit which stores a private key d for elliptic curve cryptography, a random number generation unit which generates a b-bit random value s, and a processing unit. A bit string D is the private key d or a bit string obtained by modifying the private key d in such a way that a value of a most significant bit is 0, and a relation u=mk+b holds true for a length u of the bit string D, a window size k, and a positive integer m. The processing unit determines a signed k-bit window value w[i] corresponding to each i where 0≦i≦(m−1), a signed b-bit random value s[i] corresponding to each i, and a correction value g. The processing unit determines the above values under a certain constraint condition, while determining each random value s[i] to be +s or −s.
US08891758B2

In block cipher based on generalized Feistel network, pseudorandomness and strong-pseudorandomness may be fulfilled efficiently. In encrypting a plaintext of kn-bit blocks, Feistel permutation is applied in terms of 2n bits as a unit, and then block-based permutation based on a binary de Bruijn graph with symmetrical type 2 branch coloring is applied. The Feistel permutation and the block-based permutation are grouped together to form a round. The round is repeatedly performed a preset number of times to output a ciphertext.
US08891755B2

The present disclosure discloses a telephone set and a method of controlling off-hook/on-hook state of a telephone set, and belongs to the field of communications devices. The telephone set includes a handle and a host, where the handle includes a first switch, and the host includes a second switch. According to the present disclosure, the first switch is added on the handle of the telephone set, the second switch is correspondingly added into the host of the telephone set, and a state of the first switch is used to control the second switch to send an off-hook/on-hook signal, so as to enable the telephone set to be off-hook/on-hook.
US08891751B2

A method and apparatus for providing call parking for a communication network are disclosed. The method first determines a disconnection of a first party's endpoint device, wherein said first party is either a calling party or a called party. The method then determines if said disconnection of said first party's endpoint device is due to hanging up. If said disconnection is not due to hanging up, the method parks a second party wherein said second party is either a calling party or a called party communicating with said first party prior to said disconnection. The method determines if said first party's device is back online and reconnects said first party and second party if said first party's device is back online.
US08891745B2

Targeted content is provided to at least one communication device responsive to a notification of a missed communication. Responsive to a notification of the missed communication, a selection of one of a plurality of different pricing options is received for a return communication. Targeted content is provided, in addition to content of the return communication, based on the selected pricing option.
US08891743B2

In one implementation, a method for implementing gain control enhancement for modulated communications includes establishing a communication session between a first endpoint and a second endpoint. The communication session involves forwarding a call signal using an initial gain level until a state transition is detected in the communication session at a digital signal processor. The detection may occur in a transmitting gateway associated with the first endpoint or a receiving gateway associated with the second endpoint. The state transition indicates modulated communications, which may include fax, modem, or text telephony. For example, communication session may be fax over IP (FoIP). The call signal is forwarded using an adjusted gain level based on the state transition. The adjusted gain level may be selected to avoid clipping in the call signal.
US08891741B2

A Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message adapted for use by a multi-media services provider system to form a multi-media communication path between at least a calling communication device adapted to operate using a first protocol (e.g. SIP) and at least a destination communication device adapted to operate using a second protocol, such as Integrated Services Digital Network User Part (ISUP). The SIP message includes a header region having a number of header fields, a first body region having Session Description Protocol (SDP) information related to the calling communication device and a second body region having ISUP related addressing information associated with the destination communication device.
US08891737B2

Systems, methods and computer program products for generating and displaying various user interfaces for configuring one or more call handling rules associated with managing virtual PBX services rendered at an extension are described. The user interfaces can be used to configure virtual PBX services for a single- or multi-extension environment. The virtual PBX services can provide, for example, a main number, and calls made to the main number can be managed according to one or more sets of call handling rules associated with the virtual PBX services and which can be configured through the user interfaces. The user interfaces can be web-based interfaces accessible through a browser, and can be accessed only after a user or administrator has setup and activated the virtual PBX services.
US08891735B2

An auto grid moving apparatus for an X ray imaging device is provided. The apparatus includes: a grid; a grid holder on which the grid is disposed; a fixing base; and a double sided timing belt geared with at least two timing wheels at the two ends of the timing belt on the inner side face of the timing belt and geared with the grid holder at the outer side face of the timing belt, wherein one of the timing wheels has a motor disposed thereon, the motor being configured to drive the timing wheel to move the timing belt and to drive the grid holder to move.
US08891731B2

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to patient imaging systems, and more specifically, to portable X-ray imaging systems. In a first embodiment, a patient imaging system is presented. The patient imaging system includes an X-ray source configured to emit X-rays and a wireless X-ray detector configured to detect the emitted X-rays and acquire patient image data. The patient imaging system also includes an acquisition control system configured to initialize and prepare the patient imaging system for X-ray emission and detection. The acquisition control system is also configured to receive the acquired patient image data from the X-ray detector, and to non-deterministically control the operation of the X-ray source and the wireless X-ray detector. The patient imaging system also includes one or more user interfaces configured to instruct the acquisition control system when a user is ready for the patient imaging system to initialize, to prepare for X-ray emission and detection, and to begin X-ray emission and detection.
US08891727B2

A radiation imaging apparatus is provided. The radiation imaging apparatus includes a radiation source configured to emit radiation from a first focal point, a plurality of radiation detecting elements disposed opposite to the radiation source and arranged in a channel direction, a plurality of collimator plates provided along the channel direction so as to separate the radiation detecting elements, the collimator plates including radiation absorption members at surfaces of at least one first collimator plate located on a first end side and at least one second collimator plate located on a second end side such that radiation shielding effects of the first and second collimator plates become substantially equivalent when the surfaces of the first and second collimator plates are located along a radial direction from a second focal point, and a data acquisition unit configured to acquire radiation projection data from the radiation detecting elements.
US08891725B2

A frequency divider is disclosed. The frequency divider includes a multi-modulus prescaler to perform a frequency division by a modulus M, wherein M is an integer between N and 2*N−1 and N is a power of 2. The frequency divider also includes a programmable counter to output the digital representation of M and an output clock signal. For the frequency divider, M equals N plus D minus D\N for each edge of the multi-modulus prescaler output clock CKpr wherein the counter samples the digital representation of D and D\N denotes an integer part of D divided by N, and M equals N for each subsequent edge of the prescaler output clock CKpr wherein the counter does not sample the digital representation of D.
US08891719B2

Embodiments of systems and methods for compressing plasma are disclosed in which plasma can be compressed by impact of a projectile on a magnetized plasma in a liquid metal cavity. The projectile can melt in the liquid metal cavity, and liquid metal may be recycled to form new projectiles.
US08891715B2

A pre-distortion circuit that may introduce a pre-distortion signal in a communication channel by determining a harmonic signal of the signal to be output. One or more image correction signals of the signal to be output may be determined. The one or more image correction signals may be complex conjugate signal variations of the signal to be output. The harmonic signal, the one or more image correction signals and the signal to be output may be combined into a combined output signal. The combined output signal may be transmitted to a digital-to-analog converter. The predistortion circuit may be implemented in a FPGA, an ASIC, a digital-to-analog converter, and/or a separate IC package.
US08891712B2

A transmitting apparatus includes a first circuit to which a base clock and a first clock condition are input, the first circuit outputting a first enable signal based on the base clock and the first clock condition; a second circuit to which the base clock and a second clock condition are input, the second circuit outputting a second enable signal based on the base clock and the second clock condition; a first frame processing circuit receiving a first frame input signal and the first enable signal to output a first frame output signal in synchronization with the first enable signal; and a second frame processing circuit receiving a second frame input signal and the second enable signal to output a second frame output signal in synchronization with the second enable signal.
US08891691B2

A data processing apparatus maps input symbols to be communicated onto a predetermined number of sub-carrier signals of an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (OFDM) symbol. The data processor includes an interleaver memory which reads-in the predetermined number of data symbols for mapping onto the OFDM sub-carrier signals. The interleaver memory reads-out the data symbols on to the OFDM sub-carriers to effect the mapping, the read-out being in a different order than the read-in, the order being determined from a set of addresses, with the effect that the data symbols are interleaved on to the sub-carrier signals. The set of addresses are generated from an address generator which comprises a linear feedback shift register and a permutation circuit.
US08891687B1

Navigation satellite receivers have a large number of channels, where phase discriminators and loop filter of a PLL operate in phase, with data bits and control of numerically controlled oscillator (NCO) carried out simultaneously on all channels. Since symbol boundaries for different satellites do not match, there is a variable time delay between the generation of control signals and NCO control time. This delay may be measured by counting a number of samples in the delay interval. A proposed system measures non-energy parameters of the BPSK signal carrier received in additive mixture with noise when a digital loop filter of PLL controls NCO with a constant or changing in time delay. A control unit controls bandwidth and a LF order by changing transfer coefficients based on analyzing estimated signal parameters and phase tracking error at a PD output.
US08891686B2

Methods for detecting and/or indicating the presence of valid data and threshold setting and data detection circuitry are disclosed. The threshold setting and data detection circuitry and related methods may be useful for fast and accurate reception of optical signals. The detection circuit generally comprises (i) a first circuit configured to regulate or control a DC offset of a differential input signal, and (ii) a second circuit coupled to the first circuit, the second circuit configured to indicate the presence of a data signal at the differential input signal when a voltage difference between true and complementary nodes of the differential input signal is above a predetermined threshold.
US08891685B2

In various embodiments, a reference voltage (Vref) generator for a single-ended receiver in a communication system is disclosed. The Vref generator in one example comprises a cascoded current source for providing a current, I, to a resistor, Rb, to produce the Vref voltage (I*Rb). Because the current source isolates Vref from a first of two power supplies, Vref will vary only with the second power supply coupled to Rb. As such, the Vref generator is useful in systems employing signaling referenced to that second supply but having decoupled first supplies. For example, in a communication system in which the second supply (e.g., Vssq) is common to both devices, but the first supply (Vddq) is not, the disclosed Vref generator produces a value for Vref that tracks Vssq but not the first supply.
US08891683B2

A broadcast receiver suitable for receiving broadcast signals transferred by use of signal format of IBOC system. The broadcast receiver comprises a receiving means that holds information related to channels that can be acquired by a digital signal decoding process. If information related to a channel is to be used and is held by the information holding means, then it is used.
US08891682B2

A mixer for the elimination of harmonic mixing in signal transmission is presented. The mixer incorporates a mixing unit and a modulation output unit. The mixing unit receives an input signal and a modulated signal, and outputs an output signal after signal mixing. The modulation output unit is for the generation of modulated signals, which are usually pulse-width modulated. The modulation output unit includes a delta sigma modulator and a digital domain code generator. The delta sigma modulator outputs the modulated signal responding to the received oscillation signal and digital domain code, the digital domain code generator generates the digital domain code in order to provide digital domain sine wave code for the use of the delta sigma modulator. The oscillation signal may be a signal of constant hi-frequency, or a signal that has a frequency larger or equal to that of the input signal by an integer factor.
US08891681B2

A transmitter comprises a baseband signal path, which is designed to provide a first baseband signal having an in-phase component and a quadrature component in a first mode of the transmitter and to provide a second baseband signal having an amplitude component and a phase component in a second mode of the transmitter; an oscillator circuit, which is designed to provide an oscillator signal, wherein the oscillator circuit is furthermore designed to provide the oscillator signal as an unmodulated signal in the first mode and to provide the oscillator signal as a modulated signal in the second mode, wherein a modulation of the oscillator signal in the second mode is based on the phase component of the second baseband signal; and a radio-frequency digital-to-analogue converter (RF-DAC), which is designed to receive the oscillator signal, the first baseband signal and the amplitude component of the second baseband signal, wherein the RF-DAC is furthermore designed to provide the vector-modulated RF output signal on the basis of the first baseband signal and the oscillator signal in the first mode and to provide the polar-modulated RF output signal on the basis of the amplitude component of the second baseband signal and the oscillator signal in the second mode.
US08891679B2

The disclosed polar modulation transmitter circuit is configured to generate an output signal having a transmission frequency that minimizes crosstalk effects between different transmission bands (e.g., Bluetooth, GSM, UMTS, etc.). In particular, a polar modulation transceiver circuit, having an amplitude modulated (AM) signal and a phase modulated (PM) signal, comprises a digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) configured to generate a DCO signal having a DCO frequency. The DCO signal is provided to one or more frequency dividers that are configured to selectively divide the DCO signal to generate various lower frequency signals, used to select a sampling rate for a DAC operating on the AM signal and an RF carrier signal frequency, which result in an output signal having a frequency that does not interfere with other RF systems on the same IC (e.g., that falls outside of the downlink frequency of other RF systems). Other systems and methods are also disclosed.
US08891675B2

This invention is a method of power amplifier digital pre-distortion which measures a current power level of the power amplifier, stores in a look up table entries consisting of a power level and a corresponding set of digital pre-distortion coefficients, selects a set of digital pre-distortion coefficients corresponding to the measured power level. If the measured current power level is near a power level index, the digital pre-distortion coefficients correspond to the power level index. If the measured current power level is greater than the maximum power level entry, the digital pre-distortion coefficients is of the maximum power level entry. If the measured current power level is less than the minimum power level entry, the digital pre-distortion is of the minimum power level entry. If the measured current power level is not near a power level index, the digital pre-distortion coefficients are an interpolation.
US08891668B2

In accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure, a method for estimating and correcting phase shift in a wireless communication device, may include converting a digital signal output by digital circuitry of the wireless communication device into a compensated digital signal based on a calculated phase error. The method may also include converting the compensated digital signal into a wireless communication signal. The method may additionally include calculating an estimated instantaneous reference phase of the digital signal output by the digital circuitry. The method may further include calculating an estimated transmit phase of the wireless communication signal. Moreover, the method may include calculating a phase error based on a difference between the estimated instantaneous reference phase and the estimated transmit phase of the wireless communication signal.
US08891656B2

A wireless communication method includes a mobile terminal for supporting precoding matrix feedback for multi-user and single-user multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) systems. The wireless communication method also includes obtaining, at the mobile terminal, channel state information comprising at least gain information and relative-phase information. Further, the method includes generating precoding matrices comprising bg, p1, p2, and p3 bit groups, wherein each of the precoding matrices are generated by quantization using at least the gain information and the relative-phase information between antenna elements. The method also includes selecting the best precoding matrix among the generated precoding matrices, and transmitting the bit sequence representing the selected precoding matrix to a base station.
US08891648B2

A system for transmitting and receiving Channel State Information (CSI) is provided, in which a terminal receives a pilot signal transmitted from a transmitter, the terminal estimates CSI of part of downlink channels based on the received pilot signal, the terminal superposes the CSI of part of downlink channels onto a uplink sounding signal orthogonally, and transmits them together; the transmitter obtains the CSI of the rest part of downlink channels by estimating the uplink sounding signal, the transmitter performs orthogonal de-multiplexing on the received signal to obtain the CSI of the part of downlink channels, the transmitter, by using the CSI of the two parts of downlink channels, pre-codes downlink data and transmits it to the terminal.
US08891641B2

In an orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) modulated wave transmitter apparatus, a symbol mapping circuit and a serial/parallel (S/P) converter generate an OFDM symbol signal from transmission data. An inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) circuit, a parallel/serial (P/S) converting and guard interval (GI) adding circuit, a timing adjusting circuit, a digital/analog (D/A) converter, a frequency converter, a local oscillator and an analog filter generate an OFDM modulated wave signal from the OFDM symbol signal. A power amplifier (PA) control circuit limits a band of the OFDM symbol signal and generates a PS control signal and a PA control signal. A PA designates a voltage supplied from a DC/DC converter as a PS voltage and amplifies and outputs the OFDM modulated wave signal based on the PA control signal.
US08891636B2

In a wireless communication method, a first wireless communication apparatus transmits through a first wireless resource to a second wireless communication apparatus a first signal generated from a second signal for use in processing performed by the second wireless communication apparatus and a third signal for use in error checking of the second signal. The second wireless communication apparatus detects a second wireless resource to be used in the processing on the basis of the first signal, and performs the processing by using the second signal and the detected second wireless resource. For the detection, a section of the first signal corresponding to the second wireless resource is scrambled, or the first signal is scrambled with a scrambling sequence corresponding to the second wireless resource, or the bit order in at least part of the first signal is changed in a manner corresponding to the second wireless resource.
US08891631B1

An apparatus and method for encoding video data and an apparatus and method for decoding video data are provided. The encoding method includes: splitting a current picture into at least one maximum coding unit; determining a coded depth to output an encoding result by encoding at least one split region of the at least one maximum coding unit according to operating mode of coding tool, respectively, based on a relationship among a depth of at least one coding unit of the at least one maximum coding unit, a coding tool, and an operating mode, wherein the at least one split region is generated by hierarchically splitting the at least one maximum coding unit according to depths; and outputting a bitstream including encoded video data of the coded depth, information regarding a coded depth of at least one maximum coding unit, information regarding an encoding mode, and information regarding the relationship.
US08891623B2

In one embodiment, a method for a moving picture coding system to derive at least one motion vector of a bi-predictive block in a current picture from a motion vector of a first block in a first picture includes selecting, by the moving picture coding system, a list 1 motion vector of the first block in the first picture as a motion vector for deriving list 0 and list 1 motion vectors of the bi-predictive block if the first block only has the list 1 motion vector, the first picture being permitted to be located temporally before the current picture and permitted to be located temporally after the current picture and deriving the list 0 and list 1 motion vectors of the bi-predictive block by applying a bit operation to the selected motion vector, the bit operation including 8 bits right shift.
US08891620B2

There is provided a picture coding device that performs intra prediction coding of a picture signal including a luma signal and a chroma signal in units of blocks and codes information relating to an intra prediction mode. When the intra prediction of a picture signal is made in units of coding blocks, in a case where a chroma format is 4:2:2, in a mode for setting a chroma intra prediction mode in accordance with the luma intra prediction mode, an intra prediction unit sets the chroma intra prediction mode based on the luma intra prediction mode and the chroma format and makes an intra prediction of the chroma signal.
US08891612B2

A method of encoding multi-view video using camera parameters and a method of decoding multi-view video using the camera parameters are provided. The method of encoding multi-view video using the camera parameters includes detecting the camera parameters from each of a plurality of video data input from a multi-view camera in predetermined video units, and adaptively encoding each of the plurality of the video data according to whether each video data has the camera parameters. Accordingly, it is possible to increase the efficiency of compressing video without degrading video quality.
US08891601B2

A transceiver in a communication system and a start-up method thereof are provided. The transceiver comprises an auto-negotiation circuit, a timing recovery circuit, an interference cancellation circuit and an equalizer. The auto-negotiation circuit performs an auto-negotiation procedure to determine whether the transceiver operates as a master or slave transceiver. If the transceiver operates as a slave transceiver, it executes a first stage and a second stage during the start-up process. In the first stage, the transceiver performs channel estimation to generate a channel estimation value, presets the parameters of the equalizer according to the channel estimation value, and trains the timing recovery circuit and the equalizer; in the second stage, the transceiver trains the interference cancellation circuit.
US08891598B1

A communication device operating in time division duplex (TDD) mode using multiple antennas is provided herein. The communication device uses receive channel estimation measurements to perform transmit beamforming and multiple input multiple output (MIMO) transmission, based on self-calibration of the various up/down paths via a method of transmission and reception between its own antennas, thus achieving reciprocity mapping between up and down links. Either user equipment (UE) or a base station may routinely perform this self-calibration to obtain the most current correction factor for the channel reciprocity to reflect the most current operating conditions present during TDD MIMO operation.
US08891595B1

An integrated circuit device is disclosed. The integrated circuit device includes a differential driver to generate a differential signal having true and complement signal components that exhibit a relative timing relationship. A transmission port provides an interface for delivering the differential signal to a transmission medium. A common mode detection circuit detects a common mode signal associated with the differential signal. Control circuitry generates a control signal based on the detected common mode signal. Timing circuitry adjusts the relative timing between the true and the complement signal components based on the control signal.
US08891591B2

A receiver circuit includes an estimation unit configured to estimate a noise power of a transmission channel, a calculation unit configured to calculate a decision variable based on the noise power, and a decision unit configured to make a ternary decision based on the decision variable.
US08891587B2

A communications node operable to communicate with another communications node over a communications channel having a plurality of frequency resources, the communications node includes data defining a division of the communications channel into S contiguous sub-bands each having N frequency resources, data defining an initial allocation of the frequency resources, a resource determination module operable to apply a frequency shift to the initially allocated frequency resources in accordance with a frequency hopping sequence to determine frequency resources to use for communicating information with the other communications node, the frequency shift corresponding to an integer multiple of the number N frequency resources in each sub-band, the integer multiple being an integer from the range zero to S, and a transceiver for communicating information with the other communications node using the determined frequency resource.
US08891566B2

A system and method for controllably chirping electromagnetic radiation from a radiation source includes an optical cavity arrangement. The optical cavity arrangement enables electromagnetic radiation to be produced with a substantially linear chirp rate and a configurable period. By selectively injecting electromagnetic radiation into the optical cavity, the electromagnetic radiation may be produced with a single resonant mode that is frequency shifted at the substantially linear chirp rate. Producing the electromagnetic radiation with a single resonant mode may increase the coherence length of the electromagnetic radiation, which may be advantageous when the electromagnetic radiation is implemented in various applications. For example, the electromagnetic radiation produced by the optical cavity arrangement may enhance a range, speed, accuracy, and/or other aspects of a laser radar system.
US08891555B2

A spatial multiplexing wireless transmission system is formed by a base station, and by a plurality of terminal stations that are provided with a plurality of antennas. The base station is provided with an information signal generating portion, a control signal generating portion, a transmission frame generating portion, a multiple beamforming portion, a transmission/reception switching portion, a reception signal processing portion, a propagation environment estimating portion, and an antenna information generating portion. At least one of the terminal stations is provided with a transmission/reception switching portion, a reception signal processing portion, a decoding portion, an antenna information extracting portion, an antenna information generating portion, an transmitting portion, a battery, a remaining battery detecting portion, a transmission request extracting portion, and a propagation environment estimating portion.
US08891554B2

A method for data transmission in an automation system from a second field device via a first field device to a receiver, wherein, at the first field device, a first data subframe is created, a second data frame is received from the second field device, and a first data frame including the first and the second data subframe is sent correctly-timed by Dynamic Frame Packing to the receiver. In the event the second data subframe is unable to be appended directly to the first data subframe at the latest after the correctly-timed sending of the first data subframe, the sending of the first data frame is shifted by a time value, where the time value is calculated so that immediately after the sending of the first data subframe, the second data subframe is able to be appended directly to the first data subframe.
US08891550B2

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to network services protocol implementation configuration and provide a method, system and computer program product for platform independent configuration of multiple network services protocol implementations. In one embodiment of the invention, a method for configuring a network services protocol implementation can include configuring a platform independent configuration for a network services protocol implementation. Thereafter, a target node can be selected to receive a deployment of the network services protocol implementation and the configured platform independent configuration can be transformed into a platform specific configuration for the target node. Finally, the transformed platform specific configuration can be deployed onto the target node.
US08891549B1

A network architecture enables the data flow of packets to be dynamically modified depending upon the operational needs of the packet being processed. This allows for separate processing of control and data path operations, as well as providing a mechanism for functions that require high computational support, such as encryption functions for example, to be offloaded onto processing devices that can support such functions. Other, less computationally intensive or lower priority functions can be forwarded to PEs having lower operation capacity. With such an arrangement, a dynamic mechanism is provided for customizing the data path of a network device to accommodate the computation needs of any application.
US08891545B2

Thin-client terminal systems allow computer systems to be shared by multiple computer users. With modern technology, the cost of implementing a thin-client terminal system can be very low. To improve thin-client terminal systems, a thin-client terminal system accepts user input data in a first serial interface format and transcodes the user input data into a second serial interface format for transmission to a server.
US08891541B2

A method implemented in a computer system for routing at least one interest packet in a named data network including a plurality of nodes is provided. The method comprises: mapping, with the computer system, each of a plurality of names of a respective plurality of data objects to one of a plurality of path labels, wherein each path label uniquely identifies a path between a source node and a destination node; and providing, with the computer system, an interest packet having both the name of a requested data object and one of the path labels, wherein the path label provided with the interest packet points to the requested data object at the destination node of the path label provided with the interest packet.
US08891540B2

Techniques are described for performing inline NAT functions in a forwarding element of a mobile gateway router or other device in which subscriber sessions of a mobile access network are distributed across a plurality of session management cards. The session management cards pre-allocate a public network address and port range for subscribers at the time a network connection is established in response to connection request prior to receiving any data traffic associated with the subscriber. NAT profiles are programmed into hardware forwarding elements of the mobile gateway router for inline NAT when routing subscriber traffic for the mobile access network.
US08891534B2

In one embodiment, a data aggregator discovery (DAD) message may be distributed by an associated data aggregator, the DAD message identifying the initiating data aggregator, and comprising a recorded route taken from the data aggregator to a receiving particular node as well as a total path cost for the particular node to reach a root node of the DAG through the recorded route and via the data aggregator. The receiving particular node determines a path cost increase (PCI) associated with use of the data aggregator based on the total path cost as compared to a DAG-based path cost for the particular node to reach the root node via the DAG. If the PCI is below a configured threshold, the particular node may redirect traffic to the data aggregator as source-routed traffic according to the recorded route. The traffic may then be aggregated by the data aggregator, accordingly.
US08891532B1

An RST reason code is conveyed in a predetermined field of the TCP or IP header for a TCP RST packet in order to indicate the reason for the RST. In this way, an enhanced TCP device that receives the RST packet can access the RST reason code in machine-readable form and, unlike prior art implementations in which ASCII text is carried in the TCP payload to provide a RST reason, without having to process the payload of the TCP packet.
US08891527B2

A method of packet processing includes receiving a packet at one of a plurality of network ports at a switch device, tagging the packet with a first identification, tagging the packet with a second identification, using a first table to determine a first set of output port identifications based at least in part on the first identification, using a second table to determine a second set of output port identifications based at least in part on the second identification, and performing a logical operation using the first set of output port identifications and the second set of output port identifications to identify one or more of a plurality of output ports at the switch device.
US08891509B2

In one embodiment, a proxy networking device for a router is provided in order to reduce the load of the CPU of the router. In an embodiment, the proxy networking device is configured to receive an advertisement from the router, to store information in the advertisement, and to respond to a query from a host node by transmitting the advertisement to the host node. The proxy networking device may be, for example, a switch.
US08891508B2

A system and method for arbitrating channel access in a wireless device including co-located network transceivers are disclosed herein. A wireless device includes a first wireless transceiver and a second wireless transceiver. The first transceiver is configured for operation with a first wireless network. The second transceiver is configured for operation with a second wireless network. The wireless device further includes logic that determines which of the first and second transceivers is enabled to transmit at a given time. The logic causes the first transceiver to transmit a notification signal indicating a time period during which the second transceiver of the wireless device will perform a first wireless transaction, and during which, based on receiving the notification signal, a different wireless device performs a second wireless transaction via the second wireless network without transmitting a notification signal.
US08891504B2

An arbitration mechanism provides quality of service guarantees for time-sensitive signals sharing a local area computer network with non-time-sensitive traffic. Device adapters are placed at all access points to an Ethernet network. The device adapters limit admission rates and control the timing of all packets entering the network. By doing so, collisions are eliminated for timesensitive traffic, thereby guaranteeing timely delivery. A common time reference is established for the device adapters. The time reference includes a frame with a plurality of phases. Each of the phases is assigned to a device adapter. Each device adapter is allowed to transmit packets of data onto the network only during the phase assigned thereto. The length of the phases may be modified in accordance with the number of packets to be transmitted by a particular device adapter. A master device adapter may be appointed to synchronize each of the device adapters.
US08891501B2

A method, an apparatus, and a system for routing user plane data in a mobile network are disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention, relate to the field of communications, and solve the problem that transmission delay of packet service data is relatively great in the prior art. The method for routing user plane data in the mobile network includes that: an access network bearer and a PDN gateway bearer of a user equipment are directly interconnected through a tunnel established between an access network and a PDN gateway; and data between a Home NodeB, a Home NodeB Gateway or a macro network access network and the PDN gateway is directly routed through the tunnel. The method, the apparatus, and the system can be applied to a mobile communication system.
US08891489B2

System(s) and method(s) are provided for handover of a mobile terminal in a wireless communication system. Handoff resolution relies on both a downlink channel quality indication between a serving base station and the mobile terminal, and uplink channel quality indications amongst the terminal and a measurement set of target base stations. To generate UL channel quality indicators, the mobile station conveys a narrowband or broadband, sounding reference signal, and serving and target base stations measure UL and DL performance metrics (e.g., RSRP, RSSI, or RSOT). In backward handover, UL channel state information from target cells is received at the serving base station through backhaul communication, and handoff is resolved based on both UL and DL quality reports. In forward handover, the set of UL quality reports are conveyed to the mobile station to determine a target cell for handoff.
US08891488B2

In one aspect, the teachings herein provide an enhanced inter-base-station interface and associated processing in which a base station receives a message from a neighboring base station that zero served PLMNs are available in a neighboring cell. In response to receiving that message, the base station removes the neighboring cell from its neighbor list, or otherwise marks the neighboring cell as unavailable, but advantageously does not discard any network performance data accumulated or otherwise generated for that neighboring cell. Correspondingly, should the base station receive a subsequent message indicating that one or more served PLMNs have become available in the neighboring cell, it restores the neighboring cell to its neighbor list and reinstates links or associations, as needed, to the retained network performance data.
US08891485B2

A mobile station, that includes a receiving means for receiving first PDCP PDU from a source base station and a receiving means for receiving second PDCP-PDU from a target base station, in which the second PDCP-PDU being created using sequence number and PDCP SDU that are transferred from the source base station to the target base station and a storage means for storing PDCP SDU conforming to the first PDCP PDU and the PDCP SDU conforming to the second PDCP PDU; and a reordering means for performing in order delivery of the stored PDCP SDUs based on the sequence numbers.
US08891483B2

In accordance with various aspects of the disclosure, systems and methods are illustrated for an apparatus comprising a modem component, a wireless communications component, at least one processor, and at least one tangible electronic memory storing data and numerous computer-executable modules to enable wireless hotspots with multiple network identifiers. Examples of at least some of the computer-executable modules includes, but is not limited to an input module, network identifier module, session management module, network management module, automatic location management module, authentication module, bandwidth negotiation module, billing interface module, and activity-based location module.
US08891475B2

Provided is a method for WLAN service performed by an access point (AP) in a WLAN system including the AP and a plurality of stations (STAs) each of which can associate with the AP, the method comprising: dividing frequency bandwidth of available channel into a plurality of frequency-selective subchannels; receiving, from at least some STAs (first STAs) among the plurality of STAs, CRQ (Contention Resolution reQuest) frame including a signature of the first STAs through at least some of the subchannels, the signature identifying the first STAs; identifying the first STAs using the received CRQ frame; estimating uplink channel quality of the first STAs using the received CRQ frame; allocating subchannels for each of the first STAs; and broadcasting result of subchannel allocation using CRP (Contention Resolution rePly) frame.
US08891473B2

Various embodiments for deduplicated data processing congestion control in a computing environment are provided. In one such embodiment, a congestion target setpoint is calculated using one of a proportional constant, an integral constant, and a derivative constant, wherein the congestion target setpoint is a virtual dimension setpoint. A single congestion metric is determined from a sampling of a plurality of combined deduplicated data processing congestion statistics in a number of active deduplicated data processes. A congestion limit is calculated from a comparison of the single congestion metric to the congestion target setpoint, the congestion limit being a manipulated variable. The congestion limit is compared to the number of active deduplicated data processes. If the number of active deduplicated data processes are less than the congestion limit, a new deduplicated data process of the number of active deduplicated data processes is spawned.
US08891464B2

Devices, systems, and methods are presented for a wireless base station to assign dynamically a plurality of radio transceiver chains among a varying number of wireless channels. In this manner, the communication system including the wireless base station may transition between a range extension mode and an enhanced capacity mode. In the range extension mode, a system is configured for maximum communication range with Subscriber Stations that are relatively distant from the radio transceiver chains, although communication is still possible with nearby Subscriber Stations. In the enhanced capacity mode, the system is configured for maximum communication throughput with Subscriber Stations that are relatively near to the radio transceiver chains, whereas communication with relatively distant Subscriber Stations will be either terminated or at least non-optimized.
US08891453B2

A method for transmitting downlink data to a mobile terminal is disclosed. The mobile terminal receives a particular common H-RNTI (HS-DSCH Radio Network Identifier) via an HS-SCCH (High Speed-Shared Control Channel) associated with an HS-DSCH (High Speed-Downlink Shared Channel), recognizes whether a header of a MAC (Medium Access Control) PDU (Packet Data Unit) transmitted by the HS-DSCH includes a terminal-exclusive identifier, acquires the terminal-exclusive identifier, and processes the MAC PDU as its own if the acquired terminal-exclusive identifier is intended for the terminal itself.
US08891439B2

A method of enabling extension of a network service of a first domain to a remote customer site hosted by an Access Gateway (AG) in a Provider Ethernet domain. In the first domain, the remote customer site is represented as being hosted by a border gateway (BG) connected to the Provider Ethernet domain, such that subscriber packets associated with the network service are forwarded to or from the remote customer site via the BG. In the Provider Ethernet domain, a trunk connection is instantiated through the Provider Ethernet domain between the host AG and the BG. A trunk cross-connection function is installed in the host AG, for transferring subscriber packets associated with the network service between a respective attachment virtual circuit (AVC) through which the remote customer site is connected to the host AG and an extended AVC tunnelled through the trunk connection. A common service instance identifier (I-SID) is used to identify both the AVC between the host AG and the remote customer site and the extended AVC between the host AG and the BG.
US08891438B2

Embodiments of a packet-data network (PDN) and methods for RAN-agnostic multimedia content distribution are generally described herein. In some embodiments, the PDN may dynamically distribute IP packets of a single service flow to two or more RANs associated with two or more available radio links for subsequent transmission to a user terminal when each of the two or more available radio links meet the QoS requirements of the single service flow.
US08891437B2

A method and apparatus for processing a frequency band by a wireless communication device to locate communication channels comprises detecting potential communication channels of the band; selecting of a sample of these detected potential channels; performing a synchronization test on the channels of the sample; and rejecting the frequency band if all of the synchronization tests fail. The frequency band may be subdivided into a plurality of ranges and a sample of detected potential channels selected for each range. The strongest detected potential channels may be selected for the sample for each range.
US08891434B2

Embodiments provide methods, apparatuses, and systems for efficient control signaling over shared communication channels with wide dynamic range. Some embodiments includes a gateway configured to encode and to transmit multiple physical layer headers, including a first physical layer header and a second physical layer header. The first physical layer header may span a first length and represent a first modcode; the second physical layer header may span a second length and represent a second modcode. The second length may be longer than the first length. Embodiments may include multiple terminals in wireless communication with the gateway via satellite, including a first terminal configured to decode the first physical layer header and to determine the first modcode. Embodiments may include a second terminal configured to decode the second physical layer header and determine the second modcode.
US08891429B2

Disclosed are a method and apparatus for determining the number of idle state terminals that determines the number of terminals in an idle state and controls data transmission for a multicast or broadcast service (MBS), and a method of controlling data transmission. The method of determining the number of idle state terminals in the MBS according to the present invention includes: transmitting, by a transmitter, a base station signal for verifying the number of idle state terminals; determining whether a radio terminal signal transmitted from an idle state terminal using the base station signal is present, or a the number of radio terminal signal types; and determining the number of idle state terminals based on whether the radio terminal signal is present or the number of radio terminal signal types.
US08891424B2

A method and device for monitoring a paging message in Machine To Machine (M2M) communication are provided. A M2M device receives a segment of the paging message that includes an extension flag and a M2M extension flag. The extension flag indicates that the M2M device checks the M2M extension flag and the M2M extension flag indicates whether a remaining segment of the paging message exists.
US08891422B2

A communication system includes: a communication device having information provision unit for providing information on a communication state; and a communication terminal including information acquisition unit for acquiring the information on the communication state, and wireless LAN communication unit for operating either in a station (STA) mode for connecting with an access point or in an AP mode for operating as the access point (AP) based on the acquired information. The communication terminal connects with the access point in the case that the communication terminal operates in the STA mode, and the communication device connects with the communication terminal in the case that the communication terminal operates in the AP mode.
US08891419B2

The disclosure describes a system, method, device and server for establishing communication links in a network for a device. Communications may be carried from the device through an intermediary communication device to an access point in a wireless communication network. The method comprises: monitoring for a first trigger condition to seek the intermediary communication device, where the trigger condition is related to at least one of the communication device or the network; and upon detection of the first trigger condition identifying the intermediary communication device in the network, establishing a first connection between the communication device and the intermediary communication device and a second connection between the intermediary communication device and the access point to transmit communications from the communication device to the access point and transmitting a message from the communication device for the access device using the first connection and the second connection.
US08891415B2

A wireless communications system may include wireless communications devices configured to communicate with one another on a given channel via a time division based communications protocol. A communication initiation wireless communications device configured to transmit data in an initiator time slot of the given channel. A repeater wireless communications device configured to receive the transmitted data from the communications initiation wireless communications device in the initiator time slot and retransmit the data in a repeater time slot of the given channel. A receiver wireless communications device configured to determine a respective quality metric for data from each of the initiator time slot and the repeater time slot, and use data from the initiator time slot or the repeater time slot based upon the respective quality metrics thereof.
US08891409B2

A system, method and computer-readable medium for simulating intelligent network triggers in a network system are provided. A mobile terminal is configured with an intelligent network Simulator adapted to detect call events and originate simulated intelligent network triggers in response to the call events. Call progressions implemented according to the simulated intelligent network triggers may be managed or coordinated by at least one of a carrier-gateway server and an Enterprise-gateway server. Call progressions implemented by simulated intelligent network triggers may be specified according to Enterprise member policies or general Enterprise behaviors. Advantageously, if a carrier network does not support a trigger infrastructure that has capabilities of originating triggers and terminating triggers, or if a roaming agreement is not in place that allows transfer of triggers between carriers, the use of an intelligent network Simulator provides an alternative mechanism for providing IN service functionality without network support for intelligent network triggers.
US08891407B2

A cellular network device comprises a data network indicator and an automatic network reconfiguration module. A data network indicator provides an indication when data network connectivity associated with a cellular network does not meet performance or configuration criteria. An automatic network reconfiguration module automatically reconfigures network data connectivity in the event that an indication has been provided that data network connectivity does not meet performance or configuration criteria. A cellular network device comprises a data network indicator and a management channel. A data network indicator for providing an indication when data network connectivity associated with a cellular network does not meet performance or configuration criteria. A management channel for enabling automatic access in the event that an indication is received that data network connectivity does not meet performance or configuration criteria, wherein the management channel enables automatic access to the cellular network device for administrative maintenance or reporting.
US08891406B1

A system includes multiple edge devices configured to be operatively coupled to a switch fabric. The switch fabric and the multiple edge devices collectively define at least a portion of a core portion of a data center. An edge device from the multiple edge devices is configured to receive a physical address value included in a request from a source peripheral processing device disposed outside of the core portion of the data center. The physical address value represents a destination of a packet queued at the source peripheral processing device. The edge device is configured to send, in response to the request, a tunnel value representing a physical address space including the physical address value to the source peripheral processing device.
US08891405B2

A clustered network may include a plurality of switch boxes where a master switch box may communicate and control hardware devices in remote switch boxes. The switch boxes in the network may each include a multiplexer, for example, a field programmable array (FPGA) that may process message requests related to hardware devices of a switch box. If the hardware device is in a remote switch box, then the FPGA of the master switch box may process the status data from the remote switch box so that a local processor in the master switch box can read the status data.
US08891394B2

The present invention relates to a method in which a terminal reports the results of quality measurement based on a specific reference cell from among a plurality of serving cells for the terminal in a mobile communication system using carrier aggregation. The present invention also relates to a terminal apparatus for the method. For this purpose, the terminal receives measurement configuration information from a network, performs a quality measurement in accordance with the received measurement configuration information, determines whether or not a report criterion based on a specific reference cell from among the plurality of cells for the terminal is met in accordance with the measurement result, and, if the report criterion based on the specific reference cell is met, sends a report message, including the measurement results and an indicator that indicates the specific reference cell, to the network.
US08891393B2

A telecommunications system is disclosed comprising a wireless switching center and plurality of base stations that are configured to transmit positioning reference signals. The base stations transmit the positioning reference signals in positioning subframe time intervals. Meanwhile, the base stations also transmit cell-specific reference signals continuously, including during the positioning subframe time intervals. In order to ensure that the wireless terminal measures those cell-specific reference signals during periods of lower interference, the base station imposes a measurement restriction on the wireless terminal, in regard to when it may measure a signal. As a result of utilizing the measurement restriction in this way, in combination with the improved interference characteristics of the positioning reference signals themselves, the ability of the wireless terminal to detect the cell-specific reference signals of more distant cells is improved. The improved signal measurements are then made available to functionalities such as location estimation.
US08891385B2

A network element in an Ethernet network comprises circuitry configured for providing a plurality of different functionalities. A first portion of the circuitry is configured for providing traffic generator functionality is provided. A second portion of the circuitry is configured for providing traffic analyzer functionality. A third portion of the circuitry is providing traffic loop-back functionality. The various portion of the circuitry (i.e., the circuitries) are operable for selectively enabling the network element to support a unidirectional test mode and a bi-directional test mode and for enabling the network element to be selectively operated as a local network element and a remote network element.
US08891381B2

A method may include forming a first path from a first node to a second node and transmitting data via the first path. The method also includes measuring a performance parameter associated with transmitting data via the first path and determining whether the measured performance parameter meet a required performance parameter. The method also includes sending a notification to a customer associated with the first path when the measured performance parameter does not meet the required performance parameter, where the notification indicates that the first path is unavailable.
US08891365B2

A device receives session information and subscription information, for a service request, from an originating evolved packet system (EPS) network, and forwards the session information and the subscription information to a destination policy control and charging rules function (PCRF) device associated with a destination EPS network. The device receives, from the destination PCRF device, a connection admission control (CAC) decision for the destination EPS network; determines, based on the CAC decision for the destination EPS network, a dual CAC decision for the originating EPS network and the destination EPS network; and forwards, to the destination PCRF device, the dual CAC decision.
US08891363B2

Various embodiments of methods and systems for pausing and shaping data flow while supporting both parameterized and prioritized Quality of Service are disclosed. In some embodiments, a system for pausing and shaping data flow comprises an input buffer, a first pause controller coupled to the input buffer and an output buffer for flow control messages. Various embodiments also include a hop-1 buffer coupled to the input buffer and a hop-2 buffer comprising a plurality of queues coupled to the hop-1 buffer. Additionally, in some embodiments, a second pause controller is coupled to the queues. The second pause controller selects a queue or queues that will cause a pause to be generated based on a predetermined condition. A two-hop process controller controls the data packet flow from the input buffer to the hop-1 buffer and from the hop-1 buffer to the hop-2 queues based on packet classification.
US08891356B2

A method and apparatus for wireless communication may provide a multi-link RLC sublayer in an RNC capable of allocating RLC PDUs among a plurality of MAC entities for use in a Multi-Point HSDPA network. Some aspects of the disclosure address issues relating to out-of-order delivery of the RLC PDUs to a UE, such as unnecessary retransmissions. That is, the disclosed multi-link RLC may be capable of distinguishing between sequence number gaps that are caused by physical layer transmission failures and those caused merely by skew.
US08891353B2

Methods of allocating orthogonal resources of a wireless communication network to a user equipment (UE) that uses transmit diversity are disclosed. In one or more embodiments, the UE is configured to transmit a reference symbol and a modulated symbol on multiple orthogonal resources on an antenna. The method includes: selecting, by the UE, a first and a second orthogonal resource, respectively, from a plurality of orthogonal resources according to the state of information bits to be communicated by the UE; and transmitting, by the UE, the reference and data symbols on the first and the second orthogonal resource, respectively, on one antenna. The first and the second resource are different for at least one of the states of the information bits. The first and the second resource are both in the same physical resource block.
US08891352B2

A data transmission method is disclosed in the present invention, where the method includes: mapping a data stream to be transmitted to an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing access, OFDMA, sub-carrier; scheduling the OFDMA sub-carrier; multiplexing the OFDMA sub-carrier to generate an OFDMA frame; and transmitting the OFDMA frame. A data transmission apparatus and a data receiving apparatus are also disclosed in the present invention. Through the present invention, a cross connection capability on the basis of the OFDMA sub-carrier is implemented, and in this way, not only all convergence services from a slave node to a master node are supported, but also a private line connection between two slave nodes is supported.
US08891342B2

An optical component, a hologram, and a photodetector are configured in an optical head device of an optical disc device such that a +1-order beam or a −1-order beam of diffracted light generated from light reflected from an information track in the intended information recording layer strikes the interior of the light-receiving surfaces of the tracking error detection light-receiving sections, a +1-order beam or a −1-order beam of diffracted light generated from light reflected from an information track in an information recording layer one layer deeper than the intended information recording layer strikes outside the light-receiving sections, and a +1-order beam or a −1-order beam of diffracted light that is generated from light reflected from an information track in an information recording layer one layer shallower than the intended information recording layer strikes outside the light-receiving sections.
US08891340B2

An apparatus and associated method is presently disclosed for a control circuitry capable of managing a heat source used in data storage applications. Various embodiments of the present invention are generally directed to a heat source directed at a data storage medium with a synchronization signal and a serial interface that are each selectively activated via a demultiplexed write gate signal. The selective activation allows for pulsed operation of the heat source resulting in reduced duty cycle and temperature during a write operation.
US08891327B2

A semiconductor memory apparatus includes: a plurality of memory blocks; and a plurality of temperature sensors disposed adjacent to the respective memory blocks and configured to output a plurality of preliminary temperature sensing signals whose voltage levels are controlled in response to temperature change. A preliminary temperature sensing signal indicating the highest temperature among the plurality of preliminary temperature sensing signals is detected and used as a temperature sensing signal.
US08891326B1

A method of writing to a magneto tunnel junction (MTJ) includes writing data to the MTJ, reading the written data using a first reference MTJ and reading the written data using a second reference MTJ. Based on the reading steps and the result of the comparing step, setting a select bit to select the proper reference for future reads.
US08891321B2

The present disclosure includes methods, devices, and systems for outputting data particular quantization of data from memory devices and systems. Outputting data particular quantization of data can include enabling a particular one of a plurality of different quantizations of data. The particular one of the plurality of quantizations of data can then be output.
US08891320B2

A semiconductor memory apparatus includes a program pulse generation block configured to generate write control signals and a program completion signal; a divisional program control circuit configured to generate a divisional programming enable signal according to a predetermined number of program division times, in response to the program completion signal; and a controller configured to generate the programming enable signal in response to the divisional programming enable signal.
US08891310B2

The disclosure relates to an electrically erasable and programmable memory comprising at least one word of memory cells with first and second control gate transistors in parallel to apply a control gate voltage to the memory cells of the word. The memory also comprises s first control circuit to supply a first control voltage to a control terminal of the first control gate transistor through a first current limiter, and a second control circuit to supply a second control voltage to a control terminal of the second control gate transistor through second current limiter.
US08891302B2

Electronic equipment according to the present disclosure includes a writable non-volatile memory, a plurality of volatile memories, and a sequencer. The writable non-volatile memory stores an operation parameter group required to operate the electronic equipment. Respective addresses are assigned to the plurality of volatile memories. The plurality of volatile memories includes a specified volatile memory. The specified volatile memory stores a part of the operation parameters among the operation parameter group. The specified volatile memory is accessible by inputting an Enable signal. The sequencer can read and write the non-volatile memory when the Enable signal allows an operation parameter stored in the volatile memory to be written to the non-volatile memory.
US08891290B2

A method and system for providing a magnetic junction residing on a substrate and usable in a magnetic device are described. The magnetic junction includes a first pinned layer, a first nonmagnetic spacer layer having a first thickness, a free layer, a second nonmagnetic spacer layer having a second thickness greater than the first thickness, and a second pinned layer. The first nonmagnetic spacer layer resides between the pinned layer and the free layer. The first pinned layer resides between the free layer and the substrate. The second nonmagnetic spacer layer is between the free layer and the second pinned layer. Further, the magnetic junction is configured such that the free layer is switchable between a plurality of stable magnetic states when a write current is passed through the magnetic junction.
US08891285B2

An object is to increase the retention characteristics of a memory device formed using a semiconductor with a wide bandgap, such as an oxide semiconductor. A transistor including a back gate (a back gate transistor) is inserted in series at one end of a bit line so that the back gate is constantly at a sufficiently negative potential. The minimum potential of the bit line is set higher than that of a word line. When power is turned off, the bit line is cut off by the back gate transistor, ensuring prevention of outflow of charge accumulated in the bit line. At this time, the potential of a source or a drain (bit line) of a cell transistor is sufficiently higher than that of a gate of the cell transistor (0 V), so that the cell transistor is put in a sufficiently off state; thus, data can be retained.
US08891279B2

A mechanism is provided in a data processing system for enhancing wiring structure for a cache supporting an auxiliary data output. The mechanism splits the data cache into a first data portion and a second data portion. The first data portion provides a first set of data elements and the second data portion provides a second set of data elements. The mechanism connects a first data path to provide the first set of data elements to a primary output and connects a second data path to provide the second set of data elements to the primary output. The mechanism feeds the first data path back into the second data path and feeds the second data path back into the first data path. The mechanism connects a secondary output to the second data path.
US08891276B2

A memory array includes wordlines, local bitlines, two-terminal memory elements, global bitlines, and local-to-global bitline pass gates and gain stages. The memory elements are formed between the wordlines and local bitlines. Each local bitline is selectively coupled to an associated global bitline, by way of an associated local-to-global bitline pass gate. During a read operation when a memory element of a local bitline is selected to be read, a local-to-global gain stage is configured to amplify a signal on or passing through the local bitline to an amplified signal on or along an associated global bitline. The amplified signal, which in one embodiment is dependent on the resistive state of the selected memory element, is used to rapidly determine the memory state stored by the selected memory element.
US08891261B2

A low input-current-harmonic three-phase three-level boost rectifier includes an input stage for receiving a three-phase input voltage in relation to a neutral node and an output stage adapted to couple to at least one load. The rectifier further includes one or more switching converter stages, each having a plurality of serially-connected switches coupled to the neutral node, one of the serially-connected switches operating with a fixed duty cycle while the other of the serially-connected switches operating with a variable duty cycle, the fixed duty cycle being a substantially 50% duty cycle and the variable duty cycle being less than or equal to a substantially 50% duty cycle. The serially-connected switches are coupled to clamping diodes and clamping capacitors. The rectifier further includes one or more controllers adapted to vary the switching frequency and/or duty cycle of the plurality of switches based on at least one of a condition of the at least one load or the input voltage and includes one or more decoupling stages, each including one or more inductive elements adapted to inductively decouple the output stage from at least one of the one or more switching converter stages.
US08891258B2

In one embodiment, a switch mode power supply comprising a switch and a control circuit is disclosed. The control circuit may comprise a multi-function pin configured to receive a first current sampling signal and a first voltage sampling signal. A first comparing signal may be provided by comparing the first voltage sampling signal with a first threshold signal when the switch is turned OFF, and a second comparing signal may be provided by comparing the first current sampling signal with a second threshold signal when the switch is turned ON. The control circuit may be configured to control the switch in accordance with the first comparing signal and the second comparing signal.
US08891253B2

A grid tied inverter connectable to an electricity grid, the grid tied inverter comprising a DC to DC current fed push-pull converter operable to generate a current waveform from a DC voltage source, the current waveform being substantially synchronized to the electricity grid, the push-pull converter comprising a transformer having a first side connectable to a battery and a second side connectable to the grid, wherein each of the two primary sides is connected to ground via a switching transistor; and respective voltage clamps are connected between the respective primary side of the transformer and the respective switching transistor, the voltage clamp commutating the current from the respective primary side of the transformer when the switching transistor is turned off.
US08891252B2

An offline power supply includes a power supply circuit including a primary-side circuit for connecting to a first power source, a secondary-side circuit for connecting to a load, and a transformer connecting the primary-side circuit and the secondary-side circuit. A switch operates to selectively connect the primary-side circuit to the first power source. A second power source is charged during operation of the power supply circuit. A controller powered by the second power source has at least one input, and an output to selectively operate the switch based on the at least one input.
US08891239B2

A slide-cover electronic device includes a main body, a moveable body and a supporting assembly. The moveable body is combined with the main body to move linearly and rotate with respect to the main body. The supporting assembly is configured as a supporting structure protruding out of a back side of the main body with an included angle formed between the main body and the moveable body. The supporting assembly includes a rotating member, a first sliding member and a second sliding member. The rotating member is rotatably connected with the back side to lean on the back side or form an included angle in between. The first sliding member is movably connected with the rotating member to move linearly with respect to the rotating member. The second sliding member is movably connected with the moveable body for being clasped with the first sliding member in a second status.
US08891237B2

A water-resistant cover placed on an electronic device in an attachable/removable manner, and for the water-resistant cover and the circumference of a water-resistant area of the electronic device, a sealing member is provided on the whole circumference in the circumference direction of the water-resistant area on one side, and a contact plane facing the sealing member is formed on the same plane on another side, and the water-resistant cover slides and put on the electronic device in the state in which the sealing member contacts the contact plane and pressed.
US08891235B2

A thermal interface unit includes a pedestal, a first contact surface below the pedestal to interface with a first die and a flat spring to enable the first contact surface to adapt to a variable height of a first die of a multi-chip package (MCP).
US08891231B2

Particular embodiments described herein provide for an electronic device, such as a notebook computer or laptop, that includes a circuit board coupled to a plurality of electronic components (which includes any type of components, elements, circuitry, etc.). The electronic device may also include a base portion and a lid portion coupled to the base portion at a hinge configured such that the base portion and the lid portion can rotate between an open configuration of the electronic device and a closed configuration of the electronic device. The lid portion can include at least one segment that is to raise at least a portion of the base portion in response to a rotation toward the open configuration (e.g., opening the lid portion to access a touchpad or a keyboard of the electronic device, or to see a display of the electronic device).
US08891228B2

An enclosure for electrical equipment is provided. The enclosure includes a frame, a first plate, and a first member coupled to the frame and configured to receive the first plate. The first plate is configured to receive a transformer, movable between a first position and a second position, at least partially supported by the first member when the first plate is in the first position, and offset from the first member when the first plate is in the second position.
US08891222B2

A capacitive transducer (1) comprises a polymer film (2) having a first surface and a second surface, a first electrically conductive layer (3) arranged on the first surface of the polymer film (2), and a second electrically conductive layer (3) arranged on the second surface of the polymer film (2). The polymer film (2) is at least partly made from a material having a molecular weight which is at least 21,000 g/mol. The inventors have surprisingly found that silicone polymer materials with high molecular weights, such as liquid silicone rubbers (LSR) or high temperature vulcanizing (HTV) elastomers, have high electrical breakdown strengths, even though technical data sheets from manufacturers state almost identical electrical breakdown strengths similar to that of RTV-2 elastomers. Using such materials in capacitive transducers allows high electrical fields to be applied to transducers without risking electrical breakdown, thereby increasing performance of transducers.
US08891216B2

A system that detects electrical disconnection of one connector from another connector includes a detection circuitry and a protection circuitry. The detection circuitry detects that a plug connector has been electrically disconnected from a corresponding receptacle connector. In response to the detection, the detection circuitry sends a signal to the protection circuitry. In response to the signal, the protection circuitry lowers or terminates power being supplied to a host device via one of the contacts of the plug connector. This helps to prevent shocks/shorts that may be caused by accidental disconnection of the plug connector.
US08891212B2

RC-trigger circuits for a semiconductor controlled rectifier (SCR), methods of providing electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection, and design structures for a RC-trigger circuit. The RC-trigger circuit is coupled to an input/output (I/O) signal pad by an isolation diode and is coupled to a power supply voltage by a power supply diode. Under normal operating conditions, the isolation diode is reverse biased, isolating the RC-trigger circuit from the input/output (I/O) pad, and the power supply diode is forward biased so that the RC-trigger circuit is supplied with power. The isolation diode may become forward biased during ESD events while the chip is unpowered, causing the RC-trigger circuit to trigger an SCR configured protect the signal pad from ESD into a conductive state. The power supply diode may become reverse biased during the ESD event, which isolates the power supply rail from the ESD voltage pulse.
US08891200B1

Apparatus and method for mitigating impedance changes in a microactuator conductive joint. In accordance with some embodiments, a microactuating element has a conductive input junction, the junction having dissimilar metals in contact with one another. The microactuating element is adapted to mechanically deform to displace a control object responsive to a micractuation control signal that is applied to the junction. A control circuit applies a bi-directional transition signal to the conductive input junction to reduce an increased impedance of the junction.
US08891196B2

A method of reading and writing a magnetic recording medium using a magnetic head that has an element portion, the magnetic recording medium including a base, a metal film formed on the base, a protective film formed on the metal film, and a lubricating film formed on the protective film. The method includes reading and writing the magnetic recording medium while positioning the element portion of the magnetic head in the lubricating film.
US08891184B2

The illustrative embodiment of the present invention is an apparatus and method that is capable of non-contact cooling of a hot body by optically-enhanced radiation. An apparatus in accordance with the illustrative embodiment includes a cold body and an optical system. The optical system couples the cold body to a hot body for the transmission of infrared radiation. Once optically coupled, heat will flow, at an enhanced rate, from the hot body to the cold body, as dictated by thermodynamics, thereby cooling the hot body. In some embodiment, the temperature of the cold body is held substantially constant.
US08891182B2

Exemplary embodiments may disclose a wide angle lenses including: a first lens which has a negative refractive power; a second lens which has a positive refractive power; a third lens which has the positive refractive power; a fourth lens which has the negative refractive power; and a fifth lens which has the positive refractive power, wherein the first lens, the second lens, the third lens, the fourth lens, and the fifth lens are in an order from an object to an image, wherein the wide angle lenses satisfy a condition of 0.2
US08891174B2

A zoom lens includes, in order from an enlargement side to a reduction side, a first lens unit having positive refractive power and not moving for zooming, a second lens unit having negative refractive power and moving for zooming, a stop, a zooming lens unit having positive refractive power and moving for zooming, and a final lens unit having positive refractive power and not moving for zooming. During zooming from a wide-angle end to a telephoto end, the second lens unit moves to the reduction side and the zooming lens unit moves to the enlargement side. The zooming lens unit includes a cemented lens. The cemented lens includes a negative lens and a positive lens cemented in order from the enlargement side. A cemented surface of the cemented lens has a convex shape on the enlargement side. The zoom lens satisfies predetermined conditions.
US08891172B2

The disclosure relates to an optical element configure to at least partial spatially resolve correction of a wavefront aberration of an optical system (e.g., a projection exposure apparatus for microlithography) to which optical radiation can be applied, as well as related systems and methods.
US08891171B2

The high sag thick lens is for use in an illumination apparatus, such as a solid state light source. The lens is made of a first lens part having an optical active surface and a series of elongated baffles, the baffles having a top portion, the top portions defining a line that follows the curvature of the optical active surface to create a second lens part of uniform thickness. A second lens part is fused to the first lens part to create the lens. The second lens part has an optical active surface and a series of elongated baffles, the baffles having a thickness comparable to the thickness of the corresponding optical active surfaces. The first and the second baffles are intertwined along the entire length of their lateral surfaces.
US08891165B2

A 3D filter includes a first area having a plurality of even numbered and odd numbered alternating lines, each line having an equal height, the even numbered lines formed with a first polarization characteristic, a first dummy line formed outside of the first area and adjacent to a first line of the 3D filter, the first dummy line having a height greater than a height of a single line, the odd numbered lines formed with a second polarization characteristic, a second dummy line formed outside of the first area and adjacent to a last line of the 3D filter, the second dummy line having a height greater than the height of a single line, the first dummy line formed with a polarization characteristic opposite to a polarization characteristic of a first line in the first area, and the second dummy line formed with a polarization characteristic opposite to a polarization characteristic of a last line in the first area.
US08891163B2

A reflective optical element and an EUV lithography appliance containing one such element are provided, the appliance displaying a low propensity to contamination. The reflective optical element has a protective layer system includes at least two layers. The optical characteristics of the protective layer system are between those of a spacer and an absorber, or correspond to those of a spacer. The selection of a material with the smallest possible imaginary part and a real part which is as close to 1 as possible in terms of the refractive index leads to a plateau-type reflectivity course according to the thickness of the protective layer system between two thicknesses d1 and d2. The thickness of the protective layer system is selected in such a way that it is less than d2.
US08891159B2

An optical semiconductor element includes: a grating base layer including a projection-recess structure disposed over a substrate; and a grating cover layer including a group III-V semiconductor having three or more elements, wherein the grating cover layer includes a first region which is disposed over recessed portions of the grating base layer and which has a compositional ratio of a group III-V semiconductor having a first refractive index, and a second region which is disposed over projecting portions of the grating base layer and which has a compositional ratio of a group III-V semiconductor having a second refractive index that is smaller than the first refractive index, wherein the grating base layer includes a group III-V semiconductor having a third refractive index that is smaller than the first refractive index.
US08891150B2

The invention provides flash imaging devices that include an optical change component that undergoes a change in response to an applied stimulus, a substrate and a stimulus element. Also provided are articles that include the subject devices, as well as methods of making and using the same.
US08891137B2

In a system in which a facsimile apparatus is connected to a LAN (Local Area Network) to which a plurality of computer terminals are connected, image data obtained by reading an original image by the scanner of the facsimile apparatus under the control of the operation unit of the facsimile apparatus is transmitted to a destination designated by the operation unit. In this operation, if a user ID is designated, transmitted image data and information (destination, transmission time/date, or the like) related to transmission is transferred to the LAN to notify the information to a user corresponding to the user ID. In this manner, data communication performed by a local operation of the facsimile apparatus and data communication performed by a remote designation from the computer terminal can be managed together.
US08891135B2

A method for detecting gloss non-uniformities on printed documents is provided. The method includes printing a test pattern using a print engine, the test pattern having gloss; directing one or more light beams, using an illuminator, onto the test pattern to produce at least generally specular reflectance; scanning the test pattern, using a linear array sensor, to obtain image data, the image data corresponding to the generally specular reflectance from the test pattern; and enhancing contrast of the image data to facilitate detection of image quality non-uniformities in the gloss in the test pattern.
US08891127B2

A printer includes a print head having a first print channel to print data on each page of a print medium according to a first color plane and a second print channel to print data on each page of the print medium according to the first color plane. The printer also includes a verification unit to generate a first channel identifier to identify data printed by the first print channel and a second print channel identifier to identify data printed by the second print channel.
US08891125B2

A system automatically determines whether to shrink a document to be printed by determining whether various parameters of the final page of the document satisfy certain criteria. If so, the system may automatically shrink the document by using a shrink-to-fit process and/or by automatically reducing the font size of some or all content in the document.
US08891123B2

The advantage of the invention is to improve the convenience when a preview image of processing target data is displayed in a communication terminal that does not have a preview generating function. A communication terminal has a processing target transmitting section that transmits processing target data to a server, a preview receiving section that receives preview image data of a page in which generation of preview image data is completed before generation of preview image data of all pages is completed with respect to preview image data of the processing target data generated by the server, and a preview displaying section that displays a preview image based on the received preview image data.
US08891120B2

An image processing device is connected to a management server that analyzes a data file in which information is described in a predetermined format and provides an administrator with the information. The image processing device includes a data file format management table that arranges and stores data, which is information of the image processing device, an input part that accepts from the user an instruction for changing the data in the predetermined format, a data file format management table update part that rearranges the data stored in the data file format management table based on the instruction, a data file generation part that generates a file by describing the data stored in the data file format management table after the rearrangement, and a communication part that transmits the file as the data file to the management server.
US08891112B2

An information processing apparatus for performing image processing for document data created by a document creation application to generate print data of each page and sending the generated print data to an image forming apparatus, the information processing apparatus including: a control section for specifying, based on document data, a region where drawing object data included in the document data exists as a drawing object region, and detecting blank space in each print page based on the specified drawing object region.
US08891110B2

A method and system for scheduling printing times for print jobs at least one printing device. The method and system include determining, at a processing device operably connected to a printing device, at least one non-peak time period; receiving, at a printer queue stored on a computer readable medium operably connected to a printing device, a first plurality of print jobs; storing, at the printer queue, a first subset of the plurality of print jobs until the non-peak time period; and printing, at the printing device, each of the stored print jobs during the non-peak time period.
US08891100B2

A clearing section includes a counter for measuring a period up to the reset of contents set by means of an operation panel to initial values. If a position discriminating section discriminates that the operation panel is at a first position, the clearing section starts measuring the period by means of the counter from the first entry made to the operation panel. When a count value reaches a predetermined value, the clearing section executes an automatic clear processing to reset the contents set by means of the operation panel to the initial values. On the other hand, the clearing section cancels the execution of the automatic clear processing if the position discriminating section discriminates that the operation panel is at a second position.
US08891098B2

Page-group data indicating many pages is analyzed to acquire the degree of reuse of page components as an analysis result. A set of page data pieces in the page-group data is acquired as a data block, the number of the pieces corresponding to a unit page number that is the number of pages to be processed collectively as a single task when a conversion processor in a system actually converts the page-group data into drawing data. A predetermined conversion processor converts the data block into drawing data to acquire a conversion processing time. A predicted value of a conversion processing time required for the conversion processor in the system to actually convert the page-group data is accurately obtained using the conversion processing time of the data block. An operator is notified of the analysis result and the predicted value and can easily ascertain the appropriateness of the page-group data.
US08891093B2

An image forming apparatus includes a maximum document number decision part that decides a number of media that are carried simultaneously on a medium carrying path at the time of double sided printing, a memory part that stores image data of a document, a print data editing part that generates page data to be printed on the media from the image data in the memory part, a print page generation monitoring part that monitors a page data number generated by the print data editing part, a print start timing decision part that decides a print start timing from the number of media and the page data number, a print mechanism controller that starts printing based on the print start timing determined by the print start timing decision part.
US08891084B2

The present disclosure relates to microfluidic devices adapted for facilitating cytometry analysis of particles flowing therethrough. In certain embodiments, the microfluidic devices allow light collection from multiple directions. In certain other embodiments, the microfluidic devices use spatial intensity modulation. In certain other embodiments, the microfluidic devices have magnetic field separators. In certain other embodiments, the microfluidic devices have the ability to stack. In certain other embodiments, the microfluidic devices have 3-D hydrodynamic focusing to align sperm cells. In certain other embodiments, the microfluidic devices have acoustic energy couplers. In certain other embodiments, the microfluidic devices have phase variation producing lenses. In certain other embodiments, the microfluidic devices have transmissive and reflective lenses. In certain other embodiments, the microfluidic devices have integrally-formed optics. In certain other embodiments, the microfluidic devices have non-integral geographically selective reagent delivery structures. In certain other embodiments, the microfluidic devices have optical waveguides incorporated into their flow channels. In certain other embodiments, the microfluidic devices have optical waveguides with reflective surfaces incorporated into their flow channels. In certain other embodiments, the microfluidic devices have virus detecting and sorting capabilities. In certain other embodiments, the microfluidic devices display a color change to indicate use or a result.
US08891082B2

The invention relates to a spectrometer comprising a hollow main optical body having at least one light channel, a light source, a diffraction grating having a grating central point, a light inlet opening, and a detector unit, which are arranged in such a way that the focal curve of the spectrometer satisfies the back focus equation. In order to create a spectrometer having sufficient spectral resolution from a low-price, light, and easy-to-process material, which spectrometer is able to operate in a large temperature interval even without thermostatic control, according to the invention the light inlet opening is arranged on a compensation body, the compensation body is arranged in the light channel and fastened to the main optical body between the light source and the diffraction grating, and the compensation body is dimensioned in such a way that the compensation body changes the distance between the light inlet opening and the grating central point when the main optical body thermally expands.
US08891079B2

Systems and methods for inspecting a wafer are provided. One system includes an illumination subsystem configured to illuminate the wafer; a collection subsystem configured to collect light scattered from the wafer and to preserve the polarization of the scattered light; an optical element configured to separate the scattered light collected in different segments of the collection numerical aperture of the collection subsystem, where the optical element is positioned at a Fourier plane or a conjugate of the Fourier plane of the collection subsystem; a polarizing element configured to separate the scattered light in one of the different segments into different portions of the scattered light based on polarization; and a detector configured to detect one of the different portions of the scattered light and to generate output responsive to the detected light, which is used to detect defects on the wafer.
US08891078B2

A solar simulator includes a light source having an optical axis linearly elongated, a feed means for feeding a long continuous film-shaped irradiation object, and a position regulating means for regulating the long continuous film-shaped irradiation object in position to surround the light source so that a center of the long continuous film-shaped irradiation object is coaxial with the optical axis. The long continuous film-shaped irradiation object regulated in position is irradiated with light from the light source.
US08891071B2

An apparatus comprising an encoded pressure signal propagating in a fluid flowing in a conduit. An optical fiber measurement element has a reflector on one end and is disposed around at least a portion of the conduit. A light source injects a second optical signal and a third optical signal propagating in first and second optical fibers, respectively. A delay section is disposed in the second optical fiber. The second optical signal and the third optical signal are directed into the optical fiber measurement element and are reflected back from the reflective end such that at least a portion of the reflected second and third optical signals propagate through the second and first optical fibers respectively to an optical detector. The optical detector senses an interference between the reflected optical signals and outputs a first signal related thereto.
US08891070B2

The invention relates to a flexible pipe system comprising an unbonded flexible pipe having a center axis and a sensor system at least partly integrated in the unbonded flexible pipe. The unbonded flexible pipe has a length and a longitudinal direction along the length and comprises an inner sealing sheath and at least a first sensor containing armoring layer. The first sensor containing armoring layer comprises a plurality of elongated armoring elements arranged around the internal sealing sheath. The sensor system comprises: a plurality of optical fiber sensor units, at least one light pump for the optical fiber sensor units, a data collecting unit, and a computing unit. The optical fiber sensor units are optically connected to the data collecting unit, and the data collecting unit is in data communication with the computing unit. At least one of the elongated armoring elements of the first sensor containing armoring layer is a sensor containing element. The sensor containing elements each having integrated therein at least a part of one or more of the optical fiber sensor units, the optical fiber sensor units of the first sensor containing armoring layer extending along a monitoring length section of the flexible pipe, and the optical fiber sensor units being arranged to measure a change in strain of the respective sensor containing elements. The invention further relates to a method of detecting a break in an elongated armoring element.
US08891068B2

A measuring apparatus for optically measuring a distance to a target object is described. The measuring apparatus has a transmitting device for emitting periodically modulated optical measuring radiation towards the target object, a receiving device for detecting optical measuring radiation which returns from the target object, and an evaluation device for receiving and evaluating detection signals from the receiving device. The measuring apparatus also has a calibration device for calibrating the measuring apparatus, wherein the calibration device is designed to calibrate the measuring apparatus on the basis of detection of uncorrelated radiation which does not correlate with the modulated measuring radiation emitted by the transmitting device. In this case, the uncorrelated radiation may be in the form of background radiation. Alternatively, uncorrelated measuring radiation can be emitted by the transmitting device and can be detected by the receiving device.
US08891066B2

In the method for geo-referencing of optical remote sensing images of an area of the earth's surface, the geo-referencing is corrected based on an SAR image which is geo-referenced.
US08891062B2

An illumination optical system which illuminates an illumination surface with light from a light source, includes a divider which divides light from the light source to generate a plurality of light beams, a first reflective integrator which uniformizes light intensity distributions of the plurality of light beams generated by the divider, a condenser which condenses the light beam from the first reflective integrator, a second reflective integrator which receives the light beam from the condenser and illuminates the illumination surface, and an aperture stop arranged between the second reflective integrator and the illumination surface, wherein the divider generates the plurality of light beams so that light beams each having a cross-sectional shape different from a cross-sectional shape of the light provided from the light source to the divider enter a plane on which the aperture stop is arranged.
US08891056B2

A wafer stage system moves a wafer stage that retains a wafer via a wafer holder along a wafer base. For example, the wafer holder is formed from a material whose density is not uniform, such that the portion that includes the reflecting surface that reflects a measuring beam for position measurement is a high-density portion, and the other portions are low-density portions. Or, the wafer stage is formed from a material whose density is not uniform, such that the portion that includes the surface that constitutes a gas bearing is a high-density portion, and the other portions are low-density portions.
US08891055B2

An exposure apparatus is provided with a nozzle member that has at least one of a supply outlet which supplies the liquid and a collection inlet which recovers the liquid. By immersing the nozzle member in cleaning liquid LK stored in container, the nozzle member is cleaned.
US08891045B2

A method of manufacturing a display substrate includes forming a first color filter on a base substrate in a first region, forming a second color filter on the base substrate in a second region, forming an organic layer on the base substrate, the first color filter and the second color filter, forming a third color filter on the organic layer in a third region and forming an overcoat layer on the organic layer and the third color filter.
US08891044B2

In a color display device, when using white (W) sub-pixels in addition to subpixels of red (R) and green (G) plus blue (B) without increasing a wiring line number, the per-color pixel number in a unit area decreases so that the image resolution is deteriorated. The area and number of subpixels are adjusted in accordance with the visual sensitivity or luminosity required. Practically, the area of red (R) and blue (B) subpixels which are relatively low in luminosity is set to be about two times greater than the area of green (G) and white (W) subpixels that are relatively high in luminosity while letting the number of green (G) and white (W) subpixels be twice the number of red (R) and blue (B) subpixels. A larger subpixel is configured from a plurality of unit subpixels. A smaller subpixel is formed of a one unit subpixel.
US08891039B2

A display module includes a display panel configured to display an image and a backlight. The backlight includes a light guide panel configured to guide light to the display panel, a light source element configured to supply light to the light guide panel, and a reflection sheet disposed over the light guide panel, wherein a chromaticity compensation layer is formed in the backlight unit. The chromaticity compensation layer formed in the backlight reduces yellowing.
US08891032B2

A multi-view display is arranged to display views directed to respective viewing zones, comprising pluralities of imaging units and color filters, each of said color filters is associated with one of said imaging units, the color filters being arranged according to a first pitch and in a first sequence of colors, and a barrier including a plurality of color portions comprising color filter material, the color portions being arranged according to a second pitch that is substantially equal to twice the first pitch and in a second sequence of colors that corresponds to the first sequence of colors when reversed in order, the barrier is positioned so that light exits the display panel after passing through one color portion and one color filter and the color portions of the barrier are configured to cooperate with the color filters to selectively direct said light to the first and second viewing zones.
US08891019B2

An image processing apparatus includes: a first layer summary data generation section; a second layer summary data generation section; a first search section; and a second search section.
US08891012B2

A method for converting an interlaced video signal to a non-interlaced video signal, comprising, for each pixel in each missing line of a video field in the interlaced video signal: deriving a correlation data set comprising correlation data for each of a plurality of possible interpolation schemes to be used in reconstructing the pixel; dividing each correlation data set into a plurality of correlation data zones; selecting an interpolation scheme from each correlation data zone; reconstructing the pixel using a blend of the selected interpolation schemes, wherein the blend for each pixel subsequent to a first pixel is determined based on the result of a comparison between the selected interpolation schemes and based on the blend used for a preceding pixel.
US08891007B2

A camera module with a vent in a housing thereof to allow for fluid communication between an interior of the camera module and an exterior of the camera module. A micro-porous membrane filter having a pore size smaller than 10 um is employed to cover the vent so as to reduce the flow of contaminants into the camera module.
US08891004B2

Disclosed are a method and apparatus for enabling a mobile terminal to drive a camera with low power. The mobile terminal applies power to an image sensor in response to a camera function execution request, initializes the image sensor, maintains the image sensor in a software standby state in which a streaming output of sensed data is interrupted, when a low power standby mode is set, and displays a null image on a display unit.
US08891000B2

A system and method of driving shutter by an object moving tendency. In this method, an image capture process is performed, wherein a sensor captures a first image of a moving object in a first resolution in the image capture process. Then, a prediction moving module analyzes the first image to acquire a prediction time for the moving object to reach a feature position. Finally, an automatic shutter control process is performed according to the prediction time, and a second image with a second resolution is captured, wherein the value of the second resolution is larger than that of the first resolution. This method automatically captures the second image of the moving object when situated at the feature position by using the prediction moving system to analyze the moving object.
US08890993B2

An imaging device of the present invention comprises a facial organ detection section for detecting facial organs within a face from an image that has been taken by an imaging section, an eye selection section for comparing sizes of eyes and selecting the largest eye, an eye size comparative determination section for comparatively determining the size of the eye with respect to a specified value, and an AF region setting section for setting an AF region in accordance with size and position of the selected eye when it has been determined that the size of the eye is larger than a specified value, and setting an AF region in accordance with position and size of a face to which the selected eye belongs when it has been determined that the size of the eye is smaller than a specified value.
US08890992B2

A mobile electronic device 10 includes a projector 34, a camera 36, and a processing unit 22. The projector 34 projects an image, and the camera 36 captures the image projected by the projector 34. Based on first image information for causing the projector 34 to project a predetermined image and second image information obtained by capturing the image projected by the projector 34 based on the first image information by the camera 36, the processing unit 22 determines whether the projector 34 projects the predetermined image. When determining that the projector 34 fails to project the predetermined image, the processing unit 22 suppresses output of the projector 34 for projecting the image.
US08890984B2

According to one embodiment, a solid-state imaging element includes a substrate, and a plurality of color filters. A plurality of photoelectric conversion units is provided in the substrate. The plurality of color filters is provided respectively for the plurality of photoelectric conversion units. The plurality of color filters is configured to selectively transmit light of a designated wavelength band. Each of the plurality of color filters includes a stacked structure unit and a periodic structure unit. A plurality of layers having different refractive indexes is stacked in the stacked structure unit. A plurality of components is provided in the periodic structure unit at different periods according to the designated wavelength band and an incident angle of the light.
US08890978B1

During an information-extraction technique, a user of the electronic device may be instructed by an application executed by an electronic device (such as a software application) to point an imaging sensor, which is integrated into the electronic device, toward a location on a document. For example, the user may be instructed to point a cellular-telephone camera toward a field on an invoice. After providing the instruction, the electronic device captures multiple images of the document by communicating a signal to the imaging device to acquire the images. Each of these images has an associated exposure setting with a different point of interest proximate to the location). Then, the electronic device stores the images and the points of interest. Furthermore, the electronic device analyzes the images to extract the information proximate to the location on the document.
US08890977B2

Methods for storing on a storage or memory medium, and retrieving, and displaying of multiple images in a registered manner, the images have been recorded concurrently. The images may comprise at least 2 video programs. A camera system for recording multiple concurrent images is also disclosed. Lenses and corresponding image sensors are calibrated to have calibrated and associated settings for recording multiple images that are substantially registered images. A registered image may be displayed on a single display. It may also be displayed on multiple displays. A camera for recording and displaying registered multiple images may be part of a mobile phone.
US08890975B2

An apparatus and a method which enable effective removal of flicker are provided. Under an illumination environment such as a fluorescent lamp with luminance variation, flicker that occurs in images shot with an X-Y address scanning type imaging device such as a CMOS is effectively removed or reduced. The integral value of the row-by-row signal intensity of an image to be corrected from which to remove flicker is calculated, and this integral value is used to detect flicker components contained in individual rows of an image frame. The detected flicker components represent data according to the actual flicker waveform of the illumination, and a correction process is executed using flicker correction coefficients formed by an anti-phase pattern of the flicker components. Effective flicker removal becomes possible through this process.
US08890972B2

An image capturing apparatus comprises an image sensor comprising an imaging pixel for receiving light through an opening with a center position coincident with the optical axis of a microlens, first and second focus detection pixels for receiving pupil-divided light through a first and second opening offset in first and second directions from the optical axis of a microlens, respectively; ROM for storing shading correction data; correction coefficient generation unit for generating shading correction coefficients respectively for the imaging pixel, and the first and second focus detection pixels from the shading correction data; and correction unit for subjecting a signal for the imaging pixel to shading correction with the use of the shading correction coefficient for the imaging pixel, and subjecting signals for the first and second focus detection pixels to shading correction with the use of the shading correction coefficients for the first and second focus detection pixels.
US08890969B2

A portable device that has first and second image sensors and a central processor. The central processor has a first sensor interface and a second sensor interface for receiving data from the from the first and second image sensors respectively such that the data is simultaneously processed in the multiple processing units. The central processor integrates the multiple processing units and the first and second sensor interfaces onto a single chip.
US08890965B2

A system and method for efficiently transferring data from an electronic camera device includes a camera device that is configured to capture image data and temporarily store the image data into an economical limited local buffer memory. A transfer manager from the camera device may then periodically arbitrate for access to a wireless communications network, and may transfer the captured image data from the buffer memory to a designated data destination, such as an image service on a distributed computer network like the Internet. A system user may then efficiently access the transferred image data from a dedicated storage location on the data destination by utilizing any appropriate data-access device, such as a personal computer device or a portable electronic device.
US08890961B2

An image pickup apparatus is disclosed which provides an appropriate inclination guide display in accordance with an aspect ratio of a picked-up image and the like. The image pickup apparatus includes an inclination detector which detects an inclination of the image pickup apparatus, a display device capable of superimposedly showing an inclination guide display corresponding to a detection output from the inclination detector, on a picked-up image, and an aspect ratio setter which sets the aspect ratio of a picked-up image. The apparatus includes a display controller which controls whether or not to show the inclination guide display on the display device on the basis of the aspect ratio set by the aspect ratio setter.
US08890951B2

A method for detecting a clear path of travel for a vehicle utilizing analysis of an image generated by a camera device located upon the vehicle includes monitoring the image, identifying through patch-based clear path detection analysis of the image a first patch within the image that indicates a not clear path, analyzing the first patch through patch smoothing, invalidating the first patch based upon the analyzing the first patch through patch smoothing, utilizing the invalidated first patch to define a clear path of travel for the vehicle, and utilizing the clear path of travel to navigate the vehicle.
US08890944B1

A firearms pulverizer system is disclosed which comprises a pulverizer unit having an inlet chute, a cutting chamber, and an outlet, a first image capturing device positioned above the inlet chute for capturing an image of an identification number associated with a firearm, and a second image capturing device positioned above the cutting chamber for recording destruction of the firearm inserted into the cutting chamber.
US08890943B2

The present disclosure relates to a three-dimensional image system. The present disclosure suggests a three dimensional image system comprising: a display device configured to suggest a left image and a right image alternately; a liquid crystal shutter having a liquid crystal layer and configured to switch between a λ/2 phase retardation state and a 0 phase retardation state; polarized glasses including a right glass window having a first polarization axis and a left glass window having a second polarization axis. According to the present disclosure, the left image and the right image can be exactly recognized by the left eye and the right eye, respectively, without any cross-talk problem.
US08890941B2

Systems and methods for viewing stereoscopic television are described. The methods generate stereoscopic views from 3D content; synchronize with external view ware (e.g., shuttered glasses) to include shutter information and viewing geometry; sequence 3D content for multiple viewers at multiple perspective views; and output to a display component for viewing.
US08890934B2

A stereoscopic image aligning apparatus (200) automatically aligns image pairs for stereoscopic viewing in a shorter amount of time than conventional apparatuses, which is applicable to image pairs captured by a single sensor camera or a variable baseline camera, without relying on camera parameters. The stereoscopic image aligning apparatus (200) includes: an image pair obtaining unit (205) obtaining an image pair including a left-eye image and a right-eye image corresponding to the left-eye image; a corresponding point detecting unit (252) detecting a corresponding point representing a set of a first point included in a first image that is one of the images of the image pair and a second point included in a second image that is the other of the images of the image pair and corresponding to the first point; a first matrix computing unit (254) computing a homography transformation matrix for transforming the first point such that a vertical parallax between the first and second points is smallest and an epipolar constraint is satisfied; a transforming unit (260) transforming the first image using the homography transformation matrix; and an output unit (210) outputting: a third image that is the transformed first image; and the second image.
US08890930B2

The present invention provides a multi-channel video communication system which includes a scalable video codec, a bit-stream truncating module, a network module and a multi-channel bit-stream truncating control module. The scalable video codec encodes a video source to generate a scalable original video bit-stream. The bit-stream truncating module is set between the scalable video codec and the network module, truncates the original video bit-stream to obtain a final video bit-stream and sends the final video bit-stream to the remote client device through the network module. The multi-channel bit-stream truncating control module is connected with the bit-stream truncating module, calculates a filter parameter for each bit-stream truncating unit in the bit-stream truncating module based on received device capabilities and network conditions of the remote client device. The present invention also provides a multi-channel video communication method in the above multi-channel video communication system.
US08890927B2

A visual telephony apparatus, system and method are provided. In one embodiment, the visual telephony method includes a method implemented using a processor, the method including the steps of: detecting at least one telephony attribute associated with a voice call directed from a voice communication device to a publicly switched telephone network number; identifying a visual content that has been preassociated with the at least one telephony attribute; initiating a request for the visual content in response to the detecting step; and receiving the visual content in response to the initiating step, the visual content being received at a display device.
US08890919B2

A display apparatus includes an illumination source that provides light across a surface area of a front panel of the display apparatus. A control system is configured to control the illumination source to increase an intensity of the light for a local region of a front panel of the display apparatus relative to an intensity of the light from the illumination source for at least an adjacent region of the front panel that is adjacent to the local region. The local region of the front panel corresponds to a location for a partial mirror at the front panel.
US08890918B2

A mobile terminal for selectively storing video call data and a video call data storing method therefore are provided. In the mobile terminal, a controller controls separation of video call data into audio and video data and storing of at least one of the audio and video data in a memory, and the memory stores at least one of the audio and video data under the control of the controller.
US08890909B2

Disclosed is a power control device, which generates PWM signals corresponding to obtained voltage signals, and which performs PWM control of power to be supplied to a load. The power control device is provided with a sampling section that performs sampling of the voltage signals, and a duty factor updating section, which updates the duty factor of the PWM signals on the basis of the sampling results. The sampling section is prevented from performing sampling during a masking period which is set as the on-period or the off-period of the PWM signals.
US08890907B2

A method of controlling an electro-optical device includes controlling a driving section such that, when an image is rewritten from a first image displayed in a first gradation to a second image including a background image portion to be displayed in the first gradation and a main image portion to be displayed in a second gradation, the same potential as a counter electrode is supplied to a pixel in the background image portion, and a potential corresponding to the second gradation is supplied to a pixel in the main image portion. The driving section is controlled such that at least one of the magnitude and application time of a voltage applied between the pixel electrode and the counter electrode is smaller in a pixel corresponding to an edge portion in the main image portion than in a pixel corresponding to a non-edge portion in the main image portion.
US08890905B2

A Point Spread Function (PSF) of a light source is controlled by the provision of a PSF modifier on a reflector at or near the light source. The modifier may be a gradient or spatially varying application of any of transmission holes, filters, and absorptive dots. The invention may be applied to displays (e.g., backlighting of displays), and arrangement of the modifiers may include patterns that vary according to artifacts occurring in the display. The PSF modifier may flatten, remove, or increase tails, or mitigate fringing colors or patterns. In backlight arrays, the PSF modifier may be similar for all centrally located light sources, and exhibit differences when applied to light sources near edges or other anomalies in the backlight or surrounding structure.
US08890897B2

An information processing device is disclosed. The information processing device includes an inclination detection unit configured to generate a first signal regarding inclination of the device. The information processing device also includes a display processing unit configured to, based on the first signal, generate a second signal to initiate a change in orientation of a display of content, and generate a third signal to cancel the change in orientation in response to receipt of a CANCEL command after initiation of the change.
US08890877B2

Updating firmware of a display device. The display device may include a display screen and a video interface for receiving video signals from a host system and providing the video signals for display on the display screen. The display device may include a memory that stores program instructions for controlling operation of the display device. The display device may include a serial bus interface (e.g., a USB interface), which may receive signals from a host computer for updating the program instructions in the memory. A serial bus to first protocol bridge may receive the serial bus signals from the serial bus interface and convert the serial bus signals to signals of the first protocol. A display controller may update the program instructions in the memory of the display in response to the signals of the first protocol.
US08890868B2

An apparatus generates three dimensional image data. Specifically, image data for a first image layer and image data for a second image layer is generated together with depth indication data for at least one of the first image layer and the second image layer. The two image layers may be used e.g. for dependent images, such as foreground and background images, or for independent images, such as initial and final images for a cross fade. A dependency indicator which is indicative of a dependency between the image layers is generated and included in the three dimensional data. A rendering device may receive the three dimensional data and generate images for a three dimensional representation based on the data. The three dimensional processing is adapted in dependence on the dependency indicator. For example, interlayer de-occlusion processing may only be performed if the dependency indicator is indicative of dependent image layers.
US08890867B2

A complicated CAD model may include thousands or tens of thousands of parts, each comprising dozens or hundreds of individual features. To reduce memory requirements and regeneration times, the present disclosure features systems and methods for dynamically loading portions of a computer-aided design model on demand. In one embodiment, a CAD application may progressively load portions of a CAD model as needed by a user for a particular design task. This reduces both memory and processing requirements, and creates the potential for a executing a CAD application with access to a complete CAD model on devices with limited resources, such as a laptop, a tablet computer, a smartphone, or any other system.
US08890863B1

A method and system for applying photo texture to geolocated 3D models operates within a 3D modeling system. The modeling system includes a modeling application operating on a workstation and a database of geotagged imagery. A 3D model created or edited within the 3D modeling system is geolocated such that every point in the 3D modeling space corresponds to a real world location. For a selected surface, the method and system search the database of imagery to identify in the database one or more images depicting the selected surface of the 3D model. The method and system identify the boundaries of the selected surface within the image by transforming two or more sets of coordinates from the 3D modeling space to a coordinate space corresponding to the image. The portion of the image corresponding to the selected surface is copied and mapped to the selected surface of the 3D model.
US08890861B2

In an electrophoretic display apparatus, a first substrate includes a plurality of pixels each including at least two sub-pixels which display colors different from each other, and a second substrate which faces the first substrate and includes a reference electrode corresponding to a boundary between adjacent sub-pixels in each pixel. An electrophoretic material is between the first substrate and the second substrate. A barrier wall is between the first substrate and the second substrate, and defines the pixels.
US08890858B2

Disclosed herein is a display apparatus, including, a pixel array section including a plurality of pixels disposed in rows and columns, and a number of power supply lines and scanning lines equal to the number of the rows of the pixels, each of the power supply lines being wired commonly to those of the pixels which are juxtaposed in a direction of a row.
US08890854B2

A method for calibrating a touch sensor panel including a plurality of touch electrodes is provided. The method includes determining, for each of the plurality of touch electrodes, a contribution in terms of capacitance to a total capacitance of the touch sensor panel; and allocating a fraction of a fixed period of time for measuring a capacitance of each of the plurality of electrodes based on the electrode's contribution to the total capacitance.
US08890853B2

A video display is provided with a planar piezoelectric transmitter to transmit ultrasound signals, and a display panel including a plurality of pixels. Each pixel has a data interface to accept a video signal with a variable voltage associated with a range of light intensity values, and to supply a touch signal with a variable voltage derived from a range of reflected ultrasound signal energies. Each pixel is made up of a light device to supply light with an intensity responsive to the video signal voltage, and a storage capacitor to maintain a video signal voltage between refresh cycles. A piezoelectric transducer accepts a reflected ultrasound signal energy and maintains a touch signal voltage between refresh cycles. In one aspect, the storage capacitor and the piezoelectric transducer are the same device. The light device may be a liquid crystal (LC) layer or a light emitting diode.
US08890852B2

A touch input system includes a substrate configured to support propagation of acoustic signals, a transducer in communication with the substrate and configured to transmit or receive the acoustic signals before or after the propagation, and an array of reflectors disposed on the substrate. Each reflector is oriented on an angle to redirect the acoustic signals along a path toward or away from the transducer. The transducer includes a stepped interface for the redirected acoustic signals. The stepped interface includes a set of interface elements distributed across a width of the acoustic signals and offset from one another along the path to compensate for the angle of the reflectors.
US08890849B2

Touch sensitivity is enabled using a touch system that comprises a panel configured to conduct signals, e.g. by TIR, from a plurality of incoupling points to a plurality of outcoupling points, thereby defining detection lines across a touch surface between pairs of incoupling and outcoupling points. A signal processor operates in a repeating sequence of iterations to: calculate change values for the detection lines representative of signal changes between the current and a previous iteration, and operate a reconstruction algorithm on the change values to determine a differential interaction pattern across the touch surface. The signal processor also operates to update a tracking pattern as a function of the differential interaction pattern, and generate a current offset pattern based on the tracking pattern. The offset pattern is generated to represent current touch interaction on the touch surface and is supplied for identification of touches on the surface portion.
US08890839B2

A capacitive proximity switch having a display panel including a translucent region. A first circuit board is translucent to light at least in the region of the translucent region of the display panel and supports capacitance-forming sensor layers. Light wells enclose the sensor layers on the side facing away from the observer, and protrude from the first circuit board to a second circuit board parallel to the first circuit board. Light sources are disposed within the light wells. A contact element leads from the first circuit board to the second circuit board. Optical fibers are applied on the first circuit board in the region of the translucent region. The first circuit board is encapsulated by an opaque plastic functional carrier. An opaque decorative layer covers the observer side of the optical fibers and the functional carrier, and includes characters and/or symbols in the region of the translucent region.
US08890836B2

A detection device includes a sensor unit in which a plurality of detection electrodes is positioned in a detection surface, a selection unit that selects one of the plurality of detection electrodes or a plurality of detection electrodes, an oscillation unit in which an oscillation frequency is determined by a capacitance generated in the one or plurality of detection electrodes selected by the selection unit, a conversion unit that outputs a signal corresponding to the frequency of a signal from the oscillation unit, and a switch unit that performs electrical connection/disconnection between a wiring for connecting the oscillation unit and the selection unit and a constant voltage line.
US08890835B2

An input apparatus includes: a transparent substrate with which an object is brought into contact; a rectangular single sheet electrode formed on the transparent substrate; first detection means which inputs a measurement signal to the rectangular single sheet electrode from one of two opposing perimeter portions along a first direction, and takes out the measurement signal from another one of the two opposing perimeter portions, to detect a contact point of the contacting object along the first direction; and second detection means which, after the contact point in the first direction is detected, inputs a measurement signal to the rectangular single sheet electrode from one of two opposing perimeter portions along a second direction, and takes out the measurement signal from another one of the two opposing perimeter portions, to detect the contact point along the second direction.
US08890830B2

A display device-integrated touch screen panel including an upper substrate and a lower substrate having a display region and a non-display region outside of the display region and including a first non-display region and a second non-display region at an outer side of the first non-display region, a plurality of sensing patterns on the upper substrate in the display region, a plurality of sensing lines located on the upper substrate in the non-display region, and coupled to the sensing patterns, a first guard ring pattern adjacent an edge of the first non-display region and surrounding the plurality of sensing lines, a sealing material between the upper substrate and the lower substrate in the non-display region, and a second guard ring pattern overlapping the sealing material in the non-display region, the second guard ring pattern being electrically coupled to the first guard ring pattern and including a transparent conductive material.
US08890826B2

A position detection sensor unit is provided, including: a sensor substrate on which conductors for detecting a position pointed to by a pointer are disposed; and a position pointing operation member having a first face, on which a position is to be pointed to by the pointer, and a second face on the opposite side of the first face on which the sensor substrate is fixed. A flexible cable is extended from the sensor substrate so as to be connected to a signal processing circuit for determining a position pointed to by the pointer. A portion of the flexible cable, corresponding to a predetermined length extending from an end edge of the position pointing operation member toward the interior of the position pointing operation member along the direction in which the flexible cable extends, is arranged to be movable away from the second face of the position pointing operation member.
US08890818B2

In accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention, a method is provided for controlling display operations is provided, comprising: detecting presence of an object in close proximity to an input surface, detecting at least one information item associated with the object, detecting distance information on the distance of the object to the input surface, and controlling selection of additional information associated with the at least one information item for display on the basis of the distance information.
US08890817B2

Centralized processing of touch information obtained by multiple touch sensing controllers connected to a touch sensing surface is provided. Each touch controller can obtain touch information of sense signals from different sense lines of the touch sensing surface and can store the touch information in a corresponding memory of the controller. The touch information of one or more of the touch sensing controllers can be transmitted as results data to a processor that processes all of the touch information. In some cases, prior to transfer of the results data, a determination of the validity of a sense channel can be made, and invalid channels can be excluded from the transfer.
US08890816B2

An input system for an electronic device including a main body includes an input device installed outside of the main body, comprising a plurality of input units denoted by a plurality of corresponding input symbols, a control device installed outside of the main body for pressing at least one of the plurality of input units for generating an indication signal, a camera for taking an image of the control device pressing the input unit, the image including the indication signal, and an image processing unit installed in the main body and coupled to the camera, for recognizing the pressed input unit according to a location of the indication signal in the image and generating input data corresponding to an input symbol denoting the pressed input unit.
US08890799B2

A display has a screen which incorporates a light modulator. The screen may be a front projection screen or a rear-projection screen. The screen is illuminated with light from a light source comprising an array of controllable light-emitters. The controllable-emitters and elements of the light modulator may be controlled to adjust the intensity of light emanating from corresponding areas on the screen. The display may provide a high dynamic range.
US08890798B2

Embodiments are provided herein which may be utilized to eliminate stray light emissions from an LED while ambient light is being sensed. As such, dynamic backlight control systems for use with an electronic display are presented including: an ambient light sensor for sensing ambient light intensity; a backlight for illuminating the electronic display; a switch for controlling the backlight, the switch configured to set a backlight condition to ON or OFF in response to a backlight-off frequency such that the ambient light sensor senses the ambient light intensity in the absence of the backlight; a logic module for determining a backlight level in response to the ambient light intensity; and a backlight control circuit for adjusting the backlight to the backlight level in response to the ambient light intensity.
US08890794B2

A method of compensating for pixel data includes extending a side portion and a corner portion of a real screen to set an virtual screen, setting dimming values of the virtual screen using dimming values of the real screen, calculating an amount of light of each of pixels on the real screen using the dimming values of the virtual screen mapped to a predetermined analysis area, and multiplying the amount of light of each pixel by a gain of each pixel to modulate pixel data.
US08890787B2

A liquid crystal display (LCD) apparatus includes: multiple differential amplifier stages each of which is operable to generate, according to a bias current and an input voltage, an output voltage having a magnitude and a slew rate that correspond respectively to the input voltage and a magnitude of the bias current, and serving as a data voltage of a corresponding pixel unit of an LCD panel; multiple current sources controllable to generate and provide a plurality of the bias currents to the differential amplifier stages, respectively; and a bias voltage generating unit connected electrically to the current sources in a current mirror configuration for generating an input bias current and controlling the current sources to generate the bias currents according to a latch pulse signal. The slew rate of the output voltage corresponds to a logic state of the input bias current.
US08890783B2

A liquid crystal display having photo-sensing input mechanism includes a first gate line for transmitting a first gate signal, a second gate line for transmitting a second gate signal, a data line for transmitting a data signal, a pixel unit for outputting an image signal according to the first gate signal and the data signal, a readout line for transmitting a readout signal, a photo-sensing input unit and a driving adjustment unit. The photo-sensing input unit is utilized for generating a sensing voltage according to a driving voltage and an incident light signal, and is further utilized for outputting the readout signal according to the sensing voltage and the first gate signal. The driving adjustment unit is employed to provide the driving voltage according to the second gate signal and the incident light signal.
US08890781B2

Objects are to provide a display device the power consumption of which is reduced, to provide a self-luminous display device the power consumption of which is reduced and which is capable of long-term use in a dark place. A circuit is formed using a thin film transistor in which a highly-purified oxide semiconductor is used and a pixel can keep a certain state (a state in which a video signal has been written). As a result, even in the case of displaying a still image, stable operation is easily performed. In addition, an operation interval of a driver circuit can be extended, which results in a reduction in power consumption of a display device. Moreover, a light-storing material is used in a pixel portion of a self-luminous display device to store light, whereby the display device can be used in a dark place for a long time.
US08890777B2

An organic light emitting display capable of compensating for threshold voltage variations of a driving transistor may include scan and data drivers, pixels, an initial power source unit, a switching unit, a compensating unit, and a timing controller. The scan and data drivers may control current that flows from a first to a second power source via an OLED. The switching unit may selectively couple the initial power source unit to the data driver. The compensating unit may store second data corresponding to a threshold voltage of a driving transistor and may transmit the stored second data to the data driver. The timing controller may transmit the externally supplied first data input to the data driver and may control the scan driver, the data driver, and the compensating unit. The data driver may generate and supply third data signals to the pixels using the first and the second data.
US08890775B2

An information display apparatus includes a fan face that is openly/closably bent like bellows, the fan face comprising a thin film flat display formed on a flexible and bendy thin film, the thin film flat display comprising a full color organic EL display capable of displaying a full color television image, a pair of main ribs joined to respective ends of the fan face, the fan face being disposed between the main ribs, a plurality of intermediate ribs interposed between the main ribs, the fan face being joined to the intermediate ribs, and a pivot for turnably fixing the main ribs and the intermediate ribs in a root portion. A television receiver circuit is disposed in one of the main ribs.
US08890769B2

According to an aspect, a display system includes a first display unit, a second display unit, an operating unit, and a control unit. The second display unit is provided with a first icon arranged thereon. The operating unit detects an operation. When an operation of moving the first icon to a first area on the second display unit is detected by the operating unit, the control unit displays a first image associated with the first icon on the first display unit and in a second area on the second display unit.
US08890765B1

An antenna having an active radome for beam steering and/or nulling in accordance with several embodiments can include at least one omni-directional radiating element, a radome surrounding the radiating element, and a network of conductive segments that can be placed between the radome and radiating element. A plurality of switches can interconnect the conductive segments to form the network. The switches can be FET, MOSFET and optical switches, and can be selectively closed when the element radiates or receives RF energy to selectively establish connectivity between the conductive segments, which can achieve a selective Yagi-like effect for the antenna. The conductive segments network can have any geometric profile when viewed in top plan, such as octagonal, square and the like, provided the segments surround the radiating element. A processor can be used to provide a control algorithm, which can contain non-transitory written directions that selectively activate and deactivate the switches.
US08890757B1

An antenna system for satellite communication, mounted on a moving platform, includes an antenna assembly, a control and display unit, and an antenna steering unit. The antenna assembly includes mounted on an antenna mast. The antenna steering unit includes a support housing, a rotary joint comprising a BNC connector, an electronic magnetic compass. an angular velocity-sensing gyroscope, a global positioning system receiver, a signal processor and a motor. The direction of the antenna's azimuth axis is determined based on the heading of the moving platform determined by the signal processor. In one embodiment, the director elements, the antenna mast and the azimuth mast are all articulated on flexible joints comprising a cable and spring mechanism allowing the director elements to fold toward the antenna mast and allowing the antenna assembly to fold toward the azimuth mast for stowing.
US08890745B2

A method of detecting an object includes receiving first reflected radio frequency (RF) signals from a region using an antenna and generating a first backscattering signature of the region from the first reflected RF signals. The method further includes receiving second reflected RF signals from the region subsequent to receiving the first reflected RF signals and generating at least one second backscattering signature of the region from the second reflected RF signals. The method further includes detecting a difference between the first backscattering signature and the second backscattering signature, and providing a warning indication in response to the difference between the first backscattering signature and the second backscattering signature.
US08890729B2

A time interleaving Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) comprises a plurality of ADCs; a timing generator that generates a dock signal for each of the plurality of ADCs such that edges of said clock signals trigger sampling of an input signal by the plurality of ADCs; and a timing adjustment circuit to receive and adjust the dock signals before the dock signals are received by the ADCs such that samplings of said input signal are spaced in time and occur at a rate of 1/N times a desired sampling rate; and a random number generator to pseudo randomly select which ADC samples the input signal; and a circuit for adjusting the bandwidth of the plurality of ADCs.
US08890724B2

The present disclosure discloses a method and device for identifying or converting data_coding, and a method and system for processing data_coding. By finding out a source data_coding adopted by information sent by a source account in communication protocols specified in the area to which it belongs and a target data_coding accepted and adopted by a target account based on preset data_coding information of a first account group and code conversion information of a second account group, the data_coding adopted by the sent information and the data_coding desired by the target account can be accurately determined, and a code conversion error is avoided. In addition, by pre-configuring code conversion information of each account and subsequently finding out the actually adopted data_coding based on finding mechanism, not only is the finding result accurate, but also the system is convenient to be extended and flexible to be configured.
US08890720B2

A light guide is provided for illuminating innumerable constructions, but which is ideally suited for illuminating the keys of a keyboard. The light guide includes a translucent planar plate having a top, a bottom and sides. Further, the light guide includes one or more cavities which project upwardly into the translucent plate from its bottom surface. The cavities are hollow or filled with a translucent material so that the translucent plate and the one or more cavities form translucent interfaces where the cavities interface with the plate. The light guide also includes a reflector which covers the plate bottom and cavity openings.
US08890702B2

Defibrillators, software and methods are provided, for transmitting inaudible audio information to one or more external personal sound devices. The audio information may encode an audible indication, which can thus be played by an external personal sound device to a user such as a rescuer.
US08890696B2

A fire detector includes a sensor (4) for, in use, detecting electromagnetic radiation emitted by a flame and generating an electronic signal corresponding to the detected electromagnetic radiation. The detector further includes a processing device (2) configured to select a portion of the electronic signal corresponding to a first time period and compare the selected signal portion with at least one parameter to determine an initial presence or absence of a flame, the processing device being further configured, upon determining the initial presence of the flame, to select a further portion of the electronic signal corresponding to a further time period and comparing the further selected signal portion with at least one parameter to determine a definite presence or absence of the flame.
US08890693B2

This invention relates to a method and apparatus for deactivating EAS markers. The device utilizes deactivating magnetic fields created by energizing electrical coils to deactivate electronic article surveillance markers. It consists of housing having an internal structure holding an electrical coil arrangement. The coil arrangement comprises two electrical coils that are arranged essentially coplanar, arranged side-by-side. A third electrical coil is arranged such that each of its windings wraps around both the first and said second electrical coils. Current flowing through the coils generates a composite deactivating magnetic field above the housing. This deactivating magnetic field allows deactivation of a tag swept in any orientation, and does not require the tag to come into physical contact with the deactivating device. Flush mounting conserves space, allowing for ease of merchandise movement over the counter. A distinctive sound indicates the presence and deactivation of the label.
US08890690B2

A system for protecting articles, especially displayed goods, from theft is typically configured to produce information about the article when a person is detected approaching the article or the article is moved but not taken. The system typically includes an alarm which may be sounded if the article is moved too far from the display position or under other conditions.
US08890689B2

Various embodiments of the invention may be directed to a security device comprising a housing, a rotatable assembly, a locking assembly, and a cable. The rotatable assembly may include a plurality of locking teeth, a spool, and an engagement portion configured to facilitate rotation the rotatable assembly. The locking assembly may include biasing elements configured to apply a biasing force so that the locking assembly and the rotatable assembly may be configured in a locked position. Further, the locking assembly may include magnetically attractive elements configured to counteract the biasing force when a specifically configured key is applied to the housing of the security device. The security device may further include a security element, an alarm, and other components.
US08890688B2

A cellular modem may give notice of changes in modes. The modem will change modes as a result of the breaking of a trip wire or the closing of contacts that are normally open or the opening of contacts that are normally closed or sensing motion or light, or sensing variations in resistance. One contact is provided to wake the unit from “sleep” and the other is provided to detect intrusion, motion, etc. Light detectors can detect light, such as when a closed container is opened. Closed contacts can be used in parallel to change any mode or open/closed contacts in parallel/series. The modem can be used to apprehend people breaking into or stealing luggage, equipment, boxes, etc. The present invention informs the user when the object being monitored is being moved or opened and can track the object's location.
US08890687B2

A method of detecting an abnormal environmental operating condition of an element embedded in an apparatus. The element is able to communicate with a telecommunications network. The method includes cyclically measuring at least one environmental operating parameter of the element, detecting that the element is operating for an excessive duration in at least one reference operating span and transmitting an alert message to the telecommunications network if the element has operated for an excessive duration in the reference operating span.
US08890678B2

A plug-and-play sensor peripheral component includes an electrically conductive physical connector; an electrical connector; a transformer; and an RF communication and data storage circuit. The electrical connector is electrically connected to the physical connector by a first conductive path. The transformer is electrically connected to the RF communication and data storage circuit. The transformer and the RF communication and data storage circuit are electrically isolated from the physical connector and the electrical connector. Electrically connecting the physical connector to the electrical connector by other than the first conductive path inductively couples the RF communication and data storage circuit to the first conductive path.
US08890675B2

An approach for site prioritization and then a review and prioritization of the alarms at the site. A feature may to first find the site most in need of attention and then check the alarms of that site. A rule algorithm may determine a prioritization of site according to primitive rules which can be customized and modified nearly at any time making site priority a dynamic determination. At the site, the alarms may be ordered by criticality.
US08890673B2

A system and method for detecting use of a wireless device is disclosed. In one embodiment, wireless device activity data is received from a wireless network. User account data is searched using selected parameters from the wireless device activity data to identify one or more subscribers that are or were using a wireless device. One or more subscriber vehicles or vehicle monitoring systems associated with each of the one or more subscribers are identified. Vehicle operation data from one or more vehicle monitoring systems is received. The vehicle operation data is used to determine whether any of the one or more subscriber vehicles were moving during use of an associated wireless device.
US08890672B2

A machine tooth for heavy equipment can be monitored by coupling an RFID tag to the heavy machine tooth and positioning an RFID reader to read the RFID tag. The RFID reader provides an indication that the heavy machine tooth is separated from the heavy machine. The heavy machine tooth is configured, for example, to be mounted on a bucket of a heavy machine.
US08890659B2

The method includes: a reader begins to count the tags, and waits for feedback of the tags; the tags are split into two subsets if the tags feedback the collision, the tags of one of the subsets feedback, the tags of the other subset begin to feedback when the tags of one of the subsets complete the count; when the collision occurs in the course of feedback, then the split continues until all the tags are completed the count; the tags of many branches are at least once split simultaneously when the tags of the subsets are split.
US08890657B2

A method of transmitting radiofrequency identification (RFID) interrogation signals is disclosed. The method comprises detecting a first movement of a user in a first direction, determining a command from the first movement, and transmitting a RFID interrogation signal in response to the command.
US08890648B2

A connecting element for a secondary battery is installed along a path of current flowing through a secondary battery to electrically connect components and includes a first metal plate having a first protrusion formed to protrude at one side end thereof from the center portion with respect to a direction along the thickness of the first metal plate, a second metal plate located spaced apart from the first metal plate with a gap being formed therebetween and having a second protrusion formed to protrude at one side end thereof from the center portion with respect to a direction along the thickness of the second metal plate and configured to face the first protrusion, and an alloy bridge made of alloy material having a melting point lower than those of the first metal plate and the second metal plate and formed to fill the gap.
US08890640B2

Exemplary embodiments relate to a drive for a switch disconnector having C or O switching capacity and a switching pin acting as switching contact. A spindle drive is driven by an electric motor and has a spindle nut. An actuating element, which is loaded by a compression spring and is capable of pivoting about a fixed pivot point, is acted upon by the spindle nut. The actuating element for its part interacts with an actuating apparatus which actuates the switching pin.
US08890634B2

A modulator generates a baseband digital signal from an information-bearing digital signal. The baseband signal has time-varying phase and amplitude defined by a sequence of complex data words, each having an in-phase (I) component and a quadrature (Q) component. A noise-shaping modulator generates a noise-shaped digital signal from the baseband digital signal such that quantization noise in the noise-shaping modulator is attenuated by a spectral null of its noise transfer function. The spectral null is selected by a noise-shaping parameter corresponding to a selected one of a plurality of output frequencies. A signal converter generates an analog signal conveying the information of the information-bearing digital signal on an analog carrier signal having the selected output frequency.
US08890632B2

This invention is directed to achieve the oscillator circuit with a shorter oscillation stabilizing period and a lower consumption of the electric current. The oscillator circuit 10 has the amplifier circuit (inverter circuit 11), and the clock signal CLK is outputted from the output terminal of the inverter circuit 11. The inverter circuit 11 is configured from the first inverter 12 and the second inverter 13. The inverter circuit 11 is connected to the control circuit 30 and the control signal Ctrl controls the driving capacity of the inverter circuit 11. For example, high level control signals Ctrl 1 (H) and Ctrl 2 (H) are supplied to the first and the second inverters 12, 13 for a certain period of time right after the oscillator circuit 10 starts its operation until the oscillation is stabilized, operating both inverters. Then, either the first inverter 12 or the second inverter 13 continues its operation and the other inverter stops the operation.
US08890629B2

An oscillator circuit with a comparator is provided, wherein the comparator has a supply input. A supply circuit supplies the comparator with a first current during a first section of an oscillator period of the oscillator circuit and with a second current greater than the first current during a second, different section of the oscillator period.
US08890626B2

One or more techniques and systems for a divider-less phase locked loop (PLL) and associated phase detector (PD) are provided herein. In some embodiments, a pulse phase detector (pulsePD) signal, a voltage controlled oscillator positive differential (VCOP) signal, and a voltage controlled oscillator negative differential (VCON) signal are received. An up signal and a down signal for a first charge pump (CP) and an up signal and a down signal for a second CP are generated based on the pulsePD signal, the VCOP signal, and the VCON signal. For example, CP signals are generated to control the first CP and the second CP, respectively. In some embodiments, CP signals are generated such that the CPs facilitate adjustment of a zero crossing phase of the VCON and VCOP signals with respect to the pulsePD signal. In this manner, a divider-less PLL is provided, thus mitigating PLL power consumption.
US08890613B2

A signal amplification circuit includes a differential amplifier configured to receive a first signal and a second signal and generate an output signal, a differential amplifier configured to receive first and second signals and generate an output signal; and a controller configured to control an amount of current flowing in the differential amplifier using the output signal.
US08890609B2

Systems and methods are disclosed for providing band-limited power amplifier linearization. In one embodiment, a system includes a power amplifier configured to amplify a power amplifier input signal to provide a power amplifier output signal and a digital predistortion system configured to compensate for up to a predefined maximum order of non-linearity of the power amplifier. The digital predistortion system includes a band-limited adaptation subsystem. As compared to conventional adaptation subsystems, the band-limited adaptation subsystem is significantly less complex and consumes less power.
US08890606B2

A voltage switching circuitry comprises a switching arrangement with a given number N of switches in series between a first terminal receiving a first voltage and a second terminal receiving a second voltage. The first voltage level is higher than the second voltage level, and N is at least equal to 2. A voltage-by-N divider, having N−1 output taps, is arranged to divide the first voltage by N to a scaled down version of the first voltage having a voltage level below voltage max ratings of the switches. The N−1 output taps of the divider are arranged to respectively output N−1 third voltages having respective levels staged below the first voltage level. N−1 max voltage generators generate N−1 fourth voltages, respectively equal to the maximum of the second voltage and of each of the N−1 third voltages. A switch control unit generates N control signals using the N−1 fourth voltages. These N control signals have respective voltage levels staged between the first voltage level and the second voltage level. In addition, each of the N control signals controls one of the switches of the switching arrangement, respectively.
US08890604B2

A bipolar output charge pump circuit 100 having a network of switching paths 110 for selectively connecting an input node (VV) and a reference node (VG) for connection to an input voltage, a first pair of output nodes (VP, VN) and a second pair of output nodes (VQ, VM), and two pairs of flying capacitor nodes (CF1A, CF1 B; CF2A, CF2B), and a controller for controlling the switching of the network of switching paths. The controller is operable to control the network of switching paths when in use with two flying capacitors (CF1, CF2) connected to the two pairs of flying capacitor nodes, to provide a first bipolar output voltage at the first pair of output nodes (VP, VN) and a second bipolar output voltage at the second pair of bipolar output nodes (VQ, VM).
US08890603B2

An output circuit includes a current source and a first MOS transistor coupled in series between a power supply terminal and an output terminal. The first MOS transistor includes a backgate coupled to a drain of the second MOS transistor. The second MOS transistor includes a source coupled to a source of a third MOS transistor. The second MOS transistor includes a source coupled to backgates of the second and third MOS transistors. The backgates of the second and third MOS transistors are in a floating condition.
US08890594B1

A system for synchronizing a functional reset between first and second clock domains that operate on first and second clock signals, respectively. The system includes first, second and third synchronizer flip-flops that operate on the second clock signal. The first synchronizer flip-flop receives a functional reset signal generated by the first clock domain at its reset terminal and generates a low output signal. The low output signal causes the second synchronizer flip-flop and subsequently the third synchronizer flip-flop to generate low output signals at positive edges of the second clock signal. The low output signal generated by the third synchronizer flip-flop is used to reset the second clock domain.
US08890590B1

A wideband frequency synthesizer and a frequency synthesizing method thereof are provided. The wideband frequency synthesizer includes a phase-locked loop unit, a first voltage-controlled oscillating unit and a first frequency mixer unit. The phase-locked loop unit receives a reference signal and a feedback signal and generates a first oscillating signal according to the reference signal and the feedback signal. The first voltage-controlled oscillating unit generates a second oscillating signal. The first frequency mixer is coupled to the phase-locked loop unit and the first voltage-controlled oscillating unit, receives the first oscillating signal and the second oscillating signal for mixing frequencies of the first oscillating signal and the second oscillating signal to generate an output signal and taking the output signal as the feedback signal for outputting to the phase-locked loop unit.
US08890584B2

Disclosed herein is a device that includes: a frequency division circuit that divides a frequency of a first clock signal to generate a second clock signal; a first logic circuit that receives a first chip select signal and the second clock signal to generate a second chip select signal; and a command generation circuit that is activated based on the second chip select signal, and generates a second command signal based on a first command signal.
US08890561B2

A semiconductor device includes a base film, a semiconductor chip mounted on the base film, and a plurality of leads formed on the base film, each of the leads including one end coupled to the semiconductor chip and another end being opposite to the one end. The another end of a first one of the leads and the another end of a second one of the leads are located at different positions respectively between the semiconductor chip and a cut line along which the base film is cut.
US08890559B2

[Problems] In a connector to which unbalanced-type lines are connected, providing a connector which prevents crosstalk in the connector and an interface apparatus including the connector.[Solutions] Comprising terminals to be connected with connectors, a plurality of boards having a plurality of transmission lines, one ends of the transmission lines being connected with the terminals, a housing for fixing the plurality of boards, and common mode choke coils provided on the boards and connected with balanced-type lines.
US08890555B2

An object is to provide a measuring method with high reproducibility in a bias-temperature stress test of a transistor in which an oxide semiconductor is used for a semiconductor layer. Provided is a measuring method of a transistor, which includes the steps of disposing a transistor in which an oxide semiconductor is used for a semiconductor layer in a measurement room having a light-blocking property, introducing dry air, nitrogen, or argon into the measurement room, and applying a predetermined voltage to a gate electrode of the transistor in the measurement room kept under an atmosphere where the dew point is greater than or equal to −110° C. and less than or equal to −60° C., whereby the amount of change in threshold voltage over time is measured.
US08890547B2

A capacitive sensor may include a transmit electrode and a receive electrode capacitively coupled with the transmit electrode. A capacitance sensing circuit senses a capacitance between the transmit and receive electrodes by applying a signal to the transmit electrode and rectifying a signal induced at the receive electrode. A compensation circuit reduces the effect of a mutual and parasitic capacitances of the transmit and receive electrode pair by adding a compensation signal to the rectified signal.
US08890541B2

An apparatus and method for calibrating a multi-component induction logging tool. The method may include orienting a Z-transmitter coil to be substantially orthogonal to at least one Z-receiver coil, positioning an X-transmitter coil disposed on the logging tool so that the X-transmitter coil is substantially parallel to a conducting surface; encompassing the Z-transmitter coil, the X-transmitter coil, and at least one Z-receiver coil of the logging tool with at least one conducting loop of a calibrator; and calibrating the logging tool using the calibrator. The apparatus may include a calibrator configured to receive the logging tool. The Z-transmitter coil and the Z-receiver coil may be located on separate subs that are detachable from one another.
US08890539B2

A method for testing a mask article includes steps of electrically connecting the mask article to an electrical sensor, applying a bias voltage to a plurality of testing sites of the mask article with a conductor, measuring at least one current distribution of the testing sites with the electrical sensor, and determining the quality of the mask article by taking the at least one current distribution into consideration.
US08890538B2

A system includes a sensor housing having a base portion, a lid portion, and a joining portion. The joining portion is configured to be wrapped around at least a portion of an electrical wire. The lid portion includes one end detachably coupled to a first end of the base portion and another end coupled to a second end of the base portion via the joining portion. A flexible coil sensor is disposed in the sensor housing; bonded substantially along the base portion and the joining portion and configured to generate a signal representative of a fault in the electrical wire. A processing device is disposed in the sensor housing and configured to detect and locate a fault in the electrical wire in response to the signal representative of the fault in the electrical wire generated by the flexible coil sensor.
US08890528B2

A RF power transmitter (100) includes an RF synthesizer (104) that generates an analog RF signal based on a digital description of the desired RF waveform and digital feedback signals and a power module (116) that amplifies the analog RF signal and provides the amplified analog RF signal (122) to a load (102).
US08890526B2

In a method and an apparatus for making a distinction in a magnetic resonance imaging water-fat image, three echoes are acquired without phase encoding as a reference scan, a reference water-fat image projection is calculated in the phase encoding direction using the reference scan, a complete water-fat image projection is calculated in the phase encoding direction according to a water image and a fat image obtained by a three-point Dixon method, a correlation between the reference water-fat image projection and the complete water-fat image projection is calculated to obtain at least two correlated values, and the maximum correlated value is acquired therefrom, so as to determine the type of said image calculated by using the three-point Dixon method.
US08890524B2

When generating an MR image using a multi-channel transmit coil arrangement, SAR is reduced by employing a number of different RF pulses in a single scan. Each RF pulse exhibits a different performance and/or accuracy, resulting in different RF pulse-specific SAR values. As a result, the RF pulses differ slightly in actual excitation pattern, B1 waveform and/or k-space trajectory, etc. The average SAR over a single scan is thus reduced compared to a fixed RF pulse, without compromising image quality.
US08890516B2

A tension measurement apparatus that can carry out tension measurement of superior reproducibility with high sensitivity even for a target object of a stranded wire structure is provided. A cylindrical magnetizer arranged to surround a portion of a long magnetic element that becomes the target object of measurement direct-current magnetizes the magnetic element in the longitudinal direction up to the range of approach to saturation magnetization. Using a Hall element (magnetic sensor) arranged in proximity to the magnetic element at the central region in the longitudinal direction of the magnetic domain, the spatial magnetic field intensity in the neighborhood of the surface of the magnetic element, greatly differing corresponding to stress variation, is detected. Based on the detection value, the tension acting on the magnetic element is measured. Accordingly, a measurement result of superior reproducibility with high sensitivity is obtained. The tension measurement apparatus is applicable even to a target object of a stranded wire structure.
US08890515B2

A device for detecting a rotational angle of a rotatable part, e.g., a steering wheel, includes at least one magnet, at least one sensor which detects the magnetic field of the magnet, at least one housing in which the sensor and/or the magnet is/are movably situated relative to one another, and at least one printed circuit board which is contacted in an electrically conductive manner by at least one connecting element of the sensor. The printed circuit board has at least one interface or a connector plug from which the output signal of the sensor or an output signal derived therefrom is relayed to an evaluation unit which ascertains the absolute position of the rotational angle as a function of the output signal.
US08890514B2

The disclosure relates to a magnetic position sensor including at least one permanent magnet. The disclosure also relates to a magnetic device for detecting a torque between a first shaft and a second shaft that are connected via a torsion bar. The aim of the disclosure is to provide a device for determining the multi-periodic absolute position of a magnetized unit. The subject of the disclosure is therefore a magnetic position sensor including at least the following: a magnetized unit, a first magnetosensitive probe and a second magnetosensitive probe. The second magnetosensitive probe is capable of measuring a number of complete rotations of the magnetic field in an absolute, incremental and reversible manner so as to determine a second datum relating to the position of the magnet, whether or not this second magnetosensitive probe is powered. The sensor further includes a module for calculating the absolute position of the magnet on the basis of the first and second data coming from the first and second probes respectively.
US08890503B2

A power supply has first and second reference voltage sources; a step-down voltage generator, including a transistor supplied with a first voltage, a resistor string between the transistor and a second voltage, and an op-amp which controls the transistor, and outputting the voltage at a first node among nodes in the resistor string; switches, coupled to the nodes; a comparison circuit, which compares the voltage at a common node the switches coupling in common with the second reference voltage source; and a calibration control circuit, which selects any switch according to a comparison result to calibrate. During calibration, the calibration control circuit couples a second node among the nodes to a non-inverting terminal of the op-amp, and the first reference voltage source to an inverting terminal of the op-amp, and after calibration, couples the common node to the non-inverting terminal, and the second reference voltage source to the inverting terminal.
US08890496B2

A drive controller for driving an inductive load connected to a node between first and second switches connected in series with a direct current voltage source includes a first diode, a series circuit of a second diode and an inductor, and a control circuit. The first diode is a parasitic diode of the first switch and connected in antiparallel with the first switch. The series circuit is connected in parallel with the first diode. The control circuit drives the inductor load by applying a control voltage to the first switch before applying a first ON-voltage to the second switch. The first ON-voltage turns ON the second switch. The control voltage is greater than zero and less than a second ON-voltage. The second ON-voltage turns ON the first switch. The control voltage causes the first switch to operate in weak inversion.
US08890494B2

A wide input voltage power supply circuit for a load includes a first regulation stage and a second regulation stage. The first regulation stage includes a linear regulator circuit configured to maintain a bus voltage within a predefined voltage range when an input voltage exceeds a predefined input level. A second regulation stage includes a buck converter circuit configured to regulate an average bus voltage to a predetermined load level. The second regulation stage includes an under voltage lockout configuration, with the under voltage lockout configured to set a minimum turn-on voltage for the load.
US08890490B2

A power distributor includes a large reservoir capacitor, a switch coupled between at least one power supply line and the large reservoir capacitor, and a controller configured to turn on or off the switch based on whether a circuit block connected to the power supply line is in operation or not.
US08890484B2

A battery state-of-charge (SOC) estimator uses a robust H∞ filter design by taking into account the battery parameter uncertainties, which is due to battery age, variation, and operating conditions such as temperature and SOC level. Each of the time-varying battery parameter values and their variation rates are bounded. By utilizing the parameter variation bounds and parameter variation rate bounds into the design process and minimizing the H∞ gain from the measured current signal to the estimation error of Voc, the battery SOC estimator can achieve enhanced robustness to the variations of battery age, variation, and operating conditions that include temperature and SOC level.
US08890478B2

The invention is based on a rechargeable battery charging case, in particular a cordless handheld power tool case, having at least one battery attachment device and a case body. It is proposed that the rechargeable battery charging case has an electrical energy output and a supply unit, which in at least one operating state is connected to the energy output and to the battery attachment device for supplying the energy output.
US08890475B1

An apparatus for charging batteries of an electric or hybrid vehicle includes a station. The station is located at a parking lot of a business. The station is preferably connected to a telephone line, CAT 5 or other cable, Internet or Wi-Fi to accommodate communication. A computer is connected to a remote server to receive updated vehicle charging parameters. A pivoting docking boom on the station cooperatively engages with a vehicle-charging boom located on the vehicle. Electrical contact pins on the vehicle-charging boom mate with sockets on the docking boom. A centerline pin grounds the vehicle to the station. The electrical contact pins permit up to three-phase charging capability and transmission of desired data. The station monitors the charging of the batteries and reports any problems. The station performs vehicle and payment confirmation without the driver exiting the vehicle. An alternate embodiment includes the station at a residence or garage.
US08890471B2

A wireless charging device includes a casing, a carrying member, and a first coil assembly. The casing includes a receiving space, an entrance side, and a supporting part. The carrying member includes a carrying plate, a first elastic structure, and a second elastic structure. The supporting part is disposed within the receiving space. The carrying member is located over the supporting part. The first coil assembly is fixed on the carrying plate. When the entrance side of the casing is fixed on a first surface of an object, the supporting part is presses against the first elastic structure and the second elastic structure, allowing the first elastic structure and the second elastic structure to be pushed by the first surface of the object and subject to deformation. Consequently, a balanced supporting force is generated to maintain a specified distance between the first coil assembly and the first surface of the object.
US08890470B2

In the field of wireless power, to enable interoperability between chargers and receivers, it is important that the two parts of the system (the charger and receiver) can communicate in a manner that allows operation. With the proliferation of different communication schemes, a multi-protocol system that can adapt and interoperate with different communication protocols allows maximum interoperability. Described herein are systems and methods for providing such multi-protocol operation and maximum interoperability. Also described herein are methods for use of magnets in or around magnetically sensitive devices such that the operation of such a device is not impaired. Applications in various devices and systems are described. In particular, applications for fastening mobile devices to their cases or other surfaces, and also alignment or attachment for power transfer or charging are described.
US08890463B2

A direct current bus management system can include a power management and distribution unit, having a source management section, a bus management section coupled to the source management section, a load management section coupled to the bus management section, a DC bus coupled to the power management and distribution unit, a plurality of DC sources coupled to the source management section and a plurality of loads coupled to the load management section, wherein the bus management section is configured to reconfigure excess DC power on the DC bus from the DC inputs from the plurality of DC sources based on a plurality of priorities, a plurality of feedback signals and a plurality of system parameters.
US08890452B2

A control device for an electrically driven door is provided that can enhance the sensitivity of detection of a door pinch state and that can prevent a passenger from being pressed when the door pinch state occurs. The control device includes a driving force instruction value producing unit that outputs a driving force instruction value of the electrically driven door, a state observing unit that estimates a mechanical resistant force to a door driving system, a reference model that determines a dynamic characteristic of the electrically driven door to the mechanical resistant force estimated by the state observing unit, a gain compensator that computes a control compensation value that makes an output of the reference model coincide with an actual speed of the electrically driven door; and an adder that adds the control compensation value computed by the gain compensator to the driving force instruction value.
US08890437B2

A system for automatically adjusting light intensity of a lighting fixture having multiple emitters, includes a power supply for supplying at least one current source to multiple emitters, at least one first emitter capable of emitting light of a first wavelength, at least one second emitter capable of emitting light of a second wavelength and a luminous intensity adjusting circuit for adjusting light intensity of the at least one first emitter. Particularly, the luminous intensity adjusting circuit stabilizes a first current distributed from a feeding current of the at least one current source and the multiple emitters collectively emit light at a predefined variable light-intensity.
US08890425B2

The present disclosure relates to blend dimming circuits and methods for driving light loads. In one embodiment, a method can include: converting an external sinusoidal AC power supply to a phase-missing DC voltage signal; detecting a conduction angle of the phase-missing DC voltage signal to generate a first control signal representing the conduction angle; generating an analog dimming signal based on the first control signal; generating, by a PWM dimming circuit, a PWM dimming signal based on the analog dimming signal and a light load feedback signal; regulating light load brightness by PWM dimming when the conduction angle is greater than a threshold angle; regulating the light load brightness by PWM and analog dimming when the conduction angle is less than the threshold angle; and enabling a power stage circuit when the first control signal is active to regulate the brightness of the light load.
US08890422B2

A power supply circuit having at least two conversion stages wherein the first conversion stage includes input terminals for connection to an ac or dc supply, an electronic converter with constant output current characteristics and output terminals for connection to at least one second conversion stages. Each second conversion stage includes input terminals to receive a substantially constant current input from a first conversion stage, current multiplier circuit and output terminals for connection to a load. The electric converter of the first conversion stage is a high frequency resonance converter having a series parallel resonant converter with an inductance connected in series with a capacitor. The output terminals for connection to the second conversion stage are connected across the capacitor and the inductance. Circuits are particularly suitable for lighting applications, for controlling the large number of LEDs in LED display panels or in backlighting for televisions and LCD displays.
US08890420B2

A lighting device includes a first array of LEDs, a temperature sensor, memory, and a system controller. The memory may include a first duty cycle offset and first curve information that defines a relationship between temperature and a duty cycle for driving at least one LED of the first array of LEDs. The system controller will determine a temperature based on information from the temperature sensor. Based on the temperature, the system controller will determine a first pre-calibrated duty cycle that corresponds to the temperature from the first curve information and then adjust the first pre-calibrated duty cycle with the first duty cycle offset to generate a first calibrated duty cycle. The LED is then driven with a first pulse width modulated signal having the first calibrated duty cycle.
US08890413B2

In an ignition circuit for igniting a plasma fed with alternating power in a gas discharge chamber, having two line sections for connection to an alternating power source and at least one line section for connection to a housing earth of the gas discharge chamber, at least one series connection of a non-linear element and an energy store is connected between the line sections for connection to an alternating power source, and the line section for connection to a housing earth of the gas discharge chamber is connected to a connection node between an energy store and a non-linear element.
US08890412B2

An electrode tile configuration is disclosed. The tile has contoured edges dimensioned to control any coupling effects. A plurality of tiles in a matrix configuration is also described.
US08890403B2

The present invention provides a technology that allows reducing the used amount of a Mn4+-activated fluoride complex phosphor without loss of luminous efficiency, in a white light-emitting device that is provided with the Mn4+-activated fluoride complex phosphor and an LED element that is an excitation source of the phosphor.The present invention provides a white light-emitting device comprises a blue LED element, as well as a yellow phosphor and/or a green phosphor and a red phosphor as phosphors that are excited by the blue LED element. The red phosphor contains a Mn4+-activated fluoride complex phosphor and a Eu2+-activated alkaline earth silicon nitride phosphor.
US08890397B2

A corona igniter (20) includes a metal shell (32) with a corona reducing lip (38) spaced from an insulator (26) and being free of sharp edges (40) to prevent arcing (42) in a rollover region and concentrate the electrical field at an electrode firing end (48). The corona reducing lip (38) includes lip outer surfaces (88) being round, convex, concave, or curving continuously with smooth transitions (90) therebetween. The corona reducing lip (38) includes lip outer surfaces (88) presenting spherical lip radii (r1) being at least 0.004 inches. The corona igniter (20) also includes shell inner surfaces (104) and insulator outer surfaces (75) facing one another being free of sharp edges (40).
US08890392B2

A piezoelectric actuator that includes a fixed electrode in a base substrate, a dielectric layer on the surface of the base substrate, a lower electrode that is at least partially separated from the base substrate, a piezoelectric layer on the surface of the lower electrode, and an upper electrode on the side of the surface of the piezoelectric layer. At least a portion of the upper electrode or the lower electrode serves as a movable electrode, which can be moved by distortion of the piezoelectric layer caused by application of a piezoelectric drive voltage.
US08890387B2

An armature core of a stator has an annular portion and a plurality of teeth extending radially from the annular portion. A segment coil is configured by electrically connecting a plurality of segment conductors together. The segment conductors extend axially through slots S, each of which is defined between each adjacent pair of the teeth. Each of the teeth has a width adjustment portion for decreasing a slot width in a direction perpendicular to a radial direction in the radially inward direction.
US08890372B2

Some embodiments include an electrical system. In many embodiments, the electrical system can include a power input. In the same or different embodiments, the electrical system can include at least one power output configured to be electrically coupled to at least one load. In the same or different embodiments, the electrical system can include a first user input device configured to provide a start up input. In the same or different embodiments, the electrical system can include a second user input device configured to provide a time select input. In the same or different embodiments, the electrical system can include an internal assembly. In many embodiments, the internal assembly can include a power switch module, a power conserve module, a power supply module, and a control module.
US08890371B2

There is provided an AC/DC two-way switch connected between an AC power source or a DC power source and a load to control a power supply to the load. The AC/DC two-way switch includes: a bi-directional semiconductor switch element having a transistor structure connected in series between a power source and the load; a rectifying unit connected in parallel between the first input terminal and a second input terminal; a power source unit for converting an output voltage from the rectifying unit into a stable voltage; and a controller for controlling an entire operation of the AC/DC two-way switch. The AC/DC two-way switch further includes a driving unit for turning on the bi-directional semiconductor switch element in response to a control signal.
US08890362B2

A semiconductor device includes a plurality of internal circuits, a plurality of low drop output regulators, and a power management unit. The plurality of low drop output regulators are configured to reduce a power source voltage applied from an outside and generate supply voltages which are to be supplied to the plurality of internal circuits. The power management unit is configured to change a voltage value of the power source voltage in accordance with a state of combination of voltage values of the plurality of supply voltages generated by the plurality of low drop output regulators.
US08890353B2

Hydroconveyors are described which utilize magnetic levitation or magnetic suspension to support a collection of conveyor elements. The hydroconveyors are located above or partially within a flowstream such as a river. Additional versions of the hydroconveyors are described which include velocity increasing waterways located upstream of an end of the hydroconveyor. The various hydroconveyors can be used in conjunction with electrical generators to provide electrical power.
US08890352B2

The invention provides a device for extracting energy from a liquid flow. The device has a housing with one or more entry ports through which liquid flow can enter the housing and multiple exit ports through which liquid flow can leave the housing. An air compression chamber is provided along with multiple valve members which are operable to regulate flow of the liquid through the multiple exit ports. The exit ports are arranged in an array inclined in the direction of liquid flow and the valve members are operable to close the exit ports downstream of the liquid flow consecutively as the liquid flow is incident on each exit port, which progressively diverts flow of the liquid towards the air compression chamber and compresses air in the air compression chamber, and to open the exit ports on a return flow of liquid from the air compression chamber.
US08890336B2

A cylindrical bonding structure and its method of manufacture. The cylindrical bonding structure is formed over the bonding pad of a silicon chip and the chip is flipped over to connect with a substrate board in the process of forming a flip-chip package. The cylindrical bonding structure mainly includes a conductive cylinder and a solder block. The conductive cylinder is formed over the bonding pad of the silicon chip and the solder block is attached to the upper end of the conductive cylinder. The solder block has a melting point lower than the conductive cylinder. The solder block can be configured into a cylindrical, spherical or hemispherical shape. To fabricate the cylindrical bonding structure, a patterned mask layer having a plurality of openings that correspond in position to the bonding pads on the wafer is formed over a silicon wafer. Conductive material is deposited into the openings to form conductive cylinders and finally a solder block is attached to the end of each conductive cylinder.
US08890333B2

Stacked semiconductor chips include a bonding-wire-free interconnection electrically connecting the semiconductor chips to each. An opening in an adhesion layer between the semiconductor chips may provide a path for the interconnection from a bonding pad on one semiconductor chip, along a sidewall insulation layer of the semiconductor chip, along a sidewall insulation layer of another semiconductor chip to a bonding pad on the other semiconductor chip.
US08890330B2

Provided are semiconductor packages and electronic systems including the same. A first memory chip may be stacked on a first portion of a substrate. A controller chip may be stacked on a second portion of the substrate, which is different from the first portion. At least one first bonding wire may directly connect the first memory chip with the controller chip. At least one second bonding wire may directly connect the first memory chip with the substrate, and may be electrically connected with the at least one first bonding wire.
US08890329B2

A semiconductor device entirely having a small height, which performs a fan-out operation for input/output signals and forms a short electrical path is provided. The semiconductor device includes a first semiconductor die having a first surface, a second surface opposed to the first surface, a third surface connecting the first and second surfaces to each other, a first bond pad disposed on the first surface, and a first through electrode passing between the first surface and second surface and electrically connected to the first bond pad. A first redistribution part is disposed under the second surface and includes a first redistribution layer electrically connected to the first through electrode. A second redistribution part is disposed over the first surface and includes a second redistribution layer electrically connected to the first bond pad.
US08890322B2

A semiconductor apparatus including a semiconductor substrate having a first principal surface on which an electric circuit is formed and a second principal surface opposed to the first principal surface, and a through hole that penetrates the first principal surface and the second principal surface, a multilayered wiring layer having a plurality of conductive wiring layers connected to the electric circuit and a plurality of inter-layer insulating layers having an insulating layer opening of a same size and at a same position as a through hole opening which is an opening of the first principal surface of the through hole, an electrode pad that covers the insulating layer opening connected to the conductive wiring layer and a lead-out wiring layer having a through wiring layer connected to the electrode pad formed inside the through hole and a connection wiring layer formed integral with the through wiring layer.
US08890318B2

A contact structure includes a permanent antireflection coating formed on a substrate having contact pads. A patterned dielectric layer is formed on the antireflective coating. The patterned dielectric layer and the permanent antireflective coating form openings. The openings correspond with locations of the contact pads. Contact structures are formed in the openings to make electrical contact with the contacts pads such that the patterned dielectric layer and the permanent antireflective coating each have a conductively filled region forming the contact structures.
US08890299B2

Embodiments of the invention include methods and structures for fabricating a semiconductor structure and, particularly, for improving the planarity of a bonded semiconductor structure comprising a processed semiconductor structure and a semiconductor structure.
US08890286B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide an integrated circuit system including a first active layer fabricated on a front side of a semiconductor die and a second pre-fabricated layer on a back side of the semiconductor die and having electrical components embodied therein, wherein the electrical components include at least one discrete passive component. The integrated circuit system also includes at least one electrical path coupling the first active layer and the second pre-fabricated layer.
US08890283B2

In one embodiment, a method of forming a plug includes providing a base layer, providing an intermediate oxide layer above an upper surface of the base layer, providing an upper layer above an upper surface of the intermediate oxide layer, etching a trench including a first trench portion extending through the upper layer, a second trench portion extending through the oxide layer, and a third trench portion extending into the base layer, depositing a first material portion within the third trench portion, depositing a second material portion within the second trench portion, and depositing a third material portion within the first trench portion.
US08890266B2

A magnetic sensor includes a plurality of groups, each group comprising a plurality of magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) devices having a plurality of conductors configured to couple the MTJ devices within one group in parallel and the groups in series enabling independent optimization of the material resistance area (RA) of the MTJ and setting total device resistance so that the total bridge resistance is not so high that Johnson noise becomes a signal limiting concern, and yet not so low that CMOS elements may diminish the read signal. Alternatively, the magnetic tunnel junction devices within each of at least two groups in series and the at least two groups in parallel resulting in the individual configuration of the electrical connection path and the magnetic reference direction of the reference layer, leading to independent optimization of both functions, and more freedom in device design and layout. The X and Y pitch of the sense elements are arranged such that the line segment that stabilizes, for example, the right side of one sense element; also stabilizes the left side of the adjacent sense element.
US08890259B2

An SCR apparatus includes an SCR structure and a first N injection region. The SCR structure includes a P+ injection region, a P well, an N well and a first N+ injection region, the first N injection region is located under an anode terminal of the P+ injection region of the SCR structure. A method for adjusting a sustaining voltage therefor is provided as well.
US08890258B2

A method of forming a semiconductor device includes forming a NMOS gate structure over a substrate. The method further includes forming an amorphized region in the substrate adjacent to the NMOS gate structure. The method also includes forming a lightly doped source/drain (LDD) region in the amorphized region. The method further includes depositing a stress film over the NMOS gate structure, performing an annealing process, and removing the stress film.
US08890257B2

Disclosed is a damascene method for forming a semiconductor structure and the resulting semiconductor structure having multiple fin-shaped channel regions with different widths. In the method, fin-shaped channel regions are etched using differently configured isolating caps as masks to define the different widths. For example, a wide width isolating cap can comprise a dielectric body positioned laterally between dielectric spacers and can be used as a mask to define a relatively wide width channel region; a medium width isolating cap can comprise a dielectric body alone and can be used as a mask to define a medium width channel region and/or a narrow width isolating cap can comprise a dielectric spacer alone and can be used as a mask to define a relatively narrow width channel region. These multiple fin-shaped channel regions with different widths can be incorporated into either multiple multi-gate field effect transistors (MUGFETs) or a single MUGFET.
US08890253B2

A semiconductor device includes: a substrate including a first epitaxial layer that has a first electrical type, and a second epitaxial layer; a transistor that includes a source region and an insulating spacer; an inner surrounding structure including an annular trench and an insulating spacer; an outer surrounding structure that has a second electrical type opposite to the first electrical type, and that is disposed adjacent to an upper surface of the second epitaxial layer to surround and contact the inner surrounding structure; and a conductive structure connecting to the source region, and the inner and outer surrounding structures.
US08890248B2

An electrostatic discharge (ESD) device for protecting an input/output terminal of a circuit, the device comprising a first transistor with an integrated silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) coupled between the input/output (I/O) terminal of the circuit and a node and a second transistor with an integrated silicon-controlled rectifier coupled between the node and a negative terminal of a supply voltage, wherein the silicon-controlled rectifier of the first transistor triggers in response to a negative ESD voltage and the silicon-controlled rectifier of the second transistor triggers in response to a positive ESD voltage.
US08890241B2

Disclosed is a semiconductor device comprising a semiconductor substrate including first, second and third surfaces, the second surface being placed above the first surface, the third surface having first and second edges connecting to the first and second surfaces, respectively; an isolation region including an insulator and formed on the first and third surfaces; an active region including the second surface and fenced with the insulator of the isolation region; and first and second semiconductor pillars each protruding upwardly from the second surface in the active region, wherein the first semiconductor pillar is thinner than the second semiconductor pillar.
US08890240B2

A MOS transistor comprises a substrate, a first region formed over the substrate, a second region grown from the first region, a third region of formed in the second region, a first drain/source region formed in the third region, a first gate electrode formed in a first trench, a second drain/source region formed in the second region and on an opposite side of the first trench from the first drain/source region and a second trench coupled between the second drain/source region and the second region, wherein the second trench is of a same depth as the first trench.
US08890230B2

A semiconductor device includes two floating gates, a control gate and a first dielectric layer. The floating gates are disposed on a semiconductor substrate. The control gate partially overlaps each of the floating gates, and a part of the control gate is disposed between the two floating gates. Furthermore, the first dielectric layer disposed between the two floating gates and the control gate has a fixed thickness.
US08890223B1

An integrated circuit includes isolation capacitors which include a silicon dioxide dielectric layer and a polymer dielectric layer over the layer of silicon dioxide. The silicon dioxide dielectric layer and the polymer dielectric layer extend across the integrated circuit. Top plates of the isolation capacitors have bond pads for wire bonds or bump bonds. Bottom plates of the isolation capacitors are connected to components of the integrated circuit. Other bond pads are connected to components in the integrated circuit through vias through the silicon dioxide dielectric layer and the polymer dielectric layer.
US08890222B2

A meander line resistor structure comprises a first resistor formed on a first active region, wherein the first resistor is formed by a plurality of first vias connected in series, a second resistor formed on a second active region, wherein the second resistor is formed by a plurality of second vias connected in series and a third resistor formed on the second active region, wherein the third resistor is formed by a plurality of third vias connected in series. The meander line resistor further comprises a first connector coupled between the first resistor and the second resistor.
US08890221B2

A backside illuminated image sensor with an array of image sensor pixels is provided. Each image pixel may include a photodiode and associated pixel circuits formed in a front surface of a semiconductor substrate. Silicon inner microlenses may be formed on a back surface of the semiconductor substrate. In particular, positive inner microlenses may be formed over the photodiodes, whereas negative inner microlenses may be formed over the associated pixel circuits. Buried light shielding structures may be formed over the negative inner microlenses to prevent pixel circuitry that is formed in the substrate between two neighboring photodiodes from being exposed to incoming light. The buried light shielding structures may be lined with absorptive antireflective coating material to prevent light from being reflected off the surface of the buried light shielding structures. Forming buried light shielding structures with antireflective coating material can reduce optical pixel crosstalk and enhance global shutter efficiency.
US08890218B2

A semiconductor device is disclosed. The semiconductor device includes: a substrate; a gate structure disposed on the substrate; a first spacer disposed on a sidewall of the gate structure; a second spacer disposed around the first spacer, wherein the second spacer comprises a L-shaped cap layer and a cap layer on the L-shaped cap layer; a source/drain disposed in the substrate adjacent to two sides of the second spacer; and a CESL disposed on the substrate to cover the gate structure, wherein at least part of the second spacer and the CESL comprise same chemical composition and/or physical property.
US08890217B2

An electronic device including an insulating substrate, a chip and a patterned conductive layer is provided. The insulating substrate has an upper surface and a lower surface opposite to each other. The chip is disposed above the upper surface of the insulating substrate. The patterned conductive layer is disposed between the upper surface of the insulating substrate and the chip. The chip is electrically connected to an external circuit via the patterned conductive layer. Heat generated by the chip is transferred to external surroundings via the patterned conductive layer and the insulating substrate.
US08890215B2

The present invention provides for a multiprocessor device on either a chip or a stack of chips. The multiprocessor device includes a plurality of processing entities and a memory system. The multiprocessor device further includes at least one interface unit to at least one of an external memory and one or more peripherals. The multiprocessor device includes a bus system interconnecting the processing entities, the memory system and the at least one interface unit. Wherein, the memory system includes a plurality of cache segments, and the plurality of segments are located on a plurality of memory cores, each having a connection to the bus system.
US08890213B2

There is provided a semiconductor wafer including a base wafer that has an impurity region in which an impurity atom has been introduced into silicon, a plurality of seed bodies provided in contact with the impurity region, and a plurality of compound semiconductors each provided in contact with the corresponding seed bodies and lattice-matched or pseudo-lattice-matched to the corresponding seed bodies. The semiconductor wafer can further include an inhibitor provided on the base wafer and in which a plurality of apertures exposing at least a part of the impurity region are provided.
US08890206B2

An AlGaN/GaN HEMT includes a compound semiconductor laminated structure, a gate electrode formed above the compound semiconductor laminated structure, and a p-type semiconductor layer formed between the compound semiconductor laminated structure and the gate electrode, and the p-type semiconductor layer has tensile strain in a direction parallel to a surface of the compound semiconductor laminated structure.
US08890205B2

A semiconductor component includes a semiconductor substrate, and a doped well having a well terminal and a transistor structure having at least one potential terminal formed in the semiconductor substrate. The transistor structure has a parasitic thyristor, and is at least partly arranged in the doped well. The potential terminal and the well terminal are connected via a resistor.
US08890201B2

According to one embodiment, in a semiconductor light emitting device, a first electrode is provided on a first surface of the semiconductor laminated body including a light emitting layer. A joint metal layer is provided on a second surface of the semiconductor laminated body opposed to the first surface of the semiconductor laminated body. A bonding metal layer covers a first surface of the joint metal layer on a side opposite to the semiconductor laminated body and is provided on a side of the second surface of the semiconductor laminated body. A substrate provided with a second electrode is bonded to the bonding metal layer. A layer having an etching resistance property to an etchant for etching the semiconductor laminated body is formed on a side of the surface of the bonding metal layer facing to the semiconductor laminated body.
US08890197B2

Provided is a light emitting diode, including a sub-mount structure including a first substrate and electrode portions provided on the first substrate, and a light emitting structure mounted on the sub-mount structure to include a first semiconductor layer, a second semiconductor layer, and an active layer between the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer. The electrode portions may include a first electrode portion and a second electrode portion connected to the first and second semiconductor layers, respectively, and each of the first and second electrode portions may include a first metal layer, a graphene layer, and a second metal layer sequentially provided on the first substrate.
US08890193B2

A method for manufacturing a semiconductor light emitting apparatus having first semiconductor layer and second semiconductor layer sandwiching a light emitting layer, first and second electrodes provided on respective major surfaces of the first semiconductor and second semiconductor layers to connect thereto, stacked dielectric films having different refractive indexes provided on portions of the major surfaces not covered by the first and second electrodes, and a protruding portion erected on at least a portion of a rim of at least one of the first and second electrodes. The mounting member includes a connection member connected to at least one of the first and second electrodes. The method includes causing the semiconductor light emitting device and a mounting member to face each other, and causing the connection member to contact and join to the at least one of the first and second electrodes using the protruding portion as a guide.
US08890191B2

An embodiment of the invention provides a chip package which includes: a substrate having a first surface and a second surface; an optoelectronic device formed in the substrate; a conducting layer disposed on the substrate, wherein the conducting layer is electrically connected to the optoelectronic device; an insulating layer disposed between the substrate and the conducting layer; a light shielding layer disposed on the second surface of the substrate and directly contacting with the conducting layer, wherein the light shielding layer has a light shielding rate of more than about 80% and has at least an opening exposing the conducting layer; and a conducting bump disposed in the opening of the light shielding layer to electrically contact with the conducting layer, wherein all together the light shielding layer and the conducting bump substantially and completely cover the second surface of the substrate.
US08890190B2

A light-emitting diode element includes an optical semiconductor layer, an electrode unit to be connected to the optical semiconductor layer, and an encapsulating resin layer that encapsulates the optical semiconductor layer and the electrode unit, the encapsulating resin layer containing a light reflection component.
US08890186B2

A molded resin product or the like that is provided with a phosphor layer made of gel-like or rubber-like resin that can maintain its shape for a long period and that can be implemented easily. The molded resin product (phosphor layer 7) includes a resin member 17 made of a gel-like or rubber-like translucent resin including a phosphor material. The resin member 17 includes a shape maintaining member 19 that is formed in a lattice shape by line-like members 20 that are made of a material having a higher elasticity modulus than the resin member 17. The molded resin product (phosphor layer 7) is in the shape of a dome. The translucent resin is made of, for example, silicon resin, and the resin member 17 is gel-like.
US08890179B2

An organic light-emitting display apparatus includes an organic light-emitting device including a pixel electrode, an opposite electrode facing the pixel electrode, and an organic light-emitting layer interposed between the pixel electrode and the opposite electrode; a first polarization plate disposed on a surface of the organic light-emitting device, the organic light-emitting device being configured to emit light through the first polarization plate; a second polarization plate facing the first polarization plate; and an optical compensation member between the first polarization plate and the second polarization plate.
US08890178B2

A light-emitting element includes a monolithic understructure including a first surface and a second surface different from the first surface; a plurality of light-emitting structure units disposed on the second surface; and a trench formed on a portion of the first surface and between the plurality of light-emitting structure units, wherein a height of the portion of the first surface is greater than a height of the second surface measured from a bottom of the monolithic understructure, and the portion of the first surface is exposed by the trench.
US08890174B2

A light emitter and a method of manufacturing a light emitter. The light emitter includes a first electrode, a charge injection transport layer, a light-emitting layer, and a second electrode that are layered in this order. At least the light-emitting layer is defined by a bank that has at least one liquid-repellent surface. The charge injection transport layer is principally composed of a metal compound that is more liquid-philic than the surface of the bank. The charge injection transport layer includes a recessed structure so that in a region defined by the bank, the charge injection transport layer is lower than a bottom surface of the bank.
US08890172B2

An object of the present invention is to provide an EL display device having high operation performance and reliability.A third passivation film 45 is disposed under the EL element 203 comprising a pixel electrode (anode) 46, an EL layer 47 and a cathode 48, and diffusion of alkali metals from the EL element 203 formed by ink jet method into TFTs is prevented. Further, the third passivation film 45 prevents penetration of moisture and oxygen from the TFTs, and suppress degradation of the EL element 203 by dispersing the heat generated by the EL element 203.