US09102252B2

Vehicle seat devices are provided with: a backrest; side supports that are disposed on both sides of the backrest, and that have protruding sections that protrude further forward than the backrest; a mechanism for adjusting the degree of restraint that changes the width of the protruding sections; a frame disposed inside the side supports; and a movable member that is disposed on the frame, and that displaceably holds the ends of a side surface leather material of the side supports in relation to the frame.
US09102245B2

An end cap for a seat track assembled between a vehicle seat and a floor of a vehicle. The seat track includes an upper track attached to the vehicle seat and a lower track attached to the floor that receives the upper track in a sliding relationship. A seat position sensor attached to the upper track senses the position of the lower seat track. The end cap has a plurality of longitudinally extending walls that are assembled over the lower track. One of the longitudinally extending walls is attached to a recessed portion of the lower track with an external surface that is contiguous with the outer surface of one wall of the lower track.
US09102244B2

Provided is an operation apparatus capable of securely preventing an erroneous operation in adjusting a seat and the like from being caused by a passenger. A seat shape image Sg representing an outer profile of a seat, and adjustable item buttons Tb representing names of movable portions, respectively, of the seat are displayed on a display screen. When a position, on a touch panel, corresponding to a position, on the display screen, of one of the adjustable item buttons Tb is touched, adjustment direction arrows Ty indicating directions, respectively, in which one of the movable portions corresponding to the one of the adjustable item buttons Tb is movable are displayed on the display screen.
US09102240B2

A system and method of supplying 240 volt charging for an electric vehicle, while also allowing for 120 volt electrical devices to be used in the area, includes a charging station having a 240 volt input, a 240 volt electric vehicle charge plug electrically connected to the 240 volt input, a 240 volt to 120 volt step down transformer, a 240 volt side of the step down transformer electrically connected to the 240 volt input, and a 120 volt power outlet electrically connected to a 120 volt side of the step down transformer. The charging station is electrically connected to a 240 volt circuit that has been converted from a 120 volt circuit that has previously existed in the area.
US09102238B2

There are provided an electric charging system and an electric vehicle. The electric vehicle has a battery and is provided with power receiving terminals for charging. A converter is provided between the battery and the power receiving terminals, and relays are provided between the converter and the power receiving terminals. An electric charger is provided with a power converter that outputs charging power and power supply terminals connected to the power converter. When the interruption of charging power supply from the power converter fails during charging, the converter is actuated and the stored electric power of the battery is boosted and supplied to the relays.
US09102232B2

A drive axle system for a vehicle drive train having a clutching device is provided. The drive axle system includes a first shaft, a first axle assembly, a second axle assembly, a first clutching device, and a second clutching device. The first axle assembly is drivingly engaged with the first shaft through a first pinion gear. The first clutching device divides one of a pair of output axles into first and second portions. The second clutching device selectively engages a driving gear of the second axle assembly with a second pinion gear of the first axle assembly through a propeller shaft.
US09102222B2

A vehicle with electric propulsion, having: a floor which makes up a bottom wall of the compartment and is provided with a bottom panel beneath which there is the external environment; a motor propulsion system provided with at least one electric machine; and a system for the storage of electric energy which lies on the bottom panel and is provided with a pack of chemical batteries, which are connected to each other in series and in parallel and have respective electrochemical cells; the support panel has, for each chemical battery, a corresponding through hole which makes up a corresponding evacuation opening; and each chemical battery is provided with an outlet duct, which connects a safety valve of the chemical battery to the corresponding evacuation opening obtained through the support panel.
US09102216B2

A guide rail (10) for a vehicle sliding roof system, having a guide (22) which can receive a sliding element (18) for shifting motion that is coupled to a cover of the sliding roof system, the guide (22) including a shifting section (17) that extends in a substantially straight line, and the guide rail (10) being made of metal, in particular of an aluminum alloy, is characterized in that it includes a lifting section (16) which integrally adjoins the shifting section (17) and extends obliquely to the direction of extent of the shifting section (17). Also described is a method of producing a guide rail for a vehicle sliding roof system.
US09102215B2

A comfort system is provided for a motor vehicle. A seat occupancy sensor determines whether a third row zone is occupied. At least one flow controller is provided in the floor duct for controllably supplying the conditioned airflow to at least the third row outlet. If the third row zone is occupied, then a second row outlet and the third row outlet are turned on to supply a conditioned airflow to a front seat zone, a second row zone, and the third row zone. If the third row zone is not occupied, then the third row outlet is closed off. If the second row zone is not occupied, then the second and third row outlets are closed off. If occupied, then the second row outlet is turned on until a desired comfort level is achieved in the second row zone.
US09102214B2

A two-layer inside/outside air vehicular air-conditioning system which suppresses odor inside an air-conditioning case or inside a vehicular compartment is provided with an exhaust controller which uses an outside air intake port as an air exhaust port and which uses a compartment-side air discharge port opening/closing device to close all compartment-side air discharge ports. The exhaust controller also operates one or both of the blowers to cause air inside the first air passage and the second air passage to be exhausted via the air exhaust port.
US09102207B2

Disclosed is a device for automatically adjusting a camber angle for a suspension system that includes a shock absorber. The device includes a first member rotationally drivable by a driving element during a displacement of a change of direction of the wheel, and a second member fixable to a vehicle frame. The first and second members cooperate to cause a relative translation of the first member and of the second member during a rotation of the shock absorber.
US09102198B2

The present invention relates to a no-puncture bullet-proof tire, which can prevent a puncture, a tear or a rupture of a tire by a nail, a reinforcing bar piece, a steel plate piece, a bullet, or other various kinds of fragments, and can enable a vehicle to safely run at a high speed of about 100 kilometers or more per hour under a high temperature environment of about 60° C. or more and a low temperature environment of about −60° C. or less, by filling the inside of the tire with a mixture of silicon rubber and spherical EVA foam without an air pressure.
US09102191B2

In a method for decorating a plastic package, on at least a part of a surface of the plastic package, portions which are different in optical characteristics from the surface are periodically arranged to decorate the surface.
US09102190B2

A nanotip, is fabricated by modifying a precursor nanotip having an apex and a shank by applying an electric field in the presence of a reactive gas to perform field-assisted etching wherein atoms are preferentially removed from the shank by chemical interaction with the reactive gas, and controlling the reactive gas pressure and/or tip voltage to vary the electric field so as to promote field evaporation of apex atoms during fabrication of the nanotip and thereby control the overall profile of the resulting nano-tip. The method permits shaping of the overall tip profile.
US09102184B2

According to one embodiment, an indirect transfer medium includes: a base material; and an image receiving layer on which an image is capable of being formed by ink-jet printing. The image receiving layer includes a vinyl acetate maleate copolymer as thermo-adhesive material. The image receiving layer is laminated on the base material.
US09102176B2

According to an embodiment, an image forming apparatus includes: a carriage, on which a recording head is mounted, to be driven by a driving source to reciprocate; and a drive control unit that controls driving of the driving source by PWM control. The drive control unit includes a detecting unit that detects at least any one of a position and a velocity of the carriage, a calculating unit that calculates PWM command values from detection results output from the detecting unit, a storing unit that stores a maximum value and a minimum value of the PWM command values, a comparing unit that compares a difference between the maximum value and the minimum value against a predetermined threshold value, and a stop-output command unit that, when the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value exceeds the threshold value, outputs a command to stop driving of the carriage.
US09102172B2

A printer includes: a stationary inkjet printhead; a media feed path for guiding print media twice past the printhead; and a feed mechanism for feeding print media unidirectionally through the media feed path at a constant speed. The media feed path includes: a first section configured for feeding print media past the printhead from a first side of the printhead in a first direction with respect to the printhead; a second section downstream of the first section, the second section being configured for guiding print media around a single loop, the loop being positioned at a second side of the printhead opposite the first side; and a third section downstream of the second section, the third section being configured for feeding print media past the printhead from the second side of the printhead in an opposite second direction with respect to the printhead.
US09102171B2

According to one example there is provided apparatus for curing ink on a substrate. The apparatus comprises a substrate support, a curing sheet positionable above the substrate support to create a gap between a substrate on the substrate support and the curing sheet. The apparatus further comprises an oxygen-depletion mechanism for reducing the oxygen level in the gap and an ultra-violet, UV, radiation source to apply UV radiation through the curing sheet to a substrate on the substrate support.
US09102162B2

The present invention provides an inkjet printing apparatus capable of achieving thorough stirring by producing a flow in a main tank and a sub tank. The inkjet printing apparatus includes a printing head, a main tank, and a sub tank. The apparatus includes an ink reservoir unit formed of a flexible member, disposed between the sub tank and the printing head. The ink is supplied from the sub tank to the printing head by increasing the volume of the ink reservoir unit, and air in the sub tank is sent to the main tank by reducing the volume of the ink reservoir unit.
US09102159B2

A liquid supply device includes diaphragms, pressing members, a movement unit, a rotating shaft, and cams. In the liquid supply device, when the rotating shaft is rotated in a first direction, the cams are moved to arrange adjoining ones of the cams to have a phase difference around the rotating shaft, in which one of the cams selectively causes a corresponding one of the pressing members to regulate an increase in a volume of a corresponding one of the diaphragms. When the rotating shaft is rotated in a second direction, the cams are moved to arrange the cams in phase with one another when viewed from an axial direction of the rotating shaft, in which the cams simultaneously cause all the pressing members to regulate the increase in the volume of each of the diaphragms.
US09102158B2

An inkjet textile printing apparatus includes a penetrant liquid storage tank, a textile printing colored liquid storage tank, and first to third flow passages. The penetrant liquid storage tank is configured and arranged to store a penetrant liquid that facilitates penetration of a textile printing colored liquid into a fabric. The textile printing colored liquid storage tank is configured and arranged to store the textile printing colored liquid. The first flow passage connects the penetrant liquid storage tank and a first nozzle together. The second flow passage connects the textile printing colored liquid storage tank and a second nozzle together. The third flow passage connects the first flow passage and the second flow passage together and forms a flow passage for supplying the penetrant liquid to the second nozzle.
US09102155B2

In a method to clean nozzles and ink channels of at least one ink print head with a flushing medium in an ink printing apparatus, a necessary flushing quantity of the flushing medium that is to be provided and which is necessary for flushing of the ink print head in a flushing process is determined from either a predetermined flushing quantity predetermined depending on a print duration of the ink printing apparatus or from a drive flushing quantity derived from a flushing quantity curve that indicates a dependency of the flushing quantity on an elapsed time for an ink used in printing, the necessary flushing quantity being either said predetermined flushing quantity or the derived flushing quantity, whichever is greater. The determined necessary flushing quantity is used to flush the ink print head.
US09102154B2

An ink jet head includes a pressure chamber formed to hold ink, a vibrating plate, a driving element, and a protective film covering the driving element. The vibrating plate is provided at one end of the pressure chamber, and has a first opening through which the ink held in the pressure chamber is discharged. The driving element is provided on a surface of the vibrating plate and is configured to cause a volume of the pressure chamber to be changed by deforming the vibrating plate upon application of voltage to the driving element. The protective film has a second opening aligned with the first opening and through which the ink held in the pressure chamber is discharged.
US09102148B2

A method and structure for a printhead including a plurality of electrostatic actuators may include the formation of a first conductive layer, a first dielectric layer over the first conductive layer, and a second dielectric layer over the first dielectric layer. The first and second dielectric layers may be patterned to expose the first conductive layer, then sidewalls of the first dielectric layer may be isotropically etched to recess the sidewalls under the second dielectric layer. A self-patterned second conductive layer may be formed to include a first portion that forms at least a portion of an actuator electrode and physically and electrically contacts the first conductive layer, and a second portion that physically contacts the second dielectric layer. An actuator membrane may be diffusion bonded to the second dielectric layer using the second portion of the second conductive layer.
US09102143B2

When a plurality of images is printed on both the surfaces of a continuous sheet, an optimum scheduling is carried out including maintenance of a print head, thereby suppressing amount of consumption of a sheet as a whole. For such a purpose, acquiring information regarding on which of the first and second surfaces and where on the surface of the continuous sheet a unique portion exists, the unique portion is unsuitable for image printing that exists on the continuous sheet; and setting, based on the acquired information, a print unavailable region including the unique portion and a maintenance region posterior thereto on a specific sheet surface having the unique portion existing thereon, and another print unavailable region and a maintenance region posterior thereto on a reverse side of the specific sheet surface, the another print unavailable region being set so as to include a region corresponding to the maintenance region.
US09102140B2

A printing apparatus has an ink printing device onto which a flat item being transported om the x-direction for printing thereon is pressed by a contact pressure device, wherein the base of the contact pressure device has a contact pressure body floor plate biased by a spring force. A notch at the edge of the contact pressure body floor plate extends further in the contact pressure body in the z-direction, up to the ink printing device. An additional contact pressure device for strip-shaped printing substrates has a contact pressure element designed so as to be movable separate from the contact pressure body, and biased with a spring force of an additional spring or resiliently elastic element. The contact pressure element is arranged so as to be movable in the notch. A sensor for print triggering is arranged at a front wall of a lower housing shell of the printing apparatus and has a sensor region that is adjacent to the separate contact pressure element in the insertion direction y of a box-shaped module.
US09102137B2

A transfer image forming apparatus includes ink applying unit for applying ink to an intermediate transfer member to form an intermediate image; a heating unit for irradiating the intermediate transfer member with at least infrared light to heat the intermediate image; and a transferring unit for pressing a recording medium against the intermediate transfer member having formed thereon the intermediate image to transfer the intermediate image onto the recording medium. The intermediate transfer member includes a substrate, and at least a second layer, a metal layer, and a first layer as a surface layer provided in the listed order on the substrate. The heat conductivity of the second layer is smaller than that of the first layer.
US09102135B2

A plate attachment device and a method for attaching and removing printing plates, wherein the positioning accuracy in the circumferential direction relative to a plate cylinder is increased and attachment and removal of the printing plate is easy, are provided. The plate attachment device 1 is equipped with a plate cylinder 11 secured to the outer periphery of a plate drive shaft 31 and having a cylindrical plate attaching surface 12 to which a printing plate 2 is to be attached from the tip end side of the plate drive shaft 31. The plate attaching surface 12 is provided with a plurality of plate securing members 121 which are formed to be movable to both the outer side and inner side in the radial direction of the plate cylinder 11, abut the printing plate 2 attached to the plate attaching surface 12 and expand in the radial direction so as to adhere and secure the printing plate 2 to the plate attaching surface 12.
US09102134B2

A method for setting up and/or operating a web-fed printing press includes winding a material web onto a roller, printing a portion of the material web, then unwinding and removing an unprinted part of the material web located before from the roller, and then fixing a cut start of the printed material web to the take-up roller. During the method, the material web is first conveyed backward for the unprinted part to be cut off, then a drive of the material web is switched to a holding mode, in which the material web stands still while maintaining web tension, the material web is drawn from a web start in direction of the take-up roller with little tensile force and the web start is fixed to the take-up roller. A web-fed printing press for carrying out the method is also provided.
US09102127B2

A textile product in the form of a lightweight, portable and versatile mat that is both waterproof, padded and comfortable. The mat of the present invention comprises a waterproof backing material, a foam padded lining, and an acrylic top layer securely laminated or otherwise affixed one to the other.
US09102120B2

There is provided a double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive tape which includes a first pressure-sensitive adhesive layer formed by using any of different types of adhesive samples. Thereby the first pressure-sensitive adhesive layer is adjusted so as to satisfy conditions that, slow peel strength when a printing tape made of a PET film is peeled off from the substrate film of the double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive tape by 5 mm at peel rate of 0.5 mm/minute is 0.45 N/20 mm or higher and storage modulus of the adhesive layer is in a range from 90.7 kPa to 435 kPa. By improving adhesiveness to the printing tape under environmental temperature from a low temperature to a normal temperature, the double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive layer renders the printing tape less apt to peel off.
US09102118B2

An apparatus and method for forming a patterned graphene layer on a substrate. One such method includes forming at least one patterned structure of a carbide-forming metal or metal-containing alloy on a substrate, applying a layer of graphene on top of the at least one patterned structure of a carbide-forming metal or metal-containing alloy on the substrate, heating the layer of graphene on top of the at least one patterned structure of a carbide-forming metal or metal-containing alloy in an environment to remove graphene regions proximate to the at least one patterned structure of a carbide-forming metal or metal-containing alloy, and removing the at least one patterned structure of a carbide-forming metal or metal-containing alloy to produce a patterned graphene layer on the substrate, wherein the patterned graphene layer on the substrate provides carrier mobility for electronic devices.
US09102107B2

A metallic layer is formed on a resin-made dial plate main body by surface treatment. A front surface of the main body is provided with a circular or arc-shaped second design face around a rotation shaft of a pointer, and a first inwardly inclined face and an outwardly inclined face continued to the second design face so as to rim an inside and an outside of the second design face and gradually extending toward a rear surface as extending away from the second design face. These first inwardly inclined face and outwardly inclined face are provided on a smooth face. Other portions except these first inwardly inclined face and outwardly inclined face are provided on a corrugated face on which a plurality of convexes and concaves are formed and having a surface roughness rougher than the smooth face.
US09102095B2

The carrying apparatus is a carbon fiber-containing resin sheet carrying apparatus for carrying a carbon fiber-containing resin sheet heated in a heating furnace to a pressing device, comprising a slider that moves between the heating furnace and the pressing device and a sheet holder that is mounted thereon and chucks both the end parts of the carbon fiber-containing resin sheet to apply tension. The sheet holder can have a structure such that it comprises chuck claws and a tension unit that displaces these chuck claws to the outside. The sheet holder may have a structure such that it comprises a holding metal fitting with a spring, that is arranged inside a holding frame and a chuck claw that chucks this holding frame.
US09102091B2

An extruder is disclosed, and more particularly, a twin screw extruder for mixing, compounding, kneading and/or extruding of materials. The twin screw extruder includes a barrel assembly having a housing. The twin screw extruder further includes a first screw provided within the housing and comprising threads. The twin screw extruder further includes a second screw provided within the housing and comprising a threaded portion and a shaft portion devoid of threads. A drive system which drives the first screw and the second screw.
US09102084B2

A solar cell structure formed by extruding/dispensing materials on a substrate such that centrally disposed conductive high aspect ratio line structures (gridlines) are formed on the substrate surface with localized support structures coincidentally disposed on opposing side surfaces of the gridlines such that the gridlines are surrounded or otherwise supported by the localized support structures. In one embodiment the localized support structures are transparent, remain on the substrate after the co-extrusion process, and are covered by a layer of material. In another embodiment, the localized support structures are sacrificial support structures that are removed as part of the solar cell structure manufacturing process. In both cases the co-extrusion process is performed such that both the central gridline and the localized support structures are in direct contact with the surface of the substrate.
US09102058B2

A method for executing a manipulator process with at least two manipulator poses with a manipulator, in particular a robot, wherein the manipulator comprises at least one drive means having a motor and a brake, comprising the steps of: (S10) Assuming a manipulator pose; (S20) Stopping at least one drive means; (S30) Closing at least one brake of this drive means; (S40) Reduction of the energy supply to the drive means; (S50) Increasing the energy supply to the drive means; (S60) Opening the closed brake; (S70) Assuming another manipulator pose.
US09102057B2

In a touch panel display with an arm, a torque calculating unit calculates a torque to be loaded on a touch panel display based on a position acquired by a touch position information acquiring unit and a force acquired by a touch force information acquiring unit, and a stiffness parameter information generating unit generates information about a stiffness parameter for controlling an arm so that the position and the orientation of the touch panel display do not change based on the calculated torque. An arm control unit controls the arm based on the generated information about the stiffness parameter.
US09102029B2

An improved low pressure low speed concrete polishing apparatus and method of cleaning and polishing a floor is used with a conventional rotary flooring machine. A polishing pad has interchangeable polymer strips that are slideably received within the housing of the pad. The polymer strips have an abrasive material embedded therein which collectively work to polish the floor while cleaning the floor during normal low speed floor cleaning conditions.
US09102016B2

A system for constructing a tank is made up of a plurality of generally rectangular prism sections, which are hinged together on the back side to form a platform, having an end section hinged to a frame section, a cantilever frame extending from the end section, a counterbalance frame attached to said cantilever and extending parallel to the platform and opposed to the end section, with the end section and said counterbalance frame being separated by a pair of saddle wheels mounted to the cantilever frame. At least one additional saddle wheel is mounted on a frame section for cooperative operation with saddle wheels on the cantilever to support the system on the tank wall and to move the platform within the tank wall as it is constructed. The hinge connections between the sections allow the platform to be adjusted to the arc of the internal wall of the tank under construction.
US09102009B2

Machinery and process are disclosed for laser welding. A beam is generated and focused on a discrete work surface, with a distinctive nozzle provided for delivering plasma suppression gas toward the surface. The nozzle has first and second inlets for receiving first and second sources of different plasma suppression gases, respectively. The nozzle has first and second outlets in fluid communication with the first and second inlets, respectively, together directing an externally mixed stream of the gases from the nozzle at an angle of incidence of 35 degrees to 50 degrees relative to the surface to impinge upon the generated plasma. The impinging stream intersects the beam at or above the surface, as the mixed gases are deflected across the beam. The invention saves on helium costs and demonstrably increases weld penetration.
US09102004B2

The invention relates to pliers for clamping plates used in conjunction with a manipulator arm, comprising a rigid frame connected to a carrier such as a rigid stand or robot, and an articulation sub-assembly connected to the frame and comprising a fixed arm, a mobile arm, and a main actuator for displacing the mobile arm in translation or rotation relative to the fixed arm for closing or opening the pliers and respectively clamping the plate assembly between the arms or releasing said assembly, wherein said pliers belong to a family of pliers comprising C- and X-shaped pliers, the frame having a similar shape and appearance for all the pliers of said family. Application mainly in the family of C- and X-shaped resistance-welding pliers having similar and preferably identical frames.
US09102003B2

A method for joining at least two components by inductive high-frequency pressure welding is disclosed. The first component has a first material structure with a first hardness and the second component has a second material structure with a second hardness which is smaller than the first hardness. Both components are inductively heated in the region of the joining surfaces and are subsequently pressed together by a compressive force. The joining surface of the first component with the first hardness, which is greater than the second hardness of the second component, is pre-contoured in a spherical, conical or convex manner prior to joining the two components.
US09102001B2

A robotic welding cable for a welding torch includes a flexible hose defining a hollow core for passage of welding wire and shielding gas. Conductor strands are arranged around the flexible hose. A composite layered covering includes electrical insulation that covers the conductor strands and an outer jacket that surrounds the electrical insulation. The electrical insulation is formed of an Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM) synthetic rubber, and the outer jacket is formed of a Chlorinated Polyethylene (CPE) synthetic rubber.
US09101996B2

A multi component braze filler alloy is described having a melting temperature less than about 1235 deg. C. and greater than about 1150 deg. C. This alloy can be processed by hot isostatic pressing (HIP) at a temperature above about 1065 deg. C. and is particularly suited for the repair of gas turbine blades and vanes, especially those made from alloy 247. The relatively low Ti content in the present braze alloy tends to form less MC carbides at the joint interface, particularly in comparison with other braze alloys high in Zr and/or Hf.
US09101980B2

The invention relates to a tool for compacting the surface of a component (2) produced by powder metallurgy, comprising a mold (1) and a stamp (20), wherein in the mold (1) a recess (5) is provided which extends from a first mold opening (6) to a second mold opening (8), and which has a wall surface (10) for supporting the component (2), and the stamp (20) has a stamp length (23) and a stamp surface (21), wherein the inner diameter (12) of the recess (5) of the mold (1) becomes smaller from the first mold opening (6) in the direction of the second mold opening (8) or an external diameter (22) of the stamp (20) becomes greater over the stamp length (23), and wherein a compaction element (17) is arranged on the wall surface (10) of the mold (1) or on the stamp surface (21). The compaction element (17) is configured to have a thread-like progression.
US09101972B2

Disclosed are a double water pipe manufactured via hydroforming and a method of manufacturing the same via hydroforming. The method includes (a) inserting an inner pipe into an outer pipe made of steel, the inner pipe being made of a corrosion resistant material selected from among stainless steel, titanium and aluminum, and having a smaller outer diameter than an inner diameter of the outer pipe; (b) placing the outer pipe on a die unit and sealing opposite ends of the die unit with sealing members each having a through-hole connected to a fluid supply unit for supplying a fluid to the inner pipe; (c) supplying the fluid to the inner pipe to perform plastic expansion of the inner pipe and elastic expansion of the outer pipe; and (d) discharging the fluid from the inner pipe to allow frictional coupling between the inner pipe and the outer pipe through elastic restoration of the outer pipe.
US09101966B2

Methods and apparatus provide for non-destructive cleaning of magnetic tape. In one embodiment, a continuing length of the magnetic tape is submersed and passed through a covered solvent bath; and each side (front and back) of the continuing length of magnetic tape is swabbed with a cotton swab subsequent to the submerging step. The cotton swabs are arranged to swab each respective side of the magnetic tape.
US09101955B2

An active energy ray-curable ink composition includes (component A) monofunctional radically polymerizable monomers, (component B) a polyfunctional oligomer having a glass transition temperature of 20° C. or lower and an acrylate value of 300 g/value or more, and (component C) a bifunctional radically polymerizable monomer having a viscosity at 25° C. of 15 mPa·s or less, wherein the component A includes an N-vinyl compound and a compound represented by the following formula (I), the content of the N-vinyl compound with respect to the total amount of the ink composition is from 10 to 50% by mass, and the content of the component A with respect to the total amount of the ink composition is 70% by mass or more.
US09101951B2

The invention relates to a dispenser for dispensing liquid to pasty substances, with a pumping chamber and a dispensing tube (5), wherein, in order to close the dispensing tube (5), a closure part is moveable in the dispensing tube (5) between a closed position and a release position, and the dispenser has a dispenser part which is moveable in relation to a fixed dispenser part (2) during a pumping actuation. In order to design a dispensing tube which is moveable with respect to a fixed dispenser part during actuation of the dispenser in such a manner that continued advantageous actuation is possible along with advantageous production, it is proposed that the dispensing tube (5) is connected to the fixed dispenser part (2) via a predetermined breaking point (15). The invention also relates to a method for producing a dispenser by plastics injection molding, with a dispensing tube which is moveable relative to a fixed dispenser part during actuation of the dispenser. In order to provide a dispenser which is advantageous in respect of the functioning thereof and can be produced in an advantageous manner, it is proposed that the dispensing tube is injection molded integrally together with at least part of the fixed dispenser part, connected via one or more tear-off webs, and that, during the assembly or upon first actuation of the dispenser, the dispensing tube is separated from the fixed dispenser part by displacement of the dispensing tube relative to the fixed dispenser part.
US09101948B2

Dispensing support for use with an associated brick-type package, the brick-type package presenting a parallelepiped shape for its bottom and side panels and a gable top panel with a pour spout attached thereto. The dispensing support comprises a parallelepiped sleeve, the sleeve being divided in two parts attached together by a hinge, so that the sleeve can be opened and the associated brick-type package can be inserted inside. The dispensing support presents an upwardly projecting spout extending from the top wall of the parallelepiped sleeve, the spout being off-center on the top wall of the sleeve so as to engage the pour spout at the gable top panel of the brick-type package when the package is introduced in the dispensing support with its gable top compressed.
US09101946B2

A spray assembly for dispensing a mixture is provided. The spray assembly includes a connector configured for operable engagement with a first and second source of component and a source of pressurized fluid, and a tip operably connected to the connector. The tip includes an opening and defines a mixing chamber between the connector and the opening of the tip, and an insert member configured to be received in the mixing chamber. The insert member includes a plurality of radially extending slots on at least one end of the insert. The plurality of radially extending slots is configured to mix the first and second components prior to the mixture exiting the opening in the tip.
US09101945B2

A nozzle assembly includes a support member, a first tube, a second tube, and a baffling member. The support member defines a receiving hole and an opening communicating with the receiving hole. The first tube extends through the opening and defines a first space communicating with the receiving hole. The second tube is retained within the receiving hole and defines a second space communicating with the receiving hole. The baffling member is securely connected to an end of the second tube that is retained within the receiving hole. The baffling member forms a plurality of gaps for directing the airflow from the first space.
US09101938B2

A pre-grinder or pre-shredder apparatus, essentially made up of at least one drive unit (1) including a hydraulically or electrically driven motor (2), a reduction gear (3) and at least one shredding element (4) connected thereto and mounted on a frame (5), a wall, a feeder chute or any other mounting. The reduction gear (3) of the drive unit (1) of the pre-grinder or pre-shredder forms an element for attaching and supporting at least one shredder element (4) and is made up of a stationary portion (3′), attached directly to the frame (5) of the pre-grinder or pre-shredder or on a mounting or a wall of the latter, and by a mobile portion (3″), the shredder element (4) being inserted on the mobile portion of the reduction gear. The apparatus is useful in treating materials from any source, in particular by shredding using grinders, hammer mills or similar devices.
US09101932B2

Microchannel chip (100) has film (120) adhered on the second surface of base (110) having a through-hole (111), and conductive layer (130). Film (120) has hole (121) and covers a second opening of the through-hole (111). Conductive layer (130) is integrally formed so as to extend from a portion of a bottom of hole (121) of base (110) to a portion of an inner surface of through-hole (111). Upon comparison with a microchannel chip in the related art, microchannel chip (100) is further reduced in size, has excellent handleability and is easy to be manufactured.
US09101930B2

A microfluidic cartridge, configured to facilitate processing and detection of nucleic acids, comprising: a top layer comprising a set of cartridge-aligning indentations, a set of sample port-reagent port pairs, a shared fluid port, a vent region, a heating region, and a set of Detection chambers; an intermediate substrate, coupled to the top layer comprising a waste chamber; an elastomeric layer, partially situated on the intermediate substrate; and a set of fluidic pathways, each formed by at least a portion of the top layer and a portion of the elastomeric layer, wherein each fluidic pathway is fluidically coupled to a sample port-reagent port pair, the shared fluid port, and a Detection chamber, comprises a turnabout portion passing through the heating region, and is configured to be occluded upon deformation of the elastomeric layer, to transfer a waste fluid to the waste chamber, and to pass through the vent region.
US09101925B2

The centrifugation vessel includes an outer wall containing an interior space. A dam defines a barrier which divides the interior space into at least two regions including a catch basin defining a higher gee region and a reservoir defining a lower gee region. These regions are joined together over the dam. The dam includes a face which is preferably tapered to enable optimization of speed of separation of a sample placed within the vessel. The vessel is usable in a biological sample processing method by having the higher gee region of the vessel configured to have an elongate form and the volume optimized for collection of a higher density fraction of the sample. Supply and withdrawal tubes extend into the regions for reliable extraction and separate collection of differing density fractions after separation by centrifugation.
US09101916B2

Catalyst system suitable especially for the removal of CO compounds, comprising or consisting of an oxide, preferably of fluorite crystalline structure, conforming to the following molar formulation: Ce1−uMyAzDvO2−x, wherein Ce is cerium, A represents at least one element possessing a plurality of oxidation states and selected from Ti, Ga, In, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Sn, Co, Ni, Cu, M represents at least one element selected from Gd, Y, Sc, Sm, Nd, Pr, Zn, D represents at least one element other than A and selected from Pt, Pd, Rh, Ru, Cu, Fe, Ag, and Au, u is between 0.05 and 0.45, y is between 0.01 and 0.4, Z is greater than 0 and less than 0.4, v is between 0.001 and 0.4, and x is greater than 0.
US09101913B2

This invention relates to the preparation and making use of a catalyst for the photo-catalytic degradation of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) in water. Palladium doped on composite Cerium oxide-zinc oxide (Ce2O3—ZnO) photo-catalyst was prepared by wetness incipient impregnation method. This catalyst composition demonstrated 99.6% degradation of MTBE at room temperature in a photo catalytic reaction conducted in oxygen saturated aqueous medium in the presence of UV light.
US09101912B2

A carbon dioxide capture system includes a solid sorbent material including an amine. A base solution is in communication with the sorbent material when the amine becomes deactivated. The base solution is removed from the sorbent material when the amine is regenerated by the base solution.
US09101909B2

Provided is a liquid combustion catalyst composition comprising an ionized metal compound, and more particularly, to a liquid combustion catalyst composition comprising an ionized metal compound, in which the ionic metal compound is added to fuel burning in a combustion engine to quickly achieve a chemical thermal equilibrium condition required for the combustion of fuel such as hydrocarbon fuel, fossil fuel and biomass, and to optimize the amount of air which contains oxygen required for the equilibrium condition in terms of chemical equivalence, thereby improving thermal efficiency and the efficiency of the combustion engine so that fuel consumption for a heat source can be reduced, and optimizing the combustion performed by the combustion device by controlling the generation of sludge, clinker and fouling which may be generated due to an inorganic substance so that a combustion rate per unit area and the productivity of the combustion device can be improved. Provided is a liquid combustion catalyst composition comprising an ionized metal compound or a complex ionic combustion catalyst composition which comprises an ionized metal compound and which has a hydrate form dried at 100° C. or less, wherein the composition is characterized in that one or more metal compounds selected from Mg, Ca, Mn, and Zn are dissolved in nitric acid or ammonia water to form one or more metal ions selected from Mg, Ca, Mn, and Zn.
US09101902B2

A method of preparing a protein chip by gelation of a sol composition. In the method, a mixture of specific silicate monomers, such as SolB1, SolB2 and SolB3, SolBH, and a mixture of SolBS, distilled water and a detector protein are mixed sequentially, so that the gelation rate of the sol composition can be delayed, thus inducing the stable gelation of the composition. Also, the biochip can be fabricated in a simple and easy manner by dispensing the sol composition by hand using an arrayer or a tool such as a pipette. In addition, a uniform biochip can be prepared by dispensing the sol composition, solution I (SolBH) and solution II (a mixture of buffer, SolBS, distilled water and a detector protein) sequentially onto a substrate without needing a conventional pretreatment process such as mixing.
US09101901B2

Method and apparatus for temperature controlled processes in a vessel to provide improved process control, in particular to enable controlled temperatures to be applied to a substance in different process zones of a vessel, has a series of tubular members arranged and operatively connected in a flow system, and each process zone has temperature regulating means juxtaposed thereto for effecting temperature control therein.
US09101894B2

There is provided a highly branched hydrocarbon based surfactant for stabilizing a water/supercritical carbon dioxide microemulsion. A surfactant comprising: a sulfate compound of Formula (1): R1—OSO3M  (1) (where R1 is a C6-30 hydrocarbon group having a branched chain; and M is a hydrogen atom, an alkali metal, ammonium, a basic amino acid residue, an alkanolamine residue having a C2-3 hydroxyalkyl group, or an aliphatic alkanolammonium) for stabilizing a water/supercritical carbon dioxide microemulsion.
US09101893B1

A mixing system and mixing method are provided. The mixing system includes a tank assembly, a container positioned within the tank assembly, a mixer disposed within a compartment of the container, a linear motor, and a shaft having a first end secured to the mixer and an opposing second end secured to the linear motor. The linear motor provides a variable stroke length for the shaft. The mixing method includes providing a tank assembly having a linear motor, positioning a mixing assembly including a mixing bag in the tank assembly, combining two or more components in a compartment of the mixing bag, attaching a mixing shaft extending from a mixer disposed within the mixing bag to the linear motor, and raising and lowering the mixing shaft to mix the two or more components. A stroke length of the mixing shaft during the raising and lowering is varied.
US09101891B2

The present invention is to provide a circulating-type dispersing system (1) and method for uniformly, effectively, and repeatedly dispersing a large amount of a mixture, and to thereby obtain a processed mixture in a short time. The circulating-type dispersing system (1) for circulating and dispersing a slurry or liquid mixture comprises a device (3) for continuously dispersing the mixture, a first tank (4) connected to an outlet of the device (3) for continuously dispersing, a second tank (5) connected to an inlet of the device (3) for continuously dispersing, piping (6) that connects the device (3) for continuously dispersing, the first tank (4) and the second tank (5) in series and formed as a circle, and an adjusting valve (7) provided on the piping (6) between the first tank (4) and the second tank (5) for adjusting the levels of the mixture in the first and second tanks.
US09101883B2

The present invention relates to portable filtration units including filter components mated with retentate and permeate flow channels wherein particle containing solutions are introduced into the portable filtration units and contacted with the filter components for filtration thereby producing a retentate outflow and a permeate outflow for capture of desired end product.
US09101879B2

A sterilant such as ozone used for large scale decontamination of, for example, a hospital room, may be destroyed and the room made safe, by passing the atmosphere in the room over a catalyst which is silver oxide in combination with titania. The catalyst may be readily regenerated and used again.
US09101876B2

The present invention relates to the separation and capture of carbon-containing compounds from gases. Specifically, the present invention relates to the use of rare-earth based compounds for the capture and separation of carbon-containing compounds from gases. The carbon capture processes can be integrated into fossil fuel power generation plants or other industrial process plants in order to reduce emission of greenhouse gases from the plants.
US09101858B2

There is disclosed an automatic cleaning apparatus for a septic tank filter. The cleaning apparatus has a brush operable to move across a screen disposed internally of the filter. The brush is tethered, via a cable and at least one pulley, to a weighted float disposed in an effluent pump chamber associated with the septic tank. The brush therefore moves vertically across the screen with vertical changes the level of effluent in the septic tank.
US09101856B2

A purge exhaust processor includes an inlet chamber, a sump chamber, a selectively charged surface in the inlet chamber, and an orifice. The inlet chamber receives purge exhaust including at least one of air, water vapor, oil aerosol, and water aerosol. The selectively charged surface agglomerates at least one of the oil aerosol and water aerosol into a liquid. The orifice is sized for passing the agglomerated liquid from the inlet chamber to the sump chamber.
US09101854B2

A system and method of cracking hydrocarbon feedstocks is provided that allows for significant flexibility in terms of the desired product yield. An integrated process includes introducing the feedstock and hydrogen into a first hydrocracking reaction zone containing a first hydrocracking catalyst to produce a first zone effluent. The first zone effluent and optionally additional hydrogen are passed to a second hydrocracking reaction zone containing a second hydrocracking catalyst to produce a second zone effluent. The second zone effluent is conveyed to a fractionating zone to at least a low boiling fraction and a high boiling fraction, and optionally one or more intermediate fractions. The bottoms fraction is passed to a fluidized catalytic cracking reaction and separation zone, from which olefins and gasoline are recovered. At least a portion of remaining cycle oil is passed from the fluidized catalytic cracking reaction and separation zone to the first and/or second hydrocracking reaction zone.
US09101852B2

An apparatus for the introduction and for the distribution of a fluid into an inner space of a container includes an inlet passage and a distribution passage, wherein the inlet passage opens into the distribution passage so that the fluid can be guided from the inlet passage into the distribution passage. The distribution passage has a jacket which has at least one outlet opening. The inlet passage is connected to the distribution passage via at least one opening which is arranged in the jacket of the distribution passage.
US09101835B2

Systems and methods for providing online games, including trading card games played on a computer, and other mobile devices, are described using combinations of standard and non-standard digital tokens. The systems and methods provide the capability for games to allow users to acquire rights to digital tokens that have different functionality across a spectrum of computer-implemented games, and for computer-implemented games to combine variable-use digital tokens with other standard gaming tools and constructs, such as a standard 52 card deck.
US09101834B2

A system, computer-readable storage medium storing at least one program, and a computer-implemented method for generating game features are presented. For example, a first user may be segmented to a user segment based on a property of a game profile of the first user. The property of the game profile may match a threshold of the user segment. The user segment may then be assigned a difficulty level. The difficulty level may be usable to set a configuration value for the feature of the game. The feature of the game is then surfaced to the first user and the configuration value for the feature of the game may be updated with the difficulty level assigned to the user segment.
US09101828B2

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a game program that causes a computer to execute the following processes: a reception process; a battle process; and a notification process. The reception process is for receiving a first operational input from a first player and a second operational input from a second player who is associated with the first player. The battle process is as follows: a battle between the first player and an opposing character starts based on the first operational input; a hit point parameter of the opposing character changes through the battle; an outcome of the battle is determined; a battle between the second player and the opposing character starts The notification process is for, before the outcome of the battle with the opposing character is determined in the battle process, notifying participation information to a third player.
US09101826B2

Provided is a display device for a slot machine. The display device for a slot machine includes: a front display part outputting a first image and a rear display part disposed at a rear side of the front display part to output a second image. The second image of the rear display part can be viewed through a predetermined area of the front display part, the front display part includes: a liquid crystal panel, a light guide plate, disposed at a rear side of the liquid crystal panel, the light guide plate having a viewing window at a position corresponding to the predetermined area so that the second image of the rear display part is transmitted, and a light source is disposed around the light guide plate to provide backlight to the liquid crystal panel.
US09101820B2

A composition of a set of playing cards employing a plurality of standard playing cards and bonus playing cards may be determined, resulting in a desired theoretical hold or advantage for the gaming establishment. The composition identifies the number of each of a variety of bonus playing cards to include in a set of playing cards to achieve the theoretical hold. The composition may be based on a desired theoretical hold, rule(s), and/or bonus parameters.
US09101812B2

A method and system to analyze sports motions using the motion sensors of a mobile device, such as a smart phone, is provided. This method uses the mobile device motion sensor output to define the impact point with a virtual object, such as a golf ball, baseball or tennis ball. The motion sensor signature of the sports motion is analyzed for characteristics, specific to each type of sports motion. A method is disclosed using multiple sensors outputs in a mobile device to compute the impact point with a virtual object, such as a golf ball, baseball, tennis ball. Further, a method is disclosed where moving virtual sports objects interact with virtual sports motions and the responsive outputs are displayed on the mobile device and/or any Web-enabled display device.
US09101805B2

Golf club heads include a golf club head body, a ball striking face, and a shaft engaging member configured to engage a golf club shaft with the golf club head body. Further, the shaft engaging member may be configured to engage the golf club head body and the shaft below a center of gravity of the golf club head.
US09101804B2

The present disclosure provides for a hockey goalie stick having a gripping aid that protrudes above the first major surface only in a handgrip area of the paddle. The hockey goalie stick includes a blade, a shaft having a width and a thickness, a paddle that extends between the blade and the shaft. The paddle has a first major surface and a second major surface opposite the first major surface with a maximum thickness equal to approximately the thickness of the shaft. The paddle includes a handgrip area having shoulders in which a width of the first major surface and the second major surface transitions to the width of the shaft. The gripping aid protrudes above the first major surface only in the handgrip area of the paddle.
US09101802B2

A sports ball having a high-performance cover formed from a plurality of panels with attached foam backing. The panels may be stitched together at stitch lines which are 2-4 mm from the edges of each of the panels. During manufacturing, before compression is applied, foam attached to outer layers for each of the panels may be a distance 2-6 mm away from the stitch lines. Foam attached on the inside of the sports ball may provide support and a robust round shape for manufacturing of a high performance sports ball.
US09101795B2

A braided goggle strap for use with a pair of swimming goggles includes a plurality of bands that are braided together to form a flat, braided goggle strap. Each of the plurality of bands includes an elastic material this is protected by a resilient fabric material to provide superior mechanical properties that results in even stress distribution and minimal sinusoidal stress when worn by a user. The composite reinforcement of the braided goggle strap also provides added comfort. The braided goggle strap includes a spring-biased fastener for adjustably attaching the braided strap onto a user's head, includes eye loops to more easily thread the braided goggle strap through apertures provided on a pair of swimming goggles, and comes in a variety of different colors.
US09101794B2

A system for stretching the piriformis muscle may comprise a thigh strap, calf strap and handle assembly. One or two handles may be presented. The system may be attached to the thigh and calf of a first leg. While the knee of the first leg is bent, the ankle of the second leg my rest upon the thigh strap attached to the first leg. A handle may be pulled to urge the piriformis muscle into a more elongated position.
US09101792B2

An exercise machine applicable for strengthening a user's abdominal muscles is described. The exercise machine can include a base frame having a seat pad, a front leg and a rear leg to provide ground support. A mounting assembly a front pivot joint and a rear pivot joint may be rotably mounted on the base frame. A backrest assembly including a backrest pad, lever bars and backrest support bars can be pivotally coupled to the mounting assembly. The front ends of the backrest support bars can be pivotally coupled to the front pivot joint. The front ends of the level bars can be pivotally coupled to the rear pivot joint. The swivel movements can be controlled via a adjustable control mechanism including a height control adjustably attached to the mounting assembly to provide a stop height support of the backrest pad at the rear end of the backrest bars.
US09101775B2

An operating room cable for electrically coupling a lead to a trial stimulator includes a trial stimulator connector electrically coupleable with the trial stimulator and a lead connector for receiving the lead. The lead connector includes a housing. A first lead aperture is defined in a second end of the housing in proximity to a first side of the housing. A first inner passage extends along an interior of the housing from the first lead aperture to the second end of the housing. A first stylet slit is defined along the first side of the housing and extends from a first end of the housing to the second end of the housing. The first stylet slit is formed between upper and lower casings of the housing. The first stylet slit is continuous with the first lead aperture and the first inner passage.
US09101774B2

A device for powering an implant within a body of a subject from a location external to the subject, wherein the implant requires a threshold rate of power increase in order to operate in at least one mode, may include an antenna configured to wirelessly transmit energy to the implant. The device may also include a power storage unit configured to store energy from a power source incapable of delivering the threshold rate of power increase to enable the implant unit to operate in the at least one mode and a power release unit configured to release a pulse of energy from the power storage unit to the antenna after the power storage unit collects an amount of energy sufficient to enable the implant unit to operate in the at least one mode.
US09101772B2

A method of stimulation therapy and an apparatus for providing the therapy which addresses cardiac dysfunction including heart failure. The therapy employs atrial pacing pulses delivered to a heart after the atrial refractory period and timed so that they will not cause a ventricular contraction. These atrial pacing are timed to achieve beneficial effects on myocardial mechanics (efficacy) while maintaining an extremely low level of risk of arrhythmia induction. These methods may be employed individually or in combinations in an external or implantable ESS therapy delivery device.
US09101761B2

In the case where X-ray tubes and X-ray detectors have fixed directions (directions of irradiation and directions of detecting planes), X-ray fluoroscopy can be carried out from various directions by providing two U-shaped tracks for the X-ray tubes and the X-ray detectors, each having two straight tracks arranged opposite each other, and a curved track connected thereto. An increased number of directions for X-ray fluoroscopy can be secured by arranging a U-shaped track rail for the X-ray tubes and a U-shaped track rail for the X-ray detectors opposite each other when seen in plane view.
US09101754B2

A connector for an implantable medical lead that is electrically and mechanically connectable to an implantable medical device, has a connector pin made of a first conducting material. A tubular insulator made of an insulating material concentrically surrounds at least a portion of the pin. A connector ring made of a second conducting material is concentrically positioned around at least a portion of the insulator. The insulator is connected to the connector ring by spark plasma sintering in the case of an active fixation lead, and is connected to the ring and the pin by spark plasma sintering in the case of a passive fixation lead.
US09101753B1

The invention is a hollow electrode implantation device for inserting a flexible electrode, such as a Memberg electrode, in living tissue. The inserter has a longitudinal slot that accepts the electrode into the hollow center of the electrode implantation device. The slot is offset at least once forming one or more offset slots, where retainer tabs define the slots and assure retention of the electrode in the implantation device during insertion of the electrode into living tissue.
US09101749B2

An indwelling catheter including: a hollow catheter base having a tip and a back end, the back end being able to receive and connect a male connector; a tube provided at the tip of the catheter base; a flexible hemostasis valve installed inside the catheter base; a pusher installed at a back of the hemostasis valve; and a pusher guide installed between the pusher and the catheter base. The pusher has a hollow constitution whose taper reduces in diameter facing its tip. The pusher guide is able to restrict a position of the pusher at a first position where the pusher does not push open the hemostasis valve and a second position where the taper of the pusher is positioned inside the hemostasis valve and pushes open the hemostasis valve.
US09101746B2

The present invention extends generally to a vascular access device that employs a septum and septum activator designed to minimize or eliminate the possibility that fluid will flow into interstitial spaces between the septum activator and the body of the vascular access device. The septum activator can be configured with a proximal end that has an outer diameter that is at least as great as the diameter of the lumen within which the septum activator is contained.
US09101744B2

The present embodiments provide systems and methods suitable for delivering a therapeutic agent to a target site. The systems generally comprise a container having first and second regions and a reservoir containing the therapeutic agent. A pressure source having pressurized fluid is in selective fluid communication with at least a portion of the reservoir. An outlet tube is in fluid communication with the reservoir of the container. At least one slot is formed in a lateral surface of the outlet tube at a position between first and second ends of the outlet tube.
US09101743B2

Embodiments disclosed herein are directed to fluid spraying apparatuses, and related systems and methods. The disclosed fluid spraying apparatuses may be used, for example, to spray a medically suitable fluid on a target region of a subject, such as for treating or removing tissue of the subject. In an embodiment, a fluid spraying apparatus includes a spray mechanism including at least one reservoir, and a spraying device operably coupled to the at least one reservoir which has an adjustable spray nozzle. The fluid spraying apparatus includes a distance sensor configured to sense information at least related to a distance to a target region of a subject and output one or more signals encoding the information, and control electrical circuitry operably coupled to the spray mechanism and the distance sensor. The control electrical circuitry is configured to activate the spray mechanism responsive to receiving the one or more signals.
US09101741B2

Method of coating an expandable member includes providing an expandable member having a proximal and a distal end with a guidewire lumen extending therebetween, the expandable member having a deflated and fully expanded configurations, and inflating the expandable member to an initial inflation pressure; positioning a mandrel within the guidewire lumen; tensioning the mandrel to straighten the guidewire lumen within the expandable member; and disposing a therapeutic agent on at least a portion of the expandable member. Method further includes partially deflating the expandable member to an intermediate pressure, and drying the therapeutic agent on the expandable member, and, if a folded expandable member is used, at least partially refolding the expandable member.
US09101737B2

Tear-away sheath introducers for catheters, methods for making such introducers, and methods for using such introducers are described. A splittable sheath introducer may include a sheath, a hub disposed at a proximal end of the sheath, a valve included with the hub, and a valve actuator movable from a first position to a second position, the valve actuator opening the valve when in the second position. The valve actuator may include a retaining member that enables the valve actuator to be retained by a portion of the hub when the sheath introducer is split apart.
US09101728B1

An endotracheal tube includes an elongated, flexible shaft having a proximal end and a distal end, the distal end including a tip having a first section and a second section, the shaft having a lumen extending therethrough, at least one light strip positioned in association with and extending along the elongated, flexible shaft to illuminate at least a portion of the shaft including the distal end of the shaft to illuminate at least a portion of a pathway into the trachea, and a connector positioned in communicating relation with the proximal end of the shaft adapted to receive a fluid medium to flow through the lumen, the connector being in communication with the at least one light strip. The endotracheal tube can also be adapted to include a balloon in communication with the distal end of the shaft within the trachea to occlude a portion of the trachea.
US09101727B2

Apparatus and Methods for protecting a patient from surgical site infection from airborne microbes during surgery. A sterile gas flow conditioning emitter for affixation onto an anatomical surface of a patient adjacent a site of incision is anatomically shape conforming for attaching a unidirectional coherent non-turbulent flow field of sterile gas substantially anatomically levelly on that anatomical surface and flowing the flow field in the direction of that site while essentially preventing ambient airborne particles from entering the interior of the flow field under the emitter to maintain the gas essentially sterile during passage over the site.
US09101723B2

The present invention relates to a method for monitoring the operation of a medication delivery device. In particular, the present invention relates to a method comprising the steps of arranging an electronic module in the vicinity of the medication delivery device, detecting, using the electronic module, measurable signals generated in response to an action occurring within the associated medication delivery device, and storing, using storage means of the electronic module, information associated with or representing the measured signals. The present invention further relates to an electronic module capable of performing the above-mentioned method.
US09101721B2

A method and system for preventing delivery of less than a predetermined minimum dose of a medicament by providing a dose setting mechanism having a spindle nut and a sprung lock nut. The mechanism includes a housing and a dose dial component positioned in the housing. The dose dial component is rotatable during a dose setting step. The mechanism further includes a drive sleeve positioned within the dose dial component. The drive sleeve is configured to drive a rotatable spindle during a dose administration step. The spindle nut is coupled to the spindle and the sprung lock nut is removably coupled to the drive sleeve and rotationally fixed to the housing. In one arrangement, when the dose dial component is rotated to select a dose less than a preselected minimum dose, the sprung lock nut allows the spindle nut to rotate thereby preventing the dose from being administered.
US09101718B2

The invention relates to a medical drug delivery apparatus which comprises a cartridge (1) being closed at one end by a membrane (12) and at the opposite end by a movable piston (15). A piston rod foot (1) is provided for transferring the pressure from the piston rod (20) of the drug delivery apparatus and onto the piston (15). The piston rod foot (1) comprises a center part (2) abutting the piston rod (20) and an outer part (3) which center part (2) and outer part (3) are releasable coupled together such that the two (2, 3) can be released when a force above a certain threshold limit is applied to the outer part (3).
US09101717B2

A syringe includes a plunger having a plunger tube with proximal and distal ends, a center tube with a center passage that extends within the plunger tube, and a balloon disposed over the center tube and sealingly fixed to at least one of the center tube and the plunger tube. The syringe also includes a barrel having a barrel tube having proximal and distal ends and an interior configured to accept a portion of the plunger, a tip fixedly coupled to the proximal end of the barrel tube, a post fixedly attached to the tip and extending within the barrel tube toward the distal end, the tip configured to partially extend into the center passage of the plunger, and a gas passage extending from a proximal end of the tip to the distal end of the post.
US09101714B2

A fluid injection system includes: a first apparatus which is attached to a human body and injects a fluid into the human body; and a second apparatus which is attached to a wrist of the human body and remotely controls the first apparatus, wherein the second apparatus includes an entry section accepting an entry of an operation command to the first apparatus and a first communicating section transmitting the operation command to the first apparatus, and the first apparatus includes a second communicating section receiving the operation command, a storing section storing the fluid, and a transporting section transporting the fluid from the storing section and injecting the fluid into the human body based on the operation command.
US09101710B2

A fluid infusion device that delivers medication fluid to a user includes a removable fluid reservoir having a reservoir port and a hollow fluid reservoir needle, a base plate having a reservoir port receptacle for the reservoir port and the reservoir needle, and an inlet structure in the reservoir port receptacle to define at least a portion of a fluid chamber. The fluid infusion device also includes a needle sealing element having a base section, an end section opposite the base section, a neck section between the base section and the end section, and a needle opening extending through the base section, the neck section, and the end section. A compression element is coupled around the neck section to impart an inward biasing force near the needle opening.
US09101704B2

A method and device for adjusting the unstored length of tubing directed to improving the use of infusion sets that deliver fluids to a user. The device includes a storage module and other features for adjusting, storing and securing the length of the tubing. The method of adjusting the length of the tubing to a desired length typically comprises removably attaching the tubing to the adjuster, adjusting the tubing by wrapping the tubing around a hub or post of the adjuster, and fixing the length of the unstored tubing by attaching the tubing to a securing device such as a friction structure or fastener.
US09101694B2

A firm but pliable medical device for use as a bone graft substitute or bone graft extender retains its shape without the requirement of a containment device, such as a syringe. Because the device is solid, it is easy to locate or position in-vivo and, in the moist environment of the body, it will hold its shape well, for an extended time. Because the lyophilized pliable medical device is porous, it adsorbs blood and other beneficial cells containing body fluids, such as bone marrow, contributing to its superior bone repair efficacy in comparison to an analogous putty that has not been lyophilized. In addition these lyophilized pliable medical devices are easier to terminally steam sterilize than the analogous putty because there is no moisture present to boil and “blow-out” of the containment device (syringe). The glycerin that is present in the formulation lends pliability but has a low vapor pressure.
US09101687B2

There is described a material comprising tapes, ribbons, fibrils or fibers characterized in that each of the ribbons, fibrils or fibers have an antiparallel arrangement of peptides in a β-sheet tape-like substructure wherein the material comprises a pair of self assembling complementary polypeptides.
US09101680B2

An absorbent article to be worn by a wearer having a skin-contacting sheet such as a topsheet, a backsheet, an absorbent core and a colored hydrophilic lotion, that not only helps to reduce the adherence of the menses or feces to the skin, thereby improving the ease of menses or bowl movement (BM) clean up, but that also may serve as a wetness indicator. The absorbent articles may be infant (baby) diapers, including training pants, adult incontinence articles and the like.
US09101677B2

The present invention relates to a method for sterilization of different materials, especially sensitive material, such as chromatographic media with sensitive ligands. The method for sterilization of a chromatographic separation medium comprises exposing the separation medium to pressurized steam at a temperature of between about 121° C. and about 135° C.
US09101673B2

The present invention is directed toward novel fluorine-18 labeled rhodamine dye derivatives and methods of making the same. The present invention is also directed toward methods of using novel fluorine-18 labeled rhodamine dye derivatives as positron emission tomography imaging agents and myocardial perfusion imaging agents.
US09101669B2

Provided are a self-assembled conjugate of a host molecule containing compound and a guest molecule containing compound, a delivery composition of a bioactive material comprising the self-assembled conjugate and a bioactive material to be delivered, and a composition for tissue engineering containing the self-assembled conjugate and a cell.
US09101657B2

This invention is intended to further improve the effects of alleviating hangover symptoms with the use of a composition comprising a turmeric extract. In particular, this invention is intended to provide a composition that alleviates specific hangover symptoms, such as heartburn and dull headache. The present inventors found that a composition comprising a turmeric (Curcuma longa) extract and a zedoary (Curcuma zedoaria) extract is capable of effectively suppressing heartburn and dull headache among hangover symptoms. The effects attained with the use of the composition of the present invention are remarkable for a person with low aldehyde dehydrogenase activity.
US09101656B2

This invention provides various methods such as a method for enhancing athletic exercise performance of a subject by administering to the subject a composition comprising a physiologically acceptable carrier and an extract of tea, wherein the extract comprises at least 20% by weight of theaflavins and wherein the composition is administered in an amount effective to enhance the subject's athletic performance.
US09101654B2

Bioresorbable compositions for treating skeletal tissue are disclosed. The biomedical compositions are formed from a polylactide polymer, a polyglycolide polymer, or a poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) polymer having a relatively low molecular weight. For instance, the average number molecular weight of the polymer is generally less than 10,000, such as from about 500 to about 5,000. Fumarate groups are incorporated into the low molecular weight polymer that provide crosslinking sites. If desired, ethyl-lene oxide groups and ceramic particles may also be incorporated into the polymer for producing compositions having a variety of properties. For example, the biomedical composition of the present disclosure can be used to treat soft skeletal tissue or to treat hard skeletal tissue. The biomedical compositions are biodegradable and can contain various therapeutic, beneficial and pharmaceutical agents that may be released during degradation of the polymer.
US09101651B2

The present invention generally relates to the field of obesity. In particular the present invention relates to the use of probiotics to treat obesity. One embodiment of the present invention relates to the use of Lactobacillus rhamnosus CGMCC 1.3724 and/or Lactobacillus rhamnosus NCC 4007 for the preparation of a composition to support weight management, promote weight loss and/or to treat obesity.
US09101641B2

This application relates to combination therapies including triciribine and related compounds and taxanes and compositions with reduced toxicity for the treatment and prevention of tumors, cancer, and other disorders associated with abnormal cell proliferation.
US09101639B2

The present invention relates to an orally ingestible food or pet food composition or cosmetic composition containing glucosamine generated from plant materials through a drying process for the maintenance of joint health or prevention, alleviation and/or treatment of osteoarthritis, or the improvement of the skin quality and prevention or restoration of age-related alterations of skin. It also relates to the use of the composition in the manufacture of a nutritional product, a supplement, a treat, a medicament or a cosmetic product and methods for the maintenance of bone health, prevention, alleviation and/or treatment of osteoarthritis, improvement of skin quality and prevention or restoration of age-related alterations of skin which comprises administering an effective amount of the composition.
US09101636B2

An abuse deterrent pharmaceutical composition including a pharmaceutically active ingredient; an acid soluble ingredient; and a buffering ingredient; wherein the acid soluble ingredient and the buffering ingredient retard release of the active pharmaceutical ingredient when the composition is ingested in excess of an intended dosage.
US09101635B2

Organic compounds showing the ability to inhibit viral glycoprotein (GP)-mediated entry of a filovirus into a host cell are disclosed. The disclosed filovirus entry inhibitor compounds are useful for treating, preventing, or reducing the spread of infections by filovirus including the type species Marburg virus (MARV) and Ebola virus (EBOV). Preferred inhibitors of the invention provide therapeutic agents for combating the Ivory Coast, Sudan, Zaire, Bundibugyo, and Reston Ebola virus strains.
US09101631B2

Compositions which act synergistically to inhibit the growth of cancer cells and methods of use thereof are disclosed.
US09101629B2

A method for preparing 5-amino-2,3-dihydrophthalazine-1,4-dione salts with alkali metals of the formula II, pharmaceutical compositions including such salts, and their application in medicine. The sodium salt may be used for treatment of heart diseases, pancreas diseases and diabetes as well as optionally in combination with lithium salt for treatment of the nervous system diseases. where M represents Li, Na, K
US09101628B2

Briefly described, embodiments of this disclosure include compounds, pharmaceutical compositions, methods of treating a host infected with a virus from the Flaviviridae family of viruses, methods of inhibiting HCV replication in a host, methods of inhibiting the binding of NS4B polypeptide to the 3′UTR of HCV negative strand RNA in a host, methods of treating liver fibrosis in a host, and the like. In an embodiment, the compounds can include clemizole or a clemizole analog, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, an isomer, a tautomer, or a prodrug thereof.
US09101627B2

Disclosed are pharmaceutical compositions containing, as the active ingredients, a mixture of a hyaluronic acid polymer with a bradykinin B2 receptor antagonist. Said compositions have proved especially effective in the treatment of degenerative joint diseases such as osteoarthritis using intra-articular injections.
US09101624B2

The present invention relates to the use of crenolanib, in a pharmaceutically acceptable salt form for the treatment of FLT3 mutated proliferative disorders driven by constitutively activated mutant FLT3, and to a method of treatment of warm-blooded animals, preferably humans, in which a therapeutically effective dose of crenolanib is administered to an animal suffering from said disease or condition:
US09101615B2

Pharmaceutical compositions for intravenous administration comprising the compound of Formula I or pharmaceutically acceptable salts, hydrates or prodrugs thereof are described herein. Methods of preparing the pharmaceutical compositions and methods for treating nausea and/or emesis with the pharmaceutical compositions are also described herein.
US09101614B2

The present invention relates to methods of inhibiting the activity of Hsp90 in a subject in need thereof and methods for treating non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, in a subject in need thereof.
US09101600B2

Heterocyclic compounds, and pharmaceutical compositions thereof, are disclosed as RORγt modulators that have a formula represented by the following: and wherein n1, n2, R1, R2, R3, and R4 are as described herein. These compounds may be used for the prevention and treatment of a variety of conditions in mammals including humans, including by way of non-limiting example, inflammatory conditions, autoimmune disorders, cancer, and graft-versus-host disease.
US09101597B2

Immunoprotective primary mesenchymal stems cells (IP-MSC) which episomally express multiple immunoreactive polypeptides that specifically target a pathogen (e.g., an infectious species of virus, bacterium, or parasite) or toxin are described herein. The IP-MSC express two or more (e.g., 2 to about 100) immunoreactive polypeptides (e.g., full antibodies, single-chain antibodies (ScFV), Fab or F(ab)2 antibody fragments, diabodies, tribodies, and the like), and optionally one or more other immunomodulating polypeptides, e.g., a cytokine such as an interleukin (e.g., IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-7, IL-9, and IL-12), an interferon (e.g., IFNα, IFNβ, or IFNω), and the like, which can enhance the effectiveness of the immunoreactive polypeptides.
US09101593B2

Methods of treating a mammal at risk for ischemia-reperfusion injury are provided. The methods comprise administrating an adrenomedullin binding protein-1 (AMBP-1) to the mammal in sufficient amount to reduce the injury. Also provided are methods of treating a mammal at risk for ischemia-reperfusion injury to the bowel. The methods comprise administering adrenomedullin to the mammal in sufficient amount to reduce the injury.
US09101590B2

The present invention relates to compositions and methods for culturing stem cells, particularly embryonic stem cells. Specifically, the invention relates to a culture medium that supports proliferation of substantially undifferentiated stem cells, while maintaining potency of the cells. An an embodiment, the culture medium is defined and supports proliferation of substantially undifferentiated embryonic stem cells in essentially serum free and feeder cell free conditions. Compositions for making the medium and methods using the culture medium are also provided.
US09101586B2

The invention relates to the use of erythropoietin (EPO), in particular EPO in a polymer-based pharmaceutical preparation which stabilizes the active compound, for the treatment of traumatized skin, in particular for wound healing in the case of mechanical or pathological injuries or in the case of burns.In particular, the invention also relates to specific viscous or gelatinous formulations, in particular based on polysaccharides, preferably cellulose derivatives, which comprise EPO and are capable of stabilizing the latter and releasing it slowly and uniformly to the wound.
US09101584B2

The present invention provides compositions and methods for treating cancer in a human. The invention includes relates to administering a genetically modified T cell to express a CAR wherein the CAR comprises an antigen binding domain, a transmembrane domain, a costimulatory signaling region, and a CD3 zeta signaling domain.
US09101575B2

Agonists of vascular endothelial sphingosine-1-phosphate receptors are described. Compounds such as FTY720 can be phosphorylated by sphingosine kinase-2 into the phosphorylated forms which serve as sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor agonists. The vascular endothelial sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor agonists are employed in methods of treating a mammal for vascular permeability disorders and unwanted vascular endothelial cell apoptosis, and for the growth of new blood vessels. The sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor agonists can be used for the manufacture of a medicament for treating vascular permeability disorders and unwanted vascular endothelial cell apoptosis, and for the growth of new blood vessels.
US09101570B1

The anatomic and functional arrangement of the gastrointestinal tract suggests an important function of this organ is its ability to regulate the trafficking of metabolites as well as control the equilibrium between tolerance and immunity through gut-associated lymphoid tissue, the neuroendocrine network, and the intestinal epithelial barrier. Combining nucleated cells from various tissues and introducing them directly into the small intestine will have a positive effect on diabetes.
US09101568B2

Disclosed are compositions and methods related to vaccination for AOM and children prone to AOM.
US09101557B2

Thrombostasin is an anti-clotting protein found in saliva of Haematobia irritans. Disclosed herein are studies testing blood uptake of horn flies feeding on cattle which confirm the association of ts genotype with blood uptake of horn flies. Blood uptake volumes of homozygous ts10 horn flies were lower than those of other ts genotypes when fed on control cattle. Cattle vaccinated with recombinant protein isoforms rTS9 or rTB8 resisted horn fly feeding by yielding lower blood volumes compared to flies feeding on control cattle. The impact of vaccination varied by ts genotype of flies. Cattle vaccinated with isoforms rTS9 resisted flies of ts2, ts9, and tb8 genotype. Vaccination with isoforms rTB8 produced resistance to ts8, ts9 and tb8 genotype flies. Horn flies of genotype ts10 were not affected with either TS isoforms and fed well on rTS9 and rTB9 vaccinated as on control-vaccinated cattle.
US09101545B2

An extended-release topiramate capsule that includes a capsule shell containing a single population of coated particles; wherein each coated particle includes a core and a coating thereon; wherein each particle core includes a homogeneous mixture comprising topiramate throughout its core; and wherein the coating includes one or more release controlling agent(s).
US09101544B2

Controlled release oral dosage formulations containing calcium channel blockers, and methods of use thereof, are provided for the once-a-day treatment of cardiovascular disorders, such as hypertension, angina, and cardiac arrhythmia. The active agent is preferably a dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker, such as nisoldipine. The formulation provides an increase in the bioavailability of the calcium channel blocker as compared to the bioavailability of the calcium channel blocker in other drug delivery formulations known in the art. In one embodiment, the formulation provides an increase in the bioavailability of the calcium channel blocker, nisoldipine, as compared to the same dose of nisoldipine in the coat-core version of the drug (SULAR®). The formulation can be in the form of a trilayer tablet containing a core or central layer and one or more barrier layers.
US09101543B2

The present invention provides combination therapy methods of treating proliferative diseases (such as cancer) comprising a first therapy comprising administering to an individual an effective amount of a taxane in a nanoparticle composition, and a second therapy which may include, for example, radiation, surgery, administration of chemotherapeutic agents, or combinations thereof. Also provided are methods of administering to an individual a drug taxane in a nanoparticle composition based on a metronomic dosing regime.
US09101540B2

The present invention is directed to nanoparticulate compositions comprising megestrol. The megestrol particles of the composition have an effective average particle size of less than about 2000 nm.
US09101537B2

Compositions comprising electro-activated aqueous solutions and methods for the prevention and treatment of dysfunctional cardiovascular conditions are provided.
US09101533B2

A needle safety guard device adapted to attach to a liquid container is provided. The device includes a disk-shaped shield having a medial opening connected with a radial opening between two radial edges. The device also includes a substantially U-shaped holder having two sidewalls coupled substantially perpendicular to the disk-shaped shield along the two radial edges, and a top cover connecting to the two sidewalls and extending from the shield above the radial opening. The U-shaped holder includes a wedged protrusion and a curved protrusion extending from each of the two sidewalls, the curved protrusion being between the top cover and the wedged protrusion for blocking a cap of the liquid container from moving toward the medial opening.
US09101530B2

There is provided a content use monitoring package and method of making the same. The package includes a cover layer followed by a blister card layer. The third layer comprises an electronic sensor monitoring tag connected to a rupturable layer imprinted with a conductive grid. The grid is printed on a non-conductive, non paperboard rupturable substrate and is aligned with associated blisters in the blister card. To ensure precise and reliable electrical continuity between the tag and grid they are connected by a low or zero insertion force flat flex connector which connection is also reversible. The tag includes re-usable electronic circuitry and power source. The fourth and bottom layer is a backing which contains a mechanism to tear open the package and remove the tag by unplugging the flex circuit connector. The tag can then be reused and the battery replaced as required.
US09101520B2

The present invention relates to a novel approach to improving the use of wheelchairs by offering the ability for the wheelchair to transition between accommodation for a seated position, and accommodation for a standing position, more particularly, wherein the inventive mobile manual standing wheelchair allows for a standing position during the course of mobile use, and which also permits the user to traverse narrow entrances and doorframes, and also allows the user to have improved access in front for elevated surfaces such as countertops and the like.
US09101519B2

An apparatus for providing wheelchair access to a vehicle, including a deployable wheelchair access assembly coupled to the vehicle and deployable to a position in which one end of the assembly is in contact with the ground. The wheelchair access assembly can include multiple panels. Some embodiments include a control system for adjusting the angular relationship of one panel relative to another panel. Yet other embodiments include a sensor for measuring the inclination of the deployed assembly relative to earth's gravity. In yet other embodiments the vehicle includes a sensor for measuring the inclination of the vehicle relative to earth's gravity, and a plurality of suspension actuators for changing the inclination of the vehicle.
US09101517B2

A siderail assembly for a patient-support apparatus including a frame and defining a head end, a foot end longitudinally spaced-apart therefrom, and two laterally spaced-apart sides, comprises a siderail body and a movement assembly. The movement assembly is coupled to the siderail body and is configured to be coupled with the frame of the patient-support apparatus. The movement assembly is configured so that the siderail body moves relative to the frame about a generally laterally-extending axis between a lowered position, a first raised position, and a second raised position laterally spaced apart from the first raised position.
US09101509B2

A protective wrap for a bandage or wound site is provided, wherein the wrap comprises a water impermeable and elastic material that shrouds a portion of a wearer's limb from moisture while showering. The device comprises an elongated wrap body having a pair of ends and an upper and lower edge. A first and second tie strap is disposed the wrap body and on the upper and lower edge, respectively. Along one end and along the interior surface of the wrap is a moisture absorbing material, while along a portion of the upper end is a second length of moisture absorbing material. The second length is also disposed on the interior surface and extends a portion or the substantial entirety of the upper edge length. The wearer places the wrap body around a limb and over an affected area, wherein the tie straps secure the wrap in place.
US09101506B2

A system for implanting a prosthesis includes a control lumen and a nose cone affixed at a distal end of the control lumen. At least one supporting wire is affixed at one end, is substantially parallel to a major axis of the control lumen and is free at an opposite end, wherein the free end of at least one of the supporting wires is arcuate. Alternatively, a system for implanting a prosthesis includes at least one suture extending from a nose cone affixed to a distal end of a control lumen. The suture extends from the nose cone to a proximal end to a stent graft extending about the control lumen and from the stent graft to a fixed location on the control lumen. The suture is releasable from the stent graft by remote activation, whereby the suture separates from the nose cone to thereby deploy the stent graft.
US09101505B2

A bioremovable composite stent includes bioremovable polymer and bioremovable ceramic flakes generally coupled with adjacent layers of bioremovable polymer so as to make a resilient composite stent configured to move between a contracted configuration to an expanded configuration. In one embodiment, the composite stent may have a helical shape.
US09101500B2

The present invention provides methods and devices for placement of a stent in a bifurcation or ostial lesion. The stent comprises a main body and a flaring portion. The main body is designed to expand and support a main vessel of the bifurcation and defines a main body axis. The flaring portion is disposed on a side of the main body and is adapted to flare radially and offset the main body axis in response to expansion of the main body. The flaring portion comprises at least one distal wing and at least one proximal wing. Each wing is aligned along the main body axis. The at least one proximal wing is longer than the at least one distal wing, providing greater coverage of the proximal side of the side vessel than on the distal surface of the side vessel.
US09101498B2

A system for sizing an oral appliance includes a right overlay, a left overlay, and a wax bite plate. A dental arch impression of a patient is taken on the wax bite plate, and indicia on the right and left overlays are aligned with the dental arch impression to provide information on both the arcuate shape and width of an oral appliance which can best fit the patient.
US09101497B2

An external prosthetic penile device includes a substantially cylindrical structure having openings at its proximal end and a distal end. The substantially cylindrical structure includes a tubular channel that extends and tapers within the substantially cylindrical structure from the proximal end to the distal end. The tubular channel connects said proximal and distal end openings in a fluid connection. The opening at the proximal end includes a funnel, said funnel having a substantially conical mouth, wherein said substantially conical mouth has a circumference that is adapted to rest substantially against a pubic region surrounding a human's genitals. The circumference is also dimensioned to at least substantially encompass the genitals when the circumference is fitted against the pubic region. The substantially cylindrical structure is configured to resemble a flaccid human penis such that the distal opening corresponds to the external urethral orifice.
US09101490B2

A system for managing and controlling bodily fluids such as urine and menstrual flow includes a garment with a latex envelope, for receiving the fluids from the male or female genitalia, and a system for disinfecting the male or female genitalia within the envelope.
US09101488B2

Described here are deformable monolithic, stabilization devices, or implants, suitable for use within bone and between bones, for instance, to fuse vertebral bodies, to repair herniated discs, or to repair spinal compression fractures. The implants are introduced into a chosen site at a first, smaller height and then plastically deformed to achieve a second, but unique, pre-selected, larger height. Variations of the device provide one or more specific larger heights. The devices are particularly suitable as intervertebral spinal fusion implants for the immobilization of adjacent vertebral bodies. Methods of deploying the implants are also described as are instruments for such deployment.
US09101487B2

An intervertebral spacer for therapeutic treatment of a patient includes at least one link sized and dimensioned to fit within an intervertebral space in the patient, and is configured to maintain a separation of two adjacent vertebrae for a period of time. A rigid guiding object, which may be a tool or a successive link, is insertable into the patient, to guide other links into the patient using an MIS approach. A pivot is connected between successive links, or between a guide tool and a link, configured to limit a relative range of angular orientation between the link and the guiding tool, or successive links. Multiple links are so joined to form a chain pushable by the last link, and pullable by the first link, to form a chain which may be formed into a curved configuration corresponding to the patient's intervertebral space.
US09101482B2

A device for emptying an ostomy bag includes a pair of elongate members, each having bag engagement members and first and second ends. The elongate members are adapted to extend substantially across a width of the ostomy bag. A hinge member is in cooperative engagement with the second ends of the elongate members and gripping members are provided at the first ends of the elongate members. The pair of elongate members are moveable from an open position where the elongate members extend outwardly from the hinge member away from each other and a closed position wherein the elongate members are generally parallel to each other.
US09101470B2

The present invention discloses devices and methods for performing intravascular procedures without cardiac bypass. The devices include various embodiments of temporary filter devices, temporary valves, and prosthetic valves.The temporary filter devices have one or more cannulae which provide access for surgical tools for effecting repair of the cardiac valves. A cannula may have filters of various configurations encircling the distal region of the cannula, which prevent embolitic material from entering the coronary arteries and aorta.The temporary valve devices may also have one or more cannulae which guide the insertion of the valve into the aorta. The valve devices expand in the aorta to occupy the entire flow path of the vessel. In one embodiment, the temporary valve is a disc of flexible, porous, material that acts to filter blood passing therethrough. A set of valve leaflets extend peripherally from the disc. These leaflets can alternately collapse to prevent blood flow through the valve and extend to permit flow.The prosthetic valves include valve fixation devices which secure the prosthetic valve to the wall of the vessel. In one embodiment, the prosthetic valves have at least one substantially rigid strut, at least two expandable fixation rings located about the circumference of the base of the apex of the valve, and one or more commissures and leaflets. The prosthetic valves are introduced into the vascular system a compressed state, advanced to the site of implantation, expanded and secured to the vessel wall.
US09101469B2

Described embodiments are directed toward prosthetic valve leaflets of particular configurations that control bending character. In embodiments provided herein, a valve leaflet is provided with a planar zone that is bounded at a planar zone base by a straight line, wherein the leaflet is operable to bend along a base of the planar zone.
US09101457B2

An endovascular stent-graft system (10) includes fenestrated and crossing stent-grafts (20, 22). The fenestrated stent-graft (20) defines first and second lateral apertures (40, 42) in a central portion (34) thereof, which apertures (40, 42) face in generally radially opposing directions. The crossing stent-graft (22) includes one or more covering elements (58), which at least partially cover both end portions (44, 46) of the crossing stent-graft (22), such that a central portion (54) is at least partially uncovered. Both stent-grafts (20, 22) are sized and shaped such that, when the crossing stent-graft (22) is disposed through both apertures (40, 42) such that the central portion (54) thereof is within the central portion (34) of the fenestrated stent-graft (20), both end portions (44, 46) of the crossing stent-graft (22) (a) pass through both apertures (40, 42), respectively, and (b) when both stent-grafts (20, 22) are in radially-expanded states, form blood-impervious seals with both apertures (40, 42), respectively.
US09101454B2

A passive cervical spine stabilizing system includes a head engagement member, a torso supported member, and at least one stabilization connector having a first portion configured to be secured to the head engagement member and having a second portion configured to be secured to the torso supported member, wherein the at least one stabilization connector includes a surface in contact with a shear-thickening non-Newtonian fluid.
US09101453B2

A urological repair device includes a stent having a diameter that fits within a portion of a urological structure. The stent also has a length to bridge a distance between a first end of the urological structure and a second end of the urological structure. The stent includes at least one tapered end. The tapered end enables placement of the stent within the urological structure. A method of repairing a urological structure includes placing a first end of a substantially tubular urological structure over a first end of a tubular stent, and placing a second end of a substantially tubular urological structure over a second end of a stent, and attaching the first end of the substantially tubular urological structure, the second end of a substantially tubular urological structure, and the tubular stent to form a fluid passageway.
US09101451B2

The invention relates to a method for the step-by-step correction of the position of the longitudinal axes of segments of the lower extremities in the horizontal and/or frontal and/or sagittal planes, that comprises the simultaneous dosed correction of the imbalance of forces in the muscles supporting the corresponding joints, the reduction of the pathological configurations of the segments, and the fixation of corrected segments using at least one module of a modular exoskeleton capable of individual adjustment for bringing, during each step, the position of the longitudinal axis of each segment closer to the physiologically correct position, and for permitting movements about the corrected rotation axes of the joints within a predetermined range defined by the modular exoskeleton. The proposed device for correcting pathological configurations of segments of the lower extremities comprises a modular exoskeleton, the modules of which can be used independently or in various combinations. The modular exoskeleton comprises at least one adjustable pelvis belt (1, 47), at least one means (3, 51) for holding the thigh in a given position, at least one means (4, 89) for rotating the tibia, at least one means (5, 121) for holding the tibia in a given position, at least one means (6, 130) for correcting the position of the foot and the movement range thereof at the foot-tibia joint, at least one means (7, 146) for accommodating the foot, and a set of fixation members each in the form of a cylindrical rod (8, 9, 10, 11, 37, 52, 83, 90, 124, 141, 142) capable of linear positioning movement and/or rotation and/or free linear movement.
US09101448B2

System and method for making incisions in eye tissue at different depths. The system and method focuses light, possibly in a pattern, at various focal points which are at various depths within the eye tissue. A segmented lens can be used to create multiple focal points simultaneously. Optimal incisions can be achieved by sequentially or simultaneously focusing lights at different depths, creating an expanded column of plasma, and creating a beam with an elongated waist.
US09101447B2

Systems and processes are described relating to laser-based ophthalmic intervention technologies and, more specifically, to techniques for delivering reproducible amounts of laser energy to create visible and sub-visible lesions on an eye. The subject technology may provide a user with the ability to adjust the amount of energy to be delivered to the eye tissue by selecting a single numerical value. In response, the system may adjust the power and/or duration of the laser treatment beam pulse according to an operating curve determined by the system.
US09101438B2

Compositions and methods for whitening the teeth of a patient or subject are described for performing a dental prophylaxis or cleaning procedure during which at least one tooth whitening composition is applied to the surface of a stained tooth, said compositions and methods resulting in a tooth color change that is noticeable to the patient or subject immediately following the procedure. The novel procedure allows for a high degree of tooth whitening to be safely achieved in a short period of time while under the control of a dentist, dental hygienist, or other dental professional, and which at least partially coincides with the performance of a dental prophylaxis or cleaning procedure in order to save significant clinical operatory chair time compared to cleaning and whitening procedures that are performed in non-overlapping time frames or appointments.
US09101435B2

Packaging device (1) for a dental implant (2), comprising first (10a) and second (10b) means of lateral retention of the implant (2), which means are respectively fixed to two mutually opposite first lateral parts (11a) and (11b) of the peripheral lateral wall (4). At least one of the two first lateral parts (11a, 11b) is movable between a first position, in which the first (10a) and second (10b) means of lateral retention of the implant (2) are situated at a first distance from each other, and a second position, in which the first (10a) and second (10b) means of lateral retention of the implant (2) are situated at a second distance from each other, the second distance being shorter than the first distance.
US09101432B2

A system is provided for inserting and securing, through a suprapatellar region of a leg, a nail into a medullary canal of a bone. The system can include a flexible sleeve configured to be partially inserted in the leg. The flexible sleeve can define a leading end and a trailing end spaced apart from the leading end along a first axis. The flexible sleeve can define a first cannulation that extends along the first axis between the leading and trailing ends. The first cannulation can be sized to receive therethrough at least the intramedullary nail. The system can further include a retaining member configured support at least a portion of the flexible sleeve. The retaining member can be configured to position the flexible sleeve through the suprapatellar region of the leg such that the flexible sleeve leading end is aligned with the proximal end of the bone. The intramedullary nail can be insertable through the flexible sleeve and into the medullary canal.
US09101426B2

Disclosed herein are cable plugs for securing surgical cable to a bone plate. The cable plugs each have a cable retaining member and a fastening member. The cable retaining members each have a receiving portion adapted to receive a portion of the surgical cable therein. The cable retaining members are first coupled to the fastening members prior to securing the cable plug to the bone plate. The cable retaining member may rotate with respect to the fastening member about 270° along a longitudinal axis of the cable plug when the cable retaining member is coupled to the fastening member. When securing the surgical cable to the bone plate, the cable retaining member is rotated about the longitudinal axis of the cable plug until an axis of the receiving portion is parallel to an axis of the surgical cable. The surgical cable is then placed within the receiving portion, tightened, and crimped to secure the bone plate to the bone.
US09101419B2

Apparatus and methods for separating an internal bone fixation device from an introducer are disclosed herein. A device for separating an internal bone fixation device from an introducer includes a functional portion having an outer shaft surrounding and controlling operation of a cutting mechanism; and a control portion having an actuating mechanism for initiating activation of the outer shaft.
US09101417B2

A composite bone implant. In some embodiments, one or more features are provided, such as markers for passageways, axial engagement of bone screws, sliding support of bone screws and/or a cannulated channel for a guide wire.
US09101411B2

Fusion of cervical spinal vertebrae with one or more fixation devices can be accomplished with the described tools and methods. For example, a guidewire introducer can include a tubular introducer cannula and a handle. The handle can be angularly offset from the introducer cannula such that positioning of the introducer on the cervical spine does not interfere with a patient's head. A sheath assembly can include inner and outer sheath bodies and a handle. The handle is angularly offset from the sheath bodies such that the sheath assembly can be applied to the cervical spine without interference to the patient's head. The sheath body can be curved or straight. Various tools such as drills, tapping devices, compression tools, and pin release tools can be applied to the cervical spine through the sheath body to apply the fixation device. The tools can include elongate flexible shafts.
US09101407B2

An anterior cervical plate system is provided. The cervical plate includes a retention ring with a deflectable flange that is upwardly spaced from the top surface of the ring and configured to prevent an inserted bone fastener from backing out of the plate. The plate includes a locking pin having a camming surface and a blocking surface. When the camming surface is moved into position adjacent to the flange, the flange is free to flex out of the way of a bone screw being inserted into or removed from the plate. When the blocking surface is positioned adjacent to the flange, outward deflection of the flange is prevented to retain the bone screw inside the plate. The locking pin is rotated through a camming surface to bring a blocking surface against the flange deflecting the flange onto the head of the bone screw.
US09101403B2

A bone anchoring element includes an anchoring section for anchoring in the bone and a receiving part connected to the anchoring section. The receiving part includes an opening suitable for accommodation of a stabilization rod having a rod axis, the opening being limited along the rod axis by two side walls. The side walls include guides orientated along the rod axis for guiding at least one connection rod therethrough.
US09101402B2

A spinal fixation system includes a rod and anchor devices that include a bone engaging fastener having a head defining a spherical socket. A ball insert is placed within the socket and rotated so that the ball insert is juxtaposed with the socket. The anchor device further includes a yoke defining a yoke channel for receiving the rod and a stem engaged to the ball insert captured within the socket. A sleeve disposed between the yoke channel and the fastener head supports the rod. A set screw is operable to clamp the rod against the sleeve and draw the insert into engagement within the socket. A releasable detent defined between the yoke and the fastener head is configured to releasably retain the yoke in at least one discrete position relative to the fastener. Portions of the releasable detent may also exert a frictional retention force against the fastener head.
US09101398B2

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for manipulating the orientation of a plurality of bone fragments with respect to one another. A bone transport frame including first and second rings, a plurality of elongate struts, and a plurality of ring transport assemblies for orienting a first bone segment with respect to a second bone segment is disclosed. A third ring may be included in the bone transport frame for orienting a third bone segment with respect to the first and second bone segments. Manipulation of an adjustable member of the bone transport frame can transport a ring in either a proximal or distal direction with respect to other rings of the frame. Manipulation of another adjustable member of the bone transport frame can translate a central axis of one of the rings either toward or away from the central axes of the plurality of elongate struts.
US09101390B2

A medical instrument configured to be inserted into a body cavity comprises a body comprises a first probe at a first end, the first probe comprising a first cylindrical portion with a first outer circumferential surface of a first diameter; a first circumferential edge at a distal end of the first probe; a first distal lip projecting outwardly from the first outer circumferential surface beyond the first circumferential edge and extending for at least a part of a circumference of the first circumferential edge; and a first marker lip projecting outwardly from the first outer circumferential surface and extending for at least a part of a circumference of the first outer circumferential surface; wherein the first distal lip is positioned distal to the first marker lip; and wherein the body comprises a hollow cavity to enable a second medical instrument to pass therethrough.
US09101381B2

Surgical tools having a two degree-of-freedom wrist, wrist articulation by linked tension members, mechanisms for transmitting torque through an angle, and minimally invasive surgical tools incorporating these features are disclosed. An elongate intermediate wrist member is pivotally coupled with a distal end of an instrument shaft so as to rotate about a first axis transverse to the shaft, and an end effector body is pivotally coupled with the intermediate member so as to rotate about a second axis that is transverse to the first axis. Linked tension members interact with attachment features to articulate the wrist. A torque-transmitting mechanism includes a coupling member, coupling pins, a drive shaft, and a driven shaft. The drive shaft is coupled with the driven shaft so as to control the relative orientations of the drive shaft, the coupling member, and the driven shaft.
US09101372B2

The present disclosure relates to a device for use in ligament reconstruction surgery. The device includes a handle, a tube coupled to the handle, and a locking mechanism coupled to the handle. A method for use during ligament reconstruction surgery is also disclosed.
US09101367B2

A medical instrument for dissecting human and/or animal tissue comprises a shaft, a first tool and a second tool at a distal end of the shaft, the first tool and the second tool cooperating in the manner of a punch by means of an axial relative movement with respect to one another, and at least one of the tools comprising a cutting element which is arranged in such a way that it forms, with the other tool, a punch area that defines a plane which, with a longitudinal axis of the shaft, forms an angle in the area of the distal end of the shaft. The distally arranged tool tapers convexly in diameter toward the distal end in the longitudinal direction of the shaft, the external contour lines of the distally arranged tool intersecting, when viewed in a section through a longitudinal central plane, at an angle smaller than 160°.
US09101366B2

A flip retrograde cutting instrument and method of retrograde drilling using such an instrument. A method of forming a socket includes providing a flip retrograde cutter, inserting the cutter into a joint with a blade of the cutter in a straight position, pivoting the blade to a non-straight flip position, locking the blade in the flip position, and retrograde drilling a socket using the blade in the flip position.
US09101352B1

A kit is provided including a base with an insert which has a plurality of compartments therein. The compartments are in fluid communication with each other. Liquid bleeding control agent is expressed into the base and allowed to flow to each of the compartments, such as through ports and inside slots between adjacent compartments. Pads reside within each of the compartments, which each include a gauze portion and a gel foam portion. The gel foam portion is wetted by the liquid bleeding control agent, which can be expressed from a syringe provided as a portion of the kit and which flows into the compartments for uniform wetting of gel foam portions of each of the pads. Pads are used during a surgical procedure and then returned to vacant compartments, so that a quick check for remaining vacant compartments indicates whether or not any pads have remained within the surgical site.
US09101349B2

An orthopedic fixation system includes a sterile packaged implant kit and a sterile packaged instrument kit. The sterile packaged implant kit includes at least one surgical implant, an insertion device, and an implant package adapted to receive the at least one surgical implant and the insertion device therein. The implant package maintains the at least one surgical implant and the insertion device sterile after sterilization of the sterile packaged implant kit. The sterile packaged instrument kit includes one or more instruments necessary to use the sterile packaged implant kit and an instrument package adapted to receive the one or more instruments therein. The instrument package maintains the one or more instruments sterile after sterilization of the sterile packaged instrument kit.
US09101348B2

A patient side cart for a teleoperated surgical system can include at least one manipulator arm portion for holding a surgical instrument, a steering interface, and a drive system. The steering interface may be configured to detect a force applied by a user to the steering interface indicating a desired movement for the teleoperated surgical system. The drive system can include at least one driven wheel, a control module, and a model section. The control module may receive as input a signal from the steering interface corresponding to the force applied by the user to the steering interface. The control module may be configured to output a desired movement signal corresponding to the signal received from the steering interface. The model section can include a model of movement behavior of the patient side cart, the model section outputting a movement command output to drive the driven wheel.
US09101343B2

A cryoablation system has a gas source which provides a working gas at room temperature and at a constant set pressure. The system also includes a liquid generator which is coupled to the gas source to receive the working gas, and which then generates a working cryogen fluid in a liquid phase that operates at a temperature and pressure that lies on its Joule-Thomson Inversion Curve, with the Joule-Thomson coefficient maintained within the range 0.00±0.08 degrees F./Atmosphere. The system also includes a catheter coupled to the liquid generator for receiving the working cryogen, the catheter having a distal section which delivers the working cryogen to a treatment location.
US09101341B2

A device for closing a hole in a sphenoid bone that acts as a barrier between a sella turcica and a sphenoid sinus is disclosed. The device includes a cap and a stem. The cap is formed of a deformable material. The cap includes a contact surface and an upper surface. The contact surface forms a base of the cap and includes an outer perimeter. The upper surface includes an apex offset from the contact surface. The upper surface extends from the apex to the outer perimeter. The stem extends from the contact surface in a direction opposite the apex.
US09101335B2

A method, device, and computer program product for managing alarms during a care process are disclosed. Care is provided to a subject according to settings of at least one care device and physiological parameters obtained from the subject are monitored, wherein the monitoring comprises triggering an alarm in response to detection of an alarm event. To enable smooth transfer from an alarm event to normal monitoring state, at least one available control option is determined for recovering from the alarm event. A user is prompted to select one of the at least one available control option, thereby to obtain a user-selected control option and the settings of the at least one care device are adjusted according to the user-selected control option.
US09101334B2

A method and technology to display 3D graphical output for a user using body sensor data, personal medical data in real time is disclosed. A consolidated methodology to bring user meaningful life information based on real-time sensor results, analysis, expert Q&As, “What if” scenarios and future emulation all in one artificial intelligence expert system is described. A unique rendering of 3D image of ones organ, cell or subcellular level display related to one's health condition can be visualized on a graphical user interface of a devices or devices. The change of the display from one level such as from organ to cell or cell to subcellular level or vice versa is enabled is disclosed.
US09101328B2

An FPD detects an X-ray image of an object. The FPD includes a plurality of pixels arranged in its image capturing field. Each pixel receives X-rays emitted from an X-ray source, and outputs a pixel value in accordance with an X-ray dose applied thereto. A pixel determiner determines a minimum-value pixel out of the pixels based on the pixel values of the pixels. The minimum-value pixel is a pixel whose pixel value is the lowest. The pixel determiner sets the minimum-value pixel as an exposure control pixel. A comparator compares a first integrated value, which is an integrated value of the pixel values of the minimum-value pixel, with a predetermined first threshold value. The comparator performs X-ray emission control such that, when the first integrated value has reached the first threshold value, the X-ray source stops emitting the X-rays.
US09101325B2

A method for obtaining a digital chest x-ray image of a patient. The method includes providing a default set of technique settings for the chest x-ray, wherein the default set is selectable by an operator command and includes using a peak kilovoltage exposure setting that is below 90 kVp with beam filtration of the x-ray, and applying a rib contrast suppression algorithm to the digital chest x-ray image data acquired from the exposure.
US09101310B2

Disclosed are methods, apparatuses, etc. for glucose sensor signal stability analysis. In certain example embodiments, a series of samples of at least one sensor signal that is responsive to a blood glucose level of a patient may be obtained. Based at least partly on the series of samples, at least one metric may be determined to assess an underlying trend of a change in responsiveness of the at least one sensor signal to the blood glucose level of the patient over time. A reliability of the at least one sensor signal to respond to the blood glucose level of the patient may be assessed based at least partly on the at least one metric assessing an underlying trend. Other example embodiments are disclosed herein.
US09101308B2

A glucose sensor comprising an optical energy source having an emitter with an emission pattern; a first polarizer intersecting the emission pattern; a second polarizer spaced a distance from the first polarizer and intersecting the emission pattern, the second polarizer rotated relative to the first polarizer by a first rotational amount Θ; a first optical detector intersecting the emission pattern; a second optical detector positioned proximal to the second polarizer, the first polarizer and the second polarizer being positioned between the optical energy source and the second optical detector, the second optical detector intersecting the emission pattern; a compensating circuit coupled to the second optical detector; and a subtractor circuit coupled to the compensating circuit and the first optical detector.
US09101305B2

A glucose sensor product is manufactured by a process that maintains the sterility of the glucose sensor while allowing gaseous manufacturing by-products to be vented from the inside of the glucose sensor package. The method begins by placing a glucose sensor assembly into a plastic package tray having a sealing surface surrounding an opening. The method continues by covering the opening with a microbial barrier material such that the microbial barrier material overlies the sealing surface, forming a seal between the sealing surface and the microbial barrier material, resulting in a sealed package tray containing the glucose sensor assembly, and sterilizing the glucose sensor assembly inside the sealed package tray. The microbial barrier material maintains sterility of the glucose sensor assembly while allowing volatile by-products outgassed from the glucose sensor assembly and the plastic package tray to pass therethrough.
US09101293B2

The present invention relates to structural analysis of the optic nerve head (ONH). In one approach, a 3D volume of intensity data which includes the optic nerve head is acquired using an optical coherence tomography (OCT) system. The vitreoretinal interface (VRI) and the optic disc margin are identified from the 3D data. The minimum area of a surface from the optic disc margin to the VRI is determined. This minimum area can be displayed as an image or in the alternative, a value corresponding to this minimum area can be displayed. The minimum area measurement provides relevant clinical information to determine the health of the eye.
US09101270B2

The present invention relates to an apparatus for capturing an image of the anterior part of an iris, and a medical monitoring system using a smart phone. According to the apparatus for capturing an image of the anterior part of an iris, the present invention can contribute to the health of the eyes by accurately examining or capturing images of healthy states to diseased states of an iris by precisely capturing an image without reflecting light to the iris while easily opening the eyes through a more effective and simple method, and proceeding with follow-up treatment thereto.
US09101269B2

A medical device control handle has a first actuation assembly and a second actuation assembly, wherein each assembly has a shaft that is axially aligned but not rotationally coupled with the other shaft. The first actuation assembly includes a first actuation member and a clutch mechanism having a friction disk for generating frictional torque in rendering the first actuation member self-holding. The first actuation member has a cam portion adapted to impart translational motion and rotational motion for disengaging the clutch mechanism upon pivotation of the first actuation member, thus allowing rotation of the first shaft to manipulate a feature of the medical device, for example, deflection. The second actuation assembly includes a second actuation member and a translating member that is responsive to rotation of the second shaft so as to manipulate another feature of the medical device. The second actuation member is also self holding.
US09101268B2

A tip section of a multi-camera endoscope includes a front-pointing camera on a planar surface of a distal end of the tip section and two side-pointing cameras positioned in depressions on a cylindrical surface in proximity to the planar surface such that the side field of view provided by the two side-pointing cameras partially overlaps with the front field of view provided by the front-pointing camera. The tip section further includes a working channel configured for insertion of a surgical tool and a pathway fluid injector for inflating and/or cleaning a body cavity into which the endoscope is inserted.
US09101266B2

There is provided herein a tip section of a multi-camera endoscope, the tip section comprising: a front looking camera and a front discrete illuminator to essentially illuminate the Field Of View (FOV) of said front looking camera; a right side looking camera and a right discrete illuminator to essentially illuminate the FOV of said right side looking camera; a left side looking camera and a left discrete illuminator to essentially illuminate the FOV of said left side looking camera; and a multi component cover configured to cover and seal said tip section such as to essentially prevent entry of fluids from the environment of said endoscope to inner parts of said tip section.
US09101263B2

A computationally implemented method includes, but is not limited to: acquiring data indicative of an inferred mental state of an authoring user; and associating the data indicative of the inferred mental state of the authoring user with an electronic message. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure.
US09101262B2

A method of detecting the position of potential cancer in a breast of a patient using a contour recorder (108) and a plurality of diagnostic tests (60, 62, 64) and a computer (46) having a processor (48) and a memory (50). The method begins by imaging and storing a contour-shape of the breast, followed by analyzing the contour shape to generate and store a 3D model (112) of the breast having at least one testing coordinate (114) relative to the breast. The method proceeds by performing a plurality of diagnostic tests (60, 62, 64) each having a different modality at the testing coordinate (114), and then analyzing the interrelationship of the plurality of diagnostic tests (60, 62, 64) at the testing coordinate (114) to detect the spatial position of a potential breast cancer within the breast.
US09101259B2

A door lock for a dishwashing machine includes a lock housing, a pair of closing arms being held in and projecting from the lock housing and having free arm portions projecting from the lock housing that are deflectable relative to one another from a relative normal position in a first deflection direction counter to the action of a resetting spring arrangement, and a closing mouth, into which the free arm portions engage during closing of the door, having deflection surfaces encountered by the free arm portions during engagement into the closing mouth and which bring about a relative deflection of the free arm portions counter to the resetting action of the resetting spring arrangement, where the free arm portions during further engagement is move past the deflection surfaces and in so doing experience an at least partial resetting in the direction of their relative normal position.
US09101254B2

A dishwasher includes a tub and a bottom assembly disposed below the tub and including at least one fluid collection apparatus having a main reservoir with a fluid overflow safety unit and at least one additional intermediate reservoir for collecting leakage and/or overflow fluid from the tub and/or at least one fluid-conducting component. The additional intermediate reservoir is disposed and configured such that solid particles contained in the leakage and/or overflow fluid can largely be deposited and/or retained in the at least one additional intermediate reservoir. The additional intermediate reservoir is connected to the main reservoir by at least one run-off to conduct fluid out of the additional intermediate reservoir into the main reservoir when a predetermined fill level top limit in the additional intermediate reservoir is exceeded, with the run-off having a gradient from the intermediate reservoir to the main reservoir.
US09101252B2

A surface cleaning apparatus comprises an air flow path extending from a dirty air inlet to a clean air outlet. The surface cleaning apparatus comprises a main body comprising a front end, a rear end, first and second opposed sidewalls, and a suction motor provided in the air flow path. A cyclone bin assembly may be provided in the air flow path. The cyclone bin assembly may have opposed end walls and may comprise a cyclone chamber having a diameter. Each of the first and second opposed sidewalls may comprise a wheel having a diameter larger than the diameter of the cyclone chamber.
US09101248B2

The present invention relates to a mechanical food treatment processor comprising a driving block topped by a bowl. The driving block comprises a motor connected to a rotation driving means. The processor further comprises a food treatment tool with means of coupling with the rotation driving means. The bowl is topped by a lid with an opening/closing system placed on the bowl and operable to rotate about a substantially vertical axis. The lid is provided with a safety device operable to block the opening of the lid when a force, substantially parallel to the axis of rotation, is exerted on the lid. The claimed device is operable to avoid a brutal ejection of the lid and/or emissions of extreme burning steam in the event of an overpressure in the bowl.
US09101237B2

Provided is a tower made from base plates that can function as an ornamental table centerpiece, to which additional plates can be added to give the appearance of a flower.
US09101227B2

A child seat apparatus that may be engaged on the end of a table top so as to be used as a hook on high chair and that also may be set on the floor to be used as a rocker. The apparatus includes a base that includes longitudinal curved members. A rear portion of the base can be disengaged from the front portion of the base such that, when used as a hook on high chair, the rear portion can swing to an out-of-the-way position underneath front portion, so that the rear portion does not protrude into kitchen or dining room space.
US09101224B2

A medical air mattress has a mattress body, a lower bedspread, an upper bedspread and a guardrail unit. The mattress body is formed by multiple air cells parallel arranged in an air cell row. The upper bedspread covers the mattress body and has two guardrail sleeves formed on the upper bedspread. The guardrail unit has multiple guardrail air cells mounted respectively in the guardrail sleeves. Since the guardrail sleeves are formed on the upper bedspread, the guardrail sleeves from each opposite side of the upper bedspread will draw each other to maintain the guardrail sleeves in position when pressed. Therefore, the guardrail sleeves do not fall down when pressed to remain providing optimal protection purpose.
US09101219B2

Described is an adjustable lounge chair having adjustable armrests. The lounge chair comprises an upper section, a middle section, a lower section, legs, support members, and armrests. The upper and lower sections are pivotally adjustable so that the user may configure the chair in a seated, reclined, or prone position. The support members are attached to the middle section near the upper section, and are attached on opposite sides of the middle section. Each support member has a joint at its upper end which is pivotally connected to an armrest such that the armrests can be rotated upwards or outward from the chair. Further, the support members have a means for adjusting the height of the armrests. Overall, the present invention discloses a lounge chair with armrests that are adjustable so as to provide support for the user's arms regardless of the configuration of the lounge chair.
US09101216B2

A variable configuration shelving apparatus including shelf-supporting reversible beams. In one position, beam top edges are flush with a shelf thereon. In another position, the beams form upstanding lips about a shelf. Beam structure is included.
US09101215B2

A fitting for corner cabinets with rectangular interior accessible from the front side via a corner cabinet door is provided with a support supported in the interior (2) of the corner cabinet and supporting at least one guide member (5) which supports and moves the shelf (4) on a predetermined movement path from the interior of the corner cabinet (1) to an outer position in front of a door opening. A driver device arranged between the corner cabinet door and the shelf (4) is provided to couple the door (3) to the shelf (4) during the opening movement of the door. The driver device has a stationary driver (6) mounted on the door and an unlockable coupling element (8) fixed to the shelf (4) can be introduced and be moved in a guide slot to ensure a drive function between the corner cabinet door (3) and the shelf (4). The coupling element (8) has a height-adjustable drive area introduced automatically, from an unlocked position, by a relative movement of the shelf (4) in relation to the door (3), into a drive position in the guide slot (7), and unlocked by manually activating the height adjustment of the drive area (9).
US09101212B2

Storage volume having a cubical housing with an interior space and walls, whereby at least the front wall is provided with an opening, and whereby at least the side walls are provided with a coupling on their outward facing sides, which are made in such a way that they allow such storage volumes to be coupled, either with both their front walls in the same plane, or with the front wall of one of the storage volumes in the same plane as the rear wall of the other storage volume.
US09101207B2

A foldable support mechanism attachable to a wall or other fixed support, comprising a platform member movable between a substantially horizontal, deployed position and a substantially vertical, stowed position in which the platform member is adjacent to and substantially parallel to the said wall or other fixed support and in which a support surface of the platform member faces away from the said wall or other fixed support, and a support structure comprising two links, each pivotally connected to the platform member and at least one of which is pivotally connectable directly or indirectly to the said wall or other fixed support, in which the links of the said support structure each include a respective limb, the two limbs being so formed or so positioned that, in the said stowed position, at least a portion of the said limbs lies in substantially the same plane as one another, parallel to the wall or other fixed support, in which the said limbs are shaped or profiled at the regions where they meet in the stowed position.
US09101204B2

A toothbrush is provided including: a handle; a head attached to the handle; a plurality of tooth cleaning elements projecting outwardly from a first surface of the head; and a cleanser including at least one projection protruding outwardly from a second surface for removal of microbial and other debris from soft tissue in the mouth, which second surface is arranged opposite to the first surface; wherein the at least one projection is made of a hard component; wherein the second surface is an elastomeric second surface.
US09101193B1

A cosmetic applicator is provided with a casing including a transparent glass and a mirror; a light and mount assembly disposed in the casing and including a seat, a light, a conductive member, a conductive biasing member, a battery, a moveable member, a stop member, and a case wherein the seat has a battery compartment for anchoring the conductive member, the conductive biasing member, the battery, and the moveable member; and a cosmetic element carrier releasably secured to the casing. A light of the light and mount assembly can automatically emit light after pulling the cosmetic element carrier out of the applicator.
US09101183B2

A buckle system is provided having a mounting bracket and a mounting clip. The mounting bracket includes a bracket body, a slot and a groove and has a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface, with the slot and the groove formed in the bracket body. The mounting clip includes a clip body, a latching mechanism and a tongue. The clip body is connected to the latching mechanism by the tongue, which is slid into the groove formed in the bracket body of the mounting bracket such that the latching mechanism is adjacent the first surface of the bracket body and the clip body is adjacent the second surface of the bracket body. A hook of the latching mechanism is received by the slot formed in the bracket body once the tongue of the mounting clip is slideably received into the groove of the mounting bracket.
US09101177B2

A remote control wireless heated insole system in which address data identifying specific insoles to be heated is provided. Once the heating process is initiated, periodic repeated control signals are generated to cause heating of the insoles.
US09101176B2

A self-closing helmet strap is contemplated to automatically strap a helmet to a user's head. The self-closing strap may be in the form of a curved strap configuration with the straps configured to curve under the user's chin. The self-closing strap may be a spring strap configuration with a strap designed to self-close with the aid of a spring.
US09101175B2

Integrated helmet systems provide convenient and modular use of electronic devices with a protective helmet. In addition to ease of use, weight savings and space savings also may be realized in certain embodiments. A flexible printed circuit board is used as a power bus to deliver electrical power from a battery pack to various electronic devices. Examples of devices used with protective helmets include: night vision goggles; helmet-mounted display units; ear phones; communication headsets; camera systems; biometric sensors; microprocessors; identify friend or foe devices (IFFs); and GPS devices.
US09101173B1

Apparatus and associated methods may relate to an artificial tree apparatus having a plurality of branch segments hingedbly connected to a trunk segment and adapted to be releasably secured in a stowed position. In an illustrative example, the branch segments may be secured in the stowed position by cinching a control member. For example, each branch segment may include a control member guide having an aperture, wherein the control member may be routed through the apertures of the control member guides for a given layer of branch segments. As the control member is cinched, the branch segments may be hinged inwardly to the stowed position. In an exemplary embodiment, the control member may include a releasable securing apparatus for retaining the branch segments in the stowed position. Releasing the control member from the cinched position may permit the branch segments to freely hinge outwardly to a deployed position.
US09101171B2

A plurality of overlapping protective plates may form a protective device to protect a portion of a wearer's anatomy from impact. Each of the protective plates may have at least one connection point that retains the protective plate in position over the portion of the wearer's anatomy to be protected in an as worn position. The connection points may retain the protective plates to a flexible plate that may be conformed to the portion of the wearer's anatomy to be protected. Alternatively/additionally, the connection points on a protective plate may connect that plate to another protective plate, thereby allowing a structure of interconnected protective plates to be formed.
US09101167B2

A display carton for displaying a plurality of containers. The display carton includes a base having a front edge, and a back edge, a front side member extending perpendicularly from the front edge of the base and terminating at an upper edge thereof, a rear side member extending perpendicularly from the rear edge of the base and terminating at an upper edge thereof, the rear side member having a cover panel detachably affixed to the rear side member; an upper tray member having a front edge, and a back edge, the front edge extending perpendicularly from the upper edge of the front side member, the upper tray member having a plurality of first apertures; and a lower tray member, the lower tray member positioned along a plane substantially parallel to the upper tray member and the base and located therebetween, the lower tray member having a plurality of second apertures.
US09101156B2

Disclosed are thickener compositions composed of xanthan gum and a chelating agent, such as ascorbic acid. The chelating agent is present in an amount with respect to said xanthan such that, when said thickener composition is used to thicken a food product, at least one mineral selected from the group consisting of iron, zinc, and calcium present in said food product is relatively more bioavailable than the mineral would be in the absence of said chelating agent. The thickener composition finds particular applicability for use with baby formulas and breast milk intended for dysphagic infants. Also disclosed are baby formulas and thickened breast milk formulations, methods for preparing same, and methods for providing nutrition.
US09101155B2

Functional starch powder of 400% or more water retention capacity, 5 hr or more collapse time and 200 g or more gel indentation load. This functional starch powder is produced through the step of heating a starch raw material in the presence of water at 60 to 150° C. so as to swell starch particles of the starch raw material and the subsequent step of drying the thus swollen starch particles so as to obtain a powder mixture comprising starch particles and, lying in the exterior thereof, amylose and amylopectin.
US09101152B2

A floss bowl is formed from a plurality of tapered, nestable segments which can be coupled together in a bowl configuration for use on a cotton candy machine. The segments can be disassembled for cleaning, or can be nested for storage or shipment. Methods are disclosed.
US09101144B2

The present invention is directed to the Pseudomonas fluorescens strain GM30 deposited under ATCC Accession No. PTA-13340, compositions containing the GM30 strain, and methods of using the GM30 strain to enhance plant growth and/or enhance plant resistance to pathogens.
US09101143B2

The present invention provides for a novel “green” agricultural formulation comprising at least one encapsulated volatile essential oil and a non-volatile vehicle in which said at least one encapsulated volatile essential oil is carried.
US09101133B2

The invention relates to novel compounds of the formula (I) in which R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, Y, Q and G have the meanings given above, to a plurality of processes and intermediates for their preparation and to their use as herbicides and/or pesticides. Moreover, the invention relates to selective herbicidal compositions comprising, firstly, the phenyl-substituted bicyclooctane-1,3-dione derivates and, secondly, a crop plant compatibility-improving compound.The present invention furthermore relates to increasing the activity of crop protection compositions comprising in particular phenyl-substituted bicyclooctane-1,3-dione derivates by adding ammonium salts or phosphonium salts and, if appropriate, penetrants, to the corresponding compositions, to processes for their preparation and to their use in crop protection as pesticides and/or for preventing unwanted plant growth.
US09101129B2

A new concept and invention for converting the conventional flying wing decoy into a different species/gender/genome. The system would use a decoy currently on the market and convert the product from the species that it represents to a different species/gender/or genome that the hunter is in pursuit of on that particular hunt. For example, a flying dove decoy can be converted to a duck of several different types, and a flying duck decoy can be converted to a squirrel or other ground dwelling animal. This allows the sportsman to use one single motorized system to create different decoy animals and species.
US09101128B2

An electric decoy apparatus has a base, a motor unit mounted to the base, a support arm extending from the motor unit and a decoy cover on the support arm. The support arm follows a cam that is rotated by a motor in the motor unit. The support arm moves from a first position, to a second position and back to the first position and then to an intermediate third position before returning to the first position. The motor also rotates an eccentric weight which causes the motor unit to move relative to the base.
US09101121B2

A spool brake device for a dual-bearing reel includes a spool braking part, a spool controlling part, a water landing determination part, and a water landing informing part. The spool brake device is configured to brake a spool capable of winding thereabout a fishing line having a terminal tackle attached to a tip thereof. The spool braking part is configured to electrically brake the spool. The spool controlling part is configured to electrically control the spool braking part. The water landing determining part configured to determine whether or not the terminal tackle is in a water landing state indicating that the terminal tackle is in water. The water landing informing part is configured to inform of the water landing state of the terminal tackle when the water landing determining part determines that the terminal tackle is in the water landing state.
US09101113B2

A custom-shaped wireless fence system is provided that contains one or more dogs in a user-defined containment area without the need for a physical fence or underground wire. The system, which is easy to set up and use, includes at least three base units and at least one collar and, preferably, a remote controller. A virtual fence is defined around the containment area, as well as around optional exclusion zones within the containment area, during system set up through communication between the base units and a trackable device as the user walks around the desired border. Visualization software enables the user to verify that the location of the fence is as desired and that the system is operating properly using a computing device having a display screen. In use, the system employs improved filtering of consecutive distance measurement values taken between the base units and the collar to discount errant measurement values in terms of their contribution to the current calculation of the dog's location. These filtering techniques, in combination with improved signal strength and antenna diversity in the communication between the base units and the collar, improve the accuracy and consistency with which the dog's location within a containment area is tracked so that unwanted corrections are not administered to the dog.
US09101110B2

The invention relates to the soybean variety designated A1035791. Provided by the invention are the seeds, plants and derivatives of the soybean variety A1035791. Also provided by the invention are tissue cultures of the soybean variety A1035791 and the plants regenerated therefrom. Still further provided by the invention are methods for producing soybean plants by crossing the soybean variety A1035791 with itself or another soybean variety and plants produced by such methods.
US09101107B2

The invention relates to the soybean variety designated 01046967. Provided by the invention are the seeds, plants and derivatives of the soybean variety 01046967. Also provided by the invention are tissue cultures of the soybean variety 01046967 and the plants regenerated therefrom. Still further provided by the invention are methods for producing soybean plants by crossing the soybean variety 01046967 with itself or another soybean variety and plants produced by such methods.
US09101096B1

A semi-automated crop production system featuring a growing module with grids of cells for growing plants and a lighting and airflow fixture positioned above each cell. The lighting and airflow fixtures feature a fan disposed in a housing, a light emitting diode (LED) assembly board comprising LEDs disposed below the fan; a light diffuser disposed below the LED assembly board, and an adjustable airflow nozzle extending downwardly from the fan and protruding through the LED assembly board and the light diffuser. The adjustable airflow nozzle provides directed airflow downwardly toward a bottom area of the housing. The growing module and lighting and airflow fixtures are housed in a shell. The growing module may be slidably attached to the interior wall of the shell via mounting components.
US09101095B2

A pole saw includes a long handle with cast end adapter, a cast saw-holding component pivoted to the end adapter for movement between an extended use position and a handle-adjacent storage position, and a saw blade pivoted to the holding component for movement between a blade-use position and a blade-protected position. The end adapter and holding component are cast aluminum for strength and light weight, and are pivoted together about an offset axis so that the blade and blade-holding component are positioned adjacent the handle in a partially protected position that is very compact; thus, no disassembly or separate tools are required. A folding lock mechanism includes a hook and pressure pad that cooperate for secure locking in the extended use position. An adjustable set screw eliminates blade looseness when in the use position.
US09101094B2

An electrically powered garden tool includes an electric motor mounted upright within an outer shell housing, a pair of relatively reciprocating shear blades assembled to be driven by operation of the motor through a crank mechanism provided within a lower portion of the outer shell housing, and a cooling fan assembled to be driven by operation of the motor for introducing outside air into an upper portion of the outer shell housing to exhaust the introduced air from a lower portion of the outer shell housing. In the garden tool, a downward exhaust opening is formed within a lower end peripheral wall of the outer shell housing enclosing the crank mechanism such that the air spouted by rotation of the cooling fan blows out downward from the downward exhaust opening to restrain the occurrence of blowing noise of the air.
US09101091B2

A rectangular baler having a bale chamber, a compacting plunger and a guide system having at least one guide assembly including a guide element, and a threaded shaft and nut for positioning the guide element, wherein, for receiving said threaded shaft, an elongated slot is provided extending in a slot direction making an angle between 1 and 85 degrees with respect to the discharge direction, the threaded shaft being arranged in an upright position perpendicular to the slot direction.
US09101089B2

In a method for operating a round baler, the harvested crop flow is controlled at any time of the bale forming process by time control with the control and governing device of the round baler, based on a stored theoretical minimum time for pressing a harvested crop bale defined by predetermined parameters and based on actually determined harvested crop parameters, such that the harvested crop bale defined by the predetermined parameters is produced at maximum baler utilization in a nominal press time determined for the harvested crop bale.
US09107325B1

Systems and methods of coupling sensors to a structure are disclosed. A particular method includes applying one or more communication traces to the structure. At least one of the one or more communication traces is formed using at least one direct-write technique. The method also includes coupling the one or more communication traces to at least one sensor.
US09107318B2

An easy-to-assemble structure of a power converter includes a control circuit board, semiconductor modules with power terminals and control terminals extending therefrom, and a capacitor to smooth voltage to be applied to the semiconductor modules. The capacitor includes capacitor devices coupled to the power terminals and voltage measuring terminals joined to electrodes of the capacitor devices. The control terminals and the voltage measuring terminals extend in a direction normal to the surface of the control circuit board. This permits the connections of the voltage measuring terminals and the control terminals with the control circuit board to be achieved simultaneously by bringing them close to the control circuit board from the normal direction.
US09107308B2

Different kinds of printing pastes or inks are utilized in various combinations to develop multiple ceramic dielectric layers on graphitic substrates in order to create effective dielectric ceramic layers that combine good adhesion to both graphitic substrates and printed copper traces, and strong insulating capability. The pastes or inks may comprise a high thermal conductivity powder.
US09107307B2

Disclosed herein are a resin composition of a printed circuit board including a liquid crystal oligomer, an epoxy resin, and a phenolic curing agent having five or more functional groups, an insulating film and a prepreg manufactured using the resin composition, and a printed circuit board including the insulating film or the prepreg. The resin composition for a printed circuit board according to the present invention, and the insulating film and the prepreg manufactured using the same, may have low coefficient of thermal expansion, excellent heat resistance property, and a high glass transition temperature.
US09107305B2

A multilayer substrate is configured by stacking conductive layers and insulation layers. The multilayer substrate includes a core that is one of the conductive layers and is thicker than any of other conductive layers, and a first signal line that is included in the conductive layers and is adjacent to the core so that a first insulation layer that is one of the insulation layers is interposed between the core and the first signal line, the first signal line being used for transmission of an RF signal. The core has a recess portion so as to face the first signal line.
US09107299B2

An apparatus and system for housing a device include a housing that is configured such that a device may be fitted within the housing and thereby be protected, such as from shocks and/or liquid. The housing may include top and bottom members that may be removably coupled together so as to form the housing. Each top and bottom member optionally includes front and back surfaces surrounded by a perimeter. The perimeter is defined by proximal and distal ends as well as opposing sides. The top and bottom members may include respective clasping mechanisms that extend along the perimeter of the top and bottom members. The clasping mechanisms are configured for coupling the top and bottom members with one another thereby sealing the housing, for instance, in a shock-proof and/or water tight seal.
US09107292B2

Carbon nanostructures can convey enhanced electrical conductivity to various substrates, while maintaining a high surface area and low density per unit area. Such substrates can provide good shielding against electromagnetic radiation over a wide range of frequencies. Electrically conductive structures can include a support layer containing a plurality of fibers having apertures defined between the fibers, and a plurality of carbon nanostructures at least partially conformally coating the fibers and bridging across the apertures defined between adjacent fibers to form a continuous carbon nanostructure layer. Each carbon nanostructure can include a plurality of carbon nanotubes that are branched, crosslinked, and share common walls with one another.
US09107288B2

According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes a box shaped housing, a display unit, and a printed circuit board. The housing includes a front casing having an opening and a back casing. The display unit is configured in the housing and exposed from the opening. The printed circuit board is configured in the housing and mounted on the back casing. A power contact is located on a lowest portion of the printed circuit board. a portion of the printed circuit board which is above a topside of a position occupied by the power contact overlaps a corresponding portion of the display unit in a front-back direction.
US09107286B2

An electric storage device includes a plurality of capacitor cells (electric-power storage cells) and a casing that houses the capacitor cells. The casing includes an inspection window through which a condition display unit provided inside the casing is visually checkable. The inspection window includes a through hole that penetrates the casing, a resin plate that closes the through hole from an inside of the casing, and a seal member that is interposed between the resin plate and an inner surface of the casing around the through hole.
US09107278B2

The present invention provides a static elimination device which is used for a stacker with a fan filter device. Characterize in that the static elimination device is provided at the end side of each shelf facing the fan filter device in the stacker. Said end side is opposite to the end side of the shelf which a cartridge moves in and out. Two ends of the static elimination device are free to rotate and connected to shelf holders at said end side. Under the action of the fan filter device blowing the airflow, the ions, which are used to eliminate the static, are blown from the static elimination device into the cartridge of the shelf and the surface of the glass substrate on the cartridge. The present invention further provides a stacker. The stacker and the static elimination device according to the present invention can effectively eliminate the static of the cartridge and the glass substrate surface in the same, which can decrease the equipment costs.
US09107267B2

Methods and numerical tools for designing and optimizing LED systems are provided to achieve a desired luminous performance and to increase reliability and operating lifetime. In addition, methods for designing LED illumination systems are also disclosed to determine an optimum operating power for a desired output luminous flux, given the condition of the rated power of the LED and the heatsink. By the invention, LED illumination systems can be designed with a suitable choice of LED and/or heatsink.
US09107264B2

Disclosed are electronic control gears for LED light engines able to improve power factor by way of gearing up or down the LED current and the AC input current in response to and in synchronization with the AC input voltage. Moreover, the disclosed electronic control gears could further reduce flicker phenomenon and total harmonic distortion when used in collocation with disclosed valley fillers, filling the LED current valleys only during the dead time, and in conjunction with disclosed dummy loads, ramping up or down the AC input current only during the dead time.
US09107256B2

A light emitting diode (LED) lighting apparatus boosts alternating current (AC) power output from a ballast, rectifies the boosted AC power to direct current (DC) power, blocks generation of an inrush current while the boosted AC power is rectified, and controls an operation of an LED by using the DC power.
US09107253B2

A lighting apparatus is provided. The lighting apparatus may include a mounting block provided on a heat sink and having a plurality of light emitting modules installed thereon, and a bulb surrounding the mounting block. One or more reflectors may reflect light emitted by the light emitting modules so as to distribute light within a predetermined light distribution area.
US09107252B2

A display panel is provided with a plurality of pixels each including: a plurality of light emitting devices connected in parallel to one another, wherein each of the light emitting devices includes a transparent electrode, a reflecting electrode, and an organic layer interposed between the transparent electrode and the reflecting electrode, and the organic layer has a light emitting layer; a pixel circuit driving the light emitting devices; and a plurality of wiring lines connecting each of the light emitting devices and the pixel circuit directly to each other, wherein each of the wiring lines is provided in a same plane as the reflecting electrode, and has a width smaller than a width of the reflecting electrode.
US09107245B2

A current driver circuit, for driving a light source, that provides high accuracy and reduced power consumption is disclosed. The driver includes a digital to analog converter configured to receive a digital value representing a light intensity and convert the digital value to an analog current signal. A current mirror is configured to receive the analog current signal and create a current mirror output which is larger than the analog current signal based on a ratio of the current mirror. This results in a modified analog current signal. A light source receives the modified analog current signal, and responsive thereto generate a light signal such that the light signal has an intensity controlled by the digital value. One or more amplifiers are also part of the current driver and configured to increase response time and accuracy.
US09107241B2

A method at a mobile device, and the mobile device, the method selecting a subset of radio access technologies available to the mobile device over which a predetermined set of services on the mobile device is available; and deactivating monitoring, or reducing a monitoring frequency, of at least one radio access technology not within the selected subset of radio access technologies.
US09107240B2

An amplifier and an amplifying method are provided. The amplifier includes: an amplifying unit amplifying and transferring a transmission target signal to a TDD switch; the TDD switch transferring a signal received from the amplifying unit to a filter unit when the amplifier operates in a TDD mode, and transferring a signal received from the filter unit to a duplex mode selection switch; the duplex mode selection switch transferring a signal received from the filter unit to a receiving side; and a controller controlling the duplex mode selection switch to transfer the signal received from the filter unit to the receiving side without passing through the TDD switch when the received duplex mode selection signal is a FDD mode selection signal.
US09107236B2

The invention includes a method and apparatus for scheduling multicast transmissions in a wireless network by selecting one of a plurality of multicast groups of a cellular region that is permitted to transmit information during a current timeslot. A method includes receiving data rate request values from wireless user terminals of each of a plurality of multicast groups, assigning a data rate to each multicast group using the data rate request values of wireless user terminals belonging to the respective multicast groups, selecting one of the multicast groups using the assigned data rates, and transmitting information to the selected one of the multicast groups at the associated assigned data rate. In one embodiment, the multicast scheduling algorithm may be a multicast proportional fairness (MPF) scheduling algorithm which attempts to maximize utility value of data received by individual users. In one embodiment, the multicast scheduling algorithm may be an inter-group proportional fairness (IPF) scheduling algorithm which attempts to maximize utility value of data received by multicast groups.
US09107235B2

An apparatus for scheduling transmission resources to users served by a base station equipped with a plurality of antennas includes a predictor for predicting rate regions for one or more future time slots based on rate regions for one or more past time slots to obtain one or more predicted rate regions, and a processor for calculating the transmission resources for the users for a current time slot using scheduled transmission resources for the one or more past time slots, a rate region for the current time slot and the one or more predicted rate regions.
US09107231B2

Terminals in a wireless communication system are scheduled according to a metric based on average power data received from a plurality of terminals at a plurality of base stations. An acceptable metric lies below a threshold value determined by the particular user's quality of service requirement. Groups of terminals are scheduled for simultaneous transmission in respective intervals of time or frequency. An equation for the metric {tilde over (K)}o is defined.
US09107211B2

The present invention relates to methods and devices for aperiodically reporting channel state information (CSI). According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method for aperiodically reporting channel state information may comprise: a terminal receiving an upper layer signal from a base station, the upper layer signal containing information about at least one allocated CSI measurement group; the terminal receiving a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) signal via a first subframe from the base station, the PDCCH signal containing a CSI request field; the terminal setting a second subframe as a CSI reference resource based on the first subframe; and determining whether at least one CSI measurement group to which a CSI reference resource is allocated is included.
US09107208B2

The present invention relates to a method and terminal apparatus which involve transmitting a sounding reference signal (SRS)-triggering-based SRS in a wireless communication system. The terminal apparatus of the present invention comprises a receiver which receives, from a base station, an SRS-triggering indicator for triggering an SRS transmission; and a transmitter which transmits the SRS via a preconfigured uplink subframe in accordance with the SRS-triggering indicator.
US09107196B2

A Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) system controls an Internet Protocol (IP) communication session between a first communication device and a second communication device. A SIP control server receives a SIP bye message from the first communication device indicating a loss of the IP communication session, and in response, transfers a notification request for the second communication device to a SIP registration server. The SIP registration server processes a SIP registration message from the second communication device, and in response to the notification request and the SIP registration message, transfers a registration notification for the second communication device to the SIP control server. The SIP control server receives the registration notification for the second communication device, and in response, transfers a SIP invite message to re-establish the IP communication session to the first communication device.
US09107191B2

Systems and methods for managing the transmission of multiple signals on one or more uplink (UL) channels using carrier aggregation in LTE-A systems. A UE simultaneously transmits signals such as ACK/NACK and periodic CSI using one or more uplink channels, such as a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and/or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), by increasing the resources used to transmit at least one of those signals. According to one aspect, a UE simultaneously transmits ACK/NACK signals and periodic CSI signals by multiplexing those signals on the PUSCH. Certain aspects avoid frequently dropped periodic CSI signals and provide mechanisms to ensure that ACK/NACK signals are transmitted.
US09107180B2

A user device may determine whether the user device is located within a dead zone; periodically search, using a first process, for a cellular tower of a cellular network when the user device is not located within the dead zone; and periodically search, using a second process, for a cellular tower of the cellular network when the user device is located within the dead zone. The second process may consume less power of the user device than the first process.
US09107176B2

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method for reporting power headroom in a user equipment of a multi-carrier system, includes receiving a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) signal comprising uplink resource allocation information from a base station; transmitting at least one of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) signal and a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) signal to the base station in a predetermined subframe based on the uplink resource allocation information in accordance with a transmission mode; calculating one or more power headroom values for the predetermined subframe in accordance with the transmission mode; and transmitting a report message comprising the one or more power headroom values to the base station, wherein the user equipment reports its first and second type power headroom values when operating in transmission mode A, or reports its first type power headroom value when operating in transmission mode B.
US09107165B2

A circuit arrangement performs communication with an external device including a second sensor detecting a given event, includes a sensor input unit that processes input from a first sensor detecting the given event and a communication control unit that controls operation of a wireless communication unit, and determines a communication time based on an output of the first sensor and performs communication with the external device via the wireless communication unit according to the communication time.
US09107152B1

A beacon wireless transmits a sequence of one or more data packets that each or together comprise an identifier. A portion of the data packets specify an availability window during which a receiver forming part of the beacon can receive data transmissions. The receiver does not receive data transmissions outside of the availability window. Thereafter, the receiver is activated during the availability window to enable receipt of data transmissions to the beacon. Related systems, apparatus, methods, and articles are also described.
US09107151B2

In one embodiment, a method includes identifying an access point joining a wireless controller in communication with a switch, establishing a control tunnel between the access point and the wireless controller, transmitting an address of the switch from the wireless controller to the access point, and requesting the switch to setup a data tunnel with the access point. An apparatus and logic are also disclosed herein.
US09107142B2

A communication device is configured to store one or more aggregator service application modules for use in accessing one or more different aggregator services. Each aggregator service offers access through a plurality of offered wireless networks identified by a plurality of offered wireless network identifiers. The communication device maintains a prioritized list of profiles which include one or more aggregator service profiles associated with the one or more aggregator services. A scanning operation is performed for identifying one or more available wireless networks in a geographic area of the device, for producing a scan list of one or more available wireless network identifiers corresponding to the one or more available wireless networks. One of the aggregator service profiles is selected from the prioritized list, causing one of the aggregator service application modules corresponding to the selected profile to be invoked. The invoked module causes one of the available wireless network identifiers from the scan list that matches one of the offered wireless network identifiers to be selected, if such matching identifier exists. A connection is established with one of the available wireless networks corresponding to the selected available wireless network identifier, for accessing a selected aggregator service corresponding to the selected aggregator service profile.
US09107141B2

The present invention is to provide a selection method for rapidly obtaining hotspot information, which is applicable to a wireless communication system including at least one mobile terminal device capable of performing a site survey and transmitting a probe request, a plurality of wireless hotspot devices each capable of receiving the probe request, reading a terminal identifier in the probe request and sending the terminal identifier out, and a server of a telecommunication company capable of receiving the terminal identifier. After receiving the terminal identifier, the server compares the terminal identifier against user data in a user database and then sends a text message to the mobile terminal device when determining that the terminal identifier is already registered in the user database, wherein the text message includes SSID and password of a wireless hotspot device to which the mobile terminal device can currently choose to connect for interconnecting the Internet.
US09107139B2

Intelligent packet data network gateway (P-GW) relocation for selected internet protocol traffic offload (SIPTO) service continuity is described. A user equipment (UE) application monitoring module, can monitor the network session state for a UE. A transition window can be determined based on both the network session state and a session continuity impact metric. A new packet data network gateway (P-GW) can be associated to the UE during the transition window in response to a determination that a current P-GW of the UE is less optimal, in at least one performance metric, than the new P-GW.
US09107138B2

A system may include one or more devices configured to receive content information associated with a broadcast. The system may determine announcement information based on the content information, where the announcement information may include information that allows a user device to receive the broadcast. The system may determine provisioning information based on the announcement information, where the provisioning information may include information for provisioning a discovery channel, and information specifying a time interval for providing the announcement information via the discovery channel. The system may provision the discovery channel, based on the provisioning information, and may provide the announcement information via the discovery channel based on the specified time interval.
US09107137B1

Provided is a process that includes obtaining a directed acyclic graph describing a plurality wireless connections between a plurality of downstream nodes forming a multi-path route to an Internet connected wireless transceiver; determining an encoding kernel specifying transformations to be performed by the plurality of downstream nodes on data received from upstream nodes; transmitting at least part of the encoding kernel to at least some of the downstream nodes; and transmitting data from a data source to a downstream node in the directed acyclic graph specified by the encoding kernel such that the data is conveyed through the multi-hop, multi-path route to the Internet connected wireless transceiver.
US09107136B2

Methods and apparatus for controlling access of a mobile device to a femtocell base station in a communications network are described. The method determines whether to allow access of the mobile device to the femtocell base station based on the femtocell-mobile device path loss for transmissions between the mobile device and the femtocell base station. Access may be allowed if the femtocell-mobile device pathloss is lower than a threshold amount. Additionally or alternatively access may be allowed only if the femtocell-mobile device pathloss is lower than the macrocell-mobile device pathloss for transmissions between the mobile device and a macrocell base station. The method is particularly applicable for hybrid access mode femtocells and additional conditions may be applied regarding the number of mobile device that are not part of the subscriber group that can access the femtocell. The method may be implemented by the femtocell, the macrocell or by any other suitable network device.
US09107127B2

While receiving content for a service at a user device via a particular delivery route, detecting a request for delivery of subsequent content for the service via a secure alternate delivery route. The user device may concurrently receive delivery of the subsequent content via the particular delivery route and the secure alternate delivery route. The detected request may be generated based on QoS associated with the received content of the service. The detected request may be received from a communication network and may comprise identification information for the particular delivery route. The secure alternate delivery route may be determined based on the identification information for the particular delivery route. A communication session profile may be generated and/or determined based on the secure alternate delivery route. The communication session profile is utilized for the requested delivery of the further content via the secure alternate delivery route.
US09107125B2

A method for the switchover of a mobile terminal device from a first radio network of a mobile radio system to a second radio network is described. The switchover is carried out on the basis of a CS fallback mechanism, and whereby, on the basis of the switchover, the mobile terminal device logs on to a base station of the second radio network in order to establish a connection. In conjunction with the log-on, the mobile terminal device transmits a notification pertaining to the CS fallback mechanism to the base station, and the base station registers the log-on of the terminal device as a function of the notification. Moreover, a base station and to a mobile terminal device for carrying out the method are also described herein.
US09107123B2

System and method embodiments are provided for limiting mobile device neighbor cell measurements for cell reselection and handover. In an embodiment, a method in a mobile device for limiting neighbor cell search and measurements for reselection and handover includes determining a state of the mobile device from one of a plurality of states, wherein the states comprises an idle state, a static-idle state, a connected state, and a static-connected state defining idle state to static-idle state and connected state to static-connected state transition criteria; defining static-idle state to idle state and static-connected state to connected state transition criteria; and selecting a time interval to wait between successive neighbor cell search and measurements for cell reselection and handover according to the state of the wireless device, wherein the time interval corresponding to one of the states is less than the time interval corresponding to another of the states.
US09107117B2

The various embodiments provide methods for implementing a forced reselection strategy after causing colliding subscriptions to perform reselection to neighboring cells. In various embodiments, the MSMS communication device may undo the effects of forced reselection in certain situations when continuing to employ forced reselection may be ineffective. In other embodiments, the MSMS communication device may force reselecting subscriptions to reselect to neighboring cells in a paging group based on the page timings of the neighboring cells. Thus, the various embodiments may increase the performance of the colliding subscriptions and may enhance the user's overall experience.
US09107116B2

This disclosure relates to methods and apparatuses for In-Device Coexistence (IDC) indication. Among other things, the present disclosure presents a method performed by a user equipment (UE). The UE is configured to send 201 an IDC indication message with a same content as in a previously sent IDC indication message if, or when, the UE has performed a handover to another cell (target cell).
US09107112B2

A wireless communication unit (302, 405, 505, 605) is capable of communicating with a plurality of communication networks in a cellular communication system, where the plurality of communication networks employ a respective plurality of radio access technologies. The wireless communication unit (302, 405, 505, 605) comprises a receiver for receiving a message from a network device in the cellular communication system; and signal processing logic, operably coupled to the receiver, for determining from the received message a hierarchical policy of network information that applies to the plurality of radio access technologies.
US09107111B2

In order to assure reception of broadcast information by a user terminal handed over to a micro base station by CRE (Cell Range Expansion) and to reduce the number of transmission stopped subframes in a macro base station, the present invention provides a notification method for a user terminal to receive modification notification information for notifying modification in system information from the micro base station, the notification method including: the macro base station notifying the micro base station of a subframe pattern including a protection subframe to protect the modification notification information every a plurality of radio frames; and the micro base station notifying the user terminal of identification information of the protection subframe in the subframe pattern.
US09107110B2

A clustered femtocell network including a plurality of femtocell access points that are connected via a logical interface to a mobile network in order to provide user equipments with radio access to the mobile network, wherein the mobile network includes a Mobility Management Function—MMF—, is characterized in that a logical function—Proxy Mobility Management Function P-MMF—is provided that localizes mobility management of the user equipments in the clustered femtocell network, wherein the P-MMF intercepts and interprets mobility-related signaling between the MMF and the femtocell access points in such a way that it emulates towards the femtocell access points the behavior of the mobile network's MMF and towards the mobile network's MMF the behavior of the femtocell access points. Furthermore, a method for operating a clustered femtocell network is disclosed.
US09107106B2

A technique for operating a wireless communication device includes transmitting a first downlink rate in a first control message. The first downlink rate is based on a latency of an inter-processor communication link associated with the wireless communication device. First downlink data at the first downlink rate is then received for a first time period. Following the first time period, second downlink data is received at a second downlink rate that is higher than the first downlink rate.
US09107103B2

Technology for enabling small data transmissions in a user equipment (UE) configured for machine type communication (MTC) is disclosed. One method comprises receiving, by the UE from an evolved node (eNB), a system information block (SIB). The SIB can include system information relating to small data transmissions for MTC. The system information included in the SIB is read by the UE. The small data transmission is performed, from the UE to the eNB, based on the system information included in the SIB.
US09107093B2

A method for detecting a context of a mobile device (100) equipped with sensors (111, 121, 122, 131) and a context detection module (109) in which the sensors (111, 121, 122, 131) are assigned to at least two groups (110, 120, 30), each of which comprises at least one sensor (111, 121, 122, 131), and each group (110, 120, 130) is allocated a group classifier (116, 126, 136) 10 adapted to detect, in a form of a classification result, currently identified, by means of a given classifier, context of the device (100) based on indications of the sensors (111, 121, 122, 131) belonging to the given group, characterized in that with a use of the context detection module, whereas the groups (110, 102, 130) of sensors are ordered hierarchically, and the device context is detected 1 by reading a classification result indicated by the classifier (116, 126, 136) of the currently active group, wherein in case of detection of an identified context in the active group, switching on power supply of the sensors and activating classification in a group (110, 120, 130) with a level higher by one level and reading the context indicated by said group's classifier, wherein based on the 20 results of the classification indicated by the higher groups' classifiers (116, 26, 136), executing adaptation of the configuration of lower groups' classifiers (116, 126, 136).
US09107091B2

The present invention provides a method and apparatus reporting a channel quality indicator (CQI) of a communication system, including: detecting a first measurement reflecting a first communication quality of the communication system, providing first reference(s) respectively corresponding to indicator level(s), providing CQI according to the indicator level(s) and a relation between the first measurement and the first reference(s), and updating one (or more) first reference according to a second measurement reflecting a second communication quality of the communication system. For example, the first measurement can represent signal to interference ratio or mutual information, and the second measurement can represent data error rate or throughput. First reference(s) can be further adjusted according to a third measurement, e.g., a power scheduling of base station, such that CQI can be updated if base station schedules additional transmission power.
US09107084B2

A wireless device, a network apparatus, a test equipment and a method in a heterogeneous radio-communication system configured to perform and report measurements in view of patterns including at least two types of subframes are provided. The wireless device has a transceiver and a processing unit. The transceiver is configured to send and to receive signals from more than one cell, and to receive information defining a first pattern related to first cells. The processing unit is configured to determine a second pattern related to second cells based on the first pattern and at least one of an indication or predefined rule relating the first pattern and the second pattern, to perform measurements related to the signals, and to report, to a network node, measurement results based on the measurements, the measurement results being related to signals received from a number of one or more cells.
US09107083B1

Interactions between users on mobile devices can be facilitated by making the users aware when other users have performed similar searches. In one embodiment, when two users executing a mapping application on a mobile device each perform a similar search in a similar geographic area, the server that receives and performs the search request can make each user aware of the other's presence, for example by displaying an icon indicating the other user on the mapping application. The search results may be refined to indicate search results in a geographic area common to the geographic search areas of each user.
US09107081B1

A method of maintaining an ad hoc communications network between a base and a mobile platform as the mobile platform moves over a surface comprising the following steps: providing a radio relay device; physically coupling a deployer to the mobile platform, wherein the deployer is configured to releasably stow the radio relay device; sending video data from the mobile platform to the base; monitoring the strength of a network signal received over time at the mobile platform and issuing a weak-link warning when the highest signal strength received at the mobile platform drops below a threshold value; calculating video throughput data metrics based on video data received at the base over time, and issuing an imminent link-failure alert when the metrics reach a predefined condition; and deploying the relay device from the deployer to the surface after the weak-link warning and the imminent link-failure alert are issued.
US09107076B1

Systems, methods and computer-readable media for detecting potential data fraud in a telecommunications environment are provided. The methods include referencing a characteristic associated with a device, where the characteristic provides an indication of a device type for a device. From the referenced characteristic, a device type is predicted. A comparison is made between the predicted device type and an expected device type that is identified based on the credentials being used by the device. Thereafter, a determination that the device is potentially performing data fraud can be made based on whether predicted device type matches the expected device type.
US09107069B2

An addressable radio is described in which the radio has an address that includes (i) a value derived from a counter and (ii) a hash of a combination of the value and an identity-resolving key for the radio device.
US09107067B2

Technologies are generally described for providing secured communications. In some examples, a method performed under control of a first device may include transmitting a jamming signal, receiving a mixed signal that includes the jamming signal and an information signal generated by a second device and obtaining the information signal by eliminating the jamming signal from the mixed signal.
US09107064B1

Techniques for providing friction-free transactions using geolocation and user identifiers are described herein. These techniques may ascertain a user's location based on a location of a mobile device. A transaction between the user and a merchant may be completed with zero or minimal input from the user based on the geolocation of the mobile device and the user identifiers. In some implementations, a transaction initiated earlier is completed when the mobile device arrives at the merchant. Additionally, a parent-child or similar relationship may be established between multiple devices. Security on the mobile device based may be provided by biometric identification and calculation of variance from regular movement patterns. Advertisements may be sent to the mobile device based on bids from merchants near to the mobile device. Promotions may be sent to the mobile device when more than a threshold number of mobile devices are located at the same merchant.
US09107040B2

Systems, methods, and computer readable media for sharing awareness information are provided. A non-aware electronic device can require awareness information including, for example, information about its environment or information about its status within its environment, in order to perform a particular device operation. When the non-aware device lacks an awareness component for detecting the required type of awareness information, the non-aware device can establish a communications path with an aware device that includes such an appropriate awareness component. The aware device can share the required type of awareness information as captured by its awareness component with the non-aware device. The distance between the non-aware device and the aware device can be less than a threshold distance to ensure that the shared awareness information is relevant to the non-aware device.
US09107038B1

A roaming control system and method for a roaming WCD while roaming away from the home wireless access network are provided. The roaming control system in one example embodiment includes a communication interface configured to exchange communications with the WCD and with other wireless access networks and a processing system coupled to the communication interface, with the processing system configured to ping the roaming WCD at predetermined time intervals, if the ping was successful, record a WCD roaming location using a ping response, if the ping was successful, provide WCD roaming control information to a visited wireless access network where the roaming WCD is currently located, and if the ping was unsuccessful, then broaden a search scope and repeat the pinging.
US09107035B2

A method includes communicating with a first wireless network of a first type, and obtaining a location-based operating parameter from the first wireless network. The method further includes checking the validity of the location-based operating parameter obtained from the first wireless network. If the location-based operating parameter obtained from the first wireless network is not valid, then the method further includes searching for a second wireless network of a second type, and updating the location-based operating parameter from the second wireless network.
US09107033B2

A sensor node management system in a Radio Frequency Identification/Ubiquitous Sensing Network (RFID/USN) infrastructure is provided, in which a sensor node has a local ID in a sensor network, a gateway receives, from the sensor node, node information including the local ID and an ID of a home gateway to which the sensor node initially belongs and registers the node information about the sensor node to a location information server, and the location information server registers and manages node information about sensor nodes within an area of the gateway. The location information server generates a global ID using the local ID and the ID of the home gateway, the global ID being recognized as an address of the sensor node by an Internet Protocol (IP) network.
US09107032B2

The present invention provides a method for implementation in a wireless communication system including a plurality of base stations, a plurality of gateways, and a plurality of mobility management entities. The method includes receiving, at a first mobility management entity and from a first base station, measurement data collected by the first base station for a first mobile unit having a connection to the wireless communication system via the first base station. The measurement data includes a temporary identifier associated with the first mobile unit for the duration of the connection. The method also includes identifying the first mobile unit using the temporary identifier and forming a first record associated with the first mobile unit. The first record includes the measurement data collected by the first base station for the first mobile unit and previously collected measurement data for the first mobile unit.
US09107030B2

Disclosed is a wireless communication system that is used with a wireless communication device and a position location system, the wireless communication device being capable of communicating with the position location system. The wireless communication system includes a memory device for storing position locations of the wireless communication device and for storing transactions made relating to the wireless communication device, a processor for determining trends by recalling stored information from the memory device and processing the recalled information, and a transmitter for transmitting targeted broadcasts to the wireless communication device based on the current location of the communication device.
US09107027B2

Some demonstrative embodiments include a wireless connector and devices and/or systems utilizing one or more wireless connectors. For example, a device may include a wireless connector to be coupled to another device for communicating data with the other device, the wireless connector including a wireless communication unit to communicate the data over a wireless communication link, for example, a short-range wireless communication link, e.g. at a multi-gigabit-per second (MGbs) rate.
US09107025B2

Example embodiments disclosed herein may be directed towards a system, and corresponding method, for sending machine-to-machine (M2M) application specific parameters. These parameters may allow a network operator to guide M2M application behaviour in accordance with potentially limited recourses in the network. These parameters may also be used to provide IPv6 address information to a gateway node and/or M2M server and/or Service Capability Server (SCS).
US09107018B2

A sound reproduction system for reproducing an audio signal as originating from a first direction relative to a nominal position (211) and orientation of a listener is provided. The system comprises a first sound transducer arrangement (105) arranged to generate sound reaching the nominal position (211) from a first position corresponding to the first direction; and a second sound transducer arrangement (107) arranged to generate sound reaching the nominal position (211) from a second position corresponding to a different direction than the first direction. The arrangements may specifically be loudspeakers positioned at the given positions. A drive circuit (103) generates a first drive signal for the first sound transducer arrangement (105) and a second drive signal for the second sound transducer arrangement (107) from the audio signal. The first position and the second position are located on a sound cone of confusion for the nominal position (211) and the nominal direction. A more flexible loudspeaker positioning may be achieved.
US09107016B2

Methods and systems of interactive fitting of a hearing aid by a non-expert person without resorting to a clinical setup are disclosed. The system includes an audio generator for delivering test audio signals at predetermined levels to a non-acoustic input of a programmable hearing aid in-situ. The consumer is instructed to listen to the output of the hearing device in-situ and interactively adjust fitting parameters of the programmable hearing aid according to the perceptual assessment of the hearing aid output in-situ. The output is representative of the test audio signal presented to the non-acoustic input. In one embodiment, the fitting system includes a personal computer, a handheld device communicatively coupled to the personal computer, and a fitting software application. In one embodiment, the fitting system includes an earphone for conducting a hearing evaluation.
US09107010B2

An RMS detector uses the concept of the k-NN (classifying using nearest neighbors)—algorithm in order to obtain RMS values. A rms detector using first-order regressor with a variable smoothing factor is modified to penalize samples from center of data in order to obtain RMS values. Samples which vary greatly from the background noise levels, such as speech, scratch, wind and other noise spikes, are dampened in the RMS calculation. When background noise changes, the system will track the changes in background noise and include the changes in the calculation of the corrected RMS value. A minimum tracker runs more often (e.g. two or three times) than the rate as in prior art detectors and methods, tracks the minimum rms value, which is to compute a normalized distance value, which in turn is used to normalize the smoothing factor. From this data, a corrected or revised RMS value is determined as the function of the previous RMS value multiplied by one minus the smoothing factor plus the smooth factor times the minimum rms value to output the corrected RMS for the present invention. The rms value is used to generate a reset signal for the minimum tracker and is used to avoid deadlock in the tracker, for example, when the background signal increases/decreases over time.
US09107009B2

A silicon condenser microphone is disclosed. The microphone includes a transducer, an IC chip, a first board, a second board spaced from the first board by a frame, and a third board located between the first board and the second board. A cavity is accordingly formed by the first board, the frame and the third board to accommodate the transducer and the IC chip. The IC chip is electrically connected to a surface of the third board facing the second board. The microphone provides an enlarged back volume to the transducer and provides the transducer with a shield against electro-magnetic interference. A manufacturing process is also disclosed.
US09107005B2

A speaker 10 includes: a plurality of piezoelectric diaphragms 11 and 12 each including a substrate and a piezoelectric element provided on at least one surface of the substrate; one or a plurality of connecting members 13 connecting the plurality of piezoelectric diaphragms 11 and 12 to each other such that the plurality of piezoelectric diaphragms 11 and 12 aligned from the piezoelectric diaphragm 11 located at a frontmost side of the speaker 10, in a thickness direction of the piezoelectric diaphragm 11, and the piezoelectric diaphragms 11 and 12 adjacent to each other face each other at an interval; a support member 16 supporting the back-side diaphragm 12 that is a piezoelectric diaphragm at a backmost side of the speaker 10. The plurality of piezoelectric diaphragms 11 and 12 include two piezoelectric diaphragms 11 and 12 having stiffnesses different from each other.
US09107003B2

An electronic audio device including an enclosure having an acoustic output opening and a speaker positioned within the enclosure. The speaker and the acoustic output opening are acoustically coupled by an acoustic output pathway. The acoustic output pathway includes a damping chamber to dampen a resonance frequency of the acoustic output pathway. The speaker is between the damping chamber and the acoustic output opening.
US09106991B1

A speaker cabinet. The speaker cabinet may comprise: a primary speaker cabinet, sound chambers, speakers, one or more sound holes, and a switch. The speakers may comprise a first set and a second set of speakers and may be enclosed in the primary speaker cabinet, such that the speakers are disposed in a radially symmetric manner. Each of the speakers may be individually chambered inside the primary speaker cabinet, such that each of the speakers is double enclosed. The speaker cabinet may lack a dampening material. The speaker cabinet may be constructed of a dense, thin, and solid wood. The sound hole may be positioned at an upper portion of the left or right side of the speaker cabinet. The switch such as a foot switch may be configured to select between the first set and the second set of the speakers for producing sound.
US09106990B2

A failure detection device for a vehicle speaker includes a signal generator, an amplifier, a coupling capacitor, a supply circuit, a detection circuit, and a determination section. The signal generator generates a sound signal corresponding to sound outputted from the speaker. The amplifier amplifies the sound signal. The capacitor supplies the amplified sound signal to the speaker. The supply circuit supplies a direct-current test current to the speaker so that the test current does not flow through the capacitor by applying a test voltage to the speaker. The test voltage is higher than a voltage of the sound signal. The detection circuit detects a terminal voltage of the speaker. The determination section determines whether at least one of an open-circuit and a short-circuit occurs in the speaker based on the terminal voltage during application of the sound signal to the speaker.
US09106976B2

The disclosed embodiments include a system, computer readable medium, and method for recording and distributing video content based on DRM parameters. For example, in one embodiment, a set-top box is disclosed that includes a processor for executing a set of instructions. The set-top box also includes memory in communication with the processor. The processor is configured to execute the set of instructions to receive user input to record a video content; determine DRM parameters associated with the video content, wherein the DRM parameters are established by at least of a content owner and a communications service provider, the DRM parameters indicating designated portions of the video content that is recordable; and record the video content based on the DRM parameters.
US09106975B1

A method at a first device coupled to a display includes: when no second device is linked with the first device, receiving a first content stream, the first content stream including a content item and one or more first advertisements, and outputting the content item and the first advertisements to the display. The method also includes: when a second device is linked with the first device, receiving a second content stream, the second content stream including the content item and not including the first advertisements, and outputting the content item to the display without the first advertisements.
US09106971B2

Architecture for the delivery of IP-based messages from wired and/or wireless devices to a television system. The means for delivery can be via an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) technology. The message is processed through a messaging system that obtains a mapping of a message address to an IPTV address, and routes the message to an IPTV network for delivery the desired television system for presentation. Messaging can be via SMS (short message service) for textual content, MMS (multimedia messaging service) for multimedia content, or other messaging technologies, such as instant messaging, an e-mail, for example. Optionally, the message from the user device can include a request for confirmation of delivery of the message to the television. The confirmation can then be routed back over an IP data network to the user device and presented to the user.
US09106963B2

A method includes steps of opening a link between a player's appliance and a network-connected server providing games, selecting a game to play by the player through an interface provided to the player's appliance by the server, transmitting virtual world data by the server to the player's appliance, along with a version identification, storing the virtual world data and associated version identification in a cache at the player's appliance, playing the game by the player using the player's appliance, and suspending play of the game by the player.
US09106958B2

Analysis of mental states is provided to enable data analysis pertaining to video recommendation based on affect. Video response may be evaluated based on viewing and sampling various videos. Data is captured for viewers of a video where the data includes facial information and/or physiological data. Facial and physiological information may be gathered for a group of viewers. In some embodiments, demographics information is collected and used as a criterion for visualization of affect responses to videos. In some embodiments, data captured from an individual viewer or group of viewers is used to rank videos.
US09106952B2

Media monitoring using multiple types of signatures is disclosed. Example media monitoring methods disclosed herein include reporting media signatures of a first type to monitor media presented by a media device, the media signatures of the first type being generated by a device meter from a sensed signal. Disclosed example media monitoring methods also include, after receiving an indication that a first media signature of the first type is associated with first reference media, generating media signatures of a second type, different from the first type, from the sensed signal to continue monitoring the media presented by the media device. Disclosed example media monitoring methods further include, in response to detecting that a source of the media presented by the media device has changed, generating the media signatures of the first type to continue monitoring the media presented by the media device.
US09106949B2

A system for creating and viewing customized multimedia segments allows a user to create event identification data from in-band data in a program stream. The in-band data is processed and compiled into event identification data associated with the content stream. The event identification data identifies patterns or sequences of in-band data associated with events in the content stream. Metadata are also included in the event identification data. The event identification data is provided to multimedia devices which receive multimedia content streams containing content streams with in-band data. The in-band data are parsed and compared to the event identification data. If a match occurs, the multimedia device uses the metadata to identify events or perform specified actions.
US09106945B2

An electronic apparatus and a method of controlling the electronic apparatus are provided. The method includes: receiving a voice command; and if the voice command is a first voice start command, changing a mode of the electronic apparatus to a first voice task mode in which the electronic apparatus is controlled according to further voice input, and if the voice command is a second voice start command, changing the mode of the electronic apparatus to a second voice task mode in which the electronic apparatus is controlled according to the further voice input received via an external apparatus which operates with the electronic apparatus. Therefore, providing efficiency and flexibility in controlling the electronic apparatus by using a microphone of the electronic apparatus or a microphone of the external apparatus.
US09106939B2

Disclosed are methods that aid users, especially users temporarily staying in locations remote from home, in finding and accessing media content. A program listing tailored for the user's current location, and showing only services actually available at that location, is created and presented to the user. In some embodiments, the user interacts with the listing to access available media content items. If the user has expressed specific location-based preferences, then those preferences can be taken into account when creating the listing. If a service subscribed to by the user is not available at this remote location, then an alternate provider will be searched for, and, if found, the user's favorite shows can be added to the created program listing.
US09106923B2

A three-dimensional (3D) compressing method and apparatus is disclosed. The 3D video compressing apparatus determines whether a motion of consecutive frames exists when a depth of a multi-view video is estimated, performs a depth estimation when the motion exists, and compresses the 3D video by using a color video motion vector as a depth video motion vector.
US09106921B2

A transcoder includes a demultiplexer that demultiplexes a video signal into a video stream, an audio stream and a subtitle stream. A stream probe generates stream format identification data based on the video signal. A transcoder configuration module generates hardware/software configuration data based on the stream format identification data. The hardware/software configuration data configures a plurality of hardware transcoders and the processing device to operate to generate a transcoded video stream, a transcoded audio stream and processed subtitle stream via selected hardware and software blocks. A remultiplexer generates the processed video signal by remultiplexing the transcoded video stream, the transcoded audio stream and the processed subtitle stream, based on the hardware/software configuration data.
US09106906B2

An image generation system includes an object space setting section that sets an object space in which a plurality of objects are disposed, and an image generation section that generates a first-viewpoint image viewed from a first viewpoint in the object space, and a second-viewpoint image viewed from a second viewpoint in the object space, the first viewpoint and the second viewpoint implementing stereovision. The image generation section performs a drawing process to generate the first-viewpoint image and the second-viewpoint image, the drawing process changing a display state of an object in a direction from an inner drawing area toward an area outside the inner drawing area, the inner drawing area being positioned within a common area of a first-viewpoint view volume corresponding to the first viewpoint and a second-viewpoint view volume corresponding to the second viewpoint.
US09106889B2

In one embodiment, the method includes determining a motion vector of a current image block equal to a motion vector of an image block based on a reference picture index indicating a reference picture for the image block. For example, the motion vector of the current image block may be equal to the motion vector of the image block if the reference picture index indicates a long-term reference picture for the image block.
US09106881B2

A tagging system provides a mechanism for inserting tags into an audio or video television broadcast stream. The tags contain command and control information that the receiver translates and acts upon. The receiver receives the broadcast stream and detects and processes the tags within the broadcast stream which is stored on a storage device that resides on the receiver. Program material from the broadcast stream is played back to the viewer. The receiver performs the appropriate actions in response to the tags. A one-touch recording option is provided. An icon is displayed to the viewer telling the viewer that an advertised program is available for recording at a future time. The viewer presses a single button on an input device causing the receiver to schedule the program for recording.
US09106875B2

A method for creating a run-time color-conversion look-up table is provided. A conceptual representation of a slice of a color conversion object is presented. The color conversion object is defined by a color coordinate system having a neutral axis and a plurality of color axes. The slice is defined by a plurality of grid points on the color coordinate system that are in a common plane orthogonal to the neutral axis. In addition, the slice is bound along a plurality of faces of the color conversion object for which at least one of the plurality of color axes is at a minimum or maximum value. The method further includes applying design rules for certain grid points and determining outputs for other grid points. The outputs for the slice are stored in a portion of the look-up table. A tool for creating a 3D look-up table is also described.
US09106865B2

The present invention generally relates to systems and methods for error diffusion, e.g., for use in a halftone process. The described techniques are faster than known techniques in that they utilize fewer computations on average. Consequently, the described techniques can be more readily implemented in software, for example, though the described techniques are not limited to software.
US09106852B2

Provided is an AD converter including a first AD converting unit in which pixel columns of a pixel array are divided into at least two groups, and that compares a first ramp signal and a first pixel signal output from a first group of the pixel columns and performs AD conversion on the first pixel signal; and a second AD converting unit that compares a second ramp signal and a second pixel signal output from a second group of the pixel columns and performs AD conversion on the second pixel signal, in which the first ramp signal is a signal of which a level is decreased with a constant slope over time in a D-phase period for detecting a signal level of a pixel signal, and the second ramp signal is a signal of which a level is increased with a constant slope over time in the D-phase period.
US09106850B2

A digital imaging sensor includes an array of pixels. A subset of the pixels in the array has reduced photosensitivity in comparison to other pixels in said array. A controller operates to control an integration time of the array of pixels such that a first integration time of the subset of pixels is longer than a second integration time of the other pixels in the array. Such an image sensor is particularly useful for sensing light sources that are not illuminated continuously.
US09106847B2

A gloss effect image pattern is created on a recording medium having a first color by electronically creating a first electronic pattern ink, the first electronic pattern ink including a second color and including holes, the holes representing areas in the first electronic pattern ink wherein the second color is absent; electronically creating an electronic image region having a pattern; electronically painting, using the first electronic pattern ink, a background of electronic image region and the pattern of the electronic image region; electronically painting a predetermined portion of the holes within the electronic image region with a third color, the third color matching the first color of the recording medium; and rendering, using marking materials, the electronic image region on the recording medium.
US09106845B2

A system and method for assigning unique and immutable attributes to user profiles and associated image(s) to facilitate the dynamic indication of supervisory control and monitoring through iconic representation, steganographic processing and/or encryption processing.
US09106844B2

A projector that acquires evaluation values representing how well projection light is brought into focus on a screen, outputs the acquired evaluation values and a maximum value of the acquired evaluation values, and updates the maximum value to a new value at a predetermined timing.
US09106843B2

Some embodiments provide for a modular video projector system having a light engine module and an optical engine module. The light engine module can provide narrow-band laser light to the optical engine module which modulates the laser light according to video signals received from a video processing engine. Some embodiments provide for an optical engine module having a sub-pixel generator configured to display video or images at a resolution of at least four times greater than a resolution of modulating elements within the optical engine module. Systems and methods for reducing speckle are presented in conjunction with the modular video projector system.
US09106834B2

An image display controller capable of providing excellent visibility of a face display frame and a human display frame associated with an object. The image display controller detects an object in an image, and identifies a face area of the object distinguishably from a human body area exclusive of the face area. Further, the image display controller generates a face display frame for enclosing the face area and a human body display frame for enclosing the human body area. Then, the image display controller displays the face display frame and the human body display frame on a screen together with the image.
US09106830B2

Disclosed is an image capture apparatus that has a subject tracking functionality of sequentially detecting a predetermined subject in images that are continuously shot, and a method for controlling the same. During tracking of the subject, degrees of reliability of tracking are determined. When the detected face is set as a template image, the template image is not changed until it is determined a predetermined plurality of times in succession that the degrees of reliability of tracking are low. It is thus possible to achieve a subject tracking functionality that is hardly affected by false detections.
US09106828B2

A mobile phone 10 includes a camera control circuit 40 to which an image sensor 42, etc. are connected. If and when a camera function is performed, a through image is displayed on a display 30 on which a touch panel 38 is provided. At a time that the through image is being displayed, if and when a touch operation for designating a region after a touch operation is performed onto a setting key 70, an ineffective region 74 is set within a touch range of the touch panel 38. An imaging key 64 and a cancel key 72 are displayed in the effective region within the touch range excepting the ineffective region.
US09106824B2

An imaging apparatus with a solid-state imaging device having phase difference detection pixels arranged on a light receiving surface acquires the size of a main subject image by identifying the main subject image picked on the light receiving surface of the solid-state imaging device, sets an AF region subjected to autofocus processing in accordance with an image size, and selects a phase difference AF mode (step S32) or a contrast AF mode (step S31) depending on whether the image size is larger than a required size (step S23) as a mode used for the autofocus processing.
US09106817B2

An in-vehicle camera device includes: a conductive silicone member including a silicone body made from insulating silicone material and a conductive portion which is embedded in the silicone body so as to expose both ends of the conductive portion to opposing surfaces of the silicone body; a circuit substrate having an image pickup device and a substrate terminal which is arranged so as to make contact with the end of the conductive portion on one surface of the silicone body; a terminal holder having a contact face configured to make contact with the other surface of the silicone body; and harness terminals held by the terminal holder. Each harness terminal includes a front end retained on the contact face of the terminal holder. The front end of each harness terminal is positioned in a same plane with the contact face of the terminal holder.
US09106811B2

Certain aspects relate to a method and system whereby any defined system characteristic, property, or parameter can be normalized for farther improving the displayed image quality. The normalization processing can use a generalized calibration process and can normalize a system characteristic, or a system property, and/or parameter to result in a more uniform or accurately displayed image using a generalized image processing method.
US09106806B2

The image sensing device (1) includes: a vessel holding portion (32) that holds a culture vessel (S); a swing portion (60) in which the vessel holding portion (32) is provided; a vibration application portion (50); an image sensing portion (10) that senses an image of the cells within the culture vessel (S); an image correction portion (4) that uses images at a plurality of image sensing places which include at least one image sensed by the image sensing portion (10) during vibration so as to correct a displacement between the images caused as a result of the image sensing places being different; and an image processing portion (5) that uses the image sensed by the image sensing portion (10) and the image corrected by the image correction portion (4) so as to distinguish between a state of floatation of the cells and a state of adherence thereof.
US09106804B2

Example embodiments of a media synchronization system and method for synthesizing a presentation of a multimedia event are generally described herein. In some example embodiments, the media synchronization system includes a media ingestion module to access a plurality of media clips received from a plurality of client devices, a media analysis module to determine a temporal relation between a first media clip from the plurality of media clips and a second media clip from the plurality of media clips, and a content creation module to align the first media clip and the second media clip based on the temporal relation, and to combine the first media clip and the second media clip to generate the presentation.
US09106802B2

Using multimedia data for both continuous playback and streaming playback purposes, including: encoding an elementary stream of multimedia content into a fixed length of a group of pictures; multiplexing the encoded multimedia content into a transport stream; locating data offsets of each GOP header inside the transport stream; and uploading the data offsets along with the transport stream to a server. Continuous and streaming playback of multimedia content.
US09106800B2

Systems and methods of monitoring packet delivery are disclosed. In an embodiment, a method is disclosed that includes querying multiple network devices for performance metrics corresponding to video data packets sent from a video server. The network devices may include multicast branching points between the video server and the destination. A delivery failure may be identified based on the performance metrics, and a response to the delivery failure may be initiated.
US09106796B2

A configuration apparatus includes a user interface allowing a user to initiate configuration of at least a target configurable device selected from a plurality of configurable devices. A command module is coupled to the user interface for dynamically generating a sequence of commands required to configure the target configurable device. The sequence of commands includes commands for entering a hidden service-configuration menu of the target configurable device. A communication module is coupled to the command module for transmitting the sequence of commands to the target configurable device.
US09106791B2

Various systems and methods for a collaborative entertainment platform are herein described. A plurality of viewing devices configured to display images to respective screens may be identified. An application control command may be received from a viewing device in the plurality of viewing devices. An environmental indication may be received from at least one viewing device in the plurality of viewing devices. Display of a video stream may be synchronized at the plurality of viewing devices, where the video stream may include results of the application control command. The environmental indication may be presented to each viewing device in the plurality of viewing devices that is not the at least one viewing device.
US09106788B2

A method and apparatus for motion estimation in a sequence of video images involves a) subdividing each field or frame of a sequence of video images into a plurality of blocks, b) assigning to each block in each video field or frame a respective set of candidate motion vectors, c) determining for each block in a current video field or frame, which of its respective candidate motion vectors produces a best match to a block in a previous video field or frame, d) forming a motion vector field for the current video field or frame using the thus determined best match vectors for each block, and e) forming a further motion vector field by storing a candidate motion vector derived from the best match vector at a block location offset by a distance derived from the candidate motion vector.
US09106779B2

A communication apparatus includes: a communicating device configured to communicate with a mobile terminal according to a short distance wireless communication standard; at least one input receiver each configured to receive an input; and a controller configured to execute a processing related to the input received by the at least one input receiver. The controller is configured to execute: an approach detection processing in which the controller detects an approach of the mobile terminal to the communicating device; and a disabling processing in which the controller disables at least a portion of the at least one input receiver in response to detection of the approach of the mobile terminal in the approach detection processing.
US09106774B2

A communication apparatus includes a communication unit. When receiving a request to start communication from a second communication apparatus during communication with a first communication apparatus, the communication unit transmits to the second communication apparatus a communication disabled notification with a retransmission time period indicating a time until the request to start communication again. In addition, when receiving a request to start communication from a third communication apparatus after completing the communication with the first communication apparatus and before receiving the request to start communication sent again from the second communication apparatus based on the retransmission time period, the communication unit does not start data reception from the third communication apparatus so as to give priority to data communication with the second communication apparatus.
US09106772B2

When an error occurs in communication between an access point and an image processing apparatus, it is determined whether a setting of the access point has been changed. When an error occurs in communication between the access point and the image processing apparatus, the error is notified to a user. If it is determined that the setting of the access point has been changed, resetting of a wireless LAN by a user is awaited, and then, connection between the access point and the image processing apparatus is started.
US09106768B2

Disclosed is system comprising: a server platform operative to communicate with a wireless communication network; and data storage coupled to the server platform to store a plurality of business rules, wherein the server platform is operative to: generate a first provision instruction to provision a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) with a first rule set associated with a first set of business rules for wireless usage incurred by a mobile terminal operating in the wireless communication network; generate a first billing instruction based on the first set of business rules and a first data type determined by a packet gateway that inspects packet data communicated to or from the mobile terminal.
US09106745B2

A system, method and program product for providing voice response unit (VRU) harvesting. A system is provided that includes: an account management system for allowing a user to identify a set of VRUs and associated data desired from each VRU; a navigation system for automatically navigating each VRU and collecting the desired data from each VRU; and an output system for outputting the desired data for the user.
US09106742B2

Certain exemplary embodiments comprise a method, which can comprise automatically causing a call to be connected. The call can be connected via a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) user identity provided by a calling device that requests the call. The SIP public user identity can be associated with one or more called devices. The SIP public user identity can be one of a set of one or more SIP user identities associated with a user.
US09106741B2

An audio recording apparatus that includes: an acquisition part that acquires a fragment data set indicating an action of a switchboard to a call, and an execution time of the action; a history generation part that generates a historical data set indicating a history of response states of an agent to one call, from a plurality of fragment data sets acquired; a talking storage part that stores audio recording data of talking of the agent; a display control part that causes a link display image to be displayed on a display unit, the link display image indicating a link to the corresponding audio recording data, in association with historical display of response states of the agent, based on the historical data set; and a replaying part that replays the audio recording data, when the link display image is selected.
US09106738B2

A registrant provides at least one registrant electronic contact, such as a telephone number, during a registration process. The registrant's information may be compared to a database of such information. The registrant is verified by establishing a connection with the registrant via the registrant contact. The verification code is communicated to the registrant, which is input into an on-line form. Notification events are established, and the registrant is notified of the occurrence of a previously established notification event by establishing a connection with the registrant via the registrant contact.
US09106734B2

A computer system including telephone functionality. The computer system includes a first keyboard and a first display. The computer system also includes a processor having at least a first functional unit and a second functional unit, and further includes a phone portion. The computer system may operate in a first mode, a second mode, or a third mode. In the first mode, only the phone portion is activated, and the phone portion provides a functionality of placing and receiving phone calls without being removed from the computer system. In the second mode, the phone portion and first functional unit of the processor are activated. In the third mode, each of the phone portion, the first functional unit, and the second functional unit are activated.
US09106729B2

A system, method and software product connects a call from an internet protocol (IP) phone and a telephone apparatus connected to a public switched telephone network (PSTN) using a personal gateway configured within a network group. A call from a user of the IP phone is answered and the user is authenticated. A destination number for the telephone apparatus is received from the user. A list of personal gateways is created based upon the destination number. The list is prioritized based upon least cost routing. A highest priority personal gateway that is available is determined using the prioritized list. The highest priority personal gateway that is available is instructed to dial the destination number using a PSTN interface. The IP phone connects with the telephone apparatus to make the call. The call terminates and associated resources are freed if either the IP phone or the telephone apparatus hangs-up.
US09106727B2

The present disclosure provides a SIM card seat and a mobile terminal, which belongs to the electronic technical field. The SIM card seat is used for receiving a SIM card, which comprises a housing, a signal conducting terminal, a card holder and a ejector. The signal conducting terminal is disposed on the motherboard. A receiving space is formed between an area of the motherboard where the signal conducting terminal is located and the housing, which is used for receiving the card holder and ejector. The card holder is used for receiving the SIM card and matching different types of SIM cards. The ejector is used for ejecting the card holder out of the receiving space. The mobile terminal comprises the SIM card seat. The SIM card seat according to the present disclosure can match different types of SIM cards by changing the card holder, thus the mobile terminal having the SIM card can match various SIM cards accordingly. Therefore, it is not required for the user to change the SIM card to match various mobile phones, which is convenient for the user, and reduces waste of resources.
US09106725B2

A buffer controller has a buffer for holding plural sets of data contained in a packet entered from a telecommunications network, a codec converter and a controller. When receiving a packet, the buffer controller has the controller put data, in the packet, in a storage position in the buffer corresponding to the sequence number of the packet, and makes a decision as to whether or not the codec conversion is to be performed. If packets are out of sequence, lost or dropped during communication, the buffer controller can correct the packet order and compensate the packet loss with the minimum delay.
US09106724B1

A text communication aggregator stores text communications between patrons and a contact handling system. The communications each include a tag identifying senders of the text communications. The aggregator further provides the stored text communications as threaded conversations. Each of the threaded conversations include text communications between a particular patron and the contact handling system, and each of the threaded conversations is associated with the particular patron. The aggregator further provides identifiers that identify threaded conversations having at least one new text communication from the patrons.
US09106722B2

The invention provides for a dynamic transcoder placement in case that transcoding functionality for codecs is offered in a TRAU associated to a Base Station Controller and/or a MGW selected for a call.
US09106721B2

Techniques for a method for automatically synchronizing application state across multiple devices are disclosed herein. The method includes running an instance of a computer application on an electronic device, automatically determining a sync event that occurs in the electronic device, wherein the sync event suggests a synchronization of application state data and the application state data represent an application state of the computer application at the sync event, and transmitting the application state data of the computer application to a storage server in response to the sync event. The application state data of the computer application enables another instance of the computer application to resume the application state at the sync event at another electronic device.
US09106720B1

Disclosed are various embodiments for providing one or more streams of digital content to a user. A request for content may be received by a video content provider from a client device. Digital content may be determined by the video content provider, encoded in a stream, and transmitted to the client device. The digital content may be determined based at least in part on a user and/or the client device requesting the digital content.
US09106708B2

The present invention is related to a method to control and to change dynamically a MAC address in an aggregation network containing at least a server computer device and a client device, comprising the steps of: Sending from said client device to a server computer device a message (1,11) containing the MAC address of said client computer device, Retrieving said MAC address from said message at said server computer device (2,12), Checking if said MAC address is already in use (by a user) in said network or if said server computer device wants to change all MAC addresses in said network, If so, sending from said server computer device to said client device a message (3,13) containing a new MAC address for said client, Overwriting said MAC address with said new MAC address in said client computer device (4,14).
US09106682B2

Data traffic is monitored on a network and data access elements thereof are collected. The collected data access elements are compared to security rules providing sets of predefined data access elements for identifying predefined data accesses. First audit data collections for data accesses are sent to a first repository. For a data access that matches one of the rules, a second audit data collection defined by the matching rule is sent to at least a second repository designated by the matching rule.
US09106674B2

The number of domain identifiers is incrementally increased for use by a switch in an established fiber channel switched fabric. In other words, the number of domains assigned to a switch by the Principal Switch of the fiber channel switched fabric is increased without triggering the reconfiguration of the established fiber channel switched fabric. In one implementation, incrementally adding one or more additional domain identifiers includes requesting said one or more additional domain identifiers from a Principal Switch of the fiber channel switched fabric using a different World Wide Name (WWN) than used to acquire the original one or more domain identifiers used by the switch.
US09106673B2

Systems and methods performed by an IP telephony system are designed to determine when two parties to a recently terminated telephony communication are simultaneously calling each other in an attempt to re-establish a telephony communication. When the IP telephony system determines that this situation is occurring, the IP telephony system acts to connect the two parties, rather than have both of them see their new call setup attempt fail because the other party's telephony device is indicated to be busy.
US09106665B2

Disclosed procedures automatically identify a carrier-authorized mobile station and verify an account related identifier associated with the device, in response to start-up of an application in the device. Application start-up causes the device to send a request to an application server, with the device's current IP address, MTN and a device identifier such as MEID or ESN. The server queries an AAA system of the network to retrieve the MTN that has been assigned the IP address. If the retrieved MTN matches the MTN passed to the server in the request, the server queries a network database such as DMD for the device identifier associated with the MTN. A match of the device identifier retrieved from the network database with that passed to the server via the request indicates authenticity of the requesting device and its MTN.
US09106663B2

Aspects of the disclosure relate to routing queries to a network repository and load balancing in a network. For a network repository having a plurality of content storage sites, relative replication latency of data among a pair of content storages sites can be monitored. Data indicative of such replication latency can be distributed among the content storage sites and can be provided, for example, to a network node in a system layer. A traffic and control manager can determine routing pathways for queries based at least in part on the relative replication latency data and performance conditions of network nodes.
US09106655B2

A translation device includes a receiver, a processor and a transmitter. The receiver is configured to receive packets from a first party designated for a second party, the received packets including parameters associated with the first party. The processor is configured to translate the parameters of the received packets to form translated packets such that the parameters of the translated packets are associated with the device. The transmitter is configured to transmit the translated packets to the second party.
US09106654B2

A unified system of unique identifiers is used to match enrichment content with primary content being delivered by subscribers, e.g. broadcasters, in different markets, market segments, etc. Songs, video, advertisements, or other content from multiple different content publishers or databases, each of which may be assigned identifiers using different identification systems, are assigned a unified, unique identifier. The unique identifiers are also mapped to content identifiers used by subscribers. When subscribers provide primary content, for example by broadcasting the content to end users, enrichment content is matched to the unified, unique identifier associated with the content, and appropriate enrichment data and content are sent to the subscriber for distribution along with the primary content. If subscribers or content publishers change their own identifiers associated with content, the content can be un-matched and re-matched with the same or a different unique identifier.
US09106650B2

An access system is described herein which allows an application module to access a user-owned resource based on an indication of a user's intent to interact with the user-owned resource. For example, the application module can provide an application user interface which embeds a gadget associated with a particular user-owned resource. The access system can interpret the user's interaction with the gadget as conferring implicit permission to the application module to access the user-owned resource associated with the gadget. In addition, or alternatively, the user may make a telltale gesture in the course of interacting with the application module. The access system can interpret this gesture as conferring implicit permission to the application module to access a user-owned resource that is associated with the gesture.
US09106649B2

A method of remotely providing an application includes identifying a visible portion of a first application window on a display of a client. A data stream corresponding only to the visible portion of the first application window is received. The received data stream is provided to the client such that the visible portion of the first application window is able to be presented on the display.
US09106648B2

Embodiments of the present invention relate to communications technologies and disclose a method and a system for establishing a data transmission channel, a SIP server, and a session border controller. A first authentication request message is sent by a first terminal. The first authentication request message includes identifier information of the first terminal and identity information of a second terminal. It is determined that the identifier information of the first terminal matches pre-stored authentication information of the first terminal. According to the identity information of the second terminal, a second authentication request message that carries authentication information of the second terminal is sent to the second terminal. After receiving an authentication success response message from the second terminal, a data transmission channel is established between the first terminal and the second terminal.
US09106641B1

This invention permits all FCoE (Fiber Channel over Ethernet) frames to be transferred from one FCoE network adapter to another without having to traverse through a Fiber Channel Forwarder (FCF) device. After the FCF is determined not to be present, a logical End-To-End connection is established between Peer FCoE Adapters. This invention permits an FCoE message originating at an FCoE network adapter to be sent to an FCoE receiving adapter across “Ethernet” links and switches, or via a single “Ethernet” link (Point-To-Point) but without having to pass through FCF devices.
US09106628B2

A system for providing cost effective, secure key exchange from at least one first device to at least one second device through at least one proxy server is provided. The system includes a first key exchange message from the at least one first device to the at least one second device via the at least one proxy server. A second key exchange message from the at least one second device to the at least one first device via a media stream of the Internet is required to complete the computation of the session key. A method of securing a communication system is also set forth. The method includes the steps of providing a routing device for identifying a subscriber, and providing a master key exchange session, the master key exchange session including a key k to find a subscriber and a nonce r to answer a query to the subscriber, wherein the master key exchange session includes both the key k and the nonce r.
US09106622B2

A network is disclosed that includes a message originator computer and a message recipient computer, for secure electronic mail delivery. In accordance with the invention, the network includes a message delivery server that can distinguish between real and phantom messages. In operation, the message originator computer waits a random time and then transmits a first encrypted phantom message to the message delivery server. This message is to spoof an eavesdropper into believing that there is a steady stream of messages being sent from the originator computer. However, the message delivery server recognizes the message as a phantom message and discards it. When the message originator computer receives a user request to transmit a real message to the recipient computer, it waits a random time and then encrypts and transmits the real message to the message delivery server. The message delivery server recognizes the message as a real message and forwards the real message to the recipient computer. Meanwhile, the message originator computer can continue transmitting encrypted phantom messages to the message delivery server. In this manner, an eavesdropper will be tricked into believing that there is a steady stream of messages being sent from the originator computer.
US09106621B2

A rights management system and method allow users to easily associate rights management policies with documents send via email from a client (e.g. a computer or scanner). The client transmits email recipient information, including the attention type (“to,” “cc” or “bcc”) for each recipient, to a rights management server. The server stores multiple rights management policies each specifying access rights (e.g. view, edit, print) granted to specified users, and stores an attention-right rule defining a correspondence between access rights and attention types. Based on the recipient information from the client, and applying the attention-rights rule, the server selects an appropriate policy or creates a new one if an appropriate policy does not exist, and transmits the policy, a document ID and an encryption key to the client. The client encrypts the document, adds metadata to the document, and sends the email with the attached document to a mail server.
US09106616B2

By asking the recipient of an encrypted received file to read aloud a check text, retrieved from a network server, that address, or URL, is encoded within the file name of the encrypted received file, the system of the invention automatically verifies the identity of the recipient, confirms that the file has been received by the intended recipient, and then decrypts the file. The utterances of text spoken by the recipient are processed by means of an automatic speech recognition component. The system determines whether the spoken text corresponds to the check text presented to the reader, in which case the system applies an automatic speaker recognition algorithm to determine whether the person reciting the check text has voice characteristics matching those of the intended recipient based on a previous enrollment of the intended recipient's voice to the system. When the system confirms the identity of the recipient, the decryption key is transmitted and the encrypted received file is automatically decrypted and displayed to the recipient. In a preferred embodiment, the system records and marks with a time-stamp the recipient's reciting of the voice check text, so that it can later be compared to the intended recipient's voice if the recipient repudiates reception.
US09106603B2

An example apparatus is provided that includes a processor and a memory storing executable instructions that in response to execution by the processor cause the apparatus to at least perform a number of operations. The operations include receiving a communication including an application protocol primitive that itself includes protocol information element(s). The operations also include comparing the application protocol primitive to a protocol document type definition (DTD) including a plurality of elements, and lawful interception attribute(s) for one or more of its elements. The application protocol primitive is compared to the DTD to identify lawful interception attributes of protocol information element(s) of the primitive. The operations also include preparing one or more of the protocol information elements for transmission to an interception monitoring facility according to the lawful interception attributes of the respective protocol information element(s).
US09106602B1

A system and method for providing for display of a message within a social networking website are provided. A message is received and a content type is determined by one of: an identification of the content type by a selection of a sender of the message of either an original content type including original content generated by the sender or generated by a personal contact of the sender or a non-original content type including reproduced content not generated by the sender or not generated by any personal contact of the sender; or an automatic identification of content of the message, the content type identifying the message as original or non-original. The content type is associated with the message and differentiated display of the message is provided based on whether the associated content type identifies the message as original or non-original.
US09106584B2

An aspect of the disclosed technology is a general-purpose platform that may be used to provide resilient cloud services. Tasks may be written as procedures in general-purpose programming languages that directly manipulate resources via control interfaces. In one implementation, resource states, such as router configurations and virtual machine states, associated with a cloud customer that provides communications services, may be abstracted into tables in a relational or semi-structured database. State changes that have been written to the database tables are automatically propagated by the database to appropriate customer physical devices, such as network elements, thereby implementing various customer network operations.
US09106576B2

A method for policy-aware mapping of an enterprise virtual tenant network includes receiving inputs from a hosting network and tenants, translating resource demand and policies of the tenants into a network topology and bandwidth demand on each link in the network; pre-arranging a physical resource of a physical topology for clustering servers on the network to form an allocation unit before a VTN allocation; allocating resources of the hosting network to satisfy demand of the tenants in response to a VTN demand request; and conducting a policy aware VTN mapping for enumerating all feasibly resource mappings, bounded by a predetermined counter for outputting optimal mapping with policy-compliant routing paths in the hosting network.
US09106570B2

Systems, devices, and methods of implementing 50 Gb/s Ethernet using serializer/deserializer lanes are disclosed. One such device includes circuitry operable to provide a media access control (MAC) interface. The MAC interface is associated with a port having a 50 Gb/s link rate. The device also includes circuitry operable to generate Ethernet frames from data received at the MAC interface and circuitry operable to distribute the Ethernet frames across a group of serial/deserializer (SERDES) lanes associated with the port, the group having size N. The device also includes circuitry operable to transmit the distributed Ethernet frames on each of the SERDES lanes at a 50/N Gb/s rate.
US09106567B2

A node within a wireless mesh network performs a path analysis on an advertised path to an access point that has a cost value less than the cost value of the current primary path to the access point. Depending on the cost value difference between the respective cost values of the advertised path and the current primary path, the node may perform a different type of path analysis. Based on the result of that path analysis, the node may change paths to the access point and use the advertised path as the primary path. Further, the node maintains a secondary path so that, in the event that the primary path fails, the node can default to using the secondary path.
US09106565B2

Embodiments of the invention relate to virtual link aggregation. One embodiment includes forming one or more virtual links using physical links connecting a first networking element, a second networking element and a third networking element. A first trigger status indication is used for blocking network traffic for avoiding traffic loops occurring over the one or more virtual links.
US09106563B2

In current hardware forwarding architectures, in which subscriber profiles are distributed across multiple cards in the network, lack of subscriber knowledge leads to loss of bandwidth on fabric links connecting multiple cards in a chassis, loss of device processing cycles, and loss of quality of service knowledge because the traffic is not classified. An example embodiment of the present invention employs a subscriber-aware switch programmed with a subscriber table that maps subscriber traffic to an “anchor” line card with the subscriber's profile. The subscriber table allows for traffic to reach the anchor line card directly, avoiding unnecessary hops and loss of traffic information. As a result, line card, fabric, and other resources are used efficiently, thereby enabling a gateway or other network node to support high traffic rate (e.g., 100 Gbps) network models.
US09106560B2

A method, system, and computer program product for solving a network traffic congestion problem are provided in the illustrative embodiments. Using an application executing using a processor and a memory in a data processing system, a congested network route section is selected from a set of congested network route sections. A set of congesting devices is selected, where the set of congesting devices causes congestion in the selected congested network route sections by using the selected congested network route section. A vacancy data structure corresponding to the selected congested network route section is populated. A subset of the set of the congesting devices is selected. The subset of the set of the congesting devices is rerouted to a candidate network route section identified in the vacancy data structure.
US09106559B2

In one embodiment, automatically selecting a local communication channel for downloading a block of data via a network includes downloading portions of the block of data using first and second communication channels, determining a bottleneck exists on one of the local communication channels or on a component upstream from the channels, in response to determining the bottleneck exists on one of the local communication channels, selecting the communication channel that has the lowest energy cost and a download speed that meets a minimum threshold, and in response to determining the bottleneck exists upstream from the local communication channels, selecting the local communication channel having the lowest energy cost.
US09106552B2

A technique for end-to-end admission control of real-time packet flows is disclosed. In one embodiment, the technique may be realized as a method for end-to-end admission control of real-time packet flows in a network having a plurality of network elements. The method may include transmitting at least one probe packet from a first network element to a second network element via a network path, determining, at at least one intermediate network element on the network path, at least one flow rate associated with a plurality of packets, marking at least one predetermined bit in the at least one probe packet if the at least one flow rate is greater than a predetermined rate, and controlling an admission of additional packets into the network based at least in part on the marking of the at least one predetermined bit in the at least one probe packet.
US09106529B2

A Hardware Management Console (HMC) configures virtual networks. The HMC extends Internal Queued Direct I/O to an intra-ensemble data network (IEDN) within a cluster of virtual servers to define a single channel path identifier, and to define a channel parameter. The HMC defines at least one virtual network. The HMC defines a bridge port within each CPC that supports at least one of the virtual servers. The HMC defines a network interface for each virtual server within each cluster. The HMC grants access to a corresponding virtual network for each virtual server.
US09106527B1

In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a network management module configured to execute at a network device operatively coupled to a switch fabric. The network management module is configured to receive a first set of configuration information associated with a subset of network resources from a set of network resources, the set of network resources being included in a virtual local area network from a plurality of virtual local area networks, the plurality of virtual local area networks being defined within the switch fabric. The first set of configuration information dynamically includes at least a second set of configuration information associated with the set of network resources.
US09106523B2

Provided is a communication device including a plurality of physical ports, the communication device holding information for associating each of at least one logical port and at least two physical ports, the communication device being configured to: identify, when any one of the plurality of physical ports receives data including user data, one of the at least one logical port as an output destination of the data based on destination information included in the received data; select, based on the data, one of the at least two physical ports associated with the identified logical port as an destination of the data; generate coupling check data relating to one of the plurality of physical ports; transmit the coupling check data from the one of the plurality of physical ports; and transmit data including the user data from the physical port selected by a first processing unit as the output destination.
US09106519B1

A wireless communication network estimates User Equipment (UE) Quality of Service (QoS). The wireless communication network processes a signal strength metric measured by the UE to select an RF coverage module. The wireless communication network process the selected RF coverage module to determine an RF coverage score. The RF coverage score represents the amount of overlapping RF coverage. The wireless communication network processes the RF coverage score to select an application module. The wireless communication network processes the application module to identify a service module. The wireless communication network processes the service module based on RF parameters measured by the UE to estimate a QoS for the UE. The wireless communication network transfers the estimated QoS to the UE.
US09106510B2

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a packet at a first network device, logging the packet into a demand corresponding to a cell of a demand matrix, and storing the demand in a demand database at the first network device. The demand database includes a plurality of demands computed for a specified time period and corresponding to cells of the demand matrix associated with traffic entering a network at the first network device. Demands corresponding to cells of the demand matrix associated with traffic entering the network at a second network device are computed and stored at the second network device. An apparatus and logic are also disclosed herein.
US09106508B2

According to one embodiment, a system includes an overlay network device which includes an interface adapted for electrically communicating with a virtual overlay network (VON) gateway, logic adapted for receiving a plurality of packets from the VON gateway, logic adapted for determining whether the plurality of packets comprise an overlay header, logic adapted for de-encapsulating inner packets of packets comprising an overlay header, logic adapted for performing services on the plurality of packets or the de-encapsulated inner packets, and logic adapted for encapsulating the serviced inner packets or the serviced packets with an overlay header to be switched to a destination address in a virtual network and sending the encapsulated packets to the VON gateway or logic adapted for sending the serviced packets to the VON gateway without encapsulating the packets with an overlay header to be switched to a destination address in a non-virtual network.
US09106507B1

Embodiments disclosed herein provide systems and methods for selective use of a packet voice trigger in a wireless access network. In a particular embodiment, a method provides receiving a call request for a call from a wireless device. The method further provides determining a location of the wireless device and processing an identifier for the wireless device to retrieve a device profile for the wireless device. If the device profile indicates that a trigger should be used for packet voice communications, then the method provides determining whether the trigger should be disarmed based on a quantity of the plurality of different access networks available to the wireless device at the location. If the trigger is armed, transfer the call request for delivery to the packet voice server to set up the call and, if not, process the call request in the wireless access network to set up the call.
US09106500B2

Methods and systems for vector combining power amplification are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a plurality of signals are individually amplified, then summed to form a desired time-varying complex envelope signal. Phase and/or frequency characteristics of one or more of the signals are controlled to provide the desired phase, frequency, and/or amplitude characteristics of the desired time-varying complex envelope signal. In another embodiment, a time-varying complex envelope signal is decomposed into a plurality of constant envelope constituent signals. The constituent signals are amplified equally or substantially equally, and then summed to construct an amplified version of the original time-varying envelope signal. Embodiments also perform frequency up-conversion.
US09106495B2

Disclosed are a wireless communication method of improving frequency efficiency based on a channel function in a wireless communication system and an apparatus thereof. The wireless communication system using a digital modulation scheme, includes: a transmitting apparatus which modulates a data signal to generate a modulation symbol, generates a channel symbol function corresponding to the modulation symbol, combines the modulation symbol with the channel symbol function to generate a transmission symbol to transmit the generated transmission symbol through a transmission antenna; and a receiving apparatus which receives the transmission symbol through a reception antenna, estimates a channel symbol function included in the transmission symbol, and extracts the data signal based on the modulation symbol included in the transmission symbol.
US09106486B2

A transmission method includes generating first symbols for transmitting data, a signal point of each of the first symbols on an in-phase and quadrature-phase plane comprising an in-phase component and a quadrature-phase component and generating a second symbol, the second symbol being a pilot symbol. The method further includes selecting an insertion pattern of the second symbol, from a plurality of predetermined insertion patterns, inserting the second symbol in the first symbols based on the selected insertion pattern to generate a transmission signal, and transmitting the transmission signal. The first symbols are generated using a modulation scheme selected from a plurality of modulation schemes.
US09106480B2

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for performing computations in a distributed infrastructure. Embodiments of the invention include a general purpose distributed computation infrastructure that can be used to perform efficient (in-memory), scalable, failure-resilient, atomic, flow-controlled, long-running state-less and state-full distributed computations. Guarantees provided by a distributed computation infrastructure can build upon existent guarantees of an underlying distributed fabric in order to hide the complexities of fault-tolerance, enable large scale highly available processing, allow for efficient resource utilization, and facilitate generic development of stateful and stateless computations. A distributed computation infrastructure can also provide a substrate on which existent distributed computation models can be enhanced to become failure-resilient.
US09106474B2

System and method for streaming data. A host device that includes a server may acquire data from a data source. The server may receive a request for data from at least one client device over a network via a lossless transmission protocol, wherein the request may specify a range of data to stream to the at least one client device. The server may stream the data over the network to the at least one client device via the lossless transmission protocol in accordance with the request. The at least one client device may receive and process the streamed data.
US09106465B2

Continuous-time linear equalization of received signals on multiple wire channels while maintaining accurate common mode signal values. Multiwire group signaling using vector signaling codes simultaneously transmits encoded values on multiple wires, requiring multiple receive signals to be sampled simultaneously to retrieve the full transmitted code word. By misaligning transitions on multiple wires, skew introduces a transient common mode signal component that is preserved by using frequency-selective common mode feedback at the receiver to obtain accurate sampling results.
US09106459B2

A communication circuit apparatus includes: multiple level shift circuits, each of which receives an input signal corresponding to a respective communication bus; an activation comparator for generating an activation signal when the input signal is input into one of the level shift circuits, and a level of the input signal exceeds a predetermined threshold; multiple input current voltage conversion circuits, each of which is arranged together with a respective level shift circuit, converts the input signal to a voltage signal, and outputs the voltage signal as an identification signal; and an identification circuit for identifying one of the communication busses based on the identification signal, which is output from one of the input current voltage conversion circuits. The one of the communication busses corresponds to the one of the level shift circuits, in which the input signal is input.
US09106453B2

A remote radio head unit (RRU) system for multiple operating frequency bands, multi-channels, driven by a single or more wide band power amplifiers. More specifically, the present invention enables multiple-bands RRU to use fewer power amplifiers in order to reduce size and cost of the multi-band RRU. The present invention is based on the method of using duplexers and/or interference cancellation system technique to increase the isolation between the transmitter signal and receiver signal of the RRU.
US09106446B1

A method and apparatus for controlling bandwidth in a Virtual Private Network assigns and allocates transmission bandwidth to packet VPNs for either connectionless or connection-oriented communication. The method creates two views of transmission facilities: a user plane view and a control plane view. In the user plane view, the bandwidth of the transmission facility is split into quantified and identified partitions. In the control plane view, transmission facilities are represented as logical links forming a topology that can be used for the purpose of routing the VPN. The two views are tied together by assigning user plane partitions to VPN control plane links. As a result, the allocation of bandwidth to VPNs becomes a controllable and viewable entity, thereby facilitating management and QoS provisioning in a VPN network.
US09106445B2

A network device may receive a data structure, intended for a second computing device, from a first computing device. The network device may determine, based on the first data structure, whether the first computing device and the second computing device correspond to the same virtual network. When then the first computing device and the second computing device correspond to the same virtual network, the network device may communicate the data structure to the second computing device. However, when the first computing device and the second computing device do not correspond to the same virtual network, the network device may disregard the data structure.
US09106435B2

Embodiments may be disclosed herein that provide systems, devices, and methods of operating a Multimedia over Coax (MoCA) network. One such embodiment is a method comprising: dedicating a portion of a MAP cycle prior to a MAP packet to reservation requests and small data packets; and dedicating a portion of the MAP cycle after the MAP packet to data traffic.
US09106427B2

A local area network having multiplexing means for establishing out-of-band channels along with corresponding Ethernet channels over shared transmission media of twisted pair cables. The out-of-band channels are configured for implementing a separate packet switching system for operating a dedicated network application such as IP telephony communications; power sourcing equipment (PSE) may be further provided for supplying inline power over the twisted pair cables; and means for network access control and device location tracking may be further implemented for the separate packet switching system.
US09106425B2

Methods and systems for restricting the launch of virtual application files. In one embodiment, a launching application is signed with a digital signature. When the launching application launches a runtime engine and instructs it to execute an application file, the runtime engine determines whether an entity identifier associated with the launching application identifies an authorized entity. If the entity identifier identifies an authorized entity and the digital signature is valid, the runtime engine executes the application file. In another embodiment, a ticket is transmitted to the launching application along with an instruction to launch the application file. The ticket includes a digital signature and an expiration date. The launching application communicates the ticket to the runtime engine, which will execute the application file only if the digital signature is valid and a current date is not later than the expiration date.
US09106424B2

Multiple user, multiple login access to electronic devices in a communication system is provided. In response to user login requests, login access is controlled by providing multiple users login access to plural electronic devices capable of communicating via the communication system. Each electronic device allows multiple users to be logged on or logged off the electronic device concurrently. User profiles and activity are shared between the plural electronic devices.
US09106422B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide techniques for authenticating users based on personalized (i.e., user-provided or user-selected) authentication data. In one set of embodiments, the personalized authentication data includes acoustic, image, and/or video data, but is exclusive of biometric data of the user. In this manner, existing acoustic, image, and video-based authentication interfaces/mechanisms may be leveraged, without the problems associated with verifying biometric data. In some embodiments, a user may enroll or register multiple pieces of personalized authentication data into an authentication system. The user may then select one piece of personalized authentication data for use by the system at a time of authentication.
US09106421B1

Disclosed are a method, apparatus, and system for securing a communication link between a user equipment device (UE) and a communication network. A first wireless communication link is established between the UE and the communication network. The first wireless communication link is an unsecured communication link and is established under a first air interface protocol. A second wireless communication link is established between the UE and the communication network. The second wireless communication link is a secured communication link and is established under a second air interface protocol. An encryption key is transmitted to the UE over the second wireless communication link, the UE encrypts data using the encryption key, and the encrypted data is communicated over the first wireless communication link from the UE to the communication network.
US09106419B2

Techniques for acknowledging data transmissions in a multi-carrier wireless communication network are disclosed. In one aspect, a UE determines a number of acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) bits for a data transmission on one more component carriers (CCs) based on information obtained from a grant. The grant may be a downlink grant or an uplink grant, and the information obtained may include a number of CCs scheduled for data transmission and/or identifiers of the scheduled CCs. The UE may determine the number of ACK/NACK bits for acknowledging the data transmission based on the number of scheduled CCs and the identifier of each scheduled CC.
US09106394B1

A soft impact location system and method which detects and processes wide-band acoustic signatures for testing long-range munitions. The system incorporates a real-time digital signal-processing algorithm that detects the impact signature, processes it, and calculates the time-of-arrival (TOA). The system comprises a polyphase filter bank, boxcar filter, a detection analyzer for detecting an impact, and time-tagging software for calculating the time of impact. The system splits the received hydrophone signal into evenly spaced energy bands, processes each band individually, and then recombines the data to provide a precise time of detection.
US09106392B2

Transmission antenna diversity can be set up on a data transmission connection between a transmitting unit, wherein there are several transmission antenna routes, and a receiving unit. A broadcast signal is transmitted through all transmission antenna routes of the transmitting unit, with the aid of these signals a choice is made in the receiving unit of the optimum transmission antenna route and a message of the choice is transmitted to the transmitting unit, which transmits user data through the transmission antenna route connected for use. The broadcast signal of each transmission antenna route can be shaped by an individual signal shaping method which is different from the others and a transmission antenna route is connected for use based on the received antenna choice message, individually for each receiving unit.
US09106390B2

A base station apparatus in a mobile communication system in which a mobile station apparatus transmits, to the base station apparatus, uplink data using a physical uplink shared channel assigned by an uplink data transmission permission signal. The base station apparatus includes a transmitting unit which is configured to transmit, to the mobile station apparatus, the uplink data transmission permission signal including first information for permitting the mobile station apparatus to transmit reception quality information together with the uplink data, wherein the transmitting unit which is configured to transmit, to the mobile station apparatus, the uplink data transmission permission signal including second information for permitting the mobile station apparatus to transmit the reception quality information without the uplink data.
US09106383B2

An embodiment of the present invention relates to a method of a base station to transmit a signal in a wireless communication system. The method includes: transmitting Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), which includes scheduling information on a resource area of an unlicensed band over a licensed band; and transmitting a sequence, which includes the identifier of a terminal having the resource area allocated, over the unlicensed band. The timing at which the sequence is transmitted may be set prior to a resource area scheduled by the PDCCH.
US09106378B2

Systems and methods facilitating communication of downlink information are provided. In one embodiment, a method can include receiving a signal indicative of a base station enabling or disabling a function, wherein the function is configured to transmit information carried in control channels using selected downlink information; receiving the selected downlink information at one or more locations; and determining a resource allocation of at least one of paging information or system information or unicast data information based, at least, on the selected downlink information. The determining can be performed without decoding control channels corresponding to the selected downlink information in response to receiving a signal indicative of the function being enabled.
US09106373B2

A method and apparatus for dynamically adjusting power of a transmitter is herein described. A transmitter transmits a pattern to a receiver at a differential voltage. The length of the pattern, in one embodiment, is selected to be a reasonable length training pattern, as not to incur an extremely long training phase. If errors are detected at the receiver in the pattern, the transmitter steps the differential voltage until errors are not detected in the pattern at the receiver. The differential voltage, where no errors are detected, is scaled by a proportion of a target confidence level to a measured confidence level associated with the reasonable length training pattern. As a result, a training phase is potentially reduced and power is saved while not sacrificing confidence levels in error rates in the data exchange between the transmitter and receiver.
US09106372B2

A method of requesting a plurality of different characteristic indicators from a second communications apparatus in a wireless communications network including a first communications apparatus and a plurality of such second communications apparatuses which communicate with the first communications apparatus, the method includes the first communications apparatus transmitting a single standing instruction to the second communications apparatus defining at least two interleaving patterns, each interleaving pattern specifying one or more of the characteristic indicators and defining a pattern according to which the second communications apparatus is to interleave the specified characteristic indicators in a single feedback channel allocated to the second communications apparatus, the single standing instruction further defining a selection signal to be transmitted from the first communications apparatus to the second communications apparatus according to which the second communications apparatus is to select one of the interleaving patterns.
US09106371B1

In a method implemented in a communication device, an interference metric associated with a communication link is determined. Determining the interference metric includes obtaining a plurality of measurements indicative of quality of the communication link, and calculating the interference metric using (i) a mean of the plurality of measurements and (ii) a standard deviation of the plurality of measurements. A modulation and coding scheme is selected based on at least the interference metric, and at least one packet is caused to be modulated and coded according to the selected modulation and coding scheme prior to transmission over the communication link.
US09106369B2

A method of controlling the data rate of a data transmission between an emitter and a receiver, wherein data rate adaptation control commands may be sent using a return path from the receiver to the emitter, which comprises monitoring at least one receiving condition at the receiver; determining at least one threshold on said receiving conditions to trigger data rate adaptation control commands; estimating the transmission time of the data rate adaptation control commands from the receiver to the emitter and adjusting the threshold on these receiving conditions to trigger data rate adaptation control commands based on said estimation of the transmission time from the receiver to the emitter.Accordingly, by continuously adjusting at least one said triggering threshold according to the variation of the transmission time of said data rate adaption commands, a more efficient data rate adaptation method is obtained minimizing the adaptation needs.
US09106367B2

A method implemented by a first network component (NC) in a digital subscriber line (DSL) system comprising retrieving an on-line reconfiguration (OLR) request from a control entity (CE), wherein the OLR request is generated by the CE based on a noise increase on a subscriber line between the NC and a second NC in the DSL system, and in response to the OLR request, transmitting a message to a receiver in the second NC to request for a reduced data rate on the subscriber line.
US09106366B2

Provided are techniques for distributing data in a trackable manner while suppressing an increase in the size of data to be distributed as much as possible and minimizing interruption of usage of the data. A method for distributing data to multiple clients from a server includes the steps of: generating a common noise by using noises unique to the multiple clients, respectively; embedding the common noise in the data to be distributed to make the data unusable; and distributing the data containing the embedded common noise, so that the data containing the embedded common noise is made usable by each of the multiple clients using a unique noise generated in the client.
US09106365B1

Particular embodiments are directed towards a method for communicating time-based data in a power line communication system. The communication system utilized in the method includes: a command center; a collector device; and a plurality of endpoint devices. The method includes communicating, from the collector device, downstream data to the plurality of endpoint devices. This downstream communication utilizes a communication protocol that is relative to a collector network time, and is over a set of power distribution lines carrying alternating current (AC). The collector network time uses the local oscillator. The AC zero-crossing event can be used as a time base for other versions of the network time. Conceptually, the AC can be thought of as acting as a reference clock for maintaining these other network times, although the clocking function can be carried out in the digital realm, e.g., using a digital-signal processor (DSP).
US09106355B2

A transmission device includes reference signal generator (204) generates a transmission instruction for DMRS or SRS produced by base station (100), and an RS that corresponds to a transmission instruction in the DMRS and SRS on the basis of identification information of an RS pattern used in the DMRS and SRS and set in base station (100). Transmission signal formation unit (207) maps the generated RS to a time frequency resource. The RS pattern of the DMRS and the RS pattern of the SRS have a relationship in which the RS pattern of the SRS is obtained by adding the length of a CS series/4 to the cyclic shift amount, which is an element of the CS series pattern, in the RS pattern of the DMRS, and inverting the identification information of a first Walsh series or a second Walsh series, which are constituent elements of an OCC pattern.
US09106354B2

An optical frequency-division multiplexer includes: a first optical coupler configured to receive a first wavelength-division multiplexed light obtained by wavelength-division multiplexing a first carrier light and a first monitor light and split the first carrier light and the first monitor light from each other; an optical modulator configured to optically modulate the split first carrier light using a signal including a first data signal so as to multiplex the first data signal with the first carrier light; a receiver configured to receive a branched part of the split first monitor light and demodulate a second data signal from the first monitor light; and a second optical coupler configured to couple a remaining part of the split first monitor light and the first carrier light with which the first data signal has been multiplexed.
US09106353B2

The invention relates to time synchronization between network testing elements in distributed network monitoring and testing systems, and provides a condensed PTP process wherein the number of timing messages exchanged between master and slave in one iteration of the time synchronization process is reduced. Furthermore, timing messages are encrypted to provide for a more secure synchronization process. One aspect of the method provides for an automatic detection and adaptive handling of protocol stacks of received timing packets.
US09106347B2

Methods and apparatus for inserting data a compressed data bitstream are disclosed. The methods and apparatus time shift first data in a first portion of the compressed data bitstream to increase a size of a second portion of the compressed data bitstream and insert second data in the second portion of the compressed data bitstream to form a modified compressed data bitstream.
US09106341B2

According to one aspect of this disclosure, a communication terminal is provided comprising a receiver configured to receive pilot information from a first transmitter via a pilot channel; a controller configured to control the receiver to receive, during a predetermined period, pilot information from a second transmitter; and a channel estimator, configured to provide an estimation of transmission characteristics between the communication terminal and the first transmitter for receiving data from the first transmitter over the communication connection during the predetermined period based on other information about the transmission characteristics between the communication terminal and the first transmitter than the pilot information which is sent by the first transmitter via the pilot channel during the predetermined period.
US09106335B2

Provided are an automatic wavelength recognition apparatus and method. The automatic wavelength recognition apparatus includes: a division unit receiving a single optical signal and dividing the received optical signal into a plurality of optical signals; a plurality of filter units filtering the optical signals and having different and wavelength-dependent pass characteristics; a plurality of detection units detecting the filtered optical signals and measuring intensities of the detected optical signals; at least one comparison unit comparing outputs of any two of the detection units; and a wavelength determination unit receiving an output of the at least one comparison unit and determining a wavelength of the above single optical signal using a pre-stored look-up table.
US09106326B2

A method is provided for determining the imperfections of a transmit pathway and of a receive pathway of an apparatus, and associated radio apparatus, the transmit pathway comprising a first device for frequency transposition of an analogue sequence to an analogue signal, using a first transposition frequency, the receive pathway comprising a second device for frequency transposition of an analogue signal to an analogue sequence, using a second transposition frequency different from the first transposition frequency.
US09106320B1

Method for synchronizing a node in a frequency hopping network includes monitoring a hop frequency channel to detect a hop announcement transmitted on a group of control channels in use by a network coordinator node. The hop announcement specifies a second hop frequency channel which will be utilized subsequent to a first hop frequency in a hopping sequence. Responsive to receiving the hop announcement a node monitors the second hop frequency to receive a dwell start message. The dwell start message is transmitted from the coordinator node to signal the beginning of a dwell period during which the second hop frequency will be used by the network for communicating data.
US09106316B2

Embodiments of the present invention reduce or eliminate the need for fixed frequency high Q band filtering for both full duplex (FDD) and half duplex (TDD) systems. Transceiver architectures according to embodiments of the present invention can be designed to have a single input/output for both FDD and TDD based standards. Further, according to embodiments, because the duplexer and/or SAW power losses are lowered or removed altogether, the system power output requirements can be met more easily and with higher efficiency.
US09106310B2

An apparatus for securing a memory module or SIM within an electronic device includes an external control (such as a volume control, camera button, or power button) that hides the memory module and/or SIM. When attached to the electronic device, the external control is disposed at the entrance of a cavity in which the memory module and/or SIM is located. The external control may be attached to a tray that holds one or more SIM cards and/or SD cards.
US09106308B2

A wireless communication device may obtain, from each of one or more access points, access point information including network identification information corresponding to the access point. The wireless communication device may determine, in a case where specific network identification information corresponding to a specific access point is selected by a user from among one or more network identification information, whether specific access point information obtained from the specific access point includes support information indicating that the specific access point is supporting an automatic wireless setting mode. The wireless communication device may perform a wireless setting in accordance with the automatic wireless setting mode in a first case where a determination is made that the specific access point information includes the support information.
US09106306B2

A method for controlling a communication apparatus includes communicating with an external device through close proximity wireless communication, receiving a remote control signal transmitted from a remote controller, storing a remote control setting which enables or disables an operation of the remote controller, making a determination as to whether a connection between the communication apparatus and the external device through the close proximity wireless communication is established, and controlling an operation of the remote controller for the communication apparatus on the basis of the determination.
US09106305B2

A low-cost, low-power, low-complexity, small, high-reliability, robust, seamless satellite communication network is described. The network performs encoding of a user signal at the customer premises to enable routing of the user signal to an appropriate destination beam at the satellite requiring low power user signal processing. Routing information is embedded at the periphery of the network CPE's rather than at the satellite. Embedding the routing information in this way greatly reduces on-board switching complexity and increases signal to interference ratio for the user.
US09106285B1

A wireless receives at least one channel state input information element (IE) from a first base station. The wireless device computes a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) employing, at least in part, the at least one channel state input IE and measurement of signals received from a second base station. The wireless device transmits the PMI to the first base station.
US09106284B1

Systems, equipment, and methods for driving antenna systems with pairs of overlaid orthogonal antenna elements are provided herein. In one example, a method of operating a remote radio unit that drives an antenna system is provided. The method includes receiving user communications and control data transferred by a baseband unit. If the control data indicates a beamforming mode, then the method includes generating a first plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals directed to at least one of the pairs of overlaid orthogonal antenna elements for target wireless communication devices. If the control data indicates a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) mode, then the method includes generating a second plurality of RF signals for the plurality of antenna elements, wherein the second plurality of RF signals are directed to non-adjacent ones of the pairs of the overlaid orthogonal antenna elements for the target wireless communication devices.
US09106282B2

A method and an apparatus for sending and receiving channel state information in network Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) wireless communication systems are provided. Hybrid feedback technology is provided to transfer complete Channel State Information (CSI) to a transmitter by efficiently combining limited amounts of long-term channel information and short-term channel information are In a down link MIMO network system.
US09106280B2

Embodiments recognize that in MIMO and M-MIMO systems, physical antennas tend to be closely spaced to each other (e.g., a grid). As a result, a spatial correlation typically exists between physical antennas as well as between transmissions from logical antenna ports. Embodiments exploit this characteristic to reduce the amount of pilot signaling needed to enable downlink channel estimation. Specifically, embodiments limit pilot signaling to only a subset of supported logical antenna ports and rely on spatial correlation information to interpolate channels from logic antenna ports for which no pilot signaling is used.
US09106275B2

A communications device, method and system include a processor and a Near Field Communications (NFC) circuit connected to the processor and configured to communicate using an NFC communications protocol. An accelerometer is connected to the processor and configured to generate a signal to the processor upon a tapping engagement with an NFC enabled device. In response, the processor activates the NFC circuit to transmit or receive data with the NFC enabled device using the NFC communications protocol.
US09106272B2

A mobile communications device may include a near field communications (NFC) device, an input device configured to generate a memory wipe command, a memory, and a memory controller coupled with the NFC device, the input device, and the memory. The memory controller may be configured to receive secure data from a provisioning server and store the secure data into the memory, receive wiping instruction data from the provisioning server and store the wiping instruction data into the memory for wiping the secure data from the memory, and wipe the secure data from the memory without an over-the-air (OTA) connection to the provisioning server based upon the memory wipe command and the wiping instruction data stored in the memory.
US09106260B2

A processor system as presented herein includes a processor core, cache memory coupled to the processor core, a memory controller coupled to the cache memory, and a system memory component coupled to the memory controller. The system memory component includes a plurality of independent memory channels configured to store data blocks, wherein the memory controller controls the storing of parity bits in at least one of the plurality of independent memory channels. In some implementations, the system memory is realized as a die-stacked memory component.
US09106258B2

A bypass mechanism allows a memory controller to transmit requested data to an interconnect before the data's error code has been decoded, e.g., a cyclical redundancy check (CRC). The tag, tag CRC, data, and data CRC are pipelined from DRAM in four frames, each having multiple clock cycles. The tag includes a bypass bit indicating whether data transmission to the interconnect should begin before CRC decoding. After receiving the tag CRC, the controller decodes it and reserves a request machine which sends a transmit request signal to inform the interconnect that data is available. Once the transmit request is granted by the interconnect, the controller can immediately start sending the data, before decoding the data CRC. So long as no error is found, the controller completes transmission of the data to the interconnect, including providing an indication that the data as transmitted is error-free.
US09106256B2

A data processing device and a data processing method capable of improving the resistance to error of data. An LDPC encoder performs encoding using an LDPC code having a code length of 4320 bits and a coded rate of one of four types including ½, 7/12, ⅔, ¾. A parity check matrix H of the LDPC code is configured by arranging elements of 1's of an information matrix, which are determined based on a parity check matrix initial value table of the parity check matrix H representing positions of elements of 1's of the information matrix corresponding to an information length according to the code length and the coded rate for every 72 columns, in a column direction at a period of 72 columns. The parity check matrix initial value table, for example, is used for digital broadcasting for mobile terminals.
US09106248B1

The present invention relates to an analog to digital converter. The analog to digital converter includes comparing modules at multi levels, where a comparing module at each level includes a comparator and a metastable state determining unit. The comparator is configured to, when a previous-level comparing module is not in a metastable state, receive a first clock, a first input signal, and a second input signal, and compare the first input signal with the second input signal. The metastable state determining unit is configured to, when the previous-level comparing module is not in a metastable state, receive the first clock, generate a reference clock according to the first clock, and if a second clock that is output by the comparator is later than the reference clock, determine that the current-level comparing module is in a metastable state.
US09106246B2

The present invention provides a successive approximation register analog-to-digital converter (SAR ADC), where a high bit capacitor of the SAR ADC is composed of a plurality of sub-capacitors, and these sub-capacitors are calibrated when the SAR ADC is working. Therefore, the working speed of the SAR ADC will not be influenced. In addition, a capacitance of each sub-capacitor is lower than a redundant capacitance of the SAR ADC, therefore, input signals of the SAR ADC are allowed to have full swing.
US09106241B2

In lossy data compression of a signal using ADPCM, an adaptive decorrelation or “prediction” filter is used to reduce the amplitude of the signal, the spectral dynamic range of the signal also being reduced. This latter reduction is effected in a nonuniform manner, if known techniques are used, with regions of high spectral density being compressed more than regions of low spectral density. The present invention recognises that using a uniform compression ratio results in a better tradeoff between compression and robustness to transmission channel errors. A method is described for obtaining a uniform compression ratio by adjusting coefficients of the decorrelation filter in dependence on coefficients of an adaptive training filter that is fed from the output of the decorrelation filter. A reverse method is also provided along with encoder, decoder and codec implementing the techniques.
US09106240B1

A multiplying digital-to-analog converter (MDAC) with high slew rate and a pipeline Analog-to-digital converter using the same. The first set of capacitors for a first input terminal of the operational amplifier (op-amp) includes active capacitors coupling the first input terminal of the op-amp to a first enhanced reference voltage or a common mode terminal in accordance with first digital bits in an amplifying phase of the MDAC, and includes a feedback capacitor coupling the first input terminal of the op-amp to a first output terminal of the op-amp in the amplifying phase. The first set of capacitors contains M capacitor cells. The feedback capacitor between the first set of capacitors contains at most M/(2n) capacitor cells, where n is a number of effective bits provided by a first analog-to-digital converter generating the first digital bits for the active capacitors.
US09106233B1

Aspects of the disclosure provide a circuit that includes a clock synchronization circuit. The clock synchronization circuit is configured to determine a sub-cycle offset between a first clock signal and a second clock signal, and select rising/failing edges of the first clock signal and the second clock signal based on the sub-cycle offset for enabling communication between a first clock domain that is operative in response to the first clock signal and a second clock domain that is operative in response to the second clock signal.
US09106230B1

An integrated such as a programmable integrated circuit may include input-output pins that have associated input-output circuits. An input-output circuit may include memory interface circuits, clock recovery interface circuits, shared interpolator circuitry, and selection circuitry that may be configured to convey control signals from selected interface circuits to the shared interpolator circuitry. The interpolator circuitry may receive multiple clock signals and perform phase interpolation operations on the clock signals based on the selected control signals to produce modified clock signals. The modified clock signals may be used by the selected interface circuits for communications over the input-output pins. Logic design computing equipment such as computing equipment having CAD tools may be used to configure the selection circuitry.
US09106229B1

A multichip package that includes a programmable interposer is provided. Multiple integrated circuits may be mounted on the interposer. Active circuitry may also be embedded in the interposer device to facilitate protocol-based communications, debugging, and other desired circuit operations. The interposer device may include programmable interconnect routing circuitry that serves primarily to provide routing for the different circuits within the multichip package. A design tool may be used to design the interposer device. The design tool may include a standard die footprint library from which standard interface templates can be selected when designing an interposer device that has to communicate various on-interposer integrated circuits. The use of standard die footprints may simplify the design of interposers by enabling a family of devices to interface with a given interposer.
US09106222B2

A system for controlling the termination impedance of memory device data bus terminals is fabricated on the same die as the memory device. The system includes a termination resistor connected to each data bus terminal, which is connected in parallel with several transistors that are selectively turned on to adjust the termination impedance. The transistors are controlled by a circuit that determines the resistance of the termination resistor and turns on the correct number of transistors to properly set the termination impedance. In one example, the resistance of the termination resistor is determined by measuring a resistor of the same type as the termination resistor. In another example, the resistance of the termination resistor is determined indirectly by measuring parameters that affect the resistance of the termination resistor. In either case, the system can maintain the termination impedance of the data bus terminals constant despite changes in the termination resistor.
US09106220B2

Systems and methods are described for transmitting data over physical channels to provide a high bandwidth, low latency interface between integrated circuit chips with low power utilization. Communication is performed using group signaling over multiple wires using a vector signaling code, where each wire carries a low-swing signal that may take on more than two signal values.
US09106218B2

A circuit having an autonomous ferroelectric memory latch (AML) is disclosed. An AML characterized by an AML input, an AML output, a first AML power contact, a second AML power contact and an AML state, and a first switch in series with one of the AML input or the AML output. The switch is positioned to prevent the state of the AML from changing when power is provided between the first and second AML power contacts. In one aspect of the invention, the circuit could include a second switch in series with the other of the AML input or the AML output and a latch in series with the AML input or the AML output. The latch is positioned such that a direct path back does not exist between the AML output and the AML input.
US09106208B2

A band-pass filter made up by an operational amplifier and by an input circuit. The input circuit is formed by a capacitive filtering element, connected to the input of the operational amplifier; a coupling switch, coupled between an input node and the capacitive filtering element; a capacitive sampling element, coupled between the input of the filter and the input node; and a sampling switch, coupled between the input node and a reference-potential line. The coupling switch and the input sampling switch close in phase opposition according to a succession of undesired components sampling and sensing steps, so that the capacitive sampling element forms a sampler for sampling the undesired component in the undesired components sampling step, in the absence of the component of interest, and forms a subtractor of the undesired components from the input signal in the sensing step.
US09106205B2

A wireless surface acoustic wave sensor includes a piezoelectric substrate, a surface acoustic wave device formed on the substrate, and an antenna formed on the substrate. In some embodiments, the antenna is formed on the surface of the substrate using one or more of photolithography, thin film processing, thick film processing, plating, and printing.
US09106191B2

An enhanced amplifier circuit includes an amplifier having an input and an output and a current source. A diode is coupled between the current source and the input of the amplifier. The enhanced amplifier circuit may include a number of current sources with associated diodes and amplifiers. The diode prevents the amplifier from interacting with some undesired properties of the current source, such as capacitance and resistance, prevents current sources from interacting with one another, and allows for the use of intrinsic properties of the diode to modify the current source output signal, among other advantages.
US09106188B2

An amplifying device includes a first pre-distorter unit outputting a modulated signal obtained by adding a phase compensation amount and an amplitude adjustment amount to an input signal, a power amplifier inputting the modulated signal and outputting an output signal obtained by amplifying the modulated signal, a power supply voltage modulation unit modulating a power supply voltage, a second pre-distorter unit controlling the power supply voltage modulation unit on the basis of amplitude information on the input signal; and a control unit controlling an operation of the first pre-distorter unit and the second pre-distorter unit, wherein the control unit includes a phase control unit controlling the phase compensation amount by using a phase coefficient, a first amplitude control unit controlling the amplitude adjustment amount by using a first amplitude coefficient, and a second amplitude control unit controlling the operation of the second pre-distorter unit by using a second amplitude coefficient.
US09106186B1

An amplifier biasing circuit that reduces gain variation in short channel amplifiers, an amplifier biasing circuit that produces a constant Gm biasing signal for short channel amplifiers, and a multistage amplifier that advantageously incorporates embodiment of both types of amplifier biasing circuits are described. Both amplifier biasing circuit approaches use an operational amplifier to equalize internal bias circuit voltages. The constant Gm biasing circuit produces a Gm of 1/R, where R is the value of a trim variable resistor value. The biasing circuit that reduces gain variation produces a Gm of approximately 1/R, where R is the value of a trim variable resistor value, however, the biasing circuit is configurable to adjust the bias circuit Gm to mitigate the impact of a wide range of circuit specific characteristics and a wide range of changes in the operational environment in which the circuit can be used, such as changes in temperature.
US09106183B2

A voltage converter can be switched among two or more modes to produce an output voltage tracking a reference voltage that can be of an intermediate level between discrete levels corresponding to the modes. One or more voltages generated from a power supply voltage, such as a battery voltage, can be compared with the reference voltage to determine whether to adjust the mode. The reference voltage can be independent of the power supply voltage.
US09106172B2

A test automation system may specify a temperature setpoint for an electric machine system and generate a command for the electric machine system to output a torque in such a manner that a temperature of the electric machine system varies within a predefined range of the temperature setpoint for at least a predefined period of time.
US09106168B2

A method for re-powering a star-connected stator having a plurality of parallel stator slots, wherein a plurality of stator winding bars having external winding connections are disposed in stator slots includes bridging the external winding connections so as to connect the stator winding bars in series and to form a polygonal stator capable of producing a polyphase alternating current.
US09106166B2

The inventive concept provides a motor driving module, a operating method for the same, and a Brush less Direct Current (BLDC) motor system. The motor driving module is provided which comprises a motor driving unit configured to output a plurality of switching signals based on a plurality of position signals and a control signal; and a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) inverter configured to output 3-phase voltages based on the plurality of switching signals outputted from the motor driving unit, wherein the motor driving unit comprises; a correction circuit configured to detect an error of the plurality of position signals to output a compensation signal based on the detecting result; and a control circuit configured to output the plurality of switching signals based on the compensation signal and the control signal, wherein the plurality of position signals indicate a position of a rotor in an external motor.
US09106165B2

A voltage output circuit includes: an oscillator circuit configured to output an oscillation signal while changing an oscillation frequency thereof; and a voltage generating circuit configured to convert a first voltage into a second voltage higher than the first voltage, and output the second voltage, based on the oscillation signal.
US09106142B2

System and method for regulating an output voltage of a power conversion system. The system includes an error amplifier coupled to a capacitor. The error amplifier is configured to receive a reference voltage, a first voltage, and an adjustment current and to generate a compensation voltage with the capacitor. The first voltage is associated with a feedback voltage. Additionally, the system includes a current generator configured to receive the compensation voltage and generate the adjustment current and a first current, and a signal generator configured to receive the first current and a second current. The signal generator is further configured to receive a sensing voltage and to generate a modulation signal. Moreover, the system includes the gate driver directly or indirectly coupled to the signal generator and configured to generate a drive signal based on at least information associated with the modulation signal.
US09106139B2

A Low Forward Voltage Rectifier (LFVR) includes a bipolar transistor, a parallel diode, and a base current injection circuit disposed in an easy-to-employ two-terminal package. In one example, the transistor is a Reverse Bipolar Junction Transistor (RBJT), the diode is a distributed diode, and the base current injection circuit is a current transformer. Under forward bias conditions (when the voltage from the first package terminal to the second package terminal is positive), the LFVR conducts current at a rated current level with a low forward voltage drop (for example, approximately 0.1 volts). In reverse bias conditions, the LFVR blocks current flow. Using the LFVR in place of a conventional silicon diode rectifier in the secondary of a flyback converter reduces average power dissipation and increases power supply efficiency.
US09106136B2

Power supply modules have outputs coupled in parallel and convey load share balancing information over a single wire load share bus. Pulse width modulation (PWM) signals represent output loading of each of the power supply modules over the single wire load share bus. The PWM load share signal width (time asserted) of the PWM signal represents the output loading of the respective power supply module. Each of the power supply modules detect the assertion of the PWM signal on the load share bus and then each of them simultaneously drive the load share bus with a PWM signal representing their respective output loading. The power supply module having the greatest percent loading will assert its PWM load share signal longest, and the other power supply modules will thereafter adjust their outputs to more evenly supply power outputs to the load.
US09106133B2

A system includes a single-inductor-multiple-out (SIMO) converter that includes storage circuitry in communication with a plurality of output channels, and a controller that is configured to output one or more signals to alternatingly conduct current through the output channels over a plurality of switching cycles. The controller may determine fixed ratios of channel conduction periods between the plurality of output channels and set channel conduction periods for each switching cycle based on the fixed ratios. In addition or alternatively, the controller may determine an arrangement of orders in which to conduct current over the switching cycles. The arrangement may include an order for a current switching cycle that is a reverse order of an order for a previously switching cycle.
US09106131B2

A high side buck converter includes a high side transistor, a low side transistor, a sensor, a sensing window generator, an error amplifier, a first comparator and an on-time signal generator. The high side and low side transistors are coupled together to form a switch node which is used as the reference ground of the controller. The sensor senses the output voltage and generates a sensing signal. The sensing window generator generates a sensing window signal. The error amplifier amplifies the error between a feedback signal of the sensing signal and a reference signal during the sensing window, and generates an error signal. The first comparator compares the feedback signal with the error signal and generates a first comparison signal. The on-time signal generator generates an on-time signal based on the first comparison signal, so as to control the high side and low side transistors.
US09106127B2

A charge pumping method includes: generating a first boosted voltage by boosting an input voltage by a boosting mode of a first multiplier; changing the level of a voltage charged in at least one capacitor provided in the inside of a charge pump circuit, in preparation for a change in the boosting mode; and generating a second boosted voltage by boosting the input voltage by a boosting mode of a second multiplier.
US09106121B2

A double-stator includes outer and inner stators each having magnetic poles. Outer-stator and inner-stator windings are connected in series in phases, thereby generating winding magnetomotive force. Outer magnets and inner magnets of a rotor are arranged in a rotor core in the circumferential direction, the outer and inner magnets being alternated between a radially outward portion and a radially inward portion, at a pitch equal to that of the poles of the outer and inner stators so as to be magnetized so that a radially outer side thereof will serve as N poles or S poles and that a radially inner side thereof will serve as S poles or N poles. The rotor core includes outer poles formed between the outer magnets circumferentially adjacent to each other in the radially outward portion, and inner poles formed between the inner magnets circumferentially adjacent to each other in the radially inward portion.
US09106108B2

An embodiment of the present invention provides a smart feed line automation system based on 10 kV carrier communication. The system monitors smart switches of the line via 10 kV carrier communication, detects smart transformers, and calls up and returns centralized meter-reading information of smart transformer region. Furthermore, the detection of the state of a 10 kV power line may realize real-time monitoring of the temperature, insulating level and change of voltage and current of a 10 kV aerial line and cable line, and realize alarm for an abnormal state and fault information report, so as to rapidly identify, position, isolate and recover the fault.
US09106100B2

A scheduler detects a change in one of an electricity consumption pattern and appliance cycle scheduling that affects electricity consumption in a future time slot of an appliance cycle schedule for a plurality of appliances. The appliance cycle schedule comprises a plurality of future time slots. Appliances scheduled for use during the future time slot are determined. A total electricity consumption for the future time slot is then computed. The total electricity consumption comprises a sum of predicted background electricity consumption during the future time slot and predicted appliance cycle electricity consumption during the future time slot. It is determined that the total electricity consumption exceeds a threshold electricity consumption associated with an electric meter associated with the plurality of appliances. A new appliance cycle schedule with each of the plurality of future time slots having total electricity consumption below the threshold electricity consumption is generated.
US09106097B2

A connection device for connecting between a multifunction peripheral and USB devices. A hub unit is disconnectably connected to the multifunction peripheral via a first interface for enabling power supply from the multifunction peripheral to the hub unit. The hub unit is also disconnectably connected to the USB devices via a second interface for enabling power supply from the hub unit to the USB devices. A dedicated power supply connector is connected to a power supply section of the multifunction peripheral via wiring for enabling power supply from the multifunction peripheral to the hub unit. A hub circuit relays data between the multifunction peripheral and one of the USB host connectors of the hub unit. Power from the first interface to the hub circuit is supplied through a first power path, and power from the multifunction peripheral to the USB devices is supplied through a second power path.
US09106095B2

Aspects of the disclosure relate to a wireless charging device having an inductive charging coil built into a keyboard, such as the interior space of a keycap in the keyboard. The wireless charging device and keyboard may further be built into a housing of a primary device, such as a laptop computer. The wireless charging device may communicate with another secondary device having a compatible coil. For example, the wireless charging device may transmit, via the inductive charging coil, a wireless charging signal to a wirelessly chargeable device placed on top of the keyboard. In another example, the wireless charging device may receive, through the inductive charging coil, a wireless charging signal from a wireless powering device placed on top of the keyboard.
US09106088B2

A non-contact power transmission apparatus includes a high-frequency converting section, which converts input voltage to high-frequency voltage and outputs it, a primary coil, which receives high-frequency voltage from the high-frequency converting section, and a secondary coil, which receives electric power from the primary coil. The non-contact power transmission apparatus further includes a load to which the electric power received by the secondary coil is supplied, a rectifier located between the secondary coil and the load, and an output adjusting section, which supplies, as pulses, output voltage to the high-frequency converting section. The output adjusting section is configured to increase or reduce output to the load by adjusting a duty cycle of the pulse output.
US09106079B2

A power supply apparatus includes a power supply unit that wirelessly supplies power to an electronic apparatus, and a control unit that controls, if power output from the power supply unit to the electronic apparatus is lower than a first predetermined value, the communication unit so that a predetermined speed for transmitting the predetermined data is higher than a second predetermined value.
US09106073B2

An electronic apparatus includes an electronic device, a circuit board, a ground layer and a drive chip. The circuit board includes a substrate, a patterned circuit layer disposed on the substrate and a protective layer exposing a portion of the patterned circuit layer to define at least one ground pin and plural of input/output (I/O) pins. Each of the I/O pins has a first incisive terminal, and a length of the ground pin is greater than a length of each I/O pins. The ground layer covers a portion of the protective layer and a portion of the ground pin. The ground layer has plural of second incisive terminals corresponding to the first incisive terminals. A gap exists between the orthographic projections of each first incisive terminal and the corresponding second incisive terminal on the substrate. The drive chip is electrically connected to the electronic device via the circuit board.
US09106066B2

A wire fixing member (10) is fixed to a case in a state where wires (W) are inserted through mounting holes of the case. The wire fixing member (10) includes housings (30) through which wire insertion holes (31) allowing the insertion of the wires penetrate, rubber rings (50) that seal between the case and the housings (30), rubber plugs (40) that seal between the housings (30) and the wires (W) and metal wire crimp fittings (60) are held and retained in the housings (30) in a state where the wires (W) are fixed. A waterproof area (R) is formed on a side of the wire insertion hole (31) communicating with the interior of the case, is made waterproof by the rubber ring (50) and the rubber plug (40). The wire crimp fitting (60) is arranged in the waterproof area (R).
US09106061B1

A thermostat cover includes a base with four walls and an aperture sized such that at least a portion of a thermostat may be received. A lid is slidably mounted on the base at a front side of the base. The lid has a slide member that couples with a slide rail located on the base. In another embodiment, the lid has a slide member that extends from the lid and couples with an extension track located on the base. The extension track is configured in an L-shape such that the lid is collapsible with a first position and a second position. The extension track may have stops that hold the lid in the second position. In another embodiment, the lid is hingedly coupled to the base. A support rod is configured to hold the lid in a raised position.
US09106060B2

A sheathing material includes a sheet base material on which a plurality of concave portions is regularly formed to be adjacent to each other by embossing processing. Each concave portion includes a polygonal lattice portion that includes a pair of V-shaped ridgelines, when seen from a plan view of the sheathing material, which is symmetrically arranged with respect to a symmetrical axis so that opening-sides of the V-shaped ridgelines are opposed to each other and is formed on a front side surface of the sheet base material, and a trough portion that includes a pair of inclined folding lines extending to come close to each other and inclined towards a backside of the sheet base material from respective apexes of the V-shaped ridgelines, when seen from the plan view, and a horizontal folding line connecting tips of the inclined folding lines.
US09106050B2

A tunable optical transmitter, comprising a tunable laser comprising a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) section, a phase section, and a gain section, a photodiode detector (PD) optically coupled to the tunable laser, wherein the tunable optical transmitter lacks a temperature controller, and wherein the tunable optical transmitter is configured to lock onto a wavelength at different operating temperatures.
US09106048B2

An integrated circuit includes an optical source that provides an optical signal to an optical waveguide. In particular, the optical source may be implemented by fusion-bonding a III-V semiconductor to a semiconductor layer in the integrated circuit. In conjunction with surrounding mirrors (at least one of which is other than a distributed Bragg reflector), this structure may provide a cavity with suitable optical gain at a wavelength in the optical signal along a vertical direction that is perpendicular to a plane of the semiconductor layer. For example, the optical source may include a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). Moreover, the optical waveguide, defined in the semiconductor layer, may be separated from the optical source by a horizontal gap in the plane of the semiconductor layer. During operation of the optical source, the optical signal may be optically coupled across the gap from the optical source to the optical waveguide.
US09106047B2

An optical semiconductor element package, includes a ceramic wiring substrate portion having a mounting area for mounting an optical semiconductor element in a center part, and including an element electrode for connecting the optical semiconductor element, and an external connection electrode connected to the element electrode, and a metal sealing ring provided on the ceramic wiring substrate portion, and including an opening portion exposing the element electrode and the mounting area, in a center part, and a ring-like protruding portion provided to an outer peripheral part of the opening portion.
US09106046B2

An integrated optical structure includes at least one optical isolator, having a magneto-optical layer, associated with at least one SOA optical amplifier having a waveguide having an n-doped semiconductor layer, a p-doped semiconductor layer, and an active area disposed between the n-doped semiconductor layer and the p-doped semiconductor layer. The optical isolator is disposed between an SOI base and the SOA optical amplifier's waveguide. The optical isolator's magneto-optical layer is disposed between a lower insulating layer and an upper insulating layer. The optical isolator's magneto-optical layer may be a layer of ferromagnetic metallic material, such as a Fe—Co metallic alloy, or a magnetic oxide layer. An optical device includes at least one integrated optical structure.
US09106044B2

A system for generating a synchronization control signal for synchronizing a radio-frequency signal having a frequency and a pulsed optical signal, the system comprising an electro-optical amplitude modulator that includes a phase shift controller having a controller output at which the synchronization control signal is output, a phase shift mixer that includes a first and a second photodetector, an optical input connection that connects the input for the optical signal to the optical input of the electro-optical amplitude modulator, and an input splitter that is arranged in the input connection in order to output the optical signal additionally at a branch of the input splitter.
US09106043B2

A resin material can be prevented from flowing to a front end and a rear end of an inner terminal during an insert molding.Under a state that a hollow and tubular main body part (11c) of an inner terminal (11) formed by covering one of two end parts of a rectangular piece with the other is held by metal molds (14), (15) and (16), the resin material is injected.
US09106042B2

A battery connector system for connecting a battery to a battery powered device is provided herein that includes an insert molded contact block comprising a contact block, a plurality of electrical contacts insert molded into the contact block, and an outer electrical connection for electrically coupling the plurality of electrical contacts to the battery powered device. The battery connector system further includes an inner electrical connection located on a housing enclosure for electrically coupling the battery housed in the housing enclosure to the outer electrical connection through the plurality of electrical contacts. The battery connector system further includes a sealed electrical path between the inner electrical connection and the outer electrical connection, wherein the sealed electrical path is formed by over molding the insert molded contact block with the housing enclosure.
US09106041B2

An electrical power connector fabrication method includes employing a cold drawing technique by using a series of dies to repeatedly draw a metal round rod into a thin thickness conducting contact bar, processing one end of the thin thickness conducting contact bar into a mating contact portion, stamping a part of the thin thickness conducting contact to form a mounting portion, cutting off the thin thickness conducting contact bar to obtain a finished metal contact formed of the mounting portion and the mating contact portion, repeating the aforesaid steps to obtain a large amount of metal contacts, attaching individual metal contacts to respective locating notches of a contact material strip, using an injection molding technique to mold electrically insulative housings on the metal contacts to form a number of electrical power connectors at a time, and then removing the contact material strip from the metal contacts.
US09106036B2

An electrical connector includes an insulating housing, a plurality of terminals and a shielding shell. The insulating housing has a top wall, a bottom wall, a rear wall and two side walls together forming an inserting chamber thereamong. The top wall and the bottom wall respectively define a plurality of first terminal grooves and second terminal grooves which are opened symmetrically about the inserting chamber and communicate with the inserting chamber. The terminals include the first terminals and the second terminals. The first terminals and the second terminals are respectively inserted frontward in the first terminal grooves and the second terminal grooves of the insulating housing to be arranged in two rows in vertical direction. The first terminals and the second terminals are symmetrical in structure and arrangement about the inserting chamber. The shielding shell encloses the insulating housing.
US09106033B2

The invention relates to a busbar adapter comprising a housing for receiving at least one installation device for contacting the installation device with at least one busbar that can be held in the busbar adapter, characterized in that the busbar adapter comprises at least one symmetrically configured contact terminal for receiving and contacting a contact of the installation device with an associated busbar, and at least one symmetrically configured attachment device for attaching the installation device to the busbar adapter.
US09106030B2

An electrical disconnect for a utility service that has an internal reversible insulator and a separable power connector. In one position, the insulator may allow the flow of electricity through the separable power connector, but, in a second position, the insulator prevents the flow of electricity through the separable power connector. Because the electrical disconnect is located away from the customer's premises, it is difficult for the customer to reconnect his own power.
US09106023B2

An adjustable mounting system for mounting solar panels on roofs is disclosed. The system allows a user to mount the solar panels either with or without rails. The mounting assemblies are adjustable to allow the user to mount a base plate in a chosen location (either on a roof joist or other structural member or not) and to adjust the mounting location for the panel in as many as three axis of adjustment from the location of the base plate. A system for mounting and grounding the panels at the same time is also disclosed.
US09106021B2

A communication jack which includes a housing with an aperture for receiving a communication plug, and a circuit board at least partially within the housing. The circuit board includes crosstalk compensation elements. A plurality of plug interface contacts are connected to the circuit board. At least one of the plurality of plug interface contacts includes a contact element layered with at least one spring element.
US09106019B2

Systems and methods provide re-configurable functionality within components of I/O devices without the need of disconnecting the components from each other. For example, in certain embodiments, when certain types of components are connected to each other, certain functionality sets within the components may be activated to provide combined functionality sets between the components. The combined functionality sets may, for example, be preferred functionality sets to be used when the particular types of components are connected to each other. Furthermore, in certain embodiments, functionality activation keys may be physically inserted into (or electronically communicated to) the components of the I/O device to activate certain functionality sets within the component into which the functionality activation key is inserted (or electronically communicated to), as well as within the other components of the I/O device to which the component is connected.
US09106005B2

Disclosed is a surface mount device to be mounted on a base member, including plural lead units, each of the plural lead units including, a lead including a body portion and a foot formed at an end of the lead; a solder portion formed at the foot of the lead to protrude toward the direction of the base member to have a summit portion, and a diffusion prevention portion provided on the lead for preventing a diffusion of a solder along the body portion of the lead.
US09106004B2

A connector assembly of an implantable medical electrical lead includes insulation and conductor segments, which may be formed together in a molded subassembly. The insulation segment includes at least one sealing surface, and the conductor segment includes at least one contact surface and a shank electrically common therewith. The shank has a smaller diameter than a uniform outer diameter of the assembly, which is defined by the sealing and contact surfaces, and the smaller diameter is sized to receive a coiled proximal end of a lead conductor mounted thereabout. The connector assembly may include another conductor segment that has a third contact surface, active or inactive, extending between third and fourth sealing surfaces of another insulation segment of the assembly; if active, a distal shank of the segment is electrically common with the third contact surface, and sized to receive a coiled proximal end of another lead conductor mounted thereabout.
US09106001B2

An electrical receptacle assembly having an outer body and an inner body. The inner body can include at least one first wall forming a first cavity and at least one resilient element disposed within the cavity proximate to the at least one first wall, where the at least one resilient element has an electrically conductive material. The outer body can be movably disposed within the first cavity, where the outer body can include at least one extension, at least one home slot, and at least one detent positioned between the at least one extension and the at least one home slot, where the at least one extension has the electrically conductive material, and where the at least one detent and the at least one home slot are electrically non-conductive.
US09105996B2

The invention relates to an electromagnetic actuator comprising a housing (9) having several faces (20, 21) and an electronic control circuit (14) split into at least two parts (14a, 14b) distributed over at least two adjacent faces (20, 21) of the housing (9), each part (14a) of the circuit comprising at least one metallic connector (25a) arranged so as to be connected electrically and mechanically with a metallic connector (25b) of another part of the circuit (14b) so as to form an electrical connection (24).
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