US09028520B2
Systems and methods for separating an object such as a pacing lead from a patient tissue involve a flexible and torqueable shaft having an internal lumen sized to receive the object, and a hard separating mechanism for separating the object from the tissue. Typically the shaft and separating mechanism are advanced along or toward the object, and the separating mechanism is contacted with the tissue. The shaft is rotated to effect separation between the object and the tissue. The systems and methods are well suited for use in cardiac pacing or defibrillator lead explant procedures.
US09028519B2
A surgical cutting and fastening instrument that is motorized. The instrument comprises in one embodiment a charge accumulator device, separate from a battery, that provides additional power to the motor under certain conditions. In addition, the motor may comprise multiple windings.
US09028511B2
Devices and methods for tissue acquisition and fixation, or gastroplasty, are described. Generally, the devices of the system may be advanced in a minimally invasive manner within a patient's body, e.g., transorally, endoscopically, percutaneously, etc., to create one or several divisions or plications within the hollow body organ. Such divisions or plications can form restrictive barriers within a organ, or can be placed to form a pouch, or gastric lumen, smaller than the remaining stomach volume to essentially act as the active stomach such as the pouch resulting from a surgical Roux-En-Y gastric bypass procedure. Moreover, the system is configured such that once acquisition of the tissue by the gastroplasty device is accomplished, any manipulation of the acquired tissue is unnecessary as the device is able to automatically configure the acquired tissue into a desired configuration.
US09028508B2
The present invention is directed to an epilating apparatus (10) comprising a first disc assembly (12) arranged in a first row (14) and at least a second disc assembly (16) arranged in a second row (18), wherein during operation of the apparatus (10) the first disc assembly (12) and the second disc assembly (16) rotate (substantially) in a same direction. In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, a circumferential speed of the first disc assembly (12) is different from a circumferential speed of the second disc assembly (16). In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, the first disc assembly and the second disc assembly are arranged angularly relative to each other.
US09028494B2
A surgical tool can comprise an interchangeable end effector, a handle assembly, and a shaft assembly. The interchangeable end effector may comprise a first jaw member including a first electrode, and a second jaw member including a second electrode. The first jaw member may be moveable relative to the second jaw member between a first position and a second position. The handle assembly may be proximal to the surgical end effector. The shaft assembly may extend between said handle assembly and the interchangeable end effector. The shaft assembly may comprise a rotary drive shaft configured to transmit rotary motions. The rotary drive shaft may be selectively axially moveable relative to the shaft assembly between a plurality of discrete positions. A coupling arrangement may be for releasably attaching the interchangeable end effector to the shaft assembly.
US09028492B2
A surgical instrument includes a handle coupled to a source of electrosurgical energy. A pair of opposed jaw members is operatively coupled to a distal end of the handle such that the jaw members selectively move between open and closed positions. A base supported on one of the jaw members includes a mechanical mating feature and an electrically conductive region in electrical communication with the source of electrosurgical energy. A selectively removable seal plate includes a complementarily engaging a mechanical mating feature and an electrically conductive region positioned to contact the electrically conductive region of the base when the mechanical mating features of the base and seal plate are engaged. The complimentarily-engaging mechanical mating features include a pair of spaced protrusions and a pair of spaced recesses open to opposing sides of the base or the seal plate such that the seal plate may be twisted onto the base.
US09028474B2
An ablation instrument having an ergonomic handle that includes an actuator adapted to selectively extend and retract a blade that is pivotably mounted within an aperture assembly coupled to the housing by a shaft. The shaft extends distally from the handle and includes a coaxial feedline, a wire conduit disposed along a longitudinal axis of the shaft, and a pull wire disposed within the wire conduit and having a proximal and a distal end, wherein a proximal end of the pull wire is operably coupled to the actuator. The aperture assembly is coupled to a distal end of the shaft and includes a reflector having a closed upper portion, and an open lower portion from which the blade may be extended for use. Also disclosed is an ablation system that includes the above-described ablation instrument, a source of ablation energy, and optionally, a source of coolant for cooling the shaft and aperture assembly.
US09028473B2
A microwave ablation system includes an energy source adapted to generate microwave energy and a power splitting device having an input adapted to connect to the energy source and a plurality of outputs. The plurality of outputs are configured to be coupled to a corresponding plurality of energy delivery devices. The power splitting device is configured to selectively divide energy provided from the energy source between the plurality of energy devices.
US09028466B2
A universal introducer adapter which can be inserted into a pre-placed introducer of arbitrary dimensions eliminates the need to replace or remove the introducer. The adapter includes a distal portion with a retainer in the form of a soft elastic material.
US09028435B2
A junctional and truncal tourniquet and a hip-girdling pelvic sling device for maintaining a desired amount of tension surrounding a person's hips and pelvis to securely support and stabilize a pelvis that has been fractured and for securing a pressure applying device to a person so that blood vessel-occluding pressure can be applied. Areas of mating types of fastener material such as mating hook-bearing fastener material and loop pile fastener material are arranged on the device to enable a strap to be secured at various effective lengths to provide a wide range of adjustability. The device may include inflatable bladders, stays, and a chin support and may be wrapped around a patient's neck as a cervical support collar, or around the torso to occlude blood vessels proximal to an injury on a limb.
US09028415B2
A blood flow monitor with a visual display. The monitor may include a probe monitoring circuit configured to be associated with a blood vessel. The probe monitoring circuit may transmit a burst signal and receive a reflected signal, where a frequency shift in the reflected signal represents a flow rate associated with the blood vessel. A mixer may be provided in electrical communication with the probe. A signal processing circuit in electrical communication with the output of the mixer may be configured to drive the visual display with a signal representing the flow rate associated with the blood vessel.
US09028411B2
An ultrasound imaging system with pixel oriented processing is provided in which an acoustic signal is generated, echoes from the acoustic signal are received at a plurality of receiving elements to obtain echo signals that are then stored, a given pixel is mapped into a region of the stored signals, the mapped region of the stored echo signals is organized into array for the given pixel after which the array is processed to generate a signal response for the given pixel to obtain acoustic information for the given pixel. The system can be implemented entirely on plug-in cards for a commercial PC motherboard. The system and method can be implemented for pixel-oriented or voxel-oriented image processing and display, eliminating intermediate data computations and enabling extensive use of software processing methods. Advantages include improved acquisition of signal dynamic range, flexible acquisition modes for high frame rate 2D, 3D, and Doppler blood flow imaging.
US09028409B2
One or more therapeutic fluids, such as for example insulin can be delivered to a body. In addition or alternatively, the concentrations of one or more analytes can be measured in vivo. A feedback process can be used to regulate levels of the one or more analytes based on the measurements via delivery of the one or more therapeutic fluids. Related systems, apparatus, methods, and/or articles are also described.
US09028400B2
An endoprobe for ophthalmic microsurgical procedures including a hand-piece including a motor, a cannula assembly coupled to the hand-piece, and a transmission system coupling the motor to the cannula assembly is provided. The cannula assembly having an outer tube and an inner tube concentric with the outer tube, each able to rotate about the longitudinal axis and having a proximal end and a distal end. The transmission system rotates the outer tube in a first direction and the inner tube in a second, opposing direction about the longitudinal axis. A method for scanning a light beam along a linear trajectory using a cannula assembly as above is also provided.
US09028396B2
Broadband light and narrowband light are simultaneously projected toward a subject. The subject is imaged by a color CCD to obtain a blue signal, a green signal, and a green signal. A base image is generated from the signals of three colors. Based on a luminance ratio B/G between the blue signal and the red signal, a B/G image is generated. A high frequency component is extracted from the B/G image to obtain a superficial-blood-vessel extracted image, and a medium frequency component is extracted from the B/G image to obtain a middle-deep-blood-vessel extracted image. Based on the base image and one of the superficial-blood-vessel extracted image and the middle-deep-blood-vessel extracted image, a blood vessel emphasized/de-emphasized image, in which the superficial blood vessels or the middle-deep blood vessels are emphasized or de-emphasized, is generated. The blood vessel emphasized/de-emphasized image is displayed on a monitor.
US09028394B2
A self-adjusting gastric band applies a substantially constant force to a patient's fundus in order to facilitate weight control. The self-adjusting gastric band is capable of automatically relaxing and contracting in response to changes in the patient's fundus or in response to a large bolus passing through the patient's fundus that is constricted by the gastric band. The self-adjusting gastric band is automatically adjustable without hydraulic fluid and without external physician intervention. The self-adjusting gastric band comprises a movable member and a biasing mechanism coupled to the movable member to facilitate applying the substantially constant force against the fundus as the fundus changes size, shape and/or position.
US09028392B2
A temporary cardiac-assist device is disclosed. The device includes a pump assembly that is deployed in the ascending aorta or the heart. A torque transmission line couples the pump assembly to an external motor for driving impeller blades within the pump assembly. The pump assembly expands in size at its destination site for operation. In operation, neither the torque transmission line nor elements that support the impeller blades are under axial forces.
US09028390B2
An apparatus and method for in vivo and ex vivo control, detection and measurement of radiation in therapy, diagnostics, and related applications accomplished through scintillating fiber detection. One example includes scintillating fibers placed along a delivery guide such as a catheter for measuring applied radiation levels during radiotherapy treatments, sensing locations of a radiation source, or providing feedback of sensed radiation. Another option is to place the fibers into a positioning device such as a balloon, or otherwise in the field of the radiation delivery. The scintillating fibers provide light output levels correlating to the levels of radiation striking the fibers and comparative measurement between fibers can be used for more extensive dose mapping. Adjustments to a radiation treatment may be made as needed based on actual and measured applied dosages as determined by the fiber detectors. Characteristics of a radiation source may also be measured using scintillating materials.
US09028388B2
Method and Apparatus for predicting the volume of a component separated from a composite fluid by predicting the volume of the composite fluid from sensed pressure and predicting the volume of other separated components from sensed movement of the other components to collection bags.
US09028387B2
In a decanter centrifuge a bowl is provided and rotates in use around a horizontal axis of rotation, a base plate provided at one longitudinal end of said bowl, the base plate having an internal side and an external side, an outlet opening provided in said base plate, the outlet opening extending through a first angular interval relative to the axis of rotation, and a wall projecting from the external side of said base plate, wherein the wall extends from the vicinity of the outlet opening towards a rim of the base plate, the wall extending through a second angular interval, the second angular interval being at least 30°, and the wall having in a radial plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation an inclination relative to the radial direction of at least 60°.
US09028383B2
A core provides a form for rolling an accessory around it. The accessory wrapped around the core may include a mat. The core includes a bottle and a container, utilizing what would otherwise be a void at the center of a rolled up mat for storage. The bottle and container may have twist-off lids which form resealable closures. The bottle and container may also couple with one another via opposing reverse threads at the bottom of each of the bottle and container. The twist-off lids may also include connection points for a carry-strap, the carry-strap including a buckle for adjusting the length of the carry-strap to make it a yoga stretching-strap. The mat includes elastic bands through grommets at an end of the mat. The bands are tensioned to secure the core when it is rolled inside the mat via the bands being wrapped around the rolled-up mat and core.
US09028381B2
A fitness device for mounting on a door is useful for performing resistance exercises. The fitness device includes an upper member including a door anchor for securing the upper member to the door and a pulley support bracket having a pivot pin. The fitness device also includes a lower member including a door anchor for securing the lower member to the door and a pulley support bracket having a pivot pin. An elastic cord extends generally between the upper and lower members and is associated with two pulley members. The pulley members are configured to be removably received on the pivot pins. The pulley members include bores having keyways and the pivot pins include nubs configured to be received in the keyways.
US09028380B2
A resistance band tensioner is disclosed. The tensioner includes a main body and a pivot pin disposed on the main body proximate a first end, where the main body is configured to rotate about the pivot pin between an up position and a down position. The tensioner also includes a handle extending from a second end of the main body configured for a user to grasp with a hand. A cantilever shaft extends outward perpendicular from the main body and is interposed between the handle and the pivot pin, where the shaft is adapted to secure a first portion of a resistance band around its periphery. In addition, the tensioner includes a locking pin to lock the tensioner in the down position when the resistance band is placed under tension by rotating the main body from the up position to the down position.
US09028375B2
An exercise machine applicable for strengthening users abdominal muscles is described. The machine can include a track frame and a support frame adjustably coupled to the track frame. The track frame can include a pair of parallel rails to provide gliding support for movement along the parallel rails. Two sliding assembly may be movably mounted on the parallel rails respectively. Each sliding assembly may be configurable to move together or separately along the parallel rails. Two seat pads may be adjustably secured to the two sliding assembly respectively. Each seat pad may be rotationally adjustable to change angular relationship between the seat pad's longitudinal direction and movement direction along the parallel rails.
US09028360B2
A multi ratio drive including a first drive chain having a first drive chain engaged state and a first drive chain disengaged state; and a second drive chain having a second drive chain engaged state and a second drive chain disengaged state. The first drive chain drives the axle with a first gear ratio between the drive shaft and the axle when the first drive chain is in the first drive chain engaged state and the second drive chain is in the second drive chain disengaged state; the second drive chain drives the axle with a second gear ratio between the drive shaft and the axle when the second drive chain is in the second drive chain engaged state and the first drive chain is in the first drive chain disengaged state; and the first gear ratio is different from the second gear ratio.
US09028359B2
A transmission includes an input member, an output member, four planetary gear sets, and a plurality of torque transmitting mechanisms that are selectively engageable to establish at least ten forward speed ratios and at least one reverse speed ratio between the input member and the output member. The transmission further includes one or more locking mechanisms that engage one or more of the plurality of torque transmitting mechanisms during a start/stop event.
US09028354B2
A hydraulic motor/pump regenerator system for recovering energy from the moving vehicle having high efficiency and precise control, thereby allowing the maximum amount of energy to be recovered and reused, is described. Three, fixed-displacement pump/motors are used to enable the system to recover and reapply energy at efficiencies expected to be above 70% in most circumstances. The invention is not limited to the use of three fixed displacement hydraulic units since using more units may in some drive cycles further improve efficiency. By selecting an appropriate combination of pump/motor units for providing the driveshaft torque required by the driver, embodiments of the present invention generate high recovery efficiency at any speed.
US09028347B2
A self-centering nock is provided for use in a well-balanced nock-arrow or nock-bolt assembly. The self-centering nock includes compliant projecting protrusions or compliant arms that are substantially rotationally symmetric about a cross section normal to a main axis of the self-centering nock. The compliant projecting protrusions or compliant arms may be received in bolts that have bores of differing internal dimensions.
US09028344B2
Included are systems and methods for providing data. At least one embodiment of a method includes providing, by a user device, a user interface configured to receive golf scoring data from a user, the user interface including a default score based on predetermined data related to past performance; receiving a first piece of golf scoring data from the user; determining, from the received first piece of golf scoring data, a second piece of golf scoring data; and storing the first piece of golf scoring data and the second piece of golf scoring data.
US09028333B2
A shaft for transmitting torques includes a hollow shaft made of fiber-reinforced plastic. A flange which can be used to connect the hollow shaft to a driving or driven machine part is fastened at least to one end of the hollow shaft. The flange is fastened to the hollow shaft via a number of screw connections. Each screw connection includes a screw and a nut. The shank of the screw projects in the direction of the hollow shaft through an opening in the flange that is arranged in the connection region between the end edge of the hollow shaft and the flange. The shank extends at least partially inside the shell of the hollow shaft and engages with the nut arranged on the hollow shaft. The head of the screw is supported on that side of the flange opposed to the hollow shaft.
US09028330B2
A network-based gaming system includes a website hosted by a web server connected to the network, the website including a member login interface, a social graph application program interface (API), and at least one hyperlink to a multi-dimensional game served by a game server connected to the network and a social graph information reader accessible to the game server, the social graph information reader for identifying one or more players of the game by correlating identification information provided or known about the players with social graph data aggregated about the players, and a game configuration interface resident on and executable from the digital medium accessible to the game server, the game configuration interface enabling a member to configure rules pertaining to game and or game object recognition of, and treatment of certain players of the game determined to be friends of the member.
US09028326B2
Provided is an operation device which allows various kinds of operation information to be input to a main body thereof as needed without unnecessarily increasing the weight of the operation device. The operation device includes: the main body having a shape elongated from one end to another end; a light emitting member provided to the one end of the main body; and a connection portion provided to the other end of the main body, to which an arbitrary one of a plurality of other operation devices is to be connected.
US09028323B2
In various aspects there are provided a system, method, and an apparatus for playing a betting game in conjunction with the play of a sporting event. The apparatus may include a system and/or a computer program product for playing a better game, such as roulette, which may be played in combination with watching a sporting event, such as cricket. Related methods, systems, apparatus, and/or articles are also described.
US09028321B2
A wagering game system and its operations are described. In some embodiments, the operations include initiating a wagering game title for presentation on a display device of a gaming machine, and receiving, from the gaming machine, player input indicating autoplay settings selected by a player for the wagering game title. The operations include initiating an autoplay mode for the wagering game title in response to receiving an autoplay trigger from the gaming machine, managing the autoplay mode for the player according to the autoplay setting selected by the player, and generating results for each wagering game of the wagering game title played during the autoplay mode. The operations include monitoring game events associated with the wagering games played during the autoplay mode to determine when to stop the autoplay mode, and stopping the autoplay mode for the player based on the autoplay settings selected by the player.
US09028320B2
A hand held device includes an oscillator driving a microcontroller having as a part of its program a counter actuable by a user to initiate a program count function, counting through a predetermined range of numbers until the program count function is terminated manually at any moment of the user's choosing. A further feature permits the base frequency of the oscillator, and thus the counting rate of the counter, to be varied as a function of some external parameter such as a biometric parameter of the user, for example, by detuning the oscillator through a touch pad on the device housing. Visual and/or audible indicia provide a perceptible indication of the relative counting rate. A further, optional feature permits replacement game parameter data to be downloaded from an external source, and stored in nonvolatile memory for use by the microcontroller.
US09028317B2
An instant lottery game and a draw based lottery game may be established. The instant lottery game is based on a set of rules of a playing card game. The draw based lottery game is based on a symbol matching set of rules. A random selection of a subset of a deck of playing card indicia may be generated concurrently with a purchase of a lottery ticket having the instant lottery game and the draw based lottery game. A ticket printer prints the subset of the deck of playing card indicia on a lottery ticket according to an order of the random selection and a plurality of order indicia such that each indicium in the plurality of order indicia has an association with a playing card indicium in the deck of playing card indicia to indicate an order in the subset of the deck of playing card indicia.
US09028308B2
A heat exchange and ventilation system integrated with a hollow core concrete floor having an air passage therethrough with an inlet and outlet for receiving air and permitting relative heat exchange therebetween; a raised floor supported by said hollow core concrete floor, defining a floor plenum between said hollow core concrete floor and said raised floor, said floor plenum communicating with said outlet so as to receive air from said air passage through said hollow core concrete floor; and adjustable terminal means carried by said raised floor for delivering a portion of said air from said floor plenum into a space above said floor. A method of conditioning air through a hollow core medium supporting a raised floor is also disclosed.
US09028304B2
A poultry processing device for removing skin from the meat of poultry is provided. The device can include a conveyor line for moving the poultry in their conveying path and one or more de-skinning devices in or adjacent to the conveying path for processing the passing poultry. Each of the de-skinning devices can include a rotatable gripper roll which is circumferentially provided with longitudinally extending teeth having radial ends facing away from a rotational axis of the roll and providing a frictional outer surface to the roll for catching engagement with the skin. Each of the de-skinning devices can further include pinch devices adjacent to the rotatable gripper roll to pinch or trap the skin between the gripper roll and the pinch devices.
US09028303B2
An abrasive article including a base having an annular shape defining a central opening; and a mounting assembly coupled to the base, wherein a portion of the mounting assembly is under a compressive force, and a grinding segment coupled to the mounting member.
US09028287B2
The present invention relates to a watersport paddle blade comprising a throat configured to attach to a shaft, a power face attached to the throat, wherein the power face comprises a main channel beginning at or near the throat, extending along the center of the face and opening at a distal end of the blade, and a plurality of side channels connected to the center channel, wherein the side channels are slanted and extend from the lateral edge inwardly toward the center channel and are angled downwardly toward the distal end of the blade.
US09028282B2
A card edge connector includes an insulative housing defining a central slot extending forwardly, a first wall and a second wall located on the opposite sides of the central slot and a rear wall connecting the first and second walls. The first wall defines an inner surface, a mounting surface opposite to the inner surface and a plurality of first terminal slots running through the inner surface and the mounting surface, the second wall defines a plurality of second terminal slots. A plurality of first terminals are received in the first terminal slots and includes first retaining portions retained in the first terminal slots. A plurality of second terminals are received in the second terminal slots. The mounting surface defines a recess close to the first retaining portions, a longitudinal plastic sheet is received in recess and melted to fix the first retaining portions to the first wall.
US09028281B2
Techniques for improving electrical performance of a connector. The techniques are compatible with the form factor of a standardized connector, such as an SFP connector or stacked SFP. The resulting connector has reduced insertion loss for high speed signals. Such techniques, which can be used separately or together, include shaping of conductive elements within the connector while still retaining the same mating contact arrangement. Changes may be made at the contact tail portions or in the intermediate portions where engagement to a connector housing occurs. The techniques also include the incorporation of lossy bridging members between conductive elements designated to be ground conductors. For connectors according to the stacked SFP configuration, multiple bridging members may be incorporated at multiple locations within the connector.
US09028270B1
Technology is provided for a pull tab actuator for use with a connector having a connector body and a latch member. The pull tab actuator comprises an elongate tab having a tab thickness and opposed first and second end portions. A handle having a height greater than the tab thickness is disposed on the first end portion and extends laterally from the elongate tab. A nub is disposed on the second end portion and is positioned between the connector body and the latch member. The nub is operative to actuate the latch member when the handle is pulled.
US09028264B2
A downhole electrical wet connector comprising a plug which is slidingly inserted into a socket, the socket comprising a series of wiper seals spaced apart by separation zones, each zone being individually supplied with dielectric fluid from a separate reservoir. A retractable insert is arranged in the socket and displaced by the plug during connection. The fluid pressure in each zone is individually regulated relative to ambient wellbore pressure and the pressure in adjacent zones and optionally equalised to minimise loss of fluid.
US09028263B2
A waterproof structure of communication connector is disclosed, which comprises: a first frame; a first gasket and at least one second frame. The first frame is composed of a first connecting member and a second connecting member that are disposed opposite to each other, in which the first connecting member is configured with a first end in a manner that that it is formed with a first groove surrounding the first end. The first gasket is disposed receiving inside the first groove and is made of a waterproofing material. The second frame has a third connecting member that is formed with an accommodation space, in which the accommodation space is formed with an abutment surface. Moreover, the first connecting member is arranged extending into the second frame and connected to the third connecting member, while enabling the first gasket to be sandwiched between the first end and the abutment surface.
US09028251B2
A dental instrument, or a coupling connectable to the dental instrument, comprises an illuminator having a plurality of light emitting diodes that are each capable of emitting light at a selected wavelength in a range 260 to 880 nm. White or near white light emitting diodes may also be included together with a switch. Fluorescence-based diagnosis can be assisted by the use of a single dye or mixture of dyes. Light of about 400-540 nm wavelength may be used to distinguish composite, porcelain or other tooth coloured filling materials from normal tooth structures. Light of about 260-450 nm wavelength may be used to identify dental caries, calculus and/or dental plaque. Light of about 350-500 nm wavelength may be used to cure dental composite. Typically, the dental instrument is, or comprises, a drill, de-scaler, or other instruments such as for cleaning, examination or diagnosis of dental conditions.
US09028247B2
A combustion chamber is provided and includes a combustion device and a supply circuit arranged to feed fuel at a plurality of locations of the combustion device. The supply circuit includes manifolds collecting fuel to be distributed among at least some of the locations, ducts extending from the manifolds and feeding the locations. Some of the ducts carry valves having a plurality of predetermined working positions, each working position corresponding to a different fuel flow through the valve.
US09028239B2
The present invention relates to an mass distribution device for supplying a mass of foodstuff starting material to one or more cavities of a mold drum for molding products from the mass, comprising a base member which extends partially around the outer cylindrical circumference of the drum and which has an introduction area through which the mass is the fed to the cavities. The invention further relates to a molding device and to a process for operating the inventive mass distribution device.
US09028234B2
Provided is a pressure vessel having a weld portion structure of a plate material in which a plate receiving a pressure or a load is attached by welding to a wall surface member such as a shell or a head. In the pressure vessel, a stress concentration on the weld portion structure is alleviated and an increase in welding amount and plate thickness of the wall surface member are suppressed. The pressure vessel includes a weld structure portion in which an end of a bolster plate (22) attached so as to partition an inside of a container body and receiving a pressure or a load is attached by welding to a wall surface member (30) of the container body, the weld structure portion having at least two sections including a weld portion (40), i.e., shape displacement points of the weld portion (40) and a stepped portion (50).
US09028220B2
A tie rod for extending between a fan shroud and a shaft cap in a rotative assembly includes a first end with threads; a second end with threads; and an elongated portion between the first end and the second end. The tie rod has diameter to length ratio of about 1 to 40.810 to about 1 to 40.768.
US09028218B2
A steam turbine having a fork-type joint structure is provided that secures sufficient strength for endurance of stress corrosion cracking, low-cycle fatigue, and high-cycle fatigue, and extends an operating life while making it possible to endure long-term operation. The turbine includes a rotor having a plurality of rotor forks rowed in an axial direction; a turbine blade having blade forks arranged in the axial direction of the rotor, the blade forks engaged with the rotor forks; a plurality of pin holes whose positions are different from each other in the radial direction of the rotor; and a plurality of fork pins inserted into the plurality of pin holes in the axial direction of the rotor. A clearance exists between an inner diameter of the pin hole of the blade fork and a diameter of the fork pin, the clearance varying depending on positions in the axial direction of the turbine.
US09028213B2
There is provided a culinary whisk comprising a body including a handle portion and a utility portion connected to the handle portion. The utility portion has a number of loops formed from a plurality of wires, wherein at least one of the wires is provided with a first portion having a non-circular cross section.
US09028210B2
Various embodiments include an alignment pin for a turbomachine. In some embodiments, the alignment pin includes a hollowed head section for engaging a diaphragm slot in the turbomachine. In these embodiments, the alignment pin further includes an expandable sleeve section connected with the hollowed head, the expandable sleeve section for engaging a casing slot in the turbomachine.
US09028207B2
A component wall in a turbine engine includes a substrate, a diffusion section, and at least one cooling passage. The diffusion section is located in a surface of the substrate and is defined by a first sidewall and a second sidewall. The cooling passage(s) include an outlet portion through which cooling air exits in a direction toward the first sidewall. The outlet portion includes a rear section, a front section, and an inner wall having proximal and distal ends. The rear section is located between the first and second sidewalls. The front section extends between the first sidewall and the distal end of the inner wall. The first sidewall extends into the outlet portion of the cooling passage(s) to the inner wall and extends from the first lateral wall to the second lateral wall so as to block the front section of the outlet portion.
US09028205B2
A system for a turbofan has a variable outer air seal, an actuator coupled to the variable outer air seal, a sensor positioned inside the turbofan for sensing an engine parameter, and a flight controller connected to the turbofan for receiving the parameter from the sensor. The flight controller directs the actuator to regulate the position of the actuator based on the flight condition resulting form the received parameter.
US09028203B2
An air diffuser device suitable for use in an air diffuser system for a centrifugal pump the pump including a pump casing with a pumping chamber therein, an impeller mounted within the pumping chamber for rotation about a rotation axis, the impeller including a front side and a rear side. The air diffuser system comprises one or more passages extending through the impeller from the front side to the rear side, the or each passage having a first opening at the rear side and a second opening at the front side of the impeller. The air diffuser device comprises a main body having a seal side and an impeller side, and at least one channel extending through the main body from the seal side to the impeller side, the or each channel having an intake opening at the seal side, a discharge opening at the impeller side, and a base wall extending through the main body, the base wall having a leading end portion at the seal side, and a trailing end portion at the impeller side, the discharge opening being in fluid communication with the first opening of the passage in the impeller when installed.
US09028198B2
In some aspects, an unloading device for a pipe processing system includes a depositing carriage having a depositing surface for depositing a pipe during and/or after a pipe processing operation, the depositing carriage being configured to move in a longitudinal direction of the pipe, and a supporting carriage having a supporting member for the pipe, the supporting member having a wall for radially supporting the pipe, and the supporting carriage being configured to move in a longitudinal direction of the pipe, where the depositing surface of the depositing carriage and/or the supporting member of the supporting carriage is configured to move in at least one other direction in addition to the longitudinal direction of the pipe so that the depositing carriage and the supporting carriage can be at least partially moved past each other along the longitudinal direction of the pipe.
US09028195B1
An apparatus for loading and unloading a truck with cargo includes a mounting frame for attaching adjacent to a truck doorway. The mounting frame includes a first guide member forming a first channel, a first support member slideably received within the first channel, a second guide member forming a second channel, and a second support member slideably received within the second channel. A platform for supporting the cargo is pivotally coupled to the first support member and to the second support member. A power driven lift elevator slides the first support member within the first channel and slides the second support member within the second channel to thereby raise and lower the platform. A power driven platform elevator pivots the platform respect to the first and second support members to move the platform between horizontal and vertical positions.
US09028191B2
Reduction in cooling rate of a substrate having a lower temperature is suppressed because the substrate having a lower temperature is not affected by radiant heat of a substrate having a higher temperature while cooling a plurality of substrates in a cooling chamber. The substrate processing apparatus includes a load lock chamber configured to accommodate stacked substrates; a first transfer mechanism having a first transfer arm provided with a first end effector, and configured to transfer the substrates into/from the load lock chamber at a first side of the load lock chamber; a second transfer mechanism having a second transfer arm provided with a second end effector, and configured to transfer the substrates into/from the load lock chamber at a second side of the load lock chamber; a barrier installed between the substrates to be spaced apart from the substrates supported by a substrate support provided in the load lock chamber; and an auxiliary barrier unit installed between the substrate support and the barrier, wherein the auxiliary barrier unit is installed at places other than standby spaces of the end effectors.
US09028186B2
A nut assembly and a holddown assembly using the nut assembly are described, including methods of manufacture and assembly. The nut assembly may include a body portion having first and second openings with an internal wall extending between them. A rotation-inhibiting wall may be included between the first and second openings. A nut portion configured to move axially within the internal wall of the body portion includes structures for co-acting with a rotation-inhibiting wall to limit or prevent rotation of the body portion and the nut portion relative to each other. A nut portion and a body portion extending around the nut portion have limited axial movement relative to each other due to axial engagement between adjacent surfaces on the nut portion and the body portion.
US09028184B2
A protrusion anchor assembly is provided that utilizes a plurality of extendable pins to secure the anchor body within a bore in any hard material, such as concrete. The anchor body is rotated within the bore while the pins are simultaneously and gradually extended, carving out a groove or grooves within which the pins can sit. After installation, the device is secured within the bore by tightening a jamb nut against the surface of the concrete wall and in some embodiments placing a security plug within the anchor body to ensure that the pins are held in place. The pins prevent the anchor from being withdrawn because they act as protuberances that catch against the edges of the groove and cannot be drawn past that point.
US09028169B2
A dissipator for providing controlled water drainage from a downspout. The dissipator comprises a base and a cover plate. The base provides engagement with a downspout and the cover plate is configured to mount to a portion of the base, defining at least one drainage hole. A skirt portion of the base couples to the downspout so that the at least one drainage hole of the cover plate provides controlled water drainage by dissipating the water flowing within the downspout and through the dissipator.
US09028168B1
A concrete finishing machine includes a mobile frame supported above the slab on front and rear wheels with at least one screed roller and a plurality of vibrators are suspended from the frame between the front and rear wheels. The front and rear wheels are rotatable at least ninety degrees between a longitudinally directed traveling orientation and a laterally directed concrete finishing orientation. The front and rear wheels are driven and steerable so that the mobile frame may travel longitudinally down a lane of a road, and then upon pivoting of the wheels, move laterally over a hole in an adjacent lane having uncured concrete to be finished by the finishing machine.
US09028159B2
A camera module with a lens barrel containing a lens, and a lens carrier that slidably receives the lens barrel. Each of the exterior surface of the lens barrel and the interior surface of the lens carrier include a seating surface formed thereon. One of the exterior surface of the lens barrel and the interior surface of the lens carrier include a plurality of protrusions for controlling the relative position of the lens barrel and the lens carrier. The other of the exterior surface of the lens barrel and the interior surface of the lens carrier include a plurality of channels that are sized and arranged so as to slidably receive the protrusions to allow for the lens barrel to be slid into the lens carrier. The channels also each include a transverse section to allow the lens barrel to be pivoted about an optical axis of the lens barrel.
US09028147B2
An improved liner having an elastic securing mechanism that may be placed in a vessel to form and maintain a barrier between the vessel and objects contained therein. The liner includes an elastic securing band secured around the perimeter of the open top end of the liner using a plurality of spaced-apart tack welds or rivets. In one embodiment, the liner material is folded over the elastic and ultrasonic sealing is used to burn through the elastic and seal the folded liner material to itself thereby securing the elastic to the liner. In use, the liner is placed within a receptacle of the vessel and the open top end is folded outward and downward over a rim of the vessel such that the elastic engages an outside of the vessel to form a secure and snug fit of the liner to the vessel. Advantageously, a failure to a portion of the elastic is limited to that portion of the elastic only and propagation of the failure is limited by the rivets.
US09028145B2
Apparatus and methods for collimation of x-ray beams. According to various embodiments, an x-ray apparatus may comprise a first rotatable disk comprising a first plurality of angled slots and a first shutter comprising a first plurality of protruding members. At least one of the first plurality of protruding members may be positioned within a first angled slot of the first plurality of angled slots, and at least one of the first plurality of protruding members may be positioned within a second angled slot of the first plurality of angled slots. The first shutter may at least partially define an x-ray collimation aperture, and the apparatus may be configured such that rotation of the first rotatable disk results in movement of the first shutter to alter a size of the x-ray collimation aperture.
US09028143B2
A sensor arrangement includes at least two sensor components. Each sensor component includes a housing with at least one sensor element. The housings each include at least one connecting device. The at least one connecting device can be used to mechanically connect the at least two sensor components to one another.
US09028142B2
Temperatures in microelectronic integrated circuit packages and components may be measured in situ using carbon nanotube networks. An array of carbon nanotubes strung between upstanding structures may be used to measure local temperature. Because of the carbon nanotubes, a highly accurate temperature measurement may be achieved. In some cases, the carbon nanotubes and the upstanding structures may be secured to a substrate that is subsequently attached to a microelectronic package.
US09028140B2
The invention relates to a measuring sensor for measuring temperature in a chemical process, the measuring sensor comprising a measuring element supported on the frame of the measuring sensor and arranged in thermal contact with the process being measured, and measuring conductors connected to the measuring element for directing a measuring signal onward. The frame of the measuring sensor is made of mineral material.
US09028133B2
An improved dual-shaft preconditioner (10) of simplified design is provided giving increased moisturization and partial cooking of food or feed ingredients. The preconditioner (10) includes an elongated, tapered housing (12) presenting a pair of side-by-side, communicating housing sections (58, 60), with a corresponding pair of converging shafts (20, 22) within the sections (58, 60) and having a series of elongated, outwardly extending mixing elements (24, 26) secured to the shafts (20, 22). The preconditioner (10) is designed for use in a system including a downstream processing device, such as an extruder (146).
US09028120B2
A variety of illumination devices are disclosed that are configured to manipulate light provided by one or more light-emitting elements (LEEs). In general, embodiments of the illumination devices feature one or more optical couplers that redirect illumination from the LEEs to a reflector which then directs the light into a range of angles. In some embodiments, the illumination device includes a second reflector that reflects at least some of the light from the first reflector. In certain embodiments, the illumination device includes a light guide that guides light from the collector to the first reflector. The components of the illumination device can be configured to provide illumination devices that can provide a variety of intensity distributions. Such illumination devices can be configured to provide light for particular lighting applications, including office lighting, task lighting, cabinet lighting, garage lighting, wall wash, stack lighting, and downlighting.
US09028118B2
A vehicular headlamp has a projection lens, a light source disposed behind a rear focal point of the projection lens, and a reflector that reflects light from the light source forward. The vehicular headlamp forms a forward light distribution pattern. The vehicular headlamp includes a plate-like shade having a front-end portion positioned in the vicinity of the rear focal point of the projection lens to form a cut-off line of the forward light distribution pattern. The shade extends rearward and obliquely downward from the front-end portion. An overhead sign reflective surface is provided on a lower surface of the shade. The overhead sign reflective surface reflects light from the reflector toward the projection lens to form a part of an overhead sign distribution pattern. A dark portion forming portion is formed on the overhead sign reflective surface.
US09028117B2
The invention relates to a headlight (100) for a two-wheeled vehicle (1), including at least one light source combined with at least one reflector for reflecting the light from the light source in the traveling direction of the vehicle (e1), characterized in that the headlight has a rotational axis about which it can pivot, said axis extending, when the headlight is in a reference position corresponding to a position in which the vehicle is substantially vertical and not inclined, in a substantially median and vertical longitudinal plane (e1, e3) of the headlight, the rotational axis further being inclined relative to the vertical direction.
US09028099B2
A LED light emitting group (1) apt to produce an outgoing light beam having its own optical axis (8) is equipped with a plurality of LEDs (18), distributed on a plate-shaped body (13) and having a fixed central plane portion (14) orthogonal to the optical axis (8) and a crown (13) of peripheral plane portions (16) tilted with respect to the central plane portion (14) and converging the one towards the other one and towards the central plane portion (14) and the optical axis (8); each one of said plane portions (14, 16) carrying a plurality of said LEDs (18).
US09028098B2
A light emitting diode (LED) component includes a base having a main body and a wiring pattern. The main body defines an axis and includes two connecting surfaces respectively located at two opposite sides thereof, and a plurality of interconnected mounting surfaces surrounding the axis and connected between the connecting surfaces. The wiring pattern is at least disposed on the mounting surfaces and includes electrically insulated anode and cathode. A plurality of light emitting diode (LED) chips are disposed on the mounting surfaces. Each LED chip is electrically connected to the anode and the cathode.
US09028094B2
Systems and methods permit use of efficient solid state emitters for broad spectrum continuous spectrum lighting defined by illumination data. The illumination data, which can be sold as a commercial product, can be recorded or authored and include spectral, temporal, and spatial information. Intensities of individual emitters such as LEDs can be controlled through a combination of pulse width modulation (PWM) and amplitude modulation (AM) of drive currents. The combination of PWM and AM permits fine tuning of the spectrum of emissions and creation of free space optical data channels.
US09028091B2
A luminaire to be carried by a lighting fixture. The luminaire may include a housing, a primary optic disposed within the housing having a reflective inner surface defining an optical chamber, a light source, and a heat sink defining an aperture through which light may propagate. The light source may include a plurality of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The luminaire may further include a secondary optic positioned adjacent to the light source that may collimate and/or refract light emitted by the light source, and may form a seal between the light source and the optical chamber. The luminaire may further include a color conversion layer configured to change the color of light emitted by the light source.
US09028090B2
An LED lamp includes LED chips, a translucent cover housing the LED chips, a motion sensor unit, a condensing lens, and a power unit. The motion sensor unit includes a light receiving element for light of a predetermined wavelength. The lens condenses light of the predetermined wavelength onto the light receiving element. The power unit controls the state of operation of the LED chips based on an output from the motion sensor unit. The motion sensor unit includes a light shielding member disposed to overlap the light receiving element in an optical axis direction of the condensing lens and also to surround the light receiving element as viewed in the optical axis direction. The light shielding member is made of a material having a lower light transmissivity than that of the condensing lens for a range of wavelengths including the predetermined wavelength.
US09028085B2
A lighting assembly for a ceiling fan, the ceiling fan having an attachment interface having an electrical connection for powering an external assembly, the lighting assembly including a housing configured to be connected to and supported by the attachment interface of the ceiling fan, a plurality of lighting arms extending from the housing and provided with a socket to receive a light bulb, the socket being configured to be in electrical communication with the electrical connection of the ceiling fan, and an auxiliary connection provided at a side of the housing to provide power to an external device coupled to the housing.
US09028076B2
In a projector, a projection unit includes a projection mechanism that projects an image and an air hole that takes in or exhausts air used to dissipate heat generated from a light source included in the projection mechanism. A housing covers the air hole when the projection unit is in a storage position in which the projection unit does not project an image and uncovers the air hole when the projection unit is in a projection position in which the projection unit projects an image. The drive mechanism moves the projection unit or a cover member. An electronic control unit controls the drive mechanism to move the projection unit to the projection position in which an image is projected when receiving a predetermined projection preparation request and move the projection unit to the storage position in which no image is projected when receiving a predetermined storage request.
US09028069B2
An ophthalmological device (1) in accordance with an embodiment of the present application includes an optical transmission system (5) for transmitting femtosecond laser pulses to a projection objective (3) for projecting the femtosecond laser pulses onto or into eye (2) tissue. The ophthalmological device (1) further includes an objective changing device (4) for changing and connecting the projection objective (3) to the optical transmission system (5). The objective changing device (4) includes more than one different projection objective (3) connected mechanically with each other, and the objective changing device (4) is configured to convey one of the projection objectives (3) to the optical transmission system (5) for connecting the respective projection objective (3) to the optical transmission system (5). The objective changing device (4) makes it possible to adapt the laser-based ophthalmological device (1) for new applications without the need for extensive reconfigurations and/or costly vario-lense objectives.
US09028068B2
An electronic eyeglasses includes a camera module and a controller. The camera module captures consecutive images of eyes wearing the electronic eyeglasses. The controller includes a recognition module, a storage module, and a control module. The recognition module recognizes movement of the eyes by processing the consecutive images. The storage module stores an index table having a collection of eye movements and a collection of commands each of which is associated with one of the eye movements. The control module indexes a command from the index table using the movement of the eyes and controls the electronic eyeglasses to execute the command.
US09028067B1
A diseased retina has a blind spot where the center of the retina, called the fovea, exists. A compensation system could comprise first measuring a patient's healthy regions of the retina called PRL. A video camera could be mounted on a table, such as for reading applications, but preferably mounted on an eyeglass frame, capture an area of regard (AR). This AR is sent to a computer which directs a projector (such as a MEMS projector) to direct the AR using his healthy area of his retina. Improvements include adding an eyeball location sensor to keep the AR focused on a moving PRL. Another improvement is dithering the AR image in millimeter sized oscillations on the moving PRL. Reading enhancement software such as Spritz® can be integrated into the computer to display the enhanced text onto the PRL.
US09028058B2
A sheet basis weight sensing device for an image forming apparatus includes a sensor to detect heat conductivity of an ambient gas on a surface of a sheet on which the droplet is deposited or the surface opposite the sheet before and after the droplet is deposited; and a controller configured to: measure a time it takes the heat conductivity after the droplet is deposited to change by a predetermined ratio compared to the heat conductivity before deposition of the droplet; and obtain the sheet basis weight based on a relation between the time and the basis weight. The sheet basis weight sensing device further includes a memory to store a first table and a second table, and an image forming condition controller to set an appropriate image forming condition with reference to the second table.
US09028057B2
An ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention includes a head, a first light source, a second light source. Liquid droplets of a photo-curable ink composition are applied to a recording medium. After one second or less elapses from the time when the liquid droplets are applied to the recording medium, the liquid droplets are illuminated with light of the first light source. After 0.1 second or more and one second or less elapses from the time when the liquid droplets are illuminated with light of the first light source, the liquid droplets are illuminated with light of the second light source.
US09028053B2
A liquid ejecting apparatus including: a plurality of pressure chambers communicating with a plurality of nozzles respectively; and a plurality of liquid ejecting heads having a common liquid chamber configured to supply liquid common to the plurality of pressure chambers, wherein each of the liquid ejecting heads includes a liquid supply channel communicating with the common liquid chamber and supplying liquid from the liquid storage tank toward the common liquid chamber by the liquid feeding unit and a liquid discharge channel communicating with the common liquid chamber and discharging the liquid from the communicating chamber toward the liquid storage tank by the liquid feeding unit, and the directions of flows of the liquid in the common liquid chamber flowing from the liquid supply channels through the common liquid chamber toward the liquid discharge channels are opposite from each other between the adjacent liquid ejecting heads.
US09028049B2
The effects on an image are maximally decreased with respect to ejection by printing elements included in the low flow rate areas of a serial channel in an inkjet printing apparatus that uses a joined head in which multiple chips provided with multiple printing element arrays are disposed. For this purpose, print data is distributed to individual printing elements at a joining portion between two chips, such that fewer printing elements execute ejection operations on a printing element array A distanced farther from the center line of a base plate than a printing element array D nearer the center line. Doing so suppresses ejection by printing elements included in low flow rate areas which manifest near the turns of an ink channel, and reduces density defects due to ejection by such printing elements.
US09028047B2
A liquid ejection head includes an ejection surface having a plurality of ejection opening sets each of which consists of at least two ejection openings adjacent to each other in a given direction. A straight line defined to connect between centers of the respective at least two ejection openings is parallel with the ejection surface and is inclined with respect to the given direction and a perpendicular direction that is perpendicular to the given direction. The straight line defined in one of each adjacent two of the ejection opening sets, which are adjacent to each other in the given direction, and the straight line defined in another of the each adjacent two of the ejection opening sets, are inclined with respect to the perpendicular direction, in respective directions opposite to each other. Also disclosed is a liquid ejection recording device including the liquid ejection head.
US09028042B2
The present invention provides a cap member for a liquid discharge head. The cap member is configured to seal a discharge surface of the liquid discharge head and includes a lower receiving portion; a liquid-absorbing member disposed opposite the discharge surface of the head and including a nozzle-facing surface and a bottom portion; and a suction hole, provided at a bottom of the cap member, through which ink is discharged. In the thus-configured cap member, the bottom portion of the liquid-absorbing member is disposed apart from the lower receiving portion and from the suction hole disposed at the bottom of the cap member, and has a surface slanted toward the suction hole.
US09028041B2
An electronic device includes: a device body; a power supply circuitry which supplies electric power to the device body; and a real-time clock which measures a current time. The power supply circuitry includes: a transformer which converts electric power input to a primary side of the transformer and outputs the converted power to a secondary side of the transformer; a switching element disposed on the primary side to perform switching of a current to be supplied to the primary winding; and a switching controller disposed on the primary side. The real-time clock is disposed on the primary side to receive electric power. The device body includes: a main controller disposed on the secondary side to control the electronic device that receives electric power on the secondary side; and a circuit which couples the main controller and the real-time clock to allow communication therebetween in an electrically insulated state.
US09028038B2
A liquid discharge head has a substrate having an inorganic material layer, an organic material layer, and an intermediate layer contacting the inorganic material layer and the organic material layer between the inorganic material layer and the organic material layer, in which the intermediate layer contains a resin having three or more cyclohexene oxide skeletons in the molecules, a photocationic polymerization initiator, a thermal cationic polymerization initiator, and an onium salt containing a cation portion structure represented by (d1) and an anion portion structure represented by (d2).
US09028032B2
An embodiment of this invention solves a problem about a precision drop of registration adjustment of a range detection method due to variations of a registration state depending on a position associated with a carriage scanning direction. In that embodiment, reference and adjustment patterns are formed to be juxtaposed in a nozzle array direction to detect a position shift between patterns in the main scanning direction. In this case, coarse registration adjustment is executed by the range detection method, and its adjustment result is applied to a printing apparatus. After that, fine registration adjustment is executed by a density method, and results of the two adjustment methods are finally reflected.
US09028019B2
A fastening device for releasably mounting a front cover on a drawer, in particular on a side wall of the drawer, includes a furniture fitting that is pre-assembled on the front cover; a catching mechanism associated with the drawer and including a movable catching element accommodating the furniture fitting when the furniture fitting is inserted; and a pulling mechanism pulling the furniture fitting towards the drawer under the effect of a spring. A positioning contour and a movable positioning member are provided to move the catching element, and the positioning member and the positioning contour at least temporarily rest against each other under the effect of a spring.
US09028015B2
Disclosed is a method for operating an electromechanically operable parking brake for motor vehicles with a driving engine furnished with a mechanical gear box, being substantially composed of an operating element, an electronic control unit, to which are sent wheel rotational speed values from wheel rotational speed sensors, at least one unit for generating a brake application force, and brake devices on at least one axle being lockable by the unit, with the electronic control unit actuating the unit after detection of a starting maneuver of the motor vehicle in the sense of a release operation of the parking brake. In order to render a release operation of the parking brake as comfortable as possible after detection of a starting maneuver of the motor vehicle, the method at issued arranges that the electronic control unit (6) actuates the unit (1) in order to reduce the brake application force to an inclination-responsive holding force when a starting maneuver is detected and before the release operation of the parking brake is performed.
US09028010B2
Provided is a braking control system including: an internal combustion engine serving as a power source of a vehicle; a brake servo unit operated by a negative pressure supplied thereto; a passage configured to supply an intake negative pressure of the internal combustion engine to the brake servo unit; and a negative pressure pump configured to generate a negative pressure by being driven by power transmitted from a wheel of the vehicle and transmit the generated negative pressure to the brake servo unit, wherein the negative pressure pump is driven so as to supply the negative pressure to the brake servo unit during execution of inertia running in which the internal combustion engine stops and the vehicle runs by inertia.
US09028008B1
A cutting tool assembly for mounting in a bore of a holder includes a cutting tool having a head, a shank and a collar therebetween having an axially rearward surface that defines an annular channel adjacent an axially forward end of the shank. The assembly also includes a retainer sleeve substantially surrounding the shank and defining a slot that extends from an axial forward end to an axial rearward end of the retainer sleeve. The retainer sleeve is compressible between an expanded state and a compressed state. The assembly further includes a compression band removably attached to the retainer sleeve. The compression band in a first position is attached to the retainer sleeve and compresses the retainer sleeve to the compressed state and in a second position is not attached to the retainer sleeve and the retainer sleeve is in the expanded state.
US09028007B2
A longwall shearer or other machine with a gear case for transmitting rotational power from a drive to a driven member. The gear case comprises a drive, a driven member, at least one axle including at least one aperture formed therein to circulate cooling fluid through the axle, and a gear mounted to rotate on the axle and positioned to transmit power from the drive to the driven member.
US09027999B2
A control assembly for a chair including a base structure having a first pivot point and a second pivot point spaced from the first pivot point, a seat support structure pivotably coupled to the base structure for rotation about the first pivot point, a back support structure pivotably coupled to the base structure for rotation about the second pivot point, wherein the back support structure is adapted to rotate between a first and second positions, and a control link having a first end coupled to the seat support structure, and a second end coupled to the back support structure, wherein the control link rotates the seat support structure at a slower rate of rotation than a rate of rotation of the back support structure as the back support structure is rotated between the first and second positions.
US09027998B2
A chair assembly includes a base structure defining upper and lower portions, a seat support structure having forward and rearward portions, wherein the forward portion of the seat support structure is pivotably coupled to the upper portion, and wherein the seat support structure includes a seat support surface configured to support a seated user thereon, a back support structure having forward and rearward portions, wherein the forward portion of the back supported is pivotably coupled to the lower portion, and wherein the back support structure includes an upwardly extending portion adapted to move between an upright position and a reclined position, and a control link having a first end pivotably coupled to the rearward portion of the seat support structure, and a second end pivotably coupled to the rearward portion of the back support structure.
US09027991B2
A racing bucket seat and a cooling system for racing cars is capable of effectively suppressing the rise of a driver's body temperature, meeting safety regulations. The racing bucket seat includes a plurality of shell through holes formed in a seat shell, an outer shell fixed on the seat shell to cover the shell through holes from a rear side of the seat shell and formed with a layer-like flow passage between the outer shell and a rear surface of the seat shell, and an air intake port introducing the air into the flow passage.
US09027985B2
A vehicle having a body structure defining a window opening, the window opening at least partially framed by a window sash defining a sash channel in communication with the window opening; a laminated window panel movable within the window opening along a plane of the window opening; and a retaining structure located between the window sash and the window panel and configured to retentively engage the window panel in the presence of a transverse force on the window panel even if the window panel has become slack.
US09027980B1
A vehicle has a load-carrying structure limited by end and side walls and open at the top. A cover system covers the load-carrying structure in a closed position, and uncovers it in an open position. The cover system has at least one roof segment, swivelled between the closed position and the open position using at least one swivel mechanism having at least one drive shaft, with the roof segment being rigidly attached to the drive shaft. A drive turns the drive shaft, which is rotatably secured to at least two swivel levers that are able to be swivelled on a shared swivel axis, thus moving the drive axis between its position on the upper longitudinal edge of one of the two side walls and a position that is laterally spaced from the side wall, and aligning the shared swivel axis with the upper longitudinal edge of the side walls.
US09027974B1
A tool for lifting and carrying wood of a two opposing pointed arm pivoted construction. A drive handle extends from one arm and an offset carrying handle extends from the other arm. Each arm has a curved free end portion terminating in a wood engagement point. The arms are pivoted together at their distal ends with an arm stop extending therebetween preventing the arms from closing completely. The arms respective end engagement points provide for opposing wood end engagement to grip and hold a single log or firewood piece securely therebetween for lifting and carrying until select release by the user.
US09027970B2
In relation to fluid pressure devices, a connection apparatus, by which a filter, a regulator and a lubricator that constitute a fluid pressure unit are mutually connected, is equipped with a base member having a hole therein, a pair of first and second fastening members mounted respectively on one side surface and another side surface of the base member, and first and second holders in which the first and second fastening members are retained. Additionally, the first and second holders engage respectively with engagement projections of the filter, the regulator and the lubricator, and first and second nuts are screw-engaged with the first and second fastening members, whereby the fluid pressure devices are connected together through the first and second holders.
US09027969B2
A pipe quick release structure includes a first pipe having at least one guiding element formed on an outer periphery of the first pipe, a second pipe having at least one axial trough defined to correspond to and movably and selectively receive therein the at least one guiding element of the first pipe and a joint securely received in the second pipe and having at least one axial ledge formed on an outer periphery thereof to be movably received in the at least one axial trough of the second pipe, at least one second axial trough defined to receive therein the at least one guiding element of the first pipe and at least one recess defined to communicate with the at least one second axial trough to selectively position the at least one guiding element of the first pipe so as to selectively secure connection of the first pipe to the second pipe.
US09027967B2
A fluidic component is arranged in an elastomeric shaped part the contour of which is matched to the outer contour of the component and to the inner contour of a holder. The elastomeric shaped part is chamfered towards the fluidic component on its pressure side. When the holder is assembled the elastomeric shaped part is deformed by a projection provided on a mating part and is put under uniformly distributed internal tension, after which the elastomeric shaped part surrounds the fluidic component to its full height.
US09027966B2
A fitting, particularly for connecting two pipes, comprising: a support sleeve (1), having a first connection segment (11a) at a first end, and having a second connection segment at an opposite second end, wherein at least the first connection segment (11a) is formed so that a pipe segment (70) can be pushed onto it and having a middle segment (12) disposed between the first and the second connection segment (11a, 11b), wherein the middle segment (12) comprises a fixing element (32, 34) extending at least partially around the support sleeve and having a separable ring element (20) having an inner diameter substantially corresponding to an outer diameter of the middle segment (12) and designed for being placed on the support sleeve (1) and being retained by the fixing element (32, 34) in the middle segment (12) in a fixed position.
US09027964B2
A height adjuster (1) for a bracket of a safety belt for a motor vehicle includes a profiled rail (2) a base (22) and side walls (11, 12), wherein in at least one side wall (11, 12) a latching contour (14, 15) is provided, a sliding member (16) which can be displaced along the profiled rail (2) and includes a latching means for latching the sliding member (16) in the latching contour (14, 15), and a control element (3) for releasing the latching means. At least one recess (21) is provided at a side edge of the sliding member (16) and the latching means is formed by at least one latching element (4, 5) located in the recess (21).
US09027939B2
A ski conversion device for a stroller or a bicycle trailer including: wheel braces for attachment to first and second skis and for receiving the first and second wheels; connecting elements for fixing the wheels to wheel braces; orientation braces for attachment to skis; orientation elements for connecting the stroller or the bicycle trailer to the orientation braces and for fixing an orientation of the stroller or the bicycle trailer with respect to the skis; a rigger element for connecting to a ski and including a runner element; and yokes for connection to the skis, the yokes attachable to a source of energy for propelling the ski conversion device. In a first position, the runner element is locatable between the first and second skis. In a second position, the runner element is locatable beyond the first ski in a direction from the second ski toward the first ski.
US09027938B1
A lift kit for the suspension strut of a Quad ATV cycle including an upstanding sleeve with an upper edge with a collar of reduced diameter defining an upwardly facing annular shoulder at a bottom of the collar, a shock absorber inserted in the sleeve, a washer sitting on the annular shoulder and a coil spring sitting on the washer where the lift kit includes a sleeve member having a bottom collar and an upstanding portion therefrom where the bottom collar has an exterior surface with a diameter greater than that of the upstanding portion and a nut engaged onto the male screw thread on the and being movable to different set portions of a top surface of the nut along the male screw thread on the upstanding portion, the nut having an upper face supporting a bottom of the spring.
US09027936B2
A gasket is provided which is intended to improve its sealing performance by attaining a further stabilization of the posture thereof in a groove. In a gasket (100) in which a protruded part (110), which serves to stabilize the posture of the gasket (100) in a groove (201) by being in contact with an inner wall surface of the groove (201) in a state where the gasket is sandwiched by a head cover (200) and a cylinder head, is continuously formed in a longitudinal direction of the gasket (100), the protruded part (110) is characterized by a stepped structure which includes a first protruded portion (111) with the largest amount of protrusion that is formed along the vicinity of a center of a gasket main body, a second protruded portion (112) with the smallest amount of protrusion that is formed at the side of the head cover (200), and a third protruded portion (113) that is formed at the side of the cylinder head, and has an amount of protrusion which is smaller than that of the first protruded portion (111), and larger than that of the second protruded portion (112).
US09027934B2
Due to increasingly strict requirements and regulations, it is becoming more and more important for piston compressors to reduce the amount of leakage of operating medium through the seal of the piston rod. Conventional seals comprising packing rings and/or packing ring combinations always have a certain amount of leakage, both during operation and when at standstill, which is why they are not usable for certain applications, or the complexity involved in such a seal increases considerably. A further problem involving the seals of piston rods relates to transverse movements by piston rods during which the sealing action of the seal must be maintained. Proposed is, therefore, a sealing arrangement according to the principle of a sealing medium barrier providing that the sealing elements 8, 9 are arranged in radial direction at a distance relative to the radial end of the recess 10 that receives the sealing elements 8, 9.
US09027932B2
A sealing system for a pump having a plunger includes a housing having an internal chamber adapted to receive a portion of the plunger. Primary and secondary seals are located within the internal chamber and adapted to sealingly engage the plunger. The primary seal communicates with the fluid being pumped. A barrier fluid chamber contains a barrier fluid in contact with the primary seal and the secondary seal. A pressure referencing device has an inlet port in communication with the pumped fluid and an outlet port providing fluid at a pressure magnitude equal to a peak pressure of the pumped fluid. A pressurizing device is in communication with the fluid at the peak pressure and the barrier fluid to maintain the barrier fluid pressure at a magnitude greater than the peak pressure of the pumped fluid such that the pumped fluid is restricted from leaking past the primary seal.
US09027929B2
A fluidic processor includes a first sealing member having a first sealing face, a first compressive face and at least one first sealing member fluid conduit; a second sealing member having a second sealing face, a second compressive face and at least one second sealing member fluid conduit; the second sealing face of the second sealing member being sealingly and slidingly engaged in a substantially fluid tight manner with the first sealing face of the first sealing member; and at least one actuator mechanically engaging at least one of the first sealing member and the second sealing member, or an XY stage, or mechanism that provides motion in two axes on one sealing member only.
US09027920B2
A sheet stacking apparatus has a rotating portion provided in an operation member to rotate around a first rotation fulcrum, an elastic portion provided in the operation member to be elastically deformed by the rotating portion being rotated, and a disengaging portion that rotates an engaging portion between an engagement position and a disengagement position by the elastic portion being elastically deformed.
US09027916B2
A multi-functional vice base including a main body and a plate is provided. The main body includes a bottom surface, side surfaces and fixing portions. At least two side surfaces form a groove therebetween. Each fixing portion is disposed between the groove and the bottom surface. A first fixing member goes through a through hole of one of the fixing portions and is fixed on a working machine bench. The plate is detachably disposed at one of the side surfaces. Whereby the vice base can be mounted on various sized horizontal machining centers. Besides, plates with different size are allowed to be mounted on the main body for clamping work pieces whose sizes are different.
US09027914B2
An optical fiber fusion splicer includes: a windshield cover having a rotating shaft and rotating around the rotating shaft so as to be openable and closable; a cable member wrapping unit coupled and fixed to the windshield cover on the same axis as the rotating shaft of the windshield cover or formed as a portion of the windshield cover, the cable member wrapping unit being rotatable in a normal direction or in a reverse direction around the rotating shaft; a first cable member winding unit that is a rotary pulley, a non-rotary pulley, or a rotary gear; and a closed-loop member including a deformable cable member wound around the cable member wrapping unit and the first cable member winding unit, the closed-loop member constituting a closed loop.
US09027909B1
A fencing system comprises a rail, a picket, and a picket carrier. The rail may include an upper contour, a first wall depending down from the upper contour, a second wall depending down from the upper contour and opposite the first wall, and a keeper disposed on the first wall under the upper contour. The picket may define therein an opening. The picket carrier may be elongated and may include a first side and an opposite second side, and a profile extending from the second side that defines a length along the picket carrier and may further define a cross-section. The cross-section may include an extension proximate to the second side and a holder distal to the second side. A first relief may be defined along the length and a second relief defined along the length, the second relief disposed apart from the first relief, with the holder of the profile that resides between the first and second reliefs extending into the opening. The picket carrier may reside stationery within the rail between the first and second walls in between the keeper and the upper contour. The picket may be pivotable relative to the rail.
US09027906B2
A filler assembly is mounted in an axial hole of a cap of a valve. The filler assembly includes at least one first filler and at least one second filler stacked in a longitudinal direction. A valve rod received in the axial hole extends through the at least one first filler and the at least one second filler. At least one of two mutually abutting faces respectively of the at least one first filler and the at least one second filler is at a non-parallel angle to a radial direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction. If one of the at least one first filler and the at least one second filler is subjected to a pressing force in the longitudinal direction, at least one of the at least one first filler and the at least one second filler is moved in the radial direction to press against the valve rod.
US09027900B2
A bipod mount for positioning a PDA device for ease of use by a recumbent person comprises a rigid post with slidably adjustable clamping jaws thereon for engaging upper and lower edges of the PDA device. The rigid post is held in a structure including a pair of friction hubs affixed to upper ends of a pair of arms that can be splayed due to the use of the friction hubs. At the second end of the arms are pivotably mounted foot members. The assembly is collapsible to a small size for storage.
US09027896B2
A support bracket includes a housing, a driving member, a first linking member, a gear mechanism, a first engaging member, a second linking member and a second engaging member. The housing has a guiding rail and a through hole. The driving member has a driving portion and a first rack portion, and the driving portion is exposed out of the housing. The first linking member has a second rack portion and an engaging groove. The gear mechanism meshes with the first rack portion and the second rack portion. The first engaging member has a guiding portion and a first engaging portion, and the guiding portion is disposed in the guiding rail. Opposite ends of the second linking member are pivotally connected to the first linking member and the first engaging member, respectively. The second engaging member has a second engaging portion.
US09027893B2
A hanging device includes a wall-connecting frame, an object-connecting frame, and a plurality of connectors. The wall-connecting frame includes a connecting bracket that has a plurality of connecting holes formed in front and rear end faces thereof. The object-connecting frame is connected to the connecting bracket and is adapted for connection with an object. Each connector extends through one of the connecting holes in the rear end face and a corresponding connecting hole in the front end face, and is connected to the object-connecting frame. The connectors are operable to move the object-connecting frame forwardly and rearwardly relative to the wall-connecting frame.
US09027892B2
An assembly is disclosed for mounting an electronic display device to a supporting structure within the cockpit of an aircraft which includes a circular adapter plate configured for attachment to a rear surface of an electronic display device, the adapter plate having a central alignment aperture with an axially extending annular wall that faces away from the rear surface of the display device, and a receiver plate configured for attachment to a supporting structure within the cockpit of an aircraft, the receiver plate having a recessed port for blindly receiving the annular wall of the central alignment aperture of the adapter plate.
US09027887B2
A method of controlling the attitude of a satellite in orbit around a celestial body. The attitude of the satellite being controlled by a momentum storage device and controllable surfaces of the satellite configured to create desaturation torques in the storage device by using solar pressure. The controllable surfaces are arranged on solar panels mobile in rotation around an axis Y. At least one electric thruster configured to control the orbit of the satellite also controls the attitude of the satellite. The orientation of the electric thruster is controlled to activate the electric thruster with a thrust direction deliberately not aligned with a center of mass of the satellite to create desaturation torques in the storage device along axis Y. The controllable surfaces are controlled to create desaturation torques of the storage device in a plane orthogonal to the Y axis.
US09027883B2
A shock control fairing for mounting a junction between adjoining aircraft surfaces. The fairing has a cross-sectional profile which varies along the length of the fairing. The cross-sectional profile of the fairing has a maximum area at a location which, when mounted to an aircraft, is substantially proximal to a location on the surface of the aircraft at which a shock would be expected to develop without the fairing.
US09027882B2
The present invention prevents misassembly of access doors while reducing stress concentrations. A hole-side convex portion 80 is formed in each opening 12 at one or more locations in a circumferential direction, and a door-side rib 70 is formed on each door body 30. The hole-side convex portions 80 formed in the openings 12A to 12C differ in location in the circumferential direction among the plural openings 12A to 12C. The door-side ribs 70 formed on the respective door bodies 30A to 30C are provided in such locations as not to interfere with the hole-side convex portions 80 provided in the openings 12A to 12C in correct combination with the door bodies 30A to 30C.
US09027878B2
An aircraft landing gear including a fairing (12) arranged to be moveable between first and second configurations, wherein in the first configuration the fairing shields an element of the landing gear from an incident airflow, the fairing being arranged to be in the first configuration when the landing gear is deployed but unloaded, and wherein in the second configuration the fairing exposes the landing gear element to the incident airflow, the fairing being arranged to be in the second configuration when the landing gear is deployed and loaded.
US09027876B2
A device for suspending a turbojet casing, the device including a shouldered pin extending through aligned orifices of two lugs of a clevis secured to the casing. A protection piece for providing protection against wear is mounted on each lug of the clevis and has the shouldered pin passing therethrough, the protection piece being prevented from moving in rotation on the lug by co-operating shapes.
US09027872B2
An apparatus is provided for dispensing a roll of sheet material in severable portions therefrom. The apparatus comprises a housing having a rim portion longitudinally offset from a base portion by a sidewall portion extending therebetween. The base and sidewall portions define a compartment for holding the roll of sheet material, and the sidewall portion includes a longitudinally extended dispensing slot formed therethrough communicating with the compartment. The sidewall portion forms about the dispensing slot at least one tapered edge. A lid is detachably coupled to the rim portion of the housing to enclose the compartment, and includes a bottom surface portion. A pivot structure is formed on at least one of the base and bottom surface portions to pivotally engage an axial end of the roll of sheet material for angular displacement thereon.
US09027867B2
A sheet conveyance unit for transporting a sheet unreeled from a roll of paper includes a roll holder including a pair of supporters to support both axial end portions of the roll, movable in an axial direction of the roll, a pair of first conveyance rollers, a pair of second conveyance rollers, a tensioner to tension the sheet, disposed between the first conveyance rollers and the second conveyance rollers, and a tension adjustment unit. The tensioner includes a contact plate to press against the sheet, extending over an entire width of the sheet and pivotably supported on a casing of the sheet conveyance unit. The tension adjustment unit changes the tension of the sheet by adjusting a force to press the contact plate against the sheet and includes a first adjuster to change the tension of the sheet in conjunction with the interval between the supporters.
US09027863B2
A bale shredder apparatus may comprise a frame and a bale hopper mounted on the frame and defining an interior bale chamber for receiving a bale to be shredded with a bale feed opening. A bale shredding assembly may be in communication with the bale chamber through the opening to shred a bale in the bale chamber. A side wall of the hopper may be movable away from the primary side wall to permit removal of a bale from the bale chamber. A primary bale movement assembly may move a bale in a lateral direction toward the opening and a secondary bale movement assembly may move the bale in a direction substantially transverse to the lateral direction. A shredding rotor of the shredding assembly may include at least one brace including at least one leg extending outwardly from the outer surface of the rotor.
US09027862B2
The invention relates to a paper processing product and, in particular, to a shredder that crinkles paper stripes. The shredder has a shaft set driven by a motor. The shaft set includes at least two shafts rotating in opposite directions. Cutting blade sets are mounted on the shafts. Paper enters the entry of a paper passage formed by the shafts, and gets shredded into chips by the cutting blades. Since the exit of the paper passage is provided with a movable stopper, paper stripes are pushed by the rotating cutting blades to pass the stopper and become crinkled. The stopper is triggered to open by a certain force, letting the paper stripes fall. In addition to the functions of a usual shredder, the paper stripes thus made can be recycled.
US09027859B2
A gas fuel injection valve is provided in which a circular recess is formed in a front end face of a valve plunger, the circular recess being surrounded by an annular land part, which is an outer peripheral part of the front end face, an inner peripheral face of the circular recess is formed in a tapered shape so as to increase in diameter in going from a base of the circular recess toward the annular land part, an annular lip is formed on a seating member, the annular lip being joined from the inner peripheral face through to the annular land part and being seated on a valve seat, and the annular lip is disposed so that an annular ridge line of an apex of the annular lip is positioned, in a projection in the axial direction of the valve plunger, above the inner peripheral face.
US09027856B2
A method for manufacturing high speed pressure compensator-type drip irrigation tubes and the tubes obtained thereby having absolute radial orientation of molecular chains, the orientation imparting strength as well as flexibility to the tube material. The said method comprises extruding a tube using a plurality of extruders; blowing up the extruded tube by introducing a pressure inside the tube relatively higher than the pressure outside the tube; drawing the blown tube simultaneously to the blowing of tube; flattening the blown tube by heat welding the collapsed halves together and forming a tape immediately, subsequent to the process of blowing and drawing the tube; extrusion of a bonding polymer on one border of the tape; printing flow channels into the hot and viscous bonding polymer; and forming a tube by lengthwise folding the tape and heat welding the overlapping borders together using the bonding polymer.
US09027855B2
A safe portable sprayer comprising a reservoir for storing clean water that can be carried on the back or attached the shoulders, including a large nozzle on the upper face thereof, a small nozzle with a water pump adapted thereto, and a small neck that is provided with a cap. The cap is screwed on the nozzle, and includes a recipient that fits into the nozzle. The cap is provided with vertical holes that pass through a channel. The holes are provided with inner threads for receiving corresponding valves having lower tapered ends. Inside the recipient, flexible containers of chemicals are attached to the holes; the containers are kept immersed and compressed by water inside the recipient from the pump, such that the pressure generated by the water impels the water and chemical toward the channel of the cap, and to the spraying gun through the pipe.
US09027851B2
A rotary spray head assembly includes a motor having an output shaft and a housing through which the output shaft at least partially extends. The housing includes an inlet communicable with a source of fluid. The rotary spray head assembly also includes an annular skirt extending from the housing, a passageway through the skirt having a first end in fluid communication with the inlet and a second end, and a hub coupled for co-rotation with the output shaft. The hub includes an annular groove into which the annular skirt at least partially extends, a circumferential interior surface at least partially defining the groove, and an aperture through the circumferential interior surface. Fluid introduced into the annular groove through the second end of the passageway is discharged outwardly through the aperture.
US09027846B2
In order to solve the numerous problems with existing steam, vacuum, and hot water heating systems, presented are novel systems and methods of vapor vacuum heating having several improvements over the prior art, including: condensate return which can operate without steam traps; naturally-induced vacuum; improved vacuum pump operation for sustaining vacuum in such systems; liquid lift apparatus for use with such systems; and other improvements. All innovations presented herein make vapor vacuum heating more efficient and economical for industrial, commercial, and home applications. A field test conducted with these innovations show results of about 26-50% reduced energy usage, implying significant energy savings from the use of the present invention over current heating systems.
US09027840B2
Systems and methods for the identification, powering and control of products and product packaging. The systems can include a point of sale display having a contactless power supply. The contactless power supply can provide a source of wireless power for products and product packaging. The products and product packaging can include light emitting diodes, e-ink displays and printed speaker circuits that activate as the operating frequency of the contactless power supply varies. Other embodiments include product level sensors, inductive reader networks, printed temperature sensors, product alignment systems, passive identification circuits and methods for controlling operation of the same.
US09027833B2
In accordance with one embodiment, a commodity information display apparatus comprises an acquisition module and a display control module. The acquisition module acquires a commodity information relating to a commodity recognized through a first method in which a code symbol attached to the commodity is read and commodity information relating to a commodity recognized through a second method in which the commodity is recognized based on an appearance feature of the commodity contained in an image data captured by a camera. The display control module displays the commodity information acquired by the acquisition module on a display in such a manner that a display form of the commodity information of the commodity recognized through the first method is made different from a display form of the commodity information of the commodity recognized through the second method.
US09027827B2
A system and method for providing a personalized shopping experience with a portable computing device (“PCD”) are described. The system and method may include checking-in PCD consumers upon entering an establishment of a merchant. The checking-in of the PCD consumer may include verifying credentials for gaining access to a central mobile payment controller and receiving a merchant identifier corresponding to a merchant from a computer communications network. Next, a scan of a machine-readable code associated with at least one of a good and a service may be received. Information associated with the machine-readable code may be retrieved from a database. Subsequently, a personalized price for the at least one good or service may be determined by applying one or more rules. The personalized price may be transmitted over a computer communications network to the portable computing device for display to the PCD consumer.
US09027809B1
A lightweight platform is formed by using plastic, aluminum, or an open spaced metal. The platform consists of a front section, a middle section, and a rear section. The front and rear sections may have side walls of any height. End walls may be attached if desired. The front section is connected to the middle section by hinges located on a top surface of the platform. The middle section is connected to the rear section by hinges located on a bottom surface of the platform. The platform moves from an open position to a closed position and back easily and without the necessity of latches.
US09027797B2
A shield for a fluid dispenser includes a mount structure and a fluid-deflecting structure defining an interior flow passage. The mount structure is configured to be attached to an actuator of a fluid dispenser. Fluid dispensers and fluid dispenser systems are also disclosed.
US09027790B2
Exemplary embodiments of dispensers are disclosed herein. One exemplary dispenser is a soap or sanitizer dispenser. The dispenser includes a housing. A removable and replaceable concentrate container for holding concentrated soap or sanitizer is located within the housing. A concentrate pump is in fluid communication with the concentrate container. A diluent container for holding a liquid is also located within the housing and a diluent pump for pumping the diluent is also included. The dispenser includes a mixing chamber in fluid communication with the concentrate pump and the diluent pump. The dispenser includes an outlet. When concentrated soap or sanitizer is pumped from the concentrate container, it mixes with diluent pumped from the diluent container to form a diluted mixture. The diluted mixture is dispensed at the outlet of the dispenser.
US09027786B2
An apparatus is provided for delivering single-dose packages sequentially from a substantially continuous strip having a first dispensing end and a second end. The strip includes a cover layer attached to a base layer to define a plurality of blisters therebetween that have one or more medications therein. The blisters are aligned in single file generally along the longitudinal axis between the first and second ends and/or otherwise arranged in single-dose packages adjacent one another, e.g., at least some of the single-dose packages including a plurality of blisters having different types of medications therein. A first single-dose package at the first dispensing end may be separable from a second adjacent single-dose package such that individual single-dose packages may be removed successively from the first dispensing end.
US09027782B1
A sandwich composite material for use in an insulated shipping container includes two different central (core) materials sandwiched between an inner and an outer skin material. The core contains a low density, high compressive strength cellular material and a low density, low thermal conductivity insulation fabric material. The inner and outer skin layers increase the overall flexural rigidity of the composite material. The sandwich composite material can be made into flat sheets of required size and integrated into a fabric sleeve to form the container. Alternatively, the sandwich composite material can be molded as the container to achieve uniform and continuous insulation and structural support.
US09027769B2
A cap having an integrated spout includes an overcap with an insert for providing a seal for the spout. In various versions, the spout or insert include ribs or other features to provide a watertight seal between the spout and insert. The spout is preferably formed from a resilient material.
US09027766B1
An adjustable bracket system for supporting auxiliary equipment above or below a television having a shelf panel, a first and a second L-shaped support with a support portion and an extension portion that together form an L-shaped piece, the support portions are attached to the bottom surface of the shelf panel and the extension portions extend upwardly from a second end of the shelf panel above the top surface of the shelf panel, the L-shaped supports are spaced a distance apart and are oriented parallel to each other, a first and a second mounting tube that are generally hollow with a open ends where the extension portion of the L-shaped support is telescopically received in the second end of the mounting tube, the L-shaped supports can be secured in a position, the first ends of the mounting tubes are to telescopically receive a wall mounting bracket for a television.
US09027757B2
The invention relates to the use of a composition of A) at least one quaternary ammonia compound comprising at least one organic radical bonded to the ammonia nitrogen atom and optionally comprising heteroatoms and having 1 to 36 carbon atoms, and B) at least one amine alkoxylate ester of formula (1) or a salt thereof, where A, B are, independently of each other, a C2- through C5-alkylene radical R1, a C8- through C24-alkyl radical or alkenyl radical R2, R3, R4 independent of each other, H, or a C8- through C24-acyl radical, with the stipulation that at least one of the radicals R2, R3 or R4 stands for a C8- through C24-acyl radical, and x, y, z, independently of each other, stand for a whole number from 0 through 50, with the stipulation that x+y+z is a whole number from 1 through 100, in quantities of 10 through 5000 g/tonne of ore as a collector in silicate floation.
US09027749B2
A container for storing wipes that can be dispensed by a consumer includes a container body. The container body includes a bottom wall, a midsection, and a top wall. The container body can define an interior cavity for storing the wipes. The container can further include a dispensing aperture in the container body and a lid. The lid is configured to be opened and closed, providing access to the dispensing aperture when open and hindering access to the dispensing aperture when closed. The lid can be urged to the closed position when the lid is in a first range of positions between the open position and the closed position and can be urged to the open position when the lid is in a second range of positions between the open position and the closed position.
US09027738B2
A transfer modules arrangement (100) for an articles conveyor (110). The transfer modules arrangement includes at least one transfer module (125) in turn comprising a frame (310) housing a plurality of idle rollers (135) for allowing an inertial run of transported articles (140) between consecutive conveyor belt/chain elements (115a, 115b) of the articles conveyor. According to the invention, the transfer modules arrangement includes at least one positioning rod (120). Additionally, the frame of the at least one transfer module further includes a shaped cavity (315) for allowing a sliding insertion of the at least one transfer module on the at least one positioning rod.
US09027734B2
A buffer section for a conveying system in a high rack warehouse comprises a slide rod inclined relative to the horizontal for sliding conveyance along a conveying path in a conveying direction, which is parallel to a slide rod longitudinal axis, of a plurality of suspended conveyed goods, which are in each case suspended by means of a hook on the slide rod, and a stopper element in the conveying path at the end of at least one portion of the slide rod to stop the conveyed goods with the formation of a group of conveyed goods, wherein the stopper element has a contact face, which can be displaced between a stopper arrangement to stop the conveyed goods and a passing arrangement for allowing the conveyed goods through, for the conveyed goods, and wherein exclusively the stopper element is used to stop the conveyed goods.
US09027718B2
A light-weight, sound-damped, composite brake rotor for a vehicle braking system includes a rotor hat and an annular rotor cheek supported by, and cast around, the rotor hat. The rotor hat includes an axially-protruding central hub and an integral flange that extends radially from and circumferentially around the central hub. The rotor cheek includes a top ledge and a bottom ledge that overly a top annular surface and a bottom annular surface, respectively, of the integral flange. An annular interfacial boundary present between an underside of the top and/or bottom ledges and their respective adjacent annular surfaces of the integral flange includes a vibration damping interface. The brake rotor derives its vibration-deadening and sound-damping effects from the vibration damping interface through the occurrence of relative frictional contacting movement.
US09027715B2
A fire service elevator with an elevator cage includes a cage roof, wherein the elevator cage is at least partly supported and driven by at least one support means. The elevator cage has on the cage roof a region vulnerable to spray water, and this region vulnerable to spray water is covered by an element having a surface structure of such a kind that extinguishing water falling on the element in the event of fire is substantially prevented from spraying in the direction of the at least one support means.
US09027700B2
The present invention relates to an assembly structure of a diaphragm for a microspeaker. The present invention discloses a bonding structure of a diaphragm for a microspeaker, the boding structure comprising: a suspension including a central portion, an outer peripheral portion, and a connecting portion connecting the central portion and the outer peripheral portion; and a side diaphragm including an inner peripheral portion and an outer peripheral portion, which are attached to the central portion and outer peripheral portion of the suspension, respectively, and a dome portion, which projects between the inner peripheral portion and the outer peripheral portion, wherein the suspension and the side diaphragm are attached by thermal compression.
US09027697B2
On the right front side of a revolving frame (5) constituting an upper revolving structure (3), an operating oil tank (11) and a fuel tank (12) are arranged. On the front side of this operating oil tank (11) and the fuel tank (12), an equipment accommodating case (13) forming an accommodating space (13A) inside is provided. In the accommodating space (13A) in the equipment accommodating case (13), a control valve unit (20) for controlling supply/discharge of the operating oil and a urea water tank (24) storing urea water for removing nitrogen oxides contained in an exhaust gas of the engine (8) are arranged together.
US09027694B2
An electric two-wheeled vehicle includes a motor generating traveling power transmitted to a rear wheel, and a motor case accommodating the motor, wherein the motor case has a traveling wind inflow port allowing traveling wind to flow in the motor case, and a traveling wind outflow port allowing traveling wind flowing in the motor case to flow out, and a space surrounded by the motor case is communicated with a space where a coil of the motor is arranged.
US09027690B2
Personal transport means for walking at faster speeds than normal walking, made up of a pair of wheeled shoes or wheeled undersoles (1-1) that can be adapted by quick attachment (1-2) to the soles of the normal shoes of a walker, laterally articulated (1-3) to follow the natural movements of the heels relative to the tips of the feet (1-10) during normal walking, and allowing walking at higher speeds, without any skating movements, without having to gain momentum, and without modifying the rhythm, amplitude or longitudinal stability of natural walking, by means of a servomotor (1-4) which allows the speed of the driving wheels to exceed the skidding force (1-5a, 1-5b) resulting from the force transmitted by the supporting leg (1-6), and comprising an accelerator (1-8) and a brake (1-9) controlled by the foot of the walker.
US09027688B2
A reducing agent tank includes a tank body storing reducing agent and a cylindrical gauge member visually indicating a storage amount of the reducing agent inside the tank body. The gauge member is in communication with an inside of the tank body. The tank body has a replenishment port to replenish the reducing agent. The gauge member is provided on a first wall surface of a plurality of wall surfaces defining the tank body. The gauge member is provided in a slanted manner relative to a bottom plate of the tank body. The replenishing port and the gauge member are disposed in a row along a direction that extends along the first wall surface as seen in a plan view.
US09027683B2
Elastically deformable air inlets are disclosed. In one embodiment, an air inlet includes a first portion having an interior surface and an exterior surface, and a second portion having an interior surface and an exterior surface and including at least one deformation zone. The first portion and the second portion define a hollow space. The air inlet also includes at least one support member including a first end and a second end that extends from the interior surface of the first portion toward the interior surface of the second portion. The second end of the support member contacts the deformation zone, wherein when an external force is applied to the air inlet, the second end of the support member extends through the deformation zone.
US09027678B1
An omnidirectional mobility apparatus. The current invention is an omnidirectional, remote-controlled mobility apparatus, similar to a wheelchair, which allows the transport of an individual or object(s). The device includes a cubic-shaped base with wheel wells on each vertical side of said base. Within each wheel well is a wheel set, such that the front and rear wheel sets face each other and the left and right wheel sets face each other. The circumference of each wheel set includes a plurality of transverse-facing, smaller wheels disposed incrementally within each wheel set along the circumference of each wheel set, such that a portion of the smaller wheels protrude outside the circumference of each wheel set. This allows the mobility apparatus to propel in any direction. Also included in the device are an adjustable, interchangeable footrest and chair assembly.
US09027675B1
Embodiments of the invention relate to polycrystalline diamond compacts (“PDCs”) comprising a polycrystalline diamond (“PCD”) table including at least a portion having aluminum carbide disposed interstitially between bonded-together diamond grains thereof, and methods of fabricating such PDCs. In an embodiment, a PDC includes a substrate, and a PCD table bonded to the substrate. The PCD table includes a plurality of bonded-together diamond grains defining a plurality of interstitial regions. The PCD table further includes aluminum carbide disposed in at least a portion of the plurality of interstitial regions.
US09027669B2
In at least some embodiments, a pulsed-electric drilling system includes a bit that extends a borehole by detaching formation material with pulses of electric current, and a drillstring that defines at least one path for a fluid flow to the bit to flush detached formation material from the borehole. A feed pipe transports at least a part of said fluid flow to said path, and the feed pipe is equipped with a cooling mechanism to cool the fluid flow. The use of a cooled fluid flow may enhance the performance of the pulsed-electric drilling process.
US09027668B2
A control and monitoring system controls and monitors a high power laser system for performing high power laser operations. The control and monitoring system is configured to perform high power laser operation on, and in, remote and difficult to access locations.
US09027666B2
A power tool, in particular a hand-held power tool, preferably embodied as a cordless screwdriver, is equipped with a torque limiting unit in which the release torque is settable by way of a locking brace that is equipped with a spring brace for locking elements that abut axially against parts of a planetary drive, in particular the ring gear thereof or the planet carrier thereof as a last gear stage, the spring elements of the spring brace and the locking elements being located with a radial offset from one another.
US09027662B2
An apparatus for extracting and collecting particulate infill from an infilled artificial turf field. A vehicle has a first forward end and a second rearward end. An infill extractor is located at the first end of the vehicle and adapted to extract infill from a strip of infilled athletic turf. Extracted infill falls into a bottom section of the infill extractor. An infill mover is secured to the vehicle and adapted to move the extracted infill from the bottom section of the infill extractor toward the second end of the vehicle. An infill collector is connected to the second end of the vehicle and operable to cooperate with the infill mover to collect the moved infill. The infill collector includes a frame that is laterally movable relative to the vehicle from an operative “in use” position to a stowed position.
US09027660B2
A shipping cap for a sprinkler includes a main body having a hollow annular wall portion having a closed upper end. A first pair of side legs extend laterally and axially from a first side of the cylindrical wall portion and a second pair of side legs extend laterally from a second side of the cylindrical wall portion. A first side curtain extends from one of the first pair of side legs and one of the second pair of side legs and a second side curtain extends from the other of the first pair of side legs and the other of the second pair of side legs.
US09027653B2
Disclosed is a secondary system and method for initiating a down hole operation in a wellbore when a primary activation system fails. The primary activation system is configured to provide fluid communication between a first chamber and a second chamber in response to a primary activation operation. The secondary activation system includes a passageway between the first chamber and the second chamber, and a rupture member positioned in the passageway. The rupture member has a threshold pressure differential at which the rupture member ruptures to afford fluid communication between the first chamber and the second chamber to thereby initiate the down hole operation if the primary activation system fails. The primary activation operation may be configured to move a trigger member to initiate the down hole operation, whereas the secondary activation operation may be configured to initiate the down hole operation without moving the trigger member.
US09027652B2
A method is provided for safely delivering actuators such as balls from a ball injector to a downhole tool in a wellbore. A structure or carrier medium, such as a slug of gel or foam, is introduced to a bore of injector and the ball is injected into the bore for support by the carrier medium. A displacement fluid, such as fracturing fluid, is pumped into the wellbore to drive the carrier medium and ball. Each slug and ball can be retrieved at a ball catcher at the wellhead.
US09027649B2
What is provided is a method and apparatus wherein a swivel can be detachably connected to an annular blowout preventer thereby separating the drilling fluid or mud into upper and lower sections and allowing the fluid to be displaced in two stages, such as while the drill string is being rotated and/or reciprocated. In one embodiment the sleeve or housing can be rotatably and sealably connected to a mandrel. The swivel can be incorporated into a drill or well string and enabling string sections both above and below the sleeve to be rotated in relation to the sleeve. In one embodiment the drill or well string does not move in a longitudinal direction relative to the swivel. In one embodiment, the drill or well string does move longitudinally relative to the sleeve or housing of the swivel.
US09027644B2
Crosslinked gelling agents employed during subterranean operations use electronically-modified boronic acids to enable higher operating temperatures while allowing reduced gelling agent loadings; the boronic acids having Formula I: X1 and X2 are independently selected from O, CH2, CH2O, OCH2, bond, and null, Y1 and Y2 are independently N or C, Ar is a 5- or 6-membered ring aryl or heteroaryl group with a link L to monomer unit M1, m is 1 or 2, n is 0, 1, 2, or 3, and each Z is independently an electron withdrawing group selected from nitro, ester, carboxylic acids, carboxylates, halogen, cyano, amide, acyl, alkylsulfonyl, arylsulfonyl, heteroarylsulfonyl, CF3, a quaternary ammonium salt, polyhaloalkyl, and carbamate, with the proviso that when n is 0, the link L between M1 and Ar includes an electron withdrawing group attached to Ar, and introducing the treatment fluids into subterranean formations.
US09027641B2
A method of fracturing multiple zones within a wellbore formed in a subterranean formation is carried out by forming flow-through passages in two or more zones within the wellbore that are spaced apart from each other along the wellbore. The flow-through passages are arranged into clusters, where the directions of all flow-through passages, which belong to the same cluster, are aligned within a single plane (cluster plane). At least one cluster of flow-through passages is formed in each zone. The clusters within each zone have characteristics different from those of other zones provided by orienting the cluster planes at different angles relative to principal in-situ stresses and by placing them into different locations along the wellbore in each of the two or more zones. A propellant pre-fracturing treatment is then performed in the two or more zones to create initial fractures (pre-fractures) in each of the two or more zones. The fracturing fluid in the fracturing treatment is provided at a pressure that is above the pre-fracture propagation pressure of one of the two or more zones to facilitate fracturing of said one of the two or more zones. The pressure of the fracturing fluid is below the pre-fracture propagation pressure of any other non-treated zones of the two or more zones. The isolating of the treated zone is then performed. The fracturing process is then repeated for at least one or more non-treated zones of the two or more zones.
US09027640B2
A method and apparatus for controlling the operation of a well involves locating a pressure monitoring device downhole and arranging it to be operative: to monitor a characteristic pressure profile of a well during a certain time span controlled by a downhole clock associated with the device; to monitor the temperature downhole in the region of the clock; to calibrate a time reading of the downhole clock with reference to the monitored temperature to correct for drift between the clock time and real time resulting from the downhole elevated temperature; and to respond and generate a triggering output when a significant deviation to the pressure profile is introduced into the well as a control signal to the monitoring device, by comparing two separate pressure profiles within the time span, the device only generating the triggering output when the same pressure profile is monitored twice within the time span.
US09027632B2
A method for producing a metal part, the part including, in particular, a first set of elements having a small thickness, and a second set of elements having a large thickness, the method including: forming a peripheral portion of the elements of the second set of elements by selectively melting a powder by scanning the surface of the powder layer with a laser beam or with an electron beam; using the peripheral portion of the elements of the second set of elements as a mould by carrying out an operation of filling an inner area defined by the peripheral portion with liquid metal; cooling the metal part to solidify the inner area defined by the peripheral portion and filled with metal.
US09027628B2
A shutter-blind system for windows is provided. The system includes a frame and a plurality of rotatable parallel louvers coupled within the frame. Each louver of the plurality of louvers is operatively coupled to adjacent louvers with a collapsible linkage. The system may further comprise a biasing member coupled to a first louver located at a first end of the plurality of louvers and a resisting member coupled to a second louver located at a second end of the plurality of louvers. The biasing member pulls against the resisting member to maintain tension in the collapsible linkage. According to certain embodiments, the frame elements are coupled within a window opening and trim elements are coupled to cover gaps between the frame elements and the window opening.
US09027626B2
A window opening space filler for use with a window having a window opening of predetermined opening width surrounded by a window frame, to adjust the predetermined opening width to fit a window covering having a predetermined covering width, less than the opening width, and having an attachment member for attachment to the widow frame, and, a filler member separate from the attachment member and attachable to the attachment member and extending across the window opening, so that a user can reduce the width of a window opening down each side edge make the window covering fit the reduced width window opening.
US09027622B2
A stitcher apparatus for pressing a carcass ply sheet from its outer periphery as to be pressure-bonded onto a rubber sheet member after that the carcass ply sheet is pasted onto the rubber sheet member wound around a building drum, the stitcher apparatus including: a ring-shaped frame; and a plurality of pressure-bond rollers.
US09027616B2
An object of the invention is to provide a tire tube which has excellent air impermeability and such excellent durability that the occurrence of cracks in the tube main body is prevented in a contact surface between the tube main body and an inner circumferential surface of the tire. The tire tube of the invention includes a tube main body having a multilayer structure in which at least one rubber layer and at least one thermoplastic resin layer made of a thermoplastic resin or a thermoplastic elastomer composition obtained by blending an elastomer in a thermoplastic resin are laminated together. In at least a region where the tube main body is in contact with the inner circumferential surface of the tire tread part, the rubber layer is placed as the outermost layer of the multilayer structure, and the thermoplastic resin layer is placed inside the outermost layer.
US09027615B2
The present invention relates to a tire tread comprising a plurality of circumferential grooves separating circumferential ribs, each groove comprising a bottom and two sidewalls, and a plurality of laterally separated reinforcements, wherein one reinforcement is arranged adjacent each circumferential groove, and wherein each reinforcement extends from the radially inner surface of the tread in a radial direction at least to the bottom of an adjacent circumferential groove to form the bottom of that groove. Further, the invention relates to a tire comprising a tread in accordance with the present invention.
US09027610B1
A funnel has a cylindrical upper first section with a first axial height and a first diameter, a cylindrical lower second section with a second axial height and a second diameter, and a frusto-conical intermediate section coupling the upper and lower sections and having a third axial height. Each of a plurality of similarly configured housings has a hollow cylindrical configuration forming cylindrical chambers, a housing axial height, a housing diameter, an upper end coupled to the intermediate section closer to the second section than to the first section, and a housing lower end at an elevation beneath the intermediate section laterally spaced from an upper extent of the second section. Each housing is adapted to removably receive and frictionally retain a magnet.
US09027606B2
A pipe for underwater transportation of fluid is indicated which includes a pressure-tight metal inner pipe for conducting the fluid, wherein for its stabilization in radial direction at least one profiled metal strand and for stabilizing in the axial direction at least one tension-proof strand are wound around the inner pipe. The inner pipe (1) is a metal pipe which is corrugated transversely of its longitudinal direction and which for stabilization in the radial direction is surrounded by at least one first radial reinforcement (3) which is composed of a profiled helically extending profile strip whose windings are placed closely next to each other or engage each other and are hooked together. Arranged around the first radial reinforcement (3) is arranged a metal pipe corrugated transversely of its longitudinal direction as the outer pipe (5); at least two layers of tension-proof strands (7, 8) are wound around the outer pipe (5), preferably with oppositely directed pitch.
US09027598B2
A steplessly adjustable hydraulic insert valve has a housing defining a radial direction and an end side in an installation direction. An inflow connector on the end side is connectable to a pressure medium source. First and second working connectors and a return connector are arranged in the radial direction. The return connector is connectable to a pressure medium tank. The housing has an axial bore and an actuator guided movably therein. The actuator can be held in an axial center position by at least one spring and is adjustable steplessly axially out of the center position by controllable actuation. At least one of the working connectors is fluidically connectable to the return connector by axial adjustment of the actuator. The actuator has a radial widened portion with first and second control edges for steplessly opening and/or closing first and second radial openings, respectively, of the return connector.
US09027593B2
The invention relates to a check valve for blocking a fluid-carrying line in case of reversal of the flow direction, containing a valve housing defining a flow path and having two connecting pieces and a valve seat therebetween, and a flap module mounted in the valve housing and containing a shut-off body interacting with the valve seat, a bearing device for pivotably supporting the shut-off body such that the latter is movable between an open position and a closed position, and a lever extending between the shut-off body and the bearing device and being connected to the shut-off body and the bearing device. For easier manufacturing, the invention proposes that a part of the flap module is formed by at least one sheet-metal shaped part.
US09027591B2
A gas pressure regulator for use with gas delivery systems is provided. The gas pressure regulator includes, in one form, an inlet with an entry portion and a bottom portion. A pocket is disposed proximate the bottom portion of the inlet, and a cavity is disposed within a central portion of the gas pressure regulator. A guide is disposed within a lower portion of the cavity, and a flow of gas through the gas pressure regulator extends through the inlet, changes direction to flow through the cavity, and the flow of gas changes direction to impact the guide prior to flowing through the cavity. The pocket and the guide reduce the amount of particles capable of reaching internal components of the gas pressure regulator, resulting in low sensitivity and high fault tolerance to ignited particles coming through the gas pressure regulator in the event of accidental particle contamination.
US09027585B2
A system and method for controlling a flow of a fluid using a multi-mode control algorithm is described. The method includes disengaging and engaging a feedback control loop that controls a valve of the mass flow controller based upon a rate of pressure change of the fluid. The method also includes calculating a valve position of the valve based on pressure measurements when the feedback control loop has been disengaged and characterization data that characterizes the mass flow controller, and determining, when the feedback control loop is first re-engaged, a difference between a measured flow rate and a flow set point. An adjustment to the characterization data is applied based upon the difference to improve an accuracy of the calculation of the valve position when the feedback control loop is disengaged again.
US09027577B2
A nozzle of a nozzle device includes an arm pipe that extends in a horizontal direction and a downstream pipe formed so as to curve downward from one end of the arm pipe. In the nozzle, a metallic pipe is provided inside a second resin pipe. Moreover, a first resin pipe is provided inside the metallic pipe. A boss is attached to the tip of the metallic pipe between the first resin pipe and the second resin pipe. At the tip of the nozzle, an outer peripheral surface of the first resin pipe, an end surface of the second resin pipe and an end surface of the boss are welded by welding resin. In this way, the metallic pipe is reliably coated with the first resin pipe, the second resin pipe, the boss and the welding resin.
US09027545B2
A solar collector positioning apparatus including a base structure and an intermediate frame connected to the base structure by at least two base support legs. The base support legs have a hinged connection to the base structure and a hinged connection to the intermediate frame, thereby constraining the movement of the intermediate frame to a plane substantially orthogonal to a plane occupied by the base structure. A solar collector support frame is connected to the intermediate frame by at least two intermediate support legs. The intermediate support legs have a hinged connection to the solar collector support frame and a hinged connection to the intermediate frame, thereby constraining the movement of the solar collector support frame to a plane substantially orthogonal to a plane occupied by the intermediate frame.
US09027543B2
A fire safe camp stove and fire pit device is disclosed. An example device includes a fire chamber. A first cooking surface is provided directly over the fire chamber. A lid is movable between an open position and a closed position. The lid in the open position provides access to the first cooking surface. The lid in the closed position provides a second cooking surface above the first cooking surface.
US09027541B2
According to an exemplary embodiment, a toy dart launcher comprises a housing defining an interior recess and a launch assembly. The launch assembly is at least partially disposed within the interior recess and comprises: a projectile feed, a slidable frame, and a launch mechanism. The projectile feed is rotatably disposed within the interior recess and comprises a plurality of receiving chambers each adapted to receive one or more projectiles. The slidable frame has at least one engagement finger rotatably disposed thereon, and is movable with respect to the projectile feed so that the at least one engagement finger can engage and move at least one projectile through at least one receiving chamber. The launch mechanism is disposed rearwardly of the projectile feed and is configured to create a pressure differential about the at least one projectile so that the at least one projectile can be launched from the housing.
US09027538B2
A gaseous fuel control system for a dual-fuel internal combustion engine comprising a plurality of valves for controlling the amount of gaseous fuel supplied to the engine. The valves have adjustable full-open flow rates and rapidly move from full-open to full-closed in response to a digital signal. An electronic system for monitoring at least one engine operating parameter maps the parameter value to control the opening and closing of the valves to establish a desired gaseous fuel flow rate.
US09027537B2
A positive crankcase ventilation (PCV) valve installation structure for installing a PCV valve of an engine on an engine body includes: a blow-by gas recirculation system that includes a ventilation hose that connects the engine body to an intake device introducing outside air into the engine body and that has a recirculation passage recirculating blow-by gas arising in the engine body to the intake device and an oil cooler device that exchanges heat between lubricating oil and a medium solution that is lower in temperature than the lubricating oil; and a cover that transfers heat of the oil cooler device to the PCV valve.
US09027536B2
Methods and systems are provided for generating vacuum from crankcase ventilation flow. During both directions of gas flow between an engine intake manifold and a crankcase, gases are directed through one or more aspirators to produce vacuum. The drawn vacuum may then be used to operate various engine vacuum actuators.
US09027521B2
An intake apparatus of an engine includes: a first intake passage supplying fresh air to a cylinder; a second intake passage arranged near the first intake passage, and supplying fresh air to the cylinder; a first intake valve opening and closing the first intake passage at an aperture of the first intake passage; a second intake valve opening and closing the second intake passage at an aperture of the second intake passage. An opening timing of the first intake valve of the intake apparatus advances relative to a top dead center, and a valve lift amount of the first intake valve differs from that of the second intake valve, and there is a period while the valve lift amount of the first intake valve is larger than that of the second intake valve, in an intake stroke.
US09027518B2
A continuously variable valve lift device with improved lift amount change accuracy includes a rocker arm causing an engine valve to perform an opening/closing operation with a cam of a cam shaft, and an engine valve lift amount change mechanism. The mechanism has a control shaft which has an eccentric circular disc cam, a control arm which swings about the eccentric circular disc cam and having a cam contact portion in contact with a first cam and a first arm, second biasing means for biasing the cam contact portion against the first cam, a second cam portion of a free-form surface shape contacting with the second arm and the rocker arm, a cam member supported so as to be capable of turning around the shall main body, and a link arm with both ends supported so as to be capable of turning by the first arm and the second arm.
US09027514B2
An article of manufacture for stretchable night visibility bands for people and animals with a inner band consisting of a primarily stretchable material, an outer band consisting of a night visibility material, a way to attach the inner band to the outer band, a means to interchange said inner bands and said outer bands and a way to close the inner band around an object. A preferred embodiment includes further an outer band made of a night visibility material fabricated of least one of the following: a reflective, a florescent or a glow in the dark material and backed with a material such as VELCRO that attaches to the inner band, A preferred embodiment includes the element of inner band consisting of a stretchable material with a looped surface such as Velstretch™.
US09027509B2
An apparatus for milking an animal and provides a milking parlor includes first and second robotic manipulation devices and a plurality of milking stalls provided on a platform moveable relative to the robotic manipulation devices. The robotic manipulation devices are positioned so that each of the robotic manipulation devices is able to simultaneously service two neighboring milking stalls on the platform.
US09027507B1
A method of internally restoring a pipe preferably includes the steps of isolating a leaking pipe from a system of pipes; drying an interior of a leaking pipe; measuring the airflow through the leak; cleaning the interior of the leaking pipe; presealing a leak with a leak sealing media, measuring the leak flow rate after the pre-sealing; applying an internal protective coating process; and pressure testing the leaking pipe for leaks. The pipe restoration method preferably uses a control box, a media injection system, an air compressor and a coating dispensing system at an inlet of the leaking pipe. The pipe restoration method preferably uses a coating overflow receiver, a muffler and a dust collector at an exit of the leaking pipe. After the treatments, the leaking pipe becomes a restored pipe. The restored pipe is pressure tested for leaks at a working pressure rating of the pipe.
US09027506B2
A dense phase powder coating system includes a powder supply, dense phase pump, a spray gun and a diverter valve that can be used to select between conveying powder to the spray gun or circulating the powder back to the powder supply. The diverter valve may include two pneumatically actuate valve members. In one embodiment, the powder spray gun applies powder coating material to inside surfaces of a tubular container. A spray nozzle concept also is presented having a nozzle body with a conical deflector. The spray nozzle provides an uninterrupted flow between spray nozzle outlet holes and a deflector surface. The deflector may be integrally machined with the nozzle body to provide a one piece spray nozzle.
US09027501B2
A seat assembly for use on a stand-up paddleboard includes a base member which defines a base axis. A support shaft, with an affixed seat member, is engaged with the base member. In detail, the support shaft defines a shaft axis and is formed with diametrically opposed slots along the length of the support shaft. Protrusions, formed on the base member, are engaged with respective slots on the support shaft to selectively move the support shaft on the base member between a stowed configuration wherein the shaft axis is substantially perpendicular to the base axis, and a sitting configuration wherein the shaft axis is coaxially aligned with the base axis. In operation, a reconfiguration of the seat assembly is accomplished to provide the stand-up paddleboard user with a place to sit during an on-the-water operation of the stand-up paddleboard.
US09027493B2
A bearing for a sail furling apparatus includes a spherical body having a longitudinal axis and containing a cylindrical longitudinal through-opening for receiving a cable of the furling apparatus. The body is freely rotatable on the cable and protects the furled sail from abrasive contact with the cable. The body contains a plurality of spaced longitudinal channels in the outer surface to define a plurality of spaced flutes to further space the furled sail from the cable and to facilitate smooth furling and unfurling of the sail.
US09027492B2
Disclosed is a drillship having a vortex suppression block with a recessed flow stabilizing part in a moon pool. The flow stabilizing section is formed so that a bottom of the vortex suppression block that protrudes from a bottom of a hull toward a stern in the moon pool is recessed in an upward direction of the hull to stabilize a flow in the moon pool and reduce a variation in resistance of the drillship. The flow stabilizing section (30) is formed by partly recessing the bottom of the vortex suppression block toward an upper portion of the hull. The drillship having this configuration provides resistance performance improvement and flow stabilization of the drillship.
US09027490B2
A vessel includes a hull and a deck, a substantially cylindrical rotor having a peripheral wall rotatable with respect to the deck around a longitudinal center line, the rotor being at a lower end connected to the deck and including an upper end plate, the rotor being mounted on the deck in such a manner that in an operational state the rotor is substantially vertically oriented and in an inoperational state the upper end plate is situated in the vicinity of the deck, the end plate extending transversely to the longitudinal center line, wherein the end plate is provided with movable edge segments that in the operational state of the rotor extend radially outwardly from the peripheral wall to an extended position and in the inoperational state of the rotor are moved to a retracted position that is situated closer to the peripheral wall than the extended position.
US09027489B2
A sewing machine includes a needle bar, a presser bar, a threading device, a processor, and a memory. The needle bar is configured such that a sewing needle is attached thereto. The presser bar is configured such that an accessory device is mounted thereon. The threading device is configured to perform a threading operation in which an upper thread is passed through an eye of the sewing needle attached to the needle bar. The memory is configured to store computer-readable instructions. The computer-readable instructions cause the processor to perform processes that include determining whether a mounted device is a specific accessory device and causing the threading device to perform the threading operation in a case where it is determined that the mounted device is the specific accessory device and a specific condition is satisfied. The mounted device is an accessory device mounted on the presser bar.
US09027483B2
A power converter may include an uncharged tank for storing fluid including uncharged electrolytes. The power converter may include a plurality of parallel-connected reaction cells configured to receive the fluid from the uncharged tank and an input voltage, and charge the uncharged electrolytes. The power converter may also include a charged tank configured to receive fluid from the plurality of parallel-connected reaction cells. The power converter may also include a first pump configured to pump the fluid from the plurality of parallel-connected reaction cells to the charged tank. The power converter may include a plurality of series-connected reaction cells configured to receive fluid from the charged tank and provide electric power at an output voltage.
US09027467B2
A system for preparing a beverage suitable for consumption, for instance coffee and/or tea, is disclosed. The system comprises an apparatus for dispensing beverage under pressure to a nozzle of the system, and at least one receiving chamber which is placeable or is placed downstream of this nozzle. During use, the nozzle spouts a jet of the beverage with relatively high velocity to and/or into the receiving chamber. The receiving chamber is provided with at least one outflow opening for dispensing beverage received in this chamber. The system is at least configured to substantially counteract or prevent formation of foam of this beverage, in particular when the beverage is spouted to and/or into the receiving chamber. Further disclosed is an assembly at least provided with a holder, to a holder, a receiving body, the use of a said system and to a method for preparing a beverage suitable for consumption.
US09027465B2
A holder and method for obtaining a holder, wherein the holder is provided with a first and a second wall part. The first and second wall part are interconnected such that therebetween at least a first storage space, at least a first fluid connection and at least a first seal removable through fluid pressure and defining an opening are formed. The at least first removable connection is communication with the first storage space and seals a communication to or from the at least first fluid connection. With the method for obtaining the holder, prior to forming the connection of the first and second wall parts, a lacquer is locally applied to one of the first and second wall parts, which after connection results in a controlled reduced adhesion for obtaining the at least first removable seal. Here in the proximity of the removable seal, an additional connection of the first wall part to the second wall part is provided.
US09027462B2
A piston ring has a body member for sitting in a ring groove of a piston. The body member has an inner periphery, upper wall, lower wall and an outer periphery. The outer periphery has a concavity therein for storing lubricant therein. The upper wall has an outer section proximate to the outer periphery is constructed to be resiliently flexible between a flexed and unflexed position such during a portion of a power stroke, the volume of the concavity to store the lubricant is decreased by the flexing of the upper wall to the flexed position for expelling lubricant therefrom to a wall of the cylinder. The wall resiliently returns to the unflexed position during other times to allow excess lubricant from the wall of the cylinder to pass into the concavity.
US09027460B2
The present disclosure relates to a piston-cylinder unit with a device for determining position, the device comprising at least one exciter that is indirectly or directly electrically connected with the cylinder jacket and the cylinder piston of the piston-cylinder unit, and that excites the electrical oscillating circuit formed by the piston-cylinder unit and the contact lines to oscillate at its resonant frequency, it being possible to measure an electrical signal characterizing the resonant frequency on the piston-cylinder unit. The invention also relates to a construction machine or piece of hoisting equipment with such a piston-cylinder unit.
US09027458B2
A floating floor assembly for an armored vehicle mounted to the sides of the vehicle to suspend the floor above the belly armor of the vehicle rather than being directly supported by the belly armor. The floating floor reduces the amount of energy that is transferred by the floating floor from the belly plate and further reduces the risk that any deformation of the belly armor from the explosion will cascade to the floating floor causing the floor to buckle or fragment into secondary shrapnel.
US09027456B2
A perforating gun body including a first layer having a first yield strength and a second layer having a second yield strength, the second layer positioned radially inwardly from the first layer with a radial gap initially provided between the first and second layers, the second layer expanded radially to engage the first and second layers, the first and second yield strengths being dissimilar.
US09027452B2
An accessory for a power tool, includes a mounting portion configured to mate with an oscillating drive member of a power tool. A support arm portion extends from the mounting portion in a first direction. The support arm portion includes an inner edge that faces in a second direction transverse to the first direction. A blade portion extends from the support arm generally in the second direction. The blade portion includes a trailing edge arranged facing generally toward the mounting portion and a leading edge arranged facing generally away from the mounting portion. The trailing edge and the leading edge portion meet to define a pointed tip portion.
US09027439B2
A crank arm is provided, which includes a first connecting member and a second connecting member used for joining the first connecting member. The first connecting member has a first wall surface, the first wall surface is provided with a joint wall of an annular structure, and a wall surface of the joint wall is a concave-convex surface. The second connecting member is provided with a second wall surface opposite to the first wall surface, an annular wall and two facing ribs extend from the second wall surface, and the annular wall and the ribs have a groove there-between for fitting the joint wall therein. Therefore, a contact area of the first connecting member and the second connecting member is increased, and a shear force resisting function is provided.
US09027436B2
An assembly for coupling the rotor of a vehicle pedal assembly to the shaft of a vehicle pedal assembly. The rotor includes a cap which is fitted over a distal end of the shaft. The cap and the distal end of the shaft define a through aperture and an interior recess respectively. A coupling pin extends through the aperture in the cap of the rotor and into the recess in the shaft and includes a knurled outer surface which allows the pin to be interference fitted to the rotor and the shaft for securely coupling the rotor to the shaft.
US09027416B2
Make-up speed for a tongs drive system is monitored and controlled to maintain the speed within a limited target range either throughout the make-up process or during the final portion of the make-up process, thereby improving make-up consistency and allowing for improved evaluation or torque during the make-up process. An encoder generates speed and position data during the make-up process. The speed data is compared to a target speed, which is based on rod and/or tongs characteristics. If the speed does not match the target speed or is not within a range of the target speed, a signal is transmitted to the tongs drive to adjust the speed accordingly. Furthermore, position data from the encoder, or other position sensors, provide position data for the rod during the make-up process to limit or vary the speed control parameters during different portions of the make-up process.
US09027412B2
A fluid flow monitoring system is provided that has a processor utility which is connectable to an acoustic generator associated with acoustic ports and is operable for generating signals S0 to activate the acoustic ports for irradiating a region of interest with acoustic radiation of a certain frequency range centered at a frequency F0 and is connectable to at least one light output port associated with one or more light detectors for receiving light of at least one wavelength λ from the region of interest including light tagged by said acoustic radiation. The processor utility may be configured for analyzing the generated signals S0 and data indicative of the received light including light tagged by the corresponding acoustic radiation and determining correlation between the signals S0 and the data indicative of the received light, the correlation being informative of a measure of fluid flow in a turbid medium.
US09027406B2
According to one aspect of the invention, a transducer apparatus is provided that includes a core section, a transducer disposed in the core section, the transducer configured to transmit or receive signals and a tubular member mounted to the core section for relative rotation, wherein a fluid is disposed in the tubular member. The apparatus further includes a weight reduction device disposed inside the tubular member to occupy a volume inside the tubular member, wherein the weight reduction device is configured to provide a transmission path from the transducer to the tubular member via the fluid.
US09027399B2
A quartz glass liquid level sensor includes a support frame, a light masking plate, a quartz glass tube, and a sensor module. The light masking plate is movably mounted on the support frame. The quartz glass tube is movably mounted to the support frame. One end of the quartz glass tube is securely fixed to the light masking plate. The sensor module is mounted on the support frame, for sensing a position of the light masking plate relative to the support frame.
US09027392B2
A multi-hole probe has a kernel that includes a forward surface that includes at least a first, second, and third pressure sensing ports. The multi-hole probe kernel further includes an upper surface, generally orthogonal to the forward surface, and including at least a first, second, and third stem ports. Still further, the multi-hole probe kernel includes first, second, and third tubes running between and providing a fluid connection with the first, second, and third pressure sensing ports and the first, second, and third stem ports, respectively.
US09027390B1
A system for identifying sources of external fluid infiltrating or leaking into a sanitary sewer system. An apparatus applies a substantially uniform coating to the surface of inner walls of a portion of the sewer system. The system also includes means for observing and recording the initial condition of the coated surface, means for observing and recording subsequent conditions of the coated surface, and means for comparing the initial condition of the coated surface with subsequent conditions to detect a predetermined change in the condition of the coated surface. The change in the condition of the coated surface indicates the source of the infiltration of water into the sewer system.
US09027389B2
The present invention provides a medical device having an elongate body with both a proximal end and a distal end, wherein the elongate body defines an intake lumen and an exhaust lumen. The medical device also has a first pliable element defining a cooling chamber disposed at a point along the elongate body, with the cooling chamber being in fluid communication with the intake lumen and the exhaust lumen. A second pliable element is provided which at least partially encloses the first pliable element, thereby defining a junction between the first and second pliable element. A check valve is included which is in fluid communication with the junction between the first pliable element and second pliable element, the valve further being in fluid communication with the exhaust lumen. Additionally, the medical device may include sensors or other monitoring means in fluid communication with the junction and the cooling chamber.
US09027384B2
A method for semi-automatically generating configuration information for a gas chromatograph uses an identification device reader of the gas chromatograph to 1) determine a presence and location of sample flow component identification devices in or on identification device holders that hold the sample flow component identification devices; 2) read information from sample flow component identification devices held in the identification device holders; and 3) output configuration information for the gas chromatograph. The configuration information is based on the presence and location of particular sample flow component identification devices in or on particular identification device holders, and on associations of particular identification device holders with particular sample flow component connections to the gas chromatograph. The configuration information indicates if and how sample flow components are connected to the gas chromatograph.
US09027382B2
The present invention provides a case for an impact detector, including: a front case; a weight to move from an initial position when a detection target of the impact detector inclines more than a predetermined angle; a first rear case to be covered by the front case, including a guide member set at a first inclination angle, through which the weight moves; a second rear case to be covered by the front case, including a guide member set at a second inclination angle different from the first inclination angle, through which the weight moves; and a resistance reducer to reduce moving resistance of the weight. In the optimal case for the impact detector, the front case is used in common for the first rear case and the second rear case, the weight can move smoothly in either case, and the impact can be easily detected.
US09027381B2
A system for calibrating a fluid additive dispensing system of an appliance such as e.g., a washing machine is provided. For example, the system can calibrate for significant differences in the pressure of the water supply provided to the appliance during operation. Calibrations can also be implemented for significant differences in viscosity and/or density of the fluid additives.
US09027373B2
The present disclosure provides for a lock cylinder having a rotatable spindle with at least one disc and at least one wafer housing rotatingly engaged therewith. A slidable wafer is carried on the wafer housing. A locking bar is operable to prevent rotation of the lock cylinder in a locked position and permit rotation of the lock cylinder in an unlocked position.
US09027369B2
The high energy usage and high water usage of conventional washing and drying, specifically for towels, is addressed with the present invention. The “towel-station” of the invention is a single-piece sheet-fed appliance to be located at or near the bathroom, shower or pool to efficiently wash, sanitize, dry and warm a towel. Dramatic savings of energy and water result over that of conventional washing and drying. An additional benefit is the availability to the user of a warm towel after bathing without the use of additional energy since warming is performed as part of the drying process.
US09027366B2
The present disclosure is directed to a flexible filament that includes a length of material configured to be used in forming at least a portion of a textile product to have at least a portion of a visual pattern that is visible on at least one of a first side or a second side of the textile product. The material includes a plurality of stitch indicators formed on the material to separate the material into a plurality of segmented regions, at least one of the stitch indicators or the segmented regions forming at least the portion of the visual pattern visible on the at least one of the first side or the second side of the textile product.
US09027365B2
A method of forming fused quartz glass is provided. The method includes the steps of: (a) providing a starting body made of fused quartz glass; (b) positioning the fused quartz glass starting body on a base plate; (c) inserting a first insert device into an interior cavity of the starting body to form an assembled structure; (d) heating the assembled structure to a predetermined temperature at which the fused quartz glass has a viscosity in a range of 105 to 1013 poise; and (e) deforming the fused quartz glass of the starting body at the predetermined temperature or in the viscosity range of 105 to 1013 poise around the first insert device to change a shape of the starting body. A method for making a large fused quartz glass vessel and a forming assembly for forming fused quartz glass are also provided.
US09027356B2
The biocontainer of the present invention provides a low cost, simple solution of many of the problems encountered during shipping, freezing and thawing of biopharmaceutical materials. The present invention enables a user to monitor the temperature profile of each biopharmaceutical container during the cryogenic process, so as to ensure the integrity of materials within each biocontainer by using a pre-installed and pre-sterilized temperature sensor. In some embodiments, the sensor assembly includes a wireless transmitter and is capable of transmitting information regarding the measured reading. In other embodiments, the sensor assembly includes a processing unit, which determines whether the temperature profile is acceptable. In a further embodiment, an indicator is included, such that the processing unit may indicate whether the biopharmaceutical material has been properly frozen. In other embodiments, the sensor assembly also includes a storage element, which is capable of storing various parameters during the freezing process.
US09027352B2
A method for operating a hydrogen-fueled gas turbine is provided wherein a supply of fuel is passed to a gas turbine combustor, and a supply of nitrogen and sufficient air to provide at least sufficient compressed air to the gas turbine for fuel combustion is passed to a compressor. A sufficient portion of the compressor discharge flow is passed to a combustor for fuel rich combustion of the fuel flow to the combustor and the fuel is combusted to produce hot combustion gases that are, in turn, passed to a turbine.
US09027347B2
A solar collector (26) includes: an outer tube (64) of circular cross-section, closed at one of its ends, an absorption layer (52) arranged inside the outer tube (64), for absorbing solar radiation (Rs), and a heat pipe (56) including a hot part (58) laid out inside the outer tube (64), a cold part (60) arranged outside the outer tube (64), and a reservoir (62) containing a heat pipe fluid (63) and extending over the hot part (58) and the cold part (60). The outer tube (64) is hermetically closed around the heat pipe (56) at the other of its ends, a vacuum being formed inside said outer tube (64). For the hot part (58) of the heat pipe (56), the reservoir (62) is applied at least locally against the absorption layer (52).
US09027345B2
A compound engine system comprising a rotary engine having a volumetric compression ratio lower than its volumetric expansion ratio, and a recess defined in the peripheral wall of the rotor in each of the chambers having a volume of more than 5% of the displacement volume of the chamber. The expansion in the turbine section compensates for the relatively low expansion ratio of the rotary engine.
US09027341B2
Systems and methods for a charge-air-cooler are provided. The system may include an engine air passage, a charge-air-cooler including a plurality of heat exchange passages, and a condensate collector positioned within an interior of the charge-air-cooler, wherein the condensate collector is in fluid communication with at least one heat exchange passage and the engine air passage.
US09027334B2
A trough filter integrated with a thermoelectric generator includes annular filter modules having a support structure at its inner circumference, a filter element, and a support structure at its outer circumference. The filter elements may be configured to form troughs. An annular exhaust gas outlet channel or gas inlet channel may be formed between filter modules. The thermoelectric generator may be positioned in the exhaust gas outlet or inlet channel. A vehicle includes the trough filter integrated with a thermoelectric generator downstream from an internal combustion engine. A method of treating exhaust gas uses a trough filter with an integrated thermoelectric generator.
US09027311B2
A method of sterilizing items by placing items to be sterilized into a puncture resistant sealable vapor barrier sterilization bag, performing steam sterilization under pressure via a conduit coupled to the bag while maintaining a heated compensating pressure environment around the exterior of the bag during steam sterilization so as to reduce mechanical stress on the bag and sealing the bag at the completion of sterilization. There is also provided a sterilization services apparatus for sterilizing the contents of a sterilization bag including a pressure compensating compartment having a sealable door that maintains a heated compensating pressure environment around the exterior of a sterilization bag during steam sterilization so as to reduce mechanical stress on the bag.
US09027310B2
The method and apparatus relates to providing a slit, perforation, line of weakness or similar structure in a flange of a zipper for a reclosable package or bag, including a high-capacity zipper. The slit, perforation, line of weakness or similar structure provides an opening for filling the reclosable package or bag without the need to separate the zipper profiles from each other. After filling, the opening is sealed and the cosmetic appearance of the reclosable package or bag is maintained.
US09027301B2
A building wall system includes first and second panels with each panel having inner and outer facing sheets and a foam core positioned between the inner and outer facing sheets. The first and second panels define a joint positioned between the first and second panels. A facade fastening member is configured to be received by and arranged within the joint.
US09027299B2
A themed modular ceiling and wall décor kit and system to change the theme and décor of any room with the use of rudimentary tools such as a tape measure, level and screw driver. An inexpensive and semi-permanent alternative to the permanent and expensive crown moldings requiring the services of a professional carpenter for their installation as well as removal. The modular ceiling and wall decor kit has limitless possibilities for modification in appearance and design as for instance, a room décor that is for a young child can be changed to suit an older child, or a room décor for a female changed to a male's room décor or when a themed presentation is called for in a child's room or other dedicated room such as a room displaying a sportsman's memorabilia, through the use of different designer panels in the crown molding housing of the décor kit.
US09027291B2
A roof load support structure supports a load on a roof such that substantially all of the load is conveyed through rails, which are mounted on roof panel ribs, thence through roof panel ribs, and to underlying building support structure. The panel flat between the rails can be unobstructed such that water can flow freely down the panel flat between the rails; or end closures can close off access to the respective panel flat between the end closures and the rails. One such end closure can be an upper diverter at an up-slope end of the support structure. A lower edge of such upper diverter, e.g. at the panel flat, can slope downwardly across a width of the respective roof panel thereby to direct water laterally across the respective roof panel.
US09027289B1
A thermal solar system having a fire rating of at least A. In a specific embodiment, the system includes a thermal solar module having an aperture region and a backside region. The system has a shaped thickness of material having a first side and a second side. In a preferred embodiment, the shaped thickness of material is characterized by a fire rating of at least A. The material has a thickness suitable to be free from penetration of moisture according to one or more embodiments. The thickness of material also has a structural characteristic capable of maintaining a shape and coupling to the backside region of the thermal solar module according to one or more embodiments. The system also has an air plenum provided between the thermal solar module and the thickness shaped thickness of material. In a preferred embodiment, the system further has a frame assembly operably coupled to the shaped thickness of material to support the shaped thickness of material and the thermal solar module.
US09027266B2
A wear component for use on, for instance, an excavator formed by a shell formed from a tough metal such as carbon steel and an inner body formed from an abrasion resistant metal such as a chromium white iron. The shell includes cross portions extending through the inner body, the cross portions being made of the tough metal. This has the effect of strengthening the overall toughness of the wear component, while retaining desirable abrasion resistance.
US09027256B2
The present invention relates to a laundry treating machine, including an air supply unit for supplying air, a tub for having the air supplied thereto from the air supply unit to treat the laundry, the tub having an air recovery opening formed in an outside circumferential surface thereof for recovery of the air to the air supply unit, a lint filter mounted to an inside of the air recovery opening for filtering the lint from the air, a filter cleaning unit for spraying cleaning water to separate the lint from the lint filter, and a flow passage member for guiding the cleaning water dropping from the lint filter to an inside of the tub to an inside surface of the tub.
US09027255B2
A micrometer includes: a frame; an anvil; a spindle; an encoder; a display; a strain gauge that detects a deformation of the frame; a storage that stores a change amount of the detection value (a displacement of the spindle detected by the encoder) per a unit deformation detected by the strain gauge, as a compensation factor; and a compensator that compensates the detection value based on a difference between a zeroset-time deformation that is detected by the strain gauge when a command for zeroset is given and a measurement-time deformation that is detected by the strain gauge in measurement, and based on the compensation factor stored in the storage.
US09027254B1
A scalpel handle for holding a blade having a cutting edge includes a handle member and a blade shield for covering the blade cutting edge. The blade shield is connected to the handle member for pivotal movement relative thereto between a blade-covering condition and an out-of-the-way condition, and a movable shield latch mechanism is capable of releasably locking the blade shield in its blade-covering condition. A finger-operable actuator mechanism is mounted upon the handle member for movement between first and second conditions, and a spring is interposed between the actuator mechanism and the handle member. During a first phase of movement of the actuator mechanism from its first to its second condition, the shield latch mechanism unlocks the blade shield from its locked blade-covering condition, and during a second phase of movement, the blade shield is moved from its blade-covering condition to its out-of-the-way condition.
US09027253B2
Compound action snips includes include first and second handles pivotally connected to each other, and first and second blades. The first handle includes first and second walls arranged opposite to each other. The second wall includes a recess. The first blade is mounted to the first handle. The second blade is mounted to the second handle. A fastener inserts through the first wall, the first blade, and the second wall. A fixing element is received into the recess and threaded onto the fastener, so that a top surface defined on the fixing element is not exposed out of the second wall of the first handle.
US09027248B2
A solar panel mounting system includes a plurality of solar panel support structures which can be formed from solid concrete in adjacent rows with mounting surfaces that are tilted towards the equator. The solar panels can have an adhesive backing which can be used to secure the solar panels directly to the mounting surfaces. The support structures can be made of concrete and formed with a slip form machine. This construction can reduce the time and materials required for the solar panel installation. The solar panel mounting system can also occupy significantly less ground space than conventional solar panel installations.
US09027247B2
A method and structure for forming an ink jet printhead can include the use of a transfer pad to transfer an adhesive solution to an ink jet printhead substrate. The adhesive solution can be placed within a patterned recess of a cliché and then an upper surface of the adhesive solution can be gelled. A surface of the transfer pad contacts the gelled upper surface and transfers the adhesive solution to the ink jet printhead substrate. During the transfer, a lower surface of the adhesive solution gels. During contact with the ink jet printhead substrate, the gelled lower surface adheres to the ink jet printhead substrate while the gelled upper surface releases from the transfer pad.
US09027245B2
A method for producing a solid component which in succession includes deforming a metal bar by forging using two dies in order to obtain an intermediate component including two fins one on each side of a solid part capable of forming the base of the metal reinforcement, the two fins being at a divergent angle α; deforming the two fins of the intermediate component, altering the divergent angle α, so as to obtain the final shape of the turbomachine blade leading edge or trailing edge metal reinforcement.
US09027241B2
A method of assembling a medical electrical lead. The method comprises providing a modular connector assembly including three contacts coupled to three contact conductors, selecting a lead body assembly from a group of different lead body assemblies which includes a first lead body assembly having only two conductors for and a second lead body assembly having three conductors; and coupling each of the conductors of the selected lead body assembly with a corresponding contact conductor of the modular connector assembly.
US09027238B2
A multilayered printed circuit board or a substrate for mounting a semiconductor device includes a semiconductor device, a first resin insulating layer accommodating the semiconductor device, a second resin insulating layer provided on the first resin insulating layer, a conductor circuit provided on the second resin insulating layer, and via holes for electrically connecting the semiconductor device to the conductor circuit, wherein the semiconductor device is accommodated in a recess provided in the first resin insulating layer, and a metal layer for placing the semiconductor device is provided on the bottom face of the recess. A multilayered printed circuit board in which the installed semiconductor device establishes electrical connection through the via holes is provided.
US09027231B2
To enable positioning a robot arm and a workpiece with high accuracy while reducing vibrations of a camera. According to the claimed invention for this purpose, a robot station 100 includes a pedestal 103 to which robot arms 101 and 102 are fixed, a camera 106 which images an area including a working area 209 of the pedestal 103, and a booth 104 to which the camera 106 is fixed. The pedestal 103 is fixed to a floor surface, and the booth 104 is fixed to the floor surface without contacting the pedestal 103. The booth 104 is formed in the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped having a short side parallel to a workpiece conveying direction T and a long side perpendicular to the workpiece conveying direction T in a plan view. In the booth 104, the length of the long side y of the booth 104 is set to not less than the sum of a maximum length by which the robot arms 101 and 102 protrude from the pedestal 103 in a direction perpendicular to the workpiece conveying direction T and the length in the direction perpendicular to the workpiece conveying direction T of the pedestal 103 in a plan view.
US09027226B2
A method for implementing a prompt dose mitigating capacitor is disclosed. Initially, a flip chip is provided with multiple capacitors. The flip chip is then placed on top of a substrate having multiple electronic devices connected to a set of power rails. The terminals of the capacitors within the flip chip are subsequently connected to the power rails within the substrate in order to regulate voltages appeared on the power rails during a radiation pulse.
US09027222B2
A lens assembly method for assembling a plurality of lenses into a plurality of lens tubes is disclosed. The method includes providing a lens assembly tool comprising a lens receiving frame, a positioning plate, and a pressing plate forming a plurality of pressing punches; positioning a plurality of lens tubes in a plurality of receiving holes of the lens receiving frame; positioning one lens in each of the lens tubes; positioning the positioning plate on the lens receiving frame with the lens tubes extending through a plurality of through holes of the positioning plate; and positioning the pressing plate on the positioning plate with the pressing punches entering into the lens tubes to push the lenses into the lens tubes.
US09027220B2
A rivet setting machine is provided. In another aspect, a linear displacement sensor directly senses and detects a position of a rivet-setting punch relative to a nosepiece of a rivet setting machine. A further aspect provides a control system and software instructions for sensing the relative position of a punch and nosepiece used by a programmable controller to determine and monitor a rivet setting position without use of a force sensor, motor current/voltage sensor, or a rotation sensor.
US09027218B2
An apparatus and method for finding part position relations of parts of mechanical and opto-mechanical machining and quality control systems, and for recognizing these parts, is disclosed. The present invention relies on optical contactless sensing technology, with recording of optical fiducial patterns and therefrom determining positions close to the work positions without physical contact. Part positions of machines are determined by associating or mechanically integrating fiducial patterns (1) with key parts, and optically detecting the images of these patterns. Part positions and displacements according to given part position finder (6) strategies are found, by associating fiducial pattern images (14) and machine position data (17) to parts that are members of a part geometry relation (15), and under part displacement constraints (16), finding given part positions or displacements (18). Using fiducial patterns (1), identification and recognition of work pieces, work holders, work tools, gauge tools, and machine parts in general is enabled.
US09027213B2
Methods and systems for preserving tissues in situ using critical point drying are disclosed. Such methods and systems are particularly applicable to the preservation of a deceased body, such as a deceased person or animal, with or without removal of internal tissues or organs. A fixative can be perfused through the vascular system of the body while blood is removed from the body. The exterior of the body can also be immersed in a bath of fixative. The fixative in the vascular system and the bath can be replaced by subsequent washes of buffer, de-ionized water, and/or alcohol. The alcohol-infused and fixated body can be disposed in a pressure chamber and subjected to a critical point drying process using carbon dioxide. After the critical point drying process, the body is in a preserved state.
US09027210B2
A Self-Aligning Zipper is disclosed that allows for one handed operation by anyone who would, otherwise use a zipper or use of the Self-Aligning Zipper by those with physical and developmental limitations or equipment such, as cold weather gloves or mittens. The proper alignment of each half of the Self-Aligning Zipper is accomplished by way of magnets of opposite polarity along with structural guide elements to ensure proper alignment and operation of the zipper.
US09027200B2
Provided is an upright vacuum cleaner. The upright vacuum cleaner includes a suction nozzle comprising a plurality of wheels, a main body relatively rotatable with respect to the suction nozzle, and a steering device steering the plurality of wheels to correspond to the movement of the main body.
US09027196B1
A tool for applying a building material and for finishing a bead of building material. The tool includes a handle portion and a flat blade portion having spaced-apart side edges and a front edge. The blade portion of the tool may be provided with an angled portion extending between the front edge and at least one of the side edges of the blade portion or provided with at least one area of weakness extending between the front edge and at least one of the side edges of the blade portion.
US09027194B2
It is one aspect of the present invention to provide an improved spatula apparatus configured to contact a substantial portion of container sidewalls. Another object of the present invention is to provide improved spatula apparatuses that are configured to hold and remove a larger amount of material from containers that have relatively small openings. An additional object of the present invention is to provide improved spatula apparatuses that are configured to conform to and remove material from a plurality of containers without requiring multiple swipes and other duplicative motions.
US09027189B2
A lawn sweeper including a housing may have a plurality of first markings, a brush height adjustment assembly including an arm moveable between a setting orientation and a sweeping orientation and a gauge connected to the arm including a plurality of second markings that corresponds with the first markings such that when the arm is disposed in the setting orientation a grass height associated with one of the second markings determines an adjustment of the brush height assembly to the sweeping orientation to one of the first markings that corresponds with the one of the second markings.
US09027188B2
A powered toothbrush includes a handle having a neck. A head is mounted to the neck and has a first surface and an opposed second surface. At least one fixed tuft block is mounted to the head in a fixed orientation and has a plurality of tooth cleaning elements extending outwardly away from the first surface. A movable tuft block is flexibly connected to each fixed tuft block and has a plurality of tooth cleaning elements extending outwardly away from the first surface. A drive assembly is operably connected to the movable tuft block to move the movable tuft block with respect to each fixed tuft block.
US09027179B2
A portable playpen which can be erected, collapsed and carried while holding a baby, includes a framework supporting an enclosure for a child. The framework has a generally pyramidal structure when it is erected.
US09027165B2
A hat system relating to reducing and/or eliminating physical interferences between hat bills and eyewear rims by the introduction of strategic hat bill cutouts along the periphery of the bill as a means for providing additional physical clearance for user-chosen eyewear. Additionally, users of the preferred hat system may also take advantage of bill cutouts as a means to secure eyewear on the face during sports, or other moments of high activity. Further, the hat system incorporates a camouflage covering to camouflage such strategic hat bill cutouts. Even further, the hat system provides unique design elements provided by geometrically-shaped bill cutouts in combination with, or without, coverings.
US09032537B2
Based upon the principle of Turing incomputability, and novel properties of the Active Element Machine, a malware-resistant computing machine is constructed. This new computing machine is a non-Turing, non-register machine (non von-Neumann), called an Active Element Machine (AEM). AEM programs are designed so that the purpose of the computation is difficult to apprehend by an adversary and hijack with malware. These methods can help hinder reverse engineering of proprietary algorithms and hardware design.Using quantum randomness, the AEM can deterministically execute a universal digital computer program with active element firing patterns that are Turing incomputable. In some embodiments, a more powerful computational procedure is demonstrated than Turing's computational procedure (digital computer procedure). Current digital computer algorithms can be derived or designed with a Turing machine computational procedure. A novel class of computing machines is built where the purpose of the program's execution is difficult to apprehend (Turing incomputable).
US09032531B1
Systems and methods are disclosed for detecting data breaches and, more specifically, disclosed herein are systems and methods for detecting data breaches and preventing fraud, including healthcare insurance fraud, using both a computer association component (Interpretation model) and a self sensitizing/self de-sensitizing component (SS/SDS model) using a breach observation line (BOL).
US09032530B2
A computer program can be statically analyzed to determine an order in which client side workflows are intended to be implemented by the computer program. A virtual patch can be generated. When executed by a processor, the virtual patch can track web service calls from a client to the computer program, and determine whether the order of the web service calls from the client to the computer program correlate to the order in which client side workflows are intended to be implemented by the computer program. If the order of the web service calls from the client to the computer program do not correlate to the order in which client side workflows are intended to be implemented by the computer program, an alert can be generated.
US09032513B2
Systems and methods to generate a final event stream are provided. The system collects information from a wide variety of sources, and then parses, normalizes, and indexes the information. This generates an initial event stream that can be tagged and then iteratively processed to generate a final event stream. The processing includes first order logic querying and knowledge extraction to infer additional events which is added to the event stream. The final event stream is used by a knowledge exchange for consumption by applications. These applications may be internal applications and/or third party applications. This system may be particularly useful in use with medical information, or any other big data enterprise system.
US09032502B1
A system and method for a distributed multi-processing security gateway establishes a host side session, selects a proxy network address for a server based on network information, and using the proxy network address to establish a server side session. The proxy network address is selected such that a same processing element is assigned to process data packets from the server side session and the host side session. The network information includes a security gateway network address and a host network address. By assigning processing elements in this manner, higher capable security gateways are provided.
US09032487B2
A method and system for providing service access to a user, includes the steps of: a) Registering a local identity provider located in al local network at a global identity provider with a local identifier of the local identity provider, b) Requesting service access requiring identity authentication to a service provider by a user located in the local network, c) Requesting an identity management service from the global identity provider by the service provider, d) Redirecting the user's access request to the local identity provider according to the provided local identifier within the local network, e) Checking if the local identifier corresponds to the local network of the user, f) Providing the requested identity management service to the service provider by the global identity provider in accordance with a result of the checking according to step e), and g) Granting service access for the user to the service provider.
US09032481B2
An application to be installed is acquired. Security policy geographic information, which is geographic information of an application's target distribution area where a user permits installation, is acquired from security policy that defines processing regarding the application. Application geographic information, which is geographic information of an application's target distribution area, is acquired from the acquired application. Based on a comparison result of comparing the security policy geographic information with the application geographic information, whether or not to permit installation of the acquired application is determined.
US09032476B2
Technologies are generally described for secure authentication tokens that employ hardware public physically unclonable functions. Each unique token can be implemented as hardware such that manufacturing variations provide measurable performance differences resulting in unique, unclonable devices or systems. For example, slight timing variations through a large number of logic gates may be used as a hardware public physically unclonable function of the authentication token. The authentication token can be characterized such that its physical characteristics may be publicly distributed to authenticators. Authenticators may then simulate the result from a particular input vector and then request the authentication token to generate the same result in a very short amount of time. The time may be specified such that the result could not be simulated by an imposter for a timely response.
US09032473B2
Systems, methods, and instrumentalities are disclosed that allow a user to initiate migration of a credential from one domain to another domain. A request to initiate a migration of credentials from a first domain to a second domain may be initiated by a user (1a.). A remote owner may receive a message indicating that the migration has been requested. The message received by the remote owner may be an indication that the source and destination devices have performed internal checks and determined that a migration could proceed. The remote owner may evaluate source information received from the source device and destination information received from the destination device (6), (6a.), (6b.). Based on the evaluation of the source information and the destination information, the remote owner may determine that the migration is acceptable. The remote owner may send an indication to proceed with the migration (7), (7a).
US09032468B2
Improved systems and methods for delivering CATV content over a fiber optic network from a transmitter by compensating for optical dispersion over the fiber optic network.
US09032466B2
Systems, apparatus and methods provide an automatic capability for delivering interactivity event applications for execution on receiver devices within a broadcast network based upon interactivity event application data, information and sequence logic. Interactivity event content providers may provide to a broadcast network interactivity event application data, event metadata information and sequence logic a broadcast network. Receiver devices may be configured to receive only real-time interactivity event assets relevant to a currently monitored real-time channel, or channels adjacent to the currently monitored channel. Receiver devices may also be configured to avoid acquiring assets for interactive sequences not related to a currently viewed or adjacent channel.
US09032461B2
A system and method for implementing a video conference through a television forwarding device. A remote user is authenticated through a website. A selection of a user is received for the remote user to communicate with through the video conference. An invitation is sent to the television forwarding device. The invitation being configured to prompt the user to accept implementation of the video conference. The video conference is implemented between the remote user and the user in response to the user accepting the invitation.
US09032445B2
An interactive television program guide system with program series reminder and recording capabilities is provided. The system allows a user to set a reminder or schedule a recording for a single episode or for each episode of a program series. In addition, other options may be provided that allow the user to determine, for example, whether to schedule reminders/recordings for episodes on all channels on which the program airs or only on a selected channels, whether to schedule reminders/recordings for all episodes including reruns or only new episodes, whether to schedule reminders/recordings for network or syndicated episodes, and whether to schedule reminders/recordings for episodes on all days or only on selected days of the week. Before the scheduled broadcast time of each episode of each selected program series, the system sends a reminder message to the user that reminds the user of the program episode or sends a record command to a videocassette recorder to initiate recording of the episode. The system allows a user to view a list of all currently requested program reminders and scheduled program recordings. The user may update, change, or cancel any entry in either list or the system may automatically update the lists to match new broadcast schedule information. If the user sets a reminder or schedules a recording that conflicts with an existing reminder or recording, the system may inform the user of the conflict and allow the user to resolve the conflict or the system may resolve the conflict.
US09032443B2
A system and method is provided to automatically generate content for ITV products and services by processing primary media sources. In one embodiment of the invention, keywords are automatically extracted from the primary media sources using one or more of a variety of techniques directed to video, audio and/or textual content of the multimodal source. In some embodiments, keywords are then processed according to one or more disclosed algorithms to narrow the quantity of downstream processing that is necessary to associate secondary sources (reference items) with the primary video source. Embodiments of the invention also provide automatic searching methods for the identification of reference items based on the processed keywords in order to maximize the value added by the association of reference items to the video source.
US09032441B2
A system, method, and computer program for self management of a live web event is provided. In exemplary embodiments, an individual associated with a channel may schedule a web event. Upon scheduling, a user, such as one or more presenters, may be provided a management interface through which content may be prepared for the live web event during a self preparation process. In exemplary embodiments, the user may upload content (e.g., images such as slides) and generate content (e.g., polling questions and answers) autonomously.
US09032437B2
Embodiments of the disclosed invention include an apparatus, method, and computer program product for providing enhanced entertainment data. For instance, in one embodiment, a computer implemented method for providing enhanced entertainment data includes receiving a request for additional information related to a selected show and displaying the additional information, which includes a list of selectable merchandise associated with the selected show, in response to the request. In one embodiment, the method presents information related to a selected merchandise and an option for a user to purchase the selected merchandise. The method may further include retrieving a billing address associated with a subscriber account associated with the user in response to receiving a purchase request for the selected merchandise and placing an order for the selected merchandise using the billing address. The method may also include billing the order as part of a monthly service charge to the user.
US09032434B2
Systems and methods are presented for monitoring user interest in a video as it is being played and autonomously selecting a section of the video for replaying based on an identified user interest in the section. A monitoring component monitors user interaction with a video being streamed to one or more devices as the video is played at the one or more devices. An identification component further determines level of user interest based on the monitored user interaction and identifies a section of the video associated with the level of user interest in response to the level of user interest being above a predetermined threshold. Then a replay component streams the section of the video to the one or more devices again at least in response to the identification of the section.
US09032424B2
System and methods are provided. In one embodiment, a system includes a master data archiver configured to store a data related to a turbomachine system and a first data collector service system configured to collect the data from the master data archiver. The system also includes a second data collector service system communicatively coupled to the first data collector system and configured to pull or to push the data from the first data collector system and a first data archiver configured to receive at least some of the data from the second data collector system. The system further includes an asset model database storing a plurality of turbomachine tags, wherein the turbomachine tags are configured to categorize the data and a data access system (DAS) configured to provide data access to the first data archiver, the asset model database, or a combination thereof.
US09032423B2
An update platform is described that collectively handles driver and firmware updates for hardware resources of a computing device based on dependencies associated with the updates. The update platform may instantiate representations of each individual hardware resource as abstractions through which detection, analysis, acquisition, deployment, installation, and tracking of updates is managed. Using the representations, the update platform discovers available updates, matches configuration packages for the updates to appropriate resources, and initiates installation of the configuration packages. The update platform is further configured to recognize dependencies associated with the configuration packages. When dependencies are detected, corresponding configuration packages are marked to reflect the dependencies and activation is suspended until the dependencies are satisfied. Upon satisfaction of the dependencies, the dependencies are cleared and the configuration packages are activated. Configuration packages that are not associated with dependencies may be installed and activated “normally” at any time.
US09032416B2
A method, system, and computer program product for of load balancing in a parallel map/reduce paradigm. The method commences by sampling a first set of input records, and forming a prospective load balancing assignment by assigning the first set of input records to the plurality of worker tasks based on a workload estimate for each of the worker tasks. To measure the prospective load balancing assignment, the method compares the workload variance over the plurality of worker tasks to a workload variance target, and also calculates a confidence level based on the sampled first set of input records. If the measured quality of the prospective load balancing assignment is not yet achieved, then the method samples additional input records; for example when the calculated workload variance is greater than the maximum workload variance target or when the calculated confidence level is lower than a confidence level threshold.
US09032414B1
A computer-implemented method for managing system resources allocated for backup validation may include (1) identifying a computing system that is to be backed up, (2) monitoring at least one resource of the computing system in order to determine to what extent the resource is utilized, (3) identifying a minimum utilization level of the resource, (4) determining an amount of the resource required to validate a backup of the computing system, (5) configuring a validation system to validate the backup of the computing system, wherein resources of the validation system are allocated based at least in part on the amount of the resource required to validate the backup of the computing system, and (6) using the validation system to validate the backup of the computing system in order to reduce backup-validation resource consumption. Various additional methods, systems, and encoded computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09032406B2
Systems and methods for cooperative batch scheduling in multitenancy computing systems are described. A number of batch requests are received in the computing system, where each batch request includes a job reference, and a start time when the execution of the referenced job to be launched. Duration of execution is estimated for each job referenced by the requests. The estimation is based on predefined criteria that include a product of median execution times for at least one recurring operation. An anonymous load chart is created based on the start times and the estimated duration of execution of each job referenced by the plurality of batch requests. The anonymous load chart may take into account the available capacity of the computing system. The anonymous load chart is exposed to a number of isolated users of the computing system for cooperative batch scheduling.
US09032404B2
A multiprocessor computer system includes an exception domain having multiple thread contexts (TCs) each having a restart address register, and a timer that generates a periodic interrupt request to the exception domain. The exception domain selects an eligible TC to service the interrupt request, which is non-specific regarding which TC to select. A first interrupt handler executes on the selected TC to service the interrupt request to schedule a set of processes assigned by the SMP OS for execution on the selected TC, and write an address of a second interrupt handler to the restart address register of each TC other than the selected TC. The second interrupt handler schedules a plurality of sets of processes assigned by the SMP OS for execution on respective ones of the TCs other than the selected TC.
US09032402B2
A computer-implemented method for managing an independent virtual disk. The method includes creating an independent virtual disk; in response to the creating the independent virtual disk, creating a first virtual machine; and attaching an independent virtual disk to the first virtual machine; and managing the independent virtual disk by controlling the first virtual machine that is attached to the independent virtual disk.
US09032401B2
When a process judging unit judges that a target process is a protected process, a key judging unit judges whether a target key that is a key generated by a key generating unit is a first key or a second key. When the key judging unit judges that the target key is the first key, a VM communication managing unit notifies the target process of a memory ID of a protected memory region corresponding to the first key. When the process judging unit judges that the target process is an unprotected process, a key transforming unit transforms the target key from the first key to the second key based on the key transformation rule. An HV communication managing unit notifies the target process of a memory ID of an unprotected memory region corresponding to the second key.
US09032399B1
Techniques for measuring input/output (I/O) scheduling characteristics in a computing system implemented with distributed virtual infrastructure. In one example, a method comprises the following steps. A plurality of virtual machines is deployed in a computing system implemented in a distributed virtual infrastructure managed by at least one hypervisor component. At least one test workload is executed on the plurality of virtual machines in accordance with the at least one hypervisor component. Timing information is collected from the plurality of virtual machines during execution of the at least one test workload. Based on at least a portion of the collected timing information, one or more characteristics are identified of an input/output schedule employed by the at least one hypervisor component during execution of the at least one test workload on the plurality of virtual machines.
US09032395B2
Disclosed is a method for installing applications between mobile terminals capable of easily installing applications installed in an existing mobile terminal in a new mobile terminal at the time of purchasing a mobile terminal. An installation apparatus extracts identification information regarding applications installed in a first mobile terminal from the first mobile terminal connected to communicate data with the installation apparatus for installing data. The installation apparatus extracts link information providing an access path of downloading and installing application files from an application market provided from a web based on the identification information or downloading applications from the application market. The installation apparatus transmits the application files to the second mobile terminal so as to be installed in the second mobile terminal or transmits the link information so as to be stored in the second mobile terminal.
US09032387B1
A computing device receives a notification from a server that a bundle is available for download. The bundle includes software written in a scripting language. The computing device downloads the bundle from the server and authenticates a digital signature of the bundle. The computing device installs the bundle in a user partition of the memory and modifies a path variable in an operating system of the computing device. The path variable is modified to include a location of the installed bundle.
US09032386B1
An update module receives a first manifest file that indicates a product version for a product and indicates a product upgrade indicator if an upgraded product is available for the product version. In addition, the update module requests a second manifest file from a server according to a product upgrade location identifier. The second manifest file is received from the server if the second manifest file is enabled by the server for the product upgrade indicator. Further the update module installs the upgraded product according to a set of data files in the second manifest file.
US09032384B2
A system and method is provided for performing processing in a test system. A flexible platform may be provided for developing test programs for performing automated testing. In one such platform, the tester and its instruments are isolated from the tester operating system, permitting any tester operating system to be used. In another example implementation, a user layer of the platform is isolated from the physical layer of the architecture, permitting hardware-independent test programs that can be created and used among different testers having different test hardware and software. In yet another implementation, execution of a test program is isolated from a tester platform operating system, permitting the test program to function independent from the tester platform. In another embodiment, functionality is implemented on the platform such that functions are only added, and that existing links to functions are not broken, ensuring continued test system operation when new software, hardware and/or features are added to the platform. The test system may include a non-deterministic computer system. In one example test system, the system forces execution of one or more computer instructions performed by the non-deterministic computer system to execute within a constant execution time. A deterministic engine, if necessary, waits a variable amount of time to ensure that the execution of the computer instructions is performed over the constant execution time. Because the execution time is constant, the execution is deterministic and therefore may be used in applications requiring deterministic behavior. For example, such a deterministic engine may be used in automated test equipment (ATE) applications.
US09032377B2
A computing method includes accepting a definition of a computing task, which includes multiple Processing Elements (PEs) having execution dependencies. The computing task is compiled for concurrent execution on a multiprocessor device, by arranging the PEs in a series of two or more invocations of the multiprocessor device, including assigning the PEs to the invocations depending on the execution dependencies. The multiprocessor device is invoked to run software code that executes the series of the invocations, so as to produce a result of the computing task.
US09032371B2
One embodiment of the present invention provides a technique for automatic diagnosis of regression test failures. Initially, an automatic regression test system provides the test results per configuration for a revision of the device under test. Next, each failing test is analyzed in conjunction with the information in the version control system that is used to manage the device under test in order to conclude what additional revisions that needs to be tested for each test and configuration in order to find the earliest failing revision. Next, a request is issued to the automated regression test system which performs the requested tests and provides back a list of test results. Next, another analysis takes places and if the earliest failing revision cannot be concluded for each failing test and configuration then another request is issues to the automated regression test system. This continues until the earliest failing revision can be concluded for each failing test and configuration. The result presents each faulty revision and the group of tests and configurations that fail as a consequence. Another embodiment of the present invention provides a technique for automatically diagnosing the root cause for a test failure by comparing the difference in outcome between one revision of the device under test that fails with another revision of the same test for which the same test passes. This is done by instrumenting the computer program that constitutes the device under test to extract the variable states that affect the difference in outcome. Next, all parts of the computer program that are proven to have no affect on the difference in outcome is ignored. Finally, the root cause is concluded by identifying the sections of the computer program that are different between the revision for which the test fails and the revision for which test passes. The parts of these sections that have also been proven to be affecting the difference in outcome are concluded to be the root cause.
US09032369B2
Certain example embodiments relate to systems and/or methods for determining and/or executing an appropriate subset of tests in response to a code change. In certain example embodiments, hash digests or other unique values for code structures (such as, for example, classes, methods, and/or other structural elements) may be created. Tests associated those associated code structures may be identified. New hash digests or other unique values may be generated for the code structures after the source code has been modified. In response to a mismatch as between the existing and new hash digests or other unique values, a list of associated tests for possible subsequent execution may be retrieved. Certain example embodiments additionally or alternatively provide an incremental but consistent way of analyzing performance issues, e.g., in connection with a profiler.
US09032367B2
An appliance support module can be configured to receive a request to build a demo software appliance from a user. The appliance support module can be configured to build the demo appliance and to include configuration data in demo software appliance. The appliance support module can be configured to receive a request to migrate the demo software appliance to a production software appliance. The appliance support module can be configured to migrate the demo software appliance by modifying the configuration data in order to provide full functionality to the demo software appliance that was previously limited. The appliance support module can also receive a request to scale the production software appliances. The appliance support module can scale the production software appliance by dividing the applications contained in the production software appliances into separate software appliance.
US09032363B2
A method and system for providing an interactive developer guide for guiding a user through a web-based application component selection process for a web-based application. The component selection process includes providing a component list including a plurality of configurable web-based application components, prompting the user to select a web-based application component from the list, and receiving a selection of a web-based application component from the list. The selected web-based application component is provided along with a snippet of code for integrating the selected web-based application component into the web-based application.
US09032358B2
An integrated circuit includes core logic and a plurality of interface blocks disposed about a periphery of the core logic. A plurality of input or output (I/O) circuits is assigned to one of the plurality of interface blocks. The I/O circuits include external I/O circuits coupled to a device other than the integrated circuit and internal I/O circuits coupled to the integrated circuit. Each interface block includes a first plurality of I/O circuits disposed on a first side of the interface block and a second plurality of I/O circuits disposed on a second side of the interface block. Each interface block also includes interface logic for the interface block between the first plurality of I/O circuits and the second plurality of I/O circuits, and a logic hub that includes a clock distribution of minimal length that drives launch logic and capture logic to form the I/O circuits of the interface block.
US09032339B2
Verification-result ranking techniques for root cause analysis are disclosed using violation report analysis and violation weighting. Violation reports are unwieldy and result from a variety of design and process checks. The check coverage can overlap, causing a specific violation to trigger multiple reported violations. High turn around times for violation report analysis increase the risk that selective violation analysis will inadvertently suppress real design bugs. This reduces the odds that static checker reports alone will meet design sign-off criteria. Determining relationships among a plurality of violations for a design permits clustering violations into hot spots. Identification of primary and subsequent contributors to the plurality of violations is based on the relationships among violations. The hot spot with the highest weight is identified, and then subsequent violations are identified to maximize violation coverage. The result is greater efficiency of design violation identification and resolution.
US09032334B2
According to the present invention, disclosed is an electronic device having a three-dimensional display, comprising a sensor obtaining information about a gesture's motion; a three-dimensional display displaying a pointer and/or an object moving in three-dimensional space according to the gesture's motion; and a controller checking applications in execution, determining a movement distance of the pointer and/or the object in proportion to a movement distance of the gesture by taking account of gesture sensitivity selected according to the type of the checked application, and controlling the display to move the pointer and/or the object as much as the determined movement distance.
US09032328B1
A method for customizing a graphical user interface (GUI). The method includes identifying an event associated with the GUI and a user; matching the event to a trigger of a GUI pattern; identifying, within the GUI pattern, an expected interaction between the GUI and the user in response to the event; and modifying the GUI to improve user access to a graphical element involved in the expected interaction.
US09032326B2
An enterprise management software system that provides a methodology for transient data storage, user action handling and dependent object creation process. When a dependent object is required to be added, the software system may remember the action without creating the dependent object. When a command is received to cancel the dependent object creation, the software system may work only on the transient data at a frontend and will not interact with backend. The dependent object may be instantiated when receiving a user command to save any entered data. Responsive to the user command, the software system may collect user input and trigger dependent object instantiation process at the backend.
US09032323B2
A character information display device includes: a display format deciding part 2 for deciding that the display format of a character string to be displayed is telop display when the number of characters making up the character string exceeds the number of characters for one line on the screen; a scroll speed setting part 6 for setting the scroll speed of the character string to be displayed at a reference speed in a case where the character string is judged as a character string easy to read, and setting the scroll speed of the character string to be displayed at a slower speed than the reference speed in a case where the character string is judged as a character string difficult to read by a reading difficulty judging part 4; and so on.
US09032317B2
A computerized method of presenting information from a variety of sources on a display device. Specifically the present invention describes a graphical user interface for organizing the simultaneous display of information from a multitude of information sources. In particular, the present invention comprises a graphical user interface which organizes content from a variety of information sources into a grid of tiles, each of which can refresh its content independently of the others. The grid functionality manages the refresh rates of the multiple information sources. The present invention is intended to operate in a platform independent manner.
US09032305B2
A mobile terminal and a control method thereof capable of together deleting or changing messages exchanged with a pre-stored specific person, a call history, contents associated with a relevant file, etc. classified into each category in a selective manner when deleting or changing the specific person's address is discussed. The control method of a mobile terminal includes displaying a function execution result screen on a display unit, displaying a pre-stored category screen on the display unit when one content is selected from the function execution result screen, and deleting information relating to the selected content when at least one category included in the displayed category screen is selected.
US09032304B2
A portable computing device may be configured to allow a user to interact with one or more displays in a retail environment. The portable computing device may establish a communication link with a communication device in the retail environment and the user may be able to use the portable computing device to navigate through retail data and have it displayed on the display device in the retail environment.
US09032299B2
For a media-editing application that creates composite presentations, a novel grouping tool for grouping several media clips in the composite presentation by drawing a boundary about the media clips is described. The media editing application includes a composite display area for displaying media clips that are part of the composite presentation. The composite display area includes a timeline and one or more tracks that span the timeline for holding one or more media clips. The grouping tool provides a drawing tool that allows a user to draw a boundary in the composite display area. The drawing tool includes a moveable drawing element that moves about the media clips in the composite display area in order to draw the boundary.
US09032288B2
Embodiments described herein are directed to an import converter for importing individual pages of a document into a virtual world and an export converter for exporting captured images of scenes in a virtual world to generate a document. The import converter can convert pages of a document into a sequence of individual page images, which can be uploaded into the virtual world. The individual page images are positioned in the virtual world according to a user-specified layout. The export converter generates a document using scene images captured in a virtual world based on user-specified camera positions. Pages of the generated document incorporate the scene images.
US09032282B2
A method and a system for A/B testing of a website on a computer being connected to a web content management system, wherein the method includes receiving, at the web content management system from a requesting computer, a webpage data request directed to a webpage of a website for which at least two website variants including a first website variant and a second website variant are defined, and selecting one website variant of the at least two website variants of the website. If the second website variant is selected, the method further includes creating, at the web content management system, first markup language representation data of the webpage, second markup language representation data of the webpage, and webpage difference data.
US09032279B2
A memory device includes a parity circuit configured to detect presence or absence of an error using a plurality of command signals and a plurality of address signals, a command shift circuit configured to shift the plurality of command signals by a preset delay value in synchronization with a control clock, a clock control circuit configured to deactivate the control clock when there is no valid command signal in command signals being shifted in the command shift circuit, and a decoder circuit configured to decode a plurality of command signals output from the command shift circuit.
US09032274B2
A multi-link input/output (I/O) interface uses both feed-forward and feedback signaling to reduce the impact of noise on data capture at a memory controller. To transfer data from a source module to a destination module, a defined pattern is communicated from the memory module along a master channel concurrent with the memory module providing data via one or more slave channels. Based on the phase of the defined pattern as it is received, the multi-link I/O interface feeds forward to the slave channels control signaling whose phase reflects a predicted noise pattern for the system. Each slave channel performs CDR by adjusting timing of its corresponding capture clock signal based on the fed forward control signaling and based on feedback signaling for the corresponding slave channel, whereby the feedback signaling reflects an error measurement between a phase of a capture clock signal and transitions in received data.
US09032270B2
The present disclosure provides a device and method for storing encoded and/or decoded codes by re-using an encoder. The device and method for storing the encoded and/or decoded codes according to the present disclosure enables re-use of the encoder during a decoding process, which makes it unnecessary to use additional hardware and thereby reduces an area consumed by an EDAC (error detection and correction) decoder.
US09032267B2
A transmitting unit divides a transmit data into a plurality of code blocks, and encodes each of the plurality of code blocks to generate a transmission signal. The transmitting unit transmits the transmission signal, and a receiving unit receives the transmission signal as a reception signal. The receiving unit, when being an error in the reception signal, transmits a retransmission request feedback data which contains a NACK data and a data indicating the first code block group to the transmitting unit. First resources are assigned for each of the plurality of code blocks of the transmission signal. The transmitting unit assigns resources of the first code block group of the plurality of code blocks of the transmission signal to second resources which are fewer than the first resources, based on the retransmission request feedback data, and retransmits the transmission signal to the receiving unit.
US09032266B2
An advanced fault simulator that can audit the fault coverage of large-scale integrated circuit (IC) designs is described herein. Specifically, an IC design's Hardware Description Language and/or Electronic System-Level source files are compiled into a database, stuck-at, transition and/or inter-process communication faults for the design are generated and equivalent faults are collapsed. Furthermore, all faults are partitioned into disjointed fault sets, and a set of worker threads are created to process those fault sets concurrently. The worker threads can run either locally on a multiprocessor platform, or remotely on different computers that are connected via an intranet and/or the Internet. Moreover, each worker thread can create a plurality of child threads to further accelerate the multithreaded concurrent fault simulation of the IC design. After the simulation is finished, a fault report is generated that depicts the fault coverage of the IC design and all undetected and detected faults.
US09032261B2
In a system and method of enhancing data reliability, a reference value associated with error count is obtained, and an error count of data stored in a buffer is obtained whenever an event is triggered. An accumulated value associated with error counts is acquired when the recorded error count is greater than an error threshold value. System slowdown is performed when the accumulated value is greater than a predetermined value.
US09032257B2
A first interface board includes a first signal processing unit that performs a predetermined process on a signal. A second interface board includes a second signal processing unit that performs the predetermined process on a signal. When no failure occurs in both interface boards, a switching control unit selects the first interface board. When a failure occurs in the first interface board, the switching control unit selects the second interface board. When there is no failure in both the interface boards and the first interface board does not satisfy a predetermined degradation condition, the electrical power supply control unit supplies electrical power to the first interface board and prohibits the supply of electrical power to the second interface board. When there is no failure in both the interface boards but the predetermined degradation condition is satisfied, the electrical power supply control unit supplies electrical power to both the interface boards.
US09032252B2
An integrated circuit 2 includes one or more transaction masters 8, 10, 12, 4 for issuing data transactions via interconnect circuitry 20. Debug access port circuitry is configured to respond to debug commands received from a debug controller 6 to generate barrier transactions which are issued to the interconnect circuitry. The interconnect circuitry responds to the received barrier transactions by constraining a relative ordering of at least some of the data transactions as they pass through the interconnect circuitry.
US09032237B2
A method for improving accuracy of simple network time protocol. A time inquiry is sent from at least one device in a substation to a time provider. A message including a reference time is received from the time provider. An accuracy of the reference time is evaluated. If the accuracy of the reference time is less than a threshold value the accuracy of the reference time is improved. The reference time is utilized for synchronization.
US09032233B2
An on-board network system is presented. The on-board network system sends a sleep-entered message to a communication bus. The sleep-entered message is sent under a condition that a sleep condition is satisfied on a basis that a network management (NM) message is ceased during state transition process in which node's state transfers from a normal state to a power-saving state. A monitoring ECU corresponding to a master performs an abnormality detection process. In the abnormality detection process, the monitoring ECU detects an abnormality state of the state transition process based on whether or not the sleep-entered message is sent from any one of nodes, thereby it is possible to detect the abnormality state not only during each node is a normal state but also during a bus-sleep state.
US09032231B1
Systems and methods can provide for power saving in broadband communications devices. In some implementations, such systems and methods can generate and/or receive interrupts to ascertain external power unavailability, operate on battery power, instruct functional modules to enter power saving mode, await restoration of external power, and instruct modules to resume normal operations. In other implementations, such systems and methods can detect external power unavailability via polling, operate on battery power, instruct any or all of primary and auxiliary processor(s) to enter power saving mode, monitor when external power has been restored, and instruct functional modules to resume normal operation. Power saving mode can reduce the rate of modem battery drain and thus reduce the likelihood of a service outage and extend service duration.
US09032227B2
A wireless communication apparatus is adapted for communication between a host and a communication device. The wireless communication apparatus includes a host transmission interface adapted to be coupled to the host, a host transmission interface controller coupled to the host transmission interface, a wireless transmission interface adapted for communicating with the communication device so as to receive packet data therefrom, a wireless transmission interface controller coupled to the wireless transmission interface, and a processor coupled between the host transmission interface controller and the wireless transmission interface controller. The processor is operable to control a power state of the host transmission interface controller to enter a power consuming mode selected in accordance with a traffic volume.
US09032219B2
Methods and apparatus for reducing security vulnerabilities in a client/server speech recognition system including one or more client computers and one or more server computers connected via a network. Decryption of sensitive information, such as medical dictation information, is performed on designated servers to limit the attack surface of unencrypted data. Management of encryption and decryption keys to restrict the storage and/or use of decryption keys on the server side of the client/server speech recognition system, while maintaining encrypted data on the server side is also described.
US09032214B2
A system and method for providing an image to an information handling system is disclosed. A method for delivering an image may include booting an information handling system with a provisioning operating system downloaded via a network into a memory of the information handling system. The method may also include calculating, by the second provisioning OS, a fingerprint of an image stored on the information handling system. The method may additionally include determining if the fingerprint matches a previously-calculated fingerprint of the image calculated prior to delivery of the information handling system to its intended destination. The method may further include enabling the information handling system to boot from a storage resource of the information handling system in response to a determination that the fingerprint matches the previously-calculated fingerprint.
US09032210B2
The invention relates to a method for configuring a mobile device capable of reproducing, for a user, multimedia content previously provided by a remote content server. The invention relates to using a client installed on said electronic device to relay authentication requests between a card, preferably complying with the provisions of the Mobile Commerce Extension standard, and an authentication server that is accessible via an access point.
US09032207B2
A method of processing content according to a workflow, where a digital content is processed on one of a plurality of processing devices according to process definition associated to the content, includes the steps, iterated at the processing device, of: a) receiving from a server a signed workflow information, a workflow information comprising a status of the content processing, a signature of the process definition and a hash of the content; b) verifying the workflow information; c) when the workflow information is verified, processing the content according to the process definition and according to status of the content processing; d) updating and signing the workflow information; e) sending to the server the signed workflow information; and the steps iterated at the server of: f) receiving from a processing device a signed workflow information; g) publishing the signed workflow information received from the processing device. A system for performing the method is also provided.
US09032206B2
A rule set for client-applied encryption is created and deployed to a client device by a network device over a communications network. Encryption applied by the client in accordance with the rule set may form the basis of a secure connection in which encrypted information is encapsulated and tunneled across a network that includes a wireless or wired interface through which the client obtains network connectivity. The client may monitor operating conditions, including operating conditions of the communications network, client device, and/or service provider. The rule set includes one or more rules that may be used by the client in combination with the detected operating conditions to select the appropriate encryption protocol. The rule set may persist at the client for use over multiple sessions in which a range of communication protocols and/or access points are used by the client to obtain network connectivity.
US09032202B2
A server receives from a client at least one interest pseudonym produced by a double application of a pseudo random function to at least one interest of the client. The server encrypts an item. The server computes at least one intermediate topic pseudonym for at least one topic associated with the item by applying the function to each of the at least one topic associated with the item. The server transmits the at least one intermediate topic pseudonym, the at least one interest pseudonym, and the encrypted item to a third party. The third party may apply the function to the at least one intermediate topic pseudonym to produce at least one topic pseudonym associated with the item and transmit the encrypted item to the client for decryption when one of the at least one masked topic pseudonym is equal to one of the at least one interest pseudonym of the client.
US09032201B2
The present invention relates to hiding a device identifier (IMEI) in a communication system. Identifying a device is done by indicating an international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) as an instance identifier of the device of a user. Generating a globally routable user agent uniform resource identifier (GRUU) for the user is done by encrypting the instance identifier so that the GRUU comprises an identity of the user and the encrypted instance identifier.
US09032193B2
A lightweight embedded directory server with portable LDAP data is disclosed. The directory server and database comprises a processing chip, an on-chip processing unit, an on-chip memory system, and an on chip input/output system. The memory system stores an embedded operating system and an embedded directory server, and is also used for storing data to be processed by the processing unit. The input/output system is provided for connecting the processor chip to one or more applications for supplying directory services to the one or more applications. A portable memory device stores a directory database, and, in use, this memory device is releasably connected to the on chip input/output system. An on-chip driver is used to perform read and write operations on the portable memory device; and a boot loader software program is used for starting execution of the embedded directory service.
US09032191B2
A hypervisor and one or more guest operating systems resident in a data processing system and hosted by the hypervisor are configured to selectively enable or disable branch prediction logic through separate hypervisor-mode and guest-mode instructions. By doing so, different branch prediction strategies may be employed for different operating systems and user applications hosted thereby to provide finer grained optimization of the branch prediction logic for different operating scenarios.
US09032186B2
Augmented processor hardware contains a microcode interpreter. When encrypted microcode is included in a message from a service, the microcode may be passed to the microcode interpreter. Based on decryption and execution of the microcode taking place at the processor hardware, extended functionality may be realized.
US09032185B2
A command engine for an active memory receives high level tasks from a host and generates corresponding sets of either DCU commands to a DRAM control unit or ACU commands to a processing array control unit. The DCU commands include memory addresses, which are also generated by the command engine, and the ACU command include instruction memory addresses corresponding to an address in an array control unit where processing array instructions are stored.
US09032181B2
Read requests to a commonly accessed storage volume are conditionally issued, depending on whether or not a requested data block is already stored in memory from a prior access or to be stored in memory upon completion of a pending request. A data structure is maintained in memory to track physical memory pages and to indicate for each physical memory page the corresponding location in the storage volume from which the contents of the physical memory were read and the number of virtual memory pages that are mapped thereto.
US09032172B2
In one embodiment, a primary storage system, includes: logic integrated with and/or executable by at least one controller, the logic being adapted to: receive a request to establish a Peer-to-Peer Remote Copy (PPRC) relationship between a primary storage system and a secondary storage system; set a path between the primary storage system and the secondary storage system via a hardwire connection in response to receiving the request; receive a memory map; establish the PPRC relationship between the primary storage system and the secondary storage system in response to receiving the memory map; and copy, based at least in part on the memory map, one or more data tracks of a primary storage device to the secondary storage system without copying at least one other data track of the primary storage device to the secondary storage system.
US09032170B2
Replicated data storage units are autonomously identified and assembled into generationally related data storage volumes. A data storage manager, implementing a re-signaturing process executed at defined intervals or manually initiated on a server or client system connected to the storage area network, scans the collection of visible data storage units to identify those related as a data storage volume. Each replicated data storage unit includes metadata that embeds an identification of the replicated data storage unit and volume accessible to the data storage manager. To assemble a set of replicated data storage units into a generational volume, the data storage unit metadata is rewritten to establish a unique data storage volume identity including information to associate the data storage volume in a lineage with the source data storage volume.
US09032168B2
Memory management methods and systems for mobile devices are provided. A memory usage of a memory is monitored by a built-in memory management component of an OS of the device and a user-oriented memory management component. It is determined whether the memory usage of the memory is greater than a first threshold or a second threshold, wherein the second threshold is greater than the first threshold. When the memory usage of the memory is greater than the first threshold, a multi-level memory management is performed by the user-oriented memory management component. When the memory usage of the memory is greater than the second threshold, a primitive memory management is performed by the built-in memory management component.
US09032167B2
Computer readable media, methods and apparatuses are disclosed that may be configured for sequentially reading data of a file stored on a storage medium. The disclosure also provides for alternating writing, in a sequential order, portions of the file data to a first buffer and a second buffer. The disclosure also provides for writing from a first buffer and a second buffer to a first track until the first track is filled.
US09032159B2
A hardware data prefetcher includes a queue of indexed storage elements into which are queued strides associated with a stream of temporally adjacent load requests. Each stride is a difference between cache line offsets of memory addresses of respective adjacent load requests. Hardware logic calculates a current stride between a current load request and a newest previous load request. The hardware logic compares the current stride and a stride M in the queue and compares the newest of the queued strides with a queued stride M+1, which is older than and adjacent to stride M. When the comparisons match, the hardware logic prefetches a cache line whose offset is the sum of the offset of the current load request and a stride M−1. Stride M−1 is newer than and adjacent to stride M in the queue.
US09032156B2
For each access request received at a shared cache of the data processing device, a memory access pattern (MAP) monitor predicts which of the memory banks, and corresponding row buffers, would be accessed by the access request if the requesting thread were the only thread executing at the data processing device. By recording predicted accesses over time for a number of access requests, the MAP monitor develops a pattern of predicted memory accesses by executing threads. The pattern can be employed to assign resources at the shared cache, thereby managing memory more efficiently.
US09032152B2
Systems and methods are provided that facilitate cache miss detection in an electronic device. The system contains a probabilistic filter coupled to the processing device. A probing component determines existence of an entry associated with a request. The probing component can communicate a miss token without the need to query a cache. Accordingly, power consumption can be reduced and electronic devices can be more efficient.
US09032146B2
Data associated with a workload is stored in a first composite array of data storage devices that meets first data storage requirements of the workload, and is automatically stored in a second composite array in response to detecting second data storage requirements of the workload, wherein the second composite array of data storage devices meets the second data storage requirements. The data may be stored in the second composite array by either converting the first array or migrating the data to another array that more closely meets the current data storage requirements of the workload. Alternatively, the array conversion or the data migration may be performed in response to a predictive failure alert from one of the data storage devices in the first composite array.
US09032141B2
Detection logic of a memory subsystem obtains a threshold for a memory device that indicates a number of accesses within a time window that causes risk of data corruption on a physically adjacent row. The detection logic obtains the threshold from a register that stores configuration information for the memory device, and can be a register on the memory device itself and/or can be an entry of a configuration storage device of a memory module to which the memory device belongs. The detection logic determines whether a number of accesses to a row of the memory device exceeds the threshold. In response to detecting the number of accesses exceeds the threshold, the detection logic can generate a trigger to cause the memory device to perform a refresh targeted to a physically adjacent victim row.
US09032140B2
The disclosure relates to an electronic memory system, and more specifically, to a system for adaptive bit rate programming of a memory device, and a method for adaptive bit rate programming of a memory device. According to an embodiment, a system for adaptive bit rate programming of a memory device including a plurality of memory cells is provided, wherein the memory cells are configured to be electrically programmable by application of a current supplied by a current source, the system including selection devices for selecting memory cells for programming based on availability of current from the current source.
US09032139B2
Memory allocation for fast platform hibernation and resumption of computing systems. An embodiment of an apparatus includes logic at least partially implemented in hardware, the logic to: dynamically allocate at least a first portion of a nonvolatile memory; in response to a command to enter the apparatus into a standby state, the logic to store at least a portion of a context data from a volatile memory to the dynamically allocated first portion of the nonvolatile memory; and in response to a resumption of operation of the apparatus, the logic to copy at least the portion of the context data from the first portion of the nonvolatile memory to the volatile memory, and to reclaim the first portion of the nonvolatile memory for dynamic allocation.
US09032122B2
The present disclosure includes a method for migration of a first virtual function of a first device located on a PCI bus and accessible by a device driver using a virtual address. A second virtual function is created on a second device. A base address is determined for the second virtual function as a function of a logical location of the second device within the PCI structure. An offset is determined for the second virtual function as a function of the base address and the virtual address. The device driver is notified that the first virtual function is on hold. The offset is stored in a translation table. The device driver is notified that the hold has been lifted. Accesses to the virtual address and by the device driver to memory of the second virtual function are routed based upon the offset in the translation table.
US09032118B2
An administration device includes a reception unit, a specifying unit, and a transmission unit. The reception unit receives a transfer request for requesting data transfer to an input-output device from an information processing device. In response to the transfer request, the specifying unit when determining that the communication path to the input-output device is already selected, specifies an information processing device or an input-output processing device, and when determining that the communication path is not selected, selects a communication path to the input-output device according to the first communication state stored in the first storage unit and the second communication state stored in the second storage unit, and specifies an information processing device or an input-output processing device. The transmission unit transmits, to the information processing device, an identifier for identifying the information processing device or the input-output device specified by the specifying unit.
US09032116B2
A device comprises a central processing unit (CPU) and a memory configured for storing memory descriptors. The device also includes an analog-to-digital converter controller (ADC controller) configured for managing an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) using the memory descriptors. In addition, the device includes a direct memory access system (DMA system) configured for autonomously sequencing conversion operations performed by the ADC without CPU intervention by transferring the memory descriptors directly between the memory and the ADC controller for controlling the conversion operations performed by the ADC.
US09032111B2
Provided are a method and apparatus for transmitting event resources in various formats between devices connected with a network, and a storage medium storing the method. The method for transmitting event information includes determining whether a first device connected with the network receives event information from at least one second device connected with the network, and if the event information is received, allowing the first device to output an event resource on the basis of information regarding at least one event resource included in the event information.
US09032104B2
A direct memory access (DMA) engine schedules data transfer requests of a data processing system according to both an assigned transfer priority and the deadline for completing a transfer.
US09032103B2
A method and apparatus for enhancing/extending a serial point-to-point interconnect architecture, such as Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) is herein described. Temporal and locality caching hints and prefetching hints are provided to improve system wide caching and prefetching. Message codes for atomic operations to arbitrate ownership between system devices/resources are included to allow efficient access/ownership of shared data. Loose transaction ordering provided for while maintaining corresponding transaction priority to memory locations to ensure data integrity and efficient memory access. Active power sub-states and setting thereof is included to allow for more efficient power management. And, caching of device local memory in a host address space, as well as caching of system memory in a device local memory address space is provided for to improve bandwidth and latency for memory accesses.
US09032092B1
Disclosed are various embodiments for performing network traffic redirection at the client side. Sending of data to a service at a network address is initiated. Whether the network address is in a predetermined network address range is determined. The network address is translated, when the network address is in the predetermined network address range, to one of multiple other network addresses based at least in part on an availability of the service at the other network address. The data is routed to the other network address.
US09032083B2
A method for efficient use of a connection between a telecommunications network and a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), via an access node, for a location based application includes: establishing a physical communication channel between the access node of the telecommunications network and the CPE; providing a public or private internet Protocol (IP) address to the CPE for use by the CPE to communicate with an IP Edge node of the telecommunications network; storing a location information related to the physical communication channel; initially assigning a first functionality level to the public or private IP address; and assigning a second functionality level to the public or private IP address when the telecommunications network is able to federate network access related identification information to a contract related identification information. The location information is used by the location based application.
US09032082B2
A method and device configured for processing a session description protocol SDP request in a media path optimization process are provided. The method comprises: an application layer gateway (ALG) receiving a SDP request; the ALG determining that media connection information used by the SDP request is different from media connection information in last accessible domain information in node information of the SDP request; and the ALG sequentially adding its forward accessible domain information and its backward accessible domain information to an end of a queue of the node information of the SDP request, and then sending the SDP request. Thus, an optimized media path and normal communication can be ensured.
US09032073B1
Disclosed are various embodiments for network monitoring. A processor circuit having a processor and a memory is employed. A listing of components of a network is stored in the memory, the listing including a plurality of endpoints and a plurality of nodes. One of the endpoints includes the processor circuit. A monitoring application is stored in the memory and executable by the processor. The monitoring application is configured to maintain in the memory an indication of an operational status of each of the nodes derived from a plurality of status requests transmitted between respective pairs of the endpoints.
US09032072B2
Technologies are presented for implementing a compressive-sensing-based data collection system in a cloud environment. In some examples, high-dimensional sensor data may be compressed using sparsity transforms and compressive sampling. The resulting low-dimensional data messages may be steered through a switch network to a cloud service manager, which then reconstructs the compressed messages for subsequent analysis, reporting, and/or comparable actions.
US09032068B2
A method performed in a network element for reacting to communication performance measurements that fall outside of communication performance thresholds. The network element generates a communication performance measurement between a first endpoint and a second endpoint, wherein each endpoint is a point of communication in the network and at least the first endpoint resides on the network element. The network element retrieves a communication performance threshold and determines whether the communication performance measurement falls outside of the communication performance threshold. The network element generates a trigger associated with the communication performance measurement and the communication performance threshold when it is determined that the communication performance measurement falls outside of the communication performance threshold. The network element retrieves a registered handler associated with the generated trigger to indicate that the registered handler requires execution in response to the generated trigger and executes the registered handler.
US09032062B2
The systems and methods described herein are directed to permit roaming of applications across devices consistently and dynamically. Other aspects include roaming of application idiosyncrasies, data or content specific to each application, user preferences specific to each application or content, such as pinning or unpinning, and user history specific to each application in a consistent and complete fashion across diverse devices to provide seamless integration with the native device user interface. Application idiosyncrasies may include different options supported by the applications, groups of tasks or content, dynamically changing user interface, and tasks or content based on application state or user actions. In another aspect, the systems and methods described herein seamlessly integrate roaming with the user interface of the native device, such as a tablet or a smart phone. The systems and methods described herein make “work shift” in distributed and diverse device environment practical and extremely usable.
US09032061B1
A technique performs policy-based intelligent data placement in an electronic environment. The technique involves selecting, from a pool of candidate local area networks (LANs) of the electronic environment, a plurality of LANs within which to store the data based on a set of policy priority levels assigned to the data. The technique further involves generating a set of information elements (e.g., data fragments, erasure codes, etc.) from the data, and placing the set of information elements on storage nodes of the plurality of LANs. Such a method enables the data to be stored in a distributed manner and alleviates the need for a central storage facility. Since the data is distributed among the storage nodes of the plurality of LANs, system capacity and infrastructure is able to grow (i.e., scale) in a manner which does not create a problematic bottleneck.
US09032048B2
In a method for processing top-up data, a server (8) receives data related to a request for issuing an NFC application (9). The data were sent by an NFC mobile device (3) and are intended for a Service Provider (2). At the server (8) transformed data are generated by transforming the data related to the request into a format complying with the Server Provider (2). The transformed data are sent to the Service Provider (2) for further processing and issuing the NFC application (9) to the mobile device (3) particularly utilizing a Trusted Service Manager (1).
US09032038B2
A system and method for ensuring an electronic communication sent by a user to one or more recipients is not sent to one or more inappropriate recipients. The system and method controls, monitors, detects and prevents sending of electronic communications to an unintended recipient or recipients. The system and method also controls, monitors, detects and ensures electronic communications are sent to all intended recipients. Based on parameters that identify conditions for an inappropriate recipient, the system and method compares each recipient of an electronic communication with the parameters and stops the sending if an inappropriate recipient exists. A notification is then provided identifying each inappropriate recipient and the parameters that were triggered. Mechanism to override the stopping of the electronic communication may be provided.
US09032037B2
The present invention discloses a mail sending method and an email system and relates to the field of internet communications. The method includes: receiving a mail sending request which carries a mail template filled out by a sender; encapsulating the mail template into an anonymous mail that includes no receiver mailbox ID and no sender mailbox ID; and obtaining a receiver mailbox ID and delivering the encapsulated anonymous mail to a mailbox corresponding to the obtained receiver mailbox ID. The email system includes: a receiving module, an encapsulating module, and a delivering module. The present invention enables a sender to send an anonymous mail to a stranger whose mailbox address is unknown to the sender and provides a service for users to talk about privacy issues.
US09032034B2
A method for inserting attachments into an electronic message is provided. The method may include searching a keyword database to determine if a content of the electronic message includes a keyword, a key phrase, or a key sentence defined in the keyword database. The method may also include applying a condition to a file database, if the determination is affirmative, so as to search for at least a candidate item. The candidate item may be presented in a menu to the user. The method may further include enabling, in response to the user's confirmation of the candidate item, the confirmed candidate item to be inserted into the electronic message automatically to become an attachment thereto.
US09032031B2
An email processing apparatus determines, from at least one or more of a main body of an email and a subject of an email stored in an email storage unit, a content category of the email; specifies, based on the content category, a search target category of a search target email that relates to the email of the content category; acquires search target information for searching for a search target email of the search target category; and creates a search condition for searching for the search target email containing the search target information in the email storage unit.
US09032030B2
A method of determining an overall presence state for a user of a communication system in which the user is connected to the communication system using a plurality of devices. The method includes each of the plurality of devices storing in a device memory a presence state for that device; detecting a change in the presence state in at least one of the plurality of devices; each of the plurality of devices transmitting a message via the communication system to the remainder of the plurality of devices, the message comprising the presence state; receiving the messages at the remainder of the plurality of devices; and executing a decision-making code sequence in a processor at each of the remainder of the plurality of devices to determine whether to synchronise the presence state of that device with the presence state from one of the messages based on the origin of an event causing the change in presence state at the at least one of the plurality of devices.
US09032024B2
A mobile terminal device coupled to a server via a network includes a processor configured to determine whether an attribute of an application matches a context specified by positional information regarding the mobile terminal device when receiving an execution instruction of the application from the server, inform a user of information indicating that the execution instruction is received when the attribute does not match the context, and execute the application based on a response to the information.
US09032020B2
A method for online enhancement of videos includes rendering, at one or more computers, a first video stream based on a first video; transmitting the first video stream to a client; receiving, at the one or more computers, a first user input from a client, the first user input selecting at least one enhancement operation; rendering, at the one or more computers, a second video stream based on the first video and the at least one enhancement operation; and transmitting the second video stream to the client.
US09032004B2
Method, apparatus, and program means for performing a conversion. In one embodiment, a disclosed apparatus includes a destination storage location corresponding to a first architectural register. A functional unit operates responsive to a control signal, to convert a first packed first format value selected from a set of packed first format values into a plurality of second format values. Each of the first format values has a plurality of sub elements having a first number of bits The second format values have a greater number of bits. The functional unit stores the plurality of second format values into an architectural register.
US09031996B2
In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for creating a plurality of cnames for a website. These mechanisms and methods for creating a plurality of cnames for a website can provide multiple DNS entries for a single website. The ability to provide multiple DNS entries for a single website can enable websites to be accessible from multiple locations.
US09031990B2
Disclosed is a computer readable medium containing a program product provided for the development, receipt, storage, and presentation of the data necessary for delivery of quality assurance test activities. In particular, the program product allows users to create quality assurance testing criteria and procedures; define, document, and approve specific actions and allocate unique categorization codes. The program product includes a module for the creation and storage of predefined text and image elements for the provision of enterprise wide knowledge sharing. The program product applies calculations to consolidate and convert data into statistical reports utilizing a variety of user-defined criteria, including but not limited to component descriptor, quality criteria, time period and manufacturer. The program product also accepts, consolidates and calculates post-production quality resource utilization/costs, segregated periodically and/or consolidated, enabling stakeholders to determine appropriate corrective actions based on ongoing quality assurance testing outcomes.
US09031976B2
A system includes reception of an instruction to access a column of a database table, determination that the column is not associated with the schema of the database table, determination of whether the schema of the database table is flexible or static, returning, if it is determined that the schema of the database table is static, of an error in response to the instruction, and, if it is determined that the schema of the database table is flexible, not returning an error in response to the instruction.
US09031972B2
A method and device for extracting relationship circle of members in SNS network is disclosed. The method includes: (a) selecting target people in the SNS network; (b) analyzing relationship chains of the target people, and extracting a relationship circle of the target people from the relationship chains according to feature filtering conditions. The device includes a target people selection module for selecting the target people in the SNS network; a relationship circle extracting module for analyzing the relationship chains and extracting the relationship circle from the relationship chains according to the feature filtering conditions. Applying the method and device can provide persons who can meet the designated features and their relationship in the SNS network; using the relationship circle of the target people can find out valuable relationship chain information, enable accurate search and transmission of information, and facilitate promotion and cooperation of business activities.
US09031969B2
The present invention is directed to methods and systems of implementing a guaranteed SQL insert operation. In one embodiment, the method may include initiating an SQL insert operation for a database, receiving an SQL exception indicating that a failover for the database has occurred, and in response to the SQL exception, caching the SQL insert operation and caching the SQL insert operation as an SQL merge operation. The method further includes determining that a primary key is associated with the SQL insert operation, and in response to determining that a primary key is associated with the SQL insert operation, executing the SQL merge operation.
US09031965B2
Methods are described for selecting and/or deleting files in a set of files, preferably relating to audio and/or video sequences. The present invention is based on the idea of finding substantially duplicate files, selecting the best one and deleting the others, this process being carried out in an automatic or quasi-automatic manner, i.e. with the user having to answer one or more confirmation requests. A certain number of duplicate files can be subjected to P logic blocks Ck (k being an integer, 1≦k≦P); each logic block makes a selection according to a choice criterion having higher priority than the next block.
US09031959B2
In an embodiment, the method of identifying an application protocol includes classifying a data packet to be detected into an individual traffic flow, searching for keywords in a valid payload of the traffic flow based upon a keyword database of identifiable application protocols, and determining a keyword weight vector of the traffic flow. The weight of a keyword is related to a location of the keyword in a valid payload of a traffic flow. Similarities between the keyword weight vector of the traffic flow and feature keyword weight vectors of the identifiable application protocols are determined; and an application protocol corresponding to a feature keyword weight vector with the highest similarity to the keyword weight vector of the traffic flow as the application protocol of the traffic flow is deteremined if a condition is satisfied.
US09031950B1
A method and apparatus for finding a set of good enough answers from a set of possible answers. The method includes the steps of defining a set of possible answers, grouping individual answers from the set of possible answers with similar answers, determining whether a first of the groupings of individual answers is distinctly different from the next of the groupings of individual answers, and defining the first of the groupings of the individual answers as a set of good enough answers if it is determined to be distinctly different from the next of the groupings.
US09031947B2
A problem analysis system and method, given at least one entity represented in an entity-relation-entity relationship, automatically formulates a query that is automatically submitted via a knowledge search tool to a database of mereological and functional relationships, and responses to this query from the database are automatically provided. The query can be formatted as a natural language query, a Boolean query, a key word query, or a query according to the query syntax of a database management system.
US09031942B2
A system and method for providing at least one search result responsive to receiving a search query includes receiving the search query, locating at least one record containing at least one search query term, and displaying a text representation of each of the records containing at least one search query term. The invention further includes displaying a representation of an object in relation with the text representation for each record that includes an object comprising at least one predetermined attribute. In another embodiment, the invention provides a method for indexing records in an index of an information network, including searching the record for an indication that an object comprising a specified attribute is to be displayed with the record, creating a representation of the object; storing the representation in association with the record to which it corresponds, and making an entry for the record in the index.
US09031939B2
A media player application residing on a location-aware handheld device, in-vehicle navigation system, or in-airplane entertainment system responds to location signals and plays a plurality of location-relevant media assets that are automatically selected and sequenced to create the impression of a cohesive entertainment program. From the user's direction and speed, the application creates a forecast of assumed motion, plans the media program accordingly, and changes the program if the motion changes. The application filters and prioritizes assets of various lengths and with various degrees of geographic specificity, ranging from very specific such as announcements about Points of Interest (POIs) to very broad such as songs about states. POIs are announced with a notation that identifies the distance to the POI and an indication whether it is on the left or right. The audio describing relative location (prefix) is grafted to the audio describing the location (suffix) in a way that creates the impression that the narrator says it as one sentence. The assets reside on a central server and cached locally and are transmitted when needed to the vehicle as required by the user's location.
US09031926B2
A system for indexing unstructured or semi-structured data is disclosed. The system may identify regions within the data, such as “Abstract” or “References”. The system may identify linguistic units such as sentences, noun groups, verb groups. The system may also identify concepts such as companies, people, diseases, amounts, and so forth. The query results may be formatted so that similar results from different documents, or from the same document, are clustered together.
US09031922B2
A fingerprint is computed from selected metadata of binary files, and used in determining whether to regenerate code-behind file(s). In one case, after ascertaining that a binary-file-set's current metadata-fingerprint differs from a previous metadata-fingerprint, the corresponding code-behind-file-set is regenerated. A code-behind file may also be regenerated, even though its current fingerprint matches its previous fingerprint, because its metadata has changed. If the current fingerprint matches the previous fingerprint and metadata is unchanged, regeneration can be avoided. The fingerprint may consist of, or merely contain, definitions of classes, properties, and other items, and may be limited to metadata that is used when generating the code-behind-file-set. System assemblies are not fingerprinted. Timestamps may be used. Metadata-fingerprint computation code and regeneration determination code are described. Metadata-fingerprints may be used in developing applications with web-based application code frameworks, frameworks having code for rendering a user interface, other frameworks, XAML, C#, and other programming languages.
US09031920B2
In one general aspect, a computer system can include instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. The computer system can include an application link manager configured to receive an indicator that a first application is linked to a second application, and an object generator configured to store a copy of data from a database of the first application and represented within a user interface of the first application as a core object in a storage environment in response to the indicator that the first application is linked to the second application. The computer system can also include a database link manager configured to link a database of the second application with the core object stored in the storage environment in response to the copy of the data being stored as the core object in the storage environment.
US09031916B2
A logging system includes an event receiver and a storage manager. The receiver receives log data, processes it, and outputs a data “chunk.” The manager receives data chunks and stores them so that they can be queried. The receiver includes buffers that store events and a metadata structure that stores metadata about the contents of the buffers. The metadata includes a unique identifier associated with the receiver, the number of events in the buffers, and, for each “field of interest,” a minimum value and a maximum value that reflect the range of values of that field over all of the events in the buffers. A chunk includes the metadata structure and a compressed version of the contents of the buffers. The metadata structure acts as a search index when querying event data. The logging system can be used in conjunction with a security information/event management (SIEM) system.
US09031915B2
A contact management data processing system can be provided. The system can include a contact manager coupled to a list of contacts and stored staleness criteria stored in connection with the list of contacts. The system also can include stale contact management logic. The logic can include program code enabled to apply the stored staleness criteria to a selected contact to identify a stale contact, and to manage the stale contact in the list of contacts. In aspects of the embodiment, the list of contacts can be stored in a personal computer, in a server remotely disposed from the contact manager, in a telephone such as a cellular telephone or voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephone, or in a personal digital assistant to name but a few.
US09031914B2
The present invention addresses the deficiencies of the related art by providing a tier-based data storage solution. Specifically, the present invention evaluates the data contained in database tables by analyzing several metrics for the data, and creating a valuation score. The valuation score is used to determine the storage tier that would meet the performance and availability requirements of the database with the goal of reducing the costs associated with storing that data. The metrics that are used to evaluate database tables include (among others): table purpose, data retention, disk requirements, data criticality, data relevance, and desired performance. As such, the present invention will develop a data (lifecycle) storage plan for each set of data. This storage plan not only identifies an initial storage tier where the data should be stored, but also identifies, if, when and to where the data should be moved thereafter.
US09031912B1
Embodiments provide a solution for controlling file migration in archiving systems. A networked device can be configured to, during an archiving process, exclude or otherwise prevent files from migrating to tape or another archiving appliance connected to the networked device which, in one embodiment, implements an archive node appliance. The archive node appliance may be configured to start an archiving process to store a file. The archiving process may cause the file to be stored in a share or directory on the archive node appliance. The archive node appliance may check a file exclusion policy associated with the share or directory to determine whether the file is to be excluded from migration. The archive node appliance may stop the archiving process if it determines that the file exclusion policy contains a pattern that matches the file name. One example of such a pattern can be a user-defined glob.
US09031902B2
A computer-implemented method, computer program product and a system for identifying and handling slowly changing dimension (SCD) attributes for use with an Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) process, comprising importing a data model for dimensional data into a data integration system, where the dimensional data comprises a plurality of attributes, identifying via a data discovery analyzer one or more attributes in the data model as SCD attributes, importing the identified SCD attributes into the data integration system, selecting a data source comprising dimensional data, automatically generating an ETL job for the dimensional data utilizing the imported SCD attributes, and executing the automatically generated ETL to extract the dimensional data from the data source and loading the dimensional data into the imported SCD attributes in a target data system.
US09031895B2
Processing metadata includes storing, in a data storage system, a specification for each of multiple sources, each specification including information identifying one or more data elements of the corresponding source; and processing, in a data processing system coupled to the data storage system, data elements from the sources, including generating a set of rules for each source based on a corresponding one of the stored specifications, and matching data elements of different sources and determining a quality metric characterizing a given match between a first data element of a first source and a second data element of a second source according to the set of rules generated for the first source and the set of rules generated for the second source.
US09031890B2
A computer system uses an inverse function method to solve Boolean Satisfiability problems. The system benefits from the system disclosed in the US patent “Knowledge Acquisition and Retrieval Apparatus and Method” (U.S. Pat. No. 6,611,841). The system applies a learning function to access iterative set relations among variables, literals, words and clauses as knowledge; and applies deduction and reduction functions to retrieve relations as reasoning. The system uses knowledge learning (KL) and knowledge reasoning algorithms (KRA). The system abandons the “OR” operation of Boolean logic and processes only set relations on data. The system leverages the reversibility of deduction and reduction to determine whether 3-SAT formulas are satisfiable.
US09031888B2
A method, system and computer program product are disclosed for predicting influence in a social network. In one embodiment, the method comprises identifying a set of users of the social network, and identifying a subset of the users as influential users based on defined criteria. A multitude of measures are identified as predictors of which ones of the set of users are the influential users. These measures are aggregated, and a composite predictor model is formed based on this aggregation. This composite predictor model is used to predict which ones of the set of users will have a specified influence in the social network in the future. In one embodiment, the specified influence is based on messages sent from the users, and for example, may be based on the number of the messages sent from each user that are re-sent by other users.
US09031887B2
Provided are a method, computer program product, and system for generating a recommendation for transfer of ownership of content. At least one characteristic of a first owner is determined. At least one characteristic of the content is determined. A second owner for the content is determined based on the at least one characteristic of the first owner, and the at least one content characteristic. The recommendation for transfer of ownership is generated, based at least in part on the determination of the second owner.
US09031871B2
The present invention is directed to inventory governance in a virtual universe. A method of inventory governance in a virtual universe (VU) includes: providing an inventory for a virtual universe (VU) resident; and providing means for governing at least one aspect of the inventory, the governing means comprising at least one of: an administrative interface for establishing an authorizing relationship between the VU resident and an authorizing entity; a filtering interface for administering at least one filter to the inventory; or a monitoring interface for providing capability to monitor at least one of: the VU resident or the inventory.
US09031867B1
A computer implemented method and system for ordering food that creates a cloud-based central account. The method uses computer instructions to create and store a user account and restaurant accounts in the central account. A dynamic library of restaurant information is connected to the user account, the restaurant account and the central account. A menu ordering software application is accessed by a client device processor. Computer instructions create an order and a code indicating the order price and menu items, prompt the restaurant to create the menu items in the order, and tell the client device processor when the order is ready for pick up.
US09031859B2
A computer receives information that a request is made to authorize a transaction for a sale of a product by a merchant to an account holder in a transaction conducted on a consumer account issued to the account holder. When the computer confirms that the transaction is authorized and that the transaction occurs within a predetermined time period for which there is a rebate associated with the product and a corresponding sponsor financially responsible for the rebate, the computer communicates that the rebate is to be debited to an account of the sponsor and either: (i) given as a discount by the merchant at the point of sale to the account holder; or (ii) credited to an account issued to the account holder by the issuer.
US09031858B2
A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for generating customized marketing messages to increase purchases by a customer. In one embodiment, an item selected by the customer is identified to form a selected item. Biometric readings for the customer are received from a set of biometric devices associated with a retail facility to form the biometric data. The biometric data is data regarding a set of physiological responses of the customer. A set of items is selected from a list of items associated with the selected item using the biometric data for the customer to form a set of promoted items. A customized marketing message for the customer is generated using a set of personalized marketing message criteria for the customer. The customized marketing message comprises a marketing message for the set of promoted items.
US09031855B2
A teleconference support system, establishing a teleconference among conference rooms, includes teleconference apparatuses, and a connection server including a conference venue information storage, a conference start judgment unit, and a teleconference apparatus connection unit. Each teleconference apparatus, disposed in each conference room, is provided with an image taking unit, a sound taking unit, a display unit, and an audio output unit. The connection server connects the teleconference apparatuses to transmit and receive information among the conference rooms. Each teleconference apparatus includes a person identification information acquisition unit to obtain person identification information identifying individual. The conference venue information storage stores conference information including person identification information of expected teleconference participant. The conference start judgment unit determines whether each teleconference satisfies a conference start condition using the person identification information. The teleconference apparatus connection unit connects teleconference apparatuses when the teleconference is determined to satisfy the conference start condition.
US09031854B2
The controller causes a display to display body marks representing the body parts of a subject to be imaged. Furthermore, the controller causes the display to display subjective symptom marks corresponding to the subjective symptoms of a subject to be examined in a location within a body mark that has been designated by an examiner. The examiner conducts ultrasonic imaging by applying an ultrasonic probe to a subject to be examined while checking the location of the subjective symptom marks. The controller links a tomographic image obtained from the imaging to the subjective symptoms and causes a storage to store the same. In the medical examination, the controller causes the display to display the tomographic image and further causes the display to display the subjective symptom marks representing the subjective symptoms linked to the tomographic image.
US09031847B2
A computing device (e.g., a smart phone, a tablet computer, digital camera, or other device with image capture functionality) causes an image capture device to capture one or more digital images based on audio input (e.g., a voice command) received by the computing device. For example, a user's voice (e.g., a word or phrase) is converted to audio input data by the computing device, which then compares (e.g., using an audio matching algorithm) the audio input data to an expected voice command associated with an image capture application. In another aspect, a computing device activates an image capture application and captures one or more digital images based on a received voice command. In another aspect, a computing device transitions from a low-power state to an active state, activates an image capture application, and causes a camera device to capture digital images based on a received voice command.
US09031842B2
Methods and electronic devices for facilitating communications are described. In one aspect, a method for facilitating communications is described. The method includes: monitoring audio based communications; performing an audio analysis on the monitored audio based communications to identify a contact associated with the monitored communications; and providing information associated with the identified contact on an electronic device. In another aspect, an electronic device is described. The electronic device includes a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. The memory stores processor readable instructions for causing the processor to: monitor audio based communications; perform an audio analysis on the monitored audio based communications to identify a contact associated with the monitored communications; and provide information associated with the identified contact on an electronic device.
US09031837B2
In prediction of a speech quality evaluation score such as a phone speech, even when a background noise exists, a subjective opinion score is predicted with high precision. A speech quality evaluation system that outputs a predicted value of the subjective opinion score for an evaluation speech such as a far-end speech of a phone, includes a speech distortion calculation unit that conducts, after calculating frequency characteristics of the evaluation speech, a process of subtracting given frequency characteristics from frequency characteristics of the evaluation speech, and calculates the speech distortion on the basis of the frequency characteristics after the subtracting process has been conducted, and a subjective evaluation prediction unit that calculates the predicted value of the subjective opinion score on the basis of the speech distortion.
US09031828B2
Various embodiments described herein facilitate multi-lingual communications. The systems and methods of some embodiments may enable multi-lingual communications through different modes of communications including, for example, Internet-based chat, e-mail, text-based mobile phone communications, postings to online forums, postings to online social media services, and the like. Certain embodiments may implement communications systems and methods that translate text between two or more languages (e.g., spoken), while handling/accommodating for one or more of the following in the text: specialized/domain-related jargon, abbreviations, acronyms, proper nouns, common nouns, diminutives, colloquial words or phrases, and profane words or phrases.
US09031824B2
A system for intelligent monitoring and management of an electrical system is disclosed. The system includes a data acquisition component, a power analytics server and a client terminal. The data acquisition component acquires real-time data output from the electrical system. The power analytics server is comprised of a real-time energy pricing engine, virtual system modeling engine, an analytics engine, a machine learning engine and a schematic user interface creator engine. The real-time energy pricing engine generates real-time utility power pricing data. The virtual system modeling engine generates predicted data output for the electrical system. The analytics engine monitors real-time data output and predicted data output of the electrical system. The machine learning engine stores acid processes patterns observed from the real-time data output and the predicted data output to forecast an aspect of the electrical system.
US09031820B2
A method of modelling a hydrocarbon-containing reservoir which is representative of such reservoir in at least one physical characteristic such as reservoir porosity or permeability. Data, such as reservoir porosity is firstly determined. Such data is then transformed into printing instructions for a 3D printer. The 3D printer is used to print a reduced-scale model which is representative of the reservoir in respect of the at least one physical characteristic, such as reservoir porosity. A method of comparative testing of different hydrocarbon recovery techniques on a single hydrocarbon-containing reservoir is also disclosed and claimed.
US09031817B2
In designing supersonic aircrafts, a method of designing a natural laminar flow wing is provided which reduces friction drag by delaying boundary layer transition under flight conditions of actual aircrafts. A target Cp distribution on wing upper surface, suited to natural laminarization in which boundary layer transition is delayed rearward in desired Reynolds number states, is defined by a functional type having as coefficients parameters depending on each spanwise station, a sensitivity analysis employing a transition analysis method is applied to the parameters, and a search is performed for the optimum combination of parameters to delay transition rearward.
US09031811B2
A pulse-echo ranging system and method wherein transmit burst pulses are transmitted to a target at a first repetition frequency, an intermediate frequency signal is generated by sampling the received echo pulses from the target at a second repetition frequency slightly lower than the first repetition frequency, and the intermediate frequency signal is evaluated to determine the target distance. In order to compensate for phase error and thermal drift which may occur when the transmit and sampling instants are generated, the transmit burst pulses are periodically and alternately transmitted at the first and second repetition frequencies while the received echo pulses are simultaneously sampled at the second and first repetition frequencies, and the target distance is determined as half of the distance between echoes appearing in the intermediate frequency signal and resulting from the different clocks.
US09031808B2
This invention provides a system of testing multiple RF modules. The system includes a RF signal analyzer, a RF switch, a control module, and a plurality of testing modules. The RF switch is electrically coupled to the RF signal analyzer, and operational bands of the RF switch includes operational bands of the RF modules for transmitting and receiving RF signals. The controller module controls the RF signal analyzer and the RF switch. The testing modules are electrically coupled to the controller module and controlled by the controller module. Each testing module has a memorizing unit for storing testing results for the RF modules transmitting and receiving the RF signals. The RF switch and the testing modules are used to electrically couple each RF module.
US09031806B2
The present disclosure describes apparatuses, methods and systems for determining the speed at which an elevator or hoist overspeed device is activated, and for calibrating and certifying overspeed devices. A testing apparatus may comprise a test pinion which engages with the brake pinion of an overspeed; a test shaft coupled to the test pinion; a motor for rotating the test shaft; a controller for operating the motor; and a mounting bracket for holding the overspeed device in place. A recording apparatus may comprise a detector configured to detect when the rotation of the test pinion has caused the centrifugal weight of the overspeed to be displaced, and to determine the speed of the motor at that time; a memory for storing information relating to the motor; and a processor configured to perform calculations relating to the operation and speed of the motor.
US09031803B2
A waveform display method is disclosed. The method includes determining the narrowest pulse in a waveform for display and determining an available pixel width for displaying the narrowest pulse in a first display portion if the entire waveform is to be displayed in the first display portion. The pixel width is measure in terms of a number of pixels. The method further includes displaying the entire waveform or a portion thereof in the first display portion depending on the available pixel width. A signal measurement system that implements the method is also disclosed.
US09031801B2
A portable device driven by a secondary battery which is chargeable and dischargeable, the portable device including a full charge detecting unit configured to detect full charge of the secondary battery in receipt of a report of the full charge and acquires capacity data indicative of a capacity of the secondary battery, a memory controlling unit configured to store the capacity data acquired by the full charge detecting unit in a memory unit, and a display control unit configured to cause a display unit of the portable device to display the capacity data stored by the memory controlling unit in chronological order.
US09031795B1
An electromagnetic testing assembly to predict a usable life of an installed vacuum interrupter in the field, which can include an electromagnetic testing device connected to a flexible magnetic field coil to generate a potential in a vacuum interrupter in an installation, magnetically monitor ion flow across one or more gaps in the vacuum interrupter, and apply trend data, tube chart information, and an algorithm to predict the usable life.
US09031794B2
There is provided an analysis apparatus in which congestion does not occur and whose analysis efficiency is high as a whole even when the apparatus is an automatic analyzing apparatus to which a plurality of functional modules having different functions and process performances from each other are connected. Also, there is provided an automatic analysis system in which, even when a new functional module is added, it is not required to consider influence on the existing functional modules and restructure a carrying plan or others for improving process performances as a whole. Buffer units paired with the respective functional modules are connected to a specimen carrying line, and an operating-section computer issues an instruction for carrying to the respective functional modules in accordance with requests for specimens, so that carrying-in/out operations are performed as managing respective carrying-possible states among the buffer units and functional modules.
US09031781B2
A method of operation of a navigation system includes: generating a system message along a route determining a priority value for the system message; sorting the system message based on the priority value and a message play time for the system message; calculating an available play time for the system message; and selecting the system message having the message play time not exceeding the available play time.
US09031779B2
A system and method for a navigation system including a hazard avoidance feature is disclosed. The system and method allows for professionals, civilians, vehicles, robots and computer systems to collaborate and share information regarding hazards, defects, obstacles, flaws, and other abnormalities that exist in any environment. Routes may be planned that avoid these hazards reducing lost time or frustration. Moreover, the system and method is configured for participants to detect, catalog, and share information related to obstacles.
US09031768B2
A method for functional diagnosis of a separator for separating oil present in a blow-by has from a crankcase in a combustion engine is provided. The crankcase includes a crankcase pressure sensor, and is in fluid communication with the separator. The method includes the steps of detecting a first output signal of the crankcase pressure sensor at a first operational point or interval, and comparing the first output signal of the crankcase pressure sensor with at least one reference value or signal, wherein the comparison between said first output signal of the crankcase pressure sensor and the at least one reference value or signal provides the functional diagnosis of the separator. A method can perform a functional diagnosis without the use of additional sensors or complex algorithms and as a consequence manufacturing costs can be held at a minimum.
US09031764B2
Various methods are described for controlling engine operation for an engine having a turbocharger and direction injection. One example method includes performing at least a first and second injection during a cylinder cycle, the first injection generating a lean combustion and the second injection injected after combustion such that it exits the cylinder unburned into the exhaust upstream of a turbine of the turbocharger; and adjusting at least the first injection based on engine speed, where the at least first and second injection are performed responsive to turbocharger speed.
US09031759B2
To improve vehicle stability by starting control based on quicker detection of the possibility that a vehicle state will reach an unstable region. It is detected that a vehicle is in a pre-skid state that is the state prior to when the vehicle reaches an unstable region where skid occurs, and brake force is generated in a rear wheel at an outside of a turn when the pre-skid state is detected. As a result of generating this brake force, load applied to the wheels at the outside of the turn increases and lateral force of the vehicle increases. Thus, it is possible to make it more difficult for skid of the vehicle to occur, and so it is possible to inhibit, in advance, gentle deterioration in vehicle behavior such as slow spin. Accordingly, the possibility that a vehicle state has reached an unstable region can be detected earlier.
US09031755B2
A PCS ECU 20 in a PCS system 10 calculates TTC which is a brake operation timing of a host vehicle, on the basis of the relative velocity Vr between the host vehicle and an object, a predetermined deceleration amount ΔV caused by a brake operation of the host vehicle, and a deceleration a caused by the brake operation of the host vehicle. Thereby, the deceleration amount ΔV caused by the brake operation of the host vehicle is to be a set constant amount regardless of the relative velocity Vr between the host vehicle and the object. Accordingly, it is possible to ensure the deceleration amount ΔV caused by a more appropriate brake operation.
US09031748B2
A shutter opening/closing control device is proposed which can reduce an operation noise of the shutter without increasing the manufacturing cost. The shutter opening/closing control device includes a grille shutter for opening and closing a grille opening which introduces the outside air into the engine compartment, a shutter opening and closing operating portion having a drive source for operating the shutter to be open or to be closed, a closing operation judging portion for judging whether or not the grille shutter is operated in a closing direction based on the vehicle information and a drive source torque controlling portion for controlling the drive source of the shutter opening and closing operating portion to operate the shutter by a low torque when the grille shutter is operated in a closing direction under the engine being stopped. The low torque is lower than a high torque by which the drive source operates the grille shutter in an opening direction.
US09031742B2
A vehicle multimedia system includes a display that displays a hierarchically structured menu. The hierarchically structured menu may have a main menu, a plurality of submenus, and menu items. The multimedia system provides a memory for storing information identifying a menu or menu item, and a memory control unit for writing information related to a menu item upon a user's selection of the menu by an operating element or by automatic return to a main menu, and displaying the information as selectable menu items identified by the information.
US09031739B2
A method for accurately determining internal failures, such as separations, of a tire without affecting tire behaviors. Radial acceleration signals of a tire during vehicular travel are detected by an acceleration sensor (11) attached to the inner surface of the tire at the axial center of the tread. A frequency analysis is performed on the radial acceleration signals to obtain a frequency spectrum. A band value Xab is calculated of a specific frequency band [fa, fb] within the range of 100 Hz-400 Hz, which includes the frequency of the second lowest peak of the peaks appearing in the frequency spectrum. Then a check is made to see whether or not the difference between this band value Xab and a predetermined band value Yab of a normal tire exceeds a threshold value K. And when Yab−Xab>K, it is determined that an internal failure, such as a separation, is present in the tire.
US09031737B2
A power balancing system includes a vehicle communication device connected to a data link connector of a vehicle, and a scan tool connected to the vehicle communication device, the scan tool including a handset and a vehicle connector interface (VCI), wherein power can be received from one or more of an external power source being external from the VCI, the vehicle, and an internal power supply of the scan tool, and wherein the system balances the received power.
US09031719B2
Local wind fields can be predicted if both the airspeed and the ground speed of the helicopter are known. An aircraft that uses an inertial navigation unit, autopilot and estimator allows a measure of ground speed to be known with good certainty. The embodiments herein extends this system to allow an estimate of the local wind field to be found without actively using an airspeed sensor, but instead combining the measurements of an accelerometer and a drag force model and a model of controlled aerodynamics of the aircraft to estimate the airspeed, which again can be used to estimate the local wind speed.
US09031716B2
A system and method for handling information for use on a flight deck network on an aircraft. Information is received from a number of information sources. The number of information sources is not part of the flight deck network. The flight deck network is a certified network. It is determined whether the information is approved to be used on the flight deck network. A manner in which the information is allowed to be used on the flight deck network is also determined. Responsive to a determination that the information is approved to be used on the flight deck network, the information is sent to the flight deck network during operation of the aircraft.
US09031714B1
A control system for integrated human-trained animal-robot interaction comprising: an operator control unit linked to receive trained animal detection information representative of locations of detected IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices), the operator control unit further linked to one or more unmanned robotic vehicles for providing control information to a selected robotic vehicle, the control information including an optimal path leading the selected robotic vehicle to a detected IED in order for the selected robotic vehicle to neutralize the detected IED.
US09031706B2
An air conditioner and control method thereof is provided which may be controlled to adapt operation to changes in power rates. The method may include receiving electric power related information, determining whether a current power rate included in the received information is higher than a preset reference value, determining occupancy of a space to be air conditioned if the current power rate is higher than the preset reference value, and controlling a flow rate of air supplied to the space based on the determined occupancy.
US09031701B2
An integrated system for determining a hemostasis and oxygen transport parameter of a blood sample, such as blood, is disclosed. The system includes a measurement system, such as an ultrasonic sensor, configured to determine data characterizing the blood sample. For example, the data could be displacement of the blood sample in response to ultrasonic pulses. An integrated aspect of the system may be a common sensor, sample portion or data for fast and efficient determination of both parameters. The parameters can also be used to correct or improve measured parameters. For example, physiological adjustments may be applied to the hemostatic parameters using a HCT measurement. Also, physical adjustments may be applied, such as through calibration using a speed or attenuation of the sound pulse through or by the blood sample. These parameters may be displayed on a GUI to guide treatment.
US09031700B2
A high productivity combinatorial system can be configured with sensors to automatically sense an identification tag of an installed reactor assembly, which comprises corresponding sensing elements. Configuration and usage data of the install reactor assembly can be retrieved from the identification tag, allowing the combinatorial system to properly access the reactor regions in the reactor assembly.
US09031697B2
The present teachings provide a method of controlling a remote vehicle having an end effector and an image sensing device. The method includes obtaining an image of an object with the image sensing device, determining a ray from a focal point of the image to the object based on the obtained image, positioning the end effector of the remote vehicle to align with the determined ray, and moving the end effector along the determined ray to approach the object.
US09031696B2
In this robot system, a control portion is configured to control a robot to grasp an object to be grasped by a grasping portion, and control a first imaging portion to examine the object to be grasped while driving a robot arm to change a posture of the object to be grasped multiple times.
US09031692B2
The present disclosure discloses a cloud robot system, including: a cloud computing platform and at least one robot; wherein the cloud computing platform is used for receiving perform information sent by the at least one robot in the system; the perform information includes data, status and requests of the at least one robot; the cloud computing platform is used for processing the data and status, sending process results back to the at least one robot, and sending control instructions to corresponding robot according to the requests; the at least one robot is used for sending the perform information to the cloud computing platform, receiving process results from the cloud computing platform, and performing according to the control instructions sent from the cloud computing platform. By using the present disclosure, computing ability and storage capacity of the robots can be expanded unlimited, while the thinking ability and memory of the robots are improved. Besides, the ability of the brains of the robots can be allocated according to demand, thus lowering the cost of the robots.
US09031691B2
The disclosure provides an approach for determining simplified models of humanoid robots. A simplification application linearizes a robot model around a nominal state and performs a singular value decomposition of an inertial term of the model, selecting singular values and corresponding singular vectors to be kept in an inertial term of a simplified model by matching a kinetic energy of the original model to a kinetic energy of the simplified model. Further, a gravitational forces term and a velocity-dependent forces term may be determined by computing active joint torques at sample poses around the nominal pose and solving for the gravitational forces term and the velocity-dependent forces term. A mapping from the simplified model to the original model may be determined using, e.g., numerical optimization.
US09031688B2
A nesting data generation device generates nesting data for cutting off a part from a work supported by plural support projections. The nesting data generation device includes a nesting data generating unit that generates the nesting data by arranging a geometry of the part on the work. The nesting data generating unit performs, upon arranging the geometry of the part on the work, an avoidance process for avoiding an impediment due to the support projections. According to the nesting data generation device, the part can be prevented from welding on the support projections and the support projections can be prevented from welding upon arranging the geometry on the work by considering positions of the support projections, so that a drop-off and an inclination of the cut part can be prevented.
US09031682B2
An eyeglass lens supplying system for supplying an eyeglass lens to a plurality of eyeglass lens processing apparatus includes: a plurality of conveyer line units, each of which includes: at least one conveyer line conveying a tray; a tray moving unit separating at least two trays from the conveyer line to move the trays to standby positions, and put the tray on the conveyer line; and a control unit obtaining processing information from a host computer; a carrying-in conveyer line connected to the conveyer line of the conveyer line unit; a carrying-out conveyer line connected to the conveyer line of the conveyer line unit; a main control unit communicating with each of the control units, and determines the processing apparatus to process the lens in the tray on the carrying-in conveyer unit, or determines the conveyer line unit to convey the tray on the carrying-in conveyer unit.
US09031676B2
An operation control apparatus includes a command generation portion that generates a command signal for commanding operation of a control surface, and first and second monitoring portions that monitor an abnormality of operation of first and second control portions, respectively, of the actuator control apparatus. The actuator control apparatus includes first and second control portions that generate a control signal for an actuator for driving the control surface and that are different in design, and a switching unit that switches the connection to the actuator from one of the first and second control portions to the other, when an abnormality is detected by the first and second monitoring portions. Accordingly, it is possible to monitor a generic failure, and realize redundancy enabling control of the overall operation of the actuator, from start to finish, when a generic failure has occurred, thus realizing further simplification and streamlining of the configuration.
US09031671B2
A medical implantable lead comprising a core formed of a bare conductive wire formed from a biocompatible, corrosion-resistant conductive material, loosely wrapped in a fibrous material formed of shaped flattened ribbon filaments of a valve metal, and surrounded by a biocompatible insulation material.
US09031667B2
A method and device for inducing anaesthesia in mammals by the application of RF energy to create hyperthermia derived neural anaesthesia. An RF generator drives a plurality of electrodes placed in tissue surrounding the target nerve fiber to desiccate the desired length of nerve fiber to be desiccated in a single deployment. The device allows high-speed selection/de-selection of bipolar electrode pairs or sets under continuous RF excitation. Activation of electrode pairs is adapted in response to sensed current density and temperature (by electrodes not in the current discharge activation phase) in order to create lesions of complex and well defined shape necessary for the production of hyperthermia derived neural anaesthesia.
US09031666B2
The present disclosure involves a charging system for charging an implanted medical system. The charging device includes a replenishable power supply. The charging device includes a coil assembly electrically coupled to the power supply. The coil assembly includes a primary coil and a plurality of sense coils positioned proximate to the primary coil. The charging device includes electrical circuitry operable to: measure an electrical parameter of the coil assembly; and determine a position of the coil assembly relative to a position of the implanted medical device based on the measured electrical parameter. The charging device includes a visual communications interface operable to: receive an input from the electrical circuitry; and visually display on a screen the position of the coil assembly relative to the position of the implanted medical device based on the input received from the electrical circuitry.
US09031661B2
An apparatus and method for determining stimulation channels for a stimulating device is provided. This method and apparatus may involve computing a set of weights for the plurality of stimulation channels of the stimulating hearing prosthesis. These weights may be determined by determining a transimpedance matrix for the stimulating hearing prosthesis where a diagonal of the transimpedance matrix is determined by extrapolation. A transadmittance matrix may then be computed for this transimpedance matrix. An error may then be computed base on positive off-diagonal terms of the transadmittance matrix. The apparatus and method may determine the weights for the stimulation channels by determining an adjustment to the diagonal of the transimpedance matrix that results in a computed error that does not exceed a specified criterion level.
US09031659B2
A device useful in treating decreased laryngeal elevation and for muscle re-education and rehabilitation is provided. The device is suitable for transmitting an electrical stimulus and can comprise a series of electrically conductive fibers oriented at an angle such that the fibers are parallel to muscle fibers of the laryngeal elevated musculature in the submandibular region of a patient.
US09031646B2
A method discriminates between ventricular arrhythmia and supraventricular arrhythmia by determining the direction of an electrical signal conducted through the atrioventricular node. An implantable cardiac defibrillator provides atrioventricular and ventriculoatrial pacing bursts to determine if an arrhythmia with a 1:1 atrial to ventricular relationship is due to ventricular tachycardia or supraventricular tachycardia. This discrimination capability reduces the incidence of inappropriate shocks from dual-chamber implantable cardiac defibrillators to near zero and provides a method to differentially diagnose supraventricular tachycardia from ventricular tachycardia.
US09031644B2
A heart monitor is disclosed. The monitor computes ST segment deviations and stores the results in heart rate based histograms. Periodically, the monitor analyzes the histogram data to determine heart rate dependent acute ischemia detection thresholds. If the statistical distribution associated with a heart rate range is insufficient, the threshold for that heart rate range is set as a function of the threshold for a neighboring heart rate range. Thresholds are also increased for heart rate ranges associated with statistical distributions that are sufficient but that have a relatively small number of entries.
US09031641B2
A medical device system and associated method to control a laser Doppler unit to emit light from a coherent laser light source and collect a photodetector signal produced by the laser Doppler unit by a signal processor comprising a bandpass filter. The bandpass filter is applied to the photodetector signal to determine a tissue perfusion measurement from the filtered signal. A monitoring unit is enabled to receive the tissue perfusion measurement to detect a physiological condition of the patient in response to the tissue perfusion measurement.
US09031640B2
[Subject] To provide laser Doppler blood flow measuring method and device which achieve multi-dimensional measurement efficiently at a high degree of accuracy over a wide range with a simple optical system and device.[Solving Means] Laser light from a semiconductor laser 12 is split and formed into sheet lights Ls using a cylindrical lens 22, and the sheet lights Ls are crossed with each other at a predetermined position. A lens system 30 configured to form an image of scattered lights into a linear shape at a linear irradiation site Lx where the sheet lights Ls cross with each other is provided. An optical fiber array 32 having a plurality of optical fibers 34 is provided at an image-forming position of the lens system 30. Avalanche photodiodes 42 configured to convert the scattered lights which are shifted in frequency by the Doppler effect caused by the blood flow into electric signals for the each optical fiber 34 are provided. The blood flow velocity in a tissue of a biological body at the linear irradiation site Lx is calculated from the scattered lights transformed from the laser light by being shifted in frequency by the Doppler effect and is scanned for the each optical fiber 34, whereby the blood flow velocity in the blood vessel in a predetermined area in the biological body is calculated.
US09031639B2
Chemical liquid injector 100 includes two piston driving mechanisms 130 each moving a piston of a syringe forward, main injection condition determining section 171 determining injection conditions for a chemical liquid in main injection, test injection condition determining section 172 determining injection conditions for the chemical liquid in test injection performed prior to the main injection to inject a smaller injection amount of the chemical liquid than that in the main injection, and control section 161 creating an injection protocol in accordance with the injection conditions determined by test injection condition determining section 171 and main injection condition determining section 172 such that the chemical liquid is injected in a series of operations in which the test injection is performed, then a preset injection suspension time is present, and subsequently the main injection is performed, and further controlling operation of piston driving mechanisms 130 in accordance with the injection protocol.
US09031638B2
According to various embodiments, a tracheal tube may employ sensing techniques for determining a distance between the inserted tube and an anatomical structure such as a carina. The distance information may provide an indication as to whether or not the tracheal tube is properly placed within the trachea. Because a tracheal tube may rotate within the trachea, the sensing information may be gathered from multiple locations on the tracheal tube for a rotation-independent measurement technique.
US09031633B2
In Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) the reconstruction requires the knowledge of a so called system function. This function describes the relation between spatial position and frequency response and is currently measured once for a scanner set-up and a tracer material. For reasonable resolutions and fields of view the system function becomes quite large, resulting in large acquisition times to obtain reasonable signal-to-noise. However, the system function has a number of properties which can be used to improve signal-to-noise. According to the present invention use is made of the spatial symmetry and/or identical responses at different frequencies for this purpose.
US09031627B2
According to embodiments, techniques for signal processing using multiple signals are disclosed. A first scalogram may be generated from a first signal and a second scalogram may be generated from a second signal. A modified or masked scalogram may then be generated based on the first and second scalograms. The modified scalogram may then be used to determine at least one physiological parameter. In some embodiments, one or both of the first signal and the second signal may be photoplethysmograph (PPG) signals obtained from a pulse oximeter.
US09031623B2
The present invention relates to a protective case for cellular phones. By letting the cellular phone be closely fixed by a cellular phone supporting fixture elastically fixed with springs and plate springs attached to a protection cover when holding the cellular phone, in order to be capable of accommodating and fixing a wide range of cellular phones which slightly differ in size, thickness, model and etc. between cellular phone supporting fixture and plate spring, and by pulling out a moving board where the cellular phone is kept upward a fixed board when taking photographs with the cellular phone, users are able to take photographs in the condition in which a camera lens of the cellular phone is exposed outside the cellular phone case. Diverse types and functions of wallet receptacles can be combined on the face outside the main body of the cellular phone case.
US09031619B2
A method includes, during operation of a mobile handset when a voice call is in progress with a remote party, detecting an occurrence of a start of a discontinuous transmission period that results from a cessation of speech by the remote party; and activating a visual indicator of the mobile handset to assume a first state that indicates that a speech signal is not being received from the remote party.
US09031608B2
A method includes determining that an antenna shared between a Bluetooth transceiver and a WLAN transceiver is available to the WLAN transceiver based on an activity signal associated with the Bluetooth transceiver. Access to the shared antenna is provided to the WLAN transceiver based on the determination, and the WLAN transceiver is configured to use diversity in transacting WLAN signals via a plurality of antennas, including the shared antenna. Access to the shared antenna is transferred from the WLAN transceiver to the Bluetooth transceiver based on the activity signal.
US09031602B2
Techniques are presented herein for load balancing of mobile devices among a plurality of bases stations. Specifically, it is determined via a processor whether to reassign a mobile device from a first base station to a second base station, wherein the second base station is one of a plurality of base stations whose operational performance may be impacted by reassigning the mobile device to the second base station. The expected performance that would result if the mobile device is assigned to the second base station is evaluated for each base station in the plurality. The mobile device is reassigned to the second base station in response to the expected performance of each of the plurality of base stations meeting operational performance requirements.
US09031598B2
A method for providing presence notification for PTT chat group communications includes a server receiving, from a communication device of a member of a chat group, a session initiation message to start a session for the PTT chat group. The session initiation message includes a member-selected priority. The server generates an event notification message that includes an indication that the chat group is active and has been assigned a priority, and sends the event notification message to communication devices of at least some of the other chat group members. Additionally, where a group priority has been assigned to the chat group, the group priority is assigned to the session. Otherwise, the member-selected priority is assigned to the session.
US09031589B2
A mobile station apparatus includes a plurality of PAs (Power Amplifiers) and a plurality of antennas and transmission performances thereof is to be improved when transmission signals having peak powers different from one another are transmitted through the use of the respective antennas. A transmission apparatus includes a plurality of PAs and a plurality of antennas and transmits a signal having a high peak power, by means of determining a transmission signal to be transmitted through the use of each of the PAs based on the capability of each of the PAs, converting the transmission signal into a frequency signal by time-frequency conversion, dividing the frequency signal into a plurality of clusters, and allocating the clusters to bands non-contiguously. Furthermore, the transmission apparatus transmits a signal having a low peak power by means of allocating the frequency signal to continuous bands.
US09031585B2
A method for integrating position information is disclosed. In one embodiment, the position data of an object embedded in a material at a worksite is recorded. The position data is used to update a record showing the position of the object as an embedded object. The position of the embedded object is displayed at a handheld tool.
US09031584B2
Systems and methods are described relating to accepting a mobile device location query using digital signal processing and presenting an indication of location of the mobile device at least partially based on receiving the location query. Additionally, systems and methods are described relating to means for accepting a mobile device location query using digital signal processing and means for presenting an indication of location of the mobile device at least partially based on receiving the location query.
US09031576B2
Methods and devices for managing a cellular communication system (1) and mobile terminals (40) are presented. A collective positioning measurement order (50) is issued to a multitude of mobile terminals (40) in a first cell (10) of the cellular communication system (1). This issuing is preferably performed intermittently at a multitude of times according to a predetermined rule. Each mobile terminal (40) receives information concerning a collective positioning measurement order. The mobile terminal (40) performs a positioning operation, typically a positioning measurement on a ranging signal (51, 52) or transmission of a ranging signal (53), preferably intermittently at a multitude of times, according to a predetermined rule based on the information concerning the collective positioning measurement order. An updating of a storage with positioning data can preferably be obtained. In terrestrially based positioning systems, signal resources dedicated to positioning measurement can be reserved in the cellular communication system.
US09031573B2
In one implementation, a method may comprise: storing a user profile indicative of at least one attribute of a user of a mobile station; determining a measurement value based, at least in part, on a signal from at least one sensor on the mobile station; and estimating a location of the mobile station based, at least in part, on an association of the at least one attribute and the measurement value with a context parameter map database.
US09031569B2
A method for identifying a MBSFN (Multimedia Broadcast multicast service Single Frequency Network) subframe at a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system is disclosed. Receiving module may receive receiving a subframe type information from an base station (BS). Receiving module may receive type information of the MBSFN subframe. The identifying module may identify an index of a MBSFN subframe based on the received subframe type information. The identifying module may identify a type of the MBSFN subframe based on the received type information of the MBSFN subframe. Decoding module may decode only a physical control channel region of the MBSFN subframe based on the identified type of the MBSFN subframe. Alternatively, Decoding module may decode the MBSFN subframe if the identified type of the MBSFN subframe is a decodable type or a known type.
US09031561B2
A computing platform is provided including a processor that executes instructions for optimizing operation of a cellular network. When executing the instructions, the computing platform operates (a) to probe for information exchanged between a mobile access network and a core network; (b) to retrieve statistical KPIs generated from a plurality of network elements belonging to the cellular network; (c) to generate a predictive Key Performance Indicator (pKPI) by correlating the probed information with the retrieved statistical KPIs, which enables the computing platform to predict a trend characterizing future performance of network elements such as cells; and (d) to trigger changes in the operation of the cellular network based on the predicted trend. The probing for information exchanged between a mobile access network and a core network is carried out at a rate higher than a rate of retrieving statistical KPIs generated from the plurality of network elements.
US09031556B2
The present invention relates to methods, apparatuses, a system, and a computer program product for synchronizing to an uncoordinated access network. A new access device added to the access network is temporarily set into an over-the-air discover state and identification signals are broadcast from the new access device. Operating access devices are set into an discovery state in response to a detection of the identification signal, wherein their inter access device over-the-air transmission is stopped during the discovery state and an identity of the new access device is searched.
US09031555B2
A Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) selection method in a roaming portable terminal and an apparatus thereof are provided. The PLMN selection method includes, determining whether a registered PLMN being a finally registered PLMN is valid when a PLMN selection event occurs, determining whether there is a stored Active PLMN list when the registered PLMN is invalid, selecting a PLMN using the active PLMN list when there is the stored Active PLMN list, and camping on a specific cell of the selected PLMN. Since the portable terminal does not attempt to register in an HPLMN when a PLMN selection event occurs, the portable terminal can be rapidly and efficiently registered in a suitable PLMN.
US09031549B2
The present invention is a mobile phone having a non-telephone function (e.g. a radio function) that is different from a telephone function, and includes: a timer operable to count time; a non-telephone function unit operable to execute the non-telephone function, the non-telephone function comprising a function of illuminating a backlight provided to the mobile phone; a non-telephone function stop unit operable to cause the timer to operate during execution of the non-the telephone function, and automatically stop the execution of the non-telephone function when the timer indicates an elapse of a predetermined time period; a telephone unit operable to execute the telephone function; and a reset unit operable, if the timer is being operated in response to the execution of the non-telephone function, to reset the timer to an initial state when a certain operation relating to an application is executed, wherein when the timer is reset to the initial state, the timer starts to measure the predetermined time period, and the non-telephone function stop unit stops the execution of the non-telephone function at the elapse of the predetermined time period from when the certain operation relating to an application is executed.
US09031547B2
A user identity module (UIM) is incorporated in user equipment such as a mobile phone or mobile device. The UIM is configured to provision itself while roaming away from a home network as follows. The UIM may: send to the UE a request for information identifying a current radio access technology (RAT) that the UE is camped on; receive the current RAT information from the UE; send to the UE a request for network location information, where the network location information identifies a network in which the UE is currently camped; receive the network location information from the UE; generate an access point name (APN) using the current RAT information and the network location information; and open a channel through the network to a remote agent (e.g., a provisioning server) using the access point name.
US09031546B2
A system for a vehicle having a data communications bus extending throughout the vehicle, and an audio entertainment system coupled to the data communications bus may include a vehicle wireless transceiver and a vehicle controller to be coupled to the data communications bus. The vehicle controller may be configured to determine and send a vehicle speed alert via the vehicle wireless transceiver, and selectively set the audio entertainment system to link with the vehicle wireless transceiver in a hands-free mode. The system may also include a mobile device to be carried by a user remote from the vehicle that may include a remote wireless transceiver configured to link wirelessly with the vehicle wireless transceiver. The mobile device may also include a remote controller cooperating to command, based upon receiving the vehicle speed alert, the vehicle controller to set the audio entertainment system into the hands-free mode.
US09031543B2
Methods, devices and systems enable efficient organizations of group communications on a mobile device. The mobile device may be configured to receive location information from other mobile devices in a communication system, determine the current location and orientation of the mobile device, determine directions and distances from the mobile device to each of the other mobile devices, and generate a first-person perspective and/or top-down perspective display showing relative locations of the other mobile devices. Other multiple mobile devices may be represented in the display as images (e.g., icons, avatars, directional indicators, etc.). The display may provide a user interface to enable a user to quickly organize other mobile devices into groups and initiate group communications with some of the other mobile devices. The mobile device may be configured to group the displayed images into one or more communication units and establish communication links with mobile devices in the communication units.
US09031542B2
A multi-party call method provides connecting a multi-party call with a plurality of non-control terminals by a control terminal. Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) signals are received from a part of the plurality of non-control terminals to which call termination commands are input by the control terminal, respectively. The received DTMF signals are recognized to check the part of the plurality of non-control terminals that have transmitted the DTMF signals; and the call states are displayed with the recognized part of the non-control terminals as a terminal state on a display screen.
US09031539B2
A system and methodology that facilitates management and utilization of variable subscriber identifiers (V-SubIds) for protecting subscriber privacy is disclosed herein. In one aspect, an Anonymous Customer Reference (ACR) component receives a V-SubId, which is a short-lived subscriber identifier that is to be inserted in a communication messages transmitted from a user equipment instead of a unique device identifier (UDID) of the user equipment. On expiration of the V-SubId, a new V-SubId is received and utilized in subsequent communication messages transmitted from the user equipment. Further, trusted systems/applications can exchange the V-SubId for a subscriber identifier (SubId) associated with the user equipment. Furthermore, untrusted systems/applications can exchange, based on user authorization, the V-SubId for an application-specific ACR that remains static and/or valid for a predefined time period. Moreover, the application-specific ACR is utilized as a device identifier for the user equipment in subsequent communication messages for the predefined time period.
US09031537B2
An electronic wireless hand held multimedia device includes a microprocessor and more than one wireless transceiver modules enabling wireless communications over a variety of standards, including Cellular (e.g., GSM, CDMA, GPRS, 3G), 802.11 (e.g., WLAN), and short range (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, RFID), for the retrieval, processing and delivery of multimedia data to/from remote data resources (e.g., Internet, servers). The hand held device can include any of: a touch sensitive display screen configured to display multimedia data including video, text and GPS maps, and accept user input; a cartridge reader configured to exchange data with an electronic cartridge; a GPS module configured to operate with mapping resources and provide location information and GPS mapping; a mobile payment module enabling mobile payments via a variety of billing arrangements; a security module enabling protected data management and communications security; a video camera enabling the capture, storage, processing and transmission of video and pictures.
US09031534B2
Methods and apparatuses are disclosed for enabling the response to a command from a wireless terminal to be based at least partially on the presence or absence of other users nearby, and possibly the identity of those users. In the illustrated embodiment, a server maintains an updated list of the locations of fixed and wireless terminals within an area (e.g., an IEEE 802.11 wireless access point's area of coverage, a CDMA base station's cell, etc.). When a user issues a command to his or her wireless terminal, the command is transmitted to the server. The server determines whether there are any other nearby wireless terminals (and inferentially, the users associated with these terminals), and then determines whether the command is authorized in that environment.
US09031533B2
In a mobile terminal having a security function, both convenience and security protection are realized so as to prevent a user from feeling bothersome. A mobile phone has an operation control unit which sets the operation of various functions of the mobile terminal to be unusable at any timing. When a used state determination unit determines that the mobile phone is not in an abnormal state and not left, the operation control unit controls operation of the various functions to maintain usable states.
US09031531B2
Distributed computing task costing is disclosed. Costing can be employed to determine if a task will be passed to a distributed computing cluster including mobile devices. Costing can include determining a base cost value predicated on a selectable level of utility to a user of a burdened device, a base time value related to completing the task without the use of the cluster, determining a delay cost, and any monetary costs associated with performing the task without the use of the cluster. Costing can further include demining a relief cost that can include the selectable level of utility, a relief time value related to completing the task with the cluster, the delay cost, an incentive cost based on the sum across a set of relief devices and their corresponding parameters for cluster participation, and any remaining monetary costs borne by the burdened device. Where the base cost value and relief cost value satisfies conditions, a task can be divided into subtasks that can be distributed to the cluster to accomplish the task in a distributed computing environment.
US09031524B2
A game apparatus receives signals from a plurality of game apparatuses. When the game apparatus has received signals from the plurality of game apparatuses, the game apparatus sorts the signals by apparatus and calculates an average RSSI value of the signals for each of the respective apparatuses. The game apparatus further calculates an average value of the calculated average RSSI values of the respective apparatuses. Then, the game apparatus determines a single icon to be displayed based on the calculated average value and causes the icon to be displayed on a screen.
US09031523B2
A method for measuring an impedance of an antenna includes generating, by a signal source coupled to the antenna, a radio frequency (RF) signal, applying the RF signal to a directional coupler, and mixing, by a first mixer, a first signal from the directional coupler with a signal, wherein the first signal corresponds to a reflected power from the antenna. The method further includes mixing, by a second mixer, a second signal with the signal, wherein the second signal is offset from the first signal by ninety degrees. The method further includes outputting, by a first lower pass filter (LPF) coupled to an output of the first mixer, a real part of a reflection coefficient of the antenna and outputting, by a second lower pass filter (LPF) coupled to an output of the second mixer, an imaginary part of the reflection coefficient.
US09031514B2
A self-calibration circuit and associated method for testing an RF device includes the RF device to be tested having transmit and receive sections, and a built-in self test (BIST) circuit coupled to the transmit and receive sections of the RF device on the same chip. The self-calibration circuit is configured to calibrate the receive section of the RF device in a receive test mode, and calibrate the transmit section of the RF device in a subsequent transmit test mode using the calibrated receive section to measure a transmit output signal from the transmit section and to provide calibration data therefrom used in the transmit section calibration. The self-calibration circuit may include a duplex filter coupled between the transmit and receive sections and the BIST circuit, and a multiplexor coupled between the RF device, and the BIST circuit, configured to select one or more of a plurality of RF devices to be tested.
US09031506B2
Disclosed herein are systems, apparatuses, and methods for wirelessly coupling functional resources. Such a system includes a plurality of co-located, wireless-enabled functional units of a first type and a plurality of co-located, wireless-enabled functional units of a second type. At least one of the wireless-enabled functional units of the first type is wirelessly coupled with one or more of the wireless-enabled functional units of the second type. The wireless-enabled functional units of the first type may be wireless-enabled processing units, and the wireless-enabled functional units of the second type may be wireless-enabled memory units. In an example, the plurality of wireless-enabled functional units of the first type are co-located on a first chip, and the plurality of wireless-enabled functional units of the second type are co-located on a second chip. The first chip and the second chip may be located in a single device or in separate devices.
US09031505B2
A communications device is disclosed that includes a united integrated circuit card (UICC) that provides a single wire protocol (SWP) current signal to a near field communications (NFC) device. The SWP current signal is filtered by a filter to remove noise from the SWP current signal. The filter is precharged by a reference voltage when the SWP current signal is in a low state and then filters the SWP current signal when the SWP current signal is in a high state. A switching network provides the filter with the reference voltage to precharge when the SWP is current signal is in the low state and then provides the filter with the SWP current signal to filter when the SWP current signal is in the high state.
US09031504B1
RFID tags, tag circuits, and methods are provided that reject at least in part the distortion caused to wireless signals by interference in the environment. When the received RF wave is converted into an unfiltered input (971), a filtered output (972) is generated that does not include an artifact feature deriving from the distortion. The filtered output is used instead of the unfiltered input, which results in tag operation as if there were less interference in the environment, or none at all.
US09031493B2
A system and method are disclosed for correlating an electronic book with a narration. A correlation is determined between a first portion of the narration and a first segment of the text within the electronic book. The correlation is stored as instructions to present the first segment of the text with emphasis simultaneously with playback of the first the portion of the narration. A determination is made that a second portion of the audio recording, immediately following the first portion, does not match a second segment of the text that immediately follows the first segment. A correlation between the second portion and a component of the electronic book is determined and stored as instructions to present the component with emphasis simultaneously with playback of the second portion of the narration.
US09031491B2
An image forming apparatus, including a photoreceptor; a charger; an irradiator; an image developer; a transferer; a fixer; and a cleaning blade formed of a strip-shaped elastic blade, removing a powder from the surface of the photoreceptor passing an edge line of the blade while contacting thereto, wherein the photoreceptor includes a crosslinked resin surface layer formed of at least one of an acrylic resin and a methacrylic resin, and the cleaning blade includes a contact point with the photoreceptor, including a substrate; a mixed layer formed of at least one of an acrylic resin and a methacrylic resin, located at the surface of the substrate; and a surface layer formed of at least one of an acrylic resin and a methacrylic resin, located on the surface of the substrate.
US09031489B2
A print control apparatus includes a storage unit configured to store therein a plurality of surface-effect selection tables for respective pieces of recording medium information on a recording medium. Different types of same surface effects are registered in each of the surface-effect selection tables. The print control apparatus also includes a determining unit configured to determine a surface-effect selection table corresponding to a piece of recording medium information from the storage unit; an image data generating unit configured to generate image data based on the determined surface-effect selection table and based on gloss-control plane data in which a type of a surface effect to be applied to the recording medium and an area of the recording medium to which the surface effect is to be applied are specified; and an output unit configured to output the image data.
US09031488B2
A fixing member includes a base member having a substantially cylindrical surface; an elastic layer provided around the substantially cylindrical surface and having, at each axial end thereof, a sloping surface that slopes such that an outside diameter of the elastic layer is gradually reduced toward an outer side in an axial direction; and a surface layer joined to an outer circumferential surface of the elastic layer and a portion of the sloping surface and having a higher modulus of elasticity than the elastic layer, each axial end of the surface layer being free of restraint by the base member.
US09031486B2
A fixing device includes a pressure member, a heating member, a coil, a first magnetic core, a second magnetic core, a shielding portion, and a switching belt. The second magnetic core is disposed to extend in a width direction in a hollow portion formed by the loop of the coil, and formed in an arc shape with a protruding portion at a side facing the heating member. The shielding portion is formed of a non-magnetic material to shield a path of a magnetic flux generated by the coil between the second magnetic core and the heating member. The switching belt includes a surface where the shielding portion is disposed to face a non-paper passing region in the heating member, suspended to be rotatable between a roller and the protruding portion, and selectively arranged in one of a shielding position and a non-shielding position by rotation of the roller.
US09031485B2
A fixing device includes an endless flexible belt, a stationary pad, a rotary pressure member, and a lubrication mechanism. The endless flexible belt is looped into a generally cylindrical configuration extending in an axial direction thereof for rotation in a rotational, circumferential direction thereof. The stationary pad is stationarily disposed inside the loop of the belt. The rotary pressure member is disposed parallel to the belt. The rotary pressure member presses against the stationary pad via the belt to form a nip therebetween, through which a recording medium is conveyed in a conveyance direction. The lubrication mechanism supplies lubricant between the stationary pad and the belt, and includes a first sheet of lubricant-impregnated material and a second sheet of lubricant-impregnated material.
US09031481B2
A drum cartridge including: a photosensitive drum; and a guide member configured to guide a recording medium towards the photosensitive drum and including, a first guide member having flexibility, extending towards the photosensitive drum, and having a guide surface configured to guide the recording medium, and a second guide member having flexibility, contacting a surface of the first guide member opposite to the guide surface, and supporting the first guide member, the second guide member including, a first part extending towards the photosensitive drum, and a second part bent continuously from a downstream end of the first part in a guide direction and extending towards a transfer position side, wherein, in the guide direction, a downstream end of the first guide member is arranged downstream of the downstream end of the first part.
US09031480B2
A transfer device includes a direct-current (DC) power supply configured to output a DC voltage; an alternating-current (AC) power supply configured to selectively output a superimposed voltage in which an AC voltage is superimposed on the DC voltage output from the DC power supply or the DC voltage output from the DC power supply; and a transfer unit configured to transfer a developer to a sheet using the voltage output from the AC power supply.
US09031468B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit configured to form a measurement image on a recording paper, a fixing unit configured to fix the measurement image onto the recording paper by heating, a measurement unit configured to measure the measurement image fixed on the recording paper downstream of the fixing unit in a conveyance direction of the recording paper, and a correction unit configured to correct a measurement value output from the measurement unit such that an effect of temperature of the recording paper is decreased when the measurement unit measures the measurement image. The correction unit is configured not to correct the measurement value in a case where density of the measurement image is measured by the measurement unit, and the correction unit is configured to correct the measurement value in a case where chromaticity of the measurement image is measured by the measurement unit.
US09031464B2
A drive transmission device includes a first coupling member to be coupled to a drive shaft and including a first contact surface, a second coupling member to be coupled to a driven shaft and including a second contact surface, and an intermediate coupler disposed between the first and second coupling members. The intermediate coupler includes: a first intermediate contact surface opposed to the first contact surface and contacting the first contact surface with a first rolling member interposed in between; and a second intermediate contact surface opposed to the second contact surface and contacting the second contact surface with a second rolling member interposed in between. One of the contact surfaces and a corresponding one of the intermediate contact surfaces are formed point-symmetrically with respect to the center of a corresponding one of the rolling members.
US09031456B2
Disclosed is an image forming apparatus that is to be detachably attached by a detachable unit, wherein the detachable unit includes a unit side connector that fits a main body side connector disposed in a main body of the image forming apparatus by an attaching operation for attaching the detachable unit to the main body of the image forming apparatus, wherein one of the detachable unit and the main body of the image forming apparatus includes a concave portion extended in an attaching direction in which the detachable unit is attached to the main body of the image forming apparatus, and wherein the other one of the detachable unit and the main body of the image forming apparatus includes a convex portion disposed at a position corresponding to the concave portion.
US09031455B2
An image forming apparatus includes a first casing, a second casing, an arm, a guide unit, a support part, and an urging member. The second casing is supported on the first casing and configured to pivot relative to the first casing. The arm has a first end portion rotatably coupled to one of the first casing and the second casing and a second end portion slidably coupled to the other of the first casing and the second casing. The guide unit is provided at the other of the first casing and the second casing and configured to slidably guide a shaft. The guide unit includes a first guide and a second guide. The support part supports the first guide such that the first guide is movable toward and away from the second guide. The urging member is configured to urge the first guide toward the second guide.
US09031444B2
An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of heaters 56 for heating the fixing roller 52, a plurality of temperature sensors 57 for detecting the temperatures of the areas to be heated by the plurality of heaters 56 respectively, and a control unit 11 for turning on and off the plurality of heaters 56 on the basis of the temperatures detected by the plurality of temperature sensors 57. If one of the heaters 56 is on when the area to be heated by the other heater cools down to the ON temperature, the control unit 11 turns on the other heater with the same timing as the one heater is turned off.
US09031440B2
The heating apparatus includes a heat generating member which generates heat when power is supplied from an AC power supply, a temperature detection device which detects temperature of the heat generating member, a current detection device which detects a value of current flowing in the heat generating member; and a control unit which controls the temperature of the heat generating member by controlling power supplied to the heat generating member, in which the control unit detects a drop of an input voltage of the AC power supply based on a maximum suppliable power ratio determined by using a value of current suppliable to the heat generating member, the current value detected by the current detection device, and a ratio of power supplied to the heat generating member obtained based on the temperature detected by the temperature detection device.
US09031439B2
According to an embodiment, provided is a fixing device that includes: a rotatable fixing member that heats a recording medium on a side carrying an unfixed image; a rotatable pressing member that is pressed and is contacted with the fixing member to form a nip portion between the pressing member and the fixing member; a heat source heating the fixing member; a relay switch provided in an energizing path for the heat source; a temperature detection sensor detecting a temperature of the fixing member; and a control unit that controls energization of the heat source according to the temperature detected by the temperature detection sensor. The control unit keeps the relay switch in an off state if the temperature of the fixing member is equal to or more than a predetermined temperature when the fixing member has stopped rotation.
US09031431B2
An apparatus includes a unit configured to judge a border between two patch images among a plurality of patch images formed on the recording material, based on change in the amount of the light beam of at least one noticed wavelength detected by a detection unit; a unit configured to calculate a color value of a patch image from the amount of the light beam of each wavelength detected by the detection unit; and a control unit configured to control an accumulation period of charge for the photoelectric conversion at the detection unit. The control unit is further configured to make the accumulation period of the detection unit shorter when judging the border between the two patch images than when calculating the color value of each of the two patch images.
US09031422B2
A conveying apparatus or an image forming apparatus includes: a housing including an opening and closing member that can be opened and closed; a conveying path that conveys an object to be conveyed, at least a part of the conveying path being provided adjacent to an inner side of the opening and closing member; a first detector that detects whether the object is present in a predetermined region and outputs a detection signal corresponding to a result of the detection; and an interlocking mechanism that causes, when the opening and closing member is opened, the first detector to change at least one of a position and a structure of the first detector in mechanically association with movement of opening of the opening and closing member, and to output a detection signal which is the same as a detection signal output when the object is present in the predetermined region.
US09031408B2
A method provides advertisements to optical network units (ONUs) by an optical line terminal (OLT), wherein the advertisements enable the ONUs to identify free channels from a plurality of wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) channels in a passive optical network (PON). The method includes: transmitting from the OLT to the ONUs an advertisement identifying a free channel for each of a plurality of incompatible channel (ICH) groups, receiving a request from an ONU for the advertised free channel of an ICH group, authenticating the requesting ONU via the advertised free channel, allocating the advertised free channel to the requesting ONU upon successful authentication of the requesting ONU, and transmitting an updated advertisement from the OLT to the ONUs.
US09031401B1
A modifiable enclosure that can be used to house an object and can be adapted and connected to the object to aid in directing a stream of light emanating from the object. The modifiable enclosure can include a first panel with a connecting element extending substantially about a periphery thereof and a second panel with connecting element extending substantially about a periphery thereof that is releasably fastenable to the connecting element extending substantially about a periphery of the first panel.
US09031397B2
An imaging apparatus for performing wireless communication with an external device. An instruction transmitting unit transmits an operation instruction to the external device. A response signal receiving unit receives a response signal from the external device. A first controlling unit starts a first operation relating to an imaging process in a case that a first time passes from a point of receiving the response signal by the response signal receiving unit. The external device executes a second operation relating to the imaging process in a case that a second time passes from a point of transmitting the response signal from the external device to the imaging apparatus.
US09031387B2
An image processing apparatus sequentially displays time-series images. The apparatus includes a movement-direction-change image extracting unit that detects a movement between images constituting the time-series images and extracts an image of which a movement direction is changed based on the detected movement between images; and a display speed controller that controls display speeds of the image extracted by the movement-direction-change image extracting unit and images adjacent to the image at a level relatively lower than display speeds of other images.
US09031383B2
Motion picture project management system for reviewers, coordinators and artists. Artists utilize image analysis and image enhancement and computer graphics processing for example to convert two-dimensional images into three-dimensional images or otherwise create or alter motion pictures. Enables the efficient management of projects related to motion pictures to enable enterprises to manage assets, control costs, predict budgets and profit margins, reduce archival storage and otherwise provide displays tailored to specific roles to increase worker efficiency.
US09031382B1
In one embodiment, a method includes obtaining a link to a video program; obtaining metadata that relates to the program and that defines, for a specified time point in the program, annotations to be invoked at the specified time point; wherein the annotations comprise: a graphic image; one or more filters, each of the filters comprising a key and one or more matching values; and optionally a reference to a video segment, an electronic document, program code statements, or a programmatic call; during playing the video, detecting that the video program is playing at the specified time point; in response to the detecting: for each particular annotation for the specified time point, retrieving a current value for the key, and causing to display the graphic image associated with that particular annotation only when the current value of the key matches one of the matching values of one of the filters.
US09031380B2
An information storage medium storing subtitle text-based information, and a method and apparatus utilizing same, process a subtitle The information storage medium includes: dialog information which contains script text information of the subtitle and information specifying an output type of the script text; and presentation information which contains style information used to convert the script text into a bitmap format through rendering. With this structure, the amount of data required for a subtitle and the amount of data that should be processed when a subtitle is output may be greatly reduced.
