US09112074B2
A method of forming an ultraviolet (UV) photodetector includes forming an epitaxial semiconductor metal oxide layer on a substrate, wherein the forming includes using an O2 flow rate and applied RF plasma power which together provide a ratio of O• (oxygen radicals) to O+ of at least 1.5. Metal fingers are formed on a surface of the semiconductor metal oxide layer. The metal fingers can include a multi-layer stack including a metal having a 25° C. work function <4 eV positioned between an adhesion layer and an oxidation resistant metal capping layer. The semiconductor metal oxide layer can be Zn1-xMgxO wherein 0
US09112066B2
Method of fabricating solar cells with tunnel dielectric layers are described. Solar cells with tunnel dielectric layers are also described.
US09112060B2
A process and device structure is provided for increasing capacitance density of a capacitor structure. A sandwich capacitor is provided in which a bottom silicon-containing conductor plate is formed with holes or cavities, upon which an oxide layer and a top silicon-containing layer conductor is formed. The holes or cavities provide additional capacitive area, thereby increasing capacitance per footprint area of the capacitor structure. The holes can form, for example, a line structure or a waffle-like structure in the bottom conductor plate. Etching techniques used to form the holes in the bottom conductor plate can also result in side wall tapering of the holes, thereby increasing the surface area of the silicon-containing layer defined by the holes. In addition, depth of holes can be adjusted through timed etching to further adjust capacitive area.
US09112057B1
A method of fabricating a semiconductor device includes providing a substrate having a semiconducting surface and forming a first epitaxial layer on the semiconducting surface. The first epitaxial layer includes a first semiconducting material doped in-situ with at least one dopant of a first conductivity type. The method also includes adding at least one dopant of a second conductivity type into one portion of the substrate to define at least one counter-doped region with an overall doping of the second conductivity type and at least one other region with an overall doping of the first conductivity type in the other portions of substrate. The method further includes forming a second epitaxial layer on the first epitaxial layer, the second epitaxial layer being a second semiconducting material that is substantially undoped.
US09112056B1
A method of forming a semiconductor device in an NVM region and in a logic region uses a semiconductor substrate and includes forming a first layer of a material that can be used as a gate or a dummy gate. An opening is formed in the first layer in the NVM region. The opening is filled with a charge storage layer and a control gate. A select gate, which may be formed from the first layer or from a metal layer, is formed adjacent to the control gate. If it is a metal from a metal layer, the first layer is used to form a dummy gate. A metal logic gate is formed in the logic region by replacing a dummy gate.
US09112049B2
A structure comprises a first semiconductor chip with a first metal bump and a second semiconductor chip with a second metal bump. The structure further comprises a solder joint structure electrically connecting the first semiconductor chip and the second semiconductor chip, wherein the solder joint structure comprises an intermetallic compound region between the first metal bump and the second metal bump, wherein the intermetallic compound region is with a first height dimension and a surrounding portion formed along exterior walls of the first metal bump and the second metal bump, wherein the surrounding portion is with a second height dimension, and wherein the second height dimension is greater than the first height dimension.
US09112048B2
A transistor, such as a vertical metal field effect transistor, can include a substrate including a ZnO-based material, and a structure disposed on a first side of the substrate comprising of AlGaN-based materials and electrodes disposed on the second side of the substrate. The transistor can also include a plurality of semiconductor layers and a dielectric layer disposed between the plurality of semiconductor layers and electrode materials.
US09112047B2
A split gate memory structure includes a pillar of active region having a first source/drain region disposed at a first end of the pillar, a second source/drain region disposed at a second end of the pillar, opposite the first end, and a channel region between the first and second source/drain regions. The pillar has a major surface extending between first and the second ends which exposes the first source/drain region, the channel region, and the second source/drain region. A select gate is adjacent the first source/drain region and a first portion of the channel region, wherein the select gate encircles the major surface the pillar. A charge storage layer is adjacent the second source/drain region and a second portion of the channel region, wherein the charge storage layer encircles the major surface the pillar. A control gate is adjacent the charge storage layer, wherein the control gate encircles the pillar.
US09112045B2
A nonvolatile memory device comprises a channel pattern, a first interlayer dielectric film and a second interlayer dielectric film spaced apart from each other and stacked over each other, a gate pattern disposed between the first interlayer dielectric film and the second interlayer dielectric film, a trap layer disposed between the gate pattern and the channel pattern and a charge spreading inhibition layer disposed between the channel pattern and the first interlayer dielectric film and between the channel pattern and the second interlayer dielectric film. The charge spreading inhibition layer may include charges inside or on its surface. The charge spreading inhibition layer includes at least one of a metal oxide film or a metal nitride film or a metal oxynitride film having a greater dielectric constant than a silicon oxide film.
US09112041B2
To provide a thin film transistor which has high operation speed and in which a large amount of current can flow when the thin film transistor is on and off-state current at the time when the thin film transistor is off is extremely reduced. The thin film transistor is a vertical thin film transistor in which a channel formation region is formed using an oxide semiconductor film in which hydrogen or an OH group contained in the oxide semiconductor is removed so that hydrogen is contained in the oxide semiconductor at a concentration of lower than or equal to 5×1019/cm3, preferably lower than or equal to 5×1018/cm3, more preferably lower than or equal to 5×1017/cm3, and the carrier concentration is lower than or equal to 5×1014/cm3, preferably lower than or equal to 5×1012/cm3.
US09112037B2
A transistor including an oxide semiconductor and having favorable operation characteristics is provided. Further, by using the transistor, a semiconductor having improved operation characteristics can be provided. In planar view, one of a source electrode and a drain electrode of the transistor is surrounded by a ring-shaped gate electrode. Further, in planar view, one of the source electrode and the drain electrode of the transistor is surrounded by a channel formation region. Accordingly, the source electrode is not electrically connected to the drain electrode through a parasitic channel generated in an end portion of an island-shaped oxide semiconductor layer.
US09112031B2
Embodiments include a method of fabricating a reduced resistance finFET device comprising providing a fin in a semiconductor substrate. A dummy gate is formed over a portion of the fin such that the dummy gate does not initiate selective epitaxy. A source/drain region is formed on the fin such that the source/drain region directly contacts the dummy gate. The dummy gate is replaced with a replacement metal gate structure that directly contacts the source/drain region. A portion of the fin that includes a portion of the source/drain region is replaced with a contact material.
US09112029B2
Various embodiments of the invention relate to a CMOS device having (1) an NMOS channel of silicon material selectively deposited on a first area of a graded silicon germanium substrate such that the selectively deposited silicon material experiences a tensile strain caused by the lattice spacing of the silicon material being smaller than the lattice spacing of the graded silicon germanium substrate material at the first area, and (2) a PMOS channel of silicon germanium material selectively deposited on a second area of the substrate such that the selectively deposited silicon germanium material experiences a compressive strain caused by the lattice spacing of the selectively deposited silicon germanium material being larger than the lattice spacing of the graded silicon germanium substrate material at the second area.
US09112026B2
In one embodiment, the semiconductor devices relate to using one or more super junction trenches for termination.
US09112021B2
A bipolar transistor structure includes an epitaxial layer on a semiconductor substrate, a bipolar transistor device formed in the epitaxial layer and a trench structure formed in the epitaxial layer adjacent at least two opposing lateral sides of the bipolar transistor device. The trench structure includes a field plate spaced apart from the epitaxial layer by an insulating material. The bipolar transistor structure further includes a base contact connected to a base of the bipolar transistor device, an emitter contact connected to an emitter of the bipolar transistor device and isolated from the base contact and an electrical connection between the emitter contact and the field plate.
US09112019B2
A wafer processing method for dividing a wafer into individual devices along a plurality of crossing division lines includes preparing a frame having a plurality of crossing partitions corresponding to the division lines of the wafer, spreading a liquid resin on the front side or back side of the wafer and positioning the partitions of the frame in alignment with the division lines of the wafer, thereby covering with the liquid resin the regions on the front side or back side of the wafer other than the regions corresponding to the division lines, curing the liquid resin supplied to the front side or back side of the wafer and next removing the frame, thereby masking the regions other than the regions corresponding to the division lines, and plasma-etching the wafer processed by the masking to thereby divide the wafer into the individual devices along the division lines.
US09112012B2
Various embodiments provide transistors and fabrication methods. An exemplary transistor can include a silicon nitride layer disposed between a gate dielectric layer and a gate electrode layer. The silicon nitride layer can have a first surface in contact with the gate dielectric layer and a second surface in contact with the gate electrode layer. The second surface can include silicon atoms having a concentration higher than the first surface. A sidewall spacer can be formed on the semiconductor substrate along sidewalls of each of the gate electrode layer, the silicon nitride layer, and the gate dielectric layer. The disclosed transistor can have a reduced turn-on voltage with reduced power consumption.
US09112007B2
An apparatus comprises a through via formed in a substrate. The through via is coupled between a first side and a second side of the substrate. The through via comprises a bottom portion adjacent to the second side of the substrate, wherein the bottom portion is formed of a conductive material. The through via further comprises sidewall portions formed of the conductive material and a middle portion formed between the sidewall portions, wherein the middle portion is formed of a dielectric material.
US09112003B2
Metallic layers can be selectively deposited on one surface of a substrate relative to a second surface of the substrate. In some embodiments, the metallic layers are selectively deposited on copper instead of insulating or dielectric materials. In some embodiments, a first precursor forms a layer on the first surface and is subsequently reacted or converted to form a metallic layer. The deposition temperature may be selected such that a selectivity of above about 50% or even about 90% is achieved.
US09112002B2
A method of manufacturing an electrical conductor includes providing a substrate layer, depositing a surface layer on the substrate layer that has pores at least partially exposing the substrate layer, and forming graphene deposits in the pores. Optionally, the graphene deposits may be formed only in the pores. The graphene deposits may be formed along the exposed portions of the substrate layer. The graphene layers may be selectively deposited or may be deposited to cover an entire layer. Optionally, the forming of the graphene deposits may include processing the electrical conductor using a chemical vapor deposition process using an organic compound precursor and heat of sufficient temperature to facilitate graphene growth on the metal compound comprising the substrate layer.
US09111997B2
An SOI substrate and a manufacturing method of the SOI substrate, by which enlargement of the substrate is possible and its productivity can be increased, are provided. A step (A) of cutting a first single crystal silicon substrate to form a second single crystal silicon substrate which has a chip size; a step (B) of forming an insulating layer on one surface of the second single crystal silicon substrate, and forming an embrittlement layer in the second single crystal substrate; and a step (C) of bonding a substrate having an insulating surface and the second single crystal silicon substrate with the insulating layer therebetween, and conducting heat treatment to separate the second single crystal silicon substrate along the embrittlement layer, and forming a single crystal silicon thin film on the substrate having an insulating surface, are conducted.
US09111993B1
An image sensor including a plurality of photodiodes disposed in a semiconductor layer and a plurality of deep trench isolation regions disposed in the semiconductor layer. The plurality of deep trench isolation regions include: (1) an oxide layer disposed on an inner surface of the plurality of deep trench isolation regions and (2) a conductive fill disposed in the plurality of deep trench isolation regions where the oxide layer is disposed between the semiconductor layer and the conductive fill. A plurality of pinning wells is also disposed in the semiconductor layer, and the plurality of pinning wells in combination with the plurality of deep trench isolation regions separate individual photodiodes in the plurality of photodiodes. A fixed charge layer is disposed on the semiconductor layer, and the plurality of deep trench isolation regions are disposed between the plurality of pinning wells and the fixed charge layer.
US09111988B2
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate and a first electrode. An element region, and a non-element region that surrounds this element region, are formed on the semiconductor substrate. The first electrode is arranged on the semiconductor substrate and is electrically connected to the element region formed on the semiconductor substrate. The first electrode is made of at least two materials having different moduli of elasticity. A modulus of elasticity per unit area of an outer peripheral portion of the first electrode when the semiconductor substrate is viewed from above is smaller than a modulus of elasticity per unit area of a center portion of the first electrode.
US09111984B2
The embodiments described herein provide an apparatus and method for separating dies from adhesive tape. In general, these techniques use applied vacuum and one or more channels in an extractor base surface to progressively peel adhesive tape away from the die. When the adhesive tape has been peeled away from the entire die the die can be removed and packaged. Such a technique can reduce the strain the die and thus may reduce the probability of cracks occurring in the die, and is thus particularly applicable to removing adhesive tape from relatively thin dies.
US09111979B2
An improved position control means for robotic handling systems; particularly, a sensing system and method for precisely determining the center point of a substrate, such as a semiconductor wafer, relative to a destination point by using a set of multi pixel imaging sensors incorporated into the wafer carrying end effector of the robotic handling system.
US09111971B2
A semiconductor wafer is received at a first chamber that is at a first pressure level. The semiconductor wafer is at a first temperature and is heated, by a first heating module, to a second temperature while the pressure level of the first chamber is reduced from the first pressure level to a second pressure level. The semiconductor wafer is then provided to a supporting element of a second chamber which maintains a third pressure level that is closer to the second pressure level than to the first pressure level; the supporting element being at a third temperature that is closer to the second temperature than to the first temperature.
US09111970B2
The application relates to an apparatus for the heat treatment of disc shaped substrates, in particular semi-conductor wafers. The apparatus has at least one radiation source and a treatment chamber accommodating the substrate having an upper wall element and a lower wall element, at least one of the wall elements lying adjacent to the at least one radiation source and being substantially transparent for the radiation from the radiation source. Furthermore, the apparatus makes provision for at least a first gas inlet apparatus. The first gas inlet apparatus has a plate element which is disposed within the treatment chamber between the substrate and the upper wall element, a collar ring disposed between the plate element and the upper wall element, and a first gas conveyance duct extending at least partially within the treatment chamber. The plate element has a larger diameter than the substrate and in a hole region approximately corresponding to the diameter of the substrate a plurality of through holes. The collar ring surrounds the hole region and has at least one inlet opening. The first gas conveyance duct has an outlet which is aligned with the inlet opening of the collar ring, a gas flow flowing out of the outlet having a main flow direction which is directed past a centre point of the collar ring.
US09111969B2
Provided is a seal member according to embodiments. The seal member is disposed between an upper electrode and a backing plate in an etching apparatus to seal a gap between the upper electrode and the backing plate. In addition, the seal member is configured to include a high heat conductivity member having a heat conductivity higher than that of a first member formed by using siloxane bond and a low resistance member having a resistivity lower than that of the first member.
US09111962B1
Angled directional ion beams are directed to sidewalls of a gate structure that straddles at least one semiconductor fin. The directions of the angled directional ion beams are contained within a vertical plane that is parallel to the sidewalls of the at least one semiconductor. A pair of gate spacers are formed on sidewalls of the gate structure by accumulation of the deposited dielectric material from the angled directional ion beams and without use of an anisotropic etch, while the sidewalls of the semiconductor fins parallel to the directional ion beams remain physically exposed. A selective epitaxy process can be performed to form raised active regions by growing a semiconductor material from the sidewalls of the semiconductor fins.
US09111955B2
An improved base for a NPN bipolar transistor. The base region is formed with Boron and Indium dopants for improved beta early voltage product and reduced base resistance.
US09111935B2
A semiconductor device and method of manufacture are provided. The semiconductor device may include a multiple-patterned layer which may include multiple channels defined by multiple masks. A width of a first channel may be smaller than a width of a second channel. A conductor in the first channel may have a conductor width substantially equivalent to a conductor width of a conductor in the second channel. A spacer dielectric on a channel side may be included. The method of manufacture includes establishing a signal conductor layer including channels defined masks where a first channel may have a first width smaller than a second width of a second channel, introducing a spacer dielectric on a channel side, introducing a first conductor in the first channel having a first conductor width, and introducing a second conductor in the second channel having a second conductor width substantially equivalent to the first conductor width.
US09111934B2
A semiconductor device includes an electric fuse and first and second large area wirings for applying a voltage to the electric fuse. The electric fuse includes a fuse unit which includes an upper-layer fuse wiring, a lower-layer fuse wiring, and a via connecting the upper-layer fuse wiring and the lower-layer fuse wiring, an upper-layer lead-out wiring which connects the upper-layer fuse wiring and the first large area wiring and has a bent pattern, and a lower-layer lead-out wiring which connects the lower-layer fuse wiring and the second large area wiring and has a bent pattern.
US09111928B2
A switch circuit package module includes a semiconductor switch unit and a capacitor unit. The semiconductor switch unit includes sub micro-switch elements. The capacitor unit is arranged at a periphery of the semiconductor switch unit or stacked on a surface of the semiconductor switch unit, such that impedances of commutation loops between the capacitor unit and the sub micro-switch elements are close to or the same with each other.
US09111917B2
A low cost and high performance method for bonding a wafer to an interposer is provided. The technology provides designs and metallization techniques for through via glass applications that is thermal coefficient expansion matched to the glass or synthetic fused quartz substrates. An off-the-shelf glass, such as borosilicate based or Fused Synthetic Quartz, is used with a thick film Cu or Ag and/or a Sodium Ion Enriched (SIE) coating or glass, which may be applied or fired onto the substrate or wafer. Polymer based coatings can be applied in a sequential build-up process for purposes of redistribution of signals from a silicon integrated circuit to the opposite side of the substrate or wafer. Additionally, metallizations can be applied on top of the polymers and patterned to create a multilayer circuit.
US09111911B2
A heat sink includes a flow path through which a cooling medium that cools a heat-producing body flows, the flow path having two flow path wall surfaces that face each other; and a plurality of columnar fins provided on one of the flow path wall surfaces, which is positioned at a side where the heat-producing body is provided, the plurality of columnar fins including a long columnar fin and a short columnar fin, and the other of the flow path wall surfaces having a recess in which a distal end portion of the long columnar fin is inserted.
US09111905B2
A high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) includes a first III-V compound layer. A second III-V compound layer is disposed on the first III-V compound layer and is different from the first III-V compound layer in composition. A carrier channel is located between the first III-V compound layer and the second III-V compound layer. A salicide source feature and a salicide drain feature are in contact with the first III-V compound layer through the second III-V compound layer. A gate electrode is disposed over a portion of the second III-V compound layer between the salicide source feature and the salicide drain feature.
US09111898B2
A substrate for an integrated circuit includes a device wafer having a raw carrier concentration and an epitaxial layer disposed over the device wafer. The epitaxial layer has a first carrier concentration. The first carrier concentration is higher than the raw carrier concentration.
US09111894B2
A semiconductor device comprises a plurality of transistor mismatch circuits formed on a semiconductor wafer; and a characterization circuit formed on the semiconductor wafer. The characterization circuit is coupled to receive input provided by the absolute value circuits simultaneously which themselves receive inputs from the mismatch circuits simultaneously and is configured to output a standard deviation of mismatch between transistors in the mismatch circuits.
US09111889B2
A display device includes a thin film transistor substrate including transistors each controlling the amount of light emission of each pixel and a counter substrate arranged to be placed over the thin film transistor substrate. The thin film transistor substrate includes an insulating substrate as a base material, a circuit layer including the transistors formed on the insulating substrate, an organic layer interposed between two electrodes, and an organic insulating layer arranged between the circuit layer and the organic layer and formed of an organic insulating material formed thicker in each pixel region than in an inter-pixel region.
US09111883B2
The present invention provides a method for evaluating silicon single crystal wherein an amount Δ[C] of carriers generated due to oxygen donors produced when a heat treatment is performed to the silicon single crystal is calculated and evaluated, the amount Δ[C] being calculated from oxygen concentration [Oi] in the silicon single crystal, a temperature T of the heat treatment, a time t of the heat treatment, and an oxygen diffusion coefficient D(T) at the temperature T by using the following relational expression: Δ[C]=α[Oi]5×exp(−β·D(T)·[Oi]·t) (where α and β are constants). As a result, there is provided a method that enables evaluating an amount of carriers generated due to oxygen donors in silicon single crystal in a further versatile manner.
US09111877B2
A method of etching exposed titanium oxide on heterogeneous structures is described and includes a remote plasma etch formed from a fluorine-containing precursor. Plasma effluents from the remote plasma are flawed into a substrate processing region where the plasma effluents may combine with a nitrogen-containing precursor such as an amine (N:) containing precursor. Reactants thereby produced etch, the patterned heterogeneous structures with high titanium oxide selectivity while the substrate is at elevated temperature. Titanium oxide etch may alternatively involve supplying a fluorine-containing precursor and a source of nitrogen-and-hydrogen-containing precursor to the remote plasma. The methods may be used to remove titanium oxide while removing little or no low-K dielectric, polysilicon, silicon nitride or titanium nitride.
US09111873B2
A plasma processing apparatus includes a processing chamber having a plasma processing space therein and a substrate support in the processing chamber at a first end for supporting a substrate. A plasma source is coupled into the processing space and configured to form a plasma at a second end of the processing chamber opposite said first end. The apparatus further includes a magnetic grid having an intensity of a magnetic flux therein, a plurality of passageways penetrating from a first side to a second side, a thickness, a transparency, a passageway aspect ratio, and a position within the processing chamber between the second end and the substrate. The intensity, the thickness, the transparency, the passageway aspect ratio, and the position are configured to cause electrons having energies above an acceptable maximum level to divert from the direction. A method of obtaining low average electron energy flux onto the substrate is also provided.
US09111867B2
A process integration is disclosed for fabricating non-volatile memory (NVM) cells having spacer control gates (108) along with a high-k-metal-poly select gate (121, 123, 127) and one or more additional in-laid high-k metal CMOS transistor gates (121, 124, 128) using a gate-last HKMG CMOS process flow without interfering with the operation or reliability of the NVM cells.
US09111861B2
An embodiment of the current disclosure includes a method of providing a substrate, forming a polysilicon layer over the substrate, forming a first photoresist layer on the polysislicon layer, creating a first pattern on the first photoresist layer, wherein some portions of the polysilicon layer are covered by the first photoresist layer and some portions of the polysilicon layer are not covered by the first photoresist layer, implanting ions into the portions of the polysilicon layer that are not covered by the first photoresist layer, removing the first photoresist layer from the polysilicon layer, forming a second photoresist layer on the polysilicon layer, creating a second pattern on the second photoresist layer, and implanting ions into the portions of the polysilicon layer that are not covered by the second photoresist layer, removing the second photoresist layer from the polysilicon layer, and removing portions of the polysilicon layer using an etchant.
US09111855B2
A shift register memory according to the present embodiment includes a magnetic pillar including a plurality of magnetic layers and a plurality of nonmagnetic layers provided between the magnetic layers adjacent to each other. A stress application part applies a stress to the magnetic pillar. A magnetic-field application part applies a static magnetic field to the magnetic pillar. The stress application part applies the stress to the magnetic pillar in order to transfer magnetization states of the magnetic layers in a stacking direction of the magnetic layers.
US09111840B2
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention disclose a semiconductor device and a method of fabricating the same. The semiconductor device includes a gallium nitride substrate, a plurality of semiconductor stacks disposed on the gallium nitride substrate, and an insulation pattern disposed between the gallium nitride substrate and the plurality of semiconductor stacks, the insulation pattern insulating the semiconductor stacks from the gallium nitride substrate.
US09111838B2
The inventors disclose a new high performance optical sensor, preferably of nanoscale dimensions, that functions at room temperature based on an extraordinary optoconductance (EOC) phenomenon, and preferably an inverse EOC (I-EOC) phenomenon, in a metal-semiconductor hybrid (MSH) structure having a semiconductor/metal interface. Such a design shows efficient photon sensing not exhibited by bare semiconductors. In experimentation with an exemplary embodiment, ultrahigh spatial resolution 4-point optoconductance measurements using Helium-Neon laser radiation reveal a strikingly large optoconductance property, an observed maximum measurement of 9460% EOC, for a 250 nm device. Such an exemplary EOC device also demonstrates specific detectivity higher than 5.06×1011 cm√Hz/W for 632 nm illumination and a high dynamic response of 40 dB making such sensors technologically competitive for a wide range of practical applications.
US09111835B2
A solid-state imaging device includes a pixel region in which shared pixels which share pixel transistors in a plurality of photoelectric conversion portions are two-dimensionally arranged. The shared pixel transistors are divisionally arranged in a column direction of the shared pixels, the pixel transistors shared between neighboring shared pixels are arranged so as to be horizontally reversed or/and vertically crossed, and connection wirings connected to a floating diffusion portion, a source of a reset transistor and a gate of an amplification transistor in the shared pixels are arranged along the column direction.
US09111834B2
A solid-state imaging device includes a pixel region in which shared pixels which share pixel transistors in a plurality of photoelectric conversion portions are two-dimensionally arranged. The shared pixel transistors are divisionally arranged in a column direction of the shared pixels, the pixel transistors shared between neighboring shared pixels are arranged so as to be horizontally reversed or/and vertically crossed, and connection wirings connected to a floating diffusion portion, a source of a reset transistor and a gate of an amplification transistor in the shared pixels are arranged along the column direction.
US09111826B2
An image pickup device includes a transparent member, an image pickup element chip including a photodiode, and a fixing member arranged around the image pickup element chip, a space being surrounded by the transparent member, the image pickup element chip, and the fixing member. The image pickup element chip includes a semiconductor substrate including a penetrating electrode penetrating through a first main face of the semiconductor substrate on a side of the transparent member and a second main face of the semiconductor substrate opposite the first main face. In an orthogonal projection with respect to the transparent member, the penetrating electrode is arranged in a fixing area corresponding to the fixing member, and a boundary with an area where the thickness of the semiconductor substrate is smaller than that of the semiconductor substrate in a first area corresponding to the space is arranged within the fixing area.
US09111824B2
An image sensor is provided which is capable of holding data for one frame period or longer and conducting a difference operation with a small number of elements. A photosensor is provided in each of a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix, each pixel accumulates electric charge in a data holding portion for one frame period or longer, and an output of the photosensor changes in accordance with the electric charge accumulated in the data holding portion. As a writing switch element for the data holding portion, a transistor with small leakage current (sufficiently smaller than 1×10−14 A) is used. As an example of the transistor with small leakage current, there is a transistor having a channel formed in an oxide semiconductor layer.
US09111823B2
An image sensor having a sensor array area, a circuit area around the sensor array area, and a pad area adjacent to the circuit area includes a substrate, a multi-layer wiring structure including a plurality of wiring layers on a first surface of the substrate in the circuit area, at least one well in the substrate in the circuit area, and metal wiring that extends on a second surface of the substrate opposite to the first surface, from the pad area to the circuit area, and extends from the second surface into contacts with the at least one well.
US09111815B2
An embodiment of the disclosed technology provides a pixel structure, comprising a TFT, a reflective region and a transmissive region, wherein the reflective region comprises a reflective region insulation layer, a reflection layer on the reflective region insulation layer and a reflective region pixel electrode on the reflection layer, and the transmissive region comprises a transmissive region pixel electrode, wherein the reflective region pixel electrode and the transmissive region pixel electrode form an integral structure, and the integral structure of the pixel electrodes is connected with the drain electrode of the TFT, wherein the organic layer in the reflective region is formed on an array substrate prior to a gate electrode of the TFT, and the reflection layer in the reflective region and the gate electrode of the TFT are formed in a same patterning process by using a same metal layer.
US09111812B2
Disclosed is a flexible display device and method of manufacturing the same in which a method of manufacturing a flexible display device may include forming a sacrificial layer on a support substrate, the sacrificial layer including at least one barrier layer and a separation layer, the barrier layer having a higher hydrogen content than that of the separation layer; forming a first flexible substrate on the support substrate provided with the sacrificial layer; forming a plurality of device elements on the first flexible substrate; and irradiating a laser onto the sacrificial layer through the support substrate and separating the support substrate from the first substrate.
US09111809B2
A circuit substrate includes, on an insulating substrate, a plurality of devices, a plurality of conductive layers connected in one-to-one correspondence with the devices, and an insulating layer provided between the devices and the conductive layers. The insulating layer includes a first insulating layer covering the devices, a second insulating layer formed on the first insulating layer, and a plurality of contact holes each passing through the first and second insulating layers in a thickness direction thereof. Side surfaces of the first and second insulating layers contact each other in at least part of the inside of each contact hole. Each conductive layer extends along an upper surface of the second insulating layer, at least a part of a side surface of the contact hole in which the side surfaces of the first and second insulating layers contact each other, and a bottom surface of the contact hole.
US09111801B2
Integrated circuit devices and fabrication techniques. A semiconductor device fabrication method may include doping, in a same processing step, first and second portions of a substrate of an integrated circuit. The first portion corresponds to a doped region of a semiconductor device. The second portion corresponds to a via contact. The method may further include, after the doping, forming the gate of the semiconductor device.
US09111793B2
A method including identifying a first connection location on a chip having a first connection type and a second connection location on the chip having a second connection type, applying a first solder alloy to the first connection location, heating the first solder alloy to a temperature sufficient to cause the first solder alloy to reflow, applying a second solder alloy to the second connection location, and heating the second solder alloy to a temperature sufficient to cause the second solder alloy to reflow.
US09111779B2
A resistor is formed on field oxide with a portion of the resistor body configured to overlap an active region in an integrated circuit (IC) substrate to provide heatsinking for the resistor body. In one embodiment, cooling fingers extend from the resistor body beyond the field oxide to overlap the active region. In another embodiment, minor areas of the resistor body overlap the active region. The resistor body may be formed of polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon), silicided polysilicon, or metal. An oxide having greater thermal conductance than the field oxide is formed between the overlapping parts of the resistor body and the active region.
US09111778B2
Light emitting diode (LED) devices, systems, and methods are disclosed. In one aspect, an illumination panel can be configured to provide backlighting for a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel. The illumination panel can include one or more LEDs arranged in an array. The one or more LEDs can be attached using metal-to-metal die attach methods over an illumination panel, or attached within packages disposed over the illumination panel. In one aspect, the one or more LEDs can be attached using robust metal-to-metal die attach techniques and/or materials disclosed herein.
US09111757B2
Systems including and methods for forming a backplane for an electronic display are presented. The backplane includes interlaced crystallized regions, and the interlaced crystallized regions include at least a left column of crystallized regions and a right column of crystallized regions. The left and right columns include rows of crystallized regions with gaps disposed between each of the rows. Furthermore, each crystallized region in the left column extends into a corresponding gap in the right column, and each crystallized region in the right column extends into a corresponding gap in the left column.
US09111753B2
A method includes forming a stress compensation layer over a first side of a semiconductor substrate and forming a Group III-nitride layer over a second side of the substrate. Stress created on the substrate by the Group III-nitride layer is at least partially reduced by stress created on the substrate by the stress compensation layer. Forming the stress compensation layer could include forming a stress compensation layer from amorphous or microcrystalline material. Also, the method could include crystallizing the amorphous or microcrystalline material during subsequent formation of one or more layers over the second side of the substrate. Crystallizing the amorphous or microcrystalline material could occur during subsequent formation of the Group III-nitride layer and/or during an annealing process. The amorphous or microcrystalline material could create no or a smaller amount of stress on the substrate, and the crystallized material could create a larger amount of stress on the substrate.
US09111746B2
A method for performing a spacer etch process is described. The method includes providing a gate structure on a substrate having a low-k spacer material conformally applied over the gate structure, and performing a spacer etch process sequence to partially remove the spacer material from the gate structure and the substrate, while retaining a sidewall spacer positioned along a sidewall of the gate structure. The spacer etch process sequence may include depositing a spacer protection layer on an exposed surface of said spacer material, and performing one or more etching processes to selectively and anisotropically remove the spacer protection layer and the spacer material to leave behind the sidewall spacer on the sidewall of the gate structure, wherein, while being partly or fully consumed by the one or more etching processes, the spacer protection layer exhibits a reduced variation in composition and/or dielectric constant.
US09111740B2
A mass spectrometer is disclosed comprising an Electron Transfer Dissociation device comprising an ion guide. A control system determines the degree of fragmentation and charge reduction of precursor ions within the ion guide and varies the speed at which ions are transmitted through the ion guide in order to optimize the fragmentation and charge reduction process.
US09111726B2
A plasma processing apparatus includes a processing chamber, a stage, a dielectric member, a microwave introduction device, an injector, and an electric field shield. The processing chamber has a processing space therein. The stage is provided within the processing chamber. The dielectric member has a through hole and is provided to face the stage. The microwave introduction device is configured to introduce microwave into the processing space via the dielectric member. The injector has at least one through hole and is made of a dielectric material, e.g., a bulk dielectric material. The injector is provided within the dielectric member. The injector and the through hole of the dielectric member form a path for supplying a processing gas into the processing space. The electric field shield encloses the injector.
US09111725B2
A physical vapor deposition system may include an RF generator configured to transmit an AC process signal to a physical vapor deposition chamber via an RF matching network. A detector circuit may be configured to sense the AC process signal and output a DC magnitude error signal and a DC phase error signal. A controller may be coupled to the detector circuit and the RF matching network and configured to receive the DC magnitude and phase error signals and to vary an impedance of the RF matching network in response to the DC magnitude and phase error signals.
US09111723B2
Embodiments of the present application disclose a linear plasma source applied to the field of solar cell production. A linear plasma source comprising a housing which forms a reaction chamber having an outlet; a gas intake system comprising an internal pipeline which is mounted on the housing and located inside the reaction chamber for releasing reaction gas into the reaction chamber; an electrode system comprising at least two electrode plates which are mounted on the housing and located around the internal pipeline within the reaction chamber; and an electromagnetism system comprising an electromagnetic coil, and the electromagnetic coil is mounted at the outlet of the reaction chamber of the housing and has a plasma outlet. The embodiments of the present application have a simple structure, a low production cost, a good uniformity and a high film compactness.
US09111716B2
The ionized gas supplied to the emitter tip of a gas field ionization ion source is cooled and purified to enable supplying a reliable and stable ion beam. Impurities contained in the ionized gas destabilize the field ionization ion source. The invention is configured to include a first heat exchanger thermally connected to a part of the field ionization ion source, a cryocooler capable of cooling a second gas line and a cold head, the second gas line being connected to the first heat exchanger and circulating a refrigerant, and a second heat exchanger that cools the first and second gas lines and is connected to the cold head.
US09111714B2
Provided is a backward-wave oscillator in a communication system, including a waveguide formed of a metamaterial. A unit structure of the waveguide may include: a top plate; a short-circuited stub; a bottom plate separated at a predetermined gap from the top plate, and having the short-circuited stub formed in the center thereof; a first metal pillar connecting the top plate at a first port positioned on one surface based on the short-circuited stub to the bottom plate at a second port positioned on the opposite surface of the first port based on the short-circuited stub; and a second metal pillar separated from the first metal pillar, and connecting the top plate at the second port to the bottom plate at the first port.
US09111709B2
A reset rod (43) of a thermal overload relay is configured to be switchable between a manual reset position in which a reversal mechanism (21) is manually returned to an initial state prior to reversal by performing a pushing-in operation, and an automatic reset position in which a pushed-in state is held by a pushing and rotating operation from this manual reset position, and the reversal mechanism (21) is automatically returned to the initial position. In addition, axial runout restriction portions (17b, 17d, 51, 46 and 47), which restrict axial runout of the reset rod (43) when the reset rod (43) is held in the automatic reset position, are provided.
US09111704B2
A rotary paddle level switch has a housing, a driving unit, two switches, a resilient member, a clutch, a transmission shaft, and a propeller. A resilient clip of the clutch holds a non-circular actuation section of the transmission shaft. When the driving unit drives the clutch to rotate, the transmission shaft and the propeller are driven by the clutch. When the propeller is rapidly rotated by suddenly exerting an excessively large external force thereon, as the resilient clip holds the transmission shaft by elastic force, the fast rotating transmission shaft removes itself from the holding of the resilient clip and is rotated without driving the resilient clip to rotate, thereby avoiding the transmission of the external force and damage to the driving unit. As the clutch just needs a clutch stand and a resilient clip to achieve the foregoing function, the level switch is structurally simple and relatively inexpensive.
US09111701B2
A rubber key comprising: a key top portion having a rectangular shape in planar view; a skirt portion formed along a perimeter of the key top portion; and a contact portion projecting within the skirt portion from the key top portion on a same side of the skirt portion in a convex state in a length direction of the key top portion, wherein a shortest distance from the contact portion to a virtual plane defined by a ring of an edge of the skirt portion is longer as measured at a portion closer to a center of the key top portion in the length direction than at a portion closer to an end of the key top portion in the length direction.
US09111697B2
Each outermost part of fixed-side connection conductors, fixed-side fixed contacts, movable-side fixed contacts, and movable-side connection conductors are placed outside of an outermost diameter of a fixed-side conductor and a movable-side conductor, as viewed from an axis line of the fixed-side conductor and the movable-side conductor as a center. This arrangement provides a power switchgear that can diminish mutual effects of currents among conduction parts to suppress decrease in a current-carrying capacity for each of the conduction parts and to increase a current-carrying capacity for a total of the conduction parts, without increasing the size of the switchgear.
US09111693B2
This invention provides a method of manufacture of the electrochemical system of the electric double layer prismatic capacitor from electrically connected in parallel of semi-wound packages of micro/mesoporous carbon composite electrode pairs separated by porous cage. According to the method the pre-made carbon film will be covered with a layer of aluminum foil layer using a vacuum deposition method thus forming a current collector of an electrochemical system. Subsequently the pairs of electrodes are formed from a carbon composite electrode which are wounded or flipped to flat packages so that the ends of current collectors protruding from folded packages are joined together in parallel and thereafter the ends of current collectors are connected correspondingly to the positive and negative current terminal of the electric double layer capacitor.
US09111688B2
A method for collectively fabricating a reconstituted wafer comprising chips exhibiting connection pads on a front face of the chip, comprises: positioning the chips on an initial adhesive support, front face on the support, vapor deposition at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature, of an electrically insulating layer on the initial support and the chips, having a mechanical role of holding the chips, transfer of the chips covered with the mineral layer onto a provisional adhesive support, rear face of the chips toward this provisional adhesive support, removal of the initial adhesive support, overlaying the chips onto a support of “chuck” type, front faces of the chips toward this support, removal of the provisional adhesive support, deposition of a resin on the support of “chuck” type to encapsulate the chips, and then polymerization of the resin, removal of the support of “chuck” type, production of an RDL layer active face side.
US09111687B2
An electrolyte composition for a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is provided, which includes a redox couple solution and inorganic nanoparticles. The surface of the inorganic nanoparticle may have a substituted or unsubstituted silane group, an ether group, a substituted amino group, a carbonyl group, an ester group, an amide group or a combination thereof.
US09111684B2
To provide a non-aqueous electrolyte storage element, including: a positive electrode which includes a positive-electrode active material capable of intercalating or deintercalating anions; a negative electrode which includes a negative-electrode active material capable of storing or releasing metallic lithium or lithium ion, or both thereof; a first separator between the positive electrode and the negative electrode; and a non-aqueous electrolyte which includes a non-aqueous solvent and a lithium salt dissolved in the non-aqueous solvent, wherein the non-aqueous electrolyte storage element includes a solid lithium salt at 25° C. and a discharge voltage of 4.0 V, wherein the non-aqueous electrolyte storage element includes an ion-exchange membrane between the first separator and the positive electrode, between the first separator and the negative electrode, or between the first separator and the positive electrode and between the first separator and the negative electrode.
US09111683B2
A dielectric ceramic that contains, as its main constituent, main-phase grains including a perovskite-type compound containing Ba, Ca, and Ti; first heterogeneous-phase grains containing Ca, a rare-earth element, and Si; and second heterogeneous-phase grains containing no Ca and containing the rare-earth element and Si. The second heterogeneous-phase grains are present in the dielectric ceramic in a ratio of 0.05 or less (including 0) of the number of the second heterogeneous-phase grains to the total of the first heterogeneous-phase grains and the second heterogeneous-phase grains. In the first heterogeneous-phase grains, the content of Ca is preferably 8% or more in terms of molar ratio with respect to the total content of Ca, the rare-earth element, and Si.
US09111680B2
The invention relates to a process for producing electrolytic capacitors with low equivalent series resistance, low residual current and high thermal stability, which consist of a solid electrolyte and an outer layer comprising conjugated polymers, to electrolytic capacitors produced by this process and to the use of such electrolylic capacitors.
US09111676B2
A parallel stacked symmetrical and differential inductor and manufacturing method of the same is disclosed. The parallel stacked symmetrical and differential inductor is disposed on a substrate and comprises at least one first conductive layer (202, 204) disposed on an insulating layer and at least one subsequent conductive layer (206, 208) disposed on a plurality of insulating layers stacked under the at least one first conductive layer (202, 204). The at least one first conductive layer (202, 204) and each of the at least one subsequent conductive layer (206, 208) are electrically connected by a first plurality of conductive plugs (214) in a winding region (104). Each of the at least one subsequent conductive layer (206, 208) are electrically connected by a second plurality of conductive plugs (212) in a bridge region (102).
US09111671B2
System and method for providing precision a self calibrating resistance circuit is described that provides for matching a reference resistor using dynamically configurable resistance networks. The resistor network is coupled to the connection, wherein the resistor network provides a configurable resistance across the connection. In addition, the resistor network comprises a digital resistor network and an analog resistor network. Also, the circuit includes control circuitry for configuring the configurable resistance based on a reference resistance of the reference resistor. The configurable resistance is configured by coarsely tuning the resistor network through the digital resistor network and fine tuning the resistor network through the analog resistor network.
US09111660B2
Disclosed are a method for manufacturing a nonmagnetic high-nitrogen steel wire, and an overhead power line adopting the high-nitrogen steel wire as the core thereof. According to one embodiment, the method for manufacturing high-nitrogen steel wire comprises the steps of injecting argon (Ar) gas to reach atmospheric pressure after having first adjusted the pressure to 6×10−5 torr for an initial vacuum using a pressurized vacuum induction melting (VIM) furnace; and injecting nitrogen gas to reach a pressure of 2 atmospheres after having first adjusted the pressure to 6×10−5 torr for a second vacuum, and melting a nitrogen steel alloy consisting of 25 to 35 wt % of Mn, 25 to 35 wt % of Cr, 10 to 20 wt % of Ni, 0.5 to 1.0 wt % of C, and 20 to 35 wt % of Fe, which are alloy elements constituting nitrogen steel. The high-nitrogen steel wire manufactured in this manner has a nitrogen content ratio higher than 12,000 ppm, excellent mechanical strength, and nonmagnetic characteristics. By using this high-nitrogen steel wire, an overhead aluminum power line with a nonmagnetic steel core for reducing power loss and increasing power transmission capacity can be provided.
US09111659B2
Electrodes of a solar cell formed by an active solder and a method therefor are provided. The method includes steps of: providing a solar cell substrate; providing an active solder having at least one type of soldering alloy mixed with 6 wt % or less of at least one type of active component and 0.01-2.0 wt % of at least one type of rare earth element (Re); firstly melting the active solder at a temperature lower than 450° C.; then applying the molten active solder on the solar cell substrate (or firstly applying and then melting); and cooling to solidify the active solder, so as to form an electrode pattern.
US09111657B2
The invention relates to a charged particle optical device for manipulating a trajectory of multiple beamlets of charged particles. Said charged particle optical device comprising an electromagnetic deflector comprising a planar substrate having an upper side and a lower side of said substrate, and an even thickness. The substrate comprises: a through opening for passing said beamlets there through, wherein said through opening debouches in the upper and lower side of said substrate; a first and a second coil, wherein each of said coils preferably is a substantially helical coil and comprises conducting upper leads arranged at the upper side, conducting lower leads arranged at the lower side, and vias extending through said substrate and which conductively connect one of said upper leads with one of said lower leads for forming said coil; wherein said first and second coils are arranged on either side of the through opening.
US09111651B2
Disclosed is a heat exchanger for a passive residual heat removal system, which improves heat transfer efficiency by expanding a heat transfer area. A heat exchange tube includes a first member connected to a steam pipe through which steam generated from a steam generator of a nuclear reactor circulates, and a second member connected to both of the first member and a feed water pipe used to supply water to the steam generator provided in the nuclear reactor, and the first member has the shape different from that of the second member, thereby expanding the heat transfer area so that the heat transfer efficiency is improved.
US09111642B2
A non-volatile memory device is provided, which includes a first block for storing a first data group including a test data, a second block for storing a second data group including a complementary data to the first data group, a differential sense amplifier for generating an output value based on a difference between two input signals, a diagnostic circuit for performing a failure diagnosis using a value from the differential sense amplifier, and a control circuit which performs control such that a signal based on the test data and the complementary data is set to the input signal of the differential sense amplifier and the diagnostic circuit executes a failure diagnosis of the differential sense amplifier. The non-volatile memory device performs a failure diagnosis with high reliability capable of distinguishing between a failure of sense amplifier and a failure of a memory cell.
US09111639B2
A non-volatile memory (NVM) system has a normal mode, a standby mode and an off mode that uses less power than the standby mode. The NVM system includes an NVM array that includes NVM cells and NVM peripheral circuitry. Each NVM cell includes a control gate. A controller is coupled to the NVM array, applies a voltage to the control gates and power to the peripheral circuitry during the standby mode, and applies an off-mode voltage to the control gates and removes power from the NVM peripheral circuitry during the off mode.
US09111623B1
A resistive memory sensing method includes sensing outputs of an offset-cancelling dual stage sensing circuit (OCDS-SC) by an NMOS offset-cancelling current latched sense amplifier circuit (NOC-CLSA). The NOC-CLSA is configured with a reduced input capacitance and a reduced offset voltage. Input transistors of the NOC-CLSA are coupled between latch circuitry and ground. A first phase output of the OCDS-SC is stored by the NOC-CLSA during a pre-charge step of the NOC-CLSA operation. A second phase output of the OCDS-SC is stored by the NOC-CLSA during an offset-cancelling step of the NOC-CLSA operation. By pipelining the OCDS-SC and NOC-CLSA, a sensing delay penalty of the OCDS-SC is overcome.
US09111621B2
A memory device such as a solid state memory device have a dual-hardware, secure erase feature. A memory controller operating in a memory controller domain provides general memory management and interface operons. Upon receipt of a trigger signal which may be received from a secure supervisor circuit, a separate processor element that is configured to directly access the raw memory cells in the device bypasses the memory controller domain and executes a separately provided secure erase operating system whereby the raw cell data may be erased and rewritten with a predetermined data pattern and whereby the erase operation at the raw cell level may be verified and reported to the user by the processor.
US09111613B2
An adaptive reading and programming method is presented for resistive memory. The core operating principle is to cause a change in the conductance of a resistive memory cell and measure the magnitude of the change. The magnitude of change can be used to determine the logic state of the resistive memory cell. The proposed methods are evaluated in simulation programs with integrated circuit emphasis and a hand analysis model is extracted to help explain the sources of power and energy consumption.
US09111610B2
A method of driving a nonvolatile memory element including a variable resistance element having a state reversibly changing between low and high resistance states by an applied electrical signal and a transistor serially connected to the variable resistance element. The method including: setting the variable resistance element to the low resistance state by applying a first gate voltage to a gate of the transistor and applying a first write voltage negative with respect to a first electrode; and changing a resistance value of the transistor obtained in a low-resistance write operation, when a value of current passing through the variable resistance element in the setting of the low resistance state or a resistance value of the nonvolatile memory element in the case where the variable resistance element is in the low resistance state is outside a predetermined range.
US09111592B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor storage device of an embodiment of the present disclosure is provided with peripheral circuits, a memory cell array, upper bit lines, and first and second connecting parts. The memory cell array is disposed above the peripheral circuit, and includes at least first and second regions. The upper bit lines extend in a first direction and are above the memory cell array. The first and second connecting parts are respectively provided with contact plugs, and one of these connecting parts is formed between first and second regions. The upper bit lines includes a first group of upper bit lines which are connected to the peripheral circuits via the first connecting part, and a second group of upper bit lines which are connected to the peripheral circuits via the second connecting part.
US09111591B2
Apparatuses and methods for interconnections for 3D memory are provided. One example apparatus can include a stack of materials including a plurality of pairs of materials, each pair of materials including a conductive line formed over an insulation material. The stack of materials has a stair step structure formed at one edge extending in a first direction. Each stair step includes one of the pairs of materials. A first interconnection is coupled to the conductive line of a stair step, the first interconnection extending in a second direction substantially perpendicular to a first surface of the stair step.
US09111589B2
Disclosed are various apparatuses and methods for a memory with a multiple word line design. A memory timing circuit may include a dummy word line including a first portion and a second portion and further including capacitative loading that is lumped in the second portion of the dummy word line, a first transistor connected to the first portion of the dummy word line and configured to charge the dummy word line, and a second transistor connected to the second portion of the dummy word line and configured to discharge the dummy word line. A method may include charging a dummy word line using a first transistor, and discharging the dummy word line using a second transistor, wherein the dummy word line includes a first portion and a second portion and further includes capacitative loading that is lumped in the second portion of the dummy word line.
US09111588B2
A memory die for use in a multi-die stack having at least one other die. The memory die includes a plurality of contacts arranged in a field and configured to interface to the other dies of the multi-die stack. A first subset of the buffer lines of a number of buffer lines are connected to respective contacts in the field. The memory die also includes a number of buffers and cross-bar lines. The buffers are coupled between respective signal lines and respective buffer lines. The cross-bar lines interconnect respective pairs of buffer lines in a second subset of the buffer lines that is distinct from the first subset of the buffer lines.
US09111585B2
An electrostatic discharge apparatus for use with a hub and spindle assembly for a disc drive storage system comprising a spindle; a hub rotatably mounted on the spindle; a capsule formed at least in part from an electrically conductive material that can be placed in electrical communication with the hub and defining a chamber configured to hold an electrically conductive fluid and defining at least one capillary channel in fluid communication with an opening formed in the capsule, the opening configured to permit rotation about the spindle, and to permit a meniscus formed by the conductive fluid proximate to the opening to electrically contact the spindle during rotation of the hub about the spindle.
US09111575B1
A data storage device is disclosed comprising a head actuated over a disk and a vibration detector configured to generate a vibration signal in response to a vibration affecting the data storage device. A timing loop is configured to generate a disk-locked clock substantially synchronized to a rotation frequency of the disk. An adaptation control signal is generated based on the vibration signal and an error signal of the timing loop. An adaptive filter is adapted based on the adaptation control signal, wherein the adaptive filter filters the vibration signal to generate feed-forward compensation values. The feed-forward compensation values are applied to the timing loop to compensate for the vibration.
US09111574B2
Various embodiments provide a data storage device. The data storage device includes a recording medium having a dedicated servo layer for providing servo information. The dedicated servo layer may include a plurality of servo patterns, wherein each servo pattern includes a preamble providing information for synchronization of at least one of a read and a write operation of the data storage device.
US09111569B2
Access point pictures designated as randomly accessible positions are I pictures or P pictures. Information indicating the decoding sequence (I1, P1, B1, B2, B3, B4, P2, . . . ) of pictures functioning as access points and attribute information (picture_type) indicating whether a picture functions as an access point or is necessary for decoding of the access point following a given access point are recorded on the video information recording medium. Random access is possible even if the GOP interval is lengthened.
US09111566B2
A carbon film forming method including a step in which, inside a film formation chamber provided with a filamentous cathode electrode, an anode electrode disposed around the perimeter of the cathode electrode, and a substrate holder disposed at a position that is separated from the cathode electrode, a disk-like substrate that has a central aperture is disposed in the substrate holder so that one surface of the substrate is opposite the cathode electrode, and a columnar member that has a diameter equal to or greater than a diameter of the central aperture and that has a height equal to or greater than the diameter is disposed with clearance from the cathode electrode and the substrate so that its central axis is coaxial with a central axis of the substrate, one of its circular surfaces is oriented toward the cathode electrode, and its other circular surface is parallel to the one surface of the substrate; and a step in which carbon film is formed on the one surface of the substrate by causing emission of carbon ions from the cathode electrode side toward the substrate side after the interior of the film formation chamber has been evacuated.
US09111563B2
A storage device has a device body and a read/write head for reading and writing data in a data track of a storage medium. An actuator system is mounted on the device body for effecting movement of the read/write head relative to the data track to align the head with the data track. The actuator system has a plurality of degrees of freedom, and a controller controls the actuator system to effect the movement. A body vibration sensor provided on the device body generates a signal indicative of vibration of the body. An actuator vibration sensor generates a signal indicative of vibration of the actuator system. The controller is adapted to process the signals from the sensors to derive a coupling signal indicative of vibration coupling between the degrees of freedom, and to control the actuator system dependent on the coupling signal and the signal from the body vibration sensor.
US09111541B1
Methods and systems for handling speech recognition processing in effectively real-time, via the Internet, in order that users do not experience noticeable delays from the start until they receive responsive feedback. A user uses a client to access the Internet and a server supporting speech recognition processing. The user inputs speech to the client, which transmits the user speech to the server in approximate real-time. The server evaluates the user speech using processing level based on the value received from each client.
US09111539B1
A computer-implemented method of generating a voice command to perform an action includes receiving a voice request to perform the action, wherein the voice request comprises first audio information for one or more first data fields associated with the action; generating a GUI that when rendered on a display device comprises a prompt message prompting a user to speak second audio information for one or more second data fields associated with the action; and inserting into the one or more second data fields data indicative of one or more of (i) the first audio information, and (ii) the second audio information.
US09111537B1
An audio recognition service recognizes an audio sample across multiple content types. At least a partial set of results generated by the service are returned to a client while the audio sample is still being recorded and/or transmitted. The client additionally displays the results in real-time or near real-time to the user. The audio sample can be sent over a first HTTP connection and the results can be returned over a second HTTP connection. The audio recognition service further processes check-in selections received from the client for content items indicated by the results. Responsive to receiving the check-in selections, the service determines whether a user is eligible for a reward. If the user is eligible, the service provides the reward.
US09111515B2
A device, to facilitate a user control of a computer system, includes a movable portion movable by a fluid flow of a generated by a user of the device, and a converter to convert movement of the movable portion into an electrical signal to facilitate control of the computer system.
US09111514B2
A storage stores at least one set of registration data comprising a plurality of tone setting parameters. An instruction section instructs readout of the registration data set from the storage. A controller makes a setting such that the parameters in the registration data set are used in response to an instruction for reading out the registration data set, and makes a setting such that at least one or some of the tone setting parameters in the one set of registration data are used at delayed readout timing later than a time point at which the instruction has been issued. Thus, two or more sub-sets of the parameters in the registration data set can be set to be used at mutually different timing. Namely, a sub-set of the parameters can be set to be used at delayed readout timing later than a time at which a readout instruction has been issued.
US09111511B2
A back plate attachable to the back of a guitar is provided. The plate includes screw holes and string ferrule holes. The screw holes of the plate align with the screw holes on a guitar, and the string ferrule holes of the plate align with the string ferrule holes of the guitar. The plate may be bolted or screwed to the back of the guitar via the screw holes. Guitar strings may run through the string ferrule holes of the plate and guitar and attach to the pegs of the guitar.
US09111507B2
A 2D-3D switchable autostereoscopic display device has an imaging arrangement (109) electrically switchable between a 2D mode and a 3D mode, which comprises in-plane switching electrodes comprising coplanar parallel electrode lines. The electrode lines are arranged as a plurality of sets of parallel lines, each set defining a lenticular lens area. Each set comprises first electrode lines at the opposite boundaries between the lens area and adjacent lens areas, and at least a first pair of electrode lines disposed between the opposite boundaries and symmetrical about the centre of the lens area, wherein each set comprises at most six electrode lines between the opposite boundaries. This provides an electrode layout which is simple to manufacture and yet has been found to provide good optical lens quality.
US09111506B2
A display device includes a plurality of pixels arranged in matrix, a plurality of gate lines, a plurality of data lines, and a gate driver connected to the plurality of gate lines. The gate driver receives a first scan start signal, a second scan start signal and clock signals and outputs a gate-on voltage to each of the plurality of gate lines. The gate driver outputs the gate-on voltage to the plurality of gate lines such that the gate-on voltages do not overlap with each other when the gate driver receives the first scan start signal. The gate driver outputs the gate-on voltage to at least two of the gate lines at substantially the same time when the gate driver receives the second scan start signal.
US09111503B2
In each pixel formation portion of a display device, an amplification electrode is provided which is connected to a drain electrode of a thin-film transistor whose gate electrode is connected to a gate bus line and whose source electrode is connected to a source bus line. A second-capacitor is formed by the amplification electrode and a pixel electrode. A selection period is constituted by a precharge period and an amplification period. In the precharge period, a video signal potential is applied to the pixel electrode and a potential of a control wire is applied to the amplification electrode. In the amplification period, a video signal potential is applied to the amplification electrode with the pixel electrode being in a floating state.
US09111500B2
Methods and devices employing circuitry for quickly discharging pixels of a display before the display is turned off are provided. In one example, a method may include receiving at the electronic display a signal indicating the electronic display will be powered off within a period of time. The method may also include, in response to the signal, causing a frame of pixel data originating from the electronic display to be stored in pixels of the electronic display before the electronic display is powered off. Storing the frame of pixel data in the pixels may inhibit image artifacts from occurring on the electronic display when the electronic display is powered back on in the future.
US09111499B2
In a liquid crystal display device that performs two-line inversion driving, a difference of a write period of a substantial video signal between a pair of pixel rows scanned with the same polarity is compensated. An input signal pre-processing circuit 42 receives display data DATA and an original data enable signal DTMG, generates and inputs a data enable signal DTMG_R and display data DATA_R to a driver control signal generation block 40. DTMG_R is reduced in the active period, and an interval of the active period between a (2n−1)-th row and a 2n-th row is set to be larger than an interval of the active period between the 2n-th row and a (2n+1)-th row. The input signal pre-processing circuit 42 reads out DATA of each row from a buffer as DATA_R in an active period of DTMG_R.
US09111491B2
An organic light emitting display device includes a display panel including a plurality of pixels having an organic light emitting diode and a pixel circuit; a gate driver to supply the plurality of pixels with a scan signal, a sensing signal, and a driving voltage; a data driver to supply data voltages and a reference voltage to the plurality of pixels in a driving mode, and sense voltages charged into the plurality of pixels in a sensing mode; a discharging driving unit to initialize voltages of a plurality of sensing power lines when the display device switches from the driving mode to the sensing mode; a timing controller to control the gate driver, the data driver, and the discharging driving unit to operate in and switch between the driving mode and the sensing mode; and a memory to store compensation data for the plurality of pixels.
US09111489B2
Disclosed are an organic light emitting display device and a method of driving the same. The organic light emitting display device includes a display panel including a plurality of pixels including a pixel circuit for emitting light from an organic light emitting diode and a driving circuit unit driving the display panel. The driving method includes sensing a characteristic of a driving TFT of each of the pixels of the display panel to generate sensing data according to a user's setting using an input device, at a predetermined compensation driving time, or when an error occurs in sensing data generated by real-time sensing of each pixel of the display panel, and compensating for the characteristic of the driving TFT of each pixel by using the sensing data.
US09111486B2
An organic light emitting display device includes: a scan driver; a data driver; a display unit including pixels located at crossing regions of scan lines and data lines; first power lines coupled between a first power supply and the pixels; at least one second power line located outside the display unit and coupled to a second power supply having a voltage different from a voltage of the first power supply; at least one third power line coupled to a third power supply having a voltage different from the voltage of the first power supply; and fourth power lines coupled to the pixels, wherein the pixels are charged with voltages corresponding to the data signals and the third power supply and are configured to control the amount of current flowing from the first power supply in response to the voltages charges in the pixels.
US09111468B2
A support component comprises a tab configured to be coupled to a bar (as comprises a part of an item to be suspended), the tab including a plurality of openings disposed therethrough and configured to receive an overhead support interface (such as a corresponding flexible link) to thereby provide overhead support to the bar. These openings can be laterally offset from one another to facilitate selecting a particular pitch orientation for the bar. The tab can have a non-circular hole disposed therethrough sized and configured to receive the bar. This hole can include a surface that is configured to key with respect to a corresponding bar surface to thereby prevent the bar from rotating.
US09111465B2
A stylized hanging gift tag includes a decorative main body that is adorned with indicia having a plurality of shapes, colors, patterns and at least one celebratory message. An elongated tether is secured to the top end of the main body and terminates into an expandable bottle attachment loop. A decorative chain is disposed along the back side of the main body and is attached at either end to the sides of the main body.
US09111456B2
An online test platform facilitates the dynamic presentation of practice screens to determine student preparedness for online testing. The platform also facilitates development, delivery, and management of educational tests with interactive participation by students, teachers, proctors, and administrators even when some or all of them are remotely located. The platform may include administrator interfaces, test proctor interfaces, and test taker (e.g. student) interfaces to allow each participant to view, navigate, and interact with aspects of the online test platform that are intended to meet their needs.
US09111444B2
Embodiments of video and LIDAR target detection and tracking system and method for segmenting targets are generally described herein. In some embodiments, the system may perform moving target detection using three-frame difference processing on frames of LIDAR range images of a scene to identify a moving target and determine an initial position estimate for the moving target. The system may also perform segmentation of the moving target using a single frame of the LIDAR range images to generate a segmented target that may include a target mask and target centroid position. After segmentation, moving target registration including motion compensation may be performed by registering the segmented target in multiple LIDAR frames to determine a target position, a target orientation and a target heading. In some embodiments, a three-dimensional model of the moving target may be generated and added to a sequence of video frames.
US09111443B2
There is provided a method for heavy vehicle traffic flow optimization. The method includes determining location information and destination information of qualifying heavy vehicles. The method further includes modifying one or more traffic signal sequences to optimize a traffic flow of the qualifying heavy vehicles responsive to the location information and the destination information. Each of the qualifying heavy vehicles has a respective associated weight greater than a predetermined weight threshold.
US09111442B2
A method, an apparatus and an article of manufacture for incident duration prediction. The method includes obtaining incident data for at least one traffic-related incident in a selected geographic area, obtaining traffic data for the selected geographic area, spatially and temporally associating the at least one traffic-related incident with the traffic data to generate incident duration data for the at least one traffic-related incident, and predicting incident duration of at least one additional traffic-related incident based on the incident duration data for the at least one traffic-related incident.
US09111438B2
According to one aspect, an electronic device adapted to be controlled by an audio accessory. The electronic device includes at least one resonator. Each resonator is tuned to respond to a particular frequency that corresponds to a particular message generated by the audio accessory. When the particular message is received, the corresponding resonator resonates to generate an output signal that controls the electronic device.
US09111434B2
A system and a corresponding method for monitoring the presence of a person in a monitored area, includes a passive radiometer that detects radiation emitted from a predetermined monitored area in a predetermined frequency range between 1 GHz and 100 THz and that generates a radiation signal from the detected radiation, a radiation signal processor that processes the radiation signal and that generates, based on the processed radiation signal, a monitoring signal indicating the presence or absence of a person in the monitored area, and an application controller that controls an application based on the monitoring signal.
US09111431B2
An alarm system at a premises reduces the overall delay in signalling an alarm condition in the presence of an entry delay timer. The alarm system establishes, or commences the establishment of, a network connection prior to the expiry of the entry delay. This allows an alarm message to be quickly dispatched upon expiry of the entry delay timer, or if a tamper condition is sensed.
US09111427B2
A particle detector including a chamber, a first aspirator, a sensor(s), a controller and clean air supply. The controller, when in a detecting mode, receives an indicative signal from the sensor and applies logic to the indicative signal to generate a further signal, and when in the purge mode controls substantial purging of the chamber of sample fluid with clean fluid from the clean fluid supply. The controller receives the indicative signal when the chamber is so purged and if necessary adjusts the logic in response thereto.
US09111409B2
A financial transactions processing system includes a safe (cash automation machine) that performs transactions including at least one of receiving and distributing money. A controller, such as a teller computer, issues instructions to the cash automation machine to perform the transactions. A processor, such as a bank branch CPU, receives data from the cash automation machine and the controller relating to the transactions and analyzes the data. This data can include data relating to at least one of the following: number of transactions, duration of each transaction, type of each transaction, denomination of money distributed and/or received, and date and time of the transactions. The processor (bank branch CPU) can advantageously use this data in a number of ways, including at least one of the following: to accurately and effectively assign teller work schedules, perform or schedule maintenance or repairs, provide economic advantages, etc.
US09111407B2
One-to-many comparisons of callers' voice prints with known voice prints to identify any matches between them. When a customer communicates with a particular entity, such as a customer service center, the system makes a recording of the real-time call including both the customer's and agent's voices. The system segments the recording to extract at least a portion of the customer's voice to create a customer voice print, and it formats the segmented voice print for network transmission to a server. The server compares the customer's voice print with multiple known voice prints to determine any matches, meaning that the customer's voice print and one of the known voice prints are likely from the same person. The identification of any matches can be used for a variety of purposes, such as determining whether to authorize a transaction requested by the customer.
US09111399B2
The present application relates to techniques and equipment for printing documents, inspecting the quality of the documents and correcting for defective printed material in a document processing environment. The present techniques and equipment detect one or more defective pages in a document and uniquely identify the defective document. Once the defective document is identified, it can be removed from a document processing system while continuing the document processing run for subsequent documents in a mailing.
US09111398B2
Disclosed is a layout software routine which automatically creates complex and aesthetically pleasing layouts without any user interaction, though user interaction is possible.
US09111396B2
The present invention discloses a method and apparatus for page proofreading, the method comprising: splitting a document before modification to at least one single page document file before modification and splitting a document after modification to at least one single page document file after modification; adding the at least one single page document before modification into a first page, adding the at least one single page document after modification into a second page; setting correlativity between each of the single page documents before modification in the first page and each of the single page documents after modification in the second page; comparing pixel elements of the previews of the single page document before modification and the single page document after modification for all of the first pages and the second pages that correlated with each other; if there are different parts, displaying the comparison result by marking the different parts.
US09111389B2
An image generation apparatus includes: a pixel-shifted image generation unit which generates a first pixel-shifted image resulting from a process of shifting, based on an input image and a depth map, a pixel in the input image by a shift amount corresponding to the new viewpoint, and a second pixel-shifted image resulting from a process of shifting, by the same shift amount as for the first pixel-shifted image, a pixel in a background edge image included in the input image and containing a pixel located in a background region around an edge of a foreground object; an image fusion unit which fuses the second pixel-shifted image and the first pixel-shifted image to include a background region in the second pixel-shifted image into a hole; and a hole filling unit which fills the hole with pixel information based on the fused pixel-shifted image.
US09111387B2
A color database, in which a mutual correlation is established among an L*a*b*-color-system L*a*b* value as an attribute with respect to a color stimulus, an RGB value, and a sphere radius which is proportional to a color difference and is set in advance as a value indicating a level at that a person can sensuously distinguish between colors, the sphere radius being a radius of a color sphere having the L*a*b* value as a center point in an L*a*b*-color-system color solid, is included, and when the L*a*b* value or RGB value is input to an input unit, display data generation unit refers to the color database to generate display data in which the color sphere having a center point of the L*a*b* value or the L*a*b* value correlated with RGB value is disposed in the L*a*b*-color-system color solid of a line drawing, the color sphere having the correlated sphere radius.
US09111383B2
Computationally implemented methods and systems include receiving augmentation data associated with one or more first augmentations, the one or more first augmentations having been included in a first augmented view of a first actual scene that was remotely displayed at a remote augmented reality (AR) device, displaying one or more second augmentations in a second augmented view of a second actual scene, the displaying of the one or more second augmentations being in response, at least in part, to the augmentation data, and transmitting to the remote AR device usage data that indicates usage information related at least to usage or non-usage of the received augmentation data. In addition to the foregoing, other aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text.
US09111382B2
According to an aspect, a display device includes a display unit, a detecting unit, and a control unit. The display unit stereoscopically displays an aggregation of a plurality of cubes in three-dimensional space. The cubes are arranged along three directions perpendicular to one another. The detecting unit detects moves of objects in the three-dimensional space. The control unit changes a location of each of the cubes according to a detection result of the detecting unit.
US09111371B2
A 3D modeling workflow system is disclosed that allows the user to create multiple 2D planes or paint canvases in the 3D scene each having a position and orientation. These 2D planes can be arbitrarily positioned in the 3D scene and can contain a combination of paint and model construction geometry. The construction geometry can span multiple 2D planes. The user is allowed to sketch on the planes using paint and create curve geometry in and between the planes using the sketches as a reference. Collectively the 2D planes allow a 3D object to be represented with different types of input where portions of the object are drawn in by paint and other or the same portions are composed of geometry. The user can swap between painting on the 2D planes and creating model geometry as needed.
US09111370B2
Buffer display techniques are described. In one or more implementations, at least part of an off-screen buffer is rasterized by an application to generate an item for display by the computing device. One or more communications are formed that describe the part of the off-screen buffer which contains the item that is to be copied to update an onscreen buffer.
US09111361B1
A method and apparatus for an image processing system is provided. A first image and a second image in a sequence of images are registered to a reference image in the sequence of images to form a first registered image and a second registered image, respectively. A double differenced image is formed using the reference image, the first registered image, and the second registered image. A number of moving target signatures in the double differenced image is identified. A moving target signature in the number of moving target signatures comprises a spot of a first type and at least one spot of a second type adjacent to the spot of the first type.
US09111360B2
A tessellation pipeline includes an alpha phase and a beta phase. The alpha phase includes pre-tessellation processing stages, while the beta phase includes post-tessellation processing stages. A processing unit configured to implement a processing stage in the alpha phase stores input graphics data within a buffer and then copies over that buffer with output graphics data, thereby conserving memory resources. The processing unit may also copy output graphics data directly to a level 2 (L2) cache for beta phase processing by other tessellation pipelines, thereby avoiding the need for fixed function copy-out hardware.
US09111355B1
Described is a system for selective color processing for vision systems. The system receives a multi-band image as input. As an optional step, the multi-band image is preprocessed, and a transformation is performed to transform the multi-band image into a color space. A metric function is applied to the transformed image to generate a distance map comprising intensities which vary based on a similarity between an intensity of a pixel color and an intensity of a target color. A contrast enhancement process is applied to the distance map to normalize the distance map to a range of values. The range of values is expanded near the intensity of the target color. Finally, an output response map for the target color of interest is generated, such that the output response map has high responses in regions which are similar to the target color to aid in detection and recognition processes.
US09111353B2
Techniques are disclosed for removing false-positive foreground pixels resulting from environmental illumination effects. The techniques include receiving a foreground image and a background model, and determining an approximated reflectance component of the foreground image based on the foreground image itself and a background model image which is used as a proxy for an illuminance component of the foreground image. Pixels of the foreground image having approximated reflectance values less than a threshold value may be classified as false-positive foreground pixels and removed from the foreground image. Further, the threshold value used may be adjusted based on various factors to account for, e.g., different illumination conditions indoors and outdoors.
US09111350B1
An image converter receives a two-dimensional image to be converted to a first three-dimensional image. The image converter identifies a feature-to-depth mapping function associated with a second three-dimensional image in a data store. The second three-dimensional image shares a characteristic with the two-dimensional image. The image converter determines a depth value for a plurality of pixels of the two-dimensional image according to the feature-to-depth mapping function and generates the first three-dimensional image based on the depth value for the plurality of pixels of the two-dimensional image.
US09111349B2
The claimed subject matter provides for systems and/or methods for identification of instances of an object of interest in 2D images by creating a database of 3D curve models of each desired instance and comparing an image of an object of interest against such 3D curve models of instances. The present application describes identifying and verifying the make and model of a car from a possibly single image—after the models have been populated with training data of test images of many makes and models of cars. In one embodiment, an identification system may be constructed by generating a 3D curve model by back-projecting edge points onto a visual hull reconstruction from silhouettes of an instance. The system and methods employ chamfer distance and orientation distance provides reasonable verification performance, as well as an appearance model for the taillights of the car to increase the robustness of the system.
US09111346B2
An image corresponding to a pattern having a first size is detected from a first detection region in an acquired, first image, and an image corresponding to a pattern having a second size is detected from a second detection region different from the first detection region in the first image.
US09111344B2
An image processing method for image alignment, includes sequentially receiving a plurality of images; generating at least one threshold corresponding to each image according to a plurality of intensities of each image of the plurality of images; converting each image according to the thresholds of each image, for generating a plurality of binary images; acquiring a plurality of characteristic pixels of each binary image according to the plurality of binary images; and aligning the plurality of images according to the plurality of characteristic pixels of each binary image.
US09111341B2
The application provides a method for partitioning a watermark image with western language characters, comprising: partitioning a western language characters image along rows and columns to form a plurality of character image blocks; identifying valid character image blocks from the formed character image blocks; counting sizes of the valid character image blocks to determine if the image corresponds to a document with a large font size or a document with a small font size; dividing words in the image into a plurality of groups, wherein each divided group in the document with large font size has different numbers of words from that with small font size; and dividing equally the divided word groups into multiple portions corresponding to watermark image blocks. The application further provides a device for partitioning a watermark image with western language characters. The operability of watermark embedding process can be ensured through the above technical solution.
US09111336B2
A system that incorporates the subject disclosure may include, for example, partitioning the image into a group of blocks, calculating principle bilateral filtered image components for a first subset of the group of blocks where the principle bilateral filtered image components are not calculated for a second subset of the group of blocks, and applying an infinite impulse response filter to the image using the principle bilateral filtered image components. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09111330B2
Several embodiments of scalable image processing systems and methods are disclosed herein whereby color management processing of source image data to be displayed on a target display is changed according to varying levels of metadata.
US09111326B1
An augmented reality system is configured to identify and track user gestures, sounds, and interaction with physical objects to designate active zones. These active zones may be allocated additional processing and functional resources. Gestures may include particular hand or body motions, orientation of a user's head, and so forth. Sounds may include clapping, clicks, whistles, taps, footfalls, humming, singing, speech, and so forth. Active areas as well as inactive areas of lesser or no interest may be designated as well.
US09111318B1
A daily connection facility is available to the user either through a webpage or by e-mail in the form of a synopsis of connection identifiers between the user and their contacts. The web-based version presents connection information in the form of an agenda view, an engage view, and a reminder view. Each view type is selectable by corresponding tab on the webpage. The daily connected e-mail presents an agenda of meetings and events by location, title, and time. The daily connected e-mail also presents interesting profile and connection information about the attendees such as their communications in blogs and postings, recent communications with user, including messages and meetings, as well as contact information and a list of other contacts in common.
US09111316B2
A system and method are disclosed herein to determine an insurance premium discount based on telematics data. The system includes a computer memory and a processor in communication with the computer memory. The computer memory stores data indicative telematics data received from a sensor within a vehicle, including at least one of geo-position information of the vehicle and vehicle kinematics data. The processor is configured to identify safety events and associated safety event locations based on the telematics data. The processor is further configured to display to the driver indications of the safety events on a map display along with indications of safety events associated with other drivers.
US09111314B2
Methods and systems for providing custom services are disclosed. A developer interface provides standards, such as an application platform interface, for developers to use to make and test applications and services. A user interface can access downloadable or hosted services or applications to multiple users, such as, merchants, banks and networks. The system can then provide custom individual or packages of services to users based on the services requested by the user and charge the user for them on a subscription or per-use basis.
US09111311B2
Disclosed are apparatus and method for facilitating a purchase in conjunction with media content information. The apparatus includes a receiver configured to receive a transmission of media content, information regarding the content, and information for facilitating a purchase of at least one of a copy of the content, a good, and/or a service. The content may include broadcast media content and entertainment media content. The apparatus also includes a processor configured to process the information regarding the content and the information for facilitating a purchase of the copy of the content, the good, and/or the service. The apparatus also includes a display device for displaying information.
US09111308B2
Embodiments of systems and methods for the aggregation, analysis, display and monetization of pricing data for commodities in general, and which may be particularly useful applied to vehicles are disclosed. Specifically, in certain embodiments, historical transaction data associated with a particular vehicle configuration may be obtained and processed to determine pricing data associated with the vehicle configuration. The historical transaction data or determined pricing data may then be presented in an intuitive manner.
US09111302B2
A data communication method and apparatus for a retail organization is disclosed. In the method an intermediate data processing entity generates a set of data for sending to at least one mobile terminal based on data from at least one data processing device associated with the retail organization and send the generated set of data to the at least one mobile terminal. At least one mobile terminal may send user data to the intermediate data processing entity. Upon receipt of user data from at least one mobile terminal the received user data is processed in the intermediate data processing entity to determine if data is to be communicated from the intermediate data processing entity. If it is determined that communication of data is needed, data can be communicated to at least one of a data processing device associated with the retail organization and at least one mobile terminal.
US09111301B2
A plurality of consumer accounts are stored in a data store before being activated by consumers, each having a first pass code and a first PAN or other consumer account identifier. A data exchange module receives an SMS message including a second pass code and extracts a first phone number from the message. A consumer account activation module identifies a selected one of the consumer accounts by matching the second pass code with a selected one of the first pass codes, and stores the first phone number as a second phone number in association in the selected consumer account. A communication and routing module receives a charge request including a second PAN, and identifies a selected one of the consumer accounts by associating one of the first PANs with the second PAN. A transaction processing system then reduces a stored value of the identified consumer account based on the charge.
US09111292B2
An online protection suite provides password management and a dashboard set of services combining single-click access to user accounts and a simple browser window automatically filled with offers for a variety of related products and services targeted especially for particular users. Each user is identified to a business partner server with a unique customer automatically sent from a simple browser embedded in the password management dashboard. The business partner server returns a webpage back to the simple browser that has been constructed especially for this user by leveraging sensitive and proprietary information collected by the business partner. Such customer information is not directly accessible to the password manager.
US09111287B2
Computer-readable media and computerized methods for utilizing an awareness of video content within a media file to incorporate an advertisement therein are provided. Building the video-content awareness involves performing an offline authoring process to generate a trajectory. In particular, the offline authoring process includes targeting an object appearing in the video content, tracking movement of the object over a sequence of frames within the media file, and, based on the tracked movement, writing locations of the object to the trajectory. In an online rendering process, invoked upon initiating play of the media file, the advertisement is automatically selected and dynamically placed on top of the video content as a function of the locations within the trajectory. Accordingly, by repositioning the advertisement (typically an animation) within the video content based on the movement of the object, an illusion that the advertisement visually interacts with the object is generated.
US09111285B2
A control system renders a shared virtual environment to one or more users and obtains metadata associated with content accessed by the users. Representations based on the gathered metadata are provided to a viewing user, and may include visual elements serving as host, content and/or presence representations. Applicable representations are identified from a plurality of defined possible content representations based on the metadata associated with and obtained for a hosting user. The representations may be descriptive of a variety of parameters, including but not limited to the type, timing, nature or other parameters associated with content currently being accessed by a hosting user, content available from the hosting user, a future schedule for content access, time remaining for the hosting user to remain within a shared virtual environment, the hosting user's social network status relative to the viewing user. Presence representations may be displayed to provide information on a hosting user's presence availability within a shared virtual environment relative to one or more determined time slots.
US09111282B2
A method and system as described identifies business records. A business listing stores one or more business records. In order to filter spam records, the method and system operate to identify whether a target business record is a spam business record. To identify the target record as a spam record, the method and system compare extracted characteristics of the target record with characteristics of known spam or good business records. Depending upon the similarity with the known business records, the target business record is identified as a spam record or a good record.
US09111281B2
Some embodiments provide a credibility system including an interface portal for presenting a holistic view of entity credibility. To provide the holistic view, the credibility system aggregates credibility data from multiple data sources. The aggregated credibility data is processed and ordered to present different dimensions of entity credibility, with each dimension graphically presented in the interface portal through an interactive credibility module. In some embodiments, the credibility data associated with each credibility module is processed to produce at least one value that quantifiably represents the credibility data. In some embodiments, the credibility data associated with each credibility module is hierarchically ordered to present the credibility data in a drill-down fashion with each hierarchical layer presenting more detailed credibility data for better understanding the credibility data presented in the preceding layer.
US09111262B2
A method and computer program product for email message association is described. A method may comprise detecting an indication of an email target of an email message. The method may further comprise determining if the email target is an intended recipient of at least a portion of the email message. The method may also comprise associating the at least a portion of the email message with the email target by adding metadata to the email message.
US09111255B2
An apparatus for providing a user-friendly and efficient manner to determine one or more shared friends of individuals may include a processor and memory storing executable computer program code that cause the apparatus to at least perform operations including receiving an indication of a selection of at least one tagged face from an image. The computer program code may further cause the apparatus to facilitate sending of a generated message to a device requesting identification of one or more commonly shared friends of at least two individuals in response to receipt of the selection of the tagged face. The tagged face corresponds to one of the individuals. The computer program code may further cause the apparatus to enable provision of display of visible indicia, superimposed on the image, indicating whether the individuals have one or more commonly shared friends. Corresponding methods and computer program products are also provided.
US09111253B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide methods and apparatuses enabling groupware to track time associated with a workflow task. A workflow object representing a workflow task is provided. The workflow object is associating with a time period, a project code, and an identifier of a groupware client user participating in the workflow task. In response to an event indicating completion of the workflow task, the time period, the project code, and the identifier is automatically transmitted to a backend application.
US09111244B2
Provided is an organization evaluation device, including: a reception unit for receiving data indicating a physical quantity detected by a sensor of a terminal worn by each of a plurality of persons; a personal index calculation module for calculating, from at least one of the data indicating the physical quantity and a business index of each of the plurality of persons, a personal index of each of the plurality of persons; a weight coefficient calculation module for calculating a weight coefficient indicating a degree of involvement of each of the plurality of persons in the first organization from the data indicating the physical quantity; and an organization index calculation module for calculating, by obtaining a weighted average of a plurality of the personal indices using the weight coefficient, an organization index of the first organization.
US09111238B2
A data marketplace infrastructure allows a data source company or a third party to associate to a data feed with a customizable preview application having analytic and visual features (e.g., business logic and a user interface). A potential customer can use discovery services of the data marketplace infrastructure to identify one or more data feeds offering sample data in a domain of interest of the potential customer. The data feed can transmit the customizable preview application to allow the potential customer to interact with the data from the data feed before purchasing the data. The potential customer may also customize the preview application so as to change the default application behavior in a manner that improves the potential customer's understanding and appreciation of the data feed.
US09111232B2
Systems and methods are disclosed to perform performance prediction for cloud-based databases by building on a computer a cloud database performance model using a set of training workloads; and using a learned model on the computer to predict database performance in the cloud for a new workload, wherein for each reference workload r and hardware configuration h, system throughput tr,h, average throughput of αr and standard deviation σr, comprising normalizing each throughput as: t r , h _ = t r , h - a r σ r .
US09111229B2
A method is provided of creating an end-to-end entanglement (87) between qubits in first and second end nodes (81, 82) of a chain of optically-coupled nodes whose intermediate nodes (80) are quantum repeaters. Local entanglements (85) are created on an on-going basis between qubits in neighboring pairs in the chain through interaction of the qubits with light fields transmitted between the nodes. The quantum repeaters (80) are cyclically operated with their top-level operating cycles being synchronized. Once every top-level operating cycle, each repeater (80) initiates a merging of two entanglements involving respective repeater qubits that are at least expected to be entangled with qubits in nodes disposed in opposite directions along the chain from the repeater. A quantum repeater (80) adapted for implementing this method is also provided.
US09111226B2
Apparatus and methods for modulated plasticity in a spiking neuron network. A plasticity mechanism may be configured for example based on a similarity measure between post-synaptic activities of two or more neurons that may be receiving the same feed-forward input. The similarity measure may comprise a dynamically determined cross-correlogram between the output spike trains of two neurons. An a priori configured similarity measure may be used during network operation in order to update efficacy of inhibitory connections between neighboring neurons. Correlated output activity may cause one neuron to inhibit output generation by another neuron thereby hindering responses by multiple neurons to the same input stimuli. The inhibition may be based on an increased efficacy of inhibitory lateral connection. The inhibition may comprise modulation of the pre synaptic portion the plasticity rule based on efficacies of feed-forward connection and inhibitory connections and a statistical parameter associated with the post-synaptic rule.
US09111221B1
Techniques can relate to generating inferences based on network devices' measuring of environmental data points and generating notifications or controlling devices based on the inferences. One or more environmental data points can be accessed. Each environmental data point in the one or more environmental data points can include one measured by a detector device and that characterizes a corresponding environmental stimulus. At least one of the environmental data points can be indicative of a light intensity or power usage measured by a first device. An inference can be generated based on the one or more environmental data points. A notification or device control can be identified based on the inference. A communication can be generated and transmitted to a second device. Receipt of the communication can cause the second device to present the notification or to be controlled in accordance with the device control.
US09111220B2
The present invention provides systems and methods for data storage. A hierarchical storage management architecture is presented to facilitate data management. The disclosed system provides methods for evaluating the state of stored data relative to enterprise needs by using weighted parameters that may be user defined. Also disclosed are systems and methods evaluating costing and risk management associated with stored data.
US09111209B2
An image forming apparatus includes a reception part that receives, from a request part connected via a network, a power supply stop request that designates at least one of a plurality of power supply stop modes for stopping power supply in the image forming apparatus; a selection part that selects, when stopping the power supply in the image forming apparatus is not allowed in the designated power supply stop mode, power supply stop modes from the plurality of power supply stop modes in each of which stopping the power supply in the image forming apparatus is allowed; and a notification part that notifies the request part of the power supply stop mode selected by the selection part.
US09111206B1
Embodiments of the present invention provide apparatuses and methods for determining usage maps in handheld image deposition devices. The utilization of usage maps in combination with color planes may facilitate the output of varying levels of intensity. Additionally, the storage of processed images and the print data associated with various image locations of the processed image, according to a consistent offset of memory addresses, may expedite retrieval of print information.
US09111204B2
An image processing apparatus executes color conversion so that when printing is performed based on image data compressed and decompressed with a lossy compression method, the image data reproduces expected colors of the image data before compression. More specifically, a range of a signal value of a black image affected by compression of image data, such as black character to be printed with black ink, is obtained, and a color separation table is generated such that color ink is not used but black ink is used within this range. This allows the image data to reproduce expected colors of the image data before compression when printing is performed based on the image data compressed and decompressed with a lossy compression method.
US09111195B2
In an antenna and a semiconductor device including the antenna, an object is to reduce the distance between electrodes of a capacitor as much as possible, reduce the area of the electrode of the capacitor as much as possible, and prevent the suppression of response sensitivity and a response range of the semiconductor device. The present invention relates to an antenna including an antenna coil provided over a first region of a base and a capacitor which uses a second region of the base as a dielectric body and which has electrodes provided for opposite planes of the second region of the base, wherein the second region of the base is thinner than the first region of the base, and also relates to a semiconductor device including the antenna.
US09111187B2
A contactless card includes an inductive circuit configured to send and receive signals, a rectifier circuit coupled to the inductive circuit and configured to generate a DC voltage from an AC voltage generated by the inductive circuit, a clamp circuit configured to limit the DC voltage, a regulator circuit configured to regulate the DC voltage and a control circuit configured to selectively enable and disable the clamp circuit and the regulator circuit.
US09111178B2
System and method for creating a collection of images are described, the method comprising: receiving images from at least one source of images; processing the images to produce an output collection of images, the processing comprising grouping the images to clusters of related images and selecting the preferred images in the clusters; and outputting the output collection of images, the output collection of images comprising the clusters of related images and indication of the preferred images in the clusters. The system for creating a collection of images comprising: a storage medium to receive images from at least one source of images; a processor to produce an output collection of images by grouping the images to clusters of related images and selecting the preferred images in the clusters; and a collection output medium for outputting the output collection of images.
US09111170B2
A method and an electronic device are provided for obtaining an image or a video frame, including applying to the image or the video frame, at least one image processing technique, scanning the image or the video frame, to identify a text item, determining an item type for the identified text item, and determining an action, corresponding to the item type.
US09111168B2
A method and a system for resolution conversion of Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) content in an image are provided. The method is implemented in a computer system comprising one or more processors configured to execute one or more computer program modules. The method includes receiving image data of the image, the image data having a plurality of image planes in which one plane is a MICR image plane, wherein the plurality of image planes have essentially the same resolution; and converting the resolution of the MICR image plane to a resolution of a MICR print engine different from the remaining image planes.
US09111167B1
A method and system for storing medical information of an individual with a service provider and providing access to that medical information to first responders and medical personnel remotely. An individual's medical information may be accessed by first responders after being authenticated by the service provider. Access to the medical information is monitored to prevent unauthorized access and to store time and location when medical information is accessed by a first responder. The medical information may be accessed by a mobile software application that allows the first responder to scan a machine-readable medium linked to the individual's medical information stored by the service provider.
US09111165B2
A method and system for filtering detection patterns in a QR code is provided in this invention. When multiple detection patterns get into a QR code image due to interference or other reasons, first of all, an side length is determined for each pattern to be detected, and then an average value of the side lengths of multiple patterns to be detected is determined, after which through comparing with a predetermined reference value, patterns to be detected meeting a predetermined condition are determined as detection patterns. An effective solution is provided to fill the gap in the prior art of unable to remove detection patterns caused by interference appropriately when more than three detection patterns are found.
US09111164B1
Systems and methods for custom functional patterns for optical barcodes are provided. In example embodiments, image data of an image is received from a user device. A candidate shape feature of the image is extracted from the image data. A determination is made that the shape feature satisfies a shape feature rule. In response to the candidate shape feature satisfying the shape feature rule, a custom graphic in the image is identified by comparing the candidate shape feature with a reference shape feature of the custom graphic. In response to identifying the custom graphic, data encoded in a portion of the image is decoded.
US09111163B2
A selected target from a picklist having a plurality of targets is electro-optically read, by image capture, over a range of working distances, by capturing an image of the picklist in the range over an imaging field of view, by storing coordinates of a trajectory of an aiming light pattern in the imaging field of view over the range, by processing the captured image along the trajectory to find and identify a target, by determining whether the target covers the trajectory, and by determining that the target is the selected target when the target at least partially covers the trajectory.
US09111162B2
A method and an apparatus for reading a data pattern from or writing a data pattern to a storage medium are described. During reading a pattern retrieval stage retrieves a test pattern and the data pattern from the storage medium. A decoder, which is trained with pattern elements of the retrieved test pattern by a training stage, decodes the retrieved data pattern by performing a comparison between topologies of the retrieved data pattern and representative patterns derived from the test pattern during training of the decoder.
US09111159B2
An apparatus for use in decoding a bar code symbol may include an image sensor integrated circuit having a plurality of pixels, timing and control circuitry for controlling an image sensor, gain circuitry for controlling gain, and analog to digital conversion circuitry for conversion of an analog signal to a digital signal. The apparatus may also include a printed circuit board for receiving the image sensor integrated circuit. The connection between the image sensor integrated circuit and the printed circuit board characterized by a plurality of conductive adhesive connectors disposed between a plurality of electrode pads and a plurality of contact pads, where the conductive adhesive connectors provide electrical input/output and mechanical connections between the image sensor integrated circuit and the printed circuit board. The apparatus may be operative for processing image signals generated by the image sensor integrated circuit for attempting to decode the bar code symbol.
US09111157B2
A system and method are provided for tracking an interrogator relay unit (IRU) associated with a mobile asset within a structure, comprising: integrating one or more RFID tags within building materials within the structure; emitting an RF interrogation signal using the IRU; receiving, at the IRU, location data from one or more RFID tags in response to the RF interrogation signal; and transmitting the location data, an identification information of the IRU, and timestamp data to a remote server using the IRU.
US09111152B2
In a verification object specifying apparatus that specifies a verification object for biometric authentication, a biometric information acquisition unit acquires biometric information from a biometric information source part. An abnormality detection unit detects an abnormal portion in the biometric information source part based on the biometric information. A verification object specifying unit determines whether biometric information located in the abnormal portion is to be included in a verification object, and specifies biometric information to be used as the verification object based on the determination result. The verification object specifying apparatus causes a registration unit to register the biometric information as registration information when serving as a registration apparatus, and causes a verification unit to verify the biometric information against registration information when serving as a verification apparatus.
US09111151B2
An exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure illustrates a network on chip processor including multiple cores and a Kautz NoC. Each of the cores is assigned with an addressing string with L based-D words, and the addressing string does not have two neighboring identical words, wherein L present of an addressing string length is an integer larger than 1, D present of a word selection is an integer larger than 2. Each of the cores is unidirectionally link to other (D−1) cores through the Kautz NoC, and in the two connected cores, the last (L−1) words associated with the addressing string of one core are same as the first (L−1) words associated with the addressing string of the other core.
US09111146B2
The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for classifying videos based on video content. For a given video file including a plurality of frames, a subset of frames is extracted for processing. Frames that are too dark, blurry, or otherwise poor classification candidates are discarded from the subset. Generally, material classification scores that describe type of material content likely included in each frame are calculated for the remaining frames in the subset. The material classification scores are used to generate material arrangement vectors that represent the spatial arrangement of material content in each frame. The material arrangement vectors are subsequently classified to generate a scene classification score vector for each frame. The scene classification results are averaged (or otherwise processed) across all frames in the subset to associate the video file with one or more predefined scene categories related to overall types of scene content of the video file.
US09111141B2
Provided is an image processing apparatus including a first specifying unit that specifies second feature point candidates, a second specifying unit that specifies second feature point candidates, an evaluating unit that generates evaluation information on evaluation of the second feature point candidate of a target first feature point based on the result of comparison between the relative position of the other first feature point to the target first feature point and the relative position of the second feature point candidate of the other first feature point to the second feature point candidate of the target first feature point, and a setting unit that sets the second feature point candidate of the target first feature point in accordance with the evaluation information as the second feature point corresponding to the target first feature point.
US09111140B2
A system and methods for progressive feature evaluation of an electronic document image to identify user supplied elements is disclosed. The system includes a controller in communication with a storage device configured to receive and accessibly store a generated plurality of candidate images. The controller is operable to analyze the electronic document image to identify a first feature set and a second feature set, wherein each of the first and second feature sets represents a different form feature, compare the first feature set to the second feature set, and define a third feature set based on the intersection of the first and second feature sets, wherein the third feature set represents the user provided elements.
US09111131B2
Systems, devices and methods are described including receiving a depth image and applying a template to pixels of the depth image to determine a location of a human head in the depth image. The template includes a circular shaped region and a first annular shaped region surrounding the circular shaped region. The circular shaped region specifies a first range of depth values. The first annular shaped region specifies a second range of depth values that are larger than depth values of the first range of depth values.
US09111129B2
A subject detecting method and a subject detecting apparatus, by which face detection may be efficiently performed in a digital photographing apparatus having a flippable display unit, and when an image input via an image sensor of the digital photographing apparatus is different from an image displayed on the display unit due to rotation of the digital photographing apparatus, a face detection coordinate may be corrected to increase the reliability of face detection.
US09111111B1
Systems and methods for implementing location-based security protocols for information and/or data files are disclosed. The location-based security protocols may be enforced by an organization to protect and/or provide additional levels of security for information and/or data files associated with the organization and stored and/or used by agents of the organization on their user devices, such as personal user devices. Location-based security protocols may be applied to data file functions that include generating, receiving, transmitting, sharing, backing-up, or rendering a data file. Data files that are to adhere to one or more location-based security protocols may be tagged, such as in metadata associated with the data file to indicate that it is subject to adherence to the one or more location-based security protocols.
US09111107B2
A user can assign a level of trust to other users to manage what content they may access or share. The user also assigns to each level of trust content type that may be accessed by users having that level of trust. The user then sends tags to his contacts indicating their level if trust, which are then presented by the contacts to gain access to the user-defined content.
US09111106B2
An access terminal apparatus provides a group determination key being a decryption key to a data center apparatus previously, and then transmits grouping information generated from a keyword of storage target data and having been encrypted to the data center apparatus, with encrypted data of the storage target data and tag data of the encrypted data of the storage target data. The data center apparatus stores the encrypted data relating it to the tag data, decrypts a part of the grouping information with the group determination key, derives an index value from a bit value obtained by the decryption, and stores the derived index value and the tag data relating them with each other.
US09111104B2
Entitlements to resources can be determined by using access rules that are organized as respective ranges in an entitlement space. An access rule can represent a range between two rational numbers in the entitlement space; the range can be represented by a single rational number. Due to the way the rational numbers are chosen, a child rule is completely covered by its parent, and a parent has remaining room in the entitlement space for unlimited additional children. Entitlement checking for a large batch of resources can be performed quickly based on reusing calculated permitted ranges in the entitlement space. Implied permissions can be supported. Content can easily be added, and the access rules can be modified without unduly impacting the underlying tree structure, if at all.
US09111102B2
A user interface is displayed to an administrator (or other user) and allows the administrator to walk through a workflow performed by a user in a given role. Data access steps performed in walking through the workflow are recorded and a set of permissions is identified, based upon the recorded workflow. The set of permissions corresponds to the role.
US09111089B1
A computer-implemented method for safely executing programs may include identifying an attempt to launch an executable file. The computer-implemented method may also include identifying a reputation associated with the executable file. The computer-implemented method may further include determining, based on the reputation, that the executable file is not trusted. The computer-implemented method may additionally include, in response to determining that the executable file is not trusted, fulfilling the attempt by sandboxing a process instantiated from the executable file. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09111084B2
An authentication platform comprises an authentication unit configured to authenticate the user based on received input data, and a control unit configured to enable communication between a client device and an authentication host as a consequence of successful authentication of the user by the authentication unit.
US09111080B1
Disclosed are various embodiments for reducing input processing latency for remotely executed applications. An application is executed in a hosted environment, and a video signal generated by the application is encoded into a media stream. The media stream is sent to a client by way of a network. Unprocessed user input data for the application is obtained from the client computing device by way of the network. The unprocessed user input data is processed at a first processing rate that is above a second processing rate associated with a normal processing of the unprocessed user input data in the client.
US09111058B1
Any primitive cells or blocks can be represented physically by a Barycenter compact model (or Barycenter model), and any black box model can also be physically represented by a Barycenter compact model physically. A hierarchical boundary condition between blocks is formulated by the Barycenter compact model. Hierarchical boundary condition problems between blocks can be limited within two levels only if using the Barycenter compact model.
US09111056B2
A fluid simulation method and apparatus is provided. The fluid simulation method according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises setting initial conditions of level set and velocity field for a simulation object and setting FLIP particles according to the set initial condition of the level set and the set initial condition of the velocity field; updating the level set and the velocity field by advection of the level set and the velocity field; reconstructing the updated level set and the updated velocity field; redeploying the FLIP particles for the simulation object; projecting the updated velocity field to have incompressibility; and updating velocity of each of the deployed particles.
US09111050B2
A computer system includes a first processor, a second processor, and a common memory connected to the second processor. The computer system is switched from a high performance mode, in which at least a portion of the first processor and at least a portion of components on the second processor are active, to a low power mode, in which at least a portion of the first processor is active and the components on the second processor are inactive. All central processing unit (CPU) cores on the second processor are quiesced. Traffic from the second processor to the common memory is quiesced. Paths used by the first processor to access the common memory are switched from a first path across the second processor to a second path across the second processor.
US09111048B2
A semiconductor device capable of communicating with a host apparatus includes a symbol generation unit, a coding unit, and a transmission unit. The symbol generation unit includes a random number generation circuit and generates a symbol according to a random number generated by the random number generation circuit. The coding unit performs 8b/10b coding for the symbol. The transmission unit transmits the symbol coded by the 8b/10b coding unit to the host apparatus.
US09111046B2
A method, system and computer program product are provided for implementing capacity and user-based resource allocation for a hardware I/O adapter, such as, a Single Root Input/Output Virtualization (SRIOV) adapter in a virtualized system. Configuring a virtual function (VF) is provided by supplying a capacity value of a port. The capacity value represents a percentage of the available performance of the port. The adapter driver configures multiple adapter parameters to provide the available performance for the port. A user is enabled to specify a level of performance assigned to each protocol of the port.
US09111044B2
An automated network triggering-forwarding device connected with a control computer and an information input equipment by a network or a cable, respectively, is provided, which comprises a static output module, a dynamic forwarding module, and an information feedback module. A preset trigger signal is output by touching a key or combination of keys of a key output module, the output information of the information input equipment is forwarded to the control computer by the dynamic forwarding module, and the information fed back by the control computer is displayed on the feedback display module and a voice prompt is provided through the voice output module by the information feedback module. The buttons are imparted with different output definitions according to different service requirements, and tart triggering other recognizing devices to operate when needed according to operator demand. The dynamic output function can be externally connected with a plurality of non-network equipment.
US09111042B1
Systems and methods are disclosed for precisely determining the delay between data being received at the pins of a circuit and being processed by gearbox circuitry, to being processed by a time-stamp unit of the circuit. In an exemplary embodiment, the gearbox circuitry may output a data valid signal which may be monitored by the time-stamp unit. By monitoring the data valid signal, the time-stamp unit may synchronize a local state machine with the internal state of the gearbox circuitry and thus determine the total delay through the combined processing circuitry with high accuracy.
US09111041B1
An automated portion of a software test workflow is executed. Execution of the automated portion is halted responsive to a manual portion of the software test workflow that tests a target software code. A notification is sent to the user based on the manual portion of the software test workflow. The notification requests at least one input from the user. The input is received. Responsive to receipt of the input, execution of the automated portion of the software test workflow is resumed.
US09111040B2
A computer-implemented method for test planning and test case generation, includes collecting, by a processor, a plurality of requirements, creating, by the processor, a plurality of content space specification files that includes the plurality of requirements, processing, by the processor, the plurality of content space specification files to generate a plurality of user stories, outputting, by the processor, the plurality of user stories and integrating, by the processor, the user stories into test planning and test case generation.
US09111037B1
A computer-implemented method is disclosed in which locations of a plurality of Job Control Language (JCL) tests are obtained from a primary database supporting a software testing management platform. The locations the locations of the plurality of JCL tests are transmitted to a mainframe computing system (MCS) to initiate execution of the JCL tests. Based on transmitting the JCL test locations, execution IDs are retrieved for each of the plurality of JCL tests from the MCS. For each JCL test, the execution ID and an initial status of the JCL test are stored in the primary database. A query is transmitted to the MCS to determine an execution status of a given one of the JCL tests. Based on transmitting the query, a status update is received from the MCS for the JCL test, and the initial status of the JCL test in the primary database is selectively updated.
US09111034B2
A computer program product is provided for performing a method including: generating a test instruction stream of a program that includes a plurality of executable instructions; setting controls for a runtime-instrumentation process; simulating execution of the test instruction stream and sampling of the test instruction stream according to the controls, and storing simulated records associated with the sampling in a predicted collection buffer (PCB); accessing a program buffer of a processor, the program buffer storing records associated with sampling the test instruction stream according to the controls during execution of the test instruction stream by the processor; examining individual records in the program buffer to determine whether the individual records are valid and in proper sequence; and comparing the simulated records of the PCB and the records of the program buffer to validate the program buffer.
US09111023B2
A bridge apparatus for coupling a medical network with a non-medical network includes a storage unit to store data from the medical network, a first interface device for coupling the storage unit with the medical network, and a second interface device for coupling the storage unit with the non-medical network. The bridge apparatus is configured to execute write-only access requests on the storage unit via the first interface device or to execute read-only access requests on the storage unit via the second interface device.
US09111017B2
The present invention provides systems and methods to realize the potential benefit of portable storage devices by taking advantage of standard PCs including an optical disk drive capable of reading an optical disk, such as a CD or a DVD, cost effective optical disks, and the Internet.In a preferred embodiment, an individual patient provides personal data to a healthcare service center. The healthcare service center then creates a portable optical disk for the patient to carry, if he/she so desires. The personal data that is written onto the portable optical disk is stored on a database management server database and is readable and updateable by the individual patient using his/her PC with an optical disk drive and connected to the Internet. The individual patient can choose to update his/her personal data on the portable optical disk and can receive a new portable optical disk that includes the update. The new portable optical disk containing the latest update is created and delivered to the patient by the database management server.
US09111016B2
A system and method of locally displaying multiple items of medical information from at least one remote medical system having an output display. The method includes assembling the multiple items of medical information from the output display of at least one remote medical systems into a composite display having regions corresponding to the multiple items of medical information. Video data for the composite display is communicated over a network to a local display. Video data corresponding to the regions of the display are treated differently to provide a composite display with regions of different image quality.
US09110999B2
Disclosed are an apparatus and method of retrieving a plurality of data memory containers from a database. One example method of operation may include displaying the plurality of data memory containers on a graphical user interface, receiving a selection of one or more of the data memory containers, and displaying a moving array of the plurality of data objects included in the selected one or more data memory containers. The objects may be images or other user defined data files that are distributed to a virtual house application.
US09110991B2
This invention relates to an advertisement machine which provides advertisements to a user searching for desired information within a data network. The machine receives, from a user, a search request including a search argument corresponding to the desired information and searches, based upon the received search argument, a first database having data network related information to generate search results. It also correlating the received search argument to a particular advertisement in a second database having advertisement related information. The search results together with the particular advertisement are provided by the machine to the user.
US09110986B2
A system and method for using a combination of semantic and statistical processing of input strings or other data content, such as a web page or an electronic document. In accordance with an embodiment, the system enables the injection of semantics into an otherwise statistically-based environment, by recognizing that, within various topics, certain words, combinations of words, or phrases, herein referred to as keyphrases have different weights. Some keyphrases may be relatively unique within a particular topic, or have a relatively high weighting towards that topic; whereas other keyphrases may not be unique, or may have a relatively low rating toward that topic. In accordance with an embodiment, the system allows for characterization of both (a) “sufficient” and (b) “necessary” keyphrases. A keyphrase is considered sufficient for a particular topic when, if that keyphrase is found in the input string or data content, one is likely to be in that topic (but could be in another topic). A keyphrase is considered necessary for a particular topic when, if that keyphrase is found in the input string or data content, one is both very likely to be in that topic, and very unlikely to be in any other topic. This information can be used as part of the input processing.
US09110976B2
Gathering auditable data concerning actions in a cloud computing environment is automated by determining that one or more auditable data items are available associated with a requester and with at least one application program; responsive to determining that data items are available, transmitting a list of the available auditable data items to a requesting cloud client computer; subsequent to transmitting the list, receiving a data request from the cloud client computer for one or more particular auditable data items from the list; preparing the requested particular auditable data items for transmission according to a predetermined format; and transmitting the prepared requested particular auditable data items to the cloud client computer. Optionally, in some embodiments, the requesting cloud client computer may negotiate a data exchange format with the cloud service provider for receipt of the requested auditable information.
US09110975B1
Systems, methods and computer program products for generalizing a user-submitted query by forming one or more variants of the user-submitted query to generate one or more other queries, each of the one or more other queries being different from the user-submitted query. A generalized quality of result statistic is derived for a first document from respective data associated with each of the other queries, each respective data being indicative of user behavior relative to the first document as a search result for the associated other query. The generalized quality of result statistic is provided as the quality of result statistic input to a document ranking process for the first document and the user-submitted query.
US09110969B2
An association rule accelerator may be used to access a transaction database storing a plurality of transactions, each transaction including one or more items. The association rule accelerator also may select a sampling rate based on an item frequency of frequent items within the transaction database, relative to a sampled item frequency of sampled items within a corresponding sampled transaction database. An an association rule selector may determine, using the selected sampling rate and corresponding sampled transaction database, frequent item sets within the sampled transactions, and may further determine an association rule relating at least two items of the sampled transactions, based on the frequent item sets.
US09110966B2
An approach for managing replicated data is presented. Metadata is received specifying inter-data correlation(s), inter-replica correlation(s), and data-replica correlation(s) among replicas generated for a system. A unified replication metadata model specifying the correlations is generated. Based on the inter-replica correlation(s), a proper subset of the replicas is selected. Based on the inter-replica and inter-data correlation(s), the selected proper subset of replicas is indexed to generate a unified content index. A query is received to locate a data item in at least one of the replicas. Based on the unified content index, the unified replication metadata model, and the query, candidate replica(s) and confidence score(s) indicating likelihood(s) that the candidate replica(s) include the data item are determined. Based on temporal distance(s) and percent change(s) between first and second replica(s), confidence score(s) of the second replica(s) are determined.
US09110963B2
Embodiments of methods, systems, and services for transparent adaptive file transform are described. In one embodiment a method for transparent adaptive file transform is performed by a data processing device. The method may include automatically detecting a data transfer addressed to an external data storage. The method may also include redirecting data associated with the data transfer to a data transformer. Additionally, the method may include applying one or more data transforms to the data associated with the data transfer to generate a transformed data set. In an embodiment, the method may also include transferring the transformed data set to the external data storage. In one embodiment, the external data storage is a cloud storage facility.
US09110962B2
A data processing system includes an electronic apparatus including a script implementation unit which receives a Web page including a script via a network, and sends a request for obtaining data based on the script to a data providing apparatus which is connected via a network, the request for obtaining data including identification data of target data to obtain, and attribute data of the electronic apparatus; and the data providing apparatus including a conversion unit which converts a data format of target data stored in a data storing unit identified by the identification data included in the request for obtaining data sent from the electronic apparatus to another data format based on the attribute data of the electronic apparatus included in the request for obtaining data, and a sending unit which sends the target data with the other data format to the electronic apparatus.
US09110960B2
A set of inbound data is received in a computer. At least one attribute of the inbound data is determined. The inbound data is parsed. A set of staging records is generated in the computer that include at least some of the inbound data in one or more fields included in each of the staging records. It is determined that at least some of the staging records are ready for migration to a target environment. The staging records are migrated to the target environment in the computer.
US09110953B2
A social networking service presents information about the social network using multiple feeds in a user interface and provides mechanisms for filtering the content. A content feed includes the most recent content generated by the user's connections, and a highlights feed displays content based on importance and relevance. A user may add content to the social networking service through a composer interface. A user may also filter either or both of the content feed and the highlights feed using a filtering interface, which allows selective filtering of the feeds using one or more different types of filters, including as filtering by the source of the content, friends or networks, and/or content type.
US09110945B2
The present invention includes a method for providing parameterized queries in complex event processing (CEP). The method includes providing a query template which includes one or more bind variables, providing sets of parameters corresponding to the one or more bind variables, and parsing the query template to determine positions of the one or more bind variables. The method further includes scanning the provided sets of parameters to determine which of the sets of parameters are to be bound to the one or more bind variables, binding the one or more bind variables which are determined to be bound to the sets of parameters, and substituting the bound one or more bind variables with the corresponding sets of parameters. The method further includes injecting all incarnations of the parameterized queries into the system, and one template/parameterized query is configured to run them all.
US09110939B2
An approach is provided for incremental database updates based on delta pages. An update platform determines at least one new page of a first database and at least one reference page of a second database. The update platform then processes and/or facilitates a processing of the at least one new page and the at least one reference page to determine at least one difference patch comprising one or more differences between the at least one new page and the at least one reference page. In one embodiment, the at least one new page can be constructed from the at least one reference page and the at least one difference patch.
US09110921B2
A semi-automatic map editor may allow a user to add features to a map with a minimum of effort. In one example, a user may add a road to a map by indicating where the endpoints of the road are. A system may then attempt to fill in the path of the road using the user-provided endpoints, an analysis of an aerial or satellite photograph, existing maps that show the road, or any other appropriate information. Using this information, the system may display a proposed path for the road between the endpoints that the user has indicated. The user may then fine tune and/or confirm the proposed path, thereby adding the road to the map. In addition to roads, other feature such as bodies of water, ski trails, etc., may be added in this manner.
US09110915B2
This disclosure relates to systems and methods for both maintaining referential integrity within a data storage system, and freeing unused storage in the system, without the need to maintain reference counts to the blocks of storage used to represent and store the data.
US09110908B2
Methods and systems for providing related files in a collaborative file storage system are disclosed. One method includes identifying a plurality of files within the collaborative file storage system, wherein the plurality of files each have a relationship with the first file, and wherein the collaborative file storage system allows sharing of the plurality of files between multiple users through a network. The method further includes generating, by a system server, a list of inquiries based on the plurality of files, providing, by the system server, the list of inquiries to at least one collaborator of the first file, receiving from the at least one collaborator at least one response to the list of inquiries, selecting a subset of the plurality of files based on the at least one response, and storing information related to the selected subset of the plurality of files for access if the first file is selected.
US09110906B2
A file converting method for a computer system includes utilizing software for converting a full-virtualized file into a para-virtualized file when the computer system receives a click signal; and activating a virtual machine, and uploading the para-virtualized file to a cloud server.
US09110899B2
Methods for processing a query in a multi-tenancy environment utilizing an electronic computing device are presented, the methods including: causing the electronic computing device to receive the query to a database, where the query includes a number of objects; causing the electronic computing device to determine whether any of the number of objects correspond with the set of tenant database objects; if any of the number of objects correspond with the set of tenant database objects, causing the electronic computing device to process the number of objects from the tenant production table; and if any of the number of objects correspond with the set of instance database objects, causing the electronic computing device to process the number of objects from the instance production table.
US09110897B2
A sensor tag includes: a tag chip that receives a supply of a driving voltage that is generated from a radio frequency (RF) signal that is received from a reader and that transmits sensor data to the reader according to a request from the reader; at least one sensor that receives a supply of a necessary driving voltage from the tag chip and that measures corresponding sensor data; and a micro controller unit (MCU) that receives a supply of a necessary driving voltage from the tag chip and that transfers sensor data that is measured from the at least one sensor to the tag chip.
US09110890B2
A static communication can be presented efficiently in different languages to facilitate propagation of the static communication across language boundaries. A static communication object that represents a static communication can be loaded with different language encodings of the static communication. When a trigger occurs (e.g., an avatar accesses the static communication object), a language encoding of the static communication that can be understood by the avatar is presented to the avatar. As the static communication propagates throughout the virtual universe, additional language encodings can be added to the static communication object.
US09110889B2
A method and system for providing flexible sentences are disclosed. The system includes a developer interface for providing options to define actor, edge, target and aggregation of a flexible sentence syntax. In one embodiment, tokens are provided to define property expressions of the edge and/or target of the flexible sentence syntax. Based on the defined edge and target, the developer interface may generate a plurality of flexible sentence syntaxes for a developer to select. In some embodiments, the developer can add additional property expressions to further define the edge and/or target of the flexible sentence syntax. In some instances, the plurality of flexible sentence syntaxes may be prioritized based on a percentage coverage, which is determined by the impressions received over a given time frame.
US09110884B2
A message publishing and subscribing method and apparatus, which relate to the information processing field and provide higher information transmission efficiency and better flexibility mainly by providing a corresponding dummy topic in a message broker for a publisher and a subscriber or by performing semantic recognition in the message broker for the publisher and the subscriber.
US09110879B2
A device, integrated circuit and method for generating simulated errors are disclosed. In the disclosed device, integrated circuit and method, an original data value is read from a memory. The original data value is intercepted by the integrated circuit. The integrated circuit is operable to virtualize an error in the original data value to generate a modified data value. The integrated circuit is also operable to generate an interrupt according to the virtualization. This disclosure may be particularly useful for high-level memory validation.
US09110878B2
A program (e.g., an operating system) is provided a warning that it has a grace period in which to perform a function, such as cleanup (e.g., complete, stop and/or move a dispatchable unit). The program is being warned, in one example, that it is losing access to its shared resources. For instance, in a virtual environment, a guest program is warned that it is about to lose its central processing unit resources, and therefore, it is to perform a function, such as cleanup.
US09110874B2
A template element, among template elements constituting a template, which corresponds to a document element constituting an original document is set as a corresponding template element and a content of format conversion processing for the document element is determined on the basis of the corresponding template element. Format conversion processing based on the determined content is performed. A result of format conversion processing is output as a result of conversion of the format of the original document.
US09110872B2
Genetic sequence data occurring in genome sequences is represented for efficient access of the sequence information in a defined storage scheme. A described replet-sequence matrix data structure allows the compression and efficient access of sequence information. The data structure allows the dynamic change of ontology: the replet-information table can evolve by adding, updating, removing replets, and the set of replets present in the table represent the ontology at the moment. The data structure enables the sequence information to be processed in parallel, and also enables multiple views of the sequence data to exist along with replet specific information.
US09110868B2
A system, method, and computer program product for determining the structure of a document are provided. The method includes receiving a set of document pages for a document and linking one page frame to each of a plurality of document pages in the set. For each document page linked to a page frame, a content bounding box surrounding the content on the document page is identified, and the document page categorized, based at least in part on the geometrical relationship between the page frame and the content bounding box of the document page. The document page can then be identified as a logical cut based at least in part on the categorization of the document page. Information, such as a table of contents or updated table of contents, can then be output, based on the determined logical unit(s) of the document.
US09110855B2
Embodiments relate to dynamic programming. An aspect includes representing a dynamic programming problem as a matrix of cells, each cell representing an intermediate score to be calculated. Another aspect includes providing a mapping assigning cells of the matrix to elements of a result container data structure, and storing cells of the matrix to elements of the result container data structure in accordance with the mapping. Another aspect includes calculating intermediate scores of all cells of the matrix, whereby intermediate scores of some of the cells of the matrix are stored to a respectively assigned element of the result container data structure in accordance with the mapping. Another aspect includes during the calculation of the intermediate scores, dynamically updating the assignment of cells and elements in the mapping and assembling a final result of the dynamic programming problem from the intermediate scores stored in the result container data structure.
US09110853B2
Various systems and methods implement multiple classes of device IDs. A computer system may include a network, a sending device, and a receiving device. The sending device is configured to encode less than all of a device ID identifying the sending device in a packet before sending the packet on the network. In response to receiving the packet, the receiving device is configured to send a responsive packet to the sending device. The receiving device is configured to encode the entire device ID identifying the sending device in the responsive packet. A portion of the device ID that the initiating device does not encode in the packet identifies the initiating device as one of the devices in a particular device class. Only devices in that device class are configured to send packets having a characteristic of the packet on the network.
US09110843B2
A rack including a rack management controller and a plurality of server nodes, is disclosed. The rack management controller receives a firmware updating file, and generates an updating message according to the firmware updating file. Each of the plurality of server nodes includes a memory and a baseboard management controller. The memory stores firmware of a basic input output system. The baseboard management controller is coupled to the rack management controller and the memory. The baseboard management controller receives the updating message to download the firmware updating file from the rack management controller and to stores it to a storage space. The baseboard management controller controls the memory to enter a recovery mode after downloading the firmware updating file, and writes the firmware updating file into the memory to update the firmware of the basic input output system.
US09110820B1
A computer-executable method, system, and computer program product for managing I/O requests from a compute node in communication with a data storage system, including a first burst buffer node and a second burst buffer node, the computer-executable method, system, and computer program product comprising striping data on the first burst buffer node and the second burst buffer node, wherein a first portion of the data is communicated to the first burst buffer node and a second portion of the data is communicated to the second burst buffer node, processing the first portion of the data at the first burst buffer node, and processing the second portion of the data at the second burst buffer node.
US09110810B2
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth an improved way to prefetch instructions in a multi-level cache. Fetch unit initiates a prefetch operation to transfer one of a set of multiple cache lines, based on a function of a pseudorandom number generator and the sector corresponding to the current instruction L1 cache line. The fetch unit selects a prefetch target from the set of multiple cache lines according to some probability function. If the current instruction L1 cache 370 is located within the first sector of the corresponding L1.5 cache line, then the selected prefetch target is located at a sector within the next L1.5 cache line. The result is that the instruction L1 cache hit rate is improved and instruction fetch latency is reduced, even where the processor consumes instructions in the instruction L1 cache at a fast rate.
US09110802B2
A method of implementing a mask load or mask store instruction by a processor is provided. The method may include receiving the mask load or mask store instruction, a location of a memory operand and a location of corresponding mask bits associated with the memory operand, breaking the received memory operand into a plurality of sub-operands and executing the mask load or mask store instruction on each of the plurality of sub-operands using a fastpath operation or using microcode, wherein the respective mask load or mask store instruction loads or stores each of the plurality of sub-operands based upon the corresponding mask bits.
US09110800B2
A computer hardware-implemented method, system, and/or computer program product prevents a cascading failure in a complex stream computer system causing an untrustworthy output from the complex stream computer system. Multiple upstream subcomponents in a complex stream computer system generate multiple outputs, which are used as inputs to a downstream subcomponent, wherein the multiple upstream subcomponents execute upstream computational processes. Each upstream computational process is examined to determine an accuracy of each identified output. An accuracy value is assigned to each of the multiple outputs from the upstream subcomponents, and weighting values are assigned to each of the inputs to the downstream subcomponent. The accuracy values and weighting values are utilized to dynamically adjust inputs to the downstream subcomponent until an output from the downstream subcomponent meets a predefined trustworthiness level.
US09110798B2
The various embodiments herein provide a method and system for providing protection switching at a client layer on squelching of clients by a server layer protection controller in a nested protection system. The method comprises of marking a plurality of alarms of a pre-defined pattern and disabling a hold-off period for the plurality of marked alarms on receiving a squelch operation indication. The system comprises of one or more hold-off timers pre-configured with a hold off period and an alarm filter and hold-off processor (AFHP) for disabling the hold-off timer to invalidate the hold-off period for the plurality of marked alarms, wherein the plurality of marked alarms is an AIS generated due to squelching.
US09110795B2
Systems and methods are provided for dynamically allocating a memory subsystem. An exemplary embodiment comprises a method for dynamically allocating a memory subsystem in a portable computing device. The method involves fully interleaving a first portion of a memory subsystem having memory components with asymmetric memory capacities. A second remaining portion of the memory subsystem is partial interleaved according to an interleave bandwidth ratio. The first portion of the memory subsystem is allocated to one or more high-performance memory clients. The second remaining portion is allocated to one or more relatively lower-performance memory clients.
US09110794B2
In one embodiment, a method includes recording, for each of a plurality of data frames, a virtual write address including a multiframe indicator and a byte number indicator; and reading a group of associated data frames identified by corresponding multiframe indicators and byte number indicators. The reading is based on determining a minimum write address from a plurality of physical write addresses in the group of associated data frames by comparing virtual write addresses of all members in the group.
US09110788B2
A storage device includes a controller and a non-volatile memory that includes a three-dimensional (3D) memory. A method performed in the data storage device includes receiving, at the controller, first data and second data to be stored at the non-volatile memory. The method further includes sending, from the controller, the first data, the second data, and dummy data to the non-volatile memory to be stored at respective logical pages of a single physical page in the non-volatile memory. The single physical page includes multiple storage elements that are programmable into multiple voltage states according to a mapping of bits to states. The dummy data prevents a storage element of the single physical page from being programmed to a particular voltage state of the multiple voltage states.
US09110786B2
A data storage device includes a non-volatile memory and a controller coupled to the non-volatile memory. The controller is configured to receive a read command from a host device. The read command includes a starting logical block address (LBA) of the non-volatile memory, a number of logical blocks to be read (NLB), and a pointer to a scatter gather list (SGL). The controller is also configured to instruct the non-volatile memory to read a plurality of logical blocks from the non-volatile memory based on the starting LBA and the NLB. The controller is further configured to, after instructing the non-volatile memory to read the plurality of logical blocks, retrieve the SGL based on the pointer. The controller is configured to transfer a subset of the plurality of logical blocks identified by the SGL to the host device.
US09110785B1
A method, non-transitory computer readable medium and a system for managing a non-volatile memory device. The method includes receiving data sectors; writing the data sectors into a buffer of the non-volatile memory device; maintaining at least one management data structure that comprises (a) location metadata about a location of each data sector in the buffer (b) timing metadata for each memory space portion that includes at least one data sector that is currently buffered in the buffer, selecting a selected buffer block in response to the location metadata and the timing metadata; andmerging, before the buffer becomes full, data sectors of all of the at least one certain memory space portion into a sequential portion of the non-volatile memory device thereby emptying the selected buffer block, wherein the sequential portion differs from the buffer.
US09110783B1
Systems, apparatus, and computer-implemented methods are provided for the hybridization of cache memory utilizing both magnetic and solid-state memory media. A solid-state cache controller apparatus can be coupled to a host computing system to maximize efficiency of the system in a manner that is transparent to the high-level applications using the system. The apparatus includes an associative memory component and a solid-state cache control component. Solid-state memory is configured to store data blocks of host read operations. If a host-read operation is requested, the controller communicates with a solid-state cache memory controller to determine whether a tag array data structure indicates a cached copy of the requested data block is available in solid-state memory.
US09110782B2
A method of transferring data from a non-volatile memory (NVM) having a plurality of blocks of an emulated electrically erasable (EEE) memory to a random access memory (RAM) of the EEE includes accessing a plurality of records, a record from each block. A determination is made if any of the data signals of the first data signals are valid and thereby considered valid data signals. If there is only one or none that are valid, the valid data, if any is loaded into RAM and the process continues with subsequent simultaneous accesses. If more than one is valid, then the processes is halted until the RAM is loaded with the valid data, then the method continues with subsequent simultaneous accesses of records.
US09110780B2
The performance of a monitored system is profiled based on sampling a portion of its operations. In one embodiment, the monitored system allocates memory for objects created as instances of classes and automatically performs regular garbage collection to reclaim memory. A variety of sampling techniques are used to minimize the impact on the performance of the monitored system. Characteristic memory utilization patterns can then be estimated for classes based on the samples. The patterns may be presented to a user for review and analysis. Characteristics of the monitored system's performance may be presented in an interactive interface that allows the user to trace the cause of the presented memory utilization patterns, and provides statistics regarding memory allocation and release to guide the user in this analysis.
US09110771B2
The present invention relates to a polychronous wave propagation system that is based on relative timing between two or more propagated waves through a wave propagation medium. The relative timing may be associated with interference patterns of energy between the propagated waves. Operational behavior of the polychronous wave propagation system is based on the relative timing of the propagated waves and distances between initiators that transmit the propagated waves and responders that receive the propagated waves. The operational behavior may include arithmetical computations, memory storage, Boolean functions, frequency-based computations, or the like. The polychronous wave propagation system relies on time delays between the propagated waves that result from propagation velocities of the propagated waves through the wave propagation medium. By incorporating the time delays into the system, operational capacity may be greatly enhanced.
US09110769B2
Techniques for detecting, analyzing, and/or reporting code clone are described herein. In one or more implementations, clone-code detection is performed on one or more source code bases to find true and near clones of a subject code snippet that a user (e.g., a software developer) expressly or implicitly selected. In one or more other implementations, code clone is analyzed to estimate the code-improvement-potential (such as bug-potential and code-refactoring-potential) properties of clones. One or more other implementations present the results of code clone analysis with indications (e.g., rankings) of the estimated properties of the respective the clones.
US09110765B2
The present disclosure describes methods, systems, and computer program products for displaying different hierarchy levels of computer program source code. One computer-implemented method includes generating, at a first hierarchy level of a plurality of hierarchy levels, a first code viewer box (CVB) in a software development environment, wherein the first CVB includes source code scaled according to the first hierarchy level, receiving a selection of a zoom level from a graphical controller, wherein the selected zoom level corresponds to a second hierarchy level, scaling, by operation of a computer, the source code according to the second hierarchy level to created newly scaled source code, and generating, based on the received selection, a second CVB at the second hierarchy level including the newly scaled source code.
US09110749B2
The present technology describes creating and delivering a digital content package in a specified input structure to a content server for processing before distribution to client devices. The technology includes receiving one or more creatives, a targeted application, and a manifest associated with the targeted application within the digital content package. The content server uses the manifest to prepare an archive file containing selected resources related to the targeted application. The archive can be optimistically served to a client device along with one or more creatives for display on the client device and linking to the targeted application. A user selection of one of the one or more creatives can cause execution of the targeted application. Accordingly, the present technology leverages the use of the digital content package created by content providers to process new content and serve it to client devices.
US09110748B2
Computer implemented methods and systems work cooperatively to calculate and display plume arrival time of a CBR contaminant and to alert responders to take action, associated with mitigating the CBR contaminant. The methods and systems comprise: performing, plume arrival time operational use routines, including: sensing an unknown CBR contaminant released in a geographic area of interest and then, over a communications network, alerting and causing responders to mitigate the CBR contaminant by displaying realtime graphics on handheld computer implemented graphics devices, as well as host computers and distributed computers, showing current and predicted paths of plumes of the CBR plume, by estimating an initial source location of the unknown contaminant, calculating and displaying on graphic displays, an arrival time of at least one or more plumes associated with the CBR contaminant.
US09110746B2
Embodiments of the disclosure are directed to generating a random number. An embodiment of the disclosure passes a current from a read operation through a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) to cause a first magnetization orientation of a free layer to switch to a second magnetization orientation, the switch in magnetization orientation causing a change in a resistance of the MTJ, and periodically samples the resistance of the MTJ to generate a bit value for the random number.
US09110739B2
Methods, systems, and computer-readable media are provided to allow multiple server resources to share a single connection to a client device. The single connection may be maintained between a notification queue on the server side and the client device. Multiple server resources share the notification queue. When a resource changes or a service wants to communicate information to a client, corresponding messages are sent to the notification queue over a connection within the data center. Once in the notification queue, the updates are communicated to the client device.
US09110735B2
Methods and systems may provide for identifying a workload associated with a platform and determining a scalability of the workload. Additionally, a performance policy of the platform may be managed based at least in part on the scalability of the workload. In one example, determining the scalability includes determining a ratio of productive cycles to actual cycles.
US09110732B1
A proxy operating inside of a virtual machine that is responsible for receiving user-specified configuration information, such as credentials, and updating the configuration of the virtual machine with the user-specified values at the time of assigning the virtual machine to a user. Once the proxy updates the configuration of the virtual machine, the virtual machine is assigned the user that provided the user configuration information and the proxy can deactivate or uninstall itself from the virtual machine, such as by deleting all files, registry entries and other traces of execution.
US09110729B2
Systems and methods for admission control to a physical host system are provided herein. One aspect provides for receiving at least one resource request at an admission control component of a distributed computing system, the at least one resource request comprised of at least one system type; processing the at least one resource request utilizing at least one physical host accessible to the distributed computing system; specifying a number of resource request slots to be reserved for at least one system type based on at least one future reservation threshold accessible to the admission control component; and blocking resource requests from entering the system through the admission control component based on a number of available resource request slots and the at least one future reservation threshold. Other embodiments and aspects are also described herein.
US09110718B2
The present embodiments provide a system for supporting targeted stores in a shared-memory multiprocessor. A targeted store enables a first processor to push a cache line to be stored in a cache memory of a second processor in the shared-memory multiprocessor. This eliminates the need for multiple cache-coherence operations to transfer the cache line from the first processor to the second processor. The system includes an interface, such as an application programming interface (API), and a system call interface or an instruction-set architecture (ISA) that provides access to a number of mechanisms for supporting targeted stores. These mechanisms include a thread-location mechanism that determines a location near where a thread is executing in the shared-memory multiprocessor, and a targeted-store mechanism that targets a store to a location (e.g., cache memory) in the shared-memory multiprocessor.
US09110714B2
In a multi-tasking pipelined processor, consecutive instructions are executed by different tasks, eliminating the need to purge an instruction execution pipeline of subsequent instructions when a previous instruction cannot be completed. The tasks do not share registers which store task-specific values, thus eliminating the need to save or load registers when a new task is scheduled for execution. If an instruction accesses an unavailable resource, the instruction becomes suspended, allowing other tasks' instructions to be executed instead until the resource becomes available. Task scheduling is performed by hardware; no operating system is needed. Simple techniques are provided to synchronize shared resource access between different tasks.
US09110713B2
Systems and methods for implementing a floating point fused multiply and accumulate with scaling (FMASc) operation. A floating point unit receives input multiplier, multiplicand, addend, and scaling factor operands. A multiplier block is configured to multiply mantissas of the multiplier and multiplicand to generate an intermediate product. Alignment logic is configured to pre-align the addend with the intermediate product based on the scaling factor and exponents of the addend, multiplier, and multiplicand, and accumulation logic is configured to add or subtract a mantissa of the pre-aligned addend with the intermediate product to obtain a result of the floating point unit. Normalization and rounding are performed on the result, avoiding rounding during intermediate stages.
US09110710B2
A method is provided for preserving changes to a configuration of a running virtual machine. The method includes reading an initial configuration, starting the virtual machine under application of the initial configuration, modifying the configuration of the virtual machine during runtime, storing the modified configuration of the virtual machine during shutdown, and reading the modified configuration at re-start of the virtual machine and re-starting the virtual machine under application of the modified configuration.
US09110705B2
Responsive to a hypervisor determining that insufficient local resources are available for reservation to meet a performance parameter for at least one resource specified in a reservation request for a particular logical partition managed by the hypervisor in a host system, the hypervisor identifies another logical partition managed by the hypervisor in the host system that is assigned at the least one resource meeting the performance parameter specified in the reservation request. The hypervisor estimates a first cost of migrating the particular logical partition and a second cost of migrating the another logical partition to at least one other host system communicatively connected in a peer-to-peer network based on at least one previously recorded cost stored by the host system of migrating a previous logical partition to the at least one other host system.
US09110701B1
Approaches for transferring data to a client by safely receiving the data in or more virtual machines. In response to the client determining that digital content is to be received or processed by the client, the client identifies one or more virtual machines, executing or to be executed on the client, into which the digital content is to be stored. In doing so, the client may consult policy data that defines one or more policies for determining into which virtual machine the digital content should be stored. In this way, digital content, such as executable code or interpreted data, of unknown trustworthiness may be safely received by the client without the possibility of any malicious code therein from affecting any undesirable consequence upon the client.
US09110691B2
A method and apparatus for compiling software written to be executed on a microprocessor that supports at least one hardware transactional memory function is provided. A compiler that supports at least one software transactional memory function is adapted to include a runtime system that maps between the at least one software transactional memory function and the at least one hardware transactional memory instruction.
US09110688B2
A system and method for representing object animation, such as the movement of mouse pointers, within presentations based on software application programs or other information displayed by a computer system is disclosed herein. In one aspect the method is directed to representing animation of a mouse pointer object during creation of a presentation based on such displayed information. The method includes storing a first mouse pointer position relative to a first screen shot derived from the displayed information. In addition, a second mouse pointer position is also stored relative to a second screen shot derived from the displayed information. The method farther includes displaying, with respect to the first screen shot, a previous path portion to a displayed mouse pointer position and a next path portion from the displayed mouse pointer position. The previous path portion and the next path portion are representative of a mouse pointer path traversed during playback of the presentation. In a particular implementation the first and/or second mouse pointer positions may be modified during operation in an edit mode.
US09110686B2
A command interface for a software application is implemented on a client computer. A first definition of the command interface is received from a server computer. The first definition includes rules for encoding the command interface on a web browser. A conversion of the first definition to a second definition is performed. The second definition includes language for encoding the command interface on a user interface of the software application. The second definition is used to render the command interface on the user interface of the software application.
US09110682B2
A debugger utilizes a finite state machine to control when execution of a software application is suspended. The finite state machine uses breakpoints as transitions that move the finite state machine from a start state to an acceptance state. The debugger tracks when breakpoints used in the finite state machine occur. When the finite state machine reaches an acceptance state, the debugger suspends execution of the software application to allow a developer to observe and/or alter the program state or software application. The finite state machine may be generated by a developer as a graph or as a regular expression that is then converted into a finite state machine. In this manner, a developer may specify more complex conditions upon which to suspend execution of a debugger.
US09110681B2
A source code that includes an operator graph that includes a plurality of processing elements, each processing element having one or more stream operators is received. A metadata tag describing a customization of at least one of the one or more stream operators having a windowing processing operation is parsed from the source code. The source code of the streaming application having the windowing processing operation based on the metadata tag is compiled.
US09110680B1
Methods and systems for avoiding or deferring data copies are disclosed. Using a virtual machine, it is determined whether a set of program code comprises references to a data object after an operation to generate a copy of the data object. If not, a set of optimized program code is generated in which the operation to copy the data object is replaced with an operation to update a reference. Using the virtual machine, it is determined whether the set of program code comprises an operation to generate a copy of a buffer object. If so, a set of further optimized program code is generated, comprising an allocation of one or more memory pages to store the buffer object with a copy-on-write parameter instead of the operation to generate the copy of the buffer object.
US09110677B2
A method for optimizing a boot up sequence includes, during a host idle time or during data transfer: obtaining a predicted read address from the a prediction table, prefetching from the non-volatile data store, and saving the prefetched data in memory. Also included is receiving a current read command issued by the host and if the read address matches the predicted read address, providing to the host the prefetched data saved in temporary memory, and indicating a match. If a match is not indicated, obtaining current data from the non-volatile data store corresponding to the read address of the current read command, and providing the current data to the host. If a match was not indicated, searching the data prediction table for the predicted read address that matches the read address corresponding to the current read command, and if found in the data prediction table, recording the offset value.
US09110674B1
System and methods are provided for dynamic performance adjustment of a media playing pipeline. For example, the media playing pipeline includes one or more components synchronized for media playing. A reference component in the media playing pipeline is selected, the reference component having a component performance level. A pipeline performance level of the media playing pipeline is determined. When the pipeline performance level is higher than a threshold, the component performance level of the reference component is adjusted to decrease the pipeline performance level. When the pipeline performance level is lower than the threshold, the component performance level of the reference component is adjusted to increase the pipeline performance level.
US09110669B2
A method of managing power of the storage device including a first processing core for controlling a first function block and a second processing core for controlling a second function block includes: analyzing a pattern of commands received from the outside; selecting an operation mode of the storage device based on the analyzed pattern; and managing the electric power of the storage device by using the first processing core if the selected operation mode is a first mode, and separately managing electric powers of the first and second function blocks by using the first and second processing cores, respectively, if the selected operation mode is a second mode.
US09110668B2
Various methods and systems are provided for buffer-batch management for energy efficient networking. In one embodiment, among others, a system includes a host device including an interface with a network. A device driver monitors requests to transmit packets from the host device to the network, buffers the packets in memory of the host device when the host device network interface is estimated to be in a low power mode, and initiates transition of the host device network interface to a full power mode based at least in part upon predefined criteria associated with the buffered packets. The host device network interface may begin transmission of the buffered packets when the host device network interface enters the full power mode. The host device network interface may be a network interface controller such as, e.g., an Ethernet controller configured for Energy Efficient Ethernet operation.
US09110665B2
Techniques are described to monitor a level of graphics processing activity and control power usage based on the level. When no graphics processing activity is detected for a period of time, then a timing controller for a display device is instructed to capture a current image and repeatedly display the captured image. The graphics processing devices can be powered down. When graphics processing activity is detected, the graphics processing devices are powered up and the components used to capture an image and display the captured image are powered down.
US09110660B2
A data transform method and a data transformer. The method includes: importing a data transform rule; acquiring from the data transform rule a source data definition, a destination data definition and a data transform rule definition; predicting resource energy consumption parameters of a data transform node server according to the source data definition, the destination data definition and the data transform rule definition; and deploying a resource energy consumption optimization policy of the data transform node server according to the predicted resource energy consumption parameters of the data transform node server.
US09110653B2
Product data management systems, methods, and mediums. A method includes receiving a functional model, and identifying a plurality of elements of the functional model. Each element corresponds to one or more machine operations. The method includes identifying concurrencies between elements to determine at least one set of elements. The method includes creating an execution thread for each of the sets of elements. The method can include generating a rule-based programmable logic controller (PLC) program corresponding to the functional model, based on the execution threads.
US09110652B2
An electronic device which is able to be charged via a universal serial bus (USB) interface which connects to a computer. A first voltage of a battery of the electronic device, a second voltage and an electric current of the USB interface are determined. If a difference between the first voltage and a saturation voltage of the battery is greater than a predefined value, the electronic device is charged with a first electric current. If the second voltage is not lower than a threshold voltage and the electric current of the USB interface is not lower than the electrical energy consumption of the electronic device, the first electric current is decreased.
US09110649B2
A storage apparatus that includes a power supply unit that supplies power to a controller when power supply from the outside to a storage apparatus stops, a surplus power determination unit that determines surplus power that is power, which is to be supplied by the power supply unit and by which power for the saving of data into a nonvolatile memory is exceeded, a target voltage determination unit that determines a first target voltage based on the surplus power, and a charging processing unit that carries out a charging process for the power supply unit with a first current value until the first target voltage reached and that carries out a charging process for the power supply unit with a second current value lower than the first current value until a second target voltage higher than the first target voltage is reached from the first target voltage.
US09110647B2
A method for managing an energy consuming load in a group of energy consuming loads and a method for managing the group of energy consuming loads. The method includes generating sets of load state data from the loads, making enablement state decisions for one or more loads using the sets of load state data, and implementing the enablement state decisions. Each of the enablement state decisions reflects an enablement state of a load, wherein the enablement state is either a load enabled state where the load is capable of operating even when the load is not actually operating or a load disabled state where the load is not capable of operating. A computer readable medium may include computer readable instructions for directing a processor to perform the methods and make the enablement state decision. Further, an apparatus comprised of a processor may be programmed to perform the methods.
US09110631B2
The electronic device having a base in the form of an outer support frame is provided. The electronic device may include a base in the form of an outer support frame, the base having an opening extending therethrough formed by the outer support frame; a keyboard disposed within at least a portion of the opening and supported by the outer support frame; and a display attached to the base. The display may be slidably attached to the base. Further, the display may include a touchscreen.
US09110628B2
An image processing board and a display apparatus having the same are provided. The image processing board includes a substrate, common input terminals installed on the substrate, and an additional input terminal selectively installed on the substrate. The additional input terminal is selectively installed on the substrate according to a type of display apparatus, and thus the image processing board may be used in various types of display apparatuses.
US09110624B2
A method for restoring visual output to a display device. The method includes detecting a display device connection change on an output connector and changing output settings to a compatible output mode on the output connector. The method further includes cloning graphics output to the output connector. The graphics output is modified for display on the output connector. The display device is signaled to change the input source to correspond to the output connector. Subsequently, a control panel application is executed to present an on-display control for changing the output mode of the first output connector.
US09110619B2
An image data processing device includes: a basic image data acquisition device that acquires basic image data; a simplified image data generation device that generates simplified image data corresponding to the basic image data which has been acquired, a size of the simplified image data being smaller than that of the basic image data; a transmission device that transmits at least the basic image data to an external storage device; and an internal storage device that stores the simplified image data without storing the basic image data.
US09110604B2
Techniques for virtual machine full backup are described herein. According to one embodiment, in response to a request to back up a virtual machine (VM) of a client, a request of VM backup is sent out. A consistent state of the VM is then identified via a VM application program interface (VM API). Subsequently a request is sent to a storage system associated with the client to ask for VM disk image associated with the consistent state of the VM to a target backup storage system.
US09110600B1
A data volume may be shelved based at least in part on statistical triggers associated with the data, a user of the data, or a system configured to store and/or manage the data. Upon receiving a request to detach a data volume from a computing device, a determination of whether the data volume should be shelved may be made. In some aspects, the data volume may be shelved by moving the data to another storage system, storing an identifier of the data volume, and de-allocating space associated with the shelved data such that the shelved data is no longer maintained in the storage system. Further, in some aspects, upon a request to attach the data volume, the data may be moved back, the original identifier may be re-assigned to the data volume, and the data volume may be re-attached to the computing device.
US09110594B2
A device comprising a file management system that includes a plurality of first entries and second entries. The first entries are configured function as a logical block address mapping table for data searching operations on data files stored in data blocks of the device, and the second entries are configured to organize the plurality of data blocks into separate logical groups.
US09110593B2
A method begins by a dispersed storage (DS) processing module encrypting a data segment utilizing an encryption key to produce an encrypted data segment and performing a deterministic function on the encrypted data to produce a transformed representation of the encrypted data. The method continues with the DS processing module masking the encryption key utilizing the transformed representation of the encrypted data to produce a masked key, partitioning the masked key into a plurality masked key partitions, partitioning the encrypted data segment into a plurality of encrypted data segment partitions, and combining the plurality of masked key partitions with the plurality of encrypted data segment partitions to produce a plurality of combined partitions. For a combined partition of the plurality of combined partitions, the method continues with the DS processing module encoding the combined partition using a dispersed storage error coding function to produce a set of encoded data slices.
US09110587B2
A method for transmitting and receiving data between a memo layer and an application and an electronic device using the same are provided. The method includes executing an application and displaying the executed application on a touch screen, detecting a gesture on the touch screen during execution of the application, displaying a memo layer overlapped on the application according to the detected gesture, the memo layer including a handwriting input area for displaying data to be provided to the application and a display area for displaying data received from the application, receiving a handwriting image in the handwriting input area of the memo layer, recognizing the received handwriting image and comparing the recognized handwriting image with preset data, and displaying a feedback received from the application in the display area of the memo layer according to a comparison result.
US09110586B2
A scrolling apparatus enables scrolling of display contents of a display unit and includes a load range determining unit that determines a load range of display data to be loaded from a primary storage unit to a secondary storage unit according to a movement starting position detected by a detecting unit; a loading unit that loads display data in the load range determined by the load range determining unit from the primary storage unit to the secondary storage unit; and a display control unit that displays on the display unit display data in a display range among the display data in the load range stored in the secondary storage unit.
US09110583B2
Disclosed is a display device integrated with a touch screen which realizes good design by decreasing a bezel width, and its driving method, wherein the device comprises a plurality of gate and data lines crossing each other on a lower substrate of a display panel; a common electrode formed in each of touch blocks, wherein the plurality of touch blocks are formed by grouping all pixels into units; a plurality of touch drive lines on the lower substrate of the display panel, wherein the touch drive line is provided in the same direction as that of the data line; and a plurality of touch sensing lines on an upper substrate of the display panel, wherein the touch sensing line is formed in the same direction as that of the gate line.
US09110575B2
Methods and systems for graphically emphasizing a selected path through a diagram, where the diagram includes a number of nodes and a number of lines, the methods and systems including: applying a node highlight effect to a node of the number of nodes in the selected path, where applying the node highlight effect includes applying a node shadow to the node, applying a line highlight effect to a line of the number of lines in the selected path, where applying the line highlight effect includes applying a line shadow to the line, applying a node fade effect to a node of the number of nodes not in the selected path, and applying a line fade effect to a line of the number of lines not in the selected path.
US09110557B2
A method and system for a user interactive game capable of training and monitoring motor and cognitive skills of a patient, is provided. The method includes obtaining an image of an object being manipulated by the user, said image having an image frame; within the image frame, defining a shape of a field of movement; adding a bounding rectangle to the shape of the field of movement; mapping a coordinate from within the object to the bounding rectangle; mapping the coordinate from the bounding rectangle to the image frame; mapping the coordinate from the image frame to the target; and displaying the coordinate on the a computer monitor as an icon.
US09110551B2
An apparatus including distinct capacitive sensor electrodes irregularly configured across a sensing area, wherein each capacitive sensor electrode is an island associated with a unique combination of two positional components within the sensing area; and a plurality of conductive traces each of which is operatively connected to one of the distinct capacitive sensor electrodes and wherein at least some of the conductive traces extend over the sensing area.
US09110546B2
A self capacitance type touch panel includes a touch driver including a plurality of touch ICs; and a touch unit including a plurality of touch groups that are controlled by the plurality of touch ICs, respectively, wherein each of the plurality of touch groups includes a plurality of pattern electrodes, and some touch ICs selected from the plurality of touch ICs apply sensing voltages to respective corresponding touch groups at a same timing.
US09110545B2
An apparatus including a plurality of adjacent repeated base units, each base unit formed from an active electrode of first, second and third touch sensor arrays, the first, second and third touch sensor arrays each including a plurality of active electrodes connected to a respective common terminal of the touch sensor array, wherein each base unit includes an active electrode of the second touch sensor array interlaced between an active electrode of the first touch sensor array and an active electrode of the third touch sensor array such that a swipe touch gesture applied to two or more adjacent active electrodes of the apparatus generates signalling at the respective common terminals of the corresponding touch sensor arrays which allows the direction of the swipe touch gesture to be determined.
US09110544B2
A touch sensing method of charge distribution type is disclosed. Firstly, charges in a panel are removed. Next, a scanning signal is provided to scan a plurality of sensing regions of the panel. Subsequently, the panel is set in a first switching mode for charging the panel with the scanning signal. Thereafter, the panel is set in a second switching mode for modifying a distribution of charges injected into the panel. Next, an equivalent voltage is acquired after the charges are distributed at an equilibrium state. Furthermore, a touch sensing apparatus with charge distribution type is provided herein.
US09110538B2
A representative device includes: a display having a display side, the display being operative to display images at the display side; a light-distorting film having surface features positioned to redirect light; a first object, positioned between the display side and the light-distorting film; and a second object, positioned between the display side and the light-distorting film; a first plurality of the surface features of the light-distorting film being operative to redirect light, propagating along an first optical path; and a second plurality of the surface features of the light-distorting film being operative to redirect light, propagating along a second optical path.
US09110534B2
Disclosed are devices and methods of stylus devices that when in contact with a capacitive touchscreen and a grounding element, can vary the signal level detected on a capacitive touchscreen to create a more realistic writing experience. Disclosed are elements of a touchscreen stylus, which individually or in combination, can enable a touchscreen stylus to have at least one electrical characteristic that is variable. In this way the resistive link between the touchscreen and a grounding element can be varied to enable features such as a capability to vary the width of line being drawn, to vary a region of influence on the touchscreen and/or to vary a temperament of action. The elements of a disclosed stylus can include at least one mechanical feature to provide at least one electrical characteristic that is variable and/or at least one material in an arrangement to provide at least one electrical characteristic that is variable.
US09110529B2
An area selection operation of a character string is performed by touching the character string displayed on a display unit 1 via a touch panel unit 2 disposed on the display unit 1 by a finger and tracing the character string. When it is determined that the finger performing the area selection operation is positioned over a displayed character, character type information of the character at a contact position of the finger is determined. Then, when the contact position of the finger performing the selection operation moves from the character to a next character of the character string, a tactile sensation is provided based on information added to each of the characters. An end point of a selected area of the character string is set to a character for which the tactile sensation is provided immediately before detection of release of the finger.
US09110525B2
A touch-sensitive apparatus includes a first material, a second material joined to the first material such that the first material and the second material are substantially flat across an interface between the first material and the second material, and first touch sensors disposed continuously across the interface from the first material to the second material.
US09110508B2
An electronic device presents, to the user, a realistic control feel in response to a complicated operation such as an operation using multiple fingers. An electronic device 10 includes a touch panel 11 to be touched by the user, a vibrating section 13 for vibrating the touch panel 11, and a vibration control section 33 for controlling the vibration of the vibrating section 13. The vibration control section 33 changes the vibration of the vibrating section 13 when, after the user touches the touch panel 11 with multiple fingers, the user lifts at least one of the multiple fingers off the touch panel 11 with at least one other of the multiple fingers remaining on the touch panel 11.
US09110507B2
Apparatus including a first surface electrode and an arrangement of second insulated surface electrodes; a display configured to display an image; and a controller configured to apply a potential difference between the first surface electrode and the arrangement of second insulated surface electrodes and configured to control at least a variation in the applied potential difference in dependence upon the displayed image.
US09110499B2
The invention relates to a system, method and device for changing a notional viewing location for a moving image on a device, depending on an orientation of the device. For the moving image management system, it comprises: a sensor; a movement detection module connected to the sensor providing movement data registering a notable signal from the sensor; and a moving image adjustment module determining a new viewing location of the moving image utilizing the movement data and generating a replacement moving image for the moving image representing the moving image as viewed from the new viewing location.
US09110496B1
At least one test of a first computing system is launched utilizing a second computing system that includes a first set of computing devices. Progress of the test is monitored during a first period of time. Performance of the second computing system is also monitored during the first period. An additional second set of computing devices is automatically provisioned for inclusion in the second computing system based at least in part on the monitoring of the test progress and monitoring of the performance of the computing system during the first time period. The test can utilize the first and second sets of computing devices during a second period of time subsequent to the first period.
US09110494B2
A pedal device for vehicles includes: a pedal arm provided in a pedal housing and connected to a pedal pad at a first end thereof, and rotated around a hinge shaft mounted to a second end of the pedal arm; a pressure member, a first end of which is held by the first end of the pedal arm, and a second end of which is placed between the hinge shaft and an inner surface of the pedal housing; and an elastic member provided between a middle portion of the pressure member and the inner surface of the pedal housing, and functioning to impose an elastic reaction force on the pressure member when a driver presses the pedal pad down. The elastic member brings the second end of the pressure member into frictional contact with the inner surface of the pedal housing.
US09110489B2
The present disclosure relates to a high efficiency switched mode power supply (SMPS) having increased efficiency due to loss-less coil current estimation for current control. A circuit in the control unit of SMPS comprises a capacitor and the voltage on the capacitor is an integral of the current flowing into the cap over time and if there are current sources which depend on the input and the output voltage, periodically switched with the same signals as the P and N switches, the voltage on the charged capacitor has the same shape as the current through the coil. The signal gleaned from the capacitor voltage are used the same manner by the control unit as it was with the signals from prior art current sensing.
US09110486B2
A band gap reference circuit including a band gap reference generator having an output for providing a reference voltage and a startup circuit for controlling current provided to the band gap reference generator when activated. The startup circuit includes a turnoff circuit having an output to deactivate the startup circuit to not control current to the band gap reference generator based on a voltage of the output of the band gap reference generator. The turnoff circuit includes an inverter having a first transistor of a first conductivity type in series with a second transistor of a second conductivity type opposite the first conductivity type. The startup circuit includes a body bias circuit connected to a body of the first transistor to provide a voltage differential between the body of the first transistor and a source terminal of the first transistor.
US09110478B2
A system for regulating a temperature of a measurement array is disclosed. The system includes a measurement array including a plurality of sensors, wherein the plurality of sensors are integrated onto an integrated circuit die. The system includes a thermal sensor integrated onto the integrated circuit die, wherein the thermal sensor senses a temperature associated with the plurality of sensors. The system further includes a heat pump coupled to the integrated circuit die, wherein the heat pump is controlled by a feedback control circuit including the thermal sensor.
US09110474B2
Apparatus, systems, and methods related to a constant-flow control valve and BTU meter assembly that has a pressure independent, constant-flow control valve assembly connectable to the fluid-based heating or cooling system. A valve stem is connected to a valve member and is rotatable as a unit relative to a valve body to change the position of valve member to change a fluid flow rate through the valve. The valve member's position relative to the fluid path is directly related to the fluid flow rate. Pressure sensors measure the pressure of fluid entering and exiting the valve body. A BTU meter assembly is connected to the valve stem, which is rotatable relative to the BTU meter assembly. A position sensor of the BTU meter assembly detects a rotational position of the valve stem relative to the BTU body. A controller of the BTU meter assembly is coupleable to the position sensor, the pressure sensors, and the temperature sensors, and the controller determines the fluid flow rate based upon the pressure drop across the valve assembly and the rotational position of the valve stem. The controller also determines energy usage of the heating or cooling device based upon the flow rate and the temperature change across the heating or cooling device.
US09110460B2
A management system for operation items used in manufacturing on a production line includes a module on which one of several production based operation items is storable as a header of a group list in relation to a manufacturing sub-system. For each production based operation item, at least one non-production based operation item is storable as a content of the corresponding group list, so that a hierarchical subdivision of production/non-production operation items in a plurality of group lists is provided in order to input them on a processing unit in a standard form. Since a hierarchical subdivision of production/non-production operation items in a plurality of group lists is permanently provided for each subsystem and their processes to be managed, a very simple and uniform/universal structure for management of all items can be advantageously obtained in a central way at the processing unit.
US09110459B2
An interference check device is disposed in an apparatus including a plurality of moving bodies, moving devices for moving the plurality of moving bodies, and another moving device for moving at least one of the moving bodies in a same axial line direction as one of the moving devices. The interference check device conducts interference check when at least one of the moving bodies is moved, and includes an absolute movement amount calculating part which synthesizes a movement amount of at least one of the plurality of moving bodies, which is a subject to be checked, in the same axial line direction based on data inputted to one of the moving devices and another moving device, to determine an absolute movement amount in the same axial line direction, and an interference check part associating with the absolute amount calculating part for checking the interference check from the absolute movement amount.
US09110458B2
A positioning control apparatus has a moving body, a feed device having a guide mechanism for guiding the moving body in the direction of its feed axis and a drive mechanism for moving the moving body, a structural body supporting the feed device and a controller for controlling a moving position of the moving body with respect to a reference position on a machine tool by controlling the operation of the drive mechanism, and further has a calculating section calculating displacement of the feed device in the feed-axis direction with respect to the reference position caused by displacement of the structural body and a compensating section receiving the displacement data measured by the calculating section and adding modification data for eliminating the displacement to a control signal in the controller.
US09110457B2
Disclosed are systems and apparatus adapted to aid in calibration of an offset position—between a position sensor and an end effector in a processing system. The system includes a robotic component having an end effector and a position sensor coupled thereto, a teach target having a first geometrical feature, and an offset tool adapted to be engaged by the end effector, the offset tool including a first docking feature. The system further includes a moveable offset target having a second docking feature adapted to be engaged by the first docking feature and a second geometrical feature adapted to be sensed by the position sensor. The end effector moves the offset tool to the offset target and docks them. A position of the teach target and the offset target may then be sensed with the position sensor to determine an actual offset of the end effector with respect to the position sensor. Methods of operating the system are provided, as are other aspects.
US09110454B2
A method of mapping a machine having a work tool includes sensing an outer boundary of the machine and generating a first set of information indicative of the outer boundary of the machine, moving the work tool relative to the machine through substantially an entire range of motion of the work tool, and sensing an outer boundary of the work tool during movement of the work tool through substantially the entire range of motion. The method also includes generating a second set of information indicative of a location of the outer boundary of the work tool through substantially the entire range of motion, determining information indicative of a position of an object disposed proximate the machine, and determining whether the information indicative of the position of the object is included in either the first or second sets of information.
US09110453B2
A novel 3-Input-3-Output (3×3) Model-Free Adaptive (MFA) controller with a set of artificial neural networks as part of the controller is introduced. A 3×3 MFA control system using the inventive 3×3 MFA controller is described to control key process variables including Power, Steam Throttle Pressure, and Steam Temperature of boiler-turbine-generator (BTG) units in conventional and advanced power plants. Those advanced power plants may comprise Once-Through Supercritical (OTSC) Boilers, Circulating Fluidized-Bed (CFB) Boilers, and Once-Through Supercritical Circulating Fluidized-Bed (OTSC CFB) Boilers.
US09110450B2
The present disclosure is generally directed to systems and methods for dynamically adjusting functions of an automation system. More particularly, the present disclosure includes systems, devices, and methods for intelligently controlling one or more energy-consuming devices in a structure such as a residential, commercial, or industrial building. One embodiment include determining an identity of a person and/or the direction the person is traveling, and then changing a function of an actuator based on the determination(s).
US09110448B2
In a method for processing a point cloud using a computing device, a straight line fitted by the point cloud comprising border points is determined as a benchmark line. An inflection point in the point cloud of the benchmark line is determined. If the vertical distance of the inflection point is not greater than the preset filtration value, needless border points in the point cloud are deleted and a remainder point cloud is obtained. If the vertical distance between the inflection point and the benchmark line is greater than a filtration value, the point cloud is divided into two sub-point clouds, and the one sub-point cloud having border points less than the preset number is deleted, and the other sub-point cloud is set as a remainder point cloud.
US09110446B2
A multilayer time indicator comprises: A. A topsheet, B. An activating layer, C. A timing layer, D. A dye layer, and E. A substrate. In one embodiment the topsheet and activating layer comprise a first or activation section of the indicator while the timing layer, dye layer and substrate comprise a second or base section of the indicator. In one embodiment the activating layer of the first section and the timing layer of the second section are each protected with a release sheet. In one embodiment, the first and second sections of the indicator comprise a kit which can be converted into an active time indicator by removal of the release sheets and joining of the activating layer to the timing layer. In one embodiment the first and second section are joined to one another by a common release sheet or liner which maintains the indicator in an inactive state until the release sheet is removed and the activating layer is joined to the timing layer.
US09110439B2
A cartridge detachably mountable to an apparatus body of an image forming apparatus, includes a grip member that is provided on the frame member for gripping the cartridge when the cartridge is mounted on or dismounted from the apparatus body, the grip member including a first molded member that is integrally molded with the frame member, and a second molded member that is integrally molded on the first molded member with a second resin after the molding of the first molded member.
US09110437B2
A sheet processing apparatus comprises a heating unit configured to heat a sheet when the sheet is conveyed between a pair of rollers, a first guide unit that supports and guides movement of the heating unit in a first direction towards a predetermined position exterior to the sheet processing apparatus, and a second guide unit that supports and guides further movement of the heating unit in the first direction in cooperation with the first guide unit, the second guide unit including an abutment section configured to stop movement of the heating unit in the first direction when the heating unit reaches the predetermined position.
US09110436B2
An image forming apparatus (100) includes: a side cover (201) mounted on a side part of an apparatus body to be freely opened and closed; a fixing portion (80) mounted inside the apparatus body and close to the side cover (201) and fixing an image to a paper sheet P fed in a direction from a bottom to a top of the apparatus body; and a document platen (130) mounted at an upper part of the apparatus body and supporting a document placed thereon. The document platen (130) includes a cutout portion (130K) formed in a manner such that a portion opposed to an upper part of the side cover (201) is cut out inside; and the fixing portion (80) includes a nip (85) that, when the side cover (201) is opened, can be viewed obliquely from a lateral upper side of the apparatus body through the cutout portion (130K).
US09110425B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit to form an adhesive toner pattern in a predetermined bonding range of a sheet, outside a printable range in which an image according to image data is formed, a stacking unit to stack multiple sheets one on top of another, and a sheet binding device that includes a fusing device to fuse and fix the adhesive toner pattern formed on the multiple sheets to bind the multiple sheets together, and a bonding strength setting unit to determine, in accordance with a desired bonding strength, at least one of a number of color toners used for forming the adhesive toner pattern, a bonding manner, a number of pixels of the adhesive toner pattern, a toner area ratio of the adhesive toner pattern, and a layer thickness of the adhesive toner pattern.
US09110420B2
An image forming system includes an image forming portion, an image data generation portion, a position information obtaining portion, a position information adding portion, a storage portion, an image data searching portion, and a list display portion. The image forming portion forms an image on a print sheet based on image data. The position information obtaining portion obtains position information associated with a place where the image data has been generated. The position information adding portion adds the obtained position information to the generated image data. The storage portion stores therein the image data to which the position information has been added. The image data searching portion searches for the stored image data based on the position information. The list display portion displays a list of the searched image data as a candidate for the image data to be printed by the image forming portion.
US09110413B2
An image heating apparatus includes a cylindrical film; a roller contacting the film; a nip forming member contacting an inner surface of the film and cooperating with the roller to form a nip for nipping a sheet carrying an image; an opposing member opposing an inner surface of an end portion of the film along generatrix direction the film. A lubricant is provided between the film and the nip forming member. The film is longer than the roller. At least a part of the curved surface portion is provided in a region outside a contact region of the film and the roller. A portion of the curved surface portion outside the contact region is provided with a groove extending in a rotational moving direction of the film, the groove having a wall effective to remove from the film the lubricant.
US09110410B2
An image forming apparatus is provided which includes a main body, and a belt unit removable from the main body. The belt unit includes a belt extending between a drive roller and a driven roller and configured to rotate such that a recording medium is fed in a feeding direction. The apparatus further includes a feeding device that feeds the recording medium to the belt, and a positioning section including an engaging portion and an engaged portion, the positioning section being configured to position the belt unit when the engaging portion engages the engaged portion. Also, an urging member is provided that urges the belt unit and causes a pressing force to be applied between the engaging portion and the engaged portion. An urging direction of the urging member has a component in the feeding direction.
US09110398B2
A multi pass type color image forming apparatus and control method are provided. The apparatus advances an exposure time point of forming electrostatic latent images of second and subsequent colors more than that of a first color of a page during consecutive printing or reduces the velocity of a motor to rotate an intermediate transfer belt to minimize a color registration error between a developing agent image of the first color and developing agent images of the subsequent colors of the page caused by cleaning of the intermediate transfer belt and a control method thereof.
US09110389B2
A lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method makes use of a liquid confined in a reservoir between the projection system and the substrate. Bubbles forming in the liquid from dissolved atmospheric gases or from out-gassing from apparatus elements exposed to the liquid are detected and/or removed so that they do not interfere with exposure and lead to printing defects on the substrate. Detection may be carried out by measuring the frequency dependence of ultrasonic attenuation in the liquid and bubble removal may be implemented by degassing and pressurizing the liquid, isolating the liquid from the atmosphere, using liquids of low surface tension, providing a continuous flow of liquid through the imaging field, and/or phase shifting ultrasonic standing-wave node patterns.
US09110377B2
An EUV radiation generation apparatus includes a laser configured to generate pulses of laser radiation, and an optical isolation apparatus that includes a rotatably mounted reflector and a radially positioned reflector. The rotatably mounted reflector and the laser are synchronized such that a reflective surface of the rotatably mounted reflector is in optical communication with the radially positioned reflector when the optical isolation apparatus receives a pulse of laser radiation to allow the pulse of laser radiation to pass to a plasma formation location and cause a radiation emitting plasma to be generated via vaporization of a droplet of fuel material. The rotatably mounted reflector and the laser are further synchronized such that the reflective surface of the rotatably mounted reflector is at least partially optically isolated from the radially positioned reflector when the optical isolation apparatus receives radiation reflected from the plasma formation location.
US09110373B2
There is provided a novel phenolic resin which can be used as a coating agent or a resist resin for a semiconductor, which has a high carbon concentration and a low oxygen concentration in the resin, which has a relatively high heat resistance and also a relatively high solvent solubility, and which can be applied to a wet process. There are also provided a material useful for forming a novel photoresist underlayer film which has a relatively high solvent solubility, which can be applied to a wet process, and which is excellent in etching resistance as an underlayer film for a multilayer resist, an underlayer film formed using the same, and a pattern forming method using the same. A resin of the present invention is obtained by reacting a compound having a specified structure and an aldehyde having a specified structure in the presence of an acidic catalyst. In addition, a material for forming an underlayer film for lithography of the present invention includes at least the resin and an organic solvent.
US09110370B2
Photoactive additives are disclosed. The additive includes a benzophenone having at least one substituent that comprises a divalent linker and a linking group, wherein the linking group is a carboxyl group, ester group, or acid halide group. The additive can be a polymer, an oligomer, or a compound. When added to a base polymeric resin, the photoactive additive permits crosslinking upon exposure to ultraviolet light.
US09110361B2
Disclosed is an illumination optical system that includes: two solid-state light sources (11 and 12); first light guide (21) configured to guide light emitted from one solid-state light source in a first direction; second light guide (22) configured to guide light emitted from the other solid-state light source in a second direction different from the first direction; and optical path conversion units (31 and 32) including total reflection surfaces for totally reflecting the lights guided by the first light guide and the second light guide to enter the lights into third light guide (50). A projection display apparatus that uses the illumination optical system thus configured can enter light emitted from a plurality of light sources straight into an image forming element by one optical system.
US09110355B1
Described herein are various configurations and designs for an external flash device. The external flash device can attach to a camera device, such as a mobile phone or smartphone, to provide enhanced flash performance to an internal flash of the camera device. An adjustable arm of the external flash device can include a sensor positionable to receive an optical transmission, such as a flash from the camera device. The adjustable arm can allow the external flash to function with various camera devices. In response to receiving and detecting the optical transmission, the external flash can activate one or more light emitting units to generate a flash that is synchronized with the capture of an image by the camera. One or more light emitting arrays can be included in the external flash to provide greater flash brightness or more than one color temperature of light emitting units.
US09110353B2
This focal plane shuttering apparatus includes: front and rear curtains; first and second elastic members which generate biasing force to make the front and rear curtains run in such a direction as to get the front and rear curtains retracted from an aperture; a charging member which applies biasing force to those elastic members; a front curtain locking member which keeps the front curtain retracted from the aperture when the charging member applies biasing force to the first elastic member; a rear curtain locking member which keeps the aperture covered with the rear curtain when the charging member applies biasing force to the second elastic member; two switches which turn synchronously with those locking members; and an unlocking member which is interlocked with the charging member that unlocks those locking members.
US09110350B2
A color conversion filter contains at least one kind of squarylium dye that radiates fluorescence light, has a wavelength conversion capability, absorbs light in an unneeded wavelength region, radiates fluorescence light in a preferable wavelength region, and does not allow decrease in brightness, and thus is preferable for color conversion light-emitting devices, photoelectric conversion devices and the like. Specifically, the color conversion filter has an absorption having a high intensity in the range of 570 to 600 nm, and thus is preferable for use in a color conversion filter that radiates fluorescence light having a high intensity in the range of 600 to 780 nm.
US09110337B2
A display device including: a first insulation substrate and a second insulation substrate facing each other; a first field generating electrode and a second field generating electrode disposed on the first insulation substrate, wherein the first and second field generating electrodes overlap each other via an insulating layer; a first signal line and a second signal line disposed on the first insulation substrate and connected to the first field generating electrode; a slit pattern disposed in the first field generating electrode or the second field generating electrode; and a spacer disposed between the first insulation substrate and the second insulation substrate, wherein the spacer overlaps a portion of the slit pattern.
US09110334B2
Preferred embodiments utilize a plurality of optical channels to effectively aim the light emitted by a liquid crystal display (LCD). Embodiments may also change the nominal and range of viewing angles of light in two or three dimensions in order to confine the emitted light towards the intended observer.
US09110330B2
An automatic darkening and glare reducing liquid crystal mirror for vehicles is disclosed. The mirror has a front substrate (101) of transparent glass or plastic and a back substrate (109) of glass or plastic with a highly reflective or transflective mirrored coating (108). The front and back substrates are spaced apart a small distance to define a liquid crystal cell between the substrates and a liquid crystal fluid (106) incorporating dichroic dyes is contained within the liquid crystal cell. A conductive thin film (102) is applied onto the interior surface of the front substrate and the reflective or transflective coating (108) of the back substrate also is conductive. An alignment compound is deposited on the conductive thin film (102) and on the reflective or transflective coating (108) and the alignment compound bounds the liquid crystal cell. An electronic control circuit is adapted to apply selectively a voltage signal to the conductive thin film and the reflective or transflective coating (108) to affect the transmittance of the liquid crystal fluid, and thereby the darkness of the mirror.
US09110329B2
A liquid crystal display panel for displaying images in an active area includes a first substrate having a pair of first short ends and first long ends. A second substrate faces the first substrate so as to hold a liquid crystal layer therebetween. A first polarization plate is arranged on an outside surface of the first substrate. The first polarization plate has a pair of second short ends longer than the first short ends, a pair of second long ends, and a first absorption axis. The angle a1 made by the first absorption axis with respect to the second short ends is smaller than an angle b1 made by the first absorption axis with respect to the second long ends. A second polarization plate is arranged on an outside surface of the second substrate and has a second absorption axis.
US09110321B2
The present invention provides a frameless liquid crystal display device, which includes a rear enclosure, a backlight module arranged inside the rear enclosure, a mold frame arranged on the backlight module and mounted to the rear enclosure, and a liquid crystal display panel arranged on the mold frame. The liquid crystal display panel includes a CF substrate and a TFT substrate laminated on the CF substrate with first and second steps formed between edges of the CF substrate and the TFT substrate that correspond to opposite sides of the mold frame. The mold frame forms a retention section corresponding to the second step. The second step is received in and retained by the retention section. A surface decoration is bonded to the first step and fixed to the mold frame so as to fix the liquid crystal display panel to the mold frame.
US09110320B2
An electronic device may be provided with a display having substrate layers such as a glass color filter layer substrate and a glass thin-film-transistor layer substrate. Display layers such as first and second layers of polymer, a liquid crystal layer interposed between the layers of polymer, color filter elements, and thin-film-transistor circuitry may be formed between the color filter layer substrate and the thin-film-transistor layer substrate. Flexible inactive portions of the display layers may protrude outward from between the color filter layer substrate and the thin-film-transistor substrate. Touch sensor circuitry may be formed from a flexible polymer substrate. The touch sensor circuitry may include conductive touch sensor lines and capacitive electrodes. Each conductive line may be coupled to only a single end of a respective one of the capacitive electrodes.
US09110317B1
A pre-pulsed magnetic field generation circuit for a fiber-based, magneto-optic (MO) optical modulator or switch for use in an interferometer is provided. The pre-pulsed magnetic field is used to control the amount of rotation in the state of polarization (SOP), and therefore, the ON-OFF extinction ratio. The circuit includes a pair of amplifier circuits that control the current through a coil to generate the pre-pulsed magnetic field. One amplifier controls a magnitude of a steady state portion of the magnetic field, while the other controls both the amplitude and duration of a pre-pulse portion of the magnetic field.
US09110316B2
A method of amplifying a magneto-optical Kerr effect by using photon crystal structures, and a photon crystal having an amplified magneto-optical Kerr effect, and a method of fabricating the photon crystal. The method of amplifying a magneto-optical Kerr effect by using photon crystal structures includes amplifying the magneto-optical Kerr effect by fabricating a magnetic photon crystal including a crystal magnet and using a periodically-structured surface of the crystal magnet.
US09110315B2
An optical device includes a ridge-like optical waveguide portion, a mesa protector portion that is arranged in parallel to the optical waveguide portion, a resin portion that covers upper parts of the mesa protector portion and is disposed at both sides of the mesa protector portion, an electrode that is disposed on the optical waveguide portion, an electrode pad that is disposed on the resin portion located at an opposite side to the optical waveguide portion with respect to the mesa protector portion, and a connection portion that is disposed on the resin portion and electrically connects the electrode to the electrode pad.
US09110314B2
According to embodiments of the present invention, an optical modulator is provided. The optical modulator includes a depletion region comprising a junction between from a first conductivity type portion and a second conductivity type portion, a first intrinsic region, and a second intrinsic region, and wherein the depletion region is disposed between the first intrinsic region and the second intrinsic region.
US09110305B2
A microscope system includes an acquisition unit that obtains a specimen image acquired by capturing the specimen stained by an element identification dye that visualizes a predetermined cell constituent element and a molecule target dye that visualizes a predetermined target molecule by using a microscope; a dye amount unit that obtains dye amounts of the element identification dye and the molecule target dye that stain corresponding positions on the specimen for each pixel of the image; an element area identification unit that identifies an area of the cell constituent element based on the dye amount of the element identification dye; a condition setting unit that sets the presence or absence of the predetermined target molecule on the cell constituent element as a condition; and an extraction unit that extracts an area of a target portion that satisfies the condition based on the dye amount of the molecule target dye.
US09110290B2
The invention relates to an optical resonator made of low-outgassing materials, comprised of at least one chamber, a non-linear crystal arranged in the chamber, and an array of mirrors arranged in the chamber and comprised of a plurality of mirrors for deflecting a light beam. To specify such a resonator which is low-outgassing and which ensures fine adjustment of the optical elements at the same time, the present invention proposes that the non-linear crystal and at least one mirror of the array of mirrors is arranged on one movable carrier each, wherein the said carrier is fabricated from a low-outgassing material and seals the chamber.
US09110289B2
Improvements in an interferometric modulator that has a cavity defined by two walls.
US09110288B2
A microscope includes: a light source configured to generate light for irradiating a specimen; a microscope main body which supports the light source and on which an accommodation unit that accommodates the specimen is placed; a plurality of optical units, each of which is detachably installed in the microscope main body, configured to arranged on an optical path of the light, and configured to change optical characteristics of the light incident thereon; an operation input unit that includes a plurality of input units configured to respectively receive inputs of drive signals for driving optical units to be controlled among the plurality of optical units; and a control unit configured to allocate optical units to be respectively driven with the drive signals by the plurality of input units according to the plurality of optical units installed in the microscope main body.
US09110284B2
An electrowetting element comprising: a first fluid and a second fluid immiscible with the first fluid; and a surface. The first and second fluids are switchable to a first configuration by application of a voltage, the first fluid adjoining a first area of the surface and the second fluid adjoining a second area of the surface in the first configuration. The electrowetting element includes at least one reconfiguration reducer for reducing a reconfiguration of the first and second fluids from the first configuration to a second configuration. The second configuration has the first fluid adjoining the second area and the second fluid adjoining the first area, there being a tendency for said reconfiguration to occur when maintaining said applied voltage.
US09110277B2
A projection zoom lens is formed of the following lens groups sequentially arranged from the high magnification side: a first lens group fixed at the time of zooming and having negative power; a second lens group moved along the optical axis at the time of zooming and having negative power; a third lens group moved at the time of zooming and having positive power; a fourth lens group moved at the time of zooming; and a fifth lens group fixed at the time of zooming and having positive power. When the total lens system operating at the wide angle end has a focal length Fw, and the first lens group has a focal length F1, the following conditional expression is satisfied. −0.5
US09110273B2
An imaging device includes two imaging optical systems each of the imaging optical systems including a wide-angle lens having an angle of view wider than 180 degrees, and an imaging sensor configured to image an image by the wide-angle lens, so as to obtain an image in a solid angle of 4π radian by synthesizing the images by the respective imaging optical systems, wherein the wide-angle lens of each of the imaging optical systems includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a front group having a negative power, a reflection surface and a back group having a positive power, and is configured to bend an optical axis of the front group by the reflection surface at 90 degrees toward the back group.
US09110271B2
An imaging lens which uses a larger number of constituent lenses for higher performance and features a low F-value, low-profile design and a wide field of view. Designed for a solid-state image sensor, the imaging lens includes constituent lenses arranged in order from an object side to an image side: a first positive refractive power lens having a convex object-side surface; a second negative refractive power lens having a concave image-side surface; a third positive refractive power lens having a convex image-side surface; a fourth negative refractive power lens having a concave image-side surface; a fifth positive refractive power lens as a meniscus lens having a convex image-side surface; a sixth lens as a meniscus double-sided aspheric lens having a concave image-side surface near an optical axis; and a seventh negative refractive power lens as a double-sided aspheric lens having a concave image-side surface near the optical axis.
US09110270B2
An image pickup lens includes a first lens having a positive refractive power with a convex surface facing the object side, a second lens having a negative refractive power with a concave surface facing the image side, a third lens having a positive refractive power with a convex surface facing the object side, a fourth lens having both sides formed as aspheric surfaces and having a negative refractive power with a concave surface facing the image side, and a fifth lens having both sides formed as aspheric surfaces and having a positive refractive power with a concave surface facing the image side, wherein the first lens and the second lens satisfy following conditional expressions (1), (2) and (3); 45<ν1<90 (1) 22<ν2<35 (2) 2.0<ν1/ν2 <2.6 (3) where ν1 represents an Abbe number of the first lens, and ν2 represents an Abbe number of the second lens.
US09110259B1
A plurality of AWG filters with aliasing responses are selected such that the wavelength range of a fundamental response of the AWG filters results in the aliased range of AWG filters to be adjacent to a fundamental range of the AWG filters. A plurality of optical sources is provided sufficient to cover each fundamental wavelength range and each alias wavelength range of the AWG filters. When a single one of the optical sources is enabled, reflected optical energy from a series string of FBGs coupled to the optical source is applied to the plurality of AWG filters, and the AWG output in combination with the wavelength range of the optical source is used to discriminate reflected wavelength from the FBG sensors.
US09110255B2
The present invention discloses an optical connector comprising a first connector and a second connector. The first connector includes: a first space to accommodate a first fiber joint and a part of a first optical transmission line; a first front opening to expose a first signal transmission interface of the first fiber joint; a first rear opening through which the first optical transmission line connects with the first fiber joint; and a first fastening. The second connector includes: a second space to accommodate a second fiber joint and a part of a second optical transmission line; a second front opening to expose a second signal transmission interface of the second fiber joint; a second rear opening through which the second optical transmission line connects with the second fiber joint; and a second fastening to be fixed to the first fastening in a nondestructive detachable way.
US09110247B2
An imaging lens includes first, second, third, and fourth lens elements arranged from an object side to an image side in the given order. The first lens element has a positive refractive power, and both of the object-side and image-side surfaces thereof have a convex portion near an optical axis of the imaging lens. The object-side and image-side surfaces of the second lens element respectively have a convex portion and a concave portion near the optical axis. The fourth lens has a negative refractive power, and the object-side surface thereof has a concave portion near the optical axis. The imaging lens satisfies EFL/CT1≧5.3, where EFL is an effective focal length of the imaging lens, and CT1 is a thickness of the first lens element.
US09110240B2
A sensing device with an odd-symmetry grating projects near-field spatial modulations onto a closely spaced photodetector array. Due to physical properties of the grating, the spatial modulations are in focus for a range of wavelengths and spacings. The spatial modulations are captured by the array, and photographs and other image information can be extracted from the resultant data. Used in conjunction with a converging optical element, versions of these gratings provide depth information about objects in an imaged scene. This depth information can be computationally extracted to obtain a depth map of the scene.
US09110239B2
A method and apparatus for viewing or authenticating a diffractive device and a diffractive security device (1) are provided in which a first diffractive relief structure (200) is responsive to a first wavelength of visible monochromatic light, a second diffractive relief structure (200) is at least partially interlaced with the first diffractive relief structure (100) and responsive to a second wavelength of visible monochromatic light, and a third diffractive relief structure (400) is at least partially interlaced with the first and second diffractive relief structures (100, 200) and responsive to a third wavelength of visible monochromatic light. Under illumination by the first, second and third wavelengths of monochromatic light, the first diffractive relief structure (200) produces a first partial image of a first color in a reconstruction plane, the second diffractive relief structure (300) produces a second partial image of a second color in the reconstruction plane and the third diffractive relief structure (400) produces a third partial image of a third color in the reconstruction plane, and the first, second and third partial images at least partially overlap in the reconstruction plane to form a multicolored image. The diffractive security device may be used in a security document and the device may be authenticated by comparing the multicolored image to a reference image.
US09110238B2
An ocular optical system used to view an image displayed on an image display surface, which includes a first lens having positive refractive power, a second lens of meniscus shape having negative refractive power with its concave surface facing the image display surface side, and a third lens having positive refractive power arranged in this order from the image display surface side to a viewer side. A focal length of the first lens, a focal length of the second lens and a focal length of the entire system need to be determined suitably.
US09110220B2
A multimode optical fiber, and a method of making the fiber, are provided according to the following steps and elements: forming a core preform with a graded refractive index that includes silica and an up-dopant; drawing the core preform into a core cane; forming an inner annular segment preform that includes silica soot and an up-dopant surrounding the core cane; and forming a depressed-index annular segment preform that includes silica soot surrounding the inner annular segment preform. The method also includes the steps: forming an outer annular segment preform that includes silica soot and an up-dopant surrounding the depressed-index annular segment preform; doping the inner, depressed-index and outer annular segment preforms simultaneously or nearly simultaneously with a down-dopant; and consolidating the segment preforms simultaneously or nearly simultaneously into inner, depressed-index and outer annular segments.
US09110218B2
An imaging device according to one mode of the present invention includes a taking lens formed of two or more physically separated lenses and having a plurality of regions each having an individual focal distance corresponding to a combination of the two more lenses, an image pickup element having a plurality of light-receiving sensors provided to correspond to the plurality of regions, the plurality of light-receiving sensors each selectively receiving a light beam passing through any of the plurality of regions, and an image generating unit which generates an image of a subject from an imaging signal outputted from the image pickup element.
US09110214B2
A backlight assembly includes an optical member, a receiving container and a combining member. The optical member is configured to change optical characteristics of light. The receiving container includes a bottom plate and a sidewall. The bottom plate is disposed under the optical member and is configured to receive the optical member thereon. The sidewall extends from the bottom plate to form a receiving space with the bottom plate. The optical member is received in the receiving space. The combining member includes a first frame, a second frame and a third frame. The first frame partially covers a bottom surface of the optical member. The second frame protrudes upwards from the first frame. The third frame protrudes from an inner surface of the second frame to partially cover an upper surface of the optical member.
US09110211B2
A light guide plate and a plane light source unit are provided. The light guide plate for a plane light source unit includes a plurality of unit pattern regions each having a plurality of optical patterns on surfaces thereof, wherein one or more unit pattern regions have different sag values (height:lens size) of the optical patterns constituting the unit pattern regions. Unit pattern regions are implemented with segmented optical patterns, which are equal in height, from the outside of the light guide plate to the central part thereof, by adjusting the density and size of microlenses, thereby improving the light uniformity and light efficiency and improving the efficiency of manufacturing processes.
US09110210B2
The present technology relates to a solid-state imaging apparatus that can provide a compound-eye system solid-state imaging apparatus capable of capturing an image with high image quality regardless of use environments, a method of manufacturing a solid-state imaging apparatus, and an electronic apparatus. The solid-state imaging apparatus includes photoelectric conversion units (21) that are two-dimensionally arranged, on-chip lenses (27a) that are two-dimensionally arranged on an upper side of the photoelectric conversion units (21) in correspondence with the photoelectric conversion units (21), a micro-lens (10a) that is arranged so as to face each plurality of the on-chip lenses (27a), and a transparent material layer that is pinched between the on-chip lenses (27a) and the micro-lens (10a) and are configured by a first intermediate layer (29) and a second intermediate layer (31).
US09110205B2
A black curable composition for a wafer level lens is provided which exhibits excellent developability during formation of a pattern and imparts excellent adhesion with a lens to a formed light-shielding film. The black curable composition contains an inorganic pigment, a specific dispersion resin, a polymerization initiator, and a polymerizable compound. The inorganic pigment is preferably titanium black.
US09110203B2
Provided is a display device. The display device includes a light guide plate; a light source disposed at a lateral side of the light guide plate; and an optical path conversion unit converting a path of the light emitted from the light source. A first area corresponding to a light emitting plane of the light guide plate and a second area adjacent to the first area are defined. The optical path conversion unit is disposed in the second area.
US09110200B2
A light emitting device includes a film lightguide. The lightguide includes a lightguide region and an array of coupling lightguides continuous with the lightguide region, each terminating in a bounding edge and folded such that the bounding edges define a light input surface. A light source emits light into the light input surface. Light propagates within each coupling lightguide to the lightguide region, with light from each coupling lightguide combining with light from one or more other coupling lightguides and totally internally reflecting within the lightguide region. One or more light extraction features frustrate the totally internally reflected light such that light exits the lightguide in a light emitting region. Surface relief features on a surface of a low contact area cover are adjacent to a region of the lightguide with one or more of the surface relief features contacting the lightguide. A method of producing a device is disclosed.
US09110199B2
The present invention discloses a backlight module and a liquid crystal display. The light guide plate is formed with hollow structures therein, and the hollow structures includes a first reflecting surface and a second reflecting surface; the first reflecting surface has a first inclination; the second reflecting surface has a second inclination; based on the first inclination, the first reflecting surface reflects light emitting toward the first reflecting surface; and based on the second inclination, the second reflecting surface reflects light emitting toward the second reflecting surface.
US09110198B2
The present invention provides a backlight module, which includes a backplane, a backlight source arranged inside the backplane, a light guide plate arranged inside the backplane and corresponding to the backlight source, a plurality of positioning units arranged between the backplane and the light guide plate, a reflector plate arranged between the backplane and the light guide plate and mounted to the positioning units, and optic films arranged on the light guide plate. The positioning units each have an end fixed to the light guide plate, an opposite end fixed to the backplane, and an intermediate portion which is provided with a positioning section. The reflector plate is mounted to the positioning sections so that the light guide plate and the reflector plate form therebetween a gap. The gap helps preventing the light guide plate and the reflector plate from contacting and rubbing each other.
US09110197B2
Device and method for anticipating the deposition of ice on a runway, comprising an object having a non-zero relative velocity with respect to the atmosphere surrounding the runway, this surrounding atmosphere being at a certain temperature, a means for determining the thickness of ice present on said moving object, which further includes a temperature sensor for measuring the temperature of the runway, a means for regulating the temperature of said object in such a way that the temperature of said moving object is substantially equal to or slightly below the temperature of the runway, a computing means, for defining at time t0 a level of icing at time t1 of the runway as a function of the thickness of ice present on the object, and a warning means allowing the results obtained by the computing means to be communicated to a monitoring station.
US09110188B2
Systems, methods, and software for detecting bed boundary locations are described. In some aspects, the boundaries of a subsurface layer are identified based on a measurement from a logging point and a gradient associated with the measurement from the logging point. A first measurement is generated based on operating a transmitter and a receiver of a resistivity logging tool at a first tool depth. The gradient is calculated from the first measurement and a second measurement. The second measurement is generated based on operating the transmitter and the receiver of the resistivity logging tool at a second, different tool depth.
US09110181B2
A rotational seismometer having a housing that encases an optical lever having a light source for emitting a beam of light through a slit defined by the optical lever that is focused by a lens for focusing the beam of light to a balance bob suspended within the housing is disclosed. The balance bob includes a mirror secured to a plate attached to the housing through an arrangement that includes a thin fiber attached to a stiff wire such that the stiff wire bends and the thin wire does not bend when a tilt motion is applied to the rotational seismometer.
US09110178B2
A method of interrogating a formation includes generating a conical acoustic signal, at a first frequency—a second conical acoustic signal at a second frequency each in the between approximately 500 Hz and 500 kHz such that the signals intersect in a desired intersection volume outside the borehole. The method further includes receiving, a difference signal returning to the borehole resulting from a non-linear mixing of the signals in a mixing zone within the intersection volume.
US09110171B2
A method for obtaining a high-resolution nuclear image of a biological object, which image is acquired by a nuclear detector inside an MRI system includes the steps of acquiring MRI information pertaining to a wide field of view; focusing a field of view of the nuclear detector to a small region that covers only the target region; obtaining a nuclear image of the small region; and using a priori information included in the MRI information to eliminate image artifacts in the nuclear image. An apparatus for performing the method and a data image formed by practice of the method is also included.
US09110170B1
A terrain aided navigation using multi-channel monopulse radar imaging to provide a navigation position update. The monopulse radar transmits a single RF pulse transmission or multiple quick RF pulse train bursts to generate a monopulse radar image that can be correlated with a digital terrain segment to provide navigation updates when requested. The radar has monopulse and off-axis capability that allows for selection of a terrain segment within the radar's search area that will provide a good terrain correlation. The radar measurements are made on a range/Doppler cell-by-cell basis that includes angle information. The cells in the range/Doppler map corresponding to the antenna main beam return are converted into a high resolution (x,y,z) image and correlated to the selected terrain segment in the data base reference frame to provide an updated navigation position estimate.
US09110164B2
There is provided a radar apparatus. A first determining section is configured to determine whether there exists a continuing stationary target at a side of a lane in which a vehicle is traveling. A second determining section is configured to determine whether there exists a moving target in a specific range which is in front of the vehicle and on an opposite side of the stationary target with respect to a position of the vehicle. A changing section is configured to change position information of the moving target to a position obtained by folding back a specific position which is the position of the moving target in the specific range with the stationary target therebetween in a case where the stationary target exists and the moving target exists in the specific range. The changed position is used for deriving the position information of the target.
US09110162B2
An antenna cover (1) for a radar (2) for a vehicle has a rectangular parallelepiped shape, having a flat cover top (10) that faces a microstrip antenna (21a, 21b) of the radar (2) and a sidewall (11) that covers the microstrip antenna (21a, 21b) sideways. The sidewall (11) is located out of the range where the electromagnetic waves to be received by the microstrip antenna (21a, 21b) are directly received. An inner face (11a) of the sidewall (11) is at a right angle to the cover top (10). An outer face (11b) of the sidewall (11) is at a constant angle θ larger than 0 degree but smaller than 90 degrees, to the inner face (11a) of the sidewall (11). The sidewall (11) is structured such that its thickness increases toward the side where the microstrip antenna (21a, 21b) is present.
US09110157B2
A wireless location/position computation system, device, and method are directed to multiple aid-data sources each providing location-related aid information, a wireless device configured to communicate with the aid-data sources, and a location computation module either integrated with or external to the wireless device. The wireless device may include a transceiver to communicate wireless, data and other signals. The wireless device may receive a position request to compute a position of the wireless device, and in response, initiate a compute-position session. In the compute-position session, the wireless device sends aid requests to and retrieves the location-related aid information from the aid-data sources and processes the location-related aid information from the aid-data sources to generate integrated location information. The location computation module may compute the position of the wireless device based on the integrated location information and satellite location information received from a satellite.
US09110156B2
Disclosed herein are an apparatus and a method for measuring velocity of an ultrasound signal. The apparatus for measuring velocity of an ultrasound signal according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a transmitting module transmitting ultrasound signals to targets; a receiving module receiving the ultrasound signals reflected from the targets; an image generating module using the received ultrasound signals to generate a plurality of ultrasonic images having different sound velocities; and a sound velocity determining module using the plurality of generated ultrasonic images to determine optimal sound velocity for scanning the targets.
US09110150B2
There is provided a positioning device including a geomagnetism detection section which detects geomagnetism, an acquisition section which acquires a matching area obtained by checking values of a total magnetic intensity and a magnetic dip of the geomagnetism detected by the geomagnetism detection section against geomagnetic information including values of a total magnetic intensity and a magnetic dip which are associated with an absolute position, and an identification section which identifies a current location based on the area acquired by the acquisition section.
US09110142B2
Embodiments include systems that include at least one integrated circuit (IC) and methods for their testing. Each IC includes an input interconnect to receive an input signal, a test enable interconnect to receive a test enable signal, and a controller (e.g., a TAP controller) for performing testing of the integrated circuit based on values in at least one register (values corresponding to the input signal). Each IC also includes an input port and a multiplexer coupled to the first input interconnect, the at least one register, and the input port. The multiplexer is controllable to pass the input signal to the input port in response to non-assertion of the test enable signal, and to pass the input signal to the at least one register in response to assertion of the test enable signal. When the system includes multiple controllers, each controller may implement a different opcode-to-instruction mapping.
US09110140B2
A semiconductor device includes: a combination circuit; and a scan circuit, wherein the scan circuit includes: a first scan chain in which a plurality of first flip-flops are connected in series; and a second scan chain in which a plurality of second flip-flops are connected in series. The first scan chain is configured to capture first output data of at least one of the first flip-flops of the second scan chain, and the second scan chain is configured to capture second output data of at least one of the second flip-flops of the first scan chain.
US09110136B2
A monolithic stacked integrated circuit (IC) is provided with a known-good-layer (KGL) test circuit and a scan segment in one of its upper layers. The test circuit includes a plurality of inputs, outputs, and multiplexers coupled to the scan segment and to a second layer of the IC. The test circuit further includes a plurality of control elements such that scan testing of the stacked IC may be conducted on a layer-by-layer basis.
US09110134B2
I/O delay testing for devices utilizing on-chip delay generation. An embodiment of an apparatus includes I/O buffer circuits, at least one of the buffer circuits including a transmitter and a receiver that are coupled for loop-back testing of the buffer circuit; and testing circuitry for the loop-back testing for the at least one buffer circuit, the loop-back testing including determining whether test data transmitted by the transmitter of the buffer circuit matches test data received by the respective coupled receiver. The testing circuitry includes a delay line to provide delay values from a transmit clock signal for the testing of the at least one buffer circuit, a counter to provide a count to choose one of the plurality of delay values, and test logic for the loop-back testing.
US09110131B2
The invention generally relates to a method and device for contacting contact areas (22) with probe tips (18) in a tester. The contact areas (22), which are arranged on a substrate (6), and the probe tips (18) are positioned relative to each other and then brought in contact with each other by an advancing motion. In order to detect a secure contact for each of the probe tips (18), the contacting between the probe tips (18) and the contact areas (22) is observed from at least two observation directions (34), which include an observation angle α in a range of 0 to 180°.
US09110128B1
An integrated circuit (IC) package with a plurality of contact leads and a plurality of contact pads disposed on a surface of the IC package is disclosed. The contact pads may be used as test probes for testing the IC. Having a plurality of contact pads may create more test locations on the IC package. The size of the IC package may also be reduced by using contact pads instead of contact leads for testing. A socket body for the IC package is also disclosed. The socket body has a plurality of contactors extending outward from the socket body. The contactors may have different heights to contact each of the contact pads and contact leads on the IC package. The contactors may be adjustable to different heights. In some embodiments, a portion of the contactors may be compressed when and IC package is placed in the socket body.
US09110126B2
The present invention provides a method for measuring the interface state density by a conductance technique. In particular, the method comprises: biasing a MOS capacitor structure to be measured in an accumulation region, measuring the MOS capacitor structure under a fixed bias voltage and at predetermined scanning frequencies in the accumulation region by using a Gp-G model, and calculating the values of the series resistor at respective predetermined scanning frequencies to obtain a series resistor model; obtaining an accurate model in an inversion region from the series resistor model varying with the predetermined scanning frequencies obtained in the accumulation region and obtaining the measurement results of interface state according to the accurate model.
US09110125B2
A method for detecting a semiconductor device property is provided. First, a semiconductor device is provided. Thereafter, a detecting current is applied and the semiconductor device is heated, and temperatures and voltages of the semiconductor device are measured, so as to establish a relationship between the temperatures and the voltages of the semiconductor device. Accordingly, a temperature sensitive parameter (TSP) is calculated. An apparatus for detecting a semiconductor device property is also provided.
US09110124B2
A magnetic sensor is provided with a channel of a semiconductor, a first insulating film and a metal body arranged opposite to each other with the channel in between, a ferromagnet provided on the first insulating film, a first reference electrode connected to the metal body, a second reference electrode connected to the metal body, a magnetic shield covering a portion opposed to the ferromagnet in the channel, and a second insulating film provided between the channel and the magnetic shield. The magnetic shield has a through hole extending toward the portion opposed to the ferromagnet in the channel.
US09110119B2
An electric current measurement method is provided with: a first controlling process of sweeping a sensing current in a negative magnetization direction in a condition that a core is saturated magnetically in a positive magnetization direction; a second controlling process of sweeping the sensing current in the positive magnetization direction in a condition that the core is saturated magnetically in the negative magnetization direction; a first specifying process of specifying a value of the sensing current if the core is demagnetized in the first controlling process; a second specifying process of specifying a value of the sensing current if the core is demagnetized in the second controlling process; and a calculating process of calculating a value of a target electric current on the basis of the specified current values, the first and second controlling processes being performed repeatedly.
US09110098B2
Provided is a probe card capable of effectively placing electronic parts. A probe card according to the present invention includes a plurality of probes that come into contact with a plurality of electrodes of a device, a probe board including the plurality of probes provided thereon, a wiring board that is placed facing a surface of the probe board opposite to a surface including the probes provided thereon, a connector that includes a connection pin and a holder, in which the connection pin electrically connects a line of the probe board and a line of the wiring board, and the holder holds the connection pin between the probe board and the wiring board, and a first electronic part that is mounted on a probe board side surface of the wiring board and placed in a mounting space formed by a through hole or a recess provided in the holder.
US09110097B2
A test system having a manipulation device and a test unit. The manipulation device has a receiving unit with a socket that accommodates a packaged integrated circuit, which has a top side and a bottom side. A plurality of electrical terminal contacts are formed on the bottom side. In a first state, the manipulation device provides the integrated circuit to the test unit, and during the first state the test unit is disposed above the top side of the integrated circuit and forms a connection with the manipulation device, and the test unit carries out a function test on the integrated circuit. A sensor device is formed on the top side, and the top side of the integrated circuit is oriented in a direction of the test unit and the electrical terminal contacts are electrically connected to the receiving unit of the manipulation device.
US09110084B2
The present invention is directed to a cartridge device for a measuring system for measuring viscoelastic characteristics of a sample liquid, in particular a blood sample, comprising a cartridge body having at least one measurement cavity formed therein and having at least one probe element arranged in said at least one measurement cavity for performing a test on said sample liquid; and a cover being attachable on said cartridge body; wherein said cover covers at least partially said at least one measurement cavity and forms a retaining element for retaining said probe element in a predetermined position within said at least one measurement cavity. The invention is directed to a measurement system and a method for measuring viscoelastic characteristics of a sample liquid.
US09110082B2
The present invention relates to methods for treating a dalotuzumab responsive cancer, in a patient, comprising determining the expression level of liver kinase B1 (LKB1), in a cancer cell from the patient, and when said expression is determined to be lower than that of a control cell; administering, to said patient, a therapeutically effective amount of dalotuzumab. The invention also relates to methods for assessing neoplastic cells, selecting patients, selecting therapies as well as diagnostic methods.
US09110078B2
Methods for diagnosing pathology of the liver in subject suspected of having such pathology by measuring the glycosylation of anti-gal IgG in various biological fluids of the subject.
US09110073B2
In a liquid chromatograph, the disulfide adsorption of iron atoms in a filter for a column is avoided and thus peak tailing in a chromatogram is prevented to thereby prevent a lowering in the sample recovery rate. A liquid chromatograph column comprising a hollow tubular column body, a bead-shaped packing material which is packed in the hollow part of the column body, a filter provided with a mesh which has a mesh size smaller than the particle diameter of the packing material, and a cap which presses the filter against the packing material to thereby enclose the packing material within the column body, characterized in that the main component of the filter is nickel or hastelloy.
US09110072B2
An assembly of a cartridge and a cartridge clamp is disclosed. The cartridge has a cartridge body bounding a passage extending from a first end face to a second end face of the cartridge body. The cartridge clamp has a first and second clamping jaw comprising a first and second clamping face, respectively. A first and a second conduit are connected to the first and second clamping jaw, respectively. Said cartridge clamp is adapted for clamping said cartridge in-between the first and the second clamping face and for forming a closed circuit composed of the first conduit, the passage and the second conduit during clamping. Each clamping face has a ring-shaped protrusion extending around the end aperture of the respective conduit. The cartridge body is completely made of PEEK and each ring-shaped protrusion has a contact end face.
US09110070B2
Chromophore compositions and methods of making and using the same are provided. Aspects of the chromophore compositions include a chromophore component having a chromophore, such as a fluorescent dye moiety, stably associated with a prosthetic group binding cavity of a metalloprotein. Also provided are methods of making, methods of use, systems and kits related to the subject fluorescent compositions.
US09110065B2
Methods for detecting, diagnosing and monitoring thyroid cancer in a subject are described comprising measuring in a sample from the subject markers including Ep-ICD and EpEX. The invention also provides kits and compositions for carrying out the methods of the invention.
US09110063B2
Disclosed are methods that employ FKBPL as a marker for a subject's sensitivity to endocrine therapies in the treatment of cancers, and as a predictive marker of cancer progression and disease free survival in relation to hormone responsive cancers.
US09110054B2
Provided herein are nucleic acid tags that are linked to, or capable of linking to, a protein of interest. In particular, the nucleic acid tags are oligonucleotides comprising a reporter function and a protein tagging function. Also provided herein, are nucleic acid tag compositions, kits and methods of use thereof.
US09110047B2
Disclosed is a compound suitable for use as a fluorescent probe for the detection of uranium. The compound enables the qualitative and quantitative analysis of uranium present in waste samples using less expensive apparatuses. The compound of the present invention has the structure shown by the following formula.
US09110045B2
The present invention relates to a device for controlling the flow of a fluid in a compartment (4) with an inlet opening (5) and an outlet opening (6). The device comprises an inlet channel (8) connected to the inlet opening for transportation of fluid to the compartment, an outlet channel (9) connected to the outlet opening for transportation of fluid from the compartment and a pump (17) arranged to pump the fluid. The compartment is provided with a third opening (12). The device comprises a distribution chamber (15) connected to the inlet channel and a third channel (14) connected between the distribution chamber and the third opening for transportation of fluid between the distribution chamber and the compartment. The pump is arranged to vary the fluid flow velocity in the distribution chamber between a lower and a higher flow velocity, and the third channel is arranged so that its transport direction depends upon the flow velocity in the distribution chamber such that the fluid in the third channel is transported in a direction from the distribution chamber to the compartment at said lower flow velocity in the distribution chamber, which leads to a slow flow in the compartment, and in the opposite direction at said higher flow velocity in the distribution chamber due an injector effect, which leads to a substantial increase in the flow velocity in the inlet channel and thus in the compartment.
US09110039B2
Disclosed are methods and apparatus for detecting defects in a semiconductor sample having a plurality of identically designed areas. An inspection tool is used to construct an initial focus trajectory for a first swath of the sample. The inspection tool is then used to scan the first swath by following the initial focus trajectory for the first swath while collecting autofocus data. A z offset measurement vector for each identically designed area in the first swath is generated based on the autofocus data. A corrected z offset vector is constructed for inspection of the first swath with the inspection tool. Constructing the corrected z offset vector is based on combining the z offset measurement vectors for two or more of the identically designed areas in the first swath so that the corrected z offset vector specifies a same z offset for each set of same positions in the two or more identically designed areas.
US09110035B2
A method and a system for detecting defects of a transparent substrate are provided. The system includes: a plurality of detection channels, each of which includes an illumination component for providing illumination to the substrate and an imaging component for scanning the substrate to provide image of the substrate; a transport module, for producing relative motion between the substrate and the illumination components and the imaging components included in the plurality of detection channels; and a controlling module, for controlling the illumination components and the imaging components included in the plurality of detection channels so that at least two illumination components of the illumination components included in the plurality of detection channels provide illumination to the substrate alternately, and the imaging component included in any of the plurality of detection channels scans the substrate when the illumination component included in that detection channel illuminates the substrate, wherein the imaging components included in at least two detection channels of the plurality of detections channels are the same imaging component. The method and system described by the present invention is capable of discriminating real defects from fake defects which enables substrate to be inspected with free of cleaning.
US09110025B2
Described herein are systems and methods for extending the dynamic range of assay methods and systems used for determining the concentration of analyte molecules or particles in a fluid sample. In some embodiments, a method comprises spatially segregating a plurality of analyte molecules in a fluid sample into a plurality of locations. At least a portion of the locations may be addressed to determine the percentage of said locations containing at least one analyte molecule. Based at least in part on the percentage, a measure of the concentration of analyte molecules in the fluid sample may be determined using an analog, intensity-based detection/analysis method/system and/or a digital detection/analysis method/system. In some cases, the assay may comprise the use of a plurality of capture objects.
US09110024B2
System is provided for detecting the presence of an analyte of interest in a sample, said system comprising an elongated, transparent container for a sample; an excitation source in optical communication with the sample, wherein radiation from the excitation source is directed along the length of the sample, and wherein the radiation induces a signal which is emitted from the sample; and, at least two linear arrays disposed about the sample holder, each linear array comprising a plurality of optical fibers having a first end and a second end, wherein the first ends of the fibers are disposed along the length of the container and in proximity thereto; the second ends of the fibers of each array are bundled together to form a single end port.
US09110020B2
A local purging tool for purging a portion of a surface of a wafer with purging gas is disclosed. The purging tool includes a purging chamber configured to contain purging gas within a cavity of the purging chamber, a permeable portion of a surface of the purging chamber configured to diffuse purging gas from the cavity of the chamber to a portion of a surface of a wafer, and an aperture configured to transmit illumination received from an illumination source to a measurement location of the portion of the surface of the wafer and further configured to transmit illumination reflected from the measurement location to a detector.
US09110018B2
There is disclosed a distributed optical fiber sensor arranged to deliver probe light pulses of different wavelengths into corresponding different sensing optical fibers, and to determine one or more parameters as functions of position along each of the sensing fibers from detected backscattered light of each corresponding wavelength. In another arrangement, the different wavelengths are directed in different corresponding directions around a loop of sensing optical fiber.
US09110016B2
A method for isotope measurement of charged species contained in a solution to be analyzed, particularly charged species having an isobaric interference, has the following consecutive steps: a) in the capillary of a capillary electrophoresis device, the solution to be analyzed is inserted contiguously between a terminating electrolyte and a leading electrolyte that, respectively, are placed after the inlet and before the outlet of the capillary and contain ions of the same charge but with mobility inferior and superior to those of said species; b) separating the species by using the capillary electrophoresis device according to the isotachophoresis mode; then c) in the continuity of the preceding step, performing an isotope measurement of the species detected in the form of a substantially constant amplitude signal by using an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICPMS) connected by direct coupling with the capillary electrophoresis device.
US09110007B2
An optical sensor system is disclosed including a source module, a first detection module, and a second detection module. The source module includes a source housing unit having a source window member. The source module may emit a detection signal through the source window member. The first detection module and the second detection module are spaced apart from the source module.
US09110003B2
A method of X-ray diffraction illuminates a beam (4) of X-rays along an illuminated strip (16) on a surface (14) of a sample (10). The X-rays are diffracted by the sample (10) and pass through a mask (20) having a slit extending essentially perpendicularly to the strip (16). The X-rays are detected by a two-dimensional X-ray detector to measure the diffracted X-rays at different positions along the strip (16).
US09110002B2
A sensor device is provided for detecting thawing on surfaces with interdigital electrodes formed in a resistance layer which is formed on a substrate. In order to develop the sensor device further so that the measuring speed of the sensor device is further increased, the disclosure proposes that the interdigital electrodes and recesses between the interdigital electrodes have a moisture-sensitive hydrophilic surface through condensation cores applied to it.
US09109994B2
Technologies are generally described for an air monitoring device, a method for forming an air monitoring device, and methods and systems for monitoring air using an air monitoring device. A method of forming an air monitor device may include placing a sorbent membrane on a material of n type conductivity. The method may further include placing an electrode on the membrane and placing a thermoelectric heater in thermal communication with the membrane. The method may further include placing the membrane, material, and electrode in a sealed container including a valve to form the air monitor device. The valve may be effective to selectively expose the membrane to an environment outside of the container.
US09109993B2
A method and apparatus for sorting particles moving through a closed channel system of capillary size comprises a bubble valve for selectively generating a pressure pulse to separate a particle having a predetermined characteristic from a stream of particles. The particle sorting system may further include a buffer for absorbing the pressure pulse. The particle sorting system may include a plurality of closely coupled sorting modules which are combined to further increase the sorting rate. The particle sorting system may comprise a multi-stage sorting device for serially sorting streams of particles, in order to decrease the error rate.
US09109992B2
One of the challenges of modern hydrocarbon production is the efficient sealing of a lost circulation zone. It has been discovered that it is possible to efficiently seal the fractures of lost circulation zones by formulating a fracture sealing composition based on a width of the fracture. In particular, it has been found that when the spurt loss volume is less than or equal to the fracture volume capacity of the fracture, then the sealing fluid can be pumped into the wellbore to form a sealing relationship with the fracture.
US09109984B2
Various embodiments of the present invention provide methods and systems for optimally staining biological samples for analysis. In one embodiment, images of a sample are recorded before and after the application of a staining reagent and a decolorization reagent. A difference image is then generated based at least in part on a comparison of the images of the sample recorded before and after the application of the staining and decolorization reagents. Application parameters of the staining and decolorization reagents are then corrected based at least in part on the difference image such that the reagents may be optimally reapplied to generate a final image of the sample that may enable a user to better differentiate at least one target of interest in the sample. In one example, embodiments of the present invention allow for the generation of images that show only Gram-positive bacteria or only Gram-negative bacteria.
US09109981B2
Methods and apparatus for determining indoor air contaminant levels independent of outdoor contaminant levels. In one embodiment, an infinite geometric series is used to compute a true indoor air contaminant level in a room.
US09109979B2
A Z-axis test coupon structure includes a plurality of circularly-arranged tensile specimens oriented along a Z-axis and at least one web connecting adjacent ones of the plurality of tensile specimens.
US09109976B2
The subject of the present invention is a method and a system for measuring the geometric or optical structure of an optical component. In particular, the invention relates to a method for measuring the geometric structure of a component bounded by a first side (10) and a second side (20), said method comprising steps of: (S1) measuring a first signal (MS1) resulting from a first conversion of a first probe signal (PS1), by at least said first side (10); (S2) measuring a second signal (MS2) resulting from a second conversion of a second probe signal (PS2), by at least said second side (20); (S3) determining a third conversion making it possible to convert a first set of coordinates (R1) associated with the measurement of the first signal (MS1) to a second set of coordinates (R2) associated with the measurement of the second signal (MS2); (S10) estimating said first side (10) using the first signal (MS1), said first simulation and a first cost criterion (V1) quantifying a difference between the estimation (FS1) and the first signal (MS1); and (S20) estimating said second side (20) using the second signal (MS2), said second simulation, said third conversion and a second cost criterion (V2) quantifying a difference between the estimation (ES2) and the second signal (MS2).
US09109973B2
There is proposed a test wheel arrangement (1) for testing a motor vehicle while the tires are stationary, which test wheel arrangement (1) has a shaft section (5) which can be attached to a wheel hub (7) of a motor vehicle and on which a test wheel (3) is mounted to be freely rotatable.
US09109972B2
A direct field acoustic testing system includes at least one control microphone, a controller operatively coupled to the control microphone such that the controller receives at least one input signal from the control microphone, and at least four acoustic transducers operatively coupled to the controller such that each transducer is separately controllable by the controller such that a separate output signal is received by each transducer from the controller. A setup is applied to each of the acoustical transducers. The acoustic output of each of the acoustical transducers is monitored using the at least one control microphone. The output signal of each control microphone with respect to each acoustical transducer is compared to a reference spectrum to create a matrix of error functions, and a corrected drive signal computed for each acoustical transducer is applied to the respective acoustical transducer.
US09109969B2
A twisted, multicore fiber communicates light input to each core to an output. The twisting mitigates relative time delays of the input light traveling through each of the cores in the multicore fiber to the output caused by bending of that multicore fiber. An example application is in an optical network that includes an optical input terminal and an optical sensor connected by a twisted multicore connecting fiber. One example of twisted multicore optical fiber is helically-wrapped, multicore fiber.
US09109961B2
The present invention, in one aspect, provides a method for calibrating thermal control elements in situ using a single compound calibrator. In some embodiments, the present invention uses a compound calibrator to calibrate thermal control elements on a microfluidic device. In non-limiting embodiment, the compound calibrator can be a droplet, plug, slug, segment or continuous flow of any appropriate solution that, when heated, yields a thermal response profile with a plurality of features (e.g., maxima, minima, inflection points, linear regions, etc.).
US09109947B2
An apparatus and system for use in determining location of a celestial body are presented. The apparatus comprises: a polarizer comprising an array of polarized light filter cells and a light sensor array. The array of polarized light filter cells comprises at least a first polarization direction and a second polarization direction different from said first polarization direction. And the polarizer thereby produces polarized light of at least first and second different polarizations. The light sensor array is configured to receive the polarized light from the polarizer and produce data indicative of a pattern of at least one of light polarization intensity and direction. The pattern is indicative of at least one of azimuth and elevation of the celestial body to be located.
US09109945B1
A graphical user interface for configuring parameters associated with a portable infrared imager is provided. The interface can be used to manually or automatically set range and span parameters. The interface can also be used to configure one or more alarms to notify a user that a detected temperature is outside a predetermined range.
US09109937B2
An apparatus is provided for measuring level of a process fluid in a container opening. The apparatus includes a remote seal configured to be inserted into the container through an opening and configured to receive a pressure related to the level of process fluid in the container. A capillary tube filled with a fill fluid extends from the remote seal to the opening and is configured to convey the pressure therebetween. A pressure sensor coupled to the capillary tube senses the pressure from the capillary tube and responsively determines the level of the process fluid in the container. The remote seal includes a bellows portion arranged to isolate the process fluid from the fill fluid in the capillary tube and convey the pressure therebetween.
US09109931B2
A fluid flow meter, including a fluid flow path and rotor. The rotor has at least one blade positioned in the fluid flow path. A ring is positioned upstream from, and adjacent to the rotor. The ring is adapted to condition the flow at the leading edge of the rotor blade over a range of operating conditions.
US09109930B2
A plate-like flow sensor is located in a bypass passage such that a front-to-rear direction of the flow sensor is substantially along a width direction of the bypass passage. The flow sensor divides a flow from its upstream into a first flow, which passes on its front side, and a second flow, which passes on its rear side. The bypass passage has a bent portion in which the first flow and the second flow merge on a downstream side of the flow sensor. A flow deflection unit changes a turning quantity of at least one of the first flow and the second flow such that a turning quantity of the first flow and a turning quantity of the second flow are substantially conformed in the bent portion.
US09109924B2
An adjustment system and method is provided for determining a set position of a motor-driven adjustment part of a motor vehicle by a Hall sensor, which is arranged in a rotated magnetic field. The drive of the adjustment part is activated for a specified number of approaches of the adjustment part toward an end position. A counter is changed by a counting value upon each approach of the adjustment part toward the end position. A standardization drive to the end position is carried out when the specified number of approaches is reached, and each deactivation and/or activation of the Hall sensor is detected and the counter state of the counter is changed according to the number of deactivation and activation cycles.
US09109923B2
A level sensor, particularly an electromagnetic pushing and knocking-type object detector, comprising: a magnetic swinging rod, an electromagnet that is disposed on one side of the magnetic swinging rod, and an electronic module that controls the electromagnet in driving the magnetic swinging rod to swing, and amplifies, processes, and time-delay outputs the swinging signals of the magnetic swinging rod, which swinging signals are collected by the electromagnet, said magnetic swinging rod is suspended with a suspension device on one side of a main housing, and the electromagnet, which is composed of an electromagnet iron core and an electromagnet coil, is disposed inside the main housing. The electric module comprises a power supply circuit, a pulse generation circuit, a pulse driving circuit, a signal amplification circuit, a signal processing circuit, and a signal time delay output circuit, and the aforementioned circuits are all disposed in the main housing or are isolated from the main housing and enclosed separately. The present invention has the advantages of high sensitivity, accuracy, and reliability; has a wide range of applications; is maintenance-free; and features a long service life.
US09109920B2
A method and apparatus for displaying an optimal path of moving objects, capable of providing forward path information of while the vehicle is waiting for its traffic signal at an intersection or is in a standstill state, in a navigation device are provided. An optimal path is set and stored according to a destination of a moving object. A current position of the moving object traveling along the optimal path is detected. When the moving object stops on the optimal path, it is determined if a traveling-stopped time of the moving object is greater than or equal to a predetermined time. When the traveling-stopped time of the moving object is greater than or equal to the predetermined time, a forward path for the detected current position of the moving object is displayed.
US09109909B2
A method of creating map data, including search acceleration data arranged to increase the speed at which a route can be planned across an electronic map, which comprises a plurality of navigable segments, representing segments of a navigable route in the area covered by the map, wherein the method comprises: a) processing the navigable segments in order to generate the search acceleration data for at least some of, and generally each of, the navigable segments of the electronic map indicating whether that navigable segment is part of a minimum cost route; and b) processing the generated search acceleration data in order to compress that data wherein the compression includes computing the correlation of pairs of bits in the search acceleration data and coalescing correlated bits.
US09109905B2
Methods, apparatuses and systems of estimating a location of a device are disclosed. One method includes determining a first position of the device, sensing at least one magnetic anomaly at the first position, estimating a location of the magnetic anomaly relative to the first position by determining a plurality of magnetic properties of the magnetic anomaly based on sensed signals of at least a magnetic sensor, and estimating a second position of the device based on a sensed change in a distance from the magnetic anomaly to the device.
US09109903B2
A wireless access point in a wireless network that may be adapted to transmit location data indicating its location to other devices within range, including other wireless access points and client devices. In some embodiments of the invention, the location data may be embedded in a control message or announcement transmission transmitted by the wireless access point, or other message conventionally used to broadcast network characteristics necessary for a client device to establish a connection to the wireless access point. In terms of the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) layered model of a network, layer 2 control messages, including beacons, probe responses, or other suitable transmissions may be used for control messages or announcement transmissions. The other wireless access points and client devices may receive the location data broadcast by the wireless access point without establishing a connection to the client device. Devices receiving the location data may use the received location data to determine their own locations, and may provide the determined locations to consumers of location data.
US09109899B2
An information processing apparatus may be implemented as a route navigator, which uses a route navigation method and a computer program product. A processing circuit is used to calculate respective passage frequencies of passageway segments in a passage history. The processing circuit then selects a navigation route to a destination, includes at least one passageway segment with a passage frequency that is a low or zero passage frequency.
US09109898B2
A method for corrections of measurements of points of interests measured by beams of radiation propagating through stratified media including performance of ray-tracing of at least one ray lunched from a metrology instrument in a direction of an apparent point of interest, calculation a path length of the ray through stratified medium, and determination of coordinates of true position of the point interest using the at least one path length and the direction of propagation of the ray.
US09109895B2
A method, apparatus, and computer program product are present for generating a route for a ship. A start point and an end point are identified for the ship. A number of forecasts of weather conditions is obtained for a period of time to travel from the start point to the end point. A probability of reaching the end point from the start point is generated for a number of routes from the start point to the end point for the ship within the period of time using the number of forecasts of weather conditions to form a number of probabilities.
US09109887B2
Provided are: a correction object determining section which determines whether, on an imaging plane in image data obtained by imaging an object irradiated with diffusion light from a light source by a camera, a region regarded to be in a state where a rod-like object has been irradiated with the diffusion light exists; a measurement point calculating section which estimates a light source center position of the diffusion light based on information of a luminance distribution of the diffusion light in the image data to set it as a first measurement point; and a distance calculating section which calculates a distance between the object at the first measurement point and the camera according to triangulation based on a horizontal distance between the center of the imaging plane and the first measurement point, the positions of the camera and light source, and an imaging direction angle of the camera.
US09109882B1
A toy, art object, decoration, ornament, entertainment device, advertising device, paperweight, or other device is made of a soft deformable plastic material in shapes of prisms, lenses, wedges, cubes, pyramids, as well as other forms that display the changing stress patterns formed by deformations of the photoelastic material. Magnets embedded in the material apply forces that create new patterns. Polarizing films within, or covering the clear plastic enhance the viewing effects. External forces, such as manual manipulation, springs, strings, elastic bands, clamps and other devices are used to create interesting optical effects. The viewing effects increase the entertainment and aesthetic value of the devices.
US09109877B2
A non-contacting, out-of-plane measurement apparatus for measuring distances, angles and related geometric quantities, and for computing other quantities based on the measurements, is provided. The measurement apparatus can measure distances to target points of interest and can also measure angles therebetween, including angles with respect to at least one or two degrees of freedom so as to compute information determining vector segments between a reference point and the points of interest, then, to compute lengths and areas and volumes of objects of interest defined by the points of interest. In some cases, areas of polygons can be measured as sums of cross-products of the computed vectors to the points of interest located at the vertices of the polygons. Also, computing constituent triangular projections onto a polygon of interest using said apparatus then summing said constituent triangular projections so as to arrive at an area of said polygon. The apparatus and its methods are extendable to non-planar and three-dimensional calculations as well. In this way, the apparatus, or its user, are not required to be located at any special place or in-plane with the object (e.g., plane of a polygon) being measured.
US09109873B1
An apparatus for inspecting a tip shroud includes a frame having top and bottom surfaces. A first stop is connected to the bottom surface to contact a first side surface of the tip shroud, and a second stop is in sliding engagement with the frame to contact a second side surface of the tip shroud. A method for inspecting a tip shroud includes placing an apparatus against the tip shroud, wherein the apparatus has a first stop connected to a frame and a second stop in sliding engagement with the frame. The method further includes engaging the first stop with a first side surface of the tip shroud and sliding the second stop with respect to the frame until the second stop contacts a second side surface of the tip shroud.
US09109869B2
An interferometer (1) measures a measuring interference beam, while detecting the position of a moving mirror (16) on the basis of detection results obtained from a reference beam detector (25). In the interferometer, a reference beam source (21) is configured by including a light source (21a) composed of a semiconductor laser device. A reference optical system (20) has a collimating optical system (22) for a reference beam, said collimating optical system converting a laser beam outputted from the reference beam source (21) into a collimated beam, and the collimated beam is diagonally inputted to a fixed mirror (15).
US09109867B2
A weld detecting method that detects a weld on a work includes: obtaining in advance at least one correlation, from among a correlation between a width of the neck and an amount of elongation of the work and a correlation between the width of the neck and an amount of change in at least one of a sheet thickness and a sheet width of the work before and after elongation of the work, and calculating the width of the neck based on the at least one correlation by obtaining at least one of the sheet thickness, the sheet width, or the amount of elongation of the work from the obtained at least one correlation; setting a conveying speed, according to the calculated width of the neck; and detecting the neck by measuring the sheet width of the work at predetermined intervals, while conveying the work the set conveying speed.
US09109866B2
A brass ammunition marking device is disclosed that allows users to mark their ammunition casings, so that users may easily identify and collect their casings at a shooting range for reuse. The brass ammunition marking device comprises a chuck for retaining a cartridge, a motor, a cylindrical component, and two marking device. The marking device is inserted into at least one of the opposed open ends of the cylindrical component with the marking tip side inserted first, such that the marking tip contacts the exterior surface of the ammunition cartridge and creates a mark. Further, the chuck retains the cartridge, and the motor is in electrical communication with the chuck for rotating the cartridge about an axis. The motor further comprises a drive shaft that contacts the chuck and rotates the cartridge, while the cylindrical component is held stationary. Additionally, the motor is typically powered by a battery.
US09109864B2
New missile systems are provided, implementing reduced pre-deployment weight, higher impact and greater deployment flexibility, among other advantages. In some embodiments, mid-flight oxygen filtration from atmospheric air, followed by concentration, compression and/or storage in ideal oxidizer deployment locations, leads to enriched, greatly increased oxidizer load and/or far greater missile weight just prior to impact. Among additional benefits, missiles implementing the system may be far less volatile, and therefore safer, prior to deployment and the concentration of oxidizer may be more concentrated than with ambient oxygen, overcoming the limitations of current fuel/air and other thermobaric explosives.
US09109862B2
System, device and method for protecting aircrafts against incoming threats. The system includes: (a) a dual-band Radio Frequency (RF) track-and-confirm module comprising: a dual-band RF receiver to receive high-band RF signals and low-band RF signals; a threat confirmation module to confirm a possible incoming threat based on processing of RF signals received at the dual-band RF receiver; a threat parameters calculator to calculate a fine angular position and a precise angular position of a confirmed incoming threat, based on processing of RF signals received at low-band RF for fine angular position and at high-band RF for precise angular position; (b) a countermeasure directed Laser module to activate a directed Laser countermeasure towards said precise angular position of said confirmed incoming threat.
US09109861B1
Systems and methods automatically assemble a set of read sequences into one or more larger nucleotide sequences using a set of comparing sequences as a template. The sequences of each set are divided into smaller mer sequences and sorted to arrange the mer sequences in order, and the sets of mers originating from the read sequence set and the comparing sequence set are compared pairwise to determine matching regions between the sequences of the read sequence set and the sequences of the comparing set. The sorting of the sequence sets prior to the pairwise comparison reduces the amount of volatile memory required to assemble the read sequence set and also reduces the overall time to assemble the read sequence set into one or more larger nucleotide sequences.
US09109857B2
A height and rotation adjuster for a competition holster includes an adjuster connected between a holster body and a drop arm. The adjuster includes a ball and socket joint for adjustably supporting the holster body on the drop arm.
US09109851B2
A process of manufacturing a rifle to have a sound suppressor on a barrel of the rifle. The process includes over-molding or over-injecting a structure onto the barrel so that the structure provides a sound suppressor, the barrel and sound suppressor form an integral assembly, and the sound suppressor defines an integral longitudinal extension of the barrel.
US09109849B2
Ejection assemblies, actions including such ejection assemblies, and firearms including such actions and/or ejection assemblies are provided herein. At least one ejection assembly is provided that is configured to facilitate forward ejection of spent cartridges when a forward-ejection guide cover is in place on a receiver, and to allow for side ejection of spent cartridges when the forward-ejection guide cover is out of place on the receiver. Such a configuration may allow for reliable ejection and access to the action for clearance of jams or malfunctions while providing flexibility with forward or conventional side ejection.
US09109836B2
A combustion device for a melting furnace, capable of heating a melting target object and the ceiling portion of the furnace with the radiant heat of the flame, including a combustion space above the location of the melting target object, including a fuel injection nozzle having a plurality of fuel injecting portions, which portions include orifices disposed side by side horizontally relative to the direction of fuel injection, and formed side by side vertically relative to the same. The orifices are formed radially side by side as seen laterally, with a direction along a middle angle in the angular range between the fuel injection direction of the uppermost fuel injection orifice and the fuel injection direction of the lowermost fuel injection orifice being directed obliquely upwards. The fuel injection orifices of the upper fuel injecting portion are formed radially side by side as seen in the plane view.
US09109834B2
High performance grains dryer fed by a heat generating source through hot air stabilizers linked to the drying column and the dryer tower, which is constituted by a series of parallel ducts, between which passes the downstream vertical now of grains, unevenly set in oblique alignment and fed so that each duct that operates as hot air entry presents laterally adjacent ducts that operate as used air exit, causing the appearance of air lows crossed to the right, crossed to the left, concurrent and countercurrent, the adopted air flows varying along the drying tower, decreasing along the same, while the perimeter walls of the dryer are equipped with particles separators that generate air flow to the dryer and separate the particles expelled by the drying process, re-conducting them to the burning in the furnace through return ducts. The drying tower is assembled on a hydraulic discharge mechanism, which controls the speed of the grains inside the dryer, releasing the grains in short cycles, eliminating self-classification and providing a uniform discharge of the product, the bottom presenting windows for the reversion of the air flow at the grains discharge.
US09109833B2
Method and device for coating a continuously moving metal strip, according to which said strip, after having received its coating, is heated in a heating section, especially for evaporating solvents and for drying or curing the coating, and then cooled in water. A continuous series of sheet-metal elements is provided between the inlet of the tunnel furnace and the outlet of the water cooler so as to make the whole assembly gas-tight, and a device for atmosphere separation by injection of a gas at a temperature above the dew point of the solvents is placed between the outlet of the tunnel furnace and the inlet of the water cooler.
US09109830B2
Systems and methods for low ambient air temperature cooling in air-source based heat pump systems wherein an outdoor heat pump unit includes a discharge hood positionable over its fan. The hood including a damper that is openable and closeable as a function of outside temperature. The outdoor unit may also include wind deflectors positioned over the coil openings of the disclosure. During cooling operations below a low outside air threshold temperature, e.g., below 23° F., the damper assembly partially closes to reduce airflow across the condenser coil of the outdoor unit to a level below that which is possible at minimum fan speed. As the outdoor temperature continues to drop, the damper assembly continues to close to further reduce airflow.
US09109825B2
A refrigerator includes a refrigerator cabinet, an ice maker disposed within the refrigerator cabinet, an ice storage bucket and a drain positioned to capture water from the ice as it is melted. Ice may melt due to air from the refrigeration compartment or elsewhere, the ambient temperature within the ice storage bucket, or a heater thermally coupled to the ice storage bucket to melt ice stored in the ice storage bucket.
US09109822B2
An expansion valve is disclosed herein and includes a valve body having a chamber; a valve seat and a valve core are provided in the chamber; a first opening and a second opening in communication with the chamber, wherein the valve core moves relative to the valve seat to control a size of a flow channel between the first opening and the second opening, wherein the valve core includes a valve core head portion facing the valve seat, the valve head portion is provided with an axial through hole, a piston is provided in the axial through hole, the piston is connected with the valve body. The piston which is connected with the valve body is provided in the axial through hole of the valve core head portion of the expansion valve. Therefore, fluid pressure may be transmitted to the valve body by the piston, so as to reduce the forces applied on the valve core, and balance the influence of differential pressure between high pressure and low pressure on the valve core more steadily, which in turn can reflect the change in the superheat degree at the outlet of the evaporator truly.
US09109809B2
An air conditioner intakes indoor air and outdoor air, blows it through a heat exchanger, then supplies the conditioned air to an indoor space. In the heat exchanger, water cools the air. A remote refrigeration circuit, also known as a chiller, cools the water. A controller controls the chilled water to stay within a temperature range. When the chilled water exceeds the temperature range, the air conditioning fan is decelerated, thus reducing the amount of heat that the water absorbs from the air. When the desired indoor temperature is less than the actual indoor temperature, then the fan is returned to its maximum velocity.
US09109807B2
The present invention provides a device and system for desorption and dehumidification, comprising a conductive electrode, a moisture absorber, and a power source. The conductive electrode comprises a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface, and the first surface has a plurality of protrusion elements. The moisture absorber comprises a third surface formed on the plurality of protrusions. The power source provides power to the conductive electrode such that a uniform and stable micro-discharge phenomenon is generated thereby forming a continuous charge flow. The continuous charge flow can further generate an electrical interruption for depolarizing the attraction between the moisture molecules and moisture absorber whereby the moisture molecules can be desorbed from the moisture absorber more easily.
US09109806B2
A building heating/cooling system utilizes secondary fluid that at least partially circulates through a secondary fluid pump set and a heat exchanger. The secondary fluid is heated or cooled by thermal energy exchange with a thermal energy fluid in the heat exchanger. The thermal energy fluid in the heat exchanger also drives the secondary fluid pump set that circulates the secondary fluid.
US09109801B2
Methods and systems for producing activated carbon from a particulate coal feedstock that include the introduction of an activation medium such that the water content of the coal feedstock is equal to or greater than that of the feedstock's naturally occurring state. Different methods and system configurations allow the production of activated carbon or other heat-treated carbons while concurrently avoiding adverse reaction conditions.
US09109782B2
An LED light emitting apparatus includes an LED light source, a light guiding device and an emitting window. The emitting window is covered with a phosphor layer. Light emitted directly from the LED light source is first transmitted to the light guiding device and then guided by the light guiding device towards the emitting window to evenly excite the phosphor layer.
US09109773B2
An illuminated vehicle signaling glazing unit, including: a first transparent sheet made of mineral glass including a first main face configured to be directed toward outside the vehicle, a second main face configured to be directed toward inside the vehicle, and an edge face; one or more light sources, or light-emitting diodes, each including a light-emission face opposite the edge face, light emitted by the light sources being guided into the first sheet between the first and the second main faces thereof; a mechanism extracting light in at least one region of the first or second main faces of the first sheet or within a thickness of the first sheet; and an opaque layer formed from ink or from enamel, situated toward the inside of the vehicle with respect to the extraction mechanism and totally masking the extraction mechanism of the light to render it invisible from inside the vehicle.
US09109766B1
A housing has an open top and closed bottom. The housing has a cylindrical side wall. In this manner a chamber is formed interiorly. The housing includes an annular lower flange. The lower flange extends outwardly from the top. A lens is in an upwardly extending hemispherical configuration. The lens has an annular upper flange. The upper flange is in mating contact with the lower flange. A socket assembly including a base is provided within the chamber. The base has projections. The projections terminate in spaced light sockets. A reflector is in a downwardly extending hemispherical configuration within the chamber. A bulb has opposed ends. The opposed ends are removably received within the light sockets. Additional components within the housing include an electrical ballast and weights holing down the electrical ballast and the entire housing.
US09109763B1
An apparatus having an embedded processor in a substrate for creating a synchronous lighting effect at a controlled access venue and a method for creating a lighting effect at a controlled access venue while controlling access to the venue simultaneously using the apparatus that coordinates with the performance allowing a holder of the apparatus to perform with the performance.
US09109759B2
A light-emitting device having an organic EL element that has a light-emitting surface and emits light from the light-emitting surface, and a structure layer disposed directly or indirectly on the light-emitting surface. The structure layer has, on a surface thereof that is opposite to the organic electroluminescent element, a concavo-convex structure including a first streak array extending in a first direction that is parallel to the surface, a second streak array extending in a second direction that is parallel to the surface and intersects with the first direction, and a third streak array extending in a third direction that is parallel to the surface and intersects with the first direction and the second direction.
US09109756B2
Dual foods pump arrangement that includes a pump manifold, two food pumps, and a rotary valve element removably located within the manifold. The rotary valve element is operated to selectively direct the flow of food product from the two food pumps in alternating fashion through a single manifold outlet. The food pumps are driven by servo actuated cylinders. A tool is provided for lifting the valve element from the manifold that includes a pivotal removal bar that can be attached to a top of the valve element.
US09109755B2
Apparatus and method for determining endpoint of a fluid supply vessel in which fluid flow is controlled through a flow passage disposed in an interior volume of the fluid supply vessel with a static flow restricting device and a selectively actuatable valve element upon establishing fluid flow. The endpoint determination can be employed to terminate fluid supply from the fluid supply vessel and/or to switch from a fluid-depleted supply vessel to a fresh vessel for continuity or renewal of fluid supply operation. The apparatus and method are suitable for use with fluidutilizing apparatus such as ion implanters.
US09109752B2
Provided is a pressure vessel able to sustain a circular shape without deforming to ellipsoidal shape due to machining of side port apertures therein, and maintain pressures as high as 800-1,200 PSI. The pressure vessel is intended for use in seawater desalination by reverse osmosis, and comprises a pipe body (1) formed by filament winding (FW), and is furnished with an occluding cover (2) at each end of the pipe body (1), the peripheral surface of the pipe body being furnished, inward from the occluding covers (2), with inflow/outflow parts (3) through which the fluid flows in or out. The pipe body (1) is constituted by a helical layer (4), hoop layers, and a seal layer (6) furnished as the innermost layer. The helical layer (4) is furnished with a divergent part (7) diverging away from the seal layer (6) and extending from a location outward from the occluding cover (2) to a location inward from the inflow/outflow part (3). The hoop layers are constituted by a first hoop layer (8) furnished between the divergent part (7) and the seal layer (6), and a second hoop layer (9) furnished at the outer circumference of the helical layer (4), and extending from a location outward from the occluding cover (2) to a location inward from the inflow/outflow part (3).
US09109749B2
An oil changing device for a transmission includes a tub body having a receiving space for receiving transmission oil, a main assembly having a base body, a manual set and a backflow valve, the base body mounted to the tub body, the base body having a main channel, a first passage and a backflow passage, the base body configured to connect with one end of an injection tube, another end of the injection tube connected to a transmission, the injection tube communicating with the main channel, the base body having a through hole opened therethrough, the through hole communicating with the main channel, the manual set having a second passage defined therein, the first passage connected between the main channel and the second passage, the backflow valve inserted into the through hole, and the backflow valve selectively closing or unclosing the backflow passage.
US09109740B2
A multi-layered patch including a backing layer, an outer layer, polymer adhesive layers that include a polymer foam and a solvent, and a heating layer that includes a polymer substrate, a heating element and a sensor, and methods of making and using the multi-layered patch.
US09109733B2
A hydraulic fluid transfer coupling has a stator, a first coaxial rotor, and a second coaxial rotor. The first rotor is radially inwards of the stator, the second rotor is radially outwards of the stator, at least part of the first rotor axially overlapping with the stator, and at least part of the second rotor axially overlapping with the stator. The first rotor carries one or more first rotating fluid lines, and the second rotor carries one or more second rotating fluid lines. The stator carries one or more first static fluid lines and second static fluid lines. Each pair of a first rotating fluid line and the corresponding first static fluid line are fluidly coupled and each pair of a second rotating fluid line and the corresponding second static fluid line are fluidly coupled. Hydraulic fluid is transferable between each static fluid line and the corresponding rotating fluid line.
US09109730B2
A support post includes a first tube with a first support face at its end and at least one groove in the first support face. The support post further includes a second tube with a barrel at its end having a diameter smaller than the first tube and dimensionally matched to a hole in the first support face. The second tube further includes at least one track on the barrel that engages the at least one groove and at least one hook on the barrel that engages a flange in the interior of the first tube. The second tube further includes a second support face at an end of the barrel that engages the first support face. The components are dimensioned so as to form a tight fit between the first and second support faces and the hook and flange to prevent bending motion between the first and second tubes.
US09109715B2
A high speed valve has a conductive flyer plate responsive to eddy currents induced by an adjacent coil. The eddy currents generate a repulsive force which opens the valve, and a low-mass flyer plate and spring combined with a resonant plate and spring combination provide a fast opening and closing time for the valve. A nozzle structure directs a supersonic flow of gas into a rectangular array of high-density gas suitable for interaction with a laser beam transverse to the rectangular array of jets for the production of wakefield interaction, leading to very high-energy electrons from the gas jet.
US09109713B2
A control device may include a control drive and a coupling unit coupled to a drive side of the control drive for performing bidirectional control motions and also be coupled to an output side of the control member to be bidirectionally actuated. The coupling unit may have a drive element on the drive side coupled to the control drive. The coupling unit may have an output element on the output side coupled to the control member and to the drive element via a joint for transferring tensile and compression forces in a longitudinal axis of the output element. The joint may be configured to allow pivot motions between the drive element and the output element about a transverse axis running in the joint transverse to the longitudinal axis. The joint may also be configured to allow linear motions parallel to the transverse axis.
US09109709B2
A residual pressure valve (10; 10a; 10b) for a flow medium, in particular for air, the flow passage (30) of which is arranged in a valve housing (15) and is designed so as to allow flows to pass in different directions and so as to be interrupted by an at least partially movable sealing element (41; 41a) depending on the pressure of the flow medium, wherein an energy store (45) which is in particular designed as a pressure spring, the sealing element (41; 41a) is seated against a counter element (21; 21a) in a sealing manner when the flow medium drops below a minimum pressure in order to interrupt the flow passage (30), and wherein the flow path (30) has two separate bores (32, 58) which are arranged coaxially in relation to one another and are connected to one another by at least one connecting channel (33).
US09109707B2
A seal assembly 10 includes an attachment stud 11, a reinforcing mesh 12, a rigid carrier 13, an elastomeric body 14, and an elastomeric film 15, each having a longitudinal axis 16. The carrier 13 includes an inner peripheral surface 31 defining a central opening 33 and an outer peripheral surface 32. A lateral surface 35 of the carrier 13 extends between the peripheral surfaces. Corner towers 38 and intermediate towers 39 are arranged along the outer peripheral surface 32. The towers are spaced apart by openings 40 and terminate in control surfaces 41. The body 14 includes a stationary portion 47 generally aligned with the carrier 13 and a diaphragm portion 48 generally aligned with the opening 33. The film 15 extends over and is bonded to the body portion 14 and the towers 38, 39 to provide a smooth uninterrupted chemically resistant surface for the seal assembly 10.
US09109705B2
A sealing ring, in particular for a hydraulic piston pump, for sealing a pressure chamber which is filled with a fluid is disclosed. A sealing lip having a contour contacts a sealing surface and is movable relative thereto. The contour of the sealing lip is adapted according to the speed of the sealing lip relative to the sealing surface, such that a defined leakage of the fluid out of the pressure chamber is adjusted.
US09109698B2
A transmission controller determines that a select operation has been performed from a reverse range to a drive range if a time during which a range other than the drive range has been selected is longer than a predetermined time threshold value and an input rotation speed of a transmission is lower than a predetermined rotation speed threshold value and determines that the select operation has been performed from a parking range or a neutral range to the drive range if the time during which the range other than the drive range has been selected is shorter than the time threshold value or the input rotation speed is higher than the rotation speed threshold value when the select operation has been performed from the range other than the drive range to the drive range during vehicle stop.
US09109696B2
A gear actuator for shifting a gear includes an alley switch actuator, a gear switch actuator and a shift finger, which can be moved by the alley switch actuator and the gear switch actuator for the purpose of transferring a switching movement to the gear. An alley switch sliding element is connected with the alley switch actuator, and a gear switch sliding element is connected with the gear shift actuator. The shift finger is supported movably at the alley switch sliding element and at the gear switch sliding element.
US09109694B2
A driving pulley for a CVT has a shaft, a fixed sheave mounted on the shaft, a first sleeve disposed around the shaft and being operatively connected to the shaft, a movable sheave mounted on the first sleeve, a second sleeve disposed around the first sleeve and being connected to the shaft, a spring biasing the movable sheave away from the fixed sheave, and a CVT chamber having an annular cross-section. The fixed and movable sheaves are adapted to receive a belt therebetween. The CVT chamber has at least one opening adapted for fluidly communicating the CVT chamber with a hydraulic fluid reservoir. Hydraulic pressure in the CVT chamber biases the movable sheave toward the fixed sheave. The CVT chamber has an inner wall formed by the first sleeve, an outer wall formed by the second sleeve, an outer end, and an inner end formed by the movable sheave.
US09109693B2
A method of controlling the shifting of gears in a TMED-type hybrid vehicle may include a stage in which, in a case where it is required that a power-on upshift operation is performed simultaneously when engagement of an engine clutch is carried out in order to convert the driving mode from an electric vehicle (EV) driving mode to hybrid-electric vehicle (HEV) driving mode, simultaneously performs the engagement of the engine clutch and the shift operation, thereby improving acceleration and shifting performances and providing a quick driving response for a driver.
US09109691B2
A gear having a tooth form shape including, on a tooth root side of a tooth, a first curved surface connected to a tooth face of an involute tooth form and convex in a direction opposite to the tooth face, a flat surface connected to the first curved surface, and a second curved surface connected to the flat surface and convex in the same direction as the first curved surface. In a normal plane, the shape of the flat surface is a tangent in contact with a tip side end of a trajectory of motion of a tooth of a meshing partner gear and intersecting with a tooth form center line at a 30° angle, the shape of the first curved surface is circular arcs in contact with the tangent, and, the shape of the second curved surface is circular arcs in contact with the tooth face and the tangent.
US09109683B2
A transmission with an integrated electric motor includes an input member, an output member, at least four planetary gear sets, a plurality of coupling members and a plurality of torque transmitting devices. Each of the planetary gear sets includes first, second and third members. The torque transmitting devices include clutches and brakes actuatable in combinations of three to establish a plurality of forward gear ratios and at least one reverse gear ratio.
US09109682B2
A power transmission apparatus may include: a torque converting device including a first rotation element directly connected to one power source and selectively fixed to a transmission housing, a second rotation element directly connected to another power source, and a third rotation element configured to output the torque of the another power source; an input device including a first input shaft directly connected to the third rotation element, selectively connected to the second rotation element, and provided with at least one input gear, and a second input shaft selectively connected to the second rotation element, and provided with at least one input gear; a first speed output unit configured to convert toque input from the first input shaft or the second input shaft; and a second speed output unit configured to convert torque input from the first input shaft or the second input shaft.