US09083695B2
A method for controlling a message from a sender. A referee can evaluate a credential associated with a message to determine its desirability to the intended recipient, and take an action based upon the results of the determination. A sender that includes a trusted component can send a credential with the message, and the message can be controlled without a referee.
US09083691B2
In one embodiment, the finer grained control may be in the form of controlling the validity period after which credentials need to be provided anew or access is denied. In another embodiment, the control may be provided by enabling the period of inactivity after which access is denied to be controlled. In yet another embodiment, techniques may be provided for enabling isolation of applications for a session.
US09083685B2
A method and system for content replication control are provided. In one embodiment, a content replication system receives a request to replicate content in a plurality of memory devices, wherein each memory device is associated with a respective unique identifier. For each of the plurality of memory devices, the content replication system sends a request to a transport encryption key server for a transport encryption key, the request including the unique identifier of the memory device. If the unique identifier of the memory device is authorized to receive the transport encryption key, the content replication system receives the transport encryption key and sends the transport encryption key to the memory device. The content replication system then receives encrypted content from a content server, wherein the encrypted content is encrypted with the transport encryption key. The content replication system then sends the encrypted content to the plurality of memory devices.
US09083684B2
In general, according to one embodiment, a communication node includes a key synchronization controller and an application communicator. The key synchronization controller controls synchronization of an application key on the basis of a node-based signaling process and a session-based signaling process, where the former process is for starting or ending exchanging of an application key between a correspondent node and the communication node and the latter process is for synchronizing a rule for assignment of the application key to a session with the correspondent node, the session shared with the correspondent node. The application communicator provides the application key in accordance with the rule, the key for use by an application having the session.
US09083683B2
The encryption/decryption device includes a plaintext unit, a ciphertext unit and a cryptographic unit connected therebetween. The plaintext unit may include a logic device such as a first programmable logic device (PLD), e.g. a field programmable gate array (FPGA), for interfacing with the protected network to perform encapsulation of data from the protected network to define outgoing datagrams, and to perform decapsulation of incoming datagrams from the cytographic unit. The ciphertext unit may include a second logic device such as a PLD or FPGA for interfacing with the unprotected network to perform routing of incoming encrypted datagrams from the unprotected network to the cryptographic unit, and to perform routing of outgoing encrypted datagrams from the cryptographic unit to the unprotected network. The cryptographic unit may also be a PLD or FPGA and performs encryption of outgoing datagrams from the plaintext unit, and to perform decryption of incoming encrypted datagrams from the ciphertext unit to define the incoming datagrams.
US09083667B2
A follow-on message processing system for an integrated information management application. The follow-on message processing system includes a client computer coupled to a network, an email client coupled to the client computer, and a follow-on message controller coupled to the email client. The email client receives an email and a follow-on command from another email client. The follow-on command is associated with the email received from the other email client. The follow-on message controller interrupts access to the email client in response to a determination that an email draft is in progress. The email draft in progress is associated with the received email.
US09083663B2
A reminder system is provided. The system provides a user-friendly interface to a user's existing email, and in some embodiments to the user's document management, calendar and other systems, in order to ensure that an appropriate user is notified when action should be taken, and also provides notation to the user indicating the appropriate course of action to be taken. The system provides a calendaring feature where a supervisor or manager can determine the workload of a group of workers for an upcoming time period. The system provides an easily accessible and traceable database of information pertaining to a project checklist, document, a client name, a client matter number, a document type, or other customizable fields in order for a user to search and sort the information for their own use.
US09083657B2
A flow communication system has: a node having a flow table; and a controller configured to set a flow entry in the flow table. Each flow entry that is set in the flow table specifies packet processing which is performed with respect to a packet matching a match condition. If a hit entry exists in the flow table, the node performs the packet processing specified by the hit entry with respect to a received packet. If a deletion condition with regard to a first flow entry in the flow table is satisfied, the node deletes the first flow entry from the flow table. The deletion condition includes that a sum of packet lengths of all the received packets matching the first flow entry after the first flow entry is set up exceeds a predetermined deletion unit length.
US09083656B2
A service communication method for an access network apparatus. The access network apparatus comprises a source terminal and a target terminal both connected to the same access switch. The method comprises: a node server, according to a request of a current service, notifying the access switch connected to both the source terminal and the target terminal to set a downlink port of the access switch, to which a data packet of the current service is directed, in an internal data packet address table thereof; the source terminal sending an uplink data packet of the current service; and after receiving the data packet, the access switch directing the data packet to the corresponding downlink port according to the setting of the internal data packet address table thereof, and transmitting the data packet to the target terminal through the downlink port. The present invention can effectively save the bandwidth and routing resources, ensure a steady and smooth transmission path, avoid delay of multimedia services, satisfy national information security requirements, and save hardware resources, thereby ensuring network transmission quality.
US09083654B2
The invention generally relates to virtual environments, and more particularly to systems and methods for communicating in virtual environments. A method of providing communication in a virtual universe (VU) includes instantiating and assigning an information channel to a first client of the VU, associating at least one additional client of the VU to the information channel, and conveying data placed on the information channel to the first client and the at least one additional client.
US09083653B2
Automated cloud set up may include collecting compute resources available for setting up a cloud, identifying packages available to apply to the compute resources, and determining which subsets of the packages to apply to which compute resource.
US09083645B2
An information handling system is provided. The information handling system includes a plurality of routing bridges coupled to at least one node. The node may be multihomed and logically coupled to the rest of the information handling system through a virtual routing bridge. Methods and systems are provided to allow multicast packets originating behind the virtual routing bridge to be properly handled to comply with reverse path forwarding. This may be accomplished by creating and selectively using a plurality of routing trees that include the paths between the virtual routing bridge and neighboring physical routing bridges.
US09083636B2
A method is provided in one example and includes receiving first address information from a protected node over a first label switched path having a first label. The first address information is associated with a first network element. A second label switched path has been previously established with the first network element. The method further includes establishing a targeted session with the first network element, assigning a second label to the second label switched path, and sending the second label to the first network element over the targeted session.
US09083631B2
A method is provided for transmitting a data stream from a plurality of terminating (leaf) devices toward another terminating (root) device, the leaf and root devices forming the ends of a multipoint-to-point pseudowire based on a packet switched network to which the terminating devices belong, the method comprising: receiving, by a switching device, also belonging to the packet switched network, a first data stream sent by a first leaf device toward the root device, receiving, by the switching device, a second data stream sent by a second leaf device toward the root device, aggregating the first and second data streams into a third data stream, the switching device having been configured to aggregate the first and second data streams via a parameter called the aggregation parameter, included in a pseudowire establishment request, and transmitting the third data stream toward the root device.
US09083626B1
A multi-stage network is provided, where the network includes a first stage comprising a first plurality of network switching devices, the first plurality of network devices being classified into switching groups. The network further includes a second stage comprising a second plurality of network switching devices. A linking configuration, comprising a plurality of links between the first plurality of network switching devices and the second plurality of network switching devices, couples the first stage to the second stage. Each first stage network switching device in a given switching group includes the same number of links to any given second stage network switching device as each other first stage network switching device in that group.
US09083619B2
Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for automatically validating and configuring an inventory of hardware to interact seamlessly with a cloud-computing fabric of a data center are provided. Initially, devices internal to the hardware inventory are located by sending and receiving messages via out-of-band communication channels and network communication channels, respectively. Locating the internal devices involves establishing communication from a user device to the hardware inventory and selecting at least one of the internal devices for conducting a discovery process thereon. The discovery process involves receiving a first network identifier via the out-of-band communication channel and receiving a second network identifier via the network communication channel. When the first and second network identifiers match, the interconnection of the selected device is validated. Otherwise, one or more remedial measures are initiated with respect to the selected device. Validation involves conducting a server boot within the MOS and executing validation and configuration tools.
US09083618B2
A centralized backup system for a non-local homogeneous real-time system comprises a switch (302), and a host (301), an encryptor (303), a PC monitor (304), and a firewall (305) which connect with the switch. The centralized backup system ensures the reliability of the non-local systems and is able to allocate resources flexibly to meet the requirement of the tasks of system in each different location by centralized deployment and centralized management of backup systems in all locations.
US09083614B2
A system and method can support out-of-order message processing in a distributed data grid. A cluster node in the distributed data grid can receive a plurality of messages at a cluster node in the distributed data grid. The distributed data grid allows each message in the plurality of messages to determine whether it needs to be handled in a particular order on a first thread. The cluster node can dispatch one or more of said messages that do not need to be handled in the particular order on the first thread to one or more different threads.
US09083611B2
A method for remapping VNICs associated with an aggregation layer. The method includes making a first determination that a first network interface card (NIC) has failed, where the first NIC and a second NIC are part of the aggregation group, the aggregation layer manages the aggregation group, where a first virtual NIC (VNIC) is mapped to the first NIC and a second VNIC is mapped to the second NIC, and the first NIC is connected to a first switch and the second NIC is connected to a second switch. The method further includes, based on the first determination, remapping the first VNIC to the second NIC, and after the remapping, receiving packets by the first VNIC from the second NIC.
US09083607B2
A method and device for processing data cells are disclosed. The method includes: configuring a unicast routing table which includes a corresponding relation between unicast destination addresses and port trunking (Trunks), and a multicast routing table which includes a corresponding relation between multicast group addresses and Trunks; receiving data cells; determining a corresponding Trunk according to types of the data cells, if the data cell is a unicast cell, extracting a destination address of the unicast cell, querying the unicast routing table, and obtaining a Trunk corresponding to the unicast cell; and if the data cell is a multicast cell, extracting a multicast group address of the multicast cell, querying the multicast routing table, and obtaining one or more Trunks corresponding to the multicast cell; and selecting an output link from the determined Trunks according to a preset load balancing policy, and sending data cells through the selected output link.
US09083606B2
Example methods, apparatus and articles to manage routing in networks are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes identifying a first network element associated with a problematic network element; identifying a first maximum transmission unit of the first network element and a second maximum transmission unit of the problematic network element; determining whether the first and second maximum transmission units are different; and when the first and second maximum transmission units are different, identifying a value of a greater one of the first and second maximum transmission units and configuring the first network element and the problematic network element to each have the identified value.
US09083602B2
Provided is a communication system which is provided with a plurality of communication devices and transfers a packet between the plurality of communication devices through a communication path. When a packet is looped back at any of the communication devices on the communication path to verify connectivity of the communication path, a first communication device of the plurality of communication devices stores, in a first region of header information of the packet, first information for designating the communication device at which the packet is looped back, further stores, in a second region of the header information of the packet, second information on a loopback point in the designated communication device at which the packet is looped back, and sends the packet to which the first information and the second information have been added.
US09083597B1
Receiver and method in a receiver, for estimating a normalised frequency offset between a transmitter and the receiver in a wireless communication system, based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, OFDM. The method comprises receiving a first pilot signal (yr1) and a second pilot signal (yr2) from the transmitter; computing a Karhunen-Loeve approximation λK(φ), up to any finite order K of a log-likelihood function λ(φ), based on the received pilot signals (yr1, yr2); and estimating the frequency offset by calculating a maximum value of the computed Karhunen-Loeve approximation λK(φ).
US09083593B2
A method and apparatus for peak to average power ratio reduction, the method precoding the data symbols using an inverse discrete Fourier transform (‘IDFT’), choosing, at a transmitter, a set of training sequence symbols from a plurality of sets of training sequence symbols, and creating, at the transmitter, an IDFT precoded burst by adding the IDFT of the data symbols and an IDFT of the chosen set of training sequence symbols. Further, a method and receiver, the method receiving a burst, performing a discrete Fourier transform on the burst, choosing a training sequence among a known plurality of training sequences sets, the chosen training sequence resulting in the least noise estimate among the plurality of training sequence sets, and demodulating the burst with the detected pilot burst.
US09083586B2
In an embodiment, in response to receiving from a client computer a client request to connect to a server: processing the client request in a network protection device including applying one or more translations and one or more security checks, generating a server acknowledgment to the client computer as if the server acknowledged receiving the client request from the client computer, processing the server acknowledgement in the network protection device including applying one or more translations and one or more security checks and sending the server acknowledgment to the client computer; in response to receiving a client acknowledgment of receiving the server acknowledgment, determining that a first path between the client computer and the network protection device is operational; generating a server request to the server; processing the server request in the network protection device, determining that a second path between the network protection device and the server is operational.
US09083582B2
In a multi transmitter-receiver system, transmitter noise cancellation may be applied selectively for certain transmitters by exploiting asymmetries of the system. Hence, observation receiver(s) numbering less than the number of transmitters may be provided saving space and cost. Each observation receiver may selectively couple to a transmitter path and estimate the leakage noise from that transmitter. Based on the estimated leakage noise, noise cancellation may be applied to corresponding receiver path(s). Selection of the transmitters for leakage estimation may be based on system conditions at that time, which may be known to the system or may be estimated dynamically.
US09083580B2
A receiver device, A system and a method for reception of a signal having an amplitude that has been modulated with information, wherein a resistive element is provided that converts an electrical quantity into a physical parameter.
US09083571B2
A device for updating complex channel gain estimates for orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) symbols that includes a receiver to receive a plurality of OFDM symbols, wherein each OFDM symbol includes a plurality of pilot tones at a subset of odd positions and a finite impulse response (FIR) filter. The FIR filter configured to filter a plurality of initial channel estimates of odd tones of an OFDM symbol using a first set of coefficients to generate an updated estimate of the channel estimates of the plurality of odd tones for that OFDM symbol, and filter the plurality of the initial channel estimates of the odd tones of the OFDM symbol using a second set of coefficients to generate estimates for a plurality of initial channel estimates of even tones for that OFDM symbol.
US09083561B2
An apparatus provides automated assistance to an agent. The apparatus includes a receiver that receives a client communication from a client terminal via a network. A processor processes the client communication and determines a plurality of agent statements based on the client communication. The plurality of agent statements is displayed on a display. An input receives an agent communication from the agent. The agent communication is selected from a custom statement input by the agent and one of the plurality of agent statements selected by the agent. A transmitter transmits the agent communication to the client terminal via the network.
US09083559B2
In an Internet facsimile apparatus, it is an object of the invention to provide means for notifying the user of details of a message disposition notification situation (MDN) of a transmission image. When E-mail data is sent, an MDN for E-mail to be sent is requested and communication management information of the sent E-mail is updated on the basis of a reception result of reply E-mail responsive to the MDN request.
US09083550B2
Mechanisms are provided to allow servers connected over an InfiniBand fabric to communicate using multiple private virtual interconnects (PVIs). In particular embodiments, the PVIs appear as virtual Ethernet networks to users on individual servers and virtual machines running on the individual servers. Each PVI is represented on the server by a virtual network interface card (VNIC) and each PVI is mapped to its own InfiniBand multicast group. Data can be transmitted on PVIs as Ethernet packets fully encapsulated, including the layer 2 header, within InfiniBand messages. Broadcast and multicast frames are propagated using InfiniBand.
US09083548B2
Example apparatus and methods to communicatively couple field devices to controllers in a process control system are disclosed. An example method of changing a communication protocol of a first field device in a process control system includes decoupling from the first field device a first removable communication module configured to communicate using a first communication protocol. The example method also includes coupling to the first field device a second removable communication module configured to communicate using a second communication protocol. After coupling the second removable communication module, the first field device is configured to communicate using the second communication protocol. In addition, the first field device is coupled to a first communication channel on an input/output card when communicating using the first communication protocol and the first field device is coupled to the first communication channel on the input/output card when communicating using the second communication protocol.
US09083545B2
Provided are a method and apparatus for managing resources of a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) device based on a connection status of a control point. The method of managing resources of a controlled device includes: monitoring an invocation of an action representing a connection of a control point for a predetermined time; determining whether the control point is connected to the controlled device or not by considering whether the monitored action is invoked or not; and increasing available resources by selectively deactivating an application which is controlled by the control point according to the determination result. Accordingly, the resources of the UPnP device can be effectively managed.
US09083539B2
Roughly described, incoming data packets are delivered by the NIC directly to at least two user level endpoints. In an aspect, only filters that cannot be ambiguous are created in the NIC. In another aspect, the NIC maintains a filter table supporting direct delivery of incoming unicast and multicast data packets to one user level endpoint. Additional requests to join the same multicast group cause replacement of the NIC filter with one in the kernel. In another aspect, a NIC has limited capacity to maintain multicast group memberships. In response to a new multicast filter request, the kernel establishes it in the NIC only if the NIC still has sufficient capacity; otherwise it is established in the kernel.
US09083538B2
Methods and apparatus for creation and transport of multimedia content flows to a distribution network. The system includes a method for transporting a content flow to an access network for distribution to devices coupled to the access network. The method includes transmitting a request message to add the content flow to the access network, wherein the request message comprises one or more flow parameters associated with the content flow. The method also includes receiving a response message indicating that the content flow associated with the one or more flow parameters will be added to the access network, and delivering the content flow to the access network.
US09083537B2
An energy management system comprises one or more appliances, a remote device, and a communication device. In one embodiment, the communication device forms a physical connection with the remote device and thereafter a physical connection with an associated appliances. The first physical connection binds the communication to the remote device, thereby forming a secure connection over which inputs and outputs can be exchanged between the remote and the associated appliance when the communication device is connected to the appliance.
US09083499B1
This invention is related to a low-complexity MIMO detector in a wireless communication system with near optimal performance. Initial symbol estimation is performed for a transmitted symbol vector. The soft information of the transmitted symbol vector can be more accurately calculated by deemphasizing the LLRs associated with symbols belonging to weak channels that may suffer from poor initial estimation. By combining aspects of both the linear detection and the ML detection, the complexity of the proposed detector becomes orders of magnitude lower than that of a ML detector, but the performance is very close to that of an ML detector.
US09083495B2
A method of transmitting control information from a wireless communication terminal to an access network includes generating control information comprising a plurality of control bits. The method also includes encoding the control bits using a block code that outputs an encoded bit sequence comprising encoded bits b(0), b(1), . . . , b(19) and dividing the encoded bits into a first group and a second group. The first group includes the encoded bits {b(0), b(1), b(2), b(3), b(4), b(6), b(7), b(8), b(13), b(19)} and the second group includes the encoded bits {b(5), b(9), b(10), 6(11), b(12), b(14), b(15), b(16), b(17), b(18)}. The method further includes transmitting the first group of encoded bits on a first set of carriers and transmitting the second group of encoded bits on a second set of carriers having different frequencies from the first set of carriers.
US09083494B2
In a wireless communication system unused resource elements are utilized to transmit additional pilot and control signals. The additional pilot and control signals may mitigate the impact of interference. The unused resource elements may be in a downlink pilot timeslot (DwPTS) in a time division duplex system.
US09083485B2
According to an aspect of an embodiment, a method of spectrum defragmentation in an optical network may include assigning an optical signal within an optical network to a first frequency slot that spans a first portion of an optical spectrum of the optical network. The method may also include constructing a frequency slot dependency map based on the assignation of the optical signal to the frequency slot. The method may also include reassigning, as a result of an optical signal departure event, the optical signal to a second frequency slot based on the frequency slot dependency map. The second frequency slot may span a second portion of the optical spectrum of the optical network.
US09083465B2
The present invention discloses a method for acquiring a PON port association relationship. An OLT where a standby PON port is located receives a protection packet from an optical network unit, parses the protection packet to obtain an identifier of an active PON port carried in the packet, and acquires an association relationship between the active PON port and the standby PON port according to an identifier of the standby PON port receiving the protection packet. When the present invention is implemented, the OLT where the standby PON port is located can acquire an association relationship between an active PON port and a standby PON port, and determine, according to the association relationship, whether the protection packet is valid or acquire, according to the association relationship, configuration information of the active PON port.
US09083463B1
A system and method for removing radio frequency emissions from an electronic device. The system comprises collectors for collection of the radio frequency signals, combiners for combining the signals to produce a combined signal, fiber optic transmitter for up-converting the combined radio frequency signals to an optical wave length signal, optical fiber for directing the optical signal, and a heat sink for terminating the optical signal.
US09083454B2
Systems and methods are disclosed herein to provide communication test systems for the testing of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radio frequency wireless data communication devices, systems and networks, including Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO) devices and systems. In accordance with one or more embodiments, a test system containing an integrated MIMO signal analyzer is disclosed that includes a protocol engine operative in conjunction with a waveform generator and waveform analyzer that analyzes the signal waveform of a device under test. Such a test system may offer improved capabilities such as a simpler and more flexible measurement of complex MIMO signal waveforms, more automated measurements of MIMO waveforms including beamforming functions, and more accurate measurement of the efficiency of MIMO related functions such as channel estimation, transmit precoding and beamforming.
US09083453B2
Techniques for performing noise cancellation/attenuation are disclosed. In one design, an apparatus includes a power supply generator having a switcher, a coupling circuit, an envelope amplifier, and a feedback circuit. The switcher generates DC and low frequency components and the envelope amplifier generates high frequency components of a supply voltage for a load, e.g., a power amplifier. The switcher receives a first supply voltage and provides a switcher output signal having switcher noise. The coupling circuit receives the switcher output signal and provides a first output signal having a first version of the switcher noise. The feedback circuit receives the switcher output signal and provides a feedback signal. The envelope amplifier receives an envelope signal and the feedback signal and provides a second output signal having a second version of the switcher noise, which is used to attenuate the first version of the switcher noise at the load.
US09083452B2
Efficient techniques for estimating specific absorption rate (SAR) for wireless devices. In an aspect, electric and/or magnetic field measurements are made over a two-dimensional (2D) surface in the proximity of a wireless device. The field measurements are used to generate a near-field equivalent source representation of the wireless device. Specific absorption rate over, e.g., a 1 g/10 g mass may then be calculated by performing electromagnetic simulations using the near-field equivalent source representation. In an aspect, an elementary dipole array may be used to generate the near-field equivalent source representation from the field measurements.
US09083433B2
A wireless communication system includes a wireless base station, a mobile station configured to communicate with the wireless base station, and a relay station configured to relay the communication between the wireless base station and the mobile station. When the number of the mobile stations communicating with the wireless base station is judged to have become smaller than or equal to a given number, a power controller in the relay station executes at least one of power control to cut off the power for relaying the communication, power control to perform intermittent operation, and power control to perform power-saving operation.
US09083425B1
Embodiments of methods and apparatus for providing distributed airborne wireless communications are provided herein. In some embodiments, an airborne wireless communication node includes: an airborne fleet comprising a plurality of airborne platforms having flight control electronics configured to control flight of individual airborne platforms and coordinate a flight plan of the airborne fleet as a whole; and a distributed communication payload, wherein the communication payload is subdivided into constituent parts, wherein the parts are distributed and positioned on respective ones of the plurality of airborne platforms. In some embodiments, the distributed communication payload includes: air-to-user link equipment to provide communication links with end-users, the air-to-user link equipment further comprising an RF antenna; air-to-air link equipment to provide communications between individual airborne platforms; and payload control electronics to control the air-to-user and air-to-air link equipment and managing communication services.
US09083415B2
Methods, devices, and computer program products for antenna searching with antenna selection are disclosed. In one aspect, an apparatus operable in a wireless communication system includes a first receiver, a second receiver, and a processor. The first receiver receives a first signal including pilot signals from a first antenna. The second receiver receives a second signal including pilot signals from a second antenna. The processor, while a receive diversity is enabled, demodulates the first and second signals, determines whether a first condition is satisfied, and, in response to determining that the first condition is satisfied, searches for pilot signals via the second receiver and not the first receiver. The first condition is satisfied when a signal strength of the first signal does not exceed a first threshold and a signal strength of the second signal exceeds a second threshold.
US09083408B2
A communication device for transmitting beamformed signals using implicit channel sounding is described. The communication device includes a processor and instructions stored in memory. The communication device receives one or more sounding signals and computes a channel estimate based on the one or more sounding signals. Frequency offset compensation is applied to the channel estimate by the communication device. The communication device also computes a precoding matrix based on the channel estimate and transmits a beamformed signal using the precoding matrix. Another communication device for receiving beamformed signals using explicit channel sounding is also described. The communication device includes a processor and instructions stored in memory. The communication device receives one or more sounding signals, computes a channel estimate based on the one or more sounding signals and applies amplitude compensation to the channel estimate. The communication device also sends estimated channel data and receives a beamformed signal.
US09083402B2
A front-end circuit includes a power amplifier circuit, a low noise amplifier circuit, a connection switching circuit, a bypass circuit and an attenuation unit. The connection switching circuit switches connections in response to a control signal. The bypass circuit forms a bypass in response to a control signal. The attenuation unit includes a plurality of attenuation circuits. The plurality of attenuation circuits include attenuation circuits. In the case where an antenna terminal is electrically connected to the power amplifier circuit, the attenuation circuits attenuate a branch signal leaked from the transmission signal into a transfer line for transferring the reception signal in response to the control signal. In the case where the antenna terminal is electrically connected to the low noise amplifier circuit, the attenuation circuit attenuates the reception signal in the transfer line in response to the control signal.
US09083391B2
Coupled coil systems and methods are disclosed in which transmitter and receiver inductors, or coils, are coupled in a configuration for wirelessly transferring power among them. In preferred implementations, power may be transmitted and received using temporarily paired coupled coils. One preferred aspect of the invention is that the coils are not permanently affixed in physical proximity to one another, but can be moved and/or interchanged, and that the coils may be used to transmit or receive power based on their real-time relationships to other coils.
US09083383B1
An apparatus is disclosed. In this apparatus, at least one coder block has a parity check matrix. The parity check matrix comprises each element of an H matrix expanded by a Progressive Edge Growth (“PEG”) expansion factor and an Approximate Cycle Extrinsic Message Degree (“ACE”) expansion factor.
US09083380B2
Dual-string digital-to-analog converters (DACs), and related circuits, systems, and methods are disclosed. In embodiments disclosed herein, a primary voltage divider of the dual string-DAC is comprised of at least one adjusting circuit. The adjusting circuit is configured to maintain the ideal voltage of a selected resistor node pair across a secondary voltage divider circuit in response to a primary switch unit selecting a selected resistor node pair. In this manner, impedance isolation is not required between a primary voltage divider and the secondary voltage divider circuit of the dual-string DAC. As a result, as non-limiting examples, the area on an integrated circuit (IC) for a dual-string DAC may be decreased, power consumption of the DAC may be decreased, and/or the dual-string DAC may have increased performance by not requiring a settling time.
US09083374B2
Decomposing a value range of the respective syntax elements into a sequence of n partitions with coding the components of z laying within the respective partitions separately with at least one by VLC coding and with at least one by PIPE or entropy coding is used to greatly increase the compression efficiency at a moderate coding overhead since the coding scheme used may be better adapted to the syntax element statistics. Accordingly, syntax elements are decomposed into a respective number n of source symbols si with i=1 . . . n, the respective number n of source symbols depending on as to which of a sequence of n partitions into which a value range of the respective syntax elements is sub-divided, a value z of the respective syntax elements falls into, so that a sum of values of the respective number of source symbols si yields z, and, if n>1, for all i=1 . . . n−1, the value of si corresponds to a range of the ith partition.
US09083373B2
A system and method for decoding quadrature signals includes a quadrature signal generator, a quadrature signal decoder, a key matrix and a driver. The quadrature signal generator generates quadrature signals on rotation. The quadrature signal decoder is configured to convert the quadrature signals into non-overlapping signals. The key matrix is configured to receive the non-overlapping signals. The driver is configured to scan the key matrix to decode the non-overlapping signals to generate an event update corresponding to a direction of rotation of the quadrature signal generator.
US09083371B2
A capacitive element includes first electrodes and second electrodes that are alternately arranged in a concentric form. Each of the first electrodes and the second electrodes is formed with closed loop form, in at least one wiring layer provided on or above a substrate.
US09083370B2
An A/D converter circuit includes a comparison circuit that performs a process to compare an added signal of a sampled signal of an input signal and a code signal with a D/A output signal, or a process to compare the sampled signal with an added signal of the D/A output signal and the code signal, a control circuit that outputs output data obtained based on successive approximation result data and the code data as A/D conversion data of the input signal, a first D/A converter circuit that D/A converts the data for successive approximation, a second D/A converter circuit that D/A converts code data that changes over time, and a correction section that performs a correction process, to correct the successive approximation result data so as not to overflow due to code shifting using the code data.
US09083358B2
A method and apparatus is provided for providing a phase glitch error filter for a delay lock loop. The device comprises a delay lock loop to provide an output signal based upon a phase difference between a reference signal and a feedback signal. The delay lock loop comprises a filter unit to provide filtering of noise on a phase control signal to substantially reduce a false delay lock loop state.
US09083357B2
A frequency locking system for locking a clock frequency in a CDR circuit without crystal oscillator is provided. Reference data information is inputted into a first low-pass filter; the first low-pass filter is connected to a first swing detector; the first swing detector is connected to a non-inverting terminal of a comparator; an output terminal of the comparator is connected to a charge pump; the charge pump is connected to a first terminal of a capacitor; the capacitor is grounded. The capacitor is also connected to a voltage-controlled oscillator; the voltage-controlled oscillator is connected to a code pattern conversion generator; the code pattern conversion generator is connected to of a second low-pass filter; the second low-pass filter is connected to an input terminal of a second swing detector; an output terminal of the second swing detector is connected to an inverting terminal of the comparator.
US09083350B1
Described herein are methods and system for providing digital non-linear loop control. In one embodiment, system with digital non-linear loop control comprises a parameter control circuit configured to modify a signal based on a control signal, a processing circuit configured to process the signal, and a parameter measurement circuit configured to measure a parameter value of the signal. The system also comprises a digital non-linear control circuit configured to compare the measured parameter value with a desired parameter value, to determine a control signal value based on the comparison using a lookup table (LUT) that characterizes a non-linear control response of the system, and to output the control signal to the parameter control circuit based on the determined control signal value.
US09083344B2
A touch sensor may be formed from a flexible substrate such as a sheet of polymer. The flexible substrate may have a main rectangular portion and a protruding portion. Capacitive touch sensor electrodes may be formed on the upper and lower surfaces of the flexible substrate. Signal lines may be coupled to the touch sensor electrodes. The ends of the signal lines may extend onto the protruding portion. Signal lines may be formed on upper and lower surfaces of the flexible substrate. The signal lines may be coupled to circuitry on a printed circuit using a connector that receives the end of the protruding portion. Ground structures on the protruding portion may be configured to overlap the signal lines or may be laterally interposed between upper surface signal lines and lower surface signal lines.
US09083341B2
A method is disclosed for creating a logic integrated circuit cell from an original logic integrated circuit gate. The method includes combining the original logic integrated circuit cell with a second circuit which takes as input a complement of inputs of the original logic integrated circuit cell and provides as output complements of the output of the original logic integrated circuit cell. The method further includes connecting the combined logic integrated circuit cells, where the outputs of the combined integrated circuit cells provide the inputs for other combined circuit cells such that, when the output of the original logic integrated circuit from a first combined logic integrated circuit cell is connected as input to a second combined logic integrated circuit cell, then the output of the second circuit in the first combined logic integrated circuit cell is always also connected to the second combined logic integrated circuit cell serving as the inverse of the input signals that come from the original logic integrated circuit cell.
US09083327B2
A novel semiconductor device and a method of driving the semiconductor device. A (volatile) node in which data that is rewritten as appropriate by arithmetic processing is held and a node in which the data is stored are electrically connected to each other via a source and a drain of a transistor in which a channel is formed in an oxide semiconductor layer. Then, data and data obtained by inverting the data (inverted data) are stored before supply of power source voltage is stopped, and the two inputs (data) are compared after restart of supply of the power source voltage, so that data obtained by arithmetic processing just before the supply of the power source voltage is stopped is restored.
US09083324B2
A frequency oscillator includes a ring oscillator having N inverters coupled in series, where N is an odd integer equal to three or more. A first filter is coupled between an output node of a first of the inverters and an output line of the frequency oscillator. A second filter is coupled between an output node of a second of the inverters and the output line of the frequency oscillator.
US09083318B2
A digitally controlled oscillator that generates an output frequency according to input data includes a determination unit that determines whether the input data has a value that causes deterioration in a phase noise characteristic of the digitally controlled oscillator, an offset unit that offsets the input data when the input data is determined to have the value that causes deterioration in the phase noise characteristic, and a generating unit that generates the output frequency using the input data after being offset.
US09083317B2
Systems and methods for calibrating antenna tuner device parameters can involve measuring a first signal level of an antenna tuner device, adjusting a tuning setting of the antenna tuner device, measuring one or more adjusted signal levels of the antenna tuner device, determining a level change between the first signal level and the one or more adjusted signal levels, comparing the level change to a predefined reference level change, and adjusting a device setting of the antenna tuner device to compensate for a difference between the level change and the predefined reference level change.
US09083314B2
An elastic wave filter device includes a longitudinally coupled resonator-type elastic wave filter formed on a piezoelectric substrate; and a ladder-type elastic wave filter connected to the resonator-type elastic wave filter. The resonator-type filter includes an input IDT and an output IDT. The ladder-type filter includes a series arm resonator and a parallel arm resonator. A first ground electrode connected to the parallel arm resonator is electrically separated from a second ground electrode connected to at least one of the input IDT and the output IDT.
US09083304B2
A laminated balanced filter includes one unbalanced terminal, two balanced terminals, a ground terminal, an unbalanced-side LC parallel resonator, an intermediate LC parallel resonator, and a balanced-side inductor. The inductor electrode pattern of the balanced-side inductor includes a first portion extending from one end portion to a connection portion and a second portion extending from the other end portion to the connection portion. A direction of a current flowing through the first portion is opposite to a direction of a current flowing through the inductor electrode pattern of the intermediate LC parallel resonator. A direction of a current flowing through the second portion of the balanced-side inductor is the same as a direction of a current flowing through the inductor electrode pattern of the intermediate LC parallel resonator. The laminated balanced filter further includes a coupling capacitor connected between a balanced terminal connected to the first portion and an unbalanced terminal.
US09083301B2
A balance filter includes an unbalanced terminal, a first balanced terminal, a second balanced terminal, a ground terminal, an unbalanced-side coupling coil, a balanced-side coupling coil electromagnetically coupled to the unbalanced-side coupling coil, and an unbalanced-side capacitor. The unbalanced-side capacitor, the unbalanced-side coupling coil, and a portion of the balanced-side coupling coil define an LC parallel resonant circuit. A first end of the balanced-side coupling coil is a terminal having the same polarity as that of a first end of the unbalanced-side coupling coil. A second end of the unbalanced-side coupling coil is connected to the first end of the balanced-side coupling coil.
US09083300B2
This disclosure provides implementations of electromechanical systems resonator structures, devices, apparatus, systems, and related processes. In one aspect, a contour mode resonator device includes a first conductive layer with a plurality of first layer electrodes including a first electrode at which a first input signal can be provided and a second electrode at which a first output signal can be provided. A second conductive layer includes a plurality of second layer electrodes including a first electrode proximate the first electrode of the first conductive layer and a second electrode proximate the second electrode of the first conductive layer. A second signal can be provided at the first electrode or the second electrode of the second conductive layer to cooperate with the first input signal or the first output signal to define a differential signal. A piezoelectric layer is disposed between the first conductive layer and the second conductive layer. The piezoelectric layer includes a piezoelectric material. The piezoelectric layer is substantially oriented in a plane and capable of movement in the plane responsive to an electric field between the first electrodes or the second electrodes.
US09083299B2
A filter of an adjustable frequency response comprises a plurality of filters having a plurality of distinct frequency responses, respectively. These filters receive a common input signal and generate a plurality of intermediate signals, respectively. A multiplexing circuit is used to select one of these intermediate signals as a filtered signal. The multiplexing circuit is controlled by a control signal that is related to a state of the filtered signal.
US09083294B2
System and method embodiments are provided for a multilevel outphasing amplifier architecture with a non-isolating or lossless combiner. The multilevel outphasing amplifier with lossless combiner improves power efficiency in comparison to outphasing amplifiers with lossless combiners. The multilevel outphasing amplifier applies different voltage levels to the power amplifiers (PAs) of the circuit according to the input signal power range. Additionally, tunable reactive compensation is applied to the compensation components (capacitor and inductor) of the lossless combiner as a function of the multilevel voltage setting of the PAs. The efficiency at the back-off region is improved by varying the compensation elements of the lossless combiner along with the drain voltage to the PAs as a function of the input signal power or amplitude.
US09083288B2
The present invention relates to an audio amplification circuit with first and second signal channels which generate first and second digital audio signals with different signal amplifications from a common audio input signal and a method of amplifying a common audio input signal with different signal amplifications to provide first and second digital audio signals with different amplification. The audio amplification circuit is particularly well-adapted for cooperating with an external or integral audio signal controller configured for receipt and processing of the first and second digital audio signals.
US09083283B2
A digital amplifier includes a switch, a driving unit, an input signal detector, a control unit and a delay unit. The switch amplifies a signal input to the digital amplifier. The driving unit turns the switch on and off. The input signal detector detects whether an input signal is input to the digital amplifier. The control unit controls the switch to start switching when a signal is input to the digital amplifier and detected. The control unit controls the switch to stop the switching operation by stopping the driving of the driving unit, when the signal is not input to the digital amplifier and not detected. The delay unit delays an input signal to the digital amplifier by a predetermined time until the switching is started, so as to be transmitted to the switch. The switch amplifies the input signal sent to the digital amplifier via the delay unit.
US09083280B2
A phase detection circuit can include two phase detectors that each generate a non-zero output in response to input signals being aligned in phase. The input signals are based on two periodic signals. The phase detection circuit subtracts the output signal of one phase detector from the output signal of the other phase detector to generate a signal having a zero value when the periodic signals are in phase. Alternatively, a phase detector generates a phase comparison signal indicative of a phase difference between periodic signals. The phase comparison signal has a non-zero value in response to input signals to the phase detector being aligned in phase. The input signals are based on the periodic signals. An output circuit receives the phase comparison signal and generates an output having a zero value in response to the periodic signals being aligned in phase.
US09083279B2
An oscillator using spin transfer torque includes i) a pinned magnetic layer having a fixed magnetization direction, ii) a non-magnetic layer located on the pinned magnetic layer, and iii) a free magnetic layer located on the non-magnetic layer. The pinned magnetic layer includes i) a first part of the fixed magnetic layer and ii) a second part of the fixed magnetic layer located thereon. The first part of the fixed magnetic layer includes i) a first interface in contact with the second part of the fixed magnetic layer and ii) a second surface exposed to an outside while surrounding the first interface.
US09083274B2
Precharging and dynamic braking circuits are presented for multilevel inverter power stages of a power converter with a shared resistor connected to charge a DC bus capacitor with current from the rectifier circuit in a first operating mode and connected in parallel with the capacitor to dissipate power in a dynamic braking mode.
US09083266B2
A fuel cell system (10) includes: a motor (16); a fuel cell (11) and an electrical storage device (13) connected to the motor (16) in parallel with each other; a first voltage converter (12) between the motor (16) and the fuel cell (11); a second voltage converter (14) between the motor (16) and the electrical storage device (13); a load circuit between the motor (16) and both the first (12) and second (14) voltage converters; and a control unit (20). The control unit (20) stops boost operation of the first voltage converter (12) when conditions VFC>VM_min and VFC>VBAT+a whereas the control unit (20) prohibits a stop of the boost operation of the first voltage converter (12) when the conditions are not satisfied, wherein in the conditions, VFC is a fuel cell terminal voltage, VBAT is an electrical storage device terminal voltage and VM_min is a load circuit input terminal voltage, set to minimize a system loss while ensuring a torque required of the motor (16).
US09083263B2
Apparatus to provide a time reference are disclosed herein. An example apparatus disclosed herein includes a resonator. A first cap is coupled to a first side of the resonator to define a first cavity, and a second cap is coupled to a second side of the resonator to define a second cavity. The first cavity and the second cavity provide a first vacuum in which the resonator is to resonate. The resonator, the first cap and the second cap have substantially identical thermal expansion coefficients. The example apparatus also includes a vacuum chamber surrounding the resonator, the first cap and the second cap. The vacuum chamber is to provide a second vacuum in which the resonator, the first cap and the second cap are disposed. A frequency of resonance of the resonator in the first vacuum is to provide a time reference.
US09083262B2
A voltage mode driver circuit able to achieve a larger voltage output swing than its supply voltage. The voltage mode driver circuit is supplemented by a current source or “current booster.” The circuit includes a first inverter, a second inverter, and a current source. The first inverter receives a first input and outputs a signal at a node. The second inverter receives a second input signal and outputs an inverted second input signal at the same node. The current source provides current to the node via a first switch, the first switch receiving an input at a first input where the voltage output swing at the node is larger than a power supply voltage applied to the current source.
US09083260B2
A method of controlling a switching frequency of an inverter, the method comprising the steps of: measuring a signal indicative of a temperature variable at a first switching frequency to determine a measured temperature variable; comparing the measured temperature variable to a first threshold; determining if the measured temperature variable is above the first threshold; if the measured temperature variable is not above the first threshold, calculating the temperature variable at a second switching frequency; if the temperature variable calculated at the second switching frequency is less than the first threshold, setting the switching frequency of the inverter to the second switching frequency.
US09083258B2
A device for improving power efficiency for power factor correction is disclosed, which comprises a primary load, a power module, a power factor correction module, a current source module, and a secondary load. The power module rectifies an alternating current (AC) voltage to a pulsating direct current (DC) voltage. The power factor correction module filters the pulsating direct current (DC) voltage to a driving voltage. The current source module is connected to the power module, the primary load and a side of the power factor correction module that drives the primary load with the driving voltage. The secondary load is connected to another side of the power factor correction module, and is driven by the power factor correction module.
US09083257B2
Disclosed is a power conversion circuit that suppresses the flow of a through current to a switching element based on a normally-on transistor. The power conversion circuit includes a high-side transistor and a low-side transistor, which are series-coupled to each other to form a half-bridge circuit, and two drive circuits, which complementarily drive the gate of the high-side transistor and of the low-side transistor. The high-side transistor is a normally-off transistor. The low-side transistor is a normally-on transistor.
US09083240B2
A DC-DC converter includes: a step-up-or-step-down circuit including a choke coil and step-down and step-up transistor pairs; and a control circuit to control the transistor pairs based on an output voltage, wherein the control circuit includes: a differential triangular wave generation circuit to generate a positive-phase triangular wave signal and a negative-phase triangular wave signal; a switch to select the positive-phase triangular wave signal or the negative-phase triangular wave signal in response to a switching signal; an error detector to output an error signal; a PWM comparator to compare the positive-phase triangular wave signal or the negative-phase triangular wave signal with the error signal to generate a control pulse signal; a switching comparator to compare the error signal with reference potential and generate the switching signal; and a driver control circuit to generate a control signal for the transistor pairs based on the control pulse signal and the switching signal.
US09083239B2
A system and method are disclosed for providing an active current assist with analog bypass for a switcher circuit. An active current assist circuit is coupled to a buck regulator circuit, which includes a switcher circuit, an inductor circuit and a capacitor circuit. The active current assist circuit includes an active current analog bypass control circuit and a current source. The active current analog bypass control circuit receives and uses current limit information, voltage error information, and drop out information to determine a value of assist current that is appropriate for a current operational state of the buck regulator circuit. The active current analog bypass control circuit causes the current source to provide the appropriate value of assist current to the buck regulator circuit.
US09083232B1
Several circuits and methods for input offset control are disclosed. In an embodiment, a input offset control circuit includes a first input circuit and a second input circuit. The first input circuit is configured to operate within first common mode voltage range, configured to provide first input current, and configured to vary the first input current upon or subsequent to a variation of a voltage level in the first common mode voltage range. The second input circuit is coupled to the first input circuit and is configured to operate within second common mode voltage range, configured to provide a second input current, and configured to vary the second input current based on variation of the voltage level in the second common mode voltage range. Upon or subsequent to increasing the common mode voltage, the first input current is reduced and the second input current is increased.
US09083226B2
A brushless motor has a stator and a rotor. The stator has a stator core and stator windings. The stator core has a stator yoke and teeth extending radially inwardly from the stator yoke. The stator windings are formed by concentrated coils wound on the teeth. The rotor has a rotor shaft, a rotor core fixed to the rotor shaft and magnets fixed in slots formed in the rotor core. Each magnet is plate shaped and extends in both axial and radial directions of the rotor and each magnet is magnetically charged across its thickness so that a rotor pole is formed between two adjacent magnets. The ratio of the radial thickness (Y) of the stator yoke to the width (T) of the tooth body is from 0.4 to 0.7.
US09083223B2
An electric D.C. motor, in particular for a cooling fan of a vehicle, has a brush holder. The brush holder has a carrier structure having a plurality of brush cages mounted therein. Brushes, radially displaceable within the brush cages are connected, respectively, to a positive supply terminal and a negative supply terminal. An electric supply connector and a filter for preventing the emission of electromagnetic interference, are associated with the brush holder. Components of the filter, including first and second inductors and at least one capacitor are housed inside the electric supply connector.
US09083212B2
A turbine-generator device for use in electricity generation using heat from industrial processes, renewable energy sources and other sources. The generator may be cooled by introducing into the gap between the rotor and stator liquid that is vaporized or atomized prior to introduction, which liquid is condensed from gases exhausted from the turbine. The turbine has a universal design and so may be relatively easily modified for use in connection with generators having a rated power output in the range of 50 KW to 5 MW. Such modifications are achieved, in part, through use of a modular turbine cartridge built up of discrete rotor and stator plates sized for the desired application with turbine brush seals chosen to accommodate radial rotor movements from the supported generator. The cartridge may be installed and removed from the turbine relatively easily for maintenance or rebuilding. The rotor housing is designed to be relatively easily machined to dimensions that meet desired operating parameters.
US09083210B2
A silicon steel assembly includes a first cover, a second cover, plural tooth members and an outer ring. The second cover has plural recesses. The tooth members are accommodated within respective recesses of the second cover. The first cover, the tooth members and the second cover are combined together to form a combination structure. The outer ring is sheathed around an outer periphery of the combination structure.
US09083207B1
A high-voltage flywheel energy storage system to prevent ionization, plasma formation, and electrical are discharge and corresponding method are provided. The high-voltage flywheel energy storage system prevents ionization, plasma formation, and electrical are discharge by isolating the motor windings and motor end windings from the partial vacuum environment existing in the flywheel housing.
US09083203B2
A beam power source transmits a signal indicating power availability, receives a request for power in response, and beams power in response to the request.
US09083187B2
An electric energy storage apparatus can generate an AC output in a low-loss and low-noise manner without using a DC-DC converter or an inverter. The electric energy storage apparatus comprises: an electric energy storage module group formed by connecting in series electric energy storage modules each comprising one or more electric energy storage elements; a balancing circuit electrically connected to the electric energy storage module group and configured to adjust a voltage to be applied to each of the electric energy storage modules; a first switch group comprising switches each in a path connecting a first terminal and a terminal of one of the series-connected electric energy storage modules; and a second switch group comprising switches each in a path connecting a second terminal and a terminal of one of the series-connected electric energy storage modules. The electric energy storage apparatus may perform a switch changeover in the switch groups.
US09083180B2
A combination AC receptacle and low voltage class 2 power units are provided in a standard single strap flush wall-mount outlet so that portable battery operated electronic devices may be charged without having to use a special AC charger. Ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) and/or arc fault circuit interrupter (AFCI) capabilities are also provided so that this combination AC receptacle and low voltage class 2 power units, e.g., USB receptacles, may used in occupancy locations requiring such protections under current electrical building codes. A standard wall cover plate is used to finish off installation of this flush wall-mount outlet into a wall outlet box. Also a data interface may be provided to allow a PDA or PC to control smart wiring systems through the USB receptacle.
US09083173B2
A power generation and control system is easily installed in a consumer household, a business, or an end-user establishment for generating power and preventing power from flowing to a power grid from a consumer circuit during a power outage. A communications transceiver is adapted to transmit a permission signal for allowing power generation only after the control system has been installed. The control system can be adapted to replace an existing circuit breaker in a household circuit breaker box and prevents power from traveling from consumer power generators to the grid during a power outage. In the same manner that end-users can add appliances to existing circuits, end-users can easily add additional power generation devices without hiring a professional electrician and without worrying about causing harm to utility workman during power outages.
US09083171B2
A ground fault protection device includes an electrically-conductive main body having downwardly-extending, ground-penetrating electrodes configured for minimal ground penetration. The device has one or more grounding terminals for connection of grounding cables, and may have handles for manual transportation. The device may be installed at a desired field location by applying downward force to the device to press the electrodes into the earth, thereby establishing an electrical connection between the grounding terminals and the ground via the main body and the electrodes. Grounding cables may then be connected between the grounding terminals and structures or equipment requiring grounding. Optionally, the main body may define a reservoir having a plurality of drainage ports. The reservoir may be filled with water, which will drip through the drainage ports and moisten the soil surrounding the electrodes, thereby decreasing the soil's electrical resistance and improving electrical conductivity between the electrodes and the soil.
US09083170B2
Embodiments of the invention provide a method of tracing cable through a datacenter. The method causes a cable to emit a radio frequency signal along the length of the cable. One or more structural members have a detection circuit that will illuminate in response to detecting the radio frequency signal with greater than a threshold signal strength, such that the one or more structural members are easy to identify when the detection circuit is illuminated. The one or more structural members may be removed to gain physical access to the cable.
US09083146B1
During temperature tuning, first, the temperature of a third harmonic generating element is swept to determine the optimal temperature Ttp of the third harmonic generating element in a state where the temperature of a second harmonic generating element has been set to a temperature shifted away from the vicinity of the optimal temperature. Next, the temperature of second harmonic generating element is swept to determine the optimal temperature Tsp of the second harmonic generating element in a state where the temperature of the third harmonic generating element has been set to a temperature shifted away from the vicinity of the optimal temperature.
US09083144B2
An adjustable array includes a plurality of optical devices. Each adjustable array device has an optical light output therefrom and is configured whereby the corresponding optical lights of the plurality of optical devices have a predefined nonequivalent relationship relative to one another with respect to an output parameter. In response to a drive signal, the plurality of optical devices are further configured to adjust the corresponding optical lights with respect to the output parameter while substantially maintaining the predefined nonequivalent relationship.
US09083141B2
An optical component includes a multicore optical fiber and an I/O optical fiber. The multicore optical fiber has longitudinally extending cores within a common cladding. The cores are arranged on a circumference of a circle centered at a fiber axis in an end face of the multicore optical fiber. Both end faces of the multicore optical fiber are connected to each other such that the cores of the multicore optical fiber are optically connected to each other. Both end faces of the multicore optical fiber are adapted to rotate relative to each other about the fiber axis.
US09083131B2
A brush holder extends substantially in a radial direction of a commutator. The brush holder includes a first inner side surface and a second inner side surface, which are separate from each other in the axial direction of the commutator. A torsion spring presses portions-to-be-pressed of a brush-rear end, thereby urging the brush toward the commutator. The portions-to-be-pressed are deviated from a brush-center line in the axial direction of the commutator. The brush is urged by the torsion spring, thereby bringing a brush-tip end into contact with the first inner side surface, and bringing the brush-rear end into contact with the second inner side surface.
US09083112B2
The magnetic coupling connector includes: first and second connector main bodies to be coupled with each other; a magnet member disposed in a coupling portion of the first connector main body and a mate-side magnetic material disposed in a coupling portion of the second connector main body, the magnet member in the first connector main body adsorbing onto the mate-side magnetic material in the second connector main body, thereby coupling the connector main bodies together; and a contact terminal disposed in the coupling portion of the first connector main body and a contact terminal disposed in the coupling portion of the second connector main body, the contact terminals being pressed against each other when coupled. In the magnetic coupling connector, the magnet member is held by the first connector main body so as to be allowed to swing.
US09083109B2
A connector cap for use in a portable electronic device including a base; a connector-facing portion formed integrally with the base; and a sealing member formed of an elastic material in a ring-like shape and joined to the base, wherein the connector-facing portion includes a flexible member that has an elongated shape and is configured to extend away from the base and toward an inside of a casing of the portable device, wherein the flexible member is disposed from a position on the connector-facing portion that is within an inner area enclosed by the ring-like shape of the sealing member.
US09083106B2
A receptacle connector adapted to be assembled to a printed circuit board for receiving a plug connector is provided. The receptacle connector includes an insulating base, conductive terminals, a fixing base, and a cover. The insulating base is assembled to a first surface of the printed circuit board and has a recess. The conductive terminals are disposed in the insulating base. Each of the conductive terminals has a contact end. The contact ends are located in the recess. The fixing base is assembled to a second surface of the printed circuit board. The cover is pivoted to the fixing base. The plug connector is adapted for pushing the cover to rotate from a close position to an open position relative to the fixing base. When the cover is at the open position, a receiving space for receiving the plug connector is defined between the cover and the recess.
US09083105B2
A cover module includes a housing provided with a connecting hole, a cover unit disposed in proximity to the connecting hole and movable between closed and open positions that respectively closes and opens the connecting hole, a magnetic member disposed in the housing, a biasing member biasing the cover unit toward the closed position, and a limiting mechanism having a limiting plate cooperating with the housing to define a receiving slot which restricts sliding movement of the magnetic member therewithin. When an electronic component approaches the connecting hole, the magnetic member is magnetically pulled to move toward the connecting hole, simultaneously pushing the cover unit to the open position.
US09083100B2
A connection terminal includes a terminal connection portion to be connected with a partner terminal, a wire connection portion connected with a wire, a neck portion connecting the terminal connection portion and the wire connection portion, and a resin covering portion covering a connection portion of the wire connection portion and the wire. The neck portion has a bottom wall and a pair of side walls installed upright from both sides of the bottom wall and having parallel wall portions equally spaced from each other.
US09083097B2
A cable connection, preferably for photovoltaic systems, having a contact housing and a connection housing. The connection housing can be connected to the contact housing and serves to accommodate a cable which can be configured as required and has a conductor. The connection housing is intended to accommodate the cable which is to be connected and has the conductor. A contact needle for making contact with the conductor of the cable which is to be connected is arranged on the contact housing and a spring device is intended to radially surround the conductor and the contact needle and to press together said conductor and contact needle in a spring-elastic manner.
US09083094B2
A joint connector (10) collectively connects wires to a body (B) of a vehicle. The joint connector (10) has a conductive plate (30) with a main body (31) including a plurality of terminals (32B) to be connected to female terminals at ends of the wires and to be bolt-fastened to the body (B). A housing (20) is arranged around the terminals (32B). The conductive plate (30) includes a coupling portion (32A) for coupling the terminals (32B) to each other, a bolt fastening portion (34) with a bolt hole (35) through which a ground bolt (B2) is to be inserted, a rotation preventing piece (33) at a side of the bolt fastening portion (34) opposite to the coupling (32A) to prevent rotation of the main body (31), and ribs continuous from the rotation preventing piece (33) to the coupling (32A) across the main body (31).
US09083088B2
An intelligent network patch field management system is provided that includes active electronic hardware, firmware, mechanical assemblies, cables, and software that guide, monitor, and report on the process of connecting and disconnecting patch cords plugs in an interconnect or cross-connect patching environment. The system is also capable of monitoring patch cord connections to detect insertions or removals of patch cords or plugs. In addition, the system can map embodiments of patch fields.
US09083084B2
A passive electromagnetic wave reflector for measuring, from a satellite, local strain in a structure located on the Earth's surface, characterized in that it comprises a substantially vertical, relative to the Earth's surface, planar element, the planar element having a rectilinear side making contact with the structure the strain of which is to be measured, said element being aligned with the axis of the Earth's poles, and, fixed to the planar element, a mechanical structure having a first part located on a first side of the planar element and a second part located on a second side of the planar element, opposite the first side, the mechanical structure forming a rectilinear edge that, in combination with the rectilinear side of the planar element, forms a means for holding in position the reflector on the structure the strain of which is to be measured.
US09083074B2
Embodiments of the disclosure provide systems and methods for improving user equipment performance by implementing antenna selection based on measurement of performance parameters of a plurality of antennas. In some embodiments, the antenna parameter measurements comprise radiated power. In other embodiments, the antenna parameter measurements comprise reflected power. In various embodiments, the antenna parameter measurements may be based on data from sensors that are operable to detect operational characteristics of the plurality of antennas based on the proximity of a portion of a user's body to the sensors. The antenna parameter measurements are then used to select one of the antennas within the plurality of antennas for transmitting and receiving data signals by a wireless communication device.
US09083068B2
Ultra-wideband 180° hybrids for feeding a radiator of one band of a dual-band dual-polarization cellular basestation antenna are disclosed. The hybrid comprises: metal plates configured in parallel as groundplanes, and a dielectric substrate disposed between plates. First and second metallizations are implemented on opposite exterior surfaces of substrate and are shorted together to keep metal tracks at same potential to form conductor. Plates and first and second metallizations form first stripline circuit implementing matched splitter with short-circuit shunt stub Sum input port is provided at one end and two output ports are provided at opposite ends. Branches of matched splitter narrow to provide gap between output tracks. Third metallization is disposed within substrate. First, second and third metallizations form second stripline circuit. Tracks of third metallization comprise quarter-length transformers of different widths. Difference input port is provided at one end of second stripline circuit and at short-circuit point of short-circuit shunt stub of first stripline circuit. Metal track extends across gap of first stripline circuit.
US09083067B2
A coaxial conductor structure for the interference-free transmission of a propagable TEM mode of an HF signal wave within at least one band of n frequency bands forming within a dispersion relation.
US09083062B2
High performance battery packs are described especially for use in electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Based on high energy lithium ion battery designs, the battery packs can have pairs of parallel connected batteries to supply an energy capacity at full discharge of at least about 40 kilowatt-hours or in alternative embodiments a set of all series connected batteries that can produce at full discharge at least about 15 kilowatt-hours. In some embodiments, lithium rich positive electrode active materials can be used to form the batteries in which the material comprises a composition approximately represented by a formula xLi2M′O3. (1−x)LiMO2 with x from about 0.05 to about 0.8.
US09083061B2
The present disclosure provides a cable-type secondary battery, comprising: an inner electrode supporter; and a sheet-form laminate of inner electrode-separation layer-outer electrode, spirally wound on the outer surface of the inner electrode supporter, wherein the laminate of inner electrode-separation layer-outer electrode is formed by carrying out compression for the integration of an inner electrode, a separation layer for preventing a short circuit, and an outer electrode. In the cable-type secondary battery of the present disclosure, since the electrodes and the separation layer are adhered to each other and integrated, the separation layer coming into contact with the electrodes absorbs an electrolyte solution to induce the uniform supply of the electrolyte solution into the outer electrode active material layer, thereby enhancing the stability and performances of the cable-type secondary battery.
US09083056B2
A method is provided for manufacturing an electrode that has a porous inorganic layer on the surface of an active material layer and is suitable for constructing a nonaqueous secondary battery with excellent input-output performance. In this manufacturing method, an electrode perform, which has an active material layer (344) consisting primarily of active material particles (42) and supported on a collector (342), is prepared. The water concentration of at least the surface (344a) of the active material layer (344) is adjusted to 100 ppm to 500 ppm. A slurry (S) containing inorganic particles (44), a binder and an organic solvent is coated on the surface (344a) of the active material layer with the water concentration thus adjusted, to form a porous inorganic layer.
US09083050B2
A fuel cell includes an ion conducting membrane having a first side and a second side. Characteristically, the ion conducting membrane has a sufficient amount of a stabilization agent and platinum to inhibit the loss of fluoride from the ion conducting membrane when compared to an ion conducting membrane having the same construction except for the presence of cerium ions.
US09083049B2
A fuel cell comprising: a first layer comprising a first ionomer and an additive, the additive comprising a metal oxide comprising an oxide at least one of of Ce, Mn, V, Pt, Ru, Zr, Ni, Cr, W, Co, Mo, or Sn, and wherein the additive is present in at least 0.1 weight percent of the ionomer is disclosed as one embodiment of the invention, and performance and durability are advantaged wherein one or all of the metal oxide consists essentially nanoparticles.
US09083048B2
One example includes a battery case sealed to retain electrolyte, an electrode disposed in the battery case, the electrode comprising a current collector formed of a framework defining open areas disposed along three axes (“framework”), the framework electrically conductive, with active material disposed in the open areas; a conductor electrically coupled to the electrode and sealingly extending through the battery case to a terminal disposed on an exterior of the battery case, a further electrode disposed in the battery case, a separator disposed between the electrode and the further electrode and a further terminal disposed on the exterior of the battery case and in electrical communication with the further electrode, with the terminal and the further terminal electrically isolated from one another.
US09083035B2
In one aspect, a separator that includes a porous substrate; and a coating layer including an inorganic compound-organic/inorganic binder, and a binder polymer, and a rechargeable lithium battery including the separator is provided.
US09083030B2
There is provided a battery module including a first housing and a second housing, the first housing and the second housing each retaining a plurality of rechargeable batteries electrically connected to each other, the second housing being stacked on the first housing, and at least one of the rechargeable batteries retained by the second housing being coupled with at least one of the rechargeable batteries retained by the first housing; and a connecting member electrically connecting electrode terminals of the at least one rechargeable battery retained by the first housing and the at least one rechargeable battery retained by the second housing.
US09083029B2
A battery pack includes a plurality of battery modules stacked together, at least one of the plurality of battery modules having a plurality of unit battery cells stacked together; and a housing including at least one side support comprising a first support having a longitudinal axis extending in a first direction and a second support having a longitudinal axis extending in a second direction crossing the first direction; and a pair of end plates coupled to respective longitudinal ends of the first support.
US09083028B2
Disclosed herein is a secondary battery pack including an anode and cathode terminal of a battery cell, the anode and cathode terminal being made of a plate-shaped conductive member, and being electrically connected to a PCM, a battery cell having the anode and cathode terminal formed at one end thereof, the battery cell being provided at the end thereof with a thermally welded surplus portion, and a PCM including a PCB having a protection circuit formed thereon, the PCB being provided at one side thereof with a cathode and an anode terminal connection portion and at the other side thereof with an external input and output terminal connection portion, an external input and output terminal electrically connected to the protection circuit of the PCB via the external input and output terminal connection portion of the PCB, and an electrically insulative PCM case.
US09083026B2
Disclosed is an electrolyte membrane-electrode assembly for direct methanol fuel cells, wherein a solid polymer electrolyte membrane is held between a pair of electrodes each composed of a catalyst layer coated over and/or impregnated in a porous supporting body. This electrolyte membrane-electrode assembly for direct methanol fuel cells is characterized in that the solid polymer electrolyte membrane is obtained by irradiating a resin membrane with radiation and graft-polymerizing a radically polymerizable monomer. The electrolyte membrane-electrode assembly for direct methanol fuel cells is further characterized in that the catalyst layer of the anode electrode comprises a catalyst, wherein platinum group metal or platinum-containing alloy particles having a particle size of 5 nm or less are supported by carbon particles, and a solid polymer electrolyte, and the noble metal amount in the catalyst layer of the anode electrode is not more than 5 mg/cm2. By using such a catalyst, there can be obtained a direct methanol fuel cell wherein high output is achieved by using high methanol concentration.
US09083021B2
Disclosed is a method including (a) mixing a precursor of a material for preparing at least one material selected from the group consisting of low crystalline carbon and amorphous carbon with a hydrophilic material including an oxide capable of intercalating and deintercalating ions, followed by purification to prepare a mixture for coating, (b) mixing the mixture for coating with a crystalline carbon-based material to prepare a core-shell precursor in which the mixture for coating is coated on a core including the crystalline carbon-based material, and (c) calcining the core-shell precursor to carbonize the material for preparing the at least one material selected from the group consisting of low crystalline carbon and amorphous carbon into the at least one material selected from the group consisting of low crystalline carbon and amorphous carbon.
US09083020B2
One embodiment of the present invention is a unique reducing gas generator. Another embodiment is a unique method for generating a reducing gas. Other embodiments include apparatuses, systems, devices, hardware, methods, and combinations for generating reducing gas. Further embodiments, forms, features, aspects, benefits, and advantages of the present application will become apparent from the description and figures provided herewith.
US09083016B1
An anode exhaust recycle turbocharger (100) has a turbocharger turbine (102) secured in fluid communication with a compressed oxidant stream within an oxidant inlet line (218) downstream from a compressed oxidant supply (104), and the anode exhaust recycle turbocharger (100) also includes a turbocharger compressor (106) mechanically linked to the turbocharger turbine (102) and secured in fluid communication with a flow of anode exhaust passing through an anode exhaust recycle loop (238) of the solid oxide fuel cell power plant (200). All or a portion of compressed oxidant within an oxidant inlet line (218) drives the turbocharger turbine (102) to thereby compress the anode exhaust stream in the recycle loop (238). A high-temperature, automotive-type turbocharger (100) replaces a recycle loop blower-compressor (52).
US09083014B2
A fuel cell system of the present invention comprises a fuel cell (101); a first heat medium path through which a first heat medium for cooling the fuel cell (101) flows; a first flow control device (107) configured to flow the first heat medium in the first heat medium path; an abnormality detector configured to detect an abnormality; and a controller (110) configured to control the first flow control device (107) such that the fuel cell (101) after shut-down of power generation is cooled with a higher rate in an abnormal shut-down process performed after the abnormality detector detects the abnormality, than in a normal shut-down process.
US09083012B2
A membrane electrode assembly comprises an ion-conducting membrane; a first electrocatalyst layer having a surface facing the membrane; a first electronically-conducting porous gas diffusion substrate facing the other surface of the first electrocatalyst layer; and a first film member interposed between the membrane and the first electrocatalyst layer. The first electrocatalyst layer has an edge region and a central region, and the first film member contacts the edge region and not the central region. A first adhesive layer is present on the surface of the first film member facing the first electrocatalyst layer, and the first adhesive layer adheres the first film member to the first electrocatalyst layer, impregnates through the first electrocatalyst layer, and impregnates into the first gas diffusion substrate.
US09083010B2
A printed energy storage device includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and a separator between the first and the second electrode. At least one of the first electrode, the second electrode, and the separator includes frustules, for example of diatoms. The frustules may have a uniform or substantially uniform property or attribute such as shape, dimension, and/or porosity. A property or attribute of the frustules can also be modified by applying or forming a surface modifying structure and/or material to a surface of the frustules. The frustules may include multiple materials. A membrane for an energy storage device includes frustules. An ink for a printed film includes frustules.
US09083004B2
The present invention provides a light-emitting device and a manufacturing method thereof. The light-emitting device includes: a heat dissipation layer (2), a buffer layer (4) formed on the heat dissipation layer (2), and a light emission unit (6) formed on the buffer layer (4). The heat dissipation layer (2) is made of graphene. The manufacturing method of a light-emitting device according to the present invention makes use of a graphene-made heat dissipation layer to effectively dissipate away heat emitting from the emissive layer of the light emission unit so as to effectively reduce the temperature of the light-emitting device and extend the service life of the light-emitting device. Particularly, when the light-emitting device is a light-emitting diode, the emissive layer thereof is a quantum dot emissive layer for effectively improving color saturation of the light-emitting diode and enhancing color displaying performance of the light-emitting diode.
US09083003B2
An organic light emitting diode display includes a substrate, first electrodes patterned on the substrate, pixel defining layers on the substrate to separate the first electrodes corresponding to pixel units, light emitting layers on the first electrodes and separated corresponding to the pixel units, and a second electrode on the light emitting layers, wherein the pixel defining layers have pores.
US09083001B2
An organic light-emitting diode including a film having a thermal evaporation material and metal particles between a first electrode and a substrate and/or on a second electrode.
US09082997B2
An organic light emitting diode (OLED) display includes a substrate, a light path guide layer formed on the substrate and having an inclined side wall, an organic light emitting diode (OLED) formed on the substrate and the light path guide layer, and a phase transition layer formed on the OLED and formed so as to correspond to the inclined side wall. Therefore, in the OLED display, the phase transition layer is formed in the light path guide layer so that it is possible to minimize external light reflectance increased by the light path guide layer.
US09082987B2
Provided are benzofluorene-based compounds according to the following Formula 1 and an organic light-emitting diode including the same:
US09082979B2
A process for producing an actuator configured to generate powerful ultrasonic waves and that includes a stack of alternating intermediate electrode layers and piezoelectric material layers. The method includes: forming an initial stack of alternating intermediate electrode layers and piezoelectric material layers, each end of the stack being a piezoelectric material layer or an intermediate electrode layer; firmly attaching adjacent layers to one another; cutting the initial stack into elementary blocks; and connecting the intermediate electrode layers together, in each elementary block.
US09082977B1
The present invention provides a piezoelectric film having a higher polarization-disappearance temperature Td and the usage thereof. The piezoelectric film of the present invention comprising an interface layer of (Nax1, Biy1)TiO0.5x1+1.5y1+2-BaTiO3 layer having a (001) orientation only and a piezoelectric layer of a (Nax2, Biy2)TiO0.5x2+1.5y2+2-BaTiO3 layer having a (001) orientation only, where x1 is 0.28-0.43, y1 is 0.49-0.60, x2 is 0.30-0.46, and y2 is 0.51-0.63. The piezoelectric layer is formed on the interface layer. The interface layer contains nickel. The interface layer has a Ni/Ti molar ratio of not less than 0.02.
US09082970B2
A phase-change memory and a semiconductor recording reproducing device capable of reducing consumed power are provided. A SnxTe100-x/Sb2Te3 SL film obtained by depositing a SnxTe100-x film and a Sb2Te3 film layer by layer contains a SnTe/Sb2Te3 superlattice phase formed of SnTe and Sb2Te3, a SnSbTe alloy phase, and a Te phase. The SnTe/Sb2Te3 superlattice phase is diluted by the SnSbTe alloy phase and the Te phase. Here, X of the SnxTe100-x film is represented by 4 at. %≦X≦55 at. %.
US09082967B2
A non-volatile memory device of the present invention comprises a first electrode; a variable resistance layer formed on and above the first electrode; a second electrode formed on and above the variable resistance layer; a side wall protective layer having an insulativity and covering a side wall of the first electrode, a side wall of the variable resistance layer and a side wall of the second electrode; and an electrically-conductive layer which is in contact with the second electrode; wherein the electrically-conductive layer covers an entire of the second electrode and at least a portion of the side wall protective layer located outward relative to the second electrode, when viewed from a thickness direction; and the side wall protective layer extends across the second electrode to a position above an upper end of the second electrode such that an upper end of the side wall protective layer is located above the upper end of the second electrode, when viewed from a side.
US09082963B2
Embodiments are directed to STT MRAM devices. One embodiment of an STT MRAM device includes a reference layer, a tunnel barrier layer, a free layer and one or more conductive vias. The reference layer is configured to have a fixed magnetic moment. In addition, the tunnel barrier layer is configured to enable electrons to tunnel between the reference layer and the free layer through the tunnel barrier layer. The free layer is disposed beneath the tunnel barrier layer and is configured to have an adaptable magnetic moment for the storage of data. The conductive via is disposed beneath the free layer and is connected to an electrode. Further, the conductive via has a width that is smaller than a width of the free layer such that a width of an active STT area for the storage of data in the free layer is defined by the width of the conductive via.
US09082958B2
In certain embodiments, a tunneling magneto-resistive (TMR) sensor includes a sensor stack positioned between a seed layer and a cap layer. The seed layer includes a first buffer layer that includes a non-magnetic nickel alloy. In certain embodiments, a sensor stack includes a top and bottom shield and a seed layer positioned adjacent to the bottom shield. The seed layer has a first buffer layer that includes a nickel alloy.
US09082945B2
A light emitting element unit according to the present invention includes a semiconductor light emitting element that has a surface, a back surface, and a side surface, where the surface or the back surface is a light extracting surface from which light generated inside is emitted, a submount which has a bottom wall and a side wall, has a recess portion defined by the bottom wall and the side wall, and supports the semiconductor light emitting element by the bottom wall in a position in which the light extracting surface is directed upward at the recess portion, and has an inclined surface on the side wall, inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the bottom wall so as to face the side surface of the semiconductor light emitting element, and a light reflecting film formed on the inclined surface of the submount.
US09082944B2
An optoelectronic semiconductor component includes one or a plurality of optoelectonic semiconductor chips, and at least one scattering body including a radiation-transmissive matrix material and embedded therein scattering particles composed of a particle material and which is disposed downstream of at least one of the semiconductor chips, wherein, in the event of a temperature change, a difference in refractive index between the matrix material and the particle material changes, and the difference in refractive index between the matrix material and the particle material at a temperature of 300 K is at most 0.15.
US09082943B2
An optoelectronic package includes an optoelectronic chip, a transparent protection layer and a plurality of pads. The optoelectronic chip has an upper surface and an active area defined on the upper surface. The transparent protection layer is connected to the optoelectronic chip and covers the upper surface. The transparent protection layer touches and is entirely attached to the active area. The pads are electrically connected to the optoelectronic chip.
US09082939B2
The present invention provides a white light source comprising: a light emitting diode (LED) having a light emission peak wavelength in a range of 350 or more and 420 nm or less; and a phosphor layer including four or more types of phosphors and resin, wherein the white light source satisfies a relational equation of: −0.2≦[(P(λ)×V(λ))/(P(λmax1)×V(λmax1))−(B(λ)×V(λ))/(B(λmax2)×V(λmax2))]≦+0.2, assuming that: a light emission spectrum of the white light source is P(λ); a light emission spectrum of black-body radiation having a same color temperature as that of the white light source is B(λ); a spectrum of a spectral luminous efficiency is V(λ); a wavelength at which P(λ)×V(λ) becomes largest is λmax1; and a wavelength at which B(λ)×V(λ) becomes largest is λmax2, and wherein an amount (difference) of chromaticity change on CIE chromaticity diagram from a time of initial lighting up of the white light source to a time after the white light source is continuously lighted up for 6000 hours is less than 0.010. According to the above white light source, there can be provided a white light source capable of reproducing the same light emission spectrum as that of natural light.
US09082931B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor light emitting device includes a stacked structure body, a first electrode, a second electrode, and a dielectric body part. The stacked structure body includes a first semiconductor layer, having a first portion and a second portion juxtaposed with the first portion, a light emitting layer provided on the second portion, a second semiconductor layer provided on the light emitting layer. The first electrode includes a contact part provided on the first portion and contacting the first layer. The second electrode includes a first part provided on the second semiconductor layer and contacting the second layer, and a second part electrically connected with the first part and including a portion overlapping with the contact part when viewed from the first layer toward the second layer. The dielectric body part is provided between the contact part and the second part.
US09082927B1
A tunnel barrier layer in a superconducting device, such as a Josephson junction, is made from catalytically grown silicon dioxide at a low temperature (<100 C, e.g., 20-30 C) that does not facilitate oxidation or silicide formation at the superconducting electrode interface. The tunnel barrier begins as a silicon layer deposited on a superconducting electrode and covered by a thin, oxygen-permeable catalytic layer. Oxygen gas is dissociated on contact with the catalytic layer, and the resulting oxygen atoms pass through the catalytic layer to oxidize the underlying silicon. The reaction self-limits when all the silicon is converted to silicon dioxide.
US09082922B2
A device and related fabrication method is provided for an organic/inorganic hybrid optical amplifier with a function of converting infrared light to visible light. The hybrid device integrates an inorganic heterojunction phototransistor (HPT), an embedded metal electrode mirror with a dual function as an optical mirror and charge injection electrode, and an organic light emitting diode (OLED). This integrated optical amplifier is capable of amplifying the incoming light and producing light emission with a power greater than that of the incoming signal. In the second aspect of the invention, the optical amplifier is capable of detecting an incoming infrared electromagnetic wave and converting the wave back to a visible light wave. The optical device has dual functions of optical power amplification and photon energy up-conversion. The optical amplifier device consists of an InGaAs/InP based HPT structure as photodetector, gold-coated metals as embedded mirror and a top-emission OLED. New optical up-conversion imaging devices are also provided that include focal-point array of the organic/inorganic hybrid optical amplifier devices in pixelated formats. The up-conversion imaging devices have a fast response time to enable gated operation for practical applications such as night vision, active surveillance, semiconductor wafer inspection and eye-safe infrared imaging. More importantly, the up-conversion imaging devices would be particularly useful for detecting ultra-low intensity infrared scenes.
US09082915B2
Described herein is a low-voltage unidirectional bypass element connected across a solar cell and operable to allow current to flow when the operation of the solar cell is suspended. The bypass element includes a single field effect transistor connected between first and second terminals as a switch, and a detection circuit for detecting suspension of the solar cell's operation and activating the switch to bypass the solar cell in the event of its operation suspension. Diodes are connected in parallel with the normally-open switch and receive current, when the solar cell's operation is suspended, to trigger operation of the detection circuit. The detection circuit includes a charge pump, a timer circuit, a control generation unit and a switch control circuit. The switch control circuit generates a control signal to close the switch and to allow current to bypass the solar cell.
US09082905B2
A semiconductor device contains a photodiode formed in a substrate of the semiconductor device. At a top surface of the substrate, over the photodiode, a surface grating of periodic field oxide in a periodic configuration and/or gate structures in a periodic configuration is formed. The field oxide may be formed using an STI process or a LOCOS process. A semiconductor device with a surface grating including both field oxide and gate structures has the gate structures over the semiconductor substrate, between the field oxide. The surface grating has a pitch length up to 3 microns. The surface grating covers at least half of the photodiode.
US09082902B2
A solar cell is provided. The substrate of the solar cell has heavily-doped regions and lightly-doped regions. The anode and the cathode are disposed on the back surface of the substrate, and thus the amount of incident light on the front surface of the substrate is increased. The anode and the cathode are in contact with the heavily doped regions to form selective emitter structure, and thus the contact resistance is reduced. The lightly-doped regions, which are not in contact with the anode and the cathode, have lower saturation current, and thus recombination of hole-electron pairs is reduced, and absorption of infrared light is increased.
US09082901B2
A method for manufacturing a solar cell, comprising steps of: a) providing a semiconductor substrate having a light-receiving side and a back side, wherein a passivation layer is formed on the back side; b) forming a silver conductor pattern on the back side of the semiconductor substrate; c) forming an aluminum conductor pattern on the back side of the semiconductor substrate, at least part of the aluminum conductor pattern being superimposed on at least part of the silver conductor pattern; and d) firing the silver conductor pattern and the aluminum conductor pattern at the same time, thereby forming an electric contact between the semiconductor substrate and the aluminum conductor pattern by way of fire through in a region where the silver conductor pattern and the aluminum conductor pattern are superimposed.
US09082884B2
A Schottky diode has: a semiconductor layer stack including a GaN layer formed over a substrate and an AlGaN layer formed on the GaN layer and having a wider bandgap than the GaN layer; an anode electrode and a cathode electrode which are formed at an interval therebetween on the semiconductor layer stack; and a block layer formed in a region between the anode electrode and the cathode electrode so as to contact the AlGaN layer. A part of the anode electrode is formed on the block layer so as not to contact the surface of the AlGaN layer. The barrier height between the anode electrode and the block layer is greater than that between the anode electrode and the AlGaN layer.
US09082883B2
A method for the manufacture of a package encasing a Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) device provides a cover having a lid and sidewalls with a port extending through the lid. A first base component is bonded to the sidewalls defining an internal cavity. This first base component further includes an aperture extending therethrough. The MEMS device is inserted through the aperture and bonded to the lid with the MEMS device at least partially overlapping the port. Assembly is completed by bonding a second base component to the first base component to seal the aperture. The package so formed has a cover with a lid, sidewalls and a port extending through the lid. A MEMS device is bonded to the lid and electrically interconnected to electrically conductive features disposed on the first base component. A second base component is bonded to the first base component spanning the aperture.
US09082881B1
Semiconductor On Polymer (SOP) is a flexible ultra-thin substrate that can be used as the starting material for CMOS, MEMS or Complex Interconnects such as an interposer. The described process results in a flexible SOP device with open bond pads. After deposition of a liquid polymer onto a semiconductor substrate, the polymer is converted to a solid, creating a new substrate that is temporarily bonded to a carrier wafer. The semiconductor layer is then etched to be ultra-thin and highly uniform, specifically, a single crystalline silicon layer. Following fabrication of devices and interconnects on the polymer substrate, the ultra thin wafer is released from the carrier wafer in substrate form to be used whole or tiled for subsequent assembly. Among other advantages, the flexible format of the SOP substrate enables low resistance 3-D interconnects, and provides for a significant increase in performance due to a reduction in parasitic capacitance.
US09082877B2
A complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) device including a substrate including a first active region and a second active region, wherein each of the first active region and second active region of the substrate are separated by from one another by an isolation region. A n-type semiconductor device is present on the first active region of the substrate, in which the n-type semiconductor device includes a first portion of a gate structure. A p-type semiconductor device is present on the second active region of the substrate, in which the p-type semiconductor device includes a second portion of the gate structure. A connecting gate portion provides electrical connectivity between the first portion of the gate structure and the second portion of the gate structure. Electrical contact to the connecting gate portion is over the isolation region, and is not over the first active region and/or the second active region.
US09082872B2
A TMR stack or a GMR stack, ultimately formed into a sensor or MRAM element, include insertion layers of Fe or iron rich layers of FeX in its ferromagnetic free layer and/or the AP1 layer of its SyAP pinned layer. X is a non-magnetic, metallic element (or elements) chosen from Ta, Hf, V, Co, Mo, Zr, Nb or Ti whose total atom percent is less than 50%. The insertion layers are between 1 and 10 angstroms in thickness, with between 2 and 5 angstroms being preferred and, in the TMR stack, they are inserted adjacent to the interfaces between a tunneling barrier layer and the ferromagnetic free layer or the tunneling barrier layer and the AP1 layer of the SyAP pinned layer in the TMR stack. The insertion layers constrain interdiffusion of B and Ni from CoFeB and NiFe layers and block NiFe crystalline growth.
US09082865B2
A split-gate type nonvolatile memory device includes a semiconductor substrate having a first conductivity type, a deep well having a second conductivity type in the semiconductor substrate, a pocket well having the first conductivity type in the deep well, a source line region having the second conductivity type in the pocket well, an erase gate on the source line region, and a first floating gate and a first control gate stacked sequentially on the pocket well on a side of the erase gate. The pocket well is electrically isolated from the substrate by the deep well, so that a negative voltage applied to the pocket well may not adversely affect operation of other devices formed on the substrate.
US09082864B2
A highly reliable semiconductor device is manufactured by giving stable electric characteristics to a transistor in which an oxide semiconductor film is used. A p-type oxide semiconductor material is contained in an n-type oxide semiconductor film, whereby carriers which are generated in the oxide semiconductor film without intention can be reduced. This is because electrons generated in the n-type oxide semiconductor film without intention are recombined with holes generated in the p-type oxide semiconductor material to disappear. Accordingly, it is possible to reduce carriers which are generated in the oxide semiconductor film without intention.
US09082846B2
Integrated circuits with improved LDMOS structures are provided. An integrated circuit includes a semiconductor substrate, a plurality of shallow trench isolation (STI) regions, each extending at least a first depth below an upper surface of the semiconductor substrate. The STI regions electrically isolate devices fabricated in the semiconductor substrate. The integrated circuit further includes a transistor structure. The transistor structure includes a gate dielectric positioned over a portion of a first one of the plurality of STI regions, a drain region adjacent to the first one of the plurality of STI regions and spaced apart from the gate dielectric, a first gate electrode that extends over a first portion of the gate dielectric, a second gate electrode that extends over a second portion of the gate dielectric and positioned adjacent to the first gate electrode, and a source region positioned adjacent to the first portion of the gate dielectric.
US09082843B2
A semiconductor body has a first side, second side, lateral edge, active area, edge termination between the active area and the lateral edge, and drift region of a first conductivity type. The edge termination includes a step formed in the semiconductor body between the first side and the lateral edge. The step includes a lateral surface extending up to the first side and a bottom surface extending up to the lateral edge. A first doping zone of a second conductivity type is formed in the semiconductor body along the lateral surface of the step and forms a pn-junction with the drift region. A second doping zone of the first conductivity type is formed in the semiconductor body at least along a part of the bottom surface of the step and extends up to the lateral edge, wherein the second doping zone is in contact with the drift region.
US09082838B2
In a first step, a planar silicon layer is formed on a silicon substrate and first and second pillar-shaped silicon layers are formed on the planar silicon layer; a second step includes forming an oxide film hard mask on the first and second pillar-shaped silicon layers, and forming a second oxide film on the planar silicon layer, the second oxide film being thicker than a gate insulating film; and a third step includes forming the gate insulating film around each of the first pillar-shaped silicon layer and the second pillar-shaped silicon layer, forming a metal film and a polysilicon film around the gate insulating film, the polysilicon film having a thickness that is smaller than one half a distance between the first pillar-shaped silicon layer and the second pillar-shaped silicon layer, forming a third resist for forming a gate line, and performing anisotropic etching to form the gate line.
US09082827B2
A semiconductor device including active regions defined in a semiconductor substrate to be non-parallel with a first direction and a second direction which are perpendicular to each other, word lines intersecting active regions and extending in first directions to be spaced apart from each other in the second direction, bit lines crossing over word lines and extending in second directions to be spaced apart from each other in the first direction, first impurity regions disposed in respective ones of central portions of active regions to non-overlap with the word lines, second impurity regions disposed in both ends of each of the active regions to non-overlap with the word lines, and bit line contact plugs disposed between the first impurity regions and the bit lines. The bit line contact plugs having longish shapes including major axes substantially parallel with the second direction and minor axes substantially parallel with the first direction.
US09082823B2
A semiconductor device, includes: a first semiconductor layer having a first conductivity type; a pair of first electrodes arranged to be separated from each other in the first semiconductor layer; a second electrode provided on the first semiconductor layer between the pair of first electrodes with a dielectric film in between; and a pair of connection sections electrically connected to the pair of first electrodes, wherein one or both of the pair of first electrodes are divided into a first region and a second region, the first region and the second region being connected by a bridge section.
US09082822B2
In one embodiment, a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming a transistor including a gate insulator and a gate electrode on a substrate. The method further includes forming an interconnect structure including one or more interconnect layers on the substrate by performing first and second processes one or more times, the first process forming an interconnect layer on the substrate, and the second process processing the interconnect layer into an interconnect pattern. The method further includes annealing the substrate by irradiating the substrate with a microwave, after at least one interconnect layer included in the one or more interconnect layers is processed into an interconnect pattern on the substrate.
US09082821B2
A method for forming a copper interconnection structure includes the steps of forming an opening in an insulating layer, forming a copper alloy layer including a metal element on an inner surface of the opening, and conducting a heat treatment on the copper alloy layer so as to form a barrier layer. An enthalpy of oxide formation for the metal element is lower than the enthalpy of oxide formation for copper. The heat treatment is conducted at temperatures ranging from 327° C. to 427° C. and for a time period ranging from 1 minute to 80 minutes.
US09082817B2
A method includes forming a first epitaxial layer over a semiconductor substrate and etching the first epitaxial layer to form multiple separated first epitaxial regions. The method also includes forming a second epitaxial layer over the etched first epitaxial layer. Each epitaxial layer includes at least one Group III-nitride, and the epitaxial layers collectively form a buffer. The method further includes forming a device layer over the buffer and fabricating a semiconductor device using the device layer. The second epitaxial layer could include second epitaxial regions substantially only on the first epitaxial regions. The second epitaxial layer could also cover the first epitaxial regions and the substrate, and the second epitaxial layer may or may not be etched. The device layer could be formed during the same operation used to form the second epitaxial layer.
US09082810B2
In one embodiment, a semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate, a device portion disposed in the semiconductor substrate, and a junction terminal portion disposed in the semiconductor substrate and having an annular shape surrounding the device portion. The junction terminal portion includes first semiconductor regions of a first conductivity type and second semiconductor regions of a second conductivity type. The first semiconductor regions are adjacent to each other in a circumferential direction of the annular shape of the junction terminal portion, and have a width decreasing with progressing in a direction away from the device portion. The second semiconductor regions are disposed between the first semiconductor regions, and have a width increasing with progressing in the direction away from the device portion.
US09082807B2
A lid opening and closing device includes a table configured to mount a carrier thereon with a front surface of a carrier lid configured to face toward a conveying gateway, a gas injecting hole provided in an opposing surface portion and configured to supply a purge gas used in removing particles adhering to the carrier lid, an advancing/retreating mechanism configured to move the carrier placed on the table toward and away from the opposing surface portion, and a control unit configured to output a control signal such that a purge gas is supplied from the gas injecting hole to the carrier lid, wherein the carrier is positioned such that the distance between the opposing surface portion and the carrier lid is 5 mm or less and the carrier lid and the opposing surface portion are spaced apart from each other, and the carrier lid is subsequently removed from the carrier.
US09082797B2
A substrate processing apparatus capable of increasing the life span of a lamp for heating a substrate is provided. The substrate processing apparatus includes: a light receiving chamber for processing a substrate; a substrate support unit inside the light receiving chamber; a lamp including an electrical wire, and a seal accommodating the electrical wire to hermetically seal the lamp with a gas therein, the lamp irradiating the substrate with a light; a lamp receiving unit outside the light receiving chamber to accommodate the lamp therein, the lamp receiving unit including a lamp connector connected to the lamp to supply an electric current through the electrical wire, a heat absorption member including a material having a thermal conductivity higher than that of the seal, and a base member fixing the heat absorption member; and an external electrical wire connected to the lamp connector to supply current to the lamp connector.
US09082790B2
In some embodiments, a normally on high voltage switch device (“normally on switch device”) incorporates a trench gate terminal and buried doped gate region. In other embodiments, a surface gate controlled normally on high voltage switch device is formed with trench structures and incorporates a surface channel controlled by a surface gate electrode. The surface gate controlled normally on switch device may further incorporate a trench gate electrode and a buried doped gate region to deplete the conducting channel to aid in the turning off of the normally on switch device. The normally on switch devices thus constructed can be readily integrated with MOSFET devices and formed using existing high voltage MOSFET fabrication technologies.
US09082785B2
A high-frequency circuit board capable of easily forming a bias line whose resonance frequency is sufficiently separated from operating frequency is provided. On a high-frequency circuit board 100, by electrically connecting a bias line 11 to a high-frequency circuit 10 using blind via holes 106 and 107, it is possible to limit the route that has a possibility of producing resonance only to the bias line connecting the ends 106a and 107a of the blind via holes 106 and 107 to the bias line 11. By adjusting the route length from the end 106a to the end 107a, it is possible to prevent production of resonance in the vicinity of the operating frequency.
US09082770B2
One or more techniques or systems for forming a damascene gap structure are provided herein. In some embodiments, a gap is formed between a first etch stop layer (ESL) and an ESL seal region. For example, the gap is formed by removing a portion of a low-k (LK) dielectric region above an oxide region and removing the oxide region. In some embodiments, the oxide region below the LK dielectric region facilitates removal of the LK dielectric region, at least because the oxide region enhances a bottom etch rate of a bottom of the LK dielectric region such that the bottom etch rate is similar to a wall etch rate of a wall of the LK dielectric region. In this manner, a damascene gap structure associated with a cleaner gap is provided, for example.
US09082765B2
An integrated circuit structure includes a package component, which includes a dielectric layer and a metal trace over and in contact with the dielectric layer. The dielectric layer includes a first dielectric material and a second dielectric material in the first dielectric material. The first dielectric material is a flowable and curable material. The second dielectric material comprises a functional group selected from the group consisting essentially of (—C—N—), (—C—O—), (—N—C═O), and combinations thereof.
US09082758B2
A semiconductor apparatus includes first and second through vias, a first path setting unit, and a second path setting unit. The first and second through vias connect first and second chips. The first path setting unit connects a first chip circuit to a first input/output terminal, and the second through via to a second input/output terminal. The second path setting unit connects a second chip circuit to the first through via and the second through via, wherein the first through via is connected to the second input/output terminal.
US09082757B2
A stacked semiconductor device includes a first and second semiconductor device having a first major surface and a second major surface opposite the first major surface, the first major surface of the first and second semiconductor devices include active circuitry. The first and second semiconductor devices are stacked so that the first major surface of the first semiconductor device faces the first major surface of the second semiconductor device. At least one continuous conductive via extends from the second major surface of the first semiconductor device to the first major surface of the second semiconductor device. Conductive material fills a cavity adjacent to the contact pad and is in contact with one side of the contact pad. Another side of the contact pad of the first semiconductor device faces and is in contact with another side of the contact pad of the second semiconductor device.
US09082753B2
An electrically conductive lead is formed using a bonding tool. After bonding the wire to a metal surface and extending a length of the wire beyond the bonding tool, the wire is clamped. Movement of the bonding tool imparts a kink to the wire at a location where the wire is fully separated from any metal element other than the bonding tool. A forming element, e.g., an edge or a blade skirt provided at an exterior surface of the bonding tool can help kink the wire. Twisting the wire while tensioning the wire using the bonding tool can cause the wire to break and define an end. The lead then extends from the metal surface to the end, and may exhibits a sign of the torsional force applied thereto.
US09082745B2
A circuit module can include a substrate, photonic conversion units placed on the substrate; and a retention assembly. The retention assembly can include a heat sink in thermal contact with the photonic conversion units and a fastener. The fastener can be mechanically coupled to both the substrate and the heat sink, and configured to press the heat sink against the photonic conversion units. The plurality of photonic conversion units are removably secured to the substrate by the retention assembly without the use of a bonding material.
US09082741B2
A semiconductor device includes a first semiconductor region including a first semiconductor material. The semiconductor device further includes a second semiconductor region adjoining the first semiconductor region. The second semiconductor region includes a second semiconductor material different from the first semiconductor material. The semiconductor device further includes a drift or base zone in the first semiconductor region. The semiconductor device further includes an emitter region in the second semiconductor region. The second semiconductor region includes at least one type of deep-level dopant. A solubility of the at least one type of deep-level dopant is higher in the second semiconductor region than in the first semiconductor region.
US09082739B2
A semiconductor device is provided. First and second pads are electrically connected to a plurality of test structures. Each test structure includes an active region, active patterns, gate electrodes and an electrode pattern. The active region includes a rounded corner portion. The active patterns protrudes from the semiconductor substrate and extends in parallel in a first direction. The gate electrodes crosses over the active patterns in a second direction. One gate electrode is electrically connected to the first pad. The electrode pattern is disposed at a side of the gate electrode electrically connected to the first pad. The electrode pattern is electrically connected to the second pad. The electrode pattern crosses over the active patterns. An overlapping area of the electrode pattern and the active patterns in each test structure is different from an overlapping area of the electrode pattern and the active patterns in other test structures.
US09082730B2
An organic EL display unit is an organic EL display unit which includes a first substrate; an organic EL element which is located on the first substrate, which includes a first electrode, an organic layer containing at least an organic light emitting layer, and a second electrode, and which is configured to emit excitation light; a second substrate; and an optical conversion layer which is located on the second substrate and which is configured to emit light to the outside through a display surface, the light being obtained by conversion of a color tone of the excitation light, the display surface is flat and rectangular, and the second substrate is divided into a plurality of sections along a long side direction of the display surface.
US09082725B2
A pattern forming method is provided for forming a pattern of a multilayer film including insulative films and electrically conductive films stacked together and having a hole formed therein on a substrate with the electrically conductive film being selectively accurately indented from an inner peripheral surface of the hole. The pattern forming method includes the steps of: alternately stacking at least two insulative films and at least two polysilicon films on a substrate to form a multilayer film including the at least two insulative films and the at least two polysilicon films; forming a hole extending through the at least two insulative films and the at least two polysilicon films in the multilayer film; and selectively etching the polysilicon films from a side wall of the hole through isotropic etching by feeding into the hole an etching gas prepared by diluting fluorine-containing halogen gas with an inert gas.
US09082724B2
A lighting device having a novel structure for integration of a plurality of light-emitting elements, and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. In the lighting device, a plurality of light-emitting elements is electrically connected to each other through plugs (connecting members) and a connection wiring for integration. The connection wiring is provided on a counter substrate and the plugs are provided over an element substrate or for the counter substrate. Such a connection structure enables an appropriate electrical connection between the plurality of light-emitting elements in the lighting device.
US09082722B2
A method for forming a semiconductor structure having a transistor device with a control electrode for controlling a flow of carriers between a first electrode and a second electrode. A passivation layer is deposited over the first electrode, the second electrode and the control electrode. An etch stop layer is deposited on the passivation layer over the control electrode. A dielectric layer is formed over the etch stop layer. A window is etched through a selected region in the dielectric layer over the control electrode, to expose a portion of the etch stop layer disposed over the control electrode. A metal layer is formed on a portion of the etch stop layer and the dielectric layer is also formed on the metal layer. A second metal layer is deposited on the portion of the dielectric layer formed on the first mentioned metal layer.
US09082711B2
An organic solar cell module having a transparent substrate; a transparent electrode layer formed on the transparent substrate; a photoelectric conversion layer that is formed in a pattern on the transparent electrode layer and includes plural kinds of photoelectric conversion sections having different absorption wavelength regions; a plurality of back surface electrode layers respectively formed on the photoelectric conversion sections; an insulating layer that is formed so as to cover the plurality of back surface electrode layers and has an opening for each of the photoelectric conversion sections; and a plurality of charge-collecting wirings that are formed on the insulating layer and are disposed so as to be connected to the back surface electrode layers located at the openings of the insulting layer for the respective kinds of the photoelectric conversion sections.
US09082710B2
A chip packaging substrate includes a flexible substrate, a plurality of test pads, and a plurality of leads, wherein the flexible substrate has a first surface and a second surface, and the first surface has a user area and a test pad area configured thereon. The test pads are arranged in at least three rows within the test pad area. The lead connected to the test pad in the middle row includes a first section extending from the chip to the test pad area and a second section disposed on the second surface, wherein one end of the second section penetrates the flexible substrate to connect with the first section and the other end penetrates the flexible substrate to connect with the test pad, so as to increase the dimensions of the test pads.
US09082708B2
Disclosed is a semiconductor device consisting of a lead frame or a circuit board, at least one semiconductor element which is stacked on or mounted in parallel on the lead frame or on the circuit board, a copper wire which electrically connects the lead frame or the circuit board to the semiconductor element, and an encapsulating material which encapsulates the semiconductor element and the copper wire, wherein the wire diameter of the copper wire is equal to or more than 18 μm and equal to or less than 23 μm, the encapsulating material is composed of a cured product of an epoxy resin composition, the epoxy resin composition contains an epoxy resin (A), a curing agent (B), a spherical silica (C), and a metal hydroxide and/or metal hydroxide solid solution (D), and the semiconductor device is obtained through a step of encapsulating by the epoxy resin composition and molding, and then segmenting the resultant into pieces.
US09082704B2
A semiconductor memory device has a cover film (5), between a memory cell (gate electrode 4, and source and drain regions 2a and 2b) and an interlayer insulating film (6), the cover film covering the memory cell, wherein the cover film (5) has a hydrogen storage film (5a) that is a coating film on a surface of a silicon nitride film (5b), and in addition, has a hydrogen storage film (5c) on a bottom surface of the silicon nitride film (5b). The hydrogen storage films (5a and 5b) are silicon nitride oxide films that include Si2N2O. By suppressing diffusion of hydrogen atoms to a memory cell from an interlayer insulating film, reliability of operation of the memory cell is improved.
US09082693B2
A nitride semiconductor based power converting device includes a nitride semiconductor based power transistor, and at least one nitride semiconductor based passive device. The passive device and the power transistor respectively include a channel layer including a first nitride semiconductor material, and a channel supply layer on the channel layer including a second nitride semiconductor material to induce a 2-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at the channel layer. The passive device may be a resistor, an inductor, or a capacitor.
US09082687B2
A method of fabricating templated semiconductor nanowires on a surface of a semiconductor substrate for use in semiconductor device applications is provided. The method includes controlling the spatial placement of the semiconductor nanowires by using an oxygen reactive seed material. The present invention also provides semiconductor structures including semiconductor nanowires. In yet another embodiment, patterning of a compound semiconductor substrate or other like substrate which is capable of forming a compound semiconductor alloy with an oxygen reactive element during a subsequent annealing step is provided. This embodiment provides a patterned substrate that can be used in various applications including, for example, in semiconductor device manufacturing, optoelectronic device manufacturing and solar cell device manufacturing.
US09082685B2
The optical-coupling semiconductor device includes: a primary support plate and a secondary support plate facing each other and spaced apart a predetermined distance; a light emitting device situated on the primary support plate; and a light receiving device including a light receiving surface to receive light from a light emitting surface of the light emitting device. The light emitting device is situated on a surface facing the secondary support plate of the primary support plate so that the light emitting surface is oriented toward the secondary support plate. The light receiving device is situated on a surface facing the primary support plate of the secondary support plate so that the light receiving surface faces the light emitting surface of the light emitting device. The light emitting device is on the light receiving surface of the light receiving device.
US09082684B2
A method for forming germanium tin layers and the resulting embodiments are described. A germanium precursor and a tin precursor are provided to a chamber, and an epitaxial layer of germanium tin is formed on the substrate. The germanium tin layer is selectively deposited on the semiconductor regions of the substrate and can include thickness regions of varying tin and dopant concentrations. The germanium tin layer can be selectively deposited by either alternating or concurrent flow of a halide gas to etch the surface of the substrate.
US09082683B2
A first impurity region is formed by ion implantation through a first opening formed in a mask layer. By depositing a spacer layer on an etching stop layer on which the mask layer has been provided, a mask portion having the mask layer and the spacer layer is formed. By anisotropically etching the spacer layer, a second opening surrounded by a second sidewall is formed in the mask portion. A second impurity region is formed by ion implantation through the second opening. An angle of the second sidewall with respect to a surface is 90°±10° across a height as great as a second depth. Thus, accuracy in extension of an impurity region can be enhanced.
US09082681B2
A micro-sensor device that includes a passivation-protected ASIC module and a micro-sensor module bonded to a patterned cap provides protection for signal conditioning circuitry while allowing one or more sensing elements in the micro-sensor module to be exposed to an ambient environment. According to a method of fabricating the micro-sensor device, the patterned cap can be bonded to the micro-sensor module using a planarizing adhesive that is chemically compatible with the sensing elements. In one embodiment, the adhesive material is the same material used for the dielectric active elements, for example, a photo-sensitive polyimide film.
US09082676B2
A semiconductor device capable of acquiring high-precision range information in a short time is provided. Alternatively, a semiconductor device capable of acquiring the range information and image information concurrently in a short time is provided. The accuracy of range information is increased by performing infrared light irradiation more than once to acquire a detection signal and making infrared light irradiation periods identical and extremely short. By detecting light reflected from substantially the same points of an object by adjacent photodiodes, the accuracy of range information can be maintained even when the object is a moving object. By overlapping a photodiode absorbing visible light and transmitting infrared light with a photodiode absorbing infrared light, range information and image information can be acquired concurrently.
US09082670B2
A semiconductor device includes a transistor, a light-emitting element, a first wiring, a driver circuit having a function of controlling the potential of the first wiring, a second wiring, a first switch, a second switch, a third switch, a fourth switch, a first capacitor, and a second capacitor. One of a source and a drain of the transistor is connected to the light-emitting element. With this structure, voltage applied between the source and the gate of the transistor can be corrected in anticipation of variations in threshold voltage, so that the current supplied to the light-emitting element can be corrected.
US09082667B2
Discussed is a flexible display device to reduce a width of a bezel. The flexible display device includes a substrate being formed of a flexible material, a plurality of gate lines and a plurality of data lines crossing each other, a plurality of pads formed in a pad area of a non-display area, a plurality of links formed in a link area of the non-display area, a plurality of insulation films formed over the entire surface of the substrate, and a first bending hole formed in a bending area of the non-display area, the first bending hole passing through at least one of the insulation films disposed under the link, wherein the bending area is bent such that the pads are disposed on the lower surface of the substrate.
US09082665B2
A fanout line structure of an array substrate includes a plurality of fanout lines arranged on a fanout area of the array substrate, where resistance value of the fanout line is dependent on length of the fanout line. Each of the fanout lines comprises a first conducting film. Resistance values of a first part of fanout lines are less than resistance values of a second part of the fanout lines, and the first part of fanout lines are covered by an additional conducting film. In the fanout lines covered by the additional conducting film, as the resistance value of the fanout line, increases, area of the additional conducting film covering the fanout line correspondingly decreases. An additional capacitor is generated between the additional conducting film and the first conducting film.
US09082663B2
In a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor layer, a conductive layer is formed in contact with a lower portion of the oxide semiconductor layer and treatment for adding an impurity is performed, so that a channel formation region and a pair of low-resistance regions between which the channel formation region is sandwiched are formed in the oxide semiconductor layer in a self-aligned manner. Wiring layers electrically connected to the conductive layer and the low-resistance regions are provided in openings of an insulating layer.
US09082649B2
Disclosed is an under bump metallization structure including a plurality of metal or metal alloy layers formed on chip bond pads with improved reliability due to a sacrificial metal oxide and the methods of making the under bump metallization structures. A barrier layer is formed over a bond pad. A seed layer is formed over the barrier layer. A bump resist pattern is formed exposing an area over the bond pad and a metal layer is electroplated on the seed layer.
US09082646B2
A semiconductor device includes a source region disposed with a semiconductor substrate; a drain region disposed with the semiconductor substrate; a gate region disposed onto the semiconductor substrate and positioned between the source region and the drain region. The semiconductor device also includes a gate oxide region disposed onto the semiconductor substrate in contact with the gate region and a well region implanted onto the semiconductor substrate and under the gate region and the gate oxide region. The gate oxide region has a lower outer edge portion that contacts the well region.
US09082645B2
Parts of electronic components are not exposed to temperature deviating from an appropriate operation temperature range when an electric characteristic test of a semiconductor module having an interposer substrate over which plural kinds of electronic components are mounted is carried out. A heat sink for an electronic component is incorporated in a lid of a test socket used for an electric characteristic test of an MCM. A heat dissipation sheet is attached to part of the bottom face of the heat sink and an adiabatic sheet is attached to another part. The heat dissipation sheet has thermal conductivity larger than the adiabatic sheet and transfers heat generated from an electronic component of a high heat value to the heat sink during operation. The adiabatic sheet inhibits the heat generated from an electronic component of high heat value from being transferred to another electronic component through the heat sink.
US09082640B2
According to an embodiment, a semiconductor storage device includes an SRAM cell. The SRAM cell includes first and second transfer gates each comprising a pass gate. The pass gate includes first and second tunnel transistors. The first tunnel transistor includes a first conductivity type first diffusion region as a source or drain region, a second conductivity type second diffusion region as a drain or source region, and a gate electrode supplied with a control voltage. The second tunnel transistor includes a first conductivity type first diffusion region as a source or drain region, a second conductivity type second diffusion region as a drain or source region electrically connected to the second diffusion region of the first tunnel transistor, and a gate electrode electrically connected to the gate electrode of the first tunnel transistor.
US09082639B2
A drain of a first transistor is formed by performing ion implantation on a semiconductor substrate using a first member as a mask for a gate electrode of the first transistor. Further, ion implantation is performed on the gate electrode of the second transistor after thinning a second member.
US09082638B2
A semiconductor device is made by forming an oxide layer over a substrate and forming a first conductive layer over the oxide layer. The first conductive layer is connected to ground. A second conductive layer is formed over the first conductive layer as a plurality of segments. A third conductive layer is formed over the second conductive layer as a plurality of segments. If the conductive layers are electrically isolated, then a conductive via is formed through these layers. A first segment of the third conductive layer operates as a first passive circuit element. A second segment operates as a second passive circuit element. A third segment is connected to ground and operates as a shield disposed between the first and second segments. The shield has a height at least equal to a height of the passive circuit elements to block cross-talk between the passive circuit elements.
US09082635B2
A wiring method is provided in which an insulating layer is formed on a surface of a semiconductor device 1 of which a plurality of connecting terminals are exposed, a resin film is formed on a surface of the insulating layer, a groove of a depth equal to or exceeding a thickness of the resin film is formed from a surface side of the resin film so that the groove passes in a vicinity of connecting terminals that are to be connected, and furthermore communicating holes which reach the connecting terminals to be connected from this portion that groove passes in the vicinity thereof are formed.
US09082634B2
A stack package includes a cover film, a first package having a first semiconductor chip which is attached to the cover film, a first adhesive member which is formed to seal the first semiconductor chip and a surface of the cover film, and a first circuit pattern which is disposed over the first adhesive member and electrically connected with the first semiconductor chip; a second package disposed over the first package, having a second semiconductor chip which is electrically connected with the first circuit pattern, a second adhesive member which is formed to seal the second semiconductor chip, and a second circuit pattern which is formed over the second adhesive member, and a via formed to pass through the second circuit pattern and the second adhesive member and to be electrically connected with the first circuit pattern and the second circuit pattern.
US09082633B2
An integrated circuit structure can include a first die including a first surface and a second surface and a second die including a first surface and a second surface. The first surface of the first die can be coupled to the second surface of the second die. The integrated circuit structure also can include a heat sink coupled to the first surface of the first die and the first surface of the second die.
US09082630B2
A semiconductor device and a method for fabricating the semiconductor device are provided in the present disclosure. The semiconductor device includes a substrate including a first area and a second area divided by a shallow trench isolation (STI) area, a first dummy structure on the STI area, a second dummy structure located on the STI area, a first semiconductor structure on the first area, and a second semiconductor structure on the second area of the substrate including a high-k dielectric layer and a metal gate layer over the high-k dielectric layer. The method for fabricating the semiconductor device is a high-k dielectric first, high-k metal gate last procedure.
US09082623B2
A FinFET device includes a plurality of FinFET devices formed on a corresponding plurality of fins in a multilevel interconnect semiconductor device. Each source and each drain is coupled to a metal interconnect level by a metal resistive element that is subjacent the lowermost interconnect level. In one embodiment, a metal segment extending over a plurality of the fins includes contacts to each of the fins, thereby providing subjacent metal resistive elements of different lengths. The plurality of fins and subjacent metal segments are arranged such that each of the FinFET devices has the same total resistance provided by the source and drain metal resistive elements, even though the source metal resistive element and drain metal resistive element associated with the fins may have different lengths. The arrangement provides the same turn-on resistance and the same ESD failure current for each FinFET device.
US09082622B2
Ferroic circuit elements that include a set of conductive structures that are at least partially embedded within a ferroic medium are disclosed. The ferroic medium may be a voltage switched dielectric material that includes ferroic particles in accordance with various embodiments. A ferroic circuit element may be at least partially embedded within a substrate in accordance with embodiments of the current invention as an embedded ferroic circuit element. An embedded ferroic circuit element that is an inductor in accordance with embodiments of the current invention may be denoted as an embedded ferroic inductor. An embedded ferroic circuit element that is a capacitor in accordance with embodiments of the current invention may be denoted as an embedded ferroic capacitor.
US09082615B2
The present invention provides a polysilicon manufacturing method that controls a growth direction of polysilicon, including the following steps: (1) forming a first buffer layer (20) on a substrate (10) through deposition; (2) applying a masking operation to form a lens-like structure (22) on a surface of the first buffer layer (20); (3) depositing and forming an amorphous silicon layer (40) on the first buffer layer (20) of which the surface comprises the lens-like structure (22) formed thereon; (4) subjecting the amorphous silicon layer (40) to rinsing; (5) irradiating the amorphous silicon layer (40) with an intense light (50) from the side of the substrate (10) so as to generate a crystal seed at a bottom of the amorphous silicon layer (40); and (6) applying a laser annealing operation to the amorphous silicon layer (40) that comprises a crystal seed generated therein so as to have amorphous silicon contained in the amorphous silicon layer (40) crystallized and forming a polysilicon layer (70). The present invention enables control of the growth direction of polysilicon.
US09082609B2
An electric charge flow element including, on an insulating support, a stack of a first electrode, of a dielectric layer having at least one portion capable of letting charges flow by tunnel effect, and of a second electrode, wherein at least one of the electrodes is made of undoped polysilicon.
US09082590B2
A plasma reactor has an overhead multiple coil inductive plasma source with symmetric and radial RF feeds and cylindrical RF shielding around the symmetric and radial RF feeds. The radial RF feeds are symmetrically fed to the plasma source.
US09082587B2
A method for forming a polished facet between an edge and a face of a sample, involves removing a first portion of the sample by directing an ion beam onto the edge adjacent the first portion along an ion beam axis to leave the polished facet. The ion beam axis lies on an ion beam plane oriented at a glancing incident angle, preferably from 1° to 30°, to a sample plane defined by and parallel to the first face. The ion beam is directed to flow from the edge towards the first face. Also disclosed is a sample preparation apparatus comprising a chamber adapted for evacuation with a sample holder adapted to hold a sample comprising a first face bounded by an edge, and an ion gun arranged to direct an ion beam along an ion beam axis towards the sample.
US09082584B2
The invention relates to a charged particle beam lithography system comprising: a charged particle optical column arranged in a vacuum chamber for projecting a charged particle beam onto a target, wherein the column comprises deflecting means for deflecting the charged particle beam in a deflection direction, a target positioning device comprising a carrier for carrying the target, and a stage for carrying and moving the carrier along a first direction, wherein the first direction is different from the deflection direction, wherein the target positioning device comprises a first actuator for moving the stage in the first direction relative to the charged particle optical column, wherein the carrier is displaceably arranged on the stage and wherein the target positioning device comprises retaining means for retaining the carrier with respect to the stage in a first relative position.
US09082580B2
A magnetic immersion lens apparatus includes an outer pole piece and an inner pole piece with a gap therebetween proximate a common axis of the first and second pole pieces. The outer pole piece has an opening that permits energetic particles from a target in front of the immersion lens to pass through the outer pole piece to an external detector. The outer or inner pole piece has one or more notches near the gap, including at least one notch that expands cone of acceptance through which the energetic particles can pass from the target to the external detector. This abstract is provided to comply with rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
US09082576B2
A contact device (1) includes a base (41), a movable contact member (29) stored inside the base (41), and one or more rotation stoppers (50) formed separately from the movable contact member (29) and provided between the movable contact member (29) and the base (41) so as to regulate a rotation of the movable contact member (29). At least one rotation stopper (50) regulates a movement in one rotating direction of the movable contact member (29).
US09082573B2
Disclosed is a change-over selector with a vacuum arc extinguishing circuit, including a central shaft, a moving contact driven by the central shaft to rotate, and a first static contact and a second static contact circularly arranged on insulation laths of a cage body of the change-over selector, where the moving contact is driven by the central shaft to rotate to switch between the first static contact and the second static contact, the moving contact and the first and second static contacts form a change-over selection main-circuit, a vacuum arc extinguishing sub-circuit including a vacuum tube is connected in parallel to the change-over selection main-circuit, the vacuum tube is opened after the moving contact is separated from the first static contact, and the vacuum tube is closed before the moving contact is electrically connected to the second static contact.
US09082570B2
Electrode sets each composed parallel electrode plates and a slider are arranged in a contact point accommodating chamber formed with wall portions of an upper case and a lower case. A lever of a knob penetrates through a slit hole in a ceiling wall. A tip end of the lever engages blocks in a box portion in the slider. The slider slides while an opening end surface of the box portion makes contact with a lower surface of the ceiling wall surrounding the slit hole. The slider presses a ball urged by a coil spring retained in the box portion press on a swing contact piece supported by a second of the electrode plates to roll thereon, thus switching a conducting state between the second electrode plate, and a first electrode plate and a third electrode plate.
US09082568B2
A switch is shown which has a housing (10, 12), a key (20) that is pivotally mounted on the housing (10, 12), a rocker switch (22) that is assigned to the key (20) and can be actuated by the latter in two directions, so that it is pivoted about two axes spaced apart from each other, and two microswitches (16) that are arranged on the side of the rocker switch (22) facing away from the key (20).
US09082566B2
A backlighting assembly for use in a keypad assembly. The backlighting assembly includes at least one light emitting source configured to emit light; and a light guide assembly configured to receive the emitted light and direct the light toward the at least one key. The light guide assembly includes both a light guide film and a light guide frame for directing light from the light source toward the key(s).
US09082561B2
A circuit breaker arrangement includes at least one pole part for switching an electrical medium to high voltage circuit by a respective pair of fixed and movable electrical contacts. A pushrod of a respective movable electrical contact is operated by a common actuator unit, which is mechanically connected to each pushrod via a transmission mechanism for transferring a switching force from the actuator unit to each pushrod. The transmission mechanism includes a crankshaft having at least one crank which is pivotally attached to one end of a connection rod. An opposite end of the connection rod is pivotally attached to an end of the pushrod of a corresponding pole part.
US09082560B2
A terminal includes a fastener; a conductor member having a plurality of protrusions on a surface thereof facing the fastener; and a collar member. The collar member includes first, second, third and fourth surfaces, a tapped opening on the first surface engaging the fastener, and a conduit between the second and third surfaces. The tapped opening intersects and coincides with the conduit and is normal thereto. The fourth surface is opposite the first surface and contains another opening that intersects and coincides with the conduit. The other opening receives the conductor member. The protrusions and the surface of the conductor member are structured to engage a stranded conductor having a plurality of individual solid conductors. The fastener is structured to engage the stranded conductor.
US09082558B2
The arrangement for supercapacitor device comprises an electrode (1) provided with an electrically conductive element (4). It also comprises a separator element (3) fixed against a first face (4a) of the electrically conductive element (4), the arrangement being perforated with a plurality of through holes (5) which pass through both the electrically conductive element (4) and the separator element (3). The perforated separator element (3) forms a membrane that is both electrically insulating and porous to ions of an electrolyte of the supercapacitor device. The electrically conductive element (4) of the electrode (1) being perforated, the equivalent surface area of the electrodes of the supercapacitor device is dependent on the number of holes made and on their depth.
US09082557B2
There is provided a multilayer ceramic capacitor including a ceramic body including dielectric layers, first and second internal electrodes formed within the ceramic body and disposed to face each other, having the dielectric layer interposed therebetween, first and second electrode layers disposed on outer surfaces of the ceramic body and electrically connected to the first and second internal electrodes, respectively, a conductive resin layer disposed on the first and second electrode layers and containing copper powder, a nickel plating layer disposed on an outer portion of the conductive resin layer, and a copper-nickel alloy layer disposed between the conductive resin layer and the nickel plating layer and having a thickness of 1 to 10 nm.
US09082556B2
A monolithic ceramic capacitor includes a ceramic sintered body including a plurality of stacked ceramic layers, and first and second inner electrodes alternately arranged inside the ceramic sintered body to oppose each other in a stacking direction of the ceramic layers with the ceramic layers interposed between the adjacent first and second inner electrodes. Among the ceramic layers, a number N of the ceramic layers disposed between the first inner electrodes and the second inner electrodes is at least 232. A proportion of volume occupied by the first and second inner electrodes in the ceramic sintered body is at least about 0.37. A size of each of side gap portions is about 40 μm or less.
US09082555B2
Capacitors, apparatus including a capacitor, and methods for forming a capacitor are provided. One such capacitor may include a first conductor a second conductor above the first conductor, and a dielectric between the first conductor and the second conductor. The dielectric does not cover a portion of the first conductor; and the second conductor does not cover the portion of the first conductor not covered by the dielectric.
US09082550B2
A multilayer ceramic capacitor includes flat inner electrodes that are laminated on each other. An interposer includes a substrate that is larger than the multilayer ceramic capacitor. A first mounting electrode to mount the multilayer ceramic capacitor is located on a first principal surface of the substrate, and a first external connection electrode for connection to an external circuit board is located on a second principal surface. A recess is located in a side surface of the interposer. A connecting conductor is located in the wall surface of the recess. The connecting conductor is located at a position spaced apart by a predetermined distance from the side surface of the interposer.
US09082546B2
A method of magnetizing into a permanent magnet comprises placing magnetizing magnetic field applying means to be adjacent to an object to be magnetized into the permanent magnet, and continuing to apply a magnetizing magnetic field to the object by the magnetizing magnetic field applying means while cooling the object from a temperature of its Curie point or above to a temperature of below the Curie point.
US09082541B2
A coil electrical component and a method of manufacturing the same. Magnetic material powder and adhesive powder are mixed in a predetermined proportion to form a solid mixture. The solid mixture and an object, such as a coil or a core material surrounded by the coil, are filled in a mold having a predetermined shape. The solid mixture in the mold is heated such that the magnetic material powder is adhered by the adhesive powder and covers the object, so as to form the coil electrical component. The coil electrical component corresponds in shape to the mold. Therefore, the coil electrical component has stable quality, and can be manufactured with less time and lower cost.
US09082534B2
A material composition for forming a free layer in a STT structure (such as a single or dual MTJ structure) can include CoxFeyMz, where M is a non-magnetic material that assists in forming a good crystalline orientation and matching between the free layer and an MgO interface. The material M preferably either does not segregate to the MgO interface or, if it does segregate to the MgO interface, it does not significantly reduce the PMA of the free layer. The free layer can further include a connecting layer, where M is attracted to the insertion layer during annealing. The free layer can include a graded composition of CoxFeyMz, where z changes within the free layer.
US09082532B2
A ceramic electronic component includes an electronic component body and first and second metal terminals. The electronic component body includes a bare ceramic body and first and second outer electrodes. The first and second outer electrodes of the electronic component body are connected respectively to the first and second metal terminals by solders containing Sn as a main constituent. An alloy layer containing Ni—Sn is provided in at least a portion of a bonding interface between adjacent two of the first and second metal terminals and the first and second outer electrodes.
US09082531B2
A cable and method of forming the cable are presented. The cable contains twisted wire pairs disposed in a cavity defined by a jacket. Each wire has a conductor and an insulator surrounding the conductor. The cable may also contain a spline that separates the twisted wire pairs. At least one of the insulators or the jacket is helically corrugated such that ridges extend radially inward or outward. The ridges of the insulators may be the same or different. The cable is extruded from an extruder. The jacket may contain corrugations after being extruded by the extruder. The cable may be passed through dies to form a helically corrugated jacket. The jacket heated by a heater prior to being passed through the dies, or may pass through the dies while still hot from the extruder.
US09082530B2
A superconducting thin film material exhibiting excellent superconducting properties and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. A superconducting thin film material includes a substrate, and a superconducting film formed on the substrate. The superconducting film includes an MOD layer formed by an MOD process, and a gas-phase-formed layer formed on the MOD layer by a gas-phase process. Since the MOD layer is formed first and then the gas-phase-formed layer is formed in this manner, degradation of the properties of the gas-phase-formed layer due to heat treatment in the step of forming the MOD layer (heat treatment in the MOD process) can be prevented.
US09082522B2
A multilayer Laue Lens includes a compensation layer formed in between a first multilayer section and a second multilayer section. Each of the first and second multilayer sections includes a plurality of alternating layers made of a pair of different materials. Also, the thickness of layers of the first multilayer section is monotonically increased so that a layer adjacent the substrate has a minimum thickness, and the thickness of layers of the second multilayer section is monotonically decreased so that a layer adjacent the compensation layer has a maximum thickness. In particular, the compensation layer of the multilayer Laue lens has an in-plane thickness gradient laterally offset by 90° as compared to other layers in the first and second multilayer sections, thereby eliminating the strict requirement of the placement error.
US09082505B2
A method for triggering an adjustment operation in a dynamic random access memory device, the method including receiving a refresh command, generating an execute signal, counting the execute signal to provide a count value, refreshing a memory array based on the count value and triggering the adjustment operation when the count value reaches a predetermined value.
US09082499B2
A Flash memory device operable under a single-bit or multiple-bit serial protocol is provided with a capability to determine the address boundary condition of an application from the address field of an address boundary configurable (“ABC”) read command. Based on the identified address boundary condition, the Flash memory device may perform multiple sensing of the memory array as required by the ABC read command using optimal internal sense times for each sensing. The number of dummy bytes may be specified for the read command in advance by the user, based on the address boundary of the application and the desired frequency of operation of the Flash memory device. Therefore, Flash memory device read performance is improved both by minimizing the number of dummy bytes in the read command and by optimizing the internal sense times for the read operation.
US09082494B2
Arrays of memory cells having a common gate terminal and methods of operating and forming the same are described herein. As an example, an array of memory cells may include a group of memory cells each having a resistive storage element coupled to a select device. Each select device includes a first terminal, a second terminal, and a gate terminal, where the gate terminal is common to each memory cell of the group.
US09082490B2
An Ultra-low power programming method for N-channel semiconductor Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) is disclosed. In contrast to the grounded voltage at the source electrode of an N-channel semiconductor NVM for the conventional Channel Hot Electron Injection (CHEI) programming, the source electrode in the programming method of the invention is necessarily floating with no voltage bias to prevent applied electrical fields toward the source electrode. The drain electrode of the N-channel semiconductor NVM is reversely biased with a positive voltage VDB relative to the substrate to facilitate the valence band electrons in the P-type substrate to tunnel to the conducting band of the N-type drain electrode. A positive high gate voltage pulse is then applied to the gate electrode of the N-channel semiconductor NVM to collect the surface energetic electrons toward the charge storage material.
US09082485B2
Some embodiments include apparatus and methods having memory cells located in different device levels of a device, at least a portion of a transistor located in a substrate of the device, and a data line coupled to the transistor and the memory cells. The data line can be located between the transistor and the memory cells. Other embodiments including additional apparatus and methods are described.
US09082468B2
High density semiconductor memory devices are provided. The device may include a cell array region including a lower structure, an upper structure, and a selection structure, the selection structure being interposed between the lower and upper structures and including word lines, and a decoding circuit controlling voltages applied to the word lines. The decoding circuit may be configured to apply a first voltage to a pair of the word lines adjacent to each other and to apply a second voltage different from the first voltage to the remaining ones of the word lines, in response to word line address information input thereto.
US09082466B2
Apparatuses and methods for adjusting deactivation voltages are described herein. An example apparatus may include a voltage control circuit. The voltage control circuit may be configured to receive an address and to adjust a deactivation voltage of an access line associated with a target group of memory cells from a first voltage to a second voltage based, at least in part, on the address. In some examples, the first voltage may be lower than the second voltage.
US09082460B2
Improved electronic device protection enclosures are generally described. In an example, an illustrative apparatus for protecting an electronic device is provided. The apparatus includes a drive enclosure structure, a gripping pad, and a deformation mechanism. The drive enclosure structure includes a sidewall. The gripping pad is located on the sidewall and includes a plurality of angled slots. The deformation mechanism is connected to the sidewall and configured to facilitate selective deformation of the gripping pad.
US09082448B2
A disk drive device comprises a chassis, an annular hub having an outer periphery on which a recording disk is to be mounted, and having an inner periphery to which an annular magnet is fastened, a fluid bearing unit that supports the hub in a manner freely rotatable relative to the chassis, an opposing wall formed annularly on the surface of the chassis at the hub side, and facing with at least partially the inner periphery of the hub in the radial direction, a first gap that extends in the axial direction between the inner periphery of the hub and the opposing wall, and a second gap that is continuous from the first gap and extends in the radial direction between the end face of the hub and the chassis.
US09082445B2
Provided is a disc clamping structure, a spindle structure, and an optical disc drive having the disc clamping structure. The disc clamping structure includes a chucking spring comprising a pressing portion pressing an upper surface of the clamper, and elastic portions surrounding the pressing portion and providing an elastic force toward the clamper. The disc clamping structure does not require a magnetic thrust as does the conventional optical disc drive.
US09082444B2
[PROBLEMS] To appropriately form a DTR medium, a patterned medium, or the like in a manner less likely to cause the problems of prolonged process time and increased cost.[MEANS FOR SOLVING PROBLEMS] A perpendicular magnetic recording layer 22 has a plurality of tracks 102 which define recording regions extending in a scanning direction of a magnetic head and which are arranged in parallel in a direction intersecting with the scanning direction. The perpendicular magnetic recording layer 22 has a guard band region 104 formed on its surface and provided with a groove portion 202 which extends along the tracks 102. In a cross-section of the perpendicular magnetic recording layer 22 taken along a plane perpendicular to the scanning direction, the maximum depth D of the groove portion 202 is in the range of 0.5 to 10 nm with reference to an average height (broken line 302) of the tracks 102 between which the groove portion 202 is interposed. The average height is obtained in the vicinity of the centers of the tracks 102 in a widthwise direction. The width W of a region of the groove portion 202 having a depth equal to or greater than ½ of the maximum depth is in the range of 5 to 30% of a track pitch.
US09082428B1
A write head having a main pole having a pole tip proximate an air bearing surface (ABS), the main pole having a leading side and a trailing side. The write head also includes a yoke having a yoke tip recessed from the ABS, and a helical coil wrapped around the main pole and the yoke. The helical coil has a first turn with its front edge at least substantially aligned with the yoke tip.
US09082425B2
A magnetic shield may be capable of enhancing magnetic writing, particularly in transducing elements accessing data bits from data tracks. At least one magnetic shield is adjacent a write pole. The shield has a flux concentration feature on an air bearing surface (ABS) capable of enhancing magnetic undershoot between the shield and the write pole.
US09082422B2
A magnetic head includes a main pole, a write shield, and first and second nonmagnetic layers. The main pole has a top surface including an inclined surface portion. The write shield includes an inclined portion facing toward the top surface of the main pole. The first nonmagnetic layer is interposed between the inclined surface portion and the inclined portion. The second nonmagnetic layer is interposed between the first nonmagnetic layer and the inclined portion. The first nonmagnetic layer has a first front end located in a medium facing surface. The second nonmagnetic layer has a second front end that is located closest to but at a distance from the medium facing surface.
US09082413B2
A computer program product comprises computer usable program code for receiving data describing a proposed electronic transaction between first and second communications devices. Additional computer usable program code is provided for generating a first audio signal by sound detected by a first microphone of the first communications device, and for generating a second audio signal by sound detected by a second microphone that is part of the second communications device. Still further computer usable program code provides for authenticating that the first communications device and the second communications device are in the same proximity in response to determining that the first and second audio signals were produced by the same sound event, and for completing the proposed electronic transaction between the first and second communications device in response to authenticating that the first and second communications devices are in close proximity.
US09082412B2
Disclosed is a decoder capable of improving the sound quality of a decoded sound signal in an encoding method which combines speech encoding and music encoding in a hierarchical structure. A transform-encoding decoding unit (202) decodes transform-encoded data to generate a spectrum of a decoded transform-encoded signal. A band decision unit (203) uses the spectrum of the decoded transform-encoded signal to decide whether each of a plurality of bands in which frequency components of an input signal are divided constitute a first band in which a transform encoded pulse is not established or a second band in which said pulse is established. A CELP component suppression unit (207) suppresses the spectrum of a CELP decoded signal, which is the frequency component of a decoded signal of CELP encoded data, to the extent that suppression in the first band is weaker than suppression in the second band.
US09082408B2
An automatic speech recognition system includes an audio capture component, a speech recognition processing component, and a result processing component which are distributed among two or more logical devices and/or two or more physical devices. In particular, the audio capture component may be located on a different logical device and/or physical device from the result processing component. For example, the audio capture component may be on a computer connected to a microphone into which a user speaks, while the result processing component may be on a terminal server which receives speech recognition results from a speech recognition processing server.
US09082406B2
A dialog system that includes a dialog manager to manage a conversation between the dialog system and a user, and to associate the conversation with a complex activity, and a plan engine to execute a plan script in connection with the complex activity, the plan script including a set of atomic dialog activities and logic to control a data and sequence flow of the atomic dialog activities, the set of atomic dialog activities being sub-activities of the complex activity, the complex activity being specified via a declarative activity specification language that connects the atomic dialog activities with a process.
US09082402B2
A method for assisting a user with one or more desired tasks is disclosed. For example, an executable, generic language understanding module and an executable, generic task reasoning module are provided for execution in the computer processing system. A set of run-time specifications is provided to the generic language understanding module and the generic task reasoning module, comprising one or more models specific to a domain. A language input is then received from a user, an intention of the user is determined with respect to one or more desired tasks, and the user is assisted with the one or more desired tasks, in accordance with the intention of the user.
US09082389B2
A feed forward active noise cancellation (ANC) system for use in a portable audio device has an adaptive digital filter and a reference microphone. A non-adaptive pre-shaping digital filter has an input coupled to the reference microphone and is in series with, and in front of, the adaptive filter. The pre-shaping filter is minimum phase and presents at least 2 dB more gain over a low audio frequency band than over a high audio frequency band. This may help compensate for low frequency band difficulties, and may thereby extend ANC bandwidth at the low end without a worsening impact on the high end. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US09082377B2
A bass drum lifter is provided with a drum connection member, a pedal connection member including a lift portion, and a long screw for rotationally connecting the pedal connection member and the drum connection member to each other. The pedal connection member is rotational around the axis of the long screw between a storage position in the vicinity of a shell of a bass drum and a use position at which the bass drum is lifted up by the lift portion. The long screw is arranged in the vicinity of the shell and in the vicinity of the batter head.
US09082376B1
A snare assembly tensioning and locking mechanism for holding snare wires in either a contact or non-contact position against a bottom drum head of a snare drum. The mechanism uses a lever mounted horseshoe shaped clip including surface bumps or protrusions that, when the lever is in an upward and locked position, engage a set of complementary notches on a surrounding peripheral surface of a snare wire tension adjusting knob. In alternate embodiments, the locking lever may pivot toward the drum or in a direction tangential to the drum. In this manner, the snare wires are held in tension against inadvertent loosening of the tension adjusting knob while the drum is played.
US09082374B2
An ergonomic electric guitar includes a neck frets, a plurality of strings, and a body. The body includes a bridge having a nominal string anchor point for the strings, an upper bass bout including a front strap attachment mechanism having a front strap attachment point that is disposed within a predefined region. The body also includes a rear strap attachment mechanism having a rear strap attachment point disposed within a predefined region and a lower bass bout including a generally wedge-shaped region disposed between a medial portion of a front face of the lower bass bout and extending to a peripheral side wall of the lower bass bout and the lower bass bout extends substantially beyond a first arc and is substantially within a second arc. The strings extend in a first direction from the bridge to a distal portion of the neck.
US09082363B2
A driving device is configured for driving a display panel and includes a data driver, a plurality of switches, and an image determiner. The switch is electrically coupled between data lines of a first data line group. The data driver is configured to output data signals to the data lines of the first data line group. The data signals transferred by the data lines of the first data line group include a plurality of pulse transitions while the display panel displays an image. The image determiner is configured to determine the image displayed by the display panel and output a driving signal based on a determined result for activating a corresponding switch such that the data lines of the first data line group can perform charge sharing therebetween. Furthermore, a method for driving a display panel is disclosed herein.
US09082352B2
A driving method for an electro-phoretic display apparatus is disclosed. The method includes generating a common voltage by a common voltage generator held at a first voltage level before a polarity transfer, generating the common voltage held at a second voltage level when the polarity transfer starts during a first timing period, and generating the common voltage transfers held at a third voltage level during a second timing period after the first timing period, in which the second voltage level is between the first and the third voltageE levels.
US09082351B2
A method of driving an electrophoretic display apparatus, wherein during displaying an image on the display unit, executing a pixel electrode pulse driving in which a pulse periodically alternating between first and second potentials is input to the pixel electrode corresponding to the pixel of which a display state is changed, the first or second potential is input to the pixel electrode corresponding to the pixel of which a display state is not to be changed, and a potential equal to that of the pixel electrode corresponding to the pixel of which a display state is not to be changed is input to the common electrode.
US09082348B2
Methods and devices for scrolling a display page are described. In one aspect, the present application describes a method implemented by a processor of an electronic device. The electronic device has a display and an input interface. The method includes: displaying a first portion of a display page on the display; receiving, via the input interface, a scrolling command to scroll the display page in a first direction; and, while receiving the scrolling command: determining that an edge of the display page is reached, and in response to determining that the edge of the display page is reached, maintaining the edge of the display page on the display and graphically tilting the display page inwards.
US09082347B2
A projection display may use pulse width modulation wherein the duty cycle may be varied. This duty cycle variation may improve bit depth in some embodiments. For example, on alternate frames, the duty cycle may be reduced by a given percentage.
US09082345B2
A display device according to the present invention includes pixel units. Each of the pixel units is made up of N consecutive pixels. One of N (N≧3) colors including R (red), G (green) and B (blue) is assigned to each of the N pixels. Each of the N pixels includes a sampling transistor Ms, drive transistor Md, holding capacitor Cs and light-emitting element (organic light-emitting diode OLED). Of the N pixels, a specific color pixel that is susceptible to a dark dot (e.g., B) or that has the highest relative luminosity factor (e.g., G) has more sets of pixel circuit elements including the drive transistor Md, holding capacitor Cs and organic light-emitting diode OLED than other color pixels and has two or more sets thereof.
US09082336B2
A luminescence shock avoidance algorithm selectively limits the brightness level of a display device when the display device is activated in a dark environment to prevent the temporary vision impairment that can occur when a display device is activated in a dark environment. The algorithm receives the state of the display (e.g. on or in standby mode), and can optionally receive an ambient lighting value from an ambient light sensor and a user-selectable manual brightness adjustment setting to determine whether luminescence shock avoidance should even be triggered, and if it is triggered, how much should the brightness level of the display be limited.
US09082334B2
A system and method for increasing perceived contrast in a medical display is provided. The method involves temporarily increasing luminance output of at least part of a display in response to a received request for improved visualization. To compensate for the change in luminance especially while the viewer's eyes adapt to the change in luminance, the method includes continuously modifying the display parameters especially during an adaptation period to match an adaptation of the viewer's eyes. The modified parameters at any given may correlate to the degree of adaptation by the viewer's eyes to the change. After a period of time, the display may be returned to its normal operating luminance and corresponding settings, which may be selected to maximize the lifetime of the display.
US09082329B2
The present invention provides a display panel and a 3D display device. The display panel comprising: a first substrate comprising multiple data lines, multiple scan lines, and multiple pixel units, wherein the pixel unit comprising three sub-pixel units, and each of the sub-pixel units electrically connects to the same data line sequentially, and each of the sub-pixel units electrically connects to the corresponding scan line, and the scan line corresponding to at least one of the sub-pixel unit and the scan line corresponding to the first sub-pixel unit of the adjacent next pixel unit are disposed side by side; and a second substrate disposed correspondingly to the first substrate and comprising a first black matrix disposed correspondingly to the scan lines. In the present invention, the scan lines corresponding to the multiple sub-pixels are disposed side by side such that increasing the width of the first black matrix between adjacent pixel units and vertical viewing angle and do not reduce the aperture ratio.
US09082324B1
A device for securing a sign to a mullion is provided. The device includes first and second body portions, and a tensioner operatively uniting same. The first body portion is characterized by adjacent mullion receiving elements and a sign support structure. A first mullion receiving element includes a substantially planar member receivable adjacent a mullion face. A second mullion receiving element extends from the first mullion receiving element for tensioned engagement with a first lateral mullion surface of opposingly paired lateral mullion surfaces adjacent the mullion face. The sign support structure is spaced apart and extends from the first mullion receiving element so as to thereby delimit a channel passing between the sign support structure and the first mullion receiving element. The second device portion is slidingly receivable within the channel of the first device body portion and is characterized by a mullion receiving element for tensioned engagement with a second lateral mullion surface of opposingly paired lateral mullion surfaces adjacent the mullion face. The tensioner is operable to draw the mullion receiving element of the second body portion towards the second mullion receiving element of the first body portion.
US09082323B1
A display system includes a bracket and a sign. The bracket includes a base and a reception portion coupled to the base. The reception portion includes a first sidewall, a second sidewall, and an intermediate wall. The first sidewall and the second sidewall each extend from opposing longitudinal sides of the intermediate wall over the base. The sign includes a front panel, a rear panel, and a bottom panel, the rear panel being spaced from the front panel to define a cavity between the front panel and the rear panel. The bottom panel defines an aperture. The reception portion of the bracket slides into the cavity via the aperture, and each of the first sidewall and the second sidewall of the reception portion abuts an internal surface of a different one of the first panel and the second panel of the sign to frictionally maintain the sign above the base.
US09082321B2
A receipt and label roll comprises a core and a web having a longitudinally-extending axis and wound on the core along the axis. The web includes (i) a substrate having a front side and a back side opposite the front side, (ii) a thermally-sensitive coating disposed on the front side of the substrate, (iii) adhesive disposed on a portion of the back side of the substrate along the web axis, and (iv) a release coating disposed on the front side of the substrate along the web axis to prevent the adhesive from sticking to the front side of the substrate when the web is wound on the core. The web further includes (v) a longitudinal weakened structure extending along a direction parallel to the web axis and dividing the web into a first web portion on which the adhesive is disposed and a second web portion which is substantially devoid of adhesive.
US09082320B2
An organic release agent is vacuum deposited over a substrate and surface treated with a plasma or ion-beam source in a gas rich in oxygen-based functional groups to harden a very thin layer of the surface of the deposited layer in a passivating environment. Aluminum is subsequently vacuum deposited onto the hardened release layer to form a very flat and specular thin film. The film is exposed to a plasma gas containing oxygen or nitrogen to passivate its surface. The resulting product is separated from the substrate, crushed to brake up the film into aluminum flakes, and mixed in a solvent to separate the still extractable release layer from the aluminum flakes. The surface treatment of the release layer greatly reduces wrinkles in the flakes, improving the optical chracteristics of the flakes. The passivation of the flake material virtually eliminates subsequent corrosion from exposure to moisture.
US09082315B2
A surrounding bird view image generation method for use in an automobile-side device of an articulated vehicle is provided. The articulated vehicle includes a first body part, a second body part and a connection part. The proceeding directions of the first and the second body parts form an angle. The image processing method includes the steps of: storing an angle-to-surrounding-image model table; detecting an angle and providing an angle measurement; accessing the angle-to-surrounding-image model table to obtain a selected angle and a selected surrounding image model corresponding to the angle measurement; capturing 6 adjacent images corresponding to the surrounding of the vehicle body by the image capturers disposed on the 6 surrounding sides of the articulated vehicle; obtaining a practical operating surrounding image by processing the first to the sixth images with the selected surrounding image model.
US09082312B2
A physical activity instructional apparatus that enables at least audio instruction, detection of movement and audio feedback based on the detected movement during the performance of a sequence of positions or moves. Embodiments enable a human to learn a sequence of martial arts moves, dance steps, yoga positions, golf, tennis or baseball swing, or any other type of physical activity involving a sequence of positions or moves, for example while being prompted to perform the positions or moves in sequence. Embodiments may utilize a mobile device that includes at least an audio output and which then detects movement and then provides audio or tactile feedback based on that movement to inform the student as to the correct or incorrect performance, for example without requiring a visual display.
US09082310B2
A computer-based system includes a computer-processable definition of a region in a data set. The system identifies a region of the data set based on the definition of the region. The system provides output to a user representing a question and the identified region of the data set. The system may also automatically generate an answer to the question based on the question and the data set, and provide output to the user representing the answer. The system may generate the answer based on a subset of the data set, and provide output to the user representing the subset of the data set. The user may provide feedback on the first answer to the system, which the system may use to improve subsequent answers to the same and other questions, and to disable the system's automatic question-answering function in response to disagreement between the user and the system.
US09082300B2
A method and process of an optimized, derivational risk-based air traffic control system state capitalizing on data exchange and interactive surveillance modalities with satellite functionality. Data interrogation will exchange operationally relevant real-time information amongst users and regulators, and a computer complex wherein data exchanges accumulate for application of risk model criterion and sovereign requirements. The risk model compares optimization of the system state with current state and communicated intent, making value judgments concerning safety and efficiency of the system as a whole and at intervals over time. Intuitive localization “swabs” reflecting collision potential, upset potential and other risks associated with any operation of air traffic control objects, manifest this. Localization solution set information is transmitted where necessary for implementation and may be proximity assurance tasks or operational requirements that must be performed within defined boundaries creating non-risk adverse associations.
US09082294B2
An apparatus for transporting resource usage data, including narrowband receivers and a controller. The narrowband receivers are deployed geographically within a grid, where the narrowband receivers receive transmissions from a least one of a plurality of transmitting devices, and where each of the plurality of transmitting devices transmits identical data on each of a plurality of frequency bands that are hopped according to a hopping sequence, and where the hopping sequence is initially unknown to the plurality of narrowband receivers. The controller is coupled to the narrowband receivers, and is configured to control the narrowband receivers such that the each of the plurality of transmitting devices is identified, and is configured to control narrowband receivers such that corresponding data from the each of the transmitting devices is received on at least one of the plurality of frequency bands.
US09082290B2
The present invention relates to a system for measuring ambient conditions in venues using a number of real-time signals, including sound, temperature, light, motion, water usage, vibration, infrared signal and others. Ambient signal data is transmitted to a cloud-based application that stores the signal levels in a database and presents the information in a visual format for use by venues and by consumers. The system can, among other things, provide an overall measure of crowd activity in a venue.
US09082282B1
An alert may provide a user with notification when a trigger condition regarding the operation of an enterprise is satisfied. Prior to setting the alert, a proposed alert with the trigger condition may be received. The trigger condition may be compared with a database of operational data related to operation of the enterprise over a period of time to obtain historical trigger data. The historical trigger data may indicate how the proposed alert would have functioned if applied to the operational data for the period of time, for example, by indicating how many times the alert would have been triggered during the period of time. The historical trigger data may be provided to a user, and may facilitate user determination of whether the proposed alert will perform as desired. Once the desired proposed alert has been entered, the user may set the proposed alert as an actual alert.
US09082281B2
A device and system for electronically tracking one or more objects, such as tools or equipment is provided. The tool locator device and system of the present invention provides an electronic checklist specially designed to keep track of a set of tools or accessories.
US09082280B2
A security assembly for a hole saw having a body and cap includes a generally cylindrical body configured to fit within a cavity of the hole saw. The cylindrical body includes a side wall portion and a base portion coupled to the side wall portion. The security assembly also includes a security tag housing coupled to the base portion. Tthe security tag housing defines a receptacle for housing a security tag.
US09082276B2
A pressure detection system is provided. The pressure detection system may include an enclosure that houses a pressure sensor, a type selector and a thickness selector. The pressure sensor may be adapted to produce output representative of the pressure on a barrier. The pressure sensor may include a computer electronically connected to the type selector and the thickness selector. The computer may be adapted to determine a threshold pressure that is related to the minimum amount of pressure needed to break a barrier for a given barrier type and a given barrier thickness. The pressure sensor may be adapted to transmit an alarm signal when the output of the pressure sensor may exceed the threshold pressure. A user may install the enclosure on the barrier. The user may then select the given barrier type from a group of predetermined options on the type selector. The user may then select the given barrier thickness from a group of predetermined options on the thickness selector.
US09082274B2
An odor generation alarm and a method for informing an unusual situation having a high attention attracting effect and a high degree of safety are provided. An odor generation alarm includes an odorant receptacle, a drive section, a detector and a circuit section which is a controller. The odorant receptacle contains an odorant. A concentration of the odorant in air at which a person can no longer tolerate a strength of smell is lower than a no observed effect concentration of the odorant. The drive section causes the odorant to be emitted from the odorant receptacle. The detector detects occurrence of an unusual situation, and outputs a detection signal. When the detection signal from the detector is inputted, the controller causes the drive section to emit the odorant in accordance with the detection signal.
US09082271B2
A methods and systems for generating customized audio alerts are described. The method includes identifying occurrence of an event on a communication device. The event is associated with at least one attributes. The at least one attribute associated with the event is compared with user-defined attributes. Further, a customized audio alert is generated on the communication device based on the comparing.
US09082269B2
Locating devices and systems providing haptic tactile feedback are disclosed. In one embodiment, a locator includes a haptic handle configured to provide directional signals through an operator's sense of touch to aid in locating and tracing a buried conductor or other object such as a pipe or cable.
US09082268B2
An electric communication unit to be placed on a person's skin. The electric communication unit includes a support element, a series of body contacts, and a pulse generator. The pulse generator generates a series of pulses and transmits the series of pulses to the series of body contacts, the series of body contacts being provided to transmit the series of pulses onto the skin of the person. The electric communication unit is in the form of a patch.
US09082267B2
A near field communications enabled mobile communication is used to provide or receive information.
US09082266B2
A gaming machine has a symbol display region composed of cell columns, where cells are continuously disposed in each cell column. Symbols are displayed on each cell column in such a manner that one or more symbols correspond to one of the cells. The gaming machine comprises: a symbol movement control unit that makes each symbol column move along each cell column where a symbol is changed in turn according to an alignment order of the symbols, and makes each symbol column stop; a prize winning determination unit; and a dividend generation unit. The symbol movement control unit comprises: a symbol check unit that determines whether a symbol reaching a filtering position is a specific symbol; and a specific symbol control unit that generates a specific change different from a change to be generated according to the alignment order when the specific symbol reaches the filtering position.
US09082265B2
Provided is a gaming machine in which elaborate presentation effects for rearranging wild symbols are devised and which has a high game feeling. In the gaming machine, when the wild symbols are rearranged in a plurality of columns, on the condition that winning has occurred in a drawing, premium presentation effects are performed. When it is determined that the wild symbols are rearranged in the plurality of columns, the wild symbols are rearranged in each one column when the character appears at one time.
US09082264B2
Provided is a gaming machine in which elaborate presentation effects for rearranging symbols are rearranged are devised and which has a high game feeling. In the gaming machine 1, upon rearranging wild symbols in a plurality of columns, instead of randomly rearranging the wild symbols, when a plurality of wild symbols to be rearranged in the same one column, a character is caused to appear at one time with respect to the plurality of wild symbols, thereby rearranging the plurality of wild symbols.
US09082257B2
Gaming systems and methods providing a community selection game providing bonus game selection. In one embodiment, for each gaming device in the gaming system, when a triggering event occurs, the gaming system provides a player of that gaming device with a player identifier that uniquely identifies that player. The community selection game includes a plurality of bonus game identifiers each identifying a bonus game. The bonus game identifiers each include a limited quantity of bonus game player identifier display areas. The gaming system enables the players to place earned or received player identifiers at the bonus game player identifier display areas. When each bonus game player identifier display area of one of the displayed bonus game identifiers displays a player identifier, the players associated with those player identifiers are provided with one or more plays of the bonus game identified by that bonus game identifier.
US09082255B2
In the game machine which is provided with a lottery device which executes a lottery and causes a predetermined privilege when a predetermined condition is satisfied and a control unit, the control unit receives applications for participation of a plurality of players in a lottery by the lottery device on a condition of paying chips, executes a lottery by the lottery device when a total of the number of chips paid by the plurality of players whose applications for participation have been received reaches a predetermined specified number, and distributes a privilege decided by the lottery device according to a ratio of the number of chips paid by each player whose application for participation has been received.
US09082250B2
An automatic drug dispenser comprises: a non-filled tray unit for holding vacant trays, a drug feeding unit for feeding a stored drug to a tray in accordance with a pharmacist's instruction, a printer unit for outputting a printed sheet and feeding the printed sheet to the tray; a filled tray unit for holding the tray containing the drug and the printed sheet; and a tray-carrying unit. The tray is provided with an electronic card, in which patient's data is written, and the printer unit is provided, with an electronic card-writing unit for writing the patient's data to the electronic card.
US09082246B2
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for transporting items of media along a transport path. The apparatus comprises a first transport member having a first end region and a further transport member having a further end region, wherein the first end region is spaced apart from the further end region, and a bridge member extending between the first end region and the further end region, wherein a length of the bridge member is adjustable responsive to a one of the first and further end regions being moved with respect to a remainder one of the first and further end regions.
US09082244B2
A method of controlling access to an area accessible by persons, particularly to a space closed by a door, utilizes a first mobile communications unit on which at least one access code is filed and a receiver unit for receiving the access code. In a first variant of the method, when an activation signal is transmitted by the communications unit within a predetermined range of the receiver unit, the receiver unit is activated and the access code is transmitted from the communications unit to the receiver unit. After a successful check of the access code by the receiver unit the access is freed. In a second variant, when the activation signal is transmitted by the receiver unit within a predetermined range of the communications unit, the receiver unit is activated. The access code is subsequently transmitted from the communications unit to the receiver unit and after a successful check of the access code by the receiver unit the access is freed.
US09082240B2
The invention relates to a device for detecting (CAPT) the presence of an object, that comprises at least one detection member (EA, EB) to which is associated a physical value that varies based on the environment in which said detection member (EA, EB) is located. The invention is characterised in that the physical value provides a variable reference level corresponding to the absence of an object and in that it further comprises a saving device (LOG IC) for saving, upon the emission of a low-frequency signal, a value of the reference level measured before the emission of said low-frequency signal.
US09082238B2
Methods and systems for a vehicle system that includes synchronizing a calendar with a vehicle control system and generating a smart-alarm based on events in the calendar. A vehicle receives authorization from a device to synchronize a calendar associated with the device with the vehicle. The calendar is synchronized with the vehicle and a smart alarm is provided to a user based on an event in the calendar and a supplemental factor.
US09082233B2
Techniques are disclosed for controlling robot pixels to display a visual representation of an input. The input to the system could be an image of a face, and the robot pixels deploy in a physical arrangement to display a visual representation of the face, and would change their physical arrangement over time to represent changing facial expressions. The robot pixels function as a display device for a given allocation of robot pixels. Techniques are also disclosed for distributed collision avoidance among multiple non-holonomic robots to guarantee smooth and collision-free motions. The collision avoidance technique works for multiple robots by decoupling path planning and coordination.
US09082231B2
Disclosed herein is a framework for facilitating symmetry-based visualization. In accordance with one aspect of the framework, one or more medical images are received. The medical images include first and second regions, wherein the first region is substantially symmetric to the second region. A transformation is performed on at least the second region to generate a transformed second region. The transformed second region is registered with the first region to generate an aligned second region. The aligned second region and the first region are then alternately displayed to assist anomaly detection.
US09082225B2
The invention discloses a method, apparatus and system for adjusting a stereoscopic image, a television set and stereoscopic glasses, wherein the method includes: receiving and displaying, by a display terminal, a three-dimensional stereoscopic image; transmitting, by a distance sensor, a sensing signal and obtaining a sighting distance between the display terminal and a user according to the sensing signal; and adjusting the size of the three-dimensional stereoscopic image according to the sighting distance. In the invention, stereoscopic geometrical distortion can be alleviated or even eliminated to thereby improve real experience feelings of watching the 3D stereoscopic display.
US09082213B2
When an image in a virtual space in which a virtual object is arranged is generated using a ray tracing method, and when it is determined that a ray which is generated in accordance with the ray tracing method successively intersected an approximate virtual object such as a hand which is a real object at lest twice, an image corresponding to a first intersection is generated in accordance with the ray emitted to the first intersection.
US09082210B2
A method for adjusting image depth includes receiving a three-dimension (3D) image including a first image and a second image. The method includes measuring the 3D image to generate a first parallax gradient value, calculating a second parallax gradient value according to the first parallax gradient value and a user setting value, calculating a parallax modification value, and moving the first image according to the corresponding parallax modification value so as to generate a adjusted first image for replacing the first image.
US09082207B2
A method and system for printing content on a three dimensional structure, select a first graphical design style sheet for a first facet of the structure. A graphical design layout renderer to apply semantic structural design data to the style sheet until a graphic design template is prepared. Graphical content is linked to the structure and printed on the substrate using the design data. The system determines the location by facet of the content, and ensures that larger content items are distributed among multiple facets of the structure.
US09082201B2
A computer receives a first set of spectral information for a first surface, wherein the first set of spectral information includes a pixel count for each color value of a range of color values, with regard to each color, measured at time one. The computer determines, with regard to the first set, whether dispersion of the pixel count across the range of color values, with regard to each color, exceeds a first threshold value. The computer determines, with regard to the first set, a surface contamination level based on at least whether the dispersion of the pixel count across the range of color values, with regard to each color, exceeds the first threshold value.
US09082200B2
A system and method includes reception of a first image data value of a digital image, determination of a first index based on the first image data value, determination of a value stored in a first array of a first shared memory at the first index, and determination of whether the value stored in the first array of the first shared memory at the first index is equal to the first image data value. If the value stored in the first array of the first shared memory at the first index is equal to the first image data value, 1 is added to a count value stored in a second array of the first shared memory at the first index. If the value stored in the first array of the first shared memory at the first index is not equal to the first image data value a count value stored in a second shared memory in association with the first image data value is updated.
US09082198B2
Embodiments are directed towards automatically creating a cinemagraph on at least an imaging device, where the cinemagraph can be created without additional user interaction beyond capturing an initial sequence of images, and indicating that a cinemagraph is to be created from the sequence. Automatic creation of the cinemagraph includes selecting an anchor frame within the sequence and aligning the other frames to the anchor frame. Detection and segmentation of moving objects within the sequence, with respect to the anchor frame are performed. A mask is generated and refined. Segmentation of masks are then unified, and combined with a background from the anchor frame to generate an animated sequence.
US09082195B2
A method is provided for evaluating a possible pallet object in a gray scale image including one or more pallets. The method may comprise: generating, by a computer, a first confidence score ScoreLowerLeftCorner for a lower left corner associated with the possible pallet object; generating, by the computer, a second confidence score ScoreLowerRightCorner for a lower right corner associated with the possible pallet object; generating, by the computer, a third confidence score ScoreBaseboardLine for a bottom pallet board line associated with the possible pallet object; generating, by the computer, a fourth confidence score Scorehole for a center stringer associated with the possible pallet object; and calculating, by the computer, a composite score ScoreObject based on the first, second, third and fourth confidence scores.
US09082193B2
Systems and methods are provided for image segmentation. In accordance with some implementations, a current segmentation mask associated with an object of interest is iteratively refined. Any image element associated with a previously generated fence is excluded from the current segmentation mask. The fence may be generated around one or more image elements that violate a shape constraint.
US09082192B2
A text image trimming method, according to the following steps: step 1, obtaining text image data; step 2, using straight line detection method to detect the straight lines of the text image, obtaining edges of a trimmed quadrangle; step 3, detecting text on the image data, obtaining the coordinates of the boundary points of a text region; and step 4, obtaining the final trimming result according to the results of steps 2 and 3. The method can automatically detect the edges of the text region and utilize the detected text region to verify and remove unrelated redundant information thereby, allowing the user to only see the portion containing the text region useful to the user when viewing image data.
US09082189B2
One embodiment is directed to a computer program, embodied on a computer readable medium. The computer program is configured to control a processor to execute instructions. The instructions include sampling a plurality of points that lie within the interior of an arbitrary shape, drawing one or more rectangles from each of the points, gradually increasing the length and width of the rectangles until the rectangles no longer falls within the interior of the arbitrary shape, and assigning the largest of the increased rectangles as the interior bounding box.
US09082186B2
The distance between projection coordinates to which the center of an image are projected and the center coordinates are added to the projection coordinates to obtain projection center coordinates. The distance is added to the coordinates to which the four corners of the image are projected to obtain projection four-corner coordinates. A distance shorter than the minimum of the distances between the projection four-corner coordinates and the projection center coordinates is decided as an output margin distance. Projection source coordinates to be projected to coordinates apart from the projection center coordinates by the output margin distance are obtained. A maximum of the distances between the projection source coordinates and the projection center coordinates is decided as an input margin distance. Divided images decided based on ½ of horizontal size of the image and the input margin distance are deformed and outputted.
US09082183B2
A data input unit is configured to receive an input image, depth data and a shooting parameter. A parameter input unit receives a transformation parameter as a parameter on projective transformation of a three-dimensional model, a transformed image generating unit that generate a transformed image by performing projective transformation based on the transformation parameter in the three-dimensional model obtained from the input image, the depth data, and the shooting parameter. A blank area detecting unit detects a blank area in the transformed image, the blank area being a group of blank pixels having no corresponding pixel in the input image, and an output unit is configured to output the transformed image in the case where a blank value indicating size of the blank area is smaller than or equal to a threshold value.
US09082182B2
A method and a system for determining patient motion in an image. The method includes obtaining an image based on image data generated by a scanner during a scan. The image includes at least three markers assumed to be in a rigid or semi-rigid configuration. Each of the at least three markers has actual measured positions on a detector panel of the scanner in a first dimension and a second dimension. The method further includes determining a reference three-dimensional position for each of the at least three markers and defining equations describing the relationship between the reference three-dimensional position and the actual measured positions of each of the at least three markers, geometric parameters of the scanner, and patient motion. The method finally includes solving numerically the equations to derive a six-component motion vector describing patient motion for the image that accounts for differences between the reference three-dimensional position of each of the at least three markers and the actual measured positions for each of the at least three markers.
US09082169B2
The present invention relates to a method for processing image data comprising image information about a body region of a patient, the method being at least partly executed by an electronic data processing device and comprising the following steps: d) providing the image data; e) assigning, to elements of the image information, a predetermined probability for the image information contained in the respective element representing a predetermined tissue class, wherein the predetermined probability is provided independently of information about at least part of a body which is different from the body of the patient; f) determining, on the basis of the predetermined probability and for a subset of the image information comprising a plurality of the elements, an element-specific probability for individual elements of the subset representing an element-specific tissue class.
US09082167B2
A method is disclosed for the reconstruction of image data of an examination object from measurement data. First and second image data are reconstructed from the measurement data with a first and second respective image characteristic, with an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio of the second image characteristic relative to the first image characteristic. Enhanced image data is calculated using an iterative algorithm using the first and the second image data. In the case of the iterative algorithm, a low pass is applied to a difference between the first image data and the image data of an iteration cycle, and a high pass to a difference between the second image data and the image data of the iteration cycle.
US09082159B2
A method, including: registering a new image volume with a composed image volume, wherein the new image volume and the composed image volume overlap each other in an overlap region, the composed image volume includes at least two image volumes that overlap each other, and each voxel in the composed image volume includes a weight; determining a deformation between the new image volume and the composed image volume; updating the weights of the voxels in the composed image volume that are overlapped by the new image volume; performing an alpha morphing on the overlap region using the updated weights and the deformation; obtaining a blend region of the overlap region by performing an alpha blending using results of the alpha morphing and the updated weights; and incorporating the blend region into the composed image volume to obtain a new composed image volume.
US09082153B2
An online sales/automatic rebate and coupon redemption system provides online customers automatic retrieval and redemption of all applicable rebates and coupons during purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system purchases from merchants using applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system makes it possible to automatically retrieve coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site. The system provides coupons to potential customers via email, based on customer profile, geographical information, etc. Manufacturers and merchants can update coupon value and content based on ongoing sales and volume of customer activity.
US09082148B1
Technologies are described herein for grouping products by size and weight. A customer-facing user interface is provided to a user that allows the user to browse and search products in a merchant system in order to identify products having similar size and weight. An extension to the customer-facing user interface facilitates the grouping of the products having similar size and weight into product groups. A source product is selected for each product group. The source product is used by the merchant system as the source for dimensional data for the products in the product group.
US09082140B2
Systems and methods to extract and utilize textual semantics are described. The system receives item information that describes an item for sale on a network-based marketplace and analyzes the item information to generate application information that identifies a plurality of applications. The plurality of applications includes a first application that further includes the item as a first component of the first application. The system stores a listing in a database that includes the application information and the item information and publishes the listing on the network-based marketplace to sell the item via the network-based marketplace.
US09082138B2
A method for representing and managing an inventory of overlapping multi-dimensional items such as advertising or ad impressions. The method uses an inventory management module to generate unique segment identifiers for sets of inventory items by processing descriptions of the sets of impressions including defining criteria. The method includes processing the unique segment identifiers to create a representation of the inventory as a plurality of inventory regions, which may include non-overlapping regions that correspond to inventory items in a single set of the inventory and also include overlapping regions that correspond to inventory items in two or more of the sets (e.g., items that match two or more sets of defining criteria or attributes). Availability and selection of inventory is determined using the information on inventory regions to control effects of cannibalization, such as by implementing logically necessary allocation to only cannibalize a region on a limited or forced basis.
US09082133B2
A computer-implemented method for monitoring the effectiveness of advertisements broadcast is described. The method includes detecting that an advertisement has been aired by a broadcast station, monitoring a network for a duration subsequent to the airing of the advertisement for activity attributable to the airing of the advertisement, and developing a quantitative relationship between the activity and a number of listeners of the advertisement.
US09082122B2
A method for managing an e-commerce system comprising: accepting an order to sell one or more goods or services from a seller to a buyer; charging the buyer an amount according to the order; holding the amount in an intermediary; receiving a first signal from the buyer upon the seller's delivery of said one or more goods or services; retrieving a second signal; verifying the first signal against the second signal; and making at least a portion of the amount available to the seller if the first signal and the second signal satisfy a predetermined relationship.
US09082120B2
Payment card transactions at a point of sale (POS) are secured in certain embodiments by intercepting, with a POS security layer installed on a POS terminal, payment data from the POS terminal, transmitting the payment data from the POS security layer to a server security application installed on a POS server, and providing false payment data from the POS security layer to a POS terminal application installed on the POS terminal. The false payment data in various embodiments is processed as if it were the payment data, such that the POS terminal transmits an authorization request to the POS server using the false payment data. In addition, the authorization request may be transmitted from the POS server to a payment gateway.
US09082102B2
A global tracking device includes a hardened case configured to be removably coupled to an object. The hardened case includes a barcode associated with information regarding the object. The data access element is configured to cause an external device to populate an interactive display application containing at least a portion of the information regarding to the object. The global tracking device can communicate with a central facility via a satellite communication.
US09082101B2
Systems and methods for facilitating online to offline commerce are disclosed. In one embodiment, a system configured to receive a request to check-in a customer at a merchant facility is disclosed. The system receives a request to access real-time pre-sale transaction data associated with a first customer and transmits the real-time pre-sale transaction data associated with the first customer to a mobile client device. The request to check-in and the request to access the real-time pre-sale transaction data are transmitted by the first mobile client device. The system is configured to authenticate the request to check-in at the merchant facility, process the request to access the real-time pre-sale transaction data, and responsively access the real-time pre-sale transaction data associated with the first customer from a point of sale device located at the merchant facility.
US09082096B2
Systems, methods, apparatus, and computer program products are provided for initiating shipment of and payment for shipping a parcel. For example, in one embodiment, a customer/user can receive a message on a user device from a carrier that includes an authorization code for shipping a parcel. After the customer/user ships the parcel, the carrier can charge a variety of accounts for the shipping charges, including a wireless services provider associated with the user device. In another embodiment, the customer/user can interact with a kiosk to ship the parcel. In this embodiment, the carrier can also charge a variety of accounts for the shipping charges, including a wireless services provider.
US09082091B2
A logical customer organization model is applied to group the individual agreements into separate logical customer organizations, wherein the groupings can be region based groupings, organization groupings and departmental groupings. Unified login identification (ID) model is applied to enable a first user to login to a portal using a first login ID to access a first asset in a first asset group according to a first logical customer organization. The unified login ID model enables the first user to use the same first login ID to access a second asset in the first asset group according to the first logical customer organization. The unified login ID model also enables the first user to login to the portal using a second login ID to access one or more assets in a second asset group according to a second logical customer organization. Each of the first and second logical customer organization may be associated with one or more asset groups and one or more user groups.
US09082085B2
A computing environment climate-aware policy management system provides decision support by receiving a request to perform an action, where the request is communicated from or on behalf of a computing resource. Upon receiving the request, an indication of a computing environment climate is obtained, which may include for example, information related to the workflow associated with the requested action, information external to the workflow or other information that contextualizes the computing environment of components thereof. At least one policy is obtained that is associated with at least one of the action associated with the request, the resource associated with the request to perform the action received by the policy system manager, and the indicated climate. Each obtained policy is evaluated and a response to the request to perform the action is provided based upon the results of the policy evaluation.
US09082073B2
A finite state machine is provided. The finite state machine causes a function to be carried out in dependence on at least an event input to the finite state machine and the current state of the finite state machine. Associations between the functions that are to be carried out and combinations of the states and the events are identified using an associative array. The associations identified using the associative array are amended while the finite state machine is operating to dynamically reconfigure the operation of the finite state machine.
US09082071B2
The present disclosure relates to classification of a material type of an object. A first phase applies an object classifier and a material classifier to obtain first object and material probabilities of the object. A second phase applies an interdependent object/material classifier to the first object and material probabilities to obtain further object and material class probabilities. The interdependent object/material classifier performs multiple iterations of calculating the further object and material class probabilities, and utilizes feedback in which an immediately preceding calculated prior further object class probability is included in a next iteration of calculating a further material class probability, and an immediately preceding calculated prior further material class probability is included in a next iteration of calculating a further object class probability.
US09082066B2
A print-data generating section generates print data in accordance with a high-resolution raster image generated by a high-resolution rasterizing processor. A low-resolution rasterizing processor generates a low-resolution raster image having lower resolution than that of the high-resolution raster image. An overcoating-data generating section generates coating data in accordance with the low-resolution raster image. Overcoating data is handled with low resolution, resulting in less processing time for overcoating than when the overcoating-data is handled with high resolution.
US09082065B2
Provided is an image editing device that enables a user to easily assign images to a plurality of pages of an album or the like so as to satisfy editorial restrictions. The image editing device acquires a plurality of pieces of image data; determines, based on respective photographed times of the plurality of pieces of image data and a reference time interval, details of an assignment of the plurality of pieces of image data to each of the plurality of pages so that an interval between photographed times of pieces of image data to be assigned to the each of the plurality of pages is the reference time interval or smaller; and outputs image output data on the each of the plurality of pages based on a result of the assignment.
US09082061B2
A device having an integrated-circuit chip includes an insulating body containing at least one conductive pad, at least one electrical contact opposite the electrically conductive pad, and at least one recess in the body, including a bottom and one aperture. The recess is connected, at the bottom thereof, to the conductive pad and, at the aperture thereof, to the electrical contact. At least one coil spring is arranged in the recess and connecting the conductive pad to the electrical contact. The installation of the spring in the recess is facilitated by means of the friction of the central portion of the spring relative to the walls of the recess. The invention also relates to a method for producing an electrical connection between at least one conductive pad arranged in an insulating body and at least one electrical contact arranged opposite the electrically conductive pad.
US09082054B2
An optical based authentication device that is attachable to a security document having a substrate. The authentication device includes: a piezoelectric material layer for generating an electric field in response to mechanical stress; and an optically responsive layer directly attached to the piezoelectric material layer, the attached layers being absent a direct electrical connection, the optically responsive layer being operable between a first state and a second state having different ocular perceptions. The optically responsive layer changes from the first state to the second state in response the electric field generated by the piezoelectric material layer.
US09082048B2
Systems and methods for authenticating a user are disclosed. In some embodiments, information regarding multiple biometric parameters is gathered from a test subject and compared with a validation template. The validation template can be augmented with some or all of the information if the user is successfully authenticated.
US09082040B2
Tools and techniques for identifying visual contextual synonyms are described herein. The described operations use visual words having similar contextual distributions as contextual synonyms to identify and describe visual objects that share semantic meaning. The contextual distribution of a visual word is described using the statistics of co-occurrence and spatial information averaged over image patches that share the visual word. In various implementations, the techniques are employed to construct a visual contextual synonym dictionary for a large visual vocabulary. In various implementations, the visual contextual synonym dictionary narrows the semantic gap for large-scale visual search.
US09082039B2
An apparatus and method for recognizing a character based on a photographed image. The apparatus includes an image determining unit, an image effect unit, a binarizing unit and a character recognizing unit. The image determining unit is configured to select, from an input image, a Region Of Interest (ROI) to be used for image analysis when the input image is input, and to analyze the selected ROI to determine a type of the input image. The image effect unit is configured to apply to the input image, an image effect for distinguishing a character region and a background region in a display screen if the type of the input image indicates that the input image is obtained by photographing a display screen. The binarizing unit is configured to binarize the input image or the output of the image effect unit according to the determined type of the input image. The character recognizing unit is configured to recognize a character from the binarized input image.
US09082037B2
Methods and systems for automatically determining the issuing state of a license plate. An image of a license plate acquired by an ALPR engine can be processed via one or more OCR engines such that each OCR engine among the OCR engines is tuned to a particular state. Confidence data output from the OCR engine(s) can be analyzed (among other factors) to estimate the issuing state associated with the license plate. Multiple observations related to the issuing state can be merged to derive an overall conclusion and assign an associated confidence value with respect to the confidence data and determine a likely issuing state associated with the license plate.
US09082031B2
An apparatus for use in decoding a bar code symbol includes a first integrated circuit chip with a wafer level camera, at least one light source, and a plurality of contact pads on a surface of the chip and a second integrated circuit chip with a processor, memory, plurality of contact pads on a surface of the chip, and plurality of contact pads on another surface of the chip. The apparatus includes a PCB having a plurality of contact pads disposed on at least one surface of the PCB and wherein the first and second integrated circuit chips are vertically stacked on the PCB and the plurality of contact pads on the first and second integrated circuit chips interface with the contact pads of the second integrated circuit chip and PCB. The apparatus is operative for processing image signals generated by the WLC for attempting to decode the bar code symbol.
US09082028B2
Writing incorrect information to an IC tag affixed to a medium is prevented. When a control command including recording information, an instruction to record the recording information on a medium, and an instruction to write data including at least time-related information to an IC tag affixed to the medium is received from a host computer, the system controller 35 of a media processing device 2 records the recording information and writes the write data based on time information input from a RTC 29, but does not record the recording information and write the write data based on the control command if a RTC 29 error was detected by a RTC error detection unit 36b.
US09082019B2
A method of establishing an adjustable-block background model for detecting a real-time image object is provided to obtain a surveillance image by a surveillance apparatus. The surveillance image has a plurality of pixels. The method includes steps of: segmenting the surveillance image into a plurality of blocks each having a first pixel and at least one second pixel; defining the first pixel as a major color and comparing the first pixel with the at least one second pixel to determine a number and color information of the major color in the block; merging the blocks having the same major color into a large block to obtain a block background model; and performing image comparison to identify a moving object image. With the establishment of the block background model, a required memory space is effectively reduced while outstanding image display performance is still maintained.
US09082018B1
An electronic device with a display, processor(s), and memory displays a video monitoring user interface including a camera feed from a camera located remotely from the client device in a first region of the video monitoring user interface and an event timeline in a second region of the video monitoring user interface, the event timeline including event indicators for motion events previously detected by the camera. The electronic device associates a newly created category with a set of similar motion events from among the previously detected motion events. In response to associating the category with the set of similar motion events, the electronic device changes at least one display characteristic for a first set of pre-existing event indicators from among the event indicators on the event timeline that correspond to the category, where the first set of pre-existing event indicators correspond to the set of similar motion events.
US09082008B2
Systems and methods for feature selection and matching are provided. In certain embodiments, a method for matching features comprises extracting a first plurality of features from current image data acquired from at least one sensor and extracting a second plurality of features from a prior map, wherein the prior map represents an environment containing the navigation system independently of data currently acquired by the at least one sensor. The method also comprises identifying at least one first feature in the first plurality of features and at least one second feature in the second plurality of features that have associated two-dimensional representations; and identifying at least one corresponding pair of features by comparing a three-dimensional representations of the at least one first feature to a three-dimensional representation of the at least one second feature.
US09082003B1
A system and method for adaptive face recognition includes at least one electronic processor having a central processing unit. At least one database having a plurality of pixilated face images of known subjects of interest is associated with the processor. At least one test image of a new subject of interest is configured for input into the electronic processor. A classification processing tool is associated with the electronic processor. The classification processing tool is configured to build a dictionary and provide a classification match of the test image with one of the plurality of pixilated face images of known subjects of interest. At least one device is associated with the processor and configured to output the classification match in a tangible medium.
US09081989B2
In a method for secure cloud computing, a virtual machine (VM) associated with a client is executed at a computer within a trusted computing cloud. An image including state information of the VM is obtained; storage of the image is arranged; a freshness hash of the image is determined; and the freshness hash is sent to the client. Subsequently, at the same computer or at a different computer within the trusted computing cloud, the stored image may be retrieved; a freshness hash of the retrieved image may be determined; the freshness hash of the retrieved image may be sent to the client; and an indication may be received from the client verifying the integrity of the freshness hash of the stored image.
US09081984B2
The document access authorization violation detection apparatus detects, for each of documents, whether or not there is any violation in access authorization to access the document, by using statistical values calculated from duty position levels, which represents height levels of corresponding official positions of users who are authorized to access the document, or inter-organization distances, which are obtained by digitizing inter-organization positional removes from respective groups, to which the users belong, to a group whose member number is larger than any other one of the groups. As a result, the document access authorization violation detection apparatus makes it possible to efficiently detect whether or not there is any violation in access authorization with respect to each of documents.
US09081982B2
Access to files is properly granted regardless of whether an accessing user is located at their primary location or at any “roaming” location. In particular, the techniques herein consider the user rights, rights of any computer from which the user is accessing files, and the rights associated with the files themselves, such as by determining the User ∩ Computer intersection of access rights (an overlap between rights of the user and rights of the computer), and applying these access rights to file rights (e.g., file metadata) to determine what access the user has to the files (e.g., viewing, modifying, etc.).
US09081981B2
An information management system approves or denies user requests to access information of the system. The information includes all types of information including documents and e-mail. The information management system is driven using a policy language having policies and policy abstractions. The information management system may approve or deny many different types of requests including opening a document or file, copying a file, printing a file, sending an e-mail, reading an e-mail, cut and paste of a portion of a document, saving a document, executing an application on a file, and many others.
US09081976B2
A method of preventing unauthorized recording of electronic media according to one embodiment is described. The method comprises activating a compliance mechanism in response to a client system receiving media content. The compliance mechanism is coupled to the client system. The client system has a media content presentation application operable thereon and is coupled to the compliance mechanism. The method further comprises controlling a data path of a kernel-mode media device driver of the client system with the compliance mechanism upon detection of a kernel streaming mechanism operable on the client system. The present method further comprises directing the media content from the kernel-mode media device driver to a media device driver coupled with the compliance mechanism, via the data path, for selectively restricting output of the media content.
US09081972B2
Secondary content in encrypted for distribution to client terminals by selecting at least a portion of raw encrypted audio-video data (REAVD) that is provided on a media article as an encryption key, encrypting secondary content using the encryption key, and storing encrypted secondary content at a remotely located host. The media article can then be used for providing access to the encrypted secondary content to client terminals by receiving encrypted secondary content at a client terminal, extracting a decryption key from a media article encoded with REAVD, the decryption key being determined by at least a portion of the REAVD, using the decryption key to decrypt the secondary content, and outputting the decrypted secondary content from the client terminal.
US09081968B2
A method includes recording, during execution of a program and by a computing system, concrete values exhibited at source and sink statements in the program. The source statements read confidential information and the sink statements release the confidential information to an outside environment. The method includes determining, by the computing system, using at least the recorded concrete values and source-sink pairs whether information leakage meeting one or more quantitative criteria occurs by the program. Apparatus and program products are also disclosed.
US09081967B2
Disclosed herein are systems, methods and computer program products for protecting computer systems from software vulnerabilities. In one aspect, a system is configured to detect execution of a software application and determine whether the detected application has vulnerabilities. When the application has vulnerabilities, the system may analyze the application to identify typical actions performed by the application. The system may then create one or more restriction rules based on the identified typical actions of the application. The restriction rules allow application to perform typical actions and block atypical actions. The system then controls execution of the application using the created restriction rules.
US09081966B2
Systems and methods for protection from buffer overflow vulnerability due to placement new constructs in C++ are provided. A system for protecting from buffer overflow vulnerability due to placement new constructs, comprises a compiler which is capable of receiving a program including a placement new instruction, and runtime which is capable of receiving binary code from the compiler and determining whether the program includes the placement new instruction and whether the placement new instruction would lead to buffer overflow, wherein the runtime is linked to a library including methods for preventing the buffer overflow, and selects a method for preventing the buffer overflow if the runtime determines that the placement new instruction would lead to the buffer overflow.
US09081965B2
In accordance embodiments of the present disclosure, a method may include, during execution of an operating system on an information handling system and responsive to a user input indicating a desire to invoke a basic input/output system (BIOS) setup program for configuring a BIOS, prompting for and receiving user-provided credentials via a user interface communicatively coupled to the processor. The method may also include, during execution of the operating system, passing BIOS credentials to the BIOS based on the user-provided credentials. The method may additionally include, during execution of the operating system determining, by the BIOS, if the BIOS credentials are valid. The method may further include, responsive to determining that the BIOS credentials are valid, setting a flag to a value indicating that the BIOS setup program is to be invoked on a subsequent boot of the information handling system.
US09081963B1
Some of the embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method comprising acquiring an electrical circuit identifier for an electrical circuit, wherein the electrical circuit identifier is stored in a programmable identifier unit of the electrical circuit; generating, by a computing device external to the electrical circuit, an encrypted identifier that is unique for an electrical device that includes the electrical circuit, wherein the encrypted identifier is based upon the electrical circuit identifier and an encryption block; and storing the encrypted identifier in the programmable identifier unit. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US09081962B2
Anti-tamper techniques for protecting a program code portion against tampering provide for defining a sequence of code segments having a root-code segment and a plurality of sub-code segment. Each sub-code segment is provided with an integrity checking portion for checking the integrity of a target code segment. At runtime, the integrity checking portion of a given sub-code segment carries out a checking procedure on the respective target code segment to obtain a runtime result which is compared with a reference result to verify that the target portion of the program has not been tampered with.
US09081957B2
This disclosure addresses systems and methods for the protection of proprietary information by monitoring operational watermarks of an apparatus. A monitoring device may receive logical or physical watermark data from a defended apparatus. Watermark data may include any operational or environmental variable related to the defended apparatus. The monitoring device may maintain a baseline profile for the defended apparatus that includes watermark data. During monitoring of the defended apparatus by the monitor device, changes in the watermark data may be analyzed to determine if the baseline should be dynamically updated, or if the change indicates an anomaly. Anomalies may indicate an attempt to tamper with the defended apparatus. In response to the change that indicates an anomaly, the monitoring device may scrub the contents of the defended apparatus. In an embodiment, the monitoring device may also scrub its own memory in response to an anomaly.
US09081953B2
Techniques for enhancing electronic privacy utilize noise to prevent third parties from determining certain information based on search queries. Users submit search queries as part of their normal activities. For a user, the search queries submitted and information regarding search results used to generate additional search queries on different, but related topics. The generated additional search queries are submitted automatically on behalf of the user at a sufficient frequency to prevent high accuracy data analysis on search queries.
US09081944B2
A system and method are described herein that enable a vehicle user to establish, store (in a limited access storage location), and restore personalization information for the vehicle user on a vehicle. In particular the system manages personalization information to configure settings for a registered vehicle user in a vehicle including a telematics unit. The system is configured to carry out the method including establishing, for the registered vehicle user, a personalization information dataset within a networked vehicle user database. The system is further configured to submit a request to download the personalization information dataset from the networked vehicle user database, the request identifying the registered vehicle user and the vehicle. The system is also configured to download in accordance with the request to download, via a mobile wireless link to the telematics unit, values from the personalization information dataset to the telematics unit of the vehicle.
US09081943B2
According to one embodiment, a storage device includes, when power is supplied to a storage unit, counting of an elapsed time is started. If a command is input from a host device, and the elapsed time from input of a previous command to input of a current command is calculated based on time information clocked by the host device and on a counter value counted until the corresponding command is input. Matching of the time information is determined based on a temporal relation between the adding result of adding the calculated elapsed time to the time information included in the previous command and the time information included in the current command. When the mismatching is determined, data in the storage unit is invalidated.
US09081938B1
A computer-implemented method for determining whether profiles associated with social-networking websites have been compromised may include (1) creating a database of validated-content identifiers that identify valid content published on a social-networking profile, (2) determining, by monitoring the social-networking profile, that at least one item of content has been illegitimately published on the social-networking profile, and then (3) performing at least one security action on the social-networking profile. Various other systems, methods, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09081934B2
A system and method for collaborative building of a shared self-refining surrogate model for engineering simulations are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes running a reduced order engineering simulation model on a complex system, and querying a shared self-refining surrogate model upon receiving a request for a higher order simulation for a reduced order simulated item. The method also includes estimating a required higher order simulation result having a desired confidence interval for the reduced order simulated item, and determining whether the required higher order simulation result having the desired confidence interval is in the shared self-refining surrogate model. If not, then the method includes performing the higher order simulation to obtain the required higher order simulation result, enriching the shared self-refining surrogate model with the obtained higher order simulation result, and sending the obtained higher order simulation result to the reduced order engineering simulation model.
US09081926B2
This invention comprises a layout method to effectively protect logic circuits against soft errors (non-destructive errors) and circuit cells, with layout, which are protected against soft errors. In particular, the method protects against cases where multiple nodes in circuit are affected by a single event. These events lead to multiple errors in the circuit, and while several methods exist to deal with single node errors, multiple node errors are very hard to deal with using any currently existing protection methods. The method is particularly useful for CMOS based logic circuits in modem technologies (.ltoreq.90 nm), where the occurrence of multiple node pulses becomes high (due to the high integration level). It uses a unique layout configuration, which makes the circuits protected against single event generated soft-errors.
US09081920B2
The present invention enables structural optimization having a high degree of freedom, such as the allowance of a change in topology in a material domain Ω, and provides clear expression of the shape of optimum structures. The present invention defines a level set function φ; updates the level set function φ, under a predetermined constraint condition, so as to bring a performance of a structure, such as a rigidity, close to a target value; moves the boundary ∂Ω between the material domain Ω and a void domain; allows a change in topology in the material domain Ω, which is associated with the update of the level set function φ, to form a new void domain in the material domain Ω; and moves the boundary ∂Ω between the new void domain and the material domain Ω.
US09081919B2
System and methods for design-for-manufacturing and design-enabled-manufacturing (DFM-DEM) proactive integrated manufacturing flow are presented. A method includes receiving design data related to layout of an integrated circuit (IC); extracting information from the design data; and performing analysis on the extracted information. The method also enables DFM-DEM aware manufacturing applications using information stored in a knowledge database. The method further updates the knowledge database with new information learned from at least the extracted information and the analysis.
US09081916B2
A method and system disclosed herein provides generating an architectural diagram describing an architectural layout of a building, wherein one or more walls of the building are designated as standardized structural walls, automatically positioning each of the standardized structural walls to a geometric grid, and mapping (or “placing”), using a computer, one or more of a plurality of standardized structural components, including standardized panels, standardized columns, and standardized trusses to coordinates of the geometric grid.
US09081913B2
A bus interface includes a chip select terminal, a first transmission bus terminal, a second transmission bus terminal, and a clock control device. The chip select terminal transmits a chip select signal to start the data transmission. When the data transmission starts, the first transmission bus terminal sends data to the second device, and the second transmission bus terminal sends the data from the second device to the first device. The clock control device includes a frequency processing unit and a transmission clock generating unit. The frequency processing unit outputs a clock control signal when a frequency to set value changes. The transmission clock generating unit receives the clock control signal and generates a transmission clock in accordance with the frequency setting value.
US09081905B2
A method for enabling a low latency medium access control for an interconnect bus protocol over a wireless medium is provided. The method comprises constructing a wireless medium access control (WMAC) frame, wherein the WMAC frame includes a plurality of medium access control service data units (MSDUs) being aggregated according to their transmission order, the MSDUs include transaction layer packets generated by a component of the interconnect bus, wherein transmission of the WMAC frame over the wireless medium provides any one of an implied acknowledgment (ACK) mechanism and a block ACK mechanism.
US09081902B2
A computer system that accesses multi-transport devices and associates device instances of the multi-transport device with each other. Devices provide the same device identifier such as a device unique identifier regardless of the transport over which the device is accessed. A visual representation for the multi-transport device may be provided to a user using the device identifier. Also, a single functional representation for the multi-transport device may be provided based on an identifier provided by each function of the device. The functional representation may be independent of the addition and removal of transports and allows abstracting device access via multiple transports from a user and an application. Transports may be selected at an application and/or a system level. Operating characteristics of available transports may be used to select a desired transport, based on transport requirements specified by the application, the user or the system.
US09081886B2
A medication dispenser provides automation to the steps of locating and acquiring medications or supplies to be administered to a patient. The medication dispenser includes one or more modules housing one or more compartmentalized drawers. Access to each drawer is controlled by a lockable door, and each the drawer may only be slid from the module housing the drawer in response to a signal. A series of lights direct the user to the appropriate drawer and the appropriate compartment of the relevant drawer to remove the appropriate medication or supply.
US09081885B2
Computer-based systems and computer-implemented methods are described for monitoring medication events for an individual. Computer-based systems include systems for monitoring medication events relating to an individual, including: circuitry for analyzing data for an identifier of a first medication event for an individual; circuitry for analyzing the data for at least one attribute of an individual; circuitry for analyzing the data for at least one attribute relating to a medication during the first medication event; circuitry for analyzing the data for at least one feature of visual information and at least one feature of non-visual information relating to the individual during the first medication event; circuitry for analyzing the received data for a time associated with the first medication event; circuitry for determining a compliance likelihood for the first medication event based on the analyses of the received data; and circuitry for indicating the determined compliance likelihood.
US09081864B2
Various embodiments provide a client-side approach to enable late-binding, at the client, of resources associated with linguistic strings that are retrieved from a data source that is secondary to a primary server. The client-side, late-binding approach can be performed in a manner that is generally imperceptible to users and which preserves user interface formatting and client functionality.
US09081862B2
Methods and devices for resource sharing are disclosed. Address information of a resource to be shared can be acquired by a user device in response to a sharing request. A two-dimensional barcode corresponding to the address information of the resource can be generated by the user device. The generated two-dimensional barcode can be published by the user device to one or more of an Internet platform and a specified Internet communication application client via a network. The user device can include a first acquisition module, a generating module, and a publishing module.
US09081858B2
A method, a system, and a computer program product for processing search queries are disclosed. A first query pertaining to a primary theme is received. One or more secondary queries are then generated. Each of the one or more secondary queries is associated with a corresponding plausible secondary theme. The first query and the one or more secondary queries are then submitted to a search engine.
US09081855B1
Systems and methods for full motion video search are provided. In one aspect, a method includes receiving one or more search terms. The search terms include one or more of a characterization of the amount of man-made features in a video image and a characterization of the amount of natural features in the video image. The method further includes searching a full motion video database based on the one or more search terms.
US09081850B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for tracking an object as it traverses a sequential chain. The relationships between the object, its movement through space and time, and the entities associated with the object at a discreet point of time are captured by a sequential chain. A unique identifier may be created that is continuously modified as the object traverses the sequential chain. The unique identifier may be used to capture relationship information between the object and its related entities and movements.
US09081849B2
A multidimensional query results processing system for translating output of an execution of a multidimensional query into a data result set that reflects the semantics of an entity/relationship schema report specification is provided. The system comprises a result set description generation module for producing a result set description that reflects the semantics of the report specification, a tabular row generation module for converting the results of the single multi-dimensional query into a collection of rows of data, a tabular summary level calculation module for calculating a summarization level of a row a data, a tabular header row generation module for producing a header row to include in the row of data, and a cross-tabulated result generation module for converting the results of the single multi-dimensional query into a result set that matches the semantics of the report specification.
US09081847B2
Data stores that store content units and annotations regarding the content units derived through a semantic interpretation of the content units. When annotations are stored in a database, different parts of an annotation may be stored in different tables of the database. For example, one or more tables of the database may store all semantic classifications for the annotations, while one or more other tables may store content of all of the annotations. A user may be permitted to provide natural language queries for searching the database. A natural language query may be semantically interpreted to determine one or more annotations from the query. The semantic interpretation of the query may be performed using the same annotation model used to determine annotations stored in the database. Semantic classifications and format of the annotations for a query may be the same as one or more annotations stored in the database.
US09081842B1
In one aspect, a method to provide synchronous and asymmetric active-active-active access to a first storage volume using a global cache coupled to a first, second and third virtual storage volumes includes replicating asynchronously the first storage volume at a first site to a second storage volume at a second site and mirroring the first storage volume with a third storage volume at a third site. Either one of the first storage volume or the third storage volume has primary storage functionality. The method also includes virtualizing the first storage volume with the first virtual storage volume, virtualizing the second storage volume with the second virtual storage volume and virtualizing the third storage volume with the third virtual storage volume.
US09081836B2
A method, mechanism, and computer program product for managing, referencing, and accessing centrally managed information are disclosed. Transparency is provided to the centrally managed data by introducing a mapping system between locally expected data and the central data repository. This allows, for example, local relational database systems to transparently access information from a central LDAP directory.
US09081835B2
An edge-deployed database proxy. A database access system which has been configured with the database proxy can include a universal database connectivity driver having a first exposed interface through which access to a database server can be provided; a database proxy driver registered with the universal database connectivity driver; and, a database driven application programmatically linked to the database proxy driver. Significantly, the database proxy driver can have a second exposed interface which conforms with the first exposed interface of the universal database connectivity driver. The database proxy driver further can have a configuration for invoking at least one auxiliary task in addition to providing access to the database server through the first exposed interface of the universal database connectivity driver.
US09081834B2
A system to collect performance data and store it in a special data structure which records the metadata in the structure itself. The performance data for each day is recorded in time-series, converted into Unicode, and stored in a single directory. The performance metric data is compressed prior to transmission to a server over any data path. The data structure at the server where analysis is done has a subdirectory for every resource type. Each subdirectory contains text files each of which stores performance metric data values for a group of attributes with one section per attribute. The performance metric data values are recorded as a comma delimited list. Analysis of the performance metric data is done using regular expressions.
US09081825B1
The disclosed embodiments provide a reputation system. The reputation system includes a ranking apparatus that obtains a set of reputation scores for one or more dimensions of a set of items in the reputation system and generates a ranking of the items based on the reputation scores and the one or more quantiles. The reputation system also includes a query-processing apparatus that obtains a query comprising the one or more dimensions and one or more quantiles associated with the one or more dimensions and provides the ranking in a response to the query.
US09081812B2
A system and a method of retrieving information is described. In a system according to the invention, software modules may be used to provide the user with information that is most likely to be the information desired.
US09081808B1
Methods, systems, and computer program products, including computer programs encoded on a computer readable storage medium, for pre-selecting content to be delivered to a user. A method includes: pre-selecting one or more content items for delivery to a user based at least in part on a user identifier, the user identifier identifying the user as being associated with a targeting group; storing the pre-selected content items in a list in association with the user; receiving a request for content, the request including the identifier; identifying one or more of the pre-selected content items eligible for delivery to the user based on the identifier; determining, based at least in part on evaluation criteria, that one of the pre-selected content items should be provided to the user responsive to the request; and providing, by a server system and responsive to the request, the determined content item to a client device.
US09081801B2
A method for creating and using metadata supersets for matching images includes identify images from a first source of images and identify images from a second source of images. Images from the first source that match images from the second source are identified as matching images. Metadata associated with the matching images are extracted to form a superset of metadata for the matching images. The superset of metadata is analyzed to create a product.
US09081796B2
Embodiments of a method and apparatus for providing cluster data are generally described herein. In some embodiments, the method includes receiving, from a geographic information system (GIS) client device, geographical coordinates of a viewable extent of the GIS client device. The method may include dividing the viewable extent into portions. The method may include receiving geographically-referenced data points. The method may include determining the portions of the viewable extent in which the data points are located. The method may include transmitting, to the GIS client device, clustering information for the portions. The clustering information may be generated based on the data points determined to be within the portions. Other embodiments are also described.
US09081793B2
A content management apparatus includes: an uploaded content detection unit which detects a content item uploaded to a network service by a user; a management information generation unit which generates management information of: the content item uploaded to the network service by the user; and a content item stored on a device connected to a network; an uploaded content information storage unit which stores the management information of the uploaded content item; a home content information storage unit which stores the management information of the content item stored on the device; a home content detection unit which detects a new content item newly stored on the device; and an identification unit which verifies, when the new content item is detected, whether the new content item and the content item whose management information is stored on the uploaded content information storage unit are identical.
US09081788B2
A caching mechanism is provided in a computer server system including at least one host coupled to at least one disk, one or more virtual machines, one or more images of the one or more virtual machines created in a file system of the disk, and a virtual machine manager for assigning hardware resources of the computer server system to the one or more virtual machines. The mechanism provides a masking cache layer between the one or more virtual machines and the virtual machine manager, the masking cache layer including at least one separate entry for every cacheable data block of the file system to be referenced, collects profiling information related to one or more of the cacheable data blocks (58) and stores the profiling information in the masking cache layer and configures the masking cache layer according to the profiling information, or provides a configuration for the masking cache layer.
US09081781B2
A portable wireless communications subscriber audio and/or video player apparatus and system and method for selecting, requesting, downloading, and playing audio and/or video data content files from an Internet-based database server. The wireless link is preferably implemented in accordance with the WiFi protocol, which allows connectivity to the Internet by being in proximity with a local base station or WiFi hotspot (i.e., publicly available local wireless access hub connected to the Internet). The portable wireless communications subscriber audio and/or video player apparatus and system preferably include a security means for monitoring and blocking unauthorized use of the player apparatus and system. The player apparatus further preferably has the capability to communicate with other neighboring player apparatus for the purpose of exchanging content data files, playlists and personal messages.
US09081780B2
A system and method for assigning user preference settings for fields in a category using selected settings for only a subset of the media category fields is disclosed. A subset of fields for a media category is defined. A base setting for each field in the subset of the category fields is established. The base setting may be a weight or preference value. The base setting may be established by the user selecting a base setting or may be a default base setting. Once a user selects the settings for the subset of category fields, a set weight for the fields in the category not in the subset is determined using the base setting. That is possible because the fields in the subset of category fields are chosen from fields that contain aspects and attributes of the other fields.
US09081779B2
An information system includes at least one data storage device accessible through a network for storing tags and tag attribute data, a server connected to the network and to the at least one data storage device for serving tags and tag attribute data and for receiving tags and tag attribute data, and one or more processors connected to the server and to the at least one data storage device, the processor or processors running sets of instructions for managing the tags and tag attribute data.
US09081771B1
A method is used in encrypting in deduplication systems. A deduplicating technique is applied to a data object. Applying the deduplicating technique includes computing a digest of the data object. An encryption key is derived from the digest of the data object. The data object is encrypted using the encryption key.
US09081768B2
A book support and optical scanner assembly for converting printed text to an audio output includes a support for supporting an open book and a pair of optical scanners adapted to scan opposite pages. The assembly also includes means for moving the scanners from the top of the page to the bottom of a page. Further, both scanners can be rotated off of the book for turning a page. In addition, the assembly includes a text to audio converter for converting the scanned text into spoken words and in one embodiment a translator to translate the scanned text into a pre-selected language.
US09081765B2
In one embodiment, the invention provides a method for a system to provide information based on a query, the method comprising: performing a first search of at least one first source for information responsive to the query; providing a result of the search to a user; searching documents using at least a part of the result of the search; providing the user with at least one example of usage of the result of the search obtained from the searching of stored documents; based on user input, performing a second search of at least one second source for information responsive to the query; and providing a result of said second search to the user. The invention provides ways of showing the most relevant examples from parallel text corpora according to a ranking.
US09081761B1
In an illustrative embodiment, an apparatus, computer-readable medium, or method may be configured to avoid command mistakes and suggest corrections. Known commands may be accessed which may include at least one expected identifier, alternative identifier, and/or identifier pattern. The frequencies of occurrence of the known commands may be calculated. A command with entered identifiers may be received and at least one possible mistake in the entered identifiers may be detected. A first numerical score for the known commands may be calculated using a string matching algorithm, a keystroke penalty matrix, and/or the detected at least one possible mistake. A second numerical score may be calculated using the frequencies of occurrence of the known commands and the first numerical score. Expected identifiers may be selected using the first and second numerical scores. A user-selectable command may be created using the expected known commands and displayed.
US09081760B2
Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for collecting web data in order to create diverse language models. A system configured to practice the method first crawls, such as via a crawler operating on a computing device, a set of documents in a network of interconnected devices according to a visitation policy, wherein the visitation policy is configured to focus on novelty regions for a current language model built from previous crawling cycles by crawling documents whose vocabulary considered likely to fill gaps in the current language model. A language model from a previous cycle can be used to guide the creation of a language model in the following cycle. The novelty regions can include documents with high perplexity values over the current language model.
US09081759B2
A handwritten area is separated from image data of printed material in which handwriting has been inserted, and the separated handwritten area is identified as an enclosing line or a class symbol. An image area enclosed within the handwritten area identified as the enclosing line is extracted and acquired as an extracted image. The class symbol is correlated to an enclosing line drawn nearest the class symbol, and the extracted images are classified into groups according to the image areas within the enclosing line correlated to the type of class symbols. The grouped images are organized as listed data.
US09081738B2
A disk array device includes a plurality of disk devices, and a computation portion generating a redundant code data denoting a redundant code able to recover an actual data sent from a higher-level device based on the actual data and operators, when at least part of the actual data is lost. The actual data is written by a predetermined device quantity of first disk devices in a first disk device group composed of disk devices as the first disk devices among the plurality of disk devices. The redundant code data is written by second disk devices of the same quantity as the predetermined device quantity of the first disk devices, in a second disk device group composed of disk devices as the second disk devices other than the first disk devices among the plurality of disk devices. The computation portion generates the redundant code data able to recover the actual data based on the data written into arbitrary disk devices of the device quantity among the plurality of disk devices, while the number of types of the operators used for generating the redundant code data is less than the device quantity by one or more.
US09081736B2
This invention relates to representations of prostaglandin synthase three-dimensional structures. Such representations are suitable for designing agents that modulate the activity of the enzyme by binding to the substrate binding domain.
US09081735B2
Systems and methods of recovering a shared information source can involve identifying a first user of a shared information source in response to detection of a data loss with respect to the shared information source. One or more additional users of the shared information source may be identified based on data associated with the first user. Additionally, the shared information source can be recovered based at least in part on data associated with the one or more additional users.
US09081732B2
Described is the backup and/or restore of virtual disks In general, metadata is backed up for restoring a virtual disk. To restore the disk, a physical disk is created, with the virtual disk the created on a partition of the physical disk. Backup and restore is described for nested virtual disks, including for block level restore. Further described is backing up of critical virtual disks and their containers, and virtual disk backup with respect to basic disks and dynamic volumes.
US09081723B2
A data processing device 10 receives a process request from an external interface 20 of a client terminal etc., carries out the transaction request with respect to a message according to the process request and passes to an API which forms the interface of various types of program carried out in the server 30. The data processing device 10 includes a process (n) which carries out transaction processing with respect to a message with a trade category [n], and a backup process (n) which carries out transaction processing with respect to a message in the case where the transaction processing carried out by the process (n) fails. In addition, the data processing device 10 includes an error process part 123 which isolates the cause of a failure according to a result of a process by the backup process (n).
US09081719B2
A method for minimizing soft error rates within caches by controlling a memory scrubbing rate selectively for a cache memory at an individual bank level. More specifically, the disclosure relates to maintaining a predetermined sequence and process of storing all modified information of a cache in a subset of ways of the cache, based upon for example, a state of a modified indication within status information of a cache line. A cache controller includes a memory scrubbing controller which is programmed to scrub the subset of the ways with the modified information at a smaller interval (i.e., more frequently) compared to the rest of the ways with clean information (i.e., information where the information stored within the main memory is coherent with the information stored within the cache).
US09081717B2
In one embodiment, an encoder reads a set of data from memory cells to obtain retrieved data influenced by one or more distortion mechanisms as a result of having been stored. A quality metric is generated responsive to the retrieved data that changes in value responsive to differences between the user data and the associated retrieved data. A quality monitor establishes a relationship between a current value of the quality metric and a threshold value and monitors the relationship as being indicative of a degradation of the quality of the retrieved data, and selectively initiates an error response. In another embodiment, a correction value is iterated through a set of values as a quality metric is monitored such that the value of the quality metric which most closely approaches the value of the quality metric immediately subsequent to an initial writing of the data can be selected.
US09081706B2
The disclosed embodiments provide techniques for reducing address-translation latency and the serialization latency of combined TLB and data cache misses in a coherent shared-memory system. For instance, the last-level TLB structures of two or more multiprocessor nodes can be configured to act together as either a distributed shared last-level TLB or a directory-based shared last-level TLB. Such TLB-sharing techniques increase the total amount of useful translations that are cached by the system, thereby reducing the number of page-table walks and improving performance. Furthermore, a coherent shared-memory system with a shared last-level TLB can be further configured to fuse TLB and cache misses such that some of the latency of data coherence operations is overlapped with address translation and data cache access latencies, thereby further improving the performance of memory operations.
US09081685B2
A data processing apparatus has data processing circuitry for performing data processing operations on data, and a hierarchical cache structure for storing at least a subset of the data for access by the data processing circuitry. The hierarchical cache structure has first and second level caches, and data evicted from the first level cache is routed to the second level cache under the control of second level cache access control circuitry. Cache maintenance circuitry performs a cache maintenance operation in both the first level cache and the second level cache. The access control circuitry is responsive to maintenance indication data to modify the eviction handling operation performed in response to the evicted data, so as to cause the required cache maintenance for the second level cache to be incorporated within the eviction handling operation.
US09081680B2
Issue detection and handling technology in which issue definitions that enable detection of issues at different devices of an enterprise level system that operate different applications are maintained. Solution definitions that relate to resolving issues detected based on the issue definitions are also maintained. Issue detection logic based on the issue definitions is provided to each of the different devices of the enterprise level system. Issue detection information collected based on the issue detection logic is received from at least one of the different devices of the enterprise level system. Based on the issue detection information, an issue at the at least one device is determined. A solution definition related to resolving the determined issue is accessed from the solution definitions. Based on the accessed solution definition, an operation directed to handling the determined issue is performed.
US09081679B2
A distributed computer system includes components. The components include embedded computer processors that make up an application within the distributed computer system. The computer processors are accessible by an end user of the system. The computer processors are operable to communicate with a plurality of system analyzers, to generate an operational status of the application in the system based on the communication with the plurality of system analyzers, to generate one or more recommendations to address or troubleshoot a non-desired operational status of the application within the system, and to provide a unified interface to the end user that provides to the end user the one or more recommendations to address or troubleshoot the non-desired operational status of the application within the system.
US09081675B2
A method begins where a processing module segments data into data segments. On a data segment by data segment basis, the method continues with the processing module performing a decode threshold level of dispersed storage error encoding on a data segment to produce a set of decode threshold level encoded data slices and caching the set of decode threshold level encoded data slices. On a set by set basis, the method continues with the processing module performing a redundancy level of dispersed storage error encoding on the set of decode threshold level encoded data slices to produce a set of redundancy error coded data slices. The method continues with the processing module outputting at least one of at least some of a plurality of sets of decode threshold level encoded data slices and at least a corresponding some of a plurality of sets of redundancy error coded data slices.
US09081660B2
A system and method for managing swaps of pieces of an address mapping table is disclosed. The method may include a controller of a storage device receiving a stream of requests for accesses to the mapping table, analyzing the stream of requests to determine at least one characteristic of the stream of requests, and determining whether to copy a piece of the mapping table stored in non-volatile memory into the volatile memory based on the determined at least one characteristic. The system may include a storage device with a controller configured to perform the method noted above.
US09081648B2
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a software architecture encoded on a computer readable medium is disclosed. The software architecture can be utilized for developing in-vehicle software applications for installation and execution on an in-vehicle computer system. The software architecture includes a number of vehicle application program interfaces (APIs) for accessing vehicles systems or data and for developing in-vehicle software applications; and a number of policy restrictions underlying the vehicle APIs for restricting the level of access to vehicle systems and data while the in-vehicle software application is being developed.
US09081643B2
A technique for providing an improved way to update the nodes of a wireless mesh network is described. An upgrade engine executing on a server connected to the wireless mesh network determines a topology of the network, subdivides the network into a plurality of clusters based on the topology of the network, and seeds a small number of nodes within each cluster. The upgrade engine manages the upgrade process, notifying particular nodes within each cluster when to search for an upgrade package (e.g., an image of a new firmware) stored in an adjacent node. The upgrade engine also monitors success and failure of each node and delivers the upgrade package to a node directly when the node fails to download the upgrade package from an adjacent node within the network.
US09081636B2
Provided are an a display apparatus, a system and a control method thereof for a display apparatus, comprising: a video signal processing unit which processes a video signal; a display unit which displays the processed video signal; a storage unit which stores ID information of the display apparatus; a communication unit which performs network communication based on an internet protocol (IP) with an external apparatus; and a control unit which downloads an application program determined to correspond to the ID information transmitted through the communicating unit from the external apparatus to execute the application program so that a predetermined function can be performed.
US09081630B2
A method includes receiving a request to access a resource; determining a presence of a memory buffer in a hardware-assisted memory pool; and determining a response to the request to access the resource based on the presence of the memory buffer. A system includes a plurality of processors, a resource, and a hardware-assisted memory pool including a memory buffer; one of the plurality of processors receives a request to access the resource, determines a presence of the memory buffer, and determines a response to the request to access the resource based on the presence of the memory buffer.
US09081629B2
The present disclosure provides a method, computer program product, and system for compensating for event counts for a thread occurring during targeted states on the thread. In example embodiments, the state is a spin loop state and instructions completed during the spin loop are eliminated from a performance report and are presented in the absence of the spin loop. In another embodiment, the event counts are interrupt counts eliminated during the spin loop.
US09081625B2
A method of reducing execution jitter includes a processor having several cores and control logic that receives core configuration parameters. Control logic determines if a first set of cores are selected to be disabled. If none of the cores is selected to be disabled, the control logic determines if a second set of cores is selected to be jitter controlled. If the second set of cores is selected to be jitter controlled, the second set of cores is set to a first operating state. If the first set of cores is selected to be disabled, the control logic determines a second operating state for a third set of enabled cores. The control logic determines if the third set of enabled cores is jitter controlled, and if the third set of enabled cores is jitter controlled, the control logic sets the third set of enabled cores to the second operating state.
US09081624B2
A dynamic load balancing system is described that determines the load of resources in a hosted environment dynamically by monitoring the usage of resources by each customer and determines the number of customers hosted by a server based on the actual resources used. The system receives a performance threshold that indicates when a server is too heavily loaded and monitors the resource usage by each customer. When the load of an overloaded server in the hosted environment exceeds the received performance threshold, the system selects a source customer currently hosted by the overloaded server to move to another server.
US09081612B2
A virtual machine control method and a virtual machine having the dual objectives of utilizing NIC on a virtual machine that creates sub-virtual machines operated by a VMM on virtual machines generated by a hypervisor to avoid software copying by the VMM and to prevent band deterioration during live migration or adding sub-virtual machines. In a virtual machine operating plural virtualization software on a physical machine including a CPU, memory, and multi-queue NIC; a virtual multi-queue NIC is loaded in the virtual machine, for virtual queues included in the virtual multi-queue NIC, physical queues configuring the multi-queue NIC are assigned to virtual queues where usage has started, and the physical queues are allowed direct access to the virtual machine memory.
US09081610B2
Exemplary embodiments improve return on investment in hybrid cloud environment. In one embodiment, a computer comprises: a memory; and a processor operable to manage two types of clouds, which are private and public clouds, by using information stored in the memory, and to manage migration of a set of an application and a data between a first type of clouds and a second type of clouds of the two types of clouds, the application running on a server of the first type of clouds, the data to be read or written by the application and being stored in a storage system of the first type of clouds. The processor manages the migration of the set of the application and the data between the first type of clouds and the second type of clouds based on resource utilization of resources including at least one of the server or the storage system.
US09081604B2
An exemplary system may automatically discovery externally added devices. In one embodiment, the system obtains initial device information for a virtual machine running on a host computing system. The system determines whether an external event occurred on the host computing system. A management computing system associated with the host computing system does not receive notification of the external event. Upon determining that the external event occurred on the host computing system, the system obtains updated device information for the virtual machine running on the host computing system.
US09081601B2
A virtual mobile infrastructure (VMI) includes a base platform that has a plurality of hosts. On a host operation system (OS), a quick emulator (QEMU) process is used to virtualize at least one guest cell phone operating system. A data center manages these cell phone OSes generated by this base platform, allocates the OSes to users, and allows communication between cell phone client and server via mobile terminal protocol. A virtual machine (VM) switch contains a method to use the VMI, and to acquire adapted cell phone screen and inexpensive cell phone VM. A VMI product is able to encapsulate the third-party virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) products (such as Citrix XenDesktop, LeoStream, etc.), henceforth to acquire screens from PC VM as well. Moreover, a VM manager allows administrators of enterprises to manage thousands of VMs.
US09081599B2
Systems and methods for adjusting the rate of transmission of the execution state of a virtual machine undergoing live migration. An example method may comprise: determining, by a migration agent executing on a computer system, a first rate being a rate of change of an execution state of a virtual machine undergoing live migration from an origin host computer system to a destination host computer system; determining a second rate being a rate of transferring the execution state of the virtual machine from the origin host computer system to the destination host computer system; determining that a ratio of the first rate to the second rate exceeds a threshold convergence ratio; and reducing the rate of transferring the execution state of the virtual machine from the origin host computer system to the destination host computer system.
US09081575B2
Embodiments of the invention relate to a method and apparatus for a zero voltage processor sleep state. A voltage regulator may be coupled to a processor to provide an operating voltage to the processor. During a transition to a zero voltage power management state for the processor, the operational voltage applied to the processor by the voltage regulator may be reduced to approximately zero while an external voltage is continuously applied to a portion of the processor to save state variables of the processor during the zero voltage management power state.
US09081567B1
In one embodiment, a technique may enable control of routing convergence in a computer network during reboot of a node of a routing topology represented by a directed acyclic graph (DAG). The rebooting node, e.g., a DAG root node, may transmit a reboot notification message to nodes of the routing topology indicating that the rebooting node is unavailable during a subsequent reboot process. In response to receiving and processing the reboot notification message, the nodes of the routing topology may enter a DAG freeze state that inhibits (prevents) routing convergence in the routing topology during the reboot process so as prevent adverse consequences on network stability, such as collapse of the DAG. Thereafter upon completion of the reboot process, the rebooting node may transmit a clear message to the nodes of the routing topology that instructs the nodes to exit the DAG freeze state.
US09081559B2
An electronic system is provided, including electronic devices, power supplies and a control module. The electronic devices each have male and female connectors, wherein the male connectors are mated with the female connectors, such that the electronic devices are overlapped in a direction and electrically connected to each other. The power supplies each are connected to one of the electronic devices, respectively, for providing power to the electronic devices. The control module has first and second modes to control the male and female connectors, wherein, in the first mode, a first electronic device of the electronic devices, which is not connected to either one of the power supplies, receives power through a first female connector of the first electronic device, and outputs power to another electronic device of the electronic devices through the first male connector.
US09081556B2
In an embodiment, an integrated circuit such may require that a full reset of the integrated circuit occur before the integrated circuit enters either a test mode or a functional mode. The integrated circuit may include a reset detector to detect that the reset has occurred, and the integrated circuit may not progress to the test mode or the functional mode unless the reset detector detects that the reset has occurred. Accordingly, if test mode is being entered, any user data that may have been stored in the integrated circuit during a preceding functional mode may have been cleared via the reset. Similarly, if normal mode is being entered, any test data that may have been stored in the integrated circuit in a preceding test mode may have been cleared via the reset.
US09081554B2
In one embodiment a heat exchanger assembly comprises at least one heat pipe and a casing which is to receive a blower, the casing comprising a plurality of heat exchanging plates, wherein at least one of the heat exchanging plates comprises at least one tongue which is to cover a portion of an exterior surface of the at least one heat pipe. Other embodiments may be described.
US09081553B2
A power supply includes an integrated cable manager board. The integrated cable manager board is configured to integrate elements of the power supply on the integrated cable manager board. The integrated cable manager board includes a circuit monitoring device and a plurality of connectors. The circuit monitoring device is disposed on the integrated cable manager board and monitors the circuit status of the power supply. The connectors are disposed on the integrated cable manager board and each of the connectors is operable to provide power.
US09081549B2
According to one embodiment, a supporting apparatus includes a supporting portion and a suction module. The supporting portion is configured to support a wall of an electronic device. The electronic device includes a first surface with a honeycomb rib protrusion. The supporting portion includes a second surface including a first groove and an inlet. The first groove is configured to receive the rib in a state in which the supporting portion supports the wall. The inlet is configured to open toward a first face at a position within a hexagonal ring-like part of the first groove. The suction module is configured to take in air through the inlet.
US09081547B2
A first device such as a portable or handheld electronic computing device can be configured to act as a text-entry device and a cursor control device for a second device. The first device can include a touch-sensitive display capable of receiving text inputs and cursor inputs for controlling the display of a second device which is communicatively coupled to the first device. The first device can be configured such that selection of certain items such as a text-entry field displayed by the second device can cause the first device to switch or change from a text-entry mode to a cursor control mode.
US09081546B2
A portable terminal includes a touchpad that detects contact made thereto and output a value indicating a degree of the contact, and stores a first threshold and a second threshold less than the first threshold. The portable terminal calculates, based on the output value, an area contact value indicating a degree of the contact for each of contacted areas of the touchpad. The portable terminal judges whether the contacted areas include two areas that are not directly adjacent to each other and each have a calculated area contact value equal to or greater than the second threshold. When judging negatively, the portable terminal determines, as a target area to which processing to be performed is allocated, one of the contacted areas having an area contact value equal to or greater than the first threshold, and when judging affirmatively, the portable terminal does not to determine the target area.
US09081545B1
An external control pad for incorporating a mobile device includes two handheld parts, a movable set, and two fastening mechanisms is provided. The movable set is disposed in between the two handheld parts, and each said fastening mechanism is disposed on the movable set. When placing the mobile device in between the two handheld parts, a user adjusts the distance between the two handheld parts by altering the movable set such that the two handheld parts move closer to or away from, the mobile device. The fastening mechanisms for securing the distance posed by the movable set allows the mobile device to be clamped and fixed in between the two handheld parts so that the mobile device is incorporated into the external control pad for users' convenience and ease of use.
US09081544B2
A cradle for a portable terminal includes a cradle body, cradle grooves extending from a surface of the cradle body in parallel with each other, and a support plate able to emerge by a pivoting action from the surface of the cradle body that is between the cradle grooves. When the portable terminal is cradled, the support plate emerges from the surface of the cradle body to support the surface of the portable terminal, and one of the cradle grooves is selectively used to support a portion of an edge of the portable terminal so as to provide a selected facing direction for the portable terminal.
US09081540B1
An adjustable display device capable of being adjusted between flat and curved including a display panel having a rear and an adjustable system at the rear of the display panel. The adjustable system including a rod, a fixing device attached to the rear of the display panel to support the rod and a driving system to transmit power to the rod.
US09081537B2
One exemplary embodiment is directed to a method of tracking a plurality of communication paths in a connector assembly having a plurality of first attachment points and a plurality of second attachment points. The plurality of first attachment points and the plurality of second attachment points are configured to attach physical communication media to the connector assembly. The method comprises reading, from a storage device associated with the connector assembly first, information indicative of a plurality of communication paths formed within the connector assembly between the first attachment points and the second attachment points. The method further comprises reading second information stored on or in physical communication media that is attached to the connector assembly and communicating the first and second information to an aggregation point that is communicatively coupled to the connector assembly.
US09081532B2
In a method to output document data divided into pages at an output printing apparatus, a print file encoded in a page description language is provided with per-page variable document data and bin command data, the bin command data referring to at least one page input tray of a reference printing apparatus for page-shaped recording material. The page input tray is provided to accept form pages with at least one pre-print image. At least one macro data set is created that contains a group of commands of the page description language and pre-print image data with which the pre-print image can be reproduced as a rastered image. Association data are generated for an association between the bin command data and the macro data set. The print file is sent as a data stream from a document data computer to a controller. In the controller the variable document data are merged and rastered with the pre-print image data using the bin command data and the association data. The rastered document data and the pre-print image data are printed on an output recording material in the output printing apparatus.
US09081530B2
A control system for forming and outputting an image, in which an image output control apparatus cooperates with another information processing apparatus that instructs an image forming apparatus to form and output an image. The control system includes an intermediate data generator that acquires an image to be output and generates intermediate data as print data, an intermediate data storage processor that stores the generated intermediate data in a predetermined storage area, an intermediate data acquisition unit that acquires the intermediate data, an additional processor that executes an additional process in outputting the image based on the acquired intermediate data, and a print job generation controller that instructs a print job generator that generates a print job to instruct the image forming apparatus to execute forming and outputting the image to generate the print job based on the intermediate data.
US09081522B2
A method of searching for missing resources associated with an image forming apparatus, which includes the steps of: forwarding a print job having a resource call-out from a host computer to an image forming apparatus; receiving the print job on the image forming apparatus; checking the image forming apparatus for a resource, which has been called out by the print job, and if the resource is not available on the image forming apparatus, obtaining the resource by: sending a request for the resource from the image forming apparatus to a device having the resource; receiving a response from the device having the resource indicating that the resource is a non-sharable resource and including at least one link to where the non-sharable resource can be obtained; and choosing a link having the non-sharable resource and obtaining the non-sharable resource.
US09081520B2
A system for printing includes one or more printers, a send platform, a print spooling platform coupled to the one or more printers, and a one-way data link enforcing unidirectional data transfer from the send platform to the print spooling platform, wherein the send platform is configured to receive a print job, convert the print job into a print file in a printable format for the one or more printers, and send the print file to the print spooling platform across the one-way data link, and the print spooling platform is configured to receive the print file from the one-way data link, control spooling of the print file for the one or more printers, and send the print file to the one or more printers, and wherein the one or more printers cannot communicate to the send platform.
US09081503B2
In one embodiment, a method for managing access to a fast non-volatile storage device, such as a solid state device, and a slower non-volatile storage device, such as a magnetic hard drive, can include a method of managing a sparse logical volume in which unmapped blocks of the logical volume are not allocated until use. In one embodiment, a method of sparse hole filling operates in which range locks are dynamically adjusted to perform allocations for sparse hole filling, and then re-adjusted to perform standard operations using a byte range lock. In one embodiment, a high level data structure can be used in the range lock service in the form of an ordered search tree, which could use any search tree algorithm, such as red-black tree, AVL tree, splay tree, etc.
US09081501B2
A Multi-Petascale Highly Efficient Parallel Supercomputer of 100 petaOPS-scale computing, at decreased cost, power and footprint, and that allows for a maximum packaging density of processing nodes from an interconnect point of view. The Supercomputer exploits technological advances in VLSI that enables a computing model where many processors can be integrated into a single Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). Each ASIC computing node comprises a system-on-chip ASIC utilizing four or more processors integrated into one die, with each having full access to all system resources and enabling adaptive partitioning of the processors to functions such as compute or messaging I/O on an application by application basis, and preferably, enable adaptive partitioning of functions in accordance with various algorithmic phases within an application, or if I/O or other processors are underutilized, then can participate in computation or communication nodes are interconnected by a five dimensional torus network with DMA that optimally maximize the throughput of packet communications between nodes and minimize latency.
US09081499B2
A mobile terminal device includes a display section having a display screen, an input section having a touch input region on the display screen, and a control section for displaying a plurality of keys. The display screen is provided as a software keyboard where a touch operation on a specific key causes an input of the specific key. In the specific display region on the display screen that can display operation keys on the software keyboard, the control section selects these keys from a previously prepared set of input candidate key groups. In response to a specific operation on the specific display region, the control section allows the plurality of keys to be displayed on the specific display region. In response to touch on a desired key in the specific display region, the control section determines that an input of the key has been performed.
US09081490B2
Apparatus and method for overlaying touch-screen input with digital display of an NDT/NDI instrument
A system and method for overlaying, combining or connecting touch-screen input either in free-form or fixed form, with NDT/NDI inspection information. The resulting user interface functionality for digital NDT instrument allows users to make touch-screen input in unrestricted or restricted format and later review and analyze the touch screen input in a complete context of an inspection session such as timing, waveform and geometric information of a defect or measurement target.
US09081489B2
A touch input method includes receiving a touch input signal corresponding to a finger from a touch-sensing device, detecting a contact area between the touch-sensing area and the finger corresponding to the touch input signal received, and if a curvature threshold value below which the contact area is recognizable as a circle, recognizing the finger corresponding to the touch input signal received as a thumb.
US09081488B2
A method and system include a processor that outputs a model of anatomical structures of a region in which a leadwire is implanted, the structures being distinguished by graphical indicia associated with respective textual descriptions in a legend. Electrodes of a model of the leadwire overlaid on the anatomical structure models are selectable, in response to which selection the processor displays a control for modifying an electrical setting of the selected contact.
US09081476B2
An electronic programming guide (“EPG”) provides pictograms and/or logos, to indicate to a television viewer the programs being displayed on a television. The EPG information display format is thus easier to recognize than prior EPG formats. The EPG pictograms may have 3D characteristics. The EPG information can be displayed in a window within a television screen while a program is being shown on the remainder of the screen. The EPG comprises a set of geometric surfaces located in virtual 3D space. The pictograms and/or logos, along with alpha-numeric text data and video clips are applied to the geometric surfaces using a 3D graphics pipeline. The appearance of the pictograms, logos, alpha-numeric data and/or video clips can be modified in response to a user actuating a control element on a remote controller. In one embodiment, internet HTML pages are parsed and applied to geometric surfaces in 3D virtual space.
US09081458B2
An in-cell touch display device is disclosed. The device includes a color filter substrate, a Thin Film Transistor array substrate, and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the color filter substrate and the Thin Film Transistor array substrate. The color filter substrate includes a grid black matrix layer, a touch layer, and a color filter layer, where the touch layer includes a plurality of metal grid electrodes. In addition, each electrode is aligned with the grid of the black matrix layer in a light transmission direction, and a density of the metal grid electrodes adjacent to the edge of the metal grid electrodes is greater than a density of the metal grid electrodes adjacent to the center of metal grid electrodes.
US09081452B2
A method, apparatus and computer program wherein the method includes determining that a cover is positioned overlaying a capacitive touch pad; and adjusting, in response to the determining, a threshold input at which user actuation of the capacitive touch pad is registered.
US09081441B2
A two-dimension (2D) sensing information is analyzed for determining touch related sensing information. The touch related sensing information may include touch related sensing information with inner low values within outer high values and with inner higher values within outer low values.
US09081439B2
User interfaces, methods, systems, and computer-readable media for activating and/or displaying text input systems on display devices may include: (a) displaying a text input system activation target at a user changeable location on a display device; (b) receiving user input directed to the activation target; and (c) activating a text input system in response to the user input. Such user interfaces, methods, and systems further may include (d) displaying a pre-interaction condition of the activation target; (e) receiving user input directed to the activation target in this pre-interaction condition; and (f) changing an appearance of the activation target from the pre-interaction condition to a larger size and/or a different visual appearance in response to this user input. Additional aspects of this invention relate to computer-readable media for providing user interfaces, systems, and methods as described above.
US09081438B2
A capacitive touch panel controller has a memory and multiple driving signal output units. At least one transistor of each driving signal output unit and multiple transistors of the memory are fabricated by an identical semiconductor fabrication process so that the gate oxide layers of the transistors of the driving signal output unit and the memory are identical in thickness. As the transistor of each driving signal output unit and those of the memory are fabricated by a same high-voltage semiconductor fabrication process, the transistor of each driving signal output unit can be fabricated to provide a capacitive touch panel controller having high-voltage driving capability without using any high-voltage fabrication process and increasing the production cost. Due to the high-voltage driving, the SNR and anti-interference capability can be increased.
US09081428B2
A method and apparatus for an impact resistant touchscreen display module, such as for use in ruggedized mobile computing and display devices. The structure provided also allows for severability of the touchscreen and display screen portions, enhancing the practicability of replacing individual components for repair of a damaged touchscreen display module.
US09081423B2
A system is provided for controlling, real-time logging, and archiving complex commercial transactions such as the purchase and financing of an automobile. An electronic contract disclosure unit or ECDU includes a digitizing display for imaging documents involved in the transaction and a digitizer for manual interaction with images on the display. A computer controls the transaction, and may for instance, control the order of presentation of documents to a vehicle purchaser, receive the purchaser's signature on the displayed documents when required, offer choices of various packages that can be accepted or declined by the purchaser, and insures that the entire transaction is carried out properly. The ECDU logs the transaction for future review and preferably records video and audio. Fingerprint readers allow participants to select between options by pressing their thumb or finger on the readers.
US09081417B2
Methods and devices for identifying contactless gestures are described. In one example, the present disclosure describes a method of detecting a contactless gesture on an electronic device. The electronic device has an electromagnetic radiation transmitter and an electromagnetic radiation receiver. The electromagnetic radiation receiver is configured for receiving electromagnetic radiation emitted from the electromagnetic radiation transmitter and reflected by an object. The method includes: monitoring an amplitude of received electromagnetic radiation at the electromagnetic radiation receiver; detecting a proximity event by comparing the amplitude to a predetermined proximity threshold; after detecting the proximity event, continuing to monitor the amplitude of the received electromagnetic radiation at the electromagnetic radiation receiver; and, in response to detecting the proximity event, performing an analysis on the received electromagnetic radiation to determine whether the received electromagnetic radiation indicates a predetermined gesture.
US09081412B2
A system and method for using paper to interface with handwritten annotations and/or pre-defined templates with one or more computer applications is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes imaging content in the paper including pre-defined handwritten commands, associated syntax, one or more computer application identifiers and pointed data which is already existing on the paper, analyzing the imaged content to identify the pre-defined handwritten commands, the one or more computer applications associated with the one or more computer application identifiers, the associated syntax and the pointed data, extracting the pointed data into a specified format associated with the one or more computer applications, executing the one or more computer applications based on the identified pre-defined handwritten commands, the one or more computer application identifiers and the associated syntax, and importing the extracted pointed data into the one or more executed computer applications.
US09081407B2
A method for regulating a power line voltage includes determining a slow voltage variation by filtering an actual voltage at terminals of the voltage regulation apparatus. A fast active power variation is determined by filtering a measured active power of the DG system; wherein a first frequency of the slow voltage variation is smaller than a second frequency of the fast active power variation. The voltage regulation apparatus settings are controlled based on the slow voltage variation and a reactive power output of the DG system is controlled based on fast active power variation.
US09081406B2
Three-phase thyristor switched capacitors are delta-connected to three-phase AC buses. Each thyristor switched capacitor includes a reactor, a capacitor, and a thyristor switch that are electrically connected in series. The thyristor switches of the three phases are arranged so that the terminal-to-terminal distance between respective thyristor switches of respective phases are not uniform. The three-phase thyristor switched capacitors are configured so that the thyristor switched capacitors of two of the three phases having a shortest terminal-to-terminal distance therebetween are opposite to each other in terms of connection order in which the thyristor switch and the capacitor are electrically connected along a loop path made up of the delta-connected thyristor switched capacitors.
US09081404B2
A voltage regulator includes an output stage including a control terminal and a load path, with the load path coupled between the input terminal and the output terminal. The voltage regulator also includes a control circuit with an input stage, a first current mirror, and a second current mirror. The input stage includes a first control input configured to receive a first reference voltage, a second control input configured to receive a second reference voltage, a feedback input coupled to the output terminal, a first output terminal, and a second output terminal. The first current mirror includes a reference current path coupled between a first supply terminal and the first output terminal of the input stage, and an output current path coupled between the first supply terminal and the control terminal of the pass device.
US09081402B2
A method for controlling power supply current in a CMOS circuit, the method including applying a first predetermined voltage to a diode connected n-channel replica transistor, the n-channel replica transistor operating in weak inversion, applying a first substrate voltage to the substrate of the n-channel replica transistor so that the current flowing in the n-channel replica transistor equals a first predetermined target current, and applying the first substrate voltage to substrates of n-channel transistors in the CMOS circuit.
US09081390B2
A back pressure valve comprises a pressure regulator housing affixed to a pressure controller housing and a diaphragm disposed between the pressure regulator housing and the pressure controller housing. In one aspect, the back pressure valve includes a valve member moveable between a fully open position and a fully closed position. The pressure regulator housing includes an inlet chamber communicating with an outlet chamber through at least one fluid passage in a sleeve. The valve member includes a stem connected to a valve head. The valve head includes an outer surface that is received and guided during movement by an inner surface of the sleeve. Upper and lower outer surface of the valve head provide stability to the valve member during opening and closing of the back pressure valve.
US09081386B2
It is described a working apparatus for a limited working area, comprising a base station configured to generate a magnetic field and a self-propelling robot. The self-propelling robot comprises means for moving the self-propelling robot in the working area, a gyroscope, a magnetic field sensor and a processing unit configured to control the movement of the self-propelling robot. The processing unit comprises a magnetic field search module configured to move the self-propelling robot so as to search for the set of contiguous magnetic field lines of force inside the working area according to a defined search path, and comprises a magnetic field tracking module configured to move the self-propelling robot to track at least a portion of the set of found contiguous lines of force by means of a plurality of maneuvers of crossing the set of found contiguous lines of force until reaching the base station.
US09081380B2
An apparatus for determining and/or monitoring a chemical or physical, process variable in automation technology, comprising: a superordinated control unit; and a transmitter electronics having a first interface, a second interface and a third interface. The transmitter electronics communicates with the superordinated control unit by means of the first interface via a bus protocol. The transmitter electronics can be connected with a service unit via the second interface; and the third interface has a plurality of data channels for corresponding data source components; and wherein individual data channels are addressable and tunable via the service unit as a function of the connected data source components, so that data selected from the data for the connected data source components can be transmitted at the same time in at least one telegram to the superordinated control unit.
US09081379B2
In a method of controlling operation of a processing system, a host computer, a process tool and a component of an evacuation system, for example an abatement tool, are connected to a system bus. The abatement tool monitors signals transmitted on the system bus between the host computer and the process tool, and signals received directly from the process tool. The abatement tool uses information contained within the monitored signals to generate a signal for the process tool regarding an operating characteristic of the abatement tool. This signal is transmitted either directly or over the system bus to the process tool, which uses the generated signal to control an operating state of the process tool.
US09081374B2
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for calibrating algorithms for determining electrical load and lifestyle characteristics. A model creation module creates an electrical usage model that includes an electrical device usage model for each electrical load assumed to be at simulated premises (an assumed load set). The simulated premises include characteristics from actual premises within an area serviced by an electric utility. A simulation module simulates a number of simulated electrical usages for a number of assumed load sets at the simulated premises. A load prediction module determines if a particular type of load is present within each simulated premises using a load prediction algorithm that includes algorithm parameters. An accuracy module determines an accuracy of the load prediction algorithm and an adjustment module adjusts the algorithm parameters of the load prediction algorithm in response to the determined accuracy.
US09081373B2
One embodiment of the present invention provides managing component driver for an energy-management system that manages energy within a predominantly closed power system. The component driver includes a receiving mechanism configured to receive current status information for a component associated with the component driver, a model-construction mechanism configured to construct a performance model for the component, and a transmitting mechanism configured to transmit the performance model to an optimization and control module.
US09081369B1
A method for assembling a mechanical modular unit includes storing in a controller a list of assembly parts of the unit. The method includes irreversibly transforming a sub-assembly of each functional module into a ready to use functional module, after adjustment and function checking of a particular timepiece function have been performed on a test bench. The method includes storing in a storage place components required for the assembly list. The method includes programming a manipulator controlled by the controller to look, in a pre-defined sequence peculiar to each assembly list, for each component or module to be assembled. The method includes programming a shape recognition part to operate the manipulator to pick up each functional module according to a locating part included therein, to arrange the module in an assembly position. The method includes each time, irreversibly assembling precisely arranged elements of the mechanical modular unit to each other.
US09081357B2
An image forming apparatus includes a main body and at least one handle unit disposed on the main body. The handle unit includes a fixing bracket disposed on the main body and having a stop portion, a hinge shaft disposed on the fixing bracket, a handle member disposed to rotate with respect to the fixing bracket by the hinge shaft, a hook formed at an end of the handle member, and a hook catching portion formed on the main body, the hook catching portion to which the hook is caught. The hook is caught to the hook catching portion by weight of the handle member.
US09081355B2
A reserve portion is an inner tube that reserves waste toner in a reserve space in a main body of the reserve portion, and includes a protrusion row on an outer peripheral surface. A recovery inlet is formed in an upper portion of the reserve portion. A container portion is an outer tube that incorporates the reserve portion. An inlet protruding the container portion is formed in a lower portion of a side wall of the container portion. A driving unit makes the reserve portion rotate with respect to the container portion about a rotational shaft integrally formed with the reserve portion via a docking gear. As the reserve portion rotates with respect to the container portion, the waste toner supplied to a conveyance path is conveyed from the inlet to the recovery inlet to be supplied to the reserve space.
US09081347B2
In an embodiment, provided is a lubricant supplying device that includes: a solid lubricant; a supplying member that supplies lubricant of the solid lubricant to a lubricant supplying target; and a remaining amount detecting unit that detects an amount of the solid lubricant being at a given amount or less. The remaining amount detecting unit is provided on a downstream side in a rubbing direction of the supplying member with respect to the solid lubricant.
US09081346B2
An image forming apparatus includes a control device executing: a holding process of holding developer attached on an image carrier at a holding member; a moving process of moving the developer from the holding member to the image carrier; and a collection process of collecting the developer attached on the image carrier into a collection member. The control device executes the moving process and the collection process after completing printing. The control device sets a first flag when predetermined time period elapses from start of the moving process and unsets the first flag at start of the printing. When the first flag is not set at a startup time, the control device executes the moving process and the collection process before the printing. When the first flag is set, the control device omits the moving process before the printing.
US09081345B2
A sheet interval, serving as the distance between conveyed recording materials, is properly controlled based on a kind of a recording material and any one of a printing ratio, an adhesion amount of toner, and the presence or absence of graphic data, thus allowing printing at throughput suitable for, for example, the kind of the recording material and the printing ratio without changing an image forming condition such that image quality does not vary.
US09081332B2
An image forming apparatus transfers a negative toner image on a waste sheet of paper having larger size than that of a printing sheet of paper and transfers all the toner images on the printing sheet of paper. A first thermal transferring portion transfers an unnecessary foil of a foil sheet on the negative toner image of the waste sheet of paper image. A second thermal transferring portion transfers a foil remained on the foil sheet on the positive toner image of the printing sheet of paper. The positive toner image is formed using transparent toner. Any gradation processing is performed on an edge of the positive toner image.
US09081322B2
LED printhead apparatus and printing systems are presented in which an LED array and a first high angle lens array are housed in an LED printbar assembly and a second low angle lens array is provided between the first lens array and a photoreceptor belt or drum in order to relay the output of the first lens array to the photoreceptor to provide a larger depth of focus and to reduce waterfront and tolerance issues near the photoreceptor.
US09081318B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide a ferrite carrier core material and a ferrite carrier for an electrophotographic developer, which have an excellent charging property, hardly cause carrier scattering due to cracking and chipping of the core material, and have a prolonged life, and methods for manufacturing these, and an electrophotographic developer using the ferrite carrier. For this object, the ferrite carrier core material and a ferrite carrier for an electrophotographic developer, wherein (1) the ferrite composition contains 0.5 to 2.5% by weight of Sr, and the presence amount of Sr—Fe oxides satisfies a specific conditional expression, (2) the distribution in the number of the shape factor SF-2 is in a specific range, (3) the BET specific surface area is 0.15 to 0.30 m2/g, (4) the average particle diameter D50 is 20 to 35 μm, and (5) the magnetization is 50 to 65 Am2/kg.
US09081309B2
A detector module (20) is described that includes at least one detector (30) for sensing photon radiation, an electronic circuit (40) coupled to the at least one detector (30), and a housing (50) having a first and a second body (60, 70), each having a bottom part (62, 72) and an at least partially cylindrical part (64, 74) extending from the bottom part (62, 72), wherein the at least partially cylindrical part (64) of the first body (60) is thermally coupled with the at least partially cylindrical part (74) of the second body (70), wherein the at least partially cylindrical part (64) of the first body (60) extends towards the bottom part (72) of the second body (70), and wherein the electronic circuit (40) is arranged inside the housing (50). A lithographic apparatus including the detector module (20) is also described.
US09081308B2
A guide includes a brittle material layer and a magnetically attracting magnetic body, e.g., a metal layer. A recess and a projection are formed on the metal layer. The brittle material layer is made of, e.g., a sprayed ceramic material and covers the recess formed on the magnetically attracting metal layer. A movable body moves as it levitates above the surface of the brittle material layer.
US09081293B2
A method of exposing a wafer substrate includes receiving an integrated circuit (IC) design layout defining a pattern; determining a temperature profile of a mask based on the IC design layout, the pattern being formed on the mask; calculating a pre-corrected overlay shift for the mask based on the calculated temperature profile; and exposing a resist layer coated on a substrate using the mask with overlay compensation based on the pre-corrected overlay shift.
US09081289B2
In a method, a layout of a device having a pattern of features is provided. The method continues to include identifying a first portion of at least one feature of the plurality of features. An image criteria for the first portion may be assigned. A lithography optimization parameter is determined based on the assigned image criteria for the first portion. Finally, the first portion of the at least one feature is imaged onto a semiconductor substrate using the determined lithography optimization parameter.
US09081286B2
Pattern forming method, method for producing electronic device using the same, and electronic device
Provided is a pattern forming method including, in the following order: (1) forming a resist film on a substrate; (2) exposing the resist film, and thereby forming a first line-and-space latent image; (3) subjecting the resist film in which the first line-and-space latent image has been formed, to a first heating treatment; (4) exposing the resist film that has been subjected to the first heating treatment, and thereby forming a second line-and-space latent image, so that the line direction in the second line-and-space latent image intersects the line direction in the first line-and-space latent image; (5) subjecting the resist film in which the second line-and-space latent image has been formed, to a second heating treatment; and (6) developing the resist film that has been subjected to the second heating treatment, using a developer containing an organic solvent.
US09081285B2
A method for fabricating a circuit, by defining a first set of resist features on a substrate and corresponding to a first mask layout, followed by defining a second set of resist features on the substrate corresponding to a second mask layout, wherein the second set adds to the first set for rectifying an error in either mask layout. In another aspect, the method is by defining a first set of resist features on a substrate and corresponding to a first mask layout that has an error, etching the substrate while the first set protects selected regions, defining a second set of resist features on the substrate and corresponding to a second mask layout, followed by etching the substrate to selectively remove portions of the selected regions for rectifying the error.
US09081284B2
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device including a first region and a second region contacting the first region along a boundary line, includes forming a pattern having an on-boundary-line line portion with a width defined by a first line which is arranged in the first region and is parallel to the boundary line, and a second line which is arranged in the second region and is parallel to the boundary line. The forming the pattern includes independently performing, for a photoresist applied on a substrate, first exposure for defining the first line, and second exposure for defining the second line, and developing the photoresist having undergone the individually performing the first exposure and the second exposure.
US09081283B2
The invention disclosed herein provides highly efficient methods and materials useful for surface patterning via polymerization reactions. In particular, by using a light-mediated radical polymerization procedure, brush formation from a surface can be regulated spatially by controlling the area of irradiation. In embodiments of the invention, polymer chain length (and/or film thickness) can be effectively controlled by either the amount of time a surface is irradiated with light (temporal control) or by the intensity of light allowed to reach the surface. Such light-mediated control allows artisans to use the disclosed processes to form complex 3-dimensional structures on a variety of surfaces. Moreover, the simplicity of the disclosed polymerization processes allows them to be adapted for use in a wide range of technologies.
US09081272B2
The present invention relates to a leveling apparatus that levels an object to be leveled with a surface of a substrate by measuring the force applied to the object, and an atomic force microscope including the leveling apparatus.A leveling apparatus according to the present invention, which levels an object with a substrate such that one side of the object is brought in parallel contact with the surface of the substrate, includes: force sensors disposed to measure force at at least three points on the other side of the object; an angle adjusting unit disposed to adjust the angle between the object and the surface of the substrate; and a controller connecting with the force sensors and the angle adjusting unit to drive the angle adjusting unit on the basis of data from the force sensors. The controller obtains the data on force applied to the force sensors by bringing one side of the object in contact with the surface of the substrate at a predetermined angle, calculates the degree of relative inclination between the object and the surface of the substrate from the data on force, and levels the object with the surface of the substrate by adjusting the angle of the object or the substrate with the angle adjusting unit on the basis of the degree of relative inclination.
US09081269B2
A lighting device equipped with means for receiving and delivering multimedia content is described. Such a device can be mounted on any type of pre-existing standard lamp-holder so as to transform it into a sophisticated system for providing adjustable lighting and for delivering multimedia content that can be updated as desired by the user, thus being able to be integrated in a simple and cost-effective way into the room furniture without requiring the addition of other elements or the replacement of any pre-existing lighting system.
US09081267B2
A light emitting device includes a first layer that generates light by injection of a current and forms a waveguide of the light, and an electrode that injects the current into the first layer, wherein the waveguide of the light has a belt-like first region and a belt-like second region, the first region has a first part with curvature, the second region has a second part with curvature, the first region and the second region are connected in a reflection part provided on a side surface of the first layer, and a first light output from the first region on a side surface of the first layer as an output surface opposed to the side surface on which the reflection part is provided and a second light output from the second region on the output surface are output in the same direction.
US09081263B2
A camera set up for fitting on board a motor vehicle. The camera has an electronic sensor, a multifocal, particularly bifocal optical device, an optical lens focused in long-range field, the multifocal optical device and the optical lens being set up to be able to form a first image (IM1) on the sensor, focused in long-range field, and a second image (IM2) focused in close-range field, these first and second images extending into respective distinct regions of the sensor.
US09081262B2
In exemplary implementations of this invention, a set of two scanning mirrors scans the one dimensional field of view of a streak camera across a scene. The mirrors are continuously moving while the camera takes streak images. Alternately, the mirrors may only between image captures. An illumination source or other captured event is synchronized with the camera so that for every streak image the scene looks different. The scanning assures that different parts of the scene are captured.
US09081257B2
An imaging apparatus that uses luminance information obtained through a test flash by a flash unit for illuminating a subject to determine a flash quantity of a flash unit for main photographing sets exposure conditions for the test flash based on exposure conditions for the main photographing. The imaging apparatus changes a predetermined test flash quantity for the test flash to compensate a difference between the set exposure conditions and predetermined initial values of exposure conditions for the test flash and performs the test flash based on the set exposure conditions and the changed test flash quantity.
US09081254B2
An embedded linear motor drive for an IR camera composing linear motor components that integrates into a sliding shutter is disclosed. The linear motor components can be a linear array of magnets, or a series of ridges or gear teeth. A motor drive is aligned with the linear motor components. The drive can be a series of coils connected to a power source that can move the shutter when the coils are energized in series. The drive can also be a pinion shaft with a friction wheel at one end or pinion gear that can connect to the ridges or gear teeth and move the shutter when the shaft is rotated.
US09081253B2
An integrated optical device includes first, second, third, and fourth edge portions; a plurality of modulators each of which includes an optical waveguide and an electrode portion provided on the optical waveguide, the optical waveguide extending in a direction of a first axis; a plurality of electric signal input sections arrayed along the first edge portion extending in a direction of a second axis intersecting with the first axis, each of the electric signal input sections being connected to one of the electrode portions of the modulators; an optical signal input section; and an optical signal output section provided in the second edge portion extending in the direction of the second axis. The modulators are arrayed in the direction of the second axis. In addition, the optical signal input section is provided in one of the second edge portion, the third edge portion, and the fourth edge portion.
US09081247B1
Controllers and control methods apply a drive voltage to bus bars of a thin film optically switchable device. The applied drive voltage is provided at a level that drives a transition over the entire surface of the optically switchable device but does not damage or degrade the device. This applied voltage produces an effective voltage at all locations on the face of the device that is within a bracketed range. The upper bound of this range is associated with a voltage safely below the level at which the device may experience damage or degradation impacting its performance in the short term or the long term. At the lower boundary of this range is an effective voltage at which the transition between optical states of the device occurs relatively rapidly. The level of voltage applied between the bus bars is significantly greater than the maximum value of the effective voltage within the bracketed range.
US09081235B2
A display panel includes a first substrate, a second substrate and a spacer disposed there between. The second substrate includes a black matrix pattern, a color filter, a dummy color filter and a common electrode. The black matrix pattern is formed with an opening portion which is filled by the color filter. The dummy color filter is made of same material as the color filter and extends in a vertical direction along which the spacer also extends. The spacer is formed between the first substrate and the second substrate in correspondence with location of the dummy color filter so that the effective spaced apart distance that the spacer provides between the first and second substrates is a function of a thickness of the dummy color filter.
US09081231B2
A vertical alignment mode liquid crystal display comprising: a liquid crystal cell; a first polarizer; a second polarizer; a first optical film arranged between the first polarizer and the liquid crystal cell; and a second optical film arranged between the liquid crystal cell and the second optical film, wherein the first and the second optical films each are a resin film having an optically biaxial property, the first and the second optical films meet: Formula (1) Ro1>Ro2; Formula (2) Rth1
US09081227B2
A lighting device includes LEDs, a reflecting sheet that reflects light emitted from the LEDs, and connectors electrically connected to the LEDs. The reflecting sheet has integrated superposed portions on which the connectors are superposed, and the connector surface on the reflecting sheet side thereof serves as a sheet pressing surface for pressing down the superposed portions of the reflecting sheet.
US09081223B2
The present invention discloses a capacitive in cell touch panel and display device, wherein touch sensing electrodes are provided on a color filter substrate, the whole common electrode layer of the TFT array substrate is segmented into a plurality of strip-shaped structures functioning as touch driving electrodes, and the touch driving electrodes are driven in a time-sharing manner to achieve the touch function and the display function in a time-sharing manner. Since in the touch panel according to the present invention, structure of the common electrode layer of the TFT array substrate is altered to form the touch driving electrodes, it is not necessary to add a new film on the existing TFT array substrate and only an additional process needs to be added to segment the whole common electrode layer into a plurality of strip-shaped structures, reducing the production cost and increasing the production efficiency.
US09081222B2
A conductive elastic sheet includes: an outer portion sandwiched between a resin frame portion and a metal frame portion and brought into contact with the metal frame portion; an inner portion laminated to an image display screen; and a connecting portion connecting the outer and inner portions. An upper surface of the resin frame portion is arranged at a higher position than the image display screen. The outer portion of the conductive elastic sheet is arranged at a higher position than the inner portion. The inner portion of the conductive elastic sheet is laminated to the image display screen in a flat shape. The conductive elastic sheet has a slit formed between the outer and inner portions and adjacent to the connecting portion. The connecting portion is bent in a height increasing direction from the same height position as the inner portion.
US09081220B2
An image display device comprising an image display panel, heat dispersion material positioned proximate to the image display panel, a frame system including a framework positioned proximate to the heat dispersion material opposite the image display panel, and a plurality of electronic components engaging the framework, where the image display device exhibits a support factor of less than about 375 mm-W/m° K. The framework can be adhesively bonded to the heat dispersion material. The framework can include a height and a width wherein the heat dispersion material substantially spans the height and the width. Additionally, a first cross support can span the framework and a plurality of second electronic components can engage the first cross support. Additionally a second cross support can span the framework wherein at least one of the second electronic components engages the second cross support.
US09081212B1
A componentized eyeglass/sunglasses/slipcover system (System) that facilitates the quick and easy transformation of the eyeglasses for decorative/style changes and/or the attachment of electronic or other integrated components. The System will comprise of a faceplate assembly consisting of two or more pieces plus one or two lenses, two ear piece members and two hinges which attach and detach from either or both the face plate assembly and the ear piece members and slipcovers that are made of any flexible material plastic or other material that will cover all or a portion of the ear piece members and/or the face plate assembly. The componentized system is for decorative/style changes as well as for attaching/integrating electronic or other components. The System fits together in a clean, secure manner to present a sleek, quality appearance.
US09081211B2
A magnetic hinge (24) having a magnet (68) that is rotatably connected to frame front (14) or temples (18, 19) of eyewear (10). Magnet (68) has a contact surface that cooperates with a magnetically reactive body (76) and can be secured in a housing (34) that is rotatably connected to eyewear (10) by protrusions (60, 62).
