US09004431B2
A supporting apparatus is adapted for supporting an electronic device, and includes an upper link, a fixed member, a connecting member, and a force-creating mechanism. The connecting member is disposed in front of and connected pivotally to the upper link, and is connected to the electronic device. The force-creating mechanism includes a swing rod connected pivotally to the fixed member, a movable unit connected movably to a front end of the swing rod, and a biasing spring. Upon movement of the electronic device, the movable unit is moved relative to the swing rod to thereby change the deformation degree of the biasing spring, so as to create a compensating torque that compensates for a torque caused by the gravitational force of the electronic device.
US09004421B2
A support system for a fire protection sprinkler includes a support bar having a pair of end brackets disposed at the ends of the support bar. A center bracket assembly is mounted on the support bar and includes a support bracket and a hinge bracket pivotally connected to the support bracket by a hinge pin. The pair of end bracket assemblies each include an outside bracket and an inside bracket secured to the outside bracket wherein at least one of the outside and the inside bracket has an upper end connected to the support bar and includes an angled body extending laterally outward from the upper end away from the center bracket wherein the outside and inside brackets define a channel therebetween for receiving an upper rail of a T-shaped rail of a drop ceiling system.
US09004419B2
A support device for a tripod includes a base body. On the base body, a pan turning body is provided turnably in the horizontal direction. On the pan turning body, a tilt turning body is provided turnably in the up-down direction. The support device also includes a pan fixing operation body fixing the pan turning body with respect to the base body, and a tilt fixing operation body fixing the tilt turning body with respect to the pan turning body. The support device further includes a tilt turning operation body turning the tilt turning body with respect to the pan turning body.
US09004415B2
A clamp which is capable of being temporarily fastened relative to a cable is provided. The clamp is for fixing a cable to a vehicle body panel wherein a locking hole is formed. The clamp includes a base member including a groove portion having a bottom portion which can abut against at least one portion of an outer circumferential portion of the cable, and a leg portion which can engage with the locking hole; and a clamping member supported in the base member to be capable of being displaced between a temporarily fastened position and a completely fastened position, and demarcating a housing space, which can house the cable, between the bottom portion. An outer shape of the clamping member is structured such that the clamping member is displaced from the temporarily fastened position to the completely fastened position so as to reduce the housing space.
US09004411B2
A mechanical control mixer configured to couple to an aircraft is provided. An axle is mounted to a frame of the mechanical control mixer, and a barrel is configured to rotate about the axle. A central rod is disposed within the barrel. The central rod is configured to rotate with respect to the barrel. A roll control input is connected to the central rod. The roll control input is configured to cause the central rod to rotate within the barrel. Output control rods are connected to the central rod. The output control rods are connected to at least one control surface of the aircraft. An air brake input is connected to the barrel. The air brake input is configured to cause the barrel to rotate about the axle to move at least one of the output control rods.
US09004410B1
A retractable and re-deployable boom assembly is provided for collecting electromagnetic energy, for instance in outer space. The assembly may include a boom having a deployable length and a first layer comprising a flexible substrate formed in a lenticular shape that elastically deforms, and a second layer thereon comprising an array of electromagnetic transducers, which may be positioned on adjacent flexible parabolic reflectors. The assembly may be placed into at least two different configurations: a stowed configuration where the majority of the length is elastically deformed; and a deployed configuration where the majority of the length is not deformed, and where the lenticular shape of the boom provides it with rigidity. The assembly may also have a rotational drive mechanism.
US09004409B1
A high capacity satellite having a launch configuration in which one or more antenna reflectors may be stored forward of a forward surface of the spacecraft and an on-orbit configuration in which a reflector boom may be extended forward and rotated to place the one or more antenna reflectors outboard of the spacecraft main body and further forward of the forward surface of the spacecraft.
US09004408B2
A satellite inclination control method is provided. The method includes tracking optimal inclination vector control cycles for a satellite in near geosynchronous orbit, using control rates disposed to counter inclination growth of the satellite, where the control rates include continuously or quasi-continuously firings of a thruster, and where the control rates are disposed to provide convergence to the optimal inclination vector control cycles in the presence of variances in orbit determination, maneuver implementation and orbit propagation modeling errors.
US09004407B2
An anti-icing system includes a component surface having a composite structure including a composite layer, and at least one heating element formed within the composite layer, wherein the heating element is configured to provide a transfer of heat to the component surface.
US09004400B2
A buoyancy system (2) includes at least one float (3), a deployment assembly (30) having at least one deployment member (34) for deploying the float (3), an engagement controller (5) which activates the deployment assembly (30), and at least two immersion sensors (20) for issuing an order for automatic deployment of the float (3) to the deployment assembly (30). The deployment assembly (30) is provided with a memory (31) containing a pre-established list of events. The deployment assembly (30) deploys each float (3) when a predetermined event occurs.
US09004397B2
An autonomous stratospheric unmanned airship with an operating altitude from 5-22 km and with a multi-month operational cycle. Spheroid rigid geodesic frame of constant volume formed by a multitude of struts, with an outer envelope enclosing the frame defining the eigenfrequency spectrum of the airship above 20 Hz, with vibrational amplitudes between 0.1 and 1 cm. Independently controllable electrical propulsion units, attached to the frame in the horizontal plane passing through the center of mass, can change the direction and value of the thrust vector. Buoyancy is controlled with a system integrated inside the geodesic frame including buoyant fluid pressurized tanks, valves for the release of the buoyant fluid through the buoyant fluid conduit into the buoyant gas cell which fills the geodesic frame. Valves at the subsystem support platform enable ambient atmosphere to fill the internal volume of the frame not occupied by the buoyant gas cell.
US09004396B1
A method and device of a Skyteboard™ quadcopter are disclosed. In one aspect, a quadcopter includes a first pair of rotors including a first rotor and a second rotor physically enclosed in a peanut shaped airframe, an undercarriage mechanically coupled on a lower side of the peanut shaped airframe, and a second pair of rotors comprising of a third rotor and a fourth rotor mechanically coupled to the undercarriage. The second pair of rotors folds underneath the first pair of rotors such that the first pair of rotors and the second pair of rotors are substantially parallel to each other in a folded mode of the quadcopter. The first pair of rotors is substantially above the second pair of rotors in the folded mode, such that the first rotor is substantially above the third rotor and the second rotor is substantially above the fourth rotor when in the folded mode.
US09004383B2
The invention relates to a device (1) for producing chocolate by mixing and grinding ingredients, such as cacao mass, cacao butter, sugar and/or milk powder, comprising a mixer (3), a grinder (4), and means for passing the mixture from the mixer (3) to the grinder (4). The mixer (3) comprises a toroidal, preferably annular vessel (6) for receiving and mixing the ingredients.
US09004382B2
A machine for distributing blowing wool from a bag of compressed blowing wool is provided. The machine includes a chute having an inlet end configured to receive the bag of compressed blowing wool. A shredding chamber is positioned downstream from the chute and configured to shred and pick apart the blowing wool. The shredding chamber includes a plurality of shredders configured for rotation. Each shredder includes a plurality of paddle assemblies mounted to a shredder shaft. Each paddle assembly has a plurality of paddles. The paddles have a hardness within the range of 60 A to 70 A Durometer to better grip the blowing wool for shredding and prevent jamming of the blowing wool within the shredder.
US09004376B2
A nozzle for use in dispensing a fluid, such as water or a foaming agent to extinguish a fire, comprises a longitudinal body that comprises a plurality of helical shaped cam paths. The cam paths allow the operator of the nozzle to adjust a flow setting for the nozzle by moving a flow adjustment mechanism that is operatively associated with the cam paths.
US09004372B1
A bonded, direct fixation fastener as supportive structure for a rail on a railroad tie or bed comprising: a rail plate, wherein the rail plate has a generally horizontal center portion having a lower face and an upper face and defining a rail plate horizontal plane, and wherein the rail plate center portion extends at a first angle from opposing sides as rail plate tongues above the rail plate horizontal plane, the rail plate having a rail securing device; a bed plate comprising a generally horizontal center portion, an upper bed plate face defining a bed plate horizontal plane, and a pair of opposing bed plate tongues extending from opposing sides of the bed plate horizontal center portion disposed at a second angle above the bed plate horizontal plane; a horizontal elastomeric portion of relatively lower durometer hardness encapsulating at least a portion of the bed plate and at least a portion of the rail plate; and vertical elastomeric portions of relatively higher durometer hardness encapsulating at least a portion of each bed plate tongue and at least a portion of each rail plate tongue, and surrounding the upper face of the rail plate; and wherein each vertical elastomeric portion is physically continuous with the horizontal elastomeric portion.
US09004370B2
A method of increasing the efficiency of a boiler includes determining a proportional time period reflecting how long a thermostat is requesting heat from the boiler within a predetermined time period, determining a cycle frequency reflecting the number of times the thermostat is requesting heat from the boiler within the predetermined time period, and adjusting an energy input provided to the boiler in dependence upon the proportional time period and the cycle frequency.
US09004369B2
A method and system is provided which receives a desired humidity level from a user for the refrigeration compartment of a refrigerator, determines the current humidity level, and then activates an atomizer in the refrigeration compartment to increase the humidity level if needed. The humidity in the refrigeration compartment may be determined based at least in part on the temperature of the refrigeration compartment, the defrost timer, the door opening times, and the compressor timer.
US09004366B2
Printed integrated circuitry and attached antenna and/or inductor for sensors, electronic article surveillance (EAS), radio frequency (RF) and/or RF identification (RFID) tags and devices, and methods for its manufacture. The tag generally includes printed integrated circuitry on one carrier and an antenna and/or inductor on another carrier, the integrated circuitry being electrically coupled to the antenna and/or inductor. The method of manufacture generally includes of printing an integrated circuit having a plurality of first pads on a carrier, forming an antenna and/or inductor having a plurality of second pads on a substrate, and attaching at least two of the first pads of the printed integrated circuit to corresponding second pads of the antenna and/or inductor. The present invention advantageously provides a low cost RFID tag capable of operating at MHz frequencies that can be manufactured in a shorter time period than conventional RFID tags that manufacture all active electrical devices on a conventional wafer.
US09004357B2
The present invention is a headset holder coupled with indicia of stored value. The indicia of stored value may be printed or painted on, or otherwise permanently coupled to, the holder itself, or may be included in a stored value or gift card that is attached to the holder. The headset holder and the stored value card may be constructed from a single sheet of plastic; in such embodiments, separation of the stored value card from the headset holder may be supported by a scoreline in the plastic material. The headset holder may have a spool and two grips. One grip may be configured to secure earphones and the other grip may be configured to secure a jack of the headset. The spool may be configured for winding headset wire. The holder may be configured to hold primarily an earbud headset. The grips may extend or protrude from a central portion, or body of the holder. The spool may also extend from the body. The holder may display an image, such as the image of a creature or plant. The image may depict the grips as hands of a displayed creature. The image may depict the spool as the head of the creature.
US09004345B2
The mailer is made from a single blank. In one embodiment, the side flaps are folded over a front panel followed by folding over and securing of a back panel to the said flaps to form the mailer. The closure panel is folded over the front panel to close the mailer. In another embodiment, a back panel is folded over a front panel followed by folding over and securing of the side flaps to the back panel to form the mailer. The closure flap is folded over the back panel to close the mailer. In another embodiment, a blank forms a center seam mailer. Each embodiment has an improved corner construction.
US09004344B2
Security packages are disclosed having features that give increased resistance against theft by preventing or slowing opening of the package.
US09004340B2
A surgical instrument including a handle portion, a body portion, a movable handle, a tool assembly, a drive beam and a closure apparatus is disclosed. At least one of the closure apparatus and a contact surface of the tool assembly include a plastic surface. The body portion extends distally from the handle portion. The movable handle is located on the handle portion and is in mechanical cooperation with a drive member. The tool assembly includes an anvil, a cartridge assembly and a contact surface. The drive beam includes a proximal engagement portion and is configured to engage a portion of the drive member. The closure apparatus is configured to engage the contact surface of the tool assembly. At least a partial actuation of the movable handle moves the closure apparatus distally into engagement with the contact surface to approximate the anvil and the cartridge assembly.
US09004338B2
A compressible fluid powered device includes a dose chamber. An inlet supplies pressurized fluid to the dose chamber. An outlet for releases pressurized fluid from the dose chamber. A moveable divider divides the dose chamber into a primary space and a secondary space, movement of the divider expanding one space at the expense of the other. At least one flow pathway from one space to the other, which collectively allow gas to flow in both directions past the divider and pressure to equalize across the divider, the flow pathway being much more limited than the outlet.
US09004328B1
A quick-draw, stealth of movement, cross draw holster with stealth of movement for use specifically with revolvers. A pair of adjustable jaws having segmented faces grips the revolver only in the cylinder region. This support arrangement allows a very quick withdrawal of the revolver from the holster, typically requiring movement on the order of between one and two inches before the revolver is totally clear of the holster. The cylinder clamping support arrangement easily accommodates revolvers having scopes or other similar attached accessories. The holster may be either belt worn or strap-supported for over-the-shoulder mounting and can be used by either right- or left-handed shooters.
US09004322B2
A hand held spray bottle for use in the downward application of a liquid onto a horizontal surface. The spray bottle generally comprises a liquid spray device and a liquid storage bottle with an open threaded top to which the spray device is attached. The liquid spray device contains an internal pump assembly, trigger, and nozzle.
US09004320B2
A pour spout for dispensing a beverage from a bottle including a bottle adapter for attaching to a bottle to receive a beverage from the bottle, a housing having a chamber into which a housing inlet and a housing outlet open, the housing inlet connected to the bottle adapter for receiving the beverage, a valve carriage moveably received within the chamber and having a carriage passage, a resilient first tube providing a first passageway for beverage to flow from the housing inlet to the carriage passage, a resilient second tube providing a second passageway for beverage to flow from the carriage passage to the housing outlet, a valve operatively connected to the valve carriage to control flow of the beverage through the housing from the housing inlet to the housing outlet; and a valve actuator for moving the valve carriage within the chamber to operate the valve open or closed.
US09004319B2
Disclosed is a foaming pump. The foaming pump includes a cylinder which receives contents discharged from a container and air introduced from outside, an open/close unit which opens or closes the cylinder, a head unit which is movable up or down and operates the open/close unit, and a cover unit coupled to the cylinder and the head unit to allow the head unit to move up or down therein. Thus, it is possible to generate and provide soft and minutely uniform foam.
US09004310B2
A transport and storing container for liquids includes a pallet-type base frame for an inner container made of plastic with side walls, a lower wall and an upper wall. A closable filler neck is formed on the upper wall. A draining neck with a tapping armature is formed on a lower section of a side wall. A cage mantle with horizontal and vertical bars made of metal receives the inner container, wherein the vertical bars comprise between a connection section and a linear longitudinal section with a tubular cross section a bent section, and at least the upper ends of the vertical bars comprise a convex cross section outline on their inner side facing the inner container in the transition of the connection section to the bent section.
US09004303B2
The invention relates to a housing (1) for an electrical operating means such as a light, plug-in device, measuring instrument, switch, distributor, or the like, having at least one first and one second housing part (2,3) that can be assembled with one another in an explosion-proof fashion. Each housing part has one joining surface (4,5); when the housing parts are assembled, said joining surfaces are in contact with one another, forming a penetration-proof gap (6). In order to provide a novel structure of joining surfaces by means of which a corresponding penetration-proof gap is formed independently of the cross-sectional shape of the housing parts and to be able to substantially unite the advantages of both joining surfaces and the housing mentioned above, the joining surfaces run substantially perpendicular relative to the rest of the housing parts and surface profiles (7, 8) are formed in said joining surfaces, the penetration-proof gap being formed between said surface profiles.
US09004298B2
A plant propagation and display tray, capable of interlocking alignment with at least one other tray and capable of receiving and holding at least one plant pot, comprises a back wall and a bottom ledge forwardly projecting from said back wall. The ledge is inclined towards the back wall and comprises alternating projections and troughs, each trough inclining towards a trough point of abutment with the back wall and being of a conformation to securably hold one plant pot such that an open proximal end of the pot is exposed to view and a distal end of the pot is adjacent to the back wall. Each projection has an upper surface inclining towards a projection point of abutment with the back wall. The projection point of abutment is higher than the trough point of abutment with the back wall. The tray is capable of being attached to a wall surface.
US09004297B2
Example embodiments relate to a rotatable gravity feeding shelf unit having a bracket onto which a rotatable shelf is arranged. The shelf is arranged having an inclination angle for providing gravity feeding in a forward direction in a display position when a front side of the shelf is accessible. The shelf unit further includes a tilting device arranged for providing tilting of the plane of rotation of the shelf during rotation, thereby controlling the inclination angle of the shelf.
US09004296B2
The present invention relates generally to a display apparatus. More specifically, the invention relates to an apparatus that displays large items, such as bicycles, safely and in a manner that enhances sales experience. The present invention also relates to associated kits and packages.
US09004293B2
A semi-permeable film includes a nanoporous material and a polymer matrix. The nanoporous material includes a nanoporous core and a coating layer that is disposed on a surface of the nanoporous core. The coating layer may include a particle selected from a metal hydroxide particle, a metal oxide particle, and a combination thereof. A separation membrane may include the semi-permeable film. Example embodiments also relate to a method of manufacturing the semi-permeable film and the separation membrane.
US09004290B2
A faucet-mounted filter system that includes a body forming a fluid chamber having a water inlet, a quick connect device positioned adjacent the water inlet for mounting the filter system to a water faucet such that the water inlet is placed in fluid communication with the water faucet, a filtered water flow path disposed within the body and in fluid communication with the water inlet, an unfiltered water flow path disposed within the body and in fluid communication with the water inlet, a diverter valve disposed within the fluid chamber and operable to open and close the filtered and unfiltered water flow paths, a seal for sealing the fluid chamber, an actuator engaging the diverter valve to open and close the filtered and unfiltered water flow paths without having to interrupt the seal, a flow meter connected to the body and in fluid communication with the filter flow path, a filter housing connected to the body and having a reservoir, and a filter cartridge disposed within the reservoir. The filter cartridge is in fluid communication with the flow meter.
US09004283B1
The device is a holder. Within the holder is a cleaning solution for cleaning the face of the golf club. Attach to the holder is a bristle brush. The holder clips to a golf bag. The golfer after each shot takes the container of clean solution and puts some solution on the face of the club and cleans the face of the club with the bristle brush. On the holder is a place to hold golf tees and a divot fixer and ball marker.
US09004282B2
A nestable container and lid are provided. A first container may be received by a second container such that the first container nests in the second container. The lid of the first container is also nestable in the open lid of the second container when the lids of the first container and the second container are opened.
US09004279B2
An apparatus for packaging medication including a plurality of containers having a generally rectangular cross-section, each container for holding medication and one or more flexible sleeves, each flexible sleeve for accommodating two containers arranged in transverse ranks. The resulting package may be arrayed in multiple rows and ranks of containers.
US09004249B2
A hydraulic pressure clutch includes a first connecting hub on an input shaft, an inner sleeve, a boss, an outer sleeve, a clutch drum, a second connecting hub, a first piston forming a first piston chamber together with the second connecting hub, first clutch plates disposed on an outer protrusion and selectively pushed by the first piston along an axial direction, first friction disks disposed alternately with the first clutch plates, a first balance wall forming a first balance chamber, a second piston forming a second piston chamber, second clutch plates selectively pushed by the second piston along an axial direction, second friction disks disposed alternately with the second clutch plates, and a second balance wall forming a second balance chamber, wherein the first piston penetrates through the outer protrusion for pushing the first clutch plates.
US09004245B2
A hydraulic brake system is adapted to be assembled on a steering assembly. The hydraulic brake system includes a connecting member and hydraulic device. The connecting member has a receiving room and a receiving opening. The hydraulic device has a hydraulic cylinder and a fluid tank. The hydraulic cylinder is received in the receiving room. The fluid tank is inserted in the receiving opening and connected with the hydraulic cylinder. The hydraulic cylinder has a main body, two pistons and two springs. The main body has two hydraulic chambers. The two pistons are assembled in the two hydraulic chambers and two springs sleeve onto the two pistons. Two brake cables and two fluid pipes are connected with the hydraulic cylinder. When the brake cable pulls the piston to press a fluid in the hydraulic chamber, the fluid flows into the fluid pipe so as to control a brake device.
US09004238B2
A self-energizing disc brake includes a brake-internal hydraulic arrangement with a supply circuit and an expansion vessel, a brake application device with a brake application cylinder for applying a brake pad in the direction of a brake disc, a force transmission unit which supports the brake pad at a wedge angle on the brake application device, a tangential-force absorbing cylinder for switching over the wedge angle and being operatively connected to the force transmission unit; an electric-motor actuator which acts on the brake application device via the hydraulic arrangement, a distributor cylinder arranged in series between the electric-motor actuator and the brake application device for pressure boosting, and a control unit for controlling switchover of the wedge angle between the tangential-force absorbing cylinder and the electric-motor actuator. An adjusting device adjusts brake pad wear, and has a movable screw spindle, which is operatively connected to the brake application device.
US09004236B2
A spring-type brake actuator for a pneumatically-operated vehicle brake is provided, in which the parking brake release piston is formed from at least one stamped actuator piston plate, preferably a stamped aluminum plate. Preferably the biasing force of the power spring of the spring brake actuator bears on a stamped spring seat cap element which is interposed between the power spring and the stamped actuator piston plate. In addition, the parking brake release piston flexible diaphragm may be captured between the stamped actuator piston plate and a stamped backing plate by affixing the backing plate to a joining member, where the joining member includes a threaded insert to receive a manually-actuated parking brake release actuation tool.
US09004230B2
A switching device including at least one sensor for detection purposes which can be switched between at least two switching states depending on the detection. In order to enable improved detection of the switching states, a switching unit is provided, the switching unit and the at least one sensor each having a communication unit for communicating with one another, and it being possible for the switching unit to be switched depending on the at least one sensor.
US09004225B2
A muffler has a flattened cross-sectional shape the width of which is greater than its height. The muffler includes therein a plurality of expansion chambers. The muffler also includes an inlet pipe, an outlet pipe and first to third communication pipes, through which the expansion chambers are open to the outside. All of an opening of the inlet pipe, an opening of the outlet pipe and openings of the first to third communication pipes formed in the muffler are arranged such that they fall between a position separated away from one end of the muffler in its width direction by a ¼ length of the width of the muffler and a position separated away from the end of the muffler by a ½ length of the width.
US09004214B2
A three wheeled vehicle is disclosed having a vehicle frame with a frame sidewall providing a substantially flat surface, with recesses in the flat surface. Alignment arms have inner ends and outer ends, where the inner ends are mounted to the frame sidewall, and the outer ends mount a wheel hub. The inner ends have couplings with pivotal portions and fixed portions, the pivotal portions being at least partially positioned within the recesses, and the fixed portions being attached to the substantially flat surface.
US09004213B2
There is provided an electric motorized skateboard. The skateboard includes a skateboard deck and wheels. The skateboard includes a first actuator with a footpad and a force sensor. The footpad is generally disposed at a deck top surface. The footpad and the force sensor are cooperatively sized and configured to translate force applied to the footpad to the force sensor. The force sensor is sized and configured to output a sensed signal in response to application of force upon the force sensor. The skateboard includes a controller in electrical communication with the force sensor. The controller receives the sensed signal and generates a motor input signal in response to the sensed signal. The skateboard includes an electric motor in mechanical communication with at least one of the wheels. The motor has a variable electric motor output in response to a value of a motor input signal.
US09004212B2
A first panel includes an engaging section configured to engage with an engaged section so as to allow displacement of the engaged section according to swinging of a hood between a closed position and an open position and restrict the swinging of the hood in a state where an opening section is opened. The engaging section engages with the engaged section such that the engaged section is detachable by being displaced in a predetermined first direction. The machine main body further includes an auxiliary supporting section provided in a machine room and configured to restrict, by detachably supporting the engaged section detached from the engaging section, the swinging of the hood in a state where the opening section is opened.
US09004208B2
Energy storage device for storing electric energy for the partial or complete electrical drive of a vehicle, wherein the device has energy storages and power storages, a drive unit of a vehicle with an energy storage device as well as method for operating an energy storage device.
US09004197B2
The invention relates to a rotary drill stem component for exploration of a hydrocarbon well with drilling mud in movement around the component from a bottom of the well towards the surface. The drill can include a central tubular element having an axis of revolution and extended on either side respectively by a first and a second tool joint each respectively and successively including a first cylindrical portion connected to the tubular element, a second tapered portion, a third cylindrical portion with a radius greater than that of the tubular element. The drill can include a threaded end which can connect the component to another component, the component including a first shell provided with one or more functional zones, the first shell being mounted on one of the tool joints in a cohesive and removable manner.
US09004192B2
An electrical power tool includes an electric motor as a drive source, and a speed change device for decelerating rotative power of the electric motor and outputting the same to a spindle. The speed change device is configured to automatically switch between a high speed low torque mode in which a high speed low torque is output to the spindle and a low speed high torque mode in which a low speed high torque is output to the spindle based on an external torque applied to the spindle. An output rotation speed of the spindle in the high speed low torque mode is set to 4.5 times to 6.0 times an output rotation speed of the spindle in the low speed high torque mode.
US09004183B2
A string is equipped with a braking device to regulate its speed into the wellbore through an existing tubular. When the targeted amount of overlap with an existing tubular is accomplished the two tubulars are then joined together. The braking system can take many forms such as externally mounted mechanisms that are speed responsive to vary the braking force. The inside of the tubular can have trapped gas to provide buoyancy and reduce the dropping speed. The braking can be accomplished hydraulically through regulated flow through the tubular or by a combination of a hydraulic and mechanical device. The momentum of the dropped string can also be controlled with a swage device that at the appropriate location lands on a taper and wedges or fuses itself to the surrounding tubular to gain support from the surrounding tubular.
US09004180B2
Apparatuses and methods used for actuating downhole tools in which a ball is dropped from a surface of a wellbore until it contacts a ball seat of a downhole tool. The ball seat moves axially downward within the downhole tool and an expandable ball seating surface of the ball seat radially expands to pass the ball. The ball seat then moves axially upward within the downhole tool.
US09004178B2
A blowout preventer assembly comprising a blowout preventer and control apparatus, the blowout preventer comprising a housing a sealing element and a fluid pressure operated actuator mounted in the housing, the actuator 18 dividing the interior of the housing into two chambers, namely an open chamber and a close chamber, substantially preventing flow of fluid between the two chambers, and being movable, by means of the supply of pressurized fluid to the close chamber, to urge the sealing element into sealing engagement with a drill pipe extending through the blow out preventer, the control apparatus including a close line which extends from the exterior of the housing to the close chamber, and a source of pressurized fluid which is connected to the close line, wherein the source of pressurized fluid is located adjacent to the housing.
US09004177B2
A subsea production system, comprising a plurality of wells located on a sea floor, the wells producing a fluid comprising hydrocarbons; a cold flow center on the sea floor, the cold flow center fluidly connected to the plurality of wells; and a production facility on land or on a floating structure, the production facility fluidly connected to the cold flow center; wherein the cold flow center lowers a temperature of the fluid and produces a slurry of the fluid and suspended solids for transportation to the production facility.
US09004176B2
A system and method for rapidly responding to and regaining control of uncontrolled flow from offshore hydrocarbon wells, comprising a subsea containment assembly, optionally including a capture caisson assembly installed around the assembly, riser systems for production of hydrocarbons to capture vessels on the surface of the sea, and modularized subsystems facilitating communication between and fluid flow from the subsea containment assembly through the riser to the capture vessel.
US09004173B2
Wiper plugs or other shapes are made from shape memory foam in a size large enough to wipe or clean a tubular of a predetermined size. The plug or other shape is then reformed to a smaller dimension above its transition temperature and allowed to cool while holding that shape. The smaller shape allows delivery through a running string that is smaller than the tubular string to be wiped. Preferably before reaching the string to be wiped, the trigger is applied to get the wiper or other shape above its transition temperature where it then reverts to the prior larger dimension for effective wiping of the string that it will next pass through. The trigger can be well fluid temperature or composition, applied heat from the tubular, generated heat within the wiper or other shape, or heat released from agents introduced into the well acting alone or in conjunction with well fluids.
US09004162B2
Methods of stimulating acetoclastic methanogenesis in subterranean deposits of carbonaceous material
Methods for enhancing acetoclastic methanogenesis in subterranean geologic formations. The methods may include accessing a microorganism consortium in the formation, and assessing the consortium for acetoclastic methanogenic activity. The methods may further include modifying the formation environment based on the consortium assessment to increase methane production from acetoclastic methanogenic pathways used by the consortium. The modifications to the formation environment may include introducing an amendment and/or introducing acetoclastic microorganisms to the formation environment.
US09004159B2
A system and method facilitate drilling of lateral wellbores by optionally eliminating one or more trips downhole. The system and method provide for drilling a lateral wellbore by enabling the milling of a casing window and the drilling of the desired lateral wellbore to a target depth during a single trip down hole. The system and method also facilitate better downhole dynamics control and improved overall bottom hole assembly functionality during drilling.
US09004154B2
A combination fuel-oil and air-oil heat exchanger comprising: a first heat exchanger section that has an oil circulation path and a fuel circulation path thermally coupled to the oil circulation path; a second heat exchanger section that has an oil circulation path and an air circulation path thermally coupled to the oil circulation path; an oil coupling path that couples an oil circulation path outlet of the first heat exchanger section to an oil circulation path inlet of the second heat exchanger section to establish a combined oil circulation path; an oil path by-pass valve that selectively diverts oil from the combined oil circulation path to an outlet of the oil path by-pass valve; and a fuel path by-pass valve that selectively diverts fuel from the fuel circulation path of the first heat exchanger section to an outlet of the fuel path by-pass valve.
US09004151B2
Disclosed is a vessel for melting and casting meltable materials. The vessel may be a surface temperature regulated vessel for providing a substantially non-wetting interface with the molten materials. In one embodiment, the vessel may include one or more temperature regulating channels configured to flow a fluid therein for regulating a surface temperature of the vessel such that molten materials are substantially non-wetting at the interface with the vessel. Disclosed also includes systems and methods for melting and casting meltable materials using the vessel.
US09004148B2
Provided herein are various embodiments of systems for casting thin metal plates and sheets. Typical embodiments include layers of mold cavities that are oriented vertically for casting the metal plates. In some embodiments, the mold cavities include a beveled edge such that the plates that are cast have a beveled edge. In some embodiments, the mold cavities are filled with a molten metal through an open horizontal edge of the cavity. In some embodiments, the mold cavities are filled through one or more vertical feed orifices. Further disclosed are methods for forming a thin cast metal plate or sheet where the thickness of the cast part is in a range from 0.005 inches to 0.2 inches, and the surface area of the cast part is in a range from 16 square inches to 144 square inches.
US09004141B2
A covering device of an opening of a building includes two parallel rails, a shading member, a main member, and two adjusting units. Each rail has a first side and a second side. The main member is between the rails and is connected to an end of the shading member. The main member has two coupling members to engage the rails at the first sides thereof. The adjusting unit has a stop member to be moved between a first position and a second position. The stop member touches the second side of the rail while the stop member is moved to the first position, and is off the second side of the rail while the stop member is moved to the second position.
US09004133B2
The invention describes a device and method for making corrugated products. The device can be used with any substrate and includes, at least, first and second drive rollers for driving a middle substrate and a single wall corrugated product. In other embodiments the invention includes upper drive rollers, lower drive rollers and middle drive rollers for driving an upper substrate, a lower substrate and a middle substrate. The middle substrate is driven between the upper and lower substrates at a higher velocity to form flutes that are anchored between the upper an lower substrates thereby forming a corrugated product. The invention also provides for customized corrugated products having multiple fluted substrates in various desirable arrangements. Examples of such products include mattress, partition panels, other furniture and construction products.
US09004132B2
An apparatus and a method for manufacturing a camera module. The method for manufacturing a camera module includes: picking up an image sensor by the bonding head and mounting the image sensor on a PCB; compensating for a tilt deviation between the PCB and the image sensor by the gyro unit of the PCB support unit simultaneously when the image sensor is mounted on the PCB; applying heat by the heating unit of the bonding head to cure an adhesive applied between the image sensor and the PCB; and after the image sensor is mounted and the adhesive is cured, picking up a lens housing module by a lens housing module pickup unit and mounting the lens housing module on the PCB and attaching contact portions of the PCB to the lens housing module to complete the manufacture of a camera module.
US09004129B2
A pneumatic tire in which an inner liner including a film mainly made of thermoplastic resin is attached to an inside of the tire via a tie rubber sheet, on an inner side of a carcass layer, and which has a lap-splice portion where end portions of the film in a tire circumferential direction overlap each other in a tire widthwise direction with tie rubber therebetween. A section of the film on a tire cavity side in the lap-splice portion has a portion where the film is thin over part or entirety of the width in the tire widthwise direction before the lap-splice portion, or a film thickness in the lap-splice portion is smaller than a film thickness in a portion other than the lap-splice portion. Thus, the pneumatic tire has no crack developing around the lap-splice portion of an inner liner layer after running, and has excellent durability.
US09004121B2
Tire including a continuous pressure membrane. The tire includes a carcass, a rubber layer surrounding the carcass, and a belt. The carcass includes at least one continuous pressure membrane defining a generally U-shaped cross section. The pressure membrane includes a crown portion, a first sidewall portion, and a second sidewall portion connected with the first sidewall portion by the crown portion. The belt may be composed of at least one additional continuous pressure membrane adjacent the crown portion.
US09004115B2
A dispensing system includes a detection device and a dispenser configured to dispense at least one of ice and a liquid. The detection device is configured to detect a container positioned with respect to the dispenser and generate a first signal representative of the container position. The dispensing system also includes a controller coupled to the detection device and the dispenser. The controller is configured to determine a stability of the container and activate the dispenser to dispense at least one of an amount of the ice and an amount of the liquid into the container based on the first signal and the determined stability of the container.
US09004108B2
In a solenoid valve control device, a plurality of solenoid valve blocks are connected in series with respect to a solenoid valve control unit. A solenoid valve operating circuit of a given solenoid valve block, to which a block selection signal from a block selection line is supplied, operates plural solenoid valves of the same given block, based on the block selection signal.
US09004106B2
A switching apparatus for a fluid flow with a first fluid-conducting connection (5) and a second fluid-conducting connection (6) between first and second treatment devices (3, 4) has a first pair of switching levers (11, 12) assigned to first and second distributor valves (7, 8) and a second pair of switching levers (15, 16) assigned to third and fourth distributor valves (13, 14) arranged in different planes. The switching levers (11, 12) of the first pair can be actuated by an operator without obstruction with the switching levers (15, 16) of the second pair, and vice versa.
US09004100B2
The present invention relates to a pump assembly (5) for a supply unit, in particular a tank container (1), comprising: a pump line (51; 51r, l) for conveying a liquid medium between a container (3) and a removal connection, a pump (55) arranged in the pump line (51), and a feed connection (58), which is connected to the pump line (51) via two connecting lines (57). Here the pump (55) acts between the two connecting points (57a) of the connecting lines (57) in the pump line (51). The medium can therefore be delivered as desired directly by the pump (55) between the feed connection (58) and the container (3), between the container (3) and the removal connection (52), or between the feed connection (58) and the removal connection (52). The invention further relates to a fuel supply unit having a pump assembly (5) according to the invention and a container (3).
US09004097B2
A spool valve includes a housing having a spring-enclosing portion and a spool-enclosing portion aligned along a longitudinal axis. A spool is mounted for reciprocal axial movement in the housing and a piston is fixed to one end of the spool. The spool-enclosing portion supports a stationary bushing having a bore receiving an opposite control end of the spool, the bushing formed with a first plurality of radially-oriented passages opening into an annular groove formed in the bore, the groove having sloped side edges. The spool supports plural ring-seals arranged to engage the sloped side edges of the annular groove and thereby seal off the radially-oriented passages when the spool is in a neutral position. Movement of the spool is adjustably limited in one direction and dampened in both axial directions.
US09004095B2
A pipeline control unit that connects two conduits attached to opposing sides of a housing with an attachable pressure cover plate and a valve servicing assembly that can be installed onto the housing to form a fluid-tight structure. A pipeline control mechanism can be mounted in an access opening of the pipeline control unit to enable a user to selectively control fluid flow through the housing. The pipeline control unit allows the removal and replacement of the pipeline control mechanism without depressurizing a pipeline system.
US09004089B2
A lock for a ram shaft of a blowout preventer has a ram shaft controlled by an actuator, the ram shaft having a ram block end and a locking end, the locking end having an internal cavity that extends along an axis of the ram shaft, and a locking pin in the internal cavity. The locking pin has a release position retracted into the internal cavity, and a locking position extending from the internal cavity. A rotational stop engages the ram shaft and prevents the ram shaft from rotating. A locking pin stop is secured relative to the actuator, the locking pin stop engaging the locking pin in the locking position to prevent axial movement of the ram shaft.
US09004082B2
A dish rack is supported for vertical movement relative to a dishwasher tub, with the vertical adjustment being made by manually shifting the dish rack to cause a camming unit of a latching mechanism to cooperate with a follower in establishing at least a lowered position and a raised position for the rack. The camming unit includes a plurality of camming surfaces and ramps establishing multiple tiers upon which the follower is guided while being biased by a spring.
US09004071B2
One embodiment provides a nasal guide. The nasal guide includes a pair of supports adapted to be positioned adjacent nostrils of a nose of a patient. The nasal guide includes a bridge connecting the pair of supports. The bridge is usable to adjust positioning of the pair of supports. Each of the pair of supports forms one or more lumens configured to receive one or more medical instruments. The one or more lumens are shaped for insertion into a nasal cavity of the nose.
US09004067B2
An impeller includes a top shroud, a bottom shroud, and a plurality of vanes extending from the top shroud to the bottom shroud. The top and bottom shrouds are generally planar, and a lower edge of each vane tapers from an outer edge of the bottom shroud to a transverse tip edge thereof.
US09004051B2
An archery bow is comprised of at least a riser and two limbs that can be folded into a position forming its own case to protect the limbs, or taken down and reassembled with limbs of various draw weights. When taken down it may also be reconfigured to enable use by an archer with opposite handedness. In its folded state it is highly compact and transportable.
US09004046B2
Methods and systems are provided for estimating an ambient humidity value used to determine condensate formation in a charge air cooler. The ambient humidity value is determined from charge air cooler efficiency and windshield wiper speed thresholds. The humidity value is used to calculate an amount of condensate in a charge air cooler and control engine systems to reduce condensate formation and engine misfire.
US09004036B2
An intake manifold assembly includes an intake manifold body defining an interior manifold cavity. The intake manifold further includes a throttle mount coupled to the intake manifold body and defining a mount passage in fluid communication with the interior manifold cavity. The throttle mount is configured to be coupled to a throttle assembly. The intake manifold assembly further includes a supplemental gas conduit including a first supplemental gas conduit portion coupled to the intake manifold body. The supplemental gas conduit further includes a second supplemental gas conduit portion in fluid communication with the first supplemental gas conduit portion. The second supplemental gas conduit portion is coupled to the throttle mount and is configured to deliver supplemental gases into the mount passage to mix the supplemental gases with intake air flowing through the mount passage.
US09004034B2
The invention relates to a reducing gear (3), in particular for a starter device (1) of an internal combustion engine, for speed-reducing coupling of a drive shaft and a driven shaft (5, 7), said coupling accomplished by way of at least two toothed gears (11) that engage with one another. The toothed gears (11) comprise straight cogs, and the cogging (30) is extra deep cogging (31). The invention further relates to a starter device (1) of an internal combustion engine.
US09004029B2
A variable valve actuating apparatus includes: a first rotary member which includes a rotor fixed to one of the inner cam shaft and the outer cam shaft, and a receiving chamber formed within the first rotary member, and which is arranged to be rotated in an advance angle direction or in a retard angle direction relative to the drive rotary member by a hydraulic pressure selectively supplied to or drained from the advance angle operation chamber and the retard angle operation chamber; and a second rotary member fixed to the other of the inner cam shaft and the outer cam shaft, rotatably received within the receiving chamber of the first rotary member, and arranged to be rotated relative to the first rotary member and the drive rotary member within a predetermined angle range.
US09004025B2
A variable valve timing control apparatus has a housing having a plurality of working fluid chambers, a vane member rotatably housed in the housing and dividing the each working fluid chamber into advance and retard oil chambers, the vane member rotating to a most-advanced angle side and to a most-retarded angle side within a predetermined angle range relative to the housing, and a torsion spring, one end of which is retained by the housing and the other end of which is retained by the vane member. When the vane member rotates to the most-advanced angle side and to the most-retarded angle side, an angle formed by a line connecting the both ends of the torsion spring through an axial center of the vane member ranges from an angle positioned at one side to an angle positioned at the other side of a boundary with 180° being the boundary.
US09004023B2
A variable lift valve train for an internal combustion engine, including a pivoted lever with a transmission surface on one end, a counter running surface in a central region and, on a further end, a support element and a contact element, the transmission surface has a zero lift path and, adjoining the zero lift path in lever pivoting direction, a lift path, the transmission surface being in contact with a valve opener, the counter running surface being loaded by at least one lift cam, the support element being guided on a lever guide section, the contact element, for adjusting a valve lift being loaded by an adjusting device in direction of the lever guide section, and the valve train including directly in a region of the pivoted lever, an effective and optionally additionally actuable element for creating an additional valve lift during a base circle phase of the lift cam.
US09004021B2
An internal combustion engine includes a cylinder crankcase and a cylinder head that includes an integrated exhaust manifold, wherein the cylinder crankcase, the cylinder head and the integrated exhaust manifold have a continuous water jacket that forms part of a coolant circuit of the internal combustion engine. To ensure during shut-down cooling and/or warm-up cooling of the exhaust manifold that a majority of the coolant that is fed into the water jacket reaches the exhaust manifold, while only a small portion of the coolant flows around the cylinder through the cylinder crankcase, the coolant circuit includes a collector that communicates via passage openings having reduced opening cross-sections with the water jacket, and coolant channels arranged in extension of a flow direction through the passage-openings lead to the exhaust manifold, while coolant channels branching off laterally behind the passage-openings lead to the cylinder crankcase.
US09004016B2
A vest can be worn by a visually impaired pet, such as a dog, to help the pet navigate without hurting themselves by bumping into walls or objects. The vest includes plastic tubing with wire woven therein. The tubing is shaped like a halo that surrounds the front and sides of the pet's head. Should the visually impaired pet run into an object or wall, the halo will hit before their head hits and the pet will turn away before injuring themselves. The vest can be worn about their torso with their front legs fitting in leg holes of the vest. The vest can be adjustable to fit a range of pet sizes. The halo can also be adjustable to provide safe navigation of the pet. Typically, the vest is designed for dogs, but other visually impaired pets or animals may benefit by using the vest.
US09004011B2
A weighted pet chew article support device is provided having a weighted structure that is designed to keep a pet within a given area while consuming or gnawing on the treat or chew toy. The device comprises a weighted member having sidewalls, a base, and an upper surface that supports a treat attachment strap. The strap wraps around a pet treat and includes a length of elastomeric material therein to prevent the treat from sliding while grasped by the strap. The base of the weighted member may comprise a non-sliding surface for use on slick floors. The weighted member itself is a resilient sack of lined material that can be readily repaired if the pet gnaws thereon. Further provided is a multi-treat attachment system that includes a plurality of elongated members attaching to the uppermost strap for securing more than one treat therewith.
US09004007B2
A nectar feeder for hummingbirds is disclosed. The feeder includes a container configured and arranged to store nectar feed. A spout depends from the bottom end of the container with an exit port defined thereon. A base tray positioned below the container and contains nectar feed. A vertical member extends from the base tray. A float engages at least one vertical member to prevent substantial independent lateral movement of the float within the base tray. The float also includes a rounded bottom surface to further help stabilize it on the liquid feed to prevent leaking. The float has a stopper therein positioned below the spout. In operation, the nectar feed flows through the container and into the base tray until the float rises to a level where the stopper engages the exit port on the spout to prevent fluid from flowing into the base tray.
US09004003B2
This is a photoconductor and dispenser assembly and system. The photoconductor is in a tubular form so as to accept a tubular formed dispenser within its hollow portion. The dispenser will coat within this hollow portion a uniform coating of an acoustical dampening material. This material will dull any sound produced by the photoconductive marking system. The assembly is the tube having in its hollow portion this dispenser. The dispenser fits tightly but movably within the hollow portion.
US09003998B2
The present invention relates to an indicator device, a display device, particularly for a motor vehicle, and a needle mounting method for a display device.
US09003993B1
A pad for protecting nautical sails from the rigging including a material having a soft outer surface and an inner surface with hook and loop material attached to the material. The pad also includes a restraint attached to the inner surface of the material and a strap engaged by the restraint. A method of using the described pad to protect sails and other fabrics is also provided.
US09003989B2
The efficiency of a full form hull is improved by moving the position of the forward shoulder (3) forwards and upwards to obtain at least a partial antiphase interaction between the shoulder wave and bow wave, sufficient to prevent the bow wave from breaking at its second crest, and introducing a forwardly tapered portion (7) between the forward shoulder and the mid-body (1).
US09003987B2
The invention relates to a vessel or a floating structure operating in ice-covered waters comprising a hull or the like (1, 1′) including at least one bow-like end or a similar hull portion (2, 2′), which is exposed to the loading effect of the ice, while the ice or the vessel is moving. Said bow-like end or a similar hull portion (2, 2′), in the underwater part of the hull, is equipped with means for leading one or several strong, mainly upwards-directed flows of water towards the ice or the ice field encountered by the bow-like end or a similar hull portion (2, 2′). The invention also relates to a method of using the vessel or the floating structure.
US09003983B2
A no-till apparatus for application of herbicide and fertilizer, soil preparation, and seeding of a cover crop in a standing crop has inter-row assemblies configured to pass along inter-row areas between adjacent row lines of standing crop plants. Each assembly includes a fertilizer applicator, a no-till soil preparation element, a cover crop seed applicator, and a post-seeding element.
US09003980B1
A foldable table includes a tabletop having a top side and a bottom side, a leg frame, and a stacking arrangement which includes a stackable rim integrally and downwardly extended from the top side of the tabletop to a position that a bottom edge of the stackable rim is downwardly extended below the bottom side of the tabletop, wherein a stacking area is defined within the bottom edge of the stackable rim that the stacking area is larger than a top area of the top side of the tabletop. Therefore, when two or more foldable tables are stacked together, the top side of the foldable table is received within the stacking area of another foldable table to substantially retain the two foldable tabletops in position and avoid a lateral relative movement between the foldable tables.
US09003979B2
The present invention provides a workstation that may be used while performing various tasks, such as working at a computer. The workstation includes a table (2), a waist rest (3), a foot rest (4); a left arm rest and a right arm rest (7). The workstation allows the user to redistribute his body weight from the legs and feet the waist rest, foot rest; and arm rests while in a standing position.
US09003978B1
The present invention relates to a carrier that is configured to hold an electronic device and that comprises a malleable container disposed on a bottom portion of the container for elevating the electronic device in an upright position for better viewing of the electronic device by a user.
US09003975B2
Provided is a gas generator which is reduced in weight and size while maintaining a sufficient strength as a pressure vessel. A gas generator (1) includes a housing (4) in a tubular shape having an opening (10) on at least one end thereof and a plug (12) inserted in the opening (10), so that an end portion (11) on the opening side is reduced in diameter and caulked in a caulking groove (13) of the plug (12), to thereby seal the opening (10), in which: the caulking groove (13) is a streak groove that extends along the periphery of the plug (12) and is rectangular in section; and the caulking groove (13) has at least one of side walls (14) forming the calking groove (13), the one side wall (14a) being closer to the center of the housing, which is orthogonal or sloped to the opening side, with respect to the axis (X) of the housing (4).
US09003974B2
The invention relates to a projectile having a cylindrical hole (15) arranged at the nose as seen in the firing direction, said hole (15) extending coaxially with the longitudinal axis (12) of the projectile and a projectile nose (1) being inserted into this hole, wherein the longitudinal axis (12) of the projectile at the same time also forms the longitudinal axis of the projectile nose (1). In order that accelerated expansion of the projectile occurs when the projectile strikes a soft medium, it is proposed according to the invention that an open hollow channel (5) is introduced in the projectile nose (1) coaxially with the longitudinal axis (12), said hollow channel (5) extending from the front end (22) to the rear end (23) of the projectile nose (1), as seen in the firing direction, and a membrane (6) is arranged in the hollow channel (5), said membrane dividing the hollow channel (5) into two hollow-channel portions (5a, 5b).
US09003970B2
A method of microcontact printing comprises (a) providing an elastomeric stamp comprising a printing surface inked with an ink comprising surface-functionalizing molecules, (b) treating the inked printing surface of the stamp with solvent, and (c) contacting the treated inked printing surface of the stamp to a surface of a substrate. The printing surface of the stamp comprises a first relief pattern, or the surface of the substrate comprises a second relief pattern, or both of the surfaces comprise the relief patterns, and a pattern of surface-functionalizing molecules is transferred to the substrate according to one or both of the relief patterns.
US09003969B2
The loading device according to the invention comprises a magazine for receiving at least one printing plate and transferring it from the magazine to the plate cylinder. It also comprises at least one guide rail to guide a printing plate during transfer thereof by cooperation with a notch of a front edge of the printing plate, the notch sliding along the guide rail during the transfer.
US09003962B2
An adjustable food flavoring device with removable smoker box for use in a gas grill is disclosed. The apparatus includes an inverted V-shaped upper plate, an inverted V-shaped lower plate, a feature or features to prevent the movement of the assembly once a user obtains the desired length, a plurality of tabs to keep ceramic briquettes in their desired locations, and a removable smoker box in which to place articles for heating and burning to produce smoke that flavors the food being cooked on the grill.
US09003958B2
A single-use filtering capsule is provided for producing an alimentary infusion. The capsule includes a casing inside which is positioned a filtering sachet containing an aromatic essence. The sachet is perimetrally fixed to the casing in such a way as to separate two base extremities of the casing. A first perforable closure element allows the access of water to the aromatic essence. The first closure element is attached in closure of a first base extremity of the casing to which the sachet directs the inner side, a second closure element of a second base extremity of the casing to which the sachet directs the outer side. The capsule also includes dissociable member between the second closure element and the second base extremity of the casing, and gripping member for the second closure element for its dissociation from the second base extremity of the casing before the positioning of the capsule in an infusion apparatus.
US09003955B1
High pressure pump systems with reduced pressure ripple for use with waterjet systems and other systems are described herein. A pump system configured in accordance with a particular embodiment includes four reciprocating members operably coupled to a crankshaft at 90 degree phase angles. The reciprocating members can include plungers operably disposed in corresponding cylinders and configured to compress fluid (e.g., water) in the cylinders to pressures suitable for waterjet processing, such as pressures exceeding 30,000 psi.
US09003954B2
A variable displacement fluid working machine includes an inward ring and an outward ring, one of the inward ring and the outward ring including a rotatable ring cam coupled to a drive shaft, the other including a plurality of radially extending piston cylinders circumferentially spaced around the respective ring. The outward ring has first and second axially spaced structural members and a plurality of demountable blocks demountably retainable therebetween, the demountable blocks having either piston cylinders or ring cam segments. The demountable blocks are removable radially to facilitate maintenance and repair and to facilitate radial access to the inward ring.
US09003952B2
To improve productivity and increase seizing resistance and abrasion resistance of a sliding surface of a tilt adjustment cylinder, a plurality of pistons are arranged cirumferentially in a cylinder block configured to rotate with a rotating shaft. Tip end portions of the pistons slide along the swash plate, and the pistons reciprocate. The swash plate is supported to tilt with respect to the rotating shaft. Further, a tilt adjustment driving portion is included. The tilt adjustment driving portion includes tilt adjustment large- and small-diameter cylinder chambers and tilt adjustment large- and small-diameter pistons configured to slide in the cylinder chambers to change the tilt angle of the swash plate. A sliding surface of the inner peripheral surface of each of the cylinder chambers includes a quenched portion formed by quenching using laser light, the sliding surface being a surface on which the tilt adjustment piston slides.
US09003951B2
A hydraulic actuator system including an actuator and a valve assembly configured for bi-directional regeneration. The actuator may include a hollow body and a rod disposed within and extending outwardly from the hollow body. The rod may include a first chamber within the rod and a piston disposed at one end of the rod, defining a second chamber and a third chamber within the hollow body. A valve assembly may be in fluid communication with a first conduit, a second conduit, the first chamber, the second chamber, and the third chamber, wherein the valve assembly is configured to selectively couple one of the first conduit and the second conduit to one or more of the first port, the second port, and the third port, wherein one of the first conduit and the second conduit is configured as a pressure source.
US09003950B2
Air motor having a programmable logic controller interface and a method of retrofitting an air motor
A pump assembly having an air motor includes a valve connected to a motive fluid inlet of the air motor. The valve shifts between a first position, in which a flow of motive fluid is directed into a pilot port, through a two way pilot conduit and into a pilot chamber portion, and a second position, in which the flow of motive fluid is inhibited from flowing into the pilot port through the two way pilot conduit and into the pilot chamber portion, and in which fluid in the pilot chamber portion flows out through the two way pilot conduit and is directed by the valve to exhaust. The valve is connected to a programmable logic controller, so that the valve is shifted between the first position and the second position in response to the programmable logic controller.
US09003948B2
A fire control switch for a firearm includes a lever assembly mounted to a first end or to a second end of a shaft. The lever assembly includes a spring-loaded rotatable pawl moveable between a first position and a second position, wherein the lever assembly is mounted to the shaft when the pawl is in the first position and can be released from the shaft by moving the pawl from the first position to the second position. In other embodiments, a second lever assembly or cap may be mounted to the other end of the shaft.
US09003947B1
An assembly structured for removably mounting armor on a user's body in a protective orientation including a base having an inner portion and an outer portion. The inner portion is structured to retain the armor, preferably but not exclusively, in the form of an armor plate on the base in substantially facing relation to the body of the user, wherein the outer portion is disposed in overlying, covering relation to the armor. Preferably the base is formed of a rigid material and an attachment assembly is connected to the base and structured to facilitate the operative and removable mounting of the base and the armor on the user in a predetermined protective orientation. The attachment assembly may also include a plurality of connectors and a common release mechanism, wherein the base and the armor can be quickly and easily removed from its protective orientation and operative mounting on the user.
US09003946B2
An improvement to prior art of hard armor inserts that comprise a ceramic strike face and a debris collection layer that adds a diffuser layer that is attached to the debris collection layer through a plurality of flat faced pedestals to provide the useful a utility of protection from bullets.
US09003944B2
The present invention regards a pyrotechnic countermeasure (15, 25) dispensing system (1) comprising a set of contacting members (27, 27′) of a launching electronic circuitry (19). A first magazine (A) is mountable in said housing (23) in such way that a contacting body (41) of each pyrotechnic countermeasure (25) being in electrical communication with a dedicated contacting member (27) of the launching electronic circuitry (19), when the system (1) is ready to use. A central electronic unit (3) is associated with the launching electronic circuitry (19) for actuating of the pyrotechnic countermeasure (25) accommodated in the first magazine (A) in dependence upon a detected threat (29). A second magazine (B) designed for accommodation of at least one intelligent pyrotechnic countermeasure (15) is mountable in contact with the launching electronic circuitry (19) so that a contacting body (41) of said intelligent pyrotechnic countermeasure (15) will be set in electrical communication with a dedicated contacting member (27) of the launching electronic circuitry (19) via an adapter device (33, 33′, 34).
US09003941B1
A self-adhesive activity paper applicator dispenses a strip of paper from an internal roll directly onto a wall and then cuts it to length. The activity paper comprises pre-applied strips of temporary pressure-sensitive adhesive, beneficially having preprinted images. The applicator covers part of a wall to allow a child to color or draw upon the paper. When the child is done drawing the activity paper can be removed without damaging wall. The applicator has a pair of handles and a bottom wheel that facilitates accurate and level deployment of paper. The applicator may be disassembled to refill the paper roll.
US09003938B2
A fin assembly for attachment to a die cutting machine to guide and align at least two blanks cut from a sheet in the machine as the blanks are fed through the machine. The fin assembly includes at least one thin plate-like fin having length and height dimensions and a narrow thickness. The fin is mounted in the machine so that the length dimension is in substantial alignment with a respective cut separating two blanks cut in the machine, so that the blanks fall on opposite sides of the fin as they are fed through the machine, whereby the fin keeps the blanks separate and aligns them as they are fed through the machine. At least one back stop is associated with the fin to prevent blanks from moving in a reverse direction and falling out of the machine when they fall past the fin.
US09003937B2
An apparatus for cutting a continuous web includes a disc-shaped rotatable blade member for cutting the continuous web by moving in an intersecting direction, while rotating about an axis of a rotating shaft, a regulating section for regulating a relative movement of the continuous web in the predetermined direction with respect to the rotatable blade member throughout a time during which the rotatable blade member is cutting the continuous web, and a reciprocating mechanism for moving both the rotatable blade member and the regulating section along a forward path and a return path. The forward path has an equal velocity region where both the rotatable blade member and the regulating section move at a velocity value equal to a transport velocity value of the continuous web. The rotatable blade member cuts the continuous web while moving in the equal velocity region.
US09003935B2
A cutting device for cutting labels includes a cutting element for cutting into individual labels a label strip that is provided with a plurality of labels arranged one behind the other in the direction of the length of the label strip. The cutting element has a cutting tool in a first axis, about which the cutting element is rotatable. A counter-pressure roller which serves for the placement of the label strip is rotatable about a second axis arranged parallel to the first axis and has at least one counter-cutting bar which is provided on the outer surface of the counter-pressure roller essentially parallel to the second axis.
US09003934B2
Methods of fly-cutting a workpiece are disclosed, and in methods in which the position of a fly-cutting head or its associated cutting element is known as a function of time. Also disclosed are methods of forming features, such as grooves or groove segments, in a workpiece such as a cylindrical roll. The features may be provided according to one or more disclosed patterns. Articles made using tools machined in the manner described are also provided, such as polymeric film or sheeting that exhibit certain beneficial properties.
US09003933B1
A hand held device for aligning and supporting a lug nut tool having a socket on one end of an extended arm when rotating lug nuts on a vehicle wheel. The device is a lug nut tool support having a plurality of cylindrical through openings in an elongated main element positioned so that the plurality of cylindrical through openings is generally facing the vehicle wheel, with each opening providing a different elevation to align and support the lug nut tool when rotating the lug nuts during vehicle maintenance operations. An anchoring means may be added to each end of the tool support to reduce the likelihood of the tool support sliding on slippery surfaces. The cylindrical through openings are sized to allow any socket of the lug nut tool to pass through the cylindrical through openings and reduce the likelihood of the tool binding in the tool support.
US09003924B2
A cup-shaped flexible externally toothed gear of a wave gear device comprises a cylindrical body part, and an external-teeth area thereof includes a pushed portion pushed radially outward by a wave generator and a groove formed in a position adjacent to the pushed portion toward a diaphragm. The reaction force of the wave generator can be reduced because the groove is formed to partially reduce thickness in a portion that does not affect the root strength of the external teeth. The increase in root stress can be suppressed when the roots of the external teeth are thickened, and root strength can be effectively increased. The load torque of the wave gear device can thereby be increased.
US09003922B2
A quick release coupling is incorporated into the drive train of the bicycle to couple the crank to the drive shaft. It includes an axle with a flat keyway facilitating installation. A crank arm has an opening matching the circumference of the shaft other than at the flat area. The opening includes a protrusion engaging the keyway to transmit torque. A land is near an end of the shaft. Each coupling has an opening similar to the opening through each crank arm. The orientation of the coupling is with the flat region aligned with the keyway. In this orientation, the coupling is slid over the end of the shaft until the flat area is aligned over the land. The coupling may be rotated until the flat area is misaligned with the keyway and within the land. In this position, the crank arm is locked.
US09003916B2
A support structure for a shift lever includes a rotation shaft coupled to the shift lever, a base plate including a support that pivotally supports the rotation shaft to tiltably support the shift lever, a restriction member coupled to the base plate, and a fixing portion that fixes the restriction member to the base plate. The base plate includes a guide that guides the coupling of the restriction member to the base plate. The rotation shaft includes a main protrusion, which protrudes from an end surface of the rotation shaft in an axial direction, and an auxiliary protrusion, which protrudes in the axial direction from the end surface by a smaller protrusion amount than the main protrusion. The restriction member is fixed in contact with the main protrusion so that the restriction member cooperates with the support to restrict movement of the rotation shaft in the axial direction.
US09003914B2
A device for generating a return force for a control stick that is movable from a neutral position along a travel path, includes a mechanical connection member connecting the stick to a resilient return member for returning the stick towards the neutral position. The mechanical connection member and the resilient return member produce, over a first portion of the travel path, a first strength of return force and, over a second portion of the travel path, a second strength of return force. A transmission part is mechanically connected to the stick so that any stick movement along the second portion corresponds to turning movement of the transmission part, and so that the return force to the stick is transmitted to the stick positioned in the second portion.
US09003907B2
Dual coupling gear mechanism for a motor vehicle, having a first input shaft and a second input shaft and having a first and a second countershaft, the input shafts and the countershafts being connected to each other by means of a plurality of shiftable wheel sets in order to establish at least seven forward gear stages and at least one reverse gear stage. At least one wheel set has a fixed wheel which is connected to one of the input shafts and two loose wheels which are rotatably supported on the first and on the second countershaft, respectively, and which are in engagement with the fixed wheel. An electric engine is connected to a loose wheel of one of the wheel sets or can be connected thereto by means of a shift clutch.
US09003903B2
A linear unit for applying an axially acting force, composed of a rotational/translational gear (2) which has a threaded spindle (18) and a threaded nut (19) which are arranged in a gear housing (22), and of an electric motor (1) with a rotor (12) and with a stator (11) which are arranged in an electric motor housing (10). In order to simplify the set-up of the linear unit, while at the same time reducing the packaging space required, according to the invention the threaded spindle (18) is mounted rotatably and axially fixedly inside the gear housing (22) and is connected to the rotor (12) outside the gear housing (22).
US09003901B2
A starter includes a motor, a speed reducer, a pinion that transmits the drive torque of the motor to an engine ring gear, a partition wall that separates between the motor and the speed reducer, a pinion driving solenoid that pushes out the pinion to the ring gear side, and a motor energizing switch that opens and closes an electric point of contact. The starter is able to control independently operation of the pinion drive solenoid and operation of the motor energizing switch, the starter further includes a rotation detector disposed in a motor side inner space separated by the partition wall.
US09003899B2
A force sensor may include a sensing die with a sense diaphragm. An actuation assembly may include a button member and a pin and/or other features, where a first end of the pin may engage the sense diaphragm and a second end of the pin may engage the button to facilitate transferring a force applied to the button to the sense diaphragm. In some cases, the interface between the button member and the pin may allow the button member to swivel or pivot, at least to some degree, relative to the pin, which may facilitate transferring a force from the button member to the diaphragm with minimal mechanical loss. In some cases, the second end of the pin may be at least partially tapered, with the taper engaging the edge of an indentation in the button.
US09003898B2
Provided herein is a multi-axis sensor including: a pair of electrodes positioned such that at least partial areas thereof face each other; an elasticity member having one of the pair of electrodes installed in its upper portion and another of the pair of electrodes installed in a lower portion; and a sensor unit electrically connected with the pair of electrodes, and configured to detect a change of capacitance value between the pair of electrodes and a change of resistance value of the elasticity member.
US09003896B2
A torque sensor includes a central hub, a fastening ring arranged radially outwardly from and coaxially circumferentially around the central hub, a continuous imperforate flange disc that extends radially between and interconnects the central hub and the fastening ring, and strain gages or other force transducers for measuring a torsional shear strain in the flange disc. The flange disc has blind pocket recesses that are recessed into the flange disc from one or both axial sides thereof. Each pocket recess is bounded at the bottom by a pocket recess floor. Strain transducers are mounted on the inner surfaces of the pocket recess floors in the pocket recesses and/or on the outer back surfaces of the pocket recess floors on the opposite side of the flange disc. The strain transducers measure torsional shear strain in the recess floors.
US09003892B2
A testing fixture includes a driving component, a supporting component, a first resilient component, a plurality of connecting components and a plurality of testing components. The driving component includes a board and a sleeve. A guiding slot is formed on a lateral wall of the sleeve. The supporting component includes a base, a bridging pillar and a guiding pin. The base includes a plurality of pivot hole structures. The bridging pillar is disposed on a surface of the base and movably disposed inside the sleeve. The guiding pin is disposed on a lateral surface of the bridging pillar and slidably passing through the guiding slot. The first resilient component is disposed on the bridging pillar and contacts against the sleeve, so as to move the base relative to the board. The connecting components pivot to the pivot hole structures, and each testing component is disposed on the corresponding connecting component.
US09003879B1
A measuring cup assembly with a light-pervious cup, a film at least partially disposed on the cup, the film defining a light-impervious region and a light-pervious region, the cup at least partly viewable through the light-pervious region, and at least one volume dispensing indicator that is part of the film light-impervious region and that traverses a light-pervious region to create a visual demarcation, each volume dispensing indicator indicating a volume of product that has been dispensed into the cup. Each light-pervious region is configured to provide visual detection of the at least one volume dispensing indicator, as well as the dispensed product, from a side of the measuring cup assembly.
US09003875B2
A sheet thickness detection apparatus includes a bracket, a power device, a first linking lever, a second linking lever, a sheet pressing part, and a sensing device. The bracket has a base with a perforation. The sensing device includes a supporting part and a sensor. The power device, the first linking lever, the second linking lever and the sheet pressing part are disposed on a first surface of the bracket. The sensor is fixed on the supporting part. When the supporting part is connected to a second surface of the base, the sensor is penetrated through the perforation and exposed to a lateral side of the first linking lever. Moreover, the supporting part is movable, so that the position of the sensor relative to the first linking lever is adjustable.
US09003873B2
A retainer for accommodating an electronic component, in particular a sensor, including a main body or a main body element, which comes in contact with the electronic component, and is composed of a main body material. The retainer further includes a transition layer, which is connected to the main body and a thermoplastic connecting layer or a first connecting element, which is connected to the transition layer. The thermoplastic connecting layer is designed such that the thermoplastic connecting layer can be brought into a reversible mechanical/physical connection to a contact element or a second connecting element by a preceding partial melting process.
US09003871B2
A hardness tester includes an image pickup control section, an indentation region extraction section, an indentation apex extraction section and a hardness calculation section. The image pickup control section obtains picked-up image data of a sample's surface. The region extraction section binarizes the image data, determines based on the binarized image data whether an indentation region candidate is extracted, and when determining that the candidate is not extracted, obtains curvature image data, binarizes the curvature image data, erodes and dilates the binarized curvature image data, performs distance transform on the eroded-and-dilated curvature image data, and extracts a closed region corresponding to the indenter's shape using the distance-transformed curvature image data. The apex extraction section extracts an indentation-measurement-use apex based on the closed region. The hardness calculation section calculates the sample's hardness based on the apex.
US09003866B2
A gas sensor including a detecting element; and a protector having a tube portion surrounding the detecting portion, and a bottom portion the protector having a first opening disposed at the tube portion and a second opening at the bottom portion. The bottom portion includes first and second bottom wall portions, the second bottom wall portion protrudes toward the leading end side, and at least a part of the inner face thereof is located at the leading end side with respect to the outer face of the first bottom wall portion. The second opening is provided on a side opposite the inner space of the tube portion in a communication passage formed by the inner face of the second bottom wall portion, and an opening area of the second opening is larger than an area of the largest imaginary circle that can be placed inside the first opening.
US09003862B2
A downhole sensor calibration apparatus includes a rotational or gimbaling mechanism for guiding a sensing axis of an orientation responsive sensor through a three-dimensional orbit about three orthogonal axes. A method includes using measurements taken over the three-dimensional orbit to calibrate the sensor and determine other characteristics of the sensor or tool.
US09003860B2
A slide fastener slider has a body including an upper wing, a lower wing and a coupling pillar mutually coupling the respective upper and lower wings. The slide fastener slider has been cast molded to have a configuration where the post to which a pull is attached extends over the upper wing substantially in parallel with the upper wing, and then a logo or a pattern or the like has been engraved on the upper surface of the post.
US09003856B2
A method of manufacturing a flange structure includes: forming a primary product by extending a columnar material in an axial direction by cold or warm forging such that first shaft portion and a second shaft portion are formed at a first axial end of the material and a second axial end of the material, respectively; forming a secondary product by making a middle portion of the primary product overhang outwardly by cold or warm forging such that a first overhang having a thickness greater than that of the flange is formed; forming a tertiary product by squeezing the first overhang by cold or warm forging such that a second overhang having an outline greater than that of the flange is formed; and defining an outer edge of the flange by cutting off an excessive portion of the second overhang. The second overhang without the excessive portion is the flange.
US09003854B2
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a pre-stressed rolling mill which has the advantages of a conventional mono-block mill housing and utilizes a standard Cluster mill gauge eccentric bearing gauge control system. It is highly desirable to have a rolling mill with a low cost mill housing design, a high mill stiffness, a simplified gauge control system, a capacity for multiple work roll ranges, and satisfactory side to side tilting. Such a mill is capable of operating satisfactorily as a commercial temper mill and a commercial cold mill.
US09003852B2
A sheet metal blank for the manufacture of a casing of a gas turbine engine comprising a sheet of substantially constant wall thickness and a raised or thicker region extending along substantially the full length of the sheet metal blank. A raised or thicker region is provided between edges of the sheet metal blank. The raised or thicker region comprises at least one boss and at least one ridge extending way from the or each boss.
US09003840B2
A door (125, 125′, 125″) for a laundry washing and/or drying appliance (100) includes a door inner frame (205, 205′, 205″), a door outer frame (210, 210′, 210″), and a transparent porthole window (150) having a border portion (225) fitted between the inner frame and the outer frame. In the solution according to one or more embodiments of the present invention, the border portion of the porthole window has at least one receiving region (230) having, at least on one side thereof facing the inner frame or the outer frame, a seat (235); at least the inner frame or the outer frame has, in a portion (240, 250) corresponding to the receiving region (230) of the porthole window, at least one rib (245, 255) fitting into the seat (235) of the receiving region (230).
US09003829B2
The invention relates to a method for the separation of a hydrocarbon-rich, nitrogen-containing feed fraction (1, 101), preferably natural gas, wherein the feed fraction (1, 101) is at least in part liquefied (E1, E2) and divided by rectification (T1) into a nitrogen-enriched fraction (14, 110) and a hydrocarbon-rich, nitrogen-depleted fraction (11, 111) and wherein, in the upper region of the rectification (T1), a nitrogen-enriched stream (14) is taken off, cooled (E3) and applied (20) at least in part to the rectification (T1) as reflux and/or the nitrogen-enriched fraction (110) is cooled and partially condensed (E3), applied at least in part to the rectification (T1) as reflux (115) and the remaining stream (116) of the nitrogen-enriched fraction (110) is subjected to a double-column process (T3). According to the invention, in the middle region of the rectification (T1), a carbon-dioxide-poor stream (13, 113) which serves for cooling (E3) the nitrogen-enriched substream (14) and/or cooling (E3) the nitrogen-enriched fraction (110) is taken off and the feed fraction is rectified (T1) in a separation column (T1) having a dividing wall (W), wherein the dividing wall (W) is arranged at least in the region of the separation column (T1) in which the feed fraction (2, 4, 5, 102, 104, 105) is fed to the separation column (T1) and the carbon-dioxide-poor stream (13, 113) is taken off.
US09003823B2
A configuration provided with a heat source unit A, an indoor unit B, a circuit D for a hot-water supply heat source provided with a refrigerant-refrigerant heat exchanger and throttle for the hot-water supply heat source, and a branch unit C that distributes a refrigerant flowing through the indoor unit and the circuit for hot-water supply heat source and also provided with a refrigerating cycle for air conditioning in which the indoor unit and the circuit for hot-water supply heat source are connected in parallel and connected to the heat source unit by at least two connection pipelines via the branch unit and a refrigerating cycle for hot-water supply in which a compressor for hot-water supply, a heat-medium-refrigerant heat exchanger, throttle for hot-water supply, and the refrigerant-refrigerant heat exchanger are connected in series, in which the refrigerating cycle for air conditioning and the refrigerating cycle for hot-water supply are connected so as to exchange heat between the refrigerant for air conditioning and the refrigerant for hot-water supply in the refrigerant-refrigerant heat exchanger.
US09003821B2
A method of providing cooling by a cooling system to a computer data center. The method includes providing a plurality of air-and-water radiators and one or more chillers, the chillers each having a first side in fluid communication with a chilled water loop and a second side in communication with a condenser water loop. The method also includes circulating a first portion of return water coming from the computer data center to a first subset of the air-and-water radiators and through the condenser water loop, circulating a second portion of the return water from the computer data center to a second subset of the air-and-water radiators and through the chilled water loop, and circulating the first portion and the second portion of the return water to the computer data center as cooled supply water.
US09003818B2
A heat pump-type hot water supply apparatus may be provided that includes: a refrigeration cycle circuit (including a compressor, an outdoor heat exchanger, expansion devices, and an indoor heat exchanger); a hot water supply heat exchanger connected to the refrigeration cycle circuit to use the first refrigerant discharged from the compressor for a hot water supply; a cascade heat exchanger connected to the refrigeration cycle circuit to allow the first refrigerant passing through the hot water supply heat exchanger to evaporate a second refrigerant and thereafter, to be condensed, expanded, and evaporated in the refrigeration cycle circuit; a heat storage compressor compressing the second refrigerant evaporated in the cascade heat exchanger, a heat storage tank to heat water using the second refrigerant compressed by the heat storage compressor, and a heat storage expansion device to expand the second refrigerant condensed in the heat storage tank.
US09003817B2
A discharged warm/cold heat of a refrigerant circuit is effectively utilized in order to attain high energy efficiency. Appropriate operation control is executed when a hot-water supplying operation and an air cooling operation are simultaneously performed, whereby high energy efficiency is attained.When an air cooling operation by an air temperature adjusting refrigerant circuit and a hot-water supplying operation by a hot-water supplying refrigerant circuit are executed, the air temperature adjusting refrigerant circuit, and the hot-water supplying refrigerant circuit are controlled such that a target evaporation temperature of the hot-water supplying refrigerant circuit or a target condensation temperature of the air temperature adjusting refrigerant circuit is attained, the target evaporation temperature or the target condensation temperature being set based upon an air cooling capacity and an evaporation temperature of the air temperature adjusting refrigerant circuit and a hot-water supplying capacity and a condensation temperature of the hot-water supplying refrigerant circuit.
US09003816B2
A thermostat includes a processing system configured to control an HVAC system. The thermostat may also include a plurality of HVAC connectors configured to receive corresponding HVAC control wires, and a connection sensing module configured to determine the identities of HVAC connectors into which corresponding wires have been inserted. The processing system may be further configured to identify, based on the subset of HVAC connectors, whether (i) only a single possible HVAC system configuration is indicated thereby, or (ii) multiple possible HVAC system configurations are indicated thereby, resolve a particular one of the multiple possible HVAC system configurations that is applicable, and operate the HVAC system according to the HVAC system configuration.
US09003801B2
An electronic control apparatus is applied to a gas turbine including a cylindrical combustor, a plurality of fuel injection valves, and an ignition plug. Air compressed by a compressor is supplied to the combustor. The plurality of fuel injection valves are aligned in a circumferential direction in the combustor and are capable of injecting fuel into the combustor. The ignition plug is provided in the combustor and is capable of igniting a fuel-mixture within the combustor. The electronic control apparatus controls the operation of the plurality of fuel injection valves so that when the gas turbine is started up, fuel injection opening times of the #6 and #12 fuel injection valves which are positioned far from the ignition plug are later than fuel injection opening times of the #1 and #7 fuel injection valves which are positioned close to the ignition plug.
US09003798B2
The application discloses an organic Rankine Cycle system with a generating unit, a condenser for condensing an organic work fluid, a feeder pump for circulating the organic work fluid and an evaporator (14) for evaporating the organic work fluid. The generating unit comprises a high-pressure screw expander and a low-pressure screw expander, which are connected in series, wherein the high-pressure screw expander and the low-pressure screw expander are mechanically connectable to a generator, which is provided between the high-pressure screw expander and the low-pressure screw expander. The ORC system comprises a by-pass line for bypassing the high-pressure screw expander. The bypass line comprises a control valve for opening and closing the by-pass line.
US09003797B2
A method is provided for converting heat from a heat source to mechanical energy. The method comprises heating a working fluid using heat supplied from the heat source; and expanding the heated working fluid to lower the pressure of the working fluid and generate mechanical energy as the pressure of the working fluid is lowered. The method is characterized by using a working fluid comprising HFC-245eb and optionally Z-HFO-1336mzz. A power cycle apparatus containing a working fluid to convert heat to mechanical energy is also provided. The apparatus is characterized by containing a working fluid comprising HFC-245eb and optionally Z-HFO-1336mzz. A working fluid comprising HFC-245eb and optionally Z-HFO-1336mzz is also provided. The working fluid (i) further comprises E-HFO-1336mzz, (ii) has a temperature above its critical temperature, or both (i) and (ii).
US09003792B2
In an exemplary embodiment, an internal combustion engine includes an oxidation catalyst configured to receive an exhaust gas flow from the internal combustion engine, a urea injector positioned downstream of the oxidation catalyst to inject a urea flow into the exhaust gas flow and a mixer positioned downstream of the urea injector to mix the exhaust gas flow and the urea flow to form a mixed exhaust gas and urea flow. The engine also includes a particulate filter and catalytic reduction assembly positioned downstream of the mixer to receive the mixed exhaust and urea flow from the mixer to form a treated exhaust gas flow and an exhaust gas recirculation system coupled to the particulate filter to receive a portion of the treated exhaust gas flow and recirculate the portion of the exhaust gas flow to be mixed with a fresh air flow for the internal combustion engine.
US09003791B2
A casing treatment 4 including a recirculation passage 41 and a mixing piping 6 are provided. The recirculation passage 41 has a first recirculation opening 42 and a second recirculation opening 43 that are in communication with each other, the first recirculation opening 42 being formed inside a compressor housing 11 of an exhaust gas turbocharger and opening to an air passage 15 upstream of a compressor impeller 3, the second recirculation opening 43 being formed at the outer circumferential section of the compressor impeller 3. The mixing pipe 6 opens to the recirculation passage 41 and has a return opening 14 for introducing EGR gas and blow-by gas to the recirculation passage 41.
US09003786B2
This disclosure provides for pressure limiting a hydraulic system to a desired pressure value by a particular circuit by controlling and closing the compensator when the desired pressure setting is achieved. Closing the compensator will reduced the pressure head and flow in the circuit resulting in improved efficiency. One illustrated embodiment of the disclosure provides a relief valve in the pilot signal for a compensator. The method relates to limiting the pressure on an open side of the compensator, such that the pressure on the other side closes the compensator thereby limiting the pressure and also flow in the hydraulic circuit. In other words, the pressure on the open side is limited by the relief valve. Thus, the pressure on the other side increases thereby regulating the flow and pressure through the compensator.In another embodiment of the disclosure, instead of reducing the pressure on the open side, the pressure on the closed side is increased, thereby controlling the flow and pressure of the hydraulic circuit. The pressure can be increased by a pump or any other suitable mode.
US09003778B2
A dosing control system for an exhaust system includes: a reductant fluid tank operable to contain a reductant solution comprising urea; an injector disposed in operable communication between a reductant tank and an SCR apparatus, the injector being operable to inject the reductant solution from the reductant tank into a flow of exhaust upstream of the SCR apparatus; a urea quality sensor (UQS) configured and disposed to sense a concentration of the urea in the reductant solution; and, a control module disposed in signal communication with the UQS and in operable communication with the injector, the control module being operable to adjust a dosing of the reductant solution injected by the injector based on a concentration of the urea in the reductant solution.
US09003775B2
A mounting arrangement for attaching a pump arrangement to an exhaust pipe at a boss includes a delivery nozzle section and a remaining section including a pump body. The mounting arrangement includes a packing for supporting the pump body at the remaining section of the pump arrangement.
US09003764B2
A system includes a gas turbine engine that includes a compressor section configured to generate compressed air and a combustor coupled to the compressor section. The combustor is configured to combust a first mixture comprising the compressed air and a first fuel to generate a first combustion gas. The gas turbine engine also includes a turbine section coupled to the combustor. The turbine section is configured to expand the first combustion gas to generate an exhaust gas. The gas turbine engine also includes a boiler coupled to the turbine section. The boiler is configured to combust a second mixture comprising a portion of the first combustion gas and a second fuel to generate a second combustion gas that is routed to the turbine section. In addition, the boiler generates a first steam from heat exchange with the second combustion gas.
US09003758B2
A method for producing high-performance chain link plates with a link plate pitch T, comprises: clocked feeding of a sheet metal band with a feed length V per cycle, pre-punching at least two chain link plate blanks arranged in succession, re-cutting at least one chain link plate blank, wherein at least the still connected head areas of the chain link plate blanks arranged in succession are excepted from the re-cutting process separating the connected head areas of chain link plate blanks arranged in succession, wherein the feed length V is smaller than 2.1×T and the upper and/or lower side of the head areas connected to each other is/are provided at least partially with a concave run by a punching process substantially adjacent to the end face produced later. A method is also provided for producing a high-performance chain and to correspondingly produced high-performance link plates and high-performance chain.
US09003755B2
The present invention provides a method for measuring reflective intensity of display surface, including: obtaining a luminance value of a first display and a luminance value of a second display when displaying, the first display and the second display having the same observed luminance, the peripheral of the surface of the first display being surrounded by light-shielding object, the first display and the second display being placed side by side; and obtaining the reflective intensity of the display surface in the ambient based on the luminance value of the first display and the luminance values of the second display when displaying. As such, the present invention provides convenient and accurate means to measure the reflective intensity of display surface.
US09003747B2
The objective of the invention is to provide an alternative way of wrapping a product with cardboard at faster speed and maintain stacking strength. This accomplished by bending two strips of cardboard into the shape of a U channel where the sides of the U form an angle smaller than 90 degrees with the center part of the U form. The sides of the U channel cardboard will be open by a guide that will allow each U channel cardboard piece to slide around each end of the product without requiring glue to hold the U Channel in position. By maintaining an angle of less than 90 degrees the U channel cardboard acts like a spring clamp around the product and maintains its position on the conveyor belt while the product is film wrapped and the film is heat shrunk.
US09003744B2
An apparatus for packaging a load with film from a film supply has a first wrapping device that forms from the fed film a first film curtain that can be attached to all walls of the load. A folding device in the first wrapping device can fold a film section of the film fed from the film supply such that, after wrapping the load with the first film curtain, the film is attached to the side walls in a lower region of the side walls of the load in a double-layer manner according to the width of the folded film section. A second wrapping device forms from the fed film a second film curtain that the second wrapping device also attaches to the upper wall, to two side walls and to the bottom wall of the load.
US09003739B2
The invention relates to an aerodynamic wind deflector for use with pitched panels or structures mounted on horizontal, flat surfaces. More particularly, the invention relates to a wind deflector, including a contoured surface, for deflecting aerodynamic forces away from a pitched structure, such as a solar panel, mounted to a horizontal, flat surface, such as a roof top, wherein the structure is subjected to such aerodynamic forces. The wind deflector may further include a customized fin or fins as part of the design.
US09003733B1
A standing seam roof assembly is formed by overlapping adjacent panels, the female sidelap portion of one panel forming a male insertion cavity to receive a male sidelap portion of a second panel to form a standing seam, a clip configured to connect the standing seam to an underlying support structural. A strengthening beam is incorporated in the standing seam at a selected point along the standing seam to increase load bearing capacity. In one preferred embodiment, the strengthening beam is incorporated into the connecting clip.
US09003724B2
Example weather barrier apparatuses for sealing or sheltering vehicles at loading docks are disclosed herein. An example apparatus includes a side support member attachable to a wall proximate a doorway. A side seal member extends from the side support member and a rear edge seal is supported by the side seal member. The rear edge seal engages a first rear edge of a vehicle. The rear edge seal has a seal core and a seal cover, where the core has a gap defined by a first portion and a second portion.
US09003722B2
Provided herein are methods, devices and systems comprising an anchor post that has a shaft, at least one stabilizing element attached to the anchor post configured to resist movement of the anchor post, and at least one alignment element.
US09003719B2
A mast assembly including a locking actuator for locking a cradle of the mast in position. The locking actuator includes a housing having a first lock pin extending in a first direction and a movable member supported by the housing having a second lock pin extending in a second direction opposite the first, the locking actuator being slideably mounted to the cradle for sliding movement along an axis parallel to an axis of extension/retraction of the locking actuator. When the locking actuator is extended the first and second lock pins are inserted into respective lock holes in a base member thereby locking the cradle against pivoting movement relative to the base member.
US09003718B2
A deterrent device can include an elongated base having a plurality of spikes coupled to the base that are configured to extend from the base such that the spikes alternate on each side of the base between a lower-angled spike and an upper-angled spike. The base can further include first and second wings that each has a width that is at least twice a width of the base.
US09003716B1
A wind resistant modular ISO building includes a first cargo container, a second cargo container, and a mounting system. The first and second cargo containers are joined to each other. Most of an inner lengthwise side wall of the first and second cargo containers is removed. At least two moment frames are attached to an inside of the first and second cargo containers. The end door of the first and second cargo containers are replaced with an end panel. Preferably, at least one door entrance and window system is formed in at least one of the lengthwise side walls.
US09003712B2
A method of producing a seal comprising forming an elongated strip of a thermoplastic material having laterally spaced, interlockable portions; bending such strip along a longitudinal line disposed between the spaced interlockable portions to position the interlockable portions in opposed relation; and interlocking the interlockable portions together when such portions are disposed in opposed relation to provide a bulb segment and a mount segment.
US09003707B2
A positioning element permits the panel or engine bonnet of a motor vehicle to be brought from the closed position into a position in which a gap forms between the upper edge of the opening and the lower edge of the panel. The panel can thus easily be unlocked and fully opened. The positioning element with inner lever and outer lever is connected to a drive component, which via the drive element and the drive pawl with a detent ensures that the panel is brought in a simple manner via the levers into the first raised position, for which purpose the detent is pushed into the recess of the outer lever and thus brings the outer lever and the inner lever into the first raised position. Once the panel has been brought by spring loading into the second raised position with the aid of the spring-loaded inner lever, the upward travel is completed, so that by means of the spring force associated with the outer lever, said outer lever then quickly pivots both levers back into the initial position.
US09003706B2
A key lockable window operator, including a crank handle that is shiftable between a folded storage position and an unfolded operating position and a lock cylinder operably engaged to a rack and a sliding pin. The rack and the sliding pin are shiftable between an unlocked position and a locked position. When in the locked position, at least a portion of the sliding pin is engaged into a cavity in the crank handle whereby the crank handle is secured in the folded storage position.
US09003702B1
The present invention provides a system and method to accurately and safely allow the application of nutritional elements to the foliage of vegetation. The accuracy and safety are the result of the nutritional elements being pre-mixed and applied via a pressurized canister, which produces a foam-based delivery system. The foam is highly visible, dissipates rapidly, and is inert except for the nutrients which it contains (e.g., nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and others including all of the micro-nutrients that are essential for plant growth). The nutrient content of the foam, for specific uses of the invention, is necessarily variable depending on the type and condition of the vegetation needing such an application.
US09003686B2
A firearm comprising a receiver including a threaded end with the receiver extending along an axis and a hand guard having an exterior surface and defining a hand guard bore along the axis with the exterior surface terminating at a mating surface disposed about the threaded end. The firearm additionally includes a barrel disposed within the hand guard bore and abutting the threaded end and a nut abutting the barrel and engaging the threaded end of the receiver to secure the barrel to the receiver. The firearm further including a securing device with the exterior surface of the hand guard defining an engagement area providing access into the hand guard bore and the securing device interfacing with the engagement area and extending into the hand guard bore to abut the nut and securely mount the mating surface of the hand guard to the receiver.
US09003684B2
A compact survival firearm is a rifle having an upper receiver body, a lower receiver body removably connectable to the upper receiver body and defining a transverse bore adapted to closely receive a takedown pin, a fastener connected to the upper receiver body and having a protruding portion protruding therefrom, the lower receiver body defining a space sized to closely receive the fastener, the protruding portion of the fastener having an end portion of a first width, and an intermediate portion of a second width less than the first width, and the space at least partially intersecting the transverse bore such that the intermediate portion of the fastener is clear of the bore to permit the presence of the takedown pin, and the end portion of the fastener prevents separation of the upper receiver from the lower receiver when a takedown pin is present in the bore.
US09003680B2
Provided is a discharge pipe for a snow blower, which is mounted on the snow blower, and is capable of easily removing snow covered on an inner wall of a conveyance duct in the process of discharging snow introduced from the snow blower to the outside.
US09003679B2
An inner sole board having varying regions of flexibility is provided for use in an article of footwear. The inner sole board may include different materials along its length at different locations that vary its flexibility. An inner sole board is manufactured in an injection molding process requiring only one mold. The process includes a first step of providing a mold, a second step of providing an injection molding assembly, a third step of preparing an injection molding assembly and mold, a fourth step of injecting material into the mold, and a fifth step of establishing the dimensions of a first portion. During the injection molding process, the flow rate of at least one material may be controlled by a nozzle gate to control the shape and size of the flex zone it creates. In this manner, the inner sole board may be customized for a specific sport or individual.
US09003673B2
A depth testing device for testing depth of a screw drive includes a supporting assembly which is for supporting the screw, a calibrating assembly, and a testing assembly. The calibrating assembly includes a calibrating element which presses on the top end of the screw. The testing assembly includes a testing device and a testing probe, the testing device includes a testing member and a testing pole stretching relative to the testing member. One end of the testing probe is received in the testing pole. The reading of the testing member is reset to zero first, then the other end of the testing probe is moved and is inserted into the drive of the screw, recording the reading of the testing member. The depth of the drive of the screw is calculated by the test reading subtracted by the thickness of the calibrating element.
US09003672B2
The present invention is directed to a combination roof top solar installation tool, and more particularly, to a tool for measuring, securing, and supporting solar installation equipment to allow for quick, safe, consistent, and efficient installations. The tool may include a first housing, a second housing, and third housing that fit telescopically together and are secured through a clip locking mechanism that extends the housings when released via a clip and roller system. The tool has ruling etched along the top of the housings, a level, and also has a series of ratchet heads for tightening and loosening tools on a roof. The invention may include a series of seam clamp holes along the surface of the housings, which receive a seam clamp. The invention may also have an elongating device secured onto one of the housings, which is used for measuring distances beyond the length of the installation tool.
US09003671B2
A tapering jig for a woodworking apparatus that includes a top and bottom plate that pivot relative to one another to set a cutting angle of a work piece. The jig further includes at least one scale of one or more markings that represent a cutting angle and/or a “rise and run” measurement. In addition, a dial is positioned relative to the at least one scale to identify and set the cutting angle and/or “rise/run” measurement. The dial includes a plurality of pointers and a plurality of pins and each pin is associated with a respective pointer. Consecutive pins are offset incrementally from the respective pointers so that each pointer can be inserted in the same recess adjacent to the scale to incrementally adjust the cut angle and/or “rise/run” measurement.
US09003652B2
The characteristic impedance of a surface pad is manipulated by reticulating the pad and filling the spaces with a dielectric material, providing an inductive element in the coupling of the surface pad to an underlying ground pad of a ground plane, or a combination of these approaches. In appropriate embodiments, acceptable signal trace routing paths will exist in an embedded signal layer under the ground plane and crossing under the surface pad. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US09003648B2
The invention provides methods to mass laminate and interconnect high density interconnect circuit layers fabricated through parallel processing. Invention methods employ an inside-out interconnection strategy that eliminates plating of vias and provides defect-free outer circuit layers. Conductive paste and via layers are also key features of the invention.
US09003642B2
The present invention describes a method of and an apparatus for including: separating magnets and corresponding target plates; separating a lower support assembly from an upper retainer assembly of a thin-wafer handling system; and inserting or removing a thin wafer from the thin-wafer handling system.
US09003641B2
A nickel strip is made from a starting material of solid cathode sheets having a minimum nickel content of 99.94% by weight and a maximum trace element content, in ppm by weight, of <35 carbon, <5 sulphur, <14 manganese, <11 magnesium, <11 aluminum, <25 titanium, and <15 silicon. The sheets are hot-rolled individually in a single layer/ply. The sheets are then joined to form the strip.
US09003638B2
A method of assembling an electromechanical device in a gas-turbine engine, including mounting a rotor of the device on a rotor support, securing a stator of the device to a stator support, coupling the rotor support to the stator support such that said rotor is rotatable about said stator, securing the device to a bearing support, securing a bearing assembly on the low pressure shaft, coupling the device to the low pressure shaft by installing the bearing support over the bearing assembly, and drivingly engaging the rotor support to the high pressure shaft.
US09003637B2
A method of manufacturing a microphone assembly having an ear set function includes assembling a mike cell unit; obtaining a region for connection with the mike cell unit on a PCB, mounting only a conductive member in the region, and mounting other remaining components outside the region; adhering the mike cell unit to a corresponding region of the PCB; and sealing an adhering portion between the mike cell unit and the PCB. Assembling the mike cell unit includes inserting a mike cell case having a sound hole and a curing portion into a diaphragm assembly; stacking a spacer on the diaphragm assembly; inserting a back electrode plate into an insulating ring base; mounting the insulating ring base on the spacer; mounting a metal ring base on the insulating ring base; and curing or clamping a curing portion of the mike cell case.
US09003634B2
A blind rivet is adapted for fastening two members, each member having a plurality of fastening holes arranged in corresponding positions. The inner diameter of the holes in the second member are greater than the inner diameter of the holes in the first member to compensate for positioning errors that may occur during machining. The blind rivet includes a rivet body having a sleeve, a rivet head, and a through hole; a mandrel having an elongated stem and a head; and a washer. The washer is arranged around the outer circumferential surface of the sleeve in the rivet body and adjacent to the rivet head. The members to be fastened are fastened between the enlarged end of the sleeve and the washer.
US09003633B1
A method for attaching an article to a hardened concrete body includes a tool that has a slotted base plate and a downwardly depending slotted guide cylinder having at the lower end thereof a circular end plate which has a central aperture, insertable into a bore hole to support a rotatably driven shaft disposed through the slot, guide cylinder, and central aperture through said end plate and having at its lower end a cutting head, the shaft being pushed downwardly into the bore and rocked back and forth in the slot, causing the cutting head to form an oval enlargement at the base of the bore hole. An anchor bolt fastener according to the invention is then inserted into the bore hole, the fastener including an elongated shank which has a central shaft bore slidably holding a shaft having at its lower end an expander wedge forcible upwards into a slot extending into a lower end face of the shank to thus expand bolt legs on opposite sides of the slot into the oval bore hole enlargement.
US09003630B2
An assembly plate and a method for arranging at least one module in a housing body, including an assembly side for assembly in the housing body and an opposing module housing side for housing the module. According to the invention, the assembly plate has clip pins by means of which the module can be locked in a position on the assembly side as defined by the clip pins.
US09003629B2
A support structure may be mounted to an existing vertical support. In an embodiment, the support structure may include a plurality of horizontal support members. Two or more vertical uprights are mounted to the horizontal supports. The vertical uprights and one of the horizontal support members provide channels for retaining a peg board panel in position. The support structure may be configured so as to cause the peg board panel to at an angle compared to the vertical supports. Multiple support structures may be coupled together to provide runs of peg board panels. Furthermore, the peg board panel may include a graphic that correspond to products being supported by the peg board panel.
US09003628B2
A system for securing moldings to associated roof ditches of a vehicle moving down an assembly line. The system comprises a plurality of rollers coupled to a plurality of lift booms. The lift booms include suitable means for raising and lowering the lift booms relative to an associated vehicle roof surface as well as means for permitting the lift boom to free float during at least a portion of an application cycle. The lift boom also has weights affixed to the lift boom proximate to the rollers with gravity producing force necessary to adhere the molding to the vehicle.
US09003625B2
A shredder feeder has a first receiving post configured to receive a roll of first material, second and third receiving posts respectively configured to receive first and second rolls of second material, and a pair of guideposts that form an outlet of the shredder feeder therebetween. The respective guideposts are positioned to respectively direct the second material from the first and second rolls toward the first material from the roll of first material so that the first material is interposed between the second material from the first roll of second material and the second material from the second roll of second material when the first material and the second materials from the first and second rolls of second material pass concurrently through the outlet.
US09003615B1
A silent fastener system having a hook portion and a loop portion wherein the hook portion has a base with hooks attached thereto. The hooks are biased in a curved configuration and are inserted through a hook guide which guides the hooks into the loop portion by moving the base along the hook guide in a first direction so that tips of the hooks advance into the loop portion. The hooks become curved in the loop portion thereby locking the hooks in the loop portion. The hooks are unlocked by moving the base in a second opposite direction causing the loops to retract into the hook guide without producing sound so that the hook and loop portions separate easily with production of audible sound. Alternate embodiments use linear hooks in place of curved hooks.
US09003608B2
A working assembly (1) includes a rotatable hollow drum or cylinder (2) having a cylindrical wall (3) with ends having transverse header walls (4) with openings (16, 17), and with a longitudinal shaft (5). The external lateral surface of the cylindrical wall (3) has a clothing device intended to interact with the fibers being carded. First and second support uprights (6, 7) are fixed in operation, and adapted to support the ends of the shaft (5) of the drum or cylinder (2) for rotation about a preferably horizontal axis. The support uprights (6, 7) and the drum or cylinder (2) are configured and coupled with each other such as to define at least one fluid path for a flow of a refrigerating fluid, which extends through the openings (16, 17) and inside the drum or cylinder (2) and is adapted to cause cooling of the lateral cylindrical wall (3) thereof.
US09003596B2
The present invention overcomes the limitations and disadvantages in the related art in a beam blade windshield wiper assembly having a universal coupler assembly. The universal coupler assembly includes a carrier that is operatively mounted to the windshield wiper assembly, a saddle that is removably received and retained by the carrier, and a coupler that is operatively mounted to the saddle. The carrier, saddle, and coupler cooperate to accommodate various sizes of “hook-type” attachment members, “bayonet-type” attachment members, as well as “pin-type” attachment members that are used to connect the wiper arm and the windshield wiper assembly.
US09003593B2
A tubular web element is made from a strip of fabric having opposing longitudinal edges. The strip is longitudinally twisted to define a hollow tube having between approximately 0.01-0.95 turns per inch. At least one helical gap is defined between the opposing longitudinal edges of the hollow tube. The opposing longitudinal edges have self-fused edge regions. The hollow tube has self-fused longitudinally-extending regions between its opposing longitudinal edges.
US09003584B2
An aspect of the present invention relates to a method and system of receiving information of a user's support facility comfort requirements; using a software application to determine a proper support facility firmness configuration to match the user's requirement; selecting foam springs with the proper user required firmness as determined by the software application; and configuring the selected foam springs within the support facility to match the user's firmness requirements.
US09003583B2
A mattress-retention mechanism is provided that prevents a mattress from moving on an adjustable bed during articulation. The mechanism includes a rod held between two retainer ends. The rod is held on the mattress bottom within a tube. The retainer ends have a downwardly extending leg that passes through a corresponding hole in the bed base. Each leg has a toothed rack that can be engaged by a latch. Each retainer end is held in place by a latch assembly coupled to the bottom of the adjustable bed base. The latch assembly has a retainer block that holds a latch, and a biasing mechanism. The biasing mechanism operates to move the latch into engagement with the leg of the retainer end. The mechanism maintains the mattress in place relative to the adjustable bed base, while being hidden from view.
US09003578B2
A patient positioning device for restoring a patient to a desired position in a hospital bed. An example patient positioning device may include a flexible track positioned along each of the lateral edges of a sleep surface and extending substantially the entire length of the sleep surface, a sheet including beaded edges for slidably engaging the tracks such that the sheet spans between the first track and the second track on the sleep surface, and/or a drive mechanism located proximate a head end of the sleep surface and configured to pull the sheet towards the head end of the bed.
US09003570B2
A flip cap which has crown and bill portions, the bill having upper and lower members, at least one of the upper and lower portions having a surface capable of displaying information secured thereto when the upper and lower members are spaced-apart.
US09003565B1
A fashion neck scarf comprising a hidden compartment that holds a nursing panel. The scarf may be an endless ring, or so-called “infinity” scarf, or a long rectangle. The nursing panel is sized to cover the front of the person and at least the infant's head and shoulders while the infant is nursing. A proximal edge of the panel is fixed to the scarf inside the compartment, and the nursing panel is alternately positionable between a stowed positioned in which the panel is compacted inside the compartment and a deployed position in which the panel is unfurled. This scarf may be arranged in several different fashionable configurations when the nursing panel is not in use. When nursing the infant, the scarf can be arranged in different ways to maximize the user's comfort and to secure the panel in position and prevent it from being displaced inadvertently.
US09003564B2
A clothing apparatus for a baby comprising of a garment containing a plurality of sleeves, a neck aperture, and a closed bottom edge. The garment of the clothing apparatus may be coupled to a Cover by a plurality of securing means and in one preferred embodiment, the Cover is in the form of a blanket which can be positioned over the baby's torso region inside the garment. The clothing apparatus is adjustable and can be configured in a variety of ways to accommodate for changes in temperature.
US09003562B2
A body armor system that includes a fabric carrier configured (i) to be worn by a user and (ii) to hold armor plates. A back armor plate is held by the carrier. A right side plate is held by the carrier and a left side plate is held by the carrier. Straps are configured to wrap horizontally across the user and matingly connect to each other. Straps integral to the carrier are configured to wrap down over the front of the user and matingly connect to the connected horizontal straps. A right thigh plate and a left thigh plate are matingly connected with straps around right and left thighs of the user.
US09009860B2
Systems and apparatuses disclosed herein provide for a tamper resistant electronic device. The electronic device can include a circuit board, housing, a security shield, one or more pressure sensitive switches, and security electronics. The security shield can cover a first area of the circuit board and be configured to sense tampering. The security shield can also be integrated into the first part of the housing, wherein a second area of the circuit board is covered by the housing and is outside of the security shield, both the first area and the second area having electronics therein. The security electronics on the circuit board can be coupled to the security shield and the one or more pressure switches, and can be configured to zeroize data stored on the circuit board if the security shield senses tampering or if one or more of the one or more pressure sensitive switches is disengaged.
US09009849B2
An embodiment of the invention provides a method for sharing digital images on an image-sharing application, wherein a digital image is received from a user, the digital image including a first access setting defined by the user. A user-defined select region is identified on the digital image with a processor, wherein the select region includes a second access setting. Access to the digital image is permitted with an access controller based on the first access setting; and, access to the select region is permitted with the access controller based on the second access setting. In at least one embodiment, the digital image is displayed only to a first group of individuals based on the first access setting; and, the select region is displayed only to a second group of individuals based on the second access setting.
US09009848B2
A secure data parser is provided that may be integrated into any suitable system for securely storing and communicating data. The secure data parser parses data and then splits the data into multiple portions that are stored or communicated distinctly. Encryption of the original data, the portions of data, or both may be employed for additional security. The secure data parser may be used to protect data in motion by splitting original data into portions of data that may be communicated using multiple communications paths.
US09009846B2
In one general embodiment, a method for determining a controlling entity of a first avatar in a virtual world includes: receiving a request for access to a resource via a first avatar; providing a challenge to the first avatar in response to receiving the request; receiving a challenge response via the first avatar in response to the challenge; determining an identity confidence level based on the challenge response; making an identity determination for a controlling entity of the first avatar based on the identity confidence level; and providing or denying access to the resource based on the identity determination.
US09009843B2
Aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques that may enable user activity information to be automatically generated and shared with other users of a social network. In one example, a method of automatically publishing, to one or more social network services, information about user activities regarding media content items includes receiving user activity information regarding a media content item, wherein a user is a member of one or more social network services, and the user activity information is generated in response to one or more activities taken by the user with respect to the media content item. The method may also include receiving an indication of one or more users of the one or more social network services to whom the user activity information is to be made accessible, and automatically publishing the user activity information to the one or more social network services.
US09009841B2
A system for detecting file upload vulnerabilities in web applications is provided. The system may include a black-box tester configured to upload, via a file upload interface exposed by a web application, a file together with a signature associated with the file. An execution monitor may be configured to receive information provided by instrumentation instructions within the web application during the execution of the web application. The execution monitor may be configured to recognize the signature of the uploaded file as indicating that the uploaded file was uploaded by the black-box tester. The execution monitor may also be configured to use any of the information to make at least one predefined determination assessing the vulnerability of the web application to a file upload exploit.
US09009831B2
According to one embodiment, a method for providing scalable virtual appliance cloud (SVAC) services includes receiving incoming data traffic having multiple packets directed toward a SVAC using at least one switching distributed line card (DLC), determining that a packet satisfies a condition of an access control list (ACL), designating a destination port to send the packet based on the condition of the ACL being satisfied, fragmenting the packet into cells, wherein the designated destination port is stored in a cell header of the cells, sending the cells to the destination port via at least one switch fabric controller (SFC), receiving the cells at a fabric interface of an appliance DLC, reassembling the cells into a second packet, performing one or more services on the second packet using the appliance DLC, and sending the second packet to its intended port.
US09009829B2
Methods, systems, and media for providing trap-based defenses are provided. In accordance with some embodiments, a method for providing trap-based defenses is provided, the method comprising: generating decoy information based at least in part on actual information in a computing environment, wherein the decoy information is generated to comply with one or more document properties; embedding a beacon into the decoy information; and inserting the decoy information with the embedded beacon into the computing environment, wherein the embedded beacon provides a first indication that the decoy information has been accessed by an attacker and wherein the embedded beacon provides a second indication that differentiates between the decoy information and the actual information.
US09009824B1
Phishing is detected by creating a message transfer agent (MTA) map, with each point on the MTA map referencing an MTA. Points on the MTA map are connected based on a number of emails with same signature sent by MTAs represented on the MTA map. Reference MTA groups are identified from the map. Phishing is detected when an MTA sent an email with the same signature as that of emails sent by MTAs belonging to a reference MTA group but the MTA is not a member of the reference MTA group.
US09009808B2
Systems and methods for authenticating a media device or other information handling system so as to be able to receive content from one or more media content providers. Authenticating the device includes determining what authentication information the media content providers require for access and then to generating and providing to the media device an authentication token that includes the required information. In some embodiments this may be accomplished by a service center, which removes the need for additional authentication steps to be performed by the media device or the media content providers. In addition, the service center may also determine when changes are made to the authentication information and may then ensure that the authentication token is changed or updated to reflect these changes. This ensures that the media device is at least partially immune to changes to authentication.
US09009806B2
Improved methods and systems for integrating client-side single sign-on (SSO) authentication security infrastructure with a mobile authorization protocol are disclosed that provide clients with secured SSO mobile access to third-party services. Embodiments of the present invention leverage SSO authentication protocols that are utilized at many client-side systems already and integrate these SSO authentication protocols with a mobile SSO authorization protocol, thereby effectively extending the SSO framework to mobile service requests of web services at third-party service provider systems. Embodiments of the present invention provide a secure and automated solution which may be implemented in any existing client-side SSO frameworks with minimum cost and time, while providing a lightweight and secure solution that provides users using either native applications or mobile web application to access third-party web services.
US09009805B1
This application discloses a method of provisioning an electronic device. The electronic device proactively broadcasts an advertising packet that includes a device identifier associated with the electronic device. A server receives the device identifier via a client device, and issues a link approval response when it verifies that the electronic device associated with the device identifier is available for provisioning in association with a user account. In response to the link approval response, the electronic device and the client device establish communication via a short range wireless link. The client device encrypts at least a portion of network credentials of a secure wireless network using a password key generated at the server, and provides the encrypted network credentials to the electronic device. The electronic device decrypts the encrypted network credentials using a key generated at the electronic device, and accesses the secure wireless network using the decrypted network credentials.
US09009804B2
A hybrid software as a service (SaaS) delivery model allows an enterprise to control sensitive data while application code and non-sensitive data are downloaded from a software provider. A client computing device of the enterprise downloads the application code, which determines an appearance and a behavior of a user interface of the application. The application code is also configured, such as with a network address of a database, to allow the client computing device to access the sensitive data which is hosted by the enterprise. The client computing device may download a file from the enterprise which accesses the application code. For example, an HTML file may access scripting code. Or, the client computing device downloads the application code directly from the software provider, in which case cross-origin resource sharing allows the client computing device to access the sensitive data hosted by the enterprise.
US09009800B2
A communication system and method are disclosed for establishing a secure communication channel including: a server for generating and storing a first instance of a unique personalized client application associated with a first-time user on the server, a client terminal for the user to communicate with the server over a communication channel and a standalone computing device having a second instance of the unique personalized application. The user authenticates the server based on a first dynamic identifier (DI-1) generated by the first instance of the unique personalized client application and the server authenticates the user based on a second dynamic identifier (DI-2) generated by the second instance of the unique personalized client application.
US09009799B2
Secure access to a resource is provided by receiving a user request associated with a username for access for a resource and checking the username associated with the request against a reference username associated with the user. The reference username is linked to a second username associated with the user. If the received username matches the reference username, the request is modified by replacing the received username with the second username, and the modified request is forwarded towards the resource. A new username can be recorded upon receiving a request for the user. In response to the received request, the new username is recorded at a reference location linked to the location of the second username.
US09009795B2
Methods and systems are provided for decentralizing user data access rights control activities in networked organizations having diverse access control models and file server protocols. A folder management application enables end users of the file system to make requests for access to storage elements, either individually, or by becoming members of a user group having group access privileges. Responsibility for dealing with such requests is distributed to respective group owners and data owners, who may delegate responsibility to authorizers. The application may also consider automatically generated proposals for changes to access privileges. An automatic system continually monitors and analyzes access behavior by users who have been pre-classified into groups having common data access privileges. As the organizational structure changes, these groups are adaptively changed both in composition and in data access rights.
US09009779B2
In illustrative embodiments, methods in accordance with the present invention utilize a thin kernel module operating in the kernel space of an operating system to redirect all TCP flows to user space for application analysis and processing. Redirected data is presented to the user space application as a data stream, allowing the processing of information contained within the data stream from the user space on a mobile device. This allows the user space application to inspect and take action on incoming data before allowing the data to continue to pass through the device. This enables parental controls, firewalls, real-time anti-virus scanning, tethering/hot-spot, bandwidth optimization, and similar programs to effectively operate across different mobile devices as user downloadable/actuatable applications.
US09009772B2
A system and method for providing content providers with network distribution nodes for distributing content to subscribers of a communications service provider may include maintaining multiple network nodes by the communications service provider, where the network nodes may be in communication with the Internet and be configured to enable subscribers of the communications service provider to access and download content over a controlled service provider network without the content having to be communicated over the Internet. Multiple respective content service providers may be enabled to store content at the network nodes for subscribers local to each respective network node to download the content. Multiple customer databases configured to store information associated with subscribers of the communications service provider may be operated. Limited access to the information stored in the customer databases may be provided to prevent the respective content providers from accessing personal information of the subscribers.
US09009770B2
Methods and apparatus for increasing media consumption are disclosed. The present invention can provide viewers increased access to content of interest across various platforms, such as online articles, online audio and video clips, and television and radio broadcasts. In an embodiment, an individual viewing content online, such as a news article, is given a link. The link provides the viewer access to a list of content related to the article being viewed. The related content is not limited to the platform related content across, and allows the user to view the content, automatically set the content to be recorded by a digital video recorder, or reserve the content for future viewing. Accordingly, by providing the user with convenient access to content across platforms, based on their interests, they are more given media content they are more likely to enjoy. Accordingly, viewership of this content will increase, through this connection of individuals with content that aligns with their interests.
US09009760B2
A system may send a request for video content to a server device; obtain, in response to the request, control information, associated with the video content, where the control information may include one or more digital versatile disc (DVD) features that correspond to one or more portions of the video content; and present the control information, for display, via a user interface, where presenting the control information for display may enable a user, of the video client device, to interact with the control information as though the video content was being played by a DVD player. The system may also receive selection of a DVD feature, of the one or more DVD features; and obtain, from the server device, a portion of the video content, of the one or more portions of the video content, that begins at a point that corresponds to the selected DVD feature.
US09009745B2
An optical data storage device includes an optical storage tape having one or more optical storage layers. A plurality of optical pickup units reads and/or writes data to the optical storage tape. A feed reel provides the optical storage tape to the optical pickup units. A guiding wheel that guides the optical storage tape when the optical storage tape is in the vicinity of the optical pickup units during read and/or write operations. Finally, a take-up reel receives the optical storage tape from the guiding wheel.
US09009744B2
The present invention relates to a library system including a disc recording/reproducing unit, a disc container, and a disc transport unit for transporting a disc between the disc recording/reproducing unit and the disc container. In order to improve the reliability of the operation of moving the disc from the disc recording/reproducing unit to the disc transport unit, a disc transport controller determines the situation in both the disc recording/reproducing unit and the disc transport unit, and error-stops the operation according to the result of the determination. Alternatively, the disc transport controller retries the movement of the disc, by pulling the disc into the disc transport unit or returning the disc to the disc recording/reproducing unit, and by finely adjusting the relative positions of the disc recording/reproducing unit and the disc transport unit if necessary, in order to solve the problem of damage to a surface of the disc.
US09009736B2
A framework can provide function execution services. The framework can comprise a controller layer, a wrapper layer, and a function layer. The controller layer can be configured to process function definition requests and function execution requests, and return results. The wrapper layer can be configured to query the function layer to determine function definitions and pass function execution requests and results with the function layer. The function layer can comprise functions and/or features. A function execution request can be performed by determining a step execution sequence, executing the step execution sequence, and returning results of the execution of the step execution sequence. The step execution sequence can comprise setup steps, execute steps, and/or finalize steps.
US09009735B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method for processing data, a computing node, and a system. The method includes: registering, by a BPE, an algorithm with a CEP instance; transferring, by the CEP instance when detecting that an event concerned by the algorithm satisfies a computation-triggering condition, an event required for computation to the BPE; obtaining, by the BPE, a computation result, and if determining that a further computation is required for the computation result, writing the computation result as an intermediate event to the CEP instance; and transferring, by the CEP instance when detecting that an event concerned by another algorithm satisfies a computation-triggering condition thereof and the intermediate event is an event required for computation thereof, the intermediate event to a BPE that registers the another algorithm. The CEP instance performs association of multiple events and multiple algorithms, which simplifies a computation process and improves timeliness.
US09009729B2
A technique includes inserting (204) code (119) into an application (116) as the application (116) is executing on a computer (100). The code (119) causes the application (116) to communicate with a monitoring tool (117) about an inter-application message that is associated with a server request that is provided by a client (100). The technique includes using the monitoring tool (208) to operate on a correlation token that is appended to the message to track processing of the server request.
US09009726B2
A “Concurrent Sharing Model” provides a programming model based on revisions and isolation types for concurrent revisions of states, data, or variables shared between two or more concurrent tasks or programs. This model enables revisions of shared states, data, or variables to maintain determinacy despite nondeterministic scheduling between concurrent tasks or programs. More specifically, the Concurrent Sharing Model provides various techniques wherein shared states, data, or variables are conceptually replicated on forks, and only copied or written if necessary, then deterministically merged on joins such that concurrent tasks or programs can work with independent local copies of the shared states, data, or variables while ensuring automated conflict resolution. This model is applicable to a wide variety of system architectures, including applications that execute tasks on a CPU or GPU, applications that run, in full or in part, on multi-core processors without full shared-memory guarantees, and applications that run within cloud computing environments.
US09009725B2
A combination of workflow management tools is utilized to implement a logical system that supports the needs of both simple and complex workflow environments. Team members may access a central database to collaborate on a project via user interfaces with work item functionality, such as creation, reporting, performance, updates, and communications. Select management of work items may be automated. Work items may represent server-oriented tasks and sub-tasks and may be ticketed and tracked. A knowledge base may provide help for the system application, such as online or live access to access helpful information. In an example embodiment, the workflow management tools are implemented to support the creation of a Video Hub Office project.
US09009724B2
Systems and methods of load balancing data access in virtualized storage nodes are disclosed. An embodiment of a method includes receiving a data access request from a client for data on a plurality of the virtualized storage nodes. The method also includes connecting the client to one of the plurality of virtualized storage nodes having data for the data access request. The method also includes reconnecting the client to another one of the plurality of virtualized storage nodes to continue accessing data in the data access request.
US09009718B2
Large scale internet services may be implemented using multiple discrete server instances. Some tasks of the large scale internet services may be singleton tasks, which may be advantageously processed by a sub-set of the server instances (e.g., merely one instance). Accordingly, as provided herein, a singleton task may be processed in a reliable manner based upon one or more instances of a protocol executed across a set of arbitrary autonomous server instances. In one example, the protocol may determine whether a lease for a singleton task is valid or expired. If the lease is expired, then an attempt to claim the lease may be performed by updating a current lease expiration with a new lease expiration. If the attempt is successful, then the singleton task may be processed until the new lease expiration expires.
US09009715B2
A method, system and computer program product for optimally allocating objects in a virtual machine environment implemented on a NUMA computer system. The method includes: obtaining a node identifier; storing the node identifier in a thread; obtaining an object identifier of a lock-target object from a lock thread; writing a lock node identifier into the lock-target object; traversing an object reference graph where the object reference graph contains an object as a graph node, a reference from the first object to a second object as an edge, and a stack allocated to a thread as the root node; determining whether a move-target object contains the lock node identifier; moving the move-target object to a subarea allocated to a lock node if it contains the lock node identifier, and moving the move-target object to the destination of the current traversal target object if the lock node identifier is not found.
US09009713B2
Provided is a task processing apparatus and method that may select a task corresponding to predetermined task selection information when a task execution is completed and thus, an idle server occurs in at least one server, may separate the selected task into a first task and a second task, and may control the first task and the second task to be allocated to an existing allocation server of the selected task and an idle server, respectively.
US09009695B2
The invention relates to a method and to a system for changing over from a first adaptive data processing version (V1) on data processing means using at least one data model (dm) which is continuously adapted on the basis of data processing results to a second adaptive data processing version (V2) also using at least one data model (DM) to be continuously adapted, characterized in that, in a first phase, the second adaptive data processing version (V2) is used in parallel to the first data processing version (V1), thereby continuously adapting said at least one data model (dm) related to the first version (V1) as well as that data model (DM) related to the second version (V2), and in that the performance of data processing by means of the second version (V2) in checked to comply with a quality criterion, where after in a second phase, as soon as said criterion is met, the results of the data processing by means of the second version (V2) are outputted to be used. The invention further relates to a computer program product having a computer program recorded thereon which is adapted to carry out such a method.
US09009694B2
The present invention provides an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) patch environment for installing a patch on the targeted systems. A system administrator or other authorized user interfaced with a machine may perform the installation of a patch on the machine using a software wizard. Additionally, the Wizard pre-verifies the patch dependencies (pre-installed software) required by the patch and checks the target systems to ensure the target systems possess the requisite dependencies. Once the target systems have been validated and the required dependencies identified on the target systems, the sequencing algorithm sorts patches in correct order before applying patches to the target systems. The user can remove the patch from the pre-validated patch list about to be applied to the target system. The patch dependency is checked before removing the patch from the pre-validated patch list for proper removal order.
US09009680B2
Instrumentation points are selected for an application by running the application with comprehensive instrumentation of its components in a development mode. The application can be run by a human operator and/or load simulator which provides requests to the application. The instrumented components are monitored as the application runs. A subset of the components is selected based on criteria such as an order in which the instrumented components are invoked, whether resource utilization, such as consumption of processor cycles, exceeds a threshold, or a frequency with which components are called or call other components, and only that subset is instrumented in a production mode of the application. In one approach, the subset includes components which are invoked when traffic to/from the application matches a pattern provided by an interaction model. As a result, relevant instrumentation points can be identified.
US09009676B2
A method, system and computer program product for recording and replaying a program execution in a client-server environment capable of supporting different client-server communication protocols. A common recorder of the exemplary embodiments identifies respective class files and libraries used by a client application to process client actions and data passed in client requests and server responses. The recorder stores class files and data in a replay file and later re-creates server loads and client actions based on the class files, data and client action results in the replay file during a replay of the execution.
US09009675B2
A method of implementing verification of a complex workflow includes partitioning the workflow into modules, wherein the modules have inputs, processing steps and outputs; selecting, from the workflow, one of the partitioned modules for independent verification by challenge thereof; running, with a computing device, a challenge of the selected module, the challenge comprising comparing reference outputs to outputs of the selected module, wherein reference inputs are received by the selected module and the reference outputs are generated using the reference inputs and one of an ideal performing module or a well-established module; determining whether outputs of the selected module meet verification criteria with respect to the reference outputs, and based on the determining, implementing one of: declaring the selected module verified; subdividing the selected module into smaller modules and repeating the challenge on the smaller modules; or declaring the selected module not verified.
US09009673B2
In a distributed system that includes a debug server and debug clients coupled for data communications through a data communications network, where the debug server includes a debug administrator, a message router, a back-end debugger, and a debuggee, collaborative software debugging includes receiving application-level messages including receiving, from a requesting debug client, a step over command that includes an instruction to ignore, during the step over command, events established by the requesting debug client; routing the application-level messages among the debug clients, the debug administrator, and the back-end debugger, including providing distributed control of the back-end debugger and routing the step over command to the back-end debugger; performing the step over command, including ignoring the events established by the requesting debug client and processing any other events; and returning, to the debug clients in response to the application-level messages routed to the back-end debugger, client-specific debug results.
US09009662B2
Systems and methods which provide platform sensitive application characteristics with respect to multi-platform applications are shown. As application aspects are developed in the application, embodiments include platform sensitivity characteristics for the application aspects in the application to provide for adaptation of application characteristics for multiple platforms. Embodiments provide an application runtime environment which, although independently defining its own user interface rendering attributes, operates to adjust application characteristics in accordance with a host platform. As application aspects of a multi-platform application are to be executed, if there are relevant cross platform differences, application aspect characteristics are adjusted so as to be appropriate to the host platform. The appropriately adjusted aspects are executed to thereby provide platform sensitive application characteristics with respect to the multi-platform application.
US09009660B1
Programming in a multiprocessor environment includes accepting a program specification that defines a plurality of processing modules and one or more channels for sending data between ports of the modules, mapping each of the processing modules to run on a set of one or more processing engines of a network of interconnected processing engines, and for at least some of the channels, assigning one or more elements of one or more processing engines in the network to the channel for sending data between respective processing modules.
US09009642B1
An apparatus includes a memory device that includes instructions for analyzing RTL code to determine congestion of a logic design without completing a synthesis phase of a chip design process. The instructions can include receiving RTL code, and identifying a statement in the RTL code. The instructions can include determining that the statement in the RTL code corresponds to a structured device group in a component library, wherein the structured device group includes logic devices configured to occupy an area in a predefined spatial arrangement and with predetermined connectivity between the logic devices. The instructions can include determining congestion associated with the structured device group by performing operations including determining a congestion figure. The instructions can also include providing, based on the congestion figure, an indication of the congestion associated with the structured device group.
US09009641B2
A first transistor has source and drain regions within a first diffusion fin. The first diffusion fin projects from a surface of a substrate. The first diffusion fin extends lengthwise in a first direction from a first end to a second end of the first diffusion fin. A second transistor has source and drain regions within a second diffusion fin. The second diffusion fin projects from the surface of the substrate. The second diffusion fin extends lengthwise in the first direction from a first end to a second end of the second diffusion fin. The second diffusion fin is positioned next to and spaced apart from the first diffusion fin. Either the first end or the second end of the second diffusion fin is positioned in the first direction between the first end and the second end of the first diffusion fin.
US09009637B2
A method for making a matrix device including a matrix of photodetecting or photoemitting elements, the method including designing operations for: a) identifying, from at least one topology of the matrix device, one or more spurious conducting closed circuits; b) selecting at least one photodetecting or photoemitting element of the matrix device belonging to at least one of the spurious conducting closed circuits identified, the at least one element selected being made inactive.
US09009624B2
A computing device includes at least one processor and at least one module. The module may determine and output for display a list of one or more suggested character strings based on a first input received at a presence-sensitive display. The module may further receive an indication of a second user input detected at the presence-sensitive display. The module may further determine whether the second user input includes a replacement gesture, wherein the replacement gesture includes a first gesture in a substantially leftward direction and a second gesture in a substantially rightward direction. Responsive to determining that the received gesture input includes the replacement gesture, the module may output for display in place of the displayed text, a character string chosen from the list of one or more suggested character strings.
US09009608B2
Recording a user's preference for content is disclosed. An indication of a problem associated with the content is received, in response to only a single action taken by a user interacting with a web page. After receiving the indication, at least a portion of the web page is continued to be displayed.
US09009594B2
Content gestures are described. In implementations, one or more controls are output to control output of content and for display in a user interface by a computing device. An input is recognized, by the computing device, which was detected using a camera as a gesture to interact with a particular one of the controls to control the output of the content.
US09009579B2
An information processing apparatus includes an MMU that translates between a virtual address and a physical address on the basis of a translation table for translation between physical addresses that are addresses in physical memory and virtual addresses that are addresses in virtual memory. Stored in a RAM are page table information indicating a page table, as well as error detection information attached to the page table information for detecting the presence or absence of an error in translation between a virtual address and a physical address performed by the MMU. A CPU detects the presence or absence of an error in translation between a virtual address and a physical address performed by the MMU on the basis of the error detection information.
US09009575B2
A method begins by a processing module identifying a set of encoded data slices that have been created in accordance with a dispersed storage error encoding function having a decode threshold equal to or less than half of a number encoded data slices in the set of encoded data slices. The method continues with the processing module identifying a first sub-set of encoded data slices having a non-current revision level and identifying a second sub-set of encoded data slices having a more-current revision level. When a number of encoded data slices of the second sub-set of encoded data slices is greater than or equal to the decode threshold and when a number of encoded data slices of the first sub-set of encoded data slices is less than the decode threshold, the method continues with the processing module facilitating rebuilding of the first sub-set of encoded data slices.
US09009574B2
Embodiments provide a method comprising estimating a first set of log-likelihood ratio (LLR) values for a plurality of memory cells of a memory; based on the first set of LLR values, performing a first error correcting code (ECC) decoding operation; in response to determining a failure of the first ECC decoding operation, generating, by adjusting the first set of LLR values, a second set of LLR values for the plurality of memory cells; and based on the second set of LLR values, performing a second ECC decoding operation.
US09009573B2
Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products are disclosed for encoding/decoding a wireless control signal. For encoding, control bits are received and encoded with a first error control code so as to create a first set of encoded bits. The encoded bits are then encoded with a second error control code so as to create a second set of encoded bits, which are modulated as beacon tones and subsequently transmitted. For decoding, beacon tones corresponding to a set of control bits are received and subsequently demodulated so as to ascertain a set of demodulated bits. The demodulated bits are then decoded with a decoder so as to ascertain a set of decoded bits. The decoded bits are then decoded with a second decoder so as to ascertain a second set of decoded bits, which includes the set of control bits.
US09009569B2
There is provided a method of writing data to a sector of a storage device, the sector comprising a data field and a protection information field and having identifying information identifying the location of said sector. The method comprises providing data to be written to an intended sector, generating, for said intended sector, a message comprising the data and the identifying information of said intended sector and performing, on said message, error correcting encoding to generate a codeword. The codeword comprises the message and parity information generated from said error correcting coding. The data can then be written to the data field of the sector, and the parity information can be written to said protection information field of the sector.
US09009565B1
Apparatus and methods provide relatively low uncorrectable bit error rates, low write amplification, long life, fast and efficient retrieval, and efficient storage density such that a solid-state drive (SSD) can be reliably implemented using various types of memory cells, including relatively inexpensive multi-level cell flash. One embodiment intelligently coordinates remapping of bad blocks with error correction code control, which eliminates the tables used to avoid bad blocks.
US09009563B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a CRC circuit with more simple structure and low power consumption. The CRC circuit includes a first shift register to a p-th shift register, a first EXOR to a (p−1)th EXOR, and a switching circuit. A data signal, a select signal, and an output of a last stage of the p-th shift register are inputted to the switching circuit, and the switching circuit switches a first signal or a second signal in response to the select signal to be outputted.
US09009550B2
A programmable Built In Self Test (pBIST) system used to test embedded memories where the memories under test are incorporated in a plurality of sub chips not integrated with the pBIST module. A distributed Data Logger is incorporated into each sub chip, communicating with the pBIST over serial and a compressed parallel data paths.
US09009549B2
A RAM to be diagnosed is divided into n (n being an integer of 3 or greater) pieces of base regions. In an idle time of periodic processing performed in a system in which the RAM is incorporated, two base regions are selected from the divided base regions, and the selected two base regions are diagnosed using a diagnostic method capable of detecting a coupling fault. Thereafter, in an idle time of the periodic processing, operations to select an unselected pair of base regions and diagnose the selected pair are repeated, so as to diagnose all combinations of pairs.
US09009545B2
Systems and methods for error recovery include determining an error in at least one stage of a plurality of stages during a first cycle on a hardware circuit, each of the plurality of stages having a main latch and a shadow latch. A first signal is transmitted to an output stage of the at least one stage to stall the main latch and the shadow latch of the output stage during a second cycle. A second signal is transmitted to an input stage of the at least one stage to stall the main latch of the input stage during the second cycle and to stall the main latch and the shadow latch of the input stage during a third cycle. Data is restored from the shadow latch to the main latch for the at least one stage and the input stage to recover from the error.
US09009536B2
Accessing a problem report data store including customer problem reports. Each customer problem report includes configuration and platform data. Calculating a number of instances each platform is stored, and identifying platforms that satisfy a platform threshold. Calculating a number of instances each configuration is stored, and identifying configurations that satisfy a configuration threshold. Calculating a number of instances each platform is associated with each configuration, and generating a data structure with a plurality of nodes and edges. Each of the nodes identifies one of the platforms and configurations. The weight of the edge connecting a platform to a configuration indicates a number of instances that the platform is associated with the configuration in the data store. Identifying a weighted edge that satisfies a weight threshold, where the weighted edge connects a first platform to a first configuration and, in response, generating a test case for development of a software product.
US09009535B2
A useful embodiment of the invention is directed to a method associated with a computer program comprising one or more basic blocks, wherein the program defines and uses multiple data structures, such as the list of all customers of a bank along with their account information. The method includes identifying one or more invariants, wherein each invariant is associated with one of the data structures. The method further includes determining at specified times whether an invariant has been violated. Responsive to detecting a violation of one of the invariants, the detected violation is flagged as an anomaly.
US09009533B2
Provided are a home/building fault analysis system and method using a resource connection map log which compares and analyzes a previous integrated resource state and a current resource state using resource connection map logging information based on a standard resource management model when a fault is generated, provides state information of the resource in which information having high association with a fault resource is mainly changed, and performs an effective fault analysis and process by restoring to the previous resource state, as necessary. According to the prevent invention, when the fault is generated, a synthetic state of resources within a home/building as well as a state of an individual resource may be known from the resource connection map.
US09009523B2
A controller area network (CAN) has a plurality of CAN elements including a communication bus and controllers. A method for monitoring the CAN includes identifying each of the controllers as one of an active controller and an inactive controller. A fault-active controller isolation process is executed to detect and isolate presence of a fault-active controller. A fault isolation process can be executed to detect and isolate presence of one of a wire open fault, a wire short fault and a controller fault when one of the controllers is identified as an inactive controller. Presence of a fault associated with a persistent bus disturbance in the CAN is detected when a bus error count is greater than a predetermined threshold continuously for a predetermined period of time.
US09009520B2
A slew rate controller for a computing system includes a slew rate control module, the slew rate control module further comprising a plurality of sampling modules, each sampling module corresponding to one of a plurality of phase signal inputs, wherein each sampling module receives an input signal, a reference voltage, and the sampling module's respective phase signal input, and wherein each sampling module generates a respective sample of a relationship between the input signal and the reference voltage during a time period indicated by the sampling module's respective phase signal input; and a finite state machine configured to output a slew rate control signal to control a slew rate of the input signal based on the plurality of samples from the sampling modules.
US09009516B1
In one example, a method includes determining, based on motion data generated by a motion sensor of a wearable computing device, a plurality of motion vectors, wherein one or more components operatively coupled to the wearable computing device are operating in a first power mode during a first time period; determining, based on the plurality of motion vectors, a plurality of values. In this example, the method also includes, responsive to determining that each of the plurality of values satisfies a corresponding threshold, transitioning, by at least one component of the one or more components, from operating in the first power mode to operating in a second power mode.
US09009515B2
According to an embodiment, provided is an electronic device that includes: an energy generation unit that generates electrical power; an accumulating unit that accumulates therein the electrical power generated by the energy generation unit; and a network control unit that includes: a first function unit that performs network response processing; a second function unit that performs network response processing with a relatively smaller processing load than the network response processing performed by the first function unit; and a third function unit that controls the electrical power supply to the function units. The third function unit stops the electrical power supply to the first function unit in a predetermined standby operation mode that is standby for a network response request, and supplies the electrical power to the second function unit directly from the energy generation unit bypassing the accumulating unit.
US09009513B2
Timers #0 through #3 are each supplied with a period for prohibiting a change in a power supply voltage. An OS #A or an OS #B determines necessity to change an operating frequency for a CPU core corresponding to any of the timers #0 through #3 when the timer exceeds the prohibition period. It is determined whether it is necessary to change a power supply voltage supplied to CPU cores #0 through #3 when the OS #A or the OS #B determines necessity to change an operating frequency. When it is determined that a power supply voltage needs to be changed, a power supply voltage change portion 20 changes the power supply voltage supplied to the CPU cores #0 through #3. Therefore, it is possible to improve the processing efficiency without needing to acquire inter-OS lock.
US09009502B2
A system and method for managing battery usage of a mobile device. The power level of the battery is obtains and compared to a threshold level. When the power level is equal to or less than the threshold level, user applications that are operating on the mobile device are identified. Operating user applications that are members of a set of user applications are identified. The execution of the selected user application is suspended or terminated.
US09009501B2
A power supply control circuit for an electronic device includes an input/output (I/O) microchip, a southbridge microchip and a power management unit. The control circuit is electrically connected to the I/O microchip and the southbridge microchip to output a driving voltage to the I/O microchip and the southbridge microchip. The power management unit includes a power management microchip electrically connected to the control circuit, the I/O microchip and the southbridge microchip. The power management microchip outputs a power on/off control signal to the southbridge microchip to power on/off the electronic device, and controls the control circuit to provide a driving voltage to the I/O microchip and the southbridge microchip when the electronic device is powered on and controls the control circuit to stop providing the driving voltage to the I/O microchip and the southbridge microchip when the electronic device is powered off.
US09009499B2
A system for managing energy efficiency and control mechanisms in a network having a virtual machine includes a virtual machine power manager (VMPM) coupled to a virtual machine manager (VMM) and a network component. The VMPM is configured to receive power information from the network component, analyze the power information, generate configuration instructions based on the analyzing and send the configuration instructions to the VMM.
US09009497B1
A method of operating a system on chip. The system on chip includes a controller. The method includes: receiving, at the system on chip and in a storage drive, encrypted content and an encrypted content key; storing the encrypted content and the encrypted content key in a storage device; and transmitting the encrypted content key from the controller to a first decryption module. The method further includes: decrypting the encrypted content key to generate a content key based on an identification of the system on chip; transmitting the encrypted content from the controller to a second decryption module; and decrypting the encrypted content based on the content key to generate content.
US09009495B2
A system, apparatus, method, and/or computer program product is disclosed for decreasing side channel signal leakage and increasing speed of cryptographic combining operations. An exemplary method may be incorporated, in an exemplary embodiment, in an exemplary programmable logic device (PLD) such as, e.g., but not limited to, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) implementation of at least one cryptographic combining process, or may include an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design where cryptographic combining with minimal side channel signal leakage and high speed are provided.
US09009489B2
Provided are techniques for the creation and storage of an archive for binding IDs corresponding to a cluster of devices that render content protected by a broadcast encryption scheme. When two or more clusters are merged, a binding ID corresponding to one of the clusters is selected and a new management key is generated. Binding IDs associated with the clusters other than the cluster associated with the selected binding ID are encrypted using the new management key and stored on a cluster-authorized device in a binding ID archive. Content stored in conformity with an outdated binding ID is retrieved by decrypting the binding ID archive with the management key, recalculating an old management key and decrypting the stored content.
US09009461B2
A HTTP request addressed to a first resource on a second device outside the network is received from a first device within the network. The HTTP request is redirected to a third device within the network. A first encrypted connection is established between the first device and the third device, and a second encrypted connection between the third device and the second device. The third device retrieves the first resource from the second device. The first resource is modified to change pointers within the first resource to point to location in a domain associated with the third device within the network. The third device serves, to the first device, the second resource.
US09009448B2
Disclosed is an architecture, system and method for performing multi-thread DFA descents on a single input stream. An executer performs DFA transitions from a plurality of threads each starting at a different point in an input stream. A plurality of executers may operate in parallel to each other and a plurality of thread contexts operate concurrently within each executer to maintain the context of each thread which is state transitioning. A scheduler in each executer arbitrates instructions for the thread into an at least one pipeline where the instructions are executed. Tokens may be output from each of the plurality of executers to a token processor which sorts and filters the tokens into dispatch order.
US09009442B2
A data writing method and a memory controller and a memory storage apparatus using the same are provided. The method includes selecting physical units as a global random area and building a global random searching table for recording update information corresponding to updated logical pages that data stored in the global random area belongs to. The method also includes receiving updated data belonging to a logical page of a logical unit, assigning an index number for the logical unit, writing the updated data into the global random area, and using the index number to record update information corresponding the logical page in the global random searching table. Accordingly, a global random searching table having smaller size can be used for recording update information corresponding to updated logical pages that data stored in the global random area belongs to.
US09009440B2
A storage system stores data in at least one partition of a physical storage media in accordance with file system information specifying a plurality of logical blocks having logical block addresses within the partition. The logical blocks include excess logical blocks that are not mapped to space in the physical storage media by the mapping employed by the storage system. Unusable block data marks those excess logical blocks as unusable. This makes it easy to adjust the data storage capacity of the storage system by changing the mapping to map more or less logical block addresses to space in the physical storage media and thereby destroy or create excess logical blocks, and by changing the unusable block data to correspondingly change the excess logical blocks marked as unusable.
US09009437B1
Described are techniques for performing data storage management. A first data portion is stored at a first logical address of a first device that is mapped to a first physical storage location at which the first data portion is stored. A second data portion is stored at a second logical address on a second device that is mapped to a second physical storage location at which the second data portion is stored. The first data portion is a duplicate of data contents of the second data portion and the first physical storage location is the same physical storage location as the second physical storage location. The first device and the second device are thin devices where physical storage is unallocated for at least a portion of each thin device's storage capacity at a point in time.
US09009431B2
The present disclosure relates generally to a method and system for creating, replicating, and providing access to virtual snapshots of a disk storage block of a disk storage system or subsystem. In one embodiment, the present disclosure relates to a virtual snapshot accessible to local users of a local data storage device. The virtual snapshot may direct local users to a snapshot stored on computer-readable storage medium at a remote data storage site, but give the appearance as if data of the corresponding snapshot is stored locally. The virtual snapshot is replaced by replication of the snapshot from the remote data storage site to the local data storage device. Each snapshot may relate to data of a logical data volume, the logical data volume being an abstraction of data blocks from one or more physical storage devices.
US09009430B2
A method is provided for restoring data from a backup storage volume onto a source storage volume. A content of a memory unit of the backup storage volume and a content of the corresponding memory unit of the source storage volume are loaded into a computer memory, and are compared in the computer memory for identity. The content of the memory unit of the backup storage volume is written to the corresponding memory unit of the source storage volume if the comparison indicates that the content of the compared memory units is not identical. The invention further relates to a system for restoring data from a backup storage volume onto a source storage volume comprising a restore software running on a data processing device, which is connected to the backup storage volume and the source storage volume, whereby the restore software performs the above method.
US09009425B2
A memory system includes a volatile first storing unit, a nonvolatile second storing unit, and a controller. The controller performs data transfer, stores management information including a storage position of the data stored in the second storing unit into the first storing unit, and performs data management while updating the management information. The second storing unit has a management information storage area for storing management information storage information including management information in a latest state and a storage position of the management information. The storage position information is read by the controller during a startup operation of the memory system and includes a second pointer indicating a storage position of management information in a latest state in the management information storage area and a first pointer indicating a storage position of the second pointer. The first pointer is stored in a fixed area in the second storing unit and the second pointer is stored in an area excluding the fixed area in the second storing unit.
US09009422B2
A memory stores therein a program status word containing an address of data that is to be read when an interrupt process is executed. a processor determines whether or not the program status word stored in the memory is available, controls the memory to stores a determination result in the memory in association with the program status word, acquires the program status word and the determination result from the memory when the interrupt process occurs, and reads data on the basis of the address contained in the acquired program status word when the acquired determination result indicates that the program status word is available.
US09009421B2
In a computer system that includes multiple nodes and multiple logical partitions, a dynamic partition manager computes current memory affinity and potential memory affinity to help determine whether a reallocation of resources between nodes may improve memory affinity for a logical partition or for the computer system. If so, the reallocation of resources is performed so memory affinity for the logical partition or computer system is improved. Memory affinity is computed relative to the physical layout of the resources according to a hardware domain hierarchy that includes a plurality of primary domains and a plurality of secondary domains.
US09009420B2
A design structure for performing cacheline polling utilizing a store and reserve instruction are disclosed. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a first process initially requests an action to be performed by a second process. A reservation is set at a cacheable memory location via a store operation. The first process reads the cacheable memory location via a load operation to determine whether or not the requested action has been completed by the second process. The load operation of the first process is stalled until the reservation on the cacheable memory location is lost. After the requested action has been completed, the reservation in the cacheable memory location is reset by the second process.
US09009419B2
Methods and systems are provided for mapping a memory instruction to a shared memory address space in a computer arrangement having a CPU and an APD. A method includes receiving a memory instruction that refers to an address in the shared memory address space, mapping the memory instruction based on the address to a memory resource associated with either the CPU or the APD, and performing the memory instruction based on the mapping.
US09009408B2
This invention handles write request cache misses. The cache controller stores write data, sends a read request to external memory for a corresponding cache line, merges the write data with data returned from the external memory and stores merged data in the cache. The cache controller includes buffers with plural entries storing the write address, the write data, the position of the write data within a cache line and unique identification number. This stored data enables the cache controller to proceed to servicing other access requests while waiting for response from the external memory.
US09009401B2
A control unit of a least recently used (LRU) mechanism for a ternary content addressable memory (TCAM) stores counts indicating a time sequence with resources in entries of the TCAM. The control unit receives an access request with a mask defining related resources. The TCAM is searched to find partial matches based on the mask. The control unit increases the counts for entries corresponding to partial matches, preserving an order of the counts. If the control unit also finds an exact match, its count is updated to be greater than the other increased counts. After each access request, the control unit searches the TCAM to find the entry having the lowest count, and writes the resource of that entry to an LRU register. In this manner, the system software can instantly identify the LRU entry by reading the value in the LRU register.
US09009397B1
A method of writing to one or more solid state disks (SSDs) employed by a storage processor includes receiving a command, creating sub-commands from the command based on a granularity, and assigning the sub-commands to the SSDs independently of the command thereby causing striping across the SSDs.
US09009395B2
The amount of data to be stored in a semiconductor nonvolatile memory can be reduced and overhead associated with data processing can be reduced. When a microprocessor receives a write request from a host computer and data D1 to D3 exist in a cache slot, the microprocessor reads the LBA of each piece of the data, manages each piece of the data D1 to D3 using a bitmap table by associating them with their LBAs, generates a specific command CMD based on the LBAs of the data D1 to D3, adds the data D1 to D3 and addresses ADD1 to ADD3 indicating where the data D1 to D3 are to be stored, to the specific command CMD, and sends it to an FMPK. The FMPK stores each piece of update data in a specified block in the flash memory based on the specific command CMD.
US09009394B2
Apparatus and methods configure a serial flash memory device. A value in a configuration register configures the number of dummy clock cycles to provide prior providing data in response to a read command. The value in the configuration register is read, and the number of dummy clock cycles to provide based at least partly on the dummy clock cycle value.
US09009393B1
A system including a packaging substrate and first and second integrated circuits arranged on the packaging substrate. The first integrated circuit includes a dynamic random access memory. The second integrated circuit includes a system-on-chip, which includes a hard disk controller to control a hard disk drive, a solid-state disk controller to control flash memory arranged external to the packaging substrate, and a dynamic random access memory controller to communicate with the dynamic random access memory. The hard disk controller and the solid-state disk controller access the dynamic random access memory via the dynamic random access memory controller. The dynamic random access memory controller is connected to the dynamic random access memory via the packaging substrate.
US09009392B2
Dynamic allocation of memory in a hybrid system is provided. In particular, a method and system is provided to leverage a hybrid infrastructure for dynamic memory allocation and persistent file storage. The method includes dynamically allocating a file or its part or to cache a file or its part between different storage technologies and respective memory technologies in a hybrid infrastructure.
US09009380B2
A universal serial bus (USB) transaction translator is provided along with a micro-frame synchronization method. A device interface is coupled to a device via a device bus, and a host interface is coupled to a host via a host bus. At least two buffers are configured to store data. A controller stores the data in the buffers alternately. A start-of-frame (SOF) counter is used to count the SOF packets, with the counting value of the SOF counter being compared to a predefined value. Specifically, the controller resets a SOF timer for sending the SOF packet when the counting value achieves or exceeds the predefined value, such that the SOF packet and an isochronous timestamp packet (ITP) from the host are sent at the same time. Further, the controller delays the sending of the SOF packet for a period of time according to the ITP from the host.
US09009379B1
Using relatively inexpensive, external resistor networks, an electronic device, such as an FPGA, can be configured to use non-MIPI interfaces to communicate with one or more MIPI-compliant devices, such as video sources (e.g., cameras) and sinks (e.g., displays). High-speed (HS) and low-power (LP) MIPI signaling for each MIPI clock/data lane is supported by a set of one or more non-MIPI interfaces, such as LVDS and/or LVCMOS receivers, transmitters, and/or transceivers, and an appropriate, corresponding, external resistor network. For configurations in which the resistor-configured electronic device can handle high-speed MIPI data from a MIPI-compliant device, the electronic device can detect transitions in the MIPI mode of the MIPI-compliant device. In some configurations, the resistor-configured electronic device can provide high-speed MIPI data to a MIPI-compliant device. In either case, the electronic device configures the non-MIPI interfaces to support the current MIPI HS/LP mode.
US09009343B2
A content processing device is configured to selectively receive a media signal via a network. The content processing device is further configured to receive a bandwidth check request. The content processing device is further configured to receive a first status indicator, and determine if the streaming media signal is likely to be in use based on the first status indicator.
US09009342B2
A network relay apparatus which conducts data transfer by using a plurality of network LSIs includes a transfer engine unit having at least two network LSIs and a central control unit which controls the operation state of the network relay apparatus. The transfer engine unit includes the network LSIs capable of changing over at least one of a clock and an operation which differ every function block, a load judgment unit for judging a load laid upon each of function blocks in the network LSI, and a frequency voltage control unit for individually changing over at least one of the clock and operation voltage supplied to each function block on the basis of the load judged by the load judgment unit.
US09009334B1
A browsing process is directed to the generation and management of a browse session at a network computing provider. A client computing device requests a remote browse session instance at a network computing provider. The browse session instance may correspond to requested network content. The network computing provider determines a browse configuration. The browse configuration may identify a communication protocol and various processing actions. The network computing provider retrieves the requested content through an instantiated network browse session instance, and performs a first set of processing actions to generate a processing result. The network computing provider determines whether the requested content is likely to perform high risk operations on the client computing device, and notifies the user or transmits a processed representation of the requested content to the user such that the likelihood of high risk operations being performed on the client computing device is reduced.
US09009325B2
[Issues] Without using a load balancer or a media director, and without inquiring a load status from a user terminal to a delivery server, to strive for balancing and smoothing of a load of a delivery server, and to prevent degradation of viewing quality.[Solution method] A contents delivery server comprising: a load information exchanging and memorizing unit which receives and memorizes load information (other server information) from other contents delivery servers in a network, and memorizes load information (own server information) of own contents delivery server; a determination unit which determines presence of free resources of own contents delivery server based on the own server information; a selection unit which, in case the determination unit determined that there exit no free resources, selects one or more other contents delivery servers with a lower load than own contents delivery server from among other contents delivery servers based on the own server information and the other server information; and a redirection unit which requests to the selected other contents delivery servers delivery of contents which are targets of a contents delivery request to a user terminal which transmitted the contents delivery request.
US09009323B1
Users intending to launch instances or otherwise access virtual resources in a multi-tenant environment can specify a launch configuration. For each type of instance or each type of user, at least one launch configuration is created that includes parameters and values to be used in instantiating an instance of that type, the values being optimized for the current environment and type of instance. Launch configurations can be optimized for different types of users, such as to account for security credentials and access levels. Such an approach enables users to launch instances by contacting the resource provider directly without need for a proxy, which can function as a choke point under heavy load. The use of an appropriate launch configuration can be enforced for any type of user at any level, such as at the sub-net level, by modifying a request that does not specify an appropriate launch configuration.
US09009317B2
A system for and method of determining how to process a request for allocation network resource (whether to accept, deny or forward) is presented. The method may include receiving a request for allocating network resources from a user device. The method may also include determining, via at least one computer processor, whether to accept or deny the resource allocation request based at least in part on a classification of at least one of network elements and communication links, wherein the at least one network elements and communication links is identified based on the resource allocation request. The method may further include providing the determination of whether to accept or deny the resource allocation request to the user device. The system may utilize a dynamic set of policy, customized according to the current network status, to optimize the performance of processing the resource allocation request.
US09009316B2
A system and method for providing on-demand Integrated capacity and reliability Service Level Agreement (SLA) Software License (ISL). The disclosed approach allows customized purchase of capacity together with the desired reliability SLA at fine granularity of both quantities. The ISL licensing approach can be applied in the distributed Processing Entities (PEs) systems and also in the Virtual Machines (VMs) based cloud computing model. The on-demand ISL licensing approach makes use of an ISL dimensioning methodology (implemented using an ISL Manager) and an ISL Controller (ISLC) that keeps track of the capacity usage at the system level together with the periodic monitoring of health status of PEs or VMs. The ISLC dynamically controls the capacity usage as well as the reliability SLA based on the aggregated workload utilization conditions from all the PEs or VMs, hence allowing the delivery of the user-purchased level of guaranteed reliability SLA in an economical manner.
US09009312B2
Controlling access to a resource in a distributed computing system that includes nodes having a status field, a next field, a source data buffer, and that are characterized by a unique node identifier, where controlling access includes receiving a request for access to the resource implemented as an active message that includes the requesting node's unique node identifier, the value stored in the requesting node's source data buffer, and an instruction to perform a reduction operation with the value stored in the requesting node's source data buffer and the value stored in the receiving node's source data buffer; returning the requesting node's unique node identifier as a result of the reduction operation; and updating the status and next fields to identify the requesting node as a next node to have sole access to the resource.
US09009300B2
A method and an apparatus provide a customized service based on a user log in a wireless communication system. A method of a terminal collects user data existing inside a terminal. The method transmits the user data to a log manage server. The method receives a mission determined based on user data from the log manage server. The method transmits performance results regarding the mission to the log manage server.
US09009298B2
Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to determine audience engagement indices associated with media presentations are disclosed. An example method involves determining an Internet engagement indice based on a quantity of messages posted on an Internet service and containing a keyword associated with a media presentation. The example method also involves determining a composite engagement indice based on the Internet engagement indice and a survey engagement indice based on a survey of panel members exposed to the media presentation.
US09009293B2
A method is provided in one example and includes receiving a request to initiate a communication flow associated with a subscriber and identifying one or more parameters to be monitored for the communication flow. The method further includes extracting one or more bits from packets associated with the communication flow; the bits are used to determine an operating system associated with the communication flow. A policy decision can be executed for the communication flow based on the operating system associated with the communication flow. In more specific examples, the bits are sent to a next destination in response to a threshold being reached for at least one of the parameters. The parameters can be associated a volume parameter or a time parameter. The policy decision could include blocking traffic associated with the subscriber, initiating billing, redirecting the communication, managing a quality of service level for the communication flow, etc.
US09009290B2
Methods and apparatuses for discovery and notification of services are described for creating a service, discovering the service, and providing notification of the service. In one embodiment, the methods and apparatuses for discovery and notification of services identifies a content provider; identifies a service wherein the service corresponds with the content provider; forms a service record within the service registry wherein the service record represents the service; and allows a content user to discover the service through the service registry.
US09009288B2
An SNMP network comprises a power manager with an SNMP agent in TCP/IP communication over a network with an SNMP network manager. The power manager is connected to control several intelligent power modules each able to independently control the power on/off status of several network appliances. Power-on and load sensors within each intelligent power module are able to report the power status of each network appliance to the SNMP network manager with MIB variables in response to GET commands. Each intelligent power module is equipped with an output that is connected to cause an interrupt signal to the network appliance being controlled. The SNMP network manager is able to test which network appliance is actually responding before any cycling of the power to the corresponding appliance is tried.
US09009279B2
Discloses is a computer network system comprising a plurality of network management tools, a network segment comprising a plurality of hardware devices, and a proxy for interconnecting network management tools with the network segment. Each of the network management tools is assigned at least one functionality for monitoring and controlling at least one hardware device which is polled by the network management tools. The functionalities from different network management tools are separate from each other, and the proxy is set up to consolidate requests from the different network management tools and to focus the requests on one single request to the device to be controlled by the different network management tools.
US09009275B2
An image forming apparatus for executing a processing flow including a plurality of steps, includes a determination unit which determines whether or not a processing flow to be executed includes an instruction required step that requires an instruction of a user, a selection unit which selects, when the processing flow to be executed includes the instruction required step, a notification destination of information required to display an operation window for accepting the instruction of the user, a notification control unit which notifies the notification destination selected by the selection unit of the operation window, and an execution unit which executes processing of the instruction required step according to instruction contents input via the operation window.
US09009273B2
A mechanism is provided for attributing network addresses to virtual machines. A request for a number of addresses is received from a requesting entity, thereby forming a requested number of addresses. A length of continuous ranges of available addresses is compared to the requested number of addresses. A range of available addresses comprising a number of addresses greater than the requested number of addresses is selected from a memory, thereby forming a selected range of available addresses. A first new range comprising the requested number of addresses excised from the selected range of available addresses is defined and one or more farther new ranges are defined, comprising the remainder of the selected range of available addresses not belonging to the first new range. The first new range is attributed for the use of the requesting entity.
US09009266B2
A method and a device for switching a media renderer to another media renderer while a client performs streaming playback of content of a server are provided. Accordingly, a first client that performs streaming playback of the content transmits playback environment information and a URL of the content to the second client, and the second client transmits the received information and information about features of the second client to the server and requests the corresponding content which has the optimized format for the second client from the server. Therefore, a user can continue to watch the media content through a new media renderer in existing playback environment setting without additional manipulation.
US09009257B2
A method, system, and computer programming product for returning a response directly to a transaction request originator in a customer information control system (CICS) is provided. The method can include receiving a transaction request in a CICS and allocating resources in the CICS in response to receiving the transaction request. The method additionally can include determining whether the CICS is an intended endpoint of the transaction request. Finally, the method can include extracting an address of an originator of the transaction request from the transaction request and sending a response to the originator at the extracted address upon determining that the CICS is the intended endpoint of the transaction request, but otherwise routing the transaction request to a different CICS along with the address within the transaction request.
US09009246B1
The method and system may be used to configure communications between users within an organization and displays the communications specific to the organization on a secondary device. An administrator interface module receives a selection of one or more users within the organization as recipients of a message. The message is transmitted to a module that determines whether the received message includes communications specific to the organization, and if so, the intelligent communication module causing the message to be routed to a secondary device for display via a private communication network and not be routed to the primary device. However, if the message is determined to not include communications specific to the organization, the intelligent communication module causing the message to be routed to the primary device via the private communication network.
US09009243B2
Described herein are methods and systems for tracking usage of and sharing data between mobile device applications. A mobile device receives a first application to be installed on the mobile device. The first application includes a first notification module, a content developer identifier, and a first application identifier. The mobile device receives a second application to be installed on the mobile device, the second application including a second notification module, the content developer identifier, and a second application identifier. The mobile device stores a mobile device identifier in a keychain area of the mobile device. The mobile device provides access to the keychain area for applications which include the content developer identifier. The mobile device retrieves the mobile device identifier from the keychain area for use by the first application and the second application.
US09009235B2
Messages are processed to guarantee proper work scheduling and allow for cyclic and conditional processing. A processing node requiring ordered processing of messages is configured to operate within a plurality of successive processing nodes not requiring ordering processing of messages. Nodes upstream of the ordered node (i) monitor skew between the messages being processed and messages that are ordered after the messages still being processed and that have been forwarded downstream of the node and (ii) pause processing upon reaching skew limits. The nodes upstream of the ordered node limit output of messages to be within a delta of other messages as defined by message IDs. In addition, messages removed from a flow path are replaced by Null messages for ordered processing. Child messages are encoded to incorporate parent IDs preserving ordering systems.
US09009233B2
A method and system utilizing presence in a presence aware data/messaging network between a user and an organization for communication purposes to indicate when both parties are ready to engage in a dialog session or when one party has new information for the other party. The method and system can be further enhanced if the presence aware network also provides location information or other state information on the user.
US09009221B2
One or more network devices send to a user device a user interface with options for configuring a network to provide transaction services between transaction devices and host processing devices. The user interface is accessible to the user device via a private network connection. The one or more network devices receive from the user device configuration settings for a particular host processing device. The one or more network devices store the configuration settings in a database of transaction services data for multiple host processing devices, to be accessed by another device within the network for configuring the network for the particular host processing device.
US09009208B2
Floating point adder circuitry 16, 18, 20 is provided with far-path circuitry 18 and near-path circuitry 20. The far-path circuitry utilises a count of trailing zeros TZ and a difference in the input operand exponents to form respective suffix values which are concatenated with the mantissas of the input addends and serve when summed to generate a carry out taking the place of a conventionally calculated sticky bit. Within the near-path, minimum value circuitry 46 is used to calculate the lower of a leading zeros count of the intermediate mantissa produced in a subtraction and the larger of the input operand exponent values such that a left shift applied to the intermediate mantissa value is not able to produce a invalid floating point result due to applying a left shift to remove leading zeros that is too larger and accordingly corresponds to an exponent which cannot be validly represented.
US09009202B2
A method of identifying nonreferenced memory elements in a storage system is disclosed. A plurality of lists of referenced elements from a plurality of storage subsystems is input. A union of the lists of referenced elements is compiled. The union of the lists of referenced memory elements is compared to a list of previously referenced memory elements to determine previously referenced elements that are no longer referenced. The previously referenced elements that are no longer referenced is output.
US09009199B2
The present invention relates to a method computer program product for datamining with constant search time, the method and computer program product comprises the steps of: traversing a search tree to a leave, retrieving a one or more data store identifier from said leave, read data pointed to by said data store identifier, locating one or more value in said data, referencing one or more data descriptor, retrieve the n-nearest data descriptor neighbors, terminate said search.
US09009193B2
Techniques are presented for providing a software fitting assessment. The techniques may be performed by methods, apparatus, and/or computer program products. The techniques include automatically matching on a computer system one or more specified requirements for a project with one or more software functions stored in a repository. The automatically matching includes mining the repository in order to match requirements. The repository includes software functions, requirements accumulated from previous projects, and results of stored matches between the software functions and the requirements accumulated from previous projects. The techniques include outputting by the computer system one or more results of the matching.
US09009191B2
A system and method are provided for presenting relevant content for attaching files, e.g. for an email application or an instant messaging application. In one example, a method includes providing a keyword extraction engine to extract keywords from text, and providing a keyword mapping engine to map the keywords to at least one attribute and at least one attribute value based on a pre-determined mapping scheme. In another example, a method includes receiving, e.g. from a user, at least one keyword, at least one attribute, and least one attribute value to define a mapping scheme.
US09009189B2
Methods and arrangements for handling user queries. Submitted queries are accessed, and there are identified queries as being insufficiently addressed. A priority is estimated for the identified queries, and the identified queries are ordered based on the estimated priority. A priority-ordered list of queries is provided as output.
US09009182B2
A system, method and computer product for managing distributed transactions of a database. A transaction manager is provided for each of a plurality of transactions of the database. Each transaction manager is configured to perform functions that include generating a transaction token that specifies data to be visible for a transaction on the database. The database contains both row and column storage engines, and the transaction token includes a transaction identifier (TID) for identifying committed transactions and uncommitted transactions. A last computed transaction is designated with a computed identifier (CID), record-level locking of records of the database is performed using the TID and CID to execute the transaction, and the plurality of transactions of the database are executed with each transaction manager.
US09009178B2
Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products herein enable a mobile terminal with a cognitive radio to determine at least one white space spectrum database to access based on a current location and once the at least one white space spectrum database is accessed to determine the relevant communication protocols. One example method may include accessing one or more white space database identifiers. In some example embodiments, the white space database identifiers correspond to a white space database assigned to a region. The method may further include determining whether the one or more database identifiers match a database identifier associated with a schema In some example embodiments, the schema defines one or more parameters for exchanging information with a white space spectrum database. The method may further include selecting the schema that is associated with the matched database identifier.
US09009148B2
There is provided a computer-implemented method and system for ranking documents. The method includes identifying a number of query-document pairs based on clickthrough data for a number of documents. The method also includes building a latent semantic model based on the query-document pairs and ranking the documents for a search based on the latent semantic model.
US09009145B2
A method for searching for a travel product having one or more data elements associated therewith from a plurality of potentially suitable travel products in a system comprising a web based interface for receiving inputs from a user and from one or more sources of data, and for displaying results to a user based on the inputs; a business logic layer providing access to the sources of data in a predetermined manner, such as based on rules and preferences; and a database including data relating to the parties associated with the system; wherein the method comprises the steps of: entering one or more search parameters into the interface; launching multiple simultaneous searches based on the search criteria and one or more attribute of the travel product to the one or more sources of data to identify the potentially suitable travel products; displaying the potentially suitable travel products on the interface; selecting one or more of the potentially suitable travel products for further processing; further processing the potentially suitable travel products by normalizing the data elements associated with the potentially suitable travel products into a homogeneous display; determining a combination of data elements of the one or more potentially suitable travel products which in combination are the most suitable travel products for a customer based on customer preferences and attributes.
US09009141B2
A display apparatus and a displaying method of contents, the display apparatus including a content output unit which outputs contents, a display unit which displays predetermined space information, a user interface (UI) generating unit which generates UI information, a user input unit, and a control unit which classifies the contents into a group which corresponds to a position on the displayed predetermined space information based on predetermined position information of the contents in response to a request to search for contents, being input through the user input unit, controls the UI generating unit to generate a first UI indicating the group, and controls the display unit to display the generated first UI at the corresponding position of the group on the displayed predetermined space information.
US09009138B2
A method and apparatus for transparent analytical query acceleration identifies within a database management system (DBMS) if a query is an analytical type. The query is processed with an analytical query processor if the query is the analytical type. In addition, the query is processed within the DBMS if the query is not the analytical type.
US09009128B2
An information processing apparatus including a search unit configured to access a server storing a plurality of contents therein, and search for a desired content from among the plurality of contents, a recognition unit configured to recognize a reproduction apparatus which is capable of reproducing a content stored in the server, an instruction unit configured to instruct the reproduction apparatus to reproduce the content having been searched for by the search unit, and an acquisition unit configured to acquire reproduction information relating to the content having been reproduced by the reproduction apparatus.
US09009123B2
A method and system for combining, communicating, storing and/or separating image data and non-image data. The method involves a computer programmed to identify an end-of-file (EOF) marker of an image file, and being programmed to add the non-image data to the image file after the EOF marker.
US09009117B2
In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for creating, exporting, viewing and testing, and importing custom applications in a multitenant database environment. These mechanisms and methods can enable embodiments to provide a vehicle for sharing applications across organizational boundaries. The ability to share applications across organizational boundaries can enable tenants in a multi-tenant database system, for example, to easily and efficiently import and export, and thus share, applications with other tenants in the multi-tenant environment.
US09009116B2
Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture consistent with the present invention provide for managing a database. A data store is provided that is distributed over at least two sub data processing systems. A first information in the data store is associated with a first consistency level and a second information in the data store is associated with a second consistency level. At least one of the first consistency level and the second consistency level is selected according to an algorithm.
US09009110B2
A view object is generated in a target deployment unit in a design time environment of a metadata repository. The view object is modeled on a business object of a source deployment unit. The source deployment unit includes process components of a business application that is physically decoupled from the target deployment unit. A subset of attributes of the business object of the source deployment unit is selected. The subset of attributes includes at least an outbound agent and an inbound agent implemented by a generic messaging framework. The view object is modeled in the target deployment unit with the subset of attributes of the business object. The inbound agent of the view object is configured for receiving a replication message from the outbound agent of the business object, and the replication message includes replication data for configuring the view object only with data from the business object.
US09009108B2
The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates managing data consistency in connection with a plurality of devices. A collection of devices can be associated with a user. A web service can receive a portion of data from at least one device via an interface component, wherein the web service can host and relate the portion of data with an account for the user. A master sync component can leverage a computing resource from at least one device in order to maintain data consistency between at least one of the following: two or more devices within the collection of devices associated with the user; or the account hosted by the web service and two or more devices within the collection of devices associated with the user.
US09009095B1
Systems and methods for determining a probability of changing from one state to another in a stochastic entity, comprising: determining the compact component matrix utilizing characteristic information of the stochastic entity; determining the compact composite component matrix by taking a Kroneker product of the compact component matrix and an identity matrix; determining and placing all current states for the stochastic entity into a state space matrix; determining a Q matrix and/or a transition rate matrix using the compact composite component matrix and basic conditions or variables of the problem domain and/or a compact transition rate matrix; and performing Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation using information from the state space matrix and information from the transition rate matrix to determine the probability of changing from one state to another state in the stochastic entity.
US09009092B2
Concepts and technologies are described herein for creating variations when transforming data into consumable content. In accordance with the concepts and technologies disclosed herein, a computing device can execute a transformation engine for transforming data into the consumable content. The computing device can be configured to analyze the data to identify relationships among data elements or other portions of the data, and to identify any possible approaches to transforming the data (“worlds”) based upon the relationships and the data. The worlds can be ranked and selected based upon rank. The computing device can obtain rules associated with the selected and apply the rules to the data to generate the output. In some embodiments, the computing device can be configured to obtain and apply feedback regarding the world selection.
US09009091B2
An analysis tool for causing a computer to use information gain of attributes and a classification algorithm to classify new records in a set of data by taking into account the predictive value of the attributes and the effect of the new record.
US09009077B2
Metering is enabled through an arrangement in which a metering certificate is communicated to a mobile device using an over-the-air protocol. A metering trigger provides the metering certificate that includes a location to which metering data is posted by the mobile device and a public key of a public-private key pair, or alternatively provides a link to such metering certificate. A metering helper passes the metering certificate to a DRM system on the mobile device which collects metering data associated with the metering ID and uses the public key to encrypt the metering data into a metering challenge. The metering helper posts the metering challenge to the location. The metering service extracts the metering data from the metering challenge using a private key and generates a metering response that is received by the metering helper which prompts the DRM system to reset at least a portion of a data store in which the metering data is stored.
US09009074B2
Systems and methods are provided for generating and publishing electronic spare parts catalogs that support electronic business processes for managing and selling spare parts for complex machines and systems, such as gas turbines. Automated systems and methods for generating electronic catalogs of spare parts employ an extensible, template-based framework to extract and integrate catalog content (static and/or real-time spare parts data) from various backend business information systems and data sources.
US09009062B2
In some embodiments, the instant invention provides a programmed system having a computer programmed with software instructions that include at least: code to receive an electronic Tender voting request to conduct a Tender voting; where the Tender voting is limited to a plurality of employees who has owned shares of an issuer at a record date via at least one of: i) at least one 401K plan, and ii) at least one employee stock ownership plan (ESOP); where the Tender voting is selected from the group of Tender voting types consisting of: i) a Tender offer, ii) an All-or-None Tender offer, and iii) a Dutch Tender auction; code to identify the plurality of employees; code to generate a plurality of programmed visual computer screens to allow the plurality of employees to submit Tender votes; and code to dynamically output a report identifying a progress of the Tender voting.
US09009059B2
The present invention provides a method and a system for providing at least one communications service to one or more service providers by a communications service provider. Communications capabilities of the communications service provider are sliced into a plurality of virtual slices and each of the plurality of virtual slices is configured for a different service provider from among the one or more service providers. At least one communications service is provided to each of the one or more service providers through a respective configured virtual slice by the communications service provider. Each of the one or more service providers further provides the communications service to a user through the respective configured virtual slice in collaboration with the communications service provider.
US09009058B2
A method of aiding creation of a service offer associated with a Service Delivery Framework (SDF) includes providing a plurality of reusable Application Objects (AOs) that may be associated with an Interactive Development Environment (IDE). The AOs are prototype customer facing service offers that include standardized functions supporting ordering, billing, management and monitoring. The AOs also include standardized event formats and configurable attributes that affect the behavior and pricing of service offers derived from the AOs. A Services Marketplace facilitates reuse of AOs and supports relationships between customers, application creators, service providers and OSS/BSS providers. A computer-readable medium includes instructions that when executed by a computing device aids in creation of a service offer associated with a SDF by providing a plurality of reusable Application Objects (AOs) in the context of a services marketplace.
US09009049B2
Computer-based speech recognition can be improved by recognizing words with an accurate accent model. In order to provide a large number of possible accents, while providing real-time speech recognition, a language tree data structure of possible accents is provided in one embodiment such that a computerized speech recognition system can benefit from choosing among accent categories when searching for an appropriate accent model for speech recognition.
US09009046B1
The present invention addresses the deficiencies in the prior art by providing an improved dialog for disambiguating a user utterance containing more than one intent. The invention comprises methods, computer-readable media, and systems for engaging in a dialog. The method embodiment of the invention relates to a method of disambiguating a user utterance containing at least two user intents. The method comprises establishing a confidence threshold for spoken language understanding to encourage that multiple intents are returned, determining whether a received utterance comprises a first intent and a second intent and, if the received utterance contains the first intent and the second intent, disambiguating the first intent and the second intent by presenting a disambiguation sub-dialog wherein the user is offered a choice of which intent to process first, wherein the user is first presented with the intent of the first or second intents having the lowest confidence score.
US09009036B2
Embodiments are generally directed to systems and methods for bit allocation and band partitioning for gain-shape vector quantization in an audio codec. An audio codec implements a method that uses an implicit, dynamic scheme to allow an encoder and decoder to recreate a series of bit allocation decisions for gain and shape without transmitting additional side information for each decision, based on the number of bits that are left remaining and available in a given packet. For implementation in practical codecs, the band comprising the allocation of bits for the shape is recursively split into equal partitions until the number of bits allocated to each partition is less than the maximum codebook size.
US09009025B1
In some implementations, a digital work provider may provide language model information related to a plurality of different contexts, such as a plurality of different digital works. For example, the language model information may include language model difference information identifying a plurality of sequences of one or more words in a digital work that have probabilities of occurrence that differ from probabilities of occurrence in a base language model by a threshold amount. The language model difference information corresponding to a particular context may be used in conjunction with the base language model to recognize an utterance made by a user of a user device. In some examples, the recognition is performed on the user device. In other examples, the utterance and associated context information are sent over a network to a recognition computing device that performs the recognition.
US09009021B2
This specification describes an innovative method for automatic transliteration of a record in a first language to a word in a second language.
US09009016B2
A method for measuring the cerebral perfusion of a living organism (1) by means of magnetic resonance (=“MR”) imaging proposes acquisition of further MR signals in a slice (5) that is pervaded by an artery that supplies the blood to the brain in order to determine the temporal progression of the concentration of the contrast medium during the bolus passage in the artery. During acquisition of the further MR signals, a magnetic field gradient is applied in such a way that projection images of the slice are generated. In each time interval between the excitations of the further MR signals, at least one radio-frequency (=“RF”) pulse is irradiated that causes saturation of the nuclear spin magnetization in the slice. This enables simultaneous measurement of the contrast medium flow in the vessels supplying the brain and the brain tissue within the same sequence with an adapted dynamic range.
US09009011B2
Method and system disclosed herein provides generating a three-dimensional construction grid based on a data file generated by an architectural software, wherein the three-dimensional grid includes three-dimensional position information of various structural building components; displaying the three-dimensional construction grid using a display device of a computing device; receiving information of various non-structural building components, the information including location of the non-structural building components on the three-dimensional grid; associating the non-structural building components to one or more of the structural components of the three-dimensional grid; and automatically generating a plurality of specifications for the non-structural building components.
US09009009B2
Disclosed is a method and system for prediction of an optimized crystal structure using an evolutionary algorithm that includes inputting characterization information of a chemical structure and input parameters, generating a first generation of crystal structures from the characterization information using symmetrical initialization, optimizing the chemical structure of the first generation of crystal structures according to the input parameters, inputting the optimized first generation of crystal structures into a niching algorithm, producing a child group of crystal structures from the parent group of crystal structures using a variation operator, and adding the child group of crystal structures to an optimal group of crystal structures to form a next generation, with the niching algorithm selecting an optimal group of crystal structures and a parent group of crystal structures from the first generation of crystal structures.
US09009004B2
A technique for generating interconnect fabric requirements. The technique programmatically generates an interconnect design problem based on criteria specified by a user. In one aspect, a computer implemented method is provided for generating an interconnect fabric design problem. The problem includes requirements for a plurality of flows among a set of network nodes. A source node and a terminal node are selected, from among the set of network nodes, for a flow to be added to the requirements. A maximum capacity available at the selected source node and the selected terminal node is determined. The flow is generated having a capacity less than or equal to the lower of the maximum capacity of the source node and the terminal node. Depending upon the input criteria, the invention may generate problems with greater flexibility than prior techniques.
US09008999B2
A component position detector for determining if a first component is properly attached to a second component. The component position detector can be a steering wheel airbag position detector that provides for a convenient and cost-effective apparatus and/or process for determining whether or not a steering wheel airbag is properly attached to a steering wheel. Such a steering wheel airbag position detector can include a jig that has a scan position, the scan position located on a front side of a steering wheel. In addition, the position detector can include a sensor rigidly attached to the jig, the sensor operable to perform a two-dimensional scan across a gap between the steering wheel and a steering wheel airbag and/or horn pad attached to the steering wheel.
US09008988B2
A method of calibrating inertial sensors of working equipment, such as a vehicle or survey equipment, includes determining whether the working equipment is in operation or not. Data is captured from inertial sensors and associated temperature sensors while the working equipment is out of operation. The captured data is used to update a thermal bias error model for the inertial sensors.
US09008987B2
An electronic device is provided with an inclination sensor for computing inclination, a control unit which conducts predetermined control based on a value computed by the inclination sensor, a case which has the inclination sensor and the control unit therein, and a suspension portion for suspending the case, and the control unit controls correction of the reference value of the inclination sensor based on a state where the case is suspended by the suspension portion and still.
US09008982B2
The present disclosure provides systems and methods for calculating the flux in a core of an unloaded power transformer using current measurements taken from a capacitance-coupled voltage transformer (CCVT) attached to the same phase line as the power transformer. According to various embodiments, the current sensors may both be positioned at zero-voltage points in the CCVT, eliminating the need for high-voltage insulated current sensors. An intelligent electronic device (IED) may determine the magnetic flux within the core of the power transformer using the measured and/or derived currents through capacitive assemblies of the CCVT. The IED may calculate the residual flux in the power transformer when it is de-energized. The IED may use the calculated residual flux to facilitate an optimized re-energization of the power transformer, thereby reducing inrush currents during re-energization.
US09008979B2
A total energy quantity controlling device has a calculation data generating portion for defining, as calculation data, data for the amount of energy used for a processing energy type at a processing location for a processing month in a processing fiscal year, if this data is confirmed, or substitute data if this data for the amount of energy used is not confirmed; a substitute data determining portion for determining the substitute data; a data calculation processing portion for using the calculation data to calculate an aggregate value for the amount of energy used; a substitution rate calculating portion for calculating a substitution rate that is the use rate of the substitute data or the confirmed data within the aggregate value for the amount of energy used; and a displaying portion for displaying the aggregate value for the amount of energy used and the use rate.
US09008974B2
In an implementation, a query signature corresponding to a query sequence based on a set of closest cluster centroids is generated. Based on the query signature, one or more target reference signatures from a plurality of reference signatures are identified. Further based on the one or more target reference signatures, a probable taxonomic group is identified and assigned to the query sequence.
US09008972B2
Method for generating a new family of seismic attributes sensitive to seismic texture that can be used for classification and grouping of seismic data into seismically similar regions. A 2D or 3D data analysis window size is selected (23), and for each of multiple positions (25) of the analysis window in the seismic data volume, the data within the window are transformed to a wavenumber domain spectrum (26). At least one attribute of the seismic data is then defined based on one or more spectral properties, and the attribute is computed (28) for each window, generating a multidimensional spectral attribute data volume (29). The attribute data volume can be used for inferring hydrocarbon potential, preferably after classifying the data volume cells based on the computed attribute, partitioning the cells into regions based on the classification, and prioritizing of the regions within a classification.
US09008971B2
A system for measuring a profile of a hydraulic head. A flexible liner is everted down the borehole. The profile of the transmissivity of the geologic media is obtained during (and indirectly from) the eversion of the flexible liner as it proceeds down the borehole. The liner is then retrieved by inversion from the borehole, while the pressure head in the borehole fluid below the liner is monitored and measured. From the previously obtained transmissivity profile, and the measured head within the borehole, the hydraulic head in the geologic media surrounding the borehole is determined for borehole intervals. A complete hydraulic head profile may be obtained from the collected data.
US09008969B2
Method and system for analyzing electrical pulses contained in a pulse train signal representative of the interaction of x-ray bursts with a nuclear detector configured for subsurface disposal. The pulse train signal is sampled to form a digitized signal. The total energy deposited at the detector during an x-ray burst is determined from the digitized signal, and a count rate of x-ray pulses from the burst is determined. A subsurface parameter is determined using the total energy deposit.
US09008966B2
Systems and methods for applying one or more route-based modifications to a map are provided. In some aspects, a system includes a pathfinder module configured to determine a primary route from a beginning point to a destination point on the map. The pathfinder module is further configured to generate one or more primary modifications to the map based on the primary route. The system also includes a restyling module configured to apply the primary route and the one or more primary modifications to the map. The one or more primary modifications include at least one of a) adding a first object to the map that would otherwise be excluded from the map if the primary route is not applied to the map and b) excluding a second object from the map that would otherwise be added to the map if the primary route is not applied to the map.
US09008964B2
A device for road and urban mobility and for solving the problem of traffic congestion, installed on a vehicle in order to make traffic flow more fluid in and between cities. The device consists of a set of five electronic modules, including a processor. The processor analyzes and extracts positional data of the equipped vehicle from a satellite signal and sends the requests of same for an exchange with a server, bi-directionally. The device is incorporated into an onboard housing. The present device is intended, in particular, to make the traffic flow more fluid and to communicate with a dedicated server in order to guide the driver of the equipped vehicle during his/her journey from a start point to the point entered into the device as the desired final destination. The present device reduces traffic congestion and pollution caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
US09008963B2
Map information distribution systems and methods store map information and version information for each road category of the map information stored in a navigation device, the version information correlated with identification information identifying the navigation device. The systems and methods receive the identification information from the navigation device and obtain, based on the received identification information, the version information for each road category of the map information stored in the navigation device corresponding to the stored identification information. The systems and methods extract, based on the obtained version information for each road category, differential data for each road category with stored map information of a latest version, and transmit the extracted differential data for each road category to the navigation device corresponding to the received identification information.
US09008961B2
Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to identifying and displaying traffic lanes that are available for autonomous driving. This information may be displayed to a driver of a vehicle having an autonomous driving mode, in order to inform the driver of where he or she can use the autonomous driving mode. In one example, the display may visually distinguishing between lanes that are available for auto-drive from those that are not. The display may also include an indicator of the position of a lane (autodrive or not) currently occupied by the vehicle. In addition, if that lane is an autodrive lane the display may include information indicating how much further the vehicle may continue in the autonomous driving mode in that particular lane. The display may also display information indicating the remaining autodrive distance in other lanes as well as the lane with the greatest remaining autodrive distance.
US09008956B2
Exemplary methods, systems and components enable selective control of an operational mode for a vehicle that is subject to an administrative standard. In some instances a qualified person or entity may attain a possible consequential result related to a user-selected vehicle operation mode that may involve a vehicle operation paradigm and/or a vehicle travel route and/or a vehicle travel destination. In some embodiments, implementation of the selected vehicle operation mode may modify a conformity status of the vehicle relative to the administrative standard. Various accessible records may be maintained regarding administrative compliance states and their respective benefits, as well as regarding certification of preferable consequential results available to qualified recipients based on a correlated vehicle operational mode.
US09008955B2
A navigation system includes a user-operable input device configured to receive a desired destination. A storage medium stores a map database that describes a road network comprising route segments. The map database includes, for each of the route segments, a respective attribute value and a respective energy cost. A processor is configured to analyze the route segments in the database in accordance with a predetermined optimization algorithm that considers both the attribute values and the energy costs of the route segments in order to select a combination of route segments from the database that interconnects a starting location and the destination.
US09008954B2
A method and system for predicting impact of traffic incidents on a road network by using a classification scheme to identify a known impact classes associated with captured traffic data.
US09008953B2
A method of operation of a navigation system includes: generating a travel trace for identifying a traffic direction flowing through an intersection; generating a trace count based on aggregating the plurality of the travel trace; calculating an expected turn count based on the trace count for estimating an out-edge traffic flowing from an in-edge traffic; and determining a turn restriction based on the expected turn count for identifying the turn restriction at the intersection for displaying on a device.
US09008939B2
A vehicle control system and method combining control allocation and phase compensation for forming a phase compensated actuator command signal based on a control demand signal. A feedback unit includes a matrix multiplication unit for forming an estimated behavior signal, from a control efficiency matrix and the actuator command signal. The estimated behavior signal is fed to a second summation unit for forming a difference signal. The difference signal is processed by a filter unit for forming a feedback signal which is connected to a first summation unit for forming a modified control demand signal, such that the modified control demand signal is adjusted to always represent a control demand realizable by the vehicle. The modified control demand signal is further connected to the second summation unit and to a control allocator which output is then connected to the matrix multiplier to form a feedback loop.
US09008937B2
A method for carrying out closed-loop or open-loop control of a vehicle brake system includes, when a braking request signal is present, setting brake pressures at brakes on axles and/or wheels of the vehicle by distributing brake pressure. Before braking is initiated on the basis of current, received or detected data relating to friction conditions or grip conditions between the roadway surface and tire surfaces of the vehicle, a determination is made as to whether, or to what extent, the distribution of brake pressure occurs in a brake wear pressure distribution or in a frictional engagement pressure distribution for the subsequent initiation of the braking process.
US09008936B2
A brake override system detects a brake operation based on master cylinder pressure when the brake operation followed by an accelerator operation results in simultaneous performance of the accelerator operation and the brake operation. The brake override system detects the brake operation by a brake switch when the accelerator operation followed by the brake operation results in the simultaneous performance of the accelerator operation and the brake operation. Thus, the system may accurately detect the brake operation regardless of the order of the accelerator operation and the brake operation.
US09008934B2
When a vehicle travels, due to an input from a road surface to the front wheels and rear wheels of the vehicle, unsprung vertical accelerations are generated in unsprung portions of the vehicle. An electronic control unit detects such unsprung vertical accelerations. The electronic control unit calculates a front-back force generated at each of the wheels by use of the detected unsprung vertical acceleration, and estimates a front-back vibration generated in each of the wheels. The electronic control unit calculates a front-back vibration suppressing force for absorbing the front-back vibration by use of the detected unsprung vertical acceleration. The electronic control unit subtracts the calculated front-back vibration suppressing force from the calculated front-back force, and operates the in-wheel motors via an inverter, while controlling the output torques of the in-wheel motors. Thus, the front-back vibrations of the unsprung portions of the vehicle can be suppressed.
US09008928B2
Disclosed is a vehicle control apparatus which can prevent the deterioration of drivability. The ECU can set a control accelerator opening degree to be converted when a control permission condition is established. The control accelerator opening degree is equal to or larger than an accelerator lower limit which is larger than an idle determination value for determining an automatic stopping of an engine by an eco-run. The control accelerator opening degree thus set can prevent the drivability from being deteriorated without the automatic stopping of the engine being caused even if the accelerator opening degree is converted to reduce the torque of the engine with the establishment of the control permission condition.
US09008927B2
A driving force controlling apparatus for a vehicle incorporates an engine and a second motor generator and defines a first engaging unit by engaging a counter drive gear, which is able to output power from the engine, with a final gear; and a second engaging unit by engaging a counter drive gear, which is able to output power from the second motor generator, with the final gear. The power from the driving source (the engine or the second motor generator) in whichever of the first engaging unit and second engaging unit has greater vibration is decreased, whereas the power from the driving source (the engine or the second motor generator) in the engaging unit having less vibration is increased.
US09008922B2
A reference position setting method for an automated manual transmission is allowed to initialize an accurate reference position while minimizing relative movement of a finger, and to reduce noise generated when the finger moves to an end of a shifting direction to secure quieter and faster operation capability.
US09008918B2
A method for controlling an agricultural vehicle system when moving along a course of travel over a field providing a field model correlating a field characteristic, e.g. a farmland condition such as farmland slope, or a crop condition such as crop density or moisture, to a specific location in the field, from the field model and at least one previously obtained value for the field characteristic, predicting a value for the field characteristic in front of the agricultural vehicle system thus obtaining an anticipated field characteristic, and; controlling the agricultural vehicle system at least partly in response to the anticipated field characteristic.
US09008916B2
A seat belt is wound around a spool and a spring biases the spool to rotate in a belt retraction direction. A sensor detects a retraction speed of the belt when the spool rotates in the belt retraction direction and generating a belt speed signal. An electrical drive unit receives the belt speed signal and applies a torque to the spool in a belt extension direction (opposite to the belt retraction direction) if the retraction speed exceeds a threshold value. The torque is of a magnitude sufficient to maintain the retraction speed below the threshold value. The electric motor and/or electrical control unit may be part of or otherwise integrated with a safety belt pre-tensioning system.
US09008914B2
In the present invention, when a solid object is recognized in the direction of movement of an own vehicle, in a system which carries out driving support of a vehicle, turning control of the vehicle is carried out in order to avoid a collision with the solid object. However, the execution of the turning control is permitted, in cases where a distance between the position of the own vehicle under turning control and the position of the solid object in an entire range of a turning control zone continuous between a predetermined control starting point at which the turning control of the own vehicle is started and a predetermined control ending point at which the turning control ends becomes equal to or less than a predetermined avoidance distance at which it is determined to avoid the collision with the solid object.
US09008910B2
An electrical power steering system for a motor vehicle. The system includes a rack actuator and a sensor for measuring torque applied to the steering wheel by the driver, the actuator and the sensor being arranged on the steering column, respectively between the steering wheel and the rack, and between the actuator and the steering wheel. The system develops a final assistance torque of the electrical power steering, which is adapted to simulate an identical localization of the rack actuator and the torque measuring sensor on the steering column, such that the Bode diagram phase representing the operation of the system is essentially nil at the two main frequencies of the mechanical resonance of the system.
US09008902B2
A battery system for vehicle comprises a battery unit that is constituted with a plurality of serially connected cell groups each include a plurality of serially connected battery cells, integrated circuits that are each disposed in correspondence to one of the cell groups of the battery unit and each measure terminal voltages at the battery cells in the corresponding cell group, and a signal transmission path through which one of the integrated circuits is connected to another one of the integrated circuits or to a circuit other than that of the integrated circuits.
US09008899B2
A sensor equipped wheel support bearing assembly having good assemblability with a compact structure and capable of accurately detecting load acting on a bearing of a vehicle wheel is provided. One of an outer member and an inner member that serves as a stationary member has a vehicle body fitting flange to be fitted to a knuckle. One or more load detecting sensor unit is provided on the stationary member and includes a strain generating member having two or more contact fixing segments fixed to the stationary member, and one or more sensors fitted to the strain generating member for detecting a strain occurring in the strain generating member. A circuit fixing stay is provided on a side face of the vehicle body fitting flange and a calculation processing circuit is fitted to this stay for calculating and processing an output signal of the sensor.
US09008897B2
A method and apparatus is provided that allows a technician to retrieve diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs) and remove any duplicates. The diagnostic tool can retrieve DTCs from the various diagnostic systems in the vehicle, remove any duplicates and display a unique list of DTCs. The diagnostic tool can also erase all DTCs including any duplicates from the vehicle after repairs have been completed. The tool can retrieve the DTCs without the user selecting the system to retrieve from.
US09008893B2
Embodiments relate to systems and methods for vehicle monitoring with processing interruption tolerance. One or more vehicle sensors can transmit one or more data streams to a primary data processing system via a data channel. A secondary data buffer can be coupled to the data channel to continuously capture the set of data streams and/or subsets thereof. During normal operation, the set of data streams are processed by the primary data processing system. After a limited-duration fault occurs in the primary data processing system, it can recover by accessing the backup data in the secondary data buffer. The lost data can be retrieved from the secondary data buffer using timestamp information to process the data in its original time context and to ensure that no already-processed data is included. The set of data streams can be downsampled or decimated in the secondary data buffer to extend storage capacity.
US09008890B1
An autonomous vehicle may include a stuck condition detection component and a communications component. The stuck-detection component may be configured to detect a condition in which the autonomous vehicle is impeded from navigating according to a first trajectory. The communications component may send an assistance signal to an assistance center and receive a response to the assistance signal. The assistance signal may include sensor information from the autonomous vehicle. The assistance center may include a communications component and a trajectory specification component. The communications component may receive the assistance signal and send a corresponding response. The trajectory specification component may specify a second trajectory for the autonomous vehicle and generate the corresponding response that includes a representation of the second trajectory. The second trajectory may be based on the first trajectory and may ignore an object that obstructs the first trajectory.
US09008885B2
Disclosed herein are a vehicle control apparatus and a vehicle control method. The vehicle control apparatus includes a yaw-rate sensor to detect a yaw-rate of a vehicle, a steering-angle sensor to detect a steering angle of the vehicle, and a Micro Controller Unit (MCU) to calculate a yaw-rate based on the steering-angle, to calculate a target braking pressure of a wheel based on a difference between the actual yaw-rate detected via the yaw-rate sensor and the calculated yaw-rate, and to adjust a braking pressure of the wheel based on the calculated target braking pressure.
US09008880B2
Methods and systems are provided for displaying a recommended engine fuel fill amount to an operator of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. In one example, the recommended engine fuel fill amount is determined based on an actual amount of fuel consumed over a particular duration and displayed to an operator of the vehicle with a low fuel warning.
US09008876B2
A vehicle having two forwardly positioned steerable road wheels and first and second rearwardly positioned wheels disposed on opposing lateral sides of the vehicle has first and second independently controllable electric motors to apply driving and braking torque to respective rearwardly positioned wheels. An angle sensor indicates a steering angle of the steerable road-wheels, and a speed sensor indicates vehicle longitudinal speed. A yaw-rate sensor indicates the vehicle's measured yaw-rate. The vehicle has control means to determine a target yaw-rate from the steering angle of the steerable road wheels and the longitudinal velocity; determine a yaw rate error by comparing the vehicle's measured yaw-rate with said target yaw-rate, and determine an amount of yaw torque to correct or reduce the yaw-rate error; and control the electric motors to apply an amount of differential torque to the respective first and second rearwardly positioned wheels to generate said amount of yaw torque.
US09008873B1
Methods and systems for a go/no-go Landing Decision Point (LDP) are disclosed. The methods and systems provide a graphical LDP on a cockpit display that pilots can use to determine whether to continue the landing or execute a go-around. The methods and systems may be implemented in embodiments having an onboard portion, an off-board portion, or both operatively coupled to provide an LDP in a preview/planning mode and real time mode.
US09008870B2
A terrain warning system includes an indicator to inform a pilot of a proposed degree of flight parameters for safely clearing terrain. An aural message may identify a vertical speed that may be used to safely traverse terrain to the pilot. A visual indicator on a display informs the pilot of a vertical speed or climb angle to traverse terrain. The display may be a vertical speed indicator also capable of displaying traffic advisories.
US09008863B2
A vehicle instrument panel apparatus includes a communication unit configured to receive a widget or content transmitted from one or more user terminals, an instrument panel page constituted of a plurality of instrument panel containers in which the widget or content is embedded, a converting unit configured to generate data capable of being embedded in the instrument panel containers according to a type of the received widget or content, an execution unit configured to load the instrument panel page to a screen, a sensing data acquiring unit configured to acquire measurement information input through one or more sensors, and an interface unit configured to combine the measurement information acquired by the sensing data acquiring unit with the instrument panel page loaded by the execution unit.
US09008852B2
Systems, methods, and apparatus embodiments for electric power grid and network registration and management of active grid elements. Grid elements are transformed into active grid elements following initial registration of each grid element with the system, preferably through network-based communication between the grid elements and a coordinator, either in coordination with or outside of an IP-based communications network router. A multiplicity of active grid elements function in the grid for supply capacity, supply and/or load curtailment as supply or capacity. Also preferably, messaging is managed through a network by a Coordinator using IP messaging for communication with the grid elements, with the energy management system (EMS), and with the utilities, market participants, and/or grid operators.
US09008851B2
A control system and a method for initializing the control system are provided. The control system includes a control platform and a plurality of target modules SM1˜SMn. Data transmission ends of the target modules are connected to the control platform. A power input end of the target module SM1 receives an operation electrical energy. The target module SM1 delays the operation electrical energy by a first period, and outputs the operation electrical energy via a power output end of the target modules SM1. A power input end of the target module SMi receives the operation electrical energy from a power output end of the target module SM(i-1). The target module SMi delays the operation electrical energy by an nth period, and outputs the operation electrical energy via a power output end of the target modules SMi, wherein 1≦i≦n.
US09008845B2
A network system is provided. The network system includes an air conditioner, a terminal, a power supply source, and a power management apparatus. The air conditioner includes a first communication module so as to enable communication. The terminal includes a second communication module which is communication-connected to the first communication module, and downloads predetermined information from a web server. The power supply source supplies power to the air conditioner. The power management apparatus manages power information supplied from the power supply source. On the basis of at least one of the power information and information on an operation of the air conditioner, the terminal displays power use information of the air conditioner.
US09008844B2
The invention generally relates to ventilation systems and methods, and more particularly to selectively configurable climate control systems and methods for use in data centers and the like. A method includes receiving or obtaining input data, generating at least one actuation signal to change a flow configuration of a re-configurable duct system based upon the input data, and transmitting the at least one actuation signal.
US09008840B1
Framework may be implemented for transferring knowledge from an external agent to a robotic controller. In an obstacle avoidance/target approach application, the controller may be configured to determine a teaching signal based on a sensory input, the teaching signal conveying information associated with target action consistent with the sensory input, the sensory input being indicative of the target/obstacle. The controller may be configured to determine a control signal based on the sensory input, the control signal conveying information associated with target approach/avoidance action. The controller may determine a predicted control signal based on the sensory input and the teaching signal, the predicted control conveying information associated with the target action. The control signal may be combined with the predicted control in order to cause the robotic apparatus to execute the target action.
US09008837B2
The invention relates to a method for creating a robot model (17) of an industrial robot (1) which has a robotic arm (2) having a plurality of successive limbs (3-8) which are adjustable by means of drives (11-16) via transmissions (5) in relation to axes (A1-A2), controlled by a control device (10) of the industrial robot (1). According to the invention, the robotic arm (2) is moved in a plurality of poses. At least one of the limbs (4) is moved in the same first movement direction (18) by means of the drive (11) thereof at least upon approaching the individual poses. In order to obtain the robot model (17), the robotic arm (2) is measured at each of the poses thereof.
US09008835B2
A method of scheduling a robotic device enables the device to run autonomously based on previously loaded scheduling information. The method consists of a communication device, such as a hand-held remote device, that can directly control the robotic device, or load scheduling information into the robotic device such that it will carry out a defined task at the desired time without the need for further external control. The communication device can also be configured to load a scheduling application program into an existing robotic device, such that the robotic device can receive and implement scheduling information from a user.
US09008832B2
A diamond sorting system comprising a diamond source for supplying one or more diamonds to be graded by a vision system having one or more cameras arranged to take one or more images of the diamond, and a processor arranged to receive the image data and execute an algorithm on the data to grade the diamond. The sorting system further comprising a diamond collection unit arranged to receive a graded diamond from the vision system and an electromechanical diamond transporter arranged to transport a diamond to be graded from the diamond source to the vision system, and further arranged to transport a graded diamond from the vision system to the diamond collection unit.
US09008821B2
A servo control system capable of using an angle-based synchronization learning control, even when a reference position is not given, while maintaining the advantage of the angle-based synchronization method. The servo control system has X-, y- and z-axes servo controllers, each configured to control x-, y- and z-axes servomotors, respectively. Each of x- and y-axes servo controllers has a reference signal generating part configured to generate a reference signal which monotonically increases or varies in one direction, based on the position command of each axis transmitted from a higher-level controller.
US09008812B2
A method and apparatus are provided for generating a personalized radio channel playlist by simultaneously buffering multiple received channels from one or more source streams, and then selecting songs or tracks to playback from the buffered channels. Users can specify favorite channels for building their personal playlists, or multiple default playlist channels can be provided by genre or channels related in some other way. Navigation tools permit users to skip ahead and backward in the playback stream. A personalized radio channel playlist can be implemented as (1) content selected from buffered channels based on user preferences for artists, songs and the like, or (2) as a Mix Channel in which content from selected buffered channels is automatically mixed for playback in response to selection of a preset button assigned to the Mix Channel.
US09008804B2
A portable communicator for operating a field device. The portable communicator is configured to communicate with the field device to configure and/or analyze performance of a field device in an efficient manner. In some embodiments, the portable communicator includes an intuitive user interface that allows the user to perform a relatively limited set of preconfigured procedures on a field device. The portable communicator may communicate with the field device via a wire and/or wirelessly. In one embodiment, the portable communicator is a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone, a PDA, a pocket PC, or any Bluetooth-enabled generic mobile communication device. The portable communicator may communicate with the field device via a wireless communication unit (e.g., Bluetooth modem) coupled to the field device. In a process plant environment, in which the field device is coupled to a controller, the portable communicator may communicate with the field device without communicating with the controller.
US09008797B2
An implantable medical electrical lead includes a plurality of conductors that extend continuously, without any intermediary junctions, between a plurality of electrodes and a corresponding plurality of contact members of an in-line connector terminal. A junction between each conductor and the corresponding contact member is preferably formed by first fitting a conductive sleeve, which is coupled to a proximal portion of the conductor, into an eyelet feature of the contact member, which is mounted on a strut member, and then welding the sleeve to the contact member at a pre-formed slot of the contact member, which extends along an external recessed surface thereof. The assembly of the connector terminal preferably completes the construction of the lead, wherein the proximal portion of each conductor is positioned in a helical path, which extends between an elongate body of the lead and the connector terminal, and along which a grip zone is formed.
US09008793B1
A apparatus for performing tissue modification procedures on a patient's body can include a device, which can be adapted for connection to at least two electrodes, where temperature sensors can be incorporated into tip portions of said electrodes, a high frequency generator, which can be operatively associated with said device, wherein said generator can deliver non-simultaneously a high frequency signal output to each of said electrodes, and a feedback control circuit, which can be configured to regulate the signal output delivery to each of said electrodes so it can maintain a user settable temperature at tip portion of said electrodes when the electrodes can be in contact with the patient's body.
US09008790B2
Timing channel circuitry for controlling stimulation circuitry in an implantable stimulator is disclosed. The timing channel circuitry comprises a addressable memory. Data for the various phases of a desired pulse are stored in the memory using different numbers of words, including a command indicative of the number of words in the phase, a next address for the next phase stored in the memory, and a pulse width or duration of the current phase, control data for the stimulation circuitry, pulse amplitude, and electrode data. The command data is used to address through the words in the current phase via the address bus, which words are sent to a control register for the stimulation circuitry. After the duration of the pulse width for the current phase has passed, the stored next address is used to access the data for the next phase stored in the memory.
US09008785B2
A retinal prosthesis including an electronic stimulation unit housed inside an eye and including: a plurality of electrodes that contact a portion of a retina of the eye; an electronic control circuit, which is electrically connected to the electrodes and supplies to the electrodes electrical stimulation signals designed to stimulate the portion of retina; and a local antenna connected to the electronic control circuit. The retinal prosthesis further includes an electromagnetic expansion housed inside the eye and formed by a first expansion antenna and a second expansion antenna electrically connected together, the first expansion antenna being magnetically or electromagnetically coupled to an external antenna, the second expansion antenna being magnetically or electromagnetically couple to the local antenna, the electromagnetic expansion moreover receiving an electromagnetic supply signal transmitted by the external antenna and generating a corresponding replica signal.
US09008784B2
Devices and methods for preventing knee sprain injuries. To protect the knee joint from knee sprain injuries, the device comprises a sensing part configured to sense data associated with knee motion; an analyzing part configured to analyze the knee motion data to determine a knee articulation; and a stimulating part configured to stimulate one or more lower limb muscles to initiate an earlier muscle reaction than would naturally occur in response to the determined knee joint articulation. The determined knee joint articulation may include knee joint articulation or a particular type of articulation such as a knee sprain movement associated with knee sprain. The methods involve sensing data associated with knee joint motion, analyzing the data to determine a knee joint articulation; and stimulating one or more lower limb muscles to initiate an early muscle reaction within the determined knee joint articulation.
US09008775B2
Approaches for selecting an electrode combination of multi-electrode pacing devices are described. Electrode combination parameters that support cardiac function consistent with a prescribed therapy are evaluated for each of a plurality of electrode combinations. Electrode combination parameters that do not support cardiac function are evaluated for each of the plurality of electrode combinations. An order is determined for the electrode combinations based on the parameter evaluations. An electrode combination is selected based on the order, and therapy is delivered using the selected electrode combination.
US09008773B2
An implantable medical device capable of sensing cardiac signals and delivering cardiac electrical stimulation therapies is enabled to detect a short circuit condition. In one embodiment, a cardiac signal is sensed by a sensing module coupled to electrodes. A controller identifies signal events in response to the cardiac signal and detects a short circuit condition in response to at least one of the signal events having an amplitude crossing a short circuit detection threshold and a maximum of two signal events crossing the short circuit detection threshold occurring between two adjacent events having amplitudes not crossing the short circuit detection threshold. In one embodiment, the signal events are identified from a differential signal determined from the sensed cardiac signal.
US09008772B2
An apparatus comprises a control circuit that initiates a normal pacing mode for delivery of electrostimulation energy to the heart chamber. In response to an indication to initiate a threshold test, the control circuit determines an electrode configuration used to deliver the electrostimulation energy in the normal pacing mode, selects a first threshold test mode when a sensing electrode independent from the set of pacing electrodes is unavailable for the heart chamber, wherein a cardiac activity signal is sensed using a set of sensing electrodes that includes an electrode common to the set of pacing electrodes, and selects a second threshold test mode when a sensing electrode independent from the set of pacing electrodes is available for the heart chamber, wherein the cardiac activity signal is sensed using a set of sensing electrodes that excludes an electrode common to the set of pacing electrodes.
US09008768B2
Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to systems, methods and devices for cardiac applications. One such device is directed to a catheter, and uses thereof, for capturing myocardium of a heart by delivering pacing signals to a location in the heart. The location is near a His Bundle of the heart. The catheter has a proximal end for interfacing with an electrical pacing signal source and a distal end. The distal end includes a fixation mechanism that attaches the catheter to heart tissue. First and second electrodes are also located at the distal end. Each electrode is individually addressable for providing pacing signals to the heart tissue and also arranged to physically contact the heart tissue when the fixation mechanism is attached to the heart tissue.
US09008761B2
Sensing is carried out from locations considerably removed from the stomach. Cooperating sensor electronics are placed at each of two wrists of the patient. The potential discomfort and inconvenience of an abdominal patch are reduced or eliminated, and alternative power sources become available.
US09008759B2
A system enables determination of at least one parameter for an injection procedure to be performed on a patient in connection with a diagnostic imaging procedure. The system includes a processor and one or more algorithms. Embodied within the algorithm(s) is a model descriptive of the propagation of a fluid within the patient from a site of injection thereof to each of at least two regions of interest thereof. The algorithm(s) permits one discrete data point from each of at least two time enhancement curves, derived via a test bolus, to be input into the model to determine values of physiological parameters associated with the patient, preferably those related to cardiopulmonary function. The algorithm(s) also allows the values of the physiological parameters to be input into the model wherein the parameter(s) of the injection procedure that will be performed on the patient at issue are determined.
US09008751B2
A method of producing volume renderings from magnetic resonance image data in real time with user interactivity. The method comprises collecting raw magnetic resonance image (MRI) data representative of shapes within an image volume; transferring the raw MRI data to a computer; and continuously producing volume renderings from the raw MRI data in real time with respect to the act of collecting raw MRI data representative of shapes within the image volume.
US09008750B2
In a method for determining the ventilation of a lung of an object under examination by magnetic resonance imaging, at least two first lung-representing image data sets are acquired at different intervals of the breathing phase. The density change of the lung tissue is automatically determined from the signal difference between the image signals of the first image data sets in at least one corresponding region of the first lung-representing image data set. The lung or the thorax volume is automatically determined using at least two of the first image data sets, or using at least an additional second lung-representing image data set in a breathing phase that corresponds with the breathing phase of a first image data set. The localized, quantitative ventilation of the lung is automatically calculated depending on the density change of the lung tissue and the change of the lung or thorax volume.
US09008743B2
Methods and apparatus for providing data processing and control for use in a medical communication system are provided.
US09008735B2
An energy conservation module may be included in a mobile communication device that receives requests for services from application programs running in the device. For each request, the energy conservation module may determine which of different, selectable ways of performing the request is likely to be the most energy efficient. The energy conservation module may then cause the request to be performed in this most energy-efficient way. This determination may be dynamic and based on current operating conditions. Middleware between the application programs and an operating system may be included that presents various APIs to the application programs to allow them to easily invoke this functionality. The different, selectable ways of performing the services may be of any type, including different, selectable computer network interfaces (e.g., Wi-Fi and cellular) and whether a complex computation should be performed within or outside of the mobile communication device.
US09008732B2
A mobile communication terminal and a method for operating the same are disclosed. The mobile communication terminal can be connected to first and second communication networks. The first communication network may be a legacy network and the second communication network may be a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network. The mobile communication terminal is also capable of displaying a two-dimensional (2D) image and a three-dimensional (3D) image. The mobile communication terminal reproduces a 2D image, receives a display mode switch request signal from a user, determines whether 3D image reception is available according to an environment of a current connected mobile communication network, receives a 3D image from a server, if 3D image reception is available and a 2D image from the server if 3D image reception is not available, and displays the received 3D image or 2D image.
US09008731B2
A mobile terminal as broadly described herein may include a first body, and a second body formed of a transparent material and attached to the first body. The second body may include a recess formed on a surface of the second body and recessed away from the first body, a transparent display provided in the recess and formed of a transparent material, and configured to display visual information thereon, and a filler material provided in the recess at a gap between the transparent display and the recess. The filler material may be formed of a transparent material.
US09008729B2
A portable radiotelephone can be shifted between a first condition wherein the radiotelephone does not receive or transmit voice communications by radiotelephone transmissions over radiotelephone channels and a second condition wherein the radiotelephone receives and transmits voice communications by radiotelephone transmissions over radiotelephone channels. The radiotelephone automatically calls a central voice-activated phone dialing system remote from the portable radiotelephone in response to producing the second condition in the radiotelephone. The radiotelephone includes a switch for producing the first and second conditions.
US09008724B2
Disclosed are technologies are useful in enabling a smart phone to respond to a user's environment, e.g., so it can serve as an intuitive hearing and seeing device. Some of the detailed arrangements involve using radio base station SDR equipment (e.g., at a cell tower) to perform image recognition operations for phones; forecasting service needs from remote processors delegating a remote execution task to a service provider chosen in a competitive process; using nearby processors, e.g., in an automobile, another phone, or set-top box, for remote execution tasks; phones with separable camera and/or illumination components; phone camera illumination using different colors of light; using search tree methods with image frames captured at different focuses; using a phone's microprojector to aid in object identification; correcting lens aberrations by texture mapping captured imagery onto a corrective polygon surface using a phone GPU; etc. A great variety of other features are also detailed.
US09008722B2
A non-transitory processor-readable medium stores code to cause a processor to receive a performance indicator associated with a first mode. The code causes the processor to calculate, using the performance indicator associated with the first mode, a first metric value associated with a first metric and an objective of the first mode. The code causes the processor to calculate, using the first metric value, a second metric value associated with a second metric and an objective of a second mode. The second metric value partially compensates for a change in a performance indicator associated with the second mode when the first metric value is implemented. The code causes the processor to send a signal associated with the first metric value and a signal associated with the second metric value to an antenna module such that the antenna module implements the first metric value and the second metric value.
US09008718B2
In a method for power control, a user equipment (UE) receives a path loss measurement indicator and at least one parameter sent by a base station and measures a path loss between the UE and at least one uplink serving access point of the UE according to the path loss measurement indicator. An uplink transmitting power adjustment value is calculated according to the measured path loss and the at least one parameter received from the base station. The UE adjusts uplink transmitting power according to the uplink transmitting power adjustment value.
US09008711B2
The present invention relates to a method, system and UE for state transition. The method includes: after a transition from the CELL-PCH state to the CELL-FACH state, a UE receives the scheduling control channel continuously, or receives simultaneously the scheduling control channel according to the receiving time corresponding to the DRX mechanism when the UE is in the CELL-FACH state and the receiving time corresponding to the DRX mechanism when the UE is in the CELL-PCH state; after obtaining an indication of normal reception, the UE receives the scheduling control channel according to the receiving time corresponding to the DRX mechanism when the UE is in the CELL-FACH state; the radio network controller has be informed that the UE has transited from the CELL-PCH state to the CELL-FACH state simultaneously when the UE obtains the indication of normal reception, so as to avoid data loss in a certain period after the state transition of the UE.
US09008707B2
In a method of controlling downlink transmitting power and antenna coverage of base stations in a communication system, the system comprising a plurality of base stations and a plurality of user equipment each associated with at least one of the plurality of base stations, providing (S10) interference and noise information for each of at least a subset of the plurality of user equipment. Subsequently, identifying (S20) at least one interfering base station for at least one user equipment of the subset, and jointly analyzing (S30) the provided interference and noise information for the subset together with the identified at least one interfering base station. Finally, jointly adapting (S40) a transmitting power level and/or an antenna beam of the at least one identified interfering base stations based on the analysis, to provide reduced power consumption and increased coverage in the communication system.
US09008705B2
A push delivery apparatus according to an exemplary aspect of the present invention includes a portion for sending information indicating which of contents kept in the delivery apparatus is to be received by a mobile terminal through a packet network to the mobile terminal in a first text message through a telephone network and for delivering a second text message which is a simplified version of the content to the mobile terminal through the telephone network if the mobile terminal does not acquire the content to be received by the mobile terminal within a predetermined period of time after sending the first text message.
US09008700B2
Methods and apparatus for position location in a wireless network. In an aspect, a method is provided that includes determining whether a symbol to be transmitted is an active symbol, wherein the symbol comprises a plurality of subcarriers, and encoding identification information on a first portion of subcarriers if it is determined that the symbol is the active symbol. The method also includes encoding idle information on a second portion of subcarriers if it is determined that the symbol in not the active symbol. In an aspect, an apparatus includes detector logic configured to decode a plurality of symbols to determine identification information that identifies a plurality of transmitters, and to determine a plurality of channel estimate associated with the plurality of transmitters. The apparatus also includes position determination logic configured to calculate a device position based on the plurality of transmitters and the plurality of channel estimates.
US09008693B2
An approach is provided for information aggregation around locations. An information aggregation platform determines one or more content items, the content items provided by respective one or more content sources. The information aggregation platform also determines respective location information associated with the one or more content items. The information aggregation platform further determines to group the one or more content items based, at least in part, on the respective location information.
US09008688B2
Methods, systems, computer-readable media, and apparatuses for calendar matching of inferred contexts are described. In one potential embodiment, a mobile device may use context information to generate a calendar of inferred contexts. Label information from raw calendar data may be used to update an inferred context within a calendar of inferred contexts. Additionally, the label may be propagated to future contexts and entries in an inferred context calendar.
US09008685B1
A method of collecting RF fingerprint data in a cross-correlated manner is disclosed. At each of a plurality of locations RF signals are sensed with a wireless communication device to form first sensed data, the RF signals transmitted according to a first standard. At each of the plurality of locations RF signals are sensed with a wireless communication device to form second sensed data, the RF signals transmitted according to a second other standard. Location is sensed to provide location data relating to said location. Then, the first sensed data, the second sensed data and the location data are stored within a database for forming a plurality of RF fingerprints related to a plurality of locations.
US09008681B2
A system for controlling a station operation mode is provided. The system for controlling a station operation mode, including: a distance information generation unit measuring a distance between a first communication station and a second communication station and generating distance information; a distance information comparison unit comparing the distance information and a predetermined threshold distance; and an operation mode determination unit determining any one of an active mode and an idle mode as an operation mode of the second communication station, based on a comparison result of the distance information comparison unit.
US09008680B2
A system that incorporates the subject disclosure may include, for example, a method for mitigating interference by filtering or redirection of communications traffic. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09008673B1
An application bandwidth monitor may be configured to determine the amount of data communication channel bandwidth being utilized by each active data communication application within a data communication device. A user interface may be configured to report this information and to receive information indicative of a desired bandwidth allocation among the active applications. An application bandwidth controller may be configured to control the maximum bandwidth that may be utilized by each active data communication application, based on this user information.
US09008670B2
A graphical user interface displays a proposed site plan of one or more new base stations with respect to existing network infrastructure in a geographical region. While in the field, an installation specialist can perform an in-person survey of the geographical region to determine whether a proposed location is suitable for installation of a wireless base station. The installation specialist may identify an obstacle that would inhibit a newly proposed wireless base station from providing desired coverage if installed at the proposed location. Via input to the graphical user interface, the installation specialist proposes an alternative location in which to install the new base station. A processor performs a validity check and provides feedback indicating whether installation of the new base station at the alternative location is acceptable. The graphical user interface also can support collection of site survey data to monitor progress of the installation.
US09008667B2
A method and apparatus for supporting a closed subscriber group (CSG) service is provided. A user equipment determines whether a neighbor cell is a CSG member cell for which a CSG whitelist includes a CSG identity of the neighbor cell and PLMN identities of the neighbor cell. The user equipment sends a CSG membership indicator indicating whether the neighbor cell is the CSG member cell.
US09008662B2
A user equipment (UE) is provided that includes one or more processors configured to perform one of an attach procedure, Routing Area Update (RAU), or Tracking Area Update (TAU), and then cause the UE to provide an indication to a network, wherein the indication indicates whether the UE has determined a voice solution in an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN).
US09008661B2
A method for providing service among a plurality of Multicast Broadcast Single Frequency Networks (MBSFNs) that are providing multimedia broadcast services, includes storing a pointer in data to be transmitted by a base station corresponding to a serving of a first MBSFN. The pointer points to either a location of a multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) control channel or a location of MBMS data in a second MBSFN.
US09008659B1
In a method of assigning cell reselection parameters to be utilized by user devices served by a first cell associated with a first tracking area, that a first signal frequency is associated with a second tracking area different than the first tracking area is determined. Based on a determination that the first signal frequency is associated with the second tracking area different than the first tracking area, a first set of one or more reselection parameters is assigned to the first signal frequency.
US09008648B2
According to an apparatus, method and computer program product an interference pattern transmitted by a communication terminal based on a cellular communication network related configuration of the communication terminal is determined, wherein the determined interference pattern includes information on a transmission schedule of the communication terminal. Further, a wire connection based broadcast distribution of the determined interference pattern is initiated. Then, an interference pattern observed on a radio interface is compared with an interference pattern broadcast on wire connection, based on a transmission schedule of the interference pattern broadcast on wire connection. Finally, an originator of an interference pattern broadcast on wire connection is marked as a neighbor in case a match is determined between the interference pattern broadcast on wire connection of this originator and an interference pattern observed on a radio interface.
US09008645B2
In one embodiment of the present invention, a system and method may be provided for validating communication for a wireless communications device. The system and method may include receiving a geographic location of a wireless communications device. A database comprising records correlating the geographic location with permissions may be accessed in order to determine, based upon the received geographic location information and the accessed database record, if there are restriction on communication associated with the wireless communications device. An indicator may be communicated in response to the determined restriction, effectively providing the information needed to inform the wireless communications device of any current restrictions.
US09008644B2
In one embodiment, a mobile device may receive information on entities socially connected to a user of the mobile device. The information may comprise a location for each of the entities, an affinity score with respect to the user for each of the entities, and a relevancy score for any advertisement corresponding to each of the entities. The user may be socially associated with the entities through an on-line social network. For each of the entities, the affinity score may be adjusted based on the relevancy score. The mobile device may periodically determine a current location of the mobile device, a radius from the location of each entity (based on the adjusted affinity score for the entity), and whether the current location is within an area defined by the radius. If the current location is within the one of the radii, then the mobile device may be woken.
US09008632B1
A mobile station provides an Interactive Multimedia Response to a user's call. The mobile station detects when a user dials a predetermined telephone number. In response, at least one visual object representing available services is displayed. In response to a user's input, at least one visual object representing a service selected by the user may be displayed. In a Call Intercept Mode, the mobile station detects a telephone number entered by the user to initiate an outgoing call to a destination that provides account-specific data. The mobile station then conducts a data communication with a self service server of the communication service provider to obtain the account-specific data corresponding to the detected telephone number. Upon receiving the account-specific data, at least one visual object including the requested account-specific data is displayed on the mobile device.
US09008605B2
A method and apparatus for providing an emergency signal to a wireless transmit receive unit (WTRU). The WTRU is configured to receive a system information message including an emergency message notification and emergency system information messages, wherein the system information messages are segmented and overlap non-emergency system information messages. The WTRU is further configured to process the emergency information messages.
US09008593B2
Methods and systems for 60 GHz distributed communication are disclosed and may include generating IF signals from baseband signals in a computing device with wireless capability. The IF signals may be communicated to remote RF modules within the computing device via coaxial lines. The IF signals may be up-converted to RF signals and transmitted via the RF modules. The IF signals in the coaxial lines may be tapped via taps coupled to the RF modules. The baseband signals may comprise video data, Internet streamed data, and/or data from a local data source. The RF signals may be communicated to a display device. Control signals for the RF devices may be communicated utilizing the coaxial lines. One or more of the RF devices may be selected based on a direction to a receiving device. The remote RF devices may comprise mixers. The RF signals may comprise 60 GHz signals.
US09008586B2
Example methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to collect wireless information are disclosed. A disclosed example method involves installing an operating system and a data collector to execute outside a context of the operating system on a wireless handheld device. A testing process is performed to ensure functionality of the wireless handheld device. An application is installed on the wireless handheld device to execute in the context of the operating system. The data collector is to collect usage information regarding the application and to provide the usage information to a network provider.
US09008580B2
In the described embodiments, when configuring a Bluetooth network connection between a first electronic device and a second electronic device, the first electronic device sends a configuration message to the second electronic device that indicates that a first codec is preferentially to be used when communicating audio data using the Bluetooth network connection. Upon receiving a response from the second electronic device that indicates that the first codec is permissible to use, the first electronic device configures itself to use the first codec when communicating audio data using the Bluetooth network connection. Otherwise, upon receiving a response from the second electronic device that indicates that the first codec is not permissible to use, the first electronic device configures itself to use a second codec when communicating audio data using the Bluetooth network connection.
US09008578B2
Technologies are generally described for communicating data. In some examples, a method performed under control of a first device may include detecting a second device configured to communicate with the first device and generating a first pattern associated with first information to be transmitted to the second device. The first device is configured to have a pattern handling unit on which the first pattern is generated.
US09008572B2
A touch sensitive screen mobile information apparatus having a wireless communication unit for wireless device discovery is herein disclosed. Close proximity wireless device discovery is enabled by wireless searching near distance via radio frequency field for a wireless device, receiving information from the wireless device over the near distance wireless communication, and storing the received information at the information apparatus for future wireless connections. Authentication or pairing of devices may be eliminated due to close proximity of the direct wireless device discovery. After wireless device discovery, the information apparatus and the wireless device may become locked or paired for subsequent wireless communication over any number of wireless communication protocols or standards (e.g., Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11, 2.4GHz) without the need to repeat wireless discovery or pairing. Examples of information apparatus include smart phones, digital camera, laptops, or information pads. Examples of wireless devices include televisions, audio output devices, or printers.
US09008565B2
A recording medium storage cassette includes a recording medium loading plate and a rear end cursor. The rear end cursor aligns rear end positions of recording media. The rear end cursor includes a cursor main body portion, an abutting portion that abuts rear ends of the recording media, a lock portion having a protrusion for engaging with a rack, and a biasing member disposed between the abutting portion and the lock portion so as to bias the abutting portion and the lock portion in a direction away from each other.
US09008561B2
A fixing device may include an endless fixing belt, a facing member facing an outer surface of the fixing belt, a nip member configured to contact an inner surface of the fixing belt to form a nip portion where the fixing belt and the facing member are in contact with each other, and a heat source device configured to heat the nip portion inside the fixing belt. The nip member includes a heat transfer member which is provided at a position corresponding to a portion of the nip portion when seen from a side view, and a heat insulating member which is a portion of the nip member except for the heat transfer member, and is made of a material having thermal conductivity lower than that of the heat transfer member.
US09008558B2
A separator includes a front edge disposed opposite an outer circumferential surface of an endless belt. The front edge contacts and separates a recording medium from the endless belt. A separation plate mounts the front edge. A contact plate projects from the separation plate in an axial direction of the endless belt and contacts a belt holder that supports the endless belt. A bracket projects from the separation plate in a direction orthogonal to the direction in which the contact plate projects from the separation plate. The bracket includes a notch that engages the belt holder. The contact plate contacting the belt holder and the notch of the bracket engaging the belt holder produce an interval between the front edge of the separator and the outer circumferential surface of the endless belt.
US09008552B2
The present invention provides a charging member which has a low compression set and which can suppress the generation of image defects.A layer of an unvulcanized rubber composition including an unvulcanized acrylonitrile butadiene rubber and N,N′-methylenebis(1,4-phenylene)dimaleimide is vulcanized.
US09008545B2
An image forming apparatus has a photosensitive drum, a charger for uniformly charging a surface of the drum, an optical head for irradiating the surface of the drum with light to change a charging state of the drum surface, and a developing device for causing a toner to adhere on the surface of the drum in accordance with the charging state. The charger has a grid with two wire fixing portions each provided with two grooves, a first discharge wire fitted in one of the two grooves of each wire fixing portion, and a second discharge wire fitted in the other of the two grooves of each wire fixing portion. The two grooves of each wire fixing portion are arranged relative to the grid so that the first and second discharge wires are arranged parallel to one another along a substantial center in a width direction of the grid.
US09008538B2
An image forming apparatus includes a lubricant applying member located opposite a contact portion of a cleaning blade with an image bearing member below in the vertical direction, an opposed position of the lubricant applying member opposite the contact portion of the cleaning blade with the image bearing member below in the vertical direction being located upstream of a contact position of the lubricant applying member with a cleaning member in the rotational direction of the lubricant applying member, and a carrying member configured to carry the toner removed from the lubricant applying member, the carrying member being disposed at a position on a tangent to an outer circumference of the lubricant applying member at a contact position with the cleaning member and on a vertical line extending from a contact position of the lubricant applying member with a solid lubricant member.
US09008534B2
A rotor support structure includes: an operable unit including a rotor and a casing rotatably supporting the rotor; a support member includes a support member main body configured to accommodate therein the operable unit, and an attachment part to attach the support member main body to a base; and a press part configured, when the support member with the operable unit accommodated therein is attached to the base, to press the operable unit to hold the operable unit in the support member main body.
US09008527B2
A method for calibrating specialty toner, the method includes providing a substrate; depositing an invariant or substantially invariant laydown of a color toner on the substrate; depositing a varying laydown of the specialty toner; fusing the color toner and specialty toner to the substrate; measuring a color response signal of the substrate, color toner, and specialty toner; calculating a color response curve as function of the varying laydown of the specialty toner; comparing the color response curve to a target color response curve; and modifying printing parameters of the specialty toner to set the color response curve equal to or substantially equal to the target color response curve.
US09008518B2
A system includes an optical transmitter package comprising an optical transmitter to generate optical transmission signals based on electrical transmission signals. The system also includes an optical receiver package comprising an optical receiver to generate electrical reception signals based on optical reception signals. The system further includes a printed circuit board (PCB) on which the optical transmitter package and the optical receiver package are mounted. The PCB includes a heat generating circuit component. The optical transmitter package can be mounted to the PCB to subjected to less heat from the heat generating circuit component than the optical receiver package.
US09008517B2
A method of automatically binding first and second devices for RF communication is disclosed. One step of the method involves establishing a secure, non-RF communication mode between the first and second devices. According to another step, first and second communication addresses respectively identifying the first and second devices are exchanged in the secure, non-RF communication mode such that the first and second devices will recognize each other as communication partners. The secure, non-RF communication mode is then terminated and an RF communication mode is established between the first and second devices as a first bound pair.
US09008514B2
Example embodiments of the present invention relate to An optical node comprising of at least two optical degrees; a plurality of directionless add/drop ports; and at least one wavelength equalizing array, wherein the at least one wavelength equalizing array is used to both select wavelengths for each degree, and to perform directionless steering for the add/drop ports.
US09008510B1
Embodiments provide a methodology for designing a large-scale non-blocking OCS using a multi-stage folded CLOS switch architecture for use in datacenter networks and fiber-rich backbone network POPs. One aspect employs a folded CLOS architecture because of its ease of implementation, enabling the topology to scale arbitrarily with increasing number of stages. The fraction of ports allocated for internal switch wiring (overhead) also increases with the number of stages. Design decisions are made to carefully optimize the insertion loss per module, number of ports per module, number of stages and the total scale required. Other embodiments include folded CLOS switch architectures having at least two stages. In one example, power monitoring may be included only on the leaf switches.
US09008504B2
A transmission apparatus and method for serial and parallel channel interworking in an optical transport network are provided. The transmission apparatus for serial and parallel channel interworking ensures interworking between parallel optical modules or between parallel and serial optical modules, regardless of a protocol, without having to add logics or with only a minimum number of logics, in order to manufacture a small-size optical module with low power consumption.
US09008503B2
An arrangement in a node in a WDM-PON and a method therein for supervision of the WDM-PON are provided. The arrangement comprises X splitters of splitting ratio 1:Y, each splitter having one input and Y outputs such that X*Y equals N, wherein X, Y, N are integers. The one input of each of the X splitters is configured to receive an Optical Time Domain Reflectometry, OTDR, signal and to split the received OTDR signal into Y OTDR sub-signals such that a total of N OTDR sub-signals are outputted from the X splitters. The arrangement further comprises an N*N Arrayed Waveguide Grating, AWG, and a first filter configured to mix a feeder signal comprising data communication from an Optical Line Termination, OLT, with one of the N OTDR sub-signals. One input of the AWG is configured to receive the mix of the feeder signal and the one OTDR sub-signal, and the remaining N-inputs of the AWG are each configured to receive a respective one of the N-remaining OTDR sub-signals.
US09008500B2
The invention discloses a system, a method and an apparatus for optical network protection. The system includes: an output control apparatus for obtaining protection mode information configured by a system and controlling an input signal to be output from a set line corresponding to said protection mode information; and a detection control apparatus for detecting powers of signals transmitted on an active line and on a standby line, if it is determined that the active line is abnormal and the standby line is normal according to detection results, then controlling the input signal to be output from a protection line corresponding to the protection mode information; if it is determined that the active line is normal, or that the active line and the standby line are abnormal according to the detection result, then controlling the input signal to be output from a set line corresponding to the protection mode information.
US09008497B2
An image pickup apparatus capable of generating a strobe emission signal in a proper timing even when an electronic front curtain shutter is used in strobe photographing. The image pickup apparatus includes an image pickup device having pixels arranged in matrix and configured to store charges generated according to a received amount of light. A vertical scanning circuit controls travel of the electronic front curtain shutter such that the image pickup device sequentially receives light on a per line basis, starting from a first scan line. When it is detected that the electronic front curtain shutter reaches a predetermined scan line, a NOR gate outputs a light emission timing signal, whereby light is emitted from a light emission unit such as a strobe.
US09008493B2
The present invention relates to an information processing device, an information processing method, and a program, whereby playback of PG and TextST images can be controlled from a BD-J application. There are defined a mono PG/TextST stream of a PG/TextST image that is a mono image serving as a 2D image, a stereo PG/TextST stream of a PG/TextST image that is a stereo image serving as a 3D image, and a PG/TextST stream for offset of a PG/TextST image that is a mono image to be used for generating a stereo image along with an offset value for giving disparity to the mono image, as a PG/TextST stream of a PG/TextST image. An stream selecting API selects a mono PG/TextST stream, a stereo PG/TextST stream, or a PG/TextST stream for offset. The present invention may be applied to a BD player configured to play a BD, or the like.
US09008479B2
A multicore fiber has a plurality of cores; and a clad which surrounds an outer peripheral surface of each of the cores, and at least one of the cores is spirally arranged such that the core rotates around a center axis of the clad. By arranging the cores in this way, it is possible to prevent crosstalk between specific cores from escalating even when the multicore fiber is disposed in a bent state.
US09008476B2
A polarization conversion device includes: a directional coupler that includes an input side optical waveguide and an output side optical waveguide which are disposed in parallel to each other and each of which has a core. Assuming that a direction in which the input side optical waveguide and the output side optical waveguide face each other is a width direction and a direction perpendicular to the width direction is a height direction in a cross section perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of each of the input side optical waveguide and the output side optical waveguide, and the directional coupler is configured to couple first light guided through the input side optical waveguide to second light guided through the output side optical waveguide, the polarization direction of the second light is perpendicular to that of the first light.
US09008475B2
A photoelectric coupling module includes a fiber module, a lens module, and at least one positioning pole. The fiber module defines a plurality of receiving holes and at least one first positioning hole. The lens module includes a central portion and an edge portion surrounding the central portion. The central portion includes a plurality of lenses, and the lenses are respectively aligned with the receiving holes. The edge portion defines at least one second positioning hole. The at least one positioning pole is made of metal, and penetrates the at least one second positioning hole and the at least one first positioning hole.
US09008472B2
The present invention provides a light guide plate and a manufacturing method thereof. The light guide plate includes a light guide plate body and ink dots printed on a surface of the light guide plate body. The ink dots contain an antistatic agent. The manufacturing method of the light guide plate includes (1) providing a light guide plate body; (2) providing an ink and an antistatic agent ad mixing the antistatic agent in the ink; and (3) printing the ink that contains the antistatic agent on a surface of the light guide plate body to form the ink dots. The antistatic agent contained in the ink dots helps suppressing static electricity generated on the light guide plate so as to eliminate mura caused by electrostatic attraction.
US09008471B2
Circuits and circuit elements adapted to function at optical or infrared frequencies are made from plasmonic and/or nonplasmonic particles disposed on a substrate, where the plasmonic and nonplasmonic particles have respective dimensions substantially smaller than a wavelength of an applied optical or infrared signal. Such particles are deposited on a substrate in a variety of shapes and sizes from a variety of plasmonic and/or nonplasmonic materials so as to form resistors, capacitors, inductors and circuits made from combinations of these elements.
US09008468B2
An electro-optic modulator includes a substrate, a waveguide lens, a Y-shaped waveguide, and electrodes. The waveguide lens and the Y-shaped waveguide are formed in the substrate. The Y-shaped waveguide connects the waveguide lens and includes a first section dedicated for transmitting TE mode and a second section dedicated for transmitting TM mode. The electrodes are configured to modulate outputs of the waveguide lens, the first section, and the second section.
US09008465B2
An index is provided that holds information about each image content item in a collection of items, For each image content item, a first information item identifying the image content item and its location on a network, and at least one of (i) a second information item identifying a signature value of an object in the image content, or (ii) identification of a recognized object in the image content.
US09008460B2
Techniques and apparatus for automatic upright adjustment of digital images. An automatic upright adjustment technique is described that may provide an automated approach for straightening up slanted features in an input image to improve its perceptual quality. This correction may be referred to as upright adjustment. A set of criteria based on human perception may be used in the upright adjustment. A reprojection technique that implements an optimization framework is described that yields an optimal homography for adjustment based on the criteria and adjusts the image according to new camera parameters generated by the optimization. An optimization-based camera calibration technique is described that simultaneously estimates vanishing lines and points as well as camera parameters for an image; the calibration technique may, for example, be used to generate estimates of camera parameters and vanishing points and lines that are input to the reprojection technique.
US09008457B2
An RGB color image and an infrared intensity image of a live video are received. The RGB color image is converted to a colorspace image comprising a channel corresponding to a brightness value. Each pixel of the converted colorspace image is evaluated to determine whether the brightness channel of the pixel exceeds a threshold value. If the brightness channel of the pixel exceeds the threshold value, the infrared intensity value of a corresponding pixel from the infrared intensity image is mixed into the pixel's channel value that corresponds to brightness. The converted colorspace image is converted back to an RGB color image.
US09008451B2
An image encoding and/or decoding apparatus and method are provided. The image encoding apparatus includes: a transform unit removing spatial redundancy by transforming an original image being input; an allowable noise obtaining unit obtaining an allowable noise from the original image; a quantization parameter determination unit determining a quantization parameter by using the allowable noise; a quantization unit generating a quantized coefficient, by quantizing a transform coefficient provided from the transform unit by using the quantization parameter; and an entropy encoding unit entropy encoding the quantized coefficient to remove statistical redundancy.
US09008438B2
Provided is an image processing device for associating images with objects appearing in the images, while reducing burden on the user. The image processing device: stores, for each of events, a photographic attribute indicating a photographic condition predicted to be met with respect to an image photographed in the event; stores an object predicted to appear in an image photographed in the event; extracts from a collection of photographed images a photographic attribute that is common among a predetermined number of photographed images in the collection, based on pieces of photography-related information of the respective photographed images; specifies an object stored for an event corresponding to the extracted photographic attribute; and conducts a process on the collection of photographed images to associate each photographed image containing the specified object with the object.
US09008434B2
According to one embodiment, a feature extraction device includes an obtaining unit that obtains image data having a plurality of pixels. The device includes a pixel feature calculation unit that calculates first pixel features and second pixel features of each of the pixels, which are different from each other, and a classification unit that classifies a pair of pixels by using the first features for at least some of the plurality of pixels. The device includes a co-occurrence frequency calculation unit that calculates a co-occurrence frequency representing a frequency of co-occurrence of the second pixel features of the first pixel and the second pixel features of the second pixel for the set for which a result of the classification by the classification unit is consistent.
US09008428B2
Machines, systems and methods for character recognition disambiguation are provided. The method comprises selecting a first set of characters that match a first visual profile based on results of a character recognition process applied to target content; selecting a subset of the first set based on criteria associated with at least one of confidence level with which characters grouped in the subset are recognized or fragmentation associated with the characters grouped in the subset; and disambiguating recognition results for the characters grouped in the subset by displaying the characters along with context information, wherein reviewing two or more of the characters on a display screen along with context information associated with said two or more characters allows a human operator to select one or more suspect characters from among the two or more characters.
US09008425B2
A method of detection of numbered captions in a document includes receiving a document including a sequence of document pages and identifying illustrations on pages of the document. For each identified illustration, associated text is identified. An imitation page is generated for each of the identified illustrations, each imitation page comprising a single illustration and its associated text. For a sequence of the imitation pages, a sequence of terms is identified. Each term is derived from a text fragment of the associate text of a respective imitation page. The terms of a sequence complying with at least one predefined numbering scheme which defines a form and an incremental state of the terms in a sequence. The terms of the identified sequence of terms are construed as being at least a part of a numbered caption for a respective illustration in the document.
US09008423B2
A method and apparatus for detecting and recognizing an object using a vector histogram based on a local binary pattern are disclosed. The apparatus of detecting and recognizing an object using a local binary pattern includes: a feature map creator configured to extract an object area in which a moving object exists from an input image, to create a local binary pattern by designating a local area in the object area, and to create a vector component map including information about magnitude vector components and direction vector components using the local binary pattern; a feature map configuring unit configured to divide the object area into a plurality of blocks and to create a feature vector map through a histogram using the vector component map in a unit of the block; and an object detector configured to detect and classify the moving object based on the feature vector map.
US09008422B2
A method of cropping an image based on a content of the image according to one example embodiment includes identifying image features in the content of the image, determining horizontal histogram frequencies and vertical histogram frequencies of the identified image features, determining borders of a document bounding box based on the determined horizontal histogram frequencies and vertical histogram frequencies, and cropping the image according to the document bounding box.
US09008413B2
A processing method for a pair of stereo images is provided. The method includes: extracting a pair of edge images from the stereo images, each edge image having edge pixels, each edge pixel of one of the edge images being associated with an overlap record and a disparity record; providing a plurality of image lateral shifts to sequentially determine a plurality of overlap levels between the pair of edge images; and updating the overlap record and the disparity record associated with a selected edge pixel to a maximum overlap level and a most-likely disparity, respectively. The maximum overlap level is a maximum among a plurality of associated overlap levels to which the selected edge pixel contributes. The most-likely disparity corresponds to the maximum overlap level.
US09008401B1
The methods and systems of the present invention is an algorithm which estimates motion inside objects that change during the scan. The algorithm is flexible and can be used for solving the misalignment correction problem and, more generally, for finding scan parameters that are not accurately known. The algorithm is based on Local Tomography so it is faster and is not limited to a source trajectory for which accurate and efficient inversion formulas exist.
US09008396B2
A method is disclosed including: receiving a time resolved series of magnetic resonance (MR) images of an imaged region of a subject; processing the images to generate comparison data by comparing a temporal behavior of a reference region of the MR images to at least one other region of the MR images; an generating an output based on the comparison data. The method may be applied in a variety of contexts, including perfusion weighted imaging, determination of T2*, and other time series functions.
US09008387B2
A method of processing ultrasound images, the method including operations of receiving color image data including a plurality of frames; determining one or more key-frames from among the plurality of frames, based on a brightness value of each of the plurality of frames; setting a region of interest (ROI) in each of the one or more key-frames based on brightness values of a plurality of regions included in each of the one or more key-frames; performing image compensation on the plurality of frames based on the ROIs of the one or more key-frames; and reconstructing the color image data by using the image-compensated frames.
US09008381B2
The disclosure relates to an image processing method for estimating a brain shift in a patient, the method involving: the processing of a three-dimensional image of the brain of a patient, acquired before a surgical operation, in order to obtain a reference cerebral arterial tree structure of the patient; the processing of three-dimensional images of the brain of the patient, acquired during the operation, in order to at least partially reconstitute a current cerebral arterial tree structure of the patient; the determination from the combination of the reference and current cerebral arterial tree structures, of a field of shift of the vascular tree representing the shift of the current vascular tree in relation to the reference vascular tree; the application of the determined field of shift of the vascular tree to a biomechanical model of the brain of the patient in order to estimate the brain shift of the patient; and the generation, from the estimated brain shift, of at least one image of the brain of the patient, in which the brain shift is compensated.
US09008379B2
A system and method is disclosed for facilitating the acquisition of medical images used as part of a clinical trials process by requiring Imaging Centers to compete with each other to supply the images. Agreements between the Sponsor and a plurality of Imaging Centers stipulate that the Sponsor is only required to accept a certain total number of medical images and is free to reject any medical images that either do not comply with the protocol, or which exceed the total number of medical images required for the study. This motivates the Imaging Centers to quickly obtain and transmit to the Sponsor high quality medical images that meet the basic requirements outlined in the clinical study protocol, since images are accepted and compensated for by the Sponsor on a first-come, first-served basis. A system for implementing this method is also disclosed.
US09008375B2
A method of verifying the authenticity of an eye provided for identification purposes in an iris recognition identification system is described. The method comprises: illuminating the eye using an illumination source to generate a specular reflection in a pupil and/or iris region of the eye, the specular reflection forming as a result of light emitted from the illumination source being reflected from the eye; capturing an image of the eye including the specular reflection; determining the position of the specular reflection formed in the pupil and/or iris region, from the captured image; and verifying the authenticity of the eye by comparing the determined position with an expected position for an authentic eye.
US09008363B1
Systems and methods for computing optical flow are provided. One exemplary method includes obtaining four input color vectors respectively associated with four input pixels. The four input pixels are at four known input positions of an initial image. The method further includes obtaining a subject color vector associated with a subject pixel. The subject pixel is at a known subject position of a subsequent image. Inverse bilinear interpolation is performed for the subject color vector with respect to the four input color vectors to obtain an estimated position. An optical flow vector is formed from the estimated position to the known subject position. An exemplary system for forming a plurality of optical flow fields includes a computing device having a memory and a processor.
US09008359B2
Foreground object image features are extracted from input video via application of a background subtraction mask, and optical flow image features from a region of the input video image data defined by the extracted foreground object image features. If estimated movement features indicate that the underlying object is in motion, a dominant moving direction of the underlying object is determined. If the dominant moving direction is parallel to an orientation of the second, crossed thoroughfare, an event alarm indicating that a static object is blocking travel on the crossing second thoroughfare is not generated. If the estimated movement features indicate that the underlying object is static, or that its determined dominant moving direction is not parallel to the second thoroughfare, an appearance of the foreground object region is determined and a static-ness timer run while the foreground object region comprises the extracted foreground object image features.
US09008334B2
An audio mixing console comprises a first amplifier, an analogue to digital converter, a second amplifier and a gain range control unit. The first amplifier may receive an analogue audio input signal and amplify the received audio input signal with a first adjustable gain. The analogue to digital converter may receive the amplified analogue audio input signal and generate a digital audio signal by an analogue to digital conversion of the analogue audio signal. The second amplifier may receive the digital audio signal and amplify the received digital audio signal with a second adjustable gain. The gain range control unit may identify a signal level overload at the analogue to digital converter and control the gain of the first and second amplifiers, respectively.
US09008332B2
A processing chip for a digital microphone and related input circuit and a digital microphone are described herein. In one aspect, the input circuit for a processing chip of a digital microphone includes: a PMOS transistor, a resistor, a current source, and a low-pass filter. The described processing chip possesses high anti high-frequency interference capabilities and the described input circuit possesses high high-frequency power supply rejection ratio.
US09008320B2
An image processing apparatus receives sound signals that are respectively output by a plurality of microphones, and detects a sound arrival direction from which sounds of the sound signals are traveled. The image processing apparatus calculates a sound level of sounds output from the sound arrival direction, and causes an image that reflects the sound level of sounds output from the sound arrival direction to be displayed in vicinity of an image of a user who is outputting the sounds from the sound arrival direction.
US09008317B2
Provided is a data storage drive for encrypting data, comprising a microprocessor and circuitry coupled to the microprocessor and adapted to receive a session encrypted data key and to decrypt the session encrypted data key using a session key, wherein a result is a data key that is capable of being used to encrypt clear text and to decrypt cipher text written to a storage medium. Also provided is a system, comprising a microprocessor and circuitry coupled to the microprocessor and adapted to receive a session encrypted data key and to decrypt the session encrypted data key using a private key, wherein a result is a secret key that is capable of being used to encrypt clear text and to decrypt cipher text written to a storage medium.
US09008315B2
Digital data is optically broadcast through an environment by controllably switching the brightness or chrominance of LED solid state lamps, or of other illumination sources (e.g., television screens and backlit computer displays). This optical data channel is useful to convey cryptographic key data by which devices within the environment can authenticate themselves to a secure network. In some embodiments, the optical modulation is sensed by the camera of a smartphone. The row data output by the smartphone's camera sensor is processed to extract the modulated data signal. In some monochrome embodiments, data communication speeds far in excess of the camera's frame rate (e.g., 30/second), or even the camera's row rate (e.g., 14,400/second) are achieved. Still greater rates can be achieved by conveying different data in different chrominance channels. A great number of other features and arrangements are also detailed.
US09008313B1
A system for generating random key stream cipher texts passes an unencrypted random key stream through an AES engine to produce encrypted cipher text having a first block size in a first frequency domain; converts the encrypted cipher text in the first frequency domain to encrypted cipher text in a second frequency domain; and converts the encrypted cipher text having the first block size in the second frequency domain into smaller block sizes. The frequency in the first frequency domain is preferably lower than the frequency in the second frequency domain. The converting of the encrypted cipher text in the first frequency domain to encrypted cipher text in a second frequency domain may be effected by a dual clock domain FIFO.
US09008310B2
A device, method, and an action figure toy for implementing encrypted content for implementation in a game are disclosed. The encrypted content may relate to physical objects, such as action figure toys corresponding movie characters and/or any other physical objects. Such content may be encrypted separately and distinctively during a development stage of the game. Decryption keys for decrypting the encrypted content may be stored on and distributed with corresponding physical objects. A set of encrypted content associated with such a physical object may be decrypted upon presence of the physical object detected by a reader configured to read information stored on the physical object and responsive to receiving the decryption key stored on the physical object. The decrypted content may be implemented in the game responsive to the presence of the physical object on the reader.
US09008309B2
According to various aspects of this disclosure, a circuit arrangement is provided. The circuit arrangement may include: a memory configured to store a first encryption key for generating a first authentication vector for authentication between a mobile station and a home network of the mobile station; and a key-generator configured to derive a second encryption key from the first encryption key, the second encryption key for generating a second authentication vector for authentication between the mobile station and a visited network.
US09008304B2
This disclosure is directed to content protection key management. In general, devices may include secure processing resources configured to derive content keys (e.g., for use in decrypting secure content) using key ladders. In one embodiment, a device may comprise, for example, at least a secure processing module to derive content keys for use in decrypting secure content. The secure processing module may include, for example, a key ladder storage module and a secure key storage module. The key ladder storage module may be to store at least one key ladder for use in deriving at least one content key. The secure key storage module may be to store the at least one content key derived using the key ladder.
US09008303B1
Methods and apparatus are provided for generation of forward secure pseudorandom numbers. A forward secure pseudorandom number is generated by obtaining a first state si corresponding to a current leaf node vi in a hierarchical tree, wherein the current leaf vi produces a first pseudorandom number ri−t and wherein the hierarchical tree comprises at least one chain comprised of a plurality of nodes on a given level of the hierarchical tree; updating the first state si to a second state si+t corresponding to a second leaf node vi+t; and computing a second pseudorandom number ri+t−1 corresponding to the second leaf node vi+t. The variable t may be an integer greater than one. Updating the state does not require generation of all pseudorandom numbers produced by leaf nodes between the current leaf node vi and the second leaf node vi+t.
US09008297B2
Methods, computer program products, and systems for providing called party initiated priority marking are provided. The method includes receiving a request from a called party to mark a telephone call currently in session as a priority telephone call. The telephone call is initiated by a calling party and received by the called party. It is determined if the called party has authorization to mark the telephone call as a priority telephone call. The telephone call is marked as a priority telephone call if it is determined that the called party has authorization to mark the telephone call as a priority telephone call.
US09008289B2
A system for determining a communication charge comprising a charging equation determiner, an inflection point determiner, and a charge determiner. The charging equation determiner for determining a charging equation based at least in part on a normalized set of inputs. The inflection point determiner for determining an inflection point based at least in part on a charging structure database. The charge determiner for determining a communication charge based at least in part on the charging equation and the inflection point.
US09008280B2
Method for testing an analog front end coupled to a telecommunication line of a telecommunication system and a related testing system is described. The testing system comprises a single ended line testing measurement module for applying single ended line testing measurements via said analog front-end upon said line and for collecting thereby single ended line testing measurements; and a processing means for interpreting the single ended line testing measurements and for thereby judging that the analog front end being out of order and a control means for controlling the single ended line testing measurement module and processing means.
US09008274B2
An imaging system includes an identification module, a determination module, and a display module. The identification module is configured to identify one or more first scanning parameters and one or more first display parameters corresponding to a first image, and to identify one or more second scanning parameters corresponding to scanning information acquired during a second scan. The determination module is configured to determine, based on the one or more first scanning parameters and the one or more second scanning parameters, one or more second display parameters so that the scanning information acquired during the second scan may be used to provide a second image appearing more similar to the first image. The display module is configured to use the one or more second display parameters to provide the second image configured to be displayed to a viewer.
US09008273B2
An apparatus for analyzing a granulate for producing a pharmaceutical product has a data receiving unit adapted for receiving X-ray diffraction data indicative of a scattering of X-rays irradiated onto the granulate, a processor unit adapted for processing the X-ray diffraction data to derive information indicative of a compressibility and/or a dissolution characteristic of the granulate, and a control unit adapted for controlling a process of producing a pharmaceutical product based on the derived information.
