US08989607B2
A thermal fixing device includes a fixing member, a flexible endless belt, a flexible endless belt, a rotary pressure member, a heating unit, and a rotation detector. The flexible endless belt is disposed on an outer circumferential surface of the fixing member. The rotary pressure member is disposed parallel to and pressing against the fixing member via the endless belt. The heating unit heats the endless belt. The rotation detector detects a rotation speed of the endless belt. The heating unit is powered off when the rotation speed of the endless belt detected by the rotation detector is at or below a predetermined threshold value.
US08989600B2
A modulating apparatus includes a branch that branches input light; a first modulating unit that modulates the phase of a first branch obtained by the branch; a second modulating unit that modulates a second branch obtained by the branch; a third modulating unit that is connected in series to the first modulating unit, transmits the first branch without branching the first branch, modulates the phase of light transmitted by controlling a refractive index of the light transmitted; a fourth modulating unit that is connected in series to the second modulating unit, transmits the second branch without branching the second branch, and modulates the phase of a light transmitted by controlling a refractive index of the light transmitted; and a coupler that couples the first branch modulated by the first and the third modulating units and the second branch modulated by the second and the fourth modulating units, at different intensities.
US08989587B2
Methods, algorithms, architectures, circuits, and/or systems for determining the status of parameters associated with optical transceiver operation are disclosed. The method can include (a) accessing and/or monitoring parametric data for each of a plurality of parameters that are related to operation of the optical transceiver; (b) storing the parametric data in one or more memories; (c) comparing the parametric data for each of the plurality of parameters against at least one of a corresponding plurality of predetermined thresholds; and (d) generating one or more states indicating whether the parametric data for a unique one of the parameters has crossed one or more of the corresponding plurality of predetermined thresholds. The invention also relates to an optical triplexer, comprising the described optical transceiver.
US08989577B2
A physical-layer device includes a first sublayer to receive a first continuous bitstream from a media-independent interface and to provide a second continuous bitstream to the media-independent interface. The physical-layer device also includes a second sublayer to transmit first signals corresponding to the first continuous bitstream onto an external link during a first plurality of time windows and to receive second signals corresponding to the second continuous bitstream from the external link during a second plurality of time windows. The second plurality of time windows is distinct from the first plurality of time windows.
US08989576B2
A method of processing optical signal (TE) whose power (PE) varies in a random manner in a range of variation of power (ΔPE) around a mean power (PEφ), the processing of the optical signal (TE) generating processing noise (GELECTRONIC), characterized in that the relative variation of power (GE) of at least a temporal part at said optical signal (TE) is optically amplified.
US08989573B2
A sensing apparatus includes: a broadband optical source; a first pseudorandom number generator generating a first pseudorandom number code string to modulate the broadband optical source; at least one sensor reflecting an output of the first pseudorandom number generator at a wavelength corresponding to a center wavelength thereof when the output of the first pseudorandom number generator is inputted; a wavelength-time converter converting an output of the sensor by wavelength-time conversion; a second pseudorandom number generator generating a second pseudorandom number code string which is different in frequency from and is the same in bit length and code string as the first pseudorandom number code string; a mixer mixing an output signal of the wavelength-time converter with an output signal of the second pseudorandom number generator; and an integrator integrating an output of the mixer.
US08989572B2
An optical node apparatus that establishes an optical path between a first optical node and a second optical node in an optical network include a frequency modulation unit that superimposes a supervisory signal on a main signal by frequency-modulating the main signal, and a frequency demodulation unit that frequency-demodulates the supervisory signal superimposed on the received main signal.
US08989563B2
In a recording medium on which is recorded a multiplexed stream including a plurality of first packets (V_main) constituting a first I-picture in a first video stream and a plurality of second packets (V_sub) constituting a second I-picture in a second video stream, information for identifying the first I-picture and information for identifying the second I-picture are recorded on the medium. A recording medium can thereby be obtained that enables the rapid detection, from a small amount of information, of a particular picture included in a stream such as a TS in which multiple content streams are multiplexed.
US08989562B2
An arrangement for grouping multiple television channels for recording is presented. Television channel usage data indicative of television programs being requested by users of the television receivers may be received. The television channel usage data may provide usage data for television channels being transmitted using a plurality of transponders. The television channel usage data may be analyzed to determine a grouping of television channels. Based on the television channel usage data, a television channel may be reassigned from a first transponder to a second transponder for transmission to the plurality of television receivers such that the grouping of television channels are transmitted using the second transponder.
US08989557B2
In a recording medium on which is recorded a multiplexed stream including a plurality of first packets (V_main) constituting a first I-picture in a first video stream and a plurality of second packets (V_sub) constituting a second I-picture in a second video stream, information for identifying the first I-picture and information for identifying the second I-picture are recorded on the medium. A recording medium can thereby be obtained that enables the rapid detection, from a small amount of information, of a particular picture included in a stream such as a TS in which multiple content streams are multiplexed.
US08989555B2
When video data is reproduced by a recording/reproduction unit, an output unit outputs occurrence information on an object, which is not included in the video data being output by the output unit but is included the video data recorded on a recording medium, to a display unit. While the video data is being reproduced from the recording medium by the recording/reproduction unit, an instruction specifying a predetermined object condition including a non-reproduction object is input based on the occurrence information and the reproduction operation is performed by extracting video data satisfying the object condition.
US08989554B2
Methods and apparatus to detect content skipping by a consumer of a recorded program are disclosed. In a disclosed method, a plurality of recording times of sections of a recorded program are stored in association with playback times of the recorded program. Playback intervals between sequential pairs of the playback times are compared with corresponding recording intervals between sequential pairs of the recording times to determine if any portion of the recorded program was not played back in real time.
US08989544B2
The present invention provides optical devices that employ nonlinear optical effects for processing optical signals. For example, such an optical device can include a nano-sized interferometric component that provides an optical output signal via interference of two input signals subsequent to their asymmetric nonlinear phase accumulation. The interferometric element can have a variety of configurations, such as Sagnac, Mach-Zehnder or Michelson configurations.
US08989543B2
An optical cable comprises an optical fiber ribbon, a tension member and a sheath. The optical fiber ribbon is constructed by integrating a plurality of optical fibers arranged in parallel. The sheath is provided so as to surround the optical fiber ribbon. The sheath is used for protecting the optical cable. One optical fiber ribbon is arranged twistably within an inner space surrounded by the sheath.
US08989539B2
A method of forming a fiber optic device includes securing one or more optical fibers to a support. The support is coupled to a base that includes one or more optoelectronic devices. After one or more of the fibers are secured to the support, and the support is secured to the base, one or more of the fibers are cleaved. This method, and fiber optic devices made using this method are more easily aligned and may be produced at lower costs than existing manufacturing processes.
US08989532B2
An integrated circuit coupling device includes an integrated circuit package; and an optical data transmission medium connected to the integrated circuit package, and comprising a movable coolant, adapted to remove heat from the integrated circuit package, in operation.
US08989521B1
Methods and systems for determining dance steps based on music and/or other dancers. A wearable computing system may include a head mounted display (HMD). The wearable computing system may receive a media sample including an audio sample associated with a song and/or a video sample associated with one or more dancers performing a dance. The wearable computing system may communicate the media sample to a content analysis server that may include a content identification module. The content identification module may provide information associated with a content of the media sample, such as identification of the song and the dance, to the wearable computing system. The wearable computing system may determine dance steps corresponding to the content of the media sample and may generate a display of the dance steps on the HMD.
US08989520B2
A method of conducting pattern matching is provided that includes establishing probe categories. Each probe category corresponds to pattern characteristics of one of a plurality of subpopulations. Moreover, the method includes coordinating combinations of the subpopulations and probe categories with pattern matching systems such that each combination corresponds to at least one of a plurality of the pattern matching systems, obtaining pattern data for an object, configuring the obtained object pattern data as a probe, and determining the probe category of the probe. Furthermore, the method includes conducting a matching transaction between the probe and each of the subpopulations using the at least one matching system corresponding to each combination of subpopulation and the determined probe category, and determining at least one candidate match when the probe matches at least one enrollment data record in the at least one matching system of any of the subpopulations.
US08989510B2
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing an image processing program causing a computer to execute an image processing on image data to be processed, the image processing program including an obtaining step obtaining the image data, a gradation conversion processing step performing gradation conversion processing on the image data at an intermediate part of gradation according to input/output characteristics having characteristics to which characteristics to reduce a contrast are added, and a correcting step making a correction to enhance a local contrast indicative of contrast at a local part of an image for the image data subjected to the gradation conversion processing by using a gain curve in which a degree of enhancement changes in accordance with luminance information of a pixel to be processed, and thus, bright and dark part gradations are improved while suppressing a change in a hue and color saturation as well as maintaining an apparent contrast.
US08989509B2
In an embodiment, a compression unit is provided which may perform compression of a pixel stream. Similarly, a decompression unit may be provided which may decompress the compressed pixel stream. The compression and decompression units may include a streaming wavelet transform, which may perform the wavelet transform through a pipeline of wavelet operations. Each section of the pipeline may perform a pass of the wavelet transform on the pixel stream, and the section may provide input to another section of the pipeline that performs a next pass of the wavelet transform. The transform may thus be performed on the fly as the pixels are received.
US08989507B2
Bitmap compression for fast searches and updates is provided. Compressing a bitmap includes receiving a bitmap to compress, and reading the bitmap to determine a value of a bit location for all bits in the bitmap. In one embodiment, a compressed bitmap is created by encoding a variable number of bytes to represent a distance between adjacent 1s in the uncompressed bitmap. In another embodiment, a compressed bitmap is created by representing a distance between adjacent 1s in the uncompressed bitmap using a plurality of bits, and encoding a marker word to indicate the number of bits used to represent the distance.
US08989506B1
Systems, methods, and computer storage mediums are provided for matching multiple photographs together. An example method includes receiving a first collection of photographic images. The photographic images in the first collection are clustered into one or more composite sets of photographic images based on a comparison of the metadata associated with each photographic image in the first collection meeting a predetermined similarity threshold. An image overlap is determined between each photographic image within each of the one or composite sets of photographic images. When the image overlap exceeds a predetermined image overlap threshold, a pair of photographic images are matched, for all of the photographic images within each composite set of photographic images to form one or more composite images.
US08989497B2
A handwritten character input device includes a correction amount computation unit which performs, when a characteristic value of handwritten characters input to a designated character writing area of a template image by a handwriting input operation of a user does not meet predetermined character writing requirements, a computation process that computes a correction amount of the characteristic value required to meet the character writing requirements; and a corrected handwritten character information output unit which outputs information of after-correction handwritten characters generated based on the correction amount computed by the correction amount computation unit, the characteristic value of the after-correction handwritten characters meeting the character writing requirements.
US08989493B1
Embodiments of the present disclosure include methods, apparatuses, and systems for identifying regions to be filtered during processing of an image. A map generator is configured to receive pixels of an image and to determine a map for the image. The map indicates a number of islands within blocks of pixels of the image, where individual ones of the islands include either a single dark pixel, or two or more contiguous dark pixels, bordered by light pixels and/or one or more edges of the blocks of pixels. An index generator sets, based at least on the number of islands within the individual ones of the blocks of pixels that correspond to regions of the scanned image, filter indices for the regions of the scanned image. An image filter component, based on the filter indices, filters the regions of the scanned image.
US08989491B2
A method and system for preprocessing text containing region of a video The invention provides a method and system for preprocessing the text containing region of video for improving the optical character recognition input.
US08989490B2
There are provided methods and systems for use in performing feature sensitive captioning of media content. In one implementation, such a method includes detecting an aesthetically determinative feature of a media content unit selected by a user, and determining a captioning aesthetic for a caption of the media content unit based at least in part on the aesthetically determinative feature. The captioning aesthetic may include a background aesthetic and a text aesthetic. The captioning aesthetic may be utilized by a feature sensitive captioning application to produce a feature sensitive caption for the media content unit.
US08989489B2
In a control apparatus, a controller operates as: identifying a reading condition instructed for reading an image from a document; and determining a method of an analysis processing, the identifying including identifying a reading section instructed to read an image from the document. If an identified reading condition satisfies a first condition including that an identified reading section is a first reading section configured to read an image from a document while maintaining the document to be stationary, a first analysis processing configured to extract a first type region from a read out image is determined. If the identified reading condition satisfies a second condition including that the identified reading section is a second reading section configured to read an image from the document while conveying the document, a second analysis processing configured to extract a second type region from the read out image is determined.
US08989486B2
A machine may be configured to process an uncompressed image to obtain a set of intermediate images, which may be alternatively known as working images or temporary images. Such a set of intermediate images may be used as input for an image compression algorithm that, when executed by the machine or other compression engine, outputs a compressed version of the uncompressed image. For example, a compression format called “PVRTC,” which may be used on certain portable devices, accepts a set of three intermediate images as input, specifically, one full resolution, low precision version of the original uncompressed image, plus two low resolution, low frequency color versions of the original uncompressed image. A set of intermediate images for such a compression format may be generated by the machine from the original uncompressed image.
US08989480B2
Provided is a method, computer-readable medium apparatus that may estimate a disparity of three view images. A global matching may be performed to calculate a global path by performing a dynamic programming on the three view images, and a local matching for supplementing an occlusion region of the calculated global path may be performed, and thereby a disparity estimation of the three view images may be performed.
US08989478B2
A system for providing visualization of semiconductor wafer inspection data acquired during in a photovoltaic cell production process includes a display device, a user interface device, and a computer control system configured for: receiving one or more inspection data sets acquired from each of a plurality of semiconductor wafers using a plurality of wafer process tools of a photovoltaic cell production line; generating an aggregated hierarchical wafer data gallery utilizing the received one or more inspection data sets; and displaying at least a portion of the aggregated hierarchical wafer data gallery in the gallery display area of the display device.
US08989475B2
Methods, compositions and kits for determining the developmental potential of one or more embryos or pluripotent cells and/or the presence of chromosomal abnormalities in one or more embryos or pluripotent cells are provided. These methods, compositions and kits find use in identifying embryos and oocytes in vitro that are most useful in treating infertility in humans.
US08989465B2
A method for reconstructing a time series of images from data acquired with a medical imaging system is provided. Data is acquired with the medical imaging system, and a set of image blocks that defines the location and size of each of a plurality of image blocks in the image domain is then selected. The acquired data and selected image block set are then used to jointly estimate a plurality of images that form a time series of images while promoting locally-low rank structure in the images.
US08989464B2
A method for enhancing functional image data includes obtaining functional image data, obtaining anatomical image data corresponding to the functional image data, and generating enhanced functional image data by diffusing the functional image data based on the functional image data and the anatomical image data.
US08989455B2
A method for face detection includes capturing a depth map and an image of a scene and selecting one or more locations in the image to test for presence of human faces. At each selected location, a respective face detection window is defined, having a size that is scaled according to a depth coordinate of the location that is indicated by the depth map. Apart of the image that is contained within each face detection window is processed to determine whether the face detection window contains a human face. Similar methods may also be applied in identifying other object types.
US08989454B2
A sales data processing apparatus which registers and processes sales data on a transaction-by-transaction basis. The apparatus includes: an imaging module that images a customer who is waiting for registration; a manipulation determination module that determines whether or not a prescribed one of a series of manipulations for registration of sales data of one transaction was performed; and a generation module that generates customer identification image data based on an image taken by the imaging module if the manipulation determination module determines that the prescribed manipulation was performed.
US08989451B2
A similarity search may be performed on the image of a person, using visual characteristics and information that is known about the person. The search identifies images of other persons that are similar in appearance to the person in the image.
US08989450B1
A system identifies an image and determines whether the image contains inappropriate content based on first data associated with the image, second data associated with a document that contains the image or refers to the image, and/or third data associated with a group of documents with which the image is associated.
US08989448B2
A moving object detecting device 1 that detects a moving object by using an image includes a motion degree obtaining portion 11 that obtains a motion degree of a pixel between image frames, a color obtaining portion 13 that obtains the color of the pixel included in the image frame, an evaluation score calculating portion 14 that calculates an evaluation score indicating a motion level of the color on the basis of the motion degree for each color obtained by the color obtaining portion, and a moving object detecting portion 15 that detects the moving object on the basis of the evaluation score for each color.
US08989442B2
Multi-Task Multi-View Tracking (MTMVT) is used to visually identify and track an object. The MTMVT employs visual cues such as color, edge, and texture as complementary features to intensity in the target appearance representation, and combines a multi-view representation with a robust multi-task learning to solve feature fusion tracking problems. To reduce computational demands, feature matrices are sparsely represented in a single matrix and then decomposed into a pair of matrices to improve robustness to outliers. Views and particles are further combined based on interdependency and commonality single computational task. Probabilities are computed for each particle across all features and the particle with the greatest probability is selected as the target tracking result.
US08989440B2
The present disclosure includes systems and computer-implemented methods for redesigning rooms in a house using digital image analysis. The analysis includes defining room parameters based on the architectural shape of the room as determined from an analysis of the walls, ceiling, windows, and doors, performing a room size calibration and defining an empty 3D room. Using the analyzed digital image, redesign can progress with selecting types of inner surfaces of the room from a pre-defined collection of architectural shapes, selecting types of furniture in the room, and selecting types of lighting. Then, a 3D model of the redesigned room is generated wherein the architectural shape is in the form of 2D and wherein the 2D image has an associated 3D image. At least one image of the redesigned 3D room may be generated and stored, and may be transmitted to a receiver wherein the corresponding showroom picture is displayed.
US08989438B2
There is provided a mobile body track identification system that determines which mobile body matches which detected track with a high precision irrespective of frequent interruption of tracks of a mobile body detected in a tracking area. Herein, hypotheses are generated by use of sets of track-coupling candidate/identification pairs, which combines track-coupling candidates, combining tracks of a mobile body detected in a predetermined time in the past, and identifications of the mobile body and which satisfies a predetermined condition. Next, identification likelihoods are calculated as likelihoods of detecting identifications in connection with tracks indicated by track-coupling candidates included in track-coupling candidate/identification pairs ascribed to each of the selected hypotheses. Identification likelihoods are integrated per each track-coupling candidate/identification pair, thus calculating an identification likelihood regarding the selected hypothesis. A most-probable hypothesis is estimated based on identification likelihoods of hypotheses.
US08989436B2
Information of a flare component is extracted from a shot image without using shooting condition data such as wavelength spectrum data of a bright point and imaging characteristic data of a shooting optical system. To achieve this, an aspect of an image processing method of the present application includes an input step inputting a processing target image obtained by a shooting optical system, an estimating step estimating an ideal bright point image component included in an occurrence area of a flare in the processing target image, an extracting step extracting a real bright point image component including a flare component from the occurrence area, and a calculating step calculating a difference between the ideal bright point image component and the real bright point image component as an index of the flare component included in the occurrence area.
US08989426B2
A positioning and retaining structure for an in-ear earpiece. An outer leg and an inner leg are attached to each other at an attachment end and attached to a body of the earpiece at the other end. The outer leg lies in a plane. The positioning and retaining structure have a stiffness that is greater when force is applied to the attachment end in a counterclockwise direction in the plane of the outer leg than when force is applied to the attachment end in a clockwise direction in the plane of the outer leg. The positioning and retaining structure position an earpiece associated with the earpiece in a users ear and retains the earpiece in its position.
US08989425B2
An earphone is disclosed. The earphone includes a housing forming a volume, a plurality of sound holes arranged in the housing, a sound generator received in the volume of the housing and cooperatively with the housing forming a front volume, a supporter accommodated in the volume of the housing and engaging with the sound generator forming a main back volume, and cooperatively with the housing forming a auxiliary back volume. The supporter includes bottom, a sidewall upwardly extending from the bottom and an acoustic pipe, the acoustic pipe communicating the main back volume with the auxiliary back volume for balancing an internal acoustic pressure of the earphone.
US08989420B1
A wireless microphone system within an enclosure for use in lecture hall sound systems that enables facilitated passing of the system from one user to another and provides a less intimidating microphone configuration to grip and use than standard wireless microphones. The system can also include an integrated push-to-talk feature requiring activation before a user's comments will be picked up and amplified over the sound system. The system can also include a laser pointer allowing the user to reference objects while they speak into the device. A wireless mute button can also be provided so that the lecturer or discussion leader can control when the system will be operative. The audio transmitter can be substituted with a audio recorder to be used independently of an audio receiving system.
US08989418B2
The present invention is directed to an in-the-ear device sized and shaped such that the in-the-ear device universally and ergonomically fits into the human ear without slipping out and providing the user with a comfortable fit. The in-the-ear device is secured in the user's ear taking advantage of the natural curvature of the human to provide support and shift the center of gravity from outside the ear to further inside the pinna to prevent the device from slipping out while retaining a high level of comfort.
US08989416B2
An object containing electronic circuits and a rechargeable cell, wherein the cell is arranged close to a surface of the object, a charge coil being shiftable with respect to the cell between an operating position where it is arranged around the cell and a recharge position where it is axially offset with respect to the cell.
US08989408B2
Various embodiments relate to a systems and methods for downloading one or more effects to an effects unit. One or more effects may be received. On an effects unit. Audio signals for the one or more effects may be processed based on instructions for processing the audio signals received with the one or more effects. For each subsequent effect received on the effect unit, the processing of the audio signals may be reprogrammed. The one or more effects may be transmitted for output from the effects unit.
US08989398B2
An audio apparatus is suitable for generating crowd sounds from an audio signal is disclosed in which the apparatus comprises modulation means operable to modulate a noise signal in response to the audio signal to generate a modulated noise signal, and diffusion delay means. The diffusion delay means is operable to apply a series of two or more delay operations, the input signal to a first such delay operation in the series being the modulated noise signal, and input to each subsequent delay operation in the series being the output signal generated by a preceding delay operation. Each delay operation comprises modifying that operation's input signal by the addition of a delayed version of that operation's input signal.
US08989395B2
Implementations and techniques for audio fingerprint differences for end-to-end quality of experience measurement are generally disclosed.
US08989393B2
A decoding device includes a decoder configured to separate a first signal obtained by performing down-mix on original signals of a plurality of channels, a residual signal representing a component of a difference between the original signals and the first signal, and spatial information representing the relationship among the original signals of the plurality of channels from an input signal which is obtained by multiplexing the first signal, the residual signal, and the spatial information and decode the separated encoded first signal, the encoded residual signal, and the encoded spatial information; a decorrelation signal generation unit configured to generate a decorrelation signal as decorrelation of the first signal decoded by the decoder; a residual signal determination unit configured to determine whether a level of the residual signal decoded by the decoder is equal to or smaller than a predetermined residual threshold value; a second-signal generation unit.
US08989376B2
A method for authenticating video content includes: receiving a digital signature, an unsecured video fingerprint, and an unsecured video content from a transmitting node at a receiving node in a communication network; determining if the digital signature is consistent with the unsecured video fingerprint at the receiving node to verify the unsecured video fingerprint; and determining if the unsecured video fingerprint is consistent with the unsecured video content at the receiving node to verify the unsecured video content in a manner that tolerates a predetermined measure of loss in the unsecured video content. If the unsecured video fingerprint and the unsecured video content are verified, the unsecured video content is authenticated for subsequent use at the receiving node. A receiving node associated with the method includes an input module, a fingerprint verification module, a content verification module, and a controller module.
US08989373B2
A method for connecting an external apparatus and a multimedia replaying apparatus using the same. The method includes determining whether a command for displaying menus is input while multimedia content is replayed, determining a multimedia content replay state indicating whether a part or the whole of the multimedia contents is being replayed at an external apparatus if it is determined that the command for displaying menus is input, and displaying the menus comprising the multimedia content replay state on an area displaying a video of the multimedia contents. Therefore, a part or entire of replayed multimedia contents is readily transmitted to an external apparatus for wireless communication.
US08989370B1
A customizable call center dialing system, method and computer program product for providing computer based training module that permits an administrator to selectively adjust campaign variables associated with a calling campaign. The system preferably includes a server, a dialing algorithm having a plurality of variables associated with a dialing campaign wherein the dialing algorithm is executed by the server. An administrator interface is in communication with the server, and at least one agent interface in communication with the server. A dialing engine is controlled by an output from the dialing algorithm wherein the administrator interface permits an authorized user to selectively modify the output of the dialing algorithm. Advantageously, at least one dialing parameter can be modified, in real-time, such that a new call is predictively initiated close to a time when the call agent finishes a previous call.
US08989367B2
A system and method for monitoring deployment states of a contact center. A processor migrates a state of the contact center from a first deployment state to a second deployment state. The processor records the steps in migrating from the first deployment state to the second deployment state, and stores the recorded steps in association with metadata describing the second deployment state. The processor monitors health of the second state, and takes an action for moving the state of the contact center to a healthy state in response to determining that the second deployment state is unhealthy. The migrating may be based on detecting a condition relating to operation of the contact center. The processor dynamically adjusts at least one hardware or software resource for the contact center based on the detected condition for migrating the state of the contact center from the first to the second deployment state.
US08989366B1
A system and method for managing customer communications over communication channels are disclosed. A method may include (1) at least one of a plurality of computer processors determining a communication channel for contacting a customer; (2) at least one of the plurality of computer processors determining contact information for the customer to be used with the determined communication channel; (3) presenting the contact information to an agent; (4) receiving, at an electronic device, authorization to initiate contact with the customer using the contact information; and (5) at least one of a plurality of computer processors automatically initiating contact with the customer using the communication channel.
US08989365B2
Methods and systems are provided for monitoring calls routed to a telephone network-based voice mail system. When a subscriber receives a telephone call, a determination is made as to whether the call should be routed to the voice mail system. If call monitoring services are activated, a three-way communication is set up between the calling party, the voice mail system and the subscriber. The subscriber is bridged into the call on a listen-only basis, but upon command by the subscriber, the subscriber may answer the call.
US08989356B2
A method, computer-readable medium, and user interface for displaying an inquiry indication related to an inquiring user's inquiry are described. An inquiring user prepares and submits an inquiry in an inquiry application. Upon preparing and submitting an inquiry, a notice of the inquiry is generated and routed to the inquiring user's network contacts. An inquiry indication is generated to notify network contacts that an inquiry has been submitted by the inquiring user. A network contact may select the inquiry indication to display an inquiry feature and may select an inquiry feature to view the inquiry and respond to the inquiry.
US08989353B2
A conductive substrate (18) and an etching substrate (20) are bonded to each other. An etch mask (25) is formed on the etching substrate (20) using a photolithography technique. On the etching substrate (20), grooves (20a) and X-ray transmitting sections (14b) are formed by dry etching using Bosch process. The grooves (20a) are filled with Au (27) by an electroplating method using the conductive substrate (18) as an electrode. Thus, X-ray absorbing sections (14a) are formed.
US08989349B2
Treatment targets such as tumors or lesions, located within an anatomical region that undergoes motion (which may be periodic with cycle P), are dynamically tracked. A 4D mathematical model is established for the non-rigid motion and deformation of the anatomical region, from a set of CT or other 3D images. The 4D mathematical model relates the 3D locations of part(s) of the anatomical region with the targets being tracked, as a function of the position in time within P. Using fiducial-less non-rigid image registration between pre-operative DRRs and intra-operative x-ray images, the absolute position of the target and/or other part(s) of the anatomical region is determined. The cycle P is determined using motion sensors such as surface markers. The radiation beams are delivered using: 1) the results of non-rigid image registration; 2) the 4D model; and 3) the position in time within P.
US08989346B2
From radiation images obtained by driving radiation tube with a plurality of tube voltages, including a normal tube voltage, a density gradient with respect to at least two sections of a reference substance having different radiation transmission characteristics is obtained for each of the plurality of tube voltages prior to obtaining a bone mineral density. If a radiation image captured for obtaining a bone mineral density is determined to have been captured under a tube voltage other than the normal tube voltage, an image signal representing the image and/or a bone mineral density analysis result is corrected so as to correspond to that which should have been obtained if the image had been captured under the normal tube voltage based on the relationship between the density gradient in the image and the density gradient in the radiation image captured under the normal tube voltage.
US08989337B2
A method and apparatus for securely fastening a pipe collar or a bracket to a riser pipe of a boiling water reactor (BWR) jet pump assembly. A pipe plug assembly includes an angled pipe plug that acts as a wedge to expand a bushing assembly as the pipe plug is drawn into the overall pipe plug assembly. Expansion of the bushing assembly allows a tight tolerance to exist between an outer diameter of the pipe plug and an inner diameter of the collar/bracket and riser pipe. Expansion of the bushing assembly allows a straight hole to be match drilled into the collar/bracket and riser pipe, thereby avoiding a more complicated tapered hole to be drilled into the collar/bracket and riser pipe. An ensuing tight fit between the pipe plug assembly, the collar/bracket and the riser pipe mitigates vibration of components and minimizes leakage to acceptable levels for use in the flooded environment of the annulus region where the jet pump assembly exists in the BWR.
US08989336B2
A pressurized water nuclear reactor (PWR) includes a once through steam generator (OTSG) disposed in a generally cylindrical pressure vessel and a divider plate spaced apart from the open end of a central riser. A sealing portion of the pressure vessel and the divider plate define an integral pressurizer volume that is separated by the divider plate from the remaining interior volume of the pressure vessel. An internal control rod drive mechanism (CRDM) has all mechanical and electromagnetomotive components including at least a motor and a lead screw disposed inside the pressure vessel. Optionally CRDM units are staggered at two or more different levels such that no two neighboring CRDM units are at the same level. Internal primary coolant pumps have all mechanical and electromagnetomotive components including at least a motor and at least one impeller disposed inside the pressure vessel. Optionally, the pumps and/or CRDM are arranged below the OTSG.
US08989334B2
An aneutronic magnetron energy generator that generates microwave energy from a fusion-fission reaction that produces alpha particles in response to a proton colliding with an 11B nucleus. The magnetron energy generator includes a magnetron having an anode resonator including a central chamber and a plurality of radially disposed cavities. A cathode assembly is provided at the center of the chamber and includes a cathode electrode that generates a proton plasma. A series of electrically isolated acceleration rings extend from the cathode electrode and operate to accelerate protons from the proton plasma towards an outer target ring composed of boron eleven (11B). The accelerated protons fuse with the 11B nuclei to generate the alpha particles that then interact with crossed electric and magnetic fields between the target ring and the cavities. The alpha particles resonate with the cavities and generate a current within the resonator that is collected.
US08989329B2
Generally, this disclosure describes eye width measurement and margining in communication systems. An apparatus may be configured to: decouple a phase detector from a CDR loop filter of a receiver under test in response to synchronizing a margining clock signal to a receiver clock signal; apply a margining input to the loop filter, the margining input configured to shift a frequency of the margining clock signal by a constant amount related to the margining input; compare a first bit stream and a second bit stream and configured to detect an error, the first bit stream related to a transmitted bit stream; and count cycles of the receiver clock signal or the margining clock signal, wherein an eye width associated with the receiver under test is related to the margining input, the frequency of the receiver clock signal and a count of clock cycles when the error is detected.
US08989327B2
A method and apparatus for transmitting or detecting primary synchronization signal. The receiver receives primary synchronization signal from a transmitter, and detects the sequence used in the received primary synchronization signal by using three root indexes. Here, the primary synchronization signal is generated by using a Zadoff-Chu sequence having one of the three root indexes. The three root indexes comprise a first index and a second index, and a sum of the first index and the second index corresponds to the length of the Zadoff-Chu sequence.
US08989317B1
An efficient decoding of vector signaling codes is obtained using a circuit that ranks received signal levels, designates ranked values as representing particular code elements, and translates those particular code elements into a decoded result. An optimized ranking circuit combines analog crossbar switching of signal values with comparators that provide digital results. These elements may be repetitively tiled into processing arrays capable of larger ranking operations, or iteratively applied to selected portions of the data set under control of a sequencer or controller.
US08989312B2
A channel estimation method of a channel estimation apparatus in a wireless communication system is provided. The method includes predefining a plurality of weight tables about at least one of a speed and a Carrier to Interference-and-Noise Ratio (CINR) using a correlation value considering offset compensation; selecting a weight table to be used for channel estimation based on at least one of the estimated speed and the CINR, from the plurality of weight tables; and multiplying a pilot channel estimation value and the selected weight table, and performing data channel estimation.
US08989310B2
A method, device and system for complex carrier modulation are provided in the disclosure, wherein e−iωt or eiωt is used as a carrier frequency to perform carrier modulation on a to-be-carried signal. The modulated signal transmitted in a medium is a rotating complex signal. The method can enable right and left frequency bands to carry independent information. Therefore the spectrum utility ratio is improved. Employing the method for complex carrier modulation provided in the disclosure can use the right and left frequency spectrum resources adequately, and the loss of signal energy is small, therefore the capacity of a channel is improved greatly.
US08989309B2
The method includes providing a stream of data to be transmitted, and processing the data by means of channel coding with a time-varying code rate, thereby generating a stream of channel coded data. The method further includes forming succeeding transmission time intervals and distributing the channel coded data on the transmission time intervals, and adjusting a transmission power of the signal to be transmitted by timely positioning a transmission power slope between two succeeding transmission time intervals so that the transmission power slope is contained completely within one transmission time interval of the two transmission time intervals, wherein the one transmission time interval comprises a lower nominal code rate or a lower nominal transmission power than the other one of the two transmission time intervals.
US08989307B2
A power amplifier system including a composite digital predistorter (DPD) ensuring optimized linearity for the power amplifier is described. In this system, a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), an analog filter, a first mixer, and the power amplifier are serially coupled to the composite DPD. A second mixer, a receive gain block, and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) are serially coupled to the output of the power amplifier. A DPD training component is coupled between the inputs of the composite DPD and the ADC. The composite DPD includes a memory-based DPD, e.g., a memory polynomial (MP) DPD, a memoryless-linearizing DPD, e.g., a look-up table (LUT) DPD, and two multiplexers.
US08989291B2
A method for transmitting data within a mobile telecommunication system from a user equipment having at least two transmit antennas to a base station having at least two receive antennas. The method comprises (a) providing a number of data streams at the user equipment, wherein the number of data streams is smaller than the number of transmit antennas, (b) applying a spatial pre-coding to the data streams, and (c) transmitting the spatially pre-coded data streams to the base station via the transmit antennas, wherein the number of transmit antennas used for transmitting the spatially pre-coded data streams is larger than the number of data streams. A corresponding method for receiving data, a user equipment for carrying out the data transmitting method, a base station for carrying out the data receiving method and a computer program for controlling the described data transmitting and/or receiving method.
US08989283B1
A transceiver architecture can contain an encoder and a decoder for communicating high speed transmissions. The encoder can modulate signal data for being mapped in a constellation that is generated based on concatenations of a leech lattice having binary and non-binary codes. The data can be transmitted at a high speed according to the constellation with an embedded leech lattice configuration in order to generate a coding gain. A decoder operates to decode the received input signal data with a decreased latency or a minimal latency with a high spectral efficiency.
US08989281B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a system having a controller to allocate between a video and audio quality in a multimedia presentation and to utilize a resultant bandwidth as a result of allocation to enhance an audio or video quality in the multimedia presentation in response to a user selection among levels of video quality and audio quality. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US08989276B2
A video encoder/decoder device, method, and computer program product combine to enhance entropy encoding by using different calculation approaches for assessing costs of using different encoding modes for a video encoding. Moreover, frames in a sequence, and/or sub-frames within a frame may have lowest cost coding modes selected using different cost calculation approaches. One exemplary cost calculation is SAD and another is SSD. A net effect is better subjective video quality for a given bitrate, with reduced encoder complexity, especially when recognizing the lesser amount of computational resources required to support SAD as opposed to SSD.
US08989273B2
An image decoding method includes decoding encoded image data to generate a decoded image signal including a luma signal and a chroma signal. The method further includes scaling, when a reference field has a different parity from a current field for motion compensation and when the decoded image signal is in a format in which the number of chroma pixels is vertically different from the number of luma pixels, a chroma motion vector of the chroma signal according to an accuracy for a luma motion vector of the luma signal so that a reference frame will coincide in phase of the chroma signal with a current frame. The method also includes performing motion compensation of the decoded image signal using the scaled chroma motion vector according to the accuracy of the luma motion vector of the luma signal.
US08989268B2
Method and apparatus for motion estimation for video processing. An embodiment of a method for motion estimation includes the following steps. In the course of motion estimation, integer motion estimation is performed with respect to a macroblock to generate a plurality of integer motion vectors. It is determined, according to a portion of the motion vectors, which correspond to a plurality of block modes, whether the integer motion vectors of each block mode are substantially equal to those of a corresponding upper-layer block mode of the block mode, so as to determine whether to perform or skip fractional motion estimation of the block mode, wherein each corresponding upper-layer block mode(s) of the block modes is greater than the block mode.
US08989267B2
A method for encoding high dynamic range (HDR) images involves providing a lower dynamic range (LDR) image, generating a prediction function for estimating the values for pixels in the HDR image based on the values of corresponding pixels in the LDR image, and obtaining a residual frame based on differences between the pixel values of the HDR image and estimated pixel values. The LDR image, prediction function and residual frame can all be encoded in data from which either the LDR image of HDR image can be recreated.
US08989261B2
An encoder can generate a series of codewords to signal to a decoder a mapping of range combinations for two or more metrics. The encoder can generate a first codeword to indicate a current combination being decoded maps to the same filter as the most recently decoded combination that shares the same range for the first metric. The encoder can generate a second codeword to indicate that the current combination maps to the same filter as the most recently decoded combination that shares the same range for the second metric. If the current combination does not map to the same filter as either of these most recently decoded combinations, then the encoder can generate a third codeword that indicates the filter that maps to the current combination.
US08989258B2
Provided is a method that derives an intra prediction mode of a prediction unit, selects an inverse scan pattern of a current transform unit among a diagonal scan, a vertical scan and a horizontal scan based on the intra prediction mode and a size of the transform unit, and generates a quantized block by inversely scanning significant flags, coefficients signs and coefficient levels according to the selected inverse scan pattern. If the transform unit is larger than a predetermined size, multiple subsets are generated and inversely scanned. Therefore, the amount of coding bits of the residual block is reduced by determining the scan pattern based on the size of the transform unit and the intra prediction mode, and by applying the scan pattern to each subset. Also, the signaling bits decreases by generating MPM group adaptively according to the neighboring intra prediction modes.
US08989257B1
The method and apparatus of the present invention provides for the compression of signal data having a low latency jitter while maintaining a target compression ratio and reasonable degradation, as is required by next generation systems. In accordance with the present invention, a method and apparatus are provided for compressing data in a communication system by receiving uncompressed packet at a compressor of the communication system, segmenting the packet into a plurality of packet segments, calculating signal sample bit-removal information for each of the plurality of packet segments and compressing the packet segments utilizing the signal sample bit-removal information that is calculated based upon the signal characteristics of the uncompressed packet and a desired target compression ratio.
US08989245B2
A system and method are provided for calibrating the IQ-imbalance in a low-IF receiver. A Test Signal can be generated in a mirror frequency and conveyed to the receiver. The power of the signal produced in the receiver from the conveyed Test Signal can be measured. In the absence of an IQ-imbalance, the Test Signal can be completely eliminated in the receiver and the corresponding measured power of the produced signal can be minimized. Accordingly, a two dimensional algorithm is described for calibrating a receiver and correcting the IQ-imbalance by adjusting the phase and gain difference between the I and Q channels in the receiver based on the measured power of the signal produced in the receiver.
US08989240B2
The invention relates to a method for operating a secondary station in a communication network including a primary station, the method comprising generating a precoding matrix obtained from the Hadamard product of an alphabet modifying matrix and an original precoding matrix, wherein the original precoding matrix consist of complex coefficients of equal magnitude, transmitting a precoding report representative of the precoding matrix to the primary station.
US08989237B2
Disclosed is a relay method including: receiving, as input, respective reception signals by two receive antennas, the reception signals each including a reception signal resulting from multiplexing respective transmission signals transmitted by two transmission antennas in a first frequency band; performing frequency conversion on the reception signal received by one of the receive antennas so as to obtain a signal of a third frequency band; and performing frequency multiplexing on the signal having the third frequency band and the reception signal received by the other of the receive antennas.
US08989235B2
A system that incorporates the subject disclosure may perform, for example, a method for receiving interference information from each of the plurality of communication devices detecting interference information in a plurality of segments of a radio frequency spectrum, correlating the interference information of the plurality of communication devices to generate correlated information, and identifying a plurality of interferers according to the correlated information. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US08989230B2
VCSEL apparatus having a substrate, a solid-state gain medium, a reflective mirror on one side of the medium, a movable reflective mirror on an opposite side of the medium, and a mechanism configured to move the movable mirror to tune a characteristic wavelength. Also described is a VCSEL apparatus having a silicon substrate having a slot therethrough and electrical connections formed on a first face, a substrate having VCSELs thereon and mounted across the slot and electrically connected to the electrical connections on the silicon substrate, and a glass substrate affixed to a second face of the silicon substrate. Also described is a VCSEL apparatus having a graded-index lens array having GRIN lenses mounted adjacently in a staggered arrangement, a PCB mounted to the lens array, and VCSEL chips mounted adjacently on the PCB and arranged so as to emit laser light through the lenses.
US08989227B1
In a VCSEL driver for automatic bias control and automatic modulation control, the VCSEL driver includes: a feedback module configured to receive an output of a VCSEL to provide a bias signal through a feedback loop; an automatic bias control block configured to adjust a bias current by switching on or off a plurality of power sources, which are connected in parallel with each other; an automatic modulation control block configured to connect in parallel a plurality of bias transistors that are connected to each of the plurality of power sources, and to adjust modulation current by switching each of the plurality of bias transistors on or off; and a main driver configured to provide the VCSEL with a drive current including the bias current and the modulation current, which are adjusted by control of each of the control blocks.
US08989226B2
A cooling module for fabricating a liquid-cooled semiconductor laser, a fabricating method, and a semiconductor laser fabricated from the module are provided, wherein the cooling module for a laser makes use of a liquid cooling plate provided with radiating fins to cool the semiconductor chip. After replacement of the traditional micro-channel structure with the radiating fin structure, the cooling module effectively reduces the resistance to flow of the cooling liquid, remarkably lowers the pressure decrease of the cooling liquid, makes it easier to seal the cooling liquid, provides stronger heat dissipating capability, effectively prolongs the lifetime of the semiconductor laser, and enhances the output power and reliability of the semiconductor laser, alongside the advantages of simple fabrication and low production cost.
US08989223B2
The invention provides a method and apparatus that addresses and resolves the issues currently affecting the ability to offer Enhanced TV, in particular, those issues concerning timing and synchronization, interaction with other modules in the STB, and distribution.
US08989219B2
When a transmission rate of each of lines that transmit data simultaneously between two STAs by using a plurality of radio channels and/or MIMO can be set independently, one data frame is fragmented in accordance with the transmission rates of the respective lines so as to generate a plurality of data packets having the same packet time length and data sizes equal to or smaller than a maximum data size. Those data packets are transmitted simultaneously by using a plurality of radio channels, or one radio channel and MIMO, or a plurality of radio channels and MIMO.
US08989217B2
When a signal-to-noise ratio affecting radio communication becomes sufficiently low, the data transmission rate is responsively decreased in compensation. The signal-to-noise ratio of the communication link is thereby increased. Data for multiple different services is transmitted in data packets between two radios. By allocating one part, or time slot, of the data packet's payload to one service, and allocating another part, or time slot, of the data packet's payload to another service, communications sessions for multiple services can be maintained concurrently. Services are prioritized relative to each other. In case the signal-to-noise ratio becomes too low, data packet portions that are related to lower-priority services can be omitted from some data packets before those data packets are transmitted. Data remaining in the packet can be sent at a reduced data transmission rate without causing the quality of service for the remaining packets to fall below the minimum required level.
US08989214B2
Circuitry for receiving a high-speed serial data signal (e.g., having a bit rate in the range of about 10 Gpbs and higher) includes a two-stage, continuous-time, linear equalizer having only two serially connected stages. Phase detector circuitry may be provided for receiving the serial output of the equalizer and for converting successive pairs of bits in that output to successive parallel-form bit pairs. Further demultiplexing circuitry may be provided to demultiplex successive groups of the parallel-form bit pairs to final groups of parallel bits, which can be quite large in terms of number of bits (e.g., 64 parallel bits). Another aspect of the invention relates to multiplexer circuitry for efficiently going in the opposite direction from such relatively large groups of parallel data bits to a high-speed serial data output signal.
US08989213B2
Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide methods and apparatus for utilizing a physical layer (PHY) header comprising an identifier for an access point (AP) or a Basic Service Set (BSS). A station (STA) that is assigned an order in a sequential response sequence may count only frames with PHY headers that contain the correct identifier. A STA may terminate its sequential access procedure when it receives a frame with a PHY header that specifies a different identifier for the AP or BSS that assigned the sequence. In this manner, the STA may prevent partly synchronizing to an overlapping network and avoid accessing the wireless medium at the wrong time.
US08989212B2
Systems and methods for coexistence of WLAN and Bluetooth networks are described. At least one embodiment includes a method for operating a wireless device in both a 802.11 network and a Bluetooth network. In accordance with some embodiments, the method comprises monitoring transmission of Synchronous Connection Oriented (SCO) slots over the Bluetooth network, informing an access point (AP) in the 802.11 network not to transmit to the device before the end of an SCO slot, transmitting a power save trigger to the AP to retrieve buffered data from the AP, and transmitting data to the AP.
US08989211B2
An apparatus for managing a channel resource by a node sets a channel hopping sequence and a channel hopping offset value which are to be used, divides an assigned time slot into a plurality of subslots, divides a data frame for transmission into a plurality of subframes, and selects a channel for transmitting the plurality of subframes in the plurality of subslots, respectively, by channel hopping based on the channel hopping sequence, the channel hopping offset value, the index of the time slot, and the index of a subslot for transmitting a subframe.
US08989207B2
A multiple-persona system and method is described, wherein a UE (user equipment) is able to connect to two different networks simultaneously. In a multiple-persona system, one of the personas may have a higher significance than the other persona. For example, a connection to a work network may be prioritized over connection to a home network. In such a situation, it may be desirable to have applications running on the work network have priority over applications running on the home network. Such a method and system may operate independently of the eNodeB or have the eNodeB actively controlling the priority among the personas. The scheduler in either the eNodeB or the UE may contain anew input for the significance of the persona. The significance of the persona is taken into account when sending data to and from the UE.
US08989193B2
Techniques are disclosed for hash-based routing table management in a distributed network switch having multiple switch modules. Upon determining that an attempt to insert a first routing entry into a first hash table of the routing table has failed, a second routing entry, which exists in the first hash table, is attempted to be moved to a second hash table of the routing table. If the move attempt is successful, then the first routing entry is added to the location previously occupied by the second routing entry. If the move attempt is unsuccessful, then a third routing entry, which exists in the first hash table, is attempted to be moved.
US08989176B2
The present invention discloses a method for triggering a nested service, which relates to the technique of broadband service triggering and service nesting. The present invention is proposed for solving the problem that the existing nested service occupies more system bandwidths, wherein the method includes: when receiving a call request of a nested service in a normal service flow, determining a service key of the nested service according to a called number of the nested service, taking the service key as a call access object, converting the call request of the nested service into a call access message in a service platform where a normal service is located, and triggering the nested service in the service platform. The present invention further discloses an apparatus for implementing the previously mentioned method. The present invention reduced the bandwidth resources consumed by the nested service, and the scheme is simple and practical.
US08989170B2
A wireless communication device in a wireless network sets management information notification cycles at specified time intervals and transmits management information containing receive timing information showing its own position to start receiving information, receive window information, and receive cycle information. Another wireless communication device receiving that management information links it to a communication device number for the corresponding wireless communication device and stores the receive timing, the receive window information, and the receive cycle information. When sending information, the receive start position of the corresponding communication device is found from the receive timing information, the receive window information, and the receive cycle information of the other communication and information is then transmitted at that timing. An asynchronous ad-hoc communication wireless network can therefore be configured without a particular control station.
US08989161B2
The present invention relates to methods for transmitting a frame by grouping a plurality of wireless terminals in a multiuser based wireless communication system. The present invention includes a method for transmitting a frame by including information about multiple receiver terminals in a MAC frame, another method for transmitting a frame by allocating group addresses and then using a corresponding group address for frame transmission, and yet another method for transmitting a frame by using a unique group sequence number that is allocated to each group and group control information that contains bitmap information. The group control information is included in a destination address field of a MAC layer, or in a signal field of a physical layer, or in both the MAC layer and the physical layer.
US08989155B2
Systems and methods are described for wireless backhaul in a multiple antenna system (MAS) with multi-user (MU) transmissions (“MU-MAS”). For example, a multiuser (MU) multiple antenna system (MAS) of one embodiment comprises: one or more centralized units communicatively coupled to multiple distributed transceiver stations via a network; the network consisting of wireline or wireless links or a combination of both, employed as a backhaul communication channel; the centralized unit transforming the N streams of information into M streams of bits, each stream of bits being a combination of some or all N streams of information; the M streams of bits being sent over the network to the distributed transceiver stations; the distributed transceiver stations simultaneously sending the streams of bits over wireless links to at least one client device such that at least one client device receives at least one of the original N streams of information.
US08989154B2
The present invention relates to the field of telecommunications, and discloses a method for indicating an MU-MIMO mode. In this method, first part information and second part information are constructed and sent, where formats of the first part information and the second part information indicate an MU-MIMO mode. The present invention further discloses an apparatus for indicating an MU-MIMO mode. With the method and apparatus for indicating an MU-MIMO mode, where the method and apparatus for indicating an MU-MIMO mode are disclosed in the present invention, a UE may be notified of being configured with an MU-MIMO mode when MU-MIMO is applied in a UMTS system.
US08989153B2
A mobile communication system includes a mobile station device and a base station device. The base station device includes a cell identification information transmission unit which transmits cell identification information of base station devices transmitting radio signals of the same synchronization channel, to the mobile station device when there are at least two base station devices transmitting radio signals of the same synchronization channel within a predetermined communication area. The mobile station device includes a measurement result transmission unit which performs a measurement process based on the cell identification information of the base station devices and transmits the measurement result acquired by the measurement process to the base station device.
US08989151B2
The application relates to SMS over LTE radio access. Several alternatives are already known, such as specified in 3GPP TS 24.247 which supports text messaging capabilities and 3GPP 23.204 which supports all existing SMS capabilities through SMS encapsulation in IP. Furthermore, 3GPP 23.272 which relates to SMS in CS fallback. A further technique is known as Generic Access Network which is under study in 3GPP 23.879 relating to CS domain services over evolved PS access and in Voice Over LTE VOLGA. The present application provides a solution for handling messages between legacy networks in the form of circuit-switched networks and IP network architecture in the form of an IP Multimedia Subsystem IMS while minimizing the efforts needed for system integration by maximal reuse of existing functionalities. This is achieved by an entity (100) which adapts messages received from the IMS (50) in such a way that the appear to a controller entity (200) providing conventional short message functionalities as if they have been received from a mobile terminal accessing a radio access network through a radio network interface of a circuit-switched network (40).
US08989136B2
A connection dormancy method for a wireless communication device, the wireless communication device and computer readable recording medium using the same are provided. The method includes recording connection information between the wireless communication device and at least one target device, and generating at least one connection establishing time according to the connection information. The method also includes determining using either a first dormancy waiting time or a second dormancy waiting time as a default dormancy waiting time according to the at least one connection establishing time, and disconnecting a connection between the wireless communication device and the at least one target device after the connection is idled for the default dormancy waiting time.
US08989122B2
In some implementations, a method implemented in a user equipment UE for use in a wireless system for single carrier frequency division multiple access SC-FDMA, the method including receiving an assignment of a scheduling request resource in the wireless system comprising a plurality of subcarriers. A user ID is encoded. An uplink control channel signal comprising the encoded user ID is transmitted on the plurality of subcarriers of the assigned scheduling request resource.
US08989103B2
A method and system for attenuating a received preamble in an IEEE 802.11 standard may include: a plurality of co-located access points (APs) operative in accordance with an IEEE 802.11 standard; a preamble detection unit configured to detect a transmission of a preamble in accordance of the IEEE 802.11 standard, by at least one of the co-located APs; and at least one attenuator configured to attenuate a signal received by at least one of the plurality of co-located APs upon detection of the preamble by the preamble detection unit.
US08989099B2
Systems, methods, and devices for providing aligned registration process and procedure for heterogeneous and/or overlaid access technologies within a network are described herein. In one innovative aspect, a method of generating and organizing wireless network access information is provided. The method includes receiving first information for a first area of a first radio access technology for a network. The method further includes receiving second information for a second area of a second radio access technology for the network. The method also includes receiving third information for the network. The method then includes generating, processing, and aligning a number of groups of first radio access technology location or registration identifiers coordinated with second radio access technology identifiers based at least in part on the received first, second, and third information. The groupings may be based on the quantity of devices, types of devices, and/or the number of physical access points.
US08989097B2
The present invention provides a multi-antenna diversity scheduling method and apparatus. The method includes: transmitting pilot signals through x transmit antennas, where pilot signals on 1 to x−1 transmit antennas are a product of pilot symbols and a phase sequence, the phase sequence changes with at least one of time and frequency, the phase sequence changes more frequently than a user channel, and x is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2; receiving a transient channel quality information (CQI) value returned by a user according to the pilot signals; and according to the CQI value and a scheduling algorithm, scheduling the user to transmit data.
US08989088B2
A method and apparatus provides OFDM signal compression for transfer over serial data links in a base transceiver system (BTS) of a wireless communication network. For the uplink, an RF unit of the BTS applies OFDM cyclic prefix removal and OFDM frequency transformation of the baseband signal samples followed by frequency domain compression of the baseband signal samples, resulting from analog to digital conversion of received analog signals followed by digital downconversion, forming compressed coefficients. After transfer over the serial data link, the baseband processor applies frequency domain decompression to the compressed coefficients prior to further signal processing. For the downlink, the RF unit performs frequency domain decompression of the compressed coefficients and applies OFDM inverse frequency transformation of the decompressed coefficients and OFDM cyclic prefix insertion prior to digital upconversion and digital to analog conversion, generating the analog signal for transmission over the antenna.
US08989085B2
A method of downlink synchronization for a femto base station in a cellular orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system is provided. The femto base station first scans one or more received reference signals transmitted from a plurality of neighboring macro base stations. The femto base station then determines a desired reference signal from the received one or more reference signals based on the scanning result. Finally, the femto base station configures its downlink radio signal transmission time based on the desired reference signal such that the femto base station is synchronized with the plurality of neighboring macro base stations.
US08989083B2
A method and apparatus is disclosed to restrict the delivery of video, audio, and/or data to unauthorized end users in a satellite communications system. The satellite communications system includes one or more satellite receiving antennas, commonly referred to as a satellite dish, to receive downlink communications signals from one or more satellites. The transmission received by the one or more satellite receiving antennas is converted by an outdoor unit (ODU) for transmission to one or more indoor units (IDUs). The ODU receives control information from one or more satellites from the downlink communications signals, commonly referred to as in-band, and/or from out-of-band communications signals. The ODU may use the control information to restrict access to one or more communications channels embedded within the downlink communications signals to the unauthorized end users.
US08989076B2
A mobile communication system includes a mobile station connected with a base station by radio when being in a cell formed by the base station, and configured to communicate with a counter side unit through the base station; and a relay station configured to form a limitation area. The relay station receives a downlink signal from the base station and transmits a limitation downlink signal obtained by adding information showing that it is in the limitation area to the downlink signal to the limitation area. When receiving the limitation downlink signal, the mobile station transmits an uplink signal showing a function limited state to the base station in synchronization with a downlink channel received from the base station.
US08989068B1
Selection between first and second communication channels of differing bandwidths for communication between communication devices may be chosen by a method, an apparatus, or a computer-readable medium wherein the first channel is employed as a communication channel, a determination is made whether a criterion associated with the communication channel is met, and, if the criterion associated with the communication channel is met, an evaluation of the second channel is performed and one of the first and second channels is chosen to subsequently employ as the communication channel based on the evaluation of the second channel.
US08989065B2
The disclosure relates to communication of data in a wireless communication system that enables relaying of data between an originating node (3) and a destined node (1). In the arrangement information of a radio resource allocated to the destined node is provided where after communications on the allocated resource are monitored. Relaying of data between the originating node (3) and the destined node (1) is controlled based on the monitoring.
US08989062B2
Method and arrangement in a base station for sending data to a user equipment. The base station comprises an instance of a codebook, corresponding to another instance of the codebook comprised in the user equipment. The method comprises obtaining channel state information from a signal received from the user equipment, estimating a channel to be used for transmitting data to the user equipment, calculating a precoder, based on the obtained channel state information. Further is comprised the steps of selecting a precoding index from the codebook based on the calculated precoder, or selecting a precoding index received from the user equipment, precoding data to be transmitted to the user equipment using the calculated precoder and transmitting the precoded data, a non-user dedicated reference signal and the precoding index on the estimated channel to the user equipment. Further, corresponding method and arrangement in a user equipment are described.
US08989061B2
A plurality of predetermined amplifier gain states for a low noise amplifier (LNA) are run during initial acquisition in a time division duplex (TDD) system. Acquisition of a received signal is determined based on searching across the plurality of predetermined amplifier gain states. Forcing the amplifier gain into a set of predetermined gain states affords quicker resolution of initial acquisition for setting the gain of the LNA, which in TDD systems is complicated due to an uncertain uplink/downlink timeline that precludes continuous operation of a gain setting algorithm run in the LNA.
US08989054B2
An IP device exchange apparatus includes: a connector that is connected to a first IP phone, a second IP phone, and a third IP phone; a memory for storing a coding scheme obtained by call setting which is negotiated between the first and second IP phones; and a controller that, when receiving a call instruction for call connection to the second IP phone from the third IP phone during communication between the first and second IP phones, employs the coding scheme stored in the memory to perform, between the third IP phone and the IP device exchange apparatus, call setting between the second and third IP phones, while maintaining call connection between the first and second IP phones, thereby changing the call connection between the first and second IP phones to call connection between the second and third IP phones.
US08989051B2
The present invention provides, in one embodiment, a method for detecting another device performed by a first device having a converged personal network service (CPNS) enabled entity. The method for detecting another device comprises the steps of: performing a procedure for a physical connection with a second device, if the CPNS enabled entity within the first device is set to a personal network entity (PNE) mode; and receiving a search request message from the second device, in order to prevent the duplication of information between the CPNS enabled entity and the second device. Preferably, said search request message can be used to obtain one or more pieces of information, among the mode information of one or more devices detected while the procedure for the physical connection is performed and the information on a network to which one or more said detected devices belong. Said received search request message can include one or more pieces of information among the information on the mode of the second device and the information on the network to which the second device belongs.
US08989032B2
Systems and methods for measuring frame loss in multipoint networks are provided. In one embodiment, a method for calculating frame loss in a multipoint network is provided. The method comprises: synchronizing local PM frame count bin boundaries across a multipoint network; collecting a first sample of frame count data at a network manager from a first local PM frame count bin for each VLAN Endpoint on the multipoint network; and calculating a frame loss for the multipoint network by accounting for frame ingress and frame egress from the multipoint network based on the first sample of frame count data; wherein the first sample of frame count data is associated with a first period of time defined by the local PM frame count bin boundaries.
US08989030B2
A threshold calculation apparatus (200) corrects each of ideal E-SINR thresholds in an MCS threshold table in accordance with a reduction in accuracy of the E-SINR due to the use of a first transformation table and a second transformation table, and generates a corrected MCS threshold table. In the case where a wireless base station obtains an E-SINR from a plurality of SINRs using the first transformation table and the second transformation table, the wireless base station determines an MCS corresponding to the E-SINR also based on the corrected MCS threshold table.
US08989014B2
A method for reserving capacity on a communication network link for guaranteed hit rate (GBR) and best effort (BE) traffic includes determining (s10) a dimensioned capacity DGBR for GBR traffic based on an expected GBR traffic load and one grade of service (GoS); determining (s20) a dimensioned capacity DTOT for total traffic based on DGBR, an expected BE traffic load and one GoS; determining (s30) a reserved capacity RTOT for total traffic by selecting, amongst capacities available on the link, the minimum of these capacities that exceeds DTOT; determining (s40) a reserved capacity RGBR for GBR traffic based on DGBR, DTOT and RTOT; reserving (s60) RTOτ as capacity for a higher-level pipe on the link; reserving (s60) RGBR as capacity for a first lower-level pipe for GBR traffic within the higher-level pipe; and reserving (s70) RTOT as capacity for a second lower-level pipe for BE traffic within the higher-level pipe.
US08989013B2
A radio station, a radio terminal, and a method for synchronization timer control are provided that can reduce a delay as much as possible until uplink signal resynchronization is done in a case where a plurality of cell groups exist. In a radio communication system having a function of using a plurality of radio resources corresponding to a plurality of cells, respectively, for communication between a radio station (10) and a radio terminal (20), the radio terminal is provided with a plurality of synchronization timers for determining whether or not uplink signals in individual cell groups are in synchronization, wherein the synchronization timers are provided respectively for the plurality of cell groups each including at least one cell, and at the radio terminal (20), uplink-signal transmission on the cells included in a second cell group is controlled depending on a state of a first synchronization timer provided correspondingly for a first cell group including a specific cell and on a state of a second synchronization timer provided correspondingly for the second cell group other than the first cell group, wherein the first synchronization timer and the second synchronization timer are controlled independently.
US08989004B2
A method and apparatus for wireless communication may provide a multi-link PDCP sublayer in a radio network controller capable of allocating PDCP PDUs among a plurality of RLC entities for use in a multi-point HSDPA network. Some aspects of the disclosure address issues relating to out-of-order delivery of the PDCP PDUs to a UE, such as unnecessary retransmissions. That is, the disclosed multi-link PDCP may be capable of distinguishing between sequence number gaps that are caused by physical layer transmission failures and those caused merely by skew.
US08988998B2
A system and method for controlling an integration of data processing resources. A first endpoint node is selected, wherein the first endpoint node comprises information for using first data processing resources in a data processing environment. A second endpoint node is selected, wherein the second endpoint node comprises information for using second data processing resources in the data processing environment, wherein the second data processing resources comprise data processing resources provided as a service by a provider of data processing resources. An integration node is selected, wherein the integration node comprises information for establishing connectivity between the first data processing resources and the second data processing resources. Integration of the first data processing resources and the second data processing resources is controlled to process a workload using the first endpoint node, the second endpoint node, and the integration node.
US08988995B2
One aspect of the specification is the use of a virtual entity to represent the bandwidth bottleneck point in a network. Areas of the network where bandwidth does not need to be managed can be modeled as zones. This model enables more flexibility as the virtual bottleneck point can represent a collection of components (e.g. routers), or a portion of a real component (e.g. a router could be represented by multiple virtual bottleneck points with different purposes.) This model can also allow a user to decide which points in their network should be managed, independent of the underlying data network infrastructure. These virtual entities can be placed between areas of the network, and configured with specific policies. Bandwidth usage across these virtual entities can be tracked and compared to the configured bandwidth limit available to the application at each bottleneck point. When the bandwidth available at the bottleneck point is fully utilized, additional calls can be blocked or rerouted. Policies can be applied to permit certain calls to proceed despite the fact that bandwidth is fully utilized, or to block certain calls when bandwidth usage is approaching the maximum level. Bandwidth management can be distributed or centralized with information shared throughout a distributed network.
US08988991B2
A method of and a device for enabling load balancing for Multiprotocol Label Switching Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) are provided. The method is applied to a process of transmitting data between two Provider Edge (PE) devices that adopt a protection mechanism of primary and backup tunnels. The method comprises allocating, by a source PE device located at a head node of a tunnel, traffic to each of the primary and backup tunnels in a current transmission period based on transmission performance information about each of the primary and backup tunnels in a previous transmission period fed back by a destination PE device located at a tail node of the tunnel, when a set transmission period comes; and obtaining, by said source PE device, the traffic allocated to each of the tunnels and transmitting data to the destination PE device via the corresponding tunnels.
US08988989B2
Communication node including a transmission equipment which communicates user data with transmission equipment of an adjacent node, and a controller which communicates a message with a controller of the adjacent node and which manages the transmission equipment of its own node, wherein: a controller of the node detects existence or nonexistence of fault of a controller of the adjacent node on the basis of situation of receiving a message sent from the controller of the adjacent node; when the controller of the node detects the fault of the controller of the adjacent node, the controller of the node issues a state reference notice to a transmission equipment of its own node and checks existence or nonexistence of fault alert detection; in a case where the fault alert detection of the transmission equipment of the node does not exist, the controller of the node maintains a path state of the node.
US08988974B2
A display apparatus characterized by having a scale mark display section which is provided in a predetermined display area; a pointer which moves on the scale mark display section and indicates a scale mark in the scale mark display section; a stepping motor which drives the pointer; a stopper section which is positioned in an end section of the scale mark display section and which restricts movement range of the pointer; and a movable supporting section which movably supports the stopper section.
US08988969B2
Evaluating utilities involves generating an acoustic or seismic source signal, communicating the source signal to a first underground utility, moving a receiver through a second underground utility situated in proximity to the first utility, and monitoring for a cross bore involving the first and second utilities in response to receiving the source signal emanating from the first utility as the receiver progresses through the second utility. Utility evaluation may further involve detecting a cross bore involving the first and second utilities using monitoring data acquired by the receiver.
US08988955B2
Apparatuses and methods for compensating for power supply sensitivities of a circuit in a clock path
Apparatuses and methods for compensating for differing power supply sensitivities of a circuit in a clock path. One such method includes altering signal timing of at least one of reference and feedback clock signals differently according to variations in power supply voltage to compensate for differences in delay power supply sensitivities of delays of a forward clock path and of a feedback clock path. Another example method includes providing an output clock signal in phase with an input clock signal and compensating for delay error between delays used in providing at least some of the delay of the output clock signal relative to the input clock signal by providing delays having power supply sensitivities resulting in a combined power supply sensitivity that is inverse to the delay error.
US08988949B2
One or more techniques or systems for controlling a supply voltage of a cell are provided herein. Additionally, one or more techniques or systems for mitigating leakage of the cell are provided. In some embodiments, a header circuit is provided, including a first pull-up p-type metal-oxide-semiconductor (PMOS) transistor including a first gate, a first source, and a first drain. Additionally, the header circuit includes a second pull-down PMOS transistor including a second gate, a second source, and a second drain. In some embodiments, the first drain of the first pull-up PMOS transistor is connected to the second source of the second pull-down PMOS transistor and a supply voltage line for one or more cells. In this manner, a pull-down PMOS is configured to control the supply voltage of the cell, thus facilitating voltage control for a write assist, for example.
US08988948B2
A memory macro comprises a data line, a first interface circuit comprising a first node coupled to the data line, and a voltage keeper configured to control a voltage level at the first node, and a second interface circuit comprising a second node coupled with the data line, wherein the voltage keeper is configured to control a voltage level at the second node via the data line.
US08988944B2
Writing data to a thermally sensitive memory device, including: receiving a physical layout of the thermally sensitive memory device; receiving the direction of airflow across the thermally sensitive memory device; selecting an address for writing data to the thermally sensitive memory device in dependence upon the physical layout of the thermally sensitive memory device and the direction of airflow across the thermally sensitive memory device; and writing data to the selected address of the thermally sensitive memory device.
US08988937B2
In a programming operation of a 3D stacked non-volatile memory device, the channel of an inhibited NAND string is pre-charged by gate-induced drain leakage (GIDL) to achieve a high level of boosting which prevents program disturb in inhibited storage elements. In a program-verify iteration, prior to applying a program pulse, the drain-side select gate transistor is reverse biased to generate GIDL, causing the channel to be boosted to a pre-charge level such as 1.5V. Subsequently, when the program pulse is applied to a selected word line and pass voltages are applied to unselected word lines, the channel is boosted higher from the pre-charge level due to capacitive coupling. The pre-charge is effective even for a NAND string that is partially programmed because it does not rely on directly driving the channel from the bit line end.
US08988929B2
A method is for driving a nonvolatile memory device, where the nonvolatile memory device includes a memory cell array composed of resistance memory cells. The method includes electrically connecting a clamping circuit, a line resistor and a selected one of the resistance memory cells in series between a sensing node and a ground. The method further includes adjusting at least one of a clamping voltage of the clamping circuit and a resistance of the line resistor according to a relative location of the selected one of the resistance memory cells within the memory cell array, and applying a read current to the sense node and sensing a voltage of the sense node to read a data stored in the selected one of the resistance memory cells.
US08988927B2
A non-volatile variable capacitive device includes a capacitor defined over a substrate, the capacitor having an upper electrode and a resistive memory cell having a first electrode, a second electrode, and a switching layer provided between the first and second electrodes. The resistive memory cell is configured to be placed in a plurality of resistive states according to an electrical signal received. The upper electrode of the capacitive device is coupled to the second electrode of the resistive memory cell. The resistive memory cell is a two-terminal device.
US08988926B2
Embodiments disclosed herein may relate to forming a storage component comprising a phase change material and a shunt relative to amorphous portions of the phase change material.
US08988924B2
Embodiments disclosed herein may relate to heating a phase change memory (PCM) cell.
US08988923B2
Voltage controlled magneto-electric tunnel junctions (MEJ) and associated memory devices are described which provide efficient high speed switching of non-volatile magnetic random access memory (MeRAM) devices at high cell densities with multiple word access mechanisms, including a burst mode write of multiple words, and a back-to-back read of two words in consecutive clock cycles. In at least one preferred embodiment, these accesses are performed in a manner that prevents any possibility of a read disturbance arising.
US08988909B2
A power conversion device includes a main circuit unit (direct-current main circuit) that converts direct-current power into alternating-current power, and a control unit that controls the direct-current main circuit. The direct-current main circuit includes a voltage detector (detector) that detects a capacitor voltage and a discharge circuit that discharges energy accumulated in a capacitor. The control unit includes a detection circuit that estimates a capacitor voltage during a normal operation based on a voltage transmitted from the voltage detector in a state where the main circuit unit is disconnected from a power supply and that detects a sign that a short circuit fault occurs in the capacitor, and a control circuit that outputs a control signal for controlling the discharge circuit to operate when the control circuit receives a detection signal from the detection circuit.
US08988908B2
A capacitive power supply including: a first capacitive element and a first resistive element in series between a first terminal of a power switch and at least one rectifying element having a second terminal connected to a first electrode of at least one second capacitive element for providing a D.C. voltage; and a bidirectional switch in parallel on the resistor.
US08988902B2
A controller integrated circuit (IC) for controlling a power converter uses one or more IC pins having plurality of functions such as configuration of a parameter supported by the controller IC and shutdown protection. Several different functions may be supported by a single IC pin, thereby reducing the number of pins required in the controller IC and also reducing the cost of manufacturing the controller IC. The controller IC may also share a comparison circuit among different pins and the different functions provided by those pins. Use of a shared comparison circuit further reduces the cost of manufacturing the controller IC without sacrificing the performance of the IC.
US08988898B2
Apparatus that may help identify unauthorized removal of goods while maintaining a pleasing physical appearance, avoiding theft misidentifications, and allowing a high degree of customer interaction. One example may provide a signal path for conveying a signal that is active when a good or device is removed from a retail or other environment in an authorized manner. The signal path may be wired or wireless. In another example, a signal path for a sensor may be inconspicuously combined with a power cable. In another example, theft misidentifications may be prevented by not relying on connections that a customer is likely to interact with to detect a theft. Another example may provide a security device that may allow a high degree of customer interaction by unobtrusively attaching a sensor to the back of a good to be protected.
US08988892B2
A substrate and an electronic device including the substrate are described. The substrate includes a first surface configured such that a semiconductor package or a semiconductor die is installable thereon, and a second surface facing the first surface, wherein, with respect to a central plane disposed between the first surface and the second surface at equal distances therefrom, a coefficient of thermal expansion in a first portion between the first surface and the central plane is configured to be higher than a coefficient of thermal expansion in a second portion between the second surface and the central plane configured to be. By using the substrate, undesirable overall shape deformation during semiconductor installation may be reduced or relieved.
US08988873B2
An electronic device includes a main body, two air guiding plates, and a cover. The main body includes a bottom plate and two side plates extending up from opposite sides of the bottom plate. A number of mounting tabs extend from an inner side of each side plate, arranged in a row. A circuit board is supported on the bottom plate, and includes a number of electronic components located between the two rows of mounting tabs. A cutout is defined in a top of each mounting tab. A number of hooking slots are defined in a bottom of each air guiding plate. Top walls of the hooking slots of each air guiding plate are respectively supported by bottom walls of the cutouts of the corresponding row of mounting tabs. The cover is covered on a top of the main body and abuts tops of the air guiding plates.
US08988867B2
A liquid crystal display device is provided with: a liquid crystal panel capable of displaying an image; a backlight unit including cold cathode tubes and a chassis housing the cold cathode tubes and supplying light to the liquid crystal panel; and a second exterior member housing the liquid crystal panel and the backlight unit and including a bottom portion facing the chassis. On a surface of the chassis facing the bottom portion, a plurality of fixing members capable of fixing the bottom portion is provided. The fixing members include inverter covers disposed with a gap from the bottom portion, and reinforcing members abutting on the bottom portion. Between the inverter covers and the bottom portion, spacers with the function of damping vibration are interposed.
US08988857B2
An improved passive electronic stacked component is described. The component has a stack of individual electronic capacitors and a first lead attached to a first side of the stack. A second lead is attached to a second side of the stack. A foot is attached to the first lead and extends inward towards the second lead. A stability pin is attached to one of the foot or the first lead.
US08988846B2
A very small form factor consumer electronic product includes at least a single piece housing having an integral front and side walls that cooperate to form a cavity in cooperation with a front opening where an edge of the side walls define a rear opening and at least some of the edges have flanges. The consumer electronic product also includes an user input assembly having a size and shape in accordance with the front opening and a clip assembly having a size and shape in accordance with the rear opening and having an external user actionable clip, a plurality of internal hooking features, and a plurality of internal latching features. The clip assembly is secured by engaging at least some of the hooking features and the flanges on the edges of the housing and engaging the latching features and corresponding attachment features on the internal support plate.
US08988845B2
The present invention provides a forklift and a warehouse system. The forklift includes a hoisting apparatus, a fork, and a static electricity eliminating device. The hoisting apparatus is used to maneuver the fork and the static electricity eliminating device which supplies pressurized ionized airflow toward an area located above the fork. By way of forgoing, the accumulated static electricity can he electively drained and grounded. Furthermore, the accumulated static electricity within the warehouse system can be effectively controlled and eliminated.
US08988842B2
A terminal block is disclosed that includes a terminal body housing, a plurality of conductive elements arranged within the terminal body to create a continuous electrical path therethrough, and a disconnect switch integral the terminal body, the switch arranged to open the continuous electrical path and expose a terminal.
US08988836B2
When an abnormality occurs in a refrigeration cycle, the inverter motor provided in the air conditioner is stopped reliably and contacts of the main relay are prevented from degradation and fusion. A power circuit 1 of the air conditioner includes a rectifier circuit RC, a capacitor C (smoothing unit), a main relay 10 provided on a current path between the rectifier circuit RC and the capacitor C, an inverter circuit 30, a microcomputer 100, and a delay circuit 40. The microcomputer 100 has an inverter circuit control unit 110, a main relay opening/closing control unit 120, a waveform forced cut-off unit 130, and a cut-off signal output unit 140. Where a high-pressure switch 200 (abnormality detection unit) detects a high-pressure abnormality and outputs a high-pressure abnormality signal to the waveform forced cut-off unit 130 when the main relay 10 is in a closed state, the waveform forced cut-off unit 130 electrically cuts off the inverter circuit control unit 110, and the cut-off signal output unit 140 outputs a cut-off signal, which sets the main relay 10 to the open state, to the main relay 10 via the delay circuit 40.
US08988835B1
Various embodiments relate to an apparatus having a sensor with an active tunnel magnetoresistive region, magnetic shields flanking the tunnel magnetoresistive region, and gaps between the active tunnel magnetoresistive region and the magnetic shields. The active tunnel magnetoresistive region includes a free layer, a tunnel barrier layer and a reference layer. At least one of the gaps includes an electrically conductive layer having a refractory material. Other embodiments relate to an apparatus having a sensor with an active tunnel magnetoresistive region, magnetic shields flanking the tunnel magnetoresistive region, and gaps between the tunnel magnetoresistive region and the magnetic shields. The active tunnel magnetoresistive region includes a free layer, a tunnel barrier layer and a reference layer. At least one of the gaps includes an electrically conductive layer having a modified region at a media facing side thereof, the modified region being at least one of nonconductive and mechanically hardened.
US08988830B1
A slider comprises a slider trailing edge; a lubricant blocker having a disk facing surface and a lubricant blocker trailing edge, the lubricant blocker trailing edge having a lateral end trailing a central end; and a lubricant guiding channel recessed from the disk facing surface and extending from the slider trailing edge to the lubricant blocker trailing edge.
US08988818B2
A medium processing apparatus includes a magazine including a plurality of storage units each of which stores the storage medium, the adjacent storage units being connected by a hinge member so that each of the storage units rotates on a shaft, a curved conveyance path that guides the magazine, a conveying unit that conveys the magazine along the conveyance path, and a medium moving unit that moves the storage medium between the storage unit of the conveyed magazine and the processing unit, and thus space saving is achieved.
US08988816B1
According to one embodiment, a magnetic disk apparatus includes a plurality of magnetic disks, a plurality of heads which execute recording or reading with respect to the magnetic disks, a plurality of sensors provided in each of the heads and output a signal in accordance with a flying height of the heads from the magnetic disks, a writing module which simultaneously writes servo data in the plurality of magnetic disks by using the plurality of heads, and a control module which simultaneously executes a process for detecting a crash of the heads into the magnetic disks for the plurality of heads based on each output signal of the plurality of sensors when the servo data is written.
US08988814B1
According to one embodiment, a storage device includes a data conversion unit that coverts user data of n bits, into m three-ary symbols, a recording medium that records the symbols as a signal of any one of three levels corresponding to values of the symbols, and a Viterbi equalizer that performs equalization of the m symbols simultaneously based on a signal read from the recording medium while setting the number of states as a power of 3 and using a trellis diagram having 2n branches, and calculates 2n likelihoods.
US08988812B1
A data storage device comprising a transducer that includes a sensor array comprising multiple read sensors in a down track direction. A first pair of sensors in the sensor array reads data from a track, and at least one read sensor reads noise from an adjacent track.
US08988790B2
Disclosed herein is an imaging lens, including: a first lens having positive (+) power and being biconvex; a second lens having negative (−) power and being concave toward an image side; a third lens having positive (+) power and being biconvex; a fourth lens having positive (+) power and being convex toward the image side; and a fifth lens having negative (−) power and being concave toward the image side, wherein the first lens, the second lens, the third lens, the fourth lens, and the fifth lens are sequentially disposed from an object side.
US08988789B2
An optical image system includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens element, a second lens element, a third lens element, a fourth lens element and a fifth lens element. The first lens element with positive refractive power has a convex object-side surface. The second lens element has negative refractive power. The third lens element has refractive power, wherein two surfaces of the third lens element are aspheric. The fourth lens element with refractive power has a convex image-side surface, wherein two surfaces of the fourth lens element are aspheric. The fifth lens element with refractive power has a concave image-side surface, wherein two surfaces of the fifth lens element are aspheric, and the fifth lens element has an inflection point on the image-side surface thereof.
US08988786B2
A zoom lens includes in order from an object side: a first lens unit having a positive refractive power which does not move for zooming; a second lens unit having a negative refractive power which moves during zooming; a third lens unit having a positive refractive power which moves during zooming; and a fourth lens unit having a positive refractive power which does not move for zooming, the third lens unit moving to an image side and then to the object side for zooming from a wide angle end to a telephoto end, in which a focal length (f1) of the first lens unit, a focal length (f2) of the second lens unit, a focal length (f3) of the third lens unit, and a lateral magnification (β3w) of the third lens unit at the wide angle end when a ray enters from infinity are appropriately set.
US08988782B2
A zoom lens includes, in order from an object side to an image side, first to fourth lens units having negative, positive, negative, and positive refractive power, respectively. Each lens unit moves during zooming so that a distance between the first lens unit and the second lens unit at the telephoto end is shorter than at the wide-angle end and a distance between the second lens unit and the third lens unit and a distance between the third lens unit and the fourth lens unit at the telephoto end are larger than those at the wide-angle end. A focal length of the third and fourth lens units, a focal length of the entire zoom lens at the wide-angle end, a focal length of the entire zoom lens at the telephoto end, and a sum of axial thicknesses of the first to fourth lens units are appropriately set.
US08988781B2
The present invention relates to a focus-adjustable device and a system thereof, wherein the focus-adjustable device is fabricated by forming a single closed flow channel in the internal of a transparent substrate, so as to make the substrate and the single closed flow channel together form a specific lens structure similar to the Fresnel lens. In the present invention, when a light illuminates on one side of the substrate, the light would be concentrated at a specific focus point distancing from the other side of the substrate after being deflected by the specific lens structure. Moreover, a fluid having a specific refractive index can be filled into the single closed flow channel by a flow channel opening, so as to carry out the purpose of adjusting the focus of the specific lens structure; or to make the light parallelly pass through the specific lens structure without any deflection.
US08988776B2
A film includes microlayers arranged into optical repeat units. Adjacent microlayers have in-plane refractive index mismatches Δnx, Δny tailored to provide mirror-like on-axis properties, such that the film has a reflectivity for normally incident light in an extended wavelength band of at least 75% for any polarization. Adjacent microlayers also have a refractive index mismatch Δnz that provides the film with reduced reflectivity R1 and increased transmission for p-polarized light in the extended wavelength band incident on the film in a first plane of incidence at an angle θoblique, where R1 is no more than half of the minimum of on-axis reflectivity. Further, Δnx and Δny are different enough so that for light incident on the film in a second plane of incidence orthogonal to the first plane, the film has a reflectivity R2 of at least 75% for such light that is p-polarized and incident at any angle.
US08988766B2
The present invention relates to a stable optical cavity, in which an obstacle is formed or arranged on the optical axis in the form of a through-opening in one of the mirrors or of an input- or output-coupling element, in order to enable a direct geometric access to the optical axis. The mirrors of the cavity are arranged such that a degeneracy of a plurality of transverse eigenmodes of the cavity occurs without an obstacle, by the combination of which an intensity minimum is obtained in the cavity with an obstacle at the position of the through-opening or of the input- or output-coupling element. With this configuration an optical cavity of high finesse which has a position of maximum intensity on the optical axis can be realized.
US08988765B2
An apparatus and method for despeckling that includes a green laser diode assembly, a pulsed laser with a repetition rate of less than 100 kHz, and stimulated Raman scattering light formed in an optical fiber. The laser diode light and stimulated Raman scattering light are combined to form a projected digital image. The green laser diode assembly or the pulsed laser is switched to improve the bit depth of the projected digital image.
US08988760B2
Encapsulation is provided to electromechanical devices to protect the devices from such environmental hazards as moisture and mechanical shock. In addition to the encapsulation layer providing protection from environmental hazards, the encapsulation layer is additionally planarized so as to function as a substrate for additional circuit elements formed above the encapsulation layer.
US08988756B2
This invention discloses conductive busbars and sealants for electrooptic devices including electrochromic mirrors and windows. The conductive busbars are formed from materials comprising nanoparticles, and the sealants comprise of additives that promote a two phase morphology and use of adhesion promotion additives with crosslinkers. Methods to deposit busbars and then to connect these busbars to electrical connectors are also disclosed.
US08988743B2
According to one embodiment, a document detecting apparatus includes a light-emitting element, a photoelectric conversion element, a light-emission controller and a detection processor. The light-emitting element projects light onto a detection position of a document. The light-emitting element is not used for reading an image of the document. The photoelectric conversion element converts light projected onto the detection position into an electric signal and outputs the electric signal. The light-emission controller changes the light quantity of the light emitted by the light-emitting element during a predetermined interval. The detection processor detects the presence or absence of the document at the detection position of the document based on whether a value of the output electric signal during the predetermined interval changes in correspondence to the change of the light quantity caused by the light-emission controller.
US08988738B2
A reading-use holding member which is configured for use with an image reading apparatus including an image reading unit and which holds a sheet of workpiece while image reading is performed by the image reading unit, the reading-use holding member including a base being generally planar; an indicator provided at the base and configured to identify a type of holding member when read by the image reading unit; a holding portion provided at the base and configured to hold the workpiece; and a reference portion provided at the base and configured to provide a reference image data for use in a shading correction of an image read by the image reading unit.
US08988737B2
A communication system includes a client device that does not include facsimile transmission functions, and a relay device. The relay device is communicably connected to the client device via a private network while also being communicably connected to an external device via a public network, includes facsimile transceiving functions that transmit and receive facsimiles via a public network line associated with the client device, and in response to facsimile transmission instructions for image information received from the client device via the private network, transmits to the external device a facsimile of the image information with added information on the public network line associated with the private network.
US08988734B2
An image processing apparatus for forming an image by performing a plurality of times of recording on a same region of a recording medium by using a recording head including a plurality of recording elements for each of a first color material and a second color material, and a generation unit configured to generate recording data corresponding to each scan of the first color material and the second color material, wherein the generation unit generates, in a case where a defective recording element occurs among the plurality of recording elements for recording the first color material, recording data corresponding to each scan of the first color material by complementing a recording amount assigned to the defective recording element so that impact order between the first color material and the second color material is not changed.
US08988730B2
When a recording agent amount limiting process is carried out, a color reproduction range is narrowed, and therefore gradation properties of dark areas are deteriorated and information originally held by an image is sometimes undesirably lost. By obtaining (401) a colorant amount for each target pixel of input color image data, calculating (402) a colorant amount of a peripheral area of the target pixel, and correcting (400) a density range of the input color image data based on the colorant amount of the target pixel and the colorant amount of the peripheral area of the target pixel, amounts of recording agent are limited and reductions in image quality are prevented.
US08988727B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image formation stopping unit that, in a case of comparing the length of recording paper to actually be fed with the length of recording paper set and having determined that the recording paper length detected by a recording paper length detecting unit is shorter than the length of the recording paper input through a recording paper size inputting unit, causes an image forming operation to a photoconductor by the image forming unit to stop before an image formation length in a vertical scanning direction by the image forming unit reaches a recording paper length according to the recording paper length detecting unit.
US08988726B2
An image forming apparatus includes a high speed correction mode in which, at the time of a successive image forming process on a plurality of recording sheets, a preset number of recording sheets among the plurality of recording sheets are subjected to image formation based on a corrected image writing position, and other recording sheets are subjected to image formation based on the corrected image writing position; and a linear correction mode in which the plurality of recording sheets are subjected to image formation based on the corrected image writing position; and performs switching to either one of the high speed correction mode and the linear correction mode according to a correction amount βb for a recording sheet detected at the time of image formation with respect to a correction amount βa for the preset number of recording sheets.
US08988723B2
Disclosed are a printing apparatus for executing print processing based upon print data and a method of controlling this apparatus. The print data is saved in a first memory area, the print data, which has been saved in the first memory area, is rendered into image data, the rendered image data is stored in a second memory area, and printing is performed using the image data. A determination is made as to whether the image data, which has been stored in the second memory area, is to be saved for the purpose of reprint process.
US08988718B2
This disclosure discloses a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, storing a program for executing steps. The steps comprising a first storage processing step for obtaining a plurality of print data, a capacity obtaining step for obtaining a storage capacity of the storage portion of the printed matter producing apparatus, a data allocation step for grouping the plurality of print data into a plurality of print data groups, so that each data volume is not more than the predetermined storage capacity and for determining allocation of the print data to be included in each print data group so that the number of the print data groups becomes the minimum, a second storage processing step for storing the plurality of print data so that they can be read for each print data group, and a first data transmission step for sequentially transmitting the print data to the printed matter producing apparatus.
US08988713B2
The embodiments provide a printing system including an application manager, implemented at a cloud print server, configured to receive a print job including encrypted content to be printed by a designated cloud-aware printer, over a network, from an application associated with a device, a print job router, implemented at the cloud print server, configured to route the print job including the encrypted content, over the network, to the designated cloud-aware printer to be decrypted, and a secure format converter configured to receive the print job including decrypted content from the designated cloud-aware printer, convert the print job from a printer-independent format to a printer-specific format associated with the designated cloud-aware printer, and provide the print job having the printer-specific format to the designated cloud-aware printer for printing.
US08988711B2
A non-transitory computer readable recording medium stores a print job generating program that causes a computer to perform as a setting unit, and a print job generating unit that generates a print job, based on a content of setting that is set using the setting unit by a user. In a print system environment that executes a process based on the print job, a first setting for not performing a first process, regardless of a print setting included in the print job, has been made in the print system environment for a first function of a first post-processing device included in an image forming device. The setting unit allows the user to set, alternatively to the first process, a second process performed by a second function of a second post-processing device included in the print system environment.
US08988706B2
Apparatuses, systems and methods are provided for managing and exchanging printer data.
US08988702B2
A printer and printing control method to enable print data received from a host computer to be selectively deleted without modifying the host computer or application. A data receiving unit 100 receives print data from a host computer 40. A deletion line parameter unit 81 sets the number of deletion lines that are to be deleted from the received print data. A print data deletion unit 87 deletes the print data corresponding to the deletion lines set by the deletion line parameter unit 81. A printing unit 120 then prints a receipt using the actual (i.e., corrected) print data, which is the received print data remaining after deletion of the selected deletion lines by the print data deletion unit 87.
US08988692B2
A print control program has a target printer designating step of designating a target printer for printing, a target printer determining step of determining capabilities of the target printer, and a language converting step of converting the page description language into another page description language depending on capabilities of the target printer. A rule creation unit creates a repetition rule corresponding to a repetition element and a rule application unit creates a repetition structure for configuration information using the repetition rule.
US08988688B2
Disclosed are optical sensing devices and methods for detecting samples using the same. The optical sensing device comprises a source unit configured to generate a polychromatic light beam containing p-polarized and s-polarized components; an interferometric unit configured to split the light beam into a probe beam passing a first path and a reference beam passing a second path and to recombine the probe beam output from the first path and the reference beam output from the second path; a sensing unit disposed in the first path to introduce a first SPR effect associated with a target sample to the probe beam; and a detection unit configured to detect target sample characteristics by obtaining an intensity spectrum of the recombined light beam. The introduction of a polychromatic light source in the optical sensing device increases the detection dynamic range and the detection sensitivity.
US08988686B2
Included are embodiments for a color calibration device formed from a flexible, elongate strip of material that is formable into a headband. The color calibration device includes a first color correction region comprising a plurality of color chips and a second color correction region comprising a plurality of color chips, wherein the first color correction region and the second color correction region are positioned on opposite sides of a mid-point of the flexible, elongate strip of material.
US08988677B2
A unit is provided comprising an array (2) of sample containers (1), said containers, being connected together and arranged in a planar configuration, each container having multiple optically transparent windows arranged such that the sample contained therein can be interrogated using simultaneous multiple optical analytical techniques, the array of containers being configured so as to allow optical access to the windows of each container in the array. Also provided is an apparatus comprising such a unit, a system comprising a combination of such an apparatus and unit and a method of analyzing multiple samples by introducing each individual sample into an individual container of such an apparatus, illuminating the samples and detecting and analyzing light emerging therefrom.
US08988672B2
A method of aiming a light source includes using an image-capturing device to capture a light beam pattern from the light source. Here, the light beam pattern is configured to include a plurality of contrast ratios transitioning from a first intensity region to a second intensity region. The method includes processing the contrast ratios of the light beam pattern to obtain corresponding values of the contrast ratios, transitioning from the first intensity region to the second intensity region, where the corresponding values are logarithmic values, which in turn generate a related response curve. Finally, the method provides for using the logarithmic values and the response curve to aim the light source.
US08988671B2
A BOTDA system that combined optical pulse coding techniques and coherent detection includes a narrow linewidth laser, two polarization-maintaining couplers, microwave generator, two electro-optic modulators (EOMs), fiber under test, an optical circulator, a 3 dB coupler, a polarization scrambler, a pulse generator, a balance photodetector, an electrical spectrum analyzer, digital signal processing unit and a frequency shifter. The optical pulse coding techniques and coherent detection are simultaneously used in the invented system, which can be enhance the signal-to-noise ration (SNR), the measuring accuracy and the sensing distance of BOTDA. Moreover, the proposed system has the capacity of break interrogation.
US08988669B2
An optical power monitoring device includes a photodetector disposed in close proximity to the cladding of an optical fiber for measuring Rayleigh scattered light from the core of the optical fiber. To ensure only Rayleigh scattered light is measured, a cladding stripper is provided to remove any cladding light prior taking a reading with the photodetector.
US08988662B1
In some embodiments, distances associated with a surface may be calculated using time-of-flight (ToF) of a plurality of pulses of light occurring at a predetermined frequency. Reflected light from a light emitter may be captured by two or more light sensors. At least one light sensor may be located in a sensor pod that is separate from the light emitter, which may be housed in an emitter pod with or without a light sensor. The sensor pod may be synchronized with the emitter pod to enable ToF of light distance calculations. The calculated distance may be used to determine movement of a surface and/or one or more pixels of a surface. In some instances, the calculated distance may be used to identify a profile of a surface, which may then be used associate the profile with an object, a command, or another association.
US08988649B2
The present invention relates to an image display device using a diffractive lens. An image display device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a display panel displaying an image, and a diffractive lens for the image of the display panel to be recognized as a two-dimensional (2D) image or a three-dimensional (3D) image, wherein the diffractive lens modifies a path of light by using an optical principle of a Fresnel zone plate.
US08988646B2
A method for adjusting an amount of liquid crystal in a liquid crystal display (LCD) device includes injecting a liquid crystal into a liquid crystal receiving space. The liquid crystal receiving space is disposed between a first substrate, a second substrate that faces the first substrate, and a sealing member interposed between the first and second substrates. The method for adjusting an amount of liquid crystal in a liquid crystal display (LCD) device further includes reducing a thickness of the sealing member at a predetermined portion of the sealing member to form a repair region, and pressurizing the liquid crystal to break the sealing member at the repair region to discharge some of the liquid crystal from the liquid crystal receiving space, so as to adjust the amount of the liquid crystal in the liquid crystal receiving space. The method for adjusting an amount of liquid crystal in a liquid crystal display (LCD) device also includes resealing the broken repair region of the sealing member.
US08988642B2
A liquid crystal display device includes: a first substrate; a first electrode on a first face of the first substrate; a second substrate opposed to the first substrate; a second electrode on a first face of the second substrate, the second electrode corresponding to the first electrode; and a liquid crystal structure between the first substrate and the second substrate, the liquid crystal structure including liquid crystal capsules.
US08988637B2
To suppress light leakage at the time of dark state, and to provide a liquid crystal display device whose electrodes in the reflection areas can be formed with high precision. The liquid crystal display device has a reflection area within a pixel unit by corresponding at least to a reflection plate forming part, and the reflection area is driven with a lateral electric field mode and normally-white. A driving electrode for forming an electric field to a liquid crystal layer of the reflection area is formed on the reflection plate via an insulating film by using a non-transparent electric conductor.
US08988636B2
An electronic device is provided with a display such as a liquid crystal display mounted in an electronic device housing. The display has a layer of liquid crystal material sandwiched between an upper display layer such as a color filter layer and a lower display layer such as a thin-film-transistor layer. An upper polarizer is formed on the upper surface of the color filter layer. A lower polarizer is formed on the lower surface of the thin-film-transistor layer. To protect display layers such as a glass color filter layer substrate for the color filter layer from damage during polarizer trimming operations, a coating is deposited on a peripheral edge of the glass color filter layer substrate. The coating may be formed from an elastomeric polymer such as silicone and may remain in place or may be removed following trimming operations.
US08988634B2
An optical film is provided. According to an embodiment, the optical film may include a base material layer, a first layer disposed on the base material layer and having a first oxide and at least one bead, and a second layer disposed on the first layer and having a second oxide and a mineral pigment.
US08988633B2
The present invention provides a liquid crystal module with edge-lit backlight, which includes aluminum extrusion, edge-lit backlight source, light guiding plate (LGP), optical film set, mold frame, and at least a magnetic device, disposed with at least an attaching surface, for attaching to backlight source substrate, and an outer surface protruding beyond the light-emitting surface of LEDs; the outer surface of magnetic device near or pressing against LGP and having a difference in height levels from light-emitting surface of LEDs. The present invention also discloses a liquid crystal display device adopting the above liquid crystal module with edge-lit backlight. As such, the present invention can prevent the coupling optical distance from being too small, improve the endurance of the impact on the backlight and improve the backlight life span.
US08988626B2
A liquid crystal display device and method for manufacturing the same are provided. A liquid crystal display (LCD) with a touch function includes: a pixel thin film transistor (TFT) in a display area, and a buffer TFT of a gate driver in a non-display area, wherein a lightly-doped drain (LDD) length of the buffer TFT is shorter than a lightly doped drain (LDD) length of the pixel TFT.
US08988625B2
The display device includes a gate electrode, a gate insulating film provided over the gate electrode, a semiconductor film provided over the gate insulating film to overlap with the gate electrode, an island-shaped first insulating film provided over the semiconductor film to overlap with the gate electrode, a first conductive film provided over the semiconductor film, a pair of second conductive films which is provided over the semiconductor film and between which the first insulating film is sandwiched, and a second insulating film provided over the first insulating film, the first conductive film, and the pair of second conductive films. In the second insulating film and the semiconductor film, an opening portion which is positioned between the first conductive film and the one or the other of the pair of second conductive films is provided.
US08988623B2
When a pixel portion and a driver circuit are formed over one substrate and a counter electrode is formed over an entire surface of a counter substrate, the driver circuit may be adversely affected by an optimized voltage of the counter electrode. A semiconductor device according to the present invention has a structure in which: a liquid crystal layer is provided between a pair of substrates; one of the substrates is provided with a pixel electrode and a driver circuit; the other of the substrates is a counter substrate which is provided with two counter electrode layers in different potentials; and one of the counter electrode layers overlaps with the pixel electrode with the liquid crystal layer therebetween and the other of the counter electrode layers overlaps with the driver circuit with the liquid crystal layer therebetween. An oxide semiconductor layer is used for the driver circuit.
US08988620B2
The present invention relates to the field of detection of viruses, and in particular to detection of viruses using a liquid crystal assay format. In the present invention, virus binding in a detection region is identified by changes in liquid crystal orientation caused by virus binding independent orientation caused by any topography associated with the detection region.
US08988619B2
There is provided a technology capable of reducing crosstalk at the time of 3D display in a display device using a liquid crystal lens that forms cylindrical lenses by controlling a voltage applied to a liquid crystal panel. The display device includes a liquid crystal display panel which includes a substrate including a plurality of strip-shaped transparent electrodes and a plurality of strip-shaped light shielding portions overlapping with the electrodes. The display device displays an image by switching a two-dimensional display and a three-dimensional display, and the cylindrical lenses making up a parallax barrier, are formed by controlling a refraction index of a liquid crystal layer.
US08988615B2
A display apparatus is provided, which includes a motion recognition unit which recognizes a motion of an object that is located outside the display device, and a control unit which, when the motion of the object is recognized, determines a change amount that varies according to a motion speed or a motion distance of the object, and performs an operation which corresponds to the motion of the object according to the change amount. Accordingly, channel change or page shift can be easily performed.
US08988614B2
Systems, methods, and devices enabling peak time power savings are disclosed. An indication of a peak usage period may be processed, the indication received by a television receiver from a service provider. A power savings mode may be selected from operating modes based at least in part on the indication. Configuration information related to the power savings mode may be processed. The television receiver may be configured according to the configuration information related to the power savings mode at a first time corresponding to the peak usage period. The television receiver may operate in conformity with the power savings mode after the first time. The television receiver may be configured according to a second operating mode at a second time after the first time. The television receiver may operate in conformity with the second operating mode after the second time corresponding to the peak usage period.
US08988608B2
A digital cable broadcast receiver and a method for automatically processing caption data of various standards and types, is disclosed. The digital broadcast receiver includes: a demultiplexer for dividing a received broadcast stream into video data, audio data, supplementary information; a controller for determining whether caption data included in the video data is digital caption data or analog caption data on the basis of caption information included in the supplementary information, and outputting a control signal according to a result of the determining; a digital caption decoder for extracting and decoding digital caption data from the video data according to the control signal; and an analog caption decoder for extracting and decoding analog caption data from the video data according to the control signal.
US08988607B2
A digital cable broadcast receiver and a method for automatically processing caption data of various standards and types, is disclosed. The digital broadcast receiver includes: a demultiplexer for dividing a received broadcast stream into video data, audio data, supplementary information; a controller for determining whether caption data included in the video data is digital caption data or analog caption data on the basis of caption information included in the supplementary information, and outputting a control signal according to a result of the determining; a digital caption decoder for extracting and decoding digital caption data from the video data according to the control signal; and an analog caption decoder for extracting and decoding analog caption data from the video data according to the control signal.
US08988597B2
An imaging control device for controlling a facial image taking apparatus which radiates light from a light source to a face and takes an image of the face is disclosed. The imaging control device determines an intensity of environmental light and a degree of reflection by a pair of eyeglasses. When it is determined that the intensity of the environmental light is greater than or equal to a predetermined determination value and the degree of the reflection by the eyeglasses is greater than or equal to a predetermined determination value, the imaging control device sets an intensity of the light radiated from the light source to a predetermined intensity that makes states of eyes in the facial image recognizable.
US08988594B2
A lens barrel comprises a first zoom/focus lens group and a second zoom/focus lens group configured to respectively vary a focal distance and imaging distance by moving in an optical axis, a first actuator configured to drive the first zoom/focus lens group, a second actuator configured to drive the second zoom/focus lens group, and a drive controller configured to independently control the first actuator and the second actuator. The drive controller is configured to wobble the first zoom/focus lens group by reciprocating only the first zoom/focus lens group out of the first and second zoom/focus lens groups in a optical axis direction.
US08988591B2
According to one embodiment, a solid-state imaging device includes an imaging processing circuit and a focus drive control section. The imaging processing circuit includes a luminance information generating section and a disparity amount calculating section. The luminance information generating section generates first luminance information from a first image signal. The disparity amount calculating section calculates a disparity amount based on the first luminance information and second luminance information. The second luminance information is contained in a second image signal. The focus drive control section controls the focus drive in accordance with a subject distance obtained using the disparity amount.
US08988589B2
An image pickup apparatus uses an image pickup device. A manual focus adjusting unit is configured to control a focus lens in response to a user's input operation. An edge detecting unit is configured to detect edge components from an image signal obtained by the image pickup device and to output detection levels of the detected edge components. A color signal replacement unit is configured to replace a signal of a pixel corresponding to the detection level with a predetermined color signal when the detection level satisfies a predetermined condition. A display unit is configured to display an image based on an output image signal from the color signal replacement unit.
US08988584B2
A camera includes an imaging device; a phase difference detection unit configured to, in parallel with receipt of the light from the subject by the imaging device, perform phase difference detection using the light to detect a defocus amount of the subject; a focus lens group; a body control section configured to move the focus lens group based on the defocus amount detected by the phase difference detection unit to bring the subject into focus; and an image display section for selecting a subject to be in focus from subjects included in an image signal. The body control section is configured to, when the subject to be in focus is selected, move the focus lens group to bring the selected subject into focus. The body control section adjusts a focusing time depending on the defocus amount detected before the movement of the focus lens group.
US08988583B2
An image-pickup apparatus is operable in a first mirror driving mode where a motor rotates a mirror cam member in a first direction so as to move a mirror at a first speed and is operable in a second mirror driving mode where the motor rotates the mirror cam member in as second direction so as to move the mirror at a second speed slower than the first speed. When start of taking an image is instructed, a light emitting member starts a pre-flush operation before the mirror cam member starts to rotate in a case where the image-pickup apparatus operates in the first mirror driving mode, and the light emitting member starts the pre-flash operation after the mirror cam member starts to rotate in a case where the image-pickup apparatus operates in the second mirror driving mode.
US08988582B2
An image sensor includes a pixel array and an image sensor objective optical element. The element is formed by a lenslet array. Each lenslet in the array directs incoming radiation onto a different specific pixel or sub-array of pixels in the pixel array. The lenslets in the array are shaped such that fields of view of next-but-one neighboring ones of the lenslets (i.e., two lenslets spaced from each other by another lenslet) do not overlap until a certain object distance away from the lenslet array.
US08988581B2
An image pickup apparatus capable of highly efficiently realizing optical corrections of various aberrations while reducing the load imposed on a central processing unit (CPU). A plurality of optical correction units apply optical correction processes to a plurality of aberrations in an optical system. A time period assigned for the optical correction processes and a time period required for the optical correction processes are acquired. Priorities of the plurality of optical correction units are decided if the time period required for the optical correction processes is longer than the time period assigned for the optical correction processes. The plurality of optical correction units execute the optical correction processes according to the decided priorities.
US08988576B2
A solid-state imaging device comprises first pixels and second pixels. The first pixel has a first PD and a first photoelectric conversion film. The second pixel has a second PD and a second photoelectric conversion film. The first PD and the second PD are formed in a surface layer of a semiconductor substrate. The first photoelectric conversion film is formed over the first PD, in a position shifted in a rightward direction relative to the center of the first PD. The second photoelectric conversion film is formed over the second PD, in a position shifted in a leftward direction relative to the center of the second PD. The first photoelectric conversion film photoelectrically converts incident light incident on a right area of the first PD. The second photoelectric conversion film photoelectrically converts incident light incident on a left area of the second PD.
US08988574B2
An information communication method that enables communication between various devices includes: setting an exposure time of an image sensor so that, in an image obtained by capturing a subject by the image sensor, a plurality of bright lines corresponding to a plurality of exposure lines included in the image sensor appear according to a change in luminance of the subject; obtaining a bright line image including the plurality of bright lines, by capturing the subject changing in luminance by the image sensor with the set exposure time; and obtaining information by demodulating data specified by a pattern of the plurality of bright lines included in the obtained bright line image, wherein exposure starts sequentially for the plurality of exposure lines each at a different time, and exposure of each of the plurality of exposure lines starts a predetermined blank time after exposure of its adjacent exposure line ends.
US08988573B2
In a photoelectric conversion apparatus including a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix, each pixel including a photoelectric conversion unit, first and second holding units that hold electric charge, a first transfer unit that connects the photoelectric conversion unit and the first holding unit, a second transfer unit that connects the first and second holding units, and a third transfer unit that connects the photoelectric conversion unit and a power supply, each pixel is controlled so that the potential of the third transfer unit for electric charge held in the photoelectric conversion unit is higher than that of the first transfer unit at least during a charge accumulation period of the pixel, and thereafter, the potential of the third transfer unit is higher than that of the photoelectric conversion unit while the potentials of the first and second transfer units are lower than that of the photoelectric conversion unit.
US08988562B2
Defective pixels are to be selected so as not to cause image degradation. A defective pixel correction unit 13 in an image processing apparatus 1 obtains an imaging signal a12 from an imaging sensor 16 via a gain adjustment unit 12, and calculates an absolute value for the pixel value difference between a pixel to be tested for a defect of the imaging sensor 16 and each of its surrounding pixels, respectively. Next, the defective pixel correction unit 13 compares the differential with a defective pixel determination threshold value and determines the pixel being tested as defective, if the differential is greater than the threshold value. It should be noted that the threshold value is changed according to the magnitude of an image transition, by detecting the image transition of a video signal a14 in an image transition detection unit 15.
US08988561B2
An imaging apparatus includes an image sensor that comprises a pixel portion having a plurality of pixel sensors configured to generate an image signal, and a plurality of temperature sensors disposed in an area of the pixel portion and configured to generate a temperature signal corresponding to a detected temperature, and a correction unit configured to correct the image signal from the plurality of image sensors according to the temperature detected by the plurality of temperature sensors.
US08988560B2
A pixel driving portion 102 can carry out first read drive with which a transfer element is turned OFF in accordance with a drive signal TG to output a signal at an output node, and second read drive with which the transfer element is turned ON in accordance with the drive signal TG to transfer signal charges to the output node, thereby outputting a signal at the output node. A pixel signal reading portion 103, 104 outputs a signal corresponding to a difference between the signal read out in accordance with the second read drive and the signal read out in accordance with the first read drive.
US08988555B2
Provided is a digital image signal processing method and apparatus which generates a first continuous-captured image in a continuous-photographing mode, generates a first name of the first continuous-captured image according to DCF rules, generates a second name of a second continuous-captured image following the first continuous-captured image according to the DCF rules, generates first continuous-photographing number information indicating an order of continuous-photographing of the first continuous-captured image, and generates a first file comprising the first continuous-captured image, the first name, the second name, and the first continuous-photographing number information. In this way, continuous-captured images and images obtained before and after the continuous-captured images can be effective played back.
US08988535B2
Provided are a photographing control method and apparatus according to motion of a digital photographing apparatus. The photographing control method may prevent inconvenience when a subject is photographed while changing a viewing angle by using an additional zoom button, by sensing predetermined motion via a motion sensor comprised in the digital photographing apparatus and calculating a first motion value; comparing the calculated first motion value to predetermined threshold values; and controlling a zoom lens to be driven in a predetermined direction according to a result of the comparing.
US08988527B2
A spatial area is monitored by means of at least a first and a second image recording unit that have a common viewing area. At least one virtual protection zone is defined within the common viewing area. A first and a second image of the spatial area are recorded by means of the first and a second image recording unit. The images are compared with one another in order to identify mutually disjoint image regions in the images. An alarm signal is generated when a disjoint image region covers the virtual protection zone.
US08988524B2
A method and apparatus for predicting vehicle speed during an indirect vision driving task. A further method and apparatus for optimizing the display of a camera return during an indirect vision driving task based on operator perceived vehicle speed as set by the display characteristics and the field-of-view of the camera. A further method and apparatus for using the perceived speed as a driving task aid, in particular, as an electronic aider for optimizing the driving scene display characteristics of scene compression and camera field-of view. In this manner, the invention adjusts the perceived speed in order to match the operator's cognitive flow to the control dynamics needed from the operator for the task. The invention has application to autonomous driving where manual intervention is incorporated during critical events for particular tasks; and with limited display space within the vehicle, the display format is adjusted by the invention according to the operator's task needs.
US08988519B2
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving an image of a user's eye at a device having a screen and a camera operable to input the image, processing the image to identify one or more characteristics of the user's eye for use in determining if the user is having difficulty viewing data displayed on the screen, and magnifying the data displayed on the screen if the user is having difficulty viewing the data. An apparatus and logic are also disclosed.
US08988509B1
A pair of cameras having an overlapping field of view is aligned based on images captured by image sensors of the pair of cameras. A pixel shift is identified between the images. Based on the identified pixel shift, a calibration is applied to one or both of the pair of cameras. To determine the pixel shift, the camera applies correlation methods including edge matching. Calibrating the pair of cameras may include adjusting a read window on an image sensor. The pixel shift can also be used to determine a time lag, which can be used to synchronize subsequent image captures.
US08988508B2
An embodiment of the invention provides an active illumination imaging system comprising a first camera and a second camera, each having an optical axis and a field of view (FOV) characterized by a view angle in a plane that contains the optical axis and wherein the optical axes of the cameras intersect at an intersection region common to their FOVs at an angle substantially equal to half a sum of their view angles.
US08988507B2
A camera includes a lens assembly and a stereoscopic display for displaying an image captured by the camera, and automatically determines a correct focus for the camera using the stereoscopic display to show an icon on the image appearing to move perpendicularly, relative to a first plane corresponding to a surface of the stereoscopic display, from different perceived depths corresponding to different planes parallel to the first plane.
US08988503B2
A sensing device having a sensing arrangement with a sensing end (32) for coming into contact with a surface to be scanned of a body (26), a camera (30), and a connecting device (34) for rigidly connecting the camera with the sensing end, the camera being arranged such that it can detect a surface (12) which is provided with marks suitable to be automatically photogrammetrically evaluated and on which the body to be scanned has been placed, when the sensing end comes into contact with different points of the surface to be scanned of the body. The sensing device further has a photogrammetric evaluation program for a computing unit (18), the computing unit being configured such that image signals generated by the camera can be routed to the computing unit and the evaluation program can calculate the 3D coordinates of the surface to be scanned from the sequence of recorded and transmitted image sections using the marks (22) suitable to be automatically photogrammetrically evaluated. A method of detecting a three-dimensional spatial shape of a body, in particular the spatial shape of an interior of a hollow body, the method including the following steps: fastening the body to be digitized on a surface (12) which, at known positions, is provided with marks (22) suitable to be automatically photogrammetrically evaluated, and providing the sensing device. Further steps are the scanning of a point on the spatial shape to be detected by means of the sensing end (32) of the sensing arrangement (28), recording at least one section of the photogrammetrically marked surface by the camera (30) while the sensing end scans the point, a plurality of marks suitable to be photogrammetrically evaluated being detected, and repeating the steps of scanning and recording for a multitude of different points of the spatial shape to be detected. The recorded images are evaluated by an evaluation program.
US08988502B2
A digital image processing system takes color plus Z channel data as input, preprocesses, decimates, and codes the Z channel in-band as digital watermark data embedded within the color data prior to encoding and transmission. A second digital image processing system receives, decodes, and extracts the decimated Z channel data before applying statistical regularization to restore a full-resolution Z channel prior to depth-image-based rendering.
US08988501B2
A moving image distribution server sets a evaluation pixel for each of blocks that it divided a first screen into, and specifies a screen coordinate and a depth value, in a second screen acquired before the first screen, for a rendering object rendered on the evaluation pixel. It compares a depth value of the screen coordinate and a depth value of the rendering object rendered on the evaluation pixel, and determines that inter-frame coding will be performed with the second screen for a block for which the 2 depth values are considered to be the same. It transmits, to a external device, coding details information including the viewpoint information of the first screen, a depth buffer of the first screen, and information indicating whether or not blocks of the first screen are to be inter-frame coded.
US08988496B2
There is provided an image processing apparatus in which images that can be comfortably viewed by a viewer with less eyestrain can be displayed on a display device. In the image processing apparatus of the present invention in which a three-dimensional image and a two-dimensional image can be simultaneously displayed on a multi-screen, if the three-dimensional image and the two-dimensional image are simultaneously displayed on a display device, the three-dimensional image is converted into two dimensions, and is output to be displayed on the same screen in the same dimensions. Alternatively, in the image processing apparatus in which a three-dimensional image and a two-dimensional image can be simultaneously displayed on a multi-screen, if the three-dimensional image and the two-dimensional image are simultaneously displayed on a display device, the two-dimensional image is converted into three dimensions, and is output to be displayed on the same screen in the same dimensions.
US08988487B2
The present invention discloses a cloud video exchanging conference device. The cloud video conference device includes at least one multi-point control unit, corresponding to at least one representative number, connecting to the Internet via at least one Internet Protocol address; a backend management module, for corresponding the at least one representative number to the at least one Internet Protocol address; and at least one video conference operating module, for obtaining a corresponding specific Internet Protocol address among the at least one Internet Protocol address via the backend management module according to a specific representative number among the at least one representative number, to connect to a corresponding specific multi-point control unit among the at least one multi-point control unit for video exchanging conference.
US08988475B2
An inkless printing device that comprises a plurality of lasers, a rotating polygonal mirror, and an energy recycling unit. The mirror rotates and reflects a laser beam in a manner that allows the beams to reach any point on the paper. The laser turns ON and OFF while the mirrors are rotating to form a printout. Printing on a sheet of paper is achieved by burning to a certain pre-determined depth of the paper, by using the thermal properties of a laser. The energy recycling unit converts the heat energy generated during the printing process to electrical energy and charges a battery cell. Upon the battery cells being charged to a pre-determined power threshold, the power supply to the printer is changed from the AC supply to the battery supply.
US08988470B2
A luminance correction system for organic light emitting display devices is disclosed. In one aspect, an image displayed in a pixel unit of each of the display devices is analyzed and the luminance and color coordinate for main gray-level data is measured. A main-gamma offset value corresponding to the result of image analysis may be generated. A change in voltage of a driving power signal input from an external source of each of the display devices may be sensed. A sub-gamma offset value is generated by applying the change in voltage of the sensed driving power signal. A main-gamma voltage for the main gray level corresponding to the set main-gamma offset value and the set sub-gamma offset value is adjusted and output as an adjusted main-gamma voltage. The adjusted main-gamma voltage may be applied to a data driver of each of the display devices.
US08988468B2
An interactive flyer system is disclosed. The system includes a flyer image tiler for creating a flyer image tile set, the set including multiple copies of a flyer image segmented into a plurality of flyer image tiles with each copy representing the flyer image at one of a plurality of zoom levels, wherein a copy of the multiple copies is configured to fit within a viewport having a resolution, and a flyer image tile store for storing the flyer image tile set. There is also disclosed a method for displaying the interactive digital flyer.
US08988458B2
Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for generating a visualization of video content. The method includes receiving video content, receiving user input associated with the received video content, extracting each frame in the video content, processing the extracted frames based on the received user input, and outputting a still image including each of the processed extracted frames positioned sequentially. The still image can include a histogram of sound data associated with the processed extracted frames. The user input can indicate an image adjustment to be applied when processing the extracted frames, a number of frames of video content per column, a paper size, and/or a frame size. The frames can be positioned sequentially in columns and/or rows. The image can be output as an image file or on a printable medium. The image can contain more than one video clip, such as films in a trilogy.
US08988457B2
In one embodiment, there is provided an electronic device. The electronic device includes: a first generator configured to generate a first image display mode in which image processing including at least one of an effect processing and a transition processing is applied to one or more still images based on image features of the still images; a second generator configured to generate a second image display mode in which one or more still images are switched over successively; and a switching module configured to output any one of the first and second image display modes and switch between the first image display mode and the second image display mode.
US08988453B2
A stereoscopic image display device includes an image divider unit for dividing a stereoscopic image into a left-eye image and a right-eye image, an image correction unit for correcting color temperature for the left-eye and right-eye images and correcting the brightness for the color-temperature-corrected left-eye and right-eye images, an image synthesis unit for synthesizing the left-eye and right-eye images, and an image display panel for displaying the stereoscopic image on the basis of the stereoscopic image outputted through the image synthesis unit.
US08988444B2
A system and method for configuring graphics register data and a recording medium are applied in a mobile device to store graphics operation data for displaying a picture. The system includes a plurality of register modules and an operation module. The operation module obtains unstored data from the graphics operation data, judges whether a register module already stored with data and having a configuration space sufficient for configuring the unstored data exists among all the plurality of register modules, so as to determine whether to store the unstored data into the register module already stored with data or a register module without storing-data, and when no register module without storing data exists and the configuration space of each register module already stored with data is insufficient for storing the unstored data, divides and stores the unstored data into a part of the plurality of register modules already stored with data.
US08988429B2
An apparatus for generating depth information includes: a receiver which receives a two-dimensional (2D) image signal including a plurality of frames; a user input unit; a user interface (UI) generator which generates a tool UI to input guide information for generating depth information; a display unit which displays a frame for which depth information is generated among the plurality of frames, and the generated tool UI; and a depth information generator which generates depth information corresponding to the guide information input by the user input unit through the tool UI.
US08988423B2
Viewing of stereoscopic images is facilitated for every page of an electronic album. A page constituting an electronic album is selected. A stereoscopic image is then selected and the selected stereoscopic image is pasted in an image compositing area. An amount of parallax has been defined for the image compositing area, and the amount of parallax of the image compositing area in which the stereoscopic image has been pasted is read. The amount of parallax of the stereoscopic image is changed to that of the image compositing area.
US08988419B2
A method of using parametrical representations in modeling and animation is disclosed. This method is built directly on the inherent properties of parametric curves. Parametric curves are constructed and associated with geometric models, while at the same time the properties are used to represent the underlying mechanism of deformation. This method includes the steps of building parametrical representations on a geometric model, associating vertices of the model with different ones of the parametrical representations to effect movement thereof, and animating movement of the vertices to simulate relative motion therebetween.The invention discloses a method in which simulation of object interaction and object deformation can be integrated into a unified framework through skeletal trees. The method preprocesses a graphic object and segments the object into a number of contexts at surface slope and curvature discontinuities. Then, control points are generated to represent these contexts. Based on these control points, a skeletal tree of the object can be built. Assisted by spatial decomposition, the skeletal trees can be directly used in the simulation of object interaction.
US08988417B2
A rendering system and method based on a weighted value of a sub-pixel region are provided. The rendering system may change a pixel value of a single sub-pixel using pixel values of sub-pixels that represent, as respective central viewpoints, a plurality of viewpoints represented by the single sub-pixel based on an inclined lens, and may perform rendering using the changed pixel value.
US08988416B2
A system and method are disclosed to control the power consumption of column drivers in a display system. A video input signal is received which has an active video period and a vertical blanking period between frames. A timing controller transmits a first video frame to a column driver. The timing controller transmits a column driver disable command during a vertical blanking period. Prior to the subsequent active video period, the timing controller transmits a column driver enable command. The timing controller proceeds to transmit a second video frame to the column driver. In one embodiment, the timing controller determines whether to disable and enable the column driver based on a refresh rate, the refresh rate calculated by the timing controller from the video input signal.
US08988412B2
A driving method of a display device includes: a display panel having a plurality of first blocks, a data driver applying data voltages to pixels of the plurality of first blocks, and a backlight having a plurality of second blocks respectively corresponding to the plurality of first blocks of the display panel, applying the data voltages to the pixels of the plurality of the first blocks during a plurality of data input periods corresponding to the plurality of the first blocks for one frame by the data driver, and a vertical blank period having no applied date voltage is positioned between the plurality of data input periods.
US08988410B2
A display panel includes a display pixel displaying an image in response to a common voltage and a data voltage and a sensing pixel outputting a feedback voltage in response to the common voltage and a reference voltage; and a driving circuit unit supplying the data voltage and the reference voltage to the display pixel and the sensing pixel, respectively. The driving circuit unit includes a common voltage estimating part comparing the reference voltage and the feedback voltage to generate a counter signal having a counter value that is stepwise varied according to the comparing of the reference voltage and the feedback voltage; and a common voltage adjusting part stepwise varying the common voltage supplied to the display panel in response to the counter value.
US08988399B2
A user control assembly is provided for use on a vehicle having a processor, a steering wheel, and a plurality of vehicular systems controllable by the processor each having first and second adjustable features. The user control comprises a first button mounted on the steering wheel and coupled to the processor for selecting one of the plurality of vehicular systems, and first and second rotary dials mounted on the steering wheel and coupled to the processor for adjusting the first and second adjustable features associated with the selected system.
US08988387B2
Touch sensor panels (104) have 2-D periodic arrangements of electrodes (304) connected together forming a plurality of horizontal and vertical logical lines (506, 514) for measuring X-Y coordinates of a user's touch. Electrodes forming the horizontal logical lines are interleaved with electrodes forming the vertical logical lines. Each of the vertical and horizontal logical lines includes multiple tracks (502, 504, 510, 512). The tracks of each logical line are cross connected by in-plane cross connects (314, 318) formed in the same layer by the same process that is used to form the electrodes. Diamond and square electrode embodiments are described.
US08988376B2
In one embodiment, a method comprises generating a first charge at a capacitor system having a magnitude based on the magnitude of a second charge present at a capacitive node of a touch sensor in the absence of a touch with respect to the capacitive node. The method further includes generating a third charge at the capacitive node of the touch sensor in the presence of a touch with respect to the capacitive node. The first charge and the third charge are summed to cancel out at least a portion of the third charge. The method further includes integrating, by an integrator, the sum of the first charge and the third charge to generate an output voltage.
US08988373B2
The invention is directed to systems, methods and computer program products for determining an input instruction based on a touch associated with a tactile tag. An exemplary method includes detecting, by a device in contact with a user's body, a touch on the user's skin by a tactile tag. The tactile tag comprises a three-dimensional pattern, and the three-dimensional pattern causes a vibration in the user's body when a surface of the tactile tag touches the user's skin. The method additionally includes determining at least one characteristic associated with the touch; and determining an input instruction based at least partially on the at least one characteristic associated with the touch.
US08988364B2
Disclosed is a display device. The display device includes: a touch panel; a display panel in close contact with the lower surface of the touch panel; and a plurality of sensors arranged under the touch panel and configured to sense a pressure which is applied to the touch panel. The display device can improve the picture quality by bring the touch panel into close contact with the display panel. Also, the display device can input a signal, such as a touch or others, by sensing a pressure, which is applied to the touch panel, using the sensors.
US08988355B2
A keyboard activates areas of a touchscreen according to user interaction with the keyboard. A discharge circuit provides a discharge path for altering the electrostatic field of the touchscreen. Such discharge circuit excludes the user's finger (or stylus). Instead of grounding to the user, a ground plane in varying embodiments may be contained within the keyboard, or be formed at least in part by by the case of the keyboard, the case of the host device, or the ground plane of the host device. The keyboard includes an electrical ground member to absorb the capacitive discharge and/or conduct such discharge to the ground plane.
US08988349B2
An electronic device can include detectors for altering the presentation of data on one or more displays. In a wearable electronic device, a flexible housing can be configured to enfold about an appendage of a user, such as a user's wrist. A display can disposed along a major face of the flexible housing. A control circuit can be operable with the display. A gaze detector can be included to detect a gaze direction, and optionally a gaze cone. An orientation detector can be configured to detect an orientation of the electronic device relative to the user. The control circuit can alter a presentation of data on the display in response to a detected gaze direction, in response to detected orientation of the wearable electronic device relative to the user, in response to touch or gesture input, or combinations thereof. Secondary displays can be hingedly coupled to the electronic device.
US08988347B2
An image processing apparatus includes an instructed-position detecting unit configured to receive an instruction operation by a user on a display screen of a display device and detect and output a position where the instruction operation is performed; a storing unit configured to store multiple image data items each including information corresponding to a search key; a search-key display controlling unit configured to cause at least one search key to be selectively displayed on the display screen of the display device; a searching unit configured to, if the search key displayed on the display screen is instructed by the search-key display controlling unit through the instructed-position detecting unit, search the storing unit for the image data corresponding to the search key to extract the image data; and a display controlling unit configured to collectively display images corresponding to the image data in a certain part on the display screen.
US08988340B2
A display system, having an emissive body, emitting light in a way that is color temperature controllable. The light emission can be from zones. The emissive body can be a FIPEL type device with a first transparent conductive coating over a light emitting substrate. The zones are each separately controllable for color temperature.
US08988330B2
A display device including a pixel array unit having a matrix of pixels each configured such that an anode electrode of an organic electroluminescent element is connected to a source electrode of a drive transistor, a gate electrode of the drive transistor is connected to a source or drain electrode of a writing transistor, and a storage capacitor is connected between the gate and source electrodes of the drive transistor, scanning lines and power supply lines for individual pixel rows, and signal lines for individual pixel columns. A video signal reference potential is supplied to the signal lines for a period during which a scanning signal is supplied to the scanning lines during driving of pixels in a preceding row. During threshold correction for the drive transistor in a current pixel, the video signal reference potential and a potential of the cathode electrode of the organic electroluminescent element are equal.
US08988329B2
Disclosed are an OLED display device and method for sensing characteristic parameters of pixel driving circuits. The display device includes a display panel including pixels each having a light emitting element and a pixel driving circuit for independently driving the light emitting element, and a characteristic parameter detecting unit for driving the pixel driving circuit of one of the plural pixels, which is a sensing pixel, sensing a voltage discharged in accordance with characteristics of a driving TFT in the pixel driving circuit of the sensing pixel, on a data line connected to the pixel driving circuit of the sensing pixel, among data lines connected to respective pixel driving circuits of the pixels, and detecting a threshold voltage (Vth) of the driving TFT and a deviation of a process characteristic parameter (k-parameter) of the driving TFT, using the measured voltage.
US08988322B2
A display unit with which gradation control is facilitated, a method of driving the same, and an electronics device are provided. The display unit includes: a pixel circuit array section including a plurality of scanning lines arranged in rows, a plurality of signal lines arranged in columns, and a plurality of light emitting devices and a plurality of pixel circuits arranged in a matrix state correspondingly to an intersection of each scanning line and each signal line; a signal line drive circuit sequentially applying a signal voltage corresponding to a video signal to each signal line, and applying an erasing pulse to a specific signal line at given timing so that a duty ratio determined based on the video signal is obtained; and a scanning line drive circuit applying a given selection pulse to the scanning line while the erasing pulse is applied to the specific signal line.
US08988319B2
A display device includes at least one processing device and at least one display element for representing at least two image planes that are able to be combined with each other, and a method is for representing a plurality of combinable image planes for displaying data.
US08988317B1
Depth information is determined for elements in a light field image, thus allowing for rapid display of visualization tools to communicate such depth information to a user. Depth of strong edges within the light field image is analyzed, providing improved reliability of depth information while reducing or minimizing the amount of computation involved in generating such information. Strong edges can be identified and analyzed by generating epipolar images, or EPIs, from the light field image. Local gradients are determined for pixels in the EPIs. The magnitude of the local gradient is used to determine a confidence as to whether depth can be reliably estimated from the gradient. The orientation of the gradient is used to determine the depth of a corresponding element of the scene. Suitable output is then generated based on the determined depths, for example to provide information and feedback to aid a user in capturing light-field images.
US08988316B2
A display device, including a scanning device, displays an image on a display region using a light ray which scans. The display device includes a light source unit, a scanning control unit, and an emission control unit. The scanning device includes an auxiliary scanning unit which changes an inclination angle of a reflective mirror unit including a reflective mirror and a main scanning unit. The display region includes a plurality of elemental regions coupled to one another. The scanning control unit provides control so that the light ray scans over one of the plurality of elemental regions by changing the inclination angle of the reflective mirror while maintaining the inclination angle of the reflective mirror unit, and control so that the plurality of elemental regions are changed over by changing the inclination angle of the reflective mirror unit.
US08988313B2
A preferred embodiment of the present invention provides an electronic device in which a status, in which an image in a boundary region between image displaying parts is not or hardly seen, is solved in an electronic device in which a large screen is constructed by a plurality of image displaying parts. The electronic device has a display function that displays image data of a region whose width is defined by the predetermined number of pixels in one of displaying parts with respect to the image data on a boundary region where the image cannot be displayed when first and second displaying parts are used as one displaying part.
US08988312B2
To overcome issues generated due to the light-shield part in a display device which displays different images towards a plurality of viewpoints, and to provide a device for easily synthesizing images to be displayed on a display part. A display controller includes: an image memory which stores viewpoint image data for a plurality of viewpoints; a writing control device which writes the viewpoint image data inputted from outside to the image memory; a parameter storage device which stores parameters showing a positional relation between a lenticular lens and the display part; and a readout control device which reads out the viewpoint image data from the image memory according to a readout order obtained by applying the parameters to a repeating regulation that is determined based on layout of the sub-pixels, number of colors, and layout of the colors, and outputs it to the display module as synthesized image data.
US08988311B2
A video output apparatus of the present invention includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire information about display states of a plurality of display devices, a video output unit configured to output video data to the display devices, and a control unit configured to, when a display device to which the video data is output by the video output unit is in a display state of OFF, control the video output unit to output the video data to a display device whose display state is ON based on the information about the display state acquired by the acquisition unit.
US08988310B2
An antenna for directional electronic communication and a directional communication system are provided. In one embodiment, the antenna includes: (1) a protective shell, (2) a Luneberg lens located within the protective shell and (3) multiple radio frequency signal conveyors located proximate a portion of the Luneberg lens and configured with the Luneberg lens to transmit radio frequency signals within a defined region or receive radio frequency signals that originate within the defined region.
US08988307B2
A remote antenna deployment latch is disclosed. The remote antenna deployment latch includes a latch assembly having a latch pin movable to alternately secure an antenna in, and release the antenna from, a deployed position. The remote antenna deployment latch also includes an azimuth pin movable to alternately lock and unlock rotation of the antenna about an azimuth axis. In addition, the remote antenna deployment latch includes a remote control assembly operably coupled to the latch pin and the azimuth pin to simultaneously secure the antenna in the deployed position and unlock rotation of the antenna about the azimuth axis.
US08988305B1
The invention concerns a portable wireless phone device, having a first antenna for phone communication, an upper display attached to an external housing assembly, an inner metallic board situated between the upper display module and the external housing assembly, a second NFC antenna and an electrical circuit for controlling the upper display module, the first antenna and the second NFC antenna. The second NFC antenna comprises a NFC loop antenna having at least one turn.
US08988303B1
An orientation independent antenna apparatus using a six sided conductive structure and triangular elements on a selected surface thereof, to provide both horizontal and vertical polarization mode feeds. In one implementation, a vertical coupling element is disposed within the structure so that four perpendicular surfaces are parasitically coupled to provide the vertical polarization mode. In other implementations, coaxial cable(s) may be used with a ferrite core and/or combiner circuits to provide the horizontal mode feed.
US08988295B2
An exemplary embodiment of a base assembly includes a printed circuit board and a balun coupled to the printed circuit. The printed circuit board and balun are configured to be operable for providing impedance matching via a matching network that includes a first inductor, a second inductor, and a concentric capacitance. The base assembly is operable for providing a multiband antenna assembly with impedance matching simultaneously with more than one frequency band.
US08988292B2
According to one embodiment, a first antenna element is formed from a folded monopole element having one end connected to a feeding terminal, and the other end connected to a first ground terminal, with a stub being provided between a forward portion and a backward portion formed by folding a middle portion. A second antenna element is formed from a monopole element having one end connected to the feeding terminal directly or indirectly through part of the first antenna element. A third antenna element is formed from a parasitic element having one end connected to a second ground terminal provided at a position opposite to the first ground terminal through the feeding terminal, and the other end open, with at least part of the parasitic element being placed parallel to the second antenna element so as to be configured to be capacitively coupled to the second antenna element.
US08988289B2
An antenna system is capable of optimizing communication link quality with one or multiple transceivers while suppressing one or multiple interference sources. The antenna provides a low cost, physically small multi-element antenna system capable of being integrated into mobile devices and designed to form nulls in the radiation pattern to reduce interference from unwanted interferers. The antenna system operates in both line of sight and high multi-path environments by adjusting the radiation pattern and sampling the received signal strength to reduce signal levels from interferers while monitoring and optimizing receive signal strength from desired sources.
US08988288B2
A tri-band antenna for noncellular wireless applications is provided. The antenna comprises: a first radiating arm for generating a first resonance in a first frequency band, the first radiating arm further enabled for connection to an antenna tuning circuit; the first radiating arm comprising a capacitive coupling structure; a coupling arm separated by a gap from the first radiating arm; a second radiating arm for generating a second resonance in a second frequency band lower than the first frequency band, the second radiating arm connected to the coupling arm such that the second radiating arm is capacitively coupled to the first radiating arm; and a third radiating arm for generating a third resonance in a third frequency band lower than the second frequency band, the third radiating arm connected to the coupling arm such that the third radiating arm is capacitively coupled to the first radiating arm.
US08988287B2
An apparatus having multiple mushroom structures is disclosed. Each of the multiple mushroom structures includes: a ground plate; a patch provided parallel to the ground plate with a separation of a distance to the ground plate, wherein a distance between a ground plate and a patch in a certain mushroom structure is different from a distance between a ground plate and a patch in a different mushroom structure.
US08988282B2
Method and apparatuses involving satellite position signals are disclosed. Based on data indicating a usage environment, parameters, for example acquisition parameters or calculation parameters, are adapted.
US08988280B2
The present invention concerns an active electronically scanned array antenna comprising: an active array, configured for radiating/receiving radiofrequency signals through first radiating openings that lie on a ground plane; and a dielectric cover arranged at a given distance from the ground plane so that between said dielectric cover and said ground plane an air gap is present. Said active electronically scanned array antenna is characterized in that it further comprises one or more calibration devices operable for calibrating said active electronically scanned array antenna, each calibration device comprising a respective radiating portion arranged between the dielectric cover and the ground plane and configured for receiving radiofrequency signals radiated through corresponding first radiating openings and for radiating radiofrequency signals in the air gap towards said corresponding first radiating openings.
US08988264B2
An Analogue to Digital Converter (ADC) having a Gated Ring Voltage Controlled Oscillator, GRVCO, to generate a phase signal according to an input voltage; and a quantization circuit to generate a quantized phase output signal according. The GRVCO operates in either a first or second mode of operation according to a gating control signal. In the first mode of operation, the GRVCO operates in a VCO mode with gating disabled. In the second mode of operation, the GRVCO operates in a GRVCO mode wherein gating is enabled or disabled according to a gating signal.
US08988259B2
A data converter can include a resistor network, a switch network connected to the resistor network and having a plurality of switch circuits, each with an NMOS and a PMOS switch transistor, and a voltage generator to generate a drive voltage for driving a gate of at least one of the NMOS or PMOS switch transistors of at least one of the switch circuits. The voltage generator can include first and second pairs of transistors, each pair having connected control terminals and being connected to a second NMOS or PMOS transistor, a first or second resistor, and the other pair of transistors. The first and second resistors can have substantially equal resistance values. A ratio of width-to-length ratios of the second NMOS to PMOS transistors can be substantially equal to such a ratio of the switch circuit NMOS to PMOS transistors.
US08988257B2
According to one embodiment, method for decoding encoded data comprises a hardware module including circuitry to process a data stream. The data stream includes one or more encoded symbols each including a code assigned to a corresponding symbol. A set of least frequently occurring symbols are assigned a common code to encode those symbols within the data stream. Data blocks are generated each containing a data stream portion. One or more encoded symbols within each data block are identified by comparing data block portions to maximum code values for corresponding code lengths to determine a code length for each data block portion. A starting location for the identified encoded symbols within each data block is determined based on the determined code lengths.
US08988251B2
The invention relates to an apparatus and method which allows information representing a state or condition or an action to be performed as part of a control system to be present to one or more users. The information is selected and generated in a manner which removes or at least reduces the risk of potentially catastrophic error occurring which would be possible if, for example, the information is corrupt or lost during subsequent transmission, remote processing and/or displaying. One such use of the apparatus and method of the invention is in relation to transport vehicles and the control of the movement of said vehicles along predefined geographical paths.
US08988238B2
Systems and methods are provided for monitoring operating machinery, acquiring data regarding characteristic behavior of the machinery being monitored, and processing of the data to determine and indicate when significant deviations from normal operating conditions are occurring that represent maintenance initiating or failure mode events. The method includes learning what normal operating conditions are for a machine of interest by acquiring data during observed normal operation, then calculating detection threshold values based on the acquired data. Finally, real-time monitoring of the machinery of interest during operation is employed, with alarms triggered upon occurrence of a previously-defined number of occurrences of behavior exceeding parameters associated with normal operation behavior.
US08988226B2
A device operable as an electronic shark deterrent has a high-voltage pulse signal waveform generator for pulses to be applied to electrodes immersed in water to deter sharks and other aquatic creatures. A preferred output waveform has a train of pulse bursts of alternating-polarity pulses in a series. Preferably, the timing intervals between pulses are of irregular duration, the amplitudes of pulses are varied to be irregular, and the interval between pulse bursts is kept to less than about 5 seconds, in order to be more effective as a shark deterrent signal. The device has the signal waveform generator enclosed in a thin, planar case mounted to a belt connector and a fastener strap for attachment to a part of a user's body. It can include a water-detection probe for automatic activation when immersed in water, a status LED indicator, and electrodes embedded in a layer at opposite ends of the fastener strap with an insulative screen layer for reducing electrostatic effects on the user.
US08988225B2
A window or door position detector includes an RFID tag attachable to the window or door, and a transceiver. The transceiver emits an activating signal to the tag. The tag in turn responds with an identifying RF signal indicative of a predetermined position of the window or door. The detector includes a transceiver which can communicate with both the tag and a displaced monitoring system control panel.
US08988220B2
A method and apparatus are provided for detecting an intruder inside a vehicle. The apparatus comprises a load sensor coupled to the vehicle, and a processor. The processor is coupled to the load sensor and is configured to monitor the load in the vehicle after the vehicle is vacated and locked and to determine if the load in the vehicle changes by more than a predetermined threshold.
US08988215B1
Techniques are described for providing control of a monitoring system (e.g., a home alarm or security system) using one or more mobile devices. In some implementations, a native mobile device application enables use of a mobile device as a security/automation system keypad and controller for a home security system. In these implementations, the mobile device, using the native mobile device application, checks real time status of system and sensors, arms/disarms system, turns lights on/off, looks in on live video of security cameras, reviews history of system events, reviews saved video clips, monitors/changes thermostat settings, and performs other features of a traditional security keypad in a home security system.
US08988206B2
The present disclosure provides an in-vehicle informing device equipped in a vehicle including an idle stop system so that a driver is prevented from mistaking an engine stop state by the idle stop system for the engine stop state by an OFF position of an ignition switch. The device first determines whether an engine is automatically stopped by the idle stop system. The device determines whether a stop state of the vehicle corresponds to specific drive suspending condition when the engine is automatically stopping by the idle stop system. The device informs the driver that the engine is automatically stopped by the idle reduction function, utilizing an information giving portion equipped in the vehicle when the driver is judged as in the drive suspending state.
US08988191B2
Systems and methods are provided for authenticating an input on a touch screen. A method comprises obtaining one or more pressure metrics for an input by a user on a touch screen that is being proffered as that of a known user. Each pressure metric corresponds to a pressure applied to the touch screen by the user at a respective impression location of the input. The method further comprises authenticating the user as the known user based at least in part on the one or more pressure metrics.
US08988190B2
A portable information handling system includes a top cover, a base, and an electronic latch. The top cover is connected to the base. The top cover has a gesture sensitive surface configured to receive a trace. The electronic latch is in communication with the gesture sensitive surface, and is configured to latch the top cover and the base together. The electronic latch is further configured to unlatch the top cover from the base in response to receiving a signal representing that the trace received on the gesture sensitive surface is proper.
US08988189B2
The present disclosure relates to a method for controlling a smart key system for door lock of a vehicle configured with at least two modes, the method including selecting one of a first mode and a second mode, detecting an ON/OFF state of an engine of the vehicle and a key signal of a smart key, activating a door lock function performed outside of the vehicle, if it is confirmed through the key signal that the smart key is present outside of the vehicle, in case the first mode is selected, and deactivating a door lock function performed outside of the vehicle, if it is confirmed through the key signal that the smart key is present inside the vehicle or the engine is running, in case the second mode is selected.
US08988182B2
Transformers and methods of constructing transformers are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method of constructing a transformer includes wrapping a first primary winding around a core, wrapping a secondary winding around the core, and wrapping a second primary winding around the core. The first primary winding traverses substantially an entire circumference of the core in a first circumferential direction. The secondary winding includes a first half and a second half. The first half traverses substantially the entire circumference of the core in the first circumferential direction, and the second half traverses substantially the entire circumference of the core in a second circumferential direction opposite the first circumferential direction. The second primary winding traverses substantially the entire circumference of the core in the second circumferential direction.
US08988172B1
A multifunction electronics member combining structural and electronics functions includes in one embodiment an elongate longitudinally-extending structural body configured to support a structural load and including a first support base, a stiffening projection, and a first electrical circuit supported by the first support base. The circuit preferably is embedded between the first circuit base and a cover to form an electrically-active, or in some embodiments passive, structural member.
US08988166B2
A novel and useful fabricated variable transmission line that is tuned digitally is presented. Digital tuning of the variable transmission line enables the compensation of process variation in both the active and passive devices of the RF design. Along with several embodiments of the variable transmission line, the present invention also provides a method of compact modeling of the variable transmission line. The variable transmission line structure and compact modeling enables circuit level simulation using a parametric device that in one embodiment can be included as an integral part of a silicon foundry design kit.
US08988165B2
A phase shifter with selectable phase shift and comprises a switchable phase shifting element that includes a first and second signal path coupled between an input and an output and providing a, respective, first and second phase shift for a signal coupled through the respective signal paths; a switch circuit for selecting between the first and second signal paths where the first and second signal paths and the switch circuit are configured to equalize the insertion loss for the first and second signal path, the phase shifter further including control circuit for controlling the switch circuit.
US08988157B2
An oscillation circuit includes an RS flip-flop for generating output signals based on a set signal and a reset signal, an electric-charge charge/discharge unit which has first and second capacitors and charges or discharges the first and second capacitors complementarily based on the output signals, a first comparator which compares a first voltage according to electric charge accumulated in the first capacitor and a first reference voltage and outputs the set signal, a second comparator which compares a second voltage according to electric charge accumulated in the second capacitor and the first reference voltage and outputs the reset signal, and a control unit for controlling a timing at which respective voltage levels of the first reference voltage and the first voltage match and a timing at which respective voltage levels of the first reference voltage and the second voltage match according to a frequency of the output signals.
US08988156B2
An oscillator/amplifier has a gain controlled amplifier that maintains a desired oscillation waveform amplitude for all possible oscillation frequencies of operation. A peak detector produces a direct current (DC) voltage proportional to the oscillation waveform, and a voltage reference generator provides a reference voltage that is compared against the DC voltage from the peak detector. When the DC voltage is less than the reference voltage the gain of the amplifier is increased, and when the DC voltage is equal to or greater than the reference voltage the gain of the amplifier is decreased. A programmable voltage reference generator may also be used to provide for selection of different oscillation waveform amplitudes. A digital control loop controls the oscillation waveform amplitude over the entire possible frequency range of operation. Various frequency determining elements, e.g., crystal, piezoelectric resonator, inductor-capacitor tuned circuit, resistor-capacitor network, etc., may be used in combination with the oscillator/amplifier.
US08988153B1
A low voltage ring oscillator circuit can have a frequency variation that depends on process variations of insulated gate field effect transistors (IGFETs) of a first conductivity type without substantially being affected by process variations to IGFETs of a second conductivity type. A ring oscillator stage may include an inverter including only IGFETs of the first conductivity type. The inverter may be coupled to a boot circuit that boosts the gate potential of a first IGFET of the first conductivity type with a timing such that IGFETs of the second conductivity type in the boot circuit do not affect the frequency variations of the ring oscillator circuit.
US08988152B2
To provide a semiconductor device including an inverter circuit whose driving frequency is increased by control of the threshold voltage of a transistor or a semiconductor device including an inveter circuit with low power consumption. An inverter circuit includes a first transistor and a second transistor each including a semiconductor film in which a channel is formed, a pair of gate electrodes between which the semiconductor film is placed, and source and drain electrodes in contact with the semiconductor film. Controlling potentials applied to the pair of gate electrodes makes the first transistor have normally-on characteristics and the second transistor have normally-off characteristics. Thus, the driving frequency of the inverter circuit is increased.
US08988149B2
An amplifier circuit, comprising: an input, for receiving an input signal to be amplified; a power amplifier, for amplifying the input signal; a switched power supply, having a switching frequency, for providing at least one supply voltage to the power amplifier; and a dither block, for dithering the switching frequency of the switched power supply. The dither block is controlled based on the input signal. Another aspect of the invention involves using first and second switches, each having different capacitances and resistances, and using the first or second switch depending on the input signal or volume signal. Another aspect of the invention involves controlling a bias signal provided to one or more components in the signal path based on the input signal or volume signal.
US08988146B1
According to some embodiments, a switch having an “on” state and an “off” state is exhibiting a low impedance in the “on” state, and a very high impedance in the “off” state. The switch comprises three series MOS transistors, the first transistor having its drain connected to the input. The switch also comprises additional circuitry which reduces, in the “off” state, the leakage current of the MOS transistor connected to the input of the switch by connecting its source and bulk to an electrical node replicating the voltage of the input node. According to some embodiments, the said switch is used in a voltage amplifier for capacitive sensing devices, such as MEMS gyroscopes and MEMS microphones; the voltage amplifier uses an operational amplifier used in a trans-capacitance configuration, with the feedback path comprising the said switch and a capacitor, wherein the said switch is connected to the input of, the voltage amplifier. According to some embodiments, the said switch is used in an integrated circuit which processes the voltage across a sensing device.
US08988140B2
An integrated circuit includes logic regions and dynamically adjustable voltage controllers. A voltage controller connected to each logic region enables voltage adjustment while the chip is operating. Each voltage controller has a selector device connected to voltage input lines providing different voltages. A voltage sensor connected to the output of the selector device provides a supply voltage to one of the logic regions. A control circuit dynamically monitors the supply voltage, captures and stores a digital representation of the supply voltage during each cycle of a clock, and tracks variations over time, based on operation of the logic regions. When variations in the supply voltage exceed an operational threshold of one of the logic regions, the control circuit submits a request to a central controller. When the central controller grants permission, the control circuit dynamically adjusts the voltage by enabling the selector device to choose a different voltage input line.
US08988132B2
Provided is a semiconductor device which avoids an adverse effect of high temperatures due to a switching element and in which a circuit to prevent false firing is arranged on the same substrate as the switching element. An N-channel type MOSFET 10 and a JFET 30 of an N-channel type containing a semiconductor material of silicon carbide are individually arranged in proximity on conductive patterns 51, 52 on a substrate 5, and a gate electrode 13 of the MOSFET 10 and a drain electrode 31 of the JFET 30 are connected by a lead 61. When an external drive signal for on/off control of MOSFET 10 propagates between source electrode 32 and drain electrode 31 of JFET 30, the channel resistance of JFET 30 is changed to a large/small value according to a low/high level of gate voltage between source electrode 32 and gate electrode 33, whereby a leading edge of a switching waveform between drain electrode 11 and source electrode 12 of MOSFET 10 comes to have a gentler slope than a trailing edge thereof.
US08988122B2
A terminal includes control logic to control a phase-locked loop to output a spread-spectrum clocking signal. The control logic controls the generation of the spread-spectrum clocking signal by adjusting at least one parameter of the phase-locked loop. The parameter may be a charge pump setting or a loop-filter capacitance of the phase-locked loop, or their digital equivalents. Adjustment of the parameter reduces a predetermined portion of a communications spectrum. The predetermined portion may be located within a range of frequencies allocated to a specific channel, and reduction of the spectrum in this range may serve to reduce noise associated with clocking harmonics.
US08988120B2
A frequency multiplier includes a first impedance module, a second impedance module, a first path and a second path. When the first path is conducted, the first impedance module generates a first output signal and the second impedance module generates a second output signal. When the second path is conducted, the first impedance module generates a third output signal and the second impedance module generates a fourth output signal. The first and second paths are not conducted simultaneously. A frequency of a first combination signal generated from the first and third output signals and a frequency of a second combination signal generated from the second and fourth output signals are N times of a frequency of the input signal, where N is a positive rational number.
US08988108B2
Methods relating to distribution of a clock signal to logic devices of an integrated circuit. The method includes controlling, by a logic element, the distribution of a clock signal by a clock gater and distributing the clock signal by the clock gater to at least one first logic device, wherein the logic element allows the first clock gater to distribute the clock signal only when at least one first logic device requires the clock signal. An integrated circuit configured to perform such a method. Fabrication of such an integrated circuit.
US08988105B2
A semiconductor device includes: a semiconductor substrate; a diode-built-in insulated-gate bipolar transistor having an insulated-gate bipolar transistor and a diode, which are disposed in the substrate, wherein the insulated-gate bipolar transistor includes a gate, and is driven with a driving signal input into the gate; and a feedback unit for detecting current passing through the diode. The driving signal is input from an external unit into the feedback unit. The feedback unit passes the driving signal to the gate of the insulated-gate bipolar transistor when the feedback unit detects no current through the diode, and the feedback unit stops passing the driving signal to the gate of the insulated-gate bipolar transistor when the feedback unit detects the current through the diode.
US08988100B2
Described are amplifiers that facilitate high-speed communication with calibrated drive strength and termination impedance. Drivers and termination elements can be divided into a number N of parallel portions, one or more of which can be disabled and updated without interfering with signal (e.g., clock or data) transmission. Some embodiments identify inactive elements by examining incoming signals.
US08988093B2
A probe assembly that acts as a temporary interconnect between terminals on an IC device and a test station. The probe assembly includes a plurality of stud bumps arranged on a first surface of a substrate in a configuration corresponding to the terminal on the IC device. The stud bumps include a shape adapted to temporarily couple with the terminals on the IC device. A plurality of conductive traces on the substrate electrically couple the stud bumps with the test station.
US08988086B1
Embodiments described herein provide capacitive sensor arrays. The capacitive sensor arrays include a plurality of column sensor elements arranged in a plurality of columns and a plurality of row sensor elements arranged in a plurality of rows. The plurality of rows and the plurality of columns are arranged such that each of the row sensor elements is at least partially within a gap between adjacent ones of the column sensor elements. A capacitance between a first portion of one of the columns and an adjacent first portion of one of the rows is greater than a capacitance between a second portion of one of the columns and an adjacent second portion of one of the rows.
US08988085B2
The invention described relates to an apparatus and method for measuring the concentration of a low molecular weight alcohol, in an aqueous liquid feed solution, comprising a first sensor including a hydrophilic capillary tube having an inner diameter, being disposed between two electrodes to form a first capacitor, a second sensor including a hydrophobic capillary tube having the same inner diameter as a capillary tube of the first sensor; said hydrophobic capillary tube having a hydrophobic coating on the inner diameter, being disposed between two electrodes to form a second capacitor, wherein the first hydrophilic and second hydrophobic sensors are dipped to the same depth in the aqueous solution to measure the solution concentration, means for measuring the capacitance of the two capacitors, and control means including a control circuit driven by a computer, wherein the difference in capacitance between the two capacitors is a measure of the concentration of the solution, independent of the depth of dipping of the two capacitors in the aqueous solution. In another embodiment, a single hydrophilic sensor is employed.
US08988084B2
A method and a device are provided for monitoring an energy reserve capacitor, in which monitoring of the internal resistance is provided in addition to monitoring of the capacitance. This is achieved by a time sequence of charging operations and an interruption of those charging operations.
US08988083B2
A conductivity sensor, comprising an electrode structure of four concentric electrodes, which are arranged on an end face of a support body. The electrodes are electrically insulated from one another. The electrodes have an equal, constant area in order to claim a space requirement as small as possible for the electrode structure.
US08988079B2
Certain embodiments of the present application describe a carbon-based electrode with graphene platelets. The addition of graphene platelets is intended to improve properties of the electrode. These properties include, but are not limited to, physical, electrical, and biochemical properties of the electrode. Enhanced reproducibility of these properties can also result from the addition of the graphene platelets.
US08988075B2
A method is disclosed for suppressing and/or eliminating noise signals during magnetic resonance imaging by way of a magnetic resonance sequence including an ultra-short echo time. In at least one embodiment, the method includes a recording step for recording magnetic resonance signals of an object to be examined, especially a partial region of a patient, by way of the magnetic resonance sequence, wherein in a noise signal determination step at least one item of information about at least one noise signal of a noise element, especially of a magnetic resonance antenna element, is made available.
US08988074B2
An embodiment of the invention relates to the generation of MR images of a volume section within an examination object by way of a magnetic resonance scanner. In at least one embodiment, the following steps are performed: generating at least one of the MR images; automatically performing a number of quality inspections on the at least one MR image; and, should one of these quality inspections fail, an action is automatically performed in order to improve a quality when generating more of the MR images.
US08988071B2
The invention relates to a non-destructive inspection method using eddy currents for detecting flaws in a metal structure (3) by means of an array (5) of coils attached to a surface (31) of said structure (3) comprising activation of the coils, measurement of the electrical signals representative of the eddy currents, and evaluation over time of a variation in the electrical signal of each of the coils (511-536) by taking as a reference an edge effect corresponding to a specific electrical signal emanating from at least one coil installed at the edge of the surface, the level of said variation being indicative of the presence of the flaws in the structure.
US08988062B2
A branch circuit monitoring system (BCMS) for monitoring branch circuit currents in one or more electrical circuit panels is described. The system is comprised of a data center server, one or more panel processors, each with one or more collection devices, and one or more current sensors per collection device. The BCMS is designed to be installed entirely inside the panel without the need for a dedicated enclosure or power supply to facilitate ease of installation and low-cost. The BCMS also allows for future upgradability through standard software updates so that the system can be updated or patched easily. The BCMS data center server collects, aggregates, stores, and serves historical branch circuit current data from the panel processors to networked users via a web server to provide visualization of data such as tables, charts, and gauges. Finally, the BCMS interfaces to third-party software suites using industry-standard protocols such as Modbus® TCP and BACnet™ for integration with data center infrastructure management or building management system software.
US08988061B2
The present invention provides a system for detecting and analyzing at least one of an electric field and an electromagnetic field. The system includes a micro/nanomechanical oscillator which oscillates in the presence of at least one of the electric field and the electromagnetic field. The micro/nanomechanical oscillator includes a dense array of cantilevers mounted to a substrate. A charge localized on a tip of each cantilever interacts with and oscillates in the presence of the electric and/or electromagnetic field. The system further includes a subsystem for recording the movement of the cantilever to extract information from the electric and/or electromagnetic field. The system further includes a means of adjusting a stiffness of the cantilever to heterodyne tune an operating frequency of the system over a frequency range.
US08988060B2
A system and method for controlling an electrical device is provided. The method comprises receiving three phase power from a source, decomposing signals representative of power in each phase of the three phase power to provide a positive-sequence component of each phase and tracking the positive-sequence component of each phase via a phase locked loop and a tracking filter.
US08988055B2
A current-mode controlled power converter (1) comprises a controllable switch (S3) which is coupled to an inductor (L1) to obtain a periodical current (I1) through the inductor (L1). A current feedback loop (2, 3, 4, 5) generates a current-error signal (CE) which is a difference between a set current level (SC) and a level of a sensed current (SE) in the power converter (1). A driver (9) for switches off the controllable switch (S3) when the current error signal (CE) indicates that the level of the sensed current (SE) has reached the set current level (SC). A voltage feedback loop (10, 3, 7, 8, 5) influences the set current level (SC) in response to a level of an output voltage (Vout) of the power converter (1). The voltage feedback loop (10, 3, 7, 8, 5) comprises: a window circuit (10) to detect whether the output voltage (Vout) is (i) within a first window (WS) around a nominal value (Vr), (ii) outside the first window (WS) but within a second window (WL), larger than the first window (WS), (iii) outside the second window (WL). A controller (3) is coupled to the window circuit (10) to determine an adaptation of the set current level (SC), wherein the adaptation is larger when the output voltage (Vout) detected is outside the second window (WL) than when the output voltage (Vout) detected is within the second window (WL) but outside the first window (WS).
US08988052B2
A control circuit for controlling a power supply including a first switch and a second switch coupled in series between a first potential and a second potential. The control circuit includes a detection circuit that detects a magnitude relation of a voltage value at a node between the first and second switches and a reference value during a period in which the first switch and the second switch are inactivated. The detection circuit generates a control signal corresponding to the magnitude relation. A regulation circuit regulates a switching timing of the second switch in response to the control signal to decrease a difference between the voltage value at the node and the reference value.
US08988049B2
A DC power stage provides a power output that tracks a PCM signal input. A mapping unit generates an integer number of N digital PWM signals each switched at a same switching frequency by switching states of the PWM signals one at a time based on a level of the PCM signal input. An imbalance correction unit adjusts a duty ratio of the PWM signals relative to one another based on differentially accumulating errors among the PWM signals to prevent divergence of PWM signals. N corresponding switches therefrom switch power from a DC power source. N inductances in parallel produce a combined signal that is low pass filtered to provide the power output. Switching is between only those state combinations where the switching frequency is cancelled in the combined signal. The switching frequency is a sampling frequency of the PCM signal input divided by a product of 2 times N.
US08988048B2
A method and circuit for generating a clock signal. A power factor correction circuit has n channels operating out of phase and independently. The circuit is able to generate a clock signal for each channel according to the current cycle duration of each channel.
US08988041B2
Disclosed is a handheld electronic device with positioning function that includes a device body that contains a transceiver circuit module, a positioning element, and a counterpart positioning element that corresponds to the positioning element in order to effect mutual positioning with respect to each other. The positioning element and the counterpart positioning element are both mounted to one side of the device body. Through rotating or putting up-side down one of two handheld electronic devices, the two handheld electronic devices can be positioned with respect to each other through the positioning elements and the counterpart positioning elements so as to have the transceiver circuit modules of the two handheld electronic devices precisely aligning with each other.
US08988037B1
A solar panel storage and deployment system includes a container with an opening formed therein and an assembly of solar voltaic panels transitionable between a folded state and a deployed state.The assembly defines a series of accordion-like folds along the length thereof when in its folded state. The assembly arrays the panels in a substantially planar arrangement when the assembly is in its deployed state. The system also includes at least one stake adapted to be anchored to a position in proximity to and outside of the container. At least one link is provided for coupling an end of the assembly to the stake(s) when the assembly is in its deployed state.
US08988032B2
A numerical controller capable of visually and accurately analyzing a change of the tool trajectory before and after changing a processing condition, whereby a parameter of a drive axis can be properly adjusted. The numerical controller comprises a numeric controlling part which controls each drive axis based on a predetermined position command; a position data obtaining part which obtains position data of each drive axis controlled by the numerical controlling part; a tool coordinate calculating part which calculates a coordinate of a tool center point based on position feedback or obtained position data of each drive axis and information of a mechanical structure of a machine tool; a tool trajectory storing part which stores the calculated coordinate of the tool center point as a feedback trajectory; and a displaying part which displays the stored feedback trajectory on a display.
US08988023B2
A portable service controller for controlling an electro-mechanical actuator, the portable service controller includes a battery configured to power the portable service controller and a user interface configured to receive input from a user and to responsively generate an input signal. The portable service controller also includes a phase sequencer configured to convert the input signal into a series of timed output signals and a driver circuit configured to convert the series of timed output signals into inverter gating signals. The portable service controller further includes a three-phase brushless motor inverter configured to convert inverter gating signals into control signals for a brushless motor of the electro-mechanical actuator. The portable service controller contains a motor brake on/off circuitry for engaging and disengaging the electro-mechanical actuator motor brake. The battery, the three-phase brushless motor inverter, the driver circuit, the phase sequencer and the user interface are all disposed in a housing.
US08988021B2
A method of controlling a brushless motor that includes rectifying an alternating voltage to provide a rectified voltage having a ripple of at least 50%, exciting a winding of the motor with the rectified voltage, and performing a first process or a second process in response to current in the winding exceeding a threshold that is proportional to the rectified voltage. The first process includes freewheeling the winding, while the second process includes continuing to excite the winding for an overrun period and freewheeling the winding at the end of the overrun period. Additionally, a control system that implements the method, and a motor system that incorporates the control system.
US08988019B2
An electric operating machine comprising a motor and a power circuit driving the motor by the electric power supplied from a battery. The power circuit comprises a voltage conversion part converting an input voltage entered in accordance with a voltage of said battery to generate an output voltage and outputting said generated output voltage to said motor. The power circuit is structured so that the voltage value of said output voltage of said voltage conversion part is changeable.
US08988016B2
A control method comprises determining wheel creep of a wheel operably coupled to a traction motor and limiting a rate of change of an excitation frequency applied to the traction motor to drive the wheel, based on the determined wheel creep. According to one aspect, the rate of change of the excitation frequency is limited if the wheel creep exceeds a wheel creep threshold.
US08988015B2
A power tool including a motor, an input unit such as a variable-speed trigger switch, and a controller is provided. The controller controls the speed of the motor as a function of the input level indicated by the electrical signal from the input unit. The function is a first expression within a first predetermined range of the input level and a second expression within a second predetermined range of the input level, where the second expression corresponds to a polynomial of a second degree or higher and is different from the first expression.
US08988010B2
An LED driving device that performs a dimming operation of an LED module, the device includes: a dimming controller that receives the dimming instruction signal and generates a dimming signal; and a driving circuit that supplies an output current to the LED module based on the dimming signal generated by the dimming controller, wherein the driving circuit unit includes: a converter controller that generates a drive signal based on the dimming signal and outputs the drive signal to a first switching element; a first current setting circuit; and a second current setting circuit that is connected in parallel to the first current setting circuit, and wherein the dimming controller controls an operating state of the second current setting circuit to switch an adjustment range of the output current and a change characteristic of the output current in response to the dimming signal.
US08988007B2
A drive voltage generation circuit for an LED display device capable of increasing the input voltage range thereof is disclosed. The drive voltage generation circuit includes a booster that boosts an input voltage from an external source, to generate a boosted voltage, a protection switching element that controls whether or not the boosted voltage generated from the booster is to be output, in accordance with a switch control signal, a protection circuit that compares a level of the boosted voltage output from the booster via the protection switching element with a predetermined threshold voltage, selects one of a high voltage and a low voltage, based on a result of the comparison, and outputs the selected voltage as the switch control signal, and a discharger that discharges a low voltage node, to which the low voltage is applied.
US08988004B2
In one embodiment, an LED current controller is formed to determine which of a plurality of LED branches has the largest voltage drop and to select the current through that branch to use in controlling the value of current that flows through other LED branches.
US08987998B2
An LED fluorescent lamp includes: an LED array having a plurality of LEDs connected in series; a first connection pin and a third connection pin connected to one side of the LED array; a second connection pin and a fourth connection pin connected to the other side of the LED array; at least one pair of capacitors connected to the LED array; and a short-circuit means for connecting at least one of the first connection pin and the third connection pin, and the second connection pin and the fourth connection pin, wherein the capacitors include: a first capacitor having one end connected to the first connection pin and the other end connected to one side of the LED array; a third capacitor having one end connected to the third connection pin and the other end connected to the one side of the LED array; a second capacitor having one end connected to the second connection pin and the other end connected to the other side of the LED array; and a fourth capacitor having one end connected to the fourth connection pin and the other end connected to the other side of the LED array. The LED fluorescent lamp can use an instant start electronic ballast that is a fluorescent lamp ballast installed in an existing lamp with no change.
US08987996B2
A light emitting diode module includes a main base board, a wireless communication module, multiple light emitting diodes, a power output control system and a control unit. The wireless communication module is used for receiving a control signal. The light emitting diodes are disposed on the main base board and include light emitting diodes having at least one color. The power output control system is electrically connected to the light emitting diodes. The power output control system adjusts an amount of current flowing through each light emitting diode to control the light emitting diodes to emit light by adjusting the amount of current. The control unit is electrically connected to the wireless communication module and the power output control system for controlling the power output control system to adjust the amount of current of each light emitting diode.
US08987995B2
The lighting circuit comprises an AC input connectable to receive an AC input voltage, a switched LED array comprising a plurality of LEDs reconfigurable into a plurality of configurations and having an input for receiving a LED driving voltage, a switched capacitor array having an input for receiving a charging voltage and an output selectively connectable to the input of the switched LED array and comprising a plurality of capacitors and switches connected to selectively couple the capacitors across the input or output, a first switched rectifier connected between the AC input and the switched LED array, a second switched rectifier connected between the AC input and the switched capacitor array, and, a control system configured to monitor the AC input voltage and control the switched LED array, the switched capacitor array and the first and second switched rectifiers based on the AC input voltage and a desired light output.
US08987991B2
A sub headlight unit for use in a vehicle that leans into turns includes a sub headlight light source that illuminates an area ahead and outward of the vehicle with respect to a width direction of the vehicle. The sub headlight light source is configured to, when the vehicle is in an upright state, produce an illumination range including an area above a horizontal plane. The sub headlight light source is turned on in accordance with a lean angle of the vehicle. At a time of parking or stopping or at a time of running straight ahead, the sub headlight light source is turned on or caused to flash with the amount of light per unit of time being reduced as compared with the amount of light per unit of time emitted when the sub headlight light source is turned on in accordance with the lean angle of the vehicle.
US08987988B2
An object of the present invention is to provide an EL display device, which has a high operating performance and reliability. A third passivation film 45 is disposed so as to be in contact with an EL element 203 which comprises a pixel electrode (anode) 46, an EL layer 47 and a cathode 48, to make a structure in which heat generated by the EL element 203 is radiated. Further, the third passivation film 45 prevents alkali metals within the EL element 203 from diffusing into the TFTs side, and prevents moisture and oxygen of the TFTs side from penetrating into the EL element 203. More preferably, heat radiating effect is given to a fourth passivation film 50 to make the EL element 203 to be enclosed by heat radiating layers.
US08987985B2
Provided is an OLED device and method of making the OLED device. According to an embodiment, the OLED device incorporates a microcavity structure including a dielectric mirror formed on a glass substrate, an anode formed above the dielectric mirror, an organic film layer formed above the anode, and a reflective electrode formed above the organic film layer such that the cavity is formed in the organic film layer by the dielectric mirror and the reflective electrode. The OLED device with microcavity structure can incorporate one or more phosphors deposited on an underside of the glass substrate such that light of additional wavelengths can be generated by the OLED device.
US08987973B2
An energy harvester comprising a base; one or more first resilient means mounted on the base; a hollow chamber having a mounting point pivotally attached to the first resilient means; a hollow member enclosed within the hollow chamber being attached to one or more second resilient means extending from the mounting point in static equilibrium such that the center of mass of the hollow member is aligned with the second resilient means at a vertical axis; a plurality of piezoelectric material-built cantilevers mounted on the hollow member; an integrated circuit connecting the hollow chamber, hollow member, and piezoelectric material-built cantilevers with at least one of a primary storage and a device, wherein the energy is harvested through vibration of the plurality of piezoelectric material-built cantilevers at its approximately resonant frequency, reciprocation of the hollow chamber and the hollow member upon application of a force.
US08987970B2
A coil fixing member of a rotating electrical machine, wherein the rotating electrical machine includes a ring-shaped stator core, a slot formed at inner peripheral section of the stator core, a coil arranged in the slot, and wall sections defining opening on an inner periphery of the slot in a radial direction of the stator core, and wherein the coil fixing member is inserted into the slot, the coil fixing member comprising: a pressing section that presses the coil outward in the radial direction of the stator core; and engaging sections that are adjacent to both end sections of the pressing section in a peripheral direction of the stator core, that extend from the both end sections to an inward side in the radial direction of the stator core, and that include leading end sections respectively engaged with the wall sections.
US08987960B2
The present disclosure provides a supporting and heat dissipating structure. A driver is arranged on an inner surface of a heat sink. The heat sink has protrusions for heat dissipation. An axle hole and a fixing ring are formed at the center of the heat sink. An elastic ring is arranged around the fixing ring for connecting with a supporting frame. A tubular barrel is used for connecting the heat sink to a motor. A structure for easily and firmly supporting the motor and the driver can be obtained. The structure can also absorb vibration while the motor rotating.
US08987958B2
A waterproof motor stator structure includes a circuit board; a stator mounted on one face of the circuit board; a lower shell forming an open-topped annular recess for receiving the circuit board therein and having an central opening communicable with the annular recess; an upper shell fitted around an outer side of the stator; and a protective layer formed in the annular recess of the lower shell to encapsulate the circuit board and an open lower end of the upper shell, so that the lower shell and the upper shell are joined into an integral unit. With these arrangements, the stator located in between the lower and upper shells can be effectively protected against external moisture and salt spray with reduced time, labor and material costs while enabling extended service life a fan using same.
US08987950B2
An actuator in accordance with an embodiment includes at least one linear motor, a partition member and a fan. The linear motor is configured to linearly move a shaft serving as a movable member. The partition member is provided close to the shaft and configured to partition a space defined between the shaft and a control board for controlling the linear motor. Further, the fan is arranged on the side of the shaft with respect to the partition member and configured to flow an air existing in a partitioned space on the side of the shaft.
US08987949B1
A linear regulator includes a first drive voltage output to drive an analog load, a second drive voltage output to drive a digital load, and a third output to provide a clean source of current. Circuit elements that produce the respective drive voltages may be isolated from each other. In addition, local feedback may be included to compensate for wide swings in circuit loading conditions in the analog load and in the digital load.
US08987948B2
A solid state contactor assembly includes at least one solid state switch electrically connected to a first bus bar via at least one conductive plate. The solid state switch controls a flow of current between the first bus bar and a second bus bar. A current sensor is formed along a cross section of one of the first or second bus bar such that the current sensor separates its associated bus bar into two separate bus bar portions, and such that a flow of current between the two separate bus bar portions passes through the current sensor. A switch control is operable to control the solid state switch. The switch control is in communication with the current sensor.
US08987945B2
A control system has an instruction path of which an object section connects a microcomputer, a switch and a switch supervisory device with one another. The switch sets the path in conductive or non-conductive state on the low side of the microcomputer. An instruction signal is sent to the microcomputer through the conductive path to set the microcomputer in an operation state. When the device judges based on the operation state of the microcomputer that the switch has set the path in a conductive state, the device sends a first signal of first voltage, causing the signal to have current strength equal to or higher than predetermined value in the path, to the object section. When the device judges that the switch has set the path in a non-conductive state, the device sends a second signal of second voltage lower than first voltage to the object section.
US08987943B2
The subject of the invention relates to a multipurpose auxiliary energy transmission device for supplying electrical energy to portable electronic devices (1), which includes a carrier body (10) with an energy input gate (14) and an energy output gate (15) and at least two current conductor bodies (20, 30) located on the carrier body (10) which are electrically isolated from each other, where the one end (21) of the one current conductor body (20) is connected to the energy input gate (14) and its other end (22) to the energy output gate (15), while the one end (31) of the other current conductor body (30) is connected to the energy input gate (14) and its other end (32) to the energy output gate (15). The characteristic feature of the invention is that the carrier body (10) is supplemented with a reference signal forwarding gate (16) and a reference signal transmission body (40), the one end (41) of the reference signal transmission body (40) is connected to either the one current conductor body (20) or to the other current conductor body (30) and the other end (43) is connected to the reference signal forwarding gate (16) located on the edge (11) of the carrier body (10), and a voltage setting member (42) is inserted between the one end (41) and the other end (43) of the reference signal transmission body (40).
US08987941B2
A power transmission system a power transmission apparatus, a center frequency acquiring unit, and a control unit. The power transmission apparatus includes a primary-side coupling electrode electrically configured to couple to a secondary-side coupling electrode and connected load circuit of a power receiving apparatus, a high-frequency voltage generating circuit configured to generate and apply a high-frequency voltage to the primary-side coupling electrode, and a driving power circuit that supplies driving power to the high-frequency voltage generating circuit. The center frequency acquiring unit acquires a center frequency at which a high-frequency high voltage applied to coupling electrode is minimized in a state in which a low load is applied to the secondary-side coupling electrode of the power receiving apparatus and the frequency of the generated high-frequency voltage is varied. The control unit sets a driving frequency of the high-frequency voltage generating circuit at or near the center frequency to supply power to the power receiving apparatus.
US08987936B2
An apparatus and a method for peak shifting adjustment are disclosed. The apparatus includes a controlling unit that is configured to sequentially control different outputting units to output the Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) signals according to a preset time sequence. The interval between two adjacent outputted PWM signals is T1, which is the time when the current required by an electric device is higher than the normal current in case of an increase of the duty cycle of the PWM signals. At least two outputting units are connected to corresponding electric devices and configured to output the PWM signals to the corresponding electric devices according to the control of the controlling unit.
US08987933B2
A power over one-pair Ethernet approach. A data transformer is coupled to a single conductor pair using one or more direct current (DC) blocking elements that preserve an alternating current path. The data transformer enables a network device to transmit and receive data with a link partner device via the single conductor pair. Power transmission over the single conductor pair is enabled through the coupling of a power over Ethernet module to the single conductor pair using a diode that can be paired with a zener diode.
US08987932B2
A deep-water power generation system includes an initially evacuated enclosure having walls of suitable strength or reinforcement for maintaining its structural integrity thereof in deep-water pressures; a power axle extending through the enclosure from a north pole to below a south pole of the enclosure; preferably concave blades of a turbine secured upon a support frame secured to the power axle in a latitudinal plane of the enclosure; and inlet ports within the enclosure positioned at the latitudinal plane of the blades of the turbine and receiving an inflow of ambient deep water against the blades, in which a couple effect of force from the fluid flow induces rotation of the blades and of the power axle secured to the frame. A thrust deck is rigidly secured, within the enclosure, to the power axle above the turbine and to a generator secured upon the thrust deck. At the south pole of the enclosure, water is expelled into a high-pressure injection well descending to a geological level of a saline aquifer or discharged from a water chamber at the south pole and into a main water body under pressure provided to a discharge chamber in excess of the ambient deep-water pressure.
US08987931B2
An energy balancing system is provided that ensures continuous energy output to compensate for energy fluctuations commonly associated with wind power generation. The flexible energy balancing system employs a base load high-pressure steam boiler that is associated with one or more steam turbine generators. The steam turbine generators are also associated with one or more heat recovery steam generators whose temperature is controlled by the exhaust from combustion turbine generators and the base load high-pressure steam boiler. The energy balancing system can be selectively tuned to quickly compensate for energy fluctuations associated with wind power generation.
US08987926B2
Certain embodiments of the disclosure may include systems and methods for variable speed operation of combustion engines. According to an example embodiment of the disclosure, a method is provided for controlling the operation of the combustion engine. The method can include providing power from a power source to a converter; providing frequency variable power to a generator from the converter; accelerating the generator and associated turbine to a predetermined speed by modulating the frequency variable power from the converter; after a predetermined turbine speed is achieved, disconnecting power supplied to the generator by the converter; and modulating the subsequent operation of the generator using power from the converter.
US08987923B2
Among other things, a semiconductor seal ring and method for forming the same are provided. The semiconductor seal ring comprises a plurality of dielectric layers formed over a semiconductor substrate upon which a semiconductor device is formed. A plurality of conductive layers is arranged among at least some of the plurality of dielectric layers. An upper conductive layer is formed over the plurality of dielectric layers. An upper passivation layer is formed over the upper conductive layer to isolate the upper conductive layer from conductive debris resulting from a die saw process along a die saw cut line. In an example, a first columnar region comprising a first portion of the conductive layers is electrically isolated from the semiconductor device because the first columnar region is disposed relatively close to the die saw cut line and thus can be exposed to conductive debris which can cause undesired short circuits.
US08987919B2
A built-in electronic component substrate includes a first substrate, an electronic component including side surfaces and mounted on the first substrate, a first resin provided on the first substrate and covering the side surfaces of the electronic component, a second substrate provided above the electronic component and the first resin and layered on the first substrate, a substrate connection member provided between the first and the second substrates and electrically connecting the first and the second substrates, a second resin filling in between the electronic component and the second substrate and in between the first resin and the second substrate, and a third resin filling in between the first and the second substrates and encapsulating the substrate connection member, the electronic component, the first resin, and the second resin.
US08987918B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed towards techniques and configurations of interconnect structures having a polymer core in integrated circuit (IC) package assemblies. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a first die having a plurality of transistor devices disposed on an active side of the first die and a plurality of interconnect structures electrically coupled with the first die, wherein individual interconnect structures of the plurality of interconnect structures have a polymer core, and an electrically conductive material disposed on the polymer core, the electrically conductive material being configured to route electrical signals between the transistor devices of the first die and a second die. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
US08987913B2
Disclosed herein is a deformable network structure, which includes a first device portion, a second device portion and at least one connector interconnecting between the first device portion and the second device portion. Moreover, the second device portion can be electrically connected to the first device portion through one of the connectors. The first and second device portions respectively have a first and a second center. Each of the connectors may be deformable from an initial state to a final state, such that a first distance between the first and second centers in the final state varies by at least 10% of a second distance between the first and second centers in the initial state.
US08987910B2
The present invention relates to a method of bonding a copper wire to a substrate, particularly a printed circuit board and an IC-substrate, possessing a layer assembly comprising a copper bonding portion and a palladium or palladium alloy layer and a substrate having a copper wire bonded to aforementioned layer assembly.
US08987906B2
An integrated circuit and a method of formation provide a contact area formed at an angled end of at least one linearly extending conductive line. In an embodiment, conductive lines with contact landing pads are formed by patterning lines in a mask material, cutting at least one of the material lines to form an angle relative to the extending direction of the material lines, forming extensions from the angled end faces of the mask material, and patterning an underlying conductor by etching using said material lines and extension as a mask. In another embodiment, at least one conductive line is cut at an angle relative to the extending direction of the conductive line to produce an angled end face, and an electrical contact landing pad is formed in contact with the angled end face.
US08987897B2
The invention provides a semiconductor package. The semiconductor package includes a substrate. A first passivation layer is disposed on the substrate. An under bump metallurgy layer is disposed on the first passivation layer. A passive device is disposed on the under bump metallurgy layer.
US08987891B2
One embodiment of the present invention is a heat sink apparatus for cooling a semiconductor device includes: (a) a rigid support ring having a top surface and a bottom surface; (b) a thermally conductive bottom sheet having a top and a bottom surface, wherein the top surface of the sheet is attached to the bottom surface of the rigid support ring; and (c) a channel for cooling fluid formed by a volume contained by the rigid support ring, the sheet, and an enclosure; wherein the sheet is held in tension by the rigid support ring, thereby reducing the macroscopic coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the sheet. In use, thermally induced mechanical stress in a semiconductor device attached to the bottom surface of the sheet may be ameliorated by the reduction in macroscopic CTE, thereby increasing reliability of an assembly as it is cycled in temperature during normal operation.
US08987889B2
An integrated electromagnetic interference (EMI) shield for a semiconductor module package. The integrated EMI shield includes a plurality of wirebond springs electrically connected between a ground plane in the substrate of the package and a conductive layer printed on the top of the package mold compound. The wirebond springs have a defined shape that causes a spring effect to provide contact electrical connection between the tops of the wirebond springs and the conductive layer. The wirebond springs can be positioned anywhere in the module package, around all or some of the devices included in the package, to create a complete EMI shield around those devices.
US08987884B2
A device includes a first package component, and a second package component underlying the first package component. The second package component includes a first electrical connector at a top surface of the second package component, wherein the first electrical connector is bonded to the first package component. The second package component further includes a second electrical connector at the top surface of the second package component, wherein no package component is overlying and bonded to the second electrical connector.
US08987883B2
One exemplary disclosed embodiment comprises a high power semiconductor package configured as a buck converter having a control transistor and a sync transistor disposed on a common leadframe pad, a driver integrated circuit (IC) for driving the control and sync transistors, and conductive clips electrically coupling the top surfaces of the transistors to substrate pads such as leadframe pads. In this manner, the leadframe and the conductive clips provide efficient grounding or current conduction by direct mechanical connection and large surface area conduction, thereby enabling a package with significantly reduced electrical resistance, form factor, complexity, and cost when compared to conventional packaging methods using wirebonds for transistor interconnections.
US08987873B2
The CP555 Super Integrated Circuit Chip has a ceramic package casing made from (B4-C) Boron Carbide: a non-conducting ceramic material. The IC is connected to connector pins by microcircuits and a custom formulated bond wire. The CP555 Integrated Circuit's ceramic Boron Carbide (B4-C) outer package casing, Heterodiamond substrates and dielectric components allows these integrated circuits to reduce electro-migration to a minimum, produce superior radiation hardness, heat resistance, electromagnetic shielding, and resistance to damage from harsh elements and environments. The CP555 Integrated Circuit can be used as a CMOS, PIC or DIE microcontroller circuit or computer processor (CPU). FIG. 1, shows the integrated circuit package 50, the outer package casing 138 also in FIG. 1, top left. Together, the Heterodiamond (B—C—N) semiconductor substrate and dielectric components, combined with a (Cu—Au—Ag) custom formulated bond wire work synergistically to make The CP555 Super Integrated Circuit Chip a unique semiconductor device.
US08987872B2
One feature pertains to a multi-chip package that includes a substrate and an electromagnetic interference (EMI) shield coupled to the substrate. At least one integrated circuit is coupled to a first surface of the substrate. The EMI shield includes a metal casing configured to shield the package from radio frequency radiation, a dielectric layer coupled to at least a portion of an inner surface of the metal casing, and a plurality of signal lines. The signal lines are coupled to the dielectric layer and electrically isolated from the metal casing by the dielectric layer. At least one other integrated circuit is coupled to an inner surface of the EMI shield, and at least a portion of the inner surface of the EMI shield faces the first surface of the substrate. The signal lines are configured to provide electrical signals to the second circuit component.
US08987869B2
An integrated circuit device including an interlayer insulating layer on a substrate, a wire layer on the interlayer insulating layer, and a through-silicon-via (TSV) contact pattern having an end contacting the wire layer and integrally extending from inside of a via hole formed through the interlayer insulating layer and the substrate to outside of the via hole.
US08987854B2
A microelectronic device is provided, including: a substrate including a first semiconductor layer positioned on a dielectric layer and a second semiconductor layer; and an isolation trench disposed through the first semiconductor layer, the dielectric layer, and a part of the thickness of the second semiconductor layer, including a dielectric material and delimiting, in the first semiconductor layer, a roughly rectangular active area of the device, wherein in said part of the thickness of the second semiconductor layer, at least one portion of the dielectric material is positioned under the active area delimited by at least four side walls of the trench, and two of the at least four side walls are roughly parallel with one another and are positioned under the active area, and the other two of the at least four side walls are orthogonal to said two walls and are not positioned under the active area.
US08987834B2
Methods of isolating gates in a semiconductor structure. In one embodiment, isolation is achieved using a spacer material in combination with fins. In another embodiment, etch characteristics of various materials utilized in fabrication of the semiconductor structure are used to increase an effective gate length (“Leffective”) and a field gate oxide. Semiconductor structures formed by these methods are also disclosed.
US08987833B2
In one implementation, a stacked composite device comprises a group IV lateral transistor and a group III-V transistor stacked over the group IV lateral transistor. A drain of the group IV lateral transistor is in contact with a source of the group III-V transistor, a source of the group IV lateral transistor is coupled to a gate of the group III-V transistor to provide a composite source on a top side of the stacked composite device, and a drain of the group III-V transistor provides a composite drain on the top side of the stacked composite device. A gate of the group IV lateral transistor provides a composite gate on the top side of the stacked composite device, and a substrate of the group IV lateral transistor is on a bottom side of the stacked composite device.
US08987825B2
A semiconductor device includes a substrate having a first type doping. The semiconductor device further includes a first deep well in the substrate, the first deep well having a second type doping. The semiconductor device further includes a second deep well in the substrate, the second deep well having the second type doping and being separated and above the first deep well. The semiconductor device further includes a first well over the second deep well, the first well having the first type doping and a gate structure over the first well.
US08987823B2
Methods and structures for forming a localized silicon-on-insulator (SOI) finFET are disclosed. Fins are formed on a bulk substrate. Nitride spacers protect the fin sidewalls. A shallow trench isolation region is deposited over the fins. An oxidation process causes oxygen to diffuse through the shallow trench isolation region and into the underlying silicon. The oxygen reacts with the silicon to form oxide, which provides electrical isolation for the fins. The shallow trench isolation region is in direct physical contact with the fins and/or the nitride spacers that are disposed on the fins. Structures comprising bulk-type fins, SOI-type fins, and planar regions are also disclosed.
US08987821B2
A lateral double-diffused metal-oxide-semiconductor (LDMOS) transistor device includes an enhancement implant region formed in a portion of an accumulation region proximate a P-N junction between body and drift drain regions. The enhancement implant region contains additional dopants of the same conductivity type as the drift drain region. There is a gap between the enhancement implant region and the P-N junction. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
US08987810B2
A semiconductor device has an FET of a trench-gate structure obtained by disposing a conductive layer, which will be a gate, in a trench extended in the main surface of a semiconductor substrate, wherein the upper surface of the trench-gate conductive layer is formed equal to or higher than the main surface of the semiconductor substrate. The conductive layer of the trench gate is formed to have a substantially flat or concave upper surface and the upper surface is formed equal to or higher than the main surface of the semiconductor substrate. After etching of the semiconductor substrate to form the upper surface of the conductive layer of the trench gate, a channel region and a source region are formed by ion implantation so that the semiconductor device is free from occurrence of a source offset.
US08987809B2
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a nonvolatile semiconductor memory element including: a semiconductor substrate including: a source region; a drain region; and a channel region; a lower insulating film that is formed on the channel region; a charge storage film that is formed on the lower insulating film and that stores data; an upper insulating film that is formed on the charge storage film; and a control gate that is formed on the upper insulating film, wherein the upper insulating film includes: a first insulting film; and a second insulating film that is laminated with the first insulating film, and wherein the first insulating film is formed to have a trap level density larger than that of the second insulating film.
US08987807B2
According to one embodiment, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes first to n-th semiconductor layers which are stacked in a first direction perpendicular to a surface of a semiconductor substrate and which extend in a second direction parallel to the surface of the semiconductor substrate, an electrode which extends in the first direction along side surfaces of the first to n-th semiconductor layers, the side surfaces of the first to n-th semiconductor layers exposing in a third direction perpendicular to the first and second directions, and first to n-th charge storage layers located between the first to n-th semiconductor layers and the electrode respectively. The first to n-th charge storage layers are separated from each other in areas between the first to n-th semiconductor layers.
US08987803B2
Nonvolatile memory devices include a vertical stack of nonvolatile memory cells. The vertical stack of nonvolatile memory cells includes a first nonvolatile memory cell having a first gate pattern therein, which is separated from a vertical active region by a first multi-layered dielectric pattern having a first thickness, and a second nonvolatile memory cell having a second gate pattern therein, which is separated from the vertical active region by a second multi-layered dielectric pattern having a second thickness. The second gate pattern is also separated from the first gate pattern by a distance less than a sum of the first and second thicknesses.
US08987799B2
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor device may include, but is not limited to, a semiconductor substrate, an isolation electrode, a gate electrode, a gate insulating film, and a first insulating film. The semiconductor substrate has a first groove and a second groove. An isolation electrode is positioned in the first groove. The gate electrode is positioned in the second groove. The gate insulating film is adjacent to the gate electrode. The first insulating film is adjacent to the isolation electrode. The isolation electrode is greater in threshold voltage than the gate electrode.
US08987798B2
Provided is a magnetic tunneling junction device including a first structure including a magnetic layer; a second structure including at least two extrinsic perpendicular magnetization structures, each including a magnetic layer and; a perpendicular magnetization inducing layer on the magnetic layer; and a tunnel barrier between the first and second structures.
US08987792B2
Merged active devices on a common substrate are presented. Methods for operating and fabricating such merged active devices are also presented.
US08987790B2
A method for fabricating a field effect transistor (FET) device includes forming a plurality of semiconductor fins on a substrate, removing a semiconductor fin of the plurality of semiconductor fins from a portion of the substrate, forming an isolation fin that includes a dielectric material on the substrate on the portion of the substrate, and forming a gate stack over the plurality of semiconductor fins and the isolation fin.
US08987780B2
A graphene capped HEMT device and a method of fabricating same are disclosed. The graphene capped HEMT device includes one or more graphene caps that enhance device performance and/or reliability of an exemplary AlGaN/GaN heterostructure transistor used in high-frequency, high-energy applications, e.g., wireless telecommunications. The HEMT device disclosed makes use of the extraordinary material properties of graphene. One of the graphene caps acts as a heat sink underneath the transistor, while the other graphene cap stabilizes the source, drain, and gate regions of the transistor to prevent cracking during high-power operation. A process flow is disclosed for replacing a three-layer film stack, previously used to prevent cracking, with a one-atom thick layer of graphene, without otherwise degrading device performance. In addition, the HEMT device disclosed includes a hexagonal boron nitride adhesion layer to facilitate deposition of the compound nitride semiconductors onto the graphene.
US08987778B1
Embodiments of the invention provide increased ESD protection suitable for high-voltage devices. In one embodiment, an internal DMOS circuit is placed in parallel with a lateral NPN ESD clamp. The clamp has both a high holding voltage, above the operating voltage of the DMOS circuit, and a high maximum current before breakdown. The discharge path of the clamp includes a high-voltage lightly doped well containing a low-voltage higher doped well. The dopant of both wells is the same type, and the interface between the two defines a graded junction. The emitter of the entire circuit is grounded and the collector is coupled to the voltage of the DMOS circuit.
US08987768B2
A semiconductor light emitting device is provided, including a substrate, a first conductive semiconductor layer, an active layer, and a second conductive semiconductor layer that includes a top surface and a bottom surface. The device includes a first roughness layer having a random horn shape and formed with irregular intervals, a second roughness layer, and at least one of a first AlGaN based semiconductor layer and a second AlGaN based semiconductor layer. The second conductive semiconductor layer includes a plurality of apexes on the top surface, where the distance between at least two apexes is of about 0.3 μm to about 1.0 μm. The second roughness layer includes a lower surface having a shape corresponding to the top surface of the second conductive semiconductor layer. The second roughness layer includes an upper surface having a shape corresponding to a top surface of the first roughness layer.
US08987767B2
According to example embodiments, a light emitting device includes a transparent substrate, a transparent electrode on a transparent substrate, a transparent light extraction layer at least partially on the transparent electrode, a light emitting layer on the transparent electrode, and a reflective electrode on the light extraction layer and the light emitting layer. The light extraction layer and the light emitting layer may be alternately and repeatedly arranged between the transparent electrode and the reflective electrode.
US08987765B2
Light emitting devices and methods of integrating micro LED devices into light emitting device are described. In an embodiment a light emitting device includes a reflective bank structure within a bank layer, and a conductive line atop the bank layer and elevated above the reflective bank structure. A micro LED device is within the reflective bank structure and a passivation layer is over the bank layer and laterally around the micro LED device within the reflective bank structure. A portion of the micro LED device and a conductive line atop the bank layer protrude above a top surface of the passivation layer.
US08987762B2
According to one embodiment, a light-emitting unit which emits light, a wavelength conversion unit which includes a phosphor and which is provided on a main surface of the light-emitting unit, and a transparent resin which is provided on top of the wavelength conversion unit, are prepared. The transparent resin has a greater modulus of elasticity and/or a higher Shore hardness than the wavelength conversion unit.
US08987760B2
Disclosed herein is an organic EL display device in which pixels each including an organic EL element formed by interposing an organic layer between an anode electrode and a cathode electrode are arranged in a matrix, the organic EL display device including: a common layer configured to be included in the organic EL element and be formed in the organic layer in common to the pixels; and a metal interconnect configured to surround periphery of the anode electrode and be electrically connected to the organic layer, wherein potential of the metal interconnect is set to a potential lower than potential of the anode electrode in a non-light-emission state of the organic EL element.
US08987759B2
A substrate for a display device comprises a first pattern and a second pattern disposed within an active region of the substrate; a first overlay pattern disposed at corner regions of the active region and made of the same material as that of the first pattern; and a second overlay pattern disposed at corner regions of the active region and made of the same material as that of the second pattern, wherein the first overlay pattern includes gradations, and the second overlay pattern includes gradations to face the gradations of the first overlay pattern.
US08987754B1
A highly directional thermal emitter device comprises a two-dimensional periodic array of heavily doped semiconductor structures on a surface of a substrate. The array provides a highly directional thermal emission at a peak wavelength between 3 and 15 microns when the array is heated. For example, highly doped silicon (HDSi) with a plasma frequency in the mid-wave infrared was used to fabricate nearly perfect absorbing two-dimensional gratings structures that function as highly directional thermal radiators. The absorption and emission characteristics of the HDSi devices possessed a high degree of angular dependence for infrared absorption in the 10-12 micron range, while maintaining high reflectivity of solar radiation (˜64%) at large incidence angles.
US08987752B2
A method of fabricating an optoelectronic device, comprising: providing a substrate, wherein the substrate comprises a first major surface and a second major surface opposite to the first major surface; forming a light emitting stack on the second major surface of the substrate; forming a supporting layer covering the light emitting stack; forming a plurality of first modified regions in the substrate by employing a first energy into the substrate, wherein the supporting layer is formed before forming the plurality of first modified regions; forming an oxide layer on the first major surface of the substrate; and cleaving the substrate along the plurality of first modified regions.
US08987748B2
An integrated circuit containing an MOS transistor with epitaxial source and drain regions may be formed by implanting a retrograde anti-punch-through layer prior to etching the source drain regions for epitaxial replacement. The anti-punch-through layer is disposed between stressor tips of the epitaxial source and drain regions, and does not substantially extend into the epitaxial source and drain regions.
US08987735B2
A semiconductor device includes at least two semiconductor chips each including a plurality of data input/output pads, a data memory portion structured so as to read/write data through the plurality of data input/output pads, a test result input/output pad, and a test circuit for controlling a first test mode that decides data read from the data memory portion and outputs the decision from the test result input/output pad and a second test mode that decides data read from the data memory portion, inputs test result of another semiconductor chip from the test result input/output pad and outputs a synthesized test result of the test result of the chip itself and the test result of the other semiconductor chip from a specified part of the plurality of data input/output pads, and a plurality of data input/output terminals each connected with different data input/output pads.
US08987734B2
The present invention provides a semiconductor wafer, semiconductor package and semiconductor process. The semiconductor wafer includes a substrate, at least one metal segment and a plurality of dielectric layers. The semiconductor wafer is defined as a plurality of die areas and a plurality of trench areas, each of the die areas has an integrated circuit including a plurality of patterned metal layers disposed between the dielectric layers. The trench areas are disposed between the die areas, and the at least one metal segment is disposed in the trench area and insulated from the integrated circuit of the die area.
US08987732B2
Disclosed is a ceramic semiconductor capable of increasing the density of surrounding superoxide ions (O2−) after being heated and passing air. An oxide material capable of enhancing a space charge effect is doped when the ceramic semiconductor is formed, and the ceramic semiconductor has a plurality of through holes, such that after the ceramic semiconductor is electrically conducted to generate current and heat, outer shell electrons of the ceramic semiconductor are separated and remained in the through holes of the ceramic semiconductor and accumulated in the through holes to form an electron cloud. After air passes through the through holes, oxygen in the air collides with an electron and then they combine together to form a superoxide ion (O2−), so as to increase the density of surrounding superoxide ions (O2−).
US08987730B2
An object of one embodiment of the present invention is to provide a highly reliable semiconductor device by giving stable electric characteristics to a transistor including an oxide semiconductor film. The semiconductor device includes a gate electrode layer over a substrate, a gate insulating film over the gate electrode layer, an oxide semiconductor film over the gate insulating film, a drain electrode layer provided over the oxide semiconductor film to overlap with the gate electrode layer, and a source electrode layer provided to cover an outer edge portion of the oxide semiconductor film. The outer edge portion of the drain electrode layer is positioned on the inner side than the outer edge portion of the gate electrode layer.
US08987728B2
An object is to provide a highly reliable semiconductor device having stable electric characteristics by using an oxide semiconductor film having stable electric characteristics. Another object is to provide a semiconductor device having higher mobility by using an oxide semiconductor film having high crystallinity. A crystalline oxide semiconductor film is formed over and in contact with an insulating film whose surface roughness is reduced, whereby the oxide semiconductor film can have stable electric characteristics. Accordingly, the highly reliable semiconductor device having stable electric characteristics can be provided. Further, the semiconductor device having higher mobility can be provided.
US08987721B2
The objective of the present invention is to propose an organic electroluminescent element capable of realizing lighting with which a person feels comfortable irrespective of change in luminance of emitted light. The organic electroluminescent element according to the present invention is constituted by a plurality of layers stacked. The organic electroluminescent element has such characteristics that, in a range of 100 cd/m2 to 6000 cd/m2 inclusive, a color temperature of emitted light increases with an increase in luminance of the emitted light in a direction identical to a direction in which the plurality of layers are stacked.
US08987716B2
There is provided an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display device, including: a first substrate on which a plurality of sub-pixel areas are defined; a plurality of first electrodes in the plurality of sub-pixel areas, respectively; and a plurality of light-emitting layers over the plurality of first electrodes and corresponding to the plurality of sub-pixel areas, respectively; wherein at least one of the plurality of light-emitting layers extends to a neighboring sub-pixel area among the plurality of sub-pixel areas, and has an occupied area in the neighboring sub-pixel area.
US08987713B2
The invention relates, inter alia, to an arrangement (10) for generating electromagnetic radiation, wherein the arrangement comprises inorganic semiconductor material and organic material (130), characterized by a semiconductor cylinder (30, 40) composed of inorganic semiconductor material and a charge carrier injection zone (50) situated in the semiconductor cylinder, wherein the charge carrier injection zone adjoins the lateral surface (110) of the semiconductor cylinder, the organic material (130) is suitable for emitting electromagnetic radiation in the case of a charge carrier recombination, and the organic material bears indirectly or directly on that section of the lateral surface of the semiconductor cylinder which is adjoined by the charge carrier injection zone and electron-hole pairs from the charge carrier injection zone of the semiconductor cylinder can enter into the organic material, and excite there the emission of electromagnetic radiation by recombination.
US08987705B2
Carbon nanotubes can be aligned with compatibility with semiconductor manufacturing processes, with scalability for forming smaller devices, and without performance degradation related to structural damages. A planar structure including a buried gate electrode and two embedded electrodes are formed. After forming a gate dielectric, carbon nanotubes are assembled in a solution on a surface of the gate dielectric along the direction of an alternating current (AC) electrical field generated by applying a voltage between the two embedded electrodes. A source contact electrode and a drain contact electrode are formed by depositing a conductive material on both ends of the carbon nanotubes. Each of the source and drain contact electrodes can be electrically shorted to an underlying embedded electrode to reduce parasitic capacitance.
US08987700B2
A memory device includes a plurality of side-wall electrodes formed on a first side-wall of a trench within an insulating layer over a first plurality of contacts in an array of contacts in a substrate. The plurality of side-wall electrodes contact respective top surfaces of the first plurality of contacts. The side-wall electrodes respectively comprise a layer of tantalum nitride, having a composition TaxNy, where y is greater than x, and a layer of electrode material having a lower electrical resistivity and a lower thermal resistivity than the layer of tantalum nitride. Top surfaces of the plurality of side-wall electrodes contact memory material. A second plurality of side-wall electrodes may be formed on a second side-wall of the trench over a second plurality of contacts in the array of contacts.
US08987698B2
Some embodiments include memory constructions having a plurality of bands between top and bottom electrically conductive materials. The bands include chalcogenide bands alternating with non-chalcogenide bands. In some embodiments, there may be least two of the chalcogenide bands and at least one of the non-chalcogenide bands. In some embodiments, the memory cells may be between a pair of electrodes; with one of the electrodes being configured as a lance, angled plate, container or beam. In some embodiments, the memory cells may be electrically coupled with select devices, such as, for example, diodes, field effect transistors or bipolar junction transistors.
US08987696B2
According to one embodiment, a resistance change memory includes a first interconnect line extending in a first direction, a second interconnect line extending in a second direction intersecting with the first direction, a cell unit which is provided at the intersection of the first interconnect line and the second interconnect line and which includes a memory element and a non-ohmic element that are connected in series. The non-ohmic element has a first semiconductor layer which includes at least one diffusion buffering region and a conductive layer adjacent to the first semiconductor layer. The diffusion buffering region is different in crystal structure from a semiconductor region except for the diffusion buffering region in the first semiconductor layer.
US08987694B2
Semiconductor devices, and methods of manufacturing the same, include a field region in a semiconductor substrate to define an active region. An interlayer insulating layer is on the semiconductor substrate. A semiconductor pattern is within a hole vertically extending through the interlayer insulating layer. The semiconductor pattern is in contact with the active region. A barrier region is between the semiconductor pattern and the interlayer insulating layer. The barrier region includes a first buffer dielectric material and a barrier dielectric material. The first buffer dielectric material is between the barrier dielectric material and the semiconductor pattern, and the barrier dielectric material is spaced apart from both the semiconductor pattern and the active region.
US08987693B2
A method of operating a memory device having a dielectric material layer, a transition metal oxide layer and a set of electrodes each formed over a substrate, includes applying a voltage across the set of electrodes producing an electric field across the transition metal oxide layer enabling the transition metal oxide layer to undergo a metal-insulation transition (MIT) to perform a read or write operation on memory device.
US08987690B2
A high-energy ion implanter includes a beam generation unit that includes an ion source and a mass analyzer, a high-energy multi-stage linear acceleration unit, a high-energy beam deflection unit that changes the direction of a high-energy ion beam toward a wafer, and a beam transportation unit that transports the deflected high-energy ion beam to the wafer. The beam transportation unit includes a beam shaper, a high-energy beam scanner, a high-energy beam collimator, and a high-energy final energy filter. Further, the high-energy beam collimator is an electric field type beam collimator that collimates a scan beam while performing the acceleration and the deceleration of a high-energy beam by an electric field.
US08987686B2
A method for the spectroscopic analysis of a sample is provided. The method including the illumination of the sample to be analyzed by a plurality of luminous excitation rays with respective wavelengths; the acquisition and the pre-treatment of frontal fluorescence spectra, each spectrum corresponding to a respective luminous excitation ray; for each sample, the calculation of a score vector by applying a multi-channel statistical model to the pre-treated spectra; and the determination of at least one parameter selected from a quality indicator of the sample and a parameter characterizing a method that has been applied to the sample, from said score vector. The average spectral distance between the luminous excitation rays is at least 50 nm, over a spectral range of at least 100 nm. The invention also relates to an appliance for implementing such a method.
US08987680B2
In order to provide a multipole measurement apparatus that can easily obtain table data for an aberration corrector that corrects the aberrations in a charged particle beam apparatus, the multipole measurement apparatus, which is provided with an optical system (10), a space into which an aberration corrector (6) is to be inserted, and a position detector (7), measures the relationship between the incident position and angle of a primary charged particle beam on the aberration corrector (6) at a plurality of points, the irradiation position upon the position detector (7), and a multipole, in a state of having a multipole field excited and in a state of not having a multipole field excited, so as to extract multipole components contained in the measurement executed in the state of having the multipole field excited.
US08987678B2
An inductively-coupled plasma source for a focused charged particle beam system includes a conductive shield that provides improved electrical isolation and reduced capacitive RF coupling and a dielectric fluid that insulates and cools the plasma chamber. The conductive shield may be enclosed in a solid dielectric media. The dielectric fluid may be circulated by a pump or not circulated by a pump. A heat tube can be used to cool the dielectric fluid.
US08987677B2
The invention relates to a modulation device for use in a charged particle multi-beamlet lithography system. The device includes a body comprising an interconnect structure provided with a plurality of modulators and interconnects at different levels within the interconnect structure for enabling connection of the modulators to one or more pattern data receiving elements. A modulator includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and an aperture extending through the body. The electrodes are located on opposing sides of the aperture for generating an electric field across the aperture. At least one of the first electrode and the second electrode includes a first conductive element formed at a first level of the interconnect structure and a second conductive element formed at a second level of the interconnect structure. The first and second conductive elements are electrically connected with each other.
US08987675B2
A radiation detecting apparatus is provided. The radiation detecting apparatus includes a pair of rails extending in a channel direction, a plurality of collimator modules provided in the pair of rails and arranged in the channel direction, each collimator module having a plurality of collimator plates arranged in the channel direction, and a plurality of detector modules provided on a radiation outgoing side of the collimator modules and arranged in the channel direction, wherein each of the collimator modules has a pair of alignment pins extending along an irradiation direction, wherein the rails include a surface of placement for each collimator module, the surface of placement formed with one of concave holes and grooves in which first ends of the alignment pins are fitted, and wherein each of the detector modules has one of concave holes and through holes in which second ends of the alignment pins are fitted.
US08987673B2
A detector arrangement of an imaging system detector detecting ionizing radiation includes a detector carrier, a plurality of detector modules attached to the detector carrier, and a collimator disposed in the radiation direction in front of the detector modules which are disposed on the incident radiation measurement side. In at least one embodiment, at least one air gap is included for conveying cooling air is disposed between the collimator and the measurement sensors of the detector modules. A method is also disclosed for cooling a detector arrangement of a detector rotating around a system axis with a plurality of measurement sensors disposed next to one another and a collimator arranged in the radiation direction in front of the measurement sensors, wherein cooling air is conveyed in or against the system axis direction between the collimator and the measurement sensors which directly cools the surface of the measurement sensors.
US08987671B2
An image intensifier tube and a night vision system fitted with such a tube. The tube body of the image intensifier tube includes a multilayer ceramic substrate fixed in a sealed manner to an input device and to an output device so as to assure leaktightness of a vacuum chamber delimited by the tube body. The multilayer substrate also maintains a microchannel plate arranged between a photocathode and a phosphorus screen, and supplies voltage to the photocathode, the plate, and the phosphorus screen.
US08987660B2
The methods described herein generally relate to characterization of large analytes, such as biomolecules, by molecular mass analysis. Specifically, the methods are directed to molecular mass analysis of singly— or multiply-charged ions by selective ion filtering carried out by a digital thresholding process.
US08987659B2
When calibrating a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner, a radioactive calibration phantom is scanned over a period of several half lives to acquire a plurality of frames of scan data. Interlaced timing windows are employed to facilitate acquiring coincidence data for a plurality of coincidence timing windows and energy windows during a single calibration scan. Coincident events are binned according to each of a plurality of selected coincidence windows, and the PET scanner is calibrated for each of the plurality of coincidence timing windows using data acquired from the single calibration scan.
US08987646B2
In accordance with an embodiment, a pixel includes a first stage coupled to a second stage. The second stage includes a sampling capacitor and a subtraction capacitor.
US08987640B2
An axial resistance sheathed heater is presented. The axial resistance sheathed heater includes a retaining sheath having a first end and a second end and a resistance wire completely disposed within the retaining sheath. The heater further includes a first conductor rod partially disposed within the retaining sheath and extending beyond the first end of the retaining sheath, the first conductor rod in direct electrical communication and direct mechanical communication with the resistance wire; and a second conductor rod partially disposed within said retaining sheath and extending beyond the second end of the retaining sheath, the second conductor rod in direct electrical communication and direct mechanical communication with the resistance wire. The resistance wire, the first conductor rod and the second conductor rod comprise a circuit achieving a power to voltage rating of about 5000:24.
US08987637B1
The welding torch performs oscillation of the torch head while moving the torch head along the circular weld path, under control of signals generated by a controller. The operator of the welding torch preferably has control over the amplitude of the oscillation, how fast it moves back and forth, and how long it remains at each turning point of the oscillation (dwell time).
US08987630B2
A method is provided for adhesively bonding together a pair of metal sheets to form a laminated sheet metal assembly. A coating of heat curable adhesive is placed on the bottom sheet. The top sheet is placed on top of the coating of adhesive. The stacked metal sheets are then placed between a pair of electrodes. One of the electrodes has a pointed projection that pierces through at least the adjacent sheet and into the adhesive. Electrical current is then conducted between the electrodes so that current flows through the projection to create electric resistance heating and thereby cure the adhesive. The electrodes can be rotating rollers and the metal sheets are fed between the rollers. The electrodes can provide heating and curing of the adhesive in a spot surrounding the pointed electrode and then the remaining uncured adhesive can be cured during later heating of the laminated assembly.
US08987622B2
A switch according to the embodiment includes a first contact that switches between an open state and a closed state, a second contact that switches between an open state and a ground state, an operating lever, and a rotating member that rotates for a predetermined angle in accordance with an operation of the operating lever. Furthermore, the switch includes a first cam that opens and closes the first contact by rotating in conjunction with a rotation of the rotating member in one direction, and a second cam that opens and closes the second contact by rotating in conjunction with a rotation of the rotating member in another direction.
US08987617B2
A multicolor light-emitting computer input device includes a key switch module including a bottom plat having through holes, press members spaced above the bottom plate, and linking members respectively coupled between the bottom plate and the press members for moving the press members up and down, a circuit board arranged above the bottom plate and carrying light-emitting diodes in the through holes of the bottom plate and a light guide cap of a selected color capped around each light-emitting diode, elastomer members arranged the top side of the circuit board, and a light guide panel arranged at the bottom side of the bottom plate for receiving light from the light-emitting diodes and the respective light guide caps and guiding the received light toward the press members.
US08987614B2
A vehicle passenger detection apparatus includes a load detecting part and a seat condition determining part. The seat condition determining part includes a vibration threshold value setting section, a vibration determining section and a seat determining section. The vibration threshold value setting section sets a vibration threshold value based on the load detection signal such that the vibration threshold value is higher when a fluctuation amount of the load detection signal is small than when the fluctuation amount of the load detection signal is large. The seat determining section executes a seating determination based on the load detection signal when the vibration determining section determines that the vehicle vibration is not occurring based on the load detection signal and the vibration threshold value, and to defer execution of the seating determination to maintain a previous seating determination result when the vibration determining section determines that the vehicle vibration is occurring.
US08987602B2
A laminated multilayer electronic support structure comprising a dielectric with integral vias and feature layers and further comprising a planar metal core characterized by a thickness of less than 100 microns.
US08987600B2
A electric wire includes a central conductor 1 made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy, a cover layer 2 made of copper and covering the central conductor 1, and a ferromagnetic layer 3 covering the cover layer 2 and blocking the external magnetic field. The thickness of the ferromagnetic layer 3 is in a range from 0.04 μm to 14 μm, the total diameter of the central conductor 1 and the cover layer 2 is in a range from 0.05 mm to 0.4 mm, and the cross-sectional area of the central conductor 1 is in a range from 85% to 95% of the total cross-sectional area of the central conductor 1 and the cover layer 2.
US08987594B1
The present disclosure is generally directed to a reconfigurable multiple interconnection device including a first electrical interface including a first plurality of electrical connecting points, at least one wiring harness including a plurality of electrical conductors where a first end of the plurality of electrical conductors being electrically connected to respective electrical connecting points of the first electrical interface, and where a second end of the plurality of electrical conductors being electrically connected to an interchangeable terminal. The device further includes a second electrical interface including a second plurality of electrical connecting points, the second electrical interface configured to receive the interchangeable terminal of the at least one wiring harness in at least a first position.
US08987593B2
An electrical box extension includes a base, a movable ring and an extension ring. The base has an inwardly extending flange for coupling the base to the open end of an electrical box. The movable ring slides within the base and is captured by a screw that draws the movable ring into the base. The extension ring optionally can be coupled to the top end of the movable ring. A movable support flange can be coupled to the top end of either the movable ring or the extension ring for contacting the outer surface of the wall when the movable ring is drawn into the base.
US08987591B2
Alien crosstalk in communication channels is decreased with the use of crosstalk-mitigating materials. Electrical communication cables may be provided with crosstalk-mitigating materials that surround twisted pairs in the cables. According to one embodiment, the crosstalk-mitigating material is an electrically resistive material having electrically conductive areas placed thereon. Such a material mitigates the effects of electrical and magnetic fields that would normally lead to alien crosstalk between communication channels.
US08987584B2
A solar panel mounting system includes first and second mounting supports, at least one having a lower mounting ledge, and at least the other having an upper mounting ledge. At least two brackets each have a first platform coupled to the lower mounting ledge and a second platform spaced apart therefrom. Each bracket includes a first hinge portion with a curved channel and a first catch. A first frame, at a first end, has a panel gripping portion for gripping an edge of a solar panel oriented generally parallel to the lower mounting ledge, and at an opposing second end has a second hinge portion with a flange and a curved hook extending therefrom. The first hinge portion is configured to rotatably receive the second hinge portion. The hook is received in the channel and retained by the first catch and the flange is supported on the second platform.
US08987582B2
Provided is a solar cell apparatus. The solar cell apparatus includes a substrate, a first cell disposed on the substrate, and a second cell disposed on the substrate around the first cell.
US08987580B2
Thermoelectric devices are provided. In one embodiment, a thermoelectric device may include a glass wafer defined by conductive vias, a second wafer, and a plurality of metal film disposed between the glass wafer and the second wafer and against solid, conductive, integral, end surfaces of the conductive vias. A nanogap may be disposed between the metal film and the second wafer. The nanogap may have been created by applying a voltage extending between the conductive vias and the second wafer. Methods of forming the devices, along with methods of using the devices to transform heat energy to electricity, and for refrigeration, are also provided.
US08987563B2
The invention relates to the soybean variety designated A1035304. Provided by the invention are the seeds, plants and derivatives of the soybean variety A1035304. Also provided by the invention are tissue cultures of the soybean variety A1035304 and the plants regenerated therefrom. Still further provided by the invention are methods for producing soybean plants by crossing the soybean variety A1035304 with itself or another soybean variety and plants produced by such methods.
US08987557B2
A promoter, which may be used to transform a plant and/or express a gene substantially uniformly in substantially all organs and/or tissues of a plant, and which may include a constitutive expression promoter for transforming a monocot plant. A vector including a promoter, which may include a recombinant plant expression vector. A method of producing a target protein using a vector, and a method of producing a transformed cell and/or plant using a vector. A transformed plant, a transformed seed and a transformed cell are included, which may be formed by the method of producing the same using a vector.
US08987556B2
The present invention provides isolated polynucleotide sequences encoding β-D-N-acetylhexosaminidase. The present invention further provides DNA construct comprising the polynucleotide sequence coding for β-D-N-acetylhexosaminidase in sense or antisense orientation, RNAi construct, recombinant vector comprising the construct and host cells comprising the recombinant vector disclosed in the present invention. The present invention further provides transgenic plant, plant cell, transgenic progeny and seeds expressing the polynucleotide with reduced β-D-N-acetylhexosaminidase protein accumulation, having enhanced fruit shelf life.
US08987555B2
Two genes, A622 and NBB1, can be influenced to achieve a decrease of nicotinic alkaloid levels in plants. In particular, suppression of one or both of A622 and NBB1 may be used to decrease nicotine in tobacco plants.
US08987553B2
The invention provides methods for improving plant yield, particularly under nitrogen limiting conditions. According to the invention, applicants have discovered that modulating ACC synthase activity in plants improves yield of plants, even when grown under low nitrogen conditions. The same plants, while demonstrating improved yield over non-modified plants, exhibited no deleterious effects under normal nitrogen conditions. The invention further provides methods using recombinant expression cassettes, host cells and transgenic plants.
US08987545B2
A feminine hygiene absorbent article comprising water-absorbing polymer particles, obtainable by polymerization of a foamed monomer solution or suspension, drying, grinding and classification.
US08987543B1
A sanitary or incontinence pad includes micro-perforated seams. On each side of the micro-perforated seam are sealed seams to retain the absorbent material within the pad. Tearing along the micro-perforated seam allows the pad to be separated into smaller functioning units to better meet the user's needs. Medical alert reagent tabs can be added to the surface of the pads to alert the user of possible health conditions.
US08987537B1
Low sulphur marine fuel compositions are provided. Embodiments comprise greater than 50 to 90 wt % of a residual hydrocarbon component, with the remaining 10 and up to 50 wt % selected from a non-hydroprocessed hydrocarbon component, a hydroprocessed hydrocarbon component, and a combination thereof. Embodiments of the marine fuel composition can have a sulphur content of about 0.1 wt % or less.
US08987536B2
The present disclosure relates to processes for reducing the concentration of RfC≡CX impurities in fluoroolefins. The process involves: contacting a mixture comprising at least one fluoroolefin and at least one RfC≡CX impurity with at least one amine to reduce the concentration of the at least one RfC≡CX impurity in the mixture; wherein Rf is a perfluorinated alkyl group, and X is H, F, Cl, Br or I. The present disclosure also relates to processes for making at least one hydrotetrafluoropropene product selected from the group consisting of CF3CF═CH2, CF3CH═CHF, and mixtures thereof and reducing the concentration of CF3C═CH impurity generated during the process. The present disclosure also relates to processes for making at least one hydrochlorotrifluoropropene product selected from the group consisting of CF3CCl═CH2, CF3CH═CHCl, and mixtures thereof and reducing the concentration of CF3C≡CH impurity generated during the process.
US08987527B2
A process for obtaining trimethylolpropane-enriched product streams from the forerun fractions obtained in the distillative purification of trimethylolpropane is characterized in that: (a) the forerun fractions are treated separately or in combination at a temperature of 160 to 280° C. and at a pressure of 1 to 30 MPa with hydrogen in the presence of a hydrogenation catalyst and an acidic compound; and (b) the reaction mixture obtained after step a) is separated by distillation into a trimethylolpropane-enriched, catalyst-free product stream and a catalyst-containing product stream. The trimethylolpropane is prepared by the Cannizzaro process using alkali metal or alkaline earth metal compounds or stoichiometric amounts of trialkylamines, or is produced by the hydrogenation process in the presence of catalytic amounts of trialkylamines or alkali metal or alkaline earth metal compounds.
US08987526B2
Provided are a novel fullerene derivative which can adsorb quickly and efficiently an allergen which may cause a pollen allergy without releasing the allergen again, does not contain a metal or the like which may cause a harmful effect to a human body, and is easily applicable, impregnable, or chemically bondable onto surface of various materials: and a process for producing the same. The fullerene derivative is characterized in that a halogen group and many hydroxyl groups are bonded directly to a fullerene nucleus. In the case that the halogen group is chlorine, the fullerene derivative can be synthesized by a partial hydroxylation of a chlorinated fullerene or a partial chlorination of a hydroxylated fullerene.
US08987518B2
The present invention relates to polyamines and to a process for preparing polyamines.
US08987503B2
The present invention concerns a new process for the synthesis of aminaphtone, which makes use of non-toxic solvents and reagents, under mild reaction and temperature conditions. The aminaphtone obtained with the method of the present invention also has a purity of at least 98% in weight. The method comprises the following steps: a) epoxidating menadione 1 to provide epoxide 2, b) acidifying epoxide 2 to provide hydroxynaphthoquinone 3, c) esterifying between hydroxynaphthoquinone 3 and 4-aminobenzoyl chloride to obtain compound 4, and d) reducing compound 4 in the presence of a reducing agent in water to obtain aminaphtone.
US08987502B2
The present invention belongs to the field of natural medicine and pharmaceutical chemistry, and specifically relates to novel amidated derivatives of oleanolic acid according to formula (I) or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, to a process for the preparation of these compounds, compositions containing such compounds and their use in preparing antineoplastic medicaments.
US08987501B2
A radioisotope labeled reagent includes a compound having the general formula (I), L-(aCbH2)naCbH3 (I) where a in each occurrence independently is a carbon mass number between 11 and 14 inclusive, b in each occurrence independently is a hydrogen mass number between 1 and 3 inclusive, such that a in each occurrence is not 12 simultaneously with b in each occurrence being 1; L is a leaving group R1SO2—O—, R1—S—, 12C1H3(12C3H2)n—S—R1C(O)O—, NC—, (R1)3P—, XMg- and Li—, where n is an integer between 0 and 3 inclusive, where X is chloro, bromo or iodine, where R1 is H, aryl, a substituent containing aryl, C1-C20 alkyl, a substituent containing C1-C20 alkyl, C2-C20 alkenyl, a substitute containing C2-C20 alkenyl, C2-C20 alkynyl, and a substitute containing C2-C20 alkynyl with the proviso that when n is 0, a is 13 and b is 2 and R1 in R1—S is not aryl.
US08987497B2
A process for the oxidation of an organic carbonyl compound comprising reacting the organic carbonyl compound, optionally in the presence of a solvent, with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of a catalyst comprising a tin-containing zeolitic material having an MWW-type framework structure.
US08987493B2
The invention provides a method of preparing silane dipeptide analogs, comprising the steps of treating a solution of a substituted 1,2-oxasilolane with lithium metal to form a solution of the dilithium salt of a substituted 3-hydroxypropylsilanol, and reacting the solution of the dilithium salt of the substituted 3-hydroxypropylsilanol with a substituted enamine.
US08987488B2
A process for producing C10-C26 monobranched fatty acids or alkyl esters thereof which includes isomerizing unsaturated C10-C26 fatty acids or alkyl esters thereof in the presence of a catalyst which comprises both a zeolite and a Lewis base. The zeolite can be reused after simple separation from the reaction products without having to regenerate. The process is particularly suitable for producing highly monobranched fatty acids or alkyl esters thereof.
US08987482B2
Process for producing a supported silver catalyst, which comprises (a) reacting oxalic acid with an alkali metal base in a solvent, preferably water, to the second equivalence point of oxalic acid to give alkali metal oxalate; (b) reacting the alkali metal oxalate obtained according to (a) with silver salt in a solvent, preferably water, to give silver oxalate; (c) forming a complexation of the silver oxalate obtained according to (b) with a diamine compound in a solvent, preferably water, to give a diamine-silver oxalate complex.
US08987480B2
The present invention relates to a process of separating chiral isomers of chroman compounds, particularly tocopherols and tocotrienols as well as the esters and intermediates thereof. It has been found that this process allows a separation of the desired isomer with a higher yield and enables the use of the non-desired isomers in a very efficient way. Said process is particularly useful when implemented in an industrial process. Furthermore, it has been found that this process allows using isomer mixtures as they result from traditional industrial synthesis.
US08987478B2
The present invention relates to a process for the preparation of a precursor for the synthesis of hexanoic acid derived statins and to the use of said precursor in the manufacture of a medicament.
US08987472B2
The present invention relates to a novel triscarbazole compound comprising cyclo- or polycycloalkyl or aralkyl substituent, which can be represented by Formula (I). wherein; RA is a substituent comprising a substituted or unsubstituted cyclo- or polycycloalkyl group wherein the ring system comprises three to twenty carbon atoms or an aralkyl group having an overall number of nine to twenty carbon atoms, RB, RC, RD and RE are any substituent other than a substituted or unsubstituted aniline, and m, o, p and q are same or different at each occurrence and represent an integer from 0 to 4.
US08987467B2
The present invention relates to substituted pyrazole azetidines, processes for preparing them, pharmaceutical compositions containing them and their use as pharmaceuticals as modulators of sphingosine-1-phosphate receptors.
US08987464B2
An isoxazoline-substituted benzamide compound of formula (1) or a salt thereof: wherein A1, A2 and A3 independently of one another are carbon atom or nitrogen atom, G is benzene ring, etc., W is oxygen atom or sulfur atom, etc., X is halogen atom, C1-C6haloalkyl, etc., Y is halogen atom, C1-C6alkyl, etc., R1 is —CH═NOR1a, —C(O)OR1c, —C(O)NHR1d, phenyl substituted with (Z)p1, D-14, D-52, D-53, D-55 to D-59, etc., R1a is C1-C6alkyl, etc., R1c is C1-C6alkyl, etc., R1d is hydrogen atom, —C(O)R15, —C(O)OR15, etc., R2 is C1-C6alkyl, —CH2R14a, C1-C6alkynyl, —C(O)R15, —C(O)OR15, etc., further when R1 is —CH═NOR1a, —C(O)OR1c or —C(O)N(R1e)R1d, R2 may be hydrogen atom, R3 is C1-C6haloalkyl, etc., R14a is cyano, —OR25, etc., R15 is C1-C6alkyl, C1-C6haloalkyl, C1-C4alkoxy C1-C4alkyl, C1-C4alkylthio C1-C4alkyl, C3-C6cycloalkyl, C2-C6alkenyl, etc., R25 is C1-C4alkyl, C1-C4haloalkyl, —C(O)R32 or —C(O)OR32, etc., R32 is C1-C6alkyl or C3-C6cycloalkyl, etc., Z is halogen atom, cyano, nitro, C1-C6alkyl, C1-C6alkoxy, etc., m is an integer of 0 to 5, n is an integer of 0 to 4, p1 is an integer of 1 to 5. The pesticide containing these compounds.
US08987460B2
The present invention relates to a process for preparing 1-pyridyl-substituted pyrazoles, comprising the reaction of acetyleneketones with pyridylhydrazine derivatives to give 1-pyridyl-substituted dihydro-1H-pyrazoles, the further reaction thereof with elimination of water to give 1-pyridyl-substituted trihalomethylpyrazoles, and the further processing thereof.
US08987459B2
The present invention relates to novel crystalline forms of salts of 2-((1R,4R)-4-(4-(5-(benzo[d]oxazol-2-ylamino)pyridin-2-yl)phenyl)cyclohexyl)acetic acid and their use in the treatment or prevention of a condition or a disorder associated with DGAT1 activity in animals, particularly humans.
US08987457B2
The present invention provides a compound of formula (A): as described herein, and pharmaceutically acceptable salts, enantiomers, rotamers, tautomers, or racemates thereof. Also provided are methods of treating a disease or condition mediated by PIM kinase using the compounds of Formula I, and pharmaceutical compositions comprising such compounds.
US08987451B2
A single-step method of making tetradentate platinum complexes is disclosed. The method advantageously allows the formation of a platinum complex in a single step, even with sterically hindered ligands, without the use of highly reactive intermediates. The compounds made by the disclosed method are useful in OLED applications.
US08987446B2
The invention relates to bimetallic complexes in which the ligand contains a salophen unit which complexes copper, manganese or cobalt and a phenanthroline unit which complexes palladium and the two systems are linked by a continuous conjugated system. The invention further relates to the use of these bimetallic complexes as catalysts for the oxidative carbonylation of aromatic hydroxy compounds to form diaryl carbonates, a process for preparing diaryl carbonates using the bimetallic complex as catalyst and also diaryl carbonates prepared by oxidative carbonylation of aromatic hydroxy compounds using the bimetallic complexes of the invention as catalysts.
US08987445B2
Sulfonamide compounds having TRPM8 antagonistic activity are provided. A sulfonamide compound of formula (I) or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, or a prodrug thereof: (I) wherein Ring A is bicyclic aromatic heterocycle comprised of (a) pyridine is condensed with benzene; or (b) pyridine is condensed with monocyclic aromatic heterocycle, and Ring A binds to a sulfonylamino moiety on a carbon atom adjacent to a nitrogen atom of the pyridine ring constituting Ring A, Ring B is (a) monocyclic or bicyclic aromatic hydrocarbon; (b) monocyclic or bicyclic alicyclic hydrocarbon; (c) monocyclic or bicyclic aromatic heterocycle; or (d) monocyclic or bicyclic non-aromatic heterocycle, Ring C is (a) benzene; or (b) monocyclic aromatic heterocycle, and other symbols are the same as defined in the specification.
US08987438B2
A method for making a derivatized guar, comprising: (a) contacting derivatized guar splits, which have not been treated with a boron compound to crosslink the guar splits, with an aqueous wash medium comprising, based on 100 parts by weight of the aqueous wash medium: (i) from about 0.1 to about 30 parts by weight of a water soluble non-boron salt, or (ii) less than about 0.1 parts by weight water soluble salt, and (b) separating the washed derivatized guar splits from the aqueous wash medium, provided that the contacting of the derivatized guar splits with the aqueous wash medium comprising less than about 0.1 parts by weight water soluble salt is limited to a duration effective to maintain the water content of the washed derivatized guar splits at less than or equal to about 80 percent by weight.
US08987426B2
The present invention described and shown in the specification and drawings provides novel recombinant DT-based immunotoxins, and, more specifically anti-T cell immunotoxin fusion proteins. Also provided are immunotoxins that can be expressed in bacterial, yeast, or mammalian cells. The invention also provides means for expression of the immunotoxin fusion protein. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
US08987423B2
Antigen binding proteins, such as antibodies, which bind to human MAGE-A3, polynucleotides encoding such antigen binding proteins, and uses and manufacture thereof.
US08987411B2
The present invention related to a method of manufacturing a polycarbonate including the process of copolymerizing epoxide compound and CO2 using cobalt(III) or chromium(III), where the ligands contains at least 3 ammonium cations, central metal has formal −1 charge, and conjugated anions of the two cationic ammonium groups are acid-base homoconjugation, as catalyst.According to the present invention, the initial induction time can be reduced when the said polycarbonate is manufactured and it is possible to improve the activity of the catalyst and the molecular weight of the obtained polymer.
US08987404B2
The invention relates to a coating composition comprising: A) at least one thiol-functional compound having at least one thiol group, B) at least one polyisocyanate cross-linking agent with at least one free isocyanate group and C) at least one catalyst compound, said catalyst compound comprising at least one catalyst for the curing reaction between the thiol groups of component A and the free isocyanate groups of component B, and at least one cyclodextrine.
US08987391B2
A process for the polymerization of one or more monomers wherein at least one anhydride and at least one peroxy compound selected from inorganic peroxides, organic hydroperoxides, and peroxyacids are dosed during the polymerization reaction in a continuous or intermittent fashion to a reaction mixture comprising said monomers.
US08987376B2
Disclosed is a polyimide composition for semiconductor devices, which has a rheological characteristics suited for screen printing and dispense coating, which has an improved wetting property with various coating bases, by which continuous printing of 500 times or more can be attained, with which blisters, cissing and pinholes are not generated after printing and drying or during drying or curing, which can coat a desired area. A method of forming a film in a semiconductor and semiconductors having the film formed by this method as an insulation film, protective film or the like are also disclosed. The composition for semiconductor devices contains a mixed solvent of a first organic solvent (A) and a second organic solvent (B); and a polyimide resin having at least one group selected from the group consisting of alkyl groups and perfluoroalkyl groups in recurring units, and having thixotropic property, the polyimide resin being dissolved in the mixed solvent.
US08987375B2
A moisture-curable polyurethane formulation is provided capable of curing to form a reaction product, having high green strength and being dispensable from a caulking gun. The polyurethane formulation comprises at least one isocyanate-terminated prepolymer, at least one rheology modifier or filler, optionally monomeric/polymeric isocyanate, and at least one urea-based thixotropic additive added to the formulation or formed in situ, to provide greater than 1% of urea groups in the reaction product. A method for making a moisture-curable polyurethane formulation capable of curing to form a reaction product and methods of bonding materials together using the formulation are also provided.
US08987373B2
Crosslinkable compositions based on organosilicon compounds, more particularly RTV-1 sealants, contain (A) at least one organosilicon compound having at least two condensable radicals, (B) at least one finely divided silicon dioxide having a BET surface area of 30 to 120 m2/g and a relative thickening effect ηrel of 1.4 to 10, and (C) at least one hydrocarbon component which has an initial boiling point above 150° C., a final boiling point below 350° C., each at a pressure of 1013 hPa, a kinematic viscosity of 1.5 to 6.0 mm2/s as measured at 40° C., a viscosity-density constant (VDC) of less than or equal to 0.820, a pour point of less than −5° C., and an aromatic carbon atom (CA) content of less than 0.1% CA.
US08987367B2
A substantially non-elastic incompressible composition, which substantially does not quickly self-level under standard operating conditions, includes: a suspending agent which reacts substantially as a solid when subjected to forces below a critical force, and which becomes substantially flowable when subjected to forces above said critical force. Aspects include compositions comprising one or more of ceramic microparticulates, flexible-walled microparticulates, celled macroparticulates, and fibers dispersed within the suspending agent, and energy absorbing applications thereof. Another aspect comprises thin-walled macrospheres containing a substantially non-elastic incompressible composition.
US08987361B2
An organosilane of general formula I below: (HO)2R1Si—Z—Sm—R2 in which: R1, which are identical or different, each represent a monovalent hydrocarbon-based group chosen from alkyls, which are linear or branched, cycloalkyls or aryls, having from 1 to 18 carbon atoms; R2 represents a monovalent hydrocarbon-based group chosen from alkyls, which are linear or branched, cycloalkyls or aryls, having from 1 to 30 carbon atoms; Z represents a divalent bonding group comprising from 1 to 18 carbon atoms; and m is a number greater than or equal to 2.
US08987355B2
The present invention provides an epoxy resin composition for sealing that demonstrates favorable adhesion to a copper lead frame in which oxidation has progressed and has superior mold release and continuous moldability. The epoxy resin composition for sealing includes (A) an epoxy resin, (B) a phenolic resin-based curing agent, (C) an inorganic filler, and (D) a curing accelerator. The curing accelerator (D) has an average particle diameter of 10 μm or less, and the ratio of particles having a particle diameter in excess of 20 μm is 1% by weight or less. Also, the curing accelerator (D) includes at least one type of curing accelerator selected from the group consisting of a phosphobetaine compound having a specific structure; adduct of a phosphine compound having a specific structure, and quinone compound; and an adduct of a phosphonium compound having a specific structure, and a silane compound. An electronic component device in which an electronic component is sealed by a cured product of the aforementioned epoxy resin composition for sealing is provided.
US08987343B2
Process for manufacturing a polymer by polycondensation of a hydroxy acid, said polymer comprising at least 80% by weight of units that correspond to the hydroxy acid, according to which at least one polyfunctional reactant capable of giving rise to the formation of a three-dimensional polymer network is mixed with the hydroxy acid, and according to which the mixture is subjected to temperature and pressure conditions and for a duration which are all suitable for giving rise to the formation of the network. Poly(hydroxy acid) (PHA) obtainable by such a process.
US08987342B2
A photosensitive resin composition for an insulating film of a display device includes (A) an alkali soluble resin including a polybenzoxazole precursor, polyamic acid, polyimide, or a combination thereof; (B) a photosensitive diazoquinone compound; (C) an ultraviolet (UV) absorber having a maximum absorption wavelength of about 300 to about 400 nm; and (D) a solvent. An insulating film and a display device can include the photosensitive resin composition.
US08987340B2
The invention relates to compositions suitable for the delivery and/or stabilization of biologically active substances. The compositions comprise a sublimable matrix material and the biologically active agent to be delivered. The compositions can be used as drug delivery systems to treat a wide variety of diseases or as systems for the protection and stabilization of such substances. Also disclosed are methods for preparing compositions of the present invention.
US08987336B1
The present invention is a method for increasing serotonin activity in mammary glands such that involution of milk secretion of the same mammary glands occurs. The present invention further is a composition that can be implanted, or infused into the mammary glands to cause involution of milk secretion.
US08987333B2
Disclosed are compositions comprising amantadine, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, and one or more excipients, wherein at least one of the excipients modifies release of amantadine. Methods of administering the same are also provided.
US08987328B2
Provided are nutraceutical or dietary supplemental compositions comprising esterified capsaicinoids. The esterified capsaicinoids may converted to the active parent capsaicinoid compound following enzymatic or chemical hydrolysis. In various embodiments, these esterified capsaicinoids have a higher lipophilicity, lipid solubility and result in less irritation to the stomach than the parent capsaicinoid, and hence may be included in certain dietary supplement formulations, including capsules, pills and tablets dietary supplement formulations. The dietary supplement compositions may be used for pain management in mammals in vivo and/or in the treatment of various pathological conditions in humans.
US08987324B2
The invention relates to Simalikalactone E (SkE) to be used for preventing and/or treating cancers.
US08987323B2
Provided are crystalline forms of a compound having an inhibitory effect on sodium-dependent glucose cotransporter SGLT2. The invention also provides pharmaceutical compositions, methods of preparing the crystalline compound, and methods of using the crystalline compound, independently or in combination with other therapeutic agents, for treating diseases and conditions which are affected by SGLT or SGLT2 inhibition.
US08987321B2
The present invention provides analogs of a Lysofylline (LSF), and synthetic methods for the preparation of such analogs. The have the active side chain moiety (5-R-hydroxyhexyl) of LSF and can have greater potency and oral bioavailability than LSF.
US08987319B2
This invention provides compounds of Formula (I), (Ia), (Ib), (Ic), (II), (IIa) or (III) and or salts thereof, pharmaceutical compositions comprising a compound of Formula (I), (Ia), (Ib), (Ic), (II), (IIa) or (III) and a pharmaceutically acceptable excipient, methods of modulating the androgen receptor, methods of treating diseases beneficially treated by an androgen receptor modulator (e.g., sarcopenia, prostate cancer, contraception, type II diabetes related disorders or diseases, anemia, depression, and renal disease) and processes for making compounds of Formula (I), (Ia), (Ib), (Ic), (II), (IIa) or (III) and intermediates useful in the preparation of same.
US08987316B2
The present invention relates to novel isocyanate and isothiocyanate compounds, to pharmaceutical compositions comprising them, and to the use thereof in the treatment of cancer diseases in humans and animals. The novel isocyanate and isothiocyanate compounds are distinguished, as compared with the known isocyanate and isothiocyanate compounds, by improved therapeutical breadth, i.e. fewer side effects while having high anti-tumor activity.
US08987315B2
The instant invention describes compounds having metalloenzyme modulating activity, and methods of treating diseases, disorders or symptoms thereof mediated by such metalloenzymes.
US08987306B2
Novel compounds inhibiting the integrin α2β1/GPIa-IIa receptor are disclosed. Also disclosed are pharmaceutical compositions containing the compounds, as well as methods of their therapeutic use. The compounds disclosed are useful, inter alia, as inhibitors of integrin α2β1/GPIa-IIa-mediated activity.
US08987303B2
Disclosed are substituted pyridine compounds as well as pharmaceutical compositions and methods of use. One embodiment is a compound having the structure wherein E, J, T, the ring system denoted by “B”, T, R3, R4, w and x are as described herein. In certain embodiments, a compound disclosed herein activates the AMPK pathway, and can be used to treat metabolism-related disorders and conditions.
US08987302B2
Methods of treating a hepatitis C virus (HCV) related disease, such as HCV infections in subjects non-responsive to anti-HCV therapy, are described herein, comprising administering to the subject a therapeutically effective amount of hydroxychloroquine. An antiviral agent may be co-administered with the hydroxychloroquine. Methods utilizing synergistic combinations of hydroxychloroquine and an antiviral agent are disclosed. Further disclosed are compositions comprising hydroxychloroquine and an antiviral agent, as well as hydroxychloroquine and uses thereof for the treatment of a hepatitis C virus (HCV) related disease.
US08987290B2
The present invention concerns a needle-less drug delivery device being suitable for delivering drugs through a skin surface into a human or animal body comprising a pharmaceutical composition with at least one analgesic agent preferably being an opioid. The present invention also relates to the use of at least one analgesic agent, preferably being at least one opioid in a needle-less drug delivery device being suitable for injecting medication through a skin surface into the human or animal body. Further, the invention is concerned with a method of treating breakthrough pain by injecting at least one analgesic agent preferably being an opioid into the human or animal body using a needle-less drug delivery device.
US08987287B2
The application is directed to compounds of Formula I′-A and especially to compounds of Formula I-A and pharmaceutically acceptable salts and solvates thereof, wherein R1a-R5a, Y, Za are defined as set forth in the specification. The invention is also directed to use of compounds of Formula I′-A, and especially compounds of Formula I-A, to treat disorders responsive to the modulation of one or more opioid receptors, or as synthetic intermediates. Certain compounds of the present invention are especially useful for treating pain.
US08987286B2
Compounds of Formula (I), which are effective inhibitors of the Pi3K/Akt pathway, processes for their production and their use as pharmaceuticals. The compounds of formula (I) a: useful for the treatment of cancer.
US08987269B2
Provided are certain triazolopyridines and triazolopyrazines, compositions thereof and methods of use therefor.
US08987266B2
The present invention relates to mutations in Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) and methods of detecting such mutations as well as prognostic methods method for identifying a tumors that are susceptible to anticancer therapy such as chemotherapy and/or kinase inhibitor treatment. The methods involve determining the presence of a mutated EGFR gene or mutated EGFR protein in a tumor sample whereby the presence of a mutated EGFR gene or protein indicates the tumor is susceptible to treatment.
US08987262B2
The present technology relates the use of a beta blocker for the manufacture of a medicament for the treatment of hemangiomas, for example of infantile hemangiomas. The beta blocker may be a non-selective beta-blocker, for example propranolol. The present technology provides an alternative to the known compounds, e.g. corticosteroïds, interferon or vincristine, generally used for the treatment of hemangiomas.
US08987260B2
Provided herein is a pharmaceutical composition that comprises a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier or diluent and, as an active ingredient, the compound 2-(1H-indazol-4-yl)-6-(4-methanesulfonyl-piperazin-1-ylmethyl)-4-morpholin-4-yl-thieno[3,2-d]pyrimidine bismesylate.
US08987255B2
The present invention provides compounds of formula (I) having BACE1 and/or BACE2 inhibitory activity, their manufacture, pharmaceutical compositions containing them and their use as therapeutically active substances. The active compounds of the present invention are useful in the therapeutic and/or prophylactic treatment of e.g. Alzheimer's disease and type 2 diabetes.
US08987249B2
This invention relates to 2-Aza-bicyclo[2.2.1]heptane-3-carboxylic acid (benzyl-cyano-methyl)-amides of formula 1 and their use as inhibitors of Cathepsin C, pharmaceutical compositions containing the same, and methods of using the same as agents for treatment and/or prevention of diseases connected with dipeptidyl peptidase I activity, e.g. respiratory diseases.
US08987243B2
The present invention relates to certain salts of a 11-(2-pyrrolidin-1-yl-ethoxy)-14,19-dioxa-5,7,26triaza-tetra-cyclo[19.3.1.1(2,6).1(8,12)]heptacosa-1(25),2(26),3,5,8,10,12(27),16,21,23-decaene (Compound I) which have been found to have improved properties. In particular the present invention relates to the maleate salt of this compound. The invention also relates to pharmaceutical compositions containing this salt and methods of use of the salt in the treatment of certain medical conditions.
US08987237B2
Estrogen and progesterone replacement therapies are provided herein. Among others, the following formulations are provided herein: solubilized estradiol without progesterone; micronized progesterone without estradiol; micronized progesterone with partially solubilized progesterone; solubilized estradiol with micronized progesterone; solubilized estradiol with micronized progesterone in combination with partially solubilized progesterone; and solubilized estradiol with solubilized progesterone.
US08987236B2
A pharmaceutical composition includes, as an active ingredient, a compound according to formula 1436 as shown in FIG. 1, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier or excipient. Various pharmaceutical products may be produced including this pharmaceutical composition. Such pharmaceutical products may be used for the treatment of obesity or diabetes. Methods for using the pharmaceutical compositions also are described. In these methods, various diseases are treated or other body functions are activated or inhibited by administering an effective amount of the pharmaceutical composition. For example, diabetes and obesity may be treated by administering an effective amount of the pharmaceutical compositions. Weight gain and growth factor production can be inhibited by administering an effective amount of these pharmaceutical compositions. Appetite can be suppressed by administering an effective amount of the pharmaceutical compositions, and a diuretic effect can be produced.
